The Shadow and the Star

by Misty Shadow

Faith in Light and Darkness

It’s finally time for them to discover the greatest magic of all…

The star thought this to himself as he sensed the presence of Twilight Sparkle and Radiant Hope inside the realm of his soul. Having overheard Twilight’s admission of her need to confront reality, he began to speak to her inside of her mind.

“Are you truly ready to overcome your fears?” he asked her.

“That voice…” Twilight replied inside her mind. “It’s you, isn’t it? I guess now that I’m inside of your soul, you can speak to me telepathically.”

“Given that you’re no longer surprised by your current situation, I’ll take it you are ready.” he stated.

“Not really, if I’m being honest.” she confessed. “If anything, I’m terrified.”

“I appreciate your honesty.” the star complimented Twilight for admitting her fear. “Fear is not only something we must appreciate as a natural emotion, we must also appreciate it as the antithesis of faith. Fear and faith are like darkness and light, where one can not exist without the other. You’d never be able to learn the power of hope without first understanding the power of fear.”

“The power of fear…” Twilight responded, musing over something she recalled. “I find it interesting how King Sombra’s dark magic is related to fear…while I’ve always seen my magic of friendship as something that gives other ponies a reason to have faith…”

“True, opposites attract as they say, though it is not just your friendship that gives them a reason for that faith.” the star explained. “It is also fear. Faith would be meaningless if there was no reason to be afraid of the unknown. However, what you fear isn’t the unknown. What you fear is the inability to face a painful truth…the fact that your friendship could be corrupted and used against you.”

Twilight shuddered, convulsing and shutting her eyes as if she was about to cry.

“You read me like an open book…” she told him despondently. “I’m not scared about what might happen to me…I’m scared about what might happen to my friends in my own dimension. I know in my heart that I deserve to be punished for not appreciating them enough…but my friends don’t deserve…”

“If your friends don’t deserve punishment, then the will of the light will not allow them to be punished.” he assured her. “And the will of the light shall also not allow the darkness to overtake them so long as they have faith. What Sombra was doing to them in your dimension, trapping them in darkness, was allowing them to appreciate fear, thus making their faith stronger as the powers of light and darkness complement each other. You trust that your friends are just like you, right? Unable to hate Sombra’s soul despite what he's done, correct?”

“…Of course.” Twilight answered sincerely. “My friends don’t have that kind of hate in their hearts that would lead them to submit to the darkness. They would just grow to understand it…”

“As I told Sombra.” the star said sweetly, talking as if he was hinting at something. “However, he didn’t believe me, refusing to believe that anyone could ever empathize with him…do you see now?”

Twilight gasped as a reflection of the star sparkled in her left eye. For a moment, she was able to see the star’s true form…

“I get it now.” she said out loud, a feeling of faith welling inside of her. “I understand now what I need to hope in…”

“I can sense that you have finally learned the greatest magic of all…” Radiant Hope told her, smiling. “It is only the grace of a friend that can save Sombra, revive him again. Having lived as Sombra and faced destruction as him, do you understand now what was done for you?”

“…Yes.” Twilight answered blankly. “If you hadn’t stepped in and used that spell…”

“You’d be ashes.” Hope interjected bluntly. “However, I don’t think that fact should worry you, considering what you know now.”

“Right.” Twilight replied solemnly. “The will of the light would not have allowed such a thing to happen to me while I still had something left to prove with my faith as Sombra, I felt it. I believed Flurry Heart when she told me there was no “may or may not happen” with regards to his destiny. And now that I’ve been saved by the grace of a friend as Sombra…”

Twilight was interrupted by Hope abruptly hugging her, telling her with tears in her eyes…

“Thank you. Thank you for proving that he can be saved. I know how hard this has been for you. But know that it’s because of you and your indomitable spirit that we can save him from eternal torment…”

Hope and Twilight then discussed their plan before returning to Equestria. Before they departed, Twilight shot an angry glare at the green eyes above, having figured out the reason why Sombra was never afraid of her becoming an alicorn…

“I know why you’re here…” she thought indignantly. “I know what you’re planning for Sombra, and I’ll make him realize what you truly are…my faith will triumph over fear…”

---

Using a teleportation spell, Hope brought herself and Twilight back to the Crystal Empire. Looking down at herself, Twilight immediately noticed that she was in Sombra’s body once more. She and Hope then looked up at the first thing about the Empire that caught their attention. The same green eyes they had seen floating ominously above in the realm of the star’s soul were also in the now orange sky, obscuring both a full moon and a night sky filled with shining stars from view...

“The avatar of the void’s will is present here too…” Hope remarked with concern. “I hope we are not too late…”

Twilight looked around the town and saw Crystal Ponies walking around with their heads lowered toward the ground. Some were occupied by attractions and shops, while others were skulking as if they were afraid of a looming threat. Though Twilight would not have preferred to arrive to find the Empire barren and desolate, both she and Hope could immediately tell something was not right. Hope walked a fair distance away from Twilight and attempted to grab the attention of the pony closest to her, one with a white mane, dark blue and light blue-striped hair, and wearing the outfit of a royal guard by calling out…

“Excuse me! Would you happen to-”

Hope had wanted to ask this pony a question about the eyes in the sky, but she quickly stopped herself once the pony turned to face her, revealing that their eyes had an unnatural green glow, just like the ones in the sky. The first thought that came to both her mind and Twilight’s was that this pony was under the influence of Sombra’s magic, thus the two were surprised when the pony did something unlike one affected by Sombra’s mind control…

“Yes?” the pony replied in a familiar male voice that Twilight recognized, revealing himself to be a stallion she knew. “What do you want to know?”

“Oh, um…” Hope struggled to find an answer, hesitant from shock. “I just…wanted to know if Princess Twilight was still in town.”

“Why would she leave?” the stallion asked in bewilderment. “She is the ruler of the Empire now. Princess Flurry Heart abdicated her position to her, being the only one who could adequately prepare our kingdom for Sombra’s inevitable return.”

“But that doesn’t make sense…” Hope retorted, astonished and growing more nervous. “The combined light of the ponies in this town was able to banish Sombra! Twice!”

“We must trust the judgment of our ruler, Princess Twilight.” the stallion replied, disturbingly unphased. “Sombra is omnipresent, always watching. We must have Twilight’s protection at all times, for once he returns, it will be catastrophic.”

“Nonsense!” Twilight exclaimed indignantly, unable to help herself from intervening. “There was no catastrophe when I returned earlier and there’s no catastrophe now that I’ve returned again!”

Twilight’s cries got the attention of the brainwashed stallion and every other pony in the vicinity, turning to face her to reveal that they also had a green glow in their eyes.

“He’s back!” a mare shrieked in horror. “Every pony, flee!”

All the ponies in town began to retreat to their homes, with the exception of the stallion who merely backed away slightly in fear, a previous experience with Twilight as Sombra calling him not to flee. Panicked nonetheless, his eyes dotted about, catching a striking detail about the body of Sombra Twilight was in…

“Hold on…” he said in surprise, looking at the side of her midsection. “You don’t have wings…you’re not an alicorn…Princess Twilight told us that when you returned again, you would assume the form of an alicorn.”

“Well then, I’m sorry to disappoint you.” Twilight made a rejoinder in a sarcastic tone. “After you Crystal Ponies used your magic on me, I was taken to another dimension where I saw those exact same green eyes that are in the sky now. What’s their alleged purpose here?”

“…I’m not exactly sure.” he answered, now with a tone of skepticism. “I was just told that they’re the eyes of a dark force that was brought here to protect us. That so long as we opened our hearts to it, it would compensate for how the light failed us.”

“How did the light fail you?” Twilight asked, confused. “You all saw me disappear after you used your light and love on me!”

