Page stood outside of Radiant’s room, taking a deep breath. Beside him, Winter stood. “You alright,” she asked, concerned for how he had been acting since Radiant had appeared. He had been off edge since last night, and he had had nightmares.

Page hung his head slightly. “I’m not sure if I can do this, Winter. She’s so different now… and, somehow, I feel like it’s my fault…”

“Page, this is your choice…”

He sighed. “I just… I need to know what happened to her… How she became…” He chose not to finish that sentence. He wasn’t sure what Radiant was now. Hesitantly, he knocked on the door.

Inside the room, Radiant sat, a broken locket in her hoof. “Come in.” Slowly, the two ponies made their way inside the room. Radiant glared at them both. “What do you two want?”

Winter nudged Page, letting him know that he would be answering the questions for now. He cleared his throat. “We came to settle any confusions you no doubt have, as well as ask some questions ourselves…”

Radiant stared at Winter, her face full of distrust and disgust. “You brought a mare with you… A pregnant one at that…” She glared at Page. “You truly left me behind, didn’t you?”

Page sighed, having known this would be the first thing addressed. “You were dead, Radi-“

“I WAS NEVER ONCE DEAD, PAGE!”

Page shook his head softly, keeping his patience. “There is no need to shout, Shine.”

Radiant scoffed at the name. “It is Shadow now. Radiant Shadow.”

Page sighed once again, sitting down in the nearby chair. He was confused, and that was something Timelords, even those who had fallen to become single hearted ponies, hated. “W-where were you all those years? You have been thought dead for so very long… I lost count of the years…”

Radiant shook her head, resigning herself to the fact that she would have to explain her whereabouts all those years. He would never let the subject drop otherwise. “I had found the alien in our town, the one who ‘killed’ me later. . I knew you had wanted to find the pony who had stolen that TARDIS for so long. I had heard the he made his life saving others from dangerous aliens and so I...” She paused, sighing. “I knew somepony would save me if I got into trouble, if not you, than he would. I baited the alien, that shadow… I led it to our home. I was so proud of myself… until I realized that no one was going to save me.”

Page could almost see the scene before his very eyes. Radiant, as she had once been, watching the Vashta Nerada fearfully, tears in her eyes as she realized that the love of her life – the very one who had vowed to stay with her and protect her until death do them part – would not save her. He felt tears stinging his eyes. Winter gently held Page’s hoof, sensing her husband's distress.

Radiant ignored them both, continuing her story bitterly. “I knew of a teleportation spell… it was black magic, something I had learned on one of our adventures. It would teleport you to the nearest planet. Being a pegasus, it was the only spell I knew I could do then and there, and I needed to escape desperately… It was my only escape. I did the spell as quickly as I could, but… something went wrong. I felt burning, searing agony through my entire being. I felt as though my body was torn in two. The bones you found in our home, cleaned by the Vashta Nerada, those were mine… But they were duplicates. The spell had basically taken half of my life force away to create a clone. And thus, the rest of me, the inner soul and a shell of a body, teleported…”

“W-where did you end up,” Page said, his voice shaking from his tears.

“The moon.”

Page sat straighter, his eyes widening. The moon? Winter beside him shook her head, trying to grasp just how far Radiant had traveled. “Wow.”

Radiant merely continued her story, ignoring their reactions still. “I was utterly drained after I reached my destination. I could barely move, and I was certain I was dying. I was in utter misery, alone and afraid… until she found me.”

Page thought a moment and his eyes widened. “That’s right… Was it truly so long ago, Radiant?”

Radiant scowled at him. “Over 1000 years… Nightmare Moon found me, battered and afraid. She used her magic to nurse me back to health, though I could tell that she was weak herself. She even cast the spell on me that allowed her to live on the moon without aging. She protected me like you could not, Page. She taught me everything I had lost in life, everypony who had lied to me…” She shook her head angrily, remembering all too well the conversations Nightmare Moon had had with her. “She taught me that you will ALWAYS be betrayed by the ones you love… Her own sister had banished her… Her own blood…”

“Radiant,” Page whispered, unable to comprehend the amount of suffering she had gone through during that time. He realized that to her, he had abandoned her. He had left her for dead, instead of looking through all of time and space to save her. Had he but known, he would’ve…

“It was proven true once again when she left me on that moon. Left me alone on that god forsaken rock to stare at the stars I had once found lovely, radiant even… Now I hated their shine, and I only wanted them to fizzle out!” She shut her eyes, telling herself to concentrate on the story. Her feelings were strong about this, and she had trouble focusing. “I had no way of knowing how long I was on the moon… I just knew that I would never come back to the place I had started.”

“As time continued to pass,” she continued, her voice settling back into her usual softness as compared to her earlier anger, “my magic grew… I was healed long ago, but now… Now I knew all Nightmare Moon had taught me. You did not need to be a unicorn or alicorn to use magic, Page. I harnessed the knowledge she taught me, reveled in the truths she had shown me. I used the power of the darkness in my own soul, and I felt the immense power that had grown. I was no longer Radiant Shine, the kind pony who saw light in everypony’s smile… No, I was something far, far better… I became Radiant Shadow.” She smiled a horrible smirk, glad to see Page so shaken by her tale as she looked at him. “I practiced over and over again with my magic, learning things you could only dream of, Timelord. I learned how to search for souls. I started small, locating the souls of the stars, but in time, I reached Equestria… I found you, and I locked on. I came back down to this place, following your miserable soul all that time. I burned in the atmosphere, and grew weaker from the shield I had placed around myself, but I had found my way here at last… I could finally show you the truth as well, and finally end your hideous existence.”

Page spoke softly, feeling tears rolling down his face that he couldn’t care less about. “Until Diane binded your magic… You cannot harm anypony directly with it…” Radiant fell silent at that, finding no reason to speak. Her silence somehow made his sorrow grow as he looked at her. The pegasus was gone that he had known. There was not even a glimmer of hope in her blood red eyes. He stood, breaking away from Winter. “You made us all think you had died! W-why would you have put yourself in danger like that?!” Still no answer. “I-If you had just told me what you had planned… I never w-would’ve thought… You wouldn’t be like this, this… THIS you are today!”

Radiant stood as well, snarling at him. “AND HAD YOU NOT GROWN IDLE, PERHAPS YOU COULD’VE SAVED ME!”

Winter looked between the two ponies. “Calm down…”

Radiant glared at Winter. “Why should I follow the orders of the bitch he managed to ensnare with his faulty love?!”

Winter fell silent for a moment. “How DARE you,” Page screamed, infuriated.

Radiant opened her mouth to say something back, but Winter cut her off. “Seems he loves this ‘bitch’ more than he loves you.” Radiant fell into a somewhat shocked silence. As did Page.

Suddenly, Radiant began to laugh. It was quiet, a small chuckle at first. Then, it grew, never reaching more than a small crescendo. She smirked at Winter. “You’ll learn soon enough… He’ll always abandon you…” Lifting her head, she smiled sweetly, her eyes betraying her malicious intent. “Won’t you, Turner?~”

Page gasped as he saw Radiant’s horn glow with a black aura. His sight went black, and he could see nothing. Yet, somehow, he could see everything, all Radiant had gone through, everything he had betrayed her in. He was in a cavern or a bottomless pit, and no light would ever shine his way. He felt terror grip his heart. He dimly heard his wife scream. “What are – doing?!”

“Winter,” He tried to scream out, but it came out as a choked whisper. He needed water, but nothing would come. He was slowly wasting away, and no one would save him. Suddenly, it felt like months, then years, then eons since he had last seen the ponies he had loved.

“I -- truth of all things,” a voice said. He could not recall whose voice it was now. It had been too long. Still, the words echoed in his head. That voice… That voice was the truth. He would listen to the voice when it spoke.

He had stopped crying a few centuries ago. He didn’t know how he survived, but his mind felt overworked. He wanted to shut down. He wanted to sleep. He dimly shut his eyes, and the last thing he saw was a shadowy orange mare fly down and smirk at him. “Go to sleep,” the voice said, “and let me take over for awhile.”

*~*~*~

Winter snarled at Radiant. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

Radiant merely smirked as the aura around her horn grew more powerful. “I am showing him the truth of all things.” Beside them, Page was on the ground, still but for the tears rolling down his face.

Winter’s horn glowed a deep red, and suddenly Radiant was slammed against the far wall. A long, jagged cut scared her forehead from the attack, and she felt her magic stop suddenly. She gasped and fell to the floor. “Stop it,” Winter said softly, her voice calm enough yet strong enough to shake mountains and fell armies.”

Page gasped, opening his eyes, the blackness that had invaded them fading. He began to gulp down air as though he had not breathed in centuries, his eyes wincing at the bright light in the room. Winter quickly ran to Page and helped him up, wincing a tiny bit herself. Her spell had taken a bit out of her.

Radiant’s hoof strayed to her forehead, feeling the blood from the cut. “You will see in time,” she said softly, obviously tired. “He will leave you… He always will.”

“Oh, shut up you sore bitch.”

“W-winter,” Page said weakly, standing on his own so she didn’t have to hold him any longer. He glared at Radiant. “Let’s leave this one to her sorrow.

“Right.”

Page began to walk out. “Goodnight, Shadow.”

Radiant smirked. “Goodnight, Sanfero.”

Page froze, his eyes widening. She smirked. “You… You have absolutely no right,” he said, the name echoing in his head.

“Don’t I, Sanfero?~ After all, every Timelord has a name.” She kept smirking at him, knowing she had not only brought back painful memories with that name, but had also revealed his true name to Winter, a secret she had not even known he was keeping.

He shut his eyes tight. “And every bitch has claws.” His horn sparked with magic and the cut on Radiant’s horn burned, causing her to gasp. Page walked out, obviously angry. “Come along, Winter.”

“One more thing, Radiant,” Winter said, glaring at her. Radiant glared right back at her. Winter walked right up to her and leaned down. “Touch my husband again, and I’ll slit your throat.” She grabbed Radiant’s hoof and twisted it harshly, smirking at the cracking sound. Radiant screamed in pain, tears instantly coming to her eyes. Winter dropped her hoof. “Night, bitch.” She walked out, flicking her tail at Radiant.

Radiant clicked her tongue and reset her hoof, using magic to heal it. She closed the door and smirked. “My spell took hold, whether they like it or not. Now, Pagey, time for some fu-un~” Her horn sparked black as she began to use her spell.

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