Harmony Alight
Boltsinger stood with Brightling, Twilight, and all of their friends around a pulsating orb of magic in the cave that housed the Tree of Harmony. With each beat, a silhouette of Sparks could be seen with a light appearing from her belly. Brightling raised a hoof, attempting to reach out for it.
“Sparks… Come back to me… please!” he pleaded, touching the bubble with his hoof. “Please…”
As the hoof made contact, the orb let out one final pulse, sending a wave of magic through the area that sent the ponies skidding back. Black tendrils erupted out in all directions, slamming into the walls. The orb itself cracked as Sparks’ laughter deepened, reverberating and distorting as the pieces of the barrier fell away. Her hooves touched down, black tendrils threatening to encroach upon them from her legs above. Out of the Alicorn Amulet, a darkness veined, covering most of her body and moving all the while. Where once her eyes were a dark green, a bright red had taken hold, with a blackness replacing their whites. The tendrils of darkness retreated into the mare, wrapping around her and flaring out of her back like demonic wings, with still more of them wrapping around her horn as if to extend it and eked into her mane and tail to give them a false mistlike quality. Her ‘wings’ flared out as her laughter finally died down, looking at the ponies with a fanged grin.
“Sparks, what’s happened to you?!” Brightling asked. He ran towards his shadowed wife, putting his hooves on her shoulders. “What has that Amulet done to you?!”
“It’s shown me who I truly am, dear!” She retorted, taking to the air. “And who I truly am doesn’t need anypony else!” She gave a flap of her false wings, erecting a wall of shadow tendrils in around her that pushed the ponies around her into the cave walls while clearing a path for herself. She began walking in her slow but deliberate saunter, each step creating glowing red cracks in the floor. As she approached the exit to the chamber, she stopped, turning to look at them all. “In fact, I think I’ll make sure you lot are out of my way for good!” She made her way back to the center of the room, looking around at the struggling ponies and lit up her horn. “But which one first…?” She looked at Rarity. “The gaudy fashionista?” She aimed her horn at Applejack: “The bumpkin?” She turned again, pointing at Pinkie Pie. “The one that got my husband to question me in the first place? No...” She shook her head, pointing at Twilight. “Perhaps the Princess who binds them all together?” Twilight ignited her horn, struggling further against the shadows that held her in place as the mare laughed to herself. “I know! Why don’t I take care of the cause of all of this?” She turned once more, pointing her horn at Boltsinger. “After all, everything always seems to be better with you out of my mane!”
Looking at the fiery horn pointed at her fiance, Twilight felt a jolt running up her spine. Her wings tingled in a way she’d never experienced before as her pendant started to glow. “NO!!!” she cried, magenta streaks of lightning forming around her wings that shot through the tendrils that held her. She pushed against the wall with all of her might, breaking the shadow and diving into the transformed mare with a continuous discharge surrounding her. “You’re not hurting anypony!”
Sparks screamed in pain as the tendrils shattered, glaring at the Alicorn assailing her. “You don’t have a choice!” She pushed the Princess off of her, flaring her false wings forward. The feathers extended out into more tendrils as the amulet-holder loosed a powerful blast of magic at her enemy. Twilight ignited her horn in response, charged with magical lightning, she created a barrier between them that stopped the tendrils in place, deflecting the blast into the ceiling above. She began walking forward, pushing the beam back as best she could.
“Sparks, I understand what you were talking about!” Brightling told the mare. “When you said ‘we need you’, you were talking about you… and that light inside of you, weren’t you?”
Sparks scoffed, intensifying her attack. “Finally, you catch on! Yes, I’m with foal! But it’s too late, now!”
Boltsinger stepped forward next to Twilight, glaring at his sister-in-law. “Nonsense!” He shouted.
Twilight directed her eyes at the orange stallion, scared out of her mind. “Bolt, what are you doing?! If she breaks through this, you’ll get hit!”
“I know that, but she needs to hear this.” He stated, his gaze unflinching. “You hear me! What you just said was utter nonsense, Sparks!”
Sparks growled at hearing Boltsinger’s voice, intensifying her attack. “And what do you know? You’ve never suffered a betrayal before!”
Boltsinger recoiled his head, seemingly caught off-guard. “Really? That’s what you think?! What about you telling everypony in Vanhoover that I was a horrible monster that killed my own family?” he took a stern step forward. “Or how the first time I saw my own brother after so many years, all he wanted to do was beat me senseless?! You want to talk about betrayal? There were so many times, growing up, where I betrayed myself just by listening to the words you etched into my brain! I gave up on the very idea of friendship so many times! That’s the worst kind of ‘betrayal'!” He flared his wings, planting his hooves. “And now you say it’s too late to forgive your loving husband who risked his life and worked with somepony he hated to find you just because he didn’t agree with you on something?!”
“He acted against me!” Sparks pointed out, pushing back against Twilight’s barrier. “Anypony who acts against me is my enemy!”
“And that’s just egotistical nonsense!” the Pegasus retorted, pressing his face against the barrier. “It’s never too late to believe in your friends and family! I had no reason to, but I never stopped believing that Brightling could change for the better, and that belief paid off!” He brought his hoof and wing over his heart, looking earnestly into her eyes. “And, crazy as it may sound, I believe that you can change for the better, too! If you really are going to have a baby, then the way you were taught… it just won’t apply anymore! Don’t you realize that? It’s not just about you!”
Twilight strained to keep her charged magic going, the streaks of lightning flickering within the barrier. “He’s right, Sparks!” She began. “You can’t just serve your own ego! Not when you have others who depend on you! Even without your influence inside of him, Brightling gave you his love freely! And you married him! You wouldn’t have done that if you didn’t love him back!”
The false Alicorn ceased her attack, rearing up with another shot charging in her horn. “I’VE HEARD ENOUGH!!!” She bellowed, opening fire with her sights set on Boltsinger. The blast tore right through Twilight’s magic, sending her reeling from the backlash, and made its way towards the blue-maned stallion.
“NOOOOOO!!!”
In the moment, the world around them seemed to slow down. The wave of magical energy loosed from Sparks barreled towards Boltsinger, who looked ahead in shock. Between him and his assailant, a bright yellow Pegasus stallion, a brightly lit light bulb emblazoned on his flank, was standing on his hind legs, forelegs and wings spread wide. Sparks’ pupils shrank at the sight before her, the wave decreasing in size and completely leaving her horn as she called out in terror, the red in her eyes flickering as a semblance of light appeared in them. The attack struck home, sending the pony flying back into the wall just under the Tree of Harmony, smoke rising from his chest.
“BRIGHTLING!!!” Boltsinger and Sparks cried in unison. Boltsinger ran to his older brother, pulling him away from the wall and cradling him in his forelegs and wings.
“Hang on, big brother!” He yelled, shaking him slightly. “I’m here for you!”
Sparks’ mouth hung open, an eerie silence coming about in the world around her as she fell to the floor with shaky eyes and staggered breaths. “What have I done…? I… I-I-I killed my own husband!” She sat up, looking at the amulet that veined out evil across her body. “Is this what’s doing it?!” She looked pleadingly at Twilight, tears running down her muzzle. “Get it off… Please, just get this accursed thing OFF OF ME!”
“Nopony but you can get it off! You have to do it yourself!” Twilight informed her.
Sparks quickly nodded, lighting her horn and surrounding the amulet with her magic. She pulled emphatically, yanking and tugging at the jewelry, but the tendrils of darkness persisted in keeping it stitched onto her. “I can’t get it off!” She fell to the floor again, covering her hooves with her head. “I’m… I’m too far gone… I’m bonded to it, aren’t I?”
Twilight flared her wings and stepped forward. “Not if we have anything to say about it!” She declared, quickly joined by Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy. “Ready, girls?”
The other mares nodded in tandem. “Ready!”
Twilight rose into the air, the lightning in her wings fading as the Element of Magic began to shine. From it, two streaks of rainbow magic extended out, touching the Elements of Loyalty and Honesty, whose bearers began to float as well and extend the rainbow. Reaching out, it touched the Elements of Generosity and Laughter, triggering the same effect on their wearers as the other mares experienced, finally spreading to the Element of Kindness. The mares formed a circle of harmonious light which shot forward, encompassing the transformed figure that was Dimming Sparks. Shadow tendrils shot out of the ball of magic several times, each attempt ending in a more powerful rainbow extending from the Elements to further envelop the darkness. Sparks let out an agonizing scream as the magic did its work, streaks of blackness melting away. In a final flash if white light, the rainbow magic disappeared, the grey-coated Unicorn laying in the same position she was in before, sobbing to herself.
Twilight and her friends landed, the Alicorn rushing to the defeated mare’s side. “Sparks! Take it off now before it can take hold of you again!”
Sparks looked up from her position, seeing the Princess’ worried face looking down at her. She sat up instantly, raising a foreleg and pushing at the amulet. After a second of strain, the dark necklace came flying off, its chain broken. As soon as the Alicorn Amulet touched the cave floor, the entire chamber began to rumble. The Elements of Harmony flew from their adornments on their bearers and back into the tree from which they first grew, a number of roots rising out of the floor around the corrupted corundum. The roots enveloped the amulet, dragging it into the ground below as the tree shined brightly.
“Well… that was certainly a light show…” a weak voice said from beneath the tree. Brightling had opened his eyes, looking fondly at the mare he loved. She looked back at him, a luster in her eyes he had never seen before. “Sparks!” He called out, reaching his foreleg out.
Sparks dashed forward to her husband, placing his hoof in hers as she leaned closer to him. “I’m so sorry, Brightling… I don’t know what I was thinking! I was just so… angry! And now…” she bent lower, sniffing up a sob as the tears continued to fall. “Now… I’ve done this…”
Brightling reached up with his wing, wiping her face free of tears. “Done what?” he asked. “My chest hurts, yeah. I think you might have broken a few ribs, too… But you dialed it back at the last second! I’ll live.” He sat up, Boltsinger helping to support his weight. “I knew you loved me too much to let something like that happen!”
