I stared off the mountain cliff with both anticipation and nervousness. To my delight, the harsh sunlight had faded hours ago and allowed me to focus properly. I pursed my lips thinking about how long I have been up here. It seemed the days had turned to weeks before turning into the better part of a month. I had learned much of myself in such a short amount of time. Firstly, I had discovered that my new source of energy seemed to reverse the meanings of most rune enchantments. This made for a difficult mental reconfiguring for most of my magics to function properly, but I had at least made progress. And secondly, after many days of sweat and whimpering to myself did I somewhat overcome my phobia of portals. A small part of me still cringed when I went through them, but at least it no longer crippled me.

Which in turn leads as to why I was staring off this cliff. You see I was about to test out a hypothesis of mine. A hypothesis that would not be deemed as remotely "bright" by any stretch of ones imagination. To elaborate I had done some studying of the single sided portals I use, or as Star Swirl called them "Death Gates", and I had made an interesting discovery. When I thought to the first day up here, I noticed the physical properties like momentum remain intact when jumping through my portals. All that was required was to change the direction of the exit portal and it should allow me to move in unusual ways.

And so I held my breath and focused on my portal magic. I then reached out with my mind and created a portal about fifty meters down the mountain and another at its base. When they were completed I strapped down Star Swirl's tome to me with a piece of cloth torn from the blanket Luna gave me. Then finally as a last bit of preparation I summoned my scythe before taking a deep breath and jumping off the cliff.

Wind blew through my mane and fur as I remained focused. Then before I knew it I fell through the first portal and fired out through the second at the base of the mountain. It was quite enjoyable for a whole six seconds before I started falling towards the ground. So in my infinite wisdom I panicked and thought of somewhere high. Which course opened another pair of portals that sent me flying up at the cloud level. And I had to say it got enjoyable again before I blasted through three rain clouds and continued sailing through the sky soaking wet.

But the slight dampness was the least of my worries, because as I was shaking myself off, I started plummeting towards the ground even faster this time. And again I panicked but I did not reconfigure my portals correctly this time. Which resulted in me having a jolly fine time of screaming at the top of my lungs while I flew at terrifying speeds along the tree tops. But I must say that I only screamed until my lungs ran out of air before crowning three pine trees with my scythe and zipping back to the cloud level. To which I "majestically" sailed through the air again but now I had the delight of being covered from head to tail in tree sap.

So in conclusion it had become well apparent on two points. One, this truly was not going as planned. And two, it was frighteningly obvious that I was indeed not a pegasus and a master of the skies I most certainly was not. But regardless I continued my regular cycles of terminal velocity panic followed by slamming through more clouds until I got irritated by my overly stickiness. At such point my absolutely positively wondrous line of sight spotted a small lake directly below me. Which in turn caused my equally "wonderful" subconscious to decide it wanted to go there without consulting those pesky survival instincts and rational thinking patterns.

So the portal in front of me quickly shut and reopened just in time to find myself dropping at an unreasonable height at an even more unreasonable speed. This of course included me flailing my legs in every which direction while I screamed like filly. But I luckily had just enough time and senses left to cast a shield spell on my tome before impacting the surface of said lake.

And I have to say that my body connecting with the water made this rather unhealthy thump noise before I sunk in. This resulted in me thoroughly terrifying several small fish while I opened my mouth in a silent scream of pain. But then after a few seconds I realized that air was quite near and dear to my heart before I scrambled towards the surface.

Then after gasping for breath I swam with what little parts of my body that were not throbbing to solid ground. To which I dragged myself out of the frigid water and flopped onto the grass next to the small lake. I also may or may not have hugged said grass covered ground in thankfulness for its existence afterwards. But regardless of my joy and discomfort, my urge to continue my portal testing for the night drove me onward. So after a few seconds I stood up, shook myself off, and grumbled while trying to gather my thoughts on what I wanted to do.

Of course this was the point my mind got me into further trouble. For you see the second test for the night was a simple determination of how far I could link my portals. So I searched my mind for a far off destination I could go to until my eyes gazed at the round glowing white orb in the sky. At first I figured I was aiming too high, but my pride got the better of me. Thus with eyes scrunched in concentration as I literally reached for the moon.

