The Darkness in our Souls

by Black Light

Chapter 71

Chapter 71

As my mind started to come back online I registered a soreness all around my body and a noise coming from close to me. After a minute or so it started to clear up.

"-up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up." I recognized the voice, the darkness, he sounded as monotonous and uncaring as always.

'Just give me a few more minutes.' I thought to him.

"Wake up. Wake up. Wake up." He continued like he hadn't heard me.

'Just be quiet for five minutes.'

Wake up. Wake up.

I finally had enough I sat straight up. "Alright! I'm-" When my eyes opened I found my vision obscured by darkness.

"Would you please remove your head from my chest?"

I backed my head out quickly and I found a vaguely pony shaped mass of shadows standing above me. The 'pony' jumped down from the bed and stood next to it. I noticed a glass of water on a table next to the bed. I tried to levitate it over to me, but nothing happened. I strained harder but still with no results.

"Sorry, but pegasus can't use magic." The 'pony' who I'm fairly certain was the darkness told me.

"Pegasus?" I asked worriedly. I quickly looked around the room and saw a full body mirror on one of the walls. I rolled out of the bed and winced as my hooves touched the ground. Looking down at my legs I noticed my coat. It wasn't black like it normally was, instead it was a midnight blue. I quickly shuffled my way over to the mirror and got a good look at myself. Something was very wrong. When I looked in the mirror what I saw staring back at me wasn't the me I was used to. There was a pegasus standing there with a midnight blue coat and light blue eyes. I quickly reached up to my forehead and felt around, the image in the mirror did the same. There was no horn. I turned back to the mass of darkness. "WHAT'S GOING ON?!" I asked panicking.

I suddenly heard hoof steps running down the hall outside the door. The darkness lost its pony shape and became more like a puddle on the ground. It moved quickly to the corner of the room and blended with the shadows already there. The door suddenly bust open and I saw the girls standing there, Rainbow in front "Shadow?" she asked.

"I think." I answered lifting up a hoof and looking over the new midnight blue coat. I was suddenly immobilized by a tight embrace. I felt myself lose balance and I fell onto the floor letting out a sharp yelp of pain as I hit.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry." Rainbow said quickly as she let go of me and pulled me up.

"It's alright, I'm just sore from..." I gripped my head. "What was it that happened?"

"You got hit by the blast from the crystal heart. It didn't react well with you." Twilight told me.

"Good to know." I responded testing my legs, still sore but I'm mobile at the least. "What was I like when you found me?" I asked.

"Bad." Rainbow told me. "You had lost consciousness while in the air and fell a long way. You were lucky that you hit the road and not a crystal spike."

"I don't feel that lucky. Did I look like this when you got there?" I questioned.

"Yeah, we weren't sure it was you at first, but there was nopony else around so we assumed it was." Rainbow told me.

"I did a few tests, I can only feel normal pegasus magic in you." She told me. "I think the darkness is gone." She continued with a small smile.

"Not quite." I responded looking over towards the corner.

"Must you always ruin my plans?" The darkness asked as he stepped out of the corner and assumed a pony shape yet again. The girls gasped and formed a wall between me and him. Both I and the darkness looked at each other in confusion. I stretched my wings, they were sore but not as much as my legs. I got into the air and did a quick flap getting past the wall and next to the darkness.

"What are you all doing?" I asked.

"Shadow, he's the darkness he's here to-" Rainbow started.

"Attempt to connect our minds again." The darkness finished.

"Exactly." Twilight responded. "We can't let him do that." She said as her horn started to glow.

I used my wings and gave a quickly flap just fast enough to avoid the levitation field she tried to set up. "And who says that's not what I want too?" I asked them. They recoiled slightly in surprise.

"You... you really want him to be a part of you again?" Rainbow asked me.

"Yes, no, maybe. I don't know." I answered as Skies took to the air from the wall and landed on my back. "It's like I said before, the darkness is what made me into who I am today. Without it, I don't know if I'll be the same." I turned and looked at my flank, it was bare. "I don't even have a cutie mark anymore." I told them. Their eyes widened and looked. "Stop looking at my flank!" I told them earning me multiple blushes that I smiled at. "Ha, still got it."

"Well, maybe if you lost your cutie mark that means without the darkness, something else is your special talent." Twilight said.

