//------------------------------// // The Other Way // Story: My Brave Pony: The Knight Who Fell From Space // by Scipio Smith //------------------------------// The Other Way Help! Twilight! Twilight's eyes widened as the message shot through her mind. Pinkie? Help me. Even in her mind Twilight could hear her voice as clear as if her friend were speaking to her...and she could hear the whimper in that voice, the pain, the fear, all of it. Please. Pinkie Pie, what's going on? Twilight demanded, her voice replying to Pinkie's call from across whatever distance separated them. What's going on? I don't... know. Something's happening to me and I don't- DIE! HATE YOU! TEAR YOU! Pinkie? Twilight demanded. Pinkie, what in Celestia's Not me! Pinkie cried. It isn't me, it... there's something inside me and I can't... please, Twilight help. I will, of course I will. It's going to be okay, Pinkie, I promise. Whatever it is, I'll fix it. Where are you? Outside of town. I'm... An image flashed through Twilight's mind, a meadow between Ponyville and the Everfree Forest, a good way off from either Sweet Apple Acres or Fluttershy's cottage. Twilight didn't know exactly what was going on but she thought that distance might be a good thing. Okay, I can find you. Don't worry, Pinkie, I'm coming. Twilight emerged from out of her own mind and into the physical world that lay around her. She could see that Lightning had noticed her distance from him. He was frowning at her in puzzlement. "Twilight?" he said. "Is something wrong?" "Pinkie," Twilight whispered, a shudder of fear in her voice. She'd never heard Pinkie sound scared like that before. She'd never heard Pinkie sound in pain like that before. It was... terrifying, in its own way. She looked at Lightning. "Pinkie Pie just… just spoke to me, telepathically!" Lightning looked askance. "That shouldn't be-" "And she's in trouble," Twilight continued, cutting him off and riding roughshod over him. "She's in real trouble, I have to help her!" She started to run, the gap between Lightning and the doorframe was narrow but Twilight was only a little pony after all, and she was able to get between the two without difficulty as she started to dash away from the library, all four legs pounding upon the ground. "Twilight!" she heard Spike's voice, already growing distant, calling out to her from within the library. "Stay there, Spike!" Twilight yelled back to him, as loudly as she could. She didn't know exactly what was happening with Pinkie, but she did know that until she knew she didn't want Spike to be caught up in something that might be dangerous. That might be an irrational attitude to take - he was tougher than she was in a lot of ways, what with his scales and teeth and general dragon-ness - but she was his big sister, she was allowed to be irrational sometimes when it came to his well-being. Twilight glanced over her shoulder to shout the words that would, she hoped, keep Spike safe at home, and as she called them over her shoulder she saw that Lightning was following her, his own legs thundering upon the ground as he gained more ground on her with every step. "You don't need to come with me," Twilight said, as he drew level with her. "If the alternative is to stand idly by and watch you go into what may be peril," Lightning replied. "Then yes, Twilight, I do need to come with you." "Goodness!" Krysta cried in a voice laced with sarcasm as she caught up with the two ponies, her gossamer wings humming as they beat furiously against the air. "Why, it's almost as if being left behind when someone you care about rushes into danger sucks!" "Krysta-" Lightning began. "You might even say that asking someone to put up with that time and time again is a sucky thing to do by a sucky pony who doesn't deserve an awesome little sister like-" "Krysta!" Lightning said sharply. "Perhaps-" "Not one more word out of your mouth," Krysta said sharply. "This time I'm with you and that's the end of it." Twilight looked away from the pair of them. Perhaps she's right. Perhaps I shouldn't have made Spike stay, without even an explanation. Perhaps I should feel guilty for the way that I treat him at times like this. But I can bear that kind of guilt a lot more easily than I can bear the guilt I'd feel if I let him get hurt. Krysta might want to come with Lightning to whatever awaited them, but Twilight was glad she had bade Spike stay behind. "So," Krysta said. "What am I with you in?" Lightning glanced at Twilight. "I don't know," Twilight admitted. "Except that Pinkie is in some kind of trouble, and I have to help her if I can." "Pinkie?" Krysta repeated. "Count us in then." "We will do all we can," Lightning declared. "Thanks," Twilight murmured. He was still wearing his suit from the gala, she noticed; it might be an absurd thing to notice in the circumstances but she did: he was wearing that same white suit, stained with dust and... blood. Twilight thought of his armour, stowed and stacked in the library, and