Centuries after the death of the elements of harmony, Equestria has descended into an era of darkness. The alicorns have fallen long ago, and the ponies now have to fight alone against the evil, which appears to be an endless war.
However, in the middle of the chaos and pain, the ponies are graced with one last strand of hope, a spark of kindness amid malice. Bringing to the people the light they’ve needed.
"Purification."
States a pale pegasus. Her colorful mane is a mess, one of the consequences of a recent fight. Her dark, blue green eyes glance at the hospital floor, immersed in her thoughts. The pegasus sits in a waiting room, trying to comprehend what happened.
"That's what you’ll call it?" questions a dark-coated unicorn, raising one eyebrow, but then she admits with a bright playful smile:
"Well, I liked it, Prism."
"Lumini Essence? You can see your brother; he just woke up,” informs a nurse, leaning halfway out of one of the rooms.
They immediately get up and see a dark-coated unicorn lying on the hospital bed, white spots scattered across his snout and back. The room is all white, and the curtains are open, letting the soft glow of a cloudy day enter the room.
"So, Prism, I still don’t know what exactly happened," Lumini says as she trots to the side of the bed, then she directs her speech to the other unicorn.
"Hey, Midnight. How’re you feeling?"
"I feel better now, thanks to Prism”, Midnight weakly replies.
"I'm glad,” Lumini responds with relief, then directs her gaze to Prism again.
"Now, about what happened there... I saw you take off towards Midnight, then you started flying so fast I could barely see you. Then there was this bright flash and a loud boom. It startled me and I fell, and when I looked up, there was this huge shockwave blasting away all the tormented spirits. What did you do?"
Prismfeather fidgets on her hooves as she speaks.
"I don’t know. I saw Midnight being attacked by these spirits, and I tried to get to him, but he was so far away. Then I felt this strange humming sensation in my wings, so I used it to go faster. Next thing I know, I’m breaking through some sort of barrier, and then I’m landing next to Midnight, my flank glowing with this cutie mark.”
The pegasus lifts one of her wings just enough to reveal her newly acquired cutie mark. It seems to sparkle as the light hits it.
"Do you think that was a rainboom, Prism? There was a rainbow in the sky behind you,” Lumini suggests with a hoove on her chin, trying to remember all the details.
"I don’t think so. I’ve read about Rainbow Dash’s rainbooms, and hers were never that explosive. Also, the books didn’t say that rainbooms can get rid of evil spirits." Midnight adds, more lucid now.
"Well, did the books say that Rainbow Dash tried to do that?” Lumini inquires, raising an eyebrow.
"…No" Midnight admits.
"Well, Rainbow Dash was the best flyer, the fastest, the most agile, so if I have a similar power, I need a similar body,” Prismfeather points out, glancing at her inexperienced wings.
"I wasn't fast enough, and you got hurt..." She adds, lowering her head.
"You were fast enough! That's why I'm alive," Midnight says, trying to raise the pegasus’s spirit.
"That was pure luck, and I can't rely on luck to save everyone. With this power, I can save the world!” Prism argues while raising her ears, her stance is confident and defiant.
"And I'll do anything I have to do to become the weapon against the evil. I'll protect everyone; my light will be the shield and my speed the spear of the society," she says, determination shining in her eyes.
"Now, Lumi, take care of your brother. I hope he gets better soon. I will go test this 'Purification'," Prism says as she leaves the hospital room.
Outside of the hospital, Prism quickly flaps her wings, and a small plume of dust forms on the ground as she swiftly lifts her body toward the sky. After flying for a while, she lands on one of the soft clouds blanketing the sky.
"Hmm, I need to find somewhere deserted. I don't want anyone to get hurt,” she whispers to herself while staring at the horizon.
Soon, she glides off the cloud, spreading her feathers to catch the warm updrafts, sustaining herself in the air and conserving energy.
"Maybe here's a good place to do it; I can't see anything alive at all..." she thinks after a while.
Below her, the terrain is full of arid hills, dead, withering trees everywhere, and swirls of dust being carried by hot winds. On the summit of one hill, there are the remains of a barn, red and white broken boards scattered across the dry dirt.
As she hovers in the sky, Prism tries to remember what she felt when she used the Purification Rainboom. First, she’d spotted Midnight in the distance, and he was being attacked by tormented spirits. Prism knew she had to help him, so she’d used everything she had, all of her speed and strength. Then, with a magical boost, she had managed to break through the magic in the air, as if she was going faster than the energy traveling around her, creating a rainbow-colored shockwave...
"And this shockwave destroyed the evil... Purifying."
After that, she tries over and over again to replicate the rainboom. Prism feels that she is almost there, but she never manages to break the magic speed.
"Damnit, what's the difference between now and when I did it before!? I'm doing my best here!" she barks in frustration, kicking a dead tree that almost falls on her.
Sighing, Prism flops down onto the barren dirt, jumping when a high-pitched falcon's call slices through the silence, like the sharp clang of a distant bell. She looks in the direction of the sound, watching as a peregrine falcon dives from high altitudes into some trees, with incredible speed that it probably can't achieve while flying normally.
