Author's Notes:

I HAVE RETURNED!

He's so tiny. . .

Can. . . hold him. . .

Destroy it now. . .

COUSIN!

The scream took what little remainder of sleep in Derrick and jolted him awake, building the fractured consciousness of waking. His body had consulted numerous times in his slow process a sharp pain in his shoulder before a burning sizzle lapped it with numbness. He grunted and clenched to said pain as it very slowly died with his grogginess and brought him to the surroundings appearing to be. . . upside-down?

The darkness was a terrible atmosphere from the shred of light that glowed on a nearby torch that was hanging on a stone wall, too far for him too reach. There was nothing around him but the emptiness and a distant gurgling that sent fear down his spine the very second he heard it.

It had taken a good minute to realize that his arms were free but his legs were restrained, as well as the feeling of all blood rushing to his head.

I'm. . . hanging of the ceiling?

A self-conflicting argument had ensued that had taken into his mental process. He wasn't sure what to worry about first, the wound, the area, or the very monster he caught in the corner of his eye walking down a pitch-black corridor with a rolled-up pile of mutilated bodies in his tentacles.

His eyes widened when the mysterious night-vision of his took hold, and he caught a glimpse of the few ponies that were familiar to him. It hitched his breath. It surfaced memories of Celestia and Luna explaining the dangers of the Everfree Forest and why you should never go alone. He was skeptical at first, but he was a firm believer that evil existed.

He remembered reading a book that explained ancient creatures thought to be extinct or forgotten, although the details were vague and completely useless for him to study, not even influential to his former position as the princesses' engineer.

But there was one image in the book that jarred his memory . . .

It's fucking real. . . he began to hyperventilate whilst reaching for whatever had him suspended, but it was to no avail of finding the rope. Instead, he touched a very sticky and disgusting ooze with flesh and bone mixed in it.

He slapped a hand over his mouth after watching the ooze split around his ankle to reveal a guard that almost caught him when he entered the Everfree Forest the first time. Tears gushed and dripped down his forehead as he watched severed head slip and fall to his eye level with a single string of the substance holding it in mid-air.

CELESTIA SAID HE WAS SAFE! He kept his hand over his mouth but bit his tongue, resisting the scream that was close to escaping his throat. He looked away and tried to rip the ooze off his ankles. I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!

To his dismay, even the claws that he grew were not enough to cut or even tear the blackness. He began to whimper as it dripping onto his face.

DAMMIT! WHERE ARE YOU, NIGHTMARE MOON!?

Panic was overtaking the man with every second of his resistance, his entire hand now swallowed in the sticky ooze. He wanted nothing more than this to be a bad dream from eating something bad or by accidentally hitting his head. The longer he was awake though, the worse it was to understand that this was reality and he had no one to save him. He had no friends, no family, not even that obsessive, overbearing alicorn he kept hurting by denying what she desired.

Derrick took stopped out of the despair of becoming a meal and thought back to Nightmare Moon. He did not understand her or the antics she pulled, but one thing was certain. . . she was not here to protect him.

"I should have listened," he admitted, whimpering to himself. "God dammit, I should have listened to you. I should have been more accepting when you've done so much for me."

He lost his will to fight after that. He hung there in shame, motionless and guilty of every respond he made to Nightmare Moon's declaration of loving him. He had to be such an ass to the mare when all she wanted was to make him happy and love her.

He clenched his teeth in anger. Nightmare Moon had become his—everything. He certainly would have confessed if he hadn't held onto the past so desperately and just let himself come to love the mare. He definitely would tell her if given the chance to escape. More importantly, he would tell the alicorn that he loves her and belongs only to her.

"I'm sorry," he cried silently. "Dammit, I'm so sorry for not telling you."

He cried until there were no more tears to shed from his eyes and remained suspended with no effort of fighting. He sighed to himself out of disappointment. He had never been one to stay in place and just give up, but in this case, it made sense to him to let death come and claim his life. He might have been screwed throughout his life, but he was relatively happy to have such sadistic ponies come into his life and make things better for him

He could only smile at thinking about them. He had been much happier with them than before, much more joyous than in Canterlot. He wanted to hear their laughter again, the mockery of how weak he was compared to them.

However, it was endless silence and death around him. And the thought of Nightmare Moon laughing. . .

Nightmare Moon. . .

His moon. . .

His mare. . .

NO!

"I am not going to become a fucking meal," he growled, scowling at the ooze as his sudden anger triggered the tendrils to sprout out of his back. He tried again to free himself. "Dammit, if I had something to burn it!"

