//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 - A pesky pink pony's problems // Story: A Bhaalspawn in Equestria // by Thadius0 //------------------------------// The processes involved in recovering from a complete mind-fuckery are nothing to sneeze at. I liken them to carefully reconstructing a LEGO building. Only in this case, the 'bricks' are my thoughts and ideals, the completed 'building' is my sanity, and occasionally, the bricks fight back from being put where I want them to be. ...Oh, and it's also built over my version of an Indian burial ground. Which in this case is actually a 'dungeon' containing the taint of my blood. Without a building on top, well...It wouldn't be pretty. The taint would have nothing to fight through to get to the surface of my mind, and it would quite easily become...messy. For everyone. Given five peaceful minutes, I'm pretty sure I could have rebuilt my mind exactly the way it was! It was not to be. "So hey, what are you? I've never seen something like you before, are you new to Ponyville, you have to be, if you weren't I'd have seen something like you before, and since I haven't, that means you're new, which means you need a welcome to Ponyville PARTY!" ...Did I mention this pony was on some sort of coffee that man hadn't had time to discover? Or engineer? Cause no way that five words a second is her normal talking speed! She had just reared back and placed her hooves on me when I felt it. A jolt. A tingle. A warning siren in my mind. The temperature of my blood rose a few degrees at her touch, and I'm almost certain all my instinctive panic responses went off at the same time. Instinctively I knew, even as the Slayer raged in the depths, that this mare, this 'Pinkie Pie'... We were related. Probably, hopefully, distant relations, but our blood knew. We were related on my father's side. I saw her eyes dilate, her breath catch, and she backed up and dropped into a sitting position as the fur on her spine stood up straight. "I've...I've never gotten a Pinkie Sense like that before...But I'm getting the idea that it's a dangerous one..." I carefully started to rebuild my mind, even as I took a knee to make myself appear less threatening. I had an idea as to how to deal with this, but it would require both of us to cooperate. Meaning she would need a reason to cooperate. Meaning I would need to build some trust with her, the one thing I tended to use and abuse. "Probably because you've never met anyone like me before. Why don't we play a game, Pinkie?" Her eyes returned to normal and she nodded her head at that slowly. "What sorta game?" "Well, why don't we make it an information exchange game? You ask a question, then I ask one. And you already asked a whole lot, but I think I'll answer this one. My name is Marketh. Marketh Shadeblade. What's the Pinkie Sense, Pinkie?" At this, Pinkie smiled a little. "Oooh, the Pinkie Sense is when I get all sorts of twitches and tingles running through my body, and they mean all sorts of things! If my tail's twitching, it means something is going to fall! If I get an itchy nose, that means there's a swarm of bees on the way! And sometimes I get combos, when more than one twitch happens!" I smiled at that. Future prediction. A typical trait. She then held a hoof up to her chin. "So...I know your name...How about I ask...what sort of creature you are?" I winced at that. "Well, I'm a half-elf. Mother was an elf. Father...wasn't." Pinkie opened her mouth again, but I held up a hand. "Ah ah, my turn." She pouted a bit at that, which looked adorable. I chuckled a bit, having finally rebuilt my mind and sanity to the point where it felt stable again. "Pinkie, I'm going to ask a question, and I want you to be completely honest with me. Is there something about the Pinkie Sense you've not told your friends or family or anyone about? Something that scares you about it?" She sucked in a huge breath and looked from side to side quickly, as though she were expecting said friends or family to appear. Then she looked me in the eye and hissed in a low voice. "How do you know?" I smiled sadly at that. "Because there's something about me that scares me too. You know it, don't you?" She looked to the ground and choked out a sob. "Ye-yeah. So...sometimes I get a twitch. A not-nice twitch. My ears twitch. I hear something. Something nopony else can hear. It tells me to do...not-nice things. Things that would make ponies cry instead of be happy. Things that would make them scream, not be surprised pleasantly. I...I don't like that voice, but I ignore it. I keep throwing parties, keep smiling, but every night I hear it...it makes me go to bed crying." I pulled out a short sword and looked at my reflection in it. My eyes briefly flickered to black, and I heard him. You rang? If I provide the medium, will you aid me? Aid you in doing what? My eyes rested on the mare before me, who was on the verge of tears. Something monumentally stupid, but if it works, you'll meet up with another of your 'siblings'. I 'felt' the Slayer go over my half-baked mental plans and begin laughing. And this is why I like mortals. They are so innovative! It will be done! I nodded and scooted closer to Pinkie. "Pinkie, do you trust me?" She considered for a moment. "Should I?" I smiled again and took her left hoof in my left hand. "Let me tell you a story, then." She looked up to me with a head cocked to the side in confusion. "Is it gonna be a good story?" I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know. It's the first time I've told it to a pony before." She 'oooh'ed at that and looked at me with rapt fascination. I chuckled and cleared my throat before beginning. "Once, long ago, in a land known as the Forgotten Realms, there were gods and goddesses, and mortals of all races and types. The land soldiered on through peace and war, through times prosperous and of famine. And then one man made a prediction. "He predicted that there would come a time, a Time of Troubles. When all gods and goddesses would be forced from their ethereal thrones above and down into mortal shells. And one of the not-nice gods heard about it. His name was Bhaal, and he was the Lord of Murder." Pinkie gasped at that, and I nodded my head at her. "Yes, he's a terrible being. Because when he heard that he would be forced to walk among mortals, and that more importantly, the Time of Troubles would end with the deaths of the former gods and goddesses, he concocted a plan. A plan any decent being would balk at." I paused for a moment to emphasize how bad a plan it was, and naturally Pinkie asked. "How bad a plan?" "He decided to have as many children as possible, with as many females as possible, before he died. So that after he died, their deaths...would fuel his rebirth." Pinkie cocked her head to the side. "How would that work?" I sighed. "Being made mortal didn't cancel out the fact that he had been a god, Pinkie. His blood still carried a portion of his power. And when the children who carried his blood died, the power, the divine spark within them, went to his ethereal throne. All it would need is one of his priests to invoke the proper rites when enough of his essence had gathered, and Bhaal would return." Pinkie slowly nodded. "So...what happened to his kids?" I looked to the skies then. "The same one who prophesied the Time of Troubles made another prophecy. The Lord of Murder shall perish, but in his doom he shall spawn a score of mortal progeny. Chaos shall be sown from their passing. The Bhaalspawn...tore the Sword Coast apart. In one of the greatest wars in history. All because they thought their half-brothers and sisters were out to get them, they all struck at each other. Self-fulfilling prophecies suck." I looked down at Pinkie, who had tears in her eyes, and smiled at her. "Hey, easy there. It's not all over." Pinkie sniffed once. "It's not?" I shook my head. "Sure isn't. See, I'm one too. And this place is still standing, isn't it?" Pinkie nodded at that. "True..." Here I booped her on the nose with my left hand. "And thanks to that little reaction from earlier, I'm gonna guess that waaaaay back in your family tree, if you looked, you could find a time when one of your ancestors met my dad." She grimaced at that. "What does that make us? Half-brother and sister to the nth degree?" I laughed a bit at that, then brought the blade of the sword to rest in my left hand. "I actually wanna talk to you about that, Pinkie. If I told you that I could deal with that little voice in your head...but it would require both a small cut on your part and for you to trust me, would you?" She thought about it for a minute and slowly nodded. "I...I think if you can get rid of that voice...then yes, I should trust you." I let go of my sword, took a hold of her right hoof, and made a quick, shallow slash across her foreleg. She winced, and I quickly slashed open my left hand. "Think, Pinkie. Focus. Concentrate on your Pinkie Sense. Listen for that voice. Think about hearing it. Let it dominate your mind." And with those words, I grabbed a hold of her wound with my own, and the world faded from my perception. ----- I came to in a dark plane. Black was the order for the sky, and the ground was red that flaked whenever I took a step. "Pinkie!" "Over here! Please hurry!" I homed in on the voice of the panicked mare, finding her...and her? Pinkie was struggling with a set of iron chains that were wrapped around her, chains that connected her to another version of herself. Only this version wasn't a happy-go-lucky mare. This version had a straight mane and tail, a disturbing look in her eyes...and a very, VERY large knife in her hooves. "You know, Pinkie, ignoring me all that time isn't something a friend would do. Maybe, if you're not going to use your ears, I could take them." I snarled at that and jumped, coming down right next to Pinkie's other half. She tensed