A ghostly figure stood before Cloud.

Naturally, as an intellectual, Cloud reacted in an observational and scientific manner as he had learnt while studying with Twilight - screaming, cursing, and falling over.

The figure was a dark purple Unicorn with shining lights in place of eyes. Its mane and tail were short, and had no mouth or cutie mark Cloud could see. After moments of no movement from either party, Cloud suddenly realised the ghostly figure closely resembled himself. Another detail he realised, though not nearly as strange, was its gaze had not seemed to follow him when he had jumped back.

After a few seconds which felt like hours, Cloud’s heart began to calm down and stop trying to explode out of his chest. He felt his body loosen up, and finally he blinked. What the crap?! Cloud closed his eyes and his literal vision returned to the odd mental vision he’d been having, the colours still blending and blurring - and he could once again see himself, though now tripped and eyes closed. Uncharacteristically to his usual dumbass self, it took very little time for Cloud to realise what was happening. He opened his eyes again and look at the hooves of the shade. A magic circle of an even deeper purple lay beneath it.

It was a clear, cool morning in the training yard, and Squadron 20 were hard at work… cleaning. Rather than allow his Privates to train for the coming war, Watcher instead forced them to clear the yard of weapons, training dummies and safety mats used by other squadrons the night before. Being an asshole, he of course did not help in the slightest, or even allow them to eat breakfast before performing such a menial task. Only after cleaning the yard were they allowed to go to the mess hall… to clean the mess of the morning diners; both the breakfast of the early risen squadrons such as themselves as well as the midnight lunches of the strange, dark creatures working in the Lunar Guard. Only then were they allowed to eat.

After their twelve o’clock breakfast, a single one of the squadron would remain to clean their newly made mess while the rest could finally begin their training. The unlucky enough squadmate was chosen the first day of each week by the rest of the squadron, and would remain the chosen until the first day of the next week. This, of course, as per Watcher’s orders. Despite none of Squadron 20 finding Watcher the slightest bit tolerable, their loyalty to the kingdom kept them from leaving. In an effort of spite, they had drawn straws to decide the chosen rather than vote amongst themselves. The chosen of this week had been Spare Parts, to the misfortune of the rest of the squadron.

When Spare Parts finally found himself in the training yard, for its intended purposes, the rest of Squadron 20 were finishing for the day.

“Private Parts!” Bellowed Watcher.

“What about them?” Asked Private Browsing, earning a few snickers. Watcher ignored him and the other nuts, too focused on Parts to care.

“When I tell you to be finished with training by seventeen hundred hours,” Watcher growled, “I expect you to be here before seventeen hundred hours!”

“Sorry to have stood you up, babe,” Parts replied with a wink. His eye remained closed as it swelled from Watcher’s punch. “Pretty sure this has gotta be breaking some kind of rule, sir.”

“Quiet!” Watcher barked. “My authority is far more important than any of your silly, naive ‘opinions’!” The entirety of Squadron 20 rolled their eyes. “That’s it! None of you eat tonight!” Watcher stormed off, his persona of a Corporal doing nothing to hide his prepubescent attitude.

“C’mon, guys,” called Private Estate after Watcher was finally out of earshot, “let’s clear things up.” The eleven other Privates half-heartedly grunted in response before clearing things away. After quickly sorting out his own equipment, Grand Estate made his way over to Spare Parts. “Pins, we talked about this.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Parts yawned. “I needed a nap.”

“You need to wake up and realise you’re ruining things for everyone else,” said Estate frowning. He drew his practice sword from its sheath, then tossed it into the air and caught it by its blade before offering it to Parts. “Get warmed up while I check on the others, I’ll spar with you after.”

“Alrighty.” Parts took the sword from him and started lazily stretching, loosening up his joints.

Estate briefly made his way to each of his squadmates, making sure they were both uninjured from training as well as okay to clear away their equipment. All were fine until Quiet Affair, who was visibly agitated.

“Y’alright, man?” Estate asked. “Y’know, aside from Watcher being his usual self.”

