//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: Embracing the Darkness // by BlueAzura //------------------------------// Really sorry for the lack of updates… One thing lead to another and it caused a massive delay. However, I’m finally back and ready to go! *I own nothing, but the experience and story* *Ponies go to Hasbro* Embracing the Darkness By: BlueAzura Chapter 8 “And that’s the last one.” Spike the dragon victoriously slipped the final book back in its proper place. He took a set back and as he was gazing at all the books, he proudly exclaimed, “Two thousand eight hundred fifty seven books cleaned and organized into perfection!” The baby dragon dusted his hands. “And this is only the bedroom… I got to make sure the rest of the library is done before Twilight gets back.” As he was turning to leave, Spike noticed a small red book on top of the unicorn’s bed. “Huh… I guess I missed one.” As Spiked picked up the book, he realized it didn’t have a title. “That’s strange, where did this come from?” Not wanting to waste anymore time, the baby dragon promptly opened it and began reading a line. “Through my experiment, I was able to produce some results! It seems I’m capable of holding off the pain for an entire week before I need to go to Applejack again. That reminds me… I’ll have to meet up with her soon and I’m not going to be looking forward to that.” Spike did a double take. “Wait a minute… pain?” He was barely able to register the word before the purple unicorn burst in. With a panicked expression, Twilight ran up to the shelves and began pulling books after books over her shoulder. “Oh… where is it? I knew I forgot to do something before I left!” The books were already forming a large pile behind her. “Twilight?” Ignoring the voice behind her, Twilight gripped the sides of her head. “It’s not here! What if somepony took it and starting reading it?” Her panicked voice steadily rose. “What if they already finished and took it to the mayor?!” “Twilight?” She gasped. “If that happens then that means that they’ll probably already be calling the authorities and if they called the authorities they’ll be right outside the library!” She continued her panicked monologue for a good twenty seconds until Spike couldn’t take it any longer. “Twilight!” The unicorn gasped and twisted her body to stare at the baby dragon. “Huh?” He held out the small red book. “Was this the thing you were looking for?” The purple unicorn stared at the book in the dragon’s outstretched claw. “Why yes, that’s exactly what I was looking for.” Her eyes widen in horror. “Y-you didn’t read my private journal now, did you?” Spike, completely forgetting what he read, dropped the book as if it was a poisonous snake. “Oh geez, I didn’t know it was something I wasn’t supposed to read!” He threw himself down in front of the unicorn. “I-I didn’t even get to read a single page completely, I swear! I-I’m so sorry, Twilight! Please don’t be mad or worse…disappointed in me! I hate it when someone says ‘I’m not mad… just disappointed’ it drives me crazy!” He looked up at the unicorn with large pleading eyes. “Please don’t be disappointed in me, Twilight, I promise I’ll make it up to you.” Twilight blinked several times at the frightened dragon before giving a small smile. “Oh, Spike, it’s alright…” She gave a warm reassuring smile. “I’m not mad or disappointed in you.” Spike stiffened slightly in surprise. “R-really, you’re not mad?” His eyes widen, hoping, praying. The unicorn let out a tiny giggle. “Oh, Spike… I can never stay mad at you for too long because…” She gave the baby dragon a small noogie. “Because you’re my little brother and my number one assistant!” Twilight’s horn ignited and lifted the red book off the floor. “You said you didn’t even finish reading a single page right?” The purple and green scaled dragon nodded in guilt. “Yeah…” Twilight quickly hid the book inside her bedside table. “Then it’s perfectly fine and no harm was committed.” She gave her assistant a small nudge with her shoulder. “Come on, Spike, how does getting something for lunch sound?” The baby dragon’s face lit up slightly. “I’d like that, Twilight.” As the two left the bedroom, Twilight gazed over her shoulder and added. “Oh yeah, when we get back make sure you clean up the mess before the girls show up.” Spike’s face visibly fell. ‘But you were the one that made that mess… oh well.’ He sighed. “You got it, Twilight.” ‘I could’ve sworn I forgot to ask something…’ Completely oblivious towards the dragon’s reaction, Twilight said, “Atta boy, Spike! When you finished with your chores you might be able to hang out with Rarity when she gets here later.” Spike’s claw immediately shot up to brush his topmost scales. “Rarity is coming?” He quickly began brushing himself off of imaginary dust. “How are my scales, any of them bent?” Twilight giggled at the sight of the nervous dragon. “Let’s go, Romeo, before you start asking which tuxedo you want to wear.” The baby dragon’s face lit up at the thought. “That’s a great idea, Twilight! You can totally use that mustache spell you learned a couple days ago.” The unicorn gave an amused smile. “Let’s not overdo it, Spike.” … “Sup, Twilight!” “Howdy, Sugarcube…” “It’s good to see you again, darling!” “Woo-hoo party time!” “Umm… am I late?” “Hi girls, come on in and no, Fluttershy, you’re right on schedule.” It was late in the afternoon and five ponies entered the library. Twilight, who was leading the group inside, was almost hopping with excitement. “This is going to be so much fun! I never had a slumber party before, you sure that it’s going to rain tonight right?” Rainbow Dash puffed out her chest. “Yup! The weather team is going to make a really good one because we missed last night’s shower.” The purple unicorn nodded, pulling up a notepad and giving it a check with her quill. “Good! Pinkie, you bring the games?” Pinkie Pie produced a large box from out of nowhere. “I sure did! I wasn’t really sure what slumber party games you wanted… so I brought everything!” The snow white unicorn opened the saddle bag that she brought and lifted a gilded box. “I also brought my makeup kit and I’m quite excited to see Rainbow Dash in a dress.” Rarity gave the Pegasus an evil smirk. “I can hardly wait.” The cyan Pegasus grunted, staring daggers at her unicorn friend. “It’s only because I lost the pie eating contest against Pinkie.” She crossed her hooves over her chest. “How was I supposed to know that she’s capable of eating a whole pie in one bite?” The party pony smile sheepishly. “Hehehe… sorry about that, Dashie, and I know how much you hate losing…” Pinkie Pie hopped up to her moody friend and playfully poked her in the nose. “But… a deal’s a deal and you Pinkie swore it too!” Rainbow Dash grunted again. “Yeah, Yeah…” Applejack walked up and gave the cyan Pegasus a playful smack on the shoulders. “Don’t feel too bad, Sugarcube, when ya’ll are done I’ll let you try out my special apple turnovers.” The Pegasus’s mood lifted slightly. “Are they the same ones you made three days ago?” The farm pony chuckled. “They sure are and you can even have the first bite.” Rainbow Dash pumped a hoof into the air. “Sweet! Those turnovers were just plain awesome!” Applejack rubbed the back of head with a hoof. “Aww thank you kindly, Sugarcube.” She looked up and noticed the purple unicorn was staring at her from the corner of her eye. “Is something wrong, Twilight?” The unicorn flinched slightly at the sudden attention. “N-no nothings nothing wrong, Applejack, really.” Twilight suddenly became very interested in her notepad. “I was just making sure everything is in order.” The ponies accepted her explanation expect the farm pony, who instead narrow her eyes. “Uh huh… Twilight can I have a word with you in private?” Twilight’s twitched slightly. “Oh… sure…” She gazed at the other ponies. “You go on ahead and have fun, we’ll be right back...” The two ponies entered the upstairs bedroom before the earth pony whirled around and cried, “Alright, Sugarcube, spill it.” The librarian flinched. “W-what do you mean, Applejack?” The farm pony’s eyes became two angry slits. “You darn well know what I’m talking about, Twi!” She pointed a hoof that the unicorn. “You’ve been avoiding me for the entire week.” Applejack gave a snort. “Well… trying more like.” Twilight backed away from the earth pony. “I wasn’t trying to avoid you, Applejack. I-I was just trying to give you some space.” Applejack waved a hoof in the air. “We both know that’s a big old lie.” She placed a hoof on the unicorn’s shoulder. “Come on, Twi, you can tell me what’s going on.” The unicorn didn’t reply, but instead twisted away from the hoof as if it shocked her. Seeing the look of confusion on the farmer’s face, Twilight said, “S-sorry, it’s just that… just…” “Just…?” Applejack pressed on. Twilight gulped, fearing on what’s going to happen next. “It’s just that… I don’t know if I can really trust you anymore…” The orange pony did a double take. “What’s making you go and saying something like that?” Her face turned from anger into a hurtful expression. The unicorn bit her lips. “It’s just feels like I barely know you anymore… In fact, I don’t know you at all.” She turned away slightly. “I thought you were just a simple farm pony from a large… really large family and to find out that you’re a vampony hunter was just a big shocker for me.” She let out a small sniff. “I… I just don’t like the fact that such a secret was hidden from me…” Twilight faced her friend with tears in her eyes. “I know I’ve kept my identity a secret just as you had and so I can’t be really saying this. But, it’s just that I’m… afraid. Afraid, of the future, that something terrible is going to happen to all of us, and afraid that in the end it’ll tear our friendship apart.” Twilight’s face became angry and gave a frustrated stomp. “I hate keeping secrets from our friends because it just feels like I’m just living a false life, run by lies and deceit! What will happen if I attacked one of our friends? Or once I finally do tell them and it’s too late… that I waited too long. I-I-I can’t even trust me anymore…” The unicorn let out a large sigh. “I hate the fact that I’m just so afraid of telling the others about what I become. I just… just wish I can be as brave as you or Rainbow and just be done with it, but…” The librarian fell onto her haunches. “I just… can’t! There’s so many things, hundreds of questions, so many different scenarios could happen and I could pick the worst thing to do.” She covered her face with her hooves. “I don’t know what to do anymore… I’m completely lost.” The truth of it all was that Twilight was just too afraid on how her friends will react when they finally find out the truth about her. For the past week she had been trying, time and time again to share her secret towards her friends, but it ultimately fails at every attempt. This not only becomes extremely frustrating to the unicorn, but it also mentally hurts her to lie constantly. Applejack had kept her word and made sure to intervene whenever the unicorn backed out at the last minute. This however, just causes the librarian to feel even more guilt for having such a loyal friend. So in order to salvage what little relationship they had, Twilight decided to isolate herself from the apple farmer as much as possible. It had worked at the time, but the earth pony soon began noticing her behavior and attempted to find out the reason. It pushed Twilight into an even deeper point of isolation and the loneliness was starting to affect her. Spike came to the rescue by suggesting throwing a slumber party for her friends. It took a great amount of effort, but the unicorn finally caved in. She knew that Applejack will be among the ponies to arrive and decided to make amends. However, she had no idea on how to approach the situation properly and so her fears had gotten the better of her once again. It was only after the apple farmer cornered her is where she just couldn’t take it anymore. Applejack, who has been silently listening to her friend, walked up and sat next to the shivering unicorn. She wrapped a hoof around her friend’s shoulder before saying, “I didn’t realize how much trouble this was causing you.” The orange pony gave a sad smile. “I guess I’ve been focusing too much on the vampony and not the true pony inside, where it mattered…” The unicorn finally broke down and began crying into the farmer’s shoulder. The earth pony held the crying mare in a warm hug, rocking back and forth. “There, there… Let it all out, Twi…”After a few moments of crying, Applejack waited until the sobs turned into quiet sniffling and gave the librarian a small squeeze. “Feeling better, Sugarcube?” The purple unicorn nodded, rubbing her eyes with a hoof. “I think so… it’s just so confusing, I don’t know what to think anymore.” The earth pony pressed a hoof to her own chin. “Hmm… the way I see it is that you’re having trouble finding out if the others will accept what you are, right?” Twilight nodded. “Yes, I can think of multiple ways that it’ll just mess up and ruin everything. In fact, I thought of so many… I feel completely scatterbrained right now.” Applejack rubbed the side of her head. “Yeah, I figured that out once you started that little rant of yours.” The librarian gave a weak chuckle. “I did kind of flew off and went everywhere, didn’t I?” The farmer nodded. “But, I sort of understand