//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Anger Issues // Story: My Life as a Hybrid // by ChaosDoomscythe //------------------------------// My Life as a Hybrid By: ChaosDoomscythe/Doomscythe01 Chapter 5: Anger Issues *Muffled comments, struggling* *BANG!* *SLAM* “OH, SHIT!” *Thud* “Uuuuuuhhhhhgh….. Fuck me sideways….. uuugh…” “Watch your tongue in the presence of the Princess.” “Fuck you up the ass!” “Last warning, prisoner. Watch your-“ “And fuck you up the pisser! You’re both jackasses! No offence! And your gas masks look absolutely friggin' ridiculous, but they look better than your faces!” “*SNORT* That’s it, you little-“ “THAT IS ENOUGH! ALL OF YOU CEASE THIS FOOLISHNESS!” “OH-HO-HO-HO GOD! MY EARS! WHYYYY?!?!” That was the scene moments ago when the guards who dragged me through the entire castle all the way from the dungeons slammed open the throne room doors and just tossed me in. Still suffering from the incredible headache, migraine, and general head pains, my landing was rather upsetting to me. My mood was already bad when every time we had to go up a stairway, they’d somehow make sure I’d hit my head on at least five of the steps. Then they threw me in the throne room, further aggravating my brain pain. Needless to say, I was a little pissed off. And then, Luna happened. So, now, I can’t even hear anything, and when combining that with me headache and magical exhaustion just made me feel like utter shit. So now, I was pretty much beyond pissed off, and honestly… That’s not good for anyone in this room right now, myself included. I had my eyes scrunched closed and my teeth clenched due to the agony I was experiencing. Both of my hooves were cradling my head as I laid there on my back. I was taking deep breaths to try to keep myself calm. Without my bands, losing my temper now was a very bad thing, so I did everything I could to stay calm. The constant throbbing in my head wasn’t helping though. It was probably making things worse. I couldn’t hear anything, and with my eyes closed as they were, I didn’t know if anything was going on around me. I doubt I could’ve focused on anything even if I could. The pain wouldn’t stop, and it was aggravating me more, despite my attempts to keep calm. When I felt as though I was about to snap, the pain started to just… disappear. As if it weren’t even there to begin with. As my full mental faculties were coming back to me, I only had one thought in mind. Hangover cure spells! Best damn spells ever created! As my emotions were getting back under control and my headache down to a mere throb, I opened an eye only to find the emotionless face of the night princess above me, her horn glowing with a rather high level of magical output. Makes sense considering my resistance to magic. After a few more silent moments, I realized my hearing was back as well. When Luna’s horn stopped glowing, she let out a breath I didn’t know she was holding in, and she turned away to face the guards. I took my time to sit up, and before Luna could even get one word out about their lackluster conduct, I spoke first. “So, I just want everyone to know, you two suck,” I said, pointing at the two guards that brought me here whom snorted in response, “and there’s no need to treat a prisoner who’s already in pain like you two did.” Luna turned towards me and asked, “What exactly did they do?” I was tempted to use profanity in my explanation, but I didn’t like to do that when talking to any of the main six or Luna, so I decided to hold off on my ranting… for a while at least. “Basically, with me in no condition to move, your awesome solar guards here decided to drag me out of my cell- by my hindlegs, mind you- making sure to go over every large bump down in the dungeons to jostle me and aggravate my pain. Then with every flight of stairs we went up or down they managed to hit my head on one at least five times per flight.” I didn’t realize it at the time, but my mood had slowly been growing worse as I continued talking, and a faint sizzling sound could be heard in the air. “After that, I tried to tell them to let me up so I could walk at my own pace. I told them they could even push me to go faster. Anything was better than letting my head get his more. But no. They wouldn’t have that. They just ignored me and kept dragging me. So I got fed up with that.” There was a ‘fwoomph’ sound, and I heard several gasps from behind me, but I ignored it completely. “I tried to get them to let me go, but they were stubborn, and we ended up in a struggle, before they stopped, bucked the doors open, and threw me in here.” I hadn’t even realized I was standing, or was slowly walking towards the guards as I continued, or that they were backing away from me. I didn’t notice how heavy the tension in the room was, or how hot it had suddenly gotten in there. I only stopped when a hoof landed on my shoulder. I turned my gaze over and looked into the eyes of… Rainbow Dash? Huzzuwhat? I finally noticed that my mane and tail had caught fire, and the flames were flicking about rather