//------------------------------// // Saying Goodbye // Story: Shadows of Darkness, Flames of Courage // by SuperPinkBrony12 //------------------------------// "Hey, they're waking up." a voice called out. "About time, I was begining to grow worried." another voice said. The digidestined, their partner digimon, Twilight, her friends, and Spike all slowly began to open their eyes. As they did they took in their surrondings. None of the digidestined, or their partner digimon recognized where they were. "What is this place?" Matt asked. "You're in the Crystal Empire." a female voice said. "Crystal Empire?" Sora asked, not sure if she'd heard right. "Indeed." the female voice said, revealing the being to which it belonged. Twilight recognized who it was in an instant. "Cadence!" Twilight exclaimed happily. She raced forward, eager to perform her secret hoofshake with Cadence. But she found that she didn't quite have the energy to do so. "Hey, don't forget about me Twily." Shining Armor said. "It's good to see you too B.B.B.F.F." Twilight said happily. "How did we get here?" Tai asked "The last thing I can remember was a blinding flash." "I think you all know who to thank for that." a familiar voice said. "Okay, enough with the suspense. I know you're there Discord." Fluttershy said. "And here I was going to make my grand entrance. Oh well, no sense in hiding any longer." Discord said, and he appeared before the group in a flash of light. "Looks like your plan worked. For once." Rainbow Dash said. Under her breath she muttered "Can't believe I just said that." "Thanks for your help Discord." Tai said "Without you we wouldn't be here right now." "Oh, don't mention it, really." Discord said "But as much as I would love to sit here and bask in your praise I really must be going. I'm a very busy spirit, got things to do, places to be, chaos to witness." And with that he disappeared. Fluttershy could sense that something was wrong with Discord however, and made a vow to talk to him in private the first chance she got. "I am thrilled to see you are all safe and sound." Princess Celestia said, stepping forward alongside Princess Luna. "Your majesties. It's so good to see you again." Tai said, and even though he knew they didn't want him to he bowed to them. It was his duty as an up and coming diplomat after all. "Indeed it is." Princess Luna said "And we are pleased to report that the tracking spell cast on King Sombra by Celestiamon is working perfectly. The next time he tries anything funny, we'll be ready for him." "That's good." Davis said "Sounds like it's all's well that ends well." "Not quite." Princess Celestia said somberly. This attracted everyone's attention. "What do you mean?" Kari asked. "Yeah. Is it something we did?" T.K. asked. "Whatever they did they didn't mean it." Rarity said. "And we didn't do anything on purpose either." Pinkie Pie said. "It is nothing that any of you did, or didn't do." Princess Celestia explained "It is the fact that King Sombra was so easily able to cause trouble, simply by exploting the fact that Equestria was now connected to both your world, and the digital world. It has become all too clear that there is too much potential for harm to come to Equestria, to allow the connections between the worlds to remain open freely." "So then, we'll never get to come back to this place?" Ken asked "Not even once?" "You will still be allowed to visit as you please." Princess Luna said "But" "Outside of your family and Gennai, you will be the only ones allowed to know about Equestria." Princess Celestia continued "And from now on the connections between Equestria, Earth, and the digital world will be closely monitored. I know this may not seem fair, and indeed it isn't. If there was any other way to protect Equestria I would not do this. But the situation has forced my hoof, and I have been left with no other choice. I'm sorry it has to come to this, but it's the only way to ensure that no more harm comes to Equestria, or to your world. As King Sombra has shown there will always be those who will attempt to use the connections for evil, and from what I have seen of your race I'm afraid I have reason to believe they would do more harm then good." "This isn't fair! You can't force this onto them just because of their race!" Applejack said. "A.J.'s right!" Rainbow Dash said "There's got to be more humans like these guys who only want to help, not harm!" "You must reconsider! You must!" Rarity pleaded. Then Tai, to the shock of everyone said "No! The princesses are right. As I have come to learn the hard way we human beings fear what we do not understand. And even if there are humans like me who would do anything to protect you guys, there are those would only view you as threats. You would be targeted by all sorts of militaries, with weapons beyond anything you've ever seen. And there would be those that would surely experiment on you if they could catch you. If this is the only way to ensure that does not become a reality, then so be it." There was a long and tense silence. No one dared to say anything. At last Princess Celestia broke the silence and said "I hate to acknowledge that someone else can see what I can see, but Tai has stated the facts. I know this does not sit well with all of you, but I am ony doing what I know is right. Perhaps, some day, things will