Clash of Light and Darkness - Chapter 13

      In a beautiful field made entirely of grass where the sun shines with its dazzle and the wind blows steadily, making the grass sway and dance, the pink unicorn filly Scarlett was bouncing around and playing happily, giggling and her cute voice squeaking in this wonderful grassy area which seemed like a paradise to her. Alas, she was on her own. She was alone but she did not mind. Being in this quiet and lovely meadow was like enough for Scarlett to be happy.

      She spotted a small butterfly that flew past her. She became curious and obnoxious to it, so she followed and chased it until she caught by pouncing it like a leopard but made herself lie down on the soft fluffy bed of grass. She sat up and found out that the butterfly was on her nose. Feeling a little funny and ticklish on her muzzle, she sneezed and the butterfly flew away from Scarlett’s sight, who was slightly disappointed at it.

      Then, Scarlett saw a swarm of many butterflies flying to their destination. She wanted to know where they were all flying to, so she followed them. As she got closer to the butterflies, their numbers suddenly increased tenfold.

      The filly went all the way to where the pretty butterflies were going… only to see that the butterflies were encircling around two ponies standing on top of a small hill for her to see.

      The two ponies that Scarlett saw from far ahead were both alicorns, both wearing golden rings on their horns to symbolize their strong bond of love and unity for each other. One pony was a glamorously beautiful mare wearing a triangular crown and golden accessories on her chest and hooves. The other alicorn was a gorgeously handsome stallion wearing a crown with a heart and a head of unicorn and wings of a pegasus on top of the crown and a dress that was like that of a prince or a high-ranking general or ambassador.

      “Who are you?” Scarlett, leaning her head further to see, asked for she didn’t know who they are because of the amnesia that she had. However, no answer came afterwards. She was eager to know who they actually are and why there are here when Scarlett was playing with joy… on her own.

      “Mommy? Daddy?” she uttered when a sudden realization hit her and then, she gasped loudly, her eyes widened in surprise and a mouth-open smile came to her face.

      Scarlett, who suddenly remembered something, ran and trotted all the way to the grassy hill where she can meet the two ponies she just saw… who are her parents. Passing through all the butterflies, she made it to the top of the hill and immediately hugged her mother. The alicorn couple and… parents… of Scarlett returned the hug for her. The pink filly closed her eyes in joy to finally see her parents once again after being separated from her family.

      “Mom, Dad… I miss you so much…” she whimpered, continuing to nuzzle at her mother and father.

      “Shh… There now…” the mother hushed and whispered to Scarlett in a soft and calm tone, “It’s going to be alright. You’ll see.”

      “Why’d you have to go?” asked Scarlett, wanting to know why her parents… left her behind.

      “Every life in the world has its season,” the father replied to his daughter’s question as the couple broke their hug and gazed at the sunlight that was glowing beautifully upon the three of them, “where one thing falls, another grows.”

      “Maybe not what was there before, but something new and wonderful all the same,” the beautiful alicorn mare continued.

      “But I feel so alone,” cried Scarlett as she continued to snuggle on her parents. She didn’t want them to leave her so poor and alone. She wanted them. She wanted them so badly to stay on her side until the very end. Even the father and mother were sad to see their daughter sad and alone.

      “We’re always with you,” the parents of Scarlett said together in unison while comforting their daughter who they deeply care for, “Even when you can’t see us, we’re here.”

      The three ponies then all hugged together, in a hug which Scarlett wished to never end for she always wanted them to stay by her side… forever.

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      Scarlett was sleeping, rubbing the left side of her head on a rock she was sleeping next to, as if she was nuzzling or hugging somepony in her dream. She was murmuring things as if she was uttering them carefully, gently and softly in a fantastic calming dream.

      She slowly opened her eyes and unconscious of her surroundings, immediately opened them at full. She gasped with curiosity. She looked around and saw that she was in the same playground on the same school. She also recognized the same bush she was in front of before suddenly driving into unconsciousness. She was no longer in the sunny field of grass and wonder.

      It was night and it was all quiet. The moon shone with its gleaming luminosity across the dark-blue night skies with several twinkling stars scattered all about. All the busyness died down, everypony went to sleep and there was nopony around in the silence of the field but Scarlett herself. She was alone.

      Scarlett sighed in disappointment, knowing that it was all just a dream. Her ears were drooped and her frown was wide. She was dreaming of beautiful things earlier and she had to wake up just now. This made her very cross and sad. Even if it was just a dream, she wanted it to last forever so that she could with her… parents… for as long as she wanted. She didn’t want to wake up… and she did. She was disappointed.

      Also, because of her amnesia, she only remembered the looks and voices of her parents in her dreams. But in real life, as she woke up, she immediately forgot about them. She only remembered when she was in front of the bush and was knocked out cold by an unknown gas coming out of it earlier. She forced herself to remember what she saw awhile ago in her dream that seemed like paradise to her.

      But all she could remember were the words that the Dark Emperor uttered to her… words that injured both her heart and mind and made her wonder for a long time… words that came from her most horrible nightmare, the nightmare that came before her wonderful dream…

      “Your mother and father can’t be with you anymore.”

      Eventually, she gave up and ended up bawling on the rock that she slept on awhile back.

      She had lost it.

      She continued crying until she heard a voice… or two. She suddenly heard two voices which made her stop sobbing and calm herself. It sounded blurry and a little raspy at first since Scarlett was too far, so she stood up, walked and went closer to where the voices came from.

      “We’re here…” the voices uttered.

      As she got closer, she heard that the two voices were voices of a mare and a stallion speaking in unison. It did not take long before she realized that those voices were the same voices that she heard in her dream earlier. It was “the voices of her parents”. Even with amnesia, Scarlett somehow recognized them.

      “Mom? Dad?” she muttered in a mix of both confusion and curiosity.

      It took a few seconds to wait for an answer before a reply called out with same response, “We’re here…”

      Scarlett took several steps forward onto the direction where the voices were coming from. Eventually, she left the school grounds and winded up on an empty street in the city, where there is no pony or creature present. No lights were turned on, for there is light coming from the white moon, although not as strong as the artificial ones that usually lighted in the early nights. But it was late night.

      No sane creature has seen Scarlett roaming across the streets and wandering to where the peculiar voices are originating. In fact, the voices just kept coming, smooth, softly and heard by the young unicorn filly. She thought that they were just voices in her head and that she was hallucinating, but it seemed all true and real for her to just simply deny. The voices caught her entire attention and those were the voices of her parents that constantly went on persistently. Scarlett was in piqued necessity and curiosity.

      “Mom? Dad?” the filly whispered, and something hit her senses, as her eyes widened and her face was lifted up in spirits with a wide happy smile.

      “Hey, wait! Wait! I’m coming!” cried Scarlett in excitement and joy as she hastily trotted throughout the empty city all the way to exit the city walls.

      After getting out the city proper uncaught and a mile off, she found herself around a vast field of grass, winter snow and some bald trees, and saw nopony around. It was not right, she heard somepony coming from that area, she heard the voices coming from the same direction she ran all the way to.

      Turning her head around and seeing nothing alive, she dropped her head in sadness and shame, knowing she got all the way there for nothing. Guess it was just voices in her head after all.

      As she turned herself on the opposite direction and was about to head home, she heard the same voices once again, calling out, “We’re here…”

      Scarlett turned around and began hearing her mother and father’s voices together again. She couldn’t resist. She had to see them.

      The pink filly approached closer into the huge field of snow and stopped by a ledge, just about a two meter drop. She turned the other way around and took another way on the downward slope beside the cliff, coming to the bottom of it safe and unharmed.

      For a few seconds, Scarlett took gaze at a wall of soil that established the short cliff up. She kept wandering about in that field of snow, curious on the whereabouts of her parents.

      But all of a sudden…

      Loud screeches were heard from a distance, shocking the caped unicorn filly. Turning around in front, she witnessed a flock of crows, sounding their trouble screeches, flying away from the dark woods composed of tall bald trees, covering the sight of the inner portion of the forest from those from far ahead.

      As the crows left, Scarlett’s eyes were enlarged with horror and her body freezing in a state of great fear. Her horrified eyes were staring at a group of evil hoofsoldiers, armed in black and wielding weapons of war, coming out from the woods. It seemed those dark grunts were approaching towards the vulnerably pony, standing with a wall of soil behind her, helpless and immobilized.

