//------------------------------// // Chapter 23 // Story: The Darkness Shard // by OliverSparkle //------------------------------// Everyone, except for Doctor Strange, the seven Wizarding World people, Cosmos, Team Sonic and Yozora, were all in complete shock. The figure that has been hitting them was none other than Cozy Glow who was back for the fourth time. Lightning jumped off Silverstream’s back and hid behind her talon arms while peeking and shaking in fear. “Cozy Glow!” Twilight was in shock to see the evil filly again as she glared at her. Everyone else glared at Cozy Glow as well, including the ones that haven’t seen her before. “What are you doing here?” Twilight asked crossly. “I was about to have some relaxation while enjoying some s’mores,” answered Cozy Glow with a fake innocent smile, “Care to join me?” “She means, what are you doing out of your prison hold?” Rainbow asked crossly. “Truth to be told,” began Cozy Glow, “I’m making a better life after my time in that world I was locked in. And after being turned into a creature with body parts of all Equestria creatures, I was being picked on by Chrysalis and Tirek causing me to hurt them, and throw them around to show who’s boss and not to mess with me. But then, a nice fellow in a black coat helped me turn back into my original pony form again and let not just me out, but also Tirek and Chrysalis, and well, here I am.” “And I take it, this black coat guy was called Darkness?” Asked Gallus. “That’s right,” answered Cozy Glow, “However, I can still turn into that monster, as well as other creatures. But I can turn back into my old self again after awhile. And in return, and for me to continue having this, all we have to do is bring Lightning Twister to him so he can have the darkness that remains in him. And he also let me take him as my boyfriend once this is all done. Isn’t that exciting?” “You’re seriously still going with that plan?!” Silverstream asked angrily, “Even after your last defeat?!” “What can I say? An empress can have an emperor on her side if she wants. And to be honest, that’s what I still want,” said Cozy Glow with an grin. Lightning was now starting to get annoyed with Cozy Glow still trying to get him to join her and be her boyfriend as well as emperor. He came out from behind Silverstream’s talon arms and said, “When are you even gonna stop and just leave me alone already?! I’m not going to be your boyfriend, and I don’t want to be emperor!” Cozy Glow’s grin turned into a frown after hearing that. “Oh for goodness sake, Lightning Twister! You’re the Storm Pony! The grandson of The Storm King! This IS your destiny! Why can’t you just accept who you truly are?!” “Because it’s not the path I choose to walk on!” Answered Lightning bravely, “The path I choose to walk on, is the path of friendship. And all I ever wanted was to be away from Daddy and be with somepony that won’t hurt me or thinks I’m a freak. I never wanted to kill Daddy or take what I want by force. If I do that, then I’m the bad pony, not Daddy.” “And you still wish to be friends with those lot?!” Cozy Glow was on about the young six. “Even though five of them are threats and wish to ruin everything for everypony?!” “They’re not threats! They just didn’t understood or accepted friendship like ponies do, even before the School of Friendship opened! Sure, the Changelings were evil before, but they’ve changed. You’re the one who’s a threat, even to your own kind! You almost made the magic disappear! You trapped Momma, Spike and my aunts in Tartarus and locked Auntie Starlight in a magic bubble before locking my friends in it as well.” “I couldn’t let them get in my way,” said Cozy Glow, “And they were going to ruin everything I did for the school.” Lightning wasn’t going to accept those reasons. “And that day you returned, you tried to get me to join you. You even locked me in the caves beneath the school.” Cozy Glow glared at the colt while saying, “You’re the one who made me do that! I was only trying to make things easy for you! Becoming empress of friendship is still my goal, and after learning about your past, I still want you as my emperor and so you can have everything you want. What’s wrong with that?” “Cozy Glow, something happened to you that made you want power and become empress. What exactly happened?” Lightning asked. “Does it even matter?” “It does,” answered Lightning, “Everypony has a reason why they chose the wrong path and not accepting friendship. Auntie Sunset and Auntie Starlight were bad ponies before, and they’ve changed after accepting friendship and understanding how magic it is. If they continued wanting revenge and