Dark Cloud

by D5ky

Reflections

Twilight galloped through the Everfree Forest, panting hard. The weather in the forest took care of itself, so even though everywhere else sported a grey, cloudy sky, the Everfree was unpredictable. She finally succumbed to fatigue, and sat down against a large tree. There she sat for several minutes, not wanting to get up again.

“Twilight Sparkle.”

She jumped in fear, whipping around to face the new voice. A pony in a dark cloak stood between the two trees, shaded in such a way that Twilight couldn’t see under the hood.

“Who are you?” Twilight asked, charging a spell as a precaution. “What do you want?”

The hooded figure chuckled darkly. Twilight could tell, through the deeper tone of voice and larger build, that it was a stallion under the hood.

“Who I am is of no importance. As for what I want… I want the same thing as you.”

“Which is?”

“Sombra’s head on a plate,” the stallion said. “I have an offer for you. One that will help you end him, once and for all.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, her curiosity sparked. The hooded stallion took a few steps closer to her.

“I’ve done some international travel in my time, and studied many different kinds of magic. I know very much that nopony else in Equestria does. One of the things I learned… was how to grant a pony dark blood.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. She could already guess where this was leading, but she didn’t know if she believed it.

“I want to give you dark blood, so you can use dark magic to obliterate Sombra and save the other survivors of this war.”

Twilight’s brain shot into overdrive, thinking back to the dark spellbooks she had studied so long ago. She knew she wanted it. Badly. But she also knew how evil and dangerous it was. Her mind was completely torn between these thoughts, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to decide.

“I don’t know,” she said, hesitantly. “I think I should write to Celestia and ask her what she thinks.”

“You haven’t heard?” The stallion sounded mildly surprised. “Canterlot is gone.”

“WHAT?!” Twilight exclaimed, as a letter delivered itself to her. She pulled it out and tore it open in a frenzy.

Canterlot gone. Only me, Pinkie, Ventus, and Discord got out alive. Ventus says “The Demon is gone.” What the hay is a demon?

Ponyville is the final city left. You and Fluttershy need to protect it.

-Spike

“You make your own decisions now,” the stallion said, as Twilight knelt to the ground, tears filling her eyes. “So what will it be? Will you let the rest of us perish? Or will you stand up and fight with any and all power available?”

There was only one option, and Twilight knew it. She took a deep breath, wondering what long-term consequences this would bring. She stood up.

"...I'll do it," she declared. "I'll use dark magic to beat Sombra."

"Excellent," the stallion said. "Now, follow me."

He turned back the way he had come, as Twilight silently followed behind. He led her through the forest for several minutes, their destination unknown to Twilight. Finally, a ramshackle wooden hut loomed into view. The stallion opened the door with a loud creak, gesturing her inside. With trepidation, Twilight walked inside. There was a single wooden table, with a few chairs. No windows. No other doors.

“Sit,” the stallion said. She did as she was asked, cupping her hooves on top of the table. He sat down opposite from her.

“Have you ever done hypnosis?” he asked.

Hypnosis? Twilight thought to herself. Why does he need to know?

“...A little bit,” Twilight admitted. “I never got deep into it, though…”

“Well, this is about as deep as hypnosis gets,” the stallion informed her. “But it’s necessary for the spell. Don’t worry - there won’t be any lingering effects once it’s over.”

Even more nervous now, Twilight nodded.

“The induction will take a few minutes,” he continued. “Close your eyes, relax, and don’t open them again until I say.”

Twilight followed the directions, breathing deeply through her nose. The stallion’s hidden horn glowed, and slowly, a transparent mist surrounded Twilight. She began to feel even more relaxed, as all of her thoughts and emotions grew distant and unimportant. She even stopped feeling the hard chair she was sitting in, feeling as though they were merging into one.

“Open.”

She opened her eyes. She wasn’t in a wood hut anymore, and the stallion was nowhere to be seen. She was on a lone boulder, surrounded as far as she could see by eerie, smooth water.

“Can you hear me?” a voice said, seeming to echo to her across the ghostly water.

“Yes,” she said, her voice echoing back across the emptiness in response.

“Tell me what you see.”

She looked around.

“I...I’m on a rock. There’s water all around me…”

“Can you see your reflection in the water?”

She looked down. “Yes.”

“Jump in.”

She didn’t even think twice about it. She immediately jumped into the water, breaking the glass-like surface as the water completely enveloped her. It didn’t feel like natural water - she wasn’t sure what it was. It was almost as though it was glass, but made as flexible and malleable as water.

The mirror pool, a distant part of her brain told her. It’s the mirror pool.

She didn’t have time to react to this before she was swallowed in darkness.

