WARNING: If you're allergic or prone to rage at: Oc's, black ponies, overused memes, pairing, funny jokes, the color red, fourth wall breaking, minor violence, filler, and cake. Read at your own discretion… enjoy the fanfic.

Chapter 1: A New Friend

One week before the incident…

It was a beautiful winter night in Equestria, but then again, when wasn't it? Everypony was doing their own thing; from sleeping, to going out to late night parties with friends. Twilight however was snug in her living room, with a nice book in front of the fire sipping some hot chocolate. Around 9:00 PM, she started getting ready for bed until Spike walked in the room.

"I thought you were going to bed?" Twilight asked.

"Well Twilight, it's kind of hard for me to fall asleep so early." Spike replied.

"I told you to go to bed Spike. You need your sleep." Twilight said, glaring at him.

"Aww, can I have five more minutes? Please Twilight?" Spike begged.

"You asked for five more minutes ten minutes ago." Twilight said, looking at the clock.

"I promise, just five more minutes and I'll go to bed." Spike pleaded.

"Fine, five more minutes, but that's it." Twilight said as she sighed in defeat after watching Spike go into his room.

"Goodnight, my little assistant." Twilight whispered to herself as she closed her book about the history of Equestria, which was mainly based on the past events before Nightmare Moon. Suddenly, she felt a chill fill her home. As she looked around the room in surprise, a small tornado formed in the center of it.

'This can't be right. All of the windows are closed and the door is shut. What is causing this?' Twilight thought as lightning soon started striking the floor near the tornado.

If it had continued any longer, it would have caused some serious damage to her home. Suddenly, a bright light burst out from the center of the lightning twister, revealing a pony covered in smoke. Twilight recalled this event to be the same thing that happened long ago when her future self came back in time to tell her not to freak out. However, the pony that appeared in her living room was not her future self. As she examined the pony on the ground more closely, she discovered that he was a male unicorn about the same size as Big Mac.

His coat was dark red, with a long black mane and tail. It was obvious this pony did not know what a mane cut was. He also had a cutie mark of a green chemical bottle which meant alchemy, with a strange insignia on it almost resembling a backwards six. When he opened his eyes to look at her, Twilight then noticed that his eye color was a deep violet. Realizing that she was staring at his eyes for too long, she quickly looked down at the floor embarrassed. The unknown stallion then began to speak in a calm, soft voice.

"Hello, I didn't mean to scare you with my fancy entrance Twilight, but that is not important at the moment." He told her.

"Wait, how do you know my name?" Twilight asked, reestablishing eye contact with him out of suspicion and curiosity.

"Twilight, if I remember correctly, this is the exact same thing you experienced with your future self, so please listen closely. Everything around you will be put in danger if you don't do exactly what I say, do you understand?" He asked her in a serious tone.

Streaks of lightning started to come off of the red unicorn as he waited for her response.

"Yes, I understand but that still doesn't explain- " She was cut off by a black hoof being shoved into her mouth.

"Darn it Twilight, why do you have to be so cute when you're confused?" He asked her.

"What was that?" Twilight asked, almost shouting after she swatted his hoof away.

"That's not important, just listen to me, I don't have much time." The mysterious pony said exasperated.

"No, see you clearly said-."

"I don't care what I just said, just listen! You will be given a special assignment from Luna either today or tomorrow and it will be big. Also, tomorrow I will come into town by the road you took the first time you came into Ponyville. Don't tell him, I mean me, what I have done today or it will mess up the time frame." He said.

Lightning started to form around the unicorn at a rapid pace signaling the inevitable.

"Darn!" The unicorn shouted. "I should of had more time than this, something is affecting the spell! Twilight whatever you do, when I walk through that door eight days from now at exactly 8:00 pm, do not-" He was suddenly cut off when in a blinding flash of light the unicorn vanished, the only thing left was black marks on the floor and a lot of unanswered questions.

"He could have at least cleaned up the room!" Twilight shouted in frustration, looking around her messy space. "But what did he mean by all of that and that assignment?" She wondered, thinking about the information the mysterious stallion provided her with. "UGH, this is so confusing!"

Twilight decided that it was time for sleep, and hopefully she thought, it would make more sense tomorrow. However, what she didn't know was that Spike was eavesdropping the whole time on the conversation. He jumped in bed to act as if he was asleep as soon as she approached the room.

The next day came as Twilight awoke to the sun's bright rays, shining in her face. It was Monday and it was always hard to get up on Mondays for anypony, even for her. However, this did not stop her at all from what she had to do today... nothing, or at least that's what she thought. She then went to the kitchen to have breakfast with Spike who was still half asleep. Soon, while enjoying a nice fresh bowl of honey and oats, the subject of what happened yesterday popped up.

"Sooooooo..." Spike elongated, "When were you supposed to meet that red pony again?"

Twilight, who had been drinking some of her orange juice, suddenly spat it out on to the table and looked terrified. She forgot that one thing she was supposed to do.

"Oh my Celestia, he never told me exactly what time he would come into Ponyville! Quick, what time is it?" Twilight asked, panicking. "Wait how do you know about this?" She asked, glaring at him.

"Well, you see, about that..." Spike started trailing off from the rest of his sentence, looking left and right desperately trying to find an answer to her question.

"Never mind, you can tell me later, we need to go now!" Twilight said forgetting that she had a table cloth around her neck as soon as she ran out of the kitchen.

"Oh brother." Spike said, frustrated as he ran to catch up.


On the outskirts of Ponyville

"So this is uuhhh… what is this place?" The red unicorn pondered, as his downright ancient map levitated up into his face. "Why isn't this on my map? And what the hay is Ponyville?" He shouted to himself.

He soon decided to keep on trotting down the road because, well, there was nowhere else to go, and he was hungry as a horse.

"Okay, I will make refuge here for today and maybe I could get some answers." He said, beginning to carelessly walk with his map in his face again.

He soon reached the small bridge that went over the stream along Ponyville until he tripped on a loose cobblestone. The map he was levitating began to fall to the floor in front of him only to be stopped short by a certain lavender mare.

"Oh man, I am so glad I found you, I have been looking everywhere. Oh, where are my manners? I'm Twilight Sparkle, what is your name?" Twilight asked.

"I'm sorry, have we meet before?" The red unicorn asked as he looked up at her. "My name is Night Shadow by the way."

"No… I don't believe we have." Twilight said, extending her foreleg to help him up off the ground.

"You know, I am perfectly capable to get up on my own..." Night Shadow grabbed hold of Twilight's hoof, getting pulled up. "But thank you."

Twilight now noticed that he was wearing some strange devices, two in fact, that fit on each leg like bracelets. There were eight in total. They were silver and each had a glowing purple gem in the center. She was curious about them but didn't want to ask… yet.

"Nice cape, where did you get it? I might want to get one myself, a black one though..." Cutting her off mid-thought.

"What are you ta…" Twilight stopped and looked behind her, noticing what he meant and began to blush lightly. "Oh that... I was in a rush." She said blushing, then she took it off casually, hoping that no one saw her.

"No kidding. Well I will be off unless you want to assist me in finding a place to stay for tonight." Night Shadow said.

"That sounds wonderful, I can introduce you to my friends while we're at it." Twilight said cheerfully as they walked along the bridge. That's when Spike finally caught up with them.

"There you are, Twilight!" Spike said as he walked up to Night Shadow and pointed at him. "Hey isn't that the guy from the, mmmmffpp!"

He was silenced by Twilight who closed his mouth like a zipper using a spell. This made Twilight nervous as she looked at Night Shadow, thinking that the time span would collapse if anything were to be said. Instead he looked confused and impressed at what had just happened.

"I have never seen a spell like that! You must be quite good at magic to pull that off without even looking at him. Who's teaching you, or are you self taught?" Night shadow asked, now looking interested.

"Well I do self teaching sometimes, but princess Celestia is the one who teaches me the most." She said this with confidence expecting a surprised response from Night Shadow, but instead got the opposite.

"Oh her... I should have known better." The interest of the subject seemed to drain from his face as she spoke.

"What's wrong with Celestia?" Twilight said in a now defensive manner.

"Well, she and I have had some…disagreements. But it's nothing you should worry about." He said in a dismissive tone.

Twilight was about to say something until Spike unzipped himself and started to speak.

"Twilight, you know that I hate it when you do that!" Spike said rubbing his mouth as the zipper disappeared.

"Well if we're done standing around, can I have my map back?" Night Shadow said almost abruptly as if trying to change the subject.

"I am... sorry, here you go." Twilight levitated the map to Night Shadow who then caught it with his own magic.

Twilight also noticed that his magic aura was dark purple which were somewhat similar to his eyes. He put the map in a golden container for protection, and then stuffed it into his black bag.

