Celestia smiled softly at Eternal Rain as his eyes observed his surroundings. He turned his head at Celestia slowly and groaned in the process, trying to say something, but he couldn’t. His throat felt dry and tired as he swallowed.

“It’s okay Eternal Rain. You’re safe now from your dark side.” Celestia said with care in her voice. Eternal Rain looked over at Luna, then at Gadget, Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie. Suddenly, he remembered what he had done to everypony, feeling shameful. He opened his mouth and began to speak.

“I-I’m sorry…” Eternal Rain managed to say before closing his eyes slowly, falling into a heavy sleep, and the clouds slowly disappearing to reveal the sun and blue sky once more. Gadget stepped forward in concern before being stopped by Luna, getting a look from her.

“He’s probably just tired. We should let them share a moment.” Luna whispered to Gadget, to which he nodded and watched Celestia and Eternal Rain.

Celestia slowly stood up and turned around to face Twilight and her friends.

“I think it would be good for Eternal Rain to get some care at Ponyville.” Celestia stated. Twilight looked at her friends, then at Gadget.

“W-Well, I think that would be a good idea. He could apologize to everpony for putting a scare in them and he could get used to the place he’ll be watching over, among other things.” Gadget said, nodding and smiling a little.

-----

Inside Eternal Rain’s mind, he was dreaming of something strange. He saw himself in a white void with nothing around him. He stepped forward in curiosity, searching around before hearing something behind him. Quickly, he turned around in alert and saw himself, but his appearance was completely different.

His mirror image was completely covered in darkness and was smiling at him with pure white teeth.

“Now we can talk face-to-face. I believe from your expression that you know what I am.” The mirror image said with a grin. His voice was distorted, almost to frighten young fillies in the night.

Eternal Rain swallowed slowly and said “Yes… I know what you are. You were responsible for making me a monster.”

The mirror image chuckled and approached him slowly, almost touching noses.

“Please. Don’t try to sound so brave towards me. I scare you and make you powerful. Admit it. You liked having the magic and the armour to take on Celestia and Luna.” it said with a grin.

Eternal Rain turned away and stepped away from it, looking down at his hooves.

“I will admit it felt good using my anger against them, but I… I know it was wrong. Celestia is my friend. We’ve known each other since we were fillies.” Eternal Rain said, to which it stood next to him and moved to his ear.

“Come on… We can make a comeback. The Elements… That’s what caused our downfall. YOUR downfall, that is. If you could obtain the Elements of Harmony, we can make them crawl!” it said, trying to convince him.

Eternal Rain turned to his image with an expression of anger.

“You can do that by yourself! I won’t be used by you any longer!” Eternal Rain shouted, grabbing his image’s head with his front hooves and giving it a hard head butt, causing it to shatter into black pieces.

He looked down at the pieces and they slowly evaporated with a dark laugh in the distance above him.

“If you will not work with me, I can find another who will. If you remember, I split from your body before the going got tough. We are just, shall we say, connected mentally because your negative emotions were so powerful that it gave me life. You see, there is something more complicate behind it all and I think you will find out soon enough, my little alicorn.” the voice said before leaving Eternal Rain alone.

Slowly, Eternal Rain lay down and closed his eyes.

-----

Twilight, Gadget, and their friends slowly put Eternal Rain on a bed in a nurse’s tent that was set up in the Town Square, in order for everypony to check up on him and when he regains consciousness, take care of him.

The nurses started to put bandages on his wings as they all watched the process.

“It’s so strange. He looked so scary, but now, he’s like a little bunny who’s been hurt.” Fluttershy said.

“More like a scary bunny.” Rainbow Dash responded.

“In any case, we should watch him. In case he tries to attack us again. Just because he’s a different color and he said he was sorry, doesn’t mean he’ll act nice.” Twilight said, watching the nurses put bandages on his body next and almost finishing.

“A-Although, Princess Celestia looked so… hurt seeing him defenseless and sad after he was beaten.” Gadget said.

“We should really leave him alone though. Let him rest.” Rarity suggested and the ponies nodded in agreement, leaving the tent.

As they stepped out, Gadget looked pretty worried about Eternal Rain and wondered if he would ever wake up. It made his mind reel with every bad outcome that could happen. Eternal Rain could not wake up, wake up and not remember who or what he is, wake up and still be the same, or he could wake up, but not remember his childhood friend. Gadget’s skin shivered, but was brought out of thought by Pinkie Pie hopping in front of him.

“We should really have a party! For you and Eternal Rain being new to Ponyville! It’ll be really fun!” Pinkie said, causing Gadget to smile at her upbeat personality.

“I-I guess we could.” Gadget said with a shrug.

With that, Pinkie bolted immediately to Sugarcube Corner to get the party ready for the night. Gadget then looked at Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy.

“W-Well uh… I guess I’ll head back to my workshop. I-If you ponies want to pop in and see what I’m working on, d-don’t be afraid to do so.” Gadget said to break the silence, trotting off to return to his house, with a small smile on his lips.

He looked behind himself to see his new friends disperse to their own devices. Gadget began to think about what everypony would say if he brought out his inventions to show.

“Perhaps I could make a travelling show. I could embark all over Equestria, entertaining many ponies with my creations. Although, Twilight wouldn’t be there and I might lose confidence if they don’t function correctly.” he thought, looking up ahead to see his house in the distance.

“Gadget Rust’s Caravan of Clockwork…” he said to himself, beginning to laugh at the ridiculousness of the name.

-----

Twilight looked at the tent and began to ponder whether she should check up on Eternal Rain.

“I really shouldn’t… But, maybe if I talk to him while he’s resting, it’ll make him come back to his senses and then maybe, he won’t be as bad as he was before. I heard it helps.” Twilight mumbled to herself.

She straightened herself and entered the tent as soon as the nurses left Eternal Rain alone.

Twilight looked at him with surprise. He was practically covered entirely with many bandages from horn to hoof. It made her giggle at the silly sight, but she continued to approach him, standing next to the bed.

Just to be sure, Twilight waved her front hoof in front of his eyes to make sure he was actually asleep and she sighed.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this. Talking to a sleeping alicorn, who may or may not be evil.” Twilight thought to herself. She then cleared her throat, ready to talk to him.

-----

Eternal Rain stood up slowly, stretching in the process. There was no point in waiting for something to happen.

“I might as well explore this… whiteness while I still have the time.” Eternal Rain said to himself, beginning to explore.

Suddenly, his exploration was interrupted by an odd voice. It sounded young and completely unrecognizable to him. At first, he assumed it was his mirror image, playing a trick on him, but he was soon proved wrong when the voice introduced itself.

“Um… Hello. My name is Twilight Sparkle.” the voice said, which made him look up in curiosity and confusion.

“Hello? I’m Eternal Rain. How can you talk to me?” he asked, looking around, suddenly seeing the white void morph into a strange setting.

“You’re sleeping a tent in the Town Square of Ponyville. I don’t know I you can hear me, but you’re safe.” Twilight’s voice stated, causing the setting to transform into Etenral Rain’s memory of Ponyville from what he saw when he was evil. He looked around the place and continued to speak to Twilight, even though she couldn’t hear him back.

“Well uh, nice to meet you Twilight Sparkle. I’m sure we’ll have something to talk about when I wake up.” He said, smiling softly to himself.

Next Chapter: Chapter 8: Return Estimated time remaining: 48 Minutes