Awakening Fluttershy's Dark Sky

by Misty Shadow

Twilight Sparkle's Ending

Twilight Sparkle was still smiling as everyone in the courtroom who was watching the trial looked upon her in utter disbelief. Everybody knew that the real Twilight Sparkle would never have murdered Fluttershy...but this wasn't the real Twilight Sparkle. This was also Raven Denouve...the man who had become Twilight Sparkle.

"So…" Raven Denouve/Twilight Sparkle said, talking in a sickly cheerful tone. "What are you going to do to me now that I've confessed? Have me executed? Lock me up forever? Do you honestly believe that I fear punishment? After all the good I've done while expecting no reward?"

No one answered her. They just stared at her while remaining silent and confused.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…" Twilight laughed. "You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you? Of course not, because you don't know all the facts. Your natural instincts say that because I have murdered somebody, that means I am scum, worthy of being condemned to death. But that could not possibly be more wrong. I am far more than just a "temp writer"...I am a god...the God of both Darkness and Light...worthy of being reborn and becoming the ruler of this world...because I have done all of this not for me...but for ALL OF YOU!"

Twilight shouted those words so that they echoed throughout the courtroom, now facing the crowd watching the trial with a serious look on her face.

"YES, IT'S TRUE THAT I MURDERED FLUTTERSHY!" she shouted. "BUT I ALSO MURDERED MYSELF! I gave up my human body, mind, and soul so that Twilight Sparkle could live again! I killed my friend so that she could live again! It was the only way! I should be God, yet I became a mortal and went through the suffering that every mortal must endure so that the ENTIRE WORLD COULD LIVE AGAIN! WOULD ANY OF YOU HAVE DONE THAT?! JUST SO YOU COULD STAND HERE AS A CRIMINAL AND BE BERATED?! NO! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO JUDGE ME! So go on, deliver unto me your "justice". I fear it not, for it is only the false justice of self-righteous and narrow-minded fools! SO KILL ME IN YOUR HEARTS WHILE BELIEVING YOUR LIES! YOU ARE ONLY HURTING YOURSELVES!"

Twilight began panting and puffing, running short of breath after that speech. The courtroom was still silent, but Rarity and Discord were grinning. They soon started saying something…

"You killed Fluttershy so she could live again…" Rarity said. "Such an esoteric way of saying it..."

"Oh Twilight..." Discord said. "I'm more than sure that most ponies watching this trial have no idea what you mean by making other ponies live again. Furthermore, I have no intention of delivering "justice" unto you. There would be no point. Not only have you punished yourself quite enough, I am more than well aware of the real reason why you do not fear being punished…"

Green zeroes and ones began coursing through Twilight again. Rarity and Discord both noticed, already knowing what they were going to do...

"Bailiffs Myra and Edward, have you any idea as to where Noava Falling and Arc Rising, Twilight's dearly beloved children have run off to?" Rarity asked.

Confused, Myra Michaels/Maud Pie and Edward Miles looked around, and realized that Noava and Arc were no longer in the courtroom.

"What the hell?!" Edward shouted.

"I get it now…" Myra said. "This was your backup plan in case you got caught…"

"Bingo." Twilight responded, wearing an evil smile. "I can't return to the Mortal World and call myself God after being proven guilty as a murderer...but my children still have a duty to fulfill there, maintaining Starcatch..."

Maintaining ME...

"How did they escape, though?" Edward asked. "I heard that you can make anything happen with the book you carry around, but I've not seen you use it once in this trial. Also, wouldn't you need Discord and Rarity's approval too?"

"The book I carry around is just an ordinary book," replied Twilight, "a copy I created. The real book is hidden somewhere safe, with everything I want to happen already written down and approved. I wanted to get caught with the replica, so that the others would only perceive my true intentions as something so innocent as being a tragic victim. What I wrote in the replica only became true because it was pre-emptively written to happen at that moment in the real book. Just like the escape of my children just now."

"And you guys…" Edward said as he turned to Rarity and Discord with a confused look on his face. "...were okay with all of this happening?"

"Of course," replied Rarity with a devilish grin, "The Risen One thought it was only fair to give Twilight a sporting chance of winning."

"In fact," chimed in Discord with an equally devilish smirk, "The Risen One actually wanted an ending to the story where Twilight wins. I wonder which one that could be...ha ha."

"Ha ha ha," laughed Twilight as well, "while I don't know everything that happens in your version of the story, I'm very confident that the ending where I win...will be this one. I've already sent out the demons and the robots to the Mortal World."

"We'll see about that…" Rarity replied. "We'll see if what they say is true that anything can be done digitally… For now, bon voyage."

Twilight was unphased as she suddenly vanished, still smiling in her confidence that she would ultimately win...

"You guys have to get back to the Mortal World straight away!" Fluttershy declared. "You can't just sit back here and do nothing!"

"No shit," said Rarity, "Sherlock Wright. What are you going to deduce next? That I'm going to teleport us to that plane?"

"Well actually," replied Fluttershy, "I'm afraid I'm going to have to sit back here and do nothing."

"WHAT?!" Twilight's friends shouted from the audience. "FLUTTERSHY!"

Fluttershy turned to them.

"I'm sorry," she apologized, "but I can not rescue Twilight from the darkness, for I am in darkness myself. And thanks to this path I have chosen, I can not be brought out of it... Please, go rescue Twilight without me. You all still have a great role to play in this story..."

"THE FUCK?!" they yelled again. "NO! No, we...we…"

Fluttershy turned her face away from them and started to cry. Twilight's friends became crestfallen, realizing they couldn't force her. This Fluttershy was different than the one they knew...a lot had happened to her that they didn't know about...

Rarity soon created an interdimensional portal leading back to the Mortal World, and she, Discord, and Twilight's friends all entered it.

In the Mortal World, the moon was not out and there were no stars in the sky...

Noava Falling and Arc Rising had returned to the Mortal World, and were now residing on the twentieth floor of the technological tower, Starcatch. Our heroes would have to climb all the way up to the top floor to stop their evil scheme...if they didn't have the power to just warp there with Rarity and Discord's interdimensional powers and talk to them about their more or less morally questionable scheme. Warping up to the top floor wasn't the only thing Rarity and Discord did to save time though. They also explained to everyone what Noava and Arc's plan was…

"Noava and Arc are awaiting the final decision to be made in this ending of the story. Every pony in Equestria has already been infused with demonic and robotic powers. The full potential of those powers won't be unlocked though until they merge with the demons and robots that have come to this land. The two are having a little contest to see if more demons will merge with the ponies, or if more robots will merge with the ponies. Either it will be decided for Noava to win, or it will be decided for Arc to win. It's a win-win scenario, no pressure!"

"...Wow." Rainbow Dash remarked. "I can just FEEL how vital these two are to the plot…"

"Hold on," said Applejack, "if their schematics are morally dubious, why would we want them to win?"

"Because if they win," explained Rarity, "we all win! Victory makes everyone happy!"

"Yay!" Pinkie Pie cheered. "Everyone's a winner!"

Decision #13: Who succeeds?

A. Noava Falling

B. Arc Rising

Noava Falling Succeeds

On the top floor, Noava Falling was looking out a window, seeing that the demons from before had managed to merge with everyone in Equestria. Arc Rising was sitting on a chair by a large supercomputer, sighing as he read the words, "Mechanical fusion process has failed 100% completion." displayed on the screen.

"Please cancel the program or try again." the computer spoke in a voice suspiciously similar to Twilight Sparkle's.

"It looks like they chose me…" Noava told Arc with a smirk on her face. "Better luck next time, bro."

"Damn it." Arc said. "I curse to display frustration. But I shall not be sore in my loss. Congratulations, sister."

Arc Rising Succeeds

On the highest floor, Arc Rising was sitting on a chair by the controls of a large supercomputer. The computer said something in a robotic voice suspiciously similar to Twilight Sparkle's…

"Mechanical fusion process is fully complete. All organic life has been fully upgraded."

Arc smiled as he made the appropriate input to finally activate Starcatch's secondary function...the digitization of the Mortal World. He turned the chair around to face his sister who was standing around by a window on the other end of the room.

"Sorry Noava Falling," he told her, "the one chosen to reshape the world is me."

"Eh, good for you, you deserve it." Noava praised him nonchalantly.

