After several minutes of sweating I managed to open a death gate back to Canterlot. It had truly been a long night in terms of everything that fate had thrown at me. In turn, my mind and body were beyond exhausted by this point. The only force keeping me going was little more than my strength of spirit. Well that and the overwhelming desire for a soft warm bed for a change.

But still I smiled as I looked back into the near past into the main factor that caused the majority of my fatigue. A factor that was actually quite pleasing I do admit. To elaborate, Cloud Streak and Rainbow Dash had still felt starved even after consuming the blood cylinders I had given them. So as a natural result of such we decided to go hunting for other sources of nourishment. This "hunt" soon turned into a grand delightful time of feasting and gorging ourselves until the displeasing light of dawn crept upon us. A deep sigh had left my lips as I thought about this. About how such things had been commonplace for me before my life had become far more complicated.

This in turn brings me back my arrival at Canterlot. Due to my lacking focus at the time I did not want to attempt to open a death gate directly to the inside of the palace. It was quite obvious that there were far too many objects I could mistakenly teleport inside. So being that I did not have any desire to end myself in a rather grisly manner, I decided to play such things more safely. As such I decided I would open my death gate at one of the remaining Lunar Wing entrances instead.

Ultimately my actions were probably not one of my wiser ideas. This was mainly because I almost ended up appearing right on top of the two night guards stationed outside of it. This of course thoroughly spooked them when I assumed that my death gate seemingly appeared from nowhere. The result of such caused them to scramble for their weapons before they realized it was me. At which point their expressions went from steely determination to what could only be described as naked bewilderment.

Perhaps it was my new method of travel they did not know about. Not surprising given that I just returned from a month long exile just yesterday. However I believe it was something else given the one night guard's partial inquiry partial formal statement of "Lieutenant General, Sir?"

I do admit upon thinking on it that it would be rather unnerving to see a high ranking officer appear out of thin air in front of you. And with the added amusing benefit of watching them stumble past you like they had just returned from an all-night "pub crawl" as some would put it. I highly doubted any of the more "proper" officers did such acts, at least not in public anyway. But I surely did not have any say in such a title. That was all Black Wing's fault. And besides, before such things like my new grand fancy little title I was known for being unpredictable with more than just one screw loose. It was not unusual in the past for somepony to see me in various odd states from who knows what experiment. In fact it had gotten so commonplace that most just brushed it off as the norm.

As such one would believe it highly doubtful that a high rank would do little to alter my usual course of actions. But regardless, at this current point in time I was far too drained to care what anypony thought of me even if it did. In turn bewilderment reigned supreme as I passed by them only stating the dreadful words "As you were," and with the inclusion of my poor example of what could be considered "walking".

And so my stumbling walk continued on through the Lunar Wing halls until I arrived at my destination, Twilight's Room. Then after fumbling with the door handle for a few minutes, I continued inside. Now it my full intention to take my armor ring off and slip myself next to the still sleeping Twilight. However it did not turn out that way. No, I instead foolishly sat in the reasonably comfortable chair next to the bed to remove said armor ring and within seconds I passed out.

A pleasant and deep dreamless sleep soon followed. Everything in my tired and full mind slipped into nothingness, giving my body the rest it desperately required. And so I drifted out of all concept of time and existence in the calm and quiet darkness of sleep.

Time passed at an unknowable rate and I was unsure how long I had been asleep. But I did not begin to awake until I kept hearing a strange reoccurring beep next to me. It was oddly rhythmic in nature and did not speed up until my mind began to analyze it. Then after a few minutes I had realized it was matching the speed of my heartbeat. So thoroughly confused, I perked my ears up before I slowly opened my eyes.

Then when my vision had cleared I had discovered that I had dozens of small wires attached to nearly every part of my body. All of them seemingly held there with either tape or suction cups. In response I blinked several times in my confusion before stating "What in Equestria is going on here?"

In reply I heard somepony fumble next to me before they stated, "Uh oh he's awake. Got to hide this. Got to hide this somewhere."

"Hide what somewhere?" I stated and blinked a few times more before pushing away the odd overhead lamp that I had shining on me.

Oh nothing, nothing at all," Twilight stated as I saw her come into focus.

It appeared we were still in her room but the bed had been pushed all the way to the wall. That also included most of everything else in the room as well. In fact I was not even in the comfortable chair anymore, but on a strange lab table. Surrounding me were various machines that seemed to be linked to the wires that were connected to my body. However I when noticed the small catheter in my foreleg I soon noticed the small spray bottle Twilight was attempting to hide behind herself. A bottle that seemed to be partially filled with a rather familiar black ichor.

My face scrunched up in displeasure. "Twilight do please explain why I am like this and why you have decided to collect a sample of my blood? All without my permission as well..." I said continuing to express my overall disapproval.

