The Dark Never Bothered Me Anyway (Yes That is a Frozen Reference)
With law enforcement out of the picture, the surviving members of my crew and I drive our truck to the one of the biggest TV stations in the city. Since the station has ties to other networks, I figured that I could sneak my “advert” to channels across the nation once we claimed it. As I look out the window towards at the tall structure, I feel a spike of adrenaline surge through my veins, as I anticipate my victory.
There are just a few more things that need be taken care of before charging in. While the building obviously wouldn’t be as heavily armed as the police station, that doesn’t make it any less dangerous. Since this was a TV station, going there means risking my exposure to the rest of the world. So I waited for Arnold to do some Watch_Dogs stuff on the building while the others scattered more jammers around the area. Hopefully between Arnold’s hacking and the jammers, it would be enough prevent word of my existence from making the eleven o’clock news.
Finally, like music to my ears, my radio goes off.
“All jammers in place sir,” a voice calls out from the speakers. “They are working beautifully.”
I glance at Arnold and wait for him speak. He takes a minute to respond as finally realises that I’m silently asking for a status report.
“The power will be out in approximately 45 seconds!” he assures me. “Though I’d hurry. Once it’s out it can turn back on at any moment, but it should provide you and the others enough time to do your thing.”
“I’ll just have to be extra careful now won’t I,” I say with a cocky grin.
“Anyways boss,” he ask calmly, rubbing his hands, “you are going to give me a high level position in this ‘kingdom’ of yours aren’t-”
“Is the money not enough?” I say with annoyance as I give him my “I find it very unprofessional that you're asking for more than what we have already agreed upon, let alone a position in my new empire” look.
“I meant no harm by it Your Majesty,” he says, as he draws back a bit. “It’s just when you first hired me a few days ago, I had no idea what you were or what you were planing. Seeing as your takeover would have been a complete failure without me, I figured a little extra was in…”
I can feel the smoke pouring out of my eyes as I cut him off again, this time a lot more sternly. “The operation isn’t over yet fool. If I’m feeling generous I’ll add another thousand to your check, but if you ask anymore I will either put a collar on you or kill you personally.”
He bows his head, though I can’t help but feeling he’s doing it to mock me. Nevertheless I turn away from him just in time to see the lights in the building go out.
I’m amazed at how fast I’m able to react as I hop out of the car and gallop towards the building. Using my magic, I swing the doors open and zap every human I see, forcing them to lay on the ground. After a quick sweep of the first floor, I hear a large group of my men enter the lobby.
“Perfect timing gentlemen,” I say with the elegance of a Bond Villain. “Everything is proceeding a lot more smoothly this time. Your orders are to secure the exits. Without guns or cameras, these human peons pose no threat to me.”
“Are you sure boss?” one of them asks.
“I want this takeover to look as peaceful as possible,” I partially lie. “The key words here being ‘as possible.’”
In reality I am still shaken up for partially losing it at the station when I tormented that cop. Even with Echo Sombra gone, in the end it’s like he never left. I am still just a time bomb waiting to go off. Still, I figure if I went in solo, I will evoke more confusion out of the civilians than fear, but still just enough fear that they would obey me.
I look up at the group speaking up, being mindful to hiding any trace of my thoughts or concerns.
“Hand me an enchanted pistol,” I command, “I’ll need it so that I may convert my energy for the spells I’m going to cast on the city. I’ve exhausted too much power already on the cops.”
“Just do what you gotta do your highness,” one of them replies as they reach out and present me with a 9mm handgun.
As I levitate it towards me and place it in my saddlebag, I start flashing back to my raid on the mansion when I was shooting guns with power of my horn. Even though it hasn’t even been a full week yet, it almost feels like it happened months ago. I turn away and head for the stairs, silently asking myself why any of this had to happen. Why did my whole life have to change so fast, even if some good things came out of it? Was it worth losing my humanity, or to have a brother who’s afraid of me? To turn into a rejected Kingdom Hearts villain?
My mind races as I trot up one set of stairs and reflect on who was responsible. In the end everything ties back to the true evil in all this. The one who yanked me from my reality and bound me to this life on Earth. The one who gave me the greatest mother on the planet, only so I could experience the pain of her death at the hands of my father. All this just to parody my actions in a life i can’t personally recall myself.
Yet even if he didn’t intend it, I was given a little brother, and a friend who would stick by me even through all this. I no longer care for humanity, but it is thanks to them that I won’t forsake my old life, at least not entirely. But all that doesn’t really matter at the moment. The dawn of my new empire is coming and in less than three hours, Chicago will be mine.
