//------------------------------// // The tale of Darkestlight, Seeing the truth, memories of another. // Story: A New Tale In Equestria. // by Sylif Daring Doo //------------------------------// _____*Golden Oaks Library, main room, 1:10 PM*______ Dark rubbed her eyes as she sat on the couch, apparently, Princess Celesta was delayed by matters in Canterlot last week, but was able to show up today, she had thought about waiting it out, and then coming back out when she was gone, but Skitter had to be the voice of reason and gave her a reason not to. 'Do you want to live your life like this?....in fear of someone else?' Those were her exact words. The main issue was that Twilight went into another cleaning frenzy, and it was even worse now that Celestia was arriving soon, they had only JUST finished, and Dark was exhausted. "This better not be some plan of yours to tire me out when she shows up." She said as she rested her arms and legs. "Why would I do that?" Twilight asked as she walked around. Dark shrugged. "I have no idea." She answered tiredly The library was silent after that, if there was any noise, it came from Twilight shuffling papers and such around in one of the desk drawers, eventually, Twilight seemed to sense something and quickly moved around. At that precise moment, Lyaroa popped up out of nowhere in front of Twilight wearing white pants and a white hoodie with the hood down, along with a pair of purely white fingerless gloves, her eyes were closed and her hand was slightly raised. "Hi." She said casually. Dark was surprised at the sudden arrival, Twilight however was not taking it so well, she quickly and unknowingly fired a concussion blast at the Sentinel. Lyaroa blinked as the spell simply evaporated and she shrugged. "Sorry.....am I late?" She asked. "Late for what?" Dark asked. Lyaroa manifested a recliner chair and sat down. "Celestia's visit.....I want to vex and insult her if the right opportunity presents itself." She said with a grin. Twilight blinked and looked at Lyaroa. "Can you not?....I would rather not have to deal with it later." She snapped. Lyaroa chuckled and reclined all the way. "Hmmm.......na, this is much more fun." She replied as she waited with her eyes closed. It wasn't long after that the door knocked, Twilight walked over and opened it. "Princess Celestia!" She bowed as she greeted her old mentor. "It is good to see you Twilight Sparkle." Celestia replied. Lyaroa looked at Dark and put her hands over her throat and made a gagging imitation as she sat up. Dark rolled her eyes and stood up. "Knock it off." She whispered as she took a deep breath and let it out. Twilight allowed Princess Celestia inside who, almost immediately, noticed Lyaroa, but kept calm. "I see you have company." She said calmly. Lyaroa shook her head. "Oh, we're not here, carry on." She replied teasingly as she stood up walked to the bathroom. Twilight waited until Lyaroa was gone before clearing her throat and looking at her old mentor. "Now that I think about it Princess, have you met Dark?" She asked as she pointed at the made in question. Celestia looked at Dark. "I believe we have met once before." She started. "Yea, i remember." Dark said. "How have you been since you returned?" Celestia asked. "I'm alright, Twilight was kind enough to let me stay here." She answered. [1] Celestia nodded. "That's good." She then looked at Twilight. "I'm proud of the progress you have made since coming to Ponyville, it has done you good." She told her student. A slow clap was heard and they all looked and saw Lyaroa looking down with a grin. "Yes yes....she grew up, it's nice, anyway, hate to interrupt and run, but I got to get back home." She gave a two fingered salute and vanished. Dark blinked. "Well, I don't want to get in the middle of your visit, so I'm going to head out, see you later Twilight." She said as she headed outside, leaving Twilight and Celestia to their usual business. [2] _____*Ponyville, town center about ten minutes later.*_____ Dark walked around the town, she was actually relieved that things went so smoothly back at the library. 'At least Lyaroa didn't start anything, that would have sucked.' Dark couldn't help but watch as people went about their everyday lives, for reasons she couldn't explain, she felt sad when seeing families enjoying their day. She shook these thoughts from her mind and continued walking, if anything to try and take her mind off things. After a few minutes of walking, Dark found herself in the market, where she saw Lyaroa walking around with Spark on her head, she walked over and saw Spark wave. Lyaroa chuckled. "Hey Dark.....how's it going?" She asked. "Good.....how did this happen?" She asked, motioning to Spark on Lyaroa's head. Lyaroa felt Spark messing with her ear and rolled her eyes. "He wanted to go with me to the market, and he climbed up there, I don't feel like moving him.....besides we got what we need for dinner before I go to work." She said. Dark nodded. "Yea, but hey, I'm just glad you didn't start anything with Celestia back there." She mentioned. Lyaroa shrugged. "I'm not going to start anything, got no