Chapter 1: Lunacy of Exodus
I've a Story to share with you, if you would have it. One flawed, lacking in truth, and littered with embellishments, but a story none the less, and I would share it still, if you have the ear to mind me still. It's been an age and then some since I was last able to converse with another, so pray, stay a while, and listen.
My tale starts many, many moons ago, grander, more refined measurements lost to me in my travels. It starts not here, in our mutual home of Equestria, but in another realm of stone and steel and vice. A place home to an entire race of beings you would think mythical. I speak of Earth, home realm of the Human race. My home.
Yes, I once stood with them as a member of their species, and even then I was prideful and vindictive. Even as a human I was bound by a web of their society, and... well I could wax and wane poetic on the matter, but it would be pointless for your ears, wouldn't it dear listener? I digress. I was once Human, and In that world is where our tale starts.
_______________________________________=______________________________________
I was a young man of a land called Texas, I lived for 24 winters, and had built the start of a life up. I was employed, I had family, friends, plans. Aside from the fact that I was 'Blessed' with a number peculiar traits that many humans lack, or simply aren't aware of, I eked out a fairly normal, and unremarkable life. Do not let this admission of a humble start fool you though. Within, kept hidden behind my social masks I'd constructed throughout my life, I was just as flawed and grandiose a person as I am now. There, in my home world, I had reason to hide it away is all.
I was just above average in most regards to many humans, and lived my life accordingly. I had things I liked, and disliked, shows and series and games. One series, I was loosely amused by, a young children's show titled My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The Quality of the show was commendable given the competition, however I was not innately drawn to it as many were. No I joined my interest to it's fanbase.
I was a Fan of the Fans. I'd watch the shows to know what they built on, I made casual observations and then read and watched as they took this one world presented to them, and made a hundred thousand variations of it and it's people. Such is a marvelous sight when looked at in a certain way admittedly. Yes, I see the recognition in your eyes now, I speak of this world. We know of it, though only a shadow of it's truth, or this truth as far as I'm concerned, but again, I find myself rambling.
The tale begins right and proper with myself laying on my bed, communing with my friends through my computer, ( a sort of scrying device of sorts, but not.) a half dozen messenger windows littering my screen as I typed back and forth between them all, pausing only to read a few scant lines before the replies started up again. Essentially my typical evening. What set it apart from my other evenings, aside from the obvious, would be when a 13th window sprung up in the middle of my typing. Someone I didn't know had invited me to a conference of sorts. Bored at the moment, and not really giving a damn, I accepted the invite, and found myself in a chat with two others.
Bee: Hey! He accepted!
Now we can have some fun!
Hornet: Now now dear, you know we need to 'ask' him... her... it?... first. manners and all that jazz.
Bee: oh right hahaha, silly me! Hello Tiberius! You having fun?
At this casual use of my name I hesitated, instantly torn between a number of emotions, rage, indignation, a peppering of fear, pride... curiosity. This last would be my binding flaw that evening, for it, above all others spurred my hands to type my reply.
Falazure: I am both bored loony, and alarmed that you two are familiar with my name. Have you two been stalking me for some reason? >.> Do i need to get my bat out? hammer some nails in it?
Hornet: HA! No no, no need for that Tibbs, we're here for some simple good old fashioned fun tonight.
Bee: as for how we know you? that's easy! We're that awesome!
Falazure: Sure, and I can karate kick the moon into Mars.
Hornet: in this realm of text and imagination? Go for it! Nothing stopping you here hehe.
Bee: but I like the moon *sniff*
Hornet: Oh allright, I won't let him kick our moon. But we can't leave the poor guy bored!
Bee: well he's allready crazy, duh, so not like him getting any crazier is gonna hurt!
Falazure: Uh, I 'm not crazy, just tired, a good deal pissed off you two know who I am, and bored otherwise. >.<
Hornet: Nope! You're crazy brudda! Trust us, we wouldn't have let you find us if you weren't.
Falazure: ...
Falazure: "let me find you" .... you say that as if I was the one searching
Bee: well yeah... you were, bored out of your mind, of course you'd look for something fun! and what's more fun than being crazy!
Falazure: I dunno... games? Music? ... sex?