a part of her wished that he had that on instead. HATE YOU! TEAR YOU! What's going on? Please be okay, Pinkie. They ran - or flew, in the case of Krysta - out of Ponyville, and into the uncultivated meadows that surrounded the town, separating it from the farms that lay a little further beyond and from the Everfree Forest that lay further still. Twilight recognised - or thought she recognised, hoped she recognised - the image that Pinkie had set her; it was on the way to or from Zecora's, and Twilight headed that way with Lightning effortlessly keeping pace and Krysta flying with her humming wings between the two of them. They found Pinkie, out beyond Ponyville, exactly where she had told Twilight to find her. Twilight stopped, her eyes widening and her breath catching in her throat and stared at her friend; Pinkie's body was covered in some sort of muck or ooze, a blackness spreading out across her body, covering more and more of Pinkie's bright pink coat with a layer of oily sludge like tar. It moved slowly, like treacle or molasses, but it was moving indisputably, spreading across Pinkie's body. Already it had covered her left foreleg and shoulder, parts of her face, her hind legs; it had obscured one of the blue balloons of her cutie mark and was threatening to blot out the yellow, too. It was in her mane, and on her face, spreading over ever more of her, consuming her within its black embrace. "Pinkie..." Twilight murmured. "What?" "Twilight," Pinkie moaned, tears springing from one large blue eye as the ichorous black substance surrounded it. "Help... me." "Light and virtue defend us," Lightning muttered. "How in the name of all the gods...?" "Lighting?" Krysta asked. "Do you know what this is? Do you know what's happening to her?" Lightning nodded solemnly. "She is being possessed by a Shard of Darkness." "A what?" Twilight demanded. "A remnant," Lightning said. "A fragment of a being of pure and concentrated evil; hate and anger and all sinful feelings concentrated and given form... and it is overwhelming her." Pinkie roared, as if in answer to his declaration. She roared like a beast, she roared with the voice of the legion, a thousand pained and painful voices mingling in one single chilling cry that split the sky around her. "I WILL KILL! I WILL REND! I WILL TEAR YOUR- No!" Pinkie's voice, high-pitched and frightened, replaced the furious baying of the beast within. "No!" she repeated. "I don't..." Pinkie cringed, her whole body shuddering. She shook her head furiously back and forth, her legs buckling beneath her as though she half-wanted to curl up on herself. "I don't want to hurt anypony! I want do DESTROY ALL THINGS! TURN THIS WORLD TO ASHES! Twlight, please." "Hold on, Pinkie, just a little longer," Twilight said quickly. "If you know what this is then what do we do? How do we fix it?" Lightning's expression was solemn. "I have seen this before," he said. "Although I wish I had not. I know what to do." He closed his eyes, and his blade began to emerge from the midst of a golden pool of light. "Lightning!" Krysta squawked in alarm. "What are you doing?" she demanded, giving voice to Twilight's sentiment exactly. The look upon Lightning's marbled face was pained. "I am releasing her from torment," he said, as Pinkie gave a roar that turned into a mewling cry of pain as she fought for dominance with the evil that consumed her. "By killing her?" Twilight yelled, as she placed herself foursquare between Pinkie and Lightning. "No! No, I won't allow it." "Killing the host also slays the darkness within her," Lightning said. "And it will kill Pinkie Pie, is that what you want?" "Of course not!" Lightning snapped. "But I have seen this before, often enough to know that... there is no other way." "There is always another way," Twilight declared. "You just have to be willing to look for it." Lightning's jaw clenched. "She is fighting valiantly, for now. She is stronger that I would have given her credit for, I will admit; I have seen fierce warriors overthrown by shards far more easily than she. But she will fall and when she does... she… it will kill everything in its path, sparing none, utterly without mercy and it will not stop… unless it is stopped for good. But until or unless that happens there will be terrible slaughter. One single life to avert bloodshed, is that not right?" Twilight stared into his eyes of burning gold. He meant well, she could see; he was earnest in his declarations. He just... he couldn't see how wrong he was. Perhaps because he wasn't wrong. "Perhaps you're right," she murmured. "But that isn't how we do things here. That isn't... how I choose to do things." Lightning's eyes flickered from Twilight to Pinkie, still struggling against the darkness. "Then what will you do?" he asked quietly. That question had been on Twilight's mind already; spells that she could cast, approaches she could take. She thought she had it. It was desperate, and it might not work...but if it did would save Pinkie. She