Author's Notes:

I have returned. Sorry for being gone so long. Decided to take a vacation and came back to the sudden concerns of FCC and the net neutrality.

Let's all hope it doesn't come to pass.

And here is the Celestia I am going with about the whole predicament of there being a fake.

Anyway, enjoy.

Confusion was endless, slowing the time of his awakening so that each individual second crawled against the surface of his mind. Derrick was barely breathing, as it had hitch in it with shuddering gasps, signaling that he was rising from the end of a terrible nightmare. His body shivered contiuously of its own accord. Try as he might as a man or some sort of god, he couldn't cease the automatic relfex, much like wounded animal cornered and afraid.

He concentrated on the first touch he could process that was actually against his skin. His mind was in chaos with the sudden remembrance of the gorger, the sound of his stuttering hearing drumming in his ears.

Hunger started to beat at him every slow second that passed of this strange warm on his forehead. He was aware that someone with magic was still near him after unleashing a powerful blow. He could hear the hissing words of the mystery pony beat deep in their soothing voice like a drum. Even the twisted, agonizing pain of his transformation made him rise like a tsunami, only to curl into a ball and lie against the pony's side.

"He's still undergoing the changes to his body." Derrick heard, deducing that whoever was touching him was indeed a mare and a familiar one, but he couldn't focus on her at the moment.

He pinched the canines of his teeth and felt they lenthened and sharp. It took every ounce of discipline however, that he possessed, to keep from concentrating on the pain in his mouth. Even with the gentleness of this pony cooing to him he could not find the calmness that Nightmare Moon would give him.

"Just wait a little longer," she whispered, her muzzle brushing against cheek tenderly.

He smelled the vanilla fragrance on her skin long before he felt her touch him. In his confused and pained state, he thought these temendous gifts of an alicorn's blood—the blood of his mother—would strengthen him, not leave him in such a crippled state, but his every sense stretched and grew until he was taking in various scents of flowers and medicines left in open jars.

A few minutes earlier, the grasses surrounding him had been a few inches under him, but now they covered the ground like a thick rug. Bushes of different flowers seemed to spring up, fully grown with stalks and petals in just mere minutes. He gaze was starting to become clear, surprised to see Violent Haze standing in front of him with a stone bowl of water and a fire that was cooking one of the smaller monsters he encountered.

"You really are the most pathetic god I have ever come across," Violent Haze sneered as he hoofed a hot washcloth to his mare.

Derrick didn't deign to respond, what good would it do for him? He could see that the stallion wanted to elicit some response out of him, and he wasn't about to give the satisfaction. Responding would only worsen his pain, and he couldn't get to him with the intention of harming him, so really, ignoring the pony and listening to the mare beside him was a far wiser option.

"Haze, stop that!" The mare scolded, twisting the hot rag and removing any remnants of water before matting Derrick's back with it. "It is not his fault that he is like this. Dark magic is very excruciating when the final stage of transformation comes in."

"Well it didn't act this way with you when you used it to defy your mother." Violent Haze argued, only to have the glare of his loved one intensify.

"I called upon the darkness for its help, that is all." She reminded, before returning to the matter at hoof with loving smile just for the man shivering against her. It pained her see Derrick like this, but there was nothing she could do.

"Derrick is born from darkness," she said, her voice calm and gentle as she pressed a wing against his side. "He is very special that way."

The touch of this pony was relief, instantaneous. Derrick had his mind writhing in mental agony the entire time of being in this hell hole, for a few moments he almost didn't realize that he was in some dark, secluded place or that the pressure on his side was gone. He could actually put his hand around the kidney region and push on it entirely without a sharp pain coming to him.

The mysterious pony was another matter though, but compared to that monster hunting him like a rabid dog, the matter at hand seemed minimal.

He laughed softly in his mind, as if he knew he was going to have another day of hell with some other pony here to boggle his mind with more facts about his family or about this damn magic he can barely control. His laughter alarmed the pony, and then the connection she felt began to slowly fade away at the fear of how he would react. If what she presumed was correct, and the faint aroma of her fake was real, then she would have a hard time explaining things to him.

"Violent, I want you to stay out of this." She warned in a heavy tone, taking the rag off Derrick's forehead. "I want to do this without resorting to violence."

Who is she?

Derrick took a deep breath and let it out. He might be afraid to meet this mare, meeting another stranger, but still, he looked forward to the amount of bullshit he would hear. It would give him a little sense of reasoning to keep his sanity in check, even if it meant cruelly laughing at the stranger.

