Chapter 74
July 15th 16 A.B.
Morning
Domitor flew into his dark bedroom through the window, kicking the window close behind him as he walked towards his bed, exhausted. He’d accidently stayed up all night listening to dumb stories, and only left when they all decided to head back. Of course, he flew ahead, since he was not going to spend any more time with them than he had too.
As he neared his bed, he reached over to his desk with his wing and flicked on a lamp. The sight of his father sitting on his bed, leaned forward with a stern look on his face. His goggles were off, making it impossible for the young colt to be able to hold eye contact with his fathers intense glare.
“Making friends?” his father asked simply.
“N-No! I went out to s-screw with them, but then I w-was able to get some info out of them. S-Stories from that dimension you like,” he stammered, looking everywhere but his father.
“Ah, you were just gathering information for me,” he said flatly, still staring daggers at his son. “So that’s why you revealed things about me to them.”
The colt's eyes went wide as his father stood up, towering above him. “No no no, please I’m sorry, it just slipped out, I-”
“You little dunce, you are my SON, and you betray me?!” he roared, his words causing Domitor to fall back on his flank, pushing himself away as his father advanced on him.
“I didn’t betray you! I misspoke, I-”
But he didn’t have time to speak as his father grabbed him by the mane and raised a hoof.
ooo000<^>000ooo
Shayla waved goodbye to her friends as she split from them, wanting to go to the Mellowed Pie before heading home.
Bopping her head to the music coming through her headphones, she almost didn’t notice the pony walking towards her. But as she twisted her head, she raised an eyebrow.
It was Domitor. He had his head down and was walking pretty fast towards him, which caused her to stop and pull down her headphones.
He came to a stop a few feet away from her, breathing heavily.
“Uh… yo, Domitor… you good?” she asked, feeling a bit of sympathy towards him after just spending the entire night before talking and laughing.
“... Your fault…” he muttered, not looking at her.
“What?” she asked, frowning at him.
Then he looked up at her, his face covered in swollen bruises, blood, and tears. “Everything is your fault!”
“Whoa! What the hell happened to-” she began, taking a step towards him, but without warning he launched forward and punched her hard in the face, causing her to stagger back.
She blinked at him as he squared up with her, staring at her with hate filled eyes.
“You little bitch,” she growled, narrowing her eyes as she launched herself into him.
The two engaged in a very rough and heated fight, reigniting the rivalry in a new way. Now worse than before.
ooo000<^>000ooo
March 26th 17 A.B.
“This was a really stupid idea,” Roxxy mumbled as they all walked along the cliff edge, the heavy winds making it impossible to safely fly. The only thing ensuring their safety were the ropes around each of them.
“Nah, we got this,” Shayla replied as she stood at the front of the group, everyone’s ropes were attached to her, as she was the only one who was able to keep her grip due to her claws. If anyone fell, she’d also have the strength to pull them back up.
“How do we even know if this will work?” Dude yelled over the winds.
“We don’t!” she laughed back, then looked at the pack on her back where a little bundle lay curled up. “But we have to do this!”
“But why?! It’s not like-”
“We HAVE to do this!” she repeated, pushing ahead.
After a long slow climb they finally reached the end of the trail that ran along the side of the mountain, revealing a staircase that led straight up to the top of the mountain.
“See? Making good progress!” she yelled back, pulling them after her as she began to ascend the stairs.
“Oh good! More climbing…” Nightstreak whined, but was pulled along anyway.
“What if this isn’t real? What then?” Flippy Dew asked, looking at the wrapped up bundle on Shayla’s back.
“Then we try something else!” she stated.
“We’ve been trying all kinds of things for the last few months, I don’t think he has much more time left in him,” Nightstreak replied, getting a glare from the younger filly.
“It doesn’t matter. I promised him I’d try my hardest, and that’s what I’m going to do,” she said as she continued upward.
The climb was long and hard, as the stairs seemed to get steeper and steeper as they went. But finally, after what could have been hours, they reached the summit of the mountain. What lay before them was a simple looking statue with a few benches around it.
“That’s a bit underwhelming,” Dude muttered, but was yanked forward as Shayla pulled them all towards it.
“So what is this exactly? Something religious?” Summer Breeze asked, looking at the hand carved statue, shuttering as it looked like it was looking right at her.
“It’s a human religion thing,” Shayla said, removing the ropes from herself and walking forward. “From what I found out, there was a cult of humans here in Equestria that no longer wanted to be here, so they tried to contact their God to get sent somewhere else.”
“Did it work?” Flippy Dew asked, watching as Shayla removed the pack from her back and wiped snow from a bench, laying the bundle down on it.
“Well, do you see them around here?” she asked, unwrapping the bundle to reveal an old dog, who just looked around with tired eyes. He tried to stand, but he just collapsed back onto the blankets. “Hang in there, Louie,” she whispered to him, getting a weak nod from him.
“How do we use this?” Dude asked, kicking the foot of the statue, which appeared to depict a man nailed to a lowercase ‘t’.
Already having an answer to this, Shayla pulled out a thick book and held it up. “With this! I stole it from Spark’s dad’s study.”
“What book is that?”
She looked at it, flipping it around to show the front; ‘Holy Bible: Angelic Edition’. “Apparently,” she started, flipping through it, “this book was given to Spark’s dad by this God of theirs. So it’s got to work if we use it here.”
“I feel like stealing something like that is really bad,” Flippy Dew said, looking very nervous.
“It’ll be fine,” she chuckled, waving her concerns off. “So! Gather around!”
Everyone reluctantly moved up and took their places in a circle around the statue.
“Now what?” Dude asked, looking at Shayla as she flipped through the book.
“Now I read!” she responded. In a very dramatic voice, she began to read random passages from the book, yelling them at the statue.
But no matter how many she read, or how she yelled them, nothing happened.
“I command thee! SHOW THYSELF!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, trying to mimic the way the book was written.
“It’s not doing anything,” Nightstreak said grimly. “This trip was a bust.”
“Wait,” she said, glaring up at the statue as it seemed to look back at her. “Let me think.”
“Try praying?” Flippy Dew offered.
“Praying? That’s stupid,” Shayla scoffed, then smiled. “Ah! I got this!”
Stepping forward, she kicked the statue, “oi! Come on out here you pussy!”
“Whoa! Let’s not call a God a pussy,” Dude yelped as everyone stared at her in horror.
But she ignored them.
“Come on! You turned Louie here into a dog that could not fix himself! That’s a dick move, you asshole!” she yelled, holding eye contact with the statue.
“Shayla!” Flippy Dew hissed, trembling as she watched her friend go off the rails.
“If you don’t talk to us,” she said, holding up the Bible and holding it open. “Then I’ll start ripping out pages!”
Everyone watched anxiously as she shook the book up at the statue, hoping she was just making a idle threat.
Then the sound of a page being ripped caused everyone to scream and rush for her.
“STOP!”
“You’re going to get us smited!”
She jumped above her friends and ripped out another page, throwing them at the statue.
“Get out here, coward! Stop acting all high and mighty!”
Then everything went white around them as the mountain faded away, replaced by a white void.
“That’s more like it!” she screamed, landing in front of her friends, who all looked absolutely terrified.
“My Child,” a voice boomed around them. “Do you understand the actions of which you have taken?”
“Yeah, you made me rip a few pages out of a book. That wouldn’t have happened if ya would have just shown yourself earlier,” she stated, standing tall as she glared upward into the void.
“Shayla!” Roxxy hissed at her, but she was ignored as Shayla tossed the book up and down in her claws.
“Now, if you don’t want me to rip this book up some more, then fix my friend over there,” she said with a cocky smile.
“A threat will not achieve what you demand,” the voice replied simply.
“Hey bitch!” she yelled, pointing a hoof up into the nothingness. “Don’t you fuck with me!” With a rip, she tore out another page, causing her friends to collapse onto the ground in dread. “See? You made me tear out another page.”
“Oh my… we’re going to die here,” Summer Breeze whined, burying her face in her hooves.
A large being of light appeared before them. Its features could not be seen, as it just appeared to be a solid mass of light.
“You do not grasp what you are doing. Your ignorance blinds you,” the mass of light said as Shayla squared up with it.
“Oh I know what I’m doing; I’m making you fix your fuck up and return Louie his younger self and give him a longer life span. Don’t make me force you to do it,” she yelled, waving the Bible at the light.
“My Child-”
“I aint your fucking child,” she said in a sassy voice as she flew up a bit, glaring at the light. “I want a simple yes or no. Are you going to fix Louie?”
“You are a very presumptuous filly, Shayla Beltosh,” the light said calmly to her.
“I get it from my moms,” she stated, smirking at the mass of light. “Now fix him!”
“I do not change my plans, my Child. Everything is as it should be,” the light said, followed by the Bible flying up and slapping against the area where its head should be.
“Shayla NOOO!” Roxxy yelled up at her sister, everyone diving to the ground in fear.
Shayla herself just hovered there, staring daggers at the mass of light as the Bible slowly fell towards the ground.
“You threw my Holy Scripture at my face,” the light said in a calm voice.
“Eeyep, I did. Do something about it,” she sneered back, sticking her tongue out as she reached into her saddlebags.
“Young naïve Shayla, I-”
The voice was interrupted as a soda can flew up and hit it in the face.
“I got plenty more, asshole,” she growled, holding up another can.
“...”
Everyone stared up, unable to breath as they waited for their enviable deaths.
“You are a true wild card, My Child,” the voice said, causing her to start to throw the can in her hand. “I will answer your prayer.”
“I never prayed, dumbass,” she said with a scowl, then threw the can, hitting the light in the chest area.
“You are a precipitate and bold filly, Shayla. If you are not careful, your future will not go as you believe it will,” the mass of light warned.
“Is that a threat?!” she yelled, digging into her bag for something else to throw.
“Good luck, my Children,” the voice said as she pulled out an empty bottle and started to throw it. But as soon as she threw it, the white void faded away as buildings began to appear around them. The bottle soared through the air and smashed against a building, causing her to growl.
“AH!!! That cowardly bitch! He sent us back to New Ponyville!” she screamed, throwing a tantrum in the air.
“Shayla!” Roxxy suddenly called out, getting her to turn to face her friends.
What she saw brought a smile to her face.
Louie was up and moving on his own, looking like a very young dog now.
“Louie! He fixed you!” Shayla yelled as she flew down and landed before the now very happy dog.
“He did!” Louie exclaimed, catching everyone off guard, even himself. “Oh! I can speak! YES!”
“But you’re still a dog,” Roxxy pointed out.
“I don’t care!” the little dog laughed, “I can TALK! That’s all I’ve ever wanted! I can finally tell you all about my backstory and all my thoughts!”
Shayla blinked at the excited dog as he rambled on.
“Wow! I just don’t know where to start! OH! I should probably start at the beginning!” He sat down on his butt and waved his paws in front of himself. “My story begins at the start, when I was born! It was a peaceful day that day, except for my parents screaming in joy at seeing me for the first time. If I remember the story correctly, they-”
“Dude, do it,” Shayla said, interpreting the little dog.
“On it!” Dude yelled, his horn flashing and sending the little dog away. “To Spark’s house he goes!”
“Oh thank all that is good, I love that little guy, but I didn’t realize he’d talk so much,” Shayla muttered, getting a few laughs from her friends.
Then Roxxy gasped as she pointed at Shayla's flank. "CUTIE MARK! YOU GOT YOUR CUTIE MARK!!"
"What?!" Shayla screamed, lifting her wings and looking at her flank, a wide grin on her face as she saw she did indeed get her cutie mark.
It was what appeared to be a playing card, the Joker card, with a blacked out snake head wearing a jesters hat.
"Whoa!" she exclaimed. "What's it mean?!"
"I dunno," Dude replied, shrugging as they all gathered around her to look at it. "But it's super cool looking!"
"Doesn't your mom have a playing card on her cutie mark, too?" Nightstreak asked, getting a excited nod from Shayla.
"Yep! This is so fucking cool!" She stared at her flank, enjoying the sight of her new cutie mark. Then, as if a switch was flipped, she turned to her friends, smiling even larger than before. “Now, who wants to go find another quest to go on?!”
Their happy smiles faded as they stared at their friend as she looked at them with an expectant smile.
“But.. we just finished one!” Dude complained.
“Yep! Which means we can do another! Now that I have a cutie mark, we need to get you all yours!” Shayla yelled, turning and marching further into town.
Her friends looked at each other and sighed, but they followed after her, as they always did.
“Onward, Phantasm Troupe!” Shayla yelled loudly, smiling proudly.