“What the hell is going on!?” I shouted as I coughed up another bit of the black ooze, and watched it slither to my dark halfs newly formed body. “How are you standing here . . . you’re not real.”

“Actually I am real, I’ve always been real.” She replied with a smirk as she stretched. “It’s just before, when I was in that little head of yours, my form was incorporeal. Now I stand here, in the flesh.” She said with a smile.

I gritted my teeth in frustration as I felt my blood begin to boil. She knew I hated that damn smile of hers, she knew it drove me crazy and taunted me . . . she knew and that’s exactly why she was doing it. I let out a low irritated growl and stepped to my right, and without a thought she mirrored my movements. So there we were, in the throne room of an ancient castle, circling each other like wild animals.

“How did you get here? How did you get that body?” I asked, my ears pinned back as I watched her closely. She, however was much more at ease, her posture relaxed and demeanor composed. She seemed like she didn’t have a care in the world and the situation she found herself in was more amusing than anything.

“I heard a voice, dear Dashie. I heard a strong and defiant voice call to me within the depths of your soul, almost as if it were commanding me. It told me to rise, to free myself from the shackles of your mind and body, to be given a body all my own. It told me rise and become what this world so desperately needed, what it would come to fear.” She replied calmly, her sickening smile still plastered across her face.

“What’s that, the world’s biggest jackass?” I snapped back in reply.

“Now, now, Dashie, you asked the question. I’m just trying to give you an answer.” She said with a small chuckle. “I’m to become this world’s nightmare! Destined to bathe it in darkness everlasting and give it the cleansing it so terribly needs. To rid the world of ponies, changelings, diamond dogs, dragon, griffons, all of it! My destiny is to put it all to flame, burn it to ash and rebuild it into a glory unparalleled.”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re going on about, cleansing the world and bringing an eternal night. That sounds like something Nightmare Moon would say, and we all know what happened to her . . . she was defeated.”

“We always like to think evil can be defeated, purged from the world, but the truth is far more harsh. The truth is that evil can’t be destroyed, only weakened and forced back into the shadows. You know what happens then? It waits, bides its time and waits for its strength to return. It waits until the moment that its strong enough to reemerge into the light and snuff it out forever.” She said as she suddenly rushed me.

I didn’t have time to think, I could only trust my body as it moved without a thought and our forehooves smashed into each other's, my hind legs nearly buckled from the force, but I managed to stay standing as I now stood face to face with Dark Dash.

“You say that evil, that darkness, can never be destroyed.” I said as I pushed back against her. “Then the same can be said for the light, because one cannot exist without the other.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, my dear, because the absence of light is darkness. The light can try to push back against the dark, but eventually it returns to nothingness and darkness reigns supreme.”

She quickly knocked my hooves away a spun throwing a swift kick, I managed to catch it and ducked as she lifted her other leg and spun in the air throwing another kick. I slid back and turned, tossing her across the throne room, and readied myself for another attack as she rolled across the floor to a stop. She leapt back up to her hooves and bounced around excitedly. She sickened me with how excited she was, with how confident she was that this wouldn’t end with her dead. However for all the anger I felt towards her, I found myself feeling at peace, because for the first time in a long time . . . I was rid of her. I was myself again.

No sooner had I found a moment of happiness in that thought, I found Dark Dash again on the offensive. She rushed me head on again, and once more we clashed, this time she was trying to overpower me to push me to my absolute limit. I wouldn’t allow it though, I wouldn’t allow myself to come this far only to fall at her hooves. The hooves of some shadow of myself. She was sick, twisted and a mockery of everything I ever was, or hoped to be again. This time I knocked her hooves away and wrapped my forehooves around her, before picking her up and suplexing her head first into the stone floor. A loud thunderous smack echoed out and I let go of her, before rolling over to stand. Without warning her hind legs came down on me, slamming her hooves into my back. I gasped as the air rushed from my lungs and I struggled to stand.

“Now that was a good move, too bad I’m not a normal pony or that might have done me in. Luckily, it didn’t. I mean, how boring of a fight would this be if it did?” She said as she stood once more and rolled her neck, eliciting several loud pops.

I took a moment to catch my breath and even had a small smile play at the corners of my lips. “I’m not gonna argue that, I’d hate if I didn’t get to kick your ass more.”

This time I didn’t wait for her, I rushed her with all the speed I could muster. I managed to catch her off guard, or maybe she let me, as I was suddenly on her. I brought up a hoof and slammed it into the bottom of her jaw, picking her up off the ground with the force. I took the chance to grab her, wrapping my forelegs around her body, pinning hers within my grasp, as I spun around and threw her into the air. I leapt up after her, grabbed her by the mane and slammed her back into the ground. Suddenly she burst into laughter, cackling wildly as I held her face down. Once, twice, three times, I just kept slamming hoof after hoof into her face. Each one I put more and more force into, each one accompanied by the wonderful sound of my hoof cracking against her skull. However with each blow her laughter only increased, only grew louder.

“Are you done?” She asked suddenly, her laughter stopping in an instant.

