A Flicker Of Hope - A Tale from Equestria 2
It was just like any other day, sent on another dangerous mission requested by Princess Solaria. Her mission this time was to go to the Crystal Empire in the Great North, an Empire that hadn't existed for a thousand years. Of course we knew that the last time something appeared it didn't bring about anything good, and if it weren't for the Elements of Tranquility, Nightmare Star might just have burned out all of Equestria. It was a time of mourning though, while we had to rid the universe of her, the host was Princess Solaria's sister, Princess Nebula, a necessary casualty. Just like the eradication of Queen Cocoon, a necessary step to ensure that Equestria was safe from another Changeling invasion.
“So tell us again, Dawn, why’d the Princess send us to this frozen wasteland? I mean there isn’t anything here!”
“G Flash, I’m sure that the Princess wouldn’t send us on a wild goose chase. Maybe we just have to look…OOMPH!”
In the nick of time, Orange Jill pushed me out of the way of some kind of purple beam. As she pulled her bandana from her muzzle, I knew that she could feel we were in danger.
“Trouble OJ?”
“E’yup”
We stood as still as we could, nothing but the tundra winds made a sound. Nothing came after that, and so we moved on. Whatever it was, it wasn’t attacking us yet.
“It’s just testing us.”
Buzzeroff muttered to herself as she kept her distance. I knew she had an idea of what could have been “testing” us, but she would never tell the others. At least not until she knew absolutely what was going on and had their undivided attention. I decided not to press the matter as we continued to follow the map.
Soon the blizzard made it almost impossible to see our hooves in front of us. We would have to act quickly if we were to find the Crystal Empire, or not be buried in the snow. I had looked at Flats; he would be perfect to scout ahead of us.
“Flats, I have an important mission for you. I need you to fly ahead of us and see if you can spot the Crystal Empire or anyone else that can help us.”
I gave him a little smirk and whispered in his feathered ear.
“And if you do a good enough job, I might even tell Precious to give you a reward.”
And with that, Flats burst into flames as it soared through the sky. While I wanted to assure that Flats would do a good job, I also wanted to make sure that he could become a signal flare so we could find our way. When a phoenix blushes bright enough it causes a chemical reaction internally and sets their specially coated feathers ablaze. A scientific discovery I made on one of his birthdays when Precious made the mistake of giving him a kiss. Luckily I was able to push her away before she was burned.
We had been following Flats for a little while when he finally came back. Trailing behind him was a sight for sore eyes. My brother, the Dark Knight, was galloping right for us. Ever since we destroyed Queen Cocoon, we haven’t quite seen eye to eye, so I was fully prepared for him to try and have us turn back. Except that lecture didn’t happen, instead there was a look that was even colder than the icy winds of the Great North, I could see the concern, and disappointment, in his eyes.
“Dawn, I suspect that you and your pals are here to help protect the Crystal Empire from King Dismaul. Well, for your sake, let’s hope that you can before it destroys itself with its own despair. But then again, it doesn’t surprise me that Princess Solaria brought her extermination team. What’s the motto, ‘when in doubt, burn them out’? I guess the Princess doesn’t think that anyone will miss an entire Empire since it hasn’t been around for a thousand years; just like Princess Nebula, right?”
His words cut through me more than any of his weapons ever could. They were so harsh I couldn’t tell if I was genuinely upset with him or if this was a shame I’ve held onto ever since I was sent to Ponyville and left him without saying a word. For the sake of the mission, I held back all of the emotions and took a deep breath.
“If necessary, yes, but hopefully with enough scientific research we can find out how the Crystal Empire disappeared in the first place and why it is suddenly reappearing now after a thousand years. I mean after all, things don’t just vanish, sometimes they just can’t be seen by the naked eye. I take it your mare is loafing around back at the Crystal Empire?”
The only real jab I could throw at my brother after the verbal barbs he easily had dished out. Princess Mademoiselle Madrigal, or Maddie for short, was my foalsitter that, and despite showing no interest in Dark, married my brother. Whether it or not it was out of pity or convenience I will never know; we are at an impasse since I didn’t even get so much as a thank you after I rescued her from the Crystal Caverns.
