Torch in the Dark

by RevvEmUp

Chapter 8

After Pinkie Pie pulled the trigger on the pistol, her friends were sent flying alongside the Bug. Rarity picks herself up, and to her horror, sees the Man of Shadows clawing at its own face. “Juggler… Juggler…” it cries with Pinkie Pie’s voice.

“Pinkie! No!” Rarity shouted before Twilight Sparkle pulls her away.

“Graaah!” the Man of Shadows roars as it brings out its scissor blades before charging at the Robot.

The Robot stands still as the scissors slash away, but were ineffective against its sparking shields. The Man of Shadows kept going and going, but couldn’t budge this immovable object.

Pinkie Pie’s friends gather at a fishing shack; Flash Sentry hobbles over with the Bug’s arm rested over his shoulder. He sits it on a bench beside the fainted Fluttershy put down by Rainbow Dash, who awakens to react with shock. “There, there… you’re safe now.” Flash Sentry cautiously extends his hands as he backs away from the Bug.

“Juggler… I don’t believe it…” Rainbow Dash stammered.

“Pinkie seeing that happen to him must’ve caused the Man of Shadows to emerge more violent than before!” Twilight Sparkle noted.

“And the Bug saved us. Why?” Spike stares at the Bug as Sunset Shimmer approaches the creature.

She takes the Bug’s pincers, and her Geode power kicks in, illuminating her eyes.

---

She sees a dark room, maybe an office, and the only person there is a silhouette of a girl. The only visible part of the girl was her pleated white skirt and grey-striped stockings. This image twists and turns in a psychedelic way. Then, a soft voice shouts “Help me!”

---

“I heard a girl’s voice. This isn’t a monster, it’s a person!” Sunset Shimmer reported.

“Just like Halloween…” Rarity commented.

“We can forget that now. Pinkie Pie needs our help!” Ember pointed to the Man of Shadows uselessly attacking the Robot.

“The Robot hasn’t budged an inch. How’ll she beat it?” Applejack wondered.

The Bug croaks and waddles towards the fight.

“I think it’s trying to help.” Twilight Sparkle postulated. “The Robot appears to have a personal force field. When the Bug absorbed the laser and reflected it back, it dealt heavy damage to it. I think that’s the only thing that can penetrate those shields.”

“We just gon’ sit here n’ watch, then?” Applejack wondered.

Twilight Sparkle looks at the frozen lake where Juggler crashed. “If there’s a chance we can save Juggler, we gotta take it.” She declared. “Fluttershy, try asking whatever fish are down there if they’ve seen him.”

“I’ll do my best.” Fluttershy nodded.

“Flash, both of you.” Twilight Sparkle addressed Flash Sentry and Lil Flash. “Use Lil Flash’s infrared setting. His temperature’s dropping fast, so hurry.”

“Aye-aye, Twi.” Flash Sentry saluted before detaching Lil Flash from the drone.

“Rarity, cut the ice with your shields when we find something.”

“Gladly.” Rarity nodded.

“When we locate him, I’ll use my telekinesis to fish him out.” Twilight Sparkle concluded. “We’ve no time to waste. Let’s save Juggler!”

---

The Man of Shadows uselessly wails on the Robot, sending sparks flying from its blades and the shields. “You… killed… Juggler… Juggleeer!” the Man of Shadows screamed desperately.

“No… stop…” another voice whispered in its head.

Tired of the monotony, the Robot pushes it back with a beam concentrated on its chest. The Man of Shadows puts up its arms, but is pushed back with such force that its feet rake through the snow and dirt before being stopped by something. It turns to find the Bug has caught it, but ungratefully slashes it aside before the Bug teleports away. The Robot marches towards the Man of Shadows, but the Bug teleports behind the Robot before launching a fireball from its face.

The Robot absorbs the blow with its shields before sending a beam attack as anticipated. The Bug catches the beam and balls it up before sending it back. Unfortunately, the Robot splits up and the beam instead hits the Man of Shadows behind it. It’s knocked down, but not out, so it stands up and hones its blades before letting out a primal scream. “You’ll both pay…” Pinkie Pie’s voice muttered, focusing on the Bug evading the Robot.

---

Inside the Man of Shadows’ mind, Pinkie Pie stands in the darkness clutching onto her frazzled hair, wearing a crazed look on her face that exudes nothing but fury. “You hurt Juggler… and you’re gonna pay!” she screamed as she raises her arm, wrapped in a facsimile of the dark scissors. When she takes a step forward, she’s pulled away by a scaled-down Man of Shadows.

