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Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I was at a party. I don't mean as a birthday party, but rather as in a sort of celebration much similar to the ‘Grand galloping gala’. On any other occasion this would be perfectly fine, joyful even. Not every stallion from the lover class gets to attend this kind of celebrations, especially an earth pony scientists of the lover class, regardless of their achievements.

The room in which the celebration was held was enormous, I literary couldn't see the end of it. At the other side of the room was stretched an equally long buffet table filled with all sorts of pastries and other exotic food that I can’t name. The room itself was built in old Equestrian style: long quartz pillars, marble floor and stained glass windows depicting some important historical events.

Some ponies talked amongst each other, but I couldn't understand any of it because their voices melded in to a murmur that I couldn't understand from a distance, and I didn't want to eavesdrop on any pony’s conversation. The other ponies danced to the slow classical music that was played, I was bad at dancing so I didn't pay much attention to them.

After getting over the fact that I was attending one of the royal parties, a numerous number of questions popped in my head: how did I get here, am I dressed properly, how should I behave, why don’t any of the ponies have faces, who’s that dark blue alicorn next to Celestia?

‘‘Wait…what were the last two?’’ I thought out loud and started to observe my surroundings. I was right, the ponies didn’t have faces. That scared the hell out of me, not as much for the fact that they didn’t have faces but the fact that I could still hear mummers amongst the crowd, but when I got close to one of them, nothing. They were silent, as if the sound was coming from the air itself.

I was also right about the alicorn. She stood next to Celestia and appeared to be talking with her. I must ask who she is, later. Her coat was dark blue, but I wasn’t sure, they were at the far back of the room and even though they were tall they were just too far from me to be able to see clearly and the crowd of faceless ponies didn’t help either. I was perplexed, up until now I thought that the only alicorns were Celestia and Candace.

The other thing that I've noticed is that nothing was detailed. The clothes that the ponies wore didn’t have any complex patterns, or anything indicating that it was more than just a piece of white cloth with strange patterns painted on it. That was the case with the mares at least. The stallions had it much worse, it seemed that they didn’t wear a suit, but rather that their coat was colored to look as if they wore one, which was rather hilarious considering all the different coat coloration's.

There was only one more noteworthy thing in that enormous room. On the walls hung six portraits of six gorgeous mares, everyone beautiful in a different way. Be it class, cuteness, build or some other trait, they were perfect to put it bluntly. I have learnt not to judge a book by its cover, in a bad way so to say.

When I was first introduced to the royals I was very disappointed, but that would be putting it too gently. They treated me like trash, like I was a walking-talking nettle bush. They laughed at my inventions, sabotaged some of them and the list goes on and on. Furthermore my pay is so low that the newest recruit of the guards earns more than me, thanks to those slime balls. The only good things in the council were Candace and Celestia, they gave me hope and comfort that not every pony was such a greedy bastard.

‘‘Are you enjoying the party, Shadow Forge?’’ asked a feminine voice right behind me, startling me out of my thoughts. My heart was racing faster than a pony running from the tax collector, it took me a minute to catch my breath and ease my nerves.

I turned my head to face the owner of the voice that almost gave me a heart attack, that pony was no other that the unknown alicorn. Taking a look from up close at her I could now clearly see some more specific features, such as the fact that she HAS a FACE, or some more precise as her midnight blue coat and flowing main that looked just like the night sky, surprisingly with the stars. She wore a simple dark-almost-black-purple dress, alongside a silver nacelle with an onyx; shaped as the young moon. Then I started to examine her face, first thing I noticed was that she was frowning.

‘‘I didn’t mean to scare you,’’ she said in a much softer tone than the one she confronted me with. I could see the guilt in her eyes; she really didn’t mean to scare me.

I gave her a warm smile and answered: ‘‘it’s quite all right. I was just startled, that’s all.’’

‘‘Oh, well that’s a relief.’’ she said with a sigh. Her gaze was not focused on me but at something behind me.

