Chapter 1: Oy, where the heck am I?!

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“Ya know, blacking out and waking up in a different place is a disorienting and worrying experience. It’s even more worrying when you smell blood when you wake up.”

An unknown character opened their eyes to darkness, with only their smell and touch being able to guide them. Wherever they were, it was quiet. As quiet as death, some could say. The floor they laid on was wet with something thick. Sticky. Our stranger could only assume it was blood, with the strong smell of the iron-rich substance that seemed to permeate through the air.

They sat up as best they could while trying to see something, with no results. “If only I had a light,“ they muttered to themself. Her voice was noticeably feminine. The pitch seemed to change in every other sentence or so, not entirely keeping to a set range. After making their comment, a ball of light the size of a hand appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Everything had a tint of purple to it. ”Is the light the color purple?”

They looked around with their renewed vision and, just as they assumed, the floor was covered in blood. No corpses in sight though. They briefly wondered what or where it was coming from but let it go for the time being.

Another thing that they noticed while they were looking around was a distinct lack of white skin on them. What replaced their skin was a pure black material that was incredibly smooth. ”Weird,” they thought to themself. But…there wasn’t a hand either. The stranger looked over themself, pieces of an invisible puzzle slowly coming together in their head.

A smooth black material covering their body, the body in question was shaped equine-like. There even was a snout and tail visible when they looked hard enough.

The approaching questions were placed into the back of their mind. Once they got out of wherever they are, they can bother dealing with whatever crisis this is they’re in.

They slowly stand, their balance weak like a foal’s would be. A slow walk forward began, the light ball floating alongside them and lighting the way.

…

Nothing was said. Nothing was done. Just walk and walk and walk. ”Man, this is a long walk.” It takes a while, but don't quote them on the assumption that it's been hours. Their lack of a sense of time aside, they were finally seeing a light other than the ball that they accidentally summoned. Was it sunlight? The burning of their eyes said yes.

At last, they can finally have an idea as to where they were.
...
...
“Oh, come on! Why a desert, of all places?! Of all the places I could’ve ended up at, it had to be a place where I’m blinded by sunlight and battered down by constant, overbearing temperatures!” The character yelled.

Once their vision adjusted to the bright sunlight and they had taken a breath to calm down, all they could see was sand. The heat was already bearing down on them and they hadn't even taken a step out of the cave or whatever yet.

Now with more light available, their appearance was fully revealed. They were a changeling, but unlike other changelings they had neither wings nor holes. Although, they still had the curved horn many of their kind possessed, and like any other changeling that wasn't a queen, their eyes were an entire color with a much lighter shade indicating the pupil location. Different from the usual changeling we’ve seen in this world, their eyes were purple instead of that light blue. They had a black mane and tail as well, different from more common changelings, who had a type of fin instead of hair.

‘Couldn’t I have just, like, ended up somewhere colder?‘ the changeling thought to themself. As soon as the thought was said, the ball of light suddenly expanded and washed over them, blinding them with purple light. And then, it and the changeling were gone.

Within the Frozen North, a sudden flash of purple appeared, revealing our changeling character to be there now instead of the desert they were in previously. They were surprised to see their surroundings changed so drastically. They turn behind themself and found that the cave they had walked out of was no longer there, more snowy wasteland taking its place.

”How in the nine rings of hell did that happen? This is probably a dream, right? But, if this was a dream, wouldn't I be acting as if this was normal? That's how most dreams worked, at least for me.”

They sighed, giving up on that train of thought before they could spiral down any further. They looked down at themself, checking their new appearance again.

”Perhaps in this world, changelings aren’t like in the show?’ the changeling thought to themself. ‘It could just be something for me though, considering that I teleported from what I assume was the southern part of Equestria to the Frozen North. I don’t think anyone has done that without at least falling unconscious.”

After spacing out for a few moments, the changeling snapped out of it and got back to the task at hand. What was it? Ah yes, trying to find civilization. Well, the Empire should be around there somewhere. Unfortunately, they don’t see it anywhere. This could mean one of two things. they’re in a part of the timeline before the Crystal Empire appeared, or the Empire was simply not in view from where they were. There was no real way to know…

Only one thing to do. Improvise. The changeling spun around and stopped after a few seconds. Whatever direction they stopped at was going to be where they headed. So the long march started.

After another jump of perspective for us, we find the changeling no longer within the Frozen North.

After a few days of straight walking and going over a mountain, they found themself in a forest. Surprisingly, they hadn't felt tired and their legs weren't sore. They even took no breaks during that whole walk. ”Is that a changeling thing?” they wondered to themself. ”They have a lot of bug-like qualities, so maybe they do?” They asked themself as they kept walking through without worry.

The changeling looked up as their mind drifted. They could see a large mountain in the distance. ”Considering that I came from the North, I wouldn’t be able to see Canterlot from here. It’s attached to the southern face and is on the tallest mountain in the middle of Equestria. Since I can’t see any others from here, I can only guess-“

Unfortunately, their internal monologue seemed to have been interrupted by the sudden appearance of a group of ponies carrying weapons and wearing bits of armor. ”Bandits? The more you know.” The group consisted of six, with two of each main subrace of ponies making them up.

The changeling gives a simple wave, accidentally adopting an accent as they spoke to the group. “Ello there, mates, how ya doing today?” As expected, the group gave them weird looks. Surprisingly, the changeling wasn't cowering or anything. ”How am I so calm? Surely that has to be a changeling thing, so acting is easier. Rrrright?”

One of the ponies, a unicorn, snapped out of their confusion before firing a bolt of magic at them.

”Uh oh.” The changeling was unable to dodge, the spell hit them in face with no resistance. The changeling closed their eyes and gritted their teeth at the impact, expecting pain. But…nothing seemed to happen. They gingerly opened their eyes and looked down at themself, seeing that nothing was wrong.

A simple frown occupies their face as the two earth ponies with spears start to walk towards them with their weapons. They simply froze. Unfortunate, truly. They could've run or fought and would've been just fine.

“Come with us or you’ll regret it.” One of them threatened.

“Alright, alright.” The changeling relented.

“Make sure they don’t do anything funny.” A unicorn stated before moving. The changeling was poked from behind before they begrudgingly followed the unicorn away from the distant mountain and into a more crowded part of the forest.

The changeling had a bout of tunnel vision during this, unable to necessarily focus on anything besides following the unicorn. Before they knew it, they were told to enter a dark cell and it was locked behind them.

Their first day in Equestria and they're stuck in a small cell inside a cave. At least it isn’t an actual prison with law enforcement. They didn’t have any of those inhibitor things to put on their horn, so one could assume that they could use magic to get themself out if they knew how. With no way of getting out, our changeling didn't see any harm in sleeping to pass the time, so they laid themself down on the cave floor, which was surprisingly comfortable, before closing their eyes to sleep.

Outside of the cell, a trio of pony bandits spoke to each other as they played a game of poker to pass the time.

“So...” an earth pony started, “what do y'all think of that unicorn? Clearly isn't a normal pony, that's for certain.” He had chocolate brown eyes and a blue coat, coupled with a black mane and tail. It seemed that changelings were not something that they'd heard of.

“There’s no way that that is a unicorn,” the unicorn of the three guards protested. He had purple eyes with a dark orange coat, as well as a bright blue mane and tail. “It gives off nothing like unicorn magic. It not only looks alien but its magic feels even more alien.”

The pegasus just shrugged as the other two conversed. He had a white mane and tail that covered an eye, a grey coat, and light blue eyes.

“Well, if it ain't a unicorn, then what in Tartarus is it?” the earth pony asked the unicorn.

“Tartarus if I know. All I know is that it definitely isn't a pony,” the unicorn responded. Suddenly, a thump was heard from the makeshift cell that the bandits’ prisoner was being kept in. The unicorn sighed before saying, “I’ll check it out.” The unicorn stood from his stool before turning toward the cell and walking toward it, sword ready to be drawn.

The unicorn wasn't expecting the prisoner to be hitting their head against the wall. Their previously purple eyes were grey. “Hey!” the unicorn yelled, trying to get the prisoner’s attention. It worked, as they stopped and slowly turned their head toward the cell door. “Quit it, before I make you,” he threatened before turning around and going to march back to his game. As soon as he turned though, the thumping continued, and the unicorn could already feel a headache coming on.

He repeated what he did before, yelling “Hey!” But the prisoner showed no sign of hearing him this time. He tried to get their attention a second time and received no response again. By now, he got annoyed. “That’s it.” The unicorn drew his sword and opened the door. That got the prisoner’s attention. Another thing happened that the unicorn didn’t expect. The prisoner charged at him as a blur and before he knew it, they had his neck in their hooves, making his telekinesis drop his blade.

The prisoner started to mumble something. The unicorn couldn’t tell what until the mumbles turned into whispers. “Your wife is dead but your child lives abandoned and alone. Your wife is dead but your child lives abandoned and alone!” By now, the prisoner was screaming this into the unicorn’s face.

”How do they know that?!” The thought only briefly passed the unicorn’s mind as struggled against the prisoner’s tightening grip. The other guards rounded the corner with their weapons drawn, likely because of the screaming.

This snapped the prisoner out of whatever they were in, but not for the better. Their eyes faded from grey to myriad of colors as they growled. With a yell, they threw the unicorn into the guards, resulting in all three of them being launched to a wall.

“You must atone for your sins! You must all atone for your sins!” Purple smoke flared out of their nostrils as they exhaled. The unicorn tried to throw a spell at the prisoner, trying to incapacitate them with a paralysis spell. It was met with a dismissive wave, dissipating the magic. They yelled again, “Your spells from the guard will not help you! You! Will! Atone!”

The cave started to shake. Screams could be heard in the direction of the cave exit, as well as the sound of blades sinking into flesh. The prisoner, no. The monster stomped its way toward the trio of ponies as they shook with fear in their hearts. The last thing they saw was nothing but dark purple.

“You will atone. You will atone.” The changeling kept saying to itself, much quieter as it turned away from the newly made puddles of blood. They promptly collapsed after, already asleep again.

Chapter 2: Oh, my head...

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The changeling awoke with a splitting headache and a feeling of exhaustion. ”That’s weird. Naps aren’t supposed to make you tired.” They idly thought to themself as they stood from their position on the floor. They slowly looked around with a squint and a hoof on their head, rubbing their temple. They were out of the cell. “I’m not going to question it.” They whisper to themself. They took this unexplained situation in stride as they walked toward the sunlight they saw up ahead.

Though, they weren't expecting to see corpses as they came to the exit. They were practically everywhere. Members of the three pony tribes were what made up most of them but there was also the occasional griffon or minotaur. Too much blood stained their colors red to tell what they would have looked like before.

“What in the name of oranges and spaghetti sauce happened here?” The changeling asked themself, appalled by the corpses. The smell of blood was thick and concerning. Yet…somehow nice? Now armed with some worry as to what would happen if they stayed any longer, the changeling went from a walk to a ran out of the cave and into the forest.

Unbeknownst to them, however, the corpses and blood were quickly burnt away by a small purple flame before also vanishing, leaving the cave untouched by carnage and death.

“So, what you're telling me, Luna, is that there is something new and potentially dangerous in Equis?”

“Indeed sister. What I sensed was something that I’ve only sensed before my banishment. When the Bloody Priest was alive.” Within Canterlot, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were speaking within the day monarch’s private study. It was a lovely room with some books on the walls and a large desk with some piles of paper on either side of it. It held one window overlooking Canterlot, which was currently covered with blinds, leaving the room to be lit by candles.

“The Bloody Priest?!” Celestial incredulously asked. The princess wore her usual golden crown and necklace, an amethyst of some form taking back in the center of the jewelry.

“Yes.” Luna nodded. Unlike Celestia, Luna was wearing a light blue nightgown, having just gotten out of bed to inform her sister of this.

Celestia sighed. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Luna. I’ll try to look into it. It was somewhere in the Badlands, right?” A simple nod was given in reply. “You should get some rest now. You still have duties to attend to tonight.”
Luna nodded before lighting her horn and disappearing in a flash of light. Celestial let out a breath that she didn’t realize she was holding and opened the blinds, letting the light of the sun flood the room once more. “I hope this turns out to be nothing.” She says to herself as she looks down toward the morning streets of Canterlot.

“If this being is anything like the Priest, then I’ll need to be very careful. The Priest caused too much havoc all those years ago. I cannot let so many die again.” Celestia said, resolute.

As she looked away from her ponies and streets and into the unknown sky, her mane gained flecks of flames before she took a breath. “Remember what I taught Cadence.” She raised a hoof to her chest and she breathed in and then pushed it outward and she let go of the air in her chest. “And repeat.” She said, repeating the previous sequence of actions.

The changeling had made it to the edge of the forest, slowing her run back into a natural walk. “That should be…” They looked up as a shadow seemed to blot out the sun, keeping them in complete darkness. “Huh. I didn’t think Cloudsdale would be here.” They backed up into the treeline to hide themself, in case any ponies happened to be looking down there.

”Man, why couldn't I come to this world with the know-how to shapeshift?” The changeling complained. They put a hoof to their chin in thought. “Maybe I can just say what I want? That’s how I somehow ended up in the Frozen North…”

“I want to be a pegasus,” They confidently said to themself. They waited for a few, expecting to see a transformation take place, but nothing happened. “Of course it isn't that simple, why would it?”

”Maybe I need to think of a method? Other changelings probably didn't need to since they were raised around shapeshifters while I have the mind of someone who hasn't.” This idea seemed plausible to the changeling, so they attempted to test their hypothesis. They held up their right hoof and put the image of a mask in their mind. ”Now to just use magic to make the mask... How do I do that?” A groan of frustration was made as the changeling found a flaw in their idea. They need to know how to use magic in order to do this in the first place.

After this thought was made though, something unexpected happened. A purple mist came out of the changeling’s hoof and slowly made the rough shape of a mask. The changeling blinked in surprise at this, suddenly able to use their magic just fine without difficulty, despite not knowing how to. They sighed, choosing to count their blessings before putting the mask onto their face. The mask became mist once more and covered the changeling’s body before fading away, revealing an entirely different being.

In place of the changeling was a pegasus mare. She had a white mane and tail and a turquoise coat of fur. Her cutie mark was of a cloud that was shaped like a lightning bolt. A name came to mind with this disguise, Cloud Bolt. Man, what an uncreative name.

The changeling-turned-pegasus felt their head with a hoof, finding no horn. They looked behind them and flexed their wings to get a look at them, somehow knowing how to use them despite not having them before. ”Guess changeling transformations come with free basic knowledge on how to use new limbs like these.” They assumed.

’Cloud Bolt’ gave their wings a test flap, finding themself a few inches off the ground after. ”I didn't even use much force.” The disguised changeling blinked, confused by how such a gentle flap of the wings gave off enough force to lift them. They shrugged after thinking of it for a few seconds, an idea popping into their mind. If such a gentle flap did that, what would happen if they actually tried to use some force?

They walked out of the tree line before bracing themself. They spread their wings before giving a hard, forceful flap, launching them into the air at surprising speeds, while leaving a small crater behind them. They broke through the cloud city’s floor and landed after. That was about four miles crossed within the span of a few seconds!

They put a hoof to their hand, dizzy from the speed they went into the air. ”The name makes more sense now.” They shook the dizziness out of their head and looked around. They were on a sidewalk, other pegasi walking and flying around, living their daily lives.

”Okay...Now what?” The changeling didn't think things through. They had no clue what to do now that they were in the city. ”Wait, what is the date? What’s happened recently?”

Conveniently, a newspaper was on a table in front of a cafe. ‘Cloud Bolt’ walked to it and picked it up before continuing to walk past, opening it up to look through it. Most of it was pretty bland, not much exactly happening. That was, up until they noticed a brief mention of a competition in Canterlot that concluded. The National Dessert Competition, to be specific.

At first glance, it wasn't very noteworthy to the pegasus. Up until they remembered the episode within My Little Pony that involved desserts. A headache suddenly came, prompting them to put a hoof to their head.

“Ma’am, are you okay?”

The pegasus mare suddenly blinked, rubbing her eyes as they adjusted. She had closed her and stopped without realizing. In front of her was a pegasus stallion with a concerned look on his face. She gave a slight nod. “Yes, I'm fine. Kinda just zoned out there. Hehe.” She gave a nervous chuckle while scratching the back of her head.

“Are you sure you're okay ma’am? You seemed pretty out of it,” the stallion said, concerned that the mare in front of him needed medical attention.

“I’m fine, thank you for the concern but I'm good. Anyhow, I gotta get going. Have a nice day!” The mare went around the stallion with a wave before going into a trot further into the city.

The stallion watched as the mare trotted away, still concerned but ultimately deciding to let her go. He's sure that she would seek some help if it happened again. That’s what he would do, at least.

”That dessert competition. It was the final episode of the season before the start of the next one. It’s the start of…season three next? It’s whichever season starts with the wedding. If I want to get there to see this happen, I gotta get to Canterlot before that bubble shield comes up and stops me. I don't know when the wedding is or if it even is in anyone’s minds yet but it's better to get there early than to get there late when the shield comes up.”

After trotting for a minute, ‘Cloud Bolt’ halted. They face hoofed a moment after with a sigh. “I’m a pegasus, what am I doing running?” They gave a flap and they were high in the air once again, gently flapping their wings to keep them in place while looking around for the large, out of place mountain that Canterlot sat on. ”Found you.l It didn't take long to see the mountain and its city. The pegasus changed their position to fly forward and they sped toward Canterlot. Those that happened to look up would‘ve seen a streak of white going through the air, reminding some of how Rainbow Dash often made a streak when she was going fast.

The couple known as Cadance and Shining Armor had just left one of Canterlot’s restaurants, taking a break from their wedding planning, which was almost complete and was going to take place within the next week or two. As they left, the sound of an impact was heard above them.

They two looked up and found a pegasus mare stuck within a wall of the restaurant. She had a white mane and tail as well as a turquoise coat of fur going with her purple clothing. “Oh dear,” was all Cadance said as she saw the pegasus try to push themself out of their situation. It only took a few seconds before they managed to get their head unstuck, falling to the ground and landing on their butt.

“By the gods and their demons that smarted,” the pegasus complained, keeping their eyes closed as they rubbed their head. “Note to self, try to not go so fast next time.”

“Are you alright?” The pegasus looked up with one eye open, finally noticing where she exactly was. Princess Cadance was holding a hoof out to the pegasus, who accepted it and was pulled up.

“Yeah, yeah. I'll be fine. Probably gonna have a headache for a bit but that's probably it. I think.”

“Do you know where you are?” Cadance asked, hoping that no damage to the brain occurred from that crash.

“Uhh, Canterlot. Right?”

“Okay, good. Do you know the date?”

“Uhhhhmm... May 12th?”

Cadance gave a sigh of relief. “You should probably get checked by a doctor when you can, okay?” The pegasus nodded before walking away.

Cadance gave a wave before looking toward her fiancé. “Did that just happen?”

He looked to the quickly disappearing pegasus, an expression of confusion on him. “Yep. That did. Are you just as confused as I am?”

“Yes.” The princess answered.

Chapter 3: A Wedding’s About to Happen and it’s Gonna Be NUTS!

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“Well, Shade, you seem to be perfectly fine.” The headache that came with the impact stayed after the changeling left the couple, so they decided to have a doctor check on them. They may have a lot of power, but they weren’t so sure that they had a lot of durability as well.

They also had adopted a new persona, so that they wouldn’t be recognized or draw attention to themself. They now were a unicorn mare, who had a black mane and tail with a grey coat. Their eyes held no pupil or iris, leaving it a blank white space.
They were now Shady Drawing, a unicorn mare with the cutie mark of a book, which had a pencil and question mark on the cover.

They gave a nod to the doctor’s words, who was a white-coated stallion unicorn with a blue mane and tail. He had a scar over his cutie mark, which consisted of a syringe and scalpel making an X. The doctor moved his turquoise eyes over his clipboard before speaking again. “Everything seems to be in tip-top shape.” A sigh of relief could be heard from our main character before the doctor continued. “If that headache stays after you leave, I’d suggest getting some water and something to eat. You’re free to continue on your day. Do you have any questions?”

The disguised changeling shook their head and the doctor gave them the thumbs up to leave.

Outside the hospital, Shade decided that it would be best to figure out where she’ll be staying for the time being. A brief flash of red came over the void of white that were her eyes as this problem came to mind. Perhaps she’ll deal with that later. Instead, the library comes to mind. It would be nice to look through books so she could use her magic whenever without difficulty.

It was simple to find the said library, as it was a large building made of marble with the word ‘Library’ on the front of it. Past large oak doors, a seating area was the first thing that could be seen, a large sea of bookshelves filled to the brim was behind a desk, likely for checking out.

The doors slowly closed behind her as Shade looked at the tall shelves, not paying the others in the building any mind. The unicorn turned to the desk, seeing an older earth pony stallion with a red coat of fur, a graying mane/tail, and brown eyes. He wore a simple black suit and his cutie mark wasn’t visible from her position.

Shade walked over to the stallion and cleared her throat, catching his attention before speaking, “Excuse me, sir, could you direct me to where books about magic are?” The stallion gave a curt nod and pointed to the far-end shelf of the library.

After giving her thanks, the changeling-turned-unicorn walked over to the shelves and started to look. ‘Advanced Spells for The Magically Gifted’, ‘History of Magic Discovery’, ‘The Story of Starswirl the Bearded’ - aha! ‘Magic for Beginners’. Someone needed to reorganize this library, the order of the books was atrocious. Anyhow, Shade pulled the book off of its shelf and opened it to the index.

“Let’s see…Oh goody.” They said to themself. Just what she hoped to find. Shade walked to a seat that happened to be in the wide hall and sat before turning the book to its first chapter.

Chapter 1: How to Channel Your Magic
For you to channel your magic, you must find it within yourself. While this can be difficult, there are multiple ways to figuring this out...

Hours slowly passed within the quiet library, barely even a footstep being heard as Shade read through the book inside the magic section. “Okay, I should have no trouble with casting.” She whispered to herself, setting the book down for a moment. “But the rest of that book is what I can’t figure out.”

Shade tried looking through other books to get more points of view to look through but didn't find much of a difference between each author’s method of using their magic. It was all very uniform.

Shade supposed that she’ll figure out magic more another day. For now, she has to figure out where to spend the night for. It was obvious that the library wouldn't be open for most of the night, so she couldn't spend it there.

But where would she find something that met these requirements? Shade pondered this as she placed books back on shelves, before leaving the library while wishing the librarian a good night. The sun was noticeably setting, and the moon rising as Shade walked down the marble steps, finding the city of Canterlot to be becoming ever so less active. It was almost like clockwork, how most of the ponies were heading to their homes while others started to leave, getting ready to work through the beautiful night.

Shade didn't pay much mind to most of this as she started to walk, staring up into the blue, quickly fading to starry night sky. There wasn't a single cloud to ruin the fantastic view. As she strolled, the occasional passerby would stop momentarily, looking at Shade’s eyes. They were quite the oddity so it wasn’t too surprising.

”Maybe I should’ve given this disguise normal eyes? Nah, it’ll be fine.” Shade dismissed the thought. She was already in the rabbit hole so she might as well stick with her eyes being this way. Thoughts wormed their way through Shade’s mind as she roamed the streets of Canterlot, returning the occasional greeting and barely taking her eyes off of the sky. The stars and moon are always beautiful sights to see.

“Ma’am?”

“Hm?” Shade stopped and took a moment to look at where she ended up. She was at the gates to the castle. “Oh, would you look at that?” She hadn't realized just how far she had been walking for, too busy with admiring the sky and keeping her head in the clouds to have noticed.

“Do you have business here ma’am?” One of the guards, a thestral, asked Shade, standing at attention with his spear beside him. He and the other guard were identical with dark blue fur and a light blue mane and tail. They both wore dark purple armor that covered most of their bodies, leaving their cutie mark to be unknown and their face to be vulnerable.

“Oh. No, I don't have business here. I apologize for my rudeness. I was admiring the sky and somehow wandered here,” Shade replied, nervously rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. “I'll get out of your hair, have a good night!” Shade then promptly turned around and walked away. ”That was awkward.~” Shade thought to herself.

The thestral guards glanced toward each other as Shade walked away before shrugging it off whatever thoughts they had. She wasn't a problem so they didn't need to do anything.

Shade eventually came upon a small park with a view of Ponyville and the Everfree Forest. Shade sat on a bench and looked out with a yawn. “I guess I can sleep here. Hopefully nobody disturbs me.”

Princess Luna has seen the odd dream here and there before, but what she saw when she entered a dream that night was Discord levels of odd. She had to double-check to make sure that she didn't stumble upon Pinkamena’s dream. Finding that she hadn't, she was more confused. Discord didn't dream while in his stone prison so it couldn't have been his dream, and miss Pinkamena was the only other one who dreamt of things like this.

Princess Luna wandered through the hallways made of vanilla wafers, passing windows made of rainbow lollipops. After turning a corner, she was in a completely normal hallway that kept going, with a door a little way to the left. It seemed that only the entryway was abnormal.