“Pins is getting under my goddamn nerves,” Affair muttered, glaring at Parts who was slashing his sword at the air. Affair’s eyes went back to Estate. “This is already bullshit enough, but that bastard keeps making it worse for everyone else.”

“I know, I’m gonna have a word with him while we train.”

Affair grunted.

Estate paused, thinking of how he could improve Affair’s mood. “How’s the family?”

The question caught him off-guard, but sure enough Affair began smiling gently.

Estate smiled back. “That good, huh?”

“Yeah…” His smile widened slightly. “Blossom sent me the news yesterday; she’s pregnant!”

“Oh!” Estate broke into a full grin. “Congratulations, man!” He patted Affair on the back. “Just in time for the wedding!”

“Uh, yeah, but…” Affair’s smile faltered some. “We’ve decided to push back the wedding. With the war, and all.”

“Ah…”

“I can’t exactly ask for time off to have it sooner, right?” Affair sighed. “Shit, I don’t want to think about this right now.” He hastily tossed the rest of his gear into the storage closet. “Later, man, I need a stiff drink…” Without so much as a glance to Estate, Affair walked to the door and disappeared from sight. The others soon finished up themselves and followed in his wake.

Estate walked back over to Parts, who was lazily swinging around a practice sword.

“Pins, why do you keep doing this to everyone?” Estate asked bluntly, unsheathing his own practice sword. “You’re making our lives even worse of the hell it already is from our ass of a boss.”

Parts yawned, ignoring the question.

“Yeah, fuck you too,” said Estate. “Alright, you ready for training?”

The Zebrican sky was a deep, inky blue. The tops of the jungle trees were silhouetted against it, but anything lower was shrouded in the darkness. The only light around the guard tower on the edge of town came from a lamp potion set on a table, and the ground below could hardly be seen. That combined with the wind rustling the grass made Cloud feel like he was back at sea, bobbing around in a box, despite hardly being conscious during his offshore escapade.

Though he glanced over the balcony now and again, Cloud’s focus was far from the job at hand. Since earlier in the day, he had been continuously recreating the new magic circle he had discovered. Hours of practice had certainly expedited the process, and Cloud could summon the ghostly image of himself in a short fifteen seconds - so long as he was able to clear his mind. Given the appearance of the apparition, Cloud had dubbed his newest addition of magic he didn’t understand the Shade Circle.

Cloud’s trusty notebook for magical studies was still in the possession of Twilight so any testing Cloud could do, which was already limited by being alone and needing to work night duty, would be testing he couldn’t make note of. He knew that trying to remember his discoveries, tests, and ideas around the Shade Circle without taking notes would be a foolish task. With no money to buy a new notebook, and no Bravura to ask for one, Cloud had made the questionable decision to collect large leaves fallen from the enormous trees nearby and tie them together by their stems, creating a very crude notebook of nature. Rather than try to use a tiny laser as he had in the town hall out of fear of destroying the leaf paper, he instead tried a focused, low-power version of his conjure electricity spell to create small burn marks in place of ink, using electricity rather than fire as to not set it ablaze. With a notebook handy, Cloud could begin some testing.

The first major detail Cloud realised was that he could not control his real body and his shade simultaneously. While his eyes were open, his shade was but a ghostly figure; but while his eyes were closed, he could freely control the shade as if it were his own body. No matter how he moved, however, the Shade Circle itself would always remain beneath him in a manner very similar to the Support Circle.

The second major detail Cloud had discovered was that his shade could only work up to a certain range from his body. It passed through solid objects like a ghost, and could even fly through the air or fall through the floor if he so wished, but the further away from his body the shade moved, the more distorted its senses became. After going far enough, the Shade Circle would automatically dismiss, destroying the shade along with it. Though he couldn’t be sure on the exact numerical distance, Cloud noticed the range was around the same as the distance he could move his Support Circle too. While the range of his Support Circle had been something he and Twilight had found the exact value of, the results of their testing were all within his notebook - not his mind.

