//------------------------------// // Kindness // Story: Darling // by Pickleless //------------------------------// To have an air of honesty that allows somepony to believe that you care for them, even when their mind screams it's foolish insanity.   Appreciating the beauty and showing kindness to all things, even creatures that antagonize you, that look like a mismatch of dangerous animals...   A open-minded heart full of humility and laughter. To realize it's rather funny to get obsessed with the idea that a tree is trying to kill you.   Having the generosity and strength of heart to make a large personal sacrifice, even when others would deem it unnecessary and frown upon it for being foolish.   Showing loyalty to those who love and value you for who you are, rather than those would use you for your potential, then leave you behind to perish.   Twilight turned to look at the other Element Bearers. "I felt it the moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see you, how much I cared about you! The spark ignited inside me, when I realize that you all... were my friends!"   Darling summoned the final element, presenting it to Twilight.   An unstoppable, horrible force, will never defeat us when we all work together in harmony!   Twilight smirked at the dark alicorn. "You see Nightmare Moon, when those elements are ignited by the,” Twilight hesitated, “the spark, that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth element, the element that resides in us all! The Element of..."   Friendship!   "Magic!"   Close enough!   Darling poured power back into the elements as all six of the bearer's hearts were in unity. The six of them rose and thought We'll stop Nightmare Moon, together in harmony! To Darling, 'Nightmare Moon' might as well have been synonymous with 'the Parasite' In unity, the six shot a rainbow blast at Nightmare Moon. I'm at full power, in complete unity, absolute harmony, Darling thought, there is nowhere left for you to run, you won't drain Luna or escape into one of my bearers! I'll make sure of it! A swirling blast of rainbow surrounded the dark alicorn.   "No!" Nightmare Moon cried, "NOOOO!!"   Darling finally did it. She didn't sense it in Luna, nor in Celestia who was nearby. It wasn't in Twilight or any of her friends. It seems like it was gone for good. This was the most wonderful she ever felt in her life! It was as if her whole body was on fire, no, made of fire. She felt as she could take on anything right there and then. Euphoria was suddenly replaced by paranoia as her she focused on Twilight and her friends.   This was too easy, the Parasite couldn't just be gone, it had to have gone somewhere. Was it Twilight? She was the key in keeping the other five together, drive her insane and the others would leave. No, that would be too predictable, it had to be Celestia, even when under stress she kept that serene smile! It thought it could pull a fast one on her, but she's watching all of them! She wouldn't, no, couldn't rest until she found out what happened to the Parasite.     As the days went by, Darling went from angry, to miserable, to exhausted. Perhaps it was post traumatic stress from dealing with the Parasite, but she couldn't shake the paranoia that it was still alive and trying to get her somehow. She hadn't made any progress in finding it, and that was driving her insane. Celestia showed no signs of being possessed, she had been happier than she ever was throughout the last millennia. Despite some unsettling nightmares, Luna was doing fine too. There was a day Darling was sure the Parasite finally made a move. Twilight showed signs of rapid sanity loss, worrying about not writing a friendship report in time. Unfortunately that came from Twilight herself. There were other such moments with her friends, like when Pinkie started a conversation with animate objects about how all her friends were terrible, but all of them turned out to be false leads.   She knew it was out there somewhere, perhaps it possessed a squirrel or something. She spent a good while scanning the forest over and over, and yet she could not find any signs of the thing. She couldn't help but fear it escaped the forest and was on the move, trying to avoid her. What if it went after Discord? After all the effort to expel it from him without it taking his life, she wasn't sure she could handle losing Discord again, she hadn't even truly gotten him back.   For being a silent killer, subtlety was not it's specialty. The Parasite had never hidden before, it never needed to, whoever it possessed seemed unaware they were ill, no matter how obvious. The thing would inhabit in its host and absorb its’ power without a care in world. Even while possessing other creatures, it usually sat right under her proverbial nose. So, with all that she knew about it, for being able to trace all of its patterns and signals, for knowing exactly what to look for in a creature, why could Darling no longer find the Parasite? A part of her deep down dared to dream for a second that it might be truly gone for good.   Darling felt as if her heart stopped as Discord, of all creatures, took hold of the elements. From trying to connect with him, she sensed he had no good intentions in mind. Did her worst fear come true? Did Discord get possessed once more? Darling's heart desperately tried to soothe Discord and convince him to stop causing chaos, but she couldn't filter out her sorrow. Her distress seemed to work in her favor as eventually Discord stopped messing with Ponyville for a minute and took the time to teleport to her.   "Goodness dear, you look positively dreadful! Whatever is the matter?" He smiled, leaning back in a floating lawn chair.   Darling wanted to beg him to stop all this, but she was overwhelmed with a sense of bitter contempt. She worked so hard to save his life, to free him from that parasite and this is what he chose to do. With a flash of anger she focused all her energy she had available and shot it at him.   Discord flailed around in the air for a second as a prism bolt zapped him in the rear. "Well I never! I come all the check up on you, and this is the thanks I get?" He pointed his nose upward, crossing his arms.   Darling was mortified, she didn't mean to have an outburst like that. She wanted to apologize for shocking him, but every time she tried to muster a feeling of remorse, bitter pride took it's place.   "Well if this is how things are going to be between us, then I suppose I'll see myself out, good day madam!" Discord disappeared with a poof.   Darling couldn't believe herself, why didn't she try to reach out to him? Why did she have to act so hostile and cold towards him? She wallowed in self hatred and misery for a good hour until she felt something choking her. Twilight tried to use the elements replacing Rainbow Dash with Spike. To her, nothing happened, but to Darling it felt like the energy for a full blast was brought to the edge of her branches. The energy stayed there, swarming around the inside of her body, making her tips feel as if they burning. She wished for a mouth to cry out in pain with.   She sat there and silently suffered, unsure if she had the strength to do another blast. Twilight managed to get Rainbow Dash back and was preparing to take down Discord. She didn’t want to hurt her little rogue. Darling suppressed her grief and helped Twilight do the only thing she knew could contain Discord without harming him.   She turned him back to stone.   Darling blacked out from the pain.     Darling stopped trying to manage the forest. She couldn't muster the attention span to do so. She was too tired all the time now, with the exception of holding back the seeds and keeping creatures and plant life from spreading outside the forest, anything was fair game now. Troubling things kept happening at an alarming rate outside the Everfree. The most concerning to Darling that recently happened was a changeling army tried to take over Canterlot with sheer brute force. It scared her how little she could help at the moment.   She couldn't even help herself…     Darling tried her best not to think about it, but it may be time to come to terms with the fact that she was dying. Her lack of strength must be due to old age, she had lived a very long time. She was hoping to spend at least a little  bit of that time with Discord, but it was not meant to be.   Darling felt Celestia take the elements. This confused her, as Celestia never touched the Elements of Harmony without good reason. What Darling overheard filled her with hope, they wanted to try and reform Discord. Just the idea of using the elements felt like torture, but Darling mustered the strength to free Discord from his prison. She didn't have faith in much anymore, but she chose Twilight and her friends for a reason. They were able to stop Nightmare Moon, and they supposedly destroy the parasite. If anyone could help her little rogue, it would be those six.   As much as Darling wanted to give the situation her full attention she simply couldn’t. Before using the elements to turn Discord back to stone it was only a couple hours, now she had to rest for over half a day usually. Sleep was a welcome change for her as she entered a somewhat dreamless state while inactive. If death would be similar to when she rested, then dying wouldn't be so terrible.   When she came to, she felt a large amount of chaos magic, the Element Bearers must have failed. She wasn't sure she would survive summoning another blast of the Elements of Harmony. Darling accepted this would probably be the last time she used the elements to seal Discord, or do anything for that matter. As much as she tried to come to peace with the matter, she couldn't help but feel afraid. She wondered if this was how Frost felt in the last moments of her life, remember one of her first friends filled her with a sense of guilt and failure. At least she could pass away knowing she put a stop to the Parasite.   All the Chaos magic came to an abrupt end. Confused, She tried to sense what had happened through the others when she learned that Fluttershy had convinced Discord to give friendship a chance. Darling was overjoyed, Discord could finally be free. She may not have much time left, but she was determined to see Discord once more and let him know how she truly felt. She looked at him once more through Fluttershy, he was smiling at her, and she was smiling back.   ...   That spineless backstabbing hussy.   Dirty floozy disgusting little tramp!!   She spent thousands of years trying to save him, doing her best to keep all of Equestria safe and this is thanks she gets?! To hell with Equestria, they can keep god of chaos and princesses, Darling doesn't need them! The stupid forest can spread over the whole world for all she cares, and the plunderseeds can grow and spread right towards Fluttershy and Discord's stupid little LOVE SHACK!     Darling awoke surrounded in light. Power was filling her body, yet she herself felt very strange. Many times in the past she was able to watch over ill patients who prayed to her for relief, her mind was like theirs right then, heavily medicated, slow, drowsy, numb. With clinical detachment she burned away the Plunderseeds' vines strangling her body and threatening Ponyville. The seeds gave a final bout of resistance, continuing to trap Celestia and Luna. With a flick of her magic Darling burned off the last of vines with a colorful glow.   Twilight ran forward and hugged the two alicorns.   "We know how difficult it must have been for you to give up the Elements. It took great courage to relinquish them," Celestia praised Twilight.   With a sense of indifferent curiosity, Darling felt an enormous amount of stored energy flow down from the base of body, touching the cutie mark imprinted along the way and lighting up each one. A flower bloomed from her root, reminding her of the fruit her mother made containing her strength and Darling. Inside the sealed flower was a box containing all of her power now. Warning bells went off in the back of her conscious as something felt very familiar about all this. Fortunately for Darling, she was more in a state of auto-pilot, and the elements attached to her altered the box to have six key holes before the flower opened.   The flower bloomed, and the three alicorns walked up and stared at the box in awe.   "What's inside it?" Twilight asked the two sisters. "How am I supposed to open it?"   "Six locks, six keys." Luna commented.   Twilight and Luna looked at Celestia for answers.   "I do not know where they are." Celestia began to trot away. "But I do know that it is a mystery you will not be solving alone."   All of Twilight's friends smiled at her. She joined them, and the group of ponies started to make their way out of the forest.   Darling quietly stood tall, for once feeling the same on the inside as she did on the outside.   Inanimate.