where you’re coming from.” She paused for a moment, thinking on what to say. “You ever once thought that what you’re doing is actually good for them?” The purple pony eyed her friend in confusion. “W-what do you mean?” “What I mean is that SOMEtimes it’s better for your friends not knowing the truth.” Applejack flinched as she spoke. “Well… you can tell some of the truth… but, not the whole truth.” She gave the unicorn a look. “You understand where I’m getting at, Twi?” Twilight pressed a hoof to her chin, deep in thought. “Sooo… what you’re saying is that I should tell them the truth, but only partially?” She raised an eyebrow. “What’s that going to do?” The earth pony frowned. “Think about it, Twi, if you can tell them some of the truth now then maybe it’ll be easier to tell them the rest later and only when you’re ready. I know bottling something up for too long will make anypony go crazy.” Applejack gave her friend a warning look. “But, you have to make sure you tell them soon because it’ll only be worse if you hold it off for too long.” The unicorn mentally rolled her eyes. ‘If I’m not already too late to begin with…’ She gave a small frown. “But, Applejack, I’m not really going to get any progress and be right where I started.” Applejack sighed. “I know, Sugarcube, it’s just that you won’t be able to move on with your life if you don’t get this off your chest.” The purple unicorn stared at her own hooves. “Yeah…” The two sat side by side for a while before the apple farmer said, “Tell you what… you said yourself that you can’t really trust me anymore because of the fact that I’m a vampony hunter right?” The librarian gave a guilty nod. “Yeah, the fact that you’ve been ‘trained’ to kill monsters like me scares me…” Applejack gave her friend a sympathetic look. “Hey now… don’t go calling yourself a monster, Sugarcube.” She gave the unicorn a light pat on the back. “Because I don’t think for a single second that you’re a monster, Twi.” Her face turned into a warm smile. “And that’s the honest truth.” Twilight’s face broke into her first true smile in days. “Thanks…” The earth pony clapped her hooves together. “Right, well then…” She stood up. “Now I’m going to start from the beginning… or what I believe was the start of it all.” Seeing the look of confusion on the unicorn’s face, she added, “I’m going tell you everything on my family history… or what I know about it. That way, I’ve got nothing to hide from you, Sugarcube.” The purple unicorn’s face lit up at the anticipation of finding out new knowledge about her friend, but was interrupted by a loud noise downstairs. “Maybe we should hold that off until after the party, huh?” “Oh shoot… you’re right, Twi. We’ve been up here for what, an hour?” Applejack stood up and proceeds to walk towards the door. “Let’s go, before the girls start worrying and send somepony up.” She was about to open the door, but felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning, she gazed at her friend in confusion. “What’s wrong, Sugarcube?” Twilight fidgeted slightly, feeling as nervous as Fluttershy. “Umm… if it’s not too much to ask…” She lowered her head in shame. “It’s been a week and I’ll need to…feed…” The apple farmer shook her head. “I still don’t know how you’re capable of holding it off for an entire week, Twi.” She turned and placed a hoof on the librarian’s shoulder. “Just promise me that you won’t push yourself too hard, okay?” The vampony felt uncomfortable from the show of acceptance from her friend, but knew it was the only way. “Don’t worry about me, Applejack; I’ll be able to handle myself.” She reached forward and wrapped her hooves around the earth pony’s neck. The farmer stiffened slightly at the touch, but remained still. ‘Well… here we go…’ In an almost trancelike state, the unicorn felt her lip parting as she drew near her friend’s neck. She hovered just inches away from her destination, breathing in the strong sent of grass and apples. The vampony hesitated, but was brought back into focus by her friend’s voice. “It’s alright, Sugarcube.” Reassured by the calm pony, Twilight leaned in again. Her fangs easily pierced though the tender flesh and she immediately felt the warm blood entering her body. She went slowly at first, but the taste of the blood overwhelmed her and she began to drink deeper. After for what felt like an eternity, Twilight was finally able to wrench herself away from her friend. “I-I’m so sorry, Applejack! I couldn’t control myself