Dark Hallways, Dark Days
A Creator’s Gambit
Chapter 5
The nurse who had been attending to the mummified patient walked down the hall to her charge’s room. He was an enigma. The night he came in, no one was quite able to explain how he had been injured. Many witnesses have vague memories of a woman who had been accompanying him, but that was as descriptive as they ever got. No one seemed to know how he got injured, just that one second he was fine and the next second he was on the ground injured.
And another thing that shocked the nurses and doctors that attended to him was that whenever they had attempted to speak his name aloud, something would happen to drown the out the sound. Be it a food cart being stopped too quickly, a computer monitor falling from the table, a phone call. As a result, the hospital staff had just taken to calling the patient, Patient X.
And here she was, about to walk into the strange patient’s room, but something seemed off. The entire hall was deserted, and the lights seemed dimmer then normal. As she approached closer, she could feel something, it felt like a build up of static electricity. Her hair began floating. Most people would have noped out right then and there, but she had a duty to check on this patient who was proving to be one of her more amicable patients. She continued to approach the closed door, but as she got closer, she started to hear a chanting.
Now, her accent was a dead giveaway to people that she was an Irish immigrant to the States, but most people didn’t know that she was also fluent in Irish Gaelic. And she swore that was what she was hearing now, except instead of making any sense it sounded like someone was taking a bunch of Irish words and mixing them together. The sentences had no structure, no context and no meaning. It was like someone saying “potato car death life curse red mountain green blue glue” to an English speaker and then expecting them to understand.
A light exploded to the left of the nurse as she flinched, half of her mind was telling her to run away as far as she could as fast as she could and the other half was drawing her towards the source of the chanting… Patient X’s room.
As she neared closer to the door, the entire hospital shook, as though an earthquake was tearing through it. Blue light seemed to emanate from below the patient’s door. More light’s exploded near the nurse as demonic screams began emanating from behind her, pushing her forward in fear. The lights illuminating the long hallway began to pop, one by one, as though an evil darkness was slowly encroaching upon her. She had no idea what was going on in that room, but for some odd reason, something in her brain was telling her that whatever was behind it was safe.
So she did what any self respecting Human would do, she charged towards the door. She was knocked to the ground as once more a quake shook the hospital, opening up the ground, threatening to swallow her. She caught a glimpse into the chasm and saw nothing, a void stared back at her. Never ending. She steeled herself and made a charge for the safety of Patient X’s room once more, as the darkness from the lights being destroyed closed in on the door, soon threatening to overtake the section of hallway the door was in.
She made it to the door and grasped the handle, but it refused to turn, the darkness was nearing towards her, only five lights separated her and whatever was hiding in the darkness. She could feel her heart racing the chanting of Irish gibberish grew even stronger.
Four lights remained.
She began slamming her shoulder against the door, begging for it to open, to protect her from the darkness.
Three lights remained.
With her free hand, she began beating against the door, as the hand grasping the knob shook it violently. Primordial instincts were yelling at her. Telling her to get inside the room, that safety was to be found there.
Two lights remained.
She could feel tears beginning to flow down her face, as Humanity’s inherent fear of the unknown and death began to take hold. Her mind conjuring imaginations of what was inside the darkness. She shook the handle even more violently, begging, praying for any deity to take mercy on her and open the door.
One light remained.
The nurse could swear she heard movement in the darkness that was right next to her, as she glanced in fear at the light above her.
It went out.
As the door to the room opened and she stumbled in. The room itself was perfectly normal, the patient was sitting there, looking at the TV, his white bandages covering his entire body.
The patient looked to the nurse and smiled. “Are you alright, ma’am?” The nurse looked outside the door, expecting to see the demonic darkness, but was instead greeted by the sight of other nurses and patients walking down the hall, the chasm she had seen was no longer there and the lights that had been destroyed were fine. None of the other people in the hallway seemed to have noticed her outburst.
She cleared her throat, and wiped her eyes with upper arms. “Um, yes. Just allergies.” She sniffled a few times as she cleared her throat once more. “Are you doing alright, sir?”
“Oh, I feel like a god.” He chuckled, a smug smirk appearing on his lips, though the nurse could see no malice behind it.
The nurse smiled. “Well that’s good to hear, dinner should be coming around shortly. Please, don’t hesitate to let one of us know if you know anything.”
“Will do!” The patient replied, his voice chipper. The nurse turned around to exit the room, closing the door behind her. She leaned against it and sighed. She decided she needed a cigarette and went off to head to the smoking area on the ground floor.
