…… As he ran, Darshan stooped to recover the torch, which was still burning where they had left it in the dark hallway. He took it up without breaking stride and used its light to guide their escape. The blind queen followed them with an unnatural sort of speed, her fingers gliding along the walls of the narrow passageways and acting as her eyes. She heard the echoing sounds of their footsteps as they ran away from her and she swore she'd kill them both.
…… "How dare you defy me, Darshan!" the woman shrieked, and her voice bombarded their senses. It was so loud so suddenly, after the rest of the world had been so silent. Firefly didn't understand how Darshan didn't go mad, and the little pony followed the young man as he ducked through a low doorway and ran out across a large, barren space.
…… "What is this?" Firefly gasped as they paused for breath. Darshan leaned one hand on his knee and white hair fell over his face. He glanced up and around them and straightened, holding the torch high over his head. "It looks like the courtyard," Firefly said, spooked by the shadows that danced just beyond their circle of light. She could just make out the shapes of riding equipment, and she could smell molded hay that might have been used to feed tournament horses. She blinked, amazed to think that such normal, human activities had existed in that castle, once upon a time.
…… "The inner ward, yes," Darshan agreed quietly, still sounding winded. He kicked at the dry ground below his bare feet, rising up a billow of dust. "Much of this castle is unused."
…… "I don't think it was always this way," Firefly murmured, her blue eyes straining to catch hints of civilization hiding inside the darkness. "How sad that it fell apart."
…… "My Lady Queen Shrek rules a dead land," Darshan agreed, his voice low and sharp, and Firefly realized the woman was listening. "And she cannot admit it."
…… "Darshan," the Evil Queen said sweetly, made invisible by the darkness that surrounded them. Their useless eyes followed the sound of her voice as it circled them, as a wolf does dying prey. "For years I raised you, I made you into what you are. I provided you opportunities and beautiful choices."
…… "You kept me in a cage," Darshan accused.
…… "Of course, child, you are an animal!" Shrek said reasonably.
…… "And you're not?" Firefly snapped, stamping her feet angrily and snarling at the sound of the woman's voice. "That's right. You're nothing but a monster!"
....... "Careful the names you call, creature," Shrek warned. "Soon you'll know what it feels like to be a monster."
....... "What do you mean?" Darshan asked carefully, listening to the soft step of the woman's pace.
…… The Queen stepped suddenly into their circle of light, and Firefly stifled a short scream. The pony cowered close to Darshan, so that her flank touched his thigh, but she didn't stand behind him. She held her ground by his side, and the Blind Queen smiled cruelly. "You're very brave, stupid creatures that you are. You show strange courage to stand and defy me, but your efforts are for nothing; I will destroy you both, as well as the foolish little beasts that came to your rescue. If you run, I will catch you. If you fight, I will kill you."
…… Firefly felt a shudder pulse through her body, but she steeled her face and glared up at the woman defiantly. "You've got a lot of big talk in you. You sure haven't impressed me much yet!"
…… "Can you rise to your boast?" Darshan smiled slightly, and the Queen heard the smirk in his words. "Do you really think you could have caught us, had we not let you?"
…… They watched rage infiltrate the Queen's calm faηade. The face she had painted on to intimidate them was melting into one much more frightening. They were wearing away her patience, and all that Firefly could hope was that her friends had saved Lightning somehow. Firefly hoped they had saved her cousin and then that they were saving themselves.
…… Please, don't do anything foolish. Please don't try to save us!
…… "You will wish you hadn't ever faced me," the Queen promised them quietly, her lips curling over her sharp, inhuman teeth. "You will wish you had sacrificed one and saved the rest, but it's much too late for that now."
…… "Creatures with good hearts don't leave behind those they love," Darshan told her calmly. "That is a loyalty you know nothing about."
…… "That is interesting, Darshan." Shrek's head tilted on a supple neck, angled at the young man patronizingly. "You speak of love, and its intrinsic loyalty, but you do not know these beasts you risk your life for. Why are you doing this, Darshan? Why are you wasting your life on strangers?"
…… Firefly's blue eyes turned strange, and she glanced up into Darshan's calm face. He smiled patiently.
…… "This isn't Life, My Lady Queen Shrek." Darshan closed his eyes, listening to the faint whistle of breath by his side. He let one hand wander until it rested gently on Firefly's head. The little pony took a sharp, quiet breath, and he thought she might cry. "No creature deserves such a meaningless existence. No creature deserves to be ruined by you."
…… "You have always been my favorite, Darshan," the Queen grinned, sharp teeth gleaming in the flickering torchlight. The young man opened his eyes as Shrek gently stepped closer. She moved with calculated grace, her skirts swirling around her as she neared. "You were such a smart little boy. You had such marvelous potential, and then what do you do?" She paused, feeling the heat of his body. She stood close to his face and chuckled mildly. Darshan held his ground, pushing Firefly away from him. The pony stumbled away and began to protest. "What do you do, Darshan?" the Blind Queen continued, her voice grating harsh as her anger invaded it. She lifted her hands at Darshan, her palms flat, and screamed: "You defy me!!"
…… "No!" Firefly cried as Darshan's body flung back away from the Queen. He hit the ground hard, raising a cloud of dust around him, and the torch bounced out of his hand. It rolled but the flame managed to survive it. "You leave him alone, you evil woman!" Firefly shouted and charged at the Queen, head-butting Shrek's hip before the Queen had a chance to raise a hand in defense. The blow knocked the Queen to the dirt, and Firefly wasted no time in reaching Darshan. She gripped the front of his torn shirt and jerked him sitting. His hands reached her for support. He looked dazed in his eyes, and Firefly was afraid to let him go.
…… "Fools!!" Shrek roared as she ascended to her feet, pushed up by winds of a magical nature. Her cruel face contorted with a very intense, very ugly emotion. "Your wretched, worthless lives are over!"
…… Darshan took Firefly's face in his hands. "Go," he whispered.
…… Blue eyes narrowed and the pony shook her head.
…… "Please," Darshan begged her.
…… Shrek lifted her hands above her head, chanting an incantation. Crackling light shimmered at her fingertips and cast strange shadows over her eyeless features. "I would have used you for my Great Spell," the Queen shrieked at them, holding a bullet of magic in her hands. "I would have let you live. But now I would rather you die!"
…… Darshan's face grew harsh. "Go!" he growled at Firefly. "You don't have to die too!"
…… Firefly's nose wrinkled angrily and she refused to let him go, keeping her teeth firmly clamped on the front of his shirt. She was stunned to see tears rise up into his eyes.
…… "Say your last good byes," Shrek told them. "And take your last breaths!" She drew back to throw the spell. Firefly cringed and closed her eyes but held her ground.
…… "Not so fast, Shrek!" a voice bellowed out over the courtyard. The Queen turned, startled, and Firefly opened her eyes.
…… "You!" Shrek roared, and tossed the ball of energy in the other direction. Firefly turned her head enough to see her friends leap out of the way in the nick of time. Dust exploded up from the ground in a billowing cloud. When it settled, there was a deep crater carved out of the earth.
…… Firefly hauled Darshan to his feet and let him go. "Lightning!" she cried, both relieved and angry with him. "Quarty, no! Get them out of here!"
…… Quarty grinned his charming grin and helped Megan out of the dust. Lightning stood defiantly, with AJ by his side. "Sorry, Firecracker, but we can't let you have all the fun!"
…… "We won't let you hurt them," Lightning declared bravely, glaring up at the Blind Queen. "We won't let you hurt anyone, ever again!"
…… "You think you can stop me?" the Queen laughed, facing the sound of the Mountain Boy's voice. "In one hundred years no one has been able to defeat me, fool that you are. What makes you think you can succeed where all others have thus failed?"
…… "Because we have this!" Megan shouted, stepping forward and holding the Red Heart Locket aloft in her right hand. "The Rainbow of Light! And your Darkness is no match for it!"
…… Shrek sniffed, smelling a little human girl, and she smiled severely. The Queen walked toward the sound of the girl's breathing, which was heavy with excitement and fear, and Megan cringed back as the woman drew too close. She stared at the Queen, mesmerized by her eyeless face. "You cannot defeat me with your silly magic tricks," Shrek said mildly, and reached to snatch the locket from Megan's outstretched hand.
…… Megan gasped and cried out, and the Queen held the locket high and out of reach as Megan leapt to retrieve it. "Oh, no!" the girl cried, then shouted: "Give it back!"
…… Shrek chuckled. "If you want it so badly," she teased, "you shouldn't have let me take it!"
…… Megan clenched her fists angrily. "You monster!" she shouted, and drew back one fist. Shrek lifted a hand nonchalantly and the air in front of her palm pulsed, flinging Megan back away from her.
…… "Foul play!" Quarty shouted, and ran across the dirt, intent on taking the Queen to the ground. Shrek kept her palm flat and turned it at Quarty, and he too was knocked back. Lightning's charge was cut short in the same way, and Shrek turned in time to knock Firefly's attack out of the air.
