The impact hurt. One would not expect a creature of smoke and shadow to be able to hurt that much from being thrown against something solid. But Misericordia, in his current state, was proof that it was possible. As he waited for his head to clear, the shadow eyed his surroundings. Nothing much caught his attention until his white eyes locked onto the platform, some distance away. There, he saw her. His Empress, Radiant Hope. Or rather, whatever Radiant Hope had become.
The creature slowly took a few steps, getting used to Hope's body. Invidia could see the purple smoke rising out of red eyes that had once been blue and had once been Hope's. He could not bring him to watch any more.
Misericordia knew he should be happy. After all this time, his Emperor and his Empress were together again. This is what he had been working for. This is what he had wanted.
Except, that thing was not his Empress. The Emperor may call it, “Empress,” but it was not. It was not the Radiant Hope he had known.
Misericordia shook his head. He felt something which was quite unusual for an Umbrum to feel. Unprecedented, even. Misericordia felt despair.
Misericordia looked around again. He had appeared to have landed in one of the small nooks which dotted the long walls of the boiler room. It was quite a snug fit, but that was no problem for a creature easily capable of changing its size and shape. It had been fortunate that it was here. The Emperor’s command of dark magic, though always a little uncontrolled, was powerful, and had Misericordia not landed here, he would not have regained himself before flying or falling deep into the depths. But from here, he had a rather good sight of the platform below. Yes, he had been fortunate.
That doesn’t make it any less painful, though.
Misericordia could not bear to look down at the proceedings on the platform. He knew that there was nothing he could do. He could only avert his eyes. So, he looked upward. He saw a catwalk. There was a purple light coming from it.
Strange, Misericordia thought.
Even stranger still, there seemed to be something in the purple light. A form. A form that looked very much like that of a pony.
Misericordia floated up to investigate. He quickly found that he had been correct in his surmise; there was a pony up here, beige in color with a grey mane and tail. Misericordia guessed that he was rather old, though the Umbrum had to admit that telling the ages of ponies was not his strong suit; they were very strange-looking creatures, after all. The pony was huddled down, with his forelegs hugging his own shoulders tightly. He was shaking and, with his horn providing just enough purple light to illuminate a few feet around him, his eyes rapidly scanned the darkness for what he couldn’t see.
"Oh, dear me, dear me. I am beset by dangers on all sides. There is nothing but darkness wherever I look. Those nasty Umbrum could be anywhere. They could strike at any moment! And to have landed on this rickety old catwalk, which feels as though it might give out from the slightest touch! Oh, cruel fate! And it’s so cold! Oh, where are you, sweet Hope? However shall I find you? My back is a disaster area! Why did I have to land directly on it when I fell? Those slipshod architects need to be fired for not understanding the necessity of offering a gentle landing to anypony who might break through the bottom of their pool! Oh, the indignity of it all!”
Misericordia tried to get a better look. He twisted his head at an angle that was only natural for the Umbrum. Yes, now he saw him clearly. He recognized this pony and this voice. More than that, though, he recognized the whining.
"You're that friend of the Empress," he said. "Dr. Fie."
The good doctor let out a bone-tingling scream.
Misericordia floated toward him. The shadow put his hoof to his mouth, trying to signal for the pony to be quiet.
At least, I hope that’s what this gesture means.
Maybe it did not, because the doctor did not seem to heed it. He began to back away, trying to hold a foreleg between him and Misericordia. And he screamed louder.
“Oh, please, good sir, don’t harm me!” Dr. Fie squealed. “I mean you no ill-will, I assure you! I am a friend.”
Misericordia continued to approach. He tried to signal with his hoof for the doctor to keep it down.
“No, don’t raise your hooves to strike me!” Dr. Fie pleaded. “Oh, no! No! I don’t threaten you! Have mercy, sir! Have mercy!”
Dr. Fie’s back hoof got caught in a hole in the grating. He tumbled backward. He landed hard on his back.
“Oh, my poor, delicate back!” he squealed. “This monster obviously set a trap for me! He knew he couldn’t take me in a frontal assault, so he used this deception to target my back! Oh, is there no honor among fiends anymore?”
Misericordia facehoofed.
Dr. Fie held up both hooves in front of his face.
“Now, this is the end! He raises his pernicious pincer to strike me down!” he cried. “Oh, that good, kindly Fiddly Fie should meet his death in such a frightful manner, torn apart by a demon’s claws! And on an empty stomach, too!”
Misericordia looked over his shoulder, full of nervous anticipation. He was certain that someone on the platform below must have heard this racket by now. He was not wrong.
“What is that awful noise?” the Emperor yelled.
“We’ll go check,” Invidia said. “Go check, Luxuria.”
“Why do I always have to do the heavy exertion?” Luxuria said.
“It’ll help you keep that girlish figure of yours,” Invidia responded.
“Can’t argue with that, I guess. I still think I do too much as it is.”
Misericordia watched Luxuria’s blue form leave the platform and zoom over toward his position. He looked over to Dr. Fie, who was still lying on the catwalk, caterwauling. Misericordia let out a sigh and lifted himself into the darkness above.
From his new vantage, he watched Dr. Fie look out cautiously from behind his hooves. He saw Luxuria hover up to the platform. She saw the doctor.
“Well, what do we have here?” she said. “A new pony to play with?”
Dr. Fie let out another piercing scream. Luxuria grew fiendishly excited upon hearing this. Barely able to contain herself, she lunged at him. Dr. Fie curled into as much of a ball as he could managed while the smoked-filled figure nearly jumped on top of him.
“Oh, he’s not so cute,” she said. “But I guess they all feel the same on the inside.”
“Oh, no, no, madam!” Dr. Fie shrieked. “Please, don’t harm me! No, don’t touch me! Keep those ugly hooves to yourself! Stay away! Stay!”
“Ugly? I’ll have you know, I’m considered one of the great beauties of the Umbrum. For even suggesting otherwise, I’m going to make this especially slow and painful.”
Luxuria giggled as she slowly lowered her hooves, ready to tear Dr. Fie apart. He screamed more and more. She avoided making direct contact, instead savoring the look on his face as her hooves got closer and closer. She clearly enjoyed making him squirm and suffer.
Misericordia was glad she did because it gave him the opportunity he was waiting for. Just as Luxuria was finally ready to initiate contact, he swooped down. He slammed into her as hard as he could. Luxuria went flying off of Dr. Fie and tumbled over the railing. Soon, she had vanished into the darkness below.
