I don’t regret joining the Rangers… I would do it again in a heartbeat.
But that doesn’t mean it didn’t cost me. There was a steep price. I would give it everything, and usually it would give back, but sometimes it had to take everything.
The darkness found me the same night I found the zap apples. My name back then was Granola Apple, but everypony called me Grainy. I was a year or two older than you are now when the darkness decided to make its move. That’s when the Rangers came.
I joined, and apprenticed under a good mare. When I earned my armor, I took the name Zap Apple so I would always remember how I got where I was.
The darkness that followed me out of the Everfree Forest wouldn’t give in so easily though.
In hindsight, that probably saved my life. I went in with a team of six others to root out that particular evil. When we came out of the forest, we found devastation.
Our headquarters had been compromised. Almost all of the Rangers were dead, including my old master. We found a few survivors, but… all but two passed from their injuries within the week.
We had been betrayed by one of our own. Three of the others left to hunt him down. Two came back.
The eight of us slipped even further into the shadows than before so that we could rebuild. During that time, I met a stallion and fell in love. Silversmith and I were married two years later.
When Rangers marry, they can either bring their special somepony in, or keep things secret from them. My husband… he was always meant to be of the day. He passed that trait on to most of our children.
We had six of them, including one set of twins. Buried two more before they had a chance to live. Had our third pass all too early. Four of the other five are still around, scattered around Equestria, just like I told them to.
A few months after I had my youngest, the Rangers found another filly. I had just been promoted to lieutenant, so I took her on as an apprentice. There were a dozen of us now, and we were finally feeling like we were recovering.
Four years later I was still training her when things went wrong again. Somepony started hunting us, individually. We all had to revert to our civilian identities, hiding in plain sight.
It was a little over a year before my apprentice showed up on my doorstep. Her family had been slaughtered, and she had nowhere else to go. We gave my husband a slightly modified version of the story, just that her parents had died and she had nowhere to go. He was always such a good stallion. He didn’t even wait for me to ask before he offered her a place to stay.
Years went by. Every time one of my “pen pals” stopped writing, I knew what it meant. My younger children had grown. My oldest were the twins, and while my daughter had moved out to go to school, my son had found reason to stay.
Eventually the day came when we were the only two Shadow Rangers left. We were now completely isolated, having lost contact with Midnight Star when our base was destroyed. It was at around this time that my husband found out about my double life.
There was an incident with a manticore. We were used to the creatures of the Everfree causing us a little trouble, but this was an entirely new level of danger. I had to use my shadow to protect my children. Another thing I have no regrets about.
My husband… bless that stallion. He took it better than I would have imagined. He didn’t fully understand, but he understood well enough I suppose. He wouldn’t even accept my apologies for decades of deception, said there was nothing to forgive.
He was always too good for me… Too good for Equestria really.
It was a little over a year later when it happened. Our oldest son and our two youngest were the only ones still living with us. My now graduated apprentice had fallen in love, and I gave her and my son my blessing.
She chose to take the same road I had, keeping her secret. It’s not a path I would recommend.
I was in town, helping with the wedding preparations. My husband was with the children. They were attacked. The assassin that had been hunting us had finally found our home.
The only thing about me that our enemy knew was my name, Zap Apple. It wasn’t hard for my beloved to guess who that was. He took my place, pretending he was giving himself up to save the children.
I wept more bitterly on that day than all before or since combined. That was the only moment where I doubted, the only time I wished I had never taken the armor.
We postponed the wedding. Told everypony that it was so we could grieve. They were all so understanding, we had just lost the patriarch of the home in a terrible accident.
That night, our hunt began. Stiletto and I tracked down and eliminated everypony connected to this, staring with the assassin who had killed my husband. It was during this time that my son discovered our secret.
He took it as well as his father had. His only condition for forgiveness was that we let him help. I gave him the armor myself.
It took years. My son and his wife had already had their first foal, a colt. But eventually, we hunted our enemy out of existence.
Life was good after that. The Rangers weren’t needed except for the occasional monster incident. Another foal was born, a filly this time.
Years went by.
It honestly got to the point where we were considering making the Shadow Rangers a family trade. And then it happened.
