As the sun started to sink below the horizon, Black Flag and Steel finally came to a resting point on their journey; a large cliff that overlooked their final destination: The manors of the two nobles Northern Light and Glistening Gem. The two abodes stood across from one another, as if the houses themselves were trying to stare each other down in some vain hope that one would collapse in defeat. Quite frankly, Black Flag was just glad that they weren't making the full trip down there tonight. He didn't think his legs would make it all the way down. But just as he was forming the thought to finally sit down for a moment's breather, he felt the ground rumble beneath him as if there was an earthquake. He turned around, looking for the source of such raw power...and immediately found it. Steel's colossal sword was buried into the ground, its long shadow being cast across the land like a plague.
"Hand me one of your swords," Steel said firmly, to which Black Flag looked at him like he'd gone completely and utterly insane. They'd just hauled their asses for a good 10 hours, and Steel still wanted them to spar? Did he just run on pure bloodlust and hatred, and would thus never get tired or exhausted? Heck, he should be even more exhausted than Black Flag was, seeing as he was carrying that huge slab of iron that he called a sword on his back!

"You can't be serious. We can't even have a few minutes to rest?" Black Flag muttered between gasps for just glared at him with pure disappointment and disgust in his eyes.

"What, you can't take a little exercise? Come on, where did all that enthusiasm from this morning go?" Black Flag rolled his eyes. Seeing this little gesture, Shattering Steel decided to reprimand his underling. "Alright, you can rest...after you land a good hit on me." The younger stallion's jaw dropped in shock. "Don't look at me like that. You should be considering yourself lucky. When I tried to get out of sword practice as a colt, my father made sure that I would never try to pull such a stunt again in my life."

"What did he do?" Black Flag inquired, his eyes sparkling with an almost foal-like curiosity. If the task Steel had given him was considered tame, he couldn't even imagine what Steel's father did to him. Must have been something absolutely insane, like making Steel beat himself with a whip, or maybe something even worse than that.
"Well," Steel began with a sigh. "One day, he told me it was time for sword practice. I, for some unknown reason, thought it would be a clever little idea to tell him that no it wasn't, because it was opposite day. He remarked that originally, he planned on buying me a Zebra servant as a gift for doing so well with my training, but since it was opposite day..." His voice trailed off, and his face seemed to be completely drained of any color.

"Oh, sweet Celestia..." Black Flag stammered in horror as he pictured in his mind the abhorrent events that transpired, of a young Steel struggling underneath some horrible assailant in a vain attempt to break free from their grasp. Steel just nodded his head, not wanting to say another word about it. Not like Back Flag was going to pry any further, anyways. He just quietly handed over one of his swords to the mercenary, hoping that the sounds of their steel blades clashing against one another would eventually drown out those horrible thoughts. And while it may have just been his imagination, Black Flag thought he could see the spark of rage begin to ignite in the swordstallion's glare.

"Alright. Let's get started," Black Flag murmured under his breath as he planted his hooves into the ground's loose dirt to brace himself. The older stallion didn't need to be told twice. He immediately lunged at his opponent. Black Flag barely had enough time to raise his sword to defend himself before the mercenary's sword struck his own. He could feel the mighty weight that Steel was pushing down upon his sword, pushing the unicorn's magical grasp to its limits. But oh, Steel wasn't even close to done yet. He began to rain down blow after blow with his sword, each resonating against his underling's weapon with a loud clang. It was a good thing that Steel wasn't using his original weapon because Black Flag was certain that his weapon would have been crushed within seconds and he would be a goner. Black Flag felt like his grip was going to shatter at any second now. He could just feel the wrath and hatred radiating from Steel, which seemed to be seeping into every single sword strike.
The young stallion knew that he had to act fast. With how rapid the blows were falling, Black Flag knew that his sword wouldn't hold out much longer before either his magic would give out on him or his blade would break into two. And if either one occurred, he would pretty much be at the complete mercy of a very pissed off Shattering Steel, and he wasn't sure if he would survive a beating from the stallion when he was this mad. He began to look around with quick glances, trying to find something that would provide even the smallest of advantages in the battle. Dammit, what would Steel be doing in his situation if he were on the defense instead of on the attack? He began to rack his brain, trying to remember some situation where he overcame the odds with some outside-the-box method. Suddenly, it all came rushing to him. The defeat of Armored Colossus at the battle of Foaldrey! It was perfect! It wouldn't be very fair, but that wasn't exactly his top priority at the moment. He just needed to survive.

