//------------------------------// // The Fate // Story: Kindness and the Fate of Shadow // by Raven-Flight //------------------------------// Sombra shut the door behind them. Finally, Fluttershy’s hooves obeyed her command to stop, but it was too late. She stood in front of a large, plush bed, and he was dimming the lamps. Her heart was pounding, chanting—not again, not again, not again…. The floor retreated from her hooves and the room spun 180 degrees. Obsidian hooves caught her shoulders and gently pushed until she was lying on her back, and his arms were pinning hers against her sides as his massive torso settled upon her stomach and he peered into her face with hungry eyes. “Now our family is together and we can have peace at last,” he whispered, leaning down to her neck. She couldn’t breathe, she was melting beneath him. He would smother her into himself, and it would be so easy to let him. Her body was already begging her to relax and let it succumb and submit. But Discord’s rage boiled at the back of her mind and wouldn’t be silenced. Honeyed words were making Fluttershy sick and she was desperate for her firecracker chaos king. The confused desire roiling in her veins spilled into a new direction. Her limbs tensed with a great, concerted thrust that shot her out from under Sombra into the center of the bed. Sombra chuckled. “Down for a game, are we?” He pulled himself up onto the bed as Fluttershy flipped into a defensive crouch. “King Sombra has never lost his prey,” he taunted, grinning wickedly. He lunged. Fluttershy’s wings snapped out to launch her out of his reach but he was too quick, he had her around the waist and they were falling backward onto the bed and he would be on top of her once again. She felt her back slam into the mattress but there was a rush of sweet air and the body above her swept her aside as it fell so she would not be crushed. “Ha! Didn’t I tell you we would make a most excellent threesome?” Discord! Sombra screamed and flung himself so hard out of the draconequus’s arms that he tumbled off the bed entirely. Discord’s cackling filled the room as Sombra pushed himself back onto his hooves. “You,” he stammered, “how did—how dare…?” “No.” Discord levitated out of the bed as it slid to the far wall with Fluttershy still upon it. The room swelled larger and Discord loomed huge and menacing down to Sombra’s face. “How dare you?” Then Sombra felt himself sailing through space before his head slammed into a stone wall. His dark magic was already knitting his cracked skull back into solid bone as purple fire erupted from his eyes. Dark power surged into his horn. “This ends here, draconequus! She’s mine!” The laser launched. Discord dodged, but the twisted magic coiled around and crashed into its target anyway, knocking him backward. Slowly he righted himself, trembling with barely-restrained power and hatred, his face stretching into an unnaturally wide, sharp-toothed grin. A gale howled through the room, whipping in a spiral that left Discord and Fluttershy untouched but swirled every other loose object upward toward a growing void above the center of the room. “You don’t know who you’re dealing with,” Discord whispered, his sinister tone audible in spite of the wind. Sombra had to scramble backward to resist the pull of the black hole. He sprouted crystals from the wall and floor to anchor himself. “I’ve beaten you once before, and I’ll do it again!” Tendrils of shadow wound up Discord’s legs as razor-edged crystals sprouted from from opposite walls and grew lightning-fast toward his face. Discord’s nonchalant snap dislodged the attacking spikes from the walls and they were sucked harmlessly away into the void. “I’m not weak from your dark magic this time.” Laughing maniacally, Discord duplicated himself into a sea that nearly filled the expanded room, and all copies sneered in unison. “This time, I’m strong from it!” The copy Discord clutched at Sombra, tearing out fistfuls of his mane and tail, digging and peeling at skin, twisting joints out of socket, dragging his mangled body toward the black hole. Sombra shouted and thrashed, but for every copy draconequus he incinerated, another descended upon him with redoubled ferocity. A pang shot through Discord’s head, along with a voice. Discord, stop! Don’t let the dark magic claim you! What will you become if you kill him? He froze. Fluttershy was watching him rip apart a living being. Even if Sombra deserved the worst punishment imaginable, reverting to evil to deal it would be to throw away all the progress he’d made toward good! The hungry void and vicious Discord copies vanished, dropping Sombra back to the hard floor. The body was a bleeding heap. But the body of a shadow pony is already dead, and the shadow spirit cannot be killed so easily. Sombra rose again, chest heaving, as