Chapter 166: Once A Villain, Always A Villain?
While the rest of the pillars went off with Shining's friends to search for The Pony of Shadows, and Starswirl worked on his banishing spell, Spike was assisting Shining Armor and Twilight with trying to find something that could allow the pillars to stay.
"What about this one?" Spike asked as he tossed yet another book down.
Twilight scanned the cover and immediately discarded. "Seapony etiquette isn't going to help right now, Spike. We need something big!"
"But what?! We've consulted nearly every book in the library!" Shining commented. "What is it that we're not thinking of?!"
Just then, Starlight Glimmer happened to trot in. "Uh, is everything okay in here?" She asked.
"Really? Why wouldn't things be okay?" Shining sarcastically remarked. "Because of my careless mistake, I allowed my sister to unleash a long sealed evil!"
"And all because I wanted to meet my idol!" Twilight added with a groan. "Why wouldn't I be okay?!" She slammed her face into a nearby desk. Fortunately she wasn't hurt.
Starlight tried to reassure both ponies. "Oh come on, you didn't know that was gonna happen. Neither of you did."
"But now the Elements of Harmony are going to be sacrificed to fix my mistake!" Twilight realized. "Not to mention the Tree of Harmony itself!"
"And when it goes, the Everfree Forest will take over Ponyville again. And this time we won't be able to stop it." Shining glumly added.
"Well, maybe there's another way?" Starlight asked.
Spike tried to put on a brave face. "Well assuming there is, we'd better hope Shining or Twilight can find it soon. We're running out of options and I don't think my back can take much more."
Suddenly, an idea came to Twilight. "Wait, hold on! Portal gate... Portal keys... Portal spells... Yes! Why didn't I think of it before?!"
"Figured something out, Twilight?" Shining hopefully inquired.
Twilight beamed with pride as she explained. "This book just gave me an idea. If the Pillars can hold open the gateway to limbo for long enough, a powerful pony can do the banishing spell herself, or himself as the case may be! Do you know what this means?"
"I can stop carrying these heavy books for one thing." Spike sighed with relief, as he placed the heavy books he'd held in his arms on the floor.
"It means the pillars don't actually have to leave Equestria after all!" Twilight happily replied as her eyes lit up like stars. "We'll still lose the Elements, but we'll have the pillars around to protect Equestria. And The Pony of Shadows will be banished forever!"
"And with Starswirl and the others around, they can easily keep the Everfree Forest at bay until a new set of Elements of Harmony can be created," Shining realized. "But are you sure you can pull it off, Twilight? A banishing spell will take a lot of magic."
Twilight gave a firm nod. "Trust me, this will work! Now all I need to do is fine tune it and present it to Starswirl."
"Oh, that's... great," Starlight nervously laughed. "Though I was thinking more of another way. You know, one that doesn't have to involve banishing?"
"And your suggestion is?" Shining questioned his student. "Starswirl and the pillars wouldn't have resorted to banishing unless it was absolutely necessary. If there's a way to defeat The Pony of Shadows they hadn't considered, I haven't thought of it myself. I don't like the idea of sacrificing the elements, but if that's the price we have to pay for peace it's one I'm afraid we'll have to pay."
"Besides," Twilight added. "If I can somehow make Starswirl's spell even better, then maybe he'll see that I take magic as seriously as he does. And he'll stop getting on my case about messing with his first spell."
Meanwhile, the rest of the pillars and Shining's friends had all gathered back in the throne room to report that they had been unable to locate The Pony of Shadows. And indeed, there were fewer dark places than the map had first indicated.
"Ah, it seems we still have the advantage. With fewer dark places from which to draw power, our foe will remain in his weakened state for much longer," Starswirl realized. "Which gives me the chance to perfect the banishing spell required."
Thunderlane glumly asked. "Isn't there someway we can defeat The Pony of Shadows without having to lose all of you in the process? You just came back, you shouldn't have to leave again."
"I wish it weren't so," Mage Meadowbrook somberly replied. "But this is our home. And in order to save it from eternal darkness, we're willin' to leave it."
But just then Twilight strolled with a scroll, and as she unfolded it she proudly declared to the pillars. "Well you won't have to! It's not quite finished yet, but with this spell I can banish The Pony of Shadows myself and all of you won't have to go back to limbo too."