I turned to look at her. "...Maybe that's true, maybe it isn't. All I'm sure of is that darkness and fear is all I've ever known. I won't be able to make a decision so simply."

"Truthfully there's no decision to be made at all." The darkness said.

"If he wants to make a decision he can." Rainbow scolded the darkness.

I lifted a hoof to stop her. "If he says something he has logic following it." I told her. I turned to face the darkness. "...You can't bond with anypony else can you?" I asked him already knowing the answer.

"No, since I'm bonded for life and your still alive I'm only able to bond with you, and like this I can still only survive so long without a host." He answered.

"And you haven't gone back into my mind yet because?" I questioned.

"Your mind is too used to me. I tried multiple times but without success. In order to bond again I'm going to need your consent." He told me, I smiled I could tell by his tone he didn't like it one bit.

"So we'll just not let you bond and then you die it's that simple right? Then I think this should be a simple choice." Rainbow said.

I shook my head earning me a few questioning looks. "There's more to it than that isn't there?" I asked turning to him.

His 'body' nodded. "Though it is true that without a host I will die, but that road goes both ways." He answered. The girls gasped.

"So what you’re saying is that if we don't bond, we both die?" I asked and got a nod as an answer.

"You- you can't be- Shadow he has to be lying." Rainbow said worried.

I shook my head. "I've never know the darkness to lie. Maybe withhold information and use deception, but never actually lie. If he actually says the only choices I have are to bond with the darkness and live or refuse and die, that is all I have. He was right when he said there's really no decision to be made." I told her.

"So you're going to just accept him back just like that?" Rainbow asked with a slightly depressed tone.

I sighed and looked to the darkness. "How long left?" I asked.

"You've been out for a few days, I'd say one day left at the least." He answered.

"Alright then I have one day as Midnight." I got a few questioning glances. "What, look at me, do you really think calling me Shadow would fit this color?" I asked lifting up my newly blue leg.

Everypony just rolled their eyes, and I'm sure that if the darkness had eyes he would be rolling them as well.

"Very well 'Midnight' but before we do anything else. I have a few questions to ask you." Twilight said.

"Like what?" I responded.

"Well I saw you fighting Sombra while I was trapped at the top of the castle. What happened to you? Rainbow and Skies said you never gave them a straight answer." Twilight said.

I looked to the darkness. "I think you know more about this than me."

"Very well, I will explain as best I can. You are aware that Shadow and I are two separate beings, right?" He asked the group getting nods. "Well in order to beat Sombra I fused our minds into one creating a singular being." The darkness told them.

"I've never heard of anything like that how is that even possible?" Twilight asked.

"When you've been sentient for as long as I and my predecessors have been you manage to pick up a few tricks." The darkness said.

"That actually reminds me. How did we end up separated? I thought you said you couldn't concentrate long enough to separate us." I asked the darkness.

"Well you see, I have good news for you, and both bad and good news for me." He said. "Good news, you passed out before you could feel the pain of splitting up. Bad news, I didn't. Good news, I apparently can stay conscious long enough to perform the split." He explained.

I nodded. "So any chance were going to have to do anything like that again?" I asked.

"I guarantee it. When we become one again we will be in the fused state. I will have to separate our again minds to return us to our previous state." He told me. I grimaced. "Yes, I'm not looking forward to it either."

"Well onward to happier thoughts. I've got one day darkness free. So what's there to do?" I asked.

The girls started to smile, then it dropped and they looked towards the darkness. "What are we going to do about him?" Rainbow asked not even trying to hide her anger.

The darkness just chuckled. "Don't worry about me. I can be very inconspicuous." He said as he returned to his puddle like form and flowed under me blending with my shadow. "Shall we, I wish to get this over with as fast as possible."

"Okay." I said as I stood there looking at the girls. We stood there for a good few seconds of silence before I spoke again. "If any of you expect me to walk out that door first you're wrong. I learned my lesson, I'll just go the wrong way." The girls gave a small laugh and started out the door. I followed behind last shutting the door behind me and starting down the hall.

"Shadow." I heard from behind me. I turned my head and saw the girls walking down the hall the other way.

"...I don't even know how." I said turning around and following them.

