A Dark Shade of the Past

by InfinityBreach

Reign of Darkness

Rainbow Dash was the first to hit him due to the amount of speed she had. Shaded forced his large wings to cover his front as Rainbow rammed full speed into him. As fast as Rainbow had hit him ended up being how fast she got thrown back.

Twilight quickly used her magic to catch Rainbow before she hit the wall, gently putting her down, as Applejack decided to launch an offensive towards Shaded. He quickly moved out of the way, as though he had teleported, when Applejack missed her buck towards him.

Twilight then looked around for this pony, as he appeared to be nowhere on the floor of the throne room. She slowly walked forwards, her hoofsteps being heard over the eerie silence of the room.

She glanced at Fluttershy after hearing her 'eep' and followed her terrified eyesight to the top of the throne room. On one of the beams was the mysterious pony they had been fighting, his eyes just looking down towards them.

When Shaded realized that one of them had seen him, he jumped down, right in between Luna and Celestia's thrones. "Listen, ponies, I don't want to fight you or hurt you. I am only here to help control this world." Shaded said in a monotone voice.

"Control this world? Like we would ever let you do that!" Spike yelled from atop Twilight. "Spike, be quiet, get off my back and go outside. I don't want you hurt." Twilight said in a sisterly tone. Spike jumped off of Twilight and grumbled as he walked out what was left of the door.

After seeing that Spike had left, Twilight then turned to Shaded, and said, "Well it looks like its time to get serious, right girls?" The other girls then nodded, walking to be next to Twilight. "Our friendship will be sure to defeat you." they all said at once.

Shaded watched as they all started glowing, each one floating into the air as a different necklace was seemingly placed on all of them. As Twilight looked up, she wasn't wearing a necklace like the others but instead a crown. Shaded took a few steps back, saying, "The elements... it can't be..." Shaded stared at them in shock, as a light started to emerge from Twilight's eyes.

As soon as the magic had fully taken over Twilight's eyes, a beam of pure light went straight at Shaded. He wasn't fast enough to move out of the way, and one of his wings got hit by the light.

When the glow that came from the girls using the Elements of Harmony wore off, Twilight looked at the direction of Shaded.

She gasped at what she saw, and as soon as she did, the other girls looked too. Pinkie Pie's hair straightened itself, as she stared in shock at Shaded.

"What.. what did we do?" Pinkie Pie stammered.

"Don't worry girls.. the Elements of Harmony can't hurt any normal pony. They are just meant to eradicate darkness. If he is the Master of Darkness as he said, I guess it makes sense that this happened." Twilight stated.

They all looked at Shaded, he was not dead, but he was badly hurt. His entire wing and part of his backside including his Cutie Mark had disappeared, now with blood slowly flowing out of it. Shaded moved his head up, with his hood now off, and used his horn to try and heal himself. "You're an Alicorn!" Rarity gasped, surprised upon seeing this.

"So you're a being of true darkness, huh?" Rainbow started. "No wonder our powerful friendship was able to do this. I bet you don't even have any friends, you big ugly monster."

"Rainbow.. don't be so mean." Fluttershy whispered.

"I.. I do have friends.." Shaded painfully muttered.

Twilight walked right up to the pony that was bleeding out on the floor and stared at him with cold eyes. "Where are the Princesses?" She questioned, unmoving.

"I.. I don't know.." Shaded breathed, barely remaining conscious.

"Don't lie to us, we know you did something to them!" Rainbow shouted.

"But I.."

"Tell us where they are now, or I will use a spell to block your magic." Twilight stated.

"Aint that goin a bit overboard, Twilight?" Applejack questioned.

"Well look at how useless he is right now. He can't even help himself out of this. Where are these so-called friends of yours then, huh Mister Master of Darkness? Must of left you here by yourself." Rainbow sneered.

Shaded looked up at her, with his face twitching in a pained expression. "Well it makes sense to me," Rarity said. "I wouldn't want to be stuck with darkness at all."

"You don't know what you're doing…" Shaded stated, an angry look on his face.

"Oh and what are we doing monster?" Rainbow questioned.

"I.. Am not… A MONSTER!" Shaded screamed, getting back up on all fours, as the 6 friends got thrown into the walls around him.

Twilight watched as Shaded's original cloak began to get turn a shiny black, his hood now becoming a collar. Spikes started to break through his last wing, and his fur started to turn a blood red. He opened his once blue eyes, one now a glowing red, and Twilight saw as his face contorted to that of a nonchalant, murderous type of face.

"I WILL DESTROY EVERYTHING!" this mutated Shaded screeched, the very sky turning to pure black, as a dark purple aura started to appear around him. As far as the aura reached out, everything around it started to fade from existence.

Shaded then started to charge his magic right to his horn, an insane look on his face, as he looked at Twilight.

Celestia rammed herself into the room, breaking down one of the doors. "Shaded! Don't do it!" Celestia yelled as she ran towards him.

Shaded looked at Celestia, his eyes starting to fade into a bluish hue again and he muttered, "C.. Cel..tia.." Then one of his eyes were overtaken by red again and he screeched, "NO EVERYONE IS OUR ENEMY HERE!" By this point Celestia had flied next to Shaded, embracing him in a hug.

"Come on now, calm down.. your friend Celestia is here, Shaded." Celestia chanted softly, holding him tightly.

The sky had started to fade back into its former sunny day, and the aura around Shaded had faded away. He looked with his blue eyes at Celestia, a small smile upon his face, and then collapsed onto the ground. Celestia stepped back, surprised at how weak he was, and then finally got a full look at him.

She nearly threw up at the sight.

There was her friend, with one wing torn like a piece of paper, and the other completely missing from his body, along with part of his backside missing where his Cutie Mark should have been, blood coming out of every wound on his body, this time quickly flowing onto the castle floor.

"Princess..?" Twilight said softly.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" the usually calm and mellow princess yelled. Celestia quickly carried the unconscious body to the castle infirmary, whispering 'please don't die' over and over again.

The mane six looked at the large pool of blood as they had just realized that the being they had just fought had been innocent, telling the complete truth, and was in fact friends with the princess, the entire time.