Fighting the Darkness

by ScottishPony

Chapter 3 - Philosophy is fun?

"Fun?" they all repeated, their eyes glowing with pure excitement.

"Oh boy, we can...." Scootaloo paused.

"We can... uh..." Applebloom tried to add, but nothing came to mind.

"Well, we would say, ’continue to do different, crazy things to get our cutiemarks’ but... We’ve already found them so...I guess that’s it..."

"I’m guessing that’s how you three used to pass your time," Sheamus sniffed, "Same thing with me, really. I used to watch wrestling on the side and started training to be one. It just seemed to happen so suddenly and my life changed so drastically that..."

"... It almost didn’t feel real..." the three echoed along side him.

"An’ you almost feel like everything else you’d worked for your whole life is now... outta the question..." Applebloom sighed- she had already assumed that the apple on her flank already symbolized she would be stuck here for the rest of her life, working with boring old apples instead of all the other fun stuff they tried while crusading.

"But it ain’t all bad, remember," Sheamus leaned forward and gently lifted the young filly’s dipped head, "You’re just a young filly. Your life isn’t going to be all restricted by one dumb mark on your butt. I mean, look at me! I was a computer technician for the start of my adult life! And now I’m a global entertainer!"

"Really? Y-Ya’ mean that you... Never felt you couldn’t make it to where ya’ are now because you already felt your fate was sealed...?" Applebloom asked quietly as she started to get a bit misty-eyed.

"Hey, I got to where I am because I held enough passion in my heart to do something other than work with computer all day." Sheamus smiled, gently wiping the tears away from the young filly’s eyes with his thumb, "If you truly hold a passion in your heart for something, don’t let something as insignificant as a mark on your arse tell you you can’t."

Sheamus lifted his head, and he saw the two other fillies fighting away tears too- Well, at least Scootaloo was. Sweetie Belle’s face was coated with tears and seemed to hold no shame about it.

"Aw, come here...." Sheamus smiled and embraced all three fillies in a tight group hug.

They remained tight in each others embraces for a couple of minutes before, rather reluctantly, releasing.

"S-Sorry..." Sweetie muttered as she noticed the huge wet patch they left on the Satyr’s chest and fur.

Sheamus chuckled softly, before ruffling the small unicorn’s mane, "Don’t apologize, Sweetie. I’m more surprised no one’s ever told you that before."

"W-We were always told that out cutiemarks were pretty much the be-all-end-all... We didn’t realise there was an element of choice still in there..." Applebloom spoke as she wiped the tears away with her hoof.

"Well, of course there has to be. I mean, your cutiemarks seem rather broad. What do you think they signify?" Sheamus continued with a soft smile.

"We figure it’s to signify how we love helping other ponies find out their special talents." Sweetie sniffed, her tears begining to dry off.

"Yeah, that sounds broader than a simple title of ’computer technician’ or ’apple salesman" that I think you’ve tried to boil it down to," the Celtic Warrior explained, "I mean, to me, those marks are not a show from fate that ’you are doing this with your life, and only this’, but rather a show of ’this is the talent I am best at, but I am still capable of doing so much more.’"

The filly’s were stunned. Was this really the truth? Well, when they thought about it... it was true! Twilight’s cutiemark signified she was best at magic, but she’s also good at leading, forming solutions, reading and even science! She wasn’t just ’good at magic’, she could do so much more! Yes, that’s what she’s most known for, but her abilities weren’t just cut off at ’magic’.

How had they not figured this out by now?!

A short pause filled the air between them, and Sheamus simply sat against the tree once more. However, the young Scootaloo caught her eye. She had remained silent for pretty much the duration of the discussion, and the look in her eyes told him exactly why. A look of dawning comprehension was deep within her eyes, almost as if she was told that everything she was ever told turned out to be a lie. Along side that was a look of pure adoration.

’Heh, looks like I’ve found my new biggest fan in this dimension.’ he thought with a smile.

His thoughts were quickly shattered though, as he was quickly propelled into the air by a force beyond him, and he was frozen unable to move at all. He noticed a magenta bubble around him and the familiar orange pony burst from the trees and quickly pulled the fillies away from him, much to their distress.

’What the hell?!’ was his only thought as he hung in the air for a few moments, before a lavender unicorn with wings strode out confidently from the bushes, her horn alight with the same coloured glow as the bubble surrounding him. Her gaze seemed to burrow into his soul but he tried to remain as stern as possible.

He heard the fillies desperately pleading to the lavender mare to release him, but she didn’t head a word they said.

’What do you want here, monster?’ she could hear him inside his own head- telepathy! How the hell were these creatures capable of telepathy?!

’I said, what do you want here?!’ she repeated more sternly, and he felt the ’magical’ grasp she had in him tighten.

’ How about you get the fuck out of my head, and let me go.’ he retorted, but he only saw the mare’s face darken.

’You forced me to do this.’ her horn seemed to flicker more brightly and suddenly everything went blurry, dark and a little bit painful.

The last thing he could hear as he fell to the grass in a heap, were the three fillies desperately pleading to the lavender mare to release him.

After a few moments, the pain, darkness and blur quickly faded.

He leaned up slowly to see a rather apologetic face of one lavender unicorn-pegasus, only to fall right back down again as the spell took it’s toll.

Comments

[MarvelousLoner]

waiting patiently