Unknown Location, Several Hours Later
Upon leaving Twilight's castle, princess Celestia and her two royal guards took off on they're own business, however rather than going to Canterlot, they took an entirely different direction. " That was too easy, now for my little plan fall into play, starting with me igniting the flame that will spark my plan," she started chuckling wickedly when suddenly her eyes turned an ominous green.
" Your highness, what issss ssso special about the hybrid, sure he possesses a great power..but he looksss weak minded," the royal guard to her left said with slight hisses in his speech.
" Yesssss I agree, he did have a rather weak willed look to him," the other guard said in agreement.
They're ruler stopped in her tracks, remaining dead silent for a short moment before responding. " Are you two fools saying I am wrong in my choice....you morons can't even begin to imagine the power he possesses, and that " weak will" was my doing,". The two guards began to cower as their ruler grew angry, " He's the perfect being to rule by my side...think...the magic and physical power he has combined with my own magical prowess, would spawn the perfect offspring to take Equestria by storm," rather than chuckle like before, this time she began cackling, and in a matter of seconds the supposed princess Celestia shed her skin, revealing her true identity, along with her two guards who were changelings all along.
" Forgive ussss Queen Chryssssalisss," they say in unison.
Her maniacal cackles died down leaving a small grin on her face, " All is forgiven my changelings, but you should learn not to speak badly about my future husband,".
Both changelings nodded in response to their queen before one of them spoke again, " What exactly is your plan to acquire that which you desssire your highnesssss,".
" Yesss, what ingenious idea do you have to gain such a powerful being as your own," the other changeling guard added.
" Why, I'm glad you both asked," a malicious grin formed on her face, growing bigger the more her plan circulated throughout her head.
Inside Twilight's Castle, the Next Day
Deep down in the basement of Twilight's castle, Shade had been spending most of the day working on different potions and mixes. He had been working for hours undisturbed, hoping to finish his work by the end of the day, he hadn't interacted with anypony since he had awoken this morning. " Just a little more...just a little more," he repeated himself as he carefully dropped an orange liquid into the main mixture, one drop at a time.
Meanwhile, Twilight Sparkle sat the table in her dining hall, lunch time had already passed, but she found that during this time of day it was the quietest place in her castle, making it an ideal spot to catch up on some reading. Princess Celestia's words had thoroughly sunken into her mind, Shade had until Hearth's Warming-Eve to prove he's reformed...yet deep down it felt like he honestly didn't care about the magic of friendship. Her ears perked up at the sound of small feet on the floor, " Spike, what are you doing,".
The small purple dragon froze up the second his name was spoke, " Uhhh...yes Twilight," he quickly turned around to face her, sweat dripping down his face as an innocent smile covered his face,".
" Where exactly are you going," Twilight eyed her assistant, he had a stack of books in his claws and on top of that was a tray with snacks on it. She trotted towards Spike who was just as nervous, " That's an awful lot your carrying Spike, what are you doing with it, and please tell the truth, OK?,".
After letting out a small sigh of defeat, Spike looked Twilight in the eyes before speaking so that she knew he would be telling the truth, " You see my dad said he wanted to spend the day reading, even though he was told that he needed to learn about the magic of friendship, but when I brought it up he said he doesn't remember anything of the sort, so rather than arguing with my own dad... thought I'd be a good son and get him some things,".
Twilight could only let out a giggle as she looked at Spike, " Well aren't you just adorable,". As she looked at all the thing that Spike was carrying, a thought dawned on her, Shade only had three months, so he needed to learn about friendship as soon as he could, which is something he couldn't do if all he did was sit around and read all day, " Kind of ironic really, heh ,". " Hey Spike, I have an idea, why don't you, me, the girls, and Shade, go camping, you know so that way we can all help him understand friendship," she was hoping that Spike would agree, Shade was his father after all, and she was sure the last thing he wanted, was for his father to become a worldwide criminal.
Spike remained silent for a good two minutes, staying in the same position as well, seemingly frozen, until his frozen expression turned into that of a big smile. " Twilight, that....IS THE MOST AWESOME IDEA THAT I HAVE EVER HEARD COME OUT OF YOUR MOUTH!!!!!!," Spike was overflowing with joy, not only does he get a chance to spend quality time with his father, a pony who until couple days ago he didn't know existed, but also all of his best friends.
Despite the fact he had nearly popped her ear drums with his sudden shouting, Twilight was smiling, if Spike would agree, then it was definite that Shade would go with him. ," Spike, go and get your dad up here, I'm gonna go get the girls," wearing a smile of her own, Twilight headed off to gather her friends, leaving Spike with the seemingly most difficult task, convincing his father to go with them, and so that's what he'd do, so off to the basement the little dragon went.
" In the Basement of Twilight's Castle "
Despite all the times he had been down here with Twilight, Spike had never really been down in the basement by himself, to him it was like a whole new place. " It's...darker than I remember...and bigger," he had to squint his eyes in order to see better, and in the midst of the sea of darkness that covered the basement, he could see a small light, and hear what he thought was mumbling.
Sitting in the midst of the basement was Shade, now lying his on the table that his work had been sat on, " Why was she acting that way to me......she hates me....and I hate her....yet she was smiling the whole time last night...why was she..huh?!," he quickly stopped his mumbling when the sound of little feet walking on the stone floor caught his attention. He turned his head towards the noise, " Spike....is that you, what are you doing down here ..son?," and as soon as he said that, his small purple son stepped out of the darkness, looking as if he had just been scolded for being down there .
Spike mentally slapped himself, " Well, so much for not being seen ," ," Uh hey there dad, I was just wondering if you'd like to do something was all,".
" Canterlot Castle, that Exact Moment "
After a stressful day of calming the populace down due to an event that occurred in Ponyville last night, Princess Celestia had finally found time to relax. One thought stayed on her mind, the fact that she knew Shade was somehow related to the incident, several of the guards that were sent to Ponyville earlier this morning had already sent reports given by Ponyville denizens, Shade had been seen there, but from what the rest of the reports say most of the ponies were too busy fleeing to see what was going on. " Perhaps after a quick nap I'll go check myself....Shade...what did you do..,".
Just as the solar princess was about to drift off to sleep, the sound of her door opening made her raise her head and turn it towards the source of the sound, where she saw her sister standing, a worried look on her face. " Sister, we are worried about you, you have been acting rather strange for the past two days, does something plague your mind," it was easy for Celestia to hear the concern in her sisters voice.
Celestia simply lowered her head, a single tear leaving her eye, " Luna...,".
Luna saw the single tear fall onto her sister's bed, prompting the lunar princess to rush to her sisters side, " Sister please tell us what bother's you, please,".
Pulling her sister closer to her, Celestia's eyes began welling up, her lip quivered as she tried to speak to her sister, but only light sobs came out. Luna gently rubbed her sister's head, attempting to calm her down enough to get an explanation. Soon Celestia's sobs were simply sniffles, it was then she began speaking, " H..h...he's out there...Sh.Shade..,".
Just the sound of his name made Luna's eyes widen in pure shock, " He..he can't be, we sealed him away long ago..it cannot be true...can it?," fear emanated from her voice.
"...It was him...I saw the look in his eyes...the look of betrayal...that same hurt look that was on his face the day we...we imprisoned him," Celestia could feel more tears welling up in her eyes, her vision blurring quickly.
" Sister..," Luna pulled her sister into another hug, " Why does this accursed creature cause you to cry, we banished him to the confines of that crystal long ago..,".
