The Darkness Shard

by OliverSparkle

Chapter 10

In the Canterlot castle library, Oliver, Flurry Heart, Riku, Kairi and Mickey were searching and reading through all of the history and cure books to see if there was a way and or someone to help stop the nightmares from haunting Lightning. But sadly, no luck has come upon them yet.

Oliver closed the book he was reading and magically placed it on the top of the pile of books he read through so far.

“Any luck yet?” Oliver asked the others.

“Nothing,” sighed Flurry Heart as she closed the book and placed it in her own pile of books.

“Can’t seem to find any answer in any of these books,” said Kairi still reading a book on cures.

“Nothing so far,” said Mickey still finding the answer in the book he was reading.

“Hate to say it, but no luck from me either,” said Riku while putting the book back on the bookcase.

“So far, none of this books have the answer we’re looking for!” Said Oliver in an annoyed tone, “Ugh! There has to be something to help Lightning and stop the nightmares from continuing! A place might be helpful too!”

“Why are books often so difficult to find the answer in?” Flurry Heart asked.

“I think that question will remain a mystery for all of us,” said Oliver calmly, “We just have to keep on trying.”

“That’s the kind of tone I like to hear,” said the voice of Twilight.

The two ponies and the three Keyblade heroes turned to the doorway of the library and saw Twilight walking towards them with the mane seven, Spike, Capper, Sunburst, Constantine, Vincent, the other six guardians, Yozora, Amore, Shining Armor and Cadence following her. Sora, Donald and Goofy were still with the young seven.

“Figured I might find the rest of you here,” said Twilight while smiling.

“Auntie Twily!” Flurry Heart shouted happily before running up to her aunt.

“Hello, Flurry Heart,” said Twilight before trotting up to her niece as they did the special greeting Twilight and Cadence created when Cadence should to foalsat Twilight when she was a little filly before passing it down to Flurry Heart.

“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!” The two then laughed and giggled happily while hugging each other.

“Must you two always do that?” Shining asked with a smirk on his face.

“Hey, I’ll have you know this is now our aunt and niece bond,” said Twilight while gently rubbing Flurry Heart’s mane, “Especially after Cadence give Flurry Heart permission to do the special greeting with me.”

“What can I say?” Cadence said proudly, “If roles can pasted on, then so can special greetings.”

Shining playfully rolled his eyes while saying, “Whatever.”

“Hey guys,” said Sora as he, Donald and Goofy entered the library, “Anything we missed.”

“Hey, Sora!” Flurry Heart said cheerfully before running towards her first favourite Keyblade wielder.

“Hey there, Flurry Heart,” replied Sora happily while holding his hands out as Flurry Heart jumped into his hands and the two hugged each other. “It’s so good to see you again.”

“And look how much you’ve grown since we last saw you,” said Donald.

“Gwarsh, you’re a big girl now,” said Goofy with a chuckle.

Flurry Heart blushed a bit.

“Well, I am still little,” said Flurry Heart, “But I am a grown up little girl.”

Sora chuckled a bit before placing Flurry Heart on the floor.

“Hey, Sora,” greeted Oliver, “And no, you haven’t missed much. We’re still trying to find a way to help Lightning.”

“Ah, that’s okay,” said Sora, “We were just with them. We had a little snack before letting Lightning get more sleep. Hope that’s okay, Fluttershy.”

“Don’t worry, Sora,” said Fluttershy, “As long as he’s also getting more sleep, I’m not mad at all.”

Sora smiled at Fluttershy while chuckled a bit.

“Any luck on finding anything yet?” Cadence asked politely.

“So far, nothing,” answered Oliver while shaking his head, “None of the books has the answer we’re looking for yet.”

“And I’m still worried I might get the nightmares too,” said Flurry Heart in a scared and worried tone, “I was there when Xehanort and The Storm King attacked.”

