A Bhaalspawn in Equestria

by Thadius0

Chapter 22 - Giggling not recommended

Author's Note:

I apologize in advance for the length of this chapter.

...You may want to get a drink and a snack before sitting down to read this one.

I had one while writing it and I needed to get refills.

This mindscape was different. A circular room of steel, with six doors. One set alone, while the other five gathered at the other side. The lone one was significantly larger than the rest, and in the middle of the room was some sort of raised hill, also of steel, with five holes set into it. The lone door was shiny and brand new, while the other five had slight rust on them. The grooves around the middle one showed it had been opened and shut multiple times. The five ponies who had chained the Ravager appeared slowly around the hill in the middle of the room. Once they looked around and gained their bearings, a voice spoke that belonged to none of them.

"Hello, you who seek the dormant soul."

The ponies started at that, but Twilight recovered first. "Who said that?! Where are you?!"

"My apologies. You have heard the Ravager say that he is what always lay within the boy?" The ponies nodded, and the voice continued. "He lies. I am the true darkness in his soul, and currently, this realm is my doing. The part of him you seek, his light, it remains, but is dimming. Both because of the Ravager...and itself. He wishes to fade, now."

Luna snorted once at that. "We are familiar with the feeling. Tell us, if you are his darkness, why make this realm? Why not join with the Ravager?"

"Because he would destroy me as well in his mad quest to dominate this mind. I have saved the light, imprisoned it here, but he needs help if the Ravager is to be thrown off. And as you ponies are, you cannot help him. Which is why there are so many doors here."

The party of ponies looked from one door to the next, taking in what few differences there were. "The larger one leads back to the mind as a whole. The Ravager cannot yet find us, though he looks feverishly. The others lead...to tests. Each of you must face your darkest secret, and bare it for the rest. Confront the truth about yourselves, and you will be of sufficient fortitude to help the boy. But the test in the center shall be taken last."

The door in the middle suddenly seemed more ominous at the end of the voice's words. Twilight decided to speak up again after the voice was done. "What should we call you?"

There was silence for a moment, and then, amused laughter. "My my. Giving portions of his mind identities? So amusing you are, child. Call me...Shade. It fits me well, and as I am merely a portion of him, so too is my name merely a portion of his..."

The ponies nodded at that and went to one of the doors before hearing another chuckle. "Or...is it?..."

This gave them pause for a moment before Celestia reached towards a door and began to pull on the handle. "Sooner started, sooner finished."

"Oh, by the way, the tests depend on who opens them. Let's see what lies in your heart, Celestia..."

At that, her eyes widened, and she began to whinny...

-----

"Celly, Lulu, wonderful to see you. Here to enjoy my Chaos?"

The two mares stand before a young Discord as he begins causing a forest to float into the sky. Their horns are ablaze, their wings spread. "Nay, foul miscreant. We are here to stop your vile reign over our subjects!"

Discord puts a paw to his chin and hums. "Last I recall, I was ruler of these lands. Has that changed lately?" He snaps, and a oversized crown, cloak, and scepter adorn him that would not look amiss upon any king. "Why no! No it has not!"

Celestia, clearly unamused, snorts, lets out a bestial roar, and charges, knocking Discord to the ground and starting to pummel him with her hooves. "You. Will. Stop. Tormenting. The ponies. This. INSTANT!"

Each word is punctuated with another punch, and eventually, Celestia stops, panting, while Discord just lays there, congealing. However, with another flash, Discord, sans his regal attire, is floating in front of the sisters again. "Had your little temper tantrum?"

Celestia snorts and narrows her eyes in rage. "Why won't you just DIE!"

"Because, Celly, I'm Chaos. You can't kill chaos, you can only fuel it, especially in a fight..."

"It may have taken you a thousand years, but you learned, didn't you, Celly?"

The vision faded, and the ponies in the room were confronted with what looked like a highly more ephemeral Spirit of Chaos. The ponies gasped at the sight, and Twilight, again, spoke up.

"But you're stone! How can you be here if you're out there?!"

