What do you know about sitting alone in the quiet dark. Is it truely lonely, or is it as lonely as you make it. Is it the darkness that's the enemy, or is it the ones that leave you in the darkness.
Life can be so cruel depending on what the dice roll may be. Most ponies get the good end of the stick as they gain their cutie marks for such extravagant and great things; but what happens to the bad end of that stick? It doesn't just disappear. Oh no. Someone else has to catch hell while others catch heaven. If it was all fun and dandy for everypony, the order of the world would be thrown out of wack.
Which is why he's here. To take up all that badness and hold it deep inside of him. Under careful watch of course. Because just as easily as he can take that darkness in, he can just as easily spread it and give it back.
"What is it that you wish to show us Celestia?" Twilight asks curiosity brimming in her voice as she and her five friends sit before the royal thrones where Celestia and Luna stand; their faces straight and bearing that of wisdom yet unspoken.
Twilight, being the smart cookie she is, has finally caught on how this whole summoning thing works. She knows that whenever she and her friends are gathered like this than it is usually something big. Like that time where they had to deal with Sombra and Nightmare moon. She knows that it will do nothing but strengthen their friendship, and power, to levels they had never known they could reach before.
"Yea. I don't mean to be rude or anythang, but it's not ereyday that ya get a urgent summoning from two princesses." Applejack says taking off her hat and scratching her yellow mane, "I mean. I understand that we're the elements of harmony and everything, but the tree has been doing most of our mission of late."
"Oh oh oh! I just love surprises! Is it a surprise party for somepony important!" Pinkie says interjecting her thoughts to the circle of reason on why they may be here, "Because I've been working with Rarity to plan the best royal party that any pony could ever think of for the next Gala!"
"Pinkie darling. I'm sure they didn't call us here for something as small as a royal party. But of course if it is, I may be able to scrounge up some proper attire for all of us depending on the type of event." Rarity says mirth appearing in her eyes at the idea of a royal party with her friends and all the important ponies.
"Just as long as you don't make it lame, Rarity." Rainbowdash says grunting hating the prospect of wearing a fancy dress that might mess up her flying like last time.
"Girls girls! The princesses wouldn't invite us here if it was something as silly as a party so urgently. It has to be something more drastic right? Are the changelings back? Or does it has something to do with the griffons or dragons?" Twilight says remembering some of her last encounters with both races.
"No no... I'm afraid it's something more pressing than that. It'll... It'll be a lot easier to show you than tell you honestly." Celesita says giving her sister a side ways glance before nodding her head.
Luna returns the nod before igniting her horn with magic. The room grows cold and the darkness starts swirling around all the members of the room. A chill flows up everyone's spine as they're warped out of the room leaving only a magical residue of their presence once being there. '
The darkness leaves as quickly as it came for the ponies from the throne room as they are left in a room with nothing but a cage in the middle of all of them. The small cage in question has iron bars with a pony sitting inside and darkness flowing around it like a shroud. A hush falls over everyone as they try to peal their eyes away but can't. Each pony sees something different deep within that swirling darkness. Some seeing war and pestilence, others lust and envy. For the princesses, they see everything.
"Wha... What is that..." Twilight asks being the first to break her stare from the shadowy cage tears streaming down here eyes.
She saw what could've been if she has failed the exam all those years ago. The death, the destruction. The cold grip on her heart still hasn't let go and it feels like the visions she had saw were actually of her past memory. It's almost like everything in her head was being replaced.
"That. That is the living embodiment of sin. Everything that can, may, or will go wrong is in that cage. Or more specifically, inside the pony inside the cage. That pony was gifted... nay... cursed with the power to draw in darkness and all things that may go bad into himself. All that was left was the goodness all other ponies got." Luna begins walking around the cage and the dark room with no walls or ceilings, "I've brought him here in order to help him, but he seems to suck the badness out of everything everywhere. Leaving only good result to those who would suffer the most. There are bad things happening, but not as bad as what they could be. Anything crippling bad all ends up here. With him."