The third and final major detail Cloud had discovered was that his shade was able to use extremely limited amounts of magic - though ‘limited’ was putting it lightly. His magic bolts, which would usually be a blast of magical energy, were reduced to little more than glorified stones being thrown. There was a greater weakness however: As he used magic as a shade, the shade itself began to deteriorate until it was eventually destroyed. Like with distance, the Shade Circle would be dismissed. The shade was made of a magical substance, and parts of it Cloud would have to sacrifice to fuel his magic.

“Jeez, I really didn’t figure out too much for an entire day,” Cloud thought aloud, as he flipped through his leaf notebook. “Though notes were harder to take than usual. I’ll use that excuse if I’m asked.” He nodded. “I sure do love thinking out loud.” He paused. “Anyway…” I should take this opportunity to test out the practical application of the Shade Circle.

Cloud sat in the middle of the room and closed his eyes. He focused - while trying not to be rigid - and slowly summoned a Shade Circle in front of himself. After fifteen seconds of the circle slowly spinning into existence, his ever-ghostly shade solidified from dark mist. When his vision finally settled, he could see the room clearly. Cloud tried to open his mouth to continue thinking aloud, only to realise that he couldn’t. He looked around for a mirror of some sort, and settled on using the glass of the lamp potion to look at himself. His shade had no mouth. Huh. Well, whatever. After opening his eyes for a moment to make note of his realisation, Cloud switched back into his shade and phased through a wall to get outside. He could see the dark expanses of jungle before him, hear the distant calls of the tropical wildlife, feel the cool wind on his body… all from the comfort of the guard tower. Cloud smiled. Then he remembered he didn’t have a mouth. What the hell do I look like right now? I should check my reflection aga-

A scream halted Cloud’s train of thought. It was nearby, near enough that he could tell the direction. He flew north, away from the east-facing tower. Soon enough, he saw them through the darkness; a Horse and a Gryphon shrouded in cloaks, the latter lugging a squirming sack over their shoulder.

“[...It doesn’t matter!]” The Gryphon barked in a harsh whisper. “[The workforce takes priority, we can return another time! And speak in Saddline, you fool! We could be overheard!]”

“[Fine!]” The Horse whisper-shouted back. “[But the master will be displeased! He requires our offering, and if you- What the fuck?!]” Cloud’s shade had landed next to them. He wasted no time in investigating, shoving his head toward the sack and phasing through it. Inside the sack was a bound and injured Zebra child, struggling against his bonds and sobbing. His cries were muffled by the rag shoved into his mouth. Fresh claw marks were scraped across his neck, and his left eye was swollen and black. The Gryphon leapt back, taking the sack with him, forcing Cloud’s head back into the open.

“[Fucking kill it, whatever it is!]” Cried the Gryphon. The Horse, though shocked, nodded and pulled a out a short glaive from his cloak. The glaive was overly extravagant, looking almost ceremonial - both its handle and blade were decorated with gold. The Horse slashed at Cloud, who quickly moved back to avoid it. He charged his horn, sacrificing his shade’s tail for fuel, and blasted a small, purple magic bolt at him. The Horse yelped and held up his up glaive instinctively. The bolt collided with the handle of the glaive and popped like a bubble in an instant. Cloud stopped for a moment, confused, but quickly shook it off and fired another bolt, this time sacrificing his mane. The Horse adjusted the position of the glaive to defend again, and once again the bolt popped. This time the Horse was ready for the lull between attacks, leaping forward and slashing Cloud through the chest. Cloud’s eyes went wide, and the shade exploded back into mist, the Shade Circle shattering.

“[We need to move, now,]” the Gryphon ordered. The Horse nodded quickly and the two scurried off into the jungle.

“[What was that thing?!]” The Horse asked, still panicked.

