//------------------------------// // Chapter 43: Celebrity Hell // Story: The Koprulu Sector // by TheKopruluSectorUnion //------------------------------// Stage sat in a chair in her suite. She was depressed, and found herself with a small tub of ice cream in her lap. The actress was normally very careful with her figure, but at the moment she couldn’t really care less. The events of the day were still fresh in her head. Particularly the part when she walked into Cadenza’s room. Why did you do it Shining? she thought to herself. Did I do something wrong? Stage knew Shining Armor wasn’t exactly ecstatic about being forced to marry her in the first place, and she felt the same way about the arranged marriage. Even then she still did everything in her power to at least try to make the marriage work. “What’s a mare have to do to win over her own husband?” she whimpered. “Maybe he’ll just die tonight and get what he deserves.” Stage wasn’t really sure if she meant that or not. He had broken her heart, and she certainly would like to see him pay for it. But she wasn’t one-hundred percent certain she’d want to see him dead over it. Stage threw the ice cream into the garbage. Apparently she was too depressed to even eat junk food. Seeing as she had nothing else to do at the moment, she turned on the television. As announced earlier, the execution would be on all networks, all stations. Stage however wasn’t in the mood to see any more of her husband at the moment. She quickly turned it off and decided to try to get some sleep again. It seemed that’s all she had been doing that day. She didn’t even want to think about all the problems coming her way with Cadenza. Was Stage supposed to just pretend nothing happened? The Dominion needed this world’s strategic location, and Stage crying to her father that Shining Armor had been unfaithful certainly wouldn’t help matters. She was always told to think about the Dominion before herself. Should she just suck it up and accept what happened? Stage decided to just close her eyes and get some rest. Perhaps things would make more sense in the morning. Shining Armor was still struggling with his breathing. They had treated him for his collapsed lung back on the Iron Will, but it would still be a few days before he made a full recovery. The staff suggested he stay on board to get some rest, but at the moment he was more concerned with personal affairs. His mind was still on the events of the morning with his wife. It wasn’t a secret anymore, and his actions could have some dire political ramifications. Stage… I’m sorry, he thought to himself. He knew what he needed to do. Yes Cadenza was the love of his life, but they simply weren’t destined to work out. They each had their responsibilities, and one of Shining Armor's responsibilities was to his wife. True he never wanted to marry Stage, and she didn’t want to marry him either. But unlike him, she at least tried to make things work. Shining Armor however only cared about himself. And all this time I said you were being the selfish one. He had to break things off with Cadenza. He had to make things right with his wife. He had already caused her enough pain, and he didn’t want to make her suffer even further. Shining Armor was tempted to ask how much longer until they arrived at the capital, but he didn’t want to talk if he didn’t have to. That chit chat with the two mares on the Iron Will was enough of a struggle on its own, and he was still having some trouble catching his breath. A voice came on over the shuttles intercom. “Prince Stone Hoof. We’ve just received word, the Iron Will has been shot down. Cadia is under attack, and the palace is under siege. We will be hiding the shuttle in the mountains and await Dominion reinforcements. Fort Cadence is too hot right now.” Shining Armor walked to the intercom to give alternative orders to the pilots. “Belay that order. Take us to the palace. No arguments,” demanded Shining Armor. There was a bit of silence before the reply. No doubt the crew wasn’t too thrilled about flying into the hot zone, but he was the prince, and they had no choice in the matter. “Yes Prince Stone Hoof. Proceeding to Fort Cadence.” Shining Armor approached his power armor. He was by no means in what he could call tip top shape, but he wasn’t about to leave his wife to fend for herself. Stage woke up to the sound of a crash. Everything in her suite that wasn’t bolted to the ground jumped half a foot in the air, which included herself. Earthquake?! she thought to herself. The rumbling seemed to continue for a bit, so Stage made her way under a table. After a few more shakes, it seemed to have stopped. What came next was even more unsettling. The sound of gun fire went off throughout the hall way, as well as that of screaming. Every fiber of common sense and self-preservation told her to stay inside her room and perhaps find a good place to hide. Yet curiosity got