Awakening Fluttershy's Dark Sky

by Misty Shadow

Gods of Life's Story

Applejack and Rainbow Dash were trying to give a crying Pinkie Pie comfort.

"Calm down, Pinkie." Applejack said. "You have every right to be upset, but we'll get over this together."

"Together?" Pinkie sobbed. "You mean Twilight really is our friend?"

"I'm sure she had a good reason to lie to us." Rainbow said, trying very hard not to sound sarcastic. "...For two years, apparently."

"I did!" Twilight yelled. "Please believe me, I did! You think I wanted to deceive you?! If I hadn't followed their orders, what other chance was I going to get to see Fluttershy again?! I haven't lied to you for two years, Ninja Time God Rarity only made the several hours I suffered through that day feel like two years! You think I don't care about you?!"

"Twilight, enough already!" Applejack yelled. "We weren't accusing ya of doing this for a bad cause! We just wanted to know what was going on because it was obvious you were hiding something and we wanted the truth!"

Twilight sighed and knelt her head in remorse.

"I'm sorry…" she apologized. "Believe what you will, but that page about me creating you wasn't even written by me. It was in that book when I got it. I wasn't lying about being a human clone...I am the same as you. I didn't create you. Rarity and Discord created us. I really do have no memories other than what was left in my brain by Discord and Rarity either. All I was told by them was that the reason I was brought to this world was to be its Twilight Sparkle, someone who would do everything in their power to unite the world in friendship and perfect harmony. That's it. Just because I'm their lackey doesn't mean we're not friends…"

Twilight's friends wanted to believe her, but were not completely convinced. Something was not adding up…

I'll give you a hint. She's not your creator. She wants to recreate you with Starcatch.

"Look Twilight," said Rainbow, "we want to trust you. But you have to tell us the ENTIRE truth. Until we know that, we can't have a true friendship with you. Please, tell us everything. Why are Rarity and Discord doing this? Why did they screw around with your memories but leave you knowing that your memory was altered by them? What does any of what's happened up till this point have to do with "uniting the world"? It's not making sense to us what their motive is…"

Upon hearing those words, Twilight looked up and asked them…

"Would you like to hear their story on what their motive is? I can take you to them right now…"

Surprised, the others thought about this for a bit before saying…

"...Sure. All we want is the truth. Being able to tell ourselves the truth is the quintessential display of the trust between our bond, it's for all our sakes that we know it. We trust that once we've heard it, we'll be able to put our full trust in you."

"Thank you guys…" Twilight replied with a warm smile. "I'll let you know that Discord and Rarity are actually not so bad, they're just a little...high on the weirdness scale."

Ha! You're way too nice as always, Twilight.

Twilight then cast a teleportation spell to teleport herself and her friends to Discord and Rarity's place. After they left, the crowd finally began to talk among themselves.

"Woah, what happened?" one pony in the crowd asked.

"Why were we just standing there watching those girls vent about their problems?" another pony asked. "I felt like I was watching a dramatic scene straight out of a superhero movie."

"You did it because it was written for you to just stand there…" Maud Pie explained as she walked up to the crowd. "Just like it was written for me to stay out of Twilight's group and not be teleported to Discord and Rarity's place…"

The crowd gasped when they saw Maud Pie.

"It's-IT'S YOU!" one pony shouted. "Myra Michaels!"

"Don't forget about me…" a familiar ninja said as he appeared out of the shadows from behind Maud/Myra. He was revealed to be the same ninja who attacked Celestia's castle.

"W-who's that?" another pony in the crowd asked.

"Edward Miles," the ninja introduced himself, "mercenary. My client here, Myra Michaels, also known as Maud Pie, hired me to aid her in her fights."

"But what are you both doing here?" the same pony asked. "There's no fighting going around here…"

"Oh ho," chuckled Edward, "but there will be...two assailants have come here seeking to take the life of one of Myra's friends. I'm being paid to help take care of them…"

Edward brandished his "E.M." initialed katana and gold claw.

"You all should probably get out of here…" he told the ponies in the crowd. "There's two killers on the loose...disregarding Myra and I."

All the ponies in the crowd began to scream, with ponies going all over the park to warn others and rushing towards the exit of the park. Soon, there was no pony left in the area where Edward made the announcement.

