Violet Magica - The Arrow of Light

A choking gasp shook Violet awake as she felt a warm touch on her hoof. Her head fell forwards, angled to the side. A tiny spark of purple remained. A blurry vision of Rose appeared next to her. “Rose... why...”

“Enough, Violet.” Rose took a few bandages and pieces of cloth out of her saddlebags which she had put down next to her and tied them around some of Violet's wounds while wiping away the strands of blood in her face. “You've done enough, Violet. Let me handle the rest of this.”

Rose got up from Violet's side and moved a few steps towards the hole in the wall that lead outside. Spinning her pupils around, Violet was able to make out a cloudy white speck of fur next to Rose. “No... don't... If you do this now, Rose... then what have I done all of this for? Everything I had to go through... was it all for nothing?”

Rose looked back over her shoulder. “Everything is not lost yet. I believe that the only reason I can stand here right now, is because of you... I want to answer your hope. Allow me to do what only I can.”

She gazed outside, Walpurgisnacht in the distance, and moved her forehoof to her chest. A deep breath. “Kiubee, I have decided on my wish. I wish to go to every place on earth, throughout every time-line, all dimensions, past, present, and future, and destroy every single witch before it is even born! All the Sorceresses who still have hope in their heart, I will not let their prayers be unanswered! I want them to keep smiling until the very end!” While she uttered these words, stronger and stronger gales of wind formed around Rose, emitting a glowing light as it almost lifted her up from the ground.

Kiubee gasped with all his force. “What? You can't possibly mean to go through with this! Not even I can say what consequences a wish like that could have! If you use your karmic burden like that... Do you truly intend to become a god?”

“I don't care what you call it!”

“You are tinkering with the very foundations of the laws of the universe! Achieving this will require you to split up your existence to every imaginable point in time. It will be as if you stopped existing.”

“Then so be it!”

The light surrounding Rose exploded in intensity, soaking the entire area in a scintillating aurora. Violet's already blurry vision was completely overloaded with brightness, but as the light faded a familiar picture manifested in front of her eyes. Rose with a Sorceress's horn.

Now standing on the edge of the building, Walpurgisnacht in target, she conjured her bow without a word. However, her bow surpassed every other weapon Violet had ever seen in size. Floating besides Rose, she magically pulled the string, a flickering flame appearing on its top end. With each inch that she drew the string, the flame grew mightier until it grew into a blazing flare. Before she fired the arrow, she turned the bow sideways and aimed it skyward.

Finally releasing her shot, the arrow of light dashed towards the sky until it got almost swallowed by the dark clouds. Right when it was about to disappear, the arrow burst into rays of light and—in an instant—vanquished all the black clouds at once and making way for the most radiating blue sky.

Just a tiny moment later, the rays of light shot forth an enormous array of even more arrows of light, tossing them—millions of them—throughout the entire sky in every possible direction towards the horizon.

In all of this, the Walpurgisnacht maniacally laughed once more, but was drowned out as some of the arrows pierced through her and caused her very body to be torn to pieces.

During all this, Kiubee turned away from Rose and walked over to Violet, who was still in an abysmal shape. “Hey, you seem to be missing the show. Tell you what, I can show you what Rose just did.” He held out his paw and touched Violet with it. “I will let you borrow some of my magic for a minute... go see for yourself, before this whole world will be no more. I don't particularly mind at this point. If my calculations are correct, a new world will arise in which no being will be able to remember Rose Daybreak existing. So go ahead and indulge yourself. It does not matter.”

Before Violet could react, her eyes contorted and her sight went inwards. She could feel her conscience, her soul, leaving behind her body and going on a journey. Her mind was flooded with alien images and visions of distant countries and cultures.

In one of them, Violet was able to make out the silhouette of a dying Sorceress, wearing strange amulets and accessories all over her body. She lay on the ground, her corrupted Soul Gem next to her. With her last breath she stared at her Soul Gem as it cracked, her face flooded with tears and her breath caught. But just as the Soul Gem was about to collapse, a blurred image of Rose materialized above the Sorceress. Stretching out her hoof, Rose reached out for the Soul Gem and vaporized it in an instant, allowing the Sorceress to fade away peacefully with a silent smile on her face.

Visions like these kept appearing in her mind. One showed a pony of a seemingly primordial time, another one a Sorceress in a highly advanced era and yet another one a floralwhite pony from this very city.

These visions rapidly increased in frequency until her brain was about to implode. Just before her mind collapsed, she heard a faint voice. “It's happening Violet! The laws of the universe are being rearranged! It is all you and Rose from here on out! Goodbye!” His last words almost drowned in a blaring sizzling noise that quickly increased in volume. Along with it, her brain finally gave up and drifted into unconsciousness.

***

As the luminosity began to fade it revealed the inside of a house. A triangular glass table and a floral pattern on a green carpet came into existence in the middle of the room.

An image of Rose sat next to the table, sipping on a cup of tea. On the other side of the table, an image of Amber manifested. “Are you really sure you want to do this?”

Rose put down her cup and looked at Amber. She nodded.

“But are you really aware what will happen to you? I cannot even fathom how this will be like for you, fading away into a being that only exists in the moment of redemption.”

Rose looked back at Amber, her voice and posture not wavering for even a fraction of a second. “It's okay. I think if my wish were to become a reality for every pony, then I have no more reason to despair.”

Amber's face bore a smile. Before she could answer however, a noise disrupted her from her side. It was the noise of a pony chomping on an apple. Her full mouth however, did not stop the scarlet pony from responding in Amber's stead. “Yes, that's right. Once you got something in your head you gotta keep at it with the best of your ability. That's how it should be.”

Rose glanced back at Crimson and picked up her teacup again. Before she could take another sip, Amber leaned closer towards her. “Thank you so much, Rose. You are giving us... No, you are becoming hope itself. You will now be the very principle of hope that guides us when we fall.”

The gleaming light returned to engulf the room once more.

***

As the shine faded again, a giant room was exposed. On one end of it, a well-lit stage laid at the bottom of a sea of seats. On this very stage, an ashen pony picked up his violin. “I will be performing Ave Mareia.” With this, he looked back at a handful of classy dressed ponies who were eagerly awaiting to take notes. A moment later, the hall was filled with the most beautiful harmony.

In the middle of the room, within a multitude of empty seats, the only other two attendants for today took their place: Azure and Rose. Both watched Slate play and opened their heart to the harmonious tones.

“I'm sorry, Azure. This is what you wanted to see ever since you made your wish.”

“You know, Rose... I think that this is what I wanted when I wished for his healing... Just listening to him playing again, even if I wanted to tell myself there was another reason.”

Rose stopped watching and instead gazed towards the floor. “You know if I really go back to a point where I could still save you entirely... then this future might have to go as well... But something tells me this isn't what you truly want.”

Azure let down her focus on the play and looked at the ground. “It's okay, Rose. Of course things didn't quite play out how I wanted them to, but I think I'm okay with everything that happened to me. After all, Slate can finally play again and Leafy is almost too good for him...” Her eyes watered more as she spoke. “I was not a very good friend to you or the others. But I have walked my path.”

She turned her head towards Rose. “My time is over. What awaits me now is what will await every Sorceress from now on, thanks to your kind wish...”

Motioning towards Rose, they both got up. “I think it's time to go. We have to meet up with the others.”

The light returned once more, but this time a darkness followed in its wake.

***

Endless depths. Inconceivable distances. The darkness lit up one by one with a magnitude of shining dots in a far distance. Galaxies and nebulae revealed themselves in the background.

Violet came to again, her mind strained from her visions. Her body however, felt unnaturally light and free. For a moment she wasn't even sure if she still had a body or if her mind separated itself from her mortal coil and transgressed towards a higher plane. Thoughts raced through her mind. “Am I dead?” No, she couldn't be. What she saw was but the truth. According to Kiubee, the laws of the universe were to be rewritten. “Where am I?” This particular question lost its meaning after she glanced upon what she found in front of her.

“Rose!”

Rose joined her in floating around in the nothingness of a place they shouldn't even be in, in a time that shouldn't even exist. “Violet... you...” Rose hesitated for a moment. “I managed to do it. I'm sorry I can't give you a better goodbye than this. It is only moments now until the universe will be reborn, and you with it.”

Violet leaned in closer, or at least she tried, since her movement was hindered by zero-gravity.

“What? I don't understand!”

Rose looked off into space. “The universe is being reformed... Everything you once came to know, all the suffering and pain of the Sorceresses will now be rewritten with my wish in place. I will take on the form of something more... Something beyond existence that will be able to guide them all to salvation.” Rose's body slowly phased out of existence.

“No! Don't go! What will happen to me once you are gone? If this is how you end then everything I have done... Have I... failed?”

Rose looked back at Violet, drifting towards her. “Of course not. The only reason I could do all of this was because of you. When I made my wish and transformed, I was able to take a glance throughout all the time-lines that you created. I saw how we first met. I saw how I was able to save you. I saw how sad you were when I died. And I saw how you didn't give up and kept on fighting. I saw how much you cried every time you failed and had to turn back time. I finally understand everything that you have done for me. Thank you so much. You were my best friend all along.”

Rose finally reached Violet and took her in her embrace.

Violet's voice teared itself apart, as a hole of despair ripped through her chest and crushed her heart. “This can't be how it ends! Do you really want to be forced to live as a god? Something that has no beginning nor an end? You would be locked away, out of our reach and we would never even understand what it is that saves us when we die...” Violet's eyes widened in an instant. “No! I don't want to forget you!”

“It's not time to give up yet.” Rose gave herself a little space and pulled both her ribbons from her hair, letting it now flow freely. She placed both of them in Violet's hooves. “You managed to follow me all the way to here, so you might be able to remember me. If it's small enough, a miracle might just happen.”

Violet was fully overcome and burst out in screams as Rose phased out even more. “Rose! No!”

“I have to go guide the others now. Promise me that one day we will meet again.”

The shrieking of Violet's scream ripped apart her mind as she was engulfed in the most vibrant darkness. She could feel it wash over her and enter ever pore of her body, flooding her with an indescribable dread.

***

“I am... Violet Somnia. I am still a young pony, currently visiting school with my friends in Kamino after having been out of commission due to a heart disease. I recently became a Sorceress after I found out my friends Spirit and Phantasma were both Sorceresses. They told me about the world of magic, about their fight against the evil wraiths that hide in the miasma and prey on pony lives. Along with me, my friend Marina also become a Sorceress, but for reasons unknown to me she fought much more recklessly in our recent encounter with a powerful wraith and ended up expending a vast amount of magical energy. Ultimately, the Law of Cycles came for her and she was taken from us.”

Violet came to, gasping for air, lying on a hard floor. Her surroundings whirled around her and only bit by bit cleared up into specific shapes. Slowly getting up she was able to make out the place she had landed in as the Kamino train station. Voices behind her.

“What? Where's Azure? Did she really just–?”

Violet glanced over her shoulder. Crimson and Amber—both transformed—stood a few meters away from her. Amber stared down at the floor. “Her Soul Gem disappeared along with her... She has gone with the Law of Cycles.”

Crimson slammed her hoof against a nearby pillar. “That idiot! Just when we started to become good friends she pulls that on us?”

Violet was unable to pinpoint why she was feeling so sad at that point. “Azure just died... right there...” she mumbled to herself. “No... this is not right...” Something odd had caught her eye.

A faint mumble. “Rose...”

The two other Sorceresses turned towards her. “Violet?”

“Thank you, Rose...” Violet fought to hold back her tears.

The two of them looked at each other. Crimson shrugged. “Is everything alright? Who is this... Rose?”