A Lost Soul Returns: The King of Monsters

by Dark Star the Crazed

The Night's Champion.

Soul, Trixie, Hex, the Element's, their coltfriends and the Crusaders, including Babs Seed, were on a train bound for a small town called Sleepy Hoof. They had all gotten a train ticket in the mail as well as an invitation to something called 'The Festival of Fear.' Apparently it celebrated creatures of legend such as the Headless Horse and that you could see said horse running through the town at midnight. "Rainbow Dash... Isn't this a bad idea? I mean if the Headless Horse is real then if it sees us we're going to lose our heads!" Rainbow Dash and Thunder looked at Scootaloo.

The prismatic mare ran a hoof down the frightened fillies back. "Don't worry little sis... Everything will be fine. After all the headless horse is just a story."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that Rainbow." Rainbow looked to the source of the voice and was surprised to see Fluttershy. "My uncle lives in Sleepy Hoof... Actually he is the mayor... He said that he saw the headless horse... I trust my uncle... He is more honest than Applejack."

"More honest than the element of honesty? Is that even possible?" Applejack shrugged. "Anyway... I didn't know that your uncle was a mayor... Then again I didn't even know that you had an uncle." Rainbow heard a chuckle from beside her and turned to see Thunder making a funny face for Scootaloo, who was on her back laughing.

Soul meanwhile was hoping that there was a demon running amuck in the small town of Sleepy Hoof. It had been a week and he had yet to use his new sword. Sure he had dueled with some of the swordscolts in Fang's army but he had yet to get into a real fight, one where he could die. He felt something touch his shoulder and looked to see Trixie laying her head on his shoulder. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was shallow. Seeing the sleeping mare made the shade smile. After a few hours he noticed that the trees were starting to die. "The heck? Why is everything dead?"

"Sleepy Hoof is known for two things... One is the fact that it always feels like it is fall because the trees never grow any leaves. That is why it is called the Town of Eternal Fall." Soul turned to look at Fluttershy. "The other thing is that it is known for being the sight of a major the turning point in the Nightmare War." Seeing the look of confusion of Soul's face, Fluttershy explained.

"Nightmare Moon's head general, and rumored lover, was a threshal stallion named Night Striker. He was known in the Solar Army as the Headscolt due to how he was known for rushing into battle and cutting off the heads of his enemies. Sleepy Hoof is near the place where he died. According to legend when the battle turned and the solar army gained the upper hoof, Night Striker retreated into the woods. He was followed and captured after a young filly that he ran into broke a stick alerting the solar soldiers to his presence.

He was defeated and knocked to the ground, before they cut his head off, with his own sword, they asked if he had any regrets. His last words were 'Luna, my love. I'm sorry that I've failed you and our daughter...'. They cut his head off and then, to the surprise of everypony in their garrison, gave him a proper burial..."

"Fluttershy..." The entire group turned towards Rarity. "Maybe that legend is more than a legend... After all Dream is Luna's biological daughter... Maybe this Night Striker really did exist and maybe... Maybe he's Dream's father... It is just an idea... But it makes sense..." Spike nodded as well as almost everypony on the train. After a few more hours the train finally stopped and everypony got off. Standing there to greet them was a large, golden, pegasus stallion with a grey mane and hypnotic red eyes. He smiled at them and walked over to Fluttershy.

"My little niece... Oh how you've grown... The last time I saw you, you could just barely reach the top of my leg... I am glad you could make it, along with all of your friends..." He turned to the rest of the group. "Welcome to Sleepy Hoof. I am the mayor, and Fluttershy's uncle, Barricade Breaker. I hope that you all enjoy the festival... And that you see old Striker running through town at midnight... Oh and you might want to purchase a scarf... It can get very chilly around here when the sun goes down..." The stallion walked off with Fluttershy, and Acid, following close behind.

Soul was looking around the town from the train platform as everypony else went to go enjoy themselves. He was shocked at what he saw. "Soul? What's wrong? You've been staring at the town like that for ten minutes. I know the festival looks impressive for such a small town but it isn't like it's The Summer Sun Celebration or The Winter Moon Festival..." Soul turned towards his marefriend and let out a sigh.

"It's not that... I'm just surprised at how many spirits are here... Just from the platform I can count thirty five..." Trixie looked out towards the crowd and blinked. "You won't be able to see them... They don't have a physical form... They seem to be frightened of something, like something is coming to kill them... They know they're dead but even still it is like they are afraid of dying... As to why I can see them and you can't... My special talent is the ability to see and speak to invisible ghosts..." Soul sighed and walked out towards the crowd with Trixie and Hex following close behind.

