CHAPTER 13

Hello again. I ain't gone yet, and I finally managed to get this one written. The story will be finished by tomorrow or the day after. I guess finishing this story is kind of like my Christmas gift to all of you. So here's the chapter you were all waiting for. Hope you enjoy.

We ran. The cave kept going, and so did we. For what seemed like at least fifteen minutes, we galloped as hard as we could. I ran for my life, and Dashie, Budder and Daring, I guess they were running for my life too. I was so sure that we were getting close to the main tunnel. We had to be. I couldn't stop. I couldn't give up. We had to get out of this cavern and get to Cadence. They need you, Drake. You can't let them down. Chest hurts. Ignore it. Can't stop running. Not yet. Keep going, Drake...you can do it.

"Give up your fight..." A voice said from somewhere. I tried to ignore it. "You are mine..." It said.

"Shut up!" I hollered out.

"Drake?!" Dashie called.

"It's...it's him!" I yelled back.

"Yes...it is me..." The voice said evilly from inside my head. "And you cannot stop me...give me...my...body."

"NO!" I screamed. I felt cold again, like I was standing outside in the winter. It washed over my entire body, and I started shivering. I felt an electrical sensation. I tried to run faster, but it started feeling like everything was slowing down, like time was decelerating around me and I was trying to run through molasses. My vision started to grow dim.

"Drake?!" I heard Daring call out to me. "Drake, hold on! Fight it!"

"I'm trying!" I yelled.

"Not...trying hard enough...you fool..." Sombra's voice said. Then, I heard a wicked laugh echo through my head.

"Get out...of my fucking...MIND!" I roared. I grabbed my head, which was pounding now. My legs buckled, and I fell to the ground. A spasm shot through my body, and it was if I jumped up, only to land on my side. I felt myself involuntarily kick my back legs. "Help me!" I screamed. The pain was becoming unbearable. I had to force it down...I had to push Sombra back into the depths of my mind. I made myself remember my first date with Dashie...the restaurant in Ponyville. She thought I was a dashing army officer, and I thought she was a self-absorbed pegasus. The pain was subsiding a bit. I'd saved Rainbow Dash, and she saved me from myself. I loved her, and if I got out of this, I thought about all the ways I could show her how much I loved her.

"Bub...fight him! Don't let him have you!" My sister screamed. My thoughts turned to Budder. To the first time I'd met her in the orphanage. As soon as she'd found out she had a brother, somepony to take her home and love her, she broke down and cried. I thought about all the times we'd watched each others' backs on our missions. She was the best foal somepony could ever ask for. I could now move my legs. I got to my hooves and staggering a bit, forced myself to move forward.

"Not...gonna...beat me, Sombra!" I yelled in my mind...or was it out loud? I couldn't tell what was in my head and what was real anymore. All I could focus on in the physical world was the cave before me, and putting one hoof in front of the other.

We finally came to something familiar. We passed through an opening, and realized that the new tunnel we stood in was the passage that led to the colossal room. We were finally close to getting out of the cave and getting help. I didn't stop. I charged forward, vaguely aware of the three sets of voices behind me. That, and the throbbing in my head and the sharp pain in my chest.

"You cannot resist my will..." The king's voice stated.

"Go back to Hell..." I gasped, running as fast as I could. I began to think about freedom, about getting out of here and getting Sombra torn out of my mind and everything being okay. "You're about to lose, Sombra..."

"No." Sombra's voice growled. I ignored him. "No!" He commanded inside my head. As if on cue, my legs gave out again. I pitched forward, and hit the ground hard, sliding to a stop face-down. I tried to stand, but darkness was taking my senses.

"No...you won't..." I ordered. Another spasm hit me, and I flopped like a fish. Another, and I kicked wildly for a few moments. It's horrible to be unable to control your own body. I wanted so bad to cry out for my marefriend and my sister, but for some reason, I couldn't talk. I gritted my teeth, and saw a flash of Sombra, laughing maniacally. I was blacking out fast, and I was trying to fight it. I could feel his spirit inside me now, and I tried to resist it too. I didn't know what to focus on, or what to do. I wanted to scream.

From Rainbow Dash's Memoirs:

We were running through the first tunnel we recognized. We were so close, and it looked like we were going to actually make it. I was scared. I admit it. I was scared to death that we wouldn't make it back to the Crystal Empire. All of a sudden, Drake fell in front of us, and hit the ground hard. I screamed his name, but he didn't answer. I saw him try to stand, but fall again.

"No...you won't..." My fiancee said, his voice straining. Then, his body jerked, and he flipped over, and kicked a few times, like he was having a seizure or something. I wanted to run to him. I wanted to help him, but I knew how dangerous it would be to be near him if Sombra took over. All I could do was hold onto Budder and watch. I tried to cover her eyes so she couldn't see what was happening to him, but she was at her breaking point.

"DRAKE!" She screamed. "Bub no! No! Please no! Oh Luna..." Daring ran over, and helped me hold her back.

"DASHIIIIEEEE! BUDDER!" Drake screamed. It was his voice, but I'd never heard him scream like that. He flopped around a few more times, then tried to stand. Blood was running out of his nose, and I didn't know if it was from where he'd hit the ground, or from what was happening inside his body. My heart was breaking. I knew that I was watching my amazing stallion, my hero and the love of my life dying, and I had to fight to keep from breaking down.

"Daring...do something!" I begged.

"Dash...there's nothing I can do..." She said back.

"Nooooo!" Drake wailed. He was back on the ground, and holding onto his head as he rolled around.

"MY RESURRECTION IS AT HOOF!" An evil-sounding voice came from Drake's lips. "Do not resist me!" Drake rolled to his belly, and somehow stood up on his hind legs, and let out a scream.

"NO! GET OUT OF ME!" He yelled in his normal voice, falling onto his back.

"Bubby...bubby please..." Budder panted. She was losing it, and couldn't catch her breath. I grabbed her in a hug and held her tightly. Looking back to Drake, I saw blood was now streaming from his ears now too.

"Daddy!" He screamed. I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't fight the tears. Hearing him scream for his daddy like a scared yearling broke me, and I started crying onto Budder as she cried onto me. "Daddy help meeeeee!" Drake squeaked.

"I am Sombra...the one true king of..." Sombra's voice was cut off by a horrible scream. Drake sounded like he was screaming and choking at the same time. I looked up to see him laying on his side, foaming at the mouth. He shook a few times, gasped twice, then lay still. What happened next told me what had just happened to Drake. A black mist drifted out of him, and slid along the floor, going into Drake's saddle bag, which had been thrown across the cave by his thrashing.

"That was Sombra." Daring stated. "That means...no..." she galloped toward Drake, and I followed quickly. Daring Do rolled him over, and felt for a pulse. "Not good, Dash, not good..." She panted fearfully. She looked me in the eyes. "Does he have a bad heart?"

"I...uh..."

"DASH! Does he have a bad heart, yes or no?!" She yelled.

"Yeah! He has heart problems..."

"Damnit...he's had a heart attack then..." The adventurer said. "Not much time. Dash, go for help. You know the way back."

"Yeah. I can do it." I replied. I had to, and I wasn't gonna fail Drake.

"Go. Budder! Come here. I need you to help your brother, okay?! We're gonna try to save him!" Drake's sister hurried over as I made for the exit.

From Budder's Autobiography

When Daring Do told me to come help her with Drake, it was like all of the panic left me. Drake needed me, and I had to be strong. I ran over to where Daring had rolled him onto his back. Dash was already running down the corridor to get help.

"Okay, Budder...when I say breathe, I want you to hold his nose, seal your lips with your brother's, and blow a big breath into him, got it?" She said. "You're gonna be his lungs."

"Okay." I said. I was nervous, but I knew I had to do this.

"Alright." Daring said. She put both of her hooves on my brother's chest, and began pressing down hard, making his ribcage move down each time. She counted as she went, and when she got to fifteen, she said "BREATHE!" I did what she'd told me, and covered his nose, put my lips on his, and blew my air into him. "Good." Daring said, then started counting again. "One, two, tree, four..."

I don't know how long we did the CPR on Drake...it could have been thirty seconds or thirty minutes, and I wouldn't have known. Daring would do fifteen presses on his chest, then I would give him a deep breath. Before too long, she didn't have to tell me to breathe anymore. As soon as she's say fifteen, I would give him a breath. Maybe it was both of us working together so well that saved him, I don't know, but when Daring stopped pushing on his chest, checked his pulse on his neck, and said she felt a heartbeat, it was one of the proudest moments of my life.

"He ain't out of the woods yet..." Daring Do said. "He's got a pulse, but it's weak..." She held a hoof over his mouth. "And he's breathing a little too...that's good."

"What do we do now?" I asked.

"We gotta wait." She replied. "We have to watch him. If something happens, we have to do what we just did again. We have to take care of him till Dash gets back with help. Can you help me do that?"

"Yeah." I answered in a whisper. Now that the worst was over, it hit me again that Drake was in so much trouble. I felt tears in my eyes again. Daring saw that, and I guess she wanted to change the subject.

"So...your brother takes care of you?" She asked, scooting closer to me. I nodded. "Where's your parents?"

"They...they're dead." I answered. "They died when I was really little."

"So Drake raised you?"

"No." I said. I took a deep breath. Maybe explaining this would get my mind off of things. "Our parents...they abandoned bubby when he was born. They left him on this soldier's doorstep. Then, like seventeen years later, they had me. When I was like three, they went on a trip across the ocean. The ship went down, and they died. I had to go to an orphanage."

"And you two didn't even know each other existed." Daring said.

"No. Not for a long time. Then...bubby..." I nodded toward Drake. "He found out he had a sister, and he came and adopted me. He saved me...he really did...and my life's been so awesome ever since." I saw Daring smiling as she looked down at the ground.

"Let me guess, him and Dash have a similar story, right? Like he saved her from a burning building or a guild of assassins or something? Sounds like him."

"They don't talk much about that." I said. I watched my brother's chest slowly rise and fall. "He was investigating a bunch of ponies disappearing in Ponyville. I guess they met while he was working on the case. Something bad happened. I know that Dashie used to be a pegasus...the killer...she ponynapped Dash and was about to kill her, and Drake tracked them down and killed the murderer and saved Rainbow Dash."

"That's who he is." Daring muttered.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Your brother...he's that guy."

"That guy?" I questioned. Daring sighed.

"I heard about him before I met him. Know what somepony told me? That I'd never meet somepony so loyal and so selfless. They said that he always tried to save everypony in trouble, and that he always did the right thing. You know...that guy. The hero. And that's what your brother is, Budder...he's a hero."

"I know." I said. "He's my hero." Daring put a foreleg around me. "Will he be okay?"

"I think so..." She replied. "I hope so..." I don't know how long we waited there, watching Drake to make sure he was okay. It seemed like forever. Finally, I heard voices coming down the hall. The cave was lit by a dozen lanterns as a huge group of soldiers and paramedics filled the tunnel. Rainbow Dash was at the front of them, and I felt like a heavy weight was gone. Maybe everything would be okay now. At least I hoped it would...

The next chapter will be posted soon. Hope you liked this one. I welcome your questions and comments. Expect the last chapter later today or tomorrow...probably tomorrow, as I can end this volume right before Christmas. -Drake