She cleared her throat before stating "Well you said I could study you...and...and I ummm..."

"And you 'umm' what?" I replied as my face soured further.

"I...I got carried away..." she stated as she attempted to win me over with probably one of the largest smiles she could conjure.

Such an amusing display might have worked if I did not notice the large amount of potted plants around us. Or perhaps ex-potted plants would be more valid as they were all thoroughly withered to being barely material. And it was then I realized what she was utilizing my blood for. "Are...are you using my rather important bodily fluid as a herbicide?" I inquired slightly distraught.

"No...well maybe a little..." she said before I glared at her and she added "Okay fine yes, but this is amazing research! Your blood makes the best weed killer I've ever seen! I've gotten sooo much data and-" before I interrupted her.

"Well that settles it. I draw the line when others use my bodily fluids as gardening supplies," I growled out as I started to pull the various wires off of me.

This of course caused Twilight to screech out "MY DATA!" as she scrambled to prevent me from pulling off further wires.

"Twilight get off of me! I refuse to be treated as if I were some sort of lab rat!" I protested.

"NO!" she blurted out still fighting with me.

"No? What do you mean no?! You cannot force me to stay here!" I growled back.

"YES I CAN!" she yelled and used her magic to pin me to the table. She then grabbed hold of some table straps from somewhere and strapped me down.

In response I just laid there with a shocked look on my face before stating, "What has gotten into you? Why are you doing this?"

"Because!" she shouted.

"Because why?!" I snapped back.

"Because...because I'm not losing you again! Not...not again," she said in an almost croaking voice before red tears welled in eyes.

Her grip soon went slack on the straps and she slid down the side of the lab table.

"I...I..." I said trying to respond appropriately but my mind went blank. All I could do was slip off of the table and sit beside her before stating "What...what do you mean?"

More red tears streamed down her face before she spoke again. "Do you have any idea how awful it was? I thought my last memory of you was seeing your face before you made me pass out," she said as her voice cracked before adding, "But...but you somehow survived. I don't really know how you did. All I know was that Celestia and Luna wouldn't let me near you no matter how much I wanted to. They said it wasn't you anymore, but I didn't...couldn't believe them. But then after you woke up...you...you ran away from all of us. You ran from me."

I had nothing to say. But in at least some measure of comfort I had attempted to wrap my forelegs around her. However, she pushed me away and turned her back on me before holding herself. Then after a few seconds of awful silence she said "Canterlot is in turmoil. When Luna became sick Celestia was so distraught that she couldn't function in the least. Candace and I were forced to try to deal with this mess of a city. But when Luna got worse I holed myself in the library to find a cure. But after weeks of no success everypony started believing you were the cause, but I just still couldn't believe it."

Twilight squeezed herself more before turning around. Her face was a river of red tears and her eyes wobbled when she looked at me. "I searched and searched and searched for you, but I couldn't find you. But then just like that, you showed up right out of the blue, cured Luna, and acted like nothing had happened. But everything has been happening! You have noooo idea how worried I was about you! I'm not sure if I should yell at you, kiss you, or who knows what?!" she said starting off almost whispering but began shouting in my face at the end.

My mind was blank and the only response I gave was "Twilight...I...I..." before trailing off. But then in that sorrowful moment something inside me seemed to break. As I just stared into those sorrow filled purple eyes, I felt as if the stress of everything caught up to me all at once. The stress of my guilt. The stress of my near impossible mission. The stress of harming the ones I loved. Without having a second thought in my mind I reached forward and slammed Twilight up close to me. I then pressed my lips up against hers as hard as I could.

Then as if some horrible dam of frustration burst and spilled out inside of her, she soon pushed even harder against my kiss until I was on my back. She broke our kiss only to wrench my armor ring off my neck before throwing it somewhere in the room. And then not even a second later a crazed need burned in her slitted eyes before she licked from the base of my neck to my jaw.

My body shuttered and words became woefully inadequate to describe how much I wanted, no, needed her. A feeling I could easily determine was overwhelmingly shared. But there was a problem. I could not let myself go any further, it was just too dangerous. I was still just beginning to learn to control my darker urges on top of other issues that only served to exacerbate the situation. So in a desperate attempt I groaned out between heavy breaths, "We...we cannot do this Twilight. My...My body fluids...are toxic and I...may not be...able to control...myself."

But when she did not stop her unbelievably pleasurable actions I had attempted to restate what I had just said. However before I was able to utter a single syllable she stuffed a hoof in front of my mouth and in a low growl whispered, "I. Don't. Care."

The initial shock of her words melted away as what was left of my will crumbled. And then mere moments later, she lifted herself up and thrust me inside of her. My mind scrambled as my mouth gaped wide open in pleasure. All logical thought faded away and nothing but my most basic of urges soon guided me as I unconsciously matched her movements. Everything else at the moment just did not seem to matter anymore.