“Yet every pony was left puzzled about what had become of you.” he explained. “Princess Twilight told us that what happened to you was exactly what happened to her once she became an alicorn. The town was flung into a state of panic, and so, I was brought here from Canterlot to help the royal guard maintain the peace.”

“I knew your voice sounded familiar…you’re Snow Sentinel, aren’t you?” Twilight spoke her inference.

“You remember me?” Snow responded, almost feeling flattered. “Even though I look the same as so many other guards?”

“I’d never forget the voice of some pony who believed in me.” Twilight replied sweetly, grateful to him. “And I’ve also not forgotten how Spike believed in me…trusting that I could get some pony I’m sure you both know back on the right track.”

“…Now I remember…” a touched Snow said, feeling something inside of him change.

Twilight’s faith in Snow helped him fight the void’s influence over his mind. Before he knew it, his mind became sound once more, and the color of his eyes was restored to normal. With its eyes watching this from the sky, the avatar of the void was disgruntled.

“Sombra…” he whispered to the soul of Sombra inside of Twilight’s body. “Radiant Hope is here with Twilight, who now has the power to neutralize my magic, even as your body is only a unicorn’s still. You know what we must do...”

“Yes…” Sombra replied darkly and sadly. “Though I do not wish to harm my sweet Hope, I have no qualms with giving her a time-out now that she is with the enemy…”

From inside the throne room of the Empire’s castle, he cast a teleportation spell on himself, moving from where a stone statue of Flurry Heart stood, frozen in a wincing pose with a fearful expression on her face.

In Snow’s now sober state, he immediately felt the calling to tell the two everything.

“Both of you, please listen! You have to help Princess Twilight! Something is deeply wrong with her! She’s been corrupted by an evil force and is spreading its influence all throughout the land! It’s like when the Empire was first taken over, only we’re not being made slaves in the traditional sense. This dark power wants us to live our lives in a way that looks normal, purporting to protect us from the world’s evil in exchange for our freedom of thought, but in reality, it is the world’s evil! Through Twilight, it brainwashed us into thinking living in perpetual fear of Sombra was normal, telling us that he would just keep returning if we depended on our own strength. It had us believe that before we could begin to stop him from returning for good, we’d have to give more power to the ruler of Equestria, allowing those eyes to monitor our every move!”

“So that’s why she brought me here…” Twilight said in realization. “She was pretending to leave my fate up to the Crystal Ponies to make them believe that their will was now irrelevant! The force possessing her is trying to take over Equestria, not by conquering lands with the power of darkness through blunt force, but through manipulating the message of light to weaken ponies!”

“That’s why we’re here though!” Hope declared enthusiastically with confidence. “Our faith can undo the spell this force has put upon the land. You only need one spark to get a fire going, so all we have to do is keep doing what we did here to every pony else we can find, and before we know it, Equestria will be saved!”

“Ho ho, sweet, gullible Hope…” a familiar foe interjected derisively. “Quite the ambition for three hapless little ponies who know too much…”

Instinctively, Snow shoved Hope and Twilight away to protect them, just before Sombra teleported behind him, casting a spell that turned him to stone. Hope immediately cast a magic spell to shield herself and Twilight from dark magic as the duo looked ahead of them from the newly formed pink magic bubble in terror at Sombra. He was glaring at them menacingly with an arrogant smirk as he stood beside the petrified Snow.

“Interesting stalemate we’re in here…” Sombra commented in a haughty tone, his unphased reaction to their magic-repelling barrier compounding the duo’s fright further. “However, I can easily end it. After all, I have a hostage…”

“No…” an aghast Hope said as he turned to Snow. “You wouldn’t!”

“Bring down that shield,” demanded Sombra wickedly, “or else I break him apart.”