power, they’ll just be the same bad ponies.” “He does make a good point,” said Sunset with Starlight nodding in agreement. “We can be like how Sunset and Starlight did it, if that’s what you want,” Cozy Glow suggested. “I just told you, Cozy Glow. I’m not going to be what The Storm King wants me to be. I get decide what I want to be and I want to be a good pony like Momma is.” “Don’t you understand? We can’t ignore what our true destiny is,” said Cozy Glow, “Friendship isn’t the way to help us. We both need to follow the path we were might to walk on together.” “That’s not what I believe,” said Lightning, “I know I’ve been through a lot and everypony was treating me like a nothing, because I couldn’t fly back then, and my Daddy calling me a freak, blaming me for my Momma’s death and scaring me with thunder storms. But I didn’t want to destroy or kill them because of what they did. I just wanted to get away from them and be with somepony that loves me and treats me like I do belong somewhere. And Fluttershy, she was the pony that treated me with kindness and took me in after changing her life and having a special place in her heart.” Fluttershy smiled happily at her baby boy with tears of happiness appearing in her eyes. “Plus, I have friends,” Lightning went on, “Friends that wanted me as their friend and treated me like I belong in their friendship.” The young six nodded their heads. “That’s why I chose to walk on the path of friendship, even before knowing I was The Storm King’s grandson, so I can live knowing that I have a real family with my real Momma is still with me. Everypony is free to choose who they are. Not the path they have to walk on, not because of they did that they have to blame others. We get decide who we want to be.” Cozy Glow became more cross and annoyed by Lightning refusing to accept what his true destiny is. “And you choose to be the son of kindness?” Lightning stared at the filly before replying, “What I choose, is to be the son of kindness.” Cozy Glow sadly looked away and closed her eyes. “Well, to be honest, Lightning, I don’t blame you or Twilight for what I went through.” Cozy angrily stared and pointed at the young six while shouting, “I blame you lot! You guys did all of this to me! It’s always you guys getting in my way!” Her pony form suddenly turned into a big Ursa Minor that was pink all over, Cozy Glow’s cutie mark on her forehead and red eyes. She roared angrily. “Not this again,” said Tempest in annoyance. Aurelius swung his wand and made a magic blast hit on the Ursa Cozy Glow causing her to slide back a bit. He slowly started to charge towards her as the ground to crack open with patches of dark smoke rising from the cracks and following Aurelius. “Everyone, stand back!” Newt said as he and everyone else stood far back from the cracks and allowing Aurelius to charge towards Cozy Glow. Just then, pieces of rocks and branches from trees, including leaves, started flying into the dark smoke which made it grow bigger and bigger with the cracks from the ground going bigger as parts of the ground flew into the smoke too. Aurelius continued to charge as he used his wand to make the big boulder fly into the air and break into pieces. “I’m not sure if that’s suppose to be good or bad,” said Axel. Aurelius made the boulder pieces fly towards Cozy’s Ursa form. The pieces hit her on the face as she covered her face with her paws while the pieces hit her and causing her to slide back even more. Cozy moved her paw away from her face and saw Aurelius was running towards her even faster. Aurelius screamed angrily while swinging his wand forward making the dark smoke and broken pieces fly towards her. The smoke and pieces hit Cozy in the face as it then made her land on the ground and rolled over to where she was now on her side. Cozy Glow groaned in pain while trying to get back up again, but it wasn’t any good. The attack from Aurelius made her unable to continue trying to fight. She fell unconscious as her Ursa form changed back into her filly form. “I forgot he can do that,” said Jacob hinting that he knows what Credence was like before returning to his real family. Aurelius looked at the unconscious filly while breathing slowly as the dark smoke slowly shrunk and went back into him. He turned to look at the group before saying, “She’ll gain conscious soon. We best leave now.” “All right, you heard the boy!” Sunset Shimmer said, “Let’s get out of here before she wakes up!” Discord crossed his arms and rudely said, “And who exactly put you in charge?” “Shut up, Discord,” said Donald before banging Discord’s head with his staff. “You said it, Donald,” said