//------------------------------// // The Face Behind the Faceless // Story: The Fused and The Severed // by Golden Cake //------------------------------// …darkness. I don't even know how long it was like this, but it was just… darkness. At some point, though, a spark of light shined in the blank void, and illuminated my surroundings as it’s light grew. I was in General Celestia’s camp. It was nighttime, and the camp was illuminated with the artificial lights of our lamps we had strewn throughout the pathways. I felt a bit different, and as I was walking, I could feel that my human legs were back, and I wasn’t walking on all fours like how I was sort of getting used to doing. I could actually see out of the corner of my eyes that instead of hooves, I had my hands, and as far as I knew I didn’t even have a muzzle anymore, either. I wanted to raise my hands in front of my face to see them directly, but I realized just then that I didn’t have any control over the movement of my eyes, or even my entire body, not even the slightest of movements. I felt that I wasn’t being controlled by any outside force, though, which was strange. Even though I couldn’t control where I was walking, I somehow knew exactly where I was going. To Wild’s tent, to set the plan in motion. Was… was this a memory that I was witnessing firsthand? Yeah, I remember this night, actually. A little over a year after me and Wild started working together in Celestia’s military, me and Wild wanted to spend a night together in the Hollow Shades, outside of camp. As I was lost in my thoughts, my body was performing every action of the memory just as I remembered it. I opened me and Wild’s tent and peeked my head through, and looked at Wild, who was smiling at me excitedly. “The higher level guards are off patrol Wild, let’s go,” I said. As me and Wild snuck through the open path of the large camp together, staying hidden from passing guards, we soon found the spot that I’d found a while back. I crouched down and crawled through the gap in the wall to the other side, and helped Wild as she made her way through. It was nearly pitch black as we were walking, with no real destination in mind. The tree canopies were blocking out the moonlight, and although there were some fireflies buzzing around, they weren’t a reliable source of light. Eventually me and Wild made it to a large, towering tree and looked up at its sturdy branches, which looked like they could support our combined weight, then at each other as we smiled. We were thinking the same thing. I reached out my hand, and she reached out her hoof, as we held each other and fused with a quick flash of white light. When we were one, my vision got sort of blurry, I assumed since this part of the memory was only partially mine. Our body didn’t mind the blurry perspective I was seeing at all though, as we opened our wings and flapped them aggressively, only for us to float for a second, then flutter back down to the ground. We then looked up and down the tree, at it’s several large branches, which were arranged in a climeable way. “We can get this,” we said to ourselves, as we jumped and flapped our wings, grabbing one large branch, before we stood up on it and hopped to another. As we were ascending on branch after branch, the windy breeze was blowing our long hair in our face, which was kind of annoying. ‘We should start wearing a hair tie when we’re together,’ Wild thought. ‘Sure,’ I mentally agreed. After some focused climbing, we made it to a large branch higher up on the tree that offered a nice view of the Hollow Shades and the camp, as it wasn’t very obscured by leaves. As we sat down on the branch, we unfused with a small flash of light, which caused my vision to clear back up, as Wild leaned against my shoulder. We both took a deep breath, and just took in the view for a moment, before Wild spoke. “I’ve forgotten how much I’ve missed Princess Luna’s night sky,” she said, nostalgia tight in her voice. I looked down at the ground beneath us, but quickly re-averted my gaze back to the moon when I realized how high we were. “Yeah, it’s a shame Princess Luna isn’t here. I can only imagine what Celestia must’ve felt she when she’d lost her,” I said sympathetically. Wild then scooted closer to me, and laid her head down on my leg. “Yeah,” she responded. I rubbed her comfortingly, which caused a contented sigh to escape her muzzle, as we gazed into the moon, enjoying the small, natural pleasures of life. They were hard to come across in these days. For quite a while, me and Wild just sat in that tree, gazing at the moon and enjoying each other’s company, until we had to get back to camp so we could get a good night’s sleep, and not get into trouble in the morning. Wild sat upright, and we hugged each other affectionately, before we fused together, and used our wings to glide safely down to the ground. It would’ve been easier to glide all the way back to camp, but our nighttime guards have an eagle’s eye on the sky, so we had to go on hoof once we got to a certain distance to camp. When we eventually got back, snuck through patrols, and got back to our tent, I took off my shirt and slipped into my sleeping bag, before Wild looked at me and blushed slightly. “Could we… sleep in the same bag tonight?” She asked uncertainly. “It’s kinda chilly.” I blushed too, but looked at her with certainty, and nodded. Wild then moved herself into my sleeping bag, as I blew out our lantern. It was kind of tight, and Wild seemed unsure at first, as she was faced away from me, but she then cleared her throat a moment later and maneuvered herself to face my direction, as she slowly placed the side of her face against my bare upper chest, just below my chin. She hesitantly put her hooves around my back, which I returned by slowly, and gently putting my arms around her. As I felt the comfort of our shared body heat, I held her more tightly, and she held on to me tighter in return. I could feel her tension melting in that moment, as we both quietly sighed contently. I smiled, as we both drifted to sleep. As the memory version of me fell asleep, I felt like I was just waking up, as I opened my eyes and stood up, feeling a sharp pain in my forehead. I raised what I half expected to be my hand to rub away the sore pain in my head, and was surprised see a hoof rise in front of my eyes instead. It seemed that I was a pony again. That really was just some kind of memory. I looked around at my surroundings. I was in a cage, and even though wherever I was was really dimly lit, a few torches on the walls revealed that I was in some kind of cave, and the walls and ceiling seemed entirely made of blue crystals. When I remembered that Wild was shot right before me, and was probably captured too, I quickly looked around, and saw her laying motionless in another cage beside mine. “Wild!” I whispered, reaching my hooves as far through the bars of my cage as I could. “Wild, wake up!” Wild didn’t respond at all, however, so I tried looking around for anything I could use to help us escape. I saw a small, sharp crystal shard laying on the floor outside my cage, just out of reach. I probably could’ve reached it with my wing, but just then I heard hoofsteps nearing us. My thoughts raced on what I should do, but after a second, I just settled on pretending I was still asleep. I hastily laid myself back on the cold, metallic floor of my cage and shut my eyes. I sure hoped that our mysterious captor hadn’t seen me as I did that. When the hoofsteps were right outside my cage, they stopped briefly, but continued a moment later, moving to the other side of the room. “So, you’re awake,” a sophisticated, younger male voice announced a moment later. “There’s no point in faking still being asleep, Mr. Flame.” I kept my eyes shut and remained still, but after some thought, I sighed and opened my eyes, as I stood up. I looked at me and Wild’s captor, who was rummaging through some books and potions at a large table, as he looked back at me. He was a unicorn with a grayish coat and a smooth, combed, dark blue mane and tail, and he had eyes that seemed to be shifting in color, from green to cyan to blue to purple to pink, and so on. “Who are you?! What do you want with us?!?!” I asked quickly, before I groaned from the pain in my head. As he continued looking back at me, he turned around completely and slowly trotted to my cage, before he stood right in front of me. “That’s not exactly important, Mr.. But if you must know, my name is Sabby Strings.” I saw a glimpse of his cutie mark, which looked like an image of puppet strings looming over a rainbow. I looked at him and gritted my teeth. “Why did you kidnap us?!” I asked furiously. “And… why’d you call me… Mr. Flame?” He smiled at me genuinely, despite my anger, before he walked back to the large table and flipped open a book, as he read through it. “Have no fear, I merely brought you two here just because I need to run a few little tests,” he said calmly, as he kept his eyes fixated on his book. “And to answer your second question, I only assumed that the flames on your cutie mark resemble what you go by, that’s why I called you by that title.” I tilted my head curiously, before I turned my head to look at my cutie mark for the first time. It was a simple saber sword. The blade was slightly curved, and it had a glowing flame sigil carved into it, along with flames that seemed to be coming off of the blade. It looked just like my special sword I got from the camp’s blacksmith all that time ago. Despite how peculiar my cutie mark was, the mere sight of it didn’t stray me from my current situation in the slightest. I put my hooves against the bars of my prison as I glared at this strange pony, hostility laced in my expression. “You better let us go, or I swear you’ll pay,” I said bitterly. Sabby’s ears perked up, but he just continued messing with the stuff on his table. “Oh, I somehow have my doubts about that statement, Mr.,” He said. “Though I will say that you and Wild have my respect of having a natural bond that’s… a bit more than mere friendship. That night you two spent together in the Hollow Shades was especially lovely, it was quite nice to witness first hoof.” What the hell was he talking about? “Wh-“ I was going to ask, before he forcefully held my lips shut with his magic aura, as his horn lit up. Said magic aura was also somehow shifting in color, just like his eyes were. He sighed, as he looked up from his potions, and back at me, with an annoyed face. “I’ll only tell you this to get you to stop asking questions. I need you alive for this, and thought I don’t want to be so bashful as to permanently seal your lips shut, it takes some focus to stop your talking with just my aura. Just… promise you won’t ask any more pointless questions, will you?” I simply stared at him and squinted my eyes, which he somehow took as my ‘promise’, as his horn stopped glowing, and his aura faded. Even though I could’ve talked, I felt it wasn’t best to interrupt him while he spoke, so I kept my mouth shut for the moment, as I looked outside my cage, at the crystal shard that was laying on the ground a bit outside the bars. I took this opportunity of him looking the other way to stretch one of my wings out of the bars of my cell, just barely grasping the small, sharp crystal shard, as I tightly tucked it in my wing, and waited for the right moment to use it. He sighed once more, as he stopped fidling with the things on his table. “Well, I suppose it could be sort of nice to talk about, with an actual sentient creature, at least,” he started. He then looked up at the ceiling as he continued. “You see, Mr. Flame, as a young colt, I didn’t exactly have the poster perfect family. To sum things up, Mother would always enforce her definition of ‘respect’ upon me, sometimes to a very harsh degree, and Father… was always drinking.” He then cleared his throat, before he looked back at the ceiling. “I suppose… I just wanted to know what it felt like, to have a happy family,” he said slowly, as he turned around to meet my gaze. “That’s… why I started the outbreak of creatures that you call ‘severed’.” My jaw actually hung open when he said that. He didn’t pay any mind to me, thought, as he continued talking. “And I must say, it does feel pretty nice having the pure memories and essence of those happy ponies within me,” he said, smiling as he raised his hoof in front of his face. “I mean, when I first started I was only intending to absorb the MEMORIES of every new infected, but once I realized I was gaining magic as well, I couldn’t let my own potential go to waste.” I put a hoof to my chin. When I was first getting used to ‘taking care’ of severed creatures, I did have my hopes that I could somehow remind them of who they once were and maybe even change them back. It was a nice thought, but it was only after witnessing a severed that had killed one of my older pony friends, a kind stallion named Buckshot, right in front of me, tearing open his chest and ripping out his innards as he screamed horrifically, that I lost hope that there was anything with a consciousness left within those… hollow shells of creatures. And I guess I was right about that after all. He then used his magic to levitate some kind of crown made from blue crystal shards off of the table and onto his head, as he lit up his horn with his multi colored aura, and all of the walls and ceilings of the cave glowed brightly with different colored, blurry images, until they cleared up and formed into what seemed to be memories, with each crystal showing the different memories of what I assumed was every creature who was corrupted by his spell. There were memories of griffins, hypogriffs, kirins, ponies, and even humans. It seemed that Sabby had most of the memories focused on pleasant experiences. Based on what I was seeing, these memories ranged from a griffin happily proposing to another griffin, to a human comforting another human who had lost a loved one. Sabby then looked at me, grinning slightly. “And with the amount of memories, magic, and intelligence of the countless creatures who have succumb to my spell’s corruption that I now have, it’s time for me to take my rightful place as the ruler of both world’s.” I gritted my teeth, as I thought of all the close people and ponies I’d lost in my life, and all of the creatures in both worlds that had suffered, lost loved ones themselves, all because of this psychopath, as he stood right outside of my cage and smiled. “All I have to do next is end your precious ‘general’s’ little resistance camps, and when whatever’s left of the military is gone, there won’t be anything to hinder my rule of happy memories.” “You… won’t get… the chance,” I said, as I was fuming. He then tilted his head as he poked the tip of my muzzle with his hoof. “You can help me with that, though,” he said, not caring about what I’d just said. “Your transformation sure is interesting, you did used to be a human after all, and now here you are, as something completely different. If I didn’t know any better, I’d have assumed you’ve been a pony your whole life.” He then put his hooves against the bars of my prison, as his multicolored eyes stared into me with serious intent. “I myself have had problems controlling my own physical form ever since I’ve taken hold of the essence’s of other creatures, but I suppose running some experiments on your form could give me some pointers on how to control my own body’s shape.” As if to accentuate his point, after he spoke, one of his forelegs actually glowed brightly with multi colored light, as it’s shape contorted and twisted, until the glowing stopped, revealing that it had painfully shaped into what looked like the paw of a manticore, which was dripping with blood as a result of the harsh transformation. Sabby was visibly in pain because of this, as he panted shallowly, before he slowed his breathing and put his newly formed paw to his chin as he looked up at the ceiling in thought, smiling like a foal. “Heh, as a matter of fact, the thought of transforming into a dragon to burn down all of the leftover military camps IS rather pleasing.” I then quickly maneuvered my wing, and swung the sharp crystal shard to his neck, before it was held firmly in place by his mixed aura, right before it hit his throat, as he looked back at me and frowned. “You… really think I didn’t see that coming?” He laughed. “These eyes see more than you realize, and I’m much smarter than you probably think.” He then used his magic to pull the crystal out of my wings grip, before he looked at it, and me inquisitively, before he grinned, and used his aura to jab the crystal into my chest. I screamed in pain, and had another very brief memory of me and Wild flash in my mind, before it almost felt like it was sucked out of me, as he pulled the crystal back out about half a minute later, leaving a deep gash, as I felt the warm blood from my wound moving down my coat, through my fur, before it dripped onto the floor of my cage. As he levitated the crystal in front of him, and wiped my blood off of it, I noticed that the crystal was glowing orange, and soon had a clear image of a memory of me and Wild. A memory that… I couldn’t remember anymore. Come to think of it, I couldn’t actually remember any ‘special night’ in the Hollow Shades with Wild, like Sabby had mentioned before. The fact that I was forgetting memories of me and Wild actually terrified me. One of the last things I wanted was to forget our most precious memories of each other. Sabby then used his manticore paw to stab the glowing crystal into his own chest, which caused it to lose its glowing orange color as it sort of transferred into him. He flinched for a second, before he grinned, and looked up at me. “A fun training day with Wild? That sure was a good day, I almost feel bad that you won’t remember it.” I actually stepped back fearfully, as I was unsure what to do, until I heard groaning coming from the cage beside mine. “D-Dan…?” Wild mumbled, as she slowly opened her eyes and raised her head. Before I could respond to her, Sabby blasted a quick beam of magic at her, hitting her right between the eyes, as she face planted back down to the floor of her cell. I froze as I stared at her, before my eyes shifted to Sabby, as my mind was still processing what had just happened. Sabby looked at me, and rolled his eyes. “Relax, she’s only… asleep. I wouldn’t want her to make a fuss if she saw what I’m about to do to you.” Sabby’s blank expression slowly morphed into a twisted smile, as he levitated several crystal shards behind him, and aimed them at me, as I gulped. “Now,” he said cheerfully. “The fun part begins!”