Back in the room, the patient was mentally kicking himself.
‘Stupid, stupid, stupid. Faust, you know better then that. The mother tongue carries way too much magic in it for Humans to safely bear.”
Indeed, she had taken a glance into the nurse’s memories and saw what she had just witnessed. Very real hallucinations caused by Faust’s angered cursing at the appearance of Discord.
This was a new problem that she’d have to deal with, but. She decided to see how the Human she had sent in her place would handle it. After all, where’s the fun in intervening at every dangerous situation. Of course Faust wouldn’t allow the Human to be hurt… in her world, at least. But she couldn’t just Deus Ex Machina him out of every opposition he came into contact with.
So, against her better judgement, she decided to wait and see how he handled the manifestation of Chaos.
“Discord!” Celestia yelled, charging up her horn. “You’re supposed to still be in stone! The Elements defeated you!”
“Oh, my dear, dear Celly.” The ground spoke, as Faust looked down, wondering just how in the heck ground could move and speak. “The return of your dear mother released me from my prison.” The ground began moving to one point, forming up into a solid, standing mass. As it solidified into a creature Faust had never seen before. A creature seemingly with the head of a goat, the body of a snake but covered in hair, it’s left foreleg that of an eagle, the right foreleg a lion’s paw. The left leg a pony’s and the right a dragon’s.
“In any case, my dear princesses,” The bizarre hybrid creature spoke. “You’ve had your time with the Queen, so I get to have mine.”
A bright flash drowned out the vision of everyone in the room. Celestia stumbled around in shock, as she shook her head, trying to regain vision. As soon as she did, her heart stopped.
Faust and Discord were gone.
Faust landed on the ground, rump first. Losing all balance, her entire body crumpled to the ground. She struggled to her hooves once more and rubbed her rump in pain, hissing. “Ow.”
She looked up to meet the eyes of the hybrid who had kidnapped her, as she quickly scooted back.
“I’m warning you! Don’t come any closer or… or… I’ll, uh, I’ll scream at you!” Faust stated.
Discord’s neck twisted as he moved his face came close to Faust’s contrary to her orders.
“Hmm… You have the body of Faust… but you aren’t her. If I may ask, dear, who are you?” Discord’s eyes narrowed, as he eyed the white alicorn.
To say Faust was terrified would be an understatement. And she herself didn’t know the answer to that question, as she had been certain she was Faust. If she wasn’t Faust, then just who was she?
“I… I am Faust!” She shouted back, whatever confidence that was in her voice was a thin wall, a thin wall Discord could see right through.
“Please, Lulu and Celly were never very intelligent nor clever. They were tricked because of their naivety and wishes to make friends with everyone. Their minds are clouded with the hopes that Mother’s once again come home. I don’t have that problem.” He popped off his eyes and held them in front of Faust, meeting her eyes. He let go of the eyes and they floated in the air, staring at her. “You may have the body of Faust, but you’re blundering around Equestria, acting a fool! Lulu had to save you, you were thrown into the air and didn’t take flight. You were knocked out by a piano, got stuck in a hedge bush and then thought they made beds out of the corpses of baby pegasi. And you’re still trying to pass yourself off as Faust?” A tuxedo appeared on Discord’s body, his eyes reappearing in their proper place. A monocle resting over his left eye. He took the monocle off, breathing on it and then wiping it off on his jacket.
“My dear, I am not tricked like the little ponies. You are not Faust, so who are you.”
Faust looked up at Discord. She stood up and turned around to face away from Discord. She stopped a few paces from him, turned her head slightly to look at him.
“I don’t know.” She began walking away. Discord not following, not out of mercy or sympathy, but because she was of no use to him. He disappeared in a flash of light.
“Captain, send a pegasus guard to Ponyville immediately, collect the Elements and bring them here.” Celestia shouted at the captain of the Day Guard, as dozens of royal guards, both night and day, dashed around her. Dozens of castle staff had been put into action, as they also dashed madly around her.
Celestia pointed at a pegasus. “Lieutenant, send word to every pegasus squadron on duty, I want them scouring every inch of Equestrian soil for either Discord or Mother.”
Luna was also busy, directing military personnel into action. The castle was alive with the panicking of princesses, staff and soldiers, alike. All of them working towards one common goal. Finding their Queen. Who had been foalnapped by the god of chaos.
Now that Luna was thinking about, it did seem a bit odd that mother would just allow herself to be spirited off like that. Maybe she had a plan and had intended for this to happen.
