//------------------------------//
// 14. Battle in the Forgotten Castle - Part 2 
// Story: The Legend of Friendship - Outcasts 
// by Danieru 
//------------------------------//

The throne room was crowded with Ponies and Changelings who were fighting against each other. Tagma was about to be taken away from Queen Chrysalis, who wants him back in the Changeling Kingdom. Rosa and Wildheart were surrounded by Changelings and Mystic laid down on the ground defeated. But there was still one pony who was ready to confront Queen Chrysalis and her Changelings.

Fade.

All eyes in the room were focused on the stallion after he showed himself with this dark aura surrounding him. Some of them filled with fear, some of them widened in surprise. Queen Chrysalis was the only one who still kept up her smile, either because of her confidence or ignorance. "Looks like somepony still didn't have enough," she said amused before she turned towards some of the Changelings in front of her. "Get him! Just deal with him like the last time," she ordered.

The confidence of Queen Chrysalis seemed to have rubbed off to the Changelings who were eager to fight Fade. However, the Unicorn didn't do or said anything in response and kept his eyes focused on the Changeling Queen. In the meantime, the Changelings surrounded Fade just like they did before and prepared themselves for an attack. Their horns began to glow and they each were ready to fire at him but Fade still kept his eyes on Queen Chrysalis. It was almost as if the Changelings around him were not even worthy to look at.

"Fire!" Queen Chrysalis screamed.

The Changelings then all fired at Fade at the same time. He didn't move a muscle. Only the dark aura around him responded to the attack. A ring of darkness emerged from the ground around Fade which blocked all shots that were fired at him easily. Needless to say, this caught the Changelings by surprise. Their attacks were not even coming close to even touch Fade.

"What!?" Queen Chrysalis said to her surprise, especially after how this strategy worked against him earlier.

This sudden turn of events also wasn't unnoticed by the other Changelings and Fade's friends. Wildheart saw this behavior before, a few years ago and had a really bad feeling for what was about to come. "This...not Fade!" He said as a warning for Rosa who stood right beside him, giving him some worried looks.

Mystic, who was still laying on the ground after Queen Chrysalis's attack, couldn't believe what he was seeing at this moment. "What happened to him all of the sudden?" He wondered. "Did he always had this much power?"

After the Changelings failed attack,  Fade finally made a move. His eyes began to glow and the dark magic circle around him grew bigger. Wildheart's instincts told him that something bad was about to happen. "Rosa...hide!" He said in a panic before he grabbed Rosa's leg to get further away from Fade. Considering what happened next, this was a really good idea.

Fade raised his chest and his horn up. His horn was soon covered in a dark aura which surrounded his whole body. The dark magic circle then expanded and covered everything around him in dark magic that struck down everyone who was unfortunate enough to be close by. Luckily, this didn't involve any of his friends.

Queen Chrysalis realized that underestimating Fade right now, was probably a mistake so she decided to deal with the situation herself to finally get rid of him for good. "Keep your eye on Tagma while I take care of him," she ordered to her Changeling Commander so that she could still make sure that her plan to take him back to the kingdom would not fail. She expected some kind of response from the commander but there didn't come any, causing her to get a little angry. "Is that clear!?" She then exclaimed as she looked over at the Changeling Commander.

She was surprised to see her Commander paralyzed by fear, slowly stepping away as he looked at Fade with a terrified expression on his face. "It's just like...back then...in the forest..." he said in a trembling voice as he was slowly backing away in direction of the entrance of the room.

Queen Chrysalis was anything but happy about this. "Where do you think you're going!?" She said angrily to her commander who didn't even react to her words.

"No! I have to get out of here! Or else..." He said, struck by fear as he watched Fade standing near the throne. Then, for a moment, Fade looked over to the Changeling Commander with his glowing white eyes. This caused the commander to scream on top of his lungs before he eventually, ran out of the room, leaving his Queen and the other Changelings.

Queen Chrysalis was furious seeing her commander running away. "I'm surrounded by nothing but traitors!" She said angrily as she looked over at Tagma. "Don't even think about running away. There are still Changelings outside. There is nowhere for you to escape," she said towards the little Changeling before she then turned towards Fade again.

