Getting to David’s without being noticed was a lot harder than I expected. It turned out Joe was right about my eyes. As I ran past an old mirror that someone had dumped in an alleyway, I stop to take a look at my eyes. Sure enough, the whites had turned bright green, and my irises were now crimson. If that wasn’t weird enough, purple smoke was pouring out of them.
Well crap. How am I going to get to David’s now?
In the mirror I see an old a pair of sunglasses lying behind me near a some old boxes. They looked a bit dirty, but I wasn’t going to complain. I didn’t waste anytime picking them up and putting them on. I took another quick glance in the mirror to check the smoke. It was still leaking out a bit, but not as much as before. What was really strange was that it wasn’t affecting my vision at all.
I looked at my watch. It was almost five o’clock. It’s going to take me another half an hour to reach David's apartment. I better get there before anymore weird stuff happens.
------
It’s about five-forty-two when I make it to David's apartment. That entire time, I was consumed by fear. Fear of what David will think of me for what I have done, and what Dad’s men would do if they ever found me. I had no doubt in my mind that once word got out that I botched heist, Dad would have his best hitmen searching for me. That fear followed me even as I walked into the lobby of the apartment complex.
I decide to take the stairs to get to the floor where David’s room was, hoping it would be less crowded than the elevator. When I reached his floor, I make a sprint for his door. It was the third door on the right side.
I knock on the door as loud as a could.
“David it’s me, Steve.” I shout. “You have to help me, I have no idea what’s happening to me but you're the only one I can turn to. I know you're probably scared after what I just told you on the phone. If you think I might be dangerous, you can lock me up in one of your rooms. Please.”
Slowly, I see the door open a creak and see a golden brown eye stare back at me.
“You weren’t kidding.” said a voice that I recognised as David’s. “You’ve almost got a full blown mane.”
“A what now?”
“Never mind. Listen, Rudy’s in his room right now playing on his portable game system. I told him to play for as long as he likes today to keep his mind at ease. Just come in but promise me you have your shit under control. I am armed right now in case you try and do anything. It’s nothing personal, but it’d be stupid of me to take chances after what you told me on the phone, now get inside before I change my mind.”
The alien eye disappearance into the darkness as the door slowly opens. I step inside and almost gasp. There in front of me was David, but his eyes were now golden brown instead of their normal shade of light blue. In addition, his hair was longer, and stretched out almost like a natural mohawk. His normally black hair now a silverish white with a pattern of grey highlights.
I put my hand to my forehead to take this all in. A part of me is relieved that I wasn’t the only one going through all this, while the other was boggled that this was even happening at all.
As I take a good look at him, I can tell that he is relieved to see me, but at the same time I can sense that he is afraid. I’ve always been very good at telling when people were unsure or scared. Sure enough have a small hand gun trained at me. Hopefully I could convince him that I was safe. Then again, that might not be such a good idea considering I don’t even know if I’m safe or not.
“Steve I need you to be honest with me. I know you. You're not the kind of person who would kill someone unless you had a damn good reason. You’re violent and you have anger issues, but I never took you for an all out murder. Please just tell me what happened.”
I tell him everything that happen in the bank. I leave out certain parts like how I held the gun to the the little girl and how my eyes started smoking. I still had those dirty sunglasses on. Last thing I want was to scare David.
“Ok, so you're saying that a voice inside your head told you to do it. You know you're not the first person to use that excuse.”
“I don’t know about those people but I don’t think I’m like them. Listen, I’m fine now and thats all that matters. I promise when this is all over, I’ll find out who that man was and send his family some cash.”
“And you think that will make everything better.”
“Unless I can bring back the dead, that’s all I can do. I’m sure as hell not going to prison because of...” I flick my long hair back with my hand. “Whatever the hell this is. David, what’s going go? Are we turning into some weird punk rock band?”
He shakes his head and sighs. “No, I’m becoming Thunderlane, and Rudy is turning into Rumble. I can’t tell who you're turning into unless you show me your mark. You have one your thighs right.”
I begin to stare at him and point my finger at him. “What the hell is a Thunderlane. And how the hell to did you know about the mark on my ass. Did you somehow do this to me.”
David lowered his gun and shakes his head. “That’s right, you wouldn’t know. Let me show you something.”
He puts down the gun, pushes his pant’s down so that only the top part of his thigh is showing. There is a larger black thunder cloud with a yellow thunderbolt on it.
After adjusting his pants, he pointed towards his laptop which is sitting at his coffee table next to the coach. I can see that their already several internet window open. He sits down and opens up one of the windows. He gestures with his hand for me to come closer. “Here comes the trippy part.” he says with a half smile.
I walk over and kneel down to get a closer look. He was on Google images looking at a picture of one of those stupid ponies again. I was about to roll my eyes and snap at him when I noticed the symbol its side. It was the same as Davids. A black thundercloud with a yellow thunder bolt. I take another look at his head. The creature’s eyes were the same as Davide’s, and his hair/mane style was also a mohawk. That and it has the same pattern of white and grey highlights in his hair.”
I look back at David. “You didn’t do this yourself right. I mean, you haven’t gone to the fringe of this little pony cult of your’s right.”
He shakes his head.
“I’m afraid not Sombra.”
Sombra
Last night I heard that name in a dream. Then at the bank, a little girl called me that. Now my best friend just called me that.
I point my finger up him as I slowly get up from where I was kneeling.
I began to shout. “You're the second person today to call me that.”
“What, Steve? That’s your name?”
“That’s not what you called me?”
“Did I call you something else, that’s been happening with me and Rudy all day. Sometimes he’ll call me Thunder without ever realising it. Can you tell me what I just said.
Before I can open my mouth, I hear a door open at the end of the little main hallway, and in stepped out Rudy. While, his hair was a lot longer (And a dark grey as opposed to brown) and his eyes were now bright purple, I have met him enough times to recognise his face.
“Hold on a minute, I need to check what's up.”
------
I pick up my gun so Steve can’t swipe it. I don’t know what character he was changing into, but I was still freaked out about what he told me. Me and him were part of the mob, him by birth and me by circumstances (Let’s just say I owed his father a deal for dealing with the creep that killed my parents.) We both had been in some nasty gun fights before, but the people we shot at were normally trying to kill us or were rival lowlifes. I always thought Steve to be a good person. From the way he talks about his upbring, I’m kinda surprised he didn’t go awol sooner, but I’d never imagined he’d ever do something like this.
I walk up to Rudy and he leads me into his room. It filled with Batman mechise. Rudy loves Batman. When I bought him the first season of TAS, he couldn’t get enough of it. When I told him that Christopher Noel shot the majority of the Dark Knight Trilogy here in Chicago, he went completely bonkers. His obsession reminded me of my pony craziness back when the fandom ruled the internet. Man those were the days.
I turn my head down to look at him “What’s up bro, is your system out of power.”
He shakes his head. “No, it’s on the charger right now. I just wanted to know who’s over. You didn’t tell him we turning into characters from a TV show did you.”
I laugh. Even when a tornado appears on his thighs and his hair starts to change, he still had a good sense of humor. Even now he was just as nervous as me, I could tell he was taking this change a lot better.
“Don’t worry, it’s just Steve. It was his birthday yesterday too you know. He’s going threw the exact same change as we are.”
“How is he taking it? What character is he turning into?”
“I was just going to--”
“No fucking way!”
I heard David's voice cry out for the living room.
“Just keep playing your portable. If anything else changes, come and get me. Chances are the same thing will be happening to me and Steve.”
I pat him on the back and run down the hall.
---------
2 minutes earlier
While David is checking up on Rudy. I might as well get’s some answers on my own.
I drag David’s window down and open up another one in Chrome. I log on to an online dictionary and type in the word sombra. It didn’t recognise the word, but referred me to the word sombre. Perhaps this was the correct word.
I click on the word and read the the definition. Apparently, its a word of french origin that is used to describe something that’s dark, gloomy, and shadowy. I also see that it can also be used to describe depression, and that one of of its synonyms was mournful. It seemed like everything about this word described almost every aspect of my life right now, from melancholy to depressed. I chuckle when I look at the antonyms. “Bright, and cheerful.” I say out loud.
Something in the back of my mind told me that I still haven’t found what I was looking for. I go to Google and type in Sombra with an a instead of an e.
Images of one those retarded ponies start cropping up, but this one looked different. This one was dressed in battle armor, and wore a flowing red cape that one would see on a king. He also wore a spiky crown on his head. However, I wasn’t paying attention to any of that. The only thing I could focus on was his green eyes and the wisps of smoke that poured out from them. The same wisps that had been pouring out of my own eyes for the past few hours.
Without even thinking, I shouted.
“No Fucking Way!”
David comes rushing in. He quickly glanced down at the computer, and then at me on the coach. He looks concerned and worried, as if he had figured out something horrible.
“Before you said I called you a name. Please tell me it wasn’t Sombra.”
I shake my head. It was.
“Take off your glasses.”
“Why, I look like a badass with them.”
He raises the gun to my head. “Take them off or I’m throwing you out of here right now. I need to see if I’m wrong. God I hope I wrong.”
I notice that his hands are shaking. I sigh and stand up to look at him.
“You're not going to like this.”
I close my eyes and take off my sunglasses.
“Open your eyes dammit.” he screams as if he is Jack Bauer on steroids.
I slowly open my eyes, as the wisps of smoke emerge from them.
David just stares at me and starts to back away. His gun is raised right at my head. Before when he had the gun, I was confident that he wasn’t going to pull the trigger. Now, I can sense that he is more terrified than the time when him and I got cornered by the The Skulls.
“You’re him.” He says. “Or at least you're turning into him. Or maybe you were always him. That explains your gem fetish. Tell, I’m guessing the mark on this is a giant purple diamond. The one from the season four final when he attacked ponyville.”
“I don’t watch the show. I don’t know who or what I’m turning into but you have to...” I stop when feel like something is pressing up inside my pants. I look back up at David and see something that wasn’t there before. His ear’s had risen up to the top of his head and changed shape. In addition, black fur was covering both of them.
“Dude your ear’s.”
“What about them?” he said with gun trained on me.
“They're not human anymore.” I said. Things were just getting creepier.
I watch him lift his left hand to one of his ears to feel it. He jumps at the touch and drops his gun. Thankfully it doesn’t go off.
“No. Crap, it’s happening again.”
He run’s over to me and brushes my hair/mane out of the way. “You have them too.” he yells.
Just then Rudy runs out of the his room and runs over to the kitchen. I watch as he picks up a kitchen knife.
David turns and stretches out a hand to stop him. “Rudy, put that down! You're going to cut yourself if you're not careful!”
He turns to his brother with a look of total discomfort. I notice that his ears have also changed, expect he was sprouting white grey fur.
“But this tail is so tight in these clothes.” Whined Rudy. “I need to make room for it.”
David takes the knife from his brother and escorts him into their bathroom.
When they return, Rudy comes out with a short horse tale running down the back of a new cut hole in his pants. While I stared in a look of horror and confusion, Rudy was jumping up and down like he had just won the lottery.
“This is so awesome. You guys should check your’s out too. Man, I wish I could tell Antonio and the others about this.”
From where I stood I could sense that David was trying everything he could to look happy. Being the older brother meant he had to remain strong for his brother. “I’m sure we’ll check ours out later. For now just watch Batman Beyond on your computer. I still need to explain something to Steve.”
Rudy nods and runs back to his room. Taking his time to shake his tail back and forth. The kid was in love.
David turns to face me with a look of concern..
I turn around to face him after checking to see if Rudy was right about the whole tail thing. I couldn’t get a good look at it right now with David right there, but I could feel it pressed up in a ball in the back. I put my hand back their and felt it. It felt just like the tails of the horses I used to ride in summer camp. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it though. After everything that had happened today, I felt emotionally numb at this point.
“I’m sorry about earlier, I just panicked when I saw your eyes like that. I’m just glad Rudy didn’t notice them. I’ve shown him enough episodes for him to recognize who you are, or what you're turning into, right off the bat.”
I brush some sweat off my forehead. “I take it this Sombra dude’s a villain or something. Out of all these girly ponies I’ve seen this one doesn't look cute in the slightest.”
I point my finger to my eyes.
“Not just any villain. Sombra is one of the biggest bad in the show right next to Chrysalis and Discord. Listen, I really need talk to my brother. In the meantime I need you to turn on the Wii U and watch the four episodes of MLP. You need to watch the Crystal Empire parts one and two, and The Past and Present King parts one and two.
I nod. “Ok, listen, just because I’m starting to look like a saturday morning cartoon villain doesn’t mean I’m becoming one.”
“Most saturday morning villains don’t shoot people. I’m afraid of what someone like Sombra is capable of without the filter. I’m not sure if you know this, but in the fall 2014, the show got progressively darker. The Past and Present King is probably the second darkest episode in the series.”
“What’s the first.”
He smirks. “The final episode, the one where the real Thunderlane dies so that his little brother can escape Discord. The weird part was that the two of them weren’t even important characters.”
“That’s weird. I think you showed me the final about a year ago. I think it involved that Sombra dude. Yeah I’m pretty sure it did, I recognise him now. And he get’s killed by some snake like creature with a horse head.”
“That never happened. And I’m pretty sure I’ve never shown you the final. I only made you watch the first two episodes before you called it the ‘gayest thing you ever laid eyes on.’”
I stare at him. “We’ll check out that episode when I’m done. You go check on your brother, I’ll call in a pizza.”
He nods. “You're starting to sound like your old self again. You don’t give a frick about anything. I’m still nervous you might go psycho on me any moment.” he picks up the gun he dropped “I’m keeping this with me at all times. Until you prove you can keep your mental state under control, I don’t want you anywhere near my brother. Oh, and keep those glasses on so you don’t scare Rudy, or the pizza guy for that matter.”
As he walks out of the room, I put my sunglasses back go to turn on the WII U. Once I hear it come to life, press the power button on the Tv and take a seat on the coach. The tail in my pants is really bothering me, but I try and to block it out. Using the Gamepad, I select Netflix and open up My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic in the instant queue.
As I go to play the first part of the Crystal Empire episode, I facepalm myself. I forgot to call the pizza in. I pick up the phone and place the order. Then I hit play. As I the show start’s, I prepare for it to swallow my manliness.
------
The doorbell rang at about eight-twenty. The first part of The Past and Present King was just about to start. I pause the episode and walk over to answer the door. As I made my way, I made sure that my freakish pony ears were hidden in shadowy black hair.
I open the door to see the pizza guy holding our order in his hand.
“That will be eleven-fifty, sir.”
As I reach it a pocket, I see a man and two women walking into the room. One of them was a real sexy babe in a nurses outfit with a nice sweet ass. I lose my self I begin to stare at her chest and imagine her doing naughty things to me. Even the pizza man turns around to a peak.
The guy she was with was some muscular character with long golden hair and a hat. Judging by the way he was dressed, I’d say he had just come back from that stupid farming convection. Man that he must be the luckiest yocale in the world to score that hot babe. Man I wish I was in his shoes right now.
As I pay the pizza man and hand him his tip, I think I can hear the faint sound of them going at it. It makes me regret not giving those two girls a good time last night. I think David said that there names were Flitter and Cloudchaser. Those were propboly just their strper names though.
Anyway, I close to the door behind me and walk back over to the coach. As I look back at the T.V, I notice something on the corner of the screen. I had paused to the opening scene before the credits started. The main ponies were having a picnic by the lake. There were two things that caught my attention right away. One was that the purple unicorn Twilight had wings now. Next was that their was a small slot watching them from atop a small hill. What was strange about it was that somehow I knew exactly where to find it. The figure was so small, my guess is that one would have to study the hell out of the episode just to spot him. Yet somehow, I was able to find him without even trying. Plus he was on the wrong hill.
I pause for a moment and speak to myself in my head “What do you mean it was the wrong hill”
“We were watching them from the other hill. The humans got that part wrong. Continue watching, I’ll point out any other mistakes they might have made.”
It was the voice form before. The one that was mine yet wasn’t.
“Who are you.” I say out loud.
“I am you, and you me. It will all make sense later on, just watch the damn show and witness what we were capable of. How we almost drowned the world in fear and shadow.”
I listen to the voice inside my head, hoping that these last two episodes would shed some light on this mess. I restart the episode, and prepared to study it.