"Me and my sister have been trying to figure out a way to help him, but it seems no magic can stop it. We have tested the effect ponies have upon seeing him and touching him. Needless to say... they've been... catostrophic. Even to me and my sister." Celestia says walking towards the cage, "We placed him in this cage in order to prevent him from harming himself. When we saw that even that was ineffective, we placed him in this realm until we could better find a solution. We predicted that it might lay somewhere in the Tree of Friendship, but..."
"We're not one hundred percent sure that this will work or even do anything. And even than, what would happen? Would he still pull it all in or would all the results up to now reverse changing everything in Equestria? Or would it all go away? There are many more big questions, but those are our main ones."
"That poor thing... what... does he know? Does he know that all of this is happening or does he just go about without a clue?" Fluttershy asks creeping closer to the cage tears in her soft eyes feeling for both the vision and the poor foal in the cage.
"He knows. He has accepted his fate thus far. He knows he'll bring harm to many and has tried to live his life to what he thinks is great. He said that..." Celestia goes quiet and looks away from the cage trying to form her words.
"He spoke as if he wishes to die. He doesn't wish to bring harm to ponies and have tried to pass it off as bad luck, but in fact he has died a millions times in both his dreams and his life. Every attempt he has done to end himself has led to some giant crises in Equestria. He has give up the attempts to kill himself, but he says the self harm really takes the edge of since he can't die from anything."
Twilight stays quiet as she looks back between Celestia and Luna before leaving her gaze on the cage in front of her.
"That's a mighty big challenge you've placed in front of us there Luna..." Applejack says taking off her hat and laying down looking towards the nonexistent ground seeing the farm on fire still in her mind, "But I guess that's what made our friendship so strong. All the different challenges and what not. Heck. We've fought gods and we still hold our heads high together."
Luna nods her head acknowledging their feats. Twilight stands to her full height and nods her head determination flowing through her body.
"Thank for reminding me of that Applejack. If it is needed in order to further understand something that may one day become a threat to Equestria, we at least have to try in order to see the results. We've defeated Tirek the most challenging one of or villains, and Discord the most clever of our villains. We can deal with this eventually as well!" Twilight says fueling hope in the accompaniments in the room.
"Yea!" Rainbowdash says doing a fast loop in the air before landing beside Twilight, "We're better than some spooky cage pony! We'll fix this in no time flat!"
"I'd have to agree with Rainbowdash. Compared to what we've had to deal with, this seems practically too easy." Applejack says taking the spot Luna has moved away from.
"If it'll help the poor stallion... sure. I believe we can do it." Fluttershy says standing beside Rainbowdash.
"As long as one of those disasters don't attack where I have a bad mane day for the rest of my life, I should be ready to give it everything I got!" Rarity says standing beside Applejack.
"And afterward we can throw him a giant party for getting better and keeping Equestria safe for all the may years he's been in there. Speaking of which. How long haaaas he been in there?" Pinkie by says jumping up on Twilight's back excitedly.
"He's been in that cage for more than forty years." Celestia says.
"Forty years! That's forty birthdays he has to catch up on! What sick twisted world do we live in!" Pinkie says gasping and shooting into the air.
Ignoring Pinkie Pie being... Pinkie Pie Twilight holds her head up high with the rest of her friends as a light glows around all six of them. Pinkie gets caught in mid air by her magic and the other five quickly fly up to where Pinkie is glowing and changing from mane to tail. Their eyes open as one as a magic sphere wraps around them and brings them fully together before shooting towards the cage and the pony within. Upon making contact with the darkness Celestia and Luna are flowered by the great magical collide. The gravity increases in the room by ten folds. Celestia and Luna try to exert their magic to counteract this effect, but to no prevail as they grit their teeth watching sparks fly between the dark and light magic.
Cracks form along both the dark and light magic before both sense of magic is swallowed an a world shattering burst of sound and light. Everything within the nonexistent room is swallowed. Inside of the room still sits the cage.
The darkness ebbs away from the eyes of everyone. No longer are they in that same magically concealed and cut off room as before. In fact, they are no longer even together.
Within a room illuminated by a single flickering florescent light, sits a lone purple coated unicorn with a white cylinder strapped tight around her short spiral horn. The consistent buzzing of the light fills the void that silence would've taken. The constant repetition saves sanity with in these white padded rooms of uncertainty.
The purple unicorn, easily recognized as Twilight due to her hair colour of dark purple and light purple streaks, rolls her head slowly in small hypnotic circles as the darkness that had once consumed her and her friends leave her vision. Many would double take on making sure this is Twilight, due to the fact that her unique cutie mark is now gone and replaced with nothing but her slightly plump blank rump. A groan emits from her maw as a light throbbing pain goes resonates her head. The overload of magical input really took a toll on her entire body.
Her muzzle, dry and tasting of sand paper and papyrus, opens and closes wordlessly as she tries to gain her bearings. She goes to stand, but only winds up falling flat on her muzzle with a dull thud. It has a different effect than she thought it would, but she's knocked out of her stupor. Thankfully the padding, which she is pretty sure is supposed to be soft, was hard enough to jolt some pain through her nerves. Thankfully, again, not hard enough to really hurt her though.
Her eyes, now fully opened and her mind alarmingly awake, scan the room quickly trying to figure out her environment. It looks like one of the mental hospital rooms, but she can only ask herself why she would be in one of these and what happened to all of her friends. Perhaps something happened after the darkness and Celestia and Luna had to contain them for a while due to a fluxing of magic from all of them. She figures that would be logical and sound idea and thinking process, but she really doesn't think that the bonds keeping her forelegs close to her body were necessary. She would at least like to walk and not just sit on her rump like she usually does in her spare time looking through tomes.
"Princess Celestia? Girls? Can you hear me?"
No response. Not even an outside response of a knock or a be quiet. Not that she was expecting someone to tell her to be quiet or something. Of course they would've gotten violent with her instead.
"Whoa! Where did that thought come from!" Twilight exclaims quickly finding fear and anxiety entering her and controlling her body's reactions.
Twilight keeps her mouth closed afraid what might exit her mouth next. Instead, she focuses on her thought process and tries to think of what happened just a few moments ago. It's pretty clear, but somethings in her mind just aren't all there. Almost as if there is a blocker on her memories.
They had just used the elements of harmony against the caged pony who was taking in the darkness of the world in effort to cleanse him and help him get away from such pain, but it seemed to back fire as everything seemed to get swallowed by a darkness after the power of friendship touched him. She hadn't felt any malice from the darkness when it had taken her, but she still had felt fright before a giant sense of calm took her. She pulls lightly at her bonds and finds them still as tight as ever. She grunts in annoyance as she tries to figure out where everyone probably went.
"Well... I'm sure Celestia will come for me eventually right? I mean, it wouldn't be like her not to check up on her not so faithful ignorant failure of a student right?"
There it was again. Words so foreign, yet so familiar. Words that hurt her but felt so good. But why? She never thought that way about herself in so long, yet here she is thinking that she's an awful ignorant failure. She knows she's a successful student to Celestia and a very great princess at... wait...
Twilight looks behind her and sees that her wings are gone. Panic enters her voice as she screams. Not from pain, but out of sheer fear. Who had taken her wings? Surely it couldn't have been Discord or some insane pony right? She had them when casting the spell! Right!?
"Calm down Twilight! Calm down! I'm sure there is some type of logical reasoning behind all of this happening in the current way at the current moment. It's not like I, Twilight the stupid, could've messed up something again right? I mean, I would've noticed them leaving my body or never having them right? Or was I ever a princess? What was I freaking out about again?" Twilight says her panicked and frightened form slowly relaxing with her eyes slowly glazing over.
She breathes in deeply as something tickles her nose. A dopey smiles slowly spreads across her face as this familiar smell slowly fills her brain and nostrils. It smells like something wonderful and amazing mixed with berries. She really likes berries. She doesn't remember when she started liking them, but she likes them a lot. Like. If there was ever a berry pony, she would probably marry them.
She giggles and hiccups drunkenly as her body starts swaying side to side. She felt good. Not like good good, but like reaaaaaallllly good. She finds herself wiggling her rump and back against the wall smiling widely at how good she feels right now. And how good these soft plushy walls feel against her purple coat and white jacket.
Outside the room stands two ponies looking in on her through a one way mirror spell. They had gotten annoyed with Twilight's yelling and talking, so they decided to pacify her with her new medication. It's meant to increase her urges and make her relax more. And as they could see, it works like a charm. Almost too well. The two look at each other and smile predatory smiles as the right one hits the button connecting the medication to the room. The two nod at each other before going in.
Elsewhere
A orange coat pony feels awkward in her skin and fur as she awakes from what she assumed was a knock out round with Big Mac. Which would be pretty odd since she hasn't seen him in forever. She shakes her head lightly disagreeing with her voice as she knows that she had just seen Big Mac this morning. Or well yesterday morning as it seems as lightly peek through the orange curtains to the right of her soft orange slices sheet covered bed. Underneath those comfortable sheets is Applejack. Or what anyone would assume is Applejack.
She slowly sits up and gives an eloquent yawn and stretch. She hadn't slept that bad since the time she had the dream that she was wallowing in mud back at Sweet Apple Acres. She sometimes miss her hard work filled life, but this was for the better of her. She might be an apple at heart, but that heart now belongs to the oranges to manipulate and shape however they like.
"Whoa! What am I doing!" Applejack yells throwing the mane brush she was just using to brush out her long healthy golden no longer straw yellow mane.
Applejack stares at herself in the mirror. Her orange coat seems shinier, everything around her looks normal and dull, and everything just seems uninteresting, and on top of that her cutie mark is a jeweled orange. No. That isn't right. Those are not the words she want to use, but that's what comes into her mind. Could it be a cruel trick by Discord? The same very Discord that has been ruling along side Sombra and Chrysalis of... Equest....ria?
Applejack clutches her head knowing that none of this sounds right in her head.
"What in the world is happening to my head." She says her voice completely vacant of any southern dialect, "None of this seems right yet."
She looks at her mirror self one more time and touches the mirror itself expecting reality to shatter apart. When such a thing didn't happen, she simply stood up on all fours and started making her way to the door. She stops when she reaches for the door knob and finds herself putting on some of her elaborate clothing the Oranges had bought for her. After all, don't want to tarnish the name of the Oranges by looking dread and uncultured. She figures while she does that, she should probably do her mane up and finish brushing it.
"Now how did you get on the floor." She asks the mane brush as she retakes her seat in front of the mirror a happy smile on her face and mirth in her eyes as she begins to once again brush her hair.
In the hospital of Ponyville
Two ponies, one Pegasus and the other seemingly a Earth Pony, are within a sanitized white room where the constant beeping is enough to hold a conversation. The Pegasus, yellow of fur with wings twisted and mangled laid on either side of it, is current hooked up to various machines as it's eyes stare up at the ceiling lifeless and unblinking. No cutie mark is on her rump and only those close to her know here name. Fluttershy.
One such person being the only other occupant of the room. Rainbowdash, a blue mare with rainbow mane and tail, sits watching over the still yellow Pegasus. The incident had happened because of her when she was younger. Instead of flying past the weak and meek Fluttershy, she flew right into her shattering her bones and slamming them both in the ground. She had felt so bad over the incident, that she cut her own wings off afraid of flying into someone else and crushing their bones as well.
But despite this, the two in here do not believe that this is their fate. Upon "arriving" here, the blue one screamed out in fear and shock. She had to trick the doctors into thinking it was nothing but a bad dream. No pony knows what's going through Fluttershy's brain as she lays there crippled and afraid of everything around her cept for the blue no longer Pegasus beside her.