//------------------------------// // Chapter XIX: Back On Square One // Story: Equestria: The BEN Chronicles // by HylianJuggalo //------------------------------// 6:00 AM ***VIDEO*** “Human... sir... I...” I smiled, extending my biological hand out towards Shining Armor, my shotgun firmly gripped in my robotics, pointed down to a safe position. The stallion before me looked to his hoof awkwardly, then to the festering corpses, weapons, and bullet cases that littered the stone roads of Ponyville, then back to me and the others, who were all standing out here with us. Rainbow was still trying to comfort Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie was attempting to wake Rarity up. The others were taking care of the children. Armor stood there for a moment, the cold September air running through his mane. He brought his appendage outward, which I took with a firm, reassuring touch, giving him a shake and looking deeply into his eyes. I knew my appearance scared him half to death. “Please, Captain, call me Nick.” “I... I am so sorry for doubting you. I... you just... didn’t look like somepony fit to lead an army. Where did you learn your skills, if it’s not too much to ask?” He continued to inquire, pulling his hoof away from my arm gently, and taking one last look at the vicious carnage that littered the town around us. “I learned at a very young age. Let’s just say I had... a voice telling me what to do today.” “Your... father, correct? I’m still very skeptical about your claim of talking to the dead. Still... is- I mean, was your father a military man?” “Yes sir.” “Well, you have my condolences for the loss of your father, Nick. Still... thank you for saving my sister and her friends.” The uniformed unicorn said to me, as Twilight came up next to him, and let his right forehoof wrap around her back. “I just wish my wife Cadence were here to help us. Poor sweetheart got taken by that fire at the library. At least my baby sis managed to get to safety, and having at least one loved one by your side is better than none.” “I...” I paused, contemplating what to say, my mind flashing back to the horror that I had experienced under the Ponyville library. The skeletal models: the alicorn with the golden ring on its horn. Twilight remembered nothing of it, and Pinkie and the girls probably didn’t notice the skeleton in the first place. If Applejack did, she wasn’t here to say anything, and if I did... “Nick, are you okay?” Twilight asked, giving me a worried look, before hugging her brother with a smile. “I’m fine. I’m sorry for your loss too, captain.” I simply said, avoiding the truth. “So... BEN said something about the changeling queen? I thought she was defeated.” “Yes, defeated, but not killed. You see Nick, Equestria believes in second chances. I don’t know how things work in your world, but that basically means we don’t kill any of our criminals; the whole thing with the martial law? I didn’t approve of the forceful methods that Celestia suddenly started enforcing, but I had to follow orders, right?” “I suppose, Captain. Still, if Chrysalis is back, and she has BEN’s support, we’re going to be facing a LOT of problems, very, very soon. I’d love to have the support of a military officer like you. Would you be willing to come with us to the Everfree Forest?” Armor looked to his little sister wrapped under his hoof, then to me and all the others, before taking a look up to Canterlot, the prestigious capital city looming high in the mountain range, on level height with the demonic moon above us, moving ever so slightly. The latter now sat a good five miles away, violent, blood red streaks randomly splattered across the canvas of the early morning, light lavender sky as a vicious earthquake suddenly rocked our footing. “As much as I’d love to assist you, I’ve got citizens to protect in Canterlot. Besides, I can see now that my sister and her friends are in good hoov-hands.” “Do whatever you need to do, Captain. I understand. Thank you for the support in this fight, and good luck.” I simply said, bringing my arm up to my head, flashing the American salute. I held it there for a few moments, the burly stallion standing there and then saluting me with his own. A few moments later, he brought his hoof down. After he did, I dropped mine, as per the chain of command, and the white officer disappeared in a flash of pink energy. 