Possession in the Crystal Empire

by Askre

Chapter 6. Not your brother.

Chapter 6

Private groaned softly and slowly opened his eyes. The Unicorn winched a little when feeling mild pain in his left cheek, it didn’t feel right. He raised a hoof to check it and was surprised to find it swollen. He quickly dropped the leg since it still felt tender.

“H-how?” The Unicorn remembered too well when Sombra struck him in his mind, but he hadn’t expected it to be visible on his body. What had the doctors and nurses thought when his cheek just suddenly started swelling?

“A good reminder for you that I can harm you if I so wish,” was the only answer Sombra gave him.

The Unicorn cringed making a mental note to try in the future not to piss off the malevolent spirit king in his head, but then the stallion noticed that he wasn’t alone in the room. All nervousness washed away when he saw what almost looked like a mirror image of him, just different eye color, cutie mark and this pony looked fitter.

Private’s eyes narrowed to slits as he regarded his twin brother sitting a slight distance from the end of the bed. Barricade stared right back, with a smirk on his muzzle.

“What are you doing here?” the bedridden Unicorn growled but then froze as he realized what this meant. Barricade would not be here without someone having told him and the only ones who could tell him shouldn’t have known at all. He didn’t know how they had managed to find out but this meant they probably knew where he was from and who he knew.

“And so your clever ruse as utterly and completely failed,” Sombra remarked with a mocking laughter.

“Dew, Foxy and… Coal are in Los Pegasus and you know mom and dad are digging up that ancient town in San Palomino. I’m the only one they could reach,” Barricade told him and shrugged.

“Look.” The indigo eyed Unicorn sighed slightly and looked down at the floor. “I know when we last met we didn’t exactly part on the best of terms. I know I told you that we should just live our lives separately in our respective cities. I also know you’re right now trying to think of thousands of different ways to tell me to get the hell out.”

Barricade wasn’t too surprised to see Private grumble and glare down. He knew his twin well, even if they weren’t on best of terms, but the Unicorn on the stool had one advantage over the one in the bed, he had better ways with words.

“I’m the last pony in Equestria you want to see, I realize that. But there is something going on here, you would not just spontaneously travel to the Crystal Empire like this. What they have told me of their interactions with you tells me that you are involved in something. Why else would you bullshit that you don’t remember your name and refuse to say where you come from? You would only do that because you’re trying to protect those you love and care about,” Barricade pointed out and his brow sunk in a heavy frown.

“Clever isn’t he? Well I suppose he has the advantage of being your brother and thus knows you. Misleading them might not be as easy as I initially thought with him around,” Sombra murmured.

“Just… tell me what to say,” Private mentally grunted, already relenting to the idea that he better just do what Sombra wanted him to do.

“Seriously Private, what is going on?” Barricade asked although he wasn’t really expecting his brother to respond.

Private waited but for once the inside of his head was silent. Sombra was not saying anything, just watching, the Unicorn could still feel his presence but nothing seemed to be happening. He had expected to be fed lines or at least told what to say right now.

“Um, he asked me a question, I don’t really want to answer him but you made it abundantly clear you want me to answer their questions. I don’t know what to say, are you going to suggest anything?” he asked the silent spirit.

Oh great, now he shuts up. Private glared back at his brother who still waited for an answer. He decided to just go with the fact that the two of them were not on best of terms.

“I have nothing to say to you,” he snorted, keeping the hard glare on Barricade.

“Well right now I’m all you got, well I suppose I could go to Los Pegasus and find Dew and Foxy and tell them where you are. They would probably come running, or go to San Palomino to tell mom and dad.” Barricade shrugged not really bothered by the glare. He was mildly surprised to see how alarmed Private became at that prospect.

“No! They are not coming here,” the bedridden pony protested and sat up.

Okay it’s serious if, Private doesn’t want any of them to come, Barricade thought, he had no plans to go to western Equestria to look for them but he had wanted to test his brother’s reaction to the idea.

