"He seems... nervous." Seven commented as they watched Swift from afar.

"I would think he should be... sir." Shyvanna replied. The two of them sat at what Seven liked to call 'A useless snooty upper class outdoors restaurant for ponies too full of themselves to eat their "fancy" food indoors.' Needless to say, they didn't plan on ordering anything. Across the street was Swift, leaning up against the building that the very DJ he was supposed to protect was playing at tonight.

Seven briefly wondered if the club ever attracted the ire of the ponies that ate at the restaurant, but those thoughts were squelched when he saw a hooded pony enter the crowd. They moved quickly, obviously not trying to attract too much attention. Seven could barely make out a bulge under his hood, just above his head.

"That's a unicorn alright." Seven motioned to his side. A few other pedestrians, sitting at their own tables, stood up and slowly moved over to the pair. "Are they set up?"

"Yes sir." One of the guardsponies said. "Our own unicorns have set up a field around the area. Nopony will be able to teleport away."

"Good. Wouldn't want them to run away to tell their friends, now would we? Still, assume they are a threat unless we learn otherwise. And I want them alive. Do not think exact your revenge upon them. We need them to tell us if there are others. Understand?" The group nodded. "Good. Let's go then."

The group dispersed, walking through the crowd on the street at odd angles. Anypony looking at them would quickly lose them in the crowd. The only one of them that moved with any intent was the grey earth pony heading towards the hooded unicorn. Swift's eyes widened as he saw Seven approaching. The hooded pony turned to face him, and, to his surprise, smiled. She was a green unicorn mare with orange eyes that almost seemed to burn on the inside.

"I'll ask you nicely to come quietly." Seven said, keeping his distance. The unicorn didn't respond, and instead closed her eyes. Her horn began to glow and Seven could feel the energy flowing outward. "You can't run and you can't teleport, so don't try. It would make things easier on both of us if you gave up." Even as Seven said the words his focus was elsewhere. He could tell there was something wrong with this mare.

The rest of the group began to converge on the three ponies. Shyvanna trotted next to her charge and whispered. "What is she doing?"

"Teleporting... but not away." The realization finally dawned on Seven. "She's not trying to run away, she's trying to bring something else here!" As he said the words a green orb appeared on the ground in front of them. It grew in size rapidly as it began to take shape. Seven's eyes widened when he saw the creature.

It was a two-legged creature that towered over the ponies. It had the consistency and appearance of a solid shadow, clawed hands and an almost Diamond Dog-like head that was more elongated than the creatures it resembled. It growled and snarled at them, staring directly at Seven.

'Shadowmarcher...' Seven was able to think before the creature broke into a sprint, hissing and growling as it reached out with its claws. Shyvanna and Seven dived out of the way as it ran past them, grazing Seven with its claws and launching itself into the crowd of terrified onlookers. Seven barely managed to catch it in his aura and pull it away from them. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the unicorn trotting away slowly.

"Stop her!" Seven yelled to his guards. They did as he asked, feverishly galloping after the mare. "Shyv, help me out here!" She nodded at him and galloped in front of the creature. She inhaled sharply and exhaled, covering the monster in a blue flame. It writhed and howled in pain, swiping at the air in front of it, trying desperately to reach the mare. A bolt of raw energy hit the back of its head, surprising it. It turned to face Seven, who shared its look of surprise.

'How is it not dead yet?' Seven thought. He realized it was becoming harder to keep the creature still, his power simply wasn't working. It only took a few more moments for his aura to fail completely. Seven concentrated, intending to utterly destroy the creature, when it let out an ear-shattering shriek.

This was different then the howls and groans it had made earlier. To Shyvanna, and those brave few ponies watching the spectacle, it was annoying and confusing, but an otherwise harmless sound. To Seven, it was agonizing.  Seven pushed his ears over with his hooves, trying desperately to block out the sound, but it was almost like it reverberated within his own head: covering his ears seemed to just agitate the pain. Thinking was impossible; the pain produced from the piercing sound cut off all his thoughts. He was very loosely aware of the shadowmarcher stepping towards him, and Shyvanna galloping between them.

