The Realm of Dusk and Dawn, Forest of Shadows, Twilight
The sky was silver and shimmering and the grass was grey, the air cold as ice and the wind on my face was stinging and sharp. I woke up on solid stone in the middle of a field interlaced with nightshade plants and poison joke flowers, the flower field surrounded by dark looming willows as the stone beneath me began to glow an ominous red. The stone below me started to crack and crumble as I only moved a fraction of an inch until finally it crumbled into nothing more than a coffin made of malachite and moonstone. The coffin was surrounded by wisps of indigo smoke that began to travel slowly towards me in strands of black darkness until it made contact with my coat except instead of being absorbed it latched onto me and a voice soon filled my head with whispers and echos.
"My son...it has been so long since I last laid my eye on you...you have surely grown the last time I saw you...I hope those two ponies are taking care of you...after all what better way to keep an eye on my heir to the throne of the Everfree than with my most trusted servants......those two alicorns up in Canterlot think that the Everfree Forest is nothing more than a cursed forest filled with beasts that prey on their precious little ponies but they are wrong. You my son...will show them that even in the darkest corners of this forest their is true darkness...the darkness that lasts even in the day that is peaceful and calm...not the hateful malice Celestia has told me...but you...you will tell her when the time comes..."
Looking at the coffin from where the voice was coming from I took notice that I was being gently held up by the tendrils of darkness and was slowly lowered onto the floor made of pure moonstone, the floor was warm to the touch and gave me the warm feeling of acceptance and care that was odd in a place like this until I began to feel that this tomb is familiar and that I have seen it before. Looking at the walls I saw that it detailed the history of Equestria up until the fall of a creature known as Discord, the rise of Nightmare Moon and her fall, and finally her cleansing by the Elements of Harmony. But as I look past the images on the wall I saw that the rest was hidden by ancient glyphs of magic and cobwebs preventing me from seeing anything past that point of time, I only knew that this was the history of the past, the present, and if I was only grasping to what this was, the future.
"The shadows within your heart and your soul are different from one another and yet you have survived your first transformation...the pain you have experienced was terrible and it hurts me dearly to see you in such an act of agony...but you had to go into it alone. Your shadow and those that you have collected are yours to control...you are the darkness of this world now...the darkness within everypony and those beyond Equestria, you are this lands shadow. Nothing more than an illusion for fate is cruel and order is unkind."
I looked over at the coffin as the voice kept talking about who and what I am, the thought of being nothing more than an illusion harmed me greatly but seeing my past on the walls only confirmed his words but being his son was impossible since I knew who my father was since he is still alive and in Ponyville...what this spirit is saying must be a lie...
"Yes my son...what you see is true...this is the hall of memories...what I have seen...what you have seen, and what your future children will see...all will be recorded here. Every important event in Equestria has been recorded here by me and soon when it is time, you too will record history on this wall...but for now...you must have questions of who you really are...but they must wait until the time is right...you are not who everypony sees you as...your name is a legacy filled with a vicious cycle of life and death, a name that I gave you on the full moon you were born...now go my son...go back to the realm of the living...your princess of the night needs you now. Till the darkness rises again my son..."
"But...you...you can't be my father....my father is in Ponyville! You can not be my father!"
"You do not need to believe me son...only seek the truth within the lies that are in the webs of deception and fear, only than will the answers you seek will reveal themselves...and those answers will break you if you are to weak to handle them....take care son....you will see me when the time has come....farewell..."
As he said farewell I felt his voice slowly faded from my mind as did the scene around me began to fall apart as the walls began to fold upon itself in symmetrical shapes and the sky began to erupt into a raging storm of boiling water and began to rain hail stones made of rocks, the tree's themselves slowly began to decay away into nothingness. I slowly began to feel my body start to tear itself apart as my vision began to blur into disorientation until I started to feel nothing at all as everything began to spin at speeds that were even impossible for me to achieve. As strange as this realm have been it felt like home for me strangely and having to be torn away from it was painful and I started to feel my eyes close and seal shut until finally I felt cold and alone before I heard a voice in the darkness calling out to me...
A voice that sounded so lovely to me that I had to return to that needed me and that I needed her...
