A week after the Ponyville disaster and an hour after his initial awakening, Cloud lay bound to a hospital bed, surrounded by many armed guards, a couple of Goddesses and someone who had previously been his mentor and only friend.

“So,” Princess Celestia snarled, stepping forward, “I heal your wounds and allow you to stay in my private hospital. In response to this, you cause three hundred bits worth of damage and murder one of my personal guards.” She took another step forward. “You, Sir, are an arsehole.”

“Murder…” Cloud echoed, his mind, for once, blank.

“Yes,” Princess Luna stepped to her sister’s side. She bore an odd expression, as if suppressing a smirk. “Murder. In quite an... excessive manner, too.”

“Excessive…?”

“Excessive enough to cause a few thousand bits worth of damage.”

What did the new circle do?

“In one of her reports,” continued Princess Celestia, “Twilight Sparkle informed me of your tendency to, and I quote, ‘lose control of your emotions’.” She tilted her head slightly. “What exactly caused you to ‘lose control’ in this instance, Mr Calculation?”

“Wait, what exactly happened?” Cloud asked, ignoring her question. “I summoned some kind of new magic circle, but I don’t-” Princess Celestia took ahold of the lower half of Cloud’s right hind leg with her magic.

“I asked you a question, Mr Calculation.” She began to lightly pull on the leg. “I expect an answer.”

“Yeah,” Cloud frowned, “but I can’t tell you what happened if I don’t know the aftermath.”

The strength of the pull increased. I see where this is going. Best to cooperate for now.

“I’m the one who trapped the Dragon in the cave.” Cloud was staring straight into her eyes, a hardened look on his face. “I’m the reason it went berserk. Thanks to my actions, Ponies died and a village was destroyed.” He paused and his eyes wandered. “When I saw the guards, I knew I had to get away. Even if you didn’t kill me for what I caused, I can’t find out who I am if I’m trapped on the moon. I…” The reality had begun to set in, and his face showed it. He swallowed. “...I didn’t mean to kill the guard.”

“Yet he is dead,” Princess Luna pointed out, “and his family mourns over his body in the morgue. At least, what is left of his body.” What the hell did I do to him?!

“You certainly did all you could to ensure he died.” Princess Celestia cocked her head the opposite way. “This makes it hard to believe it was accidental.”

Twilight couldn’t take the shame and anger she felt any longer and left the room, shaking her head. Before Cloud could call out in any attempt to stop her, he felt his leg being pulled again. He sighed and continued his story.

“I jumped out of the window and flew away. They gave chase and easily avoided my magic, so I seperated them and tried to fight them with my hooves.”

“You expected to beat a highly trained royal guard, even though you lack any kind of combat training?” Princess Luna asked, sounding sincere.

Cloud looked over to her in confusion and saw her give the quickest of winks. Does she want me to play along? Why? She must have something planned.

“Yes,” he replied, “but, obviously, I was mistaken.” He looked back to Princess Celestia. “As we fought, I summoned a new kind of magic circle. It put us both through immense pain and I blacked out.”

“I see.” Princess Celestia closed her eyes as to appear to be in deep thought about the facts. In actuality, this was merely an intimidation tactic. Though Cloud realised this, he didn’t particularly care as it gave him a moment to think.

So I’ve become a murderer. While the Ponies killed by the Dragon could be blamed on the Dragon itself, this is nobody’s fault but mine, but why? Why would I run in the first place? I’ve clearly shown idiocy the past (the little past I have) but never to this extent - this has to be something else.

Does it really have to be something else? Maybe I’m just in denial… Except I’m not denying anything. It’s my fault that guard is dead. I am a murderer. What doesn’t make sense is panicking at the sight of guards, fear isn’t something I react with very often: When corrupted Goddess attacks, I’m pissed off more than anything. Yeah, something weird happened, but what?

Princess Celestia, while not in deep thought about the facts, was still genuinely in deep thought:

A murder charge! A murder charge! Ohohoho, it’s been too long! Oh, how to punish?! An execution, perhaps? Death for death would make a good excuse for the masses. Or maybe life imprisonment? A little dull, but it would certainly be useful. Oh, I have missed this!

Princess Luna, meanwhile, had sneakily cast a telepathic spell to someone not present in the room. After a quick debate, they wasted no time in finding a trade agreement they would both be up to.

“It seems there is only one fitting punishment,” Princess Celestia finally announced, showing no hint of her excitement. “Cloud Calculation, I hereby decree that you shall be-”

“Sister, if I may?” Princess Luna interrupted. “Since my return, I have not had the chance to make any official punishments for criminals. Surely punishing a murderer as my first would help with those ‘riots’,” she rolled her eyes as she talked, “that have been occurring throughout Canterlot?”

Hidden behind a millennium of practicing hiding emotions, Princess Celestia was angrier than any sane person had the right to be. Here was her sister, the traitor, swindling her out of her chance to cause suffering without backlash with political reasonings she couldn’t dismiss. Oh, how she wished she were powerful enough to have killed her way back when rather than having to resort to using the Elements of Harmony.

“A very logical point, sister,” Princess Celestia nodded at her proposal, “I believe you are correct; this would be good for your public image. Very well, I leave him in your care. Of course, I shall leave some of my guards here, I cannot leave you alone with a dangerous criminal.”

“I believe I shall be fine without your guards,” Princess Luna lit up her horn. “I have guards of my own, after all.” A flash from her horn teleported two of her own guards into the room - a Thestral and a Changeling, both clad in a darker variation of royal guard armour. Rather than holding spears, these guards were wearing specially crafted saddle bags designed to holster crossbows without limiting their wings.

Neither guard seemed phased by the sudden teleportation, both standing to attention.

“...Very well.” Princess Celestia left the room and her guards followed.

Princess Luna waited for a few moments after her sister had left before subtly motioning to her guards with a slight movement of the tip of her tail. The Thestral began searching around the room while the Changeling lit up its horn and looked around as if trying to spot something. After a few moments, the Changeling turned back to the Princess and gave a slight nod. The Thestral noticed this, stopped searching and stood next to the Changeling.

“Okay!” Cloud exclaimed, exasperated. “First problem: Would someone just tell me what happened after I blacked out already?! Second problem: What the fuck is that thing?!” He motioned to the Changeling with his head.

The Princess ignored him as she teleported the four of them away.

The quattro appeared in the upstairs floor of a short tower on the castle grounds. The tower was not dissimilar to a paintbrush in shape and, clearly by the choice of having an outside, unsheltered staircase as the only way to the upper floor, its architects had never heard of a strange phenomenon called rain.

The interior was simple enough; the ceiling was high and the decor was plain, but what would catch your attention were the large bookcases scattered around the room, each packed tightly with books on magic: Magical theories, magical spells, magical artifacts, and even magical drugs. If there was a kind of magic in the world, this tower would contain at least a pamphlet on it.

Unknown to Cloud, this had been the home of Twilight for a significant chunk of her life, up until moving to Ponyville. It had recently become her home once again, as Ponyville had become a little too monster infested for her tastes. If he had known this information, perhaps it wouldn’t have been surprising for him to see, after climbing up off the floor, Twilight herself waiting for them.

“Twilight?” He asked. “I thought that you’d… well, given up on me, honestly.”

“You really fell for that?” Twilight smirked. “Maybe you are dumb enough to do what you did.”

“Dumb enough to do what?” Cloud was exasperated. “Would someone just tell me what happened when I blacked out?!”

“Put simply, Cloud, you killed somepony.” The smirk was long gone, replaced with a look of slight concern. “There were signs of mass electrocution, likely from the new circle you mentioned, but what killed him was the fall. The new circle likely took a massive strain on your mind, especially with a Support Circle summoned already. That’s what caused you to black out, but losing consciousness made both circles shatter from a lack of constant focus.

“The shock from the new circle knocked the guard out too, and both of you fell. The other guard managed to catch you, but… not the guard you were fighting. He was stopped by the ground…”

“That explains most of it, but what caused thousands of bits worth of damage?”

“...After falling through a three story mirror superstore.”

“Oh. Not one of my best moves, on reflection.”

Everyone shot Cloud a dirty look as he failed to suppress a small shit-eating grin.

“Anyway,” Twilight continued as she tried to purge the last few seconds from her brain, “there are things we need to discuss. Very worrying things…”

“What do you mean?” Cloud frowned in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“As you’ve probably figured out by now, it wasn’t like you to react with fear at the sight of guards. I know you, Cloud; you wouldn’t have even considered that you could be in trouble because of the Dragon before eating a bowl of HorseBalls™ with full fat milk instead of skimmed or even semi, you unhealthy f-”

“Stay on topic.”

“Right. The point is, I have reason to believe you were poisoned.”

“Poisoned?” Worry gripped Cloud. “Why? By who?”

“I can hardly believe I’m saying this, but…” Twilight exhaled in sadness. “I believe you were poisoned by…

Author's Notes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGYjr5cBhp8

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21 mirrors, if you're wondering about the title. Also, 3000 bits.