“As we come to the end of this stage of our life, we find ourselves trying to remember the good times, and trying to forget the bad times.”

The dry wind of The Wasteland blew over my face digging into my lungs with each breath as we all appeared in a spot at least two kilometers away from Los Alicorn. The distance from where The Ministry was located and how deep it had to be under the dead city was proof of how powerful Aquila was in her new body. Though I should’ve known that from getting the memories from when she had control of my body. She’d managed to use a massive teleportation spell to bring my body from one side of Equestria to the other. Though the magical drain had almost been too much for her. This time however, she’d managed to bring not only my uncle, mom, Stormy, Aura, White Oak, and myself this far. She’d also got two scientists who must’ve been in the observation room. To make matters worse, she looked like the cost of the magic hadn’t even bothered her.

She was grinning from ear to ear as she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It’s wonderful to feel fresh air, going into lungs that belong to me and not you Shadow.”

I tried to respond, but I was racked with another bout of pain as more of the magic flowing into me surged again. I winced and fell out of Aura’s grip. She however looked at Aquila, yelling, “What the hell did you just do? Where are we?”

Aquila just popped her neck, then said, “Oh about two kilos north of that university where Shadow and the foals found their way into The Ministry. I really didn’t want to be down in that hole when I can get a taste of fresh…okay well kind of fresh air. You have no idea what it’s like spending the majority of your life in a glass bubble and the last ten years trapped inside that weakling’s mind.”

Mom looked as angry as I felt. She started to power a spell as she growled. “You haven’t won yet Aquila, I can still stop you.”

Aquila slowly looked over at my mother and grinned. “Sit down and shut up Grim, I’ll deal with you soon.” As she spoke a flash of light escaped Aquila’s horn and my mother’s muzzle was forcefully shut, then a moment later she was forced to sit.

“Much better,” Aquila said as she slowly started to walk around the group of us, “Do you know how annoying your voice is Grimoire? No? Well it’s like hooves on a chalk board, mixed with the cries of foals. I don’t know how your husband put up with it for so long.”

Mom just glared at Aquila, her horn glowing as magic symbols started to glow around her. At the same time, Stormy started to cast a spell and so did my uncle. All three of them blasted Aquila with a mix of their power. Aquila managed to dodge Mom’s weak blast, but got hit by Stormy’s. It didn’t look like it did much damage but it did manage to throw her back right into my uncles power. That did something. She screamed in rage and pain as the black shadowy magic slammed into her side. She hissed and rolled away from the blast. Oricalcos followed that up with turning his body into his shadow form and growing, still casting bolts of shadow at her.

Aura tried to move to help but I put a hoof on hers making her stay. She couldn’t fight Aquila, let alone deal with the magic my uncle was casting toward her. My uncle started to laugh in that dark way he used to when he was Pride, saying, “Hahaha, you think you’re strong do you Aquila? Have you forgotten that your power is nothing compared to my own?”

Aquila dodged another blast of my uncle’s, a white light forming around her, “And have you forgotten that my magic is what negates yours!?” she blasted a beam of pure light at my uncle. The spell missed as Oricalcos faded into the shadows around him.

A moment later he reappeared on the other side of her, a ball of black energy growing around his horn. He chuckled again as he blasted the spell at her. The blast of blackness looked a lot like the same spell he’d used on me when I was a foal. I could see now how lucky I was that it hadn’t killed me. The blast of energy exploded when it hit her, destroying everything within five meters of the dome it created, followed by a scream of pain from Aquila. I was shocked to see the power my uncle had even in his weakened state. It made me wonder if my own fight against him was really as bad as I’d thought. If this was what he could really do, then he went easy on me.

Sadly the spell didn’t destroy Aquila. She was hurt though, I could see it in her face when she emerged from the black spell with a few cuts and bruises on her body. Oricalcos grinned that creepy grin of his when he was in his shadow form, and said, “My body is weak against your light, but you are also weak to my darkness. We counter-balance each other Aquila. You might be powerful, but you’ve never had to fight somepony with just as much magic as you have.”

Aura spoke up, saying in my ear, “I noticed when Aquila had your body that she really didn’t know how to fight. It’s one of the abilities she never learned from you. She relies on pure magic and overwhelming her foe with massive power. If she’s faced with an opponent who knows how to fight, she has a hard time keeping up. Oricalcos is our secret weapon against her.”

“Wait, you knew this might happen?” I asked, looking up at her as the pain from the magic started to fade again.

“We always knew it was a possibility. We had Oricalcos in place just in case. After I told him what I observed when I fought her when she was in your body, he came up with a plan. He’s been a solider for a long time, he’s way more experienced than she is,” Aura said.

As she spoke, my mom was able to break away from the spell holding her along with Stormy, they both attacked Aquila while her back was turned. Aquila took the hits hard, but wasn’t affected by it much. She still growled in anger and tried to attack Mom again. This time, Mom teleported away with Stormy. Then Aquila was hit yet again by another one of my uncle’s dark magic spells. Tendrils of shadows flowed up from the ground and trapped her within them. They didn’t last long though. Before Oricalcos could get another hit in, Aquila’s body flashed with blinding light and the shadows, vanished.

“Nice try Oricalcos, but I can get out of simple tricks like…what the hell?” She said as her body locked up.

Confused for a moment I couldn’t see what was wrong, then I saw a line of shadow flowing from under my uncle’s growing body and extending to Aquila’s shadow. Oricalcos grinned, saying, “Shadow Possession rank one, first spell I mastered when I became what I am now. Even your light spells can’t get you out of this, and if you think that’s impressive, wait till you see what rank two can do.”

His horn flashed again and the shadows under her started to creep up her legs until they were wrapped around her torso and neck. They started to squeeze slowly cutting off Aquila’s air. She gagged and tried to cast another spell, but my uncle had her. Her eyes went wide as she tried to pull away from the force being put upon her throat and body, but from what I could see, she couldn’t move. Just like that, my uncle was able to stop the monster I’d been fearing for so long now.

Oricalcos slowly moved himself closer to her. “Tell me Aquila, how does it feel be to be helpless? How does it feel to be under somepony else’s control?”

He let up on the pressure just a little so she could speak. She gasped and took in a few deep breaths, then said, “You haven’t won yet Oricalcos. I still have the power to destroy you.”

“Oh really? Is that a fact?” Oricalcos’s shadowy horn flashed with purple light and Aquila started screaming. From what it looked like; her energy was being drained out of her by his spell. Small motes of light started flowing from Aquila to Oricalcos. As each mote of light flowed into his horn, Oricalcos grew and Aquila looked weaker.

Stormy helped my mom get back to her hooves as the two scientists moved closer to White Oak, all of us watching as my uncle drained Aquila of her magic. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I thought that no one could take her down and not this easily. Why was I so scared of her all this time? Was it because of the control she had over my mind or was she really this weak all along? Either way, it looked like my uncle’s shadow magic was more powerful than whatever kind of magic she has.

“You see Aquila, your power might be great, but it’s no match for what I have. My power comes from a being who created something that could kill magic like yours,” he moved his shadowy head down and continued, “And now that you’re in your own mortal body, I can kill you.”

There was a flash of something in Aquila’s eyes as the spell Oricalcos was using started to fade. My mother must’ve seen something in that because she yelled, “Oricalcos! Get away from her!”

“Quiet sis, I’ve got this. She’s too weak to take me down. She hasn’t had time to adjust to her new body. This is the only time we’re going to have to kill her,” Oricalcos said as he started to cast another spell.

Aquila coughed, then said weakly, “If you kill me Oricalcos…you’ll never be able to help your sister activate Falling Shadows. I am the key for its power after all. If I die, you’ll be failing to help your sister get what she’s wanted for so many years.”

He growled deeply and yelled in her face, “I don’t give two shits about Falling Shadows, I don’t care about you or what my sister wants. I love her, but that project is her problem not mine. I only care about keeping my niece safe and the best way to do that is to kill you,” he looked back at Mom and said in a calmer voice, “I’m sorry sis, but I can’t help you anymore with your revenge or your quest to find this project. I know I promised I would, but not anymore. I’m finished being the bad pony, I want to be good again, and it starts with not helping you anymore. I’ll only help Star because I owe her so much for what I’ve put her through.”

I saw him look at me and smile, then it was followed by Mom saying, “Ori…you can’t say that!”

He cut her off, saying, “I’m finished sis, I’m sorry, but that’s the way it has to go,” he looked at me again, “I can never repay the pain I’ve put you through Star, but I can at least do my best to be a better pony. One that deserves your forgiveness. I love you Star, and I always will…”

“Should’ve listened to your sister Oricalcos,” Aquila said, starting to laugh as the shadows around her neck and body started to melt away, like steam from a hot kettle.

“What’s…happening!?” Oricalcos said as his body started to shrink and his hold on Aquila vanished.

Aura pulled me back as an explosion of light came from Aquila followed by that laugh I was really starting to hate. When it faded, she looked as strong as she had before my uncle attacked her. She popped her neck and grinned at Oricalcos. “Oh Oricalcos, you really fucked up this time, didn’t you? Did you forget after all these years that the whole reason you have all that shadow magic and that body is because of a deal you made with Mezzanotte?”

My uncle’s body was still shrinking, and his eyes were starting to look normal again. They went wide as he realized what he just did, a moment later so did I. The conversation he had with me about how he became immortal came back to me like a flood. I remembered him saying that if he ever broke the deal he made, he’d lose the shadow body he had, and his mind and soul would be placed back into his old one. A body that hadn’t been seen for sixteen years. He’d die.

Mom started to cast a spell, at the same time I tried to pull away from Aura, but Aquila cast a spell and everypony was knocked to the ground and held there by some invisible force. Right then, something ripped open behind my uncle. It was like a black steel door just appeared out of nowhere. It was covered in runes and had chains over the door that hung loosely around the handles. As Aquila giggled in glee, my uncle slowly turned and looked at the door right as it split in two, opening just the slightest amount.

Everypony just watched with our mouths open as a single blood red eye appeared in the crack and out came the voice I heard in Moon Light’s memory crystal. The voice of that zony Mezzanotte, saying, “Oricalcos the shadow heart, you have failed me!”

As he spoke it was like all the light around the door and my uncles shadow form started to fade. My uncle stood as tall as he could as he responded, “I’ve done everything I promised all those years ago. I’m done being a lackey for everypony else, I’m sick of this evil power that’s eating away at my soul. If you want your power back after one time of me saying I’m finished helping my sister, then fine take it back.”

The voice got louder as it screamed, “I gave you a sliver of my power and told you to do one thing, just one, and that was to help her find this project and to activate it! When I make a deal, there is no going back! You’ll do as you promised or pay the consequences!”

I watched as my uncle looked back at her, then at me with a smile on his face. “You were right Star, there is still a little bit of light still deep within my rotten soul. Thank you for believing in me,” then he looked back at the door ignoring the laughter coming from Aquila as he said, “I’ll use what power I have left Mezzanotte and destroy her before anypony else can unlock that project. If you want to kill me for that, then have at it, I’m finished.”

He whipped around and started to cast a massive spell. The purple glow around his horn getting brighter and brighter. The laughter from Aquila died as she saw what my uncle was doing. She took a step back, fear building in her eyes. Then a tendril of Shadow flew out of the door. It slammed into my uncle’s back right when he cast his spell. Everything went quiet as I watched my uncle scream in pain at the same time Aquila tried to block whatever he’d just cast. She wasn’t fast enough. The blast of energy slammed into her, throwing her body back a good twenty meters until it slammed into a rock.

“If you want to pull back on our deal Oricalcos then fine, I’ll take back that immortal body I gave to you and let you go back to the weak, pathetic body you had before. Trust me, it’s not in good shape after all those years of neglect from being in my domain. Enjoy your mortal death, Oricalcos,” the voice said. As we watched, there was a flash of dark energy and my uncle screamed louder as the shadows that made up his body were pulled back through the door leaving only a small mote of light. The light flashed then whizzed toward a dull gold body that had appeared right in front of the door. It was emaciated and lifeless, until the mote of light slammed into it and the body gasped then screamed weakly.

