What would you do if you were a human who could communicate with Windigos?
The Windigos are not what they seem. They are the ghosts of ponies who were cruelly murdered by a demon two thousand years ago, and unable to find any pony who would ever understand their hate, they instead seek out humans who have had harder lives than most ponies today in an attempt to understand what gave the ponies the fire to defeat the demon. Once they find a human with a particularly interesting fire, they finally decide to make direct contact...
The cover art was done by the wonderful amalgamzaku (AKA Mix-up). Special thanks and big shout out to them, check out their Deviant Art page and Youtube channel, both of which can be found on their FIMFiction page.
In an ancient Equestrian legend, it is told that two millenniums ago, the land was ravaged by a malevolent demon named Belohzhero. He assaulted the land with endless waves of snowstorms and spared none who dared to confront him his wrath. The ones he struck down, their souls are said to have become the wind beasts known as Windigos, and they too joined in his destruction once he found control over their hearts. It seemed there would be no hope for Equestria ever defeating such a foe, until an unnamed group of friends discovered the one thing that could bring him down...warmth.
This warmth is what banished Belohzhero to the ice in the far reaches of the North where he remains today, leading the Windigos to pass on to the world after. But their spirits can very much still find their way back to the living world, manifesting as invisible apparitions. And Equestria is not the only living world they can return to either...
Contrary to popular misconception, the Windigos are not hive-minded. Some only return to Equestria as visible apparitions in times of great civil unrest, seeking vengeance upon the world where they were cruelly killed, while others quietly watch beings from other worlds in an attempt to understand warmth. They can explore the souls of other beings, searching for the fire that sparked the hearts of the ones who took down Belohzhero.
Yes, since no pony of Equestria’s peaceful times of today would allow them into their hearts, trust them with the secret of the fire, or understand their hardship of ancient times, they instead seek out creatures who have had to find their own source of warmth. Creatures who have had to numb themselves and repress their contempt in a world that is still dark, cold, and hateful in order to survive...humans. The stronger hate in the hearts of humans fuels their power more efficiently, giving them the ability to create heat as well as cold.
One night, three Windigos find a human with a fire that fascinates them so much, they get a devious idea. They decide to make direct contact for the first time...this is where our story begins...
*RING* *RING*
“Ugh!” the human, a blonde-haired man with glasses, grunted upon looking at his cell phone, seeing that the caller ID was from “Unknown Caller”. “Right when I want to relax! It’s not like I only have three days off!”
He angrily swiped the phone to “Ignore Call” and tossed the phone on the couch. He was in the living room of his apartment on the second floor, attempting to relax on the night of his first day off from work for the week. He was drinking hot coffee despite it being 8:00 in the evening and was still dressed in his street clothes, a black King Sombra T-shirt and black Nike shorts, despite having no plans to go out for the night.
“I don’t even have any friends at work…” he grumpily muttered to himself as he sat down on the couch with a cup of hot coffee in hand. “...and I’m getting calls from strangers on my days off!”
Little did the man know though that the call he just received wasn’t from just any stranger...a ghostly-like, equine figure holding a cell phone hovered close to the sliding glass door that led to the porch. He peered through the door and glared at the man, reminiscing on what he knew about him…as well as what he didn’t know about him from his time watching him.
The man’s name was Ken, and there was little to note about him other than the fact that he was an irritable recluse. Outside his home, he was calm and nice to everyone he met, but by himself, he was ill-tempered and bitter. His job was a simple 4 x 10 shift packing at a warehouse, he had no hobbies outside of gaming, drawing, and writing, and no dreams for the future other than a slim hope of being able to get his art and stories recognized one day. That being a dream he hardly believed in or embraced, his only true desire in life was to live a quiet life of solitude.
Unfortunately for him, even that desire would not be fulfilled, for his worst fear was about to be realized...the fear of being pulled outside of his comfort zone…
“What the-?!” Ken exclaimed as he felt a sudden chill run through his body.
The room was warm, yet he couldn’t feel the warmth like he had mere moments ago. Suddenly, a broom that had been placed against the wall in his kitchen fell to the floor for no apparent reason, giving him a bad premonition.
“O...kay…” he said to himself in a worried tone of voice. “I’ll just see if it’s actually warmer outside…”
With his coffee still in hand, he went outside to the porch and shut the screen door behind him. As it turned out, it actually was warmer outside.
“Heh.” he chuckled to himself, musing over what just happened, gripping the safety bar by the ledge of the porch with his free hand. “I’ve always wanted to believe in ghosts, but even I know that there’s always a logical explanation when something like that happens. The timing may have been freaky, but it was probably just-huh?”
Ken was about to take a sip of his coffee, but nothing came to his lips. Looking down into the cup, he was aghast to see that the brown liquid...was now frozen solid.
“HOW DID…” he said fearfully, being at a loss for words.
“Kkkeeennn…”
A ghostly calling of his name in a deep voice, he could hear from behind. Turning around, he saw the foreleg of a creature passing through the screen door. Through the glass, he saw...a Windigo.
“AAAAAHHHHH!” he yelled in terror. “AH-AH-WHOA!”
He lost his balance in a panic and flipped over the safety bar of the ledge. His cup fell to the ground and shattered, but with one hand, he was able to grab the edge of the floor below the bar just in time and hang onto the balcony.
“WHAT IS THAT THING?!” he shrieked. “SOMEBODY, HELP!”
“We’ll save you!” someone with a female voice from below called out.
“Thank goodness!” a reassured Ken exclaimed before he turned around. “I-!”
His relief turned to dread once he saw two Windigos below him holding out their forelegs.
“No…” he said defeatedly before a sudden chill in his fingers made him lose his grip, causing him to fall.
“AAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!” he screamed as he fell before everything went black…
...and cold. The next thing Ken knew, he was walking towards the only light in a space of pitch-black darkness, a fire that three Windigos were pitched around.
“What is this place?!” Ken asked indignantly. “WHO AND WHAT ARE YOU THINGS?!”
“This is the inside of your soul.” one Windigo with a deep, male voice answered. “And we are Windigos, spirits from the world of Equestria who wander yours in search of warmth.”
Ken slapped himself.
“This isn’t a dream…” he said anxiously. “If this is my soul, does that mean I’m DEAD?!”
“Well, you did fall from the ledge of a second-story structure…” one with a softer male voice answered.
“Aero!” one with a female voice exclaimed in disapproval before she turned to Ken. “Please forgive my friend, you’re not dead...technically.”
“WHAT’S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!” Ken screamed, startling her.
“Nice one, Aera.” Aero taunted her, chuckling as she rolled her eyes.
“Allow me to intervene,” chimed in the one with a deep voice, “for it seems my comrades are ill-acquainted with the practice of making proper introductions.”
“Aren’t you the one who came through the screen door?!” Ken thought, baffled by his lack of self-awareness.
“My name is Aeros,” he continued, “and as you may have already guessed, these are my comrades, Aera and Aero. Rest assured, you are not dead. Your body is simply out of commission.”
“Gee, that takes a load off my mind…” Ken retorted sarcastically. “What is with you guys? Why in the world did you just appear to me out of nowhere?!”
“We tried to call you.” Aero said meekly.
“And we tried to save you.” Aera interjected. “But since we’re not of your world, there was only so much we could do. Your body is physical, we’re not. Thus why we’re here, trying to keep you alive by warming the fire of your soul.”
“Warm?” Ken questioned in bemusement. “But I was getting chills. You froze my coffee solid!”
“I know it’s hard to believe from what you’ve seen of us in that show-” Aeros prepared to explain before Ken interrupted him.
“I don’t believe in characters from a fictional TV show coming to life.”
He was gritting his teeth the entire time he said that.
“I don’t believe we are fictional characters from a show coming to life either.” Aeros stated. “I was merely addressing the source of your misperception. If the world of Equestria was created by the imagination of humans, the fact would not perturb me, for I have no love for the world of Equestria. Call us fiction if you will, but know that fiction is inspired by reality. We all know that the pain we felt when we died and the cold, bitter hate it inspired is entirely real. We hate. Therefore, we are.”
“And here I was thinking you were trying to cozy up to me, getting me to look at you as the good guys.” Ken joked cheekily.
“No.” the Windigos responded bluntly. “We do not believe in good and evil. We just are what we are.”
Ken’s face contorted into a look of astonishment.
“However…” Aeros continued. “That does not mean we are not looking to be something more. It was the fire of you humans that gave us our own flame, our ability to create mild warmth...but that is all we understand right now. We need more knowledge. What we’ve learned from your world is not enough, not if we are to surpass the power of our killer. No, we need that fire...”
“Who killed you?” Ken asked.
“Belohzhero.” Aeros answered. “A most odious demon who manipulated our kind after death, used our souls to bring Equestria an eternal age of freezing cold. Those soft-hearted ponies only banished him in ice, but for his atrocities, he should have BURNED! They would never understand our agony, and that’s considering a scenario where they would actually listen to us rather than banishing us. Thus why we need you, a human, to be our stand-in.”
“So that’s why you sought me out?” Ken responded. “Why me in particular?”
“Out of all the humans we’ve seen, your fire is most like ours.” Aeros explained. “You’re so calm and collected on the outside, yet so irate and volatile on the inside...you could get the ponies to understand our hate. You would be the perfect mediator. You could get them to share their secrets about how their fire works.”
“Hold on just a second here.” Ken objected. “Why am I obligated to do your dirty work? Especially after you got me into whatever this mess is?!”
“There will be something in it for you.” Aera interjected. “In exchange for helping us, we will share with you our power.”
“And we will give you a new body in a new world.” Aero chimed in. “The world of Equestria is far kinder than yours. Also, your body won’t be just any ordinary body. It will be like theirs on the surface, but on the inside, it will be like ours. Immaterial and immortal.”
Ken couldn’t believe what he had just heard.
“They’re promising me immortality.” he thought in disbelief. “In a happy fantasy land. This goes beyond too good to be true. Yet I see no reason to turn them down. Never mind my lame life with my lame job and no friends or dreams, no one I’ve ever met before has actually cared about my fire, the only thing that keeps me going…”
“Fine, I’ll go along with your plans…” he told them. “...as far as I want to. The moment I feel you’re just using me for some ulterior motive, our partnership is through.”
“We agree to that.” Aeros promised with a confident smile.
“Heh heh.” he thought to himself. “This arrogant human thinks his hate is stronger than ours…”
“So what happens now?” Ken asked them curiously. “If I leave this world for “Equestria”, what happens to my body in this world?”
“So long as you keep us near your soul,” answered Aeros, “your willpower enhanced by our flame should keep your human body from expiring. This is how you know you can trust us. We’re not just friends with benefits...we’re your life support.”
Ken felt sick to his stomach.
“It’s not just the way he said that…” he mused to himself in discomforted thought. “I don’t trust anyone. The thought of anyone being my life support is pure torture!”
“That body you’ve promised me…” he said sternly. “It better be my own…”
“I assure you, it will be constructed from the very fabric of your spirit.” Aeros promised. “Just know that your soul is quite dark...and to be like us, you must be able to relate to weather phenomena…”
“...Whatever that mean-WOAH...WAAAH!”
Ken’s sarcastic rejoinder was interrupted by a living shadow manifesting from the darkness and wrapping itself around him, completely covering him and obstructing his vision. As all he could see was darkness once more, he could hear a faint whisper in a familiar voice…
Beware the lizard with three eyes…
And with that, Ken finally woke up...to a loud call in a familiar voice…
“Hey, where did you come from, dude?!” a blue pegasus with a rainbow-colored mane cried as she looked down from a cloud.
“Oh, great…” Ken thought to himself. “Of course I get greeted by the one with a personality most compatible with mine…Rainbow Dash...”
Ken begrudgingly pulled himself up from the grassy ground his new body had been laying on. He was in Equestria now, arriving at a picnic area in Ponyville. Looking at himself, he realized that he was now a white pegasus with a blue and black mane and tail and a symbol of a white cloud surrounded by a sky that was black as night for a cutie mark.
“I’m not surprised by this new form considering the hints they gave me…” he thought, reminiscing over what Aero and Aeros told him. “The greater concern to me is how to grow accustomed to it...I hate having change forced on me...”
“Uh, hello?!” Rainbow exclaimed, growing annoyed with how Ken was just marveling his new body instead of responding to her. “Is there anypony in there? Just nod if you can hear me!”
“Sorry.” Ken replied instinctively, remembering his pattern of apologizing from his time as a human. “I’m just new here.”
“You can say that again…” Rainbow jeered. “It’s like you literally just materialized from under my cloud! What’s your name?”
“Oh no...like I’ve ever been good at coming up with names!” he exclaimed worriedly in thought.
His eyes dotted up to the cloud, then to its shadow below where he had laid...and he had an idea for a name. A stupid name, but a perfect name. He had the most perfectly stupid idea for a name…
“Cloud Shroud.” he told Rainbow plainly. “I was just...um...taking a nap on the grass.”
“Heh, I guess that makes two of us.” Rainbow joked. “Except I like to nap on a space that’s a bit more comfortable. Why did you decide to just roll under a cloud?”
“I like the shade.” he answered in a deadpan tone of voice.
“...Would you…” Rainbow said in confusion, normally expecting ponies to be more open and upbeat. “Happen to be friends with Maud Pie?”
“I like her.” Ken replied, still being terse.
“I don’t care if it makes her suspicious.” he thought to himself. “I refuse to be someone I’m not to please other people, and that goes for ponies too.”
“Ha ha ha…” Rainbow laughed. “It’s okay. I’m totally cool with ponies who are different. I’m sure you’ll warm up to me eventually. What do you do?”
“Ah yes, thanks for reminding me…” Ken said to himself in his mind, unamused. “Thanks to this abrupt detour, I’m out of a job…”
“I’m a drifter who came to these parts looking for a place to settle down and find work.” he stated after conjuring up the most believable lie he could think of.
“Well, while I don’t know of any open positions for picnicking…” Rainbow remarked in a snarky tone. “...I could put in a recommendation for you at the weather factory I used to work at.”
“That sounds good to me.” he said, forcing a smile. “Thank you so much.”
“It’s “good” if you know that all jobs are hell.” he thought, secretly irritated.
“You’re welcome so much, heh heh…” Rainbow replied sheepishly, secretly suspicious. “Just don’t be like that other guy I had to literally give shock therapy to for not working, ha ha! I’ll go put in a good word for you, A! S! A! P!”
Rainbow jumped up from the cloud and flew off immediately, leaving a trail of rainbow behind that faded along with the cloud she had been sleeping on. The gleeful expression she had while talking to Ken also faded.
“Something about that guy just bugs me…” she thought suspiciously. “I’ve had to learn that introverts are normal, but ponies who pretend to be happy…no way would Pinkie disagree...”
“I don’t care what she thinks of me.” Ken told himself in thought, looking up at the sky. “So long as I get back to living a quiet life, nothing else matters to me.”
Little did he know, the Windigos were watching him from above as invisible apparitions and snickering to themselves.
“We know what you’re thinking…” they thought to themselves. “...and you’re going to learn of your greater purpose the hard way…”
Also unbeknownst to Ken, two familiar green eyes appeared in the shadow he cast...
“Cloud Shroud…” Ken thought to himself. “That’s my name. It’s the most perfectly stupid name for a nobody no one cares about. So I better get used to it. Now that I’m a creature of the sky, what better way to blend in with the crowd than to be a loser like Cloud.”
Cloud Shroud did not find it overly difficult getting used to his new name like he thought. From his perspective, Ken was no one special, and neither was Cloud. If he was going to live a solitary life under an alias, why not make being furtive every day easier on himself?
Not that working at Rainbow Dash’s weather factory was exactly arduous. The management was lenient and the workflow was regularly easy to keep up with, granted that he had prior experience working a job with less competent management and a more demanding work environment. Co-workers, on the other hand, were a surprisingly different story.
In his human life as Ken, Cloud had an easy time avoiding drama with troublesome characters and acting as if he was really engaged in friendly, yet uninspiring conversations with amiable people when he wasn’t. But ponies were a different case. While he never felt that any human ever cared about him sitting by himself in the break room and eating the same food every day, even as some were bound to find it odd, he always felt that every pony viewed this routine as not only unnatural, but deserving of distrust.
All he ever needed to tell any human who happened to be curious about his behavior was that he had autism, or that he was simply an introvert. But with ponies, it felt like every day, the awkward glares they were giving him were becoming more and more oppressive, more and more committed to reminding him of the fact that he had something to hide and couldn’t fool them. Eventually, somepony who had been bothered by this behavior from the very beginning decided it was time to see if they could drag out whatever he had to keep from them…
“Heh heh heh…” Billy, a brown pegasus with white hair, chuckled. “There he is. I had a feeling he’d be there from what she told us about his usual spot…”
He and his two friends, Hoops, an orange pegasus with brown hair, and Score, a gray pegasus with black hair, had just gotten off work at the weather factory and were looking for Cloud Shroud. Not wanting to find themselves on the manager’s list by doing what they were about to do on the job, they opted to wait until now to put their plan in action. They flew over to a black cloud Cloud had been trying to nap on before the approaching trio caught his attention.
“Hmm?” Cloud thought as he sat up and turned his head towards them, confused as they landed on a flatter surface of cloud with more space nearby. “I recognize these three. I’ve never done anything to bother them, but my gut tells me they’re not here for anything good…”
“Well, well, well…” Billy said snarkily.
“We’ve found out where our mystery stallion gets his name from!” Hoops taunted in delight. “He shrouds himself in mystery with a cloud!”
The three laughed in unison.
“What’s it to you?” Cloud retorted. “Why do you care about what I’m doing?”
“Ask just about everyone else.” Billy answered. “We all think that what you’re doing is weird, and that goes for what you’re not doing too! Sitting by yourself every day, never so much as even looking another pony’s way, always reacting in the most mundane way every time an accident happens at work, goofily smiling to yourself when nothing’s funny, talking in your slee-”
“Shush!” Hoops exclaimed, interrupting his partner with a nudge.
Unfortunately, it was too late. Cloud was already picking up on something…
“Pony culture is definitely different from human culture,” he thought, “but even ponies don’t just randomly go up to someone who’s never bothered them and start critiquing their character...”
In spite of what he suspected, Cloud chose to attack the situation from a different angle…
“So what do you want me to do about it?” he countered. “Why should I care if it bothers you? Why should I care if others don’t like me for being myself? I meet the demands for productivity, my supervisor tells me on more than one occasion that I do a good job, what else matters? I don’t think you actually believe work is about holding hands and singing happy songs with co-workers who don’t care whether you live or die. But then again, maybe you do.”
“Why you-let me at ‘em, let me at ‘em!” Score, the one who didn’t talk, was saying in his mind as he flailed his forelegs about. Hoops was holding him down.
“Settle down!” he told his other partner. “I got this!”
“I hope you don’t believe we didn’t come here prepared for the classic “I don’t care” comeback that went out of style years ago!” Hoops proclaimed confidently, sneering. “Because we’re going to give you something to care about...heh heh heh…”
He pulled out a tape recorder, which certainly caught Cloud’s attention.
“Yes, this was our final push to confront you.” he explained. “A little birdie told us you say some pretty wacky stuff to yourself. Stuff so out of this world, they just couldn’t resist recording it to prove they weren’t just full of hot air. I’m sure you know what’s on this tape…”
Cloud gulped, continuing to stare at them in silence as he tensed up.
“You have a terrible poker face and we’re not bluffing ourselves.” Billy chimed in to keep the pressure on him. “We know what’s on this tape, how could we resist listening to it ourselves? Humans, windigos, and shadows, oh my! You even do different voices for your imaginary friends! And while we admire your passion for at least one thing, what we kind of already figured out is abundantly clear now...you’re cracked up.”
“What do you plan to do with that tape?” Cloud asked angrily, shooting them a stern glare, a green light flashing momentarily in his eyes...
“We haven’t played it for anyone else yet…” Hoops answered. “But just imagine what would happen if we played this for your boss!”
Recognizing his job as his new comfort zone, Cloud felt an unbridled rage come over him. The cocky smiles of the taunting trio soon faded, fear coming over them once they felt a hostile aura exude from Cloud. His eyes turned green, exuding purple haze, a shadowy aura surrounded him, and then, for a split-second as he responded with a bellow…
“YOU WOULD DARE TRY TO GET ME FIRED?!”
They thought they could see a Windigo flash beside him like a bolt of lightning. It didn’t even matter to them whether or not it was real...it gave them an icy-cold stare that literally chilled them to the bone.
“Plan B, Plan B!” they frantically exclaimed in their heads.
“Dude, we were just joking, relax!” Hoops cried, feigning innocence.
Cloud calmed down, his eyes returning to normal and his aura receding as he decided to give them a slight benefit of the doubt.
“We just wanted to see if we could get some kind of reaction out of you for a change, that’s all!”
“And it worked, ha ha!” Billy interjected derisively to keep up the act.
“Ha ha ha, yeah, we all had a good laugh…” Cloud sarcastically remarked, irritated. “I’m calling your bluff, especially after what you said about me having a terrible poker face! You wouldn’t think twice about playing that tape for someone just to spite me!”
The three had looks of guilt on their face after hearing that.
“In the worst-case scenario that you do get me fired, I can always find a job somewhere else.” Cloud continued, trying to maintain control of the situation. “I doubt what I can explain as a minor mental disorder will be enough to have me blacklisted. But do you really expect me to believe you’d burden yourselves with the guilt of getting a guy you don’t even know fired just because he acts a little loopy? At the very least, I suspected you were lying. Yet I went along with it and lost my cool. And do you know why?”
“Why?” Billy asked, he and his friends feeling confused.
“Because…” Cloud began his answer with a stoic look on his face that abruptly turned into a big, goofy smile as he finished what he was going to say.
“I’m not as much of a goody-goody two shoes as I look. I like a good opportunity to blow off some steam.”
Billy, Hoops, and Score were astonished. Before now, they had honest distaste for Cloud under the impression that he had been trying to fool everyone around him into thinking he was a perfect angel. Now, however, Cloud had admitted for the first time in his own way that he was no better than anyone else. He didn’t avoid others because he hated them...he was just doing what he was used to doing...being himself. This didn’t mean there was nothing wrong with his ways though...and when the three looked down at the tape recorder, they all had the same thought despite their change of heart about Cloud…
“It’s obvious he’s not actually aware of what’s on this tape…”
Meanwhile, down below on the ground, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were walking through the picnic area where Dash had first met Cloud and having a conversation about him…
“So what is he like?” Fluttershy asked curiously. “What does he do when he’s around you?”
“Wouldn’t I like to know.” Rainbow answered, annoyed. “The guy’s been staying at my place for two weeks now and it’s like finding out my house is haunted! He never says a word to me about what he likes to do, never mentions anything unique that’s happened to him, always shuts himself in the attic, and every night since he’s been over, I’ve had a hard time getting to sleep!”
“Why’s that?” Fluttershy questioned. “Does he snore?”
“No, admittedly, that’s more up my alley.” Rainbow confessed, rolling her eyes. “But honestly, I’d rather him do that than open my attic window every night. Whenever he does that, I feel this unsettling cold breeze roll in that makes me feel like I’m being...watched.”
“Oh my…” Fluttershy reacted with concern. “That’s a terrible feeling to have come over you, especially when you’re just trying to sleep. I’m really sor-”
“Hold that thought!” Rainbow exclaimed, interrupting her as she saw Billy, Hoops, and Score descending on the grassy field ahead. “My scouts have returned! Let’s see what they got from our little friend before he could take his cat nap!”
Fluttershy groaned, putting her hoof to her face in response to Rainbow’s hypocrisy. As Rainbow excitedly rushed over to greet her henchmen, Fluttershy half-heartedly followed, slowly trotting behind her.
“So what did you get out of him?” Rainbow asked the trio.
As the three relayed to her what happened, the expression on Fluttershy’s face grew angrier...
“His reaction was...more interesting than we expected.” Billy answered. “We didn’t anticipate the usual taunts to yield any results outside of simple sarcastic remarks, but the way he got angry with us after we busted out the tape recorder was a complete surprise. His eyes got all weird...and for a split-second, I thought I could see a Windigo…”
“What?!” a shocked Rainbow responded. “Are you suggesting that he actually…”
“We’re just telling you what happened.” Hoops affirmed. “It’s not all craziness that we got out of him. Once he calmed down, we saw a completely different side to him. We really feel now that he’s not as untrustworthy as he seems. However, that silver lining was offset by the fact that he doesn’t know just how damning this tape you made is…”
“Oh yeah, I feel kind of bad for him now…” Rainbow replied, feeling concerned as Fluttershy was literally shaking with anger. “That tape would not just cost him his job, I wish. Imagine if we played that for the princesses…”
“THAT’S ENOUGH!” Fluttershy hollered furiously. “Rainbow Dash, I can’t BELIEVE YOU! How can you EXPLOIT ponies like this?!”
“What?” Rainbow replied bemusedly, shrugging. “I gave them bits for their help.”
“That’s not the issue!” Fluttershy continued to rebuke her. “The problem is that you used them to do something so underhoofed as to bully your roommate after you spied on him, collecting dirt on him like a blackmailer!”
“We never intended to blackmail him!” Rainbow proclaimed in her defense. “The tape was just part of a test!”
“Oh, really?” Fluttershy replied facetiously with a smirk. “Then perhaps you wouldn’t mind destroying the tape. Because you don’t need it for anything else now, right?”
“.....” Rainbow had a long, nervous pause before she finally spoke up.
“Fluttershy...I think you need to hear what’s on this tape-”
“AND NOW YOU’RE ASKING ME TO BE COMPLICIT IN THIS?!” Fluttershy bellowed, fuming with rage. “Celestia as my witness, Rainbow Dash, if you ever, EVER, use that tape to blackmail that poor stallion, our friendship is OVER!”
Fluttershy stormed off angrily in a huff. Billy, Hoops, and Score had no idea what to say as a small tear came out of Rainbow’s eye. She really did have no intent to blackmail Cloud with the tape or hurt him.
“Part of me thinks he’s just crazy…” Rainbow thought despondently. “But even if that’s what’s wrong with him, I just want to help him...especially when I’m getting more of a premonition he’s possessed by an evil force that’s threatening Equestria…”
Meanwhile, the Windigos, who were watching the scene unfold from above near a sleeping Cloud Shroud’s cloud, were snickering to themselves.
“What a bunch of dopes…” Aero mocked them. “They’re falling for our trap like a ton of bricks…”
“The hate growing inside of the yellow one is already a great thing to savor…” Aera said with pleasure. “But the self-hate the blue one is starting to develop...oh, it’s like watching a cherry ripen…”
“We aren’t even close to the main course yet…” Aeros remarked, turning to Cloud and smiling sinisterly. “And our good friend here has no idea how much he’s already helped us...even as we told him our plan…”
The day before...
“So how exactly are you guys going to get the ponies to understand your hate?” Cloud had asked. “What is me talking to them going to do if they don’t even know you?”
“You’ll see in due time.” Aeros had answered. “How you will inevitably stir up the enmity within their hearts and create for them a new world where they can not question our hate. For soon, you shall know the kind of darkness that haunts even Equestria’s rulers…it’s already inside of you...”
Now...
Cloud began to sink into his own cloud forebodingly, as the same shadow from before appeared...
...not beside him, but beside Princess Luna, who was sitting at a desk in the room of royal records.
“No need to explain.” Luna said bluntly, sensing the shadow. “I know the truth…”
Rainbow Dash, dressed in a purple robe, was in her kitchen, pouring herself a cup of coffee and yawning.
“I can’t blame Cloud for that horrible sleep I had last night, at least…” she said to herself, languid from a stressful night. “I felt so bad about what I did to him and how I got Fluttershy so upset that I just let the Changelings beat me up in my dream...and play jazz flute!”
Rainbow Dash then went to the living room to sulk and slump on her couch.
“I wonder how Princess Luna felt when she saw that…” she mused. “Me looking more miserable and hopeless than a prisoner rotting in a dungeon!”
Suddenly, there was a knock on the front door. Cloud Shroud, who was awoken by the knock, felt a feeling of distress as he started hearing what was going on below from the attic.
“Open up!” a pegasus dressed in royal, gold armor and carrying a spear exclaimed, standing right beside another spear-wielding pegasus in the same attire. “This is the royal guard!”
Both Rainbow Dash and Cloud Shroud froze.
“Speak of the devil…” Rainbow remarked in regard to the irony as she put down her coffee and went to get the door.
“What in the…” Cloud said nervously to himself in thought as he heard Rainbow open the door.
“How may I help you?” Rainbow asked the guards, trying to play it cool.
“We have a report of you harboring an undocumented resident of Cloudsdale calling himself, “Cloud Shroud”.” one guard explained.
“Our princesses have been able to find no record of this pony’s birth or origin.” the other guard chimed in. “He is suspected of being an invader.”
Cloud’s nervosity began to intensify as he glared over at the attic window.
“WHAT?!” Rainbow cried in shock. “He never told me about anything like that!”
“While we wish to believe you were not aware that you were aiding a marauder,” replied a guard, “we must inspect the premises of your home thoroughly.”
Rainbow winced in terror, her mind recalling the tape…
“Uh...how thoroughly would that be?” Rainbow asked with a sheepish grin.
“That would be investigating every inch of your home and confiscating any evidence we may find.” a guard answered, shooting her a suspicious glare. “If you were truly unaware, that should be no problem…”
“Of course it’s not, go on ahead and look!” Rainbow exclaimed, feigning innocence, allowing the guards into her abode. She was terrified, certain that the guards would discover the tape, and even more certain that they would arrest Cloud…
...but they didn’t. For how could they arrest a pony who was no longer there? Cloud had mysteriously disappeared from the attic, leaving only an open attic window for the guards to see and make note of. They noted the fact that it was too small for an ordinary pony to fit through…
Some time later…
Cloud Shroud was in the winter lab of the weather factory at work. He was bottling water needed to make clouds. Despite his worries about what could be happening with Rainbow Dash and the guards back at her house, he made a futile attempt at convincing himself that it would all go away with time. He tried to shift the focus of his troubled mind by thinking more deeply about trivial things.
“Hmm…” he thought to himself as he observed a bottle of water that was destined to become a cloud. “I wonder why I always feel so...at home preparing the water for the clouds...like it’s a part of me...granted, the human body is seventy percent water, but I never felt any inclination to meditate on a bottle of water knowing that on Earth. And when I was packing at that warehouse, I had a bottle of water on me at all ti-”
“Excuse me.” Cloud’s supervisor, a female pegasus who had a dark blue coat, pink mane, glasses, and a silver badge on the white coat she was wearing, interrupted his train of thought from behind. “I’m sorry to disrupt you in the middle of your work, Cloud, but you’re wanted at the front desk. Members of the royal guard are here to speak with you.”
“.............Okay.”
And that’s all Cloud could say in a deadpan tone after a long pause, “Okay.”. He knew he couldn’t show it on his face, but with every step as he followed the supervisor to the front where the guards had spoken to his head manager and security, he was scared out of his wits. As he was then forced to let the guards escort him to the royal palace for questioning, he also felt incredibly embarrassed for his misguided belief that everything would magically tide over. When they arrived at the palace, overhearing the guards speak to their compatriots about how they had also brought in Rainbow Dash for interrogation about he had conveniently left for work early on the day law enforcement had shown up filled him with a sense of guilt, like he was a child embarrassing his mother after being caught playing a game of little tykes. However, while Rainbow was to be questioned by the guards in a separate room, Cloud was brought to the room of royal records to be questioned by Princess Luna herself.
“I know the truth…” Luna said solemnly to Cloud after the guards had left the room. “Why did you try to flee from us, young one? Did you truly believe this problem would magically work itself out?”
“No…” an upset Cloud answered meekly. “I just...didn’t see how me being here without documentation was such a big deal…”
“Not a big deal?” an unamused Luna replied, giving him an admonishing look. “You think infiltrating our land and trying to live among us in secrecy is not a big deal? Equestria is a nation founded on the virtue of solidarity. There are no strangers here, we all know each other and trust one another. If you can not trust us enough to simply tell us who you are, we can not trust you, and that is inexcusable.”
“.....I see your point.” Cloud blankly replied in a deadpan tone, trying to mask his shock.
“I can see that you’re a bad liar.” a now amused Luna remarked, smiling. “You can’t hide your real feelings from me.”
“I just wasn’t expecting your reasoning to be so...cute.” Cloud admitted, making Luna chuckle.
“I can tell your mind is ruled by cold cynicism, something I do not condemn you for.” Luna empathized. “But allow me to ask you, does that mindset make you happy?”
“No.” Cloud answered bluntly. “But what can I do about it? We’re all products of our environment who can’t control our minds. My cold and cynical environment made me this way. No one cares if I’m happy, so why should I?”
“You’re making me angry.” Luna replied, still smiling eerily. “Do you know why?”
“Because you can’t handle the truth?” Cloud tested her with some sass as he cockily grinned.
“Because that was the same mindset that made me Nightmare Moon.” Luna answered calmly, smirking wider than Cloud, whose facial expression returned to a blank one once he realized he was the one being tested.
“Foolish child.” Luna taunted him. “Do you truly believe your soul is more pruned than mine? Your idea of hell after living for twenty or so years is having to work while occasionally being pulled out of your comfort zone. My idea of hell is eternal separation from the ones I love after living for over a thousand years.”
“...Hell?” a bewildered Cloud asked. “Are you referring to Tartarus?”
“No.” Luna answered. “But for now, I will not explain further because you are not ready to comprehend the truth yet. Not as a stallion who does not even know himself yet. That is your clue. Accept yourself, accept your mistakes, accept that you know nothing, and only then may you move forward.”
There was a long pause and a haunting silence that pervaded the room before Cloud finally interjected with…
“Does that mean we’re done here?”
“More or less.” Luna replied. “There is still the matter of needing to complete your documentation, but I’ve already filled out the work for you. It only needs to be given a stamp of approval by Justice Minister Neighsay.”
Cloud tried harder than he had before to hide his real emotions with his blank expression, this time trying not to laugh.
“Their weird way of handling this situation is one thing,” he thought, “but now the fact that Neighsay is in charge after what she had me going for...oh boy…”
“Please do not disrespect him as he asks you to sign off the documentation you need for your ID.” Luna pleaded. “You should know from me that ponies do not like to be reminded of who they were in the past.”
