"What is the meaning of this...?" Sapphic cautiously asked of Whis as he stared at him with weary eyes.
"I must admit, I'm a might bit confused as well, Whis..." Apple Bloom added.
Whis smiled and gave a little chuckle.
"Allow me to clear it up for you. Sapphic, you're on death's doorstep, and Apple Bloom; you are unconscious in Goten's arms right now. Does that clear things up?"
Sapphic grunted a bit at the mention that he was dead, or at the best, dying. He felt no jolt in his heart, however, and no even a pit in his gut.
Apple Bloom looked all around at the infinite whiteness; the place, where ever it was, reminded her of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber back on Earth. The vastness of places like this still overwhelmed her greatly. As she looked around, her eyes fell on Sapphic, who was shaking a bit as he looked down at his hands, as seeing them for the first time. The look in his eyes was...hard to pinpoint.
"Hey, Sapphic." She said, getting his attention. "Since we're here, I've been wondering something..."
"What?" He asked her, not truly caring to much what she wanted to know.
"What in the hay was goin' though your head when you decided blowin' up Equestria was a good idea?" She blurted, her southern accent thickening a bit as she did so.
"I couldn't let you win." He simply stated. "I couldn't let a mere pony defeat me just like the princesses defeated my mother. I wouldn't stand for you to have the victory twice."
"So instead of surrendering or something, you decide killing everything is the answer? Yourself and your changelings included?"
The once great tyrant whirled to snarl at the young mare; his emerald eyes burning with a passion she hadn't noticed before.
"And let you kill me even with my hands in the air?!" He shouted. "To have you execute me regardless and then hunt down my brothers and sisters just like before?! To have you kick me while I'm down just like Celestia did?!"
Apple Bloom looked more confused than anything else by the shout. What was he talking about?
Sapphic growled. "Don't look at me like your dumb, pony! You were alive when the whole Canterlot fiasco happened! You know what went on afterwards; what the princesses did!"
She shook her head slowly. "Sapphic, I was a filly when the whole thing in Canterlot happened; Applejack, nor anypony else told me anything about what happened after..."
Realizing this was true, Sapphic stood straight up again, and his eyes softened a bit as he looked down at what should be the floor. Thesudden downcast expression threw the mare completely off from his usual high and mighty posture.
"I guess it doesn't matter...I'm going to die anyway, so you may as well know the reasons for what has transpired this day.." He said quietly.
Apple Bloom listened as her ears perked up a bit to catch his explanation.
* * *
After my mother, Queen Chrysalis, was defeated in Canterlot by Shining Armor and Princess Cadence, she and the few changelings of our hive returned wounded to our lands. The battle had not been too arduous, but it had been enough to dwindle the battle capable drones she had under her disposal.
When she retuned, she told all of us that we would have to move on, and get as far away from Equestria as possible, lest we incur some sort of punishment from the rulers of the land. Before we could really start our journey, however, the royal army and Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had already found us.
My mother fought hard, battling off not only a multitudeof pony military, but even dueling with the princesses themselves. But the love she had acquired from Prince Shining Armor was fading with each attack she made, and the ponies began to gain the upper hand in the battle.
"Flee, my children!" Mother had shouted. "Flee and get away from here! Go now and live to see another sunrise!"
It was that moment, the entire hive split into fragments; mother cut her connection to them all except for me, and tossed me as a child across her back, and making for an escape.
Celestia and Luna gave chase to us, and eventually cornered us on a mountainside ridge when my mother no longer had the energy to fly.
"Chrysalis!" Celestia had said; her voice regal yet full of disdain. "For your transgressions against my people, I have no choice but to remove the threat of the changelings from this world for good! You have terrorized us, and tried to usurp our leadership from under us, and used countless subjects of mine as mere food sources! These crimes cannot stand, and I hereby sentence you to Tartarus for all of eternity!"
Luna jumped forth first, but my mother had just enough strength left in her to knock the princess of the night out cold. Unfortunately for that idea, it left her completely defenseless, and Celestia moved to make her final judgement.
"Celestia..." My mother had begged while I cowered not far from them. "Please...surely...my people deserve a lesser fate than what you are planning...they are only following my orders...you may kill me...but do not harm my children...please, Celestia..."
"I wish I could do such a thing." he alicorn had simply replied without thinking it. "But you and your people are a danger to all of us, and we cannot trust any of you. It is safer for my subjects that I eliminate the threat of al changelings instead."
"So much...for friendship...and tolerance..." Mother spat out in a final defiant statement.
Celestia raised into the sky, and as she gathered energy for what I believe was the Spirit Bomb, I ran to my dying mother's side. I knew not what I could do to help her, but she just assured me it all be alright as Celestia finally launched her attack.
I acted on pureinstinct as the Bomb drew closer, and tried to use my magic to push it away and save my mother; the pressure was too much, and just the attempt nearly killed me. I remember my mother doing some sort of spell just before the Spirit Bomb hit and detonated. I was engulfed in her magic, and as she was incinerated by the blast, I was somehow...taken elsewhere.
I awoke in a place unfamiliar, but very similar to your Equestria. I later learned the place was called Earth. For a few years, I lived out all alone, and tried to stay out of the way of any strangers that I thought might do me harm. The humans were not as much of a shock to me as they might have been, being that I myself was a biped. The true shock was the very way they lived their lives; big buildings, noisy vehicles, and horrible propaganda and hatred.
I did not need to feed on love like my brethren, but it still would've helped my rumbling stomach to have some nice emotions to eat; this Earth and it's inhabitants were far too hateful to each other t really be of any use for that.
A few more years passed, and eventually, by way of sensing strong emotion, I came to find a place I suppose you know now as Goku's home on Mt. Paus. Young Gohan had just been born, and the love those two felt for that little child was incredible. I tried not to be too greedy or conspicuous as I fed off their emotions each day and night, staying close to their home in a small makeshift hut.
One day, when I came back to feed on the family again, I saw a rater odd, small woman floating around on a crystal ball. Her name was Baba; a witch who could show things that were going on elsewhere in the world, and even, though I didn't know at the time, other dimensions. Goku needed to see some kind of disaster so he could react to it, and as Baba left the place, I got the idea in my head that maybe I could see what was happening to my siblings back on Equestria with her help.
I followed the witch back to her home, which frightened me greatly, what with all it's medieval architecture and what not. After traversing her large abode, she stumbled across me.
"Hm? Who are you?" She asked me. "What are you doing in my home?"
"I'm sorry, I just saw what you did for that family back on the mountain, and I was just..um...just wondering if...
"Wondering what, young one?"
"I...was wondering if you could help me too...?"
The witch was much kinder than she looked, even if she was irritable. She took me to her chambers where she had me look into her crystal ball as she performed her lengthy incantation. Once the image came through, my still very innocent eyes were assaulted by violence, bloodshed, and merciless slaughter.
The ponies were hunting down everyone of my siblings and killing them in the most grotesque ways. Indeed, I suppose they had a right to be angry with my mother for her plans...but she was only trying to help her subjects, just like Celestia had done by killing her. But my brothers and sisters were no parts of the mastermind now; they were just scared changelings, trying to survive in a world that hated and wanted each of them destroyed....
I watched them kill so many before Baba turned her crystal ball off, knowing my young eyes should never have seen such gruesome things. She comforted me, and told me that sometimes hatred was a strong manipulator for violent acts such as what I had seen; a huge reason that prejudice and unfair punishment was dished out...
As I grew a little older, I grew a sort of hatred of my own inside of me; a hatred for the ones who had nearly made my race extinct. The ponies had shown no mercy to my family, and if I ever got the chance, I would show no mercy to them. I decided at a young age, that I would make them all pay and feel the pain they had caused me and my species. I would show them what it felt like to be hunted down and exterminated, and see how they liked it.
Over the years, I learned to disguise myself as a human; taking on many forms throughout my life. I attended school, and even made some short term friendships. One bond in particular was a young woman named Nicole...
I suppose...I suppose I fell in love with her. We were together for so many years, and...they were so wonderful, I even almost forgot my ambition to destroy the ponies of Equestria. Why would I need to when I could start anew with the beautiful young woman.
I had planned on showing her my true form one night; if you're going to be together, you should be truthful, right? Well, I would never get the chance.
Some jealous bastard from her past had learned of me, and how successful we'd been as a couple. I walked in on him trying to...to...to desecrate her...to violate her and harm her. I went wild. I ripped the man to shreds and in my anger...I revealed my true form...
In the middle of the blood-soaked apartment, I stood as I really looked before Nicole. The only look I saw in her eyes...was pure fear. The fear was quickly replaced with hatred; hatred for my monsterous appearance, for my evil deed I had just performed. I had protected her, and that was how she repaid me.
I learned then, that she never really loved me at all...all those years, she was in love with my human shell, and not the me underneath...
It brought back the thoughts of prejudice against my kind back in Equestria; it dredged up long forgotten pain from the depths of my soul, and rekindled the fire of vengeance in my heart. Humans were no better than ponies; they were just as spiteful and biased against what they couldn't understand; against those of us who were different from them.
I left her there, and I never looked back; never again attempted to form bonds with others. They were all fakes anyway. Friendship was a falsity in that world; humans were disgusting creatures just like the equines were.
I spent the next decade raining myself, and when I needed to, I took on a disguise to train in martial arts schools that humans attended, and even fell under the tutelage of a man named Jackie Chun for a short while. He taught me to control my inner energy that they called ki, and I mastered it quickly.
I was preparing myself for complete and utter vengeance upon the ponies for what they did to my people, and needed to be at my strongest. Because of my saiyan heritage, every training session made me leaps and bounds stronger, and soon I had an immense amount of power. After twelve years, I finally was ready.
The only obstacle now, was how I would get to Equestria. I looked through every type of way to get to the place where ponies ruled as the dominant species, but nothing serious or possible ever came up. Equestria didn't really exist to these people, and their records showed no true way of getting there.
That is...until I learned of the Dragon Balls.
Seven mystical orbs that could grant the user any wish they desired, and I made it my life's mission to find them.
But each time I thought I'd get my chance, I'd find out that they'd been used by non other than Goku and his friends to repair whatever mistakes the buffoons made to their pathetic planet! Year after year I waited, and I decided it was time I just took them by force one day. But that happened to be the day that Majin Buu started terrorizing the Earth...
Goku was far too strong to be defeated by me at this point, and I decided now was not the best time afterall. Seeing him transform into a Super Saiyan 3 the fight Buu over West City was amazing, and gave me the desire to become just as strong, if not stronger than that. Thanks to my saiyan blood and my changeling magic, I would very soon...
Majin Buu destroyed the Earth, and me along with it. I never made t to Otherworld, though, because the line of souls was far too long, and by the time it even came close to me being judged by King Yemma, I was revived when they wished everyone back with the very Dragon Balls I had been seeking.
I suppose since I still had not done evil yet, I was considered good enough to be brought back to life. My saiyan heritage mixed with my natural affinity for magic used my death to bolster my power a hundred fold. It wasn't at Goku's level yet, but it was close, and for the next few years, I trained until I finally reached that level.
I was surpassed yet again, however, when Beerus, the God of Destruction came to Earth, and demanded to fight the Super Saiyan God. Just my luck, that happened to be Goku. I wondered why I couldn't achieve this level of Super Saiyan as they could; I knew of my heritage, and of my father, but I was so strong and yet could not undergo the transformation.
I later learned it was because I was a half-breed of a species that was not similar enough to saiyans. Human half-saiyans could do it because of the species being so similar, but my mother, though a shape-sifter, was still a changeling, and my father was a saiyan; not similar at all aside from sapience.
After a few more years, I eventually reached the level of power where I was on par with Goku, even with all his new god power. I had been keeping close enough tabs n him to know that for certain, and even I myself was impressed by progress.
Getting the Dragon Balls would still prove to be difficult though, so I needed to find a way to get them before Goku needed them for some silly mistake he made again. I would need help with this however, and that's when I formed the Brotherhood of the Dragon Balls.
I won't bore you with how I recruited each one, but I will say they all had interesting pasts. I played upon their greed and weakness and thirsts for destruction and mayhem, and got them to do my bidding. I was on my way to deal with Goku while the Brotherhood hunted the Dragon Balls down, but as I was on my way to Mt. Paus, I spotted young Trunks making his way there.
I'd seen the boy interact with Goku and his family enough to know they trusted him completely, and I'd seen enough of him to know exactly how he acted.
I followed him to the home of Goku and overheard his conversation with Chi Chi about the current situation. Once he exited, I trailed him a few miles away and then I struck. He fought hard, but he was no match for me at all, and I easily overpowered him, trapping him inside one of my pods so the real Trunks wouldn't upset my rouse. I stole his jacket, and pulled some of his other clothes from his capsules to disguise myself, and morphed into him.
I was sure Goku would be looking for the Dragon Balls to help you and your silly plight, and so as added insurance that I would not fail this time, I used both the Brotherhood and you and Goku to gather the mystical balls for me.
You know the rest after that...
* * *
Apple Bloom looked at him intently, absorbed in his tae as he explained how he had come to be so hateful.
"I had my revenge, and even avenged my mother by ending the life of her killer, Celestia." He said. "I had achieved some measure of vengeance...but..."
He looked as though he had just realized something as his eyes drifted downward.
"But it was empty...that feeling of loss...losing my mother...and so many of my siblings...still lingered..."
"Sapphic..." She finally said, taking a cautious step towards him. "I know how it feels to lose something important to you--"
"What do you know of true loss?" He suddenly said, his eyes going to meet hers; they were not harsh, but contemplative. "You only lost select members of your family...I nearly lost my entire species! And now I've lost everything!"
She took another step forward, not looking away from the former tyrant's face; her own expression a bit softer than it had been before.
"I think I know a small fraction of how that feels thanks to you."
He moved to respond, but stopped himself. He had achieved his revenge alright. He'd made the ponies feel pain and massive loss just as he had. Now, one of the many affected was standing before him, trying to empathize with him.
"Then you indeed know my pain now...or at least, some of it." He decided to say. "I guess I can die peacefully knowing that that is a small comfort..."
She shook her head disapprovingly. "Sapphic, I do understand how you feel; and I definitely understand your rage over whathappened. But you have to realize that not all of us are merciless killing machines...I had no idea Celestia and her royal guard had done such awful things to you and your people. I always thought you'd all been defeated at Canterlot."
She closed the distance between them and looked straight up at him as he looked straight down at her.
"But...doing the same thing they did to you as revenge...? What really does that accomplish?" She continued. "All it does is create a cycle of hatred that never ends. A spinning wheel of revenge and more revenge for the revenge taken by another. I know I wanted to kill you before; but now that I think on it, that was wrong too. Your family will probably want revenge on me now..."
"And you'll wipe them out just as you have me, I assume." He mumbled.
Apple Bloom shook her head swiftly. "No. Look, what you guys did all those years ago was wrong, but the way I see it, Princess Celestia was wrong too. You and many other changelings had nothing to do with the Canterlot fiasco, and were unjustly punished. That doesn't sit right with me."
She looked down for a brief moment before continuing.
"I know a lot of ponies are gonna want the changelings that are left exterminated for what you and them have done...but...the way I see it now is that they were doing what they thought was right. They were never shown compassion, so all they know is war and violence...maybe...maybe with your mother's and your own influence gone...maybe, just maybe...I can show them what else life has to offer other than endless revenge and suffering..."
Sapphic looked at her with a stunned expression, and Whis smiled brightly.
"You...mean..."
"I won't make the same mistake Princess Celestia did. I'll make sure your remaining family isn't harmed...I'll make sure they can experience the other side of ponykind...the side of friendship..."
"I'd say that's a wonderful idea, young Apple Bloom." Whis interjected.
Sapphic looked in bewilderment at themare before him; this was a pony. The very species he had known to be nothing but brutish and violent towards his kind. He had lived his whole life with the mission to annihilate all of them; but this little pony was different. Apple Bloom wanted what he had wanted at the very start; peace and acceptance. No prejudice. No hatred. No endless cycle of vengeance. Just...friendship for his kind.
He placed his hand to his head in a remorseful gesture at the realization. She was making it all sound so simple to fix, and his own rage and hatred had made him what he hated afterall; prejudiced. He had truly become what he hated, and it was time to break the cycle once and for all.
"Thank...thank you.." He managed.
"You shouldn't thank me." Apple Bloom replied. "I ended your life...and now only a few of your changelings are left...I've done just as much harm as you...but I promise; I'll do what I can to fix it."
Sapphic just nodded, the whole situation weighing down on him. His mission had been one of hypocrisy, and now he had paid the price for it. He had been merciless and cold just as he had seen the ponies be. He had just added to cycle that should never have been started in the first place.
He only wished he had realized this before he had caused so much heartache.
"Don't let too much weigh on your conscious, Prince Sapphic." Whis told him. "Most of the damage you caused will be reversed once Piccolo creates Equestria's Dragon Balls. You can go to Hell with a bit of a clearer mind knowing this, I hope."
Apple Bloom blinked; Piccolo was going to create a set of Dragon Balls for Equestria? That was great news; everything could be fixed that way. All of the destruction Sapphic and his changelings had caused would be reversed, and everypony would be ok.
Sapphic was a little shocked by this news as well, but smirked a bit.
"I don't know if I should be upset all my hard work is about to be undone, or relieved that my addition to the timeline of hatred will be erased." He chuckled.
He then had a thought.
"You don't suppose...you could bring me back...?"
"Well..." Apple Bloom started.
"I think you have a lot to mull over in Hell, before we start thinking about that." Whis answered for her.
Sapphic supposed that was correct; he should do the time for the crime, he supposed. On the bright side...he just might see his mother down there. He didn't want to think that way of her, but he was being realistic here.
"Maybe after some time...you can come back to the living, Sapphic." Apple Bloom offered.
"Thank you again, Apple Bloom." The changeling prince said. "You are an...interesting pony...may we cross paths on better terms one day..."
The both of them were blinded by a bright light emanating from Whis' body, as he grabbed Sapphic by the shoulder.