flaps of torn skin stretched back into place over his frame and bones clicked back into joints. “I won’t let you take her from me,” he rasped. “She’s all I have.” The cloud of smoking magic pouring from his wounds precipitated into tiny, stinging flies that swarmed toward Discord’s eyes. They landed a couple of blinding stings before the swarm dropped dead to the floor, poisoned by a brief gust of noxious fumes. His vision blurred, Discord conjured a baseball bat the size of a column and swung it toward the demonic stallion. Sombra dissolved himself into his shadow form and the bat passed harmlessly through him. He tried again to stab Discord with dark crystals while the draconequus was still half-blind. One of the crystals pierced through Discord’s stomach and he gasped. He clenched his teeth and reached around to pull the weapon all the way through, ignoring the huge, weeping hole in his middle, and launched it with an enchantment back at the shadow-cloud of Sombra. Rather than passing through, the crystal lodged itself in the cloud as if it were solid, forcing Sombra back into his pony form. Snapping away his own injuries, Discord stalked up and swatted Sombra onto his back. The flat end of the stabbing crystal jutted out of Sombra’s chest, and Discord placed his foot upon it to drive it in further. Sombra kicked and thrashed helplessly. “Please!” he cried. “Why must you take every good thing from me? All I want is peace! Peace!” “Peace?” Discord scoffed, leaning a little more weight onto the crystal that pierced Sombra’s body. “You steal my mate and children, try to turn them into shadow creatures, and call it peace? You don’t deserve your pitiful life!” But he hesitated, warring with the evil magic screeching in his mind to kill, kill! Sombra jerked to the side and rolled out from under Discord, plucking the sharp crystal from his chest as he stood again. Then he made the mistake of meeting Discord’s burning gaze, and he saw all the different ways he was about to meet death flickering across the reflection there. Sombra cast down the weapon, turned, and galloped toward the door at the far end of the room. But the room only stretched wider and wider beneath his scrambling hooves. The door grew further away, and Discord’s laughter echoed deafeningly loud. Sharp, hoof-cracking spikes grew from the floor and Sombra couldn't avoid them no matter how hard he ran. Fluttershy’s screaming voice was drowned in the roar of Discord’s laughter. Her cries in Discord’s mind were lost beneath the siren-song of revenge that filled his ears. Splashing pools of lava yawned between the spikes that mutilated Sombra’s legs. Molten drops set fire to his fur and he could feel the seared skin beneath begin to liquefy. He ran and ran, blind terror flashing in the whites of his eyes, but there was no escape. “I never wanted to hurt anypony!” gasped Sombra. “It’s not my fault, I never had any choice! All I ever wanted was to belong somewhere!” “Oh, you belong somewhere,” Discord taunted, flying along beside the stallion, “in hell!” Stones flew through the air to pelt the few remaining parts of Sombra that still had any ability left to feel pain. He shut his eyes, tears streaming, unable to do anything anymore but pump his numb legs and scream. “They always wanted me—oof—dead! Nopony ever accepted me! I could have no happiness except—what I took! Don’t—don’t you see? It’s not—my fault I need—her! I have nothing else!” A stone knocked Sombra’s knee out from underneath him and he finally stumbled, careening into a bed of spikes that tore into his flesh. Across the room, trapped on the bed by Discord’s desire to protect her, Fluttershy heard every word. And she understood—everything. She saw Sombra with new eyes and her kindness went out to him. A surge of dark magic flooded into her body and knocked her gasping backwards. Manic delight gleamed from Discord’s face as he stood over the battered scrap of stallion. “That’s the most pitiful thing I’ve ever heard,” he smiled pleasantly. A dagger of dark crystal grew in Discord’s hand and he brandished it, taking aim for one of those hilariously-desperate red eyes. “Allow me to put you out of your misery,” Discord crooned. Then, as if from outside himself, Discord watched purple flames spring from his eyes as he flung the dagger into the helpless body at his feet. Lightning flashed, and suddenly he reclined on a crystal throne as a monsoon of chocolate milk swept all harmony and joy from his land, and the little yellow pegasus he held in his lap had dull, lifeless eyes. He blinked, and he was still standing over Sombra with a dagger in his hand. LISTEN TO ME! Fluttershy’s voice bellowed loud and clear in his mind and Discord didn’t dare move a muscle. But while Discord had lingered, Sombra powered his horn and now launched a blast of dark magic. The