Chapter 10
A bump caused Scamp to jerk awake, eyes wide in shock. Her dreams were not treating her very well, replaying the day's past events over and over again. She wasn't new to trauma and loss, but it'd never been her fault before.
Suddenly, she realized she was alone in the cabin, Greg's spot where he'd been sleeping now empty. The window blacked out, the outside too dark to see anything.
She got up and walked over to the door, planning to go look for Greg. But the door was locked. A grunt escaped her throat as she hit the door a few times before deciding it wasn't budging. That's when she realized there was a sound behind her.
Scamp spun around, eyes wide in surprise at what she saw. The outside of the window was now a gray void with what could be rocks floating around. Her eyes glanced to where she'd been sleeping, the rune resting there, a slight glow to it.
"Right," she said as she stood up straight and trotted forward, jumping up into the window and onto a rock on the other side.
Before her was a surprising sight; a few rock formations that resembled destroyed buildings, the kind she'd saw during her assault on the Griffon Capital.
She walked forward, heading for the doorway of the false building. As she neared, a human male in black clothing appeared in the doorway.
"Aren't you an interesting creature, Scamp," he disappeared in a black twisting mist.
Scamp hadn't known what to expect if the rune actually worked, but this definitely wasn't on the list. She stepped through the door, a destroyed room lay before her.
The man reappeared sitting on a table near her. "A lot of new worlds have been opened to me as of late, and yet not many interesting stories or events to follow. Its rather disappointing, having so many different beings pining for my attention and barely any of them providing anything for me. Everyone wants power, but they have no reason to need it."
He again whisked away.
She looked around and walked down a clear pathway through the clutter, leading down a hallway back out into the void. As she stepped outside, he reappeared by her, leaning against the wall.
"But you? Fighting a foe so beyond you, that you should be worshiping it? That is something worth needing powers for," he walked around her, staring down at her. "What exactly are you willing to do? What are you willing to become in order to stop her?"
He stepped out into the void, off the rock, but did not fall as he floated up a few feet above her, "Your current plan is to kill as few as you can when attacking the palace. If you proceed with that plan, you, Greg, and the rest of your friends will die. Knowing this, do you still wish to push forward knowing you may have to become something you are not?"
This sent Scamp's mind reeling, as she indeed had planned to kill as few as she could when attacking the palace. But hearing this did not sit well with her. She wasn't a killer that killed for the sake of it. Sure, she'd been in the Army and then a SWAT officer, and had killed many in that time, but those had been bad guys doing bad things. She'd never killed anyone not involved. The OEA were the bad guys here, and so was the Queen, but what about the palace staff? Guards? Surely they're not all bad, just doing their jobs and living their lives as they believe they should.
Could she kill them?
"Don't you burn us," the Outsider suddenly said aloud. "What a terrible thing to have to live with."
"Yes," Scamp says, looking up into his black eyes. "I'm going to push forward."
Without a word spoken, he leaned up and nodded.
Scamp raised her left hoof as an intense burning sensation bubbled up right above her hoof. The symbol she'd seen all those years ago, and on the rune, slowly started appearing on her foreleg, like it was burning itself into her as it did so.
Once it finished, she could feel something change inside of her, like she was connected to something bigger, something deeper, than anything she'd ever felt before.
"With my mark, you will gain access to the powers of the Void. Meet me further along," he replied as he turned and whisked away.
Scamp began to run down the path ahead of her, looking ahead at what appeared to be more rock formations.
The path ahead broke up and separated away from each other. She tried to use her wings to fly over the gap, but found she couldn't fly here.
"This must be a way to test the powers," she thought aloud as she ran at the gap. As if on instinct she suddenly appeared on the other side. The act of teleporting like that caught her by surprise, as she thought she'd have to do something special for it to happen. But all she had to do was want to be in a certain spot and she appeared there.
When she'd been granted these powers before, she'd had to raise her hoof and point it where she wanted to go, but now it happened when she wanted it to.
"The powers you were playing with before were faint and imitations of this power," the Outsider commented, nowhere in sight. "These powers are raw, they are you. They are just as much a part of you as your soul. Use them."
A smile appeared on her face as she teleported along the rocks, clearing the gap with ease. It just felt so natural.
She walked along, coming up on a strange scene. Before her, she saw ponies frozen in time. It took her only a moment to notice the ponies were Echo Team, surrounded by OEA Enforcer's.
"Betrayed by your own people," the Outsider said as he walked around her, walking between the frozen Echo members. "Promised a better life, you and your friends walked into an ambush. And against all odds, you survived." He stopped by Dew, Jace, and Parker. "Not all of you made it out though."
He disappeared again.
Scamp walked through the frozen in time Echo members, feeling intense guilt and pain as she walked past her dead friends.
Further down the path she came to another scene; Calypso, Dribble, Shadow Breeze, and a few other ponies were sitting together, seeming to be frozen mid-conversation.
The Outsider appeared on the table they were sitting around. "What most would be a suicide mission, you and your friends are calling it the only option you have. Its success is fully tied to you, though. That's more pressure than some could handle, but you? You thrive in it."
As he left again, she walked by her friends, placing a hoof on Calypso's shoulder. She stayed there for a second before continuing forward.
"The odds are against you," the Outsider said from a rock above her as she walked along. "One power isn't enough."
Ahead of her, she saw another rune, slightly different from the one she had. She picked it up, causing a flash to happen. The rune disappeared, and she felt something new spread through her body.
"A power that allows you to take on many opponents at once will be invaluable to your cause," the Outsider said from above her. "Try it now. Stop time."
Scamp furrowed her brow, not understanding how to use the power. She decided to do the same thing as she did when teleporting. And just like that, everything around her stopped. She smiled and was excited when she realized she could still move unrestricted.
"Queen Twilight, a tyrant that shouldn't have been, brought about by the meddling of others, and the foolish actions of a single man." The Outsider walked in front of her, arms crossed. "Your world does not reward the actions you're about to take. If you fail, the consequences will be far worse than you can possibly imagine."
"I know," was the only thing Scamp could say to that.
The Outsider stares at her before disappearing for the last time.
Scamp suddenly sat up in bed, a cold sweat coating her body. She looked around, seeing Greg half laying on the seat and half on the floor. She raised her left foreleg, expecting to see nothing there. But to her relief, she saw the Mark of the Outsider burned into her leg, its black lines easily visible among her midnight blue coat.
The train hit a bump, causing Greg to fall into the floor, yet he doesn't wake up. That was when she noticed a few green bags in his saddlebags.
She could only sigh at this, but she couldn't blame him. She knew his past, and knew he was functional even under the influence.
Out the window, she saw that the sun had come up and they were nearing Canterlot, the Capitol city visible in the distance, high in the mountains.
The last time she'd been there was when the Storm King invaded. She'd been hailed a hero then. After the day's events she'd be hailed a monster. Win or lose, it wouldn't matter as far as the public is concerned.
'Don't you burn us.' The words echoed through her mind again.
"I won't this time," she answers her mind out loud, staring determinedly up at the palace that stood above Canterlot.