Curiosity got the better of me and I turned my head to see what she was looking at. Behind me stud a portrait of a timid and shy looking mare, her coat was a soft shade of yellow and she had a long light pink main and tail; she wore a dress that looked like it was grown rather than sown and was surrounded by all sorts of small critters and animals.

Eh, what was so interesting about the portrait? I mean it is very well made and the mare depicted is pretty, but why would she stare at it like that? Then the realization hit me like a ton of bricks. I was just a few moments ago facing that same portrait, although I wasn’t paying any attention to it, but from someone else’s perspective I must have looked like a drooling idiot.

A jolt of fear went through my spine, here I was on a high society party staring at a portrait of a pretty mare; way to leave a good impression Shadow. I mentally scolded myself for being such an idiot and doing something so embarrassing in front of a large crowd, well they didn’t have eyes so I doubt they could have seen me.

I facehooved. The only pony that I was sure could see me, and had seen me, was right behind me. Oh, and what was I doing? Well not much, just getting lost in my thoughts while standing IN FRONT of the SAME portrait.

I spun around to face the midnight blue alicorn. I was already forming an explanation in my head. I couldn’t just let her think that, what if it got out to the public, it would ruin me. I’m not a pony that is worried about his image much, ask any of my friends and they will tell you that I have a bad taste in fashion. I never worry about stuff like that, but it was different here and now, these ponies were of high class and many were a part of the council, and I have a bad relation with them as it is.

The council was comprised entirely out of unicorns; they think that their race is superior to the others. They debate and decide how to run the country. The council, thankfully, doesn’t have full control over everything, Celestia has the last say. The council members, for the most part, just presented new ideas and vote, and always complain how hard their work is.

You must wonder why they hated me. Well that is because I challenged their power and usefulness with my inventions. You see my inventions are made for earth ponies and creatures that can’t use magic, which alone poses a threat to them. They provide raw magic fuel that powers the machines, healing magic that works faster than regular medicine, enchanted tools and weapons.

Magic fuel is still doing well on the market; I couldn’t mimic all of the machines due to the insufficient power source. I have already found an alternative power source, but couldn’t harness the power fully. I was close to figuring out how to use it to its full potential, but I lacked the material goods and every time I asked for funding I was declined, guess they didn’t want competition.

Even though I was originally a doctor I had no chance against their magic healing, it was fast, almost painless and less scary, the only problem was that if done too many times it could tire a pony out. Zebras still earned a lot of bits for their healing potions; mostly it was bought for the army and the guards, because it’s more practical than having trained medical personnel at every station.

In the weapon manufacturing, efficiency and legality I was in the lead by far. Although weapons are probably the reason I got a job at the palace, because I was too dangerous to be left alone or because they really wanted stronger and more lethal weapons I might never know. I was never a fan of violence and war and I’m not, nor will I ever be proud of what I did, but those were desperate times and I had to earn bits one way or the other.

I‘m sure that this is the main reason that the council hates me; I changed the whole perspective of war tactics with my long range weapons and the captains and generals minds are set on the old war tactics. Only a hoof full of higher ranking ponies do accept the tactic for a few logical reasons; there are less casualties, weapons don’t dent and brake as easily and the only thing that is needed is the ammo and the gun itself.

Seeing as a scandal like this would lessen my already low funds and maybe demote me, they could get most of the council to agree with that idea and the princess couldn’t say anything against the majority.

I was facing the alicorn now, and she was smirking. I better fix this before it’s too late. I had a pretty good explanation, all I had to do is not make a bigger fool of myself than I already have and explain the situation. Ok, this shouldn’t be so hard, right? I took a deep breath and thought about what I was going to say.

‘‘Please don’t mention this to the council or the reporters’’ I blurted out. Why was I so bad at talking to mares or to any pony in a critical situation?

She burst in to a un-lady-like laughter, which lasted a few minutes and through the whole thing I just stared, dumbstruck. Maybe she wasn’t going to tell anypony after all. She was laughing in a manner that showed that she didn’t care what the ponies thought. Hm, did I over-think things? Nah couldn’t be, after all being a little paranoid is healthy.

