“So you're the new son of Shafifner. Shame really.” Said a rather arrogant copper scaled young dragon. Almost the same size of Garble from the dragon den. His black horns were curled up much like a ram's horn. Hovering next to him was not seven that Shadow and I had thought. But closer to seventeen, but that's not what had me nervous. Now it was the fact that six of them were close to Razor's size and behind all them was the mother of all dragons in size.

It looked like this pitch-black dragon with a green underbelly much like a changeling green in color was big enough that he was on par with Canterlot Castle, and that's not counting his wingspan. This didn't look good and even if I had all of the Wonderbolts, I was clearly outnumbered. I had to send Lily with Luna, didn't I?

“Shit,” I said under my breath before I spoke out loud. “What do you want with me?” As I continued I began sliding out an emergency deck of spell cards. As they were only trump cards, even if I have to use them to escape.

“Oh, nothing much. We were given a set of orders to deal with you.” He said grinning.

“Deal with me how?”

“Oh, you know hunt you down and make sure you stop being a thorn in other dragon's side.” As he said this, I slide my sword back into my pocket space. As much as I wanted to use it, sadly in a fight like this. It becomes too much of a hindrance than a boon. Since dragon scales are harder to damage than anyone else. So this was going to be more of a fistfight than anything.

“Let me guess because some dragon got burnt out of shape. Now he wants me dead?” I asked cracking my knuckles one at a time.

“Well, at least your smarter then you look.” Said one of the other dragons, as this one was a sapphire blue with a teal underbelly and fin.

“So are you going to make it easy for us?” Said the first dragon.

“Or the fun way?” Said the large black one. I couldn't help but grin.

“Shadow are you thinking, what I'm thinking?” I asked over the link.

“Drop and knock out?” He shot back.

“Drop and knock out.” With that, I folded up my wings and began to drop like a rock. Looking up as I watched as a lot of the dragons began to fly after me. After close to twelve seconds I knew I hit terminal velocity with a smirk and breathed in and shot back frost flames. With the thrust, I flipped around and spread my wings using my momentum to glide, as I went into the forest. After playing Dodge the Pony with Dash. I learned how to dodge oncoming objects, flying towards trees were a cakewalk to me even at this speed. The other dragons, not so much. With sharp thuds and whams being heard behind me, I could tell they didn't have the same practice as I did. That didn't stop a few of the others to keep up. So grabbing onto a branch I was able to take a quick right turn to throw them off. A few back flaps and I was up in the branches completely out of sight.

“Where did he go?” Said one of the dragons below me.

“I don't know, you go over there, and you over there. I want his ass found now!” barked orders from a smaller black dragon, almost Princess Ember's size. Grinning, I slowly moved out of the branches behind her and tapped him on the shoulder. “What do you wha-” He said before looking up to me in surprise.

“I'm going to plant myself a dumb ass tree.” With one quick shove of his head. I had him buried up to his feet in the dirt. With that Shadow pulled me into the shadows as we went off to hunt. Oh, I was not letting this go unanswered. My first targets were the ones that ended up hitting trees. Which wasn't hard to find as they had embedded themselves into the trunks. Appearing behind all of them I let shadow form twenty claws attached to my back by chains. They flew out and grabbed each one of them and planted them deep into the dirt up to their heads. With that, I walked on to find myself some dragons. All while I used my switchable eyes with Shadow to keep an eye on the large one hovering above the forest looking rather pissed.

“Where is that bastard?” Said my next target before he growled and began to breath violet flames around him. This turned the tree's around him to be engulfed in flames. With a snap of my claws, his flames snuffed themselves out as I slowly got closer. “What the?” He said before doing it again. Just like before they were snuffed out.

“Oh, is the little firefly having issues with his flames?” I said as I gave my head a light turn grinning rather psychotically as I knew my eyes where glow quite crimson. The reaction I got was what I wanted. He stepped back a few times as I let my clank lightly as I flexed them a little.

“Wha- what are you?” He said as I could hear the fear in his voice.

“Oh, what happened? You and your mates were so confident a few moments ago.” I said as Shadow began to slide his chained claws out as I swear the dragons was about to piss himself in fear.

“Ple-please don't hurt me.” He begged.

“And why should I do that, when you were just as bloodthirsty as the rest of them?” I asked as he jumped for a moment from one of the claws gently brush his cheek.

“I-I-I was only follo-o-owing orders. Please don't kill me!” He said before screaming the last bit.

“Oh, your fun,” I said getting closer as I was face to face with him. “How about this. Take an oath to me and me alone. One that you must follow any order I give, without fail.” I grinned at him showing my razor-sharp fangs, which I had Shadow take control so I had the tombstone gray fangs.

“O-o-of course. A-a-anything.” He said as I picked him up by my own magic as I formed a mark on his scales.

“That mark will keep you from crossing me.”

“I-I-I wouldn't d-d-dream of it.”

“Good, now you will fly south from here and when you see the ruins of a castle. You will wait in the main lobby. Do I make myself clear?” My demeanor changed as I gave him a stone-cold look. As he began to shake in complete fear.

“Yes... sir.” With that Shadow let him go and he took off like the wind.

“Surprised you played that card,” Shadow said forming one of the chains into a makeshift mouth.

“In the game of war, every piece removed from the enemy is either an obstacle removed or an ally to use.” Turning around I looked into the dark forest. “I count at least thirteen in the ground, one turned, and the one in the air. That should leave two left in the forest.”