Just as I’m about to reach the top floor, I pull out my pistol and buck the door wide open with my hind legs. Not the most elegant way to make a royal entrance, but I can worry about etiquette later.
I immediately see a group of people heading in my direction, mostly to see why the power was out and why none of their phones were working. Through the light of my horn, they see me, a well-dressed equine with a gun floating beside his glowing horn. I take advantage of their confusion and fire a few warning shots in the air. They immediately duck and cover, but they keep their eyes trained on my body, as their minds struggle to comprehend the reality before them.
I smirk and walk towards them, let out a soft snicker as I try to mess with them.
“Greetings,” I say in a friendly yet somewhat sinister tone, “I am your new boss. As of right now, you all work for me.”
“What the fuck are you?” a tall blond woman shouts in fear.
I feel a familiar feeling of intoxication as she screams, but I chose to ignore it and fire another warning shot. The sound of the gun silences the crowd.
“I’m a dark unicorn with a gun,” I say sarcastically. “If you require more of an explanation you’ll have to wait for my formal address to the city. In the meantime I have something for all of you.”
I open my saddle bag and levitate the disk containing my commercial toward them.
“I want you to play this commercial on all local channels and mail copies to other branches of your network. If it appears blank, it’s not because it’s damaged. It wasn’t meant to be viewed by humans.”
“So you’re an equine?” a dorky looking pencil pusher cries out. “Oh my God I knew this would happen.”
“I sincerely doubt that,” I huff as I narrow my eyes at him. “Look, all that matters is that I am not human and I am very powerful. If you think lifting this gun with my mind is all I can do, you’re wrong. In addition the entire first floor of the building is under my control, your phones are jammed, and my men have pretty much taken out the law enforcement. My only demand is that you air the commercial and shut down your news programs until I state otherwise. Are we clear?”
I see all them nod their heads.
“Just please don’t hurt anyone,” a thin man in the back says, stuttering. “So long as no one gets hurt, we’ll do what you want. But human or not, you can’t possibly hope to get away with all this. If everything you say is true - and I highly doubt it - what’s to stop the FBI or the National Guard from stopping you?”
A long grin crosses my face as a small helicopter lands outside.
“That soon won’t be an issue.”
“I knew we should have taken the stairs!” I yell as looked down at the city from my dad’s private helicopter. I can feel my black heart beating steadily. I had taken rides in this thing several times in my life, except back then I had hands to catch myself if it were to fall. And in few minutes, that could easily happen.
In order to cast the spells I need to complete my mad plan, I need a clear view of the whole city. That’s why I chose the Willis Tower as the casting point. But unfortunately, I forgot one crucial detail when I decided to arrive by helicopter.
There’s no goddamn landing pad.
“Are you sure it’s not too late to just take the stairs?” I said giving the man next to me a nervous look.
“Boss!” The man replies. “Willis Tower is 108 stories, and has been second largest building in America even before 9/11! Why would you even consider taking the stairs?!”
“I don’t really know!” I cry out. “Exercise I guess. Ever since I got more proficient with my powers, I’ve been feeling kinda lazy. Plus,” I gulp, “I don’t have hands to help me grab on to something if I slip or miss the jump. Just thinking about hopping onto a roof makes me…. uncomfortable.”
“It’s ok to admit you're scared boss,” he says. “You're still the er… stallion with the plan. If anything, I find it a little reviving. Makes me feel like I’m not working for the Empire from the Star Wars movies.”
I chuckle, “I’ll put a collar on you or worse if you tell anyone about this.”
“Understood sir,” he says with a nervous chuckle, as he tries to determine whether I was messing with him or not. “Anyways, it’s almost time. We are approaching the top of the tower.”
The helicopter rises as I turn to the cockpit window and watch as we slowly creep up the side of the building. I think to back to when I was in third grade, visiting this place for the first time, back when it was called Sears Tower. Again, I was a different person back then. A kid who loved his mother and father, and had everything in the world. My life just keeps changing. I went from being an alright kid, to a selfish douche bag with father issues, to a dark pony overlord. Whoever came up with phrase “life is full of changes” obviously wasn’t fucking around when he made it.
Finally, I can see the roof of the tower, and watch as the copper gets to a safe enough distance.
“We’re here boss,” informs the pilot. “You can open the door for him now.”
I gulp as the guy in the back with me opens the door, and I feel a gust of wind blow through my mane.
