//------------------------------// // Chapter 13 - Who Am I?* // Story: Fallen Stars // by Zachurra //------------------------------// “Wait wait wait, you did what?” Anger, despite not having any visible pupils, rolled his eyes. “Fine, I’ll explain it again and I'll speak slowly and even simpler than the last time: Vice fell on his head, lost his memories. Some freaky looking blue chick recognized us and sent us here. War found him, beat the shit out of him, and then started telling him about his dead girlfriend in order to let me take full control.” “Yeah, that part there." Dante looked towards War, "What the hell, man?” War shrugged softly as he looked down at the infuriated Dante, “He was no longer himself… I needed to know if Anger was still there…” Dante sighed and rubbed the temples. “I know you want what’s best for Vice, and you were worried about him” he spoke slowly and tried to calm himself, “But that was a little too much, even for someone like you.” War shrugged softly again. Dante eyed the tendrils waving around from Anger’s back, not trusting the cold-hearted soul. Anger noticed this and snickered, “Take a picture, it’ll last longer.” Dante let out another long sigh. At that moment, the door to the library opened. “Dante, have you seen War? Word around town is that he—what in Celestia’s name is that!?” “You’re not too bad of a looker yourself.” Anger said with a wink. Twilight shuddered at the gesture. She looked to Dante for explanation but was met with a flat, annoyed look on his face. “You said you needed some proof about what I said the other night?” he held his hoof out, pointing at Anger, “Ta-da.” Her eyes flickered back and forth between Dante and the monster he pointed at. “Um… care to elaborate?” Before Dante could give an answer, Anger began stepping towards Twilight. He grinned when he could see her growing more uncomfortable with each step closer. When she began recoiling back slightly, he bowed in a mockingly-gracious fashion, “My name is Anger.” Twilight gave a slight nod in return, albeit forced. “Wait a second,” she said, perking up and turning to Dante, “didn’t you say Anger was one of the guest souls? Then why is he here?” “Yes, Anger is Vice’s guest soul. Apparently, he was going through the air on his own wings when Celestia cast the spell that turned us all like this. Not used to the new body, he hit the ground pretty hard. He now has amnesia and doesn’t recognize any of us.” He nodded towards War, “Not even him, and he’s not exactly someone you can just forget about. Anyways, War found him wandering around town. Vice didn’t recognize him, so War – in all his wisdom – decided to try and force Anger into control to see if he too lost his memories.” He sighed and spoke through clenched teeth, “Sadly enough, that doesn’t seem to be the case.” Anger feigned a hurt look, “If you keep talking like that, people might get the idea that I’m a bad guy!” “That’s because you are.” Dante moved forward, getting between Twilight and Anger. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’d appreciate it if you gave Vice control again. I have a few things I’d like to ask him.” “And what if I do mind? It’s not every day that I actually get to walk around freely. Well, I guess I should say trot around freely now.” Dante’s eyes suddenly swirled into blackness. “Do as he says Anger.” His voice was now far deeper and more demonic, “This is not the time for such foolishness.” Anger squinted his eyes in annoyance, “Carnage, always stuck on a leash. Good to see you haven’t changed.” Carnage bared his teeth at the grey pony. War stepped between them and shot them both a glare before they could be at each other’s throats. He turned to Anger, “You… would do well to learn your place…And you…” He turned his head to Carnage, “must learn control…” Both ponies let out a sigh. With reluctance, the tendrils slithered back into Anger’s back, closing the holes behind them. His cloud-blue eyes phased back into reality. His eyes weren’t open for long however, as he soon slouched forward and fell over and slipped into unconsciousness. ------------- Speicher grumbled and rubbed his eyes. They stung, and his back felt like it was on fire. Ordering his eyes to open, he saw only hooves. However, these hooves weren't his own. Following the brown trail upwards, he found himself face to face with a pony who wore a large hat. For some reason, he looked annoyed. “Wake up buttercup.” With the help of the brown pony, he rose to his hooves. His legs shook slightly, but he could still stand. He was about to thank him, but his voice fell silent when a certain black Unicorn came into line of sight. “You!” Speicher’s horn began to glow as several knives slipped out from underneath his wings. The black stallion’s eyes narrowed as his own horn began to glow. The knives dropped to the ground with little