"Hey you!" Soul stopped dead in his tracks and looked around. "I knew it! You can hear me! Look down!" Soul did as he was asked and saw the ghost of a little brown colt that had his head cut off. "You want to know a secret?" The stallion blinked and nodded. "Princess Luna and a little black alicorn filly, who I guess is her daughter or something, went into The Western Wood."

Trixie blinked and looked to where Soul was staring. Suddenly a light blue mist, that nopony else seemed to notice, swept over the area and the little colt faded into view. The surprise of seeing a headless colt knocked her onto her flanks and she just kept staring at the colt. "What happened to you?" The eyes on the colt's severed head widened and he turned said head to look at Trixie.

"You can see me?" Trixie, who was shaking in fear, nodded. "Strange... Maybe some of the shade's aura has attached itself to you... It is uncommon, but it can happen... Anyway what happened to me? You mean how I died?" Trixie nodded. "The horse cut my head off... I shouldn't have been playing in The Western Wood..." The colt faded away and vanished. Soul looked directly at Trixie.

"How did you see him?" Trixie just looked at her coltfriend and gave a shrug.

"This light blue mist, a little lighter than my coat, swept over the area and all of a sudden I could see him... Didn't you see the mist?" The shade shook his head and turned towards one of the ponies who was dressed in a costume, obviously one of the townsfolk that was helping with the festival.

The stallions face got a look of fear in his eyes. "The Western Wood? You don't want to go in there young one, nopony does... It is a cursed place... But if you really want to go... Is it so you can see The Horse's resting place?" Soul nodded and the stallion sighed. "There is a cave a few miles out of town... An old mare lives there... She is the only pony who knows where his resting place is..." Soul turned towards Trixie and gave her a goofy grin.

"You and Hex want to go and check out the horses resting place with me?" Trixie thought for a second and nodded her head. Hex shook his head.

"I'm going to go hang out with the crusaders... I'll make sure that they don't get into any trouble." He ran off before Trixie could protest. The blue mare sighed and stood up.

"Let's go!" Trixie smiled and ran after her coltfriend. A few minutes later they had gotten a few miles outside of town when they noticed a cave. "That must be where the old mare lives..." The shade and the unicorn walked towards the cave and heard a humming sound. After they entered they saw a mare that was solid but slightly transparent. She was a ghost like the ones Trixie had met in Fang's castle. Soul smiled and walked over towards the mare. "Hello? Are you the mare who knows where The Headless Horse's grave is?"

"Follow the blood soaked trail to where the sun dies, there you will find the tree of the dead, climb it and you shall find the horse's resting place..." Trixie watched from the cave entrance as the mare's eyes flew out of her head and towards Soul who backed up in surprise.

"Thanks!" The stallion ran out of the cave and grabbed Trixie on the way. "Ok... Blood soaked trail... I wonder what she means..." Soul began to look around when he noticed something. There were small red droplets on the ground. He walked over and placed a hoof on the red liquid before lifting it to his nose. "This is blood... Strange... I thought that nopony came into The Western Wood..." He looked down the road and saw that there were more droplets, so many that they were almost forming a line. "Follow the blood soaked trail to where the sun dies..." Soul looked up and saw that Trixie was already walking down the road. He quickly ran up to catch her.

Trixie was looking around at the trees and smiling. "Despite the eerie look this place is quite peaceful..." Trixie blinked and her eyes focused on a stump that was on the side of the road. A mare in a wedding gown was sitting there. Trixie ran up to her and noticed that she was missing her head. She turned to Soul and saw that he was talking to a stallion in a tuxedo. Slowly the two spirits faded away. "That was strange... Why are there so many headless ghosts in this town? The colt said something about playing in The Western Wood and the horse cutting his head off... Soul maybe we should turn back." Trixie turned to face Soul but noticed something. There was a light blue tail sticking out from behind a tree. "Who's there!?"

"Uh oh! Spotted!" The two ponies watched as a black alicorn filly ran out from behind the tree and down the road.

"Trixie wasn't that Luna's daughter?" Trixie nodded and the two ponies ran after her. They followed her hoof prints until they heard the sound of panting and an angry voice.

"Dream! Where did you go!? I was so worried about you!" It was Luna.

