Not Another Good Guy

I awoke in a cold sweat, then immediately leaned over and threw up from my tree. I know, sounds like a great way to start the day. Can you really blame me though? I just watched my past self willingly become a slave to darkness. That wasn't exactly easy to live with.

Unfortunately, I didn't have any choice. Life went on whether I wanted it to or not. All I could do is make it better or worse. Now was not the time to mope about and wish that it changed. Now was the time to change life myself.

First things first. I wasn't going to wear the Element of Darkness any longer. Now that I knew for sure what it was, I wanted nothing to do with it. I ripped it off and threw it in my backpack. I might not be using it, but I sure as hell wasn't going to just throw it away for anyone to find. I would keep it until I found a safe way to destroy the damn thing.

So far, the best source of information had been the library. It wouldn't hurt to go back there again. The more time I spent learning about this world, the more likely I would be to find some way to get rid of the Element.

I let myself into the library on the assumption that the ponies were still sleeping from whatever I bounced back at them. I had wondered where they had disappeared to if that was the case, but decided to not to question it. I didn't want to jinx what little good fortune came my way.

I noticed an odd musty smell in the air, but ignored it after a moment's consideration. It was a library. It made perfect sense for it to smell old and musty. I walked over to a particularly funny smelling nonfiction shelf and began reading.

I dragged myself through a multitude of tomes on history for hours on end. The Tribal Era, the First Equestrian Era, and the Discordian Era all had poorly recorded history, but still managed to contain enough information to make sense.

I had just opened a book on the Second Equestrian Era when a certain picture in the table of contents made me do a double take. I saw a pony cloaked in shadow, surrounded by crystals. Beneath the picture it read: Sombra, master of hate magic and ruler of the Crystal Empire for a short time prior to the Solar Era.

I immediately turned to the corresponding chapter and began to read.

Very little is known about King Sombra, other than that he took over the Crystal Empire and was soon after defeated by Celestia and Luna. He was banished into the shadows of the Frozen North for over a thousand years, but returned to reclaim the Crystal Empire in the third year of the Third Equestrian Era.

I flipped to the timeline in the back of the book to see more about when all of this happened. I found the Third Equestrian Era and read the footnote.

The Third Equestrian Era began when Princess Luna was freed from the spirit of Nightmare by the Elements of Harmony. Prior to this time, Equestria was ruled solely by Princess Celestia.

I looked over my shoulder at the calendar by the door. It read April, 4 T.E. "Not that many years ago," I muttered to myself as I began to read about Sombra again.

King Sombra is most widely known for his use of hate magic, also known as dark magic, to make his rule absolute. He is the only pony in recorded history to successfully use excessive amounts of hate magic without burning up from the power. Many believe that this is due to his immortal nature and oddly shaped horn, but these theories lack substantial evidence. The most commonly accepted theory is that the hate magic warped his body into a form suitable for the use of dark power, but this also has distressingly little support. The only thing that is agreed upon by magical scientists is that Sombra is the only pony ever to master hate magic, and that he is immortal.

I flipped the page to see if there was more about Sombra, but I only found something about a fair and the power of love driving him away. Frustrated, I checked the index and several other books for more information. There wasn't any. It was as if nobody knew anything significant or definitive about him at all.

Isn't this just great. The first time I get something even close to a bit of helpful information, it turns out to be a fruitless search. I need to learn more about hate magic if I plan on getting rid of the Element of Darkness, but where am I supposed to find that information?

I let out a sigh of irritation and idly turned the page.

The Crystal Library

That caught my attention.

The Crystal Library is said to be the greatest center of knowledge in Equestria. The library features the complete set of works by Starswirl the Bearded, the complete set of the Chaos Theory by Spell Blaze, and many other famous books on magical theory and practice. While the library is most famous for the magical knowledge held within, it is also the largest collection of first person accounts of historical events. The amount of historical knowledge gained by the reappearing of the Crystal Empire in the first year of the Third Equestrian Era is immeasurable.

