The Stars of Darkness

by D4ftP0ny


Chapter 21

“Hello?! What’s going on here?!” The black unicorn cast his eyes around in the darkness, seeking anything that would tell him where he was. Something, ANYthing to point him in the right direction to get him back…

“What’s the matter, Dark Star?” a voice asked tersely. “Lost?”

Dark Star sighed angrily and rounded on the gray unicorn. “I don’t have time to deal with you right now, Brightsteel, I have to get back. I was… I was talking to the Princesses… and Falling Star and the others…” His brow furrowed. “I… I must have fallen asleep or something… although HOW I did it… well…”

Brightsteel watched him closely for a long moment, his green eyes suddenly sad. “You really haven’t figured it out yet, have you,” he said softly.

Dark Star looked at his former self. Something about the look in Brightsteel’s eyes… The black unicorn felt a leaden weight settle into his stomach. “Brightsteel… tell me what’s going on,” he begged. “Tell me what’s happening to m-… to us.”

The gray unicorn sighed and sat down on his rump. “Well… sit down… this is going to be a bit of a shock to you…”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The three generals were slowly pulled back towards Dark Star, their struggles completely in vain as the black unicorn laughed manically. “Perhaps now at the end, you’ll realize that your willingness to fight means very, very little,” he said, his voice echoing in the trees. “VICTORY WILL BE MINE!!!

The amulet flared again, and this time it was accompanied by three other beacons of light; one red, one gray, one green- each one of the Elements of Destruction was reacting to Hate.

And just when Twilight didn’t think it could get any worse… the screaming started.

Morningstar was the first; her amulet flared brighter, and suddenly her whole body went rigid. Her eyes bulged, and from her throat came the most feral, horrified scream that Twilight had ever heard. It rent through Twilight’s soul, sending a chill to her very bones as Morningstar fell to the ground and began to thrash wildly, pawing at the amulet around her neck with her hooves to no avail. Then Falling Star began to scream as well, a deeper sound to offset Morningstar’s high-pitched wail; then Wild Star joined, his jerking on and off as he convulsed in the dirt. All three amulets blazed brighter and brighter, adding their light to the purple of Hatred, whose light grew stronger and brighter as the three others fed it.

Dark Star began to laugh, a horrible sound that made Twilight’s skin crawl. “A few more moments, little ponies… a few more moments, and you will witness the unbridled power of the Elements of Destruction!!” Then he threw his head back and laughed even louder.

Slowly, a sphere of dark power appeared around Dark Star, growing more and more visible as the seconds ticked by. Twilight felt the air begin to stir around them, and within seconds she could feel the intense power of the amulet of Hate skyrocket: the sphere suddenly widened enough to cover the other generals as they screamed and thrashed in the dirt, and a wind began to rise, swirling loose leaves and dust around the glade.

“TWILIGHT!” Princess Celestia’s voice rang out like a silver bell through the chaos, and the purple unicorn’s eyes snapped to her of their own accord. The white alicorn’s eyes were full of pain and urgency. “You have to do it now! Fire the Elements of Harmony at the moon!”

Twilight blinked. “At the MOON?!” she asked incredulously, but as she glanced upwards she felt her breath catch, and suddenly understood. Sparkling across the surface of the moon was perhaps the most intricate series of runes she had ever seen, each standing out in stark whites upon the gray lunar surface…and while runes may have not been Twilight’s best subject in school, she knew enough to see what those runes were meant to do. Instead of asking any more questions (as she would very much have liked to), she gave Princess Celestia a firm nod and turned to her friends. “All right, girls, this is it! It’s time to end all of this!”

“What’s happening to them?!” Pinkie Pie’s voice rang out over the rising wind. “Why are they screaming like that?!”

Twilight cast a glance at the sphere of darkness before turning back to Pinkie Pie. “Dark -… the Amulet of Hate is draining them,” she said simply. “It’s sucking their Elements dry… and the individual Elements are, in turn, draining… the generals.”

Pinkie turned her blue eyes on Twilight. “Draining them of WHAT, Twilight?!”

The purple unicorn looked to the sphere again, then back to Pinkie. “…their life, Pinkie. It’s draining the very life out of them to power itself.”

“By all the stars in the sky…” she heard Rarity say, but before anypony could say anything else, Pinkie Pie shot forward; only Twilight’s quick work with a telekinesis spell that snagged her fluffy pink tail stopped her from darting straight into the slowly expanding black sphere.

