Blaze opened his eyes and saw that he was in Ponyville, but something was different. He could not tell as it was dark. His eyes could normally see pretty good at night with the moon out. He looked for it in the sky. What was found was even more surprising. There was a solar eclipse happening. Blaze thought ”Strange, those normally last a few minutes. I didn’t know it was possible with the Princesses controlling the sun and the moon. What were they up to?”
The human looked around to find another pony to ask what was going on. As he walked through town, he kept on hearing doors and window stutters slamming close. Blaze thought, ”Ok, this is really strange. Why are the ponies afraid of me? Let’s shed some light here.”
He launched a ki ball into the sky and had it hover over town, what he saw was nothing the human expected to see. The town looked like there had been a battle. Scorch marks were on every building. Some were totally destroyed. Blaze needed to find Twilight, NOW! The human ran to the library and burst through the door. Inside, he saw cobwebs over the bookshelves and dust on the top of the tables. He started to panic. He teleported out of there and headed to the castle.
Blaze hit something upon appearing. He looked to see what it was. The magic barrier was up around Canterlot. This was so strong that he couldn’t teleport in. The human headed over to where the entrance was. It was easy to find as that area was lit up. As he was walking up to the guards posted there, Blaze said, “What’s going on? Why is the barrier up and what are the Princesses doing with the sun and moon making a solar eclipse?”
When the guards saw him, they fired magic spells at the human. These were faster than normal as he was barely able to dodge them.
“Woah! Woah! Woah! I’m on your side!” he said as he continued to dodge.
One Royal Guard pony said, “ We have orders to kill you on sight.”
Blaze thought, ”WHAT! KILL ON SIGHT! TIME TO GO!” The human teleported out of there, not wanting to die. He reappeared at his house. Luckily that was still there. He headed inside to see if Al or anyone was there. Just like the library, this place looked like no one has been here for a long time. He headed downstairs to check his weapons were still there. Once he opened the doors, the human saw everything was and in its place. He headed up to Al’s room to see if I could find any clues.
When Blaze entered his room, it was in the same condition as the rest of the house. Al’s weapons and personal belongings were gone. Blaze thought he might still be alive. The white hair human had a desk with a book on it. It didn’t have a title on the front, nor the spine. Blaze opened it up to see what was inside. It was a journal. He couldn’t recall when Al had started one. He read the only entry.
To whom that finds this book,
I’m writing this out, in case there is some hope that something out there can save us from this tragic event. It all started when Discord escaped. Blaze and I knew what to do in order to seal him up again. We had collected four of the five Elements of Order and hoped the fifth one would reveal itself soon. When we confronted Discord, he had already grayed the mane six. When Blaze had me go and inform Princess Celestia to send the letter Twilight had been writing to her about Friendship. I should have never left Blaze.
Discord somehow corrupted Swift Blaze.
The human immediately dropped the book after reading that. There was a shocked look on his face. Blaze didn’t want to believe what he read. How did he get corrupted when he was right here? What in Equestria happened? The human picked the book back up and was hesitant to continue to read. Did he want to know what happened? No, he NEEDED to know. Blaze opened the book and continued to read where I left off.
Discord somehow corrupted Swift Blaze. His coat was dark red, the white in his eyes were now black, and his cutie mark was a solid black circle. He no longer went by Swift Blaze or Bob. He declared himself as Shadow Torch, Lord of Darkness.
He went on a rampage on Ponyville. Destroying buildings and sending all the ponies running. The normal Royal Guards were powerless to stop him. I had gathered the special ops team we formed to take care of matters like this. We all fought very hard to try and stop him. We all failed. What he did next is what everyone feared. He sent a black orb up into the sky and it blocked the sun.
I’m now leading a resistance from Canterlot, the last place that has not been destroyed. He has yet to break the new shield Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle created together. I don’t know how much longer we can hold out.
That was the end of the entry. Blaze placed the book down gently back on the table. He sensed something was behind him.
“How long have you been there?” he asked.
“Ever since you walked into your old house. Why did you come here, Shadow Torch?” The mysterious figure replied.
“I don’t know what is going on or what happened. But my name is not Shadow Torch, It’s Swift Blaze.”