“This is it boss,” he shouts. “Do what you got to do.”
I stare at the roof, readying myself to take a leap of faith. I hurl myself forward, and watch as my body speeds towards the edge. I smile, as it appears that I’m going to make it. Big mistake. My front slams against the edge of the roof, leaving my lower body dangling. In a panic I try to latch onto the side with my hooves, as if they were human hands. Of course, this is a fruitless effort, as my front hooves slide off the the side and my body starts to plummet to the ground.
I close my eyes, and wait for the end. I survived bullets to the chest, but instinctually I knew that no magic in either world could ever save me from this. As my body flips around to face the city lights blow, I close my eyes and wait for the end.
Just then, I feel something furry grab ahold of me. In shock I open my eyes ands gasp for breath. I look down at the city and realise that I am flying. But how was this possible?
“Jesus, Steve,” cries the a familiar voice of my saviour. “Even as Sombra you still need me to drag your ass out of the fire.”
I look up and sure enough i see the face of a white afro looking down at me as we hover in the air.
“Thun-... David,” I say, in disbelief. “You’re fucking flying man and…” I quickly look back down at the ground. “You just saved my life. Holy shit this is incredible, how did you...”
The sound of his hearty laughter cuts me off. “I spent the entire day practicing while you guys were prepping for the operation. Turns out I just was flapping way too hard. These wings are a lot stronger than they appear. I wanted to surprise you here since I knew this was your last stop.”
“Well consider me very surprised and very relieved,” I say as I take a long deep breath.
“Don’t even think about,” he says. “You’ll give yourself a heart attack. Now let’s get you up to that tower. You're starting to feel kind of heavy.”
Thunderlane carries me back to the top of the tower and gently drops me onto the roof. My heart is beating so fast all I can do is pant. When I’m done catching my breath I stare up at Thunder and smile.
“Thank you so much,” I say. “I still can’t get over what just happend.”
He lowers himself onto the roof and gives me modest smile.
“Just looking out for you, like you said.”
“Correction,” I reply, “I told you to make sure I don’t go full megalomaniac, though I can’t complain with you saving my flank either.”
He chuckles and trots over to me.
“So this is it huh?” he says. “This is where you are going to see just how powerful you really are. Are you sure you can cast these kinds of spells on the city?”
“I have absolutely no idea,” I say. “Though if my memory diving sessions are correct, I’ve cast much more powerful spells when I was in my prime. Still, if I botch this up, I could really end up hurting myself.”
“And you sure that this won’t hurt anyone?” he asks me with a concerned expression on his face.
I shake my head. “I can’t guarantee that. Someone might get into a minor car accident, but I’m hoping to avoid fatalities. I made a promise to my brother before I left I would avoid taking anymore lives.”
Thunder gives me a confused look. “What about for yourself? You told me you still feel guilty for killing that man at the bank.”
“Well, I do,” I assure him. “But only because it was a meaningless death. I can accept casualties if they are unavoidable.”
His mouth opens wide. “Holy crap, it’s worse than I thought.”
“What is?” I ask, curious.
He shakes his head. “It’s nothing, just please try not to hurt anyone. Direct or indirect, you do not want anymore lives on your conscience.”
“Very well,” I say as I silently decide to drop the issue. Clearly my words obviously caught him off guard, but it was the truth. I really don’t have any problem if people die or not, so long as it serves a purpose. And besides, it would only be human lives. It’s not like any of my kind would get hurt.
I pause for a moment, as I realise that that really is how I feel. But if that’s true, why am I trying so hard to save lives? Was it all just for appearances to make my regime look good? That could be part of it, but think the biggest reason is that I want to keep Thunderlane and Antonio on my side. I just didn’t realise it till now. And here I thought that the human part of me had won out over my Sombra persona. I guess in the end, some things don’t change.
Regardless, I still have a promise to keep. Hopefully, luck will allow me to keep it.
I turn my head away from him and focus on the city. I gather my attention and focus on the bridges, the highways, the train tracks, the harbor, every possible exit out of the city. With a clear picture of the city parameters in my head, I concentrate and feel magic surge through my horn.
As my mind starts to have second thoughts about whether I should have saved him, I watch Sombra's horn light up with dark magic. The smoke from his eyes is practically gushing out of him now. My heightened senses as a pegasus attune me to the disruptions in the wind. Above us the night sky turns an ominous shade of brown, reminding me of the climax of the Season 3 premiere.
