//------------------------------// // CHOOSE // Story: Life // by justindashsparkleshypie //------------------------------// Waking up, you hear the voice once more. “WAKE UP SCOOTALOO.” It tells you. Your wings ruffle as you attempt to observe your surroundings. Attempt is used quite nicely because you realize you can’t see. In a panic, you scream… But, you don’t hear it. You know that when you tried to scream, you threw yourself back; and didn’t feel the floor hit you. Then you notice you can’t feel your legs, even though you tried your hardest to move them around. Panicking, you think to yourself. ‘W-what’s going on!? What happened to all of my senses? I can’t see, hear, feel, taste, or smell!’ “BE CALM. YOU ARE NOT WITHIN YOUR BODY ANY MORE. OF COURSE YOU CAN’T DO ANY-*COUGH COUGH* oh, that voice hurts my throat… shit… well, disregarding all of that stuff. You have been selected Scootaloo.” The voice said. ‘Selected for what? AND WHO THE BUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!??’ your anger rises to unknown levels and a deep crack resounds throughout your mind. An exhilarating flood of power flows through your mind. ‘What. Gives you. The right. To. Rip. Somepony. From their OWN BODY!!!!!’ “I have done what I did for more reasons than you have time to live. The world is at a crossroads Scootaloo. Mytheria is on the edge of a thousand roads. A million turns. A billion forks. A trillion ends. The forces that be have shifted and been uprooted. There is no real reason that I chose you. If you want it as a form of solace, then I have nothing for you. The only reason with any weight is your status in the world. A simple 14 year old filly, no parents or family, only three friends, really… I am doing you a favor if anything. For example, Scootaloo, you are destined to die today. You have never flown in your life. For most pegasi, that is not a problem. They may not have been born with functional wings, or something injured them. But you? You were caught up in the attack on your mother and father when you were a newborn foal. Your parents fought valiantly to protect you. Your mother, Silver, held off the intruders with her aerial abilities while your father attempted to get you out of the house. In an ingenious move by the attackers, three spells were fused into a single devastating attack. A horrible spell called Rending Life Corruption was used on all three of you. “Your father was able to teleport you out of the house, even as he and Silver were killed from magical overload. While you did survive the spell, you were still damaged by it. Unseen by the ponies who found you and the head marestress of the orphanage in Manehattan. Undetected by the unicorn who adopted you. And unnoticed, even by the star pupil of Celestia herself. You had been suffering from a magical disease. It tore your soul from the channels of magic and even after it healed, It did so in a seriously dangerous way. You have molted every week since you were 6. Your wings have never let you fly, and your hooves BARELY support you on the clouds. You are polluted with over ten years of pure, undiluted magic. It has built up higher and higher and higher. When you woke today, you molted again. Even though you just stopped two days ago. Today is the day that your whole entire body fails to keep it from breaking free. Today is the day that you choose. Today is the day that you live, or today is the day that you die.” You sit in shock, you learn about your parents and their killers, a magical disease that can kill you today, that not only Equestria, but that all of Mytheria were at a turning point in history that you have been chosen to do… something about it. It was almost too much. Gathering your will, you think to the voice one last question. ‘W-what… what do I have to do? In order to live.’ Despite your lack of senses, you know that the owner of the voice is smiling. “My dear, dear Scootaloo… there is a predicament, as I said earlier. As the route stands now, the world will DIE. All life will become extinct. The cataclysm for this route’s foundation principle, is if nothing changes. You have been selected. If you want to live, then all you have to do. Is CHOOSE to live, CHOOSE to love, or learn, or kill, or pillage, or have foals, defeat badguys, IT DOESN’T MATTER! Whatever you do, if you choose to live, will save all of Mytheria. Even if you become the most evil tyrant ever… it will be a kinder fate.” “So now it is time to hear your answer Scootaloo. If you choose to die, we will select another pony. If you choose to live, then your fate will be unbound and the world set free. So CHOOSE!!! LIVE OR DIE!!!!!” With only a moment of hesitation, you make your decision.