Awakening Fluttershy's Dark Sky

by Misty Shadow

The Risen One is Wrong

"No Fluttershy…" Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie replied. "That way of bringing all to the light will not work."

Fluttershy got a look of astonishment and confusion on her face in response to those words.

"What do you mean?" she asked. "All you have to do is write it down in your books and I'll put my blood on it. It'll come true."

"That's not the problem." they replied. "The problem...is that it goes against the point of having the problem we've had this entire thing!"

"Oh...oh dear…" Fluttershy said with a tone of guilt in her voice. "Does this have...something to do with me?"

"No…" the three friends answered. "It has EVERYTHING to do with you! Just think for a moment, go over what you've done in your mind! YOU directed Rarity and Discord to do this! They wrote for all this to happen because you told them to! It's not their fault Twilight is in darkness, it's yours! Everything that's happened is because of you!"

"I-I'm sorry…" Fluttershy apologized. "I-I didn't want to do this, but…"

Fluttershy fell silent after that. She realized the big problem now that she had overlooked…

"Do you understand now?" Applejack, Rainbow, and Pinkie asked her. "We got over it all...we got over the fact that our friend did all this...because we believed that everything she did was for a good reason...we had faith in you, just as we had faith in Twilight. You didn't want to do this, but...what? What's the reason? Why did we go through all these trials and tribulations just so we could forget about them and live happily ever after? If you really wanted everyone to be brought to the light, why didn't you bring them to the light? Why would you kill yourself in a story that barely makes any sense just so that we could do your work for you?!"

"..." Fluttershy went, as she just stared at the three ponies, having nothing to say.

"Just please…" the three pleaded. "Tell us why."

"..." Fluttershy went again, but this time, after a period of silence, she smiled at them.

"You're amazing…" she complimented them as her smile grew wider. "All of you…"

"Hmm?" the three ponies responded.

"We can end this the way I wanted it to end now…" she told them. "I was testing you. You passed with flying colors…"

"...Really?" the three ponies replied, confused.

"In order for you to understand what I'm talking about," said Fluttershy, "we must start from the beginning. This whole story is something that I came up with as a way to make this entire world live again. I asked Ninja Time God Rarity and Fantasy God Discord to search your world for four souls who would be willing to not only die to themselves so that my friends could live again...but also so that the whole world could do the same. This journey was not meant to just build your characters...it was meant to build the characters of my friends who live in you, as well as the characters of everypony in this world. That is part of the purpose of the Dark Sky Awakening Project."

The three ponies were stunned.

"We get your friends…" they responded. "But...what do you mean by everypony in the world?"

"It was after my death that the Goddess of Death and the God of War came into this world." Fluttershy explained. "They reminded everypony of chaos, and how easily their transient lives could end. I'm sure you don't really believe that after that, all the ponies in Equestria would be opposed to becoming immortal beings, their lives preserved forever by Twilight turning them into digital data, right?"

"So that's what that was all about…" the three ponies said, glaring at Fluttershy. "There was more to it than what Rarity and Discord let on…"

"Exactly." Fluttershy replied. "In this ending, I will get all to come to eternal life of their own volition."

"But they'll come to it out of fear!" the three exclaimed. "Not to mention that Twilight is still misguided in her methods! There's no way we can let it end this way!"

"Again," responded Fluttershy, "exactly."

"...Beg your pardon?" the three said.

"I'm sure you also don't really believe that we could end this…" Fluttershy said as she snapped her hooftips. "...without a last-minute climax, hmm?"

With that, the three ponies looked around and noticed that the light in this realm was beginning to fade, for Fluttershy was undoing the spell that made the realm appear.

"Woah-WOAH!" they cried as it all soon vanished entirely, and along with Fluttershy, they all began to fall down towards the church, which also disappeared completely along with the beach. Their fall ended when they landed on the couch in The Risen One's home, which Fluttershy teleported them too.

Good ol' Fluttershy, trying to look cool with dramatic landings.

"Oh…" the three grunted on the couch, feeling woozy from that sudden drop even in their godliness. "Please at least tell us beforehand the next time you do that…"

Ninja Time God Rarity and Fantasy God Discord, who were in the dining room tending to a drunken Prince Luna who had had one too many cocktails, noticed them.

"Welcome back!" Rarity greeted Fluttershy and the others as they got up off the couch, uninjured by the fall thanks to a combination of landing on the soft cushions of the couch and their godlike endurance.

