Darkness in the Heart

Light fell asleep again, despite trying to keep herself up. She had an... interesting dream... to say the least.

She dreamt a dream where she was standing right in front of her brother inside of the Canterlot castle. There were no signs of the Elements, princesses, or any other living creature around. Just her and him. "This is where it ends, sister," her brother said, in a voice that sounded like nails on a chalkboard to her. It made her flinch.

"Yes, brother. No matter what, there will not be 2 of us walking out of this castle today," Light said. I didn't say that... She paused her thought for a moment. Wait, my thoughts are lucid, but my actions aren't... Then, something struck her. Wait... that's me over there... I'm not in my body! She tried lifting up her hooves. She had none. She looked to her side to look at her body. She had none. Wait... I'm not anywhere... I'm a ghostly figure... But, why? Uh, this makes my non-existent brain hurt. Even though she did not understand anything, she continued to watch.

Dark then turned into darkness like he did in the beginning in this story, (yes, I am going to break the fourth wall.) then charged towards Light. Light did something she didn't know she could do: Turn into light. She turned into a giant ball of light, similar to the one from her spell. She then charged at her brother. When they collided, it caused sparks to go everywhere. The ghost Light might have been lit on fire if she had a body. The two got sent back then charged back at each other. They constantly did this, and they started to attack in the middle of the air eventually. Dang, I really am tough. I never knew that; I thought my brother was the tough one... Well, we are opposite in some ways, back equal in other ways. Maybe that's one of the things that's equal instead of opposite... Gosh, I turning into some philosophical thinker or something. I really need to stop thinking so hard. Well, maybe I shouldn't... what if this is me viewing the future somehow? This is realistic,  and it is possible... I should keep watching to see what happens in the end.

She exited her thoughts and looked back to the battle. There was one final charge and they went back to their original spots, both of them scratched and bruised. Dark then started to charge his dark laser from his horn, and Light began to charge her light ball with her weird spell thing. After a couple seconds, they both fired their lasers at the exact same time, making the them hit and causing an explosion at where it hit. Wait, there usually isn't a laser behind my ball of light... ugh, something else for me to learn. The lasers continued being shot, with one side occasionally beating the other side for a few seconds, but the other side would fight back to make it even again. Eventually, one side was losing too much energy to fight back: Light. She was obviously out of energy and was about to pass out. Dark made a sinister smile and put much energy in his final push. The laser went close to Light's face and, when there was no more of her beam, it hit her in the face with an explosion. She flew back and lay there, not moving nor breathing. Dark walked up to his sister's dead body and starting laughing maniacally. No... this can't be true... I can't die, I can't lose... No, no, no, no, nononono... She felt like she was going to pass out, despite having no body. Well... she somehow did; she fell to the ground and slowly fluttered her eyes closed, with her brother's maniacal laugh still ringing in her not-real ears.

"Ah!" she yelled the front half of her body jerked forward after waking up from that dream- no, it was a nightmare. She looked around and saw Applejack and Fluttershy sitting in front of her.

"Whoa, nelly!" Applejack said. "Finally, you're up! Y'all've been screamin' and kickin' in your sleep for the last 10 minutes!"

Light held her stomach. "Uh, I feel sick..." She felt nauseous.

Fluttershy said, "Oh, let me go and get some medication." She flew over and got some liquid medicine, then flew back over and gave it to Light.

Light looked at it quizzically, but decided to drink it, since it would be rude not to. She popped off the cap and poured it onto her mouth. She swallowed it and stuck out her tongue in disgust. I think it might have been better to just not even drink this...

Fluttershy obviously took note of this and said, "Oh, it doesn't taste good, but you'll feel better soon."

Yeah, right. Light sat on the couch for a few more minutes. (Which felt like hours to her.) Eventually, she felt her stomach ache go away. Once she felt well again, she sat, stretched, then moved around so she can get her muscles ready for moving again. After a few minutes, she said with a yawn, "Alright, I think it's time to head out... Wait, where are we headed?"

Applejack and Fluttershy also realized that they didn't know their destination. "Um..." Applejack said. "I think she's at Sugar Cube Corner, probably."

Light tilted her head forward a bit. "And where is that in this town?"

"Oh! It's..." Applejack lost her moderately happy mood. "...in the middle of Ponyville..."

Light plopped back onto the couch. "Great. If it's in the middle of Ponyville, and you're coming along with me, that means that we're going to have to beat up a ton of ponies on the way there. Ugh!" she moaned. "Unless..." She lifted herself off of the couch, getting an idea, but keeping her mildly sad mood. "...unless I go there with only Fluttershy, since she's a pegasus also." Fluttershy squeaked and backed away. "You don't want to go?" She shook her head. Light sighed. "Alright, I guess this will be a lone mission. This place will kind of our 'base of operations'. I'll come back when I have the pink pony. Okay?" Even though they seemed to not agree, Applejack and Fluttershy nodded their heads. "I'm going out. I'll be back soon... maybe. I dunno. Bye!" She opened the door and went outside. She then launched up into flight and flew towards the middle of town.

