The Dragon's Abyss

by DarklordAxel20

Unexpected Visit and Unexpected Revelations

Inside Twilight's Castle, Three Days later, Four days until Festival

Three whole days had passed since Shade told Twilight about his past and his battle against Tirek. In that time, Twilight had managed to tell her friends about Shade's endeavors and who he was, on the one condition that they keep it a secret from anypony else no matter who they are, the condition was promptly met with a pinkie promise. Shade had spent most of the past three days learning about the world, going through book after book, learning every little piece of knowledge that had been lost to him due to his five thousand year sleep.

That's also what Shade was doing at the exact moment, he had next to him, a massive stack of books, far larger than him. He had been reading almost non-stop, only stopping to eat and occasionally rest. As he read, he was unaware he was being watched, every night Twilight would watch his constant reading, although as she would watch him, she couldn't help but worry for him, in the past three days he had yet to make an attempt to leave the castle. She remembered their talk from three days ago, right before Shade had told her of his battle with Tirek, he had been explaining his origins, he had said he was over five thousand years old, or at least from five thousand years ago, he never actually explained how it was possible. Twilight was tired of waiting for an answer, she decided to take things into her own hooves to get her answer.

Shade's ears began to lightly twitch, his super sensitive ears could hear the lightest of noises, one of those noises would be the sound of a certain lavender alicorn attempting to sneak up behind him, " Twilight, what are you doing,".

Twilight stood still with shock, a bemused look covered her face, " H...how did you know it was me,".

He lightly chuckled before closing the book in his claws and turning around to face Twilight, "It's easy, your the only pony awake at this moment who resides here, Spike is sound asleep so that only left you, plus your not exactly sneakiest,".

Her cheeks turned red with slight embarrassment at his remark, but she quickly shook it off before responding to him," I uh, I wanted to ask you a question regarding your past,". The ridge of his eye slightly raised at her saying this, Twilight took the expression as him telling her to continue. " Well, you never exactly told me how your here now as you were in your time, if your from over five thousand years ago, it doesn't add up, I mean even the princesses have aged since then, why haven't you,".

He remained silent for what seemed like the longest time, he seemed to be staring past Twilight into nothing, as if he were lost in a trance. He stayed like this for nearly fifteen minutes before shaking his head, " I guess i did forget to tell you.....," his voice sounded more somber and slightly depressed.

Twilight was slightly confused as to why he sounded like this, perhaps it was a terrible experience, or perhaps it was something he just would like to forget, or maybe both. " You know, if you don't want to talk about it Shade, you don' have to, I understand completely," but to her surprise he simply shook his head to what she said.

" It's better if you know, however if I tell you, you may never see me the same ever again......but may I ask of you something first," he looked Twilight in the eye and awaited her answer, which turned out to be a nod. Shade gave a nod of his own before speaking again, " I would like a few days to.....get to know the ponies here, and to get to know you better, Twilight Sparkle, and after that I will tell you, is that reasonable,".

His request caused a small smile to form on Twilight's face, " That is very reasonable, now what would you like to know about first, Ponyville, Equestria now, oh how about my friends they're really nice, oh how about," she was cut off by Shade putting one of his claws on her lips, while it did quiet her, it made her blush at the same time.

" I wish to know about you, Twilight Sparkle, and for now, just you," Shade said. Whether she wanted to or not, Twilight could only nod to what he said.

She remained silent for some time, which didn't seem to bother Shade, he just awaited her response. After some time of silence she finally spoke, " Well, what's there to know, I... I'm from Canterlot, I'm the youngest of two children, when I was a little filly I was enrolled into Princess Celestia's school for gifted unicorns and after a test i became her pupil ". She seemed to stop after noticing a look of slight disgust form on Shade's face, " Is...is something wrong, was it something I said, I'm sorry ".

" No no, it was nothing you said per say, it's just that something that took a pony being of great importance was no longer required to be Celestia's pupil, where as now it's as simple as a test, " he couldn't help but shake his head at the thought of it .

Twilight slowly nodded in an understanding matter, " I see, the world is very different from the world you knew, but don't worry, I'll help you understand the world around you, I promise," she placed her hoof on his shoulder and gave him a warm smile.

Shade returned the smile, just only a bit smaller, he also place placed his claw on her shoulder as well. They're eyes connected as they smiled at one another, and they stayed that way for a good while. It wasn't until they heard the door crack open and a voice that was familiar to both of them, yet it sparked a much different reaction from both of them.

" Twilight, are you in here, it's me Celestia, I know you were informed that I wouldn't be here until a few days later, but I decided to come ahead of schedule so I could watch the festival, I'm sorry if I surprised y- ". She was stopped mid sentence by what she saw the very being that had plagued her nightmares. An expression of rage formed on the usually peaceful rulers face, " YOU!!! " she said as she gritted her teeth.

The hybrid heard the voice and his head darted towards the direction it was coming from, there he saw her, the same princess who sealed him away all those years ago. He could feel the rage inside him boiling, " YOU!!!!! " he bared his razor sharp teeth at the ruler of the sun.

