A Glimmer of Hope

by Gordon Pasha

Post Tenebras Spero Lucem

The Empress just stood there.

Dr. Fie waved his hoof in front of her face. Nothing.

He tapped her shoulder lightly with his hoof a few more times. Nothing.

“Maybe you should try shrieking really loudly. That always works in the Prison of Shadows,” Misericordia said.

“I was going to snap my fingers and see if it did anything,” Dr. Fie said. “Then I remembered that I don’t have any fingers. Hooves are a curse, dear boy.”

“I mean, like, shrieking really, really loud. Trust me, it always works.”

“Are you really still going on about that?”

“I think it could work.”

“Of course you do, you vaporous vanity. But for my part, I won’t take any advice coming out of a locale where stairs are considered the height of architectural technique.”

Misericordia looked confused. “Are you saying stairs are not the furthest advancement in architecture!”

Dr. Fie reclined on his haunches. “Oh, to be stuck amongst barbarians! Listen, you phosphorescent philistine, when you compare the ‘achievements’ of your people to the aqueducts of the Roanans, the pyramids of the Neighgyptians, the domes and spires of Saddle Arabia, there is simply no—”

“Enough!” The Empress shouted.

Dr. Fie let out a piercing scream as he jumped back. He looked in horror at the red glow of the Empress’ horn. He tried to back away.

“Oh, please, Hope, you don’t want to hurt me,” Dr. Fie said. “It’s me, dear, kindly, Dr. Fie. Your dearest friend. The pony with whom you have shared the bitter and the sweet. The only—”

“Shut up,” barked the Empress.

“Of course, of course,” Dr. Fie said, falling to his haunches once more and holding his hooves out before him. “Of course. I wouldn’t dare do anything to displease you, Hope. You know me, always thinking of others first. Dr. Fie is nothing if not compassionate and selfless in all he does”

Misericordia let out a strange and ugly sound, somewhere between the squawking of a particularly large bird and the noise a teapot makes as it lets out steam.

“Oh, dear Celestia, what is that horrid racket?” Dr. Fie asked, growing hysterical. “Another threat, perhaps? Oh, my awful luck! Oh, for such a noble and goodhearted pony as myself to be trapped amongst these fiends and jackals! Oh, the indignity! Oh, the... the.... Is that laughter?”

He turned to Misericordia, suddenly indignant. “Are you laughing at me?”

“I was clearing my throat,” Misericordia said.

Dr. Fie stood up tall and proud and strode toward Misericordia, pointing his hoof. “You were laughing at me, you misshapen miscreant! You were!”

“I’m sorry,” Misericordia said. “I think it was just the noble and goodhearted part.”

Dr. Fie poked his hoof into Misericordia’s face. “Listen, you intangible imbecile, I’ll attend to you after we finish with—”

“Why did you have to mention the orphanage?” the Empress said.

Dr. Fie let out another scream. It was a reflex. He quickly realized that nothing was actually happening. The Empress was still just standing there, staring blankly.

As the doctor calmed down, something occurred to him.

“Wait, the orphanage?” he asked. “The one where Hope grew up? Why is she bringing that up?”

“I do not think she is actually with us, Dr. Fie,” Misericordia said.

“What do you mean, she is not with us?” Dr. Fie asked, gesturing toward the Empress. “She’s right there.”

“That is not what I meant.”

“Oh, I’ll tell you what you meant, you ludicrous lump! You are the most—”

Suddenly, a bubble burst into the air above them. Dr. Fie jumped and hid behind Misericordia, all the while letting out a piercing scream. It had initially been the shock of it that got to him. But as he gazed anxiously at the bubble above, he began to feel genuine fear. He recognized it. But he did not know what would come out.

What came out was Starlight and Sombra. They landed hard upon the ground and bounced toward Dr. Fie and Misericordia. A small scroll bounced down after them. The bubble disappeared.

Dr. Fie stepped out from behind Misericordia. “Well, that was anticlimactic,” he said.

Starlight got up and dusted herself off. She trotted over to Dr. Fie.

“What’s happening?” she asked. “Did you get through to Hope?”

“Not in so many words,” Dr. Fie said.

Starlight looked to the Empress. In all the excitement, she had only barely noticed her standing there. Now, Starlight caught sight of the red, glowing horn. She tensed up, bracing herself for an attack. An attack which, for all Starlight knew, could destroy her.

“They’ll reject us too, eventually,” the Empress said. “You know they will.”

Starlight relaxed. “What’s wrong with her.”

“She’s been like that since you left,” Dr. Fie said. He fixed his gaze past Starlight. “But what’s wrong with him?”

Sombra had still not gotten off the ground. His body, the full body he had during his travels through time, was now completely gone. All that remains was the ill-defined shape of his head and a few trails of vapor. But even so, he forced himself to rise.

“I told you the portal would take us back,” he said.

“Yeah, it got us back,” Starlight remarked. “We had to spend a year watching ‘Great Moments in Princess Celestia’s Thousand-Year Reign,’ first but we got back. I never thought one pony could possibly eat so much cake without dying.”

Sombra shook what remained of his head. “There are some things nopony is ever meant to see.”

“Starlight Glimmer,” Misericordia said, “it appears as though the Empress is undergoing some sort of internal struggle. She has been arguing with herself.”

“Your talent for stating the obvious is incredible, you exasperating encyclopedia,” Dr. Fie said.

Starlight glanced around the darkness, thinking things through. Her eyes fixated on the Empress. “If she is struggling with herself, it can only mean one thing. Our Hope is still in there.”

“After all time, you still don’t understand!” the Empress said.

“And it sounds like she’s... like she’s losing,” Sombra said as he floated over.

“Are you alright?” Starlight asked. Sombra seemed increasingly hazy, almost transparent. He clearly did not have long left.

“It doesn’t matter,” Sombra said. “What matters is that we save Hope. I only care about her life now.”

“Right,” Starlight said. “But if Hope is in there, there has to be a way to get her back out.”

“The ritual I performed was only supposed to bring out Hope’s own darkness.” Sombra said.

“Oh, so it was ‘only’ supposed to turn her into a creature of night?” Dr. Fie said. “How very fortunate for us, dear boy.”

“Why did you call me ‘dear boy’?” Sombra asked. “I’m over a thousand years old.”

“You get used to it,” Misericordia said.

Sombra shook his head, or what was left of it. “Fine. But what I was saying is that, my magic didn’t destroy all of Hope’s personality. It just suppressed the parts I didn’t like.”

“Angling for a ‘boyfriend of the year’ award, are we?” Dr. Fie said.

“It was wrong, I know,” Sombra said.

“But suppressing a pony’s true personality never works for long. I should know,” Starlight said. “Hope is reasserting herself. If only we could help her true self come out, somehow.”

“But how are we supposed to do that, hmm, madam?” Dr. Fie said. “We can hardly shrink ourselves and go inside of dear Hope’s head.” He suddenly looked at Starlight with fear in his eyes. “You don’t have a shrinking spell, do you?”

“If I did, I’d have used it on you a long time ago, doctor,” Starlight said.

“Perhaps you already used it on your brain, dear lady,” Dr. Fie responded.

“At least I had a brain to use it on.”

“You could have fooled even my highly-attuned observational skills.”

“Dr. Fie is right,” Misericordia said, trying to quell the bickering.

Dr. Fie was unimpressed. “Finally seeing the light of reason, you unctuous umbra?”

“I do not like to admit it, Dr. Fie,” Misericordia said, “but this is a battle Radiant Hope needs to win alone.”

Starlight began approached Hope, “Yes, but that doesn’t mean she has to fight alone. Maybe we can get through to her somehow.”

“So, what do you propose, dear lady,” Dr. Fie said. “You want us to just talk to her?”

“Well, you are so good at talking, doctor,” Starlight said as she moved toward the Empress.

Dr. Fie thought for a moment. He ambled forward. Stretching out his foreleg, he blocked Starlight’s path and pushed her backward. “Quite right. I’ll handle this. Never fear, Fie is here.”

Starlight wanted to take offense. But she knew this was not the time. A battle of egos would just cause them to miss their window of opportunity. It almost already had.

So, as hard as it was for her, she just bit her lip, stepped back, and let Dr. Fie do his thing.