I looked down at her, my free hoof pulled back ready to strike again, when I saw her glaring up at me. Her eyes narrowed and gazing into my very soul, a place she had been not to long ago. I was stunned by the defiance in her gaze and the lack of damage my attacks had seemed to cause. I roared out in frustration and slammed my hoof down, trying to show her that I would not be swayed, that I would end her. Just before my hoof connected with her face, I felt one of her hind legs dig deep into my stomach and lift me into the air. I let out a swift and sharp exhale, feeling as if everything in me had been knocked out all at once. The next thing I saw was her quickly rise to stand, and then I felt her hoof grab me by the nape of the neck.

“Let’s see how you like it!” She shouted out as she drove my face into the ground, a loud crack reverberating through my skull and the surrounding room, as the the very stone gave way and split from the force.

I layed there lost in a stupor as the world went dark, then light slowly began to filter in once more and I could see blood. I pushed myself up, only to have her grab me and sling me across the floor. I rolled several times before coming to a sudden stop as I slammed into the statue of the elements, an intense pain starting to take hold of my entire being.

“Come on! Don’t quit on me now! This is only getting started!” Dark Dash shouted as she slowly walked towards me. I struggled to stand, falling back against the statue as I slowly found my footing and rose once more.

“I won’t give you the satisfaction of killing me, you piece of shit.” I replied as I spit out the blood that had pooled in my mouth. “You may think you’ll win, but I’ll be sure to shatter that illusion and send you to hell.”

She smiled and rushed me once more, throwing a devastating punch that I narrowly avoided. She struck the statue, cracking the stone that comprised it. Had she connected, I’m not sure I would have survived. Still, I could not waver and pushed the offensive again. I stood face to face with her, planted my hind legs into the ground and unleashed a volley of punches. Her insane laughter rang out, mixed with the sounds of our hooves slamming into each other. Every strike I threw she blocked, then she would offer her own in kind and I somehow managed to do the same. Faster and faster, our strikes gained momentum, seeming to feed off of the one that came before it. Finally I was able to break her defense, at the cost of my own, and I found the two of us no longer caring about blocking the others assault. Strike after strike, attack after attack, each one found it mark. Our hooves moving like blurs, barely perceptible to the eye, as they cut threw the air and found rest in the others body.

I found myself thinking this was an impossible undertaking, a foe that I couldn’t overcome, when I began to notice something. I began to notice that she was starting to be affected by my attacks, even if her smile and laughter didn’t show it. I could tell by how her body was reacting, flinching ever so slightly at the moment just before impact, though I knew my body was doing the same. Pain was slowly spreading once more through me, but I had to fight it, I had to push it aside and numb myself to it. I had to overcome the darkness that stood before me, because to not do so would surely prove disastrous for not only myself, but all of Equestria. The sounds of our struggle seemed to bleed out into the world, each blow ringing out with the dull thud of a hoof slamming into a body, the quick gasp of air that would leave our bodies as we tried to force the other to submit to our will.

I finally broke free from our exchange, catching her off guard as I knocked away an incoming attack. I didn’t relent, and grabbed her by the muzzle, turning and slamming the back of her skull into the statue, before planting a hind leg square in her chest and kicking off. I flipped back through the air and landed waiting for her to rush me, but was shocked when I saw her swaying where she stood as her chest heaved.

“I wish you would just hurry up and die already.” She said as she stared at me, her mane covering her face as one glaring eye was focused on me. There was a raggedness to her breathing, like she was struggling to regain the air I had knocked from her. In truth I was just as bad off, but I refused to let her see that, I refused to let her know that I was being affected by her in anyway.

“I thought you wanted this to last?” I replied, forcing a steadiness to my breath that was far from its true form. “Are you starting to regret those words?”

“This body is amazing, far more so than that broken shell you call yours. However I must admit that even it has its limits . . . I suppose that’s the only drawback to existing in this world. Don’t worry though, I’ve more than enough strength in this body to end your pitiful existence.”

Without another word we clashed once more, I swung at her and she ducked beneath my attack, rising up and throwing an uppercut aimed for my chin. I leaned back and barely avoided her attack, before bringing my own hoof down to slam her into the ground again. She knocked my strike aside and caught me in the ribs, I cried out and wrapped a foreleg around hers, pulling her towards me as I connected with a blow square in her nose. A sickening crack rang out and I released her foreleg, turning quickly in place as I threw a kick to her stomach that sent her rolling back. She quickly rose back to stand, her eyes wide in disbelief as she raised a hoof to her nose and pulled it back staring at it.

“So you do bleed.” I said as I saw the thick brown rust colored blood that seemed to crawl down her maw, from her nose. “This isn't inside my mind anymore. Now you’re in the real world and in the real world, everything can die!”

A guttural, primal, roar erupted from her and in an split second she stood face to face with me. I was caught off guard by her speed and as I tried to leap back I found her hooves firmly grasping my skull. She lifted me into the air, before slamming her skull into mine a thunderous crack erupted from the space between us, but I didn’t have a moment to recover. Within seconds she planted a terribly powerful strike into my stomach and lifted me into the air, blood and spit flew from my mouth as did every bit of air within me. My body rose up into the air and she grabbed one of my hind legs, slinging me through the open space and soaring right towards the statue of the elements. It was as if I had been hit by a train, the world of consciousness dancing in and out of my reality, light and dark frantically vying for power of my perception.

