CHAPTER 9

Sorry it took so long to get this one up. Internet has still not been restored, and I am having to locate wifi spots just so I can periodically check my fanfiction and e-mail accounts, and post an occasional chapter. Perhaps it's all for naught anyhow. By this weekend, I will know for sure whether or not I am going to even finish this or any more of the stories. If that happens, maybe my proxy will finish them for me, I don't know, but by then, I probably won't care one way or the other. \

Igf any of you are wondering exactly what's going on, I'll put it like this: Imagine Drake losing Budder. Picture what that would do to him, to see her taken away from him and broken, and he not being able to do anything about it. Now picture Drake and Dash not getting a case for months, having very little money, and worrying about whether or not they can pay the bills and keep their house. Now say all of this is going on right before Heartswarming eve. Welcome to my world. That's it exactly.

Enough of that now. So here is chapter nine. I hope you all enjoy it, and I hope you are all liking the story so far.

I awoke to darkness, and tried to turn over. It took me a few moments for my faculties to clear enough to realize that I couldn't move, and that I was covered up with something, some kind of cloth. I struggled to get up, and felt my hooves tied together. I couldn't remember what had happened before I lost consciousness. All I knew was that whatever was happening, it couldn't possibly be good. Priorities. Where was Dash and Budder? Where was Daring? Had I been captured?

"What is this?!" I called. "Dashie?! Sis?! Are you okay?!" A few tense seconds later, the covering was pulled off of my head, and blinking, I looked up to see Daring Do standing over me, a suspicious look on her face.

"Drake?" she asked. "Are you...you?"

"Wha...Who else would I be?" I shot back.

"Just answer me, alright? I have to make sure you're...yourself again." She stated.

"Myself? Daring, what the hell are you talking about? And where's Dash and Budder?" I tugged at my ropes. "And by the way, who the hell tied me up?!"

"I did." She answered. "Sorry about that. You were..." She paused a moment, and shot me a curious glance. "You...you don't remember what you did, do you?"

"What? What did I do?" I demanded.

"You yelled 'medic', then passed out again. We were trying to wake you up, and all of a sudden, you got up and started telling us really crazy stuff, like that we were going to be your slaves, and that if we resisted, you would kill us all. You were really loosing it, so I hit you over the head with a rock and tied you up."

"I did not say that!" I protested. "I think I would've remembered something like that!"

"Well, you did say it." Daring returned. "I guess you're feeling better now though, huh? I mean...are you?"

"Yeah. Trust me, whatever the hell happened, I'm ME again, okay?" With that, Daring pulled the rest of the cloaks off of me, and untied the rope binding my hooves. I stood and shook off the pain in my legs. "Where's my family?"

"Down there." Daring replied, nodding down the corridor. "Your little sister got really upset when you went psycho. Dash had to take her away from you to try and calm her down. Not that your wife is taking it much better."

"Shit..." I muttered.

"Um...sorry for havin' to restrain you there..." Daring offered. "And for the whole busting you over the brain-pan."

"Eh, if I really did what you said I did, I'd have hit me over the head too." I said with a wave of the hoof. I walked down the corridor, to where my marefriend and my sister were sitting, holding onto each other. "Um...hey guys..." I said softly. They turned to look at me with worried expressions. My sister had tears in her blue eyes, and looked at me like she didn't know what to expect from me..

"Bubby...are you okay now?" She asked. My heart sank. Whatever I had done had really hurt her. Rainbow Dash stood and gave me a hug, then looked into my eyes a moment.

"Are you?" Dashie asked in a low voice.

"Yeah, I am guys." I said "I dunno what happened back there...Daring Do filled me in on...I guess on a little of what I did when I passed out. That wasn't me...you guys know that, right?"

"I know." Dash whispered with a nod.

"But you're you...now...right?" Budder asked.

"Yeah. I am...and I'm sorry for whatever I apparently did or said." I answered. "I think there's something seriously wrong with me...maybe it's like where I passed out or something, or maybe it's a spell or something...something one of those unicorns did..."

"Maybe you're being possessed." My sister said meekly.

"What?"

"You were acting like somepony else...and you said like you were seeing stuff somepony else saw...maybe you're possessed."

"If I am, then by who?" I asked desperately.

"Sombra." Daring stated from behind me. That one word hit me square in the gut. I froze, and felt myself start to tremble a bit. "I mean, the things you said a while ago...it sounded like King Sombra talking." I remembered the whisper telling me 'Your body is mine', and suddenly it all started making sense.

"Hey Daring?" I questioned nervously. "You know latin?"

"Course I do." She answered. "Why?"

"What does moose is vass mean?"

"Well...I'm guessin' you mean meus is vas." She said. "It means um...you are a vessel."

"That don't make me feel any better." I muttered dejectedly.

"Why?" Daring returned. "Where did you see that?"

"Didn't..." I said. "I heard it. When I said I heard whispering...that's one of the things I heard."

"That can't be good." The adventurer sighed.

"My thoughts exactly..." I whispered. I looked at my family sadly, then back to Daring. "You mean that megalomaniac is trying to take over my body?!" My heart started pounding in my chest. "What the hell do I DO?!"

"Find a way to get him out of there!" Dash exclaimed.

"He can't have you!" Budder cried. "He can't! Because I need you!"

"Okay..." Daring began. "Drake, we gotta get you out of here, and to Princess Celestia, so she can fix this." She noticed my look. I was feeling almost frantic. "Calm down, Drake. It'll be alright."

"Alright?!" I shot back. "Daring, I have a dead dictator tryin' to take over my damned body! Nothing about this is alpha-oscar-kilo!" I paced back and forth like a caged animal, attempting to process my thoughts into a cohesive mental structure of some kind. Nope, not working...

"Drake..." Dashie said, unsure what to say.

"Your family needs you. WE need you." Daring stated. "We're getting outta here. All of us. You said that yourself. You can fight Sombra until we get to Princess Cadence or Celestia and have his butt forcefully ejected from your brain. If anypony can, it's you." I heaved a sigh.

"Okay...just for the record, sorry. I'm just having a really difficult time with this thing." I said. "We don't have a choice in this. We gotta get out of here, and now."

I walked along, Dash and Budder on either side of me, occasionally sending me inquisitive glances. They were obviously watching me to see if King Sombra was going to make another appearance any time soon. Not far behind me was Daring Do, and I got the distinct impression that even though the renowned adventurer respected me and had my back, she was watching me like a hawk, ready to react if I had another bout of not being me. I made a mental note to try my damndest not to let the evil ruler take over my mind again. My head still hurt from where she'd hit me with a rock the first time.

I had plenty of time to think as we moved down the corridor for what I hoped was the exit. Why had Sombra chosen me as his vessel? Maybe we had interrupted the ritual at the right (or wrong) time, and his spirit or whatever it was had been brought back, and jumped into the first body it saw. Maybe it was because we had defeated his followers, and he'd sensed that, and figured that I was a stronger pony than the intended vessel. Thinking about it didn't make me feel any better.

I couldn't let Sombra take over my mind and body. I'm not narcissistic enough to think that my family couldn't survive without me, I knew it as a fact. If something happened to me, Rainbow Dash would be devastated. She would be able to go on, I knew that, but would she ever be the same? I knew my sister wouldn't. I was her world. If I died or got possessed, it would probably kill her. It's a heavy feeling, knowing that your life is tied so closely to that of others that anything you do, or anything that happens to you affects them. It's the joy of being loved, and loving other ponies, and the fear of letting them down.

I felt a slight throbbing in my head, and a cold feeling washed over me. An image came to me, an image of an army of pony slaves, led by brutal overseers, rushing into battle. I made the scene go away, telling myself that it wasn't my thoughts, forcing myself to focus only on the present, and to the ponies around me. I turned my thoughts to Budder's recent 15th birthday, when we had all gone out to see a play, then had dinner at a small diner because the fancy restaurant we'd planned on going to was booked. I thought about when Budder had gone out to hang out with Echo, and Dashie and I got to have an entire evening all to ourselves. Soon, the images and the cold feeling left me. I had pushed Sombra away for now, but for some reason, I felt little comfort in my victory.

We traveled for what seemed like half an hour before we came to a larger vault in the cave. Several passages led off from the room, making my despair grow even more. I had hoped that the tunnel we had just been in would simply link to the main passage, but now we were faced with more of the confusing network of caves. The others seemed to be downhearted by the new turn of events as well, and for several wordless moments, the four of us stood in the chamber, looking at the four possible directions we could now go.

"Drake? What do you think?" Daring asked.

"I track on the surface." I said grimly. "I have no idea."

"It has to be one of those two." She said, pointing to the two middle tunnels. "The others go off in different directions than we need to be going, right?"

"I guess..." I answered.

"And we ain't splitting up." Dash added.

"No." I agreed. "I need all of you close by..."

"Well, what if we..." Daring began. I quieted her with a hoof over her muzzle. She gave me a curious look, and I released her and pointed to my right ear, then down the cave that led to the left, a signal to say 'listen'. We turned down the lanterns, and moved over behind a crystal outcropping near the tunnel, and soon we heard a pair of voices.

"We must find them." One of the voices stated. "We must find them and retrieve the horn before it is too late."

"What if it is?" The other asked. "What do we do then?"

"We wait."

"What do you mean?" The second pony's voice queried.

"What happens then will happen. His return cannot be stopped now. It has already begun." The first pony spoke. As the two ponies drew nearer, I slowly and quietly pulled my saber. Dash and Budder drew their weapons as Daring unrolled her whip. It was he perfect ambush, and as the two Sombra followers entered the cavern, we sprung the trap.

The story is getting darker and darker, isn't it? I'm sure many of you are wondering what is going to happen next. I will attempt to get the next chapter written soon. I will then try to post it as quickly as I can get my laptop to someplace with internet.