"Congratulations," said Myra, "your joke scared them off."

"I like it when my jokes do that…" Edward replied with a smile.

Meanwhile, back with Twilight and friends, they had been teleported outside of a large, purple castle...in another dimension. Twilight opened the white-colored door of the castle, and the gang went inside. Walking through the corridor of the castle, the gang was surprised to not find any guards, but lots of strange decor. The carpet they were treading was made of hoof sanitation wipes, there were flowers in kitchen pots, and the room they were in didn't even have a ceiling...just transparent platforms, each one with mysterious symbols on it that meant "Seal."

"I guess that's their way of making a ceiling." Applejack commented.

Eventually, the gang made it to the throne room of the castle. It was there, upon entrance, that they saw the two gods. One of them was drinking, the other was getting drunk. Ninja Time God Rarity was in a black robe, sitting on a throne decorated with the emblem of a sword, drinking something out of a glass. Fantasy God Discord was not sitting on his throne decorated with the emblem of a shield, because he was the liquid in the glass.

"Fluttershy's not with the gods," said a flushed Rarity, both her cheeks being red, "did you check the pub?"

Twilight fought back the urge to slam the door shut immediately. She realized that she couldn't do that after she just promised to open up an opportunity for her friends to meet Rarity and Discord. So, Twilight and her friends entered the throne room. Strangely enough, this room was decorated like a standard room in a castle, unlike the hallway. Windows on both sides, a white and gray carpet lining the floor, and even a ceiling. It seems that Rarity and Discord were strange enough to make up for this room's lack of bizarre features. Speaking of bizarre, Rarity finished drinking Discord and threw the glass aside, where it landed on a soft pillow that magically appeared to catch it...then broke.

"Nice catch!" Discord complimented as he magically reformed, wearing a white robe and sitting on his throne, decorated with the emblem of a shield. "Oh, but you destroyed my nice, little home…"

"Hey, look on the bright side." Rarity replied. "Home is where the heart is. ...Oh dear, wrong comforting saying. That would mean I just broke your heart of glass...WAH HA HA!"

Discord laughed too, but Twilight and her friends did not. They felt disturbed.

"Wow, I can tell Discord worked his...influence on Rarity." Applejack said in astonishment.

"What is up with this shit, man?" Rainbow Dash asked in puzzlement. "I thought Rarity didn't even like Discord...if anything, I thought she was the one who disliked him the most out of all of us.*"

*This story was written before What About Discord premiered, debuting on November 5, 2015 on fanfiction.net.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11598621/1/Awakening-Fluttershy-s-Dark-Sky

"Mhmm…" Discord hummed as he teleported between Applejack and Rainbow, his back facing the other way. "Whatever are you two whispering to each other about? You know it's not nice to talk about others behind their backs…"

"We didn't come here to spite you in secret…" Applejack grumbled.

"We came here," said Rainbow in an angry tone, "because we know what you two have been up to and we want answers…"

"Yeah!" Pinkie proclaimed. "Like, where's the chocolate milk and gyros? I NEED MY CHOCOLATE MILK AND GYROS! Or else, I'll crave hard cream soda!"

"Never mind her," said Twilight, "we're not in the mood for Greek dairy food right now. Like Dash said, we're here because my friends want to know why you're doing this from you…"

"Ah," said Rarity, overhearing Twilight's request, "so you're making us, your superiors, do your errands for you...I like your style. Okay, we'll tell you everything you want to know…"

Twilight's friends were slightly irked by the idea of Rarity and Discord being Twilight's "superiors", but kept their frustration to themselves to avoid needless confrontation.

"For starters," said Rainbow Dash, "can you please tell us what the hell us being "created" is about?"

"Sure," replied Rarity, "we are the ones who created you guys, or at least the forms of you guys in this world. In this world, you guys are characters in our story. You used to be ordinary guys from the human world, but when we came to you and asked you if you wanted to help us in our quest to unite the world, of course you said, "Yes!". I'm serious, that dream that you had was you remembering the day we came to you…you know in your hearts that you agreed."

"Never mind that then," said Rainbow, unconvinced, but more concerned with other matters at the moment, "can you please explain to me what the heck this "characters in our story" crap is about?"

