Third Encounter

*Pop*

  Shade popped into existance in the familiar swirling black void, immediately falling to his side and clutching his chest, flinching in pain upon contact with the unforgiving ground.

   That bitch! How? How was she that fast!? How did she inflict this much damage on him!? HIM! Fucking Star Shade! The pony who'd acquired the ultimate freedom and knowledge! Slayer of a thousand changelings, the flyer able to go toe to toe with the beast herself! Yet that bitch was able to beat the ever living dog crap out of him like it was nothing!

   There was a small chuckled from within the void before an incomprehensible stallion emerged forth, standing over shade and smiling down at him with wide, white glowing eyes.

  "Do you like her?" Daxisle asked. "Tribunes, designed to be the ultimate killers and consequentialists. All emotion, all concern, all empathy, gone. Beaten out of them by a special mix of psychological and physical torture meant specifically to train the body and the mind to it's fullest violent capability. Left with nothing more than an insatiable desire to fulfill their contract."

  The fallen pony groaned, not yet able to speak properly just yet.

  "Yes, I suspected you'd try to pull something like this, and made her more over powered than I made you. I haven't settled on a name for the Tribune just yet. Trying to decide if I should go for the cooler, but more subtle Federation names, or the over the top Equestrian names. Or maybe I'll just give her a number like I did that other Tribune. I don't know, though what do you think?"

  "Bastard." Shade wheezed through gritted teeth, finishing off with a coughing fit.

  Daxisle chuckled again, looking down at the writhing mass of a stallion before him. "What can I say? I'm getting a little tired of your continued prophetic bull shit. Letting the onlookers know what's going on and giving some foreshadowing is all fine and good, but what you did was a little too much. Ever since you've figured out the truth, you've been acting a little too high and mighty for my liking, it's about time someone knocked you down a couple of pegs."

  Shade struggled to control his breathing. Once he had, he lifted his head and glared up at the deity. "Go buck yourself."

  In a flash, Shade's pain compounded as he was lifted off the ground, suspended in the air by a massive hoof that had somehow bent it's way around his neck, cutting off his breathing and sundering the bat pony's defiance.

  "Don't you dare insult me, you little shit! You may have some consciousness to this world, but I am its fucking GOD!" Daxisle boomed, pointing his words with a light squeeze. "Everything that happens in there is because I will it! I control Sin, I control Macintosh, I control Luna, the Tribune, the guard, the Trotski, I control EVERYTHING!"

  Shade, feeling more than a little cheeky, coughed and smiled down at the deity. "E- Everything but me."

  His antagonist thoroughly miffed now, Shade found himself air born, and cried out as his broken body slammed into the ground. Pain beyond pain coursed through his body, begging the stallion's mind to end his defiance and submit to a being more powerful than him, but the stallion wouldn't give into such friviolous demands of the flesh.

   "Don't remind me." Daxisle spat, the clanking of his hooves echoing over the landscape as he approached. "I told you not to test me, Shade. I warned you that if you didn't do as I compelled, there would be consequences."

  Coughing, Shade regained his barrings and smiled. "Yea, you did, didn't you?"

  Daxisle nodded, stepping to where the bat pony could see him. "And you know what those consequences are."

  "I do, but you wont do it." Shade replied in shakey confidence.

  Daxisle, caught off guard, began to chuckle at the proclamation. "Ehehe. Oh? And what makes you think that, my friend?"

  Pushing himself up, Shade only managed to get himself into a sitting position, endearing another coughing fit before he could speak. "You need me, now. You've set everything up just like I knew you would."

  Daxisle quirked a brow, demanding the pony explain himself.

  "I've been watching it all. You made it so the Nightmare would make finding Sin impossible to Luna, and I know you're going to have Sombra and Soarin lose Sin at some point. I was the one who told-" He stopped for another coughing fit, "Who told those two where they could find him. Indulging your dramatic convenience and saving him from the Trotski. If I'm dead or taken out of the story, you'll have to keep Soarin and Sombra with him at all times. Sin being alone is what they're waiting for, and you need Sin to be alone alot in the future. If he's alone while they're around, it'll create too much conflict between the three for the story to progress as a conventional pace."