Pinkie turned her eyes back to Twilight, and the panic and hurt there were almost more than she could bear. “TWILIGHT, Shooting Star’s DYING!” she said, tears trickling down her cheeks. “I have to help him!”

With a flick of her horn, Twilight dragged Pinkie back to her. “Pinkie, the only way to help him is to use the Elements! They’re the only thing that can beat the Amulet of Hate, now!” Pinkie Pie’s eyes narrowed and her jaw clenched; Twilight knew that look all too well, and she sighed sharply. “I’m SERIOUS, Pinkie Pie! We HAVE to do this, and we have to do it NOW, or not only will THEY die, we ALL will die!”

That seemed to snap some sense into Pinkie, and after one last glance at the sphere she turned back to Twilight. “OK Twi… I trust you. Let’s do this!” Twilight released her tail from her magic, and Pinkie Pie leaped next to her.

“All right, girls, hang on!” Twilight closed her eyes, and once again opened herself to the Element of Magic.

The Element surged into her; it felt like her flesh was on fire while her blood froze, like she was being given access to the very powers that made the universe turn. She felt it reaching out quickly to her friends, and this time she felt it reach ALL of them. First was Pinkie Pie, with the same warm yet cold feeling, like fresh cake and cold ice cream; then Fluttershy, with the impenetrable silkiness of her kindness. The Element touched Rarity’s gem, and a sparkling flow of magic lanced into Twilight, glittering like ten thousand jewels; it touched Rainbow Dash, and she felt the absolute steely resolve of her loyalty like the blade of a sword, ready to be used; and finally she felt it touch Applejack, and she was flooded with the warmth of her honesty, like pure, simple sunlight caressing her face in the morning.

The Element of Magic touched her friend’s hearts, linked together by the gems they wore and funneled through Twilight Sparkle herself: she felt her eyes open, and they blazed with pure magical power as the friendship the six ponies shared combined to create the most powerful force known to pony-kind: the rainbow known as the Elements of Harmony.

To either side of the ponies, the two alicorn sisters spoke in soft tones, each glowing brightly in the half-light of the eclipse- Luna a brilliant sapphire blue, Celestia a pure, pristine white. There was a flash of blinding white light that drown out the entire landscape for a moment, and from that light sprang the brightest rainbow in all of Equestria. Celestia and Luna began to speak louder, and guided by their magic the rainbow shot straight upwards, lancing into the sky and directly at the moon.

As soon as it touched the runes on the lunar surface, the sunlight around the moon burst into a halo of rainbow fire, dancing about the edges of the dark sphere in an ever-shifting myriad of color as the runes absorbed the Elements of Harmony.

Within moments, the rainbow had been fully absorbed, and the white light died, leaving Twilight Sparkle to wobble slightly on her hooves before sitting awkwardly down on the ground. “Wow… that never gets any easier, does it…” she muttered to herself.

From across the glade, Dark Star’s laughter grew. “So much for your vaunted Elements, Princess!” he shouted. “You will never defeat the Elements of Destruction! NEVER!!!!

“What… what happened?” Rainbow Dash asked, holding her hoof to her head. “Didn’t… didn’t they work this time?”

“Yeah, they worked… but Princess Celestia is…” Twilight’s words trailed off as she listened carefully to the words that Luna and Celestia were speaking; their voices rose and fell in Twilight’s ears, ebbing and flowing like a summer breeze: tangible but invisible, ethereal yet firm, as hard as steel and as supple as silk were the words of their spell, a spell that Twilight knew she could never hope to understand, because nopony COULD understand it, except the two who were speaking it. It was a spell in the language of the Ancient Alicorns that Celestia and Luna were casting, a language that it would be futile to try and translate because it was a language of pure magic; only the alicorns could understand it, and they never wrote it down- being purely magical, it was a language that came naturally to them, without any lessons or instruction. Their words rose in crescendo amid the roar of the dark power from the amulet of Hate and the screams of the generals who were suffering because of it.

Suddenly from across the glade, Morningstar’s voice fell silent, and Twilight felt as though somepony had sat on her chest; she glanced at Pinkie Pie and saw tears spring to her eyes.

“Why aren’t they doing anything?!” she shouted over the ever-rising wind. “We used the Elements! What’s going on?!”

Twilight turned to Celestia; the white alicorn’s mane was stuck to her face with perspiration, and her eyes were squeezed shut in intense concentration as she spoke the words of the spell. The purple unicorn turned her eyes upwards to the moon and gasped aloud; the runes themselves, which had been a simple silvery white before, now danced with the colors of the rainbow they had absorbed, shifting between reds and purples and blues and yellows all within heartbeats of one another, growing brighter and brighter by the moment as the words from the alicorns’ spell grew louder and louder.

“Have faith, Pinkie,” Twilight said softly, too softly to be heard. “Have faith.”

Dark Star’s laughter rose about them, and the ground began to shake as the sphere of darkness expanded. “PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR DARKNESS,” he commanded. Just as Morningstar’s voice had cut suddenly short, so did Wild Star’s and, a moment later, Falling Star’s voice fall silent, leaving only the guttural roar of the sphere, the whirling and whistling of the wind, and the chanting of the alicorns behind them.

Suddenly, Celestia and Luna’s voices rose, sweeping over the gathered ponies like a warm wave; their words came faster, more urgently, and Twilight saw fresh beads of sweat gather on her mentor’s face as her horn blazed with light. Louder and louder their voices came until it felt as though they weren’t coming from the two alicorns but from the earth itself, as if every living being in that glade, in the entire WORLD, were calling out to be saved; Twilight felt tears spring to her eyes at the incredible beauty and despair of it all.

And with a final crescendo, rising like the crest of a wave approaching the shore, both royal sisters threw their horns skyward and shouted the final words of the spell. Light flared from them, clear blue and pure white, and high above them, the runes responded.

The colors that had been tracing freely about them suddenly drained to the center; the entire structure ignited into a vibrant sky-blue, and from the very center of the runes lanced the brightest rainbow in history, easily ten times brighter than the original that the Elements of Harmony had given it. It stabbed its way down towards the surface below, so much energy coursing through it that electric blue lightning danced across its colors. It bathed the land in streaks of color, everything becoming lost in its sheer brilliance; the rainbow stabbed down from the sky and exploded against the dark sphere that surrounded Dark Star… and stopped. The runes continued to pour the rainbow out, and the earth shook beneath Twilight’s hooves as the two ultimate powers in Equestria, good and evil, light and darkness, battled one another for dominance before her very eyes.

But the dark sphere wasn’t collapsing… and somewhere in the back of her mind, Twilight suddenly had a very, very bad feeling about all of this.

Off to her right, Pinkie Pie took a step forward, tears streaming down her cheeks.

SHOOTING STAR!!!!

~*~*~*~*~*~

Falling Star had fought as hard as he could against the strange pulling sensation that had invaded his body. He’d felt the amulet around his neck begin draining him, pulling desperately at his life force as the amulet of Hate began to drain the amulet of Fear of all its power… but try as he might, he could not get it off his neck. The pain had been excruciating; like being roasted alive and then frozen and then beaten, all at once… and as much as he struggled… he finally felt the dark vestiges of unconsciousness and, in all likelihood, death slowly overtaking him.

Finally, he stopped screaming; he just didn’t have anything more to scream with… his energy was gone… his life was quickly ebbing away, sacrificed to keep the wretched amulet around his neck alive for a few more moments…

And then the roar hit. He felt the shift in the ground, the sudden trembling of the earth and the sphere above him that signaled… SOMEthing huge happening. He forced his eyes open as much as he could through the pain and saw, outside the sphere, the most amazing rainbow he’d ever seen; colors so bright, so vibrant that he knew it had to be the Elements of Harmony. But they’re not getting through…

He managed to turn his head and look at Dark Star; the black unicorn was laughing loudly, manically, his eyes horrible, lightless voids of hate. His mane stood on end, sparking with power that danced across his muscular body in short spurts of lightning. He looked like he could very well end the world… and in his current state, Falling Star wasn’t sure he wouldn’t do just that.

So this is the end… this is how it all ends for Falling Star… for the world…

“SHOOTING STAR!!!”

The voice cut through the roar of the sphere, the rumbling of the Elements and the horrible thoughts in his own mind like a hot knife through butter: his eyes shot open, and he felt his heart surge with strength.

Pinkie Pie. It had been her, there was no doubt in his mind. He looked at Dark Star again… at the amulet around his neck, the very thing that was draining his life away...

Then he looked down at his own amulet… and his eyes narrowed. “Not… THIS… WAY..!” he snarled.

