Chapter 11
“We need to talk,” I said to Lance as we walked through the city, heading for the teleport hub. I was still covered in blood, which surprisingly wasn’t that uncommon here in the Plains, since people were staring, but not panicking.
“About?” Lance asked, looking ahead blankly.
“About what just happened,” I say, staring at the side of his head as we trotted along. “How you’re acting.”
He didn’t say anything for a long moment, just kept his eyes forward. After a while, he glanced my way, seeing me still staring at him. Finally, he sighed, “I just want to go home, Scamp. I’m tired, and I want my family back.”
“I get that,” I say, feeling the same way but unlike him, I couldn’t get mine back. “But, you need to slow down, look at what's happening. Zorrow was actually doing very well for himself back there, he was not a slave like we thought.”
Lance seemed to digest this, thinking back, a frown on his face, “You sure?”
“Did you listen to a word he said?” I countered.
“Not really,” Lance admitted, “I saw him and just started thinking about how much closer we were to getting back, and I just kinda acted.”
“You acted possessed,” I point out.
With a deep sigh, he looked upward, “Scamp, I’m not feeling like myself nowadays.”
This caused me to raise an eyebrow, as he’d not said a word about feeling like that. “How so?”
“Ever since I gave half my soul to make Eclipse, I just feel tired.”
“That’s normal,” Bronwyn said from behind us. “The trick to getting over that is to absorb more Ego. It’ll never replenish what you gave up, but it helps fill the void.”
Lance seemed to look a little happier at this, but his mood still seemed down. “How about you? How do you feel after giving half your soul?”
I blinked back at him, then smiled sheepishly, “Eh, better than ever to be honest. Having Alya at the back of my mind, always there, encouraging me, is really nice.”
“Yeah, I guess I’m just used to having that,” Lance replied dejectedly.
I didn’t know what to say to cheer him up.
Ayla appeared next to me as we walked. “Tell him that you understand exactly how he’s feeling, and that you promise you’ll help him get through this.”
This caused me to recoil in surprise, as that wasn’t what I’d expect to hear from her. She just smiled brightly at me as she faded away.
“Lance,” I started, getting his attention. “I wish I could return home, see my mom again. Ever since Greg and Shadow showed up, my life has gone through so many changes that I’m now at a place where I don’t even recognize myself anymore. But you, you’ve remained constant, even through years of imprisonment and interrogations. And now, we’re so close to getting you home, we just have to push a little harder. I’m here, Lance. I’m staying at your side till I see you and your family returned to each other. Can you do that for me, Lance?”
He looked at me, a tear running down his face, “Thank you, Scamp.” That was his only response, but I felt I’d said the right thing, as he seemed to cheer up a bit. His ears were no longer pressed down at least.
Bronwyn sped up to get next to me and patted my shoulder, giving me a nod of approval.
A small grin made its way onto my face, and for once, I felt good about myself.
ooo000<^>000ooo
“You two need to understand something,” Bronwyn said, standing at the teleport hubs console, “So far, you two have only faced normal Ego users. None of them hold a candle to Heildan. He has more experience than I do in both fighting and Ego.”
My eyes widened at this, “He’s stronger than you?”
She nodded back at me, “Yes. Most of my enemies are stronger than me, seeing as I came in recently to the fold. I was the most recent Enforcer when the UAD revealed themselves, so all of my enemies are the same ones the Enforcer’s have been fighting for a long time.”
This did not set well with me, as I wasn’t sure if I’d even stand a chance against them.
“Then what can we even do against him?” Lance asked, voicing my thoughts exactly.
“Work together,” was her response. “You two need to stick to each other when we fight him. If he takes control of either of you, or me, cut the Ego connection with your weapons.”
Lance sighed, “This doesn’t seem to be in our favor.”
“It’s not in our favor,” she replied to him. “But we have to do it. And I do believe in us.”
I smile as I nod to the console, “We got this. Ready?”
