Dark Cloud

by D5ky

Confrontations

Twilight and Ventus approached the northern mountains, with more apprehension every step. They had no idea what to expect, which meant they needed to expect anything to happen.

"What happened once you got here?" Ventus asked her.

"Well, I got a bit closer, and he sent me a note. It led me to Spike. Then, I got another note which told me to climb the mountain. I saw Sombra and his army preparing to invade. That's all."

Ventus scratched his head. "What should we even look for, then?"

"Dark aura?" Twilight suggested with a shrug. Ventus tilted his head.

"Actually... that's not a bad idea," he said, looking at the twin mountains before them. "Funnily enough, dark spells of revealing catch dark aura more accurately and more often than normal ones."

"Why is that?" Twilight asked, realizing she hadn't ever really thought about that.

"Because we know what to look for," Ventus said. "It's harder to hide when your enemy knows how you do it."

Something from a million years ago popped into Twilight's head. A sentence from Celestia's letter about dark magic.

You cannot fight your enemy without knowing how they think, what their weaknesses are, and exactly what they’re capable of.

"So, we can find something?" she asked.

"It's the only idea I have right now," he replied. "Why not?"

Both of their horns glowed black, and they scanned the mountain. Nothing.

"Well, that was a dud," Twilight said, glumly. But Ventus wasn't finished.

"I have more up my sleeve," he said.

He breathed deeply, and as he was now so adept at doing, he summoned the demonic forces from his soul, and his eyes turned pitch-black. He searched the mountainside, and immediately found something.

"There're dark spells protecting a cave up there," he said, in his distorted demonic voice. "I'd bet anything somepony lives up there."

He pushed the demonic forces back down, and his eyes returned to normal.

"Let's go check it out," he said, resuming their course for the mountains.

Twilight followed a few paces behind him.

"Can't we just fly up?" she asked. Ventus shook his head.

"Can't risk it. If there is somepony up there, they'd probably sense it."

As Twilight walked, looking at Ventus from behind, she realized how much about the stallion she didn't know.

"Hey... Ventus?" she said, hesitantly.

"Yeah?"

"So... being half-demon... what does it mean?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean... I've seen you using some demonic power. But what can you do? What kinds of magic can you wield?"

Ventus thought about it. How would he explain it? He barely knew anything about it himself.

"Keep in mind, I only found out about this a few days ago. Celestia wanted me to hold the demonic powers down, and not use them. She didn't know anything about demons, and didn't know what I was capable of. So I don't know how far my power stretches."

He paused. But that couldn't be all. He did know some things about it, and Twilight knew he did.

"But so far, I've discovered a few things. Obviously, I can use dark magic. I also seem to have power over demons. When Sombra invaded Canterlot, the demon who had been spying on us made an appearance at last, possessing Iron Hooves. It's psychic powers didn't work on me. And once it killed Celestia, I went full-on demon... and I forced it out of Iron Hooves."

"Forced it out? What does that mean?"

"Demons have psychic abilities. They can use their hooves to throw ponies, even if they're possessing a Pegasus or an Earth Pony. But he couldn't throw me. And once I went demonic, I could use the same abilities on it. I used it to force it away from Iron Hooves' soul."

Shocked silence seemed to be a common thing between them.

"Is that what you tried to do to the dark spirit in my soul?" she asked, connecting the pieces.

"Yes," Ventus said. "But it's latched too tightly to you. I couldn't get it out."

"What else can you do?" Twilight asked. It was more magic she knew absolutely nothing about, and she would've asked a million questions if they had time.

"I can see in the dark," Ventus said, "and... I've only figured out one other thing, and I haven't figured out what it does yet."

"What is it?"

"In Canterlot, I rescued Spike. He was fatally injured. But I cast some demonic spell on him, and he began healing at dark-blood-rate. I don't know how, because I seriously doubt demons even need healing spells."

Twilight thought about it, brainstorming.

"Have you ever done it other than that once?" she asked. He shook his head.

"Try it on me."

Again, the usual shocked silence, as Ventus came to a halt.

