Balance

by BioQuillFiction

Continuing The Search For Allies: Another Survivor

Mors, or Lord Death, as he now went by, had a mirror sitting in the court and council rooms, after a talk with the rest of the council he was appointed a council member. His past experiences, long lived life of experience, and history of much long forgotten knowledge earned him a seat on the council without any objections. Unum and I decided to explore a few reflections, see what we might find and who we might run into.

We were in another version of Equestria, that was certain, and from the looks of it, this was a equine Equestria, as in, ponies, not human or anthro. We were walking near the edges of the everfree. The residents seemed put off by us, which makes sense, to them we must look creepy or just plain odd. “Hey you!” I looked up and saw the pony Rainbow Dash flying some feet above Unum and I. “You monsters aren't allowed here!”

Monsters… Core or one of his grunts must be here. “First off, rude, second, what do you mean monsters?”

“You tall two leg walking killers of course!”

Core or some of his men must be here then. “What does this specific monster look like specifically? I can assure you I am not with them, but I might be able to get rid of them.”

“Yeah right, if you wanna try your luck the creature lives in the everfree.”

“Will do. Let’s go Unum.” We walked right into the everfree, the thick foliage was hard to walk through, but thankfully X didn’t mind being used as a machete. We found a clearing… and a certain Zebra’s hut, where she was surrounded by them. “Get inside!” I yelled as I hacked a Bruser Unversed into nothingness.

Zecora ran inside and Unum and I made quick work of the Unversed. So it’s Crow who’s here… unless Core did the same thing to someone else, or someone here has an Unversed placed in them like Sunset did… either way this is bad. “You two.” We looked around, finding the person who spoke sitting crouched up in a tree. He wa wearing a rather familiar set clothing and a mask. “How did you kill those things?”

“Keyblade do the trick better than regular weapons. I know that outfit… saw the trailer, so is it Corvo or you make up a name?”

“You’re from earth?”

“Yeah. Surprised to see someone from home without a Keyblade.”

“Heh, so was God.” He jumped down to greet us. “Names’s John… Corvo…” He said.

I chuckled. “So you did take that name.”

“Yeah… sounded better than my original last name. So, how’d you get here? You’re the first other survivor I’ve met.”

I held up X. “They can open ways to other worlds, but this one can open them to other reflections, or rather, dimentions.”

“Wow… fancy. I prefer stealth honestly, it’s why I chose this get up.”

“I guessed. So how long have the Unversed been here?”

“Going on three months. When I arrived here they weren’t here yet… I kinda screwed myself over…”

“How… wait, one of the resident talked about a killer monster… you didn’t…”

“I saw a bastard kill a mare! I wasn’t gonna let him live after that! I admit it may have been… rash, but not long after that happened the murders in Canterlot stopped. I killed a psychopath and they branded me the killer. I still try and keep them safe, honestly! They just… don't see it that way.”

X?

His heart is largely light, but his darkness is strong enough to kill. I feel we can trust him, though, maybe a blade that kills only when wanted could work.

You… seriously?

I fell we can trust him.

Fine, not gonna argue with you. That went nowhere last time. “How’s about a more ‘tame’ blade?”

“Huh?” John asked.

“I can… give you a Keyblade. You can use it rather than your normal weapons and you won’t have to worry about killing those hit unless you intend to.”

“Oh… that would come in handy. So… you believe me?”

“Well, God let you survive that crap for a reason and my Keyblade seems to trust your word and heart, so I’ll just take the evidence into account and do the same.”

“Finally! Someone on my side!” John cheered.

“Well, let’s see what choices you.” I held out my free hand… and Fenrir appeared.

Finally found my new wielder. Fenrir spoke.

You helped me out a lot in the past… gonna miss ya brother.

Same, brother.

I handed Fenrir to John, and he looked it over. “Wow… It’s a lot lighter than I expected it to be.”

“Everyone gets that reaction at first.” I say. “So, I guess Unum and I can help try and clear your name. Only thing is… maybe we can find the source of the Unversed.”

“These things don’t just come from darkness?”

“No, Unversed come from Negative emotions, given physical form. It uses to be a person’s light and darkness would have to be split into two people for that to happen, but recent events make it that just a rather any person with lots of hate in their heart would do.”

“Well, we got a whole world to pick from… christ this is not gonna be easy…”

“You’ve been in this world the longest, anyone you can think of that would benefit from this chaos?”

“Crime lords and nobles really. I keep tabs on two nobles and three crime lords up in Canterlot… how are we gonna get there though? Train’s been searching my usual hiding spots on it.”

“We can wait til night, then I’ll show you.”

---

“I should have asked for one of these things forever ago!” John said as we flew on our gliders up to Canterlot under the cover of night. Fenrir’s glider form was much like a chrome version of Aqua’s glider. We landed on a rather high rooftop, keeping out of sight. “So, this first guy I keep tabs on is Barely Bag, a noble who deals in mainly grain, but I’ve seen some of his factories shipping more than just grain.” John informed.

“Like?” I asked.

“Meth, or that’s what it looked like. Might be sugar, but ponies don’t guard large clear bags of sugar with shotguns.”

“I can tell… I’ve seen more than my fair share of the stuff, so I can tell just by the feel.”

“You used to be a cop or something?”

“No… I’m a Ventral.”

“... The crime family… Wait, so you were like a black sheep or something? Otherwise you shouldn’t be here.”

“Yeah, got marked for death by my uncle unless I finally contributed more than just hacking for blueprints. God pretty much saved me.”

“Well, you trust me so I’ll trust you.”

“Thanks, oh, and sorry if my family has done anything to you or loved ones.”

“Nah, honestly my family and I didn’t care. Had one of you guys walk into our family restaurant, didn’t treat them any differently than any other daily customer, and he left a nice tip.”

“That’s usually how it will go if you don’t try anything with my family… So, where’s this wearhouse?”

“Some blocks west of here. Follow me.” We had to jump across the rooftops to avoid detection. I honestly got flashbacks to the Sly Cooper games I played, but I’m not a master thief. We jumped across rooftops for a while til finally landing on a factory roof. “This is the place.”

Getting in was easy, just a tap on the locks with the Keyblade, but finding wherever the possible drugs might be was gonna be tricky. There were hundreds of crates in this place and limited time to check them all. “How are we gonna find the ones with the drugs?” Unum asked. “There’s hundreds of boxes here.”

“Hope we get lucky?”

---

The crates were going nowhere with how many there were, I decided to check the office and see if there was anything. An old trick distributors of the drugs my family made was to hide the order forms in secret compartments in desks or under the floor. I felt around the floor, seemed solid so I checked the desk. In the top drawer on the left side I noticed the bottom was higher up than the right… Bingo. The way to open it was easy, it was trapped to a small amount of lighter fluid that, if opened without the ‘key’ would set off the trap and set the documents and desk on fire.

The ‘key’ was just any pencil and using that I lifted up the floor from a hole under it, keeping a small circuit from setting the fire off. Talk about macgyver, this whole set up seems home made. I pulled out the documents, and everything here was the usual code for drugs, prices, and the amount being shipped… the crates with the drugs were here also. I showed the papers to the others and I left an ‘anonymous call’ to the police via payphone. We watched as they showed up, found the drugs, the paperwork, and even arrested the noble behind it all… Man it felt good to be working with the cops rather than running from them or working against them.

“Well, that proved right, but if he was our guy then he wouldn’t have left so easy huh?” John said.

“That’s about right… who else is on that list?” I asked.

Over the next two days or so, we stealthly got the other noble and the crime lords arrested… none of them seemed to be our guy. “Damnit.” John said, kicking a tin can across over to another roof. “We can’t be missing someone.”

“Maybe it’s someone who’s offworld?” I offer. “Like I told you, this might be Core’s doing.”

“I was hoping not. Well, I know he would have had a part in this… but I was hoping to clear my name.”

“You managed to get three crime lords and two nobles doing illegal tradings arrested without any deaths, take some pride in that.”

“Yeah… I guess I should. Still, as far as any royal guard or cop is concerned, I’m still a criminal.” He said, laying on his back and looking at the sky. “Think I’ll ever get my name cleared?”

“Hard to tell. They thought you were a serial killer, but you killed the killer. Even if that part get’s cleared up, you still killed, so I think they might still hold that against you.”

“Life is unfair.”

“If it was, it wouldn’t be interesting.” Unum and I stand up. “Look, I’m sure in the future your name will be cleared. But, mind if I ask a favor?”

He stood up. “Sure. You helped me out, you gonna need the same?”

“Remember Core? One day, I’m gonna fight him, his army against mine. I want you on my side when that happens.”

“After all you’ve done for me, sure. I’ll take some joy in pounding their heads into the ground.”

“Thank you. Unum and I are gonna go, but I’ll check up on you some time later, kay?”

“Sure thing. Let’s hope things go better for me by then.”

I opened a portal, and Unum and I walked through it, where we entered Huxley’s universe. “I thought we were going home?” Unum asked.

“I’ve been meaning to talk with Huxley again. I wanna try and set some things right.” It was about morning here. Unum and I saw this reflection’s Golden Oaks Library and I knocked on the door.

Not long after, Twilight answered. “Hello Zeke.” She said.

---

Josh.

What's up boss?

We've revived a sample a while ago of the DNA of that other survivor my brother had reborn as an inhabitant of the world he was on.

Something special about him?

Well, his DNA still came up as human, it's just physical that he's equine.

That all?

Not... quite... His DNA shares a fifty-three of his genetics with... you...

... repeat that? I must be drunk or high right now.

DNA doesn't lie Josh, this makes things... interesting.

Interesting! I literally have a horse for a son I've never met! What makes this interesting?!

Because, genetically speaking, your family is prone to violence and... bloodshed.

Yeah, we call it the Killing Mood, when a Ventral first kills.

Then, if we modify this with darkness, we could turn this genetic factor against him... and Zeke if it works.

You think that, by getting them to kill they'll turn to our side? That's... rather impressive. So, how should I go about meeting my boy?

Deny him as your son until he kills... be it purposeful or accidental.

Heh, time to see just how much like me this kid is.

Author's Note:

Next chapters are gonna be a two parter, yet Huxley will only show up in the second part, cause if you follow Keybearer than you know why. Look forward to it.

Comments

[Deathwatch 456]

Awesome. John appears. Great work.