A couple days passed since our adventurous masks arrived within the walls of the hive. While Darkmoon comforted his wife and children, Daylight met with Dusk, Ditzy and the small arthropod, which Dusk came to naming “Fidget”.
The author explained to Dusk his intentions on staying within equestria, instead of returning back to earth. Within a moments notice, she threw her arms around his neck and held him within her warm embrace. “I knew you wouldn’t leave me just like that, not after everything we’ve been through.” She simply smiled as they stood in the training ground.
But as time passed, Darkmoon approached Daylight and spoke. “Day, I need you to follow me.” He said in a quickened pace.
“What’s going on?” he asked, curious as to what Dark’s concern was.
Dark looked back and pointed over the hive walls. As Daylight’s eyes peered over the gate, he caught a glimpse of a flying royal chariot. His eyes widened as he laid his eyes upon it and looked to Dusk. “I’ll.. be right back.” He said with a great sense of uncertainty, to which she quickly caught up on.
She looked to him and gazed into his eyes, fear locked within them. “Don’t go.”
“I must. It’s my responsibility.”
“But you’re my responsibility!” She wrapped her arms around him tighter, unwilling to let her captive go.
Darkmoon looked to his lovestruck granddaughter,“Talk about a case of stockholm syndrome.” He gave off a small laugh and shook his head. “Alright. Dusk, we need to do this. Go see Horizon. Maybe she can occupy your time while Daylight and I finish things up.”
She looked towards Dark, then back to Day. After taking a deep breath, she turned towards the front doors of the castle and made her way inside. As the doors closed behind her, the sound of flapping wings grew stronger and soon the sounds of royal horn began to blow. Signalling the Princesses arrival.
Celestia and Luna both exited the chariot and stomped towards the two masks. Daylight looked to her and smiled as he gave a quick wave, but the smile slowly faded as his wave began to slow once he caught a glimpse of both Luna’s and Celestia’s expression. “Heeyyy... how’s it going?” he asked as he tried to keep a grin on his face.
“You! If it weren’t for the others, I’d have you slane right here and now, but.. they seem to believe you, and if you can truly return Darkmoon, then you shall have no problems from me.”
He took a relieving sigh as he rested his fake grin and replaced it with a genuine one. Dark was the first to speak, “That won’t be necessary. I’m right here, alive and kicking.”
Both princess’ darted towards Dark and wrapped him in a constricting group hug. Daylight stood there watching, slightly fascinated by the spectacle. He simply watched until he started to hear a bit of gasping coming from nowhere until he realized that it was coming from Dark himself.
“Girls... Can’t.. breath..” He managed to choke out. Instantly, both of the royals loosened their grip around him and eventually let go.
The white coated mare looked to him and asked,“Why haven’t you come back to the palace to report that your mission was over? And when were you going to tell me that you were coming back?” She asked. He looked to her and smiled.
“Well Celest, mainly for two reasons. For one, I wished to see my family before I returned but a kind of magical force field was preventing me from entering, until Daylight got rid of it that is. And two, you never asked.”
She shot him a cold look for a moment, but it faded as he continued to explain. “But it was mainly because of a creature I thought long since gone. As I returned to the hive and found the barrier in place, I caught sight of my reflection. But as I approached it, I found the figure contorting into a monstrous figure and as I looked into its eyes, I was thrown into a hypnotic state. It doomed me to wander out into the unknown regions of the world, but its plans were folded as I began to near something within a field near Manehatten. As I approached it, my mind slowly became my own again.”
“So, you’re telling me that you found him? In the middle of a field?” She asked, confused by the prospect.
“Yes , in fact, the very reason he was there in the first place was because of...” He trailed off for a moment and looked to Luna for a moment. “Because of your sister and my brother. They kept him from sleeping for an entire two weeks before he collapsed in that field and met with a... familiar friend.”
Luna’s face turned a light crimson as she tried to fake a smile, only to slowly turn away and stand behind her sister. “Sorry about that.” Dark looked back to Celestia and crossed his arms.
“And what was this I heard about you locking my granddaughter inside of a cage and hanging it from the ceiling in the throne room in Canterlot castle?” He asked, staring her down.
The ivory mare looked to Daylight and her eyes took on an angered expression,“You told him?”
Daylight placed the palm of his left hand on his chest, just over his heart and raised his left into the air. “I swear, I wasn’t the one who told him.”
Dark stepped in. “It was actually Dusk who told me. So. You have a lot of explaining to do but we’ll save all that for later. Right now I’d like you to make up with Daylight and end this whole chase.”
Celestia looked towards Dark and sighed. “Alright.” She turned towards the author and came within arms reach and held out her hand. “I am incredibly sorry for chasing you to the ends of Equestria and back, yatta yatta yatta and I hope you can forgive me.” Daylight took hold of her hand and shook it for a moment before letting go. “Now, it’s your turn.”
“What do you mean?” He asked,confused momentarily.
She narrowed her brow and glared at him. “You pointed that gun in my face and smashed my balcony window, not to mention breaking and entering.”
“Oh yeah. Sorry for that. Maybe this whole thing would’ve been different if I actually did as Dusk said, to word my sentences properly.”
“Yes you should have, instead of having me believe that Dark was dead.”
“To be fair, you could have let me explain the thing before throwing fireballs at me and Ditzy.”
Dark stepped in once again and looked to Celestia,“You did what?!”
Time passed and night was beginning to fall. Celestia and Luna decided to spend the night at the Hive with all the others, and they slowly seemed to grow on Daylight. It was music to Day’s ears as he heard the words,“I still don’t like you, but you’re ok.. I guess.” come from Celestia’s lips as they sat around the dining table. Everyone dug into their food and after their supper was consumed, it was time to call it a night.
Daylight rested within the guest room and while Ditzy got the actual bed, he got the carpeted floor. Though, with his lack of sleep for such a great period of time, he was able to get a good nights sleep but not before he came to a great realization, he now had a family. In his world. In this world. He had the love of his life, Dusk, a friend to the end, Ditzy, and now the greatest companion one could ever ask for. Darkmoon’s Crescent.
“I wonder if they would mind if I just called myself Condemned. Maybe we could have those awesome..” He trailed off as he took in a yawn. “..little fights me and him would have in the comments of my stories.” His eyes began to grow heavy and his mind began to drift off into sleep. “Yeah.. that’d be awesome.” His mind drifted and everything went blank.
“Agh. Finally done. Maybe I could make a mini-series out of this.” John thought to himself as he finished up typing on this laptop. “Keep it cool, Condemned.”