“They seem to be a little lost, but are sticking close together,” Shadow said.

“Anything you can tell me about them?”

“They are close to Garble in sense of build for one of them and the other seems to be a dragoness of a closer build. They may be together and that's why they were close.” I couldn't help but grin at this. Locating the two wasn't as hard as Shadow lead me straight to them. Slowly making my way to them I kept my sound profile to a minimum as I watched them from a distance. They looking on edge as they kept each other close.

“Tick-tock,” I said as I using magic to echo it around them got to love the ghost sound spell.

“Where are you?!” The male one roared into the forest.

“Tick tock”

“You like games? Well here's one for you, I call it 'Burn!'” He continued to roar before engulfing the woods around him in purple flames. With a snap of my claws, all his flames snuffed themselves out. “What the?” He said looking confused and went for another round of burn. Just like the first time, with a snap of my fingers, and the flames went out.

“Is someone having a hard time kindling the fire?” I asked coming out of the shadows. All while Shadow was going around and entering their shadows.

“Bastard!” The male dragon growled and tried to jump at me. Sadly for him, Shadow is much faster and wrapped him up as well as the dragoness.

“I wouldn't do that if you want your mate to stay alive.” This got him to turn and notices about her.

“Leave her out of this.”

“I will only do that if you listen.” With a smirk on my face, I summoned up a large rock to sit on.

“What do you want then?” Said the dragoness.

“Answers and your word.” With that, I began to dig into the motives here. It seems my brother needs to keep his kingdom in check. He's cabinet members, found out about me and after the combat trail. Word got back that I was a loose cannon, and something had to be done. Or at least that's what they were told. I'm guessing I'm the wrench in someone's plan. That left the big boy up in the air, which I found out is a cabinet member. One that goes by the name of Thorn Razortalon. “Alright, here's the deal. I will let you both go, But...” I said pausing for dramatic effect. “You both go back and talk to my brother directly. Tell him the Firestorm sent you and he will take it. If he questions about it, tell him that I was the crystal centaur. He will understand after that, and you will explain to him what you told me. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes...” Said the dragoness and I could see the fear in her eyes.

“Good, because trust me. You don't want to know what will happen if you don't do it.” With that Shadow released them as they ran off into the forest. Now it was time to deal with the Thorn in my side. Jumping up, into the nearby tree before poking my head up to see him flapping up there, looking around. “Any thought on how to deal with him?”

“Well, you do have chaotic magic on you,” Shadow commented.

“But I run the risk of falling into the chaos.”

“True, but you don't have a lot of magic, to begin with. Even with me in your corner, your still not powerful enough to take on a dragon that big.”

“Yeah, and I can't rely on the Torch otherwise, it's going to screw me in the long run.” I rubbed my chin and began to think.

“Right now, chaotic magic is your best bet.”

“I know.” Looking up at him I could just see the anger radiate off him. “If I do fall into chaos, I need you to get Twilight and let her know what happened.”

“You have my word.”

“Good, because the only thing I can think may fix it is the elements and I don't know how well that one is going to play out.” With that said I jumped down and grabbed the branch, I was standing on. I used it to fling myself up into the air like a bullet. Then I flew a few feet in front of Thorn's face. “So... here we are.”

“What have you done with the others?” He growled as he fixed himself so he standing in the air.

“Planted, and knocked out.” Watching him clinch his claws as he scowled at me. Is it bad that I took a bit of enjoyment out of pissing him off? “So here's the real question. How is why my being around is a pain for my brother's cabinet members?”

“Smarter then I took you for, course that's not going to-” Was all I let him get out before I jabbed my claw to the right. It broke through the fabric of reality and a giant version of it was gripping Thorn by the throat.

“Save you? A little cliche isn't it?” With that said I swung back my left arm and punched through reality again, just to punch Thorn with a massive fist. He flew back from the impact as I pulled my fist back.

“You cocky bastard. Had to rely on tricks to defeat me, can't take me on, one on one.” He said with a smirk as he spread his wings out. Something that I know a lot of winged creatures would do to act imposing to ongoing attackers.

“You really want a one on one fight? On equal footing?” I said grinning like the devil himself.

“If you think you have the guts for it.” He said readying his claws.

“You play the fool's gambit,” I said with a grin as I raised up a claw looking at him. He looked confused before I snapped.

***---***

Snap.

It was just a moment, a sharp loud sound that signed a pinpoint in the fight. At first, it was quite as almost nothing happened. Then Firestorm opened his mouth as jet black ink began to flow out of his mouth. Swirling around him forming a sphere that covered his form completely. The whole time Storm kept his eyes on his opponent. Shortly after the ink began to harden till it was as smooth as jade.

“Don't think that's going to save you,” Thorn said before unleashing a torrent of green flames upon sphere engulfing it, but it didn't even leave a scorch mark. What it did do was cause the sphere of black ink to pulse and grow almost three times its size, till it was bigger then Thorn himself. This was matched with a pulse of energy that rippled through it. Then in the center of it, it appeared. A crack, one that began to spread out at each ripple. Until a blacken metallic claw punched through and sunk back into the inner of it. Then snaking around it was the return of metallic claws with a matching set of red claws. They began to pull part the shell encasing them, sending spider web cracks that glowed with orange lights. As the whole widen two more sets of claws came out and helped it the rest of the way. This shattered the shell into black fragments that began to swirl around the revealed body of the chaotic creature of Firestorm. Much like his first change into this creature. He lacked the lower half that he once hand in place for a long snake-like body closer to those of the Naga or snake person. Which had the upper torso of a human. In this cause, it was much of the same but unlike the snake, the counterpart was covered in fire red scales with a darker red underbelly.

