Chapter 15
Lance slid to a stop over the spot where Leem and Scamp had just been standing, looking both surprised and terrified.
“What just happened?” he asked, looking at Bronwyn, who had a look of rage on her face.
“Damn it, that overconfident…” she clenches her fist then spits onto the ground. “Leem took her.”
“Took her where!?” Lance growled, his own rage barely contained.
Bronwyn looked up at the camera as it flashed. “His personal slice of the Eternal Plains. The Dome of the Dead. If he sticks to his usual modus operandi, which he usually does, then he’ll throw her in the pits to fight till she dies.”
“So… like two men enter, one man leaves?” Lance asked, getting a weird look from Bronwyn before she shrugs.
“Basically. But I’ve never seen Leem’s colosseum, it's so far outside of the teleport hubs, that it’s virtually impossible to find unless you live there, or he invites you.”
Lance nods, thinking.
“Just know,” Bronwyn says, looking unhappy. “We can only go after her, or the Bronies. Not both at once.”
“Why?” Lance questioned, frowning at her.
“If we go after her, we could lose the trail. This place, Lorenzo’s Fun Park, changes coordinates all the time. Once we leave, we’d have to track down the new ones, which could be impossible. So we have to choose now; Save Scamp, or continue looking for the Bronies here. Because I can guarantee most of them will be in this park.”
Sighing, Lance looked out the window at the landscape as it flew by. “It sounds like your mind's made up,” he huffed, crossing his hooves.
“It is,” she said, frowning. “I’m going after Scamp.”
Lance looked a bit surprised at that, “I thought you were going to choose the opposite.” He looks unsure of himself, the heat rising from his body. “Well, I trust Scamp can handle herself. I’m going after my friends and son, Scamp will catch up when she breaks out of that place.”
“It’s not that simple,” Bronwyn replied. “I can’t leave you alone in this place. The Watcher is after you and you alone.”
“I can handle myself,” he assured her. “If you want, go find Scamp. I’ll stay here and tear some shit up till you get back.”
She looked him over, seeming unsure, “Lance, you may be powerful now, but you are not ready to face ninety percent of the people under Lorenzo.”
“My mind is made up. Scamp is a capable mare, she’ll find her way back to us. Either way, I’m staying here. The more of my friends we find, the closer we get to Ominus finding the Watcher.”
Bronwyn let out a groan as she sat down on the floor, “Damn it all.”
Lance then remembered something as he pulled an item from his pocket dimension. The emergency beacon to alert Ominus they needed help.
“Is that…” she said, knowing what it was. “Who will Nathan send? He can’t come here himself.”
“A friend,” Lance says with a smile as he hit the button. The little device started beeping.
“PLEASE FIND A NON-MOVING LOCATION!” The device blared.
“Ah, we need off this wild ride,” Lance said, chuckling a bit to himself.
Looking around, Bronwyn didn’t see anything that could stop the train.
Lance picked up on this, then flared his wings. “You know what, I got this!”
Before she could protest, he galloped forward and got in the in-between of the two train cars. Raising his hoof above himself, he slammed it down, shattering the Ego infused train car beneath him. A few more hits, and the two cars slowly started separating as he split the car they were in from the front of the train.
He walked back, smiling proudly. “Now we’ll eventually come to a stop.”
“How did you do that?!” She asked, eyes wide. He’d just broken an object that was basically an Ego weapon. That only happens when someone’s own Ego vastly outmatches the original caster that created the object.
Looking at the two dead bodies, she had her answer. “Amazing.”
“Yeah, I can be pretty amazing sometimes,” he said, flexing a bit. Break obviously influenced him a bit more at that moment.
It took some time, but the train eventually ground to a halt. Lance tossed the beacon onto the ground.
“ACCEPTABLE LOCATION! STANDBY!” It screeched.
Nothing happened for a moment, the two just staring at the beeping device.
Then, with a flash, two ponies appeared before them.
Calypso!
And Greg.
“Greg?! Why are you here?!” Lance yelled, clearly unhappy with this. He began to pull a pokeball from his pouch.
Calypso sighed, “Ominus wants him here. Greg apparently has potential, and could be a great help at dealing with the Watcher.”
A pokeball soared for him, but Greg caught it with his magic.
“Whoa Lance! Don’t act so rash!” he said, then took Lance in. “I thought you said you’d never use the Apollyon form again after we lost… David.”
Lance sneered, flexing his demon-like wings. “It’s required here. You need to go, it's too dangerous for you.”