impact flung Discord several body-lengths away. Shaking, Sombra drew himself up again on his numb legs and prepared another attack. “I will never let you take what I deserve!” Discord stood too and gathered dark magic into his hands for an attack of his own. Discord, this can’t go on! Stand down! I’m about to do something dangerous, and if I survive, I’m going to need you. Don’t. Fall. Forgetting the stallion in front of him who was about to unleash a maelstrom of dark magic upon him, Discord turned around. He could see from across the room that Fluttershy’s mane and tail had turned completely to billowing smoke. Not only that, but her eyes had gone red and acid green, purple flames dancing at their outer corners. Then the green and flames from her eyes projected onto Sombra’s. His horn was extinguished and his body went limp as dark magic he was not controlling lifted his body and bared him to all of his own worst fears. Discord looked back and forth between the entranced stallion and his own magically flaming mate. His jaw dropped as he realized that Fluttershy was wielding her dark magic, turning Sombra’s own trick against him. Would such an effort not destroy her? Discord could hardly hold onto his sanity for sheer proximity to such a flood of dark magic, and Fluttershy was commanding that magic! Surely the effort would strain her body to its breaking point, her organs would fail, and she’d transform into an eternally-tormented shadow pony before his eyes! Discord couldn’t allow it! He would spare her by getting Sombra out of the way once and for all. After all, the stallion was floating helplessly within arms’ reach, and Discord’s claws were feeling particularly sharp and bloodthirsty. All it would take was a good, deep strike, and he could whisk Fluttershy off to his lair where she would be safe, and he would rip this cold, cruel world from the roots of its existence so it could never hurt his mate again! Nocreature would ever steal her from him, because he would leave not a single creature alive aside from them and their foals! Discord flexed his claws and held them over Sombra’s stomach, calculating the angle that would deal the most damage with the greatest pain. No. Discord’s own voice echoed in his mind, and then he remembered Fluttershy’s. “If I survive, I’m going to need you. Don’t. Fall.” She needed him! He couldn’t let the dark magic win. But he couldn’t resist it any longer either, and his claws dug into what remained of Sombra’s mangled skin. He felt steaming hot blood well up under his fingertips and could have howled for lust of it. Discord sucked in a breath, screwed his eyes shut, and gave his hand one final command. Fluttershy slipping out from under him, scooping up their foals and running, always running back to the draconequus. He’s rescuing her from that chaotic beast again but she’s biting and kicking and saying she hates him. She hates him! She would never love him again, and in fact, never did in the first place! His foals take one look at him and run, run back to the draconequus. He’s standing on the balcony and gazing out over his gleaming kingdom. His subjects are rioting in the streets and storming the castle doors. They’re crying over and over again for the Heart, that cursed Crystal Heart. Don’t they know the Heart wants him dead? Of course they do. They want him dead because he’s not like them, never has been, never will be. They’re unwilling to offer him love, so he conquers their minds and they can never run from him again. The mob of foals jeer and spit, and he covers his face. All he had wanted was to join their game. They run off, and a filly smiles and offers him her hoof. Sunlight is sparkling on her sky-blue mane and lavender crystal coat, and he is in love with her. Then the pain is back and she is saving his life, and he comes down repaired but she comes down glowing with opportunity and purpose. She will leave him to chase her purpose and he will be all alone. Why does she not love him enough to stay with him? He wants to go with her and watch her blossom, but instead he is punishing her for putting her own needs above his, and she is running, running, running. Fluttershy’s lungs screamed. She gasped and gasped but could not get air into her body. Her legs tingled and an icy chill was freezing its way up her veins toward her heart. She could feel dark magic caress her cheek, stroke her billowing mane, kiss her frozen lips, eager to claim her body at last. Darkness rose in her sight and Fluttershy struggled for one last glimpse of life with living eyes. The floor was strewn with clumps of black hair, shards of weaponized crystals, smears of fresh blood. Sombra lay on the floor in the center of the room, convulsing and sobbing. And next to him stood a tall stone carving, a perfect likeness of… Discord? Fluttershy’s dim