Princess Celestia drops a scroll and quill from her magic. She looks out the study window and sees the red and black blast of magic dissipate leaving a hole in the clouds. A very powerful magic keeps her from teleporting to the source in Whitetail Woods. She frowns and furrows her brows. She will send her Secret Service there to investigate. She spreads her wings and ignites her horn to cast a memory wiping spell.

"Oh! You poor dear!" A heavenly voice coos before the world around him goes dark.

Pinkie runs back and forth frantically. Should she go get Death? Should she stay with Shade? She runs in circles unable to make up her mind. A soft pop stops her in her tracks and she sees Death standing beside Shade.

"DB!" Pinkie Pie cries. She runs over to the dark pink mare and hugs her neck tightly. "Bear! Shade! Fwoosh! Dead!" Pinkie Pie sputters as she sobs uncontrollably.

Death strokes Pinkie's mane tenderly, "Shhh. Everything will be fine, Pinkie. Thank you for staying with Shade."

Pinkie Pie sniffles and hot tears stream down her face. "I. . . I froze. It would have killed me! Shade saved me."

Death hugs Pinkie. "I know, sweetie. You have seen too much for one day though." With a flash of her horn, she puts Pinkie Pie to sleep. After setting the pink filly on the grass, Death levitates her ivory filly in the air. She channels her magic into the pink ball and a flash of white later, Shade is completely healthy with no scars.

Death follows the tunnel of carnage the blast creates and sighs when she sees a hole in the moon.

She looks over to Shade and brushes her mane gently with a hoof. "Of course your power would come out to protect a friend." A small smirk pulls the corner of her mouth, "So cliché. You'd hate it!"

She teleports the three of them back home.

"You killed my mother!" Shade shouts above the thunder and rain. Her clothes dirty from the black mud. Her curved sword reflects the arcs of lightning as she points it Grey.

"And you killed my children, my wife, my fiancé, and three other important women in my life. And still I stand here, with opens arms, waiting for you to come back to me, Shade. I love each and everyone of them, and it hurts to think about what you did to them, but it hurts me more to see you like this."

Shade roars and lunges at the man.

Grey sighs.

He easily dodges her swings and parries her attacks. He frowns looking into her burning, hating eyes. He grabs her and pulls her in close for a hug. Shade squirms and tries to break free of Grey's grapple. She bites his neck and snarls.

Grey grunts with displeasure but still holds her. He begins to chuckle which pisses Shade off even more.

"Are you mocking me?!"

"I love how every time we fight it is always rainy and dramatic. We just need an orchestra to make the cliché complete."

Shade tries to knee him in the testicles but he prevents her.

"Let me go!" Shade demands.

"I let you go when you wanted to crawl. I let you go when you wanted to walk. I let you go when you wanted to run." Grey squeezes Shade gently, "I'm not letting you go now."

"Fucking drop dead!"

Grey holds her shoulders and pushes her back. He stares at her pensively. "What will you do after I am dead?"

"Kill Death, take the mantle as 'Goddess of Death', and make sure you never reincarnate."

"And after that?"

"Rule the Netherworld and possibly the other worlds Death has created," Shade states.

"You aren't going to help our world our people?"

"Pfft! The only 'help' the world needs is destroying it and the Humans are doing a pretty good job of it. As for your people, species come and go all the time, the Ancients have lived too long."

Grey smiles.

"What?" Shade snaps.

"This is the longest conversation we have ever had."

Shade scowls at him.

"Reach into my coat pocket, on the right."

Shade eyes him suspiciously then does as he says. Her eyes alight when she grasps the Godsbane Blade. The purple instrument of death sparkles in the lightning. She immediately turns the blade on Grey but his massive hand wraps around hers and stops her.

"You do realize that if you kill me now, you will have to live with the fact that I let you kill me." he smirks.

Shade's face twists in confliction. She finally smiles up and him, "Yeah but I'll be alive and you'll be dead!"

Grey releases her hand and closes his eyes. "As long as you are happy, my daughter."

Shade levels the blade at Grey's heart and cocks back her arms, ready to strike. She savors the moment and then thrusts the blade.

A hand grabs her arm, stopping her short of her mark. Shade growls and twists around to stare at. . . herself. . . with white hair.

"I won't let you kill my father!" her doppelgänger proclaims.

"Whaaaaaaaaaat?" Grey says in high pitch shock.

Shade cocks an eyebrow at the man then turns her attention back to her twin and sees a fist and then stars.

Shade jolts up from her bed and immediately returns her aching head to her pillow. She rolls over to her side and drapes her legs over the warm body next to her. . . Shade stops spooning the body and tries remembering what last happen to her.

She remembers going to Whitetail Wood with Pinkie Pie and an exploratory sniff confirms the warm body to be Pinkie a bear! Shade remembers using the new blast spell she learns after reading a combat magic spell book.

She rolls to her left side and glances at the clock. Barely past one. She sighs. Suddenly, she feels Pinkie roll over and wrap her legs around her barrel. Shade rolls her eyes and closes them to drift back to sleep.

Shade inhales the sweet, cotton candy scent deeply and nuzzles the soft, warmness with a content sigh. A hoof running through her mane snaps her awake. She sees Pinkie smiling warmly. How did she end up in her embrace?

"Either you are very good," Pinkie says in a sultry tone and boops Shade's nose, "or we passed out because of the shock of the bear."

Shade crinkles her nose from the gentle prod. "My bet is on the bear."

"Hmm. . . Maybe we should do it, just to make sure," Pinkie Pie closes her eyes and purses her lips.

Shade shoves her hoof into the filly's fish lips. "Let's not." Shade squirms out of Pinkie's hold and rolls out of bed. She hears Pinkie whimper softly.

"Shade?" Pinkie calls.

"Hm?"

"Thanks. . . for saving me."

Shade tears her eyes away from Pinkie's large, inviting gems. "Sure. I saved you," her cynical response before leaving out the room.

A weighty sigh escapes Shade. She is leaning against a tile wall of the large shower, letting the cold water cascade and roll off her. She watches the water swirl down the drain.

What did the dream mean? Who was that other me?

Her ears swivel to the door opening.

"Get out," Shade warns.

"I can wash your back!" Pinkie chimes.

"You can also leave." Shade can see the earth filly walking closer to the shower through the opaque shower curtain.

Pinkie pulls the shower curtain to the side and shivers. "Why do you have the water so cold?"

"Because I like the cold."

Pinkie hugs Shade. "Guess I'll just have to use you for warmth!"

Shade rolls her eyes. "Or you can leave. Can you even see in the dark?"

"I can see plenty," Pinkie replies. Shade swats the hoof away from her flank and Pinkie giggles. She retrieves the bar of soap from the soap dish behind Shade. She lathers a brush and starts scrubbing Shade's back.

Maybe if she allows her to do what she wants Pinkie will leave on her own accord. Shade has to rethink her thought, remembering how "friendly" Pinkie is.

"Listen, Pinkie, don't think you are indebted to me or anything."

"Of course I am! You risked your life for me!"

Shade huffs. "Isn't that what. . . friends do?"

Pinkie Pie squees and wraps her forelegs around Shade's neck, rubbing their cheeks together, "YES!" Pinkie shrills.

Shade groans. "Yes, yes, touchy feely time is over." She pushes the filly off her and gets under the water to rinse off the suds on her back.

Shade and Pinkie lock eyes. Pinkie Pie breaks the silence.

"So what are we going to do today?"

Shade smirks, "How about we try to take over the world?"