//------------------------------// // Chapter 12 | Replaying // Story: A Different World: The Future and Fate of Equestria // by Riclo //------------------------------// I felt like I was falling through an infinite void of blackness. Everything was spinning, and I felt like I wasn't even a part of my body - I didn't know what was going on. My mind was hazy and unfocused, and it felt as if wind was blowing against me as I fell. My head constantly felt like it was tipping upside-down and backwards, but I couldn't seem to be able to do anything to correct that. I was left in a constant, sluggish free-fall. As more time passed - not like I could even comprehend that as I was - I could eventually feel the spinning and my thoughts getting clearer. What followed was a loud groan as I began to realize just how much pressure there was at my head: I had to have been experiencing a migraine. I stirred and stretched my body, slowly opening my eyes to see that I was laying down, not falling at all. I squeezed my eyes closed shortly afterwards though, tilting my head forward and grimacing. My head was killing me! I slowly sat up and opened my eyes again, trying to get a good look at my surroundings. 'Where am I...? What happened? Why on Equestria is my head hurting so much!? Ow...' I blinked and exhaled as I took a look around. I appeared to be inside my library, or at least an older version of it, as if this is what it looked like a long time ago. I slowly began to stand up onto my hooves, being careful not to move my pulsating head too much. Why was I here? What had even happened? I couldn't remember, for some reason... I blamed my migraine for that. I carefully began to step forward, soon entering into another room of the library. My attention was then captured by the sound of a door opening, and I quickly turned to look at the source, only for me to wince after moving my head so fast. 'Ahh! I need to be more careful.' I scrunched my face up and breathed deeply, trying to manage the pain, when I blinked and tried to focus on the sound again. My basement door was opening, and my eyes began to grow wide when I saw who was stepping out... Immediately I felt flooded with familiar memories as I remembered just why the library looked like this - it was during this time that Duston was still living with me. He was right there, and was currently running out of the basement. "D...Duston?" I blinked as I tried to comprehend what I was seeing. "What is.. what's going on? Why are you running - why are you even here?" "I totally forgot I'm supposed to be at Applejack's at eight this morning!" He replied as he ran over to the front door. He opened it and then ran outside, but I couldn't let him just do that - I had to find out what was going on. This wasn't right, and it was also bothering me unconditionally to just let him run off like that when I hadn't seen him in so long. "No wait!! Duston come back!" I ran towards the door after him, only for me to yell out in pain as the sudden movements messed with my head. I cringed and squeezed my eyes closed, tilting my head down and trying to manage the pain as best I could. I felt dizzy, and once it seemed like I had finally regained my composure, I opened my eyes back up, only for me to see that I wasn't in the library anymore. I blinked and looked around in confusion to find myself in... the Canterlot Throne Room? "It seems you all have arrived, and faster than I anticipated too." I could immediately feel anger at the sound of that voice. I knew who that was... and I wanted to kill him more than anything. "Discord!!!!!!!!!" I shouted out, causing me to flinch from the strain that put on my head. I turned my head to look at where the voice had spoke to see Discord floating there, but something didn't seem right. He didn't feel like he was 'the' Discord, as if he wasn't the one that had been causing all of my torment. "You better release the princesses right now!" Rainbow Dash spoke up. I turned my head in confusion to see that the rest of my friends were here also. Something seemed extremely familiar about this situation, but I couldn't quite figure out what it was. If the princesses really were captured though - according to what Rainbow Dash had just said - then this was something I had to take seriously. I had to rescue them! "Feisty aren't we?" Discord responded. "I'll let them go, but only if you win a game." "What kinda game?" Applejack inquired. The snap of Discord's fingers was then heard, and in an instant I found myself to be in some kind of maze. I looked up and around with hatred in my eyes, looking for any sign of Discord, when I heard him start talking again. "If you all can manage to get past this maze, which you won't, I'll let your princesses go." "Hey!! Where are my wings? And where is everypony else!?" I heard Rainbow Dash's voice yell out from some other part of the maze. "Oh, I must've forgot to mention: No flying or any magic use allowed during the maze." Discord replied. "As for your friends, you will all be separated for the time being. Have fun!" He proceeded to laugh his evil, annoying cackle, which faded away and got quieter as time went on. "Hey! Give me back my wings!!" Rainbow yelled out. After that though, nobody else talked - it was all strangely silent. I perked my head up and looked around before speaking up. "Hello?" I called out, careful not to raise my voice too much since I didn't want to make my headache hurt any more. I didn't get a response though, and I sighed, looking back ahead of me. 