uncontrollably. I looked down at my hooves only to see they were also on fire, and the cuffs that were restricting hat little magic I had left in me had completely melted off. I looked at my back to notice that the ropes they had tied around my wings had become nothing more than ash on the ground as my wings were also ablaze. I’d wager my eyes were probably faintly glowing red at this point too. I took a deep breath, held it in for about fifteen seconds, and then slowly let it out. The flames surrounding my body had died out as my attitude mellowed out. I nodded at Dash, who removed her hoof and took a step back, but otherwise stayed next to me. I knew why. If I tried to bolt, she’d be the only one who could catch me. It was then I noticed that she had several bandages around each of her legs and her torso, and I almost immediately felt horrible for that. Those were no doubt from the burns I gave her in my uncontrollable fury. I tried to shake off those feelings so I could focus more on the matter at hand. I then turned towards the two guards who actually looked like they were trembling a little. Regular guards don’t do that, so I figured they were probably new recruits who haven’t actually seen any action. I just sighed at them. Before sitting down on my haunches. “Go find some heavy duty magic restraining cuffs like before, but strong enough ones that would hold back Twilight Sparkle’s magic. Get a metal binding for my wings too. Normal ones won’t cut it with me.” I could feel a burst of varying levels of surprise from at least ten different creatures in the room, but it felt like more than that. The two guards looked at Luna, who nodded, before they saluted turned about face, and walked off to go find some. When they were out of sight, I turned back to look at Dash and Luna, only to find what both was and wasn’t surprising. I figured that if dash was here, the others probably would be as well. I was right. Standing on the other side of the throne room stood Pinkie pie, who had one of her more docile smiles on her face. There was Rarity, who was looking at me with a critical eye for some reason. Applejack was next to her, who was glaring at me with anger in those eyes, most likely at the fact that I had lied to her before. I’d have to apologies to her first. Fluttershy was huddled up behind Applejack, but she was peeking her head out at me, the eye not covered by her mane looking at me in pity and sadness. Ever since we first met, I’ve made it a point to try to avoid her. I didn’t do it because of her being shy, or not liking her, but because she saw right through my mask and identified me for what I was. And since then, I’ve been avoiding her like the plague. Then there were three ponies who were all glaring at me for various reasons. There was Shining Armor, who glared at me most likely for beating down half of his royal guard before I could be stopped, himself included. That or for attacking a princess. He was covered in a lot of small bandages here and there from burn marks and his coat still looked a little singed. Both of his forhooves and his body were wrapped up in bandages from the burns he suffered from. Then there was Cadence. Pretty sure she wants to just burn me to a crisp with the way she’s glaring at me. Then I noticed her look over towards her left. Then she looked back at me and gave me a malicious looking grin. That had confused me, so I looked over to the left… Only to find Rarity looking at me with that sparkle in her eye. Hell. To. The. NO! I looked back at Cadence, who had that mischievous twinkle in her eye. I shook my head. She nodded hers. I sighed, realizing I had no way out of that one. I owed her for it. I nodded, and heard Rarity squeal in delight before she let out a dainty little cough and adjusted the curls in her mane. I’m going to regret that so much… I looked back up to see Cadence whispering in Shining’s ear, shortly before he blushed, then turned to me with a smirk on his face. Much, much regret there will be. Then I turned towards the last glare and… Well shit. I managed to piss off the one pony I didn’t actually want to piss off due to her mental instability. Twilight Sparkle. Attacking Canterlot, great way to get on her bad side. Attacking her brother or her friends, instant way to be marked an enemy. Attacking her mentor and basically her second mother figure, excellent way to piss her off and make her want to kill you. And guess who managed to do all three? That’s right: this guy! Despite the fact that she was glowering at me with most all of the hate she could muster, I could also see immense levels of curiosity behind her gaze. She obviously wanted to know something, but what, I didn’t know. I decided to put that aside for the moment and continue looking at the rooms occupants. Besides all of them, there was no one else in the throne room aside from eight Solar guards, and to my surprise, only four Lunar Guards. Not gonna lie, they look badass. I looked back towards Luna and Dash who was still next to me. “So, what are they doing here? I thought