//------------------------------// // Don't Close Your Eyes // Story: Love Will Set You Free // by Ospero //------------------------------// Thursday, August 21st, in a carriage on its way to Ponyville For the first half of the journey, an awkward silence had lain upon the carriage. Finally, shortly after they'd passed the waypoint, Fancy Pants spoke up. "So. Tell me a little about your friends, then." Rarity had been staring out the window, thoughts racing, and Fancy's words only registered after a second or two. "Oh. Sorry." She smiled bashfully. "They're amazing, the best friends anypony could have. Sure, each of them has their quirks and foibles, but I can't say I mind all that much. I have mine as well, and it never comes between us." Fancy raised an eyebrow. "Never?" "Well ... almost never. Truth be told, we do have our differences, but then who doesn't?" Rarity realized that the last part had come out a bit more defensively than she wanted. She was relieved when Fancy smiled. "Excellent. For a moment there, I thought you were talking about some kind of untouchable, perfect circle of ponies, but it seems that you're a bit more real than that." The stallion winked at her. "It also fits better with what I saw at my party." "What do you mean?" Rarity asked, her curiosity piqued. "Look at the six of you and think about it for a moment, Rarity: you are probably the most unlikely group of friends in the history of Equestria. Honestly, you and that orange earth pony who was digging up my lawn? Or that pink one with the party cannon?" Fancy had a strange expression on his face at that memory, halfway between humour and bafflement. Rarity pondered those words. Though she had never thought of it like that, Fancy was right - they were unlikely. Would they ever have formed those bonds without the Elements of Harmony? Of course not. What we did with Nightmare Moon simply had to form some kind of connection between us, Rarity thought. Or strengthen it, when you think of the stories of our cutie marks. She felt something at that thought. Her cutie marks prickled slightly, and she suddenly was cold. "Something is happening." Rarity only realized she had said those words out loud when Fancy looked at her with confusion in his eyes. "What do you mean?" "I don't know." Rarity looked out the window again, at the trees flying past, and the feeling of dread intensified. "But whatever it is, it's not good. Perhaps something has happened to one of the girls." "It can't be long now. We'll get to Ponyville, and you'll see that it was just somepony walking over your grave." Fancy smiled again. Rarity returned the smile, but the feeling didn't diminish. Something is terribly wrong. *** Thursday, August 21st, Ponyville town square, 1 pm When Rarity and Fancy Pants stepped out of the carriage, the first thing she noticed was the quiet. While the town square was its usual hustle and bustle of activity, the atmosphere seemed subdued. The second thing she noticed were her friends standing there to greet her, and the looks on their faces did nothing to ease her mind. Twilight looked exhausted, and Applejack was steaming in barely suppressed anger. That was when she noticed the third thing. She swallowed and turned to Twilight. "Twilight? Where are the others?" Twilight's answer was clipped, almost terse. "Spike and the crusaders are at the library looking for information on their newfound powers, and Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash are at the hospital." Had Fancy not caught her, she would have fainted right then and there. The feeling of contact with his hooves drew her out of the dizziness in time, and she looked at Twilight in pure bafflement. "Whatever do you mean by all that?" "While you were gone with your coltfriend there, everything seems to have gone south pretty darn fast." Applejack almost spat out the words, as if each one was a dart with which she was trying to hit Rarity. Twilight looked at the farm pony in alarm. "Applejack! What has gotten into you? This is our friend you're talking to, remember?" "Friend my applebucking back hooves!" Applejack retorted, turning to face Rarity again. "You left Sweetie Belle hanging when you up and ran, and when our other friends started to collapse one by one, you weren't here to help. So much for the vaunted Element of Generosity, huh?" Out of the corner of her eye, Rarity noticed a weird black smoky thing somewhere on Applejack's flank, but her mind was too busy working through what the earth pony had said. "What are you saying, Applejack? That I'm not allowed to have a life of my own anymore, just because I have you for friends?" she bit back angrily. The words about Sweetie Belle had hit her pretty