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// Counterpart Meeting 
// Story: The True Shadow 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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	The thing about waiting was that Sweetie and her friends all seemed to absolutely hate it. They were were, waiting at the Ponyville train station with all the other foals and ponies whose destination was the School of Shadows. Ponies would eye Sweetie and mutter something or they would pretend she wasn't there, so that was why she naturally hung at the back of the line.

Most ponies still gave her a hard time about her appearance, the form of Thrack that she had chosen to keep wearing despite what it reminded her of. Mostly she paid it no mind, but there were times where she just wanted to escape her own mind and ignore all the things ponies said about her. At a time it would have made her go to the Princesses and ask them to remove the form from her body, but she was pretty sure it was neigh impossible to do that. Even if they could she was sure that the process was going to be painful and it really wasn't worth it.

The train had two destinations overall; the first being Canterlot so they could pick up any other students before continuing on to the second destination, the Realm between Realms. It was there that the School of Shadows silently stood, watching over the forsaken world as if it was a beacon of unity that could not be snuffed out. Unity between those who followed the Light of Harmony, the Light, and those who followed the Light of War, the Shadows.

The train rolled into the station and Sweetie snapped out of her thoughts, returning her attention to her friends as all the fillies boarded the train. There were at least a dozen of them, if not two dozen of them, and each of them carried two saddlebags, each filled with school supplies. Sweetie had a third bag, mostly filled with items that she had taken from the wreckage of what was once Thrack's war base. She had mostly the shards of the vile runeblade that she could find and a relic that was shaped like two magical forces conflicting with each other.

Despite what was happening Sweetie could not help but wonder if something was going to happen when she and her counterpart met in the Realm between Realms.

~The Shadow Realm~

Bitter Belle yawned as she rested her head on the window of the train compartment she was sharing with her friends and the rest of her fellow fillies. Shadowlot was terrifying, but it wasn't as terrifying as meeting Princess Darkstar and her sister Princess Nightmare. The Shadow Solar Goddess was currently the most terrifying pony in the entire universe and she had the power to back her claims.

Bitter wondered if she had even used her full power against any of her previous foes, the first being Reginald, the second being Midnight, and the third being Thrack herself. Darkstar was the most powerful pony in all of creation now, yet she was reduced to attending school with the rest of the ponies. She would be one of the teachers and Bitter knew that if something were to happen she would be one of the ones who would react first.

Bitter had heard a rumor of something happening below the School of Shadows, the constant noise that sounded like somepony crafting something under everypony's noses. If something was being made under the school it was likely a mechanical device that none of the students were supposed to find out about, yet there was already a rumor about it. Bitter suspected that the rumor and Darkstar were somehow connected, that she was crafting something to put herself back on top of everypony in every realm.

Her friends were excited, as they should have been, but Bitter was still worried. She knew something big was coming to the School of Shadows, something that was dark, evil, and uncaring for anypony other than itself. All hooves, or in Bitter's case claws, pointed her in the direction of Darkstar, but without any evidence she was jumping at shadows and making stupid ideas. Her eyes lingered on the doorway to her train compartment, the same door that Darkstar and Nightmare had used to enter the room before heading to the head of the train.

The train rolled to a stop, surprising Bitter because they weren't supposed to be stopping...unless they had reached the School of Shadows and hadn't told anypony yet. The school itself was the same as she had heard, large, towering, and, more importantly, a mass of electricity that seemed to buzz all over the place. There were streams of what appeared to be bright white magic and a second pitch black magic, which was odd since there was one pony who could have done something like this. Prince Midnight, the prince form a different realm altogether, was the only one that could create two separate streams without them mixing.

Something strange was definitely going on.

"Bitter Belle?" the voice sounded familiar and Bitter had to turn to be sure of it's source, "Is that you?"

The source was none other than her counterpart, the filly called Sweetie Belle. The thing the two of them shared, and made them feared by most ponies in their respective towns, was the form of Thrack that they had chosen to keep.

"Sweetie Belle," she greeted, the two standing face to face, "Yeah, its really me. Something is up with the school. From what I've been told i don't think those streams are supposed to be there."

"My sister has been experimenting with magic ever since she was defeated by Midnight," said a voice as Princess Nightmare Moon appeared behind them, "She said something about finding the true meaning of what it means to be a Shadow. She has become obsessed with trying to discover the means to either merge both the Light and the Shadow or figure out why we Shadows exist in the first place."

Sweetie and Bitter looked around for the missing Shadow Princess, only to find her standing before the gates of the School with a look of wonder on her face. She must have discovered something interesting while she was waiting for the train to arrive so she could deboard and begin preparing. Neither pony wanted to trust the Shadow, considering what had happened in the past, but they had no choice to accept her as one of their teachers. At least they hoped that they didn't get Princess Darkstar as one of their teachers for the coming weeks.