and turned to look at me, not liking what she saw. "Who and what the buck are YOU?" "Your worst nightmare." With that, the Slayer came from nowhere and bowled the mare over, causing the chains to...lengthen. Somehow. While our two demons fought it out, I took a knee next to Pinkie, who was shaking. "What is this place? What was that?" I sighed and put my hand on the chains. "When our blood mingled, it created a Bridge of Blood. This is a psuedo-realm, a mindscape between your mind and mine. This is something I looked into a while ago, quite intensively, and I've only had the chance to try it now. I figured if I brought my demon to fight yours...I might have a shot at helping you." "That thing is yours?! What's it doing to..." Pinkie couldn't finish her question, but I knew what she was about to ask. "Nothing nice, but don't worry. She can probably take it. They're made of the same sort of stuff, after all. Now hold still. This might sting." I focused my mind on understanding what the chains meant, and found them to be more disturbing than I thought possible. The spark within Pinkie was feeding off of her life energy, her abilities, her talent itself, growing stronger. With time, it would break free, take over...and heaven help us. I reached out, grasped my longsword, and brought it down on half of the chains, snapping them clean off. From far off, there was a howling noise, and then heavy footfalls. The Slayer returned, holding up the chained Pinkie Demon in one of his hands. "Excellent work. Cut the rest of the ties, and this Spark shall be powerless, mine to...dispose of." I thought quickly and the shattered chains rose up from the ground, grabbing a hold of the Slayer's legs and dragging him a fair ways away from the Pinkie Demon. He howled even as the chains grew and crisscrossed, binding him in great excess. "I don't think so. You're manageable the way you are, I don't need you consuming any of your relations. I just need them removed from their hosts and cast into the Abyss." Even as both demons howled, I brought my sword down again, cutting the chains. Without a host, the Pinkie Demon became a formless ball of green, and I thrust a hand at it. "Begone, taint of Bhaal. You have no more purpose here." It faded slowly from the landscape, and I smiled at Pinkie. "Mission accomplished." And with that, I thrust my sword into the ground between us. I focused on the reality around us and warped it, causing the floor to vanish as my blade pierced it. Pinkie and I fell, screaming, into the bottomless void beneath us... ----- I woke up with a gasp, recalling the time spent in the mindscape perfectly. Just then, there was another gasp from beside me, and then a rapid-fire voice filled the air. "Oh my gosh, this has got to be the bestest thing ever! I meet a new friend, I help a new friend with a song and building a house for him-" At this, my eyes flicked over and confirmed that yes, sometime during the singing and working, but before I became aware that there was a pink pony in the glade singing with me, we had built my imagined base of operations together. Pinkie continued with her speech, naturally. "And then we learn things together and he helps me get rid of that super creepy meany voice in my head!" A pink face suddenly invaded my vision and I blinked as she continued. "Even if you have a meaner, creepier voice in your head, you're in better control of him than I was of mine, so I think that makes you a nice half-elf! I'm gonna throw a 'welcome to Ponyville' party for you, but it's gonna also be a 'thanks for getting rid of the creepy voice in my head party'! I just won't tell anypony about that bit." I smiled politely at her. "Well, Pinkie, I don't think you have to go through all that trouble..." She clearly wasn't listening. "And I'm gonna introduce you to all my friends too! That way you'll have lots of friends as well!" My main thought as the pink pony dragged me along? How do I get out of this without bloodshed? ----- (Shining POV) Shining Armor went over the letter the Princesses had just sent him. He was uneasy with it. Previously, he had intended to find the Grandmaster, maybe rough him up a little bit, and drag him in for a nice, long stint in the dungeons. Now he was being told to not provoke the creature, whatever he was, at any cost, and discreetly bring it in to Canterlot so that the Princesses could interrogate him. All because Luna had trouble finding his nightmares and dealing with them. If this creature was so dark that Luna couldn't deal with his troubles, then he wasn't sure he wanted him anywhere near the Princesses. Orders were orders though... And with that thought, he carefully rolled the scroll up and shoved it under his seat, leaving it behind as he disembarked. He'd try to follow them, sure. But if the creature resisted or showed any hint of its dark nature, he could always say he lost them. After all... The Guard didn't coddle monsters. It dealt with them.