hard, but she certainly wasn't about to admit that to Applejack, not while the other mare was behaving like this. Before the situation could escalate any further, they heard steps behind them. Turning, Rarity saw the very last pony she wanted to see right now. She instinctively reached out for Fancy to steady her. Sweetie Belle was walking up to them very slowly and deliberately, followed by Spike and the other crusaders, all of whom were wearing strange necklaces resembling the Elements of Harmony. That only registered for a second in Rarity's head before Sweetie came to a halt in front of her. "Why, Rarity? Why did you let me down?" She had been prepared for anger, even for confusion, but not for the bitter disappointment that dripped from her sister's voice. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she barely managed to choke out "I'm sorry" before collapsing into a heap of sobs and heaves. "Nice work, Sweetie Belle. Don't you think we've lost enough Elements of Harmony as it is?" she heard Spike's voice. The dragon was obviously angry with both sisters. "She betrayed my trust, Spike!" Sweetie Belle sounded close to tears. "You don't do that! You never, ever violate another's trust in you!" "Darn right you don't. Go home and think very carefully about what you did to your friends and your family, Rarity." Applejack had regained some measure of control, but the quiet anger in her voice was somehow worse than the nigh-unbridled fury had been. "Ehm, fillies and gentlecolts?" Fancy's voice cut in. "I do believe that hurtful remarks, as true as they may be, are not the way to go at the moment." "Shut it." All heads, including Rarity's, turned to Applejack at that. "It's mainly her fault, but you have your part in it too. You took her from here." Rarity was shocked beyond outrage for a moment, then she noticed the black thing working on Applejack's flanks seemed to have grown. "Um, Twilight? What's that on Applejack's flank?" "Her cutie ... oh." Twilight for some reason looked past Rarity, at Spike and the crusaders. "What do you mean, 'oh'?" Applejack turned her head to look at her flank. "Seems perfectly fine to me, and anyway this isn't about me or my flank." The farm pony had barely said those words when she collapsed, black tendrils rising up from her cutie marks and head. "Applejack!" Apple Bloom charged past Rarity. "Guys, we need to help her! What's happening?" Rarity saw Spike, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo walk past, concern in their eyes. Without turning away, she asked "Twilight? What's going on here?" Before the librarian could answer, a black smoky outline rose from Applejack's unconscious form. A hissing noise that sounded like laughter washed over the assembled ponies, and darkness swirled around them. The last thing Rarity heard before everything went black were the words in the laughter. When doubt shatters honesty, pain will be crowned king. *** When Rarity came to, she was lying on a flat grey floor. She felt cold. She stood up and looked around. The others - Twilight, Spike, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle - were just waking up as well. Fancy Pants was nowhere to be seen, nor was Applejack. She rubbed a hoof over her eyes. "What in the name of the goddesses is going on here?" "I believe I can answer that, little unicorn." The voice sounded like oil on glass, like needles through the skin, like lost love and forgotten friendships. Rarity had never heard it before, yet she recognized it, as did the others by the look of them. She saw Spike turn to Apple Bloom and mouth something like 'we were right'. "Who are you? Show yourself!" Rarity commanded in her most imperious voice. "You know me, ponies and dragon. Everybody knows me." A few feet away, a swirling column of black smoky tendrils coalesced into a vaguely ape-like shape - two legs ending a foot or so above the ground, two arms ending in clawed hands, and a sphere-shaped swirl for a head. The only visible feature inside the black nothingness were two gleaming green pinpoints of light where the eyes would have belonged. "Yes, we do." Spike stood and pointed a claw at the shape. "You are one of the lost avatars of the Ancient Darkness. You are Doubt." "Aren't we the clever one, little dragon." The mockery in the voice was nearly unbearable. "I do see why the last of the old Elements of Power chose you." "Elements of Power?" Twilight cut in. "They have long since been forgotten in your world, little unicorn." If the thing had sounded smug before, it was positively gleeful now. "They were the four Elements wielded by the dragon lords in battle against my mistress. Resolve, Strength, Cunning and Dexterity. Three of them were destroyed