      Meanwhile, back inside the Temple of the Guardians, the elderly red unicorn stallion Ryo, the Guardian of the Dragon and mentor to the young Burning Passion, was still awake for some reason when he noticed outside through the windows the crows flying away and crying out in escape. He turned his attention to the crystal ball was sparkling and shining, indicating danger.

      He approached closer to the ball of pure glass and unleashed his beam of unicorn magic on it, allowing the viewer to see the current danger. He saw a vision of the charging Zoldats running towards Scarlett.

      Ryo gasped with disbelief and muttered the filly’s name, “Scarlett!”

      Immediately, he reacted to that and departed the Temple when he used his magic to teleport to the location where the young pink unicorn pony was.

      Shortly after, in a blink of an eye, Ryo was sent to the same meadow of snow where Scarlett was, but was slightly far from the filly. He was startled to witness the small group of Zoldats getting closer and closer to their target every second. He was more shocked to see that Scarlett was not running away from the threat. He thought that something was wrong with her, but the old unicorn doesn’t want to see his adoptive granddaughter harmed.

      “Run, Scarlett!” yelled the elderly Ryo.

      But unfortunately, Scarlett could not hear him nor be able to run due to the paralyzing fear she was experience. All she could do was stand and helplessly look at the dark soldiers charging further towards her. She was feeling no emotion at all but the fear strangling her senses numb.

      Just as the Zoldats were about to pounce onto their target, at one second, Ryo leaped off from the ledge of the cliff, landed right between Scarlett and the charging Zoldats and intercepted the evil troops, blocking them from claiming their victim and shielding Scarlett from harm with a determined and cross look on his face.

      As one of the dark grunts pounced for the attack, the red elderly unicorn countered it by shouting the words, “Enjou Ha!” and unleashing a blast of fire from his horn towards the target, directly hitting it.

      Angered by this, another Zoldat attacked Ryo but the unicorn managed to evade it by kicking the enemy back with his hindhooves. The rest of the Zoldats engaged combat at Ryo but they weren’t able to overcome the skills of the old one. Despite Ryo being an aged pony, his skills in combat were outstanding and equal to that of the young Spirits.

      Scarlett, still frozen in fear and not even moving a single inch, could only blankly stare at the scene of fight where the Guardian of the Dragon was gaining the upper hoof.

      Ryo, victorious against the evil hoofsoldiers, glared at his opponents and not taking it anymore, the Zoldats stood up and ran away back to where they once came from in the first place.

      As lightning struck, the bearded red unicorn widened his eyes in horror and fearing what might happen next, turned his head to the still-paralyzed Scarlett.

      “RUN, SCARLETT!” Ryo cried but received no response from the filly.

      “GO! NOW!!!” the unicorn was forced to push Scarlett down to the ground and thankfully, she regained her senses and snapped out of her trance.

      Immediately, the two unicorns ran for the lives off from the snowy meadow and into the field of trees as fast as they could to escape from danger. They were able to get out of there in time, just as a loud blaring explosion was triggered from the same area where the black grunts first showed up. It was so loud that Ryo and Scarlett were able to hear it from afar, but fortunately, they were not involved anymore.

      They continued to trot away until Ryo used the regenerated spare magic he had, since he reached his limit for now and used up his energy to get to her destination and protect Scarlett, to teleport themselves out of the field of trees and to the mountain where they reached to a spot near the Temple. Ryo and Scarlett, both tired from the dangerous pursuit, panted and some sweat came out from their slightly exhausted bodies. The two unicorns were finally back in their sanctuary, safe and away from further harm.

      “But it was mother and father! I heard their voices!” the magenta-maned filly tried to reason to her grandfather why she didn’t come back home to the Temple when night came passing by and went there on her own. She was still bewildered by the dream she just had earlier and wanted to know the answers.

      “It was one of Hell’s tricks!” Ryo scolded angrily, glaring at the young unicorn. He remembered the time when Burning Passion and the Spirits, in their final test of their 40-day training, were tricked by an oddly familiar voice that they thought belonged to the vanished Princess of Friendship to a trap in Ponyville a few weeks ago. It seemed that the forces of Hell used the exact same technique to lure Scarlett with a bait to lead her to her demise. But had it not been for Ryo, Scarlett would not have survived.

