Generic disclaimer
"If you want to ask something just ask already."
Twilight jerked out of her thoughts at the sound of the stallion's voice. Lloyd was curled up on the far side of the room, staring out the window like a watchdog. He had hardly moved since Luna, Rarity and the others had left but then again neither had she. Twilight had remained by Celestia as the princess slept away her injuries.
"I can feel your eyes burning a hole in my back, so either ask me what you want to ask or quit staring. It's creepy." Lloyd said without turning around.
Twilight was a little upset with how rude he was being but she pushed that thought aside and decided to be formal. "Well, to be honest, I don't know what to ask. There are so many questions."
Lloyd turned away from the window and looked at Twilight, His eyes were half lidded as though he were about to fall asleep but closed them and opened them again with new vigor like he was trying to wake up. "Then ask whatever you want. We can't make a move until the others return or Darkside makes a move so we have time."
Twilight stared at the stallion before looking back at princess Celestia next to her. "Well, okay, what you did for the princess earlier, well, what did you do exactly?"
"I healed her." He said as simply as if he was stating the color of the sky. Twilight narrowed her eyes making the grey stallion sigh. "Okay I'll be more specific. Part of my powers is the ability to erase injuries, heal people. So, I used that power to heal the injury as much I could, but I didn't want to use too much power so can't heal her all the way."
"Wait, so could you heal the princess so she would all better right now?" She asked, her voice getting higher.
"Yes I can, and to answer your next question, no I'm not going to." Lloyd said shaking his head.
"Why not?" she snapped back.
"Look, to heal her back to 100% would take a lot of power from me. I could do it but I won't be much use against Darkside for a while, which is more important." Lloyd explained, his voice low and firm.
"But the princess is powerful, she could help us if you could help her." Twilight argued.
"That power is exactly what worries me." He said shaking his head. "Even if she could help, I know more about Darkside and can fight him better. What's more if she was at full power and Darkside used his power on her he could turn her against us. And I don't want to go through that again."
"The princess would never. . ."
"I know it doesn't seem like it." Lloyd interrupted her. "But you don't know Darkside's power like I do. He can turn any of us against each other if he really tires, except me." He snapped rather angrily. His face lowered when he saw twilight's sad face. "Look, I know I'm being harsh and you want to see her awake and moving again, but trust me when I say that she's fine and she will recover. For now we have to fight on our own though."
"You sure do ask for a lot of trust." Twilight scoffed.
Lloyd dropped his head. "Yeah I know, but I've been through all of this before so I know what I'm doing. I just don't want a repeat of the bad things from the past."
Twilight's face fell when she saw how sad the colt appeared. "I'm sorry, it's just you show up out of nowhere right as this monster attacks the princess, it's just . . . hard to follow."
"No, it's fine. You should be careful who you trust." He paused for a minute as he looked out the window again. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry, for all of this."
"All of what?"
"For bringing Darkside here, for not being able to protect the princess, for all of it. This place seems so nice, it's just wrong to let something like Darkside loose here." His voice was lower than before but Twilight couldn't see his face to see if there was any other sign of sadness.
She didn't know what to say anymore to the grey colt and another eerie silence fell over the library. The only sounds that of Celesta's deep breathing.
"You're doing it again." He said and Twilight blushed when she realized she had been staring again.
"Sorry, but can you answer something else?" She asked.
"Of course, what do you want to know?" He said in a less than sincere manner.
"Well earlier you said Darkside's power could turn anyone against each other." Lloyd nodded. "But it doesn't affect you right?" He nodded again. "Well, can you teach m-"
"No." he cut her off again. Before she could ask why he held up his hoof to silence her. "Look, the ability to resist him is about confronting the darkness in your own mind, defeating and accepting it as a part of yourself. One, it takes too long to learn and two, well, it's not something you want to go through."
"But if it can help then I need to learn. I promise I'll learn quickly." She said standing up.
"No. It's not a matter of learning quickly, its . . . unpleasant. To learn you have to be exposed to Darkside's power and bring yourself out of it." He sighed. "And I'm not putting someone else through that."