But for some reason I had some nagging feeling at the back of my mind that I could not place my hoof on. And while the strain was awful of what I was trying to do, that thought just did not seem to dissipate. It was not until the second or two before my portal opened that the thought clicked and I said out loud "Wait, does the moon have air?"

However I realized my mistake far too late as my portal opened up three meters from me. Said portal then quickly turned into a blackened vortex as the near vacuum of the moon made its presence known. I yelped the word "MISCALCULATION!" in response to my folly as I scrambled to hold into the ground. Eventually I had lost my hoofing and I had use my scythe as an anchor. But it was not until the portal sucked in lake water, rocks, and even a small tree that I managed to close the blasted thing.

Then just when I thought the situation could not get any more embarrassing I heard a very distinct roaring laughter in my head. 'HAHAHAHAHA Oooh by the void you ponies all act like lemmings bwaaaahahahahaaaa,' Death said while he seemed to be in a fit of hysterics.

I just groaned and brushed myself off before I replied in my mind, 'Lemmings? What are you talking about?' genuinely curious.

It took Death several seconds to calm himself before he spoke again, 'Each and every single one my advocates had the same...exact...thought as you did heh heh heh. Wow that moon looks so swell! I am going to teleport to it! Way to go for what you ponies call 'The Gold'' he replied still laughing at my expense.

My face contorted in bewilderment. 'You mean to tell me several others did the same thing?' I questioned.

'Of course they did. Some of them are still frozen corpses up there in space somewhere. Probably drifting among the stars by now. Ahh but on the topic of stars, you all were not the worst of the bunch. No no noooo there was one where 'The Gold' was not grand enough, she had to go for 'The Platinum', Death replied.

I shook more water and debris off myself before I snarked, 'Let me guess, she opened one to the Sun hmm?'

It was just meant to be a jest until Death chuckled and said 'Yes actually,' before my jaw dropped as he continued, 'You see she was probably not one of my more intelligent advocates. The poor fool had built up an overwhelming amount of death energy until she was about to pop like a bubble. So not wanting her to go crazed I told her to teleport to somewhere faraway to burn it off. This of course resulted in her looking around until she noticed the Sun right above her.'

I was at a loss for words. All that came out was a simple 'Nooo, hooow?!' in response

Death snickered some more and said 'Oooh yes, and to this day I have yet to figure that part out. I did not know my portals could reach that far. Either way she foolishly stared at the Sun until her eyes almost burned out of their sockets before she started focusing. I ultimately did not have time to stop her before the Sun's plasma blasted out and charred a good section of the countryside including herself. Come to think of it, that also included a little pet project of Life's. What were they again?

'A bunch of oak trees?' I interjected.

'Ahh yes those. Also let me guess, Life is still cross about that I assume?' He inquired.

'Quite' I replied with a smirk.

I heard Death take a deep sigh before stating, 'Yes, I thought she might be. Something about a few centuries worth of work up in flames. I swear I can still hear her shrieking at me. You would figure after seven hundred years she would have forgiven me by now. Even after she got vengeance by turning one of my favorite swamps into an overly obnoxious flower filled meadow, oooh well. But anyway, have fun attempting space travel heh heh heh.'

I just rolled my eyes as Death's influence disappeared from my mind. But as his laughter disappeared I could vaguely hear a different giggling coming from somewhere in the forest next to me.

My eyes scanned the moon lit trees for any signs of the source. But where my eyes had seemed to fail, my ears did not. They swiveled around and located a small heartbeat that was not far off from me. Probably only ten meters at best from my current position. So I lifted my scythe and leaned it on my back as I gazed in the direction of the heartbeat. I then stated in a firm tone "I know you are there. Show yourself."

The giggling abruptly stopped and the small heartbeat quickened to a rapid pace. And then nothing but silence other than the heartbeat in my ears. Now at first it could have been any number of things. Who knows what patrolled this forest, friend and foe alike. But the quiet whimpering and the small heartbeat made said "thing" out to be something small in nature. And the response to my statement meant they understood what I had said, so it was likely a young pony given the area.