Smolder. Everyone quickly ran out of the area they were in place before Cozy Glow could even wake up and try to do something else. Luckily, the attack from Aurelius made the filly unconscious that she’s probably not gonna wake up just yet. The group ran and flew as fast as they could until they out of the area with the forest in and in a new area where it was just a dry sanded path with rocks everywhere. They all started to pant after that long run and Lightning laid on Silverstream’s stomach with his head on her chest as she had her arm over him for comfort. “Everyone okay?” Doctor Strange asked while panting. “I…think…so,” said Goofy while trying to catch his breath. “I just wish we knew that the other bad guys we faced would return as well,” said Capper. “Who exactly was that mean little pony?” Tails asked. “That was Cozy Glow,” answered Sandbar, “An former student from the School of Friendship and somepony we thought actually wanted to be our friend, but as it turns out, she just didn’t want Twilight to know about the caves beneath the school. She made the magic disappear, trapped Twilight and our teachers in Tartarus while locking Starlight in a magic bubble, took over the school and made everypony think we’re the ones who were behind the magic disappearing.” “Yeah, before letting us get locked in the magic bubble as well while the students were trying to take us away to tie us up like they did with Neighsay,” said Smolder crossly with her arms crossed. “Even Lightning Twister?!” Knuckles asked in surprised after hearing the story. “No, it happened before Fluttershy adopted him and became our new friend,” replied Gallus. “And thank Celestia he came to the school after the Cozy Glow’s true self incident,” said Ocellus, “There’s no telling what might happen if he was there during the whole thing.” “Little boy not deserve go through mean pony’s takeover,” added Yona. “Speaking of Cozy Glow, I think there’s a little colt we need to congratulate,” said Celestia. “Indeed, sister,” agreed Luna, “We do need to congratulate young Lightning Twister.” “Huh?” Lightning asked in surprised by what he had just heard from the royal sisters. “Yes, sweetheart,” said Fluttershy while smiling, “You stood up to Cozy Glow without even hiding behind one of us when she let out her anger and said things that you know weren’t true. That was the bravest thing you’ve ever done.” “Yeah, we’re proud of you, kid,” said Rainbow proudly. Lightning, however, frowned and looked away before saying, “But, I made Cozy Glow start blaming my friends after everything I just said to her. I never meant for them to blamed for. I just wanted her to stop trying to get me to be her and understand what she did was bad and my friends had to stop what she was doing.” “About time he started feeling guilty for one of his actions,” said Discord. “Shut your mouth, Discord,” said Starlight through clenched teeth angrily. “Look, kid,” said Gallus, “We’re not mad at you, because Cozy Glow started putting the blame on us. She just start blaming us, because she’s just…well, upset for being locked in Tartarus after what she did.” “Yeah, the one pony we are mad at though, is Cozy Glow,” said Sandbar, “ She brought the whole evil mess to herself and blamed us for stopping her from doing what was wrong and evil.” “Yona refused to be mad at little pony friend, but Yona mad at mean pony for blaming friends.” “Smolder can agree on that,” said Smolder with Yona giggling as she knew she was just playing along with her Yak speaking. “So, you’re not mad at me?” “Of course not,” answered Ocellus, “We would never be mad at a friend, no matter what.” “Nothing will ever make us be mad at you,” said Sandbar. Lightning looked down and started letting those words and the congratulation into him as he felt a warm happiness inside of him. His friends and family are not really mad at him for making Cozy Glow blame his friends, instead they’re happy at him for standing up to her for the first time. “Well…if you’re really not mad at me, then…I suppose I’ll accept that I stood up to her and made you all proud.” “At a boy,” said Oliver happily while gently patting his nephew on the head. “All right, now that we’ve congratulated Lightning Twister,” said Shining Armor, “There’s something else we need to do before we continue.” “Arrest Lightning Twister so we can free from this Darkness incident?” Discord asked with a happy smile. “NO!” Everyone shouted while glaring angrily at Discord. Except for Cosmos. She remained quiet, but did glare at Discord while making sure he doesn’t see her glare. “Sweet Celestia,” said Rainbow Dash in annoyance, “If he carried on, I am so gonna