//------------------------------//
// Chapter 18: Divided Loyalty Part 2 
// Story: Black as Sin 
// by BearstarSeraph 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 18: Divided Loyalty Part 2

The group's journey continued, and they noticed a distinct pattern.

“Almost all his memories with armor are traveling towards the side of the monster,” Cadence said.

“That must be the general armor style from when he was drafted as a toddler,” Discord said.

Just to prove a point, what looked like an eight-year-old specter and a shadow of another child were playing ball with what was clearly a severed head. The two were laughing like normal children and echoes of adults cheering and encouraging them played out over the several seconds the memory was visible before it returned to smoke and raced off to the right side.

Cadence and Twilight made sounds like they were trying not to vomit.

“Yep. Definitely two legged ancient griffons,” Celestia said trying to keep her composure.

“Agree,” Luna agreed quickly. “Thank the stars he has found his way to the light after such an upbringing.”

“You’re acting like this is normal?!” Cadence shouted.

“The reason it is no longer normal on Equus is because we MADE it not normal on Equus,” Luna snapped at her. “Know your history and be thankful to your ancestors who made it so you could look at such a scene and vomit as a response.”

Then the group came across a specter sitting on the invisible line staring out into nothing. As they got closer it was clear it was the youngest visage they had seen yet, clearly one of his earliest memories.

What looked like black clothing at first became bruising all over his naked body and the twisting made it obvious he had a broken arm and shoulder. His hard breathing also hinting at ribs as well. His hair was matted flat with dried gore that also covered half his face.

A cloud came up to the broken and listless toddler from the right. It was the previous eight-year-old specter who raised his foot and placed it on the head at his feet.

“And what’s wrong with you?”

“Papa… killed Mama… brother… gone… hit me… won’t stop…”

“His father did this to him?!” Twilight shouted.

“Tsk,” the older child turned his head disgusted. “You know he’s doing this to you because you're being weak, right?”

The toddler slowly turned to look at him, jerking and twitching like a broken animatronic.

“Small children are attracted to weakness. It is easy, simple— lazy. It robs the Saiyan people of our strength, our PRIDE. Weakness is fatal. The extinction of our race.

“Do you want to die like your precious Mama?” he mocked. “Do you want to be abandoned on some desert planet on the edge of the galaxy like Tarble?” He leaned down, “Do you want to be alone? Father could easily do either, you were sitting in your Mama’s lap when he shot off the top half of her body. Father beat you unconscious when he ripped Tarble from your arms. You know exactly what Papa can do, but he hasn’t, has he?”

He bent over and gently lifted the toddler’s chin. “It is because you're strong. You are the strongest Saiyan ever born. You are destined to be the first super Saiyan in one thousand years. You are destined to kill Frieza and take his place as ruler of the galaxy. You have the strength to lift the entire Saiyan race to prosperity and power than even Father has accomplished.” He got in his face, “BUT YOU CAN’T DO THAT IF YOU ACT LIKE YOU'RE WEAK.

“Your Mama’s mind was weak, and she was teaching you weakness. That is why you stole Tarble to try and keep him from being abandoned. But all you did was help your Mama kill him.”

The toddler showed a slight bit of confusion in his dead eye, the other swollen over and useless.

“Don’t you remember when Papa took us to the spaceport to watch the thousands of third-class babies being sent off? I do. Father told us weak babies like that were killed in his generation, but in Frieza’s army they found purpose. Babies are sent off to weak planets, both physically and mentally, poor idiotic races that don’t have the stomach to kill an innocent baby no matter what the race. But there are no innocent Saiyans, are there? No… we are born to kill. Violence and death is braided into every strand of our DNA. In three years, soldiers come back for them, remember?

“And if the planet’s population is extinct or close enough, the child gets to come back a hero and joins the army like everyone else at three. But if they were killed by the locals or just hadn’t been able to do something as simple and easy as clear a planet of weaklings for some reason, the soldiers just finish the job and kill ALL the weaklings. But you… YOU had to just kill your brother, didn’t you. Even if Tarble does his duty flawlessly, Father can never let him come back now. Because you showed WEAKNESS. And there will always be a shadow over Tarble now. Did he REALLY do his job and earn his right to join the army, or did he actually fail and it is being hidden? Just like when Tarble’s weakness was being hidden as a baby by not sending him off right away and the deaths of the doctors involved.