"Certainly," responded Rarity, "our "story" is more of a plan for everything that happens in the world than anything. We're actually servants of the The Risen One, an all-powerful deity who oversees the creation of all things in this world. He gave us a premise to work with, and we tried to write the best story we could based off that premise. Anything we write in our little "storybooks" becomes true, even if it defies everything logical..."

"Basically," intervened Discord, "he is the director of this show and we are his writers. The other gods of this world are basically assistant creative directors. They are allowed to give ideas and write their own stories in their own storybooks, so long as nothing conflicts with what we have written and it's approved by us. If something written in another god's storybook is unapproved, conflicts with what we wrote or renders something we want to happen impossible to occur, it will not come true. While we are friends with the other gods, precautions must still be taken. But even though we're the ones who have been put in charge, we all oversee what happens."

Something struck Twilight and her friends as odd…

"Didn't Fluttershy say that she was a god?" they thought. "Wouldn't that mean...that she was okay with getting murdered? If she has a part in this story too…"

"Okay," replied Pinkie, "so what we're supposed to be getting out of this is that you guys control everything that goes on in the world under the order of this guy called The Risen One. We're supposed to infer that the reason we were brought to this world was to help you unite it or something. You write things in books and they become true, and anything another god writes becomes true so long as you're okay with it...that's weird, but kind of cool."

"Yes, that's all true, especially the last part." Discord said, stroking his ego.

"Spot-on summary, I must say." Rarity praised Pinkie's recap of what they had just said.

"Summary?" Pinkie said. "I thought I was making a review."

"So…" Applejack began sadly. "Does this mean...we're just characters and nothing more?"

"Oh no no no," replied Rarity, "we are not so cruel. You all still have a will, and would not do anything we've written for you to do if you did not wish to do it."

"When we sought you four out while you were still human," explained Discord, "we showed this entire story to you on a rough draft on ordinary script paper and you agreed to play your parts in it. Of course, you hated that so many awful things would have to happen in it, but you knew that it had to be done for the sake of the world. Also, if you refused to play your parts, others would have to suffer the roles instead. We only erased your memories of being humans because that would give you trouble getting in character, wouldn't it?"

"About being humans…" Rainbow Dash said. "Are all the other ponies in Equestria former human beings too?"

"Yes," replied Rarity, "all of them. They've all had their memories erased as well. Some of them are results of illegal human experimentation done by the evil CEO of the now shutdown corporation, ChrysCo. All the others were willing participants we gathered from the human world."

"In this reality," said Discord, "the human world has become dominated by those who have discovered the power of the demons...on a new level, that is. It's not a pretty place right now, so it was not difficult to discover those who were willing to come to Equestria. Do not automatically judge them as cowardly, however. All those we sought out, including you four, were those with hearts of courage and light. They all agreed of their own accord to make a great self-sacrifice to help Equestria...the sacrifice of full ownership of their bodies, minds, and souls…"

The four ponies shuddered.

"What about all the chaos that's going on back in Equestria?" Applejack asked. "What's the reason for all that?"

"Oh yeah, that." Rarity replied. "Before the Goddess of Death and God of War came to your world, we wrote for their aura to be in a chaotic state, spreading fear and bloodlust to all we wrote to be susceptible. Cruel, but we had to make up some excuse for Celestia to bring a top supernatural detective like Maud Pie/Myra Michaels into the picture, other than, you know, her sister going missing."

"And we've done far worse," chimed in Discord, "like, you know, writing for a whole bunch of ponies to die just so that they could be immortal. Besides, their chaotic aura is gone now, so it's all good."

The four ponies shuddered again.

"One last question…" Pinkie Pie said. "Regarding these demon powers, why do Twilight and I have them?"

"Hee hee." Rarity snickered. "Actually, you all have them. In Applejack and Rainbow, they simply lay dormant, and even you two haven't awakened them at full power yet."

"To awaken the full potential of your demon powers," explained Discord, "you have to be willing to merge with ones of the darkness. Same with robot powers, only with ones of the metal."

"Hmm?" the four ponies went.

