Penumbra

by Y1

Prologue: Ordainment

"We ain’t Celestia, darn it! We ain’t gods!" the voice shouted at Twilight. "They deserve the truth, and we do not have the right to tell them they can’t have it!"
She always was determined to do the right thing, no matter what the consequences were for somepony else or even for herself.
"We are gods! Don’t you get that yet?" Twilight shouted back, frustrated by how short sighted the other pony was being. "Don’t you understand that it’s not only our right, but our duty now? We are the overseers of these ponies and the truth will destroy them! I cannot allow that to happen!" She stomped her hoof for emphasis and the ground trembled with her might. "I will protect them... even from you."
"Twilight’s right," a third voice chipped in.
Truly I never expected her to take my side. Especially given how close the two of them were back then.
The voice continued, "We can’t do that to them. You know as well as anyone what it will do. Celestia trusted us and-"
I was glad to see she was thinking ahead for once. Normally she was the short-sighted and impulsive one.
The third voice was interrupted by the first one. "Celestia never gave us this so we could lie to them! You do what you want, but Ah’m doing the right thing." She turned her back and trotted away.
Twilight felt a little part of herself die as she realised what she might have to do, but if it meant saving Equestria from itself…
"So be it."

Spike watched from the doorway as Princess Penumbra tossed and turned in her bed, mumbling in her sleep. This happened more often than she wanted to admit. It frustrated Spike that there was nothing he could do to help her, and he worried about the princess deeply. It was a strange relationship they had together. He was some combination of little brother, son, butler, pet and employee, but it worked, and they both cared for each other more than anyone else.
The dreams always started out like this: Penumbra would mutter half remembered conversations and arguments in her sleep. After a while, those arguments would give way to angry yelling, which would be followed by desperate pleading. Eventually she would devolve into whimpering and begging. Inevitably, she would wake up screaming painfully and clutching at her face; trying to block her gaze from some unseen beast of the past. As if she still had eyes. It was quite disturbing to see the most powerful being in existence reduced to such an emotional state. Spike guessed that her eyes must be a real insecurity for the alicorn, which was fair enough given what must have happened to them.
Hooves on the steps behind him alerted Spike to other ponies working their way up the winding staircase of the princesses’ tower. Spike glanced over his shoulder, but he knew who it would be because he heard their voices echoing up the staircase. Penumbra had asked them to wake her up now after all. Princess Spectra and Princess Malus, the two sisters, created from the essence of the blind alicorn mixed with another pony and grown into their own form using powerful magic. Neither “father” had ever been identified, nor had anyone been there to witness Penumbra cast the spell, but if Spike were to guess he’d say that the two did not share the same mortal parent. For one thing, they didn’t look anything alike, and for another thing, one was a pegasus and the other was an earth pony.
Spectra came into sight first, leading the way as she always did. The pegasus had a cyan blue coat and rose-coloured eyes. Her mane, cut coltishly short, was a bright splash of colours from all across the rainbow, and it was a perfect match for her tail. For some reason the two princesses always wore clothes, and Spectra was always garbed in a sleeveless dark jacket. She had an athletic build, her body being sleek and hardened. Her face was almost permanently adorned with a sneering expression, and she looked at everyone around her with something that was between boredom and contempt. (Unless of course she was excited, then her mouth contorted into a feral grin and her eyes took on a dangerous glint).
Following behind Spectra was Malus, or 'Mal' as some called her. She was a well-built earth pony with an orange coat and emerald green eyes; her blonde mane was permanently tied into a single band behind her head. No matter what, she almost always wore a brown Stetson that rested atop her head and a duster coat, and today was no exception. Underneath that coat was a very muscular mare. Every time she moved chords rippled, bunched and unwound making every one of her actions seem larger and more intimidating then it was probably meant to be. Her face was hard to read: constantly bland, not bored like Spectra was, but simply cold and inexpressive.
