//------------------------------//
// Don't let me be misunderstood 
// Story: There can't be Light without Shadows 
// by Silverweed 
//------------------------------//

Carrot Top had learned with time that living in Ponyville could proof to be prone to quite a diverse set of troubles over the course of time since Twilight Sparkle had taken residence as the town librarian. She never would have expected to be the target, let alone the cause of such a thing. 
But now she was and she would definitely chide herself for that, if she was able to make it out of this mess alive. Unfortunately for her, it didn’t look like it right now, as this could be the case. Whatever had been buried under the field with its stone salt circle and its obsidian rocks was now free and to Carrot Tops great distress it seemed, that she was its target. She was now surrounded by a magical whirlwind of blackness, which trapped her inside its center. Sparks and bolts of magical energy shooting soundlessly across the inside of its borders. The silence of this was more unnerving to her, than a howling and crackling cacophony of wind and energy combined would instill under such circumstances. She had tried to call for help, but the magical twister seemed to void all sounds from its center. Carrot Top jumped a bit as a sudden jolt of pain rushed through her body and she watched in horror as her hind legs started to become tainted with some eerie, oozing substance, which clung to her legs and seeped into her coat and flesh. The substance begun to cover more and more of her body, sending waves of searing pain through her nerves to her brain every time the substance covered a new part of her body, leaving the covered parts in piercing coldness until Carrot Top couldn’t take any more of it and collapsed under the sheer physical exertion. After the substance had reached her chest, Carrot Tops lungs burned with every breath, but it didn’t stop there, the substance traveled up her neck and wrapped itself around her head, finally being too much for her to take.  Before unconsciousness took her into its soothing embrace she thought she heard a voice whisper, “Sorry for the inconvenience.”


*~*~* Hours later *~*~*


The moon had climbed high into the sky as Carrot Top awoke in a haze, her mind still numb from the events that took place this evening. A gentle breeze caressed her coat as she lay in the grass, unable to tell if she was still alive or dead yet. She thought that if this was afterlife, than it would disappoint anypony as much as it had disappointed her until now. There were no dark tunnels that led to a bright white light or golden gates that swung open, revealing Elysium, there weren’t even her beloved, long-gone grandparents waiting for her, there was only something that looked like the accursed field in Ponyville where she had unleashed another evil being. So her mind concluded that in fact, she wasn’t dead, but just lacked any sort of repercussions of the pains she had before. Oh and whatever unnatural, evil spirit she had set free seemed to be offended that she called it evil.

I just wanted to inform you, that, in fact, I am not evil, the spirit that may could be evil, but naturally claimed that he wasn’t told her. Then again, I am not good either. I just exist. Oh, and before I forgot, I am no spirit either, but the remaining essence of a pony. 

At the sound and closeness of that voice, Carrot Top whipped her head frantically around, her eyes wide, to find its source. It took her a good couple of moments before she realized, that the spirit or essence or what-or, whoever it was, was in her body.
“GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, shaking her head violently as if to dislodge anything that clung to her mane or coat. Meanwhile her body lunched itself into a mad dash, but she stopped herself before she could reach a full gallop, because the pragmatic side of her kicked in and came to the conclusion that it would be no use to run from anything that was in her body or mind. So she slowed down until she came to a stop and then fell to her haunches, blinking away tears of stress and dread that had formed in her eyes and then staring dumbly straight ahead, not sure what to do now, let alone how to really cope with this. Her mind slowed to a crawl, as the realization struck home, that she couldn’t run from this thing in her head and her heart rate and breathing started to quicken even more as they already were. Shortly before a new panic could arise, her crawling mind stumbled upon the thought that she could always go to Twilight, who surely had enough experience with unnatural situations to resolve this mess, but as the adrenaline rush had subsided and Carrot Top tried to stand up again, her body wouldn’t budge, still too exhausted from earlier. 

Carrot Top could do nothing more, than to just lay there, tremble with fear for her sanity and wait until her body felt ready to stand up again. So she waited and after a time wondered why the thing in her head had not spoken again, but came up short with an answer. After waiting some more and finally having calmed down enough to stop her own thought to always come full circle to the conclusion that she was doomed, she begun to gaze at the stars and the moon, the silence became hard to bear for Carrot Top and she asked aloud, albeit she knew that the thing in her head was the only one who could hear her, “Who are you and…and…why me?”
At first, there was only more silence, except for the faint rustling of leaves in the nightly breeze from a distant tree, but then there it was, the second voice in her head. 
Who I am? The better question would be who I was, but I digress… My name was and, well, still is Fine Line and it had to be you, because there was nopony else around and after you so foalishly disturbed the ritual ground that bound my very essence to this place, you left me with no other choice then to take refugee inside your body. So I made your body my home.

Carrot Top escaped a loud whimper at his harsh reply, but at least she was able to stop her trembling. That this situation downright troubled her, was a crass understatement, she was still in a state that could just a easy grow to a full panic again, even if a somehow calm part of her brain reasoned that she herself had been the cause for this situation. She was unable to deneigh the fact, that her instincts had told her many times to stop and just to walk away from this strange place, but her rational mind had them dismissed as nothing more than foalish thoughts, that just turned up in her mind, because she worked this field for hours and had not seen anypony else for the whole time, so her thoughts had started to wander into the direction of the rumors about this particular patch of land and she had stopped herself many time from analyzing those rumors to closely. As it had turned out, her instincts had been right, at least to an extent. She was still alive, but had now another pony stuck in her body and that thought sent several chills down her spine, making her shudder in fright.

“This can’t be happening. I don’t want this to happen. Please, by Celestia, this has to be a horrible nightmare” she muttered, voice shaky as a leaf in the wind.

Aw, come now, I am not a bad hous…err, body-guest and it should not be permanently, Fine Line commented. Carrot Top could have sworn that the last part had sent a shiver through Fine Line, if he could even shiver in such a state, at the unspoken prospect of the fact, that he wasn’t sure that it couldn’t happen, that they shared her body until her – or was it now their? – end of days.

“Well, that still stands to reason, reading my thought without my permission points in another direction,” huffed Carrot Top.

R-Read them? chuckled Fine Line. You were practically screaming them in my face. Then again, I suppose having your body and mind invaded from another essence of a pony can do something to the original inhabitant of that body. By the way, I am glad you are an Earth Pony, otherwise there may have been the possibility to have ended our both existences right then and there.

This revelation caught Carrot Top off guard and another load whimper escaped her lips. So, if she, by pure chance, hadn’t been an Earth Pony she would be dead right now. Carrot Top mind reeled at that thought to lie in that accurse field, dead. The imagination of that plus coupled with the thoughts about the sadness and the loss her friends then had to face because of her wiped the few traces that kept her calm and collected out of existence. Carrot Tops head slumped forward, hitting the grass and she started to sob quietly. For a long while there was no other sound then Carrot Tops quiet sobs, which get carried away and faded to nothing. The whole time Fine Line’s essence had at least the decency to keep quiet and emit a feeling of dismay. After she had calmed down enough that her sobs were nothing more than a whimper now and then, other thoughts popped into her mind, thoughts about to be strong for her friends and more importantly for her own sake. That she, after the infestation of those pesky parasprites, had shrugged it off and rebuild her farm and fields. That she had survived the attack of those bugly changelings. By Tartarus, hadn’t she faced enough obstacles and evils in her time in Ponyville alone and had survived? Of course she had, even if she was never before involved with defeating one of those things, but that was beside the point, she had survived and nothing pointed towards anything, that she couldn’t also survive this. As her confidence climbed higher and higher until it reached most of its normal level, she was able to form coherent thoughts again and put them into word.

“So, how long will we sharing my body?” she asked. Fine Line didn’t answer right away, which unsettled her quite a bit, but then again, it sure wasn’t something that one had to guess all too often. 

It should only take a few days, maybe…hmmm, something like two weeks. he finally said, sounding rather unfazed by this prospect.

“Oh, ok, that’s not so bad, I thought it...” Carrot Top started, but stopped as his words sunk finally in “TWO WEEKS?” she shouted incredulously.

Give or take one or two days, he explained calmly and Carrot Top swore that he had shrugged.

“Great. Just great. So you telling me, that I have to live with you for two weeks?” she asked agitated, shaking her head. “How can you be so calm about this? I don’t think I could even stand two hours with this situation.” 

Oh, believe me, if I could, I would leave your body right this instant, but unfortunately, it will take up to two months for the spells and the ambient magic of Equestria to restore my body enough that it can host my own essence again, so there is no use to get upset with something you can’t really change. he explained. Oh, and, if you did not notice, you already surpassed two hours hosting my essence, even so you were out during that particular period of time. he added, like it had been nothing but a mere afterthought.

“Even if this is the case,” Carrot Top huffed. “Why should I trust you? I could just as easily visit Twilight Sparkle and get rid of you,” she exclaimed indignantly.
Feeling, that she had at least recovered enough strength to stand back up, she pulled herself to her hooves, her body feeling stiff and sore from the time she had laid in the field in the middle of a cold night and from the events that led to her unsuspected and more so unwanted guest.

Carrot Top stretched and shook her legs and then trotted a bit in place to loosen her muscles before attempting to walk towards Ponyville and therefore to either her house or to Twilight’s place. Probably she just visit Twilight, because this was an emergency, not as bad as some other thing that had haunted Ponyville as a whole in the past, but defiantly pressing enough to warrant to be woken up. On the other hoof, she was very tired from today’s exertions and a bed and sleep sounded quite alluring right now and Fine Line seemed to have stopped reading her thoughts and could be dealt with in the morning. 
After she had finished with her short warm up, she noticed that Fine Line still hadn’t said anything, something that was fine with her and just as she successfully tried to take her first step, he choose this moment to pipe up again.

Who is this Twilight Sparkle? he asked, sounding more curious than frightened. Because you should know, that the magic that bound me is strong enough to withstand the power of any single, regular Unicorn. 

“Then it’s good, that she is not only the newest Alicorn and Princess of Equestria, but also one of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony,” answered Carrot Top, allowing herself to smirk a little. She could feel that this revelation had hid home, because a shiver had jolted through Fine Line’s essence and he seemed to try to fight against her body’s motions, but it was obvious, that he was too weak to hinder her movement much, only succeeding in slowing down her pace. Fine Line’s struggle against her own will was still going on as she spoke up again, “I can understand that you won’t simply cease to exist, but you are obviously not able to stop me right now, so maybe it would be good to explain to me, why I should trust that you won’t do anything evil.”

Carrot Top wasn’t sure why, but she still kept her rather slow gait towards Ponyville proper and gave Fine Line time to think after he had ceased his futile attempts to halt her progress. Carrot Top was uncomfortable with some of the solutions to her problem that came up in her mind, well so long as Fine Line had told the truth and he really was currently the essence of a former pony. Wasn’t that something like murder then, if he ceased to exist? Was it possible to trap him in an inanimate object like a flower? She could ask him, but that would bear the risk that he would lie to her. She could still ask Twilight, but Carrot Top was sure, that Twilight would caught on to any hint that would imply that she hosted, how unwillingly that may be, an essence of an former pony and she remembered all too well the story about her experiments to figure Pinkie Pie’s “Pinkie Sense” out. To be frank, she trusted Twilight, but was still not thrilled about the prospect to endure similar treatment as Pinkie, because obviously Twilight would never miss the opportunity to examine her in great detail, while she had Fine Line’s essence still in her. 
She noticed that by now Fine Line had stopped to fight against her completely, however weak his struggle against her conscious decision to move may have been from the start and that she by now had reached the middle of town and soon had to choose between the two options to go home or to visit Twilight. Fine Line still seemed to be lost in thought about whether he should tell her anything or accept that he had to face the newest Princess. Carrot Top decided that she couldn’t be too sure about Fine Line’s intentions, but she would at least give him time to come to a decision, so she walked to a nearby bench and took a seat on it. 
Carrot Top was sure, that she could see the moon wander across the sky as she waited for Fine Line’s answer, but finally Fine Line seemed ready to tell her at least something.

Before I start, let me say, that I had liked to discuss this rather at the morning, but I can see, that this whole situation is unsettling for you, he said, sounding apologetic for the first time. 
I assure you again, that I mean no harm to you and will gladly leave this body as soon as possible, but until then I would rather not interfere with any business related to royalty or the bearers of the Elements. Not because I in any way am able to cause trouble, but partly because it always is awkward to speak through the host, partly because I should not be awake right now, - Carrot Top flinched a bit as he brought up this point - but mostly, because at least one of the Princesses would not be all too happy to see me again so soon, he explained. By the way, I was able to sense that there are four Princesses by now. One is obviously Celestia and one is this Twilight Sparkle, but I have not been able to find out who the other two are, do you know who they are? he asked, more as an afterthought then anything important right now.

“I’m still not convinced that you are not evil,” said Carrot Top, ignoring his question or acknowledging her part for this predicament. She could feel Fine Line’s hesitance to tell her more, but ultimately he seemed to come to the conclusion, that in his current weak state he had no other option but to stay on her good side if he wanted to at least live another day.