He immediately opened his eyes to not a pair looking down at him but a oozing rag tied around the mare holding him.

"Hello cousin,"

He brushed at the confusing sight and ran is gaze down at the flank of this mare to see if he could recognize her by her cutie mark. He hadn't but seen a mere glimpse of the scarred mark and gasped as she nuzzled at him ever so tenderly, but that didn't make up for who she was and why she had ahold of him.

A solid minute of silence was exchanged between them before she could feel a spiking pressure from Derrick. His silence and widening eyes frightened her. Surely he was not thinking of as the same beast that trapped her in this world. She realized by the sudden shaking of his hands the drive to protect himself was primal, strong and nearly impossible to ignore—and she had managed many ponies like that when she was a ruler.

"I'm not here to harm you." Her heart pounded in her chest as soon as he responded to her words with a punch to her jaw, knocking her away from him. The pain was nothing, but to want him to understand, not just meet but to know her whilst already being rejected, it was tearing her apart to to see that her fake had damaged him.

Derrick, caught in the light-headed awakening, would have turned and ran had his legs not been so numb. Anger and fear was so raw it was tinged with hatred. He hadn't felt this way in months, but he could think—imagine—every bad scenario that could possibly happen to Nightmare Moon if she had been caught. He poured his emotions, knowing to be ready for the worst.

"THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE!?" He bellowed, ignoring how she quickly raised her her hoof to her lips and told him to lower his voice.

"Celestia, he's not listening," Violent Haze told her, reaching for his blade to—

"No!" She snapped quietly, using her magic to strip her stallion of his weapon. "I told you that I would handle this on my own."

"You bitch!" She turned back to the infuriated Derrick, his fists raised defensively. She waited for the tendrils to surround her cousin for the ring she placed on his finger minutes ago to activate.

She knew that by doing this she would be holding his magic against him, the same way that fake had done so to take the throne, but this was part of getting to him safely without any bloodshed.

"I don't how you found me," Derrick growled, ready to charge to her without an inkling of an idea to what she had done to him. "But I'm not going back to Canterlot with—"

The strength in his legs rippled in response to the sudden flashing of a ring on his index finger, in response to the magic welling inside him. The air shimmered with fire, and then settled with another flash of the ring, turning the man into a dim glow of red that pulsated around his body.

Violent Haze looked at Celestia in awe. "I never thought it would actually work."

The blind alicorn let out her breath slowly, listening to her cousin struggle as the ring sapped his energy. "I was hoping that it would not come to this."

Derrick fell to the cold floor and felt the burn of tears from the pain of his nose possibly breaking. He made a desperate effort to stand up and defend himself from this heinous pony he hated with every fiber of his body. If looks could kill, then he would have drilled a hole into her head with his glare, but all the best his body managed was give him enough strength to look up.

"Couldn't stand that your engineer was free, right?" He spat mockingly, hoping to draw her attention long enough for his tendrils to do the job. However, he did not expect for the alicorn to be two-steps ahead of him this time. What she had done to immobilize him had affected them as well, leaving them lifeless and slowly shrinking into nothingness.

He tried to muster the strength to at least grab a rock and hit her leg with it, but at the moment of grabbing one of a fairly decent size, he was already turned onto his back by the mare and scooped in her wings.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME!?"

"I've stripped you of your magic," she answered calmly. "I was worried that you would react this way, considering you have her scent on you."

"Fuck you, Celestia!" He spat. "When Nightmare Moon finds me, she is going to kill you in front of everyone you love. Maybe she'll be merciful to your bitch sister, but I doubt it."

He smiled wickedly up at her, paying no attention that she was carrying him somewhere. "Better yet, when my mother finds me—"

"I pray that she does." Celestia interrupted. Those words were so sudden that it was a wake-up call before Derrick had comprehended past his anger and saw that she was not trying to hurt or take him, but rather the opposite. He didn't understand what had just happened.

Celestia—this Celestia— was sitting next to him with a blanket dragged across his chest, and she moved across his body with a serious look about her as Violent Haze came from behind and gave her another hot rag. He flinched as soon as it went around the mare's hoof and she proceeded to use it for cleaning the blood seeping from his nose.

"Cousin, be still and let me help." Celestia advised, bearing a motherly smile. She decided to clean the dirt on his face as well. "I am sorry for all of this. I understand that you are confused and afraid, but your response had left me little choice."