The pseudo-spirit waved one appendage around lazily. "Oh, pick an option, Sparkly. A failsafe I slipped into his head, I was here all along after you stoned me, or, my personal favorite," and here he grinned wildly, "Maybe I'm not here at all! Maybe the mind we're inside just latched on to me and made an echo for later...or maybe it made a version of me from sunbutt's memories!"

Shining slowly gulped and raised a hoof. "Was...what we saw, true?"

Discord hummed and put a talon to his chin. "Well, if it was pulled directly from Sunbutt's mind, then yes, yes it was true." And then he gained a maniacal grin and spread his arms wide. "But wait, there's more!" And with a snap, another memory surfaced, drowning the ponies in the waves of thought and emotion...

Another image formed, of a creature that was half-horse, half-man, with demonic horns. Behind him stood a hundred more of his kind, none of them in armor. On a distant hill, Celestia sat, waiting. She didn't have to wait for long. The creature strode forth on the grassy plains, and bellowed at her.

"CELESTIA DAYWARDEN, I TELL YE THIS: SURRENDER LAND TO US FREE OF YOUR PONIES, OR WE SHALL TAKE IT FROM YOU, NO MATTER WHO OR WHAT IS ON IT!"

Her response was immediate: a beam of concentrated light struck at the ground by the commander's hooves, and he reared back before returning to his army.

"SO BE IT! YOU BROUGHT THIS ON YOUR SELF!"

And the army charged as Celestia began to shine with light...

"It was quite interesting, seeing my legion fall before her," the appearing ghostly centaur said. All the ponies gasped, but it continued. "After all, we thought ourselves invulnerable! We were the magic-weavers! And then we met the alicorn. None of us remained, save me."

The creature looked to Celestia with a fire burning in its eyes as it finished its statement. "Her Dawnhammer destroyed all my soldiers. Only I remained, because of my incredible magic resistance. They would have remained had it been a normal unicorn. And even as you cast me into the depths of Tartarus, I cursed you, Sol Invictus."

Cadence put two and two together and shook her head. "No. No, she wouldn't. Aunty, you wouldn't do these things."

Celestia gulped once and nodded to herself. "For the good of Equestria, I have done much..."

The creature cut her off. "Like destroy soldiers seeking refuge in your lands from their own across the ocean? Like banishing their commander to the depths of Tartarus, thus dooming the rest of his kind back home to a slow, steady death? Oh wait. How about this one?"

And with another snap, the chamber changed again...

"Please, I throw myself on your mercy."

The young Chrysalis was nearly completely prostrate before Celestia. Next to the alabaster mare, a pink alicorn filly cowered. The leader had her stern poker face on.

"Why do you require my mercy, creature?"

Chrysalis gulped, and stated her reason in a shaky voice. "Because of my nature...I have a...sickness within me. Not only do I...feed off of positive emotions..."

Here she paused and gulped again. Celestia's gaze had gotten a touch harsher.

"...There is this...darkness within me...and every time I feed...it makes me want to drain...and drain...until there is nothing left. I need...help."

"How many."

Chrysalis shook her head at the question slash statement. "Too many. Far too many. I...I want...I need it to stop...I need help..."

Celestia shook her head. "I can do naught for you. Leave my country and ponies in peace."

Chrysalis threw herself down then. "Please! I beg you, something, anything! I don't want this! I want it to stop, to go away, to-"

"SILENCE!" The statement was punctuated with a solar laser beam to the floor in front of Chrysalis, who went rigid from shock.

"As I said. Leave. I can do naught for you."

And then Chrysalis hissed and stood back up.

"Mark my words, Daywarden, Sun-Shepard. I will return one day, and you will look back to this moment, and rue not aiding me."

"And so I did," the ghostly Chrysalis said. "And you did remember me, didn't you, Daywarden?"

Celestia flinched at that. "I...I was not talented in mind magic, nor did I have the link to the Elements, with Luna gone..."

Chrysalis waved her hoof in a dismissive manner. "Your first instinct was to strike out at me for what I had done, rather than help me prevent what would come to pass."

"So Celly," Discord started as the three ghosts of her past closed in.

"What are we to you?" The space between the centaur's horns lit up, and Chrysalis' horn began to glow. Celestia began to shake a little before she collapsed on the ground, weeping softly.

"You are my failures. My moments when I lost myself. The time when I was less than I should have been."

"Not good enough, Celestia," Chrysalis nearly spat.

"What...is your sin?" Discord nearly hissed out as he traced his claws down her neck. At that, Celestia gasped and spoke one word.

"Wrath."

And instantly, the room changed.

The apparitions vanished, and the walls and floors of the room became awash in colors. Looking around, Twilight saw a strange...pattern to it. A small, red jewel appeared in the middle of the air, and absently, she took a hold of it with her magic and gave it to her mentor. The troupe of ponies made their way to the door that they could now see, and just before they left, Twilight looked back and gasped herself.

The colors in the room aligned perfectly, showing Marketh beheading a Diamond Dog in the middle of a fierce and pitched battle.

And then they were gone, back to the central room. Twilight's head spun from what she had seen, but she filed the sight away under 'to be determined later.'

Carefully, Celestia placed the red jewel in a hole, and there was a clicking noise. Beyond that, nothing happened, save for the door they had used vanishing. Luna nodded at the spectacle and went to another door. Just as her hoof was about to touch it, that voice spoke up again.

"Are you sure about this, Luna? After all, who can say which side of the mirror is the dark one..."

The hoof pulled the door open, and their surroundings shifted again.

-----

In front of the ponies, in a room similar to the last, was another version of Luna. Only this Luna was just as grand and radiant as Celestia, done up in her formal silver armor, wielding a halberd seemingly made of moonlight. And this Luna was not amused.

"Behold, my counterpart. I am what could have been. Under both my and my sister's rule, Equestria thrived."

An image formed on the back wall, showing a far more populated Ponyville. It shifted, showing that the inhabitants were no worse off than the ones of Canterlot. And then the other Luna continued.

"While my sister tends the day, keeps the peace between nations, cities, species, it falls to me to ensure that no unreasonable threats arise to begin with."

The scene became one of night, and surprisingly, the ponies still walked about, most casting a smile upwards to the moon.

"Under my watch, all are safe. I find and deal with threats quietly, discreetly. My thestrals are elites among those that deal in threat assessment and removal, and best of all..."

The scen shifted again, to show a vision of Marketh kneeling before the two thrones in the Everfree Castle.

"Best of all, this situation did not come to pass. The half-elf found us within his first month in our world, and we used him to find the taint of his father, and then we kept him on as a trainer for our guard, for there was much to learn from him."

Another vision shift, this time of Marketh yelling at ponies in guard's armor. And then the room went dark as the other Luna lowered her halberd a touch.

"So tell me why I, Luna Selene, Lunar Ira, Moon-Maiden, Shadow-warden, She Who Guards The Night, should permit you to exist. There is a weakness in your heart, my twisted double. Because of one moment, because of one thing, you damned your world to this fate."

Luna caught on and decided to state what the room wanted of her.

"Yes, because of that weakness in my heart, the Nightmare took me. And that weakness was the Envy of my sister's day and the love she gained for it."

The other Luna slowly faded out, from back to front, after Luna had said her sin. The last thing to go was her mouth, and she used it to state one final thing.

"True...tis better to never fall...but when you do, the rise is all the sweeter..."

With that, the dopple-mare faded, a green jewel hovered in the room for Luna to take with her magic, and a door appeared behind them. Waiting for it, Twilight saw a flash of color appear in the room, and as they left, she placed it.

But why...Ponyville? Why Ponyville during the day?

When they returned to the center, Luna put her jewel to the core, generating a similar clicking noise. Skipping the center door, Cadence selected the one after it, and put her hoof to it. Again, the voice intervened beforehand.

"Oooh, are you sure, miss alicorn of love? With your fiance here? He won't like what he sees..."

Once again, their surroundings shifted...

-----

"Cadence, will you love me?"

