//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: Dark Mistakes // by NakedSpaceMan //------------------------------//         “The best day ever was ruined.” thought Spike as he sat in his chair. He had been sitting there for hours now with the others in Ponyville Hospital. After he and Rarity found Pinkie and Rainbow, they got her to the hospital as soon as possible. Armon almost crushed her windpipe and she was under intensive care. For hours they all sat and waited to be allowed to see Pinkie, hoping she was alright. “Wat’ I don’t understand is, why did Armon strangle Pinkie? asked Applejack. “I don’t know. One minute we were making a cake for Spike, the next he’s choking her.” said Rainbow Dash. All they talked about while waiting to see Pinkie was Armon and what he did. After a few hours, they were allowed to see Pinkie. Stepping inside they found Pinkie lying in a bed. “Hiya guys!” said Pinkie Pie. Twilight and her friends were surprised by Pinkie’s happy attitude. “Pinkie are you alright?” asked Rarity. “Well sure, why wouldn’t I be?” said Pinkie. “Well you were being strangled by Armon, remember?” said Rainbow Dash. “Aw there’s no hard feelings, I’m sure he did it for a good reason.” said Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie! What is that! What possible reason could there be for somepony to choke another?” asked Twilight. “Well, while Armon was choking me I remember him saying something about Mortem. Maybe I’m Mortem in disguise.” said Pinkie Pie. “Mortem? Why would Armon be thinkin’ about Mortem?” asked Applejack. “Well why not ask him?” asked Pinkie Pie. “Now that I think about it, where is Armon?” asked Twilight. The girls talked about it and realized that Armon had ran off into the woods somewhere. Pinkie Pie suggested that Twilight and Rainbow Dash go looking for him. After a bit or arguing to stay, Pinkie insisted that they go. Twilight and Rainbow Dash gathered a few supplies for the trip just in case they would be in Whitetail Woods for a while. “When we find him. What are we going to do?” asked Twilight. “Well I don’t know about you, but I’m first going to punch him in the gut.” said Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow, no. We’re just going to find him and bring him back. No punching.” said Twilight. “Easy Twilight, I was just kidding.” said Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash and Twilight began their search in the forest. Somewhere Armon was in there. Twilight knew that Armon would probably stay in the forest since he didn’t know anywhere else in Equestria. After searching for hours though, there was no sign of him. Twilight was almost ready to give up when she reminded herself that Armon had to spend years learning how to hide to live. It wasn’t so surprising that it would be so hard to find him now that she realized that. ========================================================================= Armon sat on the edge of a cliff staring out at the valley below, the same thought flowing through his mind like time and time again before. Only this time he was actually considering doing what he was thinking of doing. The only reason why he held out so long was to see Luz again. Now that he did that, he thought he had nothing left anyway to live for. He thought that he was free of Mortem and he could start a new life with new friends. But now that he knows Mortem wants to not only hurt him but his new friends, he thought maybe it would be best if he just left for good. “Go on. You want to get rid of me don’t you?” asked Mortem. “Shut up! Just shut up!” yelled Armon. For hours now he tried to think things rationally and try to come up with a way to try to apologize to Pinkie and the rest of his friends, but Mortem wouldn’t leave him alone. Mortem would keep encouraging him to jump or taunt him with what he was planning to do to his friends when he attacked. Just hearing Mortem constantly talking like this only reinforced Armon’s idea of just jumping. “If I was gone Mortem would have no reason to do what he says he’s going to do.” thought Armon. Armon stood and stared down at the valley below. Just a few steps and they would be safe. He took the first few steps to the edge. Just a few more and it would be just a quick fall and that would be it. Armon starred one more time at the valley below. He was about to jump. He took one more moment to say goodbye to Luz and his new friends before he took the steps. The trp down would take only seconds. As Armon closed his eyes and just waited for the end to come. “Help!” cried a voice. Armon opened his eyes and quickly recovered his fall. He landed into a tree to slow his descent. He had many cuts and bruises from his multiple falls and stops on branches before falling on the ground. When he landed, Armon got up and ran after the voice. Twilight was in trouble. ========================================================================= Twilight refused to give up searching for Armon. Even after hours of searching, they only found one clue to Armon. But it was only one of Armon’s leg bracelets he liked to wear. It wouldn’t help them in finding him. “Twilight, I know that you really wanna find him. But we’ve been out here for hours now and we’re not even close.” said Rainbow Dash. “I know Rainbow, but I refuse to stop looking for him. He’s our friend and he needs our help.” said Twilight. “I know that you two are close since you guys live together and all, but lets face the facts Twilight. We’re trying to find a stallion that’s spent the last thousand years hiding and running away from creatures in Tartarus. I hate to say this Twilight, but there’s no way we’re going to find him.” said Rainbow Dash. Twilight already knew what Rainbow was saying and agreed with her. But she didn’t care. She had to find Armon. Their next stop was a cave on the edge of the Whitetail Woods and Everfree Forest border. Twilight casted a light spell in the form of a small ball to float into the cave. The ball floated around inside the cave until it suddenly disappeared. Twilight was surprised and wondered what could of caused the light to just turn off before a growl came from the cave. Twilight and Rainbow Dash backed away from the cave entrance. If it was a bear or some other territorial animal, they wanted to give it space. The growl stopped, relieving the two thinking that it was just an angry