Greg just chuckled, not appearing to be high at all. “It’s alright, bud. I’ve had a full history class on this place, I know what it's like here.”
“You do not,” Lance said, eyeing him down. “The information Ominus has is a bit inaccurate and outdated.”
“Maybe it was, but our friends you saved gave us a better insight into what this place is like,” Greg said, smiling up at the rage filled eyes of Lance.
“It doesn’t matter,” Bronwyn interjected. “If this is the Greg that helped Scamp kill the Queen, then he’ll be a great help.”
“Thank you,” he said with a smile, bowing to her.
She then looked at what they were wearing. Calypso had her SWAT gear on, complete with a rifle. Greg had a simple outfit on; an Adidas style black jacket and pants, white stripes going down the arms and legs. The jacket was zipped all the way up, completing the look.
“Those weapons you have,” she said gesturing to the rifle and pistol on Calypso, “Are inferior here. Most opponents will have some way of dealing with firearms. Be it speed or a defense of some kind.”
“It’s what I know, and what I’ll stick with,” she retorted, sizing Bronwyn up and down.
“We’ll have to unlock your Ego as well, but luckily there’ll be someone around here who can do it. As for Ego weapons, I’m not so sure. We may have to hold off on those for a bit. There could be substitute weapons here, it is an amusement park after all.”
“We’re in an amusement park?” Greg asked, walking to a window and smiling at what he was seeing. “Ah fuck yeah!”
“It’s an evil amusement park,” Lance deadpanned.
“Evil or good, the place looks awesome!” Greg replied much to Lance’s annoyance.
Bronwyn walked to the end of the train car and looked out over the area around them; down below was a small crowd of park goers, all staring up at them in confusion.
“Right then,” she said, looking back at them all. “I’m going to help you two get some weapons and Ego unlocked, then I’m heading to find Scamp.”
“Whoa wait, what happened to Scamp?” Greg asked, eyes wide.
“Is she alive?” Calypso asked, worry plastered on her face.
“She should be alive,” Bronwyn reassured them. “One of Lorenzo’s men took her to a coliseum of death.”
“Who the fuck is Lorenzo?” Greg asked, looking between her and Lance.
“I feel we have a lot to explain before I leave,” she replied.
Greg then looked to Lance, “So, we are staying in the Apollyon form long term now?”
Lance glared at him as he shifted back to his normal form. “If you knew just how dangerous it really was here, you wouldn’t question it.”
“Chill, bro,” Greg chuckled. “Now, I want to find out what kind of Ego powers I’ll get!”
Before Lance could say anything, Bronwyn nodded, “Let’s find a map. There definitely is a vendor or booth out there that has someone who can unlock it for you two.”
ooo000<^>000ooo
“This place is just so damn cool!” Greg exclaimed as they walked by a booth that had a strange creature dancing on a table, dodging knives thrown by park goers.
Lance snorted again, “You wouldn’t say that if you’d been here since the beginning. The owner of this evil place is in cahoots with the Watcher, who has my son.”
“Yeah, I heard the story the first time,” Greg retorted, a bit annoyed. “Lorenzo is the big bad guy of our adventure right now, and after him is the Watcher. I get it. But that doesn’t mean we can’t just enjoy the scenery as we go!”
Mumbling to himself, Lance walked ahead, catching up to Calypso.
Bronwyn fell back to walk next to Greg, “Do you know the problem he has with you?”
Sighing, Greg just shrugged, “Yeah. I use to be a major fuck up back in the day. But his real problem with me is that I let a friend of ours die.”
She looked down at him, a look of sympathy on her face. “What happened?”
“A new threat came to town,” Greg said, looking ahead, reminiscing, “It honestly wasn’t anything new, we fought stuff all the time. But this one got a hold of a friend of ours, David. I helped send Lance into his mind to break the control, but it didn’t work. Then later, David grabbed Lance’s son. I stepped up and tried to use my magic to save him, but I’d been high on a new drug I was into, and my magic fizzled out. The attempt just angered our mind controlled friend, who began to try and break the neck of Spark. Lance had to take drastic action and kill our friend.”
She reached down and placed a hand on his shoulder as he held back tears.
“Lance blames me for it, and honestly, I do too sometimes. If I hadn't been high, I would have easily been able to save Spark, and David.” He looked at Lance as he spoke with Calypso. “He’ll never be able to see past it.”
“I see,” Bronwyn said, sighing loudly. “Killing a friend to save another isn’t something most have to face. But you both did what you had to do. You made mistakes, and it seems you’ve made changes to correct them.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he mutters. “To me or him.”
Bronwyn started to offer more advice, but Greg sped up and joined the others, seeming to be done talking about it.
“This is a complicated group,” Bronwyn said in exasperation as she rubbed her face.
ooo000<^>000ooo
“Welcome to Marv the Mystic!” the heavily robed man exclaimed as they entered his tent. “What you in the market for? Trinkets? Charms? Love?” He said the last part while wiggling his eyes at Calypso and Lance, who happened to be standing side by side.
“Eh, no,” Calypso deadpanned as she stepped away from Lance’s side.
“Ego unlocks,” Bronwyn stated, stepping up and leaning on his table. “You able?”
“Am I able?” he laughed, his fingers glowing cyan. “That’s child's play!”
She gave a sharp nod and motioned for Calypso and Greg to step forward. She slammed an item down on the table and pushed it towards him. He grabbed it greedily and hid it within his robes.
“Nice, very nice…” he muttered, then held both of his hands out to them. “Come come, let me touch you.”
“Touch me? Sounds like a creepy uncle at thanksgiving,” Greg joked, getting no laughs. He groaned and stepped forward, letting the man place a hand on him.
Calypso looked unpleasant as she removed her helmet and stepped forward as well.
Cyan pulsed through his hands as the two looked uncomfortable. After a few moments, he pulled back. “Done and done! Anything else you require?”
“Not unless you have weapons,” Bronwyn replied.
“Firearms preferably,” Calypso added.
“Hmm? Weapons? Firearms? Not I. But I know a guy. He makes Ego bullets that could fit in that strange gun you got there, horsey,” Marv said, rolling his hands. “Just need a bit more, payment.”
Bronwyn eyed him, then dropped a different item on the table. He all but snatched it and hid it in his robes.
“Four booths down, to the left. Tell him Marv sent you, ask for his special service. Anything else?” he asked, looking like a greedy snake.
“No,” Bronwyn said as she lead the group outside into the open.
“So that was it? We got Ego?” Greg asked, not seeing anything different about himself.
“Yes, use these and I’ll tell you what you can do,” she said, handing out those strange cubes.
As they looked them over, Lance chuckled. “Squeeze 'em.”
They nodded and gave the cubes a squeeze. After a moment they glowed yellow and split open, little symboles hovering above them.
“Let’s see here,” Bronwyn said, reading Calypso’s first. “That’s interesting. It looks like you can use your Ego to heal minor wounds and ailments. Seems to take a lot of Ego to heal more complex wounds. That is actually an amazing Ego.”
This seemed to please Calypso greatly, as it fit her perfectly.
Switching to Greg, she leaned forward to read his. “It looks like you can enhance the Ego of yourself and others, either increasing or decreasing its effectiveness. Not only that, you can place glyphs all around you, that will do basically whatever you want them to do. Only drawback is you have to touch them yourself to activate them. I’ll be honest, that’s an incredibly useful Ego.”
“Only if the user was smart enough to utilize them,” Lance muttered, getting a glare from Bronwyn.
Greg either didn’t hear him or chose to ignore him as he smiled brightly, “Bad fucking ass, man!”
Bronwyn pulled out two runes and held them to Lance. “Lance, these are Ego jars, if you could please share some of your spare Ego, we can get them a massive head start.”
Lance took them, squeezing them as he poured excess Ego into them. Once they seemed to be filled, he tossed them to the other two.
As they used them, Bronwyn nodded, “Perfect. Next Lance, take them to our training dimension and show them the basics.”
He rolled his eyes as a card flashed and a portal opened. With much excitement, they all three entered. Just as that portal closed, another opened next to it and they all stepped out, looking less excited.
“You’re still here?!” Greg asked, seeing Bronwyn still standing there. “It’s been two days, I thought you’d be long gone!”
“Time works differently in there, you’ve been gone a second. Didn’t Lance explain that to you?” she asked, looking at a grumpy looking Lance.
“Eh, no, he avoided me outside of telling me how to use Ego,” Greg said, looking at Lance as he looked away with a huff.
“Uh-huh,” Bronwyn said, a tone of displeasure in her voice. “But you two get the basic’s now?”
A glyph with a pot leaf appeared next to him and he slapped it, causing a little thumbs up emoji to appear in front of himself. “Basically yes.”