"Sorry mommy I got bored and started to play with a squirrel when I noticed two blue ponies coming this way. I hid behind a tree but the mare saw me. I got scared and came back." Soul and Trixie rounded the rocks that were creating a blind spot. They saw Luna and Dream sitting there. The mother holding her daughter in a loving embrace. Luna looked up and smiled at the two unicorns.

"Hello Trixie, hello Soul... Let me guess... You are here to see Striker's resting place? Oh I'm sorry, the resting place of the headless horse?" Trixie and Soul walked up to Luna and their eyes went wide at what they saw. A large, gnarled, tree with branches that seemed to be grabbing onto the trees around it and three hollows in it that looked like eyes and a mouth. The roots were secreting a blood red sap that formed a small pool on the ground. Right in front of the tree was a sword that had a hilt that was shaped like an alicorn on it. Thin thorny vines ran up it and surrounded the neck of the alicorn on the hilt.

"Yes we are but... Why are you here Princess Luna? And why is Dream here as well... Are you here for the festival?" The black and blue alicorns sighed and shook their heads.

"We both believe that the festival tis a mockery of Striker... We are not here to celebrate... We are here to mourn..." Luna's eyes drifted back towards the tree as her horn glowed and the moon rose in place of the sun. A red rose appeared in her magic and floated over to the sword. The two unicorns were surprised to see the withered thorn vines turn green and wrap around the rose's stem. It did the same with the marigold that Dream placed next to it.

"Hi daddy... I'm sorry I haven't visited in a long time... I wanted to but I couldn't find my way here..." The black filly didn't seem to notice that one of the vines grew outwards and patted her head. Luna and Dream just sat there letting tears fall from their eyes...

"Luna... Maybe the festival isn't a mockery of Dream's father..." The two alicorns looked at Trixie. "Think about it... This town has this festival with him as the main reason... Without him it would never have even existed... This festival keeps the legend of the headless horse, of Striker, alive... I don't think it is to mock him... I think it is to honor him and the fact that this town wouldn't be as successful as it is now if he had never existed..." Trixie closed her eyes and let out a sigh. "Maybe... Maybe the festival is a way to celebrate his memory?" Luna scoffed.

"Oh yes! Because ponies want to celebrate the pony known as the Headscolt! The vile pony who fought in the name of Nightmare Moon against their precious Princess Celestia! Face it... It is just a way to make fun at him and remind everypony who the 'villains' of the war were..." Luna looked at the tree. "Most of the myth isn't even true... The only part that is true is the fact that he would always be the first into battle for my name, and the last to leave... That and the fact that they cut his head off with his own sword... Most ponies don't even know that he really existed anymore... Most ponies think that he is just a legend... Just like I was..." A few tears fell from Luna's eyes until she felt something. Soul was floating a hoofkerchief in front of her.

The shade smiled at Luna. "Luna... If you want ponies to remember him, then tell the ponies at the festival that he really did exist... That he wasn't just some evil legend that was created to scare them." The shade gave a small smile at the tree. "Tell them that he was a flesh and blood threshal... One that had a lover and a daughter."

"Wife..." The two unicorns turned to the source of the voice. It was Dream. "Mommy and daddy were married..." The little filly was laying in front of the stallion's grave.

"We got married three years before he died... Six weeks later we found out that I was pregnant... And nine months after that, Dream was born... She was only three when he was taken from us..." Luna felt her eyes well up and placed the hoofkerchief to her eyes to wipe the tears away. They heard the sound of wood being moved and turned to see some roots at the base of the tree moving apart to reveal the heads of ponies. Dream screamed and ran behind her mother. A few seconds later they heard a whiney and saw the body of a black, headless, stallion leap out of the hole in the roots. The body reared up and began to kick its front legs before two bat like wings flared out of its sides and it lowered its forelegs back onto the ground. It ran towards the ponies and stopped before picking a pumpkin up off the ground and placing it on his neck. He turned around revealing that it was a jack o lantern with glowing red eyes. It ran at the ponies again before running past them and ripping the sword out of the ground. The stallion threw the sword up into the air where it spun around before falling back towards earth, where he caught it with the jack o lanterns mouth, before running down the trail towards the town.

"That was daddy! That was daddy!" The three grown ponies looked at Dream who had a look of joy on her face. "That was daddy! I know it was! That was how daddy always grabbed his sword! Daddy's back, daddy's back!" There was a scream and Luna's horn glowed. There was a flash and the ponies were back in the town. They looked down the street and saw the horse running down a mare wearing an orange jumpsuit. They watched as he ran up to the mare and they saw him catch up to her, seconds later she fell to the ground and her head rolled away from her body.

