Living The Dream

by Kickass222urmom

Back to Equestria

“So you are positive you’ve gotten everything?” my mother asked me as I finished putting the last of my stuff away in my Vacuole.

“I don’t have much,” I replied as I turned to her, seeing she was staring right at me.

“Not much huh? Tell me, why’d this just roll out from under your bed?” she asked, holding up… the Watcher’s old vial.

“Eh… no idea? What is it?” I asked, trying to act ignorant, but I swear she can read my thoughts or something! 

“Yeah, no, this is the Watcher’s Vial. Where is he, Shayla,” she asked, a bit hostile, causing me to recoil back.

“You won’t like that answer…” I muttered, causing her eye to twitch.

“He escaped,” she said flatly, but I shook my head.

“No, not exactly…”

“What have you done?” she asked calmly.

“Mama, he's the one who figured out how to kill Leem!” I said quickly, causing her eye to go wide. “AND! He’s the one who gave me the Virtue Sight! And he’s been helping me through-”

“You allowed him into your head…” she said in a shaky voice. “You CAN’T be serious, Shayla! You… YOU…. GAH!”

She tossed the vial at me, growling loudly, “we’re going to find a way to get him out of your head, one way or-”

But she was cut off as Buu suddenly slid through me and out into the vial, staring at my mother.

This caught her off guard as they stared at each other.

“How’d you get him out so-”

“Mama, he did that himself,” I interjected, shaking a bit. I do not like being on this side of her wrath.

“Why?!” she snapped, looking right at him.

“I do not know, to be honest,” he began with a sigh. “Also, apparently, my name is now Buu. So please use that, Scamp.”

My mother clasped her hooves together, closing her eye as she groaned loudly. Then she opened her eye and looked at me, “okay. Tell me everything that has happened with… Buu.”

We stepped outside just as everyone else was finishing up their preparations. I glanced at my mother as she continued to give me ‘the look’. 

Even after hearing the whole story, she wasn’t happy about it, but she also didn’t make me change anything. Which is weird, as she usually is very set in her ways. Especially when it comes to the past. 

This might be one of the few times I catch a lucky break, and I’m going to take it.

As we all gathered up, I looked back at the house where Raffy stood, drinking from a mug as he watched us.

“Are you sure you don't want to come?” My mother called out to him, causing him to laugh.

“Thank you for the opportunity, but my adventuring days are over,” he yelled back, raising his mug to us. 

With that there wasn’t anything else for us here. We’d all spent the last day getting ready to leave and saying goodbye to Raffy. So my mom stepped to the front of the group, holding up my Dimensional Dagger.

“Ready?” she asked, getting nods from everyone else.

She stabbed the dagger into the air and pulled it down, causing a portal to open. One by one we stepped through, with me being the last one as I looked back to Raffy, giving him one last wave.

He smiled at me as he threw a salute my way.

I stepped backward through the portal, taking in Eris one last time before the portal snapped shut before me.

Scamp narrowed her eye as she stepped through the portal, taking in everything around them. They’d agreed they’d have the portal take them to their home, but the scene before them caused them all to come to a grinding halt.

“What the fuck happened to our house?!” Shayla yelled as she stepped forward, but Scamp grabbed her tail and yanked her back. “What?”

“Something’s… off,” Scamp muttered as she opened her pocket dimension and pulled out her cellphone. She held the power button, waiting for it to turn on.

The buildings around them were just… gone. As was their house, which was now just a pile of rubble, looking like an explosion had gone off right next to the building.

Spark let out a grunt, getting everyone's attention.

He stared at them wide eyed as he slowly raised a hoof, looking at it as energy began to radiate off of him.

“Oh crud…” he muttered as his eyes flashed a few different colors suddenly.

“Are you good?” Shayla asked cautiously as Scamp’s phone finally turned on, followed by it going crazy as missed text and notifications began to pour in.

“I just…” he began, looking conflicted and a bit worried, “... I just… gained access to my Archangel form.”

“I thought you said you couldn’t use that form unless you were fighting shit from that Collapse thing,” Shayla said as he just stood there growing more and more confused.

