inFAMOUS Displaced
Chapter 3
Non-violent Spell

“Let’s play it safe, I want to learn telepathy,” I stated.

“Okay,” she said, then had a look of confusion, “How will we do it?”

“Weave the spell into the blast core as I hold it,” I instructed. I held it tightly in my hands as Smoke charged her horn with an orange aura. “Ready?” She nodded. “One, Two, Three!”

She enveloped the blast core in the orange aura. At first, nothing seemed to happen. But then, I started to feel pain. And this is not pain as in “I stubbed my toe,” or “I banged my head on the doorframe.” This was pain as in “AARRGG! My insides are being ripped out without painkillers!”

I began to yell in pain, but as I yelled, I looked at Smoke and saw that she was yelling as well. She seemed to be in pain as well. After who knows how long of pain and yelling, we both collapsed. After a few seconds, my vision went dark.

I couldn’t tell if I was blacked out for a few seconds or several hours, but when I felt aware of anything, I saw myself in a form of vision. In this vision, the other me raised his left hand to his temple. The vision went white for a moment, showing him do the same thing. Except he was in a corridor and there was somepony behind him. Other Me didn’t notice him until his hand went to his temple. His head jerked as if he realized that the pony was behind him. He then rapidly undid the chain and gave the pony a whack with it.

I woke up to unstable ground and uncomfortable sleeping conditions. After my head and vision cleared, I found that I was in the back of the blast shard wagon. The convoy was moving.

I managed to get out of the moving wagon and I ran to the wagon at the head of the train. Looking into it, I saw that Smoke Shot was conscious, but was exhausted. She was still leading the refugees the nearest Guard outpost. I got into the wagon with her and she noticed my entrance.

“You’re awake!” She shouted in excitement.

“I am,” I state, rather bluntly.

“You know, we never really got you name,” she said, “Most of us have learned each other’s names, but I didn’t catch yours.”

At that I was conflicted. I never liked lying, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to get home in the first place. Those factors gave me issues on how I would be called. But, ultimately, I settled on…

“Delsin Rowe.”

“What?”

“My name is Delsin Rowe. Commit it to memory,” I said as I pointed to my head with my hand. As soon as my hand made contact with my head, I suddenly felt a rush of information. I could “hear” the surface thoughts of everypony in the camp. Smoke Shot and the confusion from my physical reaction to my flood of thoughts. The pony far in the back of the wagon train complaining about the weight of the wagon. The griffins hidden in the snow bank that...Wait...Griffin?

I removed my hand from head and exited the wagon. I looked around and tried to figure out where I had felt the griffin. I even put my hand to my head and tried to match my visual with my mental. No luck.

I stood there trying to find the griffins until I noticed that the blast shard wagon passed me. Well, I needed the help to find those griffins just in case. I grabbed a small handful or two of blast shards and absorbed them. I then entered my Scan and and managed to match my visual with my mental. The griffins were hiding behind snow banks to the left and right of the wagon train.

An Ambush!

This was confirmed when a Griffin popped over the top of the left snow bank and fired a crossbow at me. The bolt hit me in my right shoulder, sending me into the blast shard wagon and knocking it over. The pony that was pulling the blast shard wagon began to complain about the mess I made, but I wasn’t paying attention to that. I was dealing with some intense pain.

My vision was partially blurry as I pulled the bolt out of my shoulder. As soon as it was out, I felt as though the pain was starting to flow out. I looked at my shoulder and saw the wound closing up with bits of ash and smoke coming from the wound. Once my injury was healed and my head cleared, I used my smoke ability to get onto my feet and scanned the area again.

The Griffins behind the left snow bank had moved to the other side. All of the ponies in the wagon train had armed themselves with whatever weapons were salvaged from the POW camp and moved to the left of the now stopped wagon train. This ambush was going to be a massacre. I moved my hand to my head and gave a warning to everypony in the wagon train of the ambush.

‘The ambush is coming from the other side!’
The mental shout I gave scared a few ponies, but they all turned around just when the Griffins came out of hiding. The two groups began to fight. I was about to, but my foot bumped up against some blast shards. I picked up a few and absorbed them. I then felt as if I knew how to fight. I gathered some smoke in my hands and began to fire off small shots of smoke at the griffins.

Most of my shots hit the griffins in the body, but the shots that hit their heads caused them to go into coughing fits. However, even with my support, we were being overwhelmed.

‘Everypony hitch up! Leave the blast shard wagon! I’ll keep them distracted’

I then called out to the griffins, “Hey! You Buzzards!” That got their attention. “Get a load of this!” I then lobbed a sulfur bomb at them. When the bomb exploded, the griffins caught in the blast began to cough uncontrollably. Those that weren’t, began to charge at me. I fired off smoke shots and cinder blasts to give me time to get some distance between me and the wagon train.

Once I was far enough away from the wagon train, I pulled out my chain and began to fight. My mental abilities allowed me to predict (mostly) how the griffins were going to attack. I would smoke dash whenever a griffin tried to attack me from behind and I would retaliate with a chain to the beak.

I started to grow tired and it became harder to fire off smoke. My smoke dash was even becoming an issue. As I started using smoke less and less, my opponents began to notice and became more bold. I was soon overwhelmed and bound up. One of the griffins had a battle ax and was ready to take my head off. I closed my eyes and readied myself for death.

Waiting...Waiting...Waiting…‘Is there a problem with your ax, buddy?’

I opened my eyes and saw that the griffin that held the ax had a dead, blank look in his eyes. He then dropped the ax dangerously close to my head and then fell over. His helmeted head landed on my head. The impact caused me to fall into unconsciousness. As my vision was blurring and darkening, I distinctly could see a bright silhouette hovering over me with a darker one next to it.

I woke up to hearing a campfire nearby along with sounds that are attributed with an army camp. I was inside a tent that had a red heart embroidered on it. The sun was shining bright enough for the cross to be visible inside the tent. I looked around and saw a variety of injured or otherwise afflicted ponies. There was also a campfire built inside the tent to keep the cold air out of the tent.

I got up and moved to the fire and began to absorb the smoke. Halfway through the process, I heard the tent flap open. Looking to the tent entrance, I saw two alicorns in partial battle armor staring at me with shocked expressions. Once my smoke absorption was complete, I unraveled the chain on my right wrist. The alicorns lowered and charged their horns threateningly, but they stopped when I threw the chain at their hooves.

I looked them up and down and said, “You both look like the ones in charge here.”

The darker of the two alicorns stepped forward and said, “We are. As is our sister. We are Princess Luna and she is Princess Celestia. We would like to ask of thee as to thy name.”

“My name is Delsin Rowe,” I replied. Princess Luna looked at me with a confused look.

“That is a strange name,” she said.

“It's the name I chose,” I replied.

Princess Celestia stepped forward and said, “We wish to speak with you.”

“Okay,” I said, as I moved to a cot and began to heal the occupant. After I had healed him and sent him out, I looked back at the Princesses. “Um, are you going to speak or…” I trailed off.

Princess Celestia recovered from the shock first. “We were hoping to talk to you in private.”

I was a bit surprised. “Can it wait for a few minutes?” I asked as I absorbed some more smoke and moved on to the next patient.

Celestia seemed ready to object, but Luna spoke first. “Verily. We, on the other hoof, desire to know of how thy power works.”

I raised my eyebrows in amazement. I finished the pony I was healing and turned to the Princesses. “I can give you a demonstration of my powers, but as I’m working, I’ll explain as best I can,” I paused to start work on the next pony, “I’m what is called a conduit. Someone with the inborn traits to manipulate/control a form of matter or energy,” I pointed to the fire, “As you can see, I can control smoke. Most of what have been able to do with it only skims the surface of what I can do.”

“What can you do?” Celestia asked, with a look of concern in her face.

“My ability to heal is part of it. I can shoot concentrated balls of smoke, blast smoke in a form of scattershot, fire an explosive like shot of smoke. I can throw a non-lethal smoke bomb, restrain enemies with swirling smoke, turn myself into smoke briefly…” I paused and saw Celestia’s face.

“Is everything alright?” I asked.

Celestia shook her head, as if to clear her head, then said, “I’m just concerned. You have all of this power, and I’m concerned that you will abuse it.”

I finished healing the last pony and then turned back to the Princesses. “The only thing holding me from abusing it is responsibility. With very few exceptions, I’m to be held responsible for anything I do with my powers.” That seemed to cause Celestia to relax a bit.

“Anyway, you wanted to talk to me about something?” I asked.

“Yes,” Luna said, “We both wish to commend thee on thy actions of saving our spy, Smoke Shot, and helping her retrieve vital information and saving the Prisoners as well. If there is any way that we can repay thee, speak thy mind.”

I stepped back a moment and began to think. I did want to go home, but already, in the first few days I spent in this world, I’ve had more adventure than what a college life offered. So that was out of the picture. I considered a high rank or position, but that would be greedy on my part. Then a thought struck me...The Akomish.

“I wish to speak to the ponies that I had freed, including Smoke Shot.”

“Is that your request?” Celestia asked.

“It goes a bit deeper than that, your Highnesses,” I said with a kneel and bow to that (no sarcasm), “I heard from Smoke that the other prisoners had ‘bonded,’ if bonding means ‘knowing almost everyponies’ names.’ I wish to incorporate them as Akomish tribe members.”

“Akomish?”

I pulled back the left sleeve of my jacket, revealing a Native American tattoo. “Basically, the Akomish will be a group of ponies that will respect your rule and will be dedicated to helping and defending others, ESPECIALLY each other,” I said.
*************************

My request to start the Akomish was granted and the ponies that I freed were eager to join. I laid the specifications of the help they were to extend if asked for or otherwise noticed needed. I also allowed them to marry outside of the tribe and if they wanted their children to be Akomish as well, it had to be at the consent of the non-Akomish spouse. Those who marry in the tribe have their children born in the tribe as well.

As a means to distinguish Akomish from non-Akomish, I used my spray paint can to mark their left arms with a Native American styled version of the Equestrian Flag, or what was on the flag. Two alicorns, one blue and the other red, circling around a sun and moon, blue and red respectively.

After initiating all the ponies that I had saved as Akomish, Celestia and Luna declared for a feast to be made in honor of the new tribe. The feast itself was vegetarian, and was spread in a medieval fashion. The Princesses, the top commanding officers in the Royal Guard, myself, and Smoke Shot sat at a table that was set up at the back of the celebration tent that was set up. The remainder of the Royal Guard and the Akomish sat at various tables strewn about and around the tent, with a few braziers set up on and between the tables.

The party (for lack of a better term) seemed to go well. I was able to tell Celestia and Luna of my origins.

A few days earlier…
I looked up at the convention center with apprehension. Too many crazy things happen at conventions. I’ve heard of the kidnapping and thefts and how certain things are bought by the the kidnapped before they were kidnapped.

Nevertheless, I made a bet that would get me needed money to pay for college. All I had to do was buy something cheap, yet high quality and get back to Idaho Falls and get paid. Simple enough.

I entered the convention center and I was immediately admitted in after showing my ID. Thank God for the internet and ID. The inside seemed to have more room on the inside than the outside, almost like the TARDIS from Doctor Who. Despite that, There was barely enough room in the center to breath, let alone walk.

I quickly moved to the souvenir booths to escape the crowds near the celebrities. Browsing around, I saw some really high quality items, but they ranged in a price that wasn't worth the money. One item, or more appropriately, one set caught my eye. It was an authentic replica of Delsin Rowe’s clothes from inFAMOUS: Second Son.

“Do you like it?” I heard a creepy voice say.

I jerked back in surprise and see the booth vendor. Creepy guy, I could say that much. He was dressed as someone from a videogame, but because of my low amount of time that is free, I don't have much (if any) to play any.

“You a big inFAMOUS fan?” He asked.

"Yeah,” I replied, “Mostly Second Son, but overall a good series.”

“You seem to have luck on your side,” he chuckled, “That costume is on sale for twenty dollars, AND, because you look to be one with a taste for authenticity, I'll even throw in this industrial chain and can of spray paint.” He then pulled out a chain and a spray paint can for me to see.

“Deal!” I say, without hesitation. He pulled out a bag that had the full costume in it and moved to put the chain in it. “Um, could I just wrap the chain around my arm?”

“Sure,” he answered, handing me the chain and placing the spray paint can in the bag. I took the chain and the bag and proceeded to leave.

“Have a nice trip!” He called out to me as I walked away. As I turned from him, I distinctly saw a strange twinkle in his eyes. It scared me a bit, but I just continued away. I was only about ten feet from the convention center door when I tripped. I closed my eyes and readied my arms to brace myself from the fall.

It was then I felt something that I thought wasn’t supposed to be at a convention...snow.

Present day

“Art thou stating that thy name isn’t Delsin Rowe?” Luna asked.

“On my birth world, it wasn’t,” I answered, “Here in Equus, it might as well be, considering that I don’t know how to go back...or forward for that matter.”

Celestia giggle-coughed at my joke and then regained her composure. “I’m sure we can help you in both trying to find a way back and what to do to move forward.”

“Thank you, Princess,” I said, “I don’t know what…”

“Your Majesties!” A Royal Guard Courier whisper-shouts to the Princesses, “Urgent…” he begins to say, but I shoot a subdued smoke shot in his mouth and he dissolves into a coughing fit. I look back to Celestia and saw her shocked/angry face.

“I hate being interrupted,” I explain quickly. I absorb the remaining smoke from the courier’s system and wait for him to talk.

“Ahem, *Cough*, Your Majesties, I have urgent news from the Capital.”

“What is it?” Celestia asked.

“The Capital is under attack by a draconequus.”

Celestia and Luna had shocked looks on their faces. “Has anything been done to try and remove the creature?” Luna asked.

“We have done all that we could, your Majesties.”

“Has anypony been harmed?” Celestia asked.

“With the exception of those attacked by animals it created, nopony has been harmed,” he stated, “But if they encounter the draconequus, they are elaborately pranked or brainwashed.” He then lifted his helmet off and his mane is revealed to have been transformed into a mess of snakes.

Both the Princesses recoil at the site of the snakes and immediately cast a spell to counteract the Medusa Hairstyle. Celestia then starts rubbing a hoof on her temple. “My stress levels are too high from this war as it is,” she states, “But add a Creature of Chaos and I feel that the stress is going to be the death of me.”

“We need to make haste and vanquish this creature,” Luna said.

“We cannot, Luna,” Celestia said, “The Griffins will use our absence to their advantage.”

“But if we don’t, our ponies will feel that we have abandoned them and won’t welcome us back happily,” Luna retorted, “If we are to confront these threats, we need to divide and conquer!”

“We cannot fight a draconequus individually. If we are to face it, we need to do it together, but we can’t leave the war as well.”

Hmm, this seems like a problem. The Princesses can’t handle both problems at once. But if I helped, both problems can be handled.

So, should I wage the war or deal with the draconequus?

Wage the War

“Just to throw in my opinion, if I was to wage the war, then both of you could return to your land and deal with the draconequus.”

The Princesses looked at me with surprised yet grateful looks. “This will definitely help with my stress levels.”

“All I ask is that the Akomish goes with you and is given a new start in life.”

“Thy request will be granted,” Luna said.

The Princesses and the Commanding officers rose from the table to handle the switch of war powers. Smoke Shot and I rose to prepare the Akomish for departure.

Deal with the Draconequus

“Just to throw in my opinion, if I was to deal with the draconequus, then both of you could stay and wage the war.”

The Princesses looked at me with strange mix of emotions. “While this may help with my stress, I’m not too sure about this.”

“Just keep the Akomish safe,” I said, “And leave the rest to me.” I then grabbed Smoke Shot and smoke dashed out of the tent with her.

Author's Notes:

Points: +2 Rank: Protector

Sorry for the delay. Wayward had a vacation that interrupted his writing.
Thank you, Fluttershy.
Hey! What about me!?
Cool Your Jets!