With the last reserves of his strength, Falling Star reached his mouth down and took hold of the delicate silver chain that held his amulet around his neck; he gave a brutal yank, and felt one of the many links in the chain bend, then break. Then, with an equally brutal jerk of his head the other direction, he threw the amulet of Fear as far from him as he could, the silver chain sparkling in the strange myriad of lights that made up the world.

As soon as the amulet left his body, Dark Star’s laughter ceased; the black unicorn turned his lifeless eyes on Falling Star, his face a mask of hatred and disbelief.

What…WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!” the strange voice screamed through Dark Star’s body. “YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN DEAD BY NOW!!

Falling Star managed the barest hint of a smile. “Probably… but now…” he whispered, “…we BOTH are.”

That was it. Falling Star couldn’t even hold his head up any longer… and as he let it drop back to the ground, as the warm darkness of unconsciousness rose up to welcome him into its deep embrace… he saw a pink mane, and a startling pair of blue eyes… and he closed his eyes, a soft smile on his face.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Suddenly, Twilight felt a change in the sphere; she couldn’t tell exactly what had changed, but SOMEthing had. Dark Star’s laughter had stopped abruptly, and moments later the sphere shifted. It… well, for lack of a better word, it twitched; it shrank and expanded so abruptly that Twilight wasn’t sure that she’d seen it at first. Then it did it again, more noticeably; then again, and this time it was accompanied by the sizzling of lightning along the edges of the sphere. Then, to her utter amazement, the sphere shrank a bit… then it dropped a bit more… it flickered once, twice… and then vanished.

All sound left the world as the rainbow from the moon slammed to earth, wind blasted back against the small group of ponies standing nearby, and the entire glade was bathed in bright, unblemished white light.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“So… I was feeding it… this whole time?”

Brightsteel nodded sadly. “Yeah. Every time you gave your emotions to it, every time you gave in to your hatred, every single time you used it to power your magic, you were giving the amulet of Hate more power… and because of the nature of the Elements themselves, the amulet… well, for lack of a better term…”

“It became sentient,” Dark Star finished, shaking his head ruefully. “A being… born of nothing but pure hatred… How could I have not SEEN it..?” He shuddered physically. “And the others..? What of their amulets?”

The gray unicorn sighed and shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. I know that they were not as linked to theirs as Hate is to you; their amulets all responded to yours, like… like Hate was their master, and they were only servants.”

Dark Star was silent for a long moment… and then he squeezed his eyes shut. “So you’re telling me… that I’ve kept them chained to me… all these years? Made my own friends servants to my own desires?”

“…yes.”

It felt as though Dark Star had been hit by a huge hammer in the chest. His friends… they had… He shook his head angrily. “No, NO! They would have told me! They would have said something, done something to stop all of this before!”

“They couldn’t,” Brightsteel said flatly. “Your amulet fed their amulets, which in turn absorbed all other emotions in them and replaced them with more of the anger, fear and jealousy they already felt; and the more that those emotions took over, the more they came to depend on them… and your hatred.”

Dark Star felt his eyes burn with tears. “I…” He tried to speak, but the words stuck in his throat; he coughed loudly and forced himself to speak. “I’ve… been a foal…” he said weakly. “What have I done… they were my only friends, Brightsteel… and…”

Next to him, the gray unicorn smiled sadly. “Finally, after all of this, you see past the veil of hate, Dark. Finally, you can see what has happened, and accept the past.”

The black unicorn nodded slowly, tears slowly starting to move down his cheeks. “But… what do I do with it… this new-found knowledge… It’s too late… the amulet has taken over, and against its power…”

Around the two unicorns, the blackness began to change; it began to lighten slowly, shifting from pitch black to a shapeless, dark gray, lightening more by the moment. Brightsteel laughed aloud; a sound of pure, unadulterated joy.

“You take that knowledge, Dark Star!” he crowed, leaping to his hooves. He cantered a short distance away as the darkness began to turn to light, and as Dark Star watched, his gray counterpart began to shine brightly from within himself. Brightsteel turned his green eyes on him one last time, a smile so broad on his face that Dark Star couldn’t help but join him. “You take that knowledge, Dark... and you use it.”

Then the light consumed Brightsteel, and Dark Star closed his eyes and let its brilliant heat wash over him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The silence was so profound, the light so all-encompassing, that after a few moments of it, Twilight started to blink… and that’s when she realized that she wasn’t seeing white so much as… well, so much as she was now temporarily blind. “Oh wow…” she said… well, thought she said. The silence wasn’t actual silence either; slowly but surely the silence gave way to a gentle ringing in her ears. She worked her jaw and tried to pop her ears, and she managed to do so once or twice until finally, she started actually hearing.

“-light? Twilight Sparkle, answer me, for goodness sake!” It was Rarity’s voice, and she sounded panicked.

“I-I’m here, Rarity,” Twilight said loudly. Immediately she heard Rarity’s voice back.

“Oh thank GOODNESS you’re here, Twilight! What’s going on?!” The purple unicorn felt a bump against her side, and she turned instinctively to face it. The white light in her eyes was starting to fade, now, and she could just barely make out Rarity’s shape next to her.

“Just keep blinking,” Twilight advised. “The white wears off in a few moments.” The unicorn followed her own advice, and within a few minutes she could see the glade once again and the ringing in her ears was brought down to a reasonable level. She turned to Rarity, who was blinking her delicate eyelashes frantically, shifting nervously from hoof to hoof.

“Twilight… I don’t like not being able to see,” she said, her voice tight. “Especially not right this second, when we still aren’t sure if… HE is still… well, alive.”

Twilight nodded and cast around for her other friends; they were all nearby, each blinking and shaking their heads to try and clear them. She smiled in relief… but her eyes were inevitably drawn to the other end of the glade, where a thick blanket of smoke still hung in the air.

“Be cautious, Twilight.” Twilight turned as Princess Celestia walked up to her. The Princess looked like she hadn’t slept in a week; her mane was matted to the sides of her face, and her eyes were more tired than Twilight had ever seen them… but they still held the same amount of determination that the unicorn had seen there earlier, and Twilight suddenly felt just a little more at east. After all… there’s no way he could still be able to fight after that…

Slowly the smoke began to fade away; as it did so, three small mounds came into view, and Twilight winced as she realized that they were the fallen bodies of the other three generals. Pinkie Pie, who was just stepping up to see what had happened for herself, gave a dismayed squeak and took a step forward- but a dark blue wing reached out and stopped her as Luna stepped up to her on the other side, looking just as tired as her older sister… but instead of confidence, Luna’s eyes were full of tears. “Wait, Pinkie Pie,” she said softly. “Wait a moment.”

The smoke drifted away… and ever so slowly, a silhouette emerged, standing perfectly still amidst the smoke, hooves set slightly apart as if they were barely holding him up.

Luna choked back a sob. “Dark Star…”

“No WAY…” Twilight said, her eyes wide. “There’s… There’s no WAY!!”

“Sshhh, Twilight,” Princess Celestia said, holding her hoof up. “Listen.”

The black unicorn’s head was held low, the amulet of Hate dangling in mid-air just below his chin; his eyes were closed, and his breathing was ragged and heavy, as if he’d just run a two-day marathon. As Twilight watched, he shakily adjusted his stance and reached a hoof up to the chain holding the Element of Hate…

…and with a gentle shove and a flick of his head, he slid the amulet from his neck and onto the ground before him.

As soon as the amulet hit the ground, he gasped aloud, as if he had just surfaced from being underwater for an impossible amount of time; he threw his head back… and with the very next breath, he began to sob. He sobbed loudly and unashamedly, tears springing to his eyes and running down his cheeks as if he was determined to cry a tear for every year lost to him. His knees shook, but he stayed on his hooves as he let a torrent of emotions wash out of him for perhaps the first time in a thousand years.

Twilight heard a small, choked sob from beside her, and she turned to see Princess Luna adding her own tears to the scene; her bottom lip trembled as she tried to remain quiet. “Oh Dark Star… please…” Twilight heard her whisper.

After a few minutes, Dark Star seemed to regain a portion of his composure; he straightened on his hooves, and turned his tear-filled eyes on his fallen comrades. “My friends…” he said, his voice raw; it sounded different to Twilight- lighter, less deep and menacing, with an almost musical quality to it. He took the few steps that separated him from where Falling Star lay; beside Luna, Pinkie squeaked in indignation, but Luna again held her wing against the pink earth pony. Dark Star fell to his knees next to the Pegasus and bowed his head low. “I’m so sorry my friends… for what I did to you.” His horn glowed, and this time the magic he used was not the purple-black of Hate, but his own magic, a gentle dark blue that matched Princess Luna’s coat exactly. From a small distance away, an object lifted from the brush and floated to him; Twilight looked closely and saw that it was the amulet of Fear, its chain broken. Dark Star gazed at the amulet for a moment before turning his golden eyes on Celestia. “Is this how you felt?” he asked softly; as he spoke, his voice cracked, but he continued on. “Is this how you felt… when you found out that you had… stolen one thousand years of life from your sister…?

