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Final Crisis of Power and Love Chapter Two

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Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, or any of the ideas or characters related to it. I really wish I did though. I make no money from this writing. I really wish I did though.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Final Crisis of Power and Love Chapter 2

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    “Good morning, Ponyville! Weather’s looking fine today, the pegasi have nothing scheduled. I’m sure we’re all feeling mighty relieved to hear that after the weirdness of last night. Our dear Princess Twilight Sparkle’s out of town right now, so we can’t blame things on her this time. Fancy that!

    “All joking aside, we’d like to give a shout out to town favorite, Lyra Heartstrings. Seems she was in some sort of accident last night, had to be taken to the hospital. Our hearts and prayers go out to that silly green unicorn.

    “And now, the lottery!”

    *

    Sweetie Belle woke up and yawned. She opened her eyes to the early-morning sun shining bright through a window across the room onto her bed. A hospital bed, sheets as stark-white as the walls and floor and ceiling.

    Sweetie Belle sighed, threw her sheets off, sat up, and then stood up. The previous day’s events came back to her as she removed her hospital gown and trotted to the door. She opened it to find Scootaloo on the other side, one hoof raised as if prepared to knock on the door.

    “Oh! Sweetie Belle, you’re already awake! Great!”

    Sweetie Belle yawned again and stepped past her friend into the hospital hall. “Morning, Scootaloo. I wish everything last night was a dream. What am I doing in the hospital?”

    Before answering, Scootaloo turned to the side, presenting a tray holding an apple, a piece of buttered toast, and orange juice. “Eat some breakfast while we go. Not going to get me a waitress cutie mark, but it is the most important meal of the day!”

    Sweetie Belle chuckled and took the tray with her magic, before setting off down the hall. “Okay, now talk.”

    Scootaloo talked as they walked. “Last night was as crazy as you remember. After you fainted we got Button Mash’s help to get you and that mysterious pony here to the hospital. Since the library’s, uh… out of commission, Nurse Redheart said it’d be fine if you slept the night here. You were suffering from a minor bit of magic after all, they said.”

    “Doesn’t surprise me,” said Sweetie Belle, chewing through the apple in a matter of seconds and throwing the core into a trash bin as they passed by it. “Jumping from the balcony to the basement? I’ve never teleported that far in one go before.”

    Scootaloo shrugged. “Could’ve fooled me. I thought you were totally awesome last night.”

    Sweetie Belle smiled at this and took a drink of the orange juice. Then as the two started down a flight of stairs to the ground floor her thoughts went dark. “Still, I hate to think about what happened to the library. Twilight is going to be so upset when she gets back. I doubt she or Rarity will ever let me be responsible for anything ever again!”

    Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Right, because you could’ve predicted or stopped some crazy armored mare from falling out of a hole in the sky and plowing through the library.”

    Sweetie Belle sighed, but took her friend’s sarcasm for what it was; the truth. “Okay then, point taken, no moping for me.”

    They reached the ground floor. Sweetie Belle dumped her trash into another bin and then turned to Scootaloo. “Just help me get the library fixed up at least a little before Twilight and the rest get back, okay?”

    A smile Sweetie Belle couldn’t identify crossed Scootaloo’s face as she led the way down the hall to the hospital’s main atrium. “Don’t worry about that, heh heh. Apple Bloom should already be down there getting things ready. You need anything else here?”

    Sweetie Belle looked around to see where they were, saw they were passing the hospital library and looked away from it fast as she could. “Nothing comes to mind. I guess I should ask how that weird pony’s doing.”

    Scootaloo shrugged again. “I don’t know, I haven’t checked on her since we brought her in last night. Apple Bloom, Button Mash and I were a lot more concerned about you. Why, do you want to go see her?”

    For a moment Sweetie Belle considered going to check on the mysterious pony and try to get some answers to what exactly had happened the previous night. That would probably do her more good than a healthy breakfast or getting the library fixed up. She knew she’d have to do it eventually anyway, and they were already at the hospital.

    The two entered the main atrium where patients and visitors checked in. “Maybe we—”

    “Sweetie Belle! Sweetie Belle, wait!”

    Sweetie Belle stopped walking, held out a hoof to stop Scootaloo, and looked across the atrium to two ponies running toward them. “Bon Bon? Lyra?”

    The two mares looked terrible; Bon Bon frail and dull-eyes, as if she had not slept at all that night, and Lyra with bandages covering several portions of her body, most prominently all of her head below her eyes.

    Sweetie Belle hurried to meet the two halfway. “Whoa, what happened to you two? Some pony in a tin suit come crashing through your house too?”

    The partners exchanged a look. Guilt was clear in Lyra’s eyes, though of course it was Bon Bon who spoke. “Not exactly. Something… something took hold of Lyra last night. It made her hurt herself. But I managed to get through to Lyra and the thing stopped.” A shadow passed over her face. “It stopped just in time. A few seconds later and… and I don’t want to even think about it.”

