Equestria: The BEN Chronicles

by HylianJuggalo

Chapter XV: Let's Play Majora's Mask

9:00 AM

I awoke on a stone patio, in front of a small house. The house had a cast iron gate, and was situated on a cloud. Was I dead? Were THESE the alleged ‘pearly gates’? Where was Peter, or my seventy virgins, or my ‘64 Rinekeys, with my name engraved on the car keys? Certainly didn’t seem lavish enough to be heaven. I got up, feeling extremely sore. The last thing I remember was falling through the clouds after my wings vaporized. Where the hell was I?

“So, you’re... awake, human.”

I turned to the voice, which came from a male. I immediately jumped back at what I saw, however: another pony, beaten, cut, obviously shot, and scarred and bruised. He was in pretty sickly shape, covered head to hoof in bandages. He was a pegasus, a little larger than your average sized one. His mane was torn in a spot, and his coat red. His eyes were golden. Aside from the eye color, which I expected to be naturally red, I recognized the man immediately.

“D-doctor Atmosphere?”

“Who else? I was barely alive when I was stuck in freefall, but I saw your merciful side show itself back in the factory. Because you saved me from death, I took what power I had left to keep you from turning into a pancake, despite the fact that you shot me twice."

“You... you saved my life...?”

“Yes sir. That’s correct.”

“Did Scootaloo patch you up, then?”

“Yep.”

“W-where am I? Where are the others?” I asked, standing up in a frenzied panic.

“This is Rainbow’s house, and the others are inside. Dash said she needed to stop by her house to get some equipment before you all went out again. As for me, I’m going to Canterlot - it’s the only safe place, what with its force field.” he said, pointing a hoof out in the distance, showing the city of Canterlot with its pink energy field, much like the one from the wedding, surrounding it. “Most of Cloudsdale has been completely destroyed in the factory meltdown, and Ponyville has zombies running rampant. Celestia only knows what’s going on with all the other cities and towns.”

“Well... I... thank you, Atmosphere, I owe you one.”

“You spared my life, human. We’re even. Now, I can’t waste any more time. Go help your friends.”

“Thank you, brother.”

“Here’s to hoping our paths cross again. That statue... he made me do things I never want to experience again... all those murders I performed in cold blood...”

“So... he was possessing you. Looks like we share a common enemy, then, Atmosphere. You stay safe; I could always use another ally. By the way, the name’s Nick. Nicholas Brownford.”

“Good luck, Nick.”

“Watch yourself out there.”

Atmosphere flew off, and I walked into the house. From the main entrance, Dash’s home went into a small living room, with a small shronk and a bookshelf on the far end. There was a fan hanging on the ceiling, and not much else other than a loveseat and recliner, both of which were made out of cloth instead of skin, but that was to be expected. The living room branched out into four doorways, one to a small bathroom, another larger one, to a kitchen. One lead to a door which went down into the basement, and finally, a fourth, to Dash’s bedroom. Very basic structure, nothing too special. I heard some voices from the kitchen, and as I walked in, there was everyone else, trying their best to prepare for our return into town.

“NICK!” everyone except Dash and AJ screamed together, jumping at me for a hug. Applejack was back on her hooves as well, properly patched up. She was missing an ear, and had long, thick bandages covering her stomach and neck. Her eye was swollen, and her mane frazzled and torn. I rushed over to her and gently wrapped my arms around the orange pony, bringing my lips to her own for a brief moment.

“Nick, ah’m so glad ya’re alive, sugarcube.”

“Applejack, it’s fine. Scootaloo is safe, you’re alive, and the entire gang’s here.” I finished, nodding to the new addition of Dinky, who smiled at me cutely with wide, soul-crushing eyes of adorable fashion.

“Regardless, human, we-”

“Dash, my name is Nick.”

“Regardless, Nick, we’ve got hundreds of living dead roamin’ the streets - your suspicions were right.”

“Dear god...”

“Well, that’s why we’re stopping here and collecting supplies.” Dash continued to say, stuffing away some tupperware containers with food into her saddlebags, and zipping them up. “If we-”

The lights to the house then went out for a moment, flickering, and a very familiar laugh, the laugh of the skull kid, echoed throughout the house. I drew my gun. There was a bright, white flash that came from the living room, before it went back to pitch darkness.

“Stay here.”