After she calmed down a little, she brushed off the tears from her eyes and spoke in a tone that was half serious and half `are you serious’ ‘‘You still haven’t figured it out, have you?’’

‘‘Figured what out?’’ I inquired, arching a brow.

“That this is all just a dream. I did such a poor job of creating your dream that I was afraid you would catch on too quickly. Were the signs not obvious?’’ she said frowning; any sign of happiness faded away and all that was present now was sadness and worry.

‘‘Well the no face thing does look odd and creepy, I have noticed that this room doesn’t have an end and what’s with the stallions being collared as to look that they are wearing a suit,’’ I stated ‘‘But I am not completely sure how this is my dream if you made it. Elaborate please.’’

She gave me smile that I knew oh so well, I smiled like that a lot; it meant that she is about to give me a long lecture as to how she did it. I wish I had a glace of wine. To my surprise a glace appeared in my right hoof. What more it stuck to my hoof, like two oppositely charged magnets, and I didn’t have to hold it in my mouth or with both my hooves, pretty handy actually.

She saw me inspecting the glass and started to explain ‘‘In the dream world almost anything is possible, at least to the person dreaming it, but to other `guests’ it is harder than just a thought. I for one am connected to all dreams in a way that is too complicated to explain at the moment,’’

She took a deep breath and continued: “The answer as to how I made your dream is simple. I connected our dream worlds and melded them into one. The reason why no pony has faces is because usually it would be ponies that you know or had seen their faces for a second but now that there are two minds joined together things just don’t add up, and a blank spaces are left in their place,’’

She inhaled again. If she continued like this she would get light headed fast, but then again this is just a dream so she might not. I thought about it for a moment and came to a realization, why does she need to breathe at all?

I looked back at her; she was still explaining why nothing was detailed. I didn’t hear the whole thing, but understood the basics. Apparently this was just one of her memories and she didn’t pay much attention at details and it got even more undetailed when mixed with my mind. That posed another question, why was she here in the first place?

‘‘… That’s it for the most part. I could go in to further detail, but that would require you to know more than the basic rules of magic…’’ She said, but still continued her lecture.

Did she really think that I would listen to all of it? First of all I was an earth pony and didn’t know a lot about magic, nor did I care to learn anything. Second, she was explaining it in painful details and has been at it for good ten minutes or so.

I took a sip of my wine; it tasted great, but I wonder I could change it to something else. I concentrated on something similar, white wine. I guessed if I could make regular red wine that white shouldn’t be a problem. The color of the wine slowly faded and in a few moments all that was left was a clear slightly yellow liquid. I brought the glace to my lips and took a cautious sip.

Well I'll be damned, it worked; the wine tastes just like it should. Now what should I turn the drink in to now? I haven’t drank a shot of Rakia since the last time I visited my birth country, and that was four or five years ago. Perhaps I should try a glace of vodka or scotch.

I put a hoof to my chin and started thinking about the last one. I never tried scotch before, I wonder how it tastes. I’ve heard ponies say it tastes like dirty socks, I’ll think about it.

I took another sip of my drink. It tasted weird, like… OH MY FUCKING STARS, WHAT’S IN THIS!? I quickly spat out the discounting liquid; that stuff wasn’t white wine anymore, I wasn’t sure what the hell it was, but I was sure that I would never again take a sniff of it, let alone a sip.

I rubbed my tongue, trying to get that taste out of my mouth. After doing so for a few minutes the taste faded away enough for me to tolerate it, too bad this was just a dream and I couldn’t throw up, at least that would replace the taste a little.

‘‘That’s what happens when you don’t listen’’ I heard the blue alicorn say, with a tone that mothers use when they tell you not to do something, but you still do it and get hurt a little, then instead of scolding you they just say ‘I told you so’, or something like that. Yea, a rather detailed explanation, I had experienced it perhaps more than I should have.

I glared at her, panting with my tongue out. She was smirking; she actually found this bloody funny. My fuse was already reaching its end and I didn’t need her laughing at me.

‘‘If you had listened to me you would have known that you shouldn’t think about too many things, drinks in this case, at once, or they will all mix and you get a wish-wash that tastes like…’’ she stopped for a moment, as if she couldn’t find the right word,”well I don’t know how to describe it, the taste is almost always different, but you know what I mean.’’

Yes I do and I don’t want to remember it ever again. I didn’t dare to speak, my mouth was numb and the taste was still present.

‘‘Anyway,’’ she started, “We don’t have time for me to explain everything again. So, do you have any questions?’’

I stared at her for a moment, and then spoke, ‘‘I have three,’’ my voice was raspy and it hurt my throat when I spoke. After this I wouldn’t drink any alcohol for a long time, perhaps never again; well it’s not like I drank a lot, only wine and Rakia, when I could afford it or when my friends treated me, sadly I didn’t have a lot of them.

‘‘First of all who are you?’’ I started asking ‘‘Second: why do you need to breathe if this is just a dream. Third: why are you here, because I doubt you wanted just to chat with me?’’ I stated.

‘‘Oh where are my manners,’’ she apologized and started introducing herself, ‘‘I am Princess Luna, the ruler of the night and all creatures nocturnal, the raiser of the moon and stars, and the co-ruler of Equestia,’’ she stated in a kind of tone that story tellers use.

I snorted at the last one, ‘‘Yea right, like any of that is true. The only ruler of Equestria is Celestia, and the last time I checked she also raised both the sun and the moon,’’ I stated, perhaps a little too roughly.

‘‘Well it has been a long time,’’ she muttered under her breath, more to herself than to anypony else.

‘‘About the second question,’’ she continued, most of her cheerfulness gone, ‘‘If you make a habit of not breathing in the dream world there is a high chance that it will reflect in the real world,’’ she said a little livelier. I rolled my eyes; I could practically feel her shifting into lecture mode. She must have noticed it and just added, ”In short it could cause breathing problems while you sleep,’’

“What about the last one?” I inquired.

She took a deep breath and started speaking, “Equestria is in danger, something horrible is about to happen’’ I wanted to ask her what did this have to do with me exactly, it’s not like I am a trained soldier or something; but she just waved a hoof dismissively and continued,, I am not yet sure what it is exactly, or how it will happen, but I know that very soon Equestria will fall--’’

“And you need me why exactly?’’ I cut her off.

“I need you to listen for once,’’ she continued, slightly irritated, “I’m going to make you an offer. I’ll give you the ability to use magic; it won’t be the same as unicorn magic, but you’ll still be able to use many useful spells,’’

“And you are just going to give me that power, for free?’’ is asked. I was sceptical about all of this. No one just gives you that kind of power, there must be a catch.

“I will not ask any thing in exchange for this power, I just hope that you will use it for the right cause’’ she said.

She then looked at me with a serious expression, “Equestria will need heroes, someone that will give hope to the ponies and fight against the upcoming evil. Will you, Shadow Forge, be that pony; will you fight for the greater good?’’ she asked in what sounded more like motivational speech than an actual question.

“No,’’ I said simply. I held a serious and straight face and I meant what I said.

“I am glad you agreed to my offer,’’ She started. Well, it was good to know that she doesn’t listen to a bloody thing I say and that she rehearsed the speech,, The power I am about to give you is nothing to be taken lightly, use it with…’’ she stopped in mid-sentence and asked,, Wait, what did you say?’’

“No’’ I repeated, my ton sharp.

“But… but why?’’ she stammered, probably not expecting me to decline her offer, “Why don’t you want to help Equestria?’’

“Well for starters there has been peace in Equestria for the last five hundred years, so I doubt that it will start a war soon, ’’ I said, my temper rising, “Second: I’ve just met you and you offer me power that no other Earth pony has, I’m a little worried about that. Third: of all the ponies in Equestria why did you choose me, you could have chosen some pony that knows how to fight. What makes me so special?’’