"So," said Discord, "how did the fight go? Did you all have a good time beating the snot-smeared confetti out of each other?"

"I feel like I'm about to hurl blood-smeared confetti…" a sick Luna said.

"Trust me," said Fluttershy, "the only confetti we're going to be spewing by the time this is over is the kind that comes from us loving and hugging the shit out of each other."

"Sap-smeared confetti?" Pinkie Pie responded. "No offense, but you guys need to get better taste in confetti. I don't mean to brag, but the confetti that comes from my party cannon is pretty good stuff…"

"Okay, that's enough about confetti, sugarcube…" Applejack intervened. "It's getting old."

"Besides," said Rainbow Dash, "you know what they say. The party doesn't stop until it's time for confetti, and this party isn't even over yet. We got to bring all those ponies back in our world to eternal life the right way!"

"Not just that," chimed in Fluttershy, "we also need to unite the Mortal World with the Immortal World and fulfill the prophecy of the dark sky. We'll start by getting back to the Mortal World. I'll need not just you three, but all of you guys to come with me."

"Oh…" Luna groaned. "Even me?"

"Believe me," said Fluttershy, "I directed this story to be set up so that everypony would have a key part to play somewhere, even those who didn't seem too important at first. Isn't that right, Rarity and Discord?"

"Oh, it's absolutely right." Rarity replied.

"Just take a guess at who's back in the Mortal World playing his key part right now, ha ha…" Discord said slyly.

Back in the Mortal World…

It was a dark night. The dark sky was ominously both without a moon and stars. An enormous crowd containing thousands of ponies from all across Equestria were gathered around Starcatch. The first phase of Twilight's plan was already complete. The demons and robots from earlier had sought out to merge with everypony, and now everypony in Equestria was either a demon or a robot. Twilight had written in her storybook pre-emptively for that to happen, just as she had written for the crowd to come to where Starcatch was to listen to Water Rinse, the pony whom the Dark Sky members had met back at Jelly Rockets, make a speech on a large stage at a podium to rally support for the digital data conversion of the world. This is how his speech was going…

"It is today that I stand here not for you all to revere me as a saint, but merely as one offering himself as a vessel for the voice of the almighty god, Twilight Sparkle, who abides within this glorious machine that will allow us eternal life. The Risen One, who promised to make us immortal through the act of fusing us with demons and robots, has unfortunately betrayed us, allowing the rulers of death and war to enter our land. And although she has made us one with the demonic and the mechanical, we are only safe from death by age, we are not yet immortal. To become immortal, we must become indestructible as well as undecaying."

"How do we do THAT?!" a Southern pony declared, talking in a thick, British accent.

"Twilight Sparkle has shown us how…" Water Rinse replied with a slick grin on his face. "She will transform us into digital data that can not be corrupted or deleted, and then store us inside her databanks, preserving us forever. She shall keep us safe inside her, her servers highly run unto after the end of time. The lives that we will live inside her shall be the same as the ones we live now...only virtual."

With those words being spoken, much of the crowd became surprised and started to hesitate. Ponies began talking amongst themselves, expressing their feelings of uncertainty.

"Please do not be alarmed, ponies of Equestria." Water pleaded. "I understand your doubt, as does Twilight, the one who speaks through me. Before I allowed myself to become one with Twilight, I was also a creature of doubt, having faith in none, not even myself. But it was through an act of Twilight that I found self-confidence and hope for ponymanity. I used to only be a supporter of gender equality, but I realize now that I must also be a supporter...of pony equality. I must open myself to becoming one with all, even those who live lives that absolutely disagree with my ideals. For if I refuse them...I refuse God. And right now, Twilight Sparkle is God. For she is the one who is opening up the path to life eternal. We must all accept her...OR ONLY DEATH AWAITS US!"

Water declared those words loudly, but no one in the crowd was moved. Many of them were either unable to decide how to react...or simply frightened.

"Why…" Water said.

"WHY ISN'T THIS WORKING?!" Water bellowed, Twilight Sparkle's voice mixing with his. "WHY DO YOU NOT WISH TO COME TO GOD?!"

"Because you are not God…" Ninja Time God Rarity said, materializing beside Water Rinse's right side.

"You are just a guy being used by a mare who wanted to be God." Fantasy God Discord said, materializing beside Water Rinse's left side.

"Please Water Rinse…" Fluttershy pleaded nicely as she materialized behind Water Rinse. "...would you kindly snap out of it? I mean, I hope it's not too much trouble, but it is important that you come back to your senses. Please understand."