But Starswirl frowned and cast the scroll aside, much to everyone's surprise. "Twilight, I appreciate your enthusiasm. It's an admirable trait to have in one so young. But this is hardly the time to take risks on half-baked spells. Have you learned nothing from your last attempt?!"
At that, Shining lost patience. He had heard quite enough. He strolled into the room and marched up to Starswirl so that they were snout to snout. And with eyes he narrowed he bluntly remarked. "Pardon my language, Mr. The Bearded, but you're a real plot hole! I know my sister enough to know she never does anything half way or half baked!"
"She still tampered with my banishment spell and brought The Pony of Shadows back!" Starswirl scolded. "As her brother, you should have reigned her in."
"Then blame me, not her!" Shining demanded. "I could've stepped in at any point and told her no, but I went along with it because I trusted her. I thought you'd appreciate the chance to be free again. And I promised Celestia and Luna that I'd do everything I could to either reunite them with you or give them closure on what happened to you. Had I known that their teacher was just some grouchy, hot headed wizard, I would've told them not to bother!"
"When you get to be as old as I am, you will forgive me if perhaps I am not as patient. I never asked to be freed, I was quite content that no one would attempt to free me." Starswirl retorted.
Shining only shook his head. "Well too bad, you're free now whether you like it or not. And you wanna know something? Twilight's not the only one who messed with one of your spells. How do you think I got my wings in the first place?"
At that Starswirl let out a gasp! "No, you couldn't have figured out my unfinished spell of ascension! I wrote it off as a failure, too dangerous to ever be attempted!"
"So don't you see, Starswirl?" The prince snorted as he unfurled his wings. "I succeeded where you could not. But I still regarded you as this great figure of ancient magic and sorcery. My sister and I feel bad that we caused The Pony of Shadows to escape, the least you can do is let us make an honest attempt to correct our mistake."
"And I think you'll find Twilight's spell here to be quite worthy of your time," Fancy Pants added as Shining's friends came to his defense. "So I suggest you read it further before you just rudely dismiss it out of hoof. Otherwise, you'll get no further help from any of us."
The old wizard reluctantly folded, sensing that he was outvoted. "Alright, fine. I'll look over the spell, and maybe there's something to it."
"If I may butt in, Starswirl," Mistmane commented. "My magical knowledge isn't quite as strong as yours, but I know my way around spells. And while this one is an unconventional approach, I believe that it could work."
Starswirl picked up the scroll and at Mistmane's suggestion he read over it. Indeed, the spell looked quite potent. "Hmm, it's fine for a rough draft but it needs fine tuning to be perfected. Fine tuning I'll be willing to offer. However, we still don't have any lead on the location of our foe. And every minute we spend searching aimlessly is a minute that gives The Pony of Shadows a chance to grow stronger. We must find out where he is before he becomes too powerful to be stopped!"
Just then, the cutie marks of Shining Armor and all his friends began to glow. All eyes turned to the table map as the six marks surrounded a dark looking place in a small, tucked away corner of Equestria.
"How'd you do that?" Flash Magnus questioned. "Our cutie marks never did such a thing. And I'm glad they didn't, I don't know how I'd explain it to Commander Ironhead."
"That's just the magic of this here map," Soarin replied. "It's connected to each of us, and when it has a need for us it calls us via our cutie marks. It took some getting used to."
Meanwhile, Big Macintosh eyed the highlighted location as he commented. "Hey, I think I know that place. The Hollow Shades. I think Granny Smith said a branch of the Apple Family lives there, or used to anyway."
Sunburst started to stroke his chin. "Well they'd have to be pretty distant if that's the case. The Hollow Shades was abandoned eons ago with no signs of life and no clue as to what happened."
Fancy Pants found his attention drawn to another fact. "It's strange though, don't you think? The map has only called all six of us once before, to Starlight's old village."
Soarin let out a gasp of joy! "It must be like a super villain tracker or something! Now why didn't it work with Chrysalis?" Then he turned to Starlight. "Oh, no offense, by the way."
