Chapter 1
An autumn breeze whipped up in the empty field as Lightning Bolt stared intently into the cloudy sky. The wind played with his dual-colored mane, but he didn’t mind. In fact, it almost reminded him of when his father used to ruffle his hair after saying something witty or stupid. Lightning smiled a little, leaning back against the trunk of a massive oak tree. The shadows of the treetop danced along his frame, and he followed each movement, transforming the shadows into pictures of ponies; ponies of legend and of valor, of strength and courage.
These ponies marched along his coat and did battle with evil monsters, terrible hoards, and great strife. He pulled himself away from that fantasy and sighed, looking towards the clouds again and nearly tearing up at a particular formation of fluffy white.
“Dad… Dad, where did you go? I miss you,” Lightning whispered, trotting out from under the oak and further into the wavy grassland. Lightning stretched his wings and yawned. He looked to the left, and then to the right, and began digging into the ground below him. His hooves churned up broken earth until an aged fabric revealed itself from the ground. Lightning wiped away the debris and removed from the ground a worn book, dirty and brown from other elements beyond the dirt.
Lightning blew off the clogs of dirt from the cover and inspected the rune, eyeing each portion of the spine as carefully as the bent corners. The yellowed pages crunched as he opened the text, scraping against each other as he flipped through page after page. Most of the writing appeared illegible, and even more seemed to be written in a language not spoken anymore. However, there was one page with a hasty scrawl at the top. A single phrase that Lightning repeated in his mind over and over again:
One day, you’ll understand that there is no right or wrong, only what is necessary
“You’re really going to do this then?” came a familiar voice from behind. Lightning shut the book and let it drop back into the hole. “It’s okay… I know. I’ve known for a little while,” the voice said. Lightning did not immediately turn around.
“It’s not my fault,” he replied to the mare behind him. “He’s the one that has me out here everyday, solving riddles, searching for clues...” Lightning turned around and met a half smile from a rainbow-maned pegasus.
“Lightning,” Rainbow Dash began, “I realize how important your father was to you, but this behavior is a little too obsessive.” She eyed the ancient tome behind him and sighed. “I thought we buried that along with him.”
“He’s not dead,” Lightning rebuked. “I saw him in a vision, I heard him speak to me from wherever he is. He’s trying to tell me something.”
“Look, kid, I’m not going to beat around the bush. Your father was a good man, but he messed with things he really shouldn’t have. You shouldn’t do the same,” Rainbow said.
“Mom, don’t be paranoid,” Lightning said, trotting past her. “I won’t follow his hoofsteps, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I’m worried about losing my son,” Rainbow said, stopping him before he could move away. “The same way I lost my husband.” She stood there, waiting for a response from the younger pegasus. Lightning looked at her and grinned.
“I told you, I won’t follow Dad’s blind ambitions,” he said. “I won’t let this take me as it did my father. I’ll find him, and I’ll rescue him from it.”
“Yeah, there’s no way that what you told me is the truth,” Rainbow said then, causing Lightning to flinch a little. He brought his head down and sighed.
“Why do you doubt me, Mom? Don’t you think we should give Dad the benefit of the doubt? Don’t you want to see him again?! I want us to be a family once more! I want to have the life that we used to have!” Rainbow Dash hit him then.
“Don’t talk like that!” she shouted. “This is serious! Your father was acting the exact same way before he vanished!”
“Don’t assume things,” Lightning retaliated, holding his face. “I told you I won’t follow in his hoofsteps! What more do you want from me?”
“I want you to promise me to leave this stuff alone,” Rainbow Dash said. “I’ve seen dark magic before, and this goes beyond dark magic. Your father thought he could control it, but he was wrong. And as much as I loved him, he was a fool.”
“You see, mom, there’s something about your statement that doesn’t really affect me though,” Lightning replied. “I may be my father’s son, but I am not my father.”
Rainbow Dash raised her hoof again, but stopped her assault in mid-swing. She looked at Lightning and let out a broken breath, turning her head away as tears started to fall down her face.
“Don’t go,” she sobbed in a whisper. “It’s not too late to come back, to forget about all of this. Please, I don’t want to lose my son!”
“I have to,” Lightning responded without hesitation. “You won’t lose me, I promise,” he said, picking up the ancient tome again.
“Wrong,” Rainbow said, wiping her face. “It looks like I already have.” She turned away from the stallion and lifted into the air.
“That’s the thing, Mom,” Lightning said to himself. “There is no right or wrong, only what is necessary.”