“No… stop… don’t…” it begged her before Pinkie Pie pushes him off.

“Why?! Isn’t this what you wanted?! You wanted me to pull the trigger, so I did that! Aren’t you happy?!” she manically screamed. “So why don’t you sit back and watch?” she snarls assertively, mirroring its earlier words before turning back to the screen. Suddenly, she is pulled away by the Man of Shadows onto the floor.

“No! Stay! Down!”

“Raaah!” Pinkie Pie roared as she gets up and tackles the Man of Shadows.

“I’m doing this for Juggler! I’m not letting those two off that easily!” she screamed before overpowering the Man of Shadows, punching him square in the face. When she thought it was down, it comes back to slam her onto the pitch-black floor, struggling against her crazy strength.

---

The Man of Shadows jerks and rolls around in the cold snow as the two minds within fight for control. From the shore, the Rainbooms and Flash Sentry continue to search for Juggler when Rarity notices the Man of Shadows’ unusual behaviour. “Everyone, look. Something’s happening to Pinkie.” She alerted them; Applejack first to notice.

“If I’m to take a guess, Pinkie’s probably fightin’ the good fight.” Applejack noted.

The Man of Shadows gets up with a roar and sprints back into battle. As the Bug wrestles the Robot uselessly, its opponent pushes it away to double karate chop its neck. The Bug let out a coughing croak before getting up to be met by the Man of Shadows’ quick slash.

“Murder. Kill.” with the Man of Shadows’ back turned, the Robot one-twos it in the back to knock it down as it charges up another beam. Suddenly, it’s trapped in a holographic blue box generated by the Bug, still weakly lying in the snow holding out its pincers. It closes its pincers, shrinking the box to compact the Robot into a harmless position.

Just when it was about to stand up, the Bug is pinned down by the Man of Shadows’ scissor blades clamping it down by the neck. “Revenge for Juggler… finally…”

The Bug could do nothing but stare at the Man of Shadows as the blades pull towards each other. Then, the Man of Shadows’ other hand grabs the scissor blades by the wrist and tries to pull out, as if another mind tries to stop it. The left arm successfully pulls the blades out of the ground, but is attacked by the blades slashing it. “No! Let me have this! Let me have this!” Pinkie Pie’s distorted voice screamed as the Man of Shadows’ hand grips onto its face.

“Stop… you… out… of… control…”

The Robot breaks free from its prison and fires a beam at them, but the Bug absorbs it once more to deliver it back. The Robot again disassembles into its four drone components, but the Bug quickly teleports behind to hug it tight, keeping all the components together. The beam successfully strikes the Robot, collapsing it to its knees while leaving the Bug unharmed.

The Bug teleports in front of the Robot and forms a fireball in front of its face, instantly melting the snow around it before throwing it to the Robot. Without time to react, the Robot is caught in a great explosion that heats the impact area and instantly evaporates the snow. From the ensuing fire, drones escape the scene into the sky, burned, dented, and missing an arm.

As the Bug takes a breather, it’s caught by surprise by the Man of Shadows forcing its blades onto it. The Bug dodges and generates a transparent shield between the scissor blades to pry it open. It jumps away in time when the blades slice through the shields and snap closed into a single straight blade, with which the Man of Shadows tries to stab and slash the Bug. The Man of Shadows can’t even touch the Bug as it teleports away every time. Recognizing the futility, it retracts its blades and holds out its hands to its sides, casting dark flames in its palms.

It circles its hands above its head, forming a massive ball of pure darkness that quickly condenses into the size of a baseball. It throws this ball like a professional pitcher, shooting a beam of dark energy from its palm at the Bug. The Bug catches the dark beam in its pincers, but the attack was too powerful and explodes at its feet, knocking it away. The Bug lies in the snow, weak again when the Man of Shadows approaches it with its blades, eager to finish it off. “You hurt Juggler… I’ll destroy you!”

As it raises its blades, Rarity suddenly rushes to and hugs the Man of Shadows tightly. “Pinkie Pie, don’t do this! Please, come back to us! This isn’t you!” she pleaded.

