The Deepest Magic

Sky gazed into Lily’s eyes, finding himself entranced by the light and charm he had come to know and love so much. He was reunited with his own memories—apparently as a result of his return to his body—and now, he was alive again. His hooves, his mouth, his eyes, his brain…

His heart.

Lily simply stared, a dumbfounded look etched on her face. Sky forced a smile to try and prompt anything from her, but she simply looked on, unblinking...unmoving. It was as though she had suddenly been turned to stone. He began to wonder if his return from sleep had somehow sent her into a sudden shock.

Growing anxious in the increasingly awkward silence, Sky searched for something to say. Continuing the thought from his latest comment, he twisted his face into a nervous, half-embarrassed expression. “That…that came out wrong,” he muttered.

At first, there was no change. Sky looked around the room and tried to force his cheeks to turn red in feigned embarrassment. Finally, he saw her blink as her mouth moved slightly. He pricked his ears up as he tried to listen.

“S…Sky…”

“Hey, she speaks!” he exclaimed, his contagious smile rising back to his face.

“Sky, you’re…you’re awake,” she said softly. His heart went out to her. He wasn’t entirely sure what she was feeling, but he knew the signs of an emotional overload when he saw one. And once she finally overcame the initial shock…

She landed on top of him before he could complete his thought. Her legs wrapped around his neck, completely cutting off his airway, causing him to choke. “You’re awake! You’re awake! I knew you’d come back; I just knew! Oh!” She loosened her grip for just a moment, causing Sky’s airway to open again. As the air rushed in, he coughed as the unexpected intake took him by surprise. And before he could steady his breath, he felt Lily’s lips press up against his.

At once, his mind forgot all about his unsteady breath and took in the exhilarating sensation of the kiss. His eyes grew as wide as watermelons as his mind erupted like an entire field full of fireworks. His tail stood on end even underneath the bedsheets, and his wings popped open quite involuntarily, his inherent magic suddenly bursting to life within them, causing him to rise up and press even further against Lily’s already engaged mouth.

And, almost comically, his mind eased enough to actually enjoy what he was feeling. Lily was kissing him. His first kiss. It felt so warm, so wonderful, so…perfect. His eyes closed as his body began to relax. Hay bales, maybe I should have my spirit separated from my body more often, if this is the response I’d get.

His pleasure was interrupted as he felt Lily pull away, only to be replaced by a rather forceful pair of hooves being driven into his chest. He collapsed back onto the bed, and as his eyes opened, he caught sight of a suddenly rather upset-looking Lily Pond hovering over him, hooves planted firmly against him.

“What in Equestria were you thinking, going off to face the Chimera like that?!” she demanded. “You had us worried for days! You could have been killed!”

“There’s my Lily,” Sky coughed. He frowned as he looked away. “I know. I’m sorry, but I didn’t have a choice. The Chimera was in my head, Lily. It was threatening me...threatening everypony I knew. It shook the mountain here. It said that it would bring down the mountain if I didn’t go face it. What could I do?”

Lily’s face contorted into a look of hurt and frustration for a moment, but after a few seconds it passed, replaced by a softer expression of relief and forgiveness. “Nothing, I suppose,” she admitted. “I’m sorry, I’ve just been so scared. First it got you, then…” She stopped short.

Sky’s eyes grew wide again as he rolled over and sat up. His muscles groaned against their usage after a week of inactivity, but he forced the discomfort to the back of his mind. “Then what?” he asked stoically. His jaw clenched as his mind visualized the face of his foe. “What did it do?”

Lily looked like she was fighting back tears. “Sky, we need to see the Council. Now.”

Throne Room of Canterlot Palace
April 7, 1:36 AM

“It WHAT?!”

“I’m sorry, Sky. This is not the news we wanted to greet you with upon your return to us,” Luna said apologetically. “But it’s true. The Chimera razed Polarmino early yesterday morning.”

It was as though somepony had turned off the gravity. His mind reeled, his vision turned blurry, and his insides twisted as he grappled with the news. Hazy images of his friends from the frozen outpost flashed through his mind: Barley, Hayseed, Amber Waves, Countdown, Silent Moment…and as he thought about the destruction and chaos the Chimera had wrought upon them and their town, his stomach turned. He brought a hoof to his mouth as he struggled to hold down a gag.