My eyelids had begun to get a little heavy. Odd. I wasn't even reading anything boring. I put the book back on the bookshelf and took a quick walk around the main room of the library to clear my head. Maybe it's this musty smell messing with me. I could use a lunch break outside to clear my head and fill my stomach. The library isn't going anywhere. I yawned and walked over to the door, giving it a pull on the handle.

It didn't budge.

I frowned and gave the door a push, just to make sure I wasn't being stupid. It didn't move that way either. I checked around for any locks that might have been holding it closed. There was a bolt lock, but the bolt hadn't been slid into the door frame.

I could feel panic welling up in my chest, but it was quickly being snuffed out by a deep urge to sleep. In desperation, I threw myself at the door. The most I could do was fall against it and weakly twitch as the last shreds of my waking mind submitted to the sudden narcoleptic impulses.

The first thing I noticed was the headache. This headache had transcended the normal levels of pain and had transformed into a full on migraine.

Then I noticed the muffled sound of a multitude of voices. There were voices all around me, but I couldn't discern the words they were saying. It was as if someone had stuffed my ears full of cotton and then sealed it in with earplugs and glue.

Then there was the feeling of something nice and cold being pressed against my forehead. Even through the pain, the cool feeling against my head was absolutely divine.

Another thing I noticed, and the most confusing, was that I was laying on a surface that was comfortable enough to make even the toughest souls "Ahh" in pleasure. It was as if someone had taken pure fluff and mixed it in with some refined poof to make the nicest trap in the world. I could easily imagine myself never leaving this spot.

I groaned and sat up, rubbing at my bleary eyes. Immediately, the voices went silent. I blinked a few times to clear my vision, but my eyes refused to focus. I suddenly lost my balance and fell back into the fluff as I fought off a wave of nausea. The voices were suddenly active again, moving around like a swarm of angry bees. I felt a cool blackness wash over everything as I passed out again with my last thoughts noting the similarities to my first visit to the Ponyville hospital.

I woke up on the fluff again. I felt infinitely better this time. I sat up, stretched, and tried not to have a panic attack when I looked around. I had no clue as to where I was, but it certainly wasn't the library. I was in a large room made entirely out of red and black crystals. I realized that the fluff was actually a bed of what appeared to be clouds. Other than a desk and a crystal lamp hanging from the wall, the room was bare. I was relieved to see my backpack on the desk and my clothes still on my body.

Just as I had finished examining the room, a door appeared out of the wall next to the lamp and a pony stepped through. Upon seeing me, he stopped and bowed low. After a few moments of awkward bowing, I realized that he was probably waiting on me to do something.

"You can stop now," I said.

He rose to look at me again, and I noticed something odd about his eyes. His irises were a solid red, and the whites of his eyes flickered with an unearthly green glow.

"Master," he said, "it is wonderful to see that you are awake and well. If you would come with me, our leader can explain everything to you."

"Uhh... sure." I didn't exactly have many other options. If I wanted to figure out what the heck was going on, then it was obvious that I needed to meet their leader. Judging by the reverent gaze given to me by the pony who was currently acting as my guide, I was not intended to be harmed. I was still confused about the whole "master" thing, but I would be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy it a little bit.

He walked over to the wall and pressed his hoof against the crystal I had assumed was a lamp. Suddenly, the door appeared out of the crystals and opened. Instead of questioning that impossible feat, I simply shrugged and followed him through. I just assumed it was magic. So far, that had been a valid answer for most of my questions.

The door led to an empty hallway that lead to another blank wall with a door crystal hanging on it. He opened that door too and gestured for me to enter with a hoof. I walked through the doorway and came to a stunned stop as I stepped out on the other side.

Like the room and hallway I had been in before, this area was made entirely out of the scarlet crystal. The difference was that this put the other rooms to shame with its majesty. The ceilings vaulted upwards and curved into a giant dome while the floors radiated a crimson sheen. Giant columns of intricate crystal patterns were evenly placed around the room to hold up the ceiling, and they each glowed with a powerful inner light that made me feel alert and energized just by being in their general vicinity.