Spectra always led when the two were together. It didn't seem like Mal deferred to her, more it seemed like Spectra just wanted to be in front and the earth pony simply didn't care who walked through a door first. The two of them did not get along well at all, usually competing with each other or insulting each other during the various activities they shared through similar interests or orders from their mother. Well actually, Spectra usually did the insulting and Mal just didn’t pay attention to her, but it was obvious from the way the two moved around each other that there was no love lost between them. Or at least that was how Spike saw it.
Unsurprisingly, Spectra skipped greetings. "Spike, what’s going on?"
Spike glanced over again before he turned back to the room. "She’s dreaming again," he said over his shoulder.

Twilight shivered as she stared down at the wounded body of her friend. Her PFF would be fine after a day or two, but that didn’t change the way Twilight felt about what was she going to do. Horn glowing, she leaned in closer to touch the appendage against the tip of her friends’ own horn.
"No, wait! Stop!"
Twilight hesitated and looked up.
"We can’t do this to her. I mean… I know I agreed with you before but now… We can’t."
Twilight sighed and buried her head in her hooves.
It shouldn’t have to be this hard… We should be working together for everypony, not fighting each other for them.
Looking up, she spoke. "We have to do this. If we don’t then she’ll tell everypony, and when that happens there’s no going back."
The other party nodded, a few tears rolling out of her eyes. "I know, I know… But maybe she’s right." She swallowed, and her normally crackly voice broke more than once as she spoke. "We can’t do this, I mean I can’t do this, she means too much to me for me to just stand by and let you… do that to her."
Loyalty was always her strongest trait. I can’t imagine how hard this must be for her, choosing between her and Equestra like this.
Twilight already knew that she wouldn’t win this argument or convince her friend, but she tried anyway. "I understand and sympathise, but this isn’t about you or me or her. This is about everypony, and she could destroy everything. We can’t let her do that."
Twilight was surprised when the other pony nodded and gulped.
Turning back to the unconscious friend on the ground, the purple pony leaned in closer once more her horn glowing.
"Wait!"
Twilight ignored the voice this time and kept going.
"Twilight stop!"
Her horn was about to touch when something slammed into her with the force of a freight train.
I should’ve known I wouldn’t convince her so easily.

Penumbra’s whole body jerked suddenly and she began whimpering and muttering more desperately than angrily.
"Yeesh," Spectra said aloud, watching from the door with Spike. "Must be some dream huh?" Taking a step into the room she was stopped by Spike grabbing her back leg.
"You can’t wake her up," He hissed at her.
"Why not? She asked us to, remember?" With a kick of her leg, Spike was knocked to the floor on his backside. "Besides, it’s not exactly like you’re gonna stop me."
It was typical of her really, resorting to aggression to get what she wanted. Spike sighed knowing there was nothing he could do. Mal pushed past him as well, and he was left watching with growing concern as the two princesses sat down at the side of their mother’s bed.
Penumbra continued to twist and turn in her sleep. Her dark mane was writhing in the air instead of gracefully flowing as it normally would. Every breath was sharp and short, as though the lavender alicorn were exerting herself rather than sleeping. The one pink streak in her hair twisted and turned in the air, giving the impression of a snake with its head missing.

Twilight watched on in horror as the two monsters rose to their hooves in front of her, then bowed low in deference to their creator.
"Mother," they spoke together in unison, the drawling accent blending together with its scratchier counterpart perfectly. "Are you pleased with us?" they asked.
The dreamscape rippled around Twilight. Burning buildings formed as corpses seemed to rise into view strewn all over the place. Stallions and colts, mares and fillies, all lay dead or dying. Every now and then, one would sob or scream or moan, but most were already deceased.
The abominations before her, the creatures named Malus and Spectra both stared up at their mother with bland expressions, their fur and manes matted with blood and soot.
Twilight swallowed. "This isn’t what I wanted." She shook her head. "No! This isn’t right!"
"This is what you made us," they spoke as one. "Do you love us?"
A voice that haunted Twilight’s dreams sounded from behind her. "What have you done, my student?"
Twilight, now a unicorn, turned around and looked up at princess Celestia trembling with fear "I’m sorry! I’m so sorry I didn’t want this to happen!" she sobbed.