The Changelings made room and stood on the side as Queen Chrysalis walked towards the middle of the room. They did the same for Fade. Seeing him move was enough to strike some fear into them so they moved to the side to not get caught in this battle that was about to unfold.

Soon, both Queen Chrysalis and Fade met each other in the middle of the room, staring into each other's eyes. After seeing what Fade did to her Changelings, Queen Chrysalis got a little more cautious and kept her guard up. Fade had a serious expression on his face which only began to amused the queen again. "One of your friends already experienced what happened if you stand in our way," she said, obviously referring to Mystic, who was still on the ground a little behind Queen Chrysalis. "Royal Guard or not, you ponies should stay out of Changeling matters," she advised as she made the green aura on her horn grow even brighter. "Know your place!" She said with an evil grin on her face, ready to attack anytime soon.

Then without warning, the dark aura around Fade shot up towards the ceiling and came down on Queen Chrysalis who jumped back to dodge the attack. She was angered by this sudden move and clenched her teeth. "How dare you!" She screamed before she unleashed all of her magic at once, shooting directly at Fade. The Unicorn did not move and let the dark magic build a wall in front of him, blocking Queen Chrysalis's attack completely, much to her surprise since she was using a lot of magic on this last blast. It only angered her, even more, seeing Fade standing in there as if her attack was nothing which was most likely the case. "What is the meaning of this!? You were not this strong before!" She exclaimed angrily.

The dark magic wall, in front of Fade, vanished, revealing his face again to Queen Chrysalis. This time it was a little more determined and directly focused towards Queen Chrysalis instead of being a little more distant. There was a slight echo in his voice that even sent some shivers down on Queen Chrysalis's back. "Know your place...Child of Chaos," Fade then said, his eyes glowing in a bright white light shortly after.

The dark aura around Fade then got bigger and once again shot towards the ceiling before then eventually, hitting the ground in front of him which released a wave of darkness on the ground that was about to go wash away everyone who was standing in his way. Rosa and Wildheart were lucky enough to not be in the way of this attack. But Unfortunately, Mystic was...

He tried to get up but he didn't have enough strength and collapsed to the ground again. There was no way that he could escape this attack in time. But then, just before he got hit, Tagma appeared next to him and lifted him on his back just before the dark wave hit him.

The few Changelings who were hovering in the air felt save to not get hit by this attack but to their surprise, the waves began to climb up the walls and reached out to them. It was like this dark wave had a mind on its own and wanted to make sure to deal with every single one of them. Every single Changeling soon got caught by it and was pushed towards the wall of the entrance to the throne room. Every one except Queen Chrysalis who still stood in the middle of the room, trying to fight of this dark wave,  however, she was pushed towards the entrance of the room as well while still standing on the ground.

Fade eventually stopped his attack and let the Changeling catch a breath for a second. Tagma who was lifting Mystic on his back approached Rosa and Wildheart who could only stand there with surprised expressions on their faces. "Did you know that Fade was this strong?" Tagma asked towards Rosa.

"No," she replied shaking her head. "But I have a really bad feeling about this magic aura around him. It looks...unnatural..." she added, looking at Fade with a worried expression on her face.

Tagma looked over to Fade, trying to find out what would happen next. "In any case, whatever this magic is it looks like as if we can actually win now, right?" He then said, looking over to Mystic this time who's eyes were glued to Fade.

"Yes..." he simply said, not looking away from Fade for one moment.

The Changelings started to get up again, one by one. Queen Chrysalis clenched her teeth in anger and only looked at Fade with a furious expression on her face. She noticed the condition of her fellow Changelings and couldn't help but to worry about them. She knew that they were in no more condition to fight which only made her angrier. Of course, this anger was directed towards Fade who still stood in the middle of the room, waiting for Queen Chrysalis's next move. But she was not stupid. She knew that this battle was lost. The last attack drained her energy way too much to make her able to continue fighting so she did the only thing that she could do now. "We are retreating! Leave this castle and tell everyone to go back to the Kingdom!" She ordered. The Changelings didn't like to admit defeat but they did as their queen ordered and left the room to retreat. Before Queen Chrysalis walked out of the room herself, she turned around to Fade one last time. "This is not over, lapdog of Celestia...or...whatever you are!"