It was a mission. Just like the ones we had used to run. A powerful mage was using the dreamscape for corrupt purposes. We stopped him, with some unintended help. A filly and colt, teenagers, strangers before all this started. In the old days, we would have picked them up, made them Rangers.
Instead we sent them on their way, unintentionally ensuring that the Shadow Rangers would die out.
One pony. That was all it took. One survivor from that evil unicorn’s group. He tracked us, found us. He was waiting for me when I came home, already heavily wounded, but apparently determined to finish things.
I killed him.
My son was at the top of the stairs. Or at least, he had been when the stairs collapsed. His wife was in the baby’s room. Only a few weeks ago we had welcomed this foal into the world, and now…
It took me a while to find her. Her mother had wrapped her in her own shadow to keep her safe. Which meant Stiletto didn’t have her armor during her fight.
I had no other options, so I raised three more foals. Big Mac, Applejack, and Applebloom know that their parents died in a burglary, same as the rest of the town.
That’s what the shadows cost me, having to bury my friends, my husband, my son and his wife. Having to watch my three grandfoals grow up without their parents, the youngest never even knowing them.
That’s why I have to tell you to be careful how you lead your life. And that’s why I have to ask you what your intentions are. In general and towards my family.
“…and then multiply that by pi to the power of y.” The astral pegasus waited for the alicorn to respond.
“Okay, got it. What do these formulas do?”
“They’re the ‘how’ behind astral manifestation in corporeal realms.”
“Oh. Why tell me this then?”
The Winter Star hid her grin. She didn’t need to know about that just yet. “So that when I say ‘ridiculously complicated’ you know what I mean.”
The visitor had just spent three hours rattling off a series of equations as fast as Twilight could process them. It was also quite clear that Twilight was the one slowing things down. “Understood.”
“Alright. The explanation as to why I can do this but Midnight can’t are ridiculously complicated. The exact processes by which this works are ridiculously complicated, but I can help you. This,” A sparkling snowflake floated over to Twilight, seeming to appear out of nothing, “is a wish. Use it very carefully, as they can be… mischievous. You need to tell it exactly what you want it to do, with as little room for misinterpretation as possible. It also must involve snow, ice, cold, wind, or another element of winter.
“The second thing I have for you is a message. Let the elder princesses know that when they hear the name of your enemies, the first connection they make is exactly correct.” At Twilight’s nod, the pegasus smiled. “I have to go now. Please tell Luna I said hello and that I’m doing well.”
And then she was gone, faded into starlight.
Diamond locked eyes with Zap Apple. “My intentions? My intentions are to protect, to save. My intentions are to be a Ranger, to help ponies. That includes keeping normal ponies like Applebloom out of it.”
Zap Apple slowly nodded. “I see… Tell me, how exactly did you get your armor? I know I didn’t give it to you, but I thought I was the only Shadow Ranger left.”
Diamond shifted from sitting to lying down. “Well, you see… it all started with these nightmares…”
Twilight looked up at the sound of knocking. Spike hadn’t left his room since he’d found out about Nyx, and it honestly didn’t sound like him anyway. Her friends had apparently stopped knocking, given their entrances yesterday. She doubted any of the Crusaders would come by this late in the evening. She honestly had no idea who it could be.
She opened the door to the room she was working in to find a familiar mare. “Cheerilee? What are… How can I help you?”
“Actually… I’m here to help you. I found some things out that you need to know.”
“Cheerilee, if this is about Midnight Star…”
The teacher shook her head. “This has nothing to do with him, I remember what you told me. This is about the ponies who attacked, the ones who took Nyx. I figured out who they are.”
“What!? Cheerilee, how?”
“…Twilight, how much do you know about my past?”
“…Not much, but I feel like I should now.”
“Well, I have one, let’s leave it at that for now. The point is, that I got this from one of the cultists while we were struggling.” Cheerilee pulled the pendant out of her saddlebags. “I had an old friend ID it. This cult, they’re called the Blood’s Eye.”
“The Blood’s Eye?”
“Yeah, I’ve never really understood how these groups get their names. Anyway, they’re operating out of–”
“We already know that part. Tracked a stallion Granny Smith shot. Now we just have to comb the city for this specific group.”