…… The friends struggled to pull themselves out of the dust, feeling their muscles groan and their bones creaking. Darshan and AJ watched them, concerned and scared, and feeling helpless. "Puny creatures," Shrek laughed, parading around their bodies and swinging the Heart Locket on her thin fingers, taunting them with it as it swung over their heads. "You think you can challenge me with the Light?" she smirked, gathering her skirts in one hand and slinging them gracefully as she danced across the courtyard. "Are you honestly trying to overcome me with the magnificence and the beauty of radiant color?" The Blind Queen gave an amazed sort of laugh, dropping her skirts and draping the hand over her heart. "Yes, within the Light the Darkness does not exist, it succumbs and ceases to be. That is a powerful kind of magic, isn't it, my foolish little creatures? And with that sort of power you can surely defeat me. But you forget," Shrek smiled shrewdly, cruelly, turning her head so that all of them could see that kind of smile, "I cannot see the Light."
…… Megan curled her hands into fists and pressed them against her lips, feeling hollow. Tears threatened to dissolve what was left of her courage, and Quarty crept close to her carefully. He nudged her elbow, and she was at first startled, and then she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tight. "This is my fault," she whispered, pressing her cheek into his hair.
…… Shrek examined the heart locket curiously, letting her fingers smooth across its shape. "I had thought of killing you all," she told them mildly as she wrapped the chain of the locket around her fingers. "It seemed a gratifying act at the time, but now I think I shall use you for what I first intended. You are too weak, even as a group, to face me. It would be a shame to waste your potential."
…… Firefly grimaced as she pushed herself off of her side. She rested with her legs folded beneath her, shaking dust out of her mane. She lifted her eyes and drew a soft breath. "What are you going to do to us?" she cried. "Leave us alone!"
…… "You want to know my plan?" Shrek turned towards the sound of Firefly's breathing and smiled. "You selfish creatures, who complain so about the Darkness; you cannot begin to imagine what real Darkness is like. I will show you." The Queen turned and lifted her hand at the doorway that opened into the inner ward. Ponies flinched at the motion, but it wasn't them she was after yet. The smelly little ghoul Bonyo was hiding there in the shadows, watching and listening without having made a sound. He took care not to give himself away but the Queen was well aware of his smell. She was well aware of the tiny sounds he didn't even know he was making, and his little body began to glow as the spell enveloped him. The look of panic was very clear on his face as he was lifted up off of the ground and dragged through the air.
…… "You want to see what I have planned for you?" Shrek crowed, holding Bonyo aloft before them. "Then I will provide you with this glorious example!"
…… "Please!" Bonyo wailed. "Lady Queen, have mercy on poor Bonyo!"
…… Firefly staggered to her feet and retreated, her eyes round and fixated as she backed close to Darshan. "What is she going to do to him?" she gasped.
…… "I don't know," Darshan admitted, letting his hands find Firefly on their own. He couldn't turn his attention away from the Blind Queen's spell. None of them could. They watched as though entranced as Shrek smiled her inhuman smile and chanted her incantation. The spell's power burned, casting a sick light across the watching faces, and Bonyo writhed within it, in obvious pain. His crooked little spine arched back and his arms and legs flung out helplessly as beams of white light shot out of his eyes and mouth. The beams slithered like snakes through the air, sharply turning before they shattered into the roof of the cave. They shot like arrows, descending down upon the Evil Queen. The ponies and their friends were blinded by the explosion of light as the beams collided into Shrek's upturned, triumphant face. They blinked the witchlight from their eyes and watched, both appalled and amazed, as the Queen's face began to change.
…… It wasn't a dramatic transformation, but it was enough that those witness to it realized what it meant. In that empty stretch of skin where eyes should be, tiny slits suddenly appeared. They turned to see Bonyo, who had dropped to the floor unnoticed. He was still alive, barely. He was completely blind.
…… Blackness gaped at them out of empty sockets where Bonyo's eyes once sat. The eyeballs were gone completely. The little ponies and their two human friends could only stare, feeling frozen and sick inside. They couldn't find any voices with which to protest. They could hardly find the air to breathe. It was what Shrek meant on that one fateful day, when she had appeared in their peaceful land in a time that now seemed so distant. When she kidnapped Lightning she laughed at his terrified friend, who could do nothing to save him. She laughed and told Apple Jack that she would never see her lover again. If Shrek stole their eyes, then that dismal prophecy would come true! Shrek would steal their eyes and leave them living, if only to suffer. She would let them survive, only so that they would be forced to exist in the terrible darkness that she knew for so long.
…… "You will be blind, and I will see," Shrek told them, and she laughed. It was a terrible, demented laugh that ricocheted off of the walls of the cavern that surrounded them, and AJ and Lightning huddled close together.
…… "I'll still love you," Lightning whispered, gently nuzzling her cheek. It was damp from where tears spilled out of her shiny green eyes. "I won't ever forget how beautiful you are."
…… "You can't do this, you monster!" Firefly shouted, taking angry steps forward. "You selfish, wicked woman. What gives you the right to steal away our eyes?"
…… Shrek grinned patiently, her sharp teeth glinting. She licked her lips and raised her hands above her head. The heart-shaped locked bounced against her wrist, and sparks danced off of it as electricity spiraled up along the Queen's bare arms. Purple light gathered at her fingertips, convulsing and crackling in a loose, pulsating sphere of energy. The friends cringed back, realizing how powerful a spell she was casting.
…… Megan clenched her fists around locks of Quarty's blue mane, squeezing her eyes shut tight. Quarty grimaced, and tried to relax the expression into a small smile. "Well," he shrugged, "at least I'll be good at Marco-Polo."
…… Megan laughed and started crying at the same time.
…… "What do we do, Darshan?" Firefly murmured, stepping back to stand beside him. The young man lowered himself to one knee with a quiet sigh, resting a hand on her warm neck. "We can't let her get away with this," the pony insisted.
…… "My Lady Queen Shrek is too powerful," Darshan apologized, lowering his head. White hair drifted across his face. Firefly stared at him, startled.
…… "No!" she cried, maneuvering herself to see his face, and his pale downcast eyes. "No, you can't give up!"
…… The Blind Queen raised her voice over the popping of electricity, casting her spell. Her long black hair danced through the air behind her like snapping bullwhips, and she laughed as she spoke the spell:

…….…… "I drain your spirits, take your eyes,
……….… Lightning's friends and Firefly's.
…….…… Surrender to me your gift of sight
…….…… And greet your Hell in an Endless Night!"

…… Darshan edged a low growl through his teeth and pushed off of the floor. "NO!" Firefly screamed as he ran. "Darshan, don't!"
…… He angled his body low as the Queen turned towards the sound of Firefly's cry and he tackled Shrek before her spell was released. As their bodies made contact with the hard, dusty ground, the Queen gripped the young man's arms and discharged the powerful spell. Firefly and her friends could only watch helplessly as his spine jerked straight and cracked. His long white hair billowed up like a thing alive and light filled his mouth and eyes. Blinding whiteness engulfed them all like an ocean wave and they clenched their eyes shut tight until it was over.
…… It faded behind their eyes, and slowly they let themselves look. They could still see; the spell had failed. The Queen shrieked as she pushed the body off of her own, and she struggled to rise to her feet. She couldn't. Quarty had decided to sit on her. "Get off of me!!" she wailed, slamming her fists into the dirt. The intense spell had drained her of her power, so that Shrek was, for the moment, completely helpless. She had never imagined that she wouldn't have the time to regain her strength. Megan stepped up to the Queen and stooped low to unwind the chain of the heart locket from around Shrek's hand. Megan smiled slightly as she straightened and unclasped the locket, releasing the Rainbow.
…… Lightning approached the Queen, with AJ a step behind him. Firefly stared at her cousin as tears consumed her face, and she saw something other than anger and contempt in his eyes. There was something there that had never existed in him before, and Firefly thought that it might be Hate. She was sorry that her cousin had been forced to learn such a painful emotion. Shrek sensed the heat of his body, and could smell the rage in his flesh. His muscles were burning with acid and she trembled with fear, realizing her own vulnerability. "What are we going to do with you, my Queen?" Lightning wondered coldly as he gazed down on her eyeless features. His friends watched him strangely, unnerved by his hollow anger. "Do we destroy you and your miserable Palace of Darkness? Or maybe, do we leave you here powerless and alone to wallow in the despair of your blindness, until you too can only beg for the mercy of death?"
…… Firefly's heart tightened in her chest. Shrek was weak now, and was forced to accept whatever fate Lightning chose for her. Her fingers curled into the dirt and she didn't say a word. Firefly saw viciousness burning behind Lightning's eyes and it hurt, because it never used to be a part of him. How awful had it been, trapped within the Queen's darkness? How had the suffering twisted his soul?