"Okay Twilight, lead the way." Night shadow said pointing a hoof forward.

Twilight took the lead as him and Spike followed her to the center of town. She explained that the town hall was where Mayor lived, and other information she thought he should know. Everything was normal until they ran into a certain pink pony that gasped when she saw Night Shadow, jumped twenty feet into the air, and took off.

"Who was that? And how did she…" Night Shadow looked at Twilight, confused and frightened.

"That's Pinkie Pie, one of my friends, and don't try to understand her. I tried and it ended badly. That's when I learned to accept the way my friends are no matter how weird. Although you can expect her to throw you a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party." Twilight said, laughing at the expression on his face.

"Just like that? No one has ever been that nice to me before, but I don't plan on staying that long unless I change my mind." He said.

"Well, let me introduce you to another one of my friends, she lives at Sweet Apple Acres." Twilight declared with a wide smile.

"Why do I feel like I have done this before?" Spike asked sarcastically.

Soon, after twenty minutes of walking, they arrived at the entrance of Sweet Apple Acres.

"Well here we are." Twilight said looking at Night Shadow.

"Does your friend have enough trees; there must be hundreds of these things!" Night Shadow asked in amazement.

"Well she supplies all the apples for Ponyville, so logically there would be a lot." Twilight said.

"A lot doesn't even come close to this."

Night Shadow continued to stare in awe at the apple trees until a certain orange pony snuck up on him.

"Well howdy there partner, what brings you to Sweet Apple Acres?" Applejack asked in her usual southern accent.

Night Shadow would have responded if he had not gotten scared out of his hooves.

"T-Twilight, who is that?" Night Shadow asked stuttering behind her.

Twilight chuckled at this and then responded. "This is my friend, Night Shadow meet Applejack, Applejack, Night Shadow." She said calmly.

"Sorry about scaring you there, I see you're a friend of Twilight. Um… are you from out of town?" Applejack said apologetically.

"Yeah… let's go with that, but me and Twilight just met if that's what you mean." Night Shadow said.

His stomach began to grumble loudly, making him blush out of embarrassment.

"I'm so sorry if this sounds rude, but can you make me some food. I don't have any money to pay you with…"

"Not a problem sugar cube, this one is on me." Applejack said happily as she interrupted him.

"Just like that? I mean you're not angry or anything for me not having any money?" Night Shadow asked with a worried expression.

"No, I would do that for one of Twilight's friends or just about anypony." Applejack said leading them on through the orchard.

"Thank you Applejack, I swear I will repay you back tenfold." He said trying to reassure Applejack his gratitude.

"Aw shucks, how kind of you, but it's not necessary." Applejack said, now blushing.

"No, no, I insist." Night shadow said pressing on his exchanging gratification payment.

"Well then, I will just introduce you to the rest of my family." Applejack chimed, smiling happily.

"The… the rest?" Night Shadow asked bearing a frightened look on his face.

Applejack then turned around and whistled towards the barn. Just then all of Applejack's family charged out from random directions and carried Night Shadow to a nearby table. After all the chaos and introductions he received from each member of the Apple family, he was finally able to sit down. Before him were plenty of apple-based products, which was able to feed all of Ponyville. Night Shadow took no time at all to start devouring everything in front of him at an insane speed.

"Um, Twi, how long has it been since he last had food?" Applejack asked with a surprised glance at the lavender mare.

"He… never… told me, Applejack." Twilight responded to Applejack's question and was just as surprised as her; Spike on the other hand didn't seem to care.

Night Shadow was on the verge of eating his fourteenth apple pie until he was yanked away by Twilight.

"Well Applejack, thanks for everything, we will come back tomorrow." Twilight said, dragging Night shadow away from the table.

"Okay, see y'all tomorrow." Applejack waved her hoof.

"Hey, I wanted to eat that!" Night Shadow said with a look disappointment.

"I think, no, I know you have had enough. Come along Spike, we're leaving." Twilight said.

Twilight still had to drag Night Shadow with her magic to the next destination, where she had no idea was.


After several minutes, Twilight released her grip on Night Shadow to ask him something.

"What was that back there, you acted as if you hadn't eaten in days." Twilight said with a concerned tone.

"Ha, more like weeks. I have tried before now, but there was no way I was going to beg for food, that's just disgraceful. Converting clouds to water was also tricky, but manageable." Night Shadow said scratching his head and gave one more quick laugh.