Alright, I wanted to withhold this, because this really looks like trouble and I would rather not put you through anything that could result out of it. Before I was freed by you, awoken but still trapped under the binding stone in the circles center I sensed that something sinister had returned. I hadn’t the time to investigate more about this matter, because shortly after I was free and so I only know that something is out there, probably planning to throw over the Princesses. It is still weak, but surely will seek out ways to acquire power. Because it was way up north, it only leaves a few possibilities and every one of them looks rather grim, he explained, but knew that it sounded all rather weak. To his surprise Carrot Top seemed thoughtful, as if she had heard something, but wasn’t exactly sure what it had been.  Finally she seemed to remember at least part of it.

“Well, the only place I heard from in the far north is the Crystal Empire. I know it returned, but as far as I know their evil King Som-…something was defeated by the Element-Bearers, that’s at least what the newspaper said, I think,” she said, gaining again that thoughtful look. “Do you suppose he has somehow returned? If so, shouldn’t we tell somepony about this? I’m sure Princess Celestia will know what needs to be done.”

I am not so sure about both of this. If you say that he was defeated, then it is unlikely that he was able to return so easily, unless he had somehow anticipated his first defeat in the first place and had set up anything that would bring him back, he reasoned, but hesitated before he continued. The matter with Celestia may be true, but….I would still prefer to have anything on ou…err, my hooves that would proof this all without a doubt. Carrot Top was sure that Fine Line was nervous about talking to Celestia, but she filed this away until she knew more about what was going on.
“Ok, let’s assume you are right and there is something sinister, even if not King Som-thing, that still leaves the matter of being not evil,” Carrot Top said, feeling uncomfortable with acknowledging anything to Fine Line, but the possibility was enough to remind her of the havoc that those changelings had caused and if she could prevent something similar from happening she would gladly take that chance.

If I were truly evil, he sighed, sounding tired. would I have not already threatened or forced you to do my evil bidding? I know I have no real proof to back up my claim right now, but are ponies these days so quick to assume the worst in a stranger? If you are willing to live with the knowledge to have killed a pony, even if it is only his essence by now, then, do as you wish and go ahead and tell that Twilight Sparkle about your dilemma.

“How do you know that the solution would be something similar to murder?” asked Carrot Top, hoping that it was just a guess. “I mean, couldn’t we not transfer your essence to…I don’t know, a flower or something?”

No, he said. That wouldn’t work. Theoretically it would be possible, but a flower or any being that wouldn’t be a pony would lead to a dissolving mind, which would only quicken the longer my essence would be trapped inside said body. I know, that I have no prove that you can trust me, but should it not be enough, that I am willing to lay my fate into your hooves? 

Carrot Top still wasn’t convinced that Fine Line had no bad intentions, but she didn’t know enough about magic to dismiss the possibility that Fine Line had told the truth and he would vanish into the nether if she would ask Twilight for a solution to this situation. Her doubts about the solutions Twilight could provide returned and she was back to the start of her inner moral conflict.

As time passed by and neither of both spoke or thought in Fine Line’s case, Carrot Top felt the stiffness return to her limbs, so she stood up and begun to pace back and forth in front of the bench. But try as she might, no easy or really good solution to her problem would present itself. No matter how she turned it over in her mind, she couldn’t bring herself to more or less sentence a pony’s life to death because she was afraid it could maybe be not trusted or be downright evil. That there was a chance that Fine Line had told the truth made it impossible for her and the lack of sleep and today’s exhaustion made it hard to think straight anyway. Making up her mind she let out a heavy sigh.

“Fine,” she said. “As much as I don’t like this, I let you share my body with me until yours is ready to host your essence, soul or whatever you want to call yourself at the moment, but I still need a lot more in depth explanation about some things and don’t think I’m unable to tell if you try to pull any funny business.” She yawned loudly and then continued, “But the explanations can wait until morning, I’m too tired for this kind of conversation right now.”

Fine Line kept quiet as Carrot Top made her way across town to her house to get a few hours of sleep before she had to get up and work her farm. 

Thank you, said Fine Line, sounding relieved, as they reached the doorstep. By the way, you should probably only speak to me in thought if you don’t want anypony to question your state of mind. Oh, and you will delighted to hear, that I am no pervert, so I will not take a peek if you do some more personal affairs. Carrot Top groaned and she could envision Fine Line’s smirk, as hard as that may be, because she didn’t know how he looked.

She yawned loudly again as she climbed in her bed and pulled the covers above herself and as her head so much as touched the pillow she was fast asleep. But Fine Line wasn’t.