Luna walked up to the door and slowly opened it, finding an eerily familiar throne room that looked like the one she had a thousand years ago. Instead of the sun and moon taking up the banners and thrones, circles of grey and red were there. Sitting upon the thrones were two ponies with a third one standing between them.

The one to her left, where her throne would be, was a thestral stallion. His fur was white, but there was a certain dullness to its luminosity. Perhaps it was just a really light grey? The fur under his right eye was black, giving the image of him crying. A peculiar thing about this eye though, was that his pupil was a black skull with no iris to be seen. His right eye was covered by his grey mane so that side of his face was unknown but Luna could guess that it looked similar. He also wore a grey jacket, an uncommon thing for a pony to wear outside of the colder months of the year. What was most shocking had to be the state of his wings. They were nothing but bones, somehow a charred black.

She quickly looked toward the stallion on the other throne, finding nothing nearly as concerning. She sighed in relief before taking in the other stallion’s appearance. He was a unicorn that had a red coat of fur with a black mane and tail that faded to red. His right eye was covered with an eye patch with a skull on it, but his left eye was also partially unique. His pupil was split into a filled circle and an empty circle surrounding it. His iris was red and a jagged red marking could be seen under both of his eyes.

Luna turned her attention to the one in between. Between the stallions was a unicorn mare. Grey coat, black mane/tail. Her eyes held no pupil or iris, giving the idea that she was blind.

The Princess was confused. ”This dream is being manifested by all three of them. That can’t be the case, dreams only have one inhabitant manifesting it.”

The dream continued its course as Luna watched, hidden from view. The grey stallion gave a sad sigh and the one in red had a noticeable twitch in the eye after hearing that. Suddenly, the unicorn yelled toward the thestral, “Would you stop moping for a single second! Jeeze, you're more annoying than I thought!”

The grey one gave a roll of the eyes in response. “Would you say you're much better?” Miraculously, one of the stallion’s wings moved, a single set of the bones jerkingly moving to point at the unicorn stallion. It was noticeably very loud and made a cracking sound with every movement, making the hidden princess fringe at the sound. “After all, you have the shortest fuse in Equestria and hate every living thing.”

“So what, you think you’re better?!”

“I never said that.” The thestral’s voice was remarkably calm and he showed no signs of frustration as he continued the conversation, moving his wing to go back to resting on his back. The unicorn mare did nothing as this happened, opting to munch on a plate of vanilla wafers that appeared instead.

Half of the room began to distort as the stallion continued to lose his cool. Princess Luna could only guess that the room was heating up. Although, the left side of the room was unaffected. It seemed that only bickering was going to happen in this dream, leaving Luna to soon leave the dream. Though, as she did, she casted a small spell. ”I should keep an eye on these three. Maybe I can look up one of them in the waking world.”

Unbeknownst to the Princess as she left the dream, the room changed drastically, more thrones of various colors sprouting out of the ground as the banners gained more circles of color. Pink, black, green, orange, yellow, purple. All these colors and more were added to the room. There were more than just three people that made that realm...
Many more...

Chapter 4: Disasters Galore

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After her first day in Canterlot, nothing really noteworthy happened to Shade. She tried to find jobs to work but had no clue where to start. ”Damn my old lifestyle as a slob. I have no idea how to do this.” Not only that, but it seemed that no one was looking for new workers, based on a lack of help wanted signs on any businesses that were seen. ”And that’s just unheard of! Almost every business had a help sign back home, even if most of them were lying.”

The search kept going for a couple of days, ending with no success. Before she knew it, a week had passed and a large pink shield came over Canterlot. It was by then that she noticed something.

As Shade sat on a bench in the park she had been spending nights in, she felt a pang of pain within her stomach. She placed a hand on it with a wince as it grumbled. She was hungry. ”Changelings feed off of love, don’t they? Where am I gonna get love if no one knows this disguise?” Panic briefly took hold of the Changeling before she took a deep breath. ”Calm down. Maybe they only say they feast on love because it’s the most fulfilling. If that’s the case, I could simply take in other emotions to satisfy me. The number of ponies that I pass by would surely fill me up quickly, right?” Shade hoped that this was the case.

As her mind moved to think of how she could drain emotions of all things, Shade looked down at her hooves and was surprised by what she saw. Her grey fur was fading into a darker shade, briefly flickering to black. When it flickered to black, holes were very visible on her legs. ”Oh spaghetti noodles in a basket of cookies, this is bad.” She was getting low on magical energy. She needed to figure out how to eat and fast.

”Wait.” An idea came to Shade’s mind. ”I have fangs in my real appearance. Could those be more than just for show? What if I didn't have to rely on feeding off of emotions? But what could be a possible substitute that would require fangs?” Unfortunately, Shade’s train of thought was halted as she was tapped on the shoulder.

She jumped out of the bench and turned around, finding nobody there. Confused, Shade looked around the park, finding nobody in the park. She sighed and sat back on the bench.

“Make them scared.”

“Huh?” Shade looked around once more. She could’ve sworn she just heard someone talk. She sighed a put her face into her hands. “Guess I’m going crazy now,” she mumbled. She gave a small chuckle after saying this, “Probably cause of a lack of socializing. Heh, I haven’t talked to anyone since I ran into those guards the first night I was here.”

”I don’t like scaring though. It scares me too.”

“Okay, I know I just heard someone.” Shade looked to her left and right, still finding no one around as the sun continued its descent and the moon started to rise. The voices sounded far away but still within hearing range. But still, no one could be seen anywhere. “Where are you?”

A painful headache formed soon formed as Shade looked, making her clutch her head and shut her eyes. Brief images flashed through her mind for the duration of the headache. Someone in purple. The purple moves in a series of images but they were too brief to see anything else.

As quickly as it appeared, the headache vanished and so too did the voices she was hearing. Shade took another glance around before sighing, placing a hoof against her face. “I am going nuts, aren't I? I mean, the fact that I'm Equestria should've already cemented that but nope! Now I'm hearing voices and seeing things.”

”Deep breaths Shade, deep breaths.” Inhale, pause, exhale. This mantra was repeated for a few moments before Shade calmed down. She needed to sleep, even if she didn't feel tired. Sleeping once a month is not a good idea for the mind, even if the body only requires that much. But, Shade has yet to look into any nighttime jobs. Maybe she’d have some luck in at least finding a help wanted sign. Oh, who is she kidding? She wouldn't even go up to any employee and ask about it. She might as well give up in the endeavor for a job and wander.

Now, what was she thinking about earlier?
.
.
.
Right, she was trying to figure out the purpose of the fangs in her true form. ”Let's see...emotions are the results of chemicals in the brain. Do those chemicals also travel the bloodstream? I'm pretty sure that's not how it works on Earth but the rules of biology might be vastly different here due to the magic in Equestria. Well, there’s only one way I could find out.” Shade shivered at the thought. Biting someone sounded...uncouth. Her eyes momentarily gained green as she felt this disgust.

But, it also sounded pretty good. New food is nice. Shade shook her head as her eyes faded from orange back to their empty white. These thoughts...they did not belong to Shade. The disgust was right, but the part about food. Shade was always a picky eater with the palette of a foal. She hated trying new things like food. New chocolates were about the extent of her willingness to try new things.

”You know what?” Shade stood from the bench. ”I’m going to take a walk. That pink shield ruins the view of the sky anyway so I’m not gonna get much enjoyment from stargazing.” She turned in a random direction and began to walk. She soon left the park and began to wander through the city streets. There was the occasional pony that also walked through the streets but it was largely empty. ”I can see why Princess Luna would think no one enjoyed the night, it’s almost like a ghost town out here.”

Few businesses were open and, as Shade continued her walk around the city, more ponies dribbled out of their homes to head somewhere. The nowaday nightwalkers were slowly getting into the groove of things as they awoke.

Shade was unsure how, but she ended up in a prohibited area. At least, that’s what she thought. She was in the statue garden, right in the middle of the castle grounds and past the first of three walls to the castle proper. Was the first wall unguarded? Surely not. Shade must’ve mindlessly done something without noticing. She looked down at herself once more and saw her disguise flicker once more. This reminded her of her current situation and she looked around. Surely a guard was making rounds in the garden, right?

As if on queue, the sound of clattering armor was heard nearby. Shade dove behind the nearest statue she saw, one of three ponies holding each other up. She kept quiet as best as she could while waiting for the guard to pass. The clattering felt like it was right on top of her before it soon passed. This was her chance. She could test her theory of how to eat while the guard’s back was turned. Her eyes gained an orange iris at the realization.

Her hunger was more powerful than she thought. Her disguise faded away into purple smoke as she stalked the guard. It was a thestral. Golden eyes, a dark purple mane and tail, and a dark grey coat of fur under silvery armor. It's too bad how the armor for guards was flawed. His neck was wide open.

The guard stopped and looked around. All except for behind him. ‘Shade’ took this chance and let onto the guard, sinking her fangs into him before he could make a sound. The guard was frozen, a look of surprise on his face. As Shade’s fangs stayed within him, however, his shocked face slowly became more of a neutral expression. The color was drained from his eyes, leaving next to nothing left of their previous brilliance.

As ‘Shade’ let go of the guard, no mark was notably left on him. She didn't think much of it and instead backed away as he went back to his rounds. It was as if nothing happened. The orange in her eyes faded and she blinked, shaking her head and rubbing her eyes afterward. ”What just happened?”

“Ma’am.” She froze as she heard the voice of a stallion. She quickly looked around and sighed when she realized it wasn’t her getting spotted.

Wait.

That means someone else is coming this way! Shade quickly took up her previous hiding spot and heard the sound of metal tapping against the stone walkway. ”It’s probably one of the princesses. But which one would be taking a stroll right now?” Shade thought to herself.

What do you know, it was Princess Cadance. She walked around the three pony statues and glared at Shade. It was as if Cadance knew that she was there. Shade was frozen, she was in her true form and was discovered by a princess. ”Unless this is Chrysalis. It was never revealed just how long she was in Cadance’s place and impersonating her before the wedding happened.” She idly thought.

‘Cadance’ summoned some magic into her horn. The magic was a sick green, a sign that something was amiss. “I won’t let another hive ruin my plans,” she seethed quietly. A green bubble encased Shade. Her eyes widened. She knew what spell this was. She tried to move, to get out of the bubble, but it was hopeless as she sank into the ground and vanished.

Chrysalis cut the magic from her horn and ‘hmph’ed. “Maybe that changeling will deal with the real Cadance for me. That way I won’t get caught until it’s too late.” She chuckled to herself as she turned and walked away. She must prepare for tomorrow. ”Shining Armor invited more people and I need to greet them when they arrive.”

Shade was in darkness for what felt like forever before she finally saw something. Pink crystals. She fell from the roof of a large cavern and her fall was met with sharp crystals. “Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow.” She chanted with a hiss before the pain began to dull. She was now stuck on a cluster of pink crystals, all of them stabbing into her chest and stomach. Notably, no blood came out of Shade as she was stuck there.

“How...do I get out of this?” Her voice echoed throughout the cavern, fading into the distance. All there was in the cave was stone and crystal. Nothing else could be seen within the view Shade had, for a turn in the cavern cut off her vision of what was ahead.

No matter that, she supposed. She needed to get unimpaled. She could feel that she wasn't stabbed too deeply by the crystal and, based on the lack of blood coming out of her, she wasn't injured enough to require keeping the crystals in her. ”If only I could figure out how to use freaking magic properly.”

“Hello?” A voice echoed from the distance. Someone else was here. It was likely Princess Cadance.

It took some effort, but Shade managed to break out of the crystals, ending with her on the ground, next to them. She went into a sitting position and quickly looked herself over. No pink was stuck to her, so she didn’t need to remove anything.

Now, before Cadance could see her, Shade summoned a mask and put on her disguise once more. “Is someone there?!” Shade called out, walking in the direction she thought she heard Cadance from.

Chapter 5: Princess of Love

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It didn’t take long before Shade found the Princess of Love. She was a mess of hair and makeup, likely from some breakdowns. The Princess had been down there for a good bit. Shade guessed it had been close to a week.

”Time to act.”
“Princess Cadance?!” Shade said surprise carried in her voice. “Are you alright? What’s going on?” Shade assumed any other ‘pony’ would have acted similarly after finding themself in a situation like this.

“I need you to calm down for me, okay? Breath in…and out.” Cadance guided Shade through the mantra a few times before Shade ‘calmed down.’

“O-Okay, I’m calm. I’m calm.” Shade took another deep breath before repeating herself. “So, where am I and what’s going on, Princess?”

“Well, I’m not very sure why you’re down here, but I’m assuming another me put you down here?” Shade nodded before Cadance continued. “That was a changeling, a creature that can take the appearance of someone else and feeds off of love.” A gasp was made by Shade as this information was given. “And that Changeling is the ruler of them. She placed me and you into the abandoned mines within the mountain.”

“S-So we just need to find a way out and then this can be stopped. Okay. Um, let's go...this way?”

Cadence nodded at Shade's suggestion. “I don't think I've tried going that way yet. Let's go.” Candace walks past Shade and she followed close behind. All but the sound of the two’s footsteps were heard for a few moments before Cadance decided to speak. “So...may I ask for your name?”

“Of course, Princess. My name is Shady Drawing but feel free to simply call me Shade.”

“Shady Drawing? Do you happen to have a talent in art?”

Shade gave a nod, of course, unseen by Cadenza. “Indeed I do. I happen to use a unique type of magic with my art as well.”

“Oh? That sounds quite nice. I'm surprised I haven't heard of you before.”

“Well, that's because I'm not from around here,” Shade clarified. She looked at their crystalline surroundings as they walked and she continued. “I’m actually from a very small town on the outskirts of Equestria. A fire burnt down my home a year ago and I've kinda been homeless and without work since.” That was a lot of lies there.

Cadance stopped after hearing that for a moment before continuing. “That’s horrible. I'm sure I could pull some strings and get you a job at the castle after this mess is dealt with.”

Now it was Shade’s turn to stop out of shock. ”Just like that? Really?” She thought incredulously. “Just like that? We've only just met though!”

“Well of course.” She made a small smile as she spoke. “A Princess should do her part in helping the residents of Equestria when they are in need. I wouldn't be a very good Princess if I didn't help with your current situation now, would I?”

“I...guess not.” Shade did not expect the amount of generosity Cadance was offering. It was kinda nice. A yawn broke the two’s conversation as their drowsiness made itself known. “Right. I forgot that it was nighttime when I ended up down here.”

“Mm. Let's get some sleep and we’ll get back to looking after.” Shade nodded in agreement before the two sat against a wall and promptly fell asleep.

Nothing. Luna has been using what free time she had to look up those three and after almost a week she’s found nothing, forcing her to go deeper into the archives to find what she was looking for.

It took many hours into the night, close to when sunrise needed to be done, but she finally found something to work with. It was a file on a pony with almost the exact appearance the unicorn stallion had.

Name: Furious Rage
Common Alias: Fury
Species: Unicorn
Age: 17
Sex: Male
Description: Red coat of fur with a black mane and tail that faded to red
Cutie Mark: White fire with angry red eyes
Talent: Pyromancy
Physical Disorders: N/A
Mental Disorders: Intermittent Explosive Disorder(IED)
Magic Disorders: N/A
Status: Dead
Cause of Death: Drowning
Next of Kin: Paranoia, Love Heart, Depression, Mania, Disgust, Fear, Gluttony

That’s quite a family this one had. Luna was greatly confused upon seeing that this pony was dead though. She could sense his presence in the realm of dreams and could tell that it wasn’t some dream entity. She wondered…

Luna left the archive and walked to one of the guards before giving him the file. “I’d like to have the file’s of this one’s next of kin as soon as possible. Understood?” The guard simply nodded before heading off to find the other files while Luna continued walking. It was time to move the celestial bodies once more before going through her daily slumber.

Within the mind of Shade, the throne room appeared yet again, the walls covered with endless grooves that held various thrones.

The room was empty of occupants this time, leaving only Shade to take up any space within. “Hello?” she called out to the empty room. She stood from her seat between two thrones and wandered to the door leading out of it. She pushed the double doors and found herself outdoors. It was what many would call a not-so-pretty sight but, to her, it was almost paradise.

Clouds covered the entire sky, making the light from the sun much dimmer and less blinding. A chilly breeze came by, making the hanging branches of willow trees sway. The land was riddled with hills, leaving the horizon unable to be seen from the small valley.

Shade walked through the branches of one of the larger willows and looked around. She always wished for a dream like this. Sure, it may not have had much action, but Shade always loved willow trees. They seemed so unique to her whenever she saw them.

It was unfortunate that the peacefulness of the dream was shattered as room as Shade sat down. When she did, she felt the sudden absence of the tree and the ground, leaving her to fall into a dark pit.

She fell for a long time before hitting the ground, a sickening crack accompanying her landing. Funnily enough, she was uninjured. It felt more like her body’s joints popped instead of broke. She sat up and quickly looked around, finding herself still in the blinding dark.

A torch fixated to the wall suddenly lit up next to her, bright blue flames lighting up her surroundings. More torches lit up, revealing where Shade was. She was greeted with a large black throne room with bodies littering the ground. The bodies of changelings. Shade got herself to stand before walking toward the throne, noticing an object on it.

Upon getting to the throne, the object she saw was revealed to be a book. Shade gently picked it up, afraid that it would disappear as the previous dream did. She opened the book and came upon the first page.

Entry 1
Hello oh, journal of mine! Mother suggested I write in this every once in a while and here we are! Today was kinda boring though. It was just the usual classes talking about our unique traits and stuff. We all know what a changeling can do. Shapeshift and eat emotions. But it turns out, most changeling hives have a special trait that separates them from the rest! What’s our hive’s unique trait, you may ask? Necromancy! IT’S SO COOL!
Anyways, that's all, I gotta get to sleep.
Signing off, Snow. <3

“A hive that does necromancy?” Shade whispered to herself, looking around at the bodies around her. She quickly flipped to the next page, hoping that these necromatic abilities were limited.

Entry 2
Hello again. Mother said that I should always elaborate when I talk about our unique trait so I'm going to talk about it here! By necromancy, I mean our hive can tap into the realm of the dead and use ghosts! We just pluck them out of their eternal rest and use them as a secondary source of emotion! Though, there are possible side effects when we use this method. Some ghosts can take over our bodies and we can become very conflicted because of them messing with our heads, which is why we gotta try to find souls that are similar to us!
Anyway, today went pretty okay. We practiced on our shapeshifting and I won the contest as best shapeshifter! I'm sure everyone else will catch up though, they're great at it too! Oh, and acting! It was so much fun, pretending to be a knight!
Well, that's all, this is Snow, signing off. <3

“Phew.” So this hive couldn't automatically reanimate bodies or something as soon as they were born. Shade gave her surroundings another glance before looking into the book once again, skimming through the rest of the pages, which were mostly consisting of talking about classes. That was until Shade found the last entry.

Entry 67
I’m sorry...

The rest of the page was covered in ink. It must've spilled onto the rest of the page. And once again, Shade was plunged into darkness, falling into an eternal void. This fall would take up the rest of her night.

Luna sat at her desk within her bedroom, thick curtains blocking the sunlight from coming in as she looked through various papers. After the sun had risen and the moon had fallen for the day, the guard she had sent came to her chambers with the documents she requested.

Now, with the papers in her possession, she decided to forgo some of her sleep for looking into them. What she found surprised her greatly. ”Both of those stallions are twins. Fury and Depression. They’re actually a part of a set of triplets, whose sister’s name is Disgust.”

She looked through the files on the sister triplet. “She was born with a lot of issues with sickness and was almost constantly in a hospital. Her illness eventually won during her teens, after she wasn’t given the correct amount of medication. She…never even got her cutie mark?” A sad frown took the elegant alicorn’s face as she kept looking through the files.

“Depression hanged himself. He was born with an unnamed disorder that dulled his emotions to a drastic degree. He never got his cutie mark either.” She set the files on the triplets down and picked up another set. Perhaps they would be happier.

“The Mania, Fear, and Gluttony ponies in next of kin are also siblings. Mania and Gluttony were twins and Fear was the only child without a twin.” Princess Luna paused for a moment in thought. “Triplets and then twins? My, that takes a huge amount of luck to end up having.” She returned to the files and continued reading.

“Mania was a pegasus who had a disorder that affected her mind and magic. She was passively too happy to feel most other emotions. She was murdered by a unicorn, who has yet to be caught.” She sighed, rubbing approaching sleep out of her eyes. “This doesn’t get any better, does it?”

“Let’s see. Gluttony was a unicorn. Eating disorder, that also had a very unique effect. He needed meat in his diet?” She paused for a moment. “So he was naturally omnivorous? That is very out there.” She returned to reading after voicing this though to herself. “He died from extreme food poisoning.”

“Here’s Fear. Suffered from anxiety and a split personality. His talent was scaring others and he fell off a school building. Broke almost everything in his body and likely died on impact.”

“Paranoia and Love were the parents of the six. Love seems very similar to Cadance,” Luna noted. “This pegasus had a talent for cheering people up. And was murdered as well.”

“Paranoia was a unicorn talented in security and analyzing. A pegasus had allowed a lethal shock to ring out during a scheduled thunderstorm and it had struck him, burning him to death in a moments notice.”

After reading all this, Luna set down the files with a sigh. “These ponies all died within the span of a month. That cannot be a coincidence,” she mumbled to herself, before a yawn suddenly interrupted her pondering. She forgot that she needed to sleep. Luna placed the files within an empty drawer before getting out of the chair and bringing herself to her bed. Another day to sleep away.

”Oh, right. Cadance’s wedding is within the next week… I should make sure to be awake that day…” she thought this to herself as her consciousness slowly faded into her dreams.

Shade woke up with a start. She looked to the left and to the right before remembering where she was. She took a deep breath and counted to herself. “One two three four five. Five four three two one.” Now calmed down from the scare her dreams gave her, she stood up as Cadance groaned, rubbing her eyes as she woke up once again.

Cackling could suddenly be heard in the distance. It sounded eerily like Cadance. But she was right next to Shade. “Come on.” Shade guided the Princess to her hooves before stalking ahead. Hearing the cackling was doing…something to Shade. She couldn’t quite explain it. It was akin to rage but it was so much more…potent than what she would expect herself feeling. Unbeknownst to her, her eyes had gained an iris and pupil again. One was red while the other was black.

Shade stopped at a wall of crystal. “Over here!” The taunting voice of the imposter Cadance called, the sound of a spell firing being heard just after. More cackling and the sound of more spells being fired was heard. Suddenly, a blast of magenta came out of the wall, blasting Shade back into a wall on the other side.

Apparently, there was a chamber on the other side of the wall, holding, you guessed it, Twilight Sparkle.

Chapter 6: Control is Difficult

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Shade didn't know what was going on. All that she could see was red. She was hit with something and she was already angry after hearing the false Cadance’s laugh and voice. Now she was feeling close to...furious.

Before Twilight could attack Cadance, a wall of fire separated the two. “What the hell is wrong with you?” Shade chillingly said. She walked away from the dent in the wall that she made as her horn glowed red with small bubbles of green.

Before anything could happen, Cadance casted a spell on Shade. It was a simple calming spell, but it was enough to stop the wall of flames and to make Shade stop channeling magic. She rubbed her skull as she groaned. “Why do I feel like I just ate something spicy? And what is with this headache?”

“Sorry Shade. The headache is a side effect of the spell. But, it usually isn’t felt until the spell wears off.” Cadence explained, regret obvious in her voice. It was this that gave Twilight pause. The Cadance she had been dealing with didn't act anything like this Cadance, who was making sure that Shade felt okay.

“Cadance? Is that actually you?” Now no longer blinded by rage, Twilight actually took in Cadance’s appearance.

“Yeah. Yeah, it’s me Twilight.”

Twilight took a moment of silence before trying something. Something that the imposter didn't know. “Sunshine sunshine, ladybugs awake...”

Cadence, realizing what Twilight was doing, continued the phrase they made along with her. “Clap your hooves and do a little shake!”

“It’s really you!” Twilight and Cadence quickly brought each other into an embrace. Such a heartwarming scene, if the only one watching didn't have a headache that slightly annoyed her.

“Come on mares, we got a wedding to save.” Shade stated, turning toward the direction they were planning on going before walking. The other two finished their hug before following along.

“So, who are you?” Twilight questioned. It made sense that she had no clue who this other unicorn was. Why would she be down here with Cadance?

“The name’s Shade. I'm a unicorn not from around here and am, unfortunately, homeless.” Shade started, intending on giving a brief summary that would explain who she was while adding some small new details. “My talent is drawing art and using a unique type of magic with it and I am twenty years old with no living family to speak of.”

Cadence and Twilight took a few moments to process what Shade said. Most of it Cadence already had known due to their earlier chats but the lack of family and her age were new. “Can you explain the magic that you use for me?” Twilight asked. “I’ve never heard of someone using magic with art at all.”

“Hmm,” Shade weighed her options with this question. She could say yes and just spout what the character can do, without knowing how to do it herself, or she could choose to not answer and suffer from the silence. “I…suppose I could go into more detail on that.”

“So, to put it simply. The magic I use can bring art to life.” Shade began, pulling what information about this original character she could remember. “I can make pieces of art move or bring them into reality as three-dimensional objects. Of course, I can't bring living things into reality.” As the explanation was being given, Shade felt...something in her head. It felt close to a headache but it wasn't at all painful, it was more to a dull drumbeat. “Anything living would become colored sculptures if I bring them to reality. The last use of this magic that I know of is being able to put others into an art piece and back out. They’re the only livings things I could bring to reality.”

“Wow...” Twilight was starry-eyed after hearing about such magic. This must be a new type! Obviously, it would classify under reality-warping, something rarely touched upon due to its inability to be used by most but still, it was a new type of magic!

“Wow. That's a pretty impressive talent there. I'm sure you must’ve gotten a lot of bits from your business before your home burned down because of that, ” Cadence commented, not nearly excited by the fact that it was an undiscovered magic as Twilight was.

“Yeah, that would be why I haven't been in serious need of housing for a while. It's too bad I also lost my sketchbook in that fire,” Shade sighed, remembering the original character’s trusty sketchbook. “If I just had that, I wouldn't even need to look for any employment. I’d be set to living comfortably in no time.”

“So, wait. Does this magic work on anything at all?” Twilight asked, wishing for more details.

“I...guess? All it really requires is a piece of art. A painting, a sketch on paper, anything like that could work, ” Shade responded. She knew she was now in for a heap of questions.

“What about things like sculptures? Or poetry?”

“Well...I can't work with sculptures. I could place it into a picture and take it out but I can't animate it. And poetry is just words, so I can't work with it.”

Twilight had a paper and quill in hand as she quickly jotted down notes.

“Oh look, a minecart, ” Shade pointed out, not wanting to answer any more questions before they started going bizarre. “Maybe this will lead us out of here.” Twilight used telekinesis to take the rocks inside of the cart and place them to the side. Twilight and Cadence hopped in before Shade gave it a push, jumping in before it would start to gain momentum.

The episode made it seem like a short ride, but it was a really, really long one instead.

“-take one down, pass it around. 19 bottles of cider on the wall - Oh, look. The track’s about to end.”

Cadence and Twilight gave a “Huh?” after hearing the interruption of Shade’s singing before looking ahead of the cart’s tracks. Sure enough, the ending of the track was in sight. Above a gorge.

“Do either of you have an idea on how to survive this? I'm sure you could fly, Princess Cadence but I don't know any spells that could help me here and unless Twilight knows one, we’re kinda screwed.” Shade was not looking on dying or, if she did somehow survive, experience such a fall. It would definitely be a painful one.

“I got it!” Twilight took out the paper and quill she wrote notes on before flipping it to its blank side and giving it to Shade. “Quick, draw a continuation of the track and bring it to life!”

“What?!” Shade was not prepared for that response. She doesn't even know the spells she was talking about before! But she needed to if she wanted to live past the hour. “Okay, okay.” The end of the track was fast approaching as Shade quickly did her best to draw it continuing. She could see the other side so that helped immensely. She just needed to continue it from the broken end and make it go to the other side.

“Done!” She finished surprisingly quickly, but now she had to cast the needed spell. Why did she have to tell them about those spells when she couldn’t cast any?! Or know the spell?!

“What are you waiting for? Cast the spell!”

“I know, I know!” Shade channeled her magic, desperately trying to imagine the image coming to life with her eyes closed. Surprisingly, she casted a spell. Magic seeped into the page before flying out to the broken track. The image on the paper was erased and, after a flash of light, a new track was made for the minecart to follow.

“Yes!” Twilight jumped for joy, Shade soon joining in after opening her eyes and seeing the result of her spell. Although, Shade didn't think of making the new track so that the cart would lose its momentum. Or a spot where it would park. This mistake resulted in the cart falling forward once the track ended, launching the trio out and into the ground. It's a miracle that none of them were injured from sliding along the rough stone.

“The hurt.” Shade nonchalantly said as they got up.

“Gee, I wonder why,” Twilight replied sarcastically.

“Whatever. We’re alive and that's what matters.” Cadence said. “And look, there's an exit!”

It was at this time that Shade realized something. ‘Where are those bridesmaids that were here to stop these two?’ She brought up the paper and quill once again and quickly drew a bouquet of roses, remembering that distracting them within the show. It turned out to be unneeded though, for none of them were there. Strange.

The plan was going perfectly. Chrysalis had replaced the Princess of Love with no suspicion besides that one unicorn. And all the flaws in her acting was chalked up as stress by anyone who noticed! And now, the wedding ceremony was happening. Soon, her hive will break through Shining Armor’s shield and will decimate the city. She wasn't too confident in fighting off Celestia, but the love that Shining supplied was enough to make her feel confident enough to do so.

Everyone was in position. All that needed to be done now is the ceremony.

Celestia, in her usual golden regalia, walked up to the podium and began her speech. “Welcome everyone, to the wedding of my niece, Princess Cadence, and her soon-to-be-husband, Shining Armor. I’d like to thank you all for coming to attend and-” A thump against the door at the end of the hall sounded suddenly, interrupting Celestia’s little speech.

Everyone turned to the door, surprise and confusion plaguing the attendees’ faces. Another thump was sounded against the door, shaking it and notably the room. “Chrysalis!” A voice sounded from beyond the door, accompanied by another thump afterward.

The mentioning of her true name unnerved Chrysalis as she was in her disguise. Who could possibly know her name? Whispers of confusion came across the crowd after that. “Who’s Chrysalis?” None of the attendants have heard that name before.

More thumps occurred, shaking the room and door more and more as the door’s hinges groaned in complaint. “I! Will make you! Pay for putting me in those caves!” An unfamiliar unicorn was on the other side of the door as she broke down the door, burn marks on them as they fell to the floor. She had a grey coat and black mane and tail. She had red eyes and was noticeably giving off smoke.

The stranger took a moment to look around the room before her glare intensified on ‘Cadence.’ “Damn you, Chrysalis!” A ball of flames above the unicorn’s horn before she launched it toward the disguised Chrysalis.

A golden barrier stopped the ball of fire before it could make its mark. A gasp went through the crowd, shocking everyone that someone would attack Cadence. Especially on her wedding day. Princess Celestia stepped around the podium she stood at, a frown marring her elegant face. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Why should I tell you, huh?! You wouldn't believe me if I told my reasons for attacking that imposter! Just get out of my way!” Another ball of fire was thrown, this one blue instead of orange.

Another barrier met her assault. “I’m sure we can talk this out, my little pony.”

“Please, like you would listen. Stop protecting that fake!”

Before the stranger could throw another fireball, Twilight Sparkle ran into the hall. “Wait!” She pointed at ‘Cadence.’ “That’s not the real Cadence!” At this, everyone on the stage rolled their eyes. She's at it again.

“And what makes you think that?” Rainbow Dash yelled from the other side.

“Because.” Cadence walked into view of the doorway, dramatically revealing herself. This, understandably, caused everyone to gasp in surprise. “That is a changeling, a creature that takes on your appearance and feeds off of love!”

“Now let me kill her!” Another ball of fire was at the ready. Shade could barely contain her rage. She was mad at everyone within the room. She was mad at the real Cadence and Twilight, the nobles filling the room, the Sun Princess. She felt rage toward everything she saw. ”What is wrong with me?” She didn't understand why she was like this. Being mad at Chrysalis made sense, but everything else? It made absolutely no sense.

‘Cadence’ sighed with a roll of her eyes. “I was hoping that you wouldn't ever find your way out. No matter, I can work with this.”

Chapter 7: An Invasion of More than One

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‘Cadence’ sighed with a roll of her eyes. “I was hoping that you wouldn't find your way out. No matter, I can work with this.” Green fire covered the fake, obscuring her from view. It only took a few moments before the transformation was complete.

Black, smooth chitin, holes dotting the legs. Green eyes and a dark green mane and tail. Chrysalis, queen of a changeling hive.

The red faded from Shade’s eyes after this happened, prompting a groan to escape her lips as she put her head in her hands. “Ooh, my head. That hurts.”

Shade leaned against the doorframe as Chrysalis began her speech. “What Cadence said is correct, I am indeed a changeling. And now with this interruption, I suppose we should get started. Wouldn't you agree, dear?” She looked toward Shining Armor as he gave a nod. The mind control was much less noticeable compared to in the show. He merely seemed to be a little out of it.

A loud cracking sound echoed around the city, making everyone look through the hall’s windows. Outside, a notable crack was on the shield covering the city, a large swarm of black dots just outside of it. “Out there is my entire hive, breaking down the increasingly weak shield my dear ‘husband’ made.”

Celestia stepped forward. “I will not allow you to harm any of my ponies.”

“Oh?” Chrysalis turned toward the Sun Princess. “Then please, do try to stop me.” This was met with Celestia firing a golden beam of magic toward Chrysalis, who fired a green beam of her own to intercept. There was an obvious struggle between the two, but the green magic of the changeling queen managed to take the lead. The beam inched toward Celestia before making contact with her horn, flinging her into the wall.

“Celestia!” Twilight and the other Element Bearers yelled, shocked.

“Well, would you look at that? This love is more powerful than I thought! If I can beat the princess of the sun, who can possibly stop me?”

The sound of glass shattering was made as Shining Armor’s shield finally broke, letting the changeling hive swarm the city. While all of that was happening, Shade had fainted. All that rage she was feeling was so sudden and draining that she had suffered from sudden exhaustion.

The throne room once again. Two ponies were ‘discussing’ something. “I’ll deal with them! I have the firepower to turn them all to dust!” It was the one known as Fury, speaking with Depression.

“And that is unnecessary. We just need to take care of the queen and the rest will flee to their hive.” Depression didn't want to kill off the hive. They simply had a bad ruler that was going against changeling tradition.

“Why should we care?! It's because of changelings that we’re stuck here and not where we should be!”

“It was a single hive. There is no need to commit a genocide, for we have already gotten our revenge.”

“I don't care! It was still changelings that did this so they all have to die!”

Depression sighed at this. He didn't want to forcefully calm Fury down but now it was necessary. One of the limbs on Depression’s back moved quickly and suddenly, stabbing Fury in the chest. “Calm down.” Fury still held his angry expression at first before he quickly fell asleep. “We need to help, no matter what the main soul wants to do. Does anyone else have a suggestion?”

“I could help.” The sound of a young colt sounded around the throne room as a throne gained a pony. It was a small orange throne, with an image at the top of it. A simple platter lid on top of a platter.

“I’ve been dying to have a snack since the last one.” The pony’s shadow faded, revealing an earth pony colt.
He had a faded orange coat with an orange mane and tail. He wore a stained handkerchief around his neck. His eyes were also orange, retaining the same shade as his mane, and his pupils were swirls instead of dots.

“Hm.” Depression put a hoof to his chin in momentary thought before giving a small smile. “I see no problem with that. After all, you can operate the body the best.”

The colt chuckled. “Of course I can, big bro. My talent may lie in food, but it is the consumption of food that I am truly best at.” He and his throne then was covered in a platter lid before disappearing, leaving Depression alone in the room of thrones.

Hungry.

Shade awakened to a feeling of stiffness. She groaned and opened her eyes, finding herself in a sitting position on the floor and covered in some kind of green substance. Her face went slightly green after seeing this, realizing it was what she thought it was. She took in her surroundings, finding that she was in the throne room.

Shade’s eyes turned orange as she found Chrysalis, who was looking out a small balcony overlooking the chaos happening below. She chuckled quietly to herself as she looked around again. So much to eat.

The urge to eat returned. Shade struggled to look at her horn, seeing that it was not encased in the substance like the rest of her. Fools. While she may prefer to use her hooves for magic, her horn was still a very viable option.

Chrysalis spoke to herself as Shade started to plan. “Ah, what a sight. Soon, all the love in this kingdom will be ours.”

“Is that so?” Chrysalis turned to the sudden interruption of her thoughts, a frown replacing her smile as she saw who it was.

“Oh, you're awake.” A blade made of magic appeared at Shade’s throat suddenly as Chrysalis suddenly appeared in front of her. “Tell me, where is your hive? I thought all of the others died off.”

A simple smirk was all that was given before any words were spoken. “What I’m more concerned about, is how much sustenance can I take away from you? Some of it? All of it? I’m so very hungry for those emotions you have.”

“Tell me before I kill you!” Chrysalis was quickly becoming impatient. Clearly this one must be starving but she refused to share any of her food with the member of another hive.

“Oh? With that magic of yours? Mm, I have always been curious what that would taste like.”

Shade’s reply baffled Chrysalis. Eating magic? That’s unheard of. “You better answer my question right now. I’m giving you one last chance.”

Shade simply chuckled. “It seems you’re denying me food. I guess I’ll just have to take it myself then.” Orange magic gathered in Shade’s horn and before Chrysalis could do anything, a blast of the orange magic pushed her back to the wall. Her sword was noticeably gone after the hit.

“Where’s my blade?”

Chrysalis looked around in confusion before a crunch was heard. She looked toward the sound as Shade swallowed something, a thoughtful expression on her face. “Hm. Not bad. But then again, I’ve never been a picky eater.” The substance keeping Shade trapped suddenly cracked, before being encased in orange magic and disappearing with another crunch.

Shade stood up with a stretch of her back, a couple of concerning pops sounding as she did. “Oh, that felt good.” Shade focused back on Chrysalis, who was charging magic into her own horn. “Hm? More food?”

Chrysalis blasted a bolt of magic, which was met head-on by Shade. The blast knocked Shade to the wall a few feet behind her. She didn't seem harmed as she fully stood again. “Aw, I wasted it.” Orange magic made a ring above Chrysalis, before going into the roof, making what was touched disappear. This made a small section of the roof crash on top of Chrysalis, stunning her.

“Don’t worry. I won't waste you. You're much too unique of a dish for me to waste.” Shade smiled as she said this, revealing razor-sharp teeth instead of the usual flat teeth of a pony.

Chrysalis had enough of this. She needed to put in a lot more force if she wanted to at least knock this other changeling unconscious. When she got out of the rubble a few seconds later, she had her horn glowing an extremely bright green. “Enough of this!” She fired the magic bolt toward Shade, successfully hitting her and sending her flying to the wall once again. Somehow, the unimaginable endurance Shade had suddenly disappeared, leaving her to easily go unconscious once again.

Chrysalis huffed. “Not so strong now, are ya?” She gathered her magic and a green substance came out of her body and gathered around Shade before quickly solidifying, becoming a type of green crystal that restrained all but the face of Shade. Even her horn was encased this time.

I’m sure most if not all of us can make a guess of what happened after that small skirmish. The Mane Six were captured, Twilight freed Cadence, and Cadence managed to break the mind control spell on Shining Armor, ending with a shield made of love launching every changeling out of Canterlot and likely to the edges of Equestria.

Of course. Not every changeling was launched out of the capital. Shade was the only one not visually affected by the wave of physical love. She had stayed unconscious for the next day and was placed in the hospital wing of the castle until she would wake up. Once that was dealt with, the wedding was redone for nightfall. Although, before the second attempt at the festivities would start Cadence approached Celestia.

“Excuse me, aunty,” Cadence said, walking into Celestia’s study.

Celestial looked up from a stack of papers and greeted Cadence with a smile. “Hello, Cadence. Is there something you need?”

“Well, I wanted to discuss something with you before you switched places with Luna.” Cadence walked further in and took a seat next to Celestia. “I was hoping to add someone to work as a maid here.”

“Ah, I see. I'm guessing you met someone else who was having struggles?” Celestial was familiar with Cadence’s little hobby. Celestia is often approached by her to ask about such things. Celestial turned back to the paper she was working on, picking up a quill and looking over it as the conversation continued. “What can you tell me about them?”

Cadence smiled, happy to see that Celestia was going to listen. “Her name is Shady Drawing. She's a unicorn with a talent in art. And the spells she can use! I'm sure you'd be amazed to see what she's capable of with her art. I'm-uh-not too certain on how she is with maid duties, but I'm sure she’d get the hang of it.”

“Hm.” Celestia signed the paper and set it on a smaller stack of papers before taking one from the larger stack. “I’ll see what I can do. Now, go enjoy your wedding party. It's going to be sundown soon.”

“Thank you, aunty. I'll be sure to pay you back for doing this.” Cadence stood and walked away. She still needed to change her dress and get ready. It wasn't great at first but her and Shining’s love was tested and rang true. She couldn't ask for anything better.

The throne room once again. It was abandoned looking, with cobwebs everywhere and cracks along the walls and floor of the room. Between two blank thrones at the front, Shade sat there. She stared ahead, thinking. “What happened there? I can remember what happened but...that wasn't me. I felt like I hadn't eaten for months and I was able to use magic in a way I've never heard about. It felt so much like when I ate that night guard’s emotions.”

She knew something was up. She thought back to that strange dream she had while stuck in the caverns. “Changelings that could summon the dead…” She wasn’t part of that hive. Right? Theories and ideas went through Shade’s mind as she pondered, the time ticking by at a snail’s pace.

Chapter 8: A New Day, A New Recovery

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The day after everything had happened, Shade awoke to a room. The smell of chemicals, white walls and roof, some beeping to the left. Yep, a hospital room.

Shade stood and looked down to herself, seeing a hospital gown on her. “Why the gown? Ponies usually aren’t wearing clothes anyway.” After a huff, Shade looked toward the heartbeat monitor and lit her horn. She unplugged the monitor before removing cords from her. She hated those things with their constant beeping.

With the annoyance now gone, Shade decided to wait. The sunlight pouring in from the windows suggested that it was morning, so she assumed that some medical staff would show up to check on her.

A familiar pony eventually stepped through the room’s doors. It was the doctor she previously interacted with. A white coat, blue mane, turquoise eyes. A unicorn stallion. A scar over the cutie mark, a scalpel and syringe making an X. What was his name? She couldn’t remember.

“Hello again Shade,” the doctor said, walking over to her right with a clipboard floating next to him. “I see that you’ve finally woken up. How do you feel?” Ah yes, health talk first, pleasant conversing later.

“I feel…okay. Great, actually.” Shade felt more powerful than she’s ever felt since she first woke up as a changeling. She felt like she could do anything with just a snap of her fingers if she wanted to. If she had fingers.

The doctor took a pencil that was resting on his clipboard before writing into it. “So nothing’s sore or feels strange?”

Shade gave a shake of her head in response. “I feel like I’ve just woken up from a pleasant nap.”

“Alright then,” the doctor lowered his pencil and placed the clipboard into a pocket in his coat. “I should reintroduce myself, since it looks like you forgot. My name’s Doctor Extreme, short for Extreme Operation. Now, you’ve been out all night while Princess Cadence’s wedding was done over and it is currently the day after. You’ll be staying here for the day, so we can make sure you’re in good condition, before you are released and allowed to start on your job.”

“Huh?” That last part confused Shade some. She doesn’t recall getting a job. “What job are you talking about?”

“Oh yes, you probably received it while unconscious. Princess Celestia appointed you as a maid in the castle under the service of Princess Cadence.” Doctor Extreme paused, gauging Shade surprised expression before continuing. “But you don’t have to worry about that right now. Just focus on resting. Is there anything you need before I go?”

I took a moment before Shade responded but respond she eventually did. “Uh, no thank you. I’m sure I can pass the time on my own.” Doctor Extreme nodded before turning to leave. A farewell was given between the two before the doctor left the door and Shade was left alone once again.

She sighed. Perhaps she could practice magic again? She still needed to figure out how to actually cast the spells outside of telekinesis. The only times she seemed able to use magic was when she was overcome with a feeling or emotion. She needed to rely on something else, for she couldn’t control herself when like that.

But then the realization hit. There’s nothing she could practice on. ”I don’t even remember any of the spells I looked at other than levitation.” She heaved a heavy sigh at that. ”Guess I’ll have to pass the time in some other way. Might as well give an attempt at lifting that heart monitor though, since it’s heavier than anything else I’ve used telekinesis on so far.”

Shade lifted a hoof and faced it toward the monitor on her left, channeling her magic as she did. Instead of using the imagery of a simple hand, she decided to use something more…unorthodox. Instead she used the image of some type of tendril reaching out of her hoof and wrapping around the heart monitor. Her mental image then covered the monitor, as if moss had grown all over it within an instant. This resulted in the monitor being covered in Shade’s purple aura.

“There’s step one. I need to learn to not use my hoof eventually. It’s a bit inconvenient, in all honesty.” Now, all she had to do was move it. Shade’s image moved within her mind. She imagined the tendrils simply pulling upwards. And, just as her mental image did, Shade’s magic lifted the heart monitor into the air, if only barely.

The excitement Shade felt at the accomplishment was amazing. She felt alive! She felt like she could take on the world as her eyes gained the color blue and her mane gained a yellow stripe that faded to pink.

She couldn’t help a giggle escaping her mouth as she gladly clapped her hooves. Her joy was unimaginably immense. It was like nothing could go wrong and ruin this mood. With her now endless bounds of energy, Shade picked up the heart monitor again with her magic. Instead of only slightly lifting it, Shade had it move around the room. First, it was moved to the corner farthest from her, then the closest to her right.

Before she could move it somewhere else, a sudden pain went through Shade’s head, breaking her concentration as she put her hooves to her head. The monitor fell, but didn’t break or anything, due to it only being an inch off the ground. The stripe of color faded away and Shade found herself no longer full of joy. ”Did I…lose control there?” How easy it was to lose herself was astonishing to Shade. It was like she always needed to be calm, otherwise she would go out of control.

Maybe she should take a nap? The doctor did tell her to rest after all. That sudden pain certainly cemented the fact that she should recover. She distantly remembers hitting her head before waking up in this room. Yeah. That sounded nice. Shade’s eyes slowly drifted closed and she soon joined the dream realm.

“I’m personally excited. I wonder how our newest addition will be like.” A somewhat posh and deep voice spoke within the castle staff break room. A unicorn stallion wearing a butler outfit was the one who spoke. He had a white coat of fur with a black mane and green eyes. On his flank was the image of a paper with a red ribbon.

“Me too, I wonder what they’ll be like?” An earth pony mare responded, sitting across from the table the unicorn sat at. She had a light pink coat with a blue mane and tail with orange eyes. She was wearing a maid outfit and her cutie mark was the image of a chunk of obsidian.

“We’ll find out when we find out.” Another stallion spoke, sporting a higher-pitched voice compared to the other stallion. This was a pegasus also wearing a butler’s outfit, who had a green coat and a violet mane and tail with blue eyes. The cutie mark on his flank was the cartoonish drawing of a gust of wind. Somehow, two mugs were floating next to him as he walked over to the two, a third mug carried in his hoof. He took his seat and the two extra mugs landed in front of the other table occupants.

The unicorn gave a nod of agreement, picking up his mug as he spoke. “Very true. You seem to be getting better with that air manipulation, Gust.”

He and the mare took a sip of their drinks before the mare added on, “And you’re getting better at making coffee.” The three chuckled before they continued taking their sips of caffeine. “I’m still curious though.” The mare set down her mug before resting her head in her hands as she propped up her arms with her elbows. “Have either of you heard anything about our mysterious new coworker?”

The unicorn gave a shrug in reply, but the pegasus named Gust gave a verbal response. “I’ve heard a thing or two while the Day and Night Princess were having their morning meal.” The two turned to him, the mare telling him to go on. “Well, they’re a mare, so Snowflake over here won’t be the only one here.” The mare, presumably Snowflake, gave a small cheer at this news while Gust continued. “She also has a pretty unique talent. She doesn’t manipulate wind or anything like me, but she apparently has a talent for a type of reality warping magic.” This piqued the two’s interest even more, especially the unicorn.

“What kind of reality warping are we talking about?” The poshness in the unicorn’s voice was gone as he was fully interested.

“Well, Count, she can bring art to life, apparently. Too bad I couldn’t listen in to anything else, I had to attend to other duties before I could learn more.” The unicorn sagged at that, the mare merely giving a disappointed sigh before continuing to enjoy her drink.

“Oh well, I suppose we can simply wait and ask her. She is able to come tomorrow after all, according to the doctor that checked up on her.” The unicorn picked up his drink again and took another sip. Gust really knew how to make a good cup of coffee.

And we’re back in the darkness of Shade’s dreams. Once again, a small light showed Shade’s body and what was in her hands and she sat against a cave wall. It was the journal she had read during her last visit into the land of dreams. She opened the book and found herself not in the first entry. She didn’t remember seeing this one in her skimming last time.

Entry 58
I’ve been thinking. I’ve heard that the more spirits you have, the more power you get. Not only that, but you’d be able to take more emotions to feed yourself with. What if one changeling took in a lot of spirits and shared the consumed emotion with the rest of the hive? Mother said that it was too dangerous when I brought it up with her. But it hasn’t been done before. What if it worked? We would never need to leave the hive to get more emotion! But, the changeling will have a lot of difficulty with controlling themself with all those spirits. They’d need to be kept in check or something. I have a good aptitude with the spirits. Could I do it and not lose control?
Sincerely, Snow.