“We won’t have much time,” Misericordia said. “We need to get you out of here.”
Dr. Fie slowly lowered his hooves from his face. Still on his back, he looked up at Misericordia fearfully, his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open.
“You’re not... you’re not going to hurt me?” he asked, his voice suggesting both anxiety and disbelief.
“I would never hurt those on whom my Empress’ favor falls.”
Dr. Fie leapt to his hooves with surprising vigor for one who was just complaining about his back. He stood taller, prouder, and with more confidence than Misericordia had expected from a pony who had a moment before been rolled into a little ball, shivering. But nopony seeing Dr. Fie now would have thought him even capable of cowardice.
“I suppose it’s to be expected,” Dr. Fie said. “No monster worth his salt would try to pick a fight with Fiddly Fie, the terror of evildoers everywhere! Had that corpulent cro-magnon persisted in her hostility, why, you would have seen me imitate the tiger. You would have seen-”
“From what I saw, you seemed to be imitating the possum. Or is it the chicken. These animal names confuse me.”
"With those small eyes, I am not surprised you have trouble seeing what is clearly in front of your face" the doctor said. "You should consider glasses. I’ll write you a prescription later, you near-sighted ninny. But never mind that now. I am here on a mission, dear boy."
“Why are you calling me ‘dear boy?’” Misericordia responded. “I’m thousands of years old. I was before Celestia and Luna were even born!"
"Oh, spare me the technicalities, you translucent troublemaker. I do not care about your ridiculous reminiscences. My only concern is saving dear Hope. Since you claim to be so loyal, perhaps you have some inkling as to her whereabouts. Can you take me to her?"
"I fear that we cannot save her," Misericordia said sadly.
"Oh, pish-posh!" Dr. Fie responded. "Such defeatist thinking explains why how your kind got locked up in that dreary Prison of Shadows in the first place. Come now, where is she?”
“See for yourself.” Misericordia pointed toward the edge of the catwalk.
Dr. Fie carefully crept over. He got onto his stomach and lowered his head so as to hide as much of himself as he could.
“I can’t see very well from here,” he said. “But there’s dear Hope. And who is that with her?”
“You know him as King Sombra,” Misericordia said matter-of-factly.
“King Sombra!” Dr. Fie let out a squeak. “You mean, the King Sombra? Hope’s Sombra? The infamous tyrant who banished the Crystal Empire for a thousand years?”
“Tyrant? I suppose from a certain perspective,” Misericordia said.
“Sombra... Sombra... King Sombra....” Dr. Fie got to his hooves, his voice becoming faint. “I apologize, dear boy, but there is something I really must do.”
The doctor began to wobble back and forth. His eyes rolled back in his head. Once more, he fell backward onto the grating.
“Ponies....” Misericordia remarked.
Sombra was elated. He paraded himself around the platform, looking every once the monarch he had long imagined himself to be. Or so he supposed this to be how he looked. It was just a shame that there was nopony there to see it.
Except for Invidia. And for his Empress. But then again, his Empress was all that mattered.
“What do you think of this for a palace, my love?” he asked.
The Dark Empress looked around. “It’s hardly a palace. Just a floating ruin. I had better accommodations in the Prison of Shadows.
Sombra took her hooves in his. “It’s merely temporary. Soon, once we release our subjects, you shall have your pick between Canterlot Castle and the Crystal Palace.”
“Why not both?” she asked. “We could have a summer and winter home.”
“Excellent,” Sombra said. “I am so glad to finally have someone who sees eye to eye with me so completely. I’m sorry about the pain I had to cause you, Hope—”
“Hope is gone. Did you forget?”
Sombra shook his head. “Don’t say things like that. You are still my hope, after all. The mare I have waited for and wanted for a thousand years. The mare who will give herself completely to me.”
“Of course,” said the Empress. “I will be whatever you want me to be, Sombra.”
“We should move quickly to release our brethren,” Invidia said. “Then we can take this land before anypony is the wiser.”
“There will be time for that,” Sombra said, not breaking his gaze from his mate’s eyes. “Let me just enjoy this moment, Invidia.”
“But we must act before—”
“I am your Emperor. What I say, goes.”
“Yes, milord,” Invidia said. Sombra could tell he was unhappy about it. But he would listen. He had to listen. His Emperor’s word was law, after all. What could a mere shadow pony do to gain say it?
All Sombra cared about was his Empress. He wanted to focus only on her, to get lost in her beautiful red eyes. She smiled at him and he felt his heart flutter. It was like when they were children. But it was better now. So much better.
But like so many of his fleeting moments of happiness, it was not meant to last. Suddenly, he felt his grip on her hooves loosening. They soon fell to the grating. She was a little surprised by this, but Sombra was more so. He looked down at his own hooves. He could see through them to the platform below. They were fading.
“Curse this temporary form,” he said. “I feared it would only last a short while.”
“Sombra, my love and my king, you can’t fade away now,” the Empress said. “Not after we have just found each other.”
Sombra smiled. “No need to be concerned, my dear. With the two of us together at last, my body is as good as healed. We can easily rebuild it.”
“You mean....”
“Yes, Hope, you can do it. Now, you can give yourself to me fully. You have the power. The power to save me.”
“But I’ll die,” the Empress pleaded. “You don’t want me to die, do you?”
Sombra ran his hoof down her cheek. Unfortunately, his hoof just dissipated like smoke upon contact. Sombra sneered.
“You really could not have given me a better body?” he snapped at Invidia.
“We did the best we could. The Empress must do the rest,” Invidia responded with an obsequious bow.
Sombra turned back to the Empress, offering her a reassuring smile. “No, you won’t die. That was merely a test. I wanted to know what you were willing to do for me. I wanted to know that you would be willing to die if I asked. You weren’t before. Now you are.”
“I would... I would die for you,” the Empress said quietly. “I will do anything to please you.”
“But you don’t need to,” Sombra said. “All you need to do is use your healing power to rebuild my body.”
Sombra put some distance between himself and the Empress. Then he waited. “Whenever you’re ready, my love.”
The Empress nodded. She prepared herself. Her horn began to glow. It glowed a dark red. And then, purple-black, mud-like bubbles began to form.
“No, my dear,” Sombra said. “Don’t use dark magic. Use your own magic. Only your magic has the power to restore me.”
The glow and the sludge disappeared.
