• Published 25th Mar 2014
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TiM: Best of Intentions, Worst of Results - Twidashforever



TiM #3: The cost of inactions is often higher then the cost of action, yet who pays the price? Sequel to The Truth in Meanings

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Betrayal

Ruins of Ponyville

Shimmering Night flew around the body of the fallen Titan. Too many times had this thing stood up when it should have been down. Too many times has this one surprised them all with new tricks. Even with its head destroyed she did not fully believe it to be dead. However, it had yet to move after its fall. No new power came from it and no new ability had yet to cause it to come back to life.

After her thirteenth trip around the Titan, Shimmering Night was temporally convinced that it was in fact dead, but she still would not let her guard down, not around a creature of this nature anyway. Nevertheless, she had to call off her watch, as Luna needed her help now. With no immediate threat from this thing, Luna had to be her priority. Night was still unsure how she had commanded the energy away from the Titan. The wider implications at such abilities she could only guess at.

Shimmering Night found the jet-black princess several hundred hooves away; she landed near her and asked, “Are you ok, Luna?”

“We told you we could take it, did we not fair Night.”

“Yes princess; that you did.”

“Tell us, is it down for good?”

“I don’t know, Luna. This creature seems to defy any expectations as far as life and death goes. While for now it's down, I'm still not sure if it’s down for good.”

“A wise decision, young one. Never assume that your foe is defeated until you know for sure.”

Luna attempted to stand, her energy spent from that last attack. She tried three times before her legs would allow for it. After the third time, Shimmering Night walked to her side and pressed herself against the mare. It was a mark of just how tired she was that Luna did not complain about it, she leaned heavily against Shimmering Night’s side. In her weakened state Luna had to rely on Night to stay on her hooves.

“I think you might have over did it there, princess.”

“Tis’ a myth, fair Night. As long as you arrive victorious in the battle you have not overdone anything. Tis’ victory that ultimately matters, nothing else.”

“Whatever you say, Princess Luna.”

Suddenly a column of golden energy shot out in the direction of Ponyville. They both stared at in shock, unsure of what could have caused such an explosion of energy to suddenly occur. “What now?” Shimmering Night asked, she could not imagine what could cause such an event and in truth, she did not want to know. After everything that had happened, they were in no position to deal with yet another threat.

“It will be on you to find out, Princess Night. Go and find the others. If this is a new threat, we need to face it head on. Tis’ better to meet our end in battle then await for the enemy to find us while we sleep.”

“Are you sure about that, Luna? You don’t seem to be in much condition to stand on your own.”

As if to prove her wrong, Luna raised a hoof and shoved the alicorn away from her. Luna stood proudly on her own four hooves. “We are not that weak fair Night. We don’t require you to filly sit us like a newborn foal.”

Shimmering Night could see the stubborn streak in Luna as soon as it began; she would put up this act as long as she was able. Luna was unwilling to show any sign of weakness to anypony, even another alicorn. Night knew she had no choice but to humor her. “Ok Luna, you've once again proven me wrong. I'll gather the others and see what that was, but I'm sending Spike here to help you, regardless what you say.”

“If you insist, we shall welcome the conversation with the small dragon.”

“He’s not that small anymore, Luna.” Shimmering Night flew away, heading back to the base camp to find Spike and Dawn. A glance behind her conformed her earlier suspicion about Luna’s condition. The black alicorn fell to the ground, too exhausted to stand. ‘I need to find Spike and the others. Whatever is going on I have a feeling it involves all of us.’

…………………

Spike flew from group to group. The dragons formed their own stations to try and take care of those that were injured. For all the casualties they suffered there were hardly any actual injuries. By their nature dragons have a high level of resilience. It was unlikely that any of them would be permanently injured. Still he wished that Ataxia would get back, her healing powers would help out significantly right this second.

For his part he did what he could. Spike helped those dragons that would let him. There were a surprising few amount of them that would actually accept the help of others. As such Spike found himself spending more time going from camp to camp than actually helping anyone. It was during one of these treks that he heard a voice coming from behind him.

“Spike!”