7:00 AM After getting whom we could out of the town, the eleven of us hightailed it to the Everfree Forest, like we planned. Taking our first steps into the forsaken wood, we came here with two things in mind - find some way to get Applejack back, find some way to stop BEN. At least, that’s what we wanted done, but we weren’t going to get it without more help. “So... why do you wanna go in here?” Dash asked me, flying just over my head, an air of uncertainty about her as her voice seemed laced with a bit of cautiousness. “Zecora - we need to get Zecora.” I managed to say, as Scootaloo flew beside the cyan mare, the others walking behind me. “She’s a witch doctor right? If there’s anyone who has even a remote knowledge of spirits and how to handle them, it has to be her, with all the ‘voodoo’ style magic she does. Right now, it’s our only lead. Besides, hasn’t going into Everfree given you some kind of ‘advantage’ on your enemies before?” “Yeah, but...” “I’m gonna say this right now: I don’t see how this place is so scary to you people - the Everfree is exactly like our wild back home. It’s not a big deal.” “Yeah you say that, but what about, you know, manticores and chimeras and all that? Do you have those kinds of creatures in your world?” Dash smugly asked me, obvious discontent about her. I knew Dash didn’t like me as much as the others, but I couldn’t figure out why. “In mythology, yes, but they don’t actually exist.” “Which means you don’t really know what you’re gonna be up against.” She nastily snapped back at me, irritation clearly expressed in her eyes. “I’d never thought I would ever say this, but you can be cocky.” “I’m not cocky, Dash. I never have been - I’ve been through a living hell, and I just see it as another challenge nowadays. If you dropped me off here four months ago, I would have pissed myself in fear. Speaking of, I’ll be right back.” --- “Look, kid, I gotta talk with you.” “Yeah, Dash?” Scootaloo quickly replied to the statement, with a happy tone about her. She took note of her elder’s slight tone (that could only be described as ‘worrisome’) in her voice. Rainbow flew backward a ways, the young filly falling back from the group, the rest of which stood to watch the human disappear into some reasonably thick and vibrant foliage. “Why... do you call that... thing... ‘dad’?” Scootaloo stopped flying at the question, and slowly hovered down to the grass below her. She stopped, closed her eyes, took a breath, and with a piercing, cold stare, like a fine blade through silk, spoke in a simplistic, flat tone. The smile had faded from her, and Scootaloo knew where this was going. Nick and Dash hadn’t been on the best terms for the past few hours. She needed to know. “Because he’s such a father figure to me, just like you were like a mom.” “I... was?” “Yes. Keyword, WERE.” The filly blurted, an emotionless tone about her, all whilst keeping a rock solid glare on the cerulean pegasus, who simply took a step back from the orange child as she set herself on the ground. “Scootaloo... I...” “You were always somepony I looked up to. I wanted to be like you. I wanted to do what you do. I always looked up to you like the mom that wasn’t there. I didn’t see you like a fan. I saw you like a daughter sees her mother.” “...” “But all that changed four months ago. You never saw me as anything other than a ‘number one fan’. And then, Nick came here, and he saved my life. Sure, he’s got his issues, namely a really big anger problem, but he’s been there for me through everything that’s happened recently. I know he’s a human, and our foal’s tales tell us how dangerous they are, but trust me when I say he’s just trying to go home. He doesn’t want to fight anymore, he doesn’t want to hurt anypony, he just wants BEN to leave him alone." “I still don’t buy into it, Scootaloo. He’s a human. Remember back at my house when the others sat down with me and brought me up to speed? If he’s done all that already, killing Carrot, and the cider brothers, and all those ponies at Rarity’s place, what’s to say he won’t do the same to us?! He’s too unstable to trust, and on top of that-” “He taught me how to fly. He got me my cutie mark, and on two separate occasions, saved my life. He treats me like his own daughter. You, Dash, never saw me as anything more than a crazed fan, but all the hints were there. If you had paid more attention, maybe you would have noticed I wanted to be closer to you than that. He gave me what you failed to see I wanted from you. Humans are not evil, at least not all of them. This whole concept that ‘humans are bastards’ is wrong, Dash. Nick is a good man, and don’t you DARE talk bad about him.” The filly added, pointing an accusing hoof at the mare’s cyan muzzle. “What our world knows about humans is wrong. I know it bothers you that I look up to him like a parent, but you need to understand that he means well.” “I still don’t buy it.” --- “God damn, I needed that.” I zipped up my pants, stuffing my gun back into them once I finished buttoning the top, then slipped the brass buckle through the third opening in my tanned leather belt, my mechanical arm getting stuck on the edge of my button-down. After struggling a bit to get my shirt out of the contraption with a violent rip, ruining the linens even further, I looked up to see nothing more than a thick mass of foliage in my way. Turning around to return to the others, I noticed that my tracks were gone, and there was no clean-cut path anymore. In fact, the area I had come from looked exactly like the rest of the forest. However, I quickly reminded myself that I hadn’t slept in two days, so my eye was probably screwing with me. I also reminded myself to be skeptical, and wary. After all, this was the Everfree, and