The most amazing thing about this room was the massive crowd of ponies that filled in almost every square inch. The entire room, as gigantic as it was, could not give ample room for this large amount of ponies. The sea of ponies stared at me for a moment in dead silence. Then the most amazing thing happened.

They all bowed to me. Every single one of them had their noses to the floor and their eyes refused to rise to see mine. Stunned, I waited for a few moments to see what would happen. Just like the other pony who had gotten me from that bedroom, they all awaited my order to rise. Each and every single one of them demonstrated their complete obedience and submission to me with the simple act of a bow.

It was creepy. As disturbing as it was to my logical mind, another part of me loved it. It was that darker side of me that I had been repressing. It almost seemed to be getting stronger from all of this, as I could feel the sinister thoughts begin to form in my mind. It felt right to be the master of all. It felt good to have the multitudes bow before my power. I tried not to let the dark thoughts gain a foothold in my mind, but I straightened my spine and stood up a little bit taller as I took a few steps forward experimentally.

As I expected them to, I noticed with a grim delight, they all moved to clear a path before me without raising their muzzles out of the bow. What little elbow room had existed before was now completely gone as the ponies gave up all of their comfortable personal space for me. I couldn't stop a sinister smile from crossing my face.

"Lead on," I said, turning to the pony who had been escorting me. "Take me to your leader."

I was lead to a normal looking door, for once. It was still made out of crystals, but it actually swung on hinges instead of magically appearing. I pushed it open and walked into a small room that appeared to be some sort of study. Shelves of books covered the walls on all sides. A small cot was pushed to the side in the corner of the room. At the center of the room sat a large desk that faced towards the door with a unicorn mare currently sitting at it. I only noticed these things as an afterthought to the one thing that drew my attention and set a cold fear in my limbs.

A small crystal, only about the size of my fist, floated in the back of the room behind the desk and its occupant. The crystal shone with a hellish black that darkened the entire room. The sheer evil that radiated from it was eerily similar to the Element of Darkness.

"Hello, Master," said the pony at the desk. She rounded the desk and bowed before me.

"You may rise," I said much more confidently than I felt.

She rose and looked at me, her eyes taking on a look of bliss. "So, you are the human we have waited for. I must apologize for the way you were brought here. The poison trap was meant for the usurper who would try to divert you from your true course, and the agents assigned to that mission were incompetent failures."

Wait, what?

"Sorry, but can you just start from the beginning? I'm afraid that I have no idea what is going on here."

"As you wish, Master. A little under four years ago, I entered the Everfree forest to search for magical anomalies. I was a part of a science team that located and neutralized unstable magics, and it was my assignment to prevent this rouge magic source form becoming a threat. While investigating, I found a hidden entrance to these caverns that was revealed by the strange magic. I followed it here and found more than just the magic source."

She turned and walked over to the dark crystal hovering behind the desk. "This was the source of the magic. I found it here, along with a pile of ancient books and scrolls. The scrolls were written about two thousand years ago. They spoke of the last moments of the Discordian Era, when a great bipedal creature's soul came to our land from another dimension. Its physical form was destroyed by Celestia and Luna after they turned Discord to stone, but its spirit continued to linger. The books were more recent, but still over a thousand years old. They were the writings of a great prophet who knew of the power of the human. He said that the human would return shortly after the stars aided the Nightmare's escape.

"The prophets writings were from the time before the Solar Era, the time during which Luna was banished to the moon. How he could have known about the Nightmare before it happened is still a mystery, but it helped me realize that he must be right about the human as well. He claimed that the human would return with the powers of darkness to aid him. His writings spoke of a powerful magic that gained power when stored in crystals, the same kind of magic the human used. This is hate magic.

"I touched the crystal then, and my eyes became opened to the truth. We ponies were unworthy of this world that is rightfully belonging to our master, the human. I have been gathering followers since then to prepare for this day when you would return to claim this world as your own."

She bowed deeply to me again. "We all live to serve you, Master."