"Anyways," said Rarity, "in case you do not believe us, it's already been said...Twilight can confirm our story. She was hired as a special temp writer after Fluttershy's death. Though she only knows everything after that point, she made a lot of inclusions to the story under the pseudonym, "Boss", that we approved. What she's about to write now is something we've approved ahead of time...uh hoo hoo."

Like one would expect, everyone turned their attention to Twilight. She pulled out her black book with a white star on it and ink-dipped quill and opened up the book for all to see her write in it.

"Twilight…" Twilight's friends said.

"If this is what I have to do to regain your trust…" Twilight told her friends as her eyes dotted over to the right and her horn lit up. "then I'll do it."

Twilight began writing. She had turned the book towards her friends so that they could see the pages as she wrote in them. What she wrote was…

"Well howdy, do!" Applejack exclaimed. "I sure do love bananas!"

Applejack then proceeded to take off her hat and pull Princess Celestia out of it. Princess Celestia looked around in utter shock before saying…

"Well, it's official. I've gone nuts. Send me to the moon."

Immediately, what Twilight wrote happened. Twilight's friends and Celestia screamed in horror as Rarity and Discord guffawed. After all, they had written it preemptively for this to happen. Soon though, Celestia disappeared with a puff of magic smoke and ended up back on her throne in her castle. One of her guards, acting as a butler, entered the throne room a short time later and said…

"Good day, Your Majesty. It is time for your morning brunch. What would you like to have as a refreshment?"

Celestia just gave a deadpan stare for ten seconds before answering…

"...Therapy."

"Ah, yes." the butler guard replied. "I shall prepare a beverage with therapeutic qualities then. Is banana nut tea to your liking?"

"...Yes." Celestia said as the butler guard went away to get it. Celestia then got off her throne and went over to the window to look outside. She sighed as she saw demons and robots flying everywhere and chasing screaming ponies.

"Why do you flee from us?" the demons and robots asked. "We only wish to merge with you and become immortal beings…"

Some terrified ponies were also being confronted by Spike, Big Mac, Apple Bloom, and Gummy, Pinkie Pie's pet alligator, all of them still possessed by Prince Luna's four spirits.

"So," said Gummy in Octavia Melody's voice, "do any of you good chaps like music? I don't look it now, but I can play a mean cello."

"And I can play a mean DJ machine!" Big Mac exclaimed in Vinyl Scratch's voice. "Get the big boys spinning like strippers on poles so we can make some apple jam with the ladies tonight!"

"Hopefully, it will be organic jam." Apple Bloom said in Tree Hugger's voice. "Fruit is the sweetest of nature's offspring. When we die, our bodies can fertilize trees and plants that produce fruit. The children of nature and the dead must only be ground up with the sweetest care."

"AAIIIEEE!" the terrified ponies screamed. "The demons are possessing the civilians now too! We can't even trust each other now! AAAHHHH!"

The screaming ponies ran away, and the four spirits possessing Gummy, Big Mac, Apple Bloom, and Spike gave chase.

"Wait, come back!" Spike shouted in Ken Tucke's voice. "I JUST WANT TO REPORT LOVE TO YOU THIS EVENING!"

Upon seeing this, Celestia just slid against the window down to the floor and cried.

"Oh my God...Rarity...oh my God...Discord…" she muttered.

After a pause, she said…

"Oh my God...Risen One...ENOUGH!"

With a blinding flash of light, we were back with Twilight Sparkle and friends.

"So...it's true…" Applejack said. "We are in a story…"

"All this time," reflected Rainbow Dash on everything up until now, "everything in this world has been scripted by Rarity and a crazy guy…"

"It's weird," remarked Pinkie, "but I kinda already knew. I've always felt that deep down inside, I've been a piece of Rarity and a crazy guy's soul."

"Well," said Rarity, "we are technically your parents."

"Ho ho, a crazy guy…" Discord thought. "Why are they so nice?"

"That...reminds me of what that Prince Luna feller, said." Applejack brought up. "That he was...our father, technically. One of the creators…"

"Oh yeah," responded Discord, "Prince Luna. He was the Goddess of Death, I recall. We made up a new rule for gods to "die" if their storybooks are ruined just to give you a chance to defeat him. He didn't mind, he's immortal after all. Everything in that battle had been scripted by us, and he knew it…so did Maud..."

"So that's how Maud Pie knew to kill her by destroying his book." Dash said.