Before Celestia could give a sound answer to her sister, a rather unwanted guest decided to pop in, quite literally. " Iiiiiii'm back, Celestia Luna, there you two are," there stood Discord, dressed in a Hawaiian shirt with a lay around his neck, and a suitcase in each claw. Both princesses turned to glare at the creature of chaos who had made his home in Canterlot castle as of recently, " OH! I can just tell that you two have missed me SOOO much, why Celestia your practically tearing up at the sight of me!," Discords happy disposition left him the second he took a double take at Celestia. " Wait a second, Tia you are crying," in a flash Discord was gone, only to reappear moment's later, wear a pair of glasses with a large fake beard on, he sat in a floating chair, " Go on tell the good doctor what's wrong,".
Luna could practically growl that she was so angry, " Go away, can you not see that we are trying to console our sister, if you have not been informed, HE!! is back, and his mere presence has brought our sister to tears, she does not need your unruly behavior around her!!,".
Discord had been completely ignoring Luna up until the part where Luna mentioned a " HE". Discords eye's literally shrunk upon doing some light thinking, " Luna..by "HE" you don't mean....him do you,". Luna could only give a slow nod in response, " Well...I guess after being frozen in a crystal for so long...he finally got out," Discord's tone sounded completely unnatural for himself, there was a sense of dread in his voice, something that hadn't been there since Tirek had attacked for the second time.
" Discord, you are afraid of Shade are you not, you were the same age as he was after all," Luna could practically see Discord shaking at the thought, by that she could literally see him shaking in place as if her were a plate of gelatin.
" Me, afraid, absolutely not, I'm especially not afraid of an abstract, half blooded, cross bred freak that has a temper with a trigger like an active volcano," Discord crossed his arms and turned his whole head away from the princesses, rather than just turning his head with his neck.
Before Luna could say something, Celestia shot up, tears still running down her face, but something was different, just a moment ago she was sad, now she looked incredibly angry. She gritted her teeth as she looked at discord, her eyes turned white and her horn began to glow with it's magical aura, " DON'T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT HIM LIKE THAT!!!! LIKE YOU HAVE ANY ROOM TO TALK!!!! ," Celestia was so mad she resorted to using something that she had not used in ages, her Canterlot voice.
The sheer volume of her voice was enough to cause Discords face to fly off, leaving him with a literal blank expression. " Well, what got into her," Discord said as a disembodied face that had been plastered to the wall.
Luna stepped in front of her sister, separating her from Discord, " Sister what has gotten into you?! that's it! we knew it, that beast has messed with your mind," with that thought in mind, Luna's eyes began to glow furiously, " We shall make the beast pay,".
" Luna stop!,"the princess of the moon froze in place, her sister had never shouted at her unless something really did matter. Celestia seemed to have spaced out for a moment, her gaze never left the floor, that was until more tears began to build up, " I..I can't help it..," she said in a quiet sob.
" Sister.....what is it that you cannot help...please..tell us," the anger in her was soon replaced by worry, her sister hardly ever cried, and when she did Luna just had to help her.
Celestia's sobs continued, but she was able to get the words that she had wanted to get out for such a long time." I...I..I can't help it........he will always be important to me....,". However upon speaking these words her sobs grew greatly as she buried her face into her shocked sisters neck, seeking comfort from her.
" Just Outside of Twilight's Castle "
" Ugh, where are they!, we should have left half an hour ago, at this rate it'll be dark by the time we get to camp, and I wanna be able to tell some scary stories before everpony gets tired," complained an impatient Rainbow Dash. Every member of the main six had been gathered in front of Twilight's castle, along with them came the cutie mark crusaders, who at the moment was under Applejack's watchful eyes.
Applejack could only roll her eye's at her impatient friend, " Ya know Rainbow, none of us complained when ya took fifteen minutes just to find yer sleeping bag that ya didn't need cause we brought tents,". Upon hearing Applejack's rebuttal, Rainbow Dash became rather quiet, a slight blush covered her face from embarrassment, followed with everypony present at giggling.