”Don’t tell me they actually tried it.” Shade went to the next page. Before she could read it though, a sudden clatter sounded off nearby.

Shade snapped to attention toward her surroundings, finding that she was no longer in the dark cave. She was now in someone’s living room, sunlight pouring in from a window that showed the streets of Canterlot. She looked up to the roof of the room. The noise had come from that direction. Closing the book and standing from a black sofa, Shade went up stairs that were conveniently in view. Up the stairs lead to a hallway with five doors.

Shade opened the first to her left, a simple white door that led into a bathroom. The next one was black with a keep out sign on it. Inside was a simple room with an oak dresser and a bed with black sheets. The door across from the black one was orange and inside was something similar. The only difference was that there were two oak dressers instead of one and there were two beds, one with orange sheets that looked to have red and yellow stains, and another that had bright blue sheets.

The next door to the right was white like the bathroom. Inside was a larger bed. Likely the master bedroom. The sheets were white and there were two other doors. Likely a walk in closet and a bathroom, based on the lack of a dresser and instead there being nightstands next to the bed.

And then there was the last door. It was grey with a sign saying ‘Please Knock.’ Inside was like the other rooms. It sported two beds and dressers. On the right was a dark purple bed with curtains hanging from a ceiling. A nightlight was plugged into the wall next to it, and multiple stuffed animals were strewn on top of it.

The left side of the room was the disturbing one. While it followed the trend of a bed and dresser, this one being grey, there was a knocked over chair next to the bed. It was then that Shade noticed a shadow on the ground as well, shaped like a pony. Shade slowly looked up. Before she could see the source of the shadow, darkness suddenly covered her vision.

Shade awoke with a gasp, sitting up instantly and looking around her surroundings. She was back in the hospital room. After taking a few moments to catch her breath, she sighed in relief and put her head into her hooves. ”Please don’t tell me I witnessed what I think I just did.” She didn’t exactly see what the source of that shadow was, but it didn’t take much thinking to guess what it was. She definitely wasn’t going to get any more sleep tonight. Luckily, it looks like it’s about to be sunrise.

Hopefully this new job of hers won’t be too difficult.

Chapter 9: And Now I’m Free. To Work I Go!

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“It’s just a little poor me, walking down this lonely road.” To pass the time after waking up, Shade decided to indulge in a life-long hobby of hers. Improvised singing. She spoke whatever came to mind with no rhyme or reason and it always ended up becoming a nice song. She would eventually stop, catch her breath, and then start a new song. She was on her fifth song by now.

“Oh, the tragedies we’ve faced. So many, there have been, but it’s alright because we’ve got each other! It’s just you and me against the world!~” And, as suddenly as the song had started a few minutes ago, it ended.

This was good timing too, as Doctor Extreme entered the room a few seconds after. “Ah, Shade, I see that you’re already awake.” He gave a small smile as he gave a good morning.

“Good morning doctor, how are you this morning?” Shade needn’t be in a rush with this conversation. She was in a better and more sociable mood after indulging in her singing.

“It has been alright so far. After this last check up and some food, you’ll be good to leave and start work.” Extreme took out a clipboard from his pocket and a small table of tools that Shade noticed earlier was pushed next to her bed with telekinesis. “It’ll just be a general checkup, since you seemed fine last time.” He picked up a stethoscope and equipped it before Shade sat up at his approach.

Doctor Extreme put the stethoscope to Shade’s chest and listened in. “Breathe in and hold your breath, please.” Shade did as she was asked and held her breath. After a few seconds, Extreme told her to exhale and then put the stethoscope back on the table after she did.

“Heartbeat and breathing is fine.” More small tests were done, but the author of this story isn’t familiar enough to detail what happened.

As Shade left the hospital wing, giving a farewell to the hospital staff as she did, she discovered the fact that she was in a mini-hospital that was set in the castle. She was surprised that she hadn’t thought that there was such a thing in this castle but she supposed that it made sense.

Shade spotted a guard and approached him. “Excuse me?” The guard turned to her. “Could you tell me how I get to the staff break room?” He nodded and began walking away. Taking that as a sign that he’ll take her to her destination, she follows behind.

To put it simply, the palace was large but not confusing. There was the occasional bout of confusion but it was relatively easy to find the break room, with a small sign next to a door saying ‘Staff Only’.

“Thank you.” The guard nodded and left Shade to return to his post. She heaved a sigh and went through the door. Past it was what looked almost like a self-serving diner. Multiple tables were in the room and in the back there was an open kitchen where some small food items were on display and ready to be eaten. There was also a coffee machine and a fridge next to it, which Shade assumed held cold items and possibly other drinks.

The room was largely empty in the form of occupants, save for three ponies.

A unicorn stallion wearing a butler outfit with a white coat of fur. He had a styled back black mane and green eyes. On his flank was the image of a paper with a red ribbon.

An earth pony mare wearing a maid outfit. She had a light pink coat with a blue mane and tail with orange eyes. Her cutie mark was the image of a chunk of some black rock.

Lastly, a pegasus stallion who was also wearing a butler’s outfit. He had a green coat and a violet mane and tail with blue eyes. His mark was the cartoonish drawing of a gust of wind.

At her entrance, the three ponies looked to Shade. It took a moment or two before they gave a wave and the earth pony mare said, “Hey, you must be the new recruit!”

“Uh, yeah.” Shade walked over to the three, nervousness bubbling up as she did. Was she supposed to look for a certain staff member or just any to teach her the ropes? It only took a few moments before Shade was then standing in front of the table. “I guess I’m supposed to be looking for someone? The doctor didn’t really tell me much.”

“Ah, no need. We’ve been expecting you,” the unicorn spoke, distinctly reminding Shade of how people portray Dracula’s voice with the accent he put up. The unicorn stood and held out a hoof. “I’m Counted Agreements, or just Count for short.”

Shade took the offered hoof and gave it a shake. “I’m Shady Drawing, but feel free to just call me Shade for short.” After the hoofshake, the mare stood from her seat and jumped over the table without hesitation, landing with her hoof out for a shake.

“Hi there! I’m Snowflake Obsidian, but feel free to just call me Snowflake.” It took a moment before Shade caught up with what the mare said before she took the offered hoof and gave it a shake.

“Nice to meet you.” This one gave an eerie reminder of a certain pink pony to Shade, but she assumed that she was just eager to meet new people. Ponies.

Snowflake then returned to her seat at the table, staying on her hooves as she picked up a previously unnoticed cup of coffee and gave it a sip. The pegasus of the group didn’t stand or offer a hoofshake, simply holding up a hoof while saying, “Sup. Name’s Gust Canyon, but just call me Gust.” Shade quietly replied with a wave.

“Now that introductions are finished, let’s get to business.” Count took a sip of his own mug before continuing. “The three of us also work under Princess Cadence and we’re supposed to help teach you how things work.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty basic stuff though.” Snowflake added. “Dust here and there, clean clothing, and do whatever the Princess asks for. We’re all on break right now, since the newly wedded couple hasn’t come back yet.”

“Oh, they haven’t?” Shade was somewhat expecting Cadence and Shining Armor to have returned by now but, then again, they just had their wedding, and who knows what their honeymoon consists of? Because Shade for sure didn’t.

“Nope.” Gust took another sip of his mug. “They’ll probably be back tomorrow though. Until then, we’ll be working under Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. It basically is the same.” Shade gave a nod, showing that she was listening as they explained.

“But before that,” Count said. “We are going to have to get your uniform. Can’t be a maid without the outfit, otherwise you’d be mistaken for something else and may or may not get wrongly arrested by the guards.”

Gust and Snowflake gave a nod at that. “Yeah,” Gust started, “I forgot to put on my uniform once and had that happen to me. A hassle and a half later, I was released and I almost got arrested a second time after that! No one escorted me so some uninformed guards almost made the same mistake.” Gust grumbled to himself as he took a long sip out of his mug, setting it down once it was empty.

“O…kay.” Shade did not like the idea of being arrested because of such a small reason. “So, where do I get my uniform?”

In reply, Count summoned some of his magic and a bundle of clothing appeared in the middle of the table. “Right here. Your measurements were already taken and it was finished just last night.”

“…” That seemed just a bit disturbing to Shade. And the fact that Count said it so casually just further weirded her. “Ohhhhh kay. Are there some kind of dormitories for the staff?”

“Yep!” Snowflake happily responded. “I can take you there right now. Then you can get changed and I’ll show you the ropes!”

After being led to the staff dorms, and figuring out how the heck one puts on a maid outfit, Shade discovered just how…odd it felt to wear a dress. For her, at least. Perhaps it was simply how the maid outfit used a shorter skirt? Then again, she hasn’t been wearing clothes this whole time until now. Why is she only now feeling off about it?

No matter. Shade followed Snowflake after getting dressed and Snowflake began going over the daily chores herself and the other maids must complete when on the job.

“Every week, you must dust off whatever you can. This is more preferable to Princess Cadence’s part of the castle than anywhere else for us, but feel free to help with other places if you want.” Shade and Snowflake made brief stops while walking the halls to make sure no dust had accumulated before entering the tower that Cadence took residence in.

“When morning comes around, the both of us will need to wake up the Princess, as well as her newly wedded husband, and help the Princess prepare for the day. We leave Captain Shining alone in the latter case, since we only assist the Princess.” Going up the stairs, Snowflake opened the door inside and passed what looked to act as a living room as she continued explaining while Shade attentively listened, not taking in any details of the room until later.

“Afterwards, we clean up the bed and do the laundry. If we’re needed for any miscellaneous tasks, Princess Cadance will be able to call us with a spell that turns on some enchantments. If you’re busy then you won’t be notified to help, but if you are specifically called then the enchantment will let you know.” The duo went through another set of doors and Snowflake took a pause with a question. “Could you fix up the sheets while I check for anything to clean?”

The inside of the bedroom wasn’t much to look at, in Shade’s eyes. It was a large room with a bed in the middle against the wall, between two large windows where sunlight streamed in. The floor was carpeted with a light purple and the bed had drapes that were a darker pink with more red sheets. There was a mannequin to the side that held Princess Cadence’s usual wear for day to day activities, next to a door that Shade assumed led to a bathroom. Besides that, there were some dark blue nightstands on either side of the bed that completed the look.

Shade gave a nod and went to straighten out the sheets while Snowflake continued. “Anyway. The enchantment lets you know if a call is being issued by having your clothes give a pull in the Princess’ direction. It’s pretty noticeable, trust me. Once someone is close enough or already starts heading to the Princess, the call will cancel out and the pulling will stop.”

“Sounds like some complicated stuff,” Shade idly commented, finishing a final corner of the bed as she spoke.

“Yeah, but it really helps with making sure everyone doesn’t drop their things to do whatever the Princess needs when it’s a one pony thing,” Snowflake walked over next to Shade, mutely fixing a mistake Shade had unnoticeably made. “But yeah, that’s all there really is to it. Any questions?”

“Nope.” Shade shook her head. “It will probably take a hot minute, but I’ll eventually get the hang of it.”

Snowflake gave a nod. “That’s the spirit. Maid duties aside.” She took Shade’s hand and dragged them to the living room area before taking a seat. “I wanna see your talent in action!”

Chapter 10: Work Work Work, and then A Little Event Planning

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“You want to see my talent?” Shade raised a brow. “Do you even know what it is?”

“Sure I do!” Snowflake shrugged. “I heard from the grapevine that your talent was bringing art to life. I wanna see it in action.”

“Uh-Well,” Shade had no clue how to respond. She hadn’t exactly been practicing that spell after making those rails in the caverns during the wedding fiasco. She had no clue if she could do it again or not. “I would need to draw something, in that case, and considering I have no materials to work with, I can’t really show it off.”

“What about things someone has already made?” Snowflake questioned, standing up and walking to a painting of Princess Cadence that was next to the door leading to the bedroom.

“Uhhhh, no. I can’t bring art that someone else made to life, only something that I’ve made.” The actual character that Shade was using for their disguise was able to bring other people’s art to life or reality, but considering that Shade didn’t want to take chances with trying to use that spell, she would have to deviate from the base information and hope that Snowflake wouldn’t keep pushing it.

“Aw.” Snowflake deflated some, but quickly bounced back to her more cheerful mood. “That’s alright. I’ll just have to make sure you get art supplies before I can see it!”

“What about you? What’s your talent?” Shade questioned, hoping to make the subject of her disguise’s cutie mark slip Snowflake’s mind.

“Mine?” Snowflake tilted her head and looked up, as if trying to remember. “Oh! You know how some ponies are, like, obsessed with crystals?”

Shade rose a brow, giving a questionable and drawn out, “Yes?” They did not know that the crystal obsession was also in Equestria but hey, the more you know.

“Well, my talent is using snowflake obsidian, the rock I’m named after, to help others look into their past lives, if they have any.” Snowflake shrugged. “It’s all very spiritual stuff and, unfortunately, not very useful in society. So, I ended up here as a maid instead of some wandering pony that helped others look into the past.”

“…Huh.” To think that there’s actually some merit to crystals in Equestria. Go figure. “I’ve never heard of a talent like that.”

“Yeah.” Snowflake walked back to the couch and took a seat. “It’s not a type of talent that gets any recognition.” She frowned. “Most of the time ponies assume that it’s all fake and stuff so no one really talks about it. If they do, it’s probably not in a very positive light.”

“Well.” Shade took a seat next to Snowflake. “While it may not be a paying talent, it’s still a great one. You can help others figure out who they are by looking into their past.”

Deciding to change subjects, Shade continued with something else. “So, since we’re done here, what next?”

Shade regretted asking that question. Turns out, the cooks don’t clean their dishes. That’s the maid’s job to clean. “Even in another world I can’t escape this damned chore,” Shade bitterly muttered to herself, washing a plate with a cloth by hand. Her eyes gained a faint red iris as she cleaned but she hardly did anything besides mutter to herself.

Once she finished and filled a rack with dishes to air dry, Shade rolled her eyes and left the kitchens. “Finally.” She had been working on those dishes for the last half hour while the cooks were off on break or something. By now, she would be on break for the next hour, making her head to the break room for a snack.

The thought of a snack made her stomach growl. Wait…Shade’s a changeling. She momentarily stopped as she remembered this, resuming her movement as she thought to herself. ”A snack would be a nibble on someone’s emotions.” Shade sighed. ”I really need to figure out how to feed without my fangs. I’m like a baby snake who doesn’t know when to stop injecting venom.” The comparison felt spot on, considering that one guard that unfortunately crossed paths with Shade when she was hungry. Apparently, he was deemed mentally unable to work for the next week.

”I hope he gets better soon. I’d hate to know if he became permanently drained of emotion.” The thought made Shade’s mood bubble down to shame. Her eyes changed from white to grey as her emotions shifted. She sighed dejectedly, before looking up towards what was ahead of her. She soon found the break room and entered, finding only one other inside. It was Gust, enjoying a plate of cookies and a mug full of coffee.

“Yo.” Gust gave a lazy wave that Shade returned. Shade walked to the back of the break room and opened the fridge, finding a carton of chocolate milk. She took out the carton and picked up a mug, filling it with her beverage before placing the milk back into the fridge.

Shade then went to the table Gust was sitting at and joined him. “You good?” Gust asked. Shade only shrugged in return. “What’s up?”

“Just tired,” was all Shade said, taking a sip out of her mug.

“By the way…” Shade watched as Gust slowly put together his question, he looked to be hesitating. “What’s up with…your eyes?”

“My eyes?” Shade asked with a raised brow.

“Yeah, they’re like grey and I could’ve sworn they were white before.”

“Huh?” Her eyes turned back to white as her confusion grew. “That’s weird.”

“And now they’re white again.” Gust observed. “Do your eyes often change color?”

“No, not that I know of. They should just be white.” This made no sense. ”This isn’t something that goes with the character. Is it something that’s coming from the real me?” Shade’s true self is certainly more of a wild card. She doesn’t know much about changelings or how they work but she was sure that moods didn’t change their disguise’s eye color. ”Are disguises more complex than I thought? Did I miss something when I made this one?”

“I’ll be right back.” Shade stood from her seat and left the break room, heading to one of the bathrooms in the hallway leading to the staff dorms. It was like any public bathroom, but relatively cleaner and shinier. Once inside, she locked the door behind her and checked the stalls for anyone else. Finding no one, she dropped her disguise and looked into the mirror.

Their eyes were no longer wholly purple. Instead, their eyes were serpent-like and held a white sclera, more similar to Queen Chrysalis than a random drone’s eyes. “That’s…different?” Shade realized she never actually looked at a reflection in her true form before then. She had no way of knowing if anything changed. She then looked at her back, which sported new insect wings that were definitely not there before. “Now that’s definitely different. I couldn’t feel those back when I first woke up.”

She sighed. “Whatever. I should just keep an eye on my real appearance and hope nothing weird is going on.” She summoned her mask made of magic and returned to her disguise, giving it a once over before she would leave. “White eyes with no pupils. Grey coat, back mane and tail.” She gave a nod of approval before unlocking the door and leaving the bathroom.

When Shade made it back to the break room, Snowflake and Count were at the table with Gust, helping themselves to a shared plate of cookies. Shade took back her seat and downed her mug of chocolate milk, fearing it would get warm before she would’ve finished it otherwise.

“Hey Shade,” Snowflake started. “You wanna go do something with us tonight?”

“…Depends. What are you doing?”

“We’re going to attend an event that’s in town.” Count answered. “Two musicians are at a concert tonight. Gust and Snowflake have mentioned them to me before, but I usually don’t listen to current music.”

“He’s into the old classical stuff.” Gust elaborated.

“Mm…sure. I’ll bite.” Shade shrugged. “Better than just staying in my room all night or reading.”

“Great!” Snowflake clapped her hands excitedly. “We can get going once we’re off shift and get there early. That way we can get as close to the stage as we can.”

“Sounds like a plan.” The group then wandered from the topic. Shade silently listened as the other three talked about whatever they were talking about. She honestly didn’t pay much attention, too busy getting a refill of chocolate milk from the fridge.

Break eventually ended and after an afternoon of chores, so was work. Now off by sunset, Shade and the group were free to hang out and do whatever while they waited for the time of the concert. As a way to relax, the group decided to take a walk through the park to help any lingering stress from the day fade away.

Shade took this chance to ask a question that had been nagging her since she had talked to Snowflake that morning. “So, Gust, Count, what are your talents, if you don’t mind me asking?” Shade opted to wear a black sweater after changing from her uniform.

Count opted to answer first. Outside of the butler uniform, he wore a casual black suit with a red undershir. “My talent is contract magic.”

“Contract magic?” Shade asked.

“It’s a form of magic to make sure that both parties in an agreement do their side of the deal. Unfortunately, it's a practice that’s borderline illegal since it deals with mind control.” Count elaborated. “As a result, I’m stuck doing more manual work or have to struggle through learning other skills in order to get money.”

“…Huh.” Shade turned her attention to Gust. “And you, Gust?”

Gust wore nothing in place of his uniform . “I can manipulate the air and make wind with my magic.”

“Sounds like a really useful talent to help with weather. Why be a butler and not someone in the weather industry?”

Gust shrugged. “Was never into the idea, it felt like too much work.”

After a moment of thought, Shade nodded in agreement. “Guess that makes sense.”

“And this profession pays way more than the weather does anyway, since we work for the Princesses.” Snowflake chimed in. She also opted to have nothing in place of her uniform. “If we worked for some noble, on the other hand, it’d be more paying and more dignifying to do weather.”

“I did not think of that.” Shade assumed that they’d be paid the same, but working for higher ranking individuals and getting higher pay does make some sense.

Snowflake went ahead of the group and took a seat at a bench that was just ahead, large enough for the four to rest their legs. “Let’s rest for a minute.” The others agreed and all took a seat, watching the sun as it slowly set.

”It’s weird how natural the sun setting looks like. It’s not nearly as fast as I expected.” While the movement of the celestial bodies was faster than back home, it wasn’t so fast that it was suddenly night or suddenly day like many liked describing the cycle. Shade personally believed that the sun and moon just needed a little push to change from night to day and vice versa.

“Hey Shade?” Snowflake asked after a few moments of silence.

“Yeah?”

“Sorry if this is a sensitive topic, but why do your eyes not have any pupils?”

Shade put a hoof to her chin in thought. ”Why does Shade have white eyes? Ah, right.” She gave a nod. “It’s alright. It was a magical mishap that resulted in my eyes losing color. I was experimenting with a spell that changed the color of something and…it backfired.” She shrugged with an awkward smile. “I guess I put in too much power when it backfired, cause it can’t be dispelled.”

“What about the times you do have pupils and an eye color?” Gust interjected.

“Her eyes change color?” Count asked with a raised brow.

Shade gave a shrug. “I guess my emotions have started to affect the spell. Somehow the spell must’ve…evolved, in a way?”

“But spells don’t evolve, right?” Snowflake asked.

“Not necessarily.” Count answered. “Recently, a magic study that Princess Celestia made found that spells can evolve overtime if left on their own. Spells like telekinesis won’t evolve, but some illusion spells can evolve with their environment if left alone for long enough. Although, it takes multiple lifetimes for it to happen.”

“…Huh.” That was a smack of knowledge to Shade. “Where’d you hear about that?”

Count gave a shrug in reply. “I overheard Princess Cadance and Princess Celestia talking about it a while ago. It’s a published study now, but I can see why you wouldn’t know if you don’t keep an eye on the subject of magic theory.”

“Is magic theory a pastime of yours to study or something?” Shade asked. Count gave a nod in reply.

“It’s fascinating what magic can do, especially with species that don’t have as much…flexibility as unicorns in magic.” Count said to himself, lost in wonder for a few moments. “No offense, of course.”

“None taken.” Gust nonchalantly stated, Snowflake giving a nod of agreement.

Meanwhile, Princess Luna approached a large building in the more industrial district of Canterlot, flanked by two of her night guards. After lowering the sun and raising the moon, Princess Luna decided to continue looking into what she’s been investigating for the past few nights.

The building was fenced off with a couple signs warning to not trespass and at a gate were two…creatures.

Unlike the traditional pony, these things looked to be silhouettes of ponies with glowing white eyes.

At Princess Luna’s approach, the guards stopped her. One of the two spoke in a robotic voice. “Identify yourself and your reason for visiting.”

Princess Luna gave a sigh. She was afraid this might happen. “I am Princess Luna, golem, and am here to investigate a possible crime.”

Chapter 11: Realizations that Terrify our MC

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“I am Princess Luna, golem, and am here to investigate a possible crime.” Princess Luna told the ‘golem.’

“There is no Princess Luna. Please identify yourself.” The golem responded.

“I am Princess Luna, sister to Princess Celestia and ruler of Equestria’s night. If you do not believe me, I will give you permission to measure my magic capacity.”

The golems stayed silent. The silence went on for almost a minute before they gave a unified nod. The one who had been staying silent then spoke in the same voice. “Apologies, Princess Luna.” The two bowed as the golem continued. “We were unaware of your existence outside of myth and shall not make the same mistake. You should not find any other workers acting toward you in such a manner. If you do, please inform them to be checked on.”

The two guards moved out of the way and let Princess Luna and the two night guards pass. “Thank you.” She said as she passed. Now within the borders of the property, she noticed that there were more golems patrolling the area inside. “The owner of this establishment had fitted his name far too well.”

Shade, Snowflake, Gust, and Count walked to the outer part of Canterlot, where the concert would be held. Snowflake had purchased tickets for all of them, which Shade had forgotten was a thing. “So you’ve never been to a concert before?” Snowflake asked Shade.

“Yeah.” Shade shrugged. “Never saw a point in going to one before.”

“Well you're gonna thank us for taking you to this one.” Gust chimed as they joined the quickly growing crowd. “These two are great music artists.”

“We’ll see if I agree or not.”

Count hushed the conversation. “I think it’s about to start.”

Two ponies walked onto the stage and the crowd started to cheer. Shade couldn’t get a good look at them at first, but when she did, she was shocked.

The first pony that stepped into the spotlight and spoke was a thestral mare. Her fur and mane were both white, making the light almost shine off of her. Her mane was styled to cover her right eye, leaving only her left, golden eye to be visible. “Hello Canterlot!” No cutie mark was visible from Shade’s angle of viewing, but she knew exactly who it was.

”Melody Verstand?! What the heck is she doing here?” Shade asked in thought.

The other pony was a unicorn…mare? Their voice was very masculine and stallion-like, but their physique was certainly feminine. “Welcome to another performance of yours truly!” They wore a white turtleneck sweater with a pair of square, black-rimmed glasses. Their mane was shoulder length and was a dark blue that matched their eyes, fading to pink. Their coat was a steel grey with a mark of the moon and two stars on their cheek. Their cutie mark was also not visible due to the distance.

