//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: The Realm of Failed Stories/Do You Choose Yourself? // Story: The Malevolent Multiversal Misadventures of Mare (April Fools 2024 Special) // by Admiral Producer //------------------------------// Mare was awoken by the sound of light chatter. Fluttering her eyes open, she immediately closed them again upon being blinded by a bright white light. The last thing she remembered was crash landing in a part of the void after running out of energy. “Turn off the light…” she could hear another voice say, “…she’s awake…” The strange creatures above her turned off the bright light and she sat up, wincing in pain as she did so. “Careful now,” one of them said, “We just applied some of them bandages on ya. Ya got pretty dinged up out there on that field.” “Where…am I…?” Mare asked groggily. Now she could see that several other creatures were in the room staring at her curiously and with fear. “You’re in the infirmary,” a tall human girl with brown hair and a white hat came over to her, “Greetings. I am Clementine and welcome to the Realm of Failed Stories. You crash landed outside the void.“ “You saved me…?” Mare inquired, not fully understanding. Clementine nodded, though her face was that of a faint scowl. “You’re in our makeshift headquarters. You know, you should consider yourself lucky. After everything you did, I don’t think you deserve to be saved.” “What did I do…?” Mare asked weakly, tears coming to her eyes once more as she realized at once what she had done. “Oh no. The stories. I-“ “You altered the endings of our stories,” came another voice. Through blurry vision, she saw a blue unicorn with a red and purple mane and tail. “In doing so, you destroyed our worlds and displaced us here.” She stopped in front of her. “My name’s Misty, not like you would care about that…” Mare slowly sat up in her bed, wincing from the pain of doing so. Now that she was at a better angle, she could see where she was more clearly now. The infirmary she was in had brown walls and a single fan up above the ceiling. The lighting was dim, but she could easily make out over a hundred other characters standing there, both humans and ponies, watching and glaring at her. Unlike the others though, Misty seemed to hold no animosity towards her, only an expression of sadness at the events that had transpired. Instantly, Mare felt awful for all of them. They didn’t deserve to have this happen. They were all living their lives in peace until she had interfered with the natural order and destroyed everything. What kind of pony was she? In her mind, she deserved to be shamed and scolded relentlessly for what happened. She vowed that she would never forgive herself for it. For all she was concerned, she deserved to rot in the deepest and darkest dungeons. She deserved to be beaten up and stabbed to death with a knife. She didn’t deserve to live. She couldn’t do anything right. She couldn’t save anypony she loved. She was nothing but a failure who was somehow allowed to exist by the powers that be. “I’m so sorry…” Mare apologized, sniffling. “I didn’t mean for this to happen…all I wanted was to get my happy ending.” “At the expense of ours?!” Sprout demanded, storming up towards her. “You promised me I would get to rule alongside you! But instead, you DESTROYED EVERYTHING I EVER BUILT!!!” “Without Peanut’s marker,” June added angrily. “I was unable to fix Clockwork Swings and restore Wonderland. Greta and Steve are working over time to keep everyone’s spirits high. But if they knew what you did, oh boy. You’d wish the Darkness was still present to suck you up.” Mare felt her heart shatter into a million pieces at that statement. Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes and she began sobbing as she desperately tried to think of something to say, anything that would explain her act of cowardice to them. She had no defense, no excuse, no explanation that would absolve her of any guilt. She was at fault and there was nothing she could say to defend herself no matter how hard she tried. “Please listen to me!” Mare snapped through tears and sniffles. “I was killed back in my own timeline! Everypony I ever knew was wiped out by someone close to me! I was dead…but then I was recovered by Prince Edgelord and…he took me in and…he promised he would help me get my life back! And all I had to do was-“ “-do some evil deeds for him,” Misty finished for her, slowly nodding in understanding. She out of everyone knew what it was like to be manipulated and coerced to do horrible things, all for the promise of that other person granting your greatest desire. “I get it…” “That’s no excuse!” Moana cut in. She walked over and pointed an accusatory finger at her. “You still stole my paddle and took off with it! After we gave you everything! We gave you a hero’s celebration and this is how you repaid us! You have no idea how many people were killed in the destruction of our world…and it’s all because of you!!” “Moana, stop!” Misty argued. “She’s been through enough already! I know you’re angry and you have every right to be! But that doesn’t mean-“ “HALF OF US WERE ALREADY ABANDONED!!!” June shouted, interrupting her. “We were already dealt a heavy blow by our stories being doomed to forever be incomplete. The least this clown could’ve done was let us exist in peace!!” “She didn’t know any better!!” Misty shot back. “Edge told me that I was helping you all get happy endings!” Mare sobbed. “I thought I was…doing a good thing.” She hung her head low. “I’m so sorry. You didn’t deserve this…” “You could’ve left us alone,” Princess Twilight admonished her gently. The graceful alicorn walked over to her. “You completely changed the time stream in doing what you did. You may have wanted to restore your world, but nothing should be worth destroying the lives of others.” “Princess…” Mare looked up and into the eyes of the pony who had once offered her the position of being her faithful student where she had come from. “I know, it’s just…all I wanted was…was…” She trailed off. She couldn’t say it. They wouldn’t understand it. Fortunately for her, she didn’t have to answer. “You wanted to be somepony special,” Misty deduced softly. “This Edgelord pony told you that only through him could you get what you wanted. Feeling helpless and like you had no way out…you agreed…under specific conditions that he then broke. He used you to get what he wanted.” Mare nodded, wiping her tears away. “Wait…how did you know that? I never told you. I never even met you until now.” “Judging by what you’ve already said,” Misty explained sadly. “It was pretty obvious…and…I’ve been through it too…it’s still fresh for me…” She looked down at the floor. “After everything I did and how much I failed Sunny…I’m starting to think if maybe she and the others dying was a good thing…” “I cut Opaline out of my life…” Twilight revealed, her voice trembling with emotion. “…When she didn’t deserve it. The one thing I can give you credit for is bringing us back together…my anger at the world after my friends died made me push away the concepts of friendship and love entirely…until I found her. Sometimes loss cuts deep and you have to live with the consequences. Even if you can bring them back…doesn’t mean you should. Especially if the consequences are this catastrophic.” “I want nothing more than to tear Edgelord to pieces,” Mare stated bitterly. “She took advantage of me…and didn’t care about doing so…He made me think he was my friend…and then he took all my hope away.” “Sometimes, that’s what people do.” June answered, her tone softening a bit. “People get taken from you, your hopes and dreams are shattered. The best thing you can do is try to move on from it, to keep that little light in you shining bright…no matter how much it hurts doing so…” Mare sniffled, looking away. “I wanted nothing more than to become more than what I was created to be…I thought that by saving everyone, I would be seen as more than just a simple April Fools joke character. Maybe I could…finally be the hero of my own story…without constant jokes being made at my expense.” “We all want that…” Moana advised her. “But sometimes…being a hero doesn’t mean epic adventures across space and time, or doing battle with a giant lava monster…sometimes, being a hero means just doing the right thing.” “The question you must answer now is this,” Clementine stated a matter-of-factly. “You’re the one here, and you seem like a good person. But I can't give you anything unless you choose to accept it. So the question is, will you choose yourself?” Mare sighed deeply before taking a deep breath… Once she was recovered, Mare was called to the Research Center by Clementine. Accompanied by Misty and Stella, she headed over to receive shocking news from the Daughters of Justice team, who were looking into the tracker that had been installed in her head previously. While she had been asleep, it had been surgically removed to be analyzed. “It formerly belonged to Hawk Nightwing,” said one of the girls to them, “This tracker has a map to his location!” “Wait, are you serious?” Silverstream asked, “This is so The Force Awakens right now. Alright. Let’s display it.” They plugged in the tracker to the board and it lit up with all these different coordinates on a multiversal map. “Hawk once owned this tracker,” Michelle explained, “He used it to, let’s say, keep track of his location when he traversed the multiverse. When Edge banished him, he forgot to destroy this clue that could lead to where Hawk was. This is the clue!” She smiled widely, “Mare, you’ve had the key to finding Hawk Nightwing inside of you this whole time!” “You’re awesome, Mare!” Misty exclaimed. “Thanks, Misty.” Mare replied. She faced the girls, “But who’s going to find him? Someone’s got to go and get him back, right?” Clementine nodded. “It says here,” explained Harriet, zooming in the map to where the red dot was. “That the approximate location of Hawk’s current place of residence is all the way in…the real world?! All the way in Hawaii?!” “But Edge told me he got sent to the Circus!” Mare insisted. “Unless he lied about that too. I don’t even know anymore.” “Looks like he escaped,” Moana mused. “Though how he was able to do that is beyond me. Anyways, you and Misty gotta find him and bring him back. Only he can reverse the tide and restore the multiverse he created.” “So essentially, you guys have to find the bloke who has no interest in ending our stories,” June said sarcastically. “That’s always good. Though I suppose, no creator, no world. And I don’t trust this Edgelord to ‘rewrite’ us.” “What kind of name is that anyway?” Stella wondered, confused. “I mean, I get names like Celestia, Luna, even Opaline. But Edgelord? It’s just a name that screams ‘this is the villain’ to your face.” “Who knows?” Misty answered. “Once you two get him back,” Clementine told them. “You three must find some way to get the Time Reverse-inator out of his clutches. Then use it to turn back the clock on our worlds.” “Do you think it’ll work?” Mare asked. “How should I know?” Clementine replied in an annoyed tone. “We haven’t tested it yet.” She faced her. “But Mare, it all comes down to you. You want to be the hero of your story? Now’s your chance. Get Hawk back and tell him what his evil partner has done to us.” “I don’t believe it,” Misty said, smiling. “We actually have a plan.” “We have a plan.” June affirmed. “This is the only way…” Clementine concluded. Facing the others, she declared, “We can’t do this alone, there’s no victory without him!!” With that, it was agreed that they would bring Hawk back no matter what it took.