A cloud of debris had covered the area as the only ones who had been able to withstand the blast, Lucky Streak, Star Dust, who had put up a barrier seconds before the blast went off, and Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, who were behind the barrier that was now beginning to dissipate.

"That is incredible power, how did he obtain such magic at such a young age." Luna asked as she was scouting out the damage the blast had done.

"We aren't completely sure on that, but we believe that he had gotten a hold of it when he was six years old. We weren't there to see what had happened, but according to everything we had heard from his teachers and from him, he had-" Star Dust was interrupted as a stream of black came whizzing through the air in between her and Celestia.

"I really don't have the time to be listening to these old stories they're a part of the old DarkHeart and that isn't the me you need to worry about right now. No, right now you need to worry about the new DarkHeart who is on a warpath that , in all reality, doesn't even need to be in effect right now but none of you could just accept me for who I am now and decided to take away something that is now a part of my very soul and I can't just let you take it." DarkHeart after he had interrupted his mother from bringing up something that he had been wanting to forget ever since it occurred.

"But all we want to do is help you. Why do you persist on keeping something that would do nothing but bring about pain and suffering, do you not realize that you could lose everything if you were allow the dark magic to remain with you?" Luna asked, if somewhat a little irritated that the young unicorn's resolve to stop them from taking away the black magic that was, in her opinion, corrupting his mind and heart.

"I'LL LOSE EVERYTHING IF IT'S TAKEN AWAY FROM ME!!!!" He yelled, letting off an animalistic growl afterwards and causing more black energy streams to begin surrounding him again.

That outburst made them all take a step back, but had also made them curious as to why he thought that he needed his dark magic so badly. "Why do think you would lose everything if you were to lose your dark magic?" the sun goddess asked calmly.

DarkHeart simmered down a bit, but the black streams remained, before he answered her, "Because.... as I said before.... the dark power of mine is now a part of who I am, I did get my cutiemark because of it after all, and if I were to lose it I would losing the thing that made me special. That's the reason why I'm willing to fight against every single one of you to make sure I keep it, and besides...... even you were to succeed I would have ended running away to live alone anyway."

His parents were shocked to hear that their only son, whom they had loved so dearly and who had returned that love back without hesitation, would just get up and leave just because they were trying to help him.

"What!? Why would you leave, we're only trying to help you DarkHeart, so why would you leave because of that? Are you

really obsessed with gaining power, that when somepony takes from you, you just get up and leave." Star Dust asked angrily.

"I wouldn't leave because of the fact that you took that power away from me. I would leave because of the fact I know that you don't accept me for what I have become.... You think that by taking away this power that I'll return to the way I was before I had gotten it, right?" The bitterness in his tone was slowly turning over into a dark one instead as he glared at the four ponies in front of him.

"But of course, I still remember the sweet little colt I had came to help when you were having those endless nightmares, and each and every night I had, and still do, come to check on your dreams to make sure they plague your mind no longer. I have seen what you're really like and this most certainly is not it. So it stands to reason that the dark magic is what's making you act this way." Luna stated matter-of-factually.

The other three ponies next to her were nodding their like what she had said was indeed true, but stopped once they heard DarkHeart's dark laughter fill the air. They all turned their attentions back towards him staring at him like he was a mad pony, but for anypony else knew he very well could be.

After a good five minutes of laughing DarkHeart had finally managed to calm his laughter down so that he was able to finally speak. "You honestly think that it's my dark magic corrupting me that's making act like this. I couldn't tell you just how wrong you are. he said, still a few of his leftover laughter from earlier trying to make it's way out.

"But....but it has to be the reason why, you've always been a sweet boy and would never act this way, but I guess this our fault as well. We should've contacted the princesses when you had your little episode on the first day of school." Lucky Streak said unconvincingly.

"Yes, your father is right no matter would happen you would have taken any action action that colt, at least no actions that didn't involve a teacher or somepony who would've had the authority the properly assess the situation." Star Dust backed up her husband.

"Man you guys are dense. Since I'm obviously not getting the message across to any of you by being nice and talking calmly, I guess I'm going to have to up the volume." DarkHeart said getting a little irritable himself at the ones who were trying to 'help' him.

"I'M NOT GIVING UP MY DARK MAGIC AND IF YOU DON'T APPROVE OF THAT THEN YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO TAKE BY FORCE, AND IF YOU'RE GOING TO DO NOTHING THEN I'M JUST GOING TO LEAVE AND LIVE IN THE WILD AND WILL NEVER BE HEARD FROM AGAIN!!!!" He shouted in a voice that was on par with the Royal Canterlot Voice as the four covered their ears to prevent any damage from befalling them.

DarkHeart stood where he was waiting for one of them to say something, but they still had their hands cupped over their ears. Once they were sure that he was done, they slowly took their hands off being cautious to make absolutely sure that he was indeed finished. After they had their were sure that the close was clear Princess Celestia quickly looked over to him angrily for she had grown tired of pointlessly arguing with the colt.

"I've had enough of this, it's become obvious that he's not willing to let go of the darkness of his accord and now that he's revealed that he released that spell knowing the damage it could do and killing those guards I have no other choice but to bring him down, dead or alive!" Princess Celestia stated.

Lucky Streak, Star Dust, and Princess Luna all looked towards Celestia to see if maybe they could change her mind, only to see the seriousness in her eyes which made them all nod their heads in agreements as they turned their own glares towards the dual-wielding unicorn.

"I guess you have answer DarkHeart." Nova finally said since the he changed to his Darkness form.

"It seems that I do, but there is one question that I need answered before I do any thing else." DarkHeart said in a softer tone.

"And what would that be DarkHeart?" Shadow asked, curious as to what else he needed to escape his parents and the princesses.

"Nova.... do want to stay by me or would you rather I leave you and be taken care of by somepony else, and before you make your decision I just want to let you know that.... I love and care about you and no matter the decision you make I'll always consider you my friend." He said with a smile, a tear threatening to escape from his slitted eye.

"I'm with him on this, you've been a part of his 'family' for generations now and have watched it grow from his ancestor that had found you. I would be okay with either decision you made glow butt, even if we do have our little disagreements, but I consider a friend just as much as I do DarkHeart. Even though our entourage wouldn't really be the same without you, but hey, maybe we'll meet up in the future, after all of this has blown over. But again, it's your decision and your opinion is the only one that matters at the moment." Shadow added in after DarkHeart had finished.

There was nothing but silence both outside and inside DarkHeart's mind as he waited for Nova's response, and the only reason he wasn't be attacked right now is because he had asked his question loud enough for his parents to hear and they in turn had stopped the princesses from advancing on him so as to see what she would decide as well.

This unnatural silence continued on for sometime now as the five ponies were waiting patiently for the light spirit's decision when DarkHeart had finally heard incoherent words from her.

"What was that Nova?" He asked.

"I said I want to stay with you and Shadow. You two are my close friends as well and I don't want to lose the two of you knuckleheads either, and besides who am to break up our trio of misfits." she replied earning a smirk and a little laughter from the other two.

"We have that of the way but there is one more issue that should probably be addressed before we begin." Shadow said.

"What do you think is still so important that we further postpone the inevitable Shadow?" DarkHeart asked annoyed that once again he was stopped from making his escape already.

"I'm not really sure if it's really that important but I have to ask anyway, what the hell happened to Spirit after the blast." Shadow had reminded them of Spirit, the dragon who had originally came here to steal the Heart of Light from DarkHeart.

"Oh yeah, what did happen to that snivelling coward of a dragon?" he asked having completely forgotten about the supposed 'soul stealer'.

He turned towards the place where he had left the dragon, only to find that both he and his morning star were gone.

"Guess he left while you were talking to those four." Shadow stating the obvious.

"DARKHEART, enough stalling!! Did Nova decide to stay with you or come back to us?" Star Dust growled.

He turned back around towards his foes his happiness immediately turning to scorn as he cast his gaze upon them. "She said that she's staying with us, because she didn't want to lose her two closest friends and is now a part of our band of misfits." he said coldly.

His mother sighed upon hearing that but figured it was for the best. She thought that maybe after her son was drained of all of his dark magic, and would most likely be feeling a little sore from the ass kicking he will be getting, that she would be able to get him to see that they did to him was for the best. "Well if that's what she chooses, then I won't try to convince her otherwise, but do know this son, you won't be allowed to escape and once this is all over you will be grounded for a long time." Star Dust scolded him.

They had all expected him to make some kind of smartass comment about the fact that, even at a time like this, his mother was still threatening him with a grounding, but he was done messing around with ponies that didn't understand what he was going through and had charged towards them hoping to get past them and disappear into the wild where he felt was the only place for creature such as himself to live, a place for a monster to live out the rest of his days in peace.

Thanks to the dark energy running through his veins Dark Heart was already running at unbelievable speeds for a unicorn but he knew that in order to get past his parents and the princesses he would need to go faster and thought of one thing that could possibly get him to speed up even further, the only problem was that his plan also had the possibility of backfiring on him and lead to his capture if he wasn't careful.

What Dark Heart was planning was to try to fuse both types of his magic within himself to give him the boost he was looking for, but the problem with that was that every time he had tried to fuse them before, instead of calling upon them separately, the conflicting powers of his dark and light powers would often try to fight each other for control and make them become unstable and thanks to that instability it would create an internal implosion that sucks away all the magical energy within him and he wouldn't be able to use either types of magic for a few days. He had discovered all of this during the summer while trying to find ways to boost his powers even further, even if for short periods of time.

He feared that fusing his light and dark powers together would the same way it always had when had try to use it before but as he continued to look at the four ponies that were determined to stop him Dark Heart saw that he had no other choice but to do so.

"Well you two this may be the last time we see each other, is there anything anypony wants to say before I go through with this." Dark Heart asked.

"I said everything that I needed to when we were asking Nova who she wanted to stay with." said Shadow.

"Same here, what about you Dark Heart?" Nova replied.

"Nope.... well actually there is one thing. I just want to say that if this doesn't work I'm glad that the three of us met, it's been one hell of ride even despite how short it was." Dark Heart to which the two spirits agreed to.

Without further to do, Dark Heart began the strenuous process of fusing the light and darkness within his body. He could already feel the opposites trying to defy to will of their bearer and started to pull apart from each other, causing the energy flow to become unbalanced and unstable which also caused excruciating pain to shoot through his body.

"Nnngh....... NO, I can't fail not again. The future of all three of us rest on me successively performing this spell. . . . I MUST, complete this fusion otherwise I lose everything I have left! Dark Heart growled through clenched teeth as he tried even harder to make both of the energies inside him combine.

"I must complete this fusion to save to lives of the two ponies that actually care, it doesn't matter that they're spirits!" The pain seemed to be fading but Dark Heart was too busy trying to make sure that the fusion was a success.

The two energies seem to calm their storm within him as they finally seem to accept what Dark Heart wanted them to do as they seem to be successfully combining into one and creating energy pulses throughout his body, giving him greater reserves of magic to call upon, but the process still had a ways to go as some of the magic was still trying to reject their polar opposites.

"I MUST PROTECT...... MY FRIENDS!!!!" Dark Heart's eyes snapped open as the last bits of the conflicting forces bent to his will and created an immense surge of power to course through him and getting the power he needed in order to escape the clutches of the ones who were trying takeaway everything left that he held dear and once again surged forward, straight towards to group, and to be more precise, straight towards the sun goddess herself.

"Sister, Star Dust, put up the barriers! Lucky Streak make sure you're ready to apprehend him after he passes through our barrier, which should slow him down enough for you to make that possible." Celestia ordered as her's, Luna's and Star Dust's horns started glowing with their magical auras.

Lucky Streak had moved into position a few yards behind the three mares with a hook and chains in his hands.

"I hope this works."

"I hope this works." the couple thought, still a little worried that the princesses' plan wasn't going to work.

But they didn't have much time to really let it dwell in their heads for very long as Dark Heart was fast approaching them, and if they weren't mistaken, they thought that he looked like he had gotten faster in the last few minutes.

"GET READY EVERYPONY!" Luna shouted as Dark Heart was now only one- hundred meters away.....ninety meters away.....eighty meters away...... seventy meters....... sixty meters, by this point DarkHeart sped up again and moving at blinding speeds now he was but thirty meters from them and closing in fast........ fifteen meters and he increased his speed once more and the four adults were already ready to make their move at the right moment.......he was now at ten meters and he became all the more faster and his speed seemed to increase with every second as he neared them......now at nine meters......eights meters.......seven......six......five....four....three.......two......one.......

"W-W-W-W-WHAT HAPPENED!!?" shouted Lucky Streak not seeing Dark Heart pass through the barrier, in fact nopony had seen him period for...

"He....he vanished...our son has just vanished." said Star Dust wide-eyed.

The princesses were looking around to see if he had somehow managed to just careen off course and was in a pile of rubble that didn't hear or see fall on top of him as they were looking through each pile they could find, all while using a locator spell to keep an eye underground.

Lucky Streak and Star Dust, after getting over her shock, took to the roofs and sky to get an aerial overview of the decimated remains of ponies' homes to see if he had gone a different way to avoid being captured.

The four of them looked and looked but couldn't find a single of the black unicorn and they all knew that he had successfully escaped from their grasp.

"He's gone.....he's really gone. My son is gone forever and he believes that we hate him......that we've betrayed him." Star Dust said on the brink of tears.

"My little Darky is gone and there's nothing we can do to bring him back." At this point she broke down and started crying for the lost of her only son.

"Shush, my dear it'll be okay," Lucky Streak tried to comfort his wife. "We don't know that he'll never come back, we just have to be patient and wait for him to come back on his own once he's calmed himself down and comes to his senses."

As he was holding her in his embrace, stroking her back to get to stop crying, Princess Celestia stepped up behind the couple, "I'm sorry that we weren't able to stop him today Star Dust, but I promise I'll have my guards keep looking for him and return your son to you." she said helping to calm Star Dust and Lucky Streak.

"Sorry princess but I don't think neither you, your sister, nor the royal guard should look for Dark Heart." Lucky stated still consoling his wife.

This, of course shocked the two princesses, "But why not, don't you want your son to be back with you as soon as possible?" asked Luna.

"We do, but it's obvious that he doesn't want any of us around right now and the fact that we just tried to capture and imprison him, it would be best to leave him be and hope that someday he'll forgive us and come back." The Princess wanted to protest but looking at all of the damage that has been the little town she let a sigh.

"Okay then, we will respect your wishes, but we will let you know of any information we get on his whereabouts and well being." She informed them.

Dark Heart was still running through the vast forest, not looking back in case he was still being pursued by his parents, the princesses, or the guard.

"Dark Heart, dude, you can stop now there's nothing following you, you're in the clear!" Shadow called out to him knowing that Dark Heart won't stop unless he was told that he wasn't being pursued.

DarkHeart took a quick glance back to make sure that Shadow was right before he started slowing down. "Well I guess you're right, but still I don't want to be out ot long, we need to find a place where I could hide just in case they do come looking for me." he said looking back to the direction he had just came from before proceeding forward.

"You know you can shift back to your normal form again. It's not like any wild animal would be able to get the jump on you, you are a well-trained fighter whose eyes could pierce through even the darkest of caves." Nova reminded him.

"Oh, yeah, I guess I should change back now shouldn't ?" Dark Heart called upon his dark magic to drive back his Darkness form till it was needed to called upon again.

The dark energy began to swirl around his form ready to draw back the darkness that had taken refuge within him but suddenly they vanished before the process was even done.

"What in Tartarus is going on with my powers?" He asked as tried to change back into his normal form again only to get the same results.

"What's wrong Dark Heart, why aren't you changing back?" Nova asked starting to get a little concerned.

"I....*crackle*....don't....*crackle*.....know!" He grunted as he kept trying to change back. "Shadow you think you could go snooping through my mind, or body, or wherever part of me this form affects when I change and find out what's going on?"

"I'm was already one step ahead of you there buddy and have an answer as to why you can't change back." Shadow responded with a mildly excited tone that had DarkHeart a little creeped out.

"Well then spill it you ass. What's preventing him from turning back... and the hell do you sound so happy about it?" Nova said after Shadow hadn't said anything for a few moments.

"Well Dark Heart old pal, it would seem that your Darkness form has bonded with you body and soul." Shadow said, the joy in his voice too noticable now.

"And what the in tartarus is that suppose to mean?" Dark Heart asked now getting as concerned as Nova.

"Well, it means that your Darkness form IS your normal form, though I'm not sure if that means whether or not you can back to previous form, but whenever you're knocked unconscious or anything like that while in another form this will be the one you now fall back to." Shadow explained.

"Oh, and Nova, the reason why I sound so damn happy is because with his Darkness form now taking control, it helps further prove my theory on why the darkness is soooo much better that the light, so, HA in your face." he gloated.

With that, the two spirits started to begin arguing with each other in which side of the spectrum was truly better while Dark Heart secluded himself within his thoughts.

This form has completely bonded wit me now but how, was it really the way I was acting? Was I really acting like some kind of madpony with a lust for power? Was I being evil? Wait, no- no I couldn't have been otherwise the amulet would have activated, or shown some kind signal, or something. Maybe it was the fusion, maybe when I finally got it to work, it didn't just fuse my dark and light powers, but it also fused my normal and Darkness forms as well since technically m normal form would be like my light form.... I think. Whatever, I'll worry about it at a later date but right now I need to find a place to call my new home, since the princesses are sure to be looking for me I can't really travel to any other town, but where would there be a good place to call home." Dark Heart, taking off the fact that he can't change back to his normal self off his mind, started thinking about what he would need to successively live off the land.

He started to stroll through the woods he was currently in and remembering all of the survival training he did with his parents when he was about nine of ten years olds while also drowning out the incessant bickering off Shadow and Nova who were still at it.

" I wish I could see what the weather's like but the damn tree canopy is too damn thick. He said to nopony in particular. "Actually, now that's on my mind, I should be able to spot a cave or a den that should provide great cover from the rain if I were to climb to the top of the canopy.

He did just that, except for climbing up part. Dark Heart decided it would be easier to just simply leap up since he's able to clear easily with a single jump. He surveyed the area around him using his Precision Sight, which was a spell to magically enhance his vision so as to allow him to see further than with his normal vision, and quickly spotted quite a few suitable areas to live in pretty quickly.

"Some of these places look promising, very promising indeed," He said while still examining the area to see if there were any better ones than the ones he and already spotted.

"Shouldn't you have picked out our new home by now Dark Heart?" Shadow asked after his and Nova's argument had finally ended.

"Shut up, I'm still looking. Besides why do you care I'm the one whose actually going to be living in it." Dark Heart answered back.

"Because I don't to hear you bitching later on in the year when it actually starts to get colder around here." Shadow replied back.

Dark Heart just rolled his eyes while he continued to look around when he spotted a cave that had formed high up into the face of a cliff, behind a waterfall.

"Hey guys, what'd you say we live in a cliff?" he asked.

"A cliff, really? Wouldn't that be kind of idiotic considering that we, well you, will need a way to escape should either of the princesses or the royal guard manage to find you." Nova asked, skeptical of the idea.

"Not really. I mean come on, it's hidden by a waterfall and I don't know about you but I've never heard of cliff cave that didn't have another, SAFE, way into it. Especially when the cliff sloping up so I think it would be good." He explained.

"I say we go for it after all he'd have a source of clean water nearby at the time, and if he could find some trees nearby that could provide him with fruit. Or do you rather he find another place that doesn't have such convenience supplies nearby which would make him have to travel away from his shelter and be exposed out in the open, and later on have the royal guard try to ambush him in his sleep after tracking down his new home?" Shadow stated, hearing grumbling from Nova and a smirk from Dark Heart.

"That's what I thought. Dark Heart let's get going before it gets dark out." Shadow commanded in which DarkHeart saluted before heading off to the cave, his smirk still plastered on his face.

Heading towards the cave on the cliff, Dark Heart's mind began to bring back the events that had just occurred forty-nine minutes ago.

But of course, I still remember the sweet little colt I had came to help when you were having those endless nightmares, and each and every night I had, and still do, come to check on your dreams to make sure they plague your mind no longer. I have seen what you're really like and this most certainly is not it. So it stands to reason that the dark magic is what's making you act this way. Luna's words played through his mind as he remembered the tender, motherly look on her face when she had spoken those words.

"If you had really watched over me and my dreams all these years, then you should have seen when your spell had worn off and saw the nightmares that I had had since then. You're nothing more than a liar that was trying to gain my trust through dishonest methods and from this day forth I won't anypony ever again." DarkHeart sadly mumbled to himself as he was going through that sentence multiple times within his head.

"So does that include us then, we may be spirits, but we still have dreams, ambitions, ......and desires, which means we're just like everypony else, so tell me ......do you not trust either then?" Nova asked in a serious tone.

"Nova you know what I meant, and both of you already know that I would trust the two of you with my life but as for everypony else, they would have to work day and night for a millenium before I would even consider putting any trust with them." DarkHeart stated coldly.

"Well then I guess it's a good thing the princesses are immortal huh." Shadow joked, but when he got nothing but silence from the two he decided to just remain silent for the rest of the trip.

The rest of their trip to the cave had been spent in an eerie silence, but that had quickly changed when they had arrived.

"HOOOLY CRAP!" The three said as they gawked at what was in front of them.

DarkHeart just stood there with Nova and Shadow looking at the interior of the cave with his mouth hanging open before he came out of his stupor to say something.

"Well I guess Lady Luck must have the hots for me because there is no way I could just stumble upon something like this, I mean seriously though what are the odds that a cave that was I thinking of using as merely a form of shelter, is filled with huge crystals all over the place. I'm so fucking set for live now." Dark Heart joked, walking towards one of the cave walls, while the spirits were still in awe by the scene.

They both finally regained themselves when they heard a loud *TING* reverberate through the cave, and turned their attention to what Dark Heart was doing to find him striking one of the crystals with his steel claws. "Yep, they're real alright." He stated still hitting the crystals.

"What?" Shadow asked confused.

"I said that these things are real. I could tell from the fact that it isn't cracking when I hit it." Dark Heart repeated.

"Well of course they're real just look at how they shine in the light." Nova said practically drooling over them within the amulet, actually DarkHeart could've sworn he felt a wet spot accumulating on his shirt, but didn't bother with it.

After hitting the crystal a few more times DarkHeart stood up and started his exploration of his new home and quickly finding that it split into many other passages when he left the room he was in. Though that didn't slow him down any as he started the walls of the cave with special navigation spires made of dark magic, something to help him navigate the caves while also making sure that if anything ever tried to hunt him down in there they would become confused and be thrown off course.

He traversed the caves for a couple of hours and getting the layout of the interior while also marking the chambers he was going to use for different rooms, like a training room and storage room as well as many other rooms for different purposes. After that he headed back to the cave's entrance to find that Luna's moon was already high in the night sky, seeing that the moonlight giving the roaring waters of falls a magnificent glow, before he sat down on the cave's crystal floor and summoning up a hay burger that he had stored a mini-pocket dimension built within the chest plate.

"This thing may not hold much but it definitely comes in handy for running away don't it?" He asked.

"It most certainly does, but let me ask you something DarkHeart, how long do you think you'll last out here?" Shadow asked, his question throwing him off.

"What do you mean Shadow, are you trying say that I don't know how to survive on my own out here?" DarkHeart was getting a little irritated, believing that that's exactly what the dark spirit was trying to say.

"No, what I mean is....well.....lets face it, your parents is the only reason why you hadn't caved into the darkness yet and carried out your more, darker, desires and I wanted to know how long you think you'll be able to hold back that darkness before it becomes too strong for you to handle." Shadow clarified.

"Oh well, if that's all you wanted to know, I think the answer is fairly simple." Dark Heart calmly.

"And what is your answer then?" Shadow asked.

"There isn't one, things have changed dramatically after my birthday, with you and Nova coming into my life as well as getting both my cutiemark and dark power, well who knows what the future has in store for us but for the time being, what do you say we put it out of our minds and enjoy everyday we got, eh Shadow." Dark Heart said leaning against the cave's wall before drowsing off into his nightmare/dream realm.

"Yeah, I guess we should I just hope this doesn't come back to blow up in our faces in the future." Shadow drowsily, before he too slipped into unconsciousness.