Hope’s mind immediately recalled the story she was told by the star of how his dimension’s Sombra turned Discord to stone and broke him apart. Knowing the likelihood of this Sombra that she knew and grew up with being serious about this threat, her fear became replaced by righteous indignance. This anger, however, she knew she would have to suppress it for a moment for her plan…

Twilight, on the other hand, was filled with uncertainty in addition to trepidation. She knew of the plan she and Hope discussed. Both of them had actually anticipated this situation, Sombra taking a hostage. Hope had told her what she would have to do as a last resort in said scenario, distract Sombra with her own negotiation. So long as she chose the right words, Sombra would hesitate to stone her, the only friend he ever had from childhood. Twilight would have to take advantage of that one moment of his guard being relaxed to cast a spell that would stone both Hope and Sombra, the blast radius from the magic inevitably engulfing Hope. Hope had assured Twilight that so long as she distracted Sombra with adulatory dialogue, he would indeed drop his guard, and that she could always un-stone them later, after taking time to come up with a plan with the star to save them both. However…

…Twilight didn’t want to take that chance. Looking at the green eyes watching from above, she became filled with her own righteous indignation.

“I fully trust you, Hope…” she thought sincerely, brimming with resolve. “But I’m not going to let you do this. Not only can I not let a friend who believed in me risk herself, but I refuse to run from my destiny…saving your friend from the void through overcoming my fear!”

“Alright Sombra, you win.” Hope told him tenderly to set him up. “I’ll dispel the barrier so long as you swear to-”

“Let me make you an alicorn!” Twilight abruptly cried, stunning both Hope and Sombra.

“…What?!” they exclaimed, shocked.

“You heard me right.” Twilight responded with a confident smirk, looking at Sombra. “More specifically, I want to teleport you and I to the realm of the star’s soul…where the will of the void will make you an alicorn. And in exchange, you are not to harm Snow, Hope, or any inhabitant of this world ever again.”

Both Hope and Sombra were flabbergasted.

“Twilight…what are you doing?!” Hope cried in shock. “Do you mean to sacrifice yourself?”

“Hope,” replied Twilight solemnly, “you know that your plan is simply delaying the inevitable. Clinging to a hope you know won’t be realized while trying to fight destiny. We do have our choices, and Sombra has chosen to collapse in on himself…but that’s where we come in. Our faith will make him choose the destiny the light wants for him, to be reborn.”

Hope then recalled what the star had told her about why the will of the light punishes Sombra and the incredible destiny he could choose to have. After some thinking, she shut her eyes and said with a nod…

“I understand. Just don’t forget that I’ll be there in spirit.”

After witnessing this conversation, Sombra’s surprise turned to glee, the way these two were talking and behaving making it clear they had not staged this for a trick.

“I could sense their fear…” Sombra thought triumphantly. “This is not an act. They must have gone past fear and subconsciously accepted defeat while denying it on the surface out of arrogance. None of it matters though so long as I win…”

“It’s a deal, Twilight.” he told her, grinning with malice. “Not that any ruse of yours could destroy me anyway, but a win’s a win. Teleport us to this realm so that I may complete the destiny of yours that is now mine…AND PUNISH YOU.”

Sombra’s eyes glowed green upon saying that, excited for vengeance. Twilight’s expression remained unchanged however, knowing especially after she had seen her power of faith’s work on Snow that the void’s influence would not last…

With a cast of magic, she teleported herself and Sombra to the star’s realm…

---

“THERE YOU ARE, SOMBRA.” the dark force from before boomed once Twilight and Sombra, returned to their original forms, arrived inside of the star’s realm. “Now, your destiny can be fulfilled…”

Those same green eyes from above levitated down towards Sombra and became a swirling concentration of darkness around him, engulfing him and transforming him into an alicorn with wings made of shadow. Looking upon his new form, Sombra cackled in delight.

“At last, the full power of the void is mine!” he exclaimed ebulliently. “I can tap the power of darkness from anywhere now…including our dimension! I’m sure you know what I have planned for you, Twilight…mwa ha ha…”

Despite his boasts and sadistic cheer, however, Twilight was still not moved.