you were going to be the one to interrogate me?” “At first, that was the decision we had all agreed upon. However, after showing them what you showed to me in the previous night-“ “YOU SHOWED THEM?!” I had jumped upright and looked at her in shock. I was hoping she’d keep all of that a secret, mostly because I myself hadn’t even remembered it, and not to mention the fact that she now knows I’m technically an alien. I hadn’t wanted them to know about that. And she knew I didn’t, based on the look in her eye. “Indeed. Normally, I would have kept it a secret from them, due to the circumstance of your arrival here and your attack on my sister that I was forced to. After showing them, they were adamant about being there to learn the whole story.” I once again slumped down onto my haunches, my anger having returned, but I quickly stomped that back down. I let out a heavy sigh. “Fine, then. But if they’re going to hear my story, then we’re doing this my way. Princess, put us to sleep.” “Very well then.” Her horn began glowing moments later, and the glow started glowing brighter and brighter. She turned towards the guards in the room. “Make sure we are not disturbed by anyone unless there is news of my sister.” They nodded Se then turned back towards all of us and lifted her head high. Her eyes took on a powerful glow to them, and then there was a flash. And then beams of dark blue magic shot out of her horn at each of the element bearers, Cadence, Shining and myself. The moment it hit me, I had time to feel my body hit the ground before I was out. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I opened my eyes to see I was lying on my back in the void again. I looked around only to see the Princess staring at me. I sat up, noting that there was no one else present. I looked back at Luna and asked, “Where is everyone else?” “They shall be here shortly. I am connecting their minds to your dream.” The first one to appear was, ironically enough, Pinkie Pie. She appeared out of nowhere, just standing at first, but then she opened her blue eyes, and looked around. “Oooooooh! Look at all the squggly wiggly colors! Hey, this reminds me of Dashie’s Mane!” I couldn’t help the facehoof. “Eh. Don’t remind me.” Then I added under my breath, “Friggin rainbow colored…” “Well, this certainly is interesting.” And there’s the fashionista. “The colors all blend together so perfectly! Why, I’ve never seen anything like this!” “I know! Isn’t it super-duper fantastic!” “Whoa, nelley! Pinkie ain’t jokin’. This does look mighty amazin’!” The apple farmer. I actually looked around this time. I could understand why they liked this place, I mean, it may be rainbow colored, but the entirety of my void’s landscape looks like the aurora borealis, honestly. I’ll admit, that’s probably about the only part about the void I happen to like. As more and more ponies showed up and commented on the apparent awesome what was my void, I couldn’t help but let out a sad smile. Despite what I’ve done, I really have come to care for these ponies, and I consider them my friends, even though they likely don’t consider me the same after everything I’ve done. I was surprised when I felt a hoof on my shoulder, and I turned to see Fluttershy of all ponies standing next to me. But she wasn’t looking at me with the normal sadness and pity I know she has for me. She was looking at me with determination and conviction, and I could hear it in the words she spoke. “That’s not true. And even if the others don’t like you, you’ll always be my friend. You may make some bad choices, but that doesn’t make you a bad pony.” “She’s right, big guy.” I turned to my left as Dash put a hoof on my other shoulder, looking at me with that same cocky smile she always has. “So what if you attacked the Princess. You’re still a pretty cool pony in my books! Besides, I know you better than you think, and so does Luna. I know there was no way you would’ve done something so uncool without a really good reason. So we’re gonna get to the bottom of it, and we’re gonna be by your side every step of the way!” “I… But why?” I didn’t even bother to question how they knew what I was thinking. I figured Luna had something to do with it. Or maybe it was the spirits of the elements or something. I dunno, I’m just gonna go with magic. “How can you still like me after what I’ve done?” “It’s Like Fluttershy said, silly! You made some bad choices, but you’re not a bad pony! After all, you can’t be a bad pony if you like cupcakes!” Pinkie then proceeded to pull a cupcake out of nowhere. Said cupcake vanished less than 2 seconds after she brought out. Everyone looked at me in shock as the wrapper to the cupcake was sticking out of my mouth, impaled on one of my fangs. Mental image or not, Pinkies cupcakes are to die for. That thought brought a massive smile to the pink pony’s face. “SEE! I told you” “I think that’s enough girls. It’s time we got to the bottom of this. So start talking, Shadow Flare, if that’s even your real name.” Twilight’s first words since seeing me. She trotted