“That’s how it’s supposed to work… I can only use it against an Agent of the Collapse, whatever that means,” he mumbled as Scamp suddenly ripped open her pocket dimension again and pulled out her Dimensional Communicator, which could not connect to anything while they were on Eris.

“Mama?” Shayla asked as sweat began to coat Scamp’s face.

Scamp did not respond as she clicked through the Communicator frantically.

“What did you read?” Mallogory asked, but Scamp just kept clicking through the device.

It beeped as she raised it to her mouth and began to talk a bit frantically into it, “this is Scamp, do you read me, Bronwyn?”

There was a long pause before it blared to life.

“Scamp?! Where are you?!” Bronwyn yelled over the Communicator.

“We’re at my house,” she answered, looking at everyone else, who looked massively confused.

“Do not move!” Bronwyn ordered as the device turned off.

“What’s going on?!” Shayla asked as the group’s anxiety slowly raised with every passing second.

“We… shouldn’t talk about it right here,” she answered, looking a bit pale, which was very out of character for her.

Before anyone could ask any more questions, a portal snapped open right next to Scamp, startling everyone. Bronwyn leaned out, eyes wide as she frantically waved for them to come to her.

“We can’t leave this portal open for long!” she exclaimed in a panicked tone as she held up a strange device. “We need to grant you Enforcer Status, so please, gather around!”

Now that we were safe in the Enforcer Order Hall I turned to face my mother and Bronwyn, not enjoying how in the dark we all were.

“Mama, WHAT is going on?” I asked a bit roughly, causing her and Bronwyn to look at each other.

“Come with me,” Bronwyn said a bit grimly as she began heading for the round table in the middle of the chamber. “I’ll explain everything.”

A tense silence settled over everyone as Bronwyn explained what's been happening since we’d been gone. She’d just told us about their failed operation to take down Champion, but she didn’t go into many details. They’d apparently spent the last few weeks gathering up everyone who got scattered during the fighting.

I glanced around to see everyone around us, watching with mixed emotions. The three Lance’s were throwing me off, but that wasn’t enough to fully distract me from the news we’d just received.

“Okay, we can figure this out,” I said as I stood up, placing my hands on the table. “Let me reconnect with my friends and we’ll get to work on Champion.”

But Bronwyn looked pained as she turned her gaze to me, “no, Shayla. You will not be going near Champion. None of us will be, he’s far too dangerous.”

“So? My friends and I are the Elements now, we can-”

“Shayla,” Roxxy suddenly said, getting my attention as she stepped towards me, “something has happened.”

“What?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her. 

“Dude and Nightstreak,” she began, causing me even more confusion, “are dead.”

“...” 

“Champion… he’s too strong, we tried to trap him, but it didn’t work. He killed both of them and did this to me,” she said, using her prosthetic to point to her eye. 

“They’re…” I muttered, working my jaw as my mind got stuck on their faces. 

“Yes,” Roxxy said firmly.

My neck jerked as I turned from the table and began walking for one of the hallways.

“Shayla?!” Domitor called after me, but I kept walking. I was about to break down, and the last place I wanted to do that was here. In front of everyone.

The group watched as Shayla quickly left the chamber, walking down one of the many hallways. Domitor tried to follow her, but Lacy waved him off and walked casually after Shayla.

As everyone watched the display, Spark suddenly slammed a hoof down on the table, startling everyone.

He growled, as he was still hung up on a few details that did not set well with him. “Star Chaser… he’s killed our friends and… Azure Moon… that’s unforgivable…”

“We’re looking into a way to defeat him, but we’re coming up empty in all regards,” Nova announced, trying to calm Spark down as everyone turned to her. “We just need to wait till we can-”

“We’re not waiting,” Spark said sternly. “I will deal with Star Chaser myself.”

“Spark, no, you will not be going near him,” Lance said as he stepped up to his son, giving him a hard glare. “There is not a single person in this room that can handle him.”

With a cold glare, Spark turned to his father and stared into his eyes, “I am the one and only person who can stop him.”