Starlight just raised an eyebrow and remarked. "I wanna say 'none taken' but that'd make me a liar. That was uncalled for."
"Alright, alright, let's not start a fight," Shining encouraged. "Starlight, Soarin wasn't trying to make you feel bad. And Soarin, we agreed not to keep bringing up Starlight's past all the time. She's changed."
Twilight, in the mean time, was asking Starswirl. "Do you suppose the map was responding to your question, and it's trying to tell us where we can find The Pony of Shadows?"
The wizard put a hoof to his chin, deep in thought. "Hmm... The Tree of Harmony acting to help protect the light of the realm... Yes. A good thought, Twilight." Twilight's eyes lit up and her face adopted the biggest smile she'd smiled in a while. At last she'd finally impressed her idol!
"Now come, we must prepare for the battle ahead," Starswirl urged. "And I'll be making my notes on this spell until it's been properly fine tuned."
But a short time later, Starlight happened to stumble upon Twilight and Shining with Starswirl, and she nervously inquired. "Uh, I know I'm not as experienced as all of you, but is banishment really the only option here? I mean, it's been a long time. Maybe The Pony of Shadows is ready to talk?"
"You forget, in limbo time stands still," Twilight corrected. "To him it's like no time at all has passed."
"But something about this seems wrong. Why does it have to be banishment? Are we sure this isn't something else?" Starlight questioned. "It wouldn't hurt to talk to The Pony of Shadows, right?"
Starswirl didn't bother to turn around as he replied to Starlight. "I doubt we can save Equestria with a conversation. Words alone won't save the day."
"Doesn't hurt to try though, right?" Starlight pressed further. "The Pony of Shadows used to be someone else. He was once your friend, or at least your ally. Would you really want to banish your friend just because he poses a threat?"
"If you are referring to Stygian, that is the name that The Pony of Shadows gave up when he willingly turned to darkness!" Starswirl coldly replied. "When he confronted us it was clear he was no longer interested in reconciliation."
Starlight let out a gasp! "You'd turn your back on your friend just like that?! You said it yourself, he brought you all together!"
"Maybe so, but he still went behind our backs and became The Pony of Shadows! We did what we had to do!" Starswirl angrily retorted!
"But why? That's what I don't understand," Starlight replied. "Why is banishment the only option? Why not containment? I know from experience that it's possible to come back from that dark road of bitterness, and sometimes it just takes someone being there to reach out to you. It might be the same this time."
Starswirl lost patience, he approached Starlight and stomped his hoof down as he snorted! "Stygian wants to destroy all that is good in this world. There's absolutely no way to befriend a pony like that. Once a villain, always a villain."
Upon hearing that, Shining Armor let out a gasp! "Starswirl, you don't really believe that, do you?! Your world view can't be that black and white, can it?!"
"And I suppose you know more than I do on the subject of good and evil?!" Starswirl arrogantly replied. "In my time I faced many evil forces, none of which showed the slightest remorse for what they had done."
"But you don't understand, you haven't been around to see," Shining explained. "You know Princess Luna? The same sweet little filly who alongside her older sister always drove you nuts?"
Starswirl nodded. "I remember the little tykes like it was yesterday. At first they wanted nothing to do with me, called me a smelly old wizard and tried to yank out my beard. But in time, I became like a father to them and it pained me greatly to have to leave them behind to protect the realm."
"Well after you and the other pillars left, Princess Luna eventually fell to darkness the same way Stygian did," Shining told Starswirl. "She became a wicked mare of darkness, Nightmare Moon!"
"No! Not sweet Luna!" Starswirl gasped! "She never had an evil bone in her body!"
"And yet she was led astray and tried to dethrone her sister," Shining continued. "But instead of destroying her or even banishing her, Celestia sealed her younger sister in the moon for a thousand years. And in doing so, the Elements of Harmony were rendered useless to her."
"Which only proves how foolish she was," Starswirl snorted and folded his hooves. "Had she did what needed to be done, she might not have lost the elements after all."
Shining shook his head. "But she didn't give up. She set out to find new ponies to wield the Elements of Harmony and free her sister. A task that eventually fell to my friends and I. And that's not the only time we've converted an evil to the side of good."
"Oh really?" Starswirl questioned.
"Yes, really," The prince nodded. "The same Discord who brought about the demise of King Michael and Queen Lauren, and the same Discord who once freed from his stone prison tried to break the bonds of friendship between my friends and I, is the same Discord we managed to reform. He proved to be a big help in stopping Lord Tirek, and even temporarily sacrificed himself to save us all from Queen Chrysalis, the evil queen of the changelings."
"Don't forget about ponies like me," Starlight chimed in, feeling much more confident. "I was lost, my thoughts consumed by an irrational hatred of cutie marks because I thought they took away the only friend I ever had. But you showed me that revenge isn't the answer, that it wouldn't bring Sunburst back or make him want to be my friend again."
"And there's Sunset Shimmer, Princess Celestia's former student," Twilight added. "She stole your crown and tried to take over a parallel world, but you defeated her and helped her to become a better person... er I mean pony. Now she's saved that world from evils on multiple occasions, and inspired someone else to do the same."
Spike also commented. "And just recently, you have Fizz... I mean Tempest Shadow. She was working for an invading army led by the Storm King, all because she was bitter at the world after losing her horn. And you helped her come back to the light, helped her to realize that being cruel and malicious wouldn't change anything. And in the end, she was the one who brought down the Storm King."
"And don't think for a moment my friends and I are soft, Starswirl," Shining said to the wizard. "We've had to destroy evil forces a couple of times. King Sombra and the Storm King are testaments to that, neither of them were repentant for the destruction and hardship they'd dealt out to others. And for that, they had to pay the ultimate price. There are also forces like Lord Tirek and Queen Chrysalis who were defeated and contained, but not destroyed. So you see, Starswirl, the world isn't so black and white. Even I am guilty of having to learn that fact, I once allowed myself to believe that changelings could never be good and I almost took out my aggression on an innocent changeling that wanted to prove me and everypony else wrong. So pardon me if I disagree quite strongly with your assertion 'Once a villain, always a villain'."
For a moment Starswirl was silent, the old wizard just stood there and contemplated. But at last he spoke up. "With all due respect, prince, you do not know The Pony of Shadows like I do. Whatever your personal feelings may be, you are still responsible for ensuring the peace and security of the realm. If The Pony of Shadows is not stopped, all of Equestria will suffer. Is that a price you're willing to pay on the hunch that perhaps our foe is interested in redemption?"
Starlight retorted. "But you don't really think banishment is the answer, do you? You've been right before, you're the Prince of Friendship for crying out loud! Please, think about what Starswirl's implying! Think about what it will mean for future generations!"
With a reluctant sigh, Shining responded. "I... don't know what to think to be honest. But I'm afraid that Starswirl has a point. Even if I may personally disapprove of banishment, I can't afford to endanger all of Equestria for my personal desires. As an alicorn prince and captain of the royal guard, my duty is to first and foremost put the well being of others before myself."
"So that's it?! You're really going to go through with this banishment?!" Starlight gasped! "I can't believe you'd do this! After all the times you've stuck your neck out for someone else, now you finally decide that a pony from over a thousand years ago is right?!"
"I'm not saying he is, Starlight," Shining corrected his former student. "But unless a better option presents itself, I have no choice but to side with Starswirl. I should've prevented this from ever happening in the first place, I should've been the adult in the room and said 'No'. But I went along with it because I was convinced the reward was worth the risk. Now, I must do what is necessary to ensure Equestria doesn't suffer for my decisions. I still want to hold out hope that Starswirl is wrong, and maybe he is. However, I can no longer afford to take a chance on whether I'm right or not. If banishment is the only option available, so be it."
"Well..." Starlight struggled to keep her lips from quivering. "You've made your bed and now you must sleep in it. I just hope you're making the right decision." As she turned and trotted out of the library, she started thinking to herself. "Something's wrong. The map only calls Shining and his friends for friendship missions. Even in the case of my village, it was because I was forcing the villagers to live a lie and keep them from experiencing true friendship. What's going on with The Pony of Shadows has to be similar. There must be more to the story than what Starswirl's willing to tell. Maybe the other pillars will know?"
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You really like to use exposition too much. Signs of a bad writer.