As his opponent's blade swung downward once more, Black Flag rolled to the right of Steel and buried the tip of his sword into the ground before quickly swiping upwards to send a large cloud of dust and dirt into Steel's eyes. Thankfully, this tactic actually worked and Steel was temporarily blinded by the clods of dirt in his eyes, leaving him wide open to an attack from his underling. Black Flag didn't waste another moment, he immediately swung the flat end of his blade into Steel's throat, which did wonders in stunning the warrior. The sudden strike to his windpipe forced him to drop his sword and fall to the ground, gasping desperately for air.

"Steel? Are you alright?" Black Flag said quietly, afraid that he might have crushed in the stallion's windpipe by accident. He knew that he should have run away and not looked back for even a split second. But he couldn't do that; he was just too tired to run anymore. Besides, with how quickly they were losing sunlight he would be blind as a bat in under an hour. And quite frankly, it wouldn't be such a good idea to run aimlessly in the middle of the night. When Steel finally began to breathe properly again, his look of boiling rage had shifted into a coy smile. It was actually rather strange to see him with a smile on his face. Usually, he just wore this expression of bitterness and cynicism.

"That was very good Black Flag," he said after he stood up and regained his composure. "I was trying to teach you that in battle, you need to think fast and act even faster because your life could be ended in a matter of seconds just because you made one wrong decision. You need to take that knowledge to heart. Now, let's get some sleep. Hopefully, tonight we can have a completely undisturbed night of rest and we won't have to deal with more of those obnoxious skeletons."

While those two were finally laying down to rest their tired hooves for the night, deep in the eastern neck of the forest Red Ink was quickly following suit. His once pristine white armor was now caked in the freshly shed blood of the bandits. All was quiet, but death was howling. After the incident in the forest, Red decided that it would be a better idea to just ditch the bulky crossbow and just use...what was his name? Was it Iron Star? Whatever, that didn't matter. He decided to use his sword instead, seeing how well it worked for him during that little squabble. The blade itself still reeked of the vile bloodshed that occurred not even an hour ago, and the bodies laid rotting in pools of their own bodily waste.

However, they didn't matter. They were just stepping stones on his path to victory against the stallion who wronged him and took Black Flag away from him. As he started to drift to sleep beside a colossal oak tree, all he could think about was the idea of breaking Steel in both body and in spirit. But as soon as his eyelids closed, he was struck with yet another abhorrent vision. And quite frankly, this was quite possibly the worst one yet.

He'd been given the point of view of that bastard Rising Sun once again, who seemed to be leading a herd of soldiers through the forest at breakneck speed. Their hooves pounded against the ground like the sound of rolling thunder across a wide open plain as they hurried through the thick tree line as fast as they could. With every step he took, Rising Sun could feel his "talisman" bumping against his chest. Apparently, that thing was supposed to save him in his darkest hour, but here he was still running for his life. Dammit. Suddenly, the earth itself seemed to tremble in fear as a deafening roar reached their ears from the sky. No, it wasn't some undefinable roar or scream. It was a voice.

"Rising Sun," The horrifying voice screamed. "When I find you, I swear that you shall experience pain unlike anything you could possibly comprehend! Any ponies found to be accomplices will be executed without trial or hesitation!" When Rising Sun looked back to see if his worst fears became a reality, the sight he saw made his skin turn white as a bedsheet. Wreathed in golden flames was the Princess herself, soaring high in the sky to hunt him down. They needed to move fast. If they could make it across the border to Prance, perhaps they'd be safe. They just needed to make it through this forest. What wasn't making this any easier was that, apparently, Iron Star's Black Dog Knights were hot on their tails.
"Sir," One knight running beside Rising Sun whispered quietly. He was a younger pony, with short blonde hair and peachy fur. Honestly, he couldn't be any older than a colt. "What did you even do to piss her off so badly? I've never seen her this angry before!"

"I..." Rising Sun paused for a moment to think before he spoke. He didn't want to tell them what he'd done, they would surely turn on him immediately and hand him over to the Princess. Oh, he couldn't even imagine what she would do to him. In hindsight, he probably shouldn't have left that brat alive to run back home to her. Would have given him a few more days to escape from her wrath. By the time they found his carcass, Rising Sun would have been completely in the clear. "I'll tell you later, Crystalline."
The herd of fifty or so stallions continued to gallop as fast as they could through the woods before, much to their collective horror, they realized that they must have taken a few wrong turns because they were at the edge of the colossal Pale Moon's Lake. This was nowhere close to where they needed to be at, and it wasn't like they could just retrace their steps and go on about their way as if the mishap never happened. They didn't have enough time to do that, and they were basically guaranteeing their capture if they did. Their only option was to go around the lake, which would take a couple hours to do. This was a Catch-22, through and through.