Barricade slipped down from the stool and walked closer to the bed, ignoring the apprehensive look coming on his twin. The Unicorn sat right next to it and now peered at Private with a critical eye.

“There is something different about you,” he said and pointed at him with a hoof. “This doesn’t sound right. Why would you be averse to have Foxy and Dew come here to see you? In fact, I’m surprised you haven’t tried to bail out already.”

Private closed his eyes and looked away causing Barricade to sigh and shake his head. Seemed his brother was really going to be stubborn on this. He was prepared to stand up and just leave for now when his twin turned his head back towards him, his eyes opening slowly.

What the…? Barricade blinked when seeing the smile slowly crawl on his brother’s muzzle. It was a sinister looking one.

“My you are indeed a clever one,” Private said, the smile changing into a grin.

“Wait hold on. How did you…? I didn’t allow this, when did you get…? You said you couldn’t take control without my approval,” Private protested deep inside the mind, having realized that in a blink of an eye he was now the observer.

“I lied,” Sombra chuckled cruelly.

“Private?” Barricade asked unsure and was even more so when the Unicorn on the bed slowly shook his head.

Barricade rose up and backed away when his brother’s eyes began to glow green and purple mist began sprouting from the corners. The Unicorn wasn’t sure if he should run and try and alert someone or stay put and figure out what was going on.

“Okay what is going on, Private, what in Tartarus is happening?” he asked and glanced to the door.

“I am borrowing your brother’s body for the time being. However, I rather it remained secret for now, but I can see keeping it secret from you will be rather complicated, so instead I am going to ensure that you remain silent about it,” Sombra chuckled and threw the blanket off Private’s body and jumped out of the bed.

“What?” Barricade blinked but for a second but then scowled. “What did you do to Private?”

“Oh he’s still in here, protesting but unable to do anything about it,” the dark king explained and started to approach. “Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

“Okay this would be more intimidating if this wasn’t coming from the body of my brother,” Barricade snorted and gestured to his twin. “Seriously, that flappy pancake butt can hardly even lift those history books he reads.”

“Oh you should have heard the indignant snort your brother just gave,” Sombra laughed as he continued to walk towards Barricade.

“I’ve insulted him worse, now get out of him!” Barricade growled and started to raise his hoof for a strike but stopped. Wait would I be hurting Private or him.

The hesitation hadn’t escaped the king’s attention who now was right in front of the other Unicorn. He grinned even wider.

“Hesitant to harm you brother are you?” Sombra whispered, he swiftly struck Barricade so hard with the right hoof that it sent him flying to the back of the room.

Ow… Barriacde saw stars as he sunk to the floor after making a loud impact with the wall. He slowly began to rise and stared utterly baffled at his possessed brother.

“What… the… Private is not that strong,” he pointed out. Sombra was approaching with a sadistic grin on the muzzle.

“I’m enhancing the strength to this body,” the dark Unicorn explained.

Barricade grit his teeth and fully rose back to his feet. He really didn’t want to do this but started to power up his horn for a blast. His main thought was to knock Private out and hope it was possible to extract whoever was controlling the body. The Unicorn fired, ignoring the headache he had after hitting his head against the wall. Barricade’s face fell when the blast harmlessly bounced off a dark magical shield enveloping his twin.

“Pathetic,” Sombra snorted when two more desperate blasts from his host’s brother were deflected by the shield.

“Let me guess, you’re enhancing his magic ability as well, because I know Private failed basic magic in school.” Barricade hated to admit he was starting to become a little worried now.

“No this is my own power, though I must channel it through him,” the dark king snorted and suddenly charged.

Oh crap. Barricade had very little time to react as his twin brother was suddenly much faster than he should have been. He managed to save his head another blow but the hit went to his side instead, throwing him back to the wall.