" Get away from her you monster!!! " she quickly charged up a magical blast and fired it from her horn right at Shade.

However he was easily able to evade the bolt of magic, as he swiftly leapt out of the way. His eyes began to glow blood red, a sign that Celestia knew all too well, but the would be brawl was intervened by Twilight sparkle who stood in front of Shade in a defensive manner, " Princess please stop!!! he hasn't done anything!! "

Celestia was in slight shock at what her former student was saying, but while she was focusing on Twilight who was defending Shade, she had taken her eyes off of him, and in the moment she took her gaze off of him he teleported out of the room and into somewhere in Ponyville. " No!! guards!! " the frantic princess called, and as soon as she let out her beckoning call, two stallions in armor walked in, one being a pony that Twilight knew by the name of Flash Sentry. Both stallions saluted to the princess as they trotted up to her, " Now listen, this is urgent, a being far more worse than Tirek is on the loose in Ponyville, I want you two to take as many guards as you can, find it and detain it, as soon as possible, now go ". Both gave a loud " Yes your highness" and quickly rushed out into Ponyville.

The solar princess soon regained her composure, she turned to see her former student with a hurt look on her face, " P..princess, why did you do that? he hasn't hurt anypony, hes been here for the past few days and hes been the nicest pony I've ever met, so kind, polite and smart, " whether Twilight knew it or not, she stated the last part as if she were a schoolfilly with a playground crush.

" Twilight, it may seem that way to you, but I know what THAT, really is, hes only fit for hurting others....I don't know what hes told you but, " she was about to continue her rant but was quickly cut off by a short outburst from Twilight.

" But what?! every little word hes told me was the truth, he even showed me his memories! he saved you and your kingdom from Tirek, how can you treat him like hes some monster that deserves to be caged up, why are you doing this princess!!! " Twilight took a few deep breaths in order to recover from her outburst, she honestly didn't know what came over her, all she knew was that the treatment Shade was receiving was wrong.

Celestia was even more shocked than before, never had Twilight ever taken up such a tone with her before, but she quickly put that aside to get back to the subject on hoof. " So he did tell you the truth.......there is no hiding it then, I'll tell you exactly why I'm acting this way ". Twilight was ready to listen carefully to what the solar princess had to say, she needed an explanation and now. " Shade is wanted for several things from ages ago, things that forced me to....I think it would be easier if I told you what he is wanted for, he is wanted for necromancy, assault on royalty and nobles alike, treason against the twin crowns and threats of war on Equestria....I was....I was forced to seal him away inside of a magic crystal for all of eternity....."

If it were possible, Twilight's jaw would have fallen off of her and onto the ground, she didn't seem to care for his crimes, it was his punishment that she found cruel, " Princess...h...how could you ".

The princess of the sun slowly shook her head, " Twilight you don't understand, he was too dangerous...to us..and himself, before we sealed him away...we noticed that he was suffering from a mental illness, it made him prone to small fits of extreme anger if he were provoked certain ways ".

" That doesn't matter! you could've tried helping him, instead you made it worse....he was in there for over five thousand years...five thousand years all alone, " a small tear began forming in each of her eyes as she thought of the pain he endured. "Not knowing what the world outside will be like when he got out, spending days, weeks, months, years even, wondering if he would ever get out, I bet it only made his mental stability worse, I don't understand why though, why would he act the way your saying he acted, he even said you and him were very close ".

This time Celestia nodded in response, however it was a sad nod, " Yes...we were incredibly close, and I was devastated after I sealed him away....Twilight, there is something I need to tell you, something you should've known long ago, but first, young Spike isn't near by is he? "

Twilight was unsure if he was around or not, " I don't think so, but why would it matter if he were around or not? " she said in a confused tone.

Celestia let out a deep sigh as her expression turned into a rather remorseful one, " Because what I have to tell you involves him ". Once again Twilight was greatly confused, but she decided to just go along with what her former teacher was saying, so she responded with a simple nod. " There is surely a part that Shade left out about when he defeated Tirek, it's how he celebrated his victory, you see, after waking up we decided that a feast was what he deserved, but he seemed too depressed to eat, when I questioned as to why he told me that he had lost his parents during Tirek's rampage, so I decided to cheer him up on my own, albeit at the time wine wasn't the best choice, it did in fact cheer him up, however, it lead to some rather embarrassing activities afterwords, one being...a night of courtship that I'd rather choose to forget,". Not only was Celestia blushing from embarrassment, but Twilight was blushing from just hearing this information.

"Princess..I would never have thought that you would do something like that, b..but what does this have to do with Spike ".

" Well Twilight...you see...the night Shade and I shared together....that night bore fruit, but by the time I found out...Shade had already been sealed away, and in another few months I had birthed an egg.....that egg was the very same one one I gave to you..the very same one that hatched Spike ". Celestia turned her head away in shame.