"This is some show isn't it Soul?" The ponies turned around to see Rainbow floating beside them. "Princess Luna?" The prismatic mare fell to the ground and bowed. "What are you doing here?"

"Rainbow Dash... This isn't a show... That is the real headless horse!" They heard a giggle and looked down towards Dream.

"Yep! That's my daddy!" Dash looked up at Dream and her eyes went wide.

"The headless horse is real? Wait did you just say that he is your father?" Dream smiled and nodded. "Umm Princess Luna... I don't mean any disrespect but..."

"He was alive when Dream was born... I do many things Rainbow Dash... But practicing necromancy and necrophilia are not on that list..."

"Mommy? What's neck-ro-filly-a?" Luna went wide eyed and gave her daughter as sheepish smile.

"I'll tell you when you're older..." Dream sighed and Luna turned to Soul only to see that he was no longer there. "Trixie? Where is Soul?" The azure mare pointed down to the street where Luna saw her husband's pumpkin headed corpse fighting the shade. Luna began to shake with anger and screamed. "ENOUGH!!!" Both of the beings below halted mid charge and looked up at Luna. The horse was the first to recover and ran past Soul towards the head of the decapitated mare. With one quick thrust of the blade he impaled the mare's head and threw it a long distance into The Western Woods. Had anypony been at the grave they would have seen the head fly into the hole in the roots where Striker had risen from. A loud roar was heard from down the road and Striker dashed off towards it. Luna calmed down and noticed that Striker was running off. "Where is he going? Follow that pumpkin!"

Soul just stood there for a moment before nodding and chasing after the headless pony. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw what had led the horse away. It was gigantic. It had a smaller rounded head that had a pony skull mounted on it so that the eye sockets were exactly right to show its glowing, red, eyes. From the sides of its head sprouted to giant versions of minotaur horns, it had arms and legs that were as big around as tree trunks, and fingers and toes as big as stumps. Lastly its body seemed to be alive, not just in the sense that the creature was alive but in the sense that its body was moving, wriggling as if it was made of thousands of black snakes. A word flashed before Soul's eyes and a sudden sense of dread shrouded him. "Shade... Behemoth class..."

The gigantic shade began to walk towards the smaller, unicorn shaped, shade. "Me crush for king!" It brought one of its arms down towards the smaller shade who held up his sword in reaction. When the large limb hit the blade the sound of air being cut could be heard and a loud thump followed. Soul opened his eyes to see the behemoth holding its arm, or at least what was left of it. "Me arm! Me make pay for that!" It raised its other arm and was about to bring it down when one of its horns fell off. "What happen to me horn!?" It looked down to see where its horn had fallen and regretted it immediately as the sharp tip of said horn was driven into its eye. "Me eye!" Soul looked in curiosity as the headless horse used the creature’s chest as a spring board to launch himself away and towards the smaller shade.

Soul just looked at the horse with curious eyes. "Does this mean that we are working together for now?" The horse gave a whiney and nodded its head. "Ok... But after this we finish our fight..." The horse nodded. "Alright! Do you think that you will be able to knock it onto its stomach?" The horse turned and looked at the large shade for a moment and nodded before bashing the flat edge of its sword on a rock that it was holding up like a shield. "Draw its attention with my shield?" The horse nodded and then ran forward a bit before turning around and tripping itself. "I get it! You want me to make it angry so we can hit the legs and knock it down! Sounds like a plan!" The horse nodded and ran over to a bunch of sticks, he grabbed a large one and stuck the end in the jack o lantern's mouth. When he pulled it out it had been lit a flame. "Nice trick..." The horse shrugged before it began waving the stick in the air as if trying to get the giant's attention.

Soul looked at the gigantic shade and began to bash his sword and shield together. "Your mother was a pixie!" The gigantic shade stopped its attempts to pull the horn out of its eye and glared at the smaller shade with its one working eye. "And your grandmother was a newt! Your father was a pigeon, and your grandfather was a... Your grandfather was a..." The shade looked around trying to find something else that would insult the giant. His eyes rested on an ant hill and the unicorn smirked. "Your grandfather was an ant!" The large shade let out a deafening roar and ran at the two ponies with a surprising speed. "I really hope this works." The two ran towards the giant and slammed their swords into its legs with such force that they heard them cut through the tree trunk thick limbs. They heard an extremely loud thud and turned to see the behemoth on its stomach. "Time to finish this!" Soul turned and jumped on top of the giant’s leg and ran up its back before stopping at the dead center and leaping into the air. "Technique of the Light..." The shade began to fall back towards the earth and held his blade out in front of him so that the tip was facing the giant. "Cleansing of Darkness!!!" The shade felt his sword impale the creature and heard the crack of a bone breaking. Sol had just shattered the creature’s spine. He backed up and pulled his sword out of the giant’s body and watched as the creature slowly disappeared in wisps of darkness.

