//------------------------------// // 4: Demon // Story: Saving Their Souls // by Clever Name //------------------------------// Luna's horn glowed as she began to enter the human's dreams. Her world swirled around her as her mind traveled through the dream void, seeking out her target. It was easy to navigate, having been here so many times before. She flew along on the endless void of dreams. To her left and right she saw fragments of ponies sleeping in their beds, she couldn't help but smile knowing that all her subjects were sleeping peacefully tonight. As Luna drifted along the path full of sleeping ponies she wondered what was in store for her. She had been in plenty of human dreams before so why should this be any diferent? She thought about what she knew of the human, which wasn't much, and tried to predict his dreams. He seemed very troubled by something and refused to share it, that could mean he's either very strong or very stupid, you need friends to help you with somethings and his two that had been through so much with him, yet they knew little more than Luna. Someone that had bottled up something that was as big as he made it seem for that long surely would have snapped by now. He must have an anchor then, something to help him with whatever it was, maybe to remind him of what was right and wrong. But Luna had never seen him do anything unusaul or carry anyhting strange. She paused for a moment, those guns he always has with him, they do have a strange design on them. Could that mean something? Her thoughts were intterupted by an image of a sleeping human. Just ahead of her she saw the human she had been searching for. She stopped in front of the image, what would is dreams be like? He seemed troubled so would it be an open valley where he sat trying understand something? Or a beach maybe? How bad can it be? She stepped through the water-like surface, entering his dreams. It was a slightly fuzzy to Luna at first, it always was, but the world slowly returned to her. She found herself standing in some red liquid that she didn't recognize, She gave herself a good shake to gain her senses. Then as her hearing returned to her she began to hear noises. At first she couldn't quite place what they were, they was a high pitched noise of some sort that seemed far away and what seemed like fighting closer by. Luna rubbed her eyes with her forehooves and she foucused on her surroundings. This was the dream world now, everything was here for a purpose, nothing was just decoration. She had to focus. She looked all around her and saw small stone houses with wooden roofs, maybe she was in a village, was this his home? But something seemed off about the whole setting. It was dark so she had trouble seeing for the moment, she was tempted to try and bring the stars and moon out but decided against it. She had learned to not play with ponies - or on this case humans - dreams. Instead she conjured up a little white light at the tip of her horn and moved closer to the houses. She could now clearly see scorch marks and strange red markings across the walls in a splatter like pattern that seemed to slowly drip into the red lake at her hooves. "Oh my." she said aloud as she realized just what the liquid was. Why was there blood on the house? Why was she standing in a pool of blood? What did that mean? Was this his secret? Many questions passed through the Princesses mind. She backed away from the building, not wanting to be any closer to it. Her ears perked up as her hearing was fully restored and she now recognized the distant sound. Someone was screaming, no, a lot of people were screaming. It wasn't clear to Luna if it was in pain or fear but it was not a pleasent sound to the Alicorn. She instantly became worried and trotted to the sound of fighting in hopes to find the human. She ran between dozens of houses like the one she had fist seen, except they were getting worse. It seemed that with every passing house the burns and blood had increased along the walls, as she got even closer to the fighting some houses were on fire. Luna had no idea what to make of this, what did this all mean? More questions passed through Luna's head then she'd care to count. The fighting was closer now, maybe just around the next turn. The screaming seemed to have gotten louder as well. Just as she got closer to the turn a foul smell hit the Princess like a solid wall. She had never smelled anything like it before, but she didn't have to guess. In front of Luna was a massive pile of dead bodies of all shapes and sizes. Men, women, the elderly, even infants were thrown into the pile. The Princess barley glanced at it, not being able to look at death on such a large scale. In the moment she had seen the pile she saw that every body was horribly mutilated, most were obviously beaten, bruised, and bloody. Some were even missing multiple limbs, and almost all of them were completely burnt. It was stacked above the rooftops and was nearly just as wide. Luna gasped and closed her eyes. "What kind of place is this?!" Luna yelled in fear