Chapter 4: Diamonds are Forever
Four days before the incident…
"You're becoming friends with the Elements of Harmony!?" The darker version of Night Shadow said to the original.
"Yes, what is so bad about that? I have had friends before… I think." Night Shadow stated.
"And they have betrayed you, stabbed you in the back… What makes you think they are any different from the others?" The darker pony said as his red eyes shimmered.
"Because even you can see the good in them." The lighter version of Night Shadow said to his darker half.
"Affiliation can change at anytime you fool! Everyone's opinion of good and evil is, and always will be different." The darker pony said to the lighter one.
"In addition to that comment, you are the evil one here." Night Shadow said to his darker half.
"Fine then, if you want to fall for the same trick three times in a row, so be it!" The dark unicorn shouted, causing an echo to spread around in the small, dark atmosphere. "However… this is your last chance before I rip the gift of freewill away from your pathetic hooves." He whispered into Night Shadow's ears.
"Now, go Night Shadow." The lighter pony said, attempting to comfort him. "You have a job to do… and I believe in you." He said as his blue eyes glowed brightly. Night Shadow then started to regain consciousness.
As Night Shadow opened his eyes, he witnessed that Twilight was staring at him frightened.
"Did I frighten you again Twilight? I'm so sorry, I didn't mean-"
"It's okay Night Shadow, you don't have to apologize for everything you do." Twilight said putting her hoof in his mouth.
"I'm sorry…" Night Shadow said softly.
"Don't apologize, you've done nothing wrong." Twilight said to calm him down.
"Im afraid I will though… I have before." Night Shadow said shifting around to get out of bed.
"It's just that your bracelets started to glow red again." Twilight said a bit concerned.
"They're not bracelets Twilight, they're suppressors, they prevent me from turning into… that."
"What do you mean?" Twilight said looking at him worried.
"It means that without these, everyone would be in danger because of… me." Night Shadow said softly.
Twilight looked a bit pail as she backed away slowly.
"Twilight… that's not going to happen unless something very drastic ensued, please don't be scared." Night Shadow said approaching her slowly.
Twilight continued to back away until she hit the wall behind her, still frightened.
"And under what conditions would you…do that?" She asked still concerned.
"Only if somepony very dear to me was hurt, or if my heart was… broken." Night Shadow said as his eyes watered.
Twilight, witnessing his sorrow, dropped her fear and replaced it with pity.
"What happened to you?" She asked.
"T-they… they betrayed me, Twilight. They left me to suffer like the worthless pony I am." Night Shadow said as tears flowed down his cheeks. "I gave them my heart… and what did they do in return? They shred it before my very eyes, laughing at my sorrow and pain as I laid there to rot in the void of my own mistakes. To be swallowed up by the darkness of my own desires, never to be fulfilled or be completed. This is what they turned me into, and I can never be whole again."
Finishing his sentence, Night Shadow closed his watering eyes not being able to bear to look at Twilight's face. She on the other hoof couldn't stand to see him like this. As he continued sobbing, Twilight embraced him with a long hug.
"You don't have to feel like that ever again. Me, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy; we are your friends now and we will never betray you." Twilight said wiping the tears away from his eyes and then started holding him tightly.
Letting the last of his tears fall, Night Shadow hugged Twilight back.
"Promise me… promise me that you won't leave me like they did. I care about you so much, all I ask is that you do the same." He asked holding on to Twilight.
"I promise, but there's just one problem." Twilight said short of breath.
"What, what is it?" Night Shadow asked fearfully.
"You're… suffocating… me." Twilight struggled to say.
After helping out with Applejack and playing games with Rainbow Dash during the previous days, Night Shadow found it only fair to help out the rest of Twilight's friends. Today was Rarity's turn, except she wasn't the only one waiting.
"Rainbow Dash, I told you to stay still!" Rarity said trying to pull her down with the loose ribbons.
"I can't help it, being grounded is so boring." Rainbow said plopping back down to the floor.
"Well if you stood still for a minute, your dress would have been done by now." Rarity said tying the ribbon to the dress. "Now I will be right back with rubies." She said walking into a room.
Shortly after, Night Shadow walked through the door to see Rainbow with the biggest "Kill me now" face he had ever seen.
"You mad, Dashie?" He teased.
"Oh shut up, you're only here mock me like the rest, but your turn will come soon enough." Rainbow said irritated.
"Well, with all jokes aside, you actually look beautiful in that dress." Night Shadow complimented.
"That won't make me feel any better about this, but I know what will." Rainbow said with an evil smile.
"You don't mean…" Night Shadow said fearfully.
"Yeah I do, it's time to fulfill your end of the bargain, Night Shadow." Rainbow said approaching him.
"If this will make you happy… then I guess so." Night shadow said taking in a deep breath. "She-"
"Rainbow Dash, this is terrible!" Rarity said barging in on the conversation.
"What is it, zombies, vampires, wereponies, or worse… the old guy from down the street?!" Night Shadow asked panicking.
"No, this is the worst, possible, thing!" Rarity yelled, emphasizing.
"What could be worse than the old guy down the street?" Night Shadow said in disbelief.
"I… ran out of rubies!" Rarity bluntly said.
Night Shadow went from panic to dead-pan face.
"You're freaking out because you ran out of… RUBIES!" He practically shouted.
"Yes, now I can't finish Rainbow's dress." Rarity said looking around frantically.
"Oh… well we can't have that can we." He said looking back at Rainbow sinisterly.
"No darling we can't, so I'm going to go find some, if you want to help that is." Rarity said putting on a fancy purple scarf and walking outside.
"Of course, I have nothing better to do." Night Shadow said picking up his trench coat and trotting to the door.
"Hey! What about your promise!" Rainbow yelled.
"Sorry, but it seems I'm busy at the moment… please leave a message after the-"
Night Shadow, quickly slamming the door behind him, left Rainbow in the room.
Ten minutes passed before Rarity and Night Shadow reached the excavation site.
"Are we there yet?" Night Shadow complained.
"No Night Shadow, you have asked thirty-four times already." Rarity sighed.
"Are we there yet?" Night Shadow asked again.
"Yes, we're finally here." Rarity said relieved
"Oh… I didn't care anyways." Night Shadow said teleporting in front of her.
Rarity rolls her eyes.
"Anyways, your job is to dig up the diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and any other stone of value that I highlight with my magic." Rarity said already searching.
"You know… I can do that to… just sayin'." He said.
"It's not lady like to get your hooves dirty, so please Night Shadow." Rarity said with puppy eyes.
"Fine… you win." He said walking along faintly. "But why couldn't Spike come along as well, from what I've heard he loves helping you." He asked curiously.
"Spike was going to help, but he isn't feeling well… the poor thing, he really wanted to help." Rarity said feeling remorse.
"It must have been from yesterday, being out in the cold all day. That can happen to anypony or any dragon in his case, but I have a way to fix that after we are finished here." Night Shadow said walking alongside her.
"How do you suppose that, darling? You don't look like the doctor type." Rarity asked still searching for jewels.
"Not to brag, but look at my cutie mark, it stands for my talents with alchemy. This means that I know my fair share of info on healing potions." Night shadow said proudly.
"You're an alchemist, but that talent hasn't been seen for thousands of years, how could you possibly know?" She asked dumbfounded.
"Uhhhh, I like to practice ancient arts." Night Shadow said stepping over a large stone.
"And it's the middle of winter, where could you possible find the plants you need?" Rarity asked.
"I'm an expert for a reason; I just need to inspect what plants ponyville has and make exceptions. It shouldn't be hard to make a basic potion with that." Night Shadow said confidently.
"Just don't try anything dangerous now like explosions, or I will have to fix your hair again." Rarity said smiling.
"Yeah, I wouldn't want that again." Night Shadow whispered to himself. "Have we found anything yet?"
"Nothing but rocks and snow, Night Shadow." Rarity said disappointed. "Wait, there's something under that tree."
Night Shadow went to inspect the location.
"I don't mean to disappoint you, but there's nothing here." Night Shadow said digging up dirt.
"No-no, there in that tree… literally." Rarity said back to him.
Night Shadow looked back at her doubtfully, and then bucked the tree which happened to be hollow making it fall to the ground revealing all sorts of priceless jewels.
"Oh my gosh, you were right." Night Shadow said shocked.
"Of course I am, now get the jewels before they show up again." Rarity said almost nervous.
"I don't know who they are, but it would explain the jewels in this tree. This means there's more around here!" Night shadow said excited and ran off.
"Wait, I don't think that's a good… idea!" Rarity said, turning around to see three large figures.
One hour later
"Hey Rarity, look at all the things I've found... where did she go?" Night Shadow asked looking around for her.
Ten more minutes passed before Night Shadow started to get worried.
"Rarity, where are you!" He shouted causing an echo with no response.
Ten more minutes pass
"Rarity!" He shouted once again waiting for a reply. "Oh, this isn't working; I shouldn't have left her behind." He said to himself. "Where are you?!"
"You won't see her again until you return what you have stolen from us." An obnoxious voice said behind him.
"And if you don't we're-"
"Yeah yeah, you will beat me up and take my money. Been there, done that, now let's get to the chase where I beat the information out of you." Night shadow said facing the three large figures. "So let me guess; you're the tall, strong thug who happens to be dumb. He's medium sized so he must be the brains behind this, and you're the small, fast guy." He said as he criticized the group. "And together, you make the talking fur ball gang."
"So you're not going to ask us where we took your friend?" The smaller one asked.
"Why should I, you're not going to tell me anyways so why waste my time, but by all means I would like the names of you dogs before you're hospitalized." Night Shadow said assuming a fighting position.
"Fine, since you don't play by the rules of kidnapping, my name's Rover." The medium sized figure said.
"I'm Spot." The smaller one said.
"And I'm uhhh… Fido." He said scratching his head.
"And we're the Diamond Dogs!" All three of them said together.
There was a long awkward pause after they finished their introduction.
"What… Is that supposed to be a David Bowie reference?"
"GET HIM!" Rover shouted to his lackeys.
Spot and Fido quickly charged at the red unicorn who smirked at their approach.
"Too easy." Night Shadow whispered before dashing under Fido and jumping over Spot to land in front of a surprised Rover.
"And you're not going to do anything I take it?" Night Shadow mocked.
"Why you little-"
"Pony… it's always been pony." He said, cutting him off by tripping Rover to the ground.
As Rover fell on his face, Fido came back to grab Night Shadow, but instead was tripped by him and fell on Rover. Spot, taking no time at all, jumped at Night Shadow with great speed, and ended up missing due to Night Shadow's dodge causing him to land in the pile.
"You guys are not very coordinated, are you?" Night shadow ridiculed.
"Shut up!" Fido yelled as he got up.
"Oooo, that wasn't very nice." Night Shadow teased as the rest recovered.
Fido charged to grab Night Shadow as he stood there, however Night Shadow leaped out of the way, causing him to crash into a rock. Rover and Spot continued their onslaught attempting to capture the mocking unicorn only to fail every time. Eventually, even Night Shadow was growing tired of evading every attack that came his way. Fortunately, so were the Diamond Dogs.
"This... has… been fun." Night Shadow said panting. "Now where is Rarity?"
"We aren't so easily defeated." Rover said with a sinister smile.
"You're done, what more could you possibly do?!" Night Shadow asked becoming annoyed
"This!" Rover said as Spot whistled into the air.
Suddenly, about twenty diamond dogs emerged from the ground and seized Night Shadow, pinning him to the ground.
"Nothing much to say now little pony?" Spot mocked as he approached with Rover and Fido.
Night Shadow struggled as they stood him up on his hind legs.
"This could have been much easier on you if you had listened to us, now you will spend the rest of your life as a pack mule doing whatever we want." Rover said, holding Night Shadow's face up.
"I will give you one last chance to give me back Rarity… before I get serious." Night Shadow whispered.
The entire group of Diamond dogs laughed at his comment.
"Don't you get it, you have lost little pony… it's over, you work for us now." Fido said to him.
"And soon all your friends will too." Rover said backing up Fido.
Laughing along with everyone else, they started to haul Night shadow to a nearby cave.
"You can torture me and enslave me all you want, but when you involve my friends you have gone too far!" Night Shadow started to yell.