He looked back as Shimmering Night flew up to him. “Hey Night, congratulations on that kill by the way. You'll have to let me know how you did it.”

“It wasn’t me actually, I merely took care of the magic protecting him. It was Luna that dealt the killing blow.”

“I think you sell yourself short, Night. I saw the fight as well, Luna fought well, but she was losing. Whatever you did to remove his protection was what caused the fight to reach its conclusion. By the way, do you know what was going on with the golden light? That got everyone’s attention.”

“I'm on my way now to investigate, I want to find Dawn first. Do you know where he is?”

“He should be at the command tent.”

Shimmering Night looked around. “Where is that, exactly?”

Spike laughed. “Over there.” He gestured with his claw.

“Thanks. Can you go see to Luna? She’s in the south. I think she over did it with that last attack. The princess can barely stand on her own, she’s that exhausted.”

“Are you sure you don’t need my help first, with whatever that thing was?”

“I don’t think so, whatever it is, it doesn’t feel violent to me. It feels… how do I put this? It feels familiar. I've never sensed it before, but there is a certain draw to it that I cannot explain. The closer I get to it, the more that it just feels... right.”

“I guess I’ll take your word on it, Night. Good luck with that.”

“Thanks; take care of Princess Luna. She's the hero of this battle after all.”

Spike disagreed with that one hundred percent. Whatever occurred he knew who deserved the credit and the fact she did not want said credit only confirmed it to the dragon. ‘I’ll just have to wait for Twilight to put her straight on that regard.’ Spike thought, Shimmering Night was her mother’s daughter. As such there was no use arguing with the mare. He took off in the direction of Princess Luna.

………………

In penance, Bright Dawn took to working the worst detail imaginable. He wanted to suffer for his crimes, for all the time he spent with the one responsible for all of this. For the years and years he spent in her presence without realizing what she truly was, and the harm she was causing Equestria.

He lifted another corpse to the group. Each body was cataloged, their name written down so their families could bury them later. This one was a young pegasus mare. She looked no more than eighteen years old. The mare would never know why she died or who was ultimately responsible for her death. His work broke the stallion’s heart with every corpse he collected.

Several times other ponies would try and get him to do something, anything else. Seeing a Prince of Equestria perform such work was demoralizing. He let his tears flow freely, but would not stop for any reason. Dawn even went as far as to pull rank on a few ponies. Telling them it was an order from Equestrian royalty that they let him work. He never stopped, never slowed down. He would see for himself the horror of what she had caused. Somepony, anypony needed to remember, the dead could not speak for themselves: He would speak for them. He would remember them, it was the least he could do for those that gave everything.

Part of him rebelled against this line of thought, that voice grew quieter every second. He knew Twilight Sparkle for over a decade. While the mare was never that friendly with him, it could easily be written off as Twilight’s overprotectiveness of her daughter. She was nowhere near as violent as Rainbow. In fact as far as most ponies were concerned, Twilight was a hero. It was easy to see why they thought that. She had a list of accomplishments a dragon’s length long. She was a hero, she should be a hero, but he saw through all of that.

The events of this last month told him that. Everything that happened could be traced back to her hooves in one form or another. He knew he was the only one who could see it; he was the only one who connected those dots. So until he had proof he would keep it to himself. Besides it would upset the angel he married to know he thought that way about her mom. His flank inched again as he thought about Twilight. The wound on his side still bugged him from his time with the Shadowbeings. It seemed to be getting worse these past few days.

“Bright Dawn!”

He thought he imagined it; the voice was ingrained in his mind. Even during the worst nightmares of his time as the Shadowbeing’s plaything her voice would always be there. It was the one shining light in his life, the one thing he loved more than anything else. It was all he wanted to hear this past week. Ever since Twilight forced them to separate.

“Has anyone seen Prince Bright Dawn?!”

That time he knew he was not imagining it. Shimmering Night, his wife, she was here. For the first time in weeks a smile appeared on the stallion’s face. He gingerly laid the body he was carrying down and took off into the sky. Unfortunately, it was impossible to see with the blanket of dust covering everything. He had the solution to that and how to get his wife’s attention. An old expression came back to him, ‘two birds one stone?’

