You know, you’d think I’d ged to seeing the people I’m close to dead. That maybe after seeing it so often-or even being the cause of it- I wouldn’t have this feeling of guilt in my chest. Like Katelynn had a knife in her’s.
“It’s a shame.” I heard my voice saying, felt the sentences coming in my throat. To be honest I had no idea what was going on upstairs. “That was a nice dress. Rarity’s gonna be so upset.”
Logan chuckled. Or, Jimmy chuckled and Logan was a darkness filling up every ounce of him. I glared his direction. He’d left Dominic’s table lamp on- that awful kind only librarian and bookies use-so I could see he was still dressed in his suit from tonight. His hair was a darker blond. His eyes were black. The kind that haunted me, and reminded me of demons from Supernatural only he still had the whites of his eyes.
But he had Jimmy’s face.
“I’m telling her it was your fault.” I informed him, blandly.
Logan laughed again. “Because nothing can ever be your fault, right? Oh no. It was Morgana that killed all those people. Darcy who ruined the plan. Twilight who can’t assimilate to humans fast enough. Nothing can fall on the shoulders of the infallible Morgan Spencer.”
“Hey I know take credit for my own shit.” I argued. “Same as you. And I don’t take away people’s memories of it.”
Logan grinned in confusion, before comprehension dawned. “Your sister. She must’ve met me before. She’s the only one who could’ve told you. Thorax is an idiot, he can barely remember to tie his shoes.”
“He doesn’t wear shoes.” I argued in my boyfriend’s defense. I was such a good girlfriend. “He’s a horse. Did becoming Garfield Logan make you stupid?” He narrowed his eye at me. “Hey you forget that Lilac still forgets her shoes until she steps on a rock.”
“Becoming Garfield Logan hasn’t made me stupid. It’s made me...expanded.” Logan stated. In that stupid way they always fucking do by puffing their chests and broadening their shoulders. “Jimmy was weak.”
“Jimmy was my friend. Katelynn too.” I reminded him. In my mind, I was using the same tone one uses when giving a death threat. Logan grinned smugly. “So what is this, huh? Possession? Mind control? I’m gonna be honest, Garfield, I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” Logan mocked. “Not when you experienced the same thing?”
“I would say I’m pretty sure I’d remember being possessed by a dick, except you wipe my memory a lot so...who knows?” I remarked.
Logan laughed. “It’s a rare thing, you know, when a Traveler goes Dark. Two in the same generation. We’re revolutionaries.” He walked around the table, closer to me. I glared at him, my hand curled into a fist to punch him. “In order to go dark, you need to either change something so fundamental in a world that the only way it can compensate would be to alter the Traveler. Tell me, Morgan, how did you become Morgana?”
I didn’t answer.
“Because you don’t have a bite. You’d died, so you should have a vampire bite on your neck.” Logan reached for my neck to point.
I grabbed his wrist, squeezing it.
Logan chuckled in my face. “So. How did you become a vampire, hmm? What had you done?”
“Shut the fuck up.”
“Did you stop the vampire attack?” Logan went on as if I wasn’t squeezing his wrist to a breaking point. I had earth pony strength-buried deep, deep down-so I could do it. “Did you stop them from killing people?”
“Whatever you are, get out of my friend.” I warned. “Because I’m losing my patience.”
“Is that what happened? You lost your patience, killed some vampires yourself?” Logan carried on. Which only pissed me off further. “Kill the wrong one?”
“Shut up.” I warned. My eyes glanced over his shoulders to look at Katelynn’s cooling corpse.
He laughed. “Ah.” He used his free hand to grab my other arm. I growled in his face. “Saved the wrong one.”
“Shut up!” I squeezed his wrist tighter. Garfield laughed like he was being tickled.
“Tell me- did you kill him first?” Logan asked.
“Shut UP!” The bone in his wrist was straining under my hand. “Just shut up and leave my friend!”
“Did it burn?” Logan asked with a demented growl of glee. “Did it burn through your blood like a fire? Were you screaming?”
Yes.
“Did you think to yourself that life wasn’t worth living through this pain?”
Yes.
“Tell me. Does it wake you up at night? I’m looking forward to it. The memory of that pain, that itch beneath your skin that will just never seem to go away no matter how much you scratch.”
Yes.
I squeezed his wrist.
Logan cackled.
==DMLC==
Darcy stopped.
Thorax bumped into her.
“Uhh...” Thorax shined the light in a nearby cell. They’d gotten to the bottom of the dungeon. The cells here were empty. “Is there a thing I’m not seeing?”
“This was her cell.” Darcy remarked. She was holding one of the bars of the cell. Thorax’s eyes widened. “The first time my sister met her people, they locked her in a dungeon. Dominic Chamberlin set her up as a fucking monster, to justify it. They locked up the ponies too. And her human friends. Lilac and Spike were here somewhere too. They were going to be sent back to Equestria, but they were going to kill Lilac. Dominic told me as much.”
Thorax had never met Dominic Chamberlin. But he hated the man intently.
“They told me Morgue killed him.” Thorax felt bad that he was happy to hear that. “Stabbed him. A lot.”
“...why are we talking about this?”
Darcy looked at Thorax, a question in her eyes. “Has she told you about Morgana yet?”
“Who?”
“Fuck.” Darcy pressed her face against the bars. “Because I think something really bad happened to Jimmy- and it’s gonna fuck Morgan up when she knows it too.”
==DMLC==
“The second way to go Dark-” Logan explained, still grinning wide despite the fact I’d sprained his wrist. “-is to break. Some would call it a psychotic break. Only, our species, our minds are so complex that they can’t just simple break. Your mind shatters all at once and one piece at a time.”