“Ori! NO!” Mom yelled, trying to get up. I noticed just then that the spell holding us down was gone. Mom and I both pulled away from Stormy and Aura and ran toward the thin body of my uncle.

Before we made it to him, the voice said, “Shadow Star, I’ll be seeing you soon,” then the door slammed shut and vanished with the sound of thunder as it went.

We both ignored the voice as Mom and I skidded to a halt next to my uncle. Ignoring the pain in my body I pulled my uncle close as he stopped his weak scream and just lied there breathing slowly. Mom was trying to cast a spell over him, I just held his head and looked at the skeleton of a body he now had. He looked like he didn’t have any meat left on him, just sharp edges where most of his bones pushed against his skin.

“Don’t worry Ori, I can help you, you can’t die on me!” Mom said as she started casting a complicated healing spell.

Stormy, White Oak, and Aura came up to us too, but they stayed back as Mom started doing what she could to heal him. I just started to cry, I know it sounds pathetic, but I didn’t know what to do. I just placed my head down against his boney one, saying, “Why did you have to do that?”

He weakly opened his eyes, looking up at me with his beautiful purple ones and to my amazement he smiled, saying weakly, “Don’t cry Star, it’s okay, I’m…free of that evil now.”

“Don’t talk,” Mom said, tears running down her face as she kept casting her spell.

“Star…are you proud of me?” he asked, sounding delirious, almost like he was dreaming, “Did I do the right thing Star?” his eyes went glassy as he faded into some memory of his, “You’re going to be powerful one day Little Star, so powerful and beautiful. I…can’t wait to see who you become.”

“Uncle Ori…I’m all grown up now. I’m still here and I’m safe, thanks to you,” I said.

His eyes focused again, and he smiled once more. “There she is, my Little Star, did…did I stop her?”

“You did,” I said looking over and seeing Aquila was lying in a heap right where she’d landed after his attack.

“Because your body is shutting down you stupid jerk. I don’t even know how your body is still working. I’m trying to fix the damage I can find, but there’s just too much,” she said.

“Sis…Grimoire, it’s okay…it’s time. I should’ve died a long time ago,” his eyes went back to mine, “I should’ve died when I hurt you…I’m just glad that you’re okay Star, do your uncle a favor…get strong, get powerful, don’t let anypony ever tell you you’re weak,” his voice was starting to get weaker, “Shine bright Little Star. Shine…brighter, than anypony else ever…has.”

“Oh move over Grim, you’re not helping,” I heard Stormy say as she pushed Mom away from my uncle and started to cast her own spell over his body, “His body is in shock, he needs water in his system and a lot of other things, but I can keep him stable until we get him back to The Ministry.”

Stormy sighed then looked at White Oak, “I’ll need your transmitter, it’s the only way I’m going to get him back to The Ministry before he dies, my spell will keep him in stable condition for only a small amount of time. Can you deal with everything here?”

White Oak hesitated for a moment then nodded. “No problem, I understand. When you get back, make sure you send a synth to get the coursers, tell them where we are and to get an extraction team before Aquila wakes up again. We need to contain her.”

White Oak pulled something out of her lab coat and gave it to Stormy. Stormy took it, saying, “I’ll do what I can, but I’m more worried about Oricalcos. I agree with Grim, I have no idea how he’s still alive.”

She started to do something with the small device as my uncle looked at me again. “Star…tell Vervain…that I’m…”

He never finished what he was going to say. Her spell took hold and he fell asleep with an orange glow around his body. A moment later Stormy pushed me back and they both vanished in a flash of bluish-white light. I was taken aback by her quick and sudden exit. Looking over at White Oak, I asked, “Why couldn’t she take us all back?”

“My emergency transporter only works for two ponies. If she could’ve used it to get us all back, then I would’ve suggested that. Now we need to worry about getting Aquila back before she wakes up from whatever spell Oricalcos used on her,” White Oak said, turning toward the smoking body of my evil half.

We all turned to look at her, the two other ponies who got pulled along with us when Aquila took us away from The Ministry looked scared as they moved to stand behind their Director. One I noticed was a mare around my age. The earth pony looked like she was about to shake right out of her lab coat and for good reason. I know that fear all too well of the overpowering presence of Aquila.

“Madam Director how are we going to get that thing back to The Ministry?” the younger mare asked.

Mom slowly started to walk toward where Aquila was lying. “All I have is my Chains of Celestia spell that might hold her for an hour or so. I can’t say, because she’s made up of light magic unlike my brother’s darkness. She’s also in a body now and my spell isn’t as strong against a normal body.”

“Grim I think we should just leave and deal with her later, Shadow needs help more than we need to capture Aquila,” Aura said as she came over to help me again. I was still feeling weak and my head was starting to pound again, the magic flowing through my head like a flood.

“We can’t wait. If we don’t deal with her now, we’ll never be able to again,” Mom said starting to cast another spell.

Before she even got one of her magic circles fully created, an explosion of pink light came from Aquila’s body, almost knocking us down again. Then Aquila got back to her hooves, anger written all over her face. “I’m finished with all of you!”

In a flash of light, she vanished with a loud crack. A moment later she repapered behind the two scientists. Before either of them could run, Aquila cast a spell over the stallion, shortly followed by his scream of pain. We all whipped around just as the stallion’s body started to bleed from every orifice, his eyes, nose mouth, and other places started to leak boiling blood. It landed on the hard ground with a hiss, followed another moment later with his body falling to the ground dead. She then turned her attention on the other one, the young mare screamed and tried to run.

I started to draw on Dream Walker, pulling it up quickly and entering S.A.T.S., but I wasn’t fast enough. Before the spell fully kicked in, a blade of light flew out of Aquila’s horn and cut the poor mare in two. Her body fell into pieces right after, her blood and guts mixing into the dry soil in a matter of seconds. Then S.A.T.S. kicked in and I took aim with Dream Walker. I fired three shots right into her chest screaming in anger and defiance at the mare who made my life hell. To my utter shock, every bullet slammed into her, throwing her back again.

I disengaged the spell and started firing shot after shot toward Aquila. “How do you like me now bitch!? You like to make others suffer, like to make them feel like nothing compared to you? Well guess what. All you are is an abomination, an abhorrence of nature, and you don’t scare me anymore.”

I tried to fire more, but with a click, Dream Walker was out of ammunition. I went to reload but was hit with more pain as my heart throbbed in time with my head feeling like it was being split open again and I fell to the ground screaming in pain. Aura rushed over to help me, but mom started casting again, yelling, “I have to take her down before it’s too late!”

“It’s too late GRIM!” Aquila yelled as she got back to her hooves. Through my pain I saw every bullet I’d shot at her slide off a barrier she’d erected around her body, so close to her coat that it was barely visible. She grinned madly and cast a counter spell. The pain I felt before was nothing compared to this. It was like every cell in my body was trying to pull themselves in ten different directions at once. From the look on Aura, Mom, and White Oak’s faces, I wasn’t the only one who was going through this.

Once again, I fell to the ground, this time Aura falling with me as a blood curdling scream fell from my lips. Between what Aquila was doing to me, the magical overflow and my heart, I wanted nothing more than to just die, then and there. Just like every time I tried to face off against Aquila even when she was in my mind, I was losing. I mean what could I do against a creature like her? She’s made of pure light magic, she’s born from the stars themselves, she knows more spells than I do.

To make matters worse, she was going to kill all of us, my mom, the mare I spent the past few weeks trying to find and later convinced that I was her daughter. The mother I thought I lost when I was still a filly. I was going to lose her again. Aura, the creature I loved more than life itself, griffon or pony it didn’t matter. I knew deep down that I loved her more than anything. Now she would die because of Aquila’s hatred of me. Lastly White Oak, Vervain’s mom, who she thought was killed years ago. I’d never be able to tell her that she was alive, that she could see her again. Aquila was destroying so much and all because I couldn’t get over this stupid pain.

Why did she have to draw it out like this? Either kill us and get it over with, or just leave us alone. Also, why did the light side of Aquila have to shove all this magic into my damned body at once!? Why couldn’t she have tried to warn me and prepare me for this? I had no idea what to do with the power flowing into me right now, no idea how I could use it to fight back. It was right then that it hit me, and as it did, the pain from Aquila’s spell vanished like it never existed in the first place.

I was wrong, she’d been preparing me for this magic. What have I been hearing for weeks now from my uncle, my mom, Aura, Stardust, Wind Thrasher, Wingnut, and others? I wasn’t the same mare who left Stable 28 all those weeks ago. I wasn’t the weak filly who ran away from her stable to escape her Overmare with the Mark II. I wasn’t the mare who had a hard time casting spells, or the mare who feared her own shadow. I’d faced down Pride when he tried to kill me in Appleton, I made The Enclave see me as a threat, I’d beaten Wrath and Gluttony, I was able to face off against Envy and live, and I’d managed to survive Hoofington and a fight with elite Enclave soldiers. I took down Gators camp, beat Discord at his own game, beat Winter Frost, not once but twice in a fight, managed to trick the so-called Goddess, and so much more. I’m not a scared filly anymore, I’m the Goddesses damned Courier of New Pegasus for fuck sake, and I’d managed to take control of my body from Aquila more than once. If today is going to be my last day on Equus, then I’m going to take this bitch down with me.

This power flowing through me right now was my own magic, magic that’s been held back to keep it away from Aquila so I could have a chance at taking her down. I can’t let it overpower me anymore, it’s time I took control for myself, just like when Aquila tried to control my body. I’m the master, not this power, and I’m going to use it to rip Aquila’s new body apart. So, closing my eyes, I drew on that vast power deep inside and changed the flow of where it was going. I let it flow from the deepest darkest part of my very soul and let it go to my horn. I started to get to my hooves, growling in anger as I looked at Aquila. As I did, a red aura started to flow over my horn as I poured more and more power into it.

“I know your magic as well as I know my own,” I said as a secondary aura manifested over the first, “Your power has no hold over me anymore Aquila, you can’t overpower me,” a third aura followed shortly after the first two, lighting up the dim land around us in a bloody haze, “I’m through letting you think you’re the most powerful one here. You chose to make sure you got your own body, just so you could get away from me. Well, congratulations, now you have your own body and all of the flaws that go along with it.”

“How do you have that much magic inside of you? I took most of your power over the years, you shouldn’t be able to do anything with magic after what I left you with,” she said, her eyes going wide as she let off her spell on the others and started building up another.

“Welcome to the life of a mortal Aquila! NOW DIE!” I screamed and let all my rage and pain flow out of me and into my concentrated expulsion blast. A blast of blood-red power blew out of my horn and slammed into Aquila.

She was caught completely off-guard and went flying back, stuck in the blast of my pure anger. That is until a pink light came from the large blast of magic and started pushing back against what I was channeling all my power into. Then I saw my mistake, I shouldn’t have said anything to her, it gave her enough time to pull on her own power and start building up a defense. She landed on her hooves and started blasting her power right back at me, pushing the red beam of power back. I might know her power well, but that also went for her with me. She knew how I thought and just how to protect herself from my magic.

“Nice try…Shadow, but you still aren’t more powerful than I am!” she screamed as she pushed more power into her spell, pushing mine back farther until we were almost even.

I felt the strain this spell was causing my mind, body, and horn. I ignored it all and screamed myself as I pulled on more of my power and let it flow into my spell, forcing her own to start pushing back little by little. Through the extreme light that was emanating off our spells, I could just make out a bit of strain on her face as she matched then surpassed me on what she was pushing into this one attack. The strain grew and I felt my body starting to shake with fatigue as I tried to match her, but the sad part was, I knew I couldn’t. I didn’t understand this raw magic flowing inside of me. To make it worse, casting this spell that I’d cast dozens of times now, felt different. It was like with Aquila out of me, my magic didn’t work the same as it did before. It was harder for me to pull on and control.