the better of her. It was now quite outside and she slowly approached her door. As she was about to turn the handle, someone on the other side turned it for her and the door opened. She was met by a suit of white power armor, with a number of thin black stripes running across it. The visor opened to reveal a zebra. She knew the person who stood before her, though she was confused as to why he was in power armor, or why he was here. “Jeff Savana?” she asked. The zebra didn’t reply. Instead he quickly grabbed Stage and took off running. “Jeff, what’s this about? Is it because I said all your movies were zebra exploitation films? I’m sorry it destroyed your career! I’ll get you a role in Fallout Equestria. We still have a position open for a token stripped stallion” Jeff didn’t seem to have any interest in her offer. “Mare, Striped Dynamite don’t know who this Jeff character is. Now shut up before Striped Dynamite shuts you up!” Striped Dynamite? Stage thought to herself. “Is this some kind of role play?” she asked. Her question was answered when she saw the dead bodies littering the hall ways. “Holy crap those guys are really dead!” “Of course they are! That’s Striped Dynamite's job!” replied Jeff while still running her through the halls. The sounds of gunfire were still going off throughout the palace. “Jeff this isn’t a movie! You’re going to get us killed!” shouted Stage. Again Jeff ignored her and continued to run down the hall. Fortunately Stage finally managed to slip out of his grip and took off running in the opposite direction. As Stage turned a corner, something smacked her on her side, injuring her wing. She then noticed a set of nunchuks on the floor. “Did you just throw nunchuks at me?!” she shouted. Stage shouted a second time, this time a shout of fear, as the zebra took off towards her now on all fours. Stage took off flying through the hall ways. Normally she’d have no problem outpacing a flightless pursuer, but the hallway limited her flight options, and the power armor helped the zebra run much faster than he normally could. Her left wing was also still in a bit of pain from the nunchuku strike she had just suffered. Crap like this always happens when I come to this world! I almost freeze to death getting to that stupid restaurant, my husband cheats on me, dead bodies are everywhere, I get hit by nunchuks and now a deranged zebra is after me! I hate this planet! she thought as she flew through the halls. She foolishly turned around for a moment only to see the nunchuks once again racing towards her. She quickly dodged the attack and continued flying. “Son of a bitch! Jeff would you knock that off! That really hurt last time!” Already he had picked up the nunchuks again and once again took a shot at her. She screamed in panic and dodge the attack. She quickly spread her legs and saw the nunchaku fly right under her. The weapon hit the head piece of another armored pony. This armored pony was in a different suit than the others. It was a massive suit of devastator armor. These suits were basically walking tanks, several times the bulk of operator inside. Usually these heavy infantry stallions had large vehicle graded weapon attached to their arms. In this case, the devastator suit was armed with devilishly large flame throwers as he worked to fry a pair of unfortunate palace guards. The nunchaku striking against his massive suit's headpiece seemed to catch his attention. He met Stage face to face and proceeded to point one of his flame throwers at her. Stage quickly moved out of the way as he fired, and began to fill the hall with flames. She flew around the stallion, whose stream of burning death followed after her. The flames however seemed to die down quickly as Jeff tackled the stallion, then proceeded to continue chasing her. He shouted, “Damn it fool, we need that mare alive! Not toasted!” That was one thing Stage had going for her. Unfortunately if that stallion was willing to try and kill her, then odds are some of the other stallions would as well. She had no idea who these stallions were. They all wore grey power suits, and had an emblem of a dog collar she didn’t recognize. How the hell did they get inside the palace?! she asked herself. Her train of thought was interrupted as Jeff started shooting at her. “You said you needed me alive!” shouted Stage as she continued to fly. Apparently the stallion wasn’t aiming for her, and instead shot out a window. As the window shattered, Stage was blasted with an artic chill of the cold Cadian night air. The blast of snow to the face obscured her vision and she crashed into the ground, then slid across the floor. She wiped her eyes and was relieved to see some friendly stallions. One of them helped her to her feet while the others began to shoot at Jeff. “Try not to kill him. He’s not a bad guy, there is just something wrong in his head right now,” requested Stage as she ran for cover. Stage