A Small Glimmer of Hope

A Small Glimmer of Hope

Written by Israel Yabuki

Edited and co-written by NineTailBeastBall

Life works in many mysterious ways for many people when it comes to their lifespans. Some people live long lives, sometimes good, sometimes bad. But in the end, they still lived their lives the way wanted to. However, there are some people who never make it to their long lives and die around their middle ages.

Some cases of short lives include deadly diseases caused by alcoholism and smoking habits. However for you, that wasn’t the case. You’re one of the few young adults who’s received a terminal illness. Even though your family had plenty of money, there was no way to treat or even stall your diagnosis. The doctors had reluctantly admitted that you only had about 6 months to live.

Your parents, along with your younger brother and sister all felt devastated that even with all the money that they had, there wasn’t any way that your condition could be cured. For every parent who genuinely loves their child, the one thing that breaks their heart the most is seeing their children die before them.

Rather than give into despair, you took on a more different approach, appreciating the life you lived. Even though you were going to die soon, you never stopped smiling and kept pushing on strong and proud.

True to what the doctors said, as the months passed your condition slowly worsened. As the disease slowly destroyed your body from the inside, you’ve lately been prone to coughing up blood and could hardly walk on your own. Today was now the day before your scheduled death and the symptoms were already at the final stage. Even so, you never showed any fear and you continued smiling. On this particular day, your parents and siblings were taking you for a walk, as one of your last wishes before reaching for the heavens above.

“Mom? Dad?” you asked.

“Yes sweetie?” your mother asks.

“Whatcha need, champ?” your father asks.

“Thanks for being the awesome parents I could ever ask for. And I want to thank you guys, too.” you directed your attention to your brother and sister. “You guys really made my life worth living. Maybe one day we’ll meet again, someday.”

“Come on, bro! Don’t make me cry again!” your little brother said, trying to act tough and wiping his tears away.

Before you could say anything, you began coughing out blood again. Your little brother held you and patted you on the back. You coughed up a bit more violently, but it soon stopped.

“Don’t scare me like that!” your little sister said.

“It can’t be helped, sis. I don’t have much time left,” you reply, giving your sister a sad smile. You knew it wouldn’t be much longer before your illness finally kills you. “But maybe we should all focus on the positive side of all this. You know, like how we shared a lot of good times as a big happy family.”

“You mean like the time mom and dad took us to the zoo and that elephant sprayed water all over dad?” your brother asked.

“Oh, sure make fun of me, why don’tcha?” your dad says with a smile, patting your head. Your parents and siblings laughed with you, but you made sure not to laugh too hard or your violent cough would worser than it already was. The last thing they wanted was to double-check the remaining time you had left.

“No way, the most amazing time was during that trip to Great America and mom nearly puked her guts out on that jet roller coaster ride!” your sister added.

“Either way, those were the best days of my life. I couldn’t even eat another bite after I pigged out at the buffet.” you replied.

“That’s just so like you, always thinking about your stomach!” your brother said.

“Hey, like they always say, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Or in dad’s case, the way to his heart is through his funny bone.” you say, looking at your dad, who chuckled.

You knew you wouldn’t last much longer so you were determined to enjoy the last moments of life you had left. But just as you and your family kept walking, you all came across a bridge where these group of people were in a state of panic. You went over to the crowd as quick as you could without damaging yourself.

At the far end of the bridge, a man and a woman were reaching downwards, making your eyes dart over to where they were reaching. You gasped when you realize that a little girl had gotten stuck in between two large rocks and couldn’t escape. To make things worse, there was a huge oncoming river current approaching at dangerous speeds.

As a natural instinct, you leaned away from the bridge and decided to run to the other side where the girl’s parents were, but you are grabbed by the arm by your dad.

“Son, I know what you’re thinking! But it’s too dangerous!” says your dad.

“So what? She’s in danger! I gotta help her!” you replied. However it was much easier said than done. Due to your illness, it was quite painful just to move.

“You’re in no condition to be saving anyone, you’ll just end up making it worse for yourself!” your mom says.

“What do you suppose is more hazardous, me living with regret that I couldn’t save a little girl or dying a hero so she can live another day?!” you argued in frustration, ignoring the pain. Your mom backed up a bit, trying to counter-argue with what you asked, but she couldn’t come up with anything.

“Bro, you’re not serious, are you?” your brother asks.

“I’m as serious as I can be. This will be my last act of courage. If I die here, then at least I know I can rest easy knowing that she’ll be okay. I know you wanted to spend more time with me, but this is something I want to do. You guys understand, right?” you ask your family.