Rover, being in front of the group, stopped the diamond dogs with his paw and walked towards Night Shadow.
"What can you do about it? Your friends are perfect for the job, and you can't do anything about it?" Rover whispered to Night Shadow.
Rover, Fido, Spot and the rest of the group started to laugh maniacally as Night Shadow's anger increased before them.
"You will leave my friends… ALONE!" Night Shadow yelled as his body exploded in a blinding flash of white light, making everyone blast off of him. There he stood, freed from his bonds, in a fit of rage.
Everyone stood in fear at Night Shadow's outburst of power until Rover, almost overcome by fear, gave the command to restrain the rebellious unicorn. All twenty diamond dogs charged from different angles, unfortunately for them, Night Shadow was done playing around. Charging to the two nearest targets, he delivered two strong punches to them that shattered the dog's armor like glass. Whipping around to face the others, he charged his horn and fired two explosive blasts that instantly knocked out seven diamond dogs and created a smoke cloud.
With nine dogs down, Night Shadow still showed no signs of weariness as he teleported into two other dogs, forcing them to crash into the snow and bucked another behind him through a boulder. Using the cloud of smoke to his advantage, he quickly finished off three more in less than seconds, shattering their armor to pieces with just his hooves. When the smoke dissipated, it revealed fifteen unconscious diamond dogs in the snow. The last five were almost cowering in fear as Night Shadow dashed in front of one and upper cut his chin making him back-flip into a tree.
As they tried to run off, Night Shadow appeared in front them and sidekicked one across the face, forcing him into another. One of the last two dogs decided to be bold and grabbed Night shadow's long mane in hopes to stop his rampage. Having his hair grabbed, Night Shadow back-flipped and bucked the dogs face, shattering his helmet. Being free, he tripped the helpless diamond dog into the air and using his hind leg, kicked it into a group of rocks. The last diamond dog could do nothing but run in fear, disobeying his orders.
Blindly running, he did not notice Night Shadow teleport in front of him on his hind legs with his back turned until he back-hoofed him into the air. Not stopping there, Night Shadow close-lined the dog to make him stop mid-flight and slammed his fore-hoof into his stomach. He then stood up and teleported into Rover forcing him to the ground and placed his hoof into his throat.
"WHERE IS SHE?!" Night Shadow screamed as his eyes flashed with red color.
"She's… she's… in, in, th-that cave." Rover said pointing at a nearby cave, horrified.
Night Shadow remained silent as he removed his hoof from his throat, and walked passed Fido and Spot who gave him shocked stares.
"Now, get out of my sight, AND NEVER THREATEN MY FRIENDS AGAIN!" Night Shadow shouted as the trio ran off.
Night Shadow's eyes went back to a dark purple as he entered the dark cave.
One hour later
"I already told you, I forgive you." Rarity said as she trotted out with Night Shadow.
"I know, I know, I'm just not used to anypony forgiving me so easily." Night Shadow said smiling softly.
Rarity started to focus magic into her horn before she was stopped by Night Shadow.
"No-no, allow me, I'm the reason we got in this mess." Night Shadow said as he quickly teleported them back to Rarity's boutique.
"And that's what happened!" Night shadow said as he sipped on some hot chocolate.
"You have some of the weirdest stories, Night Shadow." Twilight said with a warm smile.
"It's much funner than working like everypony else." Night Shadow said sipping his drink.
"Funner? Funner is not a word, Night Shadow." Twilight said as her smile faded.
"Uhh, yeah it is, I've looked it up before." Night Shadow said as his smile increased.
"What, the dictionary for the grammatically incorrect?" Twilight asked slightly annoyed.
"Well Twilight, I actually looked it up on one of those books on the shelf." Night shadow said pointing to a book shelf with about five-hundred books on it.
"You mean here… in this library!" Twilight said starting to twitch.
"Yeah, but I don't remember which book." Night Shadow said chuckling.
"I have to find it!" Twilight yelled, searching through all the books making a mess within seconds.
Night Shadow slowly creeped to his room unnoticed while Twilight was still trying to find the "book."
"Good night Twilight, you're going to need it." Night shadow whispered before closing the door.