She just laughed at me. Was she insane or something? “Did you really think that you were the only one I offered the power to?’’ she asked, a few bursts of laughter still escaping her.

“Uhh,I… I… don’t know.’’ I wasn’t sure how to answer the question.

“Well you’re not. I have offered the same power to about a dozen ponies, and they all eagerly accepted It.’’ she said matter-of-factly.

My jaw dropped; did she just say that she gave such a dangerous power to a bunch of random ponies? I wanted to tell her that that was a horrible idea and a mistake, but she just waved her hoof dismissively, again; I was really getting tired of it.

“Before you say anything I just want to say that I have full confidence that they will do the right thing,’’ she said a wide grin forming on her face, “Besides, Tia has taught you ponies the importance of friendship, love and tolerance.’’

I arched a brow “Who, did what?’’

She looked at me in surprise and confusion “You know Tia… Tatiana? ’’

I just shook my head; I had no idea of who she was taking about.

She groaned in annoyance “I’m talking about my sister Tia. Her real name is Tatiana, but I call her by her nickname,’’ she explained, which didn’t do much good as it probably should have. She huffed and said in an irritated and brisk tone, “You know her as Celestia!’’

“Aha, yeah sure.” I said, skeptical.

“You don’t believe me, do you?’’

I gave a long and frustrated sigh, this was going nowhere fast. “Listen, I don't know which mental hospital you escaped from, but I will not agree to any of your deals, for the reasons I have stated previously.’’

She just glared at me.

A small earth quake shook the room, and howling winds blew from my right; this did nothing to stop the faceless ponies from dancing.

I looked back at Luna. Something gave me the impression that this was her doing. I didn’t do it, and there hasn’t bine any other intelligent being in this room, at least not that I knew of. Another jolt of fear ran through my spine. Great Shadow, just you anger the possible goddess, I mentally scolded myself.

The so called ‘Princess of the night’ was faring better than I had. She didn’t seem scared or startled; she just stared distractedly at the ceiling. She then turned her head to look at… Well I’m not sure what she was looking at, but her gaze was directed toward the direction the wind was blowing from.

She stood there for a few moments, and then she turned back to me. She had a stern and serious expression.

,, It seems our time is up.’’ she said, in a calm tone.

“And what do you mean by that?”

“You’ll find out in a few seconds.” She said with a smug smile.

Gulp. I’m pretty sure I don’t want to.

Another earthquake shook the room. It was stronger this time, a lot stronger, strong enough to crack the floor and throw me of my hooves; and still the faceless ponies acted as if nothing was happening. Luna was thrown off balance, but quickly steadied herself.

She then turned to me, still struggling a little with her balance, and said “We will speak again on a later date, once you are convinced.” Then she disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Well she didn’t exactly disappear like one of those cheesy stage performers, but instead she herself turned in to a cloud of smoke; if that thing can be called smoke any way. The ‘not smoke’ substance was too black, too thick and wasn’t lumpy enough for me to call it smoke, or associate it with any gas-like substance I knew of. It was completely black, sleek, and it had strait and pointy edges. To be honest if I had to compare it to something it would be a shadow, but this ‘shadow’ looked tangible; a tangible shadow perhaps. To be fair this was a dream and I guess anything was possible, even something as weird as this.

A third earthquake shook the room, this one was the strongest yet. The once solid marble floor started to crack and brake, small and big parts of it crumbled and fell in, what I could only describe as Oblivion/ a vast nothingness that consumed all. The reason I associate the ‘nothingness’ with Oblivion is because after an object falls into it, after freefalling for a certain time (dependable on the objects mass and shape) it would disintegrate into nothingness or you could say it got obliterated, hence the name. I was hoping that only inanimate objects would get obliterated. Those hopes shared the same fate as the faceless ponies after seeing them falling in the void and getting obliterated all the same, while still clinging to their partners and trying to dance or act as if they were talking to somepony.