      “I’m sorry. I—” Scarlett apologized, knowing just now that the great enemies of the dark that wanted her dead would go to extremes to get rid of her.

      “What if I hadn’t gotten there in time? You could’ve been—” he cut off when he was about to finish his sentence, not wanting to think how horrible she might be through if he never made it in time to rescue the very young damsel in distress from a group of soldiers ascended from Hell.

      The old stallion was very worried earlier because Scarlett did not return to her sanctuary in the Temple right away when the classes for that day ended. Only at that time, he realized what was up with her the entire time, that she unknowingly disobeyed her grandfather. He snapped at her behavior lately.

      “When I tell you to run, you RUN! NEVER FREEZE LIKE THAT! EVER!!” yelled Ryo with an extremely cruel and harsh tone that Scarlett never heard actually say in front of her.

      “I’m… I’m sorry…” whimpered the filly, with tears starting to form in her eyes. Not soon, she broke down crying in response to Ryo’s cold voice sent chilling down her spine. She screwed up big time and nearly got herself killed on the spot. She was a fool.

      Ryo sighed in relief and fumed himself from releasing his strict anger earlier. At least, Scarlett was saved again and safe for now. He wouldn’t want to doubt about it. After calming down, he softly held the sobbing filly on the shoulder and told her, “Come on, Scarlett, let’s go home.”

      Scarlett stopped crying and looked up on her grandfather, nodding at him. He slowly walked back in his shelter, with her following him.

      Upon entering the building, the Guardian of the Dragon led the filly to her room. Scarlett depressingly walked to her bedroom where she would be safe. As she jumped onto her bed, she had her sorrowful eyes on Ryo, who also had a despaired look on his face, and her ears drooped.

      After a few minutes of silence and solemnity, she drifted her head away from the elderly one and turned around to go to sleep, using her magic to pull her blanket and cover herself with it. Ryo lowered his head and then quietly closed the door and walked off downstairs. What he did not see was that Scarlett’s face was drenched with tears, meaning that she was crying herself to sleep.

      When Ryo got downstairs, he slowly went outside the Temple to spend his time alone and give a short moment of peace. As the clouds, set up by the pegasi to cover the sky for the growth of vegetation throughout the land, began to release droplets of rain, the unicorn did not bother the coming heavy rain anyway. And there came the heavy rain shortly after.

      Ryo of the Heavenly Fire Star breathed heavily, closed his eyes and sighed with great concern. He wasn’t sure what would come next or whatever tricks his enemies would have up their sleeves. As a pony who was ten-thousand years old and came from an era of war, guaranteeing somepony’s safety, especially one who was really important in his life, would be one of his main priorities, and yet, even being a wise mentor he was, he wasn’t quite sure about it.

      He doubted too much.

      As he went back inside, Ryo approached in the room where his green earth pony companion, the Guardian of the Lion, Daigo of the Heavenly Phantom Star, was sleeping sound and peacefully in his bed.

      “Daigo…” the unicorn called his friend’s name.

      In response, the green elderly pony carefully opened his eyes and yawned quietly onto his hoof to avoid creating a noise. He turned to see that the red stallion Ryo was in front of him.

      “Zeba’s scums are going too far,” the Unicorn of the Heavenly Fire Star spoke sincerely to his former comrade in battle and dear associate, “Our students should no trouble trying to protect her further harm.”

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      “Bunch of idiots!” the big dark unicorn stallion Black Shadow scowled at the group of Zoldats from earlier that tried to exterminate Scarlett but were intercepted and stopped by Ryo the Guardian of the Dragon, and thus forced to retreat back to their imperial domain underground. Awhile back, they gave their report to the Imperial Commander who was in the Imperial Army training grounds outside the Underground Castle, training the troops full time. And he was not too happy about it.



      “But, Commander, he’s too strong and swift! For an old pony, he’s very skilled!” a Zoldat pleaded and tried to reason with the high-ranking general.

