//------------------------------//
// 32 - The Peak 
// Story: An Undertale of Equestria 
// by David Silver 
//------------------------------//

Pinkie pronked her way up the mountainside, while Aquator could still flow, and did just that, rushing up alongside us without difficulty. I was mostly focused on our destination and what awaited us there. This wasn't all making sense. Why would Sombra take orders from a puff of smoke? Sombra was the highest of all shadows, a literal evolved perfection...

There was only one thing I knew he'd defer to, his purpose. He had to protect the dark ponies. The dark ponies... "Oh man!"

Pinkie peeked back at me. "What?"

"You're not a man."

"Of course not, silly." She stuck out her tongue at me. "But what?"

I decided to bounce the idea off of her, maybe she could see an angle I didn't. "I just had an idea. What if the shadow cloud isn't shadow?"

"Sure looks shadowy to me."

"Right, all dark ponies look shadowy while they're lost. What if this is a dark pony, an important one?"

Pinkie tilted her head at me, something I was not entirely comfortable with her doing mid-hop. "Well then we have to break them free, right?"

We arrived at the peak. It formed a bowl, with Sombra and the orb of shadow beside him, grinning its green smile. Touching down nearby was Sweet and Trixie, both awake and working together to make the bicycle work. Pinkie waved enthusiastically at them and joined them with me, and Aquator finished the party, rising up from the rock beside us.

The wind howled. Sombra stared a moment, then stepped closer. "Why do you gather them around yourself? You realize, if you turn against the darkness, you will have to betray them all."

Sweet clambered off the bike. "He won't hurt me."

Aquator pawed at the ground. "He is on the side of right, light, or darkness."

Pinkie bobbed her head. "And we're here to help!"

Trixie gasped. "Wait, it's just what Trixie thought, you are the star of this--"

Sombra glared at Trixie. "Silence."

She shrank back a little, cowed by Sombra's intense presence a moment before she stood back up. "No! He is my familiar, and my responsibility. We're here, together."

I looked past Sombra, to the shadow orb that was approaching us. "I have a few theories I need to get out of the way, if it's alright?"

Sombra raised a brow, but said nothing. Good enough.

"First, Sweet."

She looked to me with perked ears.

"That isn't your name. I don't even think that's what you did, besides a hobby. You had a different job. You spent your last days imprisoned, thinking of better times. You remembered the sweet taste of your favorites, and that's what you held onto, for countless years."

Sweet trembled. "W-what? No... Who am I then?" She glared at me. "You've won my trust so far, don't betray it now."

"You." I pointed at Sweet. "You are a brilliant pony who cast her gaze to the ceiling, and beyond it. You were the one that headed the mission to outer space."

She gaped blankly a moment, sinking to her haunches. "B-but, what? Oh..." She put a hoof to her head. She was remembering, I hoped.

There wasn't time to let her hash that out, so I turned to Aquator. "You were as you are now, in some ways, a large pony others looked up to, both literally and otherwise. You banned reaching for outer space because your son was lost to it." I turned to the ball of shadow. "Your son, Little Tite."

The orb swirled wildly a moment. "Figured it out, did you? Now you've really done it... Look at them, they're waking up, and there won't be any sleep for them again. You ruined them."

Sweet ripped the cloak off her back and let it fall. She was whole and black, except for the red stripes in her mane and tail. "I remember... I remember it all... I never had a son. I was... I'm so sorry, Little Tite..."

"Don't say that!"

"My son." Aquator took a step forward, his other forehoof bursting free of the water as it began running down him, collecting at his feet and rushing off into the rock. He was revealed to be a powerful stallion of black. "You're alive..."

"You call this living?!" The orb lifted higher. "I've been dead for a long time. That damn kid was supposed to break it, and me, but no. No! If I can't have peace, you can all have it instead." He exploded into darkness, wrapping around us. All was dark a moment, with just the soft thudding of my own heart.

Sombra's eyes opened before us. "I am holding him at bay. I had no idea... You've brought us this far, curious creature, now it is time for us to stand together."

His horn shone with shadow magic, and the darkness retreated. Standing beside the dark orb was Long Night. Where did he fit into things?

Little, the orb, snickered. "Trying to figure it out? You're not going to, this one isn't involved in that. This one's mine. Long, it's time."

Long gave a slow, mournful, nod. before he drew out a wickedly sharp dagger.

Pinkie tilted her head. "Are you going to fight us with that?"

Trixie waved a hoof. "Trixie is not afraid of your kitchen knife."