As her spell started to inch toward me little by little, I knew the truth. Aquila was more powerful and had a better understanding of her power than I did. If I had time to practice with my new power or understand how my spells worked now, I might have a fighting chance, but I’d acted on rage and attacked instead of getting everypony out of here. Live to fight another day and all that crap. I can’t win in a fight, magic to magic, against Aquila, not yet. However, I do have another way to fight, one in which Aquila was lacking. So, when her spell was within a few inches of slamming into me and the light from our spells was almost blinding, I stopped casting my spell, ducked and rolled, letting her spell miss me by a hair or three.

As I rolled, the strain of that spell hit me, but I did my best to ignore the massive headache that came with letting so much power out at once and used my telekinesis to draw Mom’s plasma rifle and Misery at the same time. When I came out of the roll, I took aim and fired at Aquila. With her concentrating on trying to kill me, she didn’t see the simple move and my shot was true. It slammed into her side, breaking through whatever barrier she’d erected around herself and threw her back with a scream of pain. I didn’t let up, I fired shot after shot at her as I drew on another spell getting Misery ready. All I had to do was teleport to the other side of her, bring Misery down on her damn neck, and decapitate her. Easy as pie, just know my location, draw the power into myself, use that power to draw my body from the place I’m at to the place I want to go. I’ve done this spell hundreds of times. As I fired blast after blast of burning plasma at Aquila, I cast the spell.

Then…nothing happened, my horn just sputtered and sparked. I still had hold of my weapons, my magic wasn’t that weak, so why didn’t I teleport? At the same time, the plasma rifle clicked, and I was out of shots. Looking over at Aquila I saw that even though I’d been firing round after round of deadly plasma into her, it hadn’t done much damage. She was getting back to her hooves with that maddening grin on her face.

“Shadow, let me guess. you wanted to use that attack to keep me distracted while you teleported to the other side of me so you could cut my head off?” she said with a light chuckle, “Too bad that the knowledge to cast a teleportation spell isn’t just about knowing you can do it. No, you need to have a slight understanding of the structure of that spell. Something that you’ve been lacking for years. The only reason you’d been able to teleport in the past is because of me.”

I searched in my memory of teleporting and realized that she was right. I knew how to cast the spell itself, but not how the spell worked. I never have, I’d just been able to do it one day, when I needed to escape The Overmare’s office. From every book I read and from what I’d heard from others, casting teleportation was an advanced spell that a unicorn needed to learn. They didn’t just have the ability one day, they had to work hard to learn it. I just thought I was the exception to the rule. I was wrong.

It didn’t matter though, I could still win, I just needed to change my game plan. So, I changed out the magical energy cartridge on the plasma rifle and took aim and started to fire as I ran toward Aquila yelling, “I don’t need my teleportation to beat you.”

Aquila ducked under the first few shots and teleported herself, reappearing to my left. I was ready for her though, and Misery flew through the air as I twisted around. She ducked the first swing only to find the barrel of the plasma rifle in her face. With a grin I pulled the trigger, she dodged but still took a slight burn to her left ear. She howled in pain and cast another blast of magic at me. I grinned and brought up a barrier, that spell I did have the knowledge for thanks to Aquila and the fight against The Steel Rangers. Her spell slammed into it and blasted to each side. The barrier cracked but held long enough for the spell to pass by without harming me.

Before she could attack again, I looked back and saw Mom and the others were getting back to their hooves finally. As they did, I yelled, “I could use a little help here!”

Aura was the first to react, she took to the air, yelling, “I’m gonna need a weapon Shrimp!”

I let the barrier fall and drew Dream Walker with some ammo and threw it up to her. At the same time, Mom was starting to cast her own branch of spells and White Oak…well I don’t know what she was doing. It looked like she was trying to use something to call for back up. Magic and bullets started to fire down at Aquila who dodged them and started casting again. I took the chance to move The Plasma Rifle to my back and attack with Misery. Aquila tried to throw up a barrier, but it was no use against the magical blade. It cut through the spell like it wasn’t even there. Aquila managed to jump back, but not before Misery sliced a line down her cheek.

Blood flew, followed a moment later by more as a bullet from Dream Walker hit her in the flank, making her fall to the ground with a scream and right onto a magical trap Mom had cast. The ground around us exploded, sending Aquila and me both flying back. I was lucky, I was just outside of the main part of the blast. Aquila however, wasn’t so lucky. She was as naked as a newborn foal. By the time she landed again, blood was flowing from multiple points on her body.

She was gasping for air as she tried to get to her hooves. I started walking toward her, limping slightly as I lifted Misery high. “Time to say goodnight Aquila.”

“I don’t think so,” she said as Misery fell toward her face. It was stopped a second later as she took hold of the blade with her own magic, holding it at the same point I was. Our telekinetic hold on the weapon fought for dominance as the blade moved closer to her face little by little. Then again, Aquila smiled wide. “Do you really think you can kill me so easily Shadow?”

Mom was running toward me, casting more spells around us, and Aura was diving with Dream Walker in her muzzle. I had my eyes on Aquila and they went wide as I realized what was wrong. The cut I’d made only a moment ago was already gone. Like it had never existed in the first place. In the moment of shock, I lost my hold on Misery as it was ripped away from me and I was blasted back a second later by another of Aquila’s spells.

She started laughing as she cast another barrier around herself, the spells and bullets coming at her missing or bouncing away. She smiled. “Yes, you see now Shadow? You can hurt me all you want, but my wounds will heal a lot faster than a normal pony. I…can’t…DIE!”

Aquila ignored her and brought Misery down and let it slide into my gut. My heart nearly stopped as pain once again took dominance over all other senses. I tried to scream, but her hoof came around and hit me hard in the jaw almost knocking me out. She then looked over at my friends, and yelled, “Come any closer and the next time I’ll drive the blade into her eye!”

Both Aura and Mom stopped where they were, Aura saying, “Aquila, please, just let her go. You got what you wanted, you don’t need to hurt her anymore.”

“Oh Aura, Aura, Aura, you don’t understand, do you? It’s not about needing to hurt or kill Shadow. I’m doing this because I want to. I want the body I was trapped in for ten years to be nothing more than a rotting corpse. I want my revenge on all of the ponies or their descendants for what I went through for my entire existence on Equus. But don’t worry, you and Grim will be next, followed by everypony else who’s related to The Children of the Night. After that, then the rest of ponykind will PAY!” she said.

As she spoke, she twisted Misery a little, making me almost pass out from the pain. Mom took a step closer, but Aquila shot a spell at her, making her take a step back instead. With a frown of anger on her face, Mom started whispering something to Aura who’d just landed next to her. Aura nodded and kept on listening. While they talked, Aquila looked back at me. “So, should I kill you quickly or slowly? I’m thinking slowly, make you feel the torment I had to live through for years. What do you say?”

“Bite me,” I said weakly as I tried to think of something I could do to stop her.

“Slowly it is then,” she said, ripping Misery out of me then using her telekinesis, she flipped me around and slammed me down on the ground. I was about to scream at her again then searing pain came from my right foreleg followed by the loss of feeling in that same leg. Looking over I saw that my right foreleg was missing from just above the mid-joint. It was now lying a few feet away twitching as blood flowed from where it had once been attached to my body. I started to scream but my air was cut off as she started to choke me with her magic. Tears fell from my eyes as I struggled to get the small bit of air I could into my lungs.

“Don’t worry Shadow, I won’t let that kill you too quickly. Here, let me cauterize that for you. We don’t want you bleeding out too fast now do we?” she said, followed by even more pain as she burned my flesh with another spell, stopping most of the bleeding from my lost foreleg.

A shot rang out from Dream Walker, but the shot missed when Aquila cast another spell to protect herself from the weapon. With tears in my eyes I looked up at her, saying weakly, “You’re…pathetic.”

Her hoof came down and slammed into my jaw, knocking a tooth free. She lifted Misery again and brought it down in an arch, slicing off my left ear. I whimpered in pain as she said, “I’m going to cut you into tiny little pieces. I’m going to make sure you suffer for as long as your mind can take it. Then I’m going to break your mind right before I cut your head off. Then I’m going to do the same to your mother and your lover, then your friends.”

I could just make out a bright light from behind me but couldn’t see what was going on between the pain and the tears. Misery came down again and sliced a bit of flesh off my back, then again to stab me in the flank, followed by Aquila turning me onto my back again. She then brought Misery down and slowly cut a line down the scar left over from the surgery I had when I was in the Steel Ranger bunker after the first fight where I’d let Aquila control me. The pain was almost too much for me to take. Black was already starting to work its way into my vision as the sounds of Aura’s screaming cries echoed in the distance.

Again, I heard Aquila’s voice, this time close to my good ear. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to let you die yet. Here, let me heal you just enough to keep you alive and awake.”

Then I felt the flesh knit together slowly, not fully healing me of my wounds, but enough to keep me from bleeding out. With a weak moan of pain, I said, “Just…end it…”

“You want this to be over?” she asked, “Ask nicely and I just might put you out of your misery. Haha, misery, isn’t that the name of this wonderful sword you found?”

“Please…I’m begging you Aquila…just get it over with. Let this be over between us…you win okay…just fucking…end it,” I begged, hating myself for every word, but I was finished and I knew it. Game over, time to finish playing.

“Well since you asked so nicely, fine with me, goodbye…” she started to say, then her body went ridged as a magical circle appeared on her chest.

She was forced off me slightly and the glow of the circle grew. Looking down I saw there was another one on my chest, one that matched the one on Aquila’s. It was then that I heard my Mom’s voice chanting. With the slight bit of strength I had left, I managed to turn my head to see her.

She was standing a few meters back from Aura who looked scared at the sight of my mangled body. Mom’s body was glowing with a brilliant blue light as her chanting grew deeper and a wind started to pick up around us. White Oak moved further away from Mom at the same time as Aura. Another magic circle with more detail than any I’d seen before from my mother appeared under her, followed by six more around her body. They all pulsed once, and more magic circles started to appear around myself and Aquila.

“What are you doing Grim!? You can’t kill me, even with your vast power!” Aquila yelled, “And why can’t I move!?”

I felt something deep inside of me pulse and a speck of light shot out of my muzzle and into Aquila’s. At the same time the same happened with her to me. As the light entered me, I felt as if I could just make out the slightest bit of Aquila’s own pain. It was like her body was struggling to handle the amount of energy it was being forced to contain. I couldn’t think on it much because right then Mom’s chanting grew louder. The clouds above started to flash with lightning, the rocks around us started to float into the air and the sound of electricity flowing seemed to fill the air around us with the smell of ozone.

The wind picked up the dust on the ground and it started to turn into a small tornado around the three of us, Mom, Aquila, and me. I couldn’t see Aura or White Oak anymore, only the power coming off my mother. A purple energy seemed to come from the ground itself and spark and crack around us. Mom’s eyes were glowing with purple and blue light as she continued to cast whatever spell she was working on. As the spell hit, its peak, Mom stood tall and proud, her gaze falling on mine. In that moment I saw her for the pony she’s always been and always would be. A pony who wouldn’t let anypony tell her she couldn’t do something. She’d prove them wrong every time.

Then she stopped her chanting, and everything exploded in purple, blue, and white light. When it passed Mom gave me a soft smile then fell to the ground with a loud thump. Her eyes half open as she struggled to breathe. Whatever she tried to do, it looked like it had almost killed her. Ignoring every pain in my body, I started to drag myself closer to her with my remaining foreleg. I only got a meter when Aquila struck.

