I wake up with a yawn and find myself surrounded by my lovers and I couldn't be happier. I bask in the comfort I'm in for a few minutes, trying to fall back to sleep, until a horn sounds out loudly in the room. We all jump, scared shitless as it echoes throughout the room.

It's Discord in a uniform similar to Shining's captain uniform while blowing into a brass horn.

"WAKE UP MAGGOT! WE GOT SOME TRAINING TO DO!" Discord yells at me sternly.

"It's not even six in the morning yet!" I yell back, I look at the clock and it's not even four in the morning. I groan and pull the blanket over our heads. Celestia, Luna, and Shella look pissed at being so rudely awoken.

Luna scrunches up her nose and snaps. "DISCORD! WHAT DID WE SAY ABOUT THOU PRANKING US!" Luna shouts at him in anger.

"Oh lighten up, now that Adrian here has got a grip on the light element, I want to start his shadow element training. This will be harder as I forgot to mention that if he should screw it up, the shadow energy could corrupt him... similar to what happened to Luna," he says seriously.

That got us all to shut up.

"C-Corrupted?" Luna whimpers with wide eyes as her anger fades and she holds onto me tightly.

"So before we even get started, I suggest you call your little elements of harmony here just in case he does lose control. Hopefully the elements will purify him like they did for Luna and not turn him into a garden gnome... or worse," he tells us while look out the window. I follow his gaze and see the Moon.

I can feel Luna trembling.

"Then simply don't teach him how," Celestia states.

"Not an option, he's going to need every bit of power he can get when he faces against Grogar. Unlike you two who've been sitting on your comfy thrones getting fat," he says and gets a growl from Celestia.

"I AM NOT FAT! I'M PREGNANT!" Celestia yells at him. I look to her stomach under the covers, it's starting to grow rounder and her toned abs are fading, showing that she is indeed pregnant. I wonder how the nobles are going to react to this.

Discord ignores her and continues. "He's been gathering his forces and getting more powerful as well. Even you two will need to start training and getting back into shape," he tells them.

Celestia and Luna frown at him then look at each other. I just lie there between them looking awkward, and I just realised that we're all naked with Discord looking at us. Celestia also seems to notice this. "DISCORD! GET OUT!" she yells and uses her magic to catapult a pillow right in his face. The force actually sends him through the doors.

A couple of guards run down the hall and rush into the room with their weapons drawn while another two are looking over Discord, who has stars spinning around his head, eyes rolling around and tongue hanging out.

The two guards that entered have blushes on their faces and instantly turn around, facing away from us. I can hear Celestia grinding her teeth... uh oh, I think this is going to be one of her emotional outbursts. "ALL OF YOU! GET OUT NOW!" Celestia yells in the Royal Canterlot Voice, making the guards jump and run out the broken door. They then drag the still dazed Discord away with them.

Luna's horn glows and the door repairs itself. "That was certainly an unusual way of waking up," she then says.

"No kidding, I hope he was joking about that corrupted part. I know I have to get stronger... but is it worth risking?" I ask.

"We told thee of our time as Nightmare Moon. We were so angry, we wanted power no matter the source. We turned to dark magic, and it corrupted us, possessing us. We could still see and hear what we were doing, but our actions were not our own," she tells me and starts sobbing.

I gently hug her with my left arm. "It's alright, Luna. Besides... I can always just cancel the spell if something goes wrong," I tell her.

"Do you really have to go through with it?" Shella asks.

"Yes, how long will it take to get Twilight and the others here?" I reply and ask.

Celestia's horn glows and a piece of paper appears with a quill. I watch her as she writes her letter next to me.

Dear Twilight.

I need you and the other element bearers to come to the Castle as soon as you can with your elements ready. Adrian is beginning his shadow element training today and there's a chance it could corrupt him. We need the elements to purify his corruption should this happen.

We will be waiting at the Training Grounds when you arrive.

Princess Celestia.

P.S. I'm looking forward to seeing you again my student.

She rolls it up and ties a red bow with her cutie-mark around it, her horn then glows and the scroll disappears in a flash. Once done, she nuzzles my neck and licks my cheek affectionately.

"So what do we do until Twilight and the gang get here?" I ask.

"We have an idea." Luna says seductively and starts crawling down my body... Oh boy!

---

---

We're all standing in the Training Grounds waiting for Twilight and her friends. After a shower and a big breakfast, I feel refreshed and ready for what lies ahead. Although our morning fun was very strenuous, I've never felt better.

"Princess!" I hear a voice shout out. I turn around and see Twilight and the others walking over to us. Twilight's wearing a tiara with a purple six pointed star on it. The others have golden necklaces with a gem in the centre: Rarity has a indigo diamond shaped gem. Fluttershy has a pink butterfly shaped gem. Rainbow has a red lightning bolt shaped gem. Applejack has an orange apple shaped gem with a green stem and Pinkie has a light blue balloon shaped gem.

"Good morning, Twilight," Celestia greets her.

"Good morning, Princesses," Twilight replies, bowing to Celestia and Luna. "And good morning to you as well, Shella, Adrian," she says to us.

I smile and wave to them. "Hey, thanks for coming. I just hope you don't need to use them," I tell them.

They all start looking nervous. "Do you have to do this?" Rarity asks.

"Yes, if I want to get stronger, then I have to learn this," I reply.

Discord suddenly pokes out of the right middle pouch on my leggings. "I see the gang's all here!" he says and jumps out and grows back to his normal size.

I chuckle. "I was wondering where you were," I tell him. I also hear Pinkie giggling.

"Just waiting for the rainbow posse to show up," he says and looks at the six women. Fluttershy gives him a cute little wave which he returns and then looks back at me. "Let's get started! To control the shadow energy, you have to force your will over it. It will in turn try to force it's dark energy into you, twisting your morals against you," he tells me.

"Doesn't sound too hard," I say and open my spell book to the shadow element. I didn't feel anything like that when I first tried channelling it.

"I know you tried once before and that was foolish. You should have read the warning Starswirl wrote down about it first," Discord scolded me.

I look in the book and find the warning. Huh... how did I miss that?

"Alright then, so how do I force my will over it?" I ask.

"You'll feel a sort of push against you. With the energy you channel, you push back at it and cast the spell. On its own, it's a spray type spell. All foes caught in the shadow like mist lose their sense of hearing. It's very effective when used with the light element to both blind and deafen your foes. They become practically helpless without these senses," he tells me. "Though the effect only lasts a minute or two."

I look to the book and read the instructions just to be sure. "Alright... here goes nothing," I say and start channelling my mana like I did before, but this time... It feels wrong.

I frown and grunt from the odd sensation. I clench my teeth as I can feel a sort of presence trying to push its way in.

'What do we have here? My my. What a strong and powerful body you have,' a female sounding voice says in my head.

'Who are you?' I demand while trying to push it back.

'That doesn't matter. Just know that I shall put your body to good use,' she says with a malicious giggle. The presence pushes harder against me and I fall to a knee. I can't even cancel the flow of mana anymore!

---

---

Adrian looks to be in pain as he grips his chest with his right hand. His left hand is surrounded by a familiar shadow like mist.

"Adrian? Are thou alright?" I ask him with worry.

"Nggaah! Someone is... Gah... trying to c-control my body!" he replies.

His eyes open and his left one is a turquoise colour with a cat like slit for his pupil... oh no.

"Nightmare Moon! She's trying to posses Adrian!" I yell in fear and my legs give out. She was not destroyed by the elements!?

"WHAT!" the bearers all yell out.

I quickly get back up and put both my hands on the sides of Adrian's head and place my horn on the top of his head. With some effort, I cast a sleeping spell on him and once he's asleep, I enter his dream.

---

---

I'm suddenly in a dark looking forest and I can barely see a few metres ahead of me. I'm still in my armour with my sword and shield at least.

"Oh? This is interesting. It seems my old host has put you to sleep," the voice says. I hear footsteps to my right to see a woman that looks just like what Luna dressed as for Nightmare Night.

"Are you Nightmare Moon?" I ask her with a glare.

She giggles, but it sounds far from friendly. "So you know who I am? I take it poor little Luna told you about me then?" she replies and asks.

So... this is the person responsible for all of Luna's pain and suffering for the last thousand years... I channel an arcane and two fire elements through my shield and without warning, shoot a beam of fire at her. Her eyes widen in surprise and she leaps out of the way. The tips of her right wing's feathers get scorched.

I turn my shield to face her and the beam quickly heads towards her. She flaps her wings and dashes behind a tree. I cancel the spell and channel three earth elements and launch the rock at the tree she's hiding behind. The tree snaps and falls down... but she's not there.

I look around and listen out for her as my perception training with Luna a month ago comes into play. I look around and hold my breath. I can hear footsteps behind me and swing my sword to slash her, but I go wide eyed and pull back just before I hit Luna in the head.

"Luna!? What are you doing here?" I ask her and start looking around again.

"We art here to assist thee in battle against our past sin," she replies. I notice she's in her armour and has her scythe and swords.

"Well well well, if it isn't my old room mate," Nightmare says tauntingly. It sounds like she's all around us.

Luna then growls at her as I hear the flaps of wings above us and look up. Nightmare Moon is flying towards me with a wicked looking spear. It has teeth along the blade that look like it's designed to rip instead of cut. I swing my shield and deflect her attack, I then swing my sword and her horn glows as she teleports away, avoiding my attack.

She reappears to my left and I hold my shield up. I fire a spray of lightning at her and she tries to avoid it, but the lightning is drawn to her spear and armour as she grunts in pain from the electricity coursing through her. Her horn glows and a bubble of magic surrounds her.

"Damn insect! Your body will be mine!" she yells in anger and charges at me, only to be tackled by Luna into a few trees.

"THOU SHALL NOT HARM OUR MATE!" Luna roars in rage. She swings her scythe at Nightmare and barely misses her wings as Nightmare Moon rolls to her left.

"You will not stop me this time you poor excuse of an alicorn!" Nightmare insults Luna and thrusts her spear at Luna. I teleport in front of Luna and block Nightmare's spear with my shield while channelling three fire elements through it. I cast the spell and she's engulfed by my flames.

"GGAAAAAHHH!" she screams and teleports away. She's behind us and looking worse for wear as patches of fur are missing from her body that's exposed from her armour. Her armour is also burnt with black scorch marks on it. "I will make your mind suffer for all eternity once I have claimed your body!" she threatens me.

I smirk at her and get into a defensive stance. Luna's horn glows and she fires a bolt of magic at Nightmare who backhands it into some trees.

'I'd like to see you try that with this!' I think to myself and channel two earth elements with a fire element. I launch the fire infused rock at her and she smirks at it. I guess to her it just looks like a ball of fire.

In arrogance or confidence, she backhands the rock with her left hand. I grin as it detonates and I see blood spray as her hand is blown off. She screams in agony as the armour on her arm is ripped apart and bends into her wound. She drops her spear and grips the stump that's left of her arm. Looks like she lost her hand and half of her forearm.

"DAMN YOU! I WILL GET YOU FOR THIS!" she says and fades away into the shadows.

For the next few minutes we look around for any signs of her, but that feeling of a presence pushing against me is now gone.

"It would seem she has fled," Luna says, looking around still.

"I think so, I don't feel her magic pressing against me anymore," I reply.

Luna then grabs my head and roughly kisses me. "Do not frighten us like that again!" she says and starts sobbing.

I give her a sad smile as I pull her into a tight hug. "It's alright, Luna. She's gone and I'm fine," I tell her and stroke her hair.

"We thought we almost lost thee to the same monster who took us," she says and holds me tightly.

"It'll take more than a cranky evil bitch to bring me down... but thank you for the help," I reply and kiss her.

She smiles into the kiss and her horn starts glowing. "We shall see thee in the waking world," she tells me and my vision fades to white.

Next Chapter: Chapter 39: Walk in the Light. Step into Shadow Part 3 Estimated time remaining: 13 Hours, 58 Minutes