After that, only Fade, Rosa, Tagma, Mystic, and Wildheart were left in the throne room. The dark aura that surrounded Fade slowly began to vanish as well, making it safe for the others to approach him again. Just now, Fade felt exhausted and dropped down to his knees but he slowly got up again once his friends got closer to him.

Rosa sighed after noticing how the dark aura vanished. "You did it," she said relieved after how everything was finally done.

"Yes! That was awesome!" Tagma said. "I can't believe you all did this to-" but he then stopped in mid-sentence once he came to a realization and frowned. "I'm sorry...this is all because of me. They were after me...that's why you had to fight them..." he apologized.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Rosa then said as she put her hoof on Tagma's shoulder.

"Tagma...friend...we...help friend..." Wildheart added.

"Exactly!" Rosa said happily. "You could have tried to run away but you came back and helped to save us all!"

Fade walked up to Tagma. "Besides...Queen Chrysalis and her Changelings are a danger to Equestria. You decided to oppose her and proved that you put the safety of others above your own," Fade explained before he put a hoof on Tagma, comforting him. "I don't know what exactly happened while I was knocked out but it seems like you were helping us out quite a bunch. I'll admit that I have my doubts about you but now you fully earned my trust,"

Hearing that made Tagma really happy. He almost shed a tear in fact. But he felt like earning all those thanks was not necessary. "I didn't do much! You should thank Mystic for going up against Queen Chrysalis as well," he said pointing towards the Unicorn who was standing in the background.

Even though Rosa didn't like to admit it, Mystic helped out too so she thanked him as well, however, once he replied she immediately regrets it again. "I actually have an idea how you could thank me," he said looking towards Fade with a serious expression on his face. "That magic that you used...show me how to use it," he demanded.

Fade was surprised to hear this, as well as the others who didn't really liked the idea of two ponies having this sinister magic. He bluntly stated what he thought about it himself. "This magic...I'm not entirely sure what happened after I woke up again. I don't think I was much in control while fighting,"

Rosa seemed relieved. "Thank goodness that you are aware of that because it was really hard watching you like this,"

"Yes, it was like you were possessed by something," Tagma added.

Rosa especially had a very bad feeling about this magic. "Why are you interested in using this magic?" She asked towards Mystic confused.

"Are you kidding me?" Mystic replied. "Didn't you see how he was handling those Changelings!? All thanks to this Dark Magic!" He explained.

"Dark Magic...again?" Fade replied with an upset tone in his voice. It quickly brought him back to what Princess Celestia said after the incident with the Royal Guard and how she was prepared to rip him off by his magic in order to save Equestria. At this moment, Fade realized why she was tried to do that. He looked at Mystic with a serious expression on his face. Princess Celestia was probably looking at him in the same way after she heard about Fade's Dark Magic. She saw the danger coming from Fade and wanted to protect Equestria. Seeing Mystic in this position now, made it clear what Fade needed to do. "I will not teach you how to use Dark Magic..."

"What!?" Mystic replied angrily.

Fade explained. "This magic is not something to be taken lightly. It is dangerous. That is why I will not teach it to you..."

Mystic, unsurprisingly, didn't like the answer and got angry. "Are you kidding me!? So you mean you want to keep all this power to yourself!?" He asked.

Fade explained again, "Dark Magic is said to corrupt you. The more you use it, the more it is likely to end up as a danger to everyone around you...something that I would like to avoid,"

Hearing that, made his friends smile. Even though he showed how powerful he was while using this magic, they were relieved to hear that he didn't want to be corrupted by it. But shortly after, they were shocked to hear what Mystic had to say about it. "But I don't!" He exclaimed angrily.

Of course, his friends were shocked to hear this. Rosa couldn't help but share her opinion with Mystic. "What is wrong with you!? Don't you realize that, in a way, Fade is trying to protect you?" She pointed out.

"Shut up!" Mystic then shouted at Rosa, making her react in surprise. She was aware that Mystic didn't care about her or anyone else but this time, he was especially angry and was not afraid to show it. Mystic clenched his teeth in anger and looked over to Fade again.

