I groaned in discomfort, and for the seventeenth time that day, I tried to roll over onto my stomach, in an attempt to dislodge the rock that was stabbing into my back. For the seventeenth time, the obsidian boulders on both of my wings prevented me from making barely any movement.

As if that weren’t enough, the obsidian boulders on my wings were the ONLY boulders that were made of obsidian. Seriously, out of all the places in the Everfree forest to get struck by lightning, I just happened to get lucky, and get hit right next to the area with the only two boulders that could effectively make a prison for me.

For hours, I stared at the sky, in just enough discomfort to stay awake, while still feel tired at the same time. It was maddening. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t quench my thirst. Hell, if it weren’t for the fact that the sky changed color when it switched between night and day, I wouldn’t have had any idea of how much time had passed.

Instead, I was left there, alone with my thoughts, and my guilt. Nothing was there to distract me from thinking about how much pain I had seen on Twilight’s face, after I had told her that we should never speak to each other again. Over, and over again, my mind replayed for me those last few moments I had spent with her, and each time I saw it, I felt my guilt grow.

After two days of laying there, in that condition, I was exhausted. I wanted something to kill me, to send me off to another world to recover, if only to give my mind something else to focus on. For a moment, it seemed as if Fate had pitied me, and an old, battle-scarred manticore wandered into the little cliff/stream that I was trapped in.

The manticore approached me cautiously, sniffing the air, before it gave me a confused look.

“Well?” I snarled. “Come on. I’m easy prey…” When it didn’t make any movements, I screamed at it, “COME ON! END IT!”

Shaking its mane, it gazed at me with a neutral expression, before silently padding away, scorpion tail glistening in the light of the sunset.

“NO! GET BACK HERE! I’M NOT FINISHED YET!” I roared, trying to move again, tearing open numerous small cuts along my wings. “JUST END IT!”

Angrily, I thrashed about, once again attempting to remove my wings from the boulders, but to no avail. I shook my head wildly from side to side, splashing up water into the air, before my glasses finally fell off, and were swept into the stream, slowly being carried away by the water.

“OH GREAT!” I shouted. “Now I can barely see anything, besides those damn boulders! GREAT!”

I slammed my head back into the ground, and tried to resign myself to finally falling asleep.

The sun had risen three more times, and no more monsters from the forest had stumbled onto my little prison. I guessed that I was on my fourth day of going without food, or water, and I barely had the strength to raise my hoof up off the ground. I was also finally starting to feel the effects of sleep deprivation, and my emotions were wildly out of control.

One moment, I would be totally consumed with guilt, and feel as if I were drowning in the feeling of my own inadequacy, haunted by the image of Twilight’s pain. Other times, I was enraged. I wanted to die, but nothing would come up and try to end me.

Right about then, I think the boredom, hunger, and thirst, finally made my brain snap, and I started to see…things.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I spotted a pale white figure walk towards me. In my exhaustion, I couldn’t even turn my head to look at it. When the figure leaned over me, my eyes widened in shock, as the figure lowered the hood that hid her face from view, revealing...

“…Jenna?” I wheezed, squinting at the figure standing above me.

“Not exactly,” she said, smiling sadly at me. “Just a figment of your imagination, really.”

“Oh great, I’ve officially gone crazy from the lack of water and food,” I groaned. “Well, what are you here to haunt me about?”

She kneeled on the ground next to me, and for a long while, she was silent, as she tried to find the right words to use. In the end, she said, “First, before I say anything, I want you to know that I am a manifestation of things that you know. Okay?”

“Okay…” I said hesitantly. What is my mind doing to me?

“…Alright,” She stated. Taking a deep breath, as if to reassure herself, she asked me, “What do you remember about the Shadow-Stalkers?”

I closed my eyes, and struggled to bring my scattered thoughts together into a coherent form. “Uh…Torrentican, Traveler of Evil, makes them…they’re his form of minions…” I mumbled.

“What does he make them from?”

I let out a deep sigh, and kept up the mental work, glad for something to distract me from my guilt, if only temporarily. “Typically made from Dark Magic, occasionally some spirit binding, and he always includes some form of emotions…mostly anger, rage, or hatred. Normally you can tell how he made it by the color they bleed…black equals hatred, red-orange means anger…and they can take the form of anything he wants, although he makes them for a specific purpose each time, namely killing me, or others.”

“Now what do you remember about the ones that look like humans?”

Head throbbing dully, I swallowed nervously. Why was she asking me about all of this? “They are normally the most complicated, but they can typically perform some of the more complicated magics, like force-fields, and mind altering spells. I’ve had a theory that even though he normally only makes them male, that he has the potential to make female ones too.”

“Okay…this will be the hardest question for you to answer,” Jenna said, her voice cracking slightly. “What do you know about my past?”