Next to Twilight, Princess Celestia nodded, a small smile on her face. “Take the pain you feel… the shame, the frustration… and multiply it by one thousand. That is how I felt when I realized I could not bring her back to us, Dark Star.”

The black unicorn sighed shakily and nodded. Without a word he rose to his hooves, the amulet of Fear still held in his magical grip. He walked back to where the other two ponies lay, and with a delicate magical touch he removed their amulets and placed them next to Fear, hovering before him. With a slight shake of his head he walked solemnly back to the center of the glade, where the amulet of Hate still lay. He lifted it with his magic as well, until he held all four stones before him. “The amulet of Hate… it caused the other amulets to drain them of their life-force… but the life force was not the only thing it took.” He turned his eyes to the dark blue Pegasus, and his magic touched Falling Star gently, rolling him over slightly… and Twilight and the rest gasped aloud.

Upon Falling Star’s flank, his cutie mark changed as they watched; the four-point star evaporated into a single point of light, and the horizon line below it disappeared, leaving the point to trail a silver-gray streak across his dark blue flank. Twilight’s eyes widened as she looked back to Dark Star. “They… what’s happened to them?” she asked.

“The amulets drained what they knew best first; they drew out the power that Nightmare Moon gave us, and then drew my friends’ life. They are no longer who they were under her power… but again what they once were, a thousand years ago… Shooting Star, Wild Wings, and Morninglight.” His eyes filled with tears again, and he shook his head. “They have wasted more than a hundred lifetimes as puppets to my beck and call… now, they have a chance to start again.” He turned back to the floating amulets, and his eyes narrowed.

With a sharp rasp of steel his sword burst from its sheath and, with a single, clean cut, sliced through the four amulets in a shining arc. The four stones exploded into dust as the blade clove through them; even the chains vanished without a trace as Dark Star’s magic died. Twilight watched as the pieces of the amulets, the very things that had caused all of this trouble, all of this pain and suffering, simply blew away in the breeze like a bad dream.

Finally, Princess Luna stepped forward. “A-and what about you, Dark Star…” she said, her voice hoarse. “Are you who you once were, in another time and place..?”

The black unicorn turned his eyes finally to Luna, and when their eyes met Twilight could see the horrible torment in his heart. “My Princess…” he said softly. Slowly, he brought his blade around to hover before him… and as Twilight watched, the weapon began to change.

The black steel of the hilt slowly transformed, fading from one solid piece bearing a bright white crescent moon to a polished curve of bright silver, bearing a mark of two crossed blades behind a shining blue diamond. Dark Star sighed firmly and let his eyes take all of the gathered ponies. “Hear me, Princesses and bearers of the Elements of Harmony... the Lunar Republic is dead… and it shall never rise again.”

Now Luna sobbed openly, and a smile lit her features. “Oh Dark Star…”

“But to answer your question, Luna… I am… neither.” He sheathed his sword silently, his eyes meeting hers.

Luna’s smile wavered. “Wh…what do you mean..?”

Now it was Dark Star’s turn to smile at her, but his smile was filled with sadness. “My love… I am not Brightsteel any longer… nor am I the same Dark Star who wished eternal night… I…” He sighed and shook his head in despair. “I do not know who I am.”

“So come back with me,” Luna said, her voice pleading, her eyes desperate. “Dark Star, you’ve WON! You’ve beaten your hatred, and now… and now we can be together!”

Slowly, tears began to run down Dark Star’s cheeks again as he watched Luna… and shook his head. “No… no we cannot.”

Twilight felt her heart break for Luna as her smile seemed to shatter like a piece of glass thrown to the ground. “Please Luna, hear me out,” Dark Star said, raising a hoof pleadingly. “I… I have done terrible things to Equestria… I have created all-out war on Canterlot itself… and perhaps have cost the lives of innocent ponies in the process…” He shook his head sadly. “Not… exactly a good choice for a Prince, beloved... I… I cannot be forgiven for such actions.”

