Rainbow Dash sighed as she looked upon Ponyville from the balcony of the giant white oak tree castle. She chuckled to herself, finding the way her life turned out funny. If you told me when I was a filly that I’d be an Element of Harmony, and married, and to a princess, and living in a castle, I’d probably call the loony bin and have ‘em committed…now though, Rainbow glanced over her shoulder, seeing Scootaloo and Adara roughhousing a bit near the fireplace, a sight that made her heart feel warm. Now, I couldn’t be happier or want more…okay, maybe a permanent spot on the Wonderbolts roster, but better not to be greedy.
Yes her life had turned out not quite like she imagined, never truly thinking she’d fall for a mare, denying that part of herself only to have those hidden feelings awakened by the most awkward and socially introverted pony she’d ever met. And yet, it was this same mare who inspired her and their friends to fight for their home, whether Twilight knew or not, she moved them all. She helped Rainbow when she was acting her most stupid at times, dealing with her inflated ego, and even showing her a thing or two.
What Twilight lacked in overall physical strength she made up for with intellect, talent, and determination, all of which continued to hold her attraction to the mare throughout all their adventures. The day Twilight became an alicorn, Rainbow thought her chances with Twilight had slipped away, she was a Princess now, which meant she was probably going to find her prince charming or marry a noble or something. Twilight by all rights was a Canterlot noble, but she was leaps and bounds above the others, never looking down on anypony because of their status or flaunting her family’s wealth. Even her big brother was the same, not relying on that to become the Captain of the Royal Guard.
Of course, that all changed when Rainbow began teaching Twilight to fly. It granted them some real alone time together, bonding on a different level than what they used to do. And in time, Twilight confessed her feelings, and Rainbow did the same. And the rest was history as they say. However, one thing that did stand out from the homey scene was the lack of a certain purple pony. Rainbow sighed and walked back into the warm space of the parlor and looked about for her dorky wife.
“Scoots, Adara, where’s Twi?” Rainbow asked.
Scootaloo and Adara looked about, now curious as to the lack of their other parent.
“Don’t know, last I saw she was heading down to the basement,” said Scootaloo.
“What, again?! Jeez, how many times is she going to hold herself up down there?!” Rainbow groaned.
“Rainbow, you wouldn’t have said something to upset her, did you?” Adara asked with a raised eyebrow.
“What?! No! I haven’t done anything!……That I know of…”
“Well go down and get her! I want to open my Hearth’s Warming gift now!” Scootaloo whined.
“Oh hush, you can wait until Rainbow gets Twilight.” Adara scolded as she bopped Scootaloo on the nose. “We’ll wait for you two.”
“Thanks, sorry guys, I’ll be back soon,” said Rainbow as she made her way to the door.
“If you guys end up doing it, at least make it a quickie --!” Scootaloo predicted that would earn her another bop and quickly ducked below Adara’s hoof. “Ha! Saw that com - OW!” Scootaloo rubbed the back of her head after receiving a swift “thwap” from Adara’s wing.
“You can honestly be so crass sometimes.”
Rainbow chuckled, whether she knew it or not, Scootaloo was acting like herself when she was a teenager, horny, a little crass, and just as reckless at times. But she didn’t have to worry about Scootaloo as much, she had Adara and she’d always be at Scootaloo’s side, whether it was to scold her for moments like that, or to love her and comfort her.
Admittedly, Rainbow was just a teensy bit apprehensive about their relationship after she found out Adara was an Entity. Adara’s lived longer than Celestia and Luna, heck, she’s existed since the universe was born, she was definitely way older than Scootaloo. And yet, despite her age, Adara still approached things with wonder and curiosity, granted she did show her age when it came to her wisdom and knowledge on certain things, but overall, she kind of did act like a kid.
Maybe it was because of her light, the light of Hope? In any case, Adara had shown time and again how much she cared about Scootaloo, healing her wings, staying by her side when Scoots was homeless, and when they united into one being and fought to protect Canterlot and Equestria.
“Damn, I got a weird family now.”