Wow. So I've been in this 'Equestria' before, apparently. Everything is still as clear as mud, but at least I know a bit more about my past. I realized that the mare was still bowing to me. I gestured for the her to rise from her bow, stalling for time so that I could think this through. I'll play along with this for now. If I can find out more specifics about what is going on here, I might be able to make things right.

"What is your name, pony?" I asked.

"Lyra Heartstrings, Master."

That name is familiar... I'll have to look into that later.

"Lyra, you mentioned that the poison that hit me was meant for somepony else, a usurper. Tell me about that."

She grinned evilly, and I hate to resist the urge to shiver as my skin crawled. "Would you rather see for yourself, Master?"

I nodded, and she grabbed a set of keys in her telekinetic grasp and set off down the hallway that I had approached her study from. We rounded a corner and came to a set of heavy crystal doors. Lyra unlocked them and then beckoned me into the darkness beyond them. After a moment, she used her magic to illuminate the room. I kept my face as impassive and controlled as possible when I saw what was before me.

"The usurpers are right here, Master!"

Of course. It only made sense, looking back. Lyra and her cult must have set up the trap before I arrived, so obviously they would have cleared out the library beforehand. The light Lyra shone was just enough to make out the ponies closest to me. Unnecessarily large chains bound them to the crystal walls and a circle of jagged crystals surrounded them, so they weren't going to be escaping any time soon. As I walked closer to them, I was able to see the individual treatments they received.

The timid yellow one and Rainbow both had what appeared to be crystals coating their wings, probably to prevent their flight. Not like they could be flying anywhere with those chains, anyway. Flairity had crystals coating her horn, I assumed to prevent magic. That didn't seem to be an unreasonable measure, unlike the wing coating. Appleknack and the pink demon had a thick coating of crystals on their hooves, probably to prevent them from tapping into their powerful strength from the ground. It seemed that, overall, the Earth ponies had fared better in captivity than the others.

The princesses had the worst of it. Each of them got the treatment of all the others combined. It made sense that because alicorns were the combination of the other three races, they would get the restraints of the other three as well.

"We have been waiting since their capture for you to awaken so that you may pass judgement on the usurpers," she said.

"Judgement?" I asked, even though I had a feeling I knew what she meant.

"Their manner of execution," Lyra replied.

"Oh," I said in a small voice.

"Is something amiss, Master?"

Think of something, quick! I nearly gagged on the terribly obvious lie, but began speaking. "I was just thinking about the execution. It seems pointless to get rid of them so quickly after spending the effort to capture them alive and bring them here."

She stopped for a moment and rubbed a hoof against her chin in thought. "Good point, Master. What would you have us do with them?"

"Hold off on the execution as long as they still have hope. Let them suffer as all their hope of survival wilts away, and then kill them," I said as I put on my 'evil grin' and tried to be as convincing as possible. I was sure that not even the most gullible of idiots would see through my terrible lie, but Lyra only nodded enthusiastically.

"Of course, Master," she said.

Something still seemed to be off about this whole situation, besides the obvious part about the dark cult. I realized it after a minute of thought and decided to question my guide.

"Lyra, I assume that you found these ponies in the library when you set up the trap," I said.

"That is correct, Master."

"Well since the trap wasn't for me or for them, then who was it for?"

"The trap was set for Time Turner, the head of the local militia. Aside from the Elements of Harmony and princesses, he is one of the greatest threats to your rightful rule. We sent him a fake note from Twilight asking him to meet her at the library. Unfortunately, you sprung the trap early. He probably found the library locked and then went home."

I spent another minute examining the prisoners to make sure that they weren't badly injured. Oddly, only Twilight showed any sign of struggling. She wasn't hurt very badly, but a number of bruises and cuts were apparent. After a while I had searched everyone and found them mostly alright, and turned back to Lyra, who had been waiting patiently.

"I suppose I'm done here. I want to see what else the caverns hold," I said.

"Certainly, Master. This way." She and the light both moved back to the door, and I followed suit.

"This is where we create new crystals."

I looked around the room. It was small and unimpressive, a complete opposite of the grand main hall that I had been through earlier. A large metal table stood in the center of the room. A small circle of red surrounded it, and another red circle was on the table itself.

