Honor Above All Else
Chapter 2
By Honored Service
"Listen, we've... I .... Whatever we are, we have been fallowing this damn river for at least six hours and we haven't found anything!" I dropped to the ground and groaned as pain ripped through my back and stomach. "And again thanks for fucking stabbing me!"
Again I'm sorry, but we should keep following the river till we find something.
"Easy for you to say, all you have to do is sit in my mind while I do all the walking. What are you bringing into this relationship Nightmare?" I stared at the water rushing by me as I waited for the Nightmare's usually snarky remark.
My hand suddenly slapped itself across my face.
"What the hell Nightmare?" I yelled grabbing my arm and holding it down.
Oh sorry, did I do that? The normally monotone voice in my head became soft and innocent sounding. And for information I can do stuff. It's just at the moment I am in a weakened state after getting shot through the head!
My hand stopped moving and I picked myself up. "Okay listen Nightmare, we need to make up. I hate you for what you did to the ponies." I swung my arms in front of me and continued moving along the river.
And I hate you because you stopped me from taking over Equestria. And you won't transfer me to an alicorn.
"We both have our differences Nightmare, but let's face it; we're going to be stuck together for a long time. So why don't we make the best of it." I stopped and turned to the river and looked at my reflection in the water. I could see the outline of myself but the water was moving too fast to see details.
Human I agree with you, for once, so let's take over the world.
I just stayed staring at the river remaining silent.
Or not. What do you have in mind human? The voice in my head became soft again.
"Well I do good things. I'm a protector. That's what I do, and that's what I plan on doing."
But being good is so... boring. Have you ever tried being bad? Not even evil, just bad.
"Nightmare I know you can't read my mind, but you can see memories right?" I turned around and continued my painful trek along the river. How far from Canterlot had I floated?
Yes I can.
"Then go through some of my memories from my old home on the other planet. See the world I came from and maybe you'll understand why I do what I do." I shrugged and shouldered my rifle only to grimace in agony as I found out another new hurt spot on my body.
Everything was silent. The only sound came from the bubbling of the river as it passed by me. I reached under my duster and pulled out my canteen and drank some water. I kneeled down and refilled it with the cool water from the river. I screwed the cap back on and put the canteen up. I struggled standing back up.
My midsection bandages were stained red already. I needed to think about getting that fixed. Even though I wasn't dead, didn't mean that wound would lead to my slow demise.
I reapplied some new bandages to my midsection throwing the bloody rags on the ground. I looked behind me and saw only rolling hills and grassy plains.
Why? The Nightmare asked. The voice was shaky and weak, like a small child who just watched their first horror movie.
"Why what?" I asked. "I can't read minds." Bam, chalk one up for me.
The fighting. The death. The wars. The evil of your home. I... I... Every day you lived with that?
"Everyday Nightmare. These ponies know almost nothing of what I went through. The horrors that my planet endures on a daily bases. That stuff happens so regularly, so often, that it's an anomaly if it doesn't happen." I stopped walking and squinted my eyes, off in the distance I could make out a series of shapes along the river.
Rape, murder, killings, and war. You were a part of that? A solider? How could you want to do that.
I resumed plodding towards the shapes, "To protect the ones I love. I fought so savagely against you because I didn't want what you saw in my memories happening here, but I failed. The changelings killed ponies and destroyed their city."
I'm sorry. The voice nearly whispered. I don't understand how something can come from a place like that and want to do good.
"Nightmare what memories did you look at?" I knew Earth was bad, but bad enough to shake up the Nightmare like this?
The war with the Combine.
"The Combine...? Oh that war... yup that was a terrible one alright. Nearly destroyed out entire species. Sounds familiar doesn't it?" I'll tell Nightmare later that one wasn't real. Right now we were making progress to changing the evil Nightmare's outlook on life.
I never thought about it from the other side's point of view. So you fight to protect the innocence the ponies have.
"Exactly." I smiled at nothing in particular.
I can respect that human, but I just don't know if I can be 'good'.
"Nightmare, if you don't mind, how did you become... what you are now?" The objects I had seen, now had the appearance of small huts on the side of the river.
Well to generalize my existence I used to be a pony a long time ago. About 4,000 years ago. I was working on a spell that would allow me to be in multiple places at once. Like split my mind into replicated bodies and allow me to be in many different spots at once.
"But something went wrong?"
Very. I ended up becoming a floating essence of matter. I was a mind without a brain or body. I ended up finding out I could travel into ponies, but only exit them if they touched something more powerful.
After about a thousand years of this I went mad and managed to work my way into a powerful unicorn and decide to take over Equestria. Then the humans stopped me and I found Princess Luna after that.
"Wait, I saw a memory from Luna when she absorbed you. She touched a spear. How the fuck does that work?"
Ah well I ditched the unicorn during the battle of Hum-Gia for a human. He actually stabbed himself once he realized what happened and died. Now what's more powerful, the dead body or the spear?
"But the spear is an inanimate object?!" I yelled out. This was making little sense.
Doesn't matter, at the time it was more powerful so I jumped into it to save myself. Then the Princess came and well you know the rest.
"So it doesn't matter if it's a powerful pony or a powerful thing?" I began hatching an idea to get the Nightmare out of me.
Yes
"Then why can’t you just jump out of me and into a powerful object?"
3 reasons. 1, there is only one object more powerful... or six.
"The Elements of Harmony?"
Yup. And I don't want to be a necklace. 2, I don't like being something that just sits there. The spear was only to stay alive. And 3, fuck you, I like being in a human mind. Your memories aren’t all happy and disgustingly sweet.
"So we're going to be like this till I die?"
My offer about leaving for an alicorn....
"Hell no!"
Then yes, I guess we are. What's that song I heard in here... Ah, you've got me under your skin?
"Shut up."
Be nice or I won't tell you what magic I can do.
"It doesn't matter, I'm not a unicorn, I don't have magic." The small group of huts had grown into what looked like a large village.
That just means I can't use your magic, sense you don't have any, but I can use my magic. Once I recover it.
"Nothing evil right?" I asked as I approached the village. The huts were constructed of grasses and sticks. Some were made of dark brown bricks and grass roofs.
Yeah sure... no evil magic.
"Nightmare."
Yes fine, I won't be evil,
"Thank you."
But I won't be good.
"Oh what the fuck, Nightmare."
Just think of me as only working to keep me/you alive. If you want to risk your life to save a pony then so be it, but I won't help until my life comes into danger.
"Okay you know what, I have a feeling that's as good as this is going to get. Why don't we finish this conversation later in private when I don't a small village of ponies and zebras looking at me."
That would probably be for the best.
“Um, Hello everypony…zebra.” I stammered out and gave a wave to the frozen crowd of ponies and zebras that inhabited the small settlement. “How is everything? I'm just a traveler looking for some directions.” I smiled right as one of my bloody rags wrapped around my midsection came lose and fell to the ground revealing my gruesome wound.
“Shit.”
Not going well?
“Nightmare, fuck off.” I said through gritted teeth and toppled over in horrible pain that tore through my stomach and midsection. Everything began to blacken as I heard a new voice next to me.
“Could this really be; my old friend has come to see me?”