"Rising Sun," The young colt said in a much more authoritative tone, not even bothering with the formalities anymore. "What did you do?" However, the mercenary did not answer. For a few moments, he just stared at the sun, which was hanging low in the sky and casting shadows over everything he could see. For a little while, he just stood there, completely unmoving. But all of the sudden...he began to laugh. It was a deep, low laugh that most of his soldiers couldn't even hear. He laughed and laughed and, as if he were in a daze or trance, began to walk into the shallow shore of the lake before collapsing into the water.

"Hey, Rising Sun!" The colt called after him as he watched the stallion walk into the water. Either the eponymous unicorn didn't hear him call out or he wasn't listening to him because he just sat there in the cold water before he reached under his breastplate and pulled out his talisman, something he'd worn around his neck since foal-hood. It was a small black rock that was shaped like an egg, and molded with strange markings that almost looked like a pony's face that got rearranged a couple times. A strange item to be sure, but he'd always worn it around his neck even while he slept. Just in case he ever needed it. And now here he was, when he needed this fucking thing the most, nothing was happening. But he just continued to laugh as he used his magic to pull out a small dagger from a sheath on his side, and held it in the air lifelessly. It was time to finally end this little chase. He would not be taken alive; he would rid Celestia of one last pleasure! As he brought the dagger to his throat, the world around him seemed to grow silent, even as his soldiers realized what he was doing and rushed over to stop him. But even then, they were too late. With one swift motion, he dragged the razor sharp blade through his neck, tearing the soft flesh wide open with ease. But much to his confusion, his blood did not come spewing outward into the water. No, his blood just oozed from his neck and began to move down his hoof until it coated the black rock.

And it was at this moment, when all of his hope faded away into nothing, that the horrors truly began. The sky turned into an endless ocean of crimson and the clouds dissipated into nothingness. All around the soldiers, the trees were shriveling up and dying within a matter of moments before disappearing all together, vanishing along with the lake. But by far the strangest phenomenon was what happened to the sun.

"What in the name of Tartarus is that?!" One soldier screamed in horror, which immediately got the attention of his comrades, aside from Rising Sun, who was still silently gazing at that damn talisman. The soldier was looking toward the sky, his face drained of blood. When the others looked upward, they saw that the sun was being eclipsed. It was as if the moon gained a mind of its own and decided to block the sun from sight. It was at this moment that dark, strange figures began to appear across the lake and in the deathly remains of what used to be the forest. They couldn't have been Celestia's soldiers, they were just standing in the distance not moving an inch closer to them. They just stared at them, their pale white eyes piercing the darkness like lanterns.

"What's going on?" Rising Sun heard Crystalline scream in terror as the world continued to shift and twist before their eyes. In a matter of seconds, the ground itself began to completely change. It was as if they'd been transported to some strange, alien dimension or realm, because what was once lush green grass was now countless screaming skulls. What was this horrible place? What the fuck was going on? Rising Sun couldn't scream, couldn't say a word. All he could do was stare into the bleak abyss that was this horrible dimension. Unfortunately, some of the other soldiers didn't manage to keep their composure quite as well.

"What the-" One soldier amidst the crowd said as his eyes darted across the landscape. All around them were those black figures, who stood motionless as always, however, their eyes looked upon the group as one would look upon a succulent meal. Rising Sun could feel their gazes upon them, even as he looked as far away from them as he possibly could. "The fuck? Holy fucking shit! Fuck me, fuck him, fuck you, fuck all of us! Fuck! We're all fucked!"
All of the sudden, the sky was filled with a brilliant green light that immediately drew every last soldier's attention upwards, even Rising Sun's. At first, he thought it might have been some kind of light spell or possibly a star, but then it began to descend. And the whole realm fell deathly silent as they all came to a collective realization just what it was: The Mare in the Moon; Nightmare Moon. This terrifying astral projection was unmistakable, it had to be her. The way her mane appeared to be made of small stars, her armor glistening and smooth, her eyes soul-piercing and catlike. As she landed upon the hard surface of the landscape with the grace of a dancer, not one soldier dared to say a word for fear of what she might do to them.
"Rising Sun," The Alicorn spoke, her voice booming like a barrage of magic blasts hitting the earth. The leader of the mercenaries didn't say a word to reply, he only fixed his eyes on hers as a sign of respect. "You have used that behelit, or talisman as you were so intent on calling it, to call upon my assistance. What ails you so horribly that you were required to do so?" Rising Sun had a feeling that she knew precisely what he summoned her for, but he didn't even think about pointing that out and told her anyway.

"I..." He paused and glanced toward the other soldiers, who were still just as motionless as statues. "We were on the run from Princess Celestia and her guards, and we got lost on our way out of the country. Seeing no other option, I was hoping that the talisman would do something to help us escape." The Alicorn let out a bemused chuckle, which elicited a death glare from the mercenary. However, this glare immediately dissolved from his face when she began to speak once more, and it was instead replaced with a look of horror.

"Has Rising Sun told any of you why he was on the run from my sister?" Nightmare Moon said, a wide grin spreading across her muzzle like wildfire. All of the soldiers shook their heads. Rising hadn't said a peep about it, he just told them that they needed to get moving as fast as possible or else Princess Celestia was going to kill all of them without mercy or hesitation. The Alicorn just laughed once more.

"Is that so? Well, you ponies are going to love this information then," Nightmare Moon said as Rising Sun silently pleaded for her to keep her mouth shut. He couldn't let that information get out, not now. But she simply ignored the pathetic excuse for a stallion's pleas and told them anyway. She leaned downward, and with a grin that could rival the fabled Cheshire Cat, she whispered four little words and within seconds she managed to destroy any bond between Rising Sun and his mercenary band, "He raped the Prince." Immediately, every single soldier's jaw dropped like a rock as their minds wrapped around that information, along with the horrible imagery that came with it. When the shock finally began to wear off a little, their gazes were solely fixed on Rising Sun. And their eyes were burning with pure, untamed hate. That was, except for Crystalline. Even in the face of such horrible information, he still seemed to be holding onto hope that Rising Sun was a good stallion. "Now that your last few remaining friends have turned on you, I'm going to make you an offer. Either you can sacrifice your comrades in exchange for becoming one of my Shadowbolts," As she made this offer, a strange symbol suddenly appeared before her. "which would certify their demise at the hooves of my followers, ripped apart and devoured. Or you can decline and I will return all of you to the lake unharmed, where you be at the mercy of both my sister and your soldiers. Make your choice. All you have to say is 'I sacrifice', and you will be out of harm's way."

"Rising," Crystalline said in desperation as his leader looked directly at him. "Please don't do it! I promise, I don't believe you actually did that to BlueBlood!" While his cries were sorrowful pleads for mercy, the other soldiers were too blinded by rage to try and convince him to show mercy. In fact, several of them broke in a gallop and charged straight for him, planning on skewering him with their lances like wild boars. However, before any of them could reach the bastard, two words left his mouth.

"I sacrifice." The second he spoke these words, the symbol brimmed with energy before replicas of that same symbol appeared on all of Rising Sun's comrades, and as if somepony flipped a switch the shadowy figures suddenly sprung to life and began to advance upon the soldiers without mercy. As they approached, they were revealed to be almost identical clones of one another; Pegasi clad in skintight garb that clearly mocked the attire and namesake of Celestia's Wonderbolts. They moved fast, lunging straight for any exposed skin they could find and ripping the flesh apart with ease. As the agonized screams of the dying filled the air, Risisng Sun felt no regrets for his actions. Even as he watched Crystalline's flesh get ripped from his body by the Shadowbolts' merciless teeth, as the young colt's eyes were drained of their previous joy and life, he felt nothing. After all, he'd escaped from Celestia's grasp unscathed. Or so he thought, until two of the Shadowbolts approached him; one on either side.

"Hold him down," Nightmare Moon said coldly, and before Rising Sun could react he was pulled to the ground and pinned under the two Shadowbolts, with Nightmare Moon looking down upon him with sadistic glee in her eyes. As he saw such a devious gaze upon her, Rising Sun struggled and strained to break free of the two Pegasi, but it was no use. They were just too strong for him to move. "I forgot to mention, before you are to become a Shadowbolt, you will have to find a host."

"W-what do you mean?" Rising Sun screamed as he watched the astral projection's horn begin to glow. But she didn't answer. She remained completely silent as her spell was cast before moving away from the treacherous soldier to watch the magic take effect. At first, Risisng Sun wasn't even sure what kind of spell was cast upon him. But after a few seconds, he began to scream. His armor felt like it was on fire, and it was this searing hot pain that finally jolted Red Ink awake from that horrible dream. Tears were streaming down his face and his body shook, before the pain suddenly died away into nothingness.
He needed to find Steel and Black Flag soon, before whatever malicious entity resided in this armor took over. He just needed to keep it together for a little while longer.