(7-2) Thinking Things Through
"Why did Candace hate me so much?" I asked aloud, half to Doctor Marks and half to myself.
"She's the one you said was the Princess of Love, correct?" he asked.
"Yeah. The Princess of Love. It doesn't make any sense."
I was sitting in his office for the second time, once again discussing with him what happened. I was following his directions and staying relaxed, as well as taking the medication he prescribed. He told me this week he wanted to go over the specifics of what had happened to me.
"Didn't you say they all hated you?" he questioned curiously. "Is there any reason you're focusing on her in particular?"
"I don't know. And also, they didn't all hate me," I explained. "Only most of them. And honestly, it wasn't even hate coming from the Element Bearers. It was more like… baseless anger and mistrust. The only two I felt outright hated me were Cadance and Celestia."
“You said last week that you’d try to find out why. Can I assume that since you’re only asking about the one… pony, that you’ve figured out the reason for why the other felt the way they did?”
I appreciated him speaking like it wasn’t a hallucination, even though I knew he thought it was. “I did some researching on Celestia-”
“That’s the Sun Princess, the one who turned into fire, correct?”
“Yeah. I was looking into her to see why she hated me so much, and honestly, from what I learned, I kind of feel bad for her.”
“Can you tell me what exactly happened?”
“Well, from what I learned, there was a mirror world that had a different Sombra that Celestia loved. Evidently, things there were out of wack, so the Sombra there had to become evil to match the Sombra in the normal Equestria. So I’m fairly certain she blames him for losing the love of her life. And combine that with Princess Amore dying, I can pretty clearly see how she went crazy. It makes me feel bad now that I told her to just get over it...”
"Hmmm… that's interesting," he commented, writing what I told him down. "Of course, that doesn't explain why that other one hated you."
"Well, I don't know why she hated me," I told him. "You're supposed to be the therapist. Can't you figure out why?"
"Well, let's see if we can't find that answer. You said she was the Queen of Love-"
"Princess," I corrected, "and she wasn't acting like it to me."
"You told me before that you hated her. Could that be the reason she hated you?"
"Well, while I never particularly liked her, I didn't actually hate any of them until they thought it was okay to kill me, which, from what I was told, came about because of the hate she and Celestia radiated. They had a heavy hand in their thinking."
"Hoof," he suddenly said.
I looked at him funnily. "What?" I asked, confused.
"Well," he started, "if they were horses like you said, the phrase would be 'heavy hoof'."
I gave him a glare for several moments while he sat silently, looking uncomfortable, before apologizing. "I'm sorry," he told me. "Um, do you remember when you noticed her hating you?"
I thought for a few seconds before answering. "It was from the second she saw me. She hated me on sight."
“Could it possibly have been because you were a villain in this world?”
“Maybe, but… actually, I don’t know, I’m not sure. I don’t think she would’ve had the same reaction to Tirek or Cozy Glow. Honestly, the only person I’d expect her to be this angry at is Chrysalis.”
“Who’s Chrysalis?” Doctor Marks asked me.
“Someone who locked her up in a dungeon and made her husband fall in love with her,” I explained. “But that's not important. The point is I don’t think it was because I was a bad guy. Granted, I did try to take over the Crystal Empire and endangered her family.”
"You did?"
"Errr, Sombra did. I'm sorry. But anyway, I don't think it was enough justification. I didn't get the same feeling she gave me from her husband."
“Hmmm… that’s interesting… And you didn't find anything striking about her while you were researching?"
"I can't say I did."
He went quiet for a few moments, then suggested, "Perhaps she was faking?"
That was certainly a suggestion, one that caught me off guard. It wasn't a scenario I would've thought of on my own. "Why would she fake hating me?”
“I wouldn’t know why. I only suggest it because you can’t find a reason for her hate.”
“So, you think she hates me just because?”
“Well, not exactly, and as I said, I’m only guessing. But let me ask you about that pony, the one who controls the sun. You said she got so mad that she turned into flames. Is she normally like that? Does that happen a lot?”
“I can’t say it does. She doesn't normally go insane.”
“And you said it was her and Cadance's emotions fueling how everyone else reacted to you?”
“That’s what Luna told me… wait, are you saying that Cadance hate was intensifying Celestia’s hate?”
“I… think it’s a possibility, given how you’ve described how Celestia typically acts.”