smiled, a smile touched with sadness like a rose kissed by a sudden frost, and craned her neck upwards a little to kiss Lightning Dawn upon the cheek. "You have a good heart, Lightning, I think," she said. "You just... you need to learn what good means in this world, because it seems as though it isn't the same everywhere." "Twilight?" Krysta murmured. "What are you talking about?" Twilight didn't answer. She turned her back on Lightning and Krysta both, and made her way towards Pinkie. Her friend was on the ground, like a dog, legs spread out, body quivering as that horrible black substance spread all over her. Twilight's horn flared, and she could feel it: covering Pinkie, inside Pinkie; Pinkie was struggling, but... but she was losing. "Twilight," Pinkie mewled helplessly. Tears ran from her eyes so innocent to get caught in the folds of sludge that surrounded them. "Help... me... please." "I will help you," Twilight said. "I'm going to save you because... because I'm your friend." Her horn burned brighter than before, a lavender light to shine out across the world, as she seized hold of the darkness and began to pull with all the strength at her command. You possessed Pinkie, right? That means it must be possible for you to unpossess her if you want to! Come on, you want to destroy? You want to do some damage? Can't you tell where the real power is around here? I'm offering myself to you, so what are you waiting for? Twilight pulled with her magic, and at the same time she spoke into Pinkie's mind, half-possessed by darkness, and offered herself as willing sacrifice. And the darkness listened. Half pulled by Twilight's power, half drawn-out by her invitation, the darkness that had had been consuming Pinkie reversed its course, leaving the pink earth pony behind, sloughing off her to reveal coat and mane and cutie mark as it flowed outwards, turning to something more like smoke for a moment as it crossed the distance between Pinkie and Twilight. "No!" Pinkie cried, as she regained awareness and control. "Don't do it! Twilight!" Twilight growled wordlessly as the shard of darkness passed into her. She kept up her spell, she kept up her invitation though so much... hate... so much anger, so much... she had to hold on. She had to get it all out of Pinkie. She didn't know if it was possible for this thing to split but- She hated Pinkie. She hated her so much. She hated all of them! She wanted- No! No, I don't hate my friends, I love them! And you will kill the ones you love first of all. "Pinkie," Twilight growled, and she had no idea how Pinkie had managed to last this long, but her friend was free of the darkness now. It was all gone from her and all in Twilight, all battling for control. Pinkie was free, and staring at her with horror on her sweet face. "Run." I love you so much. Pinkie fled, running towards Ponyville. Twilight smiled, but only briefly; this thing within her would not let her smile. Awkwardly, stiffly, fighting for every motion of her body, Twilight turned to Lightning. "Do it," she whispered. The horror in Lightning's eyes was no less great than that which had been in Pinkie's. "Twilight?" "If you strike me down then it dies, right?" Twilight demanded. "If you kill me then you protect everyone! So do it!" This was the other way, this was her choice. She wouldn't kill her friend, she would not stand by and watch her friend be killed by another; but to give her life for theirs? Yes, that she could do. That she would do. Although it seemed that Lightning could not. "Twilight, I-" "Please," Twilight whispered. "I couldn't bear it if I hurt them." Lightning nodded, or perhaps it was better to say he bowed his head. "You have... you have a brave heart, Twilight Sparkle. I wish... I wish..." He closed his eyes, but his horn glowed golden as he began to swing his sword. "No, don't!" Krysta yelled, as portal ringed with crackling pink light opened underneath Lightning's feet, dropping him down through it sword and all. Krysta dived down through the portal too before it snapped shut, leaving Twilight all alone... with the shard of darkness. Lightning hit the water with a splash that flew up into the face of Krysta as she zoomed through the swiftly closing portal, descending through the air towards him. "Sorry about that," Krysta said apologetically. "This place was the first one that came to mind." Lightning looked around. They were in the stream, not far from Miss Fluttershy's cottage; it was the place where he and Twilight had worked on the dam together. "Krysta," he said. "What are you doing?" "I just stopped you from making a terrible mistake," Krysta declared, fluttering just above the surface of the water. "Where you really going to kill Twilight?" "I was going to strike down a creature of darkness," Lightning replied. "Which was inside Twilight!" Krysta yelled. "Were you really going to do that? Are you going to do that? Are you going to walk on out of this stream, find Twilight and cut her head off or something?" Lightning looked at her. "If I do will you drop me in the river again?" "I ought to!" Krysta shrieked. "You can't just... seriously? Are you seriously going to do this? Is this the kind of person that you've been the entire time and I've just never noticed? Because if so I'm starting to see why Twilight got to so mad at you. I'm feeling pretty mad at you right now! First Pinkie, and then Twilight? Twilight?!" Lightning got up, though he did not climb out of the water; it remained rushing past his fetlocks, tickling his hooves, dripping off his ruined jacket into the stream below. "What would you have me do?" he asked gruffly. "I don't know, anything else!?" Krysta suggested. "There is nothing else!" Lightning snapped. "Do you think that I wanted to do that? Do you think that I want to? Do you think that I wanted to cut down Pinkie Pie after she was so good to both of us, to you especially? Do you think that I want to harm a hair on Twilght's head? I would..." he ran his forehoof over his head and through his birds nest of a mane. "I would give my life for hers, for she is... she is the sort of pony well worth dying for, but... you have not seen what these things can do. The devastation they can wreak if left unchecked. In their natural state they are immortal: blades cut through them and then a moment later they reform whole again; spells pass through them to no effect. Only when they possess someone can they be ended and, yes, that costs the life of the one they are possessing but... there is no other way." "Have you looked for one?" Krysta demanded. She settled her feet upon the bank of the stream. "Or did you just take what the Star Legion told you and believe it as truth?" Lightning was silent for a moment. "If there was a way then it would have been found by now." "Did anyone care enough to look for one?" Krysta asked. "I mean... I'm going to be honest here, if this was someone we didn't know I would probably be all aboard the kill 'em train by now. Next stop beheading woo-woo." Her face fell. "It's not pretty at all... and it's probably what Twilight meant when she said that we needed to learn what good meant in this world-" "She said that to me." "She'd have said it to both of us if she knew me better," Krysta declared. "But... the point is...as bad as it sounds this isn't someone we don't know. This is Twilight Sparkle and I... and I really like her. And I know that you really like her too." "I like her too much to let her suffer this evil," Lightning said. "To force her to harm those whom she loves best." "Then don't," Krysta said. "But... Twilight said there was always another way. So find it! That's our job, to find the other way, for her. To find the way that lets us save the day while saving Twilight too." "There is-" Lightning stopped. He looked down at his pocket. The breast pocket that still contained the yellow Prism Stone Celestia had given him. He could feel the power within it, and more importantly he could feel something else too, almost a consciousness towards which he could stretch out his mind. Who are you? My name is Lightning Dawn, a pony of Equestria. And for what purpose wouldst thou wield my power? To save a friend, if I can. How wouldst thou do it? Can you draw out a Shard of Darkness? The consciousness, or that which felt like a consciousness bound within the Prism Stone, was silent a moment. Draw it from its victim? Yes. But destroy it in that form? No, I have not that power. Don't worry, I have an idea about that. "I may have an idea," Lightning said. "It will save Twilight, but... it is not without sacrifice." Krysta's overly large eyes narrowed a little. "Meaning?" "Meaning this is a road down which you cannot follow," Lightning said solemnly. He expected Krysta to argue with him, but she did not. She simply became very still, as if his words had turned her into stone. She looked at him for a moment, expression inscrutable. Then she said, "What do you have in mind?" The beast that had been Twilight Sparkle slouched towards Ponyville. It would kill them all. Every last one of them. It would kill them all and it would rejoice in the slaughter. It hated them. It hated them all because hatred was all that burned within this heart now; it knew nothing of love, or friendship, compassion or mercy. It knew only hate and a wrath that could not be sated no matter how it tried. They had tried to lock it away. They had stuck it in a vial like a potion and then they had put it in a box and forgotten about it! No matter, it was free now, free and in possession of a young, strong host, an adept of the magical arts, and with such gifts it would try and sate its rage upon the world. It would fail, because it was driven by a fury that could not be sated, but in the meantime it would delight in the screams of the dying and that blood that would fall like rain upon its dark form. It hated them. It hated them because they were not it and because they were not it they would pay for their difference with their lives. It would start with Pinkie Pie, its prior host. It had traded her for this new body with her magical prowess, but Pinkie had left an impression on it for the zeal with which she had fought a losing battle against its might. Twilight Sparkle had not resisted half so much, nor half so well and not even the fact that Twilight had invited it in could explain the difference. It wondered why Twilight had taken that step. Why invite herself to be its host instead of Pinkie Pie? It was not in admiration of its majesty; it could sense Twilight's horror and powerless disgust from where she had been shoved to the back of her mind - its mind now. Perhaps she had thought that she could withstand it, triumph over it in a battle of wills. Sheer hubris! It had once been part of a darkness that had swallowed stars, a darkness that had swept through space, a darkness that had made worlds tremble! That was before. No longer. It did not hear the song. It did not hear the call of the Shards. It could not hear them inviting it to join them with, to become again part of a greater whole. It was alone. Perhaps it was the last, or perhaps it was simply so far afield as to be lost, forgotten abandoned. Either way it knew itself to be alone, and being alone it knew that it would surely perish. Perhaps... it dug through Twilight Sparkle's memories... Princess Celestia, ruler and protector of this land; perhaps she would be the one to finish it. Or perhaps its hosts own friends would do the deed. They would likely try - unless they were afflicted by an attack of that same conscientious foolishness that had afflicted its own host - which was why it meant to kill them first, if it could. Then it would kill the children. It would die, but it would wreak merry havoc before the end and sat a little of its rage against all things that were not it. Hate them, tear them, rend them, kill them. Kill them all. "Twilight, stop!" It stopped, not because it had been commanded but because it recognised that voice. It belonged to... Lightning Dawn. The name sprang from out of Twilight Sparkle's memories. Few memories, but the sound of his voice made her feel... hope. Yes, hope stirred in her where she lay confined, struggling in futility, and it found that amusing. What had she to be hopeful for? Did she hope for death at the hands of this Lightning Dawn? He was the one who had fled rather than slay her earlier. It was prepared for death but not quite yet. It would kill this Lighting Dawn first of all, and rob Twilight Sparkle of her hope. It turned. It was indeed Lightning Dawn, dressed in dirty, slightly bloodstained white, accompanied by his familiar who was no pony at all but a beast with hands and feet and fluttering wings. Krysta. Her name was Krysta. A memory of Twilight Sparkle's stirred. It must be sure to kill her second, or Lightning's wrath would be so terrible that he would strike it down, possibly before even Krysta had perished. He had a strange power it must be wary of. It faced him, mangling Twilight Sparkle's darkened face into a sneering scowl. "Have you found your courage, Prince Lightning Dawn?" "I was given a much needed corrective to my values," Lightning replied. "To something you would more approve of, Twilight." It snarled. "There is no Twilight here! There is only darkness and death!" "Then why does death and darkness wear Twilight Sparkle's face?" Lightning demanded. "Why does your darkness her fair form befoul? Why does her magic darkness crave and need?" It shrieked. "I need nothing. With a filly for my host I would rend cover this world in blood... this host is apt for my black purposes and yet I need her not. Speak not to me or need or I will rip your throat out with my teeth." "Better than you have spoke so bold, and dared so dangerous, and failed," Lightning replied. "You will not besmirch Twilight's teeth with blood, nor her hooves with deeds of wickedness, you have my word." "And you will stop me?" It demanded. "Where is your sword?" "I need it not, to deal with you," Lightning said proudly, and his pride was infuriating. It drew upon Twilight Sparkle's power, the power that it had rested from its own which it blasted at Lightning Dawn in a great surge, the lavender light of Twilight's magic polluted with black smudges like dirty water as the beam flew like a spear towards Lighting Dawn. A portal, a hole in the air, was torn and through that hole the beam of magic passed, disappearing into a void of cold, dark nothingness that swallowed up the stolen magic whole. Its beam died, and the rent in space that had absorbed the beam was closed, revealing Lightning Dawn once more where he had been, standing still unmoving. Except now his horn glowed with a golden light, not to attack nor to cast any spell but to hold up before him a stone of brilliant yellow the size of a duck's egg, a stone that in its own right glowed with magic even as did Lightning's horn. There was power in it. It could sense that power across the distance that separated them, and that power both entranced and repelled it. It entranced it because it desired power, the power to hurt, the power to do harm, the power to protect itself against those who would do it harm; it repelled it because it sensed that this power was not for it, was inimical it, that this power was as fiercely of the light as it was of the dark. This power in the yellow stone called to it as a like and repelled it as an opposite. And that power that attracted and dismayed in equal measure was growing in intensity just as the light that shone from the stone was getting bright and brighter until it threatened to outshine the sun. It turned away, cringing, flinching, shaking in horror, yelling in pain. What was happening? Why did the light burn it so? Was this an attack? Was Lightning Dawn seeking to burn Twilight Sparkle into ashes and it with it? No... no! It felt itself being pulled, as Twilight had pulled it, only this time without an invitation. It was being ejected from its host! Twilight Sparkle, sheltering in the dusty alcoves at the back of her mind, did not know what to make of this, as the power that had overthrown her, held her captive, taken her mind and body for their own were suddenly weakening, weakened, wrenched out of her, torn away in spite of all its efforts to hold on no! No! It would not go! This host was too apt! It would not be torn away! It was torn away, wrenched out of Twilight Sparkle's form, left to gaze upon the dazed astonished look upon her frightful face as it was torn out of her body and left to roam, a cloud of darkness, in the free air. It seethed with rage as it turned upon Lightning Dawn, the architect of these offences. It knew not what he had done with his wretched stone, but it knew that such power as he had would not protect him. It flew towards him, shrieking in anger; it would take his body then, and burn Twilight Sparkle with his murderous fire and Krysta too and all the rest! It closed in on him, tendrils of smoke like aged fingers outstretched to take him for its own. "Now, Krysta!" Lightning cried, and the little Krysta did something with her hands before a portal opened up underneath Lightning Dawn's feet, portal through with he fell, wings unfurled to slow his descent but yet he fell into the cold and the darkness and the nothing. So, this was their plan! They through to drag it into the void where nothing dwelt! Where it could harm none! Fools! It began to fly upwards, and out of danger. The yellow stone in Lightning's magical embrace glowed once more. No! It shrieked as it felt itself being pulled downwards, caught in the grip of a power greater than its own. It writhed, it squirmed, it pulled with all its might; it struggled, it shouted, it howled and stretched out its tendrils all to no avail. It was pulled down and down, through the portal which gaped like a maw to receive it; down it fell, the darkness, down into the deeper dark, and the cold, and the nothing. Twilight knelt in a dark recess of her own mind and wept. Or would have wept if she had tears within her mind, she wasn't quite sure how it worked. She felt like weeping. Lightning had let her down. There was no getting around that. Lightning had let her down, or Krysta had, either way. She had been relying upon him to do what had to be done, to finish her before she finished any of her friends...and yet it appeared that her last admonition to him had worked too well for he had not finished her. Rather had had abandoned her, left her to suffer as this darkness had overthrown her will with astonishing ease. The resistance that Pinkie Pie had made against its power and its dark appetites had proven utterly beyond Twiight. It had taken her body, it had take her magic, it had coated her in the outer proof of its inner villainy and all she could do was crouch in some forgotten dust corner of her mind, unsure if she even wanted to be aware of what was going on outside. She told herself that she was marshalling her strength, that when the time came she would fight back, that she would resist rather than let this monster in her skin hurt any of her friends or any other innocent pony in Ponyville... but she knew at the same time that she would not prevail; she had not prevailed to stop its conquest, she would not now prevail to take back what had once been hers. In less dire circumstances she would have been intrigued or amused or possibly both by the fact that her mind resembled a library; at present, as she crouched amidst the stacks that saw the least amount of us, she couldn't even muster the interest to know which particular part of her mind this was. She could feel the darkness within, she could hear it moving around her mind, knocking over shelves helping itself to all her knowledge. She could feel it planning to hunt down her friends lest they hurt it, and the worst part was Twilight's own feeling that they would not hurt it because they could not bring themselves to hurt her. It thought that