Chapter 5.1 (The Unforeseen Attacks)
"Ahh!" Espie woke up from the snuggly royal bed, yawning casually in the morning silence.
"Espie, you're awake, come quickly! I need your help at the ground floors of the castle. We have trouble." Twilight charged in, disrupting the silent morning tranquillity. She hopped out of bed and noticed that Fluttershy had already woken and left the room to check out what the commotion was about, watching from the balcony.
She was panic-stricken but rushed and followed Twilight anyway. Outside of the castle was a scene of chaos, there were Timberwolves with two riders, one with a hooded robe holding a staff while the other without any equipment. The hooded rider waved her wand around to manipulate the Timberwolves to destroy the houses and property in the area while the other did not move, staying put in an area.
The rest of the Mane Six were already busy trying to stop the Timberwolves from their attacks on the ground floor.
Noticing that they might need additional help, Espie sprang into action and jumped from the balcony ten floors down onto the ground floor, falling to a metre above the ground and stopping her fall with her powerful magic, landing flawlessly.
Upon closer inspection, she identified the two riders as surviving Dark Spirits from her world. Princess Cadence and the Mane Six were galloping frantically to the ground floor of the castle to join them, finally reaching the Square of the Crystal Empire.
"It can't be!" Espie exclaimed in realisation.
"What? What can't be, Espie?" Twilight asked, standing right beside her.
"All of the Dark Spirits from my world should be already destroyed by the light I unleashed during the great battle of light and dark, but there are still two here. It's quite impossible that there are Dark Spirit survivors since I rid my world of darkness, unless..."
"Let's just stop them! Lessen the information, Espie." Twilight had to cut short her storytelling to take action on the Timberwolves.
Espie, along with the Alicorn and unicorn ponies, shot multiple spells at the Timberwolves, defeating them one by one. The rest of the Mane Six assisted in evacuating everypony out of the area, hoping to prevent anypony from being hurt.
Finishing off most of the Timberwolves, the hooded Dark Spirit was dumbfounded.
Outnumbered ten to one, the hooded Dark Spirit quickly retreated.
"You are all ruining my plans! This isn't the last you've seen of me." The hooded Dark Spirit spoke in a deep feminine voice, pointing her staff at them.
"And you, you're not needed as my assistant anymore. You disobey my attack orders and you are worthless. You shall perish along with the rest of the Dark Spirits!"
The hooded Dark Spirit reprimanded and casted a spell on the Timberwolf the other Dark Spirit was riding, zapping the Timberwolf into dust and making him land on the ground.
"This is a warning. Next time, it's you turning to dust!"
She disappeared in an instant along with her remaining Timberwolves, leaving the dumbfounded Dark Spirit to the mercy of Espie and the ponies around.
He was quickly encapsulated in a magic bubble barrier,surmisingthat he was also an evil associate of the hooded rider.
Both Twilight and Cadence brought him to the main Square of the Crystal Empire using magic for thorough interrogation. The ponies who had seen the incident also followed them, intending to see the punishment they were going to do with the Dark Spirit, who had a frightened expression on his face.
"I recognise him. He was the one who spied on me next to the river and sneaked past me at the Spirit Tree!" Espie recalled him on her past journey, the two times she being spied on by him.
"Hmm… Why do you look sad? You should be ashamed of yourself to be an accomplice of a villain." Princess Cadence scolded him, shaming him in front of the crowd.
"Please, I'm not a villain. I'm just forced against my will to follow her around..."
"What's your name and who is that mistress you are following?" Espie wanted to scoop out more information out of him.
"They call me Stealth, the spying Dark Spirit. The hooded one I was working for is a sorcerer named Malyne, one of the greatest wizards in my community, who helped me to escape the eradication of the Dark Spirits by the power of light. She forced me to follow along and abide by her commands as a returning favour to the escape." He paused for a moment before he continued to try to elucidate himself to them.
"While we were here, she started taming these Timberwolves and planned to invade the Crystal Empire today. However, I did not oblige to commands to attack using the Timberwolves and was insubordinate as I didn't feel that it was right, so she abandoned me. Unlike her, I'm not merciless or evil but a goodhearted spirit lodged inside the body of a Dark Spirit. Please believe me…"
"So Stealth, how can confirm the fact that you are truly a good soul?"
"I really cannot prove it as I don't have anything to prove it with. Just do whatever you intend to do to me now. I'm ready to accept my punishment…" He assumed that the ponies' facts were fallacious that all Dark Spirits were always bad, he started weeping, making Espie and the pony on-lookers shocked.
"Whoa whoa whoa! Calm down… There's no need to cry. It's alright. I know you are not one of the typical devilish Dark Spirit. I can help you."
"You can't… It's always been my dream to become a Light Spirit, but I guess you can't do that, so I can't be helped. Just put me out of my misery…" He cried even more and Espie had no idea how to deal with him. He waspenitentand ready to give up his lifeacquiescentlyas a Dark Spirit and accept his fate since they didn't believe that he was righteous.
"Stealth, I amcompetentenough to remove your darkness and turn you into an authentic Light Spirit. Please, don't cry anymore. I will do it for you…" She consoled him, ceasing his sobbing gradually and allowing him to feel hopeful again.
She discussed Stealth's freedom with the two Princesses. Recognising that he was corrigible, they decided to give him the benefit of doubt,vindicatinghim and setting him free of the magic bubble.
Chapter 5.2 (Lighting the Darkness, Starting Anew)
Being freed from the bubble, he thanked Espie for giving him a chance to express his true intentions. She gave him a pat on his back, givingsolaceto him. "It's alright."
He was comforted that he was finally going to fit in where he belonged – a fitting piece to an almost complete puzzle.
"First, to transform you into a Light Spirit and cleanse the darkness would require loads of positive and spirit energy, which may be quite facile in certain ways. Who is able to help me with the transition?" She requested.
"I think, we, the Mane Six, Princess Cadence, and Shining Armour can assist you with our powers. How and what do you want us to do for this procedure?"
"Focus all of your magic and positivity into me and I will convert them into immense positive energy to purify him. I will be used as the main catalyst of the procedure to purge him from all the darkness." She instructed.
"Let's transform first!" Twilight shouted before all of the Mane Six transformed into their more beautiful forms.
"Wow. That was quite unexpected… I didn't know you six could do this…" She uttered in awe before starting the transitional procedure.
They focused all the beams of magic at her, bringing some pain to her while she mustered the immense amounts of magic for conversion before unleashing a radiant beam of positive spirit energy towards him, slowly making his greyish-black fur turn white, purging him completely of darkness, turning him into a Light Spirit.
He ran towards Espie and hugged hereuphorically, "thank you so much, it exactly what I wanted." She felt sympathetic that he had really suffered his whole life until she had met him, looking for a bright future and change in his life.
"Hey, do you think I should change my name? I don't think the name 'Stealth' fits my new form…"
"Hmm… Sure! We shall start recommending names for you. Just stop us anywhere if you think a name sounds good to you." Espie told him, allowing the whole group to find an apt name that fits him.
They started to confer. One name, however, stood out and made him smile in agreement. "How about Ethos? It means a character spirit of a community that demonstrates in its attitudes and aspirations, and you sure do demonstrate the ways of a Light Spirit."
"Yes. That would be great. I want to be called that."
"Alright, we shall call you Ethos. But first, before anything else, we have to clean up the place, the mess that Malyne had caused before sheskedaddledaway gutlessly." Espie suggested, requesting all the ponies around to help to untangle the mess.
The Mane Six and the two spirits aided the injured and assisted in rebuilding the destroyed or damaged homes and clearing out rubble before, finishing the restoration of homes in a day.
For the next few days, the group went around the Crystal Empire for sightseeing, along with Ethos, who was quiet in the group during the few days.
They went to see crystal structures and visited exotic restaurants, having fun and enjoying themselves indulging in the activities they planned to do.
Ending the last day of the trip, the group waved goodbye to Princess Cadence and Shining Armour at the station, taking the return train back to Ponyville.
"Wow, another Light Spirit friend, how nice and unexpected the trip has become!" Pinkie exclaimed on the journey of the train. They chatted and learned about Ethos's full story, and introduced themselves to him before arriving back in Ponyville.
The rest of the Mane Six dispersed returning to their homes while Fluttershy, Espie, and Ethos remained.
"Um… Espie, where do I go to stay? I have been staying with Malyne for a few weeks but now I am really not sure where I should go…" Ethos hesitated a little asking her, unsure where he could stay for the night.
"Just follow me and Fluttershy back to the cottage." She pulled him along, persuading him to go together, following them to the cottage.
Reaching the cottage and entering a side room, she pointed him to the bed where she slept on while she was here. "If you want, we can share the bed. It's big enough for both of us and it's too big for one spirit…" she suggested,
He decided to sleep together with her, each sleeping on one side of the bed.
While they were sleeping, Pinkie Pie was outside the window peeping in to ensure everything was alright. "Aww! They are so adorably romantic sleeping together. I'm going to tell them about it at the Grand Galloping Gala." She spoke softly to herself admiring them before bouncing back to her home into the night.
[*Coincidentally, there was an MLP episode similar to Ethos' situation (5.1) three months after I wrote this chapter. The episode is Season 6 Episode 16 of MLP if you are interested. Here's the wiki page: /ydGb5p]