But Fade stood by his decision. "With your hate towards Princess Celestia, it would be more than foolish to let you get your hooves on Dark Magic. I know what you are trying to do once you archived it. I can't afford that to happen..." he explained as he kept looking into Mystic's eyes.

"There you go again!" Mystic exclaimed angrily. "Hunted by the Royal Guards, Running away from anyone, seeing yourself as a danger because you can use Dark Magic...and you still think that you can save Equestria! You can't even save your own daughter!"

Rosa got angry after this statement. "Mystic! That's enough!"

"No, it isn't!" Mystic shouted back before he turned towards Fade again. "You said you want to save your daughter!? You want to save Equestria from danger!? Well let me tell you, you are not! If I had power like this, then..." he lowered his head and frowned a little before he returned his glared towards Fade again. "But you! You have all this strength and you refuse to make a change! You said you wanted to save your daughter but you put Equestria above her! I knew that, the moment when you tried to turn yourself into the Royal Guard! At this moment you gave up on saving her! Instead, you asked for forgiveness of the very Princess that took her away from you in the first place! You don't care about your daughter one bit!" Mystic further and further pummeled into Fade's head.

Hearing Mystic saying all those things actually had an effect on him. He lowered his head and thought about his daughter sleeping in Canterlot with no way of waking up while her father was considered a criminal and ran away from Royal Guards. It made him almost regret all of his decisions that he made up to this point.

Shortly after, Fade saw a blue light in front of him so he raised his head again and noticed how Mystic's horn began to glow while his face was filled with anger and determination. "If you don't want to tell me how to use this magic, then I will just force you to tell me!" He said, clenching his teeth.

Tagma then rushed in front of Mystic. "No! Mystic, stop it! Please!" He begged but it didn't seem to have any effect on him since his eyes were still focused on Fade.

"Listen to Tagma, Mystic!" Rosa then added.

But her words were also ignored by him. He only looked at Fade with an angry expression on his face and focused even more magic in his horn. "You may abandon your family...but I will not!" He shouted before he used his magic to move Tagma to the side before he charged right at Fade angrily with his horn glowing in a bright light.

As he looked at Mystic charging towards him, for a moment, it felt like as if time was standing still.  Mystic was charging at him and he should feel threatened but right now, he felt calm and thought about his daughter and how she was probably never waking up. At least not if Fade continued to tun instead of doing something. 

Why was he thinking about that in a moment like this? 
Why thinking about it while he was about to be attacked by Mystic?
His words seemed to have clouded his mind more then he thought.

Before he knew it, Fade acted on instinct and countered Mystic's attack by shooting a magic beam at him. Because of his previous fight with Queen Chrysalis, Mystic still seemed to be a little hurt and was not able to dodge or even react to this and got hit directly, causing him to get knocked away a few meters and dropping on the ground. It was only then that Fade actually realized what he was doing, making him widen his eyes in surprise after he saw Mystic on the ground a few meters before him.

"Mystic!" Tagma exclaimed before he walked over to the Unicorn in order to help him up again.

But once he was close enough, Mystic quickly tried to get up again and shooed him away. "Don't touch me!" He exclaimed at the Changeling before he stood up again and turned away from the group. "I got enough of this! I'm leaving!" He said as he practically crawled away from the group.

"But..." Tagma only managed to say after this with a frown on his face.

"Mystic...rest..." Wildheart advised.

"Yes! You should at least stay until your wounds are healed from the battle," Rosa explained.

But Mystic didn't listen and continued to walk away. He turned his head around to face the group one last time. "Listen! I don't care about any of you! When it comes down to get something done, the only one you can trust is yourself! If you want to run away from everything then go ahead but I won't! I will get stronger! I will make a change in this world! I don't know how or when but I will not stand around here and wait until things change on its own! And...I will also get my revenge on Celestia...and I will do it without the help of anyone of you,"

After that, Mystic left the room and would leave the others for good. The rest of the four stood in the room with a bitter taste in their mouths. Mystic already attempted to leave the group earlier so no one was taking this turn too bad and just accepted it. Fade, on the other hoof, could only think about Mystic's words.  Not only could he not stop thinking about his daughter but he also started to think about what he was about to do in the long run. 

There was huge mood drop after Mystic was gone...but the group dealt with it in silence...


Later that evening...


The Changelings didn't come back. The group was busy searching all over the castle to look if there were still some of them hiding somewhere but that wasn't case. The four could breathe easily for now. Eventually, Tagma, Rosa, and Wildheart met up in the hallway of the castle. They all felt a little awkward after what happened between Mystic and Fade, especially, Tagma, who was feeling a little more closer to Mystic then the others.

Rosa felt as if she should say something to cheer him up but before she opened her mouth, Tagma said something instead. "I know we all know each other for a very short while but...I really thought that we would stay together like this..." he said with a frown on his face. "But I guess that was just wishful thinking, right?"

Rosa started to frown as well but she then pulled herself together in order to cheer the Changeling up again. "We sure are a strange bunch, huh? Maybe it was unavoidable for us to confront each other like this?" She said. Somehow she thought this would sound a little more cheerful but then she realized that it was probably not helping at all.

"Mystic...left..." Wildheart then said. "Rosa...Tagma...Fade...leave too?" He then asked accompanied with a frown on his face now.

The mood between those three was again down to the bottom. Mystic felt that being alone was the only solution for him. But was it for the rest of the group as well? Soon memories began to fly around in their heads. Rosa thought about her mother and Tagma thought about Sole. Knowing that both of them would not want Tagma and Rosa to be sad was something that made it clear to them what to say.

"No!" Then both Tagma and Rosa said in unison, much to each of their surprise.

Rosa then began to explain what she was thinking. "Maybe this world doesn't want us to be happy...maybe we are destined to either run away or live in solitude but as long as I have the chance of being together with you, I will not throw it away," she explained with a smile on her face.

Tagma smiled back while grabbing his headband tightly. "Me neither! Sole would probably be very upset if I met him again while being all alone again!" He briefly explained himself.

"So...we...together?" Wildheart asked confused to which the two nodded in response. while smiling.

"As a mare, I don't expect anything less than staying in a castle," Rosa said, raising her head in the process. "Even if it looks like this..." she added, obviously hinting at the dirt all over the castle.

"Yes! This could be fun, right?" Tagma asked to which the other two only returned a smile.

Those three agreed of staying together even after all those things that happened. They were alone for the longest time now so being around those who they could call friends was something that they didn't want lose anymore. This was something that they would agree on. The world might see them as Outcasts but that was something that they just had to deal with. Every single one of them, with the help of others...

This only left one more pony...

Fade was returning to the throne room. The words of Mystic were still on his mind. Was he really giving up on his daughter? Did he put Equestria above his own family? Why was he even running away from Princess Celestia and the Royal Guard if he was considering getting caught by them?
But could he even make a change like Mystic said? With Dark Magic?

He sat down on the throne and began thinking. "Can I bring my daughter back with enough power? Does it even make a difference now? The Royal Guard is no longer something that I can return to...so does it even matter if I try to do the rightful thing now? Maybe I should just embrace it? Maybe...this power will help me? Or maybe...there is even more power to archive?" As Fade began to think about all those things, Dark Magic began to surround him and the throne. "Solar..." he said quietly with tears running down his cheeks. "Why did you left me? Was I really that bad of a father?" He asked as if he expected some kind of answer.

To his surprise...there actually came one. It was the same voice that he heard while he was imprisoned in the dungeon of Canterlot, right before he escaped. He didn't wonder where it came from or who it was who talked to him but he listened carefully while answering at the same time.

"She is waiting for you..."

"What?"

"All you have to do...is abandoning this world, that took her away from you...and create a new one..."

"Create a new World?"

"The two sisters are the key...Use them...and you will be able to see your daughter again..."

"Yes...I will do that..."

It was like as if Fade was in some kind of trance. He didn't seem to be aware of the Dark Magic, surrounding him. Before he knew it, the voice was gone again. Whether it was his unconsciousness that played a trick on him or the Dark Magic playing a trick on him, he wanted to believe in what this voice told him. It gave him hope.

