//------------------------------// // Epiphany of Despair // Story: Purity Corruption // by TheBlox //------------------------------// Altruise slowly drifted in and out of consciousness. Every time she’d open her exhausted eyes, her vision was blurred, and she’d hear faint echoes of whispering. Whenever her eyes were closed, she continued seeing Nebulous in her dreams, mocking her, killing her parents. After a long and intense series of nightmares, the unicorn finally came to, and found herself lying on the pillows in Drake’s shack. Altruise murmured weakly and slowly sat up to her haunches. “About time you woke up.” Drake murmured, “I was beginning to worry.” Yawning, the mare stretched, and sat back down with half-open eyes. “How long was it out?” “Three days.” Drake exclaimed, “You appeared to be dreaming a lot.” “Aw, man… Three days?” Altruise’s ears sank to her sides and she looked aside. After a pause, she turned back to the pegasus. “Well, uh… what’d I miss?” “Not much.” Drake replied. “How’re you feeling?” “Um… Well, much better than I did.” The unicorn sighed, standing to her hooves. “Well, that’s good…” Drake murmured. There was a pause, and he cleared his throat. “So, Nebulous is finally gone, eh?” He mentioned with perked ears, “How’d you manage to kill him? What was it like?” Altruise opened her mouth to speak, but briefly paused. She put his questions to thought, and her eyes trailed out of focus, and she stared into space as she slowly answered. “Uh… It was fulfilling at first…” “At first?” The pegasus wondered. “Well, he got what he deserved.” Altruise replied, “But… I don’t really feel much better.” Drake raised a brow. “I mean… my parents are still dead.” Altruise sighed, lowering her head, “Even after all I went through just to kill their murderer, they are still dead…” She looked back up at Drake, “Why can’t I be happy? I feel like something is still missing.” The pegasus looked at her with a blank expression, and Altruise returned the same look. Drake slowly lowered his head, his eyes wandering with self-question. He turned back to her, and spoke after a deep sigh. “Altruise, there’s something I haven’t been telling you.” He confessed, “Something I didn’t reveal to you, because I didn’t know how you would react.” Altruise stood taller and blinked a few times; she seemed surprised to hear that. “What is it?” “I um…” Drake looked to the side, then turned back to her. “I need to show you something.” His eyes wandered, “Now that you’re old enough, I think you deserve to see this. Maybe it will help you figure out why you still feel this way.” * * * * * Drake took Altruise to the edge of the island on the sand of the beach, and he turned to her. The unicorn looked back to him curiously. “It’s time to bring your wings out again.” Drake exclaimed. “We’re… we’re leaving the island?” Altruise’s voice was merely a whisper. “Yes.” He looked over the horizon, “Where I’m taking you though, I don’t know how it will make you feel.” “I see.” Altruise murmured, “Where are you taking me?” Drake paused, and he looked back to her. “Trottingham.” The moment the name of her hometown was mentioned, she felt her heart sink, and her eyes widened. She felt like Drake had just thrown a ton of bricks at her, and she leaned back, wincing. “T…Trottingham?” “There is something there which… I think you should see.” Drake sighed, “Are you ready for this?” “I-I…” Altruise stuttered, and her ears sank to her sides, “I don’t know… What is it that you need to show me?” “That I can’t tell you…” Drake replied solemnly, “It’s something that you need to just see for yourself.” There was a pause between the two. Altruise was very hesitant, but something in her heart told her she needed to go see what he had to show her. A part of her wanted to return home, no matter what it may be like now. With a fluttering whisper, and a gulp, she nodded. “Alright.” Altruise nodded through her quiet murmurs, and used her magic to create her faux wings. “Let’s go.” Drake nodded respecting her hesitations, and spread out his wings. “Follow me.” He said quietly, and lifted off the ground, flying over the ocean. Altruise sighed, and took off from the ground after him, and followed him toward the horizon. Looking back to the island one last time, she felt a pinch of nervousness. This was the first time she has ever left the island since she got there twelve years ago. Why was Drake taking her back to Trottingham? What was it that he had to show her there? Why was this so important? After her long glance back at the island, she turned to look ahead, and followed Drake toward the rising sun with those same questions spinning through her mind. * * * * * It was a long flight over the open waters, and for the first time in years, Altruise saw land over the horizon that wasn’t Drake’s island. It brought her many new, yet at the same time, old feelings; both nostalgic and forlorn mysterious feelings that she couldn’t quite understand herself. Flying high over the land, Altruise looked beneath her as they traveled over forests and hills, and some towns, spotting the occasional pony below. Every time Altruise saw a pony, she felt a leap in her heart. It’s been years since she’s seen another individual apart from Drake, and it both thrilled and frightened her to witness other ponies. Nevertheless, she pressed on, following Drake to where he had to take her. And before she knew it, over the horizon, she saw the familiar castle of Canterlot in the distance. Which only meant one thing… “I’m almost home…” She whispered to herself, feeling her heart skip a few beats. Drake flew lower, and Altruise followed him, and they landed on the Equestrian floor on a cobblestone path. Merely half a mile ahead from where they stood, clear as day—as if it was never touched—was Trottingham. Altruise’s jaw was hanging, and she had a very confused look on her face. She wanted to cry looking at the place, and holding her tears back didn’t seem to work. A few drops of tears leaked from her eyes, and fell to the cobblestone. She wept a few times, and crept toward her old hometown with a lowered head, as if it felt forbidden to enter the perimeter. “Altruise.” Drake briefly stopped her, “It would be wise that you turn off your wing spell before you set foot in public.” The unicorn looked up at him, curious. “They wouldn’t be used to seeing a random alicorn stranger walking through their town.” The pegasus exclaimed. “Alicorn?” “To them, you’d look like an alicorn. You have a horn and wings.” Drake explained to the confused mare, “Trust me, you don’t want that kind of attention right away. They’ll think you’re a princess or a goddess or something.” “Oh. Okay.” Altruise nodded and her wings disappeared in a spark of magic. Turning back to Trottingham, she gulped, and continued creeping toward it. “W-what happened?” She whimpered with her ears sinking to her sides, “I-I thought… I thought it was destroyed…?” “It was rebuilt.” Drake solemnly declared, following along side the unicorn. Altruise gulped again, and tried keeping her head up as she pressed on toward the town, and entered the perimeter. As she and Drake walked through the town, the unicorn was a bit disappointed that none of the ponies seemed familiar, although it was to be expected. Turning left and right at the many houses along either side of the cobblestone street, the ponies all seemed to disregard her as a stranger, though they did notice her wandering through town. The white mare continued feeling her gut turn; returning home like this didn’t feel at all like she thought it would. She felt like she didn’t belong here any more, at all. Perhaps it was simply because it wasn’t the original Trottingham she remembered? Or maybe it was because she didn’t recognize anypony. Regardless of these feelings that urged her to leave right then and there, she pressed onward through the town anyway; something kept telling her instincts that there was something here she needed to see. Sauntering through town in silence, she looked ahead, and saw something that caught her eyes wide open. A quick and painful gasp escaped her, and more tears began spilling from her eyes. There in the center of Trottingham was Celestia’s statue; refurnished. And beside the Princess’ statue were two other statues of ponies; her mother and father. A long weep escaped Altruise’s lungs and she trotted ahead of Drake up to the three statues, in somewhat of a hurry, but at the same time with mass hesitation. She stood beneath the statues, looking up at them with eyes full of tears. Ponies around her seemed to acknowledge her reactions, and some began to pay more attention to her, giving her glances. “Mom… Dad…” She wept, turning to Drake who stood alone off to the side, looking back to her with a solemn expression. Altruise turned back to the statues, realizing this was what he meant; this was what she needed to see. “Oh goddess!” Altruise suddenly burst out into sobs and collapsed to her haunches, throwing her head to the ground. Ponies around her began to pay more attention to her, and some were even considering approaching her and see why she was crying; though they hesitated and let her be. “Why?!” She screamed, in somewhat of an angry tone. Her eyes filled with more tears the more she sat there on her haunches; she opened her eyes, and through her teary eyes she saw the pedestal beneath their statues that wrote in stone: Dedicated to the brave stallion and mare who gave their lives to the ponies of Trottingham. Suddenly a flashback ripped through her mind, and she remembered her parents’ death; they died right where she was standing. She quickly stood up and stared at the cobblestone beneath her feet, as if she was standing on forbidden grounds. Looking back up at the statues, she took a glance at the one of Celestia, and her tearful eyes slowly, and coldly converted to a frown, as she had a sudden epiphany. Something that Drake had said to her long ago, when she was only a foal. Wincing her angry eyes, she repeated Drake’s words. “…If it wasn’t for the Princess’ training… if she hadn’t tamed me…” She gritted her teeth, and her eyes opened up with realization as she spoke to herself, “…maybe I would’ve been strong enough to stop Nebulous when I had the chance.” She felt her blood boil. Her horn began to spark, and she became suddenly furious. “CELESTIA!!!!!” She screamed at the top of her lungs. “AAAAAGH!!!!” Her fury began to frighten the ponyfolk, and they all backed away from her. Then suddenly something happened, that nopony in Equestria has ever seen happen before, and there were gasps and wide eyes everywhere… Altruise’s cutie mark was glowing, and sizzling of magic. Its image of the heart began to crack and split, and slowly it dissolved off the face of her flank. Her cutie mark disappeared, and blew away in the wind like the ashes of her former enemy. “CELESTIAAAAAAAA!!!!” Altruise screamed, “YOU!! You… AAAAAAAAGH!!!” She raised her front hooves with a blinding glowing horn, and slamming her hooves back into the ground with a sobbing scream; a bolt of lightning fell from the sky, and struck Celestia’s statue. The moment the statue was struck by the blinding bolt of lightning, it exploded, and ponies in the town shrieked and ran as the debris of the statue collapsed into the ground, leaving her parents’ statues to stand alone. Immediately after Celestia’s statue had crumbled to the ground, Altruise turned away from her parents’ statues that were left standing, and with a quick spark on her shoulders, her wingspan reappeared. A full gallop westward, she ran toward the castle in the horizon. “Altruise??” Drake tried stepping in the way, and the unicorn lifted off the ground over his head, and with a sonic boom directly above him, she bolted off to Canterlot at an intense speed with her screams of anger echoing back at him. His eyes were wide, and he stood there watching the unicorn jet toward the castle, dumbfounded. * * * * *