  Daxisle eyes widened. "You fucking idiot, don't you get it? I control EVERYTHING! If I want to, I could easily set up circumstances that lead to Sombra and Soarin finding Sin!"

  Shade chuckled dryly, heaving all the while. "Yea, you could. But how much longer do you think your little audience will be able to suspend disbelief?" He grinned a cheshire smile. "You've already bucked up how many times? Sombra's Deus Ex change, Celestia just believing that Sin was killed, Sin and Scootaloo continually avoiding mentioning their mutual acquaintance for nothing more than the drama and its ultimate reveal, Luna having the sense to tell Celestia about the Nightmare in her head, but not tell her about being involved with Triple M. Spike and Sin pretty much having the same problem with inner darkness, yet you hoping the audience wont catch onto it." Shade pointed to his flank. "And thanks for telling nopony my cutie mark, it a pair of batwings, by the way."

  Daxisle's perfect face contorted into a look of hatred and he began to shake with rage.

   "And let's not forget about your little 'unconventional' vs 'conventional' magic bull crap. Sin's immune to magic, but can still use magic himself? Did you think that you were being clever doing that? While on that subject, can you not put so much emphasis on Sin's little emo inner turmoil? We get it already, he's struggling, give it a rest! Oh and nice touch, just making Scootaloo and Krystal still want to follow him after, you know, he admits his entire aim is about killing someone and they're just going to stop him, veeeery believable. And the subtle hints at romance between Sin and Krystal, I mean seriously? You dedicated so much time to Uppity, and now you're going to throw another mare into the mix?"

  "I WILL FUCKING END YOU!"

   Shade chuckle coughed at the threat, arrogant in his belief that the deity will do nothing of the sort.

  "Tell me, 'god'. How long do you think all of these glaringly convenient factors will be tolerated by your readers?" Shade breathed, grinning like a madman. "What are you up to now? Two hundred and twenty chapters or so? With that kind of time comes convoluted-ness and inconsistency, and you proclaimed you were going to add in at least another hundred chapters? How do you see this working without me? Especially since we both know how essential I am when you finally do wind it all down."

  Daxisle huffed, but didn't reply.

  "Oh, you could have Rainbow pony replace me, but how dramatic would that be? They know she wouldn't die, you don't have the balls to kill off any of those characters do you? But me? You wouldn't be sad at all to see me go, would you?" The bat pony licked his fang. "After all, everypony loves a an established character's tragedy, don't they?"

  Shade felt himself well up with pride as Daxisle curled back his lip in a sneer. He may not have been able to physically harm the entity, but assaulting an artist through criticism of their work seemed to do damage enough.

   "Alright." Daxisle said, calming himself to stoicism. "You've got me. I have made quite a few mistakes with dramatic convenience and overplaying a few things."

  Shade felt himself well up even more, but gasped as he was lifted off the ground. Daxisle tapped his chest and lowered his hoof to the ground, the action magically healing Shade's broken bones and restoring the bat pony to prime condition.

"And you're right. You're established, and love you or hate you, the readers will understand everything that happens because you are Star Shade, so I guess itt's better I keep you around. Though..." Daxisle smirked. "Consequences will still be had for your insolence."

  Shade burst out into laughter. "Pft, bring it on. Anything you do, you'll have to fix anyway."

  Daxisle's smirk turned wicked, almost manacle. "Tell me Shade, how do you feel about clowns?"

  That wiped Shade's smirk off his face right now. The bat pony's golden eyes widened in terror at the thought. He glanced down at his captor with a pleading and unsure expression.

"Oh that's right, they horrify you, don't they? You know, Shade, you've become pretty tense lately, you need to relax, let loose, have a little fun." Daxisle said pleasantly. "How's about a nice, fun filled day at... I don't know... the Circus!"

  "Y- you wouldn't!" Shade barked desperately. Daxisle's grin, somehow, grew even wider on his face. "No! No, anything but the circus! Not the clowns! ANYTHING BUT THE CLOWNS!"

   Daxisle waved. "Have fun."

*Pop*

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