Divergent Destinies

by Leondude

Chapter 14 - Tears in the Rain

Twilight and Shining Armor stood at the graves of their parents. It had been only a week since Twilight's eventful encounter with Kain.

"Hi, Mom," Shining Armor said morosely, "Hi, Dad. I know it's been a while since we talked. Just got promoted to Captain of the Royal Guard last week. Bet you would have been real proud of me."

Twilight saw Shining's eyes watering, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Shining replied as he wiped away a tear, "Just a bit of rain."

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked, "It's not raini—"

It didn't take Twilight long to notice the tears running down her brother's eyes. As socially oblivious as she was, she knew he was trying to put on a brave front like he usually did.

"It is," Shining Armor replied, his voice quivering.

"Oh," Twilight said quietly, "So it is. Terrible day for it."

After a moment of silence, Twilight conjured a lilac plant, carefully laying it down as she moved closer to the grave and knelt down to pay her respects.

"I will bring you back soon," Twilight whispered to the deceased, "I promise."

She stood back up and turned away, ready to continue her studies in necromancy. She and Shining Armor trotted away to continue their respective duties. Ever since both siblings had reached their teens, it had always been a tradition of theirs to visit their parents every year on the anniversary of their deaths. Little did Shining know, her sister usually tried to bring back other departed ponies not long after they had paid their respects.

"You okay, Twily?" Shining asked, "You're quieter than usual."

"I have some good news but I didn't know if they wanted to hear about it," Twilight replied.

"Why wouldn't they want to hear about it if it's good news?" Shining asked, puzzled by his sister's behaviour.

"It's to do with Kain," Twilight replied.

There was a spark of hope in Shining's eyes, "Did you finally capture that monster?"

"Even better," Twilight replied, "I killed him."

Shining looked at his sister in a confused manner, "Wait, killed him? How? Not even Cadence could have beaten him and she was an alicorn."

"I don't know how but I guess I just tapped into power only unicorns of the highest level could possess," Twilight replied, "And then I melted his mask right off of his face and looked into his eyes as I burnt him to a crisp."

"How did it feel?" Shing asked.

Twilight paused before looking her brother in the eye, "It felt...good."

---

Spike watched as Twilight was preparing the finishing touches on a ritual designed to bring the spirit of a pony back into its physical form. Scrawled upon the dirt of where a pony by the name of Rigorous Mortcloth was buried were runes written in red, with four black candles surrounding the grave.

"Are you sure this will work, Twilight?" Spike asked, "I know you feel like you can do anything after you took down Kain but don't you think you should—"

Twilight giggled, "And I thought I was the neurotic one. Don't worry, I'm sure this will work. I looked over this ritual a dozen times, made sure everything is to perfection, why wouldn't it work?"

Before Twilight could focus on starting the ritual, she saw her undead companion clutching at his belly. Curious as to what it was, she saw him burp out a golden ticket.

"Okay..." Twilight said unfazed, "That was unusual."

"Really? Only noticed that now?" Spike dryly asked.

"I meant the ticket," Twilight replied before levitating the ticket towards her, "Who would invite me to the Grand Galloping Gala?"

Spike burped out an envelope, which Twilight then levitated over to herself. She ripped open the envelope and read aloud the letter within.

"Dear Twilight, Celestia had sent me two tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala. I didn't know what to do with the other one so I thought I would send it to you. It's fine if the GGG isn't your thing and you don't want to go, you can sell it to somepony else. Sunset Shimmer.

“PS: Since I picked Pinkie Pie as my plus one after a very unsubtle song and dance number, my other friends might want you to give the ticket to them. Or at least make them your plus one."

"So, are you going?" Spike asked.

"Not really," Twilight replied, "It's just a bunch of aristocrats and other high-class ponies dancing and eating cake. What about you?"

"It's not really my thing," Spike replied, "Don't want any of that girly frilly-frou nonsense."

Twilight shrugged, "Fair enough."

A loud crack of thunder boomed in the air, followed by a downpour of rain. But instead of getting drenched, Twilight and Spike were still dry. They looked up and saw a cyan pegasus with a rainbow-coloured mane peering down at them from above a hole in murky grey clouds.

"Hi there," the pegasus said, "Enjoying the weather?"

"What are you doing?" Twilight asked.

"Whaddya mean?" the pegasus asked rhetorically, "I just saw the smartest, most generous pony about to get rained on, so I thought I'd kick a hole in the clouds to keep her dry, that's all."

Twilight glanced over at the ticket she dropped onto the ground, "You're doing this for the ticket, aren't you?"

“Me? No no no," the pegasus replied in an unconvincing manner, "Of course not. Seriously, I'd do it for anypony."

"If it weren't for the fact that we have a mutual friend in Sunset, I would be inclined to believe you," Twilight deadpanned.

"Although, it would be kinda nice if you were gonna give me that ticket," the pegasus said.

"If you promise to be quiet while I perform this ritual, I will give the ticket," Twilight said.

The pegasus saluted, "You got it!"

Twilight breathed in, closed her eyes and focused on the corpse buried beneath her. She quietly chanted in an ancient Equestrian language as she channelled her magic into the cadaver below. A mostly skeletal, half-rotten corpse burst out from the grave, surrounded by Twilight's magic, and began to grow back its flesh and muscle. As soon as the once-dead pony had fully regenerated, Twilight collapsed onto the ground. The revived pony landed on his feet and gasped for air.

"I just had the most terrible dream!" Mortcloth exclaimed, "I dreamt that I was..."

Mortcloth looked at his own gravestone then at the little undead dragon standing before him.

"Dead?" Spike asked sardonically, "Yeah, that wasn't a dream."

Author's Note:

Soz this was a day late. I got drunk yesterday.