      “Why is it that you can’t do ONE thing right?!” Black Shadow paid no heed to the Zoldats’ reasoning of their hindrance and failure, “I gave you direct orders to kill Scarlett on the spot, Deathiel even gave you a good head start with her voice imitation technique; but you let yourselves get pestered by that old hag who no longer has the power to summon his Qi Beast and wield his Qi Power at a maximum! You should know earlier that Ryo is nothing but a weakling and nothing more. I faced him once and I could’ve overwhelmed him if his Burning Passion did not interfere at the last second and helped him!”

      The Zoldats hung their heads down in shame and groaned, knowing well that they once again failed their masters in fulfilling their ambitions.

      The Imperial Commander uttered a grunt of frustration and told the dark grunts, “Make sure that you won’t repeat the same mistake again or I shall see to it that I will present your heads in front of Emperor Zeba!” This made the Zoldats shiver a bit to Black Shadow’s harsh and cruel statement. Then he gave an order to his troops, “Zoldats, go back to your posts and patrol the empire 24/7.”

      After the hoofsoldiers left their commander akin to his orders, Black Shadow muttered, “I developed a new plan that is sure to remove that damned Royal Family forever.”

      He then turned his head to the right and a monstrous figure whose size is the same as his emerged from the shadows beside the black unicorn. The Commander sternly gazed at the silhouetted figure and questioned, “Are things going according to plan?”

      “Yes, they are, milord,” the figure replied in a scratchy mischievous voice, “That filly Scarlett is relieved for a while. She had the most wonderful dream of her life. But soon, it will be followed by the most horrible nightmare of all. One where she’ll never wake up from.”

      “Very good,” grinned Black Shadow at the mysterious one’s enthusiastic sentence as he walked closer towards the figure, facing in front of him, “Those dark underlings like Nightmare Moon and that foolish demon ram left a burden in their goals to spread nightmares to every miserable mortal. Now it is our turn to fill that burden. Remember, keep yourself on guard. Remember what happened to the other Demonic Entities preceding you?”

      “Baron String and Key Jester,” the monster spoke the name of the two former Demonic Entities, who tried to spread the wickedness and evil all over and were defeated by the same Spirits of the Mythical Chi Beasts, “They were no match for those mortal scum. But do not bother; I am much different from them.”

      “I know you are,” Black Shadow nodded at the monstrous Demonic Entity who stepped closer further, revealing to be a stallion but with his face embodied with a kaleidoscope and armed with a long sharp sword.

      “There are times where brute force is not necessary,” the kaleidoscope-like equine beast stated, “It is done with stealth. And I can do that method.”

      “Your mission is to give Scarlett nightmares that can literally kill her. That way, the Spirits won’t be aware of what is going on,” Black Shadow gave a direct command to the monster, “I have a great feeling that we will finally succeed with this one… Count Kaleidoscope.”

      The new Demonic Entity smiled evilly.

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      At the stroke of midnight, as the moon gleamed its light upon the beautiful capital city of the Island Kingdom and the Ancient Bell rang with its powerful sound heard all over the island, a unicorn mare stands on top of the spire of the thousand-meter high Tambelon Tower, the very center of the Palace and the tallest artificially-made structure in the world, standing at unprecedented heights.

      The mare has blue eyes, a light-blue coat and a yellow crescent with sparkles as her cutie mark. The unicorn’s uniform resembles that of a jester. In fact, the attire is unique: a purple striped jester hat, a magenta collared vest with red and gold accents encrusted with blue diamond shaped jewels and gold star shaped buttons and has a large red jewel on her chest, white long sleeves on her forelegs embedded with faint gray markings along with violet and gold patterned cuffs, and tight violet overalls around the hooves up with magenta and gold coloring around the hindlegs.

      She gazed down upon literally the entire city from the high view of the Tambelon Tower she was standing its top spire on. The jester mare breathed heavily and looked at the moon with a gentle and kind smile.

      The stunningly glamorous and beautiful unicorn mare levitated up in the air on the lovely starry moonlight-shone night sky and flew off the distance into the mountains like a pegasus she was not, but not before uttering her statement in a whispering and feminine tone…

      “So it has begun. There is a reason why my teacher, Princess Luna, sent me here. The nightmares are beginning to be unleashed here. In the name of the Princess of the Night and Dreams and the sake of children, I will not allow the nightmares to hurt the innocent colts and fillies that I love and adore, for my journey has begun… my Journey of Dreams.”