//------------------------------// // A Tale of Two Destinies // Story: The Shadow and the Star // by Misty Shadow //------------------------------// Light and darkness…the stories tell that one can not exist without the other…this is one of those stories, where most of Equestria knows this, and can sense that after death, their energies will coalesce into either a star or a shadow, becoming one with either light or darkness… Those who carry out the will of the light while they are alive become one with the stars after death, and those who carry out the will of the darkness while they are alive will become one with the creations of the void. Light is not necessarily good, and darkness is not necessarily evil. The destruction the void brings is a product of hopelessness, though it is far more often the darkness that spreads hopelessness, the will of the void to the world. Light far more often spreads hope, thus the two forces will always be in conflict. Sometimes, the darkness will win. The void will take away those we love through death. But the light gives us a chance to create something everlasting to share with others through life. This is what gives the light, and in turn, our lives, purpose. The power of light is the power to create something from the void. All of these things are known by Twilight Sparkle’s friends. Unfortunately, now, however, they have died. For our story begins many years following Twilight Sparkle’s ascension to the throne, assuming her role as the leader of Equestria, where her friend whose kindness allowed her to comprehend these things best has been called to the great beyond… Inside Fluttershy’s cottage, tears were falling to the floor while two of Fluttershy’s closest friends were sniffing and sobbing… “I can’t believe this…she’s actually gone…” Princess Twilight Sparkle and Discord were crying their eyes out over Fluttershy’s bed alongside all of her animals, a motley crowd that included creatures of all kinds from bunnies to flamingoes. Fluttershy had died. Twilight despondently used her magic to pull the cover she was under over her head as a way to show respect to the last of her five closest friends to depart from this mortal plane. “How did this happen?” a mournful Twilight had asked herself in thought with a heavy heart at Fluttershy’s funeral, which was held before she was buried alongside Twilight’s other friends, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity. She was now standing by where all of her friends were buried, staring at their tombstones as if she was mesmerized, an hour passing by in her mind as if it were only a few minutes. “How could all my friends leave me like this?” she asked herself another difficult question her heart had trouble taking. “I knew it had to happen one day…and that the pain was going to be unbearable…but why like this? I just know they could’ve lived longer…but instead they’ve all died the same death…they all passed away only months apart from each other…it’s as if this was planned by unseen forces…” Twilight was referring to the fact that each one of her friends had died of a heart attack in their sleep. Despite the fact that none of them had shown any signs of illness or serious condition before their passing, they had still left her while they still should have had some time left. In spite of that, every several months, each one of them would go to bed, then not wake up the next day. “I knew that having to endure this was my inevitable fate, possessing immortality…” she thought somberly. “And I’m glad that they all went peacefully, but…now that it’s actually happened…no, even just remembering how it played out…” Applejack had been the first to go. Her death devastated her still living siblings when it happened, yet Big McIntosh and Apple Bloom quickly recuperated, knowing that Applejack would’ve wanted them to move on. They knew it wouldn’t be long before they too would meet their fallen family relatives in the stars. One of Twilight’s friends, however, did not take it as well… Rainbow Dash was especially upset. Pinkie Pie had tried to cheer her up despite being sad herself, but Rainbow took it the wrong way as a lack of consideration and yelled at her, leading the two to get into a fight. They later apologized to each other, but their relationship was not the same after that. After Rainbow died, Pinkie lost her appetite for sweets, developing a habit for baking cakes, not to indulge in or give to any pony, just to decorate and let sit on the counter. Her Pinkie sense said her time was coming, after all. Her eventual death was not taken as well by her family as Applejack’s. By then, both of Pinkie’s parents were already dead, and while Applejack’s family farm still succeeded financially, the finances of Pinkie’s family farm plummeted, and most of her relatives still suffer from chronic depression. Rarity was the last to go before Fluttershy. Sensing that she was destined to suffer the same fate as her other friends, she entrusted her business to Coco Pommel and spent her last days of mortal life preparing dresses for Coco, Fluttershy, and Twilight, in addition to a will that allowed Spike to inherit her most prized gem, the one he gave her that day he confessed his crush to her… Once Rarity had passed away, Fluttershy knew she was next. She wore the dress Rarity had made for her every day out of respect, spending her last days of mortal life