//------------------------------// // A meeting within the mind // Story: From Order to Chaos // by Neoandermcd //------------------------------// Nothing. Nothing as far as the eye could see. A plain of complete darkness. Bright enough to see oneself yet dark enough to only see a few inches away. There I was. Just floating along, waiting for this endless realm to hopefully come to an end. Like a leaf in a stream, I was pulled along not knowing where I was going, but not having a choice either. Then my vision started to change instead of the void, I came to be in a room that reminded me of crazy stairs. The whole area I was in was a pure white with stairs going in every which way. Groggily getting up, I slowly made my way towards one of the thousands upon thousands of stairs that resided in this area. As I went down the stairs, I came up to an intersection: to my right was a spiral staircase that went up, to my left the stairs went off in a zigzag formation, and the path in front of me went further down. As if my body had a mind of its own, I moved right going up the spiral stairs and continued my journey. Seconds turned to hours as hours turned to days, yet I kept moving not stopping to look where I was going. Not stopping to take a break, I just kept going aimlessly around. Then I heard it. A sound, no a note of a violin as it began to play. The sound I heard was not from a song I’ve ever heard, yet the emotion were clear: Anger, hate, depression, and fear. Yet the song was strangely beautiful in a sense. Like a moth to a flame I ran--or more like shuffled--as fast as I could towards the sound. My trip towards the song was a blur as I turned or climbed until I reached a long hallway. Old stones lined the walls and floor with a dark sickly green carpet with eerie purple candles illuminating the way. I stopped to look down the hall only to see an endless void much like the one I was in earlier, yet I felt…no I knew that I had to go there. Steeling myself I walked down the hall at a steady pace. Only the sound of the violin to accompany me. About ten minutes later, I could see a bright light at the end and quickened my pace. As I burst out of the hallway--more like stumbled--,I entered a dark throne room. It was easily just as big as Canterlot Castle’s throne room. Granted I never been there, but it felt right to compare it. There were no windows and the only thing giving the room light were the same purple candles, but there were more of them giving the room more light than the hall. In the way back was a brilliant golden throne, that clashed with the very color scheme and theme of the room. Crimson red cushion, with gold plating, and an assortment of jewels. As I made my way towards the throne, I took notice that the music had reached its climax. A voice echoed out, “Well what do you think?” I stopped and looked around the slightly dark room trying to locate the source of the voice. “Up here, genius.” The voice said once more. As I turned my head skyward-- or ceiling and…lol Skyward--, I noticed a pair of dark purple eyes with light blue pupils staring right back at me. I jumped back in surprise only to gawk at the figure above me. It was me down to the last body part the only difference between us were his eye color and how his eyes gave off the feel of driving people insane. “You’re...that-” I stumbled trying to find the words to describe my situation. “What? Impossible, unlikely, inhumanly possible.” I/me answered giving me an upside down grin. “Where…” I tried to ask. “Oh, come on. We both know you’re smarter than that.” I/me said as I/me snapped our eagle finger and producing a chocolate milkshake, greedily drinking the contents yet it never lost any of its contents. “So we’re in my mind.” I started slowly. I or me…fuck it. HE nodded his head. “And you’re me, but my-” I paused, trying to think of an appropriate term. “Oh, please. You know the exact word to call me.” He said. Disappearing and reappearing right next to me with a crazed grin splayed across his face. “Chaotic side.” I finished trying not to believe yet knew deep down that it was true. “But are you sure he is you and you are he?” Asked another Draconequus, this one looking the same as the double beside me. “No, no. He is him and him is he” Stated another. “Wait if he is him and him is he and he is he, then who am I?” asked another. More and more seemed to pop out of nowhere continuing the long question of who is who. Five minutes straight this went on, the once empty chamber packed with me look-alikes. Now I’m a rather level headed person thanks to me having to deal with idiots every damn day, but this…no words could describe how much I wanted to kill each and every single one of them. Maybe with a flamethrower and the song from Fallout ‘I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire’. “Shut up! Just shut the hell up!” I roared all the other me going quiet and staring at me. “U mad bro?” Asked the original copy. I growled at him, but he merely laughed it off. “How about a little wager, hmmmmm?” “What kind?” I asked skeptically. “Well if I know you, and trust me I do, you have a few dozen questions you’re just dying to know. So how about this: If you can answer this fine good looking group’s question, I’ll tell you everything I know.” He said gesturing towards the crowd of smug smiling mes. “The catch?” “Ah, ah, ah. You won’t know till you lose.” He said while wagging his index finger. “I don’t have a choice do I?” I asked flatly. “Good, you catch on pretty quick. Oh and feel free to answer whenever or just give up. Either one works for me to be honest.” He said while lazily waiting for my response. ‘Oh this is going to be fun.’ I thought to myself as I snapped my neck, a loud satisfying crack sounding out through the room as I took in a deep breath. ~Three minutes later~ “…Therefore he is you and you are him and he is me.” I said taking a deep and glorious breath of air. My lungs burned from the non-stop talk--Pinkie would’ve been proud--as I summoned up who is who. The original copy me looked at me with an impressed grin, which was followed by the snap of his fingers as all the copies disappeared. “Bravo” He said while mockingly clapping his hand. “You won our little bet.” He continued while I smiled triumphantly at his proclamation. “You know I would have also excepted 42.” He added with a smug grin. I just facepalmed in annoyance. “So a bet is a bet. Start asking them.” He said, now lounging on a yellow cloud. “So what’s going on?” “Oh nothing really, just hanging out.” He responded lazily. I glared at him.  “Oh, did you mean outside of our head? Yeah, after that whole kiss thing with the princess--also nice shot by the way--you passed out. So you’re either turned to stone by now or you’re in jail.” “Were you the one making me do those cartoonish things?” I asked and was rewarded with a loud set of Ding-ding-dings in my ear. “We have a winner!” The other me exclaimed while putting a slash over my shoulder that read, ‘U are smart’. Ripping the slash into a dozen little piece, I then threw them at him and gave him a flat look. “Spoilsport.” He said. “So is this my entire mind or just your part?” “A little both. Back on Earth my space was as big as an apartment, which was also locked and I could never leave.” He growled, but continued. “But when we came here the door was unlocked and well, I just had to redecorated the old place. Put a few things here and there, took down some walls, transferred all of our porn to digital, and now it’s a totally pimped out mind.” he finished with a crazed smile. “So how do I wake up?” “What tired of seeing me already and to think we were becoming the best of friends.” He said sarcastically. “Soon, but first we must have a word.” Said an all too familiar voice. Turning around I noticed a light grayish Alicorn with a dark crimson mane. Her eyes were a familiar pair of grayish blue, and on her flank was an inkwell with a quill. “So how’s was your first day in Equestria?” She asked as the other me summoned a couch for her to lay down on and getting a quick thank you in the process. As an afterthought he summoned a rather old dark brown couch with stains covering the majority of the seat. “Well, everything was going so swimmingly. That is until I got dropped off in the barracks of Canterlot Castle, got chased around for half the time, and then went face first towards a cement wall.” I said bitterly preferring to stand rather than sitting. Besides I didn’t like how he was looking at the chair like it was going to do something. “You also left out the part where you were caught peeping in the girls shower room. Also you didn’t hit a cement wall you hit a reinforced window and left a smear mark on it to. It was priceless.” He said laughing hysterically at the last part. The grayish Alicorn chuckled softly while I just glared at the both of them. “With all jokes aside let’s get down to business shall we.” She said motioning the other me to stop laughing and continued. “You must have a lot of question, but allow me to shed some light first and then you may ask. Does that sound alright?” I responded with a nod. For the next couple of minutes she caught me up to speed with the so called ‘Chess Games’ as she put it. Explaining that the gods can have as many pieces as they wanted, but were limited on what they could do/help with. “So I’m around the beginning of season two--about right after Discord gets sealed up--and other gods/goddesses from your world and my own are playing a ‘Chess Game’. Where I’m suppose to beat the other players and the last piece standing wins. Did I miss anything?” I summarized. “No, that’s about it.” She said, sipping some tea. “…and what if I don’t want to fight?” I asked. She stopped for a second to think about it and gave a reassuring smile. “Then don’t.” “I’m sorry, come again?” I asked generally surprised by her response. “Heh. Come.”The other me said, holding back giggles of laughter. “Like I said just don’t. It doesn’t matter to me. If you want, you can join up with other pieces and just forfeit at the end.” She said with a shrug and continued. “Besides I didn’t summon you to be my chess piece anyways.” “Pardon?” Both of us asked. “I decided not to participate in the ‘Chess Game’. I chose to be just a spectator, making