Okay, since I can't stop going back to narrate events in Equestria, I'm going to make this sort of a two-perspective story, told from the alternating viewpoints of various ponies still in Equestria and Cobalt.
THE REASON WHY THIS IS SHORT: I had a sickness of some sort, so when I wasn't at school or doing homework, I had no energy to write or anything. I'm so sorry, I should be normally updating next week... on Wednsday.
The darkest heart cannot be trusted. Those words echoed in Twilight's mind as she walked, head down, through town toward the library. What could Rarity have meant? It didn't make sense. The darkest heart–
Her thoughts were shattered as a black form landed in front of her. She jerked back and retreated from the red eyes in her face. "Gah!" she shook her head and took a closer look at the pony in front of her. "Sh-Shadow?!" she felt her face immediately start to burn. "What are you doing here?!"
He kept his face expressionless. "I came to warn you."
"Warn me about what?" she growled, growing more embarrassed by the minute at the frightened way she'd reacted to his appearance. This in turn made the blush she'd gotten for no reason grow deeper. "If I remember right, the last few times I saw you, you tried to kill Cobalt."
"Yes, well…" Shadow grimaced. "It would be great if I could do that too, but I didn't plan to this time."
"Good, because you'd have to get through me first." She narrowed her eyes. "He and I are dating now and I would protect him with my life."
"You're dating?" Twilight thought she saw the faintest glimmer of hurt in Shadow's eyes, but it faded as quickly as a morning mist. "Whatever. I only came to warn you that the good doctor's next plan will happen very soon. Be careful. Don't trust anyone. See you around." And with that he cast a teleportation spell and vanished in a flash of green light.
Twilight's mouth hung open in shock. That was the second time today that she'd been warned not to trust. First it had been 'the darkest heart', and then nopony whatsoever. At first she'd that that the darkest heart referred to Cobalt based on what she'd seen of the inner workings of his mind. Now she was confused. It seemed that the darkest heart was tied to Shadow somehow, because he had appeared right after the warning itself. But then that must cancel out his warning to not trust anypony… though he had used a different word to refer to everypony… and why was she still blushing?! Why did the thought of Shadow made her heart pound?!
"Argh!" she growled aloud. Her thoughts whirled and made no sense, but she managed to boil it down to two questions. One: who could she trust? Two: why did Shadow make her feel this way? She tried to clear her thoughts and focus on only those two questions, but she found it was nearly impossible.
ONE KNIGHT OF THE WIND RIFF LATER
Cobalt slashed once more, cutting a bloody gash in another one of the knights of the underworld. It vanished on the spot, like all the rest, but Cobalt winced again, knowing that it was really just a converted innocent pony. He breathed a sigh of relief and rested for a few seconds, knowing that he had a moment of peace before he took a few more steps and a couple more dark warriors sprung up.
Humph, he didn't even need to wait; there was already a dark warrior haunting his hoofsteps wherever he went.
"Thou art quiet as of late." Caliburn noted. "Art thou tired of being a knave already?"
"I've been here a day at most." Cobalt muttered. No matter how contemptuous Caliburn could get, the wind warrior was able to meet him at it and raise him several notches. "And I'm not a knave. I'm nothing but a tool Merlina summoned." His voice took on a tone of bitterness, the knowledge that he was only here because somepony had needed him spurring the feeling on.
"And already you have defeated a Knight of the Round Table." Cobalt's sword hovered on his own and faced him with a frown. "Is that not enough to be proud of?"
"No." Cobalt replied flatly. "I've done nothing except harm innocents and kill an evil dragon."
"At least the evil dragon must be something to be proud of killing." Caliburn pressed.
"Sure. Another death." The dark blue pegasus' mouth twitched into a deeper frown. He didn't want to just keep killing and harming. He wasn't a hero. He was a murderer masquerading as a savior. He couldn't keep doing this. He was afraid that was how the Darkboom had taken over his normal Sonic Boom.
Another wave of dark warriors appeared, and Cobalt stabbed through them. He glanced back behind them after they were all dissolved. He noticed the trail of blood behind him and grimaced at the dark crimson trail that splattered the dark leaves underfoot.
AN HOUR LATER
Cobalt finally made his way to a lake with a small island with a half-temple in the middle, leaving a trail of darkness and bloodshed behind him. There was nopony there, yet he'd expected that, after the kind of day he'd been having since he'd gotten here. He heaved a breath and felt the open wound in his side stretch and sting. Taking wing, he flapped over the waters and into the grotto, sitting down and letting Caliburn float.
After a few minutes of impatient hoof tapping and glancing around, a bright blue light exploded in the middle of the roofed area. Once it faded, there was a mare there, clothed in a prophetess' dress. Strangely though, it was somepony Cobalt recognized and never would've expected to be in such a position as Mare of the Mere: Pinkie Pie.
"Hello, stranger." The Mare of the Mere's voice was incredibly calm, a contrast to what Cobalt was used to. He never would've expected that voice to be this… calm. "You have travelled a long way."
"Yep." Cobalt nodded. "So I hear you have a prophecy?"
"Indeed, though I am quite unsure of the meaning of it at this point."
"Then let us hear it and see if we may make sense of it." Caliburn prompted.
"I will. But I will not divulge this information unto thee until thou hast done the deed." The Mare of the Mere said with a slight smile.
"Oh yeah? What's that?" Cobalt asked, already getting irritated with her mysteriousness.
The Mare's smile got wider. "I cannot tell. But the virtuous will figure it out."
"Good luck with that." Cobalt muttered. "Okay, I'll do what I can."
"Good." The Mare nodded. "You will do well in this quest. Now I must go. Good luck, hero!" she vanished in the same flash of blue light.
"Right. Let's do this." Cobalt grinned, grabbing Caliburn and taking flight out of the grotto.
Short chapter, but lots of plot development and such. I altered the Lady of the Lake's role a little bit, mostly because I couldn't remember what she did in the first place, but I think this lets me tie in with my story more. Hope you enjoyed! Radicool223 out!