Rainbow trotted through the halls and down a flight of stairs until she arrived at the door to Twilight’s private laboratory. Now, Rainbow had been inside the lab, but only when Twilight said it was okay. There were times when she did some experiments and Rainbow accidentally snuck in and startled the mare when she had some volatile chemicals. Long story short, there was a big boom involved. So she made it a habit to knock and get a response first before entering, if Twilight didn’t answer by the third or fourth knock, Rainbow was free to assume that something was wrong and could barge in.
The prismatic mare raised her cyan hoof and knocked once, “Twilight?”
No response.
She knocked again, “Twilight!”
Again, no response.
Now she was just a tad worried. Rainbow raised her hoof and knocked for the third time, “Twilight?!” Yet again,she was met with silence. “Okay that’s it! Hang on Twi!”
Rainbow jumped back and raked her hoof against the floor, spreading her wings and preparing to ram the door. But just before she made her first flap a flash of rosy light appeared in front of the door, with the purple pony princess standing in the wake of the flash.
“Hi Rainbow,” said Twilight cheerfully.
“Twilight!” The pegasus mare quickly got in her wife’s face. “You almost gave me a heart attack! You didn’t answer me on the third knock! I was about to break down the door!”
Twilight made an apologetic expression. “I know, I know, I’m sorry! I was just really, really busy on this project and I was at a delicate point in the process that I couldn’t answer right away.”
Rainbow Dash sighed and then hugged her mare. “Don’t scare me like that, Twi. I know you like spending a little time in your lab, but you mess around with something dangerous and I couldn’t get to you…”
Twilight returned the hug and nuzzled her wife’s cheek. “I’m sorry, I promise to listen closely next time. Or maybe I’ll see into installing a kind of call box or monitoring system?”
Rainbow released Twilight and shrugged. “Whichever works best.”
Twilight then smirked at Rainbow. “Well, now you know how I feel whenever you perform one of your crazy aerial stunts.”
Rainbow scoffed. “Pfft, please, I’m always in control.”
Twilight held her smirk as she trotted past Rainbow, swishing her tail under her chin as she spoke. “Really? That seems different from some our other nightly arrangements.”
The pegasus mare felt the blood rush to her face, steam practically coming off her at the insinuation of that sentence. “Damn it, Twi, when did you get so sexy?”
“Hmm, guess I never had a marefriend, or wife, to be sexy for,” she said with a coy wink.
Rainbow bit her lip as she tried to keep her more carnal side in check. Oh the things I’m going to do to you tonight!
“C-C’mon, Scoots and Adara are waiting for us. We’re supposed to open at least one present before Hearth’s Warming,” said Rainbow Dash as she fought the urge to tackle Twilight and make love to her.
“Sure, but knowing Scootaloo she’s probably made more than one attempt at opening a gift by now.”
Rainbow Dash chuckled as she walked up the stairs side-by-side with Twilight. She did not see, however, that Twilight spared her basement door a second glance, an expression of worry appeared on her face for a brief moment before she sighed and gazed forward.
It’s alright, nothing’s going to happen. It’s Hearth’s Warming, a time for family, friendship, and peace.
Twilight and Rainbow made it back to the parlor and noticed Adara swat Scootaloo’s hooves, knocking a present to the floor. Adara shot her marefriend a scolding look, but Scootaloo just grinned and stuck her tongue out at Adara. Both mares couldn’t help but chuckle at their antics, alerting them to their presence.
“Finally!” Scootaloo proclaimed as she threw her forelegs into the air. “I said make it a quickie!”
Twilight’s wings flared as a crimson blush overtook her face. “Excuse me?!”
“Totally not what happened,” said Rainbow.
“Okay, now I’m starting to believe you’re gaining some kind of sick pleasure in their awkward reactions,” said Adara with a deadpan expression.
The teenage pegasus mare couldn’t help but release a laugh, “Sorry, but c’mon, you know I love you guys.”
Rainbow Dash matched her adopted daughter’s grin and swiftly took the smaller mare into a headlock, giving her a noogie. “Yeah, yeah, we know Squirt.”
“Ah, Dash! I’m too old for this! And I’m not a ‘Squirt’ anymore!”
“Still a Squirt to me, and always will be!”
Adara and Twilight smiled at the scene, whether it was as sisters before, or whether it was as mother and daughter now, it was apparent that the bond between Rainbow and Scootaloo would never perish, it would endure.
*KA-BOOM!!!*
Suddenly, thunder roared and lightning streaked through the sky, making all present let out a yelp out of the shock of the loud noise. Rainbow released Scootaloo and ran towards the balcony, the magical barrier that kept the area as warm outside as it was inside was now being pelted with rain.
“What the hay?! A thunderstorm?!” Rainbow yelled in indignation.
Twilight, Scootaloo, and Adara appeared next to Rainbow, all now gazing at the odd phenomenon.
“Rain? But it was snowing a minute ago?” Adara wondered.
“There’s - no - these were snowstorm clouds! I checked them all myself, these were specifically winter weather clouds filled with snow!”
Twilight looked around, seeing lightning arc in the distance accompanied by the distant sound of rolling thunder. It was odd, very odd that this was occurring. Despite Rainbow’s lackadaisy attitude, she was a hard worker when it came to managing the weather team in Ponyville, and was very meticulous when it came to the weather systems. So, either Rainbow Dash just made a mistake - which was extremely unlikely.The members of the weather team replaced all the clouds when she wasn’t looking? Highly unlikely that nopony would’ve noticed all the pegasi in the sky moving clouds.
Random clouds from the Everfree Forest pushing out the winter front? Also unlikely but not improbable. It was then that Twilight noticed Adara getting closer to the edge of the balcony railing, her eyes focused on the rain as it fell upon the barrier.
“What’s wrong Adara?” Twilight asked.
“This…This rainwater…it looks…black.”
Curious, the other three mares got close to the railing as well, peering over the edge. Sure enough, the white snow as turning black moments before becoming water again.
“Whoa, black rainwater? How’s that even possible?” Scootaloo asked.
“It isn’t, there’s no way to make the water black like that unless it’s polluted or something, but that can’t happen either! The Weather Factory purifies the water before sending back down as rain!”
Adara didn’t like this, this felt too familiar, too ominous. She looked back up to the clouds, noticing how they turned from their soft gray color to a deep, inky black. At that moment, her eyes widened with a horrifying revelation.
“No…Oh great Life Entity no!”
Scootaloo looked to her marefriend with concern, seeing the agitated and look on her face and trembling of her body. “Adara what’s wrong?! Are you sick?!”
“How could we have not noticed this sickness hiding before our noses?! That accursed power should not be here!” Adara’s frantic eyes fell upon Twilight. She quickly got in Twilight’s face, making the alicorn mare release a “meep” of surprise. “Twilight, you have to undo the seals on Parallax, Ophidian, and Butcher immediately!”
Rainbow and Scootaloo had their mouths hanging open.
“Are you nuts?!” Rainbow shouted.
“This isn’t the time for arguments! We’ll need all the lights to fight what’s coming! ALL SEVEN OF US!!!”
Twilight put her hooves on Adara’s shoulders and gently pushed her back. “Adara calm down, what’s coming that’s so bad that you need me to break the seals on the Negatives?”
Adara looked back over the edge of the balcony, her keen eyes looking for any trace of movement below. “………The Blackest Night.”
“The what?” Scootaloo asked.
“In my universe, where we the Entities used to reside, an event occurred, long prophesied. in the past. It was called ‘The Blackest Night’, the night when the whole universe would be shrouded in darkness and death. When the dead would rise and snuff out the light and all life!”
Rainbow scratched her head. “So it’s like some Zombie Apocalypse scenario or something?”
Adara glared at Rainbow so fiercely that it made the grown mare shrink. “FOOL! This is no joking matter! The Blackest Night nearly destroyed all life! It took everyone in my universe, hero and villain, and Lanterns of all seven spectrums to stand together against it!”
Twilight felt a twinge of fear creep into her heart at hearing this. “But you won, right? You’re universe is safe.”