His chest which use to be adorned by a symbol was in place a rather scaled covered chest. The three sets of arms were much of its original appearance with the right armed claws were all black metallic claws, while the lefts where red draconic claws. On his back instead of the three sets of wings, this version of him had two massive wings. One a normal feathered orange wing, while the other was the normal draconic red wing. His head was where the difference was, instead of the sharp black crystal-like maw that had glowing red eyes. His head was much like any other dragon, the elongate mouth, and nose ending in a horn tip as well as the maw of razor-sharp teeth. However, his head also had a top layer of what looks like obsidian black steel fused to it like a helm as two sharply focused red eyes peered through what would have been the matching opening in a helm. His horns looked like they were fused with it as the angled one that started at a forty-five-degree angle curved up to a straight vertical point. Two matching ones shot out of the back of his head each one of the bright oranges in color that went will with his fire red scales. The fragments that created the shell began to shot towards the wingtips making a set of armor that covered the crest of the wings. Before the shell fully disappeared the tail was curled up so it looked like the figure was floating on a ball made of a large corded snake.

Shortly after this last change the creature opened his mouth and roared so loud that forced Thorn to cover where his ear would have been as the air pressure from the roar itself forced him back. It didn't take him long to recover as he flew right at the creature who flew up before it's tail uncoiled and wrapped itself around Thorn crushing his wing against his body.

“Is this fair enough for you Thorn?” The creature said sounding like a gravel version of Firestorm as his tail tightened around him.

“No, your fighting dirty,” Thorn said trying to struggle to break free.

“But theirs no such thing as fighting dirty in a real fight.” He said grinning as he coiled himself more to bring Thorn up to his face. “Now I would stop struggling or I won't have any issue crushing you.” This didn't stop him as he was able to get enough leverage to bite his massive tail and sink his fangs in. However, this had the opposite of the desired effect as this caused his tail to tightened and bones could be heard snapping. Both of his wings had a crushed the bone in the crest of it making it impossible for him to keep flying. As retaliation Firestorm rapidly uncoiled his tail whipping Thorn through the air as he tried to recover in the air. This caused him to fall through the air into the dense forest below. Storm flew after before heavily landing where he towered over the forest. Slowly slithering through the trees he got closer but was at the ready.

Take the moment Thorn opened his mouth and let out a large torrent of blackening flames. Storm opened his as he returned fire causing the two flames to crash into each other forcing it to spread out into a fall of flames. This clash of fire lasted a few seconds, only enough for both of them to catch their breaths. Thorn fires back with another deluge of flames while Firestorm opens his mouth as a stream of lightning cutting through the fire and hits Thorn right in the mouth forcing it down his throat. While elemental dragons do have a natural resistance to elements. But that doesn't always count for the inside of them. When the lightning traveled down the normal resistance lining that dragons have for breathing fire, this ended up searing his throat and struck through his stomach lining frying him from the inside. Firestorm watched as Thorn fell back and died. Storm just stands there looking down at the newly fried corpse. Taking a few moments Storm turns to fly up into the air before something turned and grabbed his tail. Turning around he saw Thorn looking up at him with a grin on his face.

“Didn't think it would be that easy, did you?” Thorn said swinging his arm flinging Storm onto the forest. The trees snapped and the remains where thrown about. Pulling his tail Storm curled his tail and got back up to see Thorn standing up at the ready.

“Surprised you're alive after taking a bolt through the gullet like that.” Storm said as he was ready to fight and had his wings were flared out.

“You would be surprised what I can do,” Thorn said breathing in and sending out a blacken liquid that Storm shifted back as the goo landing before him and sizzled on the ground. Looking down at it and back up at him. Storm didn't look amused as his horns began to glow as the earth and trees around him began to rise up into two large boulders. With a flick they threw at Thorn who swung back and punched them breaking them. Taking that moment Storm focused on the clouds above him as he took to the air. In seconds the clouds began to compress and turn back into the water that made them. With a flash of magic, the water was formed into a javelin of ice. As soon as the boulders broke, Storm threw it at him. Not having enough time the javelin pierced through his hide, making his roar in pain.

“You bastard!” Thorn said before unleashing a set of black flames at him as Storm fired back with torrent ice blue flames causing the clash to make steam in the air. This was followed by a large flap of wings that sent the piping hot steam at Thorn. But by the time it reached Thorn it had cooled off and wasn't as fast.

“You call me a bastard but you were the one ready to ambush me.” Storm said focusing magic into his middle right claw. After flattening his claw to a flat palm before diving down and thrusting it into Thorn's chest. Letting out a large roar of pain, Thorn reached down to grab it with both hands. Which was fruitless as Storm's other claws came down to grab him and pull them back. The upper set of arms reached up to keep Thorn's head turned away. “But if I must be a bastard, I rather be a winning one.” He said before his horns began to glow with a blackened aura. “I call upon the heartless void to wither and decay my enemy. Break their earthly chains that bind the spirit and erode it away.” He began to chant as a blacken mass began to form on his metallic claw that was embedded within Thorn's chest. As soon as it touched Thorn it spread like wildfire over his complete body and in seconds the body began to rapidly decay.