right up to me, and likely would’ve gotten right up into my face had Rainbow not stepped between us. “What are you doing, Rainbow Dash? Move.” “You need to calm down, Twilight. You’ve been like this since the attack.” “I am calm.” “Twiley.” Twilight looked to her left to see Shining standing next to her. He put a hoof (which was unbandaged by the way; guess everyone is whole in the dream realm) on her shoulder and began to lead her away from us. “That’s enough little sis. We’re going to find out why he did this. That’s why we’re here.” Even as he led her away, Twilight didn’t stop glaring at me. I couldn’t help but think it strange that Twilight seems to hate me more than Luna does. Twilight snorted at the end of that thought. Luna, on the other hand, approached me. “I do not hate you, Shadow Flare. I am disappointed in you, and I am angry at you, but I do not hate you. I simply wish to understand why you did what you did.” “And Twilight?” Everyone looked away at that. I don’t think anyone actually knew if she really hated me or not. “Well, I guess it doesn’t matter. Even if you understand, I’ll still end up in the dungeon for an undisclosed amount of time simply because I assaulted a princess. I’m just going to start going back through my memories now. The sooner we get this over with the sooner I can rot.” My response was met with a light hit to the back of my head. “Stop being so negative.” I turned back to dash who was still smiling. “Come on, I wanna see what happens next.” “Well, I’m not going to show what happened the next day, only the important memories that led up to the attack. I’ll just explain what happened.” I took a moment to get my thoughts in order, before I sucked in a deep breath. “Ok, here’s what’s up. The Spell my mom, Silent Shade, used was designed to connect souls on their base fundamental level. I was designed to work in a similar function like that of the Hive Mind for various changeling swarms, but without the lesser changeling’s will being subjected to that of a higher ranking one. The spell was incomplete, however, and as a result, if partially fused my soul with that of Shadow Flare’s. The spell was a success however, in that it also connected the both of us to mom. While we were now two souls made one, we were still our own individual beings.” I started walking around the void as I was talking, everyone kept their eyes on me as I did so. “Anyway, the day, well, actually, the week after she cast the spell, I finally woke back up. After making sure I was alright, we decided to see if the spell had any negative side effects. We kept me tested every year, to make sure the souls were stable. They held out, for a time. But on the day I awoke, we decided to explain things. My Father explained the so called Prophesy that his father spoke to him about. I don’t quite remember all of the details but, it was apparently supposed to be about some kind of creature that would work to unite the species of the world under true harmony. The creature would be born knowing of the world at large as it was, of all the different lands within and would eventually grow to guide others to peace. Frankly, at the time, I was dealing with far too many things to be too concerned about it, but honestly, I highly doubt it was about me. Sure, when I arrived, I knew about Equestria, but that’s all I knew about. I didn’t know how many cities there were, any special locations or any of that stuff. In point of fact, I didn’t even know where Ponyville or Canterlot were in contrast to my own home. So I wouldn’t consider myself all that knowledgeable about it.” I let out a breath and took in another about to speak again, but Twilight took my momentary pause to start questioning me. “How did you know about Equestria in the first place if your soul isn’t even from this universe?” I was a little miffed she interrupted me, but I honestly don’t think I cared all that much. “I’ll tell you later. Anyway-“ “You’ll tell me, now!” Everypony in attendance turned towards Twilight in mild shock. I however turned towards her in annoyance now. Everyone noticed that the void shifted from its raibow colors towards a maroon red. “Listen here, Sparks,” She looked pissed when I called her that. “How I knew about Equestria serves no importance in this interrogation, and as a result, is useless information to know. And before you get any ideas, Luna may be the Princess of the Night, and the ruler of dreams, but this is my mind and she herself will find she doesn’t have much power here. If you interrupt me again you will lose your speaking privaalges and your horn. And just to prove my point…” The void shifted suddenly, and Twilight was suddenly on her with her hooves hogtied. With an apple in her mouth. Everyone looked shocked at that. She started struggling to get loose, and was about to use her magic to get free. The moment her horn started glowing, the void shifted again, and she discovered that she suddenly lacked magic here. Her eyes went wide, and she started panicking. Then the void shifted one last time and she