"How does it work?" I asked.

"The crystals are formed in that small circle atop the table when enough hate magic is gathered within the outer circle. After that... Actually, it would be easier to show you. May I?"

I hesitated a moment before nodding my head, and she stepped into the circle. She concentrated for a moment, and the larger circle turned black. The darkness that I had come to associate with hate magic began to coalesce around her horn before flowing into the smaller circle on the table. For a long moment, nothing happened. I was about to ask if something had gone wrong when I noticed that something was happening. the darkness in the smaller circle began to form a solid substance. The crystal that began to grow was not red like the rest of the crystals I had seen, but instead held the same darkness of hate that the magic had.

After the crystal had grown to about a foot in height, she stopped casting the spell. It had apparently taken a lot out of her, as she took in ragged breaths and wobbled over to the crystal. I expected her to pick it up and the nightmare before me to end, but it wasn't over yet. She picked it up with her magic and did the most horrifying thing possible.

She impaled it into her chest directly between her front hooves.

What sickened me even further was her reaction. Her eyes rolled back into her head and she moaned in bliss as her blood flew out and coated the crystal embedded in her. The crystal slowly changed from black into the crimson shade I had seen on all the other crystals in the caverns. I realized then that all those thousands of crystals were made from a mix of blood and hate magic. These caverns were literally built from blood and evil. That wasn't even the most sickening part. No, the worst was far more disturbing.

The most terrible discovery yet made itself apparent to me. When I watched Lyra gain pleasure from spilling her blood onto the crystal, it awakened the darker side of me that I had hoped to leave behind when I took off the Element of Darkness. I enjoyed it. There was a grim satisfaction from watching her happily bleed out in service to me.

I was shamefully disappointed when she pulled the crystal out and set it on the floor. The dark magic flowed around her for a few moments afterward, and then it cleared to reveal no trace of the wound she had received.

"That is how the crystals are made."

The terrible desire to try it myself overcame me, and I found my legs moving me into the circle before my rational mind could argue against this course of action. I focused on all the hatred I could possibly feel and let it build within me. Then I focused on the small circle in front of me, fueling it with energy the same way I channeled power into the match from my latest dream.

The results of my efforts were instantaneous. A small black shard burst into existence before me and began to grow rapidly. It had already reached two feet in only a matter of seconds.

"Be careful not to make it too big!" Lyra shouted. I hastily stopped the flow of energy and observed the fruits of my labor.

Before me stood a crystal spire that was easily as tall as I was. It was an impressive display of my own power, to summon that much energy and not even feel slightly tired. Of course I couldn't just stop there. I found a jagged fragment of crystal on the side and, bracing myself, pressed my arm against it. A cold feeling ran through me as the crystal pierced my skin, and then everything changed. Light flooded my vision as a powerful rush of energy flowed through me.

I had never felt this much strength before. I felt as though I could tear open a planet with the power coursing through my veins. I could burn everything into ashes. I could freeze all life into a sudden cold death. I could call down thunder until nothing remained. I could do anything. It took me a moment to drag myself out of that train of thought and back to reality. With an incredible amount of will, I was able to pull my arm off the crystal. I looked back to the crystal again when the light faded from my vision, and my jaw dropped.

The crystal did not turn crimson like all the others. Instead, it shone with a radiant purple that lit up the entire room with a powerful brightness. The shades of purple seemed to shift and move with life of their own as the surface of the crystal shimmered and rippled in strange patterns.

"Wow," said Lyra, who seemed about as shocked as me. "I've never seen such power..."

She turned to me and bowed again. "There is no doubt, you are the human of the prophecy. We of the cult of man will serve you forever, Master."

I tried to fight the dark smile that crossed my face, but it was no use. The grin refused to leave my visage as I motioned for Lyra to rise.

"Show me the rest of the caverns, Lyra."

