//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Two Different Worlds, One Reality // Story: Doomed Secrets // by darkstar64 //------------------------------// "... and eventually Star Swirl the Bearded fell ill, but was still able to finish his final book of advanced magic just minutes before he passed." said Twilight, who had been rambling on about Star Swirl for the past twenty minutes. We had taken a booth at some local diner just outside the hospital, where I assume the staff come for their coffee breaks. Rainbow Dash was literally banging her head on the table with boredom as Twilight continued to lecture me on some dead unicorn. I just kept phasing in and out, focusing on my eggs and hashbrowns I had ordered. That, and the strange nightmares I've been having. I know I've heard that voice before. Where is it from? I stuffed another glob of food into my mouth, delighted to have some real nutrients in my body for once. I was starting to figure that my hallucinations were just from a lack of a proper diet, and maybe eating healthier would cure it. After all, I had only eaten soup and a stupid macaroni cupcake before. "...after which they found a secret spell scroll in his study!" Twilight continued. "Of course, the magic was too advanced for regular unicorns at the time and was locked in the Star Swirl the Bearded wing of the castle, and-" "Uuuuuuugggghhhhhh!" Rainbow moaned in protest with her head on the table. "I said I was sorry Twilight! Do you really have to punish me like this?" Twilight gazed back at Rainbow, looking offended. "I'm not punishing you Rainbow Dash, I'm teaching you something. Sorry if it hurts to learn something new once in awhile." "Can't we talk about something else?" Rainbow suggested. "C'mon Darkstar, help me out here!" I looked down at the pegasus, her eyes pleading for a way out. "Do you want to talk about Star Swirl the Bearded?" I joked. "NO." "Yes." Twilight answered, annoyed that she wasn't finished with her conversation. "Well good, because I don't either." I stated. "Sorry Twilight, two against one. And damn, these eggs are pretty good." Twilight gave me a death stare. I laughed silently as I drank my apple juice. "Twilight!" The door to the diner had burst open, setting off the dingley bells at the top of the frame. Yes, I call them dingley bells. That's what they are. Standing in the entrance was Spike, attempting to catch his breath as if he'd been running. Probably was. He was always running around somewhere in the show. I remember meeting him at the party the other day. Seeing a real Spike was something else. Like the ponies, it was like looking at a well-made plush doll, except his eyes were real, his scales where shiney, and you could easily see his muscle movements underneath his skin. He appeared to be more like a two-legged lizard than an actual dragon, but technically they're a related species. I guess. Spike, after getting some oxygen, quickly rushed over to our booth and somehow pulled a scroll out from behind him. What the Hell, did he have pockets in his skin or something? I wasn't expecting details from the show like that to make it here. "I've been looking all over for you!" Spike spoke. "I just got this letter from Princess Celestia!" "A letter from the Princess?" Twilight beamed, her eyes doubling in cuteness. Using her magic, she snatched the scroll from Spike's claws. "I wonder what she's written for me!" "Well, open it and find out!" Rainbow suggested. The purple aura surrounding the scroll shifted, allowing the paper to unroll itself in the air. As Twilight began to read the words silently, I just minded myself as I finished off my apple juice. When I looked back down, Twilight was staring at me. The look she was giving me felt rather... intimidating. It was like her gaze was threatening me. I raised a brow in confusion, before she slowly went back to reading the scroll. What's up with her? I checked to see if Rainbow Dash or Spike had noticed Twilight's stare, but her face was hidden by the scroll from their angle. Suddenly, the scroll rolled itself back up, and Twilight had magically placed several bits on the counter to pay for our meal. "Well, it appears the Princess needs me to... um... read up on something in the library." she stated, quickly shuffling Rainbow Dash out from the booth. "We should get going, don't want to keep the Princess waiting!" Rainbow and I stared at each other in confusion, wondering why Twilight was in such a hurry to get out of here. "Hey Twilight, what did the letter say exactly?" Rainbow asked as we followed her out of the diner, with Spike trailing behind us. "Oh, the letter?" Twilight responded, strangely keeping the same tone in her voice. "Princess Celestia just simply needs me to do something for her at the library. I can let you read the new Daring Doo Rainbow Dash." "Meh, already did." said Rainbow. "The one before it was better. I liked the chapter with the scorpions though." "Good, good." Something was noticeably off about Twilight Sparkle. I knew from the show she couldn't keep a secret well, and her sudden change in behaviour was a dead giveway. Something in that letter from the Princess must have hit one of her nerves. The way she talked, the way she seemed to be hurrying towards the library, the way she stared at me in the diner... Aw crap. I didn't notice it until we were inside the library. Something in that letter must have been about me. That wasn't an ordinary stare she had given me, that was a Fluttershy stare. Okay, you know what I mean, but it was probably close to one anyways. "All right, we're here now!" blurted Rainbow Dash. "Why did we have to come along anyways?" "Because..." Twilight replied. "Because of HIM!" A sudden burst of purple magic shot out of Twilight's horn and smashed against my throat, sending me flying into the wall behind me. I felt small electric tingles circle around my neck, creating an artificial rope that was fusing with the wall. As I tried to pull away, the magic gripped against my windpipe and threatened to choke me. "Twilight!" Rainbow yelled as she flew to my aid. "What in the hay are you doing?" "Stay away from him Rainbow Dash!" Twilight warned. "He's evil! Princess Celestia told me everything in that letter!" "What?" replied Rainbow, surprised. "No way!" Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit. How, just HOW did the Princess know about me? And what's this crap about me being evil? All I know was that I was being held hostage in a library, scared to death I might have to reveal everything. The cartoon, the fans... oh god, not the cloppers! "Okay, seriously Twilight!" I pleaded, trying to get my voice out. "I haven't done anything! Let me go!" "Not until Princess Celestia and Princess Luna arrive!" stated the crazed unicorn. "The description of the pony in the letter matches you perfectly! The mane, your orange eyes, your cutie mark!" "Wait..." I froze. "What does it say about my cutie mark?" "Who cares?" Rainbow blurted. "It's all stupid! C'mon Twilight, you know him! There's no way Darkstar can be evil!" "Princess Celestia will be the judge of that!" said Twilight. There was no convincing her. She had more loyalty to the Princess than Rainbow Dash did. There was a knock on the library door. The four of us inside stared at it, all knowing who was on the other side. My heart stopped. I didn't want it to be this way. "Spike, answer the door." Twilight ordered. Spike stalled at first, unsure of what to do in the situation. He kept staring at my hopeless face and Twilight's. "Spike, ANSWER THE DOOR." Spike gulped before slowly making his way towards the door. I winced as he opened it. Two extremely tall and extremely powerful alicorns trotted into the library, their gaze instantly fixated upon me. In my peripheral vision, I saw Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity walk in behind them, but my gaze was matching with Celestia's. My heart was pounding. It was beating harder than it did during my visions. The two Princesses did not seem pleased to see me, their facial expressions blank. I'm fucked. "Rainbow Dash." Princess Celestia spoke. "I'll have to ask you move away from Darkstar." "Why should I?" Rainbow defended. "He hasn't done anything wrong!" "Just move away Rainbow." I said. "What?" she responded to me. "Don't make this harder than it has to be." I whispered to her. "Just let us talk for a few minutes and hopefully we can clear this up." Her saddened face stared at me for a second, before nodding and slowly backing away. Celestia did not move her eyes away from mine. "Darkstar." she spoke, her voice hitting me like nails. "Do you know why we're here?" "Not really." I replied nervously. "I'd kinda like to know myself since I'm magically bound to a wall." "You sure about that?" Celestia approached me. "I think you do know." I gulped as she stood in front of me, lowering her head towards mine. Rainbow Dash and the others watched curiously, all eager to know what I was hiding. "I think you should inform me why I'm being accused of being evil," I retorted. "I haven't done anything." "Not yet, you haven't. My sister here, Princess Luna, holds the duty of studying our citizen's dreams. We did not like what she found in yours." Oh fuck me sideways, I forgot she could do