A Promise Not Forgotten

Aidan:

And there I sat on the cold floor of the prison. The news hit me like a brick wall. Being told that you will go insane and can do nothing about it really sucks. What makes it worse is that I can’t stop it. I’m alone now. Iron Hoof said that he had some guard duties to fulfill, I asked Vis to leave. I just want some time to think, before I lose even that. The faded whispers of my shattered mind are just barely able to be heard, but are getting louder.

I let out a sigh as I sat in the chair in the middle of the room. “Well, looks like the end of the rope,” I said looking down.

“And just who told you that?” I heard a voice ask.

“What?” I asked, barely able to believe what I heard. The whispers in my head all stopped, either out of fear or anger. “How the fuck are you back?”

“Oh, is that any way to greet an old friend?” Prophet asked.

Dan:

I wandered aimlessly about the castle. I caught up with Iron Hoof earlier and I know the current mental status of Aidan, and how it will devolve.

Now I’m sitting on the balcony to my guest room in one of the many towers. Looking at the how many things have changed here makes me feel like I missed something. It just feels wrong being here now. I miss the days when it was just Aidan and I. When we never had to deal with impending doom, or some bullshit cult doing something stupid.

Speaking of which there is a cult that follows Prophet. They have spies in every city. As far as Celestia is concerned they are public enemies, a dead or alive reward is posted for anyone who has the balls to fuck with the empire. Something about this cult screams insane. What still has me wondering is that their emblem is the eye that was on the back of Aidan’s hand. I’ve never heard of Prophet taking up a coat of arms, but would they really worship Aidan? What for?

A breeze rolled in, “Are you fucking kidding me?” Colin asked from behind me.

“What?” I asked turning around.

“Fucking hospital gown flapping in the wind,” Colin said bringing a palm to his face. “Go put some clothes on you moron. I’m sure Rarity would be more than happy to help you.”

Oh, right. I had been meaning to see her before our little episode in the castle. “You’re just jealous cause I’m epic.”

“Believe me, there is NOTHING epic about that sight,” Colin said.

With my manhood insulted I walked back into my room, “You know you like it!” I said as I walked away.

Turns out Rarity had opened a Canterlot branch of her shop and works here most of the time. Guess I’m in luck. I stepped out onto the Castle courtyard and asked one of the guards for directions.

The walk to Rarity’s wasn’t too far. Her shop was in the high-end section of town, right next to the Castle’s walls. The shop itself wasn’t unique at all. The whole town had taken a boring and repetitive look, every building was the same with no variations.

I walked up to the door and pushed it open. At the front desk was a white mare with… wait a minute. “Sweetie belle?”

“Dan?” She asked as she brought her eyes from the magazine she was reading.

“Jeez, it’s good to see you! How you been?” I asked as she jumped from behind the counter.

“Great! Still no cutie marks though…” She said as her face fell.

“Hey, cheer up, they’ll come soon,” I said patting the filly on her head.

“Thanks, are you here to see my sister?” She asked.

“Yeah, she around?” I said.

“I’ll go get her,” Sweetie Belle said trotting off into the back room.

“WHAT?” I heard screamed from the back room. “HE’S BACK!”

The curtain separating the two rooms was thrown open and Rarity trotted out.

“Oh, Dan! How marvelous it is to see you again!” She said. “Is Aidan with you?”

Crap, she looked like she was really looking forward to seeing him, “No, there’s been a little issue. He is down at the jail,” I said with a mock smile.

“Oh, no! Whatever did he do to get into such a terrible place?” Rarity asked.

I crossed my arms, “Celestia said something about pleasing the public. After the attack on the gryphon empire everypony doesn’t look at us the same. Especially not him.”

“Oh, well im sure that they will come around eventually, dear,” she said, trying to be nice.

“Heh, doubt it. Anyway, that’s not why I’m here. I was hoping you could make me some clothes. This gown just aint cutting it,” I said. She must not have even noticed because she looked down and blushed. Heh, ponies get embarrassed too easily.

Aidan:

“I got nothing to say to you,” I said to the red fog. What’s up with these pricks and fog? Can’t they just be normal?

“Shut up and listen for your sake, if not the kingdom's” Prophet said floating closer to me. “Colin separated the bond we had, the moron. Now it’s going to be a lot harder for me to help you.”

“And how the hell is murdering an entire nation help?” I asked.

“Fine, let’s have it your way. Now, what reasons might I have wanted to kill the gryphons?” He asked.

“One: you are a royal douche,” I said.

“Noted.”

“Two: you are a crazy as hell.”

“Thanks for the complement.”

“Three: you wanted to take over Equestria.”

“Heh heh heh, I didn’t want to take it over. I wanted to bring peace to it.”

“And murder is going to do that?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Think of it as a birth by fire. The kingdom needed to be purged.”

“Of what, innocent families? Yeah try again moron.”

“You are about as stubborn as I am, hold onto that. But no, it needed to be purged of the plague.”

Wait what, a plague? Why had I never heard of this before? “What plague?”

“Oh, did dear Celestia forget to tell you?” Prophet said as his eyes burned. “Stupid mare always kept secrets. Anyway, yes there had been a plague in the gryphon empire a while back. Last time it struck the nation almost completely died off, the only reason it survived is because the healthy gryphons killed the sick ones. Survival of the fittest.”

“And you wanted to stop the plague before it spread?” I asked.