After several minutes of this Twilight's pace had then begun to quicken. This resulted in her body shuttering several times before she laid on top of me. But even after achieving such a release, she just did not stop. She just pressed closer to me as we moved and began kissing the base of my neck. And while I greatly enjoyed such actions I was starting to become quite distraught. I truly needed a release as much as I knew she did, but I was too frightened of the consequences of doing so. My blood was undeniably poisonous. Who knows if other "fluids" of mine possessed the same properties? I just could not risk it. In turn I became unconsciously focused and fought mentally hoof and fang to prevent myself from going off. But in my distracted state I neglected to prevent the true folly that had been committed.

Perhaps Twilight had acted on impulse to my obvious tension, but the results were disastrous. Her fangs glided up the side of my neck before they sunk in. This however only lasted for less than a second before I felt her swallow. In turn my eyes snapped wide open before I whispered "Noooo."

A heavy gag and then a flow of coughs cascaded out of her as she arched her back. Then as she fell backwards away from me she began to hoof at her throat in panic. Black ichor streamed from the sides of her mouth as her coughing got worse. "TWILIGHT NO!" I screamed and scrambled to her side. But without the faintest clue on how to help her I yelled out "SOMEPONY HELP! PLEASE!"

The only voice that responded was Death in my mind. 'What is wrong my advocate? Why do you call for aid?' he stated in a worried tone.

'No time to explain, but Twilight drank some of my blood! We need to save her! She is dying!' I pleaded.

'I do hope you realize the irony of that request, but there is nothing I can do' he replied.

'What?! What about Life? She fixed this once before with a wolf!' I pleaded a second time.

Then as if she had always been there one of the small withered plants next to me rejuvenated before it formed a vague pony's face. "I'm sorry Blood Moon, but I can't fix this either." Life's voice stated from the plant.

"WHY NOT?!" I shouted at Life before adding "WHY CAN YOU NOT HELP?! YOU DID SO BEFORE!"

Life's plant face just acted as if she was closing her eyes before stating, "I can't tell you why. But there is nothing...I...can do."

Before I could reply Death's voice stated in my mind, 'Life is correct. There is nothing...she...can do. And there is nothing...I...can do. There is nothing the...two...of us can do.'

In my current mental state I did not seem to understand what in Equestria they were talking about. They were dropping some sort of hint I believe, but it did not seem to trigger anything in my mind. It all seemed hopeless until I attempted to fix Twilight's position to aid her breathing. The movement accidentally bumped into the table I laid on not but a short time ago and knocked something off. Star Swirl's tome fell off the table, slammed painfully off my shoulder, and fell on the ground. The book fell in such a way that it opened revealing the partially hidden poem on the inside of its cover. And then I was not sure if I was imagining it or not but the words of the poem seemed to be glowing. Then for some reason I read the visible part to myself again.

"At the end of a life
Filled with nothing but strife
A dark deal is written
With one who's been bitten
And when the moon is bright red
Their name shall said
But soon one shall follow
When the first weeps and wallow
And they shall be...

"Shall follow...weeps and wallow..." I stated over and over until it nearly became a chant. And then it just seemed to hit me. Like something that had always been there, but needed to be awakened. An idea popped into my head as a strange clarity of mind took over. There was nothing Death could do. There was nothing Life could do. But there was something I could do.

Without a moment's delay I blurted out, "Is there any way I can make her like me?! Any way at all?!"

A deep laugh sounded in my mind before Death stated, 'And now he asks the right questions. I suppose you could, yes.'

"HOW?!" I blurted out in reply.

'Nearly the same way I created you. You first need to remove the remainder of her life force, more of your blood should do. And then the moment before her death inject her with as much death energy as you can,' he instructed.

The very idea was harrowing, but I had little other option as Twilight's breathing had become so shallow that it was barely present. I swallowed what doubt I had and whispered into her ear, "I am sorry for what I must do. But it is the only way I can save you. Please, I beg you to forgive me for my actions."

I opened my mouth and bit down hard on my right foreleg. I then stuffed the open wound into Twilight's mouth. As more of my black blood streamed into her, her body weakly shook before her breathing stopped. Without wasting even a fraction of a second I blurred and put her in my forelegs. I then tilted my head back and drove my fangs into her neck.

Black lightning crackled all around the room and arced off the walls as I poured everything I had into Twilight's body. But as my vision started to darken from energy loss I heard Death state, 'That is enough Blood Moon. There is but one last task that you still need to do. You need to call out to her to guide her back into this world.'

With a weakened body I pulled my fangs out of Twilight's neck before squeezing her close to me. Black tears streamed from my eyes as I whispered into Twilight's ear, "Please Twilight...please come back to me...please come back to me," I said over and over again as I rocked back and forth with her still in my forelegs.