covered her ears as the sound of gauss weapons filled the air. “Oh crap, run!” shouted one of the palace guards. “Stand your ground!” demanded another guard. Stage peeked over her cover to see another devastator suit approaching. This one had two auto cannons on its arms. The guards began to open fire, but the suit soaked up the bullets like a sponge. The stallion in the devastator lifted his arms and the barrels on his guns began to twirl. Stage had been in enough actions movies to know what was coming next. She also figured the cover would be worthless against those weapons, and ran into a room just as the stallion opened fire. The deafening roar of his auto canons was somewhat disorienting, and left a ringing in her ears. She looked out the doors to see the palace guards were splattered to pieces by devastator’s cannons. Had she been out in the hall, she’d be dead. Apparently she was right that not everyone received the memo that Stage Stone Hoof was to be taken alive. That or in the thrill of battle, they just didn’t notice her and her less than royal attire. Perhaps she should dress more appropriately? At least then she would stand out as a high value target worth taking alive. Then again, at least since she didn’t stand out, no one had any particular reason to focus on her specifically. “Damn it what’s with you fools!? Didn’t you see the princess was in that hall!?” shouted Jeff. No one except that particular stallion anyway. The room she was in only had one way in or out, and she had no idea how she would make it out that door without Jeff seeing her. A solution of sorts presented itself as the wall exploded. Fortunately Stage was low to the ground and next to some furniture, so she wasn’t showered in shrapnel. She looked out the newly created exit to see another palace guard running by, only to explode into pink mist and flying scrap. Stage could hear the sound of machinery outside. She didn’t know what was out there, but it might have been a better alternative than waiting for Jeff and the stallion with the auto cannons to come in after her. She took a peek outside only to meet eye to eye with another devastator suit. This one had a MAG (magnetically accelerated grenade) launcher strapped onto each of its arms, as well as a MAG assembly unit on the back, that would assemble and loud new grenades into the launchers. She imagined the stallion was smiling under his armor as he pointed the weapon on his left arm towards her. She ducked just in time as the MAG rocketed past her and blew out the wall behind her. His left arm then started making noise as another grenade was assembled and loaded into the launcher. His right arm however was ready to fire again and was pointed straight at her. Before he could fire, the back of the suit exploded and the stallion fell forward. Although most of the suit was still intact, the stallion inside was probably dead or seriously injured. Someone had shot the heavily armored stallions back. While devastator suits were almost as well armed and armored as actual tanks, they all shared a common weakness: the ammunition pack on the back. Whether it was fuel tanks, auto cannon shells, or a MAG assembly unit, a well place shot to the back could always set the thing off. Stage recognized the armor of the stallion standing before her. It was her husband Shining Armor. “Stay down!” he demanded. Stage complied as he fired a couple of rounds over her head. She turned around to see another devastator suit fall on its side. It was the stallion with the auto cannons. The suit's helmet was particularly thick as to protect the stallion underneath, but it did hold two small eye sockets so the operator could see what he was doing. Shining Armor had put a round into each hole, shooting the stallion through the eyes. While the helmet still seemed mostly intact, small streams of blood made their way out of the eye sockets. Stage could only imagine the gory mess hidden behind that metal mask. She was about to thank her husband when he fell to his knees, and began coughing out blood. “Shining, were you shot!?” asked the concerned Pegasus. “May as well have been.” Shining Armor took a moment to catch his breath. “We have to get you to the bunker.” Shining Armor began making his way through the hallway hoping to lead his wife to safety. The sound of gunfire was still going off all over the palace, and bodies of both the Cadians and the Diamond Dogs littered the hall ways. “Wouldn’t we be safer onboard the Iron Will?” asked Stage. “The Iron Will is gone. They shot it down,” informed Shining Armor. “I guess it’s a good thing you weren’t onboard after all huh?” he said trying to force out a laugh only to cough out more blood instead. Stage wasn’t sure how she should feel about this at the moment. On one hand, he did cheat on her. On the other, he had just saved her life. In an awkward way Staged owed her life to their affair. Had she attended the