was back on her hooves with her magic intact. As she checked herself over to make sure she was alright, I snorted loudly to get their attention. “This is MY world, Twilight, and while I and doing my best to make you understand, I am only covering the important points, here. The things you need to know. So do not question me unless it has to do with the direct subject at hand, not trivial knowledge. I will explain more to you when we are done here, no sooner, and no later. Am I understood?” Twilight just glared at me, not saying anything. The void shifted, and she suddenly found herself about an inch tall, and looking up at me, who at this point, seemed like a raging giant. “AM… I… UNDERSTOOD?” She squeaked, and I assumed she got the message. The void shifted, and everything was back to normal, with the exception that everyone was now sitting in a circle around me. I took a deep breath to calm down as the void shifted back to its normal raibow coloration. Having calmed myself down, I began speaking again. “Good.” I took a moment to recollect my thoughts and pick up where I left off. "Now then, as I was saying… “After my pops explained the prophesy to me, I explained to them everything about me. Not my race mind you, but just me. Where I came from, what my life was like… how I died… the family and friends I left behind. I explained to them everything, and they were patient with me. I probably broke down several times explaining it to them. Normally, I don’t think I would’ve. Back in my old life, I was pretty desensitized towards most things. I think it’s the magic of this world that forced my emotions to the surface. But they accepted me for who I was. But the one who always brought a smile to my face was Shadow Flare. I always loved playing with the little ones back in my old life, and Shadow was like the little brother I always wanted but never had. The two of us were inseparable- figuratively and literally. We became really close. “A side effect of the spell our mom used connected us to her in a way I wouldn’t have imagined. She was able to read our minds- our soul’s minds mind you, and we were all able to communicate that way. She ended up finalizing the spell at some point, and managed to connect dad to us as well, so we were all able to stay in constant contact with each other no matter how far we were. That ended up coming in handy more than once. We could also cut our connection whenever we wanted privacy, too, so we never had to deal with that. Shadow and I despite being one soul now, could also communicate the same way, and we could cut our thoughts off from each other just the same. "For the first year, things were all going well. We lived close by a town, so we were actually seen quite a lot. To my surprise, the town was actually filled with all kinds of inhabitants, from pony’s to griffons to minotaur’s, naga, a few hippogriffs here or there, even some changelings. So seeing my mom, dad, and their hybrid child around town wasn’t really a problem.” “Hold up, partner.” I turned to look at Applejack. She had a questioning look on her face. “You said hybrid, but up till now, we ain’t never seen what you really look like.” The other’s nodded at her. I chuckled in response. “Technically speaking, yes you have. This is what I really look like, Applejack. At least, in my pony form. See, I’m half Dragon, one quarter Changeling, and one quarter pony. Despite my draconian heritage being dominant, I can only transform between the form you see before you, my pegasus form, and my complete hybrid form. So this is technically what I really look like as a pony. But, to sate your curiosity, I will show you what my hybrid form looks like.” I paused and concentrated but for a mere moment, and flames enveloped my body. My Black fur gave way to black chitin, my larger than average feathered wings became dragon shaped wings made entirely of the same membrane that a normal changelings wings are made of, only a dark grey in color. Scales lined my body in stripes across my face, back, and legs. Each leg had exactly 3 holes in them. My eyes became narrower, and my slit pupils shrank a little to where it almost looked like I didn’t even have any. My fangs grew larger, and my regular flat teeth transformed into dragon teeth. My tongue became lizard-like in appearance as well. My mane and tail are the only two things that had no physical change to them, but all in all, I looked much scarier now than I did as a pony. Pretty sure the girls agreed, as everyone except for Luna, Dash and Shining took a few steps back, despite the fact that Shy has seen me like this before. “Yup, saw that coming. Only one’s here who’ve actually seen me like this before were Dash, Shy and Princess Luna.” Everypony, sans Luna, immediately turned their heads towards Dash and Shy, the latter of whom ducked away under the sudden attention. “What? Hey, we made a Pinkie Promise not to tell you.” “But why keep this a secret?” asked Shining. “Look at how they reacted as soon as I changed. Can you honestly tell me regular ponies wouldn’t have