15 Deus Ex Heros
Vinyl Scratch - Day 10
Limbo
The situation Vinyl found herself in should have been boring. Trapped within an empty space so empty that not even the concept of darkness could truly convey the nothing which stretched as far as the eye could see.
What is darkness but the absence of light? What is light but a photon or two speeding on its merry way into the future? The void had never seen a single photon travel through its infinite expanse. Light had never been here, nor would it ever visit.
Yet there was no darkness. No light and yet no darkness, truly a paradox if there ever was one. A situation which should have been fascinating, or horrifying, perhaps even both. Yet is was nothing. It was only ever nothing.
Vinyl was trapped within the void with nothing but herself for company. What was left for Vinyl here other than boredom?
Herself. Whom she was standing beside. Literally.
Thus, the certainty of boredom was slain by perplexed incredulity.
Vinyl looked into her Other’s eyes. They were the same red as her own, with every little vein, fleck of color, pattern, and even the slight differences in the shape of her eyelids all present and accounted for.
Not even changelings are this good! Vinyl thought as her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.
“What, the actual, buck?” She repeated, mostly out of subconscious need.
The Other Vinyl shrugged. A simple nonchalaunt gesture Vinyl herself had made a million times before, calculated to look as cool and laid back as possible. Only this one wasn’t an act, it was sincere. The Other her really was as cool as Vinyl pretended to be.
“Beats me. Well, us. I guess,” the Other Vinyl replied with a wink. “I don’t know how we’re talking either. You don’t, so how could I?”
Vinyl frowned, her teeth showing as she tried to work out any sensible explanation for what was happening to her.
“Oh, so, you’re a figment of my imagination? Some kind of death hallucination?” She asked hopefully.
The Other Vinyl shook her head. “Nah, I’ve always been here. Come on, you know that.”
“Horseapples,” Vinyl declared, shaking her head.
The Other Vinyl blinked in surprise, and sat down, looking at Vinyl half hurt and half confused.
“Uh, wait, you were never aware of me?” She asked. “Ever?”
“You’ve NEVER been in me,” Vinyl insisted firmly, stamping her hoof. “You’re something new!”
“Totally not,” The Other Vinyl insisted.
“I think I’d know if I had another me living in me!” Vinyl exploded, immediately jumping in surprise as her voice echoed off of… Nothing.
The Other Vinyl rolled her eyes in a droll manner.
“Clearly you didn’t,” she said before holding out a hoof to shake. “Hi. I’m the remains of Chem’s sister’s soul. You’re the remains of the stillborn pony’s soul. I’m your life support. You’re my life support. We’re each halves of each other, with just a bit of autonomy each. Or did you forget about how you were brought to life?”
Vinyl’s lips pursed in thought. I had forgotten. At least, at the moment. “If that’s true, how come we’ve never spoke before? If you have ‘autonomy’ how come you never did something? I’d notice if my body suddenly wrote “Hi, Vinyl. I’m the dead god that’s keeping you alive. How’s it hanging?”
The Other Vinyl smiled and laughed. Not a bitter laugh, or a cruel laugh. A simple amused chuckle.
“You get to do things. You’re the conscious mind. I’m the subconscious. I worked this out pretty quickly when we were first merged. After all, I am unknowably old. Been around the block a few times.” She explained. “All I can do is have my own thoughts, and give you the occasional urge.”
Vinyl looked at the Other Vinyl suspiciously, prompting her other self to preempt Vinyl’s question.
“Laymare’s Terms: I just kinda float about in your subconscious and yell at you to bat at Octavia’s ear because it’s cute when she twitches it. I also yelled at you to hook up with Lyra back in middle school, but you just love your classy gray mare.
“I also feed you information sometimes. I can remember tiny bits of the life you had before I was you. Uh, I mean, I can remember Light’s life. Fragments. When you started to like O&O I started to yell them at you until one stuck. Then you’d do something with it. It was nice to see how our friends enjoyed them.
“That’s all I can really do. I guess we can talk for a bit while we're dying… So, hi me. We already know each other.”
I always wondered why I always had that urge when Octavia comes within legs reach, Vinyl thought to herself. You’re supposed to see things when you die. I guess this is what I get to see.
“Soo, I’m actually dying? I mean, we’re actually dying? This isn’t some weird limbo?” Vinyl asked, her ears drooping sadly.
The Other Vinyl nodded. “Yeah, we’re dying. We got staked. I mean, it kind of is a limbo though. We’re a first generation vampire. We can come back. They know to take the steak out and put fresh blood in, right?”
Vinyl shook her head. “Lyra does. But we were in bright sun. I don’t know if—”
The Other Vinyl’s face fell. “Oh yeah. We don't regenerate in the sun… Or know if we will once we’re in the dark again.”
“Also, this is a game. I might just be out of play now,” Vinyl sighed.
“We shouldn’t be because you’re not ‘dead’ dead. A vampire of our blood-strength can stay staked forever and be completely fine an hour or so after it’s removed. So we’ve really just been temporarily shut off. Not killed,” the Other Vinyl said.
“Yeah, but if one of my players was running an elder vampire and got staked I would count them as not being in play anymore, even if they could come back from that. It’s kinda not okay. Unbalances the game. Yog wants us to win, but he’s playing fair,” Vinyl reminded.
The Other Vinyl snorted with bemusement. “He’s NOT playing fair. He won’t play fair. He wants to win for more reasons than just not losing the place he likes to nap.”
Her face fell suddenly, and VInyl could faintly feel the Other Vinyl grow sad, simply because she became a little sad too.
“Chem would have laughed when Hastur got Yog to oversee this game… If he remembered. Our world has some bucked up ponies in it, me,” the Other Vinyl added, staring down at the not-floor.
“I imagine if Sky was killed, but we defibrillated him or something and brought him back. That would, you know, not count,” the Other Vinyl mused, stroking her chin with a hoof. “Either way, this might be the only time we can talk. Like, ever. We shouldn’t waste this. There’s some things I’d like to say, and you’ll have questions too. Go ahead. Ask me anything.”
Vinyl didn’t even have to think to come up with her first question. It was the obvious one. So obvious that she new the answer was no, but felt compelled to ask anyways.
“Can you use your powers to keep us from dying?” Vinyl asked.