The two then began wondering where Rarity and Discord were.

"What is the location of our superiors?" Arc asked.

"Beats me." Noava said. "They said they would be here to congratulate us, but you never know with those two…ever."

Ain't that the truth? Ho ho ho ho.

Discord spoke those words in his mind.

We only said we would be here and we only warped to the top floor. We didn't say where we would be here on the top floor…

Rarity spoke those words in her mind.

Inside the supercomputer…

Discord, Rarity, and Twilight's friends found themselves face to face with Fluttershy's killer, Raven Denouve in the form of Twilight Sparkle...and the Dark Sky members.

"Oh, uh...hi." Dumb-bell greeted them.

"Yeah, um…" Hoops said. "It's a long story...you see, Twilight's actually our boss in case you didn't know...we just call her Boss…"

"..." Score tried to make the long story short silently.

"In essence," explained Ghost Rainbow Dash, "Twilight's actually the CPU of Starcatch, and the forms of both her and us anywhere outside here are just her and us in the form of digital data. We were really here the whole time."

"Wait," said Derpy, "are we overcomplicating things or oversimplifying things?"

Twilight and her friends gave the Dark Sky members odd looks.

"...Goodbye." Twilight/Boss said as she casted a spell that teleported the Dark Sky members outside of Starcatch.

"Now then…" Twilight/Raven said as she looked back at her friends with an evil smile on her face, and in response, Twilight's friends shot her serious looks.

"I knew you two would come to try and punish me after all…" Twilight said to Rarity and Discord before turning to the other three. "But can you three punish me even though I am your friend?"

"You may look like Twilight," said Applejack, "but you're nothing like her."

"You're as much as Twilight to us as this Rarity is Rarity to us." Rainbow Dash told Twilight like it was.

"You may have Twilight's body, mind, and soul…" Pinkie Pie said. "But you don't have her heart! No one with a heart as pure as hers would hurt a friend and then act like she was a hero for doing it!"

"Ah," replied Twilight, "but the thing is, I'm not a hero. I've never proclaimed to be one. You say that I don't have Twilight's heart...but I possess something more important than that...her will."

It was then that Twilight put her hooves together and shut her eyes. After a short while, she began to float in the air, exuding an aura unlike anything. Everyone, even Applejack and Rainbow felt it. They all could see a huge, purple aura surrounding Twilight's body. When Twilight finally opened her eyes, they glowed bright white.

"It is Twilight's will, the will of the God of Light, that tells me to make her friends and everyone in Equestria immortal so that may never have to die as she and everyone in Equestria did long ago…" Twilight spoke, her voice mixing with the voice of Raven. "It is my own that I have kept suppressed. While my methods were my own, I gave my all to fulfill her dream as my duty as the God of Darkness. I may not be able to recreate her friends and the world the way she would've wanted...but I have still made a revolutionary impact. It was in this tower that I recreated you, giving you your essential upgrades of demonic and mechanical fusion...and now I have done the same to the entire world with the aid of my children! I meant it when I said I murdered myself...I GAVE UP MY OWN WILL FOR TWILIGHT!"

Twilight's friends were shocked. They actually began to feel sorry not just for Twilight, but this man as well...

"I'll say it again…" Twilight said, her grin having contorted to an angry look as she glared at the three. "You have no right to judge me. Because you would have never done what I had done. I've always been the only man for the job...the only man who could do it..."

"!" Twilight's friends went as they realized something. They looked at each other...then they huddled around in a circle and began talking amongst each other, their words only being heard by them. Twilight looked upon the sight in confoundment, and then looked at Rarity and Discord, who unlike her, were still smiling.

"Why is it always smiles and laughs with you two?" Twilight asked. "I thought a scene like this would be one that even you would call completely serious."

"It's not that we think this scene is funny…" Rarity replied. "What we find funny...is your arrogance, and how it will be your undoing."

Twilight's friends stopped talking, having realized what they had to do. They joined hooves together and closed their eyes.

"Oh please," said Twilight, "arrogant...I'm as humble as they come. I humbled myself so low for the entire world. How is that arrogant?"

"You just don't get it…" Discord responded. "It's not the action that's arrogant, it's you. You actually believe that you're the only one who would humble yourself for the world. Having completely forgotten that you died to yourself alongside three others...and now you've given them the drive to take that next step that they would not have otherwise taken…you've helped them solve the riddle Rarity and I sent them..."

"What…" Twilight said as she turned around and saw what her friends had been doing while she was talking.

"The man in the dream...each one of us was him...but it's not that simple. We are all the man. We are all as one."

Twilight's friends spoke those words after they had begun to hover in the air just like Twilight.

"Twilight," said her friends, "you thought this was your cross to bear alone. But you were wrong. Your burden is our burden. When you suffer, we suffer as well. We know we can't always share the pain, but that's not what's most important. When Fluttershy died, we didn't die with her, but we are all still no different than anyone who bears the cross of death. It doesn't matter if we don't die together…what matters is that we live again together."

Twilight was stunned as she recognized those words.

"That's…" she said. "...exactly what I told myself before I killed Fluttershy. But you say I was wrong...how could I have been wrong for not dragging you guys into it?!"

"Because you did drag us into it." her friends replied. "You would've dragged us into it no matter what. Even if you had no choice but to do it, we all still suffered. And yet you refused to acknowledge us, lying to us and leading us astray...that is not what true friends do. True friends…"

Twilight's friends began to give off an even bigger and stronger aura than hers that surrounded their bodies entirely. It was not just the aura of their will, but also the aura of the will they had when they were humans, the will they had also kept suppressed. Twilight not only saw orange, blue, and pink energy in the aura, but a familiar purple energy as well.

"I...I…" Twilight stuttered in disbelief as she felt her own will in there. "You would accept my will as well?"

"...tell the truth to lead their friends down the right path." Twilight's friends finished their sentence. "Twilight, we'll forgive you for what you did. Fluttershy would want that. But first, you have to forgive yourself. Nothing you do can make up for what you did, but what you did can't stop anything great you can do from happening."

"But…" Twilight said as she looked down at her front hooves. "...what can I do? I'm not the real Twilight Sparkle. I gave up everything to be her...but I can't do anything great as her…I..."

"Please," replied Twilight's friends, "stop it with the "I". We are all not the real ponies from Equestria. We are all in this together. It doesn't matter if what the gods told us when we signed up for this was made up. What does matter is that it's given us something that's real. Don't you see? So much that's happened to us as Twilight Sparkle and her friends has been awful...but it's given us this opportunity to be closer to each other than ever before. And that's something that couldn't make us any happier."

Twilight fell silent. After a short while, tears of joy began to swell up in her eyes.

"I was fully expecting you guys to hate me for what I did…" she told them as she tried to fight back the tears. "I wasn't prepared for this...I don't deserve your love...for someone as arrogant as I...there could be no greater punishment!"

Twilight floated over to her friends and hugged them while she cried. Even Rarity and Discord, who were watching the whole thing, began to tear up just a bit.

"Can you believe our stories used to be almost all about humor?" a sniffling Rarity asked.

"Yes." a sniffling Discord replied. "We were young back then. We were young. We know better now that not everything has to be funny. Jokes have to come naturally. Comedy is meant to build more than just humor. It is also meant to build hearts."

After that, Rarity, Discord, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, left the supercomputer through another interdimensional portal and ended up in the room where Noava and Arc were. Not to their surprise, they found Twilight there as well, in the form of a digital data copy.

"Mama's told us that she's got a brand new bag…" Noava said.

"A bag that all of us will be able to fit into," said Arc, "if my calculations are correct."

"Even though this form of me is just data…" Twilight told her friends. "I still carry my aura...and I wish for us to use it to bring a light to this world that will last forever…"

Thanks to the efforts of Twilight and her children, death was feared by none ever again. And thanks to the efforts of Twilight and her friends, the Mortal World was given an eternal connection to all those who had died. They embedded their aura of pure will into the dark night sky, and so the moon came out and stars in the sky began to shine. The aura that carried the will of Twilight and her friends would now manifest around the moon and stars, bringing them awake to shine the light of their spirits unto all who walked the land…

This is not the ending where Twilight Sparkle wins...no, this is just an ending where everyone wins...the kind of ending Twilight would have wanted...

End of Twilight Sparkle's Ending.