The sight before her nearly broke Twilight's heart.

There laid Spike, her beloved assistant, wrapped heavily with blood stained bandages, an oxygen mask lending him shallow breaths to barely keep him living. A heart monitor pulsed in the background with the sound of a weak heart beat, but the sound was just as distant to Twilight as she now felt to Spike... She should have been there to protect him... but she hadn't been.

Steeling her emotions, she clenched her eyes shut as tears threatened to drip out of them. A quiet whisper trailed from her mouth, "W-what... happened?"

She glanced back towards everyone else who stood in the hospital room with her, the same question ruling her expression of fear and worry. Around the bed stood Applejack, Fluttershy, and Lyra. Bonnie, Bonbon, Chica, Chique, and (surprisingly) the two talking animals Lyra came across, all had to remain outside simply because animals weren't allowed in pony hospitals.

Applejack's ears flattened against her head as she held her stetson hat by her chest, "Well, Ah'm not too sure what happened. Ah was just passin' by, and I figured I'd stop by the castle ta visit."

Her eyes took on a hollow look as she remembered what she had seen, "Nobody was there... but when Ah went to the kitchen, Ah found Spike bloodied up like this. Ah honestly thought he was dead!... There was something standin' over him, like death itself. It was a monster if Ah've ever seen one. Mah heart nearly stopped when I realized it had Spike's blood on its claws."

Twilight raised a hoof over her mouth, startled, "... Applejack, could you describe what it looked like."

Applejack proceeded to describe the monstrous figure she had seen, with its sickly black figure, horns like a bull's, wings like a dragon's, and a face... she didn't even know how to describe it.

"It was like some kind of a mask," The farm pony recounted, eyes unfocused and wavering as she drifted down the memory, "It was white, but it had purple streaks coming out of it. Ah don't know if it was tears... it looked a lot like blood stains."

Twilight's eyes threatened to widen past their capacity as they bulged in realization. She gasped, "But that's-! That's not possible! The only thing that could possibly match your description would be..." Her voice trailed off, but the end of it the others heard quivered with fear.

"A dragon?" Lyra guessed, "That's what I could make out of what AJ said."

Twilight shook her head briefly, glancing down at Spike's prone form on the bed. She only now realized how lucky he was to have survived. "It was... a demon."

Fluttershy and Lyra gasped in shock, but Applejack only stared at Twilight in horror, "A demon? Ya mean those creatures that were sealed in Tartarus fer eternity?"

Fluttershy stammered out, "B-but... if th-they were sealed, then what's one d-doing in Ponyville?"

Twilight nodded, "That's why I said it was impossible. Their seal in Tartarus is too powerful. None of the princesses could ever break the seal, even if we were to attempt it together. Not even Tirek, when he took away all the magic in Equestria last time he escaped, could have broken it."

Lyra blinked in astonishment, "But I thought the demons of Tartarus was just an old pony's tale."

Twilight shook her head, "No, they were sealed thousands of years ago so they wouldn't taint Equestria with darkness. They are just as real as all of us."

"What if tha seal is broken, Twi?" AJ asked, "'Cause I done seen that demon over Spike as clear as day."

Twilight frowned in thought, "Then I'll check the seal myself. If I find that the seal is broken, then we must inform Princess Celestia immediately." The purple alicorn paused, "But if it isn't... that means this demon came from... somewhere else."

Twilight glanced out the window, only to find the sun was beginning to set, "I don't like the idea of going to Tartarus at night, but the sooner I check, the better." She glanced towards the other three ponies in the room with her, "For now, girls, I need you to spread the word through town, but we can't have everypony panicking. Just tell them if they see any black... dragons, in town, come find me."

Applejack nodded, "Good idea, Twi. If we tell any pony there might be a demon loose in town, I reckon everypony will be runnin' like cows in a thunderstorm."

Lyra smiled, "Don't worry about a thing, Princess. We've got this in the bag."

Twilight smiled back, "Thanks girls, I knew I could count on you." However, her smile vanished as she turned back towards Spike on the bed. Gingerly, she gave a him a quick nuzzle, whispering, "Please, get better soon."