I took a step out into the living room. The lights were off here, and I could barely see. I walked over to the wall, and flipped the switch, but instantly jumped back in fear as the lights came on. Never again. Never again in a thousand years.

“NO! FUCK THAT SHIT! FUCK THAT!”

“Sugarcube, ya okay in there?”

The others came sprinting into the room, only to stop and stare with me. They were unsure, it seemed, of what they were looking at.

“What... is that?” Spike and Pinkie asked together, staring at the newly formed object sitting on the dresser.

“Jesus Christ, no...”

What sat before us was my hand-me-down Panasonic flatscreen. On the opposite side of the dresser sat a black - MY black Nintendo 64, complete with the yellow controller my friend gave me, and the missing expansion pack cover. And in the cartridge tray? The ‘Majora’ cartridge with the missing label, written in black Sharpie.

The very same one I burnt two years ago.

“Nick, is this by any chance... the ‘game’ you were talking about?” Twilight asked, examining the gaming setup.

“Y-y-yes...” I managed to let out, fear and cold chills rushing through my body. “B-B-BEN... wants to play.”

The giggle of the mask salesman.

“He’ll kill us if we don’t.”

I sat down on the loveseat, Twilight conjuring some magic and flipping the switch on the 64, and levetating the controller over to me. Neither the console or TV appeared to be plugged into anything, meaning BEN HIMSELF was controlling the game. I swallowed in fear as the little red light below the N64 logo brightened.

“I’m gonna die... I’m gonna fucking die.”

The mask slowly came spinning in my direction, with that horrifying ‘woosh’ tearing at my soul. All the others jumped back at the noise, and as the spinning mask came back into frame, I hit start. The game opened with one file - PAST. It appeared to be a fresh file, with no masks, and only three hearts.

“O-okay... l-let’s do this...”

I activated the file, and instantly spawned in Clock Town, on the fourth day. Nobody was around, as expected, and the song of unhealing was playing in the background. I gently walked forward, the horrific nightmares returning. I ran westward, taking note of the missing textrues in west town, just like before, and just like last time, I went into the dojo. This was gonna be a repeat of dayfour.wmv.

But I was wrong. This was gonna be so, so much worse.

When I went into the dojo, I was spawned in the first room of the game (where you turn into a deku), except here, there was a model of the skull kid, wearing Majora’s Mask, and running an idle animation on a constant loop. I walked up to him, and went into first-person, taking a good look at the character model. Just ten seconds later, the camera instantly zoomed outwards as Link exploded in a display of flames and electrical sparks. Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie screamed in terror. As the body fell to the ground, the game over music played, and there stood the statue. The game faded to black, as was normal after death, however, I was greeted with text as the song of unhealing played.

“You thought you could run, Jadusable? Foolish kid.”

The game opened up with the intro sequence, with Link in the Lost Woods. The cutscene played as per usual, but there was one thing wrong.

The Epona model.

The Epona model Link was riding was white, and its mane, purple mixed with pink. its muzzle was white as well, and its eyes, a faint hint of green. The game went on as normal, the skull kid stealing the horse, and I chased after it. The cutscene played in standard fasion, the skull kid taunting Link about Epona, with the ‘I got rid of your horse’ line. The game then went through the rest of the cutscene, until Link got sucked into the deku in his trippy vision. Before the cutscene continued, the game kicked me back to the title screen. I pressed start again. There was a new file, right below PAST, which read...

HUMANS.

As I sat there, controller in hand, my friends huddled around me, bracing for the worst. Upon selecting this second file, I was spawned in the goron city up at Snowhead. The standard music wasn’t there, and instead, was replaced with the song of unhealing. There were no gorons in the area, but I could hear the screaming cries of the goron elder’s son (the annoying one that cried until you played the song for it) filling the room. I ran up the ramp to the upper chamber, and, after entering the black void to load the next room, I was greeted with an even more disturbing sight than the first file had shown me. Here sat three models of Epona. Two of these were downsized, shrunken to about half their standard height. They were standing upright, and were recolored; their skin textures were tanish yellow, and they had different manes, one being a dark brown, another being a soft orange. As the constantly looping song and crying began to tear at us even more, my heart sank as I laid eyes on the final Epona model. It was about twice as big as its standard size, and was also recolored, its skin being yellow, and its mane a bright orange. It was lying on its side in a mangled looking posture...

As if it were dead.

“Carrot... I...”

