//------------------------------//
// Chapter 77 
// Story: The Darkness in our Souls 
// by Black Light 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 77

There was a silence around myself and the crying mare. I sat with her letting her cry. I opened my eyes and looked behind me. I saw the girls standing there, looking at Trixie in a new light.

I lit my horn and the amulet floated over  to me. I put it in my hoof.

'This thing is evil.'

'Yeah it's evil. It was made by the darkness. What did you expect?'

'You know what I mean.'

The darkness chuckled. 'So what do you plan on doing with it?' he asked me.

'Can we destroy it?'

'It'll take some time and power, but in theory we could destroy it with out own dark magic.'

'Good, we're going to be doing that.'

'Alright.'

'Really? I expected you to be against destroying it.'

'Why it was a different darkness that created it, I have no attachment to it.'

I rolled my eyes. "Dash go get Twilight, tell her it's over now. Fluttershy, I think you should take Trixie somewhere more private. AJ, Rarity, and Pinkie try to get everything back to normal here." I told each of the girls.

"Alright, but what are you going to do?" Rainbow asked me.

I looked at the amulet in my hoof. "I'm going to get rid of this thing, for good." I told them. They seemed satisfied with my answer and began to go about their tasks. I found my way back to my home. Locking the door behind me I turned to head towards my basement.

"Hey everything okay?!" Skies called from upstairs. "Is it over?!"

"Almost." I called back. "Just got to destroy an ancient evil artifact. I'll be in the basement if you need me."

"Alright, be careful!" Skies responded.

"When am I ever not?" I said. I just heard a laugh from up the stairs. I smiled lightly as I made my way to the door that was behind the stairs. Opening it was another set of stairs that led down into a very dark room. Lighting my horn a soft glow followed me as I descended. I entered the room at the bottom of the stairs. I lit a candle that was sitting on a small desk in the room. The desk was covered in books, papers, and notes. Looking over to the side I saw a single bookshelf that had a few books on it. I returned my attention to the table and brushed some of the books aside to make room for the amulet.

'You don't happen to remember where we put the book on enchanted artifacts do you?' I asked the darkness.

'You were reading it yesterday, it's probably under all those papers.' The darkness told me.

I began to dig through the books and papers until I found a black book bound with twine. It had the outline of a flaming sword on the cover. I smiled and opened up the book.

'Let's see, let's see. Enchanting, no. Purpose, no. History, no. Ah here we are, disenchanting.' I read mentally threw the different chapters.

'Okay so we'll need the actual incantation used to enchant it.'

'I can do that.'

'A runic circle, depicted in the book, easy enough. Lastly, some enchantments result in the destruction of the item when disenchanted, and only a magic of similar type is capable and must have at least the same level of magic.'

'...That may be a problem.'

'Meaning?' I questioned.

'Well the incarnation of darkness that did this was the one of the most powerful, second only to the original darkness. You don't have enough magic in comparison.'

'So you're going to have to take over? Is that it?' I asked him annoyed.

'No.' He told me. 'Separate neither of us are strong enough.'

'Well then what are we-...We're going to have to do that again aren't we?'

'Sadly, yes.'

I took a deep breath in. 'Alright let's get this over with.'

I let out my breath and allowed the boundaries of my mind to fall away. I felt a second mind begin to connect to mine, and soon they were one. The shadow's in the room swirled around my hooves and engulfed me. When the shadow's cleared I was no longer standing there.

We looked down at the amulet on the table. Our horn began to glow a dark black, similar to our ethereal mane. The amulet began to float in the air above the circle that was now glowing beneath it. The metal of the amulet began to crack slowly a small light emanating from the cracks showing that it held power. The light began to dim until it faded away completely. The amulet began to rust and turned to dust before our very eyes.

"It is done, let us return to our rest now." We said calmly.

'And here comes the suck.'

'You can say that again.' The darkness agreed. 'Bite something.'

'We talked about this.' I said mentally grimacing.

Suddenly there was a loud knock at the basement door. "Brother we have company!" Skies called down.

'A distraction, great, let's go deal with that first and delay this as long as possible.'

'Seconded.'

We groaned and started to walk back up the stairs opening the door with our magic. Skies stood there startled. She was not expecting Erebus to be the one to walk out of there.

"The guests?" We asked of her.

She recovered quickly. "Oh, they're in the living room."

"Let us not keep them waiting then." We said as we walked towards the living room.

We entered and we saw the elements sitting there minus one Fluttershy.

"Shad- I mean Erebus?" Twilight asked surprised. "Oh, Celestia please tell me it wasn't you who defeated Trixie." She said worried.

We raised an eyebrow. "We find it strange that you would worry about the one you call enemy, but no we didn't partake in the duel. There wasn't really even a duel at all. Shadowmere and the Darkness worked together and talked Trixie into removing the amulet. I was simply brought here to destroy the amulet. Which has been done." We told her.

"Oh, well that-that's great." Twilight said cheerfully. "So where is Trixie then?" She asked.

"We are unsure at the moment. We expect she is somewhere with Fluttershy crying." We told her.

"Wha-What?!" Twilight questioned. "I thought you said Shadow talked to her."

"I did say, and he did. He talked to her about how her mother died and she and her father believe that it was all her fault, and he beat her daily as a foal because of it." We said like it was obvious.

"She-Her-How-WHAT?!" Twilight suddenly yelled.

We activated our power. "Trixie is currently at Fluttershy's home if you wish to speak to her." We told her. She bolted out the door followed quickly by the rest of the mares.

It was just Skies and us left now.

"You should go and apologize." Skies said.

"Why? We stopped her didn't we?" We asked.

"And it hurt her because of the way you stopped her." Skies told us. "You may not be fully my brother, but I know he's part of you somewhere and you should know what the right thing to do is." She said.

We blinked and remained silent for a moment. "You are...right. We will go now. Be good." We told Skies as we teleported from the house. We reappeared just in time to see Fluttershy's door close. We approached the door calmly and knocked a few times. The door opened to a very angry looking Fluttershy.

We were actually scared.

"YOU!" She shouted. "You caused her so much emotional turmoil! I can't believe that you of all ponies could do such a thing!" She said ranting. "And furthermore I-I-i-" Fluttershy slowed to a stutter as she finally took notice of who I really was. She was talking to part of us, but she was expecting only him.

"We know we have caused her pain." We told her. "That is why we are here, to apologize fully. Shadowmere apologized, but I believe the mare was too distraught to comprehend it fully."

Fluttershy became slightly less scared and even had a small smile. "Oh good, good. Come in then, everypony is in the main room." She said standing aside to allow us to enter.

We ducked our head too fit through the doorway and looked at those in the room. Trixie sat in the middle of the room only sniffling now surrounded by the elements. She looked up and panicked slightly as she was us.

"Who-who are you?" She asked.

"We are Erebus, Lord of Darkness." We answered her. "We have met before...well you have met part of us."

Trixie was still staring at us in fear. "P-part of you?" She asked.

"The one that is called Shadowmere, the pony who challenged you to the duel. He is part of our mind." We told her.

"Wh-What?!" She asked. "That-that's impossible."

"Not for one who is cursed as he is." We responded.

"C-cursed?" Trixie asked.

"Yes, cursed to know the darkness that inhabits the hearts of ponies. That is why he knew of your darkness, and why he understands it." We told her.

"Understands-Understands!" Trixie said angrily. "How could he understand. Okay so maybe he knows what I went through, but that doesn't mean a thing. He didn't have to live through the pain I did!" Trixie shouted angrily.

The magic in us began to stir, our eyes became pits of blackness darker than the Tartarus. Trixie's eyes widened as she was taken away from her mind.


~~~~~~~~~

“You were always a good kid but look what you did now. You are not my son anymore. My son was a prodigy you are a monster. You no longer have any connection to us I suggest you leave.”

~~~~~~~~~


Trixie gasped suddenly as her mind became her own again.

"That was but the beginning of the hardships he faced." We told her. "Believe us when we say that he does understand."