“I don’t know if I can do it,” the Empress said. “That is the magic of Hope.”
“You are Hope,” Sombra said. “You will still have the power. I know you. I believe in you.”
The Empress seemed unsure. She looked around and fretted. But finally, she steadied herself.
Sombra nodded happily. She would try again. And this time, he knew she would succeed.
She stood there, her horn pointed toward him. Nothing happened.
She dug her hooves into the grating. Nothing happened.
She grit her teeth. Sweat appeared on her brow. Every single muscle in her body tensed up. She struggled and strained.
But nothing happened.
“I can’t do it,” she said. “I don’t have the power.”
“You can do it!” Sombra said, “You still have the power inside of you.”
The Empress shook her head. “I do not have that power. It isn’t my power. It is the power of Hope.”
Sombra was growing frustrated. “You have the power! You are Hope!”
“No,” the Empress said, “I am not Hope. There is no hope left inside of me.”
Hope felt a hard surface beneath her. The texture was bumpy, cracked, and uneven. She felt herself lying down, which was good, in so far as it indicated that she could still feel. But whatever she was lying on was not very comfortable.
Hope wondered where she was. Even with her eyes closed, she could see light.
Hope opened her eyes. The blue sky was above her. She looked around. There were buildings on all sides. They looked familiar. She got to her hooves. This whole place looked familiar. Eerily familiar.
There was a noise. The sound of wheels on asphalt. Wheels moving far too fast.
“Get out of the road!” came a voice.
Hope did not have time. The carriage appeared too quickly. The pony pulling it did not even attempt to stop.
Hope felt hooves on her shoulders. She was pulled to the side. The carriage sped past with enough force to blow her mane and tail all around her..
She watched the carriage disappear around the bend, and then it hit her. The street, the sidewalks, the buildings beyond; they were all familiar because she recognized them. She had been here before. This was not just any intersection. This was the intersection. The intersection where the carriage-wreck had occurred. This was where she had healed seven ponies.
“You need to start being more careful. Don’t need you becoming a crystal pancake out there. ‘Crystal pancakes.’ Sounds terrible. So I’m sure somepony or other will be serving them soon.”
That voice! I know that voice!
Hope spun around. There she saw a familiar old pony with horn-rimmed glassed.
“Ponies these days, they’ve always got somewhere they have to be,” he said. “They never ask themselves if maybe they’re supposed to be where they are.”
Hope’s brows raised. “You,” she said.
“Me,” he responded.
Hope looked around her once more. She looked at the white clouds above and the orb of the Sun, suspended near the mid-point of the sky.
“Am I dead?” she asked. “Is this Heaven?”
The old pony chuckled. “Heaven? At the corner of Bruins and Andalusian? Who’d come up with a bright idea like that?”
Hope shook her head. “I never believed in Heaven. Or anything really. But this place... where is it?”
“I’ve never been one to give directions,” the pony said. “You try to tell people exactly where to go, and yet somehow they still get lost. It turns out there’s no harder path to follow than a straight line.”
“That’s true,” Hope said. “I learned that with Sombra. With a lot of ponies, actually.”
The pony tilted his head. “So, I’m thinking, let them start out lost and find their own way. It’s good for them. It builds character.”
“And what if they never find their way?” Hope asked.
The pony shrugged. “They’ll still end up going to some interesting places.”
“Interesting is a word for it,” Hope said.
“If you’ve got a better one, I could use the suggestions. A bigger vocabulary makes you seem educated, they say. And I’ve been around so long, I figure I should know something by now.”
“I don’t know if any of us really ever knows anything,” Hope said. “I still feel like I don’t, even after all this time.”
“You’re on the right track. The more things people know, the less they seem to understand. It’s a little glitch in the programming.”
Hope stared blankly at the pony. “Oh, right,” he said. “Electronics metaphor. You won’t have gotten caught up on those yet. You might be better off, truth be told. I have a bad feeling about all this newfangled technology. I think it’s going to be—“
“A mistake,” they said together.
“Bingo,” the pony said.
Hope began to trot down the street. The old pony, despite his age, kept up with her. This did not surprise her at all.
“Okay, where am I supposed to go now?” Hope asked.
“Nowhere, if you don’t want to. The choice is yours. If you want to go somewhere, then go.”
Hope looked around. “But where am I destined to go?”
“I thought you didn’t believe in destiny.”
“I believe in it if it’ll help me get back to Sombra. If it’ll help me fix everything.”
“That’s the thing with destiny. It’s a straight line. And we know how good ponies are at following those.”
Hope looked down at her flank. There was her cutie mark. The caduceus.
“But what about cutie marks? Aren’t they supposed to be destiny? That’s what we’re all told as foals.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I was addressing a foal.”
“Well, I’m not. It’s just—”
“We tell children such stories. We give them easy answers to explain things, all just to hide that we don’t have any ourselves.”
“But cutie marks are what makes ponies who they are.”
“You know, I’m beginning to think your friend Starlight is right. Cutie marks were a mistake.”
Hope’s jaw dropped. “You know Starlight?”
The pony gave an almost imperceptible shrug. “I know a lot of people.”
Hope nodded. “Starlight will be glad to know that her cause has one supporter. She’s not been having much luck attracting them lately.”
“She’s a good kid. Just a little turned around."
"Didn't you say some ponies needed to be?"
"You were listening. It's nice to be heard for a change. But the thing about cutie marks is, ponies just assume they’re a straight line.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying there’s a reason most ponies don’t go to very many interesting places.”
Hope fell into thought. “Starlight once told me that my cutie mark could mean many things. Healing, secrecy, deception.”
“And wisdom,” said the pony. “That Starlight’s a smart girl. You should listen to her more.”
“But which is it?” Hope asked. “Which meaning applies to me?”
The old pony shrugged. “Why can’t it be all of them? You contain multitudes, Hope.”
Hope looked down at her sides. “Well, I’ve been trying to watch what I eat....”
“Again, it’s not a weight thing. You’re fine, you’re fine. Stop looking at yourself like that. If you’re fat, I’m Princess Celestia. And trust me, I look terrible in a tiara.”
Hope looked to her hooves, “You’re right, I guess. I feel like I’m so many things. And not all of them fit together. It’s like, I know I’ve done some bad things. So I keep trying to be better. I keep trying to go on a better path. But it’s just.... I feel like I can’t do it. Somepony recently told me that I’m a pony of light—”
“Dr. Fie.”