"Indeed." Rarity replied with a devilish smirk. "Maud Pie, or should I say, Myra Michaels, the God of War, serves as one of our agents along with her partner, Edward Miles. So does Prince Luna, the Goddess of Death. They all agreed to play their part in this story without question when The Risen One told them just how important this project of ours was…"

"Project?" Twilight asked. "You never told me about a project, just that you had a plan to unite the world..."

"The Dark Sky Awakening Project…" Rarity elaborated. "That IS our plan to unite this world with the Mortal World and change the universe...but that's a story for another day. Right now, there's a matter at hand more pressing than filling in all these inconsistencies."

Wait, we're done with the exposition already? But we haven't even explained where Sweetie Belle went yet.

"?" Twilight and the others went.

"What's that?" they asked.

"It just so happens…" Discord said in his trademark, sly tone. "That we're short on gods in the Immortal World. There are normally supposed to be ten, with two each in pairs of five. The Gods of War and Peace, Reality and Fantasy, Science and Magic, Life and Death, Darkness and Light. And it just so happens that five of those positions are open, for Peace, Science, Magic, Darkness, and Light…"

Twilight gulped and dotted her eyes to the right nervously.

"Hold on a second, isn't Rarity the God of Time?" Pinkie asked.

"No, I'm the God of Reality." Rarity answered. "I have powers over both time and reality. Time God just sounds cooler."

"So, how about it?" Discord said. "Would you guys like to be goddesses? You won't just be great and powerful, you'll also be immortal. We assure you, Prince Luna is still alive and will do no harm anymore. We've written her character to come back when the plot demands it. You are already good, evil, and neutral, so as long as you submit to us, you can become gods. You can live forever."

"Uh…" Twilight and the group muttered, unsure of what to say.

"Come on…" Rarity said. "I'll have you know that we despise cliches above all else. Think this through, you are not the real Twilight Sparkle and friends. All you are giving your family and friends back home is a ruse, a lie. At the very least, don't decline our offer for that reason."

"..." Even Twilight's friends got nervous looks as they legitimately did start thinking this through.

"So…" Discord said. "What's your decision?"

Decision #8: Accept Rarity and Discord's offer of immortality?

A. Accept and become gods

B. Refuse and explain something they've forgotten to mention

Accept and become gods

After some discussion amongst themselves, the group decided to take the offer.

"We accept." they said. "Please make us gods. We want to help unite the world and make both our friends back home and your subjects happier."

"Oh ho ho…" Discord laughed as he clapped his paw and claw. "EXCELLENT decision. You will absolutely NOT regret it, The Risen One give me a lecture if I'm wrong. All I need to know now is which gods you want to be respectively..."

"I wanna be the God of Peace!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "It's the most humble position, so obviously, it makes up for that by being the most awesome!"

"Can I be the Goddess of Magic?" Applejack asked. "Being an earth pony's great and all, but…*chuckles* I have to be blunt... it would be fucking cool to have magic powers. It would help a lot around the farm, and I could finally show that Trixie feller a thing or two."

"Is it even a contest, the God of Science!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed. "I've always wanted to be like Twilight, and think how many great pastries I could make if I knew EXACTLY what made them taste so GOOD! I could even start my own amusement park just like you guys and Maud! I'd create it out of cream-filled donuts, and I'd call it...Bavarian Cream Blast-Off!"

Twilight Sparkle blushed, feeling flattered that Pinkie was inspired by her. However, she didn't call dibs on any of the god positions. Rarity soon turned her attention to her…

"Aren't you going to choose?" she asked with a smirk. "There should be two positions left…"

"No, I'm good…" Twilight said sheepishly as she started backing away a bit. "I...have enough power...I...don't want to go mad with it…"

"O...kay?" Rainbow said as she, Applejack, and Pinkie gave her confused looks as Rarity and Discord snickered.

"It's fine," said Rarity, "we're not forcing any of you to do this. We're just grateful enough that we have three willing volunteers."

"So what now?" Applejack asked. "Do we have to undergo, like, a ceremony or somethin'?"

"Nah," replied Discord, "you just need to fill out some paperwork, obviously, ha ha. But seriously, we'll show you down in the basement..."