“Are you sure about that?” Princess Celestia’s voice was calm and clear, and when everypony looked at her, she wore one of her small, secretive smiles that only SHE could wear so well. “The world is a very different place from a thousand years ago, Dark Star.” She took a step forward, and her smile warmed slightly. “Perhaps… if you’d ask for the forgiveness you seek… Equestria might surprise you.”

Dark Star watched her carefully for a long moment before giving her a slight nod. Then he turned back to Luna, the sadness in his eyes deepening. “And you, Luna… I have transgressed against you more than a soldier, more than a general, and especially… more than a lover ever should.” He dropped to a knee as he faced her, lowering his horn to the ground as Morningstar had done. “Such actions are beyond forgiveness, Highness.”

“No, they’re not,” Luna sobbed. “No, Dark Star… I forgive you… I…”

“And even if you should choose to forgive me, beloved… I…” He lowered his head even further until his nose almost touched the ground. “The amulet of Hate was only able to take over because of the hatred that I gave it… the incredible amounts of hatred that I poured into it…” He rose, and when he turned his eyes back to the group they were filled with doubt. “And I… cannot bring such hatred to you, my love.” He turned closed his eyes and turned his head, and more tears found their way down his cheek. “I cannot.”

Everypony watched him for a long moment, the only sound in the glade the heart-wrenching sound of Luna’s sobs. Finally, Princess Celestia broke the silence.

“Dark Star… if you come back to Canterlot with us, you WILL have to face punishment for your actions. However…” her smile returned. “After you have atoned for your transgressions… you and Luna can be together.”

The unicorn turned his eyes to the white alicorn. “Of course; I would expect no less than to take the punishment for what I have done… but…” He looked away again. “If I return now… and this hatred is still within me… it will only fester again, and then this will have all been for naught.”

Celestia watched him closely for a long moment before nodding. “I understand,” she said simply. “So… what will you do, Dark Star?”

Twilight turned to Celestia, her eyes wide. “You mean… you mean you’re not going to drag him to the dungeons?! Lock him up and throw away the key?! Turn him into a statue like Discord?!?!” At the last, Dark Star winced visibly, but to the purple unicorn’s absolute shock, Princess Celestia chuckled and shook her head.

“Those things would only gain me a very powerful enemy later in time, Twilight,” she said. “And after seeing what Dark Star is capable of, I think we can both agree that there are better measures to be taken than imprisonment.”

“Well… it’s still an option,” Twilight huffed.

Dark Star turned his eyes to her, and for the first time he met her eyes outside of combat, and Twilight was surprised by the level of understanding she saw there. “I have caused this land enough strife, Twilight Sparkle,” he said. “I will face my punishments properly… but… I do not wish to feel hate as I did ever again.” He turned to Celestia and bowed low, just as he had to Luna. “My Princess… I beg for exile.”

Exile?!” Twilight gasped. How is that any better than imprisonment?!

Celestia watched him again for a moment, her eyes searching his. “…Very well,” she said. “You shall be placed in exile of Canterlot and the surrounding lands, banished henceforth to the realms containing the Everfree Forest, and Equestria beyond the forest’s borders.” Her smile came back, just the barest hint of mirth on her lips. “If you ever choose to return to Canterlot, Dark Star… the punishment will be imprisonment… and then marriage to my sister.”

Twilight felt her jaw drop open, and she knew that each of her friends had done the same… but from Luna she heard a half-sob, half-laugh, and Dark Star couldn’t help but laugh as well, a laugh so mixed up with sadness and joy that Twilight couldn’t decide whether to join him in laughter or Luna in tears.

Dark Star’s laughter tapered off, and he bowed to Celestia again, even lower than before. “As you command, Princess, so shall it be.” He straightened, closed his eyes, and turned his back on the group of ponies. With a deep, shuddering breath, he began to walk to the edge of the cliff, where the sun and moon together were beginning to sink in the sky, the moon once again hiding the runes that Twilight knew still adorned its surface.

“Dark Star…” Princess Luna choked. “Dark Star, WAIT!”

The black unicorn paused at the cliff side and turned back to Luna, his eyes rimmed with tears.

The dark blue alicorn took a step forward, and she sobbed, “I love you, Dark Star… I always have… and I always will.”

A small smile touched Dark Star’s lips, and a single tear slid down his cheek. “And I will always love you… My Luna… my heart.” Then he turned his eyes to the sea; his horn flared with magic, and with a bright white flash, he was gone.