She flipped me over again and started to squeeze her magic around my throat once more. This time I couldn’t breathe at all and my eyes bulged as I tried to gasp for air. She looked like hell, her mane was messed up, she had more cuts along her body, and pure madness gleamed in her red eyes. “I don’t care about hurting you anymore, I’m just going to kill you here and now,” she looked over at Mom, “You’re pathetic spell didn’t work Grim….gah!”

I was confused for a moment at what happened, until I saw Aquila gasping for air. She let her hold on my throat go as she took a step back. As soon as the spell was stopped, I gasped for air and so did she. She looked confused, then she hit me as hard as she could with a hoof. I let out a weak scream, but nothing like Aquila who flew back with a bruise on her white face. She looked even more confused and that only grew when Mom’s laughter came from just a few feet away.

“I bonded your life to Shadow’s,” Mom said with a cough, “If you kill Shadow, and only you, then you’ll die along with her. Even if you send somepony after her, you’ll still die as well, because this spell will know that you were the one to try and end her life. I’ve made it impossible for you to kill my daughter. So, do what you want to me, but you’ll never be able to do the one thing you’ve wanted to for years, kill you’re host.”

“You bitch!” Aquila yelled, lifting up Misery, “I’ll make you pay for this. You might think you’ve stopped me from killing Shadow, but every spell can be broken.”

“True, it can be broken, but it’ll take you years to figure it out, and in that time, Shadow will be able to grow and find her own way to destroy you for good,” she said, her voice sounding even weaker.

Aura flew over again, and yelled, “You won’t kill anypony with the sword of my ancestors. I am Aura Bloodtalon and Misery belongs to ME!”

With those words, Misery flashed and shot out of Aquila’s magic and flew to land in the hard ground right in front of Aura. All of us were shocked at that, but Mom seemed to understand. She laughed again. “Misery was bonded to Aura’s family a long time ago; you can’t use it to hurt her or anyone she doesn’t want you to hurt. That sword is alive in its own way and it will always do as its true master wants. Now if I were you Aquila, I’d get out of here, before something happens to Shadow, and she dies from the injuries you caused her.”

Aquila glared at us all, her horn glowing as she thought about what she’d do to us if she only could. Then she cursed, and said, “I have other plans I need to take care of anyway, but don’t worry Grim, I’ll find you again and the rest of them and I will kill you all. Even if it takes me years, mark my words, this isn’t the last you’ve heard of me.”

“I look forward to it, Aquila,” Mom said, and with that, Aquila took one more look at me and growled.

“I’ll see you sooner than you think Shadow, this isn’t over yet,” she said, then in a flash of pink light, she was gone.

As soon as she was gone, I let my head fall back the hard ground, breathing in heavily as the pain of everything Aquila did to me hit me all at once. Aura was there a second later. “Shadow just hold on; I think you’re going into shock.” I felt her lift my stump of a leg sending more pain flowing through my body. She reached for something in the satchel she always carried and pulled out a strip of leather. A moment after that, she started wrapping the strip of leather around my stump, pulling it as tight as she could with her teeth and hooves. “Dammit, if I only had my talons, this would be so much easier.”

The pain grew and I almost passed out again, but I held on. “Aura…I don’t feel so good.”

Aura looked over at White Oak and Mom, yelling, “We need help, where’s your backup White Oak!?”

“Grim, you have to do something to heal her the best you can, her wounds are worse than they look. She’s bleeding internally and her stump is leaking again,” Aura yelled toward them as tears started to flow down her face. I needed to calm her down, so I did my best to dig through the pain.

“Shadow, don’t talk, you need to save your strength,” she said, running a hoof down my face slowly. “You hear me, don’t go making things worse than they already are.”

“Aura, it’s okay, I’m sure…I’ll be okay. I’m lucky like that right?” I said, doing my best to make a joke out of it, “Did you see me Aura, I did it, I cast my expulsion spell and no rainbows, the killing joke stopped working. Isn’t that great? I’m not a cliché anymore.”

“It’s wonderful, now please stop talking, help will be here soon,” she said, the worry on her face plain as day.

“It’s…already here,” Mom said, slumping down next to me. She reached into the small bag she had around her neck, something I hadn’t noticed before, and pulled out a small bottle of a bright purplish-pink liquid. “This is a healing potion I made myself. It’ll help keep her stable for a while, long enough for the surgeons in The Ministry to help her.”

Looking up at Mom, all my worries about what was wrong with my body faded away. Just a moment ago, she’d looked as she did before she cast that last spell. Older, but not that old, more wrinkles and grey to her mane, but now she looked like a grandmother. As I watched, I saw that more lines were showing up on her face and her mane was starting to thin. Almost like she was aging rapidly in front of my very eyes.

“Mom…what’s happening to you?” I asked, but she just pushed the bottle into my muzzle and forced me to drink down the potion. I gagged then swallowed the liquid. Moments later I felt as if most of the pain was gone and my body felt a little stronger. The spot where my leg had been cut off and my missing ear still hurt like hell, but I could tell that the blood was slowing down.

“There you go, and don’t worry about me Shadow. I knew what I was doing when I cast that spell, don’t worry about me,” she said, then she fell back with a nasty cough.

White Oak ran over and helped my mom sit up as I tried to drag myself to her, but Aura was holding me too tight and I was too weak to do much more than move my left foreleg around. Weakly I said, “Mom…what’s happening? Tell me please.”

“Shadow it’s okay,” she said, smiling up at me weakly. Then she turned to White Oak. “Help me get closer to my daughter please, old friend.”

I saw tears in White Oak’s eyes doing what she was asked and dragged my mom close so that she was lying next to me. Aura set me down so my head was right next to Mom’s and they both took a step back, letting us have a moment. Mom smiled even with her face aging in front of me. I reached my remaining foreleg closer and set it on her face. “Mom, what did you do?”

She smiled wider and slowly put her hoof on my own, she took in a deep breath, then said, “I’m making up for my past mistakes Shadow,” then she looked up toward the sky and I saw tears flow as she continued, “I thought I’d never see the stars again.”

Confused I slowly turned my head up and saw something beautiful. I don’t know how, even to this day, which of our spells did it, but somehow the cloud cover that blocked the sky from the ponies in The Wasteland had been pushed back. Now I could see the night sky and one of the most beautiful things I’d ever witnessed in my short life. I saw the moon, it was full and shining its pale light down on us both. Around it, millions of stars twinkled in the distance. This wasn’t the first time I’d busted a hole in the clouds, but it was the first time I’d had a moment to see what beauty the night held.

Mom spoke again, her voice weaker, but she did her best to keep her words easy to understand. “When you were born, I named you after those beautiful dots in the sky. Everypony thought it was because it was the family name, my brother was called Star before he was Oricalcos, my mother held the name and her father before her and his father, then his mother, and so on. To me, I didn’t care at all about my family or their traditions. No, I named you Star because I’ve always been fascinated by them. I always wanted to know more about them and what made them so mesmerizing. So, you may carry the same name as our family, but not because you are like them, but because I knew that one day, you’d shine as bright as the heavens themselves.”

Tears were flowing faster now as I pulled Mom’s head closer to mine, hugging her to me as I said, “There has to be a way I can help you…”

She cut me off, “Shhhh, sweetheart that’s enough. Now listen to me because I don’t have long, I can tell. I won’t spend my last few moments in this life arguing with you. We did enough of that and more while I still didn’t know you were my Star.”

“Good girl,” she said as she reached her head up and kissed my horn like she used to when I was still young, “You are more than just my daughter, you are more than just a random mare who was unlucky as a foal. You are the pony who was meant to go through all this pain and loss so you could change this world and make it better. I have faith in you my sweet brave filly. I know who you are meant to become, and I know you’ll fix everything, even my own mistakes.”

In response, she slowly lifted her Pip-Buck and connected it to mine, sending me files as she said, “You are stronger than you know sweetie, so stop telling yourself otherwise. I need you to learn to control that power inside of you, because you’re going to need it soon, and I want to make sure you have a head start so listen close,” she took in a deep breathe, her face looking like she was in a great deal of pain before she continued, “Aquila isn’t as powerful as you think. When Stargazer was used, it was also stopped before all of Aquila’s power could be pulled down from wherever she came from. She’ll need to first unlock the project and to do that, she’ll need all three Mark II’s. They were once used on three of the four points in Equestria where the project was located. I just gave you a map and information on how to find those locations. Ones in Baltimare, the next is in The Badlands, the third is in The Crystal Empire, and the last in in New Pegasus.”

She shrugged the best she could. “I’ve known for many years now, forgot some of it due to my own stupidity with my magic, but yes I knew. I needed the Mark II’s though,” she said, chuckling, “I’ll tell you a secret, I never really wanted to turn on Falling Shadows, I wanted to destroy it.”

“You did? What about all that bluster when you were still nuts about becoming all powerful and shit?” I asked.

“It was a lie. I was in pain and still upset that I lost you. I was always a good liar. It comes from growing up in the kind of home I did. Anyway, I have everything you need on the files I sent you, and the rest of the things I’m missing are already on your Mark II. I remember putting them there before you…well before I thought you died. With both of the files together, you will be able to put the puzzle together. But remember this, before you can do anything, you need to first find out what Night Stalker did to the tower in The Crystal Empire and fix it,” she said.

“Wait, you want me to go home, and do what? Find the entrance to the project and fix the project? Wouldn’t that mean that Aquila would be one step closer to getting what she wants?” I asked.

“It does, but at the same time, you can’t do what you need to until you fix that tower. They all work as one and none of them can be taken down unless they’re all working. Only then can the project either be activated or destroyed. It was a little trick our Grandmother Minuette put into the program. Her…insurance policy of sorts. Trust me, if you work fast and keep Aquila from figuring out what you’re doing, you can do it,” she said.

“What about the promise I made to White Oak?” I asked, looking over toward The Director who was a good distance away, still letting us have our moment.

Mom’s smile returned and she said quietly, “White Oak and Stormy are my friends yes, but…fuck ‘em. I know what that project can do and the danger it might bring. If your uncle lives, he can tell you more. Trust me, it has to be destroyed.”

“But how will I even find the location in The Crystal Empire? It’s not a small place,” I asked.

“Go to The Forgotten Library, I’m sure you know where that is if you saw my memories. Once you’re there, find the section in the library that you know Minuette wouldn’t have ever had in her collection. Behind that bookcase, you’ll find the door to the project,” she said, followed by a cough.

I waited for her to start breathing again before I asked, “If you know where its location is, then why haven’t you fixed it yourself?”

“I can’t get in, there’s only three ponies and a few griffons who can enter that room,” she said with a twinkle in her eye, “Night Stalker’s descendants and Greta’s. I could’ve had your father, or your Uncle Striker get into the room, but I never trusted them enough to show them the location. So now I leave it up to you, my last chance to fix what wrongs our families have brought over the centuries.”

Her Pip-Buck beeped, and she disconnected it. As she did, I asked, “I don’t know if I can do this without you.”

“You can, just have faith. You’ve done so much without me for so long. Now, enough about all of this crap,” she said before looking up at Aura yelling, “Aura please come here.”

She came and sat next to me, looking down at my mother. “What can I do to help?”

In response Mom reached up and took Aura’s hoof, moving it to rest on mine. “I know how much you care about my daughter, so before I go, I want to ask you one simple thing. Can you make sure you watch over her, keep her safe, be there for her when I no longer can? Make sure her life is long and full of happiness. Make sure you love her and care for her until your last day in this life. Be her rock, be her companion, be her one and only love. Can you do that for me?”

“Good,” Mom said, laying on her back and looking up at the stars, “I’m glad you two have each other. I just wish Nightshade was here so I could tell him how sorry I am, tell him how much I miss and love him.”

“Aura, turn on the recorder on my Pip-Buck…please,” I said, sniffing slowly.

She did, then when Mom saw what we were doing, she asked, “What are you doing?”