Bee: OOH! Games! Let's play a game! then you'll see you're crazy and you won't be bored either!
Hornet: Oh! I like this one! You wanna play Tibbs?
Falazure: Don't call me Tibbs, and will I have to download anything?
Bee: Not a single thing! Nope!
Hornet: naw, it's all gonna be in yer head buddy hehe
I sat there, having repositioned myself to view this inane little conversation with the strangers more seriously. I mean, who in there right mind would learn my name only to invite me to a chat, call me crazy, and then ask to play a game? Probably some psycho murderers. At least, that's the thought that crossed my mind just then, Killer being not nearly as rare back home as they are here in your land of ponies and the like.
Bee: naw, we'd never murder you Tibby, just maim and maul, then poof you back together again heh.
I could fell my heart rate spike and my anxiety skyrocket, but still my curiosity, fed continuously by the whole conversation, was still greater, edging me on. What else was I to do? this was a unique chance for an interesting interaction. One nearly completely under my control, I hoped.
Falazure: Sure, why not... how do we play?
Hornet: pfft, we? lol that's funny man, you'll be playing, we're just gonna sit back and watch as things unfold. You just stick around long enough and eventually you'll win eh big guy?
Falazure: wait, what? How can I play if I don't know the rules? or I'm by myself?
Bee: you just gotta wing it Tibby! Well, take care, and have fun! Put on a good show, yes?
Falazure: You two are loco, that's for sure, I'm gonna just head to bed with my rifle now, hope to shoot you soon
I did exactly that, the conversation having unnerved me a decent amount. Something not easily done, but then again, I regularly slept with weapons in my bed. Don't ask why, I won't tell. What I didn't know however, as I rolled over was the last message that had been sent, my only warning and I didn't even get it as I let slumber claim me.
Hornet: Sleep Well
Bee: Rest Easy
Hornet: And Dream Crazy
Bee: level 1 start!
_______________________________________=______________________________________
I found myself waking to the vastness of an obsidian void. Blinking my eyes I questioned why I couldn't feel my body, All sensation dead other than a numb weight attached to my vision. The darkness of the void seemed to ripple and sift restlessly with some primal hunger, and then it hit me. I was inside my own mind.
The sudden realization and recognition of my own mind scape came with all the perks of having a projected body inside that realm of thought. I could feel and move as if I was never helpless before. I had several times practiced meditation, putting forth the image of this chamber as my mind.
A body to represent the Ego, the primal seething darkness to embody the Id, an ideal guardian against stray thoughts, and 'trespassers' I always thought. Protecting me from the Id was a single sourceless spotlight, my super ego. With a whim and a practiced hand motion the spot light expanded, pushing back the darkness of my surging mind, providing more clarity to think within. It was a simple imagery, and as such was difficult to screw up. I made the first mistake of thinking it nothing but a lucid dream though.
I lit a row of spotlights within the darkness, illuminating a pathway of reason and logic through raw emotion and reaction towards a mental construct. A filing cabinet. Out dated by my world's standards, but simple. It was a favorite of mine for representing my memories. Easy to get into and easy enough to go through when I wanted to remember something in a more... accurate recollection, as apposed to typical remembering. Not perfect, and even if I get what I want, I often times can't remember it when I snap back to consciousness, something which is a real bummer, as I'm sure you can guess at the implications had it worked flawlessly.
I Began to sort through the number of files over the last week, recalling chores and small promises I needed to fulfill by the end of the weekend, trying to get them to stick for when I woke up. I owed Jeremy a new copy of a game since I lost his, I needed to paint my uncles house, needed to get more cat food, the works. Small things, simple things to get me smiling and my mind off those nut jobs I left behind on the computer.
Without warning, or any build up what so ever, a brown, and a yellow spot light lit up inside my mind, clearing a pair of Id free spots without my permission. I was immediately wary, and the depths of the darkness around their lights and mine shimmered with a violent and thirsty anticipation in response. I didn't have to wait long as the forms these two 'invaders' chose to reveal themselves. The yellow light was quickly hosted by a purple heart shaped mask with two rows of spines along it's jawline, and two wide, staring eyes carved onto it's lobes. The Second form, descending into the brown light was a human head wearing a bloodied and broken clown mask, the man's hair having been replaced with flames and hate.