The monster looked down at the pony with what Shyvanna had to assume was a grin on its face. It took an aggressive posture, putting its arms out and to its sides and leaning down, letting out a canine growl that caused her to tense. The monster felt confident in his ability to handle a single pony. He did not expect said pony to run in a charging leap towards him, or to explode in a column of fire. As the column hit him, he could feel something very solid push him down, with the unmistakable sensation of claws digging into his shoulders as he was pinned to the ground.

The monster's eyes involuntarily widened at the sight of the creature, using one of its leathery wings to pin him down while the other was put to his throat, the claw on the end of it tightening its grip every time it struggled. The two monsters stared silently into each other’s eyes for what felt like hours until the wyvern let out a terrifying roar as it began to maul the unfortunate creature.

"Sir? Are you hurt?" Seven barely felt a nudge on his side. He opened his eyes and was met with the concerned look on his bodyguard's face.

"I... I'm gonna laugh if your face freezes up like that one day." Seven said wearily, a grin one might expect from a mad-mare resting itself on his features.

Shyvanna smiled at the comment. "I was... worried. What happened?"

"I... have no idea." He said, nonchalantly as he got back on all four legs. "How long was I out?"

"A few hours..." Shyvanna frowned. "I managed to kill the monster, but there have been some new developments..."

"Great. What's new?" Seven said, completely forgetting the fact that the creature easily made him unconscious.

"Well... for starters we managed to capture the unicorn... and several others." Seven raised an eye at this. "The unicorn apparently tried to lead us into what we thought at the time was a trap, but they didn't have the numbers. From what I was told, they didn't stand much of a chance. Now, we believe they were instead intent on distracting us. One was killed, the rest taken." Seven nodded, satisfied that the amount of life lost was minimal. He stood pensively for a moment until Shyvanna cleared her throat, interrupting him from any interjections. "There is one more matter... you aren't going to like it."

Seven let loose an aggravated sigh. "Great. What is it now?"

"Perhaps it would be best if you saw for yourself." Shyvanna motioned towards the entrance of the club where Vinyl was supposed to be DJing at tonight. He hadn't noticed it before, but a pair of royal guardsponies were flanking the door. Seven's eyes widened as realization came.

"Sir, wait-" Shyvanna's pleas fell on deaf ears as Seven pushed past her and towards the doors. The guards stiffened as he approached, and moved to block the exit.

"Move. Now." Seven commanded of them, but both guardsponies didn't even budge.

"We have orders from the Princess that this area is to be cordoned off until investigation of the crimes perpetrated here is finished."

Seven felt his eye involuntarily twitch. "See here now... you can either move now, or I'm going to have to-"

"Let him through." A regal voice spoke from behind him. Seven turned his head and met the gaze of Princess Celestia. She wore a blank expression as she motioned for the guards to step aside. Seven said nothing as he galloped past the guards and into the club.

He recoiled not from the sight -- he had seen his share of massacres -- but from the smell. The stench of death was never something he got used to, and never would.  That's not to say the sight wasn't gruesome, for it was. Ponies seemed to have simply dropped dead where they were standing in bloody heaps. Seven could neither hear, nor see a single pony still standing.

Seven looked to a small booth, filled with a variety of equipment, meant to play and control music. He had seen it many times, and knew what each button and knob did.

'I... I have to be sure.'

Seven carefully trotted over the bloody messes and towards the DJ's booth, expecting the worst. He breathed a sigh of relief when he did not see the corpse he was expecting, but was confused when he saw that one of the larger speakers, usually integrated into the booth had been ripped out and smashed up against a wall.

Glancing at the floor, Seven noticed what looked like bloody hoofprints and that several of the corpses seemed to have been pushed aside or trampled over. The trail led to a room near the back of the club, past the 'bar area'. It had a sign over it that said 'Employees Only'.

Seven followed the bloody hoof-steps and opened the door with his aura when he reached it.

It took a moment for his mind to process what he saw. When he finally perceived what it was he was seeing, he took in a deep breath and slowly closed the door.

Four dead ponies, all wrapped in black cloaks very similar to the unicorn he had been hunting tonight, reduced to dust and bleach-white skeletons. Seven knew what had happened to them. The first time he had ever seen it happen had left the image plastered on the inside of his skull so that he would never forget.  It was exactly what it looked like when the life was literally ripped out of somepony.

He managed to recreate the scenario in his head as he calmly trotted out of the club. Shyvanna was silently sitting next to Celestia, who looked rather nervous, but still regal.