"Did you just call me, cousin?" Derrick asked, one eyebrow shot up.

Celestia nodded, knowing she was in for a long conversation about how they were related and why he was here. There was no keeping anything from Derrick, not any longer. She knew, probably because she'd practiced a million times in her head, that it was going to take a delicate touch with explaining herself.

She touched his skin studied the markings with her hoof, tracing until a familiar symbol came to mind. She found it to something similar recently. Had she the materials to test them or the knowledge to find a proper answer she would not stop until one was made or discovered, but alas, a world between light and darkness held nothing but horror and emptiness that consumes all who fall prey.

"What are you doing?" Derrick asked, pushing against the alicorn's wing. He stopped for a moment to actually process that she was blind but somehow capable to care for his well-being.

He had no idea of her intentions as she meticulously traced every tiny detail and then went back to work at cleaning him to the best of her ability.

"I did," she answered, holding the rag away from herself for Violent Haze to take and clean before another round. "I am your cousin. Unfortunately our meeting is under the worst circumstances."

"You're a lying bitch," Derrick told her bitterly. "I know Celestia, and she's a cock-sucking whore who likes to play with everyone like they're her personal toys."

Celestia sighed as the impact of his words brought her back to reality. She then reminded herself that it was not the time to be reminiscing with her cousin, coughed to clear her throat, and then worked on cleaning his neck that was still smeared with dirt and dried blood.

She then discovered the intense pressure of an unfamiliar magic coursing from the side of his neck. Her touch brought a gasp of pain out of Derrick, and he shivered fiercely with enough strength to slap both hands on the mark that began to glow, his whole body cringing uncontrollably as he curled into a fetal position underneath the blanket.

Celestia glanced at the ring quickly. The spell was under extreme stress and barely holding on with little to spare for the mark that was starting smolder on Derrick's neck. She took his hand, ripped the ring off his hand, and the pressure from his body became thinner as she slowly pulled the jewelry away to confirm it was not a misunderstanding.

"I see," she told herself, tracing the mark with her hoof. "It's not just a connection, it is a failsafe should somepony try to seal your magic. Quite the elaborate idea, but also dangerous."

"What?" Derrick panted, feeling the same burst of energy when he met Raven return to him slowly.

Celestia shook her head and grunted out of annoyance. "Do you have a mate?"

Derrick's fear started to grow at that question, but he forced himself to remain calm and pondered the facts about this pony calling herself Celestia. She was not hostile in the least, that was as clear as the daylight he'd barely seen over the course of becoming a night person for his lover, but he wasn't sure if he could trust her enough with that much information.

He didn't have a choice though after looking at his surroundings for a pause and taking into account that he was some sort blocked off room with boards nailed to the doors and various furniture barricading it as well. He was stuck in a room with a pony he hated and a silent unicorn that just kept staring at him crucially, as though he were waiting for one wrong move to be made.

He was outnumbered, overpowered, and worst of all—no control over his magic, even with his tendrils starting to regain their function.

"Yes."

"I'd thought so," she replied with a more gentle. "A connection can be very difficult to build if your trying to connect with somepony that cannot be influenced with magic. She decided to go traditional with the blood transfer."

"What?" Derrick replied. He could not stand anymore mysteries or cryptic riddles about him or those he loved, and living a nightmare of adventure was complicating the situation.

"It's traditional for a pony to drink the blood of their mate to complete the process of binding their souls to a single thread. There are various ways—whether it be a sacred oath or merging their souls as one; this however, is a more difficult and time consuming ritual. The end results are fascinating if successful, and I can feel that they are."

"Oh yeah. Care to enlighten me?"

"Oh," she took a moment to contemplate the disposition of his voice. "I am guessing that you do not approve of this oath that you took."

"Took!?" He barked. "I did not take any fucking oath!"

"I see." Celestia sighed, adjusting her blindfold. "Then your mate performed this ritual without your consent."

"No shit, sherlock."

"Well I hate to be the one to tell you, but the overflowing magic I feel is similar to the one I took with my stallion. It's something I would like to call the eternal courting."

Derrick shook his head at the alicorn after hearing those words pass her lips. He was not that smart when it came to courtship and royalty, but he knew damn well from the books he read what courting was. It also did not help him a bit to hear eternal before the damn word.