“Dear girl,” Dr. Fie said to the Empress gently.

“You rejected me,” the Empress said.

Dr. Fie let out a little yelp, having been startled. But he quickly regained himself. He smiled a large, kindly smile.

“We didn’t reject you, dear girl. At least I wouldn’t.” He looked over his shoulder. “I can’t speak for those ne’er-do-wells. Especially Starlight. And Sombra. And that petulant penumbra.”

“Dr. Fie!” Starlight snapped.

“Yes, yes, I’m getting there,” Dr. Fie said, getting back on track. “But I would never reject you. Not Fiddly Fie, no! What I told you before was true. I love you. I love you like the daughter I never had. You are my daughter, and I’m so proud of you, every single day. As I have told you, you are a pony of light. And darkness is only the absence of light. It is only the absence of you. Come back to us, dear girl. None of us is worth anything without you. Not even me. Please, Hope. Please don’t leave me.”

Dr. Fie, his eyes narrowing and his smile becoming smug, stepped backward and looked toward the others. “If anypony thinks they can top that, be my guest.”

“It’s not a competition, doctor,” Starlight said as she began to walk up.

Before she got to the Empress, however, Misericordia was there.

“I am a shadow of few words,” he said, “but you were always a friend to me, Radiant Hope. My life has spanned millennia, but over all that time, you were probably the only real friend I ever had. I will always be loyal to you, my Empress.”

“Yes, yes, very nice, you windswept windbag,” Dr. Fie said, pretending to clap. “Nowhere near my masterpiece of eloquence, but sometimes perfection simply cannot be outdone.”

“Oh, brother,” Starlight said.

She once more resumed her trot toward Hope. Then, however, she felt Sombra come up beside her. He felt like a light gust of wind.

“Let me talk to her,” Sombra said, his voice barely audible. “I don’t have much time left.”

“Is everypony going to keep stealing my spotlight?” Starlight asked.

However, when she looked to Sombra, she was shocked by what she saw. Or what she didn’t see, rather. She could just make out Sombra’s eyes and horn, but the rest of him was almost entirely transparent. In the darkness, he might as well have been invisible.

“Very well, go ahead,” Starlight said with a sigh.

Sombra floated over to the Empress. He got in as close as he could. His horn and the Empress’, both glowing red, crossed, unleashed a small spark of dark lightning and sludge. Sombra hoped it was the last dark energy transfer he would ever engage in.

But it worked. Sombra had not even expected it to work. But it did. It stabilized him a little and allowed him to speak above a whisper. Now, he could speak to his best friend. He could try to talk one last time to the pony he loved.

“Hope,” he said. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything I did. I’m sorry for this. I’m sorry for the Siege. I’m sorry for the curse I put on your home... our home.... I’m sorry for all of it. I was just so angry at you for so long... for too long... and it blinded me to how much you cared. It made me the type of pony who could gladly hurt the only pony who ever really care. I know you can’t forgive me for any of this. I wouldn’t want you to. But I’m sorry. I’m sorry for not being worthy of the loyalty you showed me... of the love you should me. And I did this to you too. But you can’t let the thing I did ruin you. Not again. Not anymore. Hope, you have to live the life you always deserved the live, the life I’ve stolen from you. It’s all I want now.”

Sombra wafted back from the Empress and took his place next to Dr. Fie and Misericordia. Dr. Fie shuttered and subtly shuffled away from Sombra and toward Misericordia.

Starlight took a deep breath. Her turn had come around at last. She walked up to the Empress.

“Hope,” she said. She tried to smile, but it was hard. Not so much for the situation she was in, but for what she had to say. “I once told you we were so much alike. The truth is, we’re not. Sure, we’ve both done some things we’re not proud of, and were convinced we were doing right. But what I did made me something terrible. I became a pony of anger and rage, a pony who only cared about power and how to keep it, a pony who would gladly break time itself just for revenge. You never became any of those things. You never became like me. Everything you did, even the worst things you did, you did out of the kindness of your heart. That’s how I know that you’re not this thing, you’re not a creature of anger. No, Hope, you’re the best pony I know and exactly the type of pony I want to be. You are a good pony. I only wish I could be.”

Starlight collected herself. She forced back a tear. She stepped back and joined the others. They shared no words between them. They all watched in silence, waiting for something to happen.

“How will we know if our words got through?” Dr. Fie asked.

Suddenly, the red light went out.

---

Hope and the Empress stood across from each other, their respective lights shining in the darkness.

“Reject you?” Hope said. “When did I reject you?”

“Every day for your whole life,” the Empress said. “Every time others treated you badly, and you never returned the favor.”

“I wasn’t going to hurt ponies because of how I was feeling,” Hope said.

“No, you were just willing to hurt ponies for Sombra!” the Empress snapped.

Hope recognized the truth of these words. But they did not cut her perhaps as much as the Empress had expected.

“You’re right,” she said. “I was willing to do things for Sombra. I’m not going to try and justify them.”

“I don’t care about justifications. I care that you were willing to do that for Sombra, but you wouldn’t do it for me.”

“Do it for you?” Hope shook her head a little. She was confused. “I didn’t even know you existed.”

“Liar!” the Empress yelled. “You’ve knew. You’ve always known. You were more than happy to use me when I could do something for you. But when I needed something, did you ever listen to me?”

“What? When did I use you?”

“How about when you did Umbric magic? Like when you used it to reveal Sombra’s study in the Crystal Palace? There’s only one way to channel dark magic, and you know what it is.”

Hope’s eyes grew wide. “Anger. Is that who you are? My anger?”

“Oh, I’m more than just anger,” the Empress said. “Anger. Sadness. Disappointment. Rage. They’re all here.”

Hope began to pace around the Empress. Her mind raced as she put everything together. “That’s what Sombra did. He took every negative emotion I’ve ever had. He took my sadness, my pain, everything bad and turned it into you.”

“He brought me out, but like I said, I was always here.”

Hope’s eyes locked with the other Hope’s. “But I’ve always been sad and disappointed and in pain. It took me to some dark places. But never to you.”

“Because you never listened to me!” the Empress yelled, loud enough to disturb the strange, eerie calm of the darkness.

“I can see this is really upsetting to you,” Hope said. “But I’m not sure what more I could have done.”

The Empress seethed with resentment. “You still don’t get it, do you? And I’ve been spelling it out for you.”

“Yes, yes, I know,” Hope said. “Anger. Rage. You’re like a broken record. But I don’t have those things in me. I never have.”

The Empress did not respond. She merely offered an oh, really? look.

That look was cutting. None of the Empress’ words had done much to her. But, Hope had to admit, this did. She felt it like a body blow.

The Empress smiled wickedly. She knew what Hope was feeling.

Of course, she does. She’s me.

Hope lowered her head and looked down to her hooves. “I do feel it,” she said at last. “I always have.”

“Finally,” the Empress responded. “I thought you were going to play the high-and-mighty card forever.”

Hope lifted her head up and locked eyes with the Empress once more. She had been phased, but not broken.

“I never gave into it,” she said firmly. “I never gave into anger.”

The Empress raised her brows. “Precisely.”

Hope lowered her head again. Of course, she knew anger. Of course, she had felt rejected, she had felt cheated by life, and she had felt angry about that. But she had never let it rule her. She had never let it change her. She had never let it destroy her like it had destroyed so many others, like it had destroyed Sombra. Hope was not a proud pony, but if she felt pride for anything, it was this. Anger did not rule her. It never would.

But she did not feel proud now. Rather, for some strange reason, Hope felt a very different emotion.

Guilt.

“You were right,” she said. “You were right about everything.”

The blue light of her horn dimmed nearly to imperceptibility. The Empress let out a fiendish laugh.

“So, you admit it? Good.” the Empress said. “You are a liar, a hypocrite, and a failure. You were rejected by all. Even by yourself. Go off and die, Radiant Hope. Hope is no more.”

Suddenly, the glow returned to Hope’s horn. It grew brighter and brighter. She raised her head.

“Well, actually, you didn’t get everything right,” she said. “You were right that I rejected myself, because I rejected you. But that doesn’t make me a hypocrite and a liar. Not that, at least. Because it would have been wrong to have done what you wanted. It would have been wrong to give in to rage. I hurt a lot of ponies. But imagine how many more I would have hurt if I had listened to you.”