animal. A black foot stepped out of the dark entrance of the cave. As more of the creature stepped out, it was clear that it wasn’t a natural creature. It’s body was made out of complete darkness with only white areas to indicate it’s mouth and eyes. It seemed like it was constantly melting as pieces of the creature fell on the ground while it kept it’s shape. Twilight was amazed at the creature in front of her. It was a shadow beast. Somehow a shadow beast broke out of Tartarus and got into Equestria. She also was frightened, shadow beasts are vicious and carnivorous. It stared at the two before opening it’s mouth to unleash a roar and ran after Rainbow Dash. Rainbow took flight to try to avoid the beast, but it fired a piece of itself at her. The piece absorbed most of Rainbow’s body leaving only her head exposed causing her to crash into the ground. It started to go after it’s prey when Twilight fired a beam of magic at it. Seeing a more interesting prey, it turned towards Twilight. Twilight tried to stop the creature with her magic, but whenever she managed to land a hit on the creature, it only reformed. Nothing she tried had any effect on it. She tried her trump card and fired the largest blast of magic she could make, trying to destroy the entire mass. Unfortunately she couldn’t gather enough magic to take the entire body of the creature and it only reformed again. Using the last of her magic she could do nothing but back away from the beast. Backed into a corner she had no choice but to run. But before she could take the first step the creature swiped at her knocking her into a tree trunk and knocking the wind out of her. The creature walked to her and stomped on her body, almost crushing her. She couldn't escape even if she wanted to. The creature loomed over her ready to take it’s feast. With what little breath Twilight could muster, she yelled out as loud as she could, hoping someone would hear. “Help!” The creature paid no mind to her yell and only opened it’s mouth ready to eat Twilight. It dived it’s mouth towards the exposed Twilight. Twilight screamed and closed her eyes to face her end. A beam of purple energy shot out and connected with the creatures head, causing it to explode into pieces. Twilight opened her eyes and looked up to see the creature stunned while it reformed its head. Another beam shot out and hit the creature’s arm that held Twilight. Twilight took the opportunity to escape from the creatures grip and turned towards her savor. She was surprised to see that not only was it Armon, but Armon was using magic. It was then she saw the purple haze around his eyes and the green color in his eyes, shadow magic. “Just like Sombra” thought Twilight. The creature reformed it’s leg and finished with it’s head and turned towards it’s attacker angry that it’s kill was denied. Twilight ran towards Armon to seek protection while Armon stood his ground. The creature charged at Armon and Twilight roaring an angry roar with intent to kill. Armon’s purple haze around his eyes intensified it’s flow. Armon stomped his hoof on the ground to bring a stone wall in front of him and Twilight, causing the creature to slam into it. Another stomp caused the stone to split down the middle and form a cone around the creature. Armon then pushed the stone cone at an incredible speed into a tree, causing the creature to burst into hundreds of pieces. The creature reformed even angrier than before and shot a ball of itself at Armon. Armon ran towards the ball head on. Before the ball could connect, Armon slid across the ground before throwing his right hoof into the air, causing the air around his arm to rush towards the ball. The ball’s center sank inwards until it popped and sent smaller pieces everywhere. The creature, now charging in blind anger, roared at Armon for stopping the ball. Armon stood where he was and gathered as much magic he could muster. He stomped the ground to create stone walls around the creature, trapping it. Armon then created a horizontal stone wall before using the wind to lift the wall onto the four others, trapping the creature in a box. Armon then breathed in as much as he could before throwing out a hose of fire at the stone box. The creature inside was burning and melting trying to escape the box. Armon finishing his fire throwing then threw cold wind at the box to freeze the inside. The creature inside rapidly cooled into a solid piece of what it was made of unable to move. Armon now hearing nothing from the creature then stomped his hoof on the ground, causing all the walls to come towards each other crushing the creature and shattering it into pieces. Enough pieces were made to where it looked like black water was pouring out of the cracks of the box. Armon relaxed his magic and the haze faded from his eyes and returned his eyes to their normal white and brown colors. He turned to Rainbow Dash, still trapped in the ball she was in, and used the wind to make the ball become many pieces. After freeing Rainbow he turned to Twilight. Twilight was stunned at what she saw. Armon used the magic to battle the creature like some sort of ballet. Only Armon used his magic to destroy the creature into who knows how many pieces. The level of skill Armon showed amazed her and somewhat scared her. “How did he become so skilled at shadow magic?” thought Twilight. Armon walked towards Twilight. When he approached her he looked at her to check if she was injured. “Are you okay?” asked Armon. “Yes, thank you.” said Twilight. “Armon, that was just amazing. But where did you get that shadow magic? I thought only evil ponies could use it.” asked Twilight. “I’ll explain it later.” said Armon as Rainbow Dash approached the two. “Are you okay Rainbow?” “Yeah I’m alright. I gotta say though Armon, that magic you showed was just awesome!” said Rainbow Dash yelling out awesome. Armon was flattered at Rainbow’s praise but there was more pressing matters to think about. Where did the shadow creature come from? Was it wise to reveal his shadow magic? And more importantly, would they forgive him for what he did to Pinkie? Armon’s thoughts were interrupted by a stomping applause. The trio turned to see a pony standing there. He had green eyes and haze emitted from them. His body was covered by black and grey rags. It was Mortem. Except to Twilight and Rainbow Dash, it was Sombra.