Twilight narrowed her eyes. "What are you so afraid of?"
"I don't know maybe the complete psychopath running around your town who gets pleasure from tormenting people! Maybe the fact that no matter how hard I fight he's always won! That power you want to face has turned some of the best people I know insane! Even I can't always fix that!"
"You don't have to be so mean!" She snapped back her patience wearing thin.
Lloyd bared his teeth but closed his eyes breathing deep. After a moment he was calm again. "I'm sorry okay. It's just . . . it's been a bad few years. I guess I'm just too used to dealing with Darkside." He shuddered as he spoke. "That's a scary thought."
"How long have you two been fighting?" She asked, thankful his tone was softening.
He stared at the ceiling deep in thought. "Well I guess its been a few years. More than five less than ten." He shrugged. "Can't be completely sure, but we fought him for three years in my world. We were only in Farela for a few weeks but we were in Gimel for ages it felt like."
"Farela and Gimel? What are those?" Twilight asked.
"Oh, those are the other worlds we've traveled through. Like this place is . . . uhh, what is this place called?" Lloyd said a little embarrassed he hadn't picked up on it.
Twilight giggled a little at the fact the colt was actually unsure of something for once. "We're in Equestria, the town here is ponyville." She explained.
"Equestria? Makes sense I guess, what with us being ponies." He mused.
"What about you? What is your home called?" She asked with a smile.
"My world is called earth. It's really different from here." His eyes fell. "And far different than what it once was."
Twilight turned her head. "Darkside changed it?"
Lloyd shook his head. "He destroyed it. When we finally managed to fight him down he had turned most of the world to ash and driven most everyone insane. It was truly hell." He shook his head.
"Tell me about it." Twilight said turning away from the princess and facing him.
"No, it's not a good story. Besides its . . . It's not right, what with what's going on." He said turning back to the window.
"We've got time, and you said you would answer what I asked." Twilight said, perhaps a little smugly.
He glanced over his shoulder at her, something akin to annoyance on his face. "Fine but on the condition you tell me all you can about this world. The more I know the better, it will give us an edge over Darkside."
Twilight gave a confident grin. "You're asking the right pony."
. . .
Fluttershy hit the door without trying to work the knob. The wooden door flew open to allow its master inside before she bucked it closed. The pink maned Pegasus was still crying as she slammed her back to the door and fell to the floor. She pulled her knees tight to her chest as she tried to control her rapid and random breathing and her trembling body.
"Big Macintosh." She sobbed to her legs. What happened? Why did all of this have to happen? Rainbow Dash. She jerked up. She left rainbow with that monster, but he was so scary. The little Pegasus shook he head, unknowingly throwing the tiny rabbit from her back on the floor. "I'm sorry angel." She apologized more from instinct than any actual sorrow. Her mind was fixed on the friend she left behind. Dash had told her to her, it's what she said to do, and Fluttershy had to listen!
The logic didn't make the memory any better. Her friend could he hurt or . . .or. Fluttershy shook her head. "No. Dash would never let that happen." She told herself. "She's too strong." Fluttershy stood with new determination. Her cuts stung a bit but she pushed it aside, putting Dash in her mind. "For her, I'll be strong. I have to go and tell twilight. I can't help but maybe she can." Angel, who had been sitting in front of her, nodded vigorously before hopping back into her mane.
She turned and opened the door with new determination in her eyes. The pain from the many cuts she had was intense but nothing compared to what Rainbow Dash had sacrificed to save her. For you Dashie. She took the door and opened it.
Darkside's massive frame blocked the doorframe.
The little filly lost all her will when she saw those dark red eyes swallowing her from beyond the door. "Hello Fluttershy." He said with smile.
"Eep!" She squealed jumping back deeper into the house. Darkside chuckled and stepped over the threshold. Fluttershy flew behind her couch peeking over it to see her dark visitor. "W-w-w-w-what do you want?" She stammered meekly.
Darkside was using all his willpower not to laugh at this little thing. She was terrified of him! Sure he was used to that, he loved it, but he didn't even have to do anything and she was flying around in absolute terror. "Oh come now, I'm not going to hurt you." Fluttershy rubbed the cuts she still had from earlier. "Now now, those were to make a point to your friend."
His words make her fear stricken mind click. "Where is Dashie?" she asked
"Dashie? Oh that's adorable." He laughed. "Dashie's gone. Before you take that the wrong way, I mean she's dead."
Fluttershy's eyes widened her, pupils shrinking to the size of a pin. "No." she whispered. "That's impossible."
"Oh it is quite possible. I killed her, cut her neck to be precise." He mimicked the action by sliding a hoof across his own throat. "She died in tears, crying out your name if it's any consolation."
The little yellow Pegasus was against the wall her eyes dripping silent tears. "No. Dashie can't be gone. She's too strong to die." Her voice was barley a whisper in the quiet home.
"Yes, she's dead Fluttershy." He gently touched her snout and forced her to look at him. "And it's because of you."
The filly pulled back trying to press herself through the wall. She didn't speak, she only shook her head, eyes spilling tears across the rest of her face.
"Yes, it's because of you." He nodded. "You ran away, you left her with me. You saw what I did to Big Mac and you left her there, running away like a scared little kitten. That fear you have, it cripples you, it cripples those around you." His voice hissed in her ear.
"No, Dash always said it was okay I was scared. She said it was okay because she was strong so I didn't have to be." The little mare sobbed trying to block out the evil stallion's words.
"She cried out for you Fluttershy. She was begging for you to come back to help her. And you ran away. She knew you were weak, that you hide from everything. And because of that fear she got caught, got trapped and killed. All because of the scared little filly she loved." He was bearing over her now, forcing her to shrink to the ground. Her hoofs over her head as she sobbed loudly into her mane.
"You're just a burden. All your fears, all your weakness, made you a burden to her and to them. And that burden got her, the one you loved, killed." He leaned down to her ear. "If you were any kind of decent, you would save them the pain of their burden. You would take it away from them."
There was a thud and Fluttershy opened her flowing eyes to see a kitchen knife sticking in her floor. "End their burden Fluttershy. You've caused so much pain already. You should join your lover Dash, it's your fault she died. Its only right." He hissed into her ear as he stood over her.
The little Pegasus was curled into a ball on the floor, her wings and legs wrapped around her as she sobbed and cried into herself. The floor was wet with her tears mixing with the blood from her cuts. In front of her in the floor was a knife from her kitchen waiting to be used. Darkside lashed out with another shadow tendril to cut her leg but she didn't even react to the fresh cut and blood. She kept sobbing. Darkside heard Rainbow dash's name in her whimpers a few times and a storm of apologies. Each crying word was like a song to him.
He turned and left. He was done here, the idea planted. Now it was just a matter of time till she would finish her own story. There was no better way than this to leave someone, so broken death was a release. He laughed as he took to the sky relishing in the pain that was behind him
Fluttershy couldn't stop crying. Images of Rainbow Dash flooded her head. The sonic rainboom, Rainbow Dash standing up for her when they were just fillies, the time Dash finally said how she felt and the nights they spent together. Then another image, Rainbow Dash on the ground screaming for her to run, the last time she had ever seen her. Now it was all gone. Dash was gone and it was all because of her, because she was too scared to help. "I'm so sorry Dash." She sobbed into her wing. She was always hiding, always hiding because she was just a scared little nopony who couldn't do anything, Dash had always been her reason to be brave and now she was gone, she was gone because Fluttershy was a scared little weakling! She sobbed harder and started screaming. Never before had Fluttershy made so much noise, but her cries wailing into the night sky could be heard for miles.
She glanced up to the knife. She had to make sure she never did this to anyone else, that she never caused so much pain again.
She thought of Dashie as she reached for the knife.
To be honest I feel this one could have been better. Let me know what you think.
As always it's time for me to beg for reviews, since they make me happy and encourage me to write more.