//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: True Love Prevails Time 
// Story: Fighting the Shadows 
// by Goodbye1234567890 
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My name is Dusk Cloud. At one point in time, I was a human. Now, I'm a pony. When I first appeared in Equestria, the first pony I met was Twilight Sparkle. Now, we are happily married, and have three wonderful fillies. Dawn Shine, Pyro (Heat Wave), and Golden Sparx. They are all triplets, and can be a bit of a hoof full at times, but I couldn't ask for a better family. And yet, there's more; my brother, Morning Dash (he changed his name to that because he wanted to be called by his real name but he wanted to show Rainbow Dash he was thankful for taking him in as her own) is part of the Royal Guard and is second-in-command to Shining Armor, he is also married to Scootaloo and has two wonderful filly's himself. Thunder Cloud, who, when hit by lightning, can go ten times the speed Rainbow Dash can while doing a Sonic Rainboom, is the apprentice of a Wonder Bolt. Twinkle Hooves, she is smart, and small. She is often mistaken by Spike as a giant marshmallow, funnily enough. 

About five years ago, when my adventure started, a group of evil ponies called the "Shadow Ponies" tried to take Sparx. For some reason, he was one pony of many (including Morning, the main six, Celestia, some other currently unknown ponies, and myself) who interfered with their plans to take over Equestria. In attempt to save him, Morning and I were dragged into the shadows along with Sparx. A pony named Shining Flare, who had been a Shadow Pony for 2000 years but was never officially evil, helped us get away. She didn't make it; she sacrificed herself to save my life. While we were gone, it felt like two days and one night, a year-and-a-half had passed. We were rescued, of course, because if we weren't I wouldn't be telling you this.
When we got back, Morning and I were offered spots on the Royal Guard. I declined, but Morning accepted. He and his family (at the time of the happenings of what I am about to tell you) are moving in about three weeks. Usually, when Morning gets back from his duties, he goes home to Scootaloo, eats dinner and then comes over to visit Twilight and myself. He must have skipped going home because he was at my house earlier than usual. When I answered the door he said but one word, "Flare."

"Flare," I repeated, "Flare, Flare, Flare. Flare! Flare? What about Flare?"

"She is alive! And I don't mean that mare that Pyro is trying so very hard to date," he said, "I mean Shining Flare!"

"What do you mean, alive?" I asked, "I watched her get torn to little bits by the Shadow Ponies. She can't be alive."

"Well obviously not, I saw her. She even recognized me! She asked about you before passing out," he said excitedly.

"What? Flare is alive?!?" came the voice of Sparx as he came running into the room.

"Hey, Sparx, what have I told you about running in the house?" I asked sternly.

"Oh, go easy on the filly," Morning intervened, "he's excited that Flare is still alive. He hasn't seen her in, what? Five human years?"

"So can I come?" Sparx asked, "can I? Can I?"

"Go ask your mom"

He scampered off to whatever room Twilight was in to ask her if he could come with. 

"You know," Morning said, "Princess Celestia is stopping by the Hospital with one of her nieces. Who, I might add, is Sparx's age."

I chuckled and punched him, which he returned a little harder than what I had done to him. I punched him harder and the same for him.

"You... Have just made..." I spun my head in a circle, "A big mistake."

"You are crossing hooves... With the wrong Pegasus," Morning said, returning the head spin.

He jumped into the air and I followed suit. We floated there for a few seconds. As we were floating, Dawn walked in with a juice box floating in front of her, "You two are such dorks."

We fell to our hooves and chuckled for a bit. Dawn was a small greyish unicorn with a long, maroon, mane and tail. She had beautiful eyes, they were a little off-setting though. Her eyes, minus the pupil, were pure white. They are a little creepy to wake up to at six in the morning, but they are charming none-the-less. On her flank was what looked like a small explosion of sky blue. But up close, one could see it had a very complex shape and design. She moved on to the next room with a slightly embarrassed sigh. Teenagers, I thought.

"Yes!" I heard Sparx say excitedly. He ran in with an excited look on his face, "She said I can! I'm going to go get ready!"

"Hold yourself, Sparx," Morning said, lightly grabbing his tail, "we can't visit until tomorrow."

"Awww," Sparx whined, "okay," he sulked off to his room as it was time for him to go to bed.

"Oh, Dusk," Morning said right as he was about to leave, "Your coming to the ceremony, right?"

"What ceremony? Thunder's becoming-a-Wonderbolt ceremony in two weeks? Yeah, Of course we're going. What kind of family would we be if we didn't?"

"Cool. Thanks. Be awake at dawn, and be ready," he said.

"I will, now go home. Ya lucky bastard."

So he left to go be with Scootaloo and Twinkle, and to get ready for tomorrow. I went into the filly's rooms (Twilight and I still called them fillies) and tucked them in. I went into our (Twilight's and mine) room and got into bed. We made out for a little while. We didn't get into much, we don't do that when Pyro, Sparx or Dawn (Spike usually stays at Rarity's) are home.
The next morning I was awakened by Sparx shaking me. I opened my eyes and looked around. I looked out the window, still dark. Yep, it's six in the morning, all right. I grabbed my saddlebag and helped Sparx into his. We met up with Morning at the station and bought tickets to Canterlot, which was where the train was about to depart for. It turns out they were actually waiting for Morning by the order of Shining Armor, as they did every morning. 