“…Uh…crap…” This is awkward. But okay, it’s just a manifestation of my subconscious. I’ve just gotta answer truthfully. Besides, I’ve already lost Twilight. And the rest of my friends. I wouldn’t be surprised if Celestia was pissed off at me. I don’t really have much else to lose. “Asides from the fact that you studied extensively in healing magic, and had a dark wizard as a teacher, whom you rebelled against, not much,” I admitted. Almost as an afterthought, I added, “I was planning on asking you more about it after the…fiasco at The Lord of The Land’s castle, but…”

She nodded. “I died. Now, what color was my blood?”

“What kind of question is that?”

“Answer it!” She said sternly.

“Okay, okay…” I muttered. “Red, wasn’t it? No big deal there.”

“When a shadow-stalker bleeds, red means what?”

“Um…now that you mention it, I’ve never seen a shadow-stalker bleed that color,” I confessed. “It’s always been something slightly out of the ordinary.”

“Omnius…Nathan…” Jenna said, almost sorrowfully. “Connect the pieces. And remember: What happened to my body after you went into The Dark Aura?”

…Barely any past that she would explain to me…healing magic taught by a dark wizard…somehow, she knew almost as much about shadow-stalkers as I did, but I had barely told her anything about them…

…

…

…

“No,” I said, my eyes widening. “That’s impossible. He couldn’t ever do something like that!”

“Nathan…” Jenna hesitated, a tear rolling down her cheek, before she continued. “Haven’t you wondered why you haven’t seen an alternate reality version of me, when supposedly the only three that have no other versions of themselves are you, and the rest of the Travelers?”

“You’re telling me that…” I choked up, and coughed slightly to clear my throat. “You’re a shadow-stalker?”

“Was. I was a shadow-stalker. You’ve known it all along,” Jenna said, bowing her head low in shame. “Torrentican created me for one simple purpose. To trigger your Dark Aura, and cause you as much harm as possible…I was supposed to betray you…but I couldn’t bring myself to do so.”

My heart felt as if it were being shattered. Everything I had thought real, between Jenna and I, was fake. It was all planned from the start, by Torrentican. “But…when you died, why was I able to bring you back to life?” I asked desperately, trying to find some semblance of reality.

“The Gods and Goddesses of Good felt pity for me, and for you as well,” she said, staring at the ground next to her. “They decided that I had earned a soul, so they saved my essence, and allowed me to return for one last week with you.”

Welp. I guess I shouldn’t take this that badly then. If what she says is true, then she’s just saying stuff that I should already know. I should be fine with this. Hell, I should be happy that I don’t need to feel guilty for falling in love with another.

But then again, there are a lot of things that I should do.

“So everything between us…that was a lie?” I whispered, tears rolling down my cheeks.

“No, never believe that,” she quickly said. “I only wanted you to know the truth.”

“But why? Why now, of all times?” I half-shouted in a mixture of anger, sorrow, and regret.

“Because: You needed to know that sometimes, it doesn't matter whether you know certain pieces of information or not. I need you to remember the promise you made to me, on the last night we spent together…and because she needs you,” Jenna stated simply, before fading away into the night.

For a long while, I stared at where she had been, and thought about what she had said. The promise I had made to her…would I ever forget?

“I promised that I would find love again,” I said softly, closing my eyes. “But I thought she meant like the love of a family…and what does she mean by…oh no.”

Memories rapidly rushed through my mind, telling me what my heart had known all along.

Meeting her at Sweet Apple Acres, and how worried she was about an impending disaster…

Offering to help her find a way to stop Nightmare Moon…

Naming my first Unicorn Spell after her…

The rage I felt when I saw how Discord had made her cry a single, heartbroken tear…

The warmth of her hug when I returned to Equestria…

“Ye Gods and Goddesses,” I lamented, weeping openly. “What have I done?”

Despite how much I had tried to fight it, despite all of the reasons I couldn’t love her, despite everything I’ve said and done, it was inevitable. I couldn’t deny it, no more than I could deny being The Eternal Traveler of Good.

Twilight Sparkle, one of my closest friends, and one of the most proficient magic users I had ever had the fortune to meet, and bearer of the Element of Magic…

Had just had her heart crushed by me.

And now? I was just beginning to realize…

Everything I had said before flying away…

It was a complete lie.

“Twilight…I’m so sorry…” I whispered, the wind carrying my apology away from me, and through the forest.

Back in Ponyville, a certain unicorn rolled over restlessly in her sleep, whimpering as she had a nightmare. Her small, draconic assistant was worried for her. No matter what he tried, he couldn’t get her to wake up.

Just as he started to consider writing the Princess a letter to ask her what he should do, she suddenly became quiet. Spike looked at her with concern, and was surprised to see that she had fell back into a peaceful slumber, her muscles visibly relaxed.

Letting out a sigh of relief, he crawled back into his bed, and pulled his blanket over himself. Drifting off to sleep, he thought he heard Twilight whisper, “I’ll find you...don’t worry.”

Preview of Chapter 6:

Gods Help Her

“I love him. And he needs our help! I don’t care what he said that day, it doesn’t change anything about the way I feel about him!”

“But he’s probably on another world by now! And even if he isn’t, how are you going to find him?”

“I don’t know…but there’s GOT to be a way! There just has to be!”

Next Chapter: 6) Gods Help Her Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 16 Minutes