“Yes, we won, but many were lost, and many were forced to fight and destroy their friends, family, and lovers.” Adara looked to each mare as she spoke. “These undead are not like those you see in the movies or in books, they have memories, they can talk, and act just like the person they used to be in life, but it is all an act, a sadistic form of mental torture before they inevitably kill you, and make no mistake, no matter how much you try and plead to them, they I will kill you.”
Adara turned her eyes back on Ponyville, still trying to discern if the dead had risen yet. For the others, this was too much to be real, the dead actually rising up and acting like they were before they died? They have faced many a magical threat and witnessed some incredible things, but The Blackest Night can’t be as bad as Adara is making it out to be. Right?
The cerulean mare’s ears perked up, tilting to a certain direction. She focused her gaze on a house that had many wilting flowers around it. Adara gasped as she recognized the residence.
“That’s the home of the flower sisters! Twilight, don your ring now! We have to act quickly!”
“Adara, chill for second! You can’t just -”
Suddenly, all light in the village went out. Street lamps, indoor lights, everything. The only light still shining was from what oak tree castle emitted.
“Okay, that’s creepy,” said Rainbow.
“Scootaloo?!” Adara looked to her marefriend with deep concern and worry, she knew the horrors that were about to be unleashed and she knew they needed to start saving as many lives as possible.
Scootaloo could see the distress in her mare’s eyes, and she was the Entity of Hope, the fact that she looked this scared meant this was definitely serious. The orange mare’s face became one of determination as she smirked. “Alright, let’s do it!”
“Wait -!”
“Scootaloo, Ada -!”
A blue flash of light engulfed the balcony, blinding both Twilight and Rainbow and forcing them to back away. When the light faded, what stood before them was a united Scootaloo and Adara. Scootaloo had four shimmering blue wings, a black and blue armor suit that hugged her frame, offering full mobility, and upon her chest was the emblem of Blue Hope, the center circle glowing like a star. Scootaloo’s short spiky mane had grown out a little, becoming shoulder length, and her once violet irises were now glowing with the blue light of Hope.
“We’ll go check things out, go and get your ring, Twilight!”
Before a word could be spoken, Scootaloo gave a swift flap of her wings, propelling her with such speed that, to the untrained eye, it would appear as if she vanished. But in reality, she was moving faster than normal ponies could see. Scootaloo had forgotten how powerful and how fast she was when the two of them were one, she was moving fast enough to see every individual raindrop as she pierced through them and dived down into the city.
Her aura field kept her nice and dry and warm, and kept the wind out of her eyes so she could focus on their destination. Scootaloo landed in front of Lily, Daisy, and Roses home, noticing the door had been broken down. The pegasus mare narrowed her gaze and prepared to enter the home.
‘Stop!’
Scootaloo heeded Adara’s voice and paused before stepping hoof in the house. “What?! What’s wrong, do you sense something?!”
‘There is…hopelessness in there…death, you have to be careful Scootaloo, and I really mean it this time! Don't hesitate to strike down the enemy!’
“Wow…usually you look for more peaceful solutions, it’s that bad isn’t it?”
Very bad, affirmed Adara.
“Alright, we’ll play it cool.”
Scootaloo folded her wings and entered the home, she could feel Adara strengthening the aura field and making it stronger than normal, Scootaloo didn’t know whether to be thankful or even more worried. At least with Adara within her, she practically had a 360 degree warning field. Scootaloo used her power to levitate off the floor, she couldn’t do much about her light, but at least sound wouldn’t be the first thing to alert whatever was inside.
Suddenly, Scootaloo heard scrambling hooves overhead and made her way towards the stairwell, only to get barreled into by somepony. Scootaloo tumbled about in a ball of chaos until she came to an abrupt halt, slamming against the sales counter. Thankfully the reinforced aura field kept her from feeling any pain from the impact, allowing Scootaloo more time to ascertain what bowled into her.
She illuminated the space more, allowing her to make out the bright pink of Lily’s coat, and the darker pink of Daisy’s. “Daisy, Lily, are you two okay?!”
The two sisters groaned as they rose, gazing upon Scootaloo with shock and awe.
“I-Is that you, Scootaloo?!” Lily asked.
“Um, yeah, it’s me.”
“But…you look - and that long mane - and that outfit - and you’re glowing!” Daisy shouted.
“Yeah, long story, but seriously, are you two alright? Where’s Rose?”
Both sisters had a horrified look on their faces when she mentioned their third sister’s name, tears began to fall from their eyes as they sobbed together. Scootaloo felt her heart ache, whatever happened must’ve been too horrible.
“S-Scootaloo…Rose is…Rose is…”
“Right here!”
All three mares cast their gazes towards the stairwell, watching as a figure approached them, but halted just outside of the blue light field.
“R-Rose?!” Daisy asked.
“Of course it’s me sillies, who else would I be?”
A look of pure joy overtook both Daisy and Lily, as well as Scootaloo. But inside, she could feel Adara’s agitation grow, she could sense something wrong.
“B-But that thing…I saw it…it-it-!”
“Hey, I’m standing here aren’t I?” Rose interrupted. “C’mon, give your sis a hug, it’s alright.”
Both Lily and Daisy rose to do just that, but at the last second the glowing energy at the center of of Scootaloo’s emblem released a beam of pure blue light at Rose. The beam slammed into the mare, sending her flying into the wall with a loud crash. Daisy, Lily, and even Scootaloo looked at the emblem with shock.
“SCOOTALOO!” Daisy yelled.
“WHY DID YOU DO THAT??!” Lily screamed.
“I…I didn’t do that! I mean - I didn’t mean to do it! I-!”
“You little bitch…”
The two sisters turned and looked towards where their sister laid, never hearing her swear like that before. Rose slowly rose up, her neck bent at an awkward angle from the attack.
“Sis…?”
“Rose…?”
“Little orphan bitch…what, you don’t have a real family so you have to butt in on our real family time?}
“WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!” Scootaloo growled in anger.
The light of her aura field grew brighter, bathing the room in its azure brilliance and revealing everything in the room, including Rose. Her eyes were two dark abysses, with a single glowing white dot in each eye. Her body was covered in a black suit, and upon her chest was the symbol of an upside down triangle with five vertical bars rising from it. The three mares watched as her neck made sickening popping sounds, righting itself until it was back to normal.
Scootaloo’s fury quelled from the comment, becoming focused on what stood before them. “What are you?! Who are you?!”
{Uh, duh, I’m Rose! Did your parents abandon you because you were stupid?} Rose commented.
“You’re not our sister!” Daisy proclaimed.
“Rose would never say that about anypony!” Lily added.
{Oh just shut up you two miserable, mewling cunts!} Rose spat.
The two sisters’ eyes widened with shock.
{I am so sick and tired of you two pansy asses! How you just faint at the smallest little thing! A broken stem on the Zinnias? Oh the horror! We’re out of milk? Oh the horror! Will I ever find a coltfriend? Oh the horror! Ugh, every damn time you two go into that fainting spell, I have to play along! Because at least that way ponies wouldn’t think you two and me were complete dipshits!}
Her words cut them like a rusty knife, with each word the blade was thrust deeper and deeper. Lily shook her head, her smile trembling as she spoke to her sister. “Rose, c-c’mon…I-I know we overreact a little…but you love us, and we love you. We-We’re sorry, if you want us to we’ll try and stop, we promise! Right Daisy?!”
“Yes, we will, we promise!” Daisy confirmed.
Rose smiled. {Aww, you two really are the best sisters ever…NOT!}
Suddenly, a black construct vine appeared around Rose’s right foreleg, she cocked back and whipped the thorny vine right towards Daisy. Scootaloo quickly formed a construct barrier around them, grunting with each impact of the black vine.
{I always looked out for you two!} Rose lashed with the vine. {I gave up my life for you two!} Her lashes struck the barrier again and again. {My roses were always beautiful and everypony kept saying I had a knack for business! I could’ve been the florist for the Princesses!} Her left foreleg formed another vine construct, which she now turned on the barrier, whipping them rapid succession.
{But noooooo, I had to stay behind and look after you two! I had to make sure you two didn’t go poor! And don’t even get me started on how you two constantly whine about your love lives! You two screw each other enough times to compensate for the ‘heartache’!}
“ROSE!!!” Daisy and Lily shouted in unison.
Both sisters turned to Scootaloo, panic and worry in their eyes as their secret was let out.
“S-She’s just kidding, Scootaloo!” Daisy lied.
“Rose is-is just sick! She doesn’t know what she’s saying!” Lily added.
‘No, although deceit is a tactic of the Black Lanterns, it all stems from the truth. Because nothing hurts more than the truth.’
But why is she saying all these hurtful things?! I’ll admit it’s kinda weird those two are doing that, but that doesn’t mean she has to say all that other stuff to them!
‘Black Lanterns use the pent up thoughts and feelings of the dead to further fuel their psychological torture of their victims, it’s all to draw out the light. Once their victim glows with a particular emotional light, the Black Lantern will attack. She’ll try and stave you off, but her main objective will be to kill Daisy and Lily, we mustn't allow that to happen or we’ll have even more Black Lanterns to deal with!’
Scootaloo took a deep breath. “I’m going to try something!” The orange mare flared her four shimmering wings, her body glowing brighter as her eyes filled with the blue light of Hope. “Rose, this isn’t you! You can’t let whatever this darkness is control you! Feel the hope inside you, don’t lose your grip on it! Find it, let it bring you back!”
The glowing circle on her chest shined its brilliance upon Rose, making the Black Lantern cease its attacks. She hissed and growled as the blue light burned her undead flesh, she tried to, but she was incapable of movement. Her eyes shifted, becoming the hazel green that they used to be, but only one eye managed to look like normal, and she shed a tear.
“S-Scootaloo…?”
“Yes!” Scootaloo shouted triumphantly.
“ROSE!” Daisy and Lily called out.
“Please…kill me…!” Rose fell to the floor, but managed to push herself up with her forelegs. She shot all of them a pleading and sorry expression. “Scootaloo…that magic you have…use it, kill me while I’m still me!”
“Rose, no! I-I can heal you! Just give it time!” Scootaloo reasoned.
“N-No! I can’t…can’t come back! I…that thing tore out my heart…! I can’t even feel it beating…! I’m a corpse…all I feel is this oozing darkness inside…making me do and say these things…AAAAUGH!” Rose held her head, screaming as the black essence worked to take hold again. “PLEASE DO IT! I CAN’T STOP IT ANY LONGER! Every second you let me live with this evil inside me is like having my soul and body violated! PLEASE!”
Scootaloo swallowed a lump that had formed in her throat. The blue light of Hope was the light of miracles, the strongest light in the spectrum, second only to the white light of Life. But even the pure focused power of the Entity of Hope could not reverse this desecration.
“A-Alright…Rose,” said Scootaloo with a shaky voice.
Rose smiled as her right continued to cry, while her left slowly morphed back to its previous black abyss state. “Thank you…” She then turned to her sisters who were bawling their eyes out at this scene. “ I’m sorry…! I’m sorry Daisy…Lily…I didn’t mean it…I did…I did feel that way but…for all of that, I loved every minute of being your sister…I’ll always love you…!”
Daisy and Lily lost it and broke down into full sobs. Rose nodded to Scootaloo. The Warrior of Hope channeled Adara’s might and released a burst of blue light upon Rose, blasting a good chunk of the wall and floor where she laid. Scootaloo gritted her teeth, she had never killed anypony before…let alone have had been asked to perform a true mercy killing.
‘She is not dead, not yet,’ spoke Adara.
What?! I just vaporized her! How can you say -!
‘Look!’
Scootaloo watched closely as black sludge crept up, forming a skeleton.
“What in the name of Faust is this?!”
‘Our light can damage them, but it cannot destroy them! A blast like that will only buy us time while it regenerates! Get them out of here!’
Scootaloo wasted little time, she quickly formed a bubble of blue light around Daisy and Lily and shot up through the ceiling, property damage be damned. All three hovered in the air, the rain still falling upon the land, but now, something else filled the air, and thanks to Adara’s power, Scootaloo could see them clearly.
“Oh no…”