> My last shadow
>  by The Psychopath
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Promise me
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What is this? What is going on?" a voice called out in pure darkness.

"Sombra...The 'king' of the Crystal Kingdom. Seems like you weren't much square with light, eh?"

"Who is it? Show yourself!"

"The Angel of Rebirth caves not to the panicked demands of a darkened fool. You should have heeded the signs and changed your ways. Now you'll pay for them by getting lynched and flayed in the burning fires of the Abyss, savvy?"

Flashes of purple and green dimly illuminated the darkness in front of Sombra. Although this served no purpose other than to lighten the face of this tainted soul. It was panicking and looking quickly in all directions while its chest heaved up and down.

"That little light show ain't gonna serve you more than your dealings during your twisted vita."

"I refuse to let you send me down to the Abyss! I have other tasks that I must adhere to in the land of the living!"

"Too bad, mate. Ain't gonna serve you much, but I'm generous during this day of the century. You'll be revived...but I'll wipe your memories and everything you ever knew about here. I'll send you through into the future. Make things quicker. Oh! And you'll have quite a little surprise when you see the light of day or the darkness of the night. Have. Fun," the voice screeched.

"No! Noooooooooooooo!"



Screams of agony and anguish filled the hospital's maternity ward walls. The doctors and nurses had often dealt with the screams of a birthing mother. They even had to deal with a few dangerous encounters with the Reaper itself, but they shooed it off, and both mother and child got to see time flow together. This time, it was something else. It was a scent of blood mixed with rust and darkness.

"Is she awake again?"

"Yes. She seemed to have passed out during birth."

"I've never such a horrendous birth process. It's like the very Creator is against this mare and her young soon-to-be foal."

The room the birthing mare and the doctors were in was being engulfed by shadows despite the large lamp hanging from the ceiling, and there were additional candles that were brought in as well to aid in the lighting, but it didn't seem to be enough. The shadows that still roamed the kingdom seemed to be congregating in this very spot. Perhaps the father spoke the truth of a cursed birth. Surgeon trays were flung about as the nurses and assistants did the best they could to get the medication and tools to keep the mare stable and the baby safe from a stillbirth.

Outside the maternity ward, a young stallion sat nervously on his seat. His dark brown, nutmeg-colored mane and tail were in shambles. Even his reddened coat, similar in color to a nutmeg's seed, was in a terrible state. He couldn't stop sweating in a thick panic. The best he could do was twiddle his hooves together and look left to right.

The corridor of this infernal place seemed to lengthen and widen. The long bars embedded in the ceiling tiles did naught but dampen the blue walls and white floors, and this stressed the stallion. Much to a slight bit of comfort and relief, the soon-to-be father saw a pony coming from his left. This one was wearing a black cowl that covered their whole body, but it seemed to be dripping with water. Was it raining outside? Unable to be left to his thoughts, the newcomer sat right next to the stallion, easing out more tension.

"Um, what--"

"Wife giving birth to a foal?"

"Y-yes. Why else would I be sitting here?"

"No need to be snappy. I believe I have not introduced myself properly as befits anypony. I am Gray Rapier. And you are?"

The stallion skeptically eyed the pony top to bottom and answered:

"Nutmeg Butter."

"Ah. A 'chewy' name, I would say," Gray chuckled.

"Hey! My name is not funny! And I would ask that you not agitate me more. I'm already under a lot of stress."

"No need to panic," the pony gestured with his fore hooves. "I have often come here to check up on the foals of a couple per their demands and made note of their health. Often have I heard a birth process seem awry at the end, but the baby always made it."

"R-really?" 

The father began to calm down and a glimmer of hope began to sparkle in his eyes.

"Oh yes. Why, there was a couple a few months back in Manehatten that nearly lost the child, but it made it through with the help of the doctors and, perhaps, a little 'divine intervention' just to ensure success."

"Huh. I didn't think I would be taken out of my streak of panic, but thank you for your encouraging words. Gray, was it?"

"Aye."

"You went to Manehatten?"

"Oh yes. I travel all around the world. It is quite fun to see how everything evolves in both social standards and technology. Those bars in the ceiling, for example, never existed thirty years ago."

The Rapier pointed to the bars, a sickle serving as a finger. This obviously attracted the father's attention in a strange way. He gave a nervous chuckle in response.

"Say, what did you say your job was?"

"I didn't," Gray answered as he put the sickle upright on the floor.

"What's with the sickle?"

"Oh, this? It's the tool for my job."

"A-a-a-and wh-what job is that?"

"You do the math," the pony baited.

He was cloaked and wielding a sickle, but that was just legend and was impossible. Besides, it would never have manifested itself like this, but wait. Gray Rapier. Gray. Rapier. Gray...Graym...Grim...Grim Rapier...The stallion's pupils shrunk and he removed his hoof from his mouth the split second his head shot to face the cowled pony. 'Gray' was looking directly at Nutmeg, and his face was clear as crystal now. It was a skull with two bright white dots in the sockets. A shadowy mist emanating from below the cloak and the sides of the cowl.

"B-b-but...This isn't..."

"You ponies always take so long to figure out who I am no matter how obvious I make it."

"But you said that every birth you went to turned out perfectly!"

"I said that they turned out perfectly for the foal," Gray tilted his head and waved his hoof from left to right. "I never said anything about the mare," it mused.

"You can't do this to us! To her!"

"Pish. Sure I can!" the Reaper answered matter-of-factly. 

"I was awaiting this birth for so long! I didn't know--"

"Weren't you the one who called it a 'curse' and wished to see the foal removed from the womb of your wife?" 

The Reaper's tone became darker and more sinister, and the white lights began to intensify.

"I--"

"Ah! Listen. The screams have stopped. You should go check it out," Gray said with a head gesture towards the double doors.

The stallion's greatest fear were starting to take ahold of his heart in its cold vice. His gaze kept darting back and forth from the doors to Rapier, but he made his decision and charged into the maternity ward. The doors clanged open, knocking some equipments and containers off the shelves and furniture near the doors. With each breath, Nutmeg had a horrid stench violate his nostrils. It was the worst thing he had ever smelled, but worse still was what he was seeing. All the doctors and nurses were staring at the bed, their mouths agape. The stallion could feel time slow and his body become heavier as he looked at the motherly smile of his wife. She was holding something small and frail in a blanket of red. The mare looked at the foal, then to Nutmeg. Her eyes glimmered with joy, and this prompted the stallion to go to her.

Every step took a great effort, and every sound became louder and louder as he looked the mare on the now-covered bed shine like a light in this dim darkness. The closer he went towards the tiny package, the tighter he could feel the vice grip around his heart and throat.

"Look," the mare said with exhaustion.

Nutmeg took a gulp and watched as the mare turned the foal towards him. The tiny foal was sound asleep, but the horror in the room became all too obvious. The foal was pitch black in mane and fur. She even had the a tiny version of the same horn with a faint shading of red near the tip. The mare's smile was starting to fade as she began to insist with movements that the father hold it. He did it after a few quick glances and gently held the package in his right foreleg.

"This is a curse. How?" he thought to himself.

"I think we should call her Stellar Shadowrette. What do you think?"

"Wha--"

"I know. I've never been good with names, but I really want this. It fits her."

The little foal produced a cute little yawn as she awoke from her short nap. Her little forelegs were bobbing a bit and her eyes fluttered tiredly. Her eyes. The horror. They were red with black, reptilian slits. Just like his. Yet...they seemed so innocent. So full of love. She was even giggling and looking at the horrified stallion with a big smile and a small chuckle. The stallion gave her back to her mother, who cuddled her and nuzzled her with her muzzle.

"I can feel myself getting weaker. Nutmeg, I need you to promise that you will look after her."

"You're not going to die. DON'T SAY THINGS LIKE THAT!"

"PROMISE ME!" the mare shouted.

The foal began to cry and the mare cooed it gently back into a calm state.

"But-but...look at her. It's that horrid beast we were told about. Even they admit it!" the stallion gestured to the doctors.

"No! She just has a unique appearance. Most likely it's just the shadows that did this. You know how they are."

"I know, but the changes were never this drastic!"

"Just promise me that you will take care of her when I'm gone. That you will not lay a hoof on her so long as you breathe. That you will care for her just as you said you would your own foal, that she is. She is no more a tyrant than a lily growing in a field of roses."

"But the lily sticks out much more."

"I..."

The mare began to gasp for air and her eyes started to roll back.

"Lilyanne? LILYANNE!" Nutmeg shook her by the shoulders. "HELP HER! You're doctors! DO SOMETHING!"

The doctors just stared at him and a few shook their heads in pain.

"Come on! Just do something! Help her! Grab a syringe! Inject her with something. You can do it!" the stallion wept. "You...can do it..."

Tears began to form in the eyes of the stallion. His voice was starting to crack and his mouth was trembling more so than the syringe he grabbed which dropped limply onto the ground. He could only watch as his beloved's life signs began to shorten on the monitors next to her bed. The ever so panicking 'beep' following his own heartbeat.

"Ah. She is due."

"What? You! Help her! You have to do something! You're the only one who can do something! Please..." 

The stallion tugged and tugged at the Reaper's cloak, but he started to cave in and slid slowly down the cloth, tears making it soggy.

"I am sorry, but this is how it is. Many like you have begged and pleaded, but one does not bribe or move Death with emotions and charades."

"N...Nutmeg," a weak voice whispered.

The stallion hurried to his wife and held her hoof.

"What? What is it?"

"I...love you."

"I love you too."

"I just...wanted to tell you that...a bo...A bo..."

"A ba? A ba? A what? A what?! Tell me! You're going to make it! Don't let up on me now!"

But these orders were for naught, as the beeping of the machine cemented the truth. It was now flat lining. Heartbroken and filled with contempt, the stallion wallowed in the soiled sheets where the mare now laid.

"A body remade never has the same soul."

"What?" the stallion asked.

"That is what she was going to say. A body remade never has the same soul. I will guide her soul to the afterlife. As for you, you should know that, were you to keep that foal, you will be going through some serious hardships."

"Then I should kill her. Nopony will know."

"Except, you know, the doctors around you." Death shrugged. "You can still do that if you wish. It will give me more to do, but you gave your wife a promise. You would take care of the foal no matter what, and I frown on those who do not execute a death wish let alone a death promise."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Will you keep to your promise or will you, under the virulent and judgmental gaze of these doctors and nurses around you, take the foal to have her 'disappear' somewhere? Granted, if you just abandon her somewhere, you will never raise a hoof against her, but you will violate the 'protect' part."

The stallion thought a while. He picked up the foal and looked longly at it. After a moment of personal debate, he said:

"Yes."

"Yes? Yes to what?"

"I will keep to my promise."

"Ah! Good stallion."

"But, mark my words. When my time comes, I won't go without a fight," Nutmeg glared at the Reaper.

Death's light demeanor immediately led way to a more sinister one. His form became engulfed in black mist that raised itself up over the stallion. They revealed another form of the Reaper. This one was more bipedal, and the sickle was much longer and adorned with all manner of decorated bones and teeth.

"Best watch your words. I am also given the right to torture a soul should they defy me through petty choices, such as revenge."

The mist immediately dissipated, and the Reaper disappeared. The world returned to how it was before Gray's appearance. One last look at the resting mare and the filly, and Nutmeg said, with contempt:

"Yes, I will keep my promise, but for how long will I be able to hold to protecting the murderer of my beloved?"
> She is not mine
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The years seemed to pass by rather painfully. The doctors were sworn to secrecy as part of the mare's last wishes. They would still tell of the foal were she to exhibit signs of 'him'. It still baffled them why 'he' would become a mare during rebirth. It shocked them even more that he would use his twisted magic to revive whatever foul poison served as a soul. 

No matter how much he tried, Nutmeg could not bring himself to feel true, fatherly love for this...thing. He only took care of it as much as his mind would let him, but every time he wanted to kill it, he could see that smile of his dying wife with the foal in her forelegs, and he would often cry himself to sleep at nights. As time went on, the filly grew with it. She didn't exhibit any signs of powers that would be, and nothing around said that it would happen any time soon. Why, she didn't even seem to be a tyrant, either. In fact, she seemed mostly compassionate despite her shortcomings.

"I cannot continue to tutor her under such conditions!" a stallion roared.

The young filly was being tutored within her own home by an elderly stallion of a gray complexion. The living room that was once home to a table, a chair, some wooden furniture, and an intricately designed carpet underneath it all, was now the home of a rambunctious mess tearing away at everything precious to the eyes.

"You can't leave! Who else will teach her? You are the only one who has accepted, especially on the terms that I had given."

The gray stallion readjusted his glasses to see the lens comically hop out and break upon the floor, much to his fury.

"I...I can pay for those."

"No need." the stallion gestured. "I cannot continue to work under these conditions. She might have been calm and collected when she was younger, but her lack of social interaction has seen her energy remain clustered within her tiny body. If this keeps up--"

"I know! But I can't let her out."

"As much as it pains me to say this, I'm afraid that she might be gaining her magic."

"What makes you say that?"

"Just look at her."

The living room's table had been broken into several pieces, the carpet was bent and twisted, and there was vanilla cream splattered everywhere. To Nutmeg's horror, there was a batch of vanilla floating in the air in front of the filly, much to her amusement. The stallion's hyperventilation was coming back, but he noticed something peculiar. The horn of the filly was not glowing and certainly wasn't enveloping the ball of vanilla. 

"What is this?" he thought to himself.

"I'm sorry, but I must alert the authorities to this...creature."

The tutor took his hat off the coat hanger next to the door and put it on his head, but he was blocked by a frantic stallion.

"You can't! They'll kill her! The final wishes of my beloved were to keep her alive and healthy."

The tutor's eyes narrowed. "It seems to me that you never have a reason other than the dying wish of some mare to justify keeping that...that thing a secret to the world."

"She wasn't just some mare! She was--"

Nutmeg's raising voice was interrupted by a hoof lifted in front of him.

"I am sorry, but that is all the proof I needed. She cannot be left to live with being known of what she is."

"You gave your WORD as a tutor that you would not tell," Nutmeg glared.

"Yes. As a professional tutor, I must keep to my word. However, I never said anything about my off-duty status. Good day."

The door slammed shut, and the strain began to bare down on Butter. He was breaking. He could feel it. The walls in his mind were beginning to crumble. He started to hear a voice talking in the living room, so the stallion peeked around the corner to see just what it is he was hearing. Stellar was talking to...someone. An imaginary friend?

"Yeah. He is funny sometimes. He does seem weird. No. I don't hate him. He's my daddy and I love him! Of course he's my daddy! Oh. Although sometimes I wish he would let me outside. I want to see what the city looks like and make some friends! What?! Friends aren't useless! That's a mean thing to say," the filly crossed her forelegs and pouted.

The stallion could feel another tear well up inside him. Was she as crazy as he was? And was it heartwarming or enraging to hear her call him 'daddy'? Granted, she said these words when the Reaper left that day, but they just carved out a void in his soul.

"What are you doing, daddy?" the young filly asked.

"I don't know. Who are you talking to?"

"He didn't give me a name, but he's a nice fellow. Tells me plenty of stuff," the filly leaned closer and put a hoof next to her mouth. "although he's a bit grumpy."

"R-really?" the stallion nervously smiled.

"Yeah!"

"Oh. Well, tell him that you need to clean up this mess. I don't know what exactly you did, but it might cause us trouble."

"But I didn't do it! It was him! He--"

"Stop! Okay? I...I have a pounding headache right now. Just clean this up."

The filly frowned and pouted, but went directly to work.

"You got me in trouble. I don't want to talk to you anymore," the filly growled.

The majority of the day was rather uneventful for the two, so not much could be said without mentioning the basics of life. Come nightfall, the filly had brushed her teeth and combed her mane before falling into a deep sleep in her bed. Moon light had filled her room and covered Stellar's bed. The window in the ceiling seemed like the eye of her mother with so much light. It was closely watching the tiny, dark blue covers for any movement on behalf of the filly.

Meanwhile, in his room, the stallion sat on his large bed and its thick flowery covers. He had no light. The two windows leading light into his room were blocked by shutters. His closet kept a mirror that reflected his miserable and conflicted self in it. The only light came from a flickering candle on a nightstand to the stallion's right. 

Nutmeg was staring at the floor in horror. He didn't know what to think anymore. If he had a nudge, then maybe, just maybe. Maybe he might do it...

"What are you waiting for?" a voice whispered.

"What do you mean?" Butter answered without thinking.

"The evil king reincarnate within your child lay within your true child's body and bed. Why do you remain her and let it live? Surely, it would be a boon to all if you were to...eliminate it before its discovery."

The shadows around the room began to twist and contort around the stallion's own darkened self on the wall while the two voices spoke.

"I can't do that! She's all I have left of my beloved. And it was her final wish that I watch over her."

The voice chuckled. "Certainly, you don't think that she was serious. Did it not go through your mind that, perhaps, she was under the control of some creature? There were many shadows in that operation room."

"Yes, but--"

"And did you not see its appearance? Surely, it is the fallen king himself."

"Maybe you're...No! No! I won't have you tainting me! I don't understand what my beloved said when she was about to die."

"Yes. That sentence that she tried to say that 'Death' completed for her. It has no true meaning."

"Of course it does! She wouldn't say that for no reason."

The shadows formed into a strange, twisting being with long arms, claws, and an almost demonic face on the wall. It had a horn that twisted and pointed to the back of its head, while its teeth were random in position, direction, and length. They did have one common trait: they were extremely sharp. As for the eye, it was hollow, letting the light define the head around it. The two dimensional face was smiling as mischievously as it could, slowly letting its arms bare down upon the father's shadow-shoulders and massaging them. Somehow, Nutmeg could feel the massaging, but still didn't react. His eyes had become green and a strange waving, purple energy was starting to wiggle out of them.

"You mistake your mare for a 'god'. Her words are not absolute, and you misinterpret her sayings. Why, you know quite well that you would have gone into several arguments together had she remained healthy and lively. Then what?"

"I..."

"You know I'm right. You need not deny it, and if that filly lives, you and the rest of your family will be tarnished forever. Worse still, you harbored a known tyrant and criminal of the new crown and the kingdom! You have to kill it now!"

"I...have to kill it now. Okay."

"There's a good pony," 

The shadow smiled, laying its teeth bare and turning its eyes into a crescent-moon facing downwards. 

Nutmeg went to the kitchen and grabbed a knife in his right hoof. He started to cry tremendously as he walked towards the filly laying innocently in her bed. Slowly, he walked towards her room, intent on finishing the job. Finally, he would be free of the torment she created upon him these seven years!

"Shadowrette! Wake up! Wake up!" the shadows around the filly pleaded.

They were twisting and turning like the liquid in a lava lamp. The young foal yawned and wiped her eyes in fatigue. Her vision was still blurry and she smacked her lips several times.

"What? What is it?" she asked.

Her vision unblurred to see her father holding a knife right above her. Immediately, the filly, dove out of the way of the strike, letting fluff come out instead of her own fur. The tiny foal stumbled onto her rear and began to back away from the horror she was witnessing. Her father was in complete shambles and was crying something fierce. Worse, still. There were weird purple flames coming from his eyes, but the filly didn't know what this meant.

"Get out of here!" the shadows shouted.

"D-daddy? Wh-what are you doing?"

"Stop it! I'm not your daddy! I never was! You stole my life. You stole my child. You killed my wife when she birthed you! You're the evil tyrant come back!" he roared. "But, if I kill you here, no pony will know. They would have done that anyways. They would have done that anyways. Yes. Now stop moving!" he roared once more.

His strikes were clumsy and imprecise and simply couldn't hit the filly who started running out of her room with a crazed stallion coming after her. The shadows were following the filly along the wall while the grinning one stayed behind the stallion to watch the scene unfold. The tiny pony tried her best to outrun her crazed father, but he was bigger than her and had longer legs. Furniture along the hallway was strangely falling down and impeding the stallion. Tables were falling and vases were flying whenever the filly passed them. Hanging onto one the pillars of the hoofrail, the filly tried to land perfectly on the stairs and get down as fast as she could, but she misstepped. She tumbled down the stairs and was met with a muffled landing, but her right foreleg was twisted the wrong way. She cried as the pain began to course through her body, but the shadows wrapped themselves around it and stopped the pain.

"You're almost to the door! Hurry! Once out, you will be free!" they told Shadowrette.

"You can't run through the door!" Nutmeg shouted from the second floor as he watched the filly limp towards it. "I've locked it for the night!"

"Keep going. You'll see!"

The little filly thought that somepony was going to come bursting through the door and save her, like the stories her father read to her. She started to feel hope grow within her, but no matter how close she got to the door, nopony came.

"I'll finally get vengeance back for what you did to my beloved!" Butter cried.

The little filly began to wince and cry in panic as he got closer to her. The doors still weren't opening. No. She saw hundreds of shadows race along the walls towards the door, where they converged. Suddenly, the wooden contraption blasted open, shelling the cobbled streets outside of wood splinters. The foal hurried as fast as she could while the shadows impeded the movement of the stallion. By the time he got out of the house. It was too late. She was crying as loud as her little lungs let her and too far away to reach without arousing suspicion.

Her father attacked her for no reason and blamed her for the death of her mother. Now, she had no home, no family, and her leg was broken. She wanted to leave the house, but she didn't want it to be like this. She was all alone.

Nutmeg threw his knife at the filly, but by logic, it wouldn't even have gotten near her. He began to pant and then cry at what he had done or, rather, failed to do. His sobs were interrupted by a black and purple mist flowing across like stream water and covering his legs. His eyes widened and he immediately tensed up.

"Tisk tisk, Mister Buttermeg. I told you to keep to your promise," the voice spoke in disappointment.

"I failed. I couldn't save anypony and now that...thing is loose."

A sickle slowly raised itself as the other voice spoke. "Now now. I told you...that I did not...condone...broken promises."

"I know."

"Then you know what awaits you. Come along, now. It will be a short...trip."

The scythe swung down.
> In the sewers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"It hurts!" the little filly cried.

The moon was still high in the sky and was bearing down upon the filly will full force. That moon would be forever tainted and etched in the mind of the filly. She wanted to call for help, but her strength was leaving her. She didn't know what to do. After all, she was only seven.  What does a seven year old know of the outside world, let alone one that was trapped in her own home for so long. The buildings of this place were much taller than she expected. Sure, she had seen them when she peered outside, but the gigantic creations of crystal and brick scared Stellar. How was she going to find anyone in this place. 

Shadowrette tried her best to see where she was going, but the stars only permitted so much light to pass. The shadows were nowhere in sight, not that one could see them in darkness. A little filly in the darkness wasn't going to be able to do much, and Stellar needed to find some place to get warm. Squinting as hard as she could, the foal couldn't see and, as a consequence, fell off a hill next to the cobblestone pathway and rolled down it like a rock. She hit her head hard against a pile of junk and began to cry loudly again. She now had several cuts on her body.

"I want my mommy!" she cried.

She expected her mother to arrive from the sky, as per yet another story she was given, but no pony came. This didn't prevent her from crying harder and harder, nearly depleting all moisture from her body. The crying continued through the night, but something rumbled through the junk of the city sewer exit. The filly paid no heed to it, but she immediately felt herself hoisted into the air by an unknown being.  She could hear squeaking and mumbling.

"Oh dear. A broken leg and cuts from this accursed piles of rusted metal and stone. We'll take care of all of that," the voice cooed.

Stellar felt her body shift towards something and heard:

"Oh my. The shadows have done a number on her. She looks just like him."

"Will she be okay?" a young colt asked.

"It's all up to her and her incessant crying."




"Foalish mare. You think me so easily destroyed, but I have returned!"

Cadence was standing on a floating rock and facing off against an enormous, smokey version of Sombra. His face and horn were the only things that could be seen amidst the mass of smoking tendrils. The sky looked like a stormy sunset. It was very dark and thunder clouds were swirling around the sky. Strands of red, orange, and yellow forced their way through the dense darkness, but it didn't do much but slightly color patches of the clouds.

"Sombra! I'll have you destroyed just like last time," she pointed at him with conviction.

The mass just bellowed in laughter. "But you were never the one who defeated me. That small dragon did that. In fact, I would very much like to see him again."

"He won't be coming. He has two children that will be coming, however. You'll have to settle with them."

Cadance threw a hoof to her mouth. Why did she just say that?

"I will, but not yet. I will first start by killing or corrupting those closest to you, such as your dear sister-in-law-turned-alicorn, your own child, and then...I'll have you watch as even your own husband becomes corrupted by his own fleshling. He will be unable to fight him back."

As Sombra spoke, tentacles rose showing Cadance's children becoming engulfed in crystal and their eyes morphing into Sombra's. They jumped onto another platform and attack Shining who could not attack his own children. He too was engulfed in crystal and suffered the same fate, but the dream reached its epiphany when Shining appeared on her platform and placed a hoof onto her face, much to her cries of desperation and pleas. They fell on deaf ears, and the mare slowly felt her mind slipping into mental enslavement.

"Ahhh!" Cadance shouted.

The mare fell out of her bed and onto the hard crystal ground next to it. Rubbing her head to appease the pain, the mare's gaze shifted to the walls and ceiling. She saw several shadows wriggle away into the various shrouded portions of the crystal walls like eels. Her bedroom held a huge bed of a circular shape with pink covers decorated with images of the crystal heart. The same could be said for the pillows. All across the walls and between the enormous leading to the balcony sat memorabilia of Shining Armor, such as gifts from other countries or military awards. The floor in front of the bed was covered by an enormous carpet spanning the rest of the room away from the bed. It was intricately designed and had been imported straight from Saddle Arabia.

"Cadence? What's wrong? You had a nightmare?" Shining asked.

The pink alicorn was looking around at the corners of her room in confusion and curiosity. The shadows she heard so much about never came into the palace.

"I had a nightmare about Sombra."

"Oh, honey. You shouldn't worry about these sorts of things. He's gone. He was literally blown into a thousand pieces."

"But...I swear. I saw those shadows when I woke up. He even threatened Valiant Heart. He couldn't know about him!"

"Well...Sure. I think 'Sombra' was just created using your imagination. As for the shadows, the moon is shining bright outside. I'm pretty sure you blew the sheets when you fell down and screamed, so they created shadow effects."

"But--"

"Cadence. If you start to panic for no reason then what will become of the crystal ponies who live here?"

The mare thought awhile and tapped her chin a bit, just to finally nod in acceptance.

"You're right. I needn't stress for a dream. It couldn't mean anything. I'll just...scooch back under the covers."

"Great. Now make sure to get some rest. Tomorrow, there's a carnival that will be had, and Spike, Rarity, and their children will be coming for it."

"Spike?"

"...They celebrate the hero who saved the kingdom...You know!"

"Oh. Oh! Oh yeah! Heh heh," Cadence nervously chuckled.

Shining just stared at her and frowned. "You're still thinking about that dream, aren't you?"

"Well..." Cadence twiddled her hooves.

Shining hugged her tightly and kissed her on the cheek, leaving the mare stunned and bewildered.

"Don't worry about any of that. It might take a day or two to forget. Trust me, I know. But you shouldn't keep your mind stuck on that. Valiant Heart will be coming home tomorrow as an escort for the 'Hero of the Crystal Kingdom'," Shining teased.

"Right. Thank you, sweetie. Good night."

"Good night."

As the two began falling back asleep, a shadow in the highest, furthest corner of the crystal room frowned and bared its teeth.

"Stupid foal. She was supposed to succumb to the fear. It was so simplistic yet so efficient. It's all because of that 'brave' stallion of hers," the shadow spat. "If I only I could get one of his black crystals and bring it to that guard. Then all the 'love' barriers would be destroyed between the two and fear will grip them. Problem is, I don't know where 'she' is." The shadow scratched its chin. "I need to find her quickly. Who knows what happened to her," the shadow chuckled. "Yes. I admit it was a risky move, but the riches were too much to give up on."




"Keep her still!" a voice shouted.

Stellar was struggling against her captors and still crying from the traumatic events and the pain her leg was creating. Despite her struggling, she felt something touch her broken leg, and the pain was so intense she blacked out. She didn't even hear the resounding and cringe-inducing 'crack'. In fact, she barely noticed anything at all.  Several hours later, the filly awoke in a panic to a frightening new area. This place wasn't like her old home. In fact, it was gross and smelly. The walls were made of red bricks and were covered in a green moss. This place was damp and moist and even the many torches kept in close proximity to each other created an uncomfortable lighting. The filly put her left hoof on the ground and removed it immediately. She showed obvious disgust and accidentally let out an 'ew'.

"Oy! The thing is awake," a young colt shouted.

"She's not a 'thing' you idiot!"

The voice was quickly followed by the sound of a smack which was, itself, followed by a squeakyy 'ouch'. Shadowrette was greeted by a plethora of little rats who came to her and began sniffing her hooves. Naturally, she reeled back in at the little things poking her with their tiny pink noses.

"Don't worry. They're just rats. These ones are harmless," a young stallion said.

A tall stallion with an olive-green coat and a golden-brown mane and tail greeted the filly. His eyes were the same color as his mane and seemed full of compassion. Why, he barely seemed older than Stellar. The filly wasn't going to be fooled though, and she continued to back away. She had enough with false kindness."

"Go away! Get-ah!" the filly winced.

Stellar shut her eyes automatically in pain, then looked at her foreleg. It had been put back into place and was held tightly with two chewed up planks of wood and a soggy white cloth. She looked at it, then at the stallion with an open mouth.

"We patched you up!" he said with joy.

"Who are you?"

"Who are we?" the stallion repeated.

Several foals began to creep out from around the corners of the sewer walls, drop down from the ceiling, or just emerge from sewage evacuation tunnels placed high above the ground. Stellar began to cower and was shrinking into a tiny fluffy ball with her tail starting to cover most of her face. She noticed that many of these ponies were very young. In fact, there was another filly around her age holding a very young foal in a dirty blanket. Another thing Shadowrette noticed was that several of them had traits similar to her own. Some had the slit pupils like her. Others had longer horns with reddened forms. Even more had a strange metallic form slivering over their muzzle and along their backs. The pegasi, however, had wings made of, or at least surrounded by, black mist. Many others had a combination of two traits, but these barely stood out more than those with only one trait.

"We are just those little misfits that no pony wanted. What's your story?" the colt asked with a sincere smile.
> Teeny little rodent
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Wh-what"? the little filly stuttered.

"Like you, we have been affected by the shadows that roam this city."

"Although ah ain't done seen no filly wif da straight right appearance o' the Dark One, eh?" a small colt said from atop a sewer evacuation pipe.

"She's prolly really him come to corrupt our minds!" a filly yelled in anger.

"Yeah! It's her fault that our parents don't love us no more. I says we string up into the moldy spit water!" an angry colt yelled.

"Silence!" the stallion boomed.

His voice was so powerful that he nearly deafened poor Stellar. The other foals backed away, their ears lowering into their mane.

"I can't believe you all. We have had others come with this same predicament and you never reacted in such a manner. You always took them in. Why, tulip up there took in that little foal who's barely a few months old and he has both the mane and horn of Sombra. I'm very disappointed."

"That may be, but ya gots ta agree that thems were different than nows!" the first angry colt stepped up.

"How so? I see naught but see a traumatized filly rejected by society as do I see when surrounded by you all."

"That may be, but dis 'ere is different in dat 'er features ain't got no fadin'." the colt rubbed his runny muzzle and sniffed loudly. "Dat foal got no much features o' the Dark One 'n some crazy mare who dun' put paint in 'er mane, innit?"

The other colts and fillies started nodding, looking at each other consecutively, and openly agreeing with the colt's proclamation.

"He's right. No pony has ever looked as in tune with those shadows as she does. Get her out of here! She's certain to corrupt us and turn us into her 'crystal slaves' or something," a colt shouted.

The others started to shout "Get out!" and "Go away!", scaring the filly.

"Prolly just some construct 'o his that done wants ta capture us all, yeah? She ain't need ta stay 'ere while us 'corrupt' still 'ave dis curse in our bodies. Make us look worse!"

The stallion shook his head in disappointment.

"And I thought you all considered each other to be of equal sound and mind down here. We have all been affected by these shadows, but we have become stronger for it! We may have yet the chance to speak to the rulers about our plight, for they remain blind and naive to it, but we will manage such a chance together! Is it not just that this one, who has suffered the most, to be taken in our care? Even the rats do not fear her, and we have learned that they smell evil and danger and flee from it."

The stallion stepped away and presented stellar with his hoof. She was currently backing away from what appeared to be a group of playful rats. They were squeaking with excitement and joy, eager to get a tittle of laughter from the traumatized filly.

The angry colt took a look at the filly getting swarmed by the rats and screaming in fear. She was on her back and thrashing her tiny legs as much as she could, but the rats were too much for her. The colt huffed and looked to the side, sat on his rump, crossed his forelegs, and pouted at the same time.

"Fine, but ah ain't gonna let 'er be offin' wif' me friends, aye? Ah ain't changin' mah thoughts 'bout 'er."

"Help!" Stellar cried out. 

The stallion turned around and waved his hoof a bit to shoo the little rodents away.

"Go on. Get off of her. You can play later."

One of the rats hissed angrily at the stallion and ran off into the sewers with its kind. The little filly sat up, her mane and face a complete mess. Seeing this, the stallion laughed and received the ire of the filly.

"Stop laughing at me!"

"It's just very funny to me the way you look," he said with a smile.

The filly frowned at him, then tears began to form at the bottom of her eyes and her lips began to tremble. Little by little her face of anger turned into that of desperation and anguish.

"What's wrong?" the stallion asked.

Stellar exploded into tears and sniffling. "My daddy tried to hurt me! He said that I was the reason why mommy isn't here anymore!"

"Wh...What'd he chase you with?"

"A knife."

The stallion's left eye immediately widened as he lift an eyebrow in shock.

"I see. Well, here, no pony will be able to hurt you. Plus, we even fixed your leg up as best we could," the stallion said with a forced smile.

The filly started hiccupping and looked down at her leg. It was true that they tried their best to fix it, but it still hurt. A lot.

"How? He's my daddy. He'll find me..."

The angry colt rolled his eyes and bared his teeth. He had a set of canine teeth, which was unusual for a species of herbivores. This, along with his darker, yellow coat made him seem like a predator.

"Oh please. Ya think we ain't gts brains 'nough ta plan ahead? We's gots plenty-a traps, tricks, 'n runaway spots if'n some bloke comes by, tries ta whisk off into the evah dark. The only fing yer gonna have ta worry 'bout are me eyes on ya at all times. Tese 'ere colts 'n fillies be my family, 'n I don't want ta see no stair freak tryin ta off 'em, savvy?"

Stellar looked at him with complete confusion. Every time he spoke it sounded like garbling. The stallion huffed and said:

"He's saying that we have ways to protect each other. Why do you think we're still so many down here?"

The pony turned around and shouted:

"Alright everypony. Time to get back to whatever it was you were doing. I'm going to tend to our new pony here and teach her what she needs."

It starting slowly, but the dispersal of the crowd eventually led to everypony but the angry colt back into the sewers.

"You too, Sour Blackberry."

The colt growled and walked away reluctantly. The filly looked up at the stallion and sniffed again.

"I just want daddy to be normal again. I don't have any other family than him."

"But what about the others you met outside the house? Wouldn't they be willing to help you?"

"He...He never let me out."

"Wh...We all were allowed to get out. Why would..." the stallion looked at the filly more extensively. "I see. Fret not. We're here to help you out. I'm Crunchy Apple, by the way."

"St-Stellar Shadowrette."

"That's a...lovely name..." Crunchy nervously smiled.

"I just...Why do the others look like me?"

"They were affected by the shadows."

Stellar simply hiccupped again.

"You know what they are, right?"

The filly shook her head.

"Oh. Well, they affect us when we're born or something. I don't really know. I know that they modify our appearance when we come to be, but that's about it."

"Well, I do have a friend who talks and plays with me, but he doesn't come out when it's dark. He likes to smile a lot."

A sudden tension filled Crunchy.

"I thought the others were just kidding with these 'living' shadows, but she KNOWS one in pony? Interesting. Could be helpful, but...maybe Blackberry is right. I should keep an eye on her."

"How come you're down here? Where are the adults?"

"There are no adults. I'm just the oldest one down here. I'm the first, actually."

"Why? You don't look like me."

"I'm iridescent."

The filly turned her head in confusion.

"Means I change colors in the light. At certain angles, I look like Sombra. It was pretty hard at first, but I eventually fled here when I was five to keep my parents from being further picked on by everypony else."

"Who is Sombra?"

Apple was baffled. How did such a filly know nothing about the outside world? He didn't have the education to make advanced guesses, but he assumed that her father didn't want to tell her anything. He'd seen quite a few ponies dumped into the sewers unbeknownst to the authorities, and she wasn't in a better state, so he couldn't deduce how she was treated at home. He didn't want to ask her how it was due to her current state and let his curiosity gnaw at his mind and spinal column. Still, she had contact with the shadows after her birth. That might mean something good or bad and he needed to find out what exactly her relationship to them was.

"I'd prefer to keep it a secret from you for now, just to be safe."

"Okay. Um, do your parents miss you? I know I already miss my daddy, and I never knew my mommy," the filly looked down in sadness.

"Ah. Well, I don't know. I prefer not to think about it. Sometimes, when I go to the surface in search of food or others like us, I see them still looking for me. Funny. I left when I was five and now I'm twelve, yet they still search for me. I doubt they'll recognize me without my iridescent coat." The colt looked down and gave a chuckle, then he looked back up at Stellar and smiled. "But let's stop talking about the sad things. We're going to help you get on your hooves and teach you how to help scavenge for food and supplies. It'll be tough living from now on, but I'm certain you'll make a fine addition to our 'family'. Plus, the rats seem really interested in you," the stallion said as he pointed behind the filly.

Stellar turned around to see a whole group of rats hiding behind the angles of the giant sewer tunnel opening. Several of them were sniffing in the filly's direction and others just scratched themselves behind the ears. One of them looked at Apple and hissed violently, causing the stallion to rear his head.

"Oye. That's the one from earlier. Mean little guy. Hey. I just got an insidious idea." the Crunchy's face became painted with a devious smile and he leaned towards the filly. "I think that hissing one likes you the most."

"Ngah! I don't like rats!" Shadowrette whimpered.

"Well, they like you, and there are plenty of them down here. You'll have to learn to live with them one day, especially now seeing as you're going to be living here with us and staying out of harm's way for your leg to heal up. Don't worry. You'll be back to normal really quickly! We got some medication from above so you'll be taking those as well, and you will need to drink lots of milk."

The filly whimpered again. What was going to happen to her?





The grinning shadow was watching from the darkness of the sewers and grinned even wider than before. While it had no form in this darkness, it still had a 'will' of sorts. 

"I didn't realize all this lived within the underbelly of this city. It is much more foul than I thought, and I don't mean those rats. Interesting. We will have to watch 'Stellar' and keep her out of harm's way as best we can. Of course, she still needs a bit of roughing up so she grows tough and strong. Still need to convince that stupid pink pony that she needs to give in to fear."
> Scavengers be we
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the days passed, Stellar recovered slowly. While Crunchy remained friendly to her, the others remained skeptical of her intentions and behavior mainly because of Sour and his tellings of insanity and fear. Ironically, the rats were the only ones who would approach the filly. In fact, they seemed more intent in ambushing her from all angles and tickle her or act like clowns. Apple found it peculiar that they would behave this way when they never did it before. At best, they would be friendly and nuzzle you with their little pink noses, but that was it. Of course, there was always that hissing one, but that was a minor inconvenience at best.

Her leg was still broken, but the filly tried her best to use it. She was still horrified by what happened a few days ago, but she tried her best to fit in. Unfortunately, no pony wanted her near them no matter how hard she tried to be nice. It always came to awkward smiles, irritated glares, and the other foals walking away in a huff and leaving the filly all alone in her dark and damp corner of these smelly pits.

Luckily for Shadowrette, there was another scavenging mission that was going to start in the late hours of the morning. A group of foals was readying to go topside, and Apple was briefing them. Several of them were wearing hooded coats to protect themselves from the torrential rain outside. The tiny filly limped towards the group that had gathered in front of the junk pile in front of the sewer entrance, intent on being heard out. The other saw her, and their once proud stature returned to normal, although their faces inherited the appearance of disgust and anger.

"What's she doing here?"

"Go 'way."

Apple turned around, looking around at his level, then looked under his left foreleg. 

"Stellar? What are you doing here? You haven't healed up enough to be able to walk normally."

"I...I want to help out with gathering food."

"We don't need y--"

"Shut up," Crunchy interrupted. "I can't let you go up there on your own."

"But the others will be there to help me."

Crunchy turned his head and looked at the foals with skepticism.

"I can't abide by that decision."

"But I just want to help. I feel like I'm doing something wrong." the filly leaned closer to Apple. "Plus, I want them to be my friends," she whispered.

The stallion looked at the ceiling for a moment, thinking about his choices and the impacts they might have. He understand what she wanted, and he sighed. There was an equal amount of risk and reward in this endeavor. It was preferable to aim for the reward.

"Fine. Grab a brown bag over there in the corner then group with the others."

"What? You can't be serious?" one of the foals complained.

"I am very serious. Now, you either come back with her or you don't come back at all. Got it? And she better not have any wounds other than the ones she said leaving these sewers or else--"

Apple was interrupted by the sound of violent hissing behind him. The mean rat was standing on an arc built around a tunnel opening. It was looking directly at the foals. The stallion slowly turned around and looked at the rat who did the same to him. Another hiss ensued right before the rodent quickly scampered away into a crevice in the wall.

"Or...else you'll have to deal with the rats. Yes! There we go! A fitting punishment." The stallion smiled as each of the foals cringed. "Good. Now, let me tell you what you...where are you?" Apple asked in confusion.

Stellar had walked into the group rather discreetly and was wearing both a black coat and was carrying a bag. Apple chuckled internally watching the young filly try her best to hide low.

"Right, well, I've already told you the safe measures. Stellar, I want you to watch them all and follow what they do above. As for why I want you all to get out today and not next week is because this week it's that celebration for the one who saved the Crystal Kingdom from Sombra. There are banquets and games in his honor, and the whole city is having enormous celebrations and is selling tons of food. That's why your bags are bigger. There's still a portion of you dedicated to getting some medicine for us all, but the rest of you will be trying to get food. The guards are everywhere today, so you'll have to be extra careful. Alright? Alright. Go!"

The group ran outside, through the murk, and up the hill. However, Stellar did not do this. She simply stared at the waters and shivered.

"Go ahead, Stellar. You did say you wanted to help the others, didn't you?"

"But--"

"Now isn't the time to chicken out. Go. You'll be fine."

The filly nodded and gulped. A single hoof splashed into the brown liquid, then another, and another. Slowly but surely, the filly was walking through the gunk and found herself above the hill and looking at the celebration. She heard them when she was little but never imagined it was something like this. There were hundreds upon thousands of market stalls in the streets, and an even bigger number of ponies and decorations. The head of some green and purple looking thing was plastered everywhere as balloons, tapestries hanging off the walls, as toys, even as a little flag on the strings above the streets. There was a pink and white stallion that were also portrayed, but less so the green and purple thing. Stellar still didn't know who these were. Evidently enough, this city was much more colorful and packed then the filly once thought. Much to her dismay, she witnessed several instances of foal smiling happily with their parents. A pit of darkness, regret, and sorrow filled her at this precise moment.

"Hey! Hurry up!" one of the sewer foals shouted.

The filly quickly regained her senses and scurried hurriedly to the others. She was in a group of three other foals, each with their own colored raincoat and brown bag. They were standing near a 

"We don't want to be kept from dinner, so you have to stay with us," a colt ordered.

"Okay."

"You just stay behind and wait for us to come back. We don't want you getting in our way."

"Or turning us into mindless servants," a filly huffed.

"I wouldn't--"

The foal ignored Stellar's attempts at defense and disappeared off into the crowd behind her. She was left to fend for herself in these vast sea of unknown. Her father never prepared her for this. Come to think of it, he never prepared her for anything. The filly did her best to hide away from prying eyes, although her constantly throwing her head downwards when somepony looked at her made a few curious heads turn. Shadowrette was scared. She was all alone in a world she knew nothing about. To her fright, everypony around her started to grow in height, and the world started becoming darker and twisted. It seemed as though everything was towering above her and mocking her with twisted eyes. The filly began to panic and started to scamper backwards, trying to avoid the evil giants. They turned to look at her and began bellowing something in their dark language. It was horrifying. Stellar began to whimper, and her eyes were darting back and forth from giant to giant. Eventually, she bumped into somepony and fell on her back, her hood flopping off. When she got up and rubbed her head, she noticed that the giants all head a hoof to their mouths and seemed to be changing color from their strange, inkish black and copper to a blood red color. 

The filly tapped her head and gasped in horror. She wasn't supposed to take it off. Now they knew what she looked like. It was a sprint that Stellar galloped through the unwary crowd, the mass seemingly turning into a blob of red and black, but there was a shadow racing across the floor. That was her salvation, so she followed it all the way through the crowd, scampering through legs and across the minefield. Eventually, she followed the shadow under a tilted table sitting outside a shop and stayed there, hiding behind the plank of wood covering the front of the table. She waited awhile with her forelegs in front of her eyes. The shadows weren't there anymore, so all she needed was a little time to recover from whatever it was she just saw. 

Finally, her tiny heart stopped beating so quickly and her mind began to settle down. With just a smidgen of courage, the foal dared peek outside from her cover and looked around her only view out from under the table. No pony had decided to go after her. She was safe. She could put her hood back on and look for some food and...

"Oh no. I dropped the bag," Stellar cried.

With disappointment, Shadowrette climbed out from under the table to have a proper look around and see if the others of her group were around. Unfortunately, she didn't see them, and her ears flopped down as a result. The filly wouldn't let this get her down, though, and she tried her best to muster what little broken courage she had left. With another bit of effort, the filly stood up and looked around. Maybe the table had food on it? A smile on her face, the filly looked at the table, only to have that hopeful emotion slip away. Instead, the table was covered in amazingly designed clocks. The filly didn't know what the clocks were and just found them interesting. There were varieties of pendulum clocks, winch powered wooden clocks, the strange clocks kept in a glass bell, and quite a few others. One did catch her attention more than the others. It was a bell-shaped clock with roman numerals instead of numbers. The metal underneath them was brass whilst the middle of the whole contraption was white. The clock itself was made from silver, just as the hands were. There were designs of oak leaves, chestnuts, walnuts, and pine needles woven all around the face to look like vines had grown all over it and tangled a variety of plants into its growth process. Below the face there was another crafting; A stallion and a mare with their heads locked together to form a heart while a foal stood between them, hugging them both as they hugged it back. This bell simply glimmered in the wet rain, dim sunlight, and Shadowrette's eyes. Stellar did not know why, but she needed this clock. She...felt like it was filling a void within her, so she reached for it as hard as she could.

"Stellar? Stellar?" the group of foals called out.

"Where is she?" a filly asked.

"I don't know," a colt replied.

"Then just leave her. We'll go back and get food. We'll say she left," an irritated colt said.

"No! Crunchy knows us all too well. He'll know we're lying. If we don't come back with her we'll--"

"There she is!" a filly shouted and pointed. "She's trying to take a clock."

The four started galloping towards the filly, trying to tell her to stop, but Stellar couldn't hear them. In fact, she tried so hard to get that clock that she managed to knock it off its hold and catch it just before it crashed onto the ground. The filly checked to see that it had nothing, then she looked and saw the other four staring at her in shock and awe.

"Hey! Look! I got a clock! I know I lost the bag, but we can take this back, no? It could be useful. It's kind of heavy, though. I need some help. Hello?"

"Should've paid for that," a dark ominous voice grumbled behind the filly.

Two gigantic clock hands wrapped around Stellar and the clock, muffling the small filly just long enough for her to mumble something before being pulled into a dark void behind the open door which slammed shut. The foals ran away in terror and screams, but needing to tell Crunchy Apple about what just happened. The clock store remained undisturbed from the events, and the display outside remained perfectly still and undisturbed from the filly's actions. The name of the store twinkled a royal purple in the rain and reflected "Tick Tock Clock Stock" onto the shining ground.
> Pangemine Clock
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stellar groaned in discomfort, her head throbbing and her vision blurry. Slowly, she sat up and waited for her eyes to stop flickering and give her a clear view of where she was. 

"Am I back in the sewers again?" she thought to herself.

Gradually, she noticed that she actually felt warm and the floor was actually very soft and pleasing to her fur, then it came to her. The filly became afraid and her head quickly darted back and forth between each piece of this place. She was inside the clock store, and if it wasn't a clock store, then she would be crazy. This place had all sorts of different clocks on the walls, shelves, and tables. There were wide clocks, tiny clocks, grandfather clocks, bizarre clocks like one that seemed to be made out of twisted spaghetti, and another that covered the whole ceiling. The shop itself didn't seem very big even with all of these clocks. The walls, or what could be seen of them, were vanilla colored, and the floor was covered with a dark blue carpet. 