some pretty wicked things had happened here before. Unsure of where exactly to go, I decided to head back the direction I knew I came. Drawing my sword and cutting a swath through the plant life that was in my way, I began to make my way to the others. Certainty soon turned to panic and worry however, once I reached what I thought was where I came from. Was that log on the ground there before? Was the tree to my left a fir, or an oak? I could barely tell if I was even back where my friends were, or I had gone somewhere else entirely. After about five minutes of mindless wandering, and not coming in contact with a single living creature, save for a few animals, I came to the conclusion that I was starting to get lost, fast. From there, things only got worse. A few more minutes of trying to find a way out of the woods, the air suddenly grew thin, and the sky, despite being early in the morning, was a dark, almost pitch black shade. A few more minutes of unsuccessful searching passed by, and slowly, to my ears came the demented and twisted Song of Unhealing. A shiver ran down my spine, and that foreboding sense of loneliness that had accompanied me back when I had started the game had returned to haunt me with a vengeance. The Song of Unhealing would continue to play, and every three minutes of so, the tune would progressively get louder, and then crescendo, as if something was going to jump out at me at any given moment. Nothing ever did, however, and the melody would immediately become much softer, only to loop this routine again and again. Every now and again, I would hear the laugh of the Happy Mask Salesman, but just like the game at home, was just quiet enough that I wasn’t sure if I was hearing things. “T-twilight? Big Mac? Is that you?” No response, though I could certainly tell something was here with me. Being alone in a forest, no food, no water, no sleep for two days, and musty, itchy clothes that desperately begged me for a wash put me on edge. Being a night blind individual, I could barely see, save for the blood red light the moon’s soul-eating eyes had to offer. I drew my shotgun, keeping the assault weapon at the ready, but nothing came to me save for a few shadows darting around the trees. My heart felt like it was jumping in my ribcage, pounding rapidly in my chest as fear began to quickly overtake me. After all I had been through, as weak as my vital organs must have become after all the irreparable damage to my being, I honestly expected to keel over from a heart attack at any given moment again, but it never happened. Instead, I heard a voice, and not one I recognized. It was a very young voice; belonging to what I suppose was a seven to ten year old child, and a boy at that. “Nick, it’s been quite a long time since you and I have gotten a chance to spend some quality time together...” The childish voice playfully said with a giggle. “You’re really good at this game; I’m surprised you made it this far, even after all the harm that’s been done to you.” I swung around in fear at the sound of the voice, which came from behind me. However, as I turned, I found nothing there, and instead, saw another shadow dart through the trees. “You know, Nick, I’ve always liked you. You really make me laugh with how hard you try. But you know what?” The childlike voice asked, as the twisted song continued to play in the air around me. “I think that I’ve been a bit too generous. The learning curve is far too gradual for you; you’ve become so powerful... all those lovely weapons and that clunky steel arm...” I immediately stepped back as the statue materialized in front of me in the darkness that encapsulated us both. I kept my shotgun aimed, and was about to open fire, but the blood-colored illuminations that barely showed the statue suddenly flickered like a broken light bulb, and with it, the statue had disappeared from my line of sight as the red view brought vision back to me. Oh dear god, where did he go!? “Over here, Nick...” I turned to the voice, which came from my left, only to see another dark-green shadow dart through the trees some distance away while the Song of Unhealing continued to play. Right then and there, I lost it. I felt absolutely disturbed, and worried for my own life. Just like the incidents with the game before, I was alone, and being watched, waiting at any moment to be viciously murdered. Still, with this fear, I knew I had to keep going. I had to find the others. They were somewhere in this forest, and I had to face my fear if I was going to get in contact with them. I swallowed a lump in my throat as more shadows started to dance around the dark outlines of the trees. Every now and then, I could swear I could see BEN’s statue in a bush, or behind a tree, but the moment I stopped to take a look at it, it would disappear as soon as I blinked - was it really there? “I’m going to say this once, Nick: getting rid of you was much harder than I thought it would be. I expected my killing you to be nice and clean, but you... have quite the lucky streak. And, with every passing