“Nope. We only have one Old One Power available to us. It’s called ‘living,’” the Other Vinyl snarked.
“I don’t buy that,” Vinyl disagreed with a vigorous shake of her head. “I mean, if you could stop us from dying you would. But you have to have some powers we could use for something. You’re a fragment of an Old One!”
“I’m also you. You’re also me. Do YOU have any old one powers?” The Other Vinyl asked coyly.
Vinyl raised her eyebrow. “You had better not be holding out on me. I mean, yo— Our brother has a closet full of trophies. There’s no way you didn’t too!”
The Other Vinyl stood up slowly, and solemnly. “We did, yes.”
Vinyl’s eyes lit up with hope. “Great! Open the door. Let’s dig through and find something that can help us.”
The Other Vinyl shook her head. “That would break the rules, and then Octavia would die. I will not allow that. You love her, and I’m you. But this is one of those autonomy things. I feel differently here without affecting your behavior. I don’t love Octavia per-say, I more lust after her. But for you it’s nothing but love and-”
Vinyl narrowed her eyes and glared at her other self. “Is that why she comes home and I instantly get turned on?”
The Other Vinyl coughed into her hoof awkwardly. “Well, to be fair, it’s YOU getting laid, not me. Kinda hard to bone someone's subconscious. You can’t blame me for that!”
Vinyl started at her other self skeptically. “Really?”
“YES! I don’t get to have sensory information. I just know what you’re doing. I’ve technically never seen Octavia’s ear twitch, only our brain data when it is, and I like that data pattern, it’s cute. But I’ve never actually gotten to see it twitch,” the Other Vinyl said bitterly, defensively, and yet oddly, understandingly. “I also haven't gotten laid since I became you for the same reason…”
Vinyl frowned. “That’s rough…”
Her other self nodded. “But that’s life, and you need to roll with it. Which segways right into what I wanted to talk to you about,” she said, clearing her throat to put on a more strong and determined appearance.
Vinyl tilted her head. “Okay, what do you want to tell me?”
The Other Vinyl took two steps forwards and then violently sized Vinyl by her shoulders, lifting her off the ground as she looked directly into her eyes.
“Mare the BUCK up!” The Other Vinyl demanded before setting Vinyl back down on the nothing. “You’ve been a moping mess for YEARS! YEEEEEEEEAAAAAARS! Why? Because you failed especially hard one time while being traumatized over a kid dying.
“Don’t get me wrong, that SHOULD have messed you up. But seriously, this recovery time is beyond stupid for a mare with your history, Vinyl.”
The Other Vinyl closed her eyes tightly and bit her lip as if in concentration. Vinyl wanted to use the pause in her pending rant to say something, but nothing came to mind. It was as if her entire brain were taxed with some great task that it just could not put aside or make room within.
Suddenly the nothing was something. A series of places flashed by, each one a vivid reconstruction of some slice of world never before seen by Equestrian eyes. Nothing ever moved. Each picture was still, but wrapped around Vinyl as if it were a real place, frozen in time and shown to her for but an instant.
And in those brief flashes of fragmented memories there was one constant. Vinyl.
She always looked different, but Vinyl knew it was her each time. She knew because she could feel the despair and sadness as she looked into yet another dead friend’s eyes. At yet another cold corpse of an innocent bystander. At yet another senseless massacre. At each and every failure.
None of these were Chem’s games. All of them were real events, from real places. Usually the result of a “bigger fish” entering the sibling’s pond.
And of Vinyl failing to save those important to her. Friends, loved ones, followers, those she swore to protect. Vinyl felt the tiniest echos of what she had once felt for them, individually they were nothing, together they were a typhoon of despair.
A typhoon of despair which she had moved on from countless times.
“See that?” The Other Vinyl asked as the images faded and she dropped down, looking as if she’d just ran a mile. “See what we’ve been through? Yeah, you got a chick killed and almost got your friends killed too.
“Almost. ALMOST! They survived. We, you bucked up. I could have yelled at you more and harder to make the other choice, but I didn’t. Because we were of one mind on that issue. We bucked up, and that’s okay.
“Failure is always an option. We all fail. It’s okay to fail. You know what’s not okay? Responding to failure by quitting. That’s the single most toxic habit out there because it’s the reason why most people never get shit done.
“Oh, I didn’t do it. Guess I can’t. Horse-bucking-apples! You can do it! You’re me, and do you know what I’ve done? I can only remember a trillionth of a trillionth of a percent of my life, of YOUR life. We’ve stood atop dead gods, toppled empires and built new ones, traveled to places where the universe itself had forbidden people from entering, brought peace to countless worlds, and even reformed the very concept of darkness itself into a nice guy who's a fun loving dork instead of an uncaring asshole best described as “a sociopathic dude-bro”.
“But all of that is NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING compared to our greatest feat ever, Vinyl!”
Vinyl blinked, not having expected a break in her rant until she had finished. “I um… I can’t imagine what could top reforming Chem,” Vinyl admitted.
Honestly, what beats making the actual concept of metaphorical darkness into a nice guy? Vinyl wondered, her mind whirling as she struggled to think of anything even in the same league as that particular accomplishment.
The Other Vinyl looked Vinyl right in her eyes, showing her the pure seriousness in her expression in pristine detail.
“You asked Octavia Melody out on a date!” The Other Vinyl said firmly, but with awe. “You know EXACTLY how much courage that took. I mean, holy bucking ponyfeathers, we’ve charged into battle against an army of Cybergorilas while naked, injured, armed only with a bit of rebar and a grin. And that took LESS courage! A LOT less courage.
“Octavia didn’t even involve me! That was all YOU! I don’t love her, remember? No subconscious influence, all conscious choice. Which is great because I’ve NEVER been able to ask anyone out. It’s beyond horrifying!
“But you? You marched right up there and asked her out on a date, being a proper gentlemare the entire evening, even opening up and letting her see under our cool facade. Why? Because, and I quote ‘Hey she’s pretty awesome now that she’s back from that school.’
“You! You did that! I was screaming at you to stop before we ran face first into the wall of awkward-stupid. You were all ‘Nope!’ and busted through that wall like the Celestia damned Koolaid Stallion. You showed more courage than ever before, and we’ve fought tentacle monsters in hentai universes, AS A GIRL! And it WORKED! You got the mare. Still do! Even all these years later. Know why?”