execution, she'd of been on the Iron Will when it was shot down. “Stage, about what happened earlier,” began Shining Armor. “Shining, I don’t think now is the right time,” argued Stage. “We’ll talk about it when we don’t have someone trying to kill us.” “We might not get to talk about it later. I’m sorry for what happened. I-” Shining Armor was suddenly cut off by the sound of a gun shot. Stage looked at her husband to see he was now bleeding more than ever from his mouth. He then collapsed beside her and began breathing rapidly. “Shining!” shouted Stage. She turned around to see Jeff was behind them with a smoking gauss pistol in hand. Shining tried to lift his rifle, but the zebra kicked it away effortlessly. “Well well, what does Stripped Dynamite have here? The legendary Shining Armor, bought down with a single round. Well… two I suppose.” Jeff pointed his pistol at Shining Armor's head getting ready to blow it off, then Stage stepped in front of him. “Jeff please don’t!” she begged. “Step aside little mare,” demanded Jeff. “I’ll go with you. No more running. Just please… don’t kill him!” she cried. Jeff looked down at Shining Armor to see he had passed out. By now his suit had probably gone to work in stopping the bleeding, while the pain killers had probably caused him to pass out. The suit would keep him alive for hours on end, but he wouldn’t be waking up anytime soon. “Alright, but I remember where he is. You take off running, Stripped Dynamite be coming right back over here, you dig?” “I… I dig,” replied Stage. She turned around and kneeled beside her husband one more time. “Thanks for coming back for me,” she whispered as she gave him a kiss on the forehead, due to the fact his mouth was still covered in blood. “Let’s go.” Stage was taken to the roof where a 'jumper' was waiting for her. This expensive drop ship was used somewhat as a reverse drop pod. Getting onto a world was a quick process, getting off could take a while. This ship helped to speed thing up. The seats inside were facing towards the cockpit, and had a number of restraints. After being secured in the back with only three other armored stallions, the back of the ship closed. Jeff had stayed behind, his work apparently still incomplete. Stage tried to move around, but she was tightly secured. She felt the ship start to lift off, then lifted to point vertically upward. If she weren’t on her seat, she would have probably fallen to the back of the ship. There was no countdown or any warning, the jumper just took off towards the sky. Stage felt like she was being crushed inside of her seat as the ship continued rocketing into space. It was only a few seconds before the passed out. “Hello!” said a cheerful voice. “Don’t bother trying to fly. I tied down both your wings.” Stage tried to nudge her wings and discovered they had indeed been restrained. Slowly she opened up her eyes to see her attire had been changed as well. She was now in a green shirt and pants with a jungle hat on her head. Definitely an outfit from one of her Daring Doo films. In front of her was now a light grey Pegasus mare, with a blond mane, and crooked yellow eyes. Stage recognized this mare. “Ditzy Doo?” asked Stage. “Ditzy? No I’m Derpy! Derpy Hooves! I’m the assistant,” replied Ditzy. The assistant? Oh no! She’s just like Jeff! Maybe she’ll listen to reason. thought Stage. “Ditzy, don’t you remember me? I’m Stage Stone Hoof.” “I don’t know you, and stop calling me Ditzy! My name is Derpy!” complained the Pegasus. “Ditzy, Derpy Hooves the assistant was a role you played on the Doctor Hooves show. It was just a character. You played Derpy for two seasons before… I took your place,” explained Stage. “ “I’m not Ditzy!” shouted Derpy who proceeded to buck her in the forehead. After receiving the strike, Stage decided it was best not to provoke her. But now she was more curious than ever as to what was going on? First Jeff Savana captured her, thinking he was one of his movie personas. Now Ditzy was holding her prisoner thinking she is also one of her personas. Both of these ponies had suffered because of Stage. Maybe this was some kind of sick payback for helping to end their careers? “Ah yes, you’re finally awake,” announced another stallion. A very well dressed brown stallion entered the room. “Depry, did you set up the devices as you were instructed?” “Yes doctor!” said Ditzy enthusiastically. Stage knew this actor as well. That stallion began to speak. “I know we haven’t met before, but my name is-” “Time Turner!” interrupted Stage. “Yes… I’m Time Turner Penny Pincher. How did you know that?” asked Penny Pincher. Suddenly Stage had an idea as to what was happening. “This must be where actors go when their careers die isn’t it. We eventually all go crazy and convince ourselves we’re reliving our personas from our glory days. Jeff must have been the grim reaper!” shouted Stage. “There has to be a mistake. My career