No matter how hard she tried, Fizzy could not sleep. There were several possible factors that played in her insomnia. Firstly, the cold chains rubbed her coat constantly, a very unpleasant sensation. Though she couldn´t see it, Fizzy knew that she already had marks on her hooves. Secondly, she was laying on a floor made of stone. She had never slept in a comfortable bed. In fact, in the last days she slept on the ground! But she had never felt as uncomfortable as she did at that moment. Lastly and most importantly, the sound difficulted her sleep. Ever since Posey left, the mysterious voice had been crying all night. No matter how hard she tried to block the sound by covering her ears, she couldn´t stop hearing it. It haunted her every second.
Fizzy had tried anything to relax herself. From fidgeting her hooves to rocking herself. However, there came a moment when she snapped.
“UUUGH!” she incorporated to sit down while putting her hooves on the air. “I can´t take it anymore! I need to get out from here!”
Quickly, she covered her mouth. Not so far from her, the guard was sitting. Much to Fizzy´s luck, yet also annoyance and envy, he was still asleep. He simply groaned, stretched and return to his deep sleep. Fizzy wept the sweat from her forehead as she sighed in relief.
“How can everypony sleep in the castle with all this noise?” she wondered angrily. However, after glancing with more detail, she realized the guard was wearing ear plugs, which caused Fizzy to narrow her eyes.
As she glared at the guard, she noticed something. Her eye caught sight of keys hanging from his belt. She bit her lip. With her magic and body restrained, there was no way she could reach the keys. It had to be another way. She rubbed her chin as she tried to come up with ideas on how to escape without the keys.
“Hm… Perhaps if I get nervous, I can conjure water like Gusty does with wind?” she wondered aloud. “Nah, that can´t be. I´ve been feeling uneasy all this time!”
No matter how hard she tried to think, she always arrived to the same conclusion. She was trapped. She couldn´t get out. As she lamented her reality, Fizzy listened to the ghostly crying. Though she was tired and scared of it, she started to identify with the ghost. Deep down, that´s what she wanted to do. Crying and letting everything out. But what use would that bring? She wouldn´t scare the guards, instead, they´d be mocking at her. Like every pony who wasn´t close to her did. Perhaps it was because she was in her lowest, familiar voices started talking to her. But their words were not comforting. No, their words were sharp, mean, and insulting. What´s worse, they were voices she did not want to hear. Voices she thought she had buried forever.
“Fizzy does everything bad!” said some foals that appeared in front of her, laughing at the expense of her.
“That´s not true!” she denied as she shook the foals away.
“Why can´t you pay attention for once? What are you, stupid? You always make things worse!” one of the maids at the castle accused her.
“I try but it´s difficult!” she replicated.
“Seriously, you can´t learn anything that easy? You useless. You should be rotting in the streets!” A troggle said to her.
“I am useful.” Fizzy was in the brink of tears.
She felt something turning her around. To her horror, it was a teary Buttons
“You have to be more careful!” she scolded her. “What would happen if one day I´m not with you, huh?”
“No, I don´t want you to think I´m a burden!” she laid her hooves on her shoulders, but when she did, Buttons vanished.
“What will be of her?” a female voice called from her back.
Fizzy´s blood froze. Slowly, she turned around, only to find a stallion and a mare talking to each other. What broke her heart the most were their worried faces.
“Papá? Mamá?” she asked scared.
“Will Fizzy be able to provide Galaxy?” Fizzy´s mother asked her husband after coughing. “You know how much her head is in the clouds. What if something happens to her?”
“I´m not so sure, mi vida.” Fizzy´s father replied as he hugged his wife, equally as worried and sick. “She has wonderful abilities, but I don´t think everypony appreciates them. In order to survive, she´ll have to adapt, and knowing her, I don´t know how much she will be able to do that.”
Afflicted, Fizzy grabbed her chest. Suddenly, all the voices sounded in her head at the same time, calling her useless, idiot, or telling her she couldn´t do things on her own. Fizzy tried to cover her ears and closed her eyes.
“STOOP!” she left out a heartrending scream.
Afterwards, she dropped her body to the floor and left herself cry. Her worst fears had come true. She became a burden everypony else had to take care of and she couldn´t solve problems on her own. Thanks to her, Majesty could get executed should her friends decide to spend their time rescuing her. At that moment, she just wanted to rot.
Since she was busy crying, Fizzy didn´t notice that the ghostly crying had stopped. Finally, she had the silence and peace she was desperately looking for. Then, something incredible happened.
“Unicorn, why are you crying?” an echoing voice asked her.
Fizzy sniffed.
“Because I only give problems to everpony.” she answered as she dried her tears. Her expression quickly changed when she realized that somepony had just talked to her, yet was completely alone, except for the guard, who was asleep. “Wait, who said that?”
“The one you call Weeping Roar.”
Fizzy blinked.
“Oh dear…” she mumbled fearfully. “I´m sorry to have disturbed you. Please don´t take my soul.”
The voice sighed tiredly yet frustrated too.
“I am not going to take your soul.”
“You aren´t?”
“No! Where does anypony that ends up here get that idea from?”
“Legends about ghosts? My grandmother used to tell me lots!”
“I am not a ghost. I am a spirit.” the voice explained calmly. “A guardian and guiding spirit, or at least that´s what I used to be. I´m sure you heard of those, right?”
“Oh yes, of course! Back home, we have tones of those. Spirits of lakes, nature, agriculture … But I thought they were invisible and you couldn´t talk to them. Not because it´s forbidden or anything, it´s just not possible.”
“Actually, we can be visible and can communicate face to face with you, but we don´t usually do that.”
“Then, why are you talking to me?”
“Because you are crying, just like me. Besides, at this point I´m used to everpony seeing and hearing me.”
“And how do you look like?”
The spirit stayed silent for some time.
“What? What is it?” Fizzy asked, wondering why the spirit wouldn´t talk to her. However, she understood why in a matter of seconds. “No, no. You are the jaguar that brought me here?!”
“Yeah… Sorry about that.”
“But you told me that you were a guardian and guiding spirit! Since when those kinds of spirits kidnap ponies and work for evil cats?!”
“I know, I lost my way, and I repent for that. But I can´t come back home nor be who I used to be.”
“I was wondering that, actually. From what I know jaguars come from rainforests, meaning that you must be some sort of guardian of a rainforest, am I right?”
“Mhm.” she nodded.
“But right now, you are in a territory of forests, although rainforests are technically forests, if you think about it, yet not the same because from what I´ve heard rainforests are hot and it rains more than in common forests, which is why they are called rainforests!” realizing she was getting off topic, she shook her head. “Sorry, I know you must be looking weird at me right now, that is if you can see me. Anyway, you are where you are not supposed to be. How did you end up here?”
Once again, the spirit stayed silent. Fizzy lowered her ears. Perhaps she has gotten in a touchy subject. After all, she did say she couldn´t go back home. Did she do something that bad to have been expelled other spirits? Did she have a fight with them? Was she mistreated by other spirits? Whatever the cause was, it must have affected the spirit somehow. Maybe that was the cause why she was crying so much!
“It´s ok if you don´t want talk about it. But talking about it can help, you know?”
The spirit didn´t answer. Fizzy raised her eyebrow confused.
“Spirit? Spirit, are you there?” she asked.
While looking at the walls, Fizzy remembered what Posey said: The walls had ears. Everything they said could be heard by the guards or Katrina. So, she approached her head to the wall and rested her ear. She heard nothing peculiar, just the water flowing or the echo. She thought of the possibility that the spirit was on the other wall, but due to being chained, she couldn´t try that option. She looked at the floor and came up with an idea. The walls had ears, but perhaps the floor too. She laid on the floor and put one ear on it. Her heart skipped a bit when she heard Katrina´s voice.
“I told you to bring me the Wind Warrior, not one of her stupid fellows! What´s worst, you brought me the dumbest!”
Fizzy sighed, unsurprised that Katrina would think that, yet also tired of the same old story.
“I´m sorry, that´s all I could find.” the spirit apologized. “She was alone and wore one of Majesty´s armours. But this mistake could also be a way to lure the Wind Warrior. You always say to be patient.”
“Is that why she captured me?” thought Fizzy.
“Ugh! Don´t you understand that we are in race against time? I´m competing against three idiots to be the first to bring her to Grogar! I can´t afford to wait that much.”
“Geeze. At this point, Grogar will have to step in and capture us by himself.”
“Maybe you don´t have to. Perhaps they are already coming.”
“Or maybe they are rescuing Majesty first!” Katrina groaned. “You idiot. If you fail me again, why don´t I do us both a favour and open a portal to drag you back to the spirit realm?”
“You know I can´t go back because of you.” the spirit said bitterly.
Fizzy widened her eyes. This was getting very interesting.
“Oh, really? Tell me, who was the one to lose her own cubs in a river, huh? Who was the one to offer herself to help me in exchange of tracking her cubs? Whose fault is it that her home is endangered by dark spirits? Who was the one who decided to neglect and go against her nature and now is afraid to face the consequences?”
Fizzy covered her mouth. Though she didn´t want foals of her own, she always loved taking care of them and playing with them. If she loved them, she couldn´t imagine how much bigger that love would be if she was a mother. Especially now that she knows Gusty, who was willing to do anything for her fillies. She found despicable that Katrina took advantage of her pain to use her and trap her on eternal servitude.
“Exactly. It was all you.” Katrina continued after the spirit stayed silent.
“You still need me though.” said the spirit, maintaining her posture, besides feeling hurt by Katrina´s harsh yet true words.
“You are right. But perhaps I can disregard you and look for another broken spirit to help me after I finish with the Wind Warrior business if you fail me again. You have been warned, Anima. You had better do things right this time.”
“Anima. So that´s the spirit´s name.”
Fizzy heard some steps and a door slam. Afterwards, Anima began crying again.
“Wak´wala´!” the poor spirit yelled.
Fizzy grabbed her chest, lamenting quietly the spirit´s pain.
“Anima. Anima, can you hear me?”
Anima sniffed.
“Yes.”
“Is that how you ended up here? Searching for your cubs?”
“Yes.”
“May I ask what happened?”
“It´s not easy to talk about it. I´m still not over it.”
“I understand, but talking about it can help, you know?”
Anima sighed.
“Ok.” the spirit agreed. “Back home, I wasn´t the only guardian spirit. There were also my cubs. Together, we would take care of the fauna, the animals, and the pony inhabitants. One day, we were nearby the river, because we had to help the spirit that inhabited it. I told them to be careful and paid them all the attention I could, because even though we´re spirits, we can still be affected by forces of nature and others. Unfortunately, a dark spirit came nearby. I immediately fought it but in doing so, I didn´t realize that from the scare my cubs had fallen into the river. I only realized when they started calling me. I couldn´t help them because I had to fight the dark spirit. When I was finished, I lost complete sight of them. I couldn´t ask the river spirit to stop or change the flow but I could ask if they managed to get out the river.”
“But why? The spirit controls the river, right?”
“Yes, but even we can´t go against nature. If we did, everything could go out of balance and have serious consequences for every creature in the ecosystem.”
“I see.”
“The spirit told me in which spot of the river they stopped sensing their presence, but he didn´t know about their current whereabouts, although I could ask other spirits. And so I did. All of them saw them pass but they didn´t know where they were then. Countless years went by, and I still didn´t find my cubs. I can certainly say that I had travelled around the entire world, except the earth pony kingdom, which I would soon discover due to sensing dark spirits. I followed them, which led me to a young Katrina, who had made a pact with dark spirits to gain magic.”
“Is that how one gets dark magic from, dark spirits?”
“It is one via, but not the only one. But if you do gain access to dark magic from dark spirits, you basically sell your soul. Because if things go wrong, they´ll turn against you. And even if you didn´t obtain dark magic by dealing with dark spirits, you still lose out. You basically condemned your soul to eternal suffering.”
Fizzy tapped her chin.
“Katrina always wears a potion as a necklace. Was that potion gifted to her by dark spirits?”
“I suppose so, yes. Anyway, I tried to break the potion completely and warned her of what she had just done. But if Katrina is good at something, that would be persuasion. She told me that the dark spirits had gifted her with any power, including the one to track spirits. So, she offered me a deal. If I helped her conquer territories to build her kingdom and did chores for her, she would track my cubs. Blinded by desperation, I accepted. But in doing so, I let my dark side take over me for a long time. Fortunately, I regained consciousness when I came back home for one of my missions. I saw a filly on a river. She reminded so much of my cubs that the light inside me took over again and made me save her.”
“Posey!” Fizzy thought.
“That situation was a calling out of reality. After I got in touch with my inner self, I realized what had become of my home. The rainforest wasn´t as lively as it was before, the ponies´ crops weren´t fruitful, and there was only suffering. So, I decided to confront Katrina about it and to do her part of the deal. But she told me what would happen if I came back home back to my cubs. She told me that my cubs wouldn´t love me after what had done. Noy only that, if I came back home, who knows what the spirits would do to me? That´s when I realized I had condemned myself to never see my cubs again and be in peace.”
Anima started sobbing again. Fizzy reflected very carefully on what to do or say to comfort the tormented spirit.
“Excuse me if I´m wrong but… One of the values we learnt from spirits is to forgive one another. If they taught us that, it must be because you practice it, right?”
“I guess so, but I haven´t heard of a spirit that made the same mistake I did and what happened afterwards.”
“Well, everypony makes mistakes. But what´s important is learning from them and make things right again. I believe one can always redeem themselves if they truly want to.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah! And I´m pretty sure and I´m not the only one.”
“What about the other spirits?”
“I can´t tell for certain, but they should. After all, they are wiser than us, right?”
“And how can I redeem myself?” Anima asked after thinking about what Fizzy said.
“Well… There are many ways. For example, when I made somepony mad I always tried to do something meaningful for them, fix your mistake, say you´re sorry, though I wouldn´t recommend doing solely that one…” Fizzy widened her eyes and shook her head afterwards. “Look, the point is that demonstrating that you´ve changed. But I think you made a first step by saving that filly, who in fact, is the one that sings to you.”
“Really?”
“Yup! Good actions always pay off, I guess.”
Anima sniffed.
“Are you ok?”
“Yes. These aren´t tears of sadness. It´s just… I´ve been so hopeless for a long time, that I never thought I would feel it again. Thank you. If you were a spirit, you´d be a great guiding one.”
Fizzy yawned. Though she felt calm, she was very exhausted from everything. However, she still wanted to help Anima.
“You´re welcome.”
“By the way, unicorn, I never asked your name. What is it that they call you?”
Anima got soft snores for an answer. She didn´t mind, as the poor mare had been helping her for some time. Instead, she chuckled.
“Good night, good mare.”
Like Fizzy, Posey couldn´t sleep either. She was thinking about how to free her, the Wind Warrior, the earth pony rebellion, and its fate…. So many things were running on her mind. Not being able to sleep, she decided to get up and stroll around the hallways until she got sleepy.
She expected to run into some guards, so she walked with the least noise as possible. So far, she was relieved that she didn´t run into any. However, she ran into a far worse cat: Katrina herself. Quickly, she hid behind a pilar. She held her breath until Katrina passed. Fortunately, she didn´t seem to have seen nor heard her. Posey observed that Katrina seemed to be nervous about something. Throughout all her time serving her, Posey had never seen Katrina fearful. That indicated that something was going on. Obeying her curious nature, Posey decided to follow Katrina.
The earth pony managed not to be noticed by Katrina throughout her stroll to the garden. Once she was in front in a wide spot, she started drawing a pentagon inside a circle and started to recite something in a language Posey couldn´t understand. As Katrina´s eyes turned white, everything turned darker, and spectres of demonic creatures started coming towards her Posey observed in fear. She respected spirits but never feared them, no matter what others said. Right now, however, she was hiding in bushes so they didn´t see her. For these were dark spirits.
Once they were in front of her, Katrina started talking to them.
“Friends! I know I´m in honk to you pretty deep already, but it seems like our little Wind Warrior isn´t where she is supposed to be. And I need your assistance to get her right on track.”
The dark spirits frowned at her, making her laugh somewhat nervously.
“I hear you. Now, what´s in it for all of you? Well, as soon as I get her to Grogar, I´ll have a lot to offer. Firstly, do you remember the four jaguar cubs I gifted you when you gave me their potion?”
“Jaguar cubs?” Posey wondered aloud.
“And the Great Seedling too, right?”
“The Great Seedling?” Posey asked more surprised.
“Yes, you do. Well, they belonged to a spirit that serves me. And that spirit is in so much pain because she misses her cubs. So, I was thinking I could give her to you.”
Posey gasped horrified.
“The weeping roar!” she muttered.
“And there´s more. I´ll give you something I never offered you before: mortal souls. I´m not so sure if Grogar will want the Wind Warrior´s friends, but if he did, I could negotiate with him so you could take them.”
Posey gasped again.
“Fizzy!”
“And perhaps some of the earth pony revels if they attack after the Wind Warrior business.”
“Aj itz´.” Posey clenched her teeth as she called her a witch in her mother tongue.
As Katrina was making her offer, she conjured up the figures of the souls she was offering and blew them to the dark spirits, smiling maliciously as they smelled them.
“You love that, don´t you?” Katrina laughed. “So…” Katrina rubbed her hands. “We got ourselves a deal?”
The spirits grinned at each other before transferring shadows into Katrina´s potion. She laughed maniacally.
“Now we´re talking! We´re going to have so much fun! You may go now.”
The dark spirits surrounded themselves in a circle and disappeared in a flash.
“Well, well, let´s see where you are…” she said before drinking the potion. Her eyes turned white. She smiled when she found Gusty. “There you are. And it seems like you are with… earth ponies?” she said estranged. Yet she was still confident. “Oh, I´m afraid they won´t be of much help when you´re dealing with magic.”
Taking advantage of her being distracted, Posey started walking backwards. Accidentally, she stepped on a stick, making Katrina´s ear twitched.
“Who goes there?!” she asked aggressively.
After looking at some bushes, she decided to walk to them. To Posey´s misfortune, she walked right to the one she was hiding at. The earth pony covered her mouth to lessen the sound of her fast-paced breathing. Just when she near enough to take a look inside the bush, Rep called her.
“Ma´am? Ma´am?”
“GAH!” Katrina put her claw on her chest. “Don´t you ever scare me like that again!”
“I´m sorry, it´s just I couldn´t find you. What are you doing in the garden so late in the night?”
“It´s none of your business! Besides, I was coming back now.” she started to walk back to the castle. “Because tomorrow, we have important things to discuss.”
“Oh really?” Rep asked excited. “What is it?”
“Oh, I don´t want to ruin the surprise. But all I can say, it´s like a diabolical miracle.” Katrina said with a huge grin in her face.
“Oh, that rhymed!” Rep pointed out.
Posey got out of the bush, once Katrina was inside the castle. She took a huge inhale of air, as if she had been underwater. She panted as she tried to take in everything that she just witnessed. Everypony that was fighting for a better and free life was in grave danger.
“I have to warn the Weeping Roar and Fizzy.” she said to herself as she bit her hoof, very worried about what was coming next.