that! I haven't dreamt about the cartoon or the fanbase have I? My only recent dreams were my hellish nightmares, and... wait. "Wait... you've been able to see the nightmares I've been having?" I asked Princess Luna, my eyes wide with fear. She ignored me as Celestia continued. "Not only that, but we can clearly see that your cutie mark is a pentagram," the sun Princess stated. "A symbol that represents evil in it's purist form." "You, you know what a pentagram is?" I asked as the mane six gasped together in shock. "Evil in it's purist form?" Applejack asked out loud. "Here's here because of the Elements of Harmony!" Twilight shouted. "He knows that if he can get rid of them, he can use his evil freely without us using them to defend Equestria!" "Is... is this true Darkstar?" Rainbow asked me. "I took you in when you needed a place to crash..." "No! it's not true!" I screamed, defending myself. "And just how is it that you two princesses happen to know what my cutie mark is?" "Because..." Celestia started. "Because it was the symbol that represented the deadly creatures who invaded Equestria centuries ago." "D-Deadly creatures?" "Demons." Demons. Pentagram. But it wasn't just any pentagram, this was the pentagram from Doom 3. A video game. Completely unrelated to My Little Pony in any way. No, there was no way Celestia was talking about the same demons from that game. "That-That's impossible!" I shouted. "Wait, I don't remember reading any Equestrian history about an invasion..." said Twilight, confused. "It happened so long ago, when Equestria was very young my student." Celestia explained. "We left it out of our history to forget the bloodshed caused by the dark creatures. Many ponies were slaughtered defending the land. The demons originated from another realm known as Hell." Please be the biblical Hell, not the Doom 3 Hell. "It had started when Star Swirl the Bearded began to study how a teleportation spell worked. He wanted to know how you dissapeared from one location and ended up in another. He discovered that the spell transports you through another dimension, in extreme speeds to make the teleportation appear flawless." "Another dimension?" asked Twilight. "Yes my student. Star Swirl was eventually able to access the alternate realm, which we came to know as Hell. Upon his arrival, Star Swirl was corrupted by the dark magic that flows freely throughout the realm. With his new abilities, he summoned an army of the dark creatures, demons, to attack Equestria." "Oh my..." Fluttershy gasped. "How awful." "But, Star Swirl the Bearded was a highly respected unicorn!" Twilight objected. "He helped pave the way for a new era of magic and further expanded our knowledge of our world!" "While true it was Twilight that Star Swirl was extremely gifted in magic, Hell's corruption turned him into a monster. We were able to defeat him with Elements of Harmony and seal him in Hell, along with his demon army. In order to restore his former glory, we claimed that he had died of a strange illness. As for the ponies who survived the war, we used powerful magic to erase their memories of the event. Such disaster shall not be remembered." I could only stare at the ground, completely shocked at Celestia's words. Even the teleportation story mixed in with Doom 3's story. The realization was slowly hitting me. Not only had my love for My Little Pony had been created around me, but my love for a video game had been brought here too. A game about killing demons with chainsaws and shotguns. It sounded like the plot for a cheesy FanFiction, (See what I did there?) and was now a horrifying reality. I had, unknowingly, been the cause of an ancient war resulting in the deaths of innocent ponies. All because I had been sent to Equestria somehow. "...No." "And that's why we're concerned about Darkstar here," Celestia continued. "The magical seal keeping Hell hidden from Equestria is being weakened by his presence." "This can't be happening." I spoke, realizing the truth. "My visions... that voice..." Dr. Malcolm Betruger from Doom 3. I knew I recongized his voice! But... Celestia only mentioned... wait, that cant be Star Swirl's voice, can it? Without warning, the entire library darkened, despite it being sunny outside. I began to recongize the same feeling from my visions, but the sudden change in the enviroment didn't go unnoticed by the others. The room shifted into a red haze, slowly distorting into the distance. Horrific laughing pierced into our ears, the same laugh I remembered from before. "It's been over a thousand years," Star Swirl the Bearded's demonic voice greeted. "Your Hell awaits you..."