//------------------------------// // Roles Reversed // Story: The Shadow and the Star // by Misty Shadow //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle made her way to the castle balcony, prepared to raise the moon. “No matter how upset I may be…” she told herself in a disciplinary tone despite her melancholy. “I can’t use depression as an excuse to neglect my duties. A good leader must put nothing before her land and her subjects…” As she began to cast the spell to raise the moon, she found herself still having to perish negative, debilitating thoughts… “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.” She grunted as she recalled Discord saying this… “Yeah, I can just take the easy way out like you did…” she thought angrily, harboring some resentment towards the draconequus. “After what you pulled, would it really be a surprise if you’re actually the one pulling the strings again?” Twilight grew absorbed in thoughts of distrust as she began to raise the moon slowly but surely… “Like I’d ever know with you…” she continued to tell herself in frustration before she brought the moon up all the way. “Maybe everything you told me about King Sombra was just done to mess with me. After all, to even imagine my frien-“ Twilight paused in mid-sentence with a gasp. Up in the sky now was a sight she almost couldn’t comprehend… It was five stars, glowing radiantly as they moved closer to the moon, similar to the way the stars had approached the moon on the night Nightmare Moon returned. An ordinary pony would’ve perceived the stars as nothing more than such, but Twilight, an alicorn with extensive knowledge of magic, was able to recognize that these stars were the souls of her fallen friends, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy. Any hope that they were not setting Sombra free from his lunar prison was crushed once Sombra’s visage became visible to her. Sensing Twilight’s fear, Sombra’s countenance became that of a sinister smirk. “No…” Twilight said in disbelief, tears flowing from her eyes as she wanted to shout. “NNNNNOOOOO!” Unable to take the mental pain of what she perceived as her friends betraying her, she teleported to her bedroom and collapsed onto her bed, sobbing uncontrollably into her pillow. A bright light enveloped the moon once Twilight’s friends came close enough to it, and with a blinding flash, Sombra was freed, taking the form of a shadow. Even with limited power, only a part of the sky’s blackness, Twilight’s reaction to his newly gained freedom had given him confidence. “Ha ha ha…” he laughed evilly, worrying Twilight’s friends. “Are you sure you’re more powerful than me now?” “What’s so funny?” Rainbow retorted, trying to maintain bravado, taking Sombra’s words as a challenge. “Nothing…” Sombra answered, deciding to play along for now. “I’ll still assist you with your light show…it’s just that I have a funny feeling now that it might not go as you thought it would, thanks to an unexpected case of stage fright…” Twilight’s friends could only react with glances of confusion, not even considering the fact that Twilight would ever lose hope in them. They hadn’t seen what Sombra had either… “Does he mean me?” Fluttershy thought. “In all fairness, I’m still not the best when it comes to performing in front of crowds…” “Mwa ha ha ha, fools…” Sombra mocked them in thought for being so unsuspecting. “I’ll show you how futile your friendship is…” Down below, Twilight continued to sniff and sob in her bed before she could hear something that faintly sounded like fireworks outside. Curious, she poked her head up to look out the window. “Has it gotten darker?” she wondered as she noticed that the sky had grown blacker, thus allowing the stars to shine brighter. “I know Sombra’s out there, but I sense he’s only in a harmless form of the sky’s blackness…could this be why they freed him from captivity?” Her attention was soon caught by a pink star dancing across the sky, causing small explosions of stardust to appear every time she moved. “Pinkie?” Twilight thought in surprise. Soon, she noticed sparkling bits of stardust suddenly appearing in the sky above a particularly dazzling, white star, as if a pony was tossing gems in the air. “Rarity?” She noticed a similar motion underneath an orange star, only bright bits of stardust appeared below as if they were apples falling from trees. “Applejack?” Three small stars then moved across the sky like butterflies would, leaving behind a yellow trail before they disappeared. “Fluttershy?” Then finally, a blue star zoomed across the sky at lightning speed, creating a massive explosion that lit up the entire sky with a burst of rainbow energy. “That’s definitely Rainbow Dash…and not just her, but…” The rainbow energy revealed that her five friends were gathered together like the stars on her cutie mark in the sky, as each star in the sky twinkled brighter than ever. In the center, one large star made a great flash of light for a second to complete the shape of her cutie mark. “Absolutely magnificent…” Twilight told herself in amazement. All across Equestria, the citizens of her land thought so too, including Spike, Luster Dawn, and a grown-up Princess Flurry Heart, who had assumed the throne of the Crystal Empire after her mother chose to ascend and be with her husband. “I have a long life ahead of me, and I don’t think I’ll see something like this again for another century at least…” Spike mused in his head. “One star alone could never create something this extravagant…” Luster Dawn remarked at the sight. “No wonder Princess Twilight has always been so insistent on teaching me the power of unity…” “Heh heh, he’s up there too, I know it…” Flurry said cheerfully, sensing a familiar presence. Flurry had an ability similar to Twilight’s that allowed her to see the true forms of the stars and shadows in the sky, being an alicorn who had a destiny intertwined with the Crystal Heart, an artifact that could reveal to a pony their destiny. “No better punishment for him than to have to make some new friends, hee hee…” Flurry teased. Sensing Flurry’s lack of fear, Sombra growled. “I alone created the darkness that made this insipid display possible…” he thought angrily. “And of course, only the stars will receive any credit…it’s not fair…as a part of the darkness, I am inherently disadvantaged…” He then turned his anger towards Twilight. “It is you I hate especially though…” he thought, venom flowing through his words. “You were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, while I only knew hardship and suffering growing up. Oh, I envy you…” Sombra’s anger abated, however, once he saw that Twilight was not feeling the renewal of hope her friends had wanted her to feel like he expected. “This is the best night sky I’ve ever seen in my entire life.” Twilight said in a somber tone, amazed but also disillusioned. “And I watched it alone in my room, depressed.” Sombra snickered, sadistically thrilled at the efforts of Twilight’s friends backfiring, having the opposite effect. “But no longer…” he continued in thought happily. “For now, I know that there is no hope left for you. If that didn’t lift your spirits, nothing will. You’ll forever wallow in misery, knowing my torture called solitude. You’ll see what I went through, and no pony would ever want to know my pain. No pony would ever…” “I can’t believe that Sombra…” Twilight resumed talking, interrupting Sombra’s thoughts. “...after everything that he’s done, gets to witness this up close with all my friends no less, while I have to suffer here alone! The world makes no sense! It should be the opposite! Sombra should be the one going through my pain and I should be the one free, basking in that bliss!” Upon learning that Twilight was jealous of his position, possessing no awareness of his inner turmoil, Sombra’s anger promptly returned, evolving into an unbridled fury. Even Twilight’s friends were shocked when they also witnessed Twilight turn away from the window in a huff, returning to sulk in her bed until she went to sleep. “WHAT?!” all six of them cried. “AFTER EVERYTHING WE WENT THROUGH?!” “I’ve had ENOUGH!” Sombra bellowed furiously, startling Twilight’s friends. “Do you ignorant imbeciles understand now?! Your friendship is a lie! She doesn’t appreciate you, ponies only care about and answer to power! And now, you shall submit to mine!” Twilight’s friends grew increasingly unnerved, as Sombra’s threat was not empty…with the power of rage making him stronger and them growing weaker from Twilight’s feelings of hopelessness, they could sense that Sombra had become stronger than them now… “Oh, that’s what he meant by stage fright…” Fluttershy said in realization, aghast at Sombra’s rising strength. “He’s going to make us fear him while all of Equestria watches from below!” “Right you are!” Sombra jeered gleefully. Sombra then began to expand his shadow form in a wide radius, covering stars all across the sky with blackness. Witnessing this on the land, the excitement of Twilight’s subjects turned to dread, and their fear in turn gave even more power to the shadow king. “Heh heh…” Rainbow chuckled nervously. “Don’t panic guys…even though the situation looks bad now, the will of the light would never throw an obstacle we can’t overcome our way…” “Ho ho ho, but what about the will of the void?” Sombra retorted. “I’m sure the darkness would be quite happy to see Equestria’s most beloved stars consumed by SHADOWS! MWA HA HA HA HA!” “AAAIIIEEE!” Twilight’s friends screamed as Sombra continued to laugh evilly, his shadows washing over them and absorbing them into a prison of darkness, where they all fell unconscious. “I’ve won!” he declared triumphantly. “There is no light of hope left that can save you now!” “I wonder about that…” a mysterious figure echoed from behind Sombra. “Who said that?” Sombra responded, bewildered as he turned around to see a large star sparkling behind him. “Hmm? How are you still glowing inside of my shadows?” “That’s not important right now.” the star replied in a tranquil tone of voice. “The issue right now concerns your destiny…” “My destiny?” Sombra replied in confusion. “Have you been sent by the will of the light to destroy me again and grant these nincompoops a get-out-of-jail-free card?” “No, I do not take sides in affairs unrelated to my dimension.” the star answered, revealing that he was the large star that appeared behind Sombra when he was sealed in the moon. “Even if you defeat these five here, they will still live on inside of your darkness. They’ll grow to understand you, and in turn, you will grow to understand them.” “Nonsense!” Sombra exclaimed in denial, despite dreading the possible truth. “That would never happen! No one would ever empathize with me, thus I empathize with no one!” “I am only telling you your destiny as a part of the darkness.” the star continued to tell him calmly. “It is your fate to prune the light, making the parts of the light grow stronger and learn as they adapt to the suffering you inflict on them.” “Of course!” Sombra remarked incisively. “I always knew I was only born to be a monster and make others suffer! I never had a choice!” “Wrong.” the star bluntly replied. “You did have a choice. It was your soul’s inability to overcome the darkness that made you one with it.” “Oh, spare me the lecture…” Sombra continued talking back. “I will.” the star told Sombra, surprising him. “For I did not intend to convince you with words. I know from personal experience that one such as you can only be taught things through example. Thus, I will present both you and Twilight Sparkle with an offer you can’t refuse after all that has happened tonight.” “And what makes you so certain that neither of us will refuse this deal?” Sombra pried curiously. “Because my offer is to transport both of you to another dimension,” explained the star, “where you are Twilight and she is you.” Sombra was shocked. After taking a brief moment to realize that this truly was an offer he couldn’t refuse, he began to chortle sinisterly… “Mwa ha ha ha…you have yourself a deal…” Later that night, Twilight would find herself being given the same offer in a dream as she slept. The next morning, she would wake up in the same bed, but in a different world, one that would show her how blessed she was as a part of the light… “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…” Discord’s haunting words echoed...