Chapter 47: Dare
“We got everyone out to Medevac’s clinic,” Thunder said, as he and his wife floated through the open back door of the cafe. “What’s going—”
“Come out to me Jean, or Foxfire, or whatever you call yourself these days,” Godwindigo called out, triumph in its voice. “Let me have my revenge on you. Kneel in front of me and I’ll even let your little spawn go free.”
“My son!” Thunder exclaimed, eyes wide in shock and he bolted for the front door, only to be stopped at the last second by an aura of dark purple magic that enveloped him. “Let me GO!”
“It wants me,” Foxfire told the raging pegasus. “Not you, not Windweaver, not Iron Heart, not any of our children. Me. And I’m going to let it take me.”
“No,” the other three adult ponies declared as one, but it was Iron Heart who continued. “It’s lying, you know it is.”
“Besides,” Thunder added, as Foxfire released him from her arcane grip, “with Medevac there are five of us. Five adult ponies. We can take this… this Godwindigo thing.”
“No, we can’t,” Windweaver said, softly. “We might be bigger, but we aren’t stronger. Out of all of us only Jean’s learned how to unlock her full potential like the kids have. The rest of us wouldn’t last ten seconds.”
“We can’t just let that thing take her,” Iron Heart replied, his heart in his throat. “We can’t.”
“I have to do this, for our kids,” Foxfire sighed, leaning against her mate’s neck. “You would do it if it wanted you. Any of us would do it. For the kids.”
“Yeah, I know,” Iron Heart said, leaning his head against Foxfire’s. “Fine, but you aren’t going out there alone.”
“It just wants me,” Foxfire answered, a sad smile on her face. “None of you have to come.”
“None of us have to,” Medevac chimed in, having made sure the last of her patients were stable. “We want to. We’re in this together, as a community, and as a family. We’re with you all the way on this.”
“What she said,” Thunder added, his own wife tucking under his wing and nodding her agreement. “We’re more than friends. We’re family, and family sticks together.”
“Sorry dear,” Iron Heart apologized with a smile both fierce and proud, “but it looks like you’re outvoted on this.”
“I.. I.. “ Foxfire stuttered, overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support from her friends and husband. In the end, all she could manage was to duck her head in acquiescence, proud tears sparkling in her eyes.
“Well, well, well,” the Godwindigo chuckled, a few moments later, as all five came outside. “Not one, but five pretty ponies for me to add to my collection. Maybe I’ll connect you all with a chain and wear you like a necklace. Would you like that?”
“Oh, just shut it Dora,” Medevac snapped back, refusing the combined entity its chosen name. “You know, for someone who was all about God and mercy and all that stuff, you sure jumped onto the evil bandwagon in a hurry.”
“God doesn’t always follow through, I do,” came the annoyed rumbled reply. “Now just hush, and I’ll get to you later.”
“I thought I was the one you wanted,” Foxfire declared. “Or has that thing that’s possessed you made you forget already?”
“I forget nothing,” growled the fiend of despair. “Especially not what you did to my nephew.”
“He was a monster,” Foxfire countered, goading the creature into focusing on her. “And so are you. Two of a kind, I’d say.”
“I’ve had enough of hearing you jabber,” Godwindigo howled. “Time to make you into an icy bau—”
<KRAKAKOOOOM>
The world around the ponies turned scarlet as a massive carmine beam of energy lanced out from the snow-covered rooftop above and behind them. The thunderous crack of air being peeled away from that lance of destruction was so loud, it gut punched every pony nearby with a solid impact.
What it did to the Godwindigo however, had everyone freeze in their tracks for a moment and simply stare in awe. The ravaging shaft of mayhem, fired by the still unknown sniper on the rooftop, had cleanly blown off Godwindigo’s arm at the left shoulder.
“Now’s your chance!” yelled a voice from above. “Hit it now! I don’t have any more shots like that, so make it count.”
“Go! Go! Go!” Foxfire yelled, taking command of the situation. “Iron Heart, help me break the kids out. Windweaver, you and Thunder buy us some time.”
“I’ll check on whoever it is that fired those shots,” Medevac said, getting a nod of approval from Foxfire.
The husband and wife pegasi threw themselves forward, Thunder opening with a series of small lighting strikes from his wings. Windweaver followed up by hitting the thing with bits of debris carried aloft by her winds. For its part, Godwindigo just stood there, seemingly stunned into immobility by the massive hit it had taken.
In the meantime, Foxfire and Iron Hoof began breaking the Power Ponies out of their ice block prisons, and while they were doing so Foxfire again heard that commanding, demanding voice.
Excellent, Foxfire,” the voice purred, and as it praised her Foxfire couldn’t help but feel a warmth suffuse her being. “Take command, take charge. Rule with the power that is your right. Listen to my counsel, and I will help you to become more powerful still.”
“What or who are you?” Foxfire asked with her thoughts, as she carefully drilled her way into another piece of ice. She was drilling holes at intervals while Iron Heart would crack open the space joining the drill holes. “Don’t even try to say you’re the Goddess, or just a part of my mind.”
“But I am part of your mind, Foxfire,” the thing that had taken up residence inside of Jean Pedersen replied. “At least I am now. We are joined, inseparable. You are my host, and I will do all I can to make sure that you are strong enough to ensure nothing can ever harm either of us.”
Foxfire paused for a moment to hug Seeker as she was broken free. The unicorn’s mind went back to the cryptic words of the big winged unicorn, and she realized what the big mare had been trying to say to her.
“Shadow,” Foxfire interpreted, using the voice’s earlier words as a filter. “In you. Power. Lies. Don’t listen. Keep family. That’s what she was saying.”
“What was that?” Iron Hoof asked, snapping the last of the Power Ponies out of an ice block.
“You have a battle to win,” the voice inside of Foxfire said, clearly annoyed. “Deal with that first, my host. Then we will talk.”
“Fine,” Foxfire growled, returning her focus to the world around her.
In the meantime Medevac was dealing with a pair of ponies on the rooftop. One was a nearly comatose regular pony, the other was a hale and hearty pegasus leaning over a long barreled rifle.
“Get John out of here, will you?” asked the pegasus, who appeared to be looking around for something. “When that cold hit us, it pretty much took my spotter out.”
“Who are you?” Medevac asked. “And what did you shoot? That was amazing.”
“Name’s Martin MacCrae, Canadian Rangers,” the pegasus replied, by way of introduction. “But seeing as everyone else is using a nom de geurre you can call me, ‘Polaris’.”
“Like the star?” Medevac asked, gathering John Wilcox up in her hooves.
“Like the missile,” Polaris replied, with the most savage smile Medevac had ever seen on a pony’s face. “You don’t happen to have any more of those glowing rubies around, do you?”
“Glowing what’s now?” Medevac asked, perplexed.
“A desk smashed down on the backside of the roof,” Polaris explained, with a jerk of his head. “This big ass glowing ruby fell out and —”
“YOU TOOK OFF MY ARM!” echoed the scream across the entire town as the Godwindigo shook off its stunned paralysis. “You are all going to PAY for that!”
The combined force of both adults and Power Ponies had been striking at the hateful horror’s chest, to the point where the white and gold pony trapped there had begun to shift and move. Only a few more blows would have been needed to break out what looked to be the strongest source of Godwindigo’s power.
However, it had been this very shifting within it that had snapped the creature of ice, snow and despair out of its trance and back to full rage. With the power and genius borne of desperate madness, Godwindigo drew fully on the power of the captured alicorn, and that of the nearly two hundred transformed townsfolk that it had seized and drawn into itself.
As the eleven fighting ponies and onlookers watched in horror, Godwindigo shifted and transformed again. Rising up, it became a translucent icy blue horse-like creature of cold wind, cruel spirit and crushing despair, as tall and wide as a Canadian football field. Its imprisoned ponies moved within its insubstantial body and became a crown of sparkling lights, with the now dimming glow of Celestia as its brightest gem.
“Oh shit,” Darter said, and for once, Shield Maiden didn’t have the heart to correct his language.
“You first,” Godwindigo declared, with a voice like a calving glacier, as it hurled a typhoon of ice and snow at Polaris.
Shield Maiden saw the strike incoming, and along with the others watched in shock as it passed cleanly through her best shield. Polaris was instantly frozen into a block of ice. Medevac managing to escape only because she was already in motion with Wilcox. Even so, the edges of Godwindigo’s vengeance were enough to bind her wings in frozen shackles, sending her crashing to the pavement. Only Windweaver’s last second intervention saved the medical pony from a splattering impact.
“That’s one, “ the fiend stated, with cold satisfaction. “You’re all mine now. Hold still, and it will be quick.”
“Oh Goddess,” Foxfire prayed, fast and fervently. “If this is my hour to journey with you, so be it. But let my children escape this. That’s all I ask.”
“There is no need to pray for divine intervention, my host,” came the unbidden voice of the creature of the mind who lived inside of her. “I can give you the power to unmake your enemy. Give me command of your magic and I swear, you will never have anything to fear from anything, ever again.”
“How?” Foxfire begged, clutching to the words in her mind like a drowning woman would grab onto a life preserver. “If you can save the kids, I’m yours for the taking. But I need to know how you plan to do it.”
“There is no time, my host,” replied the voice, with an urgent tone. “Quickly now. Let your mind grow still and quiet. Let me in, and you have my word that we will vanquish this foe, and you will become a unicorn of such grace, majesty and power, that none will ever think of harming you or your foals again.”
“I… “ Foxfire hesitated, and she began to clear her mind as she had been asked to. “If it’s the only way.”
“NAY!” shouted a new voice. One Foxfire thought she recognized, and she realized with shock that all movement around her had ground to a halt. Even the unfolding battle around her seemed frozen in time.
“You are too late, Luna,” snarled the voice. “I am already bonded with her. The power of dark magic shall be hers to command, and I shall make her into such a Queen as this world has never seen before!”
“Who? What?” babbled Firefox, seeing the large winged unicorn she had helped earlier come into her vision. “Okay, just what is going on here?”
“The umbral is correct about one thing,” Princess Luna replied, wreathed in her power. “We do not have much time. I have shifted our consciousness to the dream realm, where time has little meaning. But this is not a true dream, so I cannot hold us here long.”
“Okay, then. I need answers and I need them now,” Foxfire growled, annoyance at being ignorant of facts she needed stoking a growing coal of anger within her. “You, Big Blue. Who are you?”
“I am Princess Luna of Equestria,” Luna said, by way of introduction. “I am a guardian of the dream realm and a protector of ponies. I came to this world to retrieve my lost Tantabus, who I sent to aid the new ponies of this world.”
“And I,” the voice declared, coalescing into a body that looked exactly like Foxfire’s, only endowed with the emblems of authority that Foxfire had seen before in her visions, “am an Umbral. We are drawn to unicorns and other mages of potential. We offer them power and knowledge, and in exchange we grow strong along with them.”
“And you never once tell them that the accumulation and wielding of dark magic will slowly drive them mad,” Luna shot back. “Until they care nothing for those they once loved. Not their nation, not their mates, not their young. All falls to the side, in the quest for more power!”
“We do not lie, Princess,” the Umbral replied, and Foxfire had the feeling she was witnessing an old, old, argument. “We did not lie to Sombra, or to Trixie Lulamoon, or to Starlight Glimmer, or even to you. We gave what was promised.”
“Sombra enslaved an entire empire,” Luna growled, fury writ large in her stance. “Trixie was nearly driven mad by the amulet your kind helped her find. Starlight Glimmer destroyed Equestria in multiple timelines. And I… Yes, you gave me what I wanted. A way to make ponies love and respect me. All it cost me was my soul and a thousand years in solitary banishment.”
“So… you’re like… the dark side of the Force? Only sentient?” Foxfire asked, both puzzled and taken aback by what she had just heard. “Princess… Luna, is it? Do these Umbral ever lie?”
“T’would be easier if they did, but they do not,” Luna responded, adding, “they will however, not say the full truth if it will help them. They will leave things out, or let you make assumptions. They seek power, and the increase of power. It is their bread and butter, so to speak.”
“We are living creatures. Creatures of magic who live within the warp and woof of the fabric of reality,” Umbral Foxfire kicked in. “We need hosts to live and prosper, but we are not parasites. We give power and knowledge when asked, so that our hosts become mighty. What they do with that power is not something we concern ourselves with. Not unless asked to by our host.”
“Wait,” Foxfire asked, thinking for a moment. “Ever since I came into my power, I’ve noticed that my temper is shorter. I get angrier faster, and I keep on having these urges to take over in situations. Is that your doing?”
“The Darkness does not suffer fools,” the Umbral replied, and Foxfire’s dark reflection wore a superior smirk that chilled the unicorn. “We ‘encourage’ our hosts toward the proper attitude of a ruler. Pay it no mind. A ruler must be strong, both in mind and heart and you have the potential to be glorious.”
“My mind, and my emotions are mine,” Foxfire snarled back. “You will stop playing with my feelings and get the hell out of my mind. Right now!”
“If you truly wish to retain the weakness of personal feelings, then I will honor that,” the Umbral replied, tipping its head in acquiescence. “But I cannot leave your mind. As I said earlier, we are bonded now. Only death can separate us.”
“Foxfire... Jean,” Luna interrupted, and the body of the princess looked faded. “My body lies unconscious and I cannot hold us here much longer, but I feel I have shown you the truth of what lives within you. Remember, the Umbral will not lie to you, but it will leave things out, as it has now. Choose wise—” The princess faded out of Foxfire’s vision and the unicorn could sense the waning magic.
“Okay, so you’re a faerie,” Foxfire stated, looking her doppelganger in the eyes. “I know how to deal with faeries.”
Foxfire closed the distance to her double and had the pleasure of seeing it lose the superior smile it had worn since almost the very beginning.
“From this point on you will never lie to me, and you will never, ever interfere with or alter my emotions,” Foxfire stated. “If I ask for your assistance with something, you will give me all possible alternatives that go with it. Whether or not they benefit either of us.”
“And if I refuse, what will you do? Spank me?” asked the Umbral, somewhat recovering its amused and haughty demeanor.
“You say death is the only way to separate us?” Foxfire asked, to which the Umbral nodded with a raised eyebrow. “Then I’ll do just that. Rather than becoming ‘Darth Foxfire’ or some such silly thing, I’ll just take my life.”
“What?” asked the dark unicorn, shocked. “You would never— No Equestrian would take their own life!”
“Well buckle up, lady,” Foxfire laughed. “Because there’s something you really should know by now. I’m not Equestrian. I’ll end my life the second I think I’m going to become something that will hurt my kids. You’re in my mind. Have a look if you don’t believe me.”
“Yes, I believe you. You would do it. You have killed before to protect them,” the Umbral replied after a moment's pause. “Very well then, you have a bargain. On the condition that you willingly wield the powers I open up to you.”
“So mote it be,” Foxfire replied, and in that moment she felt the torc that her dark reflection was wearing, settle into place around her own neck. “First off, is there a way to deal with this thing without using what the princess would call, ‘Dark Magic’?”
“Yes, there is,” sighed the Umbral, who proceeded to explain to Foxfire what she needed to do.
“Wait, that’s it?” Foxfire asked, stunned at the simplicity of what she had just heard. Time was beginning to flow around her again. “That’s all I have to do to stop Godwindigo?”
“It’s a windigo,” laughed Foxfire’s dark half. “They live to create despair. Their favorite prey are those who have been broken from the bonds of family and community. Now, my host. Take what I have given you, and show your enemy what it means to face ‘Nytefyre’.”
“My name is Foxfire,” the unicorn replied, as time returned to its full pace.
“For now, for now,” whispered the fading voice of the Umbral.
“FACE ME, FIEND!” Foxfire roared out in challenge, dark purple magic sheathing her horn and trumpeting out her words.
“Oh, this is too funny,” laughed Godwindigo, as the other ponies made a series of attacks that went cleanly through the creature without harming it in the slightest. “You and your little herd of ponies can’t even touch me. What do you think you’re going to do?”
“What am I going to do?” Foxfire asked, pushing all the magic at her command toward her feelings for her town, her friends, her mate and her children. She felt the power inside of her double and redouble, until she felt like her heart was ready to burst. “I’m going to sing!”
One of the greatest forms of magic in Equestria is known simply as “heartsong.” When the feelings of the heart merge with a pony’s magic and spill out into the world around it. Shared feelings allow a heartsong to grow into its listeners, and every new singer gives the song more power, more heart and greater effect.
What the Umbral had done was to teach Foxfire how direct her magic into her true feelings and how to share them through a heartsong. Nothing more, but as Godwindigo snorted in derisive amusement, Foxfire’s song echoed in the ears of every transformed person who had not yet been drawn into the ice demon.
(To the tune of: "The Storm" by Blackmore's Night)
Our timeless and forgotten place,
With the moon and sun in endless chase
Each in quiet surrender
as the other reigns the sky…
The cold spirit begins to laugh
She thinks it’s our epitaph
Godwinson’s gotten crazy
But the Maid begins to rise
But the Maid begins to rise...
Wild were the winds that came
In the thunder and the rain
Nothing ever could contain
The rising of our storm....
With the wing of ebony
Night Horse magic from the trees
Wild winds heartwarming
Friendship fills the air...
Follow the Maiden, she’ll get you out of here...
Follow the Maiden, as you take to the sky...
Follow the Maiden, she’ll keep you safe from fear,
Follow the Maiden, as you begin to rise.
Heartless cold wants to freeze our homes so fair
Make our town her dragon's lair
I say we all take that dare.
Help stop her this very day...
In all of evil’s sorcery
The most destructive entity
Cold can have no fury
Like the rising of our storm...
Follow the Maiden, she’ll get us right out of here...
Follow the Maiden, as we take to the sky...
Follow the Maiden, she’ll keep us safe from fear,
Follow the Maiden, as we all begin to rise.
As the song continued, every pony in Brightly began to glow and rise up into the air. Swiftly through the air they flashed, until they met with the Power Ponies who were also rising up on the power of the song. Glowing ever brighter, their bodies began to expand and merge, with old friends and neighbors smiling and nodding to each other as they got to know each other far better than they ever had before.
“Mom?” Shield Maiden asked, realizing from the song that Foxfire meant for her to be in control of the mighty being they were becoming. “You should be in charge.”
“This is your time, your battle. You and the Power Ponies. We’re all with you,” Foxfire replied, before whispering to herself. “Because I can never be trusted with power, not ever again.”
“You were supposed to take command, to rule, with the strength I gave you,” the Umbral growled. “How dare you break your promise.”
“I used the power, which is what I said I would do,” Foxfire replied, feeling herself merging with her friends and family. “I never said I would rule. You just assumed I would.”
“Ha! So you did,” laughed the creature of dark power and sorcery. “I can tell that you and I are going to have a wonderful time as the years go by.”
Godwindigo finally realized the danger it had invited to itself when a pair of massive wings emerged from the shining ball of energy that had become the physical form of the ponies of Brightly. As a horn and equine body also emerged, the cold creature breathed yet another blast of sub-arctic cold. Only to watch in horror as the blast was deflected and changed in that act of deflection.
The alicorn made of pure light transmuted Godwindigo’s blast and echoed it across Brightly. Instead of freezing anyone it touched, it instead freed everyone whom the icy being had frozen. Brian Cummins fell forward onto the rug of an abandoned living room, the young woman who had spied on his room clutching him, as she too found herself freed.
Medevac, Polaris and John Wilcox stared in shock at the massive creatures almost literally within touching distance, the ice around them had kept them from joining the others, but the now had a ringside seat for what was about to happen. Medevac threw herself back up to the rooftop and the three ponies huddled behind the icy ramparts that had been Polaris’ prison a short while ago.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau staggered back, regaining his balance, as he and the aircrew of the downed Cormorant gasped for breath. Pieces of the ice blocks they had been held in lay scattered around them, and their eyes were drawn to the spectacle at the far end of town.
The massive equines of might and magic battled with hooves of light and fire in the skies over Brightly, and for the first time it was a battle of equals. No single sudden victory for either of them. They battered, thrust and fought over the ground and across the skies of the Carmanah Valley. But where the Godwindigo fought only for itself and its hunger, the ponies of Brightly battled for all their friends and neighbors.
It was the power of Iron Hoof that strengthened their blows. Darter's dexterity that let them twist aside from the enemy's counterstrikes. Seeker showed them where to aim their own force. Thunder lent ferocity, with Windweaver and Skylark twisting the winds to support them and hamper their foe.
Foxfire's mind and knowledge gave them strategies to use, and Iron Heart gave them the resilience to bear up when all else failed.
Through it all, focusing the power of the people of Brightly like a lens, was Shield Maiden. Guiding the whole, making them more than just parts of what they had become. They were no longer separate ponies, people or parts. No longer were they merely friends and neighbors, linked by simple geography.
They were one, and the fire of their friendship and community was a brightly lit fire that burned with the power of a thousand stars.
“We need to run!” the ancient spirit demanded of its much younger half. “They are as strong as we are, we need to go now!”
“NO!” howled the part that had been Dora Godwinson. “We can WIN! They can’t stop us—”
Sensing its moment, the Alicorn of Light drove a blazing hoof straight through the distracted creature, cleanly pushing Celestia out of the Godwindigo and depriving the being of the linchpin of its power. The massive loss of strength caused the icy fiend to shrink rapidly and as it did so it lost its hold on more and more of the transformed and frozen townsfolk it had drawn into itself.
“We’re done,” the windigo growled, as it lost the last of its captives and looking at Godwinson in anger, it split itself from the hateful harridan. “You got too greedy. Just count yourself lucky I’m not like those of my brethren that eat flesh, or I would take it out on you.”
“GIVE UP?” the Alicorn’s question echoed across the valley.
“Okay, you were right, get us out of here,” Dora begged, trying to clutch at the spirit of the being who had been her partner.
“Us?” mocked the wendigo. “I don’t think so. Goodbye, and thank you for the last meal.”
“No!” Godwinson cried, collapsing to the ground as the windigo flashed off northward, abandoning the woman to her fate.
“I never wanted to hurt your nephew,” Foxfire's voice said, her voice sad and gentle. No longer needed, the great Alicorn of Light began to split back up into its component parts.
Godwinson looked up, and saw that she was surrounded by hundreds of ponies of all shapes, sizes and colours. Most were barely able to stand, but all of them had their eyes fixed on the woman who had brought havoc and mayhem to their town. Dora Godwinson felt despair fill her heart, and with an icy chill realized what the windigo’s final words had meant.
She was the windigo’s last meal. Her despair at their failure and her abandonment had been its snack for the road.
“You killed him,” Godwinson replied to Foxfire, feeling all the fight leave her as she surrendered to her fate. “You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?”
“Your nephew left me no choice,” Foxfire told the woman, letting the faintest blush of power come to her horn. “Please Dora, give me a choice this time. Let me choose life.”
“I—” Dora began, then stopped, lowered her head again simply said, “I’m sorry.”
“She will face justice,” came the voice of Mayor Montcalm, from a steel grey pony, muzzle grizzled, but hooves gleaming silver. “Everyone is entitled to their day in court. You, Dora Godwinson, are under arrest.”
“Okay,” Godwinson replied, all the fight and fire gone from her.
“Power Ponies, can you take her to the RCMP office down the road?,” Montcalm asked, hooking his head down the road and then following it down to the ground. “Oof. The rest of us still need some time to get used to this.”
“I can handle it,” Thunder volunteered, shaking out his feathers with St. Elmo’s fire dancing along the pinions. “I’m practically a living taser if she tries anything.”
“Is ev—everyone well?” asked a strange voice, a minute after Thunder and Godwinson had begun the two block walk down to the small office the RCMP used when they were in town. All eyes turned to see the large, dark blue winged unicorn from before. She was leaning heavily against the door frame.
“Luna!” Foxfire exclaimed, rushing over and easing the bruised alicorn to a resting position on the ground. “Are you okay?”
“She will be,” Father Addison declared, as he and his wife landed. The nearly solid form of the Tantabus only a few body lengths away. “As soon as she and the Night Horse are reunited.”
“Hey! It’s the Night Horse!” Iron Hoof exclaimed, then looking to the woozy form of Princess Luna. “Who’s the pretty lady pony?”
“She’s the one who sent the Night Horse to us in the first place,” Addison said, smiling. “Natasha and I finally managed to figure out what our friend here was trying to tell us all this time.”
“You needed the help,” Luna added, with a small groan. Her head was finally settling down into a dull ache. “I sent my dear Tantabus to provide the last push you needed. I thought it was gone forever, save only a small remnant. One that I came to save.”
“So did we,” Natasha replied, putting a comforting wing on Luna’s shoulder. “But your Night Horse found a way to survive, inside me and my husband.”
“Yes, I can see the connection,” Luna said, wincing a bit as she tried to nod as well. “When the magic in the tunnel burst out, the Tantabus must have used it to manifest itself into the waking world once more. It also gave you its knowledge of how to be a batpony with that wave of magic.”
“Indeed it did,” Father Addison confirmed, and he looked down for a moment. “Much as I have enjoyed sharing my body with a heavenly being, I think it’s time for it to go home.”
“I’m no creature of the heavens,” Luna replied, her countenance grim. “I have done terrible things. Things I have paid a heavy, and deserved penance for. Let the Tantabus stay with you, for yours is a far better heart than my own.”
“You made true repentance for what you did in the past, and have been forgiven for those wrongs,” Addison said, as a statement not a question. Luna’s surprised eyes asked the question her mouth did not. “I’ve been a priest long enough to know the words and actions of someone who has sinned and been forgiven. It’s time for you to be reunited with the Night Horse.”
“No,” Luna declared, holding up a hoof to stop the Tantabus in its tracks. “I dearly want you back with me, my Tantabus. But if you come to me now, these night ponies will be stuck as they are now. They will never be able to improve beyond what they are now. Their skills with the powers of the night will never improve and they might never attain to cutie marks.”
“Will we be like this forever?” asked Natasha Adamschek. “It wouldn’t be a bad life, but it would be a different one.”
“I don’t dare use magic at the moment to find out,” Luna replied, closing her eyes for a moment to concentrate before wincing in pain. “No, that is definitely a bad idea. But my guess would be that your batpony form will be tied to the night. As the moon rises, so too will your magic as ponies of the night rise up, granting you your current form again. But unlike my sister's spell this one will be static, unchanging.”
“So you’re gonna be like… were-ponies?” Darter asked, grinning widely. “COOL!”
“Indeed,” Addison said, a smile on his muzzle. “It’s not a bad way to live. Just mastering what we have will be more than enough growth for most of my flock. And as you sacrificed for us… As our Lord sacrificed for us, so too do we now sacrifice for you.”
Luna made one last attempt to protest but the Tantabus simply ignored her and flowed itself into the pony from whence it had come. As the two became one again, Luna’s mind was filled with images of everything that the Tantabus had done and seen since it had left the princess.
“Oh… “ was all Luna could say, hoof to her breast as she tried to absorb the torrent of information and emotions. “Oh, well done, my Tantabus.”
“Anyone know who this is?” Medevac asked loudly, as she and a trio of older batponies carried in the still form of Princess Celestia.
“Sister!” Luna cried out, and was about to charge over when her body reminded her that sitting still was best. “How is she?”
“Several sprains, a cracked rib, and severe exhaustion,” Medevac replied, her voice neutral. “Her energy reserves are nearly gone as well. She needs rest, food, and more rest. Given that… she should be fine.”
“Hello there,” chimed in a new voice, but one that was instantly recognized by every citizen of Brightly.
“Prime Minister!” Montcalm shouted, surprised as anyone else.
“I seem to have arrived in the middle of something,” the lean, handsome politician replied, his voice full of guarded charm. “May I ask who you all are?”
“Darrell Montcalm, sir,” the pony replied. “Mayor of Brightly. Sorry about the mess.”
“You’re Mayor Montcalm?” Trudeau asked, a roguish smile tilting the corner of his lips. “I assume the people of Brightly didn’t elect a small horse to office. Assuming that the people of Brightly aren’t actually small horses.”
“Everyone in town is,” John Horgan interjected, staggering up in a sea-green pony body. “There was something of an accident, and then a fight. But everyone here is a bonafide citizen. Taxpayers all. I was going to talk to you about it before things got—”
“Interesting? Yes, I was here for some of it,” Trudeau added, eyebrows creasing as his mind quickly did the political calculus of the events he had witnessed and then tossed it through the sifter of realpolitik that his family knew well. “And you are all Canadians?”
“Most of us are,” Medevac answered, indicating her two patients. “These two are visitors from another world. Sir, they’re not hostile and all they’ve ever done is to try to help people.”
“Sir,” the helicopter flight engineer interrupted. “Radio call for you.”
“One moment,” the prime minister said to Medevac. As he took the radio from the flight engineer, his eyes roamed over the bodies of Celestia and Luna, taking in their condition. “This is Trudeau, go ahead.”
“Sir, this is Captain Millard,” a serious male voice said from the speaker. “What is your condition, over.”
“Captain Millard,” Trudeau began, pausing as he looked around and seeing nothing but hopeful faces around him. Some with more fear than others, especially a small snow white unicorn, who was huddling against a much bigger pony whose coat was as dark as hers was light. “My status is Tatooine. Repeat. Status Tatooine.”
“What?” he asked, as an aside to the surprised crowd around him. “I still have the Rebel Snow Trooper outfit from Halloween a few years back.”
“Roger that, sir,” Captain Millard replied. “Understand that you are safe and well. I am three minutes out with two security squads from JTF2, courtesy of the pencil pushers at CSIS.”
“Understood Captain,” Trudeau replied, feeling the tension ramp up again at the mention of the imminent arrival of Canada’s elite and secretive special ops force. “Good to have them, but they won’t be needed.”
“Are you sure, Sir?” Millard asked. “Confirm that the… individuals on the ground are friendlies please.”
“Friendlies and citizens,” Trudeau confirmed, and the collective release of breath around him was explosive.
“Do you mean that?” Horgan asked, as Trudeau handed the radio back to the engineer. “You’re going to maintain their rights as citizens, in spite of what the Charter says?”
“John, during the election I won to become PM I said a line about citizenship that was quoted very often afterwards,” Trudeau said, getting down so that he could be at eye level with everyone around him. “Do you remember what that was?”
“I most definitely do,” Horgan laughed. “I take it, that's your answer?”
“You are an elected official?” Luna asked, curious. “What did you say during this election to become leader of your world?”
Trudeau allowed himself a smile at that comment before answering. “Ma’am, during the election I said that, ‘A Canadian, is a Canadian, is a Canadian.’ As far as I’m concerned everyone here holds the same citizenship they had when the sun came up this morning.”
“So, no arrests, no medical tests, no shipping us off to see what makes us tick?” Foxfire asked, having finally worked up the courage to ask. Even the Umbral had been quiet and listening to everything that had been going on.
“I refuse to send Canada down that dark path,” Trudeau declared, and his voice shifted as the words of one of the first men to bear his title came to him. “I choose sunny ways. I choose to be generous and ask others to be generous in kind. I choose sunny ways, and those ways will always be brightly lit.”
And so, the tale is spun, the story done.
Of a community and a place. Of people. Good, bad, and in-between. Of friends and family, and how the cope with they incredible and the unknown while holding true to those they love.
This will be a long afterword....
When Canary in the Coal Mine seized on my just activated Patreon option for a commissioned story, I was apprehensive to say the least. I'd never written a story for money before, and my biggest fear was that I would disappoint.
The two of us spent the better part of a month spitballing ideas before I finally came up with the concept of what would become Brightly Lit. My patron was taken with how vividly I'd painted the picture of that small town. How it almost seemed to be a character in itself.
He gave me the go ahead, and then other than a few nudges over the next two and a half years did the best possible thing. He stayed out of the way and let me write. And write I did. Slowly and hesitantly at first, but with growing and greater confidence. Thank you, Canary. You have been the best possible patron a humble writer could ask for. I hope I have served your purpose well.
Secondly, I'd like to thank Coyotethetrickster. Good lady, you mean more to me than words can express. You have been my editor and my friend. When my own personal Godwindigo struck me down, and I staggered off into the night, you vowed to stay with me until I told you to leave. In those dark hours, that vow kept me putting one foot in front of the other.
You warm my spirit and my heart. You helped me find worth in myself when I saw only ashes and ruin. You are my guiding star and one of the reasons I keep walking toward a brighter future with every passing day. If there truly is a reward in what comes after this life, than surely, you have earned a place there.
Third, to Sandstorm who has rolled through various roles. You, my friend, are just beginning this life. In some ways I envy you, because for you the adventure is just beginning. You have so much potential in so many ways. I hope I'm around to see you reach the heights I know you will attain to one day.
Boldly go, mon ami. Boldly go.
Next, my thanks to Damaged and all the wonderful folks on his Discord server. HiddenMaster, Belle, Lab, and all the rest. Your support, jokes, ideas and all around decentness have been a privilege to be a part of. May all of you find a way to make your dreams come true.
Finally, I would like to thank the town of Brightly, British Columbia. For nearly three years I've been able to walk your streets, talk to your people, play in the nearby woods, and live again as I did as a child.
It has been an honour and a privilege to have been able to come home again, after so very long away. I've missed you all.
So, a few final comments about the last chapter, and Brightly Lit in general.
The choice to name chapters for songs that I love and have some relevance to the story was deliberate from the beginning. With that focus on music it should be no surprise to anyone that the key to victory was a song.
If Brightly Lit can be said to have a theme song, it would indeed be "The Storm" by Blackmore's Night. I recommend this, shorter version without the long but epic intro.
From the *very* beginning I knew how the story would end, and for two and half years I've been writing my way toward that ending.
I drew a lot of inspiration for the final battle from the ending of "Rainbow Rocks" and from the Power Rangers TV series. The MOTW would always go super-sized and the heroes would combine into a giant Mega Zord to save the day. What, you think it coincidence the kids called themselves, "The Power Ponies?" Nope.
Where possible, I've incorporated real world elements as much as I could. For example, Sir Wilfred Laurier is known to be a personal hero of Canada's current PM, who quoted "Sunny Ways, sunny ways" at his speech when he won his first election.
The Colt C19 rifle has just been issued to the Canadian Rangers and is specially engineered to operate in arctic conditions.
Brightly itself, and the terrain around is is modeled after a real community in BC. As such I have a vivid mental map of where everything in town is.
And so forth, and so on. Some things I wanted to include, but just straight up ran out of time and writing space...
I will be taking the next couple of weeks off. During that time I will be talking to the commissioner of Brightly Lit about the directions they would like to go for the sequel. I've deliberately left a lot of things unanswered. These are questions you will have to look to my words or yourself to answer, at least until I cover them in the sequel.
Although, I am considering answering the most upvoted question in the comments that are sure to come.
Until then, my friends, I wish each and every one of you all of the best. May your futures be Brightly Lit...
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A great ending to a perfect story. I'm glad that I was able to be a part of the journey. Had so much fun reading this.
A very good ending. I honestly share the wendigo's professional disgust, one should never take a fight one doesn't have to. But then, careful and pragmatic monsters tend to win, and what kind of a story would that be?
9992456
Yup. At least twice it wanted to get out while the getting was good, but Godwinson wanted it all.
Well done....I also would love a sequel or even a group so we can expand this universe if at all possible I’m glad to meet another Canadian on this site since I’m from Moncton nb
I can't believe that's it's been two-and-a-half years. It seemed so much shorter.
9992465
Honestly, if you take an apprenticeship and then refuse to listen to your instructor's advice, you have no-one but yourself to blame when he drops you from the program.
9992473
Vancouver Islander here. A sequel is almost definitely coming, and I've no objection to someone starting up a group
A lovely little story, and sad this one has ended.
But it was a great find, and one that in reading has been fun and heartwarming.
9992483
Same here!
I also would join such a group.
I really like your resolution of the FoxFire arc. Maybe it's the Terry Pratchett fan in me, but it seems appropriate for a witch to take on the burden of walking the line between power and its abuse. My favourite scene, though remains Medevac's oath when she got her cutie mark:
I mean, I'm aware that it's a variation on the existing Hippocratic Oath, but it's still a powerful scene.
9992489
Glad you were with us on the journey.
9992502
It's one of my favorite parts too, and will likely find its way into the words of any other healers I happen to write. To me, the profession of Healer is the most noble of professions. Be they nurse, doctor, paramedic, herbalist, chirurgeon, and any of a dozen other of titles, these men and women fight a never ending battle against the most nebulous and persistent of foes. i.pinimg.com/736x/56/69/53/566953ec4d74350ce46686f1b7872145.jpg
Great ending for a great fic
Personally, i charge her of the following.
You can take it from here.
9992483
speaking of how did someone commission you for a story did they use a patron donation reason why im asking id like to commission a story after the 2nd story to this IF I knew what patron was how to get a account or get money to spend on said account do they like sell patron gift cards somewhere say wal mart or something......I wanted someone to do a Canada onto equis after the episode starlight meeting trixie for the first time but with elements of equestria at war specifically with the changeling and griffon empire invasions with griffonia equestria crystal empire the dragonlands the buffalo tribe stalliongrad and Canada from 10 yrs after ww2 or 2014 fighting against the changlings the griffion and the caribou empires
Well, I'll say that this story was fantastic. Everything a good story should have was here. Action, some adventure, humour, drama, suspense, a happy ending - I could go on.
For such a wild ride (and hope of a sequel that's just as awesome), with all your bonus points, I give this story a 17 on my
itude meter! I look forward to future masterpieces and hope for the people/ponies of Brightly.
9992598
Wow, that's a lot to take in, and I'll try to answer but I'm winding down my day right now so I may get stuff wrong.
The commissioner of Brightly Lit had been following me ever since my first story, The Bridle Path. So, when they knew when I was setting up a Patreon page and pounced on the commissioned story slot I put onto it. Patreon works like this:
- You make a patron account on Patreon.
- You attach a payment method to it. Credit cards or Paypay are accepted. Other methods may be as well.
- You find the page of a creator you like see what they have available.
- You buy the slot
- Patreon handles billing you and transferring the money to your chosen creator. Recurring billing is once a month. Some creators also bill "by the piece." It varies from creator to creator.
As for your story idea, right now I simply won't have time. I expect to be writing the sequel for Brightly in the new year, along with going back to a rotation to work on my other two unfinished stories. Setting a story in the early years of the Cold War would be interesting. Especially as that's when the era of really crazy nuclear weapons was. Things like the Davy Crocket artillery round, the Genie nuclear air to air missile, and the absolutely insane Project Pluto.
At long last the chapter comes to a close, got to admit that the Windigo and Foxfire arc felt a bit last minute but its been quite a pleasure reading your story through the past several months. So many cute and unique characters and several intriguing parts of lore and real life connection have made it quite enthralling.
I felt that shout out right here *taps my chest*, it was an honor and privilege to help you through the troubled waters parts of this story presented you, just as I will continue to do when you start the sequel.
-Cloud Dasher, Editor, Brightly Times
9992476
I helped edit this and even I am blown away by the timescale... It felt like this started in January!
9992658
The Brightly Times. And we have the name of our group.
9992663
You started it yet? Cause I was about to do it lol
9992665
No, go ahead, I insist.
9992446
9992456
9992465
9992473
9992476
9992489
9992535
9992570
Here you go!
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/214697/brightly-times
Glad to know a sequel is on its way at some point.
9992703
The focus of the story is on the Five and their parents. Luna and Celestia are secondary characters. Sorry to disappoint.
9992706
Well, to be fair, even Rainbow Dash comments on that in the show...
9992639
I really, really wanted to incorporate more of the mythology of the local Hieltsuk. It's incredibly unique, but I just plain old ran out of time/room and in the end I didn't feel I could do it the justice it deserved either. I'll have enough fun in the sequel when I will have no choice but to deal with the land claims issue.
A massive percentage of the province is claimed by the native bands. Lands that have never the subject of a treaty, were not won in conquest, or otherwise ceded to the Canadian government. It's a thorny issue, to say the least.
Thank you for the amazing story, I found this one day and decided to see where it went, and it arrived at Amazin Station, Awesometowne, Suberbia! I can't wait for the sequel!
Congrats on another story finished!
Hope you have more stories of the ponies of brightly Lit and the world's reaction to a city of talking ponies
Title drop!
I have a question, how would the ponies/humans of Brightly react to my American human turned Alicorn sona Gargon comes to visit?
This was a wonderful end to a wonderful story. There is so much to love about it, the touching love between friends and family, the excitement of the Power Ponies adventure, the epic final battle, and more. This story one of my all time favourites! It is rivaled by stories such as Fallout: Equestria, Dusk's Dangerous Game and The Celestia Code. I look forward to seeing a sequel, or whatever you focus on next.
9992922
The sequel would definitely have to touch on that. Remember, there were news crews on site. The reporters may have been transformed, but their equipment wasn't. Whatever survived the wreckage of the town hall would have recorded or transmitted, in the case of the radio reporters, the whole sequence of events.
9993188
Well, he's an American, and Canadians pretty much define themselves as "we aren't American". So they would be polite, but somewhat reserved. Also, he would be an outsider. But, he would also be a pony so there would be common ground. Likely discussion would start about how to use pony abilities. Starting with the basics on up.
9993423
Glad you were with us for the ride, and thank you for the support on Patreon. I really appreciate it.
9993477
Ok, good to know. It could be an interesting story idea.
Awesome.
Loved the ending! And gotta love title drops at the end lol
"Yes," they replied. "All of us have the entire top of our heads wobble back and forth when we talk!"
"Excellent! Now let's travel down the Only Road!"
"Follow the Only Road! Follow the Only Road! There's only one road in Canada; we call it the Only Road!"
Then they end up in Newfoundland.
And so ends the first chapter in the story of Brightly. Goodness, that was an entertaining ride that was. And how dare you end on such a cliffhanger of the Princesses meeting the people of Brightly after so much buildup of Luna trying to get there! I desire moar!
9992709
While I wouldn't put it quite as... vitriolic, I agree that the "useless Princesses" is an annoying crutch from canon that I wish fanfics would steer away from.
If the main OCs in this story were voiced, what would they sound like?
Are... are almost all of the chapter titles references?
Also, ayYogscast :D
10253360
Well, I could have kept going with that in the sequel. But I decided not to.
Dear Penalt,
So.
So?
So... this story, at least for me, started out as a fairly generic feeling "Human in Equestria"(despite not being one) story from the 2013-2014 era of Fimfiction, the setting, the tone and just the overall feel of the first nine(or so) chapters truly reminded me of those days when new writers tried their hoof(or hand) at creating a world much like another, but with some added spice in the form of theirs truly, sometimes with friends, most times not. It went by too fast, the people, the scenes, the reactions, the words, they all felt like they were missing depth, that something extra that would strengthen my willing suspension of disbelief.
And then came every chapter after the storm warning, it still went by too fast, but the people, the scenes, the reactions and the words all suddenly had that something extra, people seemed to know what they were doing, the scenes seemed believeable, the reactions(whilst still too calm which, granted, can be sort-of attributed to the Canadian stereotype, the communal village culture in Brightly and Lee) seemed... real enough and the words had some extra weight and meaning to them.
I haven't gone through a story this fast since the last Optimalverse story I read.
Thank you.
Yours truly,
Me.
10281544
You're welcome. I'm glad that my humble offering was able to give you some enjoyment, and you are right, there came a point where things just started to fall into place and I was less telling a story, then I was reporting what I was seeing in my mind's eye. Brightly isn't just some place I made up, it's a reflection of... home.
What a journey... Thanks a lot for your story! This is probably the most pony-like humans in pony/human interaction stories that I knew of : )
Initially I wasn't sure that this story is gonna be that good for me, next thing I noticed is that clock shows me 5 am and I'm still somewhere in Canada with kids enjoying themselves and people being supporting and neighborly. Finished it next day, totally worth it.
Insert last line title drop. This was a very very very good story. Congrats!
10362658
Thank you, that was quite the binge read you did!
Well, this was an excellent fic. I do wonder, did is the Snow Trooper Halloween thing based on fact? That would be hilarious