“Of course I won’t.” Cloud promised. “I’m sorry I teased you, I didn’t know.”
“We all don’t know what we’re doing when we make mistakes.” Luna shared some more words of wisdom. “What matters is that we learn. I have confidence that you’ve learned not to run from the royal guard, thus why you will not be cited for a getaway. Just know that this truly is out of our grace, for while we could not find proof that you fled the scene...”
Luna made a familiar tape appear with magic. Cloud shuddered as she levitated it in front of his face.
“We do have evidence that you had a motive to flee.” she finished solemnly. “Now, you may go.”
Cloud was left speechless.
“Good lord…” he thought to himself. “Rainbow Dash would’ve been my first guess had I really cared about finding out who made the tape, but it was all so weird...I didn’t bother to really think it through with the possibility that those pegasi were just totally making everything up, since the idea of anything I said to those Windigos getting out was just so unbelievable to me. There’s no way for that to happen when they’re talking to me inside my soul, it’s a space separate from the outside world. Is someone in my soul a spy? Did the Windigos want something to get out?”
Despite his curiosity, once he remembered Luna’s words of acceptance and moving forward, he decided to hold off for the time being.
“I already know what you ponder, child.” Luna said in her mind. “I already gave you your hint. You must come to know yourself, for you are the reason your secrets came to light…”
He exited the room of royal records and a guard outside the room escorted him to the minister’s office where Neighsay was waiting.
“Come in.” Neighsay said emotionlessly as the guard knocked on his door and opened it. “You may return to your post, I only need the arrestee.”
“Understood.” the guard responded as he left Cloud alone with Neighsay.
“Take a seat.” Neighsay instructed Cloud as Cloud obeyed and sat down.
Neighsay then used his magic to levitate a pen, a sheet of paper, and an ID card out of a drawer at his desk and placed them in front of Cloud.
“I only ask that you read this over before you sign.” he requested of Cloud as the pegasus read the document in its entirety before he glanced over at his new ID. Everything on the ID seemed right except for one particular detail...his place of birth was not listed as “Cloudsdale”...but as “Cloudshade”.
“Is something the matter?” Neighsay asked curiously, noticing that Cloud was bemused.
“I live in Cloudsdale, not in Cloudshade.” Cloud answered in frustration. “Did you make a typo?”
“Nice try.” Neighsay rebutted sternly. “We know you were not born in Cloudsdale. Our good princess’ research in addition to what we got out of your rainbow-haired friend can attest to the fact. While it is your right to live in Cloudsdale as a legal resident, we shall endorse no such fiction of you being born there.”
“Oh, come on!” Cloud protested. “What’s the big deal? We’re both ponies here!”
“...What did you just say?” Neighsay responded in a tone of disgust.
“I said we’re both ponies!” Cloud reiterated, continuing his protests despite knowing his identity in the world was the definition of a half-truth. “You know what I mean, it’s obvious I’m not some evil creature from a backwater land-”
“SILENCE!” Neighsay yelled, staring Cloud down with a grisly look. “If I hear such heinous language from you again, I will call the royal guard in here to have you cuffed against the wall and given a full CAVITY SEARCH!”
“What...what’s going on?” Cloud asked as his frustration reverted to bemusement. “Why are you so angry?”
“Because this is no place for that kind of vitriol!” Neighsay scolded him. “And how dare you believe that you’re entitled to special treatment for being a pony! You should be ASHAMED OF YOURSELF!”
Cloud was completely taken aback by this side of Neighsay. He was silent as he marveled at the sight of this changed stallion, and felt guilty for how he misjudged him beforehand. All he could say was…
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know what I was doing when I said that.”
“I accept your apology.” Neighsay forgave him. “I don’t enjoy snapping at anyone, but when I’m reminded of who I was in the past, I can’t help feeling anger. It’s done, all that matters now is that you learn from your mistake.”
“Wait a minute…” Cloud thought to himself, having a realization. “The words we just exchanged...this sounds exactly like what Luna just told me about. Did she...foresee this?”
“There’s no need to think about it anymore.” Neighsay interjected. “Like I said, it’s done. You’re forgiven. You only need to acknowledge this document by signing your name.”
As Neighsay gestured to the part of the paper where Cloud needed to sign, Cloud complied and grabbed the pen in his mouth to sign.
“Writing with my mouth sucks…” he bemoaned in thought over his lackluster penmanship. “I feel there’s some symbolism to this though. The first step to finding myself is by acknowledging my name with something permanent, and even that step proves to be difficult…”
Unbeknownst to him and Neighsay, the shadow with green eyes was watching them from Cloud’s shadow on the floor.
“So he’s chosen to heed her words.” the shadow thought to himself. “I’m detecting a will to mature within his heart. However, that will shall soon be tested. He won’t be pushed too hard initially, but gradually, he’ll come to know himself, his hell, the hell of others, the consequences of difficult choices, and finally, his fire…”
The Windigos, who were also watching Cloud as invisible apparitions, smirked, knowing the shadow was there.
“The princess and her agent are truly doing us a good service…” they mused. “Like them, we also have our own hell, but unlike them, we’ll actually know how to utilize his fire…”
Once Cloud was done, he was escorted out of Neighsay’s office by a guard and led to the entrance of the royal palace. There, a familiar face awaited him, and she did not look thrilled…
“Lovely day.” she greeted him sarcastically, upset that Cloud lied to her.
“You think I’m happy?” Cloud retorted angrily, upset that Rainbow spied on him.
Both of them found their eyes locked onto each other’s faces as they stared each other down, passionate rage burning in their eyes...
“Hey, the love can wait.” a guard jeered at them. “Shouldn’t you both be on your way home? We’ll call a chariot for you.”
“Much appreciated.” the two both said at the same time with a growl.
The feeling was mutual, they both needed some time to think about what they were going to say to each other. Soon, the chariot came and they entered, wearing the same angry looks the entire time they had waited. The still invisible Windigos giggled as they watched the chariot the two were riding fly away, headed towards Rainbow’s house.
“This is gonna be good…” Aero said happily with anticipation.
“I love drama…” Aera chimed in.
“Heh.” Aeros scoffed. “Reminds me of how you two used to fight when you were still alive. Your bond was something I could never understand…”
What Aeros also didn’t understand was that fights were a natural part of friendship, and that he would eventually find himself quite surprised…
Once Rainbow Dash and Cloud Shroud returned home, they wasted no time letting out their frustrations with each other in the living room. The still invisible Windigos were hovering over them, watching with interest.
“First you keep ruining my sleep at night, now you ruin my day!” Rainbow Dash complained angrily.
“What could I possibly be doing to ruin your sleep at night?” Cloud retorted, frustrated. “You’re the one always snoring and you never hear me complain!”
“NO, PLEASE, COMPLAIN!” Rainbow shouted, much to Cloud’s bemusement. “Do you know how much I would prefer that over you just not telling me anything at all?! Fluttershy had better social skills than you years ago! All you had to do was be honest and upfront about the fact that you were a foreigner and you LIED!”
“I didn’t lie, I told you I was a drifter!” Cloud exclaimed in denial. “Drifter, foreigner, same implication in essence!”
“Ooooohhhhh, Mareiam Webster didn’t technically lie to me…” Rainbow derided him facetiously. “And that would just make it so much better...had you not lied by OMISSION!”
“Touche.” Cloud yielded. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you more specifically about what was going on. It was just hard to explain and I didn’t feel it was important.”
“STOP LYING!” Rainbow cried, causing Cloud to flinch. “THAT’S NOT HOW YOU REALLY FEEL! YOU DON’T ACTUALLY CARE HOW I FEEL OR FEEL THAT YOU ACTUALLY DID ANYTHING WRONG! YOU JUST WANT ME TO SHUT UP!”
“Fine then, you asked for it!” Cloud exclaimed, pushing back. “Why did you have to go and make that stupid tape?! If you resent me for not opening up to you that much, why can’t you just be cool with me and get me to open up to you naturally instead of being passive-aggressive?!”
“BECAUSE I DON’T LIKE YOU!” Rainbow yelled. “YOU’RE NOT NORMAL! PONIES ARE SUPPOSED TO BE LOVING, HAPPY, AND LOOKING FOR FRIENDS AND YOU’RE JUST A COLD, SELF-ABSORBED CYNIC! EVERY TIME YOU COME TO THE KITCHEN TO GET COFFEE, ACTING SO BORING WHEN I’M TALKING TO YOU BEFORE YOU TURN AWAY, I JUST WANT TO GIVE YOU A KICK IN THE FLANK!”
Cloud was infuriated. His eyes turned green, exuding purple haze, and an aura of shadow came over him once more.
“OOOOOHHHHH MAN!” Aero exclaimed excitedly. “He HATES her now!”
“He’s gonna KILL HER!” Aera interjected in jest, also excited at the thought of Cloud going off on Rainbow.
“Not a chance.” Aeros said bluntly to burst their bubble. “I’ve looked into Cloud’s memories from when he was a human, he’s endured worse berating. He never snaps over stuff like this. Ever.”
“Say what?!” Aero and Aera responded, disappointed.
Their disappointment grew once they saw that Cloud was just menacingly staring at a now timid Rainbow, doing nothing else to display his intense animosity for her besides muttering in frustration…
“I’ll leave right now if you want me to.”
“Aww!” Aero and Aera grumbled. “We demand our money back!”
“You have no right to complain.” Aeros rebutted them. “You should’ve done more research on our friend by looking more into his soul. He’s a lot more like me than he is like you two, and even I know a few things about friends, ha ha ha...”
Rainbow Dash was also disappointed by Cloud’s underwhelming reaction...but also impressed by his calm reaction to her outburst. Still, she kept up the pressure despite her waning drive to argue.
“Dude, you can’t fool me, drop the zen monk act!” she demanded. “I know you can’t stand me, so just let it out!”
“What do I gain from not yelling at you?” Cloud retorted, his eyes returning to normal. “It’s not like someone’s recording this conversation, looking to use it against me.”
“...” Rainbow was silent after she heard that, completely losing her motivation to continue their quarrel. While she still believed that she had every right to be annoyed by and unaccepting of Cloud’s clandestine way of life, she couldn’t refute the fact that she had done something so shady to him. It was exactly the type of underhanded behavior that defeated her entire line of debate. How could she in good conscience demand a pony she had just been caught spying on to open up?
Silence filled the room before she guiltily said…
“I don’t want you to leave, I just...need some time alone.”
“I’ll happily acquiesce forever, if you’d like.” an upset Cloud replied, turning away and opening the front door. “I understand why you don’t look at me as a good roommate. But it’s truly a shame...because while I never knew how to show it, I considered you a friend.”
“...!” Aeros was shocked by this expression of sentiment...
...as was Rainbow. She attempted to raise a hoof to object to Cloud leaving, but quickly realized his mind was made up as he flew away. Feeling more remorseful than ever, she despondently went over to her couch and laid down, shoving her head into a pillow.
“I’m awful…” she scolded herself. “Evil force threatening Equestria...how could I overreact like that? I used my wild imagination as an excuse to take out my frustration on him...and I know the truth. I know that if some pony ever recorded me like that, even if it was for a “good cause”, I would lose my mind…”
Rainbow began to hate herself even more, greatly enthusing the Windigos.
“Don’t lose your mind just yet, Rainbow…” they taunted her to themselves. “Their agents have only just begun playing their mind games…”
“Heh heh heh…”
From outside a window in the living room, a purple-haired mare with a yellow coat was snickering scornfully as she glared at a video camera she was holding sinisterly…
Meanwhile, Cloud was flying around aimlessly, hopelessly looking for a place to relax. He hated to admit it, but there was never truly a time he felt relaxed. He always felt assailed by the bitter contempt he had vehemently attempted to shove down and deny for many years. He knew what he could never tell anyone else, especially with the roots of his trauma being irrelevant to the denizens of this world. For it didn’t start here or even when he was an adult human...it started when he was a child.
“...” Cloud didn’t even have anything to tell himself as he predictably found himself at the cloud he always slept on after work. He didn’t want to go into detail about how the way Rainbow talked to him...reminded him of his mother’s mental abuse.
His brooding was soon interrupted though by a group of familiar faces, Billy, Hoops, and Score. This time, however, the three were unnerved, wanting to do anything but approach him.
“Oh no, what is he doing here?!” Billy worriedly cried in the distance.
“Ssh!” Hoops shushed his friend. “We can NOT tell him what happened! Did you see the way he reacted that time? We have to warn Dash to get her ready!”
Score made a gesture of his throat being slit before the three took off, heading to Rainbow’s house. Unfortunately, Cloud had heard them. He quickly pieced together all the implications from the trio’s dialogue and with the realization of the only thing they could be talking about, his heart hit the floor…
“I got fired.” he told himself blankly, having no idea how to express his emotions…
...but it was finally time for the darkness within him to come out...
“Of course you have no idea…” the shadow with green eyes following him said to him scornfully. “Because there’s no other emotion for you to release but absolute, unrelenting rage you’ve been indoctrinated to view as evil, mwa ha ha…”
Cloud was initially startled by the shadow manifesting itself behind him, but once he turned to face it, he quickly recognized it.
“Wait, that voice too…” Cloud replied, recalling past events. “You were the one who told me to beware the lizard with three eyes. Were you just testing me? Because so far, I’ve not seen any cases of reptiles gaining psychic powers.”
“Oh, I would say no such thing in jest.” the shadow denied Cloud’s assertion. “The demon I warned you of is very real, and the purpose of you being brought to this world is to stop him. That is the truth you are denying. That is what is stopping you from finding yourself.”
“How am I supposed to stop something I can’t even see?!” Cloud complained. “Why can’t I just be allowed to live a quiet life?! That’s all I want!”
“You just answered your own question.” the shadow scoffed. “That’s all you want. It’s not just me, Luna, or the Windigos, but also the powers that be that want you to be so much more than a complacent nobody. And you know deep within your heart that you want so much more too. The denial of this inner desire...that is the root of your confusion and despair. If you would only allow me to help you, only then could you hope to finally open up...and accept yourself.”
Cloud looked down at his cloud solemnly in self-reflection. As a shadowy aura enveloped both him and the cloud, he almost felt as if he was staring in a mirror...
“Help me then.” he said bluntly.
With that...the shadow grinned profusely…
“I’ll start by turning your attention to the weather factory…” he directed Cloud forebodingly. “What do you see?”
Almost as if he was in some sort of hypnotic trance, Cloud flew closer to the weather factory...without even using his wings. It was like he was able to just float there...and once he landed, walking closer to the facility, he saw what was stationed outside there…
“A news crew?!”
Rainbow Dash bellowed this in horror after being told the bad news by the trio of pegasi at her house.
“Yup.” Billy said in a crestfallen tone of voice. “That’s what got poor Cloudy canned. Media involvement.”
“The big boss doesn’t want to lose face from it getting out all across Equestria that she hired an illegal resident.” Hoops explained.
“But-but-” Rainbow stammered. “She didn’t know! I didn’t know! And Cloud didn’t know how serious this was!”
“It doesn’t matter…” Billy replied with a discouraging look on his face. “You know the way the media is…”
“They’re going to omit any context from the situation that doesn’t suit their agenda.” Hoops said with a frustrated grunt. “They don’t need any bothersome facts getting in the way of their top story…”
Score angrily used a hoof to draw the symbol of an upside-down cross in the air.
These additional comments hit Rainbow hard.
“What to do...what to do…” she said in her panicked mind. “Just the threat of him losing his job was enough of a trigger to make him actually show anger...after how much I goaded on him, he’s going to blow SKY HIGH! There has to be something I can do to make him calm down, but what?”
“Needless to say, there’s no way to hide the truth from him.” Billy remarked. “And I’m sure you also doubt that an apology will be enough to sate his wrath.”
“As much as we hate to talk about your roommate like he’s some angry god we have to appease with a sacrifice…” Hoops interjected wearily. “...it seems the best course of action is to try and make amends with him by telling him sorry while offering him a gift. Do you have any idea what he likes?”
“Of course not, the guy was an enigma!” Rainbow exclaimed in frustration before she gave the situation more thought. “But in hindsight…”
Rainbow’s retrospective overview allowed her to recall that one of the few things that motivated Cloud to come out of the attic was...coffee.
“I’ve got it!” Rainbow declared, smiling in relief. Opening her window, she dashed out and flew towards the clouds outside her home. Spinning around one at lightning-fast speed, she was able to make the vision in her head of the perfect gift for Cloud a reality.
“Ta-da!” she cried, proudly displaying her creation. “I present to you…”
Her creation was revealed to be...
“...an oversized coffee mug made of cloud!”
The trio of pegasi were astonished, staring bemusedly at her and the gift at the window.
“You...sure he’ll like it?” Billy asked in concern.
“Of course!” Rainbow answered optimistically. “He likes coffee, he likes clouds, and of course he’s going to like the message of my gift! That even though he lost his job, he still has a cup of coffee to enjoy at my place!”
“And you’re...sure he’s not going to misinterpret it?” Hoops also asked in concern.
“What else could he infer from this?” Rainbow replied obliviously. “That it’s some kind of gag gift meant to poke fun at him and his situation? Who would take it that way?”
Score made the gesture of somebody taking a picture with a camera to remind her of the situation of the press being involved.
“Ha!” Rainbow cried mockingly. “Like even the worst tabloid peddler could spin what I’m about to do! Once I show Cloud how sorry I am on national television, everything will be made right, and everypony will know it!”
The trio of pegasi could dissuade her no further, as Dash had already jetted off towards the weather factory with the gift in her hooves at supersonic speed.
“This won’t end well…” Billy said pessimistically.
“It’s not her brain that works lightning-fast, for sure…” Hoops remarked in disgruntlement.
Score used a hoof to make what looked like a gun-to-head gesture.
“Heh heh heh…” the watching, invisible Windigos laughed.
“I guess in this world, it’s a hoof cannon-to-head gesture…” Aero commented on what Score did. “Too bad that’s not the only thing from the human world Equestria will soon be forced to adopt…”
“Once Equestria is forced to understand the pain humans are going through right now, only then will they be able to understand us.” Aera interjected. “The stupidity of the rainbow-haired simpleton revealing Cloud’s inner turmoil to all will be the perfect start.”
“Indeed…” Aeros agreed with a smile that soon turned to a concerned frown. “But I have a feeling the benefits we’ll reap from her folly will mostly aid us in the short-term. As for the long-term...I have a stirring of uncertainty about how Cloud’s fire shall be fanned...now that I’ve learned something new about this friendship…”
“...!” this new sentiment from Aeros shocked Aero and Aera.
“Could it be…” they thought. “...that he’s finally starting to understand...why we loved each other when we were alive?”
What Aero and Aera surmised was true. Aeros was beginning to get what drew ponies to friendship, but that didn’t mean he was beginning to accept what would directly contradict his view of friendship. Especially when both of his comrades were entirely in on his plan…
...to redefine the meaning of the word, “friendship”, in Equestria…
Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was racing towards the weather factory with her gift. Looking for Cloud, the first place she checked was his hangout spot, but the cloud he normally rested on laid bare.
“Not that I wanted to take care of this in private anyway…” Rainbow smugly mused. “I hope he’s actually at the factory, because I want this to be in front of everypony.”
Naturally, Rainbow went closer to the factory, up to the gate where the news crew had stationed themselves. She flew high to avoid the camera ponies and went straight to who they were focused on. They were recording a pompous-looking pegasus who had a white mane and tail, an aquamarine coat, and a pompadour style of hair. He was wearing a purple-red jacket and sunglasses and holding a microphone with the logo, “PNN”, on it.
Rainbow was startled when she saw that he was interviewing none other than...Cloud Shroud. Not by her friend being there, but by the conversation he was having with the reporter…
“So now that this company you’ve worked so hard for has thrown you out like yesterday’s dishwater, how do you feel?” the reporter asked deviously, smirking arrogantly.
“What?!” Rainbow exclaimed in surprise in her mind. “They’re trying to frame the weather factory as the bad guys?! What’s going on here?!”
She hovered right above Cloud, extremely curious of his response.
“Inadequate.” Cloud tersely answered, knowing this interviewer was shady.
“Any further comments?” the journalist slyly prodded.
“I don’t dislike them for this.” Cloud decided to express his honest opinion. “This is just the way companies are, they’d do this to anyone.”
“I see,” replied the unphased reporter, ready to change tactics, “so moving on, how do you feel about your roommate, Rainbow Dash? She recommended this job to you, correct?”
“Yes.” Cloud answered, leading Rainbow to gulp.
“Would he…” she thought worriedly.
“Do you feel she should be held accountable for not inquiring more about you before making a referral?” he asked in a cunning tone of voice. “Shouldn’t one of Equestria’s Elements have known better than to push somepony she had only just met into working a position at this facility? How much responsibility does she owe, in your personal opinion?”
“WHY, YOU DIRTY-” Rainbow yelled in her mind, struggling to control her temper.
“Gah, this weasel!” an annoyed Cloud exclaimed in thought. “The worst part is...he makes a good point…”
“Cloud, please…” Rainbow silently pleaded in thought. “I was too hard on you, but...you can’t hate me that much for it...can you?”
“...I should’ve known better…” Cloud thought regrettably. “I had a good feeling he was going to be smarmy, but I wasn’t prepared adequately enough to counter his gaslighting. I guess this is it then. I can’t sell out Rainbow, but I can’t deny the fact that I’m mad at her...I won’t backstab someone who tried to help me and I won’t hold back how I feel anymore...so I’ll just give Rainbow what she wants and finally open up!”
And with that, Cloud finally answered the question in a way that would shock the public and change Rainbow’s perception of him forever…
“She only owes as much responsibility as I do. We both share the blame because we’re friends, and that’s what friends do!”
The reporter’s cocky grin finally receded as he, his crew, and nearly every pony watching all across Equestria from the Crystal Empire, to Manehattan, to Ponyville, were awe-inspired. This included Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy, who were all slack-jawed staring at the TV screen from a table at Sugarcube Corner.
“That plasma TV investment really was worth every coin…” Pinkie remarked, not regretting her decision for an attempt to liven the establishment and help the Cakes out.
And of all the ponies, the one most astonished by this turn of events was Rainbow Dash…
“I totally misjudged a book by its cover…” she told herself in thought regrettably. “Even though he doesn’t like to show it, he really does care...HE CARES!”
That exclamation of joy in her mind, however, would precede an even more unprecedented turn of events that Equestria could never have prepared for…
Rainbow pumped her hoof hard, knocking the gift she had prepared for Cloud with enough force from her elbow to cause the coffee mug-shaped cloud to produce lightning. And since she was positioned above Cloud, the lightning hit him…
*ZAP-PZZT-fwoo*
...but it did not electrocute him. Cloud was left feeling bemused from a tingle, while the news ponies were actually shocked, wondering if he was wearing a transparent rubber suit. But that wasn’t the explanation for what was transpiring before their eyes...which they would soon realize when Rainbow’s gift began to break apart into smaller clouds, gravitating towards Cloud and becoming absorbed into his body...and finally, the secret of how this anomaly worked came to light thanks to the shadow manifesting from Cloud…
“Crystals…” the shadow said ominously in a familiar voice. “ICE CRYSTALS…”
Cloud, realizing the meaning of this message, was the most aghast…
“There are ice crystals inside of me?” Cloud mused in terror, having felt their strange tingle inside his body even before he absorbed the clouds. “But that...means…”
Cloud finally understood what the Windigos meant by their promise of giving him an immortal, immaterial body as he accepted the truth of himself in front of all of Equestria…
This is what Cloud Shroud said to himself as the shock of learning his true nature sent him back to the dark realm of his soul where the Windigos first introduced themselves to him. This time, however, the sensation was different, as if he had entered a different part of the realm of his spirit. Once again, the only light he could see in front of him was a flame...only this time, the flame was purple…
“Ha ha ha ha ha…”
A familiar laugh came from an all too familiar shadow with green eyes that finally manifested itself into…
“King Sombra.” Cloud Shroud said in astonishment. “I can’t believe this…”
“Why are you so surprised that it’s been me all this time?” Sombra playfully retorted. “There were clues everywhere. Not only was I your favorite villain, but you used to love following clues that led you to the conclusion that I had...never actually died.”
“Was I right?” Cloud asked nervously.
“More or less.” Sombra answered. “In the context of the human world, I most certainly can not die, for I am a concept. In the context of the world of Equestria, I am in fact deceased...by their definition.”
“What do you mean?” Cloud asked curiously. “What is...their definition?”
“I was banished by the light, therefore, I am gone for good.” Sombra explained to him in a tone that made him sound hurt. “I’m sure you understand why this is a fate worse than death.”
“Indeed I do.” Cloud replied, feeling a familiar sense of empathy. “No one wants to be “dead”. We’re either alive, having to live life, or dead, having to move on. You’re going through an identity crisis.”
“Exactly.” Sombra said bluntly. “I have no life or afterlife to call my own. The emptiness I feel right now, having nowhere to belong to, it’s a fate worse than being a ghost. Even ghosts can linger freely, but I am confined to servitude. Perhaps this is a divine punishment meant to teach me how my subjects felt when they were enslaved…”
“Servitude?” Cloud questioned. “Who do you have to serve?”
“Princess Luna.” Sombra answered, leaving Cloud stunned. “She ordered me to watch over you as soon as she and Celestia learned what the Windigos were planning.”
“What?!” Cloud exclaimed in disbelief. “The rulers of Equestria have known about me being a human called there by monsters who have threatened their land this whole time?! And they probed you into this instead of Twilight Sparkle and her friends?! What’s going on?!”
“Equestria is not ready to handle the truth about the Windigos being more than just monsters.” Sombra elucidated the matter. “I was chosen for the task because I am the only one capable of talking to you like this without any fear of the Windigos overhearing. This is more than just a different part of your soul...you’re also inside of my soul.”
“What the...how does that work?!” Cloud yelled in bemusement.
“Isn’t it obvious from the fact that you’re made of shadow now too?” Sombra replied with a devilish smirk. “We are now one being.”
Cloud was shocked. He remembered what the Windigos said about how his new body would be constructed from the fabric of his spirit, and something dawned on him…
“Your new body is constructed by your will.” Sombra continued to explain. “It was your love for wanting to be free from your troubles like a cloud in the sky and your love for darkness that created this magical change. That love is part of the fire that drew the Windigos to you...and while they knew what would happen once you accepted their offer, it was ultimately you who chose to undergo this most marvelous of fusions.”
“You mean most weird!” Cloud retorted in frustration. “Why is this all happening to me? Why was I chosen by them? Why me when it literally could have been anyone else?”
“The reason all of this is happening to you is not something so hackneyed as you being the chosen one…” Sombra replied solemnly. “...as I’ve already told you, you willed this. Nothing happens purely by chance or purely because it’s been ordained by a higher power. The reason it seems like nothing ever changes in your world is because your world has largely forgotten its magic...the magic of willpower.”
“That’s ludicrous.” Cloud dismissed such a notion. “We can’t change anything in this world. It doesn’t matter where you go, all you see is darkness. That’s why you just have to focus on yourself, knowing that all you have is your fire...wait…”
The truth finally hit Cloud once he looked around and realized why the realm of his soul was the way it was...it wasn’t just like this for no reason...he had subconsciously created this space through the power of his will.
“You’re seeing the truth…” Sombra said with a sly smirk. “You are not a product of your environment. Your environment is a product of you. Even if Luna hadn’t sent me, I would’ve come to you anyways...because you love me.”
“I...I’m...choosing this…?” Cloud fearfully muttered, having difficulty processing the truth. “But how? They all made me feel...like I could never change anything…”
Cloud started having flashbacks to the darkest hours of dealing with abuse from his family and people he thought were his friends, and unable to bear the mental pressure, he sunk to the floor and started clutching himself. Sombra, still smirking, moved closer to him.
“Do you see now why you can’t do anything without my help?” Sombra deviously told him, holding out a hoof. “Without me to guide you, you are but a lost soul with no purpose. And without purpose, you can accomplish nothing worthwhile. The Windigos will surely exploit such a vulnerability and use you to harm Equestria for their selfish plans. However, if you listen to me, not only will you save Equestria, you will make it even greater than it was before. You can create a new land that understands others like you and me...like us.”
After hearing that, Cloud began to calm down. Though he was suspicious of Sombra’s sinister countenance, nothing he had said sounded wrong to him. Sombra was indeed still “evil” by Equestria’s definition, but for the rulers of Equestria to suddenly trust him, something about their definition definitely had to be off, like he had always believed. And he had also always believed that Equestria’s definition of “deceased” was off too…
“I do trust you more than the Windigos…” Cloud finally spoke up, telling Sombra how he honestly felt. “...so I hope you will return that trust by being more upfront in how you divulge information to me regarding your plan.”
“Splendid.” Sombra cheerfully replied, closing his eyes and smiling a giddy grin. “I will certainly reward your trust by telling you straight up that the plan is to gradually reveal the truth of what’s really going on to the residents of Equestria. And we’ll start by telling them the truth of what really happened when they “defeated” me…”
Sombra used his magic to make a folder of files appear. Levitating it with his horn, he handed it to Cloud, who opened it. Reading the details of the files, the look on his face became unnerved.
“This...how…?!” he exclaimed in shock.
“Yes.” Sombra replied bluntly. “We need to tell them the truth of how it was all a lie. An even greater lie than Twilight believes...”
Darkness surrounded the two as the scene shifted to Sugarcube Corner, the focus beginning on Twilight’s eye and zooming out to show her and all of her friends staring up at the TV, stunned.
“I should’ve known…” an astonished Twilight told herself in her mind, recalling how disappointed she was the day she learned her defeat of Sombra was a setup. “Sombra was never truly gone...and he’s back for revenge…”
But little did Twilight know, this was not something for something so simple as vengeance. Sombra had a much different plan for her and her friends in mind than they ever could have imagined. A plan that would soon unfold as the shadow king’s second coming, they would behold on national television.
"This time..." he thought to himself deviously. "I have no intention of conquering this land through blunt force. This time, I will gain power without making a single attack on the land of Equestria. After all, I never promised not to use a different kind of magic for manipulating ponies...the magic of charisma...heh heh heh..."
From Cloud Shroud, a ball of light appeared that exploded, causing the eyes of all the ponies there and every pony watching the live broadcast to briefly glow as they felt a bizarre, yet soothing sensation come over them...
A sensation that told them to be still and listen to the words of one with power...
It was then that Sombra's shadow form appeared from Cloud and manifested himself into the form of a pony before he began to walk on the clouds.
“A-AAAAHHHH!” the news reporter cried in terror, as his entire news crew was mortified.
“Fear not.” Sombra said eloquently, holding out a hoof. “For I come in peace. I only request...an interview.”
Now, the news crew was less afraid and more puzzled in the presence of the shadow king.
“D-do…” the reporter interviewing Cloud before stammered. “Do you want me to interview you?”
“Sure, Mr. Fax First.” Sombra answered by finally stating the reporter’s name. “You may ask me anything you please.”
“What in Celestia’s name am I seeing?!” Rainbow bellowed in thought, less phased by Sombra's charisma from her stubborn personality. “Sombra was inside of Cloud Shroud the whole time...and now he’s being nice?! Why?!”
“...” Cloud looked down somberly, only being able to imagine Rainbow’s disbelief. He knew that shock would only increase throughout the course of Sombra’s interview, as she and her friends would soon have to confront a most unpleasant reality…
“My first question is…” the still bewildered Fax First began his interview with the dark regent. “...how did you return and why?”
“Ah-ah-ah, that’s two questions!” Sombra cheekily teased him. “But because I like you a lot, I’ll answer them both at the same time. I was able to find my way out of the darkness I was banished to thanks to the power of love, and I returned for the power of love!”
“................................” everyone was silent...and flabbergasted.
“What. a. fruitcake.” an unamused Rainbow Dash remarked in her mind.
“Even I have no clue why he went from being so serious to so corny!” a disbelieving Cloud exclaimed in his mind. “Then again, he went through a similar change before…”
“.....Is this part of a joke?” Fax asked, more bemused than ever. “Can you...delve into specifics?”
“Love isn’t the kind of thing you can just explain off the top of your head!” Sombra answered, still being flamboyant. “And I can’t tell you every little detail, since I made a pretty big promise to a special somepony. What I can tell you though is that I was, by every sense of your interpretation of the word, dead. And my friend Cloud used his magic to bring me back to life!”
Everyone was even more speechless and flabbergasted than before.
“WWWWWHHHHHAAAAATTTTT?!” Rainbow blurted out, unable to take it anymore. “DUDE, WHAT IS WITH YOU?! DID YOUR BRAIN NOT FULLY RECOVER FROM BEING DISINTEGRATED OR SOMETHING?!”
Sombra snickered ominously and Cloud put his hoof on his face, already knowing the reason...
“Rainbow...your brain is the one in need of a recovery…” Cloud thought derisively.
“So can I take that as a confession that you and your friends killed me?” Sombra asked in a menacing tone.
Rainbow’s face showed a blank expression once she realized the error of her ways as Fax First’s countenance became an unsettling look of glee.
“Oh, I get it now…” they both thought simultaneously.
“We are going to be so deep in dung…” Rainbow thought worriedly.
“We are going to be so deep in moolah!” Fax exclaimed greedily in thought. “Nya ha ha ha ha!”
Fax, immediately realizing the best new attitude to wear for this unprecedented event, moved to feigning sympathy for Sombra.
“This is unconceivable!” he declared dramatically, putting on his act. “Dear Celestia, we must know how you fared against this most unimaginable of circumstances! Why, just the very suggestion of the Elements, the most trusted and prestigious protectors of our land, robbing even a disreputable assailant of their life is enough to make one shudder!”
“I can even show proof of how I’m not as bad as you’ve been told.” Sombra proclaimed confidently. “But that’s best saved for another segment. Right now, let’s focus on the more pressing issue...you would naturally assume that the Elements were left with no choice but to dispatch me in justifiable self-defense, correct?”
“Of course.” Fax answered with a smug grin, already predicting Sombra’s next line of dialogue.