Briefly, a pair of astral ponies watching the proceedings wondered if Twilight had connections to some ancient power or other of assuming-what-you-already-had-was-right. On the flip side, when that alicorn finally stopped jumping to conclusions, their job would get significantly harder.
“Alright then. This is just a copy of the report I received, so I’ll leave it with you.” A packet of paper vanished into the abyss that was Twilight’s temporary desk, never to be seen until a painfully ironically appropriate moment. “Twilight… how are you handling things?”
“Like this.”
“Huh?”
“Charging out there trying to find her won’t help any of us. So I’m going to hunt. I’m going to chase every lead and paper trail, and I’m going to have every guard in Equestria hounding them. And then when I find out where they are, I’m going to fly out, save my daughter, and blast her captors off the map.” The simplicity of the statement was chilling. It sounded like she was commenting on the weather.
“Fair enough, anything I can do to help?”
“Keep her friends safe.”
“…and that’s how we got to today.” Diamond finished telling her brief story. She had debated mentioning her talks with Cheerilee and Twilight, but decided that since Zap was interested in how she’d become a Shadow Ranger, she’d better stick to relevant topics. She had decided to mention her argument with her parents though, so that the mare would know why she’d been hiding in the clubhouse.
Zap nodded. “I see. So you’ve met the General himself…” There was a faraway look in her eyes for a moment before she snapped back to reality. “There’s another reason I brought you down here.”
“Oh? What is it?”
“This.” Zap led the filly over to a large box set against the wall. It looked something like an oven made of stone, metal, and crystals. “This is the last Nightforge in existence.”
“Nightforge?”
“A special forge that exists in reality and dreams at the same time.”
“How is that possible?”
“Dunno. Takes smarter ponies than me to build them. I do know how to use it though, and more importantly, why.”
“Why?”
“Exactly. You see, a Nightforge is the only way to shape Nightsteel.”
“Nightsteel?”
Shadows grew around Zap’s hooves. They shifted to reveal a set of gauntlets, each hoof carrying a retractable blade. “All Shadow Rangers craft their weapons out of Nightsteel. It’s a special alloy with a unique property, namely, that it binds to your shadow the same way that your armor does. Each Ranger’s weapon is unique, as it is an extension of themselves.”
“Wow… Where’d you learn all that?”
“Shadow Ranger’s Apprentice Guide, Volume II, page 17.” Zap gave her a wink. “We used to make apprentices memorize those books… not much point in that now though.”
“Where does Nightsteel come from?”
“Not sure. One of the others must’ve taken that tome. However.” Granny opened a small wooden box at the side of the forge. There was a lump of silvery metal inside, slightly larger than a grapefruit. “We don’t need to worry about that yet. This’ll be enough to make you your weapons.”
“What do we do?”
“Well, first I open this oven door doohickey here, then I put the Nightsteel inside and close it. Now you see that big silver crystal in the center of the door? I want you to reach out to it, feel it with your shadow. You need to connect to it.”
“I… I can’t use my shadow much without putting the armor on.”
“Well that’s no problem filly, just put it on then. Apple Bloom mentioned you were using the name Black Diamond, so let’s see the newest Ranger.”
Diamond’s shadow lifted off the ground, wrapping around her. When she opened her eyes again, she let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. She blinked as she looked around, then started to reach for her shadow. Which was when she noticed something interesting.
“Zap Apple? Why don’t we have shadows?”
The mare smiled. “Of course we have shadows. We just ain’t casting them right now like most ponies. We’re wearing them instead. That’s what the armor is you know, your shadow, wrapped around you.”
“Oh.”
“Now reach out and connect yourself to the crystal.”
“Alright…” Diamond’s shadow pooled around her, the way it always did when she was controlling it. A thin tendril reached out and touched the crystal in the Nightforge.
Suddenly, she felt it, a grip on the other end. She smiled gently, it was different, but didn’t feel bad… Her smile fell. Something was wrong, she couldn’t disconnect! She opened her mouth to ask Zap Apple for help, but the mare was vanishing up the stairs.
Diamond struggled, fighting the force that was pulling her. Slowly, she sank. She slipped into her shadow as she lost the game of tug-o-war, and then as a shadow was pulled up and into the crystal.