“[It doesn’t matter right now, all that matters is that we make it back.]” As he said this, the Gryphon tripped up slightly thanks to the young Zebra struggling again. Gritting his teeth, the Gryphon swung the sack from around his shoulder and slammed it into a tree. The sack stopped moving. “[Piece of shit…]”

For the next few minutes, the two moved in silence. The terrain was rough, but each were able to keep moving without being held back. Finally, they came upon a hill overlooking a river.

“[I’m going to fly back to the camp with the cargo,]” the Gryphon shrugged his shoulder to emphasise the sack, “[you head back on foot so we can-]” At that moment, the Gryphon was cut off by Cloud, who had been flying after them at maximum speed on a Support Circle, unloading a flying thirty-miles-an-hour punch into his jaw. As the Gryphon and the sack went sprawling, the Horse pulled out his glaive and thrusted it toward Cloud. Cloud spun towards him, still atop his Support Circle, bashed the glaive to the side, grabbed it by the handle just beneath the blade, and yanked it out of the Horse’s grasp. He spun again on the Support Circle, and slashed the Horse across the chest. Pieces of the Horse’s cloak flew apart, reduced to bloody rags, as he fell to the ground. The glaive was tossed aside.

Cloud turned back to the Gryphon just in time to see him grab the sack and retreat into the sky. Cloud began flying after him, but suddenly screamed in pain as the Horse stabbed into the back of his hind leg. Suddenly, Cloud fell to the ground - the glaive had passed through his Support Circle and the Support Circle shattered as it did so. The Horse thrusted the glaive once more, but Cloud rolled to his side and only received a minor cut. Cloud slapped the Horse’s brain with a disorientation spell, then leapt to his feet and unleashed a Thunder Punch into his face. The Horse dropped like a sack of potatoes.

Biting his lip as he endured the pain in his hind leg, Cloud summoned another Support Circle and took to the skies. The sky was dark, but he could make out the black silhouette of the Gryphon against the inky blue. Cloud flew after him as fast as he could, not wanting to risk hitting the Zebra child with magic, and steadily began to catch up. The Gryphon glanced over his shoulder and swore loudly. He pulled out a miniature crossbow from his cloak, turned around mid-flight, and fired at Cloud. Unable to see the bolt in the dark, Cloud used a fire conjuration spell to spit a torrent of flames ahead of him. The fire stopped the momentum of the bolt, which fell out of the sky.

An idea struck Cloud, and he began teleporting a short distance every few seconds to speed up his approach. The Gryphon switched holding the sack from his talons to his mouth as he struggled to reload his crossbow. He looked up, finally reloaded, all too late as Cloud blasted his face with a magic bolt at point-blank range. The Gryphon fell, his face smouldering from the blast. Cloud caught the sack with a telekinesis spell as the Gryphon vanished beneath the canopy of trees, until there was a THUD as he crashed into the ground.

Breathing heavily, Cloud slowly lowered himself to the ground. He landed, and dismissed his Support Circle. He winced, trying to avoid putting weight onto his bleeding hind leg, as he opened the sack. The Zebra child was unconscious, but visibly breathing. Cloud took the boy out of the sack, and tossed the sack aside. He summoned a small Support Circle and lay the boy down onto it. He willed the Support Circle to follow him, then limped over to where the Gryphon lay. Lighting up his horn, he looked over the Gryphon’s body.

The Gryphon was a mess: He had fallen onto a bed of rocks, and if his glassy eyes or lack of breathing didn’t make it clear, the quickly pooling blood did - he was dead. Though a pit formed in his gut, Cloud felt little remorse. As his eyes went over the body, Cloud noticed the back of the cloak was emblazoned with a symbol… a symbol he found all too familiar.

Author's Notes:

Take a drink every time you see the word 'shade'-

---

Introducing the Shade Circle, an idea from Darkest Dreams! If you've got your own idea for a circle you'd like to see in the story, let me know and I just might use it!
A couple of things, if I do use your idea, I'll credit you (like above) in the first chapter it's used. I may take the basic form of your idea but change it in ways I think better suit the story, in which case I will still credit you. Also, bare in mind that there will only be a limited amount of circles in total. At a certain point, requests will be closed.