“You would assume wrong.” Sombra asserted with a most sinister look in his eyes. “In neither of my assaults on the Crystal Empire or Ponyville did I make any attempt at taking any pony’s life. In fact, it was the Elements who attacked me first with the intent to kill. All I did from then on was defend myself with my dark magic.”
Twilight and her friends gasped in horror.
“That’s bologna!” Rainbow Dash immediately objected, sweating. “He’s totally framing us out of context!”
“But…” Twilight thought guiltily. “There’s no clear contradiction in what he just said. I just...always viewed what we were doing as dispelling a shadow, not depriving a stallion of his life...even King Sombra doesn’t deserve to die…”
“Where’s your proof that we killed you?!” Rainbow yelled indignantly. “Show us proof! You’re the bad guy here! The burden of proof is on you!”
“Since you’re begging just like a peasant…” Sombra snidely retorted. “Why don’t you look at the ground below where you should be groveling? I’m walking on the clouds without a spell. Don’t you find that abnormal? Or should I say, paranormal?”
“That doesn’t prove you’re a ghost!” Rainbow rebutted. “You’re a shadow pony who just came from a cloud pony! That’s even more unbelievable than any ghost story I’ve ever heard, who’s to say this isn’t some new kind of trick?”
“You should know no one likes arbitrary skepticism.” Sombra continued to mock her. “But very well. Would you like me to present indisputable proof?”
“Lay it on me, tough guy!” Rainbow made a bold comeback as she pulled out her chest and put her front hooves to it confidently.
“She’s a true musclehead…” Cloud mused to himself in his mind. “I can’t imagine anything inside of her head besides muscles after this...”
“I aim to please.” an unmoved Sombra said joyfully as he made one of the files in the folder he had shown Cloud appear with his magic. He levitated it so that everyone could clearly see an official document from Equestria’s library of royal records. Proof of it not being a forgery was displayed by an official stamp from the justice minister. It was a profile of him that had the following word listed by his name and photograph...DECEASED.
“...” Rainbow couldn’t believe it. Neither could any of her friends watching at Sugarcube Corner.
“...No…” Rainbow said meekly, feeling both humiliated and guilty.
“I never thought I would see this day.” Twilight remarked in disbelief, feeling a sense of disillusionment and remorse that all of her friends shared. “Did Celestia and Luna mean to warn me of this when we last talked?”
Twilight began reliving a memory of a haunting discussion she had with her former mentor and former mentor’s sibling after her coronation…
“Phew!” she had exclaimed in relief to Celestia that night in the royal palace. “What a wild ride of a day! Good thing I have such great friends to pick me up when I fall down, and such a great teacher who taught me everything I needed to know!”
“...” Celestia had attempted to force a smile and a cheerful acknowledgement of her former student’s laud, but ultimately could not. Instead, she looked forlorn, bothering Twilight.
“What’s the matter?” Twilight asked in concern. “You seemed so lively only moments ago.”
“I am more than happy for you, Twilight.” Celestia responded sincerely. “I couldn’t have asked for a better student. It’s just that in retrospect, I don’t feel I’ve done my full service to you as a teacher.”
“Why?” Twilight asked, growing disheartened. “You’re amazing! Where could you have gone wrong?”
“I didn’t teach you everything you needed to know.” Celestia answered solemnly. “I’m not taking what you said literally, as I know full well that none are capable of omniscience. What I mean is that I don’t feel I’ve adequately prepared you for handling a darkness far greater than what you know…”
“...?!” Luna, who had been gazing at the stars outside a window, overheard and was taken aback. “Sister…”
“What darkness could be greater than those three with Grogar’s magic?!” a perturbed and perplexed Twilight exclaimed. “And even though my friends and I didn’t truly defeat Sombra, we surely could now!”
“About Sombra…” Celestia prepared to reply uncomfortably, guiltily shutting her eyes, biting her lip, and turning her head…
“That’s ENOUGH, SISTER!” Luna abruptly bellowed. “You know full well what I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR!”
“Luna...stop blaming yourself…” Celestia replied in consolation. “You know what I made you guilty of...and what I made Twilight guilty of in turn…”
At this point, the evocative nature of the memory was too much, and Twilight snapped back to reality, ready to cry.
“So that’s what she meant…” Twilight thought despondently. “That’s what she was so distraught over...she must have found out what I had done to Sombra...and could no longer conceal her guilt over the fact...that her favorite student...turned out to be a MURDERER!”
“WHAT HAVE I DONE?!” Twilight, despairing, cried in regret.
The Windigos, who were watching the Elements as invisible apparitions, were fed by their self-contempt, particularly Twilight’s.
“Wow, we should start asking Sombra and that Fax First guy for pointers.” Aero remarked. “Especially Fax. If such a thing as evil actually exists, he fits the bill even better.”
“A meal’s a meal, I guess…” Aera chimed in. “But I wonder if even these bleeding heart scum, including the stupid, silver spoon-spoiled princess, deserve this.”
“You two are too fast to forget.” Aeros criticized his colleagues. “It is only because of the soft, privileged times these ponies live in that they are able to feel sentiment for an enemy. Were they put under the hardship from the dark times we endured, their hearts would become like stone, and they would treat us the same way the ones who abandoned us to Belohzhero did…”
Aeros was a tough character, but his frustration came from a place of sincerity. He was one who stood by his word, thus why he and his comrades had not abandoned Cloud’s human body…
Back in the human world, Ken was still lying out on the ground on that cold night. Time had stood still since his soul had been transported to Equestria, but his body was still in need of warmth that the Windigos were providing. However, Sombra had been true to his word too. The fire being enhanced by the Windigos was also part of Ken’s will, and that will attracted a certain creature seeking warmth…
...a lizard…
“Heh heh heh.” Sombra chuckled to himself in thought, knowing what was going on. “Just you wait, you freak…”
“So Sombra,” interjected Fax, “would you say that you hold a grudge against Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends?”
“Honestly, I can’t say that I do.” Sombra replied, exuding an aura of tranquility that shocked everyone watching, and even provoked Twilight to lift her head. “As incredible as that sounds, I feel that it’s love from my new friend...that abated the strong grudge I should bear against them.”
“I guess you understand better than they do now that friendship is magic, ha ha ha!” Fax jeered the Elements before a haughty guffaw.
“Hey, I think I found the silver lining to all this!” Rainbow exclaimed in thought. “Now that Sombra’s not actually that bad, I can hate this blowhard more without feeling immature!”
“So how exactly would you describe your relationship with Cloud?” Faux asked curiously. “I mean, since you’re both technically living together with you being inside of him...could it be…?”
“That’s not it!” Sombra giddily denied. “It’s not like that, I just live inside of his soul, like a roommate! We’re soulmates!”
The extremely gawkish nature of this joke was not enough to stop Equestrians everywhere from bursting out in laughter. Lyra even had to do the Heimlich maneuver on Bon-Bon after she started choking on a banana. Rainbow Dash, however, was just staring at the scene in bemusement while Cloud blushed in embarrassment.
“Did...did my will do this too?” he pondered to himself. “Is Sombra trying to show me how much my love for him has changed him? Is he trying to show me how I can...change the world around me...by just being myself?”
“Trust me, Cloud…” Sombra said forebodingly in thought. “We’ve only just begun...soulmate.”
“Hoo hoo hoo…” a familiar figure watching the news in a distant realm laughed in response to Sombra’s joke. “This is quite the jam…”
The figure then stuffed a peanut butter sandwich inside of a strawberry jam jar before emptying the entire jar inside of his mouth, chewing the contents inside before swallowing them.
“Oh, Celestia…” he said to himself in a dejected tone of voice as he got ready to leave his home. “If only you would allow me to fix this mess with a snap…I don’t want them to suffer either...but I do have faith...”
Meanwhile, the broadcast with Sombra’s interview continued as the news crew pulled themselves together from their split sides.
“Moving on…” Fax First commented. “Sombra, I would like to know your personal opinion on where we should go from here. If you don’t hold the Elements in contempt, does that mean you won’t be pressing charges against them for homicide?”
“You know what they say, life’s too short.” Sombra joked once more. “Obviously, something needs to be done about this. But before we jump to conclusions or do anything reckless, I believe we should get their side of the story first.”
“...Really?” Rainbow Dash and Fax responded in bemusement.
“I mean, yes, of course!” Fax quickly corrected himself, remembering to keep up the act. “This calls for some investigative journalism! Fair Press!”
“Yes?” the same purple-haired, yellow mare who recorded Rainbow Dash answered.
“Call up Twilight Sparkle right now and ask if she wants to come here for an interview.” Fax ordered. “You should already know what to do if she refuses, heh heh.”
“You got it boss, ha ha.” she replied gleefully.
Fax winked at her and she winked back, making Rainbow and Cloud suspicious.
“Something smells fishy…” Rainbow thought. “I’ve been so shocked about the totally weird way Sombra’s been acting that I haven’t had time to appreciate how well these “unbiased” reporters are taking it and rolling along with it…”
“Did Sombra have a part in staging this that he didn’t tell me about?” Cloud wondered to himself in thought. “It doesn’t seem like that. That “reporter” is obviously a paid actor, but he and his crew seemed genuinely startled by Sombra’s appearance. Could it be they were told something about him coming back by another party and just didn’t know how to handle it in actuality? But as far as I know, only the rulers of Equestria knew about Sombra…”
While Rainbow and Cloud were musing, Celestia and Luna also had thoughts of their own about what was transpiring on national television. Each of them were in their own office, where Celestia was doing paperwork regarding decisions about historical preservation and Luna was doing paperwork regarding decisions about law enforcement.
“My faithful student…” Celestia thought solemnly, knowing that Twilight would surely appear on the news for an interview. “I hope you are able to catch onto the fact that we have been forced to give you a new test…”
“Sombra…” an agitated Luna thought as she gave the TV in her office a frustrated glare. “I hope you are merely feigning this jocular, nonchalant attitude...we are in a dire situation here...and we take no pleasure in the things we’ve been forced to do…”
Both Celestia and Luna were crestfallen over the fact that someone was on their way to Cloudsdale knowing they would be sacrificed for the greater good…
Back where the news crew was stationed, the broadcast had called for an intermission as the reporters awaited Twilight’s arrival. Sombra had taken advantage of this opportunity to talk to Cloud within the realm of his soul once more.
“So what are we doing back here again, might I ask?” a weary Cloud questioned.
“I don’t know, I guess I just like the flame.” Sombra jested, looking over at the purple fire. “Judging from the look on your face back then, it seems you do too.”
Cloud began to blush again, only this time, it was out of both embarrassment and anger.
“Would you quit making STUPID JOKES LIKE THAT?!” he cried, venting his frustration. “I don’t care if you’re just joking, I’m a human and you’re a horse! It’s not appropriate!”
“Of course I’m only joking.” an unphased Sombra replied truthfully. “My broken heart belonged to another, I shall never love again. But I must ask you, why are you angry? I sensed no agitation from you the first time. The first time, it was broadcast all over Equestria. Now, we are where no one can hear us.”
“Because I don’t care what other people think…” Cloud answered, clutching a foreleg abashedly. “But now, we’re inside my personal space where I just want to escape from the world and my worries. You should know that I’m very self-conscious of my fear that...maybe my love for you has gone too far…”
“So that’s why you didn’t want to believe it was me that was inside of you.” Sombra replied in realization. “Fear not, my feeble subject. The love that comes from your will and the fairy tale love you often hear of are not the same. Unlike the masses I am toying with, you will be informed of the fact that Equestria’s foolish idea of love is not the way.”
“I knew something was off about the goofy way you were acting…” Cloud said with his hoof on his face. “But I don’t understand. You have your dark magic, why did you need to tell them we were “soulmates”?”
“Because prattling about the wonders of “love” to those who don’t understand it is the most effective way to manipulate fragile minds without dark magic.” Sombra answered deviously. “Obviously, with Celestia and Luna watching, I can’t just use my dark magic. Thus, I’ve devised another way to control the Equestrian population without anyone ever knowing…”
“...Are you using me to take over Equestria?” Cloud asked suspiciously.
“How can I do such a thing?” Sombra argued. “Celestia and Luna are still watching to ensure that I do Twilight no harm. It seems you’ve forgotten they’re not in charge anymore, Twilight is. This is all simply part of a test to see what she will do under a new kind of pressure. The kind your world is all too familiar with, ha ha.”
“Why are they doing this?” an inquisitive Cloud asked. “All of this seems so...uncanny, uncharacteristic of them. Does this have something to do with the Windigos?”
“You catch on quick, good.” Sombra complimented. “No one else knows, but those Windigos are masters of manipulation. The one who directs them from the darkness, he has honestly fooled Celestia and Luna with a most deceptive disguise into believing that he is a...god of love.”
“What in the world?!” Cloud cried in shock. “They never told me anything about them having a boss! Are you saying that the Windigos know someone like you is on their trail because it’s part of their trap?!”
“Exactly why only I could serve the role as their agent, being the only one who could possibly hope to outmaneuver them.” Sombra replied boastfully. “I am no one’s pawn. I will prove myself superior to all. I will combat the order these Windigos have planned with my own.”
“Order?” Cloud pondered. “Regardless of what that means, I am definitely going to have a stern conversation with those three soon, oh boy…”
“I already know what you want to do.” Sombra interjected, being able to read him. “You want to confront them and get some actual answers, but you should know they’ll just play games with one as wishy-washy as you. That’s where I come in, ha ha.”
“Are you going to share your power with me?” Cloud asked curiously.
“I’ve never been a freeloader…” Sombra remarked in amusement, returning to making quips. “You’ve already received some of my power. In times of great frustration and distress, your anger spills out of your eyes, taking the form of my dark magic. Though you’ve not taken note of it, others have. But even they don’t know why it happens...they don’t know what I’ve told you, that the magic of willpower is real.”
“...Well, at least it sounds less corny than the magic of friendship.” Cloud said with a goofy grin, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Don’t even get me started.” Sombra replied in unamusement, giving him a deadpan stare. “I was not defeated by the “magic of friendship” and Twilight knows it. I was overpowered by Discord’s will passed onto them.”
“...W-Wait a minute!” Cloud exclaimed in surprise. “Does that mean…?!”
“I’ve said enough for now.” Sombra interjected. “If it’s more information you seek, you already know who you should be getting it out of. Meanwhile, I need to get myself ready to meet a princess...”
With that, Cloud found himself outside of the realm of his soul and back in Cloudsdale where the news crew was.
“I can’t talk to those Windigos here, it’s too risky.” he thought to himself, cautiously assessing the situation. “If one of those slimy reporters overhears or, heaven forbid, records something, I’m screwed. I have to get far away from here and talk to them in private, stat!”
“Wait!” Rainbow Dash suddenly exclaimed. “Where are you going, Cloud?”
“.....” Cloud paused despite his feeling of urgency, as Rainbow’s question was exactly what he wanted to ask himself. Where was he going? No matter how far away he was willing to fly, there would still linger that sense of worry that he was being watched. A sense of worry...mixed with guilt.
He knew what provoked Rainbow to record him. He felt that maybe, just maybe, if he had trusted Rainbow with his emotions more, things wouldn’t have gotten this muddled and messed up. He certainly wasn’t going to hide what he was feeling from the Windigos, so why hide what he was feeling from Rainbow? He felt that it was time to finally start opening up, so he answered with how he honestly felt…
“I really don’t know. I’m just really tired of everything right now. I just want to go to a quiet place by myself and forget about all this.”
“Me too…” Rainbow apparently concurred. “Except I don’t want to be away from all this by myself, I want to be away from all this with my friends...and that includes you.”
“I thought you didn’t like me.” Cloud bluntly replied.
“I was just saying something I didn’t really mean then in anger.” Rainbow rebutted defensively. “Friends quarrel, and of course there are times where they feel they dislike each other, but real friends always make up in the end. Do you think my other friends have never gotten mad at me? Please! I wouldn’t blame them for losing it with me after I made that situation with Sombra even worse. And I made your situation worse by accidentally exposing your secret. So go ahead and let me have it like you should’ve back at the house.”
“I really should…” Cloud said sincerely. “But the funny thing is, I’m not just sucking down my emotions. There’s a real part of me that honestly doesn’t want to yell at you...because I don’t want to hurt your feelings.”
“...Heh heh heh…” Rainbow laughed, knowing that Cloud was honest about his good intentions while also seeing the error in his ways.
“What’s so funny?” Cloud asked, curiously unamused.
“I just remembered how I got on you about having worse social skills than Fluttershy in the past…” Rainbow explained herself. “Did you know that Fluttershy also had to learn that kindness isn’t always what it appears to be? You think you’re being nice to me by sparing my feelings, but being somepony’s friend isn’t just about caring for their feelings...friendship is also about sharing your feelings.”
“...I understand what you mean.” Cloud replied solemnly, trying to mask his flustered state.
“I do get where she’s coming from…” he thought nervously. “But there’s just no way I can show her just how angry I really felt...because I know that kind of anger is not normal. I know she genuinely wants to be my friend, but if I truly open up to her about everything...and she becomes forever repulsed by me...no. I can’t do that. I’m not ready for that hell. I’ve not accepted myself yet...nor have I accepted this anger that haunts me yet…”
*FWOOM*
And as Cloud admitted his weaknesses in his heart, the flame in his soul began to grow stronger.
“Hnnnh...wh-what is this sensation?!” he exclaimed in his mind that was suddenly purged of doubt as an aura of warmth came over him. “I feel...better. I feel...energized. I feel like I can...take on anything now!”
“Are...you okay, dude?” Rainbow asked in concern, wondering why Cloud had gone so quiet before she started getting a weird feeling from his aura.
“Yes, I’m better than ever!” Cloud cried with vigor in response. “Rainbow, I need you to hold the fort while I’m gone! I’m not holding anything down anymore, I really have fully forgiven you! That’s why I trust you and your friends to not let those hack news ponies beat you!”
“Really?” Rainbow replied amusedly, blushing. “Thanks man, I’m flattered! But one more thing I need to tell you before you go is that, um…”
“Um, what?” a perplexed Cloud asked.
“Though I think it’s really weird whatever’s going on with you and Sombra…” Rainbow confessed, the blushes on her cheeks growing redder. “I want you to know that I accept it...and even find it kind of hot…”
“.......” Cloud just gave Rainbow the blankest stare he could with his eyes squinting.
“What, it’s normal for girls to like that kind of thing!” Rainbow exclaimed in defense. “I’ve never claimed to be totally innocent!”
Back at Rainbow’s house, the curious trio of pegasi were looking at the latest issue of Playmare Dash had hidden under her pillow in astonishment.
“Woah…” Billy remarked.
Score made a wolf whistle.
“Dude, it’s other dudes!” Hoops exclaimed at an embarrassed Score.
Back where Cloud and Rainbow were, Cloud was also embarrassed over Rainbow’s view of him and Sombra. So much that he blurted out…
“AW, SHUCKS RAINBOW! I GET SHARING YOUR FEELINGS, BUT YOU CAN KEEP A FEW THINGS TO YOURSELF, YOU KNOW!”
Cloud didn’t take another moment to hesitate, immediately flying away as fast as he could to find the most inconspicuous spot he could to speak with the Windigos.
“Hoo hoo hoo…” a familiar laugh came from a figure who had transformed himself into a cloud so that he could secretly watch all the fun unfold. “I wonder how long it will take him to figure out that the best secret spot is a lot closer than he thinks…”
Meanwhile, Fax First and Sombra had been passing the time by reading letters brought to the station by Derpy Hooves in PNN’s news van. The letters were from ponies all across Equestria who had seen the most recent broadcast and had wasted no time in sharing their reaction to it.
“No brakes for the hype train!” Fax exclaimed gleefully as he scooped up the letters and tossed them up for fun. “The princesses’ plan was perfect!”
“No,” a confidently smiling Sombra dissented, “it won’t be perfect until Twilight seals the deal…heh heh.”
He knew that Twilight, who had just arrived on the scene with Fluttershy by her side for support, was about to make her first very important decision as the new leader of Equestria, one that would change the world forever…
Cloud Shroud was flying all across Cloudsdale, desperately searching for a spot where he felt comfortable talking to the Windigos, but to no avail. Every time he came to a cloud that seemed secluded enough from the rest of society, he found himself unable to relax thanks to the looming threat of being watched. The Windigos watched his frustration with interest as invisible apparitions...while another invisible apparition began to speak to them in their minds…
“You feel sorry for him, don’t you?” the apparition said to them in a soothing, soft voice. “Hardened as you are, even you find this creature pitiable. For his spirit is so willing, yet he lacks any kind of selfish ambition or greater hope, allowing others to influence him so easily. Do you not wish to show him the way?”
“Hmm hmm hmm.” the Windigos snickered, knowing the apparition was testing them. “Nice try, but we haven’t forgotten what you taught us. The good kind of hate called “discipline”. The same way we allowed Cloud to try and ignore what he was called here to do, we are not going to tell him what he needs to do to discover inner peace.”
“Excellent work, my disciples.” the apparition complimented them for seeing through his ruse. “If this creature can’t learn to appreciate the good kind of hate he’s been blessed with, he was never worth our time in the first place. But I believe in him. So much so, that I believe he will eventually surpass you three and become the perfect vessel...ha ha ha…”
Back in the human world, where Ken’s body was lying, the lizard from before crawled on top of his forehead. An eye on the lizard’s forehead was open and glowing ominously…
Meanwhile, an exhausted Cloud was feeling tempted to give up on his endeavor to find a private spot that felt safe to him.
“It’s hopeless, I’ve looked everywhere…” he said in disgruntlement. “It doesn’t matter what cloud I try to rest on, I just don’t feel comfortable talking to the Windigos again since Rainbow Dash recorded me…”
Cloud’s despair soon turned to anger.
“Flying fudge, Rainbow!” he exclaimed in frustration in his mind. “Why did you have to do that?! What was it all for in the grand scheme?! If you had just been honest with me…”
Cloud paused, his anger beginning to subside as he realized his hypocrisy.
“Who am I kidding…” he rebuked himself. “I brought this on myself. I didn’t trust Rainbow even after she tried to help me, and she didn’t trust me in turn. I just didn’t know what else to do. I just...do what I’ve always been used to doing. Doing my own thing…”
Cloud continued to ponder where he went wrong until he made another realization…
“Maybe...there really was a purpose for me being brought here.” he told himself, finally trying to view everything from a broader scope. “Maybe that’s the trap I’ve fallen into. Being complacent in living every day redundantly, even with all the crazy stuff that’s happened, making me wonder if there’s more to life than just tuning everything out. After all, insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.”
He wondered if it was finally time…
“Maybe I really do need to finally accept myself…” he said calmly as he finally settled on a cloud that made him feel at ease. “Accept my mistakes...and accept that I know nothing…”
He was recalling the words Luna spoke to him back at the royal palace. Now that he was finally willing to heed these words, appreciate what Luna was trying to tell him, he found himself feeling soothed rather than flustered. Now that his body was relaxed, he began to sink into the cloud, but the fact did not bother him, even as all he could see now was darkness. It felt just like the realm of his soul...
“I am part cloud now…” he told himself. “This is the body I was given and I accept it…”
With his body fully relaxed, Cloud was then able to start thinking more deeply in his mind about what actually happened that day when Rainbow Dash recorded him.
“It was my fault.” he thought as he came to a new conclusion. “I didn’t want to accept the idea back at the palace because I was afraid of responsibility. But now, I see that even if those Windigos did trick me, I allowed them to deceive me...because I didn’t really care. Subconsciously, I wanted the truth to come out because I’m tired of lying. I want to tell others the truth. I want to talk to them like I talk to-”
Cloud abruptly gasped as he realized that everything he just said...he said out loud.
“Myself…” he finished in shock. “That’s what happened. The Windigos weren’t talking to me inside the realm of my soul…they were talking to me as a cloud! They wanted our conversation to be recorded!”
“Well done!” the invisible apparition who was speaking to the Windigos earlier exclaimed in his mind. “We all knew you had it in you!”
“That voice…” Cloud said in bewilderment. “That’s not one of the Windigos...who are you?!”
“I am what I am.” the apparition answered ominously as it became visible to Cloud. It revealed itself to be akin in appearance to a Windigo, but not identical. Unlike the other three, this Windigo was pink and twice the size. The apparition also revealed its name…
“They call me Amoros. They call me a god of love.”
Cloud felt a shiver course through him as he immediately recalled what King Sombra had told him about how the Windigos were directed by a master from the darkness who tricked Celestia and Luna into thinking he was a god of love…
“You fear me, don’t you, child?” Amoros cheerily prodded him. “You fear that I tricked you. You fear that I’ve tricked others. But these things, I would only ever do for your sake. I know what Luna told you that inspired you to get to this point...because she was simply repeating my wisdom to you…”
Cloud was taken aback at this revelation. How could Luna have been deceived if she had told him something that helped him feel at peace with himself? This wasn’t making any sense…
“I can tell you’re bemused, and I don’t blame you.” Amoros spoke softly. “That agent of theirs has no doubt convinced you that I am the enemy. And they would be correct in telling you the rulers of Equestria have been deceived. They believe the three Windigos who guided you here are the enemy and that working with me is the only way to redeem them, even as they have already been redeemed.”
“How so?” Cloud asked curiously. “If you’re a god of love, how can you call them “redeemed” if they’re still beings of hate?”
“Their idea of “hate” is very different from yours and mine.” Amoros explained. “They are not trying to destroy Equestria with their “hate”, they are trying to save it. Both my disciples and I believe in a good kind of hate called discipline, a thing that begets love. In its contemporary state, Equestria lacks such a thing, thus it is in danger of falling prey to the darkness...”
“...So...the Windigos…” Cloud replied sheepishly, beginning to ponder a dark possibility he didn’t want to accept.
“Through me, they lied to the princesses.” Amoros told him. “And they lied to you by omission, for neither you nor the princesses are ready to comprehend the truth yet. Especially you. You are just like my disciples, not even believing in evil...”
Cloud felt a feeling of palpable discomfort as he recalled how Luna told him something very similar, and how he once described Sombra as only “evil” to himself.
“If Sombra was her agent…” he thought worriedly. “...and Luna was trying to give me hints on what I needed to do...could it be...”
And for the first time, Cloud formulated a theory about King Sombra that he did not want to be true…
“Sombra is still actually evil and she wants me to reform him?!”
Cloud’s face then contorted into a look of terror once he realized what that possibility would mean…
“But if that’s true, that means he really is trying to take over Equestria...and that it’s my duty to protect Equestria from harm by reforming him! That’s why I was brought here...that’s my purpose!”
*FWOOM*
Cloud Shroud, nervous as he was, felt a newfound burst of energy inside of him as his fire was enhanced even further.
“I don’t know how much of what Sombra told me was true…” he mused solemnly. “I also don’t know how much of what the Windigos and this god of theirs has told me is true...but one thing’s for sure, I’m done with just sitting on the sidelines and doing nothing with my life! From now on, I’m going to do what I love to do with a fire in my heart!”
The Windigos could sense how much Cloud’s fire was growing and were very impressed...as well as unnerved.
“I always knew the guy had it in him…” Aero said with mixed emotion. “...but reforming Sombra? I thought he’d end up like us, realizing there’s no such thing as good and evil…”
“This isn’t good for our plan…” Aera remarked worriedly. “I just didn’t think Cloud would come along so quickly with his fire…”
“Surely, we underestimated his abilities.” Aeros admitted. “Obviously, it’s incredible that he’s making such progress, but we don’t need him utilizing his fire in a way that is...inconvenient for us…”
The Windigos didn’t know that Sombra was the agent Celestia and Luna had hired...however, they did know that Sombra was part of the shadow that transformed Ken into Cloud. Both the information about an agent and the information about Sombra...these things they were told by Amoros...the one who had worked through them to give Ken his “immortal, immaterial” body…
“Hmm hmm hmm.” Amoros snickered ominously. “I would be cautious, young one, if you dare to try reforming Sombra.”
“Cautious of what?” Cloud replied, irritated. “You’re not stopping me from saving Equestria by helping someone I love.”
“As a truly loving god, I would do no such thing.” Amoros denied the assertion. “I must allow my children to choose their own path. But the same way I can not stop you...I can not stop them…”
Aero, Aera, and Aeros appeared in front of Cloud, giving him looks of admonishment.
“We need to talk.” they told him sternly.
“I could say the same thing to you!” Cloud retorted in frustration. “Why did you never tell me about Amoros?”
“We are under no obligation to tell you anything.” they argued in their defense. “We are the ones who gave you your body here, you will do as we say.”
“You mean you’re the ones who almost killed me back in my world!” Cloud exclaimed angrily. “Give me one good reason why I should be obligated to do what you say when all you give me is vague descriptions of your plan?”
“Because we are the ones keeping your human body alive…” they replied in a threatening tone. “Do you wish to die?”
“Guh…” an aggravated Cloud grunted nervously.
“They don’t sound like they’re bluffing…” he thought to himself. “...but is this really what I want? Being treated like a slave by ghost horses? For what? So that Sombra can continue to walk a dark road? If Rainbow Dash saw me allow myself to be pushed around like this, what would she say? No, I won’t stand for this anymore. I have a will to live now...I have a fire for my friends!”
“Try me!” Cloud cried, calling their bluff.
“...Sorry, what?” the Windigos replied in bemusement, surprised that their threat had failed to coerce him.
“You heard me!” Cloud exclaimed, continuing to stand his ground. “I don’t care whether or not your threat is empty, I’m not going to let you control me! Letting you run my life is not living at all! Even if I have to die to do what I want to do, so be it! It’s worth it to save my friend’s soul!”
“.....” the Windigos were still and silent in awe.
“I finally understand why Amoros guided us to this kid…” Aero thought. “He’s just like Dandy…hey, that reminds me...”
“This kid is so innocent, bearing so much integrity…” Aera admired him in thought. “Reminds me of what attracted me to Aero back when he was...hold on…”
“I truly underestimated this one from his egotistical stance and idiosyncratic personality…” Aeros mused in his mind. “He just might be able to handle...oh...ah…”
The Windigos all smiled to each other confidently as they devised a new way to keep Cloud’s fire burning in a way that was optimal for them.
“What are you grinning about?” Cloud demanded to know. “Did I say something funny?”
“Oh no,” answered the Windigos, “we know the way your fire is coming along is no joke. We are genuinely very pleased. You’re one out of a million, truly worthy of our time.”
“Thanks…” Cloud replied suspiciously. “However, I’d rather you spare me the compliments if you don’t mean them. I only care about being worthy of knowing the truth. Are you going to tell me the whole truth now or not? Because I mean it, this time I want you to tell me everything.”
“...Everything?” the Windigos retorted cheekily. “Are you sure?”
“As sure as I’ll ever be.” Cloud answered, unamused.
“Does that mean you also want to know the story of how we died?” the Windigos goaded him.
“...Yes.” Cloud replied blankly, not wanting to admit he was already feeling less certain.
“Alright then…” the Windigos said forebodingly. “Just warning you, knowing everything about us...also means knowing our pain…”
“GULK!” Cloud cried in agony once he experienced that pain for himself. “UWAAAGGGHHH!”
Cloud’s suffering gave both Rainbow Dash and King Sombra a premonition that something was not right.
“Hmm?” Twilight asked Sombra after a look of unsettlement came on his face in the middle of a conversation they were having. “Is something the matter?”
“It’s nothing to do with you.” Sombra replied. “I just sense...a disturbance.”
“Me too…” Rainbow interjected, concerned. “I’m sorry Twilight, but I got to go check on Cloud. I’ll come back for you later, just know that for right now, you got this!”
“Rainbow!” Fluttershy cried out, wanting to plea for her to stay. However, just like with the pegasi trio, it was futile, as Rainbow had already flown off at lightning-fast speed.
“Forget it, Fluttershy.” Twilight said to console her. “Rainbow Dash cares about us, she just wants to be there for her other friend too. This is a hard time for us all, since we all have friends we care about…”
She then smiled smugly as she slyly winked at Sombra while telling him…
“...don’t we?”
Sombra was taken aback, sincerely ingesting the thought of him actually having a friend…
“Do I...really care about that frail fool?” Sombra pondered. “Could someone like him...actually possess the power to coax me into changing?”
Sombra would have to hold that thought, however, as Rainbow was having difficulty even finding Cloud at that moment.
“Where the heck did he go?!” she exclaimed in frustration, searching all across the sky frantically at high speed. “Did he finish whatever he was trying to do and go back to the house?”
That’s what Rainbow had hoped, but if only she knew that Cloud had been transported to an ethereal realm, where he had begun reliving an untold part of Equestria’s history…
“This is the truth they must become prepared to accept…” Amoros said ominously.
Cloud gasped as he found himself in the form of a spirit, watching an earth pony from above in a snowy terrain. The earth pony had a yellow mane and tail, a white coat, a book and paintbrush for a cutie mark, and was painting a picture on a canvas with a stand with a pet lizard on his shoulder. Cloud was astonished once he saw that the picture depicted…
...an earth pony, a unicorn, and a pegasus joining together to defeat a demon. A three-eyed demon that appeared to be a hybrid of a pony and a lizard and was surrounded by flies. The ponies were based off of three real ponies the painter knew, while the demon was his own character that he simply called the Lord of the Flies, also known as…
Meanwhile, back at the news station, after Cloud Shroud had left to confront the Windigos...
Once Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy arrived at the news station in Cloudsdale, their first priority was to check on Rainbow Dash.
“Rainbow!” Twilight called out to her friend, who had just watched Cloud Shroud fly off in astonishment.
“Twilight!” Rainbow called back, rushing over to greet her. “I’m so glad to have you here! You will not believe what’s gone on! Things went from crazy, to Freaky Town, to Freaky Town and back to a mental hospital!”
“Heh, yeah...we could...kind of tell from what transpired on the TV.” Twilight sheepishly responded to Rainbow’s over-the-top recap. “I still can’t believe King Sombra’s really back...and that we’re…”
Twilight paused as both Rainbow and her turned their heads away guiltily in a moment of silence. It was soon interrupted by Fluttershy asking…
“Hey, where did Cloud go off to? Is he doing alright?”
“I...think?” Rainbow replied, honestly uncertain, but coming off to Fluttershy as uncaring. “He was talking to me like he was pumped to get up and at ‘em before he left, so I think he was in a good mood. I tried to tell him he didn’t have to hide anything from me, but he insisted that he was fine.”
“And why would he be fine?” a scowling Fluttershy asked with a hint of anger in her voice.
“Beats me.” a somber Rainbow answered, filled with remorse that Fluttershy misinterpreted as denial that she had done Cloud any wrong. “After all, I tried everything to get him to-”
Rainbow was about to finish her sentence by saying that she tried to get Cloud to open up about how he felt about what she did to him before she was interrupted by Fax First calling out to Twilight in a loud, pervasive voice…
“Hhheeelllooo, princess!”
Twilight and her friends turned to see Fax First and King Sombra approaching them, both with smug grins plastered on their faces that filled Twilight and her friends with unease.
“Greetings...sir.” Twilight said timidly, trying to keep with formalities despite the way she and her friends had been treated by this reporter and his team. “I’m Princess Twilight and these are my-”
“I’m Fax First,” interjected Fax shamelessly, “great to meet you and your friends, both the blue and yellow one!”
“Di-Did he really forget my name already?!” Rainbow cried in rage in her mind. “And they call me full of myself!”
“Great to meet you too…” an irritated Twilight retorted, most perturbed by the feeling Fax thought he was being polite. “So, how do you want to do this interview?”
“As much as I love the spotlight, Sombra actually wanted to ask you a few personal questions…” Fax answered slyly. “Would that be alright?”
“Of course.” Twilight replied honestly. “What integrity could I claim to have if I didn’t hear Sombra out?”
Sombra’s smug grin faded, replaced by a blank expression.
“Do you really mean that, Princess?” an astonished Sombra asked, formally addressing her in a sincere tone of voice.
“Again, of course.” Twilight answered wearily. “How could you even think for a second that just because you did bad things, that means I truly hate you and would be comfortable with truly hurting you?”
“...How curious.” a still bemused Sombra thought before his confident smile returned. “I don’t sense that she’s lying, but that should only make toying with her all the more entertaining, ha ha ha…”
“My first question is…” Sombra began. “Who do you feel is responsible for my death?”
Twilight gulped, replying without full sincerity…
“...Me. I take full responsibility.”
“...Twilight?” a bemused Fluttershy thought. “You’re not…”
“You don’t sound too sure of yourself.” Sombra said cockily, looking right through her. “Come now, surely you feel that your friends bear some responsibility here too?”
The look on Twilight’s face twisted into an admonishing glare accompanied by a grisly frown, diminishing Sombra’s confidence.
“NO.” she answered bluntly, seeing right through his trick. “I am a princess, I am a leader, I take full responsibility for the actions of my friends.”
Sombra was more disappointed than surprised by this response. Obviously, he knew how powerful Twilight’s friendship was, he just never expected her to actually care so much. In his mind, “friendship” was just another means to an end...
“But if I believe that…” Sombra thought, noticing an inconsistency in his mindset as he remembered Cloud Shroud. “Then who is he to me?”
Noticing the upset look on Sombra’s face, Twilight took advantage.
“Why the long face?” Twilight remarked. “Having a tough time digesting the truth that my friends and I aren’t monsters out to get you?”
“No, I just-I just-” Sombra stammered, the look on his face growing unsettled as he could feel a premonition that something wasn’t right with Cloud, as could Rainbow.
“Hmm?” Twilight asked. “Is something the matter?”
“It’s nothing to do with you.” Sombra answered. “I just sense...a disturbance.”
It was at this point that Rainbow had flown off to check on her friend despite Fluttershy’s cry of protest. Twilight had attempted to console Fluttershy before turning back to Sombra with a smug grin, confident that she had gained control of the situation.
“We all have friends we care about, don’t we?”
These were the words Twilight had said that were haunting Sombra’s mind. He was genuinely worried that Cloud would be the catalyst for him to change. But he didn’t want to change. He didn’t want anyone else in his life. For he didn’t want to repeat what had happened long ago…
He recalled a time when he was with Princess Luna, reading a book on black magic...
“NO!” he shouted in his thoughts. “NOT AGAIN!”
Sombra’s eyes began to exude purple mist, leading Twilight’s confident grin to fade.
“I will never die again!” Sombra declared with vigor in his thoughts. “NEVER!”
And with this reclamation of his energy that Twilight could sense, she became nervous once again. As one could expect, Sombra was the one with a haughty smile on his face again.
“How it humors me that our roles have already been reversed again…” he goaded Twilight. “It’s as if we’re more alike than we appear to be...it’s as if we are like light and darkness...ha ha ha…”
“Spare me the cliches.” Twilight retorted. “I’m nothing like you.”
“Ho ho, but I’m sure that as the Princess of Friendship,” replied Sombra, laughing as he was giddy to try his new way to get to her, “you would agree that even two ponies who have nothing in common...can become friends?”
Both Twilight and Fluttershy were stunned, this sentiment catching them completely off-guard. Fax First, on the other hand, was smirking, fully aware of where this was leading.
“.....You want me to be your friend?” Twilight asked in bewilderment.
“That confounds you, why?” Sombra responded, acting as if he was hurt. “How can you ever atone for what you did if we are to be enemies? How can you make something up to a pony you don’t trust? You can tell I’ve been different since Cloud’s love touched me and set me on the right path. I’m willing to forgive you, how come you can’t forgive me? Unless...you don’t believe you have anything to be sorry for?”
Twilight grunted in frustration.
“This is obviously an act…” she thought, irritated. “But he has me!”
“So, what do you think of this most generous offer, Your Highness?” Fax interjected. “As the Princess of Friendship, surely you could never pass up the opportunity for both sides to put the past behind them and work together to make amends? On live TV, no less?”
“Gah, this can’t be happening!” Twilight yelled in frustration in her mind, having never dealt with a situation like this before. “How are they giving me the illusion of choice while essentially forcing me to say what they want me to?!”
“This is insanity!” Fluttershy exclaimed in her mind, equally frustrated. “How could Rainbow take off at a time like this?!”
Twilight knew something was terribly wrong here...but ultimately determined that she had no choice. For the first time in her life, she was lying about the way she felt to keep those she knew were shady content. Over and over, she had to tell herself that she had to keep her friends safe...but deep down, she knew she was scared. To make things easier on herself, she turned against what her will was telling her…
*dwoom*
...and the consequences of this decision would soon change the world of Equestria forever, as for the first time, the fire in Twilight’s soul began to dim…
Celestia and Luna, able to sense this anomaly, knelt their heads in sorrow.
“I knew it…” Celestia thought, regretful. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to see that this was only a test...forgive me, Twilight...I should’ve been a better mentor…”
“This is all on me.” Luna thought, also regretful. “So much grief could’ve been spared for all of us, if only I hadn’t defied Sister then…”
“Of course I accept your friendship, Sombra.” Twilight said half-heartedly and despondently. “It’s my fault you’re dead and I have a lot to pay penance for.”
“Twilight, no!” Fluttershy exclaimed frantically. “You know you can’t bear this burden alone! We’re all in this together!”
“Fluttershy...be quiet.” Twilight solemnly ordered her friend. “You don’t understand how serious this is.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!” a shocked and hurt Fluttershy yelled. “Because I want to be there for you and protect you, that means I don’t understand?!”
“I said, be quiet!” Twilight yelled back, continuing to command her. “I’m the princess, I’m the one who needs to protect YOU!”
“...As you wish.” a disgruntled Fluttershy replied, angrily crossing her forelegs.
“First Rainbow Dash, now you!” Fluttershy proclaimed angrily in her mind. “What is happening to my friends?!”
Discord, still in the form of a cloud, was observing Fluttershy’s display of anger and empathizing.
“Dear Fluttershy…” he thought somberly. “How it pains me that I can’t make you understand what is going on right now...but Twilight has made her decision...and I can only have faith that I won’t have to be gone for long…”
Sombra, also observing the anger being displayed, attempted to mollify Twilight and Fluttershy.
“Calm down, you two.” he told them, smiling warmly, unable to deny that he felt good being a mediator for the first time in over a millennium. “No need for fussing or fighting. You only need to know that “all of us being in this together” now includes me. So long as you trust me, you shall be rewarded.”
“Rewarded with what?” Twilight asked curiously.
“Now that I’ve turned over a new leaf,” answered Sombra, “as you would put it, the next logical step for me is to make a name for myself. I’m going to make Equestria better than ever before, and I’d love for all of you to receive credit for helping me.”
“What exactly do you want to do?” a still skeptical Twilight replied. “I need specifics before I agree to anything.”
“I can start by explaining to you the penance you’ve agreed to pay.” Sombra said with a devious smirk on his face.
“With good deeds!” Twilight assertively declared. “That’s what I meant by that promise! I’m not helping you do anything dirty!”
“Do you believe purging this world of all death and suffering to be dirty?” Sombra retorted, his smirk growing wider.
Twilight and Fluttershy were shocked, and even Fax First was caught off-guard.
“No one...told me about that…” Fax thought nervously, smiling sheepishly.
“Now, don’t take that too personally.” Sombra told them, returning to his pacifying tone. “It’s just an idea. However, it is an idea I feel you should both consider...especially you, Princess.”
Twilight gulped, knowing what Sombra meant as he gestured to her.
“As the successor to Celestia, I’m an immortal alicorn.” she thought solemnly and sadly. “But my friends…”
“Don’t sweat it.” Sombra said in encouragement. “Just do what I say, and everything will work out perfectly for every pony!”
“...I understand, Sombra.” Twilight replied in a more submissive tone. “I trust that you won’t ask me to do anything evil. I’ll do whatever it takes to make it up to you for killing you.”
“Wonderful!” Sombra exclaimed in delight. “And don’t worry, I don’t blame you or your friends at all for my death! Do you truly believe that the magic of friendship could ever kill me?”
Once again, Twilight and Fluttershy were shocked, but this time, their shock also came with relief.
“He’s right…” they thought. “How could something as wonderful as our friendship ever take a life? There has to be something we’ve overlooked!”
“Gotcha.” Sombra thought sinisterly. “You know there’s only one way out of this hole, and Fluttershy’s not going to like it…”
“Let’s review the situation with full objectivity now, shall we?” he gleefully proclaimed. “Who brought me back? Who staged my return to test you? Who gave you the encouragement you needed to supposedly “defeat me” before revealing to you that everything was a lie?”
Twilight’s jaw sank lower as Fluttershy gasped.
“NO!” Fluttershy cried with tears in her eyes. “IT CAN’T BE!”
“I’m afraid it is the truth, Fluttershy.” Discord spoke from behind, back in his normal form. “You did not kill Sombra. I did.”
A morbid silence filled the air as a flabbergasted Twilight and Fluttershy knew that things were soon to never be the same…
“Heh heh heh…”
Amoros snickered sinisterly to himself, sensing that Sombra’s plan was going well.
“If only that fool knew that what he’s doing to defy me will ultimately come back to bite him…” he thought. “He thinks he’s safe because the Windigos don’t know enough about him...but no one knows enough about me and who I really am…not even the one I’ve entrusted with an immortal, immaterial body...”
Amoros was, of course, alluding to the fact that even Cloud didn’t know who he really was, but he also meant that his own subordinates didn’t know his true identity either, ironically…
“I know that it’s not just what you helped me do to him that gives you your confidence…” Amoros continued in his mind as he recalled the ice in the far reaches of the North where King Sombra was once banished to. “It’s also what you think you know about Belohzhero…”
A scene in Amoros’ mind showed that Belohzhero was still frozen in that ice, bearing resemblance to the hybrid between a lizard and a pony that had appeared in Dandy Rose’s painting. He had an equine shape, but was covered in scales and had claws instead of hooves. His right claw was clutching the part of his chest where his heart was as he had a dead look in his eyes…
“You and my subordinates think he wasn’t punished enough…” Amoros mused. “You think there’s nothing worse than death...but believe me, sometimes death is better. Believe me, especially…”
The scene of the ice in Amoros’ mind soon shifted to the scene of the snowy terrain Cloud was in. He was still in spirit form watching the earth pony by the painting, putting the finishing touches on his work with his signature…
Cloud Shroud, still in the form of a spirit, was watching the painter, whose name had been revealed to be Dandy Rose, finish his work.
“It’s done.” he said happily with finality as he wrote his signature on the painting. “This has to be my best work yet!”
“I would concur.” a blue-robed unicorn with a familiar voice as well as a familiar appearance said from behind, trotting through the snow from his house to greet Dandy. His style of mane, goatee, and voice were all identical to that of one particular pony Cloud had met before...
“Is that...Neighsay?” Cloud asked curiously in thought as he saw the familiar figure approach Dandy before he examined the figure more closely. “No, that can’t be him. That must be…”
“Master Neversay!” Dandy exclaimed joyfully over receiving a compliment from a pony he admired. “Thank you! I must admit though, you kind of caught me by surprise! I wasn’t planning on showing this to you until all the work was done for the day!”
“No, it’s alright.” Neversay replied warmly. “It’s been a slow day, and the laborers worked especially hard to get everything done early. I find it peculiar how they’ve been extra compliant lately, but I’m sure it’s only a coincidence.”
“Yeah, it must be.” Dandy agreed half-heartedly, feeling guilty over the fact that he wasn’t being honest. His guilt led him to rub the back of his head nervously, a tick Cloud immediately caught.
“I’d know that body language from anywhere…” Cloud thought suspiciously. “I used to do that all the time at work when I had made a slip-up I didn’t want anyone else to know about. That guy is definitely lying...but what could he be trying to cover up?”
“I can tell you exactly what he’s trying to cover up…” Amoros answered from behind, appearing beside him. “...A revolution…”
“You!” Cloud exclaimed, turning to face him. “Where did you come from? I thought it was the Windigos doing this.”
“Who said they wouldn’t let me intervene to make things easier for you to comprehend?” Amoros retorted. “Believe it or not, I know Dandy even better than my subordinates do. He was originally a stone mason, who worked as a slave for his master, Neversay, the owner of the land we watch over now. Soon, however, he curried favor with the master, earning his friendship and the promotion to the role of a supervisor. On days like today, where he doesn’t have extensive projects to oversee, Neversay actually prefers for him to focus on his part-time job, creating art for him.”
“Hold on…” an unsettled Cloud replied, catching something that bothered him. “Did you say...slave? Master? Oh boy…”
“Yes,” said Amoros, “you are being made to view a vision of a much darker time in Equestria’s history where ponies were torn apart by hatred. We’ve gone back to two thousand years ago, the day Belohzhero was born.”
“Of course,” responded Cloud, “I should’ve known. The Windigos wanted to show me how they died, so there’s no way Belohzhero wouldn’t be in this vision. Is he the reason for this snowy terrain?”
“No.” Amoros answered bluntly. “He was born on the night of this otherwise normal winter day. Not to say that’s the only reason for all the snow though. This is before the fire of friendship was discovered, after all, as well as just before that “mysterious blizzard” overtook the land…”
“Hmmm…” Cloud pondered. “Come to think of it, my body is made of weather phenomena...and knowing what Sombra told me about my will...could it be…”
Cloud was beginning to wonder if it really was simply fate that led him to get a job at the weather factory right after he had been given an “immortal, immaterial body” made of cloud...
“A storm is coming, young one.” Amoros warned him, sensing what he was thinking. “A storm that my subordinates wish to come. Right now, their will is far stronger than yours from being raised in this far more grueling and unforgiving time in history. You yourself are not stronger, thus you must eliminate your ego and allow your fire to transcend...the fire given to you by the true god…”
“What is this fire really about?” Cloud asked curiously. “What do you and the Windigos want with it? Why are you giving me advice on how to beat your men?”
“Because I am not their master.” Amoros answered. “I am merely their leader, their guide. And not just their guide, but the guide for all souls to be put on the path to being redeemed by love. So long as you trust in me, not only will you overcome your hell, but you will save all from the storm...you just need to be willing to take discipline. Discipline that will inspire all.”
“What kind of discipline would that be?” Cloud asked nervously.
“My disciples already told you.” Amoros replied with a wink before he began to fade. “Knowing what they went through also means knowing their pain…”
“Guh…” Cloud grunted, not wanting to admit to himself that he was worried before Amoros fully faded away. “I want to believe that I can handle anything...but I can’t help it. I’m scared. I’m shaking…”
Cloud recalled the excruciating pain he felt when the Windigos first brought him here and trembled.
“It chilled me to the bone…” he told himself, feeling great discomfort and anxiety. “It was beyond agonizing! Already, I’m starting to understand why they...want...to know...how my fire works…”
Cloud’s view then shifted from watching Dandy Rose to watching three other ponies, an earth pony with a brown mane and tail and blue coat, a unicorn with a white mane and tail and purple coat, and a pegasus with a black mane and tail and gray coat, look up at a statue of Neversay in disgust.
“At least the statue’s more appealing to look at than him…” the earth pony said to lighten the mood, in a familiar, soft, male voice.
“You can say that again…” the unicorn retorted in a familiar female voice. “I’m sick of wasting my talent on this trash for trash ponies…”
“I’m even more sick of how we have to do this while the master’s pet gets special treatment…” the pegasus interjected in a familiar deep, male voice. “At least this way, we all get to worship him...PAH!”
“Those voices…” Cloud remarked in realization, instantly recognizing them. “They have to be...those ponies have to be who the Windigos were when they were still alive!”
“Right you are…” the Windigos replied, finally making their appearance beside Cloud. “How does it feel to pay witness to our worthless mortal lives? Would you also like to know our worthless mortal names?”
“Yes…” Cloud answered angrily, growing spiteful towards the nihilism he had once given credence to. “Because they’re not worthless to me.”
“...Very well then.” the Windigos responded, continuing to be pleasantly surprised by how Cloud was changing.
“I’m the earth pony.” Aero told Cloud who he was. “My name was Rock Slide. But every pony called me Rock, because just Rock sounded so much cooler.”
“I’m the unicorn.” Aera relayed. “My name was Mysterious Shade. But every pony called me Shade, because just Shade had a much nicer ring to it.”
“I’m the pegasus.” Aeros explained. “My name was…Merry Go Round. UGH. I made sure every pony called me Merigo, yes, Merigo, not Merry Go, because I loathed that accursed name so much.”
“Rock, Shade, and Merigo…” Cloud mused. “So your names were changed when you became Windigos, just like how I changed my name when I became a pony.”
“A superfluous tidbit.” the Windigos retorted bitterly. “We didn’t choose our names like you did, Belohzhero gave us our slave names. Do you know why they all sound the same? Do you know why they all mean the same thing, wind? It’s because “Aero, Aera, and Aeros” don’t exist. We’re just extensions of our master’s power, nothing more, nothing less.”
“Do you even know what you’re saying?!” Cloud cried, continuing to show frustration towards their cynicism, something else he once embraced. “That’s bull! How could you have ever allowed a parasite like him to brainwash you so badly?! Why didn’t you stand up for yourselves?! Especially when at that point, you couldn’t even die?!”
“JUST. YOU. WATCH.” they answered irately, their eyes glowing white.
“Ugh!” Cloud exclaimed in discomfort, feeling familiar chills.
“You think standing up for yourself is easy?!” they angrily yelled. “You think the worst thing about risking your life to stand up against corruption is the fact that you might die?! Ha! The pain we felt when we died...that was NOTHING compared to the suffering and humiliation we’ve had to endure for two thousand years, even now as Belohzhero is gone! Once you’re dead, you never have to feel physical discomfort again! But the shame you bring upon yourself by failing to defeat those who rule over you while you’re still alive lasts forever! That’s why we need you to watch this and learn! So that no one will ever repeat our mistake AGAIN!”
“They couldn’t possibly mean…” Cloud thought in astonishment, aghast at the realization of just how much his epiphany was being contradicted by the Windigos’ ideals.
He looked down and prepared for the worst as the tale of the Windigos continued…
“I know you guys don’t like Dandy…” Rock responded to Merigo’s denigration of the painter. “But I respect his work and how he’s been cool to us.”
“Oh my stars, you always do this!” Shade whined. “You don’t have to hide the fact that you sympathize with him because he’s a dirthoof like you!”
“What the-wha-” an irate Rock stammered. “Well, at least I don’t want to kill a fellow stickhead like you!”
The two then locked eyes and growled at each other.
“Break it up, you two…” an annoyed Merigo said in an attempt to diffuse the situation. “I view you as inferior, you view me as inferior. We got together and formulated this plan knowing the tribes we come from shall always be segregated. But this is more than just a simple revolt against a slave master...it’s a revolt against Equestria’s putrid, crooked government…do you think we have any time for futile quarrels?!”
“...You’re right.” Rock admitted as he and Shade both conceded. “If we’re ever going to lead a revolution, we can’t have any in-fighting. I disagree with both of you on a lot. I don’t want Neversay to die after everything he did for us, but he has gone too far with wanting us to worship him now.”
“This is exactly why we fight…” Shade said with a sigh. “You need to toughen up. Unicorns are only “nice” to earth ponies to ensure their dependency and make themselves feel better than the pegasi demanding food from them upfront. Why become an independent farmer if the pegasi are just going to steal your food? This is why you need us! It’s the perfect swindle, exactly how the higher-ups established the dynasty of that detestable Princess Palladium!”
“Exactly why I chose this line of work…” Rock told himself, content with how he became a stone mason instead of a farmer.
“Hmmm…” Merigo hummed suspiciously. “You seem awfully resentful towards the Palladium government, Shade. I thought an outsider like yourself would at least be happy that this land is ruled by unicorns...what would give you a reason to hold a personal grudge against them?”
“That’s none of your business!” Shade exclaimed defensively.
“I hate perceptive pegasi like you…” she thought to herself in frustration. “But you’re a fool if you think you’ve actually seen through me! You have no idea that I’m only fighting with Rock to keep you distracted! I don’t hate the guy, he’s my friend! I love him and he loves me! I’m just trying to toughen him up to get ready for a relationship with me! I can’t wait to prove my stupid sister wrong when he’s building my statue! Ha ha ha!”
Cloud was musing over everything he’d heard so far. He didn’t know what was running through Shade’s mind, but everything that had been said gave him the same suspicion as Merigo.
“It’s nothing short of obvious that these three were no saints when they were alive…” he thought. “But could the rabbit hole go even deeper? If this revolt against Neversay was meant to inspire a revolt against the government, and one of them was actually a government agent in disguise...a conflict that great...just might have been what birthed Belohzhero…”
Cloud’s hunch was correct. For having been part of the government’s secret research into magic, Mysterious Shade knew the kind of spells that could call forth spirits from other worlds...she knew that demons existed…
“Mwa ha ha ha ha…” she continued to laugh sinisterly in thought. “Soon, Equestria will be all mine…”
Cloud was growing increasingly more unnerved at the prospect of the Windigos themselves being to blame for Belohzhero’s creation.
“What is going on here…” he said to himself in frustration as the tension in his mind continued to grow. “How was this supposed to make me understand you better?! I’m more confused than ever now!”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Aero sarcastically remarked. “Were you expecting us to be simple creatures with simple motivations when we were alive?”
“Don’t get smart with me!” Cloud retorted. “I always knew there was more to you than met the eye, and I never expected you to be angels...but I never expected you to be total jerks who only cared about themselves!”
“This is exactly why we’ve been so vague about our plans up until now.” Aera explained as she shook her head. “You couldn’t possibly understand our mindset from then with the privileges you take for granted now. You’re barely better than the spoiled princesses of Equestria, thus why we’ve had to lead you by the hand every step of the way. Tell me, O Venerable and Holy One, what would you have done if you were us?”
“I would have either kept working even if I had to worship that maggot begrudgingly, or I would have led a selfless revolution!” Cloud proclaimed. “I would have died before murdering even a lowlife like him for my own selfish causes!”
“Easy for you to say, but at least you share our regret now.” Aeros replied. “Given the choice again, we would have stayed in slavery. We’re not as heartless as you’ve inferred, we looked at our enslavement to Belohzhero as nature’s way of punishing us for our foolish sense of idealism that cost many their lives. Freedom is not black-and-white, it comes with a price. And too many fools today are not ready to pay that price, thus the enslavement of their minds is a necessary evil.”
“So another thing I wished was only a hunch has turned out to be true…” Cloud muttered angrily. “Your intentions have always been darker than you wished for me to believe...and I bet this body’s not actually immortal either! Why am I even-”
“HUSH!” the Windigos exclaimed. “Our vision of this day does not end here, even if this where our memories grow hazy.”
“Hazy?” Cloud asked before he recalled something. “Why would...oh…”
“There were things we witnessed before we died that were so terrible...we blocked stuff out…” the Windigos explained despondently. “Would you at least witness them as well before you judge us any further?”
“...Sure.” Cloud answered sympathetically, though frustrated over feeling that he had no choice but to comply.
“It’s already been difficult as it is to piece together everything that’s happened from what they’ve shown me…” he thought. “And now their memories get faulty from here on out? Geez…”
And so, Cloud watched as the vision below him began to behave abnormally. All of a sudden, Rock, Shade, and Merigo were in front of Neversay’s house, leading an army of his slaves wielding pickaxes and torches against him. Neversay and Dandy Rose were outside, with a furious Neversay preparing to cast a spell as a flustered Dandy shouted something incomprehensible before pleading with Neversay. Then, abruptly, every pony was staring in horror at a dead body…
...it was the dead body of Dandy Rose. A fatal blow to the heart from his master’s magic had left him lying dead in the snow. Neversay fell to his knees, screaming and crying as tears came out of Rock’s eyes. Merigo was left completely bewildered as Shade was overcome by bloodlust and rage.
“FOOL!” she shouted louder than she ever had before. “YOU BROUGHT THIS ON YOURSELF FOR INTERFERING WITH OUR RESEARCH ON THE FORBIDDEN SPELLS!”
And then, another mortifying occurrence took place without warning...Belohzhero appeared. The three-eyed demon with the body of a lizard and a pony unceremoniously slaughtered every pony there...simply by breathing. One breath that transformed into a gust of fierce, chilling wind was enough to freeze all of them to death.
“And they all died horribly ever after.” the Windigos said to conclude the vision. “The end.”
The scene below Cloud dissipated, and he found himself in the realm of his soul again, staring at his fire. Even after all the terror he had just witnessed, he found himself feeling surprisingly calm in the presence of his spiritual flame, which was now roaring with tremendous energy.
“I definitely can’t say I understand everything about them…” he told himself in thought. “But I definitely understand now why they care so much about my fire. They hate the fire of friendship because friendship didn’t work for them. They think friendship is what got them killed by intense cold. A fire from someone who’s truly alone is what they want. That must be why me reforming Sombra would be so inconvenient for them. They don’t need friendship getting in the way…”
“Do you see what you can accomplish with our guidance now?” Aero goaded Cloud as he and his companions materialized beside him. “It’s not that agent you need, it’s us.”
“And they also want my full dependency…” Cloud thought in realization. “After feeling their pain for myself, they must believe there’s no way I could ever use my fire against them…”
“There’s nothing wrong with having friends…” Aera buttered him up. “It’s just that the term, “friendship”, has been tainted by these oblivious, pampered ponies. Do you truly believe your fire would have ever come this far from listening to them?”
“Just imagine how much stronger not only the ponies, but the people of your world would be if they were only willing to listen to us.” Aeros remarked, playing his part in the manipulation. “It is not “friendship” that guides us, but purpose given to us by a god of love. And that purpose allows us to see things beyond “good and evil”. This “evil” we foolishly incline ourselves to condemn is essential to our world. We can not get rid of it, we must embrace it. In order to grow stronger, we must embrace discipline, submission. Total freedom is a myth. If all were willing to submit their minds to a loving god, our fire would burn so brilliantly that fiends like Belohzhero would never be able to bother the world AGAIN! WE COULD BURN THEM FOREVER! MWA HA HA HA HA!”
“...” Cloud had no idea how to respond. He understood better than ever why the Windigos were the way they were now, but he couldn’t bring himself to agree with them. Not only did he still have his suspicions of what Amoros was really about, his idea of a loving god would allow him to save Sombra.
“So Cloud…” the Windigos said gleefully, feeling they had him in their clutches. “Do you promise to never defy us again?”
Cloud seriously pondered how he would give his answer...
Cloud Shroud sincerely thought to himself long and hard over everything before he finally gave the Windigos his answer…
“I can’t make that promise.”
“Why not?” the unamused Windigos asked. “Are you frightened, coward? Or will you stupidly oppose us, fool?”
“I am a coward.” Cloud replied blankly. “I am a fool. I’m not worthy of your power.”
The Windigos had blank expressions on their faces, perplexed by this unprecedented response.
“You can’t honestly believe that self-deprecation and false modesty will get you out of this.” the bemused Windigos called what they thought was a bluff. “Cease this pitiful attempt at manipulation.”
“You know I’m no good at manipulation.” Cloud continued to disparage himself, confusing the Windigos even more. “I’m not even good with words or talking to people. And even if I was, how could I trick you in such a manner? Your will is stronger than mine.”
The Windigos were beyond astonished by how they could not debate these points at all. Nothing about Cloud’s tone or mannerisms made him come off as disingenuous. This felt like an honest admission of the fact that he did not know what to say or do.
“This was truly unforeseeable…” the Windigos thought in disbelief. “Why did he not just lie to us and pretend he wouldn’t go against us again? We hadn’t threatened him with consequences, and he’s been half-heartedly following us since the very beginning...is this a product of his abandonment of nihilistic ideology? Does he not want to lie to us if he doesn’t have to?”
“Don’t look so surprised.” Cloud interjected, with a tone that abruptly shifted to an intimidating one. “This is just the way I feel. I don’t think highly of myself, but that alone doesn’t make me a decent guy. I’m just tired of being told what to do by you guys, that’s all.”
“But you know that we’re stronger than you!” the Windigos proclaimed in frustration. “You must submit!”
“Or else what?” an unphased Cloud retorted. “I don’t really care what happens to me, even if I might die. You said yourself that the shame that comes with dying standing up to your oppressors is worse than death itself...but I don’t feel ashamed at all for standing up to you. My shame would come with choosing my life over my friend’s soul!”
“IDEALISTIC IMBECILE!” the Windigos angrily lashed out at him. “The souls of your friends are destined to go astray! It’s the way of nature, it can’t be helped! Your life is not worth a chance to “save” a friend!”
“If I can’t even save a friend, then what’s the point of living?” Cloud continued to argue, unmoved. “My death does not mean the cessation of my will. If you lose me, you don’t lose my fire. A fire that burns for a friend may not be favorable for your schemes, but that’s just the way my fire is. You can influence one’s will, but you can’t control it. That’s simply the way of nature. And I also believe that’s the way this god of love intended for it to be!”
With that, the Windigos fell silent...for they knew his belief was correct. And so, their confidence was lessened, for they never expected his faith to feel more sincere than theirs despite the fact they had known Amoros far longer than he had...
“Even if our will is stronger…” they thought nervously. “...if his faith in our god becomes stronger…”
“You have every right to be afraid.”
The Windigos grew even more worried as they could hear the words of a gleeful Amoros running through their minds.
“Depending on the way this goes…” Amoros continued, goading them. “I just might end up siding with Cloud over you three…after all, it would be inconvenient for me if you had to kill him...”
“NO!” the Windigos desperately exclaimed in their minds. “We will not kill Cloud! We only ever intended that as a last resort! But please, let us put him to the test! We will never accept these foolish ideals of “friendship” unless he can prove to us that they work with empirical evidence!”
“Though I am certainly more partial to the idea of his ideals of friendship working,” replied Amoros, “being a god of love that can see how love and friendship go hand and hand together, I also see how testing his faith would be a great service to us. A vessel with a strong will is not enough. I also want to prune a vessel with unshakable faith in me. And I have the perfect way to do so.”
“What kind of test would you propose?” the Windigos asked curiously.
“I already know how you would do it.” Amoros answered. “You would make the stakes as high as possible, even knowing of the safety net I could provide…”
“You don’t mean to say that you plan to rescue Cloud in case he fails, do you?” the suspecting Windigos questioned.
“If I were to bail him out in the way you suspect, that is when he would truly fail.” Amoros replied. “That is not what I intend to do. I simply mean to give...and take away.”
“Do clarify.” the Windigos requested. “We trust your judgement no matter what, but we want specific details.”
“I’ll gladly go over everything with you.” Amoros promised. “Just keep in mind that this is part of the reason why Cloud’s faith will ultimately prove superior to yours. You go by what you’re told. He goes by his fire…”
*FWOOM*
Cloud could feel his fire become even stronger from standing up to the Windigos. Peculiar as he had found the Windigos’ prolonged silence to be, he was composed and prepared for whatever they would tell him next. Eventually, the Windigos began to speak with him again…
“Although what you have told us is questionable at best,” Aero told him, “we have tremendous respect for your passion. So in spite of our incredulity regarding your talk of friendship, we will give you a fair chance to prove its power to us.”
“Does that mean you’re allowing me to reform Sombra now?” Cloud asked hopefully.
“You’ll get to reform Sombra if you are able to change our minds about the value of friendship.” Aera explained, knowing full well how different their view of friendship was. “For a bit of fair warning, this will not be easy. In order for you to accomplish such a feat, it’s not enough for you to save one’s life or one’s soul...you must do both simultaneously with the power of your will.”
“Whatever that means, it seems easy enough.” Cloud replied nonchalantly, desensitized to bemusing wordplay.
“Oh, trust us…” Aeros remarked, he and his comrades smirking sinisterly. “We mean it when we say it won’t be easy. It doesn’t sound difficult just from hearing our words. But remember that we warned you once you’re in the middle of a life-and-death situation…”
“I’m supposed to be in an “immortal, immaterial” body.” Cloud interjected, refusing to let this suspicion of his go.
“We did not lie to you.” Aeros insisted. “We did everything we could to make that body as invulnerable to death as possible. All that matters now is what you are doing to it…”
“Huh?” Cloud responded, thinking to himself.
“Hold on…” he said in thought. “If this body is the product of my will like Sombra said, then…”
With that thought, another idea came to Cloud’s mind…
“How do you intend to throw me into this life-and-death situation if I can’t die?” he asked.
“There’s far more to death than what you know…” Aera answered ominously. “Even that fool Sombra has no idea. He blames death for his sense of being trapped in purgatory, having no clue that his hell is entirely self-imposed.”
“If my will falters…” Cloud surmised. “...will my body in Equestria cease to be? Will I end up just like Sombra? What will happen to the human me?”
“You said yourself that death does not mean the cessation of the will.” Aero reminded him. “And now what you fear is the opposite, if the cessation of the will means death. Such a thing should be everyone’s greatest fear, for the cessation of the will is the truest form of death.”
“This is precisely why we chose you.” Aera interjected. “You have so much rage in your soul, yet you’re also so submissive. Only your fire was just right. Not too strong for our influence, and not too weak to be thoroughly tested. You should know from us having to keep your human body alive that death has never been off the table. If your fire was any weaker, both the you from that world and the you in this world would be dead by now.”
Cloud made a grimace, taking a moment to ingest this truth. What was beginning to dawn on him was making him angry, even with what he had always suspected.
“I knew it...” he proclaimed in frustration. “All this time, I’ve just been a guinea pig for you to monitor!”
“Don’t complain as if you’re some kind of victim here!” Aeros snapped back. “We had a deal you agreed to! We never promised you there would be no danger involved! We agreed to allow you to bail...but you can’t do that now, can you? For how else will you save your friend?”
“As if I would ever drop out at this point!” Cloud retorted. “No way is this just about me anymore! It’s not even just Sombra...I want to create a new hope now for you guys too! For Rainbow Dash! For all of Equestria! For all of the world! I’m through with being a cold, self-absorbed cynic! From now on, I want to be my true self!”
*FFFFFWWWWWOOOOOMMMMM*
The Windigos could not hope to cease their astonishment as Cloud’s flame grew even stronger. Not only did it become bigger, but it now had a purple glow surrounding it, similar to Sombra’s flame…
At the same time, Sombra’s eyes fluttered wide open, shining green and exuding purple haze. He was now outside of a courthouse, wearing a dark red business suit with a white cravat. Twilight Sparkle was beside him, dressed in a black gown and standing on a podium and giving a speech to the press. As expected, Fax First from PNN was the reporter interviewing her.
“So Princess Twilight Sparkle,” asked Fax in his usual smug tone, “having formally presided as judge of far more trivial disputes, such as overruling a trade made at an exchange, how did it feel to make a much more impactful decision today? One that will surely rouse the public and change the lives of not only your friends, but your subjects forever?”
“...” Twilight looked guilty and forlorn in a brief moment of silence before she finally answered…
“I honestly don’t know how it feels. It certainly doesn’t feel right, but I suppose this is only my fate as Princess of Equestria. I have to grow accustomed to making tough calls…”
“...” Sombra stared at Twilight blankly, unable to deny that he too shared a sense of remorse over what had transpired in court. It all began after Discord had confessed outside the weather factory…
“You did not kill Sombra.” he had told them somberly in Cloudsdale. “I did.”
“DISCORD!” Fluttershy shouted, crying inconsolably. “I WON’T BELIEVE THIS! YOU ARE NOT A MURDERER! THIS IS A LIE!”
“Indeed, I am capable of lying.” Discord replied, acting unphased by his friend breaking down in tears, pushing her to greater depths of despair. “But facts never do. I’ve performed a motley array of grandiose tricks in the past, but the evidence against me has been conjured up by no such ruse.”
“Evidence?” Twilight asked curiously as she attempted to comfort Fluttershy by patting her back.
Discord clicked his fingers, and a book familiar to Sombra appeared, surprising him.
“That’s the same…!” he exclaimed in shock in thought.
He recognized the black book from the insignia on it. It was the same symbol Discord had drawn on the ground when he had brought Sombra back.
“That symbol...there’s no mistaking it!” he cried nervously in his mind, feeling chills. “That’s the same book Luna and I used to call...him, that demon... Where did Discord get that from?!”
Twilight glanced over at Sombra and immediately took note of his look of distress.
“Even Sombra is tensing up…” an unsettled Twilight thought. “What in Equestria is going on?!”
“You have the right to be afraid, Sombra…” Discord muttered ominously. “We know more than you do...the ones who govern Equestria have always known…”
“...What do you mean?” Sombra asked worriedly. “Are you insinuating that Luna...did Celestia put her up to-”
“No.” Discord blankly interjected. “Neither of them had any malicious intent. Everything they’ve had to cover up, they’ve done so for what they believe is for our own good. This is the way it’s always been, even before Cloud Shroud was brought here.”
“...?” Fluttershy’s crying slowed, some of her sadness becoming confusion. She remembered what Rainbow Dash had said about recording Cloud, how it would be bad if the tape was played for the princesses...and felt a disturbing premonition...
“Cover up?!” Twilight yelled in disbelief, trying to suppress the memory of the night of her coronation. “What-NO! That can’t be! You have to be mistaken! Celestia and Luna are not LIARS! They would NEVER, even if they did believe it was justified! I’ll never distrust them! I’ll never believe this! It’s too RIDICULOUS!”
“You do realize just how ridiculous this situation is, don’t you?” Discord retorted. “You do appreciate just how many strange things have happened recently, all the absurdities you’ve simply had to accept and move on from despite knowing they don’t make any sense?”
“.....” Twilight couldn’t respond, not only because she knew Discord was right on the nail, but because Discord was the same creature who had muttered those words that were now echoing through her head…
“What fun is there in making sense?”
And so, she instinctively turned around and noticed another bizarre anomaly...the news team, in spite of all this development, was completely silent.
“Why are they not all over this?” Twilight thought suspiciously. “This kind of story would break the headlines!”
Twilight then noticed Fair Press whispering something to Fax First…
“What’s the plan, sir?”
“I don’t know…” a disgruntled Fax murmured. “All I can say for now is that there’s no way we can show this to the public unedited...it’s probably best we stop filming now and wait until the court hearings before we resume our broadcast.”
“...Court?” a now very skeptical Twilight thought. “We’ve seen no real proof so far that Discord killed Sombra and we know nothing of the contents of that book...yet they’re talking like they’ve known something ahead of time…”
While Twilight and Sombra were concerned, Fluttershy had stopped crying, feeling a spark ignite in her.
“Discord…” a torn up Fluttershy finally spoke up. “I won’t believe this...I won’t...this is not the truth...the truth is that you’re innocent…”
Fluttershy then grit her teeth in righteous anger, a new motivation moving her from despair.
*FWOOM*
A small fire lit up in her soul, pushing her to fight for justice.
“AND IF YOU WON’T FIGHT FOR YOUR INNOCENCE, THEN I WILL!” she proclaimed indignantly.
Upon seeing this, Discord’s once stoic and serious frown slowly pursed into a comfortable, endearing smile.
“Fluttershy…” he said happily before he clicked his claw. “Thank you.”
*SNAP*
Everyone outside of the weather factory was then teleported to an Equestrian courthouse...
...and what had transpired there still had Twilight and Sombra feeling conflicted and mystified as they stood outside of the courthouse with the news crew asking questions. Even if the press was fair and objective, they couldn’t have done the event justice, for lack of a better word. A trial was held with Fluttershy acting as Discord’s defense attorney, Sombra acting as a prosecutor, and Twilight acting as a judge. These were the roles Discord gave them when he teleported them there with his magic, giving them suits to match their roles as well. Twilight and Sombra were in their aforementioned attire of a black robe and a red suit respectively, while Fluttershy was wearing a blue suit with a red tie. The occurrence of events played out with Fluttershy pushing the argument that there was no proof of Discord’s guilt and Sombra countering with the argument of how the defendant had already confessed and there were no other suspects. As for Twilight, she was still answering the question of what it was like for her to the reporters…
“Being a judge certainly isn’t easy.” she continued to tell Fax. “But there’s no doubt it helps you see what is and isn’t worth fighting for in this world. I couldn’t give a biased verdict to favor Fluttershy just because she’s my friend and I couldn’t rule in favor of Sombra just because I preferred his argument.”
*dwoom*
Twilight’s fire had grown even dimmer, knowing that her reason for preferring Sombra’s argument was because it not only catered to what the public would want, justice against the “villain” who confused them and made them doubt the Elements, but also because it helped her avoid having to confront a painful truth. The painful truth that Celestia and Luna were hiding something from her...and that possibly, as Equestria’s new ruler, she would have to start hiding things from her subjects as well…
“Thus, I compromised.” she continued to explain. “I postponed the trial for a later date, allowing for proceedings to continue once both sides have gathered more evidence. In that time, however, I had to rule that Discord could not be allowed to roam free, being a suspect in murder. Refusing to be taken into custody by the guard and confined to a detention center, he asked to instead be...turned to stone by Celestia and Luna and kept in their custody until further notice.”
In a garden outside of Celestia and Luna’s castle, Fluttershy solemnly looked upon what her friend had become. She was disillusioned by the decision made by Twilight in court, the fact that Celestia and Luna had petrified her friend, and the nagging possibility that Discord had been set up. Despite Celestia and Luna allowing her to visit Discord, she did not trust them like Twilight did. Why else would Discord do this? Who else could put him up to this?
“You took the fall for them, didn’t you?” she said blankly. “Don’t worry, I don’t hate them. But I do hate this charade of lies. I’m not going to let these lies hurt any more innocents like you. I’ll uncover the truth no matter what, or else I’ll disgrace that smile of hope…”
Before Fluttershy flew off, she took one last look back at the statue of Discord and noted that even though he was turned to stone now, he was still smiling that same hopeful smile he made before the trial…
“I already know my first lead to finding the truth…” she told herself seriously in thought as she remembered her premonition. “I’m coming for you Cloud...I know you have answers!”
And as Amoros watched both Cloud and Fluttershy, he too was smiling hopefully. Part of him was glad to see Discord out of the picture, exactly what he needed for his plan...and part of him was genuinely happy to see them building faith.
“I know for sure Cloud will save you, little one…” he said happily. “Even as he is yet to confront the most painful truth about me…”
Amoros was still watching Cloud Shroud and Fluttershy above Celestia and Luna’s palace in Canterlot, impressed by how far both of them had come along. As Fluttershy was heading towards Rainbow Dash’s house, believing Cloud would have returned there to retire for a rest by now, she remained unaware of the fact that Cloud was flying to the same destination, worried about Rainbow’s well being from how the Windigos had described their test to him.
“The Windigos surely wouldn’t think twice about putting someone’s life in jeopardy…” he thought nervously to himself, recalling what the Windigos said about saving one’s life and one’s soul at the same time. “They literally meant rescuing someone dear to me from death, I can feel it! This new power welling inside of me, I know I was given it for a reason...to save!”
The purple aura surrounding the fire in Cloud’s soul grew even larger as Cloud felt a strange sensation in the lower part of his body. He could no longer feel his back legs…
“Huh?” he said as he stopped flying, turning around to inspect himself in confusion. “What the-?!”
Cloud was shocked to find that there was nothing behind him besides...a tail of shadow.
“How in…” he thought in astonishment before he realized something. “Wait a second…”
Cloud looked down at his upper body curiously...and by his will, it became shadow as well, along with his neck and head. Remembering the meditation he had done before he met Amoros, where he accepted that he was part cloud, he then transformed his body into a dark cloud of smoke like Sombra.
“I’ve learned how to utilize Sombra’s power…” he thought in amazement. “By my will to save someone I love...this is exactly what I need to do to reform him!”
King Sombra, being able to sense Cloud’s breakthrough, gasped in shock.
“Sombra?” a perplexed Twilight asked, still at the courthouse with him.
“I’m sorry Twilight, but there’s something I must do…” Sombra answered ominously before he turned to smoke and flew away.
“First, Twilight triggered that memory…” Sombra recalled the events filling him with discomfort in his mind. “Then, the book. And now, I’m getting premonitions of Cloud discovering how to voluntarily harness my power...there’s no way this bad feeling I’ve been getting is just a hunch. I can’t take this slow anymore, I have to act now! For my sake and his!”
Amoros saw Sombra hovering towards Celestia and Luna’s palace, slipping through the walls undetected and blending with the shadows on the ground as he headed towards Luna’s room, and snickered to himself.
“Oh dear…” he gleefully remarked. “It appears history is going to repeat itself…you think what you’ve recalculated since then will save you this time, but you don’t know my other secrets...you don’t know enough about me, the demon, or Cloud...”
Once again, the third eye on the three-eyed lizard’s forehead glowed ominously...
Luna was mulling over what she and Celestia had done to Discord guiltily in her bed before Sombra slipped under her door and materialized in his corporeal form before her, surprising her.
“Sombra?!” Luna exclaimed in astonishment. “What in Equestria have you come here for?”
“The book.” Sombra answered bluntly. “Not the one Discord had. I want the book you should have given me that day…”
“What do you want with it?” Luna asked indignantly, knowing what he was referring to. “You no longer have a real body, you know that book can not make you immortal now.”
“It’s not for me…” Sombra answered solemnly. “It’s for him…”
“...Do you mean...Cloud?” Luna guessed, feeling perplexed. “But...that doesn’t change the issue. He doesn’t have a physical body present in Equestria, his form here is assumed by magical energy.”
“Don’t patronize me by presuming I’m unaware of the situation.” an annoyed Sombra retorted. “It’s his physical body in the human world I dread the fate of. That demon is grooming Cloud to be his vessel. Do you know what it will mean if we don’t act now?”
An image of Belohzhero’s body frozen in ice flashed through Luna’s mind, causing her to revile in horror.
“By the heavens, no…” she said fearfully.
“Yes.” Sombra confirmed her worries. “It will mean the return of Beelzebub…the birth of a new Belohzhero...”
Meanwhile…
Rainbow Dash had returned home after giving up on trying to find Cloud outside. Exhausted, she hoped that he had come back to her place. However, once she entered her house through the front door, she saw not Cloud, but Billy, Hoops, and Score sitting on the couch and watching television, images of ponies playing buckball displayed on the screen.
“What are you three still doing here?” Rainbow asked curiously.
“We were just looking for the sports channel!” Billy hastily exclaimed.
“Watching!” Hoops muttered, correcting his friend while giving him a nudge.
Score held up a Daring Do book and shook his head, meaning to tell Dash they weren’t reading anything while she was gone.
“Right…” Rainbow said suspiciously before going to her bedroom, knowing that something was up.
The trio of pegasi gulped, worried.
“Maybe I should’ve been flipping…” Billy thought nervously in reconsideration as he looked at the TV remote before Rainbow Dash came back.
“Well, what do we have here?” Rainbow remarked indignantly at what she discovered in her bedroom.
The trio of pegasi grew even more worried as an angry Rainbow came out with the issue of Playmare she had hidden under her pillow in hoof. She turned off the TV with the nearby remote and hovered in front of the pegasi, staring them down.
“You were in my room looking at my private magazines, weren’t you?” she told them with a stern glare.
“What makes you think that?” Hoops asked calmly, trying to stay composed.
“The fact that there’s GREASE ON THESE PAGES!” she shouted angrily as she opened the issue and showed them black marks where a pony would leave their print as they turned the page.
“Um...well...maybe it’s your grease!” Billy exclaimed, making a desperate lie on the fly.
Hoops and Score covered their mouths with their hooves in a vain attempt at muffling their laughter over how wrong that sounded.
“Oh, so that’s FUNNY to you, isn’t it?!” Rainbow yelled scornfully.
Hoops and Score jolted in response, ceasing their laughter and shaking their heads.
Unbeknownst to them all, Fluttershy had arrived at Rainbow’s house and was about to knock on her door before she overheard Rainbow’s venting.
“I for one fail to see the humor in this!” Rainbow continued her rebuke. “Excuse me for taking my right to privacy seriously!”
This struck a nerve with Fluttershy, who instantly recalled what Rainbow had the trio of pegasi do to Cloud. She was growing ever more frustrated at how it seemed Rainbow was only getting worse since the incident that had her question her faith in her longtime friend...
“Look, we’re sorry about the magazine.” an abashed Hoops said remorsefully as he and his friends got off the couch and headed for the door. “We’ll get you a new one right now…”
“Awww, how noble of you.” Rainbow replied facetiously, far more upset about her privacy being disgraced and viewing their apology as insincere. “I’m so touched, I’m going to let you KEEP THE OLD ONE!”
With that cry, she threw the magazine at them just as they were opening the door, and to the disbelief of them all, the magazine ended up hitting Fluttershy right in the face. The four paused in silence, staring blankly at the unsuspecting yellow pegasus, before Rainbow, who recalled how displeased Fluttershy had been with her lately, finally said in regret…
“Oh, horsefeathers…”
Once the magazine finally slid off Fluttershy’s face, revealing a most grisly, admonishing frown, countenance that Rainbow would have once never expected to see from any creature, let alone one of her closest friends. She also once never expected to feel so cold, the chills running through her blood and bones as Fluttershy bluntly uttered the words…
“Rainbow Dash, what are you doing with your life?”
“...I’m sorry?” Rainbow fearfully replied with a nervous grin.
“I’m sorry for what I’ve done?” the once obsessively apologetic Fluttershy retorted. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand? I’m sorry, what? Clarification is the least you can give me, though it admittedly means little when I have so much reason to doubt the sincerity of your words.”
“You don’t trust me anymore?” a hurt Rainbow remarked sadly. “But we’ve been friends for like, forever!”
“That doesn’t change the fact that you’re not the mare I once knew.” Fluttershy rebuked her. “The Rainbow Dash I knew was stubborn and thought highly of herself, but she always put her friends first. The Rainbow Dash I see now is a blackmailer, a sleaze, and a hypocrite! It’s okay for you to spy on Cloud and collect blackmail on him, but the moment your pals look at your filthy trash, it’s the end of Equestria as we know it! You’re PATHETIC!”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes began to water as the trio of pegasi gave her sympathetic glances.
“You’re right, Fluttershy…” she said despondently with tears coming from her eyes. “This is shameful...I’ve never been this terrible before...that must be why Cloud Shroud disappeared from me...because who wants to be around an awful pony like me…”
Fluttershy pitied Rainbow despite her anger towards her and calmed down. However, Rainbow could still feel that dreadful chill running through her...and it only grew worse as a familiar face approached them. Bewildered and upset, she began to think…
“How did things get like this? It all started with Cloud...but he’s not a bad guy, I know that for sure now. But ever since he’s been in my house, I’ve felt this unsettling cold breeze...and now I’m feeling it from one of my best friends who would never hate me no matter how angry I made her...wait...hate...cold…”
This triggered a memory in Rainbow’s head, leading her to a mind-blowing conclusion…
“For a split-second, I thought I could see a Windigo…” she remembered Billy saying.
The word, “Windigo”, then echoed through her mind repeatedly before she finally made the connection…
“Rainbow!” Cloud exclaimed hurriedly once he finally arrived at her house. “There’s something I need to tell you now! I know it’s going to sound crazy, but-”
“You talk to Windigos.” Rainbow finally uttered in realization of the truth, shocking Cloud, the trio of pegasi, and Fluttershy. An especially flabbergasted Fluttershy, who never suspected a thing, turned to Cloud slowly with her face twisted in fear and asked…
“Is that true?”
“...Yes.” Cloud answered solemnly. “That’s right. The Windigos took me from my home and used me to do their work for them.”
“What...what kind of work?” a convulsing Fluttershy asked timidly.
“I don’t understand it fully myself…” Cloud replied, frustrated by his lack of knowledge in this stressful situation. “It started out with them telling me they just wanted to be understood, but now, it seems their true intentions are much more sinister. I’m worried now that they’re going to put you in danger!”
“Ha ha ha…” an invisible Aeros laughed to himself in thought, appearing behind Rainbow Dash. “It’s too late to warn them...we anticipated this…”
“GAH!” Rainbow cried in agitation, shivering as the cold chill inside of her worsened. “What is up with this cold?! Ugh...huh? My wings…”
Rainbow attempted to flap her wings and found she couldn’t do so at her usual pace.
“Why are my wings feeling so stiff?” she asked in confusion. “They can handle worse than a little cold!”
“Hey, my wings are feeling funny too!” Fluttershy exclaimed nervously, looking behind her curiously as she tried to flap them, but could only do so at a pace so sluggish, she wouldn’t even be able to fly. “What’s happ-”
Fluttershy paused mid-sentence and gasped in shock once she saw Aeros make himself visible behind her.
“What’s up?” he asked in a taunting tone of voice.
An aghast Fluttershy completely froze before she shrieked…
“AAAAAIIIIIEEEEE!!!”
She jumped back in terror, and overwhelmed with fear, she couldn’t stop herself from walking back too far and stumbling over the edge of the cloud Rainbow Dash’s house resided over. The sight of this shocked everyone watching to the core, save a smirking Aeros. The passing of time slowed to a halt in Cloud’s head as he realized in thought…
“My hunch wasn’t wrong...this is the test...I have to save Fluttershy with the power I’ve gained!”
“FLUTTERSHY, NO!” Rainbow Dash yelled at the top of her lungs as she immediately rushed to try and save her friend right as she was falling.
“RAINBOW DASH, WAIT!” Cloud Shroud cried as he instinctively turned himself to shadow and flew right behind Rainbow.
Rainbow tried to grab Fluttershy before she fell, but unable to fly at her usual speed, she couldn’t catch Fluttershy in mid-air as she slipped. Just as she was jumping down to fly and catch her friend before she hit the ground, Cloud wrapped his shadow form around Rainbow’s waist. The trio of pegasi, knowing that if Rainbow couldn’t catch Fluttershy, no pony could, panicked and rushed into the house to call the emergency line. If Fluttershy couldn’t be saved, the least they could do was alert everypony of the Windigos returning to avoid future casualties…
But they believed in Rainbow, even as Rainbow began to doubt herself...
Rainbow flew as fast as she could to catch Fluttershy, but the passing of time began to slow in her head as well when she came to a mortifying realization...
She couldn’t catch Fluttershy. She was flapping her wings so hard she could feel the strain in her muscles, but Fluttershy wasn’t getting any closer in her line of vision.
“WWWWWHHHHHYYYYY?!” Rainbow screamed harder than her lungs could take and began to cry. “WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?! WHY DO I SSSUUUCCCKKK?!”
“RAINBOW, CALM DOWN!” Cloud cried in an attempt to placate her.
“HOW CAN I?!” Rainbow shrieked. “MY FRIEND IS GOING TO DIE BECAUSE I’M WORTHLESS!”
“YOU THINKING THAT IS EXACTLY WHY YOU’RE FALLING BEHIND!” Cloud yelled back. “NO ONE IS WORTHLESS! THIS IS ALL JUST A TEST! A TEST OF WILL, THAT’S WHY THE WINDIGOS DID THIS! YOU ONLY FAIL IF YOU HAVE NO WILL TO TRY!”
“But I’m trying as hard as I can!” Rainbow argued, still crying. “How am I supposed to be calm and strong in a hopeless situation like this?!”
“Do you truly believe that if Fluttershy dies, your friendship with her ends?” Cloud replied solemnly. “Look into her eyes. Do those look like the eyes of someone who would die hating you? Do they look like the eyes of someone who has abandoned hope?”
This prompted Rainbow to look into Fluttershy’s eyes...and see not a hint of malice in them, even after what she had said. Fluttershy, despite being so afraid...smiled. Rainbow was puzzled by how Fluttershy could possibly be positive at a time like this before it hit her…
“Even when Fluttershy was mad at me, she wanted to believe in me...and now that I’m doing my best to save her, she’s happy that she was right to have hope in me!”
As she proclaimed this jubilantly, Cloud smiled confidently as both Rainbow’s fire and his fire burned with a new passion. Sensing this, Aeros’ pretentious smirk slowly faded.
“He’ll pass…” he realized, speechless.
*FFFWWWOOOMMM*
With the fire rising in them both, Cloud and Rainbow knew what they had to do to save Fluttershy.
“If I can’t catch her doing my Sonic Rainboom…” Rainbow said enthusiastically. “Then I’ll just have to come up with a new move!”
Watching Cloud move in his shadow form to Rainbow’s front hooves, Aeros became even more stunned.
“They’re actually going to prove me wrong about friendship…” Aeros told himself, flabbergasted.
What happened next confirmed to him that the fight Rainbow and Cloud had really was just a part of friendship as Rainbow did what she did next...
*WAPOW*
In the swiftest of motions, Rainbow did a somersault kick that launched Cloud in the form of a shadow ball towards Fluttershy at the speed of sound. Fluttershy gasped as his form abruptly expanded when he reached her, enveloping her entire body. Before she knew it, Fluttershy was on a dark cloud, which moved down autonomously to bring her safely to the grassy surface, where she got off the cloud and onto the ground. Looking above, she saw Rainbow beaming with glee as she triumphantly declared…
“I call it, the Flash Rain Kick!”
“Rainbow Dash…” an awestruck Fluttershy said. “That was beyond incredible!”
“What do you expect from an incredible pony like me?” Rainbow Dash proclaimed. “I would never fail to pull something amazing off to save a friend, I just needed some pony to remind me of the kind of mare I am!”
Fluttershy saw Rainbow staring at the cloud that had levitated her down with admiration.
“Wait, is that cloud…” Fluttershy prepared to ask as she turned around and looked at it too. Before she could finish her sentence, it hovered down to the ground and manifested into Cloud Shroud in his pony form.
“Yes, it’s me.” Cloud told her happily. “I can willfully turn my body into cloud and shadow now, thanks to my will being tempered by my experiences with the Windigos and King Sombra.”
“Those monsters…” Fluttershy replied in disbelief. “...made you stronger? You mean that if you hadn’t been engaging with them...I’d be dead?”
“I wouldn’t say that…” Cloud answered optimistically. “Because they’re not monsters. No one can say for sure what is good or evil, and while the Windigos don’t believe in good and evil, there’s no way they can deny the power of believing we have good inside of us after this. We call that power...”
Cloud said this with the warmest smile he had smiled yet as he looked up and saw what Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash could not...Aero and Aera holding out their forelegs as if they were trying to catch someone, the same they held out their forelegs when he had fallen from his apartment balcony.
“Faith.” he finished, content.
Aeros saw his comrades as well, and finally knew for certain what Amoros had really meant when he talked of providing a safety net…
“He meant that he would work through their hearts…” he realized in thought. “This faith Cloud had was the same faith Amoros poured into their hearts. So even if my comrades had rescued Fluttershy, it would have proven the power of Cloud’s ideals of love and friendship……..”
*sniff* *sob*
And for the first time in his existence as a Windigo, Aeros shed tears. For the philosophy that had always driven his hate-filled soul to be so misguided about friendship was proven to be wrong without any room for doubt. Aero and Aera noticed him weeping and were shocked.
“Aeros?!” they exclaimed in disbelief as they moved towards him. “You’ve never cried before!”
“Don’t mind me…” he told them sorrowfully. “Let’s just talk to Amoros about what we’re going to do next...I need him more than ever right now…”
“Alright then…” they replied dejectedly, feeling very uncertain.
The Windigos then vanished, teleporting to where their master was…
Amoros was still outside of Celestia and Luna’s palace, watching what Luna and Sombra were doing inside Luna’s bedroom from the window with intense interest. Luna was lighting candles while Sombra was drawing the same symbol Discord had drawn to bring him back on the floor.
“That’s right…” he said amusedly. “Keep falling into his trap…”
The Windigos appeared adjacent to where he was floating, and he immediately sensed their presence.
“No need for a report.” he told his surprised subjects. “Cloud passed with flying colors.”
“Huh?” his subjects reacted in bewilderment. “You were that sure of him?”
“How could I not be?” Amoros answered cheerfully. “I’m more familiar with his fire than you are…”
“...Really?” the even more confused Windigos replied. “Even though we’ve been with him longer? Are you actually...”
“No, that is not one of my secrets.” Amoros denied what his intuition told him they were thinking. “I am only a god of love, not the god of love. I am not omniscient, nor omnipresent. I am simply a counterpart of a demon of hate.”
Amoros then chuckled to himself as he watched Luna give a pair of guards, who were standing just outside her partially open bedroom door with their vision of Sombra and the ritual occluded by the princess, orders before she immediately shut the door.
“What...what is going on?” the Windigos asked nervously.
“Nothing you have to fear.” Amoros replied in a tone that seemed reassuring, but had the adverse effect on them, worrying them more. “You trust in my fire, correct?”
*FWOOM*
The Windigos could feel the fire inside of Amoros growing, having a soothing effect on them that put them in a hypnotic trance. They wanted to come closer to their god…
“Yes, of course we trust you…” they answered in a mesmerized tone, feeling as if they were becoming one with their god. “After all, you’re…..*GASP*”
The Windigos soon blacked out, losing consciousness. However, before this, they had remembered everything...
The Windigos remembered everything that happened the day Belohzhero was born…
“So that’s who you are…” they thought, reflecting on what they had learned about Amoros in shock. “You’re the good half of his soul...and the evil half...is Beelzebub…”
In the pitch-black darkness, which was all they could see, a demon taking the form of a hybrid of a lizard and a pony opened its three eyes and grinned evilly before breathing fire…
“UUUUURRRRRAAAAAHHHHH!” it cried while spitting flames.
“Cloud?” Fluttershy asked in confusion. “What’s wrong?”
“Dude, are you okay?” Rainbow asked, both her and Fluttershy feeling concerned.
“It’s nothing…” Cloud answered worriedly. “Just a premonition…”
“No dude, seriously, what’s wrong?” a skeptical Rainbow pressed him. “Everything’s gone totally Freaky Town, you can’t just expect us to look the other way anymore.”
“You telling us the truth isn’t going to make us think you’re weird.” Fluttershy said to comfort him.
“Like, don’t get me wrong.” Rainbow Dash interjected. “You’re way weird, but in a totally awesome way we’re cool with.”
“R-really?” Cloud stuttered, abashed. “I-I don’t know what to say. I honestly don’t understand the sensation I just felt, I just know it wasn’t good. I could feel evil...hate...and it wasn’t cold like the Windigos’ hate, it was hot. And the strangest thing is...it felt familiar…”
Cloud began reminiscing over how angry he would get at times when he was a human, times when he would recall frustrations with abuse from his family, especially his mother, that left permanent scars on his soul...and then he thought…
“Hold on...if my love for Sombra is what brought him to my soul...could my hate have brought something too?”
“You there!” a royal guard abruptly exclaimed, interrupting Cloud’s thoughts.
He and another guard, the same guards Luna had given orders to at the palace, had arrived in the grassy field.
“We came as soon as we received an emergency call!” the other guard proclaimed in concern, referring to the call Billy, Hoops, and Score had made. “Are all of you okay?”
“Yeah, we’re fine.” Fluttershy meekly answered, smiling warmly. “Thanks to a great pair of friends working together.”
“We are very relieved to hear that.” one guard replied, returning the smile. “We were worried you might have been in some serious peril. The word from your friends was that the Windigos had returned!”
“That is true.” Cloud replied, slightly stunning everypony with how frank he was. “And while I’m sure they won’t try anything else right now, it won’t be long before they make another move. We need to be prepared, because I have an ugly premonition that we have a storm ahead of us…”
“Princess Luna shares your sentiment.” the other guard informed him. “In fact, she has requested your presence at the palace of the Royal Sisters. Please, do come with us…”
“Gladly.” Cloud responded, acquiescing and flying with them as they led him through the skies to Celestia and Luna’s palace. After taking flight, Cloud looked back at Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, both making expressions of concern. Gawkish as it felt to him, he couldn’t resist the urge to smile at them and try to put their minds at ease by telling them…
“I’ll be back before you know it.”
They smiled back at him, and Cloud kept smiling as he followed the guards, even as he thought to himself in embarrassment…
“How have I come to embrace such corny stuff? Rhetorical question, I know. It’s because I really do love them now. But that doesn’t mean all the hate inside of me from the time I was human has just magically gone away. And love and hate are two sides of the same coin…”
Cloud hadn’t forgotten how bitter and abrasive he was then at all. In fact, it was at the front of his mind. Now that he had proven the power of faith to the Windigos, the next order of business was doing the same for King Sombra in the hope of leading him down the path of redemption. Cloud still looked at Sombra as an exaggerated evil, but knew that even an exaggerated evil was still evil. Sombra would definitely resist any attempt made by him to try and make him good, showing him his greatest fear...and Cloud knew his greatest fear was that what he had been through in the past, what created the demon in him, would lead him to submitting to his inner evil...
And right now, the demon was tempting him with a soft whisper in his soul…
“Keep trusting in this foolish friendship and you will be betrayed…”
“We’re here.” the guards told Cloud as they finally landed at the front entrance of Celestia and Luna’s palace. “We’ll show you the way to Princess Luna’s room.”
“Her...room?” Cloud replied cheekily, chuckling.
“Don’t get the wrong idea.” an unamused guard retorted. “The princess of the night has never displayed a romantic interest in any pony in over a thousand years.”
“I was only joking.” Cloud clarified as he followed the unenthused guards to Luna’s bedroom.
“What he told me though piques my interest…” he thought curiously. “Who was that pony she had a crush on at that time? Could it have been…?”
A memory was triggered in Cloud’s mind, something Sombra said…
“My broken heart belonged to another, I shall never love again.”
Cloud was astonished, drawing a connection while the guards were knocking on Luna’s door.
“I always thought it was strange for Celestia and Luna to send Sombra of all ponies on a secret mission to defend Equestria after he terrorized Equestria solely because of his qualifications…” he told himself in his mind. “...and now I believe it wasn’t just because of his qualifications…it must have also been...”
“Princess Luna?” the guards asked as they knocked.
“Yes?” Luna responded as she opened the door, this time all the way.
“By your request, we have delivered Cloud Shroud to you.” they explained.
“What am I, a package?” Cloud jested, though only in thought after witnessing how dour the guards were in response to his previous joke.
“Much obliged.” Luna thanked the guards. “You may take your leave.”
As the guards complied, Luna then turned to Cloud and told him…
“So we meet again. Follow me inside.”
Cloud obeyed and followed Luna into her room, feeling very conflicted as he made his way in before Luna shut the door behind him with her magic and locked it. Luna instantly noticed that Cloud was feeling unnerved from the grimace on his face.
“Is something troubling you?” she asked in a manner that felt rhetorical.
“I sense a presence…” Cloud responded suspiciously. “No...two presences.”
“What kind of presences?” Luna asked, unmoved, knowing full well that Sombra was nearby.
“One of them is like a ghost…” Cloud answered blankly. “The other one...is like a monster...a monster I know…”
Sombra couldn’t help but growl in response to that, giving himself away, thinking that Cloud was describing him as a monster.