"Me go back to where me come from..." The creature exploded and the skull that was on its head rolled down the hill, only to be stopped once the headless horse placed a hoof on it. Soul watched as the headless stallion removed the pumpkin from his head and placed the skull on its stump of a neck. Slowly black tendrils grew from the horse's neck and wrapped around the skull. Soon the tendrils were covering the entire skull. He watched as Trixie, Luna, and Dream walked up. The horse turned around and faced the princess of the night before the tendrils stopped moving. Slowly the tendrils turned into skin and fur grew over it. Then the stallion let out a sigh and his eyelids shot open revealing kind, silver, eyes. All was silent for a second before the sound of small, rapid, hoof steps filled the air.

"Daddy!" The ponies all watched as the tiny black alicorn ran up to the stallion and hugged his front legs and began to sob into his fur. The stallion smiled, sat down on his haunches, spread his bat like wings out, and wrapped them around her, slowly running one down her back. "D-daddy! A-are you back? A-are you alive again?"

"S-Striker...? I-is that really you?" The stallion looked up and smiled at Luna as she walked up to him. The princess of the night raised a hoof and tapped the stallion's cheek to see if he was real. Once she was sure he was, she reeled her hoof back before giving him a hard slap on the cheek. Soul and Trixie saw his cheek turn an angry red color in response to the hit. "That is for disobeying me when I told you not to go and fight in the battle!" The stallion turned his head back to the princess of the night and rubbed his cheek before receiving a kiss on the lips. "And that is for coming back..."

"It's good to be back Luna..." The stallion smiled and nuzzled the blue alicorn. "Strange... I don't feel my heart beating like usual..."

"That would be because you're dead... Sort of... You came back to life but... Only half way... You're alive but... You're missing half your soul..." The, former, headless horse looked at Soul and raised an eyebrow. "I can only see light in it... No darkness surrounds it, and no blood stains it... It's as if your soul has performed a separation ritual on itself."

"Um... I'm not a unicorn... I don't understand magic... All I know is that it has to do with the horn..." Soul gave a small chuckle.

"Unicorn magic, soul magic, and black magic are three different things entirely... You see... Soul magic is basically an off shoot of necromancy, it has nothing to do with resurrecting the body of a dead pony, and instead it creates a new body in the perfect image of what a spirits original body was like... I makes it so that while the pony is still dead, it makes it so that the spirit can do anything a living pony can, including have foals, the only 'bad' thing is that they are not truly alive... An upside to that is that the pony cannot die to sickness or old age." Soul closed his eyes and smiled at the threshal. "So that means that you two could have another..." Trixie looked at the two ponies and giggled when both of their faces turned a shade of dark pink and they looked at each other.

There was silence for a few moments until Striker broke it. "The thought of it..."

"Sounds very nice." The shade's eyes shot open. He had not been expecting that reaction from the two. He looked between the two and saw that they had bedroom eyes.

"Does that mean I'm going to get a little sister or brother!?" Dream popped her head out from under the shield that her father's wings were creating. The little filly had a look of hope in her eyes. Luna and Striker smiled down at their daughter.

"It is possible little one..." There was a bright flash of light and suddenly Princess Celestia was standing behind Luna. Within a second the tip of a blade was pressed against her throat. Celestia just blinked in response.

"I will not allow you to harm Luna. I failed her once, I won't fail her again." Striker was ready to push his blade through Celestia's throat when he felt a hoof on his shoulder.

"Striker... The war is over, me and my sister have settled our differences... Please put the sword down..." Striker looked behind him and let his ears fall back when he saw the frown on Luna's face.

The stallion turned his head back towards Celestia and frowned as he withdrew his sword. "I am sorry for my actions..." He looked at Luna and saw she had a frown on her face. "I am sorry for my actions Princess Celestia..." Luna's frown turned into a smiled and she gave the stallion a kiss on the cheek.

"I'm glad that you want to protect me... But my sister is not an enemy anymore." The stallion sighed and nuzzled his wife's neck.