"Where is she?" Seven asked his bodyguard.

"Safe. The guards found her unconscious and decided to take her to Haven. I told them to inform us when she awoke."

"Good... and Celestia? What do you have to say to me?"

Celestia's face scrunched up, as though she were trying to search for a way to ask her question. "What happened?" Was all she managed to come up with.

"Somepony is out to get me... or her. Likely me. We were attempting to capture one of them, and they used it as a distraction to try and kill or foalnap Vinyl. They just murdered eighty-five ponies to try to get to her. Vinyl... prematurely displayed abilities that are common in my species, killing them in turn."

"Equestria hasn't seen this much death all at once in thousands of years..." Celestia said, mournfully scratching the ground with her hoof. "I'm going to need to talk to Vinyl about this."

"No. You won't." He simply said, like a father forbidding his son from going out.

Celestia blinked, not quite sure she had heard Seven right. "Excuse me?"

"Celestia, if you talk to her about this... she isn't ready to learn about what she is. The knowledge could literally hurt her. It would be better if she chalked all this up to a nightmare..."

"Be that as it may, she is the only survivor of the worst catastrophe in Equestria's history since Nightmare Moon's release, and even then we didn't lose anypony to her..."

"As far as I, and the rest of the world should be concerned, Vinyl was never a part of this." Seven retorted, stamping his hoof on the ground to accentuate his point.

Celestia was getting visibly frustrated by this point. "As long as Ms. Scratch did not commit a crime, she will not be held accountable for-"

"Do you realize what you are doing? She can't just... This kind of thing is traumatic. She doesn't need this. Telling her what happened means telling her what she is. She isn't ready to have her whole life turned upside down."

"Be that as it may, I feel that-"

"Celly I am not in the mood to play around!" Seven yelled, making Celestia shudder a bit. A streak of red lightning hit the ground just between the two, causing Celestia to jump and Shyvanna to tense up. Seven tried in vain to calm himself as he went through with his demands. "Here's what happened. Evil unicorns schooled in dark magic came here and slaughtered the party-goers for reasons yet to be determined, reasons that never will be determined. Celestia, Princess and co-ruler of Equestria, was forced to end them in order to keep them from hurting anypony else. Thankfully for the DJ who was supposed to play, she was delayed and missed her appointment with them. Ponies will be sad. Ponies will grieve for loved ones. They might even erect a memorial. But they will forget about it in time."

Celestia stared wide-eyed at the earthpony. "You... You can't be serious."

"I'm. Dead. Serious." Seven replied, stressing each word.

"I can't do that. I can't lie to so many..."

"You've done it before."

"That was different. The world deserves to know what happened. Too many ponies lost their lives. Too many loved ones will be grieving. I can't just cover this up for you..."

"Why not?! What makes this any different?!"

"Ponies died. My citizens died!" Celestia and Seven glared at eachother. Shyvanna shifted uneasily, unsure of what she would do if a fight broke out between the two of them. "Others will demand that I tell them what happened and I cannot lie to them all. I'm sorry..."

"I can't believe this!" Seven shook his head as he trembled with anger.  'I can't stick around and argue with her all day... and I don't want to do something I'll regret...' Seven thought, rubbing his temples with both forehooves. "This is not over, Celly. I will not sit idly and let you ruin her life. If you decide to go through with this, we will push you back." Not giving her a chance to reply, Seven teleported himself and his bodyguard directly onto Haven.

"I assume that the package Swift gave to her was not on the unicorn?" Seven said, trying to take his mind off the situation as soon as he could. Taking a moment to compose herself, Shyvanna nodded in the affirmative. "Excellent. And the scrying?"

"The unicorns told me it is working. We can assemble to their location tomorrow-"

"No." Seven cut her off. "We cannot afford to lose any time or momentum we have gained. We are going to end this. Now."

"But sir, what of-"

"We can deal with her later, when I know she will be safe outside of Haven. Have the medics fabricate a story or when she wakes. Tell her... she was hurt at a concert and suffered a head injury. Something along those lines. Do not allow her to leave." Shyvanna nodded and began to take down his orders for the unicorn medics stationed at Haven. She paused for a moment, giving Seven an inquisitive look. "If you have a question, ask it."

"Sir... you never said she could be... like you."

