Episode 10
味方
An unexpected ally
I am in a newborn's bedroom. A baby cries. It is a pony with my coat, my mane and my tail. There are three adults in here as well, all of them unicorns. A mare and two stallions. My mom, my dad, and a stranger. His coat is dark grey, and his mane and tail are black. He is leaning over the baby's crib. My crib. My mom is yelling at the stranger. My dad then speaks.
"Stop! Let go of my son! Give him back!"
The stranger stops leaning over then crib. He then puts the baby on his back, and turns around to face my dad.
"It can't be helped. Your son must disappear, and you know that."
My mom begins to cry like her son. My dad growls, and attacks the stranger. He tries to take his son back, but the stranger prevents him. The baby, me, falls from the stranger's back, but before he, I, hits the ground, and dark grey aura wraps the baby. A matching aura wraps my mom's horn. Meanwhile, the two stallions fight each other more ferociously, bumping into shelves and knocking pots to the ground, causing them to shatter. One fragment of a pot hits the baby over the right eye, causing a somewhat deep wound. The stranger frees himself from my dad's grip, takes the baby and leaves the room. While he walks away, he says something in a low tone.
"I am sorry... It is not my choice to foalnap my nephew..."
My mom then yells between sobs.
"NOOOOO! MY FOAL! GIVE ME BACK MY FOAL!"
My dad then goes to my mom to comfort her.
"Don't worry, honey. We'll get him back."
Everything starts to swirl while the lightning bolt pendant shines.
I woke up sweaty. This time, my dream was in high-definition, so to speak. I wiped my forehead with a hoof, and I got up. As soon as I was on all four, Twilight opened the door of my room. She seemed concerned.
"Is everything okay?"
I nodded, trying to avoid giving information.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I am sure."
"If you want, you can take the day off. You made great progress with your magic." Twilight told me as she left.
I sighed. I was glad I could have the day off. That meant I could go and continue reading the book I found in the library. And I could also go and talk with David. I walked towards the door, but I stopped dead in my tracks. I went back to the saddlebag I found and I put it on. Then, I walked out of my room and towards what I thought were the dungeon cells.
After about an hour of wandering about, I finally found Twilight. I walked to her and I cleared my throat.
"Yes?"
"Could you guide me to the intruder of yesterday? I'd like to talk to him."
"I can do much better than show you the way." Twilight said.
Her horn then glowed, and a magical burst later, I was dizzy and I front of the intruder, also known as David Miles. Supposedly. I slowly walked up to the cell door.
"Thanks Twilight."
Twilight smiled and teleported back to her earlier spot. I shook my head to try to chase the dizziness, but I ended on my rump. I waited a few minutes for the dizziness to fade of its own. Once I was back to normal, I got up and teleported in the cell.
"David?"
He raised an eyebrow.
"I would like it if you could tell me more about the reason you went after me."
David sighed.
"Fine. A few months ago, several men in black suits came to my house. I wasn't there at that time. You could say I was lucky, since they kidnapped my mom and my sisters. I don't think I was lucky. When I got back home, I found it empty, except for a note. It said that if I wanted to see my family alive again, I had to do what I was asked to do, no questions asked. At first, I was worried. I even called the police, but I found out that the people who kidnapped my family were also in the police. Eventually, a letter came, with instructions about where to find you. I had to find and capture you alive, then take you with me to the River Corp. HQ in Tokyo."
"River Corp.? You mean the big company that makes new technologies?"
David nodded.
"Turns out that River Corp. is a façade for The River's activities on Earth. It also serves as its main income source."
"Would you like to help me vanquish The River?"
"Huh?"
"Would you like it?"
"River Corp. is one of the biggest industries on Earth! What do you plan to do to defeat 'em?"
"I plan to use these."
I levitated the brown crystal out of the saddlebag. David's face lit up a little.
"Focusing Crystals?"
I nodded. Silence then fell between the two of us. After several minutes of silent meditation on the subject, David agreed.
"Now we just need to find a way to go back to Earth."
"I might have a solution, but we must hurry. Get me out of here."
I nodded and focused on outside the castle, imagining me and David standing there. A burst of magic later, we were outside the castle. David immediately ran away.
"FOLLOW ME!"
I obeyed and ran after him.
After about two hours of running, we stopped. I was exhausted. I then realised that I needed to go back to the castle to get the book on The Origin. I began the process, but David interrupted me.
"Just teleport the book here instead of teleporting you there."
I didn't understand at first, but I tried it anyway. I imagined the book on the grass right in front of me. I felt my horn ache with the amount of magic required to do that, but I ignored it, focusing even more. Eventually, I felt a discharge of magic, and when I opened my eyes, which I didn't even realised I had closed, I saw the book in front of me. Unfortunately, I now had one of the worst headaches I ever had.
"Dammit!"
"What?"
"Look around."
I looked around, and I saw about a dozen of ponies wearing cloaks surrounding us. Suddenly, my headache seemed to be less painful. I levitated the book, and I put it in the saddlebag. David turned his back to mine.
"Feel okay to fight?"
"Not that much. But I don't think they'll let us go if we ask politely."
I then shot lightning at several ponies. It hit and made its way around five ponies before finally hitting the ground. Five pony corpses fell to the ground, motionless. I then turned around. I saw David with his eyes closed. I was as confused as the five remaining ponies. At least they didn't attack. Then, one of the ponies made a move, but the attack never came.
At that moment, I felt something weird. It was like nothing. literally nothingness, a complete void, where not even light can survive. The feeling was coming from David, but his horn wasn't glowing with magic. 'The Origin...' I thought. Where the five remaining ponies were standing, there was a huge sphere of dark purple energy, and it seemed chaotic and dangerous. Then David yelled.
"ANNIHILATE!"
As soon as David yelled, the sphere shrunk until it was no more, taking everything inside it with it. The air then took the empty spot with a loud clack similar to an explosion. Two half-corpses were remaining. I looked at David.
"Void energy. Extremely dangerous, just like me." He said flatly. "Now lets hurry."
As David moved, a purple burst of magic blocked his way, and an angry purple winged unicorn stood in David's path. I gulped as I knew it would be one hell of a lecture.
"What are the two of you doing?!"
"Going back to Earth." David said in a matter-of-factly tone.
"You can't go back!"
Twilight then put her hooves over her mouth. All traces of anger had vanished from her face, replaced by shame of almost telling too much.
"I can't go back to Earth? Why?"
"That's not what I said!" Twilight's face tried to show anger, but I saw it was just a façade.
"That was clearly what you had in mind. I recommend that you say the truth now, as I can easily detect lies. It is part of my special talent."
Twilight looked confused, then she realised that I was already in control of the conversation and that she had no way of avoiding the truth. She let out a sigh.
"You're right. You can't go back to Earth, because you were localised there."
"No matter where I am, I will always be attacked. The corpses here are a good example."
Twilight looked around, and gulped.
"I guess you will go back to Earth anyway, right?"
I nodded.
"Fine. But stay one more day. Tomorrow, you will be free to go."
Twilight's horn then glowed, and she teleported us back to the castle.
I was on my bed, the book on The Origin open in front of me. I was reading out loud.
"'Each element is represented by an avatar, a personification or ponification of said element. One cannot simply claim to be one of the avatars. Not only does it require a strong affinity to only one element, but the Focusing Crystal of said element must power up its avatar. However, an avatar can choose to pass on the title to anyone with a strong affinity. Avatars also tend to have a personality that matches almost perfectly the element they represent. For example, the avatar of life would be someone or somepony with a kind nature, ready to do anything to help nature. Another example would be the avatar of void. Unlike the avatar of life, the avatar of void is not kind in nature. It is actually the opposite, as void is the opposite element to life. The avatar of void would be slightly selfish, a jerk in some occasions, and also someone or somepony very lonely that prefers to be lonely.' Okay..."
David then pushed me aside and tried to grab the book.
"Give me that! I ain't selfish!"
I looked at him with a blank expression as my brain was rebooting. Once it was back to working order again, I spoke.
"You're the avatar of void?"
"Yeah... What does it... SHIT!"
David sat down on the floor, looking sad.
"Before you say anything, I will explain things. All my life, I prevented myself from having friends because of my freakish powers. My dad died because of his own void energy, also killing three of his best buddies in the process. I wanted to prevent that from happening. But no matter what I did to prevent bad stuff from happening... Eventually, I injured someone. One of the bullies that kept picking on me at school. I had to hide away for a week. And The River then entered my life, attracted to my void abilities."
I smiled.
"You don't even realise that you now have one friend. Me."
What I said seemed to have the effect of a soothing balm on his mind. He then yawned.
"Well, I'm hitting the hay."
"Good idea. Good night."
"G'night."
I levitated the book back in the saddlebag. I made myself comfortable, and I slowly drifted to sleep, hoping we would soon be back on Earth.
"Don't worry, Sakura. I'm coming back soon... I promise." I muttered to myself as sleep entered my mind for the night.
Next episode: "Good morning David. Ready to go back to Earth? Great! What the... Hey! Come back here! Wow... Who are you guys? And what do you want with us? What! You're all orphans!? Next episode:
Episode 11
孤児
The orphan gang!
Don't miss it!"
(c) 2014 The master of the game