But something odd was still niggling in the back of her mind.
“Sister?” Celestia nudged the blue alicorn, who looked over a shoulder, slightly shocked, not expecting the presence of her older sister.
“Uh, yes? Did something come up?” She questioned.
“Nothing so far, but we have pegasi squadrons canvassing the country. Although who knows where Discord went, he could have gone to Griffinstone or even Abyssinia.”
“This is troubling indeed. Abyssinia is full of… well, I hate ot say it, but very odd creatures. Something about their proportions and physical features just seem… alien.”
“Oh, yeah, Abyssinia. That country was a complete coincidence.”
The patient nodded, being caught in a memory from his, or rather, her past.
Indeed, it was a complete alignment of stars that Faust had even been inspired to create Abyssinia. It had started when she came to Earth, staying a pony but appearing as a unicorn. Mainly so she could mess with people by showing herself to them and then disappearing… because she was bored, again, as usual. She was in an area between the two states known as Massachusetts and Connecticut, the Gregorian year of 1962. She was just wondering around the countryside, grazing on grass and snickering to herself as tourists tried to snap pictures of her with their rather large cameras only to later find no traces of the unicorn on the film. But she had come across one particular Human who was just sitting down writing, by himself. She knew he had spotted her, but made no move to produce a camera or move closer. In fact, he just continued writing, occasionally stopping and looking back up at her, seemingly looking for inspiration.
So she had two options. Just disappear… or approach the seemingly unfazed Human.
Of course, she was bored so she figured she might as well approach him and see what was going on.
So she stepped out of the tree line she had been using for cover and slowly made her way over to the man who was sitting in the middle of the field. She approached lazily, with no fear in her eyes. After all, she had nothing to fear from him. Should he have tried anything, she could have turned him into mere ash with a single blink.
She trotted lazily up to the man’s side, who still had continued writing. She looked into the notebook he was writing in and noticed that pages filled with paragraphs. And it appeared to be an outline for a story about… a unicorn. Apparently it was supposed to be lost in the modern world, encountering highways and cameras.
Faust felt a small pride swell in her heart. She had inspired someone. So why couldn’t she inspire them some more? She allowed her legs to fold under her so that she could lay down, and rested her head in his lap.
Almost instinctively, the man seemed to bring his left hand over to her head and began rubbing it, while continuing to write.
And for the rest of the day, the odd pair stayed like that. The man rubbing Faust’s head and Faust quietly napping in the sun, with the warmth of the man’s body comforting her.
Faust had no hesitation to say it was one of her favorite memories in the Human world.
A few years later, she decided to go back to the Human world, this time she had gone to 1982, twenty years had passed for the man she had inspired. And as she was walking around the town in her Human form, she spotted a movie theater, she had seen them before and had even seen a few movies. But this one was advertising a movie title that very much caught her attention.
The Last Unicorn
Faust was fully well aware of the fact that her little ponies were considered to be nothing more then mythological beasts in this world, but something about this film seemed to be calling her. Which was odd, because usually she was the one sending the divine messages to the gut.
A large bearded man clothed in a white tunic was laying down on a cloud in the sky, his hands grasping onto the very edge of the cloud and his eyes peeking over the side to look down at the red haired woman looking at the movie theater.
“Yes, yes. Go in there, Faust. Go.” He whispered to himself.
So she did. And she found out that it was based off a book. However, she had fallen in love with the idea of the animations, so she decided to find more movies in a similar vein. Which is what led her to Disney.
And then Disney is what led her to create Abyssinia with the large amounts of anthropomorphic inhabitants, in comparison to the more disconnected inhabitants of Equestria and the surrounding areas.
She still enjoyed Abyssinia, though, she made a mental note to deal with that errant Storm King once she was out of the hospital. And his pony commander, Fizzlepop Berrytwist. Annoying mare, that one was. Angsting and brooding and moaning about her horn and even being naive enough to believe that someone like the Storm King would, or even could fix it for her.
Annoying little brat.
Still, she would have to wait to deal with her later, once the patient was fully healed.
I continued to trek through the forest, my mind stewing with all the things the creature Celestia had identified as Discord had said to me.
I was certain that I was Faust. At least, I was certain that was my name. But the farthest back I could even remember was waking up in the clearing just a few days ago. Before that… nothing. My mind was completely blank. I couldn’t remember flying, yet my mind told her I had done it before, and I couldn’t remember using magic yet once more my mind was saying I had done it before.
I absentmindedly looked down the ground, watching my front hooves land on the ground and then lift back up again. I stared at this for a while, the dirt giving way under my hooves.
Who knew how far out I was. I could be anywhere… and I didn’t even know what the planet looked like! I don’t remember seeing a map of this place, though I know one exists.
Why or even how I know is still a mystery. Nothing was making sense. People keep calling me a queen, I apparently have two daughters and now this… child of an orgy involving half of a forest and apparently a dragon has dumped me in the middle of… god knows where!
I sat down on my rump, scuffing some dirt with my hoof.
“This sucks. I didn’t want anything to do with all this craziness. I just wanted to find out who I was and why I can’t remember anything before waking up.” I stretched a wing out rubbing it with a hoof. “I have wings but they’re useless.” I reached up to my forehead and rubbed my horn with my foreleg. “I have a horn but I have no idea how to use magic.”
I laid down, crossing my forelegs and resting my head in them. “The only thing I know I have for sure is my name.” That was a lie, I wasn’t even sure if it was my name. If what Discord said is right, or even partially correct, then I’m not Faust.
I am remiss to admit that I started crying. I had no idea why, most people would have just shoved his ranting off as nothing more than a crazed man screaming about. But for some odd reason, they hit me hard.
“Luna, any word on mother or Discord?” Celestia panickedly begged her sister. The blue alicorn merely shook her head.
“No, and Recruit Cannon has informed me that there’s a massive squall coming in from the Everfree Forest.”
“And why haven’t the weather teams intercepted it?” Celestia questioned.
“They were ordered to participate in the search for mother.”
Celestia cursed to herself. “Okay, so we need to make the decision of whether or not the squall is worth losing the stallion power the weather teams afford us.”
I felt something wet hit my head.
And then something else.
Before I knew it, the skies were pouring down with rain. Soaking me. My mane and tail soon hung from the weight of the water.
I looked up to the heavens.
“Yeah, yeah, I get the message. You hate me, want to make my life even more miserable?”
Of course, as soon as I said that, something about the weather changed. The rain water became brown, soaking and staining my white coat brown.
I brought my forehoof to my nose and sniffed.
Chocolate.
“Really?” I asked as I looked back up to the heavens. “Really, of all things, why would you pelt me with chocolate milk?”
I needed to get out of the chocolate milk rain, so I did all that I could do.
I began walking. Maybe if I was lucky I would find a cave I could curl up in and sleep.
To say that Dinky was having a bad day would be an understatement. The majority of her bad day was coming from the monstrosity she was hiding from. He had been her before, not long ago. He had brought chaos and strife to Ponyville, changing the world to how he saw fit. Even controlling the minds of ponies. Or changing them into something else entirely.
Which is why Dinky was currently hiding under a building, soaked in mud and chocolate milk from the rain. Praying to the great Faust that he wouldn’t see her and that the Princesses would arrive in time to save the day.
She watched the scene play out before her. The Draconequus, riding on the back of a pony while holding a net, chasing a dog with a cutie mark down the center of town on a checkerboarded road. Dinky shuddered, terrified of what could become of her should she be caught. She struggled to keep her shakes under control, she looked at the ground and took a deep breath, then looked back out.
Discord was nowhere to be seen.
“And what do we have here.” A voice from behind her spooked her, shrieking as she quickly dug her hooves into the ground and pushed herself free from under the house. She stood to her full height, which was very small to begin with and looked behind her. She watched in horror as Discord snaked his way through the foal sized hole she had been hiding in.
“Ah, one of you ponies managed to hide from me.” In a flash, Discord was in Dinky’s face, staring her in the eyes. She scooted back in an attempt to get away, but he retreat was quickly halted by a building. Her entire body was shaking.
“And what should I do with you? Turn you into a dog, hmm…” Discord raised a claw to his chin, rubbing it. “No, I’ve already done that… A cat… hmm… no… a fly perhaps. You’ll never be found and fixed.”
Dinky shrunk back further against the wall then she thought possible, still absolutely shaking.
Discord grinned a mischievous grin. “Ah, yes. A fly, wonderful idea.” Discord raised his griffin claw to snap, and transform the poor Dinky Doo into a fly. But something prevented him from doing so.
A voice spoke, full of confidence and authority.
“Stop right there, Discord.”
I wandered, and wandered and wandered. This forest seemed endless. No caves, the trees barely did anything to slow down the rain.
I didn’t even know what I had done to deserve such treatment. Did I commit a serious crime before I woke up and whatever deity this world has decided to punish me for it?
It’s not like it matters right now. My only goal is getting out of this… chocolate milk rain.
So I continue to walk… or trot? I keep moving forward. I’m soaked in mud, my mane is covered in both mud and chocolate milk. The skies are overcast.
But I see it, eventually my persistence pays off as I spot a light in the distance. I start galloping to it full speed. I enter the outskirts of a village. But something was definitely very off about this town.
First, the road. It was made of soap. As in there was water coating it and then honest to god soap piles scattered about. Buildings were, well floating in the sky. Everything just seemed to be chaotic.
My ears picked up a shriek, as I increased my pace to the source. The road turning from soap into a blue checkerboard pattern. I turned onto this road and continued following to what sounded like someone speaking.
I slowly peeked my head around a building, my ears picking up the last bit of a conversation.
“A fly, wonderful idea.” There was that smorgasboard of animals, Discord. Standing over a cowering purple foal with a blonde mane and tail.
He raised his claws, preparing to snap. I had no idea what he was planning to do, but if he was the cause of the mess of this town, it couldn’t be good.
So I did the only thing that made sense. I walked around the corner.
“Stop right there, Discord.” Wow. My voice sounded a lot more confident that I thought it was going to. I was expecting it to crack, given the fact that I was pretty terrified right now.
I know I can handle both Celestia and Luna, but this Discord seemed to have reality warping powers. I had absolutely no idea what he could do to me.
But still, I couldn’t let him hurt a child, that wouldn’t have ever sat right with me.
I stopped a few paces away from the glaring monstrosity, slamming my right hoof into the somehow muddy checkerboard, splattering blue ink all over myself.
“I can not and will not allow you to harm a child.”
The hybrid continued staring at me for a few moments. Before letting out a hearty laugh.
He laughed for a good half a minute as I looked at him in confusion. He was bent over and twisting his body in unnatural ways. Until he straightened up, his laughing dying down as he wiped away an exaggerated tear from one of his eyes.
“And just what,” He slinked his body over towards me. “Are you going to do to stop me, Miss Copycat?”
I frowned. “I know who I am. My name is Faust.”
“You know the name that you think is yours.” He tapped me in the front of the chest. “But you don’t know who you are. Tell me, do you even know who Faust is in this world?” He raised both of his arms, as though shouting to the entire planet.
“I’m…” I grumbled the last bit out. For some odd reason, it didn’t feel right to be saying it.
Discord smirked.
“I’m sorry,” He put it his ear next to my mouth, as the ear doubled in size. “I didn’t quite catch that.”
“I’m… the… I’m…” I shoved the hybrid away with my left foreleg. “What relevance does any of this have with anything?”
His body seperated in two as the surrounded me, swirling around me.
“It matters, copycat, because Faust is not only the Queen of Equestria, but this entire planet. She’s the creator of everything. Her power omnipotent, a level that even moi could not hope to ever reach. Princess Celestia and Luna, her creations. The Elements of Harmony, her creations. Magic, it comes from her. No one would dare oppose her. But! My dear fake, you are not her.”
The half of his body with his face came to an abrupt stop in front of mine, his face shoved against mine.
“So if it’s all the same to you, I have chaos to spread.”
The two halves reconnected and Discord began making his way back to the still trembling child.
I took a deep breath, and steeled my resolve.
“Discord.”
He turned to look at me. “What is it this time, fake?”
Our eyes locked, as I stared straight into the sickly yellow eyes, his blood red pupils different sizes.
I snorted, scuffing the checkerboard ground. “I will not allow you. If you want to hurt that foal, you’ll have to get through me first.”
I could see his eyes narrow, as I lowered my horn, snorting more.
“If you want to fight, fine. Just, understand,” He held out a teacup, as a pitcher appeared, floating in the air. It poured tea into the cup, finishing as Discord brought it to his mouth, then tossed it behind him before taking a sip, the sound of glass shattering. “Fighting isn’t my cup of tea, chaos is no fun if the ponies you can spread it to are dead.”
I charged forward, intent on impaling the arrogant hybrid on my horn. Sure, I may not be able to fly or use magic, but that horn was still pointed bone that could surely penetrate flesh.
Unfortunately, my charge was stopped as a strong force impacted my chest. Ripping me from my hooves and throwing me into the air. Once again, my wings flapped uselessly as I saw myself falling towards a building, on an impact course for the roof.
And then darkness.
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NO, NOT THE CLIFFHANGER, IT BURNS!!!!!!
8797440
Good things come to those who wait, friend.
Ben/Frizzleandpop