At first a white ethereal aura surrounded her body. It then seemed to sink into her but nothing else had happened. Second after dreadful second of nothing passed but just as all hope seemed lost I heard something. I perked my ears up in response to listen and I heard it again. It was faint at first but with each succession it grew stronger. Twilight's heart had begun to beat again. And with each new beat her fur darkened by shades until it was jet black. But instead of a white skull pattern on her chest like me, her mane instead seemed to possess white streaks in it.

Then with little warning her eyes snapped wide open and she sucked in a deep gasping breath. A stream of coughs soon followed by several more gasping breaths before she stabilized and her eyes closed again. It was a sight in which I could not describe what I had been feeling at that moment. Far too many emotions to count or properly process. But regardless I held her close to me all the same.

It was not until I heard somepony clear their throat that I had snapped back to my senses. I turned my head to look in the direction of the noise to see the visage of Life smiling back at me. But then the small potted plant possessed by Life then seemed to look at me, move her eyes to something next to me, and then back again. She had done this a few times before I took the hint.

So with a puzzled expression I looked to my left and found Star Swirl's tome sitting next to me still. However, this time whatever energy I must have been giving off reviving Twilight must have arced across it. And while the tome itself remained unharmed, the blood on its partially concealed poem had crumbled away. The complete poem reads as follows,

"At the end of a life
Filled with nothing but strife
A dark deal is written
With one who's been bitten
And when the moon is bright red
Their name shall said
But soon one shall follow
When the first weeps and wallow
And they shall be made right
With guidance of the dark and the light
But in this time of sorrow
Their name seems to borrow
The vast glimmering sight
From the transition of day into night

It did not take a literary scholar to determine who the second individual in the poem was referring to. A small grin crawled up my face as I shook my head in response to this revelation. "You two knew this was going to happen, did you not?" I stated in a tired tone.

Life was the first to reply to my inquiry. "Well...to be honest? Only sort of," she replied and pursed what I supposed was her lips on the small plant she possessed.

"What do you mean 'sort of'," I inquired, confused and genuinely curious.

This time it was Death's turn to respond. 'There is something you need to understand Blood Moon. When we were created into existence Chronos gifted the both of us with hindsight, but only a small measure of foresight. This was done so we could properly do our "jobs" for lack of a better word. But as a result we can only "sort of" see the future as Life stated previously,' he stated clearly weary.

Then after a few seconds of silence Life began to speak again. "However, there is a big 'catch' to having these 'gifts'. We can't really disclose anything we know except to each other minus a few hints here and there. Otherwise disastrous and/or horrible unintended consequences can happen. And let me tell you, when you get an overly ominous warning from the keeper of time themselves it's a good idea to listen," Life stated and her expression soured before adding, "Annnd I almost blew it when I first met you."

When I became puzzled she looked like she was rolling her eyes the best she could on the small plant and said "Remember when you were asking me if your build-up of death energy would happen again? Weeelll I almost completely blurted out this event without thinking.

I tilted my head in continued confusion before I stated, "So wait a minute. You mean my energy build up has something to do with Twilight?"

'That is exactly as she means Blood Moon. My advocates need a steady supply of my energy to continue "living". But most of them eventually go insane due to the energy build-up. So the solution appeared to be a second source of energy usage to regulate it,' Death said and paused for a moment before adding, 'Twilight is now a being like you, but is not linked to me like you are. To continue living she will need to passively or actively draw death energy from you every so often. This should stabilize the energy build up in your physical body and prevent that "maddening" effect you experienced.

My jaw hung open for a second or two before I shook my head a few times. "Wait wait waaaait a moment! Let me just restate this to see if I fully understand. I will need to regularly recharge Twilight like a battery of some sort so she can continue living and in turn I will not go insane?! How in Tartarus did this bizarre dual regulation idea sound like a good one?!"

Both Life and Death laughed and laughed before Life stated, "Hey don't not blame us, blame Fate. But...two more things before we go."

"Yes?" I replied now thoroughly burned out.

'Before you decide on which of the three rogue forces that you are going after first, could you please gather some information on the being known as the "Shade of Dark Heart"?' Death said with an odd knowing tone.

However, I was far too mentally exhausted to question him about it so I just replied, "Indeed, and the second?"

"Knock knock," Life said with a small giggle right before I felt both of their presences leave.

And I was just about to ask what in the Equestria she was talking about before I heard several hard slams on Twilight's room door. Then not even a second later I heard a muffled voice on the other side state, "The door is locked from the inside. Break it down!"

My heart dropped out of my chest in response as I looked around at the mess of a room I was in and the still unconscious Twilight on my lap. To which I said the most fitting thing that came to mind, "Uh oh..."

Do you not just hate it when you get "trolled" by Fate, only to be then trolled by Life and Death?