Portals. Portals Everywhere!

by Piece Bot

Chapter 26 - Faulty Wiring Part 2: A Dead Joke

‘A joke? Really?’ Twilight wanted to say but wisely kept her mouth shut. Jack seemed to be the unstable part of Joseph so there was no telling how far he would go. So instead of saying anything, she opted to nod her head, fear clearly evident on her face.

“Oh come now, Twilight. Don’t be like that. It’s a good joke that I’m glad you’ll listen to.” Jack said as he attempted to soften his smile but then realised it didn’t really matter. He cleared his throat in preparation and then bowed slightly, slipping on a gas mask he had borrowed from Twilight’s emergency supplies. “What laughs like a hyena after being gassed?” he asked, twisting the top of the container he was holding, letting a tiny bit of green gas escape.

Twilight immediately placed a field of magic around her mouth, letting the gas filter into air she could breathe if enough of it managed to get close to her. “That joke doesn’t even make sense.” Twilight scoffed, and slowly walked up to him. “What happened to Spike?” she asked as Jack backed up a little bit.

Jack’s eyes darted from side to side before sighing and tossed the container down the stairs, flinching as he heard it break, letting the nitrous oxide infect the majority of the tree. “I killed him. He’s breathed in enough of the stuff by now, I’d be surprised if he wasn’t dead. Dragon biology is weird but I think I managed to work out enough of the kinks to have given him a lethal dosage. He just happened to be my first victim.” Jack explained with a noncommittal shrug, turning down the stairs with his hands in his pockets. “I’m going to see if there’s anything fun to do. Catch you later, Spackle,” he called out before shutting the door to her library with a click.

Twilight’s eyes were threatened by tears as she ran back to Spike’s room, not letting his words get to her. Strengthening her magic around her mouth, she wrenched the door open and nearly collapsed when she didn’t see Spike moving. ‘No … please don’t let him be dead.’ Twilight’s mind ended up going in a flurry as she tried not to think of the worst. She gently shook him, then turned him around onto his back to get a better feel.

Not seeing his chest go up and down slowly made Twilight get slightly panicked because so far, she hadn’t let herself feel anything except for shock. She rested her hooves on his chest for a few seconds in case he actually was breathing but could not feel a thing. ‘Nononononono.’ Twilight repeated over and over in her head. Seeing the grin still stuck on Spike’s face, she finally let tears fall and only barely heard her name called out after a distant banging of a door sounded.

Through her haze of tears, Twilight managed to get up from her position on the floor and quickly walked through the corridor and down the stairs that appeared to be coated in a green substance. Her hoof slipped on a stair, sending her crashing down until she felt herself hit the wall at the bottom of the stairs. Shaking her head wearily, she stumbled into a blue figure, causing the both of them to crash on the ground outside the house.

“Twilight?” Rainbow called out, opening the door to her library. A weird smell permeated the room and she went to call for Twilight again, only for that very pony to stumble into her and back out into the open. When her dazed state passed, she found Twilight laying across her, with her body being shaken by sobs. Not really knowing what else to do, Rainbow patted Twilight on the back gently before trying to slowly work her way out from underneath. “Uh, you okay there, Twilight?” she asked, knowing she wasn’t fine but it seemed the right thing to ask once she had worked her way out. Rainbow had gotten up into a sitting position and was now trying to calm the distraught Unicorn.

“He … he k-k-killed him!” Twilight sobbed, unable to put anything else into words for the moment.

“Twilight, slow down. Who killed who?” Rainbow asked slowly, then began to try and figure it out in her head. “Wait, did … Jack kill ... Spike?” she asked, eyes widening as she flipped her head between the tree house and Twilight.

When Twilight heard Rainbow she managed to quiet down for a bit, only for a new wave of tears to begin. Not letting it get the best of her, Twilight shakily stood up. She leaned on Rainbow for a bit before getting her act together. “No, the delivery pony.” Twilight managed to choke out, shaking her head to try and get her tears to go away. “Of course it was him. The … the only thing we need to do is get that cure from Zecora. Do you have it?” she asked, looking at Rainbow with bloodshot eyes that were filled with tears that threatened to spill over if she keep herself in check.

“I just gave the ingredients to the Spa Sisters. They’ve mixed it before so I left it with them. I then came over to your place to check up on you.” Rainbow answered, wrapping a wing around Twilight to comfort her. Twilight shrugged off Rainbow’s wing and began to slowly walk forward, heading for the spa.

“Where you going?” Rainbow asked, quickly catching up to Twilight’s slow gait.

