Nightshade

by outerjay

chapter 3

The sun rose above the horizon. Though Nightshade was already awake, sitting on the balcony ledge, watching as the night gave way to day. With what had happened recently, he was definitely unsure about what the future held. After all, he had been held captive just the night before, managed to escape but ran into, and foiled, an assassination attempt on the very person who held him captive. It was odd, all he wanted to do was kill those who had denied him his freedom, and feed on their flesh yet, they let him free and trusted him not to runaway in the middle of the night. He could’ve run if he wanted, but where would he go. This strange new world he was in? He knew nothing about. Nightshade barely remembered anything, and most of what he did came from impulse feelings and reactions.

A knock on the door aroused him from his thoughts. He headed towards the door, making a stop at his bed to slip on his sleeveless black jacket, which was adorned with a white trimming, before continuing to the door. Nightshade opened the door just enough to peer through, no more, no less.

"The Princess requests your attendance at the dining hall." said a white stallion standing across from the door. Nightshade thought about turning down the offer only for his stomach to protest for him to go. He opened the door fully and stepped out closing it behind him.

"Lead on then." Nightshade said, as he looked passed the guard into the garden to see the body bags of those who were killed in the struggles the night before. The walk to the dining hall was quiet; the guards stood like statues, showing no fear of him despite what happened last night, much to Nightshade’s surprise.

As they approached the doors to the dining hall, they were opened by a pair of Royal Guards. “Ma’am, I’ve brought the being you requested.”

"That is all you may leave now." the Princess said in a regal manner. As the guards, left the doors closed behind him and Celestia’s perfect posture turned into a slouch. “Well then is there something you woud like for breakfast? The chefs under my employ are the best our country has to offer." she said with a soothing smile.

Nightshade sat down at the rather large table and thought for a moment "Can they cook fish?"

"Yes they can, we have some left over from when the Prince of the Griffins was here. He left not long before you arrived." There was a hint of anger in her tone.

"Then fish it is."

"Is that all sir?" said a butler, who appeared behind Nightshade, surprising him somewhat.

"A...a...a glass of water as well please." The butler walked off towards the kitchen. "How did he do that?" asked Nightshade, slightly confused.

"He’s simply one hell of a butler." Celestia replied. "Any way, would you mind telling me how you ended up falling out of the sky?"

"I have no a clue, but it isn’t important is it?” Nightshade said, with a bored tone.

"What do you mean you don’t know?" now Celestia was confused.

"Like I said I don’t know the most vivid memory I have is looking up at the moon and turning around to see this castle, and something flying past me at impossible speed." Nightshade saw the princess tear up a bit, perhaps that is something she would not like to remember.

"Your food and drink sir." said the butler who was starting to both annoy and creep out Nightshade. "If that is all, Princess, I shall continue with my other duties." The butler seemingly disappeared.

The Princess and Nightshade sat in silence as they ate, she seemed to be having some sort of salad. Meanwhile Nightshade’s fish was cooked to perfection. After about 20 minutes or so they both fished eating and Celestia was the first to speak up.

"Well since you don’t seem to remember your past, maybe we could jog you memory with the items we found on your person while you were in the dungeon." Celestia said with a little bit of hope to learn more about the strange creature known as nightshade.

"Maybe but I have a feeling it won’t help."

"Well have to try and see wont we follow me." Replied.

They walked down into the gardens to a wooden gazebo. Celestia ordered the guards to retrieve Nightshade’s belongings. While they waited Celestia decided to find out just what Nightshade knew about the world... Which turned out to be nothing. He had the knowledge of an infant, at least well in most cases, he was able to do highest level math without any assistance from anything, which is remarkable given the best mathematicians in the country need an abacus some times. Their talk was cut short as the guard arrived back holding a box and two bags.

"Why don’t we start with the bigger bag first." he put his hand in and pulled out something that brought a tear to his eye from the sheer beauty it possessed. The object in question was an Onyx black Desert Eagle .44 Magnum. Nightshade looked it over and was so happy, like he had found something he didn’t know was missing.

The weapon’s magazine could hold eight rounds, though only 7 were in. Nightshade looked back to Celestia and explained to her what it was and how much it meant to him to have it back. Then making sure that the safety was on, he put the gun
into a holster made inside his jacket. He opened the slightly smaller pouch to find four more magazines, all full of eight rounds. Nightshade placed those in hidden pockets inside his jacket.