“You know him to.”
The pony nodded. “I do. He’s an idiot.”
To Hope’s stern look, he responded. “Don’t take it personally. Some of my favorite ponies are idiots.”
“Well, as I was saying, he keeps saying I’m a pony of light, that I have so much light inside of me. And maybe he’s right. But I just feel like there’s so much darkness too. Whenever I try to find the light, I just seem to end up with the darkness.”
“Light, darkness. They aren’t so different. Sometimes you need them both. It’s the ponies who think they’re all one or the other than you need to worry about.”
Hope looked up into the sky. The clouds have covered up the sun. “I don’t know. I do want to be a pony of light. I want to be a good pony. I don’t want to be a monster. I just feel like I’ve done too much. I’ve seen too much. I’ve known too much. I’ve been too much in the darkness. I can’t get to the light.”
The pony smiled his wry smile. “Well, every great saint was a great sinner once. That’s what they say, at any rate. I don’t know much about that. But I do know is that sometimes the only way to find the light is by going through the darkness.”
Hope watched the clouds. They slowly began to move along their regular path and soon enough, they had passed by, once more revealing the glory of the Sun.
“I just wish I knew how to do it,” Hope said. “I just wish I could figure out how to find light in the darkness. To find hope again.”
The old pony stopped. “This walking is tiring me out. You might not know it from my good looks, but I’m rather old. I can’t keep up with you youngsters.”
“I’m a thousand and sixteen years old.”
“Eh, it’s all perspective. You think a thousand is old. That’s just yesterday to a windigo. And I’m sure Mount Everhoof would have some things to say about it as well.”
Hope sighed. “But it already feels like most of my life has passed, no matter what.”
“You never know. Besides, what’s you’ve really got when you get down to it, you don’t have ten years or a thousand. You’ve just got now. And now, I need a rest.”
“But where,” Hope said, looking around.
The pony pointed his hoof. “That bench over there looks nice.”
Hope’s eyes widened. She gasped.
The bench.
It was the same bench, the bench she and the old pony had sat at before. Hope had not seen it until just now.
And there was a pony already sitting on the bench, a young filly by the looks of her. She had a lavender coat and hair of a clear, watery blue flowing down over her eyes. As Hope got closer to her, she noticed that the filly’s coat was sparkling in the sun, almost as though it was made of....
Crystal.
Hope’s jaw dropped. “Is that... Is that me?”
“Dr. Fie. Dr. Fie.”
The good doctor slowly became aware of something touching his cheeks. More like slapping, actually. It was meant to be gentle, apparently, but this pony’s hooves were so sharp it felt altogether too much like being poked repeatedly with needles.
Dr. Fie opened his eyes. They met a pair of small orbs in the darkness, glowing with an ethereal pale white.
And suddenly, everything came flooding back. Dr. Fie felt his whole body shake as he remembered where he was and what he was there for.
He jumped to his hooves. “Keep your claws off me, you unhinged urchin!”
“I was merely trying to revive you,” the shadow said.
“Revive me? Poppycock! I’ll have you know Dr. Fiddly Fie has nerves of steel! I was merely taking a power nap. One must be at full strength and alertness when conducting dangerous rescue missions, you know.”
“I don’t think we can do any rescuing,” the shadow (Dr. Fie seemed to remember his name being ‘Misericordia’) said. “Sombra has gotten what he wanted. My Empress is no more.”
"Oh, stop with that 'Empress' nonsense, you sycophantic psychopath! Just call her by her name. 'Radiant Hope' is a noble enough title without you adding anything to it. And besides, I can see her right down there.”
“That is not her.”
“Not her? Not her? Does darkness cloud your eyes as well as every other part of you? She’s there. See, purple and blue.”
Dr. Fie made an exaggerated pointing gesture with his hoof.
“You are the one who is blind,” Misericordia said. “Do you not see how she and the Emperor are interacting?”
Dr. Fie stiffened. He never liked being insulted by ponies. He certainly was not about to take it from this... this thing.
“I’ll have you know that my eyesight is perfect. Better even. During the Zebra Wars I was known as ‘Eagle-Eye Fie’. And I clearly know Hope better than you do, ninny. She always goes on about Sombra. She’s very emotional like that. Mares, you know.”
“I have little experience with mares—“
“Oh, ho-hum! I could not care less about your romantic misadventures, you ridiculous Romeo!”
“—but you are more emotional than any mare I have ever met.”
“Of course, I am. Just as I think more deeply than other ponies, I feel more deeply as well. It’s one of the many burdens of greatness, I’m afraid.”
The shadow shook his head. When he spoke, he spoke more slowly. “Listen. I am trying to tell you something important.”
“You could have fooled me, you blubbering baboon.”
“That is not your Radiant Hope. It may look like her, but it is not. She has been corrupted by dark energy.”
Dr. Fie smiled a superior smile. “Corrupted by dark energy? Stuff and nonsense if I ever heard it!”
“It is true. The Emperor wanted an Empress that was worthy of him. And he feared that the Radiant Hope you knew was not.”
“Harumph! Not worthy, indeed! I’ll have you know that my dear Hope is worth more than all you sinister shadows put together.”
Misericordia signaled for him to be quiet. Then the shadow looked over his shoulder. When he spoke again, his voice was lower — an impressive achievement for an Umbrum.
“I agree, Dr. Fie. But you must understand. The Emperor has never fully forgiven the Empress for leaving him all those years ago. He has always feared she would betray him again. So if the Siege failed, he came up with a new plan that would allow him both to rise again and finally have the Empress he wanted; one unconditionally loyal to him.”
The weight of everything landed squarely on Dr. Fie’s shoulders. This new information was more than enough to break many a lesser pony. He felt faint again. But Dr. Fie had always said that he had greater inner strength than those other ponies. It was time to start proving it.
He put his hooves to his chest. “Oh, dear me. So, you are saying that that is a different being in Hope’s body. That our Hope is gone?”
“Not exactly. That is not a different being from Hope. Rather, what Sombra sought to do was bring out the dark part of her, the part of her which was angry, the part that resented everything that life had done to her.”
Dr. Fie shook his head. “But Hope doesn’t have that sort of thing in her!”
“Of course, she does. Every pony does.”
“Not me, I assure you!”
“So, you never feel anger?”
“Only righteous indignation, dear boy. There’s a difference, but I wouldn’t expect a shadow-demon to grasp it.”
“‘Righteous’ indignation by definition requires righteousness, Dr. Fie.”
“Precisely. Ponies like Hope and I, we suffer the ‘slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,’ but do either of us complain? No. Well, Hope does a little. Quite a bit, actually. Sometimes, it can great on the nerves, though one tries to be patient with her. But as for Fiddly Fie, not he, oh no!”
Misericordia seemed to be tiring of this.
“Whatever you say, for you are ‘good, kindly Dr. Fie.’ But Hope has suffered. She simply never let it turn her to hatred as Sombra did. But he wanted to make her more like him, he wanted to bring out the part of her that could have turned her into what he is.”
“Hope would have resisted it.”
“That is why he needed all the dark energy he could find. He brought shards of Princess Amore here for the purpose. And now she is like him.”
Dr. Fie felt his legs grow weak again. He leaned against the railing to sustain himself. “Oh, dear Hope! What has happened to you! Lost! Lost and gone! Oh, dear Hope. Hope is lost. This is why I knew she never should have come down here!”
“I agree.”
“Of course, you do. I’m always right.”
“I no longer agree.”
“Oh, shut up, you ninny.”
Dr. Fie felt ready to cry. If what this shadow was saying was true, his beloved Radiant Hope was lost to him forever. Dr. Fie clutched at his heart. The pain of losing her would be too much. He did not know how he could live in an Equestria without her in it. For once in his life, life itself did not seem worth keeping.
Then, an image of Radiant Hope flashed in his mind. Hope. What a fitting name, he reflected. She had never thought so, but it was. For she had given him a knowledge of something he had never known. She had taught him how to care for another pony, to want to be better for another pony. She would never believe it, but she had taught him to believe he could be better. She had given him hope.
’And where there’s life, there’s hope.’
Dr. Fie shook his head. He would not give up. He had always given up. All his life, he had given up on everything and everyone as soon as it no longer directly benefit him. And he had never regretted it. Not until he met Radiant Hope. And now he would not give up on her.
“I can’t believe it,” he said. “I simply cannot believe it. That thing is not who Hope is, but if it is a part of her, then Hope must still be in there somewhere. It looks like we’re the ones who have to save her.”
“We?” Misericordia asked. “I did not think you were the type of pony to get directly involved.”
“How little you know me, sir! I am a pony of action!”
“‘Ponies of action’, I have heard, rarely take action themselves.”
Dr. Fie thought for a moment. “It is true, I used to have a saying, ‘No action at a distance.’ But I’m not putting distance between myself and life anymore.” Standing up a little straighter, he added, “After all, what is the purpose of a great pony such as myself if not to sort out crisis after crisis as destiny presents them before me?"
"I do not see what we can do now,” Misericordia said. “I do not know how to save Hope.”
“Oh, ye of little faith! I believe in Radiant Hope. You just need to as well.”
“Belief without action doesn’t change the world, Dr. Fie.”
“Oh, pish-posh! I grow tired of your negativity, you smoke-filled spoilsport! But that is why we need strategy. Luckily for you, Dr. Fiddly Fie is a master tactician.”
"Oh, thank darkness,” Misericordia remarked. Despite the scratchiness of his voice, Dr. Fie thought he could hear a hint of sarcasm in it.
“Mind your manners or it’ll cost you your friends,” Dr. Fie snapped.
“I’m an Umbrum. I have no friends. Except for Radiant Hope.”
“And I am not surprised, with your lack of social graces.”
Then, a noise rang out from somewhere down below. Dr. Fie jumped and squealed.
“I expect Luxuria will be back soon,” Misericordia said.
“Yes,” Dr. Fie said, trying to regain his composure. “Clearly, our first step is to take care of those horrid-looking shadow monsters...”
“No offense taken, Dr. Fie,”
“There’s a shame, because offense was certainly intended.”
Misericordia let out a sigh. “Very well. How do you intend to deal with Luxuria and Invidia?”
Dr. Fie's eyes narrowed. He raised a hoof. "Never fear, Fie is here."
“Try again, try again,” Sombra said, growing increasingly anxious.
He was barely capable of keeping a coherent form now. He was pacing around the platform — or whatever could be called pacing given that he barely had anything resembling legs anymore.
“Invidia!” he shouted. Invidia shot a quick beam of dark magic at him.
For a moment, Sombra’s smoky body stabilized. “Try again,” he snapped at the lavender crystal pony.
“I... I can’t,” the Empress said. “I told you! I can’t do it!”
“You can do it. Hope could do it.”
“How many times do I have to say that I’m not Radiant Hope anymore?”
Sombra let out a loud growl. “You are Radiant Hope! And you must heal me!”
The Empress grew panicked. She shook her head frantically. “Maybe you can use Princess Amore’s fragments. We still have those! You said you could use them to restore your body!”
“No, I can’t!” Sombra snapped. “I only needed them for the ritual, to make you what you are. I just told you the other thing because I had to keep you from getting suspicious. I wanted to test you, after all.”
“You... you lied to me?” the Empress asked, her voice small and quiet.
“It was necessary at the time,” Sombra said dismissively. “It brought out the best in you. Or should I say, the worst.”
“My liege,” Invidia said, “I hate to say it, but I alone cannot keep you together for much longer. If the Empress cannot rebuild your body, I fear—”
“Silence, Invidia!” Sombra barked. “I would remind you that, if you have doubts, not to voice them openly. Such things are what treason is made of.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Invidia said, quietly.
“Besides, Hope will fix things. Eventually.”
“Yes, Invidia,” the Empress said to the Umbrum, with a tone surprisingly sweet and kind. “I will find a way to fix things. But can you come down here? I’d like to speak with you for a moment.”
“Hmph, what could you need to talk to him for?” Sombra remarked.
“I’m still feeling weak and not fully in control of my magic,” the Empress said. “You trusted Invidia to gather the dark energy of Amore’s fragments. Maybe he can help me stabilize my dark energy.”
Sombra was skeptical. He doubted it would work. There was nothing Invidia could know about Princess Amore or dark energy that he did not. But, best to humor his love, he thought, especially when she was so newly reborn.
“Very well,” he said, “but make it quick.”
Sombra turned away as they spoke. Though they seemed to get quite involved in discussion, he did not much care what they said. All he was certain of was that this was wasting time. Sombra looked out into the blackness all around him. For a shadow pony, darkness held no mysteries. He could see everything in this place. It was not so frightening. It was just the inside of a boat, with pipes and steel. There were no surprises here.