He was still holding my arm in his other hand. He was squeezing tight enough to leave bruises.
“Did you know it’s like that?” Logan asked. “Because I think it was like that when your sister died.”
It was.
“You utter cock.” I snarled. “Get out of my friend.”
“Look at you. You’ve gone through both. You’re so powerful you came back from them. You can make portals to those worlds with a thought. Your Createds have more soul than boring regular humans.” Logan recounted in awe. “And you wonder why they made you Queen.”
“Leave him. Leave him right now.” ‘I don’t want to hurt you, Jimmy, if you’re still in there, but I will if I have to.’
“I loved you.” Garfield snarled back in my face. “I loved you since I left you.”
“Katelynn loved Jimmy.” I snapped. “She loved him. And you killed her.”
“You didn’t tell me you had a boyfriend!” Garfield snapped back. “But I know what to do. You’ve been complaining about Garfield-me- for months! I know what to do to get under your skin.”
“Fuck you.”
“I’ll wipe your memory of them too-”
“Fuck. You.”
“Maybe I’ll keep doing the same thing- over and over again.”
“I’ll fucking kill you.”
“Because we’re the same, Morgan. We’re meant to be. Look at us. We found each other after a decade apart!” Garfield ranted.
“I’m gonna shoot you in the face.”
“I brought your sister back to you!”
“And you took away my friends!”
“I never wanted to be your friend!” Garfield held my arm so tight I’m sure it cut into the skin. I hissed- trying to make it out as anger but we both knew it was pain. “We were supposed to be together! Us, against the rest of them! With your power, with my mind, we’d have been unstoppable. But now I see it. Jimmy Cipes was weak. All he had been weakness. Garfield Logan was the only thing you pay any attention to. But you had to go fill in love with an insect over your own kind!”
“Fuck! You!”
In a flash, Logan was ripped off my body. He was thrown across the room to a wall. He fell to the floor in a lump.
My hands were glowing gold with Equestrian magic. It roared up inside me, raging like I was.
“You were better than this!” I raged at the thing that had been Jimmy. “Jimmy...Jimmy was better than this. He didn’t deserve this. Nobody does. Why did it have to be you?”
He pushed him up, weakly. He glared up at me. “Because you said no.” He stood up. “And I won’t stop until I get a Yes.”
He grabbed the cord for the lamp, pulling it off the table. I made a shield over my body to protect me from the shattered glass. So I did so, Logan got to his feet and ran out the door.
I dropped the shield, following after him.
==DMLC==
“YOU SON OF A BITCH!”
Darcy and Thorax were out of the dungeon by then. Darcy had the rag soaked with her blood in her hand. Thorax had pointed out the safety hazard, but refused to touch it. Darcy was-in her opinion-the only one brave enough to do it.
The door had just shut when they heard that shout. With no hesitation they ran towards Morgan’s yelling.
They had turned a corner when a body collided with Darcy, sending her to the floor.
Thorax stopped to be sure she was okay.
“Jimmy!” Darcy growled. “What the-What the fuck are your eyes?”
Garfield grinned like a shark at her. “I’m taking this.” He took the bloody rag out of her hand. He jumped to his feet, sneering at Thorax. “Pathetic insect.”
Thorax glared at him. “What did you do with my sister!”
“I take your sister?” Garfield remarked. “What a splendid idea. Which one was she again? There are so many sisters, I can’t remember them all.”
Thorax’s hand glowed blue. Darcy sat up, yelling at him to stop. “Her name is Cicada! Now tell me what you did!” Darcy smacked her hand against her face.
“Nothing...yet.” Garfield Logan’s grin widened.
Thorax realized how stupid he’d been.
Darcy hopped up to her feet. She charged at Garfield only for the man to dodge it effortlessly.
“LOGAN!” Morgan screamed as she turned down the hall.
The two sisters came at him, with Thorax trailing behind. Garfield Logan knew he was no match for them. But that didn’t kept the smug grin off his face.
Darcy came at him first. Garfield had dodged before, so she’d account for that. Instead Garfield let her run into him. He took hold of her rm, using her momentum to fling her over him. Her feet collided with Morgan’s head. As Thorax was approaching, he shifted into his changeling form. Garfield was momentarily thrown by the moose creature, before sliding underneath him.
It all happened in thirty seconds.
Morgan and Darcy got up first, only to see Garfield waving them goodbye.
“Bastard!” Morgan raged. She jumped up to her feet, rushing to Thorax. She hopped on his back. The changeling was confused for a second. “Chase him!” Morgan prompted.
Thorax got it. He ran after Logan. Darcy trailed behind.
They turned a corner to see Logan standing haughtily at the end.
“Did you really think I challenged you without a plan?” Garfield taunted, while Thorax and Morgan were catching up to him.
Darcy’s eyes widened. She remembered her fights with him- few and far as they were. “GUYS STOP!” She called out to Morgan and Thorax.
Morgan heard her sister. She grabbed Thorax’s neck scruff, pulling him back like a horse’s reins.
But Logan had already pulled the trick out of his sleeve...literally. Morgan’s eyes widened as he pressed the button.
Thorax fell on his knees. Morgan fell on his side. Darcy collapsed against the wall.
Logan walked towards Morgan, who had gone pale. He knelt down to her side. Morgan glared at him, moves sluggish. He held up the little device.
“You know, Morgan, your biggest regret wasn’t killing him with this.” Logan remarked. Morgan let out a hefty breath, having difficulty breathing in. “It was using this to keep him from feeling it.”
Morgan said nothing.
Logan grinned. He stood up, walking down the hallway. Darcy writhed on the wall, trying to reach for Logan. Thorax was growling. Logan just laughed.