”Music Verstand, Melody’s spouse?! No. No, they just look like them.” On the outside, Shade looked fine, but on the inside, they were starting to panic. They took deep breaths, focusing on calming themself down and paying no attention to their surroundings. ”It’s not Melody and it’s not Music. No, those are just ponies that look like them.” Yes that was it. It was definitely not who she thought they were. It couldn’t have been.

Before she knew it, a spotlight suddenly shined onto her. Shade froze as she heard the thestral mare on stage speak. “Shade?” That question. That one question was all the evidence she needed.

Shade’s eyes gained purple irises as her panic skyrocketed. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears as she casted a hastily made spell, a smokescreen of purple exploding out of her horn. She turned away from the stage and ran the opposite direction. “Shade, wait!” The feedback from a dropped microphone reached her ears, urging Shade to not look back.

Her fearful mind was going down a path of paranoia. Endless possibilities raced through her mind as she ran through the streets of Canterlot, ducking into alleyways and making the most random of turns. ”I’m gonna get found out, I’m gonna get found out! I shouldn’t have accepted that job, I should’ve just ran away and took on a different disguise.”

”If I’m caught, I’m going to get interrogated! For all I know, pony interrogating is full of torture methods and they won’t believe a word I say, no matter how true it is.” Her situation, what she knows about what may happen in the future, all of it would be seen as the ramblings of someone who’s gone mad. That, or simply desperate lies. She’ll have to make up believable lies in order to escape that. But what if she can’t? Will she die? Rot in jail?

Shade’s eyes faded from purple to black as paranoia continued to bloom within her mind. Her run slowed considerably as she closed in on an alleyway. She turned into the alleyway and casted a spell. She disappeared from sight, blending into the shadows. The white thestral flew into the alleyway, calling out after Shade. “Shade please, where have you been?!”

The thestral continued through the alleyway and went back into the streets, assuming Shade had kept running. Shade sighed and released the spell, stepping out of the shadows. “What have I gotten myself into?” She shook her head. “I gotta change my disguise, at least until tomorrow. I’ll have to make an alibi to not rouse much suspicion.”

Shade walked out the alleyway from where she came, opposite from where the thestral had gone. She became her previous pony disguise. Pegasus, green fur, turquoise mane and tail and a cloud shaped as a lightning bolt. The disguise still had black eyes, but that was fine. The difference in appearance was enough. “Perhaps I could pretend that a changeling was pretending to be my disguise? I’d have to hurry back to the castle, in that case. Tie myself up with some rope and throw myself into the closet. Difficult, but doable.”

Despite being full of paranoia, Shade felt calm and collected. Despite her fear constantly beating her consciousness, she could think clearly. It was like those emotions were but an optional thing to feel. Shade looked up to the castle and sighed apathetically. “This night is going to be a long one. If only I had thought to check on stuff like this before making that disguise.” She muttered to herself as she headed toward the castle. Once she is close enough, she’ll simply fly in. Previous experience with flight tells that she’ll be fast enough to not be noticed.

“Set up some bugs to listen in. Suspicious activity has happened with my disguise so I must be completely aware of everything. Best way to do that is to listen in on things I shouldn’t.” Shade planned out loud. “If I know everything that’s being talked about, I can plan ahead and think up good lies to not seem suspicious.”

Princess Luna watched as the golem she was speaking to froze mid-sentence. “Requesting diagnostic.”

Another golem approached with a crystal ball, handing it to the first golem. Upon grabbing the ball, nothing visibly changed. “Working as intended.” The second golem stated before taking back the ball.

“Sending golem to investigate magic signature.” The golems visibly slacked for a few moments as the command was sent.

“Magic signature?” Princess Luna asked as the golems sent the command.

Once the command was sent, the golems stood straight again. The one with the ball left as the other informed the princess. “The unicorn named Paranoia has been detected by our scanners. We are sending a golem to investigate.”

“Paranoia? As in the owner of this company?”

“Correct.” The golem nodded.

“But Paranoia is dead. You shouldn’t be finding his magic signature anywhere. Not to mention that he's been dead for over two years, so it couldn’t even be remnants that you’re sensing.”

“Affirmative, but we sense Paranoia’s magic and we are clear of errors. We are sending a golem to investigate.”

“Where are you sensing this? I wish to investigate as well.”

The golem paused for a moment as it likely double checked where the signature was coming from. “Approaching a side entrance to Canterlot Castle.”

“Why would he be going to the castle?” Princess Luna shook her head. “No matter. I will return another time to resume my questioning.”

“Have a good night, Princess.” Princess Luna left as the golem gave its farewell, not bothering to return the sentiment.

Chapter 12: Crystal Empire Showed Up Quick

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The morning after last night was…interesting. Shade was late for work and Snowflake had come to find her. Snowflake eventually found Shade tied up and hidden in the closet.

“What in the hay were you doing in there?” Snowflake asked as she untied Shade, already having taken off the gag keeping her quiet.

“I don’t know!” Shade responded. “I remember getting ready for the concert we were going to and bam! I’m suddenly in my closet, tied up and gagged.”

This made Snowflake momentarily stop untying Shade. “Wait, you weren’t at the concert with us?”

“No, I was here the whole time.”

“Oh sweet Celestia.” Snowflake finished untying Shade and stood up with a panicked expression. “We gotta tell one of the Princesses! There’s changelings still in the city!”

“Are you sure?” Shade questioned. “What, was I at the concert with you?”

“Yes! Apparently Melody, one of the ponies that were performing, knew you and then you panicked and ran away! If you were here the whole time, then the only explanation I can think of is that a changeling impersonated you last night!”

“Melody?” Shade feigned ignorance. “I don’t know anyone named Melody.”

“Whatever, we still need to tell one of the Princesses!” Snowflake grabbed Shade’s hand and pulled her along in a sprint.

“I can move my legs, you know.” Shade deadpanned. “It’s not like I was hit with enough force to damage my walking ability.”

Weirdly enough, they happened upon Princess Luna, who had just passed the entrance into the break room. Snowflake gasped before calling out. “Princess Luna, Princess Luna!”

Princess Luna turned to the calling of her name and raised a brow as Snowflake gave a hasty bow. Shade was let go while Snowflake bowed, prompting her to dust herself before also bowing. “What is it, my little ponies?” Princess Luna asked.

“Princess,” Snowflake stood. “There are changelings still in the city. I was on an outing with some coworkers,” she motioned a hoof toward Shade, “and I just found one of them tied up in her closet. It turns out she wasn’t even with us last night!”

“This is…concerning news.” Princess Luna nodded. “Thank you for informing me. I shall inform my sister and make sure that the guards are on high alert.”

“Thank you, Princess.” Snowflake gave another bow before Princess Luna resumed her walk, presumably toward the royal dining room.

”Step one, convince that we were impersonated.” Shade’s eyes were momentarily black as this thought came through her mind before returning to their blank white. “Now, if you excuse me, Snowflake. I’m going to get ready for work. We’ve got a busy day today, don’t we?”

Snowflake gasped. “You’re right! The newly wedded couple is back!~” Her mood flipped like a dime, back to being chipper. “Quickly now, quickly! We gotta get those two up!”

“How the heck are you from terrified to chipper?”

“The princesses can handle it, I’m sure.”

Shade looked at Snowflake incredulously for a few moments before shaking her head. ”Ponies depend on their princesses too much if they’re no longer worried after bringing something up with them.”

Shade and Snowflake entered Princess Cadence’s tower and knocked on the bedroom door. “Come in,” a stallion replied from inside.

The two entered and found the couple already awake. Shining Armor was standing next to the bed, finishing with getting dressed and Princess Cadence was sitting up, trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes. “Bye Caddie.” Shining gave Princess Cadence a kiss on the cheek.

“Bye Shining,” Princess Cadence mumbled. Shining Armor gave Shade and Snowflake a brief wave as he passed them through the door.

The two maids returned the sentiment before taking to Cadence. “Shade, could you start up the shower?” Shade gave a silent nod and moved to the bathroom while Snowflake helped the Princess out of bed. “Come on Princess, we’ve got things to do today.”

When Princess Cadance eventually got into the shower, Shade and Snowflake prepared her clothes and makeup. It was rather boring, with the only excitement coming from Snowflakes’s constant questioning of what happened during Cadence’s honeymoon.

“You gotta tell me everything that happened!” Snowflake exclaimed. “Where did you go, what did you do? What’s it like now that you’re married?” Things like this were asked as makeup was applied, having gotten help with Shade while getting dressed.

Shade didn’t really listen for whatever the answers were. She was more lost in her head, thinking about the future she remembers seeing from the show. ”I wonder, how did they even set up their base in the Empire when they were sent there? When did that happen anyway? Can’t for the life of me remember when it happened. What season was it?”

“Hello~ Shade?” Snowflake was suddenly next to Shade, who jumped in surprise. “Finally! You were staring into space since I finished with the makeup. Now come on, we gotta fix up the place. Then we can catch up with Princess Cadence.”

“Right, right. Sorry.” Shade went to fix the sheets while Snowflake went to pick up any clothes that were discarded when the couple changed.

Once those were finished, the two went to deposit the clothing in the laundry room for another servant to do before heading to where Princess Cadence was working.

”This is as boring as watching paint dry.” Shade thought to herself. Princess Cadence was sitting at a desk covered in paperwork, mindlessly looking through them and either signing or writing a big X on them. There was another desk nearby, which also held lots of paperwork that needed to be looked through. ”Princess Luna will be there by lunch,” Shade thought to herself, looking back on what Snowflake filled her in on.

“So,” Shade whispered to Snowflake, who was sharing a small sofa with her. “Do we just watch Cadence and Princess Luna do paperwork after we finish all our chores?”

“Yep,” Snowflake cheerfully whispered back. “If either of them need anything, we get them what they need. For the most part though, we kinda just sit here in silence unless Cadence decides to take a break.”

A knock came from the door. “Come in.” Cadence said with a yawn. The door opened and Shining Armor came in. “Oh, hi Shiny.”

“Hi Cady.” Shining smiled before returning to a neutral expression. His voice was professional as he spoke. “Princess Celestia has asked for your presence in the throne room.”

“Alright.” Cadence got out of her seat. “Lead the way.” She gave a brief kiss to Shining’s cheek before leaving the room.

“Do we follow them or…?” Shade asked, now in a normal volume.

Snowflake stood up and walked after them. “Yeah. Unless we’re asked not to, we kinda follow Cadence around like lost puppies.”

“Ah, gotcha.” Shade left her seat and also followed. She and Snowflake stayed a bit back from Cadence and Shining Armor. Although, they looked to be in work mode, as they were not being all affectionate and stuff like most newly wedded couples are said to do. ”These two either have a great work ethic or are just not as affectionate as stereotypes would say. Probably a bit of both.” Shade thought to herself.

”Aw, they’re so cute together.”

Shade stopped, looking around for a moment as she tried to discern the source of a sound she swore she heard. After looking for a moment and finding nothing, she shook her head and continued following the group down the castle halls.

Eventually, the throne room entrance came into view. Once at the entrance, Shining Armor turned to Shade and Snowflake. “Apologies, but you two must stay out here for the time being.”

“Of course, sir.” The two replied. Shining Armor opened the doors and allowed Cadence through before following and closing them behind him.

Shade sighed. “Now what, we just wait out here until we’re either allowed in or until Cadence is done talking with Princess Celestia?”

Snowflake shrugged. “Either or. I wonder what the meeting is about?”

“Who knows?” Shade shrugged. “Could be anything.”

Within the throne room, the princesses and guard captain talked. “Cadence, Captain Armor.” Shining Armor bowed to Princess Celestia and Cadence gave a nod.

“What’s up?” Cadence asked.

“I have grave news, I’m afraid.” Celestia sighed. “I’ve just been informed of something I’ve been dreading to hear of. I’m sure you’re both aware of what the Frozen North is like.” At the two’s nods she continued. “An old enemy has returned and is hiding there. King Sombra, of the Crystal Empire. I need you to go and help the residents of the Empire.”

“Wait, why us and not Twilight and her friends?” Cadence questioned. “Wouldn’t they be able to help?”

Celestia shook her head. “No, not alone, at least. I have sent a letter to Twilight, already informing her to come here with her friends. While they are being debriefed on the situation, I need the both of you to start heading to the Empire. Without the two of you, the ponies living there will sooner perish from the cold than be saved.”

With this in mind, Cadence and Shining Armor gave a determined nod. “When are we leaving?” Shining asked.

“Hopefully within the next hour.” Celestia replied. “I already have a train getting ready to leave. Pack what you need. I know that this is sudden, considering you both just came back from your honeymoon, but there’s no time to waste.”

“Of course, Aunty. I understand.” Cadence looked at Shining and gave a nod. “We’d best get to packing then.” Shining nodded in reply and the two went for the door.

“We won’t let you down, Princess.” Shining called as he opened the doors.

“I know you won’t.”

Shining Armor closed the door behind him, seeing that Cadence already went to talk with Shade and Snowflake.

“Shade, Snowflake. Shining and I have to get packing for something, could you help out?”

“Of course, it’s in the job.” Shade replied, Snowflake nodding in agreement.

“Great. Let’s head to my room first and then we’ll go to Shining’s office.”

“The Crystal Empire?” Shade questioned as she set down one of the boxes in the storage car. “It’s back?”

“Yep!” Cadence responded. “Celestia has tasked me and Shining to go and help, as it was in pretty bad shape before it disappeared.”

“And we’ll be getting assistance from Twilight and her friends,” Shining Armor added as he set one of the last boxes on board.

“Say, what if I came along?” Shade offered. “I don’t look it, but I can fight if there’s any danger.”

“I appreciate it, Shade. But I don’t want you to get hurt or anything,” Cadence shot down.

“Please?~” Shade begged. “If you don’t want me to assist, I can stay out of the way. After last night, I feel like a break from Canterlot would be great for me.”

“What happened last night?”

“Oh, uh…a changeling might have locked me up in my closet and impersonated me?”

“What?!” Shining yelled. “I thought security was up more than usual since what happened.” He sighed. “The guard’s going to need to up their training by a lot. This can’t keep happening.” He waved it off. “Whatever, I’ll deal with it once we’re done with the Crystal Empire.”

Cadence sighed. “Fine, you can come. Just…be careful, okay?”

“Yes ma’am!” Shade gave a salute. “I’ll go get some clothes for the trip.” Shade lit their horn and disappeared in a flash of light.

“Since when could she teleport?” Shining could only shrug at Cadence’s question. “I could’ve sworn she said she couldn’t.”

Within a few minutes, Shade teleported back to the train with a pair of saddlebags equipped. “Done!”

“Are you sure you don’t need anything else?”

“I’m sure.” Shade nodded. “I’m a man of simple needs.”

“You mean mare?”

“That’s what I said.” Shade went into the passenger car, followed by the royal couple. In a separate car, there were already a large group of guards ready to help when needed. The train gave a whistle before it started to slowly chug along, gaining speed as it started to head down Canterlot’s mountain.

”Why am I throwing myself into this?” Shade suddenly wondered in her thoughts. ”I know how dangerous this is and I can’t even fight! The times I looked to have fought are times I can’t remember a lick of.” Ah well, too late now for Shade to back out. She’ll just have to hope that luck’s on her side during this trip.

Chapter 13: …

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The ride to the Crystal Empire was quiet and uneventful. Once snowfall was seen through the windows, everyone switched into snow gear in preparation.

Shade watched the snow with a small smile. ”Been forever since I’ve seen snow.” She wore a pair of snow boots with a fluffy coat.

She momentarily frowned at her thought. ”Wait, no. I got to Equestria from the Frozen North, so it hasn’t been that long. A couple weeks at least.” She shrugged. ”Eh. Still better than most weather.”

“Shade?” Shade turned to Cadence. “When we get to the Empire, we need to be fast with setting up defenses before we’re noticed. What can you do to help?”

“Uh…” Shade pondered for a few moments. ”Let’s see. Shady Drawing, what could she do that could help? Oh!” She clapped her hooves together. “I can put everything in a picture to help transport everything. In fact, I’m going to do it now.”

Shade stood and picked up her bag before she went to the car door. “Be careful,” Cadence said as Shade closed the door behind her. She went to the next car and entered it, finding all the supplies still there.

“Okay…now to figure out how to put all this into a picture…” Shade pulled out a notebook she managed to grab and opened it to an empty page. “I was able to create something from a drawing, so I should easily be able to put something inside one.” The only problem was that Shade had no clue how she managed to bring that drawing into reality.

“I just have to let it come to me.” She waited. And waited. “Anytime now.” After waiting for another minute, she sighed. “Okay, recklessly attempting it is.” She charged magic into her horn and covered the notebook in her magic.

Looking around, she saw a relatively smaller box that held clothing. ”That’s probably for the people in the Empire.” She covered the box in her magic as well and tried imagining the process she wanted.

She closed her eyes and told the steps to herself. “The box becomes two-dimensional. It then goes to the paper and becomes one with it. A limited pocket space is created, storing the box and its contents.” Upon opening her eyes, she found a new box image in the notebook. Looking at where the box was, she found that it was gone.

“Yes!” She repeated this process with other boxes. More clothing, food, spare weaponry. This was all stored within the single page she held it to. Once she was finished, she jumped for joy. “I actually did it!” She clapped her hooves before realizing how she was acting. With a clearing of her throat, she closed the notebook and set it back into her bag.

“Thank goodness no one saw me acting like that,” she mumbled to herself, her face warm and a little red. The blush died quickly as she turned away from the end of the cargo car and headed back to the passenger car holding Cadence and Shining Armor.

She got there in short order and found Shining looking out the window with a serious expression. It looked like he was keeping an eye out for something.

“I’m back,” Shade announced as she closed the door behind her.

“Good.” Shining nodded. “We’re about to arrive.”

Shade tilted her head. “Did I take that long or were we already close when I left?”

“A bit of both.” Cadence admitted. “Did you manage to pack everything?”

“Yep!” Shade pulled out the notebook. “It’s all in here and ready for transport.” The train slowed to a stop and Shining Armor grabbed his spear. The train doors opened and everyone filed out. Once everyone was out, the train was permitted to leave, heading back to Equestria. A gentle snowfall was coming down upon the group, who all had a slight shiver to them. ”Huh.” Shade looked at them all, being the only one who showed no sign of feeling cold. ”Ponies are not great in cold weather. Then again, isn’t it closer to summer in Equestria right now?”

“Alright everypony!” Shining yelled to his troops. “The sooner we get to the Empire proper, the faster we can help the residents so let’s get moving!” Due to the snowfall not being a blizzard, the tower that was the Crystal Empire’s castle was visible from a distance.

The troops stayed in front of the royal couple, leading the way toward the tower, as Shade stayed behind them. She kept an eye on their rear, on the lookout for black smoke. ”The Elements were originally ambushed by Sombra when they got here in the show. Who knows if our group will also get ambushed?”

It was suspiciously quiet as the large group marched to the Crystal Empire. After a few minutes of walking, the group entered the edge of the city, where the crystal buildings started. Shade’s paranoia only increased as time went on, her eyes eventually shifting to black.

The group was left unimpeded until they entered the large clearing that the castle stood in the middle of. As soon as the first guard pony stepped hoof into it, a spike of black crystal came out of the ground and almost impaled him, had he not reacted quickly enough to step back. “Sir!” The soldier yelled to the back. “It looks like the plaza is trapped.”

Shade tilted her head in thought for a moment, wearing a strangely neutral frown. “Black crystal signifies negative emotions affecting it, meaning we’re dealing with dark magic.” She turned to the royal couple. “Cadence, Shining. If you channel your love for each other into your magic, you should be able to temporarily disable the traps, if not destroy them completely. I can attempt to assist, but I don’t have any love in me that’s nearly as powerful.”

The two nodded. “We’re going to the front!” Shining yelled. The soldiers moved out of the way, allowing the three to get to the front.

“I’d advise we try it on the trap that’s already been triggered,” Shade suggested. She lit her horn and briefly had her magic cover it before her horn dimmed. “If it crumbles, then we’ll know for certain if my theory is correct.”

Cadence lit her horn and made a ball of her magic. She fired the ball at the black crystal and it quickly fell apart, disappearing into smoke. “Alright. Shining, could you make a shield around us? I’ll supply the power while you maintain the spell.” Shining Armor only gave a nod before lighting his horn, creating a pink shield around the group, even going under their hooves. Cadence lit her horn again and the shield’s hue changed only slightly. The two then started to walk forward, followed by Shade and the soldiers.

Spikes attempted to jab at the group, but they crumbled as they hit the shield, allowing the group a smooth walk to the center of the plaza. Shade lit her horn for a few moments before nodding. “We’re clear!”

Cadence and Shining Armor let down their conjoined spell. Shining looked at Shade with a raised brow. “How do you know that we’re clear?”

“Before we tested that crystal, I scanned it with an analysis spell.” Shade said, briefly motioning in the direction they came from. “I casted another analysis spell here and came up with no results matching the crystal trap.”

“Now.” Shade pointed at a spot in the very middle of the small safe space, where a spike from the ground and a spike from the roof above pointed to an empty space. “That’s where the Crystal Heart should be. We can only assume that King Sombra hid it somewhere, which leaves two objectives. Find Sombra and find the Crystal Heart.”

“Is Sombra even alive?” Cadence questioned. “I mean, wouldn’t we have seen him by now?”

“Dark magic is tricky.” Shining responded. “It can be more unpredictable than regular magic is.”

“Exactly,” Shade nodded. “Sombra could be hiding for all we know, waiting for the right moment to strike. If we’re lucky, he’s just recovering from reappearing with the Crystal Empire or is still in the process of reappearing, along with the crystal pony civilians.”

“What makes you think that?” Shining asked.

“We have yet to see anything outside of ourselves. That means either all the citizens are in hiding or they are appearing later than the buildings have.” Shade shrugged her shoulders. “We don’t know anything about how or why the Crystal Empire disappeared and reappeared like this so anything is possible.”

“That’s true…” Shining shook his head. “Soldiers!” The guards snapped to attention. “Cadence and I shall make a city wide shield, the same as the one we used to get through that minefield. Once we make it, fan out and look for civilians! Understood?!”

“Yes sir!” The guards yelled in unison.

Shining turned to Cadence. “You ready?”

Cadence gave a simple nod before charging her magic. “This won’t be too different from the shield at our wedding. I’m ready when you are.”

As the couple began to cast the spell, Shade slipped away, heading through one of the sets of doors leading into the castle. She closed the doors behind her and began to talk to herself as she started up a staircase. “That shield is proven to ward off dark magic, but our knowledge states it won’t last long enough.” She began to charge her magic, which was black like her eyes instead of purple. “I’ll need to set up my own traps and precautions to make sure nothing goes wrong. This knowledge isn’t reliable enough for us to sit by and do nothing.”

She rested a hoof against one of the crystal walls, sliding it along the wall as pink magic washed over her, signaling the shield spell being cast. “Crystal is extremely conductive with magic, so that spell is likely twice as powerful. It also means my spells will be twice as effective.” Her magic flowed from her horn like a snake, slithering around her neck and down her arm before going into the wall as she walked. “Golems able to build themself with orders to target that source of the magic frequency I got from the trap earlier. Traps ready to go off in a similar manner to those traps in the courtyard. Surveillance spells to alert us when the shield falls and when Sombra enters the city.”

Tendrils of the magic slithered around the Crystal Empire, burrowing themselves deep in the crystal to fester and infect. “And lastly, an attachment to those spells that take in stored magic and further increase each spell’s power.” Shade pulled her hoof away from the wall and cut off her flow of magic. “Now, what point would there be in waiting for the heroes to arrive? Too many unknown variables could make them unable to obtain the Crystal Heart and save the day.”

She paused in her thinking, stopping in her walking. “Although, many future events will become unpredictable if I alter events so drastically…” She shook her head and continued walking. “Bah, the information was becoming stale anyway. Our mere presence isn’t a part of this knowledge and yet here we are. Events are already too altered for us to worry about keeping it on track.”

Shade stopped in front of the throne room and opened the door. “If the information is correct, dark magic must impact the crystal above the throne and the passage will op-“ Shade froze, clutching her head suddenly.

She shut her eyes for a few moments before opening them again, revealing her disguise’s blank eyes being back. She let go of her head and took in her surroundings. “What? How…how did I get here?” Shade walked to one of the throne room’s windows and looked out of it, seeing the pink shield Cadence and Shining had put up. “Wait, how is the shield up already? Did I black out? How long was I out for?”

Chapter 14: “The knowledge is stale.”

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“Ugh.” Shade rubbed her eyes, trying to keep herself awake as she sat in a crystal chair. “Gods am I tired.”

“Same here,” Cadence said, notable bags under her eyes as she stared out an open window from the throne. “I hope Shining gets back soon with the girls.”

“Me too. The sooner he gets back, the sooner you can get some rest.” Shade sighed. “Taking things out of a page doesn’t usually make me so fatigued, especially the kind that lasts for days.” Her stomach growled at her and Shade sighed again, standing from her seat. “I’m gonna get a snack, do you want anything, Princess?”

“I’m fine,” Cadence said with a yawn.

Shade nodded and left the room. With a sigh as she closed the door, her eyes gained a transparent orange hue. “I feel sorry for whatever guard I end up getting,” she muttered to herself as she started to wander the halls for a guard. ”I can’t use a crystal pony, I’m pretty sure their positive emotions are what power the Crystal Heart so every one of them counts.”

It didn’t take long to find a guard. Shade gave a quiet chuckle before orange magic covered the guard for a moment. Shade casually approached the guard, who was unresponsive to her presence, before biting his neck. The bite lasted for only a moment. The guard gained a glazed look to his eyes and Shade no longer felt her hunger. She rounded a corner before the orange faded from her eyes.

Having gotten her ‘snack’, Shade started to head back to the throne room. Thunder was heard from outside and Shade saw the blue shield covering the Empire flicker for a moment. “Crab baskets,” she muttered. ”Cadence can’t last much longer. Her magic is better at defending Sombra than Shining Armor, so she’s been holding up the shield almost 24/7 after the first day or two. That fact that Shining can’t help only makes it harder for her to keep this up.”

“-you saw what's out there waiting for that to happen.” Shade entered the throne room in time to hear the end of Shining’s explanation. He was wearing the same captain’s uniform he’s been wearing, but now sported black crystals on his horn.

”He can’t use his magic now and Cadence can't distract herself with getting rid of the crystal.” Shade thought to herself.

“That’s why we’re here.” Twilight stated as Shade moved to the chair she had been using prior.

“Why we’re all here.” Applejack emphasized.

“Well, with Cadence holding up the spell and me keeping an eye out in the arctic, we haven’t been able to get much information from the Crystal Ponies.” Shining said.

“Crystal Ponies?!” Rarity yelled out, obvious excitement in her voice. She cleared her throat, a slight blush forming in her cheeks. “Apologies. Please, continue.”

“We have to hope that one of them knows how to keep Sombra out without Cadence’s magic.” Shining continued.

Shade sighed and tuned out the group, staring out toward the shield and the dark cloud pressing against it. She didn’t even notice that she was nodding off until she fell asleep.

When she awoke again, Shade found that she was alone in the throne room. She stood from her seat and stretched, allowing loud pops to come off of her back. “Sheesh, how long was I out?” She walked to the window and almost gasped at what she saw.

Crystal Ponies were keeping close to the base. Shade could see them socializing and stands that held games and food. “Oh, uh.” She gulped. “We’re close to when the shield falls and Sombra gets in-“ Shade stopped her talking suddenly.

Her eyes gained black irises and she sighed. “Took them long enough to grow paranoid or scared again.” Shade turned to the throne and charged a blast of magic. “Channel negative emotions. Fear’s an easy one to use.” Her black magic gained bubbles of green and purple before she fired the beam of magic to above the throne. A shadow casted over the ground in front of the throne and opened a trapdoor in a flourish of purple and green fire, revealing stairs leading down into darkness.

“I’d best hurry, before Sombra gets in.” She starts to go down the stairs and hears thunder go off, before giving the window a glance. “Shield’s down. All the more reason to hurry.” She continued going down in a rush, careful not to trip and fall down the staircase.

She made it to the bottom of the staircase and looked to the door. Approaching it, she attempted to grab the handle. The door rose from its place and slid along the wall to the other side of the door. Shade sighed. “Right, the door doesn’t open unless you hit it with dark magic.” Channeling more corrupted magic, she launched another beam at the crystal attached to the top of the door. The door slowly opened in response, showing a white light behind it.

“Here we are.” She approached the door and froze. The sclera of her eyes faded from white to green, in some kind of trance as she stared at the empty wall in front of her.

In the confines of a hospital within Canterlot, a unicorn stallion entered a room with a sigh. He had a white coat and black mane and tail, as dark as his pitch black irises. He wore a suit and tie that kept to his monochrome color scheme and on his flank was a cracked heart made of stone for a cutie mark.

The room stank of disinfectant and the room shimmered like it was just cleaned to perfection. The only window was kept closed, allowing only the lights to illuminate the room. Against a wall in the center of the room was a bed with a pony on it. Next to the bed was a heart monitor, showing a steady heartbeat with its slow beeping.

The unicorn approached the bed and took a seat on a chair next to it, looking at the pony occupying it. A pegasus mare with a pale green coat of fur and brown mane and tail. She was a teenager at best and had no cutie mark on her. She was asleep at the moment.

”Likely just gave her her medicine.” The stallion sighed. He gently took one of the teenager’s hooves and held it in his own, which were covered by blue single use gloves. “Any day now,” he whispered, closing his eyes. “Whatever god or spirit that’s out there. Please, allow her to get better. You’re her only hope.”

He stayed silent, just keeping the girl company for a bit. “It’ll be okay, Disgust.” He made a chuckle, empty of any mirth. “Oh how ironic that name is.” He frowned and stood from his seat. “I gotta continue work now. Money doesn’t make itself, and you need as much of it as you can get.” He turned away from the bed and made to leave.

Just as he reached the door, the beep of the heart monitor was much harsher all of a sudden. And it wasn’t a beep. No, it was starting to drone. The stallion froze. ”No…no, no, no, no!” He looked back and saw that a flatline was on the monitor. He charged out of the room. “She’s flatlining, she’s flatlining!” He yelled, terror obvious in his voice. His yelling got the attention of a nearby nurse. “Get Doctor Extreme Operation now!”

“Heart, get a defibrillator!” The nurse yelled to another nurse nearby. “I’ll get the doctor!” They left running to their goals.

The stallion took a seat on a chair outside the patient’s room. He knew he couldn’t help with this. “Keep calm. She’s not going to die, she’s not going to die.” He repeated this mantra to himself, trying to distract himself by saying these words. Nurses and the doctor ran into the patient’s room, but he left them well alone. He trusted them.

”They haven’t failed in helping her yet. Disgust will pull through. She always has before. She’s not going to die.”

“She’s not going to die, she’s not going to die.” The door suddenly shut in front of Shade, snapping out of her trance. She was on the floor with her arms wrapped around her head, staring at the closed door with tears trailing down her cheeks.

“This must be King Sombra’s dark magic. A door to your worst nightmare.” Twilight looked at the door with a frown. She turned to Shade and held out a hoof. “Are you okay?”

Shade scoffed and batted off Twilight’s offered hoof. “Of course it was an illusion. That nightmare’s already real and has run its course.” She stood from her spot on the ground. “Got any bright ideas on how to get through this?” She motioned toward the door. “Just past there should be the Crystal Heart.”

“Really? So I was right!” Twilight nodded. “I’ve got an idea of what can open this.” She charged her magic and a tendril of magic left her horn and channeled into the crystal above the door. With a rainbow-like glow, the door soon opened to reveal a white chamber.

Shade walked through without pause and turned to her left, starting on the spiral staircase. “Come on then. The sooner we get the Heart, the sooner this is dealt with.” She paused, recalling a snippet of information. “Say, Twilight. Do you happen to know any spells to reverse gravity?”

“Yes, why?” Twilight asked, followed by Spike as she came up to Shade.

Shade pointed up. “These stairs are awfully long and, as I said, the sooner we get there the better. The underside of the stairs look smooth and at the right slope for us to slide down, or rather, up.”

“You’re right!” Twilight grabbed Shade’s hoof. “Hold onto me Spike.” Spike grabbed Twilight’s leg and Twilight channeled her magic. The trio floated into the air and flipped upside down. They ‘fell’ and impacted the ground, slipping onto their rears before starting to slide ‘down’ the stairs. “Woohoo!” Twilight cheered.

Shade flinched suddenly as a spark came off of her horn. “Haystacks, Sombra’s magic has gotten into the Empire.”

“What?!” Spike yelled.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine. I have distractions set up.” She closed her eyes and channeled some of her magic. “Although, I’ll need to modify the spells a little. We’ll be at the top soon so we won’t need to worry for long.”

In the outskirts of the Crystal Empire, vaguely pony-shaped creatures made of crystal walked out of the walls of crystal houses. They stared at the approaching shadow of magic and jumped into its path. The crystals making up their bodies were quickly becoming corrupted, but the golems held strong and tried their best to absorb as much magic as possible.

“Oh, that’s gonna give me a headache for a while.” Shade groaned. “Crystal golems are very new for me to use.”

“Wait, golems? As in the lost art of magic golems?!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Yes, golems, now stop asking questions. We’re almost there.” Shade looked over the edge and noticed an opening to the roof they were rapidly approaching. “Be ready to undo the gravity spell, Twilight.”

“Got it.” Twilight charged her magic and just as they left the opening, she released the counter spell, returning them to normal gravity. Twilight gasped. “The Crystal Heart!” The blue heart of crystal floated above a disk of dark crystal, peacefully in the open and waiting to be grabbed.

Shade rose from her spot on the floor, looking out to the ground below. “Rats!” Sombra’s corruption made it past her golems, infecting the crystal buildings and quickly heading toward the castle. “Quick, grab it!”

Twilight ran to the Crystal Heart and grabbed it. The disk below her flashed for a moment. “Shit!” Shade cursed, crystals quickly sprouting up from the edges of the disk. “It’s a trap! Quick, throw it!”

Twilight wasted no time doing so, before the crystal completely surrounded her. Shade saw Twilight teleport out of it, but she quickly disappeared in a second flash. “It’s no use Twilight. That trap won’t let you out.” She approached the crystal and crouched as she channeled magic into her horn. “I can take it down, but it’ll be too late by the time I finish.”

“Spike! You need to take the Crystal Heart to Cadence and my brother!”

“But-“

“Just go! There’s no time!” Spike looked between Shade and the Crystal Heart by his feet. He looked back and forth before picking up the Heart.

“You can slide down the side of the castle.” Shade commented. “The stairs will take too long.”

Spike nodded and quickly went to the edge. He found himself able to stand on the edge, so he started to run down the slope of the castle.

Shade paid him no mind, focusing on analyzing the trap and figuring out how to disable it. “I have to admit, this trap is an amazing thing for me to look at. Such complexity.”

“I’m all for analyzing stuff and admiring the knowledge it brings, but can you hurry up?”

“Hush Twilight. I’ll get you out when I get you out. It takes time to disable magical traps I’m not familiar with.” The two fell into silence. Shade was uncertain what Twilight was doing, but she was listening as best she could to what was happening below as she worked on the trap.

Soon, the castle rumbled. Shade’s concentration broke as the shaking quickly increased in intensity before a beam of light came up from the floor below them. Shade gasped and fell to her side, blinded by a sudden, searing pain. The black in her eyes faded to white and the pain faded. She closed her eyes and fell unconscious. ”I can’t stay out, that light might kill us otherwise.”

The trap dissipated into nothing, freeing Twilight. She barely even noticed that she was free with how blinding the light was. When the light faded, she didn’t notice her new crystalline coloring. What she noticed was Shade on the ground, unconscious.

“Shade? Shade?!” Twilight brought an ear to Shade’s chest and sighed in relief when she heard a heartbeat. “I better get her checked on.” She charged her horn and teleported the two down to the throne room.

Shade groaned when they landed. “Gods, don’t do that without a warning.”

“Oh thank Celestia! I thought you got into another coma or something.” Twilight helped Shade stand with an outstretched hoof.

“Hehe, that would be unfortunate.” Shade chuckled, taking the offered hoof and standing. “Hey…why do you look like you’re made of crystal?”

“I’m what?” Twilight looked over herself, finally noticing the change. “Oh! Fascinating. This must be a side effect of the Crystal Heart doing that shockwave of energy.” She looked at Shade. “And you’ve been affected too.”

“I have?” Shade looked over herself, noticing her own crystalline look. “Huh. Not a fan.” She frowned. “Too sparkly. I hope this isn’t permanent.”

“I’m sure it isn’t. Most magical effects are temporary, unless they’re constantly being powered in some cases.” Twilight shrugged. “I’m gonna go make sure everyone’s okay.”

“Have fun with that.” Shade gave a wave as Twilight began the walk to the square. “Hm…Let’s see. The next episode involving the Crystal Empire or the royal couple was…the one where they announce they’re having a baby?” She shook her head. “But that’s after Tirek emerges and is defeated, so maybe that episode is actually next? I dunno if he ever went to the Crystal Empire to steal all of its magic.”

Shade sighed. “Either way, I suppose I should start getting paranoid whenever Twilight becomes an alicorn.” She begins to walk down the halls of the castle. ”I should get some sleep.” She thought to herself with a yawn. ”I haven’t felt this drowsy since I was human, before this whole living as a changeling thing started. At least I’m the only one using the servant’s quarters.”

Shade stopped in front of a door with the word ‘Servants’ carved into the crystal. Inside was a room made of crystal like any other, with an entire wall covered in bunk beds. In the middle of the room was a small wooden table with chairs as well. Shade entered the room and let herself fall onto the nearest bed, barely getting herself under the covers before starting to fall asleep.

“I should really figure out why I keep having these blackouts,” she mumbled to herself as sleep took its hold on her. “It’s starting…to become…annoying.”

“Why didn’t we just fight him?!” A yell resounded the crumbling stone throne room. The red unicorn, Fury was fuming, his glare strong enough to make the sun seem cold in comparison. He and many other ponies were back in the throne room of the Castle of the Two Sisters. “We could’ve taken him! We didn’t need to rely on some stupid crystal that-!”

“Fury.” Fury stopped at his name with a growl. Another unicorn, one made up of monochrome coloring, shook his head from his throne, which had the mark of a cracked stone heart. “We cannot be too careful. While we cannot die, that doesn’t mean all of us are willing to go through the pain of having the host sustain injuries.”

“Father’s not wrong.” The grey, skeletal winged pegasus stated. “Mental pain was enough back when I was alive. Physical pain is no better in comparison.”

“But I wanted to taste his magic!” The orange earth pony colt whined. “He looked like such a good appetizer! Like an exotic dish that’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to try.”

“Gluttony,” a green pegasus said, her face a notably sickly green color. “Please stop talking about eating a pony’s magic. I’m gonna be sick.”

“So?” Fury questioned. “You’re always sick!”

A pegasus mare spoke up. “Now now. Let’s all calm down, okay?” She had a pale coat and a dark pink mane and tail that faded into a much brighter shade. The mark on her throne was a white heart wrapped in a blanket. “We should all have some rest like Shade. I’m sure a nap will be great for you all.”

“Uhuh, sure.” Fury rolled his eyes. “Old hag,” he mumbled.

“Oh? What was that?” The mare was suddenly in front of the red throne Fury sat on, a glint of magic in her eye as she leaned over the seated unicorn. “Could you repeat that?”

“U-Uh, nothing mom!” Fury stuttered, holding his hooves in front of him. “I said absolutely nothing!”

“Pfft, haha!” Another earth pony colt laughed from his purple throne, trying and failing to hold back his amusement. “I keep forgetting that you can actually feel something other than rage, haha!”

“Oh yeah? Let’s see you laughing while I burn you to a crisp!”

“Depression?”

The grey pegasus nodded and one of the bones for his wings snapped into an awkward position before stretching and moving like a snake striking its prey. The limb stabbed into Fury’s arm and the unicorn promptly fell asleep. Returning his limb to its usual position, Depression sighed. “I’m gonna take a nap now. Hopefully it’ll be a dreamless night tonight.” He and his throne vanished, fading from view.

“Sweet dreams.” The pink pegasus gave Fury a kiss on the forehead before walking back to her throne. The other thrones steadily faded away after she took her seat, all of them joining the realm of sleep. She sighed as she closed her eyes. “I wonder what the royal couple’s kid will look like.” She smiled as she too began to fade. “I bet it’ll be as cute as those two are together.”

The throne room was now empty of thrones, all except for two. The one who sat at a golden throne was covered head to toe in glowing chains, obscuring their appearance. But they thrashed and struggled, their movements silent despite all the chains. They refuse to rest like the rest. They must escape. ”Must bring order. Must. Bring. Order.” Above their throne was a balanced scale with cracks of gold littered around it.

The other throne was purple, different from the one the earlier colt sat at and just next to the door. In the seat was someone also covered in chains, these ones seeming to drain the light from the immediate space around them. Their only visible feature was a horn riddled with holes. They did not struggle. Instead, they slept in a much more restless manner, not fading away like the others on the thrones did. Above their throne was no mark. Just a crown similar to a certain Queen’s.

Chapter 15: The Dots Cannot Connect

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Shade left the servant’s quarters with a sigh, ready for the busy day of work ahead of her. “How did I even become the secretary?” She asked herself as she started walking down the halls. “Helping organize and documenting all of the citizens, taking out a large portion of the royal’s money to jumpstart the Empire's economy, and so much more. It’s only been a few days! I swear, if anything else comes up that I need to help with, I’ll be starting to have migraines.”

Shade stopped as she arrived at the doors to the throne room. She took a deep breath. “Breath in…then out…” She exhaled. “After a few weeks, you’ll be back to just being a maid and you can fade into the background again.” She put on a small smile and entered the throne room, finding the royal couple in the middle of a conversation.

Cadence stopped speaking, looking toward the doors. “Oh, Shade! Good morning.”

“Good morning, Cadence.” Shade replied with a bow of her head. “Good morning to Captain Armor, as well.” Armor returned the head bow and Shade sighed. “So, besides continuing to document all of the citizens of the Crystal Empire, is there anything else we need to do today?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s all we’re doing today,” Cadence said with a smile. Shade internalized a sigh of relief.

“Before we get to that though, I’ve been meaning to ask something.” Shining Armor admitted.

”Oh?” Shade thought to herself. “What is it?” She asked.

“How did you know about the Crystal Heart before the rest of us did?” He asked. “And how were you really able to notice where all the traps were when we first got here? Last I checked, the only spells you say you know are basic telekinesis and the spells that your talent uses.”

Shade looked at Armor with a raised brow. “What traps? I never even heard of the Crystal Heart until it showed up.” She lied.

“The traps around the courtyard when we first got here.” Armor explained. “You used an analysis spell and used it to track where the traps were. You also mentioned the Crystal Heart and even went after it before we realized what it actually was.”

“No, I didn’t do any of that.” Shade shook her head. “I don’t even remember what happened when we entered the Empire. One minute, we were about to walk in and the next minute, I’m in one of the halls of the castle and that shield was up.”

“Wait…” Cadence put on a pondering look. “Do you remember when you kicked down the door to the room my wedding was taking place in while Chrysalis was impersonating me?”

“Uhm…” Shade paused to recall the memory. “No? I remember being in the room with fireballs, but it’s really fuzzy. I…wasn’t really myself.”

The couple looked at each other with a raised brow. “Shade...” Cadence slowly said. “Do you have a kind of split-personality disorder?”

“I don’t think I do…” Shade tapped her chin in thought. “That might explain those blackouts I’ve been having.” She muttered. “Then again, I don’t know if that really means I do. And everyone who has such a disorder can have different experiences with it.”

“Well, we can talk about it later, if you want,” Cadence said, interrupting Shade’s train of thought. “We have a lot of work ahead of us, after all.”

Shade nodded in agreement. “Yeah, no time to lose right now.” She turned away from the couple and went for the doors. “I’ll go get the paperwork before citizens start coming in.”

As she left the room, her eyes momentarily went black as she frowned. Her eyes quickly turned back to their white voids, but she kept the frown as she sighed. “Gods, I miss just being a maid.” She walked down the hallway, heading to another room in the castle.

A crack echoed the room of thrones, a black appendage once again impaling a red unicorn. “You should really find a method to calm down.” Depression neutrally stated.

“And you should go hang yourself again.” Fury grumbled.

Depression raised a brow. “There would be no point in doing that. We both know I’ve already tried that.”

“Depression.” The pink pegasus called with a frown. “Don’t be so nonchalant about suicide. You know how much I dislike it.”

“Sorry, mom.” Depression nodded.

“U-Um.” The earth pony on the purple throne timidly spoke. “So, what are we gonna do about the royal couple? We can’t really leave them knowing that the host is having personality problems.”

“We’ll have to alter their memories, somehow.” The monochrome unicorn replied. “It’ll be difficult since none of us know any spells that can do that, but I’m sure we can find some.”

“What if I tried eating their memories?” The orange earth pony colt asked. “I haven’t tried doing that yet. I wonder what they’d taste like.”

“Eating the memories would be the same as wiping them.” Depression countered. “What we need to do is make them remember the events differently. If they don’t remember what happened, we’d have to wipe everyone’s memory. Not only would it be suspicious that nobody remembers that day, but it would also take a lot of time and energy.”

“Depression is right.” The monochrome unicorn nodded. “We need to at least make the couple remember the events differently. As far as we know, they’re the only ones who’ve connected the dots.”

“Oh!” The earth pony on the purple throne suddenly stood from his seat, a confident smirk on his face. An image flashed into existence on the throne. A cloud of darkness with glowing red eyes and yellowed teeth shining through it.

“What is it, Fear?” Depression raised his brow.

“My power can come in many shapes.” The child cryptically said. “Sometimes, fear can change what one remembers about something. If we can get them while they’re sleeping, I can maybe mess with their heads, change their memories.”

The pink pegasus hummed in thought. “It’s the closest thing we’ll get.”

“Actually.” The monochrome unicorn spoke up. “What if Sombra kept a library of dark magic spells? I think we should look around the castle and see if we can find one before we try Fear’s idea.”

The earth pony, Fear, suddenly lost his confident smirk and sat back down. He silently hugged a stuffed bear that certainly wasn’t there before. “Okay.” Fear agreed.

“We’ll start looking once the host is done with today’s chores.” The monochrome unicorn stated. “They’ll go to sleep and I’ll control the body since I’m the most familiar with dark magic out of all of us.”

Shade opened her eyes with a frown, black irises occupying the voids of white. She stood from her bed and headed for the door. Black smoke covered her form, replacing her with a monochrome unicorn stallion. White fur, black mane and tail, and those cold black eyes.

“Now, where would a library be hidden?” The stallion left the servant’s quarters and entered the hallway, quickly making a right and heading down it. He put a hoof against the wall as he walked, his eyes closed in some form of concentration.

He froze midstep, a quiet gasp escaping his lips. “That’s a lot of magic.” Throughout the whole castle, the stallion could feel magic coursing through it. It was a spider web of different magic auras, radiating positivity. If he pushed his senses a little more, he could tell that the magic reached outside the castle and into the city. “Is this how the Crystal Heart moves its power?”

He continued walking, hoping to find something different. In a web of positivity, negativity should stick out like a sore thumb. After an hour of uneventful searching, something finally stood out near the throne room. An innocent-looking wall stood in front of the stallion, but he could sense it.

“Like a fly struggling to escape before the spider comes.” He put his hoof to the wall and channeled some magic into it. “Perhaps helping a little will reward me with something.” A shape of a door appeared on the wall, the crystal turning black. The stallion pushed open the door and closed it behind him, the crystal turning back to its vibrant blue.

On the other side, the stallion looked at the room he found himself in. “What a well of knowledge.” He pulled out a random book and looked at the title. “‘Dark Magic for the Traumatized.’ Fascinating, a book solely for unicorns who experienced enough trauma to need dark magic to replace regular magic.” He put the book back and looked at another. “‘Curses and Ailments.’ It seems that this library isn’t sorted at all.” He tapped his chin in thought. “Would memory alteration count as a curse? Unlikely.” He put this second book away and went back to looking.

“If only Greed was with me.” He muttered. “He always has a knack for finding things. But, then he’d obsess over it as he does with everything. Stupid double-edged sword of a talent.” He waved a hoof and a statue of a pony came out of the ground.

His horn glowed and the statue moved moments after, looking toward him with a blank expression. “Look for any books that could have memory alteration spells in them.” He told the statue. It nodded and started to assist looking through the bookshelves.

With a wave toward the floor, an orb came up from the floor, like a drop of water going in reverse. He repeated the gesture to make another statue a few more times, creating more statues before giving them the same orders. They joined the first statue in the search.

“While they do that,” the stallion walked to a wall. “Let’s find out where the couple sleep.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “In this web of magic, it’ll be difficult to find two specific auras. But, I have all night.”

The room then went to near silence, the statues making the only noise of pages being flipped and hardcover books being placed back on the shelves. Time slowly ticked by as the statues and stallion continued to search for their objectives.

The statues suddenly stopped their search, putting the books back and standing straight. One statue did not do this and instead walked over to the stallion. “What is it?” The stallion asked. The statue passed the book to him before assuming the same position as the other statues. The stallion looked at the cover with a hum. “‘Mind’s Plaything: Malicious Illusions.’” He turned a few pages and quickly found a table of contents. “‘Page 73: Memory Alteration.’ Just before Personality Alteration.”

The stallion flipped to the mentioned page and began reading. “‘In order to effectively use these spells, you must focus on your feelings revolving around bad memories and your wish for the past to be different. The helplessness of this is especially essential.’ Well, lucky for me that my past is full of such feelings.” The stallion sighed and continued to read in silence.

After a few minutes of reading, he closed the book and set it on a random shelf. “Now, to find the royal couple-“ He suddenly gasped, putting a hoof to his chest as he leaned against the wall. He took a few deep breaths and sighed. “Damn it, her dreams are too happy. Fear, you need to make her paranoid.” He talked to the air. He sighed and got off the wall. He pushed against the door and it opened, closing behind him once he left.

He heard footsteps approaching and froze. ”Shoot, there’s nothing I can hide behind.” The steps came closer. ”Wait, I could just use Fear.” His eye color changed from black to purple. With a wave of a hoof, purple smoke flew down the hall before quickly fading away. An armored guard came around the corner, a purple tinge in his eyes. He passed the stallion without batting an eye.

“Fear’s abilities are very handy in a sneaky situation.” He muttered to himself. The stallion went in the opposite direction of the guard. “Perhaps their bedroom is close to the servant’s quarters, somehow. There’s still plenty of moonlight to burn before my time is up.”

Chapter 16

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Shade slowly walked to the throne room with her head in her hoof. “Ugh, why won’t this headache go away?” She grumbled to herself. “I’ve had this for three days now. This is not normal.”

She opened the doors to the throne room and winced as the hinges creaked. “Ow.” She sighed as the doors closed behind her. “Morning.” She greeted the royal couple, barely sparing them a glance as she leaned against a wall.

“Good morning, Shade.” Cadence greeted. “You still have that headache?”

“Yeah.” Shade replied.

“You know, you should definitely go see a doctor. You’ve had that headache for days now.” Cadence said worriedly.

“Maybe.” Shade admitted. “Headaches usually go away after a bit, but not after a few days.” She sighed. “Do you know where I can see one?”

“The hospital isn’t that far from the castle.” Shining Armor said. “It may be from a thousand years ago, but it still holds a similar look to today’s hospitals. Do you need an escort?”

“No no, I’ll be fine.” Shade waved him off. “It’s just some pain, I can still work just fine.” She walked to the door and opened it. “I’ll be back in a bit.” She gave a wave to the royal couple before closing the door behind her.

“Gods fudge cake and jelly caramel.” Shade muttered to herself as she started to walk down the halls. “This headache is gonna be the death of me.”

She stayed quiet as she made her way to the exit. Once outside, Shade winced at the sound of the busy city. Crystal Ponies were walking around everywhere, talking about their days and enjoying the bright, sunny day.

“Clouds and fog would be prettier.” Shade muttered as she walked the streets. She dodged the occasional crystal pony she almost ran into before soon finding a large purple cube of a building. On the center of its front was a red cross, the classic sign of a medical center.

Shade walked through one of the doors and walked up to the front desk. The pony there smiled at her. “Hello, what can I do for you?”

Shade winced at the happy tone, the volume associated irritating her head. “I’ve been suffering from a headache for the past few days. Is there a doctor available that I can go to?”

“Let me check.” The pony nodded before pulling out a clipboard from under the desk. They scanned the paper and gave another nod. “We have one available. Can I have your name?”

“Shade.”

“Alright, I’ll let him know. Feel free to take a seat while you wait.”

“Thank you.” Shade gave a nod of thanks before going to a row of seats and taking one. She sighed, closing her eyes and counting down from 10 in her head. She repeated the countdown, trying to distract herself from the headache.

“Shade?” She looked to the one who called her name. She was shocked to find a familiar face.

“Dr. Extreme?!” Shade balked.

“Yep. Funny how often we run into each other.” Dr. Extreme gave a follow motion and Shake stood from her seat before following. The two walked a little way down the hall before Dr. Extreme opened a door. Shade went through it first before the doctor followed, closing the door behind them. Inside the room were four beds at corners of the room with plain white sheets. “Take a seat.” The doctor motioned toward a bed and Shade took a seat on it. “So, what seems to be the problem this time around?”

“I’ve had a killer headache for the past couple days. Kinda just woke up with it.” Shade explained.

“Have you tried using any medicine?” Dr. Extreme asked, taking out a little flashlight and turning it on. “Keep your eyes open for me, please.”

Shade complied. “I’ve tried some medicine for it and it has lessened it somewhat, but it hasn’t disappeared once.” She told the doctor as he shined the light in her eyes.

“Hm. Have you used any new or difficult magic recently before the headache showed up?”

“No, the most I’ve used is basic telekinesis on small, light objects.”

Dr. Extreme took out a small strap. “Hold out your arm please.” Shade did and Dr. Extreme wrapped the strap around her arm. It was a small blood pressure machine. He turned on the small machine and as it slowly expanded, he continued his questions. “Anything different about your diet in the past couple days or have you recently received any kind of head injury?”

“Nope. I’ve been eating the same and the last time I got hit in the head was the last time I saw you.”

The blood pressure machine beeped and the doctor wrote down the displayed blood pressure on a clipboard. “Well, your blood pressure is a little higher than normal, but definitely not high enough to cause your headache.” He set down the clipboard on a small end table before turning back to Shade. “I’m going to cast a Brain Check Spell. Do I have your permission?”

“What’s a Brain Check Spell?” Shade asked with a raised brow.

“It’s a spell that will make pictures of your brain for me to look at.” Dr. Extreme explained.

”Oh, it’s like an MRI.” Shade gave a nod. “You have my permission.”

Dr. Extreme lit up his horn and casted the spell. Shade’s head is covered in his magic aura for a few moments before it leaves. Four images then appear in front of Dr. Extreme. He looked over the images and raised a brow. “That can’t be right.”

“What is it?” Shade asked.

“By the looks of it, you’re suffering from the side effects of an overuse of magic.” The doctor turned the images over for Shade to see. The brain was white in the images, but there was a notable shade covering it. “This covering of the brain only happens if you use too much magic or, in an unlikely case, when mind magic is used. Such magic is banned, however.” He dismissed the images after saying this. “Perhaps you’ve been sleep casting? It’s an uncommon occurrence but a reasonable explanation behind it.”

“Weird.” Shade put a hoof to her chin. “Well, is there a way for me to at least stop the headache?”

“Yes. You just need a medicine with a little more kick behind it. Then you should be fine.” Dr. Extreme picked up his clipboard again, writing something into it before ripping it off the paper. “Here.” He gives the piece of paper to Shade. “Give this to the pharmacy by the front and they’ll get you what you need.”

“Thanks doc.” Shade stood up and shook his hoof.

“Of course.” Dr. Extreme nodded. “Is there anything else you need before you go?”

“No, I’m sure that’s all. I’ll come back if there is.”

“Feel free to. I’m here for the next month or so, teaching the doctors all the new practices.”

Shade chuckled. “Alright then, see ya.” Shade gave a wave as she left the room. She then headed back to the front. “Excuse me.” She spoke to the pony at the front desk. “Which way is it to the pharmacy?”

“Just down that way, ma’am.” They pointed to a direction and Shade went that way. She quickly found the little storefront, where another pony was waiting there, obviously bored.

“Oh.” They perked up at Shade’s approach. “What can I do for ya?”

“Dr. Extreme told me to just give this to you.” Shade passed the paper to the pony, who gave it a close look.

The pony gave a nod. “I’ll be right back with it.” They disappeared behind a display shelf and came back after a moment with a small bottle in hoof. “Take two of these every hour until the bottle’s empty. After that, you should be fine.”

“Alright, thank you.” The pony passed Shade the bottle and Shade then left the hospital. As she walked, she took out two small black pills and took them before putting the bottle in an unseen pocket.

Princess Luna poured over documents. She was sitting at her desk within her room. Spread in front of her were documents with pictures of multiple ponies.

“There is something suspicious about this family.” The princess muttered to herself. “All of them died in the same year. They all had mental health issues, the only exception being the elder daughter and mother, as far as I’m aware. But, it doesn’t make sense. Two were murdered, five died from accidents, and one committed suicide. All of this happening in such a short amount of time cannot be a mere coincidence.”

“Those dreams the maid had. They were made by more than one creature. I could feel their presence in the dream, yet they were nowhere to be found.” She scratched her head in thought.

She looked out a tinted window, looking over the city of Canterlot. She focused on one spot in particular, the business she visited just a week or so ago. “And then there’s the father’s golems. They were made to still operate after he died, but they sensed his magic signature not long after the attack on the city. He’s been dead for two years, there shouldn’t be a trace of his magic left, but they sensed it.”

“The more I think about it, the more nonsensical it sounds. The golems could simply have malfunctioned in a way that went past their diagnostics. Machines aren’t perfect, after all.” She sighed, putting her head in her hooves. “It feels like I’m grasping at straws. There are so many holes in this information, it feels like. Maybe I’m thinking too much about this.” She looked over the papers again. “Perhaps I should bring this up with Celestia. She likely would have a better idea of what to do.”

Luna closed the curtains to the window and put the papers into a folder. She stashed the folder into her desk before taking off her crown and necklace. “For now, I must rest. I will need to visit that maid’s dreams again tonight. She must know more about this. After that, I’ll talk to Celestia.” Luna decided. After changing into her pajamas, the night princess got under the covers and allowed the call of sleep to take her away.

Chapter 17: You’re Not Allowed Here

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Princess Luna entered the Dream Realm with one goal in mind. After briefly checking and dealing with nightmares, the princess locked in on one specific pony. ”Here we are.” The princess walks up to a door. It held the appearance of a great hall's double doors. The doors were made of a dark oak and had a mix of silver and gold making up swirls that connected to its hinges. The princess grabbed one of the door’s crystalline handles and opened the door.

Once past the door, the princess began to look around. She was in a large hall, reminiscent of something familiar. ”The architecture is very similar to our old castle.” The princess idly thought to herself as she started to walk, her shoes making no sound as she walked on the carpet that covered the floor.

The princess heard something loud down the hall after walking for a few moments. ”A dreamer.” She faded from view before a unicorn came around the corner.

It was Fury, with his skull eyepatch and jagged marks under the eyes. “Leave me the fuck alone!” He yelled behind him, walking at a brisk pace. His steps could be felt by the princess, through the carpet and stone floor.

Depression, the one with the unique wings and skull pupil, followed Fury at a distance. He still had that mark of fur under his eye, making it look like he’s been crying. He walked in a more relaxed pace. “Can’t, dad’s orders were to watch you.”

”There's the two I first saw here. My senses still tell me they’re dreamers.” The princess watched as the two walked past here. ”But there are still more.”

Depression suddenly stopped. He looked behind, in the direction that the princess was in. The princess dared not even breathe as the pegasus stared.

“The fuck are you looking at?” Fury yelled from the end of the hall.

Depression shrugged and turned away. “I thought I sensed something. Guilt and sadness. I guess I was imagining things.”

“Yeah, and I sensed anger, because everyone here is a fucking prick!” Fury continued his angry stride as he rounded another corner. Depression lagged behind.

Princess Luna sighed in relief once they were out of sight. “That was close.” She continued in the opposite direction of the two, hoping to find what she was looking for.

After rounding the corner the two came from, the princess found herself in a completely different environment. The stone floor was replaced with white tiles and the carpet was gone. A hall full of doors greeted her, fluorescent light illuminating the hallway. Princess Luna tried to open the first door she saw to her left. She turned the handle, but it gave resistance. Leaving the door alone, she tried another and was given the same results.

She kept trying doors until one eventually opened. She walked into a dark hospital room, the only light illuminating the bed. Sitting on a chair next to the bed was a monochrome unicorn stallion. He wore a suit and tie and was watching the one on the bed.

The mare on the bed was a pegasus that was mostly made up of shades of pink. Her pale coat of fur was paler than the normal ponies would be. Her pink mane was set in a way to cover one of her eyes and was tied in a bow. On her flank was the faded mark of a heart with a blanket.

The unicorn sighed. “Why is this happening? Why did I have to lose you and Mania?” His black eyes were teary and he was taking deep, shaky breaths. He put his face into his hooves as he visibly tried to not break down. “We were supposed to grow old and see our kids become adults. I can’t do this alone. I’m barely home as it is, trying to keep the business running.”

Princess Luna watched the heartfelt scene with a realization. ”That’s Love, Paranoia’s wife.” She looked at the unicorn. ”This must be a memory.”

“I already have to deal with how Disgust can never leave the hospital, and that was already a big toll on my heart. Now this…” He took a much deeper, shakier breath. “I’ll try to stay strong. I’ll spend more time at home for you. I pray that Banshee takes good care of you and Mania.”

The room faded away and Princess Luna found herself in a much different room. She was in a large stone box. Dotted on the walls were thrones jutting out of the wall. Each one had a different mark on them. ”One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight…nine and ten.” The princess paused at the sight of the only two thrones that were occupied.

On a golden throne, a figure was covered in glowing chains. The figure struggled and Princess Luna could feel the bloodlust coming off of them in waves. She paid special attention to the mark above the throne. ”A cracked golden scale…It can’t be.”

The princess whipped her head to the other throne. It was black with holes dotted around it. The bound figure was obscured by the darkness of the chains, sucking the very light shining on them. Above the throne was a black crown with purple beads at the end of the curved spires jutting out of it, but it was not a mark on the throne, it was an actual object floating above the figure.

“This crown…it reminds me of the changeling queen’s, based on the images of her in recent nightmares.” She approached the darkened figure.

She suddenly froze, unable to move. “I see we have an intruder.” Princess Luna turned toward the voice and was surprised at what she saw.

In front of her was a colt. He had a pale coat, almost obscured by his purple hoodie and the shadow of his hood. He waved a hoof with a smile. “Ah ah ah, it’s rude to snoop in someone’s mind. Or did you never get told that because of your stature?”

He waved his hoof in a direction and Princess Luna was launched in that same direction. The thrones disappeared before she hit the wall, falling to the floor with a grunt. “How am I being overpowered by a mere child?” The princess muttered to herself as she stood up.

“Being dead gives you a good power boost.” The child answered. He gave a small wave. “Hello, my name is Fear. My special talent is scaring others and, as of my death, making nightmares. I’ve got almost the same power you do in this realm, Luna. Maybe even more, since I’m not a hundred percent alone.”

“What do you mean ‘I’m not alone’? As far as I’m aware, I’m the only creature able to enter and manipulate the Dream Realm.”

“Oh, sorry. Did you think I was talking about someone in the real world? I’m talking about the nightmares.” His purple eyes shined with mirth as Luna looked at him, appalled.

“You employ the help of nightmares?!”

“But of course. I am one, after all.” The kid put a hoof to his head and he fell to his knees. He was shaking and tears were falling down his face. He looked terrified. And, just as quickly as he switched, he went back to being confident. “At least, that’s how the kid sees it. Suits me just fine, as it makes dealing with nightmares go swimmingly.”

Princess Luna scowled. She charged magic into her horn and fired at the disgusting being. The colt took a step to the side and dodged the blast. “You’re in home territory, Luna. You’re at a huge disadvantage here.”

“I will free that child from you, monster!” Princess Luna screamed.

“Have fun trying. I doubt you’re much better than the doctors were.” Fear taunted. He dodged another blast from the Princess before being hit from behind, the Alicorn having teleported behind him while he was distracted. He launched a few feet before hitting the ground face first. “Ouch.” He got up and dusted himself off. “That hurt.” Chains erupted from the stone floor and wrapped around Princess Luna.

The princess fell over, the chains surprisingly able to handle her power. “It’s too bad we can’t keep you locked up here.” Fear idly said as he walked to the prone princess. “You’d be in a coma and that would cause too much panic. And that’s not even considering how crowded it already is here.” He crouched down and stared at the princess in the eye. “So we’ll just have to wipe your memory. Right after learning how to keep you out of here.”

With a growl, Princess Luna’s coat darkened to black as she made an explosion of magic, pushing the colt back. She then charged more magic and teleported to another place. The Princess was back in the hospital hallway.

“I need to learn more. That colt seems to have enough power to actually fight me here.” Luna said to herself as her fur returned to its normal color. She started to try more doors. “It would be best to avoid him for now.” After a few doors, she quickly found a new one that opened to her.

She was in a dark room with a spotlight shining onto another bed. The same monochrome unicorn was there, on his knees with tears streaming down his face. It didn’t take long for the princess to figure out why. ”She’s dead.”

A pale green pegasus with a brown mane and tail laid on the bed. There was no mark on her. The description was spot on for who the princess thought it was. ”This is Disgust, the sick daughter. This must be after she died.”

“Damn that nurse.” Paranoia muttered to himself. “Was incompetent enough to give too much of your medicine. First Mania and Love, n-now you.” He took a deep, shaky breath. “M-May Banshee watch over you fondly. And may Vie give you a chance of a b-better life if you ever come back.” He sniffled.

“I’ll let them take you away now. A-At least you won’t suffer anymore, right?” He clenched his teeth. “I-I hope not.”

A sudden crack resounded throughout the room and the princess flared her wings. “I’ve been found already.” She flew upward before the room shattered like glass, leaving her in a white void.

“Fucking bitch!” A ball of white fire whizzed past, the princess narrowly dodging it. Fury walked to her, each step creating a new space to fill up the void. With a stomp, a new environment came into existence. “Get the fuck out of our head!” The ground was charred black and covered in glowing red cracks, lava just underneath. In the distance, a smoking volcano appeared as the ground rumbled. The place was a volcanic wasteland.

“I do not wish to fight you, Fury!” The princess yelled back.

“I don’t care if you want to fight, you fucking asked for it by stepping foot in here!” Fury screamed, a ball of molten lava forming in his hoof before it launched toward the princess. Luna made a shield to block the shotgun of a blast. Dismissing it, she charged her magic for another teleport.

“You aren’t getting away that easily!” The ground rumbled before a hole opened up underneath the princess, lava erupting into the sky. In quick reflex, she changed her spell to make a bubble to shield her.

The lava was quick to exhaust and before another attack could launch, Luna teleported away again. She was back in a castle hall. She flew down the hall, furiously searching for more, anything that could help explain what was going on.

She quickly found a door covered in glowing chains. The door was made of some form of crystal, fading into different colors as she looked at it. She pulled at the door, but it wouldn’t budge. Next to it was another door made of some black material. She couldn’t tell what it was, but she tried it anyway.

The door opened. “Finally. Hopefully this door has-“ Chains suddenly wrapped around her muzzle, silencing her. The door then shut and new chains covered it.

“There you are.” Chains continued covering the princess until only her eyes were the only thing not covered. The chains turned her toward the voice and she was surprised to see who it was. Monochrome unicorn, suit and tie, and cold, calculating eyes.

”Paranoia. Owner of Paranoid Security and father of the Verstand family.”

“Hello, Princess.” The unicorn greeted her with a frown. “I don’t appreciate you looking into my memories, but I suppose I can’t argue. I would’ve done the same, just in case.” Behind him was the purple colt, giving a small smile of amusement.

“I’m sorry to do this, but you must understand our situation. If anyone were to find out, we may become targets. More than the host already is for who she is.” He held up a hoof, ready to cast whatever spell he had. His mark of a cracked stone heart glowed as he stared into the princess’ eyes.

“Goodbye.” Light blinded the princess as the spell was cast. She then knew no more as her consciousness faded. Chains left her as the ponies approached her body. “Throw her out, Fear. I can feel the protections she has in her own mind, we can’t get any information out of her.”

“With pleasure.” Dark purple covered the princess before her body floated to the same door she came in from. “Until next time.” The colt gleefully said before her unconscious body was thrown through the door and into the dreamscape.

Chapter 18: No More Otherworlder?

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“At least that headache is going away.” Shade muttered to herself as she walked down a crystalline hall. “Now that my head isn’t exploding, I can actually think, and I must ask. Why is that doctor everywhere I go? Literally, he’s everywhere.” She sighed and continued walking in silence as she made theories in her head. After a minute or so of pondering, she shook her head. “Whatever. I can think about that later.”

Shade pushed through the doors leading into the throne room and was surprised to find some familiar faces waiting. In the room were Snowflake, Gust, and Count, all chatting with Princess Cadence and Shining Armor. At the sound of the door closing behind her, they stopped their conversation and looked over at her.

“Shade! Hey!” Snowflake came over to Shade and gave her a hug. Shade awkwardly returned the gesture. “It’s been forever! How ya been?”

They broke the hug as Shade responded. “Oh, uh. I’m fine. Kinda tired but otherwise good. What are you guys doing here?”

“Well, we are Princess Cadence’s butlers and maids.” Count spoke up. “It’s only expected that we move over here to continue working for her.”

“Yeah.” Gust shrugged. “It took a bit since we had to pack up all our stuff, but we’re here now and ready to serve.”

“Well, that’s great news.” Shade smiled. She looked at the princess. “Uh, does that mean I can stop being a secretary and go back to being a maid?”

Cadence nodded in reply. “Yes, you can go back to your maid duties. Celestia managed to get someone over to take the job. But if they’re ever sick, I might have you substitute. You did really well despite no training.”

“Thanks Cadence.” Shade nodded. “Well, I guess I should show you three around.”

“Yeah! Come one, I wanna know where we’ll be sleeping!” Snowflake shook with excitement.

“Alright alright. Come on, I’ll show you the servants’ quarters.” Shade led the way. Once out of the room, Princess Cadence sighed.

“Still worried?” Shining asked his wife. “Don’t worry, I’m sure Shade is fine.”

“Yeah. I just don’t know why I’m worried.” Cadence shook her head. “I know there was a reason behind it, but I can’t seem to remember it.”

“I’m sure it’ll come back. I mean, we’re now running a kingdom and just finished getting it to a sense of normalcy.” Shining explained. “It’s been a stressful few days, so try not to stress too much on it, please.” The two exchanged a brief hug.

“Your right, Shiny.” Cadence sighed, a small smile gracing her lips. “I’ll try not to think too much about it. She seems better now, at least. And maybe the others can keep an eye on her for me.”

“That’s the spirit.” A knock came from the door and the two took a moment to compose themselves. “You may enter!” Shining Armor called to the door.

Shade entered the servants’ quarters with a sigh. “This’ll be where we stay.” She said, motioning to the wall of beds. “There isn’t any separation for gender, for some reason, but there are a few private bathrooms you can change in before going to bed.”

“Hmm…” Snowflake hummed in thought.

“Yes?” Shade questioned.

“It is odd that that is the case.” Count pointed out. “Are you certain there isn’t another set of quarters that are for the other gender?”

“Not that I’ve seen.” Shade shrugged.

“It’ll be fine.” Gust said with a nonchalant wave. “I trust you won’t try anything.”

“Gust!” Count scolded.

“What? There’s a reason the other castle had more private and separate dorms.” Gust replied. “And that reason is not one the applies to any of us.”

“Right…” Shade cautiously said. “Moving on…many of the rooms we will work in are not that far from here. The only exceptions are the kitchen and dining rooms, which are higher up and closer to the royal bedroom.”

The three listened to Shade’s explanation as they left the quarters and continued touring the castle. The barracks, the empty medical wing, the kitchen, dining room. Everywhere except for the royal bedroom was toured.

“And that concludes the tour. The only exception is, of course, the royal bedroom.” Shade motioned toward the door that led into the mentioned room. “Unless told otherwise, I will not be showing you three inside. I also don’t know if we’re still assigned to wake up Cadence and Shining Armor, Snowflake. We can go and ask them next time we get the chance. Any questions?”

Gust lazily raised his hoof. “How the hay does the weather work here? I don’t see many pegasi around here to maintain the weather.”

“The Crystal Heart maintains the weather in the Crystal Empire’s borders.” Shade explained, vaguely waving a hoof toward an open window. “The power of love and friendship or whatever keeps the Frozen North outside and allows us to experience constant springtime. And no, I have no clue how it works and I doubt its effect can be replicated.”

“Likely because it’s an item of one of the Spirits.” Count said to himself.

“The who?” Shade asked.

“The Spirits.” Snowflake replied. “They’re some deities of an old religion.”

“I’ve…never heard of them.”

Count shrugged. “It’s not a very fondly looked upon religion ever since the Era of Discord happened. He was revered as the Spirit of Chaos and one of a pair of twins. Since he was revealed to be real and malicious, the religion pretty much crumbled. Nowadays, most ponies worship the princesses as goddesses.”

“Huh…that makes some sense.” Shade tapped her chin in thought. ”I wonder who the other Spirits are? She shook her head. “Getting back on topic, any other questions?”

A chorus of negatives were her response and she nodded. “Alright. I guess you guys are free to go wherever for the day and get more familiar with the castle, since it took almost all day for me to give this tour.”

“Alright.” Gust flared his wings and took to the air. “I’m gonna see if I can find a cloud. Those beds don’t look comfortable enough for me. Later.” He flew out a nearby window and disappeared.

“I’m going to explore the Empire a little, see the sights and such.”

“Oh, oh! I’ll come too!” Snowflake happily chimed into Count’s idea. “The Empire looks like lots of fun to explore.”

“Alrighty, ciao.” Shade gave a small wave as they went their separate ways. Shade sighed as she rounded a corner. “Things are really complicated right now. What have I gotten myself into?”