'I guess I have no other choice but to go through this maze.' Something about this place seemed so oddly familiar as I made my way through it, but I couldn't quite remember what it was. I was surprisingly not getting too irritated at all the dead ends I kept coming across, which I figured was probably because my headache was just too bad for me to care. At times I lost focus as I walked through the maze, only for me to eventually come back to my senses without even knowing where I had went. I knew I was wandering around aimlessly, but I really wasn't in the right mindset to try and track where I was going. I was just letting everything go by without much thought. Eventually, though, my eyes caught a glance of some type of clearing - something different as opposed to all the narrow hallways that I kept trotting through. I backtracked my steps and looked down that pathway to see it lead to what appeared to be a bigger, circle-shaped room. I made my way down that hall until I reached the room, and I stepped inside, noticing a strange, glowing object floating in the center. It somehow looked blurry, causing me to blink my eyes, but it wasn't me - it was the object itself. It almost looked like an orb, although I couldn't tell completely because it wasn't focused. 'What is that supposed to be..? Is it even real? Why's it so blurry?' I took a quick glance around the room before slowly beginning to walk towards it. As I neared the glowing object, I eventually began to hear faint voices in my head, which got louder and louder until I noticed them. I couldn't comprehend what they were saying - like it was just a bunch of jumbled, mismatched whispers all speaking to me at the same time - but they only increased in volume the closer I got. I blinked and shook my head carefully, trying to get them to go away, but they still remained anyway. 'What's happening to me now? Is that me doing that? I wish I knew what was wrong with my head.' I squinted my eyes and continued to step closer regardless, scrunching up my face as the voices only served to agitate my migraine even more. I increased my pace, only to abruptly stop when the random chatter suddenly stopped all-together. There were no voices, no sounds, no nothing - all in a split-second. I was close enough to the glowing blur to make out that it did definitely seem to look like an orb, and I found myself staring at it and watching its slow, pulsing glow, until it faded away and disappeared right in-front of me. I blinked, looking around in confusion to suddenly find myself someplace else again. This time it looked like the outdoors. 'This can't be a dream... it feels too lucid and I'm thinking too clearly. What on Equestria is going on? What happened to Discord? We're supposed to stop the towers! Why am I here then? We were at Baltimare.. right? For the second time. I..' I trailed off when I noticed two blurs zooming past me. I diverted my attention to my surroundings, watching the two figures speeding off, when I eventually noticed Duston running as well. My eyes went wide at this, and I quickly began to run to try and catch up with him. "Duston!!" I called out, grimacing through my head pain as I tried to catch up. I hesitated talking anymore - I didn't want my headache to hurt with even more intensity - but this was too important. I needed to find out just what was going on. "Slow down! Where are you going??" He didn't reply though, almost as if he didn't even hear me. I gritted my teeth and ran even faster, but no matter what I did, I couldn't seem to catch up - and my head thumped with every gallop I made. Eventually, though, he did start talking, but it seemed like it was more to himself. "Finally! I knew this was over here somewhere..." He ran even faster, and I continued to follow in my confusion, until I suddenly noticed him jump. I ran up to where he just was and then yelped as I suddenly scrambled to stop myself from going even further - he had just jumped off a cliff! I remained at the edge and watched in horror as he went falling down, when I heard his distant voice start yelling. "No no no, I don't want this! Why did I do that!?" "Duston wait!!!" I panted as I gazed down at the cliff, and then in an abrupt, non-logical decision, I jumped down after him. "I'm coming!! Just hold on!" I squeezed my eyes closed as I felt the wind rushing past me. Now I was asking myself the same question: Why did I do that? I braced myself as best I could for an impact, waiting to be crushed against the ground by my own, amplified weight. Nothing ever happened though, much to my confusion, and I slowly opened my eyes, only to find myself in a entirely new place now - I wasn't falling anymore. 