Chapter 16: Recovery

Sandova was standing on top of a hill overlooking the burning remains of the town of Havndir, watching the devastation from above. He could see corpses scattered everywhere, remains of the villagers that faced the brunt of the onslaught. Some had died quickly, others died only after the ghouls got to them. And the sole cause of this devastation stood in front of him, himself. Sandova blinked as his mirror image turned around and spread his arms, a mocking smirk making his way onto his face.

"A grisly sight, isn't it? Just as you wanted, just as you vowed to do. All those people, dead because of your actions, because of your wrath."

The mirror image turned around again, eyes glittering. Sandova could easily read his expression, having seen it once too many in the mirror.

"This is your power, your destiny. Do not try to hide me from yourself, I am you, hateful, cruel, ambitious."

The mirror image leaned forward to whisper in Sandova's ear.

"An excellent liar."

"Shut up!"

Sandova shoved his mirror image away, but he just laughed mockingly.

"Afraid to face the truth, oh 'lord Asphyxious'? You are a killer, a cruel remorseless killer. Justice was just the means to an end, all that really mattered was improving your powers."

Sandova's face hardened, and he turned away from his double.

"I punished the wicked, gave them a taste of what they did to others. I gave them justice."

The mirror image laughed, a sinister, mocking sound.

"Yes, yes you did. And didn't that feel great? I know you, hells I am you, and you loved every second of the harsh justice you inflicted. This miserable village was just the last of many victims. Guilty, innocent, it didn't matter anymore. Vengeance was all that mattered, right Asphyxious?"

Sandova looked up to his double, snarling. Yet his double's words struck home.

"They were warned beforehand, they knew I was coming. Everyone that remained had resigned themselves to the consequences! Instead of taking his warning to heart, they murdered him! They had it coming."

His double smiled, it was a heartfelt but cruel smile.

"Exactly! Just as that guy Abyss, right? The bastard that tried to sacrifice your friends. Friends that are so innocent and pure, they wanted you to spare him. You hesitated there, and look where that got you. Ironically, you were more merciful with him than with your other victims, at least he died quickly, or at all."

"I-"

His double cut him off with a wave. Behind him, the flames consuming the village flared up.

"Think back at what you did to that other pony, Silent Whisper. You broke her body, you even broke her mind. Now that is vengeance. Death is a mercy, we both know that. And so does she now."

Sandova swallowed, then shook his head.

"No, I'm not going to let my past rule my present. I am different now, working towards redemption."

His double scoffed.

"Redemption? Pathetic, and you know it. You didn't want redemption then, you sure as hells don't need it now. Or have you forgotten?"

Sandova noticed that they were now standing inside the village, the buildings around them ablaze. There were not much people left, no living ones anyway. Sandova looked in growing horror at the devastation he had caused. Two ghouls were tearing a still screaming man apart before feasting on his intestines. A vampire on horseback was chasing a crying girl no older than sixteen, reveling in the hunt before impaling her on his spear.

And in the middle of it he saw himself, directing the carnage while laughing wildly. One of the surviving men leapt at him, desperate to slay the cause of the carnage. Before him, Sandova saw himself crush the poor man's spirit with but a gesture. He then impaled the man on his rapier, twisting the blade to maximize the agony inflicted. His double looked up and fixed Sandova with a burning glare.

"No rest, no mercy. No matter what."

Sandova stood there, staring blankly at the monster he had become that day. It wasn't the act that horrified him, it was the fact that it didn't horrify him that made him feel cold and dead inside. Dead, like the ones he commanded, like his victims.

"Do not give in to despair, young one."

Sandova turned to see a dark blue equine emerge from between two burning buildings. She was not as tall as Celestia, but had the same regal bearing, not to mention the fact that she was an alicorn as well.

"You are right not to want the past to haunt you, but to be able to do that you must come to terms with it."

The princess of the night gave him a sad smile.

"Believe me, I know what it is like to have the past cast a shadow over you. But this does not mean that it should overshadow you forever. Everyone is able to change, and everyone deserves a chance at redemption."

"I tried that, look where that got me. One of my friends got hurt, and I presume that I am near death considering that I have a goddess speaking to me in my dreams."

Luna shook her head.

"Your friend got hurt, yes. But she will recover, and so will you. In body, at least. The wounds on your heart will not be that easy to mend, I am afraid."

"What if I don't want them to mend. What if I deserve this pain?"

Her gaze turned harsh, and Sandova involuntarily took a step back.

"If you truly think that then you are a fool. You a right that you should shoulder the shame of your actions, but know thy limits. I have seen ponies like that turn into bitter mockeries of their former selves, eventually becoming no better than Nightmare Moon or king Sombra. Do not let your failures dictate your life Sandova, focus on overcoming them instead."

Sandova let out a sigh. The goddess was right, remaining bitter would only make him another clichéd villain. Yet the cold dread in his heart would not go away.

"But what if I can't mend myself?"

"That's what you got friends for."

Luna winked before turning away, leaving Sandova with his memories.
~
Sandova hurt, badly. His skin felt like he'd been strapped to the walls of Dis, and his head felt like a mind flayer did his best to, well, flay his mind. He groaned, then it dawned on him that he could feel pain at all. This meant he was either dead and getting tortured in Baator or very much alive.

"He's awake! Quick, call a nurse or something!"

