Not Another Good Guy

"I'm getting really tired of this, kid. You seem to have the wonderful ability to screw up everything."

Oh boy. Another great dream talk with the strange voice.

"I didn't see you showing up to help me get away from my cult. In fact, I haven't seen you at all. I think you owe me some sort of explanation as to who you really are and why you have such an interest in me," I said.

"We've talked about this before. I owe you nothing. Learn your place, human, before I put you in it by force," he said with a growl.

"I doubt that you could, considering that I put the two most powerful creatures in the world into a coma."

"You put the two most powerful ponies in the world into a coma. You've seen by now that ponies are not the only creatures in this world."

Looking back, I really should have just dropped it right there. I completely missed the frustrated edge to his voice and continued on without thinking.

"Even if you aren't a pony, I don't think that I should have to listen to you. As far as I have seen, I am the most powerful creature in existence. Honestly, I think your bluffing about how much power you really have. The only leverage you hold over me are my memories."

I felt an incredible pressure building around me. "Have you learned nothing, fool? Make no mistake, I am the most powerful creature in all of time and space. There is nothing equal to my power in any world! Be careful when speaking about matters of which you know nothing."

Thankfully, the pressure dissipated a moment after he was done speaking. It was a good thing, too. My head felt like it was about to explode if I had to bear that much force any longer. It made me re-evaluate my assumptions about the strange voice. If he commanded this much power through my dreams when we were distanced from each other, then could I really be so confident in my power if we met in person? Despite my fears of further angering him, I still wanted to get answers from him.

"If you have so much power, they why can't you just show up in person and help me?"

"It isn't a matter of can or can not, it is a matter of will or will not. I won't because of the chance that my presence may trigger a bad memory within you."

"If you are so worried about me recovering bad memories, then why haven't you censored my dreams?"

"I promised your teacher, Aubade, that I would try to trust you a bit more. Part of this is trusting you to handle that information. Be honest with me now. Regaining those memories of darkness tends to affect how you feel and act upon waking up, doesn't it? You would have been horrified by the cultists when your mind was clear. Now that your head has memories of hate in it, you stand tall as they bow before you."

As much as I didn't like it, he was right. As my memory had been returning, so had some of the darker aspects of me. I shuddered to think about what would have happened if I had awoken in the forest with all of my memories right away. Maybe it was best that he kept his distance to prevent my dark side from coming out for as long as possible.

"If you have anything else to ask, you should do so now. We are running out of time."

"You seem to know a bit about the cult. Tell me how to stop them and get everyone out of this safe and alive."

"Oh, but what would be the point of doing that?"

I was so appalled that I didn't know what to say. If he had the knowledge needed to help me save countless lives and to prevent my cult from doing more horrendous deeds, then what gave him the right to withhold that information?

He must have noticed my frustration, for a moment later he said, "Lighten up a bit. Twilight already knows everything that I could tell you. She just doesn't trust you enough to tell you about it."

"I talked to her while wearing the Element of Truth! What else could I possibly do to make her trust me?"

"Trust is not something so easily given. Gaining her trust will take more time than you have left to use, so you will need to force her hoof in the matter."

I wasn't comfortable with the idea of manipulating someone to work with me, but I didn't really have any other choice. If making a promise while being forced to tell the truth isn't enough to make Twilight trust me, then maybe it would be best for the sake of everyone to give her no other options and force her to help me.

"Alright. I don't like it, but I'll do it. How can I get her to help me if she won't trust me? What leverage can I possibly have that will change her mind?"

"Don't worry about that yet. I've been watching this cult a bit more intently, and it would seem that you arrived at a perfect time. The leverage you need to get Twilight to help you will almost literally be thrown at you."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"That means exactly what it sounds like. I don't just speak for the pleasure of hearing this voice, you know."

Something about the way he said that didn't sit well with me. Just as I was about to voice my concerns, he spoke up again.

"Looks like we're out of time here. You need to move on to other dreams before my presence in your mind burns up your little body. Ta ta! Come visit again when you've got this whole cult thing figured out, and maybe we can talk about happier things."

The dream came into focus in front of a small cottage out in the forest. I was slightly younger than my waking self, probably about twenty years of age. The change bothered me for a moment, but that wasn't the strangest thing about the dream. The cottage and forest were shrouded in darkness, and an evil looking figure leaned against the doorway of the cottage.

The figure chuckled and shouted, "Really, Aubade? This is the best you could come up with to defeat me? Instead of an army, you seek to stop me with six completely ordinary people? Pathetic! You could have at least taken the loss of the elements with some dignity."

I noticed that there were five others with me, but didn't have time to dwell on it as my dream self spoke up. "You think you can destroy the elements just like that? Well, you're wrong, because the spirits of the elements are right here!"

His eyes narrowed. "What?"

My dream self was suddenly seemed much more animated than before. "Alvar, who wasn't fooled by your illusions and lies, represents the spirit of Truth! Esme, who cared enough about her friends to put herself in harm's way for them, represents the spirit of Love!"

As I continued, a flash of light appeared on the hand of each of them and a ring appeared. While the bearers themselves seemed shocked, my dream self continued to grin as if he had seen this coming. "Abby, who kept our spirits up when the end seemed inevitable, represents the spirit of Joy! Janice, who was ready to give up her own life if it meant keeping your monsters away from us, represents the spirit of Charity! And Ernest, who rejected your offer to betray us for personal power, represents the spirit of Honor! The spirits of these five people got us through every challenge you threw at us."

"You still don't have the sixth Element! The spark didn't work!" he shouted desperately.

"But it did! It was a different kind of spark! It was the spark that all of mankind feels when they see all five elements working together in harmony. The spark is the true perfection that mankind has always been striving for. You see, Umbra, when all the elements are brought together in harmony, it creates the sixth element: the Element of Light!"

I suddenly felt it around my neck. I was more than just a man in that moment. I was a principle, an idea, a thought. I was pure. I was perfection. Evil could not even exist in my presence, and it tore off Umbra like a house stripped of its roof during a tornado. All of the evil that had been empowering the monster fell away to reveal a normal man before us. Everything was completely silent and still for a moment as we stood there.

Alvar shook his head and laughed. "Tom, when I first heard you talking about this element nonsense I asked myself what kind of drugs you had to be on. Seems you were right after all."

I chuckled a bit as well. "Honestly, I didn't know if it was real or not until the rings started popping into existence. I was just going on a hunch up until then."

Ernest frowned. "You mean that you ran into this with no idea what you were doing?"

Before I was forced to explain my extreme lack of forethought, Abby interjected. "Oh! Oh oh oh oh oh! Look, the sun is back!"

"Huh. So it is. I guess that means that we really defeated Umbra, didn't we?" said Janice.

"Did anyone else think that this whole thing was just a little bit too easy?" said Esme.

Alvar scoffed. "What, did you not have enough of a challenge with the monsters Umbra sent after us?"

"That isn't what I meant. I'm just wondering why, in the end, it was so simple. It was almost like a fairy tale, with how the good guys just swoop in and stop the bad guy. Isn't it just a little bit odd that everything turned out perfectly?"

"Not entirely perfectly," said Ernest, pointing over to Umbra. "We still got to deal with him."

"And deal with him I shall," said a new voice from behind us.

We all had to cover our eyes for a moment when we turned around. It was almost like staring directly into the sun, but through a telescope. Considering who we were looking at, that wasn't too inaccurate of a comparison. Aubade appeared out of the bright spot a moment later. The harsh light dissipated, and all of my friends began to bow.

"Stop that! Cut that out this instant!" My friends stopped mid-bow, stunned and confused.