'This... This is almost like one of Discord's games. Is that what he's doing to me right now?' I perked my head up and looked around to find myself in some kind of round, dark brown cave. What quickly caught my attention though was the fact that Duston was standing in here as well, and I immediately ran over to him the instant I saw him. "Duston!" I slowed my trotted as I approached him - something I had kept trying and failing to do until now. "Twilight?" He asked, turning his head to look at me. "Where are the others?" "What others?" I inquired in confusion, to which he answered. "You know, your friends, and Klade." He paused for a second before continuing. "If you're here now, then I wonder if we're able to find each other in this maze." "I... guess so." Was I still a part of that maze Discord had put us in? "This all of Discord's doing.. right?" "Oh yes." He responded. "I just got done killing a demon that ripped my mom into pieces and then ripped off my arm and my leg. Fun stuff. Thank god that was a dream and not actually real." "Yeah.." I found myself smiling as I listened to his voice - I hadn't realized just how much I missed it. "Can you um... talk more?" "Huh?" He looked at me in confusion. "Uh... I guess so." He laughed a tiny bit. "That's kind of a weird request. We need to find out what this room is all about though." As if to answer his question, I suddenly felt the room begin rumbling. "Damnit. What the hell is Discord doing now?" Right after he said that, a large rock fell down from the ceiling in-between us, breaking through the floor. What came out afterwards was none of other than molten lava, and my eyes went wide at that. "Is that lava!?" I exclaimed as I stepped backwards. "Are we standing below lava?" I felt the ground I was standing on become wobbly and and unstable, which was definitely making it seem like what I had just said was true. I quickly looked around, where I saw more rocks falling from the ceiling, breaking into the floor and causing lava to ooze out afterwards. "Twilight, look over there!" I turned my head to look at Duston, where I saw him pointing at something. Looking in that direction showed a large digital clock attached to the wall, which had three minutes displayed in big red numbers. They began to count down after I looked. "I think that's how long we have to last to win this." "Are you sure?" "Well there's no way to get out of this room." He turned to look at me. "We just have to-" His voice was cut off by another big rock falling from the ceiling, causing both of us to lose our balance and fall to the ground. I tried to get back up afterwards, but the constant rumbling - as well as my pounding headache - was making it nearly impossible to get back to my hooves. "Are you okay Duston?" "Yeah yeah." I heard him reply from the other side of the room. The thumping in my head caused me to lose focus for a couple seconds, and I frowned as I perked my head up to try and look around. Much to my dismay, I could already see the lava oozing more onto the floor - so much so that it was starting to coat it. "We need to get out of here!" I called out over the rumbling. "How? We're stuck in here!" Duston replied. "Okay, think, the fuck do we do when we're about to die from lava surrounding us? God damnit I've never been in a situation like this to even have a clue. Uh... We should go to the highest point of the ground, right?" I glanced around the room once again, but everything seemed level - the ground was all the same height across the entire place. The walls were no different, which were mostly flat with nothing there that I would be able to climb or hold onto. I noticed the floor breaking apart in-front of me, causing me to back away, when I heard Duston's voice call out again. "Wait, maybe we can use that!" I perked my head up and looked at where he was pointing to see the rectangle-shaped clock attached to the wall that he had pointed out earlier. The time it was currently on was only 2:37, and I watched as Duston began to run over to it, avoiding piles of lava and somehow not falling down. I shakily tried again to stand back up and run over to the wall the clock was attached to, only to fall back down again when I tried to slow down. I observed Duston trying to jump up to reach it, but it was too high up for him to grab onto or even touch. He looked over at me