• Published 30th Nov 2016
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Memoir of Misery - Silvak



With her memories returning, Sapphire has to endure the mystery of why she is receiving visions of monsters that Equestria never seen before, as she continues to try to make a new life for herself while searching for her old one.

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Chapter LIV: Thundercloud

“So, you fight monsters back in your world?”

“Maybe...”

“Maybe? What are you talking about? Princess Celestia told us about that memory of that giant monster in your noggin!”

“That memory was back when I was a filly, not when I was fighting monsters. To be honest, out of the memories I sorted through, none of them actually involved fighting monsters. So, until I actually remember all of them, the only true answer I can provide is maybe.”

“Augh, you sound just like Twilight and her egghead reasoning,” Rainbow complained as she folded her hooves over her chest. Sapphire was relaxing on a blanket next to the lake, reading a novel Twilight had lend her as she enjoyed the sunny day. That is, til Rainbow came down to ask about the ‘awesome’ parts of her past.

“So, what, you don’t know how to fight monsters then?” Rainbow asked with a huff.

“I didn’t say anything of that sort,” Sapphire answered as she flipped a page while giving Rainbow an annoyed expression.

“Wait, you do know how to fight monsters? Can you show me some of your moves then?” Rainbow replied with excitement. Letting out a sigh, Sapphire remained quiet as she lit her horn with her magic, grabbing onto some of the lake water as Rainbow stated, “Hey, I was expecting you to be doing some figh-woah!” before she was interrupted by the mass of water quickly turning into an ice spear that she then slammed into the ground right next to her.

“I don’t fight with my hooves and wings like you think. Instead, I use my talent of water manipulation to use water as a weapon against my foes... or at least that’s what I remember so far,” Sapphire explained.

“Wow... so what else can you do with your water magic, Sapphire? And have you gotten over your fear of clouds?” Rainbow asked with a look of glee.

“...I don’t know all of what I can do, but it's mostly just turning my water into ice weapons, or throwing a condensed mass of water at things. I’m still remembering the early parts of my training,” Sapphire admitted.

"Oh... wait! If you remember that much, do you remember why you're afraid of clouds?" Rainbow asked as she tapped her chin. "If you do, we can finally do something to get you over that ridiculous fear of yours!"

Frowning, Sapphire replied, “Just how much did Celestia tell you about my memories?”

Looking up at the sky, Rainbow answered, “Oh, just some things about you being from another world. There was your Aro-something clan having gone there hundreds of years ago, and you were raised to fight giant monsters,” as she ended with a shrug.

Giving Rainbow a flat look, Sapphire put a hoof to the side of her head as she muttered to herself, “Why am I not surprised?” Looking back at Rainbow, Sapphires re explained, “Rainbow, I would need to explain some things first, so are you up for it?”

Shrugging, Rainbow said, “I can, since you can’t make it all egghead babble like Twilight can.”

Slowly raising an eyebrow at Rainbow’s comment, Sapphire let out snort before saying, “Alright, Celestia told you about the Beasts of Destruction, but either she forgotten to mention this part or you just didn’t listen carefully enough. Anyways, my world once had cities of clouds just like Cloudsdale, until the Beasts arrived, particular the Beast of Despair. That one targeted the cloud cities, tearing them apart while burning all the inhabitants to death. The remaining survivors were imprinted with the thought of death with clouds after Despair’s assault, an imprint so powerful that was even passed onto the foals of the survivors. Hence, the fear is more of instinctual need to escape from what could be a hiding spot for Despair, even if it’s just a small cloud.”

“Oh... oh wow. Now that is a somewhat good reason to be afraid of clouds,” Rainbow states as Sapphire gave her a look of indignation.

“Somewhat? How the buck was that explaination falls in the realm of somewhat?” Sapphire asked, her look turning into an offended one.

“Whoa whoa, I didn’t say that to insult you! It’s just that I find it hard to believe that you got this trait from your parents,” Rainbow explained as she held her hooves up like she was expecting Sapphire to pounce on her.

Staring at Rainbow for a while, Sapphire finally let out a sigh of frustration as she said, “I understand your point of view, but I guess the reasoning for that might just be magic... or something close to magic. For you see, those Beasts radiate some kind of aura that gets to you, hence why we call them Beasts of things like mayhem or despair. The mere presence of the beast of mayhem even threw my fellow alicorns into disarray in my memory, and that wasn’t the real thing. So I guess that the trauma and the aura together was enough to drive that fear into instinct.”

“Okay... I was wrong about you sounding like Twilight,” Rainbow replied, causing Sapphire to slam her hoof into her face with an audible thump. “Hey, you don’t have to get that way, cause I have an awesome idea for you!”

“Just what idea do you have in mind? It better not be a race or something like that,” Sapphire responded as she slowly removed her hoof from her face.

"No, my idea is something that will get you to fully enjoy your wings! I'm going to help you get over your fear of clouds!" Rainbow declared.

Staring at Rainbow like she was a madmare, Sapphire replied, "Are you nuts? Have you forgotten how I reacted when we tried finding out my fear? Or how I reacted when I was near your home?"

"Yeah, you freak out, but that's the whole point of this," Rainbow countered, causing Sapphire to facehoof again.

"Rainbow... back then, I was just a unicorn, or an alicorn contained as one... I still don't understand why I was a unicorn. Regardless, I hadn't had a panic attack when I was an alicorn, so who knows how bad things could get if we take this route," Sapphire warned, only to have Rainbow rolled her eyes.

"It's not going to be like when we did Twilight's experiment or when I tried to take you to my home. You'll just be doing it yourself with me giving you moral support. And maybe Twilight being there in case you start firing lasers from your horn," Rainbow replied, causing Sapphire to frown at her.

"And why would I even want to be going near any clouds in the first place?" Sapphire asked as she folded her forelegs over her chest.

"Well, it's not like I can force a princess to do something that they don't want to do, but you do want to help your clan when you find a way back to your home. What better way to help them out than conquering your fear of clouds so you can take out all the evil monsters in them?" Rainbow responded, causing Sapphire to give her a good long hard stare. "You know I have a point there, and what's the harm in trying?"

Letting out a sigh, Sapphire finally said, "Fine, you have a point there, but you're getting Twilight, and we're doing it to away from this lake," as she started to pack her things up.

Looking at Sapphire in confusion, Rainbow asked, "Why not just do it here? There's no homes close enough to be hit, and there would be at most a few ponies walking by that I could just grab in case you start firing lasers or something like that."

Giving Rainbow a flat stare, Sapphire pointed a hoof at the lake as she replied, "Rainbow, what's my special talent?"

"Water manipulation, but what does that... oh..." Rainbow answered as she turned to look at the nearby lake. "Yeah... I see your point. Let's try this near Whitetail Woods then, so see you there after I pick up Twilight!" Rainbow declared before taking off into the distance, preventing Sapphire from making any reply, much to her annoyance.


"What took you so long? We were waiting for... how long were we waiting for?"

"It been twelve minutes, Rainbow," Twilight answered as she rolled her eyes at her companion.

”Yeah, which is twelve minutes cutting into my snooze time,” Rainbow complained before giving Sapphire the stink eye. “What took you so long?”

“Well, first off I had to pack up my stuff and put it in my house. Then, I had to cook myself lunch and eat it. Then I made my way over here. And before you say anything, you left before I could even agree at the time. If you had waited for at least a minute, we could have set up a time convenient for the both of us, instead of doing your things on a whim,” Sapphire explained.

Rainbow blinked for a bit at Sapphire’s response before saying, “Oh, my bad then. But we’re here already, and with some of Twilight’s help, we have set up the most awesome fear buster course ever!” as she pointed up at the sky with a hoof.

Looking up at the sky, Sapphire’s eyes widen at the sight of clouds of various size and types, ranging from small fluffy white clouds to a massive thundercloud that looked like it could let loose at any moment. “How in Tartarus did you get all that, and why do you think I would go through a course like that?!”

“Cause it’s awesome, and what better way to overcome your fear than to take care of all of it in one day?” Rainbow declared with a smug look.

Facehoofing, Twilight stated, “My help consisted of proposing that we do increments of cloud sizes and cloud types, not to do all of them in some kind of obstacle course.”

“I figured as much, so I think we should... where’s Rainbow?” Sapphire started to say until she noticed that Rainbow had disappeared while she was listening to Twilight.

“Let’s get this started,” Rainbow suddenly cried out as she bucked a thundercloud right above Sapphire, firing a lightning bolt into the ground right behind. Letting out a shriek at the surprise, Sapphire instantly took off and flew straight up into the largest thundercloud. “Starting off with the biggest challenge, now that’s spunk!”

“Rainbow! You scared her into going straight up into the cloud!” Twilight yelled as she eyed the cloud that Sapphire went into with worry.

“Actually, I was trying to get her to flying towards that,” Rainbow replied as she pointed at the small white cloud that was in the direction Sapphire was facing. “It’s not my fault if she went straight up like that.”

As Twilight was about to say something, a loud thud rang out from her side, aiding her to jump backwards in surprise. Looking to her right, Twilight saw that Sapphire had returned, curled up as she was hugging her tail with her forelegs. Whether she came down to assume that position or just came down like that, Twilight couldn’t tell. The sight however did drove Twilight to come over to Sapphire, shaking her shaking form with her forehooves as she said, “Sapphire! It’s over now, you’re out of the thundercloud.” Instead or letting out a reply, Sapphire just mumbled something out, prompting Twilight to lower her head to hear better as she asked, “What was that, Sapphire? You’re safe now.”

For a moment, Sapphire just kept on shaking, until she finally mumbled out, “Despair... Despair has left its mark... no matter what I do... I will never be able to wash that mark away... it will exist... forever.”

Blinking in surprise, Twilight kept a calming hoof on Sapphire as she looked up at Rainbow, a frown on her face as she said, “Rainbow, I think there’s more than that instinct that... Despair left on her clan.”

“What do you mean?” Rainbow asked as she hovered over Sapphire, an expression of mixed concern and guilt clear on her face.

“I... I think that there may be a distinct possibility that she encountered the beast she calls Despair... and it might have done something to her...” Twilight answered as the pair returned their attention to the shivering Sapphire, as they wondered just what that monster could have done to the mare.

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