Vinyl nodded. She did know why, the point had been made abundantly clear. “Because I didn’t let the fear of failure make me quit.”
The Other Vinyl sat down, looking more than a little exhausted as she plopped down onto her haunches.
“Damn straight, Vi,” she said happily. “So mare up. Get over that shit. We’ve done harder things before. You’re the reincarnation of the hero of infinite worlds, who you one upped by actually asking a girl to go out with you. We’ve seen it all before, and we’ll see it all again. But our friends haven’t, and they won’t if we fail. And if you refuse to try…”
“We’ll fail,” Vinyl said with a grim nod. “I— I understand. But that’s not the same as being able to do it.”
It’s also not really in the same league as any of her examples… Vinyl thought to herself as she pictures trying to fight a henti tentacle monster, immediately shivering. Even Lyra would have problems with—
“Lyra wouldn’t have problems with that. She’d probably try and tame it. Stop fooling ourself,” the Other VInyl snickered, shaking her head while sporting a playful grin.
Vinyl groaned and facehooved. “Of course you can hear my thoughts. Uh, our thoughts.”
Her other self nodded once. “Yep. Which is why I know my speech hasn’t worked yet. Trust me, I do know there’s a difference between knowing and doing. But you can do it. You have the power, it’s been inside you all along.”
Vinyl frowned, then her mouth’s corners turned up slightly. “Do I have some kind of vampiric ability I never consciously noticed?” She asked hopefully.
The Other VInyl rolled her eyes, then frowned and put her hoof to her chin in thought. “Maybe… That’s not what I am talking about, but there MIGHT be something you've missed. I’d have to think about it. It would be an incredibly small thing, like how your shed fur turns to ash.”
Vi sighed and shrugged. “Then what?”
The Other Vinyl pointed to herself. “You’ve got a dead god inside you,” she said simply.
Vinyl’s lips pursed as she said, “Oh… Right.”
Her other self smiled and continued. “That’s right. You've got me, and I’m an integral part of you. All I’ve ever done or ever will do is use all of my life experiences to help improve our life. You just need to calm down, stop panicking, and listen to me when things get rough. I’ve seen everything at least once, and that means our hunches are going to usually work out for us.
“Not always, of course. Sometimes your decisions are better than my instincts. But you need to listen before you act. You’re me, I’m you. I want us to do well. I always try to help, but I can't do that when you’re too afraid to approach the situation calmly and let our gut instincts inform your decisions.”
“... Can’t really argue with that,” Vinyl said slowly as she looked at her Other Self for a few moments. “I um… I guess I can give it a shot. It would be easier if we could always talk like this though.”
Her other self shook her head in disagreement. “I disagree. Thinking of us as seperate beings would lead to a lot of problems. We’re one, not two. Just listen, and you’ll help you. We’ll help us. Understand?”
Vinyl nodded firmly. “Yeah. I do,” she said honestly.
A weight seemed to lift from Vinyl’s shoulders. I’m not alone. I have an adviser. But my decisions are my own. That helps. Like, a lot.
“Yeah, it’s a bit of doublethink, but unlike most instances of that nonsense, this time it’s helpful,” The Other Vinyl said as she stood up right to stretch her forelegs. “Mmm, well it’s been a good talk. But I can feel us starting to wake up. Hopefully we never talk again.”
Vinyl’s ears stood up in alarm. “Wait! I have two questions!”
“Make them quick,” her other self said with a frown.
“Okay! Uh, why would Chem have laughed? That seems important,” Vinyl asked urgently.
Her other self giggled. “Don’t you remember how Yog spoke to us, me? His wording? His tone? Did you forget how Hastur said Voidborn have children and Chem was confused by that?”
Vinyl frowned in thought only for her eyes to shoot open. “Holy bucking shit he’s our dad!” Vinyl yelped.
“Mmmmhm!” Her other self said with a wink.
“Then we have ZERO problems, right?” Vinyl asked hopefully, her mouth twisting into a smile as hope flooded her chest.
The Other Vinyl gave Vi an apologetic look and shook her head.
“No, but don’t worry. Dad’s spacetime, he’s all universes. He’s everywhere, every set of physics, every space that is or can be. What I am saying is that dad’s all about fairness and working within rules. Dad’s always liked us because helping your family is a rule. But he won’t ever pull us out of a jam. He can’t do that, it would be unfair to the other guy.
“But he’s always tilted the scales a little bit. Made the playing field fair for us when it’s unfair to start with. Hastur is a one note Old One, all business in a mathematical sense without any creativity. We’ll be fine if you stop making us be stupid,” her other self promised. “Before you ask, Chem’s torture kinda wiped out a lot of his memory… Even the really early stuff. He doesn't know that anymore.”
Her other self started to dim, fading to black as the nothingness around them began to brighten, becoming a white somethingness. “Better hurry with number two!” her other self warned.
I never thought I would be mad about being revived but here we are! Vinyl growled to herself angrily.
“Is there ANYTHING you can do to help us win this? Any trick? We’re in our own body, Yog’s clearly fine with us using our powers. You’re me. Can you do anything?” Vinyl pleaded urgently, going as far as to clasp her hooves together as if begging.
The Other Vinyl bit her lip thoughtfully, then raised a hoof to her chin slowly, ponderingly, her eyes shifting as she wondered if she should say something or not. Suddenly, a mischievous gleam flashed in her eyes, and due to her having faded into little more than a silhouette Vinyl mistook her other self’s expression of mischief for one of epiphany.
Oh man this is going to be awesome! Vinyl squeed internally.
“Yes! There’s one thing. I used to think it was the sword of power, but it wasn’t. The power was in me all along. When you Travel, you keep power you earn, it should be in us too,” she said decisively.
The Other Vinyl reared up once more, and held her hooves together, down, and away from her, as if pointing a sword at a spot on the ground in front of her. “Get a sword, any sword. Stand like this, then raise it up above your head like this.”
She swept her imaginary blade upwards until it was pointing straight up, as if to pierce the hide of a dragon diving at her from above. Unfortunately, her exact pose became nearly impossible to determine as she became nothing more than a hazy shadow, quickly evaporating entirely.