Then Stella saw it. Her clock, the one she felt a connection to, was right there atop the tall counter. It was just out of her reach. At first, the filly tried to do like earlier, and stretch herself as far as she could with the help of her hind legs. Unfortunately, this time, it was too high, and she hit the counter with her fore hoof in anger.

"Awake, are we?" a voice asked.

"NN!" Stellar cried out.

Somepony grabbed the silver clock off the counter and walked out from behind it. Stellar couldn't see what this mare looked like, but she could see that this pony was wearing a strange cloak. Right in the middle of the mare's chest sat the pin holding the cloths up. Said pin was a golden clock face with roman numerals used for time units. Then, there were the large bands of cloth that were sown into the edges of the main body. The color of this edge was similar to a dried purple mixed with a bit of gray-blue. Roman numerals with stitched into the cloth as well. As for the main body, it was much thinner than its edges, and had a darker, bluish-purple shade. 

"Tried to steal my clocks, eh? That's going to cost you, I dare say."

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to--"

"Yes you did. You may not have had ill intentions, but the actions were still present. Now, what am I to do with you?"

"Please don't hurt me!"

The mare turned around and placed the clock on the floor in the opening next to the counter. When she decided to face, Stellar, the filly lost all control of her lower jar. This pony had a light purple coat, and her mane was a dark purple and style as a flat mohawk. And her eyes were...well...they were golden clock faces with roman numerals and actual moving clock hands. They looked like the pin for the cloak. No. It was the pin that looked like them. She was even smiling rather widely.

"Ahhhh. I see who you are," the mare grinned.

"You know who I am?"

"In a sense. Tell me your name and I shall tell you mine."

"Ste...Stellar Shadowrette."

The mare lift an eyebrow in confusion. "I am Click Clock, the owner of this store. Also, don't stare. It's rude."

"Oh. S-sorry."

Click Clock eyed the filly the filly seriously, then her cheerful demeanor returned and she laughed loudly. Before Stellar could understand what was going on, the purple pony had already back behind her counter and came back with a mug full of a strange, red substance. She took a swig of the beverage and held the mug out.

"You want some? It's the best I've ever tasted in my life."

"Uhhh--"

"Oh wait. They don't let the young ones drink alcohol in this reality. Oh well. More for me!"

"This reali--"

"It's called 'Demon's Blood'."

Click was looking at her mug with a face of forced awe, and when she expected the filly to act the same, it left to frustration.

"No. It's not real blood. It just has some rather...intense side-effects for those not like me," she said before taking another sip. "Oh, and you have a hurt foreleg? Let's see it."

"No! It hurts!"

"Stop being such a foal."

The placed her mug on the floor next to the silver clock and jumped onto the filly. The two began to fight a lot together, with Stellar doing her best to push the mare away whilst Click Clock was insisting on seeing the foreleg and was trying her best to get it. The result was a ball constantly twisting and turning in the shop. A few minutes later, and the mare got Stellar into a grip. The filly's two hind legs were locked into place by the mare's right hind leg, and Shadowrette found her back slightly bent backwards and her broken foreleg stuck forward.

"Owww! You're hurting me!"

"This is your own fault. Now don't move."

Click Clock stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth and narrowed her gaze on the broken leg, using her own to keep it into place. From what Stellar could see, the clocks around the room began to act weird. In fact, their hands were spinning randomly in a variety of different directions from each other. Stellar didn't know what was going on, but was eventually let go of by the mare who had taken off the filthy bandages and wooden planks.

"Hey! Give those back!" Stellar pleaded as she tried to reach the make-shift caste.

Click Clock just smiled as she kept the planks out the filly's reach. In fact, she even gently kicked Stellar's foreleg in return, prompting an anticipation of pain from the tiny pony. No matter how hard she expected it, the filly noticed that nothing was happening. Looking at her leg, Stellar decided to apply much more pressure on it and discovered, to her joy, that it was no longer broken.

"How--"

"I just have certain abilities that nobody else has."

"You mean 'no pony'."

"Riiiiight. 'No pony'," Click Clock replied with shifty clocks.

"Thank you for fixing my leg. I'm also sorry I tried to steal from you. I'm sure you worked hard to make that."

Stellar's ears drooped to the sides of her head, and Click Clock chuckled upon seeing this.

"Bah. Truth be told, I don't make these clocks to live. I don't need money for that. I simply build and sell them because I love clocks. I also offer...other services," the mare grinned. "Services befitting my abilities and origins."

"What abilities are those?"

"You just saw one."

"But what about the others?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out!"

The door to the shop opened up, and a very nervous looking, scrawny stallion walked through. His coat was a mess and his mane even more so. Hesitantly and inaudibly, he asked:

"Is it here that I come to?"

"What for? Clocks?" Click Clock answered lift an eyebrow.

"N-no. What was it he told me again? Um. Uhhh...OH! To see the previous hour!"

"Ah! Yes. Come right around the counter and walk through the wooden door behind me. I was suggest you take a magazine or something similar. I'm here with a client."

"Okay. Th-thank you."

The stallion did he best to pass over the mug and clock, nearly tripping over in the process and smashing into a shelf full of the clockwork constructs.

"Hold on, Stellar. I'll need to prep some things, then we can talk about your little stunt."

The filly shamefully nodded. Click Clock walked back around the counter, hooking the mug onto her hoof and taking another large swig before fumbling through whatever there was behind there. While Shadowrette was stuck there waiting, she wanted to have a look around the store a moment to at least admire all these things her father never showed her or told her about. There were so many. One of them was in a glass bubble and filled with water. Another was all stringy and was funny to Stellar to flick about. Yet another was stretched out and looked like a Bass instrument. The strings even vibrated and produced a sound, just like normal instruments. For awhile, tiny Stellar kept strumming on the strings and listening to the tunes they made, laughing each time, until she saw a clock near the store exit. She didn't notice it at first because it was covered by another, normal wooden clock, but that wasn't going to stop her now.

Shadowrette walked towards the stool holding the wooden clock and pushed it aside rather difficultly. It was still pretty heavy for her, mainly due to size difference. Finally, it was moved, and Stellar could see the clock in all its majesty. To her disappointment, it was shaped just like the other wood clocks with the large, elongated base, and its hands weren't moving. It was made of pure white crystal, and despite her time in her dad's house and the sewers, she never saw crystal like this. 

"Huh? It looks like there's something moving on the face. What is IiiIIIIAAAAAAH!"

Stellar fell on her rear and she started feeling the same amount of fear as the night her father chased her out of her house. Was this a fear of death? A black, crystalline facet had moved onto the face of the clock where a shining white light was present behind the axis of the broken hands. Whatever it was, it was staring directly at Stellar, as if it knew her somehow. Was it waiting for her to say something?

"Wwwwwooops!" Click Clock said as she dropped a blanket on the clock. "Don't need you meeting him too early. And judging by this time, it's WAY too early!"

"Wh-wh-what was that?"

"Something I don't EVER want you looking at again. Understood?" Click Clock ordered.

The mare was uncomfortable close to Stellar's face, nearly touching the filly's muzzle. In fact, now that Click Clock was so close, Stellar could see the second hand in her eyes moving and making a barely audible clicking sound. 

"Y-yes, m'am," Stellar replied.

"Good. Now I want you to go back to your parents and not come in here unless you're with them, understood?"

Stellar said nothing.

"Understood?" Click Clock insisted before taking a quick swig from her mug in a bid to keep a serious look.

"I don't have parents anymoooooore!" the filly cried.

"What?"

Click Clock was taken aback. She learned of these incidents but never had to face one herself. Her thoughts were immediately pulled away when she heard somepony knocking on her door. Opening it, she was met with Crunchy Apple and a group of foals, all wearing cloaks and hiding their faces.

"Excuse me, but can we have our friend back?"

"She's not my friend,' Sour mumbled.

He was jabbed in his sides by Apple and yelped.

"Ah. No wonder. She's with you foals that live in the sewer. That explains a lot," the mare said as she turned her head to face the teary filly.

Stellar stood up and galloped to Crunchy in a bid to get a hug from him, but she was blocked by Click Clock.

"Hold on, there. Let me get something."

The purple pony walked back to the opening next to the counter and picked up the silver clock, clutching it in her foreleg. She hoofed it out to Stellar and said:

"Take it. It's a gift from me to you, and I figure that you all don't have any real way to tell time anyways."

"Oh, thank you!" Stellar said.

"But don't you need to sell it?" Apple interjected.

"What for? I don't eat, and I get my drinks from outside sources."

"You don't eat?"

"Now get out of here. I have things to do."

Stellar tried really hard to carry the clock, but it was just too heavy for her. Apple and a few others took it instead and carried it outside. The stallion had quite a few things to ask, but he didn't want to do it in the store. As for Stellar, she sniffed a bit and walked back outside, intent on hugging Crunchy. Unfortunately, she was blocked once more by Click Clock. The purple mare looked around, hoping that no pony was around to hear her, then leaned next to Stellar's left ear and whispered:

"When you turn sixteen, come see me again. I have a few things to show you and teach you."

"What things?"

"Ah ah ah! No spoilers! You're just going to have to be patient."

"Okay," Stellar replied with a disappointed grumble. "Thanks again for the clock."

Click Clock waved goodbye to the filly who did the same. The mare smiled and closed the door to her shop. With an exhale of relief, the purple went back behind the corner, grabbing her mug and taking another sip from it before placing it on her black, rotating chair standing behind the counter.

"Heehee. I bet she doesn't know anything about herself. I'll just have to check later and I'll know just what I'm dealing with." the mare slammed her two fore hooves together. "Now for the task at hoof. I'm ready to assist you now!" the mare shouted.
> Weird time
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What do you think would work best here?" Spike asked.

"I don't know. I'm still trying to watch my weight," Rarity responded while patting her stomach.

Rarity and Spike had travelled together to the Crystal Kingdom as part of the celebrations and simply because Spike was a necessity for said celebration. Spike and Rarity had gone into a relationship after Spike's body entered a strange growth spurt and his age became appropriate for it. In fact, he and Rarity seemed to fit perfectly, if only because Spike acted like a servant to a 'queen', albeit a pregnant queen.

"Where is Crystal Clarity?" Rarity asked.

The mare began looking around everywhere for her off-spring, looking between any crevice she could. To her relief, the tiny filly came galloping towards, but with some giant pretzels in her mouth and being chased by a stallion wearing a white gown and a chef's hat. Well, 'filly' wouldn't be the proper term. Crystal Clarity was, in fact, a cross-breed of pony and dragon. As such, she presented features of both. 

For her pony side, she had the typical skeletal build and fur of a pony as well as ears. Her fur was pink with several small, purple colored freckles over her muzzle and at the base of its connection to the skull. The rest took on draconic features, such as her having a very long tail ending in a pseudo-blade of purple colored fur ending at the base of her tail. Instead of hooves, she had claws bunched together to still look like hooves with creases when not outstretched. Her eyes were an iridescent of blue when looked at directly and purple when looked at from other angles, and her pupils were vertical, reptilian slits. On her head, instead of a unicorn horn, Clarity possessed two draconic horns right next to her horns which extended backwards and at an upwards angle. Her purple mane was stylized in a tomboyish fashion; The crane upon the next being roughly combed and the length on her head combed in a round shape but with a progressive downwards dive that ended in a thickly curved end pointing outwards.

"Hey! Get back here!" the chef shouted.

The filly was caught by Spike and lifted into the air, much to Crystal's surprise. 

"Ah! The hero of the Crystal Kingdom. A-thank you for-a catching this-a thief. She stole-a my pretzels and-a ran away with them!" the chef said as he leaned to the filly and pointed at her. "I-a hope you are-a spanked and-a paddled for this behavior you-a filthy thief. Your parents certainly-a have no education to let-a their...strange fillies do what you do. Hmph. I-a would like to tell them a thing-a or two if I meet-a them," the stallion pouted.

"I'm her father and she's her mother," Spike said in a bemused tone. "So what was it that you wanted to tell us exactly?"

The chef's composure immediately crumbled and he began to stutter, look everywhere nervously, and sweat a lot. He even took his hat in his two front hooves and began to twiddle with it.

"I will pay you when the celebration is over, but if you threaten my daughter or any other child again with paddling, you'll have to deal with me AND MY FLAMES!" 

Spike's mouth erupted in flames during his yelling, causing the chef to run away screaming "IMSORRYILLNEVERDOITAGAINIPROMISEGOODBYEFOREVER".

His eyes ripe with certainty an pride in his actions, the dragon turned around to face the tiny filly sternly and said:

"I don't want to see you doing these sort of things ever again. Am I understood? Now give me that pretzel," Spike said as he put his hand out.

The tiny filly whimpered and hid behind her mother's legs, hoping that her mother would defend her actions. Spike sighed and let his arms drop to his sides.

"Crystal Clarity. Come out from behind your mother's legs this instant."

"You best listen to him, darling. You wouldn't want him to use his roar again," Rarity spoke impassively.

The little filly was starting to have bouts of anger and whimpering, sounding like someone was choking in a thick cloud of smoke. Grudgingly, the tiny filly walked towards her father, her head hung in shame. Spike took the pretzel from her mouth and stuck a finger out to scold her more directly until he saw a group of cloaked foals galloping away with a giant silver clock on their backs. The dragon was nearly knocked off his feet when another, supposedly a filly, smashed into his leg then tumbled into Crystal. Crystal shouted in anger and her  assailant apologized and tried to run away, but her cloak was caught by Rarity.

"Excuse me, but I think you should apologize correctly to this filly."

"Lemme go!"

The little filly tried desperately to get the hoof off her cloak, but such struggles were met with stronger resistance, and the filly found herself on her back with her cloak hanging loosely on her neck.

"Come here. No! You aren't getting away. Now let me see your face so I can-AHHHHH!'

Rarity's grasp suddenly broke, and the filly was capable of covering herself back up and fleeing the scene. As for the white unicorn, she was left there to breathe heavily. and put a hoof to her stomach. She was starting to hyperventilate, and Spike was taken by an immediate streak of panic. He quickly rushed to his beloved and held her up in his arms.

"S-s-s-s--" Rarity hissed.

"What? What is it? Calm down. I don't want you or the baby to get into any complications."

"A baby?"

A hand began to rub across Rarity's swollen stomach, bringing a soothing sensation of calming warmth. Crystal stuck her tongue out and made a conspicuous sound of disgust. The filly's mother closed her eyes and made a painful swallow, then nodded to Spike.

"Okay. I think I'm okay now," Rarity replied with a shaky voice.

"Really now?"

"So why did you just have that...episode?"

"The filly that knocked you over and galloped into Crystal...she...When I grabbed her and turned her towards me, she looked exactly like Sombra!"

Spike became confused suddenly and blinked a few times in reaction. "Oh, it's certainly just make-up for the celebrations here. You don't need to worry about that."

"Are you...sure?"

"Oh yeah. Sombra must have become something of a fairy tale, so everypony is starting to dress like him just for fun."

"I...Well, that does make sense." Rarity was being helped up by Spike while she forced out some more speech. "I still haven't seen anypony dressing up like him, though."

"It's probably a new thing. You'll see. In a few more years, all the foals will be dressing like that. Now, let's go find that chef and pay him back for these pretzels. But first; Crystal, are you okay?"

"He is having one here? In the Crystal Kingdom? No. The fat one is only five months pregnant...This won't impede anything. Good. An unexpected element, but torturing that dragon will be more than an extra treat."




Twilight was standing in the enormous bedroom of Cadance and Shining Armor, a pile of books somehow stacked perfectly right behind her. The alicorn answered Cadence's pleas to come inspect the castle for anything suspicious and unusual much to the protests of Shining Armor. In fact, the stallion was still pouting about his sister's coming. There was certainly no threat. The ponies would have told them.

"Thank you so much for coming!" Cadence said.

Cadence and Twilight did their butterfly dance just for their reunion, prompting Shining to sigh and say:

"Aren't you a bit 'out of tune' for that? I mean, now, you're an alicorn! It doesn't befit you to do such a thing."

"Awww. Poor wittle Shining Armor wants to do one too. He feels left out," Cadence teased.

The pink alicorn pinched her husband's cheek and was making kissy faces at him. Shining was little more than bemused at the situation.

"As much as I like to see you tease my brother, I have a bunch of paper work to do back in Ponyville concerning the Everfree. It's been getting crystalline growth lately." Twilight tapped her chin pensively.

"Oh! Yes. Of course. Sorry, Twilight. I've just been...swarmed and in panic."

"She's complaining about nightmares she's been having with Sombra."

"Oh. I'm pretty sure I have a book somewhere in here about dream analysis," Twilight said as she fumbled through her book towers.

"No. I don't want my dreams analyzed. I would like you to try and scan the castle to see if his powers have somehow come out of a secret 'storage' or something spooky like that."

"Well...I suppose. It wouldn't be the first time I had to deal with a 'strange' happening. Okay. I will check. Just let me concentrate for a moment."

Cadence nodded, her face covered with worry and stress. Shining kept his stoic appearance and was assured that this was all just a waste of time. With great immobility, the lavender princess closed her eyes and did naught but breathe regularly. Then her horn began to spark like a torn electrical cable. It continued to do so until it was slowly enveloped by a cape of magical energies descending from the tip of the horn. With another spark, and Twilight tilting her head left, an enormous wave of magical energies blasted through the walls and throughout the castle. She then did the same by readjusting her head straight and tilting it forward, enveloping Cadence and Shining in the magic while it traversed in that direction.

"Is she trying to search for us?"

After spinning around once, Twilight reopened her eyes and said:

"Wow. That would have exhausted me before."

"Those are the benefits of becoming an alicorn, Twilight." Cadence smiled smugly. "So, what did you sense?"

"Nothing."

"Maybe you should scan the city itself. One is never too certain."

"Cadence! You're getting paranoid. Your mane is even becoming loose and tangled," Shining scolded.

"But--"

"And besides. To scan the whole empire would require a TREMENDOUS amount of magic. Twilight just 'recently' became an alicorn," Shining gestured. "She hasn't amassed enough magic yet."

"But if we combine our magics, we could make a large enough area to scan!" Cadence realized.

"THEN will you calm down?"

"Yes!" the pink pony shouted with joy.

"Ugh. Fine. Let's do it, then."




Crunchy and a group of foals was waiting for Stellar to arrive. They had placed the clock on the floor, atop as clean a cloth as they could find. It was perplexing that she would be late when she was just behind them. To Crunchy's relief, he saw a tiny cowled figure hopping along the junk outside the sewer entrance. 

"What happened to you? Where were you?"

"I bumped into somepony and one of them grabbed me."

"Did she see your face?" Crunchy asked with worry.

"N...no," Stellar hesitated.

"SHE SAW YOUR FACE?! Oh no!" 

The stallion turned around and had a walk of frustration and fear ending in a head bashing into the wall.

"Did she chase you?"

"Not that I know."

"Still, we have to be on high alert now. The guards are probably going to come looking for y--"

Apple was interrupted by the floor trembling and screams of panic resonating from the distance. Some of the foals from the scavenging group were still going through what they collected when they turned to see a rather strange but terrifying event; Hundreds of foals were running in terror from around the sewers. They were intent on escaping.

"There's a barrier of evil magic come to get us!" one of the colts roared.

"It's 'er fault! She's da one who led 'im ta us. Take 'er 'n string 'er by the packards when we leave!" Sour shouted.

"Hey! What's going on?" Crunchy shouted with authority.

The stampede slid to a halt the second it heard the thundering stomp of Crunchy Apple, many of the participants crashing into each other and flying above the crowd just to land, painfully, on somepony else. The grumpy colt walked out of the tumbleweed with great difficulty and cursing as only a foal could do.

"The princess knows we're 'ere in da sewers 'n she wants to grab us 'n make part of our selves in this world," Sour said.

"...What?"

"He's trying to say that the princesses erected some sort of magical barrier that's spanning across the Crystal Kingdom," a filly crushed under two other foals said.

Crunchy looked impassively behind the foals to see an enormous, moving wall of mixing pink and purple magic. The moving and mixing magic was reminiscent of a bubble, although the low humming and slow approach gave a lesser impression of such things. 

"Time to go!" Crunchy shouted.

"We can't! We're stuck!" a colt shouted.

Crunchy and the other foals galloped to them and tried to pull several of their friends out, but this was met with naught but leg stretching and tumbling over, and the bubble was fast approaching. Stellar looked at the clock, her eyes enamored towards it more so than helping her friends. It enamored her to such an extent mainly due to the bizarre ticking sounds it was making and the erratic and sudden movements of the hands.

"Stellar! Help us out!"

"It's too late!"

The bubble was just about to touch the back of the foal blockade when the clock began chiming very very loudly. It was a deafening sound only heard from the giant bells in towers and religious monuments. Although many clamped their hooves on their ears, they kept their eyes open. In fact, they were stunned to see that the silver clock was glowing brighter and brighter and, with one more chime, a white bubble erupted it and engulfed everypony in the chamber. The scanning bubble did not pass through it, but around it. Over it. Under it. Everypony could see the bubble continuing its path further outside the city until slowly dissipating into a fizzle. 

There wasn't much more than silence at this point, mainly from everypony except Stellar. In fact, they had all decided to stare at her instead of the clock, making her uncomfortable. Even Crunchy was staring at her strangely, making her feel uncomfortable.




Click Clock sat against her counter with fatigue and took another swig, only to discover that her beer mug was empty. Much to her disappointment, even flipping it upside down and shaking it didn't help.

"Ugh. Who knew vacation was so boring."

Annoyed, the mare hopped off her stool and proceeded to the back of her store, intent on getting more of the delicious brew.

"Still, it's fun to help these silly creatures with their ailments. Maybe I should be a griffin next time. Hmmm. I'm also wondering if they figured out how that clock works. Never managed to myself."
> Five a dream, Ten for more
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Much to Twilight's disappointment, the wave of scanning magic she and Cadence summoned brought up nothing at all in terms of dark energies or dark manifestations. It took a little bit more convincing, but the pink alicorn finally settled down, much to the relief of her husband. Spike and Rarity later visited the castle, with Cadence getting to see Crystal for the first time. The day for them was rather uneventful save for these few encounters, but that was for them and not those in the sewers.

The foals in the sewers found themselves astonished with the clock that had protected them all from the impending wave of doom that was coming for them. They all took a liking to the clock and placed it high above in a crevice where no pony but they and the rats could know about, let alone reach. As time went on, the foals grew, and so did their family, abandoned by the cruelty of fear. Crunchy Apple was still the eldest and the biggest of them all, and while the rest of the foals still resented Stellar because of the sayings of Sour Blackberry and his increasing band of nay-sayers, the giant stallion remained friendly and kind towards the fluffy filly. In fact, Stellar began to only go to Apple and do what he would say just to spite the others. Other times she wouldn't do what he would say as he would ask her to help her 'family'. The older the filly became, the more she started to feel...something towards the stallion. She related it to the feeling of eating crunchy, warm chocolate chip cookies.

Stellar Shadowrette continued to learn how to properly take what was needed from the markets, becoming increasingly talented with sneaky actions. She even started to steal books from the local library that taught her how to maintain clocks and replace broken parts. Bizarrely, the clock that the strange shop mare gave her would never lose its shine let alone its incessant ticking and tocking. Every day of the celebration for the 'hero' another scanning barrier would sweep across the landscape, forcing the foals to cope with precision timing to be protected by the clock's strange magic. 

Things were going well, but Crunchy knew that they couldn't remain hidden forever, and the day where they must show themselves to the kingdom would soon come. Hopefully, they will be ready by then and will be able to coax the princess into caring for them and scolding the crystal ponies. Until then, today was a new Hero's Festival, and it was time to get the goods. Crunchy was instructing the young foals while a twelve year old Stellar readied her own brown bag.

Despite her time in the sewers, Shadowrette's coat kept its glossiness and slight fluff. Her mane and tail became a bit poofier than before and began to curl a bit at some ends. Her eyes became more imposing and were filling with strength and confidence, something to behold when faced with what she has gone through over so many years. They even seemed to have become glistening and luminescent like polished marble. As for her figure, well, years of exercise and eating only the necessities had given her a rather elegant but strong figure. She hadn't yet begun to develop the curvy figure of a full grown mare, although it seemed muscles were seeping into those portions instead. Not too muscular, but not too effeminate either.

"Let's see. The wave thingy is gone...So I can do what I want. Let's see, the best place to get food and supplies is near the podium where the 'hero' will share the tale of Sombra being defeated and yadda yadda," Stellar.

"Stellar!" Crunchy apple shouted.

"Y-yes?"

The foals had already left topside in small groups like the day Stellar went outside for the first time, leaving Crunchy with free time on his hooves.

"I'm going to leave with Sour Blackberry and Cucumber Salad to look for a few more abandoned foals. The rats say that they some have been spotted near the industrial district. In the mean time, I want you, Cornflakes, and Extravagance to go to the surface and find some costumes, like wigs, make-up, and all the similarities."

"Why?"

"Because mares and stallions in cloaks during the day would seem a tad suspicious, don't you think?"

"True. Listen um..."

"Yes?"

"I...Never mind..." Stellar sighed with a blush.

Crunchy lift an eyebrow in confusion but shrugged it off. He needed to tend to other things in the sewers and couldn't stay for somepony's indecision, leaving Shadowrette in the literal dark with a reddening face formed from both anger and embarrassment.

"Stellare. How're y'er doin'?" Cornflakes asked.

"Fine. What about you?"

"Not much fer y'er ta know."

Cornflakes was a strange earth colt. Although he was two years younger than Stellar and was born in the 'posh' district of the kingdom, he inherited a bizarre accent that no pony knew of. Stranger still, he would often go to a library and read there instead of taking them back. He was practically nothing but creamy yellow with the exception of his eyes that were as dark as Sombra's. He would often say that he liked his eyes like that and that they gave him the impression of being some sort of 'dragon of darkness', although it was actually hard to see them due to his mane cut going over them in a half-bowl shape. Perhaps it was this that allowed him to travel unscathed in the streets of secret hatred? What he did know, and others didn't, were the fine mechanisms of locks and door mechanisms. This meant that Crunchy would often need to force Cornflakes in returning his stolen goods. It was unfortunate that so much time practicing his 'talents' left him a kleptomaniac.

"Ugh. Should we stay or belay? I want to get this over with," Extravagance complained.

"You never want to do anything, mud princess," Stellar snuffed.

Stellar looked away from the filly with a grin, enticing Extravagance's rage.

"How DARE you call me that!"

Extravagance was more colorful than Cornflakes, but her personality was much more annoying. She developed a sense of unjust entitlement that came from her being abandoned by her family when they learned that her mutations were not something to keep as a trophy, so she lost it all. She was a very recent newcomer, but she still hadn't changed from her snooty attitude. Her mane and tail were a pale shade of purple and were extremely curved everywhere, giving both an appearance of 'bed head' and that of a finely made hair style. Her coat was a shiny silver-gray that were slightly hidden by the black mist serving as her wings. She was a pegasus, making her mutation extremely obvious and nigh impossible to hide. As for her eyes, they were simply olive colored.

"Let's go tay da streets. I'er dun want to here y'ere complainin'," Cornflakes complained.

Extravagance glared at Stellar but hurried along, pulling Cornflakes away with her. These two actually weren't wearing cloaks, unlike Stellar. They were lucky enough to be minorly affected and able to pass their mutations off as costumes for the Hero Festival. 

While walking through the crowd, Stellar couldn't help but think again at how her life would have been had she been born a 'normal' pony. The streets were still as bustling as ever during the festivals, and not much else could be really noted, although Cornflakes began to chuckle. He was tossing a golden watch up and down.

"What...Where did you get that?"

"Some staylion at theh mayrkets."

"You have to give that back!"

Cornflakes thought for a moment, then said: "Mmmm. Later."

Stellar sighed. "You better not steal more stuff."

"Too late," Extravagance said.

Cornflakes was already wearing a straw baseball cap with 'Slam bam thank you, m'am!' written on it. 

"Extravagance, you know the most about make-up and mane and tail conditioners. Do you know where we can look first?"

"Hmph. Are you implying that I'm not 'natural'?" the mare swished her gleaming mane with pride.

Stellar and Cornflakes both looked at her with disapproval. The mare huffed and replied:

"Fine. I guess you can't admire true beauty. Anyways, there's two stores around here. Me and Cornflakes will go to it and take some stuff."

"Where's the other?" Stellar asked.

"It's down the street to the left. It should be at the end of all of this stuff for the festival. It looks like a giant balm of lipstick."

Stellar shrugged and followed the directions, carefully passing through everypony and leaving her companions behind the second she heard her instructions. Shadowrette wasn't a pony who liked the company of the others from her sewers, so any chance she got, she would leave her current group behind.

"Ugh. This huge crowd is so annoying. I can't go anywhere without smacking into somepony."

Finally, the mare gave a gasp of fresh air after having painfully squeezed herself through the last group of ponies entering the festival zone. She was capable of seeing that the sky had now become darkened with undulating gray clouds, although brief beams of light would pass through them often. One of them brought itself ever so briefly upon a building just around the corner. Enamored by the beam, Stellar went to check what it had illuminated. To her joy, it was the lipstick shop. It was just as stupid as Extravagance said. It just looked like a giant black tube of lipstick with a golden ring under the 'lid'.

"What kind of idiot would make their store look like this? It's like making a store look like a merry-go-round," Shadowrette chuckled to herself. "Plus, I just wanted to get myself some snacks. Not fair," she pouted.

She looked around for anywhere she could enter besides the front door, but the only other door was on the balcony above and it was too far up to reach.

"Ugh. It's times like this I wish I knew how to use magic. I guess I'll just be going through the windO--"

Stellar was rammed into by somepony and found herself tossed far away, rolling around on the ground painfully at the end of her brief flight.

"Are you okay, miss? I did not think anypony would be in these streets at this time of hour."

"Uh. Yeah. You just broke a rib or all of them, but I'll be okay."

"Oh. Good. I was...worried...what in the Abyss..."

Stellar had encountered a small group of crystal guards that were galloping for a reason unknown to the mare. They were at least six of them composed of one unicorn, two pegasi, and three earth ponies. Not only did the one on the ground seem shocked at something, but the others were looking mighty angry and were moving menacingly closer to the mare.

"Wh-what? What is it?" Stellar tapped her head and then her back, discovering that her cloak had been torn off. "Oh no. Wait!"

"It's a corrupt, and this one looks just like Sombra!" the fallen guard shouted.

"I-i-i-it's just a disguise. You know? For the festival!"

"Do you take us for foals? We have enough experience with you pawns of Sombra to know the differences...No. You ARE Sombra. I feared this day would come. Grab it! We'll take it to the city dungeon before the king and queen notice anything," an elderly guard ordered.

"L-leave me alone! I haven't done anything!"

The fallen pounced towards the mare, hoping to grab and cuff her, but the pony was too quick and pounced out the guard's grasp. Darting towards the crowd, five of the guards chased after her while the elderly guard used his magic to bring up a squarish projection in front of him depicting a few other guards doing some rather menial things such as filing paper work or cleaning their office.

"I've found the Reborn. It's in the festival."
> A chase into the damp
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The two pegasi took to the sky the second Stellar ran into the crowd. They were intent on snatching her out from the mass of ponies and throwing her high into the sky where she would be easily caught and dragged away. Unfortunately for them, the first dive the two tried found them being tangled into the cloths of a nearby market stall. Stellar had jumped onto the counter, tore off the roof cloth, then rotated and draped her pursuers simply so they would yell and fight their 'net'. They managed to avoid the crowd somehow, but a nearby building's door wasn't as lucky.

"The pegasi are both down. We need to flank her," one pursuing guard said.

"Then I'll go around the other street. You keep chasing her through this crowd."

Shadowrette felt her heart beating wildly. It was a feeling of an encroaching vice grasping itself around her neck and soul. It was both painful and frightening, and it was for these reasons that she was galloping away as fast as she could. This emotion reminded her of the night her dad went crazy and tried to kill her.

With a quick burst of speed, the flanking guard galloped through the alley ways between the crystal buildings and painfully squeezed out of a narrow fire barrier between the buildings. He immediately placed himself to both brace for an impact and pounce on the one willing to go in another direction. For the moment, only the brouhaha created by the immense crowds filled the air and the crowd itself seemed to be moving around normally until a disturbance was noticed. They all started getting out of the way of somepony and were exclaiming their anger and horror.

"This is it!" the earth pony guard thought.

He firmly placed his hooves into the ground, ready to catch the corrupt creature, but his smug look was quickly cleaned off his face when the one who popped out of the crowd was his comrade. The impact created such a loud noise and had such force that, not only did the nearby ponies avert their gaze instinctively from the sound, but several pieces of armor went flying around while the two stallions collapsed upon each other after having rolled away in a tumbleweed-esque manner.

As the witnesses started gathering around the event, a cowled mare chuckled quietly to herself and slowly walked away elsewhere in the festival. Stellar was so caught up in her laughter that she didn't notice the pony in front of her and collided with that pony's head.

"Ow!" the two ponies said.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" the victim growled.

"I'm sorry! I didn't see you. I'm in a bit of a hurry."

"That's not a reason to...hey. I know you from somewhere."

Stellar began to stress and quickly said:

"No."

"Yeah."

"No."

"Yes."

"...No."

The pony's gaze narrowed as her irritation became larger. To Stellar's surprise, this one seemed to have draconic features.

"Yeah. I recall a sharp pain in my head..." The mare rubbed her forehead as she started to think. "There it is! You're the one who slammed into me so long ago. Hey, you know that I still hurt from that encounter."

"Yeah. Sorry. I was in a hurry back then, as am I now!" Stellar shouted as she tried to flee.

The draconic pony grabbed Shadowrette by her hind leg, causing her to face plant painfully into the ground and moan in agony.

"You're not getting away that easily again. I want a proper apology."

"F-fine! I'm sorry. I never meant to gallop into you like that."

"Mmm. It'll have to do...for now. Say, why are you dressed like that? Why don't you take off your costume so I see what you actually look like?" the mare asked while trying to catch a glimpse of Stellar's whole face.

"I'd rather not. Everypony gets angry when they see me for some...reason."

"That's not my problem. I want to see what you look like beneath that cowl, now take it off!" the mare ordered while she tried to pull the hood off Stellar's head.

"No!"

A short fight ensued with the two ponies struggling to ensure their objective. It attracted the attention of the ponies standing around as well as those passing by, causing heads to turn and stare.

"Let go of me!"

"Not until you show me your face!"

"You can already see it under my hood."

"I can't see all of it, and I want to see all of it!"

"Why?!"

"Because...I...want to..gah!"

The two ponies fell backwards after a sound of tearing slowly made itself heard. Stellar was horrified to find that her hood had been completely torn off her cloak. She began tapping her head in a panic and looking around in frantic horror, expecting everypony to turn their heads and begin speaking horrid things, but, that never happened. Many of them Oood and Awed at her appearance. Shadowrette was completely confused and baffled as to what was going on.

"Huh. You look exactly like Sombra. Great make-up." the pony said.

"I know, although I don't really know who Sombra is."

The draconic pony held her need to cringe painfully.

"Then why did you dress yourself up like that? Were your friends doing that and you found it cool? That's stupid!"

Stellar looked down to the floor with sorrow and gave a light kick to a rock.

"I don't have any friends."

"O...Oh...Well..." Crystal rubbed her shoulder and averted her gaze in awkwardness. "W-why are you dressed like that, then?"

"I wear the cowl so no pony can see me."

Crystal sighed. "No. I'm talking about your face and mane."

"Oh. It's not a costume. This is what I normally look like."

Clarity reeled back a bit in surprise. "Wow. Really? And ponies hate you because of that? Well, that doesn't make sense. Although, now that I think about it, ponies who see me usually get scared because of my draconic traits. Not that I'm complaining about it. I like my personal space."

"Yeah. That's true. Why do you look like a dragon?"

"My dad is a dragon and my mother a pony. My mom likes to complain that I took more from the aggressive side of the dragon family rather than her 'delicate, feminine side'," the pony mused as she imitated her snobby mother. "What about your parents? What are they like?"

Stellar didn't break eye contact this time, but her face looked like it was about to explode in tears.

"Then lt's not talk about them"

"Thank you."

"By the way, I'm Crystal Clarity."

"Stellar Shadowrette."

"Stellar Shadowrette? What kind of weird name is that?"

"You're one to talk. You're a rock who suddenly became self-aware?"

Crystal's eyes narrowed, as did Stellar's. To the mare's confusion, the draconic pony began to chuckle, inciting Stellar's inquisitiveness.

"Why are you laughing?"

"Because I find that comeback funny."

"O-Oh?"

"You mean to tell me you don't know what teasing is either?!"

Stellar became embarrassed and averted her gaze slightly. "Well, the ponies I live with aren't exactly nice to me. I guess I just learned to be sarcastic?"

"Maybe. Now about you galloping quickly away again."

"Oh no! I forgot about that! The guards aren't around are they?" Stellar asked.

She started to look around very quickly, scared to find the ponies chasing her to be literally on top of her before she even noticed. Crystal reluctantly looked behind herself, before looking back at Stellar.

"The guards? Are you a thief?!" Clarity growled.

"N-no! They just started chasing me for some reason. I don't know why everypony keeps--"

Stellar stopped talking after something black caught her gaze. It was a shadow on the floor, and it seemed to have the shape of a--"

"Guard!" Stellar shouted.

The mare rolled away from Crystal, confusing the mare and having her suddenly smashed into, once again, but by a guard this time. Stellar was already fleeing the scene with several other guards chasing after her. While they chased after the mare and scared the surrounding crowd, the fallen guard stood up and rubbed his head, unaware of what was beneath him.

"Stupid monster. How did it even know I was behind it? I'll show it once it's captured by my--"

"I'm getting really tired of being galloped into by everypony!" a voice roared.

Crystal picked up the guard with her two forelegs and stood upwards on her hind legs. Se was so furious that puffs of turquoise flames were seething through her teeth at regular intervals.

"Wh-what are you doing?! Put me down!" the unicorn pleaded.

"ALRIGHT!"

"NO WAIT!"

The guard's plea and leg flailing fell on deaf ears as he was, somehow, slammed through the ground, creating a lovely pony fern, great for all interior decorations!

Stellar, however, was having less fun.  Everywhere she turned, she met the guards waiting at a blockade. Her heart was pumping gallons of blood through her body during this whole endeavor.

"Where are those two idiots? I need help!" Stellar thought to herself.

At yet another corner of the street where a blockade of guards were waiting, the mare found herself suddenly going numb and falling down. She started feeling tired, but she didn't know why. What happened? Sounds started to become far away echoes and the world started becoming damp and blue as if she was in the ocean, then there was nothing left but black.

"Nice job with that stunning spell. I think you kind of exaggerated with the strength, though," a guard observed while leaned over Stellar.

He seemed both disinterested and concerned as he stroked his goatee.

"Who cares. It's a corruption created by Sombra. We need to get it in the castle dungeons without the rulers noticing," a captain answered.

The goatee guard leaned closer to his captain and whispered:

"And what about the ponies who saw the whole thing and are gathering around?"

"I don't know. Think of something!"

"Can I tell them this was part of a special surprise event for the Hero's Festival?"

"Sure, sure. Whatever."

The captain answered with disinterest while he and the guards at the blockade placed Stellar into a wagon and covered her up. The goatee guard, though, was clearing his throat and preparing himself as if he were about to go on stage and become the greatest performer who ever lived.
> It lurks in the dark
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Deep below Canterlot sat a cavern of crystals. Long had it been abandoned before the changeling queen's failed attempts at conquering the pony world. The hoof prints of the previous occupant were still decorating the ground. The soggy spots wet by tears had become dry and crusty, and the caverns had once again become quiet, dark, and hollow. Even after the invasion, no pony came to the mines because of rumors about a monstrous beast living there. This had become something of legend throughout the ages, and only a brave few would dare trot into the abandoned mines for some of the precious, rare minerals. 

Strangely though, despite all the exploration and mining that had been performed in the crystal caverns, there was almost no knowledge of its true size. It went far deeper than anypony currently knew and its sheer girth dwarfed Canterot's a hundred-fold. The deeper the tunnels went , the darker the crystals became, but the bigger and more valuable they became as well. Unfortunately, none who ever entered the deeper sections were heard from again, further enforcing the probability that the rumors were true.

Even in the darkness, the thin veil of shadows could be seen moving along the surface of this cavern. They bent and twisted with the surfaces, creating a weird landscape of blacked bodies. The grinning shadow was amongst its faceless brethren, and its smile was as large as ever. It reached what seemed to be a blackened pit that had never seen the light of the sun. Now all that was left was to wait for whatever was to happen, but a booming voice stop the shadows' swirling around the area and caused them to freeze almost immediately. The grinning shadow even lost its grin as two white lights illuminated in the darkness. They were bright in the middle but seemed to fade the further out they went from their center.

"What do you have to say to me?"

"I--" the shadow stuttered.

"I have been waiting a thousand years for you to return to me with news of your endeavors."

"Well--"

"What I hear best be of good news, and remove yourself from the shadows. It is most unbefitting of our encounter."

"That's the problem, y-your greatness. I was defeated a long time ago and outright blown up. I lost--"

"Your body. Through what magic was my own defeated?"

"The crystal heart."

"Hmm. Yes. That could be possible, but I have grown since it was carved. I do not find it likely that you could have been defeated by it."

The shadow did not reply.

"Hmph. I was a fool to believe a mere pony could handle such magic. I'll simply take back my magic and--"

"Wait! Please! I have a plan to retake the kingdom from the current usurpers. I simply need to continue with it and I'll have it back under control. My own magic seems to be returning while I enforce my authority over the crystal ponies."

"This is not an excuse. However, because you used my magic for this plan, I shall grant you a second chance to revive him and keep to your initial mission. If you fail again, however, I will be forced to put an end to our contract."

"I understand."

"The Crystal Kingdom is to become my foothold for my plans. You will, of course, be rewarded upon your success with control of the Crystal Kingdom once my plans go into motion. Are we understood?"

"Y-yes, my lord."

"Good. Now remove yourself from this place. I must continue nurturing the crystals and my magic."

The grinning shadow and its brethren quickly scampered away along the walls. While Stellar's 'friend' still had much to enact, it didn't need to actually worry about time. The one it served did not put much emphasis upon that concept and, surprisingly, had much patience. 

"I still need several years for my plan to take effect. I can't rush this. I only have one chance whether or not that creature wants to hurry this along. He'll become HIS subordinate once this is all over and his constantly calm tone will become that of a pleading foal."




"Ow. My head," Stellar struggled to say.

She put a hoof to her head and slowly rose into a sitting position. She was in extreme pain. She felt like somepony had clobbered her on the head with a gigantic metal hammer. Even her body ached and every breath she took made her whole body ache and her bones creak in agony at the pressure. Whatever happened to her, it wasn't very nice. Blinking several times to bring her view back into its clear, non-drunkard state allowed Stellar to see that she was no longer in the streets. In fact, she wasn't even in the sewers, although the place did smell the part.

This place had no lights in it. In fact, it seemed like Stellar was deep underground somewhere. There were, quite literally, no windows at all and no lights running along the ceiling. The only bit of illumination present came from white, luminescent crystals growing out of the walls. There was a hallway outside of wherever Stellar was and it was huge, as far as she could tell. The wall opposite her own was filled with cells locked behind metal bars. Squinting, she could see that there was someone occupying the cell just opposite her room.

"Wait..If that's a locked room, then that means...Oh no!" Stellar thought.

The young mare quickly scampered up to her hooves and tried to gallop away, but her head met with her own cell bars, leading to a painful encounter with her head, once again. Stellar fell on her rear and rubbed her head to soothe the pain.

"Ow. Huh. That didn't hurt as much as I was expecting. I guess my head is getting sturdier and sturdier," she said to herself while get back on her four hooves.

Shadowrette hugged the bars of her cell and looked around in curiosity. To the left, there was along, darkening corridor. And to the right, there was also a long, darkening corridor. Stellar was half expecting one to be right above her, but to her disappointment, there was only a leaky ceiling of humid stone. 

Thinking she could escape by bucking the bars with her hind legs, the mare reared back and gave it her best effort. The only thing that happened was the resonating clang of her hooves hitting steel. Hitting those bars was a bad idea because the sound deafened Stellar, forcing her ears against her head and causing her to grit her teeth while the sound travelled about the halls to explore its place of birth.

When the sound stopped, Stellar looked up, then suddenly had a terrifying realization: She could not escape this time. Countless times she had escaped merchants angry at her and her...comrades for stealing their wares, but conjoined efforts allowed her and the others to always escape under the merchants' muzzles. This time, she wasn't as lucky. She didn't know why the others didn't come to help her when the guards came to attack her, but they didn't. They weren't even there. She was all alone and trapped. For the first time of her life, there was no pony there to help her out of her problems, and because she couldn't use her magic, she was doomed.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing, kicking the bars like that? Some of us just want to decay in peace!"

Stellar's ears perked up when she heard the voice. It sounded...decrepit. The mare went back to the bars of her cell and asked:

"Who said that?"

"I did. Are you deaf AND blind?"

A stallion walked into the dim lighting of a crystal growing right next to his cell. His coat was blackened with streaks of orange crackling along its surface. He was extremely thin and looked very, very tired. Every time he spoke, he would be interrupted by a quiet, dry cough, too.

"Who are you?"

"I'm...Ahhhh. Another one. One of us, eh?"

"What?"

"Yes. You're a foal that corrupted by the powers of Sombra." The stallion keeled back in sudden shock. "You look exactly like him, too, but...Ehm...Much prettier," the stallion blushed.

"What?"

"N-nothing. What were you asking again?"

Stellar frowned. "Where. Am. I?"

"In dungeons somewhere in the Crystal Kingdom, I think."

"What? This can't be the Crystal Kingdom! I've never seen crystals like these before. Even the sewer walls were made of grainy crystals."

"Sewer walls? Ew. Gross. No wonder I can smell you."

Stellar remained apathetic.

"What the guards have bothered to tell me is that the kingdom was built over these ruins. No pony knows who made them are when they were made as they haven't found anything.  The guards have even had us looking around for artifacts during our 'spare time'."

"What kind of artifacts?"

"PIPE DOWN IN THERE, MUTANTS! You can talk when you're digging for artifacts," a guard yelled at the top of his lungs.

Outside in the city, shadows were 'flying' everywhere along surfaces in search of something. Grinning was wondering where Stellar was and was waiting on the wall of a tall apartment building, a pensive grin over its two-dimensional face.

"Where could she be? She isn't in the sewers, in her old home, or the prison. I haven't even found her outside the kingdom in the tundra nor as a limp body anywhere else. Hmmm. I once ruled this place. Maybe he knows...Yes. His memories and instructions are most excellent. My first lord knows much. I'll need to get there quickly." The shadow's eyes curved. "Or maybe some of them have already found her? Ha."
> Discovery of darkness
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stellar was exhausted. She had been pulled out of her cell by two very strong unicorns to go work in the archeological pits even deeper than where she already was. The mare had already refused to be taken in so easily, but her protests met with angered ears. She was going to work whether she wanted to or not. Due to these conflicting ideals, the guards were called to pull her out. They didn't have an easy time at it. Even when she was being kicked, punched, and struck by low level magic spells, she still carried on. Much to the amusement of the first lieutenant who served as warden of the facility, the two guards ended up with bruises, black eyes, and sore muscles and bones.

Shadowrette discovered that the dig site was a gigantic assortment of tunnels and bridges made from dirt and brick. It looked like an ant hill. There were many other ponies like the ones from the sewers, but they weren't as joyful nor well fed. All of them looked miserable when they pulled stones and dirt out of the holes. Stellar was just glad she was back in her cell, as ironic as that may be. A thought to passed through her mind, though.

"Hey, I didn't see you at the...holes," She said to the pony in the cell in front of her own.

"It wasn't my day today. I don't get any 'free time' on account of me trying to escape."

"Oh...You didn't tell me your name earlier."

"It's 'Ruined Life'," he shrugged.

"Wh--"

"That's what my parents put on my crib when they dropped me at the palace. Besides that, I don't really have a true name."

"I'm sorry about that, but at least that's better than what I went through."

"I suppose it's a tragic story of loss and broken hearts?" The stallion teased while taking on a dramatic pose.

"If I could reach you, I would strangle you."

"But you can't." The stallion chuckled. "Look, I've gone through enough of these sob stories that I feel nothing about them myself."

Stellar couldn't accept what she just heard. She had gone through such a trauma herself that even if she didn't show it, she felt for those around her. Everypony had to bring up something to wall up their wounds, and many of them used their attitudes to do that. This stallion, however, wasn't like that. He seemed...apathetic towards Stellar, but she didn't know him enough yet to make any conclusions. After all, she has only known him for an hour. What kind of weirdo would automatically assume something about a person they just met? Stellar chuckled at that laughable thought.

The mare gave up her attempts at understanding this stallion and went back to quietly sulk in a corner. Life watched her calmly walk there and confusion ran across his mind. All the others immediately gave up trying to escape this place when they were sent there. Why didn't she do the same? Several hours later, in the twilight of the night, Life was awoken by quiet chattering. Climbing off his dirty mattress on the floor, he went to inspect the sound's origin and, with a bit of directional listening using his ears, discovered that they were coming from Stellar. She was talking to the wall.

"Well that was fast. It barely took her, maybe, eighteen hours?" Life started to whisper-yell at Stellar to attract her attention but not that of the guards. "Hey, filly. What are you doing?"

"I'm not a filly!" Stellar whisper-yelled in protest. "I'm talking with the shadows. They've always played with me when I was younger."

Stellar smiled at the wall and laughed heartily. Life's face contorted as he became more and more lost within the confines of this mare's mind.

"So she was always like this? Eugh. Looks pretty but has a rotted mind."

"Okay then, but keep it quiet," Stellar whispered.

"Keep what quiet?"

"That's none of your business."

"Wh--"

The door of Shadowrette's cell quietly clicked then slowly slid open, leaving the proud mare to flaunt her ego and smile at the stallion who looked at her in disbelief. Stellar turned around and whipped her tail at Life, then quietly trotted away.

"Wait! Please! I have to get out of here!"

Stellar stopped at Life's pleas and went back to his cell unwillingly. With a sigh, she asked:

"And why should I? I barely even know you."

"B...Because I've been here since I was born. I don't know what the outside world looks like. In fact, barely any of us here even know what it is or what it's like. We don't even know WHO lives up there. Maybe you and your 'shadows' could help me-us, to get out?" Life gave a nervous-but-pleading smile.

Stellar skeptically eyed him from head to hoof and was about to just leave, but the shadow following her told her of its plan. The mare smiled evilly and looked back at Life.

"Cover your ears if you don't want to become deaf," she said before executing her own suggestion.

"What? Why? Why do I...have...to..." 

The stallion's hooves instinctively reached for his ears when he saw the shadows being created by the white crystals started growing longer and longer. At the specific moment that Life felt like his heart was relieved of all forms of gravity, all the cell doors from around the complex immediately were ripped out of their sockets and clanked into each other, falling loudly on the floor. Ponies big and small slowly walked out of their cells and looked around in confusion, at which point Stellar raised a hoof in the air and yelled:

"Freedoooooooooooom!"

The others immediately cheered the same, and everypony began rushing to the end of the long hallway. Stellar was amongst them, but Life was just confused and wondering how he was going to leave his cell with all these ponies running amok. No pony seemed to care, but lights in the ceiling all lit up in a straight line, progressively lighting up as the power went down the hallway. It was at this moment that Life felt his heart enter his throat. There were hundreds, if not thousands of shadowy masses swirling around the walls and ceiling, with more following the group of ponies.

"Hey! Wait! Ugh. Now how am I going to find the exit?"

The stallion waited impatiently for the most opportune moment to jump into the stampede. He had no opening until there was nearly no pony left, allowing Life to calmly trot into the corridor and avoid the few latecomers. Before he continued his certainly futile attempts at escaping, the stallion noticed something strange amongst all the cells. While the shadows had cut or torn off the bars, only one set remained intact. 

"Why is that one still closed?" Life thought aloud.

Leaning in closer to get a better look amongst the few ponies still galloping away, the stallion noticed a figure moving in the shadows. Its mane was in tatters and hung limply over the pony's face like dried hay. An eye was released from its imprisonement behind the disgusting mass, revealing its bloodshot appearance. Whoever that was, they appeared miserable and completely depressed, but this was of no concern to Life, so he shrugged it off and left his own cell. He would certainly be returned later anyways.

The hallway was practically empty now, but Life knew this place all too well. The guards were waiting around that left turn at the end of this long path and had certainly already paralyzed every pony. Life was skeptical about all of this and just walked towards the turn with the expectation of everypony being on the floor and he, being the only one to not have rushed, would have to put all the prisoners back in their cells. By himself.

His face quickly twisted from apathetic to complete fear and disbelief. There were thousands of shadows swirling around the complex. While it was just a gigantic, open hole with uneven floors on multiple levels, the shadows and escapees were everywhere. This was the main area of the prison. It simply looked like a mound of uneven rock with several holes in the walls around it. The rounded wall directly to the right of the hallway exit were several metal pathways built into the brow, stone wall. It was here that guards would generally patrol and shine the gigantic spotlights all around the place. But now...

Ponies were running through the holes in the wall holding the platforms. The guards all around looked like they were being devoured or drained by the shadows. The worst situations saw the shadows tearing off spotlights or throwing guards into one another. It was the worst jailbreak Life had ever seen...not that he ever saw many to begin with.

"Where is she?" Life wondered as he looked around. "There!"

The stallion had spotted Stellar looking around for guards not yet attacked by the shadows then ran through a pair of metal doors that looked like they were punched open. He didn't know why, but he was determined to follow her, so follow her he did. All he needed to do was sneak through the mass of fighting ponies and angry shadows. Some of them fluttered quickly towards him, but slowed to a stop, wiggled around a bit, then parted around him. Life was confused as to what these things were, but at least they were fighting WITH him.

"Woah. The lights are broken. Ah!" Life put a foreleg up to shield his face from the flickering lights. "So annoying. Where did Stellar go?"

"You won't go any further, corrupt one! I don't know how you did it, but I, the warden, shall block you. You shall not pass!"

The stallion peeked around the corner to see the tight hallway spacing out into a large, open room with many barriers and equipment designed to scan newcomers. The gray warden in his yellow uniform was standing behind a plethora of guards who hid behind barriers of tables and chairs. The unicorns had their horns ready, the earth ponies held what looked like taser guns, and the pegasi did the same, but while they flew.

"No. I'm getting through. I'm tired of you all constantly attacking me just for what I look like and pairing with this Sombra guy. I don't even know who that is and no pony wants to tell me!" Stellar shouted.

Both Life and the guard mouthed 'She doesn't know who Sombra is?!'. 

"You have on the count of three to stand down," the warden said.

"No. I'm going through!"

As the two continued to fight, the stallion could see more shadows moving on the ground and over the barricades slowly and discreetly. When they were finally over everypony, including the pegasi, the barrage was split into two and smashed onto the two side walls. The scanning equipment was also torn off its hinges and tossed aside, letting Stellar hurry through.

"Thanks, shadows," she said.

"St-Stellar! Wait up!" Life yelled

The guards were struggling to free themselves, but were incapable of doing so. The Warden simply cursed under his breath as he helplessly watched Life and the others escape. The stallion could smell it. A oxygen that tingled his faintest memories. He KNEW what it was. It wasn't metallic or stuffy like his prison air. It wasn't toxic and dusty like the air from the digging sites. No. It was clean, cold, and fresh air. He took in breath after breath, his mind entering an ecstasy while he followed Stellar to the open world. He could see a light going through his eyelids and opened them to see their provenance. Was it another blockade at the top of this diagonal?

"Ah! My eyes!" Life shouted in pain.

The stallion tumbled onto the floor, sliding into Stellar's hind legs in the process.

"It's so bright! What is this light? Stellar? Where are you? Stellar?"

As his eyes readjusted to this new world, the stallion was not met with gigantic fields of grass and trees. He couldn't see the lakes or the blue skies. He couldn't even see the blue light of a beautiful day. All he saw was a wet ground and an immense army waiting for him. They had surrounded the exit of the prison which sat underneath a gigantic crystal column. Was it a column? He couldn't tell.

"Well, it was good in the long run. I had fun," Life chuckled. "Everything just happened so fast. You were here for just a day and already we've all escaped. Ha. Haha!"
> A new chance? Revelations? The pinnacle of shadows
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Much to the duo's surprise, the guards did not immediately tackle them. Instead, several of them directly in front of Stellar and Life stepped aside to make way for another guard. The guard to come through had a rather gentle demeanor to his face and gave off an aura of calmness and safety in his immediate area. This stretched towards Stellar whose tension started to well down, making her muscles creak and her back lower into a more comfortable position. Life saw this happen from the corner of his eyes, but he was not duped. He had enough experience to know what this encounter would entice.

The guard in question was the son of the current rulers of the kingdom. His mane and tail were a mixture of vertical yellow and blue stripes that brightened the lower they went, and the left side of his mane was tied into a dangling pony tail with the help of a golden mane band.. His coat was a strange color that confused Stellar as to its actual spectrum. Was it a pale blue-gray or a pale gray-blue? She couldn't figure it out. Life recognized the armor he wore as being that of the royal family. After all, who else would wear golden chest necklaces embedded with a blue sapphire as well as golden hoof armor? As for this guard's cutie mark, it was composed of two swords crossing each other in a downwards motion, the whole thing covered by a glimmering blue heart.

Unlike the other guards around, his body did not take on a cautious stance and was completely calm. Perhaps it was because he was extremely powerful or, perhaps, was it because he was an alicorn and did not need to fear anypony but the sisters themselves. Whatever the case, he stopped just a few feet away from the duo and the exit they were blocking. Even if the guards hadn't noticed yet, the pair realized that the other prisoners were behind them, waiting in the darkness. Worry was clenching everypony here.

"Hello. I am Valiant Heart," the guard spoke with a soothing tone and a faint smile. "Who are you?" 

Valiant extended a hoof outwards so as to specify that he was not here to fight. His face even adorned that of a worried pony who simply wished that their kindness would be returned by strangers he liked.

"Why do you want to know?" Stellar replied aggressively.

"I simply wish to know so that we may defuse this little...incident together. There's no reason to be worried. I won't hurt you or your friend."

Stellar took a step back and lift a hoof by instinct of self-preservation. Life, meanwhile, remained cautious of the whole situation. He was watching everything around him. He knew that the guards would jump him and that mare when they were given a signal. He was just waiting to see it.

"Yeah right. Like I'm supposed to trust somepony when they have tons of guards armed with swords and spears surrounding me?" Stellar sat on her rear, crossed her forelegs, then huffed. She was simply unreadable to Life who couldn't help but look at her with a look of complete 'agapedness'. If ever that were a word or became one, it would fit the situation perfectly.

"What's wrong with her? She treats every situation like it's a game. I bet he's expecting me to say something. I'll wait and bide my time. She's digging out the relic from the dirt for study. I'll see what I can dust off the revealed pieces in the mean time," Life thought.

"Would you be more comfortable to discuss this if my guards placed their weapons on the ground?" Valiant calmly suggested.

Stellar hummed and tapped her chin with a hoof in a bid to look like she was thinking. It just made her look like a fool, really.

"Sure. Throw them far behind, where I can't see them and where it would take them a while to get to. If you do something suspicious, then we'll have time to flee," Stellar grinned mischievously. She felt as though she had just won at a great war of the wits. However, a shining glare in Valiant's eyes suggested that it was only a small, insignificant battle.

"Yes. While it is true that you and your gaunt friend would indeed be free to escape, would you really leave your companions behind?"

Stellar laughed loudly and nervously. "I don't know what you're talking about."

The mare still looked behind herself through reflex and caught a glimpse of the frightened, disheveled mass of ponies still in the tunnel. They were looking at her with wide eyes. She was to be their salvation, and they needed to escape. They had to. They wouldn't last in that place if they were sent back. Valiant responded with a bemused expression.

"I seriously doubt that you thought I couldn't see the others behind you nor that you would abandon others like you below. This is for your own good and everypony's safety. I beg you to understand this. We haven't done anything wrong. We just worry for the safety and integrity of our people and Equestria as a whole," Valiant insisted. If he had hands, he would place them together and beg for forgiveness. "I really prefer that this doesn't end up as becoming a fight."

The stallion's words were met by a forced, but mocking, laughter. They came from Life who pushed Stellar to the side with his right foreleg. The mare was irritated at first, but when she looked down at the leg to push it off of her, she realized the words of skepticism and sadism he spouted were from personal experience and views. The details had become clear.

Life was so thin that his bones could be seen sticking through his teal coat. Of course, the orange cracks still raced along it and singed the coat around them, but the teal still fought for dominance amongst the ashes. His eyes were faded to a near blind-like appearance, but the blue they once held could still be seen behind that milky mist; Both eyes were dragged down by heavy bags that denoted not fatigue, but sickness and disease. Even his tired gaze denoted some sort of anger that was kept within for many many years. Life was tired of everything.

"Cut the nonsense. Do you seriously want me to believe that you did this for the 'safety of Equestria'," Life mimed. He was mocking Valiant and didn't seem to care that the guards around the two were coming closer. "It's ponies like you who always intended to 'help' everypony but ended up destroying it anyways just to further your own goals."

"But I--"

"No! I will not hear your excuses! For too long have we all been subjugated to pain and torture. I have seen dozens of my friends die down there because of your-" Life stopped suddenly, his eyes widening into saucers. Slowly, a grin formed on his face, leaving way for a full smile to bloom."Your fear. How ironic."

"Wh-How dare you," Valiant hissed as he stomped a hoof forward.

"Hmhmha. All is going according to plan..almost. I wasn't expecting a full jailbreak. Well, I'd love to stay and watch but they seem to be really invested into arguing," the cackling shadow mused to itself. "I'm going to quietly sneak away and continue watching from another angle."

"What would a small colt know about the responsibilities of protecting everypony? I have trained as hard as I could, and still do, to be able to protect everypony I care about. What do YOU know about that?" Valiant said.

"A colt?! I know more about loss than you do, pretty colt. Oh, thinking he's so 'high and mighty' because of his parents and because he ascended into some sort of pegacorn."

"I'm an ALICORN!"

Life shrugged and looked away, preferring to display his lack of interest at others."Sure you are. Sure."

"I--"

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!" a powerful voice shouted from above.

All the guards gasped and dropped their weapons from their surprise. Cadance had decided to fly down the tower while her husband had been teleported behind the ring.

"Move aside, soldiers!" Shining Armor roared.

"Y-yes, sir!" the guards obliged.

Valiant felt a knot form in his throat that wouldn't go back down no matter how hard he tried to swallow. The closer his parents got to him, the smaller he felt and the more pressure he could feel baring down upon him.

"H-hi, mom. Hi, dad."

Cadence looked behind Valiant to see the two strange ponies looking back with curiosity as well as the many eyes reflecting in the darkness below them. The filly looked so familiar.

"What is going on here?" Cadence asked with an authoritive tone.
> Events from the hidden sight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What is this?" Shining roared in fury.

"I-i-it's a jailbreak. They're extremely dangerous, my king. They--" A guard attempted to persuade Shining but was caught off.

"Don't lie to me! I can see that these ponies have nothing close to being dangers. Why were they locked down there and why do they have similar traits. Furthermore, why does that one look like the fallen King Sombra?"

"I...I..." the guard began to tremble and panic at the questions being given to him. His eyes were bolting from left to right at an incredible speed.

"Shining, I think we best speak about this in the throne room. Ponies are st arting to gather, " Cadence advised.

"You're right. Guards! Disperse and return to your posts! We'll be taking these two into our throne room for interrogation." Shining's comments was immediately followed grunts of uncertainty and little movements of fear. "You don't need to worry. I know how to take care of these sort of issues." Shining looked back towards the two ponies staring at him with uncertainty and skepticism and said: "You'll tell us just exactly what it is that happened to you. I know this is extremely sudden, but we don't have time to analyze everything."

"But what about the others?" Stellar asked.

"Others? What others?" Cadance wondered as she flew back down.

" 'Those' others," Stellar pointed to the tunnel behind her.

At first, Cadance was hesitant, but a nod from Shining allowed her to muster her own courage and check the dark pit. She was shocked by what she saw.

"Good grief. Honey, well have A LOT to talk about with these two."

"Why? What is it?"

"Come see for yourself."

Shining Armor hurried next to his wife and imitated her exact actions.

"You must all stay down there for now until we can assess this situation. No pony will do anything to you once I place up a barrier."

"A barrier?! You want to trap them down there," Life accused.

Shining looked back at him with an apathetic face. "No. I don't know what to make of all of this, and since my guards did not tell me about this, I have no real choice in the matter. It's for their protection. I'll remove the barrier spell once I know what has been really going on.î]How is it that we didn't know about this?! We're the new rulers and protectors of this kingdom. This even happened below our home! This is unacceptable.[/i$"

"Come along, you two. We'll go into the throne room with a teleportation spell," Cadance said.

"Teleportation?" Stellar wondered.

"Yes. You DO know what teleportation is, don't you? You went to school like everypony else, didn't you?" Cadance's face shifted from certainty to a frightened smile.

"No. Not really. My dad never let me out of the house before he want...crazy."

"I...see..."

Cadence reeled back internally once she realized she had accidentally brought up a touchy subject.

"Just...Just gather around me," she said.

A bright blue flash coming from behind blinded Shadowrette and Life. When their eyes recovered, Shining was already waiting next to is wife.

"Come on. We literally don't have all day," Shining spoke with annoyance.

Although still hesitant, the two young ponies walked towards the pink alicorn and just looked at her with frustration. They both nearly jumped when her wings expanded to embrace all four of them to allow a group teleport. At the moment her feathers touched the two ponies, they felt...warm. For the first time of their lives, they felt something that they could like.

"What's going on. Why do I like to stand right next to her? Why does she feel so warm? Why do I feel...loved? I want to put my head against her chest and just...cry. I want to cry about my father. I want to cry about my life. I want to cry about everything and hope she hugs me and consoles me. Why is she so warm and comfortable?" 

Stellar's mind fought against this warm and unfamiliar feeling, but she felt that she was going to collapse at any moment. When she managed to work her neck muscles into statically turning to the side, she saw Life staring into the empty void. He too seemed enamored by this strange feeling.

"As for YOU Valiant, you will come to the throne room in fifteen minutes. Understand?"Shining said.

Valiant nodded calmly and gulped loudly in the process.

"Good."

Shining stared at his son with anger and contempt. His furious gaze was covered by the pink glaze that formed around the four ponies when Cadence activated her teleportation spell. Stellar and Life felt as though they were being crushed and pulled apart for hours until they felt solid ground form beneath their hooves. Cadence and Shining casually walked away, but their guests collapsed on the floor due to their protesting stomachs.

"I don't feel so good," Life said as he rubbed his head.

Stellar opened her mouth to say something, but immediately regretted the decision because some stomach acids rose all the way to her mouth which she closed and covered with her hoof.

For what Life could see, this throne room was extremely spacious, but it was mostly impressive in length and height. Naturally, the walls, floor, and ceiling were made from sky-blue crystal, and the windows were made of tainted glass depicting the many events which transpired in the past. Two thrones stood atop a short pedestal which sat at the end of a long, red carpet which silvery edges. Cadance and Shining had already sat there and were waiting for the two to reach them. It took awhile of patience and recovery, but the two finally crawled to the thrones.

"Are you okay?" Cadance asked.

"No..." Life groaned.

"First time teleporting?" Shining chuckled.

"Y-yes."

"Well, while you recover, could you explain to us what you were all doing down there and why you're dressed as Sombra?"

"Dressed?" Stellar forced herself to say.

"Well, yeah. You obviously weren't born like that, were you?" Shining chuckled nervously and looked back at his wife who didn't share the same enthusiasm. When he turned back to face the two ponies who were still writhing on the ground and looking at him faces demanding his seriousness, his smile went to a very disappointed frown. "How long?"

"I don't know," Stellar replied.

"It has been happening for at least twenty years," Life said while struggling to his hooves. "It's been happening for...twenty years, and you never did anything about it! You're the rulers of this whole place! How could you NOT know?! So many of us have died in that prison because everypony is frightened that we are the minions of Sombra being created for his eventual return. Even your son was in on it! He tried to honey coat his words to convince us into going back in that pit, but we refused. I don't exactly know what happened, but the minute this pony was dumped in there with us, we ended up being freed. I don't know what magic she used, but she freed us all, and I refuse to go back there!"

"And what do you have to say, filly?" Cadance asked calmly.

"I...I..." Stellar began to hiccup and tears started to form at the base of her eyes.

"Oh no. Don't cry, Stellar," Life begged. 

His words fell on deaf ears as Stellar eventually collapsed from the emotions she felt from the pink alicorn's embrace. All that Shining ever saw was a blackened blur rushing to Cadence and hugging the surprised and confused mare in a vice grip that could crush steel.

"I never had a good life! I killed my mother when I was born! My father never let me out, then he tried to kill me with an axe when I was sleeping! He blamed me for mom's death and kept saying I was Sombra's reincarnation! Then I had to live with others like me in the sewers after I broke my legs! We're so many! I haven't had a good meal for eight years and we have to steal to survive and many of us still get caught anyways! Now I know where those caught were sent!"

"She's right! They force us to dig in the ruins beneath the city without feeding us or sating our thirst properly! They just let us die when we get sick!"

"Wait, wait, wait. Ruins beneath the city? We sealed that off because it was dangerous to the archeologists. I thought that only treasure hunters were down there. They always went at their own peril, so we never really cared," Shining wondered.

The doors to the throne room opened with both Valiant Heart and Crystal Clarity arguing about the right to enter.

"You think I care about what you do or say? I go where I want. They are still my friends," Crystal Clarity spat.

"And I'm telling you that my father only allowed me to enter. Get back outside!" Valiant replies.

"Pfff. Like you saying it for the thirty-third time in a row is going to 'magically' make me do it." Crystal Clarity mocked Valiant by twirling her claws.

"Valiant! What's the meaning of this? A prison? Persecuting these ponies because of their appearance? You even sent them to the ruins below to dig out artifacts when we explicitly told you all not to do it!" Cadence shouted. 

She was absolutely furious and rarely had her husband ever seen this angered side of hers. More often thean not she would simply try another approach, but this time it was different.

"But mother, they are tainted by Sombra's shadows! The only we could do was hide them from the general public and--"

"Or you could have brought this to our attention so we could find a solution together. We too the responsibility of watching over the kingdom for the good of everypony here. Do you think we have never had to deal with such mysteries?"

"Oooo! Somepony is in troublllllle!" Crystal whispered. "H-hey! It's Stellar!"

"H-huh?" he mare said as she moved out of Cadence's embrace.

"Woah. Whats wrong with you? Your face is all stuffy."

"She has had a rather rough time, Clarity," Shining said.

"Really? Maybe we could help her?"

Stellar started to sniff more than she cried and mustered her strength to stand. "Well, we could find the others and help them. They're in the sewers and I know how to get to them."

"Really? Hmmm. Yes. Sweety, you go back down to the entrance of that horrid place and free the ponies. I will go with Stellar, and...and..."

"Ruined Life," the stallion spoke bitterly.

"Oh...I think we can find you a better name after. Would you like that?"

"Sure. Whatever," Life replied while crossing his forelegs.

"I'm coming too," Clarity replied firmly.

Cadence smiled and gestured her group to move forward. However, the second she and Shining were next to a paralyzed and extremely nervous Valiant, both shouted at him in unison.

"VALIANT HEART!"

"When I get back, you're going to have a lot of explaining to do," Cadence said.

"And then you're going to round up every single guard in the city and take them outside, without winter protection," Shining added.

"And you won't be getting any gifts this year."

"You're going to do thirty laps around the tundra, and woe be ye who slows down."

"You're also going to be doing some volunteering work in the volcanic islands to the south-east of Equestria."

"And then it will be decided on whether I demote you or not."

Valiant Heart had practically shrunk down to the size of an acorn when everypony passed him. Crystal still found the time to twist the knife in the wound.

"I'm glad I'm not in your place. Hoooo colt."



Click Clock was bored. She moaned in boredom while she leaned against her counter. No pony had come recently and she was bored. Granted, a creature like her didn't need money to live, but she still liked to have fun acquiring bits of baubles and doodads, as she called them.

"I'm bored, and no one seems to be coming. Hmmm." There was a long pause until Click Clock had a sudden realization. "I haven't seen Stellar in a while. Let's see what she's doing now?"

The clocks in the store all began to click randomly while the purple mare looked through what seemed to be a hole with watery outlines. She could see Stellar from above in the sewers. Cadence and another pony had accompanied her.

