//------------------------------// // Once upon a time // Story: Tale of a Comet: White Light // by Ashfur //------------------------------// "Papa, papa! Can you tell us a bedtime story?" Two young foals looked on expectantly from their beds, eyes wide with anticipation as they awaited the stallion's response. He chuckled. "You two are going to be the death of me one of these days with all that cute, you know that?" Asked their father. "But I suppose I can tell you one. Excitable little foals such as yourselves do tend to sleep better if they get a bedtime story, after all. Tell me, which one should I tell you? Frogs on a picnic? Little Blossom's rainy day? Or-" "We want the story of Astral Comet!" Both shouted. "That old story, huh?" The stallion mused, gazing out the window. "I haven't told that one in a while. Well, if I recall correctly, it goes something like this. Ahem..." So many stories begin with a prophecy, a foal destined from birth to vanquish some ancient evil. With our cutiemarks, destiny is all the more ingrained in our stories. But the story of Astral Comet, the great shooting star of hope, starts out a little differently. There never was a prophecy, the evil was never ancient, and while the adventure is all too real, it started with the dream of a child... "It's over, Terminatus! I've won, give up. With the power of the stars, I will defeat you, and everything can go back to the way it should be!" A young boy, no older than twelve years old, stood against his eternal rival. The child clenched his fists tightly as a haunting wind blew at the edges of his white robe. The multicolored trim of the garment reflected the gaze of what could only be described as a monster. Across the orange tiled floor, the only other occupant of the throne room stood, watching. His body covered in a cloak made of shadows, most of the creature was blocked from view, but the child would recognize its face anywhere. In place of a head, Terminatus had a golden mask in the shape of an triangle, which was split from left to right like a beak revealing rows of sharp teeth. Three golden spikes protruded from the top of the mask, giving it the shape of a mouse cursor on a computer pointed straight down. But the most striking and terrifying feature were his eyes, or at least eyeholes, a total of 7 arranged in a V shape and a glowing red gem in each pitch black hole acting as the pupil. Grinning, he wordlessly extended a horrifying claw made of rusty, bloody chains from his cloak and beckoned the boy forward. In a dark, distorted voice, he simply taunted, "Go ahead and try, Boy." "If that's how you want it, fine!" The young human assumed a fighting stance, readying himself for the incoming fight. As he always had, he rushed forward, crying out "Boss Battle! ENGAGE!" Terminatus tossed aside his cloak, revealing a mess of flesh and metal, but still humanoid in shape, and lunged forward, claws at the ready. The child was quick to meet him, summoning forth a greatsword made of lightning to strike back at the beast. The grating sound of metal grinding against metal filled the hall as sword met claw again and again, the echoes bouncing of the walls and the massive abstract stained glass window behind the throne. Terminatus dodged left, shooting a metal chain straight at the boy, latched onto his weapon and pulled the greatsword out of his hands. Undeterred, the young child let loose with every weapon in his arsenal. Fire rained from the skies, tidal waves flooded the room, illusions allowed for strikes from the shadows. Little by little Terminatus showed signs of wear and exhaustion, but it simply wasn't enough. It never would be enough, not without using that. Outraged by the creature still standing before him, the boy relented. Impaling Terminatus on a massive icicle, he took a mighty leap to the top of the steps in front of the throne, he lifted his arms skyward as seven 4-pointed stars began to circle him, one for each color of the rainbow. "Like I said, Terminatus, it's over! This bad dream has ended, and it's time for me to wake up and be with my family! FIRE! EARTH! LIGHTNING! PLANT! ICE! WATER! DARKNESS! The seven stars will seal you back away, and you'll be nothing more than a memory!" To the boy's surprise, Terminatus laughed. Well, more like he opened his mouth and a very disturbing sound came out, but he knew it was laughter. "You think you've won, Boy? That your own imagination is enough to beat me? You've been playing too many video games, that doesn't work here. You think-" He coughed up a dark fluid, still impaled on the icicle. "You think I'm just a dream? That therapist your family got you doesn't know anything, but I don't care anymore. It's time I went back to my world. Yes, this battle is over. This 'Bad dream' is over..." The glass behind the boy shattered, and only darkness lay beyond the window. Darkness and two massive, glowing red eyes, followed by hundreds more. "But the nightmare is just beginning." Before he could react, a wave of shadows engulfed the child. Terrified, he felt the inky blackness overwhelm his senses. He desperately tried to grasp at the stars he was so confident would win him the day, but he could feel them slowly slipping out of his control. He was going to die here, he thought. He would never wake up back on Earth, never see his family. But he wouldn't go quietly, he thought. As the mass of dark energy left his mind in a void of emptiness, moving on to some other place, He promised that he would not stop until it was gone for good. The seven stars heard his promise, and used the last of their connection with him to send the boy after the shadowy monster, before following suit into the deep recesses of the mind where dreams and other worlds connect. As he was flung through the void on his chase against his foe, the boy felt the stars leave him but smiled knowing that he wasn't going to die today. Holding onto that tiny spark of hope, his only light in the darkness, he fell into a peaceful slumber as the eighth star, the White star of Hope, was born.