//------------------------------//
// Chapter Five: Dying to Live 
// Story: The Titans' Orb 
// by Mister Horncastle 
//------------------------------//

Crash!
“Oh yeah!”

Smash!
“Yee haw!”

Crunch!
“Woo! Hoo!”

Tap...
“Yay...”

All throughout the house, from room to room; bash, smash, smack, crash, crack and wallop; glass was shattered, wood was splintered, and metal was bent, we trashed the house to hell.

“Now this is what I needed!” I yelled, lobbing my mum’s favourite coffee mug through the kitchen window.

Rainbow Dash galloped through the hall and skidded past me, before bucking the kitchen door, breaking the bottom hinge and bending the top one, causing it to stand at a very precarious angle. Applejack trotted along and delivered the killing blow, kicking the door in the middle and snapping the top hinge; the door fell to the hallway floor with an almost deafening smack.

“Yee haw!” AJ yelled.

I laughed wildly as I whacked the lounge television with my brother’s cricket bat, I jumped back in mild shock as the damn thing made a loud bang and sprayed me with sparks. Rarity, whom was next to me, chuckled at the scene, before looking to the ground solemnly.

“I must admit that I feel terribly guilty about breaking things that I don’t own...” she started.

I was about to give a response, when she levitated a glass jug with her telekinesis, and then proceeded to forcefully launch it across the room and into the wall, smashing it to hundreds of tiny pieces.

“Oh but by Celestia is it satisfying!”

We both burst into child-like laughter and continued to trash the house with the others; my god did it feel so good to break all this stuff, it was so wrong, yet it felt so right. Since my dad left and the abuse had begun, my young brain had been contorted and tormented by the abrupt and unfair treatment. Mixed with my natural teenage hormones, a vicious fire had formed within me, burning with an emotional rage, and it had been slowly growing for years, and it was time to set the house ablaze with it.

“Take this you mysterious voodoo box!” Pinkie Pie screamed as she head butted the kitchen microwave at full strength, making it quite literally explode; sparks were showered in all directions and Pinkie yelped loudly, jumping back about six feet and scrambling on top of the kitchen countertop like a scared cat, now with a slightly singed mane.

“The voodoo box is spicy! The voodoo box is spicy!” she shrieked, hissing at the destroyed contraption.

At this, Rainbow Dash began laughing like a nutcase, creasing up and barely able to keep herself standing.

“Pinkie! You absolute nutter! What made the microwave a voodoo box exactly?” I cackled.

“Well duh, it cooks food with glowing voodoo waves!”

“That’s called radiation, Pinks, micro waves to be specific, hence why it’s called a microwave.”

“That’s what it wanted you to think, Callum!”

Although I found her to be utterly hilarious, I was rather worried that Pinkie had given herself an electric shock, but she seemed somewhat okay by her standard. After that little stunt of hers, I had to compete with her in order to create the biggest ruckus possible. I slowly approached the French windows in the dining room, an absolutely enormous pane of double-glazed glass that stood over six feet high and eight feet wide; the others watched me with great anticipation, eager to witness what I was going to do next.

Tilting my head low and glowering at the window with hostility, Pinkie Pie somehow knew exactly what to do.

“This is blasphemy, this is madness!” she shouted at me, impersonating the Persian far too accurately.

“Madness...?” I muttered to myself.

I looked round to face the others, I then glanced at Pinkie, who gave me the little nod of approval, somehow she knew the Three-Hundred reference, it must have been her ‘Pinkie logic’, there was no other explanation; it seemed that even in my dimension, she possessed the ability to occasionally defy the laws of time, space, and logics entirely.

I turned back to the window, and glared at it with the fierce intent to destroy it.

“This... is... SPARTA!”

Raising my knee up to my chest, I kicked out at the giant pane of glass with all my might, the entire pane screeched with dying agony as it shattered into a million pieces. Each tiny fragment twinkled faintly in the daylight and made a crystalline ‘clink’ noise as they hit the floor, and due to the sheer amount of glass fragments, the ‘clinking’ went on for quite some time; it easily took a good twenty seconds for the slaughter to fall silent. Nopony spoke, one could have heard a pin drop, until Rainbow Dash finally spoke.

“Dude... that... was... AWESOME!” she yelled, squealing like a fan-girl.

All the other ponies burst into cheering, Pinkie reared up and kicked her forelegs around in excitement.

“Oh-my-gosh-Callum-you’re-so-cool-that-was-like soooooooooo amazing!”

Even Fluttershy gave her famous little, ‘woo-hoo’.



All good things come to an end eventually, and as expected, Twilight stepped in to cut the lights on the party.

“Is your kind usually this bent on destruction? Foolish destruction at that! Sending all this broken glass over the place could have seriously injured somepony, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you were hoping to cut one of us with an act of such recklessness!”

Hanging my head, I accepted that it had been a rather stupid thing to do. Fluttershy then spoke up, finally wanting to make a comment on Twilight’s persistent negativity, along with her accusations.

“Twilight, I know you’re feeling stressed, but come on now... No one was harmed, and Callum was only playing.”

Then Rarity joined in.

“Fluttershy’s right, Twilight. You’re purposefully looking for reasons to continue this conflict, it’s completely and utterly needless and I think I speak for all of us when I say it’s growing awfully tiring. Listen-”

“No!” Twilight barked, interrupting Rarity. “You listen! You don’t understand what’s going on here, you haven’t got a clue what these things are really like!” she snarled, pointing a hoof at me.

Rarity gasped, horrified at Twilight defining me as a mere ‘thing’. I chose not to speak for the time being, remaining in quiet observation as the situation unfolded before me. Although somewhat offended by the purple unicorn, I was far more invested in what Celestia had divulged to her, and the truth was much more likely to reveal itself in the heat of an argument.

“How dare you address Callum in such a manner!” Rarity gasped, “We may not have known him for long but-”

“But nothing!” Twilight spat back, “You are blind to the truth! Humans are wicked on the inside. They're vicious creatures, ready to rip each another apart at a moments notice! Did you know they’ve had more wars than Equestria has houses? Trust me, they’re made for violence! This whole nicey-nicey business is just a façade!”

{Some progress...} I thought to myself.

It was now abundantly clear that Celestia had informed Twilight about our knack for war. The thing that bothered me was that she was technically right, and it was a fact I could not deny.

“He’s not evil!” Pinkie squeaked defiantly, “If he was, my Pinkie senses would be going all twitchy twitcha-twitch!”

Pointing a hoof into Pinkie's face, Twilight began to get herself into a state.

“We don’t even know if your Pinkie Sense works here! And besides, I know he’s evil because Princess Celestia told me so, and who are we to question the Princess, huh?”

Obviously, Celestia’s word was gospel to the unicorn, and it was true that the Princess had warned them about the overall danger surrounding my kind. But these had been words of mere caution, and the others were aware of that. Twilight on the other hand, had clearly chosen to take the warning as literally as possible, and was now fixated on it, not realising that she was now coming across as delusional and obsessed.
Choosing to insert myself into the situation, I calmly asked if Celestia had actually told her that I, personally, as a singular individual, was evil. Despite my politeness, I received a scathing glare from the unicorn, who chose to give me the politician’s answer, by making a statement that aligned with her argument, despite not actually answering the question.
But she didn’t need to, not really, because what she did do, was spill the beans.

“The Princess told me about your wars and the death tolls they carry, she told me all about your weapons of mass destruction, and how all your countries were founded with slavery and genocide! Your species is evil, and even if you aren’t the absolute worst of your kind, you’re still a human, a monster! And you can pretend to my friends as much as you like, but I know what you are!”

For once, no one rushed to my defence; was Twilight winning them over?
Trying my best to keep my calm and retain confidence, I decided to push my original statement again.