She pulled away from the dragon, giving the others one last nod, before lighting her horn and vanishing from the room.

Bonnie held a grim look on his face as Twilight's voice disappeared from behind the window. All of them, Bonbon, Chique, Chica, Bob, and Mark, had all been clustered around the window of the room Twilight and the others had gathered in. Up close to it, they had been able to hear more or less what had been said inside. That fact was all the more true for Bonnie, Bonbon, and Bob, whose bunny ears had been more acute than the others'.

"So, Marionette has become a demon." Bob announced with grim certainty.

Mark grimaced as well, "That certainly doesn't fit him as we know him."

"As if you could possibly know him that well," Chica replied with a curt humph.

"What was that?" Mark asked, confused.

The little chicken narrowed her eyes at both Mark and Bob, while they all spread out from the window, since there was no conversation to listen to anymore, "You heard me. You don't know him, so don't even try to say you do."

Bob and Mark glanced towards the other former animatronics, only to find the others were glaring them down with similar looks.

"What are you talking about, Chica?" Bob inquired.

Chique replied for her doppelganger, "You know quite well what she's talking about." She pointed a wing towards the bear and bunny accusingly, "You two are nothing but shadows who are quite fine sitting about on your own. All this time, you've turned down any time to help us catch... Him. You don't care one way or another if He's running amok or not. You don't care if he does the same thing to the children as..." Pain spiked in her head as the memory tried to surface, but she forced it back down.

Mark narrowed his eyes down at the four animals before him, "Of course we care. We want to stop him as much as you do... but what Marionette is having you do is wrong." A small growl formed in his throat, "That boy says 'save them', but that hasn't stopped any of you from killing other innocents."

"At least we're doing something!" Bonnie retorted, "What are you two doing? Oh, that's right, nothing but lying on your shadowy butts like a bunch of security guards!"

Bob sighed in exasperation, and Mark felt very much the same way. They knew that even if they talked them to death, they wouldn't listen... but that was to be expected... After all, they were still children.

They were only poor souls who needed guidance... but not the kind that Marionette gave them.

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That only led them down a path of cruel destruction, slaughtering those that got in their way towards their one true target. But yet, the memory that held as the very root of their anger was something too painful for them to relive. Half the time, Mark wondered if they even truly remembered what had happened to them, or even who they had been before in life.

They were just children, even if they didn't look or sound like it... They needed guidance, a nudge onto the right path.

Mark and Bob both knew full well the man in purple they were after. They had worked with him, after all. They knew his name, his face, the small points of his life, like family... which was more than the children knew.

But after seeing the years of the man in purple committing these atrocities, Mark and Bob had both come to hate him as much as these kids did. But yet, they never gave up their knowledge to the animatronics, or rather, the spirits inside them. Knowledge was a dangerous thing, and giving it to them would inevitably help them fulfill Marionette's wishes.

It was true both the former shadows of the pizzeria had denied helping Marionette and the children take their revenge, but that didn't mean they had given up... not on them, at least.

And now... now that they were more than just shadows on the walls, that hope to help these children was alive more than ever. Now they had a chance to make things right and help these children move on from their anger.

Author's Notes:

PHEW!!!!!!!

Finally finished.
Okay, this chapter was kind of last minute rushed (and not to mention, kind of short). If you find any grammatical or spelling errors, my bad. I just don't have the time to edit right now. In fact, it's way early Friday morning now, and I started writing this Thursday night. But I just wanted to get something out, since it's been weeks since the last chapter. It's just hard to write with a full time job and helping my parents to sell their house. But thankfully the later of the two is almost finished.

I'll definitely be able to write more often after the house is put on the market.

For now, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Thanks for reading!
-Shadowflame

P.S. After so long, you have no idea how refreshing it was to write for almost two hours straight, nonstop. I actually breathed a sigh of blissful relief when I typed my user name here... I think I like writing a bit too much. Oh well, definitely a career I'm going into later in life.