"You want me to try an unknown demonic spell on you? Right now?"

She nodded.

"...Have you lost your mind?!"

"It saved Spike from fatal injuries," she pointed out. "How bad can it be? And if it's really bad, I know healing spells."

"...Good point," Ventus admitted. His horn glowed black, as he recalled the feeling of the spell from the last time he had done it. He focused the aura on Twilight, as his eyes went black again. She was enveloped in dark aura, and she felt an odd tingling sensation in her eyes as she was levitated slightly off the ground. Then, only a couple seconds after it had started, it stopped, and Twilight glided gently back to the ground.

"You all right?" Ventus asked. She nodded. "Feel any different?"

"Not really," she replied. "Was that the right spell?"

"It looked and felt exactly the same as last time," he said with a nod. "I don't know what it does."

"We'll figure it out later," Twilight said, looking back up the mountain slope as she struggled to ignore her burning curiosity about demonic magic. "We've got more important things to deal with right now."

They continued up the mountainside in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Before either of them knew it, they were approaching the hidden cave.

"...I think I sense it now," Twilight said, with a confused tone. "Are we about fifty feet below it?"

"Y...yeah," Ventus said, surprised. "How can you see it now?"

"I don't know," Twilight said. "It's like it just popped up out of nowhere."

"Well," Ventus said, shrugging off his surprise, "if you can see it, you can help me break in."

They walked until they were only a dozen yards from it.

"Dark energy blast?" Ventus asked. She nodded.

"In three... two... one."

At the same moment, violet energy exploded from both unicorns in beams, which flew forward and assaulted the dark shield guarding the cave entrance. The shield, which had been disguised as rock face with shadow magic, burst apart, revealing the mouth of the cave.

"If somepony's in there, they probably sensed that," Ventus said, matter-of-factly.

"So why couldn't we fly up here?" Twilight asked, slightly annoyed.

"Because they might've stopped us from getting in," Ventus pointed out. "Let's go. No light spells - we might be able to slip past them if we don't use any more magic. Stay close behind me, since I'll be able to see."

They galloped forward, entering the mouth of the cave. Instantly, Ventus' eyes dilated, and he was able to see straight through the cave. Behind him, Twilight let out a sharp gasp of surprise.

"What?" Ventus breathed.

"I... I can see," Twilight said, staring in shock around the dark, but completely visible cave. "I can see everything!"

Ventus looked at her eyes, and saw with a jolt that they had dilated, just as his had.

Then the pieces clicked together like a jigsaw puzzle, and Ventus' eyes lit up with realization.

"I've got it!" He whispered excitedly. "I figured out what the spell does!"

"What?" Twilight asked, her barely-containable curiosity bursting forth once more.

"It made Spike heal as fast as I do, and it made you see in the dark as well as I do. I think I'm transferring abilities to you guys!"

"Is that even possible?" Twilight asked. She hadn't ever heard of anything like it.

"I don't see why not," Ventus shrugged. "I can manipulate demons like puppets. Why couldn't I give abilities to people? It seems more plausible."

A noise cut through the silence, a noise like shattering glass. They both fell silent immediately, looking around. Ventus gestured, suggesting they move onward. Twilight nodded.

They continued onward through the cave, as it began to grow slightly larger. Soon, they reached what seemed to be the end of the cave, aside from the large set of iron doors set into the wall. Twilight looked at Ventus, who nodded, knowing what the question was before she had to ask it. She used her magic to unlock the door, and cast a dark spell of revealing.

"There's nopony in there," she said with a sigh of relief, pushing the door open.

Her mouth fell open. They were in a tall room, all elements suggesting they were really in a cave forgotten. The walls were no longer made of rock, but were now ordinary, dark blue walls. The whole place highly resembled Twilight's library back in Canterlot. There was even the same enormous window directly opposite to them, but instead of showing the city of Canterlot, it gave a spectacular view of the ocean. She knew it was shadow magic, though, as they were hundreds of miles away from it. The other two walls had bookcases that were almost as tall as the window, and were completely filled with thick-looking books. There was a single, soft-looking armchair in the middle of the room, as well as a wooden table and chair against another wall.