The Man of Shadows growls as it looks down on her. “Revenge… need… revenge…”

“Pinkie, you’re not like this! Whatever the Man of Shadows did to you, you have to fight it!” Rarity cried before burying her face in the creature’s chest, desperately hugging tight in hopes to get her friend back. “I just want you back… we… want you back…”

The Man of Shadows stood there for a moment with its blades raised before retracting them and motions its hand to gently grasp the top of Rarity’s head, lightly petting her. Its black skin evaporates and wisps away by the cold wind, unravelling into Pinkie Pie slumping her head over Rarity’s shoulder. Pinkie Pie looked more dishevelled, tired, and with a listless, miserable look on her face. “I’m… I’m so sorry…” she cried, harder than even Rarity.

Soon, some of her friends come to her side, and she backs away from them. “Pinkie, it’s okay. We’re not gonna do anything to you.” Sunset Shimmer assured.

“We forgive ya fer everything that happened. It ain’t yer fault. It was the Man of Shadows making ya do all those horrible things.” Applejack assured.

“If the Man of Shadows shows its face again, we can deal with him!” Rainbow Dash confidently guaranteed.

“No, it wasn’t the Man of Shadows….” Pinkie Pie’s lips tremble. “It was me! It didn’t tell me to pull the trigger! I pulled it myself!” she shrieked. “When that Robot threw Juggler away like trash, I was so angry, all I wanted to do is lash out! That anger, that violence, all of that was me!” she confesses as she falls to her knees. “He was gonna make up with his friend… now he’s… he’s dead!” Prostrating herself before her friends, her tears drip from her eyes profusely, letting out the most pathetic whimper anyone’s ever heard. “I’m… I’m a monster…”

Rarity steps forward and crouches to help her up. “You’re not a mons—” then Pinkie Pie slaps her hand away.

“Get away from me…” Pinkie Pie backs away from her friends. “Get away from me!” she screamed as she sprints back into the darkness of the forest.

“Pinkie, come back!” Rarity called out.

“This is bad. It’s like she’s completely lost her mind!” Sunset Shimmer realized.

“But we can’t lose her again! Not to the Man of Shadows, and not to madness!” Rainbow Dash added.

“We gotta follow her, remind her we’re with her.” Applejack suggested.

Rarity then bravely steps up. “I’ll go—” but the Bug gently pulls her aside before following Pinkie Pie’s tracks.

---

Pinkie Pie aimlessly zig-zags through the woods and over rocks before tumbling into the snow. She lays there for a good while before sitting up. “Ember was right. I never should’ve come to this adventure.” She muttered to herself.

Then, a shadow looms over her; the Man of Shadows stands before her. “You… okay…?”

“Why…? Why’d you stop me?”

“Your… emotions… out… of… control…” the Man of Shadows answered.

“I thought you wanted me to go nuts on my friends?” Pinkie Pie groaned before slumping over into the snow. “Whatever. I’m gonna lie here until the elements take me. Anything to stop them from getting hurt again.”

“You… friends… better… together…”

“Whaddya know about friendship?! You’re just a parasite!” she gets up just to yell at it.

“You… with… friends… you… feel… complete…” the Man of Shadows muttered, and Pinkie Pie was just in awe of what it has to say. “With… friends… every… day… brighter… with them… in… life…” It doesn’t sound like the monstrous echo in her mind, but as if it was a mere thought in her psyche. “Every… time… fall… friends… get… you… back… up… that… is… friendship…”

She gives it a confused look at what it said. “Are… you actually trying to cheer me up?”

The Man of Shadows nods.

“Aren’t you supposed to be the incarnation of darkness and evil? Pretty sure incarnations of darkness and evil don’t give pep talks.”

“I…” The Man of Shadows confusingly rubbing the side of its head. “I… can’t… remember… trying… to… remember…”

“Remember what?”

“I… remember… smiles… I… remember… friendship… I… remember…”

“How do you even know these things?”

“I… can’t… remember… why… I… can’t… remember…” the Man of Shadows muttered. “Please… find… your… friends… they… need… you…”

“No, I can’t go back to them. I… I might go ballistic on them again and get them hurt.” She said before pulling out the pistol. “Pun not intended. Man, what’s the deal with this thing, anyway?”

“Ha… ha… ha…” the Man of Shadows chortled softly. “You… still… got… it…”

“Yeah… I guess I do.” Pinkie Pie smiled slightly.