To Thorn, this felt like his body was burning worse then phoenix fire. As he felt every cell in his body would decay and die on him. That was till his heart completely decayed leaving nothing more than thick blacken slug that was once his body. Standing over the remains Firestorm slowly pulled his claws back seeing that all that remind of Thorn was the mostly decaying corpse where most of his body was intact but his eyes had turn milky white and that his torso looked like it was acid burned away showing the blacking slug covered broken ribs.

Firestorm slithered back a bit and began to flick the remains of his claws. "I didn't think I would have to use that."

"I didn't think you had it in you, to be honest," Shadow said as Firestorm raised a claw up and snapped his fingers. In seconds his body turned into an inky black mass before it shattered and fell to make floor before it got sucked up into his shadow. As soon as it was done Firestorm doubled over and grabbed a tree.

"Didn't expect that to take so much out of me." He said as he was almost completely drained of magic leaving him in a rather weakened state. His legs began to shake as he hobbled over to a rock and began to sit down out on his own. Looking at the remains Firestorm left. "Do you think Granite is going to be pissed off at me for killing his cabinet member?"

"If he's how I think he is. He may be annoyed that you took care of it instead of him." Shadow said as he snaked himself out of Firestorm's wing. “Do you want me to take over so you can recover?”

“To be honest, that's not a ba-” was all he got out before a sharp pain was felt before looking down to see a pitch-black sword blade sticking out of his gut. Luckily it wasn't directly in the center but off to the right. Turning back as soon as he could to see Nightmare Moon behind him with a grin on her face.

“Miss me Luv?” She said before Shadow formed a claw and grabbed her by her throat and forced her into a tree trunk.

“You're going to regret doing that bitch.” He said as his upper body began to form as his arm shrank down till he was right up to her.

“Not before you.” She said before turning into mist a flew off. Turning around Shadow saw Firestorm laying on the ground with the blade still in him looking like it was broken off. Shadow flew over and slowly moved his shirt to see that around the wound, the vanes began to show through the scales as they blackened.

“Shit. Firestorm hold on!” Shadow said pulling back into Firestorm's body as most of it began to darken till it reached around the wound. Just as it began to touch it, Shadow Storm began to scream out in pain. “Not good.” Shadow said as he began to try and get up as he didn't have full control over Firestorm's body. Something was preventing it as he almost looked like a walking corpse. “Where are those fucking ponies.” Just as that came out of his mouth a full squad of ponies flew over being lead by a rainbow contrail. With a blast of magic from his horn, Shadow sat down on a log not to make the wound worse. It didn't take long for her to fly down.

“What are you doing in control?” Dash said not looking happy.

“Not the time Dash,” Shadow said between a coughing fit as pointed to the blade. Right as six other pegasi landed including Spitfire, Fleetfoot, Soarin, and three others that weren't familiar to either Shadow or Firestorm.

“Oh, Celestia. Medic!” Dash said turning to a powder white pegasus mare with a strawberry pink mane and tail came up and saw the wound.

“Lay back.” Said mare told Shadow.

“I would love too but the blade is all the way through,” Shadow said as even he was now having a hard time breathing. “Go ahead and get some clouds we need to head to a hospital now.”

“You heard him. Get a cloud stretcher now!” Spitfire barked as Both Fleetfoot and Soarin flew up.

“Dash go let Twilight, Nightling, Lily, Luna, and everyone else know.” Dash only nodded and took off like a gunshot off to Ponyville as Shadow laid in the cloud that was brought down. “I'm going to get that bitch for this,” Shadow said as the remaining pegasi began to carefully fly him towards Canterlot.

***---***

“I am going to kill that bitch.” I said as sat in my private room in the hospital. From what I was told after I had came too that Nightmare Moon had poisoned me with a crystallized venom that is especially lethal for ponies. Lucky for me being part dragon my resistance to some poisons are higher. So it couldn't have been as fast-acting as it normally is. From what I am to understand, the poison normally causing a pony to have their internal magic burn which in turn causes massive damage that could end up taking the ponies' lives, like a sort of flash fry.

The worst yet was that I was now stuck in the hospital for at least six days to make sure that I didn't have any lasting effects. Much to my protests, but too much of annoyance they pulled the whole I am royal card and they need to make sure. The only good thing is that this gives me time to recover from both my fight with Thorn as well as my three uses of the Infinity Torch. Shadow is taking some downtime after using all his power just to get me to the hospital. After I woke up from being out myself and told from one of the doctors, I had to wait for either princess to show up to talk to me about what happened. Dash, as I had ordered, went and told every pony. Sadly that including Celestia, but at least that bitch was last on the list.

From what I was told, Twilight hasn't arrived yet. Nightling has as well as Lily and they are waiting outside my door at the moment. Per Luna's order on my behalf, which I can't blame her. Since I was out of commission and all. Luna right now is going over the crystallized poison to make sure there aren't any other nasty surprises. Granted the spot still hurts like hell, and the vanes are still blackened. Walking over to the mirror in the room since my hospital room looks more like a private room as a hotel or something. Well minus a kitchen or something. I could see at least six dominantly blackened vanes.

“She had to wait when my guard was down and when I was drained from my fight.” Moving over to a glass of water sitting out for me. With a sip of it, I began to think about the fight more. That's when I heard the door open behind me and I jumped at the sound. Whirling around I had my claws at the ready before I saw it was Luna.