Briefly, the pipes and steels were visible to more than just somepony with Umbric vision, colored turquoise by a bright light.
Well, that was a surprise.
Sombra turned around. There, in between him and his Dark Empress, stood a lavender pony. At first, Sombra thought he was seeing double-vision. But this pony was different. She had purple hair with violet and turquoise streaks, done up in a mane-do that was old-fashioned even in Sombra’s youth. She was holding something in her foreleg, a scroll by the looks of it. She took a few uncertain steps. She wobbled back and forth and seemed woozy.
"Hope was right," Starlight said. "Teleporting this far down really did take it out of me."
“Oh, hello, Starlight,” the Empress said, her voice dripping with contempt.
Starlight’s eyes lit up when she saw her. “Hope, I was so worried I’d be too late. I was afraid I’d get here and you’d already be....”
“Dead?”
Starlight threw her forelegs around the Empress. “But I’m so glad you’re okay, Hope! I’m so glad you’re a live!”
The Empress was emotionless. “Hope is gone.”
Starlight released her. “What do you mean?”
“Why does it matter?” the Empress responded. “Didn’t you say you hoped I’d die? Aren’t you disappointed?”
Starlight took a few steps back. “I’m so sorry, Hope! I was upset and it was an emotional moment and I regretted it immediately! Hope, I never should have said it. I—”
Starlight fell to ground, a victim of a blast of dark magic. “Shut up,” the Empress said, her horn smoking.
“Okay, I’ll admit, I might have deserved that,” Starlight said, cradling her jaw. “I get that you were really upset with what I said. I’d be too, but.... What’s with that stuff on your face? And since when are your eyes red?”
“Ever since I embraced my true nature,” the Empress said menacingly. Her horn began to glow the same color as her eyes.
Sombra smiled in pride.
“Hope, what are you—” Starlight did not get time to finish her question. The beam came flying at her. Only by rolling to her hooves at the last moment did she avoid another direct hit.
“Pity,” the Empress said, readying up for another shot. “You’d have looked so pretty as a statue.”
Starlight was prepared. She cast a spell to create a dome-like shield around herself. The Empress’ magic ricocheted off the dome and into the darkness. Invidia had to quickly dodge to avoid it.
“Hope, I don’t know what’s going on, but this isn’t you!” Starlight said. “You’re not the type of pony who would do this!”
“How many times do I have to keep saying it?” the Empress said with a snarl. “Hope is gone.”
Meanwhile, Sombra had picked up the spell and was reading through it. “What is this? Time-travel?”
Starlight wheeled around. She caught sight of Sombra for the first time. Her jaw dropped.
“Is that.... Is that....”
“Kneel to your Emperor, worm,” the Empress said. “Kneel to Emperor Sombra.”
“Sombra?” Starlight asked. “But I thought he was dead.”
“I’m obviously very much alive,” Sombra remarked, not looking up from the spell. “Which is more than I can say for how you’ll soon be.”
“Hope?” Starlight said, the tone of her voice demanding an explanation.
“We’re back together now” the Empress said. “The bonds of true love, sometimes, can’t be broken.”
The lavender mare looked quite upset. Sombra found it cute.
“Oh Celestia, Hope,” she said. “He did something to you, didn’t he? He hurt you in some way, made you like this!” Turning to Sombra, she yelled. “You’re going to pay for this! I won’t let you hurt Hope and get away with it.”
“I only showed her what she truly is,” Sombra said as he finished reading the spell. “But this time-travel spell will be useful. Just think of all I can do to Equestria with it. I suppose I should thank you. Maybe I’ll let your death be quick.”
Starlight charged toward him. “Put that down! Give it back to me! That’s mine! I stole it fair and square!”
Sombra let out a sigh. This was no longer cute. He let forth a blast of Umbric magic from his horn. Starlight’s shield was strong enough to withstand the blow, but it caused her to falter in her tracks. Which was fine. Sombra had intended it more as a warning shot anyway.
“My love, who is this creature?” he asked.
“Trust me, she’s not worth knowing,” the Empress remarked with a sneer.
Starlight approached Sombra. At first, he began to prepare another blast, more lethal this time. But then, he stopped. This pony was not trotting up in a threatening manner. No, it was more arrogant, haughty even. Sombra knew that feeling well.
“Let me get closer,” Starlight said. “Surely, you recognize me. We were in the same line for a while.”
Sombra looked at her, his eyes narrow. “You’re not an Umbrum. You are not a king. You are nothing but an annoyance. I don’t know how we are in the ‘same line.’”
Starlight looked quite disgusted. She grit her teeth. “I’m Starlight Glimmer.”
She spread her forelegs beside her. Sombra gave her no response.
Starlight surveyed the darkness above, her disgust now quite pronounced. “I’m Princess Twilight’s greatest enemy. I stripped her of her cutie mark, of her power. I nearly defeated her!”
Sombra shrugged. “I’ve defeated her twice or so now. But congratulations.”
Starlight let out a frustrated growl.
“Ignore her, Sombra,” the Empress said, “she’s nopony. She wanted to start a movement, she wanted to convince ponies to get rid of their cutie marks. But she couldn’t do it. So, she tried to rope me in. And still, she failed. It’s quite pathetic, actually.”
Sombra folded the spell and placed it underneath his foreleg. He began to approach Starlight.
“I always did think cutie marks were quite stupid,” Sombra said. “I’ve gotten through life fine without one. It’s a pity, in another life, we could have been friends.”
Dark ooze flowed up and down his horn. “If you weren’t such an insignificant creature, that is.”
Starlight braced herself and did her best to reinforce the barrier. “Take your best shot. I am Starlight Glimmer, the greatest unicorn mage of my generation. I can handle anything you’ve got, smoky.”
Sombra let the insult roll off him. It was below a king to banter with a thing so below his notice. Instead, he said, “You may be right, at least in my current state. But you won’t just be facing me.”
He looked up at Invidia. “Go find Luxuria,” he said. “We’ll need her.” Then he turned toward the Empress. “Come, my love. I gather this pony has hurt you. It is time to have your vengeance.”
The Empress began to stalk Starlight, her lips curled into a fiendish smile.
Starlight’s eyes flashed from Sombra to the Dark Empress as both came closer and closer. Even within her dome, Sombra could see that the mare was growing afraid. He smiled. This was how he wanted it.
