He Who Lets Light Fade

Tears. Tears were all he could see as salty moisture blotted his eyes. Leonard Knox, the Bard of Light, who had constantly struggled for control over his powers, had failed. He had mentally avoided the topic when he spent time with Rarity, but his conversation with Rainbow Dash was continuously beating in his brain like an unholy drum solo.

{"Oh, come on, Leo. How else are you gonna find out if you can control your powers?"

"By putting myself in a situation where no one has a chance of getting hurt but me. That way, if I still can't control them, the destruction will be pretty much harmless. I hope."

"Dude, your powers revolve around luck. How would you getting hurt be considered lucky?"}

She was right. No matter what he did, the only way Leo could be sure that his powers didn't hurt anyone was to put them in harm's way and try again if he died. There wouldn't be a point to controlling them if the mere threat of his powers made him kill people. And the chances of something unlucky happening to Leo were too high for his liking. There was no way to prevent it. He couldn't do anything. He had failed his friends, old and new. All he could do was cry and hide away in a secluded part of Applejack's orchard.

"There you are! We've been worried about you!"

All of his new friends and some of his old ones were in front of him. Before any of them could say anything, he put his hat over his face.

"Go away, guys. I want to be alone."

Topaz looked at him with a serious expression. "For how long?"

"Forever. I'm too dangerous."

"Rubbish. Come on, up you get."

He uncovered his face and glared.

"Don't you get it? Anything I think is unlucky happens to me gets destroyed! I invite destruction through luck! I'm too picky for my own good!"

Fluttershy walked over to him, on the verge of tears herself. "But what about your new method? The chihuahua one?"

Rainbow put a wing on her friend.

"We talked about it, Shy. It won't work."

The dam broke. Fluttershy cried her eyes out, being embraced by a few of her friends all the while. Rainbow suddenly flew over to Leo with a look of confusion.

"Wait, you said that your aspect destroys anything IT considers unlucky, but now you say that it destroys what YOU consider unlucky."

"So what? That's even worse! I can't change what my aspect thinks! It isn't sentient!"

Zachary walked over to him, as stony faced as one could be.

"Leonard, it might not be sentient, but you've been treating it like it is. Arguing with it in your head as if it's talking back at you, now treating it like an animal with a Napoleon Complex."

"All that proves is that I'm an idiot. Oh, look at that! My knowledge is being affected now, too! GREAT!"

Randall stood there in silence. He was worried about HIS powers for a while, but because he thought they dictated his path. He had complete control, and he ignored it. How can you help someone going through what you are when there's nothing to ignore?

"Maybe there is, Randy!"

Randall's eyes nearly shot out of his skull. He looked over to Pinkie, who somehow read his mind.

"How did you-"

Pinkie trotted over to Leo. Her mane was slowly rising from the flatness it once had, probably because she thought she had the solution.

"What if you stop fighting it, and instead think of it as a superpower?"

"...what."

"If you keep treating it like a bad guy, then it'll keep acting like a bad guy! Start letting it help you!"

Twilight sighed. Pinkie may have had the right intentions, but this was just wrong.

So then why was Leo looking like he was thinking about it?

"Well...when I figured out my powers, I liked them. Monsters were getting destroyed by a wind blowing my hat off my head and activating it. It bounced off all of my enemies and flying back to me in seconds. But that card game I told Fluttershy about? That was when I started thinking of them as a problem."

Zachary's eyes widened just a smidge. Quite frankly, everypony was surprised they could even do that.

"The more you thought of them as a dangerous force, the more dangerous to us they became. That one slip up triggered a chain reaction. How could I not have seen this before?"

Leo stood up slowly but surely. He developed a smirk at a snail's pace, but it was still there.

"Sorry, my bad. Guess I need to control THAT, too."

Rarity looked rather incredulous. From what she knew of their powers, they were stranger than any magic in Equestria. Not sentient, but you could be forgiven for thinking so.

"You mean that's it? Just stop antagonizing them and they'll stop being...antagonistic?"

"No clue. But we have something that none of us can see any major flaws in, right?"

Zach's small smile finally appeared.

"I see no issues at the moment. I don't think the horrorterrors do, either."

Applejack's pupils shrunk to pinpricks.

"Ya mean ya still have them in yer head!? Not that Ah want ta derail tha conversation, but why in tarnation didn't ya tell us!?"

Randall rolled his eyes. That was something he was glad to be able to bring himself to do again.

"You just derailed the conversation anyways. Way to go, Ms. Sawyer."

"Who tha hay is-"

"Guys, guys!"

Leo was smirking as broadly as ever, hat firmly on his head.

"Let's not forget why we're gathered here today. We're here to witness the holy matrimony of Leonard Knox and his powers as the Bard of Light."

Everypony but Randall chuckled at that. When he noticed the looks he was getting, he responded with "I'm not gonna laugh. You can't make me. Wait, seriously though, that's it!? All we had to do was have Pinkie break the laws of reality, read my mind or some bullcrap, and then have a nice, heartfelt conversation that BARELY LASTED 2 FREAKING MINUTES!?"

Leo rolled HIS eyes this time, but with a smirk ever present.

"Dude, it's not the movies. Sometimes the littlest thing can go the longest way. And hey, it still hurts to know that I could've hurt any of you at nearly any moment, but I think I'll get over it. Anybody wanna group hug or something?"

And they did. Most of them, anyways. Randall just snickered a bit and proceeded to deny it happening. But then, out of nowhere, Rainbow Dash asked a question that was on at least 5 of the ponies' minds.

"What are the movies, anyway?"