and-and-and…” Applejack held up a hoof to stop her stammering friend. “Don’t worry about it, Twi. I told you that I knew what I was getting myself into.” She turned and began walking towards the bathroom to clean herself up. Before she was able to make it halfway however, the pony stumbled and almost found herself on the floor if it weren’t for a reddish aura surrounding her body. Seeing the overwhelming look of worry on the unicorn’s friend, the apple farmer gave a weak smile. “I’m not fooling anypony, am I?” Twilight shook her head. “Honesty, Applejack, we both know we can’t keep doing this in the long run.” She gently lowered the earth pony to the floor, releasing her magic. Slowly rising up onto her hooves, Applejack said, “I’ll be able to manage for a little bit longer…” She held up a hoof before letting the librarian speak. “and nothing is going to change my mind.” Twilight frowned and let out a sigh of defeat. “Alright… I promise I’ll figure out a way to make this easier for you.” She moved forward and supported the farmer with her shoulder. “Let’s get cleaned up and see our friends. I bet they’re worried sick.” … After a couple of minutes in the bathroom, the two made their way downstairs to see the library in a complete mess. But before they could say anything, Twilight felt a body slam her from the side. As her vision cleared, she saw Rainbow Dash, wearing a large frilly dress and face completely covered in makeup. “Where have you guys been!?” She jumped around and placed the unicorn in front of her. “Call them off! They’re crazy I tell you, crazy!” “Aww… Dashie~!” Pinkie Pie popped out from out of nowhere. “Rarity and I were just about ready to work on your mane!” The cyan Pegasus covered the top of her head with a hoof. “Oooh no! You’re not going to mess with the only remaining cool thing on me!” The snow white unicorn walked up with a smirk on her face and spoke in a sing song voice. “Sorry, dear, but you Pinkie swore~!” She was about to pounce on the frighten Pegasus, but was halted by a purple hoof. “I think you had about enough fun messing with Rainbow, Rarity.” Twilight eyed her friends with a stern look. The party pony’s face fell slightly. “But-but-but…Twiliiiiight!” The alabaster unicorn patted the hyperactive pony on the back. “Twilight’s right, honey, we went a little too far and I for one can show mercy to my friends.” She turned towards the cyan Pegasus and held out a hoof. “Truce?” Rainbow Dash slowly emerged from behind the librarian and pressed her own hoof against the unicorn’s. “Truce.” The moment didn’t last very long, as a purple dragon ran up to the group. “Hey guys, you ready to dye Rainbow's mane black?” “No, Spike, I think they’re done having fun with Rainbow for tonight.” Twilight patted her assistant on the head, ignoring the shivering Pegasus behind her. The baby dragon’s face fell slightly. “Aww… really?” He sighed with disappointment. “Alright then…” Spike’s eyes widen suddenly and pointed at spot on the unicorn. “Twilight, what is that?” Looking down, the unicorn instantly paled at the sight of a red smug, hidden from her previously. Spike leaned in. “Is that… blood?” He looked up in alarm. “Are you hurt, Twilight?” Seeing the look of concern on all of their faces, Twilight nervously backed away. “O-o-oh? I must’ve cut myself coming down here…” She gave an unconvincing laugh, eyes swiveling back and forth. “It’s nothing serious…” For a moment she thought it had worked, but the cyan Pegasus had other ideas. Rainbow Dash gave her friend a suspicious look. “You’re not hiding anything from us are you?” Twilight gulped. “N-no, w-what makes you say that?” She felt herself panicking. ‘Not good-not good-not good!’ The unicorn was saved by an orange hoof extending between the two. “Now now, Sugarcube, if she’s saying that it’s nothing then it probably means nothing.” Applejack gave a stern look. Rainbow Dash faced the apple farmer and raised an eyebrow. “Ooookay… if you say so…” As the group disbursed to do other things, the Pegasus was deep in thought. ‘Something’s not right here…’ She eyed the purple unicorn from the corner of her eye. ‘My heart tells me that I should trust her, but my gut tells me otherwise.’ The Pegasus frowned. ‘She’s hiding something for me and it looks like Applejack is in on it too…’ She continued watching her friend trying, in vain, to see past the act. ‘I’m going to find out what you’re hiding, Twilight…’ She grunted. ‘Nopony can hide secrets from the Dash…’