Suddenly he noticed the tendrils curl in front of him and gasped as the tip expanded, releasing gaping maws of teeth and an orange light that grew brighter with every second. All three were clearly reacting to his emotions and thoughts. A deep flow of energy had risen throughout his body as intense flames shot out of the tendrils and evaporated the sticky fluid. He realized what had just happened and shut his eyes after noticing the drop being enough to cripple a person, but the moment of injury or death did not come as expected.

He slowly opened and saw that he had not fallen but was midair with the tendrils acting as legs, carrying him effortlessly. Confusion overtook Derrick while the hardened appendages gently lowered him to his feet, allowing to get his bearings before changing their density to return to soft, floating tails of blackness.

The tension seemed to ease in the young lord after he looked at one and watched as it cooed and. . . nuzzled him?

"Is this something else to go with my change?" He inhaled, drawing in a calming state of mind. The tendril did not stop sharing it's affection, and soon enough the other three were doing the same thing.

"You're alive," he told him, chuckling after a moment of processing what had just happened. "Oh my god, I never thought magic could have a mind of its own."

Derrick waited until they were done touching him before looking down at his shoulder to see that the gorgon's bite was not there. Not even a scratch was on his skin, and him want to laugh even harder.

"I really am Raven's son," he told himself jokingly. His laughter became uncontrollable, as it had echoed loudly and alarmed any living creature nearby. "I. . . I'M THE SON OF RAVEN. I'M THE SON OF A FUCKING GODDESS!"

The four tendrils just swayed gently as Derrick stepped out of his prison and into the corridor of darkness with his laughter dissolving into sobs, none of them knowing what to do or how to fix the problem when they are merely forms of magic given a little life by his own conscience and energy. Protection was all they knew, but the connection of his emotions was strong and confusing while watching him fall to his knees.

"I'm a freak," he announced, accidentally punching a few bones that were on the tiled floor.

"What am I?" He asked himself. "And what am I supposed to do?"

He closed his eyes briefly and dried his tears with his torn shirt. He shook his head without an answer and out of denial that his problems were real. His heart accelerated and he clutched his chest, every fiber in his body wanting him to collapse and lie there until someone could save him or the answer came. Every single fear he felt in those long months of captivity welled up to choke him—to choke back what his scream for Nightmare Moon to save him again.

But again, she was not there at his side. Not this time. She was not there to tower over him so protectively. To stair at horror in it's face and declare death should it try to hurt him. All he had to go by were these tendrils watching him worriedly and the never-ending darkness that. . .

"Master. . ."

Derrick looked up, his sense of touch catching a silky calmness that shot out of his back pocket and circled him tentatively. His eyes widened in fear and he was prepared to make a run from the culprit; that was until his mind processed that he had been touched by the same cloak his mother gave him. His father's cloak, the first object that somehow spoke to him, was hovering in front of him with welcoming sleeves.

"Do not cry, my master." There is was again, the loving. . .soft voice of this strangely animate clothing. "You have nothing to fear. The divine blackness of your father will protect you."

Derrick's gaze was steady on the cloak as it slowly moved behind him and took hold, his voice silenced by a sudden warmth that radiated from the garment after it caressed his body and buttoned itself. He wanted to question where it had come but felt the urge to laugh after bracing a little to the memory he had about learning the magic that Nightmare Moon said he possessed.

"If mine is symbiotic," he told himself skeptically. "Then what's to say this thing can't appear whenever it needs too."

He chuckled again. "Son of a bitch, I guess there's more to magic than I learned from Twilight."

"Master. . ." The cloak spoke again, but he noticed the concern in it's voice. "You must journey through the outer realm. I sense the gorgon returning, and there is life in the distance. Two small lights of life."

Silence took hold of the man when his dark vision returned and the view ahead made his breath stop in the middle of his chest. Beyond him were various thin, pony-like creatures that had long since met a terrible demise and were now trapped in the outer realm as monsters of limbo, hungering for any scraps that the gorgon may have left. They eyes him hungrily and very slowly approached as he stood there in terror that it was truly the end for him.

However, something touched his ears, a sound similar to a blade being sharpened or sheathed. He noticed that these undead creatures began backing away from him with fear in the glowing, orange eyes. The sharpening sound came again, this time with hissing on both sides. He turned away carefully to see from the corner of his eye that the tips of the two tendrils on his right were now large hands with long, razor sharps blades for fingers.

"What the. . ." He looked to his left and saw that the same thing happened to them as well. It was surprising to see that these things had changed shape and now hissing, but nothing could have mentally prepared him for the symbols now glowing off the cloak.

"Do not worry, my master. You are safe." The voice reassured, although he felt no encouragement to have such help, especially when one of the appendages gave a warming by cutting a large boulder into four pieces with ease.