Long plunged it into his own chest, and Little flowed into the gap instantly. Long grunted and fell to a knee before us. His form began to swell and bulge obscenely as he fell to all fours, becoming the pony he once was, I presumed? Armor grew over him, and I recognized it. He was wearing the outer space protective clothing, which made him look like the monster the crystal ponies had hunted all those years ago. His eyes were lost to view, shadow gusted from behind the screen. It was time to fight, and there was no mercy button this time.

Sombra thrust up a hoof and black crystals jut up powerfully from the ground, but Long jumped out of the way and brought a hoof down on Trixie, who shrieked as she dashed out of harm's way.

Aquator trembled, but wasn't fighting. "My son... This isn't how I raised you."

"Isn't it?" called the voice of Little Tite from within Long's enhanced form. "You lashed out at everyone who failed you." Long/Tite crashed before Aquator and lashed out a forehoof, knocking him to the ground. "Like father, like son."

With a loud boom, Pinkie fired her party cannon, splattering the side of the combined beast with confetti. "You stop picking on ponies!"

Sombra drove his hooves to the stone, causing a circle of crystal to erupt around Little/Long. "Why would you have me fail my task? Why would you destroy yourself?"

Trixie came up beside me. "You've done quite well, familiar. This is their struggle, now. Trixie thinks it's well in-hoof."

Sweet approached the circle. "Are you upset I sent you? I thought there would be a wondrous world up here, and... there is... I'm sorry for what happened to you, but we both wanted to see it. I would have taken your place, if I could."

Aquator rose to his hooves. "You're still here. There's still hope. I'm sorry for being blind for so many years, but it's still not too late. You were... unspeakably brave..."

"I..." Little/Tite went still and quiet a moment. "You never said that before..."

Sombra glanced at the dark ponies, then waved away the jutting crystal. "There is still time." His eyes turned to me and Trixie. "Tell us, what would make them surrender the heart to us?"

Trixie jerked up. "Oh, hmm, well, Trixie supposes they won't want to do that until they're certain they'll never be attacked by shadows again."

"Which will not cease until the heart is reclaimed."

It was a loop without end, but it had to end. "It's time to wake them up."

Pinkie looked the most confused of them all. "Wake who up?"

Aquator knew what I meant. "All of them? Yes...  it is time. We either rise from the darkness of eternal misery, or accept it, and I am done accepting that!"

Sweet looked around in a bit of a panic. "How do we even do that? Where is our city?"

Sombra let out a little sigh. "I... we... know where it is. How can we not? Its screams drive us." He half turned away. "I suppose this is the end of the shadow. If you revive them, our purpose is at an end..." 

Long suddenly collapsed to his side. Little flowed from his mouth, and he was still. That wasn't right. I hadn't... This wasn't perfect. I had messed up, somewhere. In some way I'd messed up!

Trixie saw the panic on my face. "What's wrong? We're getting everything fixed. You should be happy, James."

But it wasn't perfect. It was good, but it wasn't perfect...

Aquator was speaking to Sombra, "Your people have lived on our fears and desperate wants too long. It's time you came free of the darkness as well."

Sweet nodded quickly. "Please. You don't seem so bad. If we can learn to live with the crystal ponies, you can too."

Aquator nodded in agreement. "The shadows as well. It's time to start a new era."

My mind wasn't on them. They were acting out the end of the adventure nicely, but I'd failed. I wouldn't be sent home. I'd done all I could, and came so close...

Little Tite swirled in the air. "What about me?"

Aquator held out a hoof. "We will reclaim the rest of your soul from the heart. Whole, we will know what to do. Son, I still love you."

Sweet put a hoof behind her head. "This is so awkward. I spent so long thinking of my lost son, to find out they weren't my son, but you instead. I still want to help, to make you whole again..."

They would get their happy ending. It would work out for them... I sank to the stony floor and Trixie sat beside me. "James? You're worrying Trixie. Please tell her what's wrong?"

"I failed."

"How is this failure?" She waved a hoof at them talking of a brighter future. "This looks like success from Trixie's point of view."

"Well, yeah, but I didn't do it perfectly. We never found out who Long Night was. This wasn't a perfect pacifist ending."

Trixie blinked slowly. "She has no idea what a 'perfect pacifist ending' is, but you did better than even Trixie would have dared to imagine." She lifted me with magic and stood up, placing me on her back. "Come on, let's see this to its end, then look to our own future. Trixie said you would be Trixie's familiar, but she will endeavor to make that a happy thing." She glanced over her shoulder. "Life isn't perfect, but we can make it good."

I let her carry me, hugging into her mane. 

I was sure I'd never see home again.