//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 - Epilogue // Story: Prisoner of Fate // by Leondude //------------------------------// Eventually, the Storm King was defeated and everything went back to normal. Everything except for Ardent. Nothing could ever go back to the way things were in her time. Nothing would undo the damage done to her mind, body and soul. Gone was the mare that would take the time of day to cure ponies of what ailed them, replaced with a vengeful demon who wished to engulf the world in darkness as retribution for what it put her through. With the remnants of the Storm King's army, Ardent trotted slowly into the night away from Canterlot. Away from the ponies that were enjoying their lives and the fruits of their labour. She despised the fact that the current ruler of the land was still the same party-throwing extrovert she remembered her as before her imprisonment. At least, that was what she saw her as. "Nothing matters. None of it,." Ardent muttered bitterly to herself. "Not the blessed alicorns, draconequi and other gods who look over Equestria in the sky, nor the accursed royals and nobles who rule the lands. To Tartarus with them all!" It was a sunny day in a meadow filled with daisies and a tree blossoming with bright pink leaves. Despite the colourful and vibrant atmosphere, the bitter unicorn was having none of it. Due to the virus changing her physiology, she had now developed a weakness to sunlight. She traded in her tunic for a long black trench-coat with a fedora to match, befitting her more darker outlook on life. Underneath the tree, she saw two ponies that she now had nothing but contempt for. Star-Swirl and Future Wonder. While she grew to hate everypony but herself by this point, her enmity for those two were on the same level as Celestia and her pupil because those two pretended to be her friends when in reality, they were preparing her to be sacrificed. "The only thing that truly matters is that I exact vengeance upon them." Ardent stared at them, like a predator ready to pounce on its prey. She trotted slowly towards them, her gait being more like an animal as she did so. A sinister smirk of her own slowly formed across her face. "I will spread this plague all over Equestria, lure out these element bearers... and then I will kill them all." Ardent's smile grew wider and more deranged as she fantasized about what unspeakable horrors she would unfold upon the element bearers, particularly Twilight Sparkle. She imagined herself slowly ripping her wings off like one would a butterfly. She knew those six ponies didn't deserve what she was going to do to them, but she didn't particularly care. If she didn't get her happy ending in spite of being as heroic as them, why should they get theirs? "Then, the entire world shall be drenched in the darkness of despair for time eternal." Star-Swirl and Future Wonder noticed Ardent, unaware of what she was about to do. Ardent slowly pulled out a pair of knives from her trench coat, trotting closer towards them. with She had the most malicious grin on her face. She trotted closer towards them until she plunged the knives into their chests, instantly sending them falling to the ground. Not yet satisfied, she kept stabbing the both of them again and again and again. As she did so, she let out a little giggle. For every stab, she giggled some more. By the time she was on her fiftieth stab, that giggling evolved into a deranged chuckle, and the chuckle grew into full-blown manic laughter. Her laughter, while loud and maddening, carried a tinge of despair with it. As she laughed, the ground and the sky were slowly engulfed in darkness. Her laughter echoed in the now black void. Ardent was intoxicated with the full extent of her plan and the laughter which accompanied it. The brutally stabbed corpses of her former mentor and loved one were eventually subsumed by the darkness as well, but Ardent didn't notice. Tears ran down Ardent's face as she continued to laugh. It felt like she was never going to stop laughing. Truly, it was the laugh of a mare whose mind was irreparably broken. Ardent sat in the middle of a desert. It was daytime and, thanks to her new attire, she didn't have to worry about the ill effects the sun had on her. She stared at the ground, drifting off into her own thoughts once again. She was snapped out of this stupor by the appearance of a black alicorn wearing a metallic mask and armour on his legs. "Perhaps you feel as though you were treated unfairly?" Ardent stared at the alicorn before her. "What is it that you want from me?" Ardent asked. "I have been watching you for some time, Cadenza. I am surprised you have stopped using the traditional royal language," the strange armoured pony replied. "Don't call me 'Cadenza'. It's Leastweasel now. Ardent Leastweasel," Ardent said. "Leastweasel?" the alicorn tilted his head. "A name befitting talents I have picked up during my travels," Ardent said. "Interesting. I take it you no longer have any interest in healing the sick anymore." "My ability to bless others with good health is gone. Instead, I bestow upon them the same curse I am afflicted with, whether I want to or not," Ardent said. Ardent closed her eyes. When she opened them again, the sclera turned black and the irises an unnatural yellow. She blinked again to change her eyes back into their normal colour, or their new normal colour since the disease has changed her eye colour to that of a sickly yellow. "You have become a vessel for the Tenebray disease. With you by my side, not only will you make my forces stronger than ever, but we will be able to exact vengeance on those who have wronged us." Ardent smiled at the alicorn's ambition. "You know, for all this talk about how or why I should join you, I never learned your name," Ardent said. "Ah, where are my manners? I am Lord Bearious. I was wrongfully banished by my own father for avenging my loved ones, who were killed by a tribe of draconequi." "Draconequi, you say?" Ardent asked. "Indeed. I slaughtered them all like the animals they were," Bearious said. "Was your father King Kronus perchance?"  Bearious nodded his head. "Indeed." "Personally, I never really liked his rule. Had I known what fate had in store for me and if I had this power that I have now, I would have gladly usurped him and ruled Equestria as its true monarch," Ardent said. Bearious lent out a hoof towards Ardent. "Join me, Ardent, and together, we can exact vengeance on a kingdom that has forsaken us." Ardent put a hoof to her mouth in consideration, then smiled and extended her hoof to Bearious. "While I have no desire to sit on the throne, I won't deny that it would be a fun opportunity to gather the attention of the element bearers as well as your beloved sister," Ardent said, her smile growing wider and more sinister by the word. Demonic.  "I would be more than happy to oblige. Hehehehahahaha. Hahahahahahaha! HOHOHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!