Wait, he knew that voice. He tried to speak and managed a wheeze that made his throat burn. Coughing, he noticed that someone was sitting very close to him. He tried to speak again, but quickly decided against it. The person next to him shifted, and he heard that familiar voice again.

"Don't speak, you got burnt pretty badly. Oh dear, do you think he can hear me?"

Another voice, this one with a familiar heavy accent, replied.

"Don't worry sugarcube, the doctors fixed him up good. Ah'm sure he'll recover quickly."

"Applejack? Twilight?"

The words came out little more than rasps, but his friends seemed to understand him just fine.

"We're here sugarcube, don't worry."

"Oh, we were so worried. When you collapsed I feared the worst! I'm so glad that you're alive!"

Sandova tried to smile, but his face hurt too much. Only then did it dawn on him that he still had his eyes closed, so he tried to open them. He had to blink rapidly from the harsh hospital lights, but after a while he could make out the faces of his friends. Applejack and Twilight where sitting next to his bed, but Sandova couldn't see his other friends. He tried to look around, but quickly decided against it.

"Where are the others?"

"Rainbow and Pinkie are sleeping, they were at your side for nearly twenty-four hours before they collapsed from exhaustion. Fluttershy and Rarity are looking for a doctor so they know that you're awake."

"And Trixie?"

Twilight's face fell.

"She's recovering in the room next to yours. Her lung got pierced when Abyss attacked her, so her situation was actually more dire than yours, if only by a small margin. Don't worry, she'll be all right."

Sandova relaxed somewhat. Although Luna had said that everyone would be all right he still had his doubts. The conversation with Luna in his dream could have been just that, a dream. Her parting words still clung to him.

"Friends huh?"

Twilight's ears perked up.

"Sorry, I didn't quite catch that."

Sandova just smiled weakly and shook his head. Twilight nodded in understanding and went back to nervously checking the door every five seconds.

"Sheesh Twi', calm down. It's not like he's in danger anymore."

Twilight grinned sheepishly at Applejack.

"I know, but I can't help but getting nervous. What if there are problems that are not readily visible? What if-"

An orange hoof interrupted the rant before it could gather momentum. The doctor chose this moment to return, and Applejack quickly removed her hoof from Twilight's mouth. The doctor trotted over to Sandova's bed and levitated a small flashlight in his eyes.

"Hmm, no immediate brain damage from magical feedback, that's good. The burns are also healing rapidly, it seems."

The doctor smiled at them.

"If the magical treatment continues to be so effective I'd say you're out here within the week. You are lucky that we could get to you so quickly. One hour later and you would be walking around with terrible scars for the rest of your life."

Everyone in the room sighed in relief, and Sandova cracked a small smile. The doctor did a few other tests, then asked Sandova's friends to leave the room so that he could get his bandages changed.

"Doctor, how do you know how to treat me so well? As far as I know I'm the only human here."

The doctor finished putting on the bandages and shrugged.

"To be honest, I had no idea what to do when they brought you in. I had never seen something like you before, but I quickly realized that you're still a living being, and most living beings are quite alike. Burn wounds, for example, are the same weather they are on a pony or a rabbit, so I figured that you could be treated the same way we tread anypony else that suffers nasty burns. And I was right."

Sandova couldn't help but chuckle, which quickly devolved in coughing. The doctor levitated a glass with a straw over, and Sandova drunk greedily from it. After he finished the doctor gave him a stern look.

"Now listen to me, these bandages are riddled with enchantments that help your body heal with minimal scarring. Do not remove them or move too much. I will come back over two hours, try to get some sleep."

Sandova nodded and tried to relax. He was asleep before the doctor had left the room.
~
Three days later Sandova was deemed recovered enough to try walking again, so the hospital staff moved him to a different room. That afternoon he got visited by his friends again, all of them.

Trixie had been released from the hospital the day before, her injury being easier to heal with magic because it was smaller than his. Moonless Night was there as well, along with his family.

"So, your kind is called 'human' and you are from another world, why is Trixie the last one to hear about this?"

Sandova shrugged a little.

"Well, I haven't seen you since we left from the museum, and I had decided to keep my true story secret from most ponies. I'd hate it if I had to explain myself over and over again. I didn't care much for the appearance, however, but Twilight insisted on having me take a pony form."

Sandova stretched out and wriggled his fingers.

"It feels good to have fingers again. Automatic telekinesis is useful, but I prefer a way of grasping things that isn't dispelled by a tap on the head."

Moonless Night was still looking at Sandova with fascination. Sandova noticed and grinned.

"Hey kid, didn't your parents tell you staring is rude?"

Moonless Night caught himself and looked away, and Sandova's grin got wider when he saw that Night's parents looked away as well.

"Sorry."

"Don't worry about it, I was just teasing you. But yeah, I can understand that you're interested in what I am. I do come from another world, after all."

"Excuse me, are you mister Sandova Mirell the human?"

Everyone in the room looked towards the door. Two ponies in the uniform of the Manehattan Guard trotted inside, not waiting for an answer.

"Eh, yes I am. Is there something wrong?"

The first guard, an oddly familiar earth pony, had his badge in his teeth and walked over to Sandova.

"You are hereby under arrest for the murder of mister Abyss, as well as attempted murder and magical abuse of miss Silent Whisper. You have the right to remain silent, everything that you say can be used against you in a court of law."

Author's Note

Hello again my friends!

I have finally got this chapter done, many thanks to Robert Pooner for giving me the inspiration I needed to get started again.
Tell me what you thought of it.