Starlight tried to back out from between them, but it would not matter. She looked at the Empress, imploringly.
“Hope, you don’t have to do this!” Starlight pleaded. “Hope, I’m your friend!”
“I have no friends,” the Empress said, “and besides....”
Starlight’s eyes grew wide as they reflected the red glow emitting from the Empress’ horn. The Empress’s grim chuckle was enough to even make Sombra shiver.
“Hope is gone.”
“Do we have to stop and sit here?” Hope said as she reached the bench.
“Who are you talking to?” asked the young filly.
As weird as this was, Hope’s natural instinct to be friendly to children kicked in. She smiled a friendly smile. “I was just talking to my friend and... he’s gone, isn’t he?”
“I don’t see anypony,” the filly said. “Ooh, ooh, I know. Is he invisible?”
Hope looked behind her. “No, he’s... he’s just gone. Because of course he is.”
“I had a friend who was invisible once,” the younger Hope said. “I have a lot of friends. Fairies, pixies, sprites, gnomes, kelpies....”
“Do you mind if I sit down?” Hope asked her younger self.
“Sure,” the younger Hope said. “It’s a free country.”
Hope made to sit down.
“No, not there!” the younger Hope yelled.
Hope immediately jumped back up.
“That’s where my puca friend, Jock, is sitting.”
“Oh, of course,” Hope said, moving over. “Pucas always have to sit on the right side of a bench.”
“Or else they break out in warts,” both Hopes said together.
Hope sat down on the other side of her younger self. “Obviously. I don’t know where my mind was. I’ve had a lot to think about lately. I’m sorry, Jock!”
“He says he forgives you,” young Hope said. “I don’t know why. Nearly sitting on a puca is not a very nice thing to do.”
“I’ve done some very not-nice things before,” Hope said.
“Well, that’s silly,” said her younger self. “Why would you ever do those things?”
“I just sort of fell into them.” Hope thought for a moment. “No, that’s not true. I was trying to help a friend and it meant not being so nice.”
“Why would your friend want you to not be nice? That sounds like a bad friend. I wouldn’t want friends like that.”
“It’s complicated. You’re too young to understand. You really shouldn’t be so judgmental. It’s mean.”
Young Hope seemed a little upset. “You can’t tell me what to do. You’re not my mom or dad!”
“No, but I am your older self, and that should count for something,” Hope said. “Now, say you’re sorry.”
Young Hope looked down and kicked her hooves. By the looks of her, she genuinely felt bad. “I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t have said it. I just don’t understand why adults always say I’m too young to understand things. I understand lots of things. I know all about fairies and knights and dragons.”
Hope smiled a tender, yet sad smile. She spoke softly. “It’s not your fault. It’s just how life is. There aren’t many knights in shining armor out there. You have to be your own. Sometimes that means making hard decisions or trying to find the right answer when there isn’t one. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you do the wrong thing.”
“Then life is silly.”
Hope laughed a little. “You don’t know the half of it.” As she looked at her younger self, her own mind became lost in thought.
“What? Why are you looking at me like that?” young Hope asked. “Did I grow wings or something?”
“No, you’re not an alicorn,” Hope said with a smile. “I know you want to be.”
“I don’t want to be an alicorn,” responded young Hope. “I want to be a princess. They’re not the same thing.”
“Well, not yet. You wait, though.” Then a Hope shook her head. “Or you know what? Don’t wait. The whole princess thing, it’s not worth it. Most dreams aren’t.”
“You don’t believe in dreams?” young Hope responded, looking at her older self as though she had just squashed a puca.
Hope tilted her head. “I don’t believe in destiny. It’s sort of the same thing. Life doesn’t really work that way.”
“See, I understand things,” young Hope said. “I told you life was silly and it is.”
Hope nodded. “I guess you’re right.”
“But if I become a princess, I’ll be able to help lots of ponies. It would be awesome! No pony would ever be sad again!”
“I used to think so too.” Hope stopped herself. Of course, she used to think so. This was her she was talking to, after all.
She gazed at her younger self once more. As she looked at her, Hope felt herself taken back to the days when life held so much promise and her native optimism came easily.
Hope smiled wistfully. “You’re special, little me. You don’t know it, but you are. That light you have, that joy, that love for living. I miss that. I wish I still had it. But I’m not like that anymore. I’m not you anymore.”
Hope’s younger self did not seem to comprehend what her older self was saying. “I don’t get it. You’re me. How can you say you’re not?”
“That’s a long story. I don’t think I’ll ever fully be able to understand it myself.” Hope took a moment and stared at her younger self. “What are you doing here?”
Young Hope looked up to the sky. “I’m gonna turn this bench into a fort. It’s gonna be the biggest, best fort ever. Or maybe a castle. A big castle with a moat and a dungeon and towers and everything! I’m just waiting for my best friend, Sombra. Then we’ll build it together!”
“Nothing ever changes, does it.” This was in Hope’s voice, her slightly deeper adult voice. But Hope herself did not say it.
She looked to her left. There was a figure sitting in a long, brown cloak with its hood up. Hope was surprised. But she was not afraid. She felt close to this figure, just as she felt close to younger Hope. She felt a sense of being one.
Hope reached out and pulled down the hood. There was her own face looking back at her.
“So, what are you waiting for?” Hope asked.
“I’m waiting for it all to begin,” this other Hope said. “I’ve got everyone together. The minotaur, the disgraced wanna-be Wonderbolt, the con-artists, Queen Chrysalis. The plan’s all set. I’m just waiting for it all to come together. It’ll be any moment now.”
Hope nodded. “Ah, me during the Siege, right? Or as the Siege is just getting started, I guess? Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure,” the other Hope said. “As long as it doesn’t take too long to answer. I’m going to need to act fast once they get the Crystal Heart.”
“What do you think’s going to happen?” Hope asked.
“I figure the best-case scenario is,” the other Hope said, “I get the heart, I find Sombra and bring back his body, then we release the Umbrum. And then, everypony realizes what a mistake they made in imprisoning these adorable little creatures. Everything goes back to how it was, except better.”
“You know that’s never going to work. Queen Chrysalis, for one, won’t just accept peace and friendship. She wants things and, even if you win, she’ll fight to get them. And then, if you really believe that your pixie friends made Sombra to fight for them, there’s going to be a lot of fighting to do.”
“I know,” the other Hope said. Suddenly, she looked deeply sad.
“You know ponies could get hurt, right?” Hope asked. “They might die.”
The other Hope’s look became much sadder, even forlorn. “I know.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
The forlorn Hope looked at her quizzically. “I have to be. If it’s the right thing, I have to do it. If it’ll fix things. I have to fix things.”
“And how will you feel afterward, if a lot of ponies die? Are you going to be able to live with that? Are you going to be able to live with yourself?”
Forlorn Hope did not meet her eyes. “I have to do what I have to do. It doesn’t matter how I feel.”
“Even if you’re wrong?” Hope asked. “About the Umbrum? About Sombra? About everything?”
Forlorn Hope did not answer immediately. She looked almost ready to cry. She buried her head into her hooves.
“I just want to save Sombra,” she said from behind her long, disheveled mane. “I just want to save my best friend.”
She was silent for a long time. No sound was shared between them, except for the younger Hope’s humming.
And then, Hope heard sobbing. Sobbing from the pony in the cloak. Hope felt herself, surprisingly, feeling sorry for this pony. Of course, this pony was her.
If I feel bad for her, what does that mean for me?
Forlorn Hope looked up. “I can’t be wrong. If I’m wrong about the Umbrum, I’m wrong about Sombra. And if I’m wrong about Sombra.... I’ve never cared for any pony like I care for him. When I think of him, how all he wanted was to be a normal pony and live a normal, happy life... I can’t live with the thought that that pony is doomed to... to a life of pain and suffering. To a life of evil.”
Forlorn Hope looked up toward the sun. “I know he’s good. I have to believe it.”
“Of course, Sombra’s good,” young Hope said. “He’s the best pony I know.”
“He is,” forlorn Hope said. “He has to be.”
“I wish I could still believe in him, too,” Hope said. “But now I wonder. He was the only thing I ever really believed in. Maybe I was wrong the whole time.”
“You don’t have believe in Sombra anymore?” young Hope asked, again with the ‘you smashed a puca’ look.
“Even after everything we went through?” forlorn Hope said. “What is wrong with you?”
“She’s older than us, so she thinks knows stuff we don’t,” said young Hope. “She was giving me, like, this whole thing before you got here. It was kinda embarrassing.”
“For her, more than for you, I bet,” forlorn Hope said.
“You know it!”
“Wait, are you two actually joining together against me?” Hope asked, perplexed. Perplexed and a little insulted.
“Why wouldn’t we?” forlorn Hope said. “We’re more alike to each other than either of us is to you.”
“Yeah!” young Hope said. “We don’t give up on ponies we care about. I guess we just understand life more than you do.”
Young Hope and Forlorn Hope hoof-bumped.
“Now, hold on,” Hope said, pointing her hoof to young Hope. “You, you’re a filly. You don’t know anything.” Then she turned to forlorn Hope. “And you, you made me what I am, so you don’t have the right to complain about me.”
“She’s so testy,” forlorn Hope said to young Hope. “When did we become testy?”
“Don’t ask me,” young Hope responded. “I wouldn’t know. I’m just a filly, after all.”
Hope shook her head. “You just don’t understand. Neither of you do. I’ve seen what happens. You haven’t. I’ve seen what Sombra does and what he becomes. You haven’t. And I can’t deny how many ponies suffered because of what neither of you know. Or what neither of you want to see.”
She looked from side to side, waiting for one of them to say something. Neither did.
“What, neither of you have anything to add? No, of course you don’t. You two haven’t been there yet. I have. Everything I’ve seen, everything I’ve been through, it all just makes me wonder. Why did I believe in Sombra so much? Why was it so important? Was it just that I didn’t want to admit that, if he was evil, my whole life was meaningless? Or was it just, if he’s always been something other than what I thought he was....”
Hope took a moment to steady herself before continuing. Her voice became small and she stared blankly ahead.
“I don’t know what that makes me....”
Now was Hope’s turn to hold her head in her hooves. She shook it a little. It all felt like too much. Even though she had been carrying this burden since the Siege, it felt heavier now than it ever did.
She felt a hoof on her shoulder. She looked up to see forlorn Hope. Forlorn Hope offered no smile nor made any attempt at good cheer. But she understood. The look in her eyes said so.
“Maybe it was just that you loved him,” she said.
Hope nodded her head again. “Maybe I did. I’ve been learned to love other ponies recently, too.”
She felt a small hoof touching her foreleg from the other side. She turned to young Hope. The filly was smiling a little. Not beaming, but smiling a sad little smile which marked her out as wiser than her years.
“Maybe what you need now is to love yourself,” young Hope said.
“I don’t know how,” Hope said. “I don’t hate either of you. Seeing the two of you like this, I understand why you both are what you are and why you did what you did. I think maybe I can even love both of you. But you’re gone now. I’m here. And I can’t love myself.”
“But we’re both here,” forlorn Hope said. “We’re always here.”
“We’re a part of you,” young Hope said. “We are you.”
They both offered their hooves to Hope. She took hold of them and held on tightly.
“Maybe you’re right,” she said. “Both of you have made me who I am. I’m glad you’re both here. But I still don’t know if I can make it there.”
Forlorn Hope spoke. “Then maybe all you need is—”
Young Hope finished her line.
“Hope.”
Suddenly, Hope felt herself blinded by a burst of white light. She felt herself being dissolved by the light. She lost the feeling of the other Hopes’ hooves in hers. Then she lost the feeling of those hooves entirely. With them went her whole body. She could not feel anything. But she knew two things.
She was alone. And all was darkness.
But then, in the darkness, Hope felt her hooves coming back. She felt her mane and her tail. She felt her whole body, maybe more than she had ever felt it before. She felt every sensation upon her body, every itch upon her skin, every expansion and contraction of muscle, every beat of her heart.
And then, she saw clearly what was before her. There was a pony, standing alone in the darkness. A pony with a purple coat and blue hair. Her coat seemed as though it was made to shine and sheen, but now it just seemed dark and drab and dull. Then the pony turned around. As Hope got a good look at her, she saw the white skull-like mask upon her face and the black lines. She looked into her red eyes.
“Who are you?” the pony asked.
“I’m Radiant Hope,” Hope said.
“Impossible. Hope is gone.”
Hope smiled as she answered.
“Hope isn’t gone. Hope never really is.”
Would Radiant Hope finally escape the darkness?
Read on.