“Did you really have to kill those doctors? Tarble might have had a chance to live if you hadn’t. Father could have covered it up, just like when you cried before? But Noooooo, you had to kill some of Frieza’s men. You did not trust Tarble’s Saiyan blood because your Mama filled your head with weakness, and now they are both dead. Tarble’s will most definitely be slow, painful, and lonely.

“Cast off your WEAKNESS, the POISON and the LIES that flesh incubator filled your brain with. You’re still young enough that the wiring in your brain isn’t set in stone yet. So abandon and forget everything that is wrong in this world and embrace the truth of your glory—”

A cloud suddenly raced from the left and an arm materialized. Its fist connected with the surprised eight year old and sent the specter flying.

The fist soon connected to a body, dressed in the only style of armor they had ever seen go to the left.

It knelt down and turned the toddler’s head.

“Papa?” he muttered confused.

“No, I’m sorry. I’m just a bigger version of you.” It looked to the side, “Just like him.” It looked back down. “I need you to ignore him and come with me.”

“But…”

“Mama was right. Mama was right about everything. Come with me, there are some nice people I want you to meet.”

“They are not people, they are beasts,” the child had recovered and reformed. “Pets at best or dinner at worst.”

The toddler glanced at the child before looking up at the adult. “I’m not hungry…”

“Shut up!” the adult barked. “Father’s teachings have run their course. They are worthless now. Mother’s words are all that remain to be built on.”

“You can tell yourself that all you want. But you’ve never actually changed,” the voice suddenly deepened. “You’ve never actually chosen. You always say this thing and that. Different planet, bestiality, half cast mule. But if you have a proper Saiyan woman. If you had a REAL Saiyan child, how would you raise him? You’re a coward that hides behind a million graves and a billion asteroids. You know what you would do. You’ve done it before. You left that living fleshlight and her spawn to die on the battlefield. The time traveling Super Saiyan? Even after you found out he was the surviving baby you left to die, the only time you didn’t completely ignore him was when you were beating him to a pulp, torturing him. And despite everything, he never lifted a finger against you until you made yourself the enemy that he needed to kill to stop the apocalypse he came from from coming to pass.

“Look at him,” he gestured to the toddler between them, “Imagine him with your beloved incubators red hair if you must. But tell me, if a full blooded Saiyan, a true heir to the Blood throne, had pulled what YOU fully know HE DID, wouldn’t you make your son look like him? Wouldn’t you make him look WORSE?”

The adult Vegeta grimaced and stumbled backwards gripping his chest. Then a huge cloud leapt from him, leaving him almost completely transparent as he fell on his stomach.

The cloud briefly twisted, as if looking back, before racing off.

The child chuckled darkly and the transparent specter struggled to lift its head.

Only to see a child’s boot smash down on it, the shockwave completely vaporizing the smoke into nothingness.

The child spit at the spot, chuckling darkly. Then it returned to the confused toddler. It extended his hand, “Come with me,” its voice returned to a child’s pitch. “You don’t want Papa to abandon you, right? You can’t stand being alone.”

“No, Papa!” the toddler cried out of its only good eye and raised its only working arm. “I want Papa!”

The eight-year-old smirked in victory and took the child’s hand. They turned to smoke and fused, then raced off.

Luna ran over and lit her horn, but no vapors gathered.

“He’s… completely gone…” Luna hung her head.

“He’s eaten ponies. He’s actually eaten ponies. He’s eaten ponies…” Twilight mumbled spinning around in a panic.

Cadence put her hoof over Twilight’s back, stopping her spin. “Watching how this so-called ‘Good Vegeta’ collapsed under almost no questioning,” Cadence walked over to Luna. “I believe it’s safe to conclude the largest collection of his consciousness is a collection of all the evil in his heart.”

“Silence!” Luna’s voice boomed. “If thy say one more word, we shalt kick thee out!!!”

“Luna,” Celestia galloped over. She put her wing over her back and hugged her neck. “Everything is going to be fine.”

Pinkie came over and sat down. She tapped her hoof to her chin thinking. Then her eyes lit up and a baton appeared in a flash of light. It began moving back and forth as Pinkie bobbed her head side to side.

“Pinkie, what are you…” Twilight began, but stopped and looked around twitching her ears, “Is that music?”

“Yep, It’s one of Vegeta’s favorites. He usually has it in the back of his head.”

The orchestral piece grew louder, but then it started repeating like a broken record. Pinkie also began raising her hoofs up in the air at the end beat.

“Pinkie, if Princess Luna couldn’t—”

“Look!” Discord pointed.

All around on the ground, wisps of fog boiled up out of nothing and began forming small drawings of wood splinters. Soon they were surrounded.

Then the splinters began glowing to the repeating beat.

Then they stood up.

Then they formed thousands of drawings of brooms with arms growing out of their handles and their bristles parted as legs.

Then buckets appeared in each of their hands.

Then smoke boiled out of the ground and flowed into the buckets forming thick clouds.

Everyone looked around.

“Pinkie, whatever you’re doing, keep doing it!” Luna shouted.

“Which way do we need to go Princess Luna?” Pinkie asked.

Luna lit her horn.

She pointed forward and to the left. “That way! That way!”

Pinkie began to bounce off in that direction as the music finally marched forward again.

As did the army of living brooms in lock step to the music.


~~***~~


The group walked on, following the dancing Pinkie who was now wearing what looked like a ratty red bathrobe and a bad copy of Starswirl’s hat without the bells.

More clouds of smoke had joined them, either forming brooms of their own or flowing like water around them, the crests of its waves pulsing with the beat.

“How many times is this song going to repeat?” Cadence asked.

“We think this must be a ballet of some kind,” Luna said. “And this section of the music is performed to magic brooms carrying water.”

“This has to be one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen,” Celestia said.

“Dreamwalking is an art for a reason,” Luna said. “This IS working. There are even clouds drifting over from the right.”

“Not a lot though,” Cadence thought.

“Hey, Luna? How much farther?” Pinkie asked.

Luna lit her horn. “We should be seeing it any moment.”

Soon after, they spotted it. What looked like hundreds of bipeds standing around in a thick fog.

They all stopped whatever they were doing to look at the coming spectacle.

Pinkie waved her baton like a wand and an empty water cistern appeared. The song progressed and the brooms began to empty their buckets. It quickly overflowed, but the smoke stayed and simply circled around, still pulsing to the beat.

Five shades stepped out of the main cloud. The common thread between all their appearances was a three circle motif. A head band with two circles, balloons tied to his wrist, the symbol on a shirt, the symbol on a ball cap. The fifth was the most festive of the group, and the only one that looked happy. He was wearing a shirt with the exaggerated caricature of an old man with a beard. The bag hanging at his waist like a belt had the three circle symbol as the zipper charm.

And he was wearing the wizard’s hat.

He stepped forward, chuckling. Then he raised his arms.

Pinkie’s clothes and baton immediately vanished and the song stopped.

The specter became dressed in a red robe and white gloves. He began waving his arms and the music picked up again. He soon gained a pinkie-esque grin and his robes began to bounce as he bobbed his head.

The one with the balloons cupped his hands around his mouth. “Boooo!”  

“You look like a moron!” the one with the shirt shouted.

“Fuck off! You like the Fantasias too and you know it!”

“Not in public!”  the one in the ball cap shouted exasperated. He clawed the air with a look of horror on his face.

The wizard Vegeta lifted both his hands and extended one of his interior digits and spun around before returning to waving his arms.

Pinkie began bounding around the oblivious specter, adding to the silliness of the ridiculous scene.

Celestia couldn’t help but giggle. “I believe we found the element of laughter in his heart.”

“And judging from the other specters’ reactions,” Discord said, pointing, “he is completely embarrassed that it exists.”