“So that’s a no, then? She didn’t tell you directly that I’m evil? All she’s done is warn you about my world’s dark past, to emphasise the fact that you’re in a dangerous place. But you’ve independently chosen to associate all those horrible things with me, a seventeen-year-old kid with absolutely no connection to any of it.”

I noticed Rarity lightly nodding her head at that, thankfully agreeing with me. Continuing, I made sure Twilight didn’t escape this conflict without admitting that she hadn’t told the exact truth.

“So, if you’re so bloody confident about who I am, then give us all a straight answer. Yes or no, did Princess Celestia tell you, word for word, that I am evil?”

Lowering her head and glaring at me intensely, she practically hissed her answer.

“She didn’t tell me. She showed me.”

What the hell did that mean? Had Celestia been recording me? I mean, she must have been studying me for a while at least, otherwise why would she send the girls to me in the first place? She must have deemed me worthy for this task, so why would she then provide Twilight with the means to believe I was evil?
Oh, this was so bloody confusing...

“What did she show you?” I demanded to know, doing everything in my power to stay calm.

Twilight’s eyes widened as it dawned on her that she had already given away far too much.

“It’s none of your business!” she growled.

“Actually, I think it is my business. You’re insinuating that you’ve visually seen something that has brought you to the conclusion that I'm undeniably evil. That is something I should be well entitled to know about, so how about we stop playing this stupid game and you actually tell us, or at least me, what you've supposedly seen?”

Having raised my voice quite substantially, Twilight looked up at me more fearfully now. The unspoken struggle for dominance between us was finally beginning to shift. Before she could speak, I continued.

“Look, if we’re going to successfully find this Orb of yours, you and I are going to need to get along. So at some point, you’re going to have to tell us what the Princess showed you, so we can discuss it and actually deliberate over what you think you’ve seen. Because as of right now, it’s abundantly clear to me that you’ve been shown something that is woefully untrue.”

Up until that last sentence, I had hit all the right beats; every single word I had said was perfect, and she had been visibly settling down, right up until I made one fatal error.

“Are you calling Princess Celestia, a liar?”

“I don’t know what her motivations are," I replied honestly, "and I’m sure it’s with the best intentions, designed to protect you all. But from everything you’re telling me, Twilight? Yeah, I’m saying that she’s lied to you.”

Oh Callum, you fucking idiot...
Twilight looked up to Princess Celestia as a mentor, a maternal figure, a guiding light, and as a literal god. Everything that came from the Princess’s mouth was undeniable truth, and now here I was, telling her that her god was a liar. I had just committed the worst crime of all, blasphemy, and somewhere in Twilight’s mind, something very brittle snapped. Her intense glare became even more furious, and she started to bared her teeth; this wasn’t just excessive tiredness and stress, there was a much deeper mental issue going on here.

“I don’t think you should have said that...” Pinkie Pie whispered to me, wincing as she spoke.

Her left eye twitching, Twilight’s anger came to a threshold and finally erupted.

“Y-you... you... you vile pink-skinned flesh-golem! I’m glad your family abuses you!” she bellowed, before storming out of the shattered doorway and galloping away to their camp.

Literally everyone had gasped in shock, with Rainbow Dash and Rarity both preparing to chase her down.

“You get back here right now! How DARE you!” Rarity shrieked, utterly livid.

“Please, don’t go after her...” I begged the two of them.

They both turned to face me, Rainbow Dash was red in the face and honestly looked like she could just about kill the unicorn after what she’d just said to me.

“But-”

“But, nothing, I don’t want any more arguments.” I interjected, my voice cracking slightly.

They both realised that my eyes had welled up with tears and knew that enough was enough. I wasn’t even upset by her horrid remark, it was more the confrontation itself that had got to me; we hadn’t even met for twenty-four hours yet and there was already so much hostility, I was upset because all I wanted was for us to get along, but it was very clear that such a thing wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, especially not until I learned what Celestia had shown her.
But for what it was worth, I’d been able to get a fair chunk of information out of her, despite still lacking the most integral pieces, I now knew for a fact that Celestia had told her about Earth’s history, its bad history to be precise.

