• Published 16th Sep 2012
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The Element of Hate - Shadow Bolt



Twilight tries to prove to a stallion that the power of friendship is more powerful than hate.....but is it?

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Harmony vs. Hate

“It is wise to direct your anger towards problems, not people. To focus your energies on answers, not excuses.”
― William Arthur Ward

"From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate." ― Socrates

"In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves." ― Buddha


Chapter 10: Harmony vs. Hate

It’s gone…..There’s nothing left that was all that Shadow Bolt was thinking after he saw a bright ball coming from what he guessed was the princesses castle and once the ball enter the cloud, the ball exploded taking the storm cloud with it. He looked around to see if any piece of the cloud remained, but saw nothing but clear blue skies.

“My home….it’s all gone,” Shadow couldn’t believe that as much as he kept looking around, hoping to see a part of his home still floating. But no matter how much he looked, there was nothing left of his home. He just hovered in the sky in sadness for a few moments. After some time had passed his sadness was replaced with rage. “They’ll pay…Whoever was responsible for that will pay!” he started flying towards the castle to find the source of that golden energy ball that took away everything he had.

After flying around the castle, he found one of the building’s roofs had a huge hole caused by his lightning attack. It must have come from there. Soon he was hovering over the hole, looking to see the pony responsible for his houses destruction. It surprised him at first to see that the ponies in the room were none other than Twilight Sparkle and the rest of her friends. His hate was burning up as well as his aura, now knowing who was responsible. She’ll pay…..THEY’LL ALL PAY!

Everyponies eyes were locked on the glowing red pegasus that was hovering above them. Twilight was trying to think of a plan now that Shadow was here. What to do? He’s here and I have no idea what to do. I guess the first thing to do is to get him to come down so we can talk. As soon as she thought that, Shadow was now lowering himself. Everypony started backing away as he was landing. Twilight and her friends were all standing together, their eyes were on Shadow as his eyes were on them. He landed a few feet in front of him. He didn’t even any pay attention to Princess Celestia, who was standing behind him. His only focus was on the six Elements of Harmony.

The throne room was in total silence as Twilight was wondering who should speak first. Her answer came when Shadow spoke, “So….You’re here. Didn’t think you would be here so quickly after our last encounter, he sighed, “and here I thought it was going to be so easy. Just come in, destroy the elements, and be on my merry way. Now I have to deal with you girls again.” He looked at the six and noticed that they were wearing jewelry around their necks and Twilight was wearing some type of crowny thing. “And by the looks of it you already have your elements.”

He then noticed Rainbow Dash’s element and face hoofed, “Just when I thought I couldn’t hate you more, you prove me wrong. I didn’t believe what Twilight said. But out of all the elements why did your element have to copy mine?”

“What?! I’m not copying you, I had my element long before you got yours. If anything it’s your element that copied mine.”

He huffed at her response, “Whatever, at least mine is cooler than yours.”

“Is not,” she quickly said.

“Yes it is and I’m pretty sure Rarity agrees with me,” he looked over at Rarity after noticing that she was in the room, “oh and nice that you made it to the party, Rarity. Well now that the gangs all here, why don’t we get this party started?” he lowered himself into a fighting stance, ready to see who would make the first move.

“Wait!” shouted Twilight. She wanted to stop this quickly before it actually begins. “Before, anything happens, Rainbow Dash has something important to say to you.”

Shadow seemed curious with what Twilight said and got out of his fighting stance. “Does she now? Well what is it?”

Twilight turned to Rainbow Dash, “Go on,” she said.

Rainbow Dash walked up and stopped a few feet in front of Shadow, her eyes were looking all around except on Shadow, “I’m sorry.”

“What was that?” he wasn’t able to hear her since she spoke real quietly.

“I said, I’m sorry.”

“Still didn’t get that,” he was starting to get a little annoyed by this. Just like when I met Fluttershy. “One more time,” he said.

“I’M SORRY, ALL RIGHT! THERE I SAID IT!”

Her shouting surprised him that he didn’t know how to react from her apology. “You’re sorry?”

“Yes, okay! I’m sorry.”

Shadow wasn’t feeling convinced, “Sorry for what exactly?”

“I’m sorry…..For what happened years ago back in Cloudsdale.”

“You mean you’re sorry for ruining my life? Sorry for cheating, making me crash into the racers, causing a massive accident, putting all the blame on me, which resulted me getting kicked out of Cloudsdale. And because of that my life has been a downward spiral full of hate, intolerance, and fear?” as he was going down the list his voice was getting angry and louder as well as his aura forming and growing that everypony could see, “IS THAT WHAT YOUR SORRY FOR?!” at this point he was shouting.

Rainbow was starting to feel a bit scared seeing Shadow anger rising, of course she didn’t show it. She didn’t want her friends to see that she was afraid, so she put on a brave face for everyone, “Yes, that’s what I’m saying. So do you accept my apology?”

Everypony waited to see what Shadow would do. Twilight hoped that Rainbow’s apology did the work into stopping this conflict before it got out of control. Shadow stood there in silence while everyone in the room waited to hear what he would say. His face showed no emotion, this made everypony wondering what he was thinking and feeling.

After sometime he finally spoke, “I’m not convinced.”

Everypony gasped, Twilight was now starting to panic, her plan that she hoped would work, had just failed.

Rainbow Dash gulped and was shaking a bit, she was concerned about what was going to happen to her, “What do you mean you’re not convinced?”

“I don’t think you’re really sorry for what happened,” his face was in a calm state, “If you were, you would have apologized the moment we met,” then his face changed into anger, “instead you started laughing at me and then you mocked me!”

Rainbow Dash no longer shaking decided to fight back, “Oh come on, why don’t you just get over it? It was just a stupid race and that was years ago. Stop living in the past and just let it go?”

“Stop living in the past and let it go? Did I hear just hear you say that to me?” his eyes were starting to glow. Rainbow was starting to regret arguing with him.