wasn’t dead! I made 400 million on my last movie. I have a trilogy lined up! I can’t be dead yet!” “What? No you aren’t dead! Why would you think that?” asked Penny Pincher. Stage began to feel embarrassed for coming to such a ridicules conclusion. “Well Jeff thought he was Stripped Dynamite, and Ditzy thinks she’s Derpy. They’re both personas from-” started Stage. “Derpy!” shouted Penny Pincher. “Go wait outside for a moment.” “Yes doctor!” announced Ditzy. As Ditzy left the room, Staged continued. “Ok, unlike the others, you seem to still remember who you are. So what’s going on here Time Turner?” “You didn’t answer my question. How do you know me?” asked Penny Pincher. “You used to be an actor too. You played Doctor Whooves for four seasons. I was your assistant for two of them until I… accidentally knocked over that stage light and broke your leg.” explained Stage. “They decided to simply replace you so they could finish the season. I tried to argue with them otherwise, I really did!” pleaded Stage. Wow… I’ve really hurt a lot of actors careers haven’t I? “I can assure you I was never an actor,” said Penny Pincher. “I’m el contador for the Diamond Dog security firm.” He doesn’t think he is one of his personas like the others. But he still seems to have no idea who he really is. thought Stage. “But you are right, the others are indeed actors who have been resocialized to fill their personas. That is what you will be doing as well Stage Stone Hoof. Or should I say, Daring Do,” said Penny Pincher. Stage instantly filled with fear. No. God no! I don’t want to be like these guys. Stage tried heading for a door, but they were all locked. Another door opened however, and a pink earth pony mare stepped in. The mare was a mess. She was currently in a black robe, that for some reason had a Tacoville t-shirt over it. Both the robe and the shirt had a number of holes in them. Her face also had a number of cuts as well. Her mane had large swaths of it cut off and parts of her scalp had been burned down to the bone. One of her eyeballs had apparently been sliced open as well as blood flowed from the empty socket. The mare looked like she had just been shot, stabbed, blown up and lit on fire all at once. “Stupid defective pieces of crap!” she said angrily. The mare started to look like she was about to vomit. After a few seconds, she did so, but not how Stage imagined. In place of the usual vile liquids, the pink mare began to vomit spent bullet rounds as one piece after another hit the ground and rolled across the floor. “I think that’s the last of them. No wait.” The mare covered one of her nostrils and exhaled hard out the other one. One final spent round flew out of her nostril so fast that it actually made a bullet hole in the wall. As if this day hasn’t been strange enough, Stage thought to herself. "I take it your assault against that hospital didn't go as planned?" said Penny Pincher. The pink mare didn't bother answering. Instead she looked up to see Stage standing before her. Her face lit up in more than just an expression of joy. Her destroyed mane suddenly poofed into a mess of curls, and all the cuts and burns that littered her face seemed to disappear all at once. Even her destroyed eye seemed to have made a full recovery as joy overtook the mare's face. With the exception of her destroyed clothing, you’d would think this wasn’t the same injured mare who had just walked in. The pink mare smiled as she approached the confused Pegasus. “It’s you! It’s really you! Oh my gosh I can’t believe it!” the pink mare took a deep breath before continuing. “Daring Do, I have a job lined up for you. It’s going to be awesome. There are going to be zerg, and bobby traps, and flying axes and all that cool stuff! I can’t wait to get this started! Let’s get you to a resoc tank!” That was her queue to make an exit. As much as she loved playing Daring Do, she had no intention of actually becoming her. Stage quickly ran out the newly opened door, and was pleased to find the halls were empty. She had no idea where she was, but even death was preferable to neural-resocialization. Stage took one step, only to find that she had triggered a trap. Three axes flew across the wall towards her face. Stage quickly ducked as the axes stuck into the wall. She didn’t have long before the floor below her opened up. Stage barely managed to grab onto the ledge to keep herself from falling. The newly opened pit below her revealed a fiery chamber, and it looked as if the flames were rising. Stage quickly pulled herself out of the pit as the flames rose, barely avoiding being roasted alive. As she took a moment to recover, she started to hear breathing overhead, then looked up to see three zerglings hanging above her. Stage quickly ducked and found she was just barely low enough to avoid their scythes. She started to low crawl away from the fiery pits and hanging zerg. As she finally made it out from under the zerg, a large blade swung across the hall. Stage moved out of the way as the edge of the blade sliced a tiny piece of fur off her muzzle. She then noticed arrow tubes beginning to emerge from the walls. She ducked, dodging the first, then dodged two more. Having enough of this arrow dodging, she stood on the fuorth arrow, and did a flip across the hall, flying over all the remaining arrow tubes. She landed backwards facing the arrow tubes she had just avoided, then heard a noise coming out of the ground. She quickly stepped forward dodging a spike that had just shot out of the floor. She looked ahead to see that the entire floor was filled with holes, any one of which could also have spikes coming out of the ground. There was also a door at the end which was slowly closing. Since the fire pit had cut off her retreat, she had to make it out through that slowly closing door. Stage performed a forward flip, leaping over a good number of spike traps, then began performing one leap after another, dodging further spike traps. Seeing that the door was half way closed already, Stage made a mad dash across the hall, strafing left and right as she avoided the remaining spikes. Having cleared the spikes, she dove into a slide and barely cleared the doors without being crushed. Sweat beading down her face, she let out a relaxed sigh. It didn’t last long as the hall started to rumble for some reason. Once again, the only way out was through a conveniently placed slowly closing blast door in a distant hall way. What happened next was a feat so amazing that if it were a TV show, it could not be shown on screen, and certainly not written in a story. Stage exited the hall with her hat in her mouth, which for some reason was covered with small arrows. The frustrated mare brushed off the arrows and put the hat back on. “What the hell is wrong with people on this planet?! Who builds a hall way like that?!” she asked herself looking back at the door. She turned around only to find herself in the last room she wanted to be in. A room with a resoc tank. It seems that hall way was built with the intention of leading her into this room. She was contemplating on destroying it, but figured that wouldn’t be of much use. They probably had others as well. She started looking for a way out, but it appeared she was sealed inside. A few moments later the door once again opened and in stepped Penny Pincher. “I have to say that was quite the impressive acrobatic feat you just performed. Clearly you do indeed perform all of your own stunts.” “Listen Time Turner… I don’t know why are doing this, but please don’t make me do this!” she begged. The door closed behind Time Turner as he started to activate the machine. “Even if I let you go, what exactly do you have to go back to? A soon to be dead career. A husband who is probably never there for you. Expectations of you to sit around like a good little princess and do exactly what you’re told to do?” asked Penny Pincher. “Well… I suppose. But it’s better than this!” argued Stage. “Is it? I saw your cutie mark. It’s a compass rose. It suggests that you are an explorer and adventurer. It calls for you to step outside your palace and see what the galaxy has to offer. You’ll never be able to do that as Princess Stage Stone Hoof. But as Daring Do… nothing is off limits to you,” countered Time Turner. “I’m going to give you a choice. You can take a shuttle out of here, and I’ll say you fell into the fire pit. You can go back to your pampered life, and waste away in your palace, wondering about the chance you never took. Or you can become the mare you always dreamed of being, and experience life the way you were meant to. We already have an expedition lined up. We just need someone to lead it. It’s entirely up to you.” “You think I would step inside that thing and live as a character from a movie?!” asked Stage. “You’re crazy!” “You play Daring Do because it’s your way of experiencing the things your pampered life as a princess doesn’t let you. But that time is coming to an end and you know it. It’s a once in a life time opportunity. Think about this. Is there even anything in your current life you want to remember?” asked Penny Pincher. “Every actor who has entered this machine has done so willingly. They all wanted to be that one person that life would never let them be. I can’t say any of them have regretted it.” Stage thought about that for a moment. Her father saw her as little more than a political tool. Her husband had betrayed her. He may have rescued her, but it was probably for political reasons above all else. It wasn’t hard for her to imagine him cheating on her a second time. “Time Turner… what’s it like being a resoc?” asked Stage. “I honestly have no idea,” said the resocialized stallion. He still has no clue his memories are a lie. I guess I won’t either. Stage took a deep breath, closed her eyes, then willingly entered the pod.