After a minute or two, she flying over the more action-packed area of Ponyville. She looked down and saw many ponies who obviously had Dark's curse on them. Luckily, none of them noticed her; if she was noticed, she would have already been pelted with rocks. She looked around and looked for Sugar Cube Corner. Alright, what am I looking for?... Wait, what am I looking for? Crap, they never told me what to look for! So, I guess I'll have to put pieces of the puzzle together. 'Sugar Cube Corner'... sounds like a place for sweets. Is there anything around here that seems like a place for sweets? She immediately noticed a building that looked like candy. I guess that's it... And my eyesight's too poor to see what the front sign says, but if I get closer, the ponies will notice me and try to attack me. I hope my instincts are right. If I put the pieces of the puzzle together right, but that is not the place, my name is Bob. And thankfully, it's not. Light then swooped over to the building and slammed herself onto the side of the roof. She didn't want any unwanted attention. She circumnavigated the house but saw no entrance on the side of the house. ...why did I expect there to be a door on the second floor of the house? I'm losing my mind... There was, however, a perfect window at the way top of the building. She flew up to the way top and stood on the balcony-thing. She tried opening the window. AS she expected, it was locked. Well, I have no choice here; I guess I"ll have to do this the hard way! She flew up into the air then charged into the window, shattering it into many pieces and leaving her inside the dark building. Well, I'm in...  it's a lot darker than I expected. But that doesn't change anything. She walked further in and it got extremely dark. It's times like these that I really wish I was a unicorn... But I wouldn't be in here if I wasn't a pegasus. Here's the question; why couldn't I be born an alicorn? Wait, that's too unrealistic... Hey, a light! She was thinking while walking and saw a dim, steady light at the end of the hallway. She raced over to it and peeked her head in. "Hello?"

Inside, she saw a pony having a small party with a bunch of inanimate objects. Um... what? She looked at the pony. She had an extremely dark shade of pink as her color, even in the barely-lit room, the dark color was obvious. She had an even darker pink mane; the mane was perfectly straight, which is very rare for a pony to have a mane like that. The pink pony apparently heard Light's 'Hello?' from earlier, so she turned around. The eyes were extremely dark blue (at least, for a pony). It was actually pretty creepy all combined, since EVERY color was extremely dark; she seemed like a psycho-manic-depressive pony. (Well, she's right.) Why does this feel like my and some other pony's worst nightmare?

"Hi there," the pink pony said in a voice that didn't seem crazy. It was the difference in looks and voice that made Light shiver. "Do you want to have a party?"

Light said in a small voice, "N-n-no..." I don't even need to look into her heart to tell she's evil...

The pink pony cringed an eye. "Well, it's going to be your last!" She suddenly took out the cake-cutting knife.

"AH!" Light screamed. She started running away at a speed faster than when she's flying.

"Teehee..." her voice said; it was from far away, but it sounded like it was right up against Light's ear. "You can't escape me..."

I am so glad I didn't bring Applejack and Fluttershy along; then there would be 3 ponies here having nightmares...

"Boo!"

"AH!" Light screamed and kicked where the voice came from. She felt that she kicked something and looked to see what she hit.

"Ouch!" the pink pony's voice said. There was suddenly light around and Light saw what she hit: The pink pony's face; she hit her right in the muzzle, making her bleed. "Ow! Gosh, all I do is chase you around to scare you, and you kick me in the face! Seriously, what the hay!"

Light said quizzically, "Wait, you're not trying to kill me?"

The pink pony said, "Well, duh! What do think I'm going to do? Turn you into cupcakes?" I've broken the fourth wall enough to say yes. "All i'm trying to do is scare you so I can get a good laugh! It's always fun to get scared!" Not if I'm getting scared to death- literally!

"Hm..." Light said, tapping her chin. Idea!

"Whatcha thinking about, scaredy hooves?" said the pink pony, who leaned up into Light's face. (Who is obviously Pinkie Pie, so that's what we're going to call her now.)

Light then kicked her again, this time, not in the face. "Ow!" Pinkie said. "Again! Why did you do that?" Light then kicked again. And again. And again. Finally, Pinkie was up against the wall, unable to move from the pain. "You're a meany..."

Light sighed. I really need to stop kicking so hard. Anyway, I think I should try having the laser-thing behind my ball of light so I can train for fighting my brother. But... how do I do it? Meh, I guess I'll figure it out. Alright, here we go. Light then began her spell. When she launched the orb at Pinkie's chest, she focused her energy a bit more, thinking it would make the beam come behind it. Well, she was right. The beam came behind it, which caused the multiplication of the light inside of Pinkie's heart grow faster, without taking more energy. When she finished, Light fell to the ground and Pinkie still lay there. Light was still awake. Yes, the beam made me not instantly pass out! Thank you, random dream that allowed me to see into the future. Though, I am still pretty weak. Anyway- Her thought was interrupted by a pink pony jumped in front of Light.

"Hi there!" they pink pony with fluffy hair happily exclaimed.

"Ah!" Light jumped back a few inches. She might have expected something to come from below, but no; the pink pony came from above, making her be upside down. "Um... do I know you?"

"Oh course you do, silly! You're the who saved me just now!"

"Wait, what? I didn't save you, I saved that other pony..." she looked over to where the crazy Pinkie was lying, but there was no Pinkie there. "Huh? Wait, she was just there a second ago and-"

"No, no no! I'm her!"

"But you look completely different!"

"Well, that's just what I look like when I'm not happy. I'm happy now!" Pinkie jumped up and down.

"But, but... Uh, I give up. You're Pinkie Pie, right?"

"What? No."

"AH!" Light groaned. Light looked to the side.

"I'm just messing with ya. I am Pinkie Pie!"

"Uh, thank goodness I didn't almost kill myself for nothing..."

"What do you mean, Scaredy hooves?"

"It means- wait, how do you know that? Do you remember that?"

Pinkie jumped around. "Of course I do, silly! What, was I not supposed remember that?"

Light was going to continue talking, but just gave a sigh. "I give up. So, how are we going to get out of here alive?"

"You can just use your wings and fly out of here like a hawk or something!"

"Well, I know that. But how are you going to get out of here safely?"

"I'll just leave, silly!"

"But you're going to get torn up by the evil ponies!"

"What are you talking about? I'll be totally safe!"

"No you're not! They'll destroy you-" She was interrupted by a hoof over her mouth.

"Don't worry, Scaredy Hooves! I'll be okay. And you can't change my mind!"

Light sighed. "Fine, I'll let you go alone. But if you die out there, I'll... um... kill you again!" I could never kill a pony! What am I thinking?

Pinkie Pie rubbed her on the head, messing up her mane. "Okie Dokie, Lokie! I'll be good!"

Light knew there was no sense to continue arguing or talking, so she walked over to the broken window and flew back out, heading back to Fluttershy's cottage. She saw Pinkie still standing inside Sugar Cube Corner. She'd better be safe, alright.

Light landed in front of the door to the cottage and opened up the door to go inside. Once she closed the door, she saw that Pinkie was standing there.

"There y'all are! Pinkie's been here fer 5 minutes, and we've been waitin' on ya!" Applejack said.

"What the- what?" Light said, confused. "How? Huh? Uh, this pony here makes no sense." She motioned towards Pinkie.

Applejack giggled and said, "We all of us already knew that."

"Yeah! And I knew that already, also!" said a voice suddenly to Light's left ear. Light jumped to her left and I saw that it was Pinkie Pie.

"What the-" Light looked back and forth to where Pinkie currently was and where she was seconds before. "What the- But she was- And now she's- Uh, my brain hurts. Do you have any tea?"

Fluttershy nodded and went to where her kitchen was. Light plopped down onto the couch. She needed time to think and rest. Fluttershy came back with a cup of tea and handed it to Light. "Thank you," said Light.

"Oh, it's nothing," replied Fluttershy. "It's the least I could do for saving the three of us."

Light realized, "Oh yeah, I've saved three of you. That means I'm half way done saving you all. But that doesn't mean my quest is half way over; we still have to go up to Canterlot and defeat my brother."

"C-c-canterlot?" Fluttershy squeaked. "Isn't that where the princesses are?"

Light sighed. "Yup. And I think they've been consumed, also. Notice how it's autumn and yet the sun is blaring outside, and how it's also motionless? I think it's because of the Princess of Sol is doing it out her pure hatred. That's why I'm saving you all; to save her while I meet up with my brother." Silence. "So... I'm saving that Rarity lady next?"

"That's yer best bet," said Applejack.

"So... where is she? I had a tough time finding Pinkie, and I doubt I'll have a fun time finding her without any information."

"She's probably at her boutique," Applejack said. She gave Light directions to it. "You can't miss it."

"Alright," Light said. "I'm going out now."

Fluttershy said, "Are you sure you want to leave? You just got here; you should probably get some rest while you're here."

Light said while pushing open the door, "Nah. I've got a lot of energy right now. Besides, I'm getting used to this; I shouldn't have a tough time. See ya when I get back!" Light then closed the door and flew up into the air. Next stop: The boutique.