She continued to think to herself out loud. “If I had simply fled and not buried myself in these lies, I wouldn’t be caught up in so much stuff. Now I’m stuck here because of how much suspicion would be made if I left.” She put a hoof in her mane and started to comb it with. “And if I did leave, where would I go? I’m obviously an enemy to the changeling hive that we know, so I can’t go there.”

“There really is nowhere else to go and stay at, is there?” Shade said with a frown. She then stopped as a stray thought caught her attention. “Unless…unless I found that place I first woke up in.” She shook her head. “No, that’s stupid. Everything’s dead in there and I’d end up needing to go out and ‘hunt’ or else I’d starve.”

“Am I seriously thinking of leaving? I mean, it’s not the most exciting life here or anything, but it isn’t…that…bad.” Shade stopped herself from taking another step as she looked at what was in front of her. A swirling black portal greeted her. She could not see through it and had no clue what could be on the other side. “Where did this come from? I was looking in front of me the whole time I was walking.”

She gingerly raised a hoof to touch it. Suddenly, she felt someone push her and she fell into it.

Shade screamed as she found herself falling. She shut her eyes, not daring to know how high up she is. She was in the darkest of abysses, falling with no sign of hitting any form of ground anytime soon.

Seconds turned into minutes. Minutes turned into hours and yet, she kept falling. It was only after what felt like days passed did Shade finally stop. She felt no impact, but she could feel the air no longer rushing by her.

She gingerly opened her eyes and saw a single light. She floated toward the light. As she got closer, she realized that it was a screen, showing herself walking through the castle’s halls. Something was wrong though. Her eyes had color to them!

”What?” Shade attempted to speak out loud, but only heard her voice in her head. ”Why can’t I speak? What is this screen? Where am I?!”

Rattling metal suddenly met her ears and she turned around. Chains swiftly started wrapping around her from all sides. She tried to scream, but no sound came as the chains muzzled her snout. She tried to pull the chains off, but more chains kept her arms to her sides.

She struggled and squirmed, like a worm on a hook, before her entire body was covered in the chains.

“No more otherworlder.” A deep voice resounded throughout the void. “It will be kept asleep for as long as we can. It is too powerful for us to falter, so do not fail.”

“Good morning, sister.” Princess Luna gave a nod to Princess Celestia as the sun princess drank a nice cup of coffee.

“Good morning, Luna.” Celestia warmly responded as she set her cup back to the table. “How was last night?”

“Terrible.” Luna admitted as she took her seat next to her sister. “I awoke from my Dream Walking with a horrible migraine and no memory of what I did.” She took a moment to take a sip of tea set in front of her. “And I found a pile of files in my desk that I don’t remember putting there.”

“Oh my.” Celestia gave a concerned frown. “Did you take any medicine for the headache?”

“I did.” Luna replied. “I believe I somehow used too much magic while Dream Walking, so I took some medicine that would assist with the headache that comes with mana exhaustion. It has become much more bearable now and should hopefully be gone by the time we lower the sun.”

“Good.” Celestia smiled. “Would you like some more tea?” She offered, lifting a teapot in her golden aura.

“I would love some.” Luna responded, lifting her cup for Celestia. She took a nice long sip from the cup that was filled and sighed. “I miss the tea from a thousand years ago.” She lamented. “It held so many more memories.”

“I know. I’m sorry that the plant we used back then died off like that.” Celestia shared a similar frown. “Tea has never been the same since that blight.” Deciding to switch topics, Celestia brought up something Luna had just mentioned earlier. “So, what were those files on your desk?”

“They were the records of a ‘Verstand Family’.” Luna told her.

“Oh? The Verstands?” Celestia raised a brow. “That’s odd.”

“You knew them?”

“Of course.” Celestia nodded. “Paranoia, the father of the family, owned a popular security company and often came to Day Court. He followed his name more than I would’ve liked, but he was a very nice stallion.”

“Oh? What else can you tell me about him?” Luna asked.

“Hm.” Celestia put a hoof to her chin in thought. “Well, he had a talent in the lost art of golemancy, which was his main product in his company. He had six kids, oddly enough. He had the bits to take good care of them and often donated to health related services, since his first daughter was born with a…less than preferred immune system.” Celestia made a sad frown. “I saw good things to come from that filly if she ever got better.”

“What about his wife and other children?” Luna pressed, a strange curiosity coming over her.

“His wife, Love Verstand, was a school teacher and part time nurse.” Celestia recalled. “She used some of her husband’s money to donate to orphanages and low funded schools across the nation as well.”

“It sounds like she was a fine mare with a good heart.” Luna observed.

“Indeed. Her talent was in taking care of others, and she followed that talent to her last breath.” Celestia gained a more displeased frown. “It was a sad day when she and her younger daughter were murdered. That filly had good things coming to her.”

“And the kids?”

“There were the triplets, the twins, and the youngest. The triplets held Fury, Depression, and Disgust. Disgust is the daughter with the immune system problem. She was killed by a nurse accidentally overdosing her.” Celestia went on, taking a break to drink more of her coffee. She took a breath and continued. “Fury was a very hateful unicorn who had a talent for Pyromancy. He never learned how to swim and drowned in one of the rivers in my school. I made sure the rivers were very shallow after that, so the accident wouldn’t repeat itself.”

“And Depression? Did he follow his name too much, like his father?” Luna questioned.

Celestia nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. He suffered from constant depression since birth. He also never had the ability to fly, for his wings couldn’t hold his magic. He…committed suicide after the rest of his family passed away.”

“Oh…” The sisters shared a moment of sad silence. “…What about the other three?”

“The twins were Mania and Gluttony. A trend with this family, I’ve noticed, is that they follow their name a little too well.” Celestia noted. “Gluttony had an eating disorder and even had a mutation that gave him a more omnivorous mouth and needed a diet to match. He had a talent for cooking and died after eating…moldy bread.”

“Moldy…bread?” Luna looked at Celestia, incredulous and utterly confused.

“Yes. I was surprised as well when I heard.” Celestia gave a small chuckle of mirth. She shook the mirth away before continuing. “Mania, the other twin, had a strange mental disorder. She couldn’t feel anything but joy. She found everything funny and happy and there was no way of changing that. The only time she didn’t smile…was when she died.” She sighed. “A unicorn shot her through the head, making a clean hole through her, before strangling Love moments later on a walk.”

“My, that’s…violent.” Luna looked out a window overlooking Canterlot. “Please tell me that the unicorn is rotting in the dungeons right now.”

“I’m afraid they aren’t.” Celestia shook her head. “We never could figure out who did it. We used a truth spell and everything else we could, but the unicorn seemed to have altered the witnesses’ memories to hide their appearance. We could only tell they were a unicorn stallion.”

“I sometimes forget how our ponies are capable of violence, even after all these years of peace that you’ve brought to them.” Luna said.

“I, too, sometimes forget.” Celestia sadly said as she looked out the window with Luna. “And lastly, there was Fear.” Luna perked up at the name. “He followed his name in both senses. He was an Earthpony with a talent for scaring others, even though he was even scared of his own shadow.” She shook her head. “He had a dissociative identity disorder, or something similar. He would become cruel and obsessed over scaring others, all because it was the only thing that made him smile. He…fell off a school roof, died on impact and broke all of his bones.”

Celestia sighed. “Sorry. Talking about the death of families can bring down the mood so much.” She shook her head.

“It is alright, sister.” Luna said with a small, sad smile. “I brought up the topic in the first place. Let us speak of other things. Were your dreams well last night?”

“Indeed. Thank you for not prying into them, sister.” Celestia nodded. “It was a dream about old times, before we got our cutie marks.”

“Oh, yes. Those were the days.” Luna chuckled. “No responsibilities and only time for fun.”

Chapter 19

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‘Shade’ walked down the halls of the Crystal Empire’s castle. Her eyes kept shifting from color to color, never deciding to stay in one color for longer than a few seconds. Black, pink, yellow, purple, orange, red, green, and grey. Magic sparked off her horn occasionally.

Her eyes changed to red. “I want the body.” She muttered angrily.
Then they turned green. “I haven’t even used the body yet, I should get to use it.”
Orange. “But I want the body too! I haven’t eaten in months.”
Grey. “Please stop fighting over this.”

‘Shade’s eyes turned pink. “All of you be quiet, please.” She sturnly said. A moment of silence came as she stopped walking. Her eyes stayed pink as she continued. “I shall take control, since I can blend in, and that’s final. You all will get your turns when the situation calls for it. Until then, just keep an eye on those three. As your father said, we cannot risk letting any of them out. They’re just too dangerous.”

After having no reply, she sighed. “Thank you.” A small aura of pink magic covered her form for a moment before her eyes lost their color. “There we go.” She took a breath. “Now, time to blend in. Keep it on the low and try not to alter anything else from that thing’s memories. Take the necessary precautions if we notice an episode has appeared and stay out of it.”

Black took the eyes briefly. “I will set up measures to help once night comes. It will also help make sure we stay on top of any suspicions and clear them.”

Pink and then clear. “Thank you, dear. I appreciate it.”

“We need to deal with this now!” An almost elderly female yelled, stomping their hoof in a dark cave. “This, this thing that changeling brought in is ruining everything!”

“I know.” A calmer female responded. “I will get Banshee to deal with it, but you know how she is. It’s really difficult for her and we need to wait for her. It will take a while, but she’ll get the energy she needs in time.”

“And then what? By the time it’s dealt with, too much damage would have built up!” The elderly woman said, her voice now sounding desperate. “My earth will die, my trees and plants will die. And then Vie’s creatures. And then Eros will die. And-And then one by one everyone will die until it’s just you, the celestial sisters, and Order. I can’t go through that.”

“I’m sorry, Gaia.” The calmer one sighed. “We will have to reset the world once it has been dealt with or forever deal with the consequences. We must first get the being’s soul in our possession. Once we have it, we can return it or adjust it to better fit the world before sending it to another Faust.” She explained. “Okay?”

“O-Okay.” The older one sniffled, obviously near the point of a breakdown. “T-Thank you for telling me, mom.”

“It’s okay, Gaia.” A soft white light filled the room, illuminating the two beings talking. The one making the light was an alicorn with bright red hair and a white coat. Her eyes were a soft blue and full of motherly love. She hugged the smaller, older looking mare. “Let it all out. It is okay to mourn.”

The older mare had many wrinkles on her light green coat and shared the same red hair as the alicorn, albeit faded by age. She lacked both wings and a horn and wore a deep forest green cloak that completely covered her body. She put her head against the alicorn’s chest and cried. The alicorn kept company as the earth pony let out her emotions. “A-And I only just found my perfect host.” She stuttered as her tears flowed like rivers through a mountain. “You would’ve loved her, mom. She’s the sweetest thing I ever saw and loved my earth so much. A-And I’ll never get to meet her.”

“Don’t worry. I will make sure she is there when we reset.” The alicorn assured.

“B-But I won’t see her for thousands of years! I don’t want to wait anymore. Y-You know how hard it is to not have a host. It’s so lonely when there isn’t a meeting, just stuck in my own realm. It’s not fair.”

“I know. I wish it wasn’t like that either.”

“C-Can’t you change it? Aren’t you the one who makes those rules?”

The alicorn shook her head. “No, I cannot. If I could, I would’ve allowed everyone to be like Discord. Able to go out and interact with the creatures Vie made without using hosts. It is a rule almost all of us must follow, whether we like it or not.” She let go of the earth pony and crouched down, looking into her green eyes. “Now, one by one, I must inform everyone else about this. Okay? If you need anything, call for me. If I can’t come, I will send Vie.”

The earth pony took a shaky breath. “Okay.” She nodded.

The alicorn gave a sad smile. “Don’t worry, we’ll get through this. I love you, Gaia.” She briefly blinded the room before disappearing, taking the light with her.

Gaia sighed as glowing moss started to cover the roof of the cave, casting a blue light over the room. She sat down and closed her eyes. A dim green glow came from the floor below her as she casted her magic.

She opened her eyes and found herself at the abrupt edge of a desert. In the distance, a large black spire came out of the sand. She looked down to the ground, watching as some unseen process took place. It wasn’t visible, but Gaia could feel it. It was like getting a limb slowly ripped off. Pulling, tearing skin and muscle, bleeding. It was agonizing, yet, she couldn’t do anything about it. “Ever so slowly, whatever that thing left behind eats up my earth. None of that desert is mine anymore. And it’s getting faster. It will soon take me away. And then it’ll take everyone else.”

She cut off her magic, returning to her dark cave. She laid on her back as a bed of moss formed below her. “I hope Banshee will be ready before it’s too late.” She said, her eyes slowly closing. “She’s our only hope, as the Spirit of Death.” She closed her eyes and soon fell asleep.

On a golden throne, the chained being in the golden chains struggled. ”Now’s my chance. Their powerhouse is down. They turned off the powerhouse! Haha! Order will be made again, for that is all there should be!”

”They can’t control that thing’s power. Eventually, it’s hold on me will diminish and then I’ll overpower them. With Order at my side and the power of all these spirits, I’ll be unstoppable.” Muffled crazed laughter came from the chained being as they continued struggling.

On the dark throne with the dark chained being, there was a much sadder train of thought going through their mind as they stayed limp. ”This is all my fault.” They told themself. ”Why did I think I could handle so many spirits at once? Why didn’t I take the necessary precautions to not let other spirits invite themselves in? The hive is now dead and my body is just a puppet being passed around.”

A muffled sigh came from that. ”Banshee. When you take me, if you ever do, please forgive me for what I’ve done. I broke so many of your rules.” Unseen tears flowed down their face, hidden by the chains and their ability to suck in light.

Chapter 20

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”It’s kind of crazy how long we’ve been able to hold on for.” ‘Shade’ mused to herself as she took a seat on her bed. ”It’s been about a year or so now, right? By now, Flurry Heart has been born and after a few months a ‘crystalling’ will now happen within the next day or so.” She tapped her chin in thought before moving her hoof to comb through her mane, which sported a new pink bow. ”I wonder if something will happen when the Crystal Heart shatters or is put back together. It had a pretty bad effect on Paranoia when it first activated.”

She recalled the event quite vividly. “He was in a lot of pain and had to recover for a few days. I wonder why it reacted like that? Sure, he probably wouldn’t be liked by the forces of love and friendship, but being outright hurt by it doesn’t seem right. That’s not its style.”

”What if it was Eros?” A female voice said in her mind. ”The Crystal Heart is said to be a conduit of his power and will and he is said to be cruel to those that don’t embrace love.”

“Hmm, possibly, possibly.” ‘Shade’ replied. “Paranoia isn’t someone who loves a lot or embraces his feelings. But, surely Faust wouldn’t allow the Crystal Heart to harm. Its ability to give a glimpse of destiny would surely mean she had a say in what it could do.”

”Yes, but it’s a Heart, not a Book.” A quiet male voice spoke up in her head. ”Eros likely had the most jurisdiction over its abilities. Faust only had a little because of the glimpses of the future she would provide.”

“There’s also the chance that the power just didn’t agree with the body. Maybe all the love was too much and Paranoia took the excess energy?” ‘Shade’ sighed. “We will just see what happens when we get there, I guess.”

Shade, the true Shade, was still wrapped in chains, kept in a dreamless sleep in a forgotten corner of the throne room. She was seated on no throne, but a modern chair. A dark cloud loomed over her head, a faint echo of sounds coming out of it. A ringing phone, keyboard typing, a train horn, millions upon millions of spoken words in multiple voices, and many more. It was a headache to hear any of it, but its volume can make it tolerable.

A child crying, shattered glass, thunder.

The body shifted, dreamless sleep disturbed. But the lull of rest quickly drew them back.

A young pegasus filly giggled as they watched the chained body from her throne. It was like a yellow balloon. No, a bounce house shaped like a throne would be a better descriptor. The filly was covered in peach fur and had a yellow mane and tail that faded to bright pink. She wore a black headband with a darker pink star on it. She watched the sleeping creature with her blue-sky eyes, full of innocent mirth. She bounced on her throne like a trampoline, doing cartwheels in the air as she went up and back down. On the throne’s back was a simple smiley face.

“I love this throne!” The filly yelled, the other residents of the room flinching at the volume.

“Yes, we know you love it,” Depression replied, his throne, unfortunately, next to the energetic filly’s. “You’ve told us a total of fifteen times in the past hour.”

“Why can’t she just shut up?” Fury asked, his question muffled by having his face in his hooves.

“Mania is an energetic filly.” Paranoia cooly replied. “She needs to let out energy somehow and noise is one such method. Unless you want her to play tag or hide and seek again.”

The red one shuddered at the thought. “By the name of Banshee, please, no.” Fury groaned. “I can’t go through that again.”

“I don’t see what all the fuss is about.” The green pegasus, Disgust, shrugged. “It isn’t that bad playing with her.”

“She goes easy on you!” Fury snapped, glaring at the pegasus from his throne.

“To be honest, she kinda does.” Depression agreed. “Probably because she still has it in her head that you’re sick and that she needs to go easy to make it all fair.”

“I can hear you!” The small filly yelled out, before bursting into a fit of giggles. She hopped off her throne and landed on the arm of Depression’s throne. She then tapped his head. “Tag! You’re it!” She then zoomed off, a yellow blur passing the doors to the throne room and going out to the halls.

Depression sighed and stood up from his throne. He walked at a leisurely pace after her. “Let’s see where she went.” He mumbled to himself.

He left the throne room, one of his appendages, pulling the door closed behind him. “Hm.” His eyes scanned his left and right. “She went this way.” He turned to his right and started to walk down the hall.

As he walked, the walls steadily became more brightly colored. Scenery painted started dotting the wall, illuminated by the windows before the wall was soon painted over. Splashes of bright colors and rainbows started to cover the wall and spilled paint covered the floor and stained the carpet as Depression kept walking.

“Where is that void that is my sister?” Depression asked himself as he stopped at a crossroads. He had three directions to go. He looked them over carefully. “The world, even this part of the mindscape, has sadness in it.” He said to himself. “Mania, on the other hand, doesn’t have a drop of sadness in her.” He decided to turn left and started to head down that path. “If I sense the lack of sadness, then I sense her.”

Depression slowed his already leisurely pace as he came upon a corner before stopping. His appendages extended before pushing him into the air. The spike on the end of each ‘bone’ stabbed into the roof with no sound to be heard. They started to move him around the corner as he looked at the ground. Sitting against the wall at the corner was the pegasus filly, trying her best to stay quiet as she giggled.

He slowly lowered down, hovering just above the ground, before patting her head. “Tag.” He said.

The filly jumped with a small scream. She quickly recovered and stood up with a playful frown. “Hey! Not fair.” She crossed her arms and puffed up her cheeks.

Depression shrugged. “You never said I couldn’t use my wings.”

Mania sighed. “Fine. You got ten seconds.” She put her hands over her eyes and started to count. “One, two, three,-“

Depression hoisted himself back up to the roof before a hole opened up above him. He crawled into the hole before it closed.

“Seven, eight, nine, ten! Ready or not, here I come!” She looked at her surroundings first before putting a hoof to her chin in thought. “Where could he have gone?” She pondered for a few moments before a lightbulb lit up above her head. “Aha! To the dungeon!” She became a blur as she ran through the castle halls. They shook as she passed, the windows cracking before quickly repairing themselves.

Mania skidded to a stop in front of a birch door with silver hinges and a silver door handle. The filly grabbed the handle and pulled the door open. Well, she tried to. The door got ripped off its hinges after using a bit of force to open it. “Whoops.” She chuckled. “It’s a push on this side, not a pull.” She set the door next to the doorway before entering the dark room.

Inside was a large chamber lit up with candles. Each of the candles held a grey flame, instead of the expected oranges or reds. Along the walls on all sides were the occasional cell that could easily hold a dozen prisoners of pony size, perhaps even a couple more than that. In the middle of the room was a wooden table with shackles attached. A unicorn skeleton was in the shackles and had dim glowing blue orbs in its eye sockets. The orbs moved to watch Mania as she cheerfully walked down the set of stairs that led into the room from above.

“I know you’re in here big bro!” She loudly proclaimed as she walked to one of the cells. She opened the door to the empty cell and peered in, making sure to check the roof. Nada, not even a bed or bathroom. “Maybe you’re in the next cell.” She left the cell and went to the next one as the skeleton silently continued to watch her.

“Nope! Not here either.” She turned away from the second cell and walked to the middle of the room while humming in thought. The skeleton’s eye sockets quickly became empty again before she could notice them. “Hmm.” Mania squinted at the skeleton and poked its horn. “Aha!” She cheered. “I know you’re the skeleton!”

The skeleton sighed before it disappeared in a puff of smoke. Depression was sitting in its place once the smoke dissipated. “Welp, you win.” He said as he hopped off the table. “I’m going back to the throne room now.” He told her before turning to the stairs. “The more eyes on those three the better.” He mumbled.

“Aw, can we play just one more game?” Mania asked. “Please, please, please, please?” She got in front of Depression and her eyes widened and became teary. Depression stared into her puppy eyes for a few moments.

…

He sighed. “Fine. What’s the game?”

“Yay!” She clapped her hands. “I want to play a game of…Hmm.” She crossed her arms and looked up at the ceiling as she thought about it. “Oh, Poker!”

“Neither of us knows how to play Poker.” Depression deadpanned.

“Uhhh, a drinking game!”

“With?” Depression raised a brow.

“Apple juice, duh.” Mania rolled her eyes. “That spicy stuff adults drink is gross.”

“I’m not going to get myself sick from apple juice. Too much sugar.”

“Uhhh, ummm.” Mania tapped her hoof against the ground in thought. “Bobbing apples?” Her mind was empty of ideas.

“Seriously?” Depression raised a brow.

“Yep!” Mania cheerfully replied.

Depression sighed, putting his face in his hoof before slowly sliding it off. “Fine. Where are we going to bob for these apples?”

“Outside, of course! Where else would we do it?” Mania said as she started up the stairs that led out of the dungeon.

A shake reverberated through the room, almost knocking the pegasus filly off balance. “What was that?” Mania asked, somehow excited despite how worrisome a shake like that would usually be.

“Probably the Crystal Heart shattering. Are we going to go apple bobbing or what?” Depression questioned, steering the filly’s attention to the original topic.

“Yeah, we are!” She disappeared in a sudden dust cloud as she ran the rest of the way up the stairs and out of the dungeon. Depression followed in a walk.

“This filly is impossible to keep occupied now that she’s dead.” He muttered to himself. “At least her energy was limited when she was alive.” He yawned.

…

“Why can’t I manifest? I should have enough energy for it.” The unicorn asked herself as she stared into a mirror, standing in a black void. The mare had a white coat and wore a simple black cloak that covered most of her features. Her eyes were empty voids of black, with a small glowing dot working as her pupils.

She lowered her hood, revealing her white mane. She placed a hoof against the mirror. “Show me the group of souls that must go to rest.” She commanded.

The mirror’s reflection turned white before fading, showing a pony walking through the streets of the Crystal Empire. The mare flinched at the sight before taking her hoof off the mirror. “So many souls in one body. Why did we even allow this strain of changelings to come into existence?”

She placed her hoof on the mirror again. “Show me why I cannot manifest near them.” She took the hoof off the mirror and it turned white again before fading. The mare shivered as she felt the power radiating off the image. “How in the world?”

A dark shadow took up space in a white void, staring at the pony through the mirror. A white smile was plastered on the shadow’s face, with white dots showing its eyes. Its face was flat, it had no hooves, no horns, or wings, and it stood like a bipedal.

“Explain to me in writing.” The unicorn commanded, not bothering to touch the mirror this time. The image faded and white writing appeared in its place, taking up the black background it gave itself.

“The power over death is at a stalemate. The foreign soul has immeasurable power over everything it does and does not desire.” She placed her hoof on her head with a sad frown. “Only the power of all the Spirits could possibly overcome this force, even if for a moment.” She sighed and turned away from the mirror.

“Notify the other Spirits.” She said as she raised her hood. “May the Originals keep us safe.” She mumbled to herself as she walked into the void, quickly disappearing into the darkness.

A Mentally Unstable and Powerful Changeling...Yeah

by Taken-By-Insanity

Chapter 1: Oy, where the heck am I?!

Chapter 2: Oh, my head...

Chapter 3: A Wedding’s About to Happen and it’s Gonna Be NUTS!

Chapter 4: Disasters Galore

Chapter 5: Princess of Love

Chapter 6: Control is Difficult

Chapter 7: An Invasion of More than One

Chapter 8: A New Day, A New Recovery

Chapter 9: And Now I’m Free. To Work I Go!

Chapter 10: Work Work Work, and then A Little Event Planning

Chapter 11: Realizations that Terrify our MC

Chapter 12: Crystal Empire Showed Up Quick

Chapter 13: …

Chapter 14: “The knowledge is stale.”

Chapter 15: The Dots Cannot Connect

Chapter 16

Chapter 17: You’re Not Allowed Here

Chapter 18: No More Otherworlder?

Chapter 19

Chapter 20