moment, you only get more and more powerful. I can’t have that now, can I? Not if I want to keep playing with Equestria. And, don’t you worry; don’t think I forgot about our world. Once I’m done here, I’ll return, and show them all, with my new power, how it feels to be killed by one of your own.” I gulped, trying to contain my anxiety. Trudging on through the forest and watching my back, the tension only rose as BEN continued to speak with that innocent, childish voice. “Let’s play a game, Nick: try not to blink.” The statue said, suddenly appearing in front of me, without forming from its energy funnel, to which I did nothing more than comply and back away slowly, keeping my only eye wide open. A freezing cold chill ran down my body, because I knew, having only one eye, I would HAVE to blink. I couldn’t let him win. I could NOT let BEN win, but I was beginning to doubt if I could stop him. Walking backwards, keeping my shotgun at the ready, I carefully moved away from the statue. My eye was becoming irritated and scratchy. It wouldn’t be long until I blink, my watery eye burning with each passing second and then… it happened: I blinked. The viscous scream of the Skull Kid echoed through the forest, and as my eye opened, the statue suddenly appeared six inches in front of me. “Aaah!” I emptied a shell at the statue, snapped myself in the direction behind me, and sprinted off. The Song of Unhealing got progressively louder, and my heart began to race as I tore through the thick foliage, running in vain through the darkness. Tearing apart trees, thickets, bushes, and other plants, I continued to sprint, until about thirty seconds later, blinking again, the statue appeared in front of me. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Stay the hell away from me! I kicked the statue in the face, and knocked the thing over, only to see it disappear as I blinked again, and turned to notice it had moved right behind me. I yelled and accidentally dropped my shotgun. Making no effort to pick it back up, I made a break for it. Unsure of where to go, and running (quite literally) blind, I chose a direction and started hauling it for dear life. Not paying attention to where I was going out of pure horror and fear, it didn’t take long before I screwed up, and was blindsided by a thick tree branch, hitting it face first at top speed. I fell to the ground as I felt my skull shake. A few moments later, I opened my eye, feeling mildly concussed, with no sign of the statue, and no Song of Unhealing. I got up and felt the giant branch that I had run into, noting it was a two and a half foot thick log of solid, aged oak. This thing should have knocked me clean out... so, why wasn’t I unconscious? I slowly ducked under the giant mass of wood, and continued along the path. Taking note that I had hastily dropped my shotgun back some distance away, I immediately drew my pistol, and tried to turn on the flashlight app for my phone. However, every time I attempted to, the screen would only say: ‘Error - Droid OS V.3.36 was unable to find the application. Perform file search?’, and every time I tried to, the phone would simply give me another error message. BEN was toying with my phone. A few more minutes of walking, and I heard the childish voice again. 8:00 AM “Welcome to my part of the woods, Nick.” BEN began, as I slowly trudged through the thick overgrowth that blocked what looked like a once trodden path. “Here, I’m going to give you a chance to start over... if you survive that is...” The voice continued, with the playful giggle of the skull kid. “You know, I’ve been taking real good care of Applejack for you. And here, is a chance for you to get her back.” The boy said with an innocent chuckle following his words, which made my stomach turn and my head start to spin, as he continued to speak. “Both you and I love Majora’s Mask... but to give you a fresh start would be like sending you back in time. And there’s one thing about time travel that the designers got wrong...” “A-and... th-th-that is...?” Suddenly, a dark purple mist, a heavily contrasting shade from the blood red light of the moon, slowly formed and began making its way towards me. I backed away, aiming my gun at it, and as I did, the mist violently attacked me, wrapping itself around my weapon. The mist began to stretch and contort, gently engulfing my knife and sword as well. “When you really go back in time... you would lose all your equipment...” As soon as the dark mist had come, it was gone. So were all of my supplies, save for my CD, journal, degree, and wallet. My handgun, sword, knife and phone, however, were nowhere to be found. "Ooooh, crap..." And as I came to this haunting realization of the intense fear I began to accumulate, simply from such heavy reliance on my supplies; I heard Skull Kid laugh at me, and the Song of Unhealing began to play as the dark and twisted forest gave way to a voice - a young girl; a young, energetic voice, with somewhat of a tomboyish flavoring behind it. “Nick, is that you? Help me!” Scootaloo! My God, BEN had