"I am so sick and tired of being bowed to. Why do you think I left the castle behind and went for the little cabin? Seriously, I stopped enforcing that tradition over seven hundred years ago and people still bow to me like I'm some kind of god."

My five confused friends hesitantly came out of their bow. Ernest was standing at attention, which made Aubade chuckle a bit as he passed us and walked over to where Umbra lay.

"It has been a thousand years since I have seen you healthy and whole, Nocturne. It is time to put our past behind us. We were meant to work together, little brother."

"Brother!?" we all exclaimed.

"Yes," said Aubade without taking his eyes off Nocturne. "For a long time, I treated my brother like dirt. Eventually I pushed him too far and his anger got the best of him. He was corrupted by dark magic into the creature known as Umbra, but you managed to save him from himself with the Elements of Light."

"In my defense," said Nocturne, who was beginning to stir, "you were an asshole."

We were sure right then that Nocturne was going to get blasted into a million pieces, but Aubade only smiled.

"Yes, I was. You had every right to be furious with me. I regret the past, but we need to put that behind us now for the betterment of everyone. Will you forgive me, Nocturne?" Aubade said, extending a hand to his brother.

For a tense moment, nobody moved. Then, to our great relief, Nocturne took his brother's hand.

"I forgive you," he said, then stood and embraced Aubade.

A collective sigh of relief escaped from the six of us. My friends, now. We had done it. Umbra was defeated and Nocturne returned. Aubade was freed and got his brother back. The elements had been remade. The good guys won, just like they always do.

The dream shifted again and I found myself back outside of the cottage. I carried a massive book with me as I raced up to the door and knocked quickly. Aubade had barely opened the door when I began speaking.

"I just finished reading the book you gave me on Merlin's time spells, and I had a bunch of questions that couldn't wait!"

"The whole book!? I just gave it to you this morning!"

"So?" I asked, confused.

"...Nevermind. Come on in and I'll answer your questions."

I spent a long time just talking with him and absorbing as much knowledge as I could. If anything was true about me, it was that I loved to learn. Since Aubade was like a living library of information, talking to him always rewarded me with all kinds of new information. Today, however, there was something more specific that I wanted to learn from him. Something that had been on my mind for a while, but I hadn't gotten up the courage to ask yet.

"Aubade, can you teach me about the other types of magic?"

He calmly folded his hands in his lap, his face an emotionless mask. "Whatever do you mean? You already know love magic, light magic, time magic, healing magic, combat magic, and defensive magic. What else could you want to know?"

"I was thinking about maybe learning some chaos magic."

The calm mask turned into a scowl. "I am not comfortable with that idea. I understand that you want to learn more about magic, and I'm always happy to teach you. Unfortunately, that is not knowledge that I feel I can safely impart unto you."

"Alright," I said with a sigh. I grabbed my book and left with a quick goodbye, prepared to go back to the apartment I lived in near the edge of the woods.

Suddenly an idea hit me. There was another way that I could learn about chaos magic! While Aubade was the first one I thought of when I wanted to learn something, I had another teacher that I had forgotten about. It took me only a couple of minutes to find him when I went looking. When he wasn't at home, he would be in a small grove a bit deeper into the forest. I found him leaned up against a tree with a small sketchpad, drawing a hummingbird.

"Hello, Nocturne."

"Greetings, Thomas," he replied, greeting me with a small smile.

"C'mon, call me Tom. Thomas just sounds weird."

"Why would you not wish to be called by your name?"

"We're friends, we don't need to be so formal with each other," I said with a smile.

"Friends..." he said, mulling over the word for a moment. "We are friends?"

"Of course!" I said. "I thought that much was obvious ever since we saved you from that darkness."

"I suppose that we are friends then," he said with a growing smile.

I sat and watched him work for a while in companionable silence. After a while, he must have noticed that my mind wasn't on the scenery.

"What is on your mind, Tom? You seem quite pensive today."

