Embrace of Light and Dark

by Knight of Crows

Chapter 3

Author's Note:

Decided to switch a few episodes and raise the age of a few characters by a few years, main events will still happen, but minor episodes may happen at different times.

Cassiel POV (Dream World)

I'm drifting in the Void again, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I learned lucid dreaming a few years ago, no point in dreaming about things that only make you want what you can't have and nightmares eventually became the norm so this was my solution. If nothing else it's effective. A never ending nothingness, I couldn't ask for anything better. I closed my eyes for a few moments and when I opened them back up I saw Luna staring at me horrified then confused.

"What's going on? I sensed you were having a nightmare, but I see nothing amiss here." She said

"I'm not even going to ask what this is about, but in any case welcome to the Void. I fail to see how an infinite nothingness is considered a nightmare, but I must ask you leave. If you really are here right now then this is no place for you, if you are fake then I'll just have to remove you myself!" I said summoning Dawn and Nightfall and reverse gripping them

"Why do you do this? I only came to help you." She said channeling some kind of energy into her horn

"Even if there is someone who can 'help' me, they'll only do it for their benefit and all the good done will just undo itself eventually. Even now you're only doing this to make yourself feel better, you for some stupid reason feel guilty about our fight and your meaningless pity towards me." With that I attacked her, but collided with a barrier

"Stop this at once! Nothing good can come from isolating yourself like this!" I kept up the attacks, but made no progress, still a good outlet

"I beg to differ. No one can hurt you when you're alone, no one can annoy you or get in your way when you're alone, and you can't hurt others when you're alone" I said that last part quietly "I've been alone for years, had no one and nothing but pain until I threw even that away. What was once a gaping wound is now a scar that opens up every now and then, but it was solitude that helped me heal." For fucks sake how strong is this barrier

"You're only running from your problems, you must face them or you'll regret it later!" She should know by now her words fall on deaf ears

"I'm not running from my problems, I'm burying them so deep they will never be anything more than memories. Literally in one case as you already know." I'm seeing cracks in this barrier now so I continue my assault, but even in dreams one can still feel exhaustion it seems

"What difference does it make? It doesn't help you or anypony else, instead it hurts everypony including you."

"Then solitude will be my answer once again and I will heal the same way as before." I'm striking the barrier with less force now as my arms are getting tired

"Please, let us help you! This is a new world for you, a new chance, don't throw it away before you find value in it!" What is with your obsession with me I thought as I stopped attacking due to exhaustion

"Why do you insist on helping me? Even if I can be helped I'm not worth the effort." She looked hurt hearing this as I collapsed

"Because I don't want to see anypony make the same mistakes I did." She said kneeling to pull me closer, hugging me I think "I did the exact same thing you did and it ultimately got me imprisoned in my own moon for a thousand years and played a part in me hurting you."

"A thousand years alone? That sounds like paradise to me." The second those words left my mouth she slapped me, looking at her I saw she was crying again for some reason

"Never, EVER say something like that again! There is more to life than what you think, please find it." Now she's hugging me again, seconds after she did so I felt like I was waking up "Goodbye for now, please try to find something worth living for." Like what

---

I woke up feeling well rested and smelled something cooking. I'm guessing Fluttershy is making breakfast or something. Ignoring this and my hunger I took a shower and put everything back on including the mask, I took a few minutes to examine Dawn and Nightfall since I didn't do so earlier. Strange names for weapons that don't look anything like how you would think and not because of them being shaped like giant keys. I find myself wondering why Dawn looks like a weapon forged in darkness and Nightfall makes me think dark angels, several other thoughts and questions went through my mind until a bunny made it's presence known to me.

"Hey there, what are you doing here?" I said softly, dismissing the weapons before kneeling down as I reached out my arm in an attempt to show I mean no harm. The bunny didn't come to me like I wanted and instead kept pointing to the stairs as it kept turning it's head between me and the stairs.

"Do you want me to come with you?" I asked as the bunny nodded in response

I followed the bunny downstairs and into the kitchen to see Fluttershy making waffles, hash browns, and scrambled eggs. Looking on the table I saw what looked like the papers Celestia mentioned and a quill next to that.

"OH, you're awake! Breakfast is almost ready." Fluttershy said after noticing me "I'm sorry if this bothers you, but after breakfast could you please sign those papers on the table? Those are the guardianship papers the princess mentioned." Well that confirms it, I picked up the quill and decided to sign my name on it now to get that out of the way

"Why wait? Besides I get the feeling we're going to be out and about for a little bit." I said handing her the papers

"W-well, I was also going to walk you to Ms. Cheerilee's school after." News to me, and back to this Hell

"I'm guessing you spoke with her after I went to bed? I would have thought she would probably need a few days to a week to get me in the school system after you officially became my guardian." I said slightly agitated

"She just needs to see the papers before school starts today since she already made the preparations after I told her yesterday." She works fast then, let's see if she's a competent teacher unlike all my other ones

"You sure this is a good idea though? Considering this is me we're talking about?" She thought about that for a moment

"I guess I see your point. In that case try to be nice please." Nice try

"I won't talk to anyone without a reason I would call good. Beyond that I make no promises to be nice by your standards."

"Oh, alright."

We kept silent as we ate breakfast, after eating I waited in the other room remembering the hell that was my school life. If anyone gives me problems I can't promise I won't break them, I was on the receiving end long enough. Fluttershy finished her breakfast shortly and we went to the school, it was still early and no students were here yet, but Cheerilee was and had just reached the door.

"Ms. Cheerilee!" Fluttershy called out getting her to turn and face us

"OH hello Fluttershy, is this the colt you were telling me about? Cassiel I think his name was?" Cheerilee asked

"I am." I answered

"Well it's nice to meet you! Fluttershy already told you about me, but it would still be rude not to introduce myself. I'm Ms. Cheerilee and I'm the teacher here." She reached out her hand, but I didn't "Sorry, anyway do you have the papers?" She asked Fluttershy

"I do." She answered

"Well in that case this should be done by the time school starts today which is in about 15 minutes." She stated

Fluttershy left not long after and it only took a few minutes for Cheerilee to finish. Once she did though she went outside and waited for the other students, I decided to just lay my head on the desk and wait for it all to start. Once students started pouring in they immediately took notice of me and started whispering to eachother. 2 of them thinking I was asleep tried to wake me and remove the mask to no avail. Cheerilee came back in shortly after they gave up and class was about to start.

---

"Okay students, I'm happy to say we have a new student today who just recently moved into town." Cheerilee greeted "Would you please come up here and introduce yourself? You'll all be allowed one question each, anything else will have to wait until later." I wish we could skip this part I thought as I walked up to the front

"My name is Cassiel, nothing else to say." A yellow girl with red hair and a bow raised her hand "Yes?"

"Where are ya from?" She asked

"Nowhere you would know. Next?" An orange girl with purple hair raised hers

"Why do you wear that cloak?" She asked

"It's comfortable. Next?" A white girl with magenta and pink hair raised hers

"Why do you wear a mask?" She asked, but before I could answer a pink girl with a tiara spoke up

"It's probably to hide how ugly he is." Oh we are going to have so much fun

"Yeah, I doubt anypony would want to see it in that case." The grey girl next to her said

"Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon! I wi-" I chose this moment to entertain myself

"No the reason I wear this mask is so I can see less of your faces. Being near you is bad enough, but looking at you is cruel and unusual punishment. I mean a death sentence is more merciful than that." They were about to shout at me, but Cheerilee stepped in before they could

"That's enough from all of you! I expected a better welcome, not this. You may go back to your seat now Cassiel." Looks like I win "Please open your history text books to page 79 so we may begin. Since you don't have one Cassiel you may grab one off the shelf near the window." Why'd you tell me to sit down only to have me get back up I thought as I started walking to the shelf. I saw Diamond and Silver looking at me as if they wanted me to walk right by them so I did. As I got close I paid close attention to who would try to trip me, but neither of them did. As I made my way back Diamond tried to trip me, but I dropped the text book on her foot.

"OW! What'd you do that for?" She said trying to make me look like the bad guy

"I'm sorry, I swear it was an accident." I lied only to keep Cheerilee off my back

"Can we please start class now?" Cheerilee said in a raised voice

I took my seat and kept laughing on the inside. After a few minutes and I read on ahead, apparently this lesson had to do with Luna and Nightmare. When we finished the assignment given after Cheerilee asked us all a question before we took a lunch break/ recess or whatever it would be called.

"So what have you learned in general about this lesson?" She asked, but no one answered so she selected me "Would you share please?"

"Envy is an ugly thing, there are reasons it is among the deadly sins. Light is just as cruel and unforgiving as the Dark for both are willing to sacrifice anyone and anything for even the most trivial, insignificant of things. All hearts are susceptible to corruption. Light will burn away indiscriminately while Dark will consume everything. The hero of one story will always be the villain of another. If Light did not push her to the Dark it did nothing to save her, thus she was a disposable pawn in the grand scheme of things. When the Dark gave her what she needed to gain what was rightfully hers she was given a harsher punishment than your condemned criminals. She paid for everyone elses Sins." I feel I'm getting too into this, but I'm not stopping voicing what I came to realize years ago.

"The Price of Peace, the Price of Harmony, the Price of Order, it is higher than any Blood Price. Only a fool would willingly pay it, and her choice to pay that price was made not by her, but the Light. Her Fate, her choice was made by others, and her sister passed the sentence for it."

Comments

[Fluffy-Boi]

Hmmmm. This is nice.

[Lorddarkrai2000]

"So what have you learned in general about this lesson?" She asked, but no one answered so she selected me "Would you share please?"
"Envy is an ugly thing, there are reasons it is among the deadly sins. Light is just as cruel and unforgiving as the Dark for both are willing to sacrifice anyone and anything for even the most trivial, insignificant of things. All hearts are susceptible to corruption. 'You must hurt in order to know, fall in order to grow, and lose in order to gain because life's greatest lessons are learned through pain'. 'Love breeds sacrifice which in turn breeds Hatred'. Finally, the hero of one story will always be the villain of another."

an interesting view on the subject. some of it true, like how being a hero to one group sometimes means that others will view them as a Villain.

[SuperSaiyanSora-Sama]

Im not gonna say putting him in the school system was a bad thing, but it felt like the character accepted that too easily. I mean, he fought so hard to just leave and be alone yet he just lets himself be put in school without any fight at all?

In the end it's your story, so if you want him in school, go for it. I just think the lack of any fight was... wierd.

[Knight of Crows]

9283257
Sees it as a small price to pay to keep everyone else off his back

[SuperSaiyanSora-Sama]

9283300
Eh, I guess that works too.