On the east wall, beside the bottom of the bookcase, there was a maroon door. She opened it, and beheld a short hallway that held two more doors. One of them led to a bathroom, and the other to a smaller room with a large bed, with a small window against the wall, this time giving the illusion of the sky, which Twilight figured would show the stars at night.

She came back into the main room to see Ventus already searching through the books, seemingly unaffected by the spectacular cavern. She too began looking at the books. She had read a lot of them in her dark magic training, but there were also a lot that she had never seen. Some had symbols of dark magic that she recognized for covers.

They looked for well over an hour, searching for any clues as to what they should do. Twilight ended up getting buried in what looked like a journal. It mostly held notes for spells, and what looked like brainstorming notes for the first several pages, but she finally came across actual journal entries. She skimmed through them, until she found one particular entry that intrigued her.

I messed up. I didn't do a good enough job of impersonating Celestia, and I think Twilight noticed. Erősszél wasn't happy. I still don't think he suspects anything, though. I'm still successfully blocking portions of my memory, so that he can't see what I'm really planning. After all, he still doesn't fully exist in this world, which means he can't see everything. If the plan works, he will never fully exist again.

Erősszél, she thought, racking her brains. Where had she heard that name before? It was hard to think about it, as she processed the other information. It seemed that whoever wrote this had impersonated Celestia at some point.

The visit during your assignment, her brain told her. It explained a lot. No wonder Celestia had seemed so off. Twilight continued on to the next entry.

Today went badly. Twilight knows that Celestia didn't visit her. But my error aside, things should go smoothly from now on. Twilight should now be noticing that Spike is overdue, and come looking for him. Erősszél is still unsuspecting, and at this point I don't think he will expect anything. Which means I can finally rid him from not only haunting me, but from the world altogether.

"Ventus, come look at this," Twilight said, without looking up from the book.

There was no reply. She waited for another couple of seconds, not looking up as she pondered the book's contents. When he still didn't reply, she called to him again.

"Seriously, come read this. It explains eveyth--"

She was cut off by the sight that met her when she finally looked up. Ventus was upright, standing on his back two hooves, with his front legs snapped to his sides like a soldier. His eyes were wide with terror, looking down at the dark cyan hoof which was holding a knife to his throat. Attached to the hoof was an arm, and that arm was attached to a pony wearing a black cloak. Immediately, Twilight recognized the newcomer. It was the stallion who had offered her dark blood in the Everfree. His hood was shrouding less of his face than last time, and Twilight saw a flash of red for a moment from beneath it.

"You're going to do exactly as I say," the hooded stallion said in his deep voice. Twilight began to think fast, slowly charging up a spell. If she could hide the magical power, then she could force the knife away from Ventus' neck.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the hooded stallion said threateningly, twitching the knife in his hand, which was fifteen inches long and horribly sharp-looking. "Not unless you want to see exactly how dark his blood is. And yes, this knife can kill dark-blooded ponies."

She stopped charging the spell in defeat, letting the magical energy absorb itself back into her.

"Good," the stallion said.

Instead of slitting Ventus' throat, he withdrew the knife, and smashed the butt of the handle into Ventus' temple. He was instantly out cold, and he slumped to the ground.

Twilight's anger instantly became paramount, breaking her self control as her eyes flashed back to red menacingly. Before the hooded stallion could react, she had blasted her friend away from him, and had tried to force the metal of the knife to contort, rendering it useless. To her horror, however, the knife remained perfectly intact and sharp. The hooded unicorn hurled it to the side, directly at Ventus. Before Twilight could react, it sliced easily through the right hind leg of her friend, driving itself at least a foot into the floor, effectively pinning the stallion to the ground. Twilight had been watching this, and hadn't noticed the second knife in the left hoof of her assailant. It too found a home in the floor, beneath Ventus' front right hoof. He didn't scream out in pain, as he was still unconscious from the blow moments before.