Everfree Castle, Nightshade's Private Chamber, Early Dawn
I woke up back in my private chambers in the Everfree and found that the dream was real when I found out that I began to see strange shapes swirling on the walls as the images of ancient creatures began to move on them until the smallest rays of the sun began to creep into the room forcing them to retreat into the walls and disappear from sight. Looking around I saw that the room was slightly cleaned up and was slightly damaged from my little episode from earlier and after a while I began to hear voices from behind the door that leads to my private study room. Getting up slowly from the bed was hard enough when my body feels like it was crushed by an Ursa Minor and I somehow lived through it. Slowly moving toward the noise I pressed my head against the door so I can hear who was speaking but when I heard the two voices I quickly fell backwards when I listen on both princesses Celestia and Luna.
"Like We said Tia....when We started talking to him he started to glow a shadow like aura and began to absorb the shadows in the room until he became what he is.....We are not sure what caused this but whatever is the reason....We have to help him....I will not lose him now....he is the only reason why I still have feelings for anything..."
"It is not that simple Lulu....he has the audacity to say that the Everfree Forest is his and that he wants me to remove the curse on Sunny Town....Sunny Town! that place is filled with murderers! He also thinks that he should even rule this forest...let me him be this...abomination of ponykind. And do not even get me started on the effect he is having on your mind, ever since you two were together for those years and than when you were free from Nightmare Moon's influence you still kept those memories...why? Why are you so keen on keeping him, you do know that he will die far before you will and than you will have to pick up the broken pieces of your life. I do not want to see you hurt to the point where you take your life to join him in the afterlife or worse bring him back from the dead as nothing more than a walking corpse."
"But Tia! I will not leave him to this grim fate as a shadow of Nightmare Moon and those feelings I have for him are for me and me alone so stop trying to put a wedge between us! I will not lose him to the sands of time or the ravages of war...and Tia...do not even speak of this subject again with me."
Just as they began to speak louder I accidentally hit my head against the door and they must have mistaken it for a knock and I was instantly pulled in when the door swung open magically and was than slammed shut behind me as soon as I got past the doors threshold. As I get pulled inside the chamber I quickly reacted by erecting a barrier around myself that glowed a deathly inky black and when I opened my eyes I saw that I was encased within the sphere and that everything in the room began to slowly lose their shadows as they started to slither their way to me.
"Princess Luna...Celestia...what happened to me? Why are the shadows coming to me and why does it feel like my body was torn apart and than put back together haphazardly...and how come both of you are looking at me as if I am a monster?"
"Well...Nightshade, to answer the first question you transformed into a shadow of Nightmare Moon or so we think...as for your second and third question I do not know...your last question is that you are a monster."
"Tia! Nightshade is not a monster! He is simply just...different from his old form that We hope that we can fix before anything drastically happens to him."
"What are you talking about? What happened to my body and what do you mean if you can fix it? What happened to me?" as I said that I saw that Celestia levitated a large mirror over to me and when I looked at it I nearly had a heart attack and keeled over. I looked almost exactly like Nightmare Moon except that my entire body was pitch black, my mane and tail was nothing more than wisps of black clouds of shadows and dust, my eyes also changed to what I saw in the tomb, no longer normal iris's but instead a single glyph, a glyph that I know what it means but not how it got there. As I looked myself over I saw that I had wings but they were nothing more than the skeletal structure of the wings themselves, the mere sight of those wings was enough for me to see if they were real and when I sent a thought to them, on reflex they stretched open and the sounds of bones popping was loud enough for me to cringe as I felt each pop in my wings.
"So it is real than....you are...an alicorn....a commoner now royalty...this is going to be hard to pass out to the populous....we must fix this now. Luna please go back to Canterlot, I will deal with this before anything gets out of hoof."
"No Tia, you will not lay a hoof on him while We are still here. There has to be a reason behind his sudden change...maybe it was like how I became Nightmare Moon, we let our emotions take over us so if we can try to find a way to help him than he will return to normal..."
As she says those words 'deal with this' I instinctively flared out my bone wings and took an aggressive stance against her, my eyes glaring daggers at her as I willed into existence my arcane sword that I was told to only use in a dire situation, and listening to Celestia saying that I need to be dealt with calls for it.
"Don't even think about touching me Celestia...Luna...how long was I unconscious?"
"You have been out cold for three days...I had to leave you during the day so my sister would not have noticed my absence but...she caught on today as she followed me here...
Looking over at Celestia I saw that she was still watching me, trying to figure out my motives, my plans, what drives me but she won't find them without a hard pressed search. Still giving her my glare I kept my sword next to me while lowering my guard, not wanting to fight a goddess so early in the morning but not wanting to be taken out because of what I am.
