//------------------------------//
// Strange puppetry 
// Story: Wielder of the Orb: Third Time's the Charm 
// by TheMajorTechie 
//------------------------------//

Morning! Er... the next morning? How many days had it been that she'd been missing again?

"Hey," Lightning Rod pushed the door open. "How 'bout we go out for a walk today? It's nice outside, and I think we both need some fresh air right about now."

Nightshade glanced out the window again, then back to her roommate, nodding. Orb or not, she just needed a break.





A light breeze blew through her mane. Nightshade closed her eyes, smiling in the warm morning sunlight. With Celestia's day came the bustling ponies of the city, and just to hear other ponies again, instead of the distant, distorted howling... she took a deep breath, letting it out in a sigh.

"You done photosynthesizing there, Shady?" Lighting Rod jeered, tapping her shoulder with a wingtip. "Or are you planning on growing roots into the ground, too?"

Nightshade stuck her tongue out at her roommate before continuing to bask in the sunlight. Lightning Rod plopped himself down beside her on the park bench.

"There's a lot of foals here in the park today."

"Yes, and?"

"You should go join then."

"Ma-hey!" Nightshade frowned at Lightning, who laughed in response.

"Excuse me," a quiet voice interrupted. "Um... hi..." A dirty-grey colt stepped out in front of the two. "Do you know where my mom and dad are? I haven't seen them all day."

"Oh?" the mare hummed, "Well, we'll keep an eye out for them, then. You wanna stick around in the meantime?"

Instantly, the colt's face lit up. "Thank you!"

Nightshade nodded, watching him wander off again. 

"Hey," Lightning Rod jabbed her with a wing. "Shouldn't we try and find his parents? You literally just said that we would."

"...Yeah, I guess we probably shou--ack!" Nightshade squeaked, rubbing her hoof. "Ow. Splinter--" She heard the colt chuckle in the distance. "--Hey, that's not funny!"

We don't speak of the arcane might required for a pony to remove a splinter with their own two hooves.

One removal of a splinter later, and everything was completely back to normal.

Mostly.

"Night, why are that colt's eyes glowing red?"

"Wha--" Nightshade turned to the colt from earlier. "No they aren't, ya doofus."

To account for the fact that the author has no idea what direction this story is going anymore, as well as to clear up confusion that both he and (probably) you, the reader may have, let's step back a bit and think about what the heck's even going on.

So.

Based on the previous chapter, it seems that Anicetus (or whatever the heck his name is at this point) has possessed the body of one of the colts working underneath him. From what I remember, the dude wants to make sure that Nightshade is either dead or out of the picture, and given how she's survived just about everything so far, he's decided to just do things himself.

Now then, since I don't wanna keep writing awkward "that child is possessed" and "no he isn't!" conversation, let's just assume that the colt's parents were never found, and Nightshade and Lightning Rod had a massive lapse in judgment resulting in them taking the somewhat obviously-possessed (thanks for noticing, Lightning!) colt in for the night.

...yeah. Uh, guess that's it for the chapter.