Twilight began launching more spells at the stallion, yelling at him, punctuating each word with a spell.

"You. Celestia-damned. Heartless. Son of a bu--"

Before she could finish cursing at the stallion, he let off a blast of energy that knocked her back, diagonally. She smashed into the wall above the doors, and slid down it to the ground. Groaning, and barely not blacking out, she stood back up. Her head was throbbing, and she knew she would no longer be able to fight as she raised a hoof to her right temple.

"The more negative emotion you feed him," the hooded stallion began, "The stronger he'll get."

His cloak began to turn transparent, and after a moment or two, the whole thing faded away into nothingness, leaving Twilight to finally look into the face of the stallion. He had a dark cyan coat, with long black hair, and a dark magic symbol for a cutie mark. His red eyes stood out to her more than everything else, which were slightly darker than her own. She momentarily became distracted from her anger as his previous words fully registered in her brain.

"What do you mean, the stronger he'll get?" She asked, her eyes and teeth clenched from the throbbing pain in her head.

The stallion sighed. "Look, I know you don't trust me, considering everything that I've done. But I had to do them."

Twilight scoffed at that.

"Really, I did. I suspected you'd attack me on sight, but I didn't know how well I would hold up against your attacks. I wasn't sure exactly how strong you are."

"You didn't know how powerful I would be?" She asked, flaring up again. "You're the one who gave me this power in the first place!"

The stallion closed his eyes, and shook his head.

"Look, it'll be easier if I just started from the beginning. You're going to hear me out."

She thought about saying no, about trying to fight and force him to remove the dark spirit from her. But then she remembered how easily he had overpowered her, and how much her head was hurting, and the fact that Ventus was unconscious and pinned to the ground by two knives. She sighed in defeat, and nodded.

The stallion sighed, regret already visible on his face.

"I'm one of the last descendants of my bloodline. Both of my parents died right after my birth, leaving me in the care of my older brother, who was already an adult at the time. Sombra."

Twilight gaped at the stallion. "Sombra? As in King Sombra?" She asked, unable to believe her ears.

"Or, as he is named in ancient Equus, Sombra Sötétvarázsló. In Equestrian, that translates to Shadow Darkmage. He's the one who raised me. In his childhood, he had followed closely in the footsteps of our father, Varázslat, and that made him into a powerful dark sorcerer."

"Your father is Varázslat??" The mare gasped, looking over at Ventus. "But doesn't that make him--"

"What?" The stallion asked, looking over at the tan unicorn still out cold on the floor. "What about him?"

"...Nothing," Twilight responded, deciding it was better to not say anything. But now she knew - this stallion was technically Ventus' half-brother. Twilight's head was throbbing even worse now, as she looked over at Ventus. He now had blood running out of his cuts and onto the floor. But it didn't look like blood.

"Is that...?"

"Yes. Dark Blood. The same blood that flows through me, and now you as well. It's why I'm able to hide my aura from you so well; it's familiar to you now."

She crept forward for a close look. The dark blood was unusually thick-looking, and seemed a lot more like tar than anything else. She also noticed that it was leaking from Ventus' wounds at a much slower rate than normal blood would've, with those kinds of injuries.

"Dark blood's healing rate," the dark unicorn said, having read Twilight's expression correctly. "In fact, he won't feel any pain; it'll just feel like he's pinned down."

Twilight looked down at her friend, then looked up at the dark unicorn. She noticed something in his eyes as he looked down at Ventus. It almost looked like... jealousy.

"He got lucky," the stallion said bitterly. "An Equestria-born citizen, living with normal ponies. Dark Blood, and not forced out for it."

If only you knew, Twilight thought. But despite that, she realized that she was feeling sorry for the dark unicorn. More of her anger abated as she looked into the eyes of the dark cyan stallion, who looked genuinely sad and lost.

"How long have you... been up here?" She asked delicately.

His shoulders slumped, and bowed his head.

"I don't know exactly how long. But think about it. Sombra left me here and tried to conquer the Crystal Empire, then it disappeared... for a full millennium." His eyes slowly closed.

