Rise of the Void Lord
Wayward Hearts Sequel
Chapter one
Sad Truths, Nasty News
It was strange seeing Glitterlamp in a human shape but I could feel through our connection that she was the same. The initial shock of my ability to cast magic didn't really fade but it at least passed as a happy oddity. I always wore sunglasses now to hide my topaz eyes so I could walk in public. I wore a scowl that didn't suite me at all but something troubling had happened in my absence: I was gone for eight months and that had consequences such as the college I was attending for carpentry, of course they had some fancy name for it, had labeled me a drop out and now owe them a substantial amount of money.
It's like that freaking hospital all over again.
Fortunately since I was mistaken for dead or worse they didn't charge my family. Now that I'm back? Who knows what will happen.
"Dreamer, c`mon let's focus on what we can do." Glitterlamp gently shook me out of my thoughts. She was another thing all together. Even though I was back home with my family it felt like I had grown a second head. I had changed, this was no question and I would be reading my last journal entry to them tonight. I had magic now and a wife, something I had previously thought impossible for me.
"What? What are we doing?" I asked using our mental connection while looking around. The room had not changed since I last looked. Glitterlamp was still practicing her trade across the room keeping the wooden shavings in a small box. The rhythmic strokes of a sharp tool against wood was now comforting to me. The large flower which now half bloomed in her hands now was uncovered. Each petal was thin and life-like.
Glitterlamp found a job in this world only after a few days when a owner of a wooden arts shop saw a few pieces of her wooden garden. The shop had a few people who were very talented as well but highly competitive to which made it even more funny since Glitterlamp didn't see it that way at all.
"We're planning a trip to the Zoo, the one in the next town over?" Glitterlamp said simply but I could see her excitement for it, it was tomorrow we would go. It meant a a great deal of things to her, her first family outing, getting to know my family, and actually be apart of a loving family with no lies to spoil the event.
"Everything is already planned, even your boss said you should go and set up the stand he paid for to be there. Should be good." I thought standing up to stretch.
"I'm not the only one attending the stand, I'll be able to have fun for the second half of the day. I got it all planned out." She said smiling to herself. "This is one trip I don't wanna miss." It was the way she said it that caught my attention and the emotion burst like a soap bubble. Just as it bugged me that I would need to retake college to get a decent career she is equally if not more concerned on making a good impression on my folks.
"Y`know, they don't make plans like this for just anybody." I said aloud walking over to sit next to her. "Do you need help with some designs?" I offered remembering the time Glitterlamp shaped my Void to create things.
"Nah, I got some ideas already." Glitterlamp said shaking her head. "I'm just excited I guess." then she reached out an touched my chest where the Void Heart, the gem that used to be Fearbane, now resided. "They haven't been very talkative have they?"
"No, not really. But they're not gone, just resting." I responded as I mentally checked my Inner Council which was made up of shards of my personality. Even being divided like this didn't deprive myself of anything, it was closer to giving my instincts and feelings a voice. Vengeance, like his brothers, is compiled of several emotions but mostly logic and violence AND is shaped like a dragon with black scales with red eyes. Courage is a mute in fantasy plate mail and he mostly resembles my compassion and protectiveness. The newest addition of the council once Fear, the foreign shard of Sombra, had died; Pain, a figure in my head that has taken over Fear's place while shuffling priorities. I'm still trying to figure out what Pain is made of.
"Just wondering. I thought since you were getting quiet you were feeling down again." Glitterlamp relaxed and picked up her half finished project giving it a few more shaves before stopping to listen to something.
That was another thing about life these days, the sound of cars passing outside was still strange to her. Shouldn't be surprising but what made both of us laugh is that I jump at the sound since I had forgotten what cars sounded like myself. Earlier I had tried to play a few games on my computer and while I had a good time killing digital monsters something tickled the back of my brain. I kept thinking about my promises to Equestria's many citizens and especially to the Changeling race.
Soon it was all I could think of. The day I traveled in the Void listening to the lamentations of lost and dying Changelings still bothered me but I didn't know how to help them. That bothered me the worst of all. I sat back down next to Glitterlamp reassuring myself that it was only a car passing by and tried to focus on the trip for tomorrow morning.
"-Baseball game ruined by angry mob while baseball team is sued for clubbing the mob, more at seven! Now to the weather,-" A tense and over dramatic newswoman announced. The short ten second video showed a stadium in absolute madness while a crowd tried to wash over the baseball team tried to defend themselves by swinging their bats.
Last I knew my family didn't have channels on the TV because there really wasn't anything worth watching that our computers couldn't find and I hated commercials every two minutes. Glitterlamp just sat there while the color drained out of her face and disbelief flooded her mind followed by utter shock when I just shrugged it off. To me it was just another sad story on the news, nothing special.
"Dreamer!" Glitterlamp snapped at me both with word and emotion for a double whammy. "There are people in need! How could you just shrug it off like it was nothing!"
"-Gang violence skyrockets leaving many homeless and orphaned. Next we have Dr. Cherek with a new study showing that Global warming may be the cause of old age.-" The TV spoke again and Glitterlamp just gaped at the dramatic monotone at an increasing list of tragedies both near and far.
"Yeah," I said grabbing the remote and tried to the the nature channel. "None of us here like watching the news, it makes us depressed."
"I can see that now, things like that never happened back home." Glitterlamp said still in shock and sat the now completed rose to the side shaking a little bit.
"No they didn't." I admitted. "At least none that we heard about. I'll get us some ice cream." I said giving her a peck on the forehead and walked to the freezer and begun to prepare small cups of ice cream about a scoop or two. My little sister came bounding into the room with Glitterlamp and the channel was quickly flipped to some cheery sounding music. I finally found the spoons and put away the ice cream when Glitterlamp shouted suddenly.
"Dreamer! Quick! Look at this!" It was sudden and emergency sang through the air and I reduced my body into Void Sand to reform in the living room to see what was wrong.
"Whoa!" My little sister Sally gasped at my form of teleportation. I looked to where Glitterlamp was pointing and it was the TV. Upon the TV there was a show with talking ponies on it singing a triumphant song over the defeat of some bad guys and how their friendship remained strong. I soon saw what startled her so much was that the ponies singing looked exactly like the six that had traveled on the train with us.
"No way." I whispered as the colorful ponies marched the Changelings out of their lands and into a foreign strange land while someone who looked like Queen Chrysalis had been trapped in stone with no end in sight. "What is this!?" I demanded suddenly making Sally jump.
"It's My Little Pony, um, Friendship is Magic. It's new." Sally said looking overwhelmed at our reactions. "What's wrong?"
"Sally," I said regaining my composure trying to dismiss my wings. "Glitter here is a Changeling. And that looks exactly like the world I was in." I pointed out trying to calm the situation. "It's just it's really accurate of how these ponies look like the ones I met."
Suddenly Sally turned to Glitterlamp and asked excitedly.
"Did you meet Princess Twilight!? What is she like? Did you have a party with Pinkie Pie?" The cascade of questions was met with silence as a new figure stood next to me in black robes with his head bandaged with black linen covering his face entirely. Indeed every inch of skin had been covered with the same black linen but when he spoke he could be heard clearly despite his whisper, otherworldly voice.
"I'm afraid our meeting wasn't all that great. We were helping a Changeling and Celestia wanted us to leave." Pain said plainly but sadly.
