> Stories of a Shade
>  by ConfettiColored
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It all started when Twilight Sparkle was searching for the Crystal Heart. The Door of Fear was in front of her, trying to keep her from getting through. She was getting frustrated with it, and that is what caused me to be born. Me and my siblings are Shades, the creatures responsible for the power dark magic holds, and its uncanny ability to corrupt the wielder. You see, when a dark magic spell is charged, it's not just the power of the unicorn who cast it, but the power of the Shade that gets created when  a spell is charged. As the spell is being charged, the Shade whispers to the user, often trying to convince them to become evil, and after a while, the user is corrupted. Upon the spell being cast, the Shade is released and goes off to live its own life. That's why Dark magic has such an addictive quality, over time it just builds up, and you're left with a lust for more.  I was born of the spell used by Twilight Sparkle to stop and open the Door of Fear. I was charged, cast, and released. But it doesn't stop there. The unicorn that casts the spell has an impact on the Shade's life. If the being was using the spell for good, the Shade was good; the same is true if the spell was used for evil. Now, I think we can all agree that Twilight has a good soul. You might be able to see where this is going. Dark magic being used for good isn't heard of commonly. And as such, my family and I were outcasts. My not being evil and agreeing with the sadistic ways of my species caused them to not want me around, and ponies thought we were going to trick and murder them. As Twilight's magic is so powerful, the one dark magic spell she cast separated into three Shades, that being me, my brother, and my sister. We wandered the world, traveling, thinking of ways to show these people that we mean no harm to them. I often wondered if I could find my maker again, and if she would help me. She had to, for she knew what it was like to be alone; she was alone before she made her friends. I was fine with my family, I loved them, but I wanted to be able to walk around populated areas without having to stick to shadow travel. This is the story of how we found the true magic of friendship, and how our lives took a turn for the better.
> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	So, where do I start this chapter? Well, I guess at the beginning. There we were, on the edge of the Everfree Forest, looking at Ponyville. I figured if we were going to prove ourselves to be good people, we should start here. Problem was, we're still Shades, so we can't exactly just walk in and ask for a job. So for a while, we just stayed in the shadows, playing the role of the outsider looking in. 
It turned out that was for the better, as doing so allowed us to learn the layout of the town without anyone alerting Celestia or Luna that a "monster" was in the town. 
Then, one day, a small Breezie colony arrived in Ponyville, and I'd be lying if I said I found them cute. If anything, I was worried their fragile bodies would fall apart in the breeze. But the point is, I saw Twilight use a spell on them, herself, and her friends. It seemed this spell could invert species. I immediately went to the Golden Oaks Library to find out how to cast the spell she used. Problem was we needed a pony to copy the species we wanted to turn into.
I thought it would be hard to find a pony who wouldn't notice the bright light produced by the spell, but a pony named Berry Punch, who is apparently the town drunk, made that problem go up in smoke. 
"All, right guys," said Roam. 
"And girls," replied Artemis. 
"Right, this is it. This is the day we become accepted,"
"That's what you said the last two hundred and forty-six times," I joked.
"Well, this time it'll work,"
So we combined our powers to change into a pony, with the aforementioned Berry Punch still drunk and asleep. 
The spell was cast, and the first thing I did was check out my new body, and I have to say, it looked very good. I still had my brown hair...uh mane, green eyes, and gray skin... uh, I mean fur. I was a Unicorn, still having my purple magical aura. Now, the fact that I didn't have my wings anymore kind of freaked me out, but I got used to it soon enough. My cutie mark was a screwdriver crossed with a wrench. I smiled at this, as it proved I was good at more than just combat, unlike our more hostile brethren. I checked out my siblings, and they were in the same boat as me, all Unicorns. Roam's cutie mark was an open book, and Artemis's was a forest with a deer running around in it. So, right about then we were all absolutely ecstatic. My siblings and I could now, for once in our lives, walk around in public without people trying to burn us at the stake. Now, though, we needed jobs, and I don't know about everyone else, but I knew exactly what I was going to do. I teleported back to the area in the Everfree Forest where we had set up three small tents and grabbed my toolbox. Smiling, I told myself, "This is the first day of my new life."
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"What!?" I screamed. 
"Yes, I'm sorry Mr. Vortex. We don't have a mechanic here. He left for Manehatten a week ago," said Mayor Mare. 
Of course, as soon as I ask for a job at the local fixer-upper's place, he's just left. 
"Well, is there any other place I can work?" I asked
"Sure, Sweet Apple Acres is hiring now," the mayor replied, and I sighed in relief. 
"Okay, anywhere else?" 
"Hmm...nope, no one else is hiring."
"All right, thank you for your help, miss." Said Roam.

I walked out of the town hall and walked to Sweet Apple Acres, wondering what they needed and if I would even be able to help. When I was about halfway there, I decided to take my mind off my job worries by taking in the scenery. This place truly was beautiful, with all the lovely flowers and animals, the delicious food, the nice ponies, and the fact that the sky was almost always a perfect baby blue. Unfortunately, I was so wrapped up in my thoughts, I bumped into someone. 
"Darn it! Sorry there, miss," Then I realized who I bumped into, and mentally scolded myself.
Yep, there she was. The pony I was looking for, wanting to ask her for a job, and I walked right into her. 
"Ah hell..." I muttered under my breath, so that she couldn't hear me. "Uh, here, lemme help you with that, miss," I said, hoping to clean up my mistake so i might still get the job. 
"Thanks, partner," she said, not seeming to mind that I'd bumped into her, for which I was grateful, but I still felt I should apologize. 
"Um, sorry for bumping into you miss." 
"Ah, no worries, buddy. I'm sure it was an accident," she replied. "Say, now. I don't think I've seen you around these parts before. What's your name?" she asked. 
"Vortex, miss," I replied. 
"So, where were you headed to before you bumped into me?" 
"Oh, well, I was actually headed for Sweet Apple Acres to see if I could earn the job." 
"Well, why not come back in say...ten minutes or so to apply, I gotta sell some apples right now."
"Alright, miss."
"Oh, you just call me Applejack."
"Alright, miss -  I mean Applejack, I'll see you in ten minutes." And then I walked away and decided to see how many things I could levitate at once with my magic. I figured I should try so I could levitate as many apples of a tree as I could, but that's when I noticed something. In my standard Shade form, I could hold twice as many with the spell as I could in my pony form. I figured that made sense, considering Shades are much more powerful than most ponies, and considering the spell I was born from was cast by the Element of Magic, I was even more powerful than most Shades. Even so, I could hold about 300 things at once with the spell, so I figured I would be fine. Eventually, the time came around for me to go to the job interview. I figured they would need help with just bucking and collecting apples, but they also needed help with keeping all the technology in the house up to code. Good thing stuff like that is right in my area of expertise. 
"Well, no worries, I'm the best mechanic you'll ever find," I said to Granny Smith when she asked if I could help keep the technology running.
"Well, then, I think you've got the...Zzz..." 
"Oh, Granny... Don't worry, you've got the job, Vortex," Applejack said as her grandmother fell asleep. "Come back tomorrow for your first day,"
"All right, see you then," I replied, before going teleporting back to the camp in the middle of the Everfree. I waited there for about 30 minutes before the other two came back. Artemis got a job at the vet where Fluttershy worked, helping the animals get healthy again, while Roam got a job at Golden Oaks Library. 
We told each other about our days, roasted marshmallows over the campfire, as we always do when we're super happy, before going to bed, each of us looking forward to the next day.
	
	
> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dreams. Oh, how I love them. Those little slices of your subconscious where you can do whatever you want, provided you have practiced lucid dreaming like me. But last night was different. My dream started how I would begin any other, me being surrounded by ponies, but not trying to attack me, taking joy in my presence. Like I was just another one of them, with my own friends, but after a while I started to notice something was wrong. There was one pony not having fun with the others, he was just standing there, looking away from us all. I went to talk to him, but when he turned around to look at me, all the ponies disappeared, the landscape changed to a burning wasteland, the sky turned black and orange, and then he spoke to me.
"You will help me in making this a reality."
That's when I woke up, sweating like mad and panting heavily. I was no stranger to this, I did have slip-ups when practicing lucid dreaming the first time, but I hadn't messed up like that in a while. I looked at the L.E.D clock and groaned, it was six in the morning. Whenever I wake up in the middle of the night, I don't even bother trying to go back to sleep, because once I'm up, I'm up for good. Still unnerved by the nightmare I experienced, I went to get some orange juice and a bowl of cereal at the portable mini-fridge(that we certainly didn't steal) over by the extinguished campfire, only to find my brother already there, getting a glass of water.
"Hey. What are you doing up so early?" He asked me.
"I could ask you the same thing, but for the record I had a bad dream," I replied.
"I got up to think about what we do if someone finds out that we're not ponies. So you're not up early because this new job has made you more responsible." He joked. "So, what was your nightmare about? You can normally control that stuff,"
So I told him everything that happened in the dream, to which he assumed I was just so stressed out about this new job I lost my dream control, brushing aside the idea that a demon had contacted me. He claimed that the idea that the I was contacted was to far-fetched, as if anyone wanted to conquer Equestria they'd probably wait a while due to the recent defeat of Tirek. I gotta admit that's very true, but I was still wary about the whole thing.
Eventually, the alarm clock in Artimesis's tent went off, with her waking up, eating a quick breakfast, and heading off to work, with us guys following suite soon after."
> Chapter 4
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	"...Okay, let me get this straight. you need my help 'fixing' the microwave,"
"Ya got dat right, sonny!" replied Granny Smith.
"It's not broken. You have to push the start button," I told her, exasperated. I knew she needed help with all the tech in the house, but this was just sad.
"Oh, sorry, Vortex. I'm not that good with stuff like this," she said.
"No problem. I'll get back to apple bucking now."
So, after that whole fiasco, I went to the east orchard and started kicking the trees with my hind legs, because I apparently wasn't allowed to use my magic to get them off the trees, something about "tradition". After I put the last basket of apples in the pantry, I had a sudden sharp pain in my horn.
"Augh!" I yelped, clutching my head.
"What's wrong, Vortex?" asked Applebloom, making a mad dash to me as I screeched in pain a second time.
"Nothing... just a headache..."
"I'll get you an ice-pack, I bet that'll help," the little filly said worriedly, as AJ and Big Mac came in from the barn and pigpen, respectively.
"Vortex's head is hurting," Applebloom said, handing me an ice pack.
"It's not really my head, it's more my horn. Is there any kind of... I don't know headache, but for a Unicorn's horn?" I asked as I took the ice pack being offered. Applejack pointed out that if there was such a thing as that they wouldn't know, as none of them were Unicorns, which made me feel pretty stupid for asking them. They told me I should go to Twilight's castle and see if Twilight knew anything about it, but I was nervous about that because if anyone would notice my magic disguise, it would be her. Then I remembered that my brother was working at the newly built library there, and he hadn't been run out of town yet. Although, it did raise the question of whether or not it was possible for anyone would be able to see us for who, or more specifically, what we really were. Anyways, I ended up at my destination after reassuring myself that nothing bad would happen and seeing Pinkie Pie walk into Sugarcube Corner. The library was a modest rectange-shaped crystal structure about thirty feet away from the castle. It was built to replace the Golden Oaks Library after Tirek's attack, so naturally Twilight would be the one to run it.
I pushed open the door, only to find an ocean of books on the floor.
"I'll be right with you!" Said what was very clearly Twilight Sparkle, but her voice was stressed. I just assumed she misplaced a quill, and looked in the fiction section for something to catch my eye while waiting for her to come downstairs. I found a Daring Do book and decided to pick it up and start reading, as I had heard great things about the series. I was actually able to finish the whole thing, and when I did I looked up and saw that the sun was down and Luna had brought up the moon. I looked at a clock on the wall to find it was 9:00. 
At this point, I decided to just go home and get another ice pack, as the pain hadn't gone away. I made my way to the door, and just as I was about to exit, I was lured back in.
"Hey, wait, come back!"
I turned around to see Twilight standing there, looking exhausted.
"Um, are you okay? You look like someone cast an anti-sleep spell on you," I asked, concerned about her current state.
"I'm fine, I just had to help out my assistant. He wasn't feeling well," She replied, letting out a huge yawn afterwards. "So, I heard you come in earlier, and I'm very sorry for keeping you waiting. What can I help you with?"
I knew it would be polite to just say I would come back tomorrow so she could get the sleep she clearly needed, but my horn ache, I guess you could call it was unbearable at this point, so I just asked her what she knew about something like this. She frowned as I explained my problem, looking like she was thinking about something. 
"You'd better come downstairs with me," she said, walking down them quickly. 
Now, I don't know what I thought would happen, but this wasn't one of the outcomes I expected. I just shrugged my shoulders and followed her downstairs.
 
	
	
> Chapter 5
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	The moment I set foot in the basement, my jaw hit the floor. It was full of gizmos, gadgets, and machines, and I would have liked nothing less than to make a beeline for them and see what I could do with all this tech. Unfortunately for me, a sudden wave of agony coursed through my horn, reminding me of why I was here.
"So, let me get this straight," Twilight said, looking me in the eye very seriously. " You're having pains in your horn? Have you ever felt them before? Does it hurt to use magic?" She probably would have bombarded me with questions for a lot longer, but I held up my hand, signaling her to be quiet.
"I'm not here to be analyzed like an ancient artifact. I'm here to see if you can help, but to answer your questions, the answers are yes, no, and no." 
Twilight seemed taken aback by me interrupting her, but she regained her composure quickly.
"Er, alright, step over there and put the hat on," She said, pointing to what looked like a spaghetti strainer with Hearth's Warming lights on it. I was confused as to what this was at first, but merely shrugged my shoulders and complied. She then walked over to the monitor-like device the hat had been sitting on, and flicked a switch. 
"Allright, now cast your most powerful spell,"
I did cast a powerful spell, but held it back for fear the sudden rise in magic might make my pony form wash away, revealing me to be a Shade. After the light form my spell faded away, the purple unicorn looked at the screen, and afterwards her eyes widened.
"What is it?" I asked, hoping she hadn't discovered something that might blow my cover.
"Th-Th-This is... AMAZING!!!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, making me recoil.
"What is it?" I asked again, her sudden outburst of joy making any nervousness I had dissipate.
She then went into a long explanation about power levels and magic making, to which I just stared in confusion. I might be a total science nerd, but this was magic, and I wasn't a nerd about that, but apparently she was. 
Just then, Spike came downstairs.
"Twilight are wron-Umm, what are you doing down here with that guy?" 
I saved Twilight having to lie about being attracted to my handsome self(shameless self-promotion) and replied to Spike's question myself.
"No. Get your mind out of the gutter. Also, Twilight, do you know how to relieve the pain?"
"Yes, your body is making more magic than it can hold, so whenever you start feeling bad, I recommend releasing some energy,"
"Thank you, I'm sorry for keeping you up," I said, only now realizing how tired she must be.
"Don't be! I stay up MUCH later than this on a regular basis!" She said in a perky voice.
"Are you sure that's healthy? You have bags under your eyes that are so big you could carry food in them,"
Spike snickered at my joke, while Twilight reassured me that she was fine staying up that late. I guess I can't really bug her about that, considering how late I stay up playing Team Fortress Two. 
So, since my problem was solved I bid them goodbye and started the walk home.
> Chapter 6
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	"Zzzz...."
"Zzzz..."
BLAST!!
Looking back swiftly to make sure I didn't wake anyone, I sighed in relief at the fact that my siblings had not woken up, and more so at the fact that my horn ache was now completely gone. You know when your'e in the middle of your day and you just feel like you could take on the world? That's how I felt now that it didn't feel like I had a burning stake being driven into my head. I wanted to stay up and play games on Steam, but my brother would have a fit if he saw me staying up so late on a work night. Besides, it was 11:30, and now that I had my new job at Sweet Apple Acres I should probably take on some responsibly. I couldn't have Roam doing all the work, now could I? Actually, I could do that, but helping out was nicer. 
I took one last look at the others to make sure I hadn't woken anyone up, then drifted off to sleep.
~One hour later~
I woke up in a cold sweat again, the same nightmare I had last night was back, except this time it took place in Canterlot. At this point I decided I shouldn't go to sleep, but I needed to be wide awake for tomorrow, so I went back to the Dreamscape, only this time I went into the dream of a bunch of fillies, since I figured their dreams would be pleasant, and they were. By the time four-o'clock rolled around, I had already been transported to a place where all sorts of candy grew on trees, a beach that was so awesome and peaceful it could be mistaken for heaven, and a winter wonderland. 
"Why did I ever stop going into these dreams?" I wondered to myself before heading into another one, which was a place in which world peace had been accomplished, before I heard my alarm clock start ringing from beyond the walls of the dream reality. I sighed; I didn't want to leave so soon. But I found my soul wanting to wake up, so I obliged.
> Chapter 7
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	When I slipped back into reality, I noticed my body was in it's Shade form. I was curious as to why this was at first, but then theorized that the absence of my soul's magic in my body reverted me back to my original shape, a theory that my brother and sister agreed with. 
I snuck out of the forest so that no one would see me come out of it and get suspicious of what I was doing there, and went to the farm for another day at work, which was super fun. Everyone was happy I was feeling better, and I was raring to get the day started. I gave back the ice pack from yesterday and got started on applebucking. AJ and I exchanged small talk all day, apparently her sister was part of a small club called the Cutie Mark Crusaders, or CMC for short. They also got their cutie marks yesterday, as well as finding a new friend in Diamond Tiara. I would have to meet these other two crusaders and see if they were as cute as Applebloom. I got one more horn ache after I was done with work and heading to the CMC's clubhouse, which resulted in me accidentally blasting a five-foot long and deep crater in the ground. I looked around franticly to see if anyone noticed, but I was in the clear. I sighed in relief and looked at the new hole in the ground.
"I might have overdone it," I said while using a spell to grow back the area that had been decimated. I really needed to work on gaining some more control over my powers. "Ah, well. No point in crying about every mistake," I thought to myself while knocking on the door to the clubhouse.
"Password?" A squeaky voice asked from inside.
"Um, please let me in?" 
"It's alright, he can come in," said the voice of Applebloom.
The door swung open and I saw four fillies sitting at a small table.
"Hi, mister!" said a pinkish-purplish earth pony with a small crown on her head. "What's your name?"
"His name is Vortex! He works on the farm now!" said the southern earth pony, who noticeably had a mark on her flank now, which was very similar to the ones on an albino unicorn and orange pegasus with characteristically small wings.
"Yep, that's me, but who are all of you?"
"I'm Scootaloo, the second-best athlete in Ponyville, with Rainbow Dash as the first best!"
"My name's Sweetie Belle!"
"And I'm Diamond Tiara!"
"Charmed," I said politely, looking around the clubhouse. "So, is this the CMC's clubhouse?" I asked, already knowing the answer, but felt obliged to ask for some reason.
"Yep!" said Scootaloo, looking very excited at the idea of me becoming their friend.
"Nice cutie marks, by the way,"
"Thanks! They mean we'll be helping others find theirs! What does yours mean?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"I'm good with tools. Give me some scrap metal and I can make you anything you want," I said proudly. "But I'm fairly skilled at magic too, though probably not as good as Twilight Sparkle,"
"Ooh! Can you teach me some magic!" Sweetie Belle asked. "I'm not very good at it, and Twilight has been really busy with that magic box given to her by the Tree of Harmony, so she can't teach me that much anymore," 
"Hmm... I'm free on Sundays," I offered.
"Great! Meet me back here, that's where we'll train!"
All of a sudden my phone started ringing.
"Er, I'll get that,"
On the other end was Roam, telling me to come back to the camp.
"All right, be right there. Sorry, girls I gotta go, my brother needs me,"
"Can we meet him sometime?" Applebloom asked hopefully.
"I'll talk to him about it," I promised. "See you in two days for the training, Sweetie," I said before teleporting back to the edge of the Everfree. Looking around to make sure no one was watching, I ran into it, meeting Roam and Artemis at the campfire.
"Hey, guys. What do you need me for?" I asked.
"We're not alone in the forest," said my brother.
"Well, no duh. The place is crawling with monsters." I said, rolling my eyes at how obvious that statement was.
"No, I mean there is a zebra living here," he relied, keeping his tone calm even after my remark.
"...So what do we do?"
"The abandoned castle of Celestia and Luna is close by. We're moving there," Artemis said. "So pack your things,"
And we did just that, packing up our things, and making the short walk to the castle, crossing a bridge with a large cave underneath it that seemed to have something glowing inside it. The castle was huge, but in a massive state of disrepair. 
"Well, this is a dump," Artemis said bluntly.
"Don't worry, I can fix it," I said, plopping a blue hat on my head and taking out a gold hammer.
"What's with the outfit?" Roam asked.
I rolled my eyes and said I'd show him the movie when I was done getting the place fixed.
"But while I'm doing that, I want you to go to town and make some friends," I said, knowing that neither of them were very social, hoping they would meet some nice ponies. They were hesitant at first, but me saying I wouldn't fix the place until they left got them out of my hair. After they were out of my hair, I got to work on the castle, turning around to face my work and only just now seeing how much I needed to do.
"This might take a while," I sighed, grabbing my toolbox.
	

	
> Chapter 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"BEEP BEEP BEEP..."
"Ugh, it feels like I just got to sleep..." I groaned, not ready for a long day of work.
"BEEP BEEP BEEP..."
"Alright, I'm up..." I said to the imaginary man in the alarm clock, before getting up, stretching, and turning off the clock. I have to say though, it was nice to be woken up by the nonstop beeping as opposed to another nightmare. I had been having more of them every time I went to sleep normally instead of traversing the dreams of others. I was worried I might run into Princess Luna doing that one of these days, but I could cross that bridge when I came to it. But I'm not here to complain about bad dreams, so I'll move on. The morning went by as normal, eat breakfast, pack snack for later in the day, rebuild more of the castle if I had the spare time, head to Sweet Apple Acres. Why not take a shower, you ask? I haven't finished one yet. 
Any-who, when I got to the farm, it was empty. No Applejack and Big Mac working in the fields, no Granny Smith taking a nap, and no Applebloom in the CMC clubhouse. I went in the house to see where everyone was, and found a note in Applejack's handwriting saying to come to Sugarcube Corner. I shrugged my shoulders and teleported there so as to not keep her waiting. When I walked in it was pitch-black. I thought I knew what was happening, and my suspicions were confirmed when what looked like the whole town quickly flashed on the lights, jumped up, and yelled "SURPRISE!"
Which did surprise me a little bit, mainly because I had been in town for about a week, and most Pinkie Pie parties were thrown on the first day a pony moved in. So I guess you could say I didn't think I was getting one, which in hindsight, was stupid.
"Wait, there's only one. I thought there was three." Some pony I couldn't see remarked.
"You're right, why aren't the others here?" I heard what was clearly Pinkie Pie question.
"They probably didn't get the note yet," I said in response. "This party looks awesome, by the way, thanks," I said, looking at all the decorations,  games, and treats.
"You're welcome!" Said Pinkie Pie, with an unnaturally large smile.
"You should probably hide again before they get here," I said to the room full of ponies.
"To late, bro," I heard the voice of Artemis say from behind me. I turned around to see her and Roam standing in the doorway, smiling at the party that was being thrown because of us. 
"Enough chit-chat! LET'S PARTY!!!" Pinkie yelled.
And so we did. There were all the things you'd expect at a Pinkie-Pie-Particularly-Pleasant-Party-Palooza. Try saying that five times fast! Anyways, there was pin-the-tail-on-the-pony(no ponies were harmed in this game), bobbing for apples(straight from the farm), and a piñata, which I had to resist the urge to go overboard on beating it into the ground.  The three of us also got to meet a ton more ponies. Artemis took an instant liking to Rainbow Dash and Applejack, where as Roam was talking to Fluttershy and Rarity the whole time. I don't know if he's gonna make a move on one of them, but Rarity was  definitely trying to make a move on him, which he didn't even notice. I got to talk to everyone the other two did, as well as the mailmare, Derpy Hooves, Doctor Whooves, and Lyra Heartstrings. All was going well, the party lasted all day and into the night, but, of course, Artemis with her lack of social skills nearly ruined it all. How, you ask? Let me spell it out for ya.
So, near the end of the party, when most of the guests were gone, Pinkie asked if we enjoyed the party for first day in Ponyville. Now, I know we were well into our first week, but she was clearly oblivious to this fact. But Artemis, with her blunt honesty, let her know in the most cruel way possible, although she probably didn't mean it to come across like that. Note her below-average people skills.
"So, did you enjoy the first-day-in-town party?" Pinkie asked with a hopeful look on her face. I opened my mouth to say that we did, so as to keep her blissfuly ignorant of her lateness, but then Artemis said this:
"We enjoyed it, but we're actually right at the end of her first week in town,"
And when those words left her mouth, Pinkie's hair went flat, her eyes welled up with tears, and she had the most sad look a pony could have. In a desperate attempt to keep everyone happy, I quickly said something back to Pinkie.
"Well, it's not when the party was thrown that matters, it was how much fun it was. So what if you're a little late? You can just call it a 'Happy first week in Ponyville' party!" I said, and when Pinkie's usual joyous demeanor came back, I knew my mission had been accomplished. But then she did something I wasn't expecting. 
"Thanks for cheering me up, Vortex!" she exclaimed, hugging me. Right about now I was at a loss for words. I didn't have a crush on the pink pony or anything, but I had never been hugged by a girl before, not even by my sis, as she wasn't really a "hugging" kind of person. So I just said I was happy she was feeling better and waited for her to let me go. I was well aware of both my siblings snickering at my discomfort from behind me. When Pinkie let me go, we thanked her again for the party, and as soon as we were out of Sugarcube Corner, I punched Roam in the arm.
"Ow! What was that for!?" he yelped.
"That's what you get for laughing at me," I said cooly.
"Well, why not do it to Artemis, to? She got us into that situation," he said, rubbing his arm.
"Are you kidding me? If I punched her, she'd snap me like a twig," I said, which given her tendency to retaliate with weapons and not diplomacy, was probably true, if a little exaggerated.
We made our way back home, exhausted not from work, but form nonstop partying. It was still an hour before the time we normally went to sleep, so I finally finished making the shower, and played TF2. I found Rainbow Dash on the same server as me, and we connected over playing the same game. After a while of us owning the other team with our combined awesomeness, it was time for bed. I squeezed into my sleeping bag, laid my head on the pillow. I was about to enter the Dreamscape again, but before I did I reminisced a bit. Two weeks earlier, if you said I would be where I was now, I'd say you were crazy. And yet, here I was. I smiled before drifting into the dreams of more children.
	
> Chapter 9
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The day went as normal, wake up, eat breakfast, work, grab lunch get to the castle (which is looking pretty good since I finished repairs last week) and Dreamwalk. Rinse and repeat. Sure, I'll occasionally find a timberwolf or two hanging out in the backyard (if you wanna call it that), or Artemis practicing archery, even though she's already deadly accurate with that thing, but that's the general gist of most of my days. Tonight, though, something of great interest happened.
I went into a dream, but instead of the cheery nature kid's dreams tend to have, I found myself in what could only be the Everfree Forest. I could tell by the pack of Timberwolves, Manticores, Golems, and Cragadiles chasing Silver Spoon, the filly from the clubhouse.
Instinct drove me to help the filly out, but I stopped myself. I hated seeing her in pain, sure, but I also knew revealing my true form could be very bad for the whole "secrecy" thing. As I debated internally about what to do, Silver ran straight into a cliff face. She got up, shook her head (which had become disheveled after running through the trees), and turned around to see the whole pack staring her in the eyes for a brief moment, before letting out a roar that made my hair stand on end. At this point, my moral standards overruled the logical part of my brain, and I leapt into action, cursing myself for not just walking away. 
I leapt between the ensemble of monsters before the reality hit me: I was facing Timberwolves, Golems, Manticores, and Cragadiles all at once, and it looked like there was fifty each. I was a very strong mage, sure, but that many targets would swarm me before I could take them all out. I tried to manipulate the dream into something nicer, but failed. I could change my own dreams just fine, but doing it to someone else's dream was harder. Well, this whole scenario wasn't real anyways, so I might as well get as much fun out of this fight as I could before I was torn to shreds. 
I charged into the pack, claws ablaze with dark magic, and began cutting down monsters one by one. I was doing a pretty good job of not dying, before I felt a powerful magic spell charging up from above me. I jumped away from the jaws of Manticore and summoned a shield around me, just as a dark blue flash tore through the air, engulfing every single monster in sight. When the light died down, I saw none other than the Princess of Dreams, Luna walking over to Silver to comfort her about the whole thing. She clearly hadn't seen me yet, as when I hopped away, I did so into the trees, obscured from view. My shield had stood up to the blast, but just barely. I planned on getting out of this dream as soon as I possibly could, but before I could, my shield collapsed in on itself from the force it had taken earlier. Apparently it tanked so much damage that a light breeze was enough to completely shatter it. Regardless of what caused it, Luna heard the glass-like sound, and fired a laser in my direction. I teleported in front of her, hoping we would be able to solve this diplomatically like the mature, civilized beings we were. HA! Oh, sorry, I just make myself laugh sometimes, it's just... me, mature? I don't think so. 
"Hey, calm down. I can explain," I started, but she replied by grabbing me in her magic grasp and hurling me into the cliff face.
"Silver, wake up," Luna commanded, not taking her glaring eyes off me. The rich young filly did, disappearing in a flash of white light.
"Well, that went better than expected," I said sarcastically, and attempted to wake up myself, but found I couldn't escape the dream world; Luna was obviously keeping me from doing that.
"Have at thee, foul demon!" she yelled in the Royal Canterlot voice in a futile attempt to scare me. I returned the favor by sticking my tongue out at her, to which she growled in anger and charged me with a lance that she summoned. I proceeded to sidestep and summoned a geyser of fire underneath her. Hey, it was a dream, so no one would get hurt. At least, that's what I thought before she crawled out of the fire and got a small cut on my left arm. I may have been in the Dreamscape, but I felt that cut appear on my real body, and Luna kept preventing me from waking up. I muttered some unflattering things about the Princess under my breath. I needed now more than ever to either wake up, or figure out how to control other people's dreams. I tried the former option first, but as expected, she was still blocking me. I didn't even bother with the other option, as I knew I wasn't going to master such a hard technique like that on the fly.
I clawed my way underground to give myself more time to think about what I could do to win if my enemy held the home-field advantage. Playing the waiting game was the first thing that came to mind, she would exhaust herself with those powerful spells eventually, at least in the real world she would. I wasn't sure if that would happen in a dream. Wait... dream... that's it! Luna was keeping me from going to the real world, but maybe I could hop over to my dream, where I could manipulate it just as well as she could. It wasn't the most strategic plan ever conceived, but it was the best I had. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I rely on Roam to make plans, because mine almost always suck. And when I say that, I mean it is literally the one and only plan I've made that's worked before or since.
Anyways, I used a spell to create a flash of light, temporarily blinding and distracting Luna, before trying my best to go to my dream, which surprisingly worked. I grinned in satisfaction, now the Princess and I were on an even playing field. It was at this point that she recovered from the flash-bang, and tried striking me with lightning, which I caught in my hand. She stared at me with a shocked look on her face.
"You can manipulate dreams?" she asked, still keeping a defensive posture.
"I can manipulate mine. Now that we've reached a stalemate, why not let me wake up?" I already knew what the answer was, but I just wanted to confirm what I already knew.
"No! You'll try to kill everyone in sight!" She exclaimed.
"So you're going to stay in this dream with me until the end of time?" I asked with a smug smirk on my face. 
"If I have to, I will," She said firmly.
"Jeez, you're persistent. Okay, how about this?" I said, transporting ourselves back to someone else's dream and raising my hands in the air to represent a surrender. "Now you have more power than I. Will you hear me out now?" I asked, the exasperation clear in my voice. Now she looked even more shocked than before.
"Umm... alright," she said, and I sighed in relief. Now I was free to tell her everything, which I did. I told her about moving to Ponyville, making new friends, etc. When I was done, she had one question.
"How do I know you're not lying?" She asked suspiciously.
"Ask Twilight if she knows a pony named Vortex that she helped out with a horn ache," I shrugged.
"...Alright. I'll go ask Twilight about what you said. Don't worry, I'll keep out the fact that you're a Shade. Stay in you're dream until I get back. If you leave I'll hunt you down."
"Yes, mother."
"Never call me that again."
"Yes, miss."
And with that, she left. Saturday was a day off for me, so I didn't have to worry about her coming back before I got to work. So I just summoned a copy of Banjo-Kazooie to play while waiting for her to come back. I got so immersed in the game that I didn't realize when she came back. She looked over my shoulder while I was playing.
"You have that game?" she asked, startling me.
"Sweet Palutana, don't sneak up on me like that!"
"Sorry," she said. "I've never played that game,"
"WHAT!? You can't call yourself a gamer if you've never played that game! Here!" I exclaimed, shoving the controller in her hands. 
"Hang on, first things first. Twilight said she knows you, so unless you do anything stupid, I'll leave you and your siblings alone."
"You still have to come over and play Banjo-Kazooie," I said. "Don't worry, Roam and Artemis aren't big gamers, they won't come into the game room,"
"Alright, I don't have any work during the day. I'll come tomorrow at noon," She, smiling said after a brief hesitation. "Let's get you awake,"
And with that, I made a new friend.
	
> Chapter 10
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	BEEP BEEP BEEP...
I heard my alarm clock going off and my eyes fluttered open.
"Alright, my first decision of the day... is to go back to sleep," I mumbled, unplugging the clock.
~30 minutes later~ 
"Vortex, you have to wake up," Roam said, shaking me.
"Never. Let me sleep forever," I grunted, rolling over in the bed.
"GET UP!" He yelled, yanking the covers off of me.
"HISS!!" I said, casting a knockback spell on him and grabbing the blanket again.
"Alright," He said, getting up. "You have left me no choice but to use my secret weapon,"
"Oh? And what's that?" I said, already drifting off to sleep again.
"I'll tell Artemis to attack you," He said smugly.
"Quit twisting my arm," I grumbled, already plotting a way to get revenge on him. "Why are hovering over me so much? I have no work today,"
"It's Winter Wrap Up," He said.
"Of course. Winter Wrap Up. Why do I have to participate in that?"
"It's what ponies here do,"
"Well, I'm not a pony. Remember our original goal? Get accepted as more than evil personified?"
"We've been accepted. If we show them what we are, we'll be run out of town. So, what's your point?"
"They don't know what we are. I wanted us to be the one's to prove that not every Shade is a crazed sociopath. How do you expect us to do that if we keep pretending to be something we aren't? Take Spike for example. He acts like he doesn't care, but I bet he still got odd stares whenever he traveled to a new place. The difference between him and us is that he can't change to the form of a pony."
"Again, what's your point?"
"He did get accepted after a while. Why don't we try the same thing?"
"He got accepted because he saved the Crystal Empire. So unless we do something like that, or have connections to royalty, we can't get accepted."
"Umm...."
"What?" Roam asked, looking over at me. "Oh, sweet Faust, did you meet Luna in a dream? You idiot, I told you that was going to happen!"
"Yeah..., but she and I became friends,"
"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THIS EARLIER?!"
"IT HAPPENED JUST BEFORE YOU WOKE ME UP!" I yelled back, very angry that he'd gotten so worked up.	
"...So...did you ask her about telling Equestria who we really are?"
"No, I wanted her to get to know you two first," I said. "Also... sorry about yelling,"
"It's alright, I'm sorry too," he said with a sigh. "So, when is she coming?"
"Noon,"
"Hmm... we won't be here when she comes, we'll be doing Winter Wrap Up..." Roam mused.
"Correction: YOU'LL be doing that. I'll be here to greet her, we don't want to keep her waiting,"
"And by that you mean you just don't want to work?"
"Exactly," I said with a grin.
"Well, if it weren't for you, we wouldn't be greeting her in the first place, so I'll cut you a break,"
"Really? Thanks, I owe you one!"
"Remember that," He said with a grin.
"I'm rubbing off on you aren't I?"
"Yep. See you later! I'll tell Artemis about this!"
"Where is she, anyway?"
"She went off to help with Winter Wrap Up while I struggled to get you out of bed. Are you sorry about all the trouble you caused me?"
"Not in slightest," I smirked, but he knew I was just kidding.
"See you," He grinned back.
I can safely say that I had never been happier in my life. However, if there's one thing I hate more that anything else, it's me being able to do nothing. At first I thought I could just play a video game to pass the time, but I just wasn't in the mood. 
Then I remembered that mysterious cloaked pony I had been seeing in my dreams. I figured I might as well try to find out some answers as to who he was, so I thought about heading for Twilight's new castle. And before you say that was stupid, I knew she was out doing Winter Wrap Up with everyone else, and it was standard for royalty to have records of every pony in Equestria. But before that would do me any good, I needed to know what this pony looked like without the cloak.
I crawled back into bed after wrapping my arm up for the cut I got in the dream, and cast a sleep spell on myself so I could find the pony and rip off the cloak. And I did just that. You know the drill, ponies dying, land burning, sky black and orange, but this time I found the jerk who had been putting me thought this, and.... Well, he was unpleasant to look at. He was a unicorn with an orange mane, a blue coat, a painfully malnourished body with scars covering him, and eyes that seemed to shine with a murderous glint. But worst of all was his horn. Almost all of it had been snapped off, to the point where it was barely bigger than my little finger, not to mention the fact that it was bleeding profusely, so that blood stained his entire body, to the point where his blue coat was barely visible. 
"Not what you expected, huh?" He said, giggling manically in between words. That was what caused me to wake with a start; if the guy had scared me before, it was nothing like what I felt now. The joy from earlier was completely gone, now replaced with an all-consuming fear. I just sat upright in the bed for a while, looking at every corner as if he might pop out from around it at any time.

	
	
	
> Chapter 11
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Alright, we're....um, what happened?" Roam asked as he came into my room, with me still a little unnerved about what I had seen, and apparently it showed on my face.
"I saw something I'd rather forget. Why are you home early?" I said simply in reply, trying to steer the conversation away from the nightmare.
Roam and Artemis seemed to understand that I didn't want to talk about it, and explained how Winter Wrap Up went ahead of schedule.
"Good. We need to go to Twilight's castle," I said calmly. Now that I had my siblings with me, I felt much better.
"Uh, Luna is coming in five minutes. We have to be here," Artemis said.
Right. Even better. I could ask her if she knew anything about the pony I saw. After she had been aquatinted with my family, of course. That was what she was coming for, after all.
"Let's clean the place up," I said, walking past my siblings and using my magic to get the place in a better condition for our guest, but more so because giving myself something to do would help alleviate my stress. And before you say anything, I was actually stressed about Luna coming, and not the blood-stained pony. After all, what harm could a hornless unicorn do? Oh, how naive I was. Anyways, with our combined efforts, the castle was in pristine condition in two minutes.
Three minutes later, Luna teleported in front of the castle and knocked on the door. Alright, it was actually a drawbridge, but you catch my drift.
I took a deep breath, put on my best smile, and pulled the lever that lowered the drawbridge.
"Hi, Luna!" I said cheerfully. Immediately Luna frowned a bit. It was clear that I had tried to hard to seem happy, that the fact that I was just putting on an act showed through. Thankfully, she brushed it off for later.
"Hello, Vortex. Am I correct to assume that this is Roam and Artemis?"
"You are indeed correct, my lady. A pleasure to make you acquaintance," Roam said with a bow.
"Gag me," Artemis said. 
Luna chuckled and said," We're not in a formal setting, Roam. Just be yourself,"
"He is being himself. A suck-up," I wisecracked, earning a thumbs up from Artemis and a glare from Roam. Heh, um, sometimes I go a little too far with my jokes.
"As I was saying," Luna said, breaking the tension. "I'm glad to meet you,"
"We're glad to meet you to, Luna," Roam said. "Um, I guess we'll show you around the castle now?"
"I guess so,"
We gave the premium tour of the Almighty Castle of Awesomeness, as I liked to call it. Roam wouldn't let put up a sign saying that outside. Killjoy. There were the bedrooms, kitchen, living room; really, for the most part, the place was just a regular house, but on a much bigger scale. But every now and then, you'd come across the stuff that only a guy with way too much time on his hands would build, like a whole room dedicated to sitting. I should probably get out a little more.
Luna squealed in delight once she saw the game room, which had almost every game ever made. I was quite the collector back then.
"Alright, there you go. This is where we've been holed up. Do you like what I've done with the place?" I asked.
"I love it! Wait... You fixed this place up all on your own?" Luna asked, very shocked.
"I have no life. That gives me plenty of free time," I said in mock depression.
"So..." Roam said slowly. " You think you could maybe...I don't know, use your royal status to help us get accepted within society?"
"I've never met someone as unsubtle as you in my life, Roam," Artemis said.
'Well, I'll certainly try. I'll talk to Celestia about it," Luna said. "As a matter of fact, I have to help her out with something now. You can come if you want," Luna said kindly. 
"Well, we wouldn't-" Roam started, before I cut him off.
"Sure!"
"Vortex, I don't want to impose," Roam complained somewhat shyly.
"If Luna invited us to come, it's not an imposition," I said simply.
"Well, then... OK, what's the harm?"
With that, we were all teleported to the capital city of Canterlot, inside the throne room, no less. There she was. The pony that every guy seemed to have a crush on, the pony who drew her power from the sun itself, Princess Celestia. I was prepared to launch headfirst into a speech about how we weren't here to cause trouble, but this time I didn't have to.
"Hello, Luna," Celestia said calmly. "Am I correct to assume these are the Shades you were speaking of earlier?"
"Yes, sister. Meet Roam, Artemis, and Vortex," Luna said, while gesturing to all of us in turn.
"Greetings. It is a pleasure to meet you all," Celestia said kindly. You know, whenever she spoke like this, it didn't seem weird like when Roam was trying to act formal. With her regal voice and posture, it just seemed natural.
"So, what's this problem you were talking about?" I asked.
The temperature in the room seemed to drop thirty degrees when I said that.
"Follow me," Celestia said grimly, using her magic to push the throne to the side, revealing a narrow staircase illuminated by torches along the way.
"Sister... we're not going there, are we?" Luna said hesitantly.
"Unfortunately, yes,"
The passageway was hot and stuffy, not to mention dark. The torches helped a little, but I still felt like I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. It also took a painfully long time to reach the bottom, and when we did, I assumed we had to be at least fifty miles underground, which makes me glad I don't have claustrophobia. The area around us when we exited the staircase was a long hallway resembling Aperture Science from Portal, but with giant glass display cases that had counters up against them. Some of the glass had been blackened out, with ponies in lab coats at the counters in front them doing all sorts of stuff. They seemed so invested in their work that they didn't even see the two Alicorns and three Shades walking down the hallway to a big, red, circular door at the end of it. As we approached the door, it slid open automatically, revealing a gigantic glass dome, with splatters of what looked disturbingly like dried blood covering every a lot of the lower portion of the dome. Celestia used her magic to clear out the red substance, and what I saw behind the dome shocked me.
It was the blood-stained pony from my dream.
	

	
> Chapter 12
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Hello, Vortex. How has life been treating you in the waking world?" The pony said almost nonchalantly.
"You know this guy?" Artemis asked suspiciously.
"Unfortunately, yes. He's been appearing in my dreams, haunting them. What's this guy's name anyway?"
"Blood Oath," Luna said after a brief hesitation. "He used to be my apprentice before I got banished 1,000 years ago."
I looked over my shoulder at the psychotic pony looking at us like he wanted me dismembered. 
"Him? The guy in the glass dome?" I said, not sure wether to trust Luna or not.
"He wasn't always like that. He used to be a thoughtful, generous person. He would always help out someone in trouble." Luna took a pause to sigh. "That kindness turned him into that thing. He was walking home one day when he passed by an alleyway and heard someone calling out for help. He ran down it to see what was wrong, and saw a Unicorn mare and her daughter getting mugged by three Earth ponies. He stepped in to help, and took out two of them before the third and strongest snapped his horn clean off his head," Luna sighed again. "A lot of us think that the horn is what allows us to channel magic, but it actually acts as a sort of inhibitor. Without his horn his magic went haywire and killed the thug as the mare and her daughter ran off to get the authorities. By the time they got back, his horn bleeding something fierce, and they got him to a hospital, even though they knew they wouldn't be able to help him. I guess they just wanted to confirm what they already knew," Luna took a deep breath before continuing. "After nine days, the constant pain had driven him to insanity, giving him a desire to inflict similar pain on others."
It took me a second to take all of that in before responding.
"Why is he down here? Also, what is this place?"
"This is a prison reserved for only the most dangerous threats the world has ever seen. Even Chrysalis and Tirek combined couldn't compare to Blood Oath's raw power, despite their larger stature. The reason they weren't being held here is that Tirek is in Tartarus and no one has ever found the body of Chrysalis,"
"What's with the scientists?"
"They research the villains to figure out how they get their unique powers,"
Right about now I thought I understood everything, with the exception of one question.
"Why are you checking up on Blood Oath? Is that just something you do every so often?"
"No," Celestia said with a shake of her head. "Blood has been here for five years now, and yesterday marked the first words he said in that time. He said 'Prepare yourselves.'"
"For what?" I asked.
"They don't know, moron. That's why their worried," Artemis said with a roll of her eyes. "If they knew, they wouldn't be worried,"
"I'll be free," Blood Oath said. "In three, two, one..."
Just then the room shook, and rubble fell from the ceiling. We exited the room to see what was going on, and we saw Unicorns, Pegasi, Earth ponies, Changelings, Bat ponies, and even a Minotaur attacking the scientists and making their way towards the room. They ponies and Changelings were all wearing grey masks with fluorescent green eyes lacking pupils, as well as grey armor, whereas the Minotaur was wearing the grey armor as well, but with a red sack on his head, with two eyeholes cut into it. I also realized there was a small Unicorn filly riding on the back of it, with clawed gloves similar to mine. 
"What are they doing here!?" Luna yelled over all the noise.
"I bet they're trying to free Blood Oath!" Roam yelled back, jumping into battle.
"We can't let them do that!" Artemis said, following after Roam.
I didn't even come up with a sarcastic remark. If what the Princesses said was true, we couldn't let Blood out of that dome. If he was already able to traumatize me with his magic when he was in there, there was no telling what he could do out of it.
While Roam, Artemis, and I were taking on the infantry, the two princesses focused on the Minotaur, but the Unicorn on his back was intercepting every spell they cast. Another problem might have been that Celestia and Luna didn't seem to be willing to bring serious harm to anyone, and while that was admirable, it did mean that we were losing. I froze the Unicorn I was fighting to help out the Royal sisters. 
"Vortex! Focus on the Unicorn!" Roam called out. 
"I will! Thanks!" I yelled back while charging at the Minotaur. That statement sounds a lot more stupid when you say it out loud. Anyway, just when I was about to be steamrolled, I teleported behind the behemoth and grabbed the filly that was riding it. 
"Alright, he's all your's!" I yelled to Celestia. She grinned and used her magic to hang the Minotaur upside down from his legs. He passed out very quickly do to the blood rushing to his head, and Celestia dropped him to the ground. Artemis was just finishing off the last opponent, a small pegasus filly with a gray coat and a sky blue mane. As it turned out, she didn't need to do anything. The frail little thing just passed out on the spot. We began rounding up the unconscious bodies when I realized the Unicorn I froze was nowhere to be seen. A bit of the ice was still there, but most of it had melted. Realization dawned on me, and I began running towards the room where Blood Oath was. But before I got there, I heard the sound of shattering glass in the room, followed by an explosion of red light and evil laughter. I passed out from shock and fear, my last seconds of consciousness dominated by one thought. I failed.
> Chapter 13
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	When I woke up, the lab was in a terrible condition. Papers were strewn everywhere, there were craters in the floor, and worst of all, ponies were lying motionless on the ground. However, Celestia and Luna were nowhere to be seen. I looked around and saw Roam and Artemis lying on the ground, not moving. I stood bolt upright and began dashing towards them, but before I could, I felt a searing pain from behind me. Shuddering and wide-eyed, I looked over my shoulder, and saw that my left skeletal wing was snapped almost completely in half, only hanging on by a thread, with bone marrow oozing from the wound.  My magical aura just barely keeping it from falling off completely. 
I didn't even react when I saw this; I was experiencing a complete sensory overload. I just sort of stared at my broken limb, dumbfounded, for about thirty seconds, before remembering about my siblings. Slowly, I made my way over to them, and put my ear to their chests. With a sigh of relief, I heard a clear heartbeat in both of them. I tried shaking them awake, but failed. Worried about what might have been going on in the outside world now that Blood was free, I summoned two small balls of ice-cold water and directed them into my siblings faces. It had the desired effect, both of them waking with a start, wiping water off their faces before looking forwards me. They both looked shocked seeing my wing in the condition it was in. 
"Are you alright?" Artemis asked, and I was shocked to find that she was close to tears. That really wasn't like her.
"I'm fine. Well... It doesn't hurt anymore, I'm not feeling anything at all in it." I lied, ignoring the shot of pain I got. I could pretend to be alright for her sake.
"How are you?" I asked, opening my arms to hug my sister. I know that was a loaded question, but I felt it would be polite to ask. 
"I'm fine," Artemis said through her tears. It felt weird not only because of her crying, but because I was in a situation where I had to comfort her. Normally it was the other way around, except she strayed away from physical contact. 
"How about you, Roam?" I asked when Artemis let me go. 
"I'm fine, but you need a cast for that," He said, gesturing towards my wing and summoning one. "Alright, this is gonna sting for a sec," He said, slipping it on.
"AHH!" I yelled as he was doing it.
"Done," He said.
I looked over my shoulder to see that my wing was in a roll of white gauze.
"Thanks," I said shakily. "We need to see if they're alive," I said, pointing to the various scientists sprawled across the ground. At least, the ones who were still in one piece. Most were alive, but just barely. We gave the ones who were alive stitches, casts, really whatever they needed to stabilize them. 
"Thank you," One of the old bearded men said gently after I stitched his leg back to normal. 
"You're welcome," I said, walking over to Roam. "I never thought I would have to be the one to stitch people up. Normally that's something you do after I do something stupid," I said to him, trying my best to keep the air light, but considering the circumstances, I failed miserably.
"Yeah. How's your wing feeling?" He asked.
"It hasn't been long enough for it to get better, but it isn't feeling at all right now." I replied, and this time I was honest. If you're wondering why I'm being more open now, I guess I felt like if I was truthful about my nightmares earlier, things wouldn't have gotten to this point. I know that's really stupid, but I somehow felt responsible for everything that had gone wrong.
"Well, it's better than it hurting," He replied, finishing up with his last patient.
"I guess there's that," I agreed, looking over at Artemis, seeing that she too, was done.
"It looks like there's no putting off looking for Blood any longer." I said reluctantly.
"It does indeed look that way," Artemis said.
"Ok, but I need to do one more thing before we go," Roam said, summoning a small platform for him to stand on, before looking over at the crowd of people we had helped get back to normal. "Alright, everyone. We're going to go hunt down Blood Oath. You've been studying him for years, is there any weakness he has?"
There was a lot of murmuring in the crowd before a young Pegasus mare spoke up.
"The inside of his snapped horn seems to be extremely sensitive," She said.
"Thank you. We'll be going now. Stay here," Roam said before walking off with Artemis. I started to follow them before the old bearded Earth pony I had treated grabbed my arm.
"I used to think Shades were pure evil, as most of us do. However, you seem to be an exception to that rule. When the people trying to free Blood Oath came here, you fought to protect us, even though you could have just joined them. If you did, you're wing wouldn't be broken right now. However, you stayed by us to the end. You have my undying admiration, and I am forever in you debt," He said wheezily to me, which caused my eyes to well up a bit.
"Thanks. I'll be sure to stop him," I replied.
"There is no doubt in my mind that you will," He said with a kind smile.
"Hey, Vortex! You coming, or what?" I heard Artemis say from up the staircase.
"I'm coming, don't worry!" I replied. And with that, I walked up the stairs with my siblings, ready to face whatever life decided to throw at us as a team and as a family, the way we always do.
> Chapter 14
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I don't really know what I was expecting the world to look like once Blood Oath had gotten his grubby little hands on it. Part of me thought he would make it like it was in my nightmares, but it seemed way to... I don't know, generic, for lack of a better word. It was actually very different from my nightmares. The sky stayed the same color, and the buildings were all intact, so for a while I was wondering if I was dreaming. That was before we headed to the train station and saw a bunch of ponies desperately trying to board a train to get away from the, I'm gonna call them cultists, who attacked the lab. However, the Earth ponies were using their strength to keep the train from moving. Meanwhile, other ponies were getting whipped, cut, bludgeoned, the whole nine yards. I was about to help them, but was held back by Artemis.
"What?" I asked angrily. 
"Your wing is broken. Get to a hospital," She said. I looked at her like she was crazy. 
"I'm not going to sit back and do nothing while a psychopath is on the lose. I want to feel like I'm doing something to help. I hate feeling useless," I said back to her. I tried my best to sound brave, but in all honesty, I was scared of Blood Oath. 
"Vortex, we stabilized your wing, but you need help from a professional. Besides, you'll be far more useful in battle if you can fly," Roam said, and I hate to admit it, but he has a valid point. Being stuck on the ground really limited my mobility, something a mage like me relied on heavily so I don't, you know, get my skull caved in by some brute who got past my defenses.
"Fine," I grumbled. The Canterlot hospital was one of the few areas not overrun with cultists, which was weird, it was full of helpless victims. I guess they wanted to focus on the ponies attempting to leave the city.
I walked it through the sliding doors and immediately had to dodge a blow from a frying pan.
"G-go away!" The pony who swung at me with it yelped.
"I need your help with my wing," I said, knowing what the response would be, but decided to ask anyway.
"No! Your wing isn't broken! You're just trying to trick me!" She screamed. I rolled my eyes and held her up in the air by the legs in my magical grasp, and then summoned a kitchen knife and held it up to her throat. She was a sniveling mess now, so I made the blade disappear and put the Unicorn back on the ground.
"If I wanted you dead, the ground would be covered in blood. Now are you going to fix my wing, or am I gonna have to fight off the cultists with my wing snapped in two?" I asked. The pony gave it a moment of thought before speaking again.
"Okay," She said. I was shocked by how easy it was to convince her. I even had a big speech ready, but I guess I'll save it for another day.
"Thanks," I said. She led me to an empty room with standard hospital equipment in it. I lied down on the bed, and after a while I tried making an awkward attempt at small talk.
"So, how does this stuff work?" I asked, performing my usual job of keeping the air light.
"You set the fracture so that they are facing each other so that they'll fit snuggly when the mending spell is performed," She said, not taking her eyes off my wing so she could do just that.
"I've never heard of that method before," I replied, which seemed odd, it seemed like such a simple way to heal fractured bones.
"It's a very recent development. Discovered by a Unicorn named X-ray, or something like that. There's also a potion called Skele-Grow so that ponies without healing magic can still work in a hospital,"
"Wow. How does-"
"Done," She said, cutting me off. I blinked in shock before looking over at my wing, and sure enough, it was back to normal, it's purple aura blazing at it's full glory once again.
"I didn't even feel that. And how did you do it so fast?" I asked in amazement. I expected the process to be a lot more painful and prolonged.
"You were distracted talking to me, so you didn't even realize how painful it was. Also, I specialize in mending bones," She said.
"Thanks!" I said cheerfully. I thought about something for a moment. "Don't you need more than a frying pan to defend the hospital with?"
"I'll be fine," She said. "Although, I can't operate on the patients and defend the hospital at the same time..."
"I can help with that," I said, now full of fighting spirit now that I could fly again.
"You really don't have to..." She said shyly.
"This way, the patients get healthy again, and I repay my debt to you," I said.
"I was just doing something nice, you don't have to repay me," She replied.
"Look, do you really think you can hold out forever with a frying pan?" I asked dryly.
"I guess not..." She said.
"Then it's settled," I said, my tone of voice making it clear there was to be no more arguments. "You operate, I defend,"
"Okay, if you insist. I'll be in room 104 if you need me," She said, already making here way towards that room.
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 15
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	SMASH! The yellow and green buff pegasus cultist got thrown into a wall by my knock back spell. I sighed and put his unconscious body over behind the receptionist counter with the others. How that doctor managed to hold out this long with nothing but a frying pan, I will never know. Regardless, things were going well. I had just called my siblings to come to the hospital and plan our next move. You know, it's weird. Among all the things that had changed since Blood Oath escaped, a cell phone was still just a cell phone. 
"How are things going down here?" The Unicorn who had helped me earlier asked as she came down the stairs.
"Well, I'm defending this place with my life and I just knocked out a super-strong pegasus so that we can live another day in the Apocalypse. So, all in all, I'm having the time of my life," I replied sarcastically. "By the way, I never got your name,"
"The name's Sweet Heart," She said. "What's yours?"
"Vortex," I said. Then after a moment I said, "My brother and sister will be coming soon, so don't freak out when they arrive." The moment after I said that, the two of them burst through the door. Speak of the devil.
They looked like they had been through quite an ordeal. Their clothes were ripped, they were panting like a bunch of dogs, and their hair was caked with dirt and grass. 
"What happened to you?" I asked.
"Oh, we were fighting dozens of Blood Oath's minions while you were here, not coming back to help," Roam said, glaring at me.
"I was here, defending the hospital while she operated on the injured. You all can defend yourselves, she can't," I said giving Roam the stink eye right back.
"Hey!" Sweet Heart snapped. "I was doing fine until you showed up!" 
"You were defending a yourself and a bunch of injured ponies with a frying pan," I retorted, and Sweet Heart looked like she wanted to argue more, but I had been to logical for her to disagree.
"So... Vortex, who's this?" Artemis asked, breaking the awkward silence.
"Oh, right, Roam and Artemis, this is Sweet Heart. Sweet Heart, this is Roam and Artemis," I said.
"Wow, Vortex, you just met her and you're already calling each other sweetheart. Good job, man!" Roam said, which caused my face to turn a brighter shade of red than a cherry.
"It's not like that! Sweet Heart is her real name!" I said.
"Sure it is," Roam said with a wink, which caused me to summon a bag of ice cubes and levitate it down his shirt.
"HEY!" He said, shuddering.
"You should have learned not to mess with me like that. I will ALWAYS get you back," I said with a satisfied smirk on my face.
"What were we talking about again?" Sweet Heart asked.
"Right. Did you find out where Blood Oath is?" I asked my siblings.
"He's headed for the Everfree Forest, trying to find a way to harness the power of the Tree of Harmony," Artemis said grimly.
"Oh. That's bad." I said.
"Really? Bad? That's all you're gonna say?" Roam asked.
"Yeah. What did you think I was gonna say?"
"I don't know, I thought you were gonna make some sort of sarcastic remark. I could use a good laugh right now. Why aren't you making jokes as much? What happened?" He asked.
"The world ended," I replied before turning to Sweet Heart. "Do you think you'll be fine here on your own for a while? We gotta go beat down the guy who caused this mess," 
"I'm not sure, this place isn't an armory," She replied, but Artemis had a solution. She summoned a large table filled to the brim with weapons.
"Take your pick," She said. Sweet looked shocked for a moment, but began looking across the table and picked up a shotgun.
"Do you know how to use that thing?" Artemis asked worriedly.
"Yes. You pull the trigger," Sweet Heart said, to which Artemis sighed.
"You've got a lot to learn. Take this," She said, handing her a small booklet. "That tells you how to use a gun, as well as safety tips. Study up,"
"Oh. I guess I don't know how to use on of these things. Thanks!" She said to Artemis.
"Alright, enough messing around. We gotta get going," Roam called out.
"Okay," I said. "You go on ahead, I'll catch up with you!"
"You wanna give your girlfriend a kiss goodbye?" Roam said mockingly, before a cast a withering glare his way, which promptly shut him up. When they had walked out of the hospital, I thanked Sweet Heart for fixing my wing again, and walked out with my siblings.
"So, in all honesty, what do you think of her?" Roam asked, and when I started walking to him with a fireball in my hands, he added hastily: "I'm not mocking you! Just asking!" I rolled my eyes and extinguished the fire.
"I don't know. She's kind and, I won't lie, kind of pretty, but I think I should focus on Blood Oath before anything else," I said.
"Oh," Roam said. He seemed to have wised up, since he didn't press the subject.
"So, how do we get back to Ponyville? The cultists destroyed the train, didn't they?" I asked.
"Yeah. I guess we just fly back," Artemis said.
"I agree. It's been so long since I've flown, I've forgotten how good it feels," I said, spreading my skeletal wings and taking off.
After about thirty minutes of flying the town of Ponyville came into view, and I went into a nose dive, but just before I got to the ground, something tackled me from the side. I was sent ten feet to the left, and looked at who tackled me. It was Rainbow Dash. I cursed under my breath. Why did I think I could just waltz on in in my current form?
"Listen, I can explain," I said, but she wasn't having any of that. She attempted to tackle me again without a word, and I flew strait up before going in a nosedive again. If I could just get in my pony form again, maybe they would listen to me. The problem was, the transformation needed a pony for the spell to work, and I doubted Rainbow would stay still so I could perform the spell. I needed someone who wouldn't put up a fight, someone who could apprehend effortlessly. Fluttershy. Duh. I flew at top speed towards her, she was treating the wounded, so she didn't see me coming. I he'd her in my magic grasp and performed the spell before she could even call out for help. Once the light died down, Rainbow saw me in my pony form and stopped charging. 
"V-Vortex?" She stuttered.
"Yes,"
"Jeez, I'm sorry. I thought you were a Shade,"
"I am,"
"...What?"
"Yeah. I said I could explain, so if you take us to everyone else, I'll do just that."
"Alright, but if you try anything, I'll break every bone in your body!"
"Consider me warned. Let's go,"
Then she led me over to town hall.
	
	
> Chapter 16
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So, let me get this straight. You were lying to us the whole time you were here," Twilight said, trying her best to keep a level tone of voice.
"Well, you could look at it that way. However, I never said I wasn't a Shade, so it wasn't a lie, just not the whole truth," I said back, even though I knew a comment like that was stupid. 
"Why didn't you just tell us in the first place?" Applejack asked.
"Past experience," I said simply.
"So, I assume that means your siblings are Shades to?" Rarity asked.
"Yeah," I said before a thought crossed my mind. "Hey, where are they, anyway? They were right behind me earlier..."
"We saw you dive-bombing the town like a bloody idiot, and decided to hang back and let the whole mess you would inevitably cause blow over before revealing ourselves," I stern female voice said from behind me. I looked back, and sure enough, there they were, blending in with the shadows.
"You saw Rainbow Dash tackle me, and didn't do anything about it?" I asked angrily.
"She was going to stop her, but I held her back. I reasoned that if you doing something like that, you probably had a good plan of what you were going to do," Said Roam.
"When have I ever had a good idea?" I asked.
"First time for everything," Roam shrugged. 
"Well, at least no one got hurt," I said.
"Yeah, except for you grabbing Fluttershy out of the blue, scaring her half to death," Rainbow said passive aggressively.
"Oh, um, yeah, sorry about that," I said to the cream-colored Pegasus.
"It's alright," She said back, barely audible.
"So, why are you here, anyways?" Twilight asked.
"We know where to find the guy responsible for the way the world is now," I said.
"What?" Twilight asked, dumbfounded.
"Yeah. We interrogated one of his minions in Canterlot, and he's trying to find a way to steal power from the Tree of Harmony," Roam said. I felt it was best to let him take the lead on this, so I just sort of sat silently while everyone else worked out what to do. I tried everything to take my mind off of everything, I got a snack, I watched TV, I played a video game, but I couldn't take my mind off the fact that I was gonna have to fight a well-trained psychotic Unicorn mage with the power to enter someone's mind. I was right in the middle of reading a book when some pony came over.
"Whatcha reading?" He asked. I looked over the cover of the book. I didn't recognize him.
"Just a comic," I replied, looking back at the book.
"Hey," He said again. I looked at him again only to find Blood Oath leaning really close to my face. I yelped and leaped sideways, running away from him. I had to find Twilight, or Roam, or someone who could help. I did that for a few seconds before realizing something.
"This is just a dream, isn't it?" I asked, no longer quite as afraid.
"Yes. Yes it is," Came his voice from behind me.
"What are you doing here?" I demanded.
"I just thought I'd pay you a visit. After all, it's not everyday you meet another Dreamstalker," He said casually. "It's also not to late to join me. I can make it so no one rejects you anymore. I can give you anything you want, just as soon as I unlock the powers of the Tree of Harmony,"
"We both know I won't help you. Why are you really here?"
"That's the million dollar question, ain't it? Alright, I was thinking, you want to get revenge on me for breaking you're wing, don't you? You want it more than anything else. So, then, why are you waiting? Why not come get me now?" He asked.
"Because I'm not stupid. On my own, you're leagues above me. Quit trying to trick me, it won't work," I said. He then let out a scream of pure rage, and I flinched.
"WHY WON'T YOU JUST FIGHT FOR ME?! ALL THE REST HAD THEIR PUNY LITTLE MINDS BRAINWASHED SO EASILY!" He yelled. "YOU KNOW WHAT? FINE! COME OVER HERE WHENEVER YOU'RE READY! I'LL BE WAITING ON YA!" And with that I woke up with a start. I shook my head and rushed over to the room where everyone was planning. I knocked on the door.
"Come in," I heard the voice of Applejack call out. I opened the door, and saw that Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Twilight, and my siblings were packing a bag. 
"Oh. It's you. We were about to go find you," Twilight said.
"For what?"
"We're leaving now. It was originally just us, but you're siblings convinced us to let them go," Said Rarity.
"We're leaving now, huh? So what's the plan?"
"There is none," Said Rainbow.
"What? Why not?" 
"We don't know the layout of anything Blood might have set up in there, so we can't plan any sort of infiltration. All we do is gather the best fighters and medics, and take the fight to Blood Oath's doorstep," Rainbow replied.
"And you have no backup plan for if this fails?" I asked. Everyone shook their heads. "I gotta say, that doesn't sound like much of plan,"
"You got a better idea?" Asked Artemis.
"No," I said under my breath. "Okay, I'll go pack something," I began to walk out the door, not really sure of what to pack. I mean, what do you bring to a fight to the death? I could summon my claws at any time, so, really what is there to do? I just shrugged and walked over to the building's exit. About four and a half minuets later, the Mane six, my siblings, and a bunch of other ponies I didn't recognize came over to the door. Everyone looked determined to end this. Artemis's hard eyes bored into me, filled with strength of will. Roam's cold, calculating face seemed distant, stuck in his own little world. He looked as though he were thinking about everything that could possibly happen during the endeavor we were about to go through. The Mane 6 looked similar to Artemis, but they clearly knew they would be able to count on each other to help them out of anything. The ones I didn't recognize looked worried, but they seemingly knew that they had to do this, and were willing to put their life on the line for the greater good.
And then there was me. Amidst all these accomplished fighters, lifelong friends, and clever, evaluating strategists, I felt like the underdog. Granted, this was something I had been feeling all my life. My brother and sister always seemed to be able to solve any problem they were faced with, whereas I never seemed to do anything but distract the opponent while Roam came up with a winning strategy. I act calm and collected, and for the most part I honestly am, but in situations like this, I always felt as though I wouldn't be able to do anything worthwhile. 
"Well, let's get this over with," I grunted, moving to the side so everyone else could go ahead of me. As everyone else walked into the Everfree forest, I looked back at the town, or what little I could see of it at this distance. It was dusk now, the town covered in a dark haze. I turned back to the group and walked off with them, not knowing if I or anyone else would walk out of this forest alive.
	
> Chapter 17
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The route to the Tree of Harmony was longer than I expected. I guess that's what happens when you get used to teleporting. I expected everyone to be all silent and grim on the way there, but they were all talking amongst themselves. I decided that this would be a good opportunity to apologize to the pony that was most offended by my lies, considering she's the Element of Honesty. I didn't really know what to say, though. Regardless, I found myself walking towards Applejack.
"Umm, hey, how are you feeling?" I asked, mentally scolding myself afterwards for how stupid of a question it was. She didn't seem to mind, though.
"I'm doing alright, considering the situation. How about you?" She replied, not taking her eyes off the path.
"I'm not doing so well," I said, figuring she would appreciate the truth. "I wanted to say I'm sorry about the whole 'posing as a pony' thing,"
"It's alright. I can understand why you thought you'd have to disguise yourself," She replied. 
"Oh," I said, not really knowing what to say next. Then after a brief awkward silence, a thought dawned on me. "Do any of you know where Celestia and Luna are?" 
"No," She said. "I thought they would be defending Canterlot,"
"Well, they aren't. My siblings and I came from there. After Blood Oath got set free, they sorta just disappeared," I said, a little worried about their well-being. 
"...You should probably tell Twilight about this," Said Applejack. 
"Are you kidding me? I can't tell her, she'd go crazy if she found out Celestia was missing. Also, I think she's still bitter about my deception," I said. Applejack looked at me with a hard look on her face.
"I thought you were done lying," She said coldly.
"It's not a lie. I never said Celestia WASN'T missing, did I?" I said. "Also, I don't want to talk to Twilight for other reasons,"
"And what reasons would those be?" A.J asked.
"Well, for starters, she's technically my mother," A.J stared at me with a look of shock on her face. 
"I never knew she was interested in dark magic," She said thoughtfully.
"Remember the Crystal Empire incident? She got a little angry while searching for the Crystal Heart, and let loose a dark spell unintentionally," I said, clearing things up with Applejack. To be fair, there was a little more to it than her just getting mad out of the blue, but it felt unnecessary to explain.
"Okay, I understand. I'll tell her about the Princesses missing," She said. "You should think about what you're gonna do during the battle, because we're almost there,"
She then walked ahead, and I thought about what she said. What was I going to do? Would I get rid of Blood's minions, take him on head on, or just hang back casting healing spells? Not the last one, I should leave that to the medics. So that left two options, take out Blood Oath, or his guards? After a minute of thinking I decided I would do whatever it was my siblings were going to do. We had survived together this far, I wasn't gonna stop now. Not to mention, Roam would definitely have a plan in place. I don't do the planning, I just attack whatever he tells me is the most valuable target. Five minutes later, after Applejack had finished talking to Twilight, she told everyone else to come up with a plan. Everyone started talking worriedly among themselves, and right now I was just drinking some water to kill time. We were making pretty good progress to, until I noticed something odd. 
"Hey, has anyone else noticed that the forest looks different than normal?" I said to everyone.
"How would I know? I've never been in here before," Someone in the crowd said. Twilight however, started looking around franticly. 
"He's right. The trees are arranged differently, but that's impossible. We've been following the path perfectly..." She mused, and if everyone else looked scared before it was nothing compared to now. I guess getting lost in a monster-infested forest was their breaking point. Someone even fainted, causing the medics to have to get to work before a fight even started. 
"If I may, I think Rainbow Dash and some other pegasi should fly above the treetops and see if they can find anything familiar," Roam said.
"Good idea. Who do you wanna take?" Twilight asked.
"Uh, I guess I'll take Blossomforth, Thunderlane, Vortex, and Artemis," She said. 
"Okay, if things go wrong, head back here immediately. Don't try to take on a bunch of enemies at once," Twilight said. The first part was directed at all of us, but when she said the last part, Twilight looked accusingly at our air captain, Rainbow. 
"Ugh, fine, I won't try to be a hero," Rainbow said, rolling her eyes. "Alright, team. Let's go!" She took off, leaving us all in the dust for a second, before we took off as well. 
"Hey, Rainbow! Slow down! We aren't as fast as you!" I called out, panting with the rest of the group.
"Sorry, I'll slow down a bit," She said, starting to move at a much more manageable pace. 
"Hey, thanks for bringing me along," I said to her. "But why did you do it, though?"
"Uh, you can fly and use magic. Of course I'm going to bring a guy with Alicorn powers along," She said.
"I'm not that powerful. Not by a long shot. If I got in a fight with any of the Princesses, I'm sure I would lose miserably," I said.
"Aren't Shades technically living dark magic?" 
"Umm... no one really knows. The fact that our magical aura is always visible through our wings has spawned some theories, but, honestly, unless someone sliced open a Shade, we won't ever be sure of anything. And no one really wants to go near a Shade to study their anatomy," I said. "So, are you still mad about what I did?"
"No. None of us are. We understand why you did it, and we trust you," Rainbow replied.
"Uh, I'm not complaining, but why do you trust me? What have I done to make me trustworthy?"
"Well, for starters, you didn't bring any harm to us while you were disguised. You didn't hurt Fluttershy earlier today. You gave us advice on where to look for Blood Oath," She said.
"My brother did the last one, but I guess I see your point," I said, before remembering what we were in the sky for and looked for anything that would help. 
"Hey, you see that?" Blossomforth asked, pointing to a yellow light coming from the trees.
"Yeah. Let's check it out," Rainbow said, going into a nosedive with the rest of us following suit.
	
> Chapter 18
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The yellow light turned out to be a group of Blood's minions surrounding a square-shaped machine with a funnel at the top. I noticed they were all Unicorns.
"Hey, what are we doing this for?" One of them asked.
"The boss said we have to keep this machine running. He said it makes an illusion spanning the whole forest to throw his enemies off his trail while he interrogates Celestia and Luna on how to steal the Tree's power," One of them replied.
That was all I needed to know. I jumped out from the bush I was hiding behind and performed a leg sweep on the biggest one, before stomping on his face, knocking him out cold. The others stopped powering the machine to stop me from taking out any more of them. I got a laser shot at me, but I countered with one of my own and it knocked the thug out of the tree he had jumped up to. I then watched as the rest of my team took out the three remaining cultists. Then Artemis punched me in the arm.
"Ow! What was that for?" I yelled.
"Twilight told us not to fight anyone," She retorted.
"Oh, come on! We had to get rid of the machine somehow! Speaking of which..." I said before shooting a powerful electric spark at the machine, causing it to short-circuit and explode.
"Now let's get back to the others," I said, taking to the sky again. "Lead the way, boss," I said to Rainbow Dash. As we were headed back to the the rest of the group, I called Roam on the phone to tell him we were coming. 
"Hey. Why is the forest back to normal?" He asked the moment I touched down on the ground.
"I am fine, thanks so much for asking," I scowled. "There was some sort of machine making a mirage to throw us off Blood's trail. We knocked out his minions and destroyed the machine. We also found out that he's holding Celestia and Luna hostage," I explained. "So, am I correct to assume that we head to the Tree of Harmony now?" 
"Well, I guess so. We don't have anything else to be doing," Twilight said. "Everyone here has come up with some sort of plan, so I don't see any reason to put this off any longer,"
"So, what's the plan for you?" I asked. "You just gonna do that Super Sonic thing with your friends and blast Blood Oath into kingdom come?"
"Er, no. We didn't ever really find out why that happened, or how to use those forms again," Said Applejack. 
"Oh. That's a shame. It'd be really useful in the fight," I said.
"Yeah, but maybe it's for the best. I mean, if we could just do that whenever a new threat showed up, how do think Equestria would fare once we all passed away? They would have become way to reliant on us," She said.
"How about we just focus on the problem we have now? Besides, you got a long ways to go before you die," I said, as I had never really felt comfortable talking about death. "I'm going to go talk to my brother about what to do during the fight," I said, walking off before she could respond. "Hey, bro," I said when I got within earshot of Roam. "What is it you think would be best for me to do during the fight?" I asked, cutting right to the chase.
"Don't get yourself killed," He said jokingly. I really have rubbed off on him, haven't I? "You, your sister, and I are going to focus on whatever the biggest threat happens to be at the moment,"
"I have a feeling I know who that's going to be," I said in anticipation.
"Well, until we see what he has set up, we won't really know. Who knows what he's got his hands on in the time that he's been free,"
"Speak of the devil. It looks like we're here," I said, pointing to the mane six crouching at the edge of a cliff, looking down at something glowing a hazy light blue that had to be the Tree of Harmony. They motioned for everyone to lay low and pointed at something at the bottom of the cliff. We all looked at it, and sure enough, it was the Tree of Harmony. I noticed the old castle of the two sisters which I had remodeled and repaired not far off, but that's not important. What was important was that Celestia and Luna were tied up near the crystalline tree with Blood Oath talking to them about something, probably trying to get some information out of them.
"Why aren't they fighting back?" Our sniper wondered aloud.
"They know that even together, they can't overpower him, so they're stalling until help comes," Said Roam.
"Well, help's here. Do we attack now?" I asked no one in particular.
"Hmm. Does anyone think they can sneak over behind the Princesses and cut them free?" Rarity asked.
"I probably could if the Joker over there wasn't watching them," I said, gesturing to Blood Oath.
"I could cause a distraction," Offered Rainbow, then, without waiting a second longer, flew down there and kicked Blood in the chest.
"OW! Why, you little... GET HER!" He bellowed to his Pegasi, who flinched for a moment before taking to the sky and chasing her down. Their efforts were fruitless, however, as she was way to fast for any of them.
"Reckless," Twilight muttered. "CHARGE!" She yelled, and everyone except our sniper and the medics jumped onto the battlefield , while I flew silently behind the poles that Tia and Luna were tied to. I summoned my claws to cut them down, and they rubbed their wrists before jumping into the battle themselves without a word of thanks.
"Don't everyone thank me all at once," I said under my breath before joining the fray myself.
	
	
	
	
> Chapter 19
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	At this point I was ready to go home and take a nice long nap. Lord knows I needed one, but I had one last fight to do. Of course. It didn't help that me and my siblings were the only members of our team that were willing to kill, because that made it feel like we were carrying everyone else on our backs. And before you say, "Oh, why would you kill them? They're only doing this because they've been brainwashed," just let me say that if you were in my situation, you really don't care. I just wanted to get this all over with. Anyways, we were doing pretty well for the first five minutes, but then the shock of our sudden attack wore off, and we were getting steamrolled. I don't really know what anyone else was doing, I just focused on me. The moment I freed the Princesses, a blue earth pony came up to me and tried to punch me in the face. I sidestepped before plunged my claws into the back of his head, killing him instantly. I tried to remember what Roam had told me to do. Unfortunately, I didn't realize one of the cultists sneaking up behind me, and because of that, I got punched in the back of the head.
"OW!" I yelled, trying to focus on striking back, but he had hit me pretty hard, I was seeing double. After my first few claw strikes failed, I decided to make a small earthquake. That bought me enough time for my vision to return to normal, and when it did, I struck the Unicorn with a fireball. I cringed a bit at the sight of his burning corpse, before running over to where Roam was. I encountered another attack from an Earth pony along the way, but this one was smart enough to bring a weapon. Except for the fact that it was a wooden club. He took a wild swing at me with it, and I slashed through it effortlessly. He didn't seem to get the fact that reinforced steel beats wood any day, because he genuinely looked surprised when his weapon broke. He was so dumbfounded that I almost felt bad for killing him. Almost.
"Hey, Roam," I said when I got to him. "Who do I attack next?"
"Help your sister with Blood Oath," He said while putting a cast on a wounded Pegasus. 
"Yes, sir," I said.
Artemis was having a not-so-good time. She was fast enough so that she didn't get hit, but she also couldn't break through the frontal shield he conjured whenever she got close enough. I remembered what the ponies at the underground lab said about Blood's weakness. I snuck up behind Blood while he was occupied with my sister and stabbed the inside of his bleeding horn.
"AHHH!" He cried out, which made me feel pretty good about myself. That is, until he turned around and looked at me murderously. 
"Oh, boy, here we go," I muttered before turning tail and flying in the opposite direction.
"GET OVER HERE, YOU LITTLE PUNK! TRY TO KILL ME, WILL YA!?" He roared from behind me. I felt a sudden magical burst headed for me, so I flew up to the the ceiling before looking down at where I was before, finding that it was now a smoking crater. 
"DIE!" The blood-stained Unicorn yelled, shooting another blast at me, but this time I used a reflect spell. His shot rebounded towards him, but he quickly dashed away. 
"Jeez. For a body like that, he sure moves fast," I said under my breath before shooting a stream of icy wind his way. It froze on contact, and I walked up to plunge my claws into his horn again. I did, but the impact shattered his frozen prison, and he still wasn't done, but he looked a lot more angry now. I tried to fly away, but he caught me in his psychic grasp. 
"Where do you think you're going?" He said in a sadistic whisper. He looked pained, and tears were streaming down his face, but he looked triumphant. I tried to blast him away, but this time he summoned a force field. This was it. I had just spent my last ounce of energy with that attack. I closed my eyes and braced myself for the pain, but it never came. Instead, I heard Blood Oath scream in pain and rage again. I opened my eyes and saw Artemis and Roam heaving me off the ground and headed for the medics. 
> Chapter 20
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Good job, Vortex. You managed to get what might be the most powerful being in the world mad at you," Artemis scolded.
"I also saved your life and hit him twice in his weak point," I replied tonelessly, lying down as a medic examined me. "So, doc, can I get back to the fight soon?"
"Probably not. You really overdid it with that freezing spell," The medic said. I think her name was Nurse Redheart, or something like that. 
"So, when can I start fighting again?"
"That's up to you. I can't tell how much magic you have stored up, so just jump back in whenever you feel ready," She said before tending to other patients.
"Hey, how did you get that psycho away from me, anyway?" I asked my siblings. "And where is he now?"
" Well, for you're first question, I hit him into the wall with my hammer," Roam said proudly. " As for you're second question, Celestia, Luna, and Twilight are holding him off as best they can, and Artemis and I are going to go over and help them with that, just to be safe,"
"'Just to be safe?' Are you sure that situation is under control, because I don't want him coming over here while I regain my energy," I said worriedly.
"You'll be fine," Artemis said. "We're pretty sure everything's under control,"
"'Pretty sure?' I don't think I like this plan,"
"Shut up and go to sleep, you worrywart," Artemis said, casting a sleep spell on me. I was about to protest, but then the warm embrace of the spell took over.
"You know, a nap does sound good right about now," I muttered sleepily before succumbing to the Dreamscape's enticing allure. 
For the first time in what seemed like forever, I had a good dream. I was on an island made of waffles. Wafflelantis. Most of my dream is a blur, actually, I guess because of how much I had been through. What I do is that I woke up feeling my magic reserves filled to the brim. It was quiet, and after all the fighting that the area had been home to, it was quite an eerie silence. I saw most of Blood's henchmen tied up and unconscious, while the big man himself was holding off Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Rainbow, and my siblings as they all tried to land a hit on him, but he was teleporting all over the place, making it really hard to pin him down. I didn't waste any time and conjured a whirlwind before sending it his way. He was tossed around in the air from my sudden attack, but that drew his attention to me.
"Heh, you came back. I'm touched," He said sarcastically. Right off the bat, I knew something was wrong. Up until now, he was fueled by nothing but rage, but now he was calm and collected, and I soon found out why.
"Let's keep this between us, alright?" He said before grabbing everyone besides me in his telepathic grasp and pinning them against the wall.
"Let them go!" I yelled, even though I knew he wouldn't. 
"Tell you what. You beat me, and I'll let them go. I beat you, I kill them," He said.
"Why are you even doing this?" I asked. "Why not just kill them now?"
"You beat me earlier, an act that severely damaged my pride. I'm going to take it back," He said, his voice full of determination. "You better make a decision soon, lest I lose my temper," He informed me, tightening his grip on my friends and siblings.
"Deal," I sighed unhappily. I hate it when I'm offered an ultimatum like that.
"Alright, then. Let's go, kid," Blood said. "Also, don't try to interfere with this; if you do, I'll kill you," He said to his hostages.
He then shot a bolt of red energy at me, which I barely dodged. I retaliated by ensnaring him with thick vines that I summoned from the ground. As he was struggling to get free, I stabbed him in the horn, but he just grinned in the face of pain.
"Bad idea, kid," He said softly before unleashing a blast of fire, knocking me away with second-degree burns, not to mention destroying his earthly prison. I should've known he wouldn't let me get his weak spot so easily. I encased myself inside a rocky stalagmite as I saw Blood charging me. As he beat on what I protected myself with, I teleported out of the stone and behind my attacker before blasting the inside of his horn with fire. 
"AHHHHH!" He yelled in agony. 
"Doesn't feel so good, does it?" I said tauntingly, but I probably should've kept my big mouth shut, because he just turned my way and shot a laser into the ground, causing an earthquake. He managed to blast me with a laser as I stumbled before taking to the air. I levitated a huge chunk of the ground up and hurled it at him, and he blasted it to pieces with a laser, but the shrapnel still hit him. As he was being pelted with tiny rocks, I flew up to him and was about to stab his horn again, but I just got a blast of energy to the face again, the impact of which sent me flying backwards into the ground. 
"GO TO HELL!" Blood yelled, shooting a freezing spell at me, before I got back to my feet. I made it look like I was struggling to get out as he walked towards me. I would just strike him again once he got close enough. I guess my acting was good enough, because he seemed genuinely surprised when I stabbed his horn again. 
"Heh, I'm not as dumb as I look," I panted as I melted the ice around me. At this point, though, I was starting to reach my limit. My magic reserves were fine, and I hadn't been hit that much, but the few times I had been struck had took a lot out of me. I wouldn't be able to take another hit; if I did, I would be knocked out, and that's if I was really, really lucky. However, while he had plenty of magic left, his horn was bleeding worse than ever, and one more stab there would end him. 
"Tired, eh?" Blood asked. 
"Yeah. That's why I'm going to end this right now," I said now that I had a plan formulated. One that was stupid, probably the most stupid plan I'd ever come up with, and that's saying something.
"Really? How you gonna beat me?" Blood asked mockingly, clearly not confident in my abilities. 
"LIKE THIS!" I yelled, charging straight at him with a frontal force field casted in front of me. He looked completely dumbfounded for a moment, but he regained his senses to shoot his biggest laser yet right at me, but my shield held up until I was right in front of him, where I plunged both claws straight into his skull, yanking them out, and shooting a laser of my own into his horn. 
Everything was quiet for a second. Two seconds. Three seconds. Then Blood fell backwards onto the cold dirt below him, his eyes blank and dead. 
"Heh," I said softly. "That wasn't so hard..." At least that's what I thought before I looked down at my own body and the adrenaline wore off. My right leg was completely blown off, I had holes covering my body, and I was bleeding out fast. 
"Well. At least I did something with my life," I said quietly to myself before falling over backwards myself, and blacking out.
	
> Chapter 21
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The weirdest part was the delayed reaction. I didn't even feel anything until I looked at the damage I had sustained. That's when it hurt. Like, an ungodly amount of pain. Everything felt hot and cold at the same time, like I had just gotten inside after a freak snowstorm, or like a bout of the flu. I even felt it hurting where my leg used to be; I think they call that a phantom pain. Well, at the very least, I didn't feel it for very long before I collapsed from blood loss. After that, I can only guess I slipped into a coma or something, pretty expected, right? Well, my time spent asleep is all a big blur, which is a little odd, considering I usually remember my dreams. All I know for sure is that I woke up in a hospital, and surprisingly, my first thought wasn't the pain, instead it was me wondering if I was still alive or not. Then the pain hit, which answered that question for me. The pain wasn't nearly as bad as it had been before, but it still hurt all over.
I looked around the room. There was no other patients in the room with me, nor any doctors. My leg still hurt, even though it wasn't there. I tried to climb out of bed, but I got a shot of pain throughout my whole body when I did.
"Okay," I said to myself when I was back on the bed. "Guess I'm not getting out of bed anytime soon," 
The clock said it was nine thirty in the morning. I saw a note on my bedside table, next to some flowers that looked as if they had been there a while, and my phone plugged into the wall. I levitated the paper to myself and read it.
Dear Vortex,
Hey, we don't know when you're going to wake up, but in case you do when there aren't any doctors around, just give us a call and we'll be there right away.
Love,
Roam and Artemis 
I brought the phone to myself to myself and dialed Roam's number. It rang for a few seconds before he picked up.	
"Hey, bro. What's up?" I said, trying to act casual.
"Vortex! Okay, we'll be right over!" He exclaimed.
"Hey, wait, you don't have to drop everything to come see me, I'm fine!" I said back, but all I heard in return was the dial tone." Well, guess I'm getting some company," 
Just then the door burst open, and my brother walked into the room.
"That was fast," I commented.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Roam asked franticly.
"I'm fine, take some deep breaths. You're hyperventilating," I told him.
"Really?" He asked, starting to calm down. "Oh, I thought the loss of your leg would have hit you a little harder,"
"Meh. I'll just build a new one; Not much surprises me anymore," I said nonchalantly. "So, where's Artemis? She probably wants to kill me for putting myself in so much danger,"
"Well, she tries to make it seem like she's mad at you, but every time she yells or something like that, you can tell it's just an act," Roam said. "As for where she is, she should be coming by in a few minutes.
"Make that a few seconds," I said, looking in the doorway where my sister was standing with a cold, hard look on her face. "If you're going to punch me, please avoid the face, it hurts a lot there," 
"If you ever scare me like that again, I will beat you senseless and drag your unconscious body back home and lock you in your room for a month with no food," She growled, still staring at me like I had broken the law.
"I love you too, sis," I said tonelessly; right now I was just happy to be alive, one-legged or not. "Before you unscrew my head, why not give me a hug?" I asked, holding my arms out for an embrace, before wincing at the sudden spike of pain. Artemis continued to glare at me for a second, before smiling kindly at me.
"I can't stay mad at family, even though you're the most insufferable being on the planet," She said.
"You flatter me," I said with a smirk. "So, when can I get out of this bed?"
"I'll go ask the doctor," Artemis said before stepping out of the room, leaving me alone with Roam. 
"So how long have I been asleep?" 
"It's been three months. In other news, Celestia passed a law to give Shades the same rights as ponies, so long as they're not, you know, murderous,"
"Cool," I said, which caused Roam to look at me like I had lost my leg-oh, wait. Never mind.
"Really? All you have to say is 'cool'?" He asked.
"Considering we all killed a Unicorn that had brought about the end of the world, yes. I kind of expected Celestia would pass a law like that.I guess you could say he was 'blood'-thirsty," Roam sighed after I finished me sentence.
"Good to know you haven't changed much," He said with a grimace. Well, it's not just the Shades. The law extends to other creatures, like golems and Windegos," 
"That's nice," I said. 
"Hello, Vortex. May I come in?" A professional-sounding voice said from the doorway. I looked over to see Doctor Horse standing there with my sister standing behind him.
"It's a free country," I replied. "You know when I can get out of this room? I've got things I need to do,"
"Like what?" He asked curiously.
"Like building a new leg," I said simply.
"We've got a prosthetic one here already," He said absentmindedly, looking at an x-ray. "Your bones have been healed. Does it hurt when you move?"
I tried to get up, but it still stung, like I had picked a fight with a swarm of bees.
"Yep," I grunted. 
"How would you describe the pain?" He asked.
"Like there's a bunch of needles poking me," I said. 
"Hmm. You're body is perfectly fine, so you're probably just experiencing the placebo effect," The doctor deduced.
"Placebo effect? You mean I only think I'm still hurt?"
"Yeah, you should be able to get up, at least as soon as we attach the prosthetic leg. I'll go get it,"
"Thanks," I said as he exited the room. Huh. I didn't hurt anymore, I guess it was the placebo effect. Well, that problem resolved itself quickly. It's like I'm in a bad fanfiction or something! 
"Okay, here it is," The doctor said when he came back after about a minute of awkward silence once he left. "I'm going to need you to go to sleep for us to put this on, okay?" 
"Done. Whatever gets me out of this room faster," I said, bracing myself for the sleep spell.
~~~~~
When I woke up in the Dreamscape, I immediately regenerated my leg, so I wouldn't have to hop around everywhere. After that, I routinely started searching for a child's dream, before I remembered that Blood was dead, and as such, I didn't have to run away from him any longer. With a whoop of satisfaction, I darted up into the sky at an incredible speed, before beginning to mold my dream how I liked. I don't think I've talked about this before, but doing that feels awesome. You feel like a god, able to do anything with the whole world at your fingertips, with your only limit being your imagination. Nothing you do here is real, but it still feels great. Up until Blood came along, I took that ability for granted. Now that I knew what it's like not being able to control dreams, I felt bad for my siblings. That doesn't mean I didn't go on a massive power trip, though. I created an island made of waffles, surrounded by an ocean of syrup, along with a gargantuan waterfall of pulp-free orange juice, complete with a temple worshipping Batman in the center of the island. Because reasons. It's not weird, shut up. So I pretty much just fooled around there for a while until I heard the ear-grating sound of an alarm calling me from beyond the Dreamscape. For once, I was excited to wake up. I did just that and found my siblings and the doctor looking at me with happy looks on their faces. 
"Well, you going to check out your new limb?" Roam asked. I pulled the comforter off the bed to find that I had a metallic leg attached to the stump that used to be there. It had a silver sheen and looked really nice, but when I got out of the bed to try walking, I fell flat on my face. I heard the snickering of Roam as I got up.
"Not. One. Word," I said slowly, before using my wings to provide balance as we walked to the lobby. I was checked out soon enough.
"So, what do you want to do now that you're out of the hospital?" Artemis asked me.
"Sleep," I said immediately, teleporting home and crawling into my bed. I closed my eyes and fell asleep before my head hit the pillow. 

The End