Chapter 2
Sucking loudly, I drained the soda from the cup, using a straw as my throat was still extremely sore. The first thing I did once I got back to town was to come to the Mellowed Pie and get a fountain drink, since going home meant I’d have to talk to my moms about what just happened.
I’m not sure if I’ll tell them the truth or not, since they’ll over react and do something stupid. Plus, I can handle this one. Domitor screwed up catching me off guard like that. Next time, I’m coming at him with everything I got.
“Hello, Shayla,” Kal said as he appeared before my booth, smiling widely at me.
“What?” I grunted out as he was one of the few ponies I did not want to see right now.
“My son told me what he did,” he said, seeming to judge my reaction.
“Yeah? He tell you it was a fluke? He caught me off guard,” I growled, slamming my drink down on the table.
“Of course,” he said as he slid into my booth. “I mean, you are a championship winning mare! And him? Just a waste of space.”
“You could say that again,” I agreed, taking the top off my cup and pouring some ice into my mouth.
He smiled as he leaned back, placing an item on the table. “I just wanted to come and apologize for him. This here is an item that-”
“Don’t want it,” I interrupted, pushing it back to him. “Want to make up for it? Then fuck off.”
His smile wavered, but he didn’t push it as he stood up and gave me a bow. But as he turned to leave, I sighed as I thought of something.
“Want to make up for this?” I asked, getting him to turn to me and grin.
“Of course,” he said with an eager look on his face.
“Get me a way to go to another dimension, like the Eternal Plains or something, and I’ll consider us square,” I said carefully, watching his reaction.
A strange look flashed across his face as his grin widened. “Ah, that I could probably do. If you can wait, I can come up with something.”
“As long as you do it, then take your time,” I say back, leaning back and chewing on some more ice.
He didn't say anything else, just bowed and left, looking to have a little excitement in the way he walked.
Weirdo.
But I smiled as I chewed on my ice, I’d finally got him by the balls! I’ve been waiting for the perfect moment to try and manipulate him into taking me to another dimension, since no one else would.
So I guess I owe Domitor for once, since his little fuck up just put his father in a lose lose situation with me.
“Game set match,” I mumbled as I smirked to myself.
ooo000<^>000ooo
Kal stepped into his son's room, frowning as he found him curled up on the floor amid a pile of broken glass.
“Get up,” he said roughly, causing his son to stand up slowly. “You did good.”
Domitor’s head snapped up in shock as he looked at his father, “I-I did?”
He gave a sharp nod as he stood in the doorway, Champion standing behind him. “She’s asked for me to take her to another dimension, so thanks to you, our plans have been pushed forward a great deal.”
This brought a smile to Domitor’s tired face as he relaxed despite the pain. “Does that mean you’re proud of me… dad?”
“Don’t call me that,” Kal said coldly, a glare appearing on his face. “Don’t mistake this praise for me forgiving what you did. While the outcome was better than expected, you still messed with my plans. For that, you’re done. Next slip up, and Star Chaser here will be free to deal with you as he sees fit.”
Champion smirked from behind him, his eyes glowing purple for a moment.
“I’m sorry…” he muttered, his smile fading away.
“Head to the clinic, tell them you fell or something. Get that leg fixed and get back here, I want you out of the way as I get everything ready.”
“Yes, sir,” Domitor replied, trying not to react negatively.
“Good,” was all he said as he and Champion walked away from the door.
His heart pounded painfully as he stood there, conflicted on how to feel. His father praised him, but then put him back down. It’s like nothing changed at all…
The pain in his leg brought him back to reality as he looked down at it, grimacing at the color it was changing too. Not wanting to waste anymore time, he limped to the window and took to the air.
ooo000<^>000ooo
Flying upside down just above the ground, I typed away at my phone, texting the group chat for Phantasm Troupe about what just happened with Domitor and Kal.
They were mostly worried about me almost dying, but I kept steering the conversation back to us all getting a chance to finally do some dimensional travel.
As I flew upside down, I saw Domitor flying above me, heading for the clinic.
He looked down at me, frowning as I smirked back up at him. Yet he didn’t stop, but I did notice his leg was broken, since I could clearly see the bone.
How the hell did he hurt himself this time?
I just rolled my eyes and continued on my way, heading for Spark’s house.