“Yep,” Lance replied, trying to perk up.
Bronwyn only gave a nod as she stepped up to the console, and began to type in the coordinates they’d gotten from Seth’s file.
ooo000<^>000ooo
The rain poured down on us as we walked through the field of wheat, my hooves and clothes covered in mud from trudging through the field. Lance groaned in annoyance as he pulled his coat collar up, pulling his hat down to try and keep the rain from hitting his face.
Bronwyn didn’t seem fazed as she stomped along, rain pelting her face.
Up ahead was a lone building, lights on in all the windows. According to Seth’s file, he was living here with others. The reason behind it is unclear, but Bronwyn was sure it’s the home of Heildan, and the ones there were his puppets.
“So we’re just walking up to his house?” Lance asked, never being on board with this plan.
“It's the only way,” Bronwyn said grimly. “There’s a charm over the area that makes it impossible to teleport.”
I frown as I try to teleport, but find I can’t. “That’s pretty cool.”
She chuckles at my annoyance, “Just be ready for anything. He more than likely has had eyes on us for a while now.”
“Great,” I replied as we trudged through the field, pushing down the wheat as we went. “Are these his fields?”
She laughs at this, “Probably not. Everything he does is for aesthetics and fun.”
“So, an old barn house on a hill surrounded by wheat fields is his idea of fun?” I ask.
“Well it’s actually more fun to fight in,” a man suddenly said from beside me. The rain came to a sudden halt.
My eyes widened as I snapped my head to the left, seeing a colorful jester smiling down at me.
Without a word, I flexed out all my blades and spun at him. He just danced backwards, dodging all my blades easily.
Bronwyn jumped over me and went after him, her sword out. My Ego flew across the ground and connected to him.
He seemed to stumble as he looked past Bronwyn and right at me, “Did you just negate my Ego? Now that’s new!” With ease, he dodged the attacks of Bronwyn. A blade flashed, cutting my Ego from him.
Without warning, he jumped back and seemed to fall into the ground. Bronwyn chased after him, looking around for him.
Lance took to the air, looking around for him as well.
I stood at the ready, looking around for him.
“What an interesting, yet annoying Ego you got there,” he said an inch behind my right ear. My wings flared, cutting through the air where he should have been. But they didn’t connect with anything as I spun and saw nothing.
“Above!” Bronwyn yelled as she dashed back towards me.
Looking up just in time to see him mid-flip as he twirled in the air and dived straight for me, two daggers in his hands.
My own wing blades barely make it in front of me to block his attack, but his attack seems to drill through my defense, the blades coming straight for my face.
A cyan shield suddenly appeared inches from my face, stopping the blades.
Thank you, Lance!
I twist my body and stab my own wing blades straight at him, hoping to catch him mid-dive. But he seemed to be able to see this coming as he deflected my blades. As he neared the ground, his body moved impossibly, seeming to right himself just as he touched the ground, landing on his feet instead of his head.
As he jerked towards me, I stopped time, his eyes wide as he attacked.
No counter for this, huh?!
My hoof talon swung upward, catching him in the gut and ripping through his clown outfit, blood spray frozen as I carried the blades up through his chest and then tipped his jester mask.
Time resumed as he spun away, holding both hands to his wounds.
“WOW!” He screamed in agony. “That was not something I expected! Time control?! WOW!”
Despite his injuries, he still was able to dodge Bronwyn as she attacked, and even dodged my attacks. Lance launched a fireball at him, and he just seemed to catch it and throw it back.
Heildan coughed loudly, blood spraying out the mouth hole of his mask.
Stopping time again, both Bronwyn, who was barely moving, and I pushed towards him, going to finish him off.
Just as we reached him, I swear I heard a low laugh coming from his mask. Suddenly, he began to move, unhindered somehow. He dashed past both Bronwyn and I, his blades flashing.
As time returned to normal, both of us collapsed. I had a fresh stab wound in my flank. Bronwyn looked to have a stab wound to her gut.
