Ascended

by BlackWing

Playful Return (4)

After picking up the blackened necklace, and storing it safely in his jean's pocket, he grabbed Firebolt under his arm. He told her they needed to go back to Canterlot for a some things. When she asked how they were going to get there, he simply gave her a wicked grin and said,

"Try not to catch me on fire."

Stretching his wings, he took off into the air, heading back to where he came from. He flew quite quickly, until a mach cone appeared in from of him. He didn't even need to use his life force to get there. Deciding it would NOT be a good idea to make a sonic boom in the middle of the night, he slowed down, and landed back at where his statue had been. Setting the sleeping Firebolt down, (she had gotten excited by flying, and he decided that she would be far less combustible while unconscious) he woke her up.

"We're here." Nightshade told her.

"Okay, Shade, but why are we here? And how did we get here so fast?" She was curious, as such a trip would normally take a lot longer.

"Well, I flew just below the speed of sound, as not to make a ruckus. Since I got an upgrade from Nightmare before I turned to stone, and Nightmare left while I was stone, I guess that means it's permanent. Lucky me. I didn't even have to use my powers for it." He explained.

"What are your powers?" She was finally getting to what she wanted to know.

"I don't really like to talk about it, since on my world I had to leave everything behind once someone found out. While Equestria is a much nicer place, I still don't wanna risk it. I ran faster than sound before I got this awesome plumage by using all of my body's strength, but that wears you out in 8 seconds. With my power, I can keep that state up indefinitely. What about yours? That's not magic, I can tell for sure." He asked her.

"Well, when I get nervous, angry, excited, afraid, or any strong emotion, I burst into flames. I can also manipulate fire as I see fit, but it's really difficult. The trade off is all my unicorn magic comes out as fire too." She said sadly.

"Ah, pyrokinesis. If that's your power, I suppose mine is vitokinesis. Except I can't MAKE life, I just move it around. You can probably think of the implications and moral dilemmas on your own. As I said, I really don't like to go into it in depth. What we're here for, are these." He said, taking the Wonderbolt's pin, both his cloaks,(one for each of them) the book, and Black Law.

"What's that sword? You never had one before, and it's obviously not there for looks." Firebolt had almost as many questions as Lyra, they'd probably get along great.

"Can't tell ya. All I can say is it was a part of Nightmare, and is now a part of me. Just something else in the inheritance, a dangerous something. I can't just leave it here, so I'm going to give it to Celestia for safe keeping, along with this." He said, showing the dream catcher. He asked for some parchment, which he wrote something on,and then rolled it up.

"Well, since the princesses room is right there, I guess she's first." Nightshade grinned, showing off his sharpened teeth.

"You're going to prank the princess?" Firebolt said with disbelief.

"Ah, we're good friends, and besides, she of ALL ponies can appreciate a good prank. And it's not really a prank, more of a 'hello'. Just wait here, this will only take a moment."

Carefully picking the lock on the princess's window, (yep, I've still got it!) he silently flew inside, not making any noise when he touched the floor. He put the parchment against the wall and hung the necklace in front of it. He drove Black Law through the parchment, into the wall, so the dream catcher would be hanging down from it.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Happy Birthday to me! Please take this necklace, put it in a safe, put that safe in a bigger safe, and bury it under your bedroom, eight miles down.

Sincerely, Guess Who?

Ps: Keep the sword safe will ya? I'd hate for it to fall into the wrong hooves.

That kind of letter would be just the thing to make Celestia smile, and she'd see it as soon as she woke up, it was right next to the door. He could only imagine the look of shock that would appear on her face, seeing the one thing in the world that could kill her with ease, being used as a tack on a notice board. He slipped out quietly, and closed the balcony window he came in through. Celestia thankfully still asleep, as breaking and entering was a federal offense.

"Okay, next up, Twilight."

The pair arrived in Ponyville with the previous method of Nightshade knocking her out. As it turns out, having an unlimited life force was the same as being next to one, except the rate of transfer was exponentially larger. It's the difference between counting 1, 2, 3, and 1 infinity, 2 infinity, 3 infinity. There was no way to measure health and life in units, but if there was there would be no unit large enough to describe his. Thus, he was able to switch his new friend between knocked out and ready to run a marathon in less than a second, without any effect to himself.

