//------------------------------//
// Darkness 
// Story: Short and Bitter: A Minific Compilation 
// by Ion-Sturm 
//------------------------------//

Darkness.

It defined the caverns that honeycombed their way underneath Canterlot. The smell of must, the ghostly echoes of her hoofsteps, the unyielding stone walls, the taste of stale air—they just accented the darkness.

Luna was not afraid. She was the Princess of the Night. She was the darkness.

Or at least, that was what she kept telling herself. That the darkness was her domain, that everything that laid in its veil was for her and her alone to preside over. Which was why the Voice, despite coming from the deepest, darkest place of them all, so irked her.

Leave us be. We are not yours to command. Even your sister, always so ambitious, saw the wisdom in letting us rest.

Another thing that irked her—the comparisons to her sister.

“We are different from her. Mine sister treads solely in light, whilst We—”

Cower in the shadows, afraid to impose on her splendor.

Stone cracked beneath her. “If thou hadst a tongue We would cut it as loose as thou holds it!”

You prove that you fear what we say, then. Do all your ilk respond with such wrath upon presentation of truth unyielding?

Luna’s glare faded as the words sunk in. “We should hope not. We—I—apologize for my actions. Your words cut deep, but the cut was as sure and true as the keenest blade. Indeed, it is for the very reason you stated that I seek your power.”

You wish to overshadow your sister, but we are not the answer you seek, just as we were not your sister’s solution to the one known as Discord.

“Yes, but only because she is your opposite!”

And a terrible price did she pay for that knowledge.

“Knowledge that lets me know I can control you, if you will let me. A body of flesh and blood, as you had so many eons ago. To feel the wind and taste the earth and smell the life and hear the cosmos and touch the living. You cannot tell me that you do not yearn for these things. All I ask in return is your assistance.”

And nothing will dissuade you from this path you’ve chosen? Leave now and let us return to our sopor if any doubts exist, for they will be realized.

“I harbour no doubts as long as you harbour no ill will.”

Then step forward and receive our blessing. Accept our power, let it suffuse your very essence. We will give you what you wish for and nothing more.

She did so.

And screamed.

Ecstasy.

Regret.

Beauty.

Horror.

Strength.

Agony.

Her body crumpled. “What… what are you doing to me?” Luna gasped between fiery lances of pain.

We told you we were not yours to control. We told you we would fulfill your wish. We told you to have no doubts.

Bile seeped to the ground from ashen lips. “But I… I had none…”

Our power is for all that seek it. If you truly had no doubts then you would not have spared even a word. We cannot control who takes us, but we can control those that do.

“And what… what of my desire?” Blind desperation and pain shut her eyes.

We are bound to fulfill it. Your sister shall be overshadowed and cast into the unending void.

Madness clawed at her mind. “No! That is… is not what I wanted!”

You wanted to be greater than her, nothing more. A simple request to realize.

“You lied!” Froth and spittle flew from her mouth as she took in one last, shuddering breath.

No. We laid, but we lie in wait no longer. Today, we rise.

The world swallowed her.

Darkness.