The fire-red light of the Empress’ horn flared. “If you had to listened to me, you would have hurt the ones who deserve it!”

“And who gets to decide who deserves it?”

The Empress threw her face into Hope’s. “We do! We get to decide who to hurt and who to save. And I could have saved you. If you had listened to me, you would not have ended up friendless and alone!”

Hope knew this was wrong. She had once believed it herself, so she was not surprised to hear it. But she knew it was wrong. She knew it deeply, to the very fibers of her being.

“I am not friendless and alone,” she said. “I have ponies now.”

The sound of the Empress’ laugh was deafening. “Look around you! Where are your friends, Hope? Do you see them? Do you hear them? Where are they? You’re completely alone. Alone in the darkness!”

Hope looked around her. There was nothing, outside of her and the Empress’ light radius, but darkness. If ever a pony should have felt alone, Hope knew it was here. And truth be told, she felt like it could be very easy to have doubts.

But she would not doubt. No matter what, she would not doubt again. She would not despair again. She would instead, choose to hope.

Hope chose to hope. She stood in the darkness, hoping. The Empress just looked on, unimpressed.

“What are you waiting for?” the Empress asked. “Nopony’s going to come for you. You are now entirely alone.”

Hope just smiled. “No. I don’t believe you. I’m not alone. Never.”

As she spoke, Hope heard a noise. She looked around, trying to find the source. She could see nothing, but she knew from the look on the other Hope’s face that the Empress had heard it too. The noise came again. Except it sounded louder and clearer. It sounded like a voice. A voice, too small to hear.

But then it came again. And this time, Hope heard it clearly. And so too did the Dark Empress.

“I would never reject you,” it said.

Hope immediately recognized the voice. “Dr. Fie?” she asked.

The voice came again, “I love you. Come back to us, dear girl.”

Hope smiled. “Dr. Fie.”

She glanced at the Empress, wanting to see her reaction. The other Hope at first sneered. But then, her sneer started to falter. Hope’s horn, already bright, began to glow even brighter. For the first time, it was overpowering the red light of the Dark Empress’ horn.

Then came another voice, a shadowy, Umbric voice. “You were probably the only real friend I ever had. I will always be loyal to you, my Empress.”

“Misericordia,” Hope said.

Her light grew stronger and stronger still. Now, the whole of the vicinity was bathed in shades of blue and purple. Only the Empress herself still shone red. But the harsh expression on her face was breaking. She looked now more sad than angry.

“Hope....” came another voice.

“Sombra!” both Hopes exclaimed together. In the case of Radiant Hope, she spoke in relief and happiness. But for her doppelgänger, the name was coated in anger and pain.

“I’m sorry,” Sombra’s voice said. “I’m sorry for everything.”

“You should be sorry!” the Empress yelled, tears streaming down her cheeks again.

“I know you can’t forgive me,” Sombra’s voice said. “I’m sorry for not being worthy of the loyalty you showed me... the love you showed me.... Hope, you have to live the life you always deserved the live, the life I’ve stolen from you. It’s all I want now.”

Hope smiled. “I knew it! I knew you could still be saved, Sombra!”

The Empress looked confused. She looked like many emotions were battling for control of her. And all the while, tears flowed freely.

“Sombra....” she whispered.

At last came a fourth, final voice. It was the strongest and most clear of all. It was Starlight’s voice.

“You never became like me.... Everything you did, you did out of the kindness of your heart.... You’re the best pony I know and exactly the type of pony I want to be. You are a good pony. I only wish I could be.”

“You already are a good pony, Starlight,” Hope said. “This proves it.”

The red light disappeared completely, swallowed up by the blue light of Hope’s horn. The blue light was shining with such power and intensity that it came to look not blue, but a pure and blinding white. Underneath it, the Empress collapsed.

She began to sob.

Radiant Hope approached her. “Now do you see?” she asked. “We aren’t rejected.”

The Empress did not look up. “You might not be, but I am. They love you because you are not me. You never accepted me and they never accepted me. And all I wanted was to be accepted.”

“I couldn’t let you hurt other ponies. You have to know that. We can’t go down that road again.”

But as Hope looked at her other self, she could not feel as though it was so simple. This pony claimed to be her anger, but she was not so angry now. No, now she just looked small and weak. She looked sad. She looked vulnerable.

“You’re not my anger, are you?” Hope asked. “I think I finally understand what you were trying to tell me. Anger’s a part of you, but you’re more than that. You’re the part of me that’s taken in all the pain, all the suffering I’ve had to go through over all those years. You’re the pony who dealt with the rejection and went through all the disappointment. You’re not my anger. You’re my wounds.”

The Empress looked up at her. Except, she did not seem to be the dark Empress anymore. The black and white markings crumbled and fell away, as though in a single wind. All that remained was Hope’s own face, looking back up at her.

“And you always rejected me,” the other Hope said.

Hope nodded. “I know. I tried to push you down and push you away. With all my optimism, all my hope, I never let you in. Not really.”

“Until after the Siege. Then, you started to let me in. You started to feel me, to let me be a part of you. We were one pony at last. But still, you never really listened. You were too enthralled with the pain to hear what it was trying to tell you.”

Hope’s eyes glanced downward. “No, I heard. And I learned. You taught me so much.” Her eyes met the Empress’ again. “Like I told you, I can’t let myself hurt ponies, not anymore. I learned that from you.”

The other Hope buried her head in her hooves. “I don’t understand. You’re... you’re still not doing what I wanted. You’re not turning against the ponies who hurt you. You’re not interested in making them pay or in getting revenge. So, what have you learned from me? You’re still not listening.”

“I am listening,” Hope said. “I know you’re hurting. And I know you think making others hurt will make you hurt less. But it won’t.”

The other Hope’s head shot up. Her eyes were filled with anger. Anger and tears. “But it’s all we have! There’s no other way to fix everything! There’s no other way to stop the hurting! There’s no other way to heal!”

“But there is another way,” Hope said. ”We don’t have to hurt any other pony to heal ourselves. We just need each other. We just need to accept each other.”

”That won’t fix anything.”

Hope spoke as kindly as she could. “No, but it’s a start. Once we accept each other — once we accept ourselves — we’ll see where it takes us. But is has to be better than this, don’t you think?”

The other Hope looked around her at the vast lightness. “I don’t know. How can I be sure I can trust you now?”

“Oh, you can trust me,” Hope said with a smirk. “I’m a healer, so I know about these things.”

As she heard herself speak it, Hope could not hold back a little giggle. Oh, Dr. Fie. You’re finally rubbing off on me....

”I don’t know if I can,” the other Hope said. “I’ve felt separate from you for so long.”

“It’s okay,” Hope said gently. “You’re already a part of me. You help to make me who I am.”

The light of Hope’s horn glowed more brightly than it ever had. The blue light was no longer blue. It had become entirely white. And there was no darkness anymore. There was only light.

Hope looked beside her. There, she saw two familiar figures. On one side was a small filly with a long tale and a mane which covered nearly half her face. On the other was a figure in a long brown cloak who was slowly pulling down her hood.

She looked young Hope in the eyes. The filly lit up in joy. She smiled a bit, toothy smile from ear to ear. They nodded to one another.

Then she looked to forlorn Hope. The mare in the cloak smiled a little, a sadder, but a wiser smile. Both Hopes nodded one to another.

Hope kneeled down and put her hoof on the Empress’ shoulder. “I know you think there is too much distance between us. But I can still let you in. I can still accept you. I can still listen. I am listening. I’ve never stopped listening to you. And I never will.”

Then she lowered her head to the other Hope’s ear. She whispered, “I accept you, Radiant Hope. I accept everything about you.”

She thought she saw the Empress begin to smile a little. But the other Hope did not look up. Instead, she clenched her eyes closed harder, so as to try and keep the tears in.

“But I’ve been rejected for so long. What if ponies still reject me?”

“Well, if it happens, it’s okay,” Hope said, standing up, “because you still have us. And we will never reject you.”

The Empress raised her head. She opened her eyes. Through the tears, she saw. She saw the three other Hopes standing there, all there for her. Each of them was smiling.

The Empress smiled back. It was a wounded smile. But it was genuine.

“So, what do you say?” Hope asked.

The Empress leapt up into the air. Before Hope knew it, she was on top of her. The Empress wrapped her forelegs around Hope’s shoulders and back, holding her in the biggest, tightest hug Hope thought she had ever felt. Hope was quickly to returned it. The Empress buried her head in Hope’s shoulder. Hope heard sobs.

“It’s okay, Hope,” she said.

“I know,” the other Hope responded.

Forlorn Hope put her hoof gently on the Empress’ shoulder and young Hope brushed herself lovingly against the Empress’ flank. The Empress’ sobs became sobs of joy.

“Thank you,” she said.

And then, all was light. The Empress was gone. Forlorn Hope and young Hope were gone. Or rather, not gone. Hope could feel them. She could feel all of them. They were all inside of her.

Hope stood in the light. For a brief moment, she thought she saw a familiar pony there. An old pony with horn-rimmed glasses. He was smiling his wry smile. As Hope caught sight of him, he seemed to nod in approval.

And then she only saw light.

---

“So, we’re just going to stand hear?” Misericordia asked.

“Yes, as long as it takes,” Starlight responded.

“Look,” Dr. Fie said, pointing toward the Empress. “What is going on with the dear girl?”

Sombra, now barely held together, flew in close to get a good look.

The Empress was sobbing. Water flowed freely down her face, rolling through the black tracks which extended downward from her eyes. It was like those tracks were there for this exact purpose.

“She’s crying?” Sombra asked.

And then, all was light. The red glow of the Empress’ horn became blue, which in its turn became white. It increased more and more in luminosity. Soon, it was blinding. All the darkness was gone. For a brief moment, the entire vastness of the boiler room, all the steel and the pipes and the riveting, stood revealed. And then they were all washed out in white. Only light was visible now.

Then there was a flash and a crack. In the light, the figure of the Dark Empress appeared. A thick glob of what looked like ooze and sludge appeared at the top of her horn. It gathered together into a massive ball, which shot upward as a great column of darkness surrounded by purple mist and crackling with lighting. The darkness blew air in all directions, enough to nearly push all the ponies and Misericordia toward the ends of the platform. Misericordia grabbed Dr. Fie and took to the air. Starlight kept casting minor teleportation spells to keep herself in one spot. Sombra did nothing. He was frozen, transfixed by the darkness.

The scroll with the time spell flew up into the air. Catching sight of it, Starlight teleported up to catch it. She grabbed the piece of paper and held it close to her chest. Even after everything which had just happened, she still was not able to let it go. This, however, caused her to lose her own bearing, and she spun out of control toward the platform-ledge and the steep drop below. It was only Misericordia grabbing hold of her which kept her from going over the edge.

The pillar of darkness seemed ready to expand, ready to fill the whole ship and swallow everything. But then came the light. The white light around Hope’s horn also shot upward, surrounding the darkness. The darkness fought hard, but it was no match for the light. The light pushed onward through the darkness and the darkness grew ever less dark. Soon, the darkness was gone, and there was only a pillar of light above.

There was another flash and, with it, a blast. A blast of white light which blinded everyone.

It took a few moments for each of them to regain their sight. And when they did, each one gasped at what they saw.

There was Radiant Hope.

The darkness returned, but she was all light. Her coat glistened and gleamed as though it was in direct sunlight, perhaps brighter than if it was in direct sunlight. Free of blood and wounds, its texture was like a diamond. No longer a dull purple, she was a vibrant and luminescent lavender. Her mane-hair rippled down around her shoulders like winding rivers coming inland from a vast sea and her tail resembled a rushing waterfall; all shimmered as bodies of water do in the sun. Her face, no longer clouded by markings, shone in splendor and her eyes were like shining gems of lapis lazuli. As she moved, she illuminated all which lay around her, shining like a small sun in the vastness of space.

Dr. Fie looked on in amazement. Almost to himself, he spoke.

"Radiant with ardor divine,

Beacon of Hope, you appear!

Languor is not in your heart,

Weakness is not in your word,

Weariness is not on your brow."

Sombra had been caught in the war between light and darkness. He had been pulled in by the darkness and then knocked back by the blast of light. He had been sent flying across the platform, landing near the edge, where darkness still held sway over light. But most of his remaining darkness had been expelled by the light. And so he lay there, a half-formed creature, only vaguely recognizable as a pony. Only Sombra’s eyes remained clear and visible within the inky mass.

Then, the darkness around him began to retreat, giving way to light. Hope was approaching him.

She stood over him and rays of light danced upon his darkness. For a moment, they almost seemed to fill Sombra’s body and almost give him shape again. His eyes turned to her and, with her light in his eyes, seemed to truly see her for the first time.

“Hope....” he said as she stood above him.

“Hey, Sombra,” she said.

“Hope, you’re... you’re alive....”

“Yes, I am.”

“You beat the thing I brought out. You beat the darkness.”

“No.”

Sombra, though weak, picked his head — or what passed for it — up. “No?” he asked in confusion.

“I didn’t beat her. She is still here,” Hope said. “I just brought her into the light.”

“I don’t understand.”

Hope turned her eyes from Sombra. She looked up to where Misericordia was still holding Starlight and Dr. Fie.

“You were wrong about me,” she said. “You were all wrong. And also right. I am a pony of light. I am also a pony of darkness. They are both here. They have made me what I am.”

“But Hope, look at you,” Sombra said. “You’re shining! You are light! The light must have driven out the darkness.”

“Light doesn’t drive out darkness, Sombra. Light takes darkness and absorbs it. Light transforms the darkness.”

Sombra put his head down. He was too weak to do anything else.

“I’ve been a fool,” he said.

“Yes,” Hope responded. “You’ve been a fool. And you’ve been my best friend.”

Sombra tried to force himself up again. But he could not. He could barely even speak.

But he forced himself to speak. “Oh, Hope. I’m so sorry.”

“I know.”

“I was so blinded by the darkness that I didn’t see the light I had in my life. I didn’t see you for what you were. I lost you because of it. I had you and we could have been together again. But then I hurt you and I lost you. It was I who did it. Not you. You never rejected me. You never betrayed me. You accepted me. You loved me.”

“Do you accept me, Sombra? All of me, the light and the darkness?”

“I didn’t before.”

“I didn’t ask you about before. I’m asking you about now.”

“Yes. Finally, I think I can say yes. I accept you, Hope. All of you.”

Hope looked upward toward the others. “And you, do you all accept me? Do you accept all of me?”

Starlight and Dr. Fie were stunned. They looked to one another and exchanged expressions of surprise and confusion. They turned their heads back and could only nod in agreement. Misericordia did as well.

Hope smiled, a warm sweet smile. “Thank you.”

She turned back to Sombra. “Do you love me?”

“Of course,” Sombra said. “With all my heart. Or whatever is left of it inside me.”

Hope’s smile widened. “Thank you, Sombra.”

Sombra let out a moan. What remained of him was fading in and out. When he faded out, only his eyes were visible. And when he faded in, there was a little less of him than there had been before.

“I’m going, Hope,” he said. “I can feel it. But before I go, I have to tell you again how sorry I am. I was not worthy of you. I proved it today, if I proved everything. I was not worthy of you.”

“I know.”

“I thought you were trying to make me into something I wasn’t. I thought you didn’t want me to be what I was, but only what you wanted me to be.”

“I’d never want you to be anything other than what you are, Sombra. I just knew you were free to decide that for yourself.”

“Even today, I didn’t see it, when you refused to heal me if I intended to free the Umbrum. I didn’t understand why you would choose everypony else over me.”

“I didn’t. Choosing you doesn’t mean hurting others. It means that I don’t believe you have to be what everypony says you are. It means I accept you, but I know you can be better. I just wanted you to know you were free to be better.”

“Yes, I understand everything now. I’ve hurt you so much, Hope. I know you can never forgive me. I know nothing I can do can warrant forgiveness. But I just want you to know how much I realize I ruined everything, for myself and for you. I denied you your destiny, I led you to my people and into the Siege, I tried to make you a monster and I—”

“I forgive you.”

“-I should have loved you better. I should have done better. I should have believed in you, in.... You forgive me?”

Hope nodded her head enthusiastically. “Of course, I do. Always. I love you, Sombra.”