    Sweetie Belle swallowed, her mind going back to the strange occurrences that had happened to her last night and wondering how related they were. It was too great a coincidence to believe they weren’t.

    “Okay,” she said. “What do you need me for?”

    “Well, you are Princess Sparkle’s apprentice,” said Bon Bon. “None of the doctors here could do more than fix up my precious Lyra’s physical injuries, but I hoped that maybe you could do more? I, I don’t know much at all about magic, but Lyra was classmates with Sparkle at Celestia’s university and told me that she could do something if she were here. Please, please tell me you can help!”

    “I, I uh.” Sweetie Belle coughed, fidgeted in place, mentally cursed herself for ever wanting real responsibility. “I mean, Twilight has been teaching me stuff. I think I can check on the state of Lyra’s magic to see if anything’s out of the ordinary. I mean, I can do that if you’ll just, um… kneel down or lean forward, please.”

    Lyra kneeled down on one leg, head lowered so that her horn was with Sweetie Belle’s reach. Sweetie Belle took a deep breath to calm herself, remembering Twilight telling her that upset emotions could mess with the procedure, and then took a half-step forward to touch the tip of her horn to Lyra’s.

    “I’m… I’m going to send out some of my magic now. I’ll be able to feel if there’s anything wrong with your magic. Keep calm.” Sweetie Belle wasn’t sure if she had said that last bit to Lyra or to herself, but Lyra’s affirmative grunt, muffled by the bandages, gave her no time to ponder on it. With another steadying breath she cracked open the gate holding back her magic, letting out the smallest sliver to enter the other unicorn through the horn.

    Minty. That was the sensation Sweetie Belle experienced as she searched Lyra’s magic for any abnormalities. It was like translating the taste of those chocolate mints at fancy restaurants into a feeling. Pleasant, but so different from Sweetie Belle’s melody-like magic or Twilight Sparkle’s burning-star magic.

    Bon Bon edged closer. “Anything?”

    “Not yet… wait….” Sweetie Belle closed her eyes and pushed her magic deeper, sending shivers through both her and Lyra. Deeper toward Lyra’s core there was something. A scrap, Sweetie Belle thought it. A smudge or smoke stain of black magic. Blockage.

    Sweetie Belle frowned as she set to work dragging the scrap of dark magic out of Lyra with her own magic. “All Twilight told me about this dark magic stuff is that it’s dangerous and I shouldn’t mess with it. Have you been practicing this, Lyra?”

    Lyra gave a grunt that might have been a no. Sweetie Belle sighed, gritted her teeth, and pulled harder. The dark magic resisted, but it was only a scrap of whatever had been there before and she had no problem overpowering it. “Almost… almost…yes!”

    Stepping back, Sweetie Belle snapped her head back and released her flow of magic, scattering the dark magic. For the briefest moment it looked like black smoke in the wind. Then it faded into the ether.

    Lyra staggered, but Bon Bon was right there to catch her. “Lyra, are you okay? Is everything alright now?”

    Lyra smiled with her eyes and gave Bon Bon a hug.

    Sweetie Belle didn’t stagger, but Apple Bloom was at her side anyway. “That was amazing! Are you okay? Do you need anything to eat or drink?”

    Sweetie Belle giggled and shook her head, feeling rather giddy with her first-try success as she headed for the hospital exit. “What I need, I think, is to see how bad the library is and take Princess Celestia a letter.”

    At first Scootaloo nodded, to Sweetie Belle’s relief, but then the pegasus grinned and shook her head, suddenly dragging her toward the door. “Hay no, I know what you need to do first; get your head back where it should be! I say, ice cream!”

    With the morning Sweetie Belle had already had, that was something she simply didn’t have the strength to say no to.

    *

    Nurse Redheart, fresh from applying fresh bandages for Lyra, entered the private room of the hospital’s most mysterious patient, darkened to put less strain on the mare’s… uniqueness. The mare’s strange mechanical armor lay heaped in a corner near the door, but Redheart’s eyes were only on the bed along the far wall of the room, and the mass huddled beneath the blankets.

    “If you’re awake, I brought you some breakfast. I hope you like muffins!”

    No answer came from the bed. Redheart checked the hallway outside, saw there were no ponies out in it, and closed the door to the room. She smiled and approached the bed, hooves silent on the linoleum floor. “We patched up your cuts and bruises and applied salve to your burns. While we worked I couldn’t help but notice your beautiful neon-pink coat. And such a wild mane you have….”

    She stopped beside the bed, admiring the strands of red, orange, and white sticking out from under the blankets as she set the tray down onto the bedside table. “My, what a heavy sleeper you are. Sleeping’s good, it helps you heal.”

    Nurse Redheart turned to the try, removed the cover, and picked up the scalpel she’d stolen from the surgery ward on her way from the kitchen. The darkness in the room deepened on her eyes took on a red and green sheen. “I hope you hold still… while I check your temperature…”

    She stabbed down, piercing through the blanket where her sworn enemy’s head was.

    There was no gush of blood, however, or even a gasp of pain and satisfying squelch of blade stabbing through skin.

    Nurse Redheart, vision going red, dropped the scalpel threw the blankets off the bed. Nothing but a mass of pillows in the shape of a pony.

    Sudden light. Redheart turned around just in time to catch the end of her quarry’s multicolored tail disappearing out the closing door.

    “NO!”

    Later, doctors would find Nurse Redheart on the floor of the private room, unable to remember how she had gotten there.

    *

    “Commander, you have your orders. Take your squad to Ponyville and escort the unicorn Sweetie Belle back here to Canterlot. Her safety is of the utmost importance. Protect her with your life. Am I understood?”

    The response came slow and was full of unearned pride. “Of course… Aunty Celestia. I’ll take the pegasus chariots.”

    *

    Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo walked through Ponyville, Scootaloo in the lead to supposedly nowhere in particular as Sweetie Belle drank her chocolate milkshake. Though the farm pony talked about one thing after another, from how the current apple crop was coming along to bets on who would win the upcoming Wonderbolt race, Sweetie Belle hardly heard beyond her own thoughts. Unable to focus on one problem at a time, her mind kept cycling between every worry plaguing her; the unprecedented magical phenomenon the previous night, the armored stranger crashing through and destroying half the library, the tatter of dark magic she’d found within Lyra, and the various reactions to these problems she expected from the princesses, her sister Rarity, and her mentor Twilight. Against this, the milkshake was hardly a balm.

    “Hey, Scootaloo? Do you think they’ll imprison me, banish me, or imprison me in the place they banish me to?”

    Scootaloo shot her a look. “Now why in the world do you think any of that would happen?”

    Sweetie Belle shrugged and took a sip of her shake. “Because if there was ever a situation to stress out over too much, this is that situation. I don’t think things could get much worse if… I don’t know. I just have a bad feeling.”

    Something picked at the back of Sweetie Belle’s mind, prodding her to think over everything bad that had happened, bringing to the forefront all the worst ways the mares she most looked up to might react, even if logically none of it was on her shoulders. Perhaps Twilight’s obsessive worry was contagious.

    For her part, Scootaloo rolled her eyes and kept walking. “You’re fretting over nothing. None of this is your responsibility and you know it.”

    “But what about the library?”

    “What about the library?”

    “It’s all… wrecked, and stuff….”

    A knowing grin spread across Scootaloo’s face. She stopped walking and lifted Sweetie Belle’s head up with a hoof to look ahead of them. “Is that so?”

    Sweetie Belle dropped her half-finished milkshake, too shocked by where Scootaloo had led her to maintain her magic hold. “You… you all….”

    Most of the top floor was still gone and several branches missing, but already Sweetie Belle could see the tree repairing itself, flashes of green light dancing across as new limbs grew and fresh bark spread under the spell-chanting guidance of Zecora.

    Scootaloo leading her along, Sweetie Belle entered the library through the front door to find it filled with a construction crew’s worth of ponies rebuilding the building, Apple Bloom leading the way through a choir of hammering, sawing, and friendly banter. Already the main floor had been fully repaired, and presumably the basement below it. Across the room Sweetie Belle saw Snowflake setting down newly-built bookcases, accompanying each with a heart “YEAH!” Thunderlane and Roseluck put down new planking on the stairs, while Snips and Snails levitated freshly-carved planks of wood up to the in-progress ceiling.

    Sweetie Belle felt the tears gathering in her eyes and wiped them away with a hoof. “This is… amazing. Thank you. All of you.”

    Apple Bloom set down new wood board beside Snips and Snails and trotted over, smiling. “I know we can’t replace all them books lost, but I figure we can at least get this place fixed up. We all agreed, Ponyville ponies look after each other.”

    “Forever and always,” said Scootaloo, pulling Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom into a hug. It was a hug Sweetie Belle readily returned.

    “HEY SWEETIE BELLE!”

    The moment shattered. Sweetie Belle growled and pushed away, turning to face Button Mash as he came running out from the kitchen, a plate of toast lathered in grape jelly balanced atop his head. A look of joy was plastered on his face, as if seeing her was the highlight of his day. “Hey Sweetie Belle, I was making breakfast for everyone even though they told me not to and took away all the toasters so I had to go next door to make this but I made sure there was some left over for you when you got here so here it i—”

    Button Mash tripped over the last board sitting by Snips and Snails and stumbled several steps. The plate of toast fell from his hand, every piece of toast on it landing jelly-side down.

    All work rebuilding ceased, every pony turning to look at the fallen toast.

    Scootaloo sighed, but Button spoke up first. “I wonder if that’s an omen of evil times coming.”

    “Don’t be ridiculous,” said Apple Bloom, moving to pick up the toast and dump it into a trashcan. “That’d be the dumbest omen ever. Go on, everyone, get back to work.”

    “Hey, wait a second,” said Scootaloo. “Where’d Sweetie Belle get off to?”

    Sweetie Belle listened to the voices of her friends, growing in panic as they began calling out for her, drift down to where she stood in the center of the library basement. Sweetie Belle wasn’t sure why she had teleported herself down to the basement, where the only light available were thin beams leaking through spaces in the ceiling. Something, the picking at the back of her mind, pushed at her to go there, to the darkness.

    “Sweetie Belle.”

    At the sound of her name she looked from the ceiling, down to the charred section of stairs where, she knew, the armored stranger had crashed the night before. Looking, something scratched at the back of her mind. Something shimmered in the blackened spot, like heat rising from pavement. The smell of sulfur hit her.

    “Sing… Sweetie….”

    Sweetie Belle fell to her knees, gasping, tears streaming from her eyes. Her throat burned, the shadows around her deepening as words not her own slipped from her lips. It was the most horrid song, wretched, wreathed in evil thoughts and evil acts, in rage and hate and greed. Her ears ached from the sound of it, her throat burning and ready to tear.

    The shadows closed in on her.

    *

    Derpy Hooves flew her mail route, a bag stuffed with letters and muffins swinging beneath her. Spotting a pony she’d never seen before, she swooped down to street level to say hello. “Doo-doo-doo! Hello, miss-wow! Your eyes are weird like mine! Would you like a muffi—”

    “Where’s the library? It’s an emergency!”

    Derpy blinked, looking the unicorn over. “Wha? What kind of—”

    The stranger snarled and let loose a blast of pink magic, singing Derpy’s tail. “Where’s the library!?”

    “Gah! G-go down this road and take a right at Stirrup Street! If you reach town hall you’ve g-gone too far!”

    Derpy didn’t stick around to see if the stranger followed her directions, and she didn’t get back to work. A feeling in the pit of her stomach sent her flying back home to get Dinky and Sparkler.

    *

    Apple Bloom had just managed to get the gathered ponies back to work and was just turning to give Button Mash a piece of her mind when the door to the library basement opened and Sweetie Belle stepped out. Apple Bloom abandoned her plan to berate the colt for whatever he’d done to make her friend flee and ran to her, Scootaloo and Button Mash close behind. “There you are! Where’d you get off to, Sweetie Belle?”

    Sweetie Belle smiled, a blush coming to her cheeks. “Heh, um, sorry for that. It’s uh, something that can happen to unicorns when they’re growing up. Magic pathways in the body struggle to keep even with the body and can cause all sorts of havoc. Good thing I only teleported.”

    Apple Bloom and Scootaloo shared a look, while Button Mash scratched behind an ear. “Uh, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of any unicorns having that problem….”

    Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes and pushed him out of her way, heading for the door. “Does it sound like the kind of thing unicorns would talk about with others? I’m only saying as much as I am because you’re my good, true-blue friends. Right?” The three nodded as they followed her. “Right. Now come on, we’ve got a busy day.”

    Scootaloo hurried ahead and opened the library door. “Your letter to Princess Celestia telling her everything that’s going on?”

    Sweetie Belle nodded as they walked down the street. An odd smile Apple Bloom had never seen the unicorn wear before spread across her face. “That’s my first stop. I don’t want to get in the way of everyone working on the library, so I’ll write the letter at the post office.”

    “Need us to do anything?” Apple Bloom was starting to feel like a third wheel.

    Sweetie Belle stopped at an intersection and turned to look at them. “That’s a great idea! We can get more done if we split up the chores!”

    Button Mash started jumping up and down. “Ooh, ooh, me! I wanna help! I wanna help!”

    Scootaloo shot him a glare. “Nobody asked you to come with us, you—”

    “Come on, girls,” said Sweetie Belle. “Let’s not argue. I’ll go to the post office. Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, go to the hospital and check on that strange mare. Button Mash. I want you to—”

    “Sweetie Belle!”

    They looked as a trio of pegasus-drawn chariots swooped in to a landing around them, sending passerby scattering. Apple Bloom’s narrowed her eyes as nine unicorn soldiers in Canterlot armor disembarked, led by Prince Blueblood in gold and blue armor so gaudy it hurt to look at. “Hey, you’re that butt of a royal who hated my sister’s—”

    Prince Blueblood pushed Apple Bloom, along with Scootaloo and Button Mash, into bows with a telekinetic shove. “Commoners should not address royals without first being addressed. Know your place.”

    “Know yours,” said Sweetie Belle before Apple Bloom had the chance to say just how she felt about his majesty. “Only idiots make a grand entrance like that. Let them go before you make a mess of things. Let my friends up. Now.”

    Apple Bloom found herself able to stand up again. She staggered, then moved to stand between Sweetie Belle and Blueblood. “I oughta buck you into next Tuesday! What are you doing, coming down here like this?”

    Blueblood frowned and rolled his eyes, and then straightened up. “Some peasants just can’t think for themselves. I am here on behalf of my aunty, Princess Celestia. Princess Luna sensed a prophetic dream that friend of yours had, and now she believes she is the key to figuring out what happened last night. I am to escort young Sweetie Belle straight to Canterlot.”

    He leaned down, putting his face inches from Apple Bloom’s. “Is that acceptable, peasant?”

    Scootaloo pushed her way into Blueblood’s face. “No way it isn’t! If one of us goes, we all go!”

    "Girls, please, stop."

    Apple Bloom looked back at Sweetie Belle, noticing the look of determination on her friend's face. "Sweetie Belle? Are you seriously gonna go off with this creep?"

    Blueblood snorted. Sweetie Belle nodded, stepping around Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. "I don't like him either, but it makes sense. This way we can get news of everything that's been going on here to Princess Celestia faster." To Blueblood she said "There's a strange mare at the hospital. She fell from the cracks in the sky last night. I don't know if she's dangerous or not."

    The prince nodded after a moment. "I understand." He looked to his assembled soldiers. "Three of you, go to this mysterious mare and make sure she doesn't cause any trouble."

    "No need, I've come to you guys!"

    Before any of them could react, three beams of red magic lanced down from a nearby rooftop, blowing apart the royal chariots. A moment later a unicorn mare Apple Bloom had never seen before dropped down among the soldiers and, faster than her eye could follow, took them down with a flurry of punches, kicks, and blasts of magic.

    "Holy halibut!" Prince Blueblood staggered back from the fight, eyes wide, dragging Sweetie Belle with him. "Someone stop her!"

    "You idiot!" shouted Sweetie Belle, confusing Apple Bloom. "You stop her!"

    “Girls,” said Button Mash. “I kinda want to run, but my legs won’t move.”

    “That’s okay,” said Scootaloo. “Neither will mine. Too scared.”

    The last pegasus soldier fell and the mare paused to look at them, giving Apple Bloom and the rest their first good look at her. She was tall, tall as Mr. Cake at least, with a hot pink coat; darker than Pinkie Pie's, but not quite red. Her mane and tail were long, wild messes of pink, orange, white, and purple. But it was her face that truly caught attention. Covered in scars fresh and old, black and wrinkled around the eyes. And the eyes! Not ordinary eyes, but red gemstone eyes that seemed to blaze with an inner light.

    Prince Blueblood's voice went squeaky. "Wh-who are you?"

    Those crystal eyes went to him a moment, before focusing down on Sweetie Belle, who seemed frozen in place. A snarl split the strange mare's face. "My name is Galaxy. I'm from New Canterlot, in the northern Crystal Empire. I'm three hundred and ten years old. I'm a princess. I'm the one who's going to put a stop to whatever evil scheme threw me here into the past. And most importantly, that's not Sweetie Belle right there."

    Silence, then Sweetie Belle let out what Apple Bloom hoped was a nervous laugh and pulled free from Blueblood’s hold, going instead to stand next to Apple Bloom and friends. “That’s ridiculous! Of course I’m me! I don’t know who else I could be but me, right?”

    “Right,” said the mare named Galaxy. “Sweetie Belle’s still in there. If she’s not, I’m about to regret this.”

    Kicking a dropped spear from the ground, she grabbed it in her red magic and threw. Apple Bloom, still frozen to the spot, saw the gleaming metal coming straight at her head, screamed and closed her eyes and waited for the impact.
Seconds passed and none came.

    Apple Bloom opened her eyes and saw the tip of the spear inches from her face, held trembling there by an olive-toned magic aura. Sweetie Belle stood beside her, panting hard, eyes wide and mouth set in a snarl. “Sweetie?”

    “Nnngh….” Sweetie Belle clenched her eyes, the olive glow from her horn intensifying as she turned the spear and buried it into the ground. Yet even without the strain of holding anything with her magic, she trembled. Black sparks crackled over the length of her horn and wisps of purple floated from the corners of her eyes. “Won’t… hurt… f-friends….”

    “Sweetie Belle!” Button Mash ran over to put a hoof on her shoulder. “What’s wro—”

    Galaxy jumped between them, bodily pushing Button Mash, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo away as Sweetie Belle continued to tremble and spark. “Get back, you three! It’s not safe! Get ba—”

    Sweetie Belle threw her head back and exploded with a burst of green and black energy. Windows up and down the street shattered, wood cracked, and ponies were flung to the ground. Blackness, like smoke and oil and filled with an inner lightning, poured out from Sweetie Belle’s mouth, accompanied by an ear-splitting scream. The whole world darkened in the face of this darkness, swirling around and around above Ponyville in a growing circle.

    Apple Bloom looked up from where she lay sprawled on her back from the blast, the world around her spinning. As it came back into focus she saw Sweetie Belle floating inches from the ground, the color seeming to drain from her body with the darkness. Past the light and shadow she could just make out a look of terror on her friend’s face. The look spurred Apple Bloom to her hooves, to help Scootaloo to her hooves, and then to stagger through the pitched winds toward Sweetie Belle. “Sweetie Bell! We’re coming for you! Sweetie!”

    Sweetie Belle’s head turned just a little toward their direction. Apple Bloom saw this and pushed on, eyes squinted against the dust and debris. Each step the winds grew fiercer. She felt her ribbon get torn from her mane but ignored it and pressed on, called out to Sweetie Belle again, reached out and strained to touch her, inches from her hoof, so close, so close….

    Contact. Apple Bloom lunged forward, wrapping her forelegs around Sweetie Belle in a hug, joined the next moment by Scootaloo. “Sweetie! We’ve got you! We’re not letting go!”

    Another scream was loosed, this one rougher and deeper, far from Sweetie Belle’s voice. The next moment the last of the darkness flew from her into the rumbling cloud above. The color began returning to Sweetie Belle’s mane and coat, and together the three friends fall back to the ground in a heap. Immediately Sweetie Belle grabbed hold of Apple Bloom and started sobbing into her chest. “I, I thought I was dead! There was nothing b-but this voice telling me these terrible things! I couldn’t do anything!”

    “It’s okay, everything’s okay now.” Apple Bloom held her friend close, brushing a hoof down her disheveled mane and letting her cry. “Friends stick together.” Her gaze went up to the darkness swirling above them, stretching across the skies above Ponyville and growling. It reminded her of the time years back when a dragon went to sleep near to town and its smoke covered Ponyville, only this darkness was most definitely alive. And angry.

    “Wh-what is that thing?” Scootaloo looked toward the mare, Galaxy, just throwing off a upended table and getting to her hooves. “What is it!?”

    Galaxy looked up, her gem eyes glowing brighter at the sight of the darkness. “An evil ghost of the highest order. I’ve been fighting him my whole life.”

    “You fools!” Blueblood, terror on his face as he stared up at the swirling darkness, staggered back a step. “You idiots! I had everything under control! You hear me? I had everything under—”

    The darkness flew down like a funnel cloud, slamming into the ground atop Blueblood and obscuring him from view. Gasps and screams rose from those ponies still daring to watch the spectacle. The mare named Galaxy slid between Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Button Mash and the scene, horn shining red. “Stay behind me,” she said. “The worst is before us.”

    The friends watched, numbed by recent terrors as the darkness emptied from the Ponyville sky to where Prince Blueblood had stood. A sound like a growling animal was heard, then a figure appeared as the darkness grew shallow around him. At first Scootaloo thought it was just Blueblood, until she saw the way Galaxy’s body tensed and Sweetie Belle’s eyes widen in a horror painful to witness.

    “No, no, no….”

    The darkness dispersed and the sun shone once more. Birds sang in the distance and a pleasant breeze stirred their manes. Prince Blueblood was gone. In his place stood a unicorn stallion Scootaloo had never seen before. He stood taller than Big Mac. His coat was ash-grey. His horn, curved like the steel spikes of his crown looked dipped in blood. His black mane and tail wavered about like oil in water. He wore silver armor and a red cloak. He had dragon eyes, red and slit.

    Lips curled up, showing fangs. “I have seen the dark universe yawning. The black planets roll without aim, their horror unheeded, lacking knowledge, luster, and name.”

    “King Sombra,” said Galaxy. A red-tinted shield spell sprang up around her and the friends. “Are you ready to continue our long fight, now that you’ve shown the courtesy of revealing yourself?”

    King Sombra feigned a look of thought. “Hmm. No. I think I’ll leave now. Business.”

    His horn lit up black and purple. Galaxy growled and fired a blast of magic through her shield, scorching the ground where the unicorn tyrant stood but a moment before.

    “No!” Galaxy dropped the shield and ran to the scorched earth, screaming and stomping at it with her forehooves. “No no no! He’s gone! Like always!”

    Scootaloo, at some level, knew she should be concerned about that, but all that mattered to her for the moment was Sweetie Belle. Despite the return of her color the unicorn’s breathing was weak, her eyes unfocused and her body shaking as if cold. Together with Apple Bloom Scootaloo helped her to her hooves, then looked around. Aside from Button Mash, Galaxy, and the hopefully-unconscious guards, the town square had been deserted.

    “Okay,” she said, “we need to, to get her to the hospital. They’ll be able to fix this, right? I mean, of course they will.”

    “But that’s clear on the other side of town,” said Apple Bloom, helping to hold Sweetie Belle up on her other side. “It’d take us ages to get there! Sweets needs help now!”
Scootaloo tried not to growl. “Well do you have any bright ideas?”

    At that moment Button Mash, previously silent as their day went to Tartarus, gasped. “Oh, oh, I do!”

    Before either filly could respond he ran around them to Galaxy, who by this point had stopped stomping around and settled for silently seething, her strange eyes focused on the ground. “Help! Sweetie Belle needs help! Please help!”

    Scootaloo expected the plea to fall on deaf ears, to be met with a glare and a harsh rebuttal. Instead the older mare’s head snapped up, anger melting into concern. Button Mash at her side, Galaxy ran over to them and without asking for permission lifted Sweetie Belle onto her back with magic, eliciting no more than a squirm from the younger unicorn. Galaxy shushed her, and then looked at the friends. “The younger the host and the more powerful the possession, the more damaging it can be. Trust me and I can help her. Trust me?”

    “If you can help out friend,” said Apple Bloom, “we trust you.”

    “Good,” said Galaxy. “Lead me to the closest bakery.”

    *

    “Graaaaaugh! Out! Get out of me!”

    He staggered through the woods of the Everfree, foam flying from around grinding fangs as he smashed his head against tree trunks until the shattered and fell. Then he’d move on to the next. Pain radiated from every inch, burning, stabbing, twisting pain. The light burned and his head throbbed, a thousand voices screaming for murder.

    “Please, quiet! Aaagh! Grah!”

    A bolt of black flew from his curved horn and blasted a cragadile into rubble. He screamed and fell to his knees. He forehooves pressed to his temples and screamed. The grey and black of his body blurred, patches of his natural white and gold shining through. “Hurts! Nnnngh hur—”

    “SILENCE.”

    Blueblood fell silent. He continued crying and shaking. This hadn’t been what he had gone to Ponyville expecting, not at all.

    “The cult of Sombra fails. You are weak. I want strength.”

    Blueblood fell forward. He crawled on his belly over to a river and looked the water. His reflection was split down the middle between himself and King Sombra. “I, I was supposed to escort you to a lair, put you into a prepared host, and then go back home to sip wine and eat expensive delicacies! Everyone else is supposed to do the hard work, not me!”

    The Sombra side growled. “Weak. Sheer laziness makes you resistant to me. But I feel your heart. You have hate. Give it to me!”

    Black magic rippled over his vision, and suddenly Blueblood saw before him visions of the past. His past. He saw himself as a colt, failing to hatch the purple and green egg three times in three different attempts at the test before giving up. He saw himself watching through the cracked door as Twilight Sparkle went far beyond hatching the egg. He saw every missed playdate with his Aunty Celestia as she busied herself teaching her newest student. He saw his abysmal grades against her perfect scores. He saw himself graduating alone, Aunty Celestia nowhere to be seen. He saw as Aunty Celestia sent him on fewer and fewer diplomatic missions and adventures. He saw the return of Princess Luna. Sparkle, saving the day. He saw the stained-glass windows depicting achievement after achievement, none of them his. He saw… the coronation.

    “Abandoned. Ridiculed. Seen as a disappointment. Your hate and fear are strong. They can make us strong. Let them”

    Blueblood swiped at their reflection in the water and pushed himself back, away from the riverbank. Thoughts swirling, emotions high, he climbed back up onto all four hooves and rubbed away his tears. He felt over the blade-like horn, the dragon-like teeth. “Please… hurt them. If there’s some shred of pity in your shriveled heart, I beg you to hurt them.”

    “Hurt them?” King Sombra smiled and turned from the river, looking up through the treetops to distant Canterlot. “Hurting is good.”

    *

    An hour, two chocolate milkshakes, three blueberry muffins, and a cherry lollipop later, Sweetie Belle felt better. Not perfect, she wasn’t sure if she’d ever feel perfectly good again after that nightmare of a possession, but the color had returned to her coat, the blurriness had left her vision, and most of the weight had left her heart. She felt good.

    It helped that her friends were with her there in Sugarcube Corner. Scootaloo paced around the table, looking agitated. Apple Bloom sat to Sweetie Belle’s right, a hoof rubbing slow circles over her back. Button Mash sat across from Sweetie Belle, taking his time on a milkshake of his own, his eyes never leaving her. Even the new mare, Galaxy, leaned against a nearby wall and kept lookout over them. It reminded Sweetie Belle, oddly enough, of how her mom would keep a watch over her and her friends during trips to the park or somewhere. Comforting.

    “I don’t get it,” said Scootaloo. “Not that I’m complaining, this is making me really happy right now, but how exactly do sweets help Sweetie Belle get better?”

    “They’re happy things,” said Galaxy. “Sweet, frivolous, happy. The opposite of King Sombra” She shrugged. “Well, it can vary from pony to pony, but the idea’s the same.”

    Apple Bloom frowned at the older mare. “Makes sense….”

    Galaxy shifted where she stood. Nothing showed in the gemstone eyes, but her body language gave off remorse. “Right. I apologize for throwing that spear at you. It was to save Sweetie Belle. Sombra wouldn’t have done anything to stop the spear, but Sweetie Belle would. It broke his hold.”

    Sweetie Belle looked up from where she’d been studying the knots in the wood table and smiled at Galaxy. “I figured as much. You were right, I’d never be able to let anything bad happen to my friends.” She shot looks at Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and even Button Mash. “I’d die first, even.”

    Somehow Galaxy’s gaze hardened, making Sweetie Belle flinch. “Don’t say that. Bad luck.”

    Sweetie Belle gulped. “R-right, sure. So, what happens now?”

    “Yeah,” said Scootaloo, going around to the side of the table Galaxy was nearest. “And was all that stuff you said about yourself earlier true?”

    Apple Bloom looked away from Sweetie Belle. “And what about King Sombra?”

    “And can you replace your cool gem eyes with any other colored gems to fit your mood?”

    Everyone looked at Button Mash. He had the good decency to blush. “Wh-what? Everyone else already asked all the good questions….”

    Galaxy sighed and pushed off from the wall. “Everything I said was true. King Sombra can’t be up to anything good. My next step should probably be to go see the princesses in Canterlot to see if they have any way to get me back to the future. And no, removing my eyes would cause me a bloody, agonizing death.”

    Button Mash gulped. “Oh, okay. Um, need any help with that whole stopping Sombra thing?”

    Scootaloo bopped him on the back of the head. “You can’t just go asking weird strangers if you can help them defeat evil bad guy ponies!”

    Button Mash gave the hit spot a rub, then glared Scootaloo’s way. “It’s not like I was volunteering you or anything! I just wanna get back at that big jerk face for hurting Sweetie Belle!”

    Sweetie Belle felt her cheeks get warm at this, and even warmer as all ponies present turned to look at her, as if she were supposed to decide. Which was just a crazy idea, of course. “Hey, come on. Don’t look at me like that. I’m just Sweetie Belle! This is the kind of mess my sister deals with… not me.”

    Apple Bloom looked at Button Mash. “I guess that settles that. I think my family would go crazy if I tried getting any more involved in this. We’re just a bunch of kids, remember?”
Button Mash groaned and stomped his hooves. “But there’s a bad guy! And here’s a good guy! And your sisters are nowhere to be found, so we have to heeelp!”

    That last part, to Sweetie Belle’s annoyance, was a good point. Twilight, Rarity, and the others were still far away in the Crystal Empire. They weren’t around to do their usual hero thing. So who would?

    “Hey now,” said Galaxy, “stop that. I’m just going to see the princesses. There’s no need for anyone to come with me.”

    “And you know,” continued Button Mash, apparently making a point of ignoring Galaxy as he turned to grin at Scootaloo, “I bet Rainbow Dash would be really impressed to hear about her number one fan going on an adventure like this.”

    Scootaloo blinked. “She… would be impressed, I think….”

    Galaxy turned away from the door. “Stop that! King Sombra’s ruthless, this is too dangerous—”

    Whatever she meant to say next was lost beneath the boom of a distant roar. A second later Mr. Cake came running out of the kitchen, eyes wide. “What in the world was that?”

    Galaxy ran out the door. Sweetie Belle shot looks at her friends before following suit, the good feeling gone, fear settling once more in the pit of her stomach.

    They found Galaxy just past the front step. Outside, with countless ponies pointing and looking and murmuring to each other, it didn’t take long to discover the problem. Sweetie Belle saw a long, black curtain of smoke rising up from outside of town, blocking off sight of everything past it. She heard the murmurs of the bystanders.

    “A fireball, just straight down from the sky!”

    “I thought I saw a dragon!”

    “Isn’t that over towards Sweet Apple Acres?”

    “A big shadow!”

    “Someone get the pegasi to whip up a rainstorm, hurry!”

    Sweetie Belle looked to her left to Apple Bloom. The earth pony filly looked lost, like the earth had dropped out from under her. Maybe it had.

    “It… it’s all burning. All of it.” Apple Bloom’s voice trembled. “I can feel it in my bones… The apple trees are burning.”

    “Sombra,” said Galaxy. Sweetie Belle heard an anger in her voice to equal the inferno engulfing the acres of apple trees.

    “Okay then.” Scootaloo’s voiced matched Galaxy’s. “I’ll get packed.”
Here's where things start getting really hectic. I'm not as pleased with this chapter as I am with the last, but I can't put my finger on what to fix. Oh well. Hope you all enjoy it.
© 2014 - 2024 Solaris90
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pj202718's avatar
Oh, my. Is Dusk Nox coming to the party too? If so, things are going to get crazy in an awful hurry......