“I see some pony is on edge.” She said with a sigh coming over to the bed. “It's understandable after what happened. Speaking of which, are you feeling up for explaining in more detail.”

“Yeah, the short version it was a complete clusterfuck.” Walking over to the bed and sitting back down. “On the way to the Wonderbolt Dash and I got ambushed by seventeen dragons. Speaking of which, I believe there is one or two of them waiting in your old castle waiting for me.”

“I will go and gather them for you.” Luna said with a nod. “But please continue.”

“I ended putting down all of them except the last one Thorn.”

“Did you say, Thorn, as in Thorn Razortalon?”

“Yeah?” I said not liking the fact that Luna knows about that. “Is he a friend of yours?”

“No!” She shouted which got me to lean back.

“Okay, so how do you know him?” That's when I noticed her fists where clinching rather hard.

“I don't wish to speak about it.” She said almost in a growling tone. This must have been some bad blood between them and I would hedge a bet that it was close to over a thousand years ago.

“Well, you won't have to worry about him.” I said as I placed my claw on my wound.

“What do you mean?” She asked eyeing me.

“I killed him after he attacked me.” That got her to jump and look at me surprised.

“You killed Thorn the Black Dragon?”

“The Black Dragon?” Now I was confused. “Seriously? Calling a dragon by his scale color. Isn't that a little racist? It would be calling Spike, Spike the purple or me Firestorm the Red.” I gave her a flat look with a cocked eyebrow.

“No, I didn't mean it that way. But Thorn was known as one of the few dragons who can... I mean could use the black flames.” Luna said taking a small step back.

“What's so bad about black fire?” That got me curious.

“It's known as the cursed flame. Which is said that it doesn't burn like normal fire but causing intense pain that won't go away ever.” That got me to thinking, with a small puff of flames I was able to hold in my prosthetic claw.

“Hmm... It's not impossible. Especially if you think of the flame as energy instead of burning itself. Kind of like how it's possible for me to change my flame into frost fire.” I said as focused on the fire as this doesn't require me to expend a lot of magic. In seconds the flame turned from my ruby red into a gray. Not quite black but it's getting there.”

“I didn't know you were able to change fire like that.” Luna said hovering around the fire.

“Yeah, I'm guessing it's an ability since I'm an elemental dragon and since I can use magic. It's more second nature for me. Fire is more familiar to me, but Ice isn't too different.” I said dispersing my flame. “But we are getting off-topic. I ended up fighting Thorn and I killed him.”

“How?” She asked and I couldn't help but clench my prosthetic claw.

“I had to use Chaotic magic.” Luna jumped back at that. “Don't worry I have at a good hand on it. As long as I don't rely on it too long, and I don't have a lot of it on hand.”

“What do you mean you don't have a lot of it?” Luna asked defensively.

“I have the equivalent of a young filly's worth of chaotic magic and not Twilight levels more like on the average. Most of the time I use it for small things, mostly to help fill in the gaps that magic can't get.” I explained as I snapped my fingers to create a small chaotic flame. “Plus it's an extra pool that doesn't drain me when I use most of it. Plus out of all of my pools, I can adjust how much chaotic magic I have.”

“How did you get it?”

“I'll give you three guesses-”

“Discord.” She said rather flatly.

“Ah, you beat me to the punch.” I said dispersing the flame again as my normally golden claws on my prosthetic were blackened much like my other prosthetic. “But yeah, when I tricked Discord into giving me chaotic magic and one-upped him in a game of one up.”

“Ah... I believe Celestia said something about this game.”

“Yeah... Did you so happen to bring the piece of Chrysalis' horn with you?” I asked and she eyed me before her horn lit up and in a poof of magic. A blue box appeared on the bed next to her. Flipping it open, I could see the black shard of her horn that was rather jagged.

“What do you plan to do with it?” Luna asked looking over my shoulder as best she can, which honestly was a little hard as she was shorter then I was.

“I plan to use it like this.” With that I began to focus, we both saw the fragment began to sink into my gauntlet as the rest of the golden materiel began to turn black with only golden accent. Luna's eyes began to widen as she saw this.

“What did you do?”

“I infused my prosthetic with her horn.”

“Why?” She asked worried and confused.

“This.” With that, an orange flame shot up from the connecting plate up to my claw and in seconds it looked like if I had two normal claws.

“Oh my!” Luna said reaching down and rubbed her hand against my forearm. “It feels like flesh.”

“That's kind of the idea.”

“Why?”

“Well utility for the most part. Because how am I suppose to fit in when I need to when my right arm is mostly metal?” That got her to look at me confused.

“You do realize that you're a dralicorn prince with a human soul?” She said looking at me flatly.

“No, I didn't realize that.” I sarcastically replied. “Look I know I stick out like a sore thumb but sometimes... I just want to feel like I use too. Don't get me wrong I know that's an impossibility, but it's the small thing. Like how I spend a lot of time in a bipedal form because I'm comfortable with it. Not saying that I won't take my normal drony when it needs it. But personally I prefer this. So when I have a chance to feel more whole, I'm going to take it.” Slowly raising my right arm as it changed back to the now blacken metal limb. “I know that I will never have this arm truly back and the only way I can live like I use to up to that point is with this prosthetic. Now it's just one step further and able to change the look of it. That's all it is, a magical coat of paint where I can change it so I can feel like I hadn't lost it in the first place.” Reaching over I slowly undid my prosthetic and sat it down on the bed. “Every so often I think about that day. The day I was just a passenger in my own body that ended up attacking Twilight and she did the only thing she could, protect herself. In the end, it cost me my right arm slash foreleg. Do I blame her? No. I'll never blame her for what happened, and I won't blame Shadow either. He wanted the same freedom's that everyone else has. The freedom of self.” I looked up and saw myself in the mirror against the wall as I sat there seeing my form as you can make out the darkened veins, the missing limb, the scar on my chest either being the cross and the scar over my heart.

“I won't say I understand how it feels in a lot of this. I get the whole being a passenger in your own body, the whole being out of place. But the lack of being whole, I can't. There is no way I can completely understand that as it's something personal to you.” She said as she picked up my prosthetic in her magic as she helped slot it into place. “If this helps you move on, then I can support that. I just don't want to see you go down the same path I did when Nightmare Moon took over.”

“I get that. You could see me going down the same path and in a way be the villain of the peace. But that's not who I am. If I could, I would just spend my day going through the library and read books, maybe try to make some tech from my old world and not worry about the bigger picture.”

“But you can't, your royalty”

“Exactly, But I don't want to see Equestria go down the same path Earth did. Don't get me wrong, a lot of what they did was for the betterment of everyone. Just not everything was for good.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, some laws were put into place for greed and the lining of pockets. That's just something I don't want to go down as I've seen how that plays out and trust me you don't want to know.” I answered as I turned my prosthetic back into a matching claw. “But anyway, were you able to gleam any clues from the shard?” Luna stood up and went to the window quietly as I watched.

“It looks like Nightmare Moon magically hardens the poison into the shard using some of the magic she stole from you as it has traces of your magic in it.” She said leaning against the window sill. Thinking about this for a moment as something was eating at me.

“Is that a normal thing? When some pony uses another ponies magic. Are there still traces of the original owners' magic?”

“In most cases yes but it's much weaker when it comes to traces. But in this case, yours was the dominant magic.”

“Well, she wasn't back to full when that happened.”

“That's what I was thinking but there should have been at least some traces of her magic, but there wasn't any.”

“Wait...” Something clicked finally. “Is it possible to scry the location of some ponies magic?” I asked standing up going over to the door.

“There is a way too, but what are you getting at?” She asked confused.

“If she's using my magic, then we can follow it back to her in locations I haven't been since she took it.” That's when her eyes widened as I opened the door to see Lily standing at attention at the door with Ironclad, who I didn't even know was there. “Lily, go get me a copy of a map of Equestria” She nodded and rushed off out a window.

“Why didn't I think of this before?” Luna said running her fingers through her mane.

“To be honest, I should have thought of it myself.” it didn't take Lily long to come back with the map and I watched to see how this worked. Luna took a crystal and had me charge it with my magic. Not a whole lot of magic but enough to use it as a focus point. Then Luna magically held the crystal and began to focus on the map. After what felt like minutes, the crystal began to zip out of her hand and began to slide around the map. It stopped over Canterlot. That was followed by it slipping away towards the Ghastly Gorge. “Ghastly Gorge?”

“Why would she go through all places?”

“She may be using the creatures as a line of defense and any pony outside of Dash would be too scared of the place to venture in.”

“That may be the case,” I said getting up to grab a fresh shirt. “On top of that. Nightmare Moon is being more tactful, then I expected.”

“What are you doing?”

“Besides getting dressed? I'm planning to go with you, as out of all of us. You and I are the only ones that could face her equally.”

“And your injured.”

“That's beside the point, I can still fight.” I will admit, not to my fullest. With the massive pain radiating from the wound. It makes moving rather uncomfortable and having my shirt brush against only flared the pain more. It seems the poison causes the flesh to becomes sensitive to pain.

“Storm, you can not fight in your condition. Even my sister and I know when to back down from a fight.” She said putting her hand on my shoulder.

“Maybe you, but I doubt Princess Celestia knows how to let go,” I said looking out the window. Luna looks at me with a look like she wants to say something, but she doesn't. “But I can't just let this chance to get away from us.”

“I can not in good conscience let you go.” She said as she got in front of me. Looking her directly into the eye told me that she was being adamant about it. Looking away I began to think if she wouldn't let me go then... that's it!

“Then will you permit me to send another in my place. Someone I trust to follow my needs?” I watched as Luna's right eyebrow shot up in that curious way that it does as one of her ears flopped down.

“It depends who is this pony?” She asked.

“No a pony, but more a being,” I said forming a circle in the air and reached through it into my pocket space. Pulling out a pearl white mask with three distinct markings. Two crescent moon markings much like happy looking eyes and a third to make a large creepy grin. All three of them a bright almost glowing red. As soon as I pulled it out, I tossed it into the shadow from a nearby end table. It sank in as if it was water, in seconds the shadow began to ripple as a figure began to slide out of the shadow. The figure stood tall, about six feet at the very least. It's covered in a dark brown cloak, wearing the mask that was dropped into the shadow itself. The figure once out of the shadow walked over to me and kneeled down before me as a knight would to his lord. “Stand.”

“Who is that?” Luna said taking a defensive posture as the figure stood up.

“His name is Nerada, not to be confused with his brother Vashta Nerada.” The figure remained silent as he moved back without making a sound.