hold of Scootaloo! “Scoots! Scootaloo, if you can hear me, yell again!” No response. Instead, I followed the only sense I had - my hearing. The voice had come from my left, and I immediately turned to chase after it. Tearing through more plant life, the statue following behind me like a weeping angel, I came to a clearing, not too far from the river where I remember the Elements met the sea serpent Steven Magnet. However, things were NOT good when I got there. What I saw there, was perhaps the most horrific thing I had ever seen. Lying on the river bank were Big Macintosh, Applebloom, and Scootaloo, barely illuminated by the faint red light shining down from the darkness above. As I approached them, I soon came to witness one of the most disturbing images I had laid my eyes on. And I had seen a LOT here. Macintosh was lying on the ground in a pool of blood, and missing an eye. The corpse held, in its mouth, its own genitalia, which seemed like it had been crudely removed with a blade. Opposite him lied the two girls, who looked as if they had been beaten. The bodies were tied down with thick cattle rope, and Scootaloo’s neck was twisted, contorted in a position as if it were broken, as well as her friend’s. I immediately rushed over and checked the two girls, who had no pulse, to see that they were not breathing, and were mangled and beaten to a pulp. “What would have happened, Nick, if you DIDN’T save those girls?” BEN suddenly asked me with a chuckle trailing behind his statement. Things got even more disturbing as I heard a second voice from behind me. “Ah always did like ‘em young... eeyup.” I turned, and in front of me, stood Big Mac, his freakishly deformed figure towering over me in the darkness of the forest. I immediately jumped and tried to reach for a weapon, only to realize I had nothing. Then, he spoke again. “Ah’m thankful ya didn’t kill me then and there, Nick... just so ah can keep doin’ what ah do.” As soon as Macintosh said this, he jumped at me with a bestial roar. Having no weapons, and having seen the horrific image here, watching Scootaloo die, I did nothing but panic in fear and put my arms up against my face. “NO! DON’T K-” I opened my eye to see Macintosh disappear as my entire vision was engulfed in a split-second white flash. After it faded away, I saw the image with which I was originally presented: the three dead bodies. I shuddered, staring at the corpses, and a tear ran across my eye. A few moments later, the foliage that surrounded me and the carrions slowly began to move, a section of them parting magically to give way to a path. With nowhere else to go, I reluctantly stood, taking one last sorrowful glance behind me, and continued along my journey. Not too long after, I heard something that sounded like a creature eating. It was then, the plant life in front of me opened up to reveal another clearing. As soon as I passed into it though, I heard another voice as the most demonic set of laughs I’d heard began to ring in my ears. “Oh yeah, that’s the stuff...” Trying to follow the words, I came to another barely visible image as the plants gave way to my arrival, revealing a small clearing. This one was a pink colored pony, with straight hair. It was missing a hoof. Well, not quite - the left forehoof was removed, and it was holding the freed limb in its right. The pony brought its mouth down upon its dismembered leg, and emerged from it, tearing a strip of flesh off the thing and revealing some bone. The pony began to slowly chew its morsel, blood gently seeping from its mouth. With a full face, the red eyed Pinkamena simply added: “Can you blame me? It’s just so delicious...” I’d seen this side of Pinkie before, but the darkness and chilling cold air, plus the moon and its soul-crushing glare made it nearly fifteen times more disturbing than Sugarcube Corner. Things got even worse once I blinked again. BEN had appeared in front of me as my eye opened, and I immediately screamed in a panic, pushing the thing to the ground. I tried to step on the green clothed idol, but it simply disappeared as I blinked again, and not even a second later, a knife slowly worked its way against my throat. I froze, then and there, and my pulse began to race at lightning speed as the soft voice spoke again, this time, right next to my ear. The warm breath of the pony gently wrapped around it, which sent another shiver down my already frozen-in-place spine, preventing movement. “I always was one for exotic tastes...” I kicked Pinkie Pie away, screaming in fear. My mind a jumbled mess of pure panic and uncertainty, I darted through the trees for my life, not wanting to die. I just wanted to go to sleep and wake up at home. And as I ran, the Song of Unhealing continued to play, as BEN spoke again. “What if I told you, Nick, that everything you’ve gone through is real? What if I told you, that these things you think I’ve been doing, such as making Pinkie Pie a cannibal, were birthed from YOUR world?” Would you believe me if I told you that mankind was responsible for the way Equestria has become? I did nothing more than bring you to this world. And what if I were to tell you that it’s YOUR fault that you’re even in this situation? Do you realize what you did to me that made me angry at you? Why, if you hadn’t done that, nobod- excuse me... noPONY would be in this situation right now...” I shivered as my heart continued to race, my weak, slowly dying heart (did I tell you they installed a pacemaker at the Ponyville hospital?) pulsing in fear and shock. With no weapons or real way to defend myself, and nothing but darkness surrounding me as the moon forced the earth into another rocking quake, I continued to run away from the statue and Pinkamena, only to hear another voice a few minutes later. “If I attach this here, we have a cyborg...” The voice wasn’t very loud, and wasn’t a scream for assistance. Rather, the speech was slow, soft, and so quiet, it border lined a whisper. After spending a second or so to deduct the location of the tone, I began to head in a southern direction, from where the voice originated. I came to yet another small clearing, which was a breather from all the labyrinthine arbors that surrounded me. There was no light; again, save for the blood-colored illumination the moon gave. Still, a few feet in front of me, I recognized what looked like a purple pony, lying down on a table. After approaching it, a smile of joy went across my face. “Twiligh-” Joy turned to panic as I came closer to the unicorn on the table. She was not well by any means. In fact, she wasn’t even alive; Twilight Sparkle was locked down on a steel table, exactly like the ones back in her laboratory. One of her eyes was popped out of her skull, loosely dangling out of her head, and off the table, by a lone muscle fiber. Her other eye was solid white and lacked a pupil or iris. Her left forehoof was cut open, a straight line down the middle of her limb, and much like the incision she had given me way back when. The entire appendage was also bent backwards and dislocated, having been removed from its shoulder socket. The bone of the hoof was also protruding out of the skin at a very jarring angle. It looked like she had also been beaten; with bruises and scars abound on her body. Her horn was bent and twisted, but was glowing, and slowly levitated a scalpel over us and began to cut up her body. The lifeless, intact eye rolled around for a moment, then the unicorn’s head slowly turned on its side, and the grotesque image opened its mouth to speak, still cutting away at itself with the scalpel. “This... is what I get for trying to play with life… doing genetic experimentation...” I nearly vomited at the image playing out before me. I immediately came to the consensus that BEN was fucking with my brain, putting visions into my head. But I could smell the blood, hear the cuts and, the worst part, FEEL Twilight when I reached out to touch the undead body, which ran even more shivers down my back, and racked my nerves. As soon as I collected myself from the scarring moment, the path I had come from slowly folded shut as the branches and leaves that formed it began to wrap around each other. Opposite this, the foliage began to open, forming a linear pathway. I slowly made my way through the maze of a forest, waiting for the worst. “Do you remember this place, Nick?” The statue’s voice asked me, as the forest around me began to change in its appearance. Grass morphed into tile. Bushes and shrubs transformed to desks and control panels. Fallen trees transmogrified into other research tables, and the linear pathway slowly turned itself into a hallway; the hallway from Twilight’s labs. That wasn’t all that happened, though. I suddenly grew extremely weak, as if I had lost a lot of blood. My clothes faded off of my body, and my robotic arm engulfed itself in a black mist, which as the darkness faded, yielded my old arm, as it was back in the labs: burnt, broken, twisted, cut up, bleeding, and missing its hand. I was back to the way I was before I had the heart attack. And I was back in the hallway that showcased Twilight’s sick experiments way back when. Fear completely swallowed me by this point. I was about to break down crying right then and there as tears started to fill my eye. I was so damn scared. The whole fact that BEN was watching me, and playing with my head, torturing me mentally, and scaring me half to death with his little game of weeping angel put me at the very edge, leaving an intense notion of paranoia in my mind. “M-mom? Are you there? Fluttershy? Zecora? Anything? So-somebody?” The scariest part was the loneliness. The empty, cold, foreboding sense of loneliness in the middle of nowhere, and the realization that you could die any second, with not a damn thing you can do about it. I continued to trek down the hallway, only to be stopped by the same stainless steel door I remembered from months past. I stood there, eyeballing the cold, lifeless portcullis for a second or two, before I began to hear the chilling sound of hooves on the other side of the hallway. “Who’s there!?” I managed to ask, my (hopefully) artificial weakness causing my breathing to begin staggering. I wanted to call this fake. I wanted to call this a crazy vision, but I just couldn’t tell. It felt, smelt, and looked so real... but they seemed as if they were nothing more than visions. And that in itself put me on edge far more than any trial I had faced thus far; not being able to tell reality from fantasy, especially in a dire situation like this where it felt and looked like I was slowly dying. BEN had me on the ropes now, and held death’s touch to boot. I bet if he really wanted to, he could kill me right now. The hoofsteps were getting closer, and down the flight of stairs at the far end appeared a very familiar set of purple hooves - and that was all that was familiar. As the rest of the body made its way into the hallway, things only got worse. There was Twilight, but half her face was missing, revealing a hearty chunk of skull, which was still covered in stray muscle here and there. In her mouth was a scalpel, and she was holding something in the air, suspended by magic. The eye that sat on the skull side was a solid blood red, and the other was missing. I began to slowly back away, and as the zombified mare drew closer, I noticed what she was holding in the air: a syringe. As she continued to approach me, words on the side of the needle slowly became clear to my vision. ‘Cyanide - 1.5 Mg’ Right then and there, I completely flipped my shit. I was sent into a crazed panic, and, with what little strength I had, turned away from the pony slowly approaching me and ran for the door at the end of the hallway. But it wasn’t opening. I slapped on the door viciously, screaming at the top of my lungs for help. Any sense of courage or determination I’d had at this point was almost completely gone. BEN was exposing me to all kinds of cruel mental tests, and they were eating away at my psyche by the minute. The worst part was, at the end, he was probably going to kill me, if Twilight didn’t do it in a few minutes. I tried to wrench my hand under the door and pull it up, but that wasn’t working either. “Open! For the love of any god out there, please open!” I turned around, and there she was. Twilight was standing right in front of me, the needle just inches away from my face. I swallowed in fear, and tried to back off even farther, though in vain. “Please, don’t kill me...” Twilight’s horrifying form jumped at me with a demonic, bone-chilling shriek, her red eye suddenly growing extremely bright. I felt the stabbing, stinging pain of the needle going into my stomach, and the fast, burning cut of the scalpel running across my neck and slicing it open. Death had finally bested me. And fortunately, he was merciful, letting it end quickly. Still though, despite the fact that my neck was wide open, gushing out pints of blood in a colorful, multi-directional fountain, I managed to scream. And scream. And scream, only to notice a bright white flash veil my single ocular, though it was only for a split second, and once again, I was met with a dark, lifeless expanse of forest. There was nothing in front of me, behind me, or to my sides, and the entire image of the laboratory hallway had disappeared, the only memory of it the trailing tone of my blood-curdling scream echoing throughout the forest as the white flash subsided, and noticed I was back in my clothes, with my robotic arm at my side. “I... I’m... alive... dear Jesus, thank you...” Not even three seconds later, there was the laugh of the mask salesman, and the pathway I had come from closed. After that, yet an entirely different road had opened in the thick forest body, and some distance away, I heard the sound of what seemed like a violent car crash, coming from the newly formed exit. Curious and worried, I carried on, taking one final gaze at this clearing as the branches closed behind me, leaving that scarring experience to die in the forest, yet live on in my head. “What if I were to tell you, Nick, that all those ponies hate you? What if I told you they’re afraid of you, and would rather you died?” BEN cheerfully asked me. “What if I told you that, if you HADN’T controlled your anger...” Another white flash of light blinded me, only to reveal the dead corpses I had seen before. I stood there, and then finally caved, collapsing to the ground. “...that this is what you would have done? What if I told you it’s YOUR fault? Did you know they think everything that’s happened here is because of YOU, not me? That they blame YOU for all the backwards corruption? What if I told you that they can’t stand to even be around you, you scare them so much?” Amidst my fear, sadness, and anger, I managed to speak, though my throat was filled with mucus, and my eye full of tears, I was crying so much. BEN was starting to tear me apart mentally, and I couldn’t take much more. What if he was right? What if they really did hate me? And it WAS my fault. BEN did everything, sure... ...but I was the one who freed BEN. “No... they... they care for me. They look at me like a friend. They know I