change. Perhaps in the future if Luna and I should no longer rule Equestria, or if the humans learn to get along, these restrictions will not need to be in place. But for the time being they stand. Once again I am deeply, and truly sorry that it has come to this. Now all of you may leave, Luna and I need time to prepare the spell that will send you home, digidestined." "You heard her guys, let's leave the princesses alone." Cody said "Why don't we go take in the sights a little?" "Sounds like a good idea. I guess." Yolei said. And with that all of the digidestined and their parnter digimon left the throne room. As did Princess Cadence, Shining Armor, Twilight, her friends, and Spike. But a moment later Tai snuck back into the throne room. He had a feeling that his prescence was needed. And he was right. There, standing in a corner was Princess Celestia. But Princess Luna was nowhere in sight. Tai could've sworn he'd seen the princess of the night walk past him on his way back here. Princess Celestia did not look happy. In fact she seemed quite upset. "Yet again, I have failed to protect my country when it was in danger. Could it be that I am losing my touch with my old age?" she said to herself. She then began to sing. Tai listened to the whole thing. The song sounded so sad, almost mornful. As if though Princess Celestia was actually crying. And indeed she was. Tears streaked down the solar princess' face, staining the floor, not that she cared. After what seemed like forever, but was actually only a few minutes the song ended. Reluctantly Tai broke the silence. "That was a very nice song your majesty. So beautiful, and emotional." he said. "You heard?" Princes Celestia asked, Tai nodded. "How much?" "The whole thing. It sounds almost like you've just banished your sister to the moon again." Tai said "I take it that's how you feel right now, correct?" "Indeed." Princess Celestia said sadly "I thought that I had finally conqured the guilt about what I thought was my greatest failure. And yet now I have once again failed to protect my country from harm. I knew that an era had ended when I banished my sister, and I knew a new one had begun when Twilight unlocked the Elements of Harmony. But could it be that I no longer serve a purpose? I couldn't stop Nightmare Moon. I was unable to help Twilight against Discord. I failed to notice the obvious signs of Queen Chrysalis. I was taken completly by surprise when the Everfree Forest attacked. And now even King Sombra has slipped past me. And every time it has been Twilight Sparkle who has saved the day, alongside her friends, as well you, and your teammates and partners. Has the time come for me to step down and give up my power?" "Of course not." Tai said "You're a great leader Princess Celestia. Far better then any leader I've ever known back in my world. And certainly better then me." "Then why do I feel so useless? Why does it feel like I'm not good for anything? What kind of ruler can't protect her country when it needs her most?" Princess Celestia asked. "There's more to being a leader then just being able to protect the ones you care about. A good leader is a leader that can keep things running smoothly, no matter what." Tai said "And you seem to do a good job managing the day to day affairs of Equestria." "That may be, but I still haven't able to do much when my country has come under attack." Princess Celestia said "Even Luna has shown signs of being more adept then I am. She actually managed to put up a fight against the dark weeds, whereas they simply caught me by surprise. Something that shouldn't have happened. I should've been aware of their prescence long ago." "Look Princess, you did the best you could do under the circumstances in each situation." Tai said "I don't know what's like to be you. I don't know what you've been through. I can't say what I'd do differently if I were in your horeshoes, because I'm not you and you're not me. All those things you mentioned? They're in the past, and you can't change the past. No one knows that better then I do. You can only change the future. And you do that by learning from the mistakes you made in the past. That way you can make sure you will not repeat them. It is human, or in this case pony, to make mistakes and to learn from them." "I suppose you bring up a good point." Princess Celestia said, wiping away tears "Perhaps I have been too hard on myself. If I stepped down now, just because of a few small mistakes that would be extremly selfish of me. My country still needs me, and I shall continue to serve it for as long as I can." "That's the spirit Princess!" Tai said "As long as you believe that, no one can make you feel bad." "Thanks for that pep talk." Princess Celestia said "I really needed it." "You're more then welcome." Tai said, and he embraced the alicorn in a hug. He could feel the warmth reflected in it, and knew he had done good. While Tai and Celestia had their discussion Fluttershy had her own story to tell. She managed to find Discord, hiding, in a remote part of the Crystal Castle. But something was off about him, he didn't seem to be smiling. In fact if Fluttershy didn't know better she would've thought the spirit was depressed. Plucking up courage she decided to confront him. "Discord?" she asked. "Huh? Oh it's just you Fluttershy." Discord said "Why are you here?" "I came here because something told me you needed my help." Fluttershy said "After all that's what true friends do." "Well as you can see I don't need help," Discord said "Look at me. I'm fine, nothing's wrong with me." But he didn't pull anything out to pull off some sort of gag or joke. Fluttershy quickly noticed this. "There's no convincing you otherwise is there?" Discord asked. Fluttershy shook her head. "Should've known." he said "You want to know what's troubling me? Well I'll tell you, even though I really don't want to." "And why is that?" Fluttershy asked. "Because what I'm going to say will ruin our friendship. You'll think I'm some sort of monster." Discord said sadly. "I would never think that, I'm your friend." Fluttershy said. "Oh really? Well how would you feel if I told you that Sombra was right? That he only became who he was because of me?" Discord asked. Fluttershy was speechless. "I thought so." Discord said "And I owe you the full story, it's not like I've got anything left to lose. Before Princess Celestia and Princess Luna confronted me all those years ago, I made sure to record some of my secrets. The idea was that in case I was ever defeated I would be able to leave behind something to train my successor. But after I was turned to stone the book disappeared. However, as you know being turned to stone didn't keep me from hearing, or knowing everything that went on around me. That book found its way to the Crystal Empire where it ended up in the hooves of a young colt named Sombra. He read it and became addicted to my teachings. They led to his experimentation with dark magic, that resulted in the creation of the demon you and the crystal ponies saw him as. And thanks to my chaos magic he lost the ability to feel anything other then fear, or anger. In short, I created a monster that even Princess Celestia and Princess Luna couldn't defeat." Fluttershy was silent as Discord finished his story. "Well, there you have it." Discord said "Go ahead. Hate me, spite me, call off our friendship, have me sealed away again. Do whatever you want to me. Whatever it is I deserve it. It if weren't for me this empire would never have suffered, and it never would've disappeared for 1,000 years. Alas, even I can't change the past." "I could never hate you Discord." Fluttershy said "And what happened wasn't your fault. There was no way you could've known that book would create such a demon. And even then it was Sombra who chose to read the book, he knew what he was getting into. What happened after that was his own fault." "Not true. My chaos magic is addicting, one taste and you're all but hooked." Discord said. "But you're reformed now. And you feel sorry for what you did." Fluttershy said "It's in the past, and like you said, you can't change it." "That may be, but it still doesn't change the fact that I'm to blame for creating a permanet threat to Equestria." Discord said sadly. "And yet you were willing to do anything and everything in your power to help us stop said threat. In my book that more then makes up for it." Fluttershy said "Despite what you just told me my opinion of you hasn't changed. We're still friends, and we always will be. Nothing can ever break up true friendship." "Oh Fluttershy, you're such a good friend. I don't deserve you." Discord said, trying and failing to hold back tears. "There there, it's okay." Fluttershy said, hugging her friend "You're not bad. You made some bad decisions in the past, but that doesn't make you a monster. I've done things in the past that I'm not proud of, and my friends have always forgiven me. I couldn't say the same for myself if I wasn't willing to forgive you." "Thank you Fluttershy." Discord said "I really needed this. I had no idea friendship could be this powerful. And it's strange, I feel so wam inside." "That's a sign of true friendship." Fluttershy said "And don't worry. This will just stay our little secret, until we decide the rest of our friends are ready to know the truth." "Indeed." Discord said. "The portal is ready digidestined." Princess Cadence said. "It is time for you to leave." Shining Armor said "But don't forget to write." "And do come back again soon, we shall miss you very much." Princess Cadence said. "We'll miss you too." Joe said. "So this is huh? This is goodbye?" Twilight asked as she looked at Tai. She could still hardly believe that only a short time ago he had still been a pony. "Not really. I can still come back and visit you. I'll just have to make sure that the next time I do so it's on my own terms." Tai said "Just like last time though don't try too hard to remember me. Just continue on with your life, and good luck searching for those keys. I know you'll find them eventually." And just like before he and Twilight shared one last hug. "Are you ready to return to your world?" Princess Luna asked the digidestined and their partner digimon. They all nodded. "Then I wish you all a safe trip. And we shall all look forward to your next visit." Princess Celestia said. And with that the digidestined and their partner digimon walked into the rainbow colored portal. Twilight, her friends, Spike, the royal sisters, the royal couple, and Discord, waved to them until they disappeared. And when Tai returned home, the scene at the Kamiya family household was one that had to be seen to be believed.