Refuse and explain something they've forgotten to mention

After talking it over, the group decided to decline the offer to become gods.

"We are sorry," said Twilight Sparkle, "but right now, we can not accept your offer. You have not told us in detail what your plan to unite the world is about. So long as you've not told us everything, we can't help you."

"Don't worry," replied Rarity, "we understand."

"However," said Discord, "even if you won't help us, we'll still offer to be a great help to you. Because we're just that nice."

"..." Twilight and her friends gave Rarity and Discord blank stares.

"I know a good place to begin our assistance…" Rarity said. "Fluttershy was actually here not too long ago, believe it or not."

"Huh?" Twilight and her friends went.

Discord snapped his fingers and made his and Rarity's storybook appear.

"Our book about this tale tells no tales…" he said as she showed Twilight and her friends a page of the story with this written on it…

Distraught over feeling weird, Fluttershy uses her god powers to teleport herself to Ninja Time God Rarity and Fantasy God Discord's castle to speak to her two dear friends, Rarity and Discord. After comforting her, Fluttershy then goes to The Risen One's home, a place the benevolent ruler of the world permits the gods to lounge at, to rest.

Twilight and her friends were surprised after reading that.

"You're...friends with her?" they asked in disbelief.

"What," said Rarity, "do we not come off as amiable to you? We're not our only company, you know."

"We have many friends, actually." Discord added. "We're even hoping that we'll be able to put you guys on our friend list too shortly…"

"We WERE friends with Rarity…" Twilight and her friends thought. "But friends with Discord? That'll be the day! ...Right?"

"So," said Rarity, "would you fine guys who are gals desire to meet her?"

"...Sure." Twilight and her friends replied.

"Then don't wait for me…" Discord said jokingly.

Discord snapped his fingers, and a staircase fell through the roof and through the middle of the floor, creating a passageway that led to the basement.

"Follow us…" Rarity said as she came up to Discord, and both of them began descending the stairs. "It's time to get to the BEST part of this story…HA HA HA…"

The group was legitimately creeped out now.

"...Who's up for taking the elevator instead?" Pinkie remarked jokingly.

Discord snapped his fingers again, and an elevator came crashing through a window on the right, as a stallion inside it screamed. The elevator went out another window on the left and crashed into an interdimensional wall.

"I'm moderately okay!" the stallion inside assured.

"I moderately prefer the stairs…" Rainbow stated her opinion on the matter.

It was then that the group slowly walked down the stairs and followed the neurotic god duo, having a bad feeling about what was going to happen next. Little did they know, that what they were worried might happen…

...was NOTHING like what was GOING to happen…

End of Part Five.

"So that's the end of the fifth chapter!" Boss exclaimed. "So, what did you guys think of it?"

"It was decent," said Dumb-bell, "I liked the part with us and that Water Rinse guy at the bathroom. I thought that was funny."

"It was an interesting change of pace," said Hoops, "I liked how there was a balance of both humor and suspense."

"..." Score pointed out exactly what was wrong with their characterization in the chapter silently.

"Since Score already covered pretty much every problem I had with the way we were portrayed (ESPECIALLY ME G.R.D. IS A PERV LOL) in this chapter," said Ghost Rainbow Dash, "I'll instead critique how AWFUL the storytelling has been so far. Like...SERIOUSLY. Does anyone understand ANYTHING that has been going on in this story since the first or, if you want to be generous, second chapter?! There's way too many characters (Twilight has children now?! WHAT?!) and subplots (WHAT THE FUCK DOES A JELLY CARNIVAL AND A GUY GETTING SEXUALLY HARASSED IN A BATHROOM HAVE TO DO WITH HUMAN CLONES BEING CONTROLLED BY A STORYBOOK?!) going on and it's so incohesive! It's just a mess!"

"It was very good!" Derpy exclaimed. "It's great how compelling this story is getting, I was at the edge of my seat at the part where Twilight got caught, and it's really interesting how Rarity and Discord, the villains, actually offered Twilight and her friends to be gods like them! Even if it's just a trick, it really leaves you wondering about what the heck they're really trying to do! That's GREAT storytelling in my eyes!"

"Glad you all kinda loved it!" Boss exclaimed.

Clue #5: For quint