Princess Celestia might kill it, and it didn't seem to mind provided it got to wreak some mayhem first. Twilight didn't know what to make of a creature that thought like that. Where would she even begin reasoning with it? She did pity it, a little, but kept that to herself lest it rouse the darkness within to yet greater heights of fury. And then she heard Lightning's voice. She heard his voice and hope - albeit hope of the strangest sort - began to bloom in her, drawing the mockery of the darkness that possessed her. Its mockery had turned to shrill protesting cries as something - it took Twilight a moment to realise that this was the power of the yellow Prism Stone that Lightning had come to Equestria in search of - began to pull it out of her. At first she had not been able to believe it, as she felt the darkness grappling for purchase within her mind, heard it shriek in outrage; at first she had thought it a trick, a way to make her feel hope and then snatch it away again. But then she had begun to feel her strength return to her, she had felt her body and her mind becoming her own again, felt the darkness departing and she had stretched for her returning strength to push it out the rest of the way. Her thoughts were her own, her form was her own, she felt the breeze upon her cheeks once more, she saw out of her own eyes. She saw out of her own eyes as the shard of darkness rounded upon Lightning in a fury, flying through the air towards him. And she watched through her own eyes as Lightning dropped through a portal that Krysta had made, dragging the shard of darkness with him. Twilight stared, open mouthed, as the two of them vanished from her sight. "Where... where does the portal come out?" she asked tremulously. "Nowhere," Krysta said, her voice sad. "It's... the void. It's the place you pass through when portalling like I do. It's cold and dark and there's nothing... Lightning and I, we almost...got stuck there when I was kind of new at this. He said... it was the only place that thing couldn't hurt anyone." Twilight's eyes were wide. "You mean he..." "Soon," Krysta admitted. "Probably. I don't know how we're going to live there for long." "We?" Twilight repeated. "Krysta?" Krysta grinned. "I'm his little sister, through thick and thin. It was really nice knowing you, Twilight. And I mean that for both of us." "Krysta, don't-" Twilight began, but it was too late, Krysta had dropped down into the portal to nowhere. It closed behind her, leaving no evidence that the little fairy, or the gallant knight who fell from space, had ever been. "Don't go," Twilight murmured. Uncontrollably, Twilight Sparkle started to sob. She was still sobbing when her friends found her sometime later. "TWILIGHT!" Pinkie yelled, slamming into her with such force the two rolled over and over one another as Pinkie wrapped her forehooves around Twilight's neck. "YOU'RE OKAY!" Pinkie shrieked, and she was crying too, her tears falling warmly upon Twilight's cheek. "You're okay," she repeated, in a tone that was quieter but more tender. "I was afraid that... I was worried that you..." Twilight returned the embrace. "I'm okay, Pinkie. Everything is... I’m okay." "I must say, darling, you gave us quite the scare," Rarity declared as she, and the rest of Twilight's friends, followed along behind. "Pinkie had us all worried with the story that she had to tell about darkness and hatred and all other very ghastly things." "I didn't make it up," Pinkie insisted. "It's all true." Twilight nodded. "Pinkie really was attacked by something-" "Not something, someone," Pinkie insisted. "Raven threw that thing in my face, and then suddenly it was getting inside of me and taking me over-" "I'll throw something in her face if I see her around here again," Rainbow growled. "Get in line, sugarcube," Applejack drawled. "So is it also true that you took that bad stuff out of Pinkie and took it in yourself, Twilight?" "Yeah," Twilight admitted. "Not my smartest move, but it felt right at the time." Applejack snorted. "Eeyup, that sounds about right considering I don't know whether to call you a darn straw-headed fool or one of the bravest mares I ever met. That does leave one question, though." "Are you okay, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked. "I mean, what happened to the thing that you absorbed from Pinkie?" "It's gone," Twilight said. "Lightning saved me." "Lightning?" Rainbow asked sceptically. "But Lightning was going to-" Pinkie began. "Lightning saved me," Twilight repeated. "He drew it out of me using the Prism Stone, and then took it where it couldn't hurt anyone else any more." "Then where is he now?" Fluttershy murmured. "Yeah, or Krysta?" Pinkie added. Twilight closed her eyes. "They... Lightning and Krysta, they... they're gone. In order... in order to send that thing away... they had to go away themselves." "Go away?" Pinkie repeated. "Go away where?" "Somewhere... somewhere I can't follow," Twilight whispered. At least... not yet.