The pristine alicorn had no sympathy. "I entrusted you, and look at what you’ve achieved." Her stark white visage and flowing multi-coloured mane contrasted heavily against the black columns of smoke rising into the air behind her.
"I-I-" the purple pony stuttered.
"This is unacceptable."
Twilight found herself shrinking down to the size of a filly. She broke down crying as she sat on her haunches and covered her eyes with her tiny hooves, small sobs racking her foalish shoulders.
"You have brought nothing but pain to those you call friends. You must be punished." When Celestia spoke with her commanding tone, it seemed as if the ground itself would have no choice but to rise up and obey her will.
Twilight looked up and saw Celestia’s hooves burning white hot with fire and magic as they moved towards her face. She screamed when they touched as her eyes melted and popped. Her flesh was sizzling and her was fur burning as the stench of carbonised skin filled the air and the water in her cell membranes evaporated.

Screaming, she lashed out with her magic as she rolled on to her hooves. Everything around her raised into the air, lifted by fields of telekinesis. Detecting three living beings nearby, she gripped all of them with her magic. Wrapping a tendril of magic around their throats, she raised them into the air and began squeezing, planning on strangling all three of them.
"Wait!" Spike’s panicked voice shouted out and cut across her fear.
At that moment Penumbra remembered falling asleep. It had just been a dream.
Another one.
How many was that in so few weeks? Her heart rate lowered and rationality was restored to the alicorn princess.
Releasing her grip on magic, she heard the sound of two ponies and a baby dragon falling to the floor. Penumbra stood up and stepped out of bed.
"I told you that you shouldn’t wake her up," Spike muttered angrily.
"Buck you!" Spectra spat back.
Upon hearing her daughter say that, Penumbra felt a thin blade of regret pierce her heart. Even if that had only been a dream, and even though it had barely reflected what actually happened, it was still a reminder of what she’d done to them and why she missed them so much in the first place. Applejack and her stubbornness and Rainbow Dash’s refusal to allow those she was loyal towards to come to harm. Yes, these were the traits that had forced Penumbra to do what she did in the end, but they were still some of the things that made them such likable ponies. Both of them had been wrong, but their intentions had been good, and that, if nothing else, was at least admirable.
Now in place of her two friends she had her two children. Every time either Malus or Spectra spoke she heard an echo of her old friends in them, but they were nothing but a pale shadow of two great ponies. If anything they were a parody, a cruel joke made in memory of the elements of honesty and loyalty. Not a day went by that Penumbra did not in some way regret their existence. They may have been her children, but it was impossible to love anything that was nothing but a twisted version of something you once held dear.
"Everypony," she spoke aloud for all to hear. "Please come with me," she ordered while walking out towards her balcony. Why someone who was blind would need a commanding view of Canterlot was up for question, but then Penumbra supposed this was Celestia’s old room and the ponies of the palace did want her to replace their old deity.
"I assume you’ve awoken me when I asked you?" Penumbra hated speaking like this, but it was necessary that everyone believe her to be her own regal goddess rather than a mere replacement or substitute for the old one.
"Yeah we have, what’s this about anyway?" Spectra muttered following her 'mother' out to the balcony. Spectra was never one for respectful behaviour.
Penumbra didn’t respond to that question. The answer would only confuse and baffle and raise more questions, which would in turn raise more questions and then eventually they would know the truth. That would simply not be acceptable. They were here because Penumbra needed somepony who could see, and she wanted her 'daughters' in particular to help satiate her weighty curiosity.
This was the day that the Canterlot Academy for Magically Gifted Unicorns would be accepting young and promising unicorn foals to be trained in the arts of the arcane. It was also the day that, in another lifetime, the six Bearers of the Elements of Harmony had forged a magical bond before they’d ever even met. Rainbow Dash, the cocky young pegasus flyer, had performed the legendary Sonic Rainboom, and with that display of raw pegasus magic had allowed herself and five other fillies to earn their cutie marks. This day also held a special place in Penumbra’s heart because it was the day she had hatched Spike as well, and the young dragon meant very much to her. True that was in another timeline, and Spike had been hatched years earlier than that now. But to Penumbra, this would always be the day that her Number One Assistant was first introduced to her.
Flicking a tendril of magic against Spectra, her blind equivalent of a glance, Penumbra idly wondered what would happen now that Rainbow Dash was no longer here as such. Was destiny going to show its hand? Would someone replace her as the Element of Loyalty and perform a similar display of Pegasus magic to the original Sonic Rainboom? These were all fascinating questions, questions that she would have been eager to find the answers to a world or two ago. But now? Experience had tempered Penumbra with caution.
Penumbra wasn’t sure how to feel about the Elements of Harmony in this new world. On the one hand it would be fascinating to meet her replacement as the Element of Magic, just as it would be to find the replacements for Loyalty and Honesty. But it would be saddening to know that destiny could discard her so easily. And what of Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rarity? Would they be the bearers again? If not, then who would replace them?
"Watch for me," Penumbra said aloud, standing in the centre of her balcony.
"Watch for what?" Spectra asked, stepping in front of her.
That’s a valid question, what are we watching out for? Just anything that might resemble a Rainboom or maybe something else entirely?
It didn’t take long for that question to be answered. The four of them stood there saying nothing for almost a minute until Malus spoke up.
"Ah see somethin’," she said in her country drawl.
Penumbra extended her tendrils of magic to observe the reactions of everypony else around her. Being blind had forced her to learn another way to see what was happening around her. She had learned to use multiple tendrils of magic to feel her way around the same way a blind pony might normally use a cane. Several tentacles roaming near and beneath her searching for trip hazards while she walked, one or two for each of the ponies she was talking to so she could observe their reactions, a few more roving the room to find anything of note. It allowed her to 'see' and it had taken her a long time to master what limited 'sight' she had with just these short distances to grow accustomed to. Anything outside of her immediate area, for example across the room or out the door, was difficult and required more concentration. Slowly she was pushing her boundaries to observe all things in a larger field around herself. Eventually she would see everything in an area the size of the throne room, but for now she was content to observe the larger part of her own bedroom.
With the tendril she had wrapped around Malus, Penumbra noted that the earth pony was pointing a hoof away from the balcony in the general direction of Cloudsdale.
"What do you see?" Penumbra asked.
Malus shrugged. "An orange streak."
"Can you describe it better than that?"
Malus merely shrugged again.
It was always hard to get that pony to say anything.
"Spike can you see it?" Penumbra asked the baby dragon.
The tendril around her number one assistant allowed her to feel him nod as he answered "Yes, it’s a large er… orange streak in the general direction of Cloudsdale. Umm… It’s orange and yellowish in colour and it seems to be breaking apart as it goes. It looks like a larger than usual, but fairly normal, trail a Pegasus might leave when they- Woah!"
Penumbra waited for him to continue, but he appeared to be too stunned to say anything. "Woah?" she repeated it as a question.
"Um…" the baby dragon hesitated before continuing "It just exploded outwards, like… I dunno but it just spread out across the sky like some kind of fire bomb."
Penumbra took a second to process this information. "Fascinating," she muttered to herself.
Destiny had indeed chosen its new element bearers. Except this time, rather than a rainboom, it was something else, some form of 'fireboom' maybe. The blind alicorn could not help but wonder who the pony that had caused the streak was and how it might affect the cutie marks of her three old friends. This might be proof that cutie marks were indeed ordained or destined. More than that, it might mean she had a way to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, at least to herself, that destiny did exist and had a hand to play in the world.
Now she wondered what to do with this information. Should she find Rarity, Pinkie and Fluttershy? Meet them as fillies and 'see' them for herself and maybe try to find the other three new replacement bearers as well. Is their destiny the same as it was before, or have they changed as the rainboom has with the world? As she thought about it, Penumbra realised more and more that if she got involved it would change things, and the future might not turn out as she remembered it. It would never be the same, not exactly, but she wanted these new bearers to have the chance to grow up in the same world she did.