"This world...I know what I have to do now..." he said quietly as he was looking towards the moon with a determined expression on his face.


A while later inside of a fortress in the south of Equestria...


Things changed a lot for Mystic. He was still determined to get revenge on Princess Celestia and in order to archive this, he resorted to going against his believes of doing it on his own. There was this group called The Storm Wings who were considered as heroes in Equestria by Princess Celestia herself because of the things they did to help the ponies of Equestria. Due to some manipulation, Mystic managed to get himself on top of this group and used them for his own good. He used them to steal and hurt the ponies of Equestria for most of the time and was waiting until something big would appear that could help him get his revenge on Princess Celestia.

Finally, this day came...

"You wanted to see me?" Said a green coated Pegasus with a windmill-shaped blue and yellow mane and light blue eyes.

Mystic turned around. "Yes, Cyclone Wing. There is this rumor that I came across and I want you to investigate," he said.

"About what?" Cyclone Wing replied.

"There is this town, called Ponyville...there were seven Ponies caught in the Nightmare Moon incident. It was them who defeated her and stopped her from bringing her Everlasting Night. All with the help of something called, the Elements of Harmony," Mystic explained.

"Elements of Harmony?" Cyclone Wing asked, clearly not knowing what exactly that was.

"I want you to concentrate on this matter above all else, for now. Get me every piece of information that you can gather," he simply explained before he turned around and looked out of a window at the end of the room. "That is all,"

Cyclone Wing didn't say anything in return and just left the room again, leaving Mystic alone with his thoughts. "The Elements of Harmony were strong enough to defeat Princess Luna. If I had magic like that...then I could finally get my revenge on Celestia..." he looked out of the window and saw Cyclone Wing leaving the fortress and flying away. "Very soon...Mysteria..."


Meanwhile, in the Forgotten Castle...


"Did you hear the news?" Rosa asked towards Tagma. "About the Storm Wings?"

"What about them?" Tagma replied confused. "You mean how they shifted from heroes to criminals, a while ago? Yeah, that sure was weird,"

Rosa shook her head. "No, not that...I mean, yeah but not exactly! I got a hold of some information that explained why that is the case. They say that it was because somepony took over them, causing a change of leadership,"

Tagma was still confused..."And that is important because?"

"Well, you will never guess who took charge of them," Rosa teased.

"Who?" Tagma replied before Rosa finally revealed who it was, causing Tagma to react with a mix of happiness and confusion. "Mystic!? Really?"

Rosa nodded. "Yes! Believe it!"

There was a sudden change of mood inside of the room until Tagma came to a realization. "Things sure a changing a lot recently..."

Rosa instantly knew what Tagma was referring to. "You mean...Fade?" Tagma nodded in response. "Yeah..." she added with a frown on her face.

Fade underwent a huge change since the Changeling incident. He was spending a lot more time on his own and inside of the throne room. He was also no longer thinking about returning to the Royal Guard. He even changed his armor from dark purple to dark blue. The star emblem on his chest plate was also changed into a black circle with a white crescent moon in front of it. This was supposed to represent how he was no longer allied with Princess Celestia, who was represented by the sun.

He and his friends stayed in the Forgotten Castle living a rather secluded but still fun life, compared to what they used to live like before. But Fade only had one thing in mind. Only one goal was in his mind, and he was about to archive it.
He once again sat down on the throne in the throne room. He was silent and got his mind ready for what he was about to do soon to this world. "Nightmare Moon returned...and with her...Princess Luna. That means that the two sisters are now here and that I can finally set our plan in motion. Just wait a little more, Solar..." He then began to smile. "I will create a world where you and I can be together again...and for that...I just have to dispose of this one first...Just wait a little longer..."


It would not take long until he would attempt to capture both Princess Celestia and Luna to set his plan in motion. He didn't care about this world anymore. He didn't care about any pony in it. Anyone except, his daughter...Solar Smile.

But if his plan would succeed...that was another question...and who knows what would happen to him if he lost...

Only the future would have the answer for this...the answer of what would happen...
To the Outcasts...