He could have killed us, but he chose to wound us? That can’t be good.
“Thank you for showing me that trick, but it won’t work on me twice. Isn’t Ego just wonderful?!” He danced around us, eyeing Lance, who was flying above us, looking to be unsure how to handle this guy.
Grunting, I stood up and turned to face him, Bronwyn not far behind me. So I can’t use any of my void powers? Noted.
It was at this moment I realized his wounds seemed to have healed, the ripped clothing revealing barely scared skin.
“He’s controlling some others and using their powers on himself,” Bronwyn observed, starting to walk a circle around him.
“Right you are,” he said happily. “What are you going to do about it?”
She just smiled as she suddenly back flipped into the wheat, disappearing. A sudden scream was heard as she appeared a hundred yards away, her sword impaling a strange creature.
“Oh, so you’re willing to kill my puppets, that’s new,” Heildan murmured unhappily, crossing his arms and tapping a dagger tip against the front of his mask.
Lance came out of nowhere, going for a sucker punch. But Heildan just sidestepped him, ignoring him completely as Lance hit the ground and jumped up, a card flashing as a frosty wind blew in front of himself.
Heildan looked surprised as he started to freeze, but a sudden blast of heat from his side melted the frost, allowing him to get out of the way.
“And you have an Ego like that?” He laughed as another scream was heard, Bronwyn doing some work on his puppets. The mask seemed to frown as he looked in her direction. “Apparently you guys won’t let me enjoy this.”
Both Lance and I joined forces as we began attacking the jester, my Ego constantly attaching to him and getting cut almost immediately. Lance threw many different types of attacks at him, but nothing we did seemed to affect him.
He just dodged anything we threw at him. That was till Lance suddenly threw a card that turned into a mini sun, burning everything around it, us included. I got away with minor burns to my left leg and neck, but Heildan got the full brunt of the attack, his whole right side covered in 3rd degree burns. Lance was unaffected, as it seemed to not hurt him.
“OOOO! Okay, yes! Burn me! BURN ME!” Heildan screamed out as he grabbed his face and thrashed around, still dodging me as I attacked. He suddenly grabbed my hoof, his eyes suddenly visible through the mask’s eye holes. They were bloodshot, aflame with rage.
“You want to play?! Let’s play a better game!” He pulled me forward, throwing me behind him with such strength that I couldn’t react at all. Suddenly, a different man appeared next to him, looking to be in a daze.
Heildan threw up his hands, causing the man to do the same. “Switch!”
Something strange happened, my vision shut off for a moment, and I lost all feeling in my body. Before I could really panic, it all came back, but now I was on the other side of Heildan and the man. Then I saw myself, struggling to stand up.
[What the fuck?!]
(You’re not, Lance!)
<Scamp?!>
My eyes widened as I heard the voices of Break, Dawn, and Eclipse in my head. I looked down and saw cyan fur with red stripes under the sleeves of the trench coat.
Oh no.
[Did that motherfucker just swap your minds?!]
<It would appear so!>
“Oh! Now for the fun part!” Heildan yelled as he began to cut the man before him into ribbons, his blades going crazy. “I wish you luck in fixing this switch now!”
“You fucking bastard!” I hissed in Lance’s voice, diving towards him. Lance’s body felt very odd, more bulky than my own.
He didn’t even try to attack me, just dodged me, seeming to enjoy this too much. “Nice lunge!”
[Let me deal with him! You’re not used to using Lance’s body!]
I clenched my teeth, not wanting to just give control of Lance’s body away, as I didn’t want to be not in control of my actions.
<It didn’t work?>
[I can’t take control! What the hell, Scamp?!]
(Her will is stronger than a bullwhip!)
That makes no sense. But I was pleased to know Break couldn’t force me to give him control like he could do with Lance.
Lance, in my body, stood up, looking terrified, “Switch us back, please, this crazy pony is right in front of my face!”
Heildan just laughed as he watched us, more screams happening in the distance. He looked out there, frowning.
No time for this, I need to deal with him, then I can deal with this change.
I stood up straight, and held my hoof up. Two blank cards appeared there.
How do I use this?
<Scamp, just imagine what you want the card to do, the Ego will do the rest.>
{Thank you, Dawn.}
I glanced at Heildan as he seemed to be enjoying Lance, who was running in circles, screaming about Ayla chasing him.
[Make the card do a big fire ball! That’ll get him!]
(Nah nah, make it cast a living rope that’ll tie him up!)
I’m starting to see why Lance hasn’t done anything different with his Ego.
([<HEY!>])
Ignoring them, I took all of the Ego he had in his body, and put it into the two cards. If this works, then I’ll be very upset with Lance for not doing this before.
Once the card was ready, I turned to Heildan, who was riding my body as Lance screamed in terror, galloping in circles.
“Heildan!” I yelled, causing him to snap his head to me and jump off of my body and land before me.
“Yes, unfortunate pony?” He asked, staring down at me.
“Goodbye,” I say with a smile as the card flys up and disappears. He just stares at me as nothing happens.
“And that did?” He asked, crossing his arms.
“Uh,” I said, smiling sheepishly. “You should be gone now.”
I guess it can’t do that. I tried to open a black hole in his chest to suck him in, but that might be beyond the abilities of his Ego.
He threw his hands wide, “Still here, afraid.”
Taking out the other card, I threw it up, frowning. I had no faith in that one working.
With a laugh, he reached out for me, but suddenly grabbed his head in pain. He began to wail, thrashing around as he stumbled around. “What have you done to me?!”
I blinked at him, then smiled, “I gave you a large brain tumor. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think that’d work.”
“You gave me cancer?! Are you insane?!” He screamed, finally falling to the ground.
Bronwyn ran over, carrying a pony that looked to be Seth. “What happened?!”
“She gave him cancer! Now help me!” Lance screamed as he ran, still running from Ayla, which we couldn’t see.
Bronwyn looked between us, seeming to slowly realize we’d switched bodies.
[Holy shit! You gave him cancer?! What is wrong with you?!]
<That’s dark, Scamp. Jesus.>
Really? Killing him, fine. Giving him cancer, too far?
“What? Lance gave him cancer?” Seth asked, not seeming to realize what’s going on yet.
Heildan began to crawl away, but I pounced forward, holding him down. “Oh no, you’re not going anywhere till you help us.”
He just looked up at me, his mask twisted in a sad, pained look. “I’ll only help if you remove this tumor! The pressure is killing me!”
I think for a moment before replying, “Deal. Start with how do we get back in our bodies?”
He looked up at me, then laughed, “I dunno!”
Rolling my eyes, I look at Bronwyn, “I need a little extra Ego, please.”
She nodded as she retrieved an Ego rune and threw it to me. I caught it, and drained the Ego into my body. A card appeared before me and after a moment of thought, I cast it on Heildan.
His masked eyes widened, “You didn’t!”
“I did,” I replied, smiling. “Truth spell.”
[Ooo get em!]
<Very smart, Scamp! Now he’ll have to tell us what we want to know!>
(WOOOO DOGGY! Get that man to get Lance back to us!)
Ignoring them, I lean down, “Alright, how do we fix this? How do we get back to our original bodies?”
“I honestly do not know! I killed the only person I’ve found with that Ego ability!” He pleaded, the spell forcing him to talk.
This brings a frown to my face as Lance runs by, crying, “Scamp please tell her to stop! She keeps screaming for me to get out and bring you back!”
“Ayla!” I yell, hoping she can hear me. “Stop chasing him, I’m working on it.”
Lance slowly stopped running, looking around in a panic, “Oh thank Christ! She stopped!”
“Wait, that mare is inside Lance’s body?” Seth asked, getting a nod from Bronwyn. “Wicked.”