“So, not only was she making Celestia angry, you think she was doing it on purpose? Why?”
“I wouldn’t know why. Maybe she had a plan she was trying to enact?”
I considered it for a second, then answered, “No, I don’t believe that. I mean, maybe she was fueling Celestia’s anger, but I don’t think she had some other plan. I’m pretty sure she’s too dumb to even try to make a plan in the first place. And even if she was smart enough, which is a big if, she would need a reason to have a plan. I’m not sure how turning Celestia into Daybreaker would help or benefit her in the slightest.”
“So can you tell me what you think?”
“I don’t know. Maybe she’s just a naturally angry and hateful pony. From the way she acted, it wouldn’t surprise me.”
“Ah knew he was lying!” Applejack spat angrily “Ah told y’all right from the beginning he was lying!”
“Applejack-” Twilight tried to say.
“Of course that brute was lying!” Rarity commented. “He’s nothing but a monster!”
“Rarity-” the purple alicorn got out.
“I mean, he was probably trying to make her turn into Daybreaker so he wouldn’t have to deal with her,” Rainbow Dash interjected. “He was probably stringing all of us along like puppets.”
“Rainbow Dash-”
“I think it’d be pretty fun to be a puppet! We could put on a big puppet show!”
“Pinkie, now’s not-”
“Ah mean, he made fools outta us. We shoulda known-”
“EVERYPONY, STOP!”
Ten eyes turned Fluttershy’s way, surprised by her yelling. “I’m sorry for yelling everypony, but I just can’t bear to hear you all talk about that creature that way.”
“There was no creature, darling! You heard what Twilight said: he was likely planning it from the very beginning! For heaven's sakes, he attacked Princess Luna and ran away!”
“Yes, I did say that he was probably planning this from the start," Twilight explained, "however, like I was trying to tell you all, that doesn’t mean that somepony else wasn’t trapped inside his body before. Both those things can be true at once.”
“But Twilight, darling, you have to admit-”
“No, Rarity. Luna said that he wasn’t Sombra, at least before, and I’m going to believe her. Besides, we should’ve expected this to happen, seeing as we were trying to free whoever it was trapped in there. Why do you think we had the meeting with Princess Celestia in the first place, or tried to get Radiant Hope to help us?”
“Either way, it looks like we should’ve kept him in there, especially since Princess Luna is stone now because of him.”
“No, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy countered. “Even if it meant Luna getting turned into stone, we couldn’t let that poor creature be stuck in there. That would just be awful.”
Rainbow Dash sighed at that. “I guess you’re right, Fluttershy.” Fluttershy gave her a smile, happy that she agreed, and listened as she continued, “I guess that means now we have to stop Sombra.”
“How’re we s’posed to tell if it’s actually Sombra this time?” Applejack asked, exasperated. “He could easily start pretending’ again.”
“That’s a good question,” Fluttershy said thoughtfully. “What would we do if he says he’s not himself again?”
“Well…” the Princess of Friendship trailed off, “unfortunately, we aren’t going to be able to trust him. We’ll have to assume he’s lying. We can try talking to him, but if he looks like he’s going to be aggressive…” She turned to look Fluttershy in the eyes, saying, “we can’t hold back.”
Fluttershy looked at the ground and sighed, answering quietly, “I understand.”
"But only if he's aggressive," she thought silently.
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if this goes as bad as it seems its going to go then it might end with cadence loosing her aliconhood and our mc needing some serious theropy
I’m wondering why Alex might come back in the first place. I can’t think of a reason Sombra would want him to that doesn’t leave his fate up to random chance.
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Well yeah, I’m just not sure why he would want to.
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Who says he wants it to happen (or even thinks it'll happen)?
I just can't wait for him to get sent back and mentally break
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Fair point.
Nice to know some of them are actually thinking that he wasn't stringing them along from the start along with actually coming up with a plan for when the resident human manages to get back.
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And Twilught is showing herself to be levelheaded, more than just about anyone, meaning Fluttershy isn't the only sane pony. Though I really don't think anyone else is honestly trying to do the right thing, if they don't want to murder him they want to force him to acceot guilt so they can execute him.
That's why if he DOES end up back in Equestria that gives him a huge reason to hate all of them. Alex never wanted to be there, so if they bring him back they're doing so ti subject him to misery and death, proving themselves as the evil ones.