Sparks looked at her husband’s smiling face. The light and love she saw in his bright coat and shining eyes reminded her of their foalhood, where he passionately used his talents for everypony, and devoted so much of his time just to be with her, despite how grumpy she was all the time. She smiled in return, genuinely for the first time she could recall, and lunged forward, wrapping her forelegs around him in a tight embrace. “I love you, Brightling…”
The yellow stallion brought his forelegs forward, putting them around the grey mare. “I love you, too, Sparks.” After a moment of silence, the husband and wife broke their embrace. Sparks helped her husband to his hooves, straining a bit from the movement. He looked at his younger sibling, making to move his wing towards him only to cry out in pain. “SON OF A ROTTEN PEAR!”
Boltsinger took a look at Brightling’s wings. They were bent backwards in more ways that should be possible for a pair of wings, seemingly swolen. “Looks like you’ll be staying at Ponyville General for a while, big brother.” He stated, starting towards the cave’s exit. “I appreciate you saving my life and all, but maybe next time try to think about whether or not your idea is actually good before acting on it. It might get you fewer broken wings.”
One stallion looked at the other, his face alight with shock. “Wait… my… my wings are broken?!” Boltsinger nodded. “But-but… I need my wings! Flying or not, I need those things to function!”
Boltsinger chuckled. “Well, I think a Home Economics class might help you to adapt!”
Brightling sat in a bed at Ponyville General Hospital, his wings in splints. The doctor had earlier laughed himself to tears at the idea of having treated the same injury on two members of the same family in the same year, and he now lay surrounded by ponies. Sparks was directly at his side, while Boltsinger, Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash encircled him.
“So…” Boltsinger started, looking around the room. “This is what it’s like to be on this end, huh?” Brightling cast a pouting glare in his brother’s direction, causing the stallion to inch back a few times. “I’m kidding! You’ll be back on your hooves in no time!” He raised his hooves defensively as his friends laughed.
Sparks, who had remained silent since the events in the cave, lifted her head and looked around at the laughing ponies. “How can you possibly forgive him after what happened at the Gala…?” she wondered, their attention turning to her. “Or… me, for that matter? How do you all just… smile like everything is going to be fine?”
Rainbow Dash stepped forward first. “Honestly? I’m still mad about what happened at the Gala!” She told her, stomping her hoof. “I told myself that the next time I saw his face, I was gonna beat it ‘till you couldn’t see it anymore!” She stepped back, turning to her flight student. “But, Bolt was able to forgive him. So, I figured if somepony as panicked and depressed as that one can give him a second chance, it was worth a shot.”
Brightling raised a hoof. “Speaking of the Gala… I wanted to apologize for that. I… wasn’t myself back then.”
Fluttershy nodded politely. “We understand. We all do things we regret.”
“And you sure came through in the end!” Pinkie added, bouncing up behind her.
Rarity stepped forward and placed her hoof on the bed. “Indeed. If you and Boltsinger hadn’t shown up when you did, it would have spelled disaster!”
Twilight looked at the saddened grey mare across the bed and sighed to herself. “Sparks… to be completely honest, I haven’t gotten over what you did to Bolt.” Sparks cringed slightly. “The way you acted during your first visit to Ponyville… And to top it off, you went after the Alicorn Amulet and went crazy! It’s a lot to swallow.” She stopped for a second as the Unicorn brought herself lower. Twilight took a deep breath, reaching out and putting her hoof on her. “But I can tell by looking at you now that there’s been a change in you. Even after all of the negativity between us, that’s something I just can’t ignore. If you’re willing to accept real friendship in your life, and use your talents in a way that makes you and everypony around you into better ponies, then I don’t see why I can’t give you another chance.”
Sparks looked up at the Alicorn that stood over her, placing her hoof on the extended foreleg. “Thank you, Princess… I’ll do my best.”
Brightling leaned forward, looking somberly at Boltsinger. “Well, forgiveness or not, what I did back then was wrong… and illegal.” He took a deep breath. “So, once I'm out of here, I’m gonna go to Canterlot… I’m gonna head right up to the castle, and let them know what I did.”
“Ya do realize that means yer gonna get arrested, right?” Applejack informed him.
“That is what happens when you break the law.” he confirmed, looking at his lap. “And I need to accept the consequences for what I did.”
“Well, what if the one you assailed went with you to put in a good word?” Boltsinger suggested. “I do have friends in Canterlot, you know.”
“You’d seriously do that?” Brightling asked, showing a mixture of awe and confusion.
“Well, you are family.” Boltsinger affirmed. “It’s the very least I can do.”
Brightling let out a relieved sigh, a tear running down his muzzle. “Thanks, little brother.” He reached his foreleg forward, pulling his brother in for a tight embrace. “I mean it… Thank you.”
Boltsinger put his forelegs around the yellow stallion with a face mirroring his teary-eyed brother’s, careful to not hit his wings. “Any time, big brother… Any time…”
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Gotta say this was well done. Definitely felt like something you might see in the show.
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I did. Thank you for pointing that out. Gonna go edit that now.
8724674
Hope there's a sequel of some sort