My Little Clony

by therealfeedback

Act IV, Chapter I

“So, surprised?” the Game Master asked. I stammered for a moment, unable to speak from fear. Also form surprise that I was still alive, to some degree. “I’m surprised I wasn’t top on your list, given what you took as criteria for me.”

“I..I…”I managed to start. “I…t-thought it was…t-t-too obvious.” With every single word I wanted to smack myself. This was what I had been wanting, but when it actually arrived for me, I was barely able to speak. The Game Master laughed, hitting my chin lightly with their hoof.

“Don’t tell me this is that whole ‘it’s never the most likely suspect’ junk from television? That whole concept is inherently stupid, little one – the most likely suspect is most likely for a reason. Because it makes sense for it to be them. For example, now.” I couldn’t tell if they were mocking me or not.

“I…Then…w-what happens now?” I asked, not entirely sure I wanted to hear an answer.

“Now?” they replied. “Not a whole lot. You continue your little duck hunt, and I continue enjoying it, helping along.”

“Then…wait…helping? …Enjoying?”

“You haven’t figured it out yet?” the Game Master asked. “I suppose it’s not really that surprising, you’re not exactly the sharpest tack…”

“I was sharp enough to piece this all together so far.” I shot back. The response I received wasn’t one I expected. A laugh.

“You really haven’t figured it out then. Tell me something – did you really, at no point, think ‘this is all going a little too well’? Nobody at your company questions why you disappeared when you holed yourself up to research all this? A clone of you gives you perfect evidence when you’re trying to convince others? That clone never says anything to anyone about that night, or at all for that matter, again? After you fail to convince your friend, he happens to find a clone of himself to convince him? That clone, a trained killer, manages to lose a duel with your friend? None of this ever seemed odd to you? A little too convenient?”

“You were able to put all this together, and your deception of your little friend Photo Finish was impressive, I admit. But if I wanted you dead, you would’ve been Removed weeks ago. Hell, I was thinking of doing it at the party, but then I decided otherwise.”

I stood there, silent, the words washing away the fear I had and replacing it with a strange feeling. That same feeling I had when I discovered all this, that everything, was a lie, pre-planned, and mapped out. That I had no actual say. And it was still true.

“Thank you, and please come again!” An enthusiastic Mrs. Cake said, happily sliding the bits away in the cash register. On the store counter in front of her were two boxes with chocolate cakes inside. The cross-eyed mare on the other side of the counter picked the boxes up in her teeth by the drawstrings.

“Thankth Mitheth Cake!” She said, her words being slurred by the clenched teeth and the strings from the boxes. Mrs. Cake nodded in response.

“See you around. You too, girls!” The second part was addressed not at Derpy, but instead to the pinkish unicorn, and the tiny, light purple filly who were with Derpy. The larger of the two nodded, returning the smile, while the smaller one hopped up and down, grinning widely.

“…Why?” was all I could muster.

“Pardon?” they said.

“Why?” I repeated. “Why leave me then?”

“Because it’s fun to watch.” Came the reply. “I’ve been alive for millennia. Orchestrating billions of lives daily gets old after you’ve been doing it for thousands of years. The occasional discovery and attempt at rebellion mixes things up a bit, so I let them live a little on borrowed time every few hundred years.” The words hung in the air for a moment, my mind racing with each and every one.

“What?” the Game Master started back up. “You thought you were the first to discover all this?” silence was my response – I had literally no words at this point, the only things going through my mind were what was going on and how to recover. If I could recover. “There’ve been hundreds like you. Even if you run a good ship, you still have leaks that need sealing now and then.”

“There have been others, but all of them have failed. They either stopped being amusing, and got stupid and boring, so were thrown out, or were getting too close, so were put down. As our meeting should show, you’re the latter.”

“…Thrown out?” I finally managed, anger starting to overcome fear. “Thrown out? We’re disposable to you?”

“Yes.” Was the reply. An unsurprising one, too. “I can create five new Caesars in a day. If I have your brain to work from, I can imprint them each with your memories in a week total. They always act a little different, but orchestration of events helps make that just seem like personality quirks.”

“You never thought that maybe those ‘personality quirks’ were individuality? That maybe we’re more than just copies running routes?”

“I did. Then I decided I didn’t care. You’re all so short-lived, I didn’t really have reason to worry about making you happy instead of making me happy, or making sure I don’t get jeopardized.”

“You know, it’s funny, you protesting this idea of how disposable you really are – I almost wanted to get rid of you altogether when you found out. At first I just didn’t feel like putting up with this whole thing again. I was about to have you taken care of – an electrical fire in the night would do nicely. Delay the fire department a few minutes, seal your doors magically, and it’d seem you burnt to death in your sleep. Papers would probably say you didn’t awaken because you took some sleeping pills or something. Very probable with you running a technology company, too. But curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to let you live, see where this took you.”

“So then…it’s all been staged?” I asked, still in disbelief.

“Yes. Well, most of it anyways.” The Game Master replied. “There have just been too many stupid mistakes by you that got too risky of ruining everything. In a dangerous way, too. So, I made sure you’d have success when you were teetering on failure.”

“I…I…” I was at a loss for words again.

“I expected you to be flustered, but not this badly. Come on, a gentlecolt should be able to speak to a lady smoothly, regardless of the situation.” She said.

“Don’t mock me. “ I shot back.

“Ooh, snippy.” She said with interest. “It’s been so long since I tried something like this, I’d forgotten how cocky you all can get sometimes.”

“Mom, can I ask you something?” the pinkish unicorn asked. She was carrying the boxes over her back now, freeing up Derpy’s mouth.

“Sure.” The cross-eyed Pegasus replied.

“What exactly have you been doing lately? Dinky and I never see you, and when we do, like now, it’s only for a few hours.” The grey mailmare stopped for a minute, the words clearly hitting her hard. “…Mom? Are you alright?” the pink unicorn asked.

“I’m fine.” She replied, still not entirely there.

“Mommy? What’s wrong?” it was the small, purplish one this time that spoke, tugging at Derpy’s tail, a sad look on her face.

“Nothing’s wrong Dinky.” She said, leaning down and picking the little foal up, at least one of her eyes focusing on her. “I just…I’ve been working late.”

“Really?” Amethyst Star said, confused. “But you never work late. Half the time you come home early…”

“It’s a really big thing.” Derpy replied. “Really, really big.”

“…Can you tell us what?” she asked again. There was a pause before Derpy spoke again, a sad look on her face as she responded.

“…No. They said it’s really important it’s a secret. …I’m really sorry.” There was a tense moment, before the pink unicorn walked over to her mother, wrapping a leg around her and giving her a quick hug.

“It’s alright – you wouldn’t keep it from us unless you had to.” The two separated, both now wearing faint smiles instead of looks of dejection. “For all your quirks, you’re always honest.” The comment made Derpy’s smile broaden, and drew a few giggles from her mouth.

“I love you.” She said. “Both of you.”

Promontory yawned, opening his door and trotting out lethargically. He was having trouble getting to sleep, and was walking towards Caesar’s room. After all, he owned the place, if anyone knew where he could find something to help him sleep, it would be him.

As he walked over in the darkness though, he bumped into another pony, who, being smaller, fell over, even in spite of how slowly Promontory was moving. Moments later a burst of pinkish light shot out of a horn, giving a faint light to the hallway, as well as the faces of both Promontory, and the pony he had knocked into, who’s horn was currently glowing. Trixie.

“Watch where you’re going, you brute!” she snapped at him. Though she was speaking in a whisper since the others were likely asleep, there was still an odd feeling as if she was yelling at him.

“Apologies, meant no harm, ma’m.” Promontory said sluggishly.

“That’s ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie’, to you!” she snapped yet again.

“Relax, Ah’m just lookin’ fer’ somethin’ to help me sleep, I didn’t mean to cause any fuss with ‘The Great n’ Powerful Trixie.” She turned her nose up at him, clearly still upset.

“Well it’s a shame you didn’t find them, because now I’m wide awake from getting tackled by you!”

“Ah’ didn’t tackle ya, Miss Trixie.” She didn’t respond, and the two stood for a moment in silence. “…Well, ah’ best keep lookin’ then. Sorry ‘bout all that. G’night, and, take care a’ yerself, I guess.” He said, before turning.

“…Wait.” Trixie said as Promontory began walking away. “I…I have some sleeping pills in my room. I always keep them because I have trouble sleeping while traveling. I…you can borrow some if it’ll help.” Promontory turned around, a smile now on his tired face.

“That’s mighty kind of ya’, Miss Trixie.”

“Just don’t tell anyone. Got it?” Promontory nodded, and Trixie began walking back to her room, the engineer following behind.