By the time Shade had finished his story, it was growing rather late outside, Twilight sat in silence, her jaw agape as she tried to put all the pieces of the tale together so she could take it in. "You're... 1000 years old...?" She asked shakily.
"1012 years old to be exact," Shade replied. "I didn't think it'd be that big of a deal for you since you know, you're the student of an immortal goddess of the sun."
"That's different! You're supposed to be mortal and it intrigues me how having a vaash within you changes that," She said eyeing Shade up curiously.
Shade met her look with narrowed eyes. "You aren't hooking me up to any science equipment missy..."
With a slight look of disappointment, Twilight rolled her eyes and got into bed. "As for the decision of whether I want to go with you or not, it's a lot to take in so I'm going to need to sleep on it... Goodnight Shade."
"Night Twi..." He said with a sigh.
A few hours later...
Shade hung his head, the hot stream of water from the shower trickling down his body. "I hope she comes with us, we going to need her when we get there," He said quietly.
"You shouldn't have been such a fool and told her everything!" Umbrex growled through what Shade could only imagine was gritted teeth.
"I couldn't just not say anything! I'd already delayed the answers to her questions one too many times and after the attack at the museum, she was bound to demand answers for that," Shade muttered.
"Either way we can't afford to let her go yet, you will keep her with us otherwise forget about saving your brother!" Umbrex shouted.
"Keep it down!" Shade whispered angrily. "You'll wake her up, besides, you can throw your empty threats around all you like, they won't help you gain your freedom."
The bathroom door creaked open catching Shade's attention, there stood Twilight, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Shade? What was the -yawn- noise about..." After her vision had cleared, a deep red swept across her cheeks as she whipped her gaze away from the showering stallion. "Oh! Sorry I didn't-"
"Didn't what?" Shade said tilting his head and turning the shower off.
Twilight threw a towel in the general direction of the shower. "I didn't know you where in the shower I mean I've only just woken up so I'm a bit disoriented! Sorry!" After a short duration she asked. "Are you covered up...?"
Shade raised his eyebrow in confusion. "But..." He let out a heavy sigh and placed the towel around him. "I swear I will never understand this place... Anyway, yes I'm covered up and sorry for waking you Twi."
Twilight turned hoping to see a covered stallion to avoid further embarrassment. "No it's okay, I've actually come to a decision."
Shade's ears pricked up. "Oh? Okay cool, so what's your decision?"
"Well after hearing the story of your hardships and deter-"
"Ugh give us the short version horn head," Umbrex interrupted.
Shade rolled his eyes. "Sorry Twi, please, go on."
Twilight huffed a little and continued. "Cutting my answer short, I'm going with you," she smiled.
Shade let a grin spread across his face. "That's great, glad to have you."
Twilight raised her eyebrow at him. "Really? Because it wasn't too long ago that you detested the thought of me coming along."
Shade rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah well, I've changed my mind," he said with an even wider grin.
"Well then, dry yourself off, we better get on our way!" Twilight said skipping out of the bathroom.
Shade narrowed his eyes. "But, we have the room for another day, I thought you wanted to catch some sights?"
"Seeing an entirely new land is a little more interesting to me, besides, we can just come and see all this when we get back!" She shouted to him.
"You won't say that when we get there..."
Later that morning...
"So, what's this place?" Shade asked as they arrived a big building with ponies streaming in and out of it constantly, most wearing suits.
"This is a train station, I looked over your maps yesterday and much to my distress I realised we could have just caught a train from Canterlot to the stop out in the Golden Hills, the only reason I didn't realise before is that your maps are old, really old, after your story last night I understand why..." Twilight informed.
"Ah ok cool, the faster we get there the better," Shade said following the mare into the big building. "So, what's a train?"
After a short wait on the platform, the duo boarded the train to the stop out in the Golden Hills. Getting comfortable and paying for their tickets, Twilight raises an eyebrow at Shade. "So you're telling me you have absolutely no idea what a train is?"
Shade sighed heavily. "No, can we just drop it now? I've told you already, we've been locked away in a forcefield for 1000 years so of course we aren't going to have the same technological advances as you," he said frustratedly.
"Ok ok calm down, huffy hooves," Twilight said with a childish pout.
Shade crossed his hooves across his chest with a displeased look. "I am not huffy..."
Twilight look at him in amusement. "1000 years old and you still act like a foal," she said with a laugh. "So, tell me about this Umbral Vanguard, who are they? What do they do?"
Shade uncrossed his hooves and leant them on the table in front of him. "They're the forefront of the entire vaash army, they keep the low rank vaash minions in line and command them all around Tanarfal," leaning back into his seat he continued. "There are seven of them in all, I'll start with the weakest, Talon, a vaash infested gryphon who was once the commander of a group of thieves who one day decided to start rescuing people instead of stealing from them, on one of their missions Talon was captured and implanted with a vaash that enchanted his talons and wings with shadowy power. His first order was to kill all of his former comrades which of course, he carried out with ease. Ever since then he's been on the Vanguard."
"That's... Awful... I would never think of hurting friends..." Twilight said with a sad look.
Shade continued. "Next is Sarissa, formerly captain of the Royal Guard a thousand years ago, she was visiting her family in Tanarfal when the vaash attacked and was trapped there due to the barrier. She joined a rebellion to keep her family safe and taught the rest of the rebels how to wield a spear, she was captured when she attacked a vaash outpost on her own. Obviously she was implanted with a vaash that enhanced her dexterity with her spear by augmenting her hooves with shadow, you can guess who she was sent to kill...."
Twilight grimaced at the thought of a pony killing their own family. "The vaash really do sound like they need to be stopped!"
Shade nodded in agreement and was about to go on until a pony with a food & drinks cart stopped by their seats, Twilight ordered tea for them both and gestured for Shade to continue. "The third and the fourth are kind of a double act, Dusk and Dawn, twin ponies with twin vaash inside of them. Their story is pretty simple, they joined the vaash of their own accord all for the sake of revenge, revenge on ponies that bullied them as children and for the last 800 hundred years I've been defending every rebel base they take a shot at, which has only fueled a deep hatred for me, their powers consist of extreme speed using shadowy augmentation on their hindlegs," he took a gulp of his tea and wiped his muzzle with his foreleg in a slovenly manner. "The fifth member is my replacement, as I said I was meant to be part of the vanguard but Umbrex didn't want to be bossed around and for some reason he couldn't seize full control over me. The only unicorn to grace the ranks of the vanguard, Vyka, she's the most powerful user of magic in the entirety of Tanarfal, using dark magic to bend ponies to her will and desolate anypony who stands in her way and to top it all off, she brags about it... A lot..."
Twilight rolled her eyes. "She sounds like somepony I know... But about this dark magic, it has severe repercussions when you use it and can cause some very serious damage to your body and even go as far as to kill you. How does she do it?"
"The vaash have some kind of natural attunement to it, so having one in a pony's body gives them that attunement," Shade explained. "Moving on, the sixth member was an experiment by the vaash 500 years ago, instead of throwing a vaash into a pony's body they put one in a dragon's... And it worked. The dragon, Gazra the Dark One, was the only dragon to be trapped under the barrier luckily for us, with the success presented from implanting a vaash in Gazra, they no doubt would have implanted more dragons. She is the second most powerful of the vanguard, able to destroy entire villages with her breath and crush armies with her claws, definitely a force to be reckoned with."
Twilight finished her tea and placed the cup aside. "So who's in charge?" She asked.
"The Vanguard's leader is-" Shade was interrupted by an announcement from the train driver that they had arrived at their destination. "-an explanation for another time."
After an hour of walking the duo stopped at the base of an enormous hill. "And here we are..." Shade said with a long sigh, dropping to his haunches for a rest.
Twilight tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean? I can't see-" she waved her hoof in front of her. "-or feel a barrier."
Getting up, Shade tapped the clasp on his cloak. "Just watch," within a couple of steps he disappeared with a flash leaving Twilight in shock. A couple of seconds later he reappeared with the same bright light. "See, these so called 'Golden Hills' are nothing but an illusion, a solid illusion, they're a cover up what's really hidden here," he said, emphasizing it by standing on his hind legs and holding his forelegs out to either side.
Twilight walked across the boundaries of the barrier a couple of times to check she wasn't dreaming. "This is... Unbelievable, the illusion is so real, I can feel the grass beneath my hooves and everything! Princess Celestia must be exerting a ridiculous amount of her magical power to keep this barrier up..." she said with disbelief.
"So," Shade said, putting his hoof around Twilight's neck. "You ready, Twi?" She responded with a reluctant nod. "Alrighty then," he said stepping half into the barrier and holding his hoof out to her. "What are you waiting for? Adventure awaits!" Twilight took one last look at her surroundings knowing that it will be the last she sees of Equestria for a long time, before taking hold of Shade's hoof and taking her first steps into an unknown land.