acted the same? Not to mention I didn’t meet any of you till after the wedding, and tensions with changelings were rather high. I wouldn’t have been surprised if you had managed to get me arrested and imprisoned had you found out. And aside from Pinkie and Fluttershy, how many of you can honestly say you wouldn’t have tried to get me arrested, or wouldn’t have attacked me when you saw what I was?” Nopony raised their hooves, and they all turned away. “See? Now, I don’t want to make you feel, bad about it, but that’s why I had dash keep it a secret.” “Well, how’d they find out anywho?” Asked AJ. I simply sighed and turned away. "For the time being, i'm going to keep that to myself. When I think about it, it makes me feel... so weak inside." I turned back to face them. " I'll more than likely tell you all later, just... not now." They all nodded their acceptance of this before Luna spoke. “Can we get back on track? I would like to get to the bottom of this sometime soon.” She looked a little impatient. I could understand that though. “Sure, Princess. Anyway, where was I?” “OOH! OOH! I know! I know! Pick me!” I couldn’t help but chuckle at the bouncing pink mare. Honetly I’m surprised she’s been quiet this long. “Hey! I don’t talk all the time!” nine pairs of eyes turned and looked at her. “Just most of the time.” I couldn’t help it. I laughed out loud. Pinkie always makes me smile. “Go ahead Pinkie. Refresh my memory.” “ YAY! Okay, you were at the part where you were telling us about where you headed into town and met all sorts of different creatures, like ponies, changeling, griffons, hippogriffs-“ “Okay, thanks Pinks. I got it from here.” “Okie Dokie Loki!” She then proceeded to pull out a bag of popcorn and started munching on it, before turning towards Rarity and saying, “This is getting gooooood.” Rarity simply rolled her eyes and looked back at me before nodding. I nodded back. “So, like I said, seeing a freaky hybrid like me didn’t really shock the inhabitants of the town that much. In fact, they were rather happy to see something new. Everyone happened to take a liking to me. I didn’t particularly like it at the time because they treated me like a baby, despite the fact that I was on the same level of intelligence as them. But I endured it because Shadow Flare was, at the time, a foal. Despite his above average level of intelligence at that age, he was still a child. So, I enjoyed it for his sake.” “Wait, you say you enjoyed it for his sake.” Rarity spoke this time. “Weren’t you both in control?” “At times, yes, we’d both be in control. At other times, only one of us would be in full control. Our body sometime's had trouble recognizing which soul the body belonged to. Because of that, our control would randomly switch back, forth, and in between. It took a while to get used to the sudden random shifts. Over time, we managed to get control of that though, and before our first birthday to boot!” She nodded, deciding to wait patiently for me to get to that part of the tale. “But yeah, it was pretty fun. All was good for a time. Until I came to our first birthday.” Everyone took note of the fact that the void suddenly became dark. “Okay, this is where we’re going to dive into the memory of that day. This might make you a bit dizzy, so brace yourselves.” Everypony hunkered down, and shortly after, it was like we were all pulled through an incredibly tight tunnel. I looked forward, and saw a light at the end of the tunnel. We shot towards it, and there was a flash of light. When I opened my eyes, I immediately looked around. We were in some kind of a bakery, not all that different from Sugarcube Corner. There was a party going on in full swing, foals running around playing with each other. I looked around and spotted myself/Shadow speaking with a few colts and fillies who were older than me by several years, but we were also playing with foals around our age. I heard several groans, and looked towards my left. The ponies were all getting reoriented, with the exception of Luna, who was also taking in the surroundings of my memory. “A little jarring, isn’t it? Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it the second time around.” “Ugh, where are we?” Asked Cadence. “Or better yet, when are we?” “This is my first birthday party.” “BIRTHDAY PARTY?! WHOOHOO! Pinkie lunged forward at the snack bar. It was hilarious watching her fly right through it. “Hey, what gives?” I was chuckling with my response. “It’s a memory Pinkie, none of this is real. It’s all in my head.” “Awww, phooey! Those cupcakes look so good!” “If it makes you feel any better, they were delicious, though not as good as yours.” That made her beam. It’s nice to make Pinkie smile. “But despite the festivities going on, this is actually one of my most depressing memories.” The others looked at me, and Fluttershy is the one who spoke next. “Why would this be depressing?” I looked on at the memory with sadness in my gaze. “Watch and see.” As the festivities continued, Shadow Flare ran over the next game they wanted to