“No amount of training or-” Lance began, but his eyes went wide as energy began to pool around Spark.

His eyes flashed a bright yellow as stood up on his hind legs and slammed his forehooves together, causing energy to explode around him, sending everyone rolling away. His coat changed to a pure white, as did his mane and tail.

“Spark?!” Lance yelped as everyone stared in awe at him as he stood there, energy crackling around him as he stared at them all with a determined look on his face. “You’re an Angel?!”

“Archangel,” Spark answered in a serious tone. 

“How?!” Lance asked, slowly moving back to his son.

“God,” was the only thing Spark said in response as he looked at everyone else. “We’re going to stop Star Chaser and the others who follow him. And we’re going to do it tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? That’s not enough time to-” 

“Take me to this Time Chamber you mentioned,” he demanded. “I need to prepare myself.”

“Son, we-”

“This is happening, with or without all of your help,” Spark said harshly. “Star Chaser will be stopped tomorrow. One way, or another.”

I finally came to a stop, leaning against the wall as I placed a hand over my face.

My brain was not processing any of this very well, causing me to start to hyperventilate.

“Take a breath, kid,” someone said from behind me.

My breathing only got worse as I looked back with my Virtue Sight, seeing it was that female Lance. Great, that’s the last thing I need right now…

“Come on,” she said as she came up and leaned against the opposite wall of the hallway, “take a few deep breaths and count to ten.”

“That doesn’t work,” I gasped out as my two dead friends flashed through my mind again, “my mind is shit at handling this crap!” 

“Same, kid,” she replied with a light chuckle. “Try this then; raise your hand and hold it in front of your face.”

“How does that help?” I asked between gasps.

“Trust me,” she said as she stepped over to me, looking serious. 

Reluctantly I held my hand up in front of my face, “What now?”

“Open your palm and turn it towards your face,” she ordered.

I did as I was told, my breathing not improving, “okay, now wh-”

She cut me off as she slapped the back of my hand, causing me to smack myself in the face.

This shocked the hell out of me as my face twisted into one of pure anger as I lurched forward and grabbed her by the neck of her cloak, slamming her against the wall.

“What the fuck was that for you bitch?!” I yelled as I shook her a bit, but she just smirked at me.

“Fixed your breathing though,” she pointed out, which just pissed me off as I realized she was right. I shoved her to the side and backed off, glaring at her.

“Fuck you,” I muttered, turning my back on her.

She chuckled a bit as I started to walk away from her, “I know what you’re going through. Losing friends and all that shit.”

“You don’t know what I’m going through,” I growled at her.

“Sixty seven,” she suddenly said, causing me to look back at her.

“Huh?”

“Sixty seven, that’s how many friends and family I’ve lost over the last ten years,” she said with a serious look on her face. “So I THINK I have a pretty good idea what you’re going through, kid.”

“Call me Shayla,” I grumbled, turning fully to her. “How the fuck are you happy and able to joke around if you’ve lost that many people?”

“Fake it till you make it,” she admitted with a sigh.

“Okay? But why do you care how I’m feeling? You don’t even know me,” I said roughly.

 “Look, running off to vent and cry is okay. I’ve done that. A lot. But I don’t want to watch another person make my mistake and spiral down a dark path,” she said in a calm voice.

“Thanks for the advice, but I don’t need it,” I threw back, causing her to chuckle again. 

“Stubborn,” she muttered, then shrugged, “Take the advice or not. I’m trying to help you.”

“Well you’re not,” I grunted as I turned and started to walk away, but stopped as my shoulders slumped. “How… did you process these kinds of feelings?”

“I punched shit and screamed a lot,” she answered.

I clenched my hands as I began to continue walking forward. “I’m sorry for being a bitch…”

“Don’t worry, you should see me when I don’t eat!” she called after me, getting a light smile to appear on my face.

Of course, as I continued down the hallway, my emotions began to build again. 

A thought hit me that caused my breathing to catch again, starting the whole process over again.

I’m… never going to see those two goofballs again…