"Wait, wait, wait—courting?" He questioned, receiving a nod from her. "As in she and I—"

"Are to be wed," Celestia giggled. "Or in this case—already wed."

Derrick simply looked away from the alicorn and gazed up at the darkness as the mare took a break from cleaning him. His eyes swam with distrust and pure, unhinged rage as he took in a deep breath and. . .

"BIIIIIIITCH!"

"What the hay was that?" Sombra barked as Raven went on ahead inside the cave.

Nightmare Moon stopped with a chill down her spine, her wings ruffling uncontrollably while everyone watched her.

"Are you alright?" The empress asked as she watched her student shake off whatever it was that had her so afraid.

"Uh oh. . ." Nightmare Moon replied, turning to the goddess who raised an eyebrow at her. "I think he discovered the truth behind our bond."

"Well what is so wrong with it?" Discord asked, ripping a stalagmite off the floor and turning it into cotton candy. "It's something you wanted."

"But I never spoke to him about it. . ."

At that moment the fluffy goodness deflated as quickly as the smile Discord's face had dissolved, and everyone else but Sombra and Chrysalis, stared at the dark alicorn in shock and fear as she smiled sheepishly and blush behind her wing.

Well. . . Luna was not too happy about it; that much was known by the disgust on her face.

"You lovesick foal," Black Hole Sun sighed, shaking her head at her sister. "Did you plan to tell Derrick at all, or just surprise him in the end?"

"I do not have to answer that!" Snapped the younger sister.

"Yes, you do." Raven stepped in with a serious look about her. "Are you aware of the end results you started?"

"I am," Nightmare Moon told her sternly. "And I made the decision weeks before I brought him home. I realized that he will be angry, but he will understand with time."

Raven groaned after Nightmare Moon turned and walked away with her head high in pride. With a low, bemused look about her, the empress continued to follow with the rest of their group behind her and a very pissed off Luna grinding her teeth as her eyes glowed white.

"I suppose I should start calling her my daughter-in-law."

"I'm going to kill her." Luna growled in her suddenly deep, sadistic voice.

Derrick felt a strong urge to laugh as Celestia took a sip water from the cracked glass Violent Haze fetched for her. After a good hour of listening to the pony, he had wondered if maybe this place was an alternate dimension or timeline with this Celestia being a prisoner of her own mistakes. . . or that she was just bat-shit crazy, but it appeared that she was not joking with him. He realized he would probably need to take every detail with a grain of salt, and braced for the inevitable impact of hearing the truth.

"Wait a fucking minute," he said, rubbing the temples of his head with difficulty of his new horns being in the way. "You mean to tell that the Celestia in Canterlot is actually a fake built by your mother, and you're the real Celestia who was imprisoned in this place for defying. Also, we're supposed to be cousins?"

"That is correct," Celestia replied with a smile.

Derrick chuckled sarcastically and received a frown from the pony in reply.

"It's true," she added. "And the reason you are here now is because I interacted with your magic to draw you here, so that you can free us and help overthrow the fake."

"You're insane," Derrick mused with hand imagery of her being crazy. "That would mean I committed incest with you and your sister."

"If you are referring to the other alicorn that was with me when we were fillies, then I regret to inform you that she is not my sister. She is the offspring of my dark half after I fell too deep into the darkness to find the power to stop my mother."

"Okay, now you need to stop lying." Derrick insisted, his tolerance almost zero until she stood up and did the last thing he expected.

"If you don't believe me, then I show you just how real the truth is!"

Without warning or enough time to react out of his own fear, Derrick watched in horror as she untied the blindfold and revealed to not just be a blind alicorn, but one that had a disgusting black ooze constantly dripping from her blackened eyes. Veins around her eyes were stained in the vile substance and it traveled up to her horn where it started to change color at the base.

He didn't know whether to take pity on her or to be frightened. What she looked like was some kind of monster, but the sad smile on her lips said differently as she gently pressed a hoof to his hand.

"I was four years old when I held you, and by the time I was eight I mistakenly created my dark half that my mother ripped out of my soul, after dwelling too deep in dark magic." She explained in blunt details, hearing no argument from her cousin.

"When I was nine I watched that dark half give birth to a blue alicorn before having to escape from my mother's wrath. Fortunately, she did not have it in her to destroy the filly and decided to raise her. However, that only lasted a few years—" she leaned down, a glare in her eyes now. "And are you aware of the reason?"

"No. . ." Derrick said hesitantly.

