Darkest Star

by The1Ryu

Epilogue: Loss

Epilogue
Loss

Dear Princess Celestia

In the past couple of days since the defeat of the Nightmare
King, I have been giving a lot of thought about the pony who sacrificed
himself to undo the evil he had brought forth.

A week ago I would have never questioned the evil nature of
that pony; he had himself admitted to choosing the dark path he had
gone down. That one fact made him seem all the worse than
Nightmare Moon who succumbed to jealousy or Discord who was
merely acting on his very nature. However, Fluttershy’s words and
his actions made me question this certainty.

What I believe I’ve learned is this: Friends can have the most
wonderful influence on one another. Friends can help you try new
things that you would have never considered trying yourself. Friends
can help you grow, shedding light on fears and insecurities and can
fight along with you to overcome them.

However, this influence friends have over you is not always
positive. Friends, for the best or worst of intentions, can end up leading
you down a path you may not or should not trot down. Rather than
helping you become a better pony they may simply turn you into who
they want you to be. Friends may not realize they are doing this or the
ill effects it may have. That is why one must always remain true to
themselves and never compromise who they are for the sake of friendship
alone.

Your Faithful Student
Twilight Sparkle

A knock came to the door as Spike’s green flames consumed the letter magically whisking it away to the Princess. Grasping the handle with her magic Twilight Sparkle pulled open the library door. “Yes- Oh hi, girls.” She was a little surprised to find all her friends, save Fluttershy, at the door.

“What’s up? I thought somepony was going to be watching Fluttershy until I got back?” They had all agreed that Fluttershy should not be left alone given the state she had been in since Dark Star’s death. They had all taken shifts watching the depressed pegasus since their return from the Everfree Forest, save for Twilight Sparkle. The Princess had asked her to head a research team to investigate the temple sight to be sure that there was no lingering rift to the Nightmare King’s realm. Despite wishing to stay and help Fluttershy she and the girls had agreed that they needed to be sure the area was safe.

After three days of searching every inch of the area Twilight and the Canterlot research team had found nothing. There wasn’t a single trace of magical energy in the area. Even the background magical energy that existed everywhere in Equestria was unusually low as if it had all been sucked out and was slowly returning.

“We were Twilight,” Applejack confirmed with a downcast sigh, resting on her haunches.

Rarity picked up the explanation, “The poor darling cried for days. She would hardly eat a bit of food or sleep, and even when she did she would continue to cry just as fitfully as when she was awake.”

“But she stopped,” Pinkie Pie added optimistically, “She didn’t cry all yesterday and today.”

“Ya,” Rainbow Dash scoffed worry peeking through her frustrated countenance. “Now she just sleeps all day and spends all night starin’ up at the sky.”

“I see…” Twilight Sparkle fell silent not knowing what to say, it was frustrating. She wanted to be able to explain the situation and lift her friends’ spirits, but she had little experience with such matters herself and what her books told her of how to deal with grief seemed so insufficient now. “I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose someone so important to me like that.”

“Important!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed angrily, hovering into the air in her irritation and glaring down at Twilight. “How can he be that important to her? She didn’t even know him for a day!”

“Dash that’s enough!” Applejack gave her friend a stern look, not for the first time either given how the blue pegasus ignored her without pause.

“No! Dark Star kidnaps her, did Celestia knows what to her, then just abandons her in a monster-infested forest. And all after he beats up AJ, Big Mac, the Princess, and tried to turn Princess Luna back into Nightmare Moon. He probably… brainwashed her or something!” Rainbow Dash shook angrily as she threw up her hooves and looked down at her friends daring them to protest.

The others did not respond immediately, all their eyes downcast and it was Pinkie Pie, as usual, that was the first to bounce back to her hooves and dispel the air of worry that settled around them. “You’re right Dashie, Dark Star was a big Meanie Weenie, buuut, he technically didn’t kidnap Fluttershy; she was the one that followed him.”