"Now what about this box? Surely something so large wouldn’t have more weapons inside it, at least I hope not." Celestia was slightly worried now.

"I have no clue, I don’t think it’s a weapon especially because the box is pink and has a bow on it." He said slowly pulling the bow undone to get at the box. As he pulled the top off the box, Celestia began drooling as inside was a triple layer chocolate cake, perfectly decorated with a chocolate cat smiling in the middle of the cake saying happy birthday, it was so cute it was almost a sin to eat it... almost.

"So princess would you like some cake then?" Nightshade asked, nearly drooling himself.

"Yes... if you don’t mind that is?" she really wanted a piece of the cake

"Well then shall you or I cut it?"

"If you don’t mind I think I should, the cake was obviously meant for you and no one should cut their own birthday cake." She said pulling a knife and two plates out of nowhere. Cutting a decent sized piece, she placed it on a plate and handed it to Nightshade. Then she cut a slightly bigger piece for herself and ate it whole. Nightshade laughed at her, even when she was eating cake like a mad person, she somehow remained regal.

SOMETIME LATER

"Well, now that we have had an early lunch why don’t you show me how you took out those two assassins by yourself?" Celestia asked

“I suppose I should, and it would give me a chance to learn what I’m capable of myself." Nightshade replied

"Well then let’s head to the guard barracks." The walk to the barracks was uneventful, Nightshade enjoyed the peace after the action filled couple of days.

Soon the sounds of grunts and the smell of sweet filled the air; the ponies here seemed to be working themselves to the bone. Celestia walked up to the officer in charge in asked something, Nightshade couldn’t quite make out what it was but the officer called over three guards. One Pegasus, one unicorn and an earth pony followed the princess back to Nightshade.

"Nightshade, these three will be your opponents." Celestia said with a very shady grin.

"Hello there my name is Star Chaser, my friends are Sapphire Spirit and Steel Bolt." the Pegasus said, pointing to the unicorn then the earth pony.

"Alright, how are we doing this, three on one?" asked Nightshade

"Well confident aren’t you, but sadly no, this is to test you to see who’s better maybe after the test well kick your flank in but for now it’s one on one." said the unicorn.

"Okay, when do we start." Nightshade questioned

"Well, the arena’s being papered for us, so about half an hour. We should be able to warm up in that time." the earth pony replied.

"Alright then, I’m gonna go for a jog then." Nightshade said "I’ll be back here in twenty minutes, can one of you show me the arena then?" The ponies just nodded and watched him run off.

True to his word, twenty minutes later Steel Bolt sees Nightshade jogging back grinning like a child. To his surprise, behind him are seven or so guards, chasing him at full speed.

"I WIN!" Nightshade shouted as he reached the barracks with a bunch of tired ponies behind him. "Come on, pay up." One of the guards took out twenty or so bits and handed them to Nightshade before collapsing.

"What was that about?" asked Steelbolt.

"One of them was bragging about how he was the fastest in Equestria, so I made a bet. Who ever got here first won. I put up this gem I found on my run for twenty bits." Nightshade explained.

"Okay then, let’s just go to the arena." he sighed

For the next five or so minutes, Nightshade rested observing the arena, which for all intents and purposes, was just a glorified hole filled with sand.

"It’s time to start testing you, you ready?" asked StarChaser

"Yea sure, let’s start!" nightshade said excitement clear in his voice.

The Pegasus flew into the pit and readied herself. Nightshade just jumped down, rolling when he hit the ground

"Hey, why don’t you fly, I mean you have wings." asked the Pegasus.

Nightshade looked back at his wings. "Hmmm... forgot about those, never used them, I’ll have to try them out later."

"3... 2... 1... START!" Celestia shouted

The Pegasus immediately took to the air picking up speed. When she was at top speed she dived and charged Nightshade, who took a crouching position to start with.

"I’ve changed my mind, I think I’ll try them now." said Nightshade, confusing the Pegasus.

Nightshade jumped high into the air, flapping his wings hard, gaining altitude fast soon breaching the cloud cover. He took a look around him to take in his new found freedom of the sky, however it was cut short as a bright yellow streak smashed into him, causing pain.

"Taking this fight to the sky. Got to be honest, not the smartest thing you could’ve done, especially when you fly like a newborn."

