//------------------------------// // Encounter With the Four Souls // Story: Awakening Fluttershy's Dark Sky // by Misty Shadow //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle and her friends thought things through and realized that while learning about the purpose of their creation meant a lot to them, they still had important matters to attend to in the Mortal World. "Sorry Fluttershy," said Twilight, "but for now, our answer is no. We have some things we need to take care of in this world first." After hearing that, Fluttershy's smile stayed. "Alright," she replied, "go take care of what you need to do. The portal will always be open for you. But just warning you, during your fight with the Goddess of Death, she sent out four spirits to haunt the land of Equestria." "What?" Twilight and her friends asked. "Yes," responded Fluttershy, "that's why she distracted you with that conversation. When Luna adds a soul to her body, it loses its own consciousness and becomes a part of her. Basically, they're asleep until woken up and commanded to do something. And no, the Goddess of Death couldn't have commanded me during the battle, I wouldn't allow it. Even though I'm just a mortal incarnation, I still have the God of Life's will within me. I can not be controlled by another god unless I allow myself to be manipulated. However, all of the souls that comprise Prince Luna's body still know her experiences and intentions as they sleep inside of her. Alive as her, but not alive as themselves. Assimilated by her as well, I knew everything. She had everything in that battle planned from the beginning." "Even her…" Twilight started to ask. "...defeat? Could it be?" "But don't worry," said Fluttershy abruptly, "the souls that left Prince Luna's body upon her defeat are of no threat. They shall do no harm as ghosts, for I, the God of Life, shall provide them with new lives. I may not be able to resurrect them, but I can at least reincarnate them. Unfortunately, the four souls the Goddess of Death sent out before her defeat are different. They're still alive as themselves and desire to do her will. Even if I gave them new life, that would not make them any less dangerous..." "Oh come on," said Rainbow Dash, "you make it sound like these guys are a threat! Didn't you see us take out all those soul stars? We're perfectly capable of handling just four of Luna's cronies!" "I'm not so sure…" Fluttershy replied. "I felt the aura of the four souls Luna sent...it was far more dark and powerful than the aura I felt from any of the other souls inside Luna's body. As the God of Life, I could see the lives they had lived...and all of their lives ended with them being killed by the Goddess of Death herself. I could sense that Luna had a special connection to them…" "Please…" Twilight intervened. "Stop calling her Luna. Call her Prince Luna, ridiculous as it sounds. I don't want to hear Princess Luna's name being associated with that kind of thing. The Princess Luna we know would never have done any of this." "Sorry…" Fluttershy apologized, despite feeling that Twilight was being overly sensitive. "Anyways, just please take care. Try to avoid conflict with those souls if you end up meeting them. They're not a laughing matter." Soon after the conversation ended, Twilight Sparkle and her friends left the cemetery. "So…" Rainbow Dash said. "What exactly are we going to take care of before going through that portal? Say goodbye to all our friends? I don't feel that's going to work out too well..." "I can't imagine telling my family," chimed in Applejack, " "Bye y'all! I'm off to another world to find the meaning of my existence! See ya next Tuesday!"" "Yeah," said Pinkie Pie, "now that I think about it more deeply, I think we would be being cruel to be kind by NOT telling them what's going on. Imagine what everypony would think of us if we told them that we had to kill a human clone of Princess Luna who was also this world's Grim Reaper!" Twilight breathed in, getting ready to give a response about how ridiculous what Pinkie just said was until she realized… "...We killed what was thought to be Princess Luna...and there's no way anyone will believe our story...WE'RE FINISHED!" Everypony began to panic until Maud pulled out her sword and slammed the side of the blade against the graveyard gates. The sound created by the blade clashing against the gate got the attention of the others. "Settle down." Maud said. "I knew something like this was going to happen, and I have everything under control. I