//------------------------------// // The Rising Darkness // Story: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic -- Off The Record // by The King of Hearts //------------------------------// //// The Rising Darkness //// Pinkie and her doppelganger sat together in her bed, no longer needing to speak about their similarities, they were now simply enjoying their own company. Every avenue had been explored, and both were comfortable with their acceptance of one another. “She’s not going to go quietly, you know.” Sorrow said, lying on her back in Twilight’s bed next to Pinkie, “I don’t even know how we’re going to get out of this house without any magic.” “When I accept you, is that going to give me the ability to use magic, just like everypony else?” She asked. “Of course it is!” Her dark side said, “But, you won’t have any luck with it until you’re free.” “Oh well,” She shrugged, “I mean, outside, we’ve got Trixie, Alex, Dashie, and Applejack to help fight me! They’re all really tough!” “You could probably just go to sleep, and in the morning everything will have worked out,” Sorrow giggled, her demeanor now closer to that of her original self. “I’m glad you’re finally smiling,” Pinkie beamed, sitting up in the bed as her counterpart followed suit, “To be honest, I thought that I was going to have a much harder time dealing with you.” “Compared to Dashie, Rarity, AJ and Flutters? This was nothing!” She said back to her, “I was worried you’d fight me to the death insisting that we weren’t anything alike!” “After everything that’s happened tonight, I understand feeling sad. I mean, I’ve even been this way for a couple of weeks now…” Pinkie sighed, looking to a picture across from Twilight’s bed, showing her, and all of their friends posing outside the library, “I can’t keep living this way forever… And I guess I need to grow up a little.” “You don’t need to grow up, Pinkie.” Sorrow shook her head, placing a hoof on her shoulder, “I didn’t come here to teach you some lesson in being an adult. I came here to show you that it’s okay to feel sad, and depressed sometimes! Change is scary, especially with everything going on with this ‘final boss’ that everypony keeps mentioning, but we have yet to see.” “So wait, if I’m not supposed to grow up… what am I going to learn from you being here?” Pinkie asked, genuinely confused. “You’re going to embrace yourself!” She said, “No more, and no less! I’m not here to change you.” Pinkie hummed to herself, and nodded slowly. “Come on,” Sorrow said, smiling to herself, “It’s time.” //// The consumed Pinkie sighed loudly as she watched the food fight below her, that had now entered it’s third hour. “It’s not working…” She said quietly, closing her eyes, and levitating backward toward her captives. “It looks like she’s starting to give up…” Alex whispered, as Dash nodded slowly. “But that makes no sense!” Dash growled, sick of floating in this bubble, “Why would she ever try this plan in the first place! It’s insane!” Pinkie looked off in to the distance at the library where she had sealed her friends and frowned. “Hey, you two…” She called out to the couple behind her, “If you were really scared… like, really scared, what would you do?” “Scared?” Alex asked, “I mean- uh- I think I’m missing something here. You’re saying that you’re scared of something?” She didn’t answer, as she stared on. “Hellooooooo?” Dash called. “Can you feel it?” She almost whispered. “All I can feel is my massive headache.” Alex sighed loudly. Dash opened her mouth to shout something else, but then she realized something very disturbing. “I- I can feel it too…” She said, looking to Alex, “What the hell is that?!” //// “Twilight, are you okay?” Alpha asked, kneeling down to his pregnant girlfriend, who was kneeling on the floor, shaking lightly. “I- I don’t know…” She gasped, her mind racing at a mile a minute. “We need to get a doctor! Or… we need to talk to a princess!” Alpha said, blinking rapidly as he started to imagine the worst. “It’s happening again…” Twilight managed, turning her head to face Alpha, “I can feel her coming.” //// “No! This is what I wanted to avoid!” Pinkie should at Alex and Dash, “S-she’s transforming again!” “Twilight?!” Alex asked, his eyes wide, “She’s losing it again?” Pinkie nodded rapidly, “I was trying to stop this from happening!” “Okay, Pinkie, you need to stop for a second, and tell us the truth!” Dash demanded, “What’s going on! Start from the beginning!” Shifting uncomfortably, Pinkie sighed, and began talking. “Well, it all started… years ago…” She began vaguely, as Alex and Dash looked at each other, “I was nothing more than a shadow in Pinkie’s personality back then. I came out when she was in a… particularly dark mood.” “Her surprise party?” Alex asked. “Party of one.” She agreed. “Okay, we get who you are,” Dash cut in, “But what about the rest?” “Well, when Discord turned our elements black, he also implanted a little spark of chaotic magic, that acted almost like a virus.” She explained, “After enough time passed, that magic copied each of our personalities, but emphasized whatever part of our souls that was least like our element.” “Okay, I think we already knew that… more or less.” Alex nodded. “Yeah well, that’s not all!” She shook her head, “While he was putting that magic in my head, I heard him say something to himself!” “Wait, he was like, actually in your head?” Alex asked. “Shh.” Dash silenced him, “what did he say, Pinkie?” “He was all serious! And he said that he didn’t think he would ever be able to make it up to Twilight!” She huffed, looking over her shoulder back toward the library. “Make what up to her?” Alex cocked his head. “…taking away her element…” Pinkie squeaked. “What?!” They both shouted. “Why did you hide this from us?” Dash asked, trying to float herself closer to Pinkie by grabbing on to Alex and pulling herself forward. “Because I needed you to hate me!” Pinkie explained, sighing and biting her lip, “I figured that if I could ruin the harmony between all of you… Twilight’s dark side wouldn’t be able to come out!” “Okay, enough of this!” Alex said, grabbing the magic leaf blower off his back, and flipping the switch. Instantly, Pinkie’s suppression spell was sucked inside, and the two were dropped a short distance to the ground. “Are you kidding?” Dash asked, “You could have done that all along?” “Did Discord say anything about how to help her?” Alex asked, “Or how we could stop her?” Pinkie shook her head. “I didn’t think it would happen this fast!” She said, her eyes welling with tears “I’m not going to be able to save Twilight!” ///// Pinkie smiled to herself as she walked down the stairs in Twilight’s home. She and Sorrow had merged back into one pony, and Pinkie could feel a plethora of new power run through her body. “Twilight!” Pinkie beamed, “I accepted myself!” She was only greeted with silence. "Twilight?" she called, confused at the darkness in the room, "Did ya' hear me? I did it!" A low rumbling of laughter could suddenly be heard, echoing through the room. "T͏̩͇̤ḫ͖̱̠̙̳͚̳́͠ḁ̢̨͝n̯̥̘̭͔̣̭̩͕͘̕͠ḱ̴̘̙̜̣͓̗̻̹͇ ̡̟̼̻̱̦̗́ý̼̞̤̻̤̼͙o̡̰̦͍̙ú͉̜,̡̙̺̩͔̩͖̦̣̙ ̟̫̜̭̭͕̟P̶̛͙̪͖̤̫͢i̡̻͎n̳̖͞k̠͜͞i҉̲ę͇̲̤͓̻."