In The Shadow of Light
By: TCSNxs
There are four questions of value in life. What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for, and what is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same. Only love. ~ Johnny Depp
Twilight concentrated on her teleportation spell. Though there was little time and a small jump was all she needed. She keenly felt the magic begging for release from her horn, but she took a few seconds to concentrate. As Celestia always taught her, a little extra precaution to get it right never hurt anypony.
With her destination firmly in mind, Twilight fired the spell with small “pop”. The journey through the magical passage she created was always quick, though this one felt like an eternity. She quickly came through on the other side of the dark crystal prison and, for a brief moment, elation filled Celestia’s student. The moment proved to be short lived as a black, inky cloud seized her. She recognized the magic, though the trip this time felt much more sinister. She came back through the inky tunnel and was unceremoniously thrust into the wall of black crystal.
“How could I have been so foolish,” Twilight growled in frustration, “I was just so eager to get it!”
Spike was dancing around as the crystals poked menacingly through the floor; a few threatening to impale him. His face was a cross between frustration and horror. His eyes looked for some answer but found none.
“You have to get out of there, Twilight!” Spike’s voice swelled with desperation. Something clicked in his brain just then, figuring to play upon her most desperate fear, “You have to be the one to take the Heart to Princess Cadence! If you don't, you'll fail Celestia's test!”
Twilight shook her head. Normally, such things caused her thoughts to speed up enough to challenge even Rainbow Dash's vaunted rapidity, but there just wasn’t the time. For once in her life, without the assurance of the odds in her favor, she had an air of calm about her. She didn't have time to contemplate it just then.
“King Sombra is already attacking the Empire. He could reach the crystal ponies at any moment. Reach Princess Cadence, my brother, my friends. There may not be enough time for me to find a way to escape,” Twilight said while looking for a way out but there was none. She turned back to Spike, “You have to be the one to bring the Crystal Heart to the fair."
“Me? But Twilight...” the dragon pleaded. He was on the edge of fear, his mind nearing collapse.
“Go,” she spoke evenly. Seeing the dragon hesitate and the darkness closing in, she yelled this time, “Go!”
Spike searched for one last options, but none presented itself. Seeing his exit blocked, he took the next best route. After seizing the mighty Crystal Heart, he leapt out the window.
Twilight stood stunned as the baby dragon took his leap of faith. Just like that, he was gone. The unicorn tried to remove the images from her mind. She hardly needed those inevitable conclusions to such high jumps racing through her brain at the moment. She tried to put them aside as she focused to the situation.
She concentrated her magic again. Perhaps a greater magical leap would get her out of that prison. Maybe to the stairs? She tapped into her magical reserves and brought the stairs into her mind. Quickly willing the spell to fire, she popped out the prison.
Only to be sucked back in. After an unceremonious landing on her haunch, she sat stunned for a second as the world closed in around her. Of all the things she’d ever faced, this was perhaps too much. She yelled out in supreme frustration.
When she fought against Nightmare Moon, she had her newly won friends with her. Though she knew them less then a day, they became the Elements of Harmony. Indeed, though they didn’t know it, they were the living embodiment of all that was good and pure about the pony spirit.
Discord tried to take that away, but Celestia’s not-so-subtle reminders of what friendship meant cleared her spirit of any doubts the God of Chaos could implant. With no shortage of confidence, she managed to rally her friends and encase the impish deity in stone once again.
Chrysalis had the numbers and plan. But even if Twilight and her friends could not reach the Elements of Harmony, she never once lost faith. Buoyed by the presence of her companions and the rage she felt at Celestia’s defeat and capture, she found focus enough to find her path in the darkness.
But now? After all the trials and time spent finding the Crystal Heart and the assault by King Sombra making inroads into the city itself, she’d run out of time. She was alone, without friends or her mentor. Even Spike, in a desperate attempt to get the artifact to the crystal ponies, had been forced to abandon her and perhaps give all.
She tried so hard to put those things out of her mind, but it was an exercise in futility. Any magic she tried was countered like she were a foal attempting to stop a falling ice cream cone. Her friends would never get there in time, not with Sombra closing in so quickly.
Perhaps the vision that the door forced in her mind was right. She had failed them all: Celestia, her friends, her brother and sister-in-law. Everypony needed her to come through; everything was riding on her. What they needed was a hero and she failed miserably.
