inFAMOUS Displaced
Chapter 7
Aftermath and New Problems

The battle that Sora and I had against Nightmare Moon had drained me, more emotionally than physically, but it was enough for me to spend the night in Ghastly Gorge with some of the more friendly Quarray Eels. Waking up, I absorbed a blast core and began to work on figuring out my new power. I found that the power I had gotten from Sora was Light (although, personally speaking, I was expecting a keyblade).

I was in the final process of testing this new power and it’s capabilities when I heard my name being called. Looking around the Gorge, I saw Celestia and Twilight walking down a path I had carved with my Light power. I walked towards them to prevent issues with the Quarray Eels.

“It’s nice to see you again, Tia,” I said, hugging her.

“How’s freedom treating you?” She asked me.

I gave her a peck on the cheek, “Not the best, but it’s better than being in stone. However, I feel that this visit isn’t all about me.”

“I came with that focus on you. Twilight, however, came for other purposes.” She looked over to her student that she had told me many times about.

Kneeling down to her level, I spoke. “What do I owe the pleasure, Sister,” I greeted, using the Akomish title for her.

"Well...uh...Brother,” she responded hesitantly, “I came because of this.” She held up her left hoof and purple electricity sparked to life on it. “My friends are also experiencing some fear with their...new developments.” She held her electrified hoof to her chin in thought. “Although, Pinkie Pie seems to have no problems with it. She is working with it about as well as you did with the smoke.”

“Judging by what Sora said yesterday about a certain Berry Bubble, both have antics and quirks that are to be expected,” I said. I stood back up and looked around. “Now, the best way to overcome your fears of your newfound powers is to learn how to control them.” Turning to Celestia, I spoke. “What is the closest city, town, or settlement?”

“Ponyville,” both Twilight and Celestia said. They looked at each other in brief amazement before the three of us broke out laughing. Like teacher like student. After the laughing had died down, Twilight spoke. “Why did you want to know?”

I turned to her and gave her a deadpan stare. “I’ve been in stone for a thousand years,” I said with a sigh, “I want to know what has changed in that time, and have a destination for us to head to while we train.”

“Wait,” Twilight backed up a bit. “We’re training now?”

I gave two shrill whistles, causing Twilight and Celestia to cringe and splay their ears back in pain. Then, a blast core came flying out of the nearest Quarray Eel den, right into my head. To say it hurt was an understatement. I began cursing what no good person should ever curse and fired a few Light Bolts into the den, eliciting a fierce growl from inside.

After calming down, I picked up the blast core and tossed to Twilight, who caught it in her magic. “Yes, we’re training now. I still need to figure out how to use my new power.” I encased my arms in pure light, bright enough for it to be noticeable, but not enough to blind Twilight or Celestia. “I’ve only mastered three things of my new power: basic combat,-” I pointed to the den. “-which you have seen, defence,-” I generated a shield of hard light in my left arm. “-and finally, speed.” I jumped onto the side of Ghastly Gorge, parkour style. As soon as I pushed off, I was enveloped in light and I was launched to the top of the other side of the Gorge. Upon landing on my feet, the light dissipated.

I looked down into the canyon and called out to Twilight. “Use your powers to absorb the Blast core. Once you wake up, we’ll begin training.” She looked at the core uneasily as it was held in her magic. She looked up back up towards me and I gave her a nod of approval. She then took the core in her front hooves and began to charge electricity into it. A few seconds into the process, the core dissolved and she collapsed in a heap in the center of the gorge.

Celestia gingerly moved Twilight closer to the Eel dens. One of the eels looked out and saw Celestia approaching with the young Akomish in her magic. It bowed towards her and retreated back into its den. Celestia placed Twilight next to that den and then flew up to where I was standing. I sat down on the edge of the gorge and she sat next to me.

We sat there in silence, watching Twilight sleep off the core. I looked over at Celestia and I couldn’t easily gauge her emotions. In the thousand years that I had known her, she only showed her emotions if she was relaxed or said emotions were in the extreme levels. But her eyes always betrayed her emotions, no matter how well she could sit stone faced. In this instance I could see a form of sadness combined with concern.

“Is something bothering you?” I asked her, placing an arm over her withers. She eased closer to me, and I began to stroke her ethereal mane.

“I now have a second sister to work to protect. Not to mention Twilight’s new development.” She sighed. “I just don’t want Stella to feel fear around me and I don’t want Twilight hurt.”

“I guess Sora had the right intentions in doing what he could to prevent you from harming her, in case you were thinking that she was the new physical embodiment of Nightmare Moon.” I chuckled, remembering Sora’s light minded moment. “As for Twilight, her becoming the Bearer of the Element of Magic would attract trouble to her alone. Getting powers is not that much of a deviation from that.” I suddenly felt uneasy for some reason and I stood to look around me.

Celestia seemed to notice my paranoia. “What’s wrong?” I shook my head before looking back into the woods but as soon as I did that, my vision changed. I seemed to be aware of every patch of light, mostly in what I would call the spiritual realm. Within the patch of forest that I was looking at, I saw the world in grey and I could see pony and animal shapes in varying degrees of black and white amongst the grey trees. Most of the white shapes were animalistic, while the black shapes had pony forms.

I blinked my eyes briefly, canceling my Light Vision. I remembered where the closest black form was. I lunged behind a tree and tackled a strange looking pony from behind it. I did my best to try and keep a hold of him but, I was thrown of, dangerously close to the edge of the Gorge.

Celestia took the initiative and knocked the pony to the ground and restrained him. I got up and managed to get a good look at him. It was an earth pony, one of the larger ones. I couldn’t tell what his body color was, because, as far as I could tell, he was painted with what looked like blood. His body was also covered with bones from various animals and possibly ponies. He was wearing a black skullcap with the image of a white pony skull embroidered on the front. The cap was placed on his head in such that most of the pony’s face was concealed but he could still see. The same skull that was embroidered on the skullcap was painted in white where the cutie mark was supposed to be.

I approached the pony with a scowl on my face. “What were you doing, hiding there?”

The pony simply scowled back. We stared at each other for a few moments before he spoke in a guttural voice. “I will not compromise my brothers or our cause.” He then moved his hoof to a hidden pouch in his bony armor and pulled out something I had never heard about or seen for nearly a thousand years.

He pulled out a grenade.

Without hesitation, I shot a Light Bolt directly into his face. The shot didn’t seem to faze him as he moved the grenade to his mouth. He placed the grenade in his mouth and pulled the pin out with his hoof. I ran and grabbed Celestia, putting myself between her and the grenade. There was a deafening explosion behind me and then silence. Turning around I saw that the strange pony had committed suicide in the worst way.

There was the sound of electricity from the Gorge and Twilight climbed up and saw the horrendous scene. Barely one second after she saw the mangled corpse, she did an about-face and hurled whatever she had for breakfast onto the head of snoozing quarray eel. After her stomach was relieved of it’s cargo, she turned to us and asked, “What was that explosion?”

Pointing to the carcass, I said, “That pony committed suicide using an explosive called a grenade.” At that point, Twilight had a look of horror on her face that made it seem as if she wanted to teleport her breakfast back into her stomach so she could empty it again.

“What kind of pony would do that kind of thing?” She asked.

‘One who was not in control of himself,’ Karma stated. I looked over to the corpse and saw Karma on a bush, analyzing the carrion. ‘Just by the scent alone, I can tell that this pony’s blood is not normal.’

Celestia, Twilight, and I walked over and instead of seeing the usual red blood, we saw something black oozing from the mangled body. I bent down and stuck my finger in the strange liquid. It was pitch black and had an oily yet sticky composure. I brought it to my nose and then tested it a bit on my tongue. I spit out the strange liquid and stood.

‘Let me guess. Oily yet sticky?’

“Having a slight scent of petroleum and tastes like coal.”

‘Indicating that Sasha…’

“Or somepony like Sasha is controlling them.” I turned to Celestia and Twilight and saw them rubbing their heads just under their horns. “We were doing it again, weren’t we?”

“You were,” Celestia confirmed with a nod, “At least you have figured out that this pony wasn’t in control of his actions.”

I smiled at her compliment. Before I could respond, I heard a teleport from behind me, but it didn’t sound magical in nature. I turned around and saw an unusual looking alicorn. She was around Twilight’s size and from what I could tell from what wasn’t covered by tech and clothing, she had the same coat color.

The tech she was covered in gave her a creepy cyborg look. Her mane was shaved rather close and was mussed up. Where her horn and left eye was, was a metal plated horn and a glowing blue, mechanical eye. Her wings looked mechanical in nature, resembling a jet's wings but still maintaining a bird's flexibility. Her left arm was purely mechanical and where a hoof should have been, a mechanical griffin claw was.

All three of us stared at the strange arrival with suspicious stares. None of us dared to speak for a few moments, but the cyborg in front of us gave us a smirk and spoke in a gravelly yet familiar voice. “I bring a message from the conduit that controls the Skullcap gangs.”

Twilight walked forward. “What’s the message?”

The cyborg turned in her direction. “Only one is to receive this message. Understand that, Twibright Snarkle?”

Twilight cringed at the horrible nickname. Celestia lit her horn threateningly. “State your message and leave! I will not tolerate your threatening tone and ridiculous nicknames towards anypony, especially my student!”

“This doesn't concern you, Cake Flank!” The cyborg then stood on her back legs and thrust forward with her front ones, sending a static shock wave in Celestia’s direction. The sudden attack threw her off guard and she was sent flying across the Gorge, screaming most of the way.

Seeing my fiance thrown around as she just was angered me. I lit up my arms and turned to confront the cyborg, but I wasn’t given the chance. A blob of tar struck me on the right side of my face, knocking me down into the Gorge. I heard Celestia calling my name, but it seemed muffled. I fought to hear, see, or even remain conscious, but fell into the black void.

‘Help me.’

‘Who's there?’

‘Help me.’

‘You're not giving me anything to work with to help you.’

‘I can't say anything more, other than the tar will help you help me. The pain is just too great to bear. I can't take any more abuse.’

This is getting me nowhere fast. I have no other choice other than to completely trust this conduit or not. He/she is apparently in pain and may be needing help. But it could also be a trap, luring me in for capture.

So, what should I do? Trust the conduit or not?

Author's Notes:

Points: +6 Rank: Champion

So Delsin is now dealing with a gang of ponies of unknown intentions being led or controlled by a conduit like unto Sasha.
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