shortly afterwards, where he proceeded to step over to me. "I might be able to lift you up high enough to reach that." He said as he grabbed me and brought me back to my hooves. "Come on we gotta hurry!" "But what about you?" "Maybe you can bring me up afterwards." I ran alongside him until we reached the wall, and then my eyes went wide when I abruptly found myself being picked up - he had never done that before and I wasn't expecting it to feel so weird. I was brought up to his hips at first, until he lifted me up so that my fore-hooves were over his shoulders. "Can you stand up and reach it from there?" I heard him ask. I tried to stand on his shoulders, but everything was so shaky and wobbly that I kept going back down to grab onto his head and re-balance myself. "I can't stand up!" "Hold on, let me try- Ahh!!!" My ears twitched when I heard him yell out in pain right after I felt the ground sink down below us, and I suddenly found myself falling off of him and slamming onto the floor. I hollered in pain from the impact and felt my head seemingly pulsate with constant, never-ending thumps much worse than it was before; I couldn't stand this migraine any longer, but I was still forced to deal with it anyway. I whimpered and slowly rolled over, squinting my eyes and trying to see what had happened. It was quickly starting to get hot in this room, and all the sweat was making my eyes watery - either that or it was happening because of this headache. "Duston..? What happened? Are you okay?" "Ow that fucking hurt!" He responded. I watched him crawl over to me, where he almost tipped over a couple times due to the shaking. "I don't think I can stand up like that anymore. I never knew how much lava could sting until now." "It didn't melt anything off, did it?" I asked with sudden concern. "I don't think so - my feet are just really stinging now." He replied. He proceeded to look around. "Well this place is falling apart real fast." I glanced around afterwards, examining just how much lava there was at this point. There was almost more lava than ground to stand on, and I watched as the middle of the room suddenly split in half, becoming engulfed in more of that blindingly bright magma. The room was divided now - unless I wanted to risk my life trying to jump to the other side - and I proceeded to look over at Duston. "We're going to burn alive in here! There's no way we can last another two minutes at this rate." "God damnit." I watched as he tried to stand back up, only to get back on his hands and knees again. "Fuck it really hurts to try standing." "Then don't!" It was then I noticed him seemingly looking at something that was behind me, and he didn't seem too thrilled to be looking at it. "Twilight move to the side!!! Right now!" He yelled out. I blinked, turning my head in confusion, where I saw just what he was looking at; the wall behind me was beginning to crack with lava trickling out, as if it was about to blow. I quickly scrambled over to the side, rolling over a couple times and doing anything to get out of the way fast enough. A few seconds later I saw the wall burst open, and I felt relieved to have not been in-front of it. That relief was short-lasting though, as what followed would probably be scarred into my mind forever. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" That bone-chilling scream of anguish sent shivers down my spine, and I gasped, suddenly feeling cold as I turned to look over at Duston. I almost didn't want to look out of fear of what I might see, and I probably should have listened. I couldn't do anything but stare in shock and horror as I watched the magma spewing out right onto his body, and I felt my mouth trembling while I watched - I felt totally helpless to do anything. "D...Duston..?" The heat and the collapsing room around us became practically invisible as I only focused on him. Was he even still alive? I slowly began to crawl over to him, trying to make my way around particles of lava that were on the ground around me. "AHHHH!!!!!" He frantically rolled around on the floor as if he didn't know what to do. I didn't either, and then I shrieked when I saw just how melted his face looked when he perked his head up. His eyes looked like they had completely melted off, leaving only empty sockets behind. I could see the skin on his face melting and dripping down onto the cave floor below as he hopelessly flailed around like a fish out of water, no-doubt overwhelmed by all the pain and emotions, only to eventually fall backwards straight into a pool of lava. "DUSTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!" My voice screeched and cracked in terror. "THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!!!!!!" My body trembled and tears began to flow as I ran over in a vain attempt to save him, but it was already way too late by that point. I heard his horrified scream slowly become mangled as the lava melted his neck and throat, and I simply sat there staring in complete terror, unable to fathom what I was witnessing. Then, when the screaming finally stopped, it seemed completely silent. I couldn't even comprehend my surroundings anymore as I shook and quivered, watching the very last of him seep into the lava, never to be seen again. The silence was unnerving - I felt completely alone now - and I didn't know what to do. There was nothing to do. Waves of overwhelming sadness and guilt flooded my mind - the urge to cry had become so powerful that I couldn't even sob. I simply sat there with my mouth wide open and my vision blurred with tears. I shakily tried to stand up after awhile, only to fall back down after each try - I felt so weak and devastated that I couldn't even move. Eventually, though, the anger began to set in. All the confusion that had built up over these strange, unexplained events had reached a peak, and I screamed out louder than I ever had before. "WAKE ME UP FROM THIS NIGHTMARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I lunged forward right into the lava, squeezing my eyes closed and bracing for my death. I flailed my hooves violently as I fell, waiting ever-so-eagerly for the magma to kill me - I wanted it to kill me. I wanted nothing more than to escape from this demented reality, but yet, that didn't seem to happen. I felt as if I was falling through a void, and I slowly opened my eyes back up in a reluctant curiosity to see what was going on. I was falling through the sky now, descending past the clouds, until I eventually could see the ground come into view. I appeared to be falling straight towards a town - something I recognized as Dodge City - and I braced for impact as I came crashing down into one of the buildings. It was surprisingly not as painful as I expected it to be, and I groaned as I slowly sat up. What was going to happen now? I looked around, seeing books lined up on shelves. The building seemed to be a library - a wooden, classic-looking library at that - and it seemed so very familiar, yet I still couldn't quite pinpoint why. Regardless, I couldn't care too much about that right now; if this was just another one of Discord's hellish games, then I wanted no part in it. I got up and made my way straight towards the exit, where I noticed another human figure standing outside the front doors. I could immediately feel anger as I thought it was Duston, which I knew it couldn't really be him when he had just died a death I didn't even want to think about anymore. Upon closer inspection, however, I noticed it wasn't actually him, but rather it was Klade instead. "Hey." He spoke up, turning to look at me. "Duston told me you needed me to send some books back to the library. I overuse the hell out of the teleport spell, so it'll probably work." "What... what books?" I asked, initially confused, before frowning. "No. There aren't any books. You aren't even real." "I'm not?" He asked, raising his arms up and looking at both of them. "That can't be good. If I'm not real right now, then there's definitely something wrong here." I found myself nodding my head slowly. "Yes... yes there is something definitely very wrong here." He looked around and then back at me. "If this is a dream, then the best thing we could do is try to wake up, somehow. I know that thinking clearly isn't easy during dreams though, so hopefully we don't mess up." "How should we do that?" "Follow me." He replied, turning around. Before he began walking though, he turned his head to look at me. "We should probably try to stay in each other's field of vision. Dreams are weird, and we don't need to be disappearing on each other." I was inclined to agree with what he was saying, and I carefully trotted up alongside him. The last thing I wanted was another trap though. I was so sick of being traumatized, and the migraine in my head was still as unbearable as it had been when I came to; but, if this was a chance to finally wake up and end this mess, then I was willing to take it. As we walked off together, though, a sudden thought occurred to me: What if this was actually Klade himself? I never did know what happened to him - all I knew was that Discord did something - and for all I knew, this could've actually been him, trapped just like I was right now. He definitely seemed to be acting normal, so I turned to look at him, but before I could even say anything, he spoke up first. "We're here." He stated. I looked back in-front of me to see a small wooden shack in-front of us, and I watched in confusion as he made his way over to it. He didn't open it though, and turned to face me shortly afterwards. "Actually, I should do this first, just to be safe." He stepped back over to me, where he started to put some latches to my hooves so he could lock them against the ground. "What are you doing?" I asked, feeling extremely tempted to back away and prevent him from doing whatever he was doing. I wasn't getting good vibes over whatever he might've been planning, and I watched as he made his way back over to the shack. "Having some fun." He replied as he kicked open the shack doors. I suddenly gasped in horror when I saw Duston's limp body inside, hanging with his arms raised above his head; once again I was being traumatized, and I fell right for it. "No... Not this again!!!! Stop this now!!" I first reaction was to run away, only to find that the latches were keeping my hooves trapped to the ground. I couldn't even move no matter how hard I tried, and I cursed out in anger, mostly to myself for letting this happen again. "You aren't Klade!! And that isn't Duston!" "Twilight..?" My ears flickered when I heard Duston's voice call out to me. "Twilight you have to get me out of there! Klade is-" He was suddenly interrupted by Klade slamming a metal baseball bat right into his stomach, causing him to lurch forward and me to gasp. "Having some fun." Klade finished speaking for him. Even though I knew it wasn't real, it still hurt to watch, which only made me even more angry. "Stop this now Klade!!! You would never hurt your own brother! That makes no sense!!" I yelled out in hopes that I could try to reason him to stop. "And what do you know about me? You don't know anything." He tossed the bat aside, where he proceeded to pull out a chainsaw from deeper inside the worn-down shed. "Ah, the same chainsaw I used against those three jerks. That was a fun time." "No.. No Klade don't do this." I proceeded to shake my head. "No, it's not you, it's Discord I should be mad at. You're just a creation of Discord, that's all you are - that's all everything here is!" "Twilight, you need to save me!" Duston spoke out again. "I don't even want to think about what he's going to-" "SHUT UP!!!!!!!" I screamed out, directly at him. That outburst seemed to catch Klade's attention as well, and the both of them stared at me in silence. "You're not really Duston!!! I don't know why I was so stupid to even let myself believe something so fantastical before. I'm tired of this! DO YOU HEAR ME DISCORD!? I KNOW YOU'RE THERE!!!!!! THIS ISN'T BUCKING FUNNY YOU SICK, DEMENTED MONSTER!!!!!!!!!!!" What followed was more silence for another few seconds, until I heard an ominous, figure-less voice respond a few seconds later. Even though I couldn't see him, I knew exactly who that voice belonged to. "Oh come on, Twilight, why must you be so boring? I had so many more ideas on what to do with your little boyfriend and you, but if you're going to be like that, then I suppose I'll just have to do.. other things." "WHY THE BUCK ARE YOU DOING THIS!? WHAT DID WE EVER DO TO YOU!? THIS IS-" Before I could continue, I heard him abruptly start laughing. "Oh! Twilight, surely you can't be serious - what did you all do to me? Hmm, I don't know, jail in me a dreadfully stone prison? And not once, but twice!" "You deserved it both of those times Discord!! You can't just treat Equestria and its citizens like your BUCKING playground!!!" "I can't? So riddle me this: why can't I do that, but yet someone like Klade can? Now that doesn't seem very fair. Or maybe, are you so pathetically naive towards him that you don't even know all the things he's done across Equestria? But perhaps I'm just pointing things out that you don't want to hear. After all, I'm just the big baddy Discord." "That... he hasn't done those things. He doesn't torment others, like you do." I replied. "I would know about it if he did, and so would the princesses. You've done INEXCUSABLE things that can't be.." I trailed off when I noticed just how wavy the world around me had become. It looked as if my surroundings were falling apart, and I blinked as I saw them start to fade away into a white nothingness. "What's going on now? What are you doing Discord!? I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS!!!!" "Oh, that's not me actually." He replied. "I gotta go." "You won't get away with this Discord! YOU, WILL, NOT, GET, AWAY, WITH, THIS!!!!!!!!!!" Right after I screamed out, a bright flash of light shined out from the nothingness. I blinked multiple times, stepping back a little, only to see that I was back on the roof of Baltimare again. I didn't believe it at first though, and I looked around slowly, seeing cyan-green light swirling across the floor. I perked my head up afterwards, seeing the glowing glass orb at the top - the tower was still emitting. I knew I had to stop it, but tilting my head upwards had suddenly made me feel dizzy. I didn't even realize what was happening until I fell backwards, collapsing onto the ground and catching a glimpse of a flowing, colorful mane before passing out.