Sombra wasted no time and began hitting and kicking the Unicorn around the floor. Barricade desperately tried to block and fight back, but could do very little except be on the defense. He managed to block a kick which gave him a breathing room to jump back to his legs. Then the stallion ducked a swing from his possessed brother and thought he saw an opening to make his own kick, however it missed its mark as Sombra managed to quickly dive out of the way.

A hard punch to the gut threw Barricade for the third time to the wall, then he was sent with a hard kick across the floor and crashed into the unoccupied bed. Barricade groaned in pain and tried to rise up again but suddenly found himself pinned down by Sombra who stared down at him with a mad grin.

“You honestly… think ponies won’t have heard this racket? Hard to keep this secret if you are attracting so much attention,” Barricade snorted and tried to struggle free.

“But I want them to hear it, I’m just waiting for them to come and witness two brothers fighting, two estranged brothers locked in battle, apparently what you did to your brother was so bad that Private just lost all control over himself and attacked you,” Sombra chuckled and hit Barricade in the face.

“Now you are going to be silent about me, not just because of what I’ve demonstrated what I can do to you using your own brother.” The dark Uncicorn lowered the head down so the muzzle was right next to Barricade’s ear and whispered. “But I can make you watch as I put your brother through the most agonizing pain he’s ever experienced and there will be nothing you can do to stop me.”

“Who in Tartarus are you?” Barricade growled and tried a head-butt, not really concerned anymore that he would hurt his brother, he would apologize later. Sombra raised his head to avoid it.

“Now that would be telling,” the dark king chuckled and waved his hoof at him.

With those words the green glow vanished from Private’s eyes and the malicious grin disappeared. The Unicorn grimaced as he looked down at the beaten and battered form of his twin brother. Sombra had blocked his vision so he had only been able to hear. Now that he could see again he was horrified.

“B-Barricade…” Private was panicking, his breathing accelerating.

Barricade was about to say something but then the door to the room swung open and Flash Sentry and Shining Armor came rushing in along with Doctor Scope and a nurse. The newly arrived ponies gasped at the sight, Private pinning down the bruised and bloodied form of his twin brother.

Shining and Flash immediately rushed over and pulled Private off Barricade. There was no resistance from the Unicorn, he was just staring at his twin in a state of shock and disbelief. Scope and the Nurse went to tend to his brother, but Barricade brushed them off and rose up on his own.

“What happened? I know you said the two of you were estranged but not that there was a risk he would attack you,” Shining Armor asked as he and Flash pulled Private further away. They were hesitant to let go of him in case the Unicorn would charge for his brother again.

Barricade considered his options. He did not know what was inside his brother but he was starting to feel a bit bolder now that he wasn’t alone with him. The Unicorn narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth intending to just say what had happened, but the words in his mouth froze when Private suddenly started to flail and made strange gurgling sounds.

“He’s having a seizure, let him go carefully to the floor!” Doctor Scope quickly ordered them.

Flash and Shining quickly obeyed and as instructed by the doctor stepped away so they wouldn’t obstruct the pony. Scope stepped closer carefully counting and sighed in relief when it stopped very shortly later. She walked over to the now unconscious pony and put him in a recovery position.

“Does your brother have a history with fainting or having seizures?” The doctor looked at Barricade who had watched everything with his jaw nearly scraping the floor.

“No, never,” Barricade whispered, the words spoken by the spirit that possessed his brother were ringing through his head.

“Nurse, why don’t you take Mr. Barricade and have a look at his injuries,” Scope told the nurse who nodded, she managed to lead the Unicorn out of the room without any protests.

“When he wakes up, help me get him back to the bed, this Unicorn is not leaving the hospital until we find out what is happening with him, we can’t rule out magic, but I’m also not ruling out something we have never encountered before.” Scope then turned to the two remaining stallions who both just nodded.

---

“So care to tell us what happened in there?” Shining Armor asked as he and Flash approached Barricade who was having his injuries patched up.

The gray Unicorn frowned, he just knew the seizure had to have been induced by that spirit thing inside his brother. A small sample of what could be done to him. Then Barricade realized even further what beating him up had meant. If he told them that his brother was possessed, it could sound like a justification to explain why Private attacked him. A farfetched justification considering they already had a more logical, estranged sibling reason.

“I hit a raw nerve with him. I am very good at pissing ponies off without realizing it,” Barricade said without even blinking an eye, quite used to skewing the truth or just outright lying to hide the facts.

“Alright, I can buy that, but he had you pinned down and seemed to be winning that fight,” Flash pointed out, it hadn’t escaped him that when seeing the two brothers together, Barricade was far more muscular than Private.

“What? Is it that surprising that I don’t feel like beating up my brother?” the unicorn snorted with irritation. That was mostly the truth. “His anger at me is rather justified, maybe now that he’s gotten that out of his system we can speak more properly.”

“I see your point.” Shining nodded accepting this explanation. It was clear to him that Barricade hadn’t wanted to injure his brother who was already bound to the hospital and instead just took the hits that he clearly could take. Nothing was broken, just bruises and gashes that would easily heal.

“But you wouldn’t mind telling me, why the two you have such bad blood between you?” the white Unicorn asked curiously.

“Sorry, it’s between me and Private, no offense but I’m not too comfortable discussing it outside the family, especially considering I’ve managed to alienate said family,” Barricade grunted and was finally free from the nurse, pushing her away and stood up.

“No, no, it’s alright, I was just curious, of course it’s just between you and your brother,” Shining nodded and watched the Unicorn walk away, not too surprisingly he headed straight back to Private’s room.

“So you buying any of this?” Flash asked, he had found Barricade’s answers less than satisfactory.

“With what you’ve told me already, I’m not entirely sure. He’s not wrong though, we have no right to pry into their personal business, right now it’s more important that Barricade can help us figure out why his brother arrived here in the Crystal Emprie,” Shining Armor told him.

Meanwhile Barricade had reached his brother’s room again and had entered. Private still appeared unconscious but with what had happened he wasn’t so sure it was the case. The Unicorn approached his brother’s bed and this time sat down right next to it. He frowned when his twin’s eyes opened and a smile came on the muzzle.

“Who is speaking right now?” Barricade growled low.

“Not your brother,” Sombra chuckled and rose up a little. “Enjoyed my little demonstration? That is not the worst I can do to him.”

“I can’t say I did, so what do I need to do to get rid of you,” the sitting pony snorted.

“You? Nothing, at least there is nothing that I require you to do except to remain silent about my presence in your brother’s body,” the dark king said, staring intently at him. “Then again, you never know, I do require some information, like how things are, some more information on the four Princesses, I am about a millennium behind the times.”

Barricade folded his front legs and narrowed his eyes, he really just wanted to tell this spirit to shove it but knew better. He could see though why Private didn’t want his roommates or parents to come here while in this condition.

“I want to speak with Private,” he demanded, Sombra rolled his eyes and closed them, for a moment Private’s body went limp but slowly and groggily the pony woke up again.

Private cringed when seeing Barricade, then he quickly turned around in the bed to face away from him. He was too ashamed to face him now, sure he didn’t like his brother at the moment but having been used to attack him like that had been a little bit too extreme for the Unicorn.

“Private, it’s alright, I’ve been banged up worse than that, granted your uh new roommate puts up a good fight but nothing that I won’t survive,” Barricade tried to reassure his brother.

“What do you want?” his brother muttered just audibly enough for him to hear.

“To know what the hell happened. Why are you possessed? How in Tartarus did you get over here? Who is possessing you?” Barricade asked sharply but kept his tone low.

“Remember that nightmare I had, back when we were six?” Private whispered and slowly sat up but he kept his back towards his brother.

“Uh, no, not really,” his twin shook his head.