“There’s no time to teach you the spell, but I remember it,” the Other Vinyl promised, her voice growing fainter as if she were sinking down into an abyss. “Open yourself to me completely. Let your subconscious push the magic through you. Then intone “By the…”
Then intone what? Vinyl wondered as her Other Self faded away completely.
“Intone wha— AAAAA!!” Vinyl shouted, sitting bolt upright, and then immediately screaming in pain and clutching her chest with her left hoof.
Vinyl could see she had been dragged into a shadowy corner of the Tomb’s entrance. Located behind the massive timber door, tucked into the living room sized space between the door, the front wall, and the side. It felt nice here. Cool, dark, ancient, exactly the place an untreated vampire would live in.
Lyra’s face filled Vinyl’s vision, her minty friend beaming a relieved smile directly into her soul.
“YES! We did it!” Lyra proclaimed happily before turning to Vinyl’s left. “Okay, Chem. You can put the rest back into Sky now.”
The rest? Vinyl mused as she looked to her left, and saw Chem switch the leads of an IV bag, allowing the half pint of blood to return to Sky from the IV bag into which it had been drawn.
“About time,” Sky said slightly woozily. “How many pints did she get?”
“Half of one,” Chem said flatly. “You’ll be fine.”
“Feels like six… You suck at drawing blood!” The engineer grumbled. “Wait… I’m down a full pint. The other half is in that bag. That’s it…”
“I’m putting it back, calm down,” Chem said as soothingly as someone without a bedside manner can.
Lyra cringed at Chem’s phrasing. “Chem, saying “calm down” has never worked. Ever.”
Vinyl continued to clutch her aching heart, panting as she felt exactly the wrong blood type coursing through her veins.
“Sky? What blood type are you?” Vinyl asked shakily.
Oh Luna… He’s B+, Vinyl moaned, launching over as she tried to keep herself from throwing up.
“Uh oh… Does that matter?” Sky asked, returning her question with a worried wince.
“I hate B positive,” Vinyl moaned. “It’s too sweet. Sick to stomach…”
“Yeah, well, Chem doesn't have blood, I’m a vampire, and Veena’s blood is literally just the stuff that goes in a computer’s heat pipes. So he’s all you have. Deal,” Lyra said bluntly.
“Not upset, and I am dealing,” Vinyl protested as she forced her guts and heart to calm down via the judicious application of will.
It wasn’t enough.
Vinyl’s friends looked away as she did what every organism does when it knows it ingested poison.
“That. Smells. Terrible.” Sky stated bluntly, once the retching had stopped.
“Looks worse,” Vinyl muttered as she stood up to walk away from the black-putrid mess she had made. “Thanks Sky. I mean it. Happy to be alive. But we’ll have to find me another meal within a day or so.”
“It’s cool. We all have allergies,” Sky answered.
“What’s the situation? How long was I out?” Vinyl asked as she turned her head to look at everypony in turn. “Also where’s Veena?”
“I’m keeping a lookout on the other side of the door. Incase the Elbës who stabbed you comes back,” the dragoness replied. “Did you puke up burning motor oil and tar mixed with hair? What even IS that smell?”
“You don't want to know what vampires throw up, Vee,” Lyra said for Vinyl.
“You know what? I don’t,” the dragoness decided.
“It’s been nearly a half hour,” Chem answered, looking at Vinyl with his glowing eyes. “Sky shot your attacker, blew her left arm off, and we spent the rest of the time drip feeding you blood on Lyra’s instructions.”
“I knew you wouldn't stay down. You’re an elder vampire, they did step one of what, five?” Lyra asked before giving Vinyl a playful wink. “I thought you’d be able to dodge a mortal’s attack with ease though. I guess you just needed a girl to stick something in ya?”
Vinyl rolled her eyes. “I was right. You WOULD tame a hentai monster,” she mumbled under her breath.
“Anything else happen?” Vinyl asked more loudly.
Sky nodded. “Yeah. Vee, give Vi the current details.”
Vinyl frowned. “What details?”
“There’s an armed force moving towards the Tomb. It’s large, well armed and well equipped. For a primitive species military, that is. But it’s more than enough to be a threat to us. They’ve surrounded the Dark Fortress and are working on encircling the Tomb. They seem hesitant to come inside, but that won't last forever. I recommend we close and lock the doors to buy us time. They should be magically resistant to damage,” the Dragoness reported.
Vinyl nodded, her heart started to race, the panic began to take hold.
NO! She declared firmly shoving her fear aside. I’m right. I need to stop and listen. Okay me. What do we do?
Vi took a moment, simply standing silently and keeping her mind off the situation at hoof. Then she turned to Lyra. “Good plan. Lock the doors and let’s head inside. We can teleport out so it won’t matter if we don’t find a backdoor.”
Veena’s claws scraped against the stone as she backed up and grabbed the edge of the door nearest her friends and leaned her shoulder into the enchanted timber. With a mighty heave and a groan of effort, the dragoness began to push the door slowly into the closed position.
“That will take her a few minutes,” Lyra said observently. “Sky, will you be okay walking and working?”
“Yeah, I’m feeling better already,” Sky answered. “I’m down less than a standard donation. I donate regularly. I’ll be okay to work.”
Vinyl raised an eyebrow suspiciously.
Sky didn’t give her a chance to speak. “Hey, if I don’t do it, that army will be up our butts before you know it.” Sky blinked and then snickered. “Okay, so I’m obviously a bit loopy because that sounded really dumb. But there’s still like, a quarter pint left to go back in.”
Vinyl eyeballed the IV. There was more of an eighth left in her opinion, but that mattered little. What mattered was getting everyone out alive, and Sky was right. All of them had to give it their all.
“What were you talking about when you woke up?” Chem asked curiously as she bent down to check Sky’s IV. “Intone something? Apparently prophetic dreams are a thing on this planet. Veena mentioned the enemy commander is consulting a Seer. Did you have one?”
“They have a guy who can see the future?” Vinyl asked with a worried frown.
Lyra nodded. “Yeah. Tall dude. Looks like a Diamond Dog but more adorable. Yellow robes. Poor guy looks like his visions give him seizures,” the mare’s ears drooped as she mentioned their enemy's apparent condition. It didn’t take a changeling to tell her heart went out to the poor thing.