Twilight felt bad and sorry for Flurry Heart as she frowned at the filly. She walked up to her and gently placed a hoof around her and said, “Don’t worry, little bug. We’ll find a way to stop the nightmares continuing. We just have to keep on searching until we find the answer we’re looking for, even if the cure is located in a place we’ve never seen or heard of before.”

“Hey!” Mickey said cheerfully, “I think I found it!”

Everyone quickly looked at the king with both happy looks on their faces.

“Really?!” Fluttershy asked with joy and happiness while shiny hope stars appeared around her, “You’ve found the answer to saving my baby boy?!”

“Mmhmm!” Mickey answered happily while nodding his head, “The answer of saving Lightning from those nightmares is right here in this book.”

Mickey closed the book and shows everyone the cover of it. Twilight walked over and looked at the book while reading the title, “Magical But Mystery Places.”

“Uh-huh,” said Mickey, “And here’s the page with the cure.”

Mickey walks over to the table and places the book on it before opening it flat for everyone to see the page he has found the cure in. Twilight looked at the page and started to read it,

“The Tree of Life. Home to King Kion, son of Simba and Nala, and Queen Rani, daughter of Sãhas and Ãnanda, and defended by a group of animals known as the Night Pride. It can help any hurt, sick or endangered animals and creatures including…” the friendship princess gasped with joy as she saw what was also on the page, “Nightmares!”

Twilight flew up into the air with joy while saying, “Woohoo! The King has found it! We can finally save Lightning from those nightmares!”

Mickey chuckled with delight after that comment from Twilight.

“So now that we’ve found the answer, where is the Tree of Life,” asked Ventus.

“Oh, right,” said Twilight calmly knowing Ven was right about that. She floated back down and looked at the page again to find out where the Tree of Life is.

“Okay,” she began, “It saids that the Tree of Life is located…oh.”

“What’s wrong, sugarcube?” Asked Applejack worriedly, “Where’s the location of the Tree of Life?”

Twilight looked at her friends and family, the two sisters, Constantine, Vincent, Amore and the guardians before answering,

“It’s located…Outside of Equestria.”

“WHAT?!” Everyone, except for Twilight, said in both shock and surprised.

“Another place that’s outside of Equestria?!” Rarity started to wince like a drama queen again, “Ugh! Don’t tell me we have to meet horrible, smelly and rude creatures there like we did at Klugetown during the Storm King attack!”

“Hey, Capper was from that town and he wasn’t like those rude creatures!” Fluttershy said crossly as Capper crossed his arms and stared crossly at Rarity.

“Plus you can’t say something about the animals there just yet, Rarity,” said Twilight while walking up to her friends, “The creatures from Klugetown, except for Capper, were rude and nasty, but we can’t say the same thing for the animals at the Tree of Life.”

“Twilight’s right,” said Applejack, “We can’t just judge them already before getting to see them first. And who knows? They might be friendly like we are.”

“And there’s no way I’m letting my poor nephew go through more nightmares by judging them already and refusing to go,” said Rainbow Dash, “That’s why I’m going to the Tree of Life to help Lightning and see the creatures there for myself.”

“I’m coming too,” said Starlight Glimmer.

“Me too,” said Sunset Shimmer.

“And I’m coming as well,” said Sunburst.

“We’ll come too,” said Celestia, “We wanna help with helping Lightning too.”

Twilight gave Celestia a nod in both understood and agreement.

“We’re coming as well,” said Mickey, “If that mysterious figure is behind all of this with those dark wolves, like Roxas and Yozora told us about, then we’ll be the ones to help handle them.”

“And you lot know the darkness well than we do,” said Spike politely earning a gentle pat on the head by Twilight who was smiling at her dragon.

“That is correct, buddy,” said Axel proudly giving Spike a thumbs up.

Flurry Heart started to bounce up and down with joy while saying, “Yay! We get to go on another adventure with Sora and the others, and visit a new place!”

“Oh no,” said Shining as Flurry Heart stopped bouncing and looked at her father, “You’re not going to the Tree of Life, Flurry Heart.”

“Huh? But why not?”

“Because it is too dangerous outside of Equestria,” answered Shining Armor, “If that mysterious figure is behind all of this and more dark wolves are out there waiting for us, then there’s no telling what might happen to you. And I’m not too sure if the creatures that rule the Tree of Life are friendly or not. That’s why you’re staying here in Canterlot with Grandmare and Grandpa until we come back.”

Flurry Heart was shocked and upset by that.

“But, but…but that’s not fair!” She said, “I went somewhere outside of Equestria before and that was dangerous, but I was okay! And Ansem the Wise and his apprentices were friendly, they didn’t even try to hurt me or Olive!”

“That was different,” Shining said, “But this time, it’s even more dangerous and I can’t risk losing you or let you get hurt.”

“But I can’t stay here with Grandmare and Grandpa! If the nightmares does come to haunt me, they might escape my mind and do something to them!”

“We’ll try to save them if it does happen,” said Shining in an almost cross tone.

“So you’re just gonna put their lives in danger when we don’t know who’s behind the nightmares and the dark wolves yet?!”

Shining Armor was not happy with tone Flurry Heart was using or the way she was speaking to him.

“Don’t you use that tone, young filly! And never speak to me like that either! I am not putting their lives in danger!”

“It almost sounds like you are considering they’ve never been in a darkness threat before!” Flurry Heart said crossly.

“Flurry Heart! I’m trying to keep you safe!”

“You’re not letting me come on this adventure and putting Grandmare and Grandpa in charge when they know nothing about darkness or been in any threats!”

“I’m doing this to protect you!”

“Like being overprotective of me and putting other ponies’ lives in danger is protecting me?! You’ve been overprotective of me since I started preschool and I’m getting tired of it!”

Shining Armor was getting more angry with the attitude Flurry Heart was using right now.

“Flurry Heart, I’m getting sick of your attitude right now!” He shouted angrily making his own daughter scared by his tone and stepping back a bit, “You are not going to the Tree of Life with us and that’s final! And if you continue to speak to me like that, you are going to be…!”

Before he could continue, Twilight’s wing blocked his view of Flurry Heart which he was shockingly surprised by. Shining looked at his sister and saw she was glaring at him as she said, “Don’t do this to her like you did to me!”

Shining took a step back while in shock since he knew what Twilight meant by that. Cadence, however, was confused by the way Twilight told her brother not to do the same thing to Flurry Heart like he did to his sister.

“Did…did what to you, Twilight?” Cadence asked calmly but confusedly.

Twilight looked at her sister-in-law with a scared expression. She knew she was on about what she just said to her brother, and now she wanted to know what she meant by it.

“Twilight, what did Shining do to you that he was gonna do to Flurry Heart? The princess of love asked in a calm but serious tone.

The five girls, including Celestia, were starting to get nervous to what Twilight will say to Cadence when she tells her what happened a long ago, especially since they were also part of it.

Twilight knew there was no escaping from telling Cadence what Shining did to her. So she let out a sigh before saying,

“Cadence, do you remember when I found you in caves beneath Canterlot and you saw me there after breaking you free?”

“What about it?” Cadence raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“Well…if you thought Chrysalis imprisoned me there because I was onto her and I tried to stop her but she stopped me first. The first half you’re right, but the other half…you’re wrong. Chrysalis imprisoned me easily, with nopony around.”

“Nopony…around?”

The mane five were getting more scared to what might happen next when Twilight tells Cadence what happened on that day.

Twilight let out a long soft and calm sigh before explaining everything to Cadence.

“After we’ve got the invitation and I found out Shining was marrying you, you weren’t acting like the Cadence I’ve always known before knowing that the Cadence there was Chrysalis pretending to be you. You didn’t do the special greet we’ve always do, you only asked me if I was old to be doing stuffs like that. Even Shining agreed like you were really a grown up princess now. Then after that, the fake Cadence was acting rudely to my friends and treated them badly. Lying to Applejack about liking her homemade treats and throwing her own bag of treats away without her looking or knowing when you always like any kind of treats and tell the truth about them, making Rarity put more work on the dress when you never do that and always like any kind of dress, telling Pinkie Pie that the party she has done was for a little pony to make her feel like she hasn’t done well, and saying that Fluttershy’s birds were singing badly and off-key. I tried telling them that Cadence wasn’t feeling like herself and something was up, but they didn’t believe me. They all thought I was overacting and jealous of Shining getting married while letting the threat get to me, so I went to tell Shining to see if he believes me. But he didn’t, and that’s when I saw Cadence putting Shining under mind control knowing that she isn’t the Cadence I loved for so long. I tried to tell the girls about it, but they still didn’t listen and were more excited on being the new bridemares.”

Shining gulped nervously as Twilight continued.

“Then, at the rehearsal, I told Shining, the girls and Celestia everything about what the fake Cadence was doing while I was not in happy mode since nopony believed or listened to me. The fake Cadence suddenly ran off crying and they all thought I really upset you. That’s when Shining had a go at me and told me that the reason his eyes was all dizzy and stuff was because of putting the bubble shield in place and making sure the wedding was perfect and safe from the threat. He then told me to forget being his best mare and to not bother showing up at the wedding before seeing Cadence. The girls also walked out on me as well like I was trying ruin everything they did for the wedding, even Celestia walked out on me after telling me I had a lot to think about.”

Cadence’s mouth was wide open in shock after everything she had just heard from Twilight. Her own favourite filly being abandoned for trying to save her own brother from somepony that wasn’t really Cadence herself and being kicked out of the wedding.

Her mouth started to slowly close as she slowly changed her expression to an angry look. A very VERY angry expression.

Shining saw this and nervously walked over to his wife not knowing what was to come next.

“Cadence? Honey? You okay?”

The pink princess slowly moved her head towards her husband showing her angry look as it made him scared of her expression.

“You did all that to your own sister…LIKE SHE WANTED TO RUIN OUR WEDDING WHEN SHE WAS TRYING TO SAVE YOUR REAR END FROM A CADENCE THAT WASN’T ME?!”

Shining took a step back a bit in fear and got even more scared and nervous of how Cadence took the news.

Suddenly, they heard sobbing near them. The two looked down and saw it was their daughter who was sobbing. After hearing everything her auntie have just said, she was more upset of the way her father was speaking to her.

“You yelled at Auntie Twily for something she wouldn’t try to do!” She said while sobbing, “And you were gonna do the same thing to me when all I wanted was to help too!”

Flurry Heart started to run away while crying.

“Flurry Heart, wait!” Shining said sadly, “Flurry, please wait!”

But it was too late, Flurry Heart was already out of the library and probably heading to the guest room Celestia said she could sleep in.

Cadence was about to go after her until she saw Twilight looked down in sadness with her eyes closed. She was just about to say something to her, but then Twilight slowly opened her eyes and moved her head back up to look at her sister-in-law.

“I’m sorry, Cadence,” said Twilight in a sad and guilt tone, “For telling you this after not telling you moons ago. I didn’t want you to end your happy relationship with Shining if I did tell you, and only me tell you.” She then looked crossly at her brother, “And Shining, you’ve just upset your own daughter for the first time, in the same way you did to me when I was just trying to save you. I hope you’re happy.”

Twilight’s horn started to glow as she was about to teleport away.

“Twilight, wait!” Applejack called worriedly.

But, again, it was too late, Twilight had already teleported away and probably ended up in her room of the Canterlot castle.

Shining Armor saw Oliver walking towards the doors of the library while looking down in sadness.

“Son? Where are you going?” Shining asked worriedly which made Oliver stop but still looking down in sadness.

