A War for Friendship

Chapter 7 - The Lonely

Twilight can’t grasp the fact that the Ignis they’ve been fighting this whole time, the Ignis that tried to bring Equetria into chaos, was the calm and gentle Spectrum Brush this whole time! Ignis -if she could call him that- has been in control of her new stallion friend this whole time, who was said to be sealed away inside the meteor from the Crimson Asteroid. The only thing that the Elements of Harmony managed was purging the dark alicorn from the host body. But, with the loss of Ignis’ control, the stallion remains in a state of confusion and madness. A sight that horrifies the purple mare.

'Your friendships are a curse! I will be the liberator!' he roars at them as he drops back on his side from exhaustion.

Twilight stares with wide eyes at the beast while she's frozen to the ground by the horror of the turnout. Yet, the stallion that crawls in fury in front of her has the identical Cutie Mark of him, giving no doubt about his identity. The stallion has suffered a fate as terrible as Princess Luna's.

'Twilight…,' Celestia addresses to her student, causing her to get out of the trance.

Twilight looks up to her mentor, who has recovered from the battle. Though the unicorn is overjoyed to see her mentor alive and well, she's too disturbed to show any form of happiness. Celestia understands and nods at her, knowing about the innocent stallion's fate. She knows that Ignis required a host body to return. The evil takeover has left its marks in the red unicorn's head, unable to recover to his original self all alone.

Twilight starts to walk slowly to the raging stallion, believing that she's the only pony who may be able to help him out.

'Twilight? What are you doing?' Rarity asks her.

Spike gasps. 'Be careful, Twilight!' he shouts at her, afraid that she may get hurt.

Twilight ignores the warnings from her friends, feeling urged to try and help the guy out. She is only a couple meters away from the crimson alicorn, enabling her to even hear the quick breaths that alicorn takes, while he continues to stare at the purple mare.

Twilight takes a deep breath, trying to find any signs of her friends' presence. The unicorn still has pegasus wings and muscles from his puppeteer. Even his eyes are still the spine-chilling yellow glaring ones. She has no choice but to count on the unique Cutie Mark, hoping that it means enough to bring him back to his original self.

'Brush?' she asks, hoping for a reaction. 'Spectrum Brush?'

'What?!' the alicorn shouts at her in confusion.

The other ponies and Spike drop their jaws of surprise, realizing that their purple friend is making a connection between the Harbringer of Hatred and the new bashful painter in Ponyville.

'Ok…, Ah think Twilight is going apples now...,' Applejack says, believing that the unicorn's mind has endured too much stress. 'Twilight, he doesn’t even LOOK like him.'

Twilight looks over her shoulder at her friends. 'It’s true, girls! No pony has seen him ever since Ignis’ coming and he bears the same Cutie Mark!'

'The painter?!' They all say at the same time, surprising each other of that they all seem to know him.

Twilight ignores their rambling and turns her attention back to the red pony. 'How could this happen to you?' Twilight whispers. 'You were so kind... How in Equestria's name could this have happened to you? Of all ponies: why YOU?'

Ignis tries to crawl up again, without any more success than before. 'Don’t you dare to compare me to that color-crazed colt!' he grunts.

Twilight shakes her head, not listening to the nonsense he tells her. 'When I met you, you talked about your art as a part of your life. You’ve shown how much you care for others, wishing to share every experience with a friend,' she continues to speak to him. 'You wanted to make friends... And I thought we just became that.'

'End your nonsense, you little bookworm,' he growls. 'This colt knows no friendship! All he knows is that if you want to live your life to the fullest, you must rise up above all the others by any means necessary! That includes forgetting the heartbreaking emotions that are brought by so-called friendship!'

Twilight notices that talking to him does have effect: Hearing how he now basically admits that he is Brush. But it is saddening to hear that Brush is acting like a completely different pony, saying things that he normally wouldn't do.

'So, it WAS all your doing!' they all suddenly hear.

'Rainbow…,' Twilight grunts as she sees how the colorful-maned mare moves forward.

'I knew that there was some connection between you and this Ignis stuff!' Rainbow grunts. 'You meant trouble from the day you came here!'

'Silence, you Flapperback!' the alicorn roars, infuriated by the mare's accusations.

That insult proves more than enough to Rainbow Dash: That Ignis and Brush are one and the same. Brush is nothing but trouble to her, proving by the fact that it was HIS body that harmed them and everypony else. Whether Ignis was controlling his mind or not is no matter to her. Brush did it: End of story.

She is suddenly pulled back by her tail. 'Hold on to yer hooves, sister.' Applejack mumbles with Rainbow’s colorful tail in her mouth. 'He may have been a hothead and clumsy sometimes, but not a troublemaker. ‘Specially not a disaster.'

Pinkie jumps forth to Applejack's side. 'He was a pretty funny guy when I met him! His surprised looks always looked so funny,' she chuckles, thinking back of his face.

'Ehm… He did make my friends scared-' Fluttershy whispers.

'Ah, see?' Rainbow Dash interrupts the bashful mare, using her words as an excuse to put her in her right.

But Fluttershy keeps talking this time, not stopping mid-sentence this time. 'B-But I know it was an accident! He sounded like a nice person who couldn’t harm a fly…,' she sighs.

Rainbow is out of words. She looks around at her friends, who all look a little ashamed of her. The blue mare is realizing that she may have jumped to conclusions too fast, being too bitter about putting blame on somepony.

'He left while I was in the middle of describing the effort I put in my work. i wanted to show skills from artist to artist... But I suppose that I should’ve considered the idea that he was too kind to tell openly that he had no need to hear every tiny detail,' Rarity admits, feeling sorry for putting the stallion through the effort.

They all look at each other, noticing that aside from some unintentional rudeness, Brush was very kind to them even though he was a complete stranger in Ponyville. Even Rainbow Dash ponders that she might have been wrong to tease him the way she did, unleashing that raincloud on his head that one time. Twilight looks at her friends, hearing how Brush managed to make such a friendly impact in one day time. No matter what happened to him after that, he has proven enough that it couldn't have been his own intentions to harm anypony. Celestia simply stands by and listens,

'ENOUGH!' they suddenly hear. Brush is speaking again, having heard enough of their friendly talk about a pony that he claims not to be.'You only care for yourselves, rather than others. That’s how friendship actually works! You judge others and try to make advantage of it!'

It’s incredible how messed up Brush’ mind must have been made. the lingering fear in the mares' mind is that they may not be able to reverse the stallion to his original self.

'Wake up, Brush!' Twilight yells desperatly at him. 'Admit that this isn’t how you think!'

The stallion plants a hoof in the ground, able to rise up. Twilight makes a jump back by surprise, watching at how the red stallion is standing on his four hooves again.

'How often must I tell you fools?! That painter is sealed in my former prison! He can only be freed by me!' he claims.

Princess Celestia steps forth. 'If that is so… prove it,' she challenges him. 'If you can: release the stallion from your so-called seal…'

The alicorn pants from exhaustion, feeling like laughing at her comment. But her words seem to have effect.

To everypony’s surprise… the alicorn has nothing to say in return.

'…All the capabilities of Ignis are based on bringing pain and destruction. I am the only one that knows how to seal the wicked away…,' Celestia explains to him, proving the stallion wrong. 'The painter could never have been sealed away, magically, by Ignis’ powers. It can only mean that it's you, Spectrum Brush.'

Celestia looks into his yellow eyes, giving the red alicorn a deep stare that asks him to come back to his senses. The weakened male starts to breath faster, growing anxious of the Princess' claims and looks. After he stared back at her for a while, he suddenly turns his head away.

'Friendship… Once you get a taste from the love of friendship, it will lead you to the fear of losing it…,' he mumbles quietly.

'Brush…,' Twilight sighs, hearing of the mental pain that goes through her friend's mind. She can hear from his voice that he feels completely drained from happiness. His mind is suddenly so dark, compared with the cheerful personality he showed when they met each other in Ponyville. He doesn’t stop talking.

'Friendship brings fear...Fear brings sorrow...Sorrow… brings hatred,' he whispers bitterly. 'In the end: it makes no difference…'

Twilight tries to go closer to him, but when he notices her approach and starts to growl intimidating to keep her, she stops walking.

'Brush… This isn’t you. Stop this. Stop this now, please,' Twilight asks him, practically begging him to come back to his senses. She is afraid that he won't resist: he may stay in this negative trance, making it impossible to bring him back to his former self.

The alicorn shakes his head at her attempt, ignoring her words. '-Gragh!- You want me to prove that I can’t be him?!' he shouts, having grown tired of his confrontation with the mares. 'In that case…, I will burn the painter's most precious belongings to the ground!'

'Wh-What?!' they gasp in response as they see how the stallion stretches his wings, ready to take off.

'I will burn all of Ponyville down to the ground! Let's see if you can still look me in the eye then and tell me that I'm that loser!' he shouts one last time and leaps into the air, flying into the direction of their village.

'Quick, girls! After him!' Applejack shouts to her friends, breaking a sweat of fear from the idea that their hometown may truly be lit in flames!

While Twilight’s friends rush off to Ponyville, though slower than the alicorn, Twilight takes her personal shortcut: Teleportation. Her friends will have to run all the way, while she disappears in a flash, directly to Ponyville. Princess Celestia is left behind with her royal guards, who have regained their conciousness from Ignis' boulder-smashing assault. She can only watch how the mares move out of her sight. She stops looking their direction when they're barely the size of dots and starts looking between the leftovers of the once-mighty armor of Ignis. When the white mare flips the broken chest plate around, she sees what she was looking for: the Crimson-red crystal that seemed as a part of the chest plate's decoration.

'After all this time… you still feel nothing but endless hatred, do you?' she whispers at it.

***

Twilight reappears, with the same white/purple flash as always. Knowing how fast Brush was when he was still possessed by Lord Ignis, she expects that he has already arrived in Ponyville too. That's why she sent herself directly to the old gallery, the new home of Spectrum Brush, fearing to bear witness to the worst possible sight.

But, to her surprise, nothing has changed. Even Brush’s home is still standing, instead of burning down in flames. The hateful influence on the citizens have ceised, now all having barricaded themselves inside their homes. Small lanterns flicker with a soft light. It is as if Ignis has vanished with all traces. Twilight also notices that the door of Brush’ home is wide open, meaning that somepony has gone inside. Without hesitation, she hurries inside as well.

She hadn’t seen Brush’ home before, until now. It's still not suitable to be a home: corners are filled with spiderwebs, the walls need new paint, and all the furniture and painting supplies are still packed in boxes. The stallion didn't even have time to make his new home habital. No light is burning, forcing Twilight to use the magic brightness from her horn as a flashlight.

The old walls seem pretty empty, though a few paintings are already hung up, being the only thing that show some of Brush' progress. Twilight’s attention is caught by the diversity and professionalism that’s been put into the works, variating in subjects. Nature, portraits, still-life, and so on. Spectrum Brush has tried several styles in his time of travelling. Quietly, she moves through the hall, noticing a tiny picture on a table that stands lonely in the room. The picture shows a little smiling red colt, together with two other ponies. The mare easily recognizes the background: Architecture in Canterlot. As she takes a closer look, she notices that the red colt in the middle must be Brush.

'Don't look at that picture… it's a lie,' she suddenly hears from a corner in the room.

Out of reflex, Twilight points her horn towards the sound, to see who’s there. As much as she was both afraid, and hoping to see: it’s the crimson stallion. It’s a spooky idea that the destructive alicorn, that could nearly move mountains with his power, is now inside this relative small and fragile space.

'I remember these paintings… I remember it was me who made them,' he whispers. 'I always wanted to make something that would make others happy. Something that would allow me to speak not through words,'

He sighs. 'But I always hated it how I was alone all the time doing it… Never gaining that which I was striving for.'

His gaze stays focused on the wall, forcing Twilight to only see his back. The red stallion's mane continues to wave like a flame.

'You made a wise decision when you didn’t seek out friends in Canterlot, Twilight... If you met the ones I knew: You would have a doubt for friendship for years to come...,' he sighs again, sounding like he's dissapointed in himself. 'The picture over there was of me and two so-called friends in Canterlot. I tried to make friends once, eventually discovering them playing tag around Canterlot. I asked to play along, to which they said was ok. I was always the best at it, never being found by them. Not even ONCE did they find me... But that's because they never sought for me.'

'They wern't nice ponies, unlike they acted to me... I was too young. Gullible enough to believe that they were really my friends. Eventually, I found out that it was a lie, of course. One day they simply told me that they don't like me and never considered me to be a friend...,' he grunts, pouring his heart out to his purple friend behind him. 'First; you consider one as friends... The next moment: You realize that they were merely taking advantage of your foolishness...'

'That's not what truly hurt me… But still: It was the beginning. It made me realize how painful lonelyness can be, knowing that there are ponies that would care less if you excist or not. If I had met you instead, a true friend, I probably wouldn’t have left Canterlot in the first place…'

If Twilight feels pained to hear this story. Even though there’s nothing she could do or could've done, she still feels a sorry for him. She never realized how lucky she was to have bumped into the right friends, never having to doubt whether they are really her friends or not.

'I was always so alone… No pony even cared to be my friend…,' he coughs, almost sounding like the sadness is getting to him. 'I left Canterlot to find my luck someplace else, while practicing in the one thing that I could do with love when I was alone: painting. But even after visiting so many places, and managing to stun many ponies with my born precision in art-,' he pauses mid-sentence to take a deep breath, starting to sound like he is getting a dry throat.

Twilight could do nothing but stand there and listen how he empties his heart out to her. She is perhaps the first one to hear the burden he’s been carrying on his heart for years now.

'-I was always the unlucky lonely guy who gets only a sliver of attention compared to his work!' he says with hatred in his voice, which slightly intimidates Twilight. but then he sighs again, calming down. 'Ever since that day, I've never been able to make friends. It's the only thing that I was truly seeking this whole time, instead of inspiration and challenges.'

'I hoped that Ponyville would be different than the other places,' he admits. 'And you know what? It is! In fact, when I met you, I really thought you would understand the way I feel. I thought I found a place I could truly be somepony. Not just a painter, but a friend.'

“You and I, we share a similar goal... We both seek friendship and the secrets behind it… The only difference between us is that you found it, while-' he pauses to chuckle, though it sounds empty from any happy emotion, '-while I have now become the most hated pony in Equestria!'

He leans with his head against the wall, taking a moment to breath deeply again. 'Even without friendship; you can feel like you can manage. But after a long time, you’ll feel all alone... Believe me on that one.'

The tension is razor-sharp. Twilight doesn’t even dare to breath too loud as her friend is talking away.

He grunts. 'I brought sorrow and hate to every possible pony… Ignis drove me to it, because I was too weak! Too weak to fight his control! “He exploited my weak heart, and forced me to be convinced that hating others is better than caring for them,' he sobs. 'He succeeded in making me give up hope in finding a friend… He made me to witness the tragic experiences in my memory, again and again… And when he reminded me that you must be no different than those ponies of back then, because you never came to the crash site, I slowly gave in and believed him…'

'Forgive me!'

'Please, Twilight… Forgive me!' he begs and turns around to look her in the eye.

Twilight’s gasps for air by the surprise. Instead of looking into the spine-chilling glare of Ignis, she now looks into emerald-green eyes: the kindhearted eyes she saw on Brush, now filled with tears of regret and sorrow. The red unicorn truly regrets what has happened, beginning to cry his heart out in front of her.

Twilight wants to make him see that he puts the fault of Ignis all on himself, while he himself is still innocent: Never having had the intention of harming anypony. 'Brush…, It wasn’t your fault. Ignis used you as his host. There’s no way you could’ve fought somepony as powerful like that. Nopony probably could,' she tells him and takes a step closer to him.

Brush shakes his head. 'Is that really an excuse for shadowing Equestria, make everypony hate each other, nearly kidnapping you, harm ponies, including your brother and trying to force the ponies to turn against the princesses?!' he cries.

Twilight doesn’t know how what to say. She wants to say with all honesty that he has nothing to do with it. But physically, he has.

'Worst of all:  I attacked and probably injured Princess Celestia… She’ll push me into a rock, like Ignis, for years as punishment when she finds me!' he yelps, growing scared as well. 'What would my family say when they hear what I’ve done? They always believed in me that I would do what is deemed right…'

He shakes the thoughts out of his head quickly. 'I-I-I can’t be around here now. Tell your friends that I won’t be a burden to them anymore…,' he sighs and turns around to walk to the door.

Twilight refuses to accept his words. 'You’re badmouthing yourself, unnecessary! Everypony who met you has seen how kindhearted you can be! There will be no grudge to you, honestly! Princess Celestia will understand it as well! I promise you!' she shouts, trying to change the stallion's mind from walking away.

He breathes out and stops to think about what Twilight tells him. She didn't say much, but the fact that she listened to him, and wishes to help him, shows that she does care for him. 'Thank you, Twilight… You never lost faith in me, even if I’m just a stranger…,' he whispers to her and looks right into her eyes, as if he can read the honesty from her face. 'Tell me: what is it that drove you to have so much faith in me?'

Twilight looks up to him in his eyes. 'Because we’re friends,' she whispers back.

The alicorn is completely silent. If his mane didn’t move, Twilight could’ve sworn that he turned into stone. Suddenly, a faint smile appears on his face. 'Thank you...,' he says relieved, as another teardrop rolls over his cheek.

But he doesn't stop and walks out through doorway. 'I promise: I will return. Until then… I must bid you farewell,' he promises his friends and gives her one final gaze. 'Tell Princess Celestia that I’m sorry for harming her, and that "her secret" is safe with me. Goodbye..., my friend.'

“Wait, Brush!” Twilight shouts and runs after him, wanting to stop him.

But before she could say or do anything, the painter leaves the building and flies off. Twilight tries to run after him for a little while, but stops as soon as she sees how fast he flies out of Ponyville. As Brush flies out of sight, many red-colored feathers fall from the sky on Twilight.

'...magical wings...' she whispers, recognizing the spell.

***

The end of the night sounds so very peaceful. The moon and thousands of stars can be seen from the ground again, sometimes blocked from view by several natural clouds that float along the wind. Every citizen has gone to sleep, feeling exhausted by the entire chaos that this one night brought. Only crickets can be heard, chirping in the grass around the quiet village. It won't be long till it's time for the rising of sun to begin. But even though every pony is supposed to be asleep, the purple mare, Twilight Sparkle, is still so very awake. Staring into the nightsky, she can only sit on the ground and think about so many things that have happened.

After several minutes have passed, about fifteen minutes after Brush' departure, Twilight’s friends are still galloping all the way from the battlefield to their hometown. 'Twilight!' they shout together, glad to see that she's alright. The question why Ponyville is still completely intact isn't asked. The wellbeing of their friend is most important now.

'Suger cube, are y'alright?' Applejack asks worried, surprised that Twilight simply looks at them but remains seated on the ground.

Twilight turns her head to her friends, glad to see them. 'I’m ok... And so will Spectrum Brush be... eventually,' she mumbles. But I’m afraid that he may not be able to handle this burden on his own…'

Though all relieved that the threat of Ignis is finaly gone, Twilight still feels guilty over that it was her idea to take him to the comet, eventually let him go there all on his own, which resulted into this mess. If she didn’t do that, Brush might not have become the host body for Ignis, the being he opposes so much.

Rarity pats Twilight on her back. 'It’s ok, darling. Nopony could’ve seen this coming. He will just need some soul-searching,' she tells her and sits next to her.

'I hope he'll be alright...,' Fluttershy whispers, feeling sorry for him as well.

Rarity raises a hoof to the others, inviting them to all sit together and relax. Despite the victory and the good outcome for Equestria, it just doesn’t feel like a victory over evil. A stallion was victim to it, possibly traumatized for the rest of his life. The mares agree with Twilight that nopony deserves the way Ignis used ponies like puppets, in order to fulfill his desire for revenge. Especially somepony as mentally weak like the painter.

'Ah, good to see you all unharmed,' they are suddenly greeted by Princess Celestia, who flies down from the sky alongside her two guards. When she lands, Twilight stands up and rushes over to her. 'Twilight Sparkle, are you feeling alright?' Celestia asks her.

Twilight mumbles positively and nods.

'Twilight…, if you have something on your mind that troubles you, please, tell me, rather than have it eat you away,' she motivates her, noticing from her moody reaction and face that her mind is in turmoil. 'I understand that this night must feel like a burden on your shoulders,' the white mare admits.

Twilight shakes her head, feeling like she's been feeling sorry for too long, while there are other matters that she deems more important than her own feelings. 'Princess Celestia, I will be ok. But how are you?' she asks in the same worried tone. 'You had a terrible encounter with Bru- ...Ignis.'

'No harm is done. And Ignis will never get to harm others again as well,' she nods with a smile.

'Princess, please tell me: how could Ignis control Brush like that?' Twilight asks. 'How could Ignis possible survive on a meteor and possess somepony who was complete harmless?'

Celestia nods at one of her guards, who then quickly lands at her side. He shows a lockbox to the unicorn mare. The box contains something powerful, radiating a crimson light through the cracks of the box. It's almost like there's a flame inside.

'The crystal I have in this lockbox is the crystal that holds the essence of Lord Ignis. He was sealed into a crystal form by the Elements of Harmony, by me… long ago,' she explains to her pupil. 'Still, he seems to have enough power to dominate a common pony’s mind, even in a crystallized condition like this... Powerful enough to the point that he could change appearances into his own liking, and create wings through magic.'

It explains why Brush looked so different in size, sprouted wings, and got the armor. But it's still hard to believe that his entire personality was surpressed like that. Twilight is impressed at how a little gem like that was the troublemaker of all this madness.

'Princess Celestia, I must ask: Who was Ignis? And what does he have to do with you, Princess Luna, and Discord? Twilight brings up, not thinking of the possibility that the princess may not want to share that information with her.

Celestia holds her hoof softly on the mouth of her student, meaning that she won't have to ask any further questions. It’s obvious that Celestia does not like the truth behind it to simply explain it.

'In due time, my beloved student, you will find out. You have experienced enough for today,' Celestia tells vaguely, but continues to smile with pride for the young mare.

Twilight doesn’t continue on the subject, believing that it’s for the best to leave the history for now and focuses back on the present. Though she knows that she shouldn't ask further questions about these things, she can’t help but wonder what Ignis’ actions will have for consequences.

'What will happen to Brush?' she asks, worried that he will be punished for Ignis' crimes, considering it was still Brush' body that brought all the harm and destruction. 'He is innocent and a very nice guy, who was just in the wrong place and the wrong time! If I didn’t ask him to come with me to the meteor…, he wouldn’t have been-' she tries to explain his innocense.

Celestia interrupts her by raising a hoof between them. 'It’s ok, Twilight. The moment he touched the crystal, he couldn’t have done anything to prevent it from happening. I am very much aware that Ignis was exploiting the weakness in his heart, in order to mess with his mind. Spectrum Brush is in no way responsible and won’t be punished for this tragedy,' she assures her.

'Thank you, Princess,' Twilight says with a faint smile.

Her friends were able to hear every word, feeling also needed to take a deep breath of relief. Justice has served: the wicked is stopped and the innocent are free.

'So… what will we do now?' Rarity wonders. 'Ignis is defeated, the ponies of Equestria are back to normal, the sky is cleared from any darkness, and Brush is off into nowhere. What else is there left?'

Twilight turns around at her friends and thinks about how they are the only ones that know the full story behind Ignis. It may be best that it remains that way. 'Nopony must ever learn that Spectrum Brush was Ignis. It would victimize him more than he already is,' she proposes.

Twilight looks at the princess standing next to her, who agrees with her by giving her a nod.

'It is better to keep this a secret as much as we can,' Celestia admits. 'The Ignis magical hatred in all the ponies’ hearts will soon be gone entirely. the repercussion will be powerful, giving the possiblity that they will all think that Ignis was part of their imagination.'

She looks down to the box, which is brimming with energy. 'The crystal will be taken to Canterlot, and sealed where Ignis will never be able to harm anypony anymore,' she assures. 'As for Brush… he will need some time along, I think.

Rainbow Dash looks, like the others, rather puzzled. 'So… were supposed to act like nothing happened?  Ignis came and left like snow in the sun?' she asks doubtful.

But Twilight nods at her, assuring that that’s EXACTLY what they should do. The blue mare looks around her, believing that the rest of her friends probably think the same. So she simply shrugs and accepts.

Before Celestia takes off to Canterlot, she turns around for a final word to them. 'Please, don’t stay in worry over the painter. Believe in the friendship you forged with him. It will help him through his hardships, even when not with him in person,' she assures them with a smile. 'After all: friendship can overcome any obstacle.' she repeats her past words.

With that said, she stretches her white wings and takes off into the night sky, on her way back to Canterlot. When Princess Celestia has gone out of sight, under the moon’s light, Twilight looks back at her friends. She thinks back of all the hardships they have overcome so far together, grateful to have them. 'He’ll be alright,' she understands now, feeling relieved from the troubles.

'After all: Brush is not alone in his own world anymore. And hopefully he gets to understand that too.'