reason too, I need to make a visit when I'm healed up though." She replied. Dark looked up at Spark. "You doing alright little buddy?" She asked. Spark nodded. "Yep." He answered. "We had better get back, Fang will kill me if I have him out for too long, see you Dark." She said before walking off. Dark watched as Lyaroa walked off, and as Spark waved to her, she smiled and gave a short wave back, but as she did, she couldn't help but feel sadness again. Afterwards, Dark continued her walk, eventually she found herself near Sugarcube corner and some of the other shops, she was simply walking by when she heard someone shout. "IT'S A DOOZY!" Dark watched as everyone immediately ducked to cover, she raised an eyebrow and continued walking, at that exact moment a mare accidentally dropped her vase from the windowsill, why she had a vase at the window was a mystery. Dark was soon thrown aside and landed nearby on the ground hard, she rubbed her head and looked and saw the broken vase, she blinked and looked at the person who knocked her down, a very familiar mare. "Applejack, are you alright?" She asked worriedly. Applejack nodded and shook her head. "I'm fine, what about you?" She wondered. Dark stood back up. "What happened with everybody?" She wondered. Applejack sighed. "Let me sum it up for you.....Pinkie Sense, she basically warned everyone about a falling object." She explained easily. Dark shook her head. "If I was here a few months ago, I would have said that was the stupidest thing I've ever heard, but now I just want to say I hate Monday's." She muttered. Dark thanked Applejack and went on her way, eventually, she decided to head back to the library, as Celestia will have left by now. _____*later that day, Ponyville Park, 7:13 PM*_____ Dark walked through the park at a relaxing pace, she liked the peacefulness the park had at night, and it was quiet, which was also good, but for some reason, Dark felt most at ease at night, she didn't know why, but she did. Dark continued walking until she reached a hill, she looked up at the moon, it was a full moon, she smiled and closed her eyes and stood there in silence for a few moments, she soon opened her eyes and looked around, she saw a strange heatwave like distortion on the ground, she slowly backed away. 'What in the world?' She wondered. A magical circle soon surrounded the distortion and a blinding light covered Dark's vision, she raised her hoof over her eyes to block the light out, when the light faded enough to see, Dark looked and saw a strangely familiar pony. It was a young unicorn filly, she seemed strangely similar to Dark in appearance, her cutie mark was that of a frozen gear, there was a hammer and sword in the center in a cross, she had icy blue eyes and she looked at Dark with a look of surprise and unexpected joy. "M....mom?" The filly said before vanishing, the distortion along with it. Dark was left speechless, she had no answers for what happened, she couldn't do anything at the moment, she looked around for a moment before heading back to the library, but she couldn't get that word out of her head. 'Mom?' She mulled the word over in her head the entire way back. _____*unknown place.*______ Dark looked around curiously, she was inside a large room with many machines, they all seemed inactive, she noticed a large curtained off area, she found herself walking over and opening the curtains, revealing a large red pirate fox with an eyepatch and a metal hook along with a pair of brown linen pants, like it was a pirate. 'Odd.' She thought to herself. She then walked around a bit, and ended up at a place with a counter and a ton of prizes behind it, she looked further in and saw a mechanical version of Fang, the only difference was that he had a brown fedora on for some reason. Dark then found herself unintentionally walking to a more open part of the building, her eyes almost immediately turned to what seemed to be a stage and the three mechanical creatures on it, there was a bunny, a chicken and a bear, the bunnie was almost purple with its shade of it, the chicken was yellow, and the bear was brown, the bunny had a large red guitar and a red bow tie along with two buttons along it's chest, the chicken had a cupcake and a bib saying 'Lets eat!', the bear had a microphone and top hat and a black bow tie, it also had two buttons along its chest. Afterwards Dark was walking again, but she was like in a trance, she soon entered another room unknown to her, it had three doors in it, one on the left, one in the front, and one on the right, she walked over to the desk in the room and looked at the contents, there was a small fan and a tablet on the table. 'Wait......how do I know what these things are?' She asked herself. Dark looked around and soon she sat down in a chair, but the moment she did all three doors slammed shut and the tablet flipped up. Her eyes widened and she started breathing heavily, she tried to calm herself down and looked at the tablet, it flickered to life and showed an image of the main stage, the three from the stage were there, but the bear seemed to slowly turn to face the camera. 