"So Celestia...you really think I am a monster...well maybe I am maybe I am not but I do know that whatever I say will change your mind since you are dead-set on removing me. But before you try to strike me down let me just tell you this, you may strike me down, you may harm me, bruise me, break me, but I will never stop fighting you. This Forest is mine, this entire forest is my inheritance from my father and I will not let it be squandered because the Solar Princess says otherwise." not even moving from my spot until I saw something that I would never have thought to see in my life. Celestia lowering her head in defeat which actually made me wonder if this was a rouse to get me off my guard or she was actually defeated, either way I am not trusting her as far I can possibly throw her.
The looks on their faces was both of uttered confusion on Luna's and pure shock on Celestia's, neither of them knew who my father was but neither did I since my real father is stuck in a supposed different realm and that my parents are actually his loyal servants....but who is my mother? That question will be haunting my flank for probably the rest of my life no matter what.
Looking around my study room I saw that some of the books have been taken off their respectable shelves and that some even had the appearance that they have been looked at and were left open. Reading books is alright but leaving them out wide open, not even in use is just plain annoying to me since I had to shelve all of these books myself a few weeks ago. "You know Celestia...when you are done reading my books you should put them back, I hate a dirty study room, especially when its my study room. And Luna...thank you for taking care of me when I was out cold for those three days. For now I just wish some rest but since Celestia wouldn't let me be so I guess I have to be leaving now, Celestia, don't even try to follow me, Luna...forgive me for my failure." and with that I slowly began to meld into the ground without myself even knowing it was happening until I felt half my body go tingly and looking down I saw myself sinking into the ground as if it was quicksand. "Well...that's new?" was all I said before my head vanished under the ground.
Everfree Forest, Sunny Town, Morning
It was another bright day for the little town near the center of the forest, surrounded by trees on all sides as the town was networked together by lanterns hanging by wires throughout the town, all of them powered by the underground stream. Grey Hoof was talking to Starlet when I slowly started to rise out of the ground, the area around me was bubbling as the shadows slowly pulled by out of the darkness that was the shadow of an umbrella. As half my body was out of the ground I saw that Grey Hoof was wearing a large grin while Starlet was giving me a half-smile half-nervous look, which to me was odd since she was usually always smiling whenever I was around when I was younger. By the time my flank was out of the ground all of them that was present gasped as they saw my cutie mark, and almost on cue they are started to slowly shamble towards me saying a low chant that was to quiet for me to hear. Sighing a bit I extended out my wings to stretch them out but when they saw that they all stopped the chanting and for some reason bowed to me, which I thought at the time adorable since Roneo tripped and went face first into a cake and that Mitta was staring at me with loneliness which sorta stung my heart since I told her that I would visit her on a regular basis but since my defeat and well...downfall to being a lowly guard to my victors...
"So...Grey Hoof...how are you doing? And Roneo you got a little bit of cake on your face...I mean all over your face. Starlet, nice to see that you have finally dyed your mane a different color besides that light scarlet color. Nice shade of blue. Mitta, sorry for making you wait for me for so long." they all looked up at me, my guess is that since I looked like an alicorn because my wings are mostly shadows and hardened bones from something.
"N..Nightshade...is that you? We all thought you were just a unicorn? How are you an alicorn?" Grey Hoof said mostly surprised on my appearance, he was like that since he had to look after me whenever I ran off into the forest around the town since when I was young I always got into trouble.
"Yes it is me my dear friend just...different now. I underwent a...transformation of sorts and now I am like this...even though I am still slightly taller than Celestia. I am now one with the shadows...from what that alicorn said to me is true than. I don't even know myself anymore."
"Nightshade...you are still yourself, you are still you on the inside, just your outside has changed, and besides now you have a hot flank and that many mares will be all trying to get a piece of." Starlet said while eying me like a very expensive dress at a store that was on display. I was not sure if I should feel proud of what she said, feel creep out that she is eying me like that, or just plain be offended that she is eying me in such a way that makes me want to get away from her.