Water turned around to face Fluttershy and his eyes turned red.

"YOU!" he shouted in Twilight's voice. "YOU DARE TO INTERFERE WITH MY PLAN?!"

In response to that, Fluttershy pulled out a familiar sword. It was Myra Michaels' saber, and with its cross-shaped hilt glowing brilliantly, Fluttershy stabbed Water in the stomach with it, subduing Twilight's spirit that had possessed him.

"I'm sorry," replied Fluttershy, "but yes."

"UH...UGH!" Twilight groaned from inside Water. "I'm...losing control…losing consciousness..."

With that, Water's eyes went back to normal and he regained full control of his actions.

"Uh…oh..." he grunted. "Great Scott, being a vessel for Twilight Sparkle is not what it's cracked up to be. I was on my way home to rendezvous with my good sister when she suddenly appeared before me as a spirit of zeroes and ones. She told me that she had a plan to make all of Equestria immortal and as one. Of course, I didn't believe her until she demonstrated her powers with a strange book she carried…"

"So you didn't know about the whole digital data conversion thing until she possessed you?" Rarity said.

"Oh, heavens no." Water replied. "I would never agree to be a spokesman for that. I've never cared for virtual reality in the first place, and then to make it our entire lives?! Do not shit me. All I agreed to do was help gather support for world unity before she abruptly took up abode inside me. I just wish for the Immortal World and this one to be as one, for all of us to be together in harmony..."

"A wish that shall be granted…" Discord assured him. "...so long as you're willing to help us. You wouldn't mind if I wrote for you to become knowledgeable of everything that's happened so far and then to combine your acquired knowledge with what you learned from the Dark Sky members all to make a speech that will surely bring our worlds together?"

"...No way." Water replied, speaking differently than usual. "Go for it...man."

And so, Discord wrote...and Water became more driven towards his goal than ever. Back at his podium, he began to make a new speech…

"Ponies of Equestria," he spoke, "you have my sincerest apologies for my previous speech. Had you listened to me, you would have strayed off the path of light and become entombed in darkness forever. And while I was possessed, I am ultimately without excuse. For it does not change the fact that my previous speech was riddled with misinformation that could have irreparably damaged you all. We are not indestructible or undecaying...The Risen One wanted our new robot and demon forms to be like this...and yet, The Risen One has not betrayed us...and the fact that we are not fully immortal right now is proof of that."

Many of the ponies in the crowd began talking to each other, pondering what Water just said in confusion.

"It's true…" Water said. "The Risen One is right here, right now in her true form...Fluttershy. I shall allow her to speak now, because I believe she wants this to come directly from her..."

Water allowed Fluttershy to stand at the podium in his place and the ponies in the crowd bowed to her in reverence.

"Please everyone," requested Fluttershy, "do not bow to me. I do not deserve your admiration. Though I have remained loyal to you in my promise to bring you all eternal life, I have done so at all costs. That may not sound bad until you know that that includes lying to you, toying with your emotions, and...murder."

Many ponies in the crowd gasped.

"I staged my own death…" Fluttershy confessed while getting teary-eyed. "I hired someone from another world to kill me...I'm no better than Twilight. I'm no closer to being God than her…"

The crowd was left speechless.

"However…" Fluttershy continued. "My loyalty towards my promise...shall still not waiver. My will to keep it...will live on forever inside three heroic souls who had the courage to stand up to me, even though I am the ruler of this world…"

With that, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie, materialized on the stage...and they gave a bow to the crowd in reverence.

"These three…" Fluttershy said, becoming teary-eyed with tears of joy. "They are the ones who will bring you...and all of this world...to eternal life...and eternal light…"

THE END

End of Fluttershy's Ending (Good)

"So, that's the true end of the story!" Boss exclaimed. "What are you guys' overall thoughts on it?"

It was then that Boss finally revealed her true form...the main CPU of Starcatch. That was Twilight Sparkle's true form. The Dark Sky members had been inside here, sitting around the CPU all along, the forms of them being seen anywhere else being digital data copies. Boss was met with blank stares from all of the Dark Sky members, including Derpy…

"...Wow Boss, I'm not even sure where to start…" Dumb-bell began. "I guess that I'll just kick things off by saying that I feel I've been too nice on this story my whole time reviewing it. I really wanted to believe it was just okay or at least decent, but...the more I look at it, the more I realize it's really not. To quote Fluttershy, "It's awful, just awful.". Though I would say that it's not irredeemable, it's just...way too flawed for me to forgive. The storytelling, character development, and humor were all over the place, and that cop-out ending...was just the final nail in the coffin."

"...A mess." Hoops said. "This story...is a mess. It's bumbling, terribly paced sloppiness, nothing memorable or meaningful happened that was actually consistent. I like what you tried to do, but you got way in over your head by trying to throw a bunch of overblown jokes in a story that was serious in tone at the price of jumbling a bunch of half-baked plotlines that never really took off, and then to add insult to injury, try to redeem yourself in the end with tired self-aware gags and an oversimplified message that you were just too fucking lazy to expand on. Like G.R.D. said, it tried so hard and failed so hard. And like Dumb-bell, I tried to be nice, but...I can't be nice anymore. That ending SUCKED."

"..." Score took a pause to collect himself…

"..." ...and then silently gave his final thoughts.

"...Do you know what the weirdest and yet, also funniest thing is?" Ghost Rainbow Dash said.

"...THIS STORY SUCKS ECTO-SLIME! ...But I don't feel inclined to hate it or even write a huge critical essay on how flawed it is. Maybe it's just me growing weary after driving in the obvious chapter after chapter, maybe it's just complacency after seeing Dumb-bell and Hoops finally show some vaginas and actually give an honest critique on a crappy story that they were clearly not truly enjoying and were just pretending to be alright with as to not upset you.

Or maybe…

Maybe it's just that I am so disappointed by that beyond lazy, beyond underwhelming, piece of shit ending that lived up to NONE of the hype...I am literally at a loss for words. The "characters who did not seem too important" were promised to all have a key part somewhere and all of them either did not appear or did nothing of any importance in this ending. I mean, I understand characters like Noava and Arc because at least no one really cared about them and they got to do something in at least one ending. But what about Myra and Edward? What about Prince Luna? For Christ's sake, at least have her four souls make a cameo! I understand if this was just one of the other endings, but this was supposed to be the grand finale, the biggest and most epic ending that wraps everything up, and it just did the bare minimum. The story is really just droning mediocrity, nothing atrocious when you compare it to that ending. I...I've actually lost some hope in you as a writer thanks to that ending. That is how shittastic that ending was. Just a massive "Fuck you.". Go to hell."

"...I didn't think the ending was that bad…" Derpy expressed her opinion in a melancholic tone rather than a joyful one this time. "...but I thought it could've been a lot better. I didn't love it."

Boss smirked upon hearing the opinions of the immensely disappointed Dark Sky members and said…

"Glad you all DIDN'T love it. Because that wasn't the true ending. I lied just because I wanted to see your reactions."

The Dark Sky members just stared at Boss blankly before telling her with smirks of their own…

"Glad you didn't tell us the truth. Because now we know how much we truly care about how this story ends. If the ending we're given sucks...we'll make one that rocks!"

And with that, the Dark Sky members united together to form a holy dragon and they busted through the wall that had confined them wide open with the brute strength of a rising dragon punch. It turned out to be one of the walls of Starcatch, where everypony from the ending was still outside of. The crowd stood back in shock as the holy dragon that stood before them transformed back into the Dark Sky members. Rarity, Discord, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Water Rinse, and Fluttershy looked upon the members with interest.

"Greetings, good chaps." Water said, half-confounded and half-joking. "Have you been enjoying bringing down the machine?"

"...Yeah." Dumb-bell replied with a pause. "Yeah, we have."

"But more importantly," said Hoops, "we're going to enjoy bringing down the man…"

"..." Score spoke of both the positive and negative impacts the man was having on society silently.

The crowd was moved by Score's speech. The Dark Sky members then proceeded to get up on stage.

"Yeah…" Ghost Rainbow Dash said. "Don't get us wrong, we want this world to be brought to the light as much as all of you...but let me ask you something...are we really going to be satisfied with it all ending like this? Just...the world being awesome forever and that being it? Why don't we go deeper than that? Why don't we set new goals for ourselves? Why don't we make our next goal...to make the universe awesome forever?"

The crowd was in awe. Rarity, Discord, and Fluttershy began to snicker to each other.

"Yeah!" Derpy exclaimed. "And why don't we start by making another world stellar eternal?! Like the world that Myra Michaels came from!"

The crowd remained silent in confusion.