Watching split apart with perfectly clean cuts made him sweat a little.

"Thank god I don't grow facial hair," he whispered to himself.

The creatures eventually disappeared into the blackness, and Derrick was left alone to stand there and wonder where he should go. Given that the only place learned was the castle, this was an entirely different area with just instincts and the cloak to help guide him away from the gorgon before it returned. Water trickled from the columns and empty bookshelves down to the pools all around him, drops hissing as they hit the ooze that was actually all around the man.

Steam rose as curling vapor after the toxic substance lapped over the water and consumed it. The flickering light from the torch behind him cast shadows of victims that were brought to this place and met with an untimely demise. It seemed as though this place was journey into hell, faith abandoned and hope lost in the perilous darkness.

Derrick heard his own heart boom like drum being repeatedly beaten. His first reaction of taking a step forward was letting fear overcome him, but he could not allow it. He worried himself with various thoughts of what lurked ahead, whether it be another monster or someone that actually lived down here. That had to be impossible though, there was nothing that remarked signs of vegetation or a living animal that was not horrendously disfigured and hungry for flesh.

He hadn't known what making another step into the place entailed or the jeopardy he was going to be in if he did not move quickly. His reaction when he turned to the left, around a broken bookshelf was confusion yet not enough for him to stop. On both sides were lines of bookshelves with the very books it holds wrapped in chains or lost to time with some turning to dust by a gentle breeze.

Now he understood just what he was getting into with walking forward. This was not some secret cave that the gorgon dragged him into, this was entire castle similar to Canterlot but clearly opposite of what he remembered.

He leaned to the right and dragged his hand across one of the shelves, remembrance nipping at his mind after he grabbed a book that was not chained nor turning to dust. He stopped long enough to see that it was exactly the same as the advanced healing spellbook Celestia had in the forbidden library, but instead of spells meant to heal there were incantations of mental, physical, or emotional torture with drawings of the victim as an example.

He was beyond disgusted by such a book existing and continued to flip through page after page for some clue that could help him. But none of these spells were of use and he tossed the book to the ground and reached for another. His breath was hitched by this book containing recipes on how to cook someone, or this case. . . somepony.

"Jesus. . ." He put a hand to his mouth and fought the urge to vomit, as it had been drawn out by the fifth page showing how to properly cook a pony. Cutting them from the chin to their genitals, bleeding them out, using a unicorn's horn as a spice or even a pegasus' wings for stem because they they released a hint of magic that would help the meat absorb the spices for flavor.

He tossed that one way as well and reached for another, but it turned into dust the very second he opened it. It angered him a little to find such horrible things here and his situation continued to worsen with more of these books showing death and mind-control, even the proper method of turning somepony into something they are not through a gruesome ritual.

He sighed slowly and dropped the last book he grabbed, it's page stuck on how to turn an alicorn into a delicious meal with simple ingredients. He immediately thought about Nightmare Moon and felt his heart lurch for her becoming a possible victim. His imagination fueled his rage and determination to escape this hellhole. Every cell of his body telling him to get out.

Something caught his eye though, something glowing high above him with rainbow lettering.

He rubbed his eyes, trying to make sure that it wasn't his mind playing tricks on him. "Out of all the books that are here, the most interesting one just has to be too damn high for me to reach. If only I could find a ladder or know how to levitate it to me."

Out of the blue, one of the tendrils dropped it's dangerous shape and quickly shot towards the book, stretching with ease and curling around said book before returning to Derrick. Startled by the tendril, he eyed the appendage cautiously whilst taking the book. The tendril cooed happily at doing something good for him and resumed being a dangerous weapon growing out of his upper back.

Getting a feeling for the weight of this book, Derrick made sure he had a tight grip and blew the dust and cobwebs off after confirming that it would not fall apart in his grasp. He saw the symbol on it and realized that it was another book about the Elements of Harmony, but the gemstones they represented were discolored with a much more disheartening color to them with six darkly appearing ponies touching them.

"No fucking way," he said to himself, looking at the title and saying it out loud as it glowed a little brighter. "The True Elements."

He opened it and began reading the first page, although a bit skeptical since he had seen from Luna's dreams what they did to separate her from Nightmare Moon.

He took a deep breath and began reading quietly, trusting that the tendrils would keep him safe while his guard was down.

"To whoever that finds this," He stopped for a moment, wondering why somebody would put that before continuing. "Know that these elements are the forgotten aspects of what it means for chaos and harmony to come together, but they are trapped in oblivion. I have failed to stop the light from breaking the balance and my own failure has brought forth my end. The fake now stands in my place, a puppet of what I should have been but refused, for I saw that peace cannot exist without chaos."

He took another breath and looked up to make sure nothing was there. Thankfully there wasn't, and he went on with reading the last paragraph at the bottom with an illegible signature at the bottom.

"The puppet blinds my subjects, it speaks with a silver tongue and corrupts the world with a blinding light. Do not trust her. Do not trust the light. Do not let the puppet or the fake elements destroy the balance, or her master will destroy this world."

Sincerely . . . He could not make out the name, other than that whoever wrote this smeared their name by mistake. Whether or not it was an accident, Derrick now more questions that needed to be answered. It ate at his mind with every second of trying to read the name to no avail.

Who was this pony?

Why did this book imply that the elements of harmony are fake?

More importantly, what are the true elements?"

He skipped the index and came to the first chapter, a detailing riddle about these true elements and what they represented.

Their is no peace without chaos. . .

Truth must be with lies. . .

Kindness must have cruelty. . .

Generosity cannot be without greed. . .

Loyalty is not without distrust. . .

Laughter is nothing if it doesn't have pain . . .

And the spark cannot be without light or darkness. . .

He pondered the riddle for a moment before looking up, deep in thought. "There is no peace without chaos. Chaos and peace in a balance; that's not possible. It's no different from good and evil—" He flipped through more pages, skipping the details he should be looking over. "What the hell does this all mean for—" He stopped at a detailed drawing.

His silence was worse than the darkness around him. Blood rushing. Heart racing. Even his hands shaking a little. Derrick gently took the drawing out of the book and stared at it in shock. He swallowed the lump in his throat and turned it over to find no writing of any sort, and went back to looking at the unconscious alicorn being dragged by chains into a black hole while another with a red mane scowled at her.

"Never seen her before." He questioned if it was real or something drawn for fun. He caught in the bottom left corner a figure staring from a corridor with a smile on her face and the six elements floating around her.

"Who the fuck is that?" He asked himself, ignoring the rest of the drawn picture. The mare was nothing similar to either alicorn, not even close in appearance to any mare he'd met, but it had the elements and was wearing a crown on her head, larger and more detailed than Celestia's.

Was it another sister that Celestia and Luna refused to speak about, or was she possibly this fake that the writer was mentioning?

More and more questions swirled around inside Derrick's head as he continued to search the drawing for some kind of answer. Sadly, as detailed as it was, a drawing in black and white could only go so far, and it left him with more anger he planned to burn out by building something when he returns home.

That is if he could go home. . .

He exchanged a frown with one of the tendrils. The confusion was getting worse with mysteries about his heritage now teamed with the mystery of the elements. He had tried to put it in the back of his mind as much as possible to focus on finding a way out. To deliberately forget the evils that was daunting this place. Unfortunately, his mind retreated to the book as the tendrils took it and stuffed it inside a pocket that he did not see inside the cloak.

"That's handy," he complimented, smiling at his deadly extensions. "It's a damn good thing that I have you growing out of my back."

He continued to smile at them and wonder the possibilities with these things. His first thought was the time he could cut with building anything his heart desired and the extra help that is needed when it requires more than two hands to hold a part together. It was easy to remember that problem since Spike helped him a great deal with fixing so many ovens and. . .
"I told her not to use that spell."

Derrick immediately froze in place, surrounded with the safety of his tendrils hissing in response and forming staring at all four corners to avoid a sneak attack. Quietly, the man allowed the voice to come a little closer out of the trust of being safe by his tendrils.

The one speaking was strong and scrutinizing. A dark figure wearing goggles with a blade sheathed but ready to cut down anything that may pose a threat. His outline in the darkness did not escape the fearful lord's vision.

"Use her spell?" Derrick prompted, and the bulb clicked in his mind. "Did you bring me to that castle before that. . . thing dragged me here?"

"I'm an earth pony, fool." The figure replied. "The one I serve brought you here, and it has exhausted her to bring you here."

"Are there others here?" Derrick questioned, a little too-excitedly. "Is there a way out?"

The figure stepped forward, but remained in the darkness. "There is a way out, but the gorgon blocks the exit and devours anything that comes close to it."

Derrick raised and eyebrow at the stallion. "Is the gorgon some tentacle thing with a big mouth?"

"It is. Why do you ask?"

"Because it dragged me into this place."

"A misfortune that we did not expect." The mystery pony nodded at him, before turning away. "Nonetheless, you are here now. She will want to see you, and who am I to deny a family reunion."

Derrick had no idea what he was talking about, but he did not have the chance to ask the stallion, as he had walked away and said:

"Come. She will want to see you."