long ago, and the same was believed of the fourth, before they were eventually forgotten in the mists of time. But I knew it was still out there, waiting for me." For just a second, Doubt seemed to lose its temper. "You defeated me once, dragon. You won't do it again." "We will see." Rarity was amazed at the sheer willpower with which Spike's voice resonated. Doubt turned to Scootaloo. "Ah, you I'm looking forward to, Element of Courage." "Courage?" Scootaloo looked unfazed. "Awesome! So that's what I am. We had figured something like that." "Good for you, pegasus," the darkness hissed, anger flaring up again. "Oh, how those accursed Elements of Discipline burned. It will be a pleasure to send you where your five companions have spent the last five millennia! Courage will at last be reunited with Obedience, Control, Fighting Spirit, Honour and Strategy." The black shape turned to look at Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. "Oh yes, two of you survived. The earth ponies were always more careful than the pegasi, not to mention the dragons or griffons. You are Trust and Confidence, are you not?" Apple Bloom seemed to swallow once, then steel herself. "Yeah. And we'll drive you back where you belong, wherever that is." "And we'll make sure you never hurt anypony again," Sweetie Belle added. "Will you?" Doubt turned its right hand, and they gasped at the sight before them. A golden disc, about seven feet high, hovered in the air. A six-pointed star was engraved on it, bearing a pony-shaped indentation at each tip. Four of the six were filled, and Rarity gasped as she recognized these ponies, despite the eyes of solid black and the completely colourless manes and coats. "Despair, indifference, uncertainty and pain are already here," Doubt hissed. "The other two will follow soon enough. You cannot hope to fight me. Harmony cannot hurt me, for my mother designed me as a weapon against it. Generosity will be the next to fall, and Magic will not stand alone." The black shape contorted for a second or two, as if struggling against invisible chains. "I have waited countless years for this day, and I will not see it delayed or denied just because some elements of old refused to die when their time was due. Soon I will break loose, and then may your princesses have mercy on you, for I most certainly will not. But for now, there are rules I have to follow. I'm not my dear brother Discord, after all." Doubt laughed. "Let the challenges begin!" The thing swirled away, and seconds later, everything went black yet again. The grey Applejack in the Pit of Pain flickered orange for a moment, and a whisper drifted across the void. "You can do this, Apple Bloom. It will turn out right." *** Apple Bloom woke. She looked around and saw that she was still in the same grey, featureless place. But now she was alone. Some way ahead of her, the darkness took shape again. "Hello, Element of Confidence." "What do you want from me?" Apple Bloom tried to sound fierce, but she could tell she was failing miserably. "I'm not allowed to attack you directly just yet, little one. I'm bound by the laws of my banishment, so I can only get to you in my own way. And that is why you are here." It pointed a claw at her, and suddenly she was falling again, like in her vision. It was a thousand times worse than it had been the last time. Doubt attacked her mind and heart with everything it could find, both from inside her and from the mind of Applejack. Apple Bloom saw the worry and the doubt about her in Applejack's heart, and it drove her to tears. She was aware that Doubt had stripped all the positive emotions away before revealing this to her, but that didn't make it easier to withstand. She saw the clubhouse begin to crumble before her eyes, saw the apple tree burst into flame and the weathervanes rust away. Just as Apple Bloom was about to surrender to Doubt, her thoughts went out to her friends and family. Her element began to glow in response, and the darkness seemed to retreat just an inch. The fire went out, the house seemed to stabilize. And then she thought of Spike, and large chunks of the shadow began to boil away. Doubt turned its 'eyes' on her and laughed. "Oh, so that's how it is, then? Don't you think you are a little young to feel like that?" "You don't understand, and you never will. They need me, he needs me, and it doesn't matter what I feel, whether it's love for a friend, a family member, or whatever it is I feel for Spike. I'm not gonna give in to you." She drew in a deep breath, choking out the next words, the most difficult thing she had ever said in her life. "Everything will turn out alright." The shadow exploded, and Apple Bloom was falling again.