more than anything. "My home." A sad but familiar voice said next to her. The Alicorn opened her eyes and stared at the human with no name. "You- your home... This place is your home?" She asked, not believing what he had just said. He nodded. "Yes, or at least what's left of it." "What do mean?" Luna asked still on the frozen in place. He sighed heavily and closed his eyes for a moment. When they opened he spoke. "You see Princess, this was my home. They used to call it the Kingdom, but now, they call it the Bloodbath." Luna looked down for a moment in understanding, puzzled she asked. "What happened here?" The human shook his head slowly. "I can't tell you." "Why not? Is it the memories?" Luna guessed. The human remained stoic. "No. It's." He paused. "Difficult to explain." Luna couldn't tell that he had just lied to her. Luna wasn't about to give up. She had come here for answers and so far she only had more questions. "Can you please tell me?" Luna asked. "No." "I came all the way into your dreams to help you because I care, now, please let me help." Luna almost begged "The last person to help me ended up killing herself." The human deadpanned. Luna was taken aback. "Wh- how- why- who?" she stutered. The human ignored her and walked forward, towards the fighting. Luna couldn't hear his answer. Luna sat down, her mind racing. This human was much more complicated than she had ever thought. The blood stained houses, that must have something to do with this 'Bloodbath' she kept hearing about. The pile of bodies, that must've been the people that lived in these houses. The screaming? She had no idea, but she had been hearing it since she arrived here, so it must be important. Luna stood up confidently, and she was about to find it out. Holding her breath she ran through the wall of foul smells and turned the corner to find the human. It didn't take long he was standing not fifty feet from where she stood. She ran forward, now breathing normaly due to the lack of bad smells. She closed the distance quickly but stoped short as she noticed something. The nameless human seemed to be glowing dark blue and fighting himself, literally. There was an exact same copy of himself and they were circling and throwing punches at each other whenever they had the opporutunity, except his clone was glowing a bright silver. They both had fierce looks in their eyes and seemed to be set on fighting to the end of time if that's what it would take. Then she spotted the original human off to the left of the fight on a large pile of rubble, and was watching himself closely. Luna slowly walked up to the human and quitely asked. "What are you doing?" Without missing a beat the human responded. "Wondering who's going to win." Luna decided to play his game. "Who do you want to win?" "I don't know." the human said not taking his eyes off the fighters. "Whoever I want to win suddenly gets really strong and the other really weak. What I want to know is who should win." "It depends on what they're fighting for." The human sighed. "Exactly, I want both things that they're fighting for." "What would that be?" Luna was growing adgitated with how little information she was getting for this human. "The silver one is fighting for what he still has and to take care of it. The blue one is fighting for what he lost and to get revenge on who took it." Luna tried to surpress her annoyance. "What did the silver one loose?" She asked sweetly. The human turned his head and looked Luna in the eye. "Everything." Luna jumped up to all fours on her bed, nearly knocking off Celestia in the process. "What happened?" Celestia exclaimed. Luna gave herself a vigurous shake before she replied. "I was thrown from his dream." "Did you get any answers?" Celestia asked eagerly. Luna shook her head. "Hardly and now I only have more questions." "What did you see?" Luna recalled her time in the human's dreams. "I saw his home, it was once called the Kingdom. But it was uterly destroyed, and there was a pile of bodies easily three times my height. Then I saw him and he told me someone killed herself. Then I saw two replicas of him fighting each other. He said one was fighting to preserve what he still had while the other wanted revenge on the one who took everything from him." Luna sucked in a deep breath from her speech. Celestia mulled that over for a minute. "What do you think it means?" "I'm not sure." Luna admitted. "He's defiantly hiding something, I'm sure of that now. The screaming, houses and bodies must have something to do with that Bloodbath we keep hearing about." "Then him fighting himself must mean that he wants to do something but he can't for some reason." Celestia groaned. "This was so much easier when we knew nothing about him!" "There was something else." Luna said thoughtfully. "He seemed... out of place. Like he didn't belong there or he was uncomfortable." "So you think he's faking something?" Her older sister asked. Luna lowered her head. "I don't know what to think anymore, going into his dreams was a mistake. I'm only more confused now." "I hope he still chooses to help us, regardless of what's a truth and what's a lie." Luna sighed and climbed into her bed. "They go into the Everfree tomorrow, maybe we can get some answers then." "Well... this is it, good luck in there." "Don't worry Twilight I'll be fine." That did little to help the little Unicorns worries. "Are you sure? You've never been in there and it's really dangerous." "I'll be fine." I responded casually, what could possibly be a danger to me in a little ponies back yard? "You promise?" Twilight said hopefully. *** "Do you have to?" "Yes, I don't care what I am now but we don't have men to spare, they need my help." "I can't loose you so soon though..." "Who said I'm going anywhere?" "Susan, her lover died just after they confessed to each other..." "You think that you're going to distract me?" "Well-" "Because you're not. I'll be thinking of you know matter what, and just the thought of you waiting for me is enough to keep me alive forever." "Heh, that's" sniff "really cheesy." "Cheesy but true." "Heh, okay just promise me you'll come back." *** I made that promise, why shouldn't I make this one? Because it wasn't her? I'm not heartless. Because I broke my last promise? That had nothing to do with this. Because I couldn't take breaking another one? Know what? It didn't matter, I could spare little Twilight a promise. "Yeah I promise I'll be okay." Twilight smiled. "Thank you." "No problem." "Hey Twi!" Applejack shouted and trotted up to us with Brian in tow. "Hello Applejack, how are you and Brian getting along?" Twilight asked. "Aw, he's a good guy, hard worker too!" Applejack responded. "Hello Dearies!" Rarity called out with Vinnie following her. "Howdy Rarity!" Applejack shouted enthusiastically. "Good to see you Rarity." I groaned, this was getting boring, I thought I was going to get to fight a dragon. "Something wrong?" Twilight asked me. "Can I go now?" Twilight giggled, "Of course, just be careful." "I will." I said mockingly. Twilight locked eyes with mine. "I mean it, I don't care how good at fighting the Princesses say you are. The Everfree Forest is still a dangerous place and you can get hurt if you're not careful." she said seriously. "Okay, did you get their guns yet?" I asked changing the subject. "Oh right!" The Unicorn turned to my friends and gave them similar enchantments while their host ponies gave them similar safety lectures. We all said our goodbyes and we walked into the forest. Even in the middle of the day the trees were so thick you would think it's night in the Everfree. "Those ponies sure are motherly." Brian said as we passed the treeline. "Yeah, it's nice." I agreed. "I didn't mean it was a good thing." Brian clarified. "It's nice for me." I argued. "Why?" Vinnie asked. I shrugged. "No reason." I lied. "Really?" Brian asked. "You like being smothered by ponies half your size and a third your strength?" "That's not how I think about it." "Then how?" "So what are we doing exactly?" Vinnie interrupted, finally he was serious. "First you should head towards the shifting trees." Celestia's voice said in my head. We all jumped at once. I could hear laughter. "I apologize, I should have warned you first." "No problem." I said. "So are you going to be keeping an eye on us while we're in here?" "As much as I am able to, yes." "So why didn't you do this for your search parties?" Brain asked. "I didn't think I needed to." her voice said sadder. "Where's the nearest batch of shifty trees?" I asked, eager for some action. "Continue straight, it's about two and a half miles in." "Awesome." We walked in silence for what seemed like days, but I couldn't help but feel out of place here. Brian and Vinnie had adjusted seamlessly to the forest. Brian was in his element, he knew everything that was around him and was ready at a moments notice. Vinnie on the other hand was practically flowing with the forest, he dodged and weaved through every little obstacle without so much as blinking. Then there was me. I hated this forest, not knowing what was around me, tripping over every stump in my path. I was not good at this. A branch snapped to our left and we froze and drew our guns. I may not be as agile as my friends, but I was just as alert as they were. "Celestia?" Vinnie whispered. "Did you see anything?" "No, I can only see you three. Why? What's happening?" She asked concerned for us. "We're being followed." Brian answered. "Now you tell us?" I hissed. "We're in Equestria and everything around us is either half our size or five times as big, I figured it wouldn't be a problem." He shot back. There was a low growl in front of us and we took aim with our guns. I glanced around me to see where we were. There were trees all around us, almost forming a circle. Brian was on my left and Vinnie was further back to my right. Brian broke the silence. "It's a killing den." "A what?" I asked quickly. Without taking his eyes from his scope he replied. "The trees and ground, blood." I dared a look away and peeked at the ground under me. Sure enough, blood was splattered across it. "Timberwolves." Brian said answering my unspoken question. "Watch this and don't look." He took a small step back and there was a low, dangerous growl behind us. My first instinct was to turn around and shoot the noise but I listened to Brian and stayed put. "How'd you know?" I asked. "They're behaving just like the coyotes. They lure you to where they have the advantage then circle you, guess what's next." He said unmoving, he was in the zone. I frowned at that, I thought we had trained them better. I had no idea they knew their pattern so well. "How long?" "They want us to make the first move, a sign of weakness or an opening. They're very good at waiting." Damn, he knew everything. "What do you want us to do?" Vinnie asked behind us. I know what Vinnie's doing, he was letting Brian have his moment. Something clicked and realized what was happening to Brian, I wasn't the only one with a bad past. Brian was reliving his days. I smiled, he needed this even if he didn't know it. I could see Brian's devilish grin as he answered. "What we always do. Now everyone move next to me and watch each other's backs." I slowly moved closer to Brain and turned around to watch Vinnie creep up on us. When he arrived and turned Brian spoke again. "Now on my signal we run up to them and attack." I grinned, I was liking this plan. Something moved not fifteen feet from us. "Now!" Brian shouted and we lunged. I blindly ran forward and saw four Timberwolves jump from the treeline, teeth bared and ready to kill. Good, because I was too. I felt the rush as I jumped left and slammed Tolerance down on the far left one's head. It fell down, struggling to get back up. I instinctively shot it in the head with Love and it stopped moving. Wait. These things were made of souls right? Just like the Ponies, why did it die? I snapped back to reality when another lunged at my with a loud growl. I brought Tolerance up and fired into it's mouth while it was still in the air. Sure enough it fell down in a heap when the bullet erupted from it's head. Whatever, fight now ask later. Teeth digging into my shoulder reminded me of that. I raised Tolerance and shot the pest in it's eye. I checked where it had just bit me, I was bleeding pretty bad and would have to bandage it later. I looked up and saw the last wolf charging at me. I laughed a little as I kicked it in the head at just the right angle and it's body rolled into the woods. Poor little guys, they had no idea who they were messing with. I heard a loud boom and saw Vinnie finish off the last wolf with a blast from his shotgun. I looked to Brian and his grin faded, I knew why. For him this wasn't exploring the Everfree for Ponies with me and Vinnie. He had slipped and thought he was back in the dark with his party closing in on... Why was my wrist flicking? Vinnie had noticed it too and had a look of fear on his face. I put my had behind my back and smiled innocently at him. He only eyed me suspiciously, he knew I had just slipped a little. "Everyone okay?" Brian asked, breaking the silence. "Fine." Me and Vinnie answered together while I put my shirt over my wound. Brian nodded. "Good... good..." He turned and began to walk deeper into the Forest. I signaled Vinnie to go with him. He nodded and ran to cheer Brian up. "Celestia, how did we just kill the Timberwolves?" I asked as I a began to walk deeper into the Forest at a slow pace, giving Vinnie and Brian time to talk. Given the past they shared I really shouldn't be leaving them alone together. "I was wondering that myself, I'm assuming that the Timberwolves weren't loved enough and don't have enough souls to make them immortal. The same might go for the other creatures of the Everfree." The Alicorn answered. "That's good news." I admitted. "May I ask you something?" "Sure." I had a good guess of what this was about. "About Luna entering your dreams..." One point for me. "It's fine." I responded quickly, I really did hate it when someone had to apologize to me. "Re- really? But she intruded your dreams, your privacy and nopony should-" "Celestia." I said firmly. "I'm okay with it, as long as she isn't emotionally scared for life I'm fine with her in my dreams." "Luna is fine but... What happened?" "Um, she looked in my dreams?" I offered, I had no idea where Celestia was going with this. "No, all that time ago. What happened during the Bloodbath?" Oh that's where. "It's in the name Celly." I said blandly. "A lot of people died, what's there to know?" "Why won't you tell us the specifics though?" That question hit home. Why wasn't I telling them the truth? What was I hiding? Do you really not remember them? That's sad, I thought you said you cared. Oh right, him. Haven't heard from him in a while actually, it was nice while it lasted. "Because if I do, a lot more people are going to get hurt." "But how? Why do you have to hide it from everypony?" Celesta's tone was almost that of begging. *** "Run! Run and don't look back!" "What about you?!" "I'll see you after I take care of them! Keep them safe!" "But when?!" "No idea! Just... Remember the fallen..." "...And protect the standing." *** "Sometimes you have to make sacrifices!" I almost shouted. "And sometimes not everybody likes what you do!" I wanted to cry again. I really did. But I knew I couldn't. I took a deep breath to calm myself. "How much further?" I asked. Celestia seemed shaken when she spoke. "Just under a quarter mile, you're friends are waiting for you." "Thanks." I grumbled and ran ahead to catch up with my fellow humans. Vinnie and Brian were standing together and talking happily. I was glad to see that Vinnie had managed to get Brian back on track and in control. Unlike myself they can easily calm each other down without putting themselves in danger. "Celestia says it's just ahead of us." I announced as I approached them. "Yeah we know." Brian replied with an easy tone but I heard the anger in it. "We can hear it from here." Sure enough as soon as I moved closer to where they were standing I heard branches snapping and trees rustling in the distance. "Shall we?" Vinnie asked eagerly. Me and Brian nodded. The three of us moved through the Forest as one, Brian taking the lead while Vinnie flanked him on the right and me on his left. I looked at my friends who were staring straight ahead, completely focused on whatever challenge was about to show itself. I couldn't stop myself from smiling slightly at the sight. These were the moments I cherished, when we could forget our rough history and fight together instead of each other. Multiple rustling noises distracted me from my thoughts. Brain and Vinnie were already poised to attack. When my eyes met Brain's he signaled for Vinnie to flank right and for me to continue on, then he ran off to the left. I grinned once again. The best part about not being able to keep quite was that I got to be the distraction. I walked at a casual pace, giving my friends enough time to get ready. When I walked into the opening I was very surprised to see hundreds, no, thousands of Parasprites flying through the Forest like a multicolored river. "Well that's anticlimactic." Vinnie said walking up to me on my right. "Looking at it now, I suppose it could have been what I saw in the telescope. But I could have sworn that I saw something else." Brian said on my right. "What's your take on this Celestia?" I asked. If anypony knew something, it was the half the ruler of Equestria. After a moment the Alicorn responded. This... This doesn't make any sense. Why would the Parasprites suddenly start moving around so much? It's not possible that Parasprites could have captured an entire party of royal guards either... Celestia then began to trail off talking to herself about wild theories and other stuff I wasn't paying attention to. Brain froze and his eyes started searching. When I opened my mouth to ask what he was doing he put a finger to his lips and looked off to where the Parasprites were coming from. "Wait for it..." He whispered. There was a loud crash as fifty foot Dragon stomped through the trees and roared at the Parasprites. "How in the hell did you know that?" I shouted to Brian above the Dragon's roaring. "I'm pretty sure that we didn't have any Dragons back in the Dark." Brian gave me a smug look as he slipped a little further. "Yeah but you had Bears." I don't know why but for some reason the fact that he knew so much about my animals really pissed me off. Vinnie put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a sad look. I was confused until he looked down. I followed suit and saw that my right wrist was flicking again. I groaned in annoyance and pushed his hand off me. "Now what?" I said to nobody in particular. "Try reasoning with it. There's a good chance it can understand you." Celestia's voice said in my head. i glanced at Brian who mouthed the words 'animal expert' to me. I could tell he was slipping, it was in his eyes. I still wanted to hurt him though, and any old insults would only make him slip even further. I settled for giving him the middle finger as I walked towards the Dragon. He laughed, knowing that he was getting to me so easily. It made my blood boil. Why not fight back? You know you can win. I groaned again, this guy was not helping me right now either. I stood behind the Dragon as chased the remaining Parasprites away. "Hey!" I yelled. "Dragon! What are you doing?!" The beast paused and turned to me. "What tiny creature doing?" It spoke slowly and heavily, like it was struggling with Human speech. "I'm here to ask you why you're moving the trees!" I shouted at it. It grunted. "Trees in way, I move." "Where are you moving to?" "New den." It said as if it was obvious. "Why?" "Old den bad, not want." I huffed, this thing was worse than me. "What's wrong with your old den?" The Dragon rolled it's eyes at me. "Strangeness too close." "What's that?" "Something strange." It deadpanned. Never mind, this thing is even worse than me. "Okay. okay. Where is your old den?" The Dragon huffed and pointed further into the Forest. I put on a fake smile. "Thanks for your time." I said as blandly as I could and turned to my friends. "Well? What do you think?" "The Dragon felt it too, and now it's trying to get away from it." Celestia answered. "All we've learned is that there defiantly is something in this Forest and it's further back." Vinnie summarized. "The trees keep shifting for miles, it will be a long journey. One for another day, why don't you all come back and rest?" Celestia suggested. "I don't see why not." I said quickly. In truth I could have gone on. But I wanted Brain out of this Forest soon, it would only be a matter of time before he snapped completely. This was way too familiar to him. "Sure why not?" Vinnie said. Brian only shrugged lightly. With that we all began our trek back towards Ponyville. "That was pointless." Brian said sourly as we exited the Everfree, thankfully our trip back was uneventful. "Not entirely, we got a solid conformation that there is in fact something in there and Celestia's 'feeling' wasn't just gas." Vinnie defended. Brian only huffed. I was about to comment on Brian's behavior when I saw six familiar mares running towards us. "There you are!" Twilight shouted as she reached us. "We've been looking for you for the past fifteen minutes." "Nice to see you too." I said with a smile. Twilight relaxed a little. "I'm sorry, I was just so worried about you being in the Everfree and all." Her eyes fell upon my blood stained shoulder. "What happened to you?" She exclaimed. I glanced at my shoulder, it wasn't too bad. It had stopped bleeding now and it looked a lot worse than it actually was. "It's nothing really, a hungry Timberwolf got too close is all." I shrugged. "Let me see it." She demanded nicely. I obliged and sat down so she could get a better look at it. "Hmm. It seems like it's okay for now." She examined. "But I don't want it infected so we'll have to clean it once we get back to the Library." I was about to object when I heard Brian shout off to my left. "I'm fine you dumb horse!" I jumped to my feet and turned on Brian. "Hey!" I shouted at him, causing him to face me. "I don't care if you're slipping or remembering right now but you better not bring the Ponies into this!" His behavior was pushing me over the edge, I couldn't stop myself at this point. "Or what?" He tested. "What are you going to do if I insult a living cartoon?" I flicked my wrist and he stepped back in fear for a moment, letting me know just how far he had slipped. "You know damn well what I would do." I warned. "You wouldn't dare." He challenged. "Not in front of them." He paused for a moment then grinned. "You don't even have it! You left it at the Corner!" Well there's that... Who said you needed it? Remember? You don't need anything to beat this pathetic excuse for a man. That's when I slipped. "Who said I needed it? I don't need anything to beat you, you pathetic-" Then I was hit over the head with the butt of a shotgun. Your pathetic. No I'm not. Yes you are. Look at yourself! Helping little magic Ponies instead of those who really need it. No, I am helping them. They're safe. They have no idea where they are. Then why are you here? The Ponies brought me here. Why did they bring you here? Because... I was a leader of the Corner of Equestria. And why were you a leader of the Corner of Equestria? I helped build it. Why did you build it? I needed a place to go. Bullshit! You had many places to go! But that would have but them in danger! Then fight! Why deceive when you can kill? Why abandon them for nothing? I didn't abandon them! I kept them out of their line of sight! Why mislead when you can blind? If I killed them then they would only be replaced by more. Then you fight! You fight for what you believe in! That's what you do! Did. That's what I did. Why stop fighting? Why give up now? Why are you a mere shadow of what you used to be? Maybe I'm tired! Maybe I've seen enough blood! I can only loose more at this point... That's what this is about then? Her? You don't give up when you're kicked down! You stand up and rip their throats out for kicking you in the first place! What the FUCK happened to you?! I GOT EVERYONE KILLED! THAT'S WHAT! That is what happens when I follow what you say, people die. All of them. Then fight because of them. Don't stop because of them. You have every reason to raise your weapon, so why did you put it away? The Last time I raised that weapon everyone I could ever call a friend, a brother, a sister. Died. I will NOT do it all over again. So you're a coward? Is that it? Too scared to fight for what you want? If I fight, they get hurt. It's as simple as that. But you are a coward. Don't you DARE call me that. After everything that's happened all I want to do is protect what's left. What's the point in protecting it if you wont even see it? It's a small sacrifice for their safety... Oh bullshit! You're scared that they're going to hate you for ditching them. Well they're not. They have always supported and cared for you. That will never go away. So I can blindly lead them to another slaughter? Not happening. Get off your ass and go to them! I am sick and tired of watching you day after day pitying yourself over something that wasn't your fault. How was it not my fault? How were you supposed to know that they would be cowards and sneak up on you? How were you supposed to know that the weak would team up? How were you supposed to know that they broke so easily and started to kill? Who was the one that made them break? Me. Who was the one that scared them into sneaking? Me. Who was the one that- You were doing your job! You were protecting them! It's not your fault that you were overwhelmed! Even you can loose sometimes. But you can NOT give up. But I'm not strong enough to fight anymore. No. You are. You just need to unlock it once again. Every time you remember your life you push it away. You need to embrace those memories. Remember the last time I was that strong? *** "WHERE ARE YOU?!" "Shit! Run run run!" "FACE ME YOU COWARDS!" "Fuck! How did he get out?!" "Doesn't matter just fucking run!" "NONE OF YOU WILL SURVIVE!" *** They forced you to do that. Were you supposed to just sit by after they made you watch everyone die? No. You did what was right and you fought back. You just need to keep fighting. That was fueled by blind hatred, nothing else. What about every fight before it then? What were you fighting for? My home. But that's gone now. Then fight for your people! For those who still believe in you! It's all still there isn't it? My weapon? My face? My flag? All of it. You just need to go there and- Be reborn... I opened my eyes to see a familiar hospital room. Or at least similar, I'm pretty sure this was the Ponyville Clinic. I put a hand to my head, I had a horrible headache right now. "What happened?" I asked the room. Just then a white Mare I recognized as Nurse Redheart trotted through the door. When she saw me she smiled. "Oh good, you're awake! I'll go get your friend for you." Before I could respond she trotted out the door. "Okay thanks." I said dully and laid back down on the bed. A few seconds later the same door opened, but this time Vinnie was the one that stepped through. "How are you?" He asked. "Why don't you tell me? Seeing as how you're the one that's out of bed." I said bluntly. Vinnie didn't even flinch. "I had to knock you and Brian out. You both had slipped too far and there were Ponies around. It was the quickest way to stop you two." I only groaned and flopped my head on the pillow. "What happened to you two back there?" He asked. "How did both of you loose control so easily?" I sat up on the edge of the bed. "Brian was in his element, simple as that. It was all to familiar to him and he lost it. As for me." I let out a breath. "When he lost he wouldn't leave me alone, I know you couldn't tell, but. What he said, it just made me so damn angry so I slipped when he yelled at Applejack." Vinnie looked sad and deep in thought at the same time. "It's okay, he wasn't himself. He already apologized immensely to Applejack and she accepted." I relaxed at that, I didn't want the Ponies to think we were going to hurt them. "Although they all got really suspicious when he told her he wasn't himself." I sighed. "Yeah, they really want to know what happened at the Bath for some reason." Vinnie shrugged. "Just curious I guess." He turned to walked out the door but I stopped him. "Vinnie wait." I said quickly. He turned back around. "What is it?" I took a breath. "Don't tell them about the Bath, they'll never look at us the same way again. Let alone trust us." Vinnie nodded. "Sure, no problem." Then walked out the door. I just sat there for a minute, thinking. What was I doing? What am I thinking? What's my plan? You don't plan remember? You just wing it. Oh no, not you. I thought you were a coma dream or something. Oh no, I'm back all right. With a groan I got out of the bed and walked out of the door and the Hospital. The sky was just taking on an orange color now. I knew my way around Ponyville well enough now and set off towards the Library. Look at this peaceful little village. "Shut up" I didn't realize I had just said that aloud. Doesn't this place just look perfect? "Don't you go there." Like something bad could never happen to it? "I know what you're doing-" Like life could just live on like this forever? "-and It's not going to work." Doesn't it kind of... "Don't." ...Remind you of someplace? *** Rows and rows of cute little houses all occupied by loving parents and happy children, a pasture to the left full of cows, chickens and other farm animals, a little boy laughing with his dog in the road, a happy couple walking down the road holding hands, my arm around a beautiful girl of my own as she smiled sweetly at me. *** My legs gave out and I collapsed on the ground. I knew he had enhanced that memory to make it so vivid, it was one of my favorites after all. "That's... not fair." I spoke like I had just been hit with another shotgun. Know what else isn't fair? Having that taken away from you. "Excuse me Human but, who are you talking to?" Celestia said in my head. Because one voice isn't enough. I stood up and tried to regain my composure. "My inner demon."