Back at Ardyn’s castle, Shadow was laying on his bed still passed out after that hit from the boulder Flurry Heart did on him. Ardyn ordered Chrysalis and Makucha to put him in his room for him to rest till he wakes up.
But unknowingly to them all, while he still passed out, he was having a blurry vision. A vision that was showing his past. The TRUE past before he was frozen for so long.
There he saw a beautiful young girl with blond hair, white skin and a lovely blue dress. It was Maria. She smiled at Shadow while saying his name as it echoed.
“Shadow…Shadow…Shadow.”
But then, her happy tone turned a scared tone.
“Shadow! Do not help him! Do not let him win! Please!”
Shadow’s vision started to glitch making him unable to see properly as he saw a strange figure appearing behind Maria. The glitch made the figure get closer and closer to the girl. When the glitching had stopped, he saw Maria laying on the ground. She was dead.
“MARIA!” He shouted.
Shadow tried to reach out to his friend, but he was ambushed by that strange figure who, in clear view, was wearing a black rubber trench coat, pinstripe trousers, a red scarf and a hooded gray and white flower-print mantle. And on his left hand was a blade knife while his right hand had a dark purple grasp around it.
“Maria!” Shadow shouted while quickly waking up. He looked around and saw he was now in his room of the castle. He then looked at his left hand. “Sonic didn’t kill Maria or made me look like I’m the bad guy,” he said to himself. He then got angry while turning his left hand into a fist.
“He did.”
In the main castle room, Chrysalis and Makucha was there looking pretty scared as Ardyn glared at them angrily. Ardyn ditched the black coat and was now back to wearing his black rubber trench coat, pinstripe trousers, a red scarf and a hooded gray and white flower-print mantle as well as his black fedora.
“What do you mean you didn’t managed to get them?! How hard was it to do one single task?! Collect the cub and the pony, that’s all you had to do!”
“Ardyn, you must understand,” said Chrysalis in fear, “We tried to make them come with us without bringing harm to the ones they love. Plus, a-an avalanche happened. There wasn’t anything we could do.” Makucha nodded his head.
“WRONG!” Ardyn shouted angrily, “You should have built a wall or made a shield to stop it! Or better yet, just grab the two before it even started! Do you have any idea how close we are to losing time?! By the time they stopped the nightmares, the darkness within them will fade away and I won’t be able to grow more powerful to become the true king! How many more failures do you need to do before you actually succeed for once?!”
Suddenly, the doors swung open, crashing against the walls, as Robotink and Agent Stone were flying backwards. They hit the ground on the backs before passing out. Ardyn, Chrysalis and Makucha saw this.
“What the?” Said Ardyn.
The three then saw it was Shadow who did it as he stood in the doorway while breathing heavily and staring angrily at Ardyn.
“Shadow? You’re awake already?” Asked Ardyn in surprised, “But why would you attack Robotink and Stone like that?”
“You lied to me,” growled Shadow while walking towards Ardyn.
“Excuse me?”
Chrysalis and Makucha walked back as they didn’t want Shadow to do what he was going to do to Ardyn.
“I said, you lied to me.”
Ardyn could tell he was now on to him. He must have learned what really happened in his past that he killed his friend after he was frozen and woke him years later just to tell him a bunch of lies about Sonic and make him the bad guy.
“I…I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Oh you know EXACTLY what I’m talking about,” said Shadow, “You’re the reason Maria’s dead! You killed her before waking me up after years of being frozen just to get me to stop Sonic when he had nothing to do with my past in the first place!”
“Oh come now, Shadow,” said Ardyn with an innocent smile, “I only did sweet Maria a favour. She was close to dying before she froze you.”
“By killing her?! They would have found a way to save her if her grandfather wasn’t arrested and before I was frozen! She could have unfroze me when it was time for me to come back!”
Ardyn’s smile slowly changed to a glare as he said, “Everything I did was to make you become who you are now.”
“And what was it I was suppose to become? A murderer? An out of control hedgehog? An evil version of Sonic? I may look like him, but I’m completely different to him! I’m an android! I was built to protect Maria and those that are innocent! You turned me into a villain and made me hurt innocent lives while ignoring every single truth Sonic told me! And not only that, you made me try to capture two innocent kids! How many more lies were you going to tell me?! Were you planning on telling me you’ve found a way to bring Maria back only for Midnight Crown to eliminate me behind my back?!”
“Hmmm…not quite,” said Ardyn, “I do plan to have Midnight Crown eliminate you, but you missed out the part where I lie to him about making more powerful than his ex-sisters only to eliminate him when I no longer need any use of him.”
“You plan to eliminate me?!” said the voice of Midnight Crown.
Ardyn, Shadow, Chrysalis and Makucha looked towards the doorway and saw Midnight Crown standing there in shock after hearing he was going to be eliminated once Ardyn no longer needs him.
“Midnight, how much did you hear?” Ardyn asked now feeling worried.
“All of it,” growled Midnight before making his way towards the evil man, “The part where you lied about how Maria died, you tricked Shadow, and how you plan to use me to eliminate him before you eliminate me! I thought you were going to help me become the king I was supposed to become! But as it turns out, you lied and have been using me since we first met!”
“Come now, Midnight, look at the bright side. At least you’ll still get revenge on the two sisters that ruined your life.”
“YOU ruined my life,” said Midnight, “Before I heard everything else, I had vision. And you know what was in that vision? You sneaking into the castle and placed darkness into me, when I was little, which caused me to hate my royal role and go against my family. Which means, I killed my mother and aunt, because of YOU!”
“Wow,” said Chrysalis in surprised, “And I thought I was insane when doing bad stuff.”
“Tell me about it,” agreed Makucha.
“Was this your plan all along?! To make us become threats to our worlds, to kill and destroy the wrong enemies and to eliminate us after you gain the darkness from those kids?!”
“Well now you’ll have to think of a new plan,” said Shadow crossly, “Because whatever it is you want to do to Roni and Lightning Twister, you can do it alone.”
“What are you saying?” Ardyn asked crossly.
“I’m saying, I’m leaving. And I plan to take the kid along if he wants to tag along.”
Ardyn was so not happy that Shadow was now planning on leaving him after he had learnt everything. He got so angry that his face started to turn white with purple marks cracking onto his face, revealing his true form.
“No one betrays me! NO ONE!” He shouted angrily as a whole bunch of swords and knives appeared around him all pointing at Shadow.
“I think we better stand back,” said Chrysalis in fear.
“Agreed,” said Makucha as the two shakingly stood back.
Ardyn raised his right hand forward and made all his knives and swords fly towards Shadow. But Shadow was quick on his feet and slide away while dodging the knives that hit the wall instead of him. Shadow disappeared and reappeared in different spots several times making the knives and swords hit the wall and floor. He even quickly grabbed some of them and threw them through the windows.
“HOLD STILL!” Ardyn shouted.
Shadow appeared behind Ardyn and punched him across the back of his head. The white skin and purple marks disappeared, to Ardyn’s original skin, as he collapsed to the ground with his fedora coming off his head.
“I don’t take orders from you anymore.”
Shadow disappeared and reappeared behind Chrysalis and Makucha as he kicked them behind their heads. They both collapsed down while rubbing the back of their heads. Shadow landed next to Midnight. He took out his chaos emerald and looked at the pony.
“Solar.” Shadow raised his hand out to Midnight. “Come with me.”
Solar nodded his head before grabbing Shadow’s hand. Shadow raised the emerald up and shouted, “Chaos control!” Both Shadow and Solar disappeared in a flesh of green light.
“Hey, they’re getting away!” Chrysalis said.
Makucha growled in anger before asking, “Shall we go after them?”
“No,” answered Ardyn as he got up and put his fedora back on, “Let them go. I’ll deal with them later. They’ll regret discovering the truth and betraying me.” He then glared at Chrysalis and Makucha. “And don’t you two dare think about betraying me either!” The Changeling and leopard shook in fear.
“Now, get ready,” he ordered before leaving the room, “Our attack will begin soon.”
Chrysalis and Makucha looked at each other in fear.
Back at the Tree of Life, everyone was cleaning the snow after that avalanche. Cadence had just took Shining to the cave after yelling at Flurry Heart. The others offered to help Kion and his friends and family clean out the snow, even the young seven helped too.
Flurry Heart, however, was still feeling down after that fight with her father earlier while cleaning out the snow. She couldn’t help but feel guilty after causing that avalanche and that she thinks her father was right on how she was the baby that nearly doomed the Crystal Empire. And now she thinks she’s also the filly that almost destroyed the Tree of Life.
She sadly looked at Rani who was helping Twilight clear out the snow from the two trees. She didn’t know if she was mad at her for causing that avalanche and that her aunt wasn’t happy with her not thinking before actually doing something.
Flurry let out a sad sigh before walking over to the queen.
After cleaning some snow from the grass, Rani saw Flurry Heart coming towards her. She could tell she had a sad but also guilt look on her face.
“Rani,” said Flurry Heart in a sad but guilt tone, “I-I’m sorry for causing that avalanche to happen. I didn’t know it was going to happen.”
Rani frowned at the sad filly and said, “Hey, hey, it’s okay. I’m not mad at you. I know you didn’t mean to do it.”
“But I removed the boulder that was holding the avalanche. I’m nothing but a filly that almost dooms everycreature.”
“Now that’s not true, Flurry Heart,” said Twilight as she walked towards her niece, “What your father did was wrong. He had no right to treat you like that after The Crystalling problem, and he had no right to point out that you were right about what you said you were.”
“I dunno,” said Discord, “From the way I see it, she does look like the type of alicorn that likes destroying things and bringing doom to everyone.”
Twilight and Rani stared crossly at Discord and both shouted in unison, “Shut up, Discord! And get lost!”
Discord got frightened from the two’s shouting as he snapped his fingers to disappear in a flesh of light.
“Besides,” continued Twilight, “What you did moons ago was just an accident. You were only a baby and had no control over your magic. Especially since you were the first pony to be born as an alicorn.”
“But why do you forgive me for destroying the Crystal Heart and not mad at me for nearly dooming the Crystal Empire?” Asked the young filly.
“Because you’re my niece and I love you,” answered Twilight, “Besides, I was busy worrying about the Crystal Empire and finding a Crystaller for you to even be a little mad at you.”
“So you’re not really mad at me?”
“Of course not, little bug,” answered Twilight softly while gently placing a hoof on Flurry Heart’s shoulder, “None of us are mad at you for removing that boulder. It was an accident, and you just wanted to help and save Sonic. After all, mistakes happen and we all make them.”
“Twilight’s right,” said Kion while walking to the three, “It’s not your fault the avalanche happened. It was just an accident, and mistakes don’t count as a bad thing, even when you didn’t mean to do it.”
“Although, Ardyn will be making a huge mistake if he tries to attack us,” said Oliver who was approaching the four, “And that mistake will count as a bad thing. Though, I’m unsure if he’ll make a huge mistake when he puts Lightning’s darkness and the evil from Roni together, even if placing them together might lead to something worse.”
“It will,” said Doctor Strange.
The four saw Doctor Strange walking towards them as he then said, “While you lot were clearing the snow, I checked to see what will happen if Lightning’s darkness and the evil within Roni merge together and the resources are shocking. Here, I’ll show you.”
Doctor Strange waved his two fingers around to create a big orange grasp screen to show everyone the resources. On the screen was a dark smoke for Lightning’s darkness and the dark red fire for the evil within Roni. The smoke and fire flew together and flew around together like an angry tornado as it turned into a big patch of fiery darkness which started to cover and burn not just the Tree of Life but also the Pride Lands and all of Equestria.
This made everyone, including Flurry Heart and Cosmos, go into shock after seeing what will happen. Lightning got scared after seeing the resources as Silverstream picked him up and held him in her left talon arm in comfort.
The orange grasp screen fades away before Strange said, “It could drown everything and every world into darkness. It’ll be unstoppable.”
“Dad, you can’t let this happen!” Roni said in fear, “I don’t want everything to drown in darkness.”
“Don’t worry, son,” said Kion, “We won’t let Ardyn get you or Lightning, and let everything drown in darkness. We will do everything we can to protect you both, no matter how long it’ll take.” Rani nodded her head in agreement.
Constantine suddenly noticed something behind Roni’s left ear. “Hey kid, what’s that behind your ear?” He asked before gently taking it from the cub’s ear to take a better look at it. It was a piece of a rubber trench coat.
“A piece of a rubber clothing?”
“How long did I have that behind my ear?” Roni asked, “And how come I didn’t felt it?”
“Plus how did it get behind your ear?” Ono asked.
“The only way to figure that out is to use a spell to see who had that kind of clothing,” said Sunburst, “But unfortunately, none of us have that sort magic to cast it or know that spell.”
“Wait, John, don’t you know a spell that could see who had that type of clothing and what he was doing?” Oliver asked.
“I sure do, mate. Why?” Constantine suddenly realised what he was on about as he grinned while saying, “Wait, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Yeah,” answered Oliver while grinning proudly and raising an eyebrow.