Hey there. Once again, thanks very much for getting the next/fourth-to-last chapter up. I really appreciate you going to the effort. Once again, wonderful job on the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up in all the right places. I particularly liked Shining's arguments against Starswirl's "Once a villain, always a villain" spiel (particularly the detailed point outs to the contrary) as well as the hope that a better way DOES present itself (we know it eventually will, but THEY don't know it yet).
I will certainly be looking forward to the final three chapters.
And, I DO have some possible ideas for future re-writes in your "What If?" series:
"Ponyville Confidential": There could be passing mentions of a few of Equestria's more sensational big city newspapers (including one that involves some subtle season six foreshadowing) along with Diamond mentioning to herself that her mother LOVES those kinds of newspapers so taking the school paper in THAT direction will make her proud. Plus, you could include an argument between Diamond and Silver concerning the former's tastes for yellow journalism (though Diamond convinces herself that Silver will calm down when Diamond proves herself right). Unfortunately, Diamond ends up proving herself WRONG when the Ponyville citizens actually show a clear preference to the style the school paper was BEFORE (i.e. no "gossip is entertaining until you are the target" mentality here). In addition, the Crusaders absolutely refuse to let Diamond blackmail them, pointing out that the pictures Diamond has are embarrassing at worst, and they have endured MUCH WORSE than embarrassment before, meaning they willingly out themselves with a detailed apology AND outing Diamond for her failed attempt to blackmail them. Finally, Cheerilee does a much better job "laying down the law" on Diamond.
"Between A Rockhoof and A Hard Place": For one thing, it is actually set earlier in Season Eight. For another thing, there could be a part where when Rockhoof ASKS to be turned to stone, Twilight can point out "A spell THAT powerful would require the Elements of Harmony and, even if I KNEW how to do the spell on my own, I would ONLY use it as an absolute last resort against a villain or monster CLEARLY too dangerous to be dealt with in any other non-lethal manner". In addition, Rockhoof can find his place working at a gym where he not only gets to share some of his more exciting tales, but ALSO gets to help other ponies stay in shape AND learn how to defend themselves.
"Horse Play": The students at the Friendship School give Twilight the idea for the play, which has an ALL student and teachers cast. Celestia volunteers to be the director (she acknowledges immediately that she doesn't have the acting experience to handle any acting role beyond a no-line walk-on cameo, but DOES feel that "I have been directing the entire nation for over a millennium and that is a much larger stage with much higher stakes"). However, while Celestia might be right about directing the entire nation having higher stakes than directing a school play, it still takes her a while to learn the different set of rules for directing a school play as opposed to directing an entire nation (though Celestia DOES eventually get enough of the hang of it to do a competent job). In addition, since Fluttershy is playing the part of Celestia, Discord copies Celestia's powers on to Fluttershy for a couple of weeks (you know, for added realism). This means that Celestia ALSO has to work on teaching Fluttershy how to control the power until after the play is over.
But, well, I can completely understand if you already have better ideas.
9300407 I do plan to do "A Rockhoof and a Hard Place" in the next volume, but I won't be including any mention of the stone sleep spell because that came out of nowhere and raised implications that I don't think the show ever considered. Your ideas for "Ponyville Confidential" sound interesting, might have to come back to them. "Ponyville Confidential" is among those episodes that I would like to rewrite even though I like them well enough as they are but they were never high on my "to do" list of rewrites.
9300648
Okay. Gotcha. Thanks very much for the response.
And we will see them soon lol 😊
I... don't blame her it gets tiresome when people keep mentioning your past
She's likes he finally noticed me 😃
Once a villain always a villain huh hmm Why don’t you said that to princess Luna discord most of the changelings and trixie Sunset shimmer glida and fizzypop let's see how they respond to that you jerk 😡
Well..." Starlight struggled to keep her lips from quivering. "You've made your bed and now you must sleep in it. I just hope you're making the right decision."
Or you could have her said this but with a different dialogue to be more dramatic
I do like how shining armor twilight Starlight and spike called out starswirl bs about this whole once a villain always a villain i mean I can't say much about Tirek cozy glow ( if you decide to change it up about her character because you know au story) queen chrysalis king Sombra and Storm king but there is some who wants to be better