I feel the building shake, causing me to stumble back a bit in surprise. Was Steve causing an earthquake? I struggle to catch my balance, and out of the corner of my eye I see something black rise from the from the bay. Nervously, I turn around and see that whatever was coming out the lake was so pushing out of the ground and growing.
I spin around in a circle, watching has this black sparkling object grows taller and wider, in a complete circle from the outskirts of the city, to the edge of the bay. We were too far way to make out from what it was, but it was clearly a wall of some sort.
My eyes widen just as a black wall pierces the Chicago skyway, one the main routes out of the city. In a panic, I flap my wings and speed towards the bridge, not really caring if I get spotted or not. Still, as i get closer, I make sure to keep my distance so that I’ll at least be hard to spot.
From above I watch the black mass grow, recognising it some sort of expanding cluster of crystals that was only getting larger and thicker with each passing second. On both sides of the bringe, I see rows of cars stopped in there tracks, and confused and frightened people exiting them.
From a safe distance, I survey the area, I and am relieved that no people seems to be badly injured except for a few people. It seems that this black form of crystal formed slowly enough to allow people time clear the area. Not only that, but upon taking a quick look underneath, I found the crystal wall was forming so that the structural integrity of the bridge wasn’t compromised.
While I’m satisfied that no one is dead or dying on the bridge, I can’t relax just yet. Not until I do a quick flyby through the whole city.
It takes me twenty whole minutes to complete circle the wall, and I am happy to see that there aren’t any bodies or severely injured people. However, it scares me that Sombra was willing to go through with this even with that risk. Had my talk convinced him to lower the speed of the spell, or should I have let him fall to his death? Either way, I’m going to have to keep a closer eye on him from now on if I am to remain his Jiminy Cricket.
As I fly back towards the tower, I can sense that the distortions in the wind have only gotten worse. Despite being almost one hundred feet tall, the black wall was still creeping both upwards and outwards. I should ask him later that he has some kind of illusion spell in place, because there is no way one on the outside is going to overlook this.
Perching myself back onto the roof, I find that Sombra position hasn’t changed since I left. However, I can tell is that he is breathing heavily, his face scrunched up like he is trying to hold back some intense pain.
Pushing my frustration at him aside, I gallop towards him to see if I can snap him out of whatever trance he might have put himself under.
“Steve, stop the spell!” I scream into his ear. “Your giant wall thing’s already the size of a building. End the spell before you end up killing yourself.”
After a moment of silence, I’m afraid he didn’t hear me, but once I see his horn start to dim a bit, I let out a great big sigh.
He turns his head to me and opens his eyes, which are no longer glowing green. He smiles at me as his breath start to ease up a bit. His leg wobbles a bit as he tries to take a step forward, but he fortunately keeps his balance. Finally, I see his mouth start to form words.
“Wall… high enough?” he says softly, to which I respond with a light chuckle.
“Yeah, any higher and you’ll put a damper on this wonderful view..” I say. “But how the hell are you going to keep the rest of the world from finding it. I’m sure someone probably uploaded a video to Youtube.”
“Don’t worry. I didn’t just cast one spell, I cast three, each of which will not only keep Chicago off the radar, but prevent any information leaks of any kind. The best part is one of them was a spell I created myself using the knowledge I was able to salvage from the past. By altering my memory spell a bit, every human behind the wall will immediately forget about it the moment they try to call someone or upload evidence of ponies, magic, whatever. I got the idea from some description of some obscure passage from the fourth Harry Potter book, if you could ever believe that human me you used to be into that sh...”
He stumbles sideways mid-sentence, but I am able to reach out and catch him just before his head hits the ground.
“That’s the…” he pauses for a moment take a deep breath, “second time you’ve saved me from falling.”
I place a hoof on his skin, and feel that is temperature is high. “You don’t look good man. Save your energy.”
“No,” he says. “I want to tell you. It’s brilliant. Anyways, I remember from the books that the wizards used some spell that made normal people remember appointments if they got too close to that stadium where the World Cup was being held. So after some reasearch and a few test runs on some of my men, I created a spell that works just like that. All I had to do was adjust the memory spell I already knew, and bam, I created the perfect security meas…”
Just like that, I watch him pass out while I’m still holding him. He’s lucky to even be alive. Does he even still have magic left in him? Worst of all, how the heck am I supposed to carry his heavy flank back to the nation with all that armor on his body?
I let out a deep sigh and look out at the black wall jutting out of Lake Michigan. If that wall is any indication of the future, things are only going to crazier.