So realizing that I obviously frightened them I switched tactics. I took a deep breath and said "Do not worry little one, I am not going to harm you. You have my word on that. Now please come out lest I take your actions for rudeness" I said making the last sentence into a bit of a jest.

And just like I imagined, a small filly probably no older than eight slowly shifted herself from behind a tree. She was shaking violently and her green eyes were opened to the size of dinner plates. In addition she kept focusing on me and then off to my left again and again. It took me a few seconds to realize that she was looking at my scythe. In turn I just quietly chuckled to myself and unsummoned it, easing her slightly.

Then after a few moments the small filly said "h-h-how d-d-did you d-d-do that?"

I raised an eyebrow in response and said "Oh that, it is enchanted. But enough about me. Who are you and what are you doing out here? This is probably not a safe area for one such as you."

The filly looked a bit upset as tears flowed from her eyes. "I-I-I'm 'Trail Duster'. My daddy broke his leg on a tree stump and I-I-I got lost trying to find help," she replied before breaking down into sobs.

I walked over and sat down in front of her attempting to calm her down. "Shh shh do not cry little one. Here, show me where your father is and I will help him," I said before I helped her climb on my back. She stumbled a few moments before commenting on how cold I was. I just said "Oh? Am I?" in a polite reply to a fact I still could never get used to. I felt the cold, but was not effected by it other than stiffening muscles. But either way I trotted for about ten minutes before Trail Duster piped up. "There he is!" she said pointing a hoof over my right shoulder.

And Just like she had said, a medium sized stallion had been sitting there with a worried look on his face. Trailer Duster then jumped off my back when we got close and she hugged him. He then went into all sorts of comments about how she should not have taken off like she did and that he was worried sick about her. Well until he noticed me standing there that is. He then squinted a bit, but did not seem to see me well in the dark. It was probably for the better given my current visage and overall look. Me being a vampire would have been frightening enough let alone the further oddities of being Death's Advocate.

So to shake him out of his intent gaze I cleared my throat and said "Your, I assume your daughter, alerted me that you require aid."

He looked puzzled for a second before stating, "Hmm? Haha oh yeah, a brave one she is running off like that. She got her cutie mark recently and wanted to know everything on how to be a courier like her ol' father here. But ol' clumsy me had to go and break his leg. Darn tree stump."

I just chuckled at his comment as I searched the forest around them for materials to make a rough splint. But after a few minutes I noticed that he held his daughter quite close to himself and kept looking in all directions. So as I made my way back to him I said "Is something wrong?" before I started binding his hind leg with some sticks and roots.

He just looked confused for a second before replying, "Huh what? Oh I'm just a bit jumpy being in this forest and all. The sooner we get out of here the better."

I raised an eyebrow genuinely curious as I continued to work. "Why is that? If you do not mind me asking that is?" I inquired.

He looked around a few more times and said "Its...its just that rumor has it that this forest got some sort of monster wandering around it. I wouldn't believe it if the Princesses didn't get all reclusive lately and ordered guards all around this place."

The statements he was making were worrying so I decided to ask more inquiries. "I apologize as I am out of loop as one would call it. But what does this odd monster look like and what happened to the princesses?" I questioned.

"Not sure what happened or why they want it, but they want it baaad for some reason. Word is the whites of its eyes are black and it has red slitted irises. Nothin' but black fur too and has sharp pointy teeth," he replied looking around more nervously than before.

The finer details he described sounded all too eerie of what I looked like. It was doubtful that it was anypony or anything else given the princesses' interest in said "monster". So in response I quickened my pace at binding his leg and helped him stand. Afterwards he stumbled for a bit before getting his hoofing. "Ahh much better. Here let me get some light so I can thank ya better" he said as he struck a match.

My heart skipped a beat and I wanted to stop him, but it was too late. The small match illuminated the immediate area and had shown me for who I really was. The friendly smile he wore drained off his face leaving a mask of pure terror. "S-s-sweet Celestia it's YOU! P-p-please don't eat us! P-p-please d-d-don't devour our souls mister monster sir!" he stuttered out as he stuffed his daughter behind himself out of apparent protective reflex.