Applejack came forward and offered to talk to Twilight, not to scold her or provoke her, but simply to try and understand her side better. Although I didn’t want to risk any more conflict, perhaps it would be good to have a middle-man in the fold, or in this case, a middle-mare. I dipped my head in confirmation and the farm pony tipped her hat to me and then went over to the camp; Rainbow Dash looked in that direction as Applejack went and snorted in disgust, pressing a hoof into the wooden floor and grinding it in little circles. I sat in one of the dining room chairs and sighed heavily.

“Callum, I can’t even begin to tell you how infuriated I am at Twilight for speaking to you like that, I’m shocked and appalled at her behaviour. I really hope this doesn’t change your decision to help us.” Rarity spoke.

Shaking my head slightly, I promised that I was committed to their mission now, no matter how Twilight behaved.

“That’s certainly a relief, but I wouldn’t blame you if you felt otherwise.”

“I appreciate that. Now you all look here...” I began.

Beckoning the remaining four ponies into a huddle around me, I decided to set the record straight.

“Even as someone who doesn’t know Twilight personally, it’s very clear that this isn’t what she’s normally like, right?”

Everyone nodded, to which I continued.

“Well, unlike the rest of you, she is very clearly not coping well with the responsibility of this undertaking. But I don’t blame her, and for what it was worth, a lot of the things she’s said is true. I’m not going to lie to you, my species has a very dark history, and Twilight’s right to some extent, that we’re a dangerous race of beings. We’re very capable of bad things, but that’s only half the story, and for all the capacity we have for bad, we have just as much capacity for good.”

“Like the Kung Fu Panda movie? Because that was really good.” Pinkie Pie asked quietly.

“Yeah Pinkie, that too. We love telling stories and creating works of art, we love entertaining one another and bringing light into one another’s lives.”

Judging from all the positive facial expressions now around me, it seemed that simply talking about the situation in a composed manner had made everyone feel much calmer and safer.

“Okay, but how the heck does that excuse Twilight from being such a bitc-”

“Because, Rainbow Dash, there are some elements of truth in what she says. There are some very bad people in this world, people that will hurt you if they get the chance to. This mission of yours is going to be very dangerous, and if the Titans’ Orb broke into six pieces, then we’re most likely going to be travelling to a lot of different places, and sadly, in more places than not, those very bad people will be there, waiting to hurt you.
For now, Twilight isn’t sure if I’m one of those people or not, and it’s absolutely terrifying her. She’s not being rude to me because she’s nasty, she’s being rude to me because she is scared to death of me. So all we need to do is safely embark on this mission together, and as the days go by, hopefully she’ll be able to overcome this fear. Until then, we just need to accept the fact that she isn’t going to like me, and she probably isn’t going to treat me very well.
And for now, that’s okay...”

Frowning, Rainbow Dash looked like she was going to object, but I continued speaking before she could do so.

“I know that doesn’t sound right, and it might not sit well with you, but if my job, as ordained by Princess Celestia herself, is simply to be your guide and protector, then I don’t actually need Twilight’s trust or friendship. All I need to do is keep the six of you safe from harm, while we find the pieces of the Orb, and then you can all go home. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to be friends with all six of you, but if Twilight chooses to hate me, then so be it. Your success in this mission, and your safety, is far more important.”

Upon hearing my closing statement, Rarity sniffed and looked away.

“Oh Callum... That is just, beautiful, and so selfless of you too! Even if Twilight never does, I can see now why the Princess sent us to you. You are a pure hearted individual, a real gentleman.”

I lowered my head and smirked at the compliment, not that I’d said any of it for praise, but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t hoped at least one of them would take the earnestness of my monologue to heart.

“Ooooooooohh, someone’s got a crush.” Rainbow Dash sneered.