play: Pin the Tail on the Pony. Right before they got there, A voice called out. “Alright, everyone, time to sing Happy Birthday to the birthday colt!” The foal swung their head around, and smiled upon seeing the rather large cake being set on the main table. They rushed over and all but jumped in the seat, their wings flapping to give them a little boost. As they Silent Shade scooted them in, they looked at their b-day cake with drool sliding down their muzzle. They wiped it off hastily as the other’s all gathered around them. Platinum Blaze took the time to try to get the ponies quiet so they could sing the song. During the quick lull in activity, Cadence took notice of something. “Your eyes…” We all turned to look at her. “You have two different colored eyes.” “Oh, that. That’s how you can tell when we were both in control. The left eye would be blue, that color representing Shadow, while the right one would be green, which represented me. Otherwise, they’d both be either green or blue most all of the time.” We all turned back just as the singing began. “Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear Shadow Flare! Happy Birthday to you!” “Yaaay!” “Happy Birthday, Shadow!” “Go on, blow out the candle!” “Make a wish!” “You can do it!” The foal looked around at tall the creatures encouraging them, before they turned back to the cake with a single candle. It was glowing as brightly as their happiness in that moment. They took a moment to close their eyes, sucked in a deep breath and… *FWOOSH* …melted the top half of the candle with a sudden burst of red and green fire. The candle, was surprisingly, still lit. A blush encompassed their face. “Hehe, whoops.” He sucked in a much lighter breath, and blew out again. The light of the candle flickered out, and everyone cheered. The ponies viewing the memory suddenly heard voices in the air, one sounding much like Shadow, but the other sounding much older. <*chuckles* Well, I hope it comes true. I’ll do my best to make sure it happens. No, we’ll do our best!> <*laughter* Alright, alright, fine, I’ll eat the cake. I always did have a serious sweet tooth!> The watched as the foal started eating their first slice of cake. They all suddenly felt their moods shift to happiness, joy, melancholy… and sadness… They all turned to look at me, while I was watching the memory with a sad smile on my face. Fluttershy got up and trotted next to me. “Are you alright?” “Yeah, yeah, it’s just…” I sniffed, and wiped at my eyes a little. “I just got something I my eye is all.” She simply smiles a knowing smile at me, and sat next to me, placing a wing around my back. The gesture was greatly appreciated. The party continued in full swing. Seeing as how all the children were having the time of their lives, the adults decided to step out the back door to talk. This left all the foals alone in the house, though there were some who were old enough to watch out for others to make sure they wouldn’t be trouble. Unfortunately, that didn’t account for the three new colts that walked in through the front door. One was a red earth pony with blue eyes and a black mane. The second was a red Pegasus with a blonde mane and green eyes, and the last one was a red unicorn with an orange mane and brown eyes. They looked around, and spoke a few words to each other, before grinning evilly and trotting off in different directions. Everypony suddenly noticed that their moods shifted to anger, and quickly looked at me again. Fluttershy was about to ask what was wrong, but I simply held up a hoof to silence her, as I kept my eyes trained on the three new colts. “Just watch. This is why this memory is important.” The three newcomers almost instantly started crashing the party. They began calling foals names, and pushing them over, making them cry, knocking snacks and treats out of their grasps, and just making things miserable for everyone. Shadow Flare took note, and almost immediately rushed to try to stop them. “Hey! Knock it off! Leave them alone!” “Yeah! Leave them alone you Meanie Mc Meanie Pants!” The red unicorn noticed him, and intercepted him. “Heh, and what are you gonna do if we don’t, freak? Go cry to your mommy? Yo, bro’s! Looks like we got some kinda freaky hero over here!” The other two colts looked over, and after pushing over a foal knocking another treat out of another’s, the other two colts walked up to the unicorn. Shadow’s Left eye became slightly green when he next spoke. “I’m warning you, leave us all alone and go away.” “And if we refuse?” Shadow didn’t even get time to respond before he felt he felt a pair of hooves wrap around his arms and jerk them above his head in a full nelson. He immediately started kicking out his hind hooves and flapping his wings trying to break free, but the other colt’s grip was too strong. “Heh, I got him big bro!” “Alright then. Let’s show this freak of nature what happens to heroes. The unicorn and the earth pony started approaching, and the foal started panicking. The foal’s eyes suddenly went completely green, and he stopped