Where was I? What happened? I remember pain . . . I remember facing my darkness . . . I remember Luna. I didn’t know where I was, I didn’t know what was going on. Somehow this place felt familiar, like I had been here before and I found an unknown comfort in it. I seemed to float in the nothingness, enveloped by a soft white light that warmed every inch of my being down to my very core. Was this purgatory? Was this the afterlife? Had I succumbed to the injuries I had suffered, to the weight of all the sins and wrongs I had carried?

“Dash.” Suddenly a voice broke through the silence, sweet and tender, and in the next instance, Luna stood at my side. She smiled down at me, her eyes staring deep into mine, and I found myself smiling in return. I felt the warmth concentrate in my chest and I raised a hoof up towards her, as she leaned down and let me touch her cheek.

“How is this possible?” I asked as I lowered my hoof and suddenly found myself standing before her. The next thing I knew the world around me slowly began to shift and blur, then we stood in the middle of a field. “We’re inside my mind, aren’t we?”

“Yes, we are indeed inside the world of your mind. I assume it’s been sometime since you here, and it must have been much different.” Luna replied as she stepped past me and surveyed our surroundings. “You did it Dash, you freed yourself of the darkness within. Behold the world within, now cleansed of the darkness that threatened to swallow all that you are.”

I moved to Luna’s side and followed her gaze and was nearly brought to tear by what I saw, my memories before me . . . restored to their true form and free of the twisted influence of darkness. I could see Ponyville, free of flames and spirits, with my friends and loved ones carrying on their lives. My smile widened and looked up to Luna to see her smiling back at me, before giving me a reassuring nod.

“Your mind is your own once more, and your memories are as well. Sadly there is still much that needs to be done in the real world, and time is not on our side.” She said with a sigh, before turning and starting to walk. “Come Dash, there is much I need to tell you, and though it pains me to do so I must tear you from those happy memories.”

“W-wait.” I said as I turned and started after her. The world faded away as I finally started walking at her side, the visage of the field and Ponyville replaced by an all to familiar sight. Soon we walked through the battle of Canterlot and I could see it from views I had never seen before, I even saw myself fighting with all I had. “What is this?” I asked.

“I am showing you a glimpse of Canterlot, the siege, through my eyes. This is the battle as I know it, as I remember it.”

“But why are you showing me this?”

“Because I want you to see this.” As Luna spoke the sight of Chrysalis charging her played before me and I saw through Luna’s eyes the fight between the two, before I arrived to help her. The battle between the two was fierce, and the smile across Chrysalis’s face broad, as they both furiously fought the other. “I want you to understand something, something that may put your mind and heart at ease.” I then saw the moment I joined the battle and continued to watch, up until the moment that Chrysalis defeated us and turned Luna to stone.

“What was that supposed to show me? All I saw was a moment that still haunts me . . . the moment I failed you.” I said as I hung my head in shame.

“Rainbow I want you to think about something.” She replied as she put a hoof on my shoulder. “Do you remember the fate that befell Discord, the punishment he received from my sister and I?”

“Yes, he was turned to stone.”

“Exactly, which is what happened to me. I do not know how Chrysalis was able to use such magic, or where she leaned it, but I’m not dead.”

I stood there for a moment, silent, thinking over Luna’s words when it suddenly hit me. “You can be restored to your original form! But wait . . . I already knew that, Trixie already knew that. She was trying to help me figure out how to free you, when we got to Van Hoover.” Suddenly I felt a pang of guilt at the thought of Trixie.

“Indeed, Trixie is as loyal to me as her family has always been and she will indeed find a way to free me, I believe that with everything in me. But I needed to reaffirm that with you, to give you proof that I still lived, not just hope. The truth is I need you to become great, to lead this world back to the glory it once was.” The world once again fell silent and returned to nothingness as Luna turned to face me, looking down on me with her kindness.

“But why tell me? Why not tell Trixie, or even Applejack? Why am I so special?”

“Because you were touched by darkness, something I know all too well, and it is through that connection that we now share that I am able to speak to you. It is why I was able to show you Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and push you to where we now are with Braeburn. I was able to guide you with the images of those who in your journey, had meant so much too you.”

I went silent again and I thought about those moments she spoke of, Braeburn calling out to me in my dreams, Scoots guiding me through the forest and finally her and Apple Bloom greeting me at the gate of the castle.

“So that was you huh . . . I had hoped it was really them.”

“It was.” She replied softly. “Spirits linger within the realm of dreams, the realm of the soul. I did nothing more than guide them to you and give them the strength to show themselves to you. Those moments you shared with them , the forgiveness and redemption they offered you, it was all real. They wanted you to know that they love you, forgive you and want nothing more than for you to achieve that which you’re meant to become.”

“But what am I supposed to be!?” I shouted, feeling frustration slowly creep into my voice.

“You’re meant to be a hero.” With that Luna showed me another image, the image of Las Pegasus burning. “When you see this I assume you see another failure, another result of your actions gone horribly wrong. But what I see is hope, because within the chaos that envelops this city a seed has been planted.”

“A seed?”

“You and Trixie planted a seed of hope, of revolution. The ponies of Las Pegasus rose up as a result of your actions, fighting back against the tyranny the changelings brought upon their lives. Where you saw only failure and weakness, in truth it was a victory. Many ponies will die, it is true, but war is not without loss on both sides and every pony that fights is willing to die if it means restoring their home. I know it sounds cruel, but that is the truth that we cannot, and should not, look away from.”

“Trixie told me something similar before, almost everypony I’ve met along my journey has. They told me I was a hero, that others would rally behind me . . . but I still don’t know why.”

“Because despite the fact that you lost, despite everything that has happened, you alone emerged from the shadows to stand and fight once more. You’ve travelled from town to town, city to city, fighting back against the oppressors of our kind, when no one else would. In you, the ponies of Equestria see hope, they see a willingness to stand against the dark tide and let it break against you. You are their rock in the storm, their light in the dark, their salvation from that which would see them reduced to nothing.”

“I didn’t ask for any of that!” I shouted in reply. “I didn’t ask to anyponies rock, or light in the dark, all I wanted was to avenge my friends, my loved ones. I wanted to kill those who had taken so much from me, to see them bled dry by my hoof.”

“So you finally come to admit the truth?” Luna replied as the image of Las Pegasus faded away. “You finally accept what you have truly always known? The fact that there was no righteousness to your actions, only selfish desire? Have you finally accepted that you were nothing more than a beast seeking blood?”

“Yes! That’s what I am! I’m not a hero, or a savior! I’m just somepony who wanted to hurt those who had hurt me!”

“Then tell me, Rainbow Dash!” Luna said as she raised her voice, booming it out into the nothingness. “Tell me why those who have witnessed your actions now hold you to the status of hero!?”

“I don’t know!” I shouted back, dropping to my haunch and grasping my head between my hooves. “I don’t know why anypony would look at a killer like me and see a hero!” I broke into tears, feeling them stream down my cheeks as I sat there crying like a fool.

“The answer is simple.” Luna replied, her voice back to it’s soft and gentle tone. “Heroes are never anything but selfish. Nopony has ever sat out thinking they would become a hero, and those that do quickly learn that selfish actions are needed. I don’t mean selfish as in they oppress the weak, or take from those less powerful than themselves. I mean a goal, an ultimate point they wished to reach.” She turned and lifted a hoof and suddenly Appleloosa was before us. “You killed innocent ponies in this place, those who only wished to survive, because of your selfish desire to save Braeburn. You ultimately failed, but did you know in doing so you caused a change in the ponies left there? After you left they looked upon themselves and realized that had they not been afraid, had they not given into Chrysalis’s desires or Blueblood, that Braeburn would yet still be alive.”

I raised my head and looked at the images displayed before me, recounting the sins I had amassed there, and found myself thinking about Braeburn.

“The ponies of Appleloosa now reject Chrysalis’s desires and chose to fight against her, they now stand defiant against her. All because you showed them that the selfish desire to save a life, was not in reality selfish . . . but selfless. Though the reasons for your journey, the thing that drives you is born of selfish intent, the actions you take come across as selfless. The ponies do not rally behind you because the see you as a selfish hero, but as a selfless defender not afraid to do what must be done.”

Once more the vision she showed me faded away and she turned to gaze down at me, her eyes filled with a quiet determination.

“Rainbow, you can change the way you see yourself as well, and the selfish means of your journey. All you have to do is realize one thing, realize that even though you started this journey for revenge, you now continue it as a means to save and defend all those you can. Think of Apple Bloom, you fought the control of your darkness and did everything you could to save her . . . to keep her alive. You could have easily killed her and continued on, but you felt a calling to a higher purpose, a purpose beyond your revenge. You forgot all about revenge, about Chrysalis,about everything else . . . except saving her.”

“We both know how that ended, with another failure and another life that I took.” I replied, as I felt nothing but shame for the fate that had befallen Apple Bloom. “I just don’t understand.” I said after another moment. “You say that I can change, I can stop being selfish and become what everypony needs me to be, but I just don’t know how.”

“It’s not something that can just happen Rainbow, you’ve held hatred and the lust for revenge inside you for so long. You used it to survive, but you can change. All you have to do is look inside yourself, free from the darkness, and decide . . . what is it that you fight for? Do you fight for blood, for vengeance? Or will you choose to fight for others, to protect them and help them to a better tomorrow? Will you remain the sword of vengeance and risk inviting the dark back into your heart, or will you be the sword that protects and instills light in the hearts of others?”

“No matter what path I choose, I don’t see it coming without its fair share of death.”

“You’re right, death will be present no matter what course you take. However the death you deal can be done in the name of selfish desire, or selfless act. To kill for one's own hunger of death, or to kill so that somepony might be saved. It's a choice that all who live by the sword must make, a choice that has you ask yourself will you carry the weight of the lives you take or simply pass them off a necessity.”

“What do you mean the weight of the lives I take? Braeburn said the same thing to me, but I don’t really understand it.”

“Dash, to take a life means to end the story, the journey of another. When that penultimate moment comes and life is extinguished, many throughout time have believed that a fragment of the dead remains with the living. It's been said to acknowledge the lives one has taken and to know that you have done so, means to honor their memory in some small way and allow them even the tiniest bit of piece. However to not do so, to simply see that life as another to be thrown on the pile, dishonors the dead and corrupts the living.”

“I didn’t know . . .” I said as I thought about her words.

“You were not born into a time of war, Dash, into a time where warriors lived and died by the day. My sister and I saw such a world, we watched it come and go many times. We had thought a world such as that one would never exist again, not after we finally calmed it and created the Equestria that you were born into. Yet, you carry the soul of a warrior, a proud soul that wants nothing more than to do what is right, and wrong any injustice you see. Let go of your need for revenge and you will see this world as it needs to be seen, as a world that needs to change. If you do that, then I can promise you a time for vengeance will come and you will know when it does. In that moment you will see with the clarity that is needed to do what you have sought so long to do, and you will face Chrysalis.”

“I can’t let go of my need for revenge, I can’t let go of what has kept me alive for so long. The thought of ending Chrysalis, of avenging my fallen friends and your sister . . . it's all that I have. I can’t just give that up, I mean how could I even possibly try?”

“That is an answer that you must find for yourself, Dash. I believe in you though and I know the goodness that resides within your heart, the heart of an element. You need only believe in yourself, and the ponies that you surround yourself with.” Luna looked up from me and sighed, before slowly turning away. “I must leave you now, Rainbow. But do not think that I have abandoned you, for I will be with you and should you need me, you need only clear your mind and call to me. My power isn’t as strong as it once was, but the connection we share will allow me to speak with you when needed.”

“Don’t go . . . please don’t go.” I said as I reached out to her. “I have more questions, more answers that need to be known. Please, I don’t wanna be alone.”

“You’ll never be alone, Dash.” Luna replied and suddenly images of all my friends, my loved ones, that had died filled the vastness of the void. “We’re all here with you, always. Even though my voice is the only one that you may hear, their hearts and memories are forever a part of you and who you are.”

I could feel my chest begin to heave and I fought back against the tears that started to form, as I looked out at all those faces. Scoots, Apple Bloom, Rarity, Pinkie, Flutters . . . so many more, more than I could have imagined all smiling at me. I couldn’t fight it anymore as I began to cry, a loud sob escaping me as I looked down. I could feel them all around me, their embrace as they moved in and hugged me giving to me a warmth I hadn’t felt in years. “I’m so sorry guys, I thought all this time I was alone.” I said through my sobbing breaths. “ I forgot you were all with me.”

The world around me shown brilliantly, almost blinding me and suddenly I was awake. The sun had risen and was peeking through the windows of the castle, casting down golden rays through the collapsed walls and ceilings. I found myself laying before Luna’s throne and as I stood the sunshine covered my body, warming every inch of me. I smiled as I stood there, closing my eyes as a tear fell. I wiped it away and turned to see the statue of the elements, shattered and strewn across the ground. I had really done it, I had defeated my darkness, freed myself of it. But could I be what Luna asked of me, truly, could I rid myself of my lust for revenge until it was needed?

I inhaled deeply and started down the steps that lead up to the thrones, stopping just short of the statue that once stood as a symbol of what I once was. There in the stillness of the world, with my thoughts finally my own and focused on figuring out what I should do next, I heard the faint sound of hooves. I turned my attention away from the statue, looking down the long hall that lead to the throne room and made out a silhouette. I became nervous, filled with thoughts of who it may be, or even if it was my darkness returning to face me once more.

“Rainbow Dash, I’ve been looking for you. Care to explain what happened to Sweet Apple Acres and to Apple Bloom?” A voice called out, a familiar voice that seemed somehow different at the same time. I couldn’t reply once I saw who this stranger was, when I realized who they were.

“Sweetie Belle?!?”