ask Twilight take away his chaos magic and ask Applejack to tie him up so I can feed him to the Timberwolves.” “All right, I’m in,” said Twilight. “I’m down,” added Applejack. “I meant that magic or power that Credence did back there,” said Shining Armor. “Oh yes, that’s right,” said Celestia, “What sort of power was that, Credence?” “It’s a Obscurus,” answered Dumbledore as he gently rubbed his nephew’s shoulder, “It’s a dark parasitic power that can make someone a Obscurial if it absorbs them. It only goes out of control if that person gets upset and treated badly. Grindelwald was after an Obscurial so he can use it to kill me.” “So Credence is an Obscurial?” Sunset asked. “Yes,” answered Credence calmly, “My adopted family treated me badly. When I met Grindelwald, he was using me to find an Obscurial and said I was unworthy when he thought the young girl was the Obscurial, when really, I was the Obscurial and tried to calm me down while saying that Newt was going to lock me away instead of taking care of me.” Lightning felt bad for Credence as he has also been treated bad before Fluttershy adopted him. He looked down in sadness with Fluttershy and Smolder gently rubbing his shoulders in comfort. “After surviving the attack from the Ministry, I started searching for my real family and know who I truly am,” Credence continued, “Grindelwald told me where I can discover my true identity, which is where he was also gathering his followers. I joined him, because I thought he knew who I was. Half of he said was true, but the other half wasn’t.” “He lied about the rest of your true identity?” Ocellus asked in shock. Credence nodded his head in response. “He told me I was Albus’ brother, and not only did he abandoned me, but was also seeking to destroy me. He also promised that we would go down in history together as we remake the world, before asking me to kill Albus.” “During his first try, I told him that Grindelwald lied to him,” said Albus, “And he made him grew his anger to use it. After the dual, I told him that he is a Dumbledore, and we didn’t know his pain.” “When did he find out who he really was in the Dumbledore family?” Spike asked. “After we stopped Grindelwald from becoming the new leader, taking over the Wizard World and beginning his war with the muggles,” answered Newt, “Albus has a brother called Aberforth. He’s the father of Credence. After defeating Grindelwald, both Credence and Aberforth reunited and went back home together as Credence’s real family.” Pinkie sighed happily before saying, “I love a happy family reunion.” “Hope he got punished for trying to kill Albus and listening to Grindelwald,” said Discord. Everyone, including Cosmos but trying not to been seen, glared at Discord for saying that, especially after what Credence has been through to know what he truly is. Spike flew up to the Lord of Chaos and angrily bit his lion paw. “OW!” Discord shouted as Spike let go of the lion paw. Discord shook his lion paw before placing it underneath the eagle arm to stop the pain. “What was that for?!” “Stop saying nasty things to others!” Spike said crossly, “We’re already tired of the way you’re treating Lightning! We don’t need you to doing the same to anyone else!” Discord stared angrily at the baby dragon before looking at Twilight and asked, “Aren’t you gonna do something about him?” “I am,” replied Twilight crossly. She smiled at Spike and gently rubbed his head while saying, “Good boy, Spike. Mommy’s proud of you.” Twilight wrapped a hoof around him and pulled him into a hug as Spike smiled. Discord was in shock to the response Twilight did after Spike bit his paw. He turned to Celestia. “You seriously gonna let her do that, Celestia?!” “I’ll let her know if she does something I disagree with,” answered Celestia while grinning. Discord crossed his arms and looked away. He was so not happy with the way he’s being treated, even though he was saying horrible things to Lightning and started saying stuff about Credence’s past actions. So he clearly deserves it. “Okay, as much as I love to hear more of our own origins stories and shutting Discord up,” said Constantine, “But I think we should keep going before Cozy Glow or anyone else tries to stop us. Plus it will be getting dark soon.” “John’s right,” said Luna, “The more we stay here, the sooner more threats come and it’ll soon be time for me to raise the moon.” “Lead the way, John,” said Rainbow Dash. Constantine walked straight on as he pulled out his hand and made the magic gold grasp map appear on his hand to see where to go next. The others followed behind him as they all continued their quest to the Tree of Life.