struggling against the Pegasus that was holding him. The earth pony turned around, and got ready to buck Shadow, but then shadow, suddenly jerked his hind hooves up as high as he could, before yanking them down. The Pegasus didn’t expect this, and was jerked forward enough to the point where Shadow’s hooves touched back on the ground. Keeping his momentum moving, he used all the strength his tiny body could muster and he heaved his body forward, just as the earth pony colt bucked his hooves. Shadow managed to duck down far enough so that instead of the earth pony hitting him, he hit his Pegasus right in the snout. He fell off Shadow’s back clutching his snout, which had a drop of blood roll down it. “Whao! Go, Shadow!” Shadow wasted no time, the moment he was free, he jumped towards the earth pony and bit him right on his flank. While normally, that would be regularly painful became excruciatingly so when you add in shadow’s fangs. The earth pony whinnied in pain as he ran away, trying to shake Shadow off of him who had a fierce grip on the colt’s flank. The earth pony managed turned his head to look behind him at Shadow, but because of this, he lost sight of where he was running and crashed head first into a wall. Shadow released the colt’s flank, noticing that there were drops of blood on the colt’s flank and his teeth. “Yee haw! Ride em’ Cowpony! Serves him right!" He then got a wicked idea, and turned to face the unicorn and started walking towards him. With a wicked evil smile on his face, he used his serpents tongue and licked the blood off his fangs. This had the effect of unnerving the unicorn. “What? Afraid of a little bite?” Shadow then snapped his jaws at the unicorn, who took a step back at the action. He then looked for a way out, but saw the key to his escape, or at the very least, a distraction. He used his magic to pull over a little changeling filly, and a metal fork. He hooked his hoof round the younger changeling, who starts struggling to get free and was about to yell for help, until his magic held the fork at her eye. She stopped struggling and went quiet, seriously afraid for her life at this point (or at least her eye). Shadow stopped his advance and glared at the older colt. “How dare he take a little filly hostage! The Brute!” “Let her go.” “Ha ha! I don’t think so! Here’s what’s going to happen, you’re going to surrender, and let us go, or I’ll poke out this filly’s eye.” Shadow just glared at the unicorn colt for several tense moments, before he gave up. He sat down on his flank, hoping the unicorn would let the little changeling go. The unicorn just smirked. “Sucker!” Shadow only had time to blink in surprise before a pair of hooves connected with the back of his head. He had barely hit the ground before a flurry of hits rained down upon him. “This is for my snout, punk!” Shadow curled up into a ball to try to protect as much of himself as he could. His chitin and scales were protecting him, but the hits still hurt. After a few moments, another set of hooves started raining down blows upon him. “And this is for my flank!” As the Pegasus and the Earth pony beat down on the poor foal, the Changeling filly started struggling again. “No, stop! Let him go!” “Be quiet!” He struck the filly on her head. “OW!” Shadow’s eyes snapped open, the green eyes getting darker by the second. “Let me go!” Her struggling grew more. He struck her again. “I said shut up!” Shadow’s eyes lost their green and were now a grey color, and were growing darker by the second. “What’s going on in here?!” “Oh, snap! BAIL!” The unicorn colt threw the changeling filly to the ground and started running, but she landed on her hoof wrong as a result. There was a crack, and the filly screamed out loud. “AAAAAAHHHHHHH!” Shadow let out a gasp as something in him snapped, and his eyes became completely black, before quickly turning red. “You all remember when I went into a blind rage during my attack?” The ponies turned and nodded at him, before they all suddenly realized what that meant for this memory and each one let out a gasp of fright. “Yeah. This is the first time it happened. When my rage and anger took control.” Before the earth Pony and the Pegasus had time to move away from Shadow, There was a flash of fire that burned the both of them causing them to jump away from the foal in pain and shock. Everyone in the room looked on in silence as the foal named Shadow Flare stood up, completely covered from head to hoof in black flames. “LEAVE! HER! ALONE!” Platinum and Shade, who were the first ones in the room, darted towards their foal, trying to get to him before he could do anything else. There was a flash of black fire, as Shadow launched himself at the terrified unicorn colt, wings spread wide as he soared right at him, his eyes aglow with black flames coming out of them. The girls all gasped again as the memory started flickering in and out. All they could make out… A feral roar. The screams of pain and terror. Multiple flashes of pure black and some silver fire. And then the memory went dark.