Brimstone continued to read as they walked, the two not moving very fast through the library, not that he minded. The slow pace let him focus on the book better and kept him from bumping into shelves and things.
He read about the battle between Gusty the Great and Grogar, already knowing the part where she hid his bell at the top of Mount Everhoof and how she placed a curse so no pegasus could fly up it. He already knew how treacherous the journey was, having taken several hours to get to the top once he made his way to the base of the mountain. However, it was after this where the book detailed exactly the spell she used.
Gusty the Great developed a complex spell to keep Grogar’s bewitching bell securely out of his hooves. At its core, it is a forcefield, however, it’s made to resist magic and even absorb it, so that even the strength of a hundred unicorns wouldn’t cause a break to form in it. Because it’s made to resist and absorb magic, it prevents unicorns from teleporting inside of it. The only way inside would be deactivating the spell, using the series of steps detailed below.
Brimstone frowned as he looked down at the steps that were written, the frown becoming a scowl when he saw how many things there were to do.
“Characters that need to be cast in just the right way and held for just the right amount of time, words and phrases that need to be spoken, symbols that need to be written with perfect accuracy… this is going to take weeks to master, assuming I can even remember all of what I need to do. And I can’t force my way in because I certainly don’t have the strength of a hundred unicorns. I don't think anypony else would be willing to make the trip to the Frozen North to go up the mountain with me either… sweet Celestia, this is going to take forever to do. Maybe I should just give up…”
He paused at that thought. Should he give up? He clearly wasn’t cut out to be a villain if he was already contemplating quitting, despite what his name and appearance said about him. Maybe he should just give up and go back to making plant fertilizer with his parents, not that he was very good at that, or enjoyed it even. He let out a sigh of frustration at his thoughts because of these things, which caused the pony in front of him to respond.
“I know we’re going slowly,” Alex told him, not looking back at him, “but I am looking for something important. We’ll get through to the next section of the library eventually.”
“It’s not that,” the sulfur-coated pony couldn’t help but tell him. “Just thinking about what you told me earlier.”
“You’re not thinking of becoming a villain, are you? Because let me tell you, that absolutely won’t work out. Not here in Equestria.”
“I wasn’t thinking that,” Brimstone responded quickly. “But… if I was thinking that, how would you know it wouldn’t work out?”
“Because this is the land of magical talking ponies. Everything always works out. Good always defeats evil, and every mess that’s made is always fixed. There’s always a happy ending.” Alex let out a long sigh, continuing, “I’m just holding out for my happy ending… it seems like it’s taking a long time to come.”
“Weren’t you a villain before though?” Brimstone asked. “Didn’t you try to take over Equestria? Isn’t that why you’re on the throne now?”
“I was a villain, yes,” he answered, “and I did try to take over Equestria, specifically, the Crystal Empire. Three times I tried, and three times I failed, being ripped to pieces because of my actions more than once.”
“So what changed?”
Alex paused at that, still looking at the books around him to see if there was anything useful before picking one out. He flipped through it, quickly at first, then more slowly as he scanned the pages carefully, looking for something to latch onto.
“Let’s just say I’ve had a personality shift…” he trailed off, taking a deep breath as he read, starting to get the faint feeling of excitement at what was written. He found himself slowing his walk to a dead stop as he looked through the book before locking onto a couple of pages that made him gasp aloud at its contents.
“This… this just might be it, the happy ending I’ve been waiting for,” he thought to himself as he took in the words that were written. “How did I not think of this? How did nopony think of this?”
“So is it, um… is it better now? I mean, I know a lot of ponies don’t like you, but is it… better to be nice?”
Alex had stopped paying attention to him, his whole concentration focused on what he was reading. He felt himself becoming excited for the first time in a very, very long time. This wasn’t just some theory he was looking at, this was an actual spell that had the potential to fix his problems. He almost wanted to laugh at the absurdity of what he was looking at, laugh at the fact that nopony up until then had thought of using this spell.
“This could work. This could really work. Although it is risky business, very risky… but at this point, what do I have to lose? I’m not going to sit here suffering forever, that much is clear, especially now that I know this is an option. My future is guaranteed with this. It’s just a matter of when now, not if. This will end, that much is guaranteed.”
“Sombra?”
“Huh? Oh, I’m sorry, what were you saying?”
“Is it better being… well, being everypony’s protector and ruler now than it is being a conqueror?”
He let out a breath he realized he’d been holding in, and explained, “There are two types of people in the world: those who are evil for evil’s sake, and those who are evil because they’re given no other choice. While both might care for no one but themselves, the latter I would say is usually forced down their path because of the actions of others; the way they’re treated, their past experiences, things like that. Like I said, you should try and be the person you want to be, not the person people say you are, but it’s more than that. You also need someone to believe in you, to be on your side, because if no one believes in you, then what’s the point of trying to fit in?”
“Is that what happened to you?”
“In essence, yes, although there were other events surrounding that. But yes. Finding someone to believe in you can be what makes the difference between someone who’s good and someone’s who’s a villain, or in my case, between living and dying. You have to find hope, even if it’s in someone who was formerly your enemy, even if it's in someone you'd never expect, and even if it's only in one person. You have to find hope.
“Anyway, let’s get out of here. I have what I came here for. Put that book away so we can leave.”
“Find somepony to believe in me… I think I can do that… thank you. Not- not that I was planning on becoming a villain or anything like that.”
“I’m sure you weren’t. Although, if you’re still in Canterlot tomorrow, a friend of mine is coming up to visit. I’m sure you’d get along with her very well, and based on what you told me, you might have great interest in meeting her.”
“That’s fine. I have to leave tonight to get back home. But I’m really happy you let me visit the library. I’ve always wanted to see it! It looks just as great as I imagined, plus I got to talk to the ruler of Equestria!”
“If you say so, I understand. But if you change your mind or are feeling down about yourself, stop by the castle and we can work something out.”
With that, Alex roughly tore the page he was looking at out of the book and folded it up, looking at himself for a moment to find a place to put it before deciding to press it into his coat, obscuring it with his fur's length.
“I know if they see this, they’ll try and stop me. It would be just like them to tell me no, but I’m not going to let them. If they really think I’m going to stay like this forever, they’re absolutely wrong. I’ll wait a little while to see if Starlight comes up with something workable, but if it starts to look like years are going to go by without anything changing, I’m using this. This will end one way or another.”