“To the spa. I want you to find Jack because if I do, there’s no telling what I would do to him. I have to keep in mind that Jack is an alternate personality that’s gotten out of control. If you can get him to come to the spa willingly, great. If not, knock him out and have a few other ponies help you take him there. He needs to be stopped.” Twilight instructed Rainbow coldly and broke into a run once she figured she had gotten enough energy back.

Rainbow trusted Twilight’s judgement but was shocked that she felt that way. It was understandable but still, this is Twilight. Leaving her to get to the spa, Rainbow took off and quickly zipped around Ponyville, making shorter searches each time she passed over an area before moving on.

---

Jack whistled a merry tune to himself, quite pleased with the ‘good’ deed he has done for the day. He was currently sitting on top of a mountain, cross-legged and just outside the mouth of a cave had portaled up to. He spotted it from Ponyville and figured it would be as good a place as any to try and work out what he was going to do for the rest of the day.

“I suppose I could see how far I can toss this … but that would only lessen my boredom by so much. Meh. Stuff it.” Jack shrugged and threw a rock over the edge as far as he could, watching it go down, down, down until it disappeared from view.

“I was right. Now I’m back to being bored out of my skull.” Jack said with a yawn, getting up and stretching before picking up the portal gun. Taking careful aim, he pointed the gun to Ponyville, and shot a ball of blue energy. Not waiting for it to make contact, he placed an orange portal beneath himself and fell through, landing on his side with a grunt.

“Found you!” Jack heard a voice shout out before the pony belonging to it stopped just short of him.

“GAH! Where did you come from?” Jack asked, quickly scrambling up and hitting his back against a wall.

“The sky, duh. Now, I have a favour to ask. Do you want to take a trip to the spa?” Rainbow asked, deciding to outright ask if he wanted a spa treatment. It probably won’t work but it was the best she could do under short notice.

“Nope, don’t like spas. Sorry, Sheila.” Jack said with a grin, getting up and quickly walking away, hoping that little accent slip will get her to go away. Jack didn’t really want anypony to intervene his scheming.

Rainbow shuddered at the accent slip, knowing what he did to Spike. He doesn’t even seem to care about the dragon! If asking didn’t work, then she would have to hit him over the head with a solidly thrown chunk of rock. Picking up the biggest rock she could fit in her mouth, Rainbow slowly flapped her wings and waited until she was directly over him to drop it. She let it go but was extremely surprised to see it stop in mid-air, directly above his head, his grinning face looking up at her.

Jack looked up when he heard wings flap and a rock suddenly fill his vision. Narrowing his eyes, Jack concentrated on the potential energy the rock would have had if it hit him, making it stop dead in mid-air as he absorbed the kinetic energy.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Vibrant Crash.” Jack tsked and raised a hand up to the rock, using an index to touch it and send it flying up towards Rainbow at a tremendous speed, practically doubling the energy the object would have had otherwise.

“Woah!” Rainbow shouted, barely moving her head in time. The rock managed to graze her cheek. She thought nothing of it before she was suddenly flung headfirst into a thatched roof of one of the houses surrounding them.

“Why would you do that to me?” Jack asked in an imitation of a whiny voice before laughing harshly. He walked up to the house she had crashed into and shouted up to her, “That’s a delayed reaction if I’ve ever seen one!”

Rainbow wasn’t able to speak as her jaw felt cracked and it hurt a lot if she tried to move it. Breathing in deeply, she got up and jumped down to the ground, using her wings to slow her fall. She snorted a bit, then ran up to Jack and head butted him, making fall down. Without giving him a chance to react, she then went to stomp hard on his chest a few times.

Jack was caught off-guard by the sudden onslaught and coughed each time she struck his chest, eventually coughing up a bit of blood. Seeing this, Rainbow stopped her onslaught and punched a hoof into his face for good measure, effectively knocking him out.

Rainbow wasn’t able to ask for any help due to her wrecked jaw but managed to get him onto her back all the same. Once she did that, she carefully walked her way back to the spa, making sure Jack didn’t fall off.

No questions were asked once the spa was reached. Twilight gave Rainbow a sympathetic look before lifting up Jack’s limp body with her magic and immediately dunking him into the prepared bath, clothes and all. After a few tense minutes of waiting, Jack came up spluttering although this time, his hair appeared to be grey instead of green and when he opened his eyes they were no longer glowing green, but yellow.

“Um … hi?” he asked tentatively, giving a little wave before looking at the others with a hint of regret.

Comments

[Danger A Dragon]

So, Spike's dead...I think Jack just started another war between the dragons and ponies, if the dragons find out that is.

[unknowncape7377]

6875741
Call the dude of time travel back... Problem solved