It didn’t take me long to get there, but upon beating on the door and no one answering, I realized he must not be home. Which sucked, because that meant he was either at work or his parents house.
Reluctantly, I flew to his parents house, since it was closer than his job.
Approaching the front door, I heard the sound of him laughing inside. Oh great, I get to see his mom again… yay.
Knocking on the door, his dad answered, smiling widely as he saw me.
“We were just talking about you, Shayla!” he laughed, opening the door for me.
Smiling awkwardly, I stepped inside and flipped my Pit Viper’s up. “Spark’s here?”
“Yep, he just got off work,” Lance chuckled, leading me towards the kitchen where Spark, his wife Starlight, and his mom sat laughing.
I smiled happily as I saw Spark in his Sheriff’s Deputy uniform. “What up, Spark!”
“Shayla!” he exclaimed, hopping up and stepping up to me, giving me a large hug. “How you been?”
“You know me! Kicking ass and shit like that!” I chuckled, breaking the hug and slugging his shoulder.
Then he frowned as he tilted my chin up. “What cut you?”
“Nothing, just fell during training is all,” I said, waving his concern off.
He narrowed his eyes at me, as he always somehow knew when I was lying. But he didn’t press it as a smile returned to his face, “Well anyways, what brings you around?”
“Can we talk in private?” I asked, looking at his parents and wife who were now all at the dining room table, watching us.
“Sure thing,” he said, turning to them and nodding to them. “Be right back.”
He led me upstairs to his old room, which was mostly filled with boxes now as his parents were using it as a storage room.
“What’s on your mind?” he asked, sitting down in a chair.
I didn’t take a seat as I started pacing around the room, opening boxes and absent mindedly going through them. “So, I did it.”
“Did what?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Found a way to travel between dimensions,” I said casually, causing him to groan.
“I’m not even going to ask how you figured that one out,” he muttered, rubbing his face. “Okay, what’s your plan then?”
“I dunno,” I admitted, moving to another box. “I’ve kinda wanted to go to the Eternal Plains with my friends and just explore it. Maybe get a cool Ego weapon if I could manage it.”
“I’m assuming your mom's don’t know about this?” he asked, getting a snort laugh out of me.
“What do you think?” I said with a sly smile.
“Scamp will tear what ever dimension you go to apart to find you if you don’t tell her about this,” he warned.
I just shook my head, moving to another box, “if I tell her, she’ll stop me from leaving. She thinks I’m helpless and can’t take care of myself.”
“Now that I know is not true,” he said as he leaned forward, “she’s told me you are just as capable as she is, you’re just lacking the life experience to go out on your own like that.”
This brought a frown to my face, “how do I get life experience if I’m not allowed to actually go out and GET that experience?”
“Simple,” he chuckled, “go out and explore this world first, live your life a bit. Then you’ll be ready to head out and explore more dangerous places.”
“That’s not my style,” I grumbled, flipping another box open, “I can handle myself just fine.”
“Then what really happened to your throat?” he asked evenly, staring into my eyes.
“... I lost to Domitor, okay?” I admitted, the words feeling wrong as they left my mouth and causing my nose to scrunch up.
“And he did that to you?” he asked, his smile fading into a sneer.
I looked at him, seeing him about ready to get up and play police stallion Spark again. “He did it to save me,” I mumbled through gritted teeth.
“What?” he asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
“He accidently hit me too hard and had to use my claw to cut a hole for me to breathe through,” I said as casually as I could.
Spark just sat there, a range of emotions playing out on his face, “you two…. I don’t even know how to respond to that, Shayla. Part of me wants to ask if you both are okay, but the other half wants to go arrest him for assault.”
“Don’t be a lame ass,” I remarked, sticking my tongue out at him. “Just do what I’m doing and let it go.”
This didn’t seem to set well with Spark, but he didn’t look like he’d go after Domitor right away. So that’s a plus for me. I’d handle that little shit in my own way later.
Then my eyes went wide as I dug down into a box and found something I hadn’t expected to see. “Wow… is this…” I said, pulling out a little vial.
“Oh that’s where Dad threw him,” Spark laughed as the little face in the vial scowled up at me.
“I’ve heard about him, but no one would let me see him,” I said, putting my face right up to the vial. “Can he talk?”
“Yeah, if he wants to,” Spark replied. “But he hasn’t said a word since I was a kid. Dad just keeps him in weird places to mess with him. Then he lost him and just moved on. I guess you solved that mystery.”
I tapped at the glass with a claw, causing the little face inside to roll its eyes in annoyance.
“This is so cool,” I said with a wide smile. “Come on, Watcher guy, say something cool!”
But he didn’t say anything cool. He didn’t say anything at all in fact.
I shook the vial violently, “Come on!”
“Maybe don’t shake him like a fish in a bag,” Spark said, getting up and walking over to me.
“Would your Dad care if I took him home?” I asked as I shook the vial again.
“He most definitely would care,” Spark said as he took the vial from me and put it back in the box. “Now, come on, let’s get back out there.”
“Fine,” I groaned as he led me out of the room. But without his knowledge, I snaked my tail into the box and grabbed the little vial, and hid it under a wing.
My friends will love to see this!
ooo000<^>000ooo
“So what’s this epically cool thing you want to show us?” Dude asked as we sat in our clubhouse, which was starting to get too small for all of us as we had outgrew it a few years ago.
“Oh nothing,” I said as I stood in the middle of my friends. “Just… THE WATCHER!” I yelled, holding up the vial with the Watcher’s face in it.
“OH FUCK!” Nightstreak yelped, falling backwards into the wall.
“Shayla! You stole the Watcher from Lance?!” Roxxy exclaimed, a panicked look on her face.
“Be careful!” Flippy Dew screamed. “Don’t let him get out! He’ll kill us all!”
I just laughed as I grabbed the rope tied to the vial, “don’t worry guys, this thing has some kind of spell on it or something, it’s indestructible, see?” I then began to slam it onto the ground as hard as I could, causing everyone to scream in horror and tackle me, fighting for control of the vial.
“PLease! Think of us before doing shit like this!” Roxxy screamed as she held my hand in her hooves.
Still laughing, I stood up and shook all of them off of me, holding the vial above my head. “Did it break though? Nope!”
“Can we take him back to Lance?” Summer Breeze asked nervously.
“Eventually,” I said with a smile as I held the vial to my face and forced the Watcher to look into my eyes. “But only after he talks to me.”
“Oh great,” Nightstreak groaned. “She’s being stubborn again.”
“Yo, Watcher guy,” Dude said, stepping up to me and looking at the little face in the vial. “Trust me, being with Lance is better than being with her. She’s crazy and unhinged.”
I smiled at him, “Thank yo-” Then what he said hit me, “fuck you, Dude.”
He just smirked at me and tapped his horn against the vial, “I do not envy this guy.”
“Oh ha ha,” I said with a roll of my eyes as I tied the rope around my neck, letting the little vial hang freely from my neck. “Once he speaks, then back to Lance,” I said, holding the vial up to me again. “And he will speak.”
The Watcher just blinked at me.
So I shook the vial violently, and kept shaking it as I looked at my friends, “So, any thoughts on where we’ll all go first?”
Flippy Dew watched me nervously as I kept shaking the vial, “uh… so I’ve actually always wanted to go see my dad’s home world.”
“That’s gone,” Roxxy pointed out. “You know, the whole Rapture thing the adults talk about sometimes.”
“Oh yeah,” she muttered, looking dejected.
“But!” I exclaim, trying to cheer her up, “we can go to an alternate version of his home dimension! It won’t be the same, but it’ll be close enough.”
This seemed to cheer her up as she nodded thankfully at me.
“I wanna go somewhere where there’s cool weapons and battles,” Nightstreak said, smiling as he seemed to be lost in thought.
“Let’s please avoid violent worlds,” Roxxy asked, but I waved her off.
“No world is off limits! Anywhere we want!”
“Please stop shaking the vial,” Roxxy said with a frown.
“Nah,” I smirked, shaking it harder. “Any more suggestions?”
“I want to go to the Eternal Plains first! I want an Ego!” Summer Breeze said with an excited smile, getting nods of agreement from the rest of us.
“Then I say we do the Eternal Plains first!” I yell, getting cheers.
“Yay! Now stop shaking him!” Roxxy yelled, looking very anxious as I just kept on shaking the Watcher.
Finally, I stopped and looked at him as he rolled around in his vial, looking very sick. “Speak now?”
Still, he said nothing. “Suit yourself,” I muttered, going back to shaking him.
“Oh come on,” Roxxy groaned.
“When are we going?” Dude asked curiously.
I just shrugged. “Whenever Kal gets off his lazy ass and does it. I’ll give him a few days, and then I’ll confront him.”
As my friends all began to talk amongst themselves excitedly, I rubbed my throat, a strange feeling coming over me as I suddenly remembered the feeling of dying. I shuddered, but composed myself. I’m too cool and badass to let shit like that affect me.
ooo000<^>000ooo
“We have an unexpected problem,” Kal said with a frown as he stood in his office, Champion standing behind him.
“Whatever it is, I’ll handle it,” he said confidently.
Kal turned to him, frowning. “This problem is a bit more complicated than the usual I have you deal with. An old enemy of mine, one of the more… troublesome ones, have tracked me down. He’s currently already in this dimension looking for me.”
“Point me at him then,” Champion remarked, a sly smile on his face.
“This opponent will be the strongest one you’ve faced, Star Chaser,” Kal stated, stepping up to his desk. “This guy has been a thorn in my side for a very long time. I’ve done my best to avoid dealing with him, but now that I have you and that Ego, we can finally try and deal with him.”
“What’s so special about this guy?”
“His Ego,” Kal replied calmly. “He also has a Wandering Ego. An original one at that. Unaltered and pure, unlike yours.”
“What do you mean?” Champion asked, not liking the way he said that. His Ego WAS the best Ego, there could not be any others out there that could rival his.
“Riley, explain this to him,” Kal said as Riley, who went by Tiff while in this dimension, stepped into the room.
Champion frowned at her, as she was a know it all that he really did not like.
“Gladly,” Riley said as she stepped up in front of the costumed stallion. “Your Ego, the Protagonist Ego is a Wandering Ego that’s been around for a very long time. But it’s been mutated and fused many times in its lifetime.”
Before he could ask a question, she held up a hoof to silence him.
“Hold all questions,” she said in a tone that made him want to melt her face right then and there. “Wandering Ego’s are special, as they seem to have minds of their own, and pick and choose who they bond with. When their host dies, they simply take on their Runic form till a new worthy host touches them. Now normally, you have to be chosen, but if you already have a Wandering Ego, you can actually force a Wandering Ego in its Runic form to bond with you. Doing this will ‘kill’ the Ego, but it’ll fuse with your current Ego.
“This is what your Ego, the Protagonist Ego, has gone through. It’s absorbed countless other Wandering Ego’s, which is why it’s so powerful. However, this guy who’s arrived here has an original unmolested Wandering Ego. Which is very rare.” She then looked at Kal, “This is Loric, correct?”
“Yes,” was his simple answer.
“Ah, Soul Enhancement. If you kill Loric and take his Ego and fuse it with your own, you’ll be unstoppable! His Ego allows him to enhance almost every aspect of himself, and he’s a master at it. Defeating him will not be as simple as just hitting him with a few flashy moves.”
“But it can be done,” Kal said, lifting up an item and passing it to Champion. “This is an item that mimic’s another’s Ego once. I went through a lot of trouble to obtain this one, as the Ego within it can shut off the Ego of another as long as it's attached to them. Use this wisely, as you only get one use out of it.”
“Thank you, Sir,” Champion said as he took the item. “Where is this Loric guy?”
“Close,” Kal said, frowning. “Closer than I’d like in fact. He won’t be hard to spot, he’s a human who looks like a lazy bum.”
“They call him the Strongest Slacker on the Eternal Plains,” Riley pointed out. “His backstory is actually pretty interesting, as he used to-”
“We don’t need a history lesson on a dead man,” Champion interrupted her, getting a growl out of her. “Guy that looks like a bum, on it.”
“Kill him, fuse with his Ego, then we’ll move forward with the original plan,” Kal said, pointing to the door. “Do not take too long.”
“Sir!” Champion said, moving for the door and smirking. The idea of getting stronger was very appealing to him, arousing even.
“Can he actually beat him?” he heard Riley say from the office as he stepped out the front door of the mansion.
“If he plays it smart, he will,” Kal said. “Don’t disappoint me, Star Chaser,” he added, clearly knowing Champion could still hear them.
He snorted as he lifted into the air and took off at an incredible speed. He wouldn’t fail this, as no matter how strong this guy was, he’d easily defeat him and rip his Ego from his corpse.