The Shadow and the Star

by Misty Shadow

Decisions and Destiny

The star, still in the realm belonging to him, mused over the shocking truth Twilight Sparkle and King Sombra would have to accept. Memories of Sombra’s tyranny in the dimension he had come from flashed through his mind...

In that dimension, after Discord had brought Sombra back, and was goading on Twilight and her friends to not rely on his help to defeat him in Princess Celestia and Luna’s throne room, Sombra took advantage of a moment of vulnerability to transform Discord into stone and shatter him into pieces. It was when he took a hit for Fluttershy that something happened that even the lord of chaos did not anticipate…Sombra knew of petrification spells. The blast he took expecting to be harmless was actually a stoning spell, one that instantly turned him into a statue. Firing another magical blast, Sombra caused the draconequus to shatter. Twilight and her friends, mortified, lost all will to fight. With no motivation to unlock their latent inner strength and their safety net gone, they quickly fell to the shadow king, unable to resist his mind control. Equestria was enslaved and evil triumphed. The darkness had found victory over the light…

“…And then what?” the star asked ominously. “Do the wicked truly win in the end even when they succeed in their conquests in the material world?”

The star had told the story of how his dimension fell to Sombra to Radiant Hope. Like Twilight and Sombra, Hope only knew the star as a nameless soul she could see and sense. However, she immediately empathized with him, even as she didn’t want to believe that Sombra was capable of being purely evil, even in an alternate dimension. Thus, words of consolation she gave to the star were followed by the question…

“If Twilight and her friends had succeeded in defeating Sombra…would he have been reformed?”

“No.” the star bluntly answered. “He would have appeared to have been destroyed as their light of friendship banished him to the moon.”

Radiant Hope was taken aback in discomfort, naturally convulsing in disapproval. Even knowing what the star had been through, she couldn’t withhold her disdain for the alternative.

“Worry not.” the unphased star told her. “I do not condemn you for reviling in disgust at the prospect of your friend’s demise. However, that is the fate the will of the light decided for him. To no longer exist bodily in the material world, but to exist within the moon among the stars. Cruel as that may seem, you must wonder…what is Sombra’s prison, truly? What do you feel is the worst fate he could meet?”

“To be lost forever in the darkness, alone.” Hope immediately replied solemnly.

“And the fate the light decided for him still saved him from that.” the star explained, surprising Hope. “It was the will of the light for Sombra to meet with Twilight’s friends after they ceased to exist physically. Twilight and her friends can’t force Sombra to become good, and even freed, Sombra still knows the pain of solitude. He also knows the pain of guilt, subconsciously longing to pay penance for his actions. That is why the light punishes him, to teach him and mend his soul. It’s no different than in your world. You save Sombra from his loneliness before you embark on a journey with him to restore the princess he shattered and right his wrong from the past.”

“Do you…know of what fate the light has decided for Sombra in the world you transported him to with Twilight?” Hope asked curiously.

“I can not foretell the future, I’m afraid.” the star answered. “No one knows for sure what the will of the light will decide, for it is the actions of those who serve the light that ultimately decide its course. The will of the light has an incredible destiny planned for all of us…if we want it.”

“So…” a worried Hope responded. “What would happen if it turned out that Sombra didn’t want it?”

“It would not mean the end for him.” the star said to assuage her. “Trust me, I was in the same position as he was once. “The end” is not what you think.”

Something started to dawn on Hope…

“I see…” she replied. “Don’t worry, I believe you. I’m not afraid anymore to do what’s right, even if it may hurt the one I love in the moment.”

“Then I shall entrust you with the greatest magic I know…” he said happily, glowing brighter than before.

---

Hope was reminiscing on the conversation she had leading up to her agreement to help the star as she arrived at the part of the Crystal Empire where the Crystal Heart was held in in its pedestal. A large crowd of Crystal Ponies had gathered around in a circle where Twilight Sparkle, in the form of King Sombra, laid in the center, still confined to a locked cage. Above, Princess Flurry Heart and Sombra, in the form of Twilight Sparkle, were watching from the balcony of the royal palace, smiling down on the Empire’s residents below.

“Citizens of the Empire!” Flurry exclaimed innocently. “It is with great honor that I present to you this opportunity…to decide the fate of our oldest and most feared foe, King Sombra!”

The Crystal Ponies began to chatter incomprehensibly among themselves, confused, surprised, and excited.

“As some of you may already know,” interjected Sombra as Twilight slyly, “King Sombra mysteriously returned in my palace this morning, acting rather strangely. After much discussion between myself, my subjects, and your gracious ruler, my niece, we have decided to leave his fate in your hooves.”