"I'm obviously bonkers, but what the fuck, man?!" -that one guy.
To be clear, Alex did make it back home, right?
And he's sought psychiatric assistance to try to work through what he experienced?
Is his "research" just looking up whatever relevant MLP plot information he can find?
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Considering that he was able to look things up that he didn't know, he's likely truly at home but might still be connected to Sombra. The author will not tell us the truth about it yet because that would be spoiling the plot.
He's never watching that terrible show ever again...so he caught up on the comics!
Glad this story is fully acknowledging the uncharacteristic behavior of both Celestia and Cadence, even if I still feel the comics make it much more understandable in Celestia's case. Twilight and Fluttershy were the MVPs of this chapter, I hope they've also considered the possibility that Sombra could just use Alex as a shield against them.
Hmmm, perhaps part of the plan before he even appeared was to seed Cadance to emanate hate. It's her talent to be able to manipulate emotions and encourage empathy, but what if it was subtly turned to inversion? Everypony needs a full magic checkup!
Keep going! ;)
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Based on interpretation, I believe poor Alex is still in there.
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so pretty much Alex is screwed wether he stays or comes back and only a deus ex machina can literally un-fuck his situation?
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What makes you think that?
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he stays trapped in his mind prison: a prison by any other name is still a prison.
he manages to escape the mind prison: he's locked up in a literal prison until further notice due to things sombra did.
I can't see Alex getting out of this predicament without help, like if Luna while stuck in stone can still use her dream powers to try to hep Alex. then when he gets control over Sombra's body he could bring Luna back who can vouch for him.
Other than that don't see how he can undo the damage Sombra had done to the fragile trust he was building.
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I can see a way, but that's because what's going to happen is probably different than what everyone else is expecting
This right here is the moment Applejack falls from grace. She knows he was being truthful, but decided inventing a lie to justtify her hate was better, then recanted, and then decided she wanted to hate him instead of accept the truth of her being wrong. There's no way she can still be the Element of Honesty after this.
And you know what would be utterly hilarious? If Alex becomes the new Element of Honesty to replace her.
Cadance
-----
Fuck... Hes boned no matter what. Game was rigged from the start if you ask me... But the hell is wrong with Cadance?
After that, I’ll have to agree with her.
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I always theorized what reason Cadance hated Sombra as she only met him at least once or twice - I haven't seen the S9 opening yet so my information is limited - Cadance first met Sombra in the S3 opening but she had zero reason to actually hate him, maybe dislike him for his treatment of the Crystal Empire residents and the second time she met him is during the comics - which doesn't happen in that order in this story.
Another theory I have is this, in the comics which show Sombra's return after the events of the S4 finale, he's gets help from Radiant Hope to free the Umbra, before the Umbra are freed Cadance encounters Radiant to find Sombra, where's he located below the hidden staircase. Since only dark magic can reveal it, when Twilight used dark magic she got a headache because, Celestia explained that you have to have hate within your heart to properly use dark magic, but when Cadance used dark magic... she was naturally fine - now remember, that Twilight used dark magic after the events of the Canterlot Wedding, meaning she held no hate for Chrysalis even after what she's done, maybe now real hate but the kind of hate toward somebody who's done bad, nothing personal.
A third theory for Cadance is that she's the Princess of Love, but that could also mean more than just relationships, it could mean the "Princess of Emotions", both the good and bad, so it explained why Celestia felt so OOC for some reason, than her composed self. Now she wasn't doing this intentionally, for all we know, Cadance doesn't fully understand her true powers as an alicorn, so all that happened before Sombra came may had accidentally happened to Cadance not controlling her untapped powers.
So, what I learned is that Cadance is naturally has a hateful/angry personality behind her present one, she might be able to control other's emotions - accidental or intentional - and, Cadance doesn't have an actual reason to hate Sombra - unless it has to do with what occurred in S9 - so pretty much Cadance is going to do something real stupid, and disappoint a lot of ponies... no wait, I had a point before but I forgot... ahhhh, welp, I'll just say that's all I have to say.
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64.media.tumblr.com/1c2fc451d0277b275694249d5174b6f0/tumblr_mo7fpq1OEb1rj4ht7o2_1280.png
Enough said.......................
Wonder what's gonna happen with Alex.
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Heh.