That Which Darkness Sends

Megan was alone.

Not just by herself. That was being alone. No, she was alone. She felt as if the world was void of any other souls.

The clearing she was in wasn't clear. The air was almost pitch black. The sky was the color of Tirek's dark, cold heart. There was absence of stars, the moon, and any source of light. Her eyes would not adjust to the dimness. She could only see that there was not a clearing at all. In fact, the trees were much closer together than normal.

Megan was alone.

She woke up laying on her back. She sat up and was instantly filled with terror, as if she was in a horror movie or game. She hadn't seen one before, but she expected this was what it was like. Nothing moved. Nothing made a noise.

She brought her knees to her chin and curled into a ball. Her mind was in a sensory overload, but it knew one thing: fear. A frightened tear escaped her eye. She was sobbing silently.

"Meeegaaan..." The voice was a ghastly whisper, but in the stillness it was as loud as a cannon shot. Megan looked up from her near-fetal position. Nothing moved. Nothing made a noise.

"Hello?" she called. She wondered if it was wise to give away where she was, but she needed anyone, anything to prove existence. "Hello!" she said louder. Nothing replied. "Please, where are you?" More tears fell without any drip. "Help me," she added with a sob.

She placed her head on her knees again and wrapped her arms around her legs. She laid on her side and cried for what seemed like infinity.

"Meeegaaan..." The voice was more ghostly that anything Megan had ever heard before. The echos in the darkness were like spirits in a graveyard.

"Please! I know you're there!" Megan cried. She heard nothing for hours. "I know..." she whispered.

"Meeegaaan..." Megan could feel the chilling breath in her ear, the warm exhalation on her neck.

"Please... Just help me..." Megan whispered to the voice standing over her.

"Megan, look at me," the voice said. It was no longer frightening. It was no longer a whisper. It was kind, and friendly, and reassuring.

Megan opened her eyes, if only a crack. A lavender hoof reached down and lifted her chin. Megan looked up, and saw the warm smile of a purple pony with a horn and wings. This must be Twilight, the Princess of Friendship. The corners of Megan's mouth raised slightly.

Twilight slowly waved her foreleg once past Megan's face. As she did, she vanished from all sight. Megan once again became frightened. She reached out and grasped nothing but air.

"NO!" she cried. "Twilight! Come back!" She broke down and started to sob once again. "I need you..."

An evil, female cackle echoed through the forest. Megan was less frightened, but was beginning to feel upset in a different way.

"Megan," said the same, pleasant voice. Megan stood up and saw Twilight, standing between two trees with that same, pleasant smile.

Megan rushed toward her, relieved, and wrapped her arms around her neck. But the lavender alicorn turned into less than vapor. Megan, still running, fell over the immovable roots that were connected to the trees. She landed in a puddle of mud and became angry. As she picked herself up off the ground, another of the same laugh rang in her ears. She was filled with rage.

"Megan, over here," the voice called from behind her. Megan turned around to see Twilight, still with her smile, but the smile was one of mockery.

Fuming, Megan grabbed a stick that was leaning against a tree and lunged. She thought about how the stick looked awfully like a baseball bat, and swung at the purple head. Twilight vanished, and Megan slipped and landed on her back.

"You can't hit, can you, Megan?" Twilight taunted from somewhere behind

Megan stood, shouted a fearsome cry, and pounced at the alicorn's head. That Twilight too disappeared. The next call came from directly behind Megan, so she spun around and barely saw the illusion blink from existence after striking the space with the bat. By now, she was furious.

Another Twilight taunted her. Megan slowly walked up to her, raised her bat above her head, and swung down so hard that she left a gaping hole in the dirt. This time, not only did this Twilight disappear, but she split into two Twilights on each side of where Megan had swung. Megan tried to connect the bat to their heads, but they split into four Twilights. No matter what she did, the Twilights kept multiplying over and over.

Megan's heart burned with fury. Fed up with it all, she screamed and hurled the bat at a tree. The resounding CRACK! silenced all. The Twilights were gone. No more taunting, no more swinging. Satisfied, Megan began to walk to pick up her bat. As she did so, she heard a whimper from behind her.

I swear, if this is another Twilight... Megan thought. She turned to see another curled up lavender alicorn, its eyes pleading with Megan. Megan raised her bat for hopefully the final time.

"No!" Twilight cried. "Please! I'm the real Twilight! The others were fakes! You have to bel-" She was silenced by the bat actually meeting her head.

Good riddance, Megan thought as she saw the fractured skull dripping blood. She dropped the bat and started to walk away.

"Oh, Megan?" the voice said again. Megan turned around, but was met with a strike to the head with her own bat. The Twilight she had just killed was standing and held the bat in her telekinesis. When she tried to swing again, the bat was caught by Megan, ripped from her grasp, and pounded her. Over and over, Megan used the bat like a sledgehammer, beating the body to a bloody pulp.

One more whimper was heard from behind Megan. She spun on her heel, gave a battle cry, and ran at the sound. She didn't see the lavender alicorn with the vibrant, violet mane. She saw the pink unicorn with the plain, white mane. It didn't matter. It was still Twilight. Once again, Megan held her stick high and brought it down on the side of Twilight's face. Twilight was thrown to the trunk of a tree. Megan readied herself for another strike.

"Please!" Twilight pleaded as best as she could from her injured position. "I'm real! I'm the real Twilight!"

"OH YEAH?" Megan screamed violently. "WHAT MAKES YOU SO SURE THAT YOU'RE TWILIGHT? PROVE IT! PROVE THAT YOU'RE TWILIGHT!"

Slowly, Twilight raised her right foreleg. She turned it over. On the back was a half-decimeter-wide, perfectly round patch of healing skin, the fur on it just starting to grow. Megan stared at it with suspicion, then turned over her own arm, revealing her own, same-sized patch of pink fur, just beginning to fall out. The pony and human compared the oddities. They were a perfect match. Megan's fur was the exact shade of Twilight's coat, and Twilight's exposed skin was the exact shade of Megan's skin.

Instantly, Megan's demeanor changed. "The teleportation experiment..." she mumbled, her thoughts traveling back to one of Twilight's less successful test runs that didn't exactly work with all skin types. She looked up at the unicorn with wide eyes. "Twilight! It really is you!" Twilight found herself nearly being tackled into a hug. "I needed someone, anyone! And you came!"

"Uhh... came? Where did I come to? This looks like a completely normal yet completely round clearing in a forest. Is that odd where you come from, on your Earth?"

Megan withdrew herself and stood up with a quizzical expression on her face. "What do you mean? It is pitch black right now. It's only by miracle that I can see you."

Now it was Twilight's turn to look confused. "I can see you perfectly well. There are some stars out, but the moon was covered by..." She paused, putting some pieces together in her mind. She facehoofed. "Tirek's Dark magic. Of course. When I woke up, I saw Tirek casting a spell on you. There was a beam of Darkness, probably coming from the Rainbow of Darkness, emitting from the moon. You were encased by the column. He must have been trying to turn your heart, something at which he succeeded for a time."

"Sorry for trying to kill you, by the way."

"It's fine. I would've done the same thing. Anyway, When Tirek finished his spell, you were laying on the ground, curled up in a frightened ball. Then you got up, grabbed a large stick, and tried to kill me. I've seen dark magic turn ponies into monsters, even experienced it at times, but with Tirek's special brand of Dark magic, I could only guess what you must have been going through."

"Oh, is that all?"

"Yeah, pretty much. You can figure out the rest."

An awkward pause followed.

"Uhh, Twilight?" Megan asked. "Can you please do something about this?" She waved her hand around in the air, motioning to the "forest" that Twilight couldn't see.

"Oh. Right." Twilight's horn lit up. Instantly, the bright stars in the sky came into view, and the dark trees retracted to their normal, circular pattern.

"Oh, thank you, Twilight. I don't believe I could stay in there much longer."

"It's no problem. Light always overcomes the dark."

"The problem with that, though," Tirek said as he appeared, "is that the darkness seeps into the cracks where the light doesn't shine." He walked toward the two startled and frightened beings. His fist slammed to Twilight's side. She was thrown through the air at a tree. Though she was nearly impaled, she was still instantly knocked out.

Megan tried to run from the monstrous centaur, but the breath was ripped from her lungs, causing her to fall to the ground. A dark mist swirled around her throat, slowly expanding to the rest of her body. She tried to struggle to free herself from the Dark magic, but it was useless. The magic was too powerful. As she fell, she saw Tirek with his arm outstretched, the hand on it in a magic choke hold. He was going to kill her.

A lavender blast came from where Twilight had been knocked out. There she stood, a violet glow on her horn, a purple light from her eyes, a furious look on her face. Her stance said that she was prepared for a battle.

Tirek rolled his eyes, annoyed. "Honestly, why won't you ponies just die?" For a split second, he lowered his concentration.

Twilight took that chance. She shot another beam of magic, forcing Tirek to lose his grip on Megan. Megan gasped for life-giving oxygen. Tirek would not give up just yet, though. He tried to cast his own Dark magic on Twilight, but to no avail. Instead, Twilight began to rise into the air slowly.

"Tirek, stop this madness," Twilight commanded. "Turn away from the darkness and come into the light."

"No. That's stupid. Why do you think I would?"

"Because you leave me with no choice. Tirek, in the past, you have killed us all several times. Afterward, you have turned the hearts of all five of my friends and two other ponies, while forcing Megan to watch. Now you have turned her heart, too. But you have seen what the light does against the dark. Light magic has turned all hearts back from the darkness. All but yours. And it must be outcast from here, so it does not contaminate anything else."

"And what makes you think you can stop me?" Tirek inquired.

"You have caused harm to not just any ponies, but my friends. I say this to you not just as Princess Sparkle of Friendship, but as *Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic!*"

Lavender light, as fierce as it was beautiful, radiated from Twilight. This was truly the epicenter for all light magic.

The light died away, leaving Twilight sitting in the center of the clearing, with Tirek nowhere to be seen. Sure enough, Twilight had been turned into the lavender alicorn she used to be.

Megan stood up and reached for her hitting stick. With the rage she had while under the influence of the Darkness at the sight of the purple beast, she ran over to Twilight with the bat raised.

Twilight tried to back away from the seemingly crazy girl, but to no avail, as she only tripped and fell back down. "Gah! Real me, real me!"

Megan grinned, then lowered the stick. "I know, just messing with you."

"Well, please don't." Twilight gazed around for a bit, then finally noticed her body. She fluttered her wings gratefully. "Ah, it's good to be back."

"So you can fly, too? How is that?"

"It's one of the better things that has happened to me. Alicorn abilities are also more powerful than most other ponies, which means I can do this." Megan found herself being levitated on to Twilight's back, whom then blasted from the ground and reached the moonbeam in 9.9 seconds flat. Megan tumbled off her, wide-eyed and dizzy.

"Please never do that again," Megan said. When she eventually scrambled to her feet, she realized where they were. "We are right next to the moonbeam. I didn't even have to tell you where to go."

"Well, it's obvious that it's Dark magic, probably the next place Tirek will be. Am I right?"

"Yeah, the other ponies and I always just walked in."

"And you didn't die? How do you know you just don't get killed over and over, only getting revived every time?"

"Well, for starters, Tirek is always upset. That, and I always see seven other selves for a split second."

"That makes sense. So, this is the final battle. Are you ready?"

"Not in the slightest. Let's go."

One human and one pony stepped forward into the moonbeam and saw seven other human/pony pairs for the final time.