Twilight looked on him, feeling genuine sadness for him. She couldn't even begin to comprehend what his life must have been like.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I'm sure you could've talked to Princess Luna about it. She was alone on the moon alone for a thousand years, after all. You could've swapped stories."

The stallion looked up, wearing an ironic smile.

"...I wasn't alone," he said with a dark look in his eyes. "I wish I had been alone, to be honest."

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked, confused. "Who else was here?"

The stallion straightened up before continuing his story.

"After Sombra was gone, I continued to teach myself dark magic. I had all of the books, and kept myself busy. After a couple of decades, I felt that I was getting pretty strong. But that's also when odd things started happening.

"I began having very... disturbing nightmares every night, and I couldn't figure out what was causing them. Then one day, I was reading. The book was in ancient Equus, so I couldn't understand most of it. However, at the end, there was a picture of a shovel, and a magical navigation frequency. I followed it, and started digging when I arrived.

"I found an abandoned underground fortress. When I went inside, it was full of traps and puzzles to solve. After I solved the last riddle, it opened the final door. I found a green crystal sitting on the table. But when I reached out to touch it, I sensed something... evil."

He shuddered. If even thinking back to it was frightening, Twilight didn't want to think about what it must've felt like.

"I panicked. I ran home as fast as I could. But I hadn't realized that when the final door had opened, it shattered a magical barrier surrounding the room. The evil feeling never left, and followed me all the way back here.

"I did some more reading, and figured everything out. The thing that had followed me home was a dark spirit, somepony who had long been dead. The spirit... of Erősszél Sötétvarázsló."

The mare's mouth opened in surprise as this last statement hit her.

"After I figured out what he was, I stopped fearing him. Dark spirits thrive off of negative emotions, and I was just making him stronger. Instead, I began working on a plan to be rid of him.

"When Erősszél knew his end was near, he cast a binding spell on a magic focus crystal. When he finally died, the spell took effect."

Twilight realized what had happened before the stallion had to tell her.

"And that was the crystal in the fortress?" she asked, her eyes widening. The stallion nodded.

"Luckily," he continued, "Erősszél became weak after I stopped feeding him emotion. His presence almost completely faded from the world, and I actually had to find a way to communicate with him. But I knew that if he found somepony else, then he could become strong again. I knew I had to rid him from this world."

At this point, a rage began building inside Twilight's mind. It wasn't a rage from her, though. It was unbidden, and stronger than any other so far. She felt a sudden, unwarranted, but overwhelming urge to attack the dark unicorn. She closed her eyes, and sank to the ground, grimacing as she fought with this newfound rage.

"Twilight? What's wrong?" the stallion asked, looking down at her in concern.

She opened her mouth to respond, but the voice that issued out of it wasn't hers alone. There were two voices issuing from her. One of them her regular voice, but the other was deep, bone-chilling, and full of malice.

"You have betrayed and failed me, Midnight Sky, and I have no further use for you.

The voice incited terror in the dark unicorn, and merely hearing it was chilling him. He breathed deeply, employing the complete emotional control that he was so well practiced at. His fear had been feeding the dark spirit further, and he now realized that Twilight must be scared too.

"Twilight!" he called through the deep rumbling that had begun to shake the mountain, as mare and spirit fought for control of her body. "He's not strong enough to win yet, but whatever you do, don't be afraid! It will only make him stronger!"

Twilight struggled to contain the dark presence that had awakened in her blood. Midnight Sky looked around, and saw Ventus beginning to stir, finally awaking due to the ground trembling. He was over there in a flash, instantly knocking Ventus out again. He couldn't be awake yet; he would interfere with the final stage of the plan.

It's just this one last step, Midnight Sky told himself, then it'll all be over. No more planning, no more Erősszél.