"Oh yeah, you starved but at least your pride was intact." Twilight said glaring at him.

"Hey, I was trained to survive the worst of what Equestria had to offer and come out stronger, like griffins, fires, blizzards, and… rainbows." He said looking up in the sky.

Just then Night Shadow was hit by what looked like a rainbow bullet only to be revealed as a cyan coat pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail.

"Rainbow Dash, why would you do that?!" Twilight asked almost shouting.

"I was practicing my latest trick for the wonderbolts until I got carried away, and your coltfriend just happened to be in my way."

"Coltfriend!" Twilight shouted, blushing furiously.

"Colt what?" Night Shadow asked as he pushed Rainbow Dash off of him. "I can't really hear anything right now, everything is all fuzzy."

Rainbow Dash would have informed him, but burst out laughing at Night Shadow's new mane and tail style. It was full of mud, dirt, and it shot out like a porcupine's spikes. Spike burst out laughing as well and even Twilight let out a few chuckles.

"Here let me fix that for you. Now you can say that the one and only Rainbow Dash helped you with a… slight problem." Rainbow Dash said still trying to hold in her laughter.

"Actually, the last time you did that…" Twilight couldn't finish her sentence in time before Rainbow Dash blow dried his mane with a small tornado.

"I don't see a difference." Rainbow Dash commented after finishing.

"That's because you didn't use water." Twilight said as she levitated him over to a nearby lake and dunked him in several times.

"Will you two stop this, I can fix it myself!" Night Shadow shouted as he broke the spell around him with his own magic without thinking and crashed into the water again. He emerged with his black, wet mane brushing along the grass. "Okay, I will only show you all this once, now what I do first is uh… no that's not right." Night Shadow said as he continued to fumble around with his mane for a minute.

"You don't even have a style for your mane do you?" Twilight asked still watching him fumble with his mane.

"Yes I do, it's called… natural?" Night Shadow said, now questioning himself, he never touched his mane with a comb, he just let the wind do it for him. The two mares in front of him were even wondering if he ever heard of a brush before.

"That's it whoever you are, I am going to fix your mane and there's nothing stopping me this time." Dash said, now determined.

"Wait you two, we don't have to fight." Twilight said with concern for her friends.

"Don't worry Twilight, this will be over in ten seconds flat." Night Shadow said with a newfound confidence.

"Hey that's my line!" Rainbow said as she tackled him.

They began to wrestle, trying to pin each other down. This continued for more than ten seconds before Twilight shouted at them.

"Night Shadow, Rainbow Dash, stop fighting! This is not how ponies become friends!"

"So that's your name huh, it's not as cool as mine though." Rainbow said, having Night Shadow pinned to the ground on his stomach. He then used his magic to lift her off gently, only to lunge at her in mid-air knocking her on her back with his hoof on her chest.

"Really, I think it's twenty percent cooler than yours actually." Night Shadow said with a smirk on his face.

"Stop doing that!" Rainbow said with an annoyed look.

"Stop doing what, my magic or your phrases? Because you're going to have to make me." Night Shadow stated now with a playful smile.

"Oh, you're so going down!" Rainbow said before she grabbed Night Shadow's hoof that was pinning her down with her forelegs, flipping him over her head making him land on his back.

Just then a magical bubble envelopes the both of them making them float and unable to move, but it wasn't coming from Twilight.

"What are you two ruffians doing?" Rarity asked as she emerged from an ally nearby.

"Oh, I'm glad you came when you did Rarity, things were getting out of hoof." Twilight said a bit relieved.

"No darling, what's out of hoof is that mane, just look at it, it's a fashion disaster." Rarity said with clear disgust in her voice.

"Rarity, we went over this already." Rainbow said rolling her eyes.

"Not you… him." Rarity said, pointing a hoof at Night Shadow.

"HEY, it's not that bad ok, just put me down and I will be out of your hair." Night Shadow said with pleading eyes.

"My hair? What about your hair, we must get it fixed." She said looking at his mane inattentively.

"Where are you taking me, put me down, Twilight, help me!" Night Shadow yelled panicking.

Spike subconsciously started to follow them with hearts in his eyes as they disappeared from sight. Twilight realizing what just happened, chased after them.


Twenty-five minutes later

"This one looks too bulky, find a new one in the closet will you Spike." Rarity said waving Spike off toward the closet.

"Of course, Rarity." Spike said without question.

"Well what do you think, Night Shadow?" Rarity said behind him, laying more clothes on top of him.

"Rarity, we've been through ten different suits, twenty-five different hats, and five hair styles on my mane, can you please give me a break." Night shadow said getting close to collapsing onto the ground.

"Oh but a fashionista never sleeps dear, now you were telling me where you were from." Rarity says while trying to think of a new way to do his mane.

"I was?" 'Ok Night Shadow, no pony can know of your past, just say a place and that should be enough.' He thought before speaking again. "Um, I'm from... Canterlot?"

"You are from Canterlot too!" Rarity said with joy.

"Yeah... 'Oh great.'" Night Shadow thought.

"Twilight is from there as well, and speaking of Twilight" Rarity said, turning to the door.

Twilight was half-way through the door before she was noticed.

"Twilight, what do you think about his suit, do you think it's too bulky?" Rarity said in doubt.

While Rarity was turned around, Night Shadow mouthed the words "help me" to Twilight. Unfortunately for him, she didn't get the message.

"Wow Rarity, I love what you did with his mane."

Night Shadow couldn't help but face-hoof.

"It makes him look cute, especially with the suit." Twilight complimented.

He was now in a dilemma of embarrassment and hopelessness until Spike walked in with the suit that was requested.

"Oh good the suit is here, Night Shadow try this on as well." Rarity then notices the suit has emeralds on it. "Emeralds, what was I thinking when I made this, let me get this some rubies!"

Rarity then ran out of the room, but she wasn't the only one. Twilight swung around when she heard the window crash behind her only to find a note that said, "Sorry about that" On the ground where Night Shadow used to be.

"Spike I'm going to find him, you stay and help Rarity… shouldn't be too hard right." Twilight said sarcastically as she ran out the door. Spike didn't respond as he stared off into the hallway where Rarity had disappeared to.


"Can you please come back down from there; I'm not trying to hurt you." Night Shadow said looking up into a tree. "I just need some directions and you seem normal compared to everypony else I have spoken to, so please come back down."

There was no movement or even noise for about a minute until Night Shadow became frustrated.

"FINE be that way, I didn't need your help anyways, I will just leave you up there!" Night Shadow said, about to walk away until he heard Twilight calling for him.

"Change of plans." Night Shadow said, teleporting next to the pony in the tree only to have her fly back down at the sound of Twilight voice.

"Oh thank goodness you're here, this strange looking stallion was trying to ask me all these questions and he scared me so much that didn't know what to do." The pony said, timidly.

"That was probably Night Shadow, do you know where he is." Twilight said.

"He's… he's in the tree over there." The yellow Pegasus pointed in the direction.

"Night Shadow, get down from there, I want you to meet my other friend." Twilight said.

"Do I have to be friends with everypony in this town?" Night Shadow said sarcastically.

"Night Shadow, this is Fluttershy." Twilight said happily.

"Ah ha! Night Shadow shouted as if he found the cure for mad pony disease. "That's why you were all shy and stuff, it's in your name! I should have known!"

Fluttershy was taken aback from this and hid behind Twilight.

"Is… Is he always this loud?" Fluttershy whispered.

"Well he is forty feet high in a tree… wait FORTY FEET HIGH IN A TREE! Night Shadow get down from there or you will hurt yourself! You're not exactly built for flying you know!" Twilight shouted at him.

"Me hurt myself? Don't make me laugh…well actually that happens all the time but that's not the point!" Night Shadow said as he made fun of himself. He then started to lean on a branch that wasn't exactly stable. "The point is, I have been climbing trees since I was a young colt, and I'm a unicorn. I could always teleport or levitate my way out. What could possibly go wrong?"

As soon as those exact words were spoken, the branch he was leaning on instantly snapped and he fell head first into the ground.

"Oh no Night Shadow! I told you that you would hurt yourself!" Twilight yelled as she trotted towards him.

"Is it happy hour yet?" Night Shadow said as he tried to get up only to fall on his head again. "There are stars everywhere Twi!" He said before he blacked out.

"Will he be okay? I think he's hurt really bad." Fluttershy said to Twilight.

"Don't worry; I have dealt with head injuries before, just need to get him to my house so I can concentrate on it. Besides, he's really hard headed." She said to cheer up Fluttershy, who was still worried.

Twilight levitated Night Shadow onto her back after saying goodbye to Fluttershy and left to her tree house. It wasn't long before Twilight got to her house, mainly because she teleported. She instantly got to work and helped Night Shadow, who was still unconscious, into the guest room. The room was dark with only a candle as a light source, it would have to do for now.

"Step one." She said to herself as she tucked the unicorn into the guest bed.

After taking his temperature and hooking him up to a heart monitor she became a bit worried for him.

"Both are abnormally high for just a head injury. There must be something else going on that I can't explain." Using her magic, she attempted to alleviate some of the tension and possible pain she thought he was experiencing in his head, but to no avail.

"Whatever is going on in there, it is pretty serious." She said as she wiped away the beads of sweet forming on his forehead.

The devices on his legs started to glow purple and hum silently as she continued to work.

"Please be okay Night Shadow, there's so much we can learn from each other." She said as she slowly dozed off next to him.


Night Shadow was wandering around in a black void deep in his mind. This would typically happen to him when he sleeps or in this case, became unconscious. The only thing he could do in this situation was wait until he woke up; however, it was not that simple for this particular unicorn.

"You were always a failure Night Shadow; you deny your true potential and who you really are. Why not use your gifts for yourself instead of hiding it away from all those that would shudder at your power." A familiar voice echoed in the darkness in Night Shadow.

"You can't control me to do your bidding! I will not hurt others for our past mistakes." Night Shadow yelled.

"OUR MISTAKES!" The dark voice boomed through the invisible walls of his mind. "May I remind you that it is YOU who is in charge of this body Night Shadow, not me! I only provide the advice necessary for you to succeed, but you ignore me, you shun me farther into the empty shell of your mind! This is why you constantly fail to achieve greatness in this world, you're nothing but a red carpet everypony who is going to be walked all over and taken advantage of! Am I supposed to just sit here and watch this happen before my eyes?!" The dark voice boomed.

"Do you have to yell, it's not like you will change my mind that way." Night Shadow said with an uninitiated look.

"As you wish." A figure emerged from the darkness into the small spectrum of light surrounding Night Shadow. He was an exact replica of himself, from hair to the tail. The only difference was he was paler and had blood red eyes.

"Are you happy now, oh wait, you're never happy." He said as he laughed maniacally.

"Ha ha, very funny, so you never even told me your name, or did you steal that from me too?" Night Shadow countered.

"My name will be known in time, to you and all of Equestria when I'm done with you." The dark pony said.

"Now, now, no need to be like that." A much calmer voice said behind the darker clone of Night Shadow. He looked like him as well, but only lighter and with bright blue eyes.

"Oh look, are you here to preach to us." The darker one said with a smirk.

"You would be right if it wasn't for the situation." The lighter unicorn said. "Anyways, Night Shadow should be free to select his own path without you interfering with his emotions and thoughts, it's not called free will for a reason you know." The blue eyed pony said.

"Guys please stop, you're giving me a headache!" Night Shadow finally shouted.

"Shut up Night Shadow, you're too weak to act anyway..." The darker one then placed his hoof on Night Shadow's forehead. "This is why I will be taking over FOR YOU!"

Just then Night Shadow awoke abruptly and screamed out at the top of his lungs. Twilight, being shot out of the bed, experienced a wave of fear as she witnessed the purple aura begin to surround him like a fast twister of light. She had no idea how to respond as the purple aura was being dominated by red aura and his eyes changed from purple to bright red. Night Shadow started to levitate in the air as the room was being torn apart by the raw destructive power.

She was about to use her magic to attempt to calm him down until the devices on Night Shadow flared bright red and stopped the screeching unicorn. Slowly floating back down, the devices' colors changed from bright red to purple once again. Only when his eyes went back to normal did Twilight decide to try to talk to him.

"What in all of equestria just happened?!" She asked as if she saw a ghost.

"What just happened?" Night Shadow asked Twilight as if she knew.

"That's what I asked you!" Twilight yelled.

Night Shadow then looked at the devices on his fore-legs and it came to him.

"Oh my gosh, are you ok, I'm so sorry it happens at random, please don't hate me." He said with a frightened look on his face.

"No, its fine, you're just full of surprises. You should be lucky Rarity didn't cut your hair or your head would have been in a lot worse condition." She said with a chuckle.

"Well she tried to; I had to enchant my hair so she couldn't cut it, you could say it was a close cut." Twilight started laughing like he told a really good joke. Night Shadow smiled but not because of the joke, but from her response.

"Oh, and speaking of surprises." Twilight said as she casually walked to the exit and bucked the door open to reveal the pink pony he met earlier.

"Surprise!" The pink pony shouted. Night Shadow was taken aback by the sure strangeness of this mare, but considering the events earlier, this was normal to him, or so he thought.

"Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie and I made this party just for you, were you excited, were you, were you, were you?" Night Shadow looked at Twilight for an answer that he should give, she replied with a nod.

"Yeah… very surprised." He said sarcastically as he walked over to meet her. It was then he noticed multiple groups of ponies in Twilight's home. "Wait, how did you have time to organize this Twilight?" Twilight was nowhere to be found in the crowd.

"Oh a lot of things can happen off screen." Pinkie said to Night Shadow who was left confused and intrigued.

"How did you do that?" Night Shadow asked.

"I will tell you later, but first we have a party to celebrate!" Pinkie shouted. "I invited everypony too, and since you hit your head I thought I would make it a welcome to ponyville, get well soon party!"

"How did you know I hit my head?" Night Shadow said amazed.

"Well that one was easy; you have a big bump on your head, you kind of look like a bicorn." She said laughing. Night Shadow, however, felt a wave of embarrassment wash over him at the statement.

"Don't worry about it, this party is about you remember." Pinkie said to cheer him up. "Besides, everypony is here to meet you personally."

"Everypony!?" Night Shadow almost shouted.

"Yeah, I said that several sentences ago silly… did I say them right?" Pinkie said looking up.

"Oh great." Night Shadow mumbled.

After being introduced to all of the ponies in Ponyville and then some, the party officially began with a bang as Pinkie shot her party cannon. There was lots of food, games, and of course music to it all. Celestia had already lowered the sun for the moon to appear by the time everypony left. Both Twilight and Night Shadow could agree on something for once, it was some party, which they would have to clean up after.

"That was amazing!" Night Shadow shouted, still hyper from all the sweets. In addition to this his horn would not stop glowing. "I think I'm going to stay a bit longer in town until I decide if I should leave or not."

"I just realized you don't have a place to stay for tonight." Twilight said.

"Oh don't worry, I can just find a tree to sleep under outside, it doesn't bother me." Night Shadow said reassuringly.

"You know, that my house is technically a tree?" Twilight said rubbing the back of her neck.

"Oooohhh I get it, you want me to sleep under this tree outside." Night Shadow said, causing Twilight to face hoof.

"No you oaf, you can sleep here, I have a spare room you can use. That is, until you decide if you want to stay or not." Twilight shouted.

"Well... um… about that…" He was soon cut off by Spike entering into the room with a scroll in his claw.

"Twilight, Twilight!" Spike shouted showing her the scroll. "It's a letter for you, but it's not from Princess Celestia."

"Let me see it." Twilight said as she levitated it in front of her for everyone to see.

'Dear Twilight,

We are sorry for such short notice, but there has been a recent disturbance that needed our attention. An old foe has returned but has eluded us for the time being; however this is not the reason for this letter. You have been assigned to be in charge of the winter moon celebration that will take place in Ponyville seven days from now. This celebration is exactly like the summer sun celebration only with the moon and a different season in which we shall raise the moon instead of the sun. Your organizing skills shall be most useful for your assignment, and expect a pleasant surprise tomorrow.

Signed,

Princess Luna.'

"This is great Twilight." Spike said, reassuring her after seeing her worried reaction to the letter.

"What did she mean when she said an old foe has returned?" Twilight asked confused only to find Night Shadow jump inbetween her and Spike.

"Oh Twilight, don't worry about it." Night Shadow laughed nervously as he took the letter. "Besides, you have more important things to do like this celebration Princess Luna has told you about." He continued to laugh nervously.

"So do you know who this new enemy might be?" Twilight asked Night Shadow who started sweating. "Do you have a fever Night Shadow?" Twilight said.

"Nope… haha… just tired… haha… I'm going to bed, good night." He said in a hurry as he closed the door to his new room.

"He was weird." Spike said as he walked up to his room.

"To be honest Spike, we fall into that category sometimes as well." Twilight said out loud as she lay in bed wondering where to begin with everything.

She then recalled the prediction made by future Night Shadow about this event, wondering if this old foe will cause the tragedy seven days from now. Many thoughts went through her head before she finally fell asleep.