Twilight's pupils shrunk in her eyes, " But, that's not possible...you gave me spike's egg when I was a filly, how could the egg your talking about be yours, and how would it even make sense, Spike looks one hundred percent dragon, it makes no sense what so ever! "

Twilight's rant however stopped as she saw the shamed look on Celestia's face, " I will explain...I did things that no princess should ever do...things that I hate myself for, when the egg was first brought into this world, I feared what the world would think if my child had any signs of being related to the most dangerous being in existence at the time....so I used my magic to alter Spike.. I took almost all traces of being a pony out of him..only leaving in a small part...which resulted in the coloring of his scales and his behavior...the rest, he received the rest from Shade's dragon side, afterwords I couldn't even think of myself as being fit for a mother....so I placed the altered egg in a temporal holding spell..so it would not age, nor hatch until I...until I...."

"....Until you found somepony fit enough to take care of him... " Twilight responded in a rather cold and saddened tone.

" Twilight, please forgive me, I didn't know what to do at the time, I was sc- " she was cut off by the sound of breaking glass. Both princesses turned they're heads to the sound of the noise to see Spike standing in the doorway, a tray with broken cups of tea lay at his feet as his hands stay frozen in the position they were in when they held the very tray on the ground. " Spike please let me explain " Celestia said in a pleading tone, but her plea fell on deaf ears as Spike rushed out of the room and out of the castle in tears.

Somewhere near the edge of Ponyville

Several guards lay on the ground, some unconscious, some were not, and there were some who were nothing more than a singed set of armor. Only one at the moment seemed to be awake and alive for that matter, but it seemed he wouldn't be for long in the position he was in. Flash sentry, a usually strong and proud pegasi guard, now laid on the ground, pinned down by the claw of the very thing he and his fellow guards had been sent to detain, he would attempt to escape, but the claw that pinned him, had him pinned by the neck, and he could feel pressure being applied to it. Tears formed in his eyes as he let out a plea in a weak tone, " Pl...please...don't kill me, we were only following orders...please... "

Shade let out a low growl at the stallion that he had pinned to the ground, he honestly wasn't in the mood to deal with such insects, " I can't make any promises,". He began to dig the sharp part of his claw into the ground, slowly pushing Flash's neck against the cold hard ground beneath him, but as he had started to crush the stallions wind pipe, he was alerted to a near by noise, the sound of a twig snapping under somethings foot.

Spike had run into the woods on the outskirts of ponyville, he was hoping to get to Fluttershy's hut unnoticed, the last thing he wanted was somepony talking to him at the moment, but as he was trekking through the woods, his ears caught the sound of two voices, one weak and one deep and dark, he however recognized both voices. He had attempted to get closer in order to get a better spot to listen in, but in the process he stepped on a twig that he had failed to see, " Darnit ". He shook out of pure fear at what his eyes had rested on upon looking up from the twig, multiple downed ponies, some in decent condition, some in worse conditions, and in the middle of them all was Twilight's house guest, Shade, and beneath him was Twilight's ex crush, Flash Sentry, where as Spike didn't ever really like Flash, he didn't deserve to die.

The unicorn dragon hybrid kept his eyes on Spike, " Hatchling, " he lifted his claw from Flash's neck, and delivered a swift strike from his tail into the pegasi's side, knocking him into a tree, and knocking him unconscious.

Spike shook even more the closer Shade got to him, but as Shade got closer, Spike was overtaken by an incredibly warm feeling, then he remembered what he had overheard from Celestia, about who he really was and how he was connected to Shade." Your my...my.." Spike mumbled.

Shade kneeled before the young dragon, his cold and dark demeanor quickly changed to a calming and caring one, " Tell me young one, what troubles you, I can see it in your eyes, " but much to Shades surprise instead of replying, Spike gave him a hug, a hug that lasted, because Spike never let go of him.

Tears formed in the baby dragons eyes, " your my dad... " Shades eyes widened at what he just heard...he wanted an explanation right then and there, but he knew exactly who to get answers from, so he placed a single leg over the crying dragon. He began flapping his wings before taking off into the sky and right towards Twilight's castle.

" I know not if what this hatchling says is true, but if it is, I'm getting answers, or somepony will burn , " He flew furiously, going as fast as his wings could take him.

Author's Note:

Hey there ladies and gentlecolts, I'm terribly sorry for taking so long to put this out, alot of things have been going on, I meant to put this out much much sooner, but my best friend, and the person who would read my stories before I published the...she passed away and I attended her funeral. Afterwords I decided to take a short break to get things together, but now everything is back to normal, and I'll try releasing chapters on a regular bases, thank you for your patience, I hope you all enjoy this chapter and I'll talk to you all next time, buh bye!

Comments

[The A I]

dun dun duuunnnn!
was i the only one who wasnt expecting shade to be spikes father? with celestia of all ponies?
more please!

[DarklordAxel20]

6335284

Don't worry, now that I've got a free schedule I can work on the fic as much as I want starting....now

[The A I]

6335723 yay!