Rainbow Dash shot Pinkie Pie an unpleasant glare, but her response was cut off by Rarity, “She’s right Rainbow Dash.” Rarity frowned as she spoke betraying the fact that she was just as unsure about all this as her prismatic maned friend. “Fluttershy told me the same thing when I managed to get her to talk yesterday. She even said the brute tried to get her to go back to Ponyville when he caught her.”

Rainbow Dash glared at them trying to think of some counter to their points and grumpily slowly folded her forelegs as she sank back to the floor.

As she touched down, she felt somepony bump her shoulder and sit down next to her. She marked this a typical, reassuring gesture between her and Applejack and looked over to see the understandably sad earth pony next to her. “Ah understand what yer sayin’ Dash. Don’t y'all forgit he beat you up pretty bad too, ‘nd ah can’t rightly see what good she saw in ‘im neither.”

Rainbow Dash gave her a sad half smirk, a blue wing slipping over her friend of its own accord.

“I’m not sure any of us will ever understand why” Twilight spoke softly, “Fluttershy’s always been able to see things, good things, in creatures other ponies are afraid of. Dark Star was once a pony very similar to Fluttershy, maybe because of that she felt connected to him in some way…”

“Ah guess it don’t matter none,” Applejack broke in, “This here’s about Fluttershy, not that varmint Dark Star, we gotta find a way t’ help her.”

Twilight nodded, “You’re right Applejack. I’m afraid there’s no simple solution here, all we can do is talk to her and show her that we’ll be there for her.” Twilight paused and watched through a window of the library as day turned to night, “Together.”

---

Fluttershy lay calmly out on the top of a small hill near her cottage, the Everfree forest loomed darkly behind the yellow pegasus, but she paid it no mind as she gazed up at the brilliant tapestry of stars above. Angel Bunny lay curled up next to her dozing peacefully, a yellow wing draped over him for warmth.

To the casual observer, nothing would have seemed out of place, just a star loving mare out enjoying the early evening air. Yesterday had proved a much different sight; Fluttershy’s mane and tail had been matted from abuse, her fur ruffled from tossing and frantic sweating. Her face was permanently stained by tears, eyes bloodshot and heavily bagged. However, last night had seen her calm down enough to eat, bath and sleep properly, during the day, for the first time since she had returned and it showed in her rejuvenated state.

Fluttershy heard the first few calls of her name, but the comforting sight of the stars was too alluring for her to break her attention from them and see who was calling. Besides moving would wake Angel Bunny and she did not want to disturb her friend who had been so kind and helpful while she was grief stricken.

“There you are Fluttershy,” Twilight’s voice called with soft relief, and she looked back to see her purple friend swiftly trotting up the hill, the rest of her friends trailing slightly behind.

“Twilight you’re back,” Fluttershy smiled brightly and wrapped a hoof around her friend's neck in a warm hug. Twilight wrapped both her hooves around Fluttershy’s neck, and found herself on the receiving end of an angry glare from Angel Bunny who had indeed been awoken by the shifting of his mistress. Too sleepy to do anything more than glare, the snow white rabbit crawled out from under his mistress’ wing and crawled back under head first as Twilight and the others settled down around Fluttershy.

“Sorry Angel Bunny, go back to sleep,” Fluttershy whispered giving his bottom a little nuzzle before turning her attention back to Twilight, “How did your trip to the temple site go?”

Twilight was a little surprised by the question, not thinking that anypony had told Fluttershy she had gone anywhere, let alone back to that place. Twilight suddenly became very interested in shuffling her hooves back and forth. “It was fine,” She said finally, adding before she could stop herself, “We didn’t find anything.”

“That’s good,” Fluttershy replied distantly, her gaze had already returned to the night sky causing a frown of concern to spread across Twilight’s face. She looked to the others, Rarity and Pinkie Pie to Fluttershy’s right and Applejack and Rainbow Dash lay to Twilight’s left. They all shared her concerned look, theirs a bit more grave as they had already failed in their attempts to get through to the distant pegasus.