mean well, and they’d never turn their backs on me!” I mentally broke down, snot and garbled cries making my speech nearly unintelligible. “Oh, really? Derpy fears for her daughter’s safety whenever she’s around you. Rarity is flat-out disgusted with the way you carry yourself, and your violent tendencies. Fluttershy, because she has one, KNOWS you’ve got a demon in you, and can’t even feel remotely safe around you. Macintosh and Applebloom are scared to death that you’ll turn on them and hurt them both, and what of bouncy little Pinkie Pie? She’s more scared of you than she is her own schizophrenia! They’ve all seen the violence you’ve brought since you’ve been here. Ever notice how they ALWAYS walk behind you whenever you travel together? They’re simply that afraid.” BEN continued, the statue morphing in front of me. “Rainbow Dash is the only one who clearly shows her discontent; see how slow she is to trust? She doesn’t care much for you.” “She doesn’t have to - she just has to have faith that I mean well, you prick.” “Ha! YOU mean well? You? You who have done more damage than me? It’s YOUR fault that I was able to raise the dead. It’s YOUR fault Sweetie Belle died. It’s YOUR fault that Carrot and countless others have died. YOU were the one who freed me, you fool. You are the source of all of this, and every single one of those horses knows it. There’s no one to blame but yourself.” With that, the statue faded away, following the laugh of the mask salesman, and with another white flash, spawned my handgun next to me. Shivering and scared, I reluctantly grabbed the weapon, and pulled back the chamber. One bullet. No magazine. “There’s your ticket home. You can pull that trigger, or you can man up to your actions, and continue to play my game. What’s it gonna be, Nick? Don’t you want to see Applejack again?” “You leave her out of this! Give her back, you bastard!” “I’ll take that as you want to keep playing…” “NO! For Christ’s sake, no! Leave me alone, you freak! What did I ever do-“ At that moment, I felt myself going through yet another wormhole, following a white flash. I hoped I was going home, but I knew better than to think that. Still, it left me wondering… Where WAS I going? AUTHORS NOTE (For people that don't watch my blog) Sorry everyone, for my lack of updating as of late. With midterms around the corner and getting thrown an essay every ten seconds in college (seriously, all my classes are writing-based, and all the final exams are 7-10 page research essays, so excuse me if I'm gonna be burnt the hell out from writing), I've had little room to write. Also, I'm all caught up with my work. So why is THAT of all things, being 'caught up', giving me trouble? Simple. Drafting for the project started around my birthday, back in March. I had plenty of free time on my hands back then, only a part time student, so I worked on the thing religiously, and my mind was bursting with ideas. I made it up to the eleventh chapter (Rarity's house) with clear goals in mind for all except everything from that point up to the final battle and ending, so everything that was being produced after, up to the most recent chapter, I had to take a handful of days planning out and coming up with ideas, and I was at this point, experiencing creative burnout, which is why the quality of the writing seems to be slipping to some of you. After seeing I had plenty of work done, I brought it on myself to start publishing in June after doing some general cleanup. I caught myself up to Rarity's chapter, added one (the small chapter involving AJ and Jadusable in the hospital), and at that point, because I had nothing ahead of me to build off of, I started hitting writer's block, and things came to me on a whim. I indeed wanted the zombies to be part of the story, but things changed a bit, and the Rainbow Factory chapter went through various adaptations before release. So now, here I sit, all caught up and have a ton of school work barreling down on me. This, on top of the fact that I have no work done months in advance, I've had little wiggle room to squeeze between updates. as I've had in the past, and therefore I haven't been pumping out chapters (I had so much work done which allowed for an influx of updates). Lastly, I've changed hands in my pre-reading staff, and fortunately, have one that criticizes me harshly (the other dude, my roomie, was a laid back pothead that okayed pretty much everything) So I've been spending a lot of time working and re-working the chapter that's slated to be released here in a few days (Again, D, thank you for saving this fic and getting my creative mindset back on track). So there you have it - being caught up with work, having a load of college work on my back, and new pre-readers that have me second-guessing myself are all cause for the month and a half delay. Don't lose hope, I will get this done. I've got the rest of the story drafted up and planned out, though not written. Stay safe, and watch where you swim. Also, I'm looking for new cover art. Anyone up to the task, I'll pay you proper.