Seven shook his head. "A part of me hoped she wouldn't be. We can talk about this later, in front of her if we have to. For now, I want to make sure the world is safe for me. For her. I'm done fighting with shadows. Time to bring them to the light."

Past times:

"Don't worry, little one." The teary eyed Alicorn addressed the filly. "Mother said he would be here, so he will. Just... wait."

The filly didn't respond, eliciting a sigh from the dark blue Alicorn. She didn't really understand what had happened a few moments ago. The Queen, as the filly had heard one of the guards call her, had come in, said a few things in private to the other two, who then came back crying. The Queen promised that her friend was alive, and that he would come and visit her as soon as they were done with something else. The filly hoped he would be here soon. Luna talked to her, but Celestia just looked out the window. It scarred her a bit to see the majestic pony so sad.

A loud rapping at the door interrupted her thoughts. The two sisters looked at each other with a shared expression of worry before Celestia took the initiative and trotted to the door, opening it. She sighed and trotted aside to let their visitor in. A grey earthpony trotted through the door, grinning widely.

"Hello, little one! I've been-" He was cut off as the filly launched herself forward, locking his foreleg in a tight embrace. "Uh... miss me?" Seven asked, rather surprised by her outburst. She seemed surprised as well as she let go of Seven and quickly shied away from him.

"S-Sorry... it's just... I thought... You looked really hurt. Luna kept telling me you would be alright, but..."

"You don't need to worry about me, little one. I had wanted to see you earlier, but the Queen kept me busy with something..." She had come back early from visiting the other two occupants in the room, claiming it would be better to get 'it' out of the way sooner rather than later. He could see Celestia and Luna glaring at him, dark lines running down their faces where tears once traveled.

'I don't blame you for hating me.' Seven said to them in his head. He shook his head and addressed the filly in front of him. "I wanted to see you again to tell you thank you..." The filly's smile almost crushed him. "...and goodbye."

Her smile quickly faded as she processed what she had just heard him say, replaced instead by a look of abject horror.  "W- What?"

"I have to go, my little friend, and I don't think we'll see each other again..." The filly stared at him, wide-eyed.

"B- But..." She tried to plead.

"I'm sorry, but you can't come with me. It would be better if... you just forgot about me."

She could find no words to say as Seven solemnly trotted back out into the hall, but felt tears cloud her vision. She turned away from the door, pausing briefly before moving next to Celestia and gazing out the window, not noticing the dark blue Alicorn moving towards the door...

"Wait!" A voice cried out from behind Seven as he trotted down the hall. He turned to meet the young Alicorn -- as he recalled, who went by the name of Luna -- ready for anything she might do. He did just kill the Queen of Equestria. Her mother.

"What is it?" Seven asked, trying to keep the irritation from his voice.

"Really? Do you even have to ask that? You must be seven different shades of incompetent if you-"

"Enough!" His voice boomed, silencing her. "If you have something to say, then say it! I am not in the mood for being scolded by an adolescent!" She fumed, completely aware of the insult he had made, but with effort she kept herself from lashing out against the stallion.

"That filly told us of the past few days of her life... Her father dead! Lying in a pool of his own blood with his last words telling her to run! Nearly dying herself to the dragons... then you come along and show her a kindness only her father had shown her. You are the only one other than her father who has ever shown her kindness. You've only spent a few days with her and you're the closest thing she has to her father! And you just told her she'll never see you again. How do you think she feels right now?!" She finished with an angry glare that might have caused lesser ponies to crumble.

"It doesn't matter." The words felt like acid coming up his throat, burning them both as he said them.

"What?" Luna asked, completely caught off guard.

"It. Doesn't. Matter. There are more important matters than her... it won't matter what anypony thinks if they're all dead."

"You're heartless!" She yelled, trying to keep herself from maiming the earthpony.

'I am.' Seven almost replied but caught his words. "I have to be."

Seven turned away from her, shutting his eyes, intent on avoiding further conversation. 'I planned on going on hoof.' He thought to himself. 'But I want away from here as soon as possible...' He focused on his new energies as he readied himself to teleport. He heard voices, yells, maybe screams, but they all sounded muffled to him as all of his concentration was put on this single task. At the last moment, he felt a familiar weight on his back before a red flash left him standing outside of a ruined town, a nearly completely worn away sign read 'Ponyville'.