She looked outside as the tears began to well up. The horrible face of King Sombra dominated the horizon; his blood-red horn curving upwards like an obscene gesture. He was close to final victory. She looked to the floor then. There was no more hope. Separated from her friends, Twilight was locked away in a prison with no way out. Her long time companion, indeed more like a brother, was probably meeting his demise on the cold valley floor.
She let everything come just then as her tears fell. The final image of Spike splayed out on the ground after falling; his life pouring out into the sidewalk. The image of her friends being turned into the stuff of shadows and not being able to protect them. The image of her brother and Cadence making their last stand against the tide of inevitability. The image of Celestia and Luna standing impassively over her as if she were a stranger or just a fading memory. There was nothing left to give.
As the tears fell, she wanted nothing more than to be back in Ponyville. Maybe raising a barn with Applejack or exchanging letters with Celestia. Perhaps seeing Rainbow and Pinkie play a prank on Rarity while Fluttershy hid behind her mane and Spike being filled with a righteous rage. Anywhere but the top of the tower.
In the emptiness of her vision, she felt the shadows closing in on her. She welcomed it then, not as a release but simply as the inescapable conclusion to a logical formula. Twilight could muster no defiance. She would die, her friends would die, and Equestria would fall. Those were the facts as the murky shadows closed the distance. Twilight's heart had broken because she wanted to protect them all.
Then the rumbling began.
Twilight couldn’t place if it was natural or magical occurrence, but she figured it was just part of the final conclusion. She felt herself being lifted while something picked its way from the outside into her very core. It was a strange sensation she felt and somewhere in mind, she thought it would be a pity she couldn’t document it for posterity. Death wasn’t at all like she imagined.
~(o)~
Celestia and Luna watched the rainbow aurora explode from the distant northern skies. That would mean only one thing.
“She succeeded,” Luna remarked for her sister. Celestia nodded in agreement.
The Princesses were preparing a fallback plan, as witnessed by the ministers and various captains across the throne room finalizing plans to march north in force. Those ponies most capable were already in the Frozen North to determine if the reports were true and Canterlot’s first contingents were ready to march.
“Sister, aren’t you going to say anything?” Luna spoke while she used her magic to close up the chest containing the Elements of Harmony.
Celestia simply smiled towards her sister. Her immense pride needed no words.
~(o)~
The darkness was violently ripped away. Suddenly, she felt as if her very spirit explode in a shower of sparks. Her very being was transforming, changing into something she knew not what. There was no pain, just an odd feeling. Perhaps there was an afterlife like the old legends hinted.
An electrical jolt started in her hooves and quickly tore up her body. She dared to open her eyes. Where she’d expecting an inky blackness, there was only light. Her very form took on a translucent quality, though there was still physical sensation. She looked out in confusion while her body sparkled.
It took a few seconds to realize she was, in fact, still corporeal. She smiled despite herself, weak though it was. If this was victory, why was she so tired? Not for the first time in her life, Twilight Sparkle was confused.
~(o)~
“It’s beautiful,” Celestia remarked as she stared out to the north. It had been a few days since the aurora appeared, but it displayed no signs of abating.
“I wish it had been me who ultimately made it so. But it wasn't,” Twilight spoke truthfully to her teacher. She had failed her teacher and she wasn’t sure exactly how to make it right. Though there more than a few things were coursing through her mind at the moment, this kept itself to the forefront.
“Twilight, as I understand it, Spike brought Princess Cadence the Crystal Heart because you weren't sure how quickly you could find a way to escape the tower,” Celestia said as she turned to her prized student. Her face was stoic, but her eyes incredibly soft, “You weren't willing to risk the future of the citizens of the Crystal Empire in an effort to guarantee your own. Far better that I have a student who understands the meaning of self-sacrifice than one who only looks out for her own best interests.”
Celestia winked with a smirk. Though this went a long way to settling the unicorn’s fears, she needed to the confirmation, “Does this mean...”
Celestia closed her eyes and nodded, “Spectacularly, my faithful student."
Twilight, as if on instinct, ran towards her teacher and wrapped her forelegs around Celestia’s neck. The alicorn simply leaned into it and wrapped her own foreleg around her student. Indeed, whether Twilight understood it or not, she was the light of her generation.
“And I will always be proud of you,” Celestia whispered. Twilight felt the tears coming again, but at least she found peace.
