//------------------------------// // Of Wood and Rhymes // Story: Requiem for a Clone // by FictionaryThought //------------------------------// “I’m me he says…Must be nice being real.” I shivered in my sleep, all the words I remembered echoing through my head as I slept on the cold hard surface. “A fake like me could never get away with saying that.” As the tone of my own voice in the memory grew more harsh, I felt more and more unsettled. “That’s right. I’m a phony, a fake! The way I look, the way I feel, everything I remember! And even, this newfound power!” The cold feeling inside me grew stronger, as I visualized the energy courcing into the air around me. “I thought by finding some new strength, I could finally be someone, someone that’s not at all you!” I felt the darkness pulling at my sanity, making me loose all feeling of ease. “But, nothing changes. I’m still just empty! Everything about me is borrowed. As long as your around…” I saw my reflection pull out a sword identical to Riku’s. “I’ll never be more than a shadow!” I forced my eyes open, and sat upright in an instant, with a cold sweat covering my face. It was just a dream. Dreams… How exactly do they work? I don’t think I’ve ever had a dream that didn’t consist of memory, and considering this was only my second time sleeping "if you count me dying as falling asleep", I wasn’t sure if I could make a dream of my own. So far, my only dreams are the memories that haunt me. Three words…that phrase keeps coming to mind. All I had to do was say three words to Namine. She would’ve felt too guilty to share my feelings, but at least destroying my mind so I couldn’t give her false love meant that I wouldn’t be living a worthless life. As I’ve said before, death doesn’t scare me. So, why am I still trying to survive when I don’t even care about my life? “Because of human nature.” I grunted, having a back ache from sleeping on a stone floor was bad enough, and now I had to listen to Zexion lexure to me. “I’m just saying, human nature is to cling to life for as long as possible. It’s the instinct that’s been there since man’s existence after all.” “Yeah, whatever.” I rose to my feet, and looked at the fire next to me. Last night I slept in a cave, started a fire, and put Namine’s charm in it to keep the fire going all night. The charm it’s self was made out of memories, and therefore, couldn’t be destroyed, but it’s magic kept the fire going. “You know, in a way, Namine kept you safe last night.” I laughed a bit. “Yeah, I guess she did.” I frowned. “She wouldn’t have if she were here though.” “Now what makes you say that?” I looked in a certain direction, pretending I was looking at him, even though I hadn’t made him visible yet. “She just feels guilt when I confess my love to her. If she had the chance, she’d just destroy me, to end both our miseries.” “Now you know Namine wouldn’t be that cruel. She’d protest, say that you shouldn’t love her, but she wouldn’t destroy you. In fact, if you were both out here, she’d try and help you get home.” “I don’t have a home.” I deadpanned. “I mean she’d take you to a place you could call home, some place safe, some place you might find today, if you look hard enough.” I look outside of the cave, and see the cold, dangerous forest I’d been walking through since yesterday. It may sound strange, but rather than wanting to give up, it gave me a sense of satisfaction. I felt I was getting closer and closer to the end with each step, and that, maybe, just maybe, I could find something better once I stepped out of the forest. I smiled. “Maybe I will find a home.” … “Ah just don’t feel like Ah’m doin’ enough Twi.” Applejack lay there on the couch, sad face being worn, as Twilight Sparkle wrote notes on the subject. Today was the day Twilight played the role of her therapist, and Applejack’s honesty made it all the more easy. “Ah mean, Ah’ve been savin’ bits for almost a year now, and Ah still don’t have the money to pay for Granny Smith’s hip replacement. You know how hard Ah work in those achres! Ah’m lucky Ah don’t pull another ‘baked bad’ and start workin’ till Ah sleep in the middle of work. Ah feel like, no matter how hard Ah work, Ah just can’t get where Ah wanna.” Twilight took off her therapist glasses with her magic, and gave a concerned look to her dear friend. “Applejack, I had no idea. Why didn’t you come to me sooner?” Applejack sighed. “Ah wanted to think Ah could just push it aside and prove mahself wrong. But it just keeps feelin’ worse. Sometimes Ah wonder why Ah even bother.” “Applejack, hip replacements are really expensive, and you already have to worry about needed supplies at the farm, school supplies for Applebloom, and you need to keep yourself well rested. Not to mention the fact that you hate staying at the acres for too long, that’s why you spend time with me and the others every week.” “Yer not really helpin’ Twi” She blushed. “Sorry. Look, clearly things have been going the same way for too long. If your given enough time, you can get enough money saved, but you need something to distract you in the meantime. We need something new, unexpected, exciting.” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Any suggestions?” “None that you’ll be interested in.” Twilight tapped a hoof to her chin. “We need somepony else’s opinion on this.” She donned her therapist glasses. “Tomorrow we’ll have this meeting along with the pony of your choice, and listen to his or her opinion on what you should do to take you mind off of things. But for now, we end this session, and leave to have a picnic.” Applejack raised her eyebrow again. “Right now?” “Right now.” Twilight confirmed. “I had the food prepared as a means of removing tension for when we finished. I read that friendly activities after serious matters make things less stressful for the participant.” Applejack blinked twice. “Alright then.” She got up from the couch and onto her hooves. She took her stetson off the small table beside the couch, and back on her head were it’d been for most her life. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt that something better was coming her way. … I knew I was getting closer to the end, because the magic I was picking up now had much less darkness in it. I didn’t even need my newly improved senses to see that, given how it was much less cold here. I actually found this aimless walking kinda nice. It was a routine now; searching for food that wasn’t poisoned in some way, getting water from near by ponds, walking for hours, making two or three fires a day, and oh yeah, fighting a few monsters here and there. You’d think I were talking about the Heartless right? Wrong. I have no idea what these monsters are, but this forest is full of them. I saw some weird cross between a snake and a chicken that nearly turned me to stone, a lion with bat wings and a scorpion tail, and tons of different breeds of spider. I, hate, spiders. They seem like typical wild life here, which only makes me wonder about how powerful the people that live in this world must be. Given that this world is filled with magic, it stands to reason there has to be a lot of spell casters here. A twig snaps behind me. I summon my sword, and turn around quickly. “Show yourself!” I shouted. I was greeted with the foul stench of rotting wood, moss, and dead insects. I saw a pair of glowing eyes from the creature that was waiting to pounce. I hadn’t seen any animals with glowing eyes yet, but I knew millions of heartless that those eyes could belong to. Gripping my sword tighter, I prepare myself for the upcoming attack. The creature leaped towards me, hoping to sink it’s claws into my flesh, but I swung my sword as I moved aside to let it fall beside me. When I looked back, I saw a pile of twigs… “What?” I look behind me to see just what creatures I was dealing with, and saw four wolves made out of wood, with glowing yellow eyes. “Well, this is going to be a weird fight.” I ready my sword and my first attack. “Take this!” I shout as I perform Strike Raid, and throw my sword like a boomerang, destroying one of the wooden beasts, letting it fly back into my hand. The wolves were unfazed, and two of them lunged at me. “Gather!” I shout as I cast Magnet and leave both wolves hopelessly suspended in mid-air, trapped by the gravitational pull of the spell I’d cast. While they had no way of attacking me, I used Quick Blitz, jumping into the air and using the force of gravity to add to the damage of my sword as it came down and destroyed the two wolves. One left. I use Dark Impulse, knocking the wolf into the air before dealing a hard slam down to the ground. Done, now there’s nothing but a pile of twigs that used to be a set of enemies. I put away my sword, and walk away. Just when I think all’s over, I sense some dark magic behind me. I look, and see the twigs glowing green, and gathering together in one place, forming a gigantic wooden wolf. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I say, pulling out my sword again. Just when I was about to attack though I see a figure jump out of the trees and hit the giant wolf with a long wooden staff, getting a yelp in response from the wooden beast. The figure lands, and I get a good look at it. Whoever it was, they were entirely cloaked in a brown garb, face hidden inside of the hood they were wearing. Their stance was similar to Marluxia’s, holding the wooden staff behind their back, and letting the opposite end come slightly close to the ground. She spoke. “There is no need to run in fear, I will handle the fight from here.” It was deep, but it was definitely a woman’s voice. She used her staff to pick up a near by rock, and toss it into the air, only to catch it with her…hoof? The giant wolf gave a roar that could be heard for miles, but that didn’t phaze her, she simply threw the rock into it’s mouth, letting it get caught by the wolf's throat. The beast choked, desperately trying to dislodge the stone from it’s throat, and failing miserably. Rather than simply falling down from lack of oxygen, it exploded into a million twigs, leaving nothing of it’s formerly terrifying form behind. After watching the amazing display, I look to my savior, and watch as she drops her staff, get’s down on all fours, and lets her head hang low, only to lift it up quickly, letting the hood fall off of her head, and revealing her face. She was a strange looking creature, with white fur that had black stripes. Her dog like ears had gold ear rings on them, and her neck-brace seemed to be several rings of gold as well. Her hair was a mohawk of black and white. Her eyes were big, and green. Zexion decided to speak. “Fascinating, we seem to have encountered a zebra. I’ve seen them before in the Pride Lands. They’re a form of equine that tend to live in large numbers. Though, this one seems much smaller, and the eyes are remarkably bigger. Not to mention it can actually fight.” She smiled. “The voice in your mind flatters me so, perhaps we should burn these remains before we go.” Both me and Zexion were caught off gard, and spoke in union- “You can actually hear him!?” “You can actually hear me!?” She laughed, but stopped as she watched the twigs glow green again. “Hurry now my newfound friends, bring this wooden beast to it’s end!” I stop staring and look around at all the glowing twigs. I ready a fire spell, and wait for them to gather in one place. Just before they could form another wolf, i set them on fire, watching as the magic in them wore off and let them fall to the ground. I get closer to the fire, letting the warmth greet me, the zebra did the same. “Your magic spells truly astound, I can tell from here you are not around.” “Ouch.” Zexion replied. “That rhyme was terrible.” She frowned. “A simple voice I do not fear, what I mean is I can tell you're not from around here.” I stared at her. “How are you able to hear him? Can you read my mind?” She smiled. “That is sadly not so, I simply have a connection to this worlds flow. I hear the voices of lives lost you see, and I bear the gift of prophecy.” “That explains how you’re able to keep rhyming. You just know what to say before you say it.” Zexion replied. “So wait.” I started. “You can listen to the voices of the dead?” “Yes, though I am unsure how one lies in your head.” “Do you always have to rhyme?” Zexion asked. “It is the way of my kind, I must speak this way all the time.” “Well I’m sure you could beat anyone at poetry at least.” I joked. “It is a pleasure to have met you while I rome, shall I welcome you into my home?” “Now you’re talking!” I replied.