The Darkness Within

by Eclipse Blackblood

Safe Haven?

You don't know fear until you leave what was your home and your prison, find someplace you think you'll be safe and happy, and then find someone from your past. Someone who only wants to drag you back.

---

When Black Cross woke up it was midnight. At least, he thought it was midnight. It's hard to tell time in the Everfree forest without a timepiece of some kind. When he checked for his pocket watch he remembered what happened. Mostly because he had never owned a pocket watch.

For a minute, I thought you forgot about us. Patrick remarked.

"Is this what we sounded like to you?" Black Cross asked him out load.

That's what he told me.

Thank you Nurel. Patrick commented, his thoughts dripping with sarcasm.

Stop thinking like that. Your sarcasm feels weird.

"Would the two of you just-"

A rustle in the nearby foliage silenced the three of them. Next came a voice that Patrick recognized. "Who's there, sneakin' into mah family's orchard through the forest?"

Put me in control of the body, quick!

"Anypony out there better come out now, else I'm gonna go an' get Big Mac."

Patrick pulled up the hood on their tattered gray clock, hoped it covered what the clothing and armor didn't, and stepped out of the forest. He held up a hand in front of his face to block the early morning sunlight that was going directly into his eyes. "I mean no harm," he said, "and I can assure you-"

"What in Equestria are you supposed to be?" Applejack demanded, taking a half-step back as this strange, and obviously frighting, creature stepped out of the Everfree forest.

"I am an adventurer," Patrick said, "I mean you no harm, and-"

"That's not what ah meant."

"I am a Revenent."

"What is that supposed t' even mean?"

Before Patrick could even open his mouth - which was, thankfully, hidden be the shadow his hand cast over his face - to respond, and rainbow-colored streak cut across the landscape behind Applejack.

Rainbow Dash stopped moving forward not far behind Applejack. While she was stopping she said, "AJ! Twilight's in Ponyville to visit, and-" When she came to a stop she noticed Patrick standing at the edge of the Everfree forest. "What is that?"

Applejack looked back over her shoulder at Rainbow Dash. "It was just gettin' around t' sayin'."

"He."

Applejack and Rainbow Dash both looked at Patrick, somewhat startled by his sudden interjection.

"What?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I was correcting your friend, 'AJ' I think you called her," Patrick said pointing at Applejack with the hand that wasn't keeping his face obscured. "I am a 'he,' not an 'it.'"

Applejack looked back to Rainbow Dash. "You said Twilight's in town?" Rainbow Dash simply nodded, clearly stunned speechless by that fact that this strange creature from the Everfree forest could speak. "I think she'll want tah know about this." Again, Rainbow Dash simply nodded.

"So, am I to come with you to meet this 'Twilight' character?"

Rainbow Dash shook her head, as if to jar her thoughts into a coherent structure, then answered, "No, you can wait here. No need to cause a panic in town."

"I assure you I could follow you without causing a panic in this town of 'Ponyville.'"

"An' just how do you plan on doin' that?"

In response Patrick faded from view, except for a faint outline. "By not to walking into anypony, or breaking anything."

---

Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Patrick made it to the Ponyville library without incident. Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy were already there. After the usual pleasantries shared with a friend you haven't seen in a while, Applejack got right down to business.

"Twi, have you ever read 'bout somthin' called a Revenent?"

A look of concern came onto Twilight's face. "Applejack, where did you hear about those?"

"There was somethin' at the edge of the Everfree that said it was one."

"And it stayed there, right?" They could all hear the panic rising in Twilight's voice.

"Uh, no. It came here with me and RD, I think."

"You think. You mean, you're not sure whether or not it followed you into town?"

"Well, yeah we're not sure," Rainbow Dash interrupted. "It's kind of hard to tell if something's following you when it's invisible."

"Oh, this is bad. We have to find it before it causes trouble."

Pinkie Pie squinted at the air behind Twilight, and tilted her head to the left then to the right.

"Pinkie Pie, what the hay are you starin' at?"

Pinkie tilted her head back to the left. "I don't know," she said slowly, "but I know something's there."

"If you can't see anything, how would you possibly know-" Rarity began to ask. She was interrupted by Patrick ending his invisibility. Fluttershy screamed and bolted off somewhere none of them could see.

"The hood's down isn't it?" Patrick asked letting his annoyance creep into his tone. He was answered with five variations of "yes."

"Mind explain' why you look like a changeling?"

"Get comfortable, this could take a while."

---

When Patrick finished the story of how him, Black Cross, and Nurel had died and somehow become one being -- which Fluttershy came back out of wherever she was hiding sometime in the middle of -- The seven of them sat in silence while the ponies digested what he told them. Twilight was the first to respond.

"Let me get this straight. The three of you died, met in the space between your minds that you shared, woke up in a room none of you have ever seen, told you life stories, took the equipment you were given, came here on unknown orders, and just happened to show up in the Everfree forest not far from Sweet Apple Acres."

"That's the simple version of it, but, yeah."

"That just has to many coincidences to be true."

"Oh really?"

"Really."

"Then why do you think I'm here?"

"I think you're a changeling using magic to disguise as, whatever it is you're disguised as, so you could sneak into Ponyville in the middle of the night, steal the elements of harmony without anypony knowing, or likely thinking that the changelings are involved, and then use that "Creshinibon" thing that's hidden in the crystal empire to conquer Equstria unopposed."

"Wouldn't have made more sense for my story to have been a weird dream I had due to an infected head wound that was severe enough to cause me to forget everything about my past, and cause my near deleterious mind to except the fictions explanation for my condition as fact?"

"You look to much like a changeling for insanity to be the reason you're here, but either way you'd be dangerous."

"Don't judge a book by it's cover."

Twilight looked annoyed now, but before she could open her mouth to respond there was a loud deep 'thud' out side, followed shortly by a shock wave that knocked all the books off of the shelves, and caused every window in the library to shatter. While the six ponies in the room were scrambling for cover, Patrick just stood that amazed and terrified by what he saw outside.

He saw another human. A very familiar human.