“What are they?”

“They are a special kind of mass. They can change their shape, only Limitedly. He is the only one I would trust to do what needs to be done. Will you let him go in my stead?”

“Will he follow instructions?” Luna said as I can see her stance lax a bit from she is still on guard.

“Unless it goes against my orders for him. He will follow what you say, but if you stop him from getting Nightmare Moon. He then will get you out of his way and go after his target. So I suggest always expect him to have a hair-trigger.” I said before walking over to Nerada. “You will not harm her if she gets in the way, do I make myself clear?” Nerada only nodded at this.

“Then by the end of the day, we will head to the Ghastly Gorge, I will keep you informed,” Luna said walking out with Nerada following her. After a few moments, I took a deep breath as I looked into the mirror as my right eye turned red as I began to grin.

***---***

It had been almost six hours. During that time Storm has gone through another treatment of the cure in hopes to reverse some of the damage the poison had done, sadly not to any effect. As well as Luna has got a transport of troops ready and on the way. She stood there in her chariot with Nerada standing next to her. During this whole time, Nerada hadn't said a word or made a sound. The only thing that did happen was the mask he wore began to glow and only where the red markings were. The trip itself was silent almost eerily so as Luna stood there wearing a set of identical armor to Storm's from when she sparred with him.

It didn't fit the same as it had to be adjusted for her figure, but it was the best they could do with the limited time. She had it dyed a matching blue to her armor as she had her sword attached to her hip. As soon as they touched down just a few feet to the main entrance of the Ghastly Gorge. They could see the massive holes the snake-like creatures create. In seconds they saw some of them lay by the entry of said holes.

“Great... how do we get past them?” Before she could say anything else she watched Nerada fly from creature to creature as they jolted for a second before they laid back down looking like they were asleep just like before. Luna's eyes widened as she slowly made here way leaving the troops to stay at there chariot to keep it secured. “What did you do?” She almost demanded. All he did was raised up a black metallic claw in a hushing motion, before pointing into a massive cave entrance that looks more magically made instead of made by one of the creatures. “Her base?” She watched Nerada nod before it turned to slowly go into the base.

The cave itself looked like it was magically molded to look like those of a dungeon, including brickwork. As they traversed down further and further the walls began to shine with some kind of wetness and a pungent smell that emanates from the walls themselves. Not enough to gag from it alone but enough to displease the senses. After a few moments, the entry opens up to a large room much like the main entrance like the one in the castle of the pony sisters.

“This is just like the old castle,” Luna said before Nerada placed an arm in Luna's way to stop her before pointing down to some of the raised tiles throughout the floor. “She trapped it?” Nerada nodded again before pulling out his right hand before it shot out followed by a chain as it latched into the stone high above. After a few seconds, he was pulled up and hung a few feet from the ceiling. In seconds the claw released before it was fired out at the corner of the doorway across from the entry Luna was standing at. Luna taking the hint, took to the air and hovered in the air.

“Your rather agile.” She said as Nerada gave her a thumbs up, before shooting to another spot. After doing this for a while they make it into what looks like the main hall with the floor being covered by some kind of carpet. Nerada taking a few moments to look around before lowering himself by extending the chain till it looks like he's standing on it. Luna watched before softly landing next to him. “This doesn't make any sense. It looks like she designed her base much like my old castle.”

“Why mess with perfection?” Said the voice behind them. They both turned to see Nightmare Moon standing in the same garb as she was last spotted in with a familiar sword in her hand.

“Why do you have my Moon Cleaver?” Luna said taking a very aggressive tone as she held her sword at the ready.

“Oh, this old thing?” Nightmare Moon said as she held out what looks like a rather enlarged style cleaver. The blade itself was a lunar sliver while the rest of the blade was a pale blue. The hilt and counterweight was a pale yellow crescent moon. But unlike the normal hilt of a sword, laid like a moon would as it was held vertical. The counterweight was laid across like a frown. The handle itself was a midnight blue with a silver lining that spiral down the length. All this was pointed at both of Luna and Nerada. In turn, Luna was holding her sword at the ready and Nerada was standing oddly straight up as if relaxed. “I've had this thing since I was able to reform my body. All thanks to that stallion.”

“After you ripped magic out of him,” Luna growled as her wings flared out.

“Well I had to do what I had to do, any good ruler would have done the same.” Nightmare Moon said with a grin. “So who is this?”

“None of your business.”

“Oh don't be like that.” She said walking around them as she kept her sword trained on the pair. “Maybe you're a little sore at me for attacking that stallion, and killing him.”

“He's still alive,” Luna said now smirking herself. That got Nightmare Moon to stop and glare at her.

“He survived, how?!” She roared at them.

“You don't know him very well,” Luna smirked as this time she moved away from Nerada. “That stallion as you put it has a lot more fortitude then you give him credit for.”

“I will have to correct my 'mistake.'” She said scowling at Luna as they began to do this dance of sorts. In seconds Nightmare Moon's hand holding the cleaver was flung back with the rest of her as it was pinned to the wall by a large claw that dug into the stone. “Bastard!” She growled before a beam of magic shot from her horn towards Nerada. Who in turn just shifted to the left to dodge the blast. With a jerk, he pulled back bringing both Nightmare Moon and her weapon. With a flare of her wings, she tried to stop herself, but the pull was too strong as she was overpowered. As soon as she was in reach, Nerada swung his left fist and punched her in her side. She roared out in pain as her grip loosens on her weapon. In seconds the weapon was taken from her by what looks like a third claw. Before a forth reaches up and grabs the other arm.