…… Lightning watched the Queen's face as she listened hard for his judgement. "Or," he said finally, his eyes changing, "do we give you everything you ever wanted?" The Mountain Boy reached to take the locket from Megan's hand. He held the chain in his mouth, and the Rainbow came to hover in the air above him. "You wanted our eyes so that you could see," he said through his teeth, tilting his head at the woman strangely. "You realized how awful your world was, and you tried to fix it the only way you knew how. Queen Shrek, I offer you this instead."
…… The Rainbow began to lengthen and shimmer, cascading its ribbons of color across the dismal courtyard. Shrek screamed as the Rainbow enfolded her like a cocoon, and as the light became too bright to bear they all closed their eyes, blinded for the moment. In the silence that followed, Quarty realized he was sitting on the hard earth. He opened his eyes to see a little butterfly fluttering gently beyond the tip of his nose. He laughed out loud.
…… "Oh!" Megan gasped, bending close to gaze at the beautiful new creature. Its wings shimmered like stained glass, marked with all the brilliant colors of the Rainbow itself. It perched lightly on Quarty's nose, and he grinned a marvelous Cheshire grin. AJ laughed with relief and slipped to Lightning's side, pressing her cheek against his warm chest. He breathed in the light, summery scent of her hair, just glad it was finally over.

…… Firefly nudged Darshan gently with her nose, her heart pounding too hard in her chest. The young man lay very silent and very still in the dirt. His body was warm, and all his beautiful white hair was draped across the earth like snowy rivers. His eyes were closed in a quiet face, and Firefly touched his cheek. Her teardrops streamed down across her chin and dripped, one by one, onto his face. She hardly noticed her friends approach to stand sadly behind her.
…… "Please get up," Firefly begged him, her voice very small. "Please get up, Darshan."
…… "Firefly," Lightning told her gently, bending close to her ear. "Say goodbye."
…… It wasn't fair. She had promised to show him such wonderful things! Flowers and sunsets and stars in the sky. She wanted to watch his face as he tried one of Gingerbread's cookies for the first time. She wanted him… she closed her eyes, feeling like she was dying inside. She lost something before she even had it, something marvelous. Something that would become precious in memory.
…… "Goodbye, Darshan," she whispered, and turned away forever.



…… A crack like a thunderbolt shook the air around them, and dust billowed out into the courtyard. "What's going on?" Megan cried as the ground began to shake beneath their feet. A narrow crevice opened up in the earth between them, and Firefly leapt into the air.
…… "Oh no!" she cried. "The castle's breaking apart. Without Shrek's magic to hold it together, it's going to crumble!"
…… "Let's get out of here, double-time!" Quarty shouted, and Firefly flew low so that Megan could swing onto her back. The castle fell to pieces behind them as they fled through black hallways, chasing the Rainbow of Light as it showed them the way. They dodged the falling debris and stumbled as the floor buckled beneath their feet. The Rainbow scooped them up and carried them, whisking them out over the bottomless darkness and to the safety of the ledge on the other side. Shrek's dark palace collapsed in on itself and shattered, crumbling into dust and disappearing forever into the black and lonely caverns below.
…… It was gone. It was really over.
…… Glory and Moondancer were waiting anxiously for them at the mouth of the cave, where the red light of sunset cast an eerie glow over the powdery white world beneath them. Firefly froze when her aching eyes found them, astonished to see them there. "But, I---" she stammered. She swallowed hard and took a breath. "I thought you went home with Slugger!"
…… Moondancer laughed, stamping her feet. "Right. And miss such an adventure? No way!" She and Glory nuzzled Firefly happily, and moved on to warmly greet the rest of their friends.
…… Firefly couldn't imagine it. She knew Slugger and the others had given up, but as the Rainbow gently carried them all down to the earth again she could make out the specific shapes and colors of the rest of her friends. "They all came back," she breathed, and Quarty smiled beside her.
…… "You can't do it alone, Firefly." Quarty nudged her gently. "None of us wanted to let you."
…… Her eyes glittered. She thought her friends had deserted her, but they were there for her. She thought she didn't have any friends but she did, she had the truest friends in the world, and Quarty was right. She wouldn't have made it alone. She glanced up at the mountain as it grew above them and closed her eyes, making a wish.
…… Thank you, Darshan.
…… The friends piled onto the raft, nearly tipping it over, and Slugger pushed it off of the shore. Firefly rested close by her cousin, exhausted, and swiftly, safely, they drifted back home.


The End!


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