As a goddess, she had a role to play now, and Celestia had never decided to get directly involved in the young bearers’ lives. Even though it was probable that the old alicorn had learned who the bearers were before they themselves did. However, Penumbra could not say so for certain, and she had no doubt that she had yet to master the subtle manipulations that Celestia used regularly. Could she research this without blundering and damaging the frayed tapestry of fate that destiny was so desperately trying to repair in the wake of a world-changing disaster?
The alicorn could order Spike to find the names of all the fillies and colts who had earned their cutie marks this day. Without a doubt she could find the foals that would one day become the key to unlocking the incredible powers of the Elements of Harmony. Penumbra could peek behind the curtains of the universal stage and see the inner workings of destiny, or she could play it safe and try to ensure that things were the way for everypony that they had been for herself as she grew up.
Celestia entrusted me.
And with that thought she was decided.
Penumbra would wait for now, and let fate play its hand.
She turned and headed back into her bedroom. Spectra, Spike and Malus stayed outside to watch fate in action, even if they didn’t know that that was what it was. There were so many things they didn’t know that Penumbra wished she could tell them. She loved Spike like he was family, and really to her he was. That little dragon was pretty much the only thing that had remained constant between her first life as Twilight and this one as Penumbra. Oh, she truly wished that he knew everything and that she could relinquish all her guilt and burdens upon him. But she was not selfish enough to do that to the innocent little one.
She also wished she could tell her two daughters the truth as well, but no, that would not be a good idea. In life, Rainbow Dash had been a short-tempered pony who would hold a grudge; Spectra was even more so. If she ever found the truth, there was little doubt in Penumbra’s mind that the cyan mare would not respond well. Then there was Malus. Often Penumbra didn’t know what to make of Mal. She seemed almost like a polar opposite of Applejack at times. Malus was quiet and reserved where the farm pony had been open and boisterous. The princess constantly hid her feelings, but Applejack had always worn her heart on her sleeve.
Expanding the tendrils she had wrapped around her daughters, Penumbra was overcome by melancholy. How she missed her friends. Not just Rainbow and Applejack, but Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie too. Penumbra would give anything just to spend the day with them. She might even sell her divinity if that wouldn’t mean leaving Equestria without anyone to raise and set the sun. Maybe there was some aspect of Rainbow Dash and Applejack still buried inside Spectra and Malus. Yes, they both looked the same; they were both athletic and strong and had the same coloured coats, manes and eyes. But when you examined them more closely, you began to notice that their appearances were where the similarities ended.
"Penumbra?" Spike asked sounding confused.
Both of them were callous and cruel to their 'mother', where their counterparts where kind and welcoming to an unknown lavender unicorn from Canterlot. Spectra was arrogant and aggressive like Rainbow had been, but even more so and taken to a far greater extreme. Malus was dispassionate and distant when Applejack was down to earth and always giving her all into everything she did. Feeding more magic into her grip on them, Twilight tried to search the two for some aspect of her old friends, some part of their personalities that wasn’t corrupted or wrong. More power swelled into her and she searched harder.
"Penumbra!" the dragon shouted panicking.
If her friends were there she couldn’t find them, not with all her godly powers could she see what she was desperate for. Why couldn’t she find them? Why? What she wouldn’t do to simply sit down over a slice of apple pie with Applejack or to listen to Rainbow inanely recall something about how awesome she was performing some obscure flying feat.
‘Penumbra!’ the dragon’s panicked shouting finally cut through her reverie.
The alicorn turned around. "What is it, Spike? Has the streak changed again?"
"You’re killing them!" he said desperately.
It was then that Penumbra noticed her daughter’s flailing for survival inside of her magical hold. They were suspended in the air, struggling to break free of the magical tendrils that were slowly squeezing the life from them. Letting go suddenly, Penumbra heard the two mares land on the ground. Afraid to touch them with her magic again, Penumbra could only listen to their laboured breathing and Spike trying to aid them.
"What the buck was that?!" screamed Spectra, her voice cracking.
Penumbra didn’t answer. She turned around and walked out the door. Court would be in session soon, and she had better be there for it. Her daughters would be fine. Their supernatural healing would have them back on their hooves soon.
Whether that was a good thing or not was another matter.