Gazing over at Mitta I saw that she got up and walked over to me, the hug we shared was short lived as Grey Hoof came over and ruined the short lived moment. "Nightshade...what brings you here? Ever since you stopped coming here we all feared that you were killed by one of the forest creatures...but for you to have a mark...you can't be here anymore. Coming here with a mark and being an alicorn...what happened to you in these past four years?" Seems like my uncle was worried about me, and yes I do consider him my uncle because when I met him when I was only 10 and didn't even have a single cutie mark to my name, so I was allowed to be there but they sensed that Nightmare Moon was watching over me so they didn't zombifie me, which is good since I really don't want to be a zombie or be only allowed to be my true self at night.
"Well Uncle Grey...what happened to me, I am still trying to figure that part out but for the past four years I have been thoroughly trained by Nightmare Moon and became her Eternal Guard. But we were defeated by six mares that were actually the bearers of the Elements of Harmony...Nightmare Moon was defeated...I was near death...and I was spared by my crimes of trying to overthrow Equestria by working as a bodyguard for those that defeated us. Long Story short...I am nothing more than a slave to them." I said while plopping down on the grass and lowering my head to meet it, saddened that I came so far only to have it yanked out from under me. "Than I realized my parents back in Ponyville aren't actually my real parents..." that shocked the hell out of everypony present.
They all started to ask who my parents were, where are they, why did they leave me with those ponies, and who I really am. I couldn't even answer any of them since I didn't even have a clue where to start and that if I told them that my father was nothing more than a shadow than I am nothing more than a figment of nothing.
"Nephew...even if you are marked for life..." as if it was a curse or something..."you are still who you are...you are a proud unic-...I mean alicorn. Do what is right and no one can judge you...us on the other hoof...we all have committed such terrible crimes that we are forever condemned here." at that end I finally spoke up.
"No...I found a way to free you all...but first I must deal with Princess Celestia....and give her a piece of my mind...and now if you excuse me I need to learn how to fly...flying in my sleep is not the same as flying in real life...so if I fall please try to catch me if you can." and with that I got up and tried to get a feel for my wings but they were folded to my sides and was not even responding to my thoughts. I walked off to the center of the town and began my first lessons in flying...by myself...with no teacher...
"Oh come on! Wings work! Flap! Fly! Up up and away! Do something!" at each command it felt like my new wings were just mocking me the entire time. "I hate you..." and they hated me to. Sighing in defeat I slump to the grass and layed my head down to catch a break.
Laying down on that grass for a little over two hours I tried again but this time only managed to make my wings twitch and slightly move, giving up yet again I simply just lay down and hoped for the best the next time I attempt to earn my wings. I woke up ten hours later and it was night time, the town was now in shambles and the ponies were now zombies, going place to place while I just saw it all happen. Grey Hoof was the first to notice me looking around and waved me over to him.
"So you tried to fly?" I nodded at him, "I didn't work did it?" I shoke my head slowly, "Well you can stay here for the night, Mitta will take you to your room here, and please try not to break the bed, its hard enough to find the materials to repair some of the furniture here." I nodded at him and with that the sounds of his bones clattering and parts of his exposed ribs clicking against each other was still an unnerving sight to me. Moments later Mitta turned the corner and she looked the same as she was four years ago, she was still a zombiepony like the rest of them but she was completely whole, no signs of decay but still had the same glowing red eyes as the rest of them but was not rotting or missing any part of herself, and if I was not taken I would have thought about being with her if she wasn't cursed.
As I was unknowingly looking her over I saw that even though she was undead she was slightly red in face, which was to me I thought shouldn't be possible since being a zombie means any bodily function shouldn't be working at all, it seems she broke that rule. Without missing stride she hit me upside the head with a newspaper and said no to me as if I was a puppy that just chewed up someponies newspaper or slippers. Laughing as she hits me I simple chuckle at the hit and follow her, somewhat ducking as I enter her home and almost had to crawl up the stairs to get to my old room, ducking again to enter my room, looking down at my room I saw that it was filled with boxes that were filled with supplies and other material.
'My room became a storage bin when I wasn't here...how nice.'
"Nice to know that my unused room has a new purpose. Good to see that storage is not a problem Mitta, so what has happened in the past four years that I was gone?" I asked with actual wonder since it looks like a few of them were sad that someone important left and never returned.
Mitta sadly looked away from me before I used magic to make her look into my eyes before she spoke up. "There was a little filly that came here a year ago...she was an earth pony like us and she didn't have the mark yet, so Grey Hoof tried to turn her into one of us but I would not allow it...after what happened to the last filly that came here and accidentally got her mark...what they did to her...they killed Ruby, Nightshade...they killed her and hid her body in the fireplace of Starlet's home...I had to save the little filly...I was punished by being forced to stay in my home for a loong time." I raised my hoof at her signalling her to stop, she knew that whenever I raised my hoof at her like that she would know that I would go into deep thought and was to be left alone. And so she left me alone in my room, thinking deeply on what she just told me but before she left I asked one question, "Was her name Applebloom?" she only nodded at me before she closed the door.
When the door was closed I immediately casted a spell to muffle the sounds within my room and lifted up a ceramic vase and threw it at the wall, shattering it into small pieces as I stomped my hooves on the hard wooden floor as I let out my frustrations onto the room I was in. Snorting angerly I threw a tantrum and started knocking things over until I barely heard a knock on my door and by how soft and rapid it was, I knew it was Starlet. Cancelling the spell I slightly clean up the room and openned the door.
"Yes Starlet? What is it?" looking directly into her eyes, those glowing red orbs and behind it was nothing more than a partially rotting skull along with the rest of her body. She is still sorta scary even though I knew her as long as I have known Mitta and Grey Hoof.
She swallowed nervously as I slightly cringed at it, not entirely used to seeing the insides of a dead body, I was still not used to it even though I blew the brains out of manticore with magic while my head was in its mouth.
"Nightshade...is it true that you are going to free us from this curse? I mean...like really free us from this never ending nightmare?" she said while nervously looking around, looking around my room, seeing the damage I have done to it. "And it seems you had a rough time dealing with the princess that cursed us..."
I looked back at my room and was slightly shocked that I managed to only do that to it, I half expected it to be a complete mess, with wood and hay all over the place, instead it looked like some unicorn pulled a prank and left a mess behind in its wake.
"Starlet, I will get this curse removed...and besides, I am still not sure that if the curse being raised is good or bad...you all have been alive alot longer than normal ponies...who knows if the curse being lifted will revert yourselves to your proper age...or it could turn you into ashes and dust since you lived farther than normal...I want to be sure before anything happends." I said out of concern since that if I was right than an entire village of ponies will be reduced to ashes and dust.
After a while she left me alone and I was looking around my room until I decided to take a quick break from it and left my room alone, teleporting short distances as far I can see, warping from point to point, occasionally landing near a pile of poison joke and almost falling into it, not knowing what it will to do me this time since I have both wings and a horn now. After an hour of teleporting I finally reached a wide open area in the forest that somewhat looked like the dream I was having last night and that it even had the same stone circle in the center except it was just a plane stone slab, no inscriptions or symbols...ordinary.
"Nightshade....it is good to see you are out enjoying my night...but what are you doing in a place like this?" her voice said behind me, slightly startling me since I never expected anypony to even come this far into my forest or let alone find me right here.
Looking over to her I saw that she was crying a few minutes ago as the partially dried tears stained her dark coat, and by the looks of her eyes I knew that it was about me and that it was about Celestia's decision about me being an alicorn now.
"Luna my dear...I am out here because I wanted to be here...this is my forest afterall and besides you and I both know that I enjoy the night. That and because this area is very familiar to me..." I said while looking at her, motioning her forward with a hoof to come sit next to me, as she slowly came over I looked up into the night sky, pointing out the different constellations in the dark until finally I felt the soft warm feathers of her wing hooking around me, pulling me into a hug. I knew it wouldn't last long since where one princess is, the other is bound to show up.
Almost on cue I faintly heard the fluttering of wings as Celestia landed not to far from us, wearing the usual heart warming smile that oddly makes me want to step on a flower to make the happy feeling numb for me. "So this is where Luna found you and led me to....the center of the Everfree Forest...and clearing in which me and Luna have used the Elements of Harmony on Discord and freed us from his chaotic reign...a glorious day it was but now we are back in the place where it began...the beginning of another chaotic reign if you insist on ruling the Everfree." she said while staring at me, not even once letting me out of her sight as I stepped forward and we began to circle each other, trying to find a hint of weakness in the other.
"Aye Celestia...I still intend to rule this forest, and the beasts and villages within her are already heeding my call to them, the citizens of Sunny Town are actually trying to repair the village even though it would soon go back to its ruined state but not for long...the other scattered villages of Willow Falls, Oakenburg, Yew Heights, and Taunbaum Flats are starting to prepare themselves for my arrival, I have sent out my forest pets with specially made saddles with letters to be delivered to them, and within three days time I will retrieve their responses." I said while smirking at her, occasionally looking her over and every few circles I grin at her and chuckle under my breath, trying to break her proper form to enter to early and make a mistake. Looking at her eyes I saw that they haven't seen a pillow in a day or two, running on fumes or a strong waking tea, but nevertheless she was running on fumes and even she knew it.