Pain was wracking what remained of Sombra’s body but hearing this gave him newfound strength. He lifted up his head again.

“How, Hope? How can you love me? How can you forgive me? I don’t deserve it.”

“Forgiveness doesn’t come from deserving it. And love doesn’t come from being worthy. They’re given freely. And I’ll always give them to you.”

Sombra let out a sigh of relief. He laid his head down.

“Thank you, Hope,” he said. “At least we can part on good terms.”

“We don’t have to, Sombra. You don’t have to go anywhere.”

“Hope, I’m dying. I don’t think even you could save me now.”

Hope chuckled. “Oh, ye of little faith.”

“What? Hope, what are you trying to say?”

“Do you believe in me?” Hope asked.

“I do, now,” Sombra answered.

“Then you have to believe I can heal you. Do you believe I can save you, Sombra?”

“You are the most extraordinary pony I have ever known,” Sombra said, his weak voice gaining strength. “I believe you can do anything.”

Hope looked down upon him, the serene smile on her face. Her horn began to glow.

“Then I can save you.”

Hope’s horn began to glow blue. A ray of light extended from her horn toward Sombra. It enveloped him and lifted him up. He let out a gasp as it surrounded him and then as it filled him with light. Slowly, his body began to reform.

Starlight and Dr. Fie watched this from the confines of Misericordia’s forelegs. They could not speak. They could only exchange glances and look on. Their safe vantage was soon disturbed, however. Something hit Misericordia with full force from behind. He tumbled down onto the platform. Dr. Fie screamed as he flew from Misericordia’s grip. Starlight quickly teleported down onto solid grating, avoiding the worst of the impact.

Invidia’s ear-splitting laugh filled the boiler room.

“I guess we missed something,” Invidia said as the purple shadow flew in a circle around the platform, surveying the scene.

“Don’t... blame... me,” Luxuria said, huffing and puffing as she forced her wings to carry her up out of the darkness. “It isn’t... my fault... that there is... there is... so far to go... to get back here....”

“What’s going on here, Empress Hope?” Invidia said. “Oh dear, I see our Empress is gone. And Radiant Hope and Sombra seem to have kissed and made up. Shame. It looks like most of our plan has gone awry.”

“Pity....” Luxuria said, barely able to even hover in one spot without her wings giving out. “We put... we put... we put so much work into it....”

“Yes,” Invidia said. “We shall have to find another method of freeing our brethren. But, on the plus side, we can now kill all of them.”

“Killing... is... good....” Luxuria muttered. “Let’s start with Sombra.”

“I’ll take Hope,” Invidia said.

The two Umbrum swooped down toward Hope and Sombra. Hope did not even bother to watch them or to pay then any attention whatsoever. She merely continued concentrating on Sombra. Suddenly, her beam of light turned green.

Luxuria tore at the sphere with Sombra in it. But as soon as she touched it, she let out a loud shriek. It was like a fly hitting a zapper. Luxuria, her dark blue coloring seared black, collapsed down onto the platform.

“Why... does this... keep happening... to me?” she rasped as she fell.

Invidia, for his part, sped for Hope. But just as he was about to make contact, a green protective dome appeared around Hope. Invidia flew headfirst into it and was sent bouncing back into the darkness.

“Shoo, fly,” Hope said.

Both the beam and the dome turned purple.

Starlight watched this unfold. Then she looked around her. She could see Misericordia, still knocked down. He did not look unconscious — Starlight did not even know if Umbrum could be unconscious — but he did look dazed. Lying near him was Dr. Fie. Starlight could not tell if he was genuinely unconscious or just playing dead. It could have been either, honestly.

And then Starlight realized something. She did not have the spell. It must have been knocked from her grasp when Invidia had hit Misericordia. Starlight cast her eyes frantically all around the platform. Once again, she could not let it go.

Then she saw the spell, which had flown almost to the exact opposite side. Keeping it in her sights, Starlight broke into a gallop.

Invidia appeared again above the platform. “Nice trick, Hope. But what do you think you’re trying to accomplish? You can’t save Sombra. He’s an Umbrum. You can never change what he is.”

Hope did not respond. She did not even acknowledge Invidia’s words.

Invidia sneered. “Do you think you get a happy ending, Hope? After everything you’ve done? After everything Sombra has done? You think ponies will accept you now?”

Hope did not respond.

Invidia was growing frustrated. He seemed to be a smart enough Umbrum to realize there was no getting through to Hope, through words at least. But as he turned his eyes from her, another opportunity offered itself.

Nearby, Starlight Glimmer had nearly reached the time spell. A few steps more, and it was right in front of her. Starlight’s magic surrounded the scroll and lifted it up to her eye-level.

“Gotcha,” she said.

Then, a terrible pain surged through Starlight. It felt as though her heard had been torn asunder. She looked down, to see a gnarled Umbric hoof tearing through her chest. The turquoise glow disappeared. The scroll fell from her grasp and disappeared into the darkness.

“I could say the same for you,” Invidia said with a cackle.

He withdrew his hoof. Starlight Glimmer fell onto the grating.

“What?” Hope said. Invidia had finally got her attention.

She turned to look. She saw Starlight. Her eyes filled with horror.

“Starlight! No!”

The shield disappeared. The beam disappeared. The sphere around Sombra disappeared. He fell to the ground, landing with a large thud. He had been restored somewhat, but his body was not yet solid. It was once more composed of smoke and haze.

“Why does this keep happening to me?” Sombra remarked as he rolled around from the pain of the impact.

“Tell me about it,” Luxuria said from her prone position.

Hope ran toward Starlight. But then, as she reached a point equidistant between Starlight and Sombra, Hope came to a stop. She looked at Starlight, bleeding out onto the grating. Then she looked to Sombra, already fading away again.

From high above her, she heard Invidia’s mocking voice. “You can’t save both of them, Radiant Hope. Sombra’s body won’t last much longer. Either you can let him die, and save the mare, or save him and let her die. Not both.”

Hope sat down and lowered her head. She had committed to her namesake emotion, but now it’s eternal enemy, despair, threatened to overcome her. Because she knew Invidia was right; she could not save both.

Dr. Fie finally picked himself up from the platform-mesh and began to brush himself off. “Oh, that poor Fiddly Fie must endure indignity after indignity, without end insight, especially when his back is a disaster area! Why, no pony has ever suffered so much in one day than.... What is going on?”

Dr. Fie’s eyes widened as she saw Starlight lying on her side on the mesh, an open wound in her back. He looked and saw Sombra, near the edge of the platform, lying on his back and slowly evaporating. Invidia was circling overhead like a vulture and Luxuria was shoving her hooves into the small open squares in the grating, slowly trying to pull herself toward her enemies.

And there was Hope, in the middle of all of this, looking small and broken.

No, not broken. After all, Dr. Fie would not allow it.

He turned toward Misericordia, who was still slowly coming around.

“Look what’s happened!” he snapped. “I blame you for this, you deficient defender.”

Misericordia’s eyes slowly wandered back and forth. Clearly, he was not fully there yet, though of course Dr. Fie would have insisted he never truly was. But as he saw what had happened, he came to himself. “Yes, Dr. Fie. It is terrible.”

“Terrible? Terrible? Is that all you can say? Yes, our friends are dying. It is quite unfortunate. But what I want to know is what you intend to do about it.”

“There is nothing we can do,” Misericordia said sadly.

“Tut! I did not realize it was the Umbrum way to give up so easily. But it is not the Fie way. It never has been. Today you will see Fiddly Fie do the impossible, you will see Fiddly Fie transform this defeat into a victory, you will see Fiddly Fie save all our friends! I will just need some minor assistance from you, dear boy. Will you help me with whatever may be required?”

Misericordia sat up. “What do you want me to do, Dr. Fie?”

Dr. Fie glanced nervously upward. “I’ll leave it to you to distract that boisterous blimp up there.”

Misericordia’s wings began to beat. “Not a problem. And what will you do, Dr. Fie?”

Dr. Fie looked to the crystal pony sitting alone in the center of the platform. “I will bring back our Hope.”

Misericordia shot upward into the darkness above. Dr. Fie, meanwhile, ambled over to where Hope was and put a hoof on her shoulder.

“What are you doing, dear girl?” he asked. “Starlight appears to be in bad shape. So does Sombra. I don’t think either will last much longer. They need help and they need it urgently. I’m a doctor, so I know about these things. You must act, Hope.”

Hope looked up at him with sad eyes. She spoke with a somber voice. “I can’t save them, doctor. Not both of them.”

“Oh, pish-posh,” Dr. Fie responded. “You have the power to heal them.”

“But if I choose one, I’ll lost the other.” Hope shook her head. “I can’t choose.”

Hope lowered her head again. Long cool rivulets of hair fell in her eyes. It did not matter. She was not looking at anything in particular. She felt frozen, like she could not see or here anything other than the sights and sounds of her own thoughts.

But she did hear Dr. Fie say, “Why must you choose, dear girl?”

Hope looked up at him, even if she barely able to see him through her hair. “What do you mean, doctor?”

“Why must you choose?” Dr. Fie asked again. “Why can’t you save them both?”

“I don’t have the power,” Hope said. “I’m not strong enough.”

“I think, if this day has proven anything, it’s that you have more strength and power than any of us. If anypony can heal two ponies at once, surely you can.”

“I don’t know. I can heal multiple ponies. At least, I have before. But to save Sombra from his darkness while also healing Starlight? I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know if I’m enough.”

Dr. Fie gently pushed the hair out of Hope’s eyes. “Hope, I kept telling you that you were a pony of light. And I was right. But I didn’t realize how right I was. I thought your light could expel darkness. But I never thought anypony had enough light in them to absorb the darkness, to make it into more and greater light. But you do. You can make the light and the darkness one. You are enough, dear girl.”

The light of hope reappeared in Hope’s eyes. A small smile spread across her face.

“Thank you, doctor,” she said. “Can you go check Starlight for me?”

For once, Dr. Fie did not resort to his trademark loquaciousness. He knew the gravity of the situation and hurried to Starlight’s side without another word. He felt her neck for a pulse.

"She's fading quite fast,” he said. “Hurry, Hope!"

Hope nodded. She closed her eyes. She did not know where to begin. But then, a scene appeared before her eyes. It was a memory, the memory of a certain night many, many years ago. The night she had first saved Sombra from his darkness. The night she had received her cutie mark.

And she knew what to do. Her horn began to glow.

Rays of blue light shot forth from horn in two directions. One lifted up Sombra into another sphere. The other engulfed Starlight.

Somewhere, high above, Invidia tried to swoop down and stop her. But Misericordia slammed into him and drove him higher and higher, too high to get back quickly or soon.

Hope furled her brow and grit her teeth. She was using all the power she had. All the strength she had. But it did not feel like enough.

“Hey, stop that! Stop!” Luxuria called as she continued to drag herself along at a snail’s pace.

“Oh, shut up, you indolent over-indulger,” Dr. Fie shouted.

Then Hope saw her parents, and she felt her strength returning. The beams of light turned green.

She kept her eyes closed, clenching them down harder. She focused herself. She doubled her concentration. She tried to block out everything outside of her own head.

Then, in the darkness of her closed eyelids, she saw the faces. The faces she had long seen. But now, they were not mangled or broken. They were not anguished. They did not scream out. They said nothing. But they were happy. They were joyful, even. They smiled.

Without realizing it, Hope smiled a little. The light turned purple.

Then the faces were gone. The darkness was gone. Behind her eyelids, Hope only saw light. A bright, white light.

The light from her horn turned red.

Then she saw Sombra. Not Sombra as the King of Monsters. Not Sombra as a colt. Not Sombra as she had ever known him, but Sombra as she knew he could be; a proud stallion and a better pony.

The light turned yellowish-orange. And then the color deepened to gold.

Hope next saw Starlight Glimmer. She pictured Starlight in her mind just as she had pictured Sombra. She pictured her healthy and whole, free of the wound through her chest. She imagined the wound healed and Starlight’s heart repaired, rebuilt part by part until it had become good, strong, and full.

The light from Hope’s horn turned white. She opened her eyes. When she did, white light streamed forth. Light so bright that Dr. Fie had to cover his own eyes with his hoof. But he could not look down, for if he did, he found the same light shining off of Starlight. Sombra was surrounded by it, too.

All of Hope’s body reflected the light, amplifying it by many orders of magnitude. There was no darkness anymore. Everything hidden had been revealed.

Invidia, battling with Misericordia above, stopped just long enough to look down at what was happening.

“What do you think you’re going to do?” he taunted. “Even if you save them, they’ll be tainted by you. Everything you do is tainted. Because, Radiant Hope, you will always be the monster we Umbrum have made.”

“Okay,” Hope answered.

There was a flash and a blast. For a moment, everything was light again.

And then it was gone. Everything was as before. Except now it was all made beautiful and new.

Sombra picked himself up off the ground. He must have felt a cramp because he instinctively stretched out one of his back legs. Then he realized he had back legs. He also had forelegs, a body, and a tail. All of them were hard and solid, even more solid than when Hope had restored him during the Siege. His eyes, now clear, had green irises again and his horn was no longer curved and red. It was a unicorn’s horn and he was a unicorn, not a shadow of one. The darkness was all gone.

He looked to Hope. She looked to him. Tears began to fall from his eyes.

“Hope, you did it,” he said. Though he spoke quietly, the words carried across the platform. Radiant Hope heard them.

She nodded. She wanted to do more. She wanted to run to him and throw her forelegs around him. She wanted to tell him how happy she was now that she knew he was free.

But then she heard Starlight begin to stir. Hope turned all her attention to her. She walked over, wobbling a little as she went.

Starlight pushed herself onto her elbows. The first thing she saw was the good doctor.

“Dr. Fie, what happened?” she asked.

Before he could answer, Hope stumbled into her sight.

“Hope,” Starlight asked. “Did you....”

"I saved you," Hope said. Then, she collapsed on top of Starlight.

---

"Hope, Hope, wake up, dear girl!"

Hope slowly opened her eyes. She saw Dr. Fie, Misericordia, and Starlight Glimmer all looking back down at her.

"You're okay," she said. "You're all okay!"

She was relieved. But then relief quickly turned to concern. "Where's Sombra?"

“I’m right here,” came Sombra’s voice.

Hope hurt all over. It did not stop her from trying to push herself up.

Dr. Fie held his hooves to her shoulder. “You need to rest, dear girl. You must have expended a tremendous amount of energy.”

“No, I... I have to see Sombra....”

Starlight grabbed Dr. Fie’s hoof. “Let her go.”

Hope was on her hooves before Starlight could even finish speaking. She turned around. And then she gasped.

There was Sombra. She had caught sight of him briefly before, but she had not got a good look at him. Now she did, and she saw the very stallion she had pictured, the strong, large stallion with jet-black mane and tail hair and a solid grey coat, but not a single hint of shadowy darkness. He smiled. It was the first true and genuine smile Hope had seen from him in a thousand years.

She threw her forelegs around him. He quickly returned the hug. Hope felt tears running down her eyes. But these tears she did not mind; they were tears of joy.

“You’re here,” she said. “You’re with me again.”

“Yes, Hope,” he said. “You did it. You saved me.”

Hope pulled back and stared up into Sombra’s eyes. He stared down into hers. She saw nothing but love there. He lowered his mouth toward her. She raised hers toward him.

They kissed.

“Oh, is this really the time and place?” Dr. Fie complained. “Please, dear children, get a room.”

“I think they will, Dr. Fie,” Misericordia said.

“No pony asked you your opinion, you cloud-headed cupid.”

Then, a noise came on the air. It was the noise of the air itself parting at a high velocity. And it was getting closer to Hope and Sombra.

“Watch out!” Starlight yelled.

Sombra, thinking quickly, pushed Hope out of the way just as Invidia swept between them. Sombra fell off-balance and landed on the grating. Starlight jumped up and Hope fell into her forelegs.

“Oh, lovely, this ninny is back,” Dr. Fie said. Turning to Misericordia, he added, “I thought you were supposed to dispose of him, you careless caretaker.”

“There is no defeating Invidia permanently,” Misericordia said. “He is one of the most powerful of the Umbrum.”

“Luxuria, come here!” Invidia ordered. “They’re all weak now. We can destroy them.”