These two had chosen their avatars well, as I later came to realize just what they were embodying. The mask and the clown head, both being icons from my world, each gave their respective laughs at me as I willed the spotlights away, intending to leave them exposed to the depths of my Id. My action did not fair as I had hope however, though my spotlight was reduced to just large enough to encircle myself, theirs did not diminish in the slightest. This, as had many things that evening, irritated me.
I'm not an easy man to anger save for less than a handful of conditions. This... Intrusion, upon my mind, even if it was only a dream sequence as I kept telling myself, would easily fall under my top three things that would raise me to wrathful levels the swiftest. With out hesitation, and flicker of imagination, the inky darkness lit up with a singular pair of vivid eyes as it coalesced into a singular defined form, a muzzle filled with teeth, legs ending in heavy clawed feet, millions of fine, pliable barbs coating it's surface, and soon, standing over me was my Id, embodied tonight as a massive, umbral, dire wolf, and we were pissed.
Many aren't aware of what makes the something with such an unassuming name so terrifying. People have long called the mind the summary of two halves to make a whole. The super Ego, our first half, governs us with reason, logic, understanding, long term thinking. It's the part that cautions us, and warns us to not act in haste. The Ego is the whole, the summary of the two halves that decide, and act upon, the input from both Super Ego and Id. The Id, is the counter to the Super ego however, it is emotion and instinct. Fight or Flight. Hate rage greed & envy. For this it is shunned and feared, many not remembering that it is also Love, compassion, mercy, passion, joy and Humor. However right then? We were all rage, and justly so.
I didn't bother to warn them away, or to try and commune to the intruders with words, as I was still acting as though it were a dream. In retrospect, it wouldn't have mattered ultimately, but still I feel the fool for giving that one willful thought so carelessly.
" Devour Them."
My id surged forth, liquid muscle, my fury given form and girth as it bounded through the less imposing but still vast darkness between us towards my invaders, and for a slight moment, I thought it would end that swiftly. However as I thought it still a dream, I wasn't surprised when my assailants returned my aggression, though their methods were unexpected, if only for how... mundane they were by comparison. The Clown head had grown a body of steel and gears seemingly fashioned from an ice cream truck, and punched the face of my Id's wolf form, the shock of the new form enough for me/It to lose form and sink into an inky puddle at their feet. The Mask had grown arms and legs that ended in lengthy whip like coils, flawlessly resembling the creature it was inspired by, and lashed out at me, a lengthy rope crossing the distance of my mind towards my projected form only to strike stone.
A battle of the minds is a contest of imagination, and reaction. A careful balance of reaction, logic and creativity. I saw a whip coming towards my face, and so the ground itself rose up beneath me, stones forming and piling higher till I stood atop a steep hill, a ragged stone throne behind me as I looked down on the invaders. The darkness of the void gave way to muddy and soaked plains as clouds formed, and a stormy sky came into being above the three of us. They had chosen to arm themselves and act directly, then It would only be fair for me to do likewise.
I raised my arms out ahead of me, my hands dangling at the ends limply as my Id sank into the soil, it's liquid form going to better use as I splayed my fingers and lifted my arms before waving them at the two in unison. The Soil between I and They churned as hundreds of limbs, fleshless and bleached white, surged forward, hooked digits clawing out to snare them and hold them to ground even as the rest of my skeletal army rose up in the wake of the lashing limbs.
They responded as I expected, the Mask lashing out with it's limbs, sweeping through my mental forces in great swathes, as the Clown simply threw itself into the fight, kicking, punching and brawling through them. The skeletons were not meant to last, only to tide them over as my Id surged back to form, a great black lion leaping from behind my hill, claws spread wide with a mighty roar as it fell towards the two. I was sure I had them as their backs were turned. Instead my satisfaction was cut short as my Id was once more cut down, this time split down the middle, it's form scattering to the void the field had suddenly returned too.
"How fun he is! Creative and willful!" The Mask creature seemed to shake in it's entirety as it let loose a rattling laugh.
" We'll have to give him a figure he can make the most of we will, yes yes yes." The Clown replied to it's companion, turning slightly to face it.
" Ooh! how about one of those woody things? I can't think anything else that would really work for him."
I never heard their voices before, but I instantly recognized them as Bee and Lost from the chat room before I slept. Either my dreams were alarmingly detailed that night, or, as I was starting to realize, they were well and truly in my mind. Something I did not take too kindly too. Without even a motion from me, the massive claw of a simply titanic dragon descended upon them, My Id, my rage, having leapt to a much more viable force. I grinned, having finally ejected them from my mind.
" Well how about... these adjustments to the base critter? wouldn't do for our toy to be stuck to one are now would it?"
My heart sank as the voices continued on, exchanging thoughts on something I couldn't follow. I was livid, my pride and privacy trounced by these two. My Id's colossal form simply faded away to reveal the two unfazed by my latest effort. In a silent blink my figure was clad in gold and sapphire armor as I approached them. I angled my left hand out and gripped at open air, a bulwark of a plated shield appearing there on my arm even as I straightened my right hand, my arm extending and narrowing into a mighty lance as I neared them, a single thrust and I would strike them directly, Mind against Mind.
That single instant I acted upon my choice, the world shattered, black expanse giving way to dull white eternity, ground now relative to my perspective, the sky no longer defined. My Lance shattered, white golden shards sizzling away into a shower of sparks and confetti as they went. The Mask, now worn by a lady looked at me, through me, too me. I'm not sure... She looked, and my shell was stripped from me. My armor and shield did as my lance, scattered to figments of minds now obviously greater than my own. I was trapped, frozen in motion in this realm not of my own as the two now both looked at me.
The Clown, Lost, raised a single hand and snapped his, it's fingers. Sprouting from a layer of emptiness that served as our 'ground', a variety of tree's began to grow, aging rapidly to maturity around us, even as the masked one, Bee, lifted her arms up, blots of inky darkness gathering into a pool above her. My Id, I recognized, was summoned by some other person. Some other being. I actually felt fear at this, for while I was confident in my willpower and strength of mind, this was something else... these acts were fundamentally beyond me, and I knew it.
" So... What now? You crack open my mind for your winnings? Take my memories and sense of self?" I asked, doing my best to keep my voice level, as calm or spiteful was simply out of the question at this point, my growing fear making sure of that.
Lost held a hand to his stomach as a simple short lived laugh escaped his lips behind the clown mask. " No no no, The game has yet to begin! We simply needed to get through character selection! I'm letting Bee handle the customization, not like we can really change it once we start the game, you know how RPG's work and all that."
Honestly? Rpg's? Those dicks were still going on as if this was still a game after having bested me in the one field I never though I'd be fighting on, yet was confidant in. The indignation and pain for my struck pride boiled over my fear for a moment as I rolled my eyes at him and snorted. " You're an ass, you know that?"
" We know. It's more fun this way!" They answered in unison, their voices resonant and indistinguishable in that one reply. My brain came to a screeching halt as the spark of realization began to flicker in the back of my consciousness. I was slowly regaining thought speed, but it was all focused on rifling through every bit of mythos and legend based lore, applying details and facts to the events and the two before me.
Bee on the other hand was finished with her work it seemed, and wasn't keen on leaving me to my thoughts as she turned her masked visage to face me. My Id, still coalesced above her opened a pair of luminescent emerald eyes and stared at me.
" Party time party time! Have fun Tibby!" She bent back and then 'threw' my Id at me, the blot of pitch black emotion and instinct unfurling into a ragged semblance of a wolf as it rocketed through the air like a missile, tackling my frozen form, the two of us careening down the path of tree's Lost had made with but a thought and a motion.
Things became... muddled. I do not know how long my Id and I fell like that, Through the air across the ground, into the sky even, I lack any certainty. I saw many things in fleeting glances as we fell. Game characters and book and movie characters all mingling, talking, fighting for sport. A dragon fighting a building in central park, a sentient Virus eating cupcakes at a party, a burly french huntsman fighting kung fu deer, or was it 'Tae Kwon Doe'? I'm not certain as my sanity may have left me at that point, or sometime before.
At some point, I must've stopped falling because I remember running, the tree's whizzing by in a blur, the ground growing less devoid and more earthen beneath me, the endless white expanse breaking into mottled blue and white and grey. I think the last thing I saw before blacking out, was the all too well known meme face of the Troll.