“WHO ARE YOU TO SAY THAT TO ME?!” his aura flared up for all to see. “How am I supposed to stop living in the past when I go through it everyday? Ever since that day, my life has been going through the same routine for years.”

“I…um,” she tried to respond, but Shadow Bolt didn’t let her.

“Everywhere I went, there were the stares, the disapproving glances, the insults, the BEATINGS! Nopony accepted me wherever I went, they either hated or feared me. I had to shut everything down just to keep me going. I was cast out, to the cold hard world with nothing but my hatred keeping me warm for all those years.”

Everyone stood silent while Shadow was talking, Rainbow Dash tried to talk him down, her face showing concern for first time to Shadow Bolt “But it’s over, it’s all in the past now.”

“FOR YOU!” he pointed at Dash, “For me nothing is over! NOTHING! YOU JUST DON’T LET IT GO! Who are you to say that to me? Let it go? What would you know? Unless you’ve been me and been where I’ve been and know what you’re asking of me!”

Shadow was breathing hard and started calming down, the aura shrinking until it faded. “I…. just wanted…to be accepted,” his voice had a sadness tone to it. “I just wanted to be treated just like everypony else. I was tired of being invisible to everyone, tired of being treated like scum. I just wanted respect and acceptance and I was so close to getting it. But you,” he was pointing at Rainbow Dash, “you took it all away. What I wanted, you gave me the complete opposite. I was finally noticed, but not in the way I wanted.”

He sighed and glared at Dash, “And that’s why I won’t accept your halfhearted apology.”

“It seems you have been through a lot in your life,” said a voice from behind Shadow Bolt.

He turned to the source and saw a white mare with both wings and a horn, her mane was flowing with a combination of colors. Isn’t that….Princess Celestia? Shadow couldn’t believe it, this whole time, Princess Celestia was standing behind him and he didn’t even know it. Shadow getting caught off guard started feeling small being in the princess’s presence, he slowly started backing away when she started walking towards him.

“Don’t be scared, I’m not going to hurt you.”

Still feeling unsure, Shadow stopped as Celestia was finally standing in front of him. She lowered her head to meet Shadow’s level.

“See, you have nothing to fear,” she said in a soothing motherly tone. She then lowered her head more to see the Shadow’s element. Even though Twilight told her that the element was burn into his skin, she was unprepared to actually see it with her own eyes.

She raised her head to Shadow’s level, “Doesn’t that hurt you?”

He hesitated before answering, “E-Excruciating… but I try to ignore it.”

“Does it help?”

“Little bit, I’m used to pain.”

“I take it from how you’ve been treated?”

He simply nodded.

“Your life hasn’t been fair, has it?”

He looked down from her gaze, “No, it hasn’t. It’s not fair! I never did anything to deserve this.”

“I believe you.”

He looked up from her response, “You do?”

She nodded, “As the princess, it pains me when one of my citizens has fallen under such suffering and from listening to your words, you’ve suffered too much. And I want to help you.”

“Y-Y-You do? But nopony wants to help me. Nopony cares about me,” his eyes were tearing up.

“Then allow me to be the first,” She spread her wings out as she was about to hug Shadow Bolt as a means of comfort.

The Mane Six was stunned to see how Celestia was able to calm Shadow down. Twilight felt proud seeing this, “Only Princess Celestia could do something like this. It looks like everything is going to be alright.”

They all watched with anticipation as Celestia was about to comfort Shadow with her hug that they were startled when the doors to the throne room slammed open behind them. Everypony turned to see a group of royal guards armed with spears burst into the room.

“There he is! And he’s attacking the Princess, STOP HIM!” shouted one of the guards. He was an earth pony with a scar down his right eye.

“No wait! It’s not what it looks like,” said Twilight, but the guards didn’t listen

All the guards aimed there spears and threw them at the red pegasus. Time seemed to slow down as everypony could only watched in shock as the spears were about to hit Shadow. The only thing on his mind before the spears struck him was, Why?

All the spears hit their mark as he felt every one pierce his body. The pain was more excruciating than when Twilight stabbed him with her horn earlier. His pain was replaced with hate as he felt the power of his element return.

Twilight and her friends saw how he stared at the guards standing behind them. His face was nothing but rage, his red eyes were glowing, he was snarling. Then in an instant, he vanished before their eyes. Then a powerful force knocked them all down. What was that? Everypony stood up and then heard a loud BANG coming from where the guards were standing. They turned to see and were shocked at what they saw. One of the guards was slammed into the wall and in front of him was Shadow Bolt, his right hoof was pressed at the guards stomach. The combined force of Shadow’s punch and the guard’s impact with the wall left him breathless. The only sounds the guard was able to make were painful groans. Shadow pulled his hoof back and the guard slumped down to the ground passing out.

Everponies jaw hit the floor after what they witnessed, Shadow took the opportunity of their shock that the next guard didn’t know what was coming. Shadow charged at him, he gave the guard an uppercut. The force of it had the guard standing on his hind hooves. Then immediately Shadow punched the guard in the stomach, causing the guard to clutch his stomach. The punched took the wind out of him, as he was unable to yell. Then Shadow finished him off a punch to the head, knocking him down to the ground and knocking him out.

By now the guards recovered from their state of shock and charged at him, Shadow was ready for this as he dodged one guards punch and punched him in the ribs. Everypony could hear the guards ribs CRACK from Shadow’s punch and he fell down clutching his sides, a pegasus guard tried to an aerial assault as he flew down, ready to attack the red pegasus that already took out three of his comrades. Shadow saw this as he rolled in front of the guard’s descent making the guard exposed. As soon as the guard was directly on top of Shadow, he bucked the guard in the stomach sending up in the air. With the wind knocked out of the guard, he couldn’t recover as he started falling back to the ground, head first. Thinking that his head would hit the ground, the guard didn’t expect what he saw next. Right before the guards head would impact the ground, he saw Shadow charging at him and then punched him right in the face. Although the punched knocked him out, the momentum behind the punch stopped his head from hitting the ground and instead caused him to land on his stomach.

Another guard was actually able to land a punch across Shadow’s face, This only resulted in infuriating him more. When the guard tried to punch him again, Shadow grabbed his hoof and twisted it until he heard the guards hoof SNAP. Afterwards he used his momentum and tossed the guard over his body and slammed his back on the ground, and then he finished him off with a kick to the face.

Only one guard remained, this was the same guard that ordered the attack and even after watching his comrades get defeated one by one, he wasn’t going to back down, “COME ON, TAKE YOUR BEST SHOT!”

Shadow gave the guard a smirk, “Challenge accepted,” he then charged at the guard. Shadow lunged at the guard, but the guard was able to dodge it at the last moment. The guard then counterattack with a punch on the side of Shadow’s head. Shadow tried to strike back, but the guard saw it coming and dodged it. Shadow tried to again, but everyone one of his punches, the guard successfully dodge them. The guard landed another blow to Shadow’s head, and then he grabbed one of the spears that was still impaled in Shadow’s body and pulled it out. Shadow let out a painful yell from the result of the spears removal HE’S GOING TO PAY FOR THAT! Before he had the chance to retaliate, the guard went on the offensive and started attacking Shadow with his spear. Shadow being on the defensive started dodging the guards spear thrusts, making sure that the spear didn’t stab him again. Shadow waited patiently for an opening to be exposed to launch a counter attack.

Then he saw his opportunity, one of the guards thrust went too far. This is it, got to strike now! Shadow closed his distance between himself and the guard and then he head butted the guard. The combined force of the blow and the fact that the guard was wearing his helmet, left both of them dazed. Shadow recovered quickly and started punching the guard in the face. Each punch left the guard dazed, being unable to counter. Then Shadow concentrated his power in his hoof and gave the guard one punch to the head that knocked his helmet off. Shadow then kneed the guards chin and immediately with a finishing blow knocked his head down to the ground, finally putting the guard out of commission.

Before Shadow could savor his victory, he heard the sound of hoof steps coming from down the hall. He looked through the doors of the throne room and saw a group of guards charging at him. Shadow simply smirked at them, unaware of what he was about to do to them. They're all cluster too close to each other. This will be easy as Shadow started charging his element. The gem glowed furiously as his energy kept charging, waiting for the right moment to release his blast. Almost he waited as the guards started getting closer, almost there, just a little bit more. Once the guards were closing in on the distance between each other NOW! He released his energy blast onto the unprepared guards. The blast hit the first two pushing them back. Shadow kept the blast going as the power of it pushed the guards away with its trajectory. The guards behind the first two couldn’t get away from the blast as they were pushed back while pushing the ones behind them too. This kept going until all the guards were pushed back with such speed that they didn’t stop until they all crashed into the wall at the end of the hall. The impact caused parts of the wall to fall on top of the guards rendering them unconscious and trapped under the rubble.

That should do it Shadow thought after seeing the guards all buried from all the concrete, I took on a group of guards all on my own and I feel great. Shadow was feeling such bliss that was coming from the power of his element. Now to finish some unfinished business he turned to face the seven ponies that were left in the room and enjoyed the looks on their faces after what they saw him do.

They could not believe what they just saw. Applejack and Rainbow Dash both had their jaws wide open, Fluttershy was on the ground cowering, Rarity had fainted after seeing such barbaric violence, Pinkie had caught her waving a hoof in front of her while she was staring at Shadow, Twilight eyes had shrunken back after witnessing his ferocity, even Princess Celestia had a look of shock on her face that nopony in history has ever seen. Celestia couldn’t believe how one pegasus was able to defeat a whole group of her guards, harden guards that have been through such intense training, that they have trained everyday to protect their country were taken down so quickly as if they were some colts losing in a schoolyard fight.

Seeing the looks on their faces brought such satisfaction to Shadow, soon he started feeling the returning pain that set him off. He realized that there were still some spears impaled in him. He started concentrating his power, as he did when Twilight had him trapped in her magic. He felt the power build up inside him, and then he released it. Everypony felt the power and heat coming from his blast as it caused all the remaining spears to fly out of his body. The process was painful for him as he felt the blood pouring out from the openings. Nopony stabs me and gets away with it soon the power of the element closed his wounds as he felt the burning sensation that came from healing his wounds.

“Now where we?” he asked the ponies in the room, “Oh wait, now I remember. Well as you can see, your plan failed!”

“What are you talking about?” asked Twilight, “What plan?”

“Why, you’re failed attempt to kill me. You tried to get me to lower my guard while biding your time for the guards to ambush me. You tricked me into actually thinking that you believed me and that you wanted to help me. You even got the Princess to help you out with your little plan,” he looked at Princess Celestia, clapping his hooves, “Bravo, Princess. You really had me fooled, You’d make a terrific actress.”

“But…” Celestia started to say.

“Your plan was absolutely perfect, except for one thing you didn’t take into account. You underestimated me and my power. So don’t think that you can get me to lower my guard down, because that will never happen again!”

He started walking towards them, they slowly started walking away from their fear as a result after what he did moments ago.

“Now why don’t you just hand over those elements of yours and this will all be over. I’ll even let you girls go free,” he said.

“Not a chance, will never give you the elements,” said Twilight.

Her comment seemed to snap everypony to their senses, as they stood next to Twilight, ready to fight.

Twilight turned to the Princess, “Princess Celestia, get somewhere safe. We can handle it from here.”

Princess Celestia seemed surprised from Twilights confidence, “Are you sure, Twilight?”

She simply nodded, “This fight is a personal matter that we have to take care of. Don’t worry about it, we’ll be fine.”

“Very well Twilight, I have confidence in you and your friends,” her horn started glowing and her golden aura started covering her guards, “I will take my guards to get medical attention. Good luck,” then in a flash of light, she and her guards vanished from sight.

The Mane Six now turned their focus on the red pegasus standing patiently in front of them.

“Let’s do this,” said Twilight.

Her friends gathered up and started channeling the power of the elements. A few seconds they were hovering in the air. Immediately they were hit by a energy beam. With the beam interrupting them, the girls landed on the ground hard. When they got up they looked at their assailant.

“You didn’t think that I would just stand there and let you use your elements to defeat me?” said Shadow Bolt. “I’m not sure what kind of villains you six fought. But if you think that I would allow you girl into using you’re elements, then you’re all complete idiots.”

Then he got into a fighting stance, “I’ll only say this once more,” he said, “surrender the elements or suffer my wrath!”

“Never!” said Twilight

.

“Yeah!” shouted Rainbow Dash, “if you want my element, you can have it over my dead body!”

He smirked at her, “Challenge accepted,” his aura appeared and then he vanished once again.

“Where he g-,” Dash started to say before Shadow appeared and punched her in face. The impact sent rolling back until she stopped when her back hit the stairs that led up to the princesses thrones, the result knocked her out.

“RAINBOW!” everypony screamed. They were just about to run to her when Shadow passed them, causing them to pause as he walked by ignoring them.

Shadow could feel the power flowing through him once again and he was savoring its power. He walked to Rainbow Dash at a slow pace I’m going to enjoy this as he was standing in front of her. Before he had a chance to finish her, he felt somepony on top of him. He turned his head to see none other than Applejack holding him back.

“Yur not gonna lay a hoof on Rainbow Dash on ma watch.”

“Get off!” he snarled.

“Make me!”

“I thought you never ask,” he smirked and started running.

At first he tried bouncing her off, but she held on without any problems.

“Yeehaw, it’s just like being in a rodeo,” she said, as his attempts weren’t affecting her.

“Woo Hoo, ride him A.J.!” shouted Pinkie Pie. Everypony else was cheering for Applejack

Shadow was getting mad as they treated him like a wild animal Time to show her how I’m not an animal he started running towards a wall. He jumped and quickly spun around, making Applejack slammed into the wall hard. All her friends cheering stopped immediately after witnessing Shadows comeback. Shadow got back on his hooves to see Applejack still holding onto him, except she wasn’t acting so cheerful anymore.

“Had enough?” he asked.

“It’s gonna take a lot more than that for me to let g-” Shadow slammed her back into the wall before she could finished. He got back on his hooves and immediately slammed Applejack again into the wall. After a few more attempts, Shadow stopped his assault, but Applejack was still holding onto him, although he could feel her grip wasn’t as strong as before.

“How about now?” he said.

“N-N-Never,” she struggled to say.

Shadow started attempting to bounce her off again, seeing her weaken a bit after his assault. He could fell her grip slipping but she held on with all her might. Even though she still held on, he knew it was only a matter of time before she would lose her grip. His attempts favored him as his wings were able to escape from Applejacks grasp Lets finish this with his wings ready, Shadow took flight. He flew around trying to get her off, but still she held on. Then he got an idea that would work. He flew to the ceiling at rapid speed and immediately slammed Applejack into the ceiling, which knocked her out and finally made her lose her grip and let him go.

As he started lowering himself, Applejack slid off his back and plummeted towards the ground. Everypony was stunned seeing Applejack falling, the first to take action was Fluttershy as she flew quickly and caught Applejack. But Applejack was too heavy for her that her landing wasn’t so pleasant. Shadow landed in front of them, ignoring Fluttershy, who was trying to wake Applejack up. He focused his attention towards Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity.

“So who’s next? I already took out both of your best fighters and neither of you stand a chance against me. So why don’t you just surrender now and nopony else gets hu-” Shadow was cut short when Rarity shot an energy blast that hit him in the eyes.

“OW, MY EYES! I CANT SEE!”

“Serves you right you… you… you ruffian!”

The energy blast was different from Twilights, the blast didn’t really hurt him, but the light from the blast that caused Shadow’s blindness to sting. After rubbing his eyes, his vision returned. His eyes glowed as he stared at the unicorn that threw a cheap shot at him.

“My turn,” he said as he was charging his energy beam. After a few seconds he fired his beam at Rarity. Rarity froze as the beam was coming at her, she closed her eyes and waited for the blast. But Twilight wouldn’t let that happen as she used her magic and put up a shield in front of Rarity right as the blast was about to hit her. Rarity opened her eyes and saw that she was protected by Twilight’s magic.

“Thank you so much, Twilight. You saved me.”

“Don’t mention it, but don’t lose focus here. I need all of you girls if we’re ever going to defeat him.”

“I can assure you Twilight that it will never happen again.”

“I got this,” said Pinkie Pie as out of nowhere she pulled out her party cannon.

“What? Where? How?” Rarity was stunned trying to figure out how she did that.

“I told you, I never leave home without it,” she said, and then she fired the cannon. The first thing that came out was a cake on a plate, which Shadow dodged it. Then she fired multiple times. The content ranged from cakes, presents, balls of confetti, and balloons which of course didn’t do anything since the floated up in the air as soon as they were shot out of the cannon. Shadow dodged the cannons attacks, sometimes he used his head to bounce the presents away from him, and use his elements to blast anything that was too fast for him to dodge.

“If you think you can stop me with party favors then you might as well give up.”

Then he felt something wrap around his neck, he looked down and saw that he was lassoed again. He immediately knew who was behind this as he turned to face his captor.

“You know that didn’t work last time.” He started taking flight but Applejack pulled him down.

“And that’s not goin to work this time either,” as she started pulling him down

.

“Fine, I’m not going anywhere,” he landed back on the ground, “but you are.”

He grabbed the rope with his teeth, “GET OVER HERE!” he pulled on the rope with all his might pulling Applejack towards him.

With Applejack no longer on the ground, she couldn’t do anything to stop herself from sailing towards her assailant. Her eyes widened as she saw that Shadow had his back turned to her as he was getting in position to buck her. Applejack did the only thing she could think of to prevent this from happening, she let go of the rope. By doing this, she fell to the ground hard and started rolling fast towards Shadow. Shadow tried to get away, but Applejack was too fast and she knocked his legs out from under him causing him to fall down.

Applejack kept rolling until Pinkie caught her with her giant glove and shouted, “STRIKE!”

Applejack slowly got up, her body was covered with dirt, scratches. “Thanks, Pinkie.”

“You’re welcome. And I say, you’d make a great bowling ball.”

“Pinkie, darling,” said Rarity, “can we get back to matters more important,” her hoof pointing to Shadow as he was getting back up.

Shadow could feel the pain in his legs as he was getting up, he decided to stay in the air while his legs healed. As soon as he got in the air he heard a voice coming behind him.

“HEY JERK!”

He turned in time to see Rainbow Dash flying at him. She was flying too close for him to do anything as she punched his face.

Despite the impact of the blow, Shadow Bolt was able to stay in the air. Rainbow Dash circled around for another strike. Shadow was able to recover in time to see what Rainbow Dash was doing and this time he was prepared. Right at the last second Shadow slightly dodged Rainbows punch and as soon as she missed, he punched her in the back of the head. The punch caused her to temporarily blackout as she lost control and crashed into her friends.

Seeing this Fluttershy tried to attempt Rainbows strategy as she charged at Shadow, but she was flying slower than Dash did. Shadow was able to see this and grabbed her hoof and flipped her over then kicked her in the back sending her flying at her friends as well. But Twilight was able to use her magic to stop Fluttershy from crashing into them.

“Th-Th-Thank you, Twilight,” she was shaking from her ordeal.

“It was nothing,” she said.

Shadow Bolt still in the air looked down at everyone, “You see? You can’t stop me. Now surrender!”

“Never! We will never surrender!” shouted Twilight.

“Fine, you asked for this,” he closed his eyes and started concentrating again. Seconds later smoke started appearing under Shadows hooves.

“He’s making another cloud,” said Twilight, “we can’t let him do this!”

“I’m on it,” said Rainbow Dash as she flew to stop Shadow Bolts next attack.

When Shadow saw Rainbow Dash coming right at him, he gave her a familiar smirk. It was the same type of smirk he gave her all those years ago during the race. What’s he up to? It didn’t matter she had to stop him no matter what as the smoke finally formed a small cloud.

As soon as Rainbow Dash was closer, he made his move. He turned around and softly bucked the cloud, sending it on a crash course to Rainbow Dash. Dash was going too fast to stop and the cloud hit her right in the face. Since it was a storm cloud not only did it blind her, but it also electrocuted her as she fell to the ground.

Rainbow Dash started to get up when Shadow landed in front of her, making her freeze.

He looked down on her and said, “How does it feel? Not much fun when you’re on the receiving end, is it?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You did the same thing to me, it was because of what you did that I was treated like scum. So tell me, how does it feel?”

“Alright I get it, I understand. It wasn’t right of me to do that to you and it wasn’t right for me to lie about it. I’m sorry, I really mean it! I’M SORRY!”

Shadow looked at Rainbow Dash to see if she was sincere about her apology this time. After a few seconds he responded, “You know what? I believe you this time.”

“Y-You do?” she replied.

“Yes, I really believe that you’re truly sorry.”

“So, do you forgive me?”

He thought about his answer for a few moments before answering, “You want to know something?” She nodded, “During my years of travel, I always dreamed about the day where the one who caused my misfortune would confessed the truth about what happened that day and apologize to me. And I would accept it and think that everything would turn out alright.”

Dash smiled from his response, seeing that he was accepting her apology, “But…” her smile faded, “after finally getting the apology that I been waiting so long for, do you know what I realized?”

“What?”

“It’s not enough!” he glared at her making her shrink back. “Your apology isn’t enough to make up all those years of loneliness, sadness, anger, and pain that I had to endure. No, the only way I’ll be able to get closure is if I make you suffer the same way I have. So after I’m done breaking your body and you’re on the ground writhing in extreme pain, that’s when I’ll accept you apology.”

He started charging his elements attack, Rainbow Dash was too close to be able to get away. Seeing the energy ball right in front of her face caused her to freeze up as his charge was almost done. But before he could finish, he was tackled to the ground by Applejack.

“There’s no way Ah’m letting ya hurt Rainbow Dash! Not while Ah’m around!” she said standing on top of him.

“Then I’ll take care of you first, and then it will be her turn.”

He swung his hoof, punching Applejack in the jaw, and then while she was distracted by the pain, he gave her an uppercut, knocking her off. Then he head butted her leaving in her in daze as she was defenseless by his blows. He finished her off with his energy blast, she was blasted back to where her friends were standing.

With Applejack down, Rarity charged at him. She started shooting him with her energy blast, preventing him from attacking. Once she was within distance, she leapt up and kicked Shadow in the head, knocking him down. He got up only for Rarity to give him a backhoof smack to the side of his head. He got back up and this time dodged her attacks. She kept on the offensive, preventing him to counterattack.

He lunged at her knocking her down as he was standing on top her. He raised his hooves to stomp her only to be hit in the chest by Twilights energy blast. This gave Rarity the opportunity to escape as she kicked Shadow in the jaw while she got up and ran back while Twilight was covering her. Angry he let out an energy blast of his own at Rarity. She tried to use her blast to stop it, but it was too close, so when she fired her own it backfired and sent her rolling back to her friends. Twilight used her magic to stop her as she stopped in front of them. She then focused on Shadow as he was preparing another attack. Then she saw Rainbow Dash getting up behind him. She took off in the air and started flying in a circle, Twilight decided to help her by distracting Shadow Bolt with her energy blasts.

Her plan was working as her blast kept Shadow from noticing what Rainbow Dash was doing behind him, as she kept flying in the circle going faster and faster in the process. Finally hitting her top speed, Rainbow Dash charged at Shadow, who was able to shoot off an energy beam that hit Twilight in the face, stopping her attack. He started walking towards her, charging another beam to hit her with. He then noticed that Twilight was looking at something behind him, he turned his head and his eyes widened seeing Rainbow Dash flying too fast at him to dodge.

She readied her hoof and shouted, “TAKE THIS!” with all her speed and might, Rainbow Dash gave one powerful punch to Shadows head.

*CRACK*

The power and velocity of her punch to his head knocked him down to the ground hard as he laid there motionless.

Rainbow Dash who was flying too fast had a hard time stopping, she was able to slow down when she reached her friends. At this point Rainbow was feeling unstoppable as she turned around to attach Shadow Bolt again, who was still lying on the ground.

She hovered over him, “How you like that? That’s what you get when you mess with the Dash and her friends.”

He didn’t respond.

She landed in front of him, “Come on, get up, I’m not finished with you yet!” Rainbow Dash was on fire with adrenaline that she so wanted to let out so much.

Once again he didn’t respond.

Feeling cocky she kicked him, trying to get him to respond, “I said GET UP! Come on, get up and fight! Don’t tell me that the all powerful Shadow Bolt is taking a little nap. Wake up already,” she kept kicking him trying to wake him up. Rainbow Dash was feeling so good about herself that she didn’t even noticed Shadow’s face. When she did she noticed, she saw that his eyes were wide open.

Frustrated thinking that he was ignoring her, Dash was getting furious, “Don’t you dare ignore me,” she grabbed him and picked him up. When she did, her eyes widened at what she was seeing. His head was titled on his left side and his upon further examination his eyes were glazed.

All that adrenaline and cockiness that Rainbow Dash was feeling went away immediately as she stared at Shadow Bolt, “Oh, my Celestia… I… killed him,” she dropped his body.

All her friends gasped after hearing what Rainbow Dash said. Twilight ran towards her. Once she was standing next to Rainbow Dash, she looked at Shadow Bolts body. From what she was able to gather from looking of his body, it seemed that when Rainbow Dash punched him, she broke his neck.

Twilight turned to Rainbow Dash, who was at the moment shaking in a panic. She could hear her mumbling “no” over and over again.

“I’m a murderer, I killed him. I didn’t mean to kill him, it was an accident. My Celestia, my life is over.”

Twilight tried to console her, “Rainbow Dash, It’s going to be okay.”

Rainbow suddenly grabbed Twilight by her shoulders, “I didn’t mean it Twilight. I was only trying to stop him, I know he was a bad guy, but I didn’t kill him on purpose. It was an accident, Twilight you got to help me!” her eyes were watering up.

“It’s going to be alright.”

“IS IT?!” she started shaking Twilight, “I killed someone Twilight, I’m a murderer! They’re going to arrest me. Forget about my dream in joining the Wonderbolts, they’ll never let a murderer like me join them even if it was self defense. Princess Celestia will banish me to the moon, or the sun, or worse I’ll be executed. Twilight, you’ll put in a good word for me with Princess Celestia won’t you? She might go easy on me if you speak on my behalf. Maybe you’ll be able to convince her into not banishing me, and maybe she’ll just put me in a dungeon for the rest of my life instead.”

*SLAP*

“CALM DOWN RAINBOW DASH!” she shouted as she slapped her to snap her out of it. “Listen, I know that it was an accident. You would never kill someone, no matter what. And don’t worry, I’ll do everything I can to help you.”

Twilight could see Rainbow Dash was calming down, “Thanks, Twilight.”

“It was nothing. Now come on, will go tell the Princess what happened and don’t worry, we’ll all be there for you. Princess Celestia will understand after we explain what happened,” They started walking back towards their friends as Twilight was giving Dash her moral support.

Rainbow Dash had her head down as she was walking, she still felt wrong about what she did and hoped that Twilight will be able to convince Princess Celestia that it was an accident.

Twilight wrapped her hoof around her friend to comfort her, “Relax, everything is going to be fine.”

“AHHHHHHH!!!” the combined screams from Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Fluttershy startled Twilight and Dash.

“What was that for?” asked Dash as she rubbed one of her ears.”

“What wrong girls? What is it?” said Twilight as she could see the looks of their faces, something terrified them.

All four of them were shaking, none of them said anything to answer their questions. The only answer came from Fluttershy, as she raised her shaking hoof and pointed behind them.

Both of them turned around to see what could have scared them, and even they screamed at what they saw.

For what was behind them was none other than Shadow Bolt, standing up. His head was still titled and his eyes were still glazed. Twilight then saw that Shadows element was glowing brightly. Then his head started tilting back up, they could hear the CRACKS that his neck was making from his movements.

Twilight could only stare in shock with her mouth hanging open from what she was witnessing. She could see how painful it must have been for Shadow from his facial expressions. Soon the crackling stopped as Shadows head was back in position, the glaze from his eyes were slowly disappearing.

“I- I can’t believe it,” said Rainbow Dash. She was absolutely stunned at what she was witnessing, no normal pony could survive that, “He really is a monster.

Apparently Shadow heard her comment as he cracked his neck to relieve the strain it had build up.

“What did you say?” the glowing of his eyes returned.

“I said, you’re a monster,” she had found her courage once again.

“Take that back!” he threatened her.

“Never!” she wouldn’t back down to him.

“TAKE IT BACK!”

“NO!”

She was immediately tackled by Shadow as both of them were rolling on the ground. Shadow was on top of her as he started punching her in the face. You’re the monster, not me! She countered by kicking him in the gut, causing him to back away. Rainbow Dash was then able to get up, her right eye was black and she could taste the blood that was coming out of her nose.

“You!” she charged and tackled Shadow to nearby pillar. She was about to start punching him when he grabbed her right hoof and started twisting it causing her to cry out as he got back up.

“Let go of my hoof!”

He replied by swinging her by her hoof and slammed her back to the pillar as he let go. He started walking away as she got back up, as she ignored the pain coming from her hoof, she charged at him. He charged back as both their heads collided with each other. Soon they were pushing each other in a game of tug of war. They backed up and charged at each other again. Both were deadlocked, until Rainbow Dash punched Shadow Bolt in his right eye causing him to back away.

“TAKE THAT!” as she took the opportunity and charged at Shadow, knocking him to a wall. With his eye still closed, he got up and charged at her. She was about to throw a punch to his head, but he slid to the ground dodging her punch and kicked her other hoof, the same hoof he twisted.

She let out a painful yell as she fell to her knees. He turned around and ran back to the wall. He then bounced off the wall and charged at Rainbow Dash. He tackled her and sent her rolling back to where Twilight and the others were.

Shadow was breathing hard after his brawl with Rainbow Dash. He opened his eye that was bloodshot, and then his eye started healing. He felt invincible after beating Rainbow Dash up. He felt such satisfaction from punching her, and he grinned, thinking about when he heard her painful cries while he was twisting her hoof. Such power! And I feel like I’m getting stronger by the minute. For some reason he could feel the hate coming from all over the room. He could feel himself getting stronger because of it. It must be because of the element. It’s as if it’s feeding from all the hate here and somehow making me stronger. Feeling more powerful he took off in the air and started charging his beam. After a few seconds he fired it at the element bearers.

Twilight was able to put up a bubble shield over herself and her friends at the last second. Shadow kept the beam going, knowing that the shield wouldn’t last long. Twilight could already feel the strain from keeping the shield up, she needed to think of something fast but first she checked on Rainbow Dash, who was being taken care of by Fluttershy.

“How bad is it Fluttershy?”

“She has a few bruises on her face and a busted lip and nose, but nothing serious. Although it seems that, her hoof is sprained, so she won’t be able to walk well for awhile. Other than that, she’ll be fine.”

“How are you feeling, Dash?”

“I’m fine Twilight, It looks worse than it is.”

“Do you need to rest a bit?”

“No way! I’m ready for some payback.”

“Is anypony else feeling alright?”

Everyone nodded yes

“Alright then, everypony huddle up.”

Soon everyone was in a huddle as Twilight devised a plan while keeping the shield up.

“Alright, if we’re going to have a shot at this, were going to have to do it together. No more trying to taken him down one at a time, got it?

Everyone nodded, “Okay, now here’s the plan.”

Twilight started whispering to everyone about what each of them was suppose to do. After a few seconds, Twilight finished whispering her plan, “Does everyone know what to do?”

Again everyone nodded, “Alright, let’s do this. You ready Rarity?”

“I’m ready when you are, darling.”

“Get ready everypony, I’m lowering the shield in 3…2…1…Now!”

Once the shield came down, everyone rushed out of the way before Shadow’s beam hit any of them. Twilight and Rarity started

shooting energy beams at Shadow. He started dodging them and returned with a few beams of his own. He didn’t notice that Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were sneaking up behind him, and then Twilight shouted, “Rainbow, Fluttershy your up.”

He turned around and was surprised to see Fluttershy charging at him. You have got to be kidding me, I can’t believe my eyes. She really thinks that she’ll be able to stop me. He readied his hoof as he was about to strike her, when at the last second she change course and flew away. Shadow was so confused that he didn’t noticed that Rainbow Dash was right behind her until it was too late, as she was able to punch him in the face. Frustrated he charged and fired a beam at Dash, which she was able to miss.

“What’s the matter? Am I too fast for you?” she gloated at him.

Shadow ignored her insult as he kept firing beams at her and Fluttershy when they got within his sights. He was too focused on them that he didn’t noticed what was going on below him.

“Alright, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are keeping him distracted,” said Twilight seeing that her plan was working, “Okay, Applejack and Pinkie Pie, get ready, it’s your turn”

“Gotcha,” responded Applejack.

“Okey dokey,” said Pinkie Pie as she readied her party cannon for the next part of the plan.

Once A.J. and Pinkie were ready, Twilight called out, “Okay, girls that’s enough. Get ready!”

Dash and Fluttershy then broke off their flight plan and got away from Shadow’s range.

Shadow then turned to the ground to see what was going on, when he looked down he was confused at what he was seeing.

He saw Pinkie Pie with half her body inside her party cannon while wearing a helmet and Applejack was standing on her hind hooves behind the cannon. What the?

“Ready, Twi,” said Applejack once she aimed the cannon at Shadow’s position.

“Fire!” she said.

“Yeehaw,” she fired the cannon, sending Pinkie in the air, right at Shadow Bolt.

Pinkie was moving so fast that Shadow couldn’t get away, and then he felt the impact of Pinkie Pies head hitting him in the chest.

*CRACK* *CRACK* *CRACK*

Shadow could hear and feel his ribs breaking from Pinkie’s attack. The blow knocked the wind out of him as it took all his concentration in his wings to keep himself from crashing to the ground. He had his hooves covering his chest were Pinkie hit him, as she fell to the ground. Luckily, Applejack was able to catch her without any problems.

“Dash and Fluttershy,” Twilight shouted, “Now while he’s distracted.”

On her command, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew behind Shadow and grabbed him by his wings. They kept a good grip on him to keep him from flying off. He tried to fight him off, but stopped when they started pulling on his wings. As everypony knows, a pegasus’s wings are very sensitive which makes them their weak spot. The combined pain from his chest and his wings kept Shadow from escaping their grasp.

“Alright, Twilight,” said Rainbow Dash, “We got a good grip on him. Let him have it!”

“Now Rarity,” as Twilight started charging her horn.

Rarity followed her order as she too started charging her horn, “Ready, Twilight.”

Once their horns were fully charged, Rarity and Twilight fired their beams at Shadow Bolt.

With Shadow Bolt defenseless, all he could do was watch as those two beams getting closer and closer, until finally both beams hit him right in the chest. The force sent him flying back as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy let go of his wings. He sailed across the room and stopped when his back hit the wall. He let out a silent scream as all the air was knocked out of him. He then fell to the floor and crashed on top of the Princesses podium where her throne rested. The impact sent him rolling down the steps until he landed hard on the floor below.

Shadow was under extreme pain from the combined attack of the Mane Six. His whole body hurt, his chest, wings, back, head, and hooves all were in pain. He had difficulty breathing, one of his broken ribs had punctured one of his lungs when he landed and rolled down the steps. He couldn’t even try to stand up under the pain he was in. The only the movement he was able to muster up was a slight twitching from his hooves. If it wasn’t for the excruciating pain he was feeling, he would have assumed that the attack had left him paralyzed.

“The plan worked, He’s down for the count,” said Applejack as everypony gathered together.

“Oh yeah!” said Rainbow Dash, “We're unstoppable.”

Twilight walked up to them, “It’s not over yet.”

“What are you talking about Twilight?” asked Rainbow Dash, “you’re plan worked. Look at him,” she pointed to Shadow Bolt as he was still lying on the ground in pain. “How can you say it’s no over?”

“The plan was to keep him from moving, and we have to hurry up because he won’t be lying still for long. Look,” she pointed at his element that was glowing brightly. “His element is already healing him, which means that he won’t be down for much longer,” Shadow was now able to move his hooves again. “Now is our chance to use the elements on him before he gets up. Everyone let’s do it.”

Everypony started concentrating on their elements as they started glowing. All six mares started hovering above the ground with Twilight in the middle with her eyes closed. When she opened them, her pupils were glowing white. Soon a powerful shockwave erupted over the six as a rainbow emerged above and started its course down on the recovering red pegasus.

Shadow's eyes widened at the rainbow coming down on him. He was finally able to move enough to start getting up as the rainbow hit him. Soon he was trapped in a rainbow tornado preventing him from escaping. Seeing this he wasn’t sure if he could escape from its power.

Twilight could see that the elements power at work as she and her friends kept concentrating. She could no longer see Shadow Bolts as the rainbow tornado blocked her vision. It won’t be long now, it’s finally over.

Unfortunately for Twilight, it wasn’t over as she saw something going wrong with the rainbow tornado. The tornado was spinning erratically and was starting to lose its shape. Then cracks of red light were shooting out of the tornado. Soon more cracks appeared until the tornado couldn’t hold its shape any longer. Then a powerful blast from inside caused the tornado to explode, the blast sent the six mares flying as their spell wore off. They kept flying until all six of them hit the doors to the throne room, they then crashed down to the ground hard.

“What the hay happened?” as Applejack slowly got up.

“That has never happened before,” said Rarity as she was rubbing her head.

Rainbow Dash was helping Fluttershy up, “All I saw was that the tornado blew up and sent us flying to the other side of the room.”

“But that’s impossible,” said Twilight, “Nothings that powerful to stop the Elements of Harmony… unless another element that is.”

They all looked back and saw where the tornado used to be, where it once was, now was the red pegasus standing in the middle. His body was covered in his red aura. Shadow Bolt was able to use his own element to stop the Elements of Harmony.

“That’s impossible!” said Twilight, she couldn’t believe her eyes. “How is it possible? There’s nothing powerful than the Elements of Harmony.”

“Except an Element of Hate,” said Shadow Bolt. “This element feeds on hate, which makes me stronger. At first I thought it just fed on my own, but that’s not the case. It feeds on all hate, even yours.”

He started charging his element, “This whole time my element was not only feeding on my own, but yours as well. Your hatred of me is actually making me stronger. Of course your hate is miniscule compared to my own.”

The energy ball was getting bigger than before, “and I’m not even using all my power. This is just at most half of it right here,” his hoof pointing at the energy ball. “So since you six had your shot, now it’s my turn!” he fired his beam.

Twilight had used up a lot of magic when using the power of the elements, that she didn’t have much power left. But she had to protect her friends, so she used what little magic she had left and summoned a shield wall between them and Shadow’s beam to protect them.

Unfortunately it wasn’t enough as the beam went straight through the wall with no resistance. There was nothing they could do as the beam hit all six of them. They all screamed out in pain from the power of the blast. Twilight felt like her whole body was on fire, she tried to use her magic but the pain was too much for her as it broke her concentration. The screaming continued until Shadow turned his beam off. Twilight and her friends all fell to ground in pain So much power. I’ve never felt anything like that in my life. Twilight tried to stand up but she was too much in pain to move, the only thing she and her friends could do was watch as Shadow started walking towards them as his aura was covering his body.

Each step of him getting closer increased Twilight’s fear, he’s getting closer and I can’t do anything to stop him. He’s going to kill us! Her eyes widened, as Shadow Bolt was getting closer and closer.

“It’s over Twilight, I told you that hate is more powerful, but of course you had to prove me wrong. Now you and your friends are beaten and there’s nothing that can stop me,” he said as he was charging another energy beam.

Twilight could feel the energy as he was getting closer. Her lavender coat was now red from the balls lighting.

“With you six gone, there’s nothing that can stand in my way,” He started laughing. “I… AM… VICTORIOUS!”

“Not quite yet,” said a voice coming from behind him.

Shadow stopped walking and canceled his energy ball as he turned to confront the source of the voice, keeping his guard and aura up, as he prepared for whatever awaits him. When he turned around he saw nothing, then all of a sudden there was a bright flash of light. The light was so bright that it caused him to cover his eyes with one of his wings. Once the light had vanished, Shadow moved his wing to see what the source of the light was.

What he saw was none other than Princess Celestia.

Author's Note:

Wow, now that was intense. What will happen now that Celestia is throwing herself into the ring? Find out next time.

Oh, and I wanted to clear the air about something before I get some negative comments about a certain scene. Rainbow Dash didn't kill Shadow Bolt and the element didn't bring him back to life. All she did was break his neck and knocked him out.

How many references did you get in this chapter? Try to find them all.