While waiting for the two dragons to come out, everypony started chatted, Applejack and Rainbow Dash conversed on who between the two of them was the sportiest, Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and oddly enough Fluttershy, talked about what sort of activities should be done while camping and who was sharing a tent with who, and lastly the cutie mark crusaders were conversing among themselves, talking about one subject in particular. " Hey girls," Sweetie Belle said to get her friends attention, " I was wondering, Rarity and the others were talking about somepony else coming with Spike, I wonder who he is,".
" Beats me," Scootaloo stated in bland tone.
" Ah heard that it was his dad, ah didn't know that Spike had a dad, ah always thought that Twilight hatched him from an egg, sorta like a chicken," Applebloom added.
A sudden sound caused everyony to pause what they were doing and turn their heads towards it, the sound in question was the sound of a large door opening, a castle door to be exact. Spike stepped from out of the castle to see all his friends waiting patiently, well almost all of them, " Hey there everypony, sorry it took so long, it took a bit to convince him after i told him all the details, but after a little persuasion, I finally got my dad to come with us," the expression on his face was that of an overjoyed one, Spike could hardly believe that his dad, a pony he didn't know about until a day or two ago, was going camping with him and all his friends. He turned back towards the door, looking slightly confused for a second before smiling again, " You can come out alread you know, I'm sure their all tired of waiting for us,".
" Very well then," said a deep gruff voice, Spike's excited expression only grew as the sound of clawed toes grew closer to them. Shade stepped from out of the castle, and into the now setting sunlight, there he saw six mare's that he was somewhat familiar with, joined by three fillies whom he had never seen before. He took notice that everypony there was just staring at him, " What are we waiting for...aren't we all supposed to be going...camping, or are you all going to stare at me as if i were a wonder of the world,".
Twilight shook her head to regain her focus, " That's right, let's hurry everypony, the sun is already setting,". Everypony present nodded in agreement, save for Shade who was just waiting for them to get moving already." Ok everypony, let's get going!," cheered Twilight, joined by the resting cheering as well, and like that, they set off into the Everfree Forest.
" In the Everfree Forest, not too Far from Fluttershy's Cottage "
They had soon arrived at their destination, a large clearing in the forest, despite being surrounded by the forest itself, the spot they had chosen actually had no canopy above it. It didn't take long for them to set up, especially with three talented users of magic with them, and making a fire was no trouble whatsoever, after all, they had a dragon with them whose fire could turn stone into putty. " Now then," stated Twilight, " Since we have everything set up, there is only one more matter of business to attend to before we can start tonight, where everypony will be sleeping and who will share a tent with who," everypony nodded in agreement with her statement. " Now i've taken the liberty of writing everyponies name on pieces of paper and putting the paper in a hat, now I already know a few arrangements, Applejack, your sister and her friend's will be sharing a tent with you, and Shade, Spike will be joining you in whichever tent you get assigned to," Shade gave a firm nod towards her in response, " He's being very quiet, he must be shy around too many ponies ,". " Ok now, Rarity has provided me with a hat of which i have placed all of your names in, now I shall draw the first two ponies to share a tent,".
Pinkie inched close to Rainbow Dash with an excited look on her face, " I hope she picks my name first," said Pinkie in a not so quiet whisper.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and chuckled, " As if Pinkie Pie, what are the odds of that,".
" First pony out of the hat, Pinkie Pie," Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped upon hearing this, but before she could get any words out, Twilight was already calling the next name. " And Pinkie will be paired with Rainbow Dash," Pinkie scooted towards Rainbow with an enormous smile plastered on her face, causing the other ponies to chuckle at the sight of the two of them. " The next one will be a bit different, because there is an odd number of us here the second tent will hold three ponies along with anypony else with them," she then drew three separate names at once, " Let's see, in the second tent is, me, Rarity, and.....Shade,".
Applejack chimed in after Twilight had said, " I'm guessin that leaves me an Fluttershy in the last tent with the girls,".
Twilight, albeit in a somewhat nervous tone spoke up, " Y..you don't mind sharing a tent with me and Rarity do you Shade,".
The resting half breed opened one of his eyes to look at Twilight before nodding, " I don't see why it would be...just as long as I'm with my son,". Spike began smiling widely and ran towards shade, giving his father a big hug, which in turn, made everypony there smile and aw at the sight, that was until Shade growled at them out of embarrassment, it did make a few of them giggle however.
" Alright everypony," Twilight said after calming down, " I'd say it's about time for our first camping activity, Pinkie Pie!, the list if you will," and just like that, Pinkie Pie practically just appeared next to her, a rolled up scroll in her hoof, ready to be given to Twilight. " Thank you Pinkie, now the first activity that I've got written down is," Twilight's voice grew quiet, a shocked expression on her face. ," Pinkie!! what is this!," Twilight exclaimed as she held out a blank scroll, " I thought when I was saying these out loud you were writing them down!,".
" Oooooh, so that's what you said, I heard you say to write down sooomething but I wasn't sure what, so I just drew a picture of us on the back," Pinkie pie said, her usual joyous demeanor showing greatly.
With a sigh and a shrug of her shoulders, Twilight just shrugged it off, albeit in a manner that made her seemed highly annoyed, " Oh well, I guess we don't need a list to enjoy spending time with one another,". Everypony agreed with her, including Shade which surprised some of them, but made others smile, and so their exciting night began together.
" Sometime Later that Night ,"
A few hours had passed since they arrived, despite the claims that Rainbow Dash made about staying up until the sun rose, even she, like the rest of the ponies there had fallen soundly asleep, everypony except a lone half breed. Shade had silently slipped out of the tent, so that he made sure not to wake up Spike, he made his way to a nearby river. There he sat, staring at his reflection in the flowing water, "....Do I really deserve this...,".
Although, Shade wasn't the only pony who was awake at the time, a restless Applejack had been awake the whole night. She watched as the hybrid left his tent, and out of curiosity decided to trail him, albeit as quietly as possible, the last thing she needed was him angry. She didn't need to trail him long before he had stopped at the river, her heart racing at the thought of alerting him, she had seen what he was capable of when angry, she couldn't imagine surprising him and causing him to attack her on accident. With a few deep breaths she finally decided to step out from her hiding spot and approach him, " Sh..Shade?," she said in an almost timid voice, comparable to Fluttershy's normal speaking voice.
Shade quickly jumped up and spun around, his mouth gaping open and flames began to rise from the back of his throat, causing Applejack to flinch, but he didn't attack. He slowly closed his mouth, quickly calming himself down, " Oh...it's only you, what do you want," he resumed his original position, turning away from Applejack and staring back into the river.
Without thinking, Applejack trotted over towards Shade, seating herself next to him, her eyes fixated on his frozen expression, " I..I saw ya get up from yer tent, ya looked a little troubled..so I decided to follow you and find out what's wrong,".
In response to her words Shade gave out a rather gruff grunt, " You're either very kind...or very stupid...either way, thank you,". Applejack was utterly surprised, despite the fact he may or may not have insulted her, " Very few ponies have ever genuinely cared for my well being...most either fear me or see me as a monster...you, Twilight and your friends are the first ponies to care in ages..thank you,".
Just from the tone of his voice, Applejack could tell his words word genuine, his somber voice had not an ounce of any form of lying in it. " Yer welcome Shade, remember this sugar cube, if ya ever need to talk about anything, just come to me, I can help ya out in any way possible,".
Right as Shade was about to give his thanks to Applejack, several loud screams filled the air, causing both of them to shoot right up and speak in unison, " The camp!,".
As if were he were as nimble as a leaf, Shade took off towards the camp, making large swift leaps rather than running, several loud screeches filled the air, easily being heard over the screams, " Griffons...,". With intent to kill the attackers, Shade increased his speed, his claws and teeth bared.