I groaned in annoyance at his statements. In turn I just closed my eyes for a second and rubbed my temples as I felt my temper rising. "This is the gratitude I get for aiding others hmm?! I helped free Canterlot from the grip of enemy forces, losing everything in the process, and this is what I get?! Nothing but fear and betrayal?!" I growled in rage.

It was as if a small piece of my mind had broken somehow and I just snapped. Black and red lightning arced to the trees around me as I began to grind my teeth. I then summoned my scythe before bellowing out "I am not a monster! My name is Blood Moon, ex-captain of the Reaper Knights and betrayed by the very princesses I served! So fine, if they desire me so badly then I shall seek them out! They shall answer for what they had done or even Tartarus itself shall shutter from my retribution!"

And without another word I forced my will and formed a swirling portal next to me. I then jumped into the portal while boiling over with rage. Then the next moment I stomped out of the portal right outside the entranceway to the royal throne room. The two guards stationed next to it yelped in surprise right before I spun on my forehooves and kicked in the golden double doors.

A thunderous echo rang out as the heavy doors swung on their massive hinges revealing a small army of soldiers inside. They sprang to attention and formed a barrier between and where Princess Celestia sat on her throne. It was obvious either through paranoia or contingency she had been expecting me. Perhaps any other time I would have been flattered, but I was too enraged as I stomped forward.

The guards behind me struck first and while I wanted to cause havoc for answers I was not going to resort to bloodshed to do it. Many of these soldiers had served along side me for years. Most were just like me at some point and did not deserve such a fate. In turn I opted for more disabling than brutality. So just as their attacks got closer I blurred and swung the pole of my scythe. It impacted with one of them and threw them into the other, knocking them unconscious.

However, more of them charged at me from inside the throne room. But with the use of my portals, and a few blood runes to induce sleep I danced back and forth dispatching them a few at a time. And so I plowed through the small crowd in short order leaving only two figures standing in my path.

The one on the left was Black Hammer and he looked to be leagues worse than I had remembered. Even from this distance one could smell the reek of alcohol emanating from him. Which being he was a vampire like myself it would take a great deal of such a vice to inebriate him. However even in his state he held his two hooved hammer with mastery. The last thing I noticed about him was the deep sorrow he held in his one remaining eye. I could tell he stood in front of me out of sheer sense of duty and not desire.

The other on the right was General Black Wing and she looked far worse than even Black Hammer. While her body remained firm out of centuries of practice, her eyes and face were naked in their expression. She looked to have been weeping for days or perhaps longer. Her golden slitted eyes were bloodshot and inside them swirled a mixture of sorrow, fear and limitless rage.

She was about to step forward as her bladed wings twitched, but was held back by Black Hammer. His voice slurred as he said to me "Please lad. Please done't made us do this. I beg of ye."

The anger I had felt ebbed away at the sight. I just could not rise my blade against them. Especially not in the condition they were in. So I sat down where I was and placed my scythe on the ground. I then look up and called out to Celestia with but a simple word, "Why?"

A tired and weary tone from Celestia answered me. "Because she asked us not to," she replied as she wobbled as she stood up.

She then walked down the throne stairs with a heavy limp as she continued to speak, "When we discovered who she was, she pleaded with us to not tell you out of fear. She, more than anypony else, knew if she revealed herself to you, you would've been consumed for vengeance for what had happened to her. It would've destroyed you. So she kept it all a secret in an effort to protect you."

I could not find any words to respond to that. Black tears streamed down my face from those few sentences. Any remaining anger and rage I had felt was snuffed out in an instant. As much as I wanted to fight it my mother was right, I would have. I would have done so without a second thought.

More black tears streamed from my face as Celestia limped towards me. Her face appeared worn with worry and exhaustion, and she could barely hold her wings in place. But right before she got to me her face had hardened. She then unsheathed her great sword and placed it with the point right between my eyes before she yelled out "There! You now have your damn answer! NOW UNDO WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO MY SISTER!"

Sometimes, the answers we need may not be the answers we seek. And sometimes, others may know us more than we know ourselves.