Still going hard! Next chapter is coming right up!

The next few hours were spent being very, very nervous and cautious, for me. After I realized I'd fallen into a park, I'd immediately looked for a safe and stealthy way to the river. I hadn't taken enough of a good look when I was on the wall to notice that this long stretch of 'wild mountainside' was really just a park, and honestly, I shouldn't have been surprised. Canterlot always had conflicting and contradicting visuals and showings in the show. It was no wonder I'd get it wrong, since even my senses for it were skewed from my thoughts of the show.

Regardless, I was glad that, at the very least, there were few ponies - and even better, few guards - in the park at the moment. Sadly, after a while of trying to be stealthy and cautious despite not seeing anyone, I felt the backlash of summons disappearing from this world.

They came all at once, like a massive migraine that just slams into you like a Tonitrus to the head. I doubled over, clutching my head and biting my lip so hard I knew it was bleeding. I could hear their voices screaming at me, not in anger, but despair, despair at having failed me.

After what felt like hours passed by with me doubled over in a bush, I slowly removed my hands from my head as the pain ebbed away with dull, fading throbs. I wiped my lip of blood.

"Fuck...note to self; Summon spell backlash is an utter bitch," I muttered to myself, before slowly moving on.

I moved from bush to bush, hiding spot to hiding spot, staying as far away from light posts as I could. It was a chore, but I was not gonna allow myself to get caught, not at this stage, not when I'd already gotten so far.

Sadly, fate obviously had other plans, as two thestral Night Guards alighted just twenty feet from my hiding spot just as I was about to leave it. Cursing mentally, I retreated deeper into the bush and tried to stay as quiet as possible.

"Dammit, where the buck did that stallion go?" one of the mares cursed, holding a lantern in one hoof, eyes alert and ears perked up.

"Tartarus if I know. Geez, and this was looking to be an easy shift again..." the other groused, similarly alert and obviously unhappy.

I grit my teeth. 'I need to distract them, make them head somewhere else so I can move on,' I thought.

And yet again, fate dealt me another bad streak, as one of them looked right at me. "Hey, Shadow, see that blue glimmer over there?" she whispered, pointing to me.

I froze as the other turned her head and squinted her slitted red pupils at me. "Yeah...I do." She raised her voice. "Better come out! We can see you!"

"Don't try anything funny, pal! We don't wanna hurt a stallion if we don't have to!" the other called.

'Fuck, the Greatsword's luster blew my cover!'

I stood motionless for a moment longer, before letting out a breath. 'Greatsword, don't fail me now...' "Alright... I'm coming out," I called to them, slowly standing up. As I did, though, I pulled the object that had given me away from my back, trying to make sure that they didn't notice. At the same time, I tried to focus on my aura, and pour it into the Greatsword in the hopes that it was the Moonlight Greatsword, and not the Bluemoon Greatsword. Then, just as my head popped out of the bush I was in, I made an upwards swing and pushed my aura out of it.

I was rewarded with something far greater than I recall even the Moonlight Greatsword being able to do, as a massive, far darker blue wave of moonlight shot out at the guards, startling and hitting the two of them with an immense force.

I stared in shock at the results. The ground was torn up in the wake of the wave of moonlight energy, and the guards had been knocked back. My eyes widened as I looked closer. They hadn't just been knocked back. It had dented their armor. Cut their wings, too. Even some of the bushes and trees had been torn to shreds, looking almost vaporized.

I paled.

A voice, however, interrupted my quickly spiraling thoughts.

'You called for me, O' Master. Do not dismay for those you cannot afford to care for now.'

"Wh...But...I...I just..." My mind was still spiraling. I felt sick, but in more than one way. In the first, I was terrified and sickened that I had actually just gone with the flow and hurt two living, breathing creatures. In the second way...I was sickened by how much I enjoyed the destruction I wrought. By how HE was laughing.

'Master, you must move. Ponder later, else you will be forced to much more drastic measures than this.'

I stared at the greatsword in my hands. I knew it was from the greatsword, I just...did. But...what I'd done, the fact I'd hurt others, it still...

I shook my head, shakily and unsteadily placed the greatsword back in it's sheath with some difficulty, then ran past the two heavily wounded guardsmares. "I'm sorry!" I cried as I ran past.

Like a coward.

I shook my head as tears filled my vision.

No. No. Not now. Not when my life and future was even more at stake. Not when I'd gotten so far. Not...not after what I'd done. I couldn't bear to face a court now. Not now.

So, I ran. I forwent all pretenses of stealth and simply ran for the river. I ran until I reached the river, then continued alongside the channel of it. I ran harder as I heard another whistle. I ran like when I first saw a wolf. I ran like my parents were going to yell at me and berate me. I ran until my feet hurt and my lungs burned.

I ran...like a coward.

I collapsed outside one of the sewer entrances under a bridge. My lungs were so on fire I swore I'd cough up blo-

Bile swiftly rushed out of my throat and into the watered stones beneath me.

I was only marginally glad it wasn't actually blood, but remained there on the ground to catch my breath, even as I threw up again. Shaking from both adrenaline, fear, and probably cold, covered in glass shards still, a few thorns, and now some of my own vomit, I was not in the best of minds.

Honestly, this was now the official worst day of my life.