“Tell him…”I said holding back more tears, “Tell him how much you love him, he needs to hear it from you. I’ll make sure he gets the message.”

“Grim, there has to be some way we can help you,” Aura said before turning the recording on.

“I wish you could too…but you can’t,” she said slowly, “Now, let me leave my message for my husband…please.”

More tears started to flow from Mom’s eyes as she said, “Nightshade, it’s me…I know the past few years have been hard on you…I know I’ve been anything but a good wife or a good friend. I just want you to know, that even with my lost memory, or the pain I put you and our daughter through, that I never stopped loving you, even when I tried to tell myself I didn’t. When I came back to The Enclave, I had to harden my heart so you wouldn’t see how much it hurt me to treat you the way I did. But now, I’m dying, and I can’t do anything to stop it. So, I want you to do me one last favor, even though I know I don’t deserve to ask anything of you. Please, don’t keep dwelling on the past, move on once I’m gone and be happy. You’ve done so much to try and help The Enclave, to help your family, and to help others you didn’t even know. You are a wonderful and brave stallion, a stallion I’m proud of, and you need to start seeing that. It’s time for us to move on and let the next generation finish what we started nearly eighteen years ago. I love you Nightshade, and I’ll wait for you on the other side…”

Aura stopped the recording and I couldn’t hold back my tears as I saw the light in my Mom’s eyes starting to go dim. I reached over to her again and rested my head on her chest, unable to hold back the sobs anymore. Her breaths were coming in slower now and I could hear her heart slow as the toll of that spell she cast finally started to finish its devilish work. I sobbed harder, saying, “Mom please don’t go, please. I still need you here. I’ve spent most of my life wanting to find you again.”

She didn’t argue with me, or try to make me be quiet, she just rested a hoof on my head and kept looking up at the stars as she slowly ran her hoof through my filthy mane. For a long moment I just let my pain and sorrow out until I couldn’t get another tear out. Finally, I looked away from Mom’s chest and up at the stars with her, my breath still heavying, but I just took this last moment I knew I had with her and watched the night sky. In the distance I heard ponies coming, but White Oak held them back. She knew as well as the rest of us, that we couldn’t save my mom. She made her choice and cast the spell that would end her life, and she was going to die as she lived… on her own terms… No pony could change who she was or make her do anything, because my mother, Grimoire Spell, was a strong and powerful pony.

Finally, Mom spoke, and I knew deep down that this would be her final words, her own eulogy. So, I listened closely as she said something I would never forget, “As we come to the end of this stage of our life, we find ourselves trying to remember the good times, and trying to forget the bad times. We find ourselves thinking about the future, and start to worry thinking, ‘What am I going to do? Where am I going to be in ten years?’ but I say to you My Little Star. Hey, look at me, please, don’t worry so much. Because in the end, none of us have very much time on Equus. Life…is…fleeting, and if you’re ever distressed, cast your eyes to the summer sky, and the stars that are strung across the velvety night, and when a shooting star streaks across the blackness turning night, that day, make a wish. Think of me, make your life…spectacular, I…know…I………did….”

After that last word, Mom’s hoof fell from my head and landed in the dirt with a soft ‘thump’. I looked up at her and saw her eyes looking sightlessly up at the stars. Her face was so wrinkled, and her mane was nearly gone. She looked like a mare who reached the age of one-hundred-and-fifty. It wasn’t the face of my mother anymore, but that of a long dead pony. Aura reached out and pulled me to her as I started to sob harder again. I held onto her tight, my eyes stuck on my mother’s dead body. So ends the story of Grimoire Spell, a mare who risked everything to do one simple thing, to save her daughter and The Wasteland, a mare who gave up her memory, her life, her husband, and her happiness to try and reach that goal. With her last act, she managed to do at least one of them. She left the rest up to my friends and I.

“We will, but first we need to get you looked at,” Aura said as White Oak finally let her medics rush over to me.

Before they even reached me however, something strange happened to Mom’s body. Her coat and skin turned pale, then started to crack. Her eyes dried up, her body started to slowly turning into what looked like stone. Then with a loud crack that made me jump, her body started glowing with a bright golden light. As we all watched, Mom’s body started to slowly flake away, golden dust pulling away from where it lied and started floating toward the open sky above. Little by little, Mom’s body turned into that golden dust until the last of it was gone, leaving only a small beautiful light glowing and hovering in the air. My eyes went wide as the mote of light moved forward, then hovered a few centimeters away from my face.

“M…mom?” I asked, but the light just pulled back a little then moved up and touched my horn. There was the slightest spark as we touched, then the light zipped away and followed the dust until it was all nothing more than a memory, leaving this world behind, for the next.

Aura held me closer as she said, “A soul finding its way to a better place. She did enough in this world and it’s time she joined those who’ve earned a place in the next life.”

Before more could be said, I moaned in pain and sorrow as every injury in my body started to throb at once. My heart started slamming into my chest and my head felt as if somepony was hammering my brain. I slumped forward and the medics rushed closer, the mare who seemed to be in charge told Aura, “Set her down on the ground so I can get an assessment of her injuries.”

Slowly she set me down next to the spot where Mom’s body was only a moment ago. One of the medics started looking over what was left of my stump, another was looking over the stab and cuts on my belly and chest. The mare who spoke to Aura started casting a spell over me, a green light bathed over my body and she closed her eyes. The last medic moved over to pick up my foreleg which was sitting a few meters away.

White Oak came over and started speaking to the mare in charge, saying, “Dr. Cyto, is she going to be okay?”

The mare looked back at her, finishing her spell. “Really Director? Are you serious? She’s missing a limb and an ear, she’s lost a good amount of blood, has at least four broken bones, shows signs of internal bleeding, her heart looks ready to fail, and to top it all off her brain is swelling. I don’t even know if she can survive the teleportation back to The Ministry. Even if she does, I can’t save the leg. I may not even be able to save the heart. I’m baffled at how she’s still alive.”

Aura didn’t like that one bit. She pushed White Oak out of the way and got right in the other mare’s face. “You listen to me; you will do everything you can to fix her. I don’t care what you must do, you’re going to keep her alive. You’ll fix her leg, her ear, and her heart. I’m not gonna watch the mare I love die because of the injuries that bitch Aquila caused!”

“Yes, Ms. Aura, you don’t understand the amount of damage her body has undergone. She has less than a ten percent chance of surviving the amount of surgery it would take to fix her body, and that’s if she’s lucky,” Dr. Cyto explained.

White Oak cleared her throat. “I was in a similar state when I came to the Ministry Doctor, and your father saved my life. You can do the same, work with Stormy, she’s been working on some new prototypes that might be able to get her up and healthy again.”

The face Dr. Cyto gave White Oak was priceless. It was like she just ate a lemon mixed with something nasty. “You want me to work with…Stormy? You know I don’t like her. She’s so full of herself and she’s always looking at my ass!”

“You will do as I say Cyto, or I’ll find another doctor to overtake your department,” White Oak said, “She’s Grim’s daughter and we owe it to her memory to try our best to save Shadow.”

Cyto’s face fell and she nodded slowly. “Fine, but I’m not making any promises. If she dies, it won’t be because of me. I’ll do everything I can, even work with Stormy if I have to.”

“Fine, but I’ll need to get her back to The Ministry right now. I don’t know how long she’s going to survive just lying out here like this,” she said with a huff, pulling out a small device, “The risk of infection is tremendously high right now.”

“We’ll meet you back at The Ministry then, just get her right into the O.R.,” White Oak said as she turned toward more ponies who were showing up in little flashes of bluish-white light. She looked at one who was wearing a black leather overcoat and sunglasses, “X-598, I need a report right away.”

The strange looking stallion spoke to White Oak in a monotone voice, “We’ve picked up on communications from The Steel Rangers. They are sending a team out this way to check out what all the disturbance was. I sent a team out to cause some havoc on the other side of the city to try and stall them ma’am, but I’m afraid that Elder Wolfsbane himself is coming this way no matter what. We have five, maybe ten minutes.”

“Damn that fool, he’s always sticking his muzzle where it doesn’t belong,” she said, then looked at Dr. Cyto, “Take Aura with you, I’ll send a message to Stormy and let her know what’s going on. Now get going,”

“Yes ma’am,” Cyto said, clicking a button on the device she was holding in her magic. “I can only take five with me, so we should be able to get the whole team back in one go. Everypony prepare for transportation, in three, two, one…”

Over the next few hours, maybe days, I can’t be sure, my life became nothing but pain. We arrived right in the medical wing of The Ministry and were met there not long after by Dr. Stormy who looked haggard, tired, and sad all at once. After a quick update about what happened once she left, and the news of Mom’s death, she took a few moments to compose herself. It was then that I could see the outstanding control over her emotions. I didn’t know Stormy like Mom did, but I’d had a couple of glimpses of her in Mom’s memories. She’d always seemed like a scatter-brained goof, with a lustful and fun nature, but I had a feeling when I’d seen her in the memories that it was more of an act. Dr. Stormy was rude most of the time, playful some of the time, and always willing to speak her mind, but behind all of it she was an extremely intelligent pony who was in love with another mare she knew she could never have. So, she did her best to hide how she felt, Mom knew of course, but Stormy never pushed. It was what made their friendship work so well. Stormy had gotten so good over the years at hiding how she felt about Mom and other ponies. I’m sure that now, faced with the loss of the mare she cared for so deeply, she was able to keep her emotions from overtaking her.

She took in a few deep breaths, closed her eyes, and stayed like that for a full minute. When she opened them again, she said quietly, “I’ll have to deal with that later, right now professional me is needed. Dr. Cyto, prep the O.R. and get started on what you need to keep Shadow alive. I’ll get what I need so we can replace what’s damaged,” she then turned and said more to herself than anyone else, “I will not lose my best friend’s daughter on the same day I lost her. Goddesses help me, I refuse to let this day get worse.”

Once she was gone, everything changed. I was rushed into an operating room within moments of Stormy leaving. More doctors joined us along with nurses, and even synths. Aura followed them in, getting washed up and ready to do…something. I wasn’t sure what at the time what. I was put under, and they started fixing the damage to my body. The first surgery went on for twelve hours from what I was told later. I awoke with Aura and Stardust sitting next to my bed. They both informed me on what was going on and what to expect next. I didn’t stay awake long, due to the trauma my body had gone though. I was in and out for at least another day, until the next surgery started. This one I had to be awake for, they numbed my body, but because they were fitting me for a new leg, they needed me awake to make sure everything worked right for when the final limb was completed.

The ear wasn’t that painful, but I was told during the process by Dr. Stormy that it was because the ears didn’t have a lot of nerve endings in them. When she got to my foreleg however, even with my stump numbed, I still felt every shock and connection she sent up the limb to check the signal the nerves were giving off. That was after they cut away another couple centimeters of my leg to get the flesh ‘tidy’ as Stormy called it. I was then fit with a temporary attachment that would keep me from bleeding out while they ‘grew’ or ‘built’ the new foreleg. After that she had to do more and more tests on my heart. Thank the goddesses that she didn’t have to crack my chest open for that. But the equipment and spells she was using along with Dr. Cyto and her medical team, was still painful and almost every test made my chest feel as if some pony had just stabbed my heart or made the thing stop entirely.

This went on for a few more hours. After the last test however, my heart did stop…while I was still awake! That was an experience that I never wanted to re-live, EVER, because it was extremely painful right before my brain started being starved for oxygen. As I started to pass out, I knew that there was a good chance I wouldn’t ever wake up again. So, it was quite a shock to me when I did, three days later, hooked up to machines that were pumping my blood for me. I also had a hose going down my throat to help me breath. I was told once I was fully awake by Aura that my lungs had been damaged slightly and mixing that with the old injury I took to it a while back, they needed to be repaired properly. For The Ministry, repaired meant replacing.

