Pull yourself together!
Hope... just shut up... why aren't you dead yet.
B-because... I can't give up on you... Spike.
Could you just leave me alone?
Not gonna happen!
You really believe everything will be fine if I stop this?
Of course I do!
You're one ignorant fool.
"Wh-what? You're an element of harmony! How could you give up on us?!"
"Listen, sir, there's nothing we can do. He's too overpowered and we can't fight him." A stressed Rarity sighed for what must have been the tenth time as she had the same conversation with a different pony.
"Use that big rainbow beam you usually use! Do something! Save us!" The citizen pleaded.
"We can use the elements of harmony when ONE OF THE SPIRITS IS DEAD!" Rarity yelled into the stallion's face. He and the surrounding ponies zipped their mouths shut. "Now, alert everypony else in Manehattan, NOW!"
The ponies nodded dumbly and ran into the city to let everyone else know of the tragedy that nobody could've ever expected. Several ponies yelled, others cried, some refused to believe what they had been told. The news began spreading like wildfire as the group of ponies traveled around Equestria to give ponies the bad news. It had come to the point where it was known before the element bearers and their friends could let the next town know. Ponies would crowd around them and throw things at them. Rumors of them siding with the enemy and not caring about the defenseless citizens had already been formed.
It angered them. They felt a fire that they had never felt before, deep inside themselves. But, instead of fighting the civilians, they slinked into the shadows where they wouldn’t be seen or heard.
“Listen here, yall.” Applejack spoke up after a long moment of silence, They were in the corner of a dark alley somewhere in Vanhoover. “News has prob’ly spread all ‘cross Equestria by now. I dunno ‘bout yall, but I’m goin’ home to mah family to see if they’re alright. Yall can come if ya want to.” She got up and walked away. Everypony stared for a moment before Rarity sighed.
“I guess there’s no hope for Equestria, but I’ve still got to look after my sister. I bet she’s scared and distraught, so I must be on my way.” Rarity said as she followed. Pinkie pie, who hadn’t said anything for an eerily long period of time, simply stood up and followed Rarity and Applejack.
“I need to see if the animals are okay.” Fluttershy spoke up.
“Gotta check on Cloudsdale.”
“Gonna see if any of my belongings are intact.”
“...” Time said nothing as everyone got up.
"Time... Why don't you come with me bud? I know how you feel... Empty and worthless. But you've gotta move on." Noteworthy said with a sympathetic look on his face.
"I-I can't move on... I just can't..." He cried.
"It's gonna take some time... a lot of time... but life moves on. You've gotta move with it. I'm not rushing you or anything, I know this is gonna be tough on you for a while. Just... be careful. You've got a whole life ahead of you." He said to the whimpering stallion. Time nodded and stood up. "Now come on. We're gonna take a nice, long walk." Noteworthy said, walking away as Time Turner followed.
I could hardly believe it. Everything was going as planned! I've taken control of this sorry dragon, I've risen higher than anyone else ever has! I am the ruler of this pathetic land! I laughed as loud as possible, so everypony who could hear would cower in fear. Everypony knew I couldn't be stopped. I was practically invincible! Even that weak so-called 'God of chaos' couldn't come close to stopping me! As I wandered around Canterlot, smiling as I looked at all of the destruction I had caused, I heard a noise. I turned my head in the direction of it and really listened. It sounded like... crying. More specifically, a foal crying.
After looking around a bit, I saw her. She was a pink earth pony with a dark grey, almost black mane. She wailed as she hugged two ponies who looked similar to her. One stallion with a grey mane and a red coat and one white mare with a black mane. They were bleeding heavily and appeared to be dead as the filly's tears fell onto them. She looked back at me and flinched, crying harder.
"Wh-why did you do this mister monster?" She cried. "Why did you make them go away?"
I looked down at her and stared. What was I doing? I have no heart! I should just squash her into nothing! I don't even know this little filly. She means NOTHING!
"They're in a better place, little filly. This world... is very dangerous." I told her.
"B-but how will I make it out here? They're not here to help me!" She whimpered.
What's this feeling? Whatever it is, it's bothering me and it needs to go away.
"...Come with me." Wait... what?!
"You'll help me?" She sniffled, rubbing her eyes. I nodded and walked away, hearing her hoofsteps behind me.
What did I do? I didn't want to do that! I wanted to crush her!
I couldn't let you do that.
Dammit Hope! You've been a thorn in my side for far too long! Why aren't you dead yet?
I'm not giving up, you monster!
Burn in hell!
Only after you do, coward!
Coward? Me? Ha!
You think you're tough, taking control of an already weakened mind?
I'm ignoring you, weakling.
With that, I made my way to Celestia's castle. It needed a makeover.
Come on Spike... you can do it! Never give up! There is ALWAYS someone who you can ALWAYS count on, even if you haven't met that person yet or don't realize that they're there! It took me a long time to realize that... and by then I was too late... But you just can't lose Hope! It's really the only thing thats keeping me going. In fact, I have a long enough length of cord that I sometimes look at and realize that I do have a choice. That I am CHOOSING to keep struggling. I'm not being dragged along by the flow of time, because my exit is right beside me! I CHOOSE to keep resisting, I CHOOSE to live!
Why? Because I know that if I don't, I won't be able to see her again... I won't ever see my sister again... I'd rather take the chance to live and correct any wrongs I may have done, instead of backing out of life because of stress, pressure, torment, or even knowing that I won't leave a mark on this earth... I have been faced with all of those things and I know for a fact that the last one will tear your soul to shreds if you let it control you. Fight the Darkness Spike! You just need to keep onto your Hope! Never, EVER, give up! You can do it!
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Glad I could be of service. By the way, did you catch the quick addition I made to the last comment on that blog post? If not, it's just a video recommendation. Someone made an animation for the song Lullaby for a Princess, and I love it to pieces. I'd go into more detail here, but I gushed enough about it over there.
6097671 OH! I saw it AS SOON AS IT CAME OUT! Oh it was so lovely! I watched it a bazillion times and I'm still not tired of it! It's so well done, and makes me hope I could make something that great one day.
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I caught wind of it a bit later when Josh Scorcher pointed it out in his video. He doesn't give such praise lightly (especially to fan animations. Double Rainboom made him rage like little else.) I thought I'd give it a quick look. Seven minutes later, it shot upwards on my list of favorite fan songs to the top, burning right past Eurobeat Brony's Discord, Living Tombstone's Discord Remix, and Living Tombstone's Pinkie's Brew Remix. Shame on me for not finding it sooner.
Heck, when I couldn't stop laughing after watching Slice of Life, I went to watch this to balance things out. I find it that good at what it does. It took two and a half years to make, and the effort speaks for itself.
Wow. I arrive late to the party thanks to a bit of flooding in my room to find someone already beat me to analyzing Dark and Hope's yelling match at the end. 6097518 , nice speech dude. I couldn't have said it any better myself. Keep fighting the good fight. This guy's rooting for you.
The citizens' reaction was spot on. The main civilians of Equestria don't seem like the brightest bulbs, so having the things that enable them to be oblivious to reality removed sent them screaming. Then comes the part where they look for a scapegoat so they don't have to face the fact that they didn't prepare to defend themselves in a world where every flower could be hiding a giant worm monster or at the very least that bad things just tend to happen. At least the Surviving Five (can't exactly be the Mane Six now) have the sense to keep moving instead of playing the blame game until Spikezilla shows up.
It looks like the power of cute little girls has won over black-hearted destruction once again, at least for now. I can see this going one of two ways. She'll either be an anchor leading Spike to realize his mistake or another victim, signaling that he is truly gone. Or maybe things will go crazy and she'll turn out to be a Monster Hunter in training, who knows?
I'm really loving having this back more often. Patience has its benefits. By the way, this story hit the big box on the front page for a little bit a few days back. I forget when, but I know it was there. Congratulations! I look forward to the next update.
6101472 Oh yeah, that guy's speech was awesome. Just wonderful! And, also, your analysis was great as always. But uh... a monster hunter in training huh? That's... wonderful imagination!
Thank you so much! Yes, I also saw my story in the featured box. It brought a smile to my face.
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You could call it imagination, or you could call it me playing a whole lot of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate in the last few days. I'm not kidding when I say that series has taken over five hundred hours of my free time, and I've only played two of the games in it!
6101472
6101538 Heh... Thanks for the compliment! I just kinda felt like I should write something and well it just sort of built up and boom, there's that speech/talk/thing. Honestly I kind of understand how Spikes been feeling and I get it, because I've been there before. Not exactly my most... enjoyable couple of years mind you. When I was a bit younger I feel into depression for a number of reasons: stress, anxiety, the news about my sister, etc. And I just sort of... shut everyone out. Even my family had a hard time just getting me out of my room! Even during recess I would sit in the shaded corner of the school and read a book. But one day, something spectacular happened! Someone walked up to me, sat down beside me, and asked me what I was reading! That one act made me realize something, something that just clicked in my mind. That I was not alone, no one is. They just haven't found the people to connect with yet.
Just a question, when Spike gave to The Five, Time Turner and Noteworthy the resistance of a dragon, gave them the time-life of a dragon too?
6113183 Yes, he did.