“You aren’t going to trick me like the others. You move a little bit without my permission, I will kill you in an instant.”
“I’m not playing a trick. One moment, I was sleeping in my bed in colt form after the first day of school. I then wake up to this world and see all this. Please tell me what in Equestria has happened.”
“Turn around. Slowly.” That Blaze started to turn. “SLOWER!”
Once the black hair human was turned around, he saw who was behind him. It was a human shape standing there with two crossbows pointing at his body. The person had a cloak covering their body and a hood hiding their face. Blaze didn’t need to guess who it was.
“Alvin, what do I need to do to prove I am Swift Blaze, aka Bob, and not that other thing you mentioned in your entry.”
“You just did by calling me Alvin, plus your eyes. How did you get here?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. Now tell me what happened after that entry. Where is everyone else?”
“Bob, you killed them.”
“WHAT!!! Why would I kill my friends?”
“Not this you, Shadow Torch killed them.”
Blaze just fell to his knees and banged against the floor. This went on for a few minutes. Once he had calmed back down, the human picked himself up. He wiped the tears away that rolled down his face. He looked to Al and said, “Where is this bastard that did this.”
“He now stays at the old castle in the EverFree Forest. He had slaved ponies rebuild and fortify it. It’s impossible to get in without being seen.”
“If this Shadow Torch is me, then I know I would have placed an escape route in case something did happen. Let me get something from the basement to help us out.”
Al nodded and they headed to the basement. Blaze opened the weapon storage and headed inside. Just after he entered, the black hair human felt a sharp pain in the back of his right shoulder and fell to the floor. He looked to see what it was. A crossbow arrow has been impaled into him. Blaze looked up at Al and saw he was laughing evilly.
“I can’t believe you trusted me. You’re nothing like me.”
“What’s going on Al? I thought we were friends,” The black hair human said while holding his injured shoulder.
“I am not that pathetic human.” He pulled out a vial and drank it. His form changed to what was read in the journal. “I, AM, SHADOW TORCH!”
“Why are you doing this? Killing our friends?”
“Because it’s so much fun, you should try it. One thing I still can’t figure out is how I was ever like you.”
“But you were me and we cared about this world. We swore to protect it!”
“You did, I didn’t. Now then, thank you kindly for opening this weapon stash for me, I can now finish my plans.”
“I won’t let you get away with this!”
As the black hair human was trying to get up, Shadow Torch grabbed a gun off the wall and shot both of Blaze’s knees. He screamed out in pain. The pain there was far worse than his shoulder. Shadow Torch kept the gun pointed at him.
“You have served your purpose.”
While still in serious pain, Blaze said, “If you wanted these weapons, why didn’t you open the door yourself?”
“Funny thing, while in rage mode, all chakra abilities don’t work. I didn’t want to blast my way in and destroy the goodies inside. So I’ve been working on summoning you from a previous time to do this. Thank you for your help. I will say hi to your remaining friends as I slowly kill them.”
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Blaze screamed at the top of his lungs.
Shadow Torch pulled the trigger and the black hair human saw the bullet coming to his head.
-------------------------------------------------------
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” The colt screamed as he sat up in bed.
Al came bursting in through the door with his daggers at the ready to throw. “What’s going on?” He asked.
Once Blaze realized he was still in his room and in colt form, he replied, “Sorry for waking you, Al. I think I just had one hell of a nightmare. It seemed so real.”
The human placed his daggers down on the bedside table and sat on the edge of the bed. “I’m glad you’re ok. I never heard you scream like that, so I was thinking of the worst. I had my fair share of nightmares while I was in hell. They want to make you think it’s real to scare you more. Have you ever had a nightmare before?”
“I had when I was little. They happened after the incident with my father. They were nothing like what I just had though.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not tonight. That nightmare really took the energy out of me. Make sure I wake up in the morning for school.”
“You got it, buddy. Go and have sweet dreams of Candyland.”
“What are you trying to do? Get me some cavities?”
“Nah, I wanted you to laugh.” They both laughed for a while. The two said good night to each other. Al left and closed the door. Blaze laid back down to try and get some sleep. He sure hoped that was only a nightmare.