"I think I have an idea, a dangerous one... But it can work. No, it will work," Prism affirms with determination.
She shoots into the sky, flapping her wings with extreme strength and speed. She gets so high up that she can even see the curvature of the planet and the soft glow of the ocean in the distance. Prism rises for a few more seconds, then she assumes an aerodynamic stance and dives, feeling the rush of air against her body and her mane fluttering wildly in the wind. Her eyes start watering from the dust and the speed, so she shuts them tight.
Soon, Prism feels the air getting thicker like it was when she first managed to do a Rainboom.
Excitedly, she opens her eyes wide, just to see the ground getting way too close. She quickly spread her wings wide, trying to stop, but she crashes against the ground and hears a loud and sickening crack, which is soon drowned out by her screams of agony as the bone of her right front hoove meets the outside of her skin. Prism immediately collapses to the ground and cries, instantly regretting where she has chosen to do this risky feat.
She calls out for help, but all she hears in return is her cries reverberating through the woods, followed by the whispering wind of the hills. But she wasn't alone.
Prism hears a voice that sounds like a million crying souls, but twisting and distorting horribly to form words.
"Oh little fillie, why’d you tried to do it, huh? Just because you dispelled a small swarm of spirits doesn't mean that you're strong enough to give these colorful creatures a chance to win this war. Whatever you do, whatever you try, this world will be owned by the darkness"
Prism immediately tries to get up, but pain shoots through her body every time she moves, sapping her strength and blurring her vision. She then attempts to fly away, but she feels a cold embrace wrapping around her wings, swirling tighter and tighter.
"You may be curious about who I am,” says the mysterious voice.
"You can refer to me as Agony. I only found you because of this leg of yours.” Coldness drags across Prism’s broken hoof, causing more pain to ripple through her body. She bites her lip to stifle another scream, and the voice chuckles, a sound that will forever haunt Prism’s nightmares.
“It's ironic that you only did it to become stronger and 'save everyone’,” it taunted.
"What do you want?! Why are you here?!" Prism screams, trying to talk in between cries of pain.
Agony replies in a menacingly playful tone, “I want you, Prismfeather, you'll be very useful. That's why I didn't kill you yet. Let's get things straight."
She hears a similar sounding crack to when her leg broke but from her wings this time. Then, unexpectedly, she's thrown towards a tree, and a shadow-like creature rushes toward her. It stops right in front of her face, a huge, unnerving smile twisting its own.
Agony laughs its nightmarish laugh.
"Finally! Someone like you. It's everything we wanted, this world will be ours and there's nothing you can do about it. Your power is light now, but we will turn it into darkness."
Prism doesn’t dare move a muscle, with tears streaming down her face, but as Agony starts laughing again, she regains her composure and barks, “No! I'd rather die than become part of what you are! I am hope, and the world will be how it was before! Bright and-"
Her monologuing is interrupted by a direct blow to the head. Wooziness and pain blur everything, and her head hits the ground. As her vision fades to darkness, the last thing she hears is:
"Your bravery disgusts me, but okay, let's see how long this will last. I've already pulled some strings,” Agony claims. Then it vanishes, leaving Prism there alone.
Prism slowly wakes up; her memory is blurry, but she can still remember what happened. As her eyes adjust, she notices that the ceiling is white and bright, her front leg and wings are bandaged, and something near her beeps in sync with her heartbeats. The beeping speeds up with her pulse as she realized what had happened; she almost died.
After some time, her friend, Lumini, enters the hospital room. With her was a taller, very worried pegasus, her coat a mix of cyan and white. The pegasus’s long mane was a swirl of darker blues, and it hung around her neck in soft waves.
"Hi, Prism. It was hard to hold your mother back. She was crying a lot outside and begging to see you, and finally-" Lumini explains, before being interrupted by a whoosh as the cyan pegasus swiftly hugged Prism.
"I was so worried! Don't ever do that again! You were missing for so long and they almost had to amputate your leg because of an infection! …But, I'm glad you’re with me again"
She tightens the hug as she adds, "I couldn't afford to lose you too.."
"Mom..." Prism whispers, still dizzy from the medications.
"I’m sorry, but it's true! …Your father was just like that,” she continues.
"Misty, don't talk to her like that! She just woke up. She still needs more rest. Let's go; we can talk to her more when she’s discharged,” Lumini says, defending Prism.
When they left, Prism thought, "Damnit, I hope my wings heal soon... If that thing appears again, I'll be defenseless.” She turns her head towards the window, staring at the still-cloudy sky. "What did it mean when it said that it can turn my light into darkness? I can’t let that happen- I won’t! I’m the last hope for everyone."
Her vision blurs slightly as exhaustion sets in, and she starts falling asleep, but not before thinking one last thing:
"Once my wings heal, I will purify the world so it'll be as colorful as it was in the past..." Then her eyes drift closed as she falls into a deep slumber.
Author's Note
It is quite noticeable that this is the first story I will be writing on this site. Well, if anyone has any tips or criticisms I will be listening! I want to improve my writing to provide captivating stories for everyone here!