"I've been thinking a lot about the forbidden kinds of magic. I want to learn about them more, but Aubade doesn't want to teach it to me."

"Pray tell, why do you wish to learn about the darker aspects of magic?"

"If I am to be trying to stop darkness, then it would assist me greatly to understand my enemy."

Nocturne nodded in agreement. "An admirable goal. Come," he said, standing up and offering me a hand. "I will teach you what you wish to know. It wouldn't do to have you ill-prepared for the tasks that will come before you."

I let him help me up and followed him deeper into the woods. Eventually we reached a secluded spot that was extremely different from its surroundings. Small stone spires were arranged in a circle around a central point. Each spire glowed faintly in the evening light as we approached, seeming to resonate with power.

"I created this as somewhat of a training ground a long time ago. The spires will help provide magical energy for spells while also preventing any of the energy from leaving the circle. That way I could prevent a bad spell from destroying something, which had happened more times than you would believe. Step in, don't be shy."

I somewhat nervously stepped into the circle and made my way to where he stood in the center, remembering the first magic circle I had made. It had turned me into a fish for a few hours. The next one had exploded. Overall, I just had very bad experiences with these things. It was hard not be a bit nervous in one, even when it had been built by very capable hands.

Nocturne smiled as I approached. "Alright, stand in the middle of the circle. No, the middle. Three steps to your left. OTHER left. perfect. Now, you're going to help me set the sun!"

"What!?"

"You heard me. I need to make sure that you can use this magic circle for a big spell, that way the little ones can be done with little concentration. I need to raise the moon soon anyway, so I may as well get both tasks completed at the same time."

"That's crazy! I don't have nearly enough energy to do that!"

"You don't, but the circle does. Your Element does too, but I see that you aren't wearing it right now. Pity. Anyway, you can pull energy from the circle to help you. I'll be right here if anything goes wrong. Go on, give the sun a little push!"

I focused as hard as I could, but I couldn't make the sun budge a single inch. No matter how much power I threw behind the spell, it simply wouldn't move. After a moment, I felt another force pushing the sun with me. Suddenly, the sun began setting. It dipped below the horizon a few moments later, and I collapsed onto the ground.

"I can see that this is your first time attempting to use an energy field to augment your spells. Probably your first time moving an object so far away as well. It's alright, you did better than I did on my first try. Let's try raising the moon now. Don't worry, I'll guide you through it much more closely.

"You're going to need to learn how to control your magic differently. Instead of gathering all your magic before using the spell, continually drain the magic out of your surroundings as you cast the spell. This way prevents your body from overflowing with magic and allows for much smoother spellcasting. It also allows you to cast spells that you normally won't have enough energy for in a single casting. Think of it as drinking from a glass of water that refills itself as quickly as you drink it. You are the cup, the water is magic, and the energy field is pouring the water back in as you pour it out."

Taking his advice, I focused on raising the moon before tapping into the energy all around me. I allowed it to flow through me as I continually cast the spell instead of giving a mighty push on a fixed amount of energy. Sure enough, the moon began to rise into the night sky. It wasn't very quickly or smoothly, so Nocturne had to step in and finish the job after a few minutes of watching me struggle.

"Well done, Tom! Also, your arm is on fire."

"What?" I said before realizing what he had said. Nocturne laughed as I quickly put out the small blaze.

"That happens sometimes when you try to channel that much magic over a long period of time. The human body isn't made to pass that much energy through it. Our bodies can store the energy just fine, but using it is extremely risky. I recommend you wear your Element whenever possible, as it will act as a natural casting buffer and prevent things like this from happening again.

"Now if you want to learn about the magics you may find yourself facing, the very first you need to know about is hate magic. You already know that emotion can severely effect our abilities to cast spells, but clearing your mind is not always how a spell is cast. Hate magic is an extremely powerful focus on all the rage and bloodlust that the human mind is so easily capable of producing. It uses these emotions to fuel the spells cast by it. You heard me right, emotional spell augmentation is very real. Aubade prefers to teach people to clear their minds before casting a spell to prevent stray thoughts from interrupting the flow of energy, but I prefer to take that risk for the extra strength."

A dark shadow seemed to cross his face for a moment. "Of course, that is where hate magic comes in. You remember how I had been overtaken by darkness. I focused too much on my anger and let it consume me. Anger is by far the strongest emotion to augment a spell, but incautious use of it leads to hate magic. I suppose in some ways it is very similar to love magic. Both use passion, but for completely different purposes. Hate magic destroys things, and love magic protects things. This is why it is almost impossible to have an offensive form of a love spell and a defensive form of a hate spell. It just goes against their very nature.

"The best way to learn from here is to just see it yourself. Watch closely."

He walked a good distance away from me before casting his spell. When he did, darkness pooled around him and covered his form. For a few moments, I couldn't see him at all. When he brushed the darkness away, it sent shivers down my spine.

He was Umbra.

"Calm down! It's still me!" he said, noticing the distressed look on my face. "This is only a change to my physical appearance. I just wanted you to see what hate magic looked like in action so that you can recognize someone else using it." He released the spell a moment later and looked just like normal after a few seconds.

"Why haven't I been taught about emotion energy before?" I asked.

"This is high level magic, Tom. Aubade would have eventually taught you, but he likes to take things slower and more cautiously than I do."

"If I could use this power for good-"

"Hold it right there! That is not going to happen." Nocturne said with a frantic look in his eye. "Even my little disguise was a risky spell to cast using hate magic. The smallest of spells fueled by hate can turn against their caster, corrupting their minds. How do you think I became Umbra? It wasn't through a love spell, that's for certain. Trust me Tom, you could cast a spell with hate power and have the best intentions in the world. The hate magic would still pose a threat of great evil to you and the world. I will happily teach you any other kind of magic so that you will be better prepared, but not hate magic. Now please Tom, promise me that you won't attempt to practice hate magic. Promise me."

"Okay Nocturne, I promise. I will never use hate magic for any reason."

"Good. Now, how about I teach you how to use chaos magic? Step into the middle and start drawing energy from the circle's energy field again."

The dream blurred out of focus for a bit, but became clear again after a few moments. I was back at the training circle, but this time I was alone. I walked out into the center of the circle and immediately began draining energy from my surroundings. I assumed that some time had elapsed since the first time I used the circle, since my dream self was able to use it much more easily than before. That's the point when I realized something horrible. I was about to do it. I was about to do the one thing I had promised to never do.

The area lit up as the Element of Light glowed and radiated its light across the forest. Slowly, the aura changed from the pure white into an inky blackness. I could feel my past self forcing himself to focus on all the rage within him, but I simply couldn't hold it. The black turned back into a pure white as my focus on anger slipped. Sighing with frustration, I left the circle.

I must have been imagining things, because I could have sworn that the crystal on the Element of Light wasn't as bright as it used to be.

"Master?"

The dream world shifted and abruptly shattered.

"Master, we have something to show you."

I sat up and groggily rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. "What is it?"

"New initiates into the cult, Master. Some guards from the Crystal Empire region will be joining us today."

That caught my attention. It wasn't just normal ponies getting involved in this anymore. If the guards were getting involved, then this cult had deeper connections than I thought. I certainly wanted to see them to figure out more about the kind of ponies that join a cult dedicated to my worship.

"Alright, lead on," I said to the messenger.

After a minute of walking, I realized that the path we were on was extremely familiar. It was the same path I walked when I went to the dungeons.

Surely they don't have the new cult members in the dungeon? What sort of cult would get more followers by doing that?

Somehow, the cult denied my logic. A minute later saw me standing at the door to the dungeons. I decided to use the method that had served me well so far in this world to face this new situation.

"To hell with it," I said, blindly forging ahead to whatever lay beyond the door.