“Maddie’s fine, she’s not loafing around, I had her concentrate on keeping an eye on a shield generator to protect the Crystal Empire. The shield generator won’t last forever, though, so we need to find out what we need to do and fast. Or else we might lose the Crystal Empire forever.”
We approached the brilliant Crystal Empire as my brother’s sad concern for something that hasn’t been part of Equestria’s ecology for a thousand years rang through my ears. It was annoying enough for me to say something, despite it being foolish folly on my part.
“It wouldn’t be as if Equestria would suffer a grave loss. Scientifically speaking, it has been sustaining itself and thriving perfectly fine without it for a thousand years. Of course it would be a shame to lose it since it could help the science community progress forward by leaps and bounds, but sometimes to save a tree, you have to cut rotting branches.”
“She’s got a point there, you know, besides if they weren’t able to help themselves then it’s sadly a lost cause helping them. Anypony who doesn’t care about others is nothing but a wound that will eventually cripple Equestria. It’s sad, but you have to agree with Dawn sometimes.”
Buzzeroff didn’t even allow my brother to retort, then again she never really does let anypony spout a response when she has something to say, if it is needed to be said. She may not get out of her cottage much, keeping her distance away from other ponies, but that doesn't mean she doesn’t understand them, she knows more about me than I know about myself sometimes.
We finally step into the Crystal Palace after walking through an Empire that was a ghost town. If it weren't for the shine of the buildings, one could easily think that the Crystal Empire was a mere illusion without any hint of life. As soon as I see Maddie I'm ready to scream at her, until she came up and hugged me as if the Changeling Invasion never even happened.
"Dawn, I'm so glad to see you. I wondered if when we were going to see each other after the wedding."
"You're welcome."
"Oh right, thanks, I guess."
I let out a quiet sigh as I realize that Maddie is the Princess of Apathy, even if I tried, she wouldn't understand why I'm upset. Why I would have felt betrayed that she took my brother's attention. Why I felt hurt that she didn't even show a shred of gratitude for saving her. No, instead I return her embrace because she never even had a thought of hurting me despite all the hurtful ones that ran through my head.
"Oh, Dark, the shield seems to be running on 50%. Not something you should panic over, but you might have concerns."
I watched as my brother tended to the shield generator while Maddie went over and did as he told. I knew immediately that my friends and I would need to question anypony we could find for answers we needed yesterday. I decided the best way would to divide and conquer.
"Ok, girls, I want you to try and find anypony that could tell us anything that might help us. Or at least why they are acting like they are. OJ, I need you to watch the gates and make sure nopony leaves if we find any. Minty, try to rile these ponies up, maybe we can get to the root of why they hate everything so much. Grayscale, I want you to help OJ on containment and make a no fly zone. And Precious, you're with me; I'll need your charm to sneak into the library."
One by one each of us would gather what little information we could in the ways we saw fit. One by one we each came up shirt until hitting a dead end. That is until I found something hidden in the history section of the library. And in the nick of time, the librarian was starting to grow tired of Precious' distraction.
"Well a polite no thank you would have sufficed. There was no need to yell."
I quickly signaled Precious to the take her leave so we could rendezvous with the others.
"Well I know when I'm not wanted. You really should consider dying your mane red; it would suit your personality."
We quickly dashed out into the palace courtyard and met up with Grayscale Flash, Orange Jill, and Buzzeroff.
"So I found the history of the Crystal Empire. Anypony find our anything else?"
Suddenly I watched Buzzeroff approach Buzzeroff. Yes there were two Buzzeroffs for a moment.
"Well besides finding out these ponies have noooo sense of humor, I got nothing.”
"Minty, take off that disguise. Now."
I watched as Minty slinked out of the Buzzeroff costume as soon as Buzzeroff gave her a glare.
"I was able to piece together some information from observing the Crystal ponies from afar. Their hate seems to have a focal point; they hate most things since they have caused them pain in the past. King Dismaul is what was testing us before, he had been weakened by the time of peace in Equestria, and he wanted to see how much strength he had recovered. With each conflict he fed off the hate and turmoil, and he only gets stronger the more the Crystal ponies hate everything that hurt them."
I rolled my eyes at Buzzeroff's information. I was also contributing by not making peace with my brother. I moved on as I opened the book of the Crystal Empire's history. I confess, we couldn't help but break out into song.
"The Crystal Empire is in need of help/ their disparity can't last for eternity/ they have to let go and make peace/ with our help, they will see Tranquility/ Just as it was in their history!"
"It looks like they had photography."
"And shiny things adorned every surface."
"Scrumptious crystal treats."
"Let's not forget the trained circus!"
"They have to let go and make peace /with our help, they will see Tranquility/ Just as it was in their history!"
"A melodical chorus sung all day!"
"They sung a Crystal anthem, in a very special way!"
"They have to let go and make peace/ with our help, they will see Tranquility/ Just as it was in their history!"
After much work, and a musical number, we did it. We had succeeded in recreating the Crystal Gathering, there were Sparkling crystal pies, Buzzeroff tending a beautiful circus if trained crystal animals, and Minty Cake orchestrating the Crystal Chorus. It almost seemed to perfect, until Precious overheard some gossip that the Crystal Heart wasn't just a trinket but a real thing.
"Ok don't panic, I'm sure that it's somewhere in the..."
Grayscale knew that look of anxiety in my face and jumped into action.
"Hey, we don't need some dumb book to find something. We'll keep the Crystal ponies busy; you just find that crystal hunk of junk. I'm sure you sure you can find it, and you've never made me regret believing in you yet."
"Yes, but do hurry, I fear that my charm will soon wear off on these ponies if I keep trying to give them polished rocks."
"All right, Grayscale Flash, I'll bring over some circus animals and they can take pictures of you getting attacked. Hopefully it’ll buy Dawn some time."
As soon as the others put the plan in motion, I stormed to the palace to find any hint where King Dismaul might have hid the Crystal Heart. I searched the whole palace up and down only to come up empty. Then Maddie provided her advice.
"You know where I put something when I don't want to lose it? I keep it underneath my seat, so that way I never have to get up to find it. "
It's then that I realized that the floor in front of the throne wasn't showing my reflection like the rest of the throne room. This could only mean one thing.
"A one way mirror! Maddie you were right! "
"You probably would have figured it out anyway. Let me know if you need anything else I guess. "
I quickly followed the winding staircase down in hopes of would lead me to the Crystal heart. Unfortunately Flats and I soon realized that this staircase, though scientifically impossible, went on forever. Even if that wasn't the case, we were running out of time and I had to think of something fast.
"We might never reach the bottom in time! Flats, could you imagine how much you'd be a hero and praised if you found the Crystal Heart? I'm sure Precious would even go on a whole date with you and OJ would shower with so much orange sherbet. But it'll never happen so long as these stairs keep going."
As if on cue, the Flats burned hotter than the sun and blazed through the stairs to the bottom, leaving holes that I could easily rappel through. Suddenly what seemed impossible was scaled in me minutes. As soon as I reached the door, though, I found out that was the last of my worries.
"Dark Knight? I thought you were watching the shield generator. Wait, this another illusion, I'm back in Canterlot. "
"Yea, that's right, I'm nothing but an illusion, because the genius, Dawn Flicker, is always right. You never make the wrong choice, ever. Because even I'd you're wrong, instead of admitting it, you just get rid of the problem."
"That's not true; I put research in every choice I made."
"Even when you left for Ponyville without a word to your family? You know I finally get it, after you ran from doomed the Crystal ponies, you left because you could finally show everyone you were better than me. You wanted to be the big hero. You couldn't stand that no matter how hard you tried, all I needed to do was walk into a room and I was the most important stallion. Here’s a secret though, Dawn, I the most important stallion, you’ll never amount to anything than just being ‘Dark Knight’s flickering shadow’. No matter what you do, nopony will ever care while I’m around.”