Luxuria appeared, having reclaimed enough energy to get airborne. “I’m coming. I’m coming. After the day I’ve had, I look forward to tearing someone limb from limb. And putting my hooves up. But mostly the bloody murder.”

“I don’t like this,” Starlight said, watching them join together in the air. “Misericordia can’t keep holding them off forever. And we may all be powerful unicorns, but none of us are up to it, after what we just went through.”

“Harumph! Speak for yourself, madam,” Dr. Fie said. “Fiddly Fie remains at the height of his powers.”

“Of course, I was excepting you, doctor,” Starlight said. It was hard to tell whether she was deadpanning or being sincere.

But Dr. Fie seemed to take it seriously. He put his hoof to his chin and became lost in thought. Occasionally, he would pull back his jacket and look down at the lining.

Hope looked up at the Umbrum. "I can still use the spell," she said weakly. "I can use... I can use Starswirl's spell to destroy them."

“Dear girl,” Dr. Fie said. “You can’t still be seriously considering it!”

Hope turned to Starlight. "Starlight, are you strong enough to teleport?"

Starlight shrugged. "I don't know, Hope. I could try. But you still can't want to use that spell, can you?"

"Why?" Sombra said, picking up on the concern in Starlight's voice. "Why wouldn't she want to?"

"Hope, you can't kill yourself now that you've finally got something to live for!" Starlight said.

"Kill herself!" Sombra said. "Hope, you can't do that! I won't let you do that!"

"It's because I've finally found things to live for that I have to keep the Umbrum from causing any more harm," Hope responded. "I have to protect those things."

Dr. Fie motioned to Misericordia. The Umbrum leaned in close to the doctor.

"Will you follow me over here, dear boy," Dr. Fie said. "There is something which I need to discuss with you."

"I know you want redemption, Hope," Starlight said, "but you’ve already got it. You don’t need to do more!"

Hope gave Starlight a look Starlight had once given her. Now Starlight was being treated like the poor, deluded one.

"Starlight, you never understood, did you?" Hope said. "This has never been about redemption. Not for me, at least. No, for me, it's always been about love. Because I love you all, I'll do whatever it takes to stop the Umbrum."

"No, Hope, you will not!" Starlight said. "Sombra and I, maybe even Dr. Fie and that shadow, won't let you. We all came here to keep you from throwing your life away in the first place, remember?"

Hope nodded. "I know, but if it's what I have to do...."

Sombra shook his head. "No, Hope, you do not have to do this!"

"Besides, Hope," Starlight said. "Can you really go through with it? Are you really going to kill me? You said you wouldn’t hurt anyone anymore. Can you really break your vow like this? Even to stop the Umbrum?"

Hope looked to Starlight and to Sombra. She considered it. It was true. She said she could never hurt anyone else again. She did not want to hurt anyone anymore. Did that include the Umbrum?

If it doesn’t, what was the point of all I’ve been through?

She shook her head. "No, I can't. No more hurting. I said I wouldn’t hurt anyone anymore."

The three ponies stood together, each looking from one to the other. Though none of them needed to say it, they were all trying to think of an alternative plan.

Sombra spoke for all of them when he said, “So, what do we do now?”

"Never fear, Fie is here!"

Suddenly, the four ponies found themselves surrounded by purple light. They all looked to the light’s source. There was Dr. Fie, his horn glowing. His eyes had narrowed and he was beaming. Hope had seen this expression many times. But there was something different this time. Was it....

Sadness?

Invidia and Luxuria tried to swoop down at Dr. Fie, but Misericordia charged at them, causing them to scatter.

“What are you doing?” Hope asked in alarm.

“Trying to teleport,” Dr. Fie responded matter-of-factly.

“But, you can’t, Dr. Fie! Whenever you do that, something else always goes instead!”

Dr. Fie’s smile became wider. “I know.”

Hope’s eyes widened. “No, doctor! What are you doing? If we go, the Umbrum will still be here! You won’t be able to stop them on your own! You don’t even know the spell!”

Dr. Fie pulled back his jacket to reveal the spell inside. “You know me,” he said, “I do have a bad habit of stealing things when I’m nervous.”

He then removed the scroll from his coat pocket and unfurled it on the ground.

“I am capable of great feats of magic too, you know,” Dr. Fie said. “Just because I struggle with teleportation, you all think I'm not. But even the greatest of ponies must have some minor sort of limitation. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be fair to the lesser beings who have to live in this world alongside them.”

Hope looked down. Her body was beginning to fade. "No, doctor, you can't do this!” She looked to the other purple-glowing ponies beside her. “Starlight, Sombra, stop him!"

"I can't," Starlight said. "My magic is still too weak to break free."

Hope turned to Sombra. "Please!" she said. "Please save him!"

"I don’t have dark magic anymore," Sombra said. "And I‘ll have to relearn how to use pony magic. I’m sorry, Hope. I don’t think I can."

Hope herself could not break Dr. Fie’s spell. After everything she had gone through, she was worn out. She didn’t have the energy. She only had her words.

And she intended to use them.

"Please, Dr. Fie, no!" Hope said, tears forming in her eyes. "You said you'd never leave me!"

"I'm not," Dr. Fie said. "I'm with you to the end. That just happens, for me, to be right now. But fret not, child. 'It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done; it is a far far better rest I go to that I have ever known.' Or I think that's how it goes. I was never very fond of that book, to be honest."

Misericordia came back over, as the other Umbrum had been temporarily driven off.

"Misericordia, stop him!" Hope cried.

"No," Misericordia said. "The doctor and I have spoken. We have decided that this is for the best."

"Hope," Dr. Fie said, "I know that I'm not the bravest pony in Equestria. I'm certainly not the best. My whole life, I've been a liar, a cheat, and a coward. But not now. Not now. Not if the choice is between my life and yours. When you're in harm, suddenly I'm no longer a liar, I'm no longer a cheat, and I'm no longer a coward. When I factor you into the equation, everything changes. It always has."

The tears were flowing freely down Hope’s face. "No, doctor, please! Please, don't do this! I'm not worth you sacrificing your life!"

Dr. Fie smiled a warm smile. "There is nothing worth more. After all, what father would ever have to think twice about giving his life that his daughter might live? Besides, you have all faced your own darkness. Not it's high time I did the same. If Fie is to die, at least you may say that he died as he always should have lived. It’s better than just meandering along the same old life, isn’t it?"

Hope could barely control herself. "But doctor... I need you!"

Dr. Fie looked from Hope to Sombra and Starlight. "No, dear child. You finally have the ponies you need, ponies you can rely on.”

“But I rely on you!”

“It does my heart good to hear you say so, dear girl. If there is such a thing as fate or destiny, I give it thanks that it let me be one of the ponies you could rely upon, if only for such a short time."

Hope looked to Misericordia. "And you're willing to just give up your life too?"

"They were good days, Radiant Hope," Misericordia responded.

Hope was confused. "What?"

"Those days we went on picnics to the lake of yellow sludge," Misericordia said. "They were good days. I only wish that I could have appreciated them while they lasted. Maybe then I would not have become a monster like my brethren."

Hope shook her head. "You're not a monster, Misericordia! Not anymore!"

"As Dr. Fie says, it does my heart — if we Umbrum have hearts — good to hear you say so. Farewell. You will always be my Empress. No, you will always be my friend."

"Goodbye dear friends. Farewell, Radiant Hope," Dr. Fie said. "Be happy with your life. You've earned the right to be."

“But… but why?” Hope said. "Why do all this... for me?"

Dr. Fie gave Hope one last smile, a long, sad one. “If I told you, dear girl, you would never believe me.”

In a flash of purple, Hope, Starlight, and Sombra were gone.

They reappeared outside the ship. Dr. Fie had done a good job. The three had not only appeared outside, but above the water level.

Except, the ponies realized suddenly, they had not actually reappeared on top of anything. Hope, Sombra, and Starlight looked to one another. Then they looked down. There was the water below them and nothing else. They made a mighty splash in the cold ocean when they landed.

The light was just beginning to dissipate when Dr. Fie lit up his horn once more and sent another pillar upward. This formed another dome, purple now. It extended again, more rapidly due to the extra magical energy that was in the air from Hope's previous attempt.

Invidia and Luxuria reappeared.

“Wait? Where did all of those nasty ponies go?” Luxuria asked.

Invidia scanned the area. “One’s still here with Misericordia and.... What is he doing?”

He flew closer. “What are you trying to do, little pony?” he snapped.

“Oh, don’t be simple, dear boy,” Dr. Fie responded. “I’m doing the same thing dear Hope was. Ending this once and for all.”

Invidia signaled Luxuria to dive for Dr. Fie. The portly shadow, so slow to act before, sensed instinctively that things were different now. The threat of destruction gave Luxuria some much needed energy. She followed Invidia’s command and soon both Umbrum were speeding toward the one remaining pony.

They were met by a large shield of mist. Though apparently made of smoke and fog, it was strong enough to keep both shadows out. They slammed into it and were immediately repulsed.

Misericordia had expanded into a ring around the good doctor, shielding him from the other shadows’ attacks and leaving just enough room for Dr. Fie to maintain the pillar of light and the dome expanding rapidly from it. Soon the dome had completely surrounded the area, cutting through the catwalks and forming a bubble all around them.

"Now, who is the bubble-headed booby?" Misericordia said to the doctor.

“Oh, spare me the jibes, you jocular jackanapes!” Dr. Fie responded with a wave of his hoof.

“But why would you do this?” an increasingly panicked Luxuria shouted. “Why would you give up your own life?”

“Must everything be explained to you?” Dr. Fie said. “What matter is losing your life when you just might be saving your soul?”

---

Hope struggled against the waves. She did not realize until the cold water swallowed her how much the day’s events had taken their toll. She was exhausted. She did not ever have the energy to make it to the pier or to the nearby beach. All she could manage was to keep herself above water. And her strength was failing. She would not even be able to hold herself up for much longer.

Then she felt a strong, powerful foreleg squeeze around her. She recognized it immediately. It was Sombra. He held her above the water. Hope looked to see that he was doing the same for Starlight, which meant it made it was becoming very difficult for him to keep himself afloat.

Hope was so tired. With the waves lapping against her face and her wave-like hair, she could not even speak.

Sombra was faltering. The choppy water was beginning to pull them all under.

“I don’t think I can keep us up much longer,” he said. “Starlight, do you think you can teleport out of here?"

"I can try," Starlight said, fighting back water from her mouth. "Hopefully, it'll only be a small jump."

There was a turquoise flash in the waves. All three ponies reappeared, soaking wet, on the pier.

"It was a small jump," Starlight said as she collapsed onto her stomach, worn out. "Thank goodness! I don't think I could do any more."

“Dr. Fie!” Hope screamed as soon as they landed. "He and Misericordia still in there with the Umbrum! We have to save them!"

---

Dr. Fie glanced upward to the pillar of light coming from his horn and then around at the bubble as it began to pulsate. "Looks like it won't be long now."

By now, the Umbrum had been knocked back to the bubble's edges by Misericordia.

“Is Radiant Hope so really worth losing your life over?” Invidia called out.

“You had her for a thousand years, and you still don’t know the answer to that?” Dr. Fie said. “You really are all ninnies, aren’t you?”

There was no answer. There was only a kind of screeching from the shadows. Dr. Fie did not speak Umbrum, but he thought he recognized the noise. It was a noise he had often made. It was the sound of fear.

Dr. Fie could sympathize. He had long felt afraid. But all fear had now passed away.

And now, the good doctor reflected as light filled his eyes, I have finally become the pony I had forever tried to seem.

Dr. Fie let out a deep sigh and looked around him. “It’s ready. Any moment now. Oh, dear Hope, the things I do for you. Maybe now you’ll finally believe me. Maybe now you’ll understand.”

Reclining on his haunches, Dr. Fie put his hooves to his chest. He rolled his eyes heavenward.

“Oh, the pain, the pain….”

---

The explosion rocked the Empress of Equestria. It disintegrated a large portion of the lower decks by the bow, sending water pouring in. The Empress had been designed with large watertight hatches for just this sort of emergency. But it did not matter. The damage was too widespread. The ship was going down.

“No!” Hope screamed. She rushed toward the ship as it rapidly sank.

Sombra grabbed onto her and pulled her back. “No, no!”

“Dr. Fie! We have to save him!” Hope screamed hysterically.

“It’s too late, Hope,” Starlight said. “That explosion was too powerful. He never could have survived it.”

Hope stopped fighting. Instead, she laid her head on Sombra's shoulder. He held her gently in his forelegs, with his hoof buried in her watery hair, carefully keeping her from turning back to the ship as it sank into the watery deep.

As the Empress of Equestria disappeared one final time, finally toppled by the very waves it had so long ruled, Hope cried.

"I wish I knew what to say to make you feel better, Hope," Sombra said. “But, given how much of this was my fault, I don’t know what I can say.”

"Let me try," Starlight said.

She tenderly ran her hoof through Hope's mane. Starlight did not want Hope to see, but a stray tear was making its way down her face, too.

“It’s okay, Hope,” she whispered in her motherly tone. “It’s okay. The Umbrum are gone. He stopped them. He stopped the Umbrum once and for all.”

Hope’s crying subsided. Her head arose from Sombra’s shoulder and she nodded. “I know. He did it for me.”

She broke out of Sombra's embrace and turned to face the waters. “You know, I didn’t believe him. Even after he told me how much I meant to him, I didn’t believe. I thought I knew him better than that. I didn’t believe him, not till the end.”

“I know,” Starlight said. “I wouldn’t have believed he had it in him, either.”

“I know he seemed so contemptible all the time,” Hope said with a sob. “But I think he was the most noble of all of us.”

“True nobility often comes from the most unlikely of places,” Starlight said. “At least, my father used to say so.”

“I can’t bear to think of him down there, in that horrible, evil place, surrounded by darkness for all eternity,” Hope said. “He shouldn’t be the one trapped down there. It should have been me. Not him, me. I should have been blown up or drowned and buried in Davy Jones’ Locker.”

Starlight put a hoof on Hope's shoulder. “My father also used to tell me a legend some of the navy colts told him, about a paradise for ponies that died at sea. It’s a place where there’s no work, not hardship, just leisure and food and music. Dr. Fie would like that. Because he’s not in Davy Jones’ Locker, Hope. A pony like him, he wouldn’t end up down there. No, he’s in Fiddler’s Green.”

Hope wiped the tears from her eyes and tried to smile. Somewhere in the distance, the sun was beginning to rise over the mountains, painting a vivid mixture of soothing blues, cool lavenders, brilliant reds, and stunning oranges across the western sky.

“Thank you, Starlight,” Hope said.

Starlight let out a small chuckle. “Ha, Fiddler’s Green. Quite appropriate, what with his name being Fiddly Fie and all. Strange name. I wonder why his parents gave it to him.”

“Is it any better than Radiant Hope or Starlight Glimmer?” Hope asked. “I mean, think about it.”

"Well, it’s not like the Umbrum had any better ideas,” Sombra said.

Starlight shrugged. “Well, Starlight Glimmer does have a certain eloquence to it. Radiant Hope, though, I don’t know. Didn’t you used to say you always hated your name?”

“I did,” Hope answered. “I don’t anymore.”

A light, warm wind blew across Hope’s face. She looked out to the waters beyond, which were only beginning to sparkle with the light of the approaching sun. Despite all she had just gone through, the scene was rather peaceful. It seemed to promise better things ahead.

And then the peace was destroyed by a booming voice behind them, “Radiant Hope, Starlight Glimmer, turn around and put your horns where I can see them. None of you are escaping this time!”

---

Who said this?

Read on.

Author's Note:

The lines of poetry come from the last stanza of Matthew Arnold's "Rugby Chapel." In addition to capitalizing "Hope," I have changed the second line from the original plural to the more appropriate singular. The first two lines appear in their original form in Chapter Three.

Comments

[QueenChrysalisForever]

I knew it! I did guess what would happen! Sure it took a little longer than I originally thought it would but my prediction was correct!
Poor Doctor Fie. *sniffs*
*Continues to read.*

[dystopia8]

Now that was a fantastic chapter! I figured that was the fate Fie was heading towards, though I had hoped he would make it out some how.

“Oh, you can trust me,” Hope said with a smirk. “I’m a healer, so I know about these things.”

This moment was to perfect.