“I wasn’t talking about you, Sombra.” Cloud said sternly, knowing what was up. “I was talking about the demon...you’re trying to summon a demon here, aren’t you?”
“What?” Luna reacted with surprise, now phased. “How did you know? Did Sombra tell you something about Beelzebub?”
“Beelzebub?” a bemused Cloud replied, further perplexing an also bemused Luna. “That’s his name? Sombra never told me anything about a Beelzebub, I only know Belohzhero and this other demon I just very recently started to sense on another level. It’s a demon I feel has always been with me, it’s just that with the new power I’ve procured from Sombra and standing up to the Windigos, his presence is more palpable to me than ever.”
The demon, overhearing the conversation in the darkness, guffawed.
“Bwa ha ha ha...” he laughed. “You’ve come so far, yet you’re not even aware of the fact that you’ve already seen my face…”
Sombra, having heard everything from the shadows of the room, immediately manifested himself into his corporeal form as a pony.
“Not a chance will I continue to conceal myself in the darkness after hearing that.” he said firmly, shooting Cloud an admonishing look as he appeared beside Luna. “When I lended you my power, it was only as a means to an end. I never intended for you to get to this point so soon, much less did I intend for you to start walking the road that will lead you to the demons. I will NOT allow you to get involved with demons. I will NOT allow you to repeat the mistake Luna and I made, the mistake we now intend to rectify.”
“What mistake would that be?” Cloud inquired nervously.
In response, Luna lowered her head, frowning with a forlorn look on her face.
“My mistake…” she answered sadly. “My mistake that cost Sombra his heart...and his life…”
Cloud felt a chill go down his spine as memories of numerous past events came flooding back in his mind. He remembered the shifty behavior of the Equestrian press, the supposed record of Sombra’s death, and the coy way Sombra had acted around him before revealing he had long been through with romance...and at last, he realized what Luna meant…
“You and Sombra were in love…” he uttered in disbelief, shedding some tears. “It wasn’t Twilight and her friends or Discord that killed him...it was the demon you summoned…”
Luna began to shed tears as well before she nodded, telling him…
“Yes. We had to hide the truth from the records because the public is not allowed to know that I am responsible for everything. I gave him the wrong book that day… *sniff* *sob*”
“What book?” a confused and distraught Cloud asked.
“The Book of the Dead.” Sombra replied, gritting his teeth in anger. “Long ago, Celestia attempted to sever our relationship, refusing to allow love between an immortal alicorn and a mortal unicorn. Thus, Luna and I attempted to use the Book of the Dead to contact Beelzebub, a demon we would make a pact with in exchange for making me immortal. However, the spell and the ritual we performed to summon him failed. Consequently, the demon took full control of me, eroding my body and corrupting my mind and soul. Contrary to what is told, I became nothing more than shadow even before Celestia and Luna banished me.”
“Are you serious?!” Cloud cried, speechless. “Where did you get something like that from?! How could magic like that be available to you?!”
“I know how baffling it sounds to an outsider,” replied Luna solemnly, empathizing with Cloud’s bewilderment, “a layman to the Equestrian government’s operations and history. But it’s all true. Us having magic like that makes no less sense than us being immortal simply because we are alicorns who move the sun and moon and preside over Equestria. Do you honestly believe that something as sought after as immortality would be granted to any creature without a cost, even an alicorn?”
“No…” Cloud answered meekly. “When the Windigos told me this body of mine would be immortal, I never believed it…”
“And you were correct not to trust them.” Luna asserted. “The “immortal body” you inhabit now is just like Sombra’s, a sham. You are nothing more than a magical essence of darkness, belonging to the realm of eternal darkness, the place you go to once you are dispelled. That realm is the place you humans call hell.”
Cloud began to sweat profusely, feeling his heart pound. He knew the words he had heard, but was not ready to ingest the uncomfortable truth those words spelled out…
“............What are you trying to tell me?” he asked in a futile attempt to deny the reality he couldn’t accept.
“Don’t freak out.” Sombra interjected, attempting to mollify him. “Hell is not what you think it is. It’s complicated and difficult to explain, but all you need to understand right now is that even if you are to “die” in this world in the worst-case scenario, all we need to do is call you back from the shadows.”
“But...but...I shouldn’t be going to hell at all!” Cloud cried in protest. “I’m not the best person, but I’m not a bad person! I’ve been getting better since I came to Equestria! I stood up for Rainbow Dash! I saved Fluttershy’s life! I understand my purpose now and I’ve learned how to love!”
“It’s true that you’ve overcome some of the darkness inside you.” Sombra replied. “But it’s not until you completely overcome your personal hell that you will escape it and know eternal life...or at least, that’s what the Book of Life says.”
“Overcome my hell?” Cloud thought. “That sounds familiar…didn’t Amoros say that?”
“Book of Life?” he proceeded to ask. “There’s another one?”
“Indeed.” Sombra answered frankly, making a white book with the insignia of a cross on its cover appear with his magic and levitating it with his horn. “This is the book Luna should’ve given to me then. This would’ve guaranteed me an actual immortal body, but she didn’t trust me enough.”
“Why?” Cloud asked, still puzzled. “What need is there for two books?”
“The Book of Life grants one eternal life at a far greater cost than the Book of the Dead.” Sombra explained solemnly. “It’s a cost that requires you to give up everything. It’s a cost so great that the legends say no pony has ever acquired immortality through following its instructions, not even Celestia and Luna.”
“So you mean to tell me the reason Celestia and Luna are immortal is because...” Cloud said in realization as he glanced over at Luna, squinting his eyes in bewilderment.
“Again, I know how absurd this all sounds.” Luna empathized with his perplexity once more. “But it’s true. Contrary to popular misconception, becoming an alicorn is not what makes you immortal. It’s an ancient, forbidden spell inscribed in The Book of the Dead, a book that was discovered even before my sister and I came to rule over this land. The spell in question allows for tapping the powers of darkness, communicating with otherworldly beings. My sister and I made pacts with demons in exchange for our immortality. That is where both Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon originate from. It wasn’t something Sister and I did for selfish reasons, we had to do it as the ones who were slated to become the rulers of Equestria. It was an order...from Amoros.”
Cloud’s blood ran cold. Everything Luna had been telling him was insane...but her mention of a forbidden spell reminded him of what Mysterious Shade had cried at the end of the memory the Windigos had shown him...and what struck him even more was her now bringing up the Windigos’ leader.
“WHAT?!” he shouted in shock. “You mean to tell me that he’s been behind everything?! For that long?!”
“Why are you so surprised?” Sombra asked curiously. “I already warned you of this. Amoros tricked both Celestia and Luna into thinking he was a god of love. And it seems he has bamboozled you as well. Truly, it frustrates me being the only one who knows of Amoros’ true nature. The only one who knows that he and Beelzebub...are one and the same.”
Cloud was stunned, unable to process what he heard before he remembered how he described love and hate being two sides of the same coin…
“So Amoros helping me…” he began.
“...was his way of grooming you to be Beelzebub’s vessel.” Sombra finished. “You were being used and neither you or those foolish Windigos ever realized it. That is the reason you were brought to Equestria, to become the successor to Belohzhero. That is the fate I intend to save you from.”
“.....How so?” Cloud asked, absolutely flabbergasted, unsure of how to react to anything he was hearing at this point.
Sombra’s horn then glowed with a purple aura as he cast a spell on the floor to reveal the symbol and candles he had hidden with his magic once he and Luna were finished preparing the ritual, making them visible to Cloud.
“We are going to call Beelzebub from the shadow realm again.” he said in a very serious tone. “Only this time, we do not intend to make a pact with him. This time, we are going to kill him.”
“Kill him?” Cloud asked in confusion. “But aren’t demons immortal? I assumed that was why Belohzhero was banished rather than killed.”
“Beelzebub, at the moment, is in the form of the three-eyed lizard I warned you about.” Sombra explained. “With the power you’ve gained and the combined power of us three, we should be able to dispatch his physical body and seal him away for good.”
Beelzebub, overhearing from the darkness, laughed haughtily.
“I’d like to see you try…” he said pompously as his eyes glowed. “Try killing the very thing you’re trying to protect…”
Cloud suddenly found himself shaking in anger, losing composure.
“How do you know this won’t backfire?!” Cloud demanded in distrust. “This is the demon that ended up killing you after all!”
“And what is our alternative?” Sombra retorted. “To do nothing? You haven’t seen how this monster has been manipulating you like I have. I’ve seen the darkness inside your soul, I’ve seen where he’s made his home. It doesn’t matter that you also have light inside of you. As your light grows, so does your darkness. Before you gain any more power, you have to stand with us and stop Beelzebub! It’s the only way to save yourself and Equestria! THAT’S AN ORDER!”
“SHUT UP!” Cloud yelled back. “I’m DONE taking orders! I’m DONE being used like a puppet! You’re just like the Windigos, it’s obvious you’re only trying to help me for an ulterior motive!”
“So what if I am?!” Sombra argued angrily. “You helped those Windigos despite the fact you didn’t fully trust them and now you refuse to help me despite the fact you’re supposed to be a veritable fan of mine! Stop making excuses to project your selfishness on me!”
“What need would I have to project?!” Cloud retorted indignantly. “You’re obviously the selfish one! You’re a villain, not me! I’m the one who should be reforming you! You want me to stop Beelzebub? Agree to change your ways and then maybe we’ll talk!”
“.....” Sombra squinted his eyes in response, taking a moment of silence before he glanced over at Luna, disgruntled. He knew the magic of charisma alone couldn't control Cloud...
“Forgive me, Luna…” he told her solemnly. “For it seems I must break my promise…”
“What promise?!” Cloud demanded to know.
“Cloud…” a distressed Luna answered. “Sombra had already promised both my sister and I he would reform. And we know with full certainty that he honestly wants to change because destroying Beelzebub as he wants will purge him of all the demon’s corrupting influences.”
“.....” an astonished Cloud paused in silence, feeling disillusioned and guilty from losing his temper over a misunderstanding...and losing a sense of purpose.
*dwoom*
For the first time during his journey in Equestria, his fire grew dimmer, for learning that Sombra was already on the path to redemption had contradicted his epiphany, his belief that his greater purpose for being in Equestria was to save a friend from the darkness.
“Part of the promise he made to me was that he would never use his dark magic on another pony again.” Luna continued to explain. “I do apologize, but if you will not destroy the demon and save Sombra’s soul, you must be given the push you need to fulfill your destiny…”
Hearing that only made Cloud feel worse, feeling even more betrayed.
“...So it’s not just the Windigos.” he remarked despondently. “You want to control the way my fire burns as well.”
“Of course we do.” Sombra told him bluntly in an uncaring tone. “We are the rulers of Equestria and you are our subjects. Whatever is enjoined on you, you can not refuse. We know better than you, our souls are more disciplined. Whatever discipline we must give you to set you on the right path, that is something you should be GRATEFUL FOR.”
And with those words he emphasized, he used his dark magic to shoot a glare at Cloud from his eyes. Cloud fell under the influence of his magic and saw his worst fear…
He was in pitch-black darkness watching Beelzebub, the three-eyed lizard, the incarnation of his hate, smirking at him triumphantly and uttering the words he dreaded so…
“Well, was I right, or was I right?”
“You were right.” a heartbroken Cloud answered defeatedly. “Free will is an illusion and trusting in your friends is a joke. Me saving Fluttershy with Rainbow Dash wasn’t actually a miracle, they would’ve found a way to save her with or without me. I’ve suppressed you in my heart for far too long. It’s high time I finally started listening to you.”
“Wonderful.” Beelzebub replied gleefully. “I’ll start by telling you what Sombra really wants…”
“WHAT?!” Sombra cried, stopping his spell immediately. “HOW CAN THIS BE?! YOU WOULD MEAN TO BETRAY US AND SIDE WITH HIM?!”
Cloud just stared at Sombra blankly and said…
“I’ve never been on anyone’s side. Especially not now. I don’t know what to believe in anymore knowing you’ve betrayed me. I don’t need an explanation. I can clearly see that your ulterior motive for helping me from the very beginning was to do exactly what Amoros was doing. Grooming me to be your vessel.”
Sombra stood still in shock for a moment, looking guilty.
“N-n-no!” he stammered frantically. “That’s not true! I would’ve never been like Amoros! I was only trying to protect your body for us to share!”
“Sombra…” an astonished and suspicious Luna said from behind. “Were you really…?”
“It’s not what you think!” Sombra exclaimed in denial. “And I can prove it! I’ll bring Beelzebub back right now and kill him MYSELF!”
Sombra then cast a spell of dark magic on the symbol on the floor, causing it to give off a bright blue glow. The three backed away from the marking as a shadow began to manifest itself in the center. It was just like how Discord had brought Sombra back, only three eyes glowed from the shadow that eventually materialized itself into…
“Beelzebub?!” Sombra remarked, bewildered and aghast. “But I thought you were…”
Sombra, Luna, and Cloud were all feeling uneasy as the demon they expected to appear in the form of a lizard, manifested itself in the form of a hybrid between a lizard and a pony. He had two blue eyes and a yellow third eye, the green skin of a lizard, and the equine shape of a pony that had a yellow mane and tail.
“So that demon from the painting was him…” an astonished Cloud remarked in thought as he recalled Dandy Rose’s picture.
“Weak?” Beelzebub rebuffed Sombra gleefully, flexing. “Sorry fool, but I am not the Beelzebub you remember. I’ve gotten much stronger since our last encounter. You stand no chance against me now that I, or technically, I as Amoros, have absorbed the Windigos inside of me.”
“WHAT?!” Luna, Sombra, and Cloud all cried in shock. “BUT THAT MEANS-”
“YES!” Beelzebub cried in sadistic excitement. “Those Windigos were keeping Cloud’s human body alive! If you don’t take me down quickly enough, Cloud will DIE! Mwa ha ha ha ha, AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!”
Cloud felt the most unsettling sensation in the pit of his stomach. What had made his heart race earlier, hearing the truth of the nature of his “immortal body” and the destiny of his spirit from Luna and Sombra made him realize all at once…
“This is the day I will go to hell…” Cloud Shroud told himself in horror as he looked into Beelzebub’s eyes.
A feeling of hopelessness overwhelmed him, and thus, his fire began to grow even dimmer…
*dwoom*
“Hmm hmm hmm.” Beelzebub chuckled arrogantly, sensing Cloud’s dread. “So I assume you’ve already forfeited? Then victory is mine!”
“Says you!” King Sombra exclaimed defiantly, his horn brimming with magic. “I don’t care if both these two are giving up! I’m not fighting for our victory, I’m fighting for my REVENGE!”
“No, Sombra, STOP!” Luna cried in concern. “You can’t defeat a demon with hatred!”
However, it was too late. Sombra fired a blast of magic at Beelzebub’s face, only for him to counter in the most unprecedented way...opening his mouth to consume Sombra’s magic.
“WHAT?!” Sombra yelled in disbelief.
“Both of you, TAKE COVER!” Luna shouted as she jumped at both Sombra and Cloud, holding them down to the floor with her forelegs and casting a spell that created a magical, blue shield around them.
“UUUUURRRRRAAAAAHHHHH!” Beelzebub roared as he spit Sombra’s magic back at the trio in the form of magical fire. However, because of the shield Luna had put up, the flames were repelled, leaving the three unscathed. This did not appear to annoy Beelzebub though. If anything, he looked amused.
“Ha!” he scoffed. “So the fearsome shadow king needs his ex-girlfriend to save his worthless flank!”
“RRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!” Sombra grunted angrily, his eyes turning green and oozing purple haze.
“STOP!” Luna yelled in rebuke. “Control your anger! Don’t you see?! He’s trying to rouse us to fury so that we’ll make rash and stupid decisions! He’s a demon, dark magic and anger are the fuel to his power! You need to cast aside your pride and work together with us!”
“Yes, that’ll work.” Sombra retorted sarcastically. “All we need to do is believe in the magic of friendship, and everything will work out. Only one problem. The only friends I’ve ever had betrayed me and the two by my side right now don’t actually trust me.”
“.....?!” Luna and Cloud were both astonished by Sombra’s sentiment.
“Sombra, you have to understand…” Luna attempted to explain herself. “I may have been suspicious in that moment, but I’ve always believed that you will change your ways in the end.”
“Sombra…” Cloud said in a perplexed daze. “Do you honestly see me as a friend?”
Beelzebub snickered, watching with interest. Sombra, feeling conflicted with the sullen expression on his face reflecting his mixed emotions, looked down at the floor before answering with…
“Honestly, I feel some part of me does. It puzzles me, because even after I promised Celestia and Luna I would reform, I still wanted to believe that friendship was just a means to an end. But then I felt something strange come over me after I met with Twilight. When I saw that she actually cared for her friends, I noticed an inconsistency in my beliefs. How in the world could I be fighting to protect you from that monster if I didn’t actually care about you? You had to mean something to me...but what?”
“I...mean something to you?” Cloud replied, feeling touched. “You didn’t just want my body?”
“How could I?” Sombra retorted. “It was your will that brought me to your body, allowed for the change. Everything is happening to you because you willed it, I explained that to you right from the beginning. It’s not possible for me to use you unless you want to be used.”
Cloud stood still and thought for a moment.
“Want to be used?” he pondered curiously. “Why would anyone want to be used? That’s the kind of thing people with no self-esteem want. People with no sense of security. People who have been deceived by intelligent sociopaths. People…”
Cloud then began to reminisce in regret how he had allowed himself to be so easily manipulated by Beelzebub, the very demon who now held the fate of his life in the balance, right after he had barked to Sombra about how he was done being used. For he was now starting to see the inconsistency in his beliefs...
“People...like me.” he finished.
*FWOOM*
“Hmm?” Beelzebub reacted in bemusement to a growing fire he could sense. “His power is returning?”
“The problem isn’t Sombra…” he confessed to himself. “It’s not the Windigos, it’s not Amoros, it’s not even the demon standing before us. It’s me. I was stupid enough to allow those Windigos who just wanted me for their own selfish purposes to use me from the start...and then when I had finally had enough, I just allowed this demon, the same demon who used them, to take their place. It doesn’t matter who’s using me. There will always be those in the world who just want to manipulate my fire to burn the way they want it to. What matters is me having the will to stand up to them! They can’t shake my will if I know who I am!”
Cloud’s fire continued to grow, concerning Beelzebub, who tried to mask his worry with a smug demeanor.
“Ho ho ho!” Beelzebub laughed derisively. “Are you to repeat the mistake of that failure of a king and give me another royal feast of hatred?”
Cloud, unmoved by his words, got up and pointed his right hoof at Beelzebub with a serious expression on his face.
“Don’t count on it for a second!” Cloud exclaimed confidently, calling his bluff. “Not only do I know now that hate can’t triumph over hate, I know myself! And a man who knows himself hates no one!”
Beelzebub and Sombra both gasped in awe, having the same thought…
“Knowing himself...he has completed the first stage of the test of his will...he’s finally set on the path to be given eternal life by the Book of Life.”
Sombra reminisced about the time he had been watching Cloud as a shadow the first time he came to the royal palace, knowing then what Cloud’s road to maturity would entail. He and the demon both knew full well that the following stage would be Cloud coming to know his hell…
“If I kill him now and send him to hell…” the demon pondered, beginning to reconsider his strategy. “He’ll be fully prepared to face the trials ahead and conquer them with a fire I won’t be able to manipulate in my favor...I have to tempt him and get him back in my clutches. Time to switch to Plan B…”
“Excellent work, Cloud!” Luna commended him. “You saw through his ruse! Now all we need to do is join together and-”
“HOLD ON!” Beelzebub abruptly proclaimed, interrupting her to the trio’s surprise.
“What’s the matter?” Sombra responded in a mocking tone. “Need some extra time to recite your last words?”
“I do have words I’d like to share,” replied a moderately irked Beelzebub, “and they most certainly won’t be my last. I would like to propose a compromise.”
“Compromise?!” Cloud cried in bewilderment. “What are you talking about?! We’re the ones with the upper hand here on a strict time limit! Why would we stop fighting now when we need to beat you to save my life?!”
“That is part of my negotiation.” Beelzebub answered, seeming sincere. “I wouldn’t dare allow you to die if you were to accept my offer. To show you how munificent I can be, I’ll even release the Windigos from the captivity of my soul in exchange for you merely hearing what I have to say.”
“.....” Cloud and Luna paused to think the demon’s words over but Sombra wasn’t buying any of it.
“Ridiculous!” Sombra scoffed. “Cloud, you can’t seriously-”
“It is ridiculous, no arguing with that.” Cloud conceded to Sombra’s right to be distrusting. “He would have to let the Windigos go at least before I’d consider his word worth anything. But Sombra, did you or any of us ever stop to consider before now...what might happen to the Windigos if we destroy Beelzebub?”
“No, because they are immortal ghosts, you fool!” Sombra retorted, not following Cloud’s line of reason. “Luna, surely you-”
“Sorry Sombra,” responded Luna meekly, leading Sombra to grunt, “but like Cloud, I also feel there is something we’ve overlooked. Destroying Beelzebub was our objective, but now, seeing these conditions, I think it just might be part of a trap. It is true that the Windigos can not die...but if they remain confined within Beelzebub’s soul after we defeat him for good...couldn’t they end up suffering with him forever in darkness? And then, how could they keep Cloud’s human body alive?”
“All conjecture!” Sombra stubbornly bellowed. “Worst-case scenario, the Windigos would merely be reaping what they’ve sown by making Cloud suffer through all this with their foolish trust in Amoros and I can keep Cloud’s human body alive if I have to! Come now, Cloud! After everything those wastes of vapor put you through, can you really forgive them?”
“Sombra…” Cloud answered solemnly. “The Windigos used me...just like you. If you were in their position, wouldn’t you want me to forgive you?”
Cloud had said this to Sombra while giving him a stern glare, a look Sombra returned before he grunted and looked the other way.
“It’s your call.” he finally admitted begrudgingly.
“I’m glad you want to do the right thing.” Luna lauded Cloud, by contrast.
“Beelzebub…” Cloud told the demon firmly. “You will release those Windigos from your captivity at once!”
Beelzebub smirked, faintly snickering…
“Very well…” he acquiesced, putting his claws together.
A bright light overwhelmed him as he willfully depowered himself, allowing the three Windigos, alongside an additional familiar figure, to escape. Sensing no danger anymore, Luna lowered the magical shield as Beelzebub shrunk to a miniscule shape. He was now merely an ordinary lizard, having only an extra eye as a distinguishing feature. Looking at Cloud, he put a finger to his eyelid and stuck out his tongue, apparently saying, “Psyche!”.
“Wait a minute…” a frustrated Cloud said in realization. “There was no offer! He just wanted the opportunity to flee!”
This proved true as Beelzebub began to retreat.
“OH NO, YOU DON’T!” Sombra cried angrily, blasting a spell of dark magic at the three-eyed lizard.
It was no use. The three-eyed lizard turned to shadow and disappeared.
“CURSES!” Sombra yelled furiously, stomping the floor with his hooves. “We could’ve had him! I TOLD YOU, CLOUD!”
“Relax.” Luna said to alleviate his agitation. “Beelzebub can’t do anything in that pathetic form of his now. With all his power gone, you should easily be able to defeat his influence. Cloud made the right call, as it seems he wasn’t just holding the Windigos hostage…”
Luna gestured to the figure that had materialized by the unnerved Windigos...Amoros.
“You!” Sombra exclaimed suspiciously. “Where did you come from?!”
“Like my followers,” answered Amoros in a sincere tone of voice, “I was trapped inside of the soul of Beelzebub. I’m sure you recall how he claimed to absorb the Windigos as I, but I assure you, that was a lie...mostly. I knew there was only so much time left before this secret of mine came out. I am indeed, the good half of his spirit.”
“That must be why you led us down the paths you did despite being a god of love…” Luna postulated sadly. “Beelzebub used you…”
“Correct.” Amoros affirmed. “I could never apologize enough for the sins of my evil half. The only thing I can do to atone for his crimes is to make every single one of them known to the Equestrian public.”
Luna was startled by this proposal.
“Do you sincerely mean…?” she asked with a look of shock on her face.
“Yes.” Amoros answered, closing his eyes and nodding. “I want everything brought to light. We shall make the order to Neighsay to declassify everything now.”
“Are-are-are-are you certain?!” a stuttering Luna exclaimed, flabbergasted and conflicted between her desire to tell the public the truth and her fear of the repercussions. “Sister and I have known for so long that the truth has to come out, but what will we do about Twilight Sparkle? She failed the test...she’ll be more emotionally vulnerable than ever...what will we-”
“That’s what we have these two for.” Amoros interjected, smiling confidently at Sombra and Cloud.
“What diabolic acts do you expect me to partake in?” Sombra retorted, still suspicious.
“Amusing words, coming from you.” Amoros gave a rejoinder, chuckling. “I just need you to carry on with what you were doing before, the plan you got Twilight to agree on. I know you came up with that plan believing you were rebelling against me, but trust me, it is only a rebellion against my evil half, Beelzebub. No matter what he claims, he is not I. I will prove this in offering you my full support in your plan to defeat him once and for all.”
“.....What does this plan of yours entail?” Sombra asked, making a skeptical grimace, still unconvinced.
“I empathize with your distrust,” answered Amoros in a gentlemanly tone, “but even you could not possibly perceive what I have planned as ill-natured. You and I both share a common goal, believe it or not. Neither of us want what my disciples want, a storm that will allow Equestria to understand their hate. And after what my disciples have been through, seeing just how deep-seated Beelzebub’s hate is, they have begun to reconsider their stance. However, their opinions are irrelevant now as the storm is inevitable. Beelzebub’s demonic influence has seeped too deep into the veins of Equestria, manipulating its government, the media, and the minds of the masses. Their hate is building, and soon, their hate will cause the Windigos to return once more, this time bringing a terrible storm with them. This is why no matter what, all of Beelzebub’s influence on the masses must be purged with the truth.”
Cloud, perplexed as he was by this sudden turn of events, could not find any fault in Amoros’ words. His motives had remained consistent with what he had told him in the past. First, he wanted him to save others from the storm, and now, he wanted Sombra’s help in stopping the storm too. His mind was not occupied with suspicion of Amoros, but instead, concern for the strangely quiet Windigos.
“.....” the Windigos were just hovering behind Amoros with nervous looks on their faces, as if they were asphyxiated. Cloud stared at them and began pondering.
“I can feel it…” Cloud told himself in thought, sensing great distress in their hearts. “Something they saw within Beelzebub’s soul traumatized them. I know how much they respected Amoros, but after not even believing in good and evil under his tutelage, would it really disturb them so much, the revelation that Amoros was being influenced by a demon?”
Amoros eyed Cloud and smirked.
“I see you’ve taken quite the liking to them.” he remarked. “If you’re curious as to why they’ve been so taciturn, it’s because they’re still growing accustomed to new revelations, most notably the idea of a new change I proposed inside Beelzebub’s soul.”
“What would that be?” Cloud asked inquisitively.
“I suggested to them the idea of you becoming their new mentor.” Amoros explained, surprising Cloud. “What do you think?”
“D-do you-you-” Cloud stammered in response. “Do you mean it?”
“Why would I jest?” Amoros retorted, making a serious expression again. “This is not the time for jokes. At a time we must be girded for a great calamity, I offer you to take my place, believing you have proven yourself worthy of great responsibility. You taught the Windigos faith and saved us from Beelzebub. It would also be quite beneficial to my plan if you were to accept this new role I wish to abdicate.”
“But...you’re a god and a Windigo while I’m neither.” an uncertain Cloud argued. “How could I-”
“You do realize why the Windigos were drawn to your fire in the first place?” Amoros interjected. “You know it was not simply an event that was ordained by a higher power, and you know it was your will that caused this all to transpire...but why your will specifically? There are tons of Windigos in your world who scout for fires similar to theirs, so why did my three most devout followers just so happen to see something in you? Could it be that it is your destiny...to be my successor?”
“.....” Cloud paused for a moment, having a skeptical thought over the use of that word, “successor”. He noticed that Sombra, who had previously told him that the reason he was brought to Equestria was to be the successor of Belohzhero, was fiercely glaring at Amoros now.
“Something troubles me about all this for sure…” he told himself in thought. “But it just wouldn’t make any sense for Amoros to actually be evil. I wouldn’t have become a better person if it wasn’t for his help. It makes more sense for the dubious actions he’s committed to be the work of Beelzebub controlling him, the same way he was controlling Sombra, who wants to be reformed now. And now that he’s giving up his power to help protect us from this storm...there’s just no way I can distrust him. I want to help protect others too!”
“I’ll do it, Amoros!” Cloud proclaimed. “I’ll take on the responsibility of leading the Windigos and saving Equestria from the storm!”
“Hmph!” Sombra grunted, looking the other way.
“Then it’s settled!” Amoros declared happily as he turned to Aero, Aera, and Aeros. “Welcome your new leader, you three!”
“.....Glad to have you.” Aero told Cloud nervously, breaking the silence of the still flustered trio.
“...Why are you acting so weird?” Cloud asked, growing ever more puzzled by the Windigos’ strange and antisocial behavior.
“Could it have something to do with something you did to them?” Sombra remarked with a growl, turning to Amoros.
“Sombra, enough!” Luna exclaimed. “Amoros has been through a lot! You know what we’re all going through, he doesn’t need accusations right now!”
“So you’re on his side, still?!” Sombra retorted. “You don’t even find it suspicious, the fact that after Beelzebub absorbed him, he looked just like-”
An image of Belohzhero frozen in ice flashed through Luna’s head again before Amoros interjected with…
“Calm down. Both of you. I know what you’re thinking, but Belohzhero is DEAD. Quarrelling is not going to stop the storm, no matter what you believe. You don’t have to trust me, thus why I have appointed one you can trust.”
He turned to Cloud, smiling. However, Cloud did not return the smile. He, Luna, and Sombra all had confused frowns on their faces as they said…
“Wait…did you just say that Belohzhero was…dead? Don’t you mean banished?”
“He was banished.” Amoros explained, still smiling. “Then, because he willed it, he died.”
“Why are you only telling us about this now?” a puzzled Luna asked, now sharing some of Sombra’s suspicion.
“It was only when we were inside of Beelzebub not long ago that the truth became apparent to all of us.” Amoros elaborated. “Viewing the inside of Beelzebub’s soul is an unforgettable experience. The things we came to realize in there would change anyone’s view of the world, I surely believe it. The kind of hate he possesses…I would not believe otherwise for a second that he has a connection to Belohzhero…or more specifically, that he is the spiritual successor to Belohzhero. In the past, Belohzhero created a storm that took many lives, and now, Beelzebub’s hate working through the ponies and Windigos will do the same. Only by trusting my plan can we lessen the impact. If you do not trust me, will you at least trust what you can do with my plan in order to save lives?”
Luna, Sombra, and Cloud were all silent for a moment of pause upon hearing this. This made no sense. Why would Belohzhero want to die? They felt the same feeling Twilight experienced back when she was being interviewed, being given naught but the illusion of choice. And so, in spite of their conflicted emotions, they all replied with…
“…Yes. We will work with you to the best of our abilities.”
“Splendid.” Amoros said happily. “Luna, Sombra, let us reconvene in another room with Neighsay. Cloud will stay here to accompany my subjects and allow them to grow more accustomed to their new leadership. It’s best he is left by himself in order to build those leadership skills he will need most efficiently.”
Luna and Sombra obeyed, though both were wary as they left the room with Amoros. Looking back at Cloud one last time before they exited the room, they knew full well from the concerned expression on his face that he shared the same thought as they did…
Something was not right…
Once Luna and Sombra were gone, it was without a second thought that Cloud turned to the Windigos and said to them firmly…
“Tell me everything. Right now. What did you see inside of Beelzebub? What does Amoros really want? No more vagueness, no more riddles, I WANT THE TRUTH.”
“Cloud…” Aero responded hesitantly, still reluctant to speak even with Amoros gone. “The reason our motives have always been so inscrutable is because…we don’t actually know the truth ourselves. We once thought we had somewhat of an idea of what was really going on, but boy, were we wrong…”
“Everything we thought we knew was a lie.” Aera said sadly. “Our desire to create a storm, having you be a catalyst to help Equestria understand our hate, having you build a fire throughout your journey that we could use to take our revenge on Belohzhero…all of it was founded on a lie that goes back to what we thought happened on that day…”
“What we thought happened on that day,” interjected Aeros solemnly, “what we inferred from what our minds could construe from the fragments of our memories…was wrong. We found out the truth from what we saw inside of Beelzebub, the way it really happened. Amoros finally revealed the truth to us, but his motives for not telling us what had actually happened weren’t evil. We just weren’t disciplined enough yet to accept the truth, and that includes the truth we had forgotten…the fire we had forgotten…”
“What are you getting at?” Cloud asked inquisitively.
“We thought we needed to learn how the fire of the ponies worked…” Aero explained. “We thought it was the humans who taught us how to create fire in the first place…but those were actually things we had always known, simply forgotten. Just like the existence of good and evil and the power of faith.”
“It was the influence of Beelzebub that led us to forget.” Aera chimed in. “Sombra knew the whole time, for he was also afflicted by Beelzebub’s influence once. He thought we were fools for listening to Amoros, but this is because he doubts good itself and does not fully understand Amoros’ connection to Beelzebub.”
“Amoros and Beelzebub are like Yin and Yang.” Aeros explained further. “Good and evil that must exist, for they are both part of one’s soul. We were fools to treat Belohzhero as if he was our ultimate adversary. It’s just as you said, there will always be those in the world who just want to manipulate your fire, and we made the fatal mistake of allowing our fires to be manipulated. That is why our existence for the past two millenniums has been hell. Cloud…do you realize now why your existence in your human life was hell?”
Cloud paused and held his right front hoof to his face, seeing it as a human hand before he solemnly answered with…
“Yes. Because I willed it, just like Belohzhero willed his death. And it’s because I know better now from my experience that I will face my hell, your hell, and finally know my fire…”
*FWOOM*
Cloud’s fire was further enhanced. Sensing this, Sombra felt more at ease while he and Luna were conversing with Neighsay in the evidence room about how they would gather the ponies to witness the announcement of the information’s declassification and prepare guards to be on the lookout of any signs in the sky foretelling of the storm. Amoros was satisfied as well, thinking to himself…
“They know who Belohzhero really is now. But Cloud will not know until he faces hell just how much more there is to know. For he too must remember things he has forgotten…”
Meanwhile, in the human world, Cloud’s human body was still lying in the snow and Beelzebub was crawling on Ken’s chest. Beelzebub opened his third eye, and the body reacted by placing its right hand where its heart was and opening its eyes that appeared dead. Inside of Ken’s apartment, it was shown that he had a laptop and a drawing tablet in his bedroom…
Princess Luna, King Sombra, Amoros, and Neighsay were all sitting around a table in the evidence room, figuring out what they were going to do.
“The biggest question at hand here is how to present this information to the public.” Luna addressed her biggest concern.
“Indeed.” Neighsay concurred, turning to Amoros. “Though I fully trust your guidance, my lord, what do you intend for us to do if the release of this information triggers the public to rise in revolt? How shall the media give their coverage of my declassification? Especially considering what we’d have to release about that corporation…”
“There is no need to worry.” Amoros said to abate their fears. “The reveal of one company’s corruption will not destroy the public’s trust in the news overnight, and even if the news is relayed to them by a shady reporter, they’ll be more inclined to believe we had good intentions in time, though they most certainly will not be pleased at first. Revolutions take risk after all, and so long as the public believes that the wrongdoers in government have been punished, there is nothing to fear.”
“What are you suggesting?” Sombra asked with his usual suspicion. “Do I count as one of those wrongdoers?”
“Do remember that the story the media is selling to the public right now is that you have been reformed by the power of love.” Amoros rebutted. “Throwing you under the bus so abruptly wouldn’t work, especially when I need both you and Cloud for my plans. Once we’re done with this meeting, I want you going straight with him to help him and my, or should I say, his disciples battle against the storm.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Sombra retorted facetiously, rolling his eyes, disgruntled over the fact that he now had to help the Windigos he was once ordered to stop.
Amoros then turned to Luna, who appeared somber, kneeling her head.
“What say you, Luna?” he asked her.
“…I believe it is I who should take the fall for everything.” she answered solemnly. “I am responsible for what happened to Sombra. It is I alone, who should-”
Before she could finish, she was interrupted by the door to the evidence room abruptly opening and closing and a familiar figure entering.
“That, I will not allow, younger sister.” the figure, revealed to be Princess Celestia, interjected sternly. “I told you once, and I will tell you again, stop blaming yourself for what happened to Sombra. It is the responsibility of us both.”
“Fancy you say that upon intruding in my area of work…” Luna made a snappy comeback. “What brought you here anyway?”
“Have you even seen the weather outside?” Celestia retorted. “I was simply brooding at my window over what happened to Discord, when all of a sudden, I saw dark clouds moving in a strange pattern across the sky. Ponies say that the air outside has been abnormally humid…and the pegasi in charge of controlling the weather, they say that these clouds they have tried to clear haven’t been dissipating into mist upon being kicked…they’ve been bursting into flames!”
This startled everyone in the room, except Amoros.
“For real?!” Neighsay exclaimed in shock.
“Fiery clouds…” Amoros said, musing to himself. “Beelzebub’s influence must be driving the Windigos to create a cumulonimbus with their flames of hate. This will, in turn, create a lightning storm like no other…one of lightning and fire. We have no time to waste! Celestia, Luna, cease your bickering and compromise with each other at once!”
The two sisters looked in each other’s eyes, and understanding the gravity of the situation, their frustration turned to tranquility.
“Sister…” Celestia told Luna calmly. “I know you feel a strong sense of responsibility because you want to be more like me…you think if you shoulder more responsibility like me, you’ll ensure that you’ll never become Nightmare Moon again. But the truth is, our roles could’ve been so easily reversed. My hooves are no more stained than yours. We both knew what we were doing when we made those pacts. We both lied to Twilight Sparkle. We both bent the truth for all of our subjects. What happened to Sombra was because of my mistake too, and it’s not only him or Discord, but all of Equestria that has suffered because of our misconduct. So please…let me share the burden with you.”
“Luna…” Amoros chimed in. “You must also not forget that I am to blame as well for allowing my evil half to manipulate me. With him working through me, I manipulated you. I am prepared to bear a punishment for my misdeeds as well once all of this is over, but I will not do it alone. Right now, we are all in this together.”
Celestia and Luna were moved by his words, while Neighsay was puzzled and Sombra struggled not to snicker.
“I understand now…” Luna said, reconsidering her thoughts from before. “Very well. I shall allow you to carry the burden with me, Sister.”
“With that settled, I believe the first thing we should do is call Twilight here and confess everything we have done to her.” Celestia proposed. “After all, we both gave her that test we knew might have been too much for her…and it turned out to be so.”
“What does Amoros mean, “not do it alone”?” Neighsay mused over his words in his thoughts. “Is he going to ask me to help him make amends for his actions? Maybe not, but I’ve always had this strange feeling that we’ve always had some kind of connection…”
“Oh, Amoros…” Sombra thought amusedly. “Such pitiful acting, as always. From the look of things now though, I am pleasantly surprised by how well this situation is going for me. If you are truly dedicated to your act of “being punished” while Celestia and Luna take the fall for everything you did, my plan will surely succeed…”
Amoros, having a premonition of what was going through Sombra’s mind, sighed.
“He still doesn’t understand yet why his plan will backfire…” Amoros said in his mind with a tone of pity. “He believes that Cloud is his ace in the hole, but Beelzebub has thought two steps ahead…”
Noticing Amoros’ sigh, Sombra’s amusement turned to concern as he recalled the bad feeling he felt earlier upon the revelation of Belohzhero’s death and began pondering…
“Have I been played for a fool this whole time?”
Slightly later, Celestia and Luna were standing in their throne room, waiting for Twilight to arrive after they had sent out a courier for her. Soon, Twilight arrived, entering the throne room while looking rather stressed. Her hair was unkempt, and the look in her eyes was a frantic one.
“Are you okay, Twilight?” Celestia asked, immediately noticing her former student’s agitation.
“Great, JUST GREAT!” Twilight exclaimed sarcastically, gritting her teeth while making an unsettlingly wide grin. “I am not in the least bit exhausted from being harassed by the media all day, not even after they followed me all the way here from the courthouse for their evening news exclusive! HA HA HA HA HA!”
“Oh Twilight, we can’t apologize enough…” Luna empathized with her, feeling great remorse for what her and her sister had done, remorse her sister shared.
“No, no!” Twilight interjected, this time being sincere. “It’s not your fault the press in this nation is CRAZY!”
“…..” Celestia and Luna’s remorse grew even more as they both shared guilty glances with each other.
“…Why have you gone quiet?” Twilight asked with concern. “And why did you call me here in the first place?”
“…Twilight…” Celestia answered, her face contorting with anguish. “We have a confession to make…a huge confession…”
“Is this about Sombra?” Twilight asked, instantly recalling Celestia and Luna’s odd behavior on the night of her coronation.
“Sombra has something to do with it…” Celestia admitted. “But it’s not just about him. It’s not just about any pony in particular…it’s about a lie. A big web of lies that must finally unravel…”
“…I have to admit that I don’t like where this is going.” Twilight replied, feeling very nervous as she naturally convulsed, pulling her right front leg back. “I’ve had a rough day…”
“We’ve all had one…” Luna chimed in. “I am sorry Twilight, but if we do not tell you this now, we are certain to see many, many more rough days ahead…”
“I’m listening…” Twilight begrudgingly responded.
“Twilight…” Celestia began. “Do you know how this whole mess with Sombra returning and the press giving biased coverage of it started? Do you know why Discord showed up and took the blame for your alleged crimes?”
“No, I’ve had no idea…” a distressed Twilight answered.
“It’s because of us.” Luna told Twilight bluntly, shocking her. “We ordered Discord to bring Sombra back once more and had Sombra enter Cloud’s soul. We sent PNN a message ahead of time telling them to play along with whatever strange occurrences would take place in Equestria until further notice. It was part of a test to see how you would handle the next step you must take to assume your new role as ruler of Equestria…and since you failed, we had to have Discord sacrifice himself for your sake.”
“Tell me you’re joking…” Twilight retorted, flabbergasted. “You’d never give me a test like that! What in Equestria is this next step you speak of?!”
“We indeed gave you a test.” Celestia insisted. “And there is indeed an extra step one must take before becoming an official ruler of Equestria. It is not enough to become an alicorn. Alicorns, contrary to misconception, are not immortal. The extra step is that they must pass a test to prove that they are worthy of becoming immortal. They must show that they possess a fire strong enough to suppress the demon they must enter a pact with. That is how Luna and I became immortal.”
“DEMON?!” Twilight cried, her heart racing now. “Demons aren’t REAL! They’re just made up to scare ponies for bedtime tales!”
“They are, indeed, very real, Twilight.” Luna told her solemnly. “Two thousand years ago, the atrocities committed by the most heinous demon Equestria has ever seen bathed Equestria in terrible snow and took the lives of many. That demon’s name is Belohzhero, and ever since he was banished, the Equestrian government has done everything in its power to stop a demon like him from ever rising again.”
“How come I never knew about this?!” Twilight demanded to know, feeling shocked and scared.
“Because I, the one who oversees the preservation of Equestrian history, kept the story a secret from the general public.” Celestia explained. “They only know the stories of demons as legends because we do not want them to live in fear of the demons. The masses must believe that they are safe, that we are doing all we can to protect them. Unfortunately, however, we will not be able to keep every pony safe any longer. The Windigos have returned again, and this time, with the help of a demon, they are creating a storm like no other…”
“Is Belohzhero the demon helping them?” Twilight inquired, attempting to regain composure.
“No,” answered Luna, “he is reportedly dead, according to Amoros.”
“Who’s Amoros?” Twilight asked.
“Amoros is a reformed Windigo and the true leader of the Equestrian government.” Luna explained, further surprising Twilight. “He is the good counterpart to the demon influencing the Windigos creating the coming storm, Beelzebub. We only learned this fact about him very recently…thus the good we have tried to do for so long in Amoros’ name…has bred evil in the very roots of Equestria’s foundation.”
This revelation brought a tear to Twilight’s eye.
“This is all so unbelievable…” Twilight told them, feeling sad but also relieved. “But I’m just so glad that through it all, you only had good intentions.”
“Yes,” replied an unphased Luna, “but that fact is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I attempted to make Sombra immortal by having him make a pact with Beelzebub, and now he’s both dead and cursed for eternity.”
“Wait, WHAT?!” Twilight cried, immediately seeing how this completely contradicted what she was made to believe prior. “But I thought Discord…”
“Discord’s will inspiring you is indeed what dispelled Sombra that time.” Celestia confirmed. “But the reason for his death is because of a grave mistake both my sister and I made long ago. Sombra used to be the good ruler of the Crystal Empire, who fell in love with Luna and sought to marry her. But I forced Luna to refuse his proposal, for I thought the inevitable death of a lover bound to mortality would only bring her pain. In rebellion, the two turned to dark magic, and Sombra was killed by Beelzebub in a failed ritual. This is the real reason why he has been turned to shadow, not because of my sister and I overthrowing him. We are sorry to have misled you.”
“Why couldn’t you tell me the truth?” Twilight asked, feeling hurt. “Why did you have to obfuscate so much from me and the public? How involved is the media in covering things like this up?”
“Reporters both good and bad exist in Equestria, I assure you.” Luna replied with a nod. “And upon investigation of the corporation that owns PNN, I can most definitely say that Fax First is one of the bad ones, if not the worst.”
Luna then used her magic to make a compilation of documents appear and levitated them towards Twilight for her to read. As Twilight looked through them, she gasped.
“THIS…?!” Twilight reacted in shock, reviling with disgust. “HOW COULD HE HAVE…”
“We wanted to get this out as soon as my intel team found out.” Luna interjected, disgruntled. “But with so much going on in Equestria lately with Sombra returning at the time when he was hostile and then those three villains stirring up the hate in Equestria to the point where the Windigos returned, it simply wasn’t the right time. We first needed to counteract…by showing the public Sombra could change. We also hoped that the Windigos could change, but alas, Amoros was only able to get to three of them.”
“So the reason you sent PNN that order was to play them against themselves.” Twilight inferred. “But why Sombra and the Windigos in particular? Equestria’s safety is threatened all the time.”
“The public fears most what they don’t understand.” Celestia explained. “Sombra and the Windigos are veiled in more mystery than any well-known threat in Equestrian history. In order for Beelzebub’s influence to be completely purged from Equestria, we must first make the general public understand Sombra and the hate of the Windigos. Right now, I believe the best way for us to do this is by having you explain to the masses what Sombra and Cloud Shroud are doing to combat the storm created by the Windigos’ hate fueled by Beelzebub’s influence. For now, we must go aid them too.”
“And…” Twilight replied curiously. “What are they doing?”
“Facing hell together.” Celestia answered with full sincerity. “That is the true meaning of the magic of friendship, where its power truly comes from. The unity of strong wills.”
“The unity of strong wills…!” Twilight exclaimed in thought, her mind finally processing why all this insanity had been allowed to transpire.
“I arrogantly thought I knew all there was to know about friendship…” she said in her mind regretfully as she looked out a window in the throne room to see a familiar, large, dark cloud in the distance. “But the reality is that I’ve still only scratched the surface…”
*FWOOM*
Cloud, in the form of that large, dark cloud Twilight was staring at, could feel the power of his fire growing even greater as he was meditating in preparation. Both the trio of Windigos and King Sombra were inside of his soul, using their powers to enhance his fire. In turn, Cloud’s form of a cloud began to expand, growing larger under the strange pattern of dark clouds covering more and more of the sky.
“Such power…” Sombra said, marveling at what he and the Windigos had done together to make Cloud’s fire stronger. “Twilight was right…there truly is more to friendship than I believed…”
“Our sentiments exactly.” Aero, Aera, and Aeros concurred. “We once wanted to redefine friendship, but now that we have regained our memories and can see what we must do clearly, we realize that what we always knew about friendship deep down was never too much different from what the ponies of Equestria always knew deep down. Even the humans would know it if they were to recall what they have forgotten. Not just the magic of willpower, but what makes that willpower most effective…”
“…I need your opinion on something.” Sombra requested after a self-reflecting pause. “About Beelzebub.”
“What’s that?” the trio replied.
“Do you think I’m falling into his trap?” Sombra asked.
“What do you mean?” the three asked in turn.
Cloud, overhearing the conversation inside of him, listened with great interest.
“I, like you, have begun to reconsider what I initially wanted to do.” Sombra explained. “My original plan was to have Cloud become immortal through the Book of Life in my stead, thus inspiring all of Equestria to become immortal through the Book of the Dead. With their weak fires, the demons would so easily be able to control them, as would I. I wanted to rule Equestria with Twilight Sparkle as my puppet, presiding over a land subjugated by demons, the creatures of the shadows…but do you think that’s what Beelzebub wants too?”
“Oh, absolutely.” the astonished Windigos answered blankly, astonishing both Cloud and Sombra in turn. “You’ll thank yourself for eternity for coming clean when you had the chance, for so long as you continue to do evil, Beelzebub will be able to manipulate you no matter how weak his state is. If you truly wish to rebel against him, you should fully commit yourself to purifying your heart of evil.”
“That wouldn’t mean following Amoros, right?” Sombra asked skeptically. “After all, you should know now that he’s really…”
“No.” the trio replied. “We mean for you to devote yourself to the path of good. We realize now that Amoros was only a symbol of good…created by a pony’s will.”
Cloud shuddered with anticipation, having a strong premonition of who that pony was…
“What?!” Sombra exclaimed in shock. “But isn’t Belohzhero-”
“Belohzhero is only a product of his distorted will.” the trio interjected, explaining. “That is why he has perished so abruptly…because the good in him wishes to be punished, while the bad in him selfishly believes he deserves to be resurrected in a superior vessel…”
“I should’ve known…” Cloud told himself in frustration as he looked up at the growing cumulonimbus. “Beelzebub wants my body…that’s why he manipulated the Windigos to create this storm…to kill me…”
*ZAP* *CRACKLE* *BOOM*
The sound of thunder echoed as Celestia and Luna showed up to help control the storm.
“That’s right.” Beelzebub said sinisterly to him in thought from the shadows. “But it’s not just them I used. You created this storm too. Your hate has been poured into these clouds, and the sword you shall fall on is both mine and yours. For we are two of a kind, and only we know our hate will never go away…”
He snickered as Cloud turned his attention to Celestia and Luna attempting to blast the dark clouds away with their magic, only for more to form.
“Can you see why rebelling against me is futile?” Beelzebub continued gaslighting him.
A disturbed Cloud sensed something eerily familiar about the clouds forming the cumulonimbus…
“This sensation…” he remarked in thought. “I felt this back at the weather factory…and when Amoros first told me about the storm…”
“Knowing what they went through also means knowing their pain…” Amoros’ words echoed through his mind, as little did Cloud know, Amoros was watching him from afar with a serious glare…
Cloud then began to feel an eerily familiar sense of agitation as more words echoed through his mind…the cries of the Windigos…cries only comprehensible to him…
“Belohzhero’s will shall torture us forever…why did we ever exist…why will no pony share our pain? We must create this storm…our only outlet is to spread our suffering to the ponies through weather phenomena…these clouds were instilled with a flame we were called to fuel with our own flames…we must make the ponies understand by using what the only one who would ever understand us gave us…”
And then something mortifying dawned on Cloud…
“It truly was no coincidence that I got that job at the weather factory…” he realized in shock as the image of the bottled water used to produce clouds that he held flashed through his mind. “I helped create this storm through my work at the weather factory. It’s not just Beelzebub’s influence bringing them here…it’s mine.”
The guilt of this realization made Cloud angry…and caused his fire to grow. But he wasn’t just guilty…he was also becoming more determined, to Beelzebub’s frustration.
“Nice try.” he told off the demon. “But you won’t trick me again. You can’t lead me astray off the path towards knowing my fire anymore!”
Beelzebub growled and relented, leaving Cloud’s mind and shifting his focus to Cloud’s human body.
“This isn’t over…” he said ominously. “When that storm does you in, then, I shall finally have you…”
“I see now…” Cloud told himself with resolve. “My hell is not working a menial job I hate. My hell would have been continuing to live a lie forever…living oblivious to the fact of how much others have had to suffer!”
Sombra and the trio of Windigos watched Cloud’s fire burn brighter from inside of his soul, backing away in awe.
“It’s coming…” Sombra remarked. “He’s already passed the next trial…”
“I’m going to take all the Windigos’ hatred…” Cloud thought sincerely. “I’m going to find out what they went through in the true hell!”
Cloud’s body of cloud expanded further as the cumulonimbus began to tighten its focus, preparing a thunderbolt. They knew Cloud was using his electricity-nullifying body to defend Equestria from the storm, and they had a way to get around his natural defense…
“And he’s already prepared for the next one…” Sombra said, awestruck.
“What’s next?” the trio of Windigos asked, confounded. “What’s going on? What are these trials?”
“Divine tests one must undergo in order to obtain eternal life.” Sombra explained. “Cloud has completed the first two, knowing himself and conquering his hell, and now he must conquer the hell of others and know the consequences of difficult choices before he knows his fire.”
“…Cloud did say something like that…” the three recalled. “Where did you hear this though?”
“The Book of Life.” Sombra answered. “I already told you, it was how I intended to make him immortal so that he could live in Equestria forever as my eternal vessel.”
“But Sombra…” the trio replied. “That’s only a legend. The Book of Life is not actually intended to make anyone immortal on this earthly plane…it’s intended to grant the soul eternal life in paradise…”
“What?!” Sombra exclaimed in shock. “How do you know?!”
“The god of love told us…” they explained.
“Then Cloud…” Sombra said in horror. “HE…HE’LL ACTUALLY…”
“Die.” Cloud said blankly as he looked up at the growing cumulonimbus tightening its focus on him. “That is no ordinary thunderbolt they are preparing. It’s a thunderbolt imbued with magical fire. When it strikes me, I will not just absorb the electricity, I will also absorb the Windigos’ flames of hate, which will consume my cloud body, causing it to evaporate into steam.”
“CLOUD, NO!” Sombra cried. “I WON’T LET YOU DIE!”
“Then concentrate all of your energy into fueling my fire.” Cloud replied solemnly. “Because their flames of hate won’t be cooling any time soon…not with what’s happening now…”
The Windigos’ hate was indeed growing stronger like Cloud had said, for below, Twilight Sparkle was finally speaking to a crowd of ponies and guards that had been gathered in the courtyard of the palace. The ponies were to be escorted indoors by the guards on lookout once the storm had grown too heavy. Little did they know, it already had…
*CRACK* *POW*
A crackling flash of thunder was heard over the courtyard as the ponies in the crowd all had baffled expressions and grisly frowns on their faces. Twilight had told them everything Celestia and Luna had shared with her about the government’s true nature, a false dual monarchy that was secretly operated by the counterpart of a demon. Unsurprisingly, the public was not thrilled, thrown into a state of frustration and confusion, feelings shared by the pegasi controlling the weather above. Among those pegasi were Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Billy, Hoops, and Score.
“I knew Discord was set up!” an upset Fluttershy cried. “How could they?!”
One exception among the displeased crowd were the two reporters from PNN, Fax First and Fair Press. Both were smiling with glee just thinking of how much they could benefit from this situation.
“Truly shocking!” Fax exclaimed, doing his usual schtick. “How could any pony ever imagine the untold history of their government being so sordid?!”
“I can.” Twilight interjected bluntly, having waited for him to chime in so that she could blindside him at the perfect time. “Because I’ve seen the untold history of something worse…an evil corporation called Warmer Time.”
Simply hearing the name uttered caused Fax’s blithe grin to twist into a fearful frown as the crowd began to glare at him suspiciously.
“You…you shouldn’t make claims like that you can’t support…” he rebutted in denial, sweating. “Even a princess isn’t above the law, we can sue for defamation…”
“Oh, I can support my claims all right!” Twilight exclaimed with righteous indignation, making the documents Luna had shown her appear with her magic. “A thorough investigation of PNN’s parent company has revealed it to be guilty of extortion, invasion of privacy, and blackmail of private citizens! No one spoke up about it because you, Fax First, have a long history of intimidating ponies into doing what you tell them! And I have with me a list of every single one you coerced using the most underhanded tactics imaginable!”
“YOU’RE LYING!” Fax yelled in desperation. “THERE’S NO WAY!”
“YOU WANNA BET?!” Twilight yelled back as she pulled out a document with her magic and began reading off of it. “First on the list, Cloud Chaser!”
A purple pegasus with a light blue mane and tail who had been part of the storm control had her attention caught by this.
“You threatened to write an article rumoring how she used steroids to cheat her way into training for the Wonderbolts if she wouldn’t do an interview!”
Cloud Chaser growled angrily.
“Next on the list is Hoops Dunkington!” Twilight continued. “He was tried and found innocent for possession of unlawful substances, you threatened to dig up an old story about it that would make him look guilty and broadcast it live if his family didn’t pay you hush money!”
Hoops also growled angrily, as Fax could feel the pressure mounting on him from the crowd around him and the crowd above.
“Next is…Fair Press?” Twilight reacted with bemusement, even as just hearing that name horrified both Fax and Fair Press. “That name sounds familiar. It says that before she was hired, you offered her-”
“SSSTTTOOOPPP!” Fax shrieked, finally breaking down and falling to the ground. “I YIELD! I ADMIT IT! I’M A FAILURE OF A REPORTER! I’VE COMMITTED CRIMINAL OFFENSES! I’LL TURN MYSELF IN, JUST PLEASE STOP!”
“Gladly.” Twilight said, suddenly smiling and teleporting the documents back to where they belonged with magic. “I only wanted you to confess, as Celestia and Luna have. The royal guard will take you into custody shortly. That is all I have to say on the matter of the declassified information.”
Fax First was apprehended by two royal guards, but this anticlimactic turn did not satiate the crowd.
“Wait, that’s it?” they asked, puzzled as they began muttering to themselves. “What about Celestia and Luna?”
“Rest assured ponies of Equestria, all will face justice for their misdeeds.” Twilight explained. “It is just that with a terrible storm on its way, our safety takes full priority. King Sombra and his reformation guide, Cloud Shroud, are doing everything in their power to face the storm and protect us with Celestia, Luna, and all the pegasi helping them. All we ask from you is to trust us as we unite together and prevail through the power of friendship!”
Unfortunately, this did not quell the public’s unrest, as they began squabbling among themselves and complaining in disbelief.
“You have to be kidding!” one pony hollered.
“With what we know now about our government and our media, you expect us to trust you just like that?!” another cried indignantly.
“We trusted in something so unbelievable as Sombra being reformed because it was on the news!” another pony exclaimed. “Now that we know what you and the media were hiding, we just have to believe that he’s trying to protect us?! Shove it! We don’t trust you!”
As the ponies continued their cries of protest, Twilight’s heart sank. She had never felt hate like this before from the ponies, never felt such an air of contempt and distrust. This was nothing like when the Windigos returned…
*HOWL*
…and now that they had returned again, things would never be the same. That haunting, familiar howl prompted the crowd to cease their bickering and look up in terror at how big the cumulonimbus they had made had grown. A feeling of helplessness overwhelmed them as they witnessed the Windigos becoming visible, circling around what the pegasi and the princesses could not stop, all above a large, dark cloud.
“Now that they know your hate…” Beelzebub said sinisterly. “It is time they know the pain you felt…WHEN YOU DIED.”
The ponies shrieked at the sight of the Windigos, and panicking, frantically rushed to the nearest shelter with the guards on lookout accompanying them. Twilight used her magic to cast a shield on the palace, but feared that far more than just the palace and the ponies there were in danger…
“Run and hide all you want, fools.” Beelzebub mocked them. “For no matter what defenses you have, once the lightning bolt from that cumulonimbus strikes any part of Equestria, it will spark a firestorm that shall spread all throughout the nation. Ponies all over shall be consumed by our flames of hate and perish…that is, unless…”
Unless…
In that moment, everyone knew in their heart what would transpire next. Rainbow Dash recalled Cloud’s words…
“I’ll be back before you know it.”
…before she looked down and realized that the cloud below the cumulonimbus…was her friend. Before the lightning bolt came down, Rainbow cried as she said…
“I’m going to kick you in the flank so hard when I see you again…”
*CRACK* *ZAP* *KABOOM*
The lightning bolt finally came down and zapped Cloud Shroud, leading him to suffer the fate he had resigned himself too. Absorbing the electricity in his body, it created a storm of fire in his body that caused all the water inside of him to be evaporated into steam. All that remained of his body was shadow that began to fade…
“Cloud…” Sombra, Aero, Aera, and Aeros said dejectedly inside his soul. “Forgive us…we couldn’t save you…”
“It’s not your fault.” Cloud said to comfort them. “This was always my fate. Now go. You can not come with me to the true hell…”
All of them bowed their heads in understanding and vanished, leaving his soul. Appearing in the sky above Equestria, they watched despondently as the last bit of shadow left from Cloud’s body dissipated into the air. The cumulonimbus dissipated as well, the Windigos’ wrath being satisfied, but Cloud Shroud was gone…
Amoros, who had been watching as well, sighed as he disappeared…
“We truly are two of a kind…” he said ominously.
“CCCCCLLLLLOOOOOUUUUUDDDDD!” Rainbow shouted to the skies as hard as she could, crying profusely as Fluttershy and the trio of pegasi attempted to console her. Celestia, Luna, Sombra, and the three Windigos all looked upon them sadly, feeling guilty. They wanted to ease Rainbow’s pain by telling her Cloud was in a better place…but they knew the truth was that Cloud’s will would determine what kind of place he’d be in…
Where Cloud was, he was staring inside of a familiar fire, surrounded by darkness. Having seen the truth of what really happened the night Belohzhero was born, what Amoros’ disciples now remembered, he knew why he was where he was…
“So this is what hell truly is.” he told himself, having now passed the third trial, knowing the hell of others. “The unity of dark wills.”
Taking the Windigos’ hate inside of himself had allowed him to see what truly happened to them that night inside of his fire…
Cloud Shroud watched the true story finally unfold inside of his fire. Now that he had passed the third trial inside of hell, he had to know the consequences of difficult choices, what had created the hell of him and others…
What really happened on the night of Belohzhero’s birth…
Before the slaves had begun their rebellion against Neversay at his house, he and Dandy Rose were having a conversation over tea at the dining room table about the painting he had most recently drawn.
“I must say Dandy Rose,” said an impressed Neversay after sipping his tea, “your work has greatly improved. I was worried you wouldn’t have the time to truly hone your art skills while working a job so demanding, but your latest painting is a masterpiece!”
Following that compliment, Neversay turned his head to admire the painting he had now hung on the wall behind the dining room table.
“Thank you very much, sir.” Dandy politely replied. “Though I must say, I can’t exactly explain why that painting is miles and bounds better than anything else I’ve drawn so far. I guess I was just feeling more…inspired than usual.”
“Well, there you have it!” Neversay exclaimed in jest, chuckling. “It’s no accident the quality of your work improved so suddenly. You didn’t know it, but something must have had a positive influence on you that gave you the will to improve. Has anything notably good happened to you lately?”
“Yes.” Dandy answered, feeling an odd sensation in his gut. “I think I made…a friend. Three friends in fact. I don’t know any of them as well as I know you, but…something about their passion moved me…like, not only did I want to draw a painting after I felt their fire…I wanted to write a story too.”
“Oh!” Neversay remarked, setting his cup in pleasant astonishment. “You want to get into writing too, like me?”
“You write?” Dandy responded, perplexed.
“I used to.” Neversay explained. “Not stories, per se, but professional writing ability was most certainly needed for the job I used to work. Before I got into stone masonry, I used to be the government’s royal recorder.”
“Wow.” Dandy remarked. “Why did you quit?”
“It wasn’t the most thrilling line of work.” Neversay answered. “The job is far more arduous than it looks, and no pony really appreciates you for it. Not that they could, considering the things I learned while working with the government that the public must never know.”
Dandy felt a strange, foreboding chill run through his body…
“But let’s not dwell on my past.” Neversay changed the subject. “I’m far more interested in what I can do for your future, considering what a help you’ve been to me. Being an art savant, I’ve had more than my fair share of run-ins with other art connoisseurs. I could get in touch with one of them some time and see what I can do to publicize your work.”
“Woah,” responded a happily startled Dandy, “you mean like, having my art actually be on display in a museum?”
“We could make it happen, if that’s what you want.” Neversay answered cheerfully. “I alone can not make your dream come true, Dandy. If being an artist is your dream, you must will for it to come true.”
Dandy paused in self-reflection.
“If the revolution pulls through…” he thought worriedly. “Not only will I lose my master, I’ll lose my dream…”
Dandy then gripped his hooves in frustration as Neversay took note.
“What’s wrong?” he asked Dandy with concern, watching his subject shake in agitation.
“Master!” Dandy cried, banging the table, desperate for a release from the mental pressure. “The workers are going to revolt!”
“WHAT?!” Neversay yelled in shock and fury, banging his hooves on the table as well and rising from his seat. “When did you hear of this?! Who’s leading this revolt?!”
“It’s Mysterious Shade, who told me of the plan just a day ago.” Dandy answered. “She and two other workers, Rock Slide and Merigo, are planning to surround this house tonight and kill you. And I don’t believe they’ll stop there either. I believe this rebellion is only the precursor to a coup d'état against the government. Please forgive me for waiting a day to come clean. It was just that I honestly respected these three and wanted to believe they weren’t truly serious. But I respect you more, and I don’t want to risk losing you.”
“…..” Neversay glared at Dandy angrily, upset with him, but also pitying him. Nevertheless, he had a feeling of great unease.
“What makes you feel that they will attempt to overthrow the government next?” he asked, stunned and curious.
“It was the aura of that mare.” Dandy explained. “I sensed she had great animosity towards the government…great lust to tear it down and rebuild it…it was the kind of contempt I felt could only come from some pony who’s worked with the government…some pony like you…”
Neversay’s eyes went wide open as he felt an overwhelming sense of dread.
“They’ve finally come for me.” he told himself in thought, terrified. “They want to bury me with all of the evidence…no way can I let them! Not even if it means bringing him into this world…”
“DANDY!” Neversay shouted, startling the earth pony.
“Yes?” a nervous Dandy replied.
“Stay with me at all times.” Neversay ordered sternly. “You are not to leave this residence until they arrive. That is when I shall deal with them…”
He used his magic to make a familiar book that he levitated with his magic appear.
“With the forbidden spells.” he finished in a dark tone of voice. “I know of the research the government has done into demons. It’s all transcribed here in the Book of the Dead. I know a spell that will allow me to channel the will of the greatest demon they ever discovered.”
Dandy gulped, wondering if he had done the right thing in confessing now…it was as if his soul was literally torn in two over his loyalty towards his master and loyalty towards the rebels who had so greatly inspired his fire…
“What is right and wrong in the grand scheme?” he questioned himself in thought. “I may have made the wrong decision, but…I was only following what my fire influenced me to do…”
Before long, the revolution had surrounded Neversay’s house, with Mysterious Shade, Rock Slide, and Merigo leading an army of his workers wielding pickaxes and torches. Having expected them, Neversay immediately came out of the house through the front door with Dandy by his side, wearing a grisly frown on his face. Mysterious Shade shot an admonishing look of her own at Dandy, immediately sensing what he had done from Neversay’s reaction.
“I knew we couldn’t trust you…” she thought angrily. “No matter…”
Her attention turned to Neversay.
“Neversay…” she told him coldly. “This is a revolt. Surrender yourself now, relinquish your ownership of every slave here, and in exchange, we will not torture you before we kill you.”
Neversay grew more furious than ever, emotions reflected in his increasingly hateful gaze.
“You do not DEMAND SUBMISSION FROM ME!” he bellowed irately. “I gave all of you food, shelter, and opportunity and this is how you express your gratitude?! You, Shade, or should I say, Masonic Diamond, sister of Princess Palladium, are the least worthy of talking down to me! I know what this revolt is really about! You only see the members of this coup as pawns in your scheme to cover for the government! You only want to abolish it so that you can create a new one for your own selfish reasons while you conceal the truth!”