“Sugarcube, it’s alright. We’re here to play this with you. He ain’t gonna hurt you.”

I walked over to the two models that were standing there, and attempted to ride them, but Link took a step back, as if he were about to converse with somone. A text box opened, and both of the ponies said the same thing, the goron child’s constant crying in the background.

“D-daddy...”

‘A’

“Why mister? Why did you take daddy away?”

I turned and ran away from the scene, and out of the room. As I did, and the black void loaded into the main atrium, I was greeted with the statue. The game then froze, the ‘unusable item’ buzz sounding off once, followed by a text box.

“Running away, Jadusable? Stand up and take responsibility for your actions. You killed that stallion in cold blood. Now, you must face the music: that family will never be the same because of you.”

I hit the A button.

“You’ve got a darkness, in you, Jad. You’ve got something evil hiding away. Just like Link, there’s a shadowy side of you...”

“Fuck you, BEN.”

I hit the button again - BEN wasn’t done talking.

“You’re a killer. Man up to your actions.”

‘A’

“Now, let’s see what else you did while you were here...”

At those words, Link immediately died in an explosion of fire and electricity, and the game faded to black. When the screen came to, I was standing in south Clock Town, with two tan Epona models, rather tall in their size, and manes of red and white. One was in the same mangled ‘dead’ pose as the last one, another standing next to the body. I walked up to it, and tried to interact with the pony. It opened a text box.

“You. You sick bastard! You killed my brother! How could you, you heartless demon!?”

Upon closing the text box, Link burnt to death again. I respawned in Termina Field, but this time, not even the skull kid and mask man were there. Instead, scattered around the field were ponies of various colors and sizes. Some resembled guards from the Rainbow Factory, and a small handful were the ones from the boutique. As I walked in the game, examining things, a text box appeared.

“You call yourself a ‘brony’, Jadusable, but you certainly don’t live up to the lifestyle. Whatever happened to ‘love and tolerance’? You’ve been using nothing but violence since you came here, like a human being.”

The box closed. I screamed at the TV.

“FUCK YOU, BEN!”

...then another text box opened.

“Don’t you dare get lippy with me.”

“S’cuse me, BEN? Are you fucking threatening me?”

‘A’

“You’re damn right I am.”

My heart sank like a goddamn rock.

‘A’

“Now, I want to keep playing...”

Link exploded in a display of flames yet again, and the screen faded to black, then kicked me to the title screen. Applejack held me tightly, and Fluttershy was hiding behind the couch, quivering in fear.

“I’m in my cottage... I’m in my happy place...”

The file select screen came up, and now, we were sitting in front of one file.

DEATH.

“Oh dear god, we are SO fucked...”

The game opened on the Gorman Brothers’ racetrack, on the night of the final day. It was midnight, and the last six hours, including the depressing, child-crushing tune that accompanied it made themselves known. We spawned INSIDE the racetrack, something that, by normal standards, wasn’t even possible. Why WE? Well, not only was Link there, but there were ten Eponas, all appropriately recolored and resized to represent the others with me. They were running a constant loop around the racetrack. There wasn’t a way out, and all we could do was keep running, while the moon came closer. The mask salesman laughed, and sweat poured over my face in droves. We were all gonna die.

“Nick, calm down. We’ll be okay... right?” Twilight hesitantly asked, but was cut short as the timer on the in-game clock...

...sped up.

“Oh dear baby Jesus. THAT’S not supposed to happen...”

The moon came crashing down in its standard cutscene, but as the screen faded to white, the game opened up...

...on the moon.

I slowly titled the control stick foward, walking up to the lone tree, taking note of a new object sitting against it. From the starting distance, I couldn’t tell what it was, but the song of unhealing kicked in, and as I got closer, I saw yet another pony.

This particular model was about half a size bigger than the ‘Carrot’ Epona. It was dark blue. A dark blue pony...

...on the moon. I don’t think much else needed to be said.

“Well, now we know what Luna’s up to...”

And then Link exploded again, making Fluttershy scream. Every instance of it scarred her. The game opened again, spawning us in southern Clock Town.

But I wasn't alive.

Link was lying in his ‘dead’ pose, the one from previous experience with BEN. The Epona models that represented my allies were in their ‘dead’ postures as well, and the skull kid laughed continuously, as the shooting gallery theme played in the background. Scootaloo clung to my neck.

"Dad, I'm scared..."

The image of the elegy statue flashed onto the screen as the skull kid screamed, and I was kicked back to the spinning N64 logo, then the machine shut off.

“Dear god. That... was fucking terrifying. We need to g-”

That noise...

...my phone. Someone was calling my phone, which I haven’t had a lick of service on since I got here. I fumbled through my pockets, trying desperately to make the call. My heart raced as I took a look at the active screen..

‘Calling - Mom’

I frantically unlocked the screen, and started mashing away at it, trying to answer the call.

“He-hello!? Hello?”

“Ni-Nick, is that you? Sweetheart, is that you!? Thank god you’re alive! Where are you!?”

“M-mom? Is that really you!? Where are you? are you okay!?”

“I’m at the house, honey! All your friends have been looking for you for four straight months! We all thought you were dead! Where are you!?”

“Mom, don’t worry... I”m... I’m perfectly fine. It’s great to hear from you. How are you doing? Is everything okay back home?

“Nick, can you stop talking to yourself? You’re creeping us out here...”

“I’m fine baby, what about you? All your neighbors said they heard a scream coming from your apartment, and when they got there, the door was locked, and when they broke it down, you weren’t anywhere to be found! Where did you go!?”

“It... it’s impossible to explain, mom. I love you. Are you okay?” I kept asking in vain, under constant fear that the human world was in danger.

“It’s raining right now, and the sky is a little pink bu-”

“Wait, mom, PINK? as in, the clouds are pink?” I asked, my heart sinking down as fear continued to take hold.

“Ye-yes, why? Is something wrong?”

“Nick, come back to reality, dude.” Spike chimed in, placing a claw on my leg, as Fluttershy panicked in fear behind the couch, staring at the TV in nervous anticipation, as the song of unhealing played in the house.

“Mom, I want you to go outside and drink some rain. Don’t ask why, just do it, okay?”

Scilence on the other end of the phone for a few seconds, and then my mother said something I REALLY didn’t want to hear.

“Tastes... like... milk chocolate, but... how?”

“Mom, listen to me: get out of the house. Pack up all your important crap, and ditch the house. Drive FAR away, and don’t stop for ANYTHING but gas.”

“But Nick, I - Augh!”

“Mom!?”

No answer.

“ MOM! ANSWER ME! ARE YOU STILL THERE!?”

‘Call ended - 2:36’

“Mom...”

“Nick, you feeling okay? Derpy asked, placing a hoof on my shoulder.

“My... my mother. My home... Discord is attacking my home. We need to go. Now.”

I grabbed the TV, and threw it to the floor , watching the box split in half. I then tore the cartridge out of the system and smashed it with my foot, and threw the 64 against the wall, after which, it broke into pieces. I grabbed my supplies, taking one last look at the recent call logs.

“Mom... I’ll be home one day. I promise.”

The others grabbed their things, and I opened the door, only to be met with a squad of heavily armed royal guards.

“Awwww, crap...”

“You’re all under arrest, you especially human; six known counts of murder, disturbing the peace, breaking curfew, destruction of property, arson, breaking and entering just to name a fraction... need we go on?”

“Celestia’s gonna looooooove you, scumbag.”

“There’s a fucking mess of living dead out there, and the only thing on your mind is arresting me!?”

“We can handle this. You underestimate the power of the Equestrian armed forces, human.”

I was smacked across the face, and picked up with some magic. The other guards went for the rest in my team, taking hold of them and placing them into magical bonds before they had a chance to do anything.

“I wanna see a lawyer! Where’s my fucking trial!?”

“Not how it works here, human.”

And then the guards took us away, as I started mouthing off at them in every language I possibly knew.

“INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY, FUCKERS! JURY OF MY PEERS! I HAVE RIGHTS, COCKSUCKER!"

Comments

[Dark Colt Sabata]

DON'T DROWN!!!

[idk12345678910]

Is Discord actually in the human realm or is it just BEN screwing with Jadusable? Only time will tell.

[hiddenisbeastmo]

i love this keep going

[tragicCaligula]

There's a happy ending... right?

[HylianJuggalo]

1106332 You'll have to wait and see... >:D

[HylianJuggalo]

1117015 Most underatted shooter I've ever played. I'm afraid we'll never get that fourth installment

[Chrysanthemum]

The whole time I've been reading this story, The Song of Healing w lyrics has been playing. Now my ears hurt and i feel like crying.