"So Nightshade...I guess this leaves me with only two options...and I know that neither of you will be willing to take them without question. Your first option will be to abandon any ideas of this place, running it or even thinking that it is yours to rule over. The other option is to stay here and never leave its borders, you and your ponies here will forever be exiled to it and can never leave its trees." she said while still giving me that heart-felt smile that is trying to tear apart my drive and motives, trying to make me see it her way...but I won't.
"Well than...I guess we just need to see things in our twilight than." and with that my horn glowed a twisted aura of both white and black as the two began to intermingle with each other, both shades mixing until finally all three of us were teleported away only to be dropped at the same spot that we were in...only different.
The Realm of Dusk and Dawn, Forest of Shadows,Twilight
As soon as we appeared on the stone slab, Celestia was the first to get up onto her hooves and pounced ontop of me, her eyes glaring at me while her horn glowed its golden color, bearing down her sword at my throat while I tried to figure out what just happened. Even I knew that I was meant to teleport me and Luna away from that location back to the castle but instead I teleported all three of us to this realm.
"Tell me what you did to us Nightshade! I will not ask you again!" Celestia said while putting pressure on the blade slightly forcing it down onto my windpipe, partially cutting off my air supply until Luna intervined by pushing her off of me and dragging me up off my hooves. Coughing ruggedly and trying to shake the disorientating blur from my eyes I barely saw that me and Luna were standing ontop of the same slab from my dreams and from the pasture except the runes and stone was glowing its dark and bright colors.
"Tia be calm! Harming thee will not get us home, and thee only meant to get away from thou. Thou was threatning him afterall, and thou almost slain our only method of escaping this....this....twilight." was all that Luna said before she turned around and looked around herself, everything was silver and grey, their was no sun or moon, only an eternal eclipse that never sets as the clouds themselves moved on their own accord, even the grass itself moved with a mind of its own, causing an already unsettled Celestia to angerly glare at me and snort with barely checked rage.
"Yes Tia do calm down, there are only two beings in this realm of never ending eclipse and one of them is standing next to me...the other is below us in a coffin....and We both know that he can not be released." Luan says after I recovered enough to focus on my horn and made it glow the same blending of colors, creating a pair of swords but neither of them even had the appearance of one. Both looked like a farmers sickle except that the handle was that of a sword, the blade itself looked like a crescent moon, widest at the base, smallest at the tip. Looking at them I noticed that it was made of the same material as the coffin and that the handle and pommel were engraved with glyphs and pure moonstones. Fancy looking weapons that hopefully doesn't mean that they are only meant for show not practical use.
Glancing at my blades Celestia slightly backed away from us until she regained her composure, staring back at us like we are criminals except that we both were convicted of treason and let off with different punishments, mine was just terrible since it was life or death, and I love living and choosing death would have really been a bad idea at the time. Taking a further glance I saw that all three of us were on the dark slab, and with a slight flick of my horn it collasped beneath us, forcing us underground as we all tumbled end over end until we were caught by black tendrils coming from the walls and floors. Gently placing us down I saw that Celestia was confused to the point of not knowing that I was a few feet in front of her, Luna well...her jaw dropped when she saw the walls lined with Equestria's history, and I was snickering like crazy at their reactions. After nearly ten minutes of gawking, trying to close a jaw, laughing on the floor, and getting bucked in the side to get up and explain, all three of us were looking around for a way out of the tomb except up since it was sealed up...not sure how.
"Nightshade...get us out of here now...we do not belong here...and neither do you. And how do you even know of this place? We had thought we had banished it from every recorded book and scroll in Equestria! Who or what told you of this realm?" Celestia said while glaring at me, appearently this realm was not meant for ponies to explore, not sure why though, looks lovely if you can get over the strangeness and cold air, other than that it looks wonderful.
