It had already been four months. Four months since I returned from Equestria to resume the life I had been violently torn from one late autumn evening. It had all begun so suddenly, but just like any true surprise it had not been something that I could’ve prepared for. The two and a half months I had spent in Equestria, give or take a few days, had been anything but dull.
But it always came back to that one night it had all begun.

A bad choice had set in motion a series of events that I still didn’t know if they had been orchestrated from the start, or if chance was the villain to blame. With a small sigh I looked at the clock at the corner of the laptop’s screen, 22:36. I guess now was as good a time as any to reminisce about the past. I had given up all attempts to forget. After all I wouldn’t be able to forget what had transpired in my lifetime anyway. Not when I had painstakingly written down all my encounters on this laptop for safe keeping.

It began that night with the lightning bolt striking me head on. I still don’t understand the theoretical aspects behind it, but if I had to guess the bolt generated the power necessary to transport across the veil between our dimension and Equestria. That being said without Grief’s and Rage’s bridges I would’ve probably just died that night. Anyhow when I next came to it took me quite a while to accept that I had somehow been transformed, and it took me even longer to realize that I was an Equestrian pony.

My first few weeks were rather dull in comparison to the rest of my time in Equestria, but without the time I spent in the Everfree, mastering my new body, I would’ve perished.
It must sound kind of grim when I describe it like this but unfortunately it’s the truth, in fact there were a couple of times when I actually got close to dying. But that’s further down the road. Now where was I? Oh yeah, the Everfree. It was towards the end of my stay here were I learned to use my wings for basic flight, for you see the pony type I had been transformed into was a pegasus. It was also this that allowed me to finally leave the Everfree.

The first real encounter I had was with the element of generosity herself and she more or less saved me. Well we saved each other in a way, but without her I may never had found my way to civilization. Rarity led me to Ponyville, and dropped me off by the hospital, since I had sustained an injury to my leg. Here is where I had my first, not so friendly, encounter with a pony named Swiftmend. A while later I had left the hospital with my injury healed and found an inn to stay at for the night.

It’s important to note that at this point I had fully fledged web of lies woven around who I truly was. I called the persona I had created Stormcloud. An add-on to my true name, Cloud.
I thought that I could simply solve my problems on my own and, not bother anyone in my immediate surroundings. Thus my next step had been to head to the library to gather information. Things had gone smoothly at first, but a certain incident became the catalyst that would shatter my web of lies.

One thing led to another and after a night full of long explanations and questions I felt at peace with myself. The mane six’s reactions had been mixed, but Rainbow definitely had the strongest one. She didn’t like me, and she made sure I understood that.

The very next morning the princesses arrived to verify my story. This was also the first time I met her, Celestia. She read my memories and somehow I read hers. We didn’t know at the time but that was another starting point, a starting point for something beautiful.

With my story confirmed the princesses bid their farewells to the elements and I, promising to return once they had found the proper spell to send me back home. True to their word I received a note a few days later from Twilight, informing me that they were ready.

My excursion into Equestria was at an end it seemed and I was ready to resume my normal life. I arrived at the library at the appointed time and bid farewell to the mane six before Celestia arrived and cast her spell. That should’ve been the end of it, but something went haywire. Celestia had somehow been dragged along when she cast the spell on me and now found herself stranded in my apartment transformed into a human. Needless to say she had been confused, scared and pretty desperate when she regained consciousness and realized just what had happened.

It took some time to clear up a few misunderstandings between the two of us, but eventually we could begin working on a plan to make sure that she could return home. During the time we spent together on earth our relationship grew from merely acquainted to close friends.

Although we managed to piece together a plausible theory on how to get Celestia home rather quickly, it took some extra time since Celestia needed to learn how to walk as a human. When Celestia and I revisited the place where it all began, we ran into a snag. The magic leaking over to Earth was not enough to send Celestia back, but it would be enough to send someone else. So in a Hail Mary attempt we tried to recreate the resonance effect that had caused this situation in the first place. The spell was successful, and Celestia and I both found ourselves in the Everfree forest, both of us again in pony form.

Since both of us had wings we took to the sky and started to fly out of the dark forest. After some time in the air I managed to convince Celestia to fly to Canterlot while I would fly to Ponyville and wait for her there. I thought it was important that she returned and showed her sister that she was alive ASAP. For you see I had realized that time ran differently on Earth compared to Equestria. A single earth day equaled a week in Equestria so Celestia had been missing for some time already. So we split and flew in separate directions.

When I reached Ponyville though I found the town to be deserted. I searched a few homes and all of them told me that the population had left in a hurry. So I set my sights on Canterlot and took to the sky again. Once I reached the capital I could confirm that there were indeed ponies here at least. So I flew straight to the castle gates to try to get in contact with the princesses again, or at least get some information. However the guards recognized me as a criminal for a crime I did not commit, and before I knew what was going on I had been hit by a spell that knocked me out.

The next thing I saw were the walls of a prison cell. In this cell I learned things that would change me forever. First there was confusion when Twilight, Rainbow and Applejack visited me, accusing me of working for two entities they called Grief and Rage. I was beyond confused at this point and I argued my case as best I could without actually holding any cards, except the voice of reason.

The next pony who visited me changed everything. It was a pony that I had only met briefly during my stay at the Ponyville inn. She basically claimed to be an emissary for what she called the grand stars. It soon became clear that she was the reason I was now in a cell, being accused of kidnapping Celestia. But her wild claims did not end there. No, she claimed that I was a direct descendant of pegasus mare who belonged to an ancient clan called Storm paragons. This mare had been trapped on earth as a human centuries ago to create a trap that I had unwittingly been the culmination of.

Needless to say I argued with this mare and raged against her outlandish claims, but deep down inside I had known. Known that there were shreds of truth to her statements, however it seemed that it wouldn’t matter in the end as she had left me in this cell to rot. So I sat in my windowless cell and listened to what had to be a huge storm building outside.

It was during this same night that the star spawn called Rage attacked Canterlot, and through dumb luck one of his attacks broke open one of the walls to my cell. I was going to have a shot at vengeance against those who had used me as a puppet it seemed. For about an hour I fought in the streets of Canterlot against a sort of spectral puppets controlled by Rage. During these scuffles I acquired quite a few injuries, but nothing life-threatening. Finally I observed the elements being fired and knew that this nightmare was about to end.

But it didn’t end. Rage’s protective barrier that I had seen absorb minor spells during the night withstood even the elements. In a last attempt to help I decided to accept the claims of me being a descendant of a pegasus. I devised a mad plan that involved getting struck by lightning on purpose and in the end dive bomb Rage with the collected energy.

My plan worked as I managed to break the barrier so the elements could finish him off, but the damage I sustained when I pulled that stunt was far greater than I had anticipated. I was alive though and I could probably recover. I had thought when I dug myself out of the rubble of house I had crashed into after my dive. However at this very moment I encountered the element bearers again, and for a while we argued once more whether I was evil or not.
At this point I was growing really frustrated with how much crap I had to take.

It was the arrival of Spike that finally seemed to clear my name to most of the gathered ponies as he came bearing words of Dreamcatcher’s escape. Enter Grief, who now was incredibly pissed at the loss of her last sibling. She launched a dark spell that hit Spike and seemingly stopped his heart. And with Spike dying Grief left just as suddenly as she had appeared. The time left was but moments before he was lost forever. So in a final act I gathered what remaining energy I could find in my body and tried to focus it like a makeshift defibrillator. I succeeded, but at a terrible prize. I had sacrificed even the electrical charge that kept my own body functioning. The last thing I remember from that night is my heartbeat slowly fading.

The next time my eyes opened I was tucked into a bed in Canterlot castle, all my injuries seemingly healed. To my side was the sleeping form of an alicorn I did not immediately recognize. The alicorn turned out to be Celestia who had regressed into a smaller state of herself due to a spell she had supposedly cast to save my life. To this day I have no idea what type of spell it was. Celestia and I spoke for a time and it slowly became clear to me that she might have developed feelings for me. At the time though I wasn’t certain on how to respond. But it turned out that I didn’t have to, as Celestia was called back to attend her duties as a princess.

My next visitor was an abashed Twilight, who expressed the heartfelt apology for her actions during the past few meetings we had. She was baffled at the fact I forgave her rather easily, but at the time I felt that I had to take the high road. I was after all supposed to be the older one of the two of us. Twilight’s problems didn’t end there though. As soon as she had my forgiveness she pleaded that I help her with a depressed Pinkie, claiming that I might have a connection to her depression. Not knowing what to make of the request I agreed.

Twilight then proceeded to lead me to Pinkie’s room and what met me there was indeed a situation that I was responsible for. I asked Twilight to let me talk to Pinkie in private as I intended to reveal some of my most personal secrets in an attempt to reason with the pink mare. She agreed and I set out to explain my innermost workings, it was the least I could do. It took some convincing and for me to agree to being Pinkie’s friend, something that was more of an honor than a requirement, to bring her back from depression. But I did succeed.

What followed was a streak of pranks by Pinkie and me. A streak that quickly grew out of hand, or should I say hoof. Before I knew it I was facing Rainbow dash in a sparring match as my atonement for the pranks pulled. I won the fight but only after Rainbow knocked some sense into me. As I headed away from the fight I had my second encounter with Swiftmend, who was currently stationed in Canterlot as extra medical help. Due to a previous agreement between the two of us we went into Canterlot city proper to exchange secrets. I think it was therapeutic for both of us, to just share our respective burdens.

It was in the evening of that very same day that I found myself on a rooftop with Celestia. It was on this day that we shared our first, true, kiss. The coming days were ones of relative bliss. I say relative because while I enjoyed my time spent interacting with Celestia and the rest I also spent time learning some of the darker secrets surrounding the Stars. I learnt who they were and more importantly how I was connected to it all. It turns out that the claims made by Dreamcatcher had been correct after all. To say that I was unsure of what my next step would be would be the understatement of the century.

Part of me wanted nothing but continue to live here in Equestria, while and equally large part argued that I should not forsake my previous life. A threat delivered in the dark sealed my fate. I would make one last gamble, with my wager being everything I had. And so I once again embarked on the road of deceit, my only ally being Swiftmend.

The final outcome? A pyrrhic victory on my part, the terrible price being to cut myself off from Equestria forever. While some may argue that my actions were those of someone acting for a greater good, my choices had hurt a lot of individuals that I had come to hold close to my heart. First and foremost I had singlehandedly torn the budding relationship between Tia and I to pieces and to me that was probably the heaviest cross to bear.

My name is Cloud and four months ago I betrayed those who trusted me for what I at the time perceived to be a greater cause. Now, I am dying…

Author's Notes:

And we kick off this ride once again. Welcome to Visions of Purpose.