“I can’t speak to you right now, Dad,” answered Oliver before looking at his father, “Because I’ve got two things to worry about now. One is saving Lightning from those nightmares, and the other is doing the same thing you did to Aunt Twilight, but to my sister if I ever decided to get married. Just like you and Aunt Twilight, I’m Flurry Heart’s big brother and she’s my little sister. And I refuse to upset her, even if she is trying to save me.”

With nothing else left to say, Oliver continued to make his way out of the library and towards the guest room he’s sleeping in.

Shining watched his son walk out of the library with both sadness and guilt on his face. Sad, because Oliver can’t talk to him right now. Guilt, because he made Oliver think and worry that he might do the same thing he did if he gets married during a threat one day.

Shining turned and saw his wife walking up to him, with an angry expression on her face still, before saying, “Once I’ve done comforting Twilight and our children, you are in SO much trouble, young stallion! The same goes for you girls! And you, Aunt Celestia!”

The five girls and Celestia flinched after hearing what Cadence had just said to them.

“What about me though?” Spike asked, “I also left Twilight, why aren’t I in trouble too?”

Cadence looked at the baby dragon with a calm look before answering, “You’re a baby dragon, Spike. And I don’t like yelling or telling off a little foal, filly or any creature. Especially if that creature is a family member.”

Spike listened to what Cadence was saying to him and quickly understood why she wasn’t gonna tell him off as well for what he did. But deep down, he was worried about Twilight.

Cadence quickly noticed this and gently patted Spike on the head.

“Give her some time,” she said softly, “She’ll be okay as soon as you know it.“

Spike nodded his head in understood as Cadence made her way out of the library and towards one of the guest rooms depending which one of her children she’s gonna see first as well as her sister-in-law.

Celestia sadly but guilty watched her niece walk out of the library while worrying to what Cadence has to say to her after checking on Twilight, Flurry Heart and Oliver. She suddenly saw Luna walking out of the library too and, without searching, she had an angry look on her face.

“Luna? Where are you going?” Celestia called to her sister, but she didn’t listen as she was now out of the room. So the sun princess chased after her. “Luna! Please, wait!”

With Celestia now out of the library, all that was left in the room was the guardians, the first Crystal Empire ruler, two humans, two unicorns, a cat, a wizard pony, five guilty girls, one guilty stallion and a dragon who couldn’t help but still feel guilty as well.

Spike looked down sadly while rubbing his right arm. He then felt a hand touching his shoulder as he turned and saw Xion looking at him.

“Xion,” he began, “I’m sorry for what I did moons ago. I shouldn’t have done that to Twilight, especially since she was also my mother and not just my friend and sister. I didn’t know what I was thinking and…”

“It’s okay, Spike,” said Xion softly, “I’m not mad at you for what you have done. I wasn’t there, and I refuse to be mad at you for something that you did moons ago and I wasn’t there to see it.”

“But, but I…”

“Spike, you don’t need to worry,” said Xion, “If I say I refuse to be mad at you for something that happened moons ago, then I refuse to be mad. And same what Cadence said, you’re a baby dragon and you don’t deserve to be yelled at.”

Spike slowly gave Xion a small smile before saying, “Thanks.”

Xion smiled at her special somedragon and gave him a gentle kiss on the forehead which made him blush.

Fluttershy sadly looked at Capper as he sadly looked at her back.

“Capper, I…” But before Fluttershy could continue, she felt Capper gently placing his paws on her shoulders as he bent down to her level.

“Fluttershy,” said Capper, “If you think I’m mad at you for what you did and leave you…I’m not.”

Fluttershy was surprised about this, but also confused as well.

“You’re not mad at me?”

“Or leaving you either,” added Capper.

“But, I made a huge mistake to Twilight,” said Fluttershy, “Even though it was moons ago, how come you’re not m…?”

Capper gently placed a paw finger on Fluttershy’s mouth to stop her from making herself feeling more guilty and thinking that Capper is gonna hate her and leave her.

“Please, Fluttershy, don’t keep letting your actions get the best of you and make you think I wanna leave you,” said Capper before moving his paw finger away from Fluttershy’s mouth, “Even though what you did was wrong and it was moons ago, I refuse to break up with you and leave you.”

“But…but why though?” Fluttershy was still confused by this.

“Because,” Capper began, “I just, can’t. I loved you ever since Sombra returned, and my father role for Lightning Twister has grown upon my heart. And I don’t want him feel sad if I did leave you. It won’t be because of you that made me leave that’ll upset him, it’ll be because of me that’ll upset him. Plus it wouldn’t fix anything and I’ll bringing this on myself. My heart can not break for any mistake you did now or in the past. And that mistake was in the past, so I can’t and refuse to be mad at you about it.”

Fluttershy understood everything Capper had just said as she slowly smiled at her husband. The two then formed a hug with Capper rubbing his wife’s back gently.

While hugging, Fluttershy asked, “You’re gonna be okay when Cadence talks to me and the girls?”

“I’ll be okay,” replied Capper, “I’ll keep out of sight just in case.”

Fluttershy nodded her head in understood as the two continued to hug each other. But deep inside, Fluttershy was worried about something else other than just Twilight and the nightmares haunting her son.

“Well, I know none of us were also there when it happened, but…” Donald angrily walked up to Applejack and banged her head with his fist.

“OW!” Applejack shouted before rubbing her head with her hoof.

“You selfish pony!” The wizard duck shouted angrily making Applejack feel scared by the outburst, “Twilight was your friend! And you just walked out on her like she wanted to ruin your hard work on the wedding from the very beginning?! You should have taken her seriously, even if she doesn’t have proof! If a friend is worried about something or saw a threat inside the building even with one or no proof, don’t ignore them, stay with them! And you went off with a pony you barely knew for one day only for a princess you also barely knew! But not only that, you also ignored the threat that was happening! That’s more important than an exciting event! You five should be ashamed of yourselves!”

“I hate to agree with Donald here, but he’s right,” said Sora while crossing his arms, “You five should not have done that.”

The five girls felt more guilty for their actions they pulled moons ago as they looked down in shame. They suddenly saw Sunset Shimmer making her way out of the library with a sad expression on her face.

“Sunset? Where are you going, darling?” Rarity asked confusedly making Sunset stop.

“Going to my room,” replied Sunset while looking down in sadness, “I want some time alone.”

“Is it because of what we did to Twilight moons ago?” Rainbow Dash asked, “Cause I’ll have you know that you weren’t there either, so why are you upset about it?”

“Because I was abandoned by my friends too!” Sunset said angrily as she glared at the rainbow maned pony.

Rainbow Dash shockingly moved back a bit while having a sad expression in between the shocked look. Sunset Shimmer has also been abandoned by her friends as well, which means she is now feeling the same pain Twilight felt on that day.

Sunset stopped glaring and looked away in sadness before continuing her way out of the library and towards her guest room.

Sunburst sadly and worriedly watched her sister leave the room before looking at Starlight Glimmer.

“Starlight, I need to…” Before Sunburst could continue, he felt Starlight gently patting his shoulder.

“You need to go check on Sunset by yourself at the moment. I understand, Sunburst,” she said softly to him, “She needs you right now. Go to her.”

Sunburst smiled at his wife and gave her a nod. He then made his way out of the library and towards Sunset’s guest room to comfort her.

But at the far end of the library, with none of them even noticing, the hooded figure was standing there watching the whole thing. A dark corridor appeared behind him on the wall as he walked backwards into it before it disappeared.

Comments

[ChazMLPFIM]

Awesome. I like that Princess Cadance learns the truth.

[shining paladin]

awesome chapter mate keep it up cant wait for the next chapter

[Sparkle91]

Shining armor in a nutshell:

[GoebelTron]

Nice work