He felt Lily’s head lean against him. The dim light from her horn cast small shadows on the floor. He was thankful to have her there: her calming spells had already proven invaluable, and that value would only grow with this news. But in the midst of that, he knew that she felt the pain of these events even more than he did.

“How did you find out?” Sky asked.

“Apparently, an…acquaintance…of yours travelled here to warn us, or perhaps more specifically, Lily, of what had happened.”

“An acquaintance of mine?” His eyebrow arched in confusion.

“The commander came from the windigo colony, Sky,” Lily said softly from beside him. Her head was still resting against his shoulder, and the feeling of her voice vibrating against his body sent a tingling sensation along his spine. “He did for us what we did for the windigoes.”

His eyes opened wide in surprise before a smug smile came to his face. “Is that so? Well, is he still here?”

“I am afraid not,” Celestia answered. “He departed shortly after he delivered his message. However, he did ask about you while he was here.”

“Well, good for him,” Sky said. “Although I wish I could have seen him. Did you tell him about my…uh…‘circumstances’?”

“We did,” Luna confirmed. “And he mentioned something that he said that he had told you before.”

“Ah.” Sky already knew what they were referring to. It hadn’t been five minutes since he had driven the Chimera from the windigo colony before the commander had told him that his chance to defeat the Chimera would come only when he was surrounded by those that he truly cared about. And after his most recent bout with the monster, he was realizing how right he had been.

“He understands better than I did about how to face that monster,” Sky said, his head drooping as he spoke. “He told me that my chance to defeat the Chimera would come, but only when my friends and loved ones stood with me. Too bad I didn’t think of that when I went off to the Painted Forest alone.”

“You did what you thought was right,” Cadance consoled him. “And it’s behind you. Right now, we need to focus on the situation at hoof.”

Sky lifted his head and saw the comfort in her eyes. He took a deep breath and composed himself. “You’re right,” he agreed. “So…what else did the commander mention? Did he know where the Chimera was at?”

Celestia and Luna exchanged nervous glances, but it was Shining Armor that spoke up. “He said that he knew that it had been seen travelling to the south.” He paused as an uncomfortable silence fell upon the room.

Sky could feel everypony’s apprehension in the air. “Alright, I’ll ask: what’s the Ursa Major in the room? What’s south of—” His voice abruptly stopped as the map of Equestria he had come to know so well appeared in his head, revealing exactly what was south of Polarmino.

“No…”

“Sky, this is why you need to go and face the Chimera again,” Lily said. She stood erect beside him now, and she displayed a sudden determination that surprised him. “Innocent ponies are in terrible danger, and your family is its number one target!”

The pegasus’ teeth began to clench as he felt a cold anger kindle inside of him. “It told me it would do this,” he growled. “It told me that it wanted to see me suffer; that it wanted me to watch as everypony that I cared about was consumed and made a part of that…monstrosity. But to know that it’s actually doing it…that’s something else entirely.” He began to pace in front of the members of the Council. “And if it lays so much as a hair on any pony in Foalumbus, I’ll break that nightmare into a thousand pieces with my bare hooves.”

He sauntered over to an east-facing window and stared out over the night-draped plains of Equestria in the direction of his colthood home. I WILL see it broken, he thought. It deserves nothing less. It may have gotten the better of me last time, but this time will be different, I swear…

He blinked. But as his eyes opened, his focus was no longer upon the world outside the palace. Instead, he saw the window as clear as day, and reflected in it, he saw himself. A cruel scowl was etched across his visage, and from his back, flames blacker than night in the Everfree Forest rose into the air.

Startled by the vision, he gasped and stumbled back, twisting awkwardly and landing on his side. He quickly sat up and checked himself for any signs of the flames while patting himself down, just to be sure.

“Sky?”

Lily’s voice brought him back to reality. He sighed. “How…how can I go back and face the Chimera again? It beat me once. It knows my weakness, and it knows how to beat me again.”

The next voice he heard was the soft voice of Princess Luna. “And what was that weakness, Sky Streak?”

Sky swallowed as he finally began to understand. After waking up, he had assumed that the voice that had spoken to his spirit so often had been the Chimera trying to dissuade him from returning. But now, he realized that had been wrong. No, the voice had been his own: not the joyful, smiling pegasus from his memories, but the angry, hateful darkness that had manifested itself in the battle in the Painted Forest. It had warned him of the pain and sorrow that awaited him.

And it had been right.

“The Chimera knew it all along. It made me angry. It got me upset, and it cultured the dark feelings that I felt. And by the time I was fighting it, I knew that I hated that monster.”

He turned and faced the ponies in the center of the room. “And I still hate it. I still feel that anger and rage; that desire to rip it to shreds for all the things it’s done to Equestria.” He reminded himself of his final moments before the Chimera descended upon him. “And it used that darkness against me. It’s a creature of hatred, and it used my hatred as its own weapon. And if I face it again, it will just do the same thing. I can’t fight it again.”

“Sky Streak,” Celestia began solemnly, “I think I understand what you’re feeling. It is never easy to face the thing that made us fall, but our failures are opportunities to grow stronger. To become better. They are only failures if we choose not to face them again.”

“But I can’t just go back out there! The Chimera knows how to beat me! It’s already done it once! It’s not scared of me!” Sky protested.

“If it did not fear you, it would not have tried so hard to beat you,” Luna replied.

The response stopped Sky’s train of thought dead in its tracks. “What?” he asked, dumbfounded.

Luna walked forward from her place until she stood directly in front of the pegasus. She proceeded to sit and look him squarely in the eyes. “Sky Streak, let me talk to you not as a princess, or a member of the Council, or even as an alicorn. For now, I am merely a pony that understands better than any other pony in all of Equestria what you are facing.”

He sat still, spellbound, as Luna spoke. “We all carry darkness within us. I do, you do, my sister does…I’m sure even Lily has her own darkness that she struggles with.” Sky cast a quick glance at the lovely unicorn, who turned her eyes away. “And the darkness is different for each of us. But the darkness is not evil in and of itself. It is merely the place within us where the evil can most easily take hold.”

She lifted her head and turned away, apparently seeing visions of ages long past. “My darkness was the love and pride that I had for the night, which I considered to be just as beautiful and worthwhile as my sister’s daylight. But she had the affection of all the ponies of the land, while the night was shunned in favor of the bright day. And when my jealousy consumed my thoughts, I ceased to be Princess Luna: I became Night Mare Moon, a monstrous embodiment of the evil that I had allowed to fester within my darkness.”

She shook her head for a second as her mane rippled in response. “But after Night Mare Moon was defeated by the Elements of Harmony, I was given the chance to start over: to put away the darkness and be reconciled to the ponies and the land that I loved. And I took that chance, and now, my sister and I are reunited as the rulers of Equestria.”

A lonely tear wormed its way down her face. “Sky Streak, the darkness does not go away. I still wish that more ponies would love my night and dwell in its beauty. But I understand that I cannot dictate their lives any more than you can raise the moon. And every night and day, I choose not to let the darkness control who I am.”

She smiled as she raised his head with her hoof. “Sky, your darkness is your passion. You have a zeal to see something done, and your sense of justice fuels it. But you have let the Chimera become the source of your drive. You are focused on destroying it instead of putting your attention where it should be.”

Sky’s own tears were falling by this point as his very soul felt like it would shatter. Luna was delving into the very depths of who he was, but he simply did not have the will to resist her. “Where should my focus be?” he sniffed.

The Princess of the Night withdrew her hoof and stared deep into eyes of the broken pegasus. “You already know what your focus should be. It is what has led you to this point. It is the source of your strength. It is what everypony has been telling you ever since you encountered the Chimera for the very first time.” She smiled knowingly. “And it is time that you understood what that is.”

As she rose to all four hooves, Sky’s mind was suddenly filled with images and sounds of bygone days. He saw the inside of Zecora’s hut, where Twilight’s friends were gathered around him, and he heard the small voice of Fluttershy telling him that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t do everything on his own. He saw the entrance to the windigo colony, where the commander looked at him with those chilling blue eyes and told him that only when he was surrounded by those he loved would he be able to defeat the Chimera. He saw the sunset in the small grove outside Polarmino where Lily had told him that the sooner he came to grips with the fact that he couldn’t do everything himself, the sooner he could finish his war against the Chimera.

He focused on the present again, where the rest of the Council had come up behind Luna, who was looking at him confidently. Lily had moved beside him, watching him with concerned eyes. “B-but, I can’t take them with me,” he managed. “It puts them in danger!”

“And every time that you face off against the Chimera, they stand by and let their friend challenge that danger. They understand that you have a role, as do they,” Celestia stated from behind her sister.

“But how can I take them with me?” he asked. “It’s not like I can bring them on every journey I go on.”

Cadance smiled. “Can’t you?”

“Sky Streak, your friends are not merely physical bodies,” Luna continued. “They are individuals, and they are the memories that you share. They are the emotions that bind you to each other, and they are the connections between everypony in all of Equestria.

“And wherever you take those feelings, your friends are there with you.”

“Your friends believe in you, Sky,” Lily said from beside him. “We always have. We believed that you would come back to us when you were asleep. Even now, we believe that you can overcome the Chimera.”

Sky let his eyelids fall. As he did, he saw the faces of a thousand ponies, all ones that he had spoken to at some time or another. He knew many of them well, and others, not as much. But even so, he considered them all to be his friends. He thought about what would happen if something were to threaten any of them. Would he face that threat to protect them? Of course he would. But why?

And suddenly, the last piece of the puzzle fell into place.

As he opened his eyes, he felt the electricity run through his veins. His wings tingled. His hooves itched. His heart felt like it might explode. An unmistakable energy coursed through every appendage of his body.

He rose to his hooves and wiped away his tears. He took a deep breath as he looked into the eyes of his beloved Princess Luna. “I understand,” he said. “Thank you for showing me, princess.”

Luna merely smiled and nodded. “With the Council’s permission, I would like to set out on a mission against the Chimera,” he said, being certain to emphasize his words.

“And I would like Lily Pond to come with me.”

Lily’s eyes glittered as she looked at her boyfriend. She walked over beside him confidently. “I would have demanded you take me along if you hadn’t said that,” she said, giving him a nudge.

He flashed her a knowing smile. “Let’s face it; you wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Doesn’t that sound familiar.”

“You have both our permission, and our blessing,” Celestia said. “Shining Armor has dispatched a troop of royal guards to Foalumbus to try and delay the Chimera. I sent along the Elements of Harmony with them in hopes of defeating it, but I fear for their safety. Please get there quickly and ensure that they are alright.”

“Don’t need to ask me twice,” Sky said, turning towards a nearby balcony door. He ran and pushed it open, welcoming the cool evening air as an old friend. He breathed it in, letting it calm his nerves. One way or another, it will end tonight, he thought. And that alone is worth fighting for.

“Lily,” he began, “we’re gonna need to get you a—”

“Already got some,” she interrupted, skipping past him. In front of her, suspended by her magic, were three bottles of a familiar milky-blue liquid. She quickly opened one and took a swig. “Are you just gonna stand there, or are we going to leave?” she asked, popping the cork back into the opening of the bottle.

Sky chuckled to himself as he erupted into the night sky before returning mere moments later, pushing a small cloud. Lily leapt onto it as Sky positioned himself behind it, preparing for the long journey that would take them to the eastern horizon. He looked back long enough to catch the gaze of Princess Luna. As he stared, he heard her voice echo in his head: You are not alone. They are your strength, and you are theirs. He nodded in response. Then, with a mighty heave, he took Lily and the cloud rocketing with him into the night sky, headed for an appointment with his destiny.

Celestia watched them shrink into the distance until they were an indistinguishable dot against the dark sky. Finally, convinced that watching them would do no more good, she inclined her head back to a lightless corner of the room. “Well, Ace? What do you think?”

The members of the Council turned in unison to watch a white unicorn with a red and silver mane step from the shadows. He was draped in a deep navy robe, and underneath, one could see the reflective surfaces of various pieces of armor. His gray eyes narrowed as a warm, slightly-mischievous grin stretched across his face. He faced the Council members, who looked on eagerly.

“What do you think?” the unicorn responded.

“I believe that he will succeed,” Luna said without hesitation. “He finally understands.”

Cadance nodded her agreement, while Shining Armor spoke from beside her. “He has the makings of a great member for you. I fully approve of him, pending his return from this mission.”

“I cannot agree more,” Celestia concluded. “Now, what about you?” she asked the cloaked unicorn.

“You know,” he said as he stared out the open balcony doors, “I think he’s exactly what we’re looking for.”