“I was a year in therapy because of it,” the hospitalized pony clarified with a sigh.

Barricade had to really think now, recalling vaguely that yes his brother had at one time had a powerful nightmare and it apparently traumatized him so much that he had to go to a therapist about it. He barely remembered much of it himself.

“Anyway… it wasn’t a nightmare. I was pulled into the past and spent seven days as a prisoner to the spirit that’s now in me, when that spirit was still alive. He did that to many ponies, infusing them with spells that would cause them to seek him out once he died. I was the unlucky one that found him,” Private explained still speaking in a very quiet voice even for him.

“And his spirit was here in the Crystal Empire?” Barricade frowned, if he hadn’t already seen the spirit in action he would hardly have believed that story, but his current injuries told him otherwise.

“It indeed was,” Private’s voice became darker and he turned his head to glance at Barricade, a wicked grin on his muzzle.

“Hey I wasn’t done talking with Private, asshole,” Barricade snorted, realizing that the spirit was back in control.

“Oh but that is all the time I’ll give you with him for now,” Sombra chuckled and turned around to face his host’s twin.

“Let me talk with Private!” the other Unicorn snapped with a sneer.

“Oh Barricade, you certainly like to act tough, even when you are not in control of the situation.” The dark king grinned even wider. He leaned forward, so he was almost hanging half out of the bed.

“Must I remind you that with just a right twist, I can send your brother into a coma, I can stop his heart, his breathing, I can make him choke on his own tongue, I can cause him to vomit out his own lungs. I can cause him such excruciating pain that he’ll be begging me for death’s sweet embrace,” Sombra whispered softly and reached with a hoof to pat Barricade gently on the cheek.

Barricade brushed the hoof away, glaring at his possessed sibling. So far he was only hearing words but he had seen the spirit cause his brother to have a seizure. Part of him almost regretted coming here, Private might just have been better off not having to worry about the spirit black mailing family members, even if it was a member he didn’t care much for at the moment.

“Hey, you leave Private alone. I’ve told them nothing, just said I managed to hit a nerve with him and allowed him to beat me up because I didn’t want to hurt him,” Barricade grunted, he narrowed his eyes when Sombra patted him on the head.

“Good boy, keep this up and your brother will just be fine and so will you,” the dark king said and pulled himself back and laid down on the bed.

“They are going to ask me what my brother was doing here, the whole point of me coming here was to find that out,” the sitting Unicorn pointed out.

“Well I suppose you can tell them parts of the truth, just leave out the parts that he’s possessed. I’m sure you’ll come up with something, unless you’re as feeble minded as your brother,” Sombra snorted.

“So my brother told me that you pulled him into the past and put a spell on him and that you did this to other ponies as well. Since Private was the one to find you and not the others, what happens to them?” Barricade asked.

“Well nothing will happen to those that are already dead or those who haven’t been born yet. But of those that are alive in Private’s time period? They should have fallen unconscious and be kept in a dream state for few days,” the dark Unicorn turned to lay on the side to look at his host’s brother. A smug smile came over his muzzle.

“After a few days, they will wake up periodically heralding my eventual return,” Sombra finished and smiled even wider.

Hold on a second, fall unconscious, the epidemic. Barricade blinked as he realized what the spirit was saying sounded awfully familiar, except for the heralding part.

“I see you have everything all planned out,” he snorted and glared at the spirit again.

“Well, except for the two extra princesses,” the dark king grunted and rolled his eyes.

End chapter 6

Author's Note:

I can't help it, I love writing chapters were two villains meet and one villain completely outclasses the other one.

Of course Barricade has always just been more of a thug than an actual villain. He's out of his league trying to act like usual with Sombra.

Comments

[Ice Star]

“Well, except for the two extra princesses,” the dark king grunted and rolled his eyes.

Sombra and Tirek are gonna have some shared grumbles at the next Villains' Anonymous meeting, huh?

[Askre]

9621193
Pretty much.