Okay, that’s a real threat… But maybe whatever power I have can help. I never even told myself what it was, but it’s gotta be something useful, Vinyl decided.
“While I was out, I had a conversation with myself,” Vinyl said to her friends, blushing slightly. “I know that sounds a little bit crazy, but it’s true. I guess when a vampire dies our conscious and subconscious minds get to yell at each other. Or something like that.
“Long story short… I think I have a trick that can get us out of this mess. But I never told myself the incantation. So uh… Well, I guess that’s out. Nevermind. Don’t worry, I’ll think of something!”
Vinyl smiled proudly and happily as she finished speaking. Confidence flowed through her veins. She could do this. With her help, she could guide them through. I just have to remain calm.
Sky held up a hand like a colt in school would hold up their hoof. “Question?” He announced.
Vinyl blinked. Why is he acting like that? She wondered. “Um, what?”
“Assuming what you experienced wasn’t just a near-death hallucination, but instead you really were actively talking with your subconscious mind, then you know exactly what the incantation is, and odds are if you try and use it, the first thing you blurt out at random while trying will be the correct answer. So why aren't you trying it right now?” Sky asked.
Vinyl opened her mouth to reply, but the loud boom of the Tomb’s first door slamming shut cut her off. The thunderous rumble echoed through the large hall, making many of the tapestries flutter and shake loose the dust of ages.
Everyone began to cough, covering their mouths as the air became completely unbreathable for several long moments, during which Veena shut the other door. This time more carefully so as not to disturb the dust again. The moment the second door banged shut a bright golden light washed over their surface, shaping itself into a portcullis of light.
On the outside. The arcane bars glowed brightly, visible to all who could see the Great Tomb’s entrance on the mountainside. A signal to the General that her prey was not within the fortress. A sign the volunteer seer could be trusted, even though he still seemed to be a fraud.
On the inside, nothing seemed to happen.
“How do we lock it?” Lyra wondered, walking over to the doors to help Veena look for a bar or a latch or any other means of securing the entrance.
Chem nodded to Vinyl. “While they handle, that, you try whatever you thought of while unconcious. You’ve used your telekinesis, and your vampiric powers. Yog hasn’t had a problem with that, so why should he be upset if you use any other power this body has?”
Vinyl nodded in agreement. “That’s what I was thinking,” she looked around, searching for her sword, which she could feel wasn’t strapped to her back anymore. “Where’s my sword? I need it.”
Sky stood up, picking up Vinyl’s blade and sword belt from the ground beside him. “Here. We took it off when checking your wound for splinters. It would have been in the way.”
“Thanks,” Vinyl said as she took her blade in her arcane grip and pulled it from the scabbard, levitating it to her side in an instant.
She took a deep breath, clearing her mind for the task ahead. Okay. We need to cast a spell subconsciously. On instinct. You can do that. You did it as a foal when your room was too dark. You can do this now.
Vinyl spread her rear hooves and reared up, floating her sword into position and taking hold of it’s hilt with both her forehooves. Recalling her Other Self’s instructions as best she could, Vinyl worked herself into the pose, pointing the sword down at a spot in front of her.
Okay me. Say the words, do the magic, Vinyl thought to herself.
Chem looked at Vinyl curiously, squinting as he looked at the pose, finding something strangely familiar in the way Vinyl was standing.
Vinyl pushed her magic to her horn, trusting her subconscious to shape the spell as it was released. She swung her blade up, pointing it to the heavens. Immediately she felt her magic surge and flow, moving through channels with purpose and direction, but not guided by her conscious thought.
It was working. But...
Strange, Vinyl mused. This feels like illusion magic.
Vinyl pushed the worry aside. There were more important things to worry about. I need to trust myself. I can do this. Okay, words time!
Taking a deep breath, Vinyl shouted the first words that came to mind. “By the power of Grayskull!”
A lightning bolt flashed within the stone chamber, striking Vinyl’s sword, flowing down through it as her aura blazed to life. Starting around her horn her bright electric blue aura engulfed her entire body in as if she were the center of a bonfire.
Chem yelped in panic, throwing himself backwards and rolling to arrive behind Sky, a look of pure terror filling his face as his heart skipped several beats. The Old One seized Sky’s legs like a frightened child clinging to its mother.
Then Vinyl’s aura cleared. Nothing had happened. Though Vinyl did feel a deep seated urge to laugh her plot off as if she had just unleashed the mother of all pranks.
Vinyl narrowed her eyes angrily. I trolled myself… Wow. I’m a dick, she grumbled.
“Chem. Stop. Grabbing. My. Legs.” Sky demanded, his eyes shut in irritation.
Chem let go of Sky, and stood up, immediately clearing his throat and looking away in embarrassment. “Sorry. I— It’s a reflex.” he explained before looking at Vinyl with a happy smile that dripped with fresh fear. “Hi sis! Good to know for sure you’re still in there. You’re a dick!”
Vinyl nodded in agreement. “Totally am. What would that have done if it worked?” Vi asked curiously.
“Infused you with the power of an ancient king, transforming you physically into his equivalent in terms of physical power,” Chem replied instantly. “And let me put it this way, last time you were in that form you hit me in the face with a mountaintop. That you broke off the mountain. My everything hurt for a week.”
Sky raised an eyebrow at Chem. “Sooo, if that was one of your games, why did your Staff of Power have the ability to make fur coats?” He asked sarcastically.
Chem shot Sky an extremely defensive look. “Hey! The Havoc Staff could do anything. It could kill people, destroy entire cities, and yes, make fashionable fur coats! It was the coolest thing ever!” He protested.
“But why?” Sky asked with a bigger smirk.
“Why? Why?” Chem continued, throwing up his hands in exasperation. “What if it gets cold? People need to keep their body temperature at a neutral level. It also made the little umbrellas that you put at the top of drinks.”
“But, why?” Vinyl asked curiously. “Survival gear makes sense, but why drink umbrellas?”
Chem wheeled around to face his sister and put his hands on his hips. “Have you ever had a piña colada without one of those little umbrellas on top? It’s depressing! No one should be subjected to THAT kind of evil.”
“The staff could literally do anything?” Vinyl asked curiously.
Chem nodded firmly. “Yeah! If it's wielder had the MP for it.”
Vinyl picked up her scabbard with her magic and sheathed her sword before strapping it onto her back.
