Shadows and Lies

by Witchery

Chapter 3: Wake up call

"Ohhhh god damn it that hurts" I loudly moan as I regain consciousness. The first thing I notice when I open my eyes is that it's very dark in the room I'm in and everything is blurry. I reach for the table next to me and put on my glasses. "That's better." As I start to regain my senses I feel a peculiar sensation from my back. 'What the hell is...oh yeah....THAT. When I feel that I have the strength to start moving again I try to sit up but something is holding me in place. As I squirm to get a better view of what's restraining me I realize I am not the only person in the room. Sitting next to the side of my bed is the talking dark blue horse from before with a gentle smile on its face.

"Oh good you're finally awake. Now don't try to escape again. You might make your injuries worse." It says in a decidedly female voice.

"Uhhh...okay...wait where am I? How did I even get here? What Injuries? Why am I tied down? Who the hell are you? Why do I feel like I just went a few rounds with a prizefighter? HOLY SHIT A TALKING HORSE?!" I ask in rapid succession.

"Well to answer your first question, you are in the Canterlot Castle in the hospital wing, yes of course I can talk, and I am not a horse, I am a pony. My name is Princess Luna" She replies as she undoes my bindings. "May I ask your name?"

As I sit up and rub my wrists I look at her, confused "Names Damon. Damon Flame. Where did you say I was? Canterlot? I've never heard of it."

"Canterlot is our nations capitol."

"What nation?"

"Equestria"

"Never heard of it."

"The continent of Equus?"

"Nope."

"....Terra?" She asked quietly.

"You mean earth?"

She had a strange look on her face that began to worry me. "Damon what-" She cleared her throat "What do remember before waking up here?"

"Well, I remember being in my room and turning on the TV to watch D-gray man but it was only showing static so I got up to go to bed because I had a really bad headache from earlier. I was walking to my room but I looked out the window and it was pitch black outside so I walked up to the window to look around and couldn't see anything so I turned around to go to my room but then...."

"Then....what?" She asked withholding her questions of what a 'tee-vee' were.

"Okay what I'm about to say is probably gonna sound pretty crazy but I swear I'm not. When I turned around the shadows in my room were...moving."

"Moving?" Luna said doubtfully.

"Yeah but that's not the really weird part. The weird part is that when I noticed they were moving they shot forward and grabbed me and pulled me into them. I tried to call my best friend for help but before I could say anything I was gone."

"Is that it?" Luna asked, hoping for more details.

"Yeah that-- no wait! There's one more thing! After the shadows took me I remember a feeling of emptiness. Then a voice telling me to do something but I can't remember what. I think I almost listened to it but I heard another voice, the voice of an angel, telling me not to. And that's about it."

"Are you sure? You haven't forgotten any more details? None whatsoever?"

"Uhhhh yeah? Why? What does this have to do with where I am?"

"Damon I'm not really sure how to tell you this but you are very far from home. Very VERY far" Luna says with a small sigh.

"Just how far are we talking about?"

"You are on an entirely different planet."

"Oh.....OH....well fuck" I say simply

"That's it? You seem to be taking this quite well" Luna says impressed.

"Well how the fuck am I supposed to take it? Oh hi there! My names Luna! By the way YOU'RE ON AN ENTIRELY NEW FUCKING PLANET!" I bellow loudly. "What this means that I'm the only human on this entire planet. I'll never see my friends again, my whole life is gone, and in the short time I've been here, I'VE GOTTEN NEW FUCKING LIMBS." I continue screaming

She takes a step back and looks at me with fear. I immediately calm down when I realize I'm scaring her. "Sorry. I'm sorry Luna it's just--" I sigh and grab my forehead with my hand "It's just that my entire life has been turned upside down. One minute I'm at home the next I'm in a hospital. Alone.... again....

She comes over and looks at me with a soft smile. "It's okay. I understand that this is a lot to take in all at once. It's completely understandable given the situation."

"Yeah oh yeah I somehow almost forgot to ask. Whats with these...things on my back? All I can remember is my back exploding in pain."

"Well Damon," She replies in a neutral tone "Earlier when you woke up and tried to escape. I used my magic to levitate you but after a few seconds the spell failed. When you fell to the ground you started screaming in pain and then those..." She had pensive look on her face "Shadow Wings, appeared. You started laughing like a madpony and then collapsed."

"Wait did you just say magic?"

"Yes why?"

"Luna where I come from magic is only in fairy tales and works of fiction. To have it actually exist is...incredible."

"That raises even more questions about how you were able to survive getting those etheral wings which are technically pure magic. When they were forming there was an intense magical aura radiating from your body. The amount of magic being release would have killed a normal unicorn so how, you a being with no prior exposure to magic, did you survive the energies being released?"

"I've always been a survivor Luna. My body has endured a lot of punishment before....." I get very quiet and get a far off look in my eyes.

"Are you okay Damon?" Luna asked.

" Yeah I'm fine. I was just remembering something. Anyways, that doesn't really answer anything but on to the next question. Why am I in a hospital?"

"Well...when we found you you weren't in the best of shape since you crashed through a window at near lethal speeds..." She started getting very quiet.

"How bad was it?"

"...Both your hind legs were broken and one had your bone sticking out of the skin. You had glass embedded all throughout your forelegs and..."

"....aaaaand what?" I asked with a small amount of trepidation.

She sighed loudly. "You had a rather large shard of glass in your torso. It damaged both your lungs and your heart beyond repair. The doctors said that even with my magic aiding in your healing that the chances of your survival were slim to none."

"Oh...wait if my lungs are heart were damaged beyond repair how am I alive then?" I asked with a quizzical look on my face.

"We recently had an unfortunate accident where a young pegasus was killed after having a building collapse on him." she said with a sad look in her eyes.

"Wait wait wait. Pegasus? Those are real? And more importantly why did you use the heart and lungs from a freaking pegasus?

"Well we tried to save your old ones but they quite literally....fell apart.... we then magic to analyze your organs and after several tries, we found that pegasus organs were the most similar to yours." She looked at me nervously.

"...What?"

"There may be some...side effects from your new organs"

"Great. Just fucking great. Get kidnapped by god damn SHADOWS, wind up in a new fucking world, get new organs, and to top it all off there are gonna be fucking SIDE EFFECTS!"

"I never said they were entirely bad ones" She stated simply.

I began to excited at the thought of getting positive side effects from a race that can FLY. "Oooooh what kind of side effects? Will I be able to fly?"

"Even without the pegasus organs you would be able to fly. You have wings remember? No the side effect that we are unsure if you will get or not is the ability to manipulate the weather and a pegasi's natural bond with the atmosphere."

"What pegasi can control the weather? Like clouds and stuff? And what do you mean natural bond?" I asked skeptically.

"Yes pegasi control the weather, and yes clouds are tangible for them. The natural bond I speak of though is a pegasi's ability to control the air around them that enables them to fly among other things. You didn't think that they flew with the small wings they have did you?" She laughed.

"Well SOOO-REE!" I've never even SEEN a pegasus before!" I said frustrated with her assuming I knew that their wings were too small.

"Sorry I forgot that you are not from this world"

"Don't know how you could forget something like that." I muttered.

"What was that?"

"Didn't say anything."

She eyed me disbelievingly. "...Yeah. Nothing. Back to the topic at hand though. Side effects from your new organs. There are some ones that you with without a doubt recieve such as increased resistance to blacking out from intense G-forces. You will have far more endurance than you previously did, you can go up very high with no trouble breathing and can go higher than a normal pony could, and you have a larger lung capacity so you can hold your breath for longer. However at lower altitudes you will most likely get tired easily when your heart is resting because of the increase in the amount of oxygen in your blood."

"Wait I thought that I was the first and only human in Equestria? How do you know that it's any different from my old heart and lungs?" I asked skeptically.

"Well earlier when we used magic to find what species organs was the closest to yours, we found out that pegasi were the closest and we also found out the differences between them were."

"Fine. I don't even care anymore. This whole day has been filled with questions and the laws of physics being completely fucked up. I said angrily but softened a moment later. "Wait you said earlier that WE, found you. Who else was there?"

"Well I found you at the same time somepony else did. Rainbow Dash the Element of Loyalty and she is the one that actually transported you to this room. I tried to teleport you here but the spell kept failing so you had to be carried here."

"Couple of questions. Does Rainbow Dash have a rainbow colored mane and tail and what do you mean by element of loyalty?"

"To answer the first part yes she is. How do you know what she looks like though?"

"I dunno I remember the feeling of being carried by something really colorful. Makes sense considering what you just told me."

"Ah, back to the second part of your question though. That requires a more in depth explanation."

"I'm all ears"

"There are these pieces of regalia called the Elements of Harmony. They represent the 7 unifying factors of harmony. that can be used to purge evil from a pony among other things but can only be used by ponies embody that virtue. Rainbow Dash embodies the element of loyalty which means that she is endlessly loyal to her friends." Luna explained.

"Oh okay. So what are the other elements and who has them?"

"The other elements are Rarity; the bearer of the Element of Generosity. Fluttershy; bearer of the Element of Kindness. Applejack; bearer of the Element of Honest. Pinkie Pie; bearer of the Element of Laughter. And finally Twilight Sparkle; bearer of the Element of Magic."

"Wait you said that there were SEVEN factors. What's the seventh?"

"Ah, the seventh is something that all of them have. The seventh factor is friendship." Luna said proudly.

"...You're joking right? You're kidding. You can't truly believe that" I deadpanned.

"No. Why would I be and why wouldn't I?" Luna questioned.

"Friendship is an able 'purge the evil from a person'. Really? I scoffed. "That's the biggest load of shit I've ever heard."

Luna's face turned into an angry scowl before replying "You would do well to watch your tongue Damon I have experienced first hand what the Elements can do to you."

"Whoa, whoa. Sorry there. It's just that on my world anyone that would say something like that would get laughed at and be seen as naive."

"Why would they do that? Do the people there value friendship so little that they laugh at it?" Luna asked with a bemused look.

"Before I could answer though, a nurse walked through the door carrying a platter of food. "Dinner time! On the menu today is mushroom and vegetable soup." She said as she uncovered the dish.

"Oh man that smells good." I said.

"Well let me just change your IV bag and I'll bring it over to you." The nurse said.

"Oh man I'm unbelievable hungry right now" I said as my mouth started watering in anticipation of the food.

"Hey Luna do you think you could go get it for me? Luna?" She had a look of shock on her face.

"Whats wrong luna?"

"Damon... did you do that? Luna asked in shock and pointed at my lap.

"Did I do what?" I turned around to see what she was pointing at and in my lap was the soup being held by the tips of my wings.

"Huh? How the hell did that get there?"

"Damon...your wings..."

"What about them?" I turned around and gaped in awe. My wings were easily 3 times larger than they were before and were radiating a dark mist that looked like a black nighttime fog with a large dark blue aura around it. The light coming from the lamps scattered around the room seemed to be absorbed into the mist.

"Whoa that's cool. I didn't mean to do that though."

"Try to grab this with them." She said as she levitated the the spoon for the soup.

I close my eyes and focused solely on grasping the spoon. I felt for the new muscles that I'm sure formed for me to be able to use the wings and slowly, ever so slowly, I could feel my new muscles start to expand and contract and move forward. I opened my eyes and saw the wings moving to grasp the spoon. As soon as they made contact with it, the aura surrounding the spoon disappeared and instead of wrapping around it and grasping it, my wings flowed all around it and grasped the spoon from every side. "Whoa that feels really weird. It's like they're a liquid and they just completely cover what they grasp instead of twisting to hold it."

Luna took a step back from me with a look horror on her face looked away No it can't be. He's not from this world! Not to mention his world doesn't have magic. There hasn't even been on in 200 thousand years! Not since me and my sister banished him to Tartarus... Luna muttered to herself.

"Luna you're scaring me. Whats wrong?"

She visibly gulped. "Damon...you're a Dweller of the Twilight."

Comments

[spetsnaz pinkie pie]

Dis is good.

[Shadow-Dancer]

3153531 WOW what a plot twist

[shadowf1re]

ooo dweler of the twilight and i want a pair of those wings

[Maeroon]

"Wait you said that there were SEVEN factors. What's the seventh?"
"Ah, the seventh is something that all of them have. The seventh factor is friendship." Luna said proudly.

Whew, and I thought he was gonna be the seventh element or something.

[Zamairiac]

She visibly gulped. "Damon...you're a Dweller of the Twilight."

Still a better love story than...I'll just stop right there

[Official Taco]

so he's basically a twili from zelda? how odd.........