"Of course I do! Why do you need to ask?"

The scene is one of Cadence, in a younger form, talking to...a pony. The details are vague, blurred. Nearly gone. But the vision remains, showing snippets throughout the other pony's life...up until Cadence is older, standing next to a freshly-filled grave. She sniffs, sets her eyes, her horn glows...

And then she's in a younger form again. And the sequence repeats itself.

Over.

And over.

And over again.

Until Celestia comes into the picture, thundering and taking a hold of the pink alicorn, turning her into a proper filly. The filly looks around and asks a simple question. "Where are momma and daddy?"

And then her life continues, with Celestia teaching her what it means to be an alicorn...

But lining the walls of the room, the crosses of the ponies from her life remain. At the base of each one, a skeletal hoof disturbs the 'ground', and the corpses of her previous loves slowly extract themselves.

"You said you would love me, Cadence..." one rasps.

"You said we would be together forever..."

"You said there would never be another in your heart..."

"You promised, Cadence..."

"Why did you do it, Cadence?"

"Why did you lie to us?"

The pink alicorn is breathing deeply, nearly on the verge of breaking down, and then she finally does. She throws herself to the ground and starts screaming her rage. "I DON'T KNOW! When Celestia turned back my clock to when I was just a filly, the ascension stuck with me, and I learned what it meant to be an alicorn! I learned it meant an immortal life, and that to promise to mortals 'till death do us part' was harsh on the mortals, especially when I was...as I had been. But my mindset from back then is gone! Celestia raised me all over again, I couldn't tell you what the older version of me was thinking!"

Twilight slowly raised a hoof to her foalsitter's withers. "It...seems like she just keep wanting more love directed at her..."

Cadence nodded once and hiccuped. "But...why would I be so...so Greedy, over something as irreplaceable as love?"

That did it. One by one, the skeletons of her former loves fell apart, disappearing as the bones hit the ground. A golden gem appeared in the room, and Cadence shakily took it. As the group left, Twilight quickly cast her eyes over her shoulder and saw...

The library, at night...and he's taking books? How...how do these visions tie in together?

Cadence slotted the gem into a hole, and another click reverberated through the space. Shining Armor approached the last available door, and once more, the voice interjected.

"Oh Shining, you'll enjoy this. You'll get to see a part of yourself that everyone but you has..."

The scenery melted around them...

-----

"Discord may have returned, and he may be wrecking havoc on the land, but we are the ROYAL GUARD, and Canterlot will NOT FALL!"

The dopple of Shining Armor rallied his faceless troops, who cheered, and then faded. The dopple, however, remained...and another appeared, rallying another set of troops.

"Nightmare Moon may have imprisoned Princess Celestia, but we are the ROYAL GUARD, and we WILL FIND and RETURN her!"

And again, the troops cheered...only for them to fade, the dopple to remain, and another appeared, rallying the same faceless army.

"The Changelings have taken much from us, even our Princess is out of commission, but we WILL succeed, because we are the ROYAL GUARD, and we DO NOT GIVE UP!"

Again, the soldiers cheered and faded, again the dopple remained, and one more appeared...

"Okay, so the creature is within the library, and the Bearers are there as well. I want this done quick and clean. We give it one chance to surrender, and if he doesn't we knock him out. Remember, we are the Royal Guard, and failure is not an option!"

The guards around the last Shining dopple nodded their heads, and once they faded, the real test began...

All four dopple Shining Armors turned to face the real one and began speaking in turn.

"Whether it's Nightmare Moon, Discord, or some other threat to Equestria..."

"Or just your little sister..."

"You throw out all concepts of what you can and can't do..."

"And stop thinking with the one muscle that really matters."

"I really can't believe they made you captain of the guard."

"At least have the decency to put the colt through the janitorial staff, Princess."

"Yeah, afterwards, he could clean up his own messes!"

"Yeah, instead of dumping them all on someone else..."

"And it's all because of that one little nugget of darkness." The dopples started to advance, and Shining panicked. What had been the same in all those visions?

"That one tiny seed, from which all his little problems sprout..."

Closer still. "Tell us, Shining, What...do you want? What does that little burning fire inside of you really want?"

"You deserve it...you are the Captain of the royal guard..."

Shining made to protest when he realized the pattern. The room wanted him to admit to something, and after a second's reflection, he found it.

"Yes, true, I am the Captain, because of my magic in shielding spells. And while I do tend to get a bit of a swelled head sometimes, I think I have to disagree with you. Pride in your abilities is important, especially when you can deliver."

Three dopple Shinings winked out of existence, and the last pointed a hoof at him. "That. That right there. There are things in this world you cannot do, and yet you act like you are a true member of the Royal Family, wings and all. Tell me, what will you do when it becomes fatal to those under your command, or you?"

Shining sighed. "I knew the risks when I signed on, and my father gave me one critical piece of advice when I was younger. If you don't reach for the stars, then short of being Luna, how will you ever get there?"

The dopple vanished slowly, leaving a blue gem in his place. As Shining reached out to grab it, a whisper echoed throughout the space.

"Sparring and pushing yourself is all well and good, but acting like you eat lighting in the face of death is foolishness itself..."

The ponies made to leave, and once more, Twilight stayed behind to see the change in the room. The colors came and went in a flash, showing Marketh fighting a gryphon outside some sort of structure. A whisper echoed through her mind.

"Come on, stop trying to hit me and HIT ME!"

"Gilda, you're now a full member of the guild."

He...trained others? I wish these flashes would make sense!

The jewel was inserted in one of the only places left, and the ponies looked to the last, intimidating door. Twilight decided to ask, then.

"Who should open this one?"

The answer was instant.

"You should, young one. Come...meet me."

Twilight gulped and put a hoof to the door-pull...

-----

The room was plain, barren of anything, save for an inhabitant. He looked...similar to the beast outside, but smaller, and with large wings on his back. It did a bow as the ponies appeared.

"Greetings, ponies. I am Shade, Marketh's true darker side. I have been expecting you." His eyes flickered over to Twilight. "Most specifically, I have been expecting you, miss Sparkle."

She gulped at that. "Why me?"

Shade waved a clawed paw around. "Oh come now. You must have seen some link. You overcome one trial, only to receive an image associated with Marketh's experience with that sin. Fairly straightforward."

Twilight scrunched her face up. "I...I can see Wrath. If he really was the Doom of the Diamond Dogs, then yes, Wrath I can see easily. But Envy and Ponyville? I don't see it."

Luna spoke up then, softly. "One of his dreams was of him looking out towards Ponyville and wishing he could walk its streets again."

Shade pointed at her and smiled (which did not help) before chuckling. "Any true Bhaalspawn desires peace after a lifetime of combat. And Ponyville, by far, was the most peaceful place he had ever seen. Not being allowed to visit...that only caused his feelings of Envy to build."

Twilight nodded and stored the information away. "Greed and the library, him taking books, I also don't quite get..."

Celestia spoke up next. "The one thing he has hoarded most over the years has been information. If he stole from the library, he probably values the information in those books more highly than ponies do the sun and moon..."

The creature chuckled again. "Any true Bhaalspawn desires more and more, so as to be able to put its resources to bettering itself. The fact that his Greed was that of information does not lessen the fact that he did desire more and more of it."

Twilight put another tic into her 'suspicious sayings' column and said the last one. "And Pride and him training gryphons? It doesn't add up as far as I can see..."

The creature in front of them sighed and drooped a bit. "Any true Bhaalspawn takes great Pride in his abilities and powers over his betters, yet the only thing he is Proud of is the others he has trained over the years."

Twilight finally decided to ask the question. "Okay, so you keep saying this, so I have to ask. Is he a true Bhaalspawn?"

Here the creature's gaze shot up and locked with Twilight's before he started to laugh uproariously. By the time he finished, he had begun to fade, slowly. Slow enough that by the time he finished responding to Twilight, he was naught more than an outline.

"Ah, miss Sparkle. That was the right question. For if he is, no harm, no foul. But if he isn't?"

And with that, the creature was gone while a violet gem hovered in the room. The moment Twilight grabbed a hold of it with her magic, the room shifted.

It still appeared to be made of steel, but carved into every available surface, as though it had been cut with claws, were the same six letters and singular symbol.

WHO AM I?

Repeated ad infinium, ad nauseum, the ponies looked around at the hundreds, no, thousands of times he had carved it in here. Some large, some small, some inside others, and all of them realized the same thing in the same moment.

The only reason they assumed he was Marketh Shadeblade was because he had introduced himself as such. The only one to say otherwise was him, after all. But if even he didn't know who he was...

Who did?

Comments

[NoLongerSober]

Solid chapter is solid.

[RazorWing_GB]

4743490 Aye, very solid; Much insight to be had here.

[NoLongerSober]

4743509 I'm a pony of many words.

[DeltaOsprey]

The Author. I have solved the mystery guys.

[Voldine]

Still too short!

[SeventhBrony]

Well, considering to the story description he's a guy that was cosplay and sent to Equestria as a Bhaalspawn it's no supprise that the "who' he was is fading considering how long he's lived.So, that is also the 'who' that must be found and saved.

MOAR!

also, nice rendition of who tia is

[Sutetsu]

Great chapter. I already like Marketh better than I liked Auric.

Also, I kind of expected Cadence to be Lust, while reading. Just made sense inside my head.
(And Celestia had to admit to her Gluttony, she ate all the cake, after all.)

[amiamera]

I keep clicking thumbs up but it won't let me thumb this up a second or third time. :P

[Rozen Knight]

Very good job, while you shouldn't be afraid of length, i shall make note i had to have a cup-a-tea and read this 3 times to make sure everything was right
but still this isn't anything long trust me, and not to say i don't like that your chapters are on the smaller end, no on the contrary i like the way it is.

"Do not judge one for who one once was, let that not cloud the truth of who you are now." (Some wisdom for our favorite Half-elf )

(nice touch on Shining, just wish Shade had pointed out how many times he failed at his job, more so than he did! )

Gentle breeze guide you home, a warm smile welcome you.

[Greenjack]

[JDLENL]

Only 5000 words, man, come on. Background Pony had close to 20000 words per chapter, puh-leaze!

[The Crimson Reaper]

Oh This mindfuckery is just GREAT!!! I LUV IT! MOOAAARRR!!!

[Lycanthromancer]

I've enjoyed the story greatly up to this point. However...

This chapter fell flat for me. Each character other than Twilight were force-fed a confrontation with their most defining flaw, which should have been quite traumatizing, and for Celly, it rather was, but A.) the emotional impact didn't carry over, and the others just kind of shrugged their shoulders and moved on. And B.) nothing was really resolved, which should have resounded in later parts of the chapter. This does make perfect sense for Luna, because her flaw has defined her existence since she was freed from the Nightmare, and she's faced and come to terms with it already. The others know, and they've accepted it and likewise moved on. But with Celestia and Cadence, these are sides that Twilight and Shining have not seen. Luna could have helped with Celestia's wrath, and Celestia could have helped with Cadence's greed, to put them into perspective, but instead the emotional impact just kind of petered out once they left the room. This strikes me as greatly unsatisfying.

I think splitting each character's trial into a separate chapter with at least some emotional resolution and character growth would have improved the plot thread immensely, and it would have been tons more satisfying as a result.

[wlam]

"Yes, true, I am the Captain, because of my magic in shielding spells. And while I do tend to get a bit of a swelled head sometimes, I think I have to disagree with you. Pride in your abilities is important, especially when you can deliver."

I love this scene for all the wrong reasons. Everyone gets their big revelation scene, and what does Shiny do? Go "nope, not learning jack shit here." Because "deliver" is the one thing he never has, needing every single one of all his problems solved for him by another.

This story would have been better if they had failed here, because that is really what should have happened. He completely missed the point. Maybe it would not have led to a happy ending, but at least it would have been a meaningful one. In other words, exactly what Lycanthromancer said.