Calypso twirled a few of her Ego tendrils around, using them to fix her red dreads. “It’s actually very simple once you understand it.”
“Good, good,” she said as she nodded, side eyeing Lance still. “Now, let’s get you better weapons.”
ooo000<^>000ooo
“Ah, more tourists! Welcome to the store that’ll help you storm the gates of the Netherworld!” a strange goat looking creature exclaimed.
“Hello, pal!” Greg said as he hopped up on the table. “Marv sent us, told us to ask for the fun services!”
“Good ol’ Marv, sending me such wonderful customers! Well! Let’s not dilly on the dally! Follow, follow!” he said, waving for them to follow him to the back of his tent.
Upon arriving in the back, he pulled a cloth revealing a table with strange tools on it. “Tell Mister Old-Scratch what you be needin’!”
Calypso looked between everyone then walked forward, “I was told you can make something called Ego bullets for my guns?”
He laughed, hunching down and examining her rifle. “Hmmm, yes yes. This is a simple process. I’ll of course need some Ego, but I can make a good number of them for you. They won’t be a good replacement for a good trusty soul weapon, but it’ll get you by.”
She looked unsure, but at Bronwyn’s nod, she agreed.
Old-Scratch reached out with a hoof and pulled some excess Ego from her, then lurched to his work table, his hand and hoof working fast as he began to combine materials together in a way that made no sense to anyone but Bronwyn.
After some time, he stopped, and turned to her, holding up a box of loose ammo. “Should be to your liking, yes. Now a payment. I want a single dread of your hair. Mmm, yes that.”
She frowned at the old goat, but complied as she extended her hoof blade and sliced a dread from the back free, handing it to him.
The old goat grabbed it and ate it immediately, causing Greg to gag a bit.
“Oh now that was wonderful, yes, thank you, horse.” He turned to Greg. “What of you, puke colored one?”
“Huh…” Greg looked unsure of himself as he looked around the room. He never was one for weapons.
He finally conceded, sighing, “I got nothing. I’m not a weapons guy, despite how awesome I think they are.”
The old goat murmured as he turned and dug through a chest. He came up holding a crude wooden club with a faint cyan glow to it. “I have this club with a weak soul within it.”
Greg grabbed it with his magic and swung it around a bit. “Perfect!”
“As for the payment,” Old-Scratch said, saliva dripping from his mouth.
“Yeah yeah, hair, I got you, bro,” Greg said, looking for something sharp to cut his hair.
“Let me have a lick, horse,” the old goat said as he grabbed Greg by the shoulders and drug his long gray tongue up from his neck and side of her face, then through his hair giving him a massive cow lick.
Greg stood there in shock, body ridged.
“Oh good, yes. Anything else, new friends?” He rubbed his hoof and hand together while looking at them expectantly.
“Eh, no thanks, you’ve been a great help!” Lance announced as everyone backed out of the room, except Greg who still stood frozen in place.
Bronwyn walked back in and picked him under her arm, his body stiff like a board. “We thank you for your services,” she said with a bow as she walked backwards, the solid body of Greg held tight.
“Do come back, yes.” The old goat waved as she left the tent, his slit eyes watching her every move.
Once outside with the others, she placed Greg down. He rocked back and forth and fell over, making a clattering sound like a cartoon character. Pinkie Pie seemed to have rubbed off on him a bit.
“That was… uncomfortable,” Calypso muttered as she began to load the new bullets into her rifle.
“Welcome to the Eternal Plains,” Lance said with a wave of his hoof.
Greg, finally snapping out of it, sat up and wiped his hair down. “Why did that have to feel so sexual and personal?”
“Don’t think about it to hard,” Bronwyn said, stepping in front of the group. “I do not like the idea of leaving you three alone, but there’s not much choice.”
She pulled out a little computer-like device and handed it to Lance. “This can contact me anywhere. When I’m ready, it’ll ping your location so I can use a teleport hub to return here.”
He took it and reached out to shake her hand, “Go save Scamp, we’ll handle things here.”
Not looking convinced, she looked between them, “Lorenzo and his men are top rankers, so if you face any of them, try and do it together. Support each other.”
“We got this, Bronwyn, trust,” Greg said, slamming his hoof into his chest.
She gave a nod and turned to walk away, glancing back after a moment to give them one last look. She could only hope they could survive without her guidance.
She disappeared into the crowd of happy park goers, leaving the ponies to fend for themselves.