This speech intensified the excitement of the Crystal Ponies, many of them exuberant by the rush of feeling a greater sense of purpose. Sombra’s sly smile grew wider, their response to his rhetoric being exactly what he expected…

“Gullible fools…” he thought smugly. “I knew this was the ideal way to gaslight them…by making them believe that they’re choosing this…”

---

Earlier that day, when Flurry Heart was at Twilight’s palace…

During their discussion, Sombra had agreed to allow Flurry a chance to speak to Twilight upon request. Walking with her to the throne room, he opened the doors to where the friendship princess in the body of the shadow king was still detained. Impulsively, Snow Sentinel saluted his former princess along with the other guards.

“Here he is.” Sombra told her, swallowing his jealousy for Twilight getting treatment he had not received.

Twilight immediately perked up when she heard the doors open and looked ahead to see her niece, smirking at her.

“Flurry Heart?” she said impulsively.

“Sombra!” she answered cheekily, slowly approaching him. “You’re a sight for sore eyes! I never thought I’d see you again, especially under circumstances like these!”

“You’re awfully chipper for a pony meeting a detested despot who assaulted you, your family, and your homeland when you were an infant.” Twilight replied bemusedly as Flurry reached her cage.

“Aren’t I?” Flurry retorted, maintaining a tongue-in-cheek tone of voice as she brought her head down to her level. “Though being a villain, you should consider the possibility that the reason I’m so happy to see you again is because I’ve finally been given the opportunity for some PAYBACK!”

Putting a loud emphasis on that word, Flurry booped Twilight’s snout with her front hoof.

“What are you doing?” an even more perplexed Twilight responded to Flurry rubbing her snout with her hoof.

“You don’t recall?” Flurry replied with a scoff. “I know what you did, even though I was just a baby!”

“You can’t expect me to remember every minor act of villainy I’ve committed.” Twilight told her solemnly, instinctively acting as Sombra would as Flurry pulled her hoof away. “The truly reprehensible acts are what haunt my mind.”

“Shall I take that as a show of remorse?” Flurry asked inquisitively.

“What if it was?” Twilight responded, also inquiring.

“Because I am of the belief that you are not beyond redemption.” Flurry answered sweetly and sincerely, leading Twilight, Spike, Snow, and Sombra to look at her intently. “And although my aunt and I are not in full agreement of how your fate should be decided, we’ve worked out a compromise I hope you will find reasonable.”

“What are you proposing?” Twilight asked curiously.

“What we’re offering is to bring you back to the Crystal Empire.” Flurry explained, surprising Twilight, Spike, and Snow. “From that point on, we’ll allow my subjects to decide your fate with the light and love within them.”

“What?!” Twilight exclaimed in shock, reminded of Sombra’s first defeat in the Empire. “Wouldn’t that destroy me? What makes you think that I would find that reasonable?”

“I’m not finished explaining.” Flurry continued. “Not only is there the possibility that you’ll be reformed…what gave me the idea to do this is something the Crystal Heart showed me regarding your destiny.”

“And that is?”

“It was a vision of you among five lights…transformed into an alicorn.”

This made Twilight, Spike, and Snow flabbergasted as one of the guards fainted from shock. Sombra, on the other hand, briefly flashed a sinister smile.

“Five lights…no…it couldn’t be…” Twilight thought in terror.

“I know.” Flurry interjected, noticing her shock. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw it either, but the will of the light works in mysterious ways. It can’t be a coincidence that I was shown such a thing on the day you mysteriously returned.”

“So you’re willing to risk me obtaining divine power at the risk of my life,” replied a still disbelieving Twilight attempting to express her skepticism like Sombra would, “just to affirm a vision from this artificial entity called “the will of the light”?”

“I didn’t expect you to understand it,” answered Flurry solemnly, “for you are only a mortal deceived by the will of the void. It’s not actually a gamble between your destruction or your evolution to a higher plane of existence. Neither of us are actually risking anything, since there is no “may or may not happen”. This is just your destiny that the will of the light has ordained. This fact is immutable, yet you have a choice. It doesn’t even have to be either/or. Even if the light and love from my subjects were to destroy you again, you could be saved by your belief in the grace of a friend to revive you once more...possibly as an alicorn.”

After a moment of silence, Twilight began to realize something…

“Oh no, Flurry…” she thought somberly. “I understand EXACTLY what’s going on. You’re just like me. It’s not just that you have complete faith in the will of the light…you also refuse to hate Sombra’s soul despite everything he’s done. You too don’t want him to writhe in torment forever.”

Twilight then decided to express these sentiments the way she felt Sombra would.

“I know you’re not stupid. For sure, you have a safety net. Would that happen to be complete confidence in your strength, believing you could defeat me, even with me as an alicorn, or would it be faith in there being good in me?”

“Neither.” Flurry replied bluntly with a smile. “I just have complete confidence in the will of the light. That is the safety net for both myself, my subjects, and all of Equestria. You have yet to comprehend the guiding principles of our nation, thus why you don’t understand why we can’t be intimidated by you. For even if your darkness prevails, you can not erase our light of love and hope.”

“We’ll see about that, you fool…” Sombra thought condescendingly and confidently. “If you are all truly so dense, my victory is all but guaranteed…”

Sombra briefly flashed another sinister smirk, which Twilight caught.

“Sombra isn’t in the least bit nervous about the possibility of me becoming an alicorn version of him…” she pondered curiously. “That conniving creep. He must have some kind of scheme in store for that event. I can only begin to guess what it is though…why would he not fear me becoming immortal? Is it because he’s already immortal himself now in my body? Or maybe…”

Twilight realized something that she had never thought about before.

“That’s right…I never did question how he was able to return to destroy the Tree of Harmony after we blasted him with the magic of the Elements of Harmony. I always just assumed Discord brought him back again after that infamous revelation of his, but even when we last talked, he never said anything about reviving him after that particular defeat. The way he looked like he had been disintegrated then…something that actually brought him to the Tree of Harmony…it’s like how my friends once told me that it looked like I had been disintegrated when I was blasted with the Elements back when I became a…no way…he obviously couldn’t be an alicorn…but is he already immortal?! Not just as me, but as himself too?!”

“I can tell she’s thought it over…” Sombra presumed in thought, judging from an astonished expression on Twilight’s face. “Searched for a reason as to why I would do this with knowledge of that possibility…but only I can know for sure why your fate is sealed regardless of what happens…for we have not just switched bodies, but destinies as well…”

Twilight did subconsciously know that this was the reason things were playing out as such…yet she also wanted to know what it had been like for Sombra to be banished…

“So Sombra…” Flurry spoke softly. “I believe we have given you enough time to think it over. We don’t want to force you to confront your destiny, but we need an answer. What is your decision?”

“I’ll go.” Twilight answered solemnly with a bow. “I’m not afraid of death.”

It was in that moment that Snow and Spike, after also seeing the way she had reacted with complete disinterest by the prospect of gaining more power as an alicorn, knew for sure there was good in this pony they saw as Sombra. And so, as Flurry and Sombra prepared to depart with this caged pony, Snow saluted both his leaders and Twilight, whom he looked at with a smile before telling her with a wink…

“I wish you the best.”

“We know you’re on the right track.” Spike also said in encouragement. “And something tells me you can get another pony back on the right track too.”

Flurry smiled sweetly at Snow bowing to her as she left with Sombra while levitating Twilight in her cage. Sombra, however, simply hid an envious scowl as he walked ahead.

“I’ll be the judge of who’s on the right track from now on…” he thought menacingly. “After all, I’m the true arbiter of her fate…”

---

In the present, at the Crystal Empire, Sombra remained confident of the fact that it was only he who knew and could truly decide Twilight’s ultimate fate in this moment. The Crystal Ponies, riled up from his speech, turned to the one they thought was him in the cage.

“So…ready to eat our dust again?” a cocky pony remarked in a mean-spirited tone. “I’d hope so, considering you’ve become dust before!”

Twilight gulped with a despondent but accepting look on her face.

“Yes…I’m ready.” she replied succinctly, taking the taunt without resistance.

“Bah, you’re no fun!” the arrogant pony retorted, frustrated, turning their head away. “Why’d you come back in the first place if you were just going to die a loser’s death like this without a fight?”

Those words wounded Twilight’s feelings more, making her doubt herself ever slightly. Thankfully, another Crystal Pony’s response to the one jeering her quickly restored her faith…

“Um…it could be because he wants to atone now? You heard that he’s been acting strangely since he returned…don’t you think that could be the reason?”

This led Twilight to remember what Snow and Spike had told her before she was brought here…

“That’s right…” she recalled in thought, regaining hope. “Spike and Snow Sentinel believed in me even though they fought against Sombra to save the Empire. By being the best Sombra I could be, I won over their faith in me. If I could get them out of all my subjects to believe in Sombra, that proves what I knew the whole time. I can defy Sombra’s supposed destiny to be shunned and despised…and so long as others believe in me, I can defy his supposed destiny to be destroyed too!”

“I do want to atone…” she interjected in response to the Crystal Pony’s suggestion, standing up and speaking with vigor. “At any cost, even my life!”

This exclamation shocked the crowd, leading many to gasp, surprising even Flurry and Sombra. A familiar cloaked pony’s attention was also caught, and thus she began preparing a spell…

“You heard me!” she continued her dauntless declaration. “I want you to decide my fate by channeling every ounce of light and love within you into the Crystal Heart! Give me ALL of it!”

The one who previously taunted her was now impressed, giving her a clap. The one who suggested the possibility of expiation earlier now fully believed in her, as did many more in the crowd. Without even thinking about it, they began giving their light and love to the Crystal Heart, which began growing brighter. Flurry Heart grew more excited by the event that was unfolding while Sombra was growing more nervous…

“I was not expecting this…” he worriedly told himself in his mind. “Has Twilight gone past fear, accepted her destruction? Or is this…?”

Hope, having finished casting a spell, vanished with a flash of light that came from the Crystal Heart after it had finished powering up from the Crystal Ponies’ magic. Immediately, the crowd looked to where the one they saw as the shadow king stood…and saw nothing on the floor of the cage but a scorch mark in the shape of a star with steam rising from it. Bewildered and unsure of what had just happened, the crowd fell silent. Flurry was none the wiser, staring blankly below while Sombra simply scoffed to himself in thought…

“As if this isn’t just another contingency I was ready for…to think I almost broke a sweat a second ago…with these ponies in a state of confusion and uncertainty, I can easily move on with my plan to manipulate and weaken them…”

A pair of green eyes glowed above the Empire ominously…

---

“She’s already an alicorn…” a dark force thought. “Where’s he?”

Simultaneously, this pair of green eyes also glowed above Twilight in the ethereal realm she had been transported to. No longer in the form of Sombra, she now appeared as her ordinary self, looking around as she walked on a trail of blue light, observing a perturbingly familiar realm…

“This…” she said uncomfortably, noticing stars among patterns of colored lights in a realm that looked like outer space. “This is where I was brought…before Princess Celestia made me an alicorn…”

“And it’s also where Sombra was brought…” Hope, her head not covered by her cloak, spoke from behind. “After you and your friends used the Elements of Harmony on him…”

“Who’s there?” Twilight asked in surprise, immediately turning around to see Radiant Hope following her. “How do you know something like that?”

“Because the star that brought you and Sombra to that alternate world told me.” Hope explained. “This is the realm of his soul, and every part of that alternate world is his creation.”

“Why would something like this…” an astonished and nervous Twilight replied. “…a key part of my destiny…be in the realm of his soul?”

“Why would it not be?” Hope responded, unphased by Twilight’s bewilderment. “The mark of your destiny, displayed by your cutie mark, is a pattern of stars representing you and your friends. And when you and your friends banished Sombra to the moon, his destiny to meet your friends as stars became reality…”

“Who…who are you?” a flabbergasted Twilight asked on impulse. “Who is the star?”

“I am Radiant Hope,” she answered, “a friend of Sombra’s in another dimension. The star appeared to me just as he appeared to you, an unknown entity. He has divulged no special knowledge of his identity to me, only a special power. A power even greater than friendship…the power of hope. That power is the only thing that can save both you and Sombra…from that…”

Hope pointed a foreleg to direct Twilight’s attention at the green eyes hovering above…

“What is…” Twilight prepared to ask.

“That is an avatar of the will of the void.” Hope interjected to explain. “Even with a destiny of light, Sombra still carries out its will, disguising darkness as light. Whatever had happened to you, he was going to use it as a way to manipulate the citizens of Equestria into surrendering their free will to him. For his own sake, you must help me stop him from conquering the world.”

“But how?!” Twilight cried.

“Learn the power of faith.” Hope answered. “Accept the truth as I did…you’ll know who the star is…”

Twilight thought long and hard. She knew that the source of her faith was her friends…and she remembered how terrified she was when she learned of the vision of Sombra surrounded by five lights…and then it hit her. Only through facing that fear would she be able to accept the truth…

“I think I already know who the star is…” she said solemnly. “Now…I just have to confront reality…”

Author's Note:

The pre-finale chapter, prepare for the thrilling conclusion of the story of Twilight and Sombra's destinies!

Comments

[GhostCreator]

Like I said earlier this is true gold!

[Misty Shadow]

11046115
Thanks so much! I vow not to disappoint you with the last chapter!