The rest of the crystal caverns were not nearly as interesting as their occupants. Try as I might, I couldn't help but feel extremely satisfied by the sight of all the ponies bowing before me whenever I passed them. The caverns were filled with ponies of all kinds, each from places all over Equestria. To my surprise, ponies were not the only residents. I had seen at least fifty gryphons during the tours of the numerous caverns. They claimed to be from a small religious tribe that hailed me as "The Great Predator" and had been worshiping me for over a thousand years. They traced their roots back to the "Prophet of Man" that Lyra had told me about earlier. I was curious about who this prophet was, but sadly nobody seemed to know much about him. He simply appeared, wrote some stuff, left it in the cavern, and then disappeared.

"That's everything," said Lyra as we exited the cafeteria, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Anything else I can do for you, Master?"

I thought for a moment. I can't just outright ask for more information. If I did that, she would figure out that I'm not everything she thinks I am. I can't afford to lose the only card up my sleeve. Metaphorical sleeve, actually. Mine are still burnt off. That reminds me...

"Yes, Lyra. Two things, actually. First, I'm going to need new clothes. Second, I will need to speak to the prisoners alone."

She nodded enthusiastically. "I'll get working on the clothing right away. The key to the dungeons is on the desk in my study. Take it whenever you wish, Master. I will have a lamp placed in the dungeon as well." She gave a quick bow and then left, probably to get new clothes for me. I didn't really care about the clothes, it was just a nice distraction to stop her from thinking about my strange request for the prisoners.

Just like she said, the key to the dungeons was on her desk. The dark crystal still floated there, unnerving me with the eery similarity to the Element of Darkness. I ignored it, focusing on grabbing the keys and leaving.

Just as Lyra had said, a small lamp awaited me at the door to the dungeons. Its glow was enough to illuminate a good portion of the room, but not enough to be harsh on the eyes. The pleasant yellow light accompanied me into the dungeons as I shut the door behind me and made me way over to Twilight.

"You can stop pretending to be asleep, Twilight," I said.

"How long have you known?" she asked, opening her eyes and stretching as far as the chains would allow.

"Since I came by earlier."

"So why didn't you say anything then? Were you trying to give me some hope that you could crush later before my execution?"

"I completely made that up," I said, sitting down on the cold floor. "I don't want anyone to get hurt because of me."

"Said by the one who almost killed the princesses, has a cult dedicated to evil, and uses hate magic," she said, coldly glaring at me.

I sighed and rested my head in my hands. "You aren't too different from them, honestly. Both of you see me as a monster, but for entirely different reasons."

"A monster is all you have proven to be."

"You haven't given me many chances to prove otherwise."

She was silent for a bit after that. We both just stood there awkwardly for a few moments until I broke the silence.

"I want to help you, Twilight. I want to get you and your friends out of here and find some way to put an end to this cult. To do that, I'm going to need your help. I don't have long until these ponies realize that I'm not who they think I am, and they might not react too kindly to being fooled."

She scoffed at me and glared. "I don't believe you. This is probably just some sort of trick to get me to work with you so that you can do... something. But I won't fall for it!"

I sighed and rubbed my temples in thought for a moment. She won't believe anything I say at this point, and I can't really blame her for feeling this way. Even so, there has to be some way to make her see the truth.

Suddenly, an idea came to me. The plan was crazy but perfect. If it worked, then Twilight would undoubtedly see that I was telling the truth. If it didn't, then I would probably die. It was better than doing nothing, so I grabbed the lamp and left.

I was going to show Twilight the Truth.

I came back to the dungeon about half an hour later, this time with my backpack. I brought the box of rings out and braced myself for what would happen next.

"Do you know what these are, Twilight?" I said as I opened the box, revealing the five rings and the necklace. "These are the Elements of Light. You probably recognize Darkness, which I admit to being to well acquainted with. Here I have Joy, which always knew how to find a silver lining to the darkest of situations. This is Charity, which reminds me that giving of yourself is the most meaningful gift."

She stared at me oddly as I pointed out each element. She probably thought I had lost my sanity by this point. I was questioning it myself. Still, I pressed on.

"Honor, an element I'm not worthy to wear. Finally we have Love, the absence of hate. That isn't everything, though. There is one more that I think will interest you."