A mangled tiara clattered on the cold cement floor of an empty room.
Diamond blinked. She wasn’t sure how she managed to do so, because she was pretty sure she didn’t have a body.
She thought it through though, tried to move and found she couldn’t. Unable to physically check, she began mentally checking each of her body parts. As she checked each one, she found it in place, but she had the weirdest feeling that they weren’t there until she checked.
She turned her head, looking around. She was floating. Like she was swimming, only there was no water… She wasn’t sure there was air either, but she was breathing, so… She gave up trying to figure that one out.
There was nothing around her. An endless ocean and sky of nothingness. As she twisted, trying to get her bearings, she noticed a something though. It was small, basically just a speck of light, but she wanted to get to it.
Remembering the way shadows were supposed to work, she willed herself over to it. It was bigger than she expected, almost the same size she was. “What are you?”
She hadn’t even meant to ask aloud, much less expected a response.
I do not know. Do you?
“No… I guess that means you can be anything, right?”
I suppose so… What should I be?
“What do you want to be? That’s what ponies tell me when I ask them that question.”
I… do not know. I do not want anything I suppose… I do not know. I know nothing beyond what you see here…
“Would you like to? I’m sure we can find a way out of here together if we try.”
Perhaps… What else is there?
“Oh, there’s lots! There’s–” Diamond had meant to use words, but what came out were pictures. Sometimes still images, sometimes movies. A few had words. They were memories.
Silver Spoon. Midnight Star. The Cutie Mark Crusaders. Miss Cheerilee.
They abruptly stopped as Diamond closed her mouth in shock.
I see… I would like to see this place you come from. These friends of yours. It seems like a good place to be.
Diamond felt a twinge of guilt. She couldn’t pretend Equestria was all sugar and rainbows, or her new friend wouldn’t know what they were getting into. “Well, those are some of the best parts. There’re other parts too, like–” Timberwolves, cultists, nightmares, the fight with her parents, bullying the crusaders, getting their help, good moments with her family, bad times too.
Diamond found herself showing her friend everything. She went until she had no memories left to show him.
How… How can so much goodness exist when there is evil?
“Because ponies stop the evil. Because there are ponies who are willing to protect the good.”
Diamond had the curious feeling that the ball of light had just cocked it’s head at her. Are you one of these ponies?
“I… I wasn’t always. You saw, I used to be bad. But I’m trying to be better. I’m doing my best to help, yes.”
I… I want to help too. Can I help?
“Of course you can, you just have to do your best.”
How?
Diamond thought about it for a moment. She had figured out that talking here was more than that – suddenly Midnight’s comment about communicating with all senses made sense – so she poured out raw emotion. As she did, she included memories, values and lessons. She added sounds, and then smells. Desire to protect her friends, memories of the times they’d helped her, lessons in humility and friendship.
The time she’d helped Silver Spoon win a ballroom dance contest. The smell of fear and feel of adrenalin. The picture on her father’s wall of his brother, a guard who’d fallen in the line of duty. The sound of maniacal laughter at a bridge just outside town.
She poured everything out. And when she had nothing left, she found another way to do it, another angle, another sense to add.
You have to fight, don’t you?
“Yes.” There was no point denying it.
I would like to help you fight. Can I?
“Yes, of course.”
How?
Diamond paused longer this time. Then she poured more of herself out. She felt her body gently moving as she did, a slow dance that matched what she was giving her friend. All of her lessons in formal dance. The little tricks her butler Randolph had shown her. The things she’d learned at the filly’s self-defense classes they had at the school every month. Her instincts.
As she moved, she felt her friend moving with her. A partner in this strange dance, flowing next to her, past her, around her. They danced for a while, until she had nothing left to show him.
I think I understand now… my purpose, how to help you… all of it.
The light flowed, shifting as it gave back to her. They shared all that she had given it, back and forth, the moments flowing. She felt it shift, melting and molding as it wrapped around her. The light condensed, and as she looked at herself, she realized what it was.
What is my name?
“What?”
All of your friends had names, but I don’t know mine. What is it?
Diamond smiled as she looked down at it. “Your name… is Blacklight.”
Everything faded away.