//------------------------------// // Fluttershy Becomes a Knight // Story: Lightening Fluttershy's Dark Sky // by Misty Shadow //------------------------------// The sky of the night is darkness. The sky of the day is light. The prologue of the beginning and the ending is the story of darkness and light. The third day after the second trial of Rarity’s celestial transcendence to become an immortal... It was a beautiful, harmonious, brightly sunny, impossibly perfect day in the magical land of Equestria, and one can only know what that means. Fluttershy, the kindest, most loving, pure-hearted killer in all of the land, was in her upstairs bedroom sleeping in bed in preparation for a special night. Two days had passed since she had successfully kidnapped Rarity and held her captive in her basement, and as a reward, Celestia had offered her a reward for her to claim at a special dinner at her castle this special night. “I don’t understand...what does that mean?” Fluttershy wondered as she slept. “Why would Celestia offer me a reward just for doing my work? Why do I deserve honor? Who am I?” Meanwhile, downstairs in the basement, the captured Rarity was having a similar thought... “I don’t understand...what does she mean?” Rarity wondered as she slept. “Why is she offering me a punishment as a reward?! Why do I deserve death?! WHAT AM I?!” The two awoke themselves from their slumber with their unconscious interrogations and thoughts and temporarily lost their conscious trains of thought. “Why did I ask that?” Fluttershy said as she regained her train of thought. “I know who I am at heart. I’m a killer...a monster who chose to walk the kind-hearted path of the eponymous entity called Fluttershy.” “Why did I ask that?” Rarity said as she regained her train of thought. “I don’t answer for myself...sleeping beauties like me do not answer questions...sleeps like these in times like these are a rarity...” “I think it was because I remember Rarity asking me so many questions in her episode...” said Fluttershy, not knowing the context of what she just said as Rarity fell back asleep downstairs. “It reminded me so much of...his episode...” Fluttershy peered down and looked over up at the black glass jar she had taped under her bed. She tore off the tape, and brought the jar into the light in a prepositioned manner. It was a souvenir she had purchased for eight bits at the Crystal Empire gift shop...a puzzle she bought for Rarity to play with while she was at work, the smithereened shatterings of the Crystal Empire’s former dark emperor, King Sombra. Fluttershy was hesitant to give it to Rarity however, for this was no ordinary puzzle...The remnants of King Sombra were enshrouded with a dark cloud that spelled a gloomy prophecy of light on the mind of any whopony touched it. In words on Fluttershy’s mind, it was engraved in the following words... Sombra Proudly Presents Some days, I wish I am arisen. Some days I wish to sleep. Some nights, I do not wish to live. Some nights, I wish to die. Some lives, I wish I am imaginary. Some lives, I wish I am fantasy. Some deaths, I wish I understood. Some deaths, I wish I knew why. What do I want? One is not made beautiful from one thing. That does not make one rise to be a game king. That is balls! Seven arias on priest’s tiaras do not sing! They must be sung! Blades at bay and scepters from the fray shall protect my ring! That is all that shall concern my being. What is the answer to my riddle? Did you like my poem? That is the answer. NOCTE! P.S. If you get the right answer and solve me, I shall be your best friend for all eternity. Love, Sombra “I don’t know if she’s even going to like this silly thing...” Fluttershy sighed. “I personally don’t mind the fact that it’s in my mind, but there’s one thing in it that doesn’t make sense to me...Did you like my poem? It’s so weird...I just don’t know...” “THAT IS THE ANSWER!” Fluttershy heard a voice in her head that frightened her so much, she almost went crazy. She got even closer to insanity as she started to have serious hallucinations that threw her so out of whack, she overlooked the fact that a literal incarnation of her mind taking the form of her brain was crawling out of her ears and onto her bed. “Fluttershy, when are you going to stop sleeping and feed me?!” Fluttershy’s body started to shout at Fluttershy. “Don’t you love your meat, you young bag?!” “What is going on?!” Fluttershy yelled with great spirit as her aura went everywhere. “I can’t move my body or think my mind!” “WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO THINK ME?” Sombra asked as Fluttershy’s mind turned into Sombra’s shadow form, which began to engulf the room. “YOU SHOULD BE THINKING ABOUT THANKING ME!” Fluttershy tried to scream, but she didn’t have the spirit to do so, so she just curled up and felt weird as the darkness completely consumed her... One question later... “WHERE AM I?!” was the question Fluttershy tried to ask when she woke up in a giant glass jar, but the words didn’t have any sound. Fluttershy could see their aura, but they just bounced off a glass jar and hit her right back in what represented her face. She used that face to look over to her left and was horrified by what she saw...her headless body in another glass jar staring at Fluttershy’s phoenix feather on the glass floor with what was left of her sight. “???????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Fluttershy was filled with confused and frightened emotions as she staggered back against the jar and accidentally possessed it like Nightmare Moon would. “I feel so empty...” Fluttershy no longer even contained her former self. “I thought I was immortal...but now...I’M DEAD!” “YOU’RE NOT DEAD...” an evil voice laughed. “YOU’VE JUST BEEN CUT IN THREE...BUT THE ONE WHO DID THAT...WAS ME!” “AAAAAHHHHH!” Fluttershy fell over and exploded into a million pieces of glass smithereens as the voice’s speaker was revealed. “You’re.....SOMBRA! What do you want with me?!” “WHAT DO I WANT? NOTHING FROM YOU!” Sombra explained. “ALL I WANT IS TO MAKE YOU BE WHAT YOU WANT THROUGH WISHES THREE, NOT TWO!” “Wishes?” Fluttershy asked as her spirit came out of the broken glass. “I thought the reward for solving the puzzle was getting to be your friend, not getting wishes! That is so shallow, a selfish desire won’t get me out of this mess!” “AND A FRIEND WHO IS ME YOU SHALL HAVE, FLUTTERSHY!” Sombra said with residential amicability. “BUT FRIENDS ARE WISHES TOO, AND SO ARE YOU, OH MARE WHO IS NOT PINKIE PIE!” “Sombra, I don’t need half an eye to see that I’m not Pinkie Pie,” replied Fluttershy, “but a whole half of the brain that crawled out of me is baffled and unable to know why you just said that I am a wish. How can an abstract concept...be I?!” “FOOLISH MARE, ALL ABSTRACT CONCEPTS ARE WE!” Sombra boasted to Fluttershy, whose head he thought was like concrete. “IT IS THE FORM THAT EVERYONE SHALL BECOME, JUST LIKE ONE WHO WANTS TO BE ME!...DID YOU LIKE MY SIMILE?” “This doesn’t make anything like sense at all, it’s like as if I’ve been sucked into an alternate, metaphorical universe!” Fluttershy made a proem out of the problem. “Yes, that would at least explain why you’re always rhyming!” “THE IMPACT OF THIS UNIVERSE IS NOT WHAT CAUSED MY RHYMING!” Sombra blushed. “I JUST LIKE TO DO IT ALL THE TIMING! LIKE RIGHT THERE, NO NEED TO CARE!” “Sombra, I can forgive you and accept the fact that you’re causing me to suffer by sucking me into this very strange world, killing me, and cutting me in three...” Fluttershy remembered that she had somewhere to be. “But if you don’t put me back together and give my spirit back my phoenix feather, others are going to suffer besides me...and you! So show some empathy...NO! Now I’m doing it too!” “WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? YOU SOUND LIKE WATER OUT OF A FISH!” Sombra was hurt, for he never wanted Fluttershy to be hurt. “I NEVER KILLED YOU, I JUST CUT YOU IN THREE SO I COULD REASSEMBLE YOU AND YOUR THREE DESIRES AS ONE WISH!” “What are my desires?!” said Fluttershy like light being revealed on a box that a butterfly grew up in. “I’m an immortal tool meant to be used as a cog in Celestia’s plan, I have no desires!” “AGAIN, YOU ARE WRONG!” Sombra bellowed. “IN A SECOND, YOUR MISCONCEPTION WILL BE FANTASY! A SECOND WON’T TAKE LONG!” Faster than instantaneously, Sombra turned on the lights, and what Fluttershy saw was something so real that it threw her into a phase of arbitrary belief. To the left of her jarred headless body was an empty jar where her mind was supposed to be. Underneath Sombra was a small glass jar that his shadow form was coming out of. To the right of him was a big, strange urn-like jar that had three question marks on its top, middle, and bottom. They looked like they marked the symbols for doorways, as they looked like they could be opened and left ajar for a while, just like a door... “This mystic jar is what I used to cut you and your desires in three, carefully conserved,” Sombra lowered his voice in lieu of the emotional tension. “Your desires are...” “Love!” the top door opened. “Spirit!” the middle door opened. “Death!” the last door opened. “The top door opening reveals your severed head, and the bottom two doors reveal the rest of your new shadow body, as you have just observed...” Sombra chuckled. “That’s my present that I shall send, I hope you like it my friend...” “...How can you do all this?” Fluttershy was still puzzled. “You use all this dark magic to grant my wishes for my disbenefit...and you want to be my friend? You must be a mage...or a genie...or...” “A MAGENIEUS...” Sombra grinned evilly. “I am a mage and a genie in one, and now...ONE WILL BE US!” As the last jar began to fill with shadow, Fluttershy woke up in bed and looked all around her. “Phew,” she said as she rubbed sweat from her forehead in relief. “It was all a fantasy...Wait...” She looked at her right arm and noticed that it was completely made of shadow. “Or was it really...” she pulled off her pink bed sheet and saw that aside from her head, her body was completely made of shadow. “A real dream...” “DON’T BE SURPRISED...” Sombra’s voice spoke from Fluttershy’s head as Fluttershy grabbed her head in pain. “AS A MAGENIEUS, IT’S MY JOB TO FUSE OUR DESIRES INTO ONE AND MAKE THEM COME TRUE...YOU’VE ALWAYS DESIRED TO BE RID OF YOUR IMMORTALITY TO BECOME A TRUE SPIRIT...AND TO SHARE TRUE DEATH WITH OTHERS...WATCH HOW FAST I CAN MAKE THAT WISH ARISE! AND I HOPE YOU DON’T MIND, BUT I HAVE TO REMIND YOU, I’LL NEED TO BECOME YOUR MIND!” “...The empty jar...I understand...” Fluttershy fell unconscious just as she came to a realization, and Sombra took full control of the mind that he was. Lightning struck outside in some sort of strange hope that the wishes of the dark sky would come true. Some time later... *THUMP* *GUK* *GASH* In a dark, friendly office, green goo dripped all over the floor as a stygian figure holding a splattered urn boasted a malevolent grin. “This is my logic...” the figure smiled. “This is Fluttershy’s science...desiring your eternal silence...The dark sky shall return...HA HA HA HA HA HA HA AHA AHA AHA HA HA HA HA!” The Ending of Prologue.