eyes found strength. She rubbed them to be sure, and yes, it was him. How had he gotten into stone? Was he okay, was he alive? The whispers of darkness and chill of blood were forgotten as Fluttershy dropped off the bed and stumbled toward the statue. I’m here, Fluttershy. I’ll explain later. You and your friends can get me out of this, right? At the moment Fluttershy reached him and the pile of weeping Sombra, the distant bedroom door burst open. Twilight and Rainbow Dash rushed in, carrying a screaming foal each. Rainbow Dash was practically screaming herself. “What happened? Discord locked us out! Are you guys alri...” She trailed off as her eyes registered the scene before her. Discord stood in stone with remorse etched across his calcified features. Sombra was a heaving pile of bleeding mush on the floor. And Fluttershy drooped over him, ghostly pale with mane and tail made entirely of smoke and haunted eyes gleaming red instead of teal. Twilight inhaled to ask what happened, but Fluttershy held up a shaky hoof. Color was already spilling back into her face as she regarded her friends and her foals with relief. “Discord did that to himself. He’s okay,” Fluttershy explained, then pointed at what remained of Sombra. “And I need to speak to him.” She leaned down to search for Sombra’s face. Rainbow Dash was still gawking while Twilight took stock of the apparent situation and made a plan. She placed a wailing Corey into Rainbow Dash’s free arm, removed a book from her saddlebags, and pulled a scrap of notepaper from the book. Finding what she sought, Fluttershy sat down and gently took the bloody, tear-stained face in her hooves. “Sombra.” She swallowed. “You will never be reformed.” His tears spilled all the faster. “I see now exactly what you did to me, because it’s exactly what you did to yourself, only you can never escape it. Dark magic preys on fear. The more fearful you become, the more power it has. It leverages your fears against you, using them to convince you to want and do what you otherwise wouldn’t allow yourself to want and do. But love conquers fear. Where love has a hoofhold, fear and dark magic lose their power.” Fluttershy took a moment to wipe the tears off each side of Sombra’s face, the better to look into his eyes. “This is what you did to me: You reminded me of my fear of being trapped and powerless again, only this time, you persuaded me that it was Discord I had to fear, rather than you. The more I feared him, the more I wanted to hurt him, and the more I did so, the more the dark magic became entrenched in me. Worst of all, the more I feared and hurt Discord, the less I felt love for him, and the less I felt his love for me. Your clever, evil magic drove a wedge between myself and my best defense against its power—Discord’s love. I would have continued spiraling down that path until the dark magic overtook me completely and transformed me into a shadow pony like you, had Discord not outsmarted me. Despite everything your magic had convinced me to believe and fear, Discord managed to remind me how much I love him, and once I remembered, the darkness inside me had no power anymore.” Sombra’s voice was hoarse. “I’m sorry. Really. I didn’t realize you truly loved him like that. I... refused to realize it. I was too afraid it would be true, and I would be back to having nothing.” She let him stare into her eyes for a long time before going on. “And this is what you did to yourself: You were so afraid that you would never be loved and accepted for what you were. The dark magic you were born with already had an advantage over your will, so any love you ever did receive, it convinced you to believe that it wasn’t genuine enough. It so warped your ideas of what love and acceptance really look like that you could no longer see a way to happiness in anything except itself, and you gave in. You let the dark magic consume your body and transform you into a shadow pony, and now you have no defense against its evil because you’re made of evil.” “But I still want good! All I really want is a peaceful life of love with you and our foals!” “I can’t give you that love, Sombra, and even if that were all you want, it wouldn’t be enough. Thanks to you, I know how dark magic works on the mind. It will always twist innocent desires into something bigger and worse. A little family won’t be enough for you. Soon it will be a race, then a nation, then an empire. Dark magic is greedy, and it never stops. And you are made of dark magic. It has been the sole sustenance of your mind for centuries! Even if I did truly love you, it would never be enough to conquer the darkness that’s overtaken your soul. You will never escape the evil you brought upon yourself, and it will never allow you to be happy. But you were happy, once, weren’t you? Do you remember her name?” Sombra