The walk down to the lobby of the hospital was short, and as we signed me out I finally got a glimpse of the true crystal empire. I stopped at the door to the hospital and stared out at the empire.

"Oh, that's right this is your first time actually seeing the crystal empire isn't it. Well what do you think?" Twilight asked seeing my stare.

"Well...I don't like it." I answered.

"WHAT!?" Twilight and Rarity shouted.

I covered my ears. "I just don't like it. It’s too...shiny."

"How can it possibly be too shiny?!" Rarity asked with a slight annoyance.

"I don't know it's just too shiny." I told her

"I personally prefer the other version."

"Hush you." I responded.

"Twilight!" I heard a voice call. We all turned and saw Spike running towards us. He stopped in front of us. "A message from the princesses." He told us holding out a scroll.

Twilight took it and read through it.

"So what's up?" I asked.

"Well the princesses are going to arriving sometime today, they say they want to talk to you when they get here and you wake up." She told me.

"Alright, so we should probably tell them I'm awake now then." I said Twilight nodded and wrote down a quick note giving it to Spike when she finished. He lit it and sent it off. We continued walking down the street for a bit before Spike received another letter and Twilight went about reading it.

"So the princesses are going to arriving sometime this evening. They want us all to join them for dinner at the castle." She told the rest of us.

"Alright, then we should get started." I said. "Now please point me in the direction of the nearest restaurant, for I haven't eaten in the past few days."

The girls just smiled and we went down the road. Then a thought occurred to me. "Hey Twilight do the princesses know about my change?" I asked.

"In a way." She told me. "She knows that you changed, but not that you fused with the darkness since I didn't really even know until now." She told me.

"Well that wasn't what I was looking for, but it's good to know. What I meant was do they know I look like this or are they still expecting the alicorn me?" I elaborated.

"Oh, you're right. I haven't told them about that. I'll tell them right away." She responded.

I lifted a hoof and stopped her. "No, let's not. I have a few ideas for pranks I want to try." I said smiling.

"I don't think-" Twilight started.

"Don't worry I won't do anything too major. Just give them a surprise." I reassured her.

She didn't seem too happy, but she didn't send the letter.

Our walk to the restaurant was short, but interesting none the less. The crystal ponies confounded me. I mean, they were practically see-through. When I brought it up Twilight told me that each of them became like that for around a day after the crystal heart. They got sparkly and see through for a day and I went through astounding pain and was unconscious for three days... I think I got the better end of the deal.

I also got my fair share of stares from the crystal ponies. They had seen the girls around the city before but never myself, and I assumed no other trains had come here besides our own. They were no doubt wondering who I was. I smiled, It felt good to by a mystery again.

Our meal was short and we soon began making our way around the empire. They had decided to keep the fair going a full week and would continue the tradition every year for a full week to commemorate their release from Sombra’s rule, so there was no lack of things to do. We made our way around doing a lot of the activities. Rainbow and I even had a joisting match against each other. She had strength and speed, but I had technique. They seemed to balance out since we ended up tied at the end of it seven to seven. I wanted to stop after three. With so much to do we hardly noticed when evening came around. My stomach was what pulled us out telling me that it was dinner time.

We made our way to the castle so that we would be able to eat there. It would truly be an honor to dine with the princesses and any normal pony would make sure to be on their best behavior… Luckily, I’m anything but normal. I smiled as I approached the dining room doors.

“Show time.” I said to myself before pushing the doors open.

Comments

[Black Light]

4026536
Ah I see. Makes perfect sense
4035444
You're right, I almost accidently invited grandma to dinner.
~Black Light

[watermane2000]

"There's more to it than that isn't there?" I asked turning to him.

..........so Darkness asked the question? or was it Shadow? I mean it's like that on the story so.......yeah.

[Alicon Glactistar]

*Sees update*
*Reads chapter*
*Sees big ass cliffhanger*
Your just fucking with me aren't you.
(On phone so no faces for you)

[Black Light]

4041621
Need to fix that. It's hard having to go through and bold all the darkness' text.
4042270
Yay Cliffhangers!
~Black Light

[Alicon Glactistar]

4042660

.

[Black Light]

4043866
I don't know how to respond to this.
~Black Light

[Duality]

4045693 I do. Here's the response: