A Jar of Dark

A Jar of Dark

A crossover by Ajaxis

Prologue

It was a calm day on Thardrim station. The ever-present hum of the pressure control system and the huge generator reverberated through the whole ship. The bright, warm glow of the sun through the thick glass pane made Penumbra squint as she came out of another dream, a dream about floating along with the stars as if she were one of them. By the time she was awake, the alarm clock by her bed had already gone off, and the filly blearily reached out a hoof to strike the off button atop the beeping device, silencing it quickly.

With a happy sigh, Penumbra got out of bed, attempting to no avail to try and calm her wild, striped purple and black mane in her short mirror. She frowned a moment, scowling at her unruly mane with intense concentration. Her horn let out a few blue sparks, a feeble attempt at magic for the young filly. Sighing defeatedly, she looked away from her mirror, instead moving to the door that lead to her parent's bedroom, which she was unable to avoid passing through, as it was the only way out of her bedroom that wasn't locked. Hardly above the age when a pony was expected to acquire their cutiemark, Penumbra's parents didn't feel comfortable with letting the filly have free reign of their apartment in Thardrim, which had many exits, some of which were instant waste-disposal airlocks.

Penumbra opened the door, and scampered excitedly into her parents' room, immediately scrambling up the side of the bed and jumping up and down atop it. "Wake up! Wake up!"

"Bleh, do we have to?" Muttered the low voice of Gyroscope, her father, not wanting to be disturbed. "I remember it clearly: you weren't born for another hour."

"No, Gyro," her mother groaned, rolling around to give Penumbra a mock-irritated look. "I remember much more clearly than you do. She was born at six in the morning, on the spot. She knows how to read a clock."

"Uh-huh! The sun always hits me in the face at six-o-clock when it's my birthday!" Penumbra chirped, attempting to headbutt her father closer to the edge of the bed.

"Alright, dear, alright. Just give daddy a second to wake up." Gyroscope said, clearing his throat and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Why don't you go rouse your brother and sister? They have presents for you."

The diversion worked. Penumbra leapt off her parents bed to go to her siblings' own rooms. Gyro sighed, and flopping back upon his pillow. "How did we raise someone so disregarding of when parents are supposed to sleep?"

"I think it started with us holding her every time she started screaming," his wife answered, slipping out from under the sheets, and lighting up her horn to fix her hair. "Coddling does that, sometimes."

"I'll go get the presents ready..."

–––––––– — – -

"Happy birthday dear Penumbra, happy birthday to you~"

Penumbra blew out the candles, smiling brightly at the little group of friends she had invited stamped their small hooves atop the short table. It had been a magnificent birthday; she had gotten all the presents she had asked for—the perk of being a good little filly, and now she was sitting down to enjoy the large chocolate cake set in front of her, baked with love by the smart-oven in her family's apartment's kitchen. The dining room had just enough room for the three fillies and two colts that occupied it to sit down comfortably around the low table, with Penumbra sitting on one end, so as to look out the large window opposite, which was half-occupied by the surface of Teraphim, the planet which Thardrim orbited. Teraphim's second moon was moving swiftly around the planet, and had blocked the sun from the view of the station for two hours now, while Penumbra had been opening her presents and playing with her friends.

"Remember, Penny," Gyroscope said, with a big grin on his face. "You're supposed to scream when the cake's cut. Ready?"

"Ready!" Penumbra said, prepared to give out the biggest, most excited squeal possible, waiting to deliver it when the knife touch the cake. Teraphim's second moon, however, did not wait for the knife to touch the cake. Penumbra looked up again to admire the view she thought would show the moon just disappearing around the edge of Teraphim, but was instead met with an unbearable light.

"Penumbra! You screamed too early!" One of her friends chastised her, not realizing what had happened. Penumbra had looked for one second too long, and now shut her eyes, trying to get rid of the burning, stabbing sensation.

"Penny? Penny!" Gyroscope shouted, but Penumbra did not stop screaming. The pain wouldn't end; the sun had betrayed her. She held her hooves over her shut eyes, as tears and blood streaked down her cheeks. The cheery mood of the party was gone.

Then, Penumbra was lying in bed. Her eyes were held closed by bandages wrapped tightly around her head, the pain dulled by a strange drug introduced by needle into the side of her neck. Through the haze of the painkiller, the filly could hear her parents' voices, and a third, but could not connect any meaning with the words being said.

"The window had insufficient UV shielding. As soon as your daughter looked up, her retinas were fried."

"So the surgery did nothing?"

"Nothing. I'm so, so sorry, Gyroscope. On her birthday, too."

"I didn't take away all those suspensions so you could say 'sorry', you little bastard. I did that so you could fix my daughter's eyes."

"Gyro, please, there's nothing he could have done. We both know that."

"Yes, yes, you're right, Spy. I'm sorry, Hardhooves."

"I understand. That's the exact response I expected from any father, especially you, Gyroscope. I tried everything. You're going to have to wait for her body to mature, and then get synthetic eyes."

"Dad? Can we see her?" Another voice had entered, from somewhere to Penumbra's left.

"Well, Hardhooves? Would she be alright if they flocked around her?"

"That's just fine. If it's just her brother and sister, and not a bunch of foals wanting to poke at her dressings."

Penumbra heard the little hooves clamor around her, and her brother's own forehooves caress the side of her head. "Don't worry Penny. I'm sure you'll be fine."

Penumbra was too drugged to be able to respond, but she found that she had heard everything in the room with perfect clarity. It would be a long time afterward before she learned that her other senses had adapted as soon as her eyes had become useless.