It was hard for them to respond, but they finally realized that they had to respect your final wish and they did so by hugging you and all whispered. “We’ll always love you.” With that, they let go, allowing you to sum all the strength in your body and leap off the bridge and into the water.

Shortly after diving in, you swam to the surface, still ignoring the agonizing pain in your body and swam over to the little girl who was stuck between two rocks. You reached dry land and came up to the girl and pushed through the pain and pulled one of the rocks away from her. She kept screaming and crying out for her mom and dad to help her.

The river current was getting closer and there was very little time left. With sheer determination, you moved the other rock aside, giving the girl the ability to move again.

Suddenly, you puked out some blood. ‘I don’t have much time,’ you thought.

“Get on,” you grunted, feeling your pain getting worse.

“What?” asked the little girl.

“Get on my back!” you grunted again. She obeyed this time and climbed on, wrapping her arms around your neck before you finally climbed up close enough for her dad to reach her. The little girl reached and grabbed her dad’s wrist. He pulled her up and held his daughter in his arms, hugging her lovingly and so did her mom.

But it was a short-lived victory for you. The river was already too close to you for you to even climb out. The man reached out in the vain effort of saving you too.

“I… I’m sorry, but my time has come.” you say with a sad smile.

“No! You’re NOT gonna die!” the man says. But even though he didn’t want this to happen, you let yourself slip down the slope and say your last words.

“Until that day… ‘til all… are one.” with that said, you felt your body get swept away by the rough river currents and the only thing you could hear was the sound of the water swifting on by as you lost consciousness and fall into darkness.

The void of darkness seemed to go on forever, but as you drift farther and farther, you soon came to the light at the end of the cave. You walked into the light and were soon blinded by its beautiful presence. After walking in, you felt warm and your whole body felt like it was healthy like it was before you got sick.

Your vision came back and what you see leaves you speechless. You were sitting in front of a beautiful lake underneath a large tree. Looking up, you could spot a few large, grey clouds up in the sky, but you didn’t mind at all.

As your parents have told you before, heaven is always a mystery to everyone. Despite the grey clouds in the sky, the place still felt like a warm place to be in. Thinking this could be the end of the line, you leaned up against the tree and sighed in relaxation, taking in the peace and quiet. But then suddenly…

“Excuse me, are you alright sir?” asked a female voice. You slightly jumped a little and scanned your eyes to the left and saw this anthropomorphic horse. For a horse she was quite beautiful; she had a light purple coat and dark purple hair with a light blue stripe reaching down towards the tip. Her eyes were blue and had she had a horn on her head. Looking at the horn, you realized she wasn’t a a horse per se, but a unicorn.

She wore a white long sleeve thin zip-up jacket that was open and revealed a dark purple tank top. Being the well-mannered young man that you are, you made sure to keep your eyes away from her chest. Instead you looked at her in her eyes which showed a combination of curiosity and friendliness.

“I’m fine, thank you,” you said with a smile. She seemed to be both surprised and confused that you didn’t run for the hills like some humans would. Though while you were obviously not scared, you were still curious on what you were doing here.

Knowing your manners, you decided to introduce yourself before politely asking this pretty young unicorn for her name.

“Oh, I’m Starlight Glimmer. It’s such a pleasure to meet you. You know, I have to be honest, I’m surprised you didn’t run away from me when you woke up.”

You just shrugged. “I don’t see why I should run away. I’ve already taken whatever life threw my way and died with dignity. Besides, this is heaven, isn’t it?”

The unicorn stared at you with confusion before she suddenly started giggling, much to your confusion.

“What’s so funny? Was it something I said?” you asked

Starlight began to calm down from her laughing fit. “It’s just that you seem very much alive to me,” she answered.

“Alive? That’s impossible. I remember the river current carrying me away after I saved this little girl from certain death. And if I’m alive, then how come my illness isn’t hurting me?”

This time, Starlight took you seriously. “I’m not so sure, but the only thing I can tell you is that you’re alive and well. You don’t have to believe me, but that’s just my honest opinion,” she said with a shrug.

“What is this place?” you asked.

“This is the land of Equestria and you’re pretty close to the town of Ponyville. It’s sort of a little different than what your world is like.” Starlight says

“Equestria? Ponyville?” This was all so much for you to take in. “I… I can’t even believe it, how can I be alive and in a whole other world at that?!” You started to panic a little bit. Starlight grabs you by the hands and makes you look at her serious blue eyes.

“Please calm down! It won’t do you any good if you keep panicking like that! Now as for the matter of being here, we’ll go back to the castle and ask Twilight if she knows anything about how you got here, okay?”

As Starlight told you, you began to settle down a little. “Alright, thanks Starlight,” you reply.

“You’re welcome. I don’t like seeing someone having a panic attack. It tends to make me uneasy and nervous, too. Anyways, come with me and I’ll show you to Twilight’s castle.” She offers you her hand to help you up to your feet. You accepted her help and grabbed her by the hand. She pulls you up and takes you to this cute little town that’s filled with lots of anthro horses. Yet they don’t seem to be afraid of you.

“Uhh, Starlight? Why aren’t they looking scared?” you asked.

“Oh, right! I almost forgot. You see, you’re not the first human to be brought into Equestria. Quite a few other humans have arrived here before you. And just so you know, Twilight and her friends are actually married to humans and have kids.” Starlight explains.

“Are you serious? I didn’t know that. Also, who’s Twilight? You mentioned her name yet I have no idea who she is.”

“She’s one of my best friends, as well as a princess who lives in this town.”

“A princess? Isn’t she suppose to be a queen since she’s married or something, or is that now things work around here?”

“Her brother and sister-in-law are the rulers of an empire up north, but they’re still referred as a prince and princess. I’m not exactly sure why they’re not referred as king and queen, but it sounds better when call them prince and princess.”

“Uhh… okay?”

“Long story short, most places are either ruled by princesses or princes. Anyways, let’s keep on going, the castle is pretty close by.”

“Okay.”

You didn’t say another word and kept following Starlight until pretty soon, you and her came across this gigantic crystal castle, leaving you completely speechless. Starlight giggles at your expression and nudges your arm. You snap out of your daze just as she opens up the front door to the castle.

She walks in and you follow her inside before she closes the door. “Wow, this place is HUGE! You sure this is a castle and not a labyrinth, because something tells me it’s gonna take forever to get use to this place,” you said.

Starlight giggled. “Trust me, that’s how I felt when I first moved in here. But you get use to it eventually. Anyways, you go on ahead and make yourself at home, I’m gonna go get Twilight.” Starlight points to the couch near the fireplace and then walks up the stairs and down one of the halls upstair, disappearing from your sight.

You took a seat on the couch and did nothing but scan the castle around you, admiring the decor and the warmth of the fireplace. Looking around, you could only imagine how many books there were. You wondered if this Twilight was possibly a bookworm or a part-time librarian.

You lean against the couch and stare up at the crystal ceiling, sighing in boredom. A little while after sitting and doing nothing, the sound footsteps and hoofsteps could be heard walking in your direction. You leaned your head forward and saw this pretty lavender unicorn with wings with long blue hair with a dark and light pink stripe running down.

Her eyes were a darker shade of purple than her fur, and she wore white lab coat and a long, black skirt that hung down past her knees.

“Hello there.” you say to her.

“Hi, I’m guessing you’re the human Starlight told me about?” she asks. You nod and shake her hand, telling her your name. “Pleased to meet you, I’m Princess Twilight Sparkle, but you can just call me Twilight.”

“I see. So, I’ve got a question for you Twilight.”

Twilight’s ears perked. “Sure, what is it?”

“How exactly did I end up in Equestria if I was already on the brink of death back where I was originally from?”

“Hmm, well, in rare cases, the princesses and I came to a conclusion that very few humans from your world are brought back to life and brought here in Equestria if their heart is mostly pure after their death.” Twilight explains.

You absorbed this new information. “Well as a matter of fact, even after I was diagnosed with a terminal illness back home, my family couldn’t find a way to at least stall my condition before it reached its final stage.”

Twilight looked at you with eyes full of sympathy. “I can only imagine the pain your family felt when they heard the news. How did you take it when you found out your disease was fatal?”

A sad smile grew on your face from the question. “I was disappointed that I couldn’t live a long life, but in the end, I wanted to make an effort to spend the rest of my short life with my family and friends. And then, on the day before I was scheduled to die, I did something that I’m sure even my family’s proud of.”

“So, your friend Starlight said there have been other humans who have ended up in this land,” you asked and Twilight nodded.

“Indeed. In fact, my husband was the first human to ever arrive here in Ponyville a little over 6 years ago and we even have our own daughter,” Twilight said with a happy sigh.

You weren’t too surprised to hear that. Given the ponies look more humanoid here than they do back in your world, it makes sense that Twilight can have a daughter with a human. You could already feel your anxiety being replaced with curiosity. And something tells you that being given a second chance at life was gonna be more rewarding for you.

Pretty soon, Starlight came back levitating some tea. “Anypony thirsty?” she asks.

Twilight turns around and grabs one of the cups with a grateful smile. “Thank you, Starlight,” she said. Starlight levitates you a cup of tea as well, which you accepted and blew on it to cool it down a bit before taking a few sips of it.

“Wow, this is pretty good, Starlight. Thanks for the tea.” you say to her.

Starlight giggles. “You’re welcome. So, I take it that Twilight told you about the other humans and how they were all brought here?” she asks you.

“Yeah, you could say that. She told me that the humans who were dropped here were mostly pure of heart, and I guess that goes for me too.” The explanation made sense. All your life you were a good soul who always tried to do the right thing. You were also a man of your word and not even as a child have you ever attempted to lie. This was because your parents always told you dishonesty only brings trouble.

“Anyways, since you’re new here, I think it’s best if you stayed here. You’d be surprised how many guest rooms we have in this castle.”

You chuckled as given the size of this place, multiple guest rooms are to be expected. “Actually, I kind of doubt that, considering how big this castle is. But, I don’t think that’s up to me. After all, this is Twilight’s castle, not mine.”

“You don’t have to worry about that, you can stay here for as long as you want.” Twilight said. “Just know that whenever me and my husband go out, you’ll have to pitch in and watch our daughter with Starlight. Can I trust you to handle that in case this happens?”

“Since you’re generous enough to give me a place to stay, watching your daughter is the least I can do, Twilight,” you answered.

Stars seemed to shine in Twilight’s eyes as you gave your answer. “Thank you. I’m glad we came to an agreement. I’ll be sure to introduce you to my husband when he gets back. In the meantime, why don’t we get you settled into a guest room?”

“Sounds good to me, but it’s probably gonna take me a while before I can get use to this labyrinth of a castle,” you reply, causing both Twilight and Starlight giggled. However, you noticed that a slight blush was beginning to form on her cheeks.

“Yeah, I know that feeling all too well,” the light purple unicorn said rubbing her shoulder. The way she acted when she mentioned that made you chuckle at how adorable she was. After your friendly little chat with the princess and Starlight, she kindly gestures you to follow her up the stairs to one of the halls.

You did as you were told and followed her without question. The whole time walking, you just couldn’t stop catching glimpses at Starlight and how beautiful she looked. True, Twilight looks stunning for a married mare, but there was something about Starlight that just gave off this certain spark that was too difficult to explain.

Anytime she’d look at you, you turned away so you wouldn’t creep her out. As much as you wanted to get to know her more, your first priority was to get settled in and hopefully find some kind of decent job here in Ponyville.

The two of you finally came to a stop. “Here we are,” she said opening the door for you.

“Thank you Starlight,” you said as you walked into the room.

“You’re welcome,” she replied giving you a warm hug before exiting the room.

As you got into bed, you immediately began to grow tired as the sheets on the bed were cloud soft and nicely scented. You felt your memories start flooding your mind. The good and bad memories caused tears to form from your eyes. It left an aching feeling in your heart that you’ll never see your family again. But at the same time, you hoped that they were alright and moving on knowing that you did your part.

Your neck starts feeling a tad itchy and you scratched it, only to feel something was wrapped around it. Your eyes grew wide, realizing that you were still wearing your locket. Taking the locket out from underneath your shirt, you opened it and got a good look at the beautiful picture of you and your family.

Right as your heart felt more at ease, it started beating more just you started picturing Starlight in your head, smiling at you. She already offered to show you around town tomorrow, and you couldn’t refuse to such an opportunity. After all, since you’re going to be living in this world, it only makes sense to learn how things work around here.

Giving the locket one last look, you closed it and set it on the nightstand beside the bed. Pulling the sheets over yourself again, you closed your eyes as the fresh scent relaxed your mind. After about five minutes, you were sound asleep.

After a good night’s sleep, the beautiful rays of sunlight shined through your window on the opposite side of where you were facing. You slowly opened up your eyes and turned to your right, taking in the light and cherishing it as you climbed out of bed. You stretched your body and yawned peacefully before turning around to face your bed.

You grabbed the blankets and started straightening them out and your pillow. Now that it was clean, you walked to the other side of the bed and grabbed your locket, wrapping it around your neck before looking out the window.

‘Who knew the sun’s rays could feel this good. It feels just like home.’ you thought to yourself. Just as you were going to stop closer to the window, you heard knocking on your door, startling you and causing you to turn to it. “Come in.” you called out. The door opens, revealing Starlight Glimmer in her minty green and bright blue pajamas.

“Just checking up on you and letting you know that breakfast is ready. Come with me and I’ll show you to where the bathroom is,” Starlight said gesturing you to follow.

With a nod, you walk over to Starlight and follow her through the corridor of the castle. As the two of you come to a door on your left, Starlight opens it and lets you in first. You accept and step inside of the bathroom. Starlight stepped inside with you, leaving the door open and grabbed a couple of toothbrushes. One of them was light purple and the other was black, which she gave to you.

“Twilight went and bought this for you right as you hit the sack last night a bit earlier than most ponies do. Sleeping for 11 and a half hours must mean you’ve had a long day yesterday. I guess that’s expected since you had your… heroic moment,” she says, trying not to make things awkward for you.

“A fatal disease can be extremely painful, and can also drain so much of your energy at the same time. But I’m just glad I did my part. This is my home now, so I’m going to enjoy every moment of it like I did in my world.” Having said that, you grabbed the toothbrush and turned on the faucet.

Starlight grabs the toothpaste and spreads some on the tip before giving the tube to you so you could do the same. For some reason, as you brushed your teeth, you couldn’t help staring at the unicorn next to you. You’ve never met someone, or in this case, somepony as beautiful as Starlight. To you, she almost looked like a light lavender angel from above.

Starlight spat out the toothpaste and noticed you looking at her. “Is something wrong?” she asked.

You blushed and grabbed a cup and filled it up with water. You swished the water in your mouth a few times before spitting it out into the sink. “It’s nothing,” you assured wiping your mouth. Technically, it was the truth.

Seeing how you were finished brushing, Starlight took a cup before rinsing as well. Once she was done, she gently took your hand and led you out of the bathroom and back into the hallway. “Well then, we should get downstairs, you’re probably hungry after sleeping for so long,” she said slightly teasing you.

As she led you downstairs, you couldn’t help notice how soft Starlight’s hands were. However your focus on her hands went away as a delicious smell filled your sinuses. ‘Oh sweet mama! That smells so good!’ you say in your thoughts. Starlight quickly leads you in the dining room where Twilight and this other guy and a little girl were sitting at a table.

There was even a sort of anthro dragon with purple and green scales, wearing a black tank top. The bags under his eyes signified that he had recently woken up.

“Oh, I see you’re finally up.” Twilight says. “Come on over and have a seat and I’ll introduce you to my family,” she says. You walk over to the table and have a seat. Starlight takes her seat next to you. “Now, I’d like you to meet my husband, Beau,” she gestures to the man on her left.

“Hi, nice to meet you,” Beau says, extending his hand. You tell him your name and shake his hand before turning your attention to the little girl next to him.

“And this adorable young lady here is our daughter and bundle of joy, Moonlight Sparkle,” Twilight says, looking at her daughter.

“Thank you, mommy,” Moonlight says, returning her mother’s smile.

“Aww, she’s adorable. You guys must be pretty lucky,” you said.

“Thank you. It was a bit of a rush when I first met Beau, but when you experience love at first sight, many things start to happen,” Twilight replied, taking a glance at her husband. He smiled at her, making them both blush.

The dragon decided to introduce himself next. “Name’s Spike, nice to meetcha,” he said before he let out a yawn. “Sorry, I had a date late last night. Still have yet to catch up on my sleep.”

Twilight couldn’t help giggling. “Spike, maybe you should manage your time a little wiser so you won’t have to deal with being so tired every morning.”

“Wow, if only I had thought of that,” Spike said sarcastically.

You chuckled before you looked down at your plate which Twilight had set down in front with her magic. You saw that it had scrambled eggs, golden hash browns, carrot slices and fresh orange juice. You brought your fork down to your food and started eating. The moment you took a bite out of the food, your taste buds started tingling.

Being a man with good manners, you refused to give in to your hunger and devour your meal within seconds. Instead, you went at at a steady pace, cherishing every bite. You were so busy eating that you didn’t notice Starlight looking at you with amusement. She had probably expected you to guzzle every ounce of food on your plate as if you were starving to death. Even though the food tasted amazing, you knew acting like that wasn’t your style.

After breakfast was done, you went upstairs to get dressed with the new clothes Twilight got for you while you were sleeping. You would be sure to thank her when you were done getting dressed.

Once you were dressed you opened the door to be greeted by Starlight, who had been patiently waiting outside.

“Shall we?” Starlight asked smiling warmly.

“Sure, I’m ready when you are,” you replied, returning the young unicorn’s expression.

Starlight led you back down the corridor and reached the front of the castle. Twilight and her family had stayed in the library just to catch up on some reading. You and Starlight walked down the stairs and straight to the front door. Being a gentleman, you opened the door for Starlight.

“Why, thank you,” she says, smiling happily at you.

“It’s no problem at all,” you said closing the door behind you. Now you were ready to get to know the way of your brand new home.