The hatred inside of me was building up; I almost was at my breaking point. I’ve fought so many powerful forces and have been called names before, but this was the worst pain I had ever felt. Even though it was an illusion, my rage was still building. It continues as it smirked and whispered in my ear.
“Not even your trusted foalsitter had any thought about you; you were just another way to get closer to my greatness. To think, your only real friend was a stuffed toy I was getting ready to throw away anyway. I mean giving it to you was even more of a waste than throwing it away.”
“Shut up. Just shut up.”
I couldn’t hold back anymore, I let the rage take over as the tears that ran down seared more than any burn ever could. Is this what Dark really thought of me, is this why he was disappointed in me? Is this why I felt shame every time he even looked my way?
“No, you’re saying these things because YOU’RE the jealous one! You hated me since I was born because Mom and Dad were excited about anything I did while you had to practically drag them over and force them to see your accomplishments! I just want you to love me like a brother is supposed to! You know why I didn’t tell you anything when I left for Ponyville? IT’S BECAUSE I WAS BETTER OFF WITHOUT HAVING A BROTHER!”
My shouts echoed through the halls as I was lost in the illusion. Dark began to laugh a chilling and sinister laugh.
“Yes, give in to your hate. You know it to be true, you wish you hadn’t had a brother, you thought that so long as you pretended I didn’t exist it would be just as well, didn’t you?”
“And it almost worked, until you couldn’t take hearing the how I saved Equestria time and time again. No, you had to play your trump card, you had to get married. And who better than Maddie, she didn’t think anything of it one way or the other and it would solidify her position as a Princess.”
And it is then that all my psychic energies that built up were focused into a psychokinetic sword and pounced on my brother. Had he been real, he would have been eradicated, but fortunately it was an illusion. A very strong and potent illusion, but still an illusion, and it wasn’t until Flats had burned me was I able to break it. The tears were still falling as the false Canterlot faded away and my brother disappeared into the darkness.
“Sorry. I’m sorry, Flats, I guess I should have been more careful. This must have been part of a trap, to feed off our dark thoughts and bring out the worst in us. Don’t look at it!”
As soon as we stepped through the door, it was a short climb to the top and the Crystal Heart was just sitting there for the taking. It was as if King Dismaul never expected anypony to even get this far. I couldn’t help but scoff as I approached the Crystal Heart.
“Ha, this was just as easy as I had hypothesized. King Dismaul but so much energy in that psychokinetic old relic that he didn’t even have enough resources to secure the…”
Suddenly a cage dropped down so quickly that I couldn’t escape. Fortunately I was able to knock the Crystal Heart away before it was trapped in the cage. Sadly, I couldn’t get to it.
“NO! Dark was right, I never think that there is any other solution but the straight forward one. And now it’ll cost all of Equestria. I finally made the wrong decision and I hate myself for it. If I wasn’t so…”
I stomped my hoof hard, I can’t believe I was naïve and rushed into things. I didn’t care about anything else but winning and eliminating King Dismaul that I literally walked right into his hooves. And now Equestria was going to pay for my first and most grave threat. I was so selfish; I wanted it so bad that I was prepared to risk Equestria with my gamble. Just then, for a moment, I was able to shake off my self-loathing enough to think.
“Flats! Grab the Crystal Heart and take to the skies! I might be doomed, but I won’t let Equestria fall to the same fate!”
Flats grabbed the Crystal Heart by his talons and soared to the throne room, and away from the ever encroaching King Dismaul.
Flats could barely even maneuver away from the obstacles that King Dismaul threw at him. Fortunately he was prepared to risk his own feathers for the future of Equestria; he had a helpful role model growing up. A role model I should have kept emulating to prevent even being in this mess.
As quick and agile as Flats was though, Dismaul broke through the shield generator as the fuel cells were drained. With the bickering of the Crystal Ponies below, and perhaps my own rage, Dismaul only grew in strength. And it’s then that I watched as Flats burned brighter than I had ever seen or even had been witnessed in a phoenix.