Twilight tried to think of something that would get her friend to open up to her, a shared topic of interest that would capture Fluttershy’s attention. She looked again to see the distant look on her friend’s face and decided to try something else. “Fluttershy is something wrong?”

“No, I’m all right,” She replied absently.

“No you’re not Fluttershy,” Twilight reached over and placed a hoof on Fluttershy’s who broke off her long stare at the stars and looked over at her. “I… we might not understand why you were so close or what it was you saw in him that made you trust him, but we know you cared a lot about Dark Star.” Fluttershy’s ears folded down sadly and her eyes dipped to the ground. “It’s ok to still be sad Fluttershy, we’re all here for you,” The others chimed in agreement, “But now you’re acting very distant, and it’s making us all much more worried. Please tell us what’s going on.”

Fluttershy was silent for a moment; her eyes still fixed on the ground as she softly answered. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you all worry. I really, really am doing much better, after what happened to Dark Star it felt like… like…” Fluttershy’s voice caught in her throat as she began to sob, fresh tears falling from her eyes. Twilight and Rarity leaned in to nuzzle the crying pegasus reassuringly as she managed to whine out. “Like something had been torn out of my heart.”

Fluttershy sniffed and sobbed quietly for a minute, the others cooing soft reassurances to calm her down. “But looking at the stars,” She spoke again wiping away her few remaining tears. “Makes me feel close to him, and it doesn’t hurt as much like he’s not really gone.”

A soft collective sigh escaped from her friends, for they could all relate to such feeling having all lost somepony to death or distance in their lives.

“But Fluttershy you can’t-”

“I know Twilight,” Fluttershy softly interrupted her friend, “I won’t, I promise, but I still need this for a little while longer.”

The friends agreed to Fluttershy’s terms and let their minds wander from thoughts of mourning and loss to take up and speak of lighter topics, and even filling the night air with laughter. From time to time they would have to call Fluttershy back when her eyes turned skyward, and she once more became transfixed by the stars.

As the evening wore on to night and her friends began to grow sleepy Fluttershy gently encouraged them to go and rest, reassuring them one last time that she was all right. Once the last of her friends had disappeared up the path to Ponyville, a dark figure wrapped in a black cloak stepped from the shadows and moved over to Fluttershy settling down next to her.

“You don’t have to lie to them you know,” The figure spoke, his voice changing with every other word.

“I’m not,” Fluttershy said leaning against the figure still staring up at the stars, “I’ll be fine knowing you’ll come back.”

The figure dipped his cloaked head sadly, his form seeming to shift as often as his voice. “Who? I don’t even know who I really am anymore and I can’t… come back until I do.”

Fluttershy reached up to push back the hood of the cloak, the figure shifted as if to stop her, but didn’t. She pushed back the hood to revealing that the stallion’s face was constantly shifting between three different faces. The soft, timid face of a young stallion, his mane an off white and his fur a softer yellow than her own. The strong, confident face of a gold-furred and silver-maned stallion. Finally, the cold face, black fur and pure white mane of Dark Star. Yet despite the differences of each face, the soft, sad gray eyes remained the same.

Fluttershy looked deep into those eyes for a long minute then smiled softly and nuzzled the stallion’s face whispering. “Don’t worry I’ll always be here to remind you who you are: my dearest friend.”

All of the stallion’s faces looked confused, each opened his mouth to speak, but he could find no words. Defeated and knowing his time with Fluttershy to be at a close the stallion nuzzled Fluttershy back and reluctantly stood. The hood of the cloak fell back over his face, and with a last nod, he silently disappeared back into the shadows.

Fluttershy’s eyes never left him clinging to his image well after he had departed. When he was gone completely, she closed her eyes and let out a content sigh before looking back up at the beautiful tapestry of stars and let it completely take her away.

Author's Note:

Thank you to everyone who read my story I hope you enjoyed it.

Comments

[Backlash91]

That was wonderful. Thank you for writing it. Will we ever see dark star again?