I ran as fast as I could to the left side of the room, the wind was blowing from the right so it would be easier running with the wind blowing in my back rather than having it blowing in my face and slowing me down. Besides I couldn’t run to the right even if I wanted to, the floor collapsed leaving a large gap between me and the other part of the room, and was dissolving even more at an alarming rate.

After a measly 100 meters distance from my starting point, the dissolving floor had caught up with me. I struggled, and succeeded to maintain my balance as the piece of marble floor started its descent toward the disintegration point. Not wanting to end my life just yet, I ran toward the edge of the broken-off piece of marble floor and jumped on to the other nearest falling stone. This proved to be rather difficult, given the fact that the stone I was standing on had almost turned to a 90* degree angle in comparison to its original position. While I somehow did manage to get to the edge of the rock, there was still the jump, and I had a feeling that gravity was going to interfere in my plans.

I jumped. I made the jump with little hesitation, then again if I failed I didn’t have much more to lose than if I have stayed on the other piece of broken-off marble floor.

I succeeded in landing on the other rock, well my front hooves and a part of my torso did any way, the rest of my body wasn’t so lucky. I held on to the surface with my front hooves for my dear life, quite literary, while my back legs trashed uselessly, trying to find some solid ground or find a hard surface to latch on to and elevate me enough to regain a little footing and climb up. Of course I also wished to be rich and be acknowledged and held in high regards by other ponies, but accurse I knew that would never happen as well as knew that a rock was unlikely to just coincidentally float under me and float me back safely to the room. Those things only happen in cheesy novels and dreams…

“That’s it!” I yelled out loud, to nopony in particular. I really should stop voicing my thoughts like that, only mad ponies do that and it would be really bad if I did it after seeing a nice looking mare; some rather… interesting thoughts pass my mind from time to time.

I took a deep breath. This is going to go horribly wrong or I’m going to have an amazing stroke of luck. I hoped for the latter.

I didn’t ponder over it for too long, given that my options were 1: die or 2: possibly live or die. Again I didn't have anything to lose, besides my life that would be lost either way. I let go the edge of the marble floor, fell for a second, then I felt my scull hit something hard, and then the rest of my body followed suit.

I got up, groaned and started rubbing the back of my head. While I was pretty lucky not to fall in to the ‘nothingness’, the short fall still hurt. Looking up at the crumbling room, I noticed that I was fairly far from it. I looked at the sections of floor, wall and an occasional faceless pony falling above me, and started to draw the safest, most possible and fastest rout back to the room; once there I will make further plans of my next acti--.

My thoughts were cut off as I lost footing under my left hind leg. Panicking, I scrambled as fast as I could to the edge of the stone and turned back to see what happened. The reason I lost my footing was, to my utter horror, due to the fact that I was at the disintegration point. Panicking I ran off the edge of the now disintegrating piece of marble floor, and tried to get a hold of the nearby table. Of course I was just lucky enough to miss it by a millimeter, just close enough to graze it a little.

Most ponies say that just before you die your life flashes before your eyes and that you see a bright light. I doubted this was true, because my life didn't flash before my eyes and I didn't see a bright light; just a loss of felling in the parts of my body that got disintegrated.

Once my face had started to disappear I in fact could see a strange, blinding white light. That was strange, either the other ponies had lied about their life flashing before their eyes or… No, it couldn't be, could it? Did death its self just tell me that I need to get a life?

The light just kept getting brighter and brighter as I dissolved more and more. At some point it got so bright that it completely blinded me, then after that followed a felling… no not a felling, but the opposite, a lack of any feeling or senses; just the blinding light that seemed to consume me.

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Footnote: Level up

New perk added: Drink mixer-- after accidentally making that wish-wash of a drink, you are now a little more experienced and a lot more cautious in the art of mixing chemicals and will not drink any alcoholic beverage for some time.
Permanent traits: +3 to chemistry, +2 to alchemy
Timed traits: Resistance to addiction cause by any alcoholic beverage for 6 months

Author's Note:

I'll give a full rundown of skills, perks and other stuff. Please report any mistakes, because I know that there will be a few of them.

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