What with losing my home, my family, my friends, my world and support, my lifelines, being tortured in the Void, having my expectations and hopes for a better opportunity here dashed and spat on, I was at my lowest. Lower than when I lost Kev to that bitch. Lower than when I lost Laura. Everything was shit.

And like every time, it was my fault.

I slammed a fist into the stones below, uncaring for how it covered the appendage in my vomit. "Dammit..." I cursed, tears welling up in my eyes and being let loose down my cheeks swiftly. "Why..." I said silently, trying and failing to bite back a sob, despite how the tears came rushing down. "Why...?" I slammed my fist again. "I could've found another way! I could've thrown a rock! Or talked to Twilight! GodDAMMIT!! Why am I always so FUCKING impulsive?!? Why, dammit?!? Fucking why?!"

'You had little choice, Master.'

I growled. "Shut the fuck up! You don't know a damn FUCKING THING!" I snarled at the sword.

'But I do, Master. While it is true that you could have spoken to the Princess, it would not have ended well. Eventually, when she found out your condition? You would have been locked away. And those guards? You had no choice either.'

"Bullshit! She might've just sent me to a therapist! A-And those guards-! I- God, I hate it! That was all impulse! Instinct! I fucking hate my instincts! Nothing good ever comes of them! " I slammed my fist again, sobbing openly. "Just more suffering...!"

'Psychosis is not a trait you will find in ponies, Master. It is a once in a- Ahem, blue moon, trait. Like the filly Cozy Glow.'

I simply scowled again, sobbing more.

'And once more, those guards would have just brought you to her, and your inevitable suffering. You had no choice.'

I bit my lip, uncaring for how it hurt from the previous biting-open I did. "H-How do you even know all th-this?"

'Simple, O' Master. Thou art mine, and I am thine. We are linked, soul and mind and heart.' I could almost feel the smile in it's voice. I hated it.

"S-So, what?" I began, sniffling. "You're just yet another voice in my head, only more r-r-real?"

'If you wish to put it that way, yes. And I will not be the last. One more remains, but they shall awaken on their own, when the time is right.'

I grit my teeth, slowly sitting up and slumping against the wall near me. "Who...wh-what the fuck are you, anyway? A-And what do you e-e-e-even mean?"

'I am the Bluemoon Greatsword, O' Master. Yours. As for what I mean...well, that is not for me to say. However, the fact remains that you cannot blame yourself for this. This...was bound to happen.'

I growled, wiping the vomit and new, fresh blood from my mouth and lips. "I fucking hate this, sti-sti-still..."

'Because you agree, yes? In some small, pushed away corner of your mind?'

I didn't reply, simply glaring up at the underside of the bridge.

'I thought so.'

"St-Still... There were other ways to keep those guards away, than just...just..."

'Maiming them? True. But, we are freshly bonded. You have yet to learn your strength, and your limits.'

I sighed. Then, took several deep breaths in and out to at least try and calm myself down. Slowly, I sat up, shaking a bit still, and still bleeding a bit from the glass in me, but I ignored it. "...F-Fine," I said, shaking off the final tremors. "But we're talking more later."

'I supposed as much. For now, though, we should continue moving. We must leave the city.'

I nodded. "Yeah..."

Shaking myself one final time, I started to make my way along the river again.

"Moonlight energy?" Twilight asked, eyes wide. "How?"

The guard shook her head. "We don't know, Your Highness. From what they could gather, though, it was a hefty amount, and focused."

Twilight placed a hoof on her forehead under her horn, staring down at the floor in thought.

Spike placed a hand on her shoulder, then looked to the guard. "Keep us updated, and send out more patrols. We need this guy found."

The guard saluted, then trotted out of the room.

Spike looked to back to Twilight. "You okay?"

Twilight shook her head. "No. It's...It feels like I just started a similar incident that Celestia did with Sunset."

"Ah...don't quite see how that fits, Twilight," Applejack spoke up, frowning and with dark circles under her eyes.

"He wasn't exactly your student or protege, after all," Rainbow agreed, yawning.

"I think she means that the magnitude of the mistake feels the same, darling," Rarity supplied, rubbing some sleep out of her eye.

"I shouldn't have told him. I should have just left it out, lied, even," Twilight began, frown deepening.

"It's too late for that now," Spike said, squeezing her shoulder a bit. "Now, we know he's dangerous. That those two wards were reason to be worried. Now, we know what to do."

Fluttershy nodded. "He's right. We have to find him."

Twilight took a breath, looking out the window. "Yes...yes, we do." She stood up from her throne, walking over to said window. "And when we do, we'll show him the error of his ways."

Starlight raised a hoof. "There's a bigger problem, too. From what he told me and Fluttershy, he knows a lot about us."

Twilight paled. "I...didn't see that when I read his mind, though."

"Could have been those wards," Rainbow suggested, frowning. "Still, that means he knows us. Which means he could have critical information he could use against us." She looked to Starlight. "Did he say what he knew, exactly?"

"Discord's reformation, our 'growth' and a bit more, but nothing solid or concrete," Starlight explained. "He seemed...really troubled, as well. Sad. Never explained exactly why."

"We need to find him and find out. Now," Twilight hissed.

"We do. But, we should be cautious," Spike informed, nodding. He looked out the window. "We don't know what he can do yet."