"Because Celestia...I told my son to come here...but I did not tell him to bring you two..." the voice spoke from behind all three of us, the coffin was glowing a dark yellow as it began to shift from its resting place until it was at a 45 degree angle. "Celestia...Luna...you know my son Nightshade...but you do not know his true father...his adoptive father Shadow Blitz, along with his adoptive mother Light Breeze, both under my orders to watch over my son and what a perfect job they done...they allowed him to be exiled when he was not meant to...he was nearly killed by the beasts of my forest when I told them to leave him alone...my son and Nightmare Moon f-" before he could finish that sentence I coughed a bit to signal him that I was still conscious and was listening to everything that he was saying. "Father...now is not the time to say such things...espcially with Princess Celestia here....I am sure she doesn't want to know what happened that fateful night." I said while praying to everything that he wouldn't press on. "Actually Nightshade...I do want to know what you and Nightmare Moon did on that night..." oh buck me to tears...
"As I was saying...you and Nightmare Moon were going at it as if it was the end of your days...the things you both did to each other was...shocking to say the least...I never knew anyponys spine could bend that way...let alone be used for that function....but before I go off track I would like to know son...why?" oh that question...why did I do it? Well....."In all honesty...it was because I was scared that if I said no my head would have put on a pike...and because I loved her but was afraid to confess it to her...I mean honestly...a unicorn can only live for so long...even with the dark magic helping me I would have eventually died...I knew I couldn't be with her forever...so I made sure it would count. And besides...my spine only bent that way because she sorta...well that bed was not meant for those activities..." I said with a small hint of blush on my face, I was absolutely embaressed...my own father spying on me at that time was bad enough but telling it to both Celestia and Luna was just plain overkill for me. "Wow...I never knew my sister was into 'those' kinds of activities. Maybe I should invite him to the Gala this year and give a little time for you both." Celestia said with a smirk, my response was "My spine can't handle that again!", Luna's was "just a little time with him..."
"Before anything else...Celestia...Luna...do not even threaten my son...do not even try to force him into anything...I see and hear everything..and if I see any of you dare harm a strand of his mane...you will know the consequences...and Nightshade...try not to set my forest on fire..." the voice said from within the coffin, its words echonig within the tomb. "Oh hardy har har father....like I am going to set the forest on fire...who do you take me for? A fool?" there was silence. "I hate you..."
After our talk I felt the air grow cold and icy, the very ground itself slowly began to freeze over, Luna and Celestia quickly got into the air to prevent their hooves from freezing but since I didn't know how to fly I was stuck being grounded, the ice slowly began to cover my hooves until it sealed me to the floor, preventing me from even moving. As I began to shake and try and shatter the ice it began to grow slowly upwards, and as soon as I stopped moving it stopped its advances, Luna was looking at me with horror as I slowly froze over as Celestia just grinned at me, hoping that I would be taken care of. Glaring at her I simply flare my wings at her and snort with anger cause the ice is preventing me of giving Celestia a piece of my mind.
"Son...do not go after the path of vengence...that will only lead to ruin and death....forgive her for her actions...and you will be set on the path of redemption...soon you will be needed for an act of such importance that it will be recorded on the wall of history." my father said to me, his voice was echoing and even now was enough to make me cringe from how loud it was. After a while I began to see wisps of black smoke slowly appeared in front of me, a pair of black and golden orbs winked into existence, than slowly the voice spoke up again but this time more clear and softer, "Son...please do this for me...you are the last of our line...you are an alicorn at birth but I had to hide your wings till you came of age...stay with Princess Luna...take care of her...be with her....and do not cause her harm...the world is changing and soon the ponies as well...use my magic well...for the shadows can be a corruptive force if used in malice. The Darkness of the world be with you my child...take care...for you can now only visit this realm in your sleep....good bye my son."
Canterlot Palace, Throne Room, Midnight
We all suddenly vanished and re-appeared in the throne room, with the room filled with guards, noble ponies, and even the six mares that hold the elements were all waiting in the room. The guards quickly formed a line infront of the snobby nobles as more guards flooded the room, the loud sound of hooves on marble tile was enough to get me to groan loudly and roll over, suffering from a mind splitting head-ache, was enough to get me to wave my hooves at them, trying to tell them to stop the noise. They did not listen but instead thought I was flailing about and acting like a little foal.
After a while I slowly got to my hooves as both princesses were now moving to their respectable thrones and sat down, waiting for me to do anything...my only response to all of it was.
"Why is everypony looking at me?"
And in that moment, I was respected...I was cared for...and above all else....nopony knew who I was.
Only problem was that I now had to deal with something worse than fighting or working for the six mares.....
Paperwork...
Canterlot Garden, Night
"Soon nephew...we shall meet...in time..."