taking especially good care of her animals and devotedly practicing meditation. On the day before she took her final rest, she was discussing the things her meditation had awakened her to with Discord. She told him that her friends dying the same way in succession was no coincidence, that they were being called to the stars by the will of the light… “Please tell Twilight…to believe in us if we are called to do something she won’t understand…” Discord had told Twilight what Fluttershy had relayed to him at her funeral. “The light works in mysterious ways…but you must not lose hope…hope gives the light power and darkness is needed for us to grow stronger too…but hopelessness will only give power to the void…” “What did she mean by that?” Twilight asked with concern. “I’m not certain…” Discord answered, disillusioned and with equal concern. “But I have a theory. Do you know why I did something as dubious as bringing back all those villains to test you?” “Yes?” Twilight replied. “Neither do I.” Discord told her solemnly, surprising her. “I was just doing what came to me naturally at the time. As the spirit of chaos, it is in my nature to disrupt the order of the light. However, I can only go as far as the powers that be allow me to. If the light willed it, I could disappear from this world right this moment. If only I was the one the light had allowed the darkness to take…” “So that time when you brought back King Sombra…” Twilight said in reminisce. “Could you only do so then because the light allowed you to?” “I’ve never had the power to bring back the dead, if that’s what you’re alluding to.” Discord gave her another solemn response that she had this time somewhat expected. “Sombra was not dead, only dispelled. As he is now…” Twilight stood silent, even though she had also somewhat expected this too. Deep down inside, she always knew that the light of her friendship couldn’t truly destroy another pony, not even one as evil as Sombra. She even felt a sense of relief…before a dark thought dawned on her… “You don’t think…” she murmured, worried. “That Sombra has something to do with this, do you?” “I doubt it.” Discord blankly replied to dispel her fears. “I was actually incapable of bringing him back after you and your friends dispelled him for the second time. The first time he was defeated, his particles had been scattered into the ether. The second time, he had actually been banished to the moon.” “How can you be so sure he has nothing to do with this?” Twilight asked, unconvinced. “Before we dispelled Sombra for good, we blasted him with the Elements, causing his body to disintegrate. Yet he was still capable of returning. And if Nightmare Moon was able to escape from the moon, why can’t Sombra?” “Remember that Nightmare Moon did not free herself from the moon.” Discord reminded her. “It was the stars that aided in her escape.” Twilight then recalled what Big McIntosh and Apple Bloom had said about meeting their late relatives in the stars, putting it together with what Discord had told her about what Fluttershy had said…and felt a disturbing premonition… She took a deep breath, practicing the breathing technique Cadance had taught her decades ago to try and relax herself. “Keep it together, Twilight…” she told herself in thought. “There’s no way my friends would ever help Sombra…let alone allow themselves to be killed by him.” “Twilight…” Discord interjected, reading her thoughts. “You shouldn’t doubt your friends for a second. You can’t allow yourself to be consumed by irrational thought, even in this trialing hour. Your friends wouldn’t want to see you like this, would they?” “No, of course they wouldn’t.” Twilight answered sincerely, feeling shame. “I’m just worried that…maybe I’m the reason they all left this world so suddenly. They were getting to be of old age, meanwhile I’m in a body that will never grow old or die…am I just a selfish pony they didn’t want to be around anymore?” “I think they’d be even more upset to see you consumed by self-deprecating thought…” Discord admonished her in frustration. “If you don’t want to be immortal anymore, you may ascend the same way Celestia and Luna did, leaving Luster Dawn to rule in your stead.” “The thought has crossed my mind many times, I assure you.” Twilight retorted, feeling frustrated herself, but also feeling that Discord was trying to be cruel to be to kind. “But I can’t shake this premonition. I feel there’s still one thing I have left to do before my destiny is truly fulfilled…” Twilight looked back at her cutie mark as she uttered that last sentence… “I respect your decision.” Discord said with sincerity. “I, however, do not wish to linger in a world without Fluttershy, my first and dearest friend. Starting today, I am retiring to the dimension of chaos for good.” Discord clicked his fingers and made a blue portal appear behind him. “Though I will tell you one more thing before I go…” “That is…?” Twilight asked curiously. “Even if your friends did do what you suspected them of, never doubt them.” he told her seriously, which had Twilight taken aback by his tone. “Even an immortal being like yourself must learn that one can not have an earthly understanding when making a judgment of a cosmic situation.” “Discord…” Twilight reacted in surprise. “You…” Discord didn’t say another word before he stepped into the portal, closing it behind him. “I was lying…” he thought. “I do know why I did what I did. Having good intentions and acting on my nature, that’s just as far as a mortal understanding of my actions can go. The painful truth one can only see with a cosmic outlook is that I am a part of the world’s darkness that must return to it…you and your friends were a light I wanted to see shine before I left…” Discord clicked his fingers again, proving the truth of his words in thought as he began to disintegrate into particles of darkness, just as Sombra had long ago… “However, I can not help you anymore…for in order to pass the test you must take before you can ascend as your mentors did, you must put yourself in place of the darkness…” With those words, Discord’s particles finished dispersing into the world of chaos. Twilight, getting ready to return home, felt a compulsion to look up at the sky after feeling a chilling sensation, and saw a black swirl briefly appear and disappear. “Discord is dead now too…” she realized in a state of disbelief. “I was just talking to him…” Twilight then collapsed to the ground and put her front hooves on her head before she looked up to the sky and screamed. “GGGGGRRRRRAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!” she bellowed in tears. “I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE! IF I’M THE PRINCESS OF FRIENDSHIP, HOW CAN THIS BE MY DESTINY?! WHY AM I ALL ALONE?!” Twilight didn’t know it then, but things had been allowed to transpire this way for a reason, a reason that was meant to be revealed by the sky that night… She wept… Now a star in the night sky, Fluttershy was mourning over Discord’s death, as he had mourned hers… “Oh, would you lighten up?” a familiar shadow told the star coldly. “New parts of the void and the light are born here from the dead every day. You’d never have enough tears for all the souls in the galaxy.” “Oh, cut her some slack, you varmint!” Applejack, also a star now, scolded the shadow in the moon beside her. “She just got here!” “And it’s not exactly a badge of honor to proudly display,” mocked Rainbow Dash, also a star close to the moon, “the fact that you got here so much sooner than we did by losing to us spectacularly!” The visage of an angry King Sombra was made visible on the moon, revealing that the shadow in the moon they were speaking to was indeed him. “IF YOU EVER REMIND ME OF THAT DISGRACE AGAIN-” “It’s fine, girls.” Fluttershy interjected calmly, surprising both her friends and Sombra. “He has a point. We all have to do what we still can for the living. Right now, Twilight needs our help.” Pinkie Pie and Rarity, both stars now too that were in between Fluttershy and the rest of the group, concurred. “Yeah, what are we waiting for?!” Pinkie cried excitedly. “Let’s get this party in space started with a BIG BANG!” “Twilight simply adores stargazing!” Rarity exclaimed, also enthusiastic. “Once she sees us five showing off such a dazzling gleam, she’ll immediately recognize that it’s us sending her a sign to never give up on hope!” Sombra groaned, feeling he would throw up if he was still able to. “Aren’t any of you in the least bit nervous of the fact that in order to make this grand light show of “hope” possible, you will have to free your greatest nemesis from captivity?” Sombra reminded them. The five friends turned to each other for a second before they all began to laugh. “Greatest nemesis, ha ha ha!” Pinkie guffawed. “Why would we be nervous when our power’s greater than yours?” Applejack taunted him. “And after we release you, our power will be greater than ever!” Rainbow exclaimed confidently. “You’re not even comparable to a prisoner on parole, you’re more like a power-up in a video game, heh heh!” “At this point, it means nothing whether or not you are freed.” Rarity chimed in. “Your darkness is a complement to the power of our light. The will of the light would never allow us to free you otherwise.” “And once you are brought out here, we’ll be able to create so many beautiful new stars from your darkness that will inspire not just Twilight, but future generations to come!” Fluttershy exclaimed happily. “We all get new opportunities! It’s the best possible win-win!” The cheers and jeers of Twilight’s friends left Sombra feeling crestfallen in deep thought. “This is an even worse punishment than being destroyed or imprisoned…” he discovered in horror. “The realization of the fact of just how little Twilight and her friends fear me now…even freed, it is as if I’m their slave…” Looking upon those happy stars, the shadow grew ever envious… “Why was I born to become part of the darkness?” he questioned angrily. “Why couldn’t my destiny have been with the light?” Sombra didn’t know at the time, but soon, he would have an answer to that question. What it would’ve been like if roles were reversed… A large light suddenly sparkled… Behind the moon, six stars glowed forebodingly, forming a familiar pattern… Down below, Twilight looked up at the evening sky from the window of her castle bedroom, knowing it was almost time to raise the moon, and saw the mark of her destiny beaming. “What if this wasn’t my destiny?” she asked herself sadly. “What if I had never made friends, just staying in the darkness alone my whole life?” The six stars continued to silently shed their light…for having appeared from another dimension, they knew that the courses of their destinies could be altered… They know both their stories…