"Night Striker... I must thank you." The stallion raised an eyebrow at the white mare. "You have saved me from doing a lot of paper work by killing that mare from earlier tonight... She was being taken to Canterlot to be executed at the end of the week, somehow she got ahold of one of the guards swords and... It was a blood bath... If she had continued to roam free... I get scared just thinking about it"

"I knew that something was wrong about that mare... She was the pony who committed The Vanhoover Massacre wasn't she?" Celestia nodded at Trixie. "Fifty killed with a single bomb... Ten of them were only fillies..."

Striker looked between Trixie and Celestia then towards Luna. "Ok... So where exactly are we and... How old is Dream? She has grown... Not my fault for not knowing... I was stuck in the form of the headless horse for... Nine hundred and ninety eight years..."

"I'm ten!" Striker looked down at his daughter and smiled.

"Well... Looks like I have a lot of birthdays to make up for don't I?" Dream smiled and giggled. Striker unfolded one of his wings from around Luna and smiled. "Come over here little one." Dream ran up and dived into her father's lap, smiling as he wrapped his wing around her. "Looks like our little family is back together... Isn't it love?" Luna smiled and kissed Striker again. A few hours later the four ponies left and Soul and Trixie just stayed sitting there.

"Soul... You've been sitting like that for hours... Is something wrong?" Trixie got no response and waved a hoof in front of his face. She still got no response, so she slapped him as hard as she could, still achieving nothing. Trixie sighed and kissed the shade. After she got no response she started to get frustrated. "Say something already!" Trixie just watched as Soul kept moving his mouth, like he was trying to say something but no words were coming out. Suddenly Trixie got a mischievous smirk on her face. She got up, walked in front of the shade, turned around so that he was facing her rump, and raised her tail. The reaction was instant.

"Is that an invitation?" Trixie giggled and lowered her tail.

"Maybe it was but..." Trixie walked over and gave Soul a nip on the ear and gave a quiet purr. "We'll have to wait until we get home to see." Soul looked at his fillyfriend and saw that her eyes were half lidded. She smiled and opened her eyes the full way. "Honestly though, that was my last attempt to wake you up. You were just sitting there, not moving, for three hours!"

"Was I spacing out?" The azure mare nodded. Soul sat there for a few seconds before remembering why he froze. He then slammed his face into the paved stone road beneath them. "Please tell me I didn't give Luna the idea to have another foal! If I did then it's going to be my fault when the entirety of Canterlot and Ponyville go deaf from her screaming!"

"I would tell you that you didn't... But then I would be lying... And I'm trying to stop lying... If I am honest then I will be safer... As long as I don't turn into 'The Great and Powerful Trixie' again then I will, probably, not have to deal with an Ursa Minor trying to eat me... Again... I'm nothing special, I'm not great or powerful, I'm Trixie. Just plain Trixie." Trixie closed her eyes and gave a small frown at her admittance. The frown soon became a smile when she felt Soul hug her.

"Hey... Don't talk like that... 'The Great and Powerful Trixie' is how I met you... So she isn't really powerful, but there are things that are great about her... She is a beautiful mare with a heart of gold, she is an amazing older sister to her little brother, the best fillyfriend I could ask for, and finally she is a great story teller... Wait a second... I just got an idea! I just hope it is one that works... How about when we get back to Ponyville you tell ponies what happened here tonight... Just no lying and making yourself the pony who took down a behemoth all by yourself." Trixie looked up and saw Soul's smiling face. She quickly pressed her lips to his and slipped her tongue into his mouth and vice versa. When they broke the kiss a small trail of saliva connected their mouths.

"Gross..." Soul and Trixie looked to the side and saw Hex and Scootaloo sitting there.

"H-how long have you been watching us?" Scootaloo gave a giggle.

"We just got here... And so did everypony else by the looks of it..." Trixie and Soul looked around to see all of their friends smiling at them. The next morning everypony got on the train and left. Trixie just spent the whole ride back with her head laying on Soul's shoulder. If there had been any doubt in her mind about loving the shade before, then it was gone now. She truly loved him and all she could hope for, was that he loved her just as much. Soul however had much darker thoughts on his mind. He had not seen another shade for two thousand years. He wondered why one would come out of hiding all of a sudden. He began to doubt his actions about killing the behemoth, about killing his own kind. A glance to the side reminded him why he had killed the creature. To protect the mare that he loved with all of his heart.