“Don’t… smile… for… me… smile… for… your… friends… for… Juggler…”

“For Juggler…” Pinkie Pie repeated, remembering her chat with Juggler and his smile. Then, she hears familiar beeping trilling through the trees, and sees pulsating orange lights darting between the foliage. Emerging from the trees is the Bug striding towards Pinkie Pie, who fearfully backs away into a tree. “Y-you! I-I-I’m sorry for trying to destroy you, please don’t hurt me!” she pleaded as she covers her face with her arms.

The Bug reaches for her and grabs her shoulders, helping her up and wiping snow off her.

“You’re not gonna hurt me?”

The Bug shakes its head.

“Now that I think about it, you even tried to help me fight the Robot… but I attacked you. You still forgive me for doing that?”

The Bug nods, then points to the way it came.

Pinkie Pie looks into the forest, confused at first, but realizing what it meant. “My friends… They’ve been with me the whole time… and I keep pushing them away.”

The Bug gently tugs her hand, beckoning her to follow.

“Now… or… never…” the Man of Shadows whispered.

“So, you’re not just a monster after all.” Pinkie Pie said with a smile up at the Bug’s face. “I guess you really aren’t what you seem.” She says this, and realizing something, she looks back to the Man of Shadows staring as she walks away.

“Smile… smile…” the Man of Shadows happily traces a smile on its face.

---

At the lake, her friends quietly sit at the shack as Twilight Sparkle stiffly stood at the shore, sadly looking at something in her hand. Rarity was especially dejected out of all of them, her head almost lowered to the snow below her feet. Applejack tries to comfort her by stroking her hair. “She’ll come back. I know she will.” Applejack assured.

“If the Bug can be trusted.” Ember commented.

“It’s gotta be. It saved us, beat the Robot, and you ever noticed that it never tried to attack the Man of Shadows just now? It knew Pinkie was in there.” Spike summarised.

“Whoever this thing used to be, they must be a really kind person, or pony if they did come from Equestria.” Sunset Shimmer commented.

“Why the change of heart, though?” Spike wondered.

“Maybe it was controlled by some spell or wild urge, and was freed when the Man of Shadows attacked it.” Flash Sentry suggested.

“Just like Halloween with Pinkie Pie and I.” Fluttershy added before picking up a familiar sound behind her.

She peeks around the corner of the shack, seeing a black shape shamble towards them, lit by large orange bulbs and emitting haunting trills and croaks. As the Bug comes into view, so does Pinkie Pie following it closely behind, her hair looking like it’s starting to puff back up.

“Pinkie! It’s found Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash shouted, to which Rarity immediately raises her head and goes around the corner.

The Bug approaches the shack with Pinkie Pie, and the first thing Rarity does when she meets her is hug her very tightly, and is returned with Pinkie Pie gently hugging her. “Pinkie, please don’t ever run off like that again!” Rarity wept with tears of joy.

“You should probably should just put a leash on me from now on.” Pinkie Pie joked, to which her friends looked surprised, the relieved kind of surprised.

“First joke o’ yers I’ve heard in a while.” Applejack noted in surprise.

“I’ve decided to lighten up a little. Get back in the groove, y’know?” Pinkie Pie shrugged.

“But what about the Man of Shadows? He’s still feeding off your happiness and magic, isn’t he?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

“Well, like Rarity said before we left: it’ll overstuff itself because I’m a big banquet of joy! I’ve got enough happiness in me to go around that I could fill a bottomless pit!” Pinkie Pie responded proudly.

“Now that’s the Pinkie Pie we know and love… again!” Flash Sentry pumped his fist awkwardly.

Ember comes up to Pinkie Pie looking very sorry. “I’m sorry for pouncing you and saying all of that mean stuff. It wasn’t anything personal. It’s kind of a dragon thing.”

“It’s cool. I’m not one to keep grudges.” Pinkie Pie said before turning to the scarred battlefield. “That one doesn’t count. Totally over that now.”

“I’m okay with you following us to my dad. Like Rainbow Dash—” Ember then turns to Rainbow Dash quickly. “You’re Rainbow Dash, right?”

“Yeah?” Rainbow Dash raised her eyebrow.

“Like she said: we’ll deal with the Man of Shadows if he tries anything. I should’ve trusted you on that by now.” Ember confided.

Rarity turns to the Bug. “Thanks for bringing back our friend, miss Bug. You don’t know how much this means for us.”

The Bug nods and croaks.

“Hey.” Pinkie Pie extended her hand to the Bug. “No hard feelings for tryna destroy you?”

The Bug looks at her and takes her hand, shaking it firmly.

“So…” Pinkie Pie turns to her friends with a confused look. “What’s the deal with the Bug being all friendly now?”

“Remember Halloween?” Twilight Sparkle recalled.

“How could I not?” Pinkie Pie answered with a shell-shocked face.

“It was brief, but when I used my Geode powers, I heard a girl’s voice. It must’ve been under the same curse that turned you six into monsters in Halloween.” Sunset Shimmer explained.

“What about the Robot?” Rainbow Dash shrugged.

Then, the Bug gets down and carves out the snow with its pincers. “What’s it doing?” Applejack wondered as she observes the Bug performing this strange act.

“I think it’s writing something.” Twilight Sparkle noted, seeing letters in the pattern its digging out.

The Bug stands up when it finished, and shows them what it wrote.

---

SHE IS MY FRIEND

---

“The Robot’s someone turned into a monster just like you.” Sunset Shimmer asked, to which the Bug nods very sadly.

“Don’t worry. We’ll find a way to get you two back to normal. That’s a Pinkie Pie promise!” Pinkie Pie assured the Bug. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” she gestured all of these excitedly.

“Um, Pinkie…” Fluttershy approaches her. “I don’t mean to bring down the mood, but while you fought the Robot, we tried our best to recover Juggler from the lake.”

“I’m sorry… but we couldn’t find him.” Flash Sentry added. “Fluttershy said the trout couldn’t see him, and I only picked up a warm reading for a few seconds on Lil Flash before everything went blue.”

“We all tried out best to find him. All we could find is this.” Twilight Sparkle then shows Pinkie Pie something wrapped in frozen purple paper.

Pinkie Pie takes it and unwraps the paper, revealing Juggler’s agency phone, and that the paper is the album jacket, recognizable from her barely-legible autograph on the inside.

“This was his spy phone. What’ll we tell Furlong now?” Rainbow Dash wondered.

Pinkie Pie tears up, but when she looks at her autograph, she wipes off the first tear that rolls out the corner of her eye.

---

To Juggler

Here’s to more smiles to brighten your day.

-Pinkie Pie

---

“Tell him he smiled ‘til the end.” She says this and her friends turn their attention to her. “He told me how our music brought him happiness in his darkest day. Even though he’s gone, we should press on for him, and keep smiling while doing it. We’ve got a whole world of fans like him to save, after all.”

“Smi—”

“Hey, don’t you start that again!” Pinkie Pie asserted herself on the voice by slapping the side of her head, gaining confused looks from her friends.

“You’ve got guts telling the Man of Shadows off like that.” Rainbow Dash told her.

“Guts… guts…”

“Oh brother.” Pinkie Pie groaned.

“What’s wrong?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I think I found another trigger word: guts.” Pinkie Pie slaps her head again, and the voice stops.

“She’s right. We have to keep moving if we’re to make sure Juggler remains the last casualty of this misadventure.” Rarity added.

“We might’ve lost one friend, but we’ve gained another.” Sunset Shimmer looks at the Bug, who looks at them back.

“Actually, I have more bad news.” Twilight Sparkle points her scanner to the sky to find a completely blank readout. “Because we spent so much time running from the Bug, we’ve wasted so much time that the trail’s gone cold.”

“And to think it probably only wanted to apologize.” Sunset Shimmer puts her hand on the Bug’s shoulder.

“How will we get back on the trail now?” Spike wondered.

The Bug abruptly waddles away from them down the shore. After a few metres, it turns and waves at them to follow.

“Of course! All signs so far point to some connection between it and Torch: the portal magic, appearing in Everfree; It must’ve been guarding Torch!” Sunset Shimmer realized.

“What’re we standing ‘round here for? Let’s follow that Bug!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed before running after the Bug. Relived to see Pinkie Pie happy again, her friends smile and follow, though Flash Sentry lags behind packing his camera equipment.

“Wait up!” Flash Sentry shouted as he mounts Lil Flash on his drone.

---

Elsewhere in the forest, a tall, broad-shouldered silhouette wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a jacket fluttering in the wind carries a large, black mass on their shoulders, about the size of a man. The figure plays on their harmonica a haunting, yet sadly beautiful tune as they walk through the trees. As they play, a black-sleeved arm, twitching and frostbitten, droops off the mass, causing the figure to briefly stop. When the figure turns its head to the mass, it stops twitching. The figure tucks the arm back in, picks up the tune where they left off and resumes walking.

To be continued…