“Too bad we don’t have it now. Apparently when I ask for help I troll myself with some horseapples about “hold up your sword”,” Vinyl grumbled as she turned to call Lyra and Veena back to the rest of the group. “We could use a proper magic weapon.”
Sky opened his mouth, then closed it, as if he decided not to say something. Vinyl didn’t notice his gesture, but Chem did.
“What was that?” Chem asked suspiciously. “Because if you’re going to ask me to do the voice the answer is no. It really hurts a throat if you have one.”
Sky shook his head. “Nah, just a dumb idea,” he said. “I mean, technically speaking, Vi didn’t hold up a sword, she held up a chainsaw. But she’s right. Your sis definitely just wanted to troll you to let you know she’s still in here.”
Vinyl blinked and turned to look back at Chem and Sky. “That’s right, it’s a monomolecular chainsaw, isn’t it?” She said in realization. “Maybe she wasn’t pulling a prank. Maybe the power really IS in me but you need a sword to use as a talisman. This ISN’T a sword!”
Sky groaned. “Please don’t get your hopes u,” he said with a grimace.
Vi nodded. “Yeah well, I’m not. But it would be cool if we did have an ace in the hole.”
Chem laughed. “Ace in the hole? If that had worked, you could open up those doors, walk outside, and simply kill them all while we watch! Well… Maybe. Never actually saw you kill anyone but um— You could definitely throw a mountaintop at them and make them run for it!”
“And Hatty doesn't have a legion of cool looking but totally ineffective henchmen,” Sky said with a snort. “Just beating up the “bad guys” won't cut it.”
Chem held up a finger and inhaled quickly, launching into an excited rant in a high pitched nazly male voice. “That wasn’t my fault! Do you have any idea how much the Guild of Calamitous Intent makes you pay for each henchman’s salary? Of course I went non-union, I am Skeletor!”
Sky snorted, his his best not to laugh, and then failed, collapsing into a full laughing fit, Chem following his lead a heartbeat later.
Vinyl turned her head, looking between Chem and Sky as the two laughed hard enough to tear up.
“I’m missing out on something, aren't I?” Vinyl asked.
The two nodded, still grinning.
“Hahaha, yeah!” Sky giggled before taking a deep breath to serious himself up. “We uh, we should head into the Tomb now. Get to it before they get to us.”
Sky jerked his thumb at the doors to indicate who he meant by they.
“No but seriously that was just sis and I goofing around,” Chem giggled in his normal midpitch voice. “You can’t play every game seriously.”
Vinyl shook her head and trotted towards Lyra and Veena who were still examining the door. Only now Lyra was looking over at her other friends in confusion.
“What are you laughing about?” Lyra called from her spot a hundred yards away.
“I don’t know!” Vinyl called back. “But I need to borrow a sword. I might know a spell, but it needs a sword as a talisman. My sword is actually a chainsaw. It flopped.”
“Her sword is technically a polearm,” Veena shouted.
Vinyl’s ears fell flat. “Well, ponyfeathers…”
“There’s a sword atop a sarcophagus at the end of the entryway!” Lyra said helpfully. “We can’t find a way to lock this door, so I guess we should just head inside. We can grab the sword on the way.”
Vinyl thought the idea over for a second and nodded. “Good plan. Okay, everyone, follow Lyra. We’re moving in.” Vinyl ordered.
Everyone swiftly gathered at the doors. There was no hesitation, no debate over who should lead. The storied Knight-Captain Vinyl Scratch was back and her confidence was on display for all to see. They had been willing to listen to Vinyl a half an hour ago, now they were happy to because this was the mare who had ended a foal trafficking ring using only six mares including herself, not the shellshocked remains of that same pony.
Whatever else had happened to her while unconscious, her wounds had healed.
The group walked down the exceedingly long hall, deeper and deeper into the heart to the mountain. They moved in silence, everyone intently listening for the inevitable creak of the doors opening to allow an army of spider people to pour into the great stone chamber.
After several agonizingly long minutes they reached the end of the entryway. The end was another giant door. The fact that the entire entrance hall was some sort of ginormous arctic entry was more than a little unnerving for everyone. But fortunately there was something to distract them.
The colossal doors serving as a rear wall had two small person sized doors in them to the left and right of an open mausoleum. The octagonal structure was created entirely from black marble and featured a raised dais with a domed roof supported by five pillars. Within the dais’s center was a jade sarcophagus with a carving on the lid of a vaguely humanoid shape.
The shape’s vagueness was due to obvious wear and tear from people touching the lid as small finger grooves could be seen in the jade work. The only intact piece of the original carving were a pair of gauntleted hands which held a flat against the carving’s groin and belly. Strangely, the blade pointed up towards the chin, almost as if the stone hands were offering the blade to anyone who climbed the mausoleum’s steps to look upon it.
The sarcophagi had a series of intact carvings around its sides. The carvings formed a timeline, showing a world of soaring towers that pierced the clouds, and an open space where a castle and some small huts sat next to the towering city, and a group of shadowy figures seemed to be plotting the castle’s destruction from atop their towers.
The next panel showed an image of a golden woman looking somewhat similar to NaN coming down from the heavens atop a silver tidal wave which washed away the towers, drowned the shadowy figures, and formed into new castles and huts. Interestingly, dozens of different creatures also seemed to emerge from the silver wave, and a small section of the carving showed the dead bodies of a few of the shadowy figures who were covered with silver liquid from the wave. Dragons were clawing their way out of the shadow figure’s skin.
The third panel showed one final spire before which the golden goddess stood. Behind her a large army of creatures who assaulted the tower. The tower was defended by a black humanoid mass nearly as large as the tower itself. Or at least, it had been. A humanoid figure carved from a solid ruby stood atop it’s shoulders a sword plunged into the back of it’s neck as the hero rode the black beast’s dying body to the ground.
The final panel showed the shadowy creature being buried under a mountain, with the crushed body of the hero (represented by tiny shards of ruby) being placed into the sarcophagus, while the goddess held the world in her hands, kneeling and offering the globe to her followers.
Then, there was some grafiti. A crude carving, clearly not original to the sarcophagus, which depicted the shadow beast awakening, ripping off the goddess's head, and shoving it down her neck hole while offering her followers what appeared to be a wireless modem and a flying saucer.
I think NaN carved that last bit, Vinyl thought to herself with a snicker.
“I think… I think this is saying she unleashed gray goo,” Sky said as he stared at the second panel, clearly shaken.
Veena nodded. “Yep. Dont’ worry. We EMP any fresh goo she makes from orbit and the old stuff became my people after fuzing to reptiles as it lost power. It’s safe now.”
“Still not comfortable being on a planet ruled by a paperclip maximizer that unleashed gray goo,” Sky said squeamishly. “Not without Big-Sai, and Ay in her Zakku Two for back up. This is SOOOO not okay…”
Vinyl sighed. “Okay, and for those of us who are not tech geniuses?” She asked dryly.
Chem cleared his throat. “DO you know what nanomachines are?” He asked Vinyl, kneeling to get down on her eye level.
Vi nodded. “Yeah. Microscopic robots. I know Sky uses them to help build things.”
“Yeah, but mine are SAFE and only BUILD using defined raw materials,” Sky objected instantly. “Gray Goo is when you tell them to take EVERYTHING they encounter appart to make more of themselves. So you get a chain reaction where literally everything on the planet is turned into a pile of nanomachines, and then they convert the entire planet so all that’s left is one big ball of nanomachines floating through space. Which one day gets hit by a big asteroid, cuz that’s inevitable, so the nanomachines get splashed into space, and suddenly there’s NK-class end-of-the-world threats just floating in space where they can eventually hit more planets, leading to a galaxy-wide erasure of everything that is, which isn’t those nanomachines!”
Lyra calmly looked up at Veena and asked “Why haven’t you guys blown her up yet?”
“Hostages. She has a VIP hostage that our government refuses to lose. Derpy is… Sort of a target for them too because she’s the last person the VIP taught. They want to know how to make D’ni books. It’s not like they are going to arrest her, or the VIP, they just want to be shown how to make what could be used to create infinite energy and wealth,” Veena sighed.
Sky nodded once. “Right… And Derps doesn't give them that info because?”
Veena shrugged. “I don't know. I’ve never gotten to meet my sister. Because she’s never home. She’s in other universes. That’s why the Elders targeted the VIP and not her for extraction. She’s not here.”
Vinyl raised an eyebrow suspiciously at Veena’s words. “You know a lot about this situation,” Vinyl pointed out. “More than just being Derpy’s sister would give you. What’s up?”
Veena smirked. “I’m a Space Ranger. Why wouldn’t I know about Operation Library Card? It’s our number one priority, everyone’s briefed on it in training. That’s the only real reason we still have a Ranger Station in orbit here. This sector could be patrolled from any of the other six stations in it.”
Vinyl nodded, satisfied. “Alright. Well, we need to get this sword. Lyra, see any traps?”
Lyra turned around and moved her head in close to inspect the sword, resting her hooves atop the sarcophagi to do so. The mare inspected the length of the blade, searching for absolutely any mechanism which could trigger a trap. Then her horn lit up, shining a bright gold light across the jade as she scanned for magical traps.
Finally she looked back at Vinyl and shrugged. “It’s not trapped, but the blade is enchanted. There’s a lot of stuff in it, but from what I can tell it’s pretty much only able to be taken by someone who is pure of heart and noble in thought. I don’t think we can take it.”
Chem leaned in to inspect the sword from himself. “Mmm, one of those Sword of Omens deals, eh? Always hated those,” he grumbled. “Still, nothing ventured nothing gained. I know I can't take it, but there’s no reason not to try, Vinyl. Especially since it’s an actual magic hero's sword.”
Vinyl nodded in agreement. “Yeah. Let’s give it a shot.”
Vinyl reared up to grab the blade’s hilt, getting her first good look at the sword. It had a single edged blade which appeared straight at first, but was in fact slightly curved. Not nearly as much as a katana, only barely noticeable. It’s hilt was small, giving Vinyl just enough room to get her hoof between the cross guard and the flared pommel.
The blade was simple iron, though it lacked any rust. The hilt was made of wood, even the crossguard, and showed no rot despite being untreated timber.
Nothing happened as Vinyl touched the hilt. No bolt of lightning. The sword didn’t come to life and cut her in half. Not a single thing she would have had happen if this had been an adventure Vinyl were DMing for her friends happened. Deep down, Vi felt disappointed.
“Okay, here goes,” she said and pulled on the blade, trying to slide it free of the carving’s grasp.
To her shock, the hands moved, letting go of the sword and moving to lay at the carving side. The stone mouth cracked, pulling apart to speak. “You are… Worthy. Arrex lives, he only sleeps. Take Titan’s Bane. It is yours now. You must slay the monster below.”
Before anyone could react to that shock, the great stone doors behind the mausoleum cracked, shuddered, and began to slide back into the walls, opening the way forwards. As well as the way down.
The path ahead turned sharply to the left, forming what was clearly a long spiral ramp leading deep, deep, deep into the heart of the mountain.
“Uhhh…” Vinyl said as the doors shuddered to a stop and the long slowly descending ramp behind the doors was revealed.
“T— Try the thing?” Sky recommended as he put two and two together, and concluded the Tomb’s size and shape had to be entirely due to needing to get the slumbering monster contained within down below in the first place. “We need more weapons. We need ALL the weapons. There’s no way that door opening didn’t wake that Arrex guy up.”
“Yeah,” Vinyl agreed with a slow nod.
She took a deep breath, held the sword out once more, then swept the point upright.
“By the power of Grayskull?” She asked rather than stated.
Nothing happened.
“Oh! Yeah, magic,” Vinyl remembered sheepishly, opening herself to her subconscious to let her do her thing.
The only thing which happened was the sudden emergence of extreme doubt that Vinyl would accomplish anything by trying to use magic she only knew of because of a joke.
Let’s try anyways. It’s worth a shot, Vinyl thought, hopping her subconscious would change her mind.
Once more she opened herself to her magic. Once more she adopted the stance and swept the blade up to the sky. “By the power of—”
Vinyl’s magic started to flow through her into the blade. Titan’s Bane sensed the arcane energy in the hoof which wielded it, and proceed to do what it was made to do.