I spent the next day like this, unable to talk, only able to listen as each one of my friends came to visit me while I was being kept alive by machines. That day was the lowest moment in my life. I felt more helpless than… than I ever have in my entire life. I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t hug my friends, or even cry. My body barely moved due to the mix of pain and damage it had undergone from the years of dealing with that dark curse, Aquila living inside of me, battles, mistakes, and my own fight against Aquila. Then to top it all off, I had a small injury to my brain. The magical surge of power being freed inside of me had nearly made my brain swell to the point of death. They had to release pressure in my skull while I was in surgery and they had to do it four more times over the past few days.

The magic my body was trying to absorb was the entire cause of this though, and it was slowing down now. Stormy hoped that by the time I went under again, they would be able to stop draining the pressure in my skull and repair the spots they drilled into. The part I hated was they had to cut my mane until it was almost non-existent. Though Stormy said not to worry because she had a special spell that would make it so it looked like normal when I was better. I hoped so, because right now I looked really fucking strange with no mane. The bald look wasn’t for me.

As the day went on while I waited for the next surgery, I heard different news updates from my friends. Starting with Stardust, who said, “So, they say it should only be a few more days, maybe less before you’ll be able to start getting around again. Also, they’re gonna be holding a memorial for your mother when you’re out of here.”

He went on for a bit longer about the plans they were still putting together. I still didn’t know why, since it looked like The Ministry was helping us; but maybe they knew something I didn’t. In any case, I didn’t listen to him much after he talked about Mom. Aura visited a little while later with Solstice.

“You look like crap.” Solstice said with a small smile. I glared at her, but she just laughed, “You can’t complain yet Shadow, ya got a tube stuck down your throat.”

Her face fell. “Sorry, I know, it’s just that laughter always helps me feel better about a bad situation.”

Aura sighed. “Yeah, normally I’m like that too, same for Stardust, but still, she’s going through enough. Let’s not make things worse for her by making her feel bad okay?”

Solstice nodded. “Yeah, okay,” then she looked back at me. “So, I wanted to fill you in on some news I got from my mom yesterday. She was finally able to get back to me after I heard the news from you about the attack on Stratus, but I can wait to tell you if you want.”

Since I couldn’t speak, I was forced to look into her eyes and nod my head a little. Aura frowned, then asked, “Does that mean you want to hear what happened?”

I nodded again, so Solstice took a deep breath and let it out slowly before saying, “There’s been problems all over The Enclave. One of the military leaders from Neighvarro is doing something back east, they think he’s trying to work with The Goddess on something or Red Eye, but my mother couldn’t get the full details. A couple of mares from back east have been making a lot of trouble for them. This Stable Dweller, whoever she is, has been one of the biggest problems they’re having. Still, with that said, Neighvarro sent one of their few Thunderheads, that’s a large military warship, and sent it to Stratus. The mare leading the group is Captain Strife. I guess since her team was still mostly alive and closer to the west, she was told to meet up with the Thunderhead and lead the attack. She met her brother Winter Frost when they got close and they went after the new High Council.”

“He was, but he brought on two others from his military connections a couple weeks back, I guess. They’ve been seeing to the day to day stuff in Nimbus and Stratus for him while he disappears from time to time. That’s what my mom said at least, though she has no idea he’s The Stranger so that’s not surprising. Anyway, Stratus was put under siege for three days. In the end, Nightshade knew that he couldn’t protect the city against a Thunderhead. Most of his forces had gone to protect Nimbus and The Crystal Empire from an attack they thought was coming. It was a trick to get Stratus to let its guard down, so Nightshade was going to set up a trap of his own to take hold of the Thunderhead with a small force,” she said.

“Is he crazy?” Aura asked, I was thinking the same thing, but I couldn’t say it.

“Not really, Nightshade is one of the best stealth fighters in The Enclave. He probably would’ve been able to take out Strife and Winter Frost easily, but…” Solstice said, but stopped, looking pained.

“But, the other two High Council Ponies betrayed him. They knew about the attack and also,” she stopped again for a moment, then continued, “This is just speculation on my mom’s part. She hasn’t gotten full evidence, so I can’t be sure but, she also believes they found out something about what happened to the last High Council ponies. Mom was able to intersect a letter coming from the Thunderhead, to the other two High Council ponies saying that Nightshade’s daughter was The Courier, the same pony who killed two of the High Council ponies and her protector, The Wrapped Reaper.”

Aura and I both gave her a confused look, and Aura asked, “The Wrapped Reaper? Who the fuck is that?”

Solstice looked embarrassed as she clarified, saying, “Oh I keep forgetting that neither of you know things from The Enclave. That’s what the higher-ups named The Stranger a few years ago. He’s one of the most wanted ponies in The Enclave. The bounty on his head in caps would be around four-hundred-thousand caps.”

“Holy shit!” Aura said. I tried saying the same but almost gagged on the tube.

After a few moments of hacking and gagging I finally stopped, and after another moment of Aura making sure I was okay, Solstice continued, “Anyway, the other two High Council ponies set Nightshade up and he was captured while he was inside the Thunderhead. He’s being held captive in Stratus now with Winter Frost being put in Nightshades old place. He’s running Stratus now with his sister and the other two traitors to Stratus. The ponies who resisted have fled to Nimbus and The Crystal Empire which are both resisting any more push from Neighvarro. The only reason they can do that is because things back east are getting worse.”

“They are, at the moment. They’re acting like they’re okay with the changes, but there’s another problem,” she said, looking sad, “Winter Frost has decided to bring back The Sins and has tasked them with finding Shadow and the rest of us. Also, they’re sending teams of Enclave special forces down to New Pegasus and the surrounding areas to hunt down Dashites. Soon it will be dangerous for any pegasus who’s been branded to go anywhere without being attacked by Enclave.”

“For now, yes, but if they keep pushing they might be able to overwhelm even Mr. Tops’ defenses. It was Nightshade who started the treaty with New Pegasus a few years back in the first place. With him in prison, Winter Frost might just withdraw the treaty unless Mr. Tops gives up the Dashites who call New Pegasus home,” she said sadly.

I tried to move my only foreleg to try to get something of what I was thinking across to Solstice, but once again, Aura was reading my mind. “Then there’s only one thing we can do. We have to somehow help Nightshade and Stratus. If we don’t, many Dashites, including you and Stardust won’t be safe.”

Solstice looked even sadder as she said, “Even though the two of us aren’t technically Dashites because we aren’t marked, we’re still looked at like we are. Though we have a little time before it becomes a big problem. My mother said that as of right now, Nightshade’s trial still hasn’t started. We have a week or so before that. Although, if he’s found guilty, he’ll be executed.”

Those words were like a stab to my heart. I’d just lost my mother and I wasn’t going to lose my father so soon afterward. I couldn’t stop myself anymore, the tears fell like rivers. It was like everything in my life was falling apart all at once. Mom’s gone, I’ll most likely never see Dad again, my body was mostly destroyed, and there’s no guarantee that I’ll fully recover. Aura was still stuck as a pony, cute or not, she wasn’t herself like this. We were trapped hundreds of miles away from our home, New Pegasus was most likely going to be attacked either by The Enclave, Steel Rangers, or The Romans. The Sins were still out there and for all I knew they were getting more powerful. Uncle Ori was on death’s door himself and I still hadn’t gotten any more news about how his condition was progressing. I still needed to do something about Wolfsbane and so much more. Why does it have to be me? Why can’t some other pony take care of all this bullshit? I’m not a real hero, I’m just a pony who got lucky more than once. New Pegasus doesn’t need me, they need a real hero, like Blackjack, or that Stable Dweller I’ve been hearing about. They at least know what they’re doing. Okay, from what I heard about Blackjack, she sounded more like a lucky drunk, but even Glory said that she was a scary pony when she wanted to be. What am I? I’m just a filly who doesn’t know when to say no. I’m just a fool who keeps putting her nose into everypony else’s business.

I just wanted to find my mom, I just wanted to stay safe in my stable and grow old, hitting on my best friend, and knowing I’d never have her. Maybe I would’ve found a nice stallion some day in there and had my own foals. Why couldn’t I have just had that life? Why couldn’t I have just walked away from the Mark II when I found it? Yeah, I know, Wildfire was a crazy bitch who deserved what she got, but if I never found the Mark II, I wouldn’t have known any different. I knew she was a bitch, and a bad Overmare, but I could’ve lived with that. Just Balefire, Milkshake, Auntie Vervain, and myself. Yeah, if I hadn’t left, then Wingnut would be dead, Aura would still be alone, Mom would’ve still been crazy, and Stardust would’ve most likely been caught by The Enclave. A lot of bad things would’ve happened, but I wouldn’t have known any different. I would’ve been happy, and Mom would still be alive.

That single thought at the end is what made my sobs grow worse and I started choking on the tube again. As Aura and Solstice started to panic again and one ran to get a nurse, I just kept on crying because I knew deep down that Mom was only dead because once again, she did everything she could to keep me alive. She used too much of her strange magic to tie my life to Aquila’s, so that she couldn’t kill me. The price she paid was her life. It was even worse because she died knowing I was her daughter, but still had no memory of me after Aquila was thrown into my body. She would’ve been better off never knowing that her daughter was alive still. Same goes for Dad, he came down to the surface to help me more and more. He wasn’t doing his job and because of that, he’s going to die. Uncle Ori is in the same boat because of me. It’s all my fault, I should’ve been the one to die, not them.

I started to thrash and pull at tubes and wires all over my body. My sobs grew as I tried to use my magic to just get myself free of everything. Ponies ran into the room right as I was using what power I could to try and rip the ventilator tube out of my throat. I got a quick flash of Dr. Cyro with a syringe in her magical hold, then a prick of pain in my neck, and the world faded into black.

I awoke a few hours later feeling a little better. I was still hooked up to way too many machines, but they must’ve given me something because I didn’t feel as horrible as I had when I was trying to pull my life support crap out of myself. I looked around and saw Byte sitting next to my bed looking through something on her Pip-Buck. She saw I was awake and did her best to give me a kind smile, but it didn’t last. After a moment passed, she looked into my eyes, saying, “I know you’re upset about your mom. I know it’s hard and you feel like it’s all your fault, but you have to remember, it’s not.”

I felt fresh tears and I tried my best to shake my head. She reached a hoof out and placed it on mine. Our two Mark II’s resting over each other. After I calmed down a little, she continued, “There’s a lot going on, you have a lot of stress in your life, and I understand that. You need to remember that not everything that goes wrong in life is your fault Shadow. Trust me, I know what it’s like to lose a parent at a young age. It sucks, that’s all there is to it. At least your mother was able to sacrifice her own life for yours. My mom didn’t get that chance, she was killed by your uncle, on orders from Grim.”

I felt a spark of anger rise up and if I could speak, I would’ve yelled, “Don’t talk about my mom. You have no idea what she had to go through in her life and your mom was a bitch anyway. She could’ve lived if she would’ve just backed down and not sent anypony after my mom.”

But a moment after the anger entered my head, Byte let her own tears fall as she said, “But that’s not fair, because I know my mom did it to herself. She was rash, angry, rude, and thought she was a badass. Truth is, all she had to do was just let her Mark II go and focus on raising me. Her death is as much her fault as it is Grim’s. That’s why I finally forgave your uncle and your mom in the end, because life in The Wasteland is just messed up and there’s not much you can do to change that. So, as much as it sucks, and as bad as it hurts, don’t blame yourself or anypony else for what happened to your mom. Don’t let her sacrifice go to waste. Get stronger, get healthy, and stop worrying so much. You can’t change the past, all you can do is do better. Now, get some rest and get well soon because we all need you Shadow. I can’t lose you too. I’ve lost so much in my life and you’ve become like a big sister to me. So don’t you go dying when you’re getting your operations okay, because if you do, I’ll find your ghost and kill you all over again with those idiot hunters.”

She left the room after that little talk. I started to feel a little better. At least for the rest of the time I was awake. I was able to keep calm as I was visited by Wind Thrasher, saw Wingnut, and listened to Stormy and Cyto arguing about what the next steps would be. I heard Stormy mention my uncle at one point but didn’t catch everything she said. So, as the rest of the day passed, slowly, I started to put myself back together again. I started to look deep into myself, using a form of meditation I learned from Yaksha to start and get my magic under control. It wasn’t easy, but in the end, I was starting to understand the power that was now mine. I could understand why it kept getting out of control inside my body and why I couldn’t use one of my spells. As night came, I managed to get Stormy to get me a pad of paper to write on. I then used my magic to write down a request.

She gave me a sad smile, saying, “I’ll get it right away, and if you want, I’ll sit with you and explain some things. Maybe I can teach you a few things that Gri…your mother never could.”

True to her word, Dr. Stormy, the mare I thought in the past was my enemy even though the one I met was a synth, came back with my mom’s spell book. The one that I’d gotten a few weeks back. The same one that used to belong to Minuette herself. She sat me up, then using her magic, she cracked open the very old book and started teaching me the fundamentals of spells. A few hours passed and I found out very quickly that most of the spells in this book were way beyond me. Not because I didn’t have the power to cast them, because I know I do, but because with the lack of understanding that comes from learning weaker or lesser spells, I could end up hurting myself or others if I cast the spells in this book.

Stormy took it in stride though and put Mom’s grimoire down and pulled out a spell book for beginners. She didn’t want me using any of the spells, not with the condition my body was in. However, she was able to explain a lot to me. She figured out that one of the problems I had from when I was younger was that I had a hard time learning the few spells that were in the spell book mom gave me. It wasn’t because I was stupid or not powerful, I just needed a demonstration to grasp the idea of how the spell was formed. She was more than happy to ‘demonstrate’ different ones throughout the night. As we worked, well she worked, and I watched, she started to tell me stories. Stories about her and Mom when they were young.

I heard about that filly Scarlett who used to make Mom’s life hell. She told me about the time Mom showed her up in an advanced magic theory class. I heard about the colts Mom had crushes on over the years when she was a teenager. She told me about how her and my dad didn’t like each other at all when they were still in school. I heard more about the feud between my parents’ families over the centuries. She told me stories about the stuff they used to get in trouble for back in the day, or about when they both worked at the lab. I heard about Mom’s life when she was married to my father and the troubles they both went through in The Enclave. Story after story I got to hear and by the time it was time for me to get more rest, I think both Stormy and I felt just a little bit better.

That’s how the rest of my time went that day, talking to a pony that I thought I’d once killed. Well she talked, I listened, but I wasn’t going to complain. I was just glad that even though I’d lost Mom, I still a had somepony who knew her so well and could tell me more about who she was. When I first met Stormy, well the synth version of her, I’d thought she was kind of a bitch with a superiority complex opinion of herself, and that she’d been the one to start the program that Stardust grew up in. In reality, she was still the same pony who started the Devil’s Children Program, but she wasn’t as bad as I’d thought. I could see the similarities between her and her synth, but she wasn’t the same pony. One day, I’d ask her about the program, but right now, I’ll just enjoy her company.

Finally, our time came to an end when one of the nurses came in and told Dr. Stormy that she was needed to finish up on one of the synth parts she was making for me. She was also told that I needed my rest before tomorrow’s procedure. She told the nurse she’d leave in a few moments and again we were left alone. Stormy got to her hooves but didn’t leave right away. Instead, she took a long look at me. It was almost like she was trying to see the similarities between myself and Mom.

After a moment she smiled, an expression I knew from Mom’s memories that Stormy didn’t pull off very often. She then moved close and ran a hoof over my dirty mane, she leaned down and kissed the tip of my horn, then whispered, “It’s amazing how much you look like both of your parents. You have a strong will and an even stronger resilience. I can’t wait to see the mare you’ll grow up to be. Now get some rest, and tomorrow we’ll make you whole again. Goodnight, Little Star.”

Without another word, Dr. Stormy left the room. I watched her go, a bit confused by her motherly gesture. Then I just let it go and did my best to get some sleep. It didn’t take long, even though I’d spent most of the day in bed, hooked up to Goddesses knows how many things, I was still exhausted. Soon I found myself in another dreamless sleep. One good thing I could say about being this tired and mentally drained is that it was a lot easier to sleep. I had no nightmares of what happened to me in the cage.

The next day came quicker than I would’ve liked. I was woken by the medical team, Dr. Stormy’s team, and a few of the synth development team. They explained a few things to me, letting me know what would be happening and how long the mix of surgeries was going to take. My eyes went wide when I heard the amount of time I was going to be under. The surgeries would take at least twenty three to twenty seven hours. During that time, I would be put under a mix of a magical and chemical sleep. Stormy explained that my body had a high resistance to magical mind manipulation magic due to the time I spent with Aquila in my head. They would take me on and off the chemical one as they worked, only using it when needed to make sure I didn’t wake during a delicate part of the procedures.

With everything said and done, my friends were let in for only a few minutes to give me their get well wishes. They knew as well as I did by now that my odds of surviving this experimental bullshit was about fifty-fifty. Either way, if I didn’t get this done, I’d die no matter what. The machines I was hooked up to were keeping me alive for now, but they couldn’t forever. So, with that all known, everypony that came to Los Alicorn with me apart from Mom was let in. To my shock, even Uncle Ori’s bed was pushed into the room. He was awake and smiling weakly at me as his bed was brought up next to mine.

He looked a lot better than the last time I’d seen him when he was almost dead on the ground after he was shoved back into his own body. My other friends waited as he reached a hoof out to place it on my own and he said weakly, “I…love you Star, and…I’ll be here when you wake. Be strong, be brave…and shine bright.”

His smile gave me hope that when this was all over, everything would be okay. Aura came up to me next while Oricalcos rested his head back on his pillow and closed his eyes. It looked like the energy to just talk to me was too much for him. C’mon guys, give the dude a magical protein bar or something that can make him better again, because I’m sure if they put their minds to it The Ministry could create such a thing. He was out in a matter of seconds. Aura smiled toward him, saying, “I’ve been helping the other doctors look after him. He’s weak still, but thanks to whatever they’re giving him, he’s putting on weight and he’s getting healthier. He’ll be getting a couple things replaced too after you do, but things are looking up for him.”

“Yeah, he’s a tough old buck,” Stardust said as he came over and gave me the best hug he could, “Good luck, and remember we’ll be here when you wake up. Unless one of us in in the bathroom, then they won’t be here, but that’s one of those situations that…ugh. Y’know what? Never mind, I’ll see ya when ya wake up.”

Wind Thrasher was next, she was looking sick again, but she managed to smile as she hugged me too. “Come back to us okay.”

Wingnut and Byte were next, Wingnut saying, “I…I hope…you’ll be…” he didn’t finish, instead he sniffed and ran from the room.

Byte sighed at my curious look, saying, “He’s been having a hard time ever since you’ve been in here. Just keep fighting and we’ll see you soon.”

I nodded as Aura came close, she leaned down and kissed my cheek then ran a hoof through my mane. Her eyes full of love as she said, “See ya on the other side Shrimp, love ya.”

With those last words said, I was wheeled out of the room and down the bright-white halls, heading toward one of the operating rooms. Dr. Stormy and Dr. Cyto, both kept up a steady stream of conversation with their respective teams. Going over what they’ll be doing next and what to do if something goes wrong. Not long after I’d left my friends, I was pushed into the operating room and everypony started to get scrubbed up and ready for the first stage of my, uh, let’s just call it an event. Cause, that’s what it’s turning out to be. Regular surgeries take maybe two to four hours depending on what it is, this is an entire day plus. Yeah, fucking event.

Dr. Stormy came over, her face covered with a medical mask. She moved closer, saying, “It’s time for you to go to sleep for a while Shadow, when you wake up, hopefully you’ll be back to your old self, or better if I can help it. Don’t freak out if I did something cool and you’re not comfortable with it right away. Like having your new leg turn into a blaster, that’d be really cool,” she paused for a second, then said, “Relax, I’m only kidding. If I could do that kind of stuff to you, you’d get a lot more than a blaster leg.”

Dr. Cyto put a needle into the IV going into my remaining foreleg and as soon as I felt it enter my blood, I felt my eyes starting to droop and the room slowly going black around me. Dr. Stormy’s horn started to glow as she readied her knock out spell. Right before I lost consciousness, I felt something deep inside my mind open-up, followed by a tug as another’s consciousness connected to mine. I’m not sure how, but I knew, somewhere deep inside that this was due to the last spell Mom used before she died. It was the tether connecting my life to Aquila. The world went black.

I felt the strange connections for only a second, like a quick jab into the back of my mind. Before I could figure out what it was, the feeling went away. I cursed then kept working my way toward my new destination. Over the past two days I’d been traveling toward New Pegasus, with one thought on my mind. I have a debt to collect from that traitorous asshat Thunderlane. The fool thinks he can try and kill my old vessel and break our deal and there’d be no consequences? What a fool, though I guess he’s always been one. A pony who wants more and more power but lacks the brain and sack to take it.

My whole plan backfired on me which just pisses me off more. All I wanted to do was get Shadow out of my way once and for all. Thanks to fucking Grimoire though, that didn’t happen. At least she died when she used that spell to bind me to her stupid brat’s life. I’ll take any win I can. Anyways, I’ll deal with my plans for the future and deal with that moron later.

I’d just made it into Freedom and was on my way toward The Strip when a stab of pain ran up my chest followed by my foreleg. I gasped and almost screamed into the morning air but managed to hold it back. The pain took a good five minutes to pass, but in that time, I knew that something was happening to Shadow. Probably getting her damned leg fixed, or her heart, or both. Oh well, I don’t care. The spell placed on us only works to kill me if I have something to do with her death. Yeah, I caused the leg injury but the scaring to her lungs and heart was all because of Oricalcos. If she died that way, then all the better. It wouldn’t harm me in any way apart from a little pain which I can ignore after a fashion.

I shook off the after-feelings of whatever was being done to Shadow and continued toward The Strip. I wish I still had the passport to get into the place, but since I no longer had Shadow’s body I didn’t have her shit like the last time I was here. So, I’ll just have to do this the magical way. As soon as I saw the gates, protected by robots, I activated the sea of power within myself and teleported. In a flash I was past the gate and a block or so past The Lucky Horseshoe. No pony seemed to notice me flashing into existence, so I kept on walking. I made my way to the ramshackle building where that weird Pegasus Kittersfly lived and worked. I went up to the door and tried to go inside, but the door was locked.

“Fucking lazy-ass pegasus!” I said, then knocked on the door, no one answered. Growling in anger I used my magic to blast the door open. It went flying across the empty room. I walked in and looked around, the pegasus wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Damn, I guess he was back up in Stratus, probably because of all the crap I heard that was going on up there. Oh well, I knew how to work the terminal and communication stuff anyway. I was here for a short time when I was in control of Shadow’s body. I watched Kittersfly enter the codes and everything else, so I knew what to do.

With a few keystrokes on the pegasus’ terminal, which he left unlocked like an idiot, I connected to The Enclave’s secret broadcast channel. One meant for only the highest positions. On the far wall, a screen came to life as a darkened room filled the screen, a ghoul pegasus mostly hidden in shadows sitting on a high backed chair, more like a throne, but I would never call it that. The damned pegasus already had an ego to put Shadow’s to shame. As soon as the screen came to life, Thunderlane said in a ruff scratchy voice, “Who the hell is this and how did you get access to the terminal in New Pegasus!?”

Rolling my eyes, I walked closer to the screen. “Who do you think it is you jerkyfied moron?”

He leaned forward a little, his eyes the only part of his face I could see, their black and gold shimmering from whatever little light was in the room he was in. “Ah, could that really be you again Aquila? Thought The Courier was able to push you back into your prison. Was the information I got wrong?”

“No, it wasn’t, and don’t act like you didn’t contact her yourself a few days ago. Remember I can see everything she does even when I’m weak and trapped deep inside her mind. I know what you told her and the threat you made toward me. I’ve come here to get answers. We had a deal and if you plan on backing out of that deal, I will make my way up there and gut you,” I said, trying and failing to keep the anger out of my voice.

He chuckled to himself. “Ah yes, there’s the friendly threats I was waiting for. I figured that she was able to lock you up for good this time. I can’t be held responsible for holding a deal with a creature who has no body of her own and can be locked away when I need her help.”

“Well that won’t be a problem anymore, this body I’m in is my own. I’m no longer trapped within that worthless brat’s head anymore,” I said, smiling inside as that fact rolled over me. No longer would I have to worry about Shadow finding a way to push me back into my prison or having to listen to her complain about her life or her friends. I was my own being now, and it’s time to start putting my own plans into action. But first, I needed the help of the betrayer.

He took a moment to respond, maybe he was shocked at the news or maybe the old pony was just sleeping. Hard to tell with ghouls. Finally, he asked, “How did you manage to do something like that? You look a lot like Shadow, only you’re white and not black…taller too I think, but it’s hard for my old eyes to tell.”

“I tricked Grim into getting The Ministry to make me a synth body, and they used Shadow’s DNA to make it match her genetic code,” I said.

“It’s not a clone, well not in the general sense. It’s more of a highly realistic android made from something I don’t fully understand, but this body is indistinguishable from a real pony. That’s why it was a perfect fit for me. Now, can we get back to the matter at hoof? We had a deal and I expect you to live up to it Thunderlane,” I said, “Or have you forgotten the promise I made to you two hundred years ago?”

That got his attention. “No, I haven’t forgotten the deal we made back then or the one we made recently. So, I guess we’re still working together then. That’s probably a good thing anyway, my master did say that we needed a creature of light to free him. So if you live up to your end, I’ll live up to mine.”

I wanted to roll my eyes. As if I’d live up to my end of the bargain. I know who his master is and as much power as I have, I know what would happen to me if that monster ever got free. Thunderlane didn’t need to know my true plans, he was just a tool, one I was going to use until he was more broken and worthless than he already is. So I just smiled, making sure to word what I said just right. One problem with being a creature of light magic as I am, I can’t tell a full lie, I can bend the truth though and that’s close enough for me. “I promise that I will do everything in my power to help you.”

“Good, so what was it you needed from me again? Also you’re last bit of intel didn’t pan out well, so I’ll need you to give me something else about Falling Shadows,” he said.

“I need you to get your forces to secure The Crystal Empire, make sure that the palace can’t be invaded, because Shadow will go there at some point. She knows where Minuette’s Forgotten Library is,” I said.

“I know where it is too, though I can’t get in, she made sure of that. Only Night Stalker’s family or Minuette’s can enter,” he said.

“I know, you just need to keep Shadow from getting in there, at least until I can make it there. With this body, I should be able to get in and put a stop to whatever Night Stalker did to that tower. As for the information I gave you about Nightshade, what do you mean it didn’t pan out?” I asked.

“My grandchildren have him in custody now and still this so-called Stranger has been spotted near New Pegasus a few times now. I don’t know what made you think it was him, but it’s not, and even worse we can’t seem to find the sneaky pegasus,” he said.

“Damn,” I said, thinking hard, it had to be a pony that Nightshade was working with. “I’ll look into it, give me a few days, but in the mean-time I do have some other information that should make you feel a little better.”

He leaned forward again, but his face still stayed hidden as he said, “Oh really? Do tell.”

I smiled. “Grimoire Spell is dead, and just to make it even better, I have the location of the Ministry for you as well. Send your pegasi to Los Alicorn and look near The University, sooner or later you’ll find Shadow and her friends. Also, just to top off the interesting news, you remember that Unicorn Dr. Stormy, the one you all thought died in the Mill City Tower incident?”

“Yes, what about her? It was a big loss for our science program, especially right before we lost the recruiters in Stable 97,” he said.

“She’s alive, the mare who died in that tower was a synth. Stormy has been working for The Ministry for twelve years,” I said with a big smile.

“I had a feeling that mare was trouble, but we can deal with her once we figure out a way to get into Los Alicorn. That can wait till later, do you have anything else for me Aquila?” he asked.

My grin just got bigger as I thought of another way to kick Shadow while she’s down. “I do actually, you really should keep an eye on a mare in Stratus named Fairy Glitter…”

I awoke with a startle as the feeling of seeing through Aquila’s eyes hit me all at once. I have no idea what happened, was it a dream? Or is there more to our link thanks to Mom’s spell? Either way, I’ll have to do something about it as soon as I can. Then the thoughts of Aquila and her screams fled my mind as a deep aching pain went through me all at once. I groaned and brought my forelegs up to my face slowly, then froze. My eyes snapped open as I looked at my fully functional right foreleg. If I hadn’t known I’d lost it just a couple of days ago, I wouldn’t have ever believed that it was missing.

I moved the leg back and forth and to my amazement it followed everything I told it to do. I reached my left foreleg out and touched the appendage and it felt like any other pony’s leg should feel. I then looked down at my chest, expecting to see scars or something from the heart surgery, but there was nothing. Even the old scar from when I’d stabbed myself when the griffons attacked was gone. I looked over at my left shoulder which has been damaged numerous times in the past. The scar from the bloodwing was still there, just fainter than before, and the scars from the bullet wounds too. I reached up and felt where my missing ear was, it was there again. Damn, The Ministry sure knows how to fix up a pony. Then I noticed that I wasn’t choking on plastic that tasted like hospital, “I can breathe!”

“I know, it’s amazing isn’t it?” Stormy said from the door, making me jump.

I looked at her for a moment, then said, “Yeah, it’s amazing. I wouldn’t have ever guessed I was injured before.”

She shrugged. “It’s my best work that’s for sure, even The Director’s implants aren’t as sophisticated as yours. Don’t tell her though, she’ll get jealous and nag me into making her better stuff. It’ll get in the way of my research, plus I’m a little lazy so meh.”

I looked at my foreleg again. “So, I have a robot arm, heart, lungs, and ear now?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes and no. I could go into vastly complicated mechanics and details about what it takes to make your new organs and limb and so on, but I’m sure it would all bore you. To put it simply, everything we had to fix or replace for you is pony made. It’s not cloning like I’ve said before when we made Aquila’s body. For example, your new foreleg is going to be stronger than what you were born with, same goes for the bones in that limb. It will be harder for you to take damage to those areas. Same goes for your new lungs and heart. As of right now, you have a stronger heart and lungs than you were born with.”

“It’s amazing that you were able to come up with this kind of thing. I thought you all made synths just so you could take over The Wasteland or something like that,” I said.

“No, well I don’t, same for White Oak. The Ministry before White Oak took over did have plans to take over parts of The Wasteland using synths, but their designs were rudimentary and plainly just a bunch of crap. Plus some unfrozen guy was giving ‘em some crap about kidnapping his son and blah, blah, blah, boring stuff,” Stormy said as she came to sit next to my bed, “When I was taken on to work here many years ago, The Director wanted the synth program to expand, but not in the way the original board wanted. We do replace ponies in key areas of The Wasteland, but only to help stabilize an area, not to take it over.”

“Did you take this job and run away from The Enclave because you wanted to make something better than The Devil’s Children Program?” I asked.

At the mention of the Program that Stardust was a part of her ears fell and she looked away. After a moment, she said, “The Devil’s Children Program was my idea, that’s true, but what it became wasn’t what I wanted it to be. By the time the children were taken and being raised, I didn’t have much control in it anymore. It wasn’t until three years ago that I was offered a chance to come back into the fold with that program. Mostly because they were getting close to finishing phase one. By that time, I was already going between Nimbus and here quite a bit.”

She nodded. “I did, mostly so I could move into The Ministry full-time, but keep spying on The Enclave for The Director. I also used it as a way to keep an eye on the program so I could shut it down if I needed to. I also had to make sure my synth was believable as a heartless bitch. As I’m sure you saw when you met her…and destroyed her.”

She chuckled a little. “It’s okay, honestly I’m not surprised you did. Like I said, she was cold and heartless, close to my own personality at times, but not the real me. Still, if it makes you feel any better, I was the one who made sure that Stardust got out.”

She laughed again. “Yes it was, but he helped them escape because he got intel that phase one was about to go to phase two. He got that information from his sister Fairy Glitter. Fairy Glitter gets her intel from informants, and who do you think one of her Informants is?”

“Yes, me, I’ve hated The Enclave for a long time. I met Fairy Glitter a long time ago when I was dating her husband’s sister,” she stopped looking away as if she was deep in thought, then said, “Can’t remember her name…and I wouldn’t call it dating, more like we would meet up, drink, sex, drink some more, and so on.”

I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped followed by a groan of pain. “Do you…ever remember the mares you dated? I saw Mom’s memory orbs, it’s like you forget them all, even when they are laying in your lap.”

She rolled her eyes. “You saw the baby shower memory huh? Still, no I don’t have a good memory when it comes to mares I really don’t care much for,” she blushed a little and looked away again, “Grim was the only mare I ever really wanted. Knew I couldn’t have her and that’s okay, but still you can’t help who you love and all that noise. You should know that as well as I do, I mean you’re with a griffon…well a mare that used to be a griffon. Pretty interesting if you ask me by the way. I’m sure the sex life changed dramatically when that mess happened.”

“She’s still a griffon, she’s just hiding it under a disguise of a cute mare,” I said, trying not to laugh again. I was still amazed how much I really enjoyed the company of Dr. Stormy.

“Well, let’s forget all the bad stuff for now, I came in here to see how your new body parts are working and then to get you to therapy,” she said with a smile.

“Should only last a few hours, maybe a day. Your body is just getting used to the new mechanics that we put in. The therapy we’ll be doing is mostly to help you get used to the new limb,” she replied.

She moved to get up, but I reached a hoof out and stopped her. “Not yet, first I need to tell you about something I saw while I was under. You said something about Fairy Glitter, I think she’s in danger. Aquila is working with a pony who should’ve died a long, long, time ago.”

Before I could tell her about the dream or vision I had, the door to my room opened and in walked a Sin. The new Wrath decked-out in his power armor, a huge rifle strapped to his back, a blue visor on his helmet, a blond mane flowing behind him, and a grey coat just visible in small areas. If I had my weapons on me right now, I’d blow him away before he could do anything to me. Sadly, I couldn’t, I was trapped with only Stormy in the room with me as a killer stood in the doorway.

“Wrath? What are you doing back here? You were told to stay with The Sins!” Stormy said, making me look at her in shock.

Before I could get an answer, the new Wrath walked into the room then reached up and removed his helmet. For the first time, I got a good look at his true face. He had tears in his yellow eyes as he said, “Is it true Stormy? Did Grim die!? Please tell me it’s not true doc, please!”

My eyes were glued on his face, not so much of what he said, but because my eyes just fell on the face of a pony who I KNEW was dead, a stallion I saw die a gruesome death in Stardust’s memories. In a shaky voice I said, “Hailstorm?”

[FOOTNOTE: LEVEL UP!]

NEW PERK ADDED!

Six Million Bit Filly: Seems you’ve taken quite the beating! However, it’s great to have friends in low places. Due to your affinity with The Ministry, you’ve been fitted with artificial body parts that will make you tougher, stronger, and possibly even cooler. On your artificial parts only, you have an extra 30% damage resistance on the exterior leg and ear from physical attacks, while the heart and lungs have an extra 15% damage resistance from chemical attacks. Although, it did cost a fortune...

Fallout Equestria: Falling Shadows

by Drako Moon

Chapter 65: One More Light