sighed. “Radiant Hope. I shut her from my mind for so long. The memory of what I did to her hurt too much.” Sombra looked up into Fluttershy’s eyes again and tried to smile. “But you remind me so much of her. I guess part of me wanted to believe it could be like it was before, when I loved her. Before my darkness convinced me to betray her. I’m so tired, Fluttershy. Is there no way I can escape?” Fluttershy struggled against her tears, but she held Sombra’s gaze. “Yes. It’s time for you to die.” Sombra’s face clouded like he was about to resist, but he sobbed instead. “Maybe I can see Hope again, if I go. It’s been so long. But I’m afraid! What if my dark magic won’t let me do it?” “We can help. Keep thinking of Hope.” Then Fluttershy set Sombra’s head back onto the floor and stood up. Discord was still in stone, so she looked to Twilight. “Can we get him out?” “I—” There was a flash, and three more ponies suddenly populated the room. Pinkie Pie didn’t waste any time orienting herself. “Luna says she got your letter, Twilight, and she hopes everything is okay! She sent us right to you, just like you asked! So is everything okay?” “It will be,” Fluttershy began, addressing Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack. She gave them a brief summary of what happened, and then Twilight gathered them all into a circle around Discord. Sombra looked on and Fio and Corey huddled against each other at a safe distance as the rainbow poured over Discord and freed him from his self-inflicted imprisonment. First things first, Discord thanked his friends. He eyed a cowering Sombra, but went to Fio and Corey instead to make sure they were alright and assure them that he was okay, too. Finally, carrying his sniffling sons in his arms, Discord came to Fluttershy’s side and faced Sombra. “You see?” he asked his foals. “Your manes have turned smoky like his. You have the same sickness, but Mommy and Daddy are here to take care of you. Your Father didn’t let anycreature help take care of him. He was all alone. Mommy and Daddy and all your aunts tried to help him get over his sickness, but it was too late.” “Too late?” Fio’s voice was a tiny plea as his tears welled up again. Discord set Fio and Corey down next to Fluttershy. “I’m afraid so. There isn’t anything more we can do for him. Father has to go away now. Say goodbye.” The twins wore matching expressions of grief and fear as they each took hold of one of Fluttershy’s forelegs. Sombra did his best to smile and beckon his sons to him for a parting hug, but they only clung tighter to their mother, afraid of his shaky, broken body and the sickness it contained. Sombra’s limp smile faded as a look of devastation settled on his face. His whisper was almost inaudible. “Not even my own sons...” But fiery Fio couldn’t stand to be afraid for long. He let go of Fluttershy and took a bold step forward. “Goodbye Father.” Corey followed. “Goodbye.” “Goodbye, Fio and Corey. Do better than I did, okay?” Both foals nodded hastily, more to end the conversation than to indicate any comprehension, and fled back behind Fluttershy’s legs. Then Discord snapped, creating a cloud of glittering dust around the twins. They fell into a peaceful enchanted sleep, and Discord levitated them over to Twilight and laid them side-by-side between her wings. “I know you brought them to me more for their sake than mine,” Sombra said when Discord turned back to him, “but thank you.” Discord set his jaw, but kept a neutral tone. “I won’t pretend it doesn’t give me great pleasure to end your life, but I’m glad you took the opportunity to choose this death.” “If you would, I wish to die free of this dark magic that has so long imprisoned me. Can you do this for me?” Discord nodded, and his snap produced a giant, perfectly-structured crystal in the corner of the room. It would collect the dark magic so it wouldn’t disperse freely into the atmosphere and risk infecting anycreature else. Finally, Fluttershy stepped forward and placed one of her hooves on what remained of one of Sombra’s. “Goodbye, Sombra. I hope you find peace.” “Goodbye, Fluttershy. I’m sorry for everything.” Then Fluttershy backed away again, and all eyes were on Discord. “I’m ready to see Hope again now,” whispered Sombra. His billowy black mane and tail began to reach toward the crystal in the corner of the room as if pulled by a breeze. Then a cloud of smoke seeped out of Sombra’s whole body, blowing away into the crystal as the stallion dissolved into ash. His rear legs went first, then his ribcage, his front legs, his neck, his face, until for a moment, all that was left of Sombra were his eyes. His red irises turned green, glinting with relief, and then they, too, were gone. Discord, Fluttershy, Twilight with Fio and Corey, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash all stood frozen around a pile of ash, and the silence that descended upon them was cold and suffocating. “It’s over,” Fluttershy mumbled, reeling from the weight that lifted from her heart. She buried her dry face in Discord’s fur and couldn’t bring herself to feel sorry that she had no tears to cry for Sombra. Discord scooped her up into his arms, then retrieved the foals from Twilight and laid them both on Fluttershy’s stomach. Neither foal awoke yet, but they acknowledged the change by snuggling into the softness of their mother. “Mommy,” moaned Corey in his sleep. Fluttershy nearly gasped as her foals’ smoky manes returned instantly to almost normal. The dark magic that had been afflicting them retreated substantially. “Fio and Corey will do better than he did,” Fluttershy mused. “They have in their hearts what he did not: love. As long as we love them and they love us, their dark magic will have no power over them.” “They’ve got each other to love, too,” Discord pointed out. “That was a good idea of yours to have two foals instead of one!” Fluttershy tried to protest the word “idea,” but she simply giggled instead. Dumb as the joke was, she (and everypony else in the room) had needed that laugh. “So now that’s all over with,” said Applejack after the giggling was done, “does anypony want to explain what the hay happened? I was kinda left in the dark.” Explanations were exchanged all around. Those who had chased down dark-energy Sombra demanded to know why Applejack was practically mummified in bandages, and those who had been left behind in Canterlot wanted to know all about the final battle. “And why were you in stone again?” Twilight asked Discord, when everycreature else had accounted for their own parts of the story. “It was all I could think to do,” he shrugged. “Sombra was pouring dark magic into Fluttershy, and that in turn spilled through our thought connection into me. And then when Fluttershy took control of the magic in order to subdue Sombra, it almost took over me too! The last time I had felt that vicious and greedy and, well, evil was right before you ponies locked me into stone that second time, so I did it to myself a third time before I accidentally did anything terrible.” With all points of curiosity thus satisfied, Rarity declared that she would like to take her battered marefriend to a hospital, and would Discord be so kind as to teleport them back to Canterlot? So he sent them and all the others back to the capital, save for himself, Fluttershy, and the foals. They still had one thing left to do. Discord stretched a deep hole into the ground behind the mansion, then floated the ashes of Sombra’s body into it, and closed the hole. The crystal that contained all of Sombra’s dark magic would remain where it sat inside, but he cast a spell over the mansion to keep everycreature out. In time, with no malleable will to prey upon, the dark magic would dissipate harmlessly, but until then, it would be best if that crystal were left alone completely. Fluttershy found a suitable stone and rolled it to the spot where the ashes were buried. “No,” she replied to Discord’s offer. “I think we should leave the headstone unmarked. But maybe we can plant flowers on it. Could you get us some milkweed?” “Milkweed?” Fluttershy nodded. “It’s a nice symbol. And so the butterflies will visit him, since I never will.” So Discord roused the foals and conjured four trowels, four watering cans, and four pots of milkweed plants. Solemnly, the four of them planted their second family garden. This one would need no further tending, for the ashes would nourish the roots, and the wildflowers would bloom even if no pony ever looked their way again. When the work was all finished, Discord and Fluttershy stepped away to give the twins space for their final goodbyes. Fluttershy admired her brave, strong sons, and was glad to see how much they were already recovering from their exposure to Sombra’s dark magic. Their unicorn horns meant they would always be stuck with the dark magic they’d been born with, but as long as they were filled with love, it would not overcome them. The same would be true for Fluttershy on account of her kindness magic, and she took comfort that the love she shared with Discord would never fail. It was as she was reflecting on how much of Discord’s loving she could use at that moment that a memory came to Fluttershy, and she frowned. Discord? She turned an accusatory tone-of-thought on her mate. What was that I heard you say about a “most excellent threesome”? Discord fell to laughing so hard that he couldn’t muster a single coherent thought of explanation to Fluttershy. Soon Fio and Corey came running, and they, too, demanded answers. “It was a joke!” Discord finally wheezed. “The worst joke I ever told!” Even Fluttershy couldn’t help laughing to that.