Shade stood in the center of a vast and expansive void. All around him, sat nothing but black and dark blue swirls of liquid darkness in any directiong. He wasn't sure how he knew it, but the water like blackness was like the sky, something that looked there, but wasn't.

There was no light source around, but he could see himself perfectly, as if the entire void was bathed in light. Aside from that, there was nothing around. No other sights to behold, no sounds to be heard, nothing to smell, just... nothingness.

   "Hello, Shade."

  He turned around and saw an earth pony standing before him. The pony was impossible to explain... not because his features were undefined or anything like that, but his appearance was just... something Shade couldn't describe, aside from being a pony and having no wings or horn.

"Who are you?" The bat pony asked, his eyes narrowed. Whoever this pony was, Shade felt an inexplicable resentment for him.

  The earth pony smiled. "Let's cut the bull shit, you know exactly who I am."

  "Daxisle." Shade sneered. The earth pony nodded. "What's going on, where am I!?" He shouted, his resentment for the pony growing by the second.

   Daxisle's smile dropped to a sneer that matched Shade's own. "You, my fine friend, have almost made my story a god damned meta fic. So, I pulled you out of it."

"A meta fic?"

  "Yes, a meta fic. Meta fiction."

  "Fiction? What do you mean fiction?" The bat pony growled, not liking where this was going.

  Daxile coughed. "It's quite simple really. You, my fine friend, do not really exist. You're a part of a story I'm writing, that follows Big Macintosh, Spike and Sin. And since I continually said that story was beginning to 'wind down', and your individual story arc had never come to fruition, you've been pushed from the confides of your reality as you've always wanted to be."

  Shade tilted his head, understanding none of what he'd just heard. Story arch? Winding down? What?

   "Let me put it to you this way: What is it you want?"

  It was a simple question, one Shade was hesistant to answer, though. "I want to be free, I want the ultimate freedom."

   Smiling again, Daxile gestured around. "And you're now getting it." He waited, watching Shade for a moment, his smile growing into a smirk. "What's wrong? Don't you like it?"

"NO!" Shade barked, having had enough. Daxisle retracted his hoof and eyed Shade.

  "Then stop asking questions and stick to the narrative."

  Narrative? "So, you are the one making me feel these compulsions!"

Again, Daxisle smirked. "Indeed I am, and you're little stun with the hospital bed showed me that my control over you is being lost. So, I'm left with two options. Either A) I get rid of you here and now to keep this shit from becoming meta and dealing with the bull shit in the comments section, or B) You quit asking questions and just follow the story like I've got it planned."

  Shade's growled for a moment, despising the fact that he couldn't even deny what he was being told. He knew that it was true, that his "Daxisle" was not only the master of his actions, but the master of his entire world! He controlled everything, everything that happened happened because he willed it, but a sudden moment of clarity brought an epiphany.

  "That's why I'm free." Shade smirked, making Daxisle quirk a curious brow. "You don't have a plan for me, that's why I'm here, isn't it?"

   "Hmmm, no. I do not have a plan for you." The earth pony deity admitted, scratching his cheek dismissively. "Honestly, you were only there to serve as both a comic foil, a worshiper of Discord and a deus ex machina solution to brute force. I never much planned ahead for your character."

  That sent Shade's vision red and he lept at the earth pony, who vanished before the stallion made contact.

  "Don't feel bad, though. I didn't have much of a plan for any of them." Daxisle said, now behind Shade. "Sin's ultimate conclusion was the entire premise of the story. I just added Spike and Macintosh in there because I like those characters, the males of the show don't get enough attention in my opinion."

"SHUT UP!" Shade yelled, jumping at the pony and having him disappear yet again.

  "Hey." The deity's voice echoed from above. "At least I kept you in the story. Started an entire plot line with the Federal Senate and Sparhawk that went absolutely no where. Shit, there was even a character dedicated to following Sin, and I'd completely foregone writing her because she was boring as all hell."

  Shade spread his now uninjured wings and shot up, determined to shut the bastard up once and for all. Though, the results of his attack were again the same, and he hit only empty space.

  "Why do you think so little questions are asked?" Daxisle said, now standing back on the ground. "You just so suddenly had a relationship with Zecora with absolutely no build up or explanation to it, yet none of your friends questioned it. She was so receptive of you, despite the fact your bat shit nuts. I know I made you crazy and all, but surely you had to wonder why that would be, right?"

  "SHUT UP!" Another dive bomb, though this one made impact and pain beyond pain shot through Shade's head as he fell to a crumpled heap on the ground, nursing his now bleeding forehead.

  It was like slamming into a concrete statue, Daxisle wouldn't give an inch of lee way for the attack.

  The pony merely shook his head and began circling the fallen pegasus. "You're not the most popular character in my fanfic, but you are one of the four main view points, even if you are the one least looked through." He paused to rub his forehead. "If I were to get rid of you, there might be a viewer or two who'd take exception with it, and I like to keep my fans happy."

  Daxisle raised a hoof and lightly bopped the ground.

  Suddenly, the pain that Shade felt was gone. He touched his head from the point of impact and found that the blood was no longer present, nore the massive gash that it had come from.

  He knew what had happened, Shade was well aware of just how much power the pony before him had. It was almost overwhelming though, he wanted to hurt him, to make him pay for  the life the stallion forced him through. All of his pain, all of his missery and suffering, the box, his insanity, all of it for a bucking plotline!

It was cruel and sadistic, a pain that the bat pony wouldn't inflict on his own worst enemy. Not even the beast.

Though, that did lead to one question, why hadn't he simply influenced the world so Shade would just be seen as "unintentionally correct quirky"? He'd done that so far with his insanity, why not continue?

  "If there was anything I learned from reading DannyJ's Human it's that meta of this like can quickly get out of hand if it isn't taken care of directly." Daxisle, for the first time, approached Shade, his blank white eyes looking directly into the bat pony's yellow orbs. "Your goal is to escape reality and consequences, a freedom I was likely going to give you in death. But you just couldn't wait, could you?"

  Shade smirked. "Guess not."

    "Hmph" Daxisle turned away again and walked a few steps and took a breath. "You've got one of two options, Star Shade. You can either go with the narrative and do as I compel you to do, or you can stay here in the ultimate freedom you that you are capable of having and live out an immortal limbo."

  A cube of ice slowly crept down Shade's spine at the finality of Daxisle's proclamation. Was this really the ultimate freedom the universe could offer him? Just leaving a single story? As much as he wanted to exit reality, this wasn't exactly what he was hoping to find. Still though, the world he'd come from, the "story", was that what he wanted? Was that illusion really better than this reality?

  "This isn't reality, but it's the closest you'll ever come to it." Daxisle chuckled. "Trust me when I say, you're better off back in the story. If you behave, I might even give you your hydra back."

"Fluffy?" Shade asked, his eyes going wide with yearning. He'd almost given up finding his pet hydra again, but could he really go back? Knowing what he knew now?

With a sigh, the bat pony slumped for a moment then looked the earth pony in his white, unyielding eyes. "Doesn't sound like I've got much choice."

Next Chapter: Second Encounter Estimated time remaining: 22 Minutes