have friends back in the Immortal World who can create another human clone of Princess Luna. I've even scheduled a willing participant from the human world to become the new Princess Luna. Also, with no witnesses or even a corpse left, there's no way you could be convicted for this. Take it from me, I'm with the police." "You'd…" Twilight responded. "You'd cover for our crime?" "What, was I pushing rocks over daisies the whole time?" Maud asked sarcastically. "I'm the one who "killed" her ultimately. In fact, you, Applejack, and Rainbow didn't help with the actual "killing" at all. I know you're trying to be nice by taking the blame, but being self-righteous like that can actually make you come across as arrogant." "..." Twilight and the others thought it over. Had they really done anything that bad? They were just trying to defend themselves from someone who kidnapped their friend and tried to kill them. "Listen," said Maud, "there was a time in my life where I committed atrocity upon atrocity. I've done more evil than you ever need to know in all your existences combined. That's why I absolutely can't stand it when I see others feel guilty for things they really couldn't have avoided being dragged into. Please, let me take the blame for this. I'm your new friend after all. Isn't sharing the blame what friends do?" Twilight and the others felt...touched. They truly were starting to feel at this point that this Maud Pie really did care about them. However, that aside… "We're admired by your nobility Maud," replied Twilight, "but...what did you mean by "killed"? The Goddess of Death is dead...right?" "Dead in a loose sense of the word." Maud explained. "She's gone from this world for now, but her superiors in the Immortal World will bring her back. She's a creator of this world with a crucial role in maintaining it, there's no way they'll just leave her dead." "WHAT?!" everypony else shouted. "You mean she can't die?! What's the point of bringing another Princess Luna clone to this world, then?! Everyone will find out she's not real when they see Prince Luna again!" "Oh, there's a point to it," replied Maud. "if only a minor one. It was an order from my superiors not to bring the Princess Luna human clone to this world until after the Goddess of Death died because it's only in a certain ending of the story much later on where she's needed." "Wha-who does that?!" Twilight yelled. "Ugh! This sucks! As long as the Goddess of Death is alive, we won't be able to live here! She wants to kill us and she's willing to drag our friends into it on top of it! Now we have no choice but to go to the Immortal World! We can't let those guys bring her back!" "I'm sure we'll figure something out…" Maud said somewhat jokingly, remembering that she was friends with the Goddess of Death and had the same superiors as her. "But for now, isn't there something you wanted to do?" "Besides asking about what the fuck the human world is," replied Twilight, "yeah, there is something I wanted to do. I wanted to visit Spike one last time." "And I wanted to plan a "Sorry for Leaving Without Telling You" party for everypony for when we get back." Pinkie chimed in. "I wanted to make some apple cider as a parting present for my family." Applejack said. "I wanted to buy some of the Apple family's latest cider for the road." Rainbow said. "I hope it's the rainbow edition if you know what I mean." "Those all sound like desirable things." Maud apathetically stated the obvious. "Please go do that stuff without getting in an undesirable situation with Prince Luna's four souls." "Whatever, Dad." Rainbow snarked. "We promise we won't catch soul fever." With that, Twilight Sparkle teleported back to her castle as the others went on their merry way to where they wanted to go. Upon arriving home, however, Twilight did not immediately check on Spike. Instead, she went to her bedroom to look at a familiar book…the black one with the white star... *THUMP* *FLAP* *FLAP* Throwing the book with the magically appearing page onto her desk, she flipped through the pages and turned to her page of interest...the page detailing the defeat of the Goddess of Death. Looking upon the page and reading it, she smirked. "Good acting." she told herself. "Only Maud so far has seen through your ruse." "It was nothing," replied Twilight's apparent other personality, "though I feel kind of bad about deceiving our friends." "Bad?" Twilight asked. "What's so bad about lying to them for their own good? Do you have any idea how shocked they would be if they found out what we were doing? They wouldn't be able to understand that we're just trying to help them…" "That's true…" Twilight's personality said back. "Ever since Fluttershy died, nothing has been the same. I have to do what those gods tell me to do for the sake of the world...for the sake of our friendship…" "I know," replied Twilight, "thanks to them, we now know who killed Fluttershy...and who hired the one who killed her…" With that, followed by the sound of a quill writing on paper, a loud noise could be heard from the library… "HELLO EQUESTRIA," echoed a loud voice, "HOW IS EVERYONE THIS EVENING?" Not recognizing the voice, Twilight rushed to the library in fear, and flinging open the double doors, she was shocked to see Spike out of bed with blue eyes and a microphone in hand. "ANYONE BEEN SWIMMING LATELY," bellowed Spike through the microphone, "CAUSE I'VE BEEN IN COLD WATER THIS NIGHT! OH WAIT, THAT'S MY BLOOD!" "Spike!" Twilight yelled. "What in Celestia's holy name are you doing?!" Spike turned over to Twilight and gave her a menacing grin… "SPIKE?" he responded. "I'M AFRAID YOU'RE MISTAKEN, MY LOYAL RATINGS NUMBER. THIS IS KEN TUCKE!" Spike then put the microphone up to his rear end. "REPORTING LOVE FROM SPIKE THE DRAGON'S BUTTHOLE!" he shouted. It dawned on Twilight just in time that this really wasn't Spike talking… *SHING* Twilight moved to the side just in time to avoid a deadly-sharp spike that shot out of the back of the microphone and had been aimed at her head. Upon seeing the spike hit the wall, Twilight turned back to Spike with a fearful look on her face… "AND I'M HERE TO KILL YOU." he said. Twilight screamed as she casted a spell to teleport out of the castle and started running away as fast as she could. "If Spike is possessed…" she thought to herself as she ran. "And if he's only one of the four souls...then the others must be...OH NO!" Twilight then teleported to Sweet Apple Acres, where she saw Applejack and Rainbow Dash slowly backing away from Apple Bloom, Big McIntosh, and Granny Smith. "So this is what's like to be an adult in a kid's body again…" Tree Hugger said as she looked upon Apple Bloom's body, having possessed her. "Again?" a confused Vinyl Scratch, who had possessed Big McIntosh's body, said back. "This is my first time being a guy, last time I checked. I will say though, this isn't the first time I've gone big. Ha cha cha cha!" "What's going on here?" Applejack asked. "Apple Bloom, Big Mac, don't you recognize me? I'm your sister!" "Don't you recognize me?" Rainbow asked. "I'm the one who always helps you make the cider so awesome and smoothly, and then asks you why you never have enough Zap Apples!" "And I'm the one who always tell her that "Rainbow Mango Orange Smoothie Edition" apple cider just doesn't sell!" Applejack shouted. "It doesn't strike the taste buds the same way! Please, listen to us! We love you!" "Girls, don't bother!" Twilight exclaimed. "It's useless! Those aren't the Apples! They've been possessed by Prince Luna's four spirits! Spike was possessed by one, and they're possessed by the other three!" Upon hearing that, Apple Bloom and Big Mac became puzzled. "Other...three?" Tree said. "Do Octavia and that elderly mare share their existence with each other?" "Tree and I are the only ones here," explained Vinyl, "Octavia went over to Pinkie's place." It was then that Twilight noticed that Apple Bloom and Big Mac were the only ones whose eyes were now blue. "Wait…" Twilight said. "Then, what are you doing with them, Granny Smith?" "I'm just out here to complain that I wasn't possessed too!" Granny Smith yelled. "I need a life too, you know!" "Those ghosts have lives?" Dash asked. "Then what do we have?" "Come on guys, Pinkie's in danger!" Twilight yelled. Twilight cast a teleportation spell again and warped herself, Applejack, and Rainbow to Sugarcube Corner, where Pinkie Pie lived. Making her way to Pinkie's room upstairs, her fears were realized...Pinkie was in her demon form, being attacked by her pet alligator Gummy, whose eyes were blue, having been possessed by Octavia Melody. However, Pinkie didn't seem to share Twilight's fear. "Oh, stop it Gummy!" Pinkie exclaimed happily. "That tickles!" An aggravated Octavia-possessed Gummy began chomping at Pinkie's flesh, tearing out her cake frosting while resisting the heat emanating from it. If Pinkie hadn't transformed into a demon, she would have been seriously wounded. Twilight and her friends gasped in horror. "Pinkie, what are you doing?!" Twilight screamed. "That's not Gummy, that's one of Luna's four souls! Fight it!" "But this is fun!" Pinkie replied. "Besides, Gummy chews me out like this at dinner all the time! What's wrong with him doing it at dessert? ...Wait a minute, that sounds really wrong. I-I'm sorry." "Okay…" Twilight said. "If you won't fight it, then I will!" Twilight began charging up a powerful laser beam in her horn, and fired it at Gummy. Upon being shot by the beam, Gummy fell to the ground, writhing in pain. The others were surprised. "Twilight…" Pinkie said with a scowl. "I had a way to take care of that problem without hurting Gummy…" "I don't care!" Twilight abruptly yelled. "These are our lives we're fighting for! If I have to do something like that to save my friends, I'll do it without any hesitation!" "How quaint…" Octavia intervened, starting to overcome the pain. "Your love for your friends truly is admirable. But that love will be your downfall…" "Oh please," replied Twilight, "what do you know?" "I know one thing for a fact," said Octavia, "for starters. It's that your days in this world are history. Even if you kill the ones we have possessed, we won't die. And no matter how much you hurt our spirits, we can always come back and come for your throats. We'll do everything in our power to make your lives UNLIVABLE. We'll make you WANT death." "You sick monster…" Applejack said in disgust. "Fine," said Rainbow with a confident grin, "if our days in this world are done, we'll just go to another…" "Immortal World, here we come, baby!" Pinkie cried in glee. "Ssh!" Twilight, Applejack, and Dash went. "Pinkie!" "Oh, sorry." Pinkie apologized, and started talking in a more quiet tone. "Immortal World, here we come baby!" Twilight and her other friends sighed, not noticing that Octavia was chuckling to herself ominously… Our heroes falling for the classic bad guy threat speech act. Worth a chuckle or two, I believe. Twilight and her friends returned to the Arc Rising graveyard shortly after. Despite being slightly confused about why their possessed friends had not tried to follow them, they abandoned their suspicions when it came back to mind that they no longer had a choice in this matter, they had to get out of this world. Upon walking into the cemetery, they saw that Fluttershy was still there with Maud Pie at her side. "Welcome back!" Fluttershy said excitedly. "So, have you had a change of heart?" "You can say it like that." Twilight replied. "We've realized now that there is no way we can stay in this world as it is. We have to go to the Immortal World and work something out with whoever these "higher-ups" are. We can't let this place fall to the Goddess of Death or her minions!" "I see," said Fluttershy, "you've made a pragmatic decision. For sure, you will find a way to help this world in the immortal one. Now, let us depart…" Fluttershy, Maud, and all the others finally entered the swirling portal, and so, the Mortal World was given a farewell… End of Part Four. "So, that's the end of the fourth chapter!" Boss exclaimed. "So, how did you all like it?" "This story is continuing to get better," said Dumb-bell, "I do like the effort that went into that fight scene. I still don't get the direction this story is going in though." "Yeah," said Hoops in turn, "I also appreciate the effort and how you allowed the option of us appearing as an Easter Egg, but I still don't see what this story's primary objective is. Is it supposed to make us laugh, feel, or think deeper about the horrors of the world around us as we laugh at it?" "..." Score commented in a similar manner silently. "..." Ghost Rainbow Dash commented, with no intent to be silent. "I-I don't even know what to say anymore. This story is simply magical. It attempts to combine comedy, drama, and horror into one story, and not only fails at mixing them together, but also fails at being good in the area of any of them. This story isn't funny, sad, or scary. The jokes are lame, the serious scenes are corny, and the scary scenes are laughably stupid. Even calling this story "so bad, it's scary" is being generous. It's so bad, it's pathetic." "I know exactly what to say anymore!" Derpy shouted. "This story is supernaturally wonderful! It's a parody of all those genres of stories, it's supposed to be "lame", "corny", and "laughably stupid"! And despite being a parody, it even knows that there's a time to be serious and tries to inspire us with deep, subtle messages!" "Glad to see G.R.D. loved it the most!" Boss exclaimed. Clue #4: On herself for