I had some time to think while waiting for the train to make its stop at Canterlot, so I thought about just what my therapist told me not to think about. My time in the Shadow Ponies' complex. I remembered back to when I met Shadow Blade, leader of the Shadow Ponies, for the second time. He was probably plotting his revenge right now, in that dark room where I saw him last.

I ended up getting some sleep along the way. I didn't dream about anything realistic, like the things that could actually happen. So nothing life threatening or life changing must be happening in the semi-close future. I woke up to the voice of the conductor on the intercom saying, "We are now approaching Canterlot. Please gather all belongings you don't want to be used as fuel for the engine," that last part he was being serious about. Lately, so many ponies have been leaving their belongings on the train and don't come to pick them up afterwards. So they decided to use the burnable stuff as fuel for the train. The train was enchanted so that whatever was being used as fuel, be it paper or clothing, it wouldn't ruin the atmosphere. This was a request made by Fluttershy (the eco-friendly enchantment idea, not the "burn what was left on the train" idea).

After a few minutes the train came to a stop. I woke up Sparx and left the train with Morning. We walked for a little while to the center of the large city.

"Follow me," Morning said over the loud chatter of the city, "the hospital is over there."

Sparx and I nodded and followed him to a huge building that could have been the castle. Well, that is, If the castle was shaped like a gigantic box and had a huge red "+" on the front. I carried Sparx (not good for my minor scoliosis I was diagnosed with after carrying Morning almost a whole three miles) to the hospital.

When we got into the hospital a guard noticed me and asked me to sign his helmet saying that he was a huge fan. I was Fluttershyed but I obliged. I signed his helmet with my cutie mark (a dark blue cloud with a sword going through it) with a DC in front of it. He looked overjoyed as he turned to his fellow soldiers who looked annoyed with him, or maybe they were jealous.

We found Flare's room almost right away, as it was right next to the entrance to the first long corridor we were in. When we walked in we saw a yellow bodied mare with an orange-ish mane and tail with her back facing us, "w-who is it?" She asked.

"It's me," I said, "It's us!" Sparx said following my statement.

"Dusk? Sparx?! I-is that you? Where's Morning? He made it, right?"

"Yes, he did make it. He is part of the Royal guard," I said. She tried to turn around so we went to her other side so that she could see us.

"Oh, Sparx," she said, more life in her voice, "You have grown so much!" she gasped, "And you have your cutie mark! I knew you would get it sooner or later," she said, admiring his heart of gold.
I heard hooves on the floor outside of the door, and then a knock on the door. It was a nurse, "ooh, I am so sorry, but I have to give your wife a shower now. The princess is coming to see her, don't ya know!"
Flare blushed a little as I said, "she isn't my wife, and she saved my life. I am already married."

"Ohh, so sorry der, I didn't know. If you could please step out for a moment, I'll be done in a jiffy," the nurse said, pushing us out of the room and closing the door behind us. 
As we were waiting for her to be done, the running water like music, we heard more hooves approaching. This time there were eight of them. The princesses came into view. I put my hoof under Sparx's mouth to prevent him from being a possible fly trap. Princess Celestia and her niece came down the hallway, their loyal subjects bowing. When they got to us I bowed along with the rest. I motioned for Sparx to do the same. His bow was a little late and clumsy. He has met the princess before, but never her niece (whom he seems to have gotten the attention of). The young alicorn giggled at his clumsiness as he face planted on the ground. She reached out to help him out and he took hold of it. Now, Sparx doesn't like getting help from anypony, not even me!

"Hello Golden Sparx, it's nice to see that you have grown so much," Celestia said, "This is my niece--"

"Celestial Bell," the young alicorn interrupted, "but Everypony I know calls me Bell. I think you know my distant relative, Sweetie Bell? Oh, and Rarity also!"


Sparx only nodded, stunned by what he must have seen as beauty.

The nurse poked her head out of the room and said that we may go in now; she then bowed and went off to help some other patient. Celestia and I went in as Sparx stayed outside of the room with Bell. When we got in, Flare was facing the door. When she saw Celestia her eyes went huge and started to tear up.

"C-Celestia? I-is that really you?"

"Do I--" she started, confused. She looked into Flare's green eyes. Tears welled up in her eyes, "F-Flare? I-is that really you? I thought you... You... Died."

"I did. I did, without you. I thought I... I..." Flare said as she began to cry.

"No, my love," Wait, wait wait! "My love"?!?, "You died right after you attacked me. I had to wonder why you would do such a thing until I saw your shadow dart from under you. I then remembered that you don't have a shadow, as you are the embodiment of light."

I looked under Flare, she was sitting upright now, and saw no shadow just as Celestia said. They began to kiss, softly at first, but after a while they were making out like Sparx and Bell were outside of the room. I kicked the door closed. I didn't need Sparx to get any more ideas. Then, Flare became shrouded in a harsh light. When the light died after several minutes, she emerged an alicorn. She looked like Celestia in every way, minus the fact that her body was yellow and her mane was orange-ish. They could have been twins if they hadn't been making out furiously on the cot that once held the earth pony form of Flare.

All true love is unique, but none is as unique as this one. It was a love that lasted for over 2000 years. And it will not end for a very long time.