"Simple," Celestia took in a deep breath. "At age twenty I attempted to overthrow my mother for trying to destroy a unicorn that harnessed the power of dark magic, but I was imprisoned here with Violent Haze and blinded by the darkness I tried to use against her."

"How does darkness make you blind?"

"A pony of the light must never look too deep into the darkness. Although it is a balance for all to understand, nopony can harness both and live without consequences. The same principle applies for a pony of the darkness."

Derrick pondered on in confusion as Celestia took her seat again, from a more understanding perspective of the alicorn's pain and desire to meet him. There was so much to process and think about, and it appeared that it might take him a little time to collect his thoughts before believing her.

"This is all so crazy." he said with a long suffering sigh.

"I know it's difficult for you, but it's the truth." She smiled at him whilst rubbing his hand. "But you're back and here with us, which means we might have a chance."

"Chance?" He scoffed. "Chance at what?"

Her smile became wicked, and all of his doubts became fear again.

"Killing the Gorger." she said bluntly. "He is the warden of this realm."

Derrick's eyes widened as he remembered the sick monster having already taken a bite of him and shook his head violently. "Oh hell no. I'm not going near that thing again. It's the whole reason I'm separated from Nightmare Moon."

"But we need your magic to get past him." Celestia argued. "Violent does not possess the magic to harm it and I am an alicorn of light, not to mention very blind."

She picked up his hand, feeling the fear in him shift the fingers into blades. "This is the power we need to kill it. We need your darkness to kill it, or we will never escape."

"I can't kill that thing," Derrick exasperated, jerking his shifting hand from her. "I don't know how to control this. I know NOTHING about magic or how to use it. The most I know is that the tendrils sticking out of my back have saved my ass this entire clusterfuck of a journey."

Celestia was about to counter that doubt, but stopped herself at realizing how green he was about magic before sighing in disappointment and turning away to hide her crushed hope. She really did put her faith into him being the chance they needed to get out of this prison and take back her throne, but a man who is as fresh as a fish out of water when it comes to darkness. . . her faith began to lack and she proceeded to walk away without a word to say.

"Hey, I'm sorry. But I don't. . ." Derrick was on deaf ears, as it was seen from a puddle on the rocky ground that the blind princess was crying black tears.

"It's fine," she said with a great deal of effort, trying not to give away the hitch in her voice. "I should have been more considerate about you and your needs."

"I knew this would happen," Violent Haze grunted, comforting her to the best of his ability.

Derrick didn't know what to say after that, but he knew how he felt and wanted to kick his own ass for destroying her hopes without giving her the chance she needed out of him. And now he remembered how similar he was to his old self, to the business man he became after landing his first job. Cold, heartless, a man of business and strictly thinking about what is best for him.

He recalled how much of selfish bastard he was before his sister was diagnosed with cancer.

"Oh geez. . ." He sighed, mentally kicking himself. He perked though, at the sound of the gorger roaring in the distance, and by some random luck saw a few materials on a broken table.

The full weight of how much this mare was depending on him came down at full force, and he pondered to his previous ideas in Canterlot. In those easy days with the princesses, he had nothing but inspiration and a heart filled with excitement and joy for improving the castle with his ideas. He loved nothing more than to build and design defenses that not even a dragon could break through without having quite a bit trouble. He did all of that out of the kindness of his heart, so what made this situation so different?

It didn't, and he wasn't going to fail someone that needed him now. He'd always been there to fix or build something for some unfortunate pony. But now, he was going to fix this problem and build the key to their escape.

"Maybe. . ." He stood up, walking over to the table with both ponies looking up to him. He grabbed the longest rope that was neatly spun around a log, unraveled it, and felt how firm it was before looking around to see through a slightly dirty window a row of large bookshelves and some bits of scrap metal all over the floor.

The gears in his head started turning, and he had found what Twilight and the others destroyed that night at the gala.

He found his determination.

"Are there any trees around here?" He asked, turning to the alicorn who was staring at him with an arched eyebrow.

"Yes, but they're dead."

Derrick chuckled at her and looped the rope around his shoulder. "Then I think I know how to get rid of that bastard, without using magic of course."

"But if you can't control yours, then how do propose killing the gorger?"

"I'm an engineer," Derrick replied with a chilling laugh, his red eyes glowing as the tendrils grabbed a few materials from the table to help. "I can build just about anything. Now let's get to work."