A series of unfortunate events that leads to another redeemed villain, yay!

by Leondude

Chapter 15 - An Insidious Flashback

It was three centuries after Celestia had banished Luna to the moon. In spite of all that time, she was still grieving. But she was a princess and her kingdom was top priority. While she smiled and waved for the crowd, it was just an act and she was feeling empty inside. However, something came up that required her immediate attention. There have been reports of a dragon causing mass destruction across the Dragon Lands. Thinking this might snap her out of her melancholy, Celestia flew to a burning wreckage of what was once a village within the Dragon Lands. It was surprisingly quiet in spite of all the destruction. While walking around the abandoned burning village, she noticed some shattered dragon statues. It appears all the inhabitants have either fled or have been turned to stone. It made for quite a disturbing scene, like she was stepping into the bits of Tartarus itself. Then a deep, raspy voice broke the silence.

"Princess! I have been waiting for you!"

Celestia looked up, and amidst all the wreckage was a dark blue dragon with a green underbelly, sickly green eyes, and a smile filled with sharp teeth that wouldn't be out of place for a rabid animal. The dragon was also wearing armour on his back and had two sharp elongated bone claws on one of his arms, along with an oddly shaped horn on his head. Celestia spoke up.

"I'm not sure I have made your acquaintance"

"Then allow to introduce myself. I am Lord Sanies. The Purulent Scourge, The Insidious Venom, The Fiery Shadow of the Dragon Lands!"

Celestia looked around, noticing the dragon standing before her must have been behind all of this. Though, considering the titles this Sanies has described himself with, it is clear that this was his first attack on the lands, because otherwise she would be more familiar with him if he was a frequent attacker.

"Why have you decided to show yourself now?"

"Simple, my little princess. After I heard about you banishing your own sister, I knew now would be as good a time as any to destroy all of Equestria, and perhaps beyond Equestria when I'm done"

Sanies looked at Celestia, his smile growing wider "Not bringing the Elements of Harmony with you? How reckless" He said before chuckling "You must really hate yourself for what you did to your sister". This provoked Celestia into attacking Sanies with a magic blast, but Sanies dodged it by teleporting behind Celestia. He then blasted a green fireball at her, but she dodged that as well. They both flew up in the air, firing magic and fire beams at each other. Sanies tried having her with his bone claws, but she dodged swiftly and blasted him with magic. Sanies, having foreseen that, teleported out of the way and backhanded Celestia. While that disoriented Celestia a little, it wasn't enough to keep her down as she telekinetically grabbed Sanies and threw him into the ground. She tried landing rather forcefully on him, but he dodged her landing and chuckled.

"You're feisty, princess. I like that"

Celestia then blasted another magic beam at Sanies, but Sanies countered with a magic beam of his own, through his horn no less. Even Celestia was surprised by this development, a dragon wielding the magic of a unicorn. As he blasted the princess with the green-coloured magic, Sanies just kept smiling at the princess.

"I sense a great anger within you, princess. Anger at me for upsetting the balance of your precious kingdom, or anger at yourself for doing nothing to stop your sister from embracing the darkness?"

That comment resulted in Celestia knocking back Sanies with the beam and then firing wildly at Sanies until Sanies blasted Celestia right in the forehead with a blast of his own, weakening the princess until she collapsed onto the floor. Sanies chuckled at the state of the princess.

"Look at you, allowing your rage to consume and unbalance you. Perhaps you should join your sister on the moon in order to cool off. Or would you prefer the sun?"

Sanies crouched down and entered the princess' mind, intending to overwrite it with his own. Finally, the power of the most powerful being in the world at his fingertips. While in there, he was busy taunting Celestia about how she's all alone in this world.

"Can't you see? There is no-one beside you. Star-Swirl, Luna, everyone you ever cared about are now gone! And soon, your subjects will be too"

Celestia was slowly starting to black out, tears streaming down her face as this beast was entering her mind. Bringing up bad memories and things to come. Sanies just laughed, knowing that victory will soon be his.

"Why not join them? Embrace the darkness!"

However, when he said that, he saw two golden eyes staring at him within the darkness. Then a smile not that far off from his own. When he looked closer, he noticed an alicorn that looked like Celestia....but....different. This one has less of an elegant grace and more of a fire motif. That's when it hit Sanies that the alicorn he was staring at was the personification of Celestia's own dark side....Daybreaker!

"If you insist" Celestia said with a menacing smirk before blasting Sanies with a very powerful beam made out of fire that was so powerful it knocked some of Sanies' teeth out. She then proceeded to give Sanies a very brutal beatdown. While Sanies tried to fight back, he can't because between getting thrown about like a ragdoll to being blasted by extremely painful and fiery magic, he was less and less in a position to fight back. For once in his life, he was absolutely powerless and it terrified him beyond belief. However, when Celestia was done beating the snot out of him, that terror eventually subsided. While most people in his position would beg for mercy or cry for their mothers, Sanies just alternated between coughing and laughing.

"I...did not...expect..y...you...to be...so...ferocious! Hehe(cough)(cough)he...you really are (cough) no different...from....people like me"

That comment actually snapped Celestia out of her violent state. She then looked down at Sanies. Even when he was beaten to a pulp, he was still smiling with whatever teeth he had left. There were also numerous scorch marks around his body and he also has a black eye.

"What...are you...waiting...for...?......finish.....me!"

"No, you have already been defeated"

Sanies just kept smiling at the princess. He really was defeated, but only temporarily. Once he's all patched up, he will hatch a new plan, he'll just have to wait until the right time and when he was healed from his injuries. And since the princess threw him in Tartarus for his crimes, he has all the time in the world to do both of those things. Even when he escaped from Tartarus after the Cerberus incident, he still kept waiting within the shadows. It was only after all of his competition, whether they turned over a new leaf or were stripped of the source of their power entirely, could he finally enact his plan.

Author's Note:

See, this is what makes Sanies threatening, with only Cozy Glow currently slightly catching up to him in the threat level. He has the power and when his plans go to pot, he doesn't go nuts or turn over a new leaf or anything like that. He just waits patiently and makes up a new plan in the mean time. And if that doesn't work, he learns from the mistakes of his previous plan in order to make a new plan that was better than the previous one. So even if he somehow loses the ability to use magic, including mind-control magic, his threat doesn't diminish because he still has his ability to learn from his errors and make a plan to get his power back OR manipulate someone with magical power equaling his own. In fact, given his body-hopping tendencies, I'm not entirely sure if destroying him will keep him down. He will literally become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.

PS: I was listening to this while writing this chapter and I highly recommend you listen to it while reading the chapter: