Loose Ends
Dash sprinted across the room, skidding to a halt in front of Jason as he tried to walk towards her before falling onto his back. "Jason! What happened?!"
"It's- It's inside my head." He lunged forward, putting a hoof around her neck. "Listen to me, I want you to take my stuff and run."
"Jason I can't-"
"Listen to me!!" He yelled, causing her to flinch backwards. "Sorry, just get my stuff, get Evening, urk-" The rest of the team crowded into view, with Steve thrown over Tank's back. "Why are you here? You need to go, I- I can't."
"We're not leaving you." Dash said, as the rest of the team nodded their agreement.
"We can't fight the Nightmare again, now don't respond to any of this with questions, I'm not giving information away to this fuck--er as best as I can. Get out of here, get back to the place with the cure, and bring Evening. You and her have the things going on."
"But we can-"
"No, you can try, but if it comes down to it I doubt you'll kill me. And as it is that doesn't work." He put his head in his hooves. "I don't want to hurt any of you." He started healing them all, trying to give less power to the Nightmare in the long run.
"You don't need to be a martyr, we can fix this!"
"Yeah, with the things." He winked, before arching his back in pain. "You guys better fucking listen, I can't move my hind legs. I don't know how long it'll take to be...taken over." He felt a wave of fear wash over him.
"But-"
"GO!!!!!" He yelled, pushing them backwards with his magic. "Get the stuff together, that's our only chance against him, and if he goes somewhere else, tough luck!"
"You better fight him to the end, Jason." Dash said, trying to hold tears back. "I don't want a husk of a colt friend when this is all over."
"Oh, that's a good idea..." Jason said, before his expression shifted. "No! I didn't say that!" A leg shakily moved to his head, before it flopped back onto the floor. Dash took another look before running in and picking up Jason's gun and running outside, tears plastered to her face as she threw back a final glance and left.
Well, aren't you the sappy one. Oh no, go on without me...
Fuck you. He thought back, concentrating on keeping hold of his fore legs.
Let's at least be civil here, come on. I'm a good conversationalist, and I'm sure we'll have a lot to talk about. Jason watched memories flash in front of his eyes before he stopped the flow, locking them away from the Nightmare. There were a couple seconds of silence in his head. Wow, you used to be human. I thought I wiped all of those guys out, but I guess I wasn't thorough enough. Jason lost control of his left fore leg, and reset his focus to the right one. Just stop trying, you know I'm going to take over your body at some point.
"I'm not letting you do this." He said out loud, more to test his voice than to send a response.
Well at least you're pretty tough when it comes to this kind of thing, I can give you credit there. The king broke in thirty four seconds, and I didn't hear a peep from him after that. Funny, I thought he'd be harder. Jason lost control of his other leg as the Nightmare continued its conquest, and started to feel his back tighten up before it got to his shoulders.
Suddenly he jumped upright, yelling out in pain as the Nightmare moved his body's muscles over to his command. He could still feel himself, bristling with little jolts of pure agony. The king must've had a lot of fun when they'd chopped him up like that if he could still feel everything that went on. Jason didn't really have a problem killing hostiles, but if they didn't fight back, he started to find fault with the idea.
"Oh, it's good to be in control." The Nightmare said in his voice, channeling magic through his horn. "And you aren't exactly as powerless as that king, huh?" The Nightmare forced his head upwards and fired a bolt of green tinged magic through the roof, blowing out a large chunk as the bolt continued into space. "Wow, I could get used to this." He said, letting out a low whistle. "I mean, this kind of power, I would have a shot against one of the princesses."
Jason caught himself from throwing a response back. If the Nightmare didn't know that the power would run out, well, what he didn't know in this case could be his downfall.
He started to take off towards the hole in the roof, slowly ascending. "I've never taken over a changeling before, come to think of it. Never thought it would be all that--" Jason's side lit up in pain as the Nightmare cut off and collapsed onto the ground, falling the six or so feet he'd risen. Jason could hear the hive mind funneling through his thoughts and into the Nightmare's consciousness, wreaking havoc with his unexperienced mind. He would have smiled, if he could control his face. He managed to make the corner of his mouth lift up, as he moved the tip of a hoof.
"Chrysalis, I'm not your enemy!" The Nightmare yelled, before repeating the same thought as it echoed around in Jason's head. Any control Jason had over his fore hoof disappeared in an instant as the Nightmare's episode ended and he reconsolidated his control.
Nightmare? Chrysalis's voice echoed around, as the Nightmare sighed and rubbed at Jason's head.
Yeah, I took over this guy.
Interesting. There was a pause. But remember, if you do anything to go against me or give away any information, I know how to kill you and I won't hesitate to go through with it.
Let's not be rash here, you know that I could still kill you before you do anything to stop me.
So you think, Nightmare. A few seconds passed in silence before Jason was jarred to the side, his hooves pinned as a heavy blow hit him across the face.
"Get the fuck out of him!" Tank yelled, pulling his hoof back again.
"Or what?" The Nightmare replied, chuckling. "You kill your own friend?"
"Tank! Get away from him!" Came Morning Rain's voice. "There's nothing we can do!"
Tank looked away for half a second as the Nightmare blasted him out of the room, watching him hit one of the slightly ajar throne room doors and throw up a shower of splinters. Tank shifted slightly as Morning propped him up, cradling his shoulder. Jason heard himself chuckle as Nightmare took off again, rising onto the roof of the throne room with a few levitated spears and looking around. It was nearly dark by now, as the last sliver of sun shrank against the horizon. He heard a yell from down below.
"It's just dislocated, Jason." Morning yelled up.
"Ah, a pity. That one's built to last, huh?" Nightmare chuckled again, cracking his neck and staring at the town.
So, kill the Elements? Jason asked. That's your plan?
"I'm improvising. I've had a long time to think about the ways I could kill all of those idiots."
I was under the impression that your pride got in the way last time.
"And seriously? Looking at them with the power of a princess, you would have seen those six as a threat? Especially after I destroyed the Elements themselves?"
Well... No.
"Exactly, but this time, I'm just going to smash them against a wall and slit their throats. Or maybe add in a little more torture, even if they do think it's some sort of trap for me. And guess what? One of the Elements is apparently your mare friend. So I'll definitely be drawing things out that way."
What?
"Don't play dumb, I'm talking about the blue one."
Oh... Yeah I don't really know her that well, she just kinda clings to me. She's a good fighter though, so I try to ignore the stalking.
"You're a terrible liar." Nightmare said, looking around at the streets below. "There's some serious carnage here, I like it." He hunkered down on the roof, watching enemies clash. "You know how many griffins you killed to get here?" He asked off-handedly.
Well if you're just talking about griffins... maybe two hundred? But humans, on the other hand... He brought a few movie scenes to the forefront of his mind, running through a few shots from movies he'd seen a while ago.
"Yeah, I've seen worse." Nightmare replied cooly, although Jason could hear the ever so slight waver in his voice. He started to push his advantage before the Nightmare looked down and reached for the wing, struggling to touch it as Jason fought his movements all the while.
You can take my body, but if you think I'm going to let you do anything without a fight, you're sorely mistaken.
"Fine, I won't touch your little wing thingy." Jason felt a smirk spread across his face. "But if you think you can stop me from killing every last one of those Elements, and then the ponies in the town, you're sorely mistaken. And if you think I'm waiting here before doing that and giving them a head start, you're just as wrong." Nightmare took off and started flying, straight in the direction of the distant Ponyville, before he turned around and hovered, looking back at the building.
"Never did care for loose ends." Nightmare said, before he pulled out one side of the brick foundation and the building collapsed. Jason screamed in horror, and the nightmare put a hoof to his ear, even though it was a thought. "There, much better." He continued with a chuckle.
______________________________________________________________
Dash took off as she exited the fortress, struggling to get into the air with all the weight she'd taken on. Her tears felt like they were freezing against her fur as the wind rushed by, only to be replaced by new ones. But as she took off she pulled out the pad of paper and a pencil, writing a message to Scoots in big letters.
Scoots, get the Elements together, Jason's been taken over by the Nightmare, like what happened to Luna. I'm not joking, so go as quick as you can. I'll be there in a couple hours. She put the paper back under the explosives belt, making sure it was tight to her side before speeding up. Dash started to feel air start to blast around her as air resistance got heavier, the same feeling she got when she was speeding up for a Sonic Rainboom. But this wasn't the same, there wasn't any thrill involved.
Dash banked around the camp, scrubbing off speed and touching down heavily on the landing strip, which still had lines from the football game easily visible. She galloped to the side, almost diving into Shining's tent as she looked for the general and Evening.
"Dash, why are you here?" Shining asked, a shocked look on his face. "What's wrong?"
"The king...was the nightmare...it got Jason...I need to get the Elements together."
"It what?!" Cadence yelled, pulling herself off a bunk quickly.
"It got Jason." She repeated, a new stream of tears running down her cheeks. She felt numb, like this was just another dream she was going to leave, returning to a world where Jason's face was just in front of hers. It wasn't fair, that this happened now, when everything was about to go back to the way it was, nothing ever went right for them.
"What do you need?" Shining asked, regaining his composure. "I'll send a message ahead of you, by the way."
"Jason-" She let out a sob, as Evening awoke with a start, either from the surge of bad emotions or the noise. "He told me to get his saddlebag and Evening, and get to Ponyville." She looked under Shining's desk, pulling free the two saddlebags from their hiding place. "Thanks for keeping these safe. Come on Evening, we need to go, I'll explain on the wing."
"Give me some of the weight then." She said, jumping up quickly and grabbing the medicine bottle and one of the saddlebags.
"Did you hear all that?"
"No, but something's wrong with Jason, right?"
"How'd you-"
"Hive mind. He's all screwy over there."
"Wait." Cadence said, taking a step forward. "I'll come with you."
"It's not necessary, princess, we can-"
"I'm not taking no for an answer. I can be of some help to you, and I plan to assist any way I can."
"Fine, but only if you can fly fast, we don't have a lot of time to waste."
"Deal." She said with a smile, kissing Shining and bidding him a brief goodbye.
"Be careful honey." The general said, running over and hugging her again before she left. "I should be back in a few days."
"I know, silly." Cadence replied, tickling his chin with her magic. "Love you."
"Love you too." He said as they left.
Dash turned back to the tent quickly. "Send all of our stuff back Shining!" She yelled, trying desperately to take her mind off of Jason's predicament.
Her attempt was short lived as she walked onto the air strip and broke down, bawling onto the ground as all energy to leave suddenly left her. She couldn't stay optimistic when there was such a slim chance of success. Either her friends or Jason, and she knew she couldn't make that decision.
"Dash, come on, we need to get moving!" Evening yelled, sliding in next to Dash and propping her up.
"It's not fair! We never asked for any of this shit, why did this have to happen?"
"I don't know, but there's no sense crying about a problem we can fix, right?" Cadence asked, putting a gentle hoof on Dash's shoulder.
"That's easy for you to say, you aren't going to be put down to the choice of your best friends or the equivalent of your husband!" Cadence didn't respond, as she shifted her hoof slightly. "And you know what the worst thing is?!" She asked, getting louder. "He was going to propose after all this, and now we're in another life or death situation! As soon as things start to get manageable, we encounter something harder."
A bolt of greenish fiery magic flew up over the city, lighting up the environment like a small meteor before it passed cloud level and became a small, dull green blob.
"We're out of time." Dash said, getting to her hooves with a few more sobs. "Come on, it's now or never." She took off quickly, ascending into the darkening sky as the other two quickly followed. There was a flare of fire before Evening turned into a second Dash and tested out her new wings.
"You get things like these every day?" Evening asked. "You know how lucky you are? These wings are amazing!"
Dash wiped an eye, her tears slowing slightly. "How come?"
"We're going this fast, and it hardly feels like I'm doing anything with these. They're just--wow."
"Thanks." Dash replied, an ever so slight smile pulling up the edges of her mouth.
"I think Jason took your wing design, transferred it over once I showed him how. Made them a bit bigger, I guess."
Dash almost stopped dead as her flying rhythm got out of sync. "You mean he could go as fast as me?"
"Well, no. But he'll go a lot faster then he used to."
"I guess I'll have something to look forward to." She murmured, glad that she had something different to think about. That was something that lifted her mood a surprising amount, she realized as her smile grew a little more. It was amazing that she hadn't thought of that earlier, but it was so obvious in hindsight. And it would be so much fun! Dash looked backwards at the rapidly disappearing city, speeding up her pace slightly as they careened over the trees.
"When did you learn to fly like this, Cadence?" Dash asked, surprised that the mare was still keeping up.
"I was a kid too, you know. I can't say I loved flying as much as you do, but I got by." She grinned, pushing their pace a little faster. "I know this is hard, by the way. When Chrysalis had me under Canterlot she used to force pictures of Shining into my head, boast that he didn't suspect a thing, especially with the spell she had him under."
"Hey Evening, I thought you said there wasn't any changeling mind control magic." Dash asked, wiping her eyes again, although she couldn't seem to completely stem the flow of tears.
"There isn't. It's not changeling specific, it was stuff made by ponies that's been adapted to her needs. But that kind of thing is tough, takes a lot of magic."
"Ah." They lapsed into silence as the wind started to pick up, blowing Dash's mane across her face as a few rainbow threads flew off into the wind, carrying themselves away to places unknown. She could just make out the lights of Hill 400 as they cruised over, the well lit trench making an imperfect border around the top of the hill. The camp disappeared as quickly as it had come into view, and the monotonous forest canopy came back into view. Those chariots must've been slower than she thought if they had made an hour's trip in fifteen or so minutes.
"What was that?" Cadence asked, looking back at the lights again.
"That was the last base." Dash replied, feeling a spike of remorse as a few memories passed through her mind. "We found Evening in the forest near there."
"Why did it have that 'O' shaped thing?"
"Trenches. Jason decided to dig in, and as it turned out it was fairly useful." Dash let out an inadvertent sob as new tears came to her eyes and she looked backwards.
"Do you want to rest?" Cadence inquired, watching Dash's fore legs shake from exhaustion. Funny, she'd hardly even noticed over the whole adrenaline fueled adventure that had been this day.
"No, I can rest as much as I want once we free Jason, and kill this motherfucker."
"Huh?" Cadence asked.
"Jason has a set of swear words, you remember? He named off like twenty?"
"Oh yeah. That son of a shit."
Dash let out an abrupt, muffled laugh. "I'll have him teach a class, okay? You might want to study up before you start stringing together random ones."
"They go in a certain order?"
"Kinda."
"Well we have time now, you could tell me all the things my husband's apparently been saying."
"Oh, you're on."
____________________________________________________________________
Hey Nightmare, you wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?
"No, I don-" Jason let the sound play in his head, swerving his flying path as Nightmare put a hoof to his ear. It ended much earlier then he remembered, and he tried to scratch his chin.
I'm sure I have the ten hour version lying around here somewhere... Jason felt himself get forced deeper into his own mind, as his senses became slightly numb. It was a weird sensation, feeling everything yet controlling nothing, he mused as he fought his way back to the forefront.
Keeping any of his actual emotions hidden was getting harder and harder, as his thoughts increasingly turned back to Dash. She couldn't be taking this well, and he knew for a fact that any fight that broke out would lead to him probably at least injuring one of his friends, maybe even Dash. That made him a little sick to his stomach, actually. His only hope of keeping them safe was by sabotaging operations here, but if that didn't work well enough...
"You gone yet?" Nightmare asked, swiveling his head around as trees whooshed by far below. He had risen to nearly the cloud level by now, and the frigid air whistled through the holes in his legs as they started to turn numb. It wasn't really a painful cold, but more like he had simply lost feeling. A thought hit him that maybe he was losing his senses as well, but he quickly nudged his hooves together and sighed. A sigh was relative, he almost seemed to imagine himself sighing, and he knew that he wasn't sighing for real.
"Guess not..." Jason heard, as some fatigue started to weigh down his mind. Any kind of disturbance with the nightmare was taxing, and even though he could do small things he really paid for it afterwards. But this was his body, dammit, he had a leg up on this fucker. And yet, he couldn't seem to be in control for more than a few seconds.
You ever seen porn before?
"Wha-" Nightmare glided forward a few more feet before he just kinda dropped, catching himself with stiff wings after a few seconds as images flashed in his mind's eye. "You fucker."
Oh, picking up my vocabulary now, are we? I think I have more control here than you give me credit for.
"Then stop thinking, it's not going to end well for you."
"I guess we'll just see about that." Jason said, using his own mouth again.
"Yeah, I guess we will."
_______________________________________________________________
Dash sighed in relief as Ponyville came into view, her tired wings complaining constantly about the long flight as she dove, banking as she swung over the town and searched for her friends. She flew lower, tapping Evening with a hoof and motioning for her to change back to her usual disguise before they went any closer to the ground, and she quickly looked around more closely. She circled around the side of the town, straining her eyes in the dim light.
"What do they look like?" Morning asked, looking back at Cadence and Dash.
"Uh, there's a purple one, a yellow and pink one, an only pink one-"
"Over there, come on!" She took a hard turn and dove, landing heavily at the end of a street as her stiff legs adjusted to the ground again. Dash had a worse time, as her already fatigued legs nearly crumpled underneath her from the newfound stress. She heard the princess land behind her, apparently in a much more dignified manner judging from the lack of a thump.
She ran through a few bushes, stopping briefly to tighten her knives against her hooves, before moving into another clearing. Twilight's horn was aglow as a slight fire burned between her five friends, illuminating their faces in an eerie light.
"I found them, I found them!" Evening yelled, looking a little happier than Dash would have liked. The ultimate optimist, she supposed. Dash trotted towards her friends, until she was hit in the side by Pinkie, who wrapped her in a hug.
"Dashie! I missed you so much and I waited and waited and now when you finally come home it's like this, and I thought 'that's not fair at all, Dashie's too nice for that. And so is Jason, and now he's the Nightmare, and what are we gonna do, Dashie?" Pinkie's mane deflated a little, becoming threateningly close to straight hair.
"We-" Her other friends closed the distance and she was hit by four other sets of hooves.
"Guys, I have knives on my hooves, be careful!" They all took a quick step back and ceased their overlapping monologues as they led her over to the fire. She had wanted her trip back to Ponyville to be something special, not like this, with Jason taken over and her looking like this.
The others noticed as she moved into the light of the fire, dried blood splotches on her coat reflecting bits of light as she moved. Or maybe they were looking at the scars on her face, which had only grown in number over the last two or three weeks, things that Jason had rightfully decided not to risk healing while they were still deployed.
"Are you hurt, darling?" Rarity asked, touching a hoof to Dash's fur and pulling it away when some blood broke off.
"No, this is just griffin blood, I think. Maybe some of it's my own, I don't know." Her eyes started to fog up again. Not now, dammit. "We just need to-" Her voice cracked, and they all started to follow her turn of emotions. "-to get him freed, alright?"
"Just tell us what we need to do." Twilight said, levitating over a chest which she opened to reveal the elements. "Celestia sent these earlier, but I don't know if she can get here in time. I told her not to worry too much, because Princess Luna was already in the area."
"Where's Celestia?" Dash asked, looking over at Cadence.
"She's in the Griffin Empire, overseeing a project that-"
"Okay, we don't have a lot of time before he gets here, assuming he even does. Otherwise, some town's in for a lot of destruction. Jason said something about the Nightmare going for the six of us, like in a show of revenge, or something."
"How do ya know, he could end up doin' anythin'!"
"Jason said that as he had the thing in his system, I think he would know!"
"What if that was the nightmare speaking?" Rarity asked. "I'm sorry dear, but that could have been the plan from the beginning."
"No! I know it was him!" She sighed, realizing that she didn't want to tell them about the hive mind. "Just- I know, okay?"
"If you say so..." Rarity replied, eyeing Dash uneasily.
"By the way, this is Evening over here. What's that thing?" She asked, pointing to a blob of slightly reflective fabric on the ground, before she noticed the purple mane poking out the side. "Scoots?!" She yelled, galloping over quickly and pulling the cover back a little. Dash touched her with a hoof, her stress suddenly lifting for a glorious moment as her hoof made contact, proving to her that Scoots wasn't some kind of cruel hallucination.
"D-Dash?" She asked, opening her eyes sleepily. Scoots pushed herself up and threw her arms around Dash, letting tears flow freely as Scoots held onto her neck. "I missed you so much!" She yelled through her sobs, as Dash sat down and put a hoof around her back.
"I'm sorry things couldn't be better, Scoots. I'm sorry."
"Is Jason going to be okay?" She asked, her eyes flickering.
"I don't know." She hugged the filly tighter, putting a hoof through her mane. "I love you, kiddo."
"I love you too, Dash." Scoots replied, giving Dash a squeeze.
"Take your stuff and go, Scoots." Dash said. "Evening, you too. Make sure she stays safe, alright?"
"Dash, I can help!" Evening yelled, taking a step forward.
"No, I don't want to chance loosing another friend." Dash replied, pulling Scootaloo upright and giving her a light shove towards the side of the clearing, where Evening was still loitering. "Now come on, we don't have a lot of time."
"You owe me when we're done with this Dash." She said, before floating the kid onto her back and running off, disappearing towards the lights of town. Dash watched her go, assuming that none of her friends had seen the phantom horn in action, given the way they didn't react.
"So listen, we need to-" A huge blast of light flew out of the forest a ways away, and the group took off almost immediately through the foliage. Dash felt her element nestle itself around her neck as they ran, trampling foliage as they tried to catch up to the noise and carnage. The ground rumbled and Dash ducked, pulling down Rarity as a building flew through the trees, knocking over several before it broke into too small of pieces to do any more damage.
With the path mostly clear their pace sped up, and as they broke into another clearing Nightmare landed, smirking at them with an evil grin across his face. Dash's heart sank, he was already starting to change to the nightmare's fancy, his eyes had turned pitch black and his wings, even from here, were starting to feather slightly.
"So, I think we have a few loose ends to tie up." Nightmare said as the clearing started to flare with green light as he funneled magic through Jason's horn. "I guess the only question is, who wants to die first?" He asked, the small volley of spears rising up behind himself.