The stallion smiled, as Twilight sat perfectly still on the table, eyes still closed, in the exact same position as when they had started.

“Induction complete,” he said to no one, as he cast a spell to see directly into her subconsciousness. “The rest is up to you, Twilight.”

(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)

When she awoke, the first thing she registered was that she was no longer in a trance. Her brain had fully reconnected itself… or so she thought. She stood up, unsure where she was. For a moment, she thought she hadn’t left the mirror pool cave after all. But then she looked down. She was no longer on a rock. It was now a small little island of sand. The water was still eerily still, although it was definitely water. She looked more into the distance, but couldn’t see anything else. The light-grey sky seemed to extend forever, as did the water, as they met at the horizon in every direction.

“What now?” Twilight wondered aloud. “There’s nowhere to go.”

Not wanting to stay on the island the entire time, she took a few tentative steps forward towards the water. Her hooves made contact with the surface, and she was surprised to find that the water was warm. She took a few more steps, but it wasn't getting any deeper.

"I guess I'll just start going," she concluded, and began walking away from the island. What she was supposed to do, she had no idea, but she figured nothing would happen if she didn't move. She glanced back at the little island about twenty paces away, and doubled back.

The island had spawned a small, dead-looking tree. She approached it again, curious. There hadn't even been any sound. It was as if the tree, which was only about fifteen feet tall, had just appeared there. She walked up to it, putting her hoof against the trunk. It was definitely solid.

"This is weird," Twilight said, perplexedly. She hadn't ever done much research on hypnosis, so she had no idea where she was in her mind.

Unable to find anything else interesting about the tree, she walked back off the island in a different direction. She didn't look back for almost thirty paces, but then, unable to help herself, she looked back.

The tree was still there, but something was different this time. Something grey stood on the island, directly between Twilight and the tree. Her curiosity sparked again, she walked back towards the tree. She couldn't tell what the grey thing was, even as she drew nearer. Only as she drew within a couple of yards did she realize it had an equine shape. She took one more, tentative step towards it.

A yell, almost like a combat yell, rang out in the emptiness, as the grey equine jumped forward at her. Caught by surprise, she dove aside as the dark shape skidded past her, sending water droplets spraying into the air. The grey figure turned and ran at Twilight again, and she tried to charge a spell by reflex. To her horror, however, her magic seemed to have no effect in this place.

I'll have to fight by hoof, she thought to herself.

As the thing prepared to lash out at her with it's front hooves, she sidestepped and hit it in the face, jumping back to avoid it's next strike. The figure began to become more defined, as though it was still fading into existence. Its attacks grew more brutal as well, and Twilight took several blows, unable to predict what it would do.

The dark pony came even more into focus, and as Twilight landed a lucky hit that sent it to the ground, she gasped.

The pony was turning into her. A dark grey version of her, with red eyes, and black hair with a dark blue highlight. Finally, it fully solidified, glaring at her with those red eyes.

Am I fighting my own dark side? she wondered, diving aside as the Dark Twilight flew at her with a kick. What will that accomplish?

Twilight began to fight more brutally, soon almost matching the fury of her dark side. Then they were evenly matched, each pony blocking the strikes the other threw. Then, slowly, very slowly, Twilight began to overpower her dark side.

She began landing several heavy blows, similar to how badly her dark side had been beating her not all that long ago. As she threw many punches and kicks in quick succession, she didn't notice the change in herself. Her dark side was changing skin tone, becoming lighter, as Twilight began to grow steadily darker in contrast.

Although they had been fighting for a couple of minutes now, Twilight felt as though she was gaining energy instead of losing it. She picked up the pace even more, and her other self soon couldn't even move due to the blows kicking her this way and that. The red receded out of the other Twilight's eyes, quickly fading to lavender as Twilight's grew steadily more red. Finally, Twilight kicked the legs out from under her other self, knocking her to the ground. She jumped into the air, front flipping and bringing her back hooves crashing into her other self's chest. Her front hooves quickly followed, pounding her other self's muzzle in.

Her other self's eyes rolled back in their sockets, and she stopped moving.

Sadistically satisfied, Twilight jumped off of her other self's chest. Only then did she realize that her "dark" side looked exactly like she did.

Then she looked down at her reflection in the water.

She let out a scream of surprise, as she saw the grey body, black hair, and red eyes her dark side previously had.

"What have I done?!" she yelled to the emptiness, as her other self began bleeding into the water, and the blood billowed out like red clouds around her.

(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)

"She's ready," the dark unicorn muttered to himself, as he watched Twilight finish taking her dark side's form. Retrieving a small green crystal from his magical storage, he used a knife to cut an incision in Twilight's side, about half a foot to the left of her cutie mark. He pushed the crystal into the hole, making sure it went all the way in. He then healed the wound, trying to leave no trace that he had cut into her. He used his magic to observe as the crystal fractured, leaking a dark substance within her. Quickly, the darkness found one of her blood veins, and it spread through her like poison.

The dark unicorn held his breath, as the dark substance reached her heart. It made contact with it, and her heart beat out of place a couple of times. Then, it returned to its normal pattern. The dark unicorn sighed in relief, and smiled.

"Injection complete," he said, triumphantly. He cast a spell to retrieve Twilight from her magic subconscious, but immediately cast another that would ensure that she slept long enough for him to get out of sensory range. Leaving her slumped over the table, he walked out of the shack, taking off into the air and soaring north.

(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)

Ventus, Pinkie, Spike and Discord climbed up the steep slope, trying to reach the top of the mountain. Nopony was talking as they walked, each dwelling on all of the dead ponies they had left behind.

They climbed for almost an hour, until they finally stopped to eat. Discord spawned a flamethrower to light the campfire, and they sat down around the fire.

"All right," Pinkie said, looking at Ventus. "Want to explain what the hell happened back there?"

"What do you mean?" Ventus asked, with a failed attempt at an innocent tone.

Pinkie glared. "You know what I mean. How did you survive, and why were your eyes black?"

"Black eyes?" Discord exclaimed. "You mean, like this?"

His eyes immediately turned a deep shade of black, making Spike cry out in alarm.

"Worse than that," Pinkie said, still glaring at Ventus. "He didn't have any white in his eyes."

"Well, well," Discord said, as his eyes returned to normal. "You've been mixing it up with the wrong crowd, General."

"What do you mean?" Spike looked lost. "What happened?"

Ventus sighed. "Look, Canterlot fell today. We all experienced horrific things. I don't want to immediately relive it."

"But you can't pretend that didn't happen," Pinkie protested.

"Just... give me until tomorrow," Ventus said, raising a hoof. "Tomorrow, I'll explain everything.

"And how do we know we can trust you?" Discord asked, arms folded and an eyebrow raised. "I haven't met any decent beings of that kind before."

"Because if I was going to kill you, I would have done it already," Ventus pointed out. "And I certainly wouldn't have been trying to destroy the other one."

"What are you talking about?" Pinkie asked, looking just as confused as Spike now. "What other one?"

"Tomorrow," Ventus reminded her. "You'll know tomorrow."

They ate their food in silence for several minutes.

"So what now?" Pinkie asked, eventually. "I guess I'm the only remaining Element of Harmony."

"Not true," Ventus interjected. Now that the demon was gone, he could tell them. "Fluttershy and Twilight were both secretly reassigned to Ponyville. Neither of them were in the city."

"So that's why I couldn't find them," Pinkie muttered. "But why didn't you or Celestia tell me--"

"Tomorrow, Pinkie," Ventus said for the third time, slightly exasperated now.

Nopony talked until they had finished eating, and then it was only to discuss whether they would camp there or not. In the end, they moved a bit further up the mountainside, where they found a small cave. Discord provided them with sleeping bags, with the slight side effect of the bags hopping around the cave trying to tackle each other, making it impossible to get in them.

"Discord, can't you make them stand still?!" Pinkie yelled in frustration, after she had dove for a bag and missed, as it jumped aside when it saw her coming.

"No," Discord replied, completely serious.

Quite suddenly, the sleeping bags all stopped hopping, and all four flopped back to the ground on top of each other. Everypony, eyes wide, looked at Ventus. Even in the poor light of the cave, each could see that his eyes had turned black as night. Immediately after this, they faded back to blue.

"You... you just cancelled out my chaos magic!" Discord exclaimed, sounding genuinely astonished. "How in the bouncing buck did you pull that off?! I didn't even think it was possible!"

"I... I don't know," Ventus said, sounding as confused as Discord. "It just sorta happened. I didn't even think."

"What are you?" Discord asked, still appalled.

"...Tomorrow," Ventus said for the fourth time, stalking to the sleeping bag pile and dragging the top one off of it. He looked back at the other three, seeing that none of them had moved.

"They won't eat you, I swear," he said, before dragging his bag further away and smoothing it out on the damp cave floor. Glancing at each other, the others followed suit.

Ventus laid in the bag on his stomach, his head facing away from the others. Using magic, he began doodling idly on the cave wall, trying not to think back to the day's events. But he couldn't help it. Celestia, his foster mother, had been killed before his very eyes. He had finally seen a full-blooded Demon, the true nature of them. He became even more angry every time he remembered that he was so deeply connected to the demons, that he was so deeply connected to something so evil.

He was so focused on trying not to focus that he didn't hear the clip clop of a set of hooves approaching him, nor the sound of a sleeping bag being dragged along the ground.

"What're you drawing?" Pinkie asked. Ventus gave a start, looking up to see the pink pony standing above him. He didn't know when it had happened, but her hair no longer hung completely straight. It hadn't returned to the messily poofy state he had first seen it in, but it was a lot more comely than having it all hang down over her face.

"I don't know," he shrugged. "I've never been any good at drawing."

Pinkie giggled slightly, before asking something else.

"Mind if I join you?"

"...No," Ventus said, untruthfully. In fact, he would've preferred to have been alone at that moment, but it wasn't like he would say no. Pinkie flattened out her sleeping bag next to him, on his left, and laid down on her left side on top of it, so she was facing him. They sat in silence for a minute, as Ventus continued doodling on the wall.

"So," he said, deciding to break the silence, "are you less scared now?"

"Why would I be less scared?" Pinkie asked. "It's still just as likely that Sombra will kill us."

"But you actually fought in battle today, and held your own," Ventus pointed out.

"...That's true," she admitted. Then, she sighed. "But no, I'm not any less scared."

More silence. More doodling.

"So why'd you come over here?" Ventus asked. "I thought you still weren't sure about what I am."

"...Do you really want to know?" Pinkie asked. He nodded.

"...Then I'll tell you," she said, hesitantly. Ventus stopped doodling, and turned onto his right side so they were both facing each other.

"I'm still not sure about whether I should trust you," she said. "I'm not even a unicorn, and I could feel it when you... when your eyes were black."

To his surprise, she blushed slightly, as she continued.

"But... when I'm with you... I feel safe," she admitted. "I feel like if you're by my side, I'll be fine."

She stopped, with a rather awkward few moments of hesitation, as Ventus thought back to how she had pressed up against his side when the shadow ponies were bearing down on them.

"I'm still terrified," she said. "I still don't want to die... and I still want you to keep me safe."

She turned even redder, and looked away. Ventus was lost for words for a few moments, but then smiled.

"All right," he said, warmly. "I'll... I'll keep you safe, for as long as I can."

"Th-thanks," she stammered, before getting into her sleeping bag properly. Ventus was amazed that Pinkie, heck, that any mare thought of him in that way, especially considering how terrifying demonic aura was. But here was a mare who, without any explanation from him, still trusted him, still felt safe near him, even after seeing him at his scariest.

"Hey," Pinkie said. Ventus turned to look at her. She had one hoof extended, looking innocently hopeful. It was incredible that she could look so innocent, considering how deadly of a soldier she was. But apparently, under all of that cold power, a little filly still slept, waiting to manifest once more. With a small smile, Ventus took her hoof in his.

"I'm looking forward to hearing your story tomorrow," she said with a smile, before settling a bit more comfortably in her bag, and closing her eyes.

Ventus felt slightly guilty, as his thoughts drifted to Twilight. But in all reality, he didn't know if he would ever see her again. And here was Pinkie Pie, with her surprisingly soft hoof in his, looking so peaceful as she lay beside him. He smiled slightly, before closing his eyes as well.

The sound of water hitting the ground outside told Ventus that it had started to rain. Between Pinkie's hoof in his and the lullaby of the rain outside, he felt much happier than he would've believed possible ten minutes ago as he slowly drifted off to sleep.

(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)(=)

Sombra had long since finished mutilating dead bodies in his rage, and now walked through the destroyed, completely abandoned city of Canterlot.

That damned demon, he cursed silently. Leaving me with no army or anything to work with...

He kicked some rubble aside as he walked. He didn't want to take the demon's advice, but he knew it was right. If he didn't destroy Ponyville, the survivors would gather there, build up over time, and come to destroy him again.

Do I really have a choice? he thought.

Rain began to fall softly at first, but got harder and harder as time wore on.

I'll leave tomorrow, Sombra concluded, as he began to seek undestroyed shelter.

Current Equestria Population:
397

Author's Note:

Tomorrow. Everything is happening tomorrow.
Damn, I wasn't even planning on having that ship. It just sort of came while I was writing it. Almost like Ventus' new spells.
I think I actually like Ventus/Pinkie more than Ventus/Twilight. I'm such a douchebag.
Well, I'm working on the next chapter. It'll be easier now - we're back to editing the existing chapters! The rest of this should go pretty fast, so stay tuned!

Comments

[Shadowflame]

"And how do we know we can trust you?" Discord asked, arms folded and an eyebrow raised. "I haven't met any decent decent beings of that kind before."

You added two decent's in there.

[Cool_Story_Reader]

Hmmm... Knowing how it ends in the old version, this new ship intrigues me quite a lot.
I want to know what happens!
Next chapter please