I could feel the air rushing against my fur, biting at my skin beneath and in that moment I could hear words . . . Luna’s words echoing in the depths of my very soul. Would I fall to my darkness? Would I fall in shame and with it allow Equestria to fall in the depths of oblivion as well? Would I prove to finally be the weak wretch of a pony I had thought myself to have become? No! I would not allow all that I loved to be forgotten. I would not let this evil that stood before me prevail and allow the futures of those who still lived to be filled with pain and misery. My eyes shot open and my wings spread wide, turning my body just enough that my hooves slammed into the statue and I found myself braced against it.

“I won’t let you win!” I shouted in protest, as I felt a fire begin burning deep inside. “I can’t allow that, not even if it costs me my life!”

The very stone beneath my hooves cracked as I pushed off from the statue, a shower of stone and rubble, dust and bits of plaster followed in my wake as the statue toppled over. I wrapped my forehooves around Dark Dash, cutting through the air as I finally reached her, and slammed her into the wall of the castle. Stones feel from atop it’s ancient wall, cascading down around us like a scene from one of my visions. I grabbed her by the throat and squeezed with all my might, before turning and slamming her onto the ground. A loud gasp of pain and surprise rushed from her mouth as her body bounced off the floor and I kicked her, rolling her across the ground. I rushed to her and planted a hind leg square in her back, before reaching down and grabbing her left wing with my forehooves.

“I’ll show you the pain and suffering I have endured!” I roared out as I twisted her wing and pulled with everything I had. The sound of bone breaking and snapping, accompanied by the joint being ripped from socket all mixed with the shrill screams that Dark Dash elicited. “I’ll show you true pain!” I shouted and with one final pull I ripped her left wing from her body, tossing it to the ground behind me, as her putrid blood began to quickly pool beneath her.

She squirmed and writhed beneath my hoof, before finally knocking me away. I stepped back and watched her, shocked and satisfied by the pained cries of agony that came from her twisted mouth. I relished in the tears that streamed down her face, but all my satisfaction was robbed from me when I heard her screams stop and instead become replaced by maniacal laughter. She reared up onto her hind legs and turned her head to the sky, laughing insanely before dropping her head to let it hang.

“So this is pain.” She said after a moment, her body twitching as she spoke. “This is so disappointing. I had hoped it would be . . . more.” She took a step towards me and suddenly swayed, almost falling as she struggled to maintain balance.”This body isn’t enough, it’s weak. I can’t conquer Equestria with a body like this. I need more, I need to bring more of the darkness into myself. I NEED to become darkness itself!” She said as she collapsed a few feet from me. “I really, really, REALLY hate to admit this . . . but I can’t beat you, not yet at least.”

“You’ll never be able to beat me.” I replied.

“Oh I will, I can promise you that. What you don’t seem to understand is I’m no longer a part of you, I’m my own being now, which means I don’t have to follow the same path of weakness that you seem hellbent on travelling down.”

“Just what the hell are you trying to say?” I suddenly asked, slowly moving towards her.

“I’m saying I’ll kill you one day, but it’s not gonna be today.” She replied with her sick smile and a laugh. “Watch your back, my precious Dashie. You never know when I’ll decide to come back and claim this meaningless life of yours.”

“Your not going anywhere!” I shouted in protest as I ran towards her.

“That’s not your decision to make, and I’ve got plans of my own that I need to see to. So until next time, Dashie, I’ll let you keep on living. Just do me a favor and don’t go dying before I get a chance to rip out your heart.”

“Buck off!” I shouted as I reached her and slammed my forehooves down on her, just before they hit she erupted into a cloud of black smoke. The smoke swirled in front of me, casting a silhouette of my darker half and her laughter echoed throughout the throne room once more. Then almost as if she’d never existed the smoke caught the wind and was gone. I stood there dumbfounded, staring down at the spot where she had just been.

“Get back here! Get back here and finish the fight you damn coward!” I shouted, full of rage. “You don’t get to just run away!” I slammed my hooves down on the ground over and over, my rage only growing. “I’ll hunt you down to the ends of the earth!”

“Rainbow Dash!”

Suddenly a blinding light and a booming voice caught me off guard, causing me to drop to my haunch. I tried hard to push my rage aside, my blood still boiling at Dark Dash’s show of cowardice. I was finally able to contain my hatred and turned to face the light, to face Luna who once again stood at her throne.

“Rainbow Dash let go of your hate, your rage. You are finally free from it, do not so readily invite it back.” Luna spoke to me, the light surrounding her ethereal form brilliant and soothing.

“Luna . . . what the hell is happening?” I asked as I stood and approached her.

“I will answer your questions, Rainbow Dash, but for now sleep.” The tip of her horn began to shine and just as I was about to ask another question, I felt my body go heavy. “Sleep and I will show you all that must be known.” With those words my eyelids grew heavy and in what seemed like a second, I gave into Luna’s embrace.