'Why do I know these things?' She thought. She heard a loud ring and jumped, after a few moments, she held her hoof over her heart and soon enough she heard a strange noise and soon enough, she heard.....something, oddly familiar, but nonetheless terrifying. "You.....you cannot escape us, not this time." Said a creepy mechanical voice. The three doors opened all at once and the tablet flickered, when the image returned, the bunny was missing, Dark instinctively reached out with her magic and the image changed to the room with the machines, it showed the mechanical Fang and he was looking at the camera with a knife to his throat, he was grinning madly. Dark then hit a button next to the left door and it showed nothing, she checked the right door and there was nothing, she shined a light down the hall and nothing was there, she quickly looked at the tablet and changed the image, it changed to the camera the fox was at, it was thankfully closed. Dark changed the image back to the stage and saw that the bear was looking at the camera and the chicken was gone, her eyes widened and she quickly checked the doors and flipped through the camera images. Eventually, she found the bunny in the storage room, and the chicken in the main room, she went to look at the camera for Fang and saw that he was outside his station and was now without a knife, which was good. After a few minutes of Dark keeping an eye on the mechanical creatures, she found that the fox was out, it had its hand covering the hook and was looking off to its left. "That's not good." A familiar voice said. Dark switched cameras and found the chicken in one of the separate rooms, she then thought on something as she tried to keep herself alive. 'I didn't say that.....so who did?' She wondered. Soon, Dark looked at the stage and saw that the bear was still there. "That's good." The voice said quietly. The camera image switched to the fox, who was now missing, Dark's eyes widened as she heard running in the left hall, she quickly shut that door and she checked the other doors, there was nothing in the middle hallway, but the chicken was at the right door, so it was shut. Dark checked the left door and saw the bunny, she didn't open the door, she flipped through the cameras looking for Fang, eventually she found him.....in the breaker room. [3] "Oh.....shit." The voice said before the image cut and the lights soon following. Dark shined light from her horn and noticed something odd, the creatures left, she shined light in both of the side doors, nothing, she shined light down the middle hallway and saw Fang standing in the far off hallway with a hand on the wall. She repeated the cycle a few times, until she realized that Fang wasn't moving, and that the others weren't showing. Dark shined light down the middle hall once again but this time Fang was much closer, he was almost at the door and was slightly slouched and had a menacing smile. Dark waited a few moments after she stopped hitting Fang with the light, she shined it once again but was shocked as Fang as practically inside the office, he had his right hand where the door came down at and his eyes glowed eerily. Her breathing was ragged and she was panicking as Fang just stood there, eventually however, the lights came back on, and Fang was gone, Dark looked around frantically for Fang, but saw nothing, she shook her head free of it but quickly looked at the tablet, everyone seemed to be back where they started, she checked Fang and saw that he was back to normal. She sighed in relief and looked at the nearby clock, it was six now, she stood up and quickly made her way out. "One thing is for sure, I'm not coming back." The voice said once again. Dark looked around as she walked, but she soon looked at a reflective surface, and saw that she wasn't herself......literally, she looked like the filly from before, but it felt like her own body, she soon continued walking, but unwillingly. 'What is going on here?' She wondered. _____*the next day, Golden Oaks Library, 9:10 AM*______ Dark held her hoof under her chin as she went into deep thought over the events of the past night. 'What exactly was that anyway?' She asked herself. As she thought on it, she heard Twilight talking with Spike, a thought formed in her head and she looked at Twilight. "Hey, can I ask you something?" She wondered. Twilight looked over and nodded. "Sure." She replied. "Have you ever heard of a spell that lets you see another's memories?....but feel like it's your own?" She asked. Twilight sat down and thought on it for a few moments before shaking her head. "No, I haven't, sorry......what about Lyaroa? she might be able to help?" She suggested. Dark shook her head. "No, she has enough on her plate already with helping Skitter with the sudden pregnancy, adding the fact that she is trying to act like a mother of some kind for Spark?....I think I should leave her be for now." She replied. Dark sighed and closed her eyes. 'I just hope that whatever this is, it calms down soon.' She thought. But somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that things were more than likely going to escalate.