Shade growled as the workers turned to her with suspicious looks on their faces.
“Hmph.” Merigo thought, unmoved. “As if she could fool me.”
“Shade…” Rock said, surprised by contrast. “Are you really…”
“So what if that’s true?!” Shade cried defensively. “As if I’d ever do to these workers what you’ve done! Either way, you die tonight!”
Shade’s horn lit up as she began preparing a lethal spell.
“Somehow, I doubt that…” Neversay retorted, almost sounding like he was hiding a chuckle as his horn lit up with him preparing a lethal spell of his own.
“No matter!” Shade exclaimed confidently. “You can know my power in TARTARUS!”
With that declaration, she fired a spell directly at Neversay’s heart area with the intent of stopping his heart, only for Neversay to anticipate her attack and deflect it with his horn.
“What?!” Shade cried in shock. “How did you…”
“Admittedly, that spell is more impressive when it’s used by a pony who possesses a strong will.” Neversay taunted her. “But even if you weren’t a spoiled princess, you wouldn’t have what it takes to kill a pony who has seen and comprehended far more evil…”
“Master…” Dandy remarked, greatly unsettled as he felt a terrible aura exuding from Neversay, one that had all of the rebels trembling in terror. All of them felt cold…
“I-I can’t move!” Merigo exclaimed in thought worriedly.
“Was I…a fool?” Shade started doubting herself in thought with Neversay’s will overtaking hers. “Am I truly just…a spoiled princess?”
Rock, sensing Shade’s doubt and Neversay’s bloodlust, began fighting Neversay’s will.
“No…” he told himself in thought, stepping in front of Shade, his love for her enabling him to overcome his fear. “You’re going to have to go through ME!”
“What?!” Merigo exclaimed in shock in his mind. “He LOVES her?! Enough to DIE for her?!”
Neversay chuckled.
“You, an earth pony rebel, would die for this unicorn bureaucrat?” he mocked him, chortling. “Don’t you see that she’s a government agent? That she views you even more inferior than I do?”
“Th-th-that’s…that’s not…” Rock stuttered in embarrassment, not wanting to admit what he had suspected before he blurted out his emotions of passion. “No, even if that was true, I’d still be shielding her! Her race, status, or what she thought of doing, none of that matters because we’re friends!”
*FWOOM*
Dandy felt a fire growing in Rock’s spirit, one that inspired both Shade and Merigo. Neversay was stunned in bafflement, while Shade and Merigo were stunned in respect.
“Rock…” Shade blankly said in impressed astonishment. “I didn’t know you actually cared about me this much. I thought there was at least some truth to that disdain we feigned, but never once did you actually care that I was a different race than you. To think I was actually going to treat you like a servant instead of a friend when this was over…”
“I must admit, this scene truly perplexes me…” Merigo confessed as he felt a peculiar passion welling inside of him. “But prideful as I am as a pegasus warrior, I can not allow myself to be outclassed in bravado by an earth pony. I never trusted either of you, but I always strangely enjoyed your company. In my own weird way, I admired you two. You have earned my support for intriguing me.”
*FFFWWWOOOMMM*
Dandy gasped in awe as he felt the fires of all three of them growing at the same time.
“Incredible…” he remarked in disbelieving amazement. “This is no doubt the fire that motivated me to draw my masterpiece…the unity of strong wills!”
“What was that?!” an angry Neversay barked at him.
“Gah!” Dandy grunted, unable to avoid giving himself away from being captivated by the splendor of his source of inspiration.
“These backstabbers were your inspiration?!” he continued yelling, berating him. “You were still hiding secrets from me?! Whose side are you on?! Don’t you know that none can serve two masters?!”
“I..I…” Dandy stammered, speechless and overwhelmingly conflicted, to the point where he could feel that sensation as if his soul was literally being bifurcated even worse than before. “I just don’t want you guys to kill each other, that’s all! I just wish we were living in a world where it didn’t have to come to this! Death, pain, suffering, why can’t it just all END?!”
Rock, Shade, and Merigo simply stared at Dandy, pleasantly stunned by his concern for them. Rock was least surprised, having always trusted him. Neversay, however, was glaring at him with strong disapproval.
“What naïve idealism…” he remarked in disappointment, shaking his head. “There will never exist a world where the strong do not eat the weak in order to survive. In a world where no one knows what is good or evil, the side that is right or wrong must be decided by a test of strength. The side with the stronger will is just. And since my will is clearly stronger…”
Every pony except for Neversay gasped in horror as they felt a terrifying amount of magical energy building in his horn…
“I know that I am justified in exterminating you traitors.” he finished as he turned to Rock, Shade, and Merigo with the sternest scowl on his face, ready to kill them with a forbidden spell.
“NNNNNOOOOO!” Dandy cried as Neversay fired magical energy from his horn, jumping in front of the blast to shield them…
“UGH!” Cloud grunted as he watched this part of the vision, feeling as if he was Dandy in this moment. “It’s just like…”
He then kept watching to see the part where Dandy collapsed to the ground dead in the snow, clutching his heart with his right foreleg, being reminded of how his body was laying out in the snow. Also remembering that he too had given his life to spare others from hateful wrath, he realized something even more shocking about Belohzhero’s identity all at once…
A vision flashed through his head of a familiar lizard crawling on Dandy’s body, the same way a lizard had crawled on his body…
“I’m…I’m…” he blankly said in disbelief as he recalled one crucial detail he had overlooked when he had first seen Dandy Rose.
He kept this detail he had recalled in mind, alongside other things that finally made sense to him, as the vision in his fire continued. Just like the last time when the Windigos showed him this vision, a fatal blow to the heart from Neversay’s magic had killed him, Neversay was regretting what he had done, mourning his servant’s death as Rock shed tears for him as well, and Shade had yelled at Neversay, berating him. This time, however, Cloud could see exactly how Belohzhero was born, why he appeared…
The will of the great demon Neversay had mentioned had now been passed on to a broken, vulnerable soul. From Dandy Rose’s body, a spectral form arose, a ghost appearing to be the hybrid of a lizard and a pony…the ghost that would be called Belohzhero…
Shade, overcome with bloodlust and rage, was about to kill Neversay with a lethal spell of her own before she was halted by Merigo.
“STOP.” he commanded, putting a front leg to her chest. “Not only is he not worth it, it would be crueler at this point to not kill him.”
“Fine!” Shade exclaimed, begrudgingly rescinding her magic. “We’ll do things your way! And what of the rebellion? Will leaving things like this truly satiate the rebels?”
“What are we, pickled garlic?!” some of the rebels shouted from behind, upset Shade wasn’t even directly addressing them. “Not only were we supposed to take Neversay’s head tonight, we’ve been given a good reason to take yours too!”
“What?!” Shade cried in shock, nervous astonishment shared by her peers.
“You heard us!” the rebels continued to cry. “If what ol’ master there was saying was true, you’re a conspirator, a traitor! And all who dare to betray us should die, including those who defend traitors!”
“You’re kidding!” Shade, Rock, and Merigo cried in disbelief and disapproval. “You would kill us over a baseless claim?! You’ve gone mad!”
“No…” Belohzhero whispered in a soft voice. “They’re not crazy…they simply want an excuse to kill you out of paranoia and lust for power. If these rebels take over, they will become just as bad as our current government.”
“Huh?” Shade, Rock, and Merigo reacted in confusion, turning around. “Who said that?”
The rebels guffawed, having heard nothing.
“Bwa ha ha ha ha!” they laughed derisively. “And they call us crazy while they’re hearing voices in their heads!”
Neversay had heard nothing either, but could sense something was up.
“Dandy…” he muttered, sensing his spirit. “Is that…no, this can’t be you…something about this presence feels…evil…”
“I’m afraid it is me, “master”.” Belohzhero retorted in a darker, demonic voice. “Your words amuse me, considering what you spoke of none knowing what is good or evil, but make no mistake, I have awakened to both the good and evil inside of me. The good in me does not wish to see any of you dead, but the evil in me certainly does not mind if you end up as casualties of my newly acquired magic…”
All of a sudden, every pony began to feel overwhelmed by a chilling, cold breeze. They felt just as they did when they were being overwhelmed by Neversay’s will, only this sensation was far worse.
“What…WHAT’S GOING ON?!” Shade cried in terror. “I’ve never felt magic this malevolent before! Not even from the demons! HOW IS THIS HAPPENING?!”
“Demons only understand evil.” Belohzhero explained. “I am not just an ordinary spirit. I was once a pony, a pony whose very fabric of existence was torn in two when he saw the good and evil in both the side of power and the side of rebellion. I admire the fire of both, yet both are corrupt. The good in me wishes for them to stop hurting each other, while the evil in me wishes for them to perish and be rebuilt to fit my ideal world, one where all submit to me, looking to me as their salvation from death and suffering. Magic is merely the product of one’s will, and now that I fully recognize the good and evil in me as they’ve split, I can combine the light and darkness within me to create a magic a world that doesn’t even know good and evil could never hope to realize…”
Rock, Shade, and Merigo gasped in shock from what they heard, as did Neversay from what he could feel.
“You’re the ghost of Dandy Rose…” they all realized, mortified. “You’ve returned as a demon…”
“Not a demon…” he said coldly as he finally revealed himself to the eyes of every pony there. “But a greater demon. I understand good and evil, the true nature of heaven and hell. They are but the reflection of the wills of our souls. Heaven is whatever surrounds the soul in a state of bliss, hell is whatever sounds the soul in a state of suffering. The soul must first be disciplined in order to know what bliss truly is, and the soul must first have something to hope for to not become complacent with only knowing suffering, never seeking true relief from it. The ultimate factor that decides whether one will end up in heaven or hell…is one’s fire. It will always be the choice of the individual, ultimately. Thus, in order to create my ideal world where all depend on me to take away their pain and misery, I must extinguish the fire of all life.”
“WHAT?!” they cried in complete disbelief. “YOU CAN’T DO THAT!”
“I can, and I will.” Belohzhero retorted mockingly. “For you do not have the will to stop me, while I have the will to take the life of every pony here…with MY BREATH ALONE.”
His words proved true, as with his next breath, he breathed a gust of fierce, chilling wind that caused every pony there to freeze to death…including Neversay, Rock, Shade, and Merigo…
“I accept this fate as punishment for my sins…” Neversay spoke his final words. “But Dandy, know that we will meet again in some way or another…”
“Dandy…there’s no way I can die knowing my friend became this…” Rock remarked angrily.
“My knowledge of the forbidden spells won’t vanish, even if I have to leave this world…” Shade refused to concede.
“Far more unbelievable than what Rock and Shade showed me is your suggestion of extinguishing the fire of all…” Merigo scoffed. “Even in death, our fire will never go out…”
“Heh.” Belohzhero simply snickered as he watched the ponies he admired in life most fall to the ground dead, along with every rebel. “We’ll see about that.”
In spite of his cockiness, however, he recalled what he had drawn for his painting, the image of three ponies joining together to defeat a demon.
“We’ll see about that…” he said again more solemnly.
“Knowing their fire, them returning like I did is a very real possibility…” he thought to himself. “I must create a great army for myself in order to demoralize them, to put their fire out…”
Looking at the corpses of all the rebels he had just dispatched lying out in the snow, he had an idea.
“I shall recreate them as my minions, beasts of wind that will spread my cold breeze all throughout Equestria…” he said before he breathed another wind that caused the souls of all the rebels, except Rock, Shade, and Merigo, to rise from their coils and become Windigos. “The fire of those three that will remain after death will resist my magic calling them to serve me, obviously. These weak-willed fools, however, their rebellious yet fragile and immature souls are the easiest to manipulate…”
“What?!” Cloud cried in shock upon seeing this part of the vision. “This is not how Aero, Aera, and Aeros became Windigos? Then…no way…”
Cloud then recalled just how shocked the three were after they returned from being inside of Beelzebub and thought to himself…
“Maybe it wasn’t just their shock from discovering Belohzhero’s true identity…” he told himself, theorizing, remembering what they said about the fire they had forgotten. “The way their philosophies changed so suddenly, like they were completely different in their ideological views…it’s almost as if that’s what they always actually believed…”
Cloud’s theory would soon be confirmed to him as he watched the end of the vision, where Dandy’s ghost was finally confronted by three ponies, an earth pony, a unicorn, and a pegasus, who were all surrounded by a brilliant light that banished him to the ice in the far north, but not before his soul was finally divided into two halves, Amoros and Beelzebub…
It was one final revelation that caused that split, one that was revealed to Dandy by the god of love…
Seeing this revelation unfold in the vision immediately triggered Cloud’s memory of something he had said what felt like so long ago…
“I don’t believe in fictional characters coming to life.”
He then looked around at hell, the realm he was in right now, and realized to himself…
“In their own way, fictional characters do come to life.” he told himself solemnly. “We become like the demons we imagine, perverting the wills of others with our reprehensible conduct. The collection of the darkness we create in other people, people who lose the will to do good and wish for others to suffer, that is hell. So long as living beings exist, so will hell. Suffering is an inevitable consequence of difficult choices, and no matter how we choose, we will have to endure it.”
*FWOOM*
Once Cloud accepted that uncomfortable truth, the fire behind him roared, growing ever stronger and illuminating the dark realm.
“However, so long as we endure it, we can find something to live for.” he continued. “If you accept that you can’t be without suffering, suffering has no power. A world where you have no choice but to only suffer does not exist. And therefore…”
The fire grew so strong, the entire realm was illuminated, the darkness enveloped by an all-encompassing light…
“My hell does not exist.”
Soon after Cloud said that, the light cleared. He found himself in the form of a human spirit, hovering above his body in the snow.
“All that’s left is for me to know my fire…” he said to himself blankly. “And to do that, I must overcome my demon…his demon that deceived us both. Your day has come, Beelzebub…”
On his human body’s forehead, he saw the three-eyed lizard staring at him with a smug grin on its face. Cloud shot the lizard a stern glare in return.
“Leave my body this instant, Dandy Rose.” he said firmly.
With that, Cloud’s human body’s face suddenly contorted into a pompous smile, just like the lizard’s. His body’s mouth opened, and the lizard crawled inside the mouth before it shut and swallowed the lizard. His body then got up, turning around to face Cloud’s spirit. Finally opening its eyes, it retained its cockily smiling, sinister expression before it told Cloud in the voice of Dandy Rose…
“You can’t kick yourself out of your own house. And you can’t know your fire until you accept me.”
“What are you trying to say, Dandy?” Cloud replied, unamused.
“Don’t play dumb.” Dandy retorted. “You know all the questions you can’t get off your mind now that you finally know the answers. Why did Belohzhero want you specifically to be his successor? Why would he go through all this trouble just for you? Why was Sombra so worried about your power? Why do both of us share an interest in art and writing? Why do we both share such similar fates…as well as a similar appearance?”
Cloud gulped as he recalled the most obvious hint that he completely overlooked from being so fascinated with Dandy’s painting…the fact that Dandy had the same white coat as his pony form, as well as the same blonde hair as his human self…
“Because you’re me.” he spoke the bitter truth. “You’re Belohzhero, and technically, so am I. That’s why you chose me to be your successor.”
“Yes…” Dandy replied sinisterly. “You are my human counterpart.”
“…What does that mean?” Cloud asked, feeling disillusioned.
“The truth I learned when I was defeated in Equestria,” explained Dandy, “revealed to me by the god of love, was that Equestria is merely a creation of the human will. We are all created by the forgotten magic of willpower, and unconsciously, you created me in your image. Taking advantage of your lack of awareness, I manipulated you into becoming my vessel, allowing me to become something greater than just a product of will.”
“Is…is…” a bewildered Cloud stuttered to ask. “Is the world of Equestria a creation of the human will…the same way the human world is a creation of God’s will?”
“That’s the easiest way to simplify it.” Dandy answered. “Sombra must have explained it to you long ago, the magic of willpower.”
“Yes…” Cloud replied somberly. “He told me that my body of cloud and shadow was constructed by my will…if I had to be told something like that…if something like that could happen without me even knowing…”
“Who’s to say that this entire world of Equestria you’ve been exploring this whole time isn’t constructed by your will?” Dandy asked jeeringly.
“Does that mean…” an increasingly demoralized Cloud responded. “…that it was all a lie? Nothing I went through actually happened? Was everything I learned…are all the bonds I formed not real?”
“If that was true, there would’ve been no point to me putting you through any of this.” Dandy retorted. “No, what your will had you experience was true. But it didn’t happen in “the world of Equestria”. It happened in your world of Equestria…or should I say, ours.”
“Ours?” Cloud asked inquisitively.
“You remember when you were confronted in your soul by Beelzebub, correct?” Dandy reminded him. “My demon is your demon. The darkness that haunts you, the darkness that distorts your will, that is what shaped Equestria into what it is. The god of love always wanted you to confront this darkness, but it was difficult with nothing to motivate you. That’s why he told me what he did, to give both our souls a chance of salvation. Your world of Equestria is one of the few things you have a fire for. He allowed all of this to transpire so that your fire would not remain forever stagnant, dooming you to hell.”
“Unbelievable…” Cloud remarked in astonishment. “So the same way Sombra was sent to help me as Celestia and Luna’s unusual choice for a guide, the god of love worked through you and your evil plan to help me…”
“Ha ha ha!” Dandy guffawed. “Did you say, “evil”? I hate to disappoint you, but I am only as “evil” as you are. I have nothing but good intentions for our world of Equestria. Case in point, who do you think told Celestia and Luna to send Sombra to help you? I did as Amoros, my good half. Sombra, despite his rebellious thoughts, was merely controlled opposition. His order, the order of the Windigos, it wasn’t about either one succeeding or not. All that mattered was the way it influenced your fire, and the way you rebelled against them both despite knowing both of their wills were stronger than yours…that kind of fire was exactly what I needed you, my counterpart, to possess in order to play the role of Equestria’s savior.”
A mortifying thought dawned on Cloud…one that enraged him, leading him to scowl…
“You’re not just going to be done with my human body, are you?” he told Dandy indignantly.
“No way.” Dandy retorted, mocking him with the same eyelid pull and tongue stick he did as Beelzebub. “After all, since I am you, I will also know your fire once it finally awakens. And we will use that fire to enact my perfect order in Equestria, transforming the land into a perfect nation. Everything will begin once you return there. Once all your friends see you alive and well after you gave your life to save them, the ruler of friendship will be so impressed, she’ll abdicate her position to you in order to regain the trust of the displeased masses. From there, we shall finally end all pain and suffering by mandating everyone to make a contract with a demon through the Book of the Dead. Inspired by your sacrifice, they will all have the will to suppress their demons…and then never need their fire again. They’ll breed strong generations for ages eternal, but never rebel. Living perfect lives while ruled by a perfect government, they’ll allow the fires they no longer need to gradually be extinguished, and eventually, none will ever be able to choose hell again…they’ll only know heaven in Equestria.”
“That sounds similar to what Sombra confessed to…” Cloud remarked.
“Precisely,” replied Dandy cockily, “since like I said, he was just controlled opposition. Really, all you, him, and my disciples did by interfering with my plans was spare the general public the discipline I had initially planned for them. Still, it was the best any creature opposing me could ever pull off. You do deserve a reward for your efforts, as do your friends by being graced with our presence, don’t you think?”
Cloud waved his right arm in a motion of disapproval.
“Are you legitimately trying to butter me up?!” he cried angrily, unmoved by Dandy’s goading. “You think flattery’s enough to sway me after my fire’s come this far?!”
“Nah, I think better of you than that, you being me and all.” Dandy continued to stroke his ego with his rejoinders. “However, I will warn you. Once you see how your friends in Equestria are holding up, you will quickly realize that you have no choice but to come back to them, even if it means allowing me to establish my order…”
With a wave of his hand in Cloud’s human body, Dandy called shadows to surround the two and teleport them both to a resting room in Twilight Sparkle’s castle. The two, invisible and unperceivable, could see Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Aero, Aera, Aeros, and King Sombra all gathered around a table, despondent and sharing forlorn looks over the death of Cloud.
“What kind of ruler am I?” Twilight disparaged herself in regret. “Not only did I lose the trust of my people, an innocent pony lost his life…”
“I’m glad that Princesses Celestia and Luna are going to free Discord now,” chimed in Fluttershy, “but I didn’t want him back at the cost of Cloud’s life. I wanted to get to know him more…”
“It’s all my fault…” Rainbow bemoaned, blaming herself even more than Twilight had. “If I had just been nicer to him from the start, not treating him like he was a pest, he would’ve valued his life more, at least enough to not just throw it away like that…”
“…” Sombra was the only pony to not remark yet, looking over to his side curiously.
“Remember that it wasn’t you ponies who killed him.” Aero interjected. “It was our kind, the Windigos, influenced by Beelzebub, a demon’s hate. And Cloud willfully died to save you from their wrath.”
“Cloud did not give his life in vain.” Aera added. “He died because he loves you ponies, and that love for you will not disappear after death, nor will he. I know for certain…”
“Cloud could even be watching us right now.” Aeros remarked, largely sincere even as he didn’t know Cloud and Dandy were there. “Regardless, I’m sure he wants us to move on and not be like those Windigos who were ruled by emotion over what has already passed.”
“Definitely, though I’ll say it’s important to look back on the past if you want to create a new beginning…” Sombra said strangely, looking in Cloud’s direction and making Cloud curious.
“Ha ha ha…” Dandy chuckled. “Just what I’d expect from those Windigos now that they’ve regained their memories. Can’t say the same for your pony friends though…”
“I…get what you mean…” Twilight tentatively replied to Aeros. “But my people are not going to suddenly trust me again just because getting over my shortcoming is the right thing to do.”
“I’m still bothered by the fact that we’re having to sit here and talk so calmly about this while a cruelly killed pony is having his death certificate signed in the other room.” Fluttershy interjected with concern. “It’s scarily grim…”
“You guys don’t understand.” a still dejected Rainbow rebutted the Windigos’ sentiment. “You’ve spent a thousand years loathing friendship, that’s why you think we can just get over this. And take our emotions where? Even Twilight, who didn’t know the guy, loved Cloud as one of her people. And he died because he loved us. So tell me, are we just supposed to forget his sacrifice like you’re suggesting?”
The three Windigos were taken aback by this comment, a crucial memory triggered in their minds as their expressions grew ever more serious.
“No.” they sternly answered. “Forgetting something that important was the real reason we were turned into Windigos.”
“Wait, what?!” a surprised Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow exclaimed in unison. “What do you mean?”
Before the Windigos answered, Cloud noticed how Sombra still would not cease to look over in his direction. It was as if he could sense he was there the same way he could sense what the Windigos were talking about from the time he was with them in Cloud’s soul. Cloud’s suspicion was confirmed once Sombra used his magic to make the same white book with the insignia of a cross on it he had shown him before they summoned Beelzebub appear. And with the Windigos’ next words, Cloud finally understood the true purpose of The Book of Life…
“We forgot the will of the god of love. We were not willing to sacrifice everything so that our friend’s soul could be redeemed. Instead, we wanted eternal life for ourselves as compensation for what we suffered through. But since we were already dead, we had to settle for being Windigos. And since we went against the god of love’s will, we could only know happiness with a god of love…”
“You Windigos…” the three bewildered friends replied. “Knew about love and friendship before you were dead? Are…are you actually…?”
“Yes.” the Windigos answered blankly. “We used to be ponies just like you. In fact…we were the ponies who defeated Belohzhero two thousand years ago.”
This revelation completely shocked everyone present, except for Sombra, who was focused on what his senses were telling him, a chortling Dandy, and an awestruck Cloud, who despite already knowing this from the vision he saw, was captivated by another revelation.
“I finally get it now…” he said in amazement as he looked down at his ghostly hands, realizing that he was still the ghost of a human the same way Aero, Aera, and Aeros were still the ghosts of ponies when they had stopped Belohzhero. “I wasn’t wrong…the god of love put me here to reform Sombra…I’ll know my fire through The Book of Life!”
*FFFFFFFFFFWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM*
Remembering the sense of purpose that had motivated him to stand up to Aero, Aera, and Aeros combined with his most important realization of all, his fire grew exponentially, achieving its ultimate power. Dandy was no longer laughing or even grinning arrogantly once he felt this power and realized it was not his own.
“What the…” Dandy reacted in bemusement. “This…this can’t be right! Why is this fire not burning inside of my soul?! I’m you and you’re me!”
“No, Dandy.” Cloud retorted blankly. “I am myself and you are part of my will. My will would only ever want you to know your own fire…but you sold it to Beelzebub. Your “master plan” was doomed from the start.”
“NNNNNOOOOO!” Dandy howled in despair. “How can I be inferior to both you and him?!”
“Because you were never willing to give up everything while he was willing to take everything.” Cloud answered seriously. “But don’t worry, I know now how to save you from him and my friends too…”
Cloud knew that before he could save his friends, he would have to tell them the full truth…harnessing the power of his will, he allowed himself to become visible to them as his true self…he allowed the creations of his will to know their maker…
“CLOUD?!” everyone in the room cried in shock upon seeing their lost friend suddenly manifest before them, recognizing him immediately from his fire despite his human appearance. “YOU’RE…YOU’RE A…”
“Human.” Cloud finished for them bluntly as they could see he was the ghost of one. “And “Cloud Shroud” is just the name for the pony self I created with my will. My real name is Ken Carin. I am one of the creatures responsible for creating this world you call Equestria. And the Equestria you’re in right now is a creation of my will, just like all of you.”
Everyone there wanted to believe that he had lost his mind…but they inherently knew of the truth to his words, being part of his will and seeing him return from hell…
“Are you trying to say that…” they said in utter disbelief. “That you’re our…god?!”
“No.” Cloud replied meekly. “I am not a god. I am only a man. A feeble, hopeless man who needed his own creations of will and the true god of love to guide him to salvation. That’s why in my subconscious mind, I created you to be as similar to what the ones who made the “real Equestria” intended for you to be as I could. It was my way of giving you all free will. And now, I will ask all of you personally…”
Cloud then crouched to the floor, putting his left hand on his left leg and holding out his right arm before asking them…
“Do you want to help me stop Beelzebub?”
At this time, both Discord, who had watched Princesses Celestia and Luna turn themselves to stone after freeing him in order to appease the masses who wanted the government punished, and Justice Minister Neighsay, who had just finished completing Cloud’s death certificate, felt a strong premonition.
“Besides giving Fluttershy a surprise welcome at home…” Discord said with a sly smile before snapping his fingers and teleporting away. “My work here is done…”
“I feel as if I wasted my time on this…” Neighsay told himself as he looked over what he had just signed. “…Good.”
Everyone there was quick to place a hoof on Cloud’s extended hand, showing that they were intent on helping him put a stop to the demon that had plagued Cloud, Dandy, and this realm of Equestria for so long, all except for one pony…Twilight Sparkle.
“As much as I want to help…” she said sadly. “I can’t comprehend why you would do this for us. Especially me. You created us, and because of my weakness against the Windigos, that hate, you died. Why trust a failure like me after my inept leadership created a world where ponies don’t trust the government, the news, or the system? Surely in your world, you trust the government, the news, and the system, right?”
“Definitely not.” Cloud bluntly replied. “My trust in the world ended long ago. For so long, the only thing I believed in was my own fire. And that’s all many humans believe in now too. Despite our never-ending list of failures, it’s our fire that encourages us to keep going in our endlessly insane world. I was a far greater failure than you could ever imagine yourself to be before I got to this point…the point where I’m willing to give up everything if it means I get to share my eternal flame with others…”
With those words, the Book of Life began to glow…Dandy noticed this, and began to panic.
“NO, IT CAN NOT BE!” Dandy shrieked, his voice becoming distorted with Beelzebub speaking through him. “YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO SUBMIT TO YOUR EGO AND BECOME THEIR GOD! THEY CAN NEVER KNOW THE TRUTH!”
“Truth?” Sombra replied in puzzlement, able to hear Beelzebub. “So there’s even more to that book than I thought?”
“Absolutely.” Aero, Aera, and Aeros interjected, grinning confidently. “Your act of faith in joining Cloud to stop Beelzebub has already assured your salvation. The god of love told us of that book’s true purpose long ago in a scene familiar to this one…only this time, we will not allow our hearts to be swayed…”
Dandy grew even more fearful when he could feel the wrath of the Windigos that was now ingrained in Cloud’s fire calling out for him to be punished for what he had done…
“Especially when none of the Windigos are on his side this time!” they finished with a gallant exclamation, overwhelmed with confidence.
“RRRGGGHHH!” Dandy cried, putting his hands on his head in agitation that was further stoked by his sight of the Book of Life now floating in the air. “NO! COULD THEY REALLY…”
Cloud smiled, looking up at the book, already knowing what was going to happen. He then looked at Twilight and asked her with his hand and the hooves of the others still out…
“So Twilight…are you willing to give up everything to live forever with your friends in paradise?”
“Of course.” Twilight answered without any hesitation, smiling in turn and putting her hoof on his hand with the others, completing the circle before they all raised their limbs in the air. It was then that the pages of the Book of Life turned to show them…their names appearing on pages that once appeared blank, right beside the names of the rebels who had become Windigos, Neversay, and many ponies whose times in Equestria had long passed, proving the legend of none knowing salvation through it wrong. Every pony shed tears in blissful amazement at the sight as Aero, Aera, Aeros, and Sombra were surrounded by light.
“Do you finally understand now?” the trio told Sombra happily. “The reason why we must be able to suffer and die?”
“…Yes.” Sombra said solemnly as he could feel the light changing him and the Windigos. “Because it is our will to suffer and die for what is right that will lead us to paradise…”
Dandy’s panic soon turned to relief as he recognized the light surrounding them…
“This is just like when…” he said as he remembered what happened when his soul split apart. “Only…they’re going to be…”
Aero, Aera, and Aeros were transformed by the light into the spirits of the ponies they were, while Sombra was transformed into an ordinary unicorn with a green-jeweled headpiece and an ordinary, gray horn.
“Reformed.” Dandy finished, awestruck. “Their will to go through death, pain, and suffering…that is what reformed them.”
With that realization, Cloud walked over to Dandy, extending his hand to him just as he had extended his hand to the others…
“Do you know the real reason why the god of love told you what he did now?” Cloud asked, smiling with assurance. “It wasn’t because your master plan was what would bring you and Equestria to salvation…it was because of what you and all my great friends helped me realize…that made me want to give up everything…so that you could have a second chance…”
With that, a light surrounded Cloud as well, transforming him into a phoenix…
“What…what are you…” Dandy reacted in amazed bewilderment.
“I’m allowing you to have my body…” Cloud began to explain. “…so long as you are willing to accept this second chance…and have your name inscribed in the Book of Life…”
Dandy then realized why Cloud’s soul took the shape of an immortal bird of fire…and without a second thought, told Cloud…
“I accept. I will accept the punishment for my sins…and renounce Beelzebub!”
Dandy now knew Cloud’s fire…it was his will to be a symbol of rebirth…that would inspire others to know the god of love…and with this fire overtaking his fractured soul that was coming back together, Beelzebub, unable to take the heat, had his lizard form propelled out of Cloud’s human body and into the air. The shock of having his will overpowered shook him so greatly, his desire to maintain his physical form eroded, causing his lizard body to turn to ice. Knowing that the evil half of Dandy he had empowered would soon be dominated by Amoros, he had one final thought before his soul returned to the shadows…
“It will torture me forever knowing that I will never overcome…strong wills united by the god of love…”
With that, the ice sculpture he now was fell to the ground and shattered into pieces that melted away into water vapor. And so, a new name appeared in the Book of Life below the names of Cloud Shroud and his friends…
…Dandy Rose.
Epilogue
*click* *clank* *creak* *ROOM*
The sound of the door to a cell was heard opening as one of Twilight’s guards opened up the prison room Dandy Rose, appearing as a normal earth pony with a white coat and blonde mane and tail, had voluntarily confined himself to. Twilight had agreed to incarcerate him for the crimes he had committed under the influence of the demons until Princesses Celestia and Luna had decided to free themselves from their stony prisons. But that was not all that they decided to do…
“You’re free to go.” the guard told Dandy solemnly. “The princesses-“
“I already know.” Dandy interjected gleefully, slightly confusing the guard. “He came to tell me in a dream what happened…”
Dandy was staring at one part of a painting that he had spent his time imprisoned working on. The top part of it was a phoenix glowing in a magnificent light above him with Celestia and Luna by his side. It was not just him, but also Twilight who knew of the ascent of the rulers she admired into paradise, shedding tears of joy in the garden where she saw their statues were no longer there like Cloud told her…
“You relinquished your demonic pacts…” she said proudly. “And now you know true eternal life…”
It wasn’t long before she, Rainbow Dash, Futtershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, the now reformed Aero, Aera, and Aeros, and the now reformed Sombra were marveling a painting hung up behind Twilight’s throne room by Neighsay and Dandy. They were all overwhelmed with inspiration in their hearts as they saw it depicted not just a phoenix and their former rulers above them in paradise, but ponies and creatures of all kinds, including them, below in Equestria, each one with a fire inside of them they’d use to create a world they could trust again. All of them were using their fire to tend to the land, to build new houses, to make new inventions, to create whatever they wanted to make using the magic of their own will. A will that would be passed on from generation to generation…
*PAT*
“This truly is your best work.” Neighsay told Dandy, feeling the will of his ancestor channeled through him as he patted him on the back.
“It wouldn’t have been possible without him and his sacrifice…” Dandy replied humbly, shedding tears of joy while looking out a window in Twilight’s throne room.
He looked down at his hooves and briefly saw them become human hands before he looked out the window again, the group joining him to watch the phoenix Cloud Shroud had become fly through the sky to remind them of the fact…
…that they would be reborn by a fire for the god of love…
And so, they were reminded of an adage…
“The fire of friendship lives in our hearts.” they all thought, reminded of the carol sung at the end of the Hearth’s Warming Eve play. “This is where the fire is sparked…this is where it grows…”
In the human world, this was true too, shown by an open book beside the laptop and drawing tablet in Ken’s bedroom. Written inside were all the events that had taken place in Ken’s Equestria, and the book soon shut itself to reveal what was written on the cover…