"Oopsie…" Rarity said. "Forgot they don't know who Myra is...or Edward Miles for that matter...or fuck, anything about the world they came from. Hold on. Uh, Discord…"

PLEASE STAND BY

"I was really tired when I wrote this part," explained Discord, "I just forgot to proofread. I'm sorry."

"It's okay," said Myra Michaels/Maud Pie in a comforting voice, "we've all been there."

"You know what they say," said Edward Miles, "you're not you when you're tired."

"Way to plagiarize a Snickers commercial!" a still drunk Prince Luna shouted. "This is why I'm more into Reese's these days!"

"Okay, what the hell?" the neurotic Princess Celestia from G.R.D.'s video game said.

Ah ha ha, okay, back to the story…

Rarity spoke those words. She had had Discord write for Myra, Edward, and Luna to appear on the stage. She had also had him write for Luna to no longer be drunk. Right now, Myra/Maud and Edward were the ones on the podium. Myra was doing the talking while Edward was giving visual examples with his portal-making power.

"So as you can see…" Myra said as she pointed to Edward's portal, which showed her and his world to be a place of much death and disease. "Our world, the human world, has serious problems. It would be nice of you guys to come to our world and help us make it better."

It was then that the crowd turned to Fluttershy, all wondering the same thing…

"I'll do what I can to aid anyone who wants to go there and help…" Fluttershy told them. "But I won't just magically make it better. If I do that, that will defeat the entire purpose. I can't be selfish and just make it my story to help them...I want it to be all of your stories."

It was with that that many in the crowd became touched, and soon, ecstatic about the thought of helping Myra and Edward fix their world. Another whose heart had been warmed by this was Prince Luna. She walked over to Myra and Edward.

"Can I…" she started to ask. "Can I please come to help you? I realize that this world needs not a goddess of death right now. But in your world, I can aid you by not bringing death, but maintaining it so that none may have to constantly fear it."

"Of course you can…" Edward replied. "I could even get you a job at Phoenext Co.. Nick Ron and Dawn Dedey would love to have someone like you around, trust me…"

It was then that Myra eyed her saber, still in Water's body subduing Twilight's spirit. Walking over to Water, she said this while looking down towards her sword…

"So this is it...only one loose end left to tie before it ends…"

She then looked at Water, who looked back at her, knowing what she was going to do from the new knowledge he was written to have.

"Hold still…" Myra said as she grabbed the hilt of the blade and pulled it out. Upon doing so, the digital copy of the spirit of Twilight Sparkle left Water's body calmly and quietly. Twilight's spirit then began to hover in the air, getting the attention of all, especially Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie.

"Twilight!" Applejack, Rainbow, and Pinkie shouted.

In response, Twilight's spirit turned to them.

"My friends…" she said with a warm smile. "You do not know how happy I am that my plan has failed...I knew from the start it would not work. I am the God of Light and the God of Darkness, and so I knew that your light would prevail over my darkness. I'm glad to see you three be the heroes."

Now the three understood. Twilight had only been in the darkness to be a magnifier for their light. They began to cry some tears of joy.

"Twilight…" Applejack said. "We've told you this before…"

"As friends," said Rainbow Dash, "we share our experiences together. You're a hero too."

"We'll be friends forever…" Pinkie Pie said. "...Now let's unite together."

It was then that not just Twilight and her friends, but everyone in Equestria, including Princess Celestia, Prince Luna's four souls, and even Noava and Arc, who had been written to come to this world, felt a strange aura exuding from them. All over, they looked at their bodies and saw the aura. It felt like the will of not just their own spirits, but the will of the spirits of the ones they had embodied reacting. Their wills had become one, and in the form of their aura, went up to the sky. In the sky, both the moon and the stars began to come out, shining more brightly than ever before. In this new light, all the ponies saw the illusion the sky had cast on them be rolled back, revealing a world that had been above them that entire time...the Immortal World. Looking up at the world, ponies everywhere found it to be beautiful and smiled happily.

"Our worlds were always together…" Fluttershy said finally. "The gap was always bridged. The bond between the living and those who have passed shall last forever, allowing us to carry on their wills forever…this is how we shall live forever...not because of what I've done, but because of who you all really are..."

The true ending never ends...

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

How confusing will this story be? I won't read it if it's confusing.

[Misty Shadow]

8252566
That comment confused me. I read it regardless. No regrets.

If the story interests you, read it to see if you like it. If you like it, you'll find it won't matter if it takes you some time to understand the story.

[Starlight Nova]

Are you aware that there is another story with the same name?