Bright Dawn shot straight up into the air. He was out of practice and exhausted. But he had true motivation for doing it. Before long a sonic rainboom occurred in the sky, one that blew away all the dust covering the area. It was weaker than normal; the effect dissipated much quicker than usual due to his lack of strength and the dust and debris surrounding the area. However, it achieved the result. There was no doubt in his mind he had his wife’s attention.

Shimmering Night flew straight up to her husband and wrapped a hoof around him. She connected their lips as soon as they were close enough. For Shimmering Night, they had been apart for far too long. She wanted him close to her forever, if she could have her way they would never be apart again.

After an eternity, they broke apart. She smiled at him with the same look she had on their wedding day. It would be a face he would remember for the rest of his life. This mare loved him with every fiber of her being, and he loved her with everything that he had. To him, she was the definition of perfection.

“We did it Dawn, Luna killed the Titan.”

“I’m so proud of you. I couldn't believe when all the dragons showed up, what happened in the Griffin Empire?”

She grinned at him. “Just wait and see, you won’t believe it without first laying eyes on Ataxia. She's changed so much that you won't recognize her.”

“Wait, Ataxia? That mare that would destroy most of Ponyville every other month?”

“Dawn! She's changed now, I'd tell you more but there is no time. “

“What do you mean there is no time?”

“Didn't you see the energy column in the distance?”

“No, I was busy.” He glanced down at his work. In that cloud of dust it was impossible to see anything in the distance.

“Well, an explosion of golden light came from the direction of my parents’ house, I’m going to investigate. Come with me, I'm sure mom would like to see us both after all this time.”

She took off in the direction the light came from, Shimmering Night got several hundred hoofs away before noticing that Bright Dawn was not ahead of her. She turned around and stared at him with a questioning expression on her face. The stallion appeared to be lost in thought about something. “Hey slowpoke, you coming or what?”

“I’m coming.” He glanced up and slowly started making his way to her. A chill went down Night’s spine. Something was fundamentally flawed here. Dawn never failed to respond to a challenge before. He was hiding something from her and she had no idea what.

………………………...

Spotting an alicorn princess in the middle of nowhere is normally as hard as spotting any other pony. However Princess Luna’s black coat stuck out like a sore hoof. Spike found the mare without too much issue after less than five minutes of searching.

“Good Spike, we take it that Shimmering Night sent you?”

“Yes, she wanted me to come and help you.”

“We do not require help, merely assistance.”

“Sorry I misspoke, she wanted me to come and assist you.”

“We figured that's what you meant.”

Spike reached down to pick up the princess, she did not even fight him about it. He placed her on his back. “Will you be ok up there?”

“We think we can achieve the simple task of staying on your back by ourselves, Spike.”

“Of course, princess.”

“Just, just take is slow… At first.

“Of course, princess.”

As they went to leave, Princess Luna jumped up to her hooves. Her face shot north and then back to the Titan. “Wait! Spike!”

“What?” Spike stopped flying forward. He hovered in place.

“We are needed here.”

“Why do you want to stay here?”

“No you misunderstand, we're both needed here. Let me down and go get as much help as you can. We must move the Titan.”

“What? Why?” Spike’s jaw dropped at the prospect of moving a mountain from where it lay. The sheer thought of it boggled his mind.

“Consider it an order, Spike.”

He grunted at that, it was the answer she gave when there was no point in trying to convince her otherwise. “As you say, princess.”

…………………………

Rainbow collapsed on the ground: She did not want to think anymore. She did not want to feel anymore. Everything simply hurt her too much. This day was the worst in her existence. All these years, all this time she never considered anything like this. Twilight always had a plan, there was always a way out. This was failure; this was defeat, and... and death. It never should have happened, it should have been impossible.

Rainbow noticed something about her wife that caused her even more pain. It came as a shock to her that she could even feel worse than she already did. Rainbow whispered the words to nopony in particular.