I pulled out an orange ring from the box and held it up so that he could see it. The ring gave off no visible light, yet it still seemed to glow in the relative darkness of the dungeon.

"This is Truth. The truth of the matter is that we can make our own bright side to our current situation. Getting to it is going to require a bit of self sacrifice, but it is the honorable thing to do. Maybe this way, I can prove to you that I'm not all just hatred."

I took a deep breath in preparation for what I was about to do. I hadn't ever tried this before, so I had no idea if it would actually work. I was just going to have to hope for the best.

I put on the Element of Truth.

I groaned and pulled my face off the floor. Apparently, Truth didn't like me so much.

"What just happened?" Twilight asked.

"Truth rejected me at first. At least, I think so. It makes sense if you think about it. I'm here because of the culmination of hundreds upon hundreds of secrets and untruths, both on my account and by others. It's perfectly reasonable that Truth would not agree with me so easily."

I pushed myself up onto my knees. Sure enough, the ring was resting securely on my index finger. It felt odd, almost as if it just wasn't sitting right on the finger. That was probably due to Truth not getting along with me. I resolved just to get this over with so I could take it off before it exploded or something.

"Alright Twilight, this is the moment of truth -- no pun intended. I have no intention of harming you, your friends, or any pony for that matter. I want to help you escape from here, but I will need your help as well. This is not a trick or a trap of any kind, this is only the truth."

We both sat there for a few moments. I'm sure she was thinking the same thing as me: the Element of Truth was going to kill me. Surprisingly, nothing happened. Truth continued to glow on my hand without any change.

"You're still alive," she said, with some awe in her voice. "Alright, I believe you. Mainly because you would have to be suicidal to think about lying while bearing the embodiment of truth."

I let out a sigh of relief, but she heard me and said, "Don't think that I completely trust you now just because you said a few words while under the compulsion to tell the truth. The truth can be stretched and exaggerated. It has much more gray area to it than simple honesty. Still, your truth will suffice for now."

"You don't seem too convinced of that," I remarked.

"I'm not, to be honest." she said, almost turning the word honest into a sneer. "I haven't forgotten what you did to Celestia and Luna, and I certainly haven't forgotten about you using dark magic. I'm only willing to work with you because I don't really have any other choice. I can either be executed by your cult, or I can put up with you for a while and have a chance at getting out of this alive. After that, things will be able to return to normal. I can get back to my studies and you can go rot in the dungeons."

I was a little bit taken aback by her anger towards me. I couldn't really say that I hadn't expected her to be mad, but I had still hoped that we could at least get along. I suppose that I shouldn't really be too surprised about her feelings, especially considering that I did almost kill Celestia and Luna. None of that really matters though. As long as she honors her agreement to work with me then things can still turn out for the better.

"We can settle our personal feuds after we get rid of this cult. Until then, I need to be certain that I can depend on you to help me out. Can I count on you for that, Twilight?"

She cocked an eyebrow and gave me a dubious stare for a long moment, but relented. "Fine. You have my support until we get rid of the cult. After that..."

"I know. After that, you go back to trying to bring me to justice. I understand. I would do the same, were our positions reversed."

She didn't seem to know how to respond to that. Empathy was probably the last thing she expected to hear from -- let's be honest here -- a monster. Seeing all that has happened because of me had made me finally realize that she was right in that regard. I really am a monster. It's obviously too late to fix the past, even if I have no recollection of it. It might even be too late to fix here and now, and the future is still as uncertain as ever. The only certainty here is that it is all my fault. I am a monster.

I left then, partly because I didn't have anything else to say and partly because I needed to think some things over. It had been a short day so far, but it was still extremely tiring. I needed a nap, so I ordered one of the cultists to escort me back to where I was sleeping. It didn't occur to me what I had done until he bowed and left me at the doorway to my room.

Not even the incredible softness of the fluffy cloud bed could comfort my thoughts as I drifted off. How can I fix this? How can I make everything right when I'm a monster? Can I be anything but evil?

Can I ever be good?