“Indeed I do.” she responded blankly. “You’re going to harness the energy of my friends, still imprisoned in your darkness, to create a blast that will disintegrate me and banish me to the moon, just as my friends and I did to you…”

“Spot on.” Sombra said happily, using his newfound alicorn magic to teleport himself and Twilight to the sky where the moon was. “Now let’s see if I can correctly guess what’s on your mind…the reason you’re taking this all so well is because you’re confident that even after I judge you accordingly, your friends will free you from your lunar prison as they freed me.”

“Wrong.” Twilight retorted bluntly. “The reason for my tranquility right now is my faith. I know in my heart that I won’t be saved by five, but six stars after you receive your judgement.”

Sombra growled, Twilight’s lack of fear aggravating the will of the void.

“You sad, delusional, pathetic loser.” Sombra mocked her angrily. “You think I can’t stop the star from bailing you out in case he decides to save you out of pity? Not only are we now outside the realm of his soul, I never intended to leave any contingency unchecked…”

Sombra cast a spell that made the souls of Twilight’s friends in the forms of stars appear beside him, absorbing their power into himself. His charged horn was ready to cast the spell that would banish Twilight. However, Twilight stood her ground and gave him a firm glare, feeling the power of faith flow through her just like the magic of friendship in the face of her greatest fear.

“That’s right…” he told her sinisterly, his eyes glowing green again. “Once I’ve absorbed their power, I intend to take the star’s magic for my own…and make myself A GOD! The darkness shall triumph over the light, and I shall rule over the entire universe! MWA HA HA HA HA!”

“NO!” Twilight cried in defiance, her eyes glowing white. “Light will triumph! You will see that you have been deceived by the void! Even now, I believe in you! Your soul will be redeemed!”

Sombra was stunned, his mind recalling what Twilight had said from the beginning about refusing to hate his spirit. Twilight’s faith was stifling the void’s influence on his mind, and in rage, he cried out…

“WHY WON’T YOU FEAR ME?! WHY IS YOUR FAITH STRONGER THAN EVER?!”

Twilight smiled serenely, making her last remarks before the banishing spell was cast…

“Because of you. I appreciate the fear now. Having been put in the place of darkness, I can now reach my friends more easily than ever…and I’ve made you one of them. Because the best way to defeat your enemy is to make them your friend.”

Sombra gasped once he finally blasted Twilight with a beam of light that disintegrated her, banishing her to the moon. He felt the void’s hold on his mind vanish, finally realizing…

“Friendship is magic…”

He then looked at the moon where the beam of light that had enveloped Twilight had hit, causing Twilight’s visage to appear on it. He could then feel a familiar feeling welling inside of him as the energy he had absorbed from Twilight’s friends grew stronger.

“Nothing has changed, even as I have won…” he told himself, disillusioned. “The will of the void told me that once I took my revenge like this, I’d be satisfied…yet I feel the farthest thing from elated.”

Sombra then looked at his alicorn form, feeling a peculiar sensation in his right front leg, realizing an unpleasant truth as he mused over the void’s lies.

“This is not an actual immortal body.” he said somberly. “The will of the void’s true form is actually just an amalgamation of souls lost to the darkness, having never known eternal life. It only gave me more magic. I’m still only a shadow. And now, without its will to maintain it, the core of my dark being can no longer contain the light growing inside me…I’ll implode.”

Sombra’s right front leg was sucked inside of him. Impulsively, he futilely attempted to cast a spell before his horn collapsed inside his head. Turning around, he saw the same thing happen to his back legs, wings, and then finally, his left front leg. All that remained of him was his head, neck, and torso, floating with the last bit of magic that he had.

“I guess this is it…” he said in woeful acceptance. “I’m surprised by how well I’m taking this though, knowing that Twilight’s friends will escape, join forces with the star to liberate her, and have their happy ending once more. Maybe because at least this time, I go out like a star rather than a shadow…or maybe because I have no more reason to doubt that Twilight truly did empathize with me, meaning that the star was right all along…”

“Of course I was right…” the star echoed, abruptly appearing from behind like he had when he first met Sombra. “Of course I knew…for I lived and died just like you…and was born again…”

Sombra turned to face the star just before his neck and head were sucked into his compressing torso, leaving him as only a sphere with eyes, ready to burst inward. The last thing he saw before he finally imploded…was the true nature of the star’s soul…

And so, the last words on his mind before said event were…

“I want to be reborn like you too…”

Sombra’s body finally burst, collapsing with a resounding pop, leaving behind glimmering particles of light and stardust in his wake.

“Ask and you shall receive.” the star said happily, knowing what he had thought, having seen the true nature of Sombra’s soul.

Sombra’s energies were coalescing into a star…

---

As Sombra predicted, Twilight’s friends were easily able to escape from the darkness without his hold, and were now attempting to free Twilight from the moon. However, no matter what they did, the seal binding her would not come undone.

“There’s no use.” Twilight told them softly. “This seal was done by light manipulated by the will of the void. We need one more star, one familiar with this kind of magic. One who was once darkness…”

“…Do you mean Sombra?” her friends asked in confusion. “You think he’s a star now?”

“Now?” Twilight responded with a chuckle, sensing a star appearing behind her. “Why don’t you tell them the story, my new friend?”

She spoke this to the star from behind, who moved in front of her to face her friends, revealing himself to be Sombra.

“When I held you captive,” he explained solemnly, “a star approached me. He took Twilight and I to another dimension, claiming he was from an alternate dimension that an alternate version of me conquered. The thing is, he’s not one of the victims of that alternate self of mine…he is that alternate self of mine.”

Twilight’s friends were completely shocked, especially when the star Sombra referred to appeared behind them to confirm the truth.

“Yes…I am also Sombra.” he affirmed. “When Discord brought me back in your dimension, where you defeated me, an alternate dimension was created, where I destroyed Discord before defeating you and turning you to stone, as part of the balance of light and darkness. I became the matchless ruler of that dimension, likening myself to a god…and found myself feeling hollow, devoid of happiness. The will of the void lavished me with power, promised me immortality, even made me an alicorn…and despite having everything I ever wanted, I was replete with misery, misery resulting from loneliness…I longed for companionship.”

“That’s how I figured out what I needed to do once I learned that…” Twilight chimed in. “Your spirit was that of an alicorn’s, knowing the spark I felt when I first discovered the Elements of Harmony with my friends.”

“Once I had that revelation…” he continued. “I realized that the void had lied to me. The light of friendship began to overtake me, gradually eroding my body of darkness. And so, before I died, I released Twilight and her friends from petrification, using my last moments of mortal life to free Equestria from the will of the void’s influence. I fully expected my soul to awaken to a realm of eternal darkness, eternal torment…but instead…I awakened as a star in the sky. And eventually, Twilight and her friends became stars in the sky as well…meeting me and forgiving me. They even accepted the darkness inside of me…Sombra didn’t know it, but that avatar of the void he absorbed was the avatar of my darkness. He had already absorbed my magic…I wanted him to have everything, to have that along with the power of Twilight’s friends so that he’d truly appreciate the futility of his endeavor.”

“So you truly weren’t on a side…” Sombra stated, astonished. “You were trying to help all of us…and you were telling me the truth when you said they’d grow to understand me…”

“Correct.” the star assured joyfully. “Even the Discord of my dimension’s soul forgave me for what I did in time, telling me of your dimension. To pay my penance, I came here after your Discord passed on, the death of my dimension’s creator weakening our interdimensional border. That’s why I created this alternate world, to allow both you and Twilight a chance to fulfill your destinies by discovering the greatest magic of all. Tell me Sombra, do you know what that is now? Now that you still felt empty getting everything after coming from nothing?”

Sombra didn’t need to ponder, his words just came out…

“Friends having faith in me. The one time in my life I was happy was when Hope, my friend, believed in me. Had I just believed in her too, it wouldn’t have mattered if my destiny was with light or darkness…because the greatest magic of all, the power of light and hope…is the power to create something from the void…like stars from shadow…”

With those words, Sombra began to glow with incredible brilliance, his incandescence surprising and impressing Twilight’s friends. Both Twilight and the star were delighted, knowing what he would do now.

“I know now why I was born of the darkness.” Sombra said serenely in self-realization. “The destiny the light wanted for me was for me to appreciate my free will after being so close to the souls lost to darkness. The power of light wasn’t meant to be abused to control and manipulate restive ponies, making them forget the importance of their free will…”

He then turned to Twilight before continuing with a declaration of tearful joy at the moon…

“This power was meant to set ponies like you and me free from a prison, an eternal torture called SOLITUDE! It’s our SALVATION!”

Twilight and the star were also tearfully joyful as Sombra and Twilight’s five other friends gathered around the moon, their magic now able to free her from her lunar imprisonment with a blinding flash of light. A wave of light spread all throughout the star’s world, freeing Flurry and Snow from stone and all the ponies from the will of the void’s influence. Watching from below, Hope too smiled and cried. Having seen everything, she knew she was right to trust Twilight, happily remarking...

“I knew you’d pass on my spirit of hope to him…”

The star teleported her back to her world in the flash of light, as Twilight and all of her other friends, including Sombra, were returned to their dimension…

“Ho ho ho, I knew you would pass the test with flying colors…”

…these words that sounded like they were spoken by a familiar draconequus echoing in Twilight’s mind along the way…

---

When Twilight came to in her world, she found herself inside her bedroom again. Looking outside the window, she saw six stars in her cutie mark’s pattern silently shedding their light in the night sky behind the moon…and she smiled, able to see the souls of those stars smiling back at her. They were her friends who had freed her from the moon, and she realized that the stars she had seen from outside the window before she doubted her destiny had appeared as a sign to signify this event. It’s almost as if the star and those alternate versions of her friends had always known things would turn out this way…and now that her friends in this dimension knew her story, they were inspired to create something in the sky that would inspire future generations, something that Twilight didn’t want to watch from her room alone…

Making her way to the hallway, she found Luster Dawn, Spike, and a familiar-looking guard watching a familiar spectacle in the sky from the window. It was Twilight’s friends creating another light show, only this time, now that Sombra was a star, he didn’t just use his darkness to make the lights brighter, even as his darkness had made him the largest and most radiant star of the six. He created two balls of light that looked like the avatar of the will of the void’s eyes, then had them burst in on themselves to create more lights. The citizens of Equestria watching from all across the land were even more impressed with this show than the other, and again, Flurry was watching too from the Crystal Empire, recognizing Sombra in the sky.

“This is why there could’ve been no better punishment…” she said lovingly.

Twilight also had a loving remark to share with Luster…

“Do you know why that star is so bright?” she asked her student while pointing to Sombra.

“Why?” Luster replied innocently.

“Because that star was born from a shadow.” Twilight answered joyfully. “I chose you as my successor, a pony who didn’t understand friendship, because I had faith in you shining just like that…”

Luster hugged her mentor tightly, knowing that even as Twilight would one day ascend, the memory of this night would last forever…forever inspiring future generations that would live, die, and be reborn…

Author's Note:

That's the finale! I did foretell that the story might have only had seven chapters in a blog where I talked about chapter planning, but that's better than the five I initially planned, and far better than having to cancel what I had written, starting all over. I thank all of you for encouraging me to stick with this project, you all have a great Christmas week!

Comments

[GhostCreator]

You didn't disappoint me, my friend.
A beautiful story with an excellent ending.

[Misty Shadow]

11090938
Thanks so much! I really put my heart and soul into this finale!