I sigh and look back to Heildan. “Do you know where any other Bronies are? Like Seth over there?”
Heildan looked to be trying to stop talking, but the spell forced him to speak. “Yes!”
“Where? Write the coordinates on this paper,” I shoved a piece of paper and pen in his chest. He started to write, but then seemed to smile widely. He wrote out a set of coordinates, then fell back on his back. I looked at it, and the name he’d written under it.
“Spark?” I said in shock, a lightning strike happening as if on demand.
“SPARK?!” Lance yelled as he ran over and grabbed Heildan by the collar of his remaining jester outfit. “My son is here?!”
“He’s with Lorenzo!” Heildan laughed, beginning to roar with laughter, despite the pain he was in.
Bronwyn glared, her grip on her sword's sheath tightening.
<Kill him, Scamp! Rip his throat out with your teeth!>
[Shred every ounce of body! Leave nothing for his friends to find!]
(Make a noose and hang him from that tree over there!)
Yeah, and cancer was too far.
I pushed Lance away, holding up a hoof to stop him.
“Heildan, where is the Watcher?” I asked carefully.
He just smiled up at me, and shrugged, “No idea.”
Why did it feel like he was lying?
“Now, remove this tumor!” he demanded.
“Don’t,” Bronwyn said as she stepped up. “He’s a horrendous being, who has done things far worse than you can imagine. There is no redeeming him.”
“Everyone can be redeemed,” Lance said as he looked down at him, getting a smile in return from Heildan. “But not anyone who messes with my kids.”
In a flash, Lance reared up and slammed his hoof down on the man's face, smashing through the mask. He slammed his hoof down over and over again. A burst of cyan Ego flew from the now dead man and entered into Lance’s body, causing him to shudder.
“Oh…” Bronwyn said in shock. “That should have been a massive influx of Ego you just got.”
“Lance?” Seth asked, stepping up to Lance, looking worried.
Lance looked at him, swiping my hair out of his face, “I’m good, Seth. But I don’t have time to talk.”
Before Seth could talk further, Lance pulled out a pokeball and tapped it on Seth’s chest, causing him to get pulled into it, just like the others.
That’s unfortunate, I would have liked to at least speak with him before we sent him away.
“Now, Lance,” I said as he started to walk away. “We need to fix this problem first, then we’ll get your son back.”
“No, I’ll use your body if I have to, but I’m not sitting around and waiting for my son to get hurt!” He snapped, revealing to myself just how frightening my own face was when I was mad.
I held up a hoof, “Hang on, let me at least try something, please.”
He exhalled angrily, but nodded.
“Give me some Ego, just focus on me and transfer a bit to me,” I said, trying to explain how my Ego worked.
It took him a few tries, but eventually I saw a trail of Ego reach out to me and start to feed some directly into my body. I could feel the Ego entering my body, and it was powerful!
I gave a nod as a card appeared before me, and I attempted to try and replicate the Ego ability the man before had used on us.
But it took me four card attempts before I finally figured it out, causing us to switch back.
I stumbled a bit as I returned to my body, feeling a very powerful energy within me. Heildan was just filled with Ego! I feel like I have an endless supply now!
“Scamp!” Ayla yelled as she hugged me, her body seeming to glow with all the extra Ego we had inside of our body.
“Hey, Ayla,” I say aloud, even though I could have just thought that, and returned her hug.
Lance however, looked displeased as he stood up and looked himself over.
“You can do so much with the Ego you have, Lance,” I say, still impressed with what is possible with his Ego.
“I guess. You two ready to go get my son?” He asked, already turning to head in the direction of the teleport hub.
“Lance, we need to take a moment to collect ourselves!” I say after him, understanding his hurry, but we can’t just rush after Lorenzo.
“No! I’m not waiting another second now that I know he’s out there with that mad man!” He snapped back at me.
But Bronwyn stepped between us. “Lance, if we go in as we are now, your son will die. Listen to us.”
This seemed to stop Lance as he looked between us, his body deflating. “I just want my son to be okay.”
“He is, he’s being used as bait,” Bronwyn replied calmly. “We just need to take a moment to figure out how we’ll approach this.”
Lance didn’t look like he agreed, but he nodded. “Okay.”
She relaxed, “We need to work with you a bit and see what else we can do with those abilities you have. Scamp just proved you can do a lot more than you’ve been doing.”
“I don’t like what she did,” Lance admitted, looking at me. “I know I ended up killing him, but that wasn’t me! Something inside of you made me do that!”
I smiled sheepishly back at him, as he didn’t know about the Nightmare corruption inside of me. While it doesn’t affect me, it seems to have been able to affect his weaker soul.
“That’s… hard to explain,” I say, getting looks from both of them. “Eh… When my team killed the Nightmare, the Queen tricked us and the spell we used spread its soul between the six of us. I have a part of the Nightmare inside of me, and that’s the reason Ayla and my mind looks the way it does.”
Lance stared at me with wide eyes, looking more pissed than I’ve ever seen him.
“But,” I continued, “My fathers genes seem to have overpowered the Nightmare, making it where it can’t control me or affect me too much. But it seems it was able to affect you and influence you.”
“Damn it, Scamp,” Lance scoffed, shaking his head. “That’s something I should have been told earlier!”
“I know,” was my only response as we stared at each other.
Bronwyn sighed then turned her attention to me. “Scamp, I think you should know that right now, you have more excess Ego inside of you than I do. Heildan has been around for a very long time, same amount of time as Lorenzo actually. I can not imagine the types of souls you currently have inside of you. A few of my friends are probably in there, too.”
I frown at this, “Is that bad?”
“No,” she says after a moment. “No, it’s actually really good. We won’t be running out of Ego anytime soon, that’s for sure. Not to mention you have a few powerful beings souls within you. Ayla just became among the strongest Ego weapons around, even above mine.”
“Wow,” I muttered, not really sure how to feel about that. I didn’t kill him, it was Lance. Or I guess it was the Nightmare influencing Lance that killed him.
Ayla smiled brightly at me, “I also wanted to tell you that with all this excess Ego in me, I feel like I can try something. I just have to figure out how to do it.”
‘Like what?’
She twirled in place, “So I think we can combine our dad's original form with the Nightmare form! We may be able to transform like Lance can!”
A frown appears on my face. Transforming now? Is that what my next evolution was going to be?
“It’ll be fun!” she assured me happily.
I guess, since it’ll help us going forward. What’s giving up a little more of myself when I’ve already given up so much?
“So dramatic!” She laughed as she gasped, “I hope we get his antlers!”
‘Our dad had antlers? How do you even know that?’
“I have his memories thanks to the Nightmare!” She exclaimed, getting a sigh from me. I don’t even want to know.
I realized the other two were just staring at me, seeming to know I was talking with Ayla.
“Eh, sorry about that. What’s the plan?”
Bronwyn nodded to the house on the hill, “We’re going up there to check things out, then I’m training with Lance some more.”
And I’ll try and help Ayla with this transformation business. “Perfect.”
“Let’s just not stay here too long, please,” Lance groaned, then he looked at us in excitement. “Wait! Let me just cast another card like the one I sent you two into, but this time so we can train!”
Another one? As long as it's nothing like the first, then I can handle it.
“That is a great idea, but let me help make it this time. That way we’ll have everything we need and won’t be miserable,” Bronwyn said as she leaned down next to Lance as he brought a card up before himself.
As she talked to him and he added her ideas to the card, I sat down hard, looking up at the dark sky. The rain hadn’t come back, which I was thankful for.
“It’s going to be okay,” Ayla reassured as she sat down next to me and laid her head on top of mine.
“I hope,” I said aloud, watching the others work on the card, trying to make the perfect training dimension. “I just hope I don’t become the Nightmare after all this.”