//------------------------------// // Foreign Cloud // Story: Purity Corruption // by TheBlox //------------------------------// The white mare with the golden mane stood alone in the center of a smoking crater. Rain fell from the darkened sky, and the full-grown unicorn looked beneath her feet with a frown in her angry, blue eyes. Her faux wingspan spread out from either side, and her horn glowed of electrical energy. Flapping wings were heard in the distance, and she closed her eyes with a sigh, anticipating her pegasi trainer to land next to her. The hooves of the stallion navy pegasus landed before her, and he looked down at her with solemn eyes. “I heard the explosion.” He exclaimed, looking around at the large crater they stood in. “What are you mad about?” A silent grunt, Altruise stared down at Drake’s hooves. “No matter how many times I blow holes in this island, no matter how many times I pin you down in a fight, you still won’t let me go looking for him.” She muttered coldly, glancing up at the pegasus in the rain, “Why is it that every time I try flying off your island, I go over the horizon and wind up finding myself back here? I go in a circle. Why?” “The ocean is very big, Altruise. You wind up going in a circle because you don’t know your way across the sea; it’s easy to get lost over the open waters.” Drake explained with a sigh, “You tried leaving the island again?” “I want to kill Nebulous, Father. I’m sick of all this training.” She sneered angrily, “It’s been twelve friggin years, and the only memories I have since I got here are blowing things up and amplifying my power through painful practices.” Drake glanced left and right, examining the crater’s size. “This is quite the hole you put in my island. What spell did you use?” “Black Lightning.” Altruise replied, “What does it matter, it’s not good enough to you. I want off this confounded island. I want that damn unicorn to pay. I want to rip his stupid horn off and shove it through his heart.” The pegasus solemnly looked ahead into the eyes of the unicorn who he once had to look down to. A chilling wind blew through their manes, and Drake sighed to her. “You’ve indeed grown. You’ve become very powerful. But—” “But nothing.” Altruise frowned, turning her back on him. She marched off toward the ocean and glanced over the horizon. A wince in her eyes, and a dagger in her heart, she growled with tense hooves. “I want him dead so badly, Father, let me go. Please, lead me off this island.” Drake glanced to the side, and after a brief pause, he let out a sigh. “There is… one last test for you. Then we can finish our training.” Altruise turned to the pegasus. “And what’s that?” “Come with me.” Drake turned to the mountain, and slowly trotted toward it. The unicorn raised a brow and followed him. * * * * * Confronting the base of the mountain, the two ponies looked up at the steep cliff side. Altruise glanced over to Drake with wincing eyes. “What do you want me to do, Father? What is this next test?” “Your test, Altruise, is this mountain.” Drake stood back, and nodded to her, “Lift it off the ground. Rip it out of the earth, and raise it into the sky.” The unicorn looked into the stallion’s eyes, and the task didn’t even seem to phase her with self doubt. She turned back up to the mountain of rock; a mile wide, and a mile high. Looking up into the falling rain, she grinned. Standing with tense hooves, she prepared herself with infuriated growls, and without wasting time, her horn began sparking menacingly with a golden aura. Gritting her teeth, she winced and growled, and Drake watched the base of the mountain beginning to crack. “AAAAAAAAGH!!!!!” A sudden loud yell came from Altruise’s lungs of both pain and desperation. A radius of magical energy sparked from her horn, and the mountain continued crackling, and the ground beneath them began to shake. Drake stood back, and watched in awe as the mountain very slowly crumbled apart at the base, and the entire wall of rock began to rise out of the ground. Slowly, the mountain ascended in a golden aura, casting its large shadow over them. “AAAAH!!! AAh-AAAAH!!” Altruise shrieked, holding the mountain fifty feet above their heads. Intensifying her magic, the mountain continued to crumble above their heads, and she slowly tore it apart into chunks, splitting it into thousands of pieces. One last holler, and from the center of the thousands of chunks of rock formed an explosion of energy, dispersing the rocks into many random directions, which spread across the island, many falling into the ocean, leaving the island covered in its debris. Her horn’s glowing stopped, and she winced briefly, taking a deep breath through her snout, and turned to the pegasus with a cold frown. “There. You happy?” Drake paused with a hanging jaw, and glancing left and right, he sighed with a nod. “I’ll take you off the island… first thing tomorrow…” Altruise nodded respectfully, and without another word, she turned and sauntered back to the shack. Drake glanced over at her, and looked back ahead of him at the open crater where the mountain once stood. Looking up into the rain, he had a gleaming look in his eyes. “It’s finally time…” * * * * * Altruise crawled onto her pillows in the corner, glancing up at Drake. The pegasus looked back down at her and nodded. “Tomorrow you will get your chance. You know everything I could ever possibly teach you, and it is no doubt that from here, the rest of your destiny is in your hooves, and no longer in mine.” The unicorn turned to the side and let out a gentle sigh. “As much as I am happy that you’re allowing me to go find him now, I’ll be honest, it is a strange feeling that we’re done…” She stared into space wide-eyed, “All those years… training, and training… and tomorrow I can finally put this all to an end.” She looked up at Drake solemnly, “Father, be honest… Do you think I am ready now?” Drake took a brief glance down at her, and with a grin, he nodded. “No doubt in my mind, Altruise. I don’t think there is a thing you can not do.” That said, he turned to the door, and exit the shack to sleep outside. Altruise sighed and put her head down in the pillows, and with a full mind, she closed her eyes, and drifted off to sleep. * * * * * A loud clash of thunder woke Altruise, and her eyes opened in a jolt. Blinking a few times, she tiredly stood to her hooves and trotted to a window, looking up at the storming sky. “That pegasus… I don’t get how he can sleep in the rain…” She rolled her eyes and trotted back to her pillows. Lying back down, she closed her eyes, but only for a few brief moments before another louder clash of lightning forced her back to her hooves again. “Okay, what gives?” She growled, trotting back to the window. Looking up at the sky, she activated her horn, and attempted to challenge the clouds to change the weather with a spell. “Rain someplace else.” She grumbled, using her magic to move the storm clouds. However, to her surprise, the clouds were forcefully hard to budge with her magic. Raising a brow, she stood back a little. “That’s… odd.” Leaning forward, she tried a weather change spell again. However, she was unable to clear the sky. Aggravated, she growled again and trotted to the door. “What the heck is going on here.” Pushing herself out the door, she trotted out into the rain under the darkened sky. She glanced left and right, frowning. “Father!!” She yelled, and rolled her eyes. “Where is that pegasus… DRAKE!!!” She tried calling him a second time, but there was no response. Turning around, she saw a flying pegasus up in the sky near the storm clouds. “Ugh… there you are…” With a grumble, she spread her faux wings, and with a strong thrust, she lifted off into the sky. Flying closer to the pegasus, she called to him. “Father, what on Equestria are you doing up here?” She muttered to him loudly, “It’s pouring out here!!” She flew closer behind the pegasus and turned to the side, “This storm is weird, it’s not one of my own spells, and I can’t seem to control it. What gives?” She turned back to the pegasus, “I dunno, Father, this is strange.” “Hello, Altruise.” The pegasus replied in a deeper voice than she recognized. “I… What?” The stallion slowly turned around and faced her, and the first thing she recognized was his blood-red eyes, and a horn atop his head. A clash of lightning lit the sky, and the supernova cutie mark on the black coated stallion stood out like a dagger in Altruise’s eyes. Silence. Fear. Shock. Everything bundled into one, all flooded Altruise’s dumbfounded face. A lump in her throat, she swallowed out of nervousness, eyes wider than ever. “I’ve been searching for you for a long time.” The black unicorn of faux wings exclaimed with a cold voice, “Heh, all this time I thought you’d come looking for me; were you really here