"Huh. Looks like she's calling out to someone. She even made friends, and one of them is a ruler of this kingdom, too! I wonder if the others will come-There they are, climbing out of the cracks. Ah? That must be the crunchy fellow she liked so much. No, No! Don't kiss him! Ohhhh no. He's pushing her away in protest. How awkward," Click said to herself sarcastically. "Oh. He looks mad. Where's my...Ugh. I should've taken a glass of Demon's Blood. He's walking towards Cadance and they're having a discussion. Awwww. The dragon thingy is consoling Stellar's broken heart." Click Clock nodded and looked away from the scene. "Good. Good. I've seen this tangent. I wonder which future might come to be," the purple mare said as her clocks all began chiming loudly together.

Looking through the 'hole' again, the purple mare continued to smile as she saw a Crystal Kingdom engulfed in dark crystals with everypony controlled by the newly reborn Queen Sombra standing atop a broken Cadance and Shining Armor as fear magic ebbed and flowed from her furious eyes. Her horn was filled with dark magic and she seemed intent on conquering the rest of Equestria.
> The Reaper watches
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Although Stellar was heartbroken at her misinterpretation of Crunchy's attitude, she carried on with the help of Cadance's guidance. The 'Shadow Ponies', as they ended up being called by the 'unknowing' locals, became a local phenomenon, but the royal family were trying to keep it under 'wraps' so no pony outside would notice. Unfortunately, a sneaky griffin managed to get through the cover ups and shared the news with everypony in Equestria. It became an enormous scandal, not only because of the incompetence of the royal couple and the actions of their subjects, but also because the shadow ponies were still living in the sewers and the prison because 'no facilities were available'. The outrage became such that Celestia, Luna, and Twilight had to intervene.

To mend these problems, when they would come to age, Crunchy Apple would become a new adviser and council member representing ponies corrupted by Sombra's lingering dark magics due to his actions over the years, and Stellar would become the vice-council member responsible with finding the shadow ponies still wandering the shadows and caves of the streets because if her stubbornness and hidden emotional prowess. Both had the right to appoint two assistants/advisers during their time in office. Furthermore, Celestia diverted some funds from her treasury to create a new establishment meant to harbor the foals while they waited for actual, caring parents.

As for the advisers, well, Stellar decided to take Extravagance and Cornflakes again despite what they did to her. It was her way of punishing them, and she would revel in this moment for centuries to come. At least, she would when she would turn eighteen. Until then, she would just have to bide her time patiently. Unfortunately, just because the royal couple now discovered their existence, this didn't mean that the inhabitants were going to be any nicer to everypony. Quite the contrary, in fact. They could be crueler than they were before, because now they had nothing left to hide from the couple.

When Crunchy became an official member, he founded a group of ponies from other cities around Equestria to maintain a true form of neutrality. This team was meant to supervise the shadow ponies and their lives in the city. They were know as the SPS; or 'Shadow Pony Supervisors'. While the name was generic, it did its job. The ponies who worked for this growing office would wear black and purple uniforms, with a select few wearing dark sunglasses to try and force their 'scary' and 'serious' appearance. If anything it made Crunchy facehoof hard. These ponies were tasked with noting and cataloging the instances where a shadow pony would be spotted and bring them in. They were also responsible for cataloging pregnancies throughout the kingdom. The pregnancy cataloging was a joint project with the Medical Office, allotting the SPS one source of monetary revenue not taken from taxes. One more thing to point out is that 'Ruined Life' was appointed as the head of the SPS office. However, Crunchy still had absolute control over it when it game to political and monetary situations. They weren't on bad terms, though, and both understood eachother's purposes and reactions to certain events. It was a lucky combination, as Shining thought.

Six years later from the discovery, and Stellar is now sitting in her own room within the Crystal Palace, rolling around joyously in her new bed, giant bed. Her mane and tail had grown much longer and became somewhat silken due to Cadence having a weird obsession over the natural shine both possessed. In fact, even Stellar's coat was guilty of the same traits. What DIDN'T sit well with her surroundings was how her horn had grown very long and had become completely red with crystalline veins having formed neatly on the sides ending before they reached the tip and and the bottom. However, Stellar still couldn't use magic, making her somewhat of a particularity.

The bed she was bouncing on, though, was white and covered with very thick comforters and two equally thick pillows with fleece ends at the head of her bed. Her room had a wide view on the entirety of the kingdom and the tundra beyond thanks to the many giants windows. Two night tables flanked the bed on each side and the middle of the room was decorated with two lounge chairs; a low, white coffee table adorned with a pink pot and a yellow flower, as well as a circular rug with some psychedelic color designs. The only normal looking things were were the many green plants all around. Were it not for the gardeners and staff Stellar's room would've surely become a jungle covered in vines by now.

"Miss Stellar, are you in here?" a noble voiced asked.

"Yes. Come on in!" the mare laughed.

The pony who came in was a butler. He wore the typical black suit with white gloves, and he had a rather pale complexion. However, unlike most butlers, he wore a beard, rather than a mustache, and his gray coat clashed with his yellow mane stylized into some sort of rock 'n roll star's mane.

"Ugh. I've told you incessantly not jump on your bed. It's undignified," the stallion complained.

Stellar stopped bouncing on her bed and rolled onto her belly. "Hey! If I want to bounce on my bed, I'll bounce on my bed. I haven't gotten to sleep in such comfort since I was a tiny filly." She put a hoof to her chest and closed her eyes in a smug manner. "I like to bounce in my bed and it is my right as a crystal pony. Isn't that right, Cornsyrup?"

The stallion clenched his teeth at the sound of 'crystal pony', prompting Stellar's eyes to widen in an angry fashion.

"Isn't. That. Right?" she asked again with more aggression.

"Right," Cornsyrup answered reluctantly.

"Now, what did you come here for?"

"For the execution of the criminal that remained in the dig site after your escape."

"There was one left?"

"YOU DIDN'T KNOW?!" the stallion lost his composure.

"No pony told me anything!"

"Wh-Fine. I just need you to come with me to the second floor and to the balcony, where the royal couple, Crunchy, and the head of the SPS await."

Stellar shrugged and jumped off her comfortable throne and reluctantly following the butler down the floors. She would've preferred to stay in her room and have fun with her new 'toys'. Once at the second floor, the mare stepped onto the balcony. Today was very cloudy, making the sky and sunlight 'white'.

"Oh. You're finally here! I'm glad you made it," Cadence hugged Stellar.

"I'm glad to see you too," Stellar answered with a smile. She nodded to Shining, but gave a cold and bland 'hello' to Crunchy, who did the same. As for Life... "Hey, Life. How're you doing?"

"Fine," he answered angrily.

"D...Did I do something?" Stellar asked in confusion.

"No. I've just gotten some rather annoying personal problems."

"Well, you've always been grumpy," the mare said. She sat on her haunches and thought pensively while looking up in the air, a grin on her face.

"What? No I haven't!"

"Stop teasing him, Stellar," Shining sighed. "Honesty, sweetie. I don't understand why you made her a vice member of the council. She's like a young filly!"

"Which is exactly why she's tasked with finding the abandoned ones. She knows better than anypony what--"

"Excuse me, but why are you still executing ponies in the streets? Why are you still executing at all?" Stellar interrupted.

"Because our attempts to modernize the judicial have gone through without an issue until we reach the execution procedures. Then everypony gets into a rabble."

"It's starting," Life said.

There was an enormous crowd standing standing around a hanging podium. A pegasus mare wearing formal attire was holding a piece of paper in front of everypony while two SPS guards brought a tattered old stallion onto the podium with a brown bag over his head. He seemed to be struggling somewhat, but not much.

"We are gathered here today to bring judgement upon this poor soul," the pegasus started. "He has been condemned as guilty for the crimes of disturbing public peace and chasing after a pony with the intentions of murder." The mare folded the paper. "He will be executed in front of everypony today. May the Creator have pity on his soul. For is to not forget, I shall reveal his face unto you all before putting back on. You will know the face of a murderer today and never forget its cruelty." 

The mare removed the brown bag, revealing a very scraggly mane that fit with the dirty and dusty coat. The crowd began hissing and booing. Several pegasi rose up in the air to throw bottles and other things at him. Finally, when the mare turned around to show the stallion's face to the group, Stellar felt time slow down to a stop. She could not believe her eyes.

"D...DAD?!" she shouted.
> He has a message
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Grinning Shadow stayed against a wall of the sewers, its gaze directed onto the white clock that the rats were so preciously guarding from it. Both parties just stared at each other inquisitively, their eyes analyzing every movement the other was doing. Truth be told, even though tensions were high, there was no intent of harm coming from either parties.

"Hmmm. To think their descendants became filthy rats. Or, at least, they left them around here as such. Now I know why I couldn't find Stellar when she was in the sewers. This magic nullifier. I thought that they had all been lost to the ages. I guess one remained, but to be put under the guise of a clock? Such craftsponyship would require centuries of training, something ponies do not have. Hmmmm," the shadow hummed as it continued to peacefully stare at the clock.



"What?!" the whole group shouted.

Before the pegasus could put the bag back over the stallion's head, Cadence cried out to suspend the execution momentarily then turned to face Stellar.

"Is that truly your father?"

"Yes! I thought he was dead or something."

"Why would you think that?" Shining asked.

"I...I don't know!"

"Guards! Take her down to meet her father. I want him to see what he created and what he lost because of it. I'm certain we'll also learn about why he did what he did on the night Stellar fled her home."

The two crystal guards standing watch inside came out onto the balcony and gestured Stellar to walk in front of them and through the Crystal Tower. Everypony witnessing the execution were now in a huge brouhaha. Several were discussing what had happened. Others were still regretting Stellar not being the one on the podium instead of the stallion here. It had been years, but many were still sour over the whole ordeal, especially after the formation of the SPS. So many had been imprisoned since that office had been formed, and it made everypony frustrated about how they should feel about their current rulers.

Several minutes of waiting payed off when Stellar reached the huge crowd. The guards spread the first few unaware ponies while the rest soon departed when they realized what had happened. Stellar was still unsure about how she should feel during this whole event, but she was still conscious enough to notice that several of Life's agents were mixed into the crowd. She knew their ways well enough after seeing the train during so many years.

Finally, she was standing in front of the podium, and the crowd soon grew silent. Anger, sadness, and confusion were Stellar's only expressions at this moment. Her father had certainly hit the bedrock, but he definitely broke through that mineral deposit and fell into the void below. His whole coat had changed color and become muddy, dusty, and crusty. Any semblance of original color he once had were gone under the masses of dirt that had been amassed over the years. Stellar could not see his face as the stallion only looked down in shame and regret, and what could have been seen was completely covered y a mass of dangling dreadlocks.

"So, what is it one of the council members wants with me?" he asked with a rough and quiet voice.

"Dad, do you not recognize me?" Stellar begged as she tapped her chest with a hoof.

"Dad? My only child is dead. By my actions. I did not hold my promise to my beloved, and now all I had was destroyed by my giving into fear."

"Look upwards, stallion!" Stellar commanded.

The pony abided and looked at his conversation partner. Shadowrette cringed internally when she saw his face. It might have been hidden, but her father was good at showing a face of joy and tranquility. He looked stable, for what she could remember, but this one. This was just a former shell of her father. There were bags under his bloodshot eyes that had somehow gotten through his fur. Like the rest of his body, his face was tarnished and crusty, although it seemed that the lining of fur underneath his eyes had been imbued with years of crying.

"Stellar? I thought you were dead!" he spoke in a more joyous tone. He even showed some sort of substitute for a smile.

"Wh...What happened to you?"

"After I gave in to the shadows, I met the Grim Reaper who I thought killed me for breaking my promise, then I found myself in that prison. At first, I tried to escape, but then I gave in and thought over my life. Now I'm going to die. Funny how that works, hm?"

"What?! You chased me through the house with a knife! I was lucky that you didn't even reach me at all!"

"Yes. Your shadow buddies are to thank for that."

The crowd erupted in talk at the mention 'shadow buddies'. Who was the prisoner talking about? The shadow ponies?

"Still, I'm glad at least part of my promise wasn't broken."

"...Even now you're more concerned about having kept a promise to my mother than my well being? I...I need some time alone," Stellar said as she walked through the crowd. She was holding her tears but didn't know if she could keep them in before disappearing through the crowd.

"Stellar, wait! I have one last thing to tell you, but I need to say it quietly into your ears. It's a secret," Stellar's father shouted.

She hesitated at first while the crowd watched her, but the mare still turned around, walked onto the podium, then got her ear closer to her father. He licked his lips, smacked them a bit, then whispered:

"They said he would come back because of you. They said you were once his."

Stellar pulled back immediately from the stallion and stared at him, her face a widened mess of shock and disbelief. 

"See? I told you you would ruin everything."

The mare's eyes dotted back and forth between the stallions, but she immediately turned tail and galloped away into the city.

"Hold him down and execute him at once! I want this scum living his last moment with yarn and knitting," Life roared.

The pegasus kicked the stallion behind the head while two guards attached his legs together and wrapped a noose around his neck.

"I'm going into the city to see where Stellar went," Life assured. The group nodded in approval and let him go. 

Stellar's father watched as his daughter fled with hidden tears. Even though the watchers saw him as an evil beast and put their views of the shadow ponies into perspective, there was something else brewing within the pony's mind.

"There. I hurt my own daughter even more just so I could send her that message. Happy?"

"Happy?! Haha! HAPPY?! I'm overjoyed! You did more than just break her spirits."

"Fine. Now let me go from here."

"Mmmmm...no," the voice mocked.

"You promised! I need to go console my daughter!"

"You see, that would cause me some unwanted trouble. Plus, I said 'I' would let you go. The problem is, 'I' am not holding you right now. Thank again for your help, foal."

As for Stellar, she was already deep into the city, uncertain of where she was in her plight. She started to sniff quite loudly, but she couldn't keep it in for long, and tears began to well up in her eyes, blurring her vision.

"Stellar?" a familiar voice asked.

"C-Crystal?" Stellar sniffed as she wiped her eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm deus ex machina-ing," she joked.

"What?"

"Okay. I was sneaking around here hoping to find some jewels dropped. I was hungry and they're expensive. Plus, my little brother is so annoying!"

"You have a little brother?"

"Yes, but let's talk about you? Why are you crying? Did Crunchy turn you down again?"

"No. I'm done with him. What really happened is that I found out my father was imprisoned for a long time in that prison I was trapped in,"

"You mean the one where you found Life?"

"Yes."

"I take it he's the source of everypony disappearing."

"Yeah," Stellar sniffed.

"Then why don't we walk around have a mare's day?"

"But I have to get back to--"

"No, no. We'll walk around." Crystal hugged the crying pony close to her. "We're both in the streets to get away from something bothering us. How about we go to those sewers again to see the clock?"

"You actually WANT to go into the sewers?"

Crystal's smile disappeared when she just realized what she had said. "You're right. That's a stupid idea. Do you know where we could start and talk?"

"There's the store where I got the clock. The owner said I was supposed to come back when I was twelve, and I never did."

"Then let's go see her! You're overdue!"

"But I--"

"We go now," Crystal growled playfully while she pulled Stellar. She stopped just as quickly as she started and rubbed her forehead. "Do you know where the store is?" 

> Sewing Threads
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The two mares arrived in front of Click Clock's Tock Shop and walked inside. The place had barely changed from when Stellar had come here so many years ago. Granted, there were many new clocks everywhere, but their general positioning was the same. Crystal spun around in awe at the appearance of this shop.

"Wow. So you came here when you were little?" Crystal asked with wide eyes.

"Yup."

"And you got a free clock out of it?"

"Yup."

"Can you say anything other than 'yup'?" Crystal frowned.

Stellar acted like she was thinking, then said: "Eee-nope."

Crystal frowned even harder but preferred to roll her eyes and turn away from her friend. She met face-to-face, quite literally, with the owner of the store,w hose clock eyes were directly staring at the dragoness.

"Wow. A dragon-pony hybrid. I never thought that was biologically possible. This world is just more and more interesting," Click Clock said as she started to walk around Clarity. 

She began to analyze the mare's every scale and even lifted her tail for a better look. Naturally, Crystal didn't like that and proceeded to turn around and punch the purple pony in the face. Strangely, said pony blocked the punch with one hoof rather effortlessly then trotted back behind her counter as if nothing ever happened. Crystal just looked at her hoof in confusion then turned to face Stellar.

"Wha..."

"She's weird like that. Just...Just don't try and think too much about it," Stellar sighed.

"So, you didn't visit me when you were twelve," Click Clock scolded while taking a swig from her jug.

"Eheheh...I had a bit of...trouble..." Stellar shied away and moved her hoof in small, circular motions on the ground.

"Well, I know what happened anyways."

The mare jolted up and stared at the purple pony in disbelief. "Wh-You do? How?!" Stellar asked.

"I have my secrets!" Click Clock chuckled. "Anyways, since we skipped a level, we'll finally go to the final boss."

"What are you talking about?" Crystal turned to her friend and said, aloud: "She's crazy. Why do you hang out with her?"

"I don't 'hang out' with her. She helped me before and gave me a gift, so the least I could do was come visit her."

"Speaking of 'gifts', how is my clock doing?"

Stellar's ears flattened against her head and she began to feel shameful. Click Clock took another swig and smiled.

"Left in the sewers?"

"Yes. I wanted to it to the new home for shadow ponies, but the rats wanted to keep it. Since they were friendly enough, I left it with them."

Click Clock looked into her mug and tilted it around a bit. She was almost out of Demon's Blood.

"Yes. The 'rats'. Anyways-" Clock slammed her jug on the counter. "-Come with me to the back room. It's time I gave you a 'present'."

"Present?"

Crystal was about to stop her friend, but Click Clock anticipated the move and said:

"Ah! There's no tricks here. You can trust me. Besides, why don't come along for the ride? I assure you it will be fun."

Stellar looked at the dragoness with pleading eyes, and with a sigh, this one gave in and followed the two ponies reluctantly. Once Click Clock closed the door, Stellar and Clarity could see that this was just a small room with a window covered in white fabric so no one could peer inside.

"...So?" Stellar said.

"What 'so'?"

"What are you going to show me?"

"Show you what?"

Stellar was getting frustrated, but Crystal had small bouts of smoke emanate from her nostrils as her anger rose to the point of evaporating everything around her. Click Clock tapped her chin, then looked like she had 'suddenly' come to a realization.

"So, you want to know why ponies often come to me for 'psychological' help?" Click Clock grinned.

"N-" 

"Great!"

Crystal was stunned by the interruption, but both mares were more stunned when a giant, intangible clock appear in the air. It was golden, like Click Clock's eyes, and transparent. Its hands started to spin faster and faster before it collapsed backwards into a tunneling vortex of blue energy. The two mares stared at the event with wide eyes. What was it.

"This is a gift, so you have no choice in whether or not you want to go in or not," Click Clock said.

She swooped in behind the two ponies and pushed them in despite their protests. Stellar and Crystal hugged each other tightly during their fall complete with screaming and panicking! Click Clock, meanwhile, was just laying back and watching the two ponies scream, much to her amusement.

"Can you stop screaming? We're here now."

The two opened their eyes to see that they were somewhere unknown. Somewhere 'new' yet 'old'. They were still floating, but the entire landscape looked like a snowy blizzard seen through a glass bowl. Long, serpentine wisps of white would gently 'swim' through this place while the world gently twisted and turned everywhere. It was just a huge mixture of white, gray, and very light blue. It was as if one were swimming in their dreams while listening to a gentle hum in the air.

"Where are we?" Stellar asked.

"We're in the Dream World: My home," Click Clock answered with a smile.

"Home? What do you mean by 'home'?" Crystal asked with suspicion.

Click Clock chuckled. "You didn't seriously think that I was actually a pony, did you? What kind of being has golden clocks for eyes?" The purple pony readjusted her cloak and her appearance while she spoke.

"But I thought only Princess Luna could come here."

"Ugh. Yes. Luna. While she does indeed possess the ability to travel here and has a tendency to safeguard ponies' minds, the Dream Circlet doesn't approve of her methods. She tends to interfere when she isn't supposed to and banishes nightmares."

Crystal scratched her head. "Isn't it good that she banishes them?"

Click Clock rotated around to look at Crystal with anger. "No! Those nightmares are made to help them get over their fears. We have a group that takes care of rogue nightmares that aren't supposed to be, anyways!"

"Yeesh. Sorry. I didn't know."

Click Clock mumbled under her breath but had her attention turned to Stellar when the mare put her hoof on Clock's shoulder.

"Why did you take me to a place of dreams?"

"Because, in the Dream World, all minds are connected together, and time has no meaning. This means that you can speak with those of the future, those of the past, and those of realities other than your own."

"So? That sounds amazing, but what does that have to do with my 'present'?" Stellar asked.

Click Clock looked over her shoulder and smiled. The group was sent flying through the world, the lights and colors departing like mist and smoke. The serpents of light followed the bubble the three were now in, and some would even swirl around it a few times before moving on. At one point, a black serpent with a more polygonal appearance came around and started to get in a fight with one of the white strands before getting beaten away.

"What are those things?" Stellar asked.

"These are dreams. They go around the dream world giving dreams to entities of all the times. The white ones are calm and passive and will often follow my kind through this world. As for the black ones..." Click Clock sighed and looked to the side in irritation. "Those are nightmares. As you can see, they're very aggressive, which is why I have to direct them where they're supposed to go instead of randomly about."

"But sometimes they escape you," Crystal interjected.

"Yes."

"Then it's a good thing that Princess Luna helps."

"She can't differentiate the good and the bad nightmares. I'm done talking about that. It's a sensitive subject. Now, for the reason I brought Stellar here, look forward."

The serpentine constructs quickly bolted forward and around what looked like a soft, golden light kept within a tiny ring of rolling, white clouds. The clouds were wrapped by the serpents and pulled apart to show the inside of Stellar's house illuminated by a golden sun of Autumn. She didn't recognize everything in the house, but she could see a mare cleaning the shelves of the living room.

"Who is that?" Stellar wondered as she squinted hard. "That's my house, but I don't recognize that pony."

Crystal was about to tell her friend when Click Clock pushed her foreleg, shook her head from side, and tskd.

"Let it come to her. This is a very delicate gift," she whispered.

Clarity nodded and looked at the scenery with concern and empathetic sadness. It actually took longer than usual, but Stellar's eyes suddenly widened open with surprise and tears.

"Is that?"

"Yes."

"I...I'm glad I got to see what she looked like. This is good enough a present for me," Stellar sniffed heavily.

Click Clock chuckled. "Why are you using past tense? This is your mother eight months before she gave birth to you. Like this, she won't be surprised Why don't you enter the dream and talk to her?"

There was a long silence before the purple pony got tired and signaled one of the serpents to grab her, which it did after breaking off the circle and sneaking below the bubble. It grabbed a surprised pony and threw her into the dream whose surface became small ripples.

"Wow," Crystal said.

"What?"

"She's been on a big, emotional roller coaster today."

"What do you mean?"

"Well..."
> I love you
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before Stellar knew what was going on, she was now in front of the door to her house. There was nothing around her house but white space with a golden outline. She wished she could just get out of here and gallop back to Click Clock. She really did, but now it was too late. Looking at the door, her heart began to race, cold beads of sweat began to pearl upon her skin, and she could feel something gripping her neck. The night of her escape began to rush towards her, the still images flashing before her eyes. Unfortunately, it was too late to back away now, so the mare hesitantly stretched her foreleg forward towards the door handle. She never felt so stressed before. 

Without her noticing, Stellar found herself back in her house which was filled with a golden light.

"H-huh? How did I get in here? I didn't even open the door," she said as she looked behind her.

"Is someone there? Please, come in. I'm just cleaning the living room."

Stellar didn't how to feel right now. She was very stressed and very uncertain how to feel about all this despite what was taken to reach this point. That wasn't the weirdest in the mare's mind, for some incomprehensible reason. Each step she took applied more and more pressure on the mare's body. It was as if she was being pulled down by some stronger force that didn't want her to see what she wanted to see. Maybe she wasn't supposed to? No! She had to see her mother. 

Stepping into the living room, Stellar felt at ease in this place. The coffee table, couches, and shelves were still in the same place, and the couch was still underneath the window where the mare's father would often read her stories and tell her tales about her mother. A few tears swelled up in the pony's eyes, but she pushed them back down and continued with her observations. There was a mare cleaning the shelves with a feather brush. Her coat was a cinnamon-vanilla and her mane and tail, both stylized to look like curly cream, were vanilla colored. This pony turned to look at Stellar with a smile, revealing the banana-yellow of her eyes. Her cutie mark was that of a freshly cut lily, just recently opened and letting several long stems out into the sunny sky.

The mare was smiling when she turned, although this changed to fright when she dropped her feather broom on the floor, followed by her rear.

"S-S-S-Sombra?! Wh-wh-what are you doing here?!" she stuttered.

"I...I'm not..."

"Tell me! Why are you here? What do you want?!"

Stellar's vision began to tear up and she just ended up crying. She never cried so much before in her life. After her injury, it took a lot more pain to make her even react. No matter the situation, she would never cry, but here...it was another story. Today, the tears just kept coming.

"I'm not Sombra!" she wailed.

Stellar's mother was taken aback by this sudden reaction. This was definitely Sombra. It had to be. Yet...this one was a mare...and a young one at that. Stranger still, was that she was still surrounded by light given by the sun outside. Sombra had a tendency to block it out with his darkness and crystals. This one did no such things. Even though she was confused, the mare slowly approached the crying one and, after a brief hesitation, wrapped her forelegs around the crying pony and cooed her with soft words.

"There, there. It's okay."

"I'm tired of everypony calling me Sombra! Ever since I was little I've been attacked and pushed away because of it. Princess Cadance and General Shining Armor told me who he was, and I'm not him! I don't want to be him!"

"What?"

Stellar didn't say much after that, but it was enough for Click Clock to sigh in irritation. She needed to intervene somehow. Lucid dreaming was always the best method, so she signaled one of the serpents to wrap themselves around the source of the dream to allow lucid perception. After a few seconds of constricting the base, Stellar's mother started to look around in curiosity, then looked back at the crying mare. She backed away slightly, then rubbed her swollen stomach.

"Oh. This is a dream?"

"Huh?" Stellar wiped her eyes. "Oh. Yes. It is."

"Then who are you?"

"I'm Stellar Shadowrette."

"Stellar Shadowrette? That sounds like...a funny name. I like it a lot."

Stellar chuckled slightly.

"Say, what are you doing in my dreams?"

"W-well...You're my mom." 

Stellar braced herself for a loud yell, although it never came. All she saw was her moher looking at her with widened eyes and a tilted head. They weren't even angry eyes. They were more eyes of curiosity than anything else.

"So I give birth to a corrupt pony?"

"I...We're called Shadow Ponies now."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Princess Cadance and General Shining Armor instilled that term."

"They know? How did that happen?"

"Well, I kind of...caused a jailbreak with other ponies of my kind that were locked below the Crystal Tower," Stellar chuckled nervously.

"I see...It's really...I never really thought much of the...What did you call yourself again?"

"Shadow ponies."

"Right. I never thought much of them. I figured everypony else just mistreated them because they're all deathly afraid of Sombra."

The mare offered Stellar to sit on the yellow couch with her, which Shadowrette gladly accepted.

"How are you here, anyways?"

"I'm not allowed to tell."

"Right. Why did you come to see me, anyways?"

"Because..." Stellar trailed off. Her mother understood perfectly, however.

"I see. Well, that's how life is. You take a rental and, eventually, you need to bring it back. By the way, my name is Lilyanne."

"Really? Dad never really called you by name."

"Huh. I guess he would be more affected than you. However, I see that you've grown into a fine young mare. I bet that, now that the royal couple knows about you, you're being assaulted by every stallion, huh?" Lilyanne nudged her daughter.

Stellar blushed strongly and stuttered: "N-no!"

"Haha! You're so cute when you blush!" Lilyanne laughed.

Stellar pouted and crossed her forelegs. "It's not funny."

"I'm just teasing. So. Tell me. What happened to you during all these years."

"Well-"

While Stellar explained her life to her mother while avoiding the tale of her father's sudden insanity and later encounter, Click Clock just watched the events unfolding in front of her with a smile. Crystal wasn't as emotional, but she did feel a similar sentiment deep below her exterior. 

"So, is this going to go on for long?" Crystal asked.

"Only as long as the dreamer still dreams."

"And how long can that take?"

"Who knows? Dreams do not follow the basic form of time. It could be years in here before she wakes up then."

"Really? Say, are the dreams and moments of everypony all here?"

"You're wondering about the alicorn sisters?"

"Kinda." Crystal's gaze rolled to the side.

Click Clock just laughed. "Yes. You can see them when they were tiny fillies."

The dragoness chuckled mischievously to herself, but her evil grin faded away when she looked up to see a black serpent twitching around violently and painfully in random positions as if it were teleporting.

"Hey, what's that serpent doing?"

"What serpent?"

Crystal pointed towards the twitching serpent. It twitched right next to the white serpents keeping the dream open and ripped them off of it before wrapping itself all around the dream itself. Almost immediately, the golden light began to fade to darkness with a thunder storm erupting outside the house. Small black crystals started to grow all over the walls and floor, scaring Stellar and Lilyanne.

"Wait, that's an unexpected nightmare. It's not meant to be there! I'll need to destroy it immediately!"

Click Clock was about to jump out of the bubble when Crystal put a hoof on her shoulder and prevented her from moving.

"Not without me," the dragoness exclaimed.

Click Clock nodded and and grabbed her before jumping out of the bubble while Stellar and her mother were looking around in fear.

"Wh-what's going on?!" Lilyanne yelled.

"I don't know! This wasn't supposed to happen! And what's with all these crystals?"

A banging came on the door before a loud cracking noise erupted from it. Several wooden shards, small and big, bounced off the wall opposite the entrance, leaving quite the mess everywhere. Stellar gulped painfully in the silence that came with the door being destroyed. The only thing that could now be heard was the clipping and clopping of hooves hitting the hard tiles on the floor. Every step applied an increasing amount of pressure onto both mares, and the black crystals around reacted by growing bigger and bigger with every passing millisecond. Then, the sounds stopped when a figure started to turn around the corner. 

"I-i-i-i-it's K-K-King Sombra!" Lilyanne stuttered.

"Wh-what?!"

The 'mighty' King chuckled and stepped forward with a devilish grin etched upon his face. Black smog emanated from his royal cape as he approached the two mares without hesitation.

"Yes. I am your King. Submit, subject!" he ordered.

Lilyanne was about to give in when Stellar stepped in front of him, cutting off the stallion's view of the vanilla mare.

"No. I have had it with you and your bad deeds being thrown onto me!  won't have you hurt my own mother, either!" Stellar said with a hoof stomp.

"Hahaha! What is this? A female version of me? How amusing! And this pony is your mother?" The stallion's smile twisted into some sort of monstrous shape. His lips took on the appearance of a fanged mouth, but his teeth could not be seen behind them. "She gives birth to a reincarnated version of me. Haha! Excellent! Then you will carry out the deeds that I tell you to do! If it is my will, it is your will! And YOU!" he pointed to the vanilla mare. "You will be good and take proper care of your, shall we say, 'queen'. You are just meant to bare me and take care of me during my youth. Then; you will be sent to construction duty to build statues of my being," he said as he proudly put a hoof to his chest.

"No! She will do no such thing, and neither will I!" Stellar shouted.

"Oh really now? What do you say of this scenario?"

Stellar was now wearing Sombra's cape and armor and was standing over a corrupt Crystal Kingdom. There were statues of her everywhere as well as pillars of black crystals. One of the statues showed her ending the lives of a horrified and beaten Cadance and Shining Armor while Stellar's mother was strapped to a wall behind her and covered with whip marks. Sombra walked to Lilyanne and said:

"You see what will happen if she is allowed to live? To be born? You must remove her from your womb immediately, or else she will come to be and destroy everything you love. You won't even be treated with love yourself."

"I...I..." 

Lilyanne didn't know what to say of this situation. She had never had to deal with such stress. Was this really a dream? Was this a nightmare? She didn't truly know, but a bright light broke through the thick storm clouds above and shouted

"Enough! This is a dream meant to reunite mother and daughter! It is not one for you to destroy!"

Crystal Clarity dropped from the sky and landed perfectly on the balcony, only to turn her head and belch white fire at the Sombra standing next to LIlyanne. The dragoness immediately broke Stellar's mother out of her cuffs and pulled her away from the nightmare. Sombra coughed and stood up with some difficulty.

"You...You thing you can stop the inevitable? Every possibility co,verges to this point. You can't stop it!"

"That's not how time works, nightmare," spoke a being floating down from the sky.

It looked as clear and beautiful as the Dream World, although it actually had a shape. It had no legs. Instead, these looked like a small, spiraling assembly of smoky threads evaporating when they would reach their end. The top portion was thin at the bottom but large at the top, somewhat resembling an upside down triangle with inconsistent sizes. The being possessed four large and long arms with three fingers each. Two were placed on each side. The head itself was not properly viewable, although Stellar thought she could see it as being somewhat 'aerodynamic'. The face, possessing four eyes with a uniform color of white smoke, seemed small but the top of the head rounded back towards a thread of smoke similar to the base of the body. 

It punched Sombra through the wall and started to pummel him into everything around it while letting beams of light erupt from its hands and strike it into the chest several times. After a few minutes of this, the whole dream returned to its golden hue in Stellar's home. Everyone was there in the living room, although two gazes were directed towards the smoky being.

"It's Click Clock," Crystal sighed and frowned.

"Wow. You truly have outdone yourself. You have many friends, two of them being here. One is a dragon-pony hybrid, and the other is a...a...a thing..." Lilyanne's hoof lowered.

"You aren't disturbed by what you just saw?"

"I know this is a dream, so that was only fear trying to take hold of me. I'm not stupid."

"So what now?"

"Well, I might wake up, but I'll wake up know the little foal I make will become great things. You shouldn't cry about what you want through, Stellar. You just need to know that everything you went through made you stronger and made you what you are today. You should be proud of your accomplishments."

"I never got to see you in pony let alone know how I would have lived if I grew up with you and...dad."

"Stellar," Lilyanne scolded. "as the cliché goes, I've always been with you, and I could never be prouder. Your actions standing against something even I feared showed that you have become a very strong mare. Plus, you have friends that will back you up and help you no matter what happens."

"Thanks, mom," Stellar said as she embraced her mother in a big hug.

"She's going to wake up, Stellar. It's time to go. I'll make sure she doesn't forget any of this," Click Clock said.

"Don't forget Stellar; I'm watching you. I bet you already have a stallion that you like," Lilyanne giggled.

"Mooooom!" Stellar groaned.

The last thing Stellar got to see was her mother waving goodbye as she gradually moved farther and farther from the dream before it eventually faded away. Click Clock was still in her strange form, although she was focused on directing the bubble. Stellar cleared her throat and looked at the creature with a smile.

"Thanks for this, Click Clock I never thought you could be such a good friend."

The once-pony looked at Stellar from the corner of her eyes and smiled in return. Today was a good day.

> Indiscreet
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stellar and Crystal walked out of the clock store with Click Clock watching them from the entrance of her shop. The two mares had a long talk about what Click Clock truly was, and the talk actually was interesting. It turned out that she was an ancient entity that watched the Dream Realm, as she mentioned herself quite often. She came to Equestria for a bit of 'vacation' for a week or two, which equated to sixty-five million years, rounded up, for the common pony. Fortunately, she was one of many million, so she had nothing special about her. That is, she did seem to regress when thinking of her past. She was hiding something, but Stellar didn't care. She was finally feeling a true sense of joy.

"Stellar?" a stallion called out.

Life jumped out of a corner, looking around in a panic and panting. When he spotted Stellar, he immediately went next to her and sighed in relief, although this didn't solve his lack of oxygen.

"Oh. You're here. Thank goodness. I thought you would have disappeared or hurt yourself or something."

Crystal looked closely at his face, analyzing it for a short while. Click Clock decided to butt in at this precise moment by shouting, as loud as she could:

"Ha! He likes Stellar."

Her voice was loud enough for three blocks to hear. The stallion slowly moved aside of Stellar, his face slowly coming into view of the purple pony leaning against the doorway and holding a mug of alcohol. His face of disapproval slowly morphed into that of horror when he saw what she looked like. She just lift her mug to him, smiled, and took another swig of her elixir.

"I do like her, but as a friend."

Crystal erupted in laughter and looked at Click Clock. Tears of laughter were pouring from her eyes like an open faucet.

"He does like her," Crystal laughed.

Life's tomato meter rose to an astounding level that day, and not only did his face turn the deepest red you ever did 'saw', but the cracks along his fur grew as bright as the lava veins of an active volcano. Stellar said nothing. Instead, she moved uncomfortably close to his face, her breath just mere millimeters away from his left cheek. Every exhale made him stiffen up like a marble statue of Ancient Crease, and his face began to darken to a black hue, and his fur began to tingle and straighten up from stress. Every second that passed forced many questions and thoughts through Life's mind as Stellar slowly opened her mouth, making a gross clicking noise done when someone opens their mouth with their tongue on the roof.

"Blah!" Stellar said.

The mare had stuck her tongue out and spun her eyes as a way to amuse herself and startle Life. His breathing became a still work of muscle movement. The black mare hopped away in a foal-like manner, but also hinting at something else. Crystal looked at her with an amused grin and a cocked eyebrow and returned to looking at Life who hadn't moved at all.

"What's the matter? Life?" she wondered as she poked him. "She broke you. Ha! Wait until I tell this to Cadence!" The mare turned and pretending to gallop away, but barely had she stepped a few feet away that she turned around, expecting him to be angry and chasing after her. She was disappointed. "Pfff. I think he really stressed her out completely. I'll go tell Cadence anyways."

Life was left in the street alone. Well, he would be alone if Click Clock wasn't still leaning against the entry of her shop and drinking her brew. Only a few coughs from her part broke the silence, but only for a brief moment. Really. Nothing much happened, but it wasn't weighing on the purple pony at all. She could, quite literally, stay there and watch, which is what she did.

"Hem," she cleared her throat. "Just gonna stand there all day?" she asked Life. The stallion didn't answer. While he remained silent and immobile, Click Clock pushed her head forward and looked down the various streets. "You know, people are going to come soon. That execution thingy is over and there's not much else to do...Hello? Okay." Click Clock shrugged. "I'll just wait here to trim your leaves once you've taken root."

Back at the Crystal Tower, the crowd had practically completely dispersed with a few stragglers still standing around and discussing with the guards. Quite a few more were inspecting the execution stand, confusion reigning in their thoughts. Crunchy was looking around in confusion until Stellar finally came back. The stallion rushed to her whilst calling her name at the same time.

"Stellar! You're back."

"What's going on? What happened to my dad's...well..."

"That's the thing. He wasn't executed," Crunchy exclaimed.

Stellar's ears perked up and her eyes widened with a hidden joy. She shouldn't be happy, but she was. Deep within her, she still loved her father, but she could never forgive him for what he did, or rather, what he tried to do to her. She had to know.

"What happened to him?"

"We don't know. He just...when the blade came down, he was engulfed by a weird black, smokey goo. Nopony has managed to find him and we've searched high and low."

"Did you try the prison?"

"Yes. That's the first place we looked."

Stellar tapped her chin and frowned slightly. "I knew he'd do something like this. It's definitely like him."

"He yelled in horror and begged for us to save him from that...thing, but it was too late. He was gone."

"Oh. I'm not sure how I should feel about this." Stellar put a hoof to her chin and turned away slightly, worry besetting her features.

"I don't know either. He's not my father, but I wouldn't be proud of having such an individual as my parents."

While the two continued to speak about the incident, Crystal started sneaking around the various benches, crystal pillars, and ponies while on her way to see Cadance. When Crunchy caught sight of her, she gestured for him to ignore her. The stallion's response was a head shake and an eye roll.

"What?" Stellar asked.

"Nothing. One of the guards tripped and fell onto a few others."

"I want to see--"

"No." Crunchy grabbed Stellar's head in his hooves and forced her gaze back to him. "You don't want to embarrass them further, do you?"

"N-no."

"Good."

Finally home free, the dragoness quickly scampered up the stairs to the throne room, hoping to see Cadance there. The guards were few within the castle-tower, so she didn't have much difficulty going through it. They wouldn't recognize her despite being the daughter of the 'Hero'. When she saw they weren't there, she scampered quickly to the balcony where both Cadance and Shining were standing and talking.

"Princess Cadance!" Crystal shouted when she opened the doors.

"Crystal Clarity? Wat are you doing here?" Shining asked.

The mare's eagerness quickly devolved into a sort of shame with her rubbing her foreleg.

"I kinda...ran away from home to get a break from my little brother. I'm still looking for a university, and he's just annoying."

"Crystal," Cadence spoke in disapproval. "Well, I'll tell your parents you're here."

"I'm an adult, Cadence." Crystal frowned.

"You're still under their guardianship until you officially leave their home and acquire your own, first property as well as a job."

"I know." 

"Still, what is it?"

"Life has a crush on Stellar."

Cadence's serious expression immediately turned into that of a giddy school filly talking about 'stahleons, oh my gosh'. Her eyes radiated and sparkled, and she even gave a little squeal of delight. Shining just whispered 'oh no' and facehoofed. 

"So, what happened?"

"Well--"



The Grinning Shadow watched Stellar smile while talking to Crunchy. While she was pleased, and Crunchy seemed satisfied with her change of emotion, the shadow was not, and it gnawed on its nonexistent nails. It even ground the 'nail' by moving its lower jaw from side to side in frustration.

"Unacceptable! How did she suddenly become so positive and happy? I was certain that she would have remained broken from the trauma of seeing her father in that whole set. I would have been able to finalize everything! Curses! Wait...Maybe she's the one who saved him? No. That's not it. The shadows didn't do anything, and they wouldn't have saved him anyways. My whole plans have been ruined! Now I need to resort to plan C. The brute method is horrid, and I hate it, but I'll need to try it as much as I can. I've almost gathered enough energy...I just need to peel off a bit more from the residents here."



"He what?" Cadence laughed.

"Yeah. He's been stuck there the whole time. He hasn't moved. At least, I don't think he moved since we left him there."

"That's so cute, but, did Stellar do anything when she walked away from him?"

"She looked over her shoulder and looked at me while smiling."

Cadence rubbed her chin pensively. "Did her tail flicker a bit when she left?"

"Ummm...Yeah. A bit."

"I see."

"What, is that good or bad?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out," Cadence teased with a wink.

Crystal simply frowned.
> In the pink shade
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cadence and Crystal Clarity were inside of Cadence's 'War Chamber' built inside a small wing of the tower. The room had been remade to look like a circular tower similar to the ones of Canterlot Castle.  However, unlike the ones at Canterlot Castle, this one did not have a huge hole going through the center of several different floors. Instead, it had many pictures of a wide variety of ponies that Crystal had both seen and never seen in her with a wide assortment. The pictures were all taped to the walls and various different colors interconnecting several of them to each other. Several tables were placed in a fashion that they followed the shape of the room. These pieces of furniture were covered with various notes of tiny squares of paper as well as several stacks of neatly organized sheets of white paper. Many sat in trays holding stacks of paper labeled 'refused', 'possibility', 'certainty', 'unsure' and various other things.

Cadence walked towards a giant wood cupboard whose contents could be seen through the windows placed in its plain doors. Crystal was already disturbed by all of this, but when Cadence took one of the several overfull folders; a green one in particular, then slammed it on the table, Crystal threw her head back with an appalled expression. The mare started to flap eagerly through the folder hoping not to attract the ire of the dragoness, but she already saw herself on one of the pages.

"Hey! What was that?" she demanded.

"I don't know what you're talking about?" Cadence lied with a smile.

"I saw myself on one of the pages. Let me see."

Crystal and Cadence were now vying for control over the contents of the folder. It ended up looking like a comedic scenario from a comic book. The folder was tossed, turned, flipped, spun, and given fancy clothing. The two mares performed some sort of aggressive ballet dance involving pulling each other back, dodging, pushing the other into a various assortment of objects. The guards waiting outside of the room were worried about what was going on inside and were stressing quite heavily, but they knew the princess all too well and kept their instincts in check, no matter how painful it was. When the Olympian competition was finally over, Crystal was standing atop a pile of books, the folder held in her hoof high above her head. She was panting from exhaustion and her mane was a mess, but she had the folder.

"Ha! I got it. Now, let's see what you were trying to hide from me." 

Crystal eagerly licked her lips and slowly pried the container open, letting her success come as a revelry to her eyes. Cadence was on the floor and suffering the same physical ills as the dragoness, but she did not falter.

"Wait. Why am I letting her get away with this? I'm an alicorn," Cadence thought to herself.

Her horn glowed a bright pink and surrounded Crystal and the folder, separating them after a bit of force was applied. Cadence skipped 'delicately' back towards the table and glanced at the floating dragoness with a smirk. Clarity pouted and bared her teeth. Flames began to spark out from the sides of her mouth like a rising wave.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"And why not?"

"Because we're surrounded by flammable objects. What would happen were you to light them and we couldn't put them out in time?"

Crystal looked around a bit, then let her ears droop onto her head. She was pouting and had her forelegs crossed in disapproval.

"Fine, but I want to know why I'm in that book."

"I'll tell you soon enough," Cadence said while lowering Crystal to the floor.

The dragoness wiped the debris off of her and straightened her mane as she asked Cadence:

"So, what is all this? Your stalker collection?"

Cadence sarcastically laughed in response. "You're lucky I have a sense of humor, but you are right...in a way."

"What do you mean?"

"My sister gave me a census of all ponies that have been accounted for in her kingdom, allowing me to take into account what I know about them and form eventual perfect couples with each other. I am the alicorn of love, after all." Cadence put a hoof to her chest and raised her head with pride.

Crystal just looked at the pink pony with irritation and some apathy.

"So why are we here?"

"Well, I'm here to see if Life and Stellar are truly fit for each other, and since you know a bit more about Stellar's mind than most of us do--"

"Woah! I never said anything like that. We've just known each other for, perhaps, a week's time in total over the years. I don't know anything about her."

Cadence started to levitate several sheets of paper, quills, and ink pots towards the desk while taking off two pictures from the wall with her magic. "But your subconsciousness does. You've seen her enough times in emotion driven moments so you have certainly been able to analyze at least a few of her traits and physical movements when under duress."

"And what about you? You've known her and Life far longer than I do."

Cadence coughed a little at the remark. "Well while I do know about her past, I don't actually have much free time to talk to her." The alicorn rubbed the back of her in regret. "Our talks have been...spastic, at best."

"Okay." Crystal looked around then grabbed a pile of books and pulled the construct down onto a flatter pile of them. The dragoness climbed the pile, flattened it out, then nuzzled herself comfortably on the books. "So, what do you want to know?"

"Oh, the little things. Her quirks. Her personality. Her likes and dislikes. I have my own little group of guards that will take care of discovering what Life likes." Cadence stuck her tongue out in a bid to look cute, but Crystal wouldn't have it.

"Well, we both know they already had a very traumatizing past and no longer have a family. Both are very secluded and aren't very sociable, but Stellar seems to be more open than Life. It's like she's trying to prevent others from going through what she did, but she can't help but be passive-aggressive with everypony who isn't a shadow pony."

"I see. When I think about it, during our few meetings together, I've noticed Life getting positioned closer and closer to Stellar, as if predicting where she'll sit next. While he is very closed to most everypony and pushes them out of his 'zone', he seems to become more lighthearted near Stellar."

"He's becoming gentle around her?! The stallion known as the most ruthless of ponies in the Crystal Kingdom?!"

Cadence nodded.

"Heheheh. I should call him 'Little Lamb' just to tease him."

Cadence bopped the dragoness on the nose with her magic and shook her head.

"No. I just need to start planning the encounters and how to get them to admit their feelings for each other if it's not only physical."
"S...Seriously? Really? Not just physical? Have you seen Life? He looks like the Kimbabwe volcano in Zebrika after three consecutive eruptions. And Stellar? She looks like Sombra after a gender changing spell. I mean, she might have a bizarrely feminine figure that could attract most males, but I think her clear resemblance to Sombra scares them off." Crystal thought pensively to herself.

Cadence twisted herself to look at Crystal with a lifted eyebrow but still have the rest of her body facing the table.

"What?"

"Are you jealous?"

"No. I'm just stating the obvious. She has the physical appearance that many of the stupid stallions always go for without looking for the personality."

Cadence's lips slowly lowered down and she nodded in disheartened agreement. "That's pretty true. I noticed that too."

"So, what's the plan?"

"I'm thinking."

"I still find this all to be completely ridiculous."

"It's still my job. I've gotten several couples together, after all."

"Riiiiiight."


It was night time now, and a mare and her husband were sleeping in their bed together. All seemed quiet and rather tame until the sounds of a frightening, whispering gale flew through their house. The two immediately awoke and looked around to find the source, but there was nothing.

"Foalish crystal ponies. They shine but are not bright. They think that I have not returned, yet I walk amongst them every day now. I will feast upon your fears and turn you into my ripe slaves, as you once were."

The two ponies screamed in terror and ran out of their house onto the streets. Their first instinct was to scream, obviously, but their second was to flee for the guards. The grinning shadow rose from behind the bed's wooden plate head and just looked into the void with a stunned expression.

"Huh. I didn't think it would be that easy. They are really stupid, these ones, but they gave me a good trickle of fear. Maybe I should impersonate more. Causing a coma through fear would be an excellent way to obtain energy, and I could probably instill enough for them to all turn against Stellar just to reenact my plans.

Hmmm. There is the hospital of sick foals and ponies that I could attack. They are all in one place and will be so easy to corrupt. Perhaps they will die as well, but there are always more to replace them. Oh, it might seem 'easy' and cliché, but easy is always the most amusing method. Soon, little Stellar, my 'foalhood friend'. Soon."
> The sun finally rises
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It took at least two days to plan everything, but Cadence was ready to enact her plan. She was certain that the best thing these two would need was a special somepony, and Stellar and Life were definitely perfect for each other. First, the two needed to be free of all responsibilities. Luckily, Stellar was always, technically, off-duty considering what she would do when looking for abandoned shadow ponies. The pink pony even managed to force Life into a day of resting after having a few of the SPS members forge reports that he was overworking himself. Ironically, had the mare actually payed closer attention to Life, she would have known that forging was unnecessary.

The supposedly emotionless stallion was walking around the city, just to kill time, but was unaware that his path was being deviated by several ponies wearing skin tight outfits and blending into the background. Cadence really took this sort of thing seriously. Elsewhere, Stellar was looking out for any foals wandering the streets. She was in the slums, after all. Cadence and Armor still had difficulty readjusting the fiscal equality of everypony, so the slums were still an issue. The buildings were tall, the streets were dirty, and lines of drying clothes hung above the streets.

A an old mare seemed uncaring for the dangers that could be held within these streets and just remained in her rocking chair outside of a tall apartment. Her entire body was covered with a gray coat to protect from any eventual rain, but her faded blue fur and yellow eyes could still be seen through it, unlike many individuals wearing clothing with cowls. As Stellar continued to walk around innocently, casually observing the landscape and trying to find any other shadow ponies, she was interrupted by the elderly mare calling for her.

"Excuse me, young miss, but have you happened a cat with purple fur?"

"Purple fur?" Stellar wondered loudly.

"Yes. It is a rare...breed, shall we say."

"No, I haven't, but I'm kind of busy right now."

"I can see that, but an old pony like me can see more than that. You're getting a spark in your heart. I can see it," the old mare teased as she rocked back and forth.

"That's kind of a personal thing to talk about, especially with somepony I don't even know," Stellar scorned.

The old mare nodded and put a hoof out in acceptance. "True, but I don't think you want to live alone for the rest of your life, and this would be a good occasion to tear away from all the hassle of paper work."

Stellar rolled her eyes in annoyance. It was obvious she wasn't getting away from this pony, so she reluctantly sat in front of the chair to see what exactly it is this pony had to say.

"So?"

"So what?"

"I thought you wanted to talk?"

"I do."

"Then when are you going to start?"

The elderly mare giggled at the impatient pony's need for speed and calmly said: "Just because you're young does not mean that you must rush and race during this time. You'll just use it all up even faster. Why not sit next to me and relax. Take in the scenery."

Stellar looked behind her and observed the surroundings, much to her irritation. "What surroundings? You mean this broken, down dump? The sewers were better."

The old granny's face of bliss turned into that of insult. "I'll have you know that I've lived in these parts since I was a young foal. They might be a tad...run down since those days, but everything can have beauty in it if you look closely. You just need to appreciate it for what it is. In these buildings, young foals gallop playfully and grow with their brothers and sisters. Not everypony had to go through what you shadow ponies did."

"What are you trying to get at?"

"Just because you grew up alone doesn't mean you need to continue like this. I can tell it is not within you to live out your days in the shadows of loneliness. You might seem tough on the outside, but you are frail and wounded on the inside. Wouldn't you have somepony hug you and nurture you with all their love? Especially if that pony is willing?" the mare grinned.

"Wh-what? No! Psch. I don't need that sort of thing."

Stellar looked away half-heartedly and her voice oscillated in volume several times while protesting against the old granny's claims, but the old pony wasn't done embarrassing this filly. Even if it was just to play around. "So you're saying that you have nopony in mind?'

"What does it matter to you?" the angry mare turned around with a puffed up face.

"Huehue. I'm only teasing."



Many things were going through Life's mind at the moment, many involving confusion on his point of view of Stellar. He was already enamored by her -ahem- 'good looks' when he first saw her, but he did not know her in any manner. Now that they've been working closer to each other, he's gotten to know much more about her. He knows what she likes, what she hates. He knows so much about her, and both shared their pasts after discovering that they had both gone through some tumultuous times during their foalhood. Life simply went further into the pit of murk, but he came out stronger in mind, body, and soul. He wouldn't let himself become some sort of pitiful creature wallowing in self pity like so many he had heard about.

"Do I love her, or do I not? Is it just appreciation? A friendship-type love? I don't know anymore? What do I say? Cadence is far too creepy and seemingly obsessed with these sort of things to let it go. I'm wondering if she's planning anything and if these feelings are part of her powers." Life stopped for a moment and gnawed his front hoof a little bit to 'destress' himself.

Before he could come to a proper conclusion, he already saw Stellar coming towards him from beyond the streets. She was still far away and she was still in the slums. He had to tell her! No. It could be a stupid plan, but he had to tell her. Were they proper emotions? Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes?

"Go ahead. If she rejects you, then that's water under the bridge, but why think negatively all the time? Do it. Ask her if she wants to talk a bit. Maybe even travel to the Solaris Springs to the north of the city. I'm sure she'd love an entire spring dedicated to the sun," Life's little voice suggested to him. 

The stallion mustered his courage with every second, his heart beating erratically and his fur becoming drenched by sweat as the seconds passed. 

"Life? What are you doing here?" Stellar asked.

Life fidgeted in place like a nervous little foal in front of his school crush. "Well, I decided to have a walk to think things over. You know...about...stuff..." Life turned his head and rubbed the back of his head while shooting brief glances to Stellar.

" 'Stuff'? " Stellar asked with a head shake and shrug.

"Um...well...I was wondering..."

"Yeeeeeees?"

"Do you want to go with me to the Solaris Springs?"

"The what?"

"They're springs hidden in the snowy hills outside of the kingdom. They're close by, and they're designed around the sun."

"Really? How do you know about this?"

"Ummm...Cadence told me..."  Life's face scrunched up in embarrassment.

The fluffy mare pondered for a moment, then nodded and looked at Life with a smile. "Sure. That'd be great!  And just us two?"

"Y-yes."

Life hadn't thought this whole thing through. He was going to be all alone with Stellar without anypony to back him up, but he had gone through worse, hadn't he? He gestured Stellar to follow him, and the mare did so without hesitation, hopping right next to him and happily nudging the side of his neck with her muzzle, making a cold chill spike run through his veins. Seeing his reaction, Stellar teased him even further by asking a most frightening question:

"Does this mean we're on a date?" she asked innocently.

Life's only response was lots of blubbering and stuttering. His reactions were hilarious to Stellar, so she decided to leave the situation as it were, for now.



Cadance was in the halls of the Crystal Tower, readying everything for her plan, when one of her 'special' guards, clad in pink armor, galloped up to her and told her that the two 'targets' were already walking together to the Springs that she had mentioned to Life. The pink alicorn had a moment of emptiness where she just didn't know how to react, then she proudly raised herself up and laughed in a manner most forced and embarrassing.

"I'm a great love planner! I told you everything would work out, Crystal."

"But you didn't do anything," the dragoness accused.

"Did I really not?" Cadence answered in a haughty and prideful manner.

"Yes. You really didn't." 

Crystal just stared at the pink pony with a frown while Cadence slowly shrunk down and became rather upset. "I still managed to give Life some tips on where he needed to go. It's a place that's sooo romantic." 

Cadence spoke with dreary, lovesick eyes, making Crystal gag a little.



The tundra was currently being swept by a rather vicious and loud blizzard, but both ponies had pushed through, regardless, to a seemingly unimportant, large and tall lump of snow. Stellar was confused at first and had difficulty seeing anything, but she still caught a glimpse of Life walking through the snow as if nothing was there. She slowly followed behind and was nearly blinded in the process.

The Solaris springs were violently bright, but it was warm, quiet, and there was grass and flowers. The spring was in front of Stellar and was made in an ancient greek design, with a white marble body, three white pillars holding an arc roof atop them, and what seemed to be a giant statue standing behind it all. The head and a large portion of the left shoulder and arm appeared to have been broken off, but it was clear that the figure was a pony. It was standing upright on its hindlegs, and its forehooves were holding a yellow ball of light. It was like a mini sun that made everything around golden hued. The water of the spring was clean and clear, and the miniature grates on the sides of the spring let the clean water out into the ground to sate the thirst of the grass, the flowers, and the blooming ivy growing all over the statue and spring.

Stellar was loving this. Everything seemed to revolve around the sun. The bottom of the spring basin. even had a carving of the sun with the same circumference as the rest of this construct. The whole dome was covered by a thick sheet of snow that didn't seem to melt nor move. It was just a safe, smooth igloo of warmth and sunny lights.

"I...It looks beautiful," Stellar exclaimed.

"Yeah. I thought you would like it, seeing how you love the sun and everything," Life said as he wiped snow out of his mane.

"I still would have preferred Princess Celestia to be here. I would to learn so much about the sun."

Stellar's eyes were twinkling, but the 'want more' request of her's irked Life more than a little bit.

"What?!"

"I'm kidding." Stellar grabbed ahold of Life and began to squeeze him in her vicious bear hug. "Thanks a lot for this-" she let go and looked at him straight into the eyes with an intensely serious look on her face. "-but why would you take me here if it's so secret?"

"I..." Life began to look away in fear and nervousness. He was stressed about what was going to happen.

"Well?"

"Well...I kinda...like you?" he answered timidly.

Stellar's serious look changed to that of a playful smile. "And what exactly do you 'like' about me?" She put a hoof on Life's mouth before he could answer . "And if you say 'because I think you're cute, funny, and smart', I'll have to break your teeth in." She raised her free hoof and curled it just to shake it.

Life pulled her hoof down and huffed. "Like you could get through my training. Anyways, good Ethers, no. I like you because you're...beautiful, both physically and by personality."

"Go on."

Stellar was enjoying watching the rugged, emotionless leader of the SPS melt like butter in her hooves. He was turning so red she thought that all the blood in his body suddenly rushed to his head for a moment.

"Well, your mane looks like silk of the night. Your coat is tempered like a black sapphire and has been carved to look just as beautiful and illustrious as one. And your eyes have no worldly comparison...I find. Plus, we both went through several, similar things together, so we know how the other is, at least, we know each other from basic knowledge. And you're so unique! Every other mare I've met is superficial, afraid of my cracked appearance, and those who went through similar fates became whiny fillies." Life was literally shying away and slowly lowering himself without his noticing.

"And you want to know me a bit better? Well, I like you too. You're also unique and you're the only one that is kind and gentle with me even when I'm being at my most rowdy. You look tough, protective, and always seem to make the right decisions, even if you execute them rather violently. Plus, I find that you look really cool."

Stellar put a hoof to Life's chin and raised his head up so they could see each other directly. Life had actually broken down to his true self. He looked saddened and concerned. His eyes were vibrating as though he were about to cry, ready to free everything he went through after all those years, but Stellar just smiled at him and kissed him. Life's heart began to race like a dragon and he felt...new. He didn't feel alone. Instead of letting Stellar do all of the work, he poured his own self into the kiss, hugging the mare gently against him without regret.

> It rises to the blue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Stellar and Life returned to the Crystal Kingdom, Stellar suddenly collapsed and everything went dark. It felt like she had just been pulled into the shadows of her mind and it felt somewhat painful, too. Where was she and what happened that would make her come here?When she woke up, she was standing in front of a collapsed Life. He didn't seem to be moving and was on his right side. Sunlight was no longer coming from the sky, and everything seemed to be shrouded by a thick, black storm cloud. The mare didn't pay attention to anything else, assuming it was just the weather. She chuckled and said:

"Come on,Life. I know you're super sensitive and needed help walking back here after the kiss, but you didn't need to collapse because of it. Come on." Stellar's happy demeanor slowly left her face. "Life?" 

She extended a hoof to poke him, but jumped briefly when she saw black armor on her hoof. The mare started to pat herself everywhere and noticed that she was now wearing armor all over her body. Not only that, but she was standing on a large platform made of smoothed, black crystal. Giant pillars of black crystals had grown everywhere, with many going through several of the buildings. Worse still, nearly the whole kingdom was standing near or around the platform. They were all in a terrible state and were trembling in fear at every movement she made.

"Guys, what's happening?" she pleaded.

"N-n-n-othing, your majesty! We are b-but your humble slaves!"

"Wh--"

Stellar took a step back, then her gaze returned to Life who remained oon the ground. She jumped to him and lifted him up and shook him. She even started to slap him, hoping he would wake up. "Life! LIfe! Please! Wake up. I just met you. I just had my very first kiss with somepony I actually feel love towards. Please don't die! Please!"

"Hohohoho. You wish him not to die, but you killed him with your own hooves, Queen Penumbra."

"No! I couldn't have! I didn't!" Stellar shouted as she nestled herself into Life's lifeless neck. "He's not dead! I would never kill him."

"Yet you did. The crystal is stained red and your hooves have become infused with the crimson liquids of his remains."

Stellar's anger erupted, and she turned to face what was herself. 

"What...No. I know what this is. It's another one of the illusions that I've been put through constantly since I was born. I'm not falling for it ever again!"

"No! Wa--"

The Stellar copy tried to jump forward to grab the mare, but she closed her eyes and concentrated, and the whole illusion crumbled like broken glass. When she opened her eyes again, Life was standing over her and looking worried.

"Stellar? Are you okay? You just blacked out and collapsed once we returned here."

"I..."

She immediately jumped and hugged Life tightly. "I'm tired of all these things happening to me! I saw you dead, and I was the one who killed you. I want all of this to stop! I can't take it anymore!"

"NEITHER CAN I! I have been working on this for forty-eight years, and you just won't give in! I'VE HAD IT!" a voice roared in the kingdom.

The land started to tremble and crack open, frightening many ponies who galloped in Stellar and Life's direction. As the ground split open, rays of darkness began to burst forth, and hundreds of shadows began to swarm outwards. As they did so, a large amount of guards came from the Crystal Tower like a horde of bees defending their hive. Cadence flew towards Stellar and Life with several guards in tow. She landed in front of Shadowrette with her small forcen a bid to fight off as many of the incoming shadows as possible.

"Princess Cadance! It's King Sombra!" the voice called.

"Huh?"

The pink pony turned to look at Stellar, and she shook. Her eyes were wide with fatigue and fear. Her mane was in a complete mess and it seemed like she had been terrified of something.

"Princess? What's wrong with--" Life tried to ask.

"There! There she is! It's her! She's the culprit of all this!"

The guards turned around and faced Stellar with aggressiveness. Before they could even touch her, however, Life intervened, and broke several legs in the defense of Stellar.

"You're the cause of all of this! I've seen everything happen while I wasn't looking. It was told to me. You're responsible for all this chaos and mayhem. I won't have it anymore!"

"Wh-what are you talking about? I didn't do anything!" Stellar pleaded.

"She's right. What are you doing?"

"You must remain out of this! You are an official of the SPS and are under my strict orders. Now, arrest this mare!"

"No!" Life stomped a hoof down.

Cadence was taken aback by this attitude, but her surprise was quickly replaced with anger.

"How DARE you! I helped! Brought you back from that pit. I fed you, nurtured you, and this is how you repay my kindness?"

"Nonsense! You are under some bizarre spell making you lose reason. Do you not remember the face of Stellar?" He presented the mare's face directly to Cadence, but she did not react like he wanted.

"Yes. That's Sombra!"

"No! You delved deep into her memories to see the precision of what happened to her. Look more deeply. Do you think this mare, a unicorn who cannot use her magic even, would hurt anypony? Even in her foalhood, she did no such thing."

"I..." Cadence grabbed her head and began to tilt, then she fell hard on the floor, as did the guards around her.

"No. NO! I have spent too long spreading fear! My plans will NOT fall apart because of some depressive cinder block!"

A shady mass floated over the unconscious bodies of Cadence and the guards, and slowly rose up to show a grinning shadow. Stellar smiled and galloped towards the shadow, much to Life's confusion and befuddlement. 

"Grinning Shadow! I've missed you so much! Help me! There's tons of bad things happening. I need your help!"

Life pulled on Stellar's tail and dragged her behind him, protecting her with a leg up. 

"What are you doing? He's my childhood friend."

"No he isn't. He's the reason all these bad things have been happening to you. Just looking at him, I can sense it."

The shadow frowned. "You only kissed once. How is your connection to each other so strong already? Nevertheless, he is right." The shadow smiled.

Stellar nervously laughed at the remark. She was in denial. "What are you talking about? You're not the one who made my dad go crazy. You're not the one who made ponies attack me. You're not the one who made everypony in the sewers except for Crunchy Apple hate me right away." The shadow said nothing. "You..."

"Yes. I was reforming you as per your instructions."

"MY instructions?! I didn't tell you to ruin my life!"

"Well, in my defense, your dad was already crazy. He just needed a little shove in the right direction!"

The shadow started twisting and warping into a vortex of darkness. In its place stood a two dimensional portal of swirling black, and out of it came a shadowy pony still engulfed in the misty darkness of the door. Life and Stellar's eyes widened when they saw the mist depart to show King Sombra.

"Wh-wh-what?!" Stellar stuttered.

"King Sombra! Of course you would be behind all of this. This is just like some badly written book."

"Wow. Everything has to do with books with you. Anyways, I am not Sombra. I am merely a construct of your design before he perished. I am all your magic. I am what keeps you alive, and I intend to bring my master back from his grave!"

"I won't let you lay a hoof on St--"

Life was swiped aside by the Shadow Sombra's foreleg. "I have no time to mess with you, little creature. Stellar, it is your duty. You are King Sombra! You know this deep down! Your communicating with the shadows! Everypony hating you! I never MADE them do such a thing. They were already like this. I did this to show you the face behind the mask. If you accept this, you will regain your old memories, your magic, and you shall become Queen Penumbra! It is your destiny! This is why you made me. WHY DO YOU FLEE MY LOYALTY?!" Sombra slowly walked towards Stellar who slowly backed away at the same speeds. "You have no friends here! They only follow you through fear! With your old power, you will find true friends! Crunchy treated you like the others: a simple, homeless pony. Cadence and Shining considered you to be nothing but an emotionally fragile foal, and the crystal ponies treated you like a monster."

Stellar was hesitant in believing Sombra, but she was certain that he had a point. Nopony she knew treated her as a true friend until she got her prestigious position. Nopony loved her like a friend. She lowered her head in defeat and slowly walked towards Shadow Sombra who opened his forelegs for an embrace, but Life stopped her with his own words.

"That is not true! At all! Think, Stellar. There are those that stayed behind to help you in your time of needs. Who were they? Think! Don't let his spell of fear grab a hold of you!"

Stellar stopped in place and started to think more clearly. Her memories were indeed being fogged, but then, it came to her. Crystal Clarity! She was Stellar's true, very first friend! She helped her through a lot and even played games with her when they were younger, when time permitted, of course. And Click Clock! That bizarre entity always gave her some good tips despite being so strange. She even allowed Stellar to reunite with her mother. That was a true gift that not many could boast to have acquired. And Cadance might not be considered a 'friend' by others, but she was still one to Stellar for all the help she did. And then there was...

"Stellar, I love you. You know this!"

"Lies! It is a trick to keep you from your destiny! They want to hold you under a leash so that you may never be free!"

"That's not true! Even if it was, I would fight to let you be free in the world! You are not some toy that ponies can have! You are who you chose to be! You aren't King Sombra! You're Stellar Shadowrette!"

When Life said those words, Stellar suddenly had an epiphany, as if somepony had said something to her when she was very, very young:

"After all, a body remade never has the same soul."

She stood up and looked at Sombra with a frown. The king's demeanor became that of sadness and betrayal.

"I'm not you! I'm myself! And I have friends to prove it!"

"No!"

"Sombra! I should have known that you would pop up eventually." Cadance while taking her place next to Stellar. "How did I not see that you would popped up eventually. After all you did to the ponies of this Kingdom, still you refuse to back away."

Shadow Sombra hissed and started stomping his forelegs on the ground like a grumpy foal, although he was cracking the floor tiles in his tantrum.

"No! If I must force your true memories back into your body, I will!"

"The shadows!" a guard shouted.

"What?" Sombra said before looking up.

The shadows had all gone from their initial position towards the Shadow Sombra and started to engulf him. Despite his attempts at freeing himself, the shadows were far too numerous.

"What are you doing? You fools! He's right there! I must complete my mission! Noooo!"

A bright flash of green and purple explode within the mass of shadows, letting out a gigantic stream of green and purple magic. It flew several times around the sky before collapsing onto Stellar and making her collapse from the pain. The skies started to clear and the trembling stopped, but Cadance and her guards stood back in anticipation of a possible attack. Life didn't care and gently picked Stellar up, looking at her directly in her closed eyes.

"Come on, Stellar. Come on!"

Several minutes passed before the mare slowly opened her eyes and mumbled in fatigue.

"Stellar?" Life uttered with hope and fear.

"Yes...What?"

This time, it was Life's turn to hug Stellar with love and care, and the tensed guards and alicorn slowly relaxed.

"I'm glad to see you were not corrupted by...whatever that was. We have many things to talk about, and many things to do," Cadence looked around her as she spoke. "but we need to get you to a hospital, and quick. As for you, LIfe, I do believe you need a new name. 'Ruined Life' wouldn't work for you right now."

"Okay. What did you have in mind?"

"I thought long about it, then the idea came to me. What about 'Life Streams'?" Cadance put out her forelegs in a 'ta da!' manner, with the smile to boot!

"Hmmm. Yes. It is...Yes! I like it. I'll ta--"

"Queen Shadowrette," spoke an unknown mare.

Everypony looked towards the previous position of the shadowy mass to see a mare with a black body, white mane, and black eyes with a white iris looking at Stellar with an emotionless face. Above her were swirling a countless number of shadows.

"Wh...Who are you?" Cadence asked.

"I am a true Shadow Pony. We were made by Sombra to follow all orders. His magic's attempts at remaking him created false Sombras."

"Then...what are you still doing here?"

"We follow King Sombra."

Cadence rolled her eyes. "Yes. I know that, but why are you still here?"

Hundreds of the shadows began to smash themselves into the ground and reform themselves into a shadow pony by slow elevation. They all had different designs, but their colors and facial expressions were all the same.

"We follow King Sombra. His magic proved inefficient at reviving the previous one, so we follow the new one's demands. We were tasked with protecting her until the fated day, but the plan of Sombra has failed. We follow the current ruler. She is King Sombra's reincarnation. We now follow her."

"She must be watched and-" another shadow pony said. It was a pegasus this time.

"-carefully instructed. Her magic-"

"-is too dangerous and volatile."

"Must be instructed."

"Must be watched."

"Must be-"

"Protected," they all said in unison.

Everypony just stared at the mass of increasingly larger number of shadow ponies of various tribes just staring at Stellar and completing each other's sentences. They didn't know what to make of any of this. What was going to happen? Either way, Stellar and Ruined LI--I mean, Life Streams, rubbed their noses together, making Cadance's heart go a-flutter with 'awww'. The two were going to learn more about each other and have fun together. Maybe Cadance would know the best way to do that, but what were they to do with these 'true' Shadow Ponies?




"So the little toy of Sombra failed to do as instructed by him. I am not surprised. How could magic from a lowly pony that thinks he casts MY magic succeed at anything but failure? No matter. I have grown tired from all of this waiting. I have nurtured my darkness long enough and I intend to reclaim this land. I still found it amusing to watch this whole event. I will consider possibilities, then I will do this myself."