The pair stared through the window of the library, an saw Twilight asleep on the floor. Spike had already gone to bed. She had apparently been at another late night study session, and passed out on the spot. Nightshade took out 'Forest Survival: a Guide to the Everfree' and turned to one of it's blank pages, between chapters. He had put those in there so the reader could write their own notes on what they found useful, and specifics of the forest they were living in. He bookmarked the page, and placed it softly atop the sleeping unicorn's head, so when she woke up, she'd have a book hat.

"Twilight, try to sleep in a bed. Sleeping on hard wood will give you back problems. Pleasant dreams my little bookworm." Would be the first thing she'd read when she woke up, and she hated being called a bookworm, almost as much as she hated being called egghead.

"Okay, now all that's left are Rainbow, Pinkie, and Fluttershy. You said you knew where they were living?"

"Yeah, Fluttershy is in your house, Pinkie moved in with her, and Rainbow is in her cloud house up above that." Firebolt told him.

"Okay, Dash, then Pinkie, and finally Fluttershy. This is gonna be good." He responded.

Sneaking up to Rainbow's house, he found Scootaloo sleeping in the same room, on a separate bed. Two Wonderbolt's outfits were on hangers by a pair of mirrors.

"Well, I'll be damned. For the little filly who couldn't fly, you got in the Wonderbolts in record time Scoots. I couldn't be more proud." He said. He took out the Wonderbolt's pin, and fastened it to Rainbow's hair, making it look like a bow in her hair. "She'd hate having a hair bow, that's something Rarity would make her wear."

Flying down to his own house, he opened the door, (luckily still having the key) and found his way to the storage cellar. Pinkie had sure been busy running the place, there was LOADS of syrup, all bottled. "Well, looks like someone likes this stuff a little too much. Still, it's good she kept it going. He took five bottles of it, and snuck into Pinkie's room. The pink mare was still fast asleep. He noticed the bed was pushed against the wall, which means she'd have to get out on one side, which was perfect. He opened the bottles of syrup, and one by one, poured them on the floor next to the bed. When Pinkie woke up, she'd step in it. If he was lucky, she'd fall and get covered in the sticky, condensed tree sap. It wouldn't hurt her feelings, because she actually enjoyed being covered in the stuff. She had taken a bath in it once. (insert disturbing mental image here)

Finally, was Fluttershy. She was sleeping soundly in her bed, curled up under the blankets. Her eyes were red. She had obviously been crying.

"No more crying after tonight my dear." He said. Laying down on the floor, and waited patiently. He had instructed Firebolt to stand outside. Unfortunately, the only reaction that would be seen by her was Pinkie's, and maybe Rainbow Dash's if she didn't notice the pin. Once she was sure everything was in place, she took out an air horn, and squeezed it.

*BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN*

Twilight heard the sound, and awoke to find a book on her head, which Spike, now looking like a teenager, laughed at. Rarity awoke, complaining about the dreadful noise. Rainbow Dash fell out of her cloud bed, and began flying groggily down to where the noise was coming from. Pinkie jumped from her bed, landing in the maple syrup and rolling in it. Fluttershy hid further under the sheets, till the noise stopped.

After it was over, she slowly pulled herself out of bed, intending to go comfort the animals which would probably have been scared by the sound. She stepped out of bed, and instead of the hard floor, landed on something soft, but firm. Not expecting it, she fell, and found herself face to face with, none other that Nightshade himself, she was laying on his torso.

"Hello my love." He said simply.

"I, I'm still dreaming." Fluttershy stuttered.

"No, you're not. That's just silly. You're a silly pony." He responded. Then whispered in her ear, "I like silly ponies." The same way he had previously, giving her a quick peck on the lips, and then grinning stupidly at the very confused pony.

It took her a moment to realize that she was in fact awake and that this was all real. Her eyes welled up, and tears streamed down her face. She buried her eyes in his shirt.

"I thought I'd never see you again!" She cried, throwing her usual caution and subtlety to the wind. He wrapped his arms around her, followed by his insanely soft wings, wrapping her in a kind of feather cocoon.

"Shh, I know, I know. It's okay. I'm back, and I'm never going to leave you again." Nightshade said, kissing her forehead softly. He let her cry for a time, and they were interrupted by a screaming Pinkie, a yelling Rainbow Dash, and a confused Twilight.

"Okay, that's enough crying now. This is a happy day, and besides, you're going to have some very confused friends standing outside, wondering why they're wearing a book on their head, a silly hair bow , and are covered in maple syrup."