“NO, FLATS!”
It was as if time had stop for a second as I watched Flats become the most brilliant star, and then shine like a crystal. To prevent Dismaul from getting the Crystal Heart, he went supernova and created a chain reaction in the Crystal Heart that it began to merge with Flats, essentially creating something new, the Crystal Phoenix. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a moment to mourn as King Dismaul still grew with the doubt that still grew in the Crystal ponies hearts.
“Dismaul, I’ve never had such a burning desire to eradicate an evil before, but this once I will make an exception. I don’t care if there is any other solution, in my eyes, burning you out is the only answer. I will make you pay for what you did and make sure you never are able to do it again.”
As I let my hatred for Dismaul run wild, I stopped as I lamented on how frivolous it was. It was an unending formula that King Dismaul had finally perfected, and I was his reluctant catalyst.
“In order to fight him, I have to use my hatred for him as a weapon, but doing that makes King Dismaul stronger, which only makes him angry and hate him even more. It’s hopeless.”
I prepared for the worst as I was consumed by the paradox. Soon I was sobbing so much that the whole world was suddenly drowned out. I couldn’t hear a sound, and what was the point, the whole world would soon be drowned out by its own hatred, turmoil, and despair. So long as everypony couldn’t learn how to live in peace, King Dismaul would only become more powerful, until he had enough power to subdue all of Equestria. Suddenly the sound of my sobbing was broken by the clopping of hooves.
“Dawn, Dawn, why are you crying? Don’t you know that all of Equestria is waiting for you?”
“Why, so they could rip me to shreds for being unable to even see through a simple trap?”
“No, silly, to show them that you can save the world, even if it means you have to give up your own emotions. Sometimes heroes have to make the biggest sacrifices to bring peace and tranquility to everypony.”
“Yea, and what do you know about sacrifices? You never even had a care in your life.”
“Did you know I was called the Princess of Love? It was before I started foalsitting you, I had to give up any ideas of love in so that it couldn’t be used against me, or even worse, force me to hurt those that I cared about. Remember, that love is just as powerful as hatred, but it can hurt you just the same.”
I finally figured out how to defeat King Dismaul, and how I could finally bring Tranquility to Equestria, once and for all. I concentrated on focusing my psychic energy and broke free from the cage. I had a stare down with King Dismaul.
“Give into your hate! I shall feed on your suffering!”
“No, I will defeat you, and then I will bring Tranquility to not just the Crystal Empire, but all of Equestria.”
“I sense strong emotion, and your only chance at defeating me! I grow with your hatred! You will never win!”
“You’re wrong, King Dismaul, it is a strong emotion, but it isn’t the hatred for you. It’s the love for a fallen friend, maybe my first real friend. Your time of terror has come to an end, and it shall never come to pass again!”
And with one swipe it was over. Suddenly a flash of light, and afterwards King Dismaul was no more.
“Love, Hate, both powerful emotions. I get it now, and the Crystal Phoenix will be a testament of just how destructive they can be. Looks like I’ll be sending this letter to Solaria myself; always a first…”
I couldn’t help but shed a tear as I immediately got started on the letter.
“Dear Princess Solaria,
Today, I learned so many important lessons, but the most important lesson I may have learned can save all of Equestria and bring Tranquility everlasting. In order to maintain peace and order, you have to have total compliance, even if that means eliminating hatred’s antithesis, love. However, with this complete and absolute obedience, not only will there be peace and order, but all of Equestria will be safe forever. As your loyal pupil, I only humbly make such suggestions, and the choice to act on these suggestions is of course your own. However, I believe that this will prevent any dangers from existing in all of Equestria.
Your loyal pupil,
Dawn Flicker.”
And when I gave Princess Solaria the letter she had given me a reassuring nod that Flats sacrifice wasn’t made in vain. The Age of Tranquility had begun, and the dangers of love and hatred slowly were just things of the past.