***
Lightning awoke, shooting up from his bed in a panic. Sweat rolled off of his body, saturating his damp sheets further. He sat up, breathing hard into the darkness of his small dormitory. Looking over, he noticed he hadn’t woken up his roommate, which was a first in a long while. He wiped his face and lay back down, trying to ignore the pounding of his heart in his brain.
“I’m sorry,” he said while looking at the ceiling. “I’m trying to forget, Mom. I’m trying to move on.” Lightning covered his face and retreated back into his sheets. It was no use trying to fall back to sleep, however. He’d only be greeted with the same dream again. It replayed in his thoughts every night, plaguing him to no end.
“There is no right or wrong, only what is necessary,” Lightning mumbled. “False… there is a wrong… and I regret it.” His mind flashed back to the scene… to the last moment he spent with his mother.
“Well, Dad… What the fuck was so necessary?!”
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Beautifull.
4250134 Thank you.
I'm glad I did well with it. It wasn't the easiest thing to do. 
This was amazing.
Couple of typos here and there, but this was just a lovely read. Loved the argument Lightning had with Dash, and his line at the end referring back to the books message. You can tell he has a lot of regrets and heartache from his past.
I look forward to reading more.
4250217 Oh, I'll get to fixing those as soon as possible. I guess I missed a few things even with all that time, huh? Doesn't really shine too well on me, does it?
Also, thanks. I'm really glad you enjoyed it. I'm not sure how long the rest will take, but my schedule is clearing up pretty well for the next few days, so we'll see. 
To be honest, the prequel was sickeningly descriptive to be so plotless. This is the most amazing improvement. The only thing I wish is that you had written about ALL of it before releasing it.
Cheers You Sly Bastard,
Kailasan
The fact you made this from THAT story is amazing.
Putting it on the read later list.
4250474 Well, I'm not entirely sure what you mean by writing all about it before this, but I'm glad to see I've done well with this.
4250500 Oh, I think we're all being just a little over-critical of xblade. I'm sure he tried. It was his first story, after all. I'm sure he's improved since then.
YOU! TOOK MY STORY! WITH OUT PERMISSION! WHAT WENT THREW YOUR HEAD! THEY ARE MY CHARACTERS AND MY STORY! I've already made a sequel TO MY STORY! "DASH"ing story is my story.
4250670 Actually this story was planned out about 4 days ago.
4250670 Whoa, now. I don't have nay idea what you're talking about. Ershwin Wholewheat approached me with the idea to make a sequel to your other story a few days ago. I had no idea you'd already made a sequel. I just checked two days ago to be sure before getting the finishing touches on this.
4250698 ................................point? where is you seem to be missing one. Problems :
1. plagiarism
2.I gave him no ok to do this.
3.I clearly said I was making a sequel longer than this has been around.
4.How did you get this story passed. It's a sequel to a story you don't even own.
4250725 Hey, look, I'm sorry. I wasn't aware you intended to make a sequel. I just submitted this today. I would really like to keep it though. I've poured so much of my time into making this already.
4250725
I don't see any problem here. This story doesn't look anything like yours.
they even came out at the same time, it's kind of hard to rip off a story that came out like an hour ago.
4250735 Absolutely not.
4250744 Would you mind at least linking me to the story I supposedly stole?
4250739 ....................IT IS MY STORY! NOT YOURS. MINE!What's worse you stole my title for my sequel.
4250747 fine.
4250748 The titles are completely different unless you're implying the heart is the same thing as the brain
And I'm pretty sure this story is Itake's, I was in the Gdoc as he wrote it after all.
4250751 http://www.fimfiction.net/story/169831/crystals-in-the-heart THIS IS MY STORY!
4250758 yes it is. and this one right here is Itake's.
4250751 Doesn't Matter YOU DON't Own Lightning bolt OC. HE's mine. THAT IS COPYWRIGHT! Game. set. match.
4250762 And this is my little pony, copyright of Hasbro, no one owns any of these fanfictions
4250758 Um, no offense intended, but, that story is very much unlike my intentions. The titles are similar, I'll grant, but not the same. To be honest, I'm almost tempted to say yours looks fairly rushed...
4250771 ...You guys miss the point. It's my story. my sequel. DONE. You can't make a sequel of
1.Something that is not yours.
2.that doesn't represent it in the best way possible.
Understand. Delete the story.
4250748
This story is 'Crystals of the Mind'
Yours is 'Crystals in the heart'
It's actually quite interesting how similar the two stories ended up being in title, though in terms of content of both story and even description, this one is far more intriguing and worth the time of the average reader. If anything, you should be flattered somebody took the time to read your story and construct something of this quality from it.
4250791 I Will NOT accept this story as a sequel. Because I worked really hard on mine. I spent alot of my time on something they stole and think that its ok to pass it off for their own.
4250785 B-but...
I see people writing sequels to other people's stories all the time on here. Also, I'm sorry I didn't represent it well. 
I tried my best to make this well, I swear. I'm sorry.
4250801
There's an easy way to fix this
4250804
Add a Alternate Universe tag.
4250801
That's the way the cookie crumbles, kid.
4250804 They asked permission first. Then they wrote it. You never thought to ask me.Did you? I mean really? Here is all you had to do.Pm: hey xblade can I write a sequel for DASHing story. Then, IF!!! i said yes then I could! have given you idea to help resent him better. This is sad.Delete it Please.
Wait, I thought this was the official sequel of that other fic. I got my hopes up for nothing...
4250820 FINE! I TRIED TO BE REASONABLE! I'll report it. I tried. Now it's the admins decision on what happens to you.
4250801 They didn't steal it.
Stealing a sequel would mean he copy pasted your story and published it as his. Which he didn't. Itake appears to have put more work behinds this version than you did with yours. His is of much higher quality and is actually longer than yours.
You should be grateful he made such a beautiful story out of your prequel.
4250835 Well, unless 4250830 will let me try 4250820 's suggestion, I guess I'll have to take this down. I'm really sorry. I really tried to write this well.
4250835 The author in the original put the link to his official sequel in the comments below.
4250830
You have no ground for demanding anything. The story is BASED on your stuff, but as the disclaimer states in the summary:
No different than how most of pony fanfiction is reimaginings of the show's characters and canon. I don't recall ANY of us asking Faust or Hasbro or Studio B or anybody if we could do these kinds of things. But here we are anyway.
c2.staticflickr.com/8/7047/6861665259_55b341be24_z.jpg
4250846 No one ever asks the creator of the original Cupcakes to do a sequel.
4250856 Well that's the thing. I was impressed with this sequel...I'm less inclined with giving DASHing a chance of a better continuation, now...
4250847 Smh....He made a sequel to a story that's no his. It's mine. I typed it and my editor edited it and same thing for the sequel.No this not the sequel I wanted. It represents me. And this hurt. ALOT!
4250801
4250804
I see no plagiarism here. We have no rules against "unofficial" sequels, so Itake is allowed to do this. You may not like it, xblade, but it's not against the rules in any way.
4250862 I didn't think he would make one. If I even thought he would've, I wouldn't have even tried writing this. It wasn't easy finding time to write this that well, and even then it's not up to standards, apparently.
4250830 Dude, your story sucked ass, this guy made it amazing.
Check your ego off at the bank and take some damn pointers.
Because you NEED them.
4250850
Dude, don't take it down, you haven't broken any rules. And you have written it well, it's significantly better than the original story AND the 'official sequel'.
If nothing else, change the names so they're new OC's, since that's the ONLY real connection he can complain about in that you write his OC's better than he does.
4250883 Nah man, this story is awesome you keep doing what you're doing and don't let a noob tell you what you can't and can to
4250858 It's a sequel of "DASH"ing story which is MIne and Oh look it also stars the OC from MY story. hmhm I've got grounds.
4250893 According to the mods, you don't.
I actually don't see any submission rules being violated. The closest is the "don't plagiarize," but taking a set list of items (in this case OCs) and creating your own world from that isn't plagiarism. At worst, it is a fanfic of a fanfic.
The "don't be a dick" rule (seriously check the site rules) is being massively beaten in the comments here though.
Honestly XBlade, take it as a mark of honor that someone created a fanfic of your fanfic and bow out gracefully. All you are doing with your lashing out is making people side against you.
Take a breather and come back in a more rational state of mind with a logical argument on why you would like Itake to pull the story and you *might* get better results. Personally, after all this I'd keep it up until someone apologized publicly. But that is just me.
By definition, nothing was plagiarized because it was properly credited.
pla·gia·rism
ˈplājəˌrizəm/Submit
noun
noun: plagiarism; plural noun: plagiarisms
1.
the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.
synonyms: copying, infringement of copyright, piracy, theft, stealing
4250870 I don't care it's mine and I say no. Delete it.Please. It would make me feel better.No offense to you this could have been good given that (A) A sequel had already been written. (B) my ides were in it. Delete it.
4250905 No.