“Don't like the surprise attack do you?” Said Nerada in a familiar voice. That got Nightmare Moon to look in surprise. “How's it going, luv?”

“You.” She growled as one of the claws reached up and pulled off the face mask to show Shadow with a smirk on his face. Unlike his normal form, this one didn't have his horns. “Why are you here?”

“Well you did hurt my brother, and we make sure we get even,” Shadow said with a smirk as the cloak flared out as his form grown as his lower half turned into that of a spider as he shifts her hands so she was being held by his upper arms. “But now's the question of what do we do with you?”

“Does it matter?” Nightmare Moon said with an almost sound of defeat in her voice.

“Don't trust her Shadow, she will try to trick you,” Luna said as she held her sword towards Nightmare Moon as she magically pulled the Moon Cleaver towards her.

“Oh, don't worry. I know all of her tricks.” He said hissing at her like a snake, including a forked tongue coming out between his teeth. “But I think you just had a moment of weakness. Because you saw someone stronger than the 'mighty' Nightmare Moon and know your better.” This got said mare to growl in anger.

“It is not wise to push her buttons like that,” Luna said as she put her sword away and began to wield her Moon Cleaver.

“Not after what she did. I don't care if she doesn't like it. She's going to pay for what she did. Now come here.” Shadow said as one of his claws motioned for her to come over. Taking the hint she came over and he held on to her before the three of them sank into the shadows. In seconds they found themselves back at the chariot. The squad of thirty guards turned with their weapons at the ready.

“At ease,” Luna ordered as all of the soldiers eased up.

“We need to head back to Canterlot now,” Shadow said as he magically pulled cuffs over and began to restrain her as he kept his claws at her throat.

“He is correct, let's get going now,” Luna ordered as She, Nightmare Moon, and Shadow boarded her chariot. With Shadow keeping a firm grasp on Nightmare's throat.

“One move and I snap your neck like a twig.” Shadow hissed in Nightmare's ear as he grinned darkly.

***---***

Most of the day had gone by as I watched events transpire through Shadow's eye. We had come up with a plan to have Shadow stay outside of my body for a little while. With a mixture of chaotic magic and some of our shared abilities. We were able to give him a temporary body with about a day's time limit before he has to rejoin a shadow. So we called the plan Nerada, based on a show from earth.

While I watched a few things happened on my end. Twilight had finally shown up, comically in one of my oversized shirts. The only reason it was oversized was because of my larger build. Which the reason why she took her so long was trying to find a way to get to Canterlot in her new form. Instead of taking the smarter route and say Discord is messing around she tried to pull it off in the whole 'magic experiment gone wrong' kind of deal.

Regardless, Twilight showed up and after giving her a more detailed account. She did a few magical scans herself over the wound. She has some theories on why the wound is so sensitive. The leading one is that because of the poison's means of effecting a pony. Part of it is that it bunches the nerves while it tries to expand the blood vessels. This causing every pulse of blood to feel like a thousand knives racking across the skin. While my body has a lot more resistance due to being part dragon. It doesn't mean that it's across my whole body. So the spot where I was stabbed that the most concentrated spot. After a few scans, she found a few other spots that are sensitive but not as bad as the wound and manageable. She did say that she would like me to heed the doctors words and stay in the hospital for observation. I agreed with her for the most part unless I had to deal with royal business, just like I was doing now.

I was standing at the guard dock waiting for the parties' return. Twilight was helping the doctors go over the shard more as I waited. Watching them descend onto the landing platform, I could see Shadow holding Nightmare Moon by her throat.

“So the mission was a success I see.” I said with a smirk. That was followed by Luna walking up to me and slapping me hard in the face.

“What you did was uncalled for.” She growled staring at me.

“In your opinion.” I countered.

“You could have told me that it was Shadow going in your stead.”

“And you would have countered with my having Lily or Nightling in his place. But as you can tell the job got done.” I said before turning to Shadow and Nightmare Moon. “So we finally meet again Nightmare Moon.”

“Your lucky your little Shadow caught me off guard dealing with my weaker half.” She growled.

“Well, you won't have to worry about it soon,” Shadow said as he helped her out of the chariot. She growled but took the point. We lead her to the same room I was locked in when Twilight used her spell that turned her into an alicorn. I had Lily grab the Moon Helm as I was about to do what I do best, something stupid. Shadow put Nightmare on her knees as he held her in place with a hand on her horn, gripping it tight. Luna was watching as I walked over with the helm in hand as I motioned for Shadow to move his claws from her horn. Sliding it on place, the helm with a bit of fight slid on.

“What are you planning to do?” Luna asked as she motioned for if I had to count sixteen Night Guard unicorns.

“I'm tired of her showing up over and over again. I'm putting an end to this now, once and for all.” With that, I placed my right claw around her horn. I then began to focus hard as I could feel my own magic within her, deep within her. With a bit more probing, I was able to feel her magic as well. After a few moments I began, and that's when things decided to go sideways... sort of.

[End of Chapter]

Author's Notes:

Well Well Well it looks like I have returned from the either with another chapter. But what's this? Poisons, Dragon Attacks and more? On top of that Nightmare Moon captured? What shall become of her? Find out the next chapter.

And remember
Stay Frosty my friends