metallic clangs. “Wha..?” Speicher began, dumbstruck. “He’s already kicked your ass once.” The brown Alicorn said. “I’d really rather him not trash the library too.” It was not until now that Speicher actually took in his surroundings. They were, in fact, in a library. Oddly enough, it almost looked like they were inside a tree as well. Speicher sighed and sat back down. “Alright, I’ll bite. What do you want with me?” The brown Alicorn got up and came closer to him. He looked deep into his eyes, as if searching for something. “Keep doing that and you’ll make me blush.” Speicher said, rather defiantly. He ignored the comment and kept looking into his eyes. After what felt like an eternity, he closed his eyes and sighed, “It’s him alright, but he’s not all there anymore.” The black Unicorn gave a nod. “What are you talking about?” Speicher said, beginning to get frustrated. “Listen, there’s a lot we need to talk to you about. Just know that we’re your friends. My name is Dante. The big guy over there is War.” “Some friends you are.” He said, glaring towards War. “Yeah, sometimes I think the same thing… Anyways, I need to step outside for a minute. You kids play nice.” With that, Dante started towards the door. “Wait, are you serious?” Dante responded with a simple wave of his hoof before closing the door behind him. Speicher glared at War, and War simply stared at Speicher. The two remained silent the entire time. ------------- “So, is he going to be okay?” Twilight asked “Probably not, but we’ve been through worse. Me and War just gotta figure out how to get his memories back. From what Anger and War told me, he remembers Serena. That’s a start, albeit a bad one.” “Serena?” she asked curiously. Dante sighed and lowered his gaze to the floor. “Serena… was Vice’s soul mate. You’ve never seen a happier couple than those two. I was a bit skeptical at first, considering our positions, but I had no right to tear them apart.” Twilight was afraid to ask her next question, “What do you mean was his soul mate..?” A long silence passed as the two sat together. Finally, Dante found his voice again, “A rogue faction that Vice had been ordered to disband got a hold of her… We thought it would be simple enough, as he specialized in tactical insertion and espionage… He never told us they had kidnapped her… By the time we had found out, it was already too late.” Dante refused to see the look in Twilight’s eyes. He had had enough of that kind of look. “Anger took it as an opportunity to take control of him… he made him watch as they killed her. When we arrived at their base of operations, we found both the leaders propped up against the wall with knives in their throats with Vice was holding her corpse.” He let out a long, drawn out sigh. “Vice had long since put Anger in his place, but I still can’t forgive him for what he did…” He hopped off his chair and made for the door that led back into the main library, “I should check up on them… make sure they haven’t killed each other.” When he left Twilight, he found that both War and Speicher were still silently glaring at one another. “Knock it off.” He said, harsher than he intended. He huffed and took a seat by Speicher, “Alright, so first off: tell me what you’re able to remember.” “And why should I do that?” he replied defensively. “Fine, don’t. I’m really not in the mood to care if you go back to the old you or not right now.” Dante began to sit up, seriously intent on just walking away. “Wait… fine. All I remember is waking up in the home of a family that said they didn’t know me. I spent a lot of my time wandering around Canterlot just trying to find something to help me get my memories back. Other than that, all I know is that I still get a massive headache from time to time, and there’s some sick and twisted voice in my head.” “Yeah, that tends to take some getting used to.” Speicher cocked his eye brow up at Dante, waiting for him to clarify what he meant by that. “And what about Serena?” he continued, ignoring the gesture. Any light that was in his eyes at that moment quickly died away. He seemed to shrink down a little as the whole memory began replaying in his mind. “Yeah, that’s what I thought…Your name is Vice Virtus. You are also known by another name: Famine.” And so Dante proceeded to tell Vice of his origins. Who he was, what he could do. He told him about the Horsemen and about their second souls; Vice’s in particular. In everything he did, however, he stayed far from the subject of Serena. “And there you have it. You’re now up to date on our situation. Feel anything click?” Vice looked at Dante for a moment before closing his eyes. “I feel… like you’re an idiot.” Before anyone in the room could react, Vice casually got up and walked right out the door. War began to follow, but Dante put his hoof forward. “No, let him be. I doubt he’s going far.”