sure that no one cheated. The reason I summoned you was for a more important task.” Both of us looked at one another and asked at the same time while motioning our hand for her to continue. “Which isss?” “To keep the balance in check.” “Look lad…I mean Miss. As much as I love playing twenty questions could you just skip to the part where you explain everything.” I said, as nicely as possible. “Oh, right, sorry. It’s been far too long since I had company. Seems a couple thousands of years in isolation does that to someone.” She said, looking off in the distance with a sad smile. “Anywho the balance is quite a simple yet effective system. Basically it runs like yin and yang, light and dark, good and evil or however you want to perceive it. Balance refers to order and chaos and like yin and yang there cannot be one without the other. And thanks to the CG the balance-” “Is way out of line and you want me to fix it?” I asked, interrupting her. “Not fix, adjust, but essentially yes. I want you two to go around Equis and make sure the world is balanced as much as possible.” “Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. What do you mean us? You mean I’m going to have to work with this square?” The other me said. “You do know were technically the same person. The only difference is I’m not completely off my rocker.” I retorted. “Stop it you two.” Her voice going a bit harsh like how a mother would scold their child. “You two need to work together, understand?” We both gave each other a glare, but reluctantly agreed. “Good. Now I must be off, I’ll speak to you sometime in the future.” She said as she got up and walked back towards the hallway. “Wait! What’s your name?” I asked. “Wait! You never said who was in charge.” The other me shouted towards her. “Work it out amongst yourself and my name is Lauren Faust, but just Lauren will be fine.” She said before she vanished from sight. “And what should I call you?” I asked hostilely. He seemed to think about it for a moment and respond back hostilely as well, “Call me Derange.” We kind of stood there for a few minutes glaring at one another. The room being silent enough to hear a pin drop. “So how do you want to settle this?” He asked as he began to circle me like a predator, but I didn’t let him as I slowly matched his pace. I could have sworn I heard a ‘whoosh’ sound like those in the old cowboy shows. “In a way that both you and I can play evenly on.” I replied back. He gave a devilish smile. “I got just the thing.” He said, which was followed by the snap of his fingers. ~Ten minutes later~ “SHIELD SPAMMER!” he yelled. “HADOUKEN SPAMMER!” I yelled back. Yeah so we decided to play a match of MvC3 to decide who was in charge. And let me tell you he picked all the spammiest character from the game--probably hoping to get an easy win--,but thanks to many years of playing with spammy picking friends, I always made a team of anti-spammers. We were down to our last character him Ryu while I was Amaterasu. Like a true Ryu spammer, he was just doing a whole shit load of hadoukens, but thanks to Amy shield thing I was able to send them back pretty much making his attacks useless. Both are lives were pretty low for one good combo to end the match. I was waiting because I know what he was planning and- “SHINKU!” The game rang out. Within that time span, I high jumped in the air and used Amy’s ability to cross the screen in seconds. “HADOUKEN!” The blast completely missing me leaving his character open for an attack. “Oh, shit! No! No! No! No! No!” He screamed as I got up right next to him. “Check mate.” I said as I pulled off Amaterasu level three hyper combo. Truth be told I could just pulled off a normal combo and won just as easily, but it's more insult to injury when someone messes up and you pull a hyper combo on them. We watched the winning credit screen and he turned to me and gave a sheepish grin. “Uh. Best two at of three?” “Uh, no.” I flatly responded. “Well you’re no fun.” He said while pouting. “Get over it. Now start talking how do you do all the things you do?” I asked, genuinely curious since earlier he was gloating in my face about how he could fly and use magic while I couldn’t. “Well I could try to explain it to you, but you wouldn’t believe me so let’s put it in a way you would understand.” He said as he started to think about how to describe it to me. “Imagine if you will that magic, good all unicorn and Alicorn magic, are a linear type of magic. Having a cause and effect, while Chaos magic is a big ball of wibbly wobbly ….” “You stole that from Doctor Who.” I stated, unimpressed. “…” “…” “Like a big ball of…” “I get it.” I said motioning him to stop. “So basically shit well either just happen or it won’t.” “Pretty much.” He said with a smirk. “Oh you’ll also know some random stuff that you previously didn’t know about, fyi.” He added as my vision began to fade. “What’s-” I slurred as I fell to the ground unable to support myself up. “Looks like you’re waking up.” He said. My vision getting darker and darker by the second. “Oh, and don’t worry. I’ll be right behind you.” He said. The last thing I saw was a devilish grin.