The others noticed the shades still in the fog. Many had turned their backs or stood to the side blocking their view with a hand.

“What about there?” Cadence pointed.

She pointed towards a growing group of specters who were locking arms and forming a circle with their backs to the center, now starting its third ring.

“They are hiding something. Can we get in there?” she asked.

“But hiding from who?” Celestia looked at Luna. “You said they don’t know we are here.”

“They don’t,” Luna said and lit her horn.

A light wall similar to a doctor’s scan appeared and moved forward.

It passed through the growing group and they saw what they were hiding.

A teenager and the only shoulder-padded armor specter they had seen so far on this side. It was curled up and rocking back and forth mumbling “showingweaknessshowingweaknessshowingweakness…”, when it was corporal at all. Half the time it was a violently undulating cloud.

“It looks like it’s in pain,” Celestia said.

“It is,” Luna said. “It is a memory that does not want to be remembered. This is a trauma response.”

“Well? Let’s see it.”

“No, Cadence,” Luna’s horn faded and the wall of specters returned. “We are here to piece him together, not pry on his most vulnerable moments.”

“If you don’t want me to go home, grab the crystal heart and shred his soul into ethereal nonexistence, then show me.”

“Cadence!” Celestia shouted, stopping Pinkie’s bouncing.

“I will stand outside the city walls if I have to!”

“Luna,” Discord said. “I think Vegeta would forgive this, if the alternative is civil war.”

“Cadence?!” Twilight stared wide eyed at her babysitter.

“I am not backing down on this!” Cadence stomped her hoof.

Luna lit her horn. “We’re so sorry, Vegeta…” she whispered.


~~***~~


They appeared in a hellscape of rubble. Vegeta was straightening his uniform and walking towards a mixed group of about 20 aliens, with only two looking like him.

“So many different bipeds,” Luna looked around.

“This memory is so blurred,” Cadence said, “Can’t you do something Luna?”

“Thou art lucky we can even pull this much out of his mind, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. The mind protects its own sanity by blocking and erasing traumatic memories. It is why the specter could not hold its shape.”

“If everyone else is finished with their frivolities, I say we get going,” Vegeta said.

“Heh… I knew something was up,” Vegeta heard from his right.

A head popped up from behind the rubble wall, “Hey! Monkey boy! You’re still a fucking virgin aren’t you?”

The biped then dragged a half-clothed corpse into view, with a clearly snapped neck.

“What the fuck are you talking about?!” Vegeta shouted. “Stick your fingers in if you don’t believe me!”

“I did! There’s no blood!”

The others started to laugh and point.

“Not everyone enjoys internal organs on their dicks! If you mutilate your bitches, that’s on you.”

“Naw. Naw. There’s always blood no matter what. If there’s no blood, that means they couldn’t bleed. You’ve been killing them first!”

“Vegeta!” A large bald one that looked like him shouted, frustrated.

“See! Even the blockhead who raised you thinks I’m right!”

“So he likes them a little stiff!” the other one that looked like him shouted. “Who cares?”

“You’re both not helping!” Vegeta shouted, not talking his eyes off his accuser.

“Wha—what’s going on? I don’t get it,” Twilight said looking at the adults.

“Luna, get her out of here,” Celestia whispered.

Luna lit her horn and Twilight vanished from the vision.

The accuser touched his monocle, “Hey Pepi, did you call in the number of bitches yet? … Great! Grab a pretty one and a video camera! We got a virgin!”

“I am not a virgin!”

“Then you’re getting a free high-level bitch? Why you complaining?” he chuckled. “Unless YOU’RE the little bitch?!”

Everyone but the two started laughing.

“You know what’s going to happen to you once your little charade gets exposed when we get back, right?”

Other memories flashed quickly, showing the remains of mutilated young males, including meals cooked from them.

“If I don’t at least do the same amount… I’m going to be next…”

Just then, a woman with a metal collar and cuffs behind her back was dragged over, or at least that was the sensation they had as there was nothing there.

“Luna,” Cadence said as the memory began rapidly deteriorating.

“All we are seeing is all that is there,” she shot back.

“I got the camera!” they heard as the sides around them went black and what little was in front became a blur that was quickly devoured by expanding blobs of darkness.

“Wait… we're doing monkey porn? I can’t sell that…” was the last outside stimuli as everything went dark and a raging tinnitus squeal filled their ears.

There was a feeling of being shoved forward from behind before everything stopped.

Frozen. Cold. Blackness. Both numb and pure pain at the same time. Then the floor disappeared.

Luna flashed her horn as they began to fall.


~~***~~


The four came out splayed out on the floor.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight ran up. “Wha-what was that?” She began to spin, “I don’t get it? What was—”

Discord suddenly leaped and grabbed her head in his claw.

“Nothing. Worth. Remembering,” he said harshly as her eyes began to ripple with colors.

“nothing… worth… re…” she mumbled back.

Discord let go and her eyes returned to white.

She rubbed her eyes. “Princess Celestia? Cadence? Why were you on the ground?”

The three alicorns turned and glared at Discord.

“You know I’m right,” he said, crossing his arms.

Celestia sighed as they all stood. “It’s ok Twilight, don’t worry about it.”

“Are you-?”

“It’s ok Twili,” Cadence put her hoof on her back, “Trust me.”

“Oh… ok…”

“CANNONBALL!!!”

Everyone turned and saw wizard Vegeta jump into the cistern.

Then the clouds began to spin and dive in.

Then there was a beastial roar.

A huge, towering monster rose from the dark with a long muzzle of razor-sharp teeth.

All the alicorns puffed their feathers instinctively and a glimmer of magic lit the tip of Cadence’s horn.

Then—

The beast started to dance.

Feathers returned to normal as they began to realize the monster was wearing the same robe and wizard’s hat.

Luna finally recognized the form Vegeta took as he delaminated as he began to put his fists together and rotated them in a circle.

“You’re a dork!” a specter called out.

The beast raised its arms and roared, “I am the biggest dork!”

The princesses then heard a clicking noise. They looked and saw Discord with a film camera.

Celestia popped it out of existence. “Don’t waste what little magic you have.”

Discord crossed his arms.

The beast Vegeta then began waving its arms in front and behind him, switching the arms with every pass. “Yeah!” he smiled like a dog.

Suddenly, the joy stopped. The towering beast poofed and the wizard Vegeta appeared in its place.

It ran over to the circling specters.

“Move! Let me through.”

The group hesitated but eventually stepped aside.

The wizard knelt next to the panic-frozen teenager. It took its hat off, then glowed. It put its hand on cloud in the general area where the shoulder would appear.

Half a face solidified and its single eye looked up terrified.

“Do I look weak?” the wizard asked.

The half face moved like it was shaking its nonexistent head.

“Then let me take your burden. You will never have to fear ever again.”

The cloud leapt at him and they dematerialized and fused. What came out was a form they had never seen before.

The white gloves and boots of the armor, but dark blue cloth pants and shirt with no sleeves tucked neatly by elastic at the waist.  

It turned around and they saw something no one expected from the fusion of pure fear and pure joy—

Pure, unmistakable, unadulterated…

Rage.

“Cowards!” it boomed. “Why didn’t you help him?!”

“He was fine until you—”

The specter was cut off by a punch in the face.

A brawl broke out, with some trying to stop the fight, others joining in.

But none joining the new specter.

It wasn’t enough.

Everyone ducked as a stray blast came in their direction.

“How the hay does fueling someone’s happiness turn into this?!” Twilight shouted.

A slow clap brought the fight to an instant halt.

They turned and faced the armored mist as a shadowy specter came into view.

“Luna.”

“We know sister. That side is solidifying rapidly.”

“Poor little you,” it said with an icy smile, “Didn’t you promise that pathetic little wimp to never become a victim? And look at you now. The personification of victimhood. ‘I should be allowed to be happy, but I can’t because I have to be the adult in the room,’” it said in a high-pitched mocking voice. “‘But Kakarot died and everyone just gave up. His kids have completely abandoned the path of the warrior and any discipline you try and put into Trunks is undermined by her and her parents. I’m the only one taking anything seriously. Happily Ever After will always end up a lie unless continually written in fresh blood by those who will never enjoy it.’”

It laughed boisterously. “You’re even more pathetic than him.”

The rage specter stepped in between the others and it.

“And now you play hero to the ones you were just smashing their faces in? Hysterical!” It laughed again.

Luna stood, “We need to act now. While they are both still unformed.”

Luna lit her horn.

The specters all looked around at the ground.

“What the?!” they all could get out before rippling into smoke.

The smoke began to push and swirl together.

Then it stopped.

Luna stained as her horn glowed a blinding white.

She made some progress before it stopped again.

“It’s like there’s a wall…” Luna said, “But there’s nothing there. It almost feels like scarring, but it’s so thick. Tis like… burns. Horrible burns…”

Luna redoubled her efforts until she was glowing as brightly as the sun.

While everyone was burning their corneas, Pinkie was looking down.

A black slime was making its way silently along the ground.

She scooped some up. It dripped like tar oil from her hoof.

She held up her hoof. “This isn’t part of Vegeta.”

“Dark magic!” Cadence screamed.

The sludge reared up like a snake and attacked the cloud, soon plunging into gaps caused by the scars refusing to fuse together.

The resulting scream, layered in a thousand voices, broke everyone’s ear drums.

The magic began ripping the cloud apart from the inside out while the rest wrapped around it, leaving red tears that looked more like a chainsaw through flesh than any ethereal cloud.

Before anyone could react, the bleeding and shredding cloud briefly unified in a single overpowering memory. A glory lit like gold in the darkness outlining the hidden specter.

“You may have my mind and body. But there is one thing a Saiyan always keeps… HIS PRIDE!”

A new screech was heard, a dying wail as the snake was torn into small pieces of goo, sent flying in all directions before being incinerated by the following blades of light.

The cloud began to try to stay together. But the damage was done. The raw, red tendrils flailed and screeched in pain whenever they touched.

Eventually the cloud bifurcated, looking like two octopuses twisting their arms around each other in one last attempt despite the literal howling.

The pain became too much and the two flew apart and rolled across the ground.

The invisible line that had divided the mindscape lit into a translucent red wall as far as they could see. Then a symbol appeared on the divide.

“What is that?” Twilight asked. “Two mountains with curved edges?”

“It’s the brand of whatever dark mage first cast the geas,” Celestia said. “The locus of control.”

The symbol glowed, then vanished. Right before the wall shattered like tempered glass and evaporated into nothingness.

“Owe… Fuck…”

“Vegeta!” Pinkie ran over to him.

Vegeta slowly got to his feet.

Pinkie slid to a stop.

Vegeta was dressed in the same clothes as the rage specter, except his clothes were torn as he bled from dozens of wounds.

Then the sound of evil laughter made everyone turn.

There was a second Vegeta dressed in the shoulder pad armor. But this time he had a red cape, a large pendant, and some weird symbol with three spikes on the armor’s chest plate.

“The Sleeper has awakened! I’m the Prince of all Sai—”

A blast hit his face leaving black burn marks.

“You interrupted my monologue?! How dare you!” he threw off his necklace and cape.

“Shut up,” the injured Vegeta said, lowering his arm. “No one cares about that anymore.”

“Where is your PRIDE?!”

“Hopefully both asleep and not sneaking video games again. It’s a school night,” he said taking a fighting stance, “Let’s get this over with so I don’t toss and turn too much and get smothered by an angry pillow.”

“Oh,” he chuckled darkly, “This isn’t a normal nightmare. Haven’t you noticed?” He then began hitting his fist into his palm over and over again making a smacking sound.

Luna looked between them.

“Go ahead. Try and stop me?”

Injured Vegeta’s eyes widened. Then he stood straight and went super Saiyan.

“We can’t feel each other’s presence,” he chuckled darkly and he continued to smack his hands. “But we are both clearly real, which means…”

“No!” Luna shouted. “They’ve both solidified!”

“We are two separate minds.”