“She’s cold.” Rainbow wrapped her wife’s body up in her wings and nestled her head into Twilight’s chest. Tears falling from her eyes as she did so.

Cadance watched all that and more, for the Alicorn of Love, her husband’s death hurt less then seeing the pain Rainbow was going through. Even with the death of a loved one you were still connected to them, not even death could break those bonds. With Twilight’s death, those bonds were shattered. The pain it caused Rainbow, it was unreal the mare was still awake, much less able to talk.

Something did upset Cadance though, something she wanted an answer too. “What do you mean she's not waiting in Elysium? Twilight couldn't possibly be anywhere else.”

“Cadance, I designed the sickle to destroy the essence of the one it cut. The essence in Twilight’s body was destroyed. It is truly the most horrible weapon that ever existed. I made my fair share of errors in my existence, but none of them compare to making that accursed weapon.”

Cadance fell into her melancholy. She began crying at what life would mean right now, thoughts and images of everything that would occur after this. Of having to tell Twilight’s children what happen, of having to put on the funeral for Twilight, and worse, Rainbow having to go on. That was the worst part of all of it. How do you comfort someone who had to face any eternity without their true love?

Eros walked over and sit down next to Candace. She wrapped the princess up in a wing and hugged Cadance to her breast. Even with Eros’s power and the feeling of peace she brought to those in her vicinity. None of that could stop Cadance’s tears from falling.

“Is there no hope then? Nothing that can be done?” Ataxia looked ready to collapse on the ground as well. Twilight was her friend; she did not want to lose another, not after Fluttershy.

“I never said that Ataxia, I simply said there is nothing I can do for her. You should know there's always hope.” Gaia stated.

…………………………………

It took some convincing, but Spike managed to gather up a large group of dragons and unicorns. Pegasus and griffins were left out, for this operation they would only get in the way. Spike learned after a while that simply mentioning Ataxia seemed to get the attention of the dragons. His race really did hold her in high regard.

Luna organized the dragons into groups. While she did not have the skills that somepony like Twilight or Night had. She still managed something akin to real organization for this effort. Luna could not explain why they needed to move the Titan, or where the feeling that it needed to be done even came from. She simply knew it; to her it was the same as needing to breathe. Ponies needed to breathe and this Titan needed to be moved. For her it was that simple.

The plan was simple, as nopony had the magic power to simply lift the Titan up, they would roll it over onto its front. Making the most of what leverage they could. The dragons would do the majority of the heaving lifting while the unicorns assisted with what little magic they had left, while most thought it was crazy to attempt it at all. Luna was eternally grateful that nopony questioned it too much.

Using her Royal Canterlot Voice, Luna gave the command. “Alright, everyone on three: One, two, three!”

As one all the dragons began flapping their wings, fighting through the pain and attempting to do the impossible, to move a mountain. Alone, they would never have budged the thing. The magic from the unicorns broke the inertia. They managed to budge the Titan from the ground. It was small, but that little victory spurted them on.

“Keep it up everyone! It’s moving!”

The dragons poured more and more of their strength into moving it, slowly the Titan lifted off the group rolling over to its side. But there was a limit to what they could do. The sheer bulk of the thing prevented it from moving any farther.

Luna would not let them fail. She knew not why, but this was important: Something was counting on her. Something needed to her to do this. Failure was not an option. Luna reached down into herself. Pulling on what power she still had left. She helped them try and achieve the impossible, she devoted everything she had left.

The Titans bulk continued moving. It was an endurance trial for everyone involved, but slowly, ever so slowly, they did the impossible. They rolled the Titan over onto its stomach. Luna never saw the fruit of her labor. She collapsed on the ground unconscious as soon as gravity took over.

Under where the Titan’s chest used to lay, a small magic shield held strong, one only seen twice in the last fifty years. Once earlier this month when Ataxia cast it to save all her friends from the collapse of Manehatten General Hospital, and once at the end of the first changeling invasion of Canterlot almost fifty years ago.

In that shield, a stallion held a mare in his hooves. They both had their eyes glued shut, they were unwilling to look around at the darkness that surrounded them. Afraid that to open their eyes would be to hasten their death.

When the light of the sun hit them, Firestar open her eyes first. Amazed that they were still alive. “Radiant? I… I…”

“Firestar, I did it.” His voice came as a whisper, the after effect of casting such a powerful spell taking its toll on the stallion.

She pushed back from his grip; so she could look him square in the eye. With her back two legs broken he refused to let her go completely. “But, how? Your magic is all offence; you could never cast this spell before. It’s not your talent.”

He held her tighter in his hooves, never wanting to let her go. “What can I say, I finally found something to live for. Do you think I’d give that up?”

“You idiot.”

Radiant placed a hoof on her face. “I still expect you to keep your promise. I want you to call me that every day of my life. Never let me forget it.”

“Don’t worry about that, I fully intend to.” She leaned in and kissed him, a gesture he was all too happy to return. It was action he would repeat every day for the rest of his life.

They stayed like that as several dozen medics rushed to them, while Firestar needed immediate medical condition and Radiant suffered from complete magical exhaustion, they would not allow themselves to be separated.

………………

Surprisingly, it was Eros who shot up. “What do you mean sister? There's no hope to restore Twilight to life. The sickle cut her; we all saw it. As you said, its power is absolute. Twilight's essence was destroyed.”

“You are correct, sister. Twilight's essence was destroyed. Or the essence that was in her body anyway.”

Cadance shot up, tears in her eyes. “WHAT?!”

Even Rainbow raised her head at that; however, that was the only response the mare gave, she was unwilling to let herself hope again. Her heart could not take it anymore.

“Allow me to explain, you see it all began ten years ago. When Bright Dawn asked my daughter to marry him. Twilight knew how Rainbow would feel about that, and whatever occurred after she knew it would not be easy on the stallion. However, she also knew how Shimmering Night felt about him. In order to ensure that her heart would not be broken by Rainbow’s actions, Twilight separated part of herself and implanted that into Dawn to insure that he would never give up on her. It is a small piece, one that has no doubt degraded in all this time, but it is part of her essence.”

“You can put it back in her? You can bring Twilight back?” Hope returned Ataxia’s eyes, she wanted this, she wanted this more than life itself.

Gaia shook her head. “I'm sorry, while it can be put back, something of that nature cannot be taken, it was given willingly and it must be given back willingly. Not even a God can force such a thing. You should now know, that while it would restore her to life, as I said, we do not know the condition it is in. There is no telling what she will be able to remember or what she would be like when she returns.

“Bright Dawn.” Rainbow spoke the words. It was a mark of her conviction that the others heard her at all. They all turned towards Rainbow as she was staring at something over in the distance. Following her gaze, they saw Bright Dawn and Shimmering Night standing off in the corner. Bright Dawn’s expression one of shock and indignation at being so violated.

Cadance stood up. “Dawn, Night, how much have you two heard?”

“Everything that filly said.” Dawn replied.

“Then will you Dawn, will you give back what Twilight gave you?”

Memories went through his mind, everything that he experienced in the past few weeks, all the awful things that would fulfill a lifetimes worth of therapy sessions. Subconsciously, his hoof started scratching at the wound the Shadowbeings had given him. The doctors did their best to heal him and while he could not even see it anymore that did not stop it from itching lately.

A glance over confirmed they were waiting for his answer. It had to be willingly given. As such it all came down to this, he never wanted this choice, and he never imagined it would be his. Not in a million years; however, he knew the answer without having to think about it another second.

“No.”

Author's Note:

Who remembered the spell from Black Night?

Twilight had cast a special spell on him. He never knew, in fact, Night believed that only four ponies actually had the ability to detect that spell. What it did was a mystery, but she knew her moms and suspected it was there to ensure nothing funny happened before marriage. Most likely placed on him at the insistence of Rainbow.

One more chapter and an epilogue left… How will it end, how can they convince Dawn to help Twilight?
and if they do, what sort of condition would Twilight even be in?

Ch 24 and the epilogue, NLT Thursday. (Probably Wednesday though)


thanks goes to Crystal_bombshell for pre reading