The sword’s skin shattered. The outer layers of the blade and hilt cracked, flaking off like metal and wooden dandruff, revealing a blade carved from a single ruby, and a hilt sculpted from ivory, inlaid with silver, gold, and wrapped with a rayskin grip.
Bolts of crimson lightning crackled along the blade down into Vinyl’s hoof as it’s magics went to work, transferring the power of a Storm Giant to its new wielder. Vinyl’s bones popped and cracked, thickening and lengthening as she rapidly grew half a meter taller, reaching Chem and Sky’s shoulders. Her skin rolled and slid over her body as muscles thickened and strengthened. Tendons creaked and groaned as they primed to move more mass even faster than before.
The blade endowed Vinyl with the full strength and speed of a Storm Giant, just as it had been designed to do for any worthy wielder thousands of years ago. Such power was nowhere near the legendary hero Her brother and Sky had been joking about before, but in this moment Vinyl was just ever so slightly stronger than Veena, and ever so slightly less durable.
Her mind changed as well, new neural pathways forging in mere moments, providing her with the knowledge of spells contained within the blade which were hers to command. She could call upon the blade to conjure lightning, sunder magical barriers, and control the very winds.
As everyone stared at Vinyl in stunned disbelief she raised the sword to look at its true form. The weapon was elegantly crafted, and she could see magical energy flicking through the blade.
“Woah!” Vinyl exclaimed, awestruck by the incredible power she could feel flowing into her form the weapon she had just been given.
Chem’s eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. “IT WORKED! SWEET! Go crush them all! We can just punch Hatty into space! WOOOOOO! It’s totally different when you’re on my side! We could totally conquer the whole planet. OH! Please? Can we? PLEASE?!” Chem begged.
Lyra looked at the blade with a little envy. “I should have tried taking it,” she grumbled. “Always wanted to be taller.”
Sky simply stood there, calculating, doing his best to work out what else Vinyl’s inner self might be able to do.
“Um, guys? It’s just the sword,” Vinyl corrected, setting the sword down on the floor to see if that would revert it’s changes.
It did.
The moment she let go, her body compressed inwards, a brief flash of pain accompanying the rather disturbing pops and scrapes as she returned to her original size and shape. As if that were not gross enough, the sword began to leak black ooze which scabbed over, forming into a new wooden and steel shell, giving the weapon an ordinary appearance once more.
“Eww...” Veena and Vinyl said together as they looked down at the magical weapon.
“Uhh, sooo can you carry that without it changing you?” Sky asked, seemingly a bit sad. “I was hoping we’d just derped into the stupid but easy way out of this problem. But maybe we can use it as a sort of surprise? If you can carry it on your back and look normal, then draw it and go all super saiyan, we could catch the enemy off guard at least.”
“Good question,” Vinyl said as she attempted to pick the blade up with her magic.
Her arane grip engulfed the weapon in its blue glow. The sword felt heavier than it should to her magic, seeming to resist being moved for a few moments before suddenly lightening and easily floating to her side.
You remembered my magic… Are you bound to me now? Vinyl wondered. At least I can hold you this way and not transform.
Slowly, carefully, Vinyl slid the sword between her back and her sword belt, pinning it to herself beneath her other blade. She didn’t transform.
“Okay. Good. Looks like I only change if I draw the blade and try to use its power,” Vinyl said with a relieved smile. “Let’s move out. We still need to get Arrex’s eye.”
The hero's nodded in agreement, and after a quick moment of debate related to whether or not Veena could carry them all down the obviously long hallway, the party walked together into the heart of the Tomb. Each step taking them closer and closer to the most dangerous being in all the world.
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Ah, the childhood memories. All of them.
LOL.
Sounds about right, yea.
Really can't wait for the giant fight that's about to happen.
I wonder if Vinyl could use the power of the sword AND the power of Greyskull at the same time, that would be really helpful when it comes time to face Arrex as well as Hatty.
BTW I wonder how Twi is doing? Has she formed her army of wild creatures, and set forth to expand the Twilight Sovrenty across the globe?
Noooooo. Your the one with a dick in the family.
Poor Light, trapped behind the barrier of the mind. Vinyl should find a way to let her receive sensory input too, it would do wonders for her eternity.
Yes, you are. But we love it
A Gray Goo unleashing Paperclip Maximizer. Yeah, they REALLY need an excellent reason not to kill the fuck out of Null. Let's hope NaN doesn't get sad when her psychopath of a sister gets nuked to kingdom come.
Did Vinyl get unshorn fetlocks too? Why didn't she cry "I HAVE THE POWEEEEER!!!!" when she grew? Such a lost opportunity
Yeah, Null needs to get erased from existence. She's a threat, and she isn't one that can be readily negotiated with.
Tbh im pretty sure any of the Mane six or main characters in your stories would be ¨worthy¨
Well I don't, and I'm me.
8793883 It's just a "pure of heart and full of courage" type of thing. Any Equestrian who wasn't a scardy cat could have done it.
8795158
tru
That would be fairly noticeable.
IMHO if you are allowing one of your players to play an elder vampire the game is pretty unbalanced already.
Interesting, so Chem wasn't always the relatively nice guy that he is now.
At the very least, knowing that your gut feelings and instincts are coming from a trillion plus year old experienced individual seems pretty useful.
Huh, neat.
The "original body" thing does seem to indicate that Yog is okay with blurring the lines a fair bit between game abilities and original ones if there's a plausible in-story explanation for it. The Power of Grayskull may be pushing things a bit, but if it was inner power all along...
This was a pretty useful "death" considering the revelations that came with it. Hatty isn't doing very well if this was the sum total of his next move against the party.
Hah!
Yeah, that seems for the best.
That's a good point.
Hahahahaha!
That would be useful if they could get it to work.
And hey, it just might with the correct prop.
Another example of this plot by "Hatty" flopping hard, assuming that's what it was.
A mural of the significant bits of world history, that's useful. Though presumably Veena knows it all. No wonder the dragons are focused on keeping Null on-planet.
Huh. That seems maybe bad.
Neat. It's not the full Power of Grayskull, but what Vinyl got instead was pretty good.
8798298
Eh, depends on what everyone else is playing. As long as everyone is on the same power scale, and there's still ways to make the baddies tougher than them, it's all good.
I realized that Vi basically got the Sword of Power, and then made the joke retroactively.
I'm sorry I had to: