I was swallowed by darkness. A monster.

A roar reverberates across Canterlot. Everypony left not under Sombra's control couldn't help but look in that direction. Sombra himself steps outside. He wasn't sure what he was looking at. He had heard about there being a monster in Canterlot that everypony feared, but he had thought they were talking about him. Something about the looming monstrosity that shifts and changes form as if it couldn't decide what it wanted to be, irks him.

"Go and get rid of that eye sore, my slaves. There is no room in my rule for two monsters," King Sombra says causally pointing a hoof to the monster.

The enslaved ponies march on fearlessly. Meanwhile, the survivors left in Canterlot who banded together as a resistance also took action. They had heard the rumors of a monster that appeared in Canterlot shortly after King Sombra invaded and disappeared soon after he succeeded. They had prepared for this moment and one of the ponies rushed outside.

"HEY! You beast! I'm over here!" shouts the pony.

The monster bends backward and grows a large singular crimson eye and a multitude of spiderlike limbs, some organic, some mechanical, some of an inky goo. It chases after the pony who runs faster then they had ever run in their lives. It chased them before falling into a massive pit. Several unicorns show up and start pelting it with magic. One reckless earth pony grabbed a sharpened broomstick and leaped into the air to stab it in the eye.

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!"

I am in a void of pure black. My hooves have melded into my own chest. I have become a living candle wick and my soul is the flame lit above my head. I can't see anything, but I can feel it. Thousands of eyes. Then I feel it. A soft breeze at first which makes my soul dance in the wind.... Then the wind came from all sides. Blowing. They were blowing. My life... My soul... Flickering and sputtering..."Nooo!" I wanted to scream. I felt like a trick candle that was being blown on all sides over and over. My will alone was keeping the hungering winds from extinguishing my soul.

"Woooosh...."
"Phoooooo"
"Wooooooo...."

My soul flickers and falters. Even a trick candle can't be lit forever. For once in my dreams I was able to scream in anguish. My body wick is dripping and melting and so is my pitiful resolve. My soul gets put out

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!"

What was that? That wasn't the scream of a pony. Something is making the monsters draw back from me. It brought me hope. My flame reignites. My little hope. That's it. That's all I have left. My will to continue is at it's end. I desperately try to cling to that hope...

"These shades are not meant to be fought. Thy hope is all that remains of thee. The endless despair and the darkest end await thee with but a breath. Why doth thou persist extending thy anguish? Thy end will be most painful and terrifying yet quick. Be not mute in thy own dreams. Speak foal." an ancient yet familiar voice orders

"..."

"Thou doth not know? That shan't do at all. Thy life is over. Thou died when King Sombra ripped thy heart. Fearth not any longer the shades. Thou carries with thee a piece of me. I shalt guard thy dreams."

For once I speak my first word with my own mouth even if it was a dream, "Luna?"

"Art thou talking about the princess of the night? The mare of the moon? A better question is who art thou? Thou art not a colt. Not anymore. What art thou?"
The dream ends abruptly and I can see a light which I reach out towards with my little hoof.

The monster thrashes around and bulges before throwing up Medkit. It grabs his hind hoof in a blind thrashing tearing into his leg four large scratch-like chunks of flesh are ripped from him.

"Leave that colt of mine alone! DIE!" shouts a unicorn stallion who raises a royal guard spear and throws it into the maw of the spider creature straight into its heart. "Med Kit!"

Is that... My dad? But... How can he be alive? How can I be alive? That tiny insignificant ember of hope that was my soul in a hurricane's wind managed to remain lit? Is this a dream? A cruel form of torment by dangling what I wish was real?.............. I do not know if I could trust anypony. But I'm too emotionally and spiritually tired. I collapse into his hooves.

"Med Kit....... You are still alive..... I searched for you for hours... I had given up hope... You are so pale... Your eyes... So hungry..." says my father as he brushes a hoof across my face moving the mane out of my face.

"Captain Solar Star? That colt came out of that monster. Do you know him?" asked the earth pony who had also fought the monster.

"He's my son. Med Kit. Quickly, go get supplies! I need to patch his... Leg?" my father drifts off as he looks back at my hind hoof as it is fully healed.

Was I even wounded? I didn't feel anything. I was so spiritually drained when I woke up I couldn't feel anything for a while..... I.... Want to stay like this... I quickly use hoof language to convey that I just want to be held. My father responded immediately hugging me tightly. This is so wonderful... I cry. I cry for all the sorrow I had been surrpressing. All the joy that I felt at the moment. I let it all out. I knew this could not last. There is more than one monster. It would be searching for me. They wanted something from me. They wanted the gem. I desperately wanted to stay here. But I had come to distance myself from those I wanted to protect. I signed to my father that I must go. I can't stay.

"Oh no. I'm not letting you go. Not again. I can't bear to lose you again... Med Kit... I swear.... Somehow... We'll defeat King Sombra... And then we can go back to living a normal life. Just you and your papa."

I nod. But I will not be staying. My hope has been renewed. I might not be in a nightmare, but I know that my soul is still just a tiny exposed flame in a night's wind that could go out at any moment and hope is the only thing keeping me going and not losing my sense of self.

Author's Note

Sorry for any mistakes.