in the past twelve years? This whole time?” Altruise’s jaw was hanging open, and she had little words able to be said. Briefly, she instinctively flew backwards slightly away from him. She shook her head in denial, as if she didn’t believe this moment was real. “N…Nebulous…” She whimpered, followed by a clash of lightning that lit the sky for a quick half-second. The two flying ponies stood face to face for a long period of silence. “Why…?” Altruise finally built the courage to speak to her parents’ murderer. “Why did you take everything away from me…?” She frowned, growling angrily, “Everything, everpony I’ve ever loved… Why?” Nebulous snickered and shrugged, “Well, if your brave mommy and daddy would’ve handed you over nicely, they’d still be alive.” He looked aside and cleared his throat, “Scratch that, they’d still be dead.” He glanced back into the eyes of the furious mare in front of him. “At least now I can finally tell you how fun it was.” “You… bastard…” Altruise pushed the mangled words out of her throat, and her head was trembling of fury. “Really, what were you doing way out here all this time?” Nebulous cackled in his throat, “Hiding?” “Waiting…” Altruise replied with a growling voice. “Oh? Do tell, waiting for what?” “This. Very. Moment.” Altruise slowly said in a cold and cracking voice, and her horn began to spark of menacing electricity. “Ohoho, let’s have some fun then, yes?” Nebulous grinned beneath his frown, exposing his crooked teeth. His horn began to glow, and the storm clouds began to turn overhead. Altruise growled, and her horn began glowing brighter. “Drake, this is our moment.” She murmured to herself within her growls, “This is the day, we get our revenge.” Nebulous grinned with cold wincing eyes, “Hmm, who’s this Drake you speak of?” He widened his eyes a little, “Oooh yes I remember! A pegasus, if I’m not mistaken, am I right?” The mare just frowned at that. “Yes, right, I remember that pegasus… Two swords for a cutie mark.” Nebulous cackled, “You should’ve seen the look on his parents’ faces when I killed them. Priceless…” “I’d like to see the look on your face when it’s decapitated off your neck!” Altruise roared, leaping with a full wing thrust toward the dark unicorn. Just as she was about to lunge into him, he teleported and she flung onward for a few feet before stopping herself. She quickly turned around, looking for the dark unicorn in the rain. “Pretty harsh words for a mare with a heart for a cutie mark!” She heard Nebulous sneer at her from below, and he flung up into her chest, knocking the wind out of her. Altruise flipped up into the air a few times before she leveled herself out, holding her gut with wincing anger. She looked down below her at the cackling black unicorn, and growled angrily at him, diving down toward him. She was about to reach him, when he suddenly teleported again. Furiously, Altruise stopped in her tracks and shrieked. “Stop doing that!” An explosion of lightning erupted from her horn, and a radius of electrical energy surrounded her in all directions, four meters in diameter. Deactivating her magic, she spun around to see if she hit her target; the dark unicorn was nowhere to be seen. “Show yourself!” She continued spinning around angrily, “Where are you?!” Suddenly right in front of her, Nebulous popped into view from a teleport. “Here.” With that, he flipped back and bucked her in the forehead just below the horn, sending her flipping backwards several times through the rain; a clash of thunder echoed in the night. “GAAHh!!” Altruise winced and held her hooves on her sore head. She put her hooves aside and blinked a few times; her vision appeared to be temporarily blurry from the shocking impact to the face. Nebulous again teleported a mere foot in front of her, and flipped around, landing another hoof to her jaw, sending her flipping through the air again. Altruise spun a few times as thunder and lightning echoed through the sky. A whimper, she put her hoof to her sore jaw and looked up at Nebulous. “You’ve had twelve years to practice your magic, and this is the result?” The dark unicorn gave her a bored look, “I’m unimpressed. I should just kill you and be done with it.” Altruise gritted her teeth and frowned. She spread her wings in battle formation, and flapped them strong, hovering in place with hooves out and ready for war. Her horn began to glow, and she growled menacingly. A vibrant spark beamed from her horn, and surrounded her with black electrical energy. “I’m waiting—OAGH!!” In a sudden blink, she had bolted directly into him with a launching teleport, slamming him into the chest. They flew through the air, and Altruise flipped him around a few times, tossing him off into the distance; with a shriek, she sent a bolt of lightning down which struck him in the sky while he flipped through the air. In an explosion and a puff of black smoke, he was sent falling to the ground below. Altruise dove straight down after him, and landed her hind legs with a solid buck to his backside, sending him further below. He landed solidly into the ground with a cloud of dust and a thunderous impact took place. Altruise floated back up in the air, looking down beneath her, waiting cautiously. When the smoke cleared, there was a small crater where Nebulous had crash-landed; but he was not there. “Wh-what the?—GAAH!!” Altruise was caught by surprise with a hoof to her back. She flipped around a few times, wincing in pain. When she leveled herself out, she opened her eyes just in time to see a black fireball being launched in her direction. With no time to react against this magic attack, she was struck with a loud flaming explosion, which sent her flying through the air at a high velocity at an angle toward the ground. She crashed into the grass, and slammed hard enough to penetrate into the soil as she slid several meters across the ground, crashing into a tree hard enough to bend it forty-five degrees with a cracking impact. “Ugh…” Altruise sat there on her backside, limp and weak. Leaning forward, she shook herself off, and coughed up some dust. Looking up, the dark faux-winged unicorn was diving toward her. In an instinctive panic, she used her levitation magic to rip the tree next to her out of the ground, and with a launching toss, she hurled it toward the unicorn; he swiftly dodged it and kept coming. Altruise kept this act going, and threw the same tree back toward him from behind, slamming him in the back with it. “OAh!!” The black unicorn flipped forward a couple times and landed in the ground just a few meters in front of Altruise. A moment’s pause, and he stood back to his haunches with a grin, “Ohahaha! Now that’s what I’m talking about!!” He cackled at the way she was fighting, “I always knew you’d be my match!!” Altruise frowned at that, “This whole time you’ve been searching for me was to fight me?” She stood back to her hooves and leaned forward angrily, “What on Equestria for?!” Nebulous grinned through his crooked teeth, and coldly murmured, “I’m tired of the simple fights. I never lose.” He wiped a bit of blood of his lip and sneered, “Since you’ve been a foal, I always knew you had potential for destruction.” The white mare furrowed her brow furiously, tensing her legs. “For what you have done, you certainly will get the fight you’ve been looking for.” She charged toward him with a full, rapid gallop, “I’ll kill you!!” “Oh I hope you do!!” Nebulous cackled, waiting for her with a glowing horn, “HAA!!” As she got closer, he sent four black fireballs her way. In an instinctive panic, Altruise rolled beneath the first one, then once back to her hooves, she sidestepped to dodge the second, leaped over the third, and the fourth one struck her in the chest. An explosion on impact sent her flying through the air, and she slid across the ground again, crashing into a rock. “OW!! Ohh…” She twitched on collision with the boulder, and held her shoulder where she was suddenly hurt. Breathing angrily, she limply stood back to her hooves. “OH Haha!! You keep getting back up for more?” Nebulous cackled beneath the thundering clouds, and he slowly trotted toward her with gritting teeth, “You’re making this so much fun.” Altruise limply tried staying on her hooves, but she kept falling over to her haunches. Nebulous approached her, closer and closer, with that cold grin and piercing red eyes. “What’s the matter? Having troubles?” Nebulous suddenly froze in place, and he found himself surrounded in a golden aura. Altruise furiously stood to her hooves again, and her horn was sparking of golden flares. A shriek, and she threw her head to the left, sending Nebulous flying through the air in that direction with a levitation toss, and he crashed into the center of a palm tree, which split in two where he crashed into it, and he flipped down to the ground with a limp on his side. Altruise then picked up the top half of the split tree with a levitation spell, and raised it into the air above him. “DIE!!” She screamed, slamming the sharp edge of the broken trunk of the palm tree toward the dark unicorn lying on the ground. Just before impact, he rolled out of the way, and the tree pierced into the dirt, sticking half its length down into the soil with a loud and crushing piercing sound. Quickly, she pulled it out of the ground, and tried slamming it back down on him again. “AAAH!!” Slamming it down on him again, he rolled out of the way once more, with the stump piercing deep into the soil. “DAMN YOU HOLD STILL!!” She screamed, pulling the tree back out. Quickly, the dark unicorn jumped to his hooves, and activated a quick spell. Raising his front hooves, he slammed them back down onto the ground, and a shockwave rippled across the ground toward Altruise. Caught off guard by this, the shaking ground split, and she fell into a sudden crevice beneath her feet; the stump she had held onto with her magic was then dropped to the ground by this distraction. She collapsed in the dirt at the bottom of this small crack, and found that the walls were all of a sudden closing back in by the dark unicorn’s magic. “Oh buck.” She panicked and stood to her hooves, flapping her faux wings to escape the enclosing walls. “Oh buck!! BUCK!!!” She shrieked, and the walls slammed shut on her before she could get out. “Mm…” Nebulous looked beneath the ground with solemn pity, “It was a good fight. Too bad it was short-lived.” His ears twitched to the sound of an electrical surge beneath him. “Hm?” He looked below, and the ground began to shake, and a spark of lightning emerged from beneath him. “No…” He muttered in denial, and the earth beneath his feet exploded, sending him rocketing toward the sky. Flipping up toward the clouds, as his velocity slowed to a stop, he found himself eye level with Altruise in the sky. “You keep forgetting I can teleport just like yourself.” The mare with the golden mane sneered, firing a black bolt of lightning from her horn, which struck him, sending a surge through his body. An explosion, and he flew through the air further away with a groaning shriek. He collapsed into the ground once more, and lied there briefly stunned. “Let’s put this to an end!” Altruise yelled, flying down to the ground. She landed on top of a large boulder—a piece of debris from the mountain—which was roughly ten times her size. “AAAH!!” She growled, activating her horn’s magic, and both her and the boulder were suddenly engulfed in a blinding light. In a blink, they vanished; she teleported with it in her possession. Teleporting directly above the dark unicorn, the giant rock was then released, and dropped down toward him. Nebulous turned over, and his eyes shot open when he saw the falling rock. Quickly, he leapt out of the way, and the boulder crashed into the ground with a shaking impact. The dark unicorn turned and looked up for the mare in the sky, and found her struggling all of a sudden. “Wh…what’s ha…happening…” She murmured, and her flight went all crooked. She tipped around a few times going downward, and her wings then vanished. She felt weak; completely drained of energy. She flipped through the air a few times on her way down, and landed into the dirt on her chest with a cloud of dust. “Uugh…” She mumbled weakly, lying still in the ground, too exhausted to get back up again. Nebulous rolled his eyes and shook his head, trotting up to her slowly. “You foalish unicorn. Were you never taught that teleporting yourself with an object of that size is absolutely stupid?!” He stood above her with a pitiful expression, “Had that rock been any bigger, and it surely would’ve killed you.” His horn began to glow, “Oh well, too bad you had to learn the hard way. Good bye, Altruise.” Altruise whimpered and tried standing to her hooves, “I-I… I-I will kill… you…” She muttered, pushing herself with all her strength back to her hooves, glaring up at him angrily. The dark unicorn looked down at the determined unicorn with a raised brow. “Impressive.” He shrugged, and his horn sparked; lifting his front hooves to prepare to finish her off, he yelled, and slammed his hooves down to the ground. A sudden black bolt of lightning was cast from the sky down toward Altruise. Just as it struck her, she teleported again. The bolt of lightning struck the ground, and exploded on impact in a flaming puff of smoke. “What?” Nebulous twitched, and turned from side to side, “How were you still able to do that being so weak?” “Don’t call me weak!!!” Altruise screamed from above, falling toward him. With a powerful crash, she slammed him into the ground with her on top of him, back hooves first with a kick on contact. She skipped off of him to the side, and landing on her hooves, she picked his limp body up in a golden aura of magic. “This is for my mother!!” She screamed, hurling him through the air into a tree. On collision with the tree, it crackled loudly, and he fell limp back to the ground. She picked him up again in another golden aura. “For my father!!!” She continued, lifting him up high into the air, and she slammed him hard down against the large rock she had just tried teleporting earlier. He rolled down the side of the rock like a ragdoll, and collapsed into the dirt. She marched up toward him, and raised her front hooves, “AND THIS IS FOR ME AND DRAKE!!!!” She screamed, slamming her front hooves back into the ground, sending a blinding and powerful bolt of blood-red lightning from the sky. Nebulous weakly looked up at the bolt descending toward him as if everything became slow-motion to him, and with no time to react, it struck him with its full force of immense power, landing every bit of energy she had left into this one final burst of magic. “AAAGGH—” She heard Nebulous shriek in immense pain when the bolt struck him, and she watched his body char up, and burst into a fading cloud of ashes that blew away in the wind. The lightning that struck him then vanished along with his cloud of ashes that blew further and further away from her. Altruise stood there, breathing heavily, filling her lungs with air on each breath, and breathing out hard with loud exhales. Her eyes were wide, and her pupils were dilated. It took her a long moment to register what she had just done. “I… I did it…” She murmured to herself, falling to her haunches in a weak slump. “I… I killed him…” She knew she should feel victorious and proud of herself; she wanted to jump up and cheer, but something inside her just couldn’t do that. Something felt off about it. The exhausted unicorn coughed, and stood back up to her hooves, shuffling herself across the ground in pain. A grumble escaped, and she collapsed back into the ground. “Drake… We won…” She murmured silently, “We… we won…” Over time the rain eventually slowed to a stop. Altruise lied there for several minutes, and nearly dozed off, when she heard a flapping sound coming from the sky. Twitching her ears, she looked up into the air to see a familiar pegasus fly by. “Oh, thank goddess…” She groaned, “Drake!” The pegasus above her stopped, and he glanced down at her. Finding her lying on her haunches, he gasped and flew down to her in a hurry. “Altruise? What on Equestria happened?!?!” He freaked, landing next to her and he carelessly dropped the basket of fruit on the ground that tipped over, and the fruits all dumped out across the grass. He scanned her wounded body, checking her scars and bruises. “What were you doing?! Altruise, are you okay??” “I…” She winced and lowered her head in pain, “I’m alright, Father.” She looked up at him with wincing eyes, “Where in the world were you…?” “I had just gone for a couple hours to get some fruits.” He replied slowly, “I didn’t expect to come back to find you like this, or I never would’ve left! What happened??” “Ugh…” Altruise tried standing, but couldn’t. “Nebulous was here…” Drake went wide-eyed, and he stood in silence. After a brief pause, he spoke up in surprise. “H…how? How did he find this place?” He knelt closer to her, “I’m sorry.” He stuttered, “I’m sorry I left you here without telling you I was leaving.” “Its okay, Father, you didn’t know he was going to be here…” The mare croaked a few times, “Nopony could’ve predicted this.” She looked up at him with half a grin, “He’s dead, Father. I beat him.” “Altruise.” Drake sighed and tried help her to her hooves, “I’m just… really happy you’re alive.” Altruise winced, and collapsed lower again. She coughed a few times, and put her front hooves in front of her, trying to push herself back up. Drake sighed and helped her up, holding her by the shoulder. “Come, let’s get you home…” He murmured, helping her walk to the shack along side her. * * * * *