With those words, Nightshade was now annoyed, so he dived. His dive caused him to pick up so much speed he left a black and, for some reason, silver blur behind him. Looking back he could see Star hot on his tail, following him not far behind.Then he had an epiphany, an idea popped into his head. A mean, horrible idea. His face went from a scowl to a devious grin. He opened his wings to slow his decent, before pulling right up and shooting back into the sky, using the clouds as cover to hide his path. From there, he shot right into the heart of one of the clouds, hiding, waiting for StarChaser to appear. As expected, she burst through the clouds looking for him.

"Now, where did that coward go." she said, anger clear in her voice. It was now he chose to pounce, Nightshade jumped out from behind her and wrapped his arms around her, trapping her wings against his chest, she panicked and started flailing about to no avail.

"Going down." Nightshade whispered into her ear as he folded his wings and let gravity take over. They fell at exponential speeds, soon hitting terminal velocity. "I hope you’re ready for pain, because this is gonna hurt!" nightshade screamed barley able to hear himself over the wind.

On the other hand, Star Chaser was afraid she thought she was going to die, she could feel it in her bones. "You'll kill us both you insane nut job!" she screamed, they were about twenty seconds away from impacting the ground below.

"Okay how 'bout I don't then." flipping himself around, Nightshade popped open his wings and slowed the fall to a point where his legs could take care of the rest. By now Star Chaser had passed out, so Nightshade changed his hold from a bear hug to bridal style, carrying her down and falling into a roll. After making sure she wasn’t seriously injured, he brought her over to the others.

"What did you do to her to make her pass out like this... I don’t think anyone has ever beat her in aerial combat before."asked an opened-jawed Sapphire Spirit

"Ambushed her from behind, bear hugged her trapping her wings and allowed us to free fall until the last second and well... you saw the rest." he said with an amused tone. "So who’s next."

"I am." Steelbolt was anxious to test the new guy out.

"Okay then no wings means no aerial combat so I’ll stay grounded as well." Nightshade’s tail was swaying like a snake behind him and that only served to give Steelbolt a last resort idea.

Steelbolt got ready into his respective martial art style. Nightshade looked at this and took off his jacket, not wanting to be accidently shot by his own gun. Nightshade didn’t have any Close Quarters Battle (CQB) knowledge, so he figured he’d just wing it (pun not intended.

"3...2...1... GO!"

Immediately, steelbolt rushed toward Nightshade with a flurry of punches.Nightshade was just barely dodging the attacks coming, for this opponent he would have to take this a lot more seriously than before. Steelbolt came up for a kick but Nightshade ducked and grabbed his leg. A bad idea as he was sent careening toward a wall. Readjusting his body, nightshade landed leg first on the wall and with great speed, started running along it. With enough speed circling his opponent, he was able to create four after images on the wall, though he was getting tired and needed to end this soon. He jumped off the wall and rushed Steelbolt who had his eyes closed. The catman jumped towards him going to grab his throat, only to be side stepped and grabbed by the tail and thrown to the ground.

"He grabbed my tail. YOU fucking grabbed my tail!" Nightshade’s eyes went from serious to murderous as he charged at steelbolt once more. Only this time jumping and flipping over him grabbing his head at the same time then pulling backward slamming him into the ground but before he could get back up Nightshade flipped back around. Now in-between his legs, he grabbed then and lifted, then he started spinning. His veins visibly bulging in anger and effort as he threw the spinning stallion into a wall. The match was ended then and there for the safety of both competitors.

After a short five minutes rest, the cat man had calmed down and made his way back to the arena, getting ready for the third and final fight. Sapphire Spirit saw him waiting for her to enter the arena. She mentally noted not to grab his tail in the fight.

"3...2...1... fight!"

Night shade started running on all fours picking up speed, but before he could lunch an attack a blue ball appeared in front of him and exploded into a blue flame. He vary narrowly dodged this by changing the direction of which he was running. This happened several more times before a blue beam was shot at him, hitting him dead on in the chest sending him flying. In mid air, he regained his balance and readjusted his body so he would land on all fours. Nightshade looked at Sapphire who was in a barely transparent blue bubble. He charged at the bubble, dodging multiple lasers being shot at him and punched it, it felt like he was punching steel.

Another blast, from point blank, shot into Nightshade’s stomach, sending him skidding this time, but just as the first one faded another one was shot. Nightshade had no time to react feeling a slight bit of fear of what was about to hit him, he raised up his arms into an x to try to block it. He waited for the impact with closed eyes but it never came he opened one eye to see there was a black semi dome wall giving of a silver glow in front of him. He could see lasers smash into the wall, only to be reflected or dissipate all together.

This was a surprise not only to him but to everyone who was confused at the time. He had an idea. If he could put up a barrier why couldn’t he shoot lasers as well. So he dropped one of his arms and pointed it toward the mare trying to burst throw his shield. Nightshade concentrated on his target but what happened wasn’t what he had expected. What he wanted was to shoot a beam from his hand. Instead he had teleported a short distance towards the mare and was now griping her, though the two shields seemed to mix and stabilize.

The mare had no longer been casting her spell seeing as she was being chocked. While Nightshade had dropped his guard in surprise, still holding onto the mare. After about 30 seconds without air, the mare fainted and Nightshade let go, letting her body fall limp to the floor. He looked at the dome still around them watching as his changed the other slowly, it looked like darkness covering the night sky.After about a minute, the dome was completely black and silver. Nightshade slashed his claws at it causing it to crack and shatter mere moments after.

Celestia was speechless not only did Nightshade take down three of her elite guards with ease, he had magic which seemed to meld and corrupt, or maybe destroy other kinds of magic, making his more powerful. It seems that this cat will be quite useful after he’s been trained to control his magic.

"You, my friend, are vary capable but you don’t seem to have full control over yourself. Let me make you an offer." Celestia said.

"And what would this offer be?" Nightshade was curious to learn more about himself and what he could do, and well, this mare may be able to help him with just that.

"Let me train you in how to use and control your magic and join me in the new castle that is being built. In return, you’ll serve us as head of a special unit within our guard." Celestia explained blatantly.

"Oh, learn from a Princess sounds interesting, but about this guard... What would I be doing exactly?" Nightshade didn’t like the idea of being an authority figure in his own unit.

"Well, it seems your skills are best suited to stealth and killing. You will be placed in charge of a commando unit that will take out threats to Equestria."

Nightshade thought this over she basically just said be my personal assassin. He liked that idea... He liked that idea a lot. "I’ll do it... on three conditions." he said determined to get his way.

"And what might those be?" Celestia was curious as to what he could want.

"One, I choose whose on my team. Two, we are to be kept off the records at all times. We are to operate outside the law, we will have to in order to be effective. And three, I get my own private room in the castle."

Celestia giggled at that last one "Ok, Nightshade you will be fully in charge of your team and how you conduct your business."

"What about my room?" Nightshade asked.

"You may have your room if I get to put a collar around your neck." Celestia gave off a trolling grin not expecting his answers.

Nightshade sat in the sand thinking about this. He had to wear a collar like some kind of pet then he looked at her face he realised what she was doing. "Only if I get a nice comfy cushion next to your throne." Was his reply. He thought he had won now that it would be embarrassing for the both of them.

"Oh my, really do you want to be my pet so bad? Well alright then you may have your room.... and your cushion." Celestia’s grin grew bigger.

Nightshade had lost this war, he never thought she’d go through with it... But a deal is a deal and he wasn’t going to break it now. He put out his hand and Celestia shook it sealing the deal.

SEVERAL MONTHS LATER

Canterlot Castle was his new home, and Nightshade was lying on a comfy blue cushion at the foot of Celestia’s throne. He was topless most of the time only putting on his jacket when he got cold. He usually had orders to fill up his commando team or was learning about Equestria, the land that belonged to the Princess he served. He also learned a lot about how when Celestia banished her sister to the moon. Though, he still hadn’t recruited anyone for his team, no one stood out enough.

During day court, he would lie on his cushion or try to embarrass Celestia by acting like an actual pet cat and brushing up against her leg or playing with his tail. Celestia would respond by rubbing behind his ears witch made him blush slightly and made him stop whatever he was doing. Whenever a particularly annoying noble would enter and whine, Celestia would have Nightshade chase them around until he got bored.That could be within minutes or last for hours.

This became routine until one day when two guards brought in a unicorn mare. Nightshade had felt like annoying Celestia so he was on the back of her throne playing with her hair.

"Ma’am, this is the Master thief Shadowstep. We have brought her here today to be judged." The Guard explained with malice in his voice. This caught Nightshade’s attention. He looked at the mare, she intrigued him slightly.

He jumped down from the throne and walked over to the mare, acting like an oversized cat of course. He circled her twice and then walked up to the mare and sat down in front of her. He looked deep into her eyes. Then he knew he had found someone for his team. Nightshade walked passed her, brushing up against her he could smell the blood this mare had spilled and there was a lot of it. He walked back to Celestia and jumped on top of her throne, he then tapped Celestia’s head from behind.

She opened a telepathic link "What has you so intrigued about this mare?" she asked, somewhat shocked at his actions, never has he done this before.

"I want her." he thought

"Oh my, I know you don’t get out much, but you can’t mate with a convict." she said with a sly smile present on her face

A blush was present on the catman’s face now. "You know full well that’s not what I meant. I want her for my team, fake a public execution or something." he said annoyed.

"Oh come now, theft is hardly worth being executed." she said, herself now slightly annoyed at the idea.

"She has done more than steal, she’s a killer, I can smell the blood even if you can’t." Nightshade replied back. The telepathic link ended here and Celestia prepared to address the court.

"Well then, my little friend here seems to have taking a likening to you." Celestia said. The mare smiled knowing that since the Princess wouldn’t want her pet to be sad, she would spare her life.

"Though don’t get happy... that’s a bad thing for you. As he seems to only like two things. One being the food I give him to keep him loyal, and the other... well he likes the smell of blood." she got off her thrown and walked over to the now very nervous mare.

"You see he can smell blood long after it has been spilt, it gets him so excited it’s rather cute." Celestia circled the mare herself. "Meaning you’ve spilt blood before." she continued "so on the counts of theft and murder... I have no choice... I hereby sentence you to death by public execution." she walked back to her throne and sat down.

SOMETIME LATER

After a rather convincing public execution, the dark blue mare with a red mane found herself waking on a rather comfortable bed. She stood up, still rather drowsy, and walked over to the doors only to find herself locked in. She turned to see a balcony with a figure sitting on the edge.

"Umm... hello?" She called out. The figure simply looked back to her with terrifying eyes. She knew the look of a killer once she saw it and this person was defiantly a killer. Closing her eyes, she looked away only to look back and find the balcony doors closed and the figure gone. Then she froze as she felt furry arms wrap around her and claws at her throat.

"Hello my pet." said an unknown voice.

"W-who a-are you?" she asked, fear present in her voice

"Oh I’m hurt, truly. We have already met or don’t you remember the one who got you killed?" he said mockingly.

"The cat creature?... you... you can talk?" she sounded very surprised at this.

"Oh come now I can do more than that my pet."

"Why do you keep calling me that?!" she yelled as she tuned to face the cat.

"Why... because your life is mine... that’s why." he loomed over her like he was ready to kill her at any moment “I had you spared so you can join me. I know you like to kill, I can see it in your eyes, you know the rush of taking another’s life."

"And why should I be your pet when I can kill you and walk out of here?" she asked sounding confident.

The cat dropped the act and let his aura talk for him. Colour itself seemed to fade in his presence, as if he could kill just by looking at you. This unnerved the mare but also strangely aroused her. She fell to her knees under his aura waiting for him to kill her... but the moment never came... he didn’t kill her...
After sealing his aura he looked at the mare. "Now then, Shadowstep is dead your new name will be...” he paused thinking
"Phantom.”

Phantom nodded "I think I might be in love.” she thought to herself. After all, no one made her feel like this before.

"Now then, my pet, you will live in Canterlot with a new name and life. You will only kill when ordered to do so and you will not steal. Got that?" she nodded slowly

"Good, Celestia will have everything arranged for you tomorrow but for now, my pet how about you show me some of your... skills." he said with a seductive tone, a smirk crossing his face. And with that the night passed quickly.

Over the course of a year, the same happened, more or less, with another two criminals one male, one female. They obeyed his orders like pets should. He didn’t know if it was out of fear or respect or a weird mixture of the two, all he knew was he had a loyal team he called his own. And as time went one they went from being mere pets to something more... to people he cared for like family.

Comments

[Iz Ghast]

just wondering, what is your inspiration for this story?

[outerjay]

6794705 thats not how a demon works... also i dident think about that

[outerjay]

6793724 boredom mostly i kinda just get hyped up on sugar when im bored and start typing what pops into my head then work around the it the i want or is easiest . so in othere words i just type the fist thing that comes into my head and then my editor add some flavor here and there but not everywhere

[DAMN HAMSTER]

"Hyped up on sugar..."

Oh, I cringed at that one.

[Fading Soul]

Damn, I can shave with all this edge.