“Bingo… The plague has three stages. First: A mild fever and mood change. Second: Overall decline of health and feathers or fur start coming off. Third: Insanity. I’m not talking the sit in a corner in the fetal position kind of insanity, I’m talking eat your babies and murder your wife kind of insanity.”

“What?” I said. “Why the hell wasn’t I told before?” Wait why do I trust this guy, he almost got me killed.

“Celestia loves to skimp on details. After the plague was killed off, the remaining gryphons survived only because the plague went dormant. When it resurfaced again, I used you as a tool to kill them off. Now, as she always has, Celestia has undone my work and spread the gryphon time bombs all over the world.”

“Fuck me…” I groaned.

“Yeah, quite the shit storm, eh?”

“What does all of this have to do with me?” I asked.

Prophet grinned, “You and I can work together to stop this before it explodes in our faces, but at the cost of a race.”

I looked down and thought of all the families that would be killed, all the children who wouldn’t get the chance to live.

“Sometimes it’s about saving as many lives as you can,” Prophet said as he circled me. “The question is: Are you willing to throw away your life to save them?”

“Wait, throw away?” I asked.

“You don’t think the ponies would actually let you live here if you finished the gryphons off, do you? There is a small chance that they might let you off this time, but if you did it again, they wouldn’t hesitate to kill you. Not even Celestia,” Prophet said as the red fog flowed all around me.

“Well, how much time do we have until the gryphons advance to the next stage?” I asked.

Prophet chuckled a little, happy with my compliance, “About two weeks, give or take a few days.”

“Is there any way we can do this without killing the gryphons?” I asked with a small amount of hope.

“Not that I know of. Believe me, I didn’t want to throw my life away the first time, but I did what needed to be done,” Prophet said as he floated around the room.

“The first time?” I asked.

Prophet sighed, “Yes. I’m not all bad, and Celestia doesn’t know my side of the story…”

“Then let’s hear it.”

Prophet’s eyes narrowed at me, “Fine. As you know, I wasn’t always like this. In fact, I was a lot like you, just as stubborn, just as human. In the beginning everything was perfect. With the magic this world gave me I was able to live lifetimes with Celestia. She and I were no doubt close, and always worked for the better of the kingdom.”

I adjusted myself in the crappy chair. This could get interesting.

“In my spare time I always studied everything I could. I wanted to know everything, and when you have as much time as I did, it’s rather possible. Days and nights were spent slaving away over projects, making Equestria a better place. That all changed when I found a rather intriguing artifact. It was some kind of dark energy, a kind that Equestria had never seen, not in a long time. The orb started taking me over, and it told me things. It told me the horrors that would come if I didn’t do anything about the gryphons. Equestria would be gone if I hadn’t killed them off the first time.”

Well, I should have guessed.

“I didn’t want to kill them, not at all. I tried everything I could to save them, but it was too late. When the plague advanced I saw that everything was coming true. The nation was tearing itself apart. The plague is highly contagious, and spread like wildfire in the unclean streets of the empire. When the plague was getting out of hand, and nearing the borders of Equestria, I knew what I had to do. The rest is history.”

“You said we have two weeks, right?” I asked with hope building.

“Yes.”

“Then in that time we can do everything we can to save them. Please, help me fix this. I don’t want to kill them, I don’t want to hear the screams again,” I said reflecting on my mental status.

“Aidan,” Prophet said, causing me to look up at him. “I’m sorry for ruining your life. I didn’t want this to happen, but I did what was necessary.”

“We can move past that. Help me save them, I know there is good in you somewhere, or else you wouldn’t be talking to me. Can you help me try to find a cure for the plague?” I asked.

“Two weeks.” Prophet said coldly.

“When two weeks comes, and if we don’t find anything, then I’ll do it,” I said, reluctantly.

“I forgot how much of an optimist you are, always trying to find the silver lining, eh?” Prophet mocked.

“Please, just do this for me.”

“Fine.”

There was some talking behind the door and Prophet’s eyes burned at the sound. He looked to me and the red fog pushed its way into my head.

Jeez… Was that really necessary?

Well sorry! Vis is just better than I am at this.

Just don’t do anything stupid.

Cant if I tried, Colin separated the link.

The iron door creaked open to reveal a human standing there.

“How’s it going?” Dan asked.

“Oh, you know, just contemplating my existence,” I shot back. “Where did you get that jacket and where is mine?”

“Heh heh, I thought you might want one. Here,” Dan said as he threw me a bag of clothes. In it were some t-shirts and jeans, just some things to wear and at the bottom was a matching jacket, but blue and white.

“That’s freaking awesome.” I said holding up the assassin’s coat.

Oh great, now you get to run around playing assassin. Fuck my life.

You’re just jealous.

“Rarity made it.”

Oh right! The mane six! “How are they doing?”

“I don’t know, only talked to Rarity. She has a store here in Canterlot. The city’s changed since we were here last,” Dan said.

“Talk to Tia?” I asked.

“Yeah, apparently the decision to keep you in here was to keep the public happy.”

“You think there is any way I can get out of this hole?” I asked waving an arm around the empty room.

“Well, I been thinking, maybe, just maybe, we can persuade Celestia to let you out. Of course she would have to make sure you aren’t still influenced by Prophet.”

As he said that I looked away nervously.

“You aren’t are you?” Dan jokingly asked.

“No, but I do believe defenestration would suit you just fine…” I shot back.

“Whatever, I got to get back to the Castle. Maybe I can get some of my guard buddies in on it.”

“Hey, thanks man,” I said as Dan walked away.

He turned back toward me, “It’s what brothers do, don’t worry about it.”