Twilight could feel the dark spirit attempting to force her mind out of her own control. She had momentarily lost it when she felt him use her mouth, but was now forcing his conciousness back down. She would not let him control her like this, and though she knew she would feel scared later, she buried her fear for now, knowing it would empower him further. Finally, with a bit more effort, the consciousness of Erősszél was silenced, and she stood back up. She looked around, and saw the dark unicorn standing a little ways behind her. She opened her mouth to shout angrily at him, wanting to insult him greatly for what he had done. But she instantly remembered that it would make Erősszél stronger. So she forced herself to remain calm, as she said,

"So, you decided to seal the spirit of Erősszél inside of me?"

He nodded grimly. "It was the only way to give you dark blood, and to ensure he didn't find his way into somepony else. It's also the only way for him to be killed."

"How?" she asked, burning for this dark spirit to be out of her as soon as possible.

Midnight Sky took his time, turning away from her and beginning to trot towards Ventus before responding.

"When he is not within another body, the spirit of Erősszél cannot physically be harmed. But he was too weak, and needed a host to regenerate his power. I also knew about Sombra regenerating nearby. Then the idea hit me. I knew nopony would be able to beat Sombra, and I also needed to get rid of Erősszél. So I thought, Why not kill two birds with one stone?"

The dark unicorn was now standing right beside Ventus, looking down at the two knives pinning the stallion to the floor.

"You see, Twilight, in order to share your body, he had to share your soul as well. Your souls are currently intertwined, and can only be separated in two ways. The first is for the invader to grow stronger than the victim, and break the bonds. The other way..."

He reached down and easily yanked the knife out of Ventus' front right hoof, leaving it covered in glistening black blood.

"...is for the host to die."

Immediately, Twilight realized what was going to happen next. She tried to move, but to her horror, found that she was paralyzed. The dark unicorn's horn was faintly glowing black, and he was holding her in place. Before she could stop it, extreme fear shot through every fiber of her being, which brought the spirit inside her back to life.

"Killing tears the soul apart," Midnight Sky continued as he slowly walked towards her, "leaving nothing behind. It's the only way..."

Inside Twilight's head, a verbal battle ensued, as Erősszél fought for control of her body.

Just let me take over.

No.

I can break the bond, and we'll both survive. Just let go...

NO, she repeated more firmly, but her resolve wasn't holding as the knife drew closer and closer to her.

"I'm so sorry," Midnight Sky said as he raised the long knife, "but this is the only way... I hope you'll forgive me in the next world."

TWILIGHT SPARKLE!

"NO!" the mare screamed aloud, as the dark spirit finally broke through her mind's resistance.

A shock wave blasted from Twilight as the dark spirit, now fully empowered by Twilight's fear of death, broke through and took full control of her body. Twilight was now putting off an aura so powerful that it felt like fifty versions of Hell had dumped themselves into the room.

Ventus awoke with a yell, encumbered by the knife in his lower leg as books fell onto him. He forced the knife out of his leg with a grunt of pain, and looked up.

Twilight's body had levitated off of the floor, and she was looking up. She felt as though she was being torn apart inside. As the other two unicorns watched, her mouth opened, and she let out a blood-curdling scream. She was in more pain than she had ever been in before, as she felt her insides contorting.

Ventus looked over and saw the dark unicorn. His anger returned to him, and he wanted more than anything to run over there and punch the stallion in the face. But he remembered the pain that Twilight was experiencing, and restrained himself. Instead, he ran over to the stallion to ask questions.

"What's happening to her?!" He yelled over Twilight's screams, and the sudden wind that had burst through the cave.

"The bond is breaking!" Midnight Sky yelled back. "Erősszél is becoming a daemon!"

Before either stallion could say anything else, another sound joined the screams of Twilight. They looked over to see that her eyes had opened as well, and there was a lot of black smoke escaping from her eyes and mouth. They watched, mouths open, as the demonic black smoke continued to pour out of the mare. After another few seconds, it stopped, and Twilight fell to the ground, unconscious. Ventus caught her with magic, and levitated her body over to them.

The Dark Cloud was swirling around, condensing. The two watched as it began to form a pony, a pony who hadn't been seen for thousands of years. He had a white coat, a black tail and mane, and even wore a black cloak. His horn ended in a point, rather like an alicorn's, but the biggest thing that stood out were his eyes. Instead of just the iris being red, the pupil had been transformed as well. The newly formed daemon looked over at the gathering of ponies, and smiled with pointed teeth.

"Ah, it's good to be back," he said, his voice still just as menacing as it had been in life. It was designed to inflict maximum fear on those who heard it, so that he could gain even more power.

"But I believe we have some unfinished business, Éjfél Légkör."

"Don't call me that," Midnight Sky snarled, baring his teeth. "I'm not afraid of you... Gale."

The daemon's eyes flashed as he heard his Equestrian name. He stood, ready to fight. Midnight Sky turned to the stallion beside him.

"Take Twilight and run," he said, looking fierce and determined. "I'll hold him off for a while."

"But that's suicide!" Ventus protested. "You'll--"

"Don't argue," he said, cutting his half-brother off. "This is my fault, and I need to fix it. Just go."

"But--"

"GO!" Midnight Sky yelled.

Ventus didn't protest further. Carrying Twilight, he ran from the cave. Gale (Erősszél) turned and attempted to follow, but found his way blocked by a powerful dark barrier. He whipped back around to see Midnight Sky's horn glowing with a dark aura.

"Why?" he asked his final true descendant, as they simultaneously began to pace in circles. "We could have ruled the world together, free of those who banished us. Why did you turn on me?"

The stallion looked into the eyes of his daemon-turned ancestor, unwilling to believe he had descended from such an evil being.

"I have to admit," he said, still looking at Gale, "Your philosophy had me convinced for a while. But I grew older, and smarter. I was sick of you talking in my head, and I wasn't prepared to go as far as you have. But I managed to hide my suspicions from you, didn't I? I've been plotting, waiting for three centuries for the chance to betray you, and you never knew."

The daemon snarled in displeasure. "But you must have realized it was futile. You must have known I'd kill you in the end."

"Ah, but my true plans weren't the only things I was hiding, were they?" Midnight Sky said, with a satisfied smile. They both stopped circling at once, looking at each other from both ends of what had been their home for centuries.

"I've hidden centuries of magical knowledge from you," the dark unicorn continued, "and I'm much more powerful than you know."

At this point, Gale finally snapped in anger, and launched an orb of lightning across the room. Midnight Sky countered it, circling around to launch it back at the daemon, who sideflipped out of the way before he was hit. He kicked the table across the room at the dark stallion, and picked up one of the blood-caked knives off the floor. As Midnight Sky jumped over the table, Gale hurled the knife at him, which he just barely managed to dodge as well. After landing, the dark unicorn rolled forward, and sent pure white flames across the room, the heat of which was so great that a plastic container which had fallen to the floor began to melt. The daemon dodged the flames and then paused, panting. He was surprised by the fight so far; he didn't think the unicorn had been this powerful.

"Tired?" he taunted across the room. "I could do this all day."

"Not in the least," his descendant replied boldly, while wiping sweat from his forehead.

Gale's horn glowed again, and immediately a lot of the water from the bathroom burst through the doors, and began rushing at Midnight Sky. But Sky's power was greater, and he was able to force the water around him, soaking everything left on the ground in the process. Sky reared onto his back hooves, and stomped the front two back onto the ground. A shock wave ran through the floor, and knocked Gale off his hooves. As he jumped back up, however, he literally felt his nerves freeze, and he was rendered completely immobile. He tried to break the bonds, but Midnight Sky wouldn't let him go. Sky retrieved the knife, and walked towards the daemon who had made his life living hell for centuries.

"Goodbye, Gale."

He plunged the knife straight through Gale's heart, and kicked him towards the wall. He then sat down on the ground, panting. Holding Gale in place had taken a slight toll on Sky, but it was worth it. Erősszél was finished.

Or, at least, he thought he was finished.

Upon a second glance, however, he saw that there wasn't as much blood coming out of the daemon as there should've been. He moved closer to investigate.

Suddenly, Gale kicked out, and Sky flew across the room. He crashed into the wall, in time to see the demonic figure across the room yank the knife out of his chest.

"Remember, I'm not a pony any longer. That dark cloud is my true form now. Which means, I have no organs, and can't die."

He hurled the knife at Sky at such a great speed that he couldn't move fast enough. With a sickening crunch, Sky's very own sharp knife cut through his bone, and cut his whole front-left leg off, splattering black blood onto the floor.

Unable to help it, he yelled in pain, as the daemon continued towards him.

"Say goodbye to this world, Éjfél Légkör," the daemon taunted as he charged a fatal spell. He was slowly moving towards Sky, who couldn't move due to the holding spell that Gale was dual-casting. But as Gale fired the spell that would stop his heart, Midnight Sky broke the magical bond in a swift motion, and released a spell.

Everything froze. Gale, his spell, sound, everything but light and oxygen. Sky tried to run from the cavern, but quickly realized that it was impossible with only three legs. He instead transfigured into the dark cloud, and exited the cave. He flew southwest as fast as he physically could while holding a time-freeze spell. It was very mentally taxing, and knew he wouldn't be able to go really far away. He still moved a decent distance away, however, and flew into a large forest beneath him. At this point, he released the time-freezing spell, which took a huge burden off his mind, leaving his head throbbing in pain.

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Ventus emerged into the sunlight, carrying the unconscious Twilight. They moved a little ways down the mountain before Ventus gently set her down. He charged a spell, and used it to awaken her. Her eyes slowly fluttered open as she woke, then quickly widened as she remembered why she had passed out. She looked at her friend.

"What happened?"

Ventus hesitated. "Well... I woke up, and you were floating in the air, screaming. Midnight Sky said that Erősszél was breaking the bond. He became a daemon. Midnight Sky took him on, and I took you and ran.

"Who's Midnight Sky?" she asked, confused.

"That unicorn who held the knife to my throat," Ventus explained. "You were only unconscious for like five minutes. So now, tell me what happened while I was unconscious."

Twilight relayed everything that had happened, everything Sky had told her. Ventus looked surprised.

"He tried to stab you? It's no wonder Gale got out."

"Who's Gale?" Twilight asked, confused again.

"Erősszél is an Eqqus name. In Equestrian, it translates to Gale. But he got pretty pissed off when Midnight Sky used it."

"I'll be sure to use it when I next see him, then," Twilight said, which was rewarded by a half smile from Ventus. She stood up, and began pacing.

"So, what now? How do we--"

She cut off, sensing an unbelievable rage from someplace nearby.

"Get into the trees!" she hissed. They tore for the trees immediately east of them, and Twilight used shadow magic to completely hide them. No auras, no sight, no emotions. It was as if they weren't there. In the nick of time, too. A moment after they were hidden, a dark cloud flew out of the cave, and began magically searching the mountainside. Twilight was just as, if not more powerful than him, so they weren't detected. They both felt the rage, as the demon above them cursed silently, beginning to fly south.

Twilight waited until she couldn't sense the demonic unicorn any longer to release the hiding spell. But after she did, realization hit her like a bomb.

"Ventus!" she exclaimed, with fear in her voice. "He's heading south! Back towards--"

"Ponyville," Ventus finished, looking alarmed.

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Midnight Sky released his hiding spell as he sensed Gale fly overhead. Once Gale was gone, Sky was left to fully dwell on what he had done that day.

The plan failed, he thought to himself, as he recalled how terribly wrong things had gone. Tears began building in his eyes, for the first time in almost a full millennium.

Gale has returned to the world...

And it's all my fault.

Current Equestria Population:

397

Author's Note:

Aaaaand, now you know everything. Who saw it coming? Unless you've read this before. You don't count.
Heh heh heh heh heh.

Comments

[Cool_Story_Reader]

Don't know why, but for the past several weeks I didn't feel like reading anything.
I saw this in my favourites today and I was like well, I really should continue this story.
I remembered how addictive it is! I would finish it today, but tomorrow's exam is forcing me to go back to studying.
And now I see there is sequel to this, you have been busy, haven't you.
Anyway, I will continue this tomorrow.