Scoffing loudly, Rarity was taken off-guard and practically beatboxed as she tried to gather her words.

“Oh! Pff! Kch! Ts! R-Rainbow Dash, shame on you!”

“I’m just kidding! Jeez!”

Pinkie and Fluttershy giggled at the scene, while I requested that nopony else got into an argument, as Twilight was certainly enough for one group. Our group huddle was dispersing just as Applejack finally returned.

“Well, I’ve calmed her down to the best of my ability, but I can tell you sure as eggs, she don’t like you one bit...”

“Tell us something we don’t know, AJ.” Rainbow Dash groaned.

Ignoring Rainbow’s remark, I dipped my head in gratitude.

“Thank you Applejack, as long she’s calm and focused on the mission, that’s all that matters.”

Understanding, AJ asked what we were going to do now, to which I decided that we should really consider getting a move on; the house had been totally trashed now and it was high time that we got out of here. We needed to get Twilight back in, create a clone of me to kill, take the dogs to Bruce’s house, and then hit the road.
Fluttershy took a step away from me, taken aback.

“K-Kill the clone?”

Confirming that I did intend to kill the clone, I explained that faking my death had to look as realistic as possible. After all, the whole point of trashing the house was to imply someone had broken in and killed me. Fluttershy looked down at her hooves, unsure of what to say; the others were all somewhat similar, they really didn’t know how to conduct themselves with such a subject.

“Callum dear, are you completely sure about this?” Rarity nervously asked me.

Honestly, no, I wasn’t sure about this at all...
Beginning to mentally backtrack, I thought that perhaps it was too much; perhaps if I just wrote a suicide note and vanished without a trace? Hm, but then people would go searching for my body, it would end up as a permanently unsolved investigation as to where I’d gone.
No, generating and then killing a clone was absolutely necessary, I had to make sure there weren’t any loose ends, even Twilight would agree with that. We’d already trashed the house anyway, so there was no turning back now. Besides, I wasn’t actually killing anybody, it was just a clone we were talking about.

“Well, I hope you’re not expecting me to stick around when it happens.”

{Holy crap, did they all think that they had to watch me do it?} I thought to myself, before speaking my mind.

“Oh goodness no Rarity, I never intended for you to see it happen, none of you!”

Rainbow Dash then made a statement that angered me greatly.

“Well, um, I don’t mind watching... I mean, with all the potential danger ahead of us, you never know... We may have to kill one day in the future... Maybe it would be good, knowing what to expect?”

I whipped around and scowled at her with a face like thunder.

“You are not watching, none of you are, okay? And don’t say things like that, ever! Don’t even think about killing!”

My sudden change in attitude certainly got the message across, I was genuinely angry with her. Seriously, how on Earth could she have even suggested having to kill someone? It was nothing like the Rainbow Dash I knew...
But then again, how well did I actually know these ponies? I’d been lovingly watching them and their adventures for four and a half seasons now, and yet it seemed like I would have to unlearn so much of what I thought I knew. There was so much more to these girls, and parting the fantasy of the cartoon from the reality in front of me would take time, but seeing as I’d only met them yesterday, I felt like I deserved some slack.

“I’m s-sorry... I just-”

“You just, nothing, Rainbow Dash.” I cut in, “There is nothing good, nor heroic about killing. The whole reason Princess Celestia sent you to me is so that I can keep you away from such things, understand?”

Shame befell the pony as she understood the severity of her words. Bowing her head, she sighed heavily, and given that she had learned her lesson, I forgave her. Exhaling slowly through pursed lips, I knew it was time to get this done; facing Applejack, I decided that it would be best for her to retrieve Twilight, and not me.

“Applejack it’s time. Can you fetch Twilight?”

She nodded, and left without saying anything; I turned to the others to find them all looking very saddened.

“Hey... Once this is over and done with, everything will be okay.” I assured them.

“You’re right,” Rarity answered, “it’s just that, with all this talk of death and whatnot, I can’t help but worry about what’s going on back home, I’m just feeling a bit homesick.”

The others were evidently dwelling on the same subject, for they all wore similar expressions.

“I’m worried about my little Angel Bunny...” Fluttershy sniffed.

The poor things, they were a very long way from home, and they were going to be for a long time, it made perfect sense for them to have home on their minds.
But that’s when a realisation dawned upon me, when I had read the ‘My Little Dashie’ fanfiction, it had been explained that the time between our worlds was distorted, an entire year in our world was merely a day in theirs; this meant that we had months, possibly even a couple of years to look for the Orb fragments. Right now in Equestria, no more than a few seconds had passed since the girls stepped through the portal.
I looked to the others, now beaming as I had some good news to share.

“I know it must be quite worrisome to be gone for so long. However, I know a something that might put your minds at ease.”

Rainbow Dash tilted her head, the others did the same.

“As it happens,” I continued, “a single day in Equestria is a whole year in this world. This means that back in Equestria, the lot of you have barely been gone for a minute!”

“Really!?” Rarity exclaimed.

“Really really.” I replied.

“Oh my... That makes me feel so much better...” Fluttershy sighed.

“And how, do you know that?” a shrill, disgruntled voice spoke from behind me.

I turned to face Twilight, whom quickly used her magic to open her saddlebag and levitate a scroll from it. Before I could speak, she unravelled the paper and read it aloud for us all to hear.



”My dear Twilight,

Due to a previous occurrence, which I unfortunately cannot yet divulge to you, I have come to understand that the working of time is different between Earth’s dimension and that of our own.
For currently unexplainable reasons, I have come to learn that one year in their world, is but a single day in ours.
Fortunately, this convoluted and seemingly fractured working of time very much plays into our advantage, as your company will have far more time to search for the Titans’ Orb.

I have every faith in you.

Good luck, my faithful student.
Princess Celestia.”



The others looked at Twilight, then to me, then to Twilight again.

“How did you get hold of my notes?” she asked through gritted teeth.

I looked back at her calmly.

“I didn’t touch your notes. I know that fact from elsewhere.”

“Where then?”

I broke eye contact to glance at the others, whom were now looking at me as intently as Twilight, also curious as to how I’d obtained such knowledge, especially considering that I didn’t know of their existence until yesterday. I wanted to tell them the truth, but if Celestia had wiped their memories, I was confident that she had done so for a good reason, and so I decided not to make the ‘My Little Dashie’ event public knowledge.
My plan was to later admit to the others that I actually had read Twilight’s notes when I went to retrieve her from the camp earlier that day, but in the here and now, I could use this as leverage. Twilight very much wanted to know how I’d obtained such knowledge, and I in turn could make another attempt to request what Celestia had shown her.

“I can’t tell you.” I answered blankly.

“And why is that?”

“It’s called diplomacy. I’d very much like to know what Princess Celestia showed you. Meanwhile you are now, quite rightly, concerned as to how I could possibly know about the time distortion between our worlds. Would you like to trade information?”

At this, Twilight snarled.

“Don’t you dare blackmail me, I am the Princess’ student! It’s completely within my right to withhold the information that she’s given me in relevance to this mission!”

I merely shrugged, hoping to win her over with my nonchalant demeanour.

“And I’m well within my right to withhold my own information, especially seeing as it doesn’t impede our objective. But if you decide that you’d like to know, I’ll always be happy to make an exchange.”

She growled in frustration, desperate to know of my source, but clearly not enough to reveal her own secret; through gritted teeth, she declared that she would tell me nothing.

“That’s absolutely fine. But if you ever change your mind, the opportunity will always be there.” I smiled.

Before she could argue further, I broke off the topic by telling her that I was ready to deal with the clone, relocate the dogs, and then at long last, embark. Her piercing gaze immediately became less intense, and she finally stepped into the room, opposed to standing in the broken doorway. She put the note from Celestia back into her saddle bag and amazingly, chose to cooperate with me.

“How far away is this friend of yours?” she asked.

“About a thirty-minute walk, but I’ll try to get there in twenty.” I answered.

“You do that.”

Ignoring her dull remark, I told her that I wanted to be absolutely sure of the address and quickly dashed through the kitchen, into the hall, up the stairs, and into my bedroom. Luckily my laptop was still on, (it was one of the few things I hadn’t destroyed), I quickly opened up Google Earth and typed in the address that I believed to be correct; the globe rotated as it zoomed in on the house, and I chuckled as I quickly spotted Bruce in his back garden, semi-nude, lying in a deck chair, luckily Google Earth had taken the satellite photograph at just the perfect time. Needless to say, it was definitely the right place.
I rushed back downstairs and into the dining room.

“Right, I’m a hundred percent sure where the place is.”

“Would it be too much to ask if I could come along as well? I’d very much like to see what this Bruce person looks like, and to see you safely pass the dogs over to him.” Fluttershy requested.

“Oh sure, sure. Hey, how about everypony goes?” Twilight cheered sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

“Oh Twilight, do shut up.” Rarity deadpanned.

“Ugh, fine then. Three Pullie-Portals and two cloaking spells. Now what are we going to do first? Deal with the clone business here, or get your dogs to your friend?” Twilight asked.

I looked around, not quite sure of what I should do. Rainbow Dash spoke up and had very clearly learned her lesson, as she was very respectful in the way she worded it.

“I think you should take care of the clone first. The sooner that’s out of the way, the sooner it can be put behind us.”

The others nodded, and we all agreed that it would be for the best.

“Very well.” Twilight said.

Rarity anxiously stepped forward and made her thoughts known.

“Um, Callum... How exactly are you going to deal with this clone? Obviously it’s been established that Callum is to kill it, but do you mean to... To actually... Kill it?”

Twilight strode past Rarity as we entered the kitchen, she then levitated a grapefruit out of the nearby fruit bowl, along with a kitchen knife from the rack. Looking at Rarity with a dull expression, she drove the knife into the fruit and twisted it, spraying citrus juice over the countertop.

“Get the picture?” she said blankly.

Rarity gulped and nodded, and Twilight passed the knife to me and released it from her telekinetic hold.

“You know what to do.” she muttered.

“Then let’s get it over with...” I grumbled back.

Twilight nodded and walked towards me, her horn glowing. The same intense warmth began to wash over me as the magic within copied every physical detail of my body; a purple stream of light started escaping from my chest, and just like last time, the light came together to form a round blob, before eventually stretching out into the shape of a human being.
With a flash, there stood a complete copy of me, but there was something different about this one, he had no facial expressions whatsoever, his eyes were glassy and unblinking, it was as though he were already dead.

“Get it done, and get it done quickly, I don’t want to be in this house anymore. For all we know, your mother could be back at any moment.” Twilight ordered.

While I knew that Jan wouldn’t get back for at least another few hours, (as it was only the early afternoon), I decided not to argue the toss, especially as I wanted to get out of here as well. Everyone left the room, but I quickly stopped Twilight upon her exit.

“This clone won’t, feel anything, right?”

“No, this one’s as simple as they come. It doesn’t even have a functioning nervous system, it’s basically a vegetable. Or a grapefruit, for that matter.”

Assured by her answer, I allowed her to exit the room and close the door behind me, leaving me isolated with my clone. Turning to face him, I approached the lifeless echo of myself and waved my hand in front of his eyes, to which he didn’t even blink. After poking him with my finger a few times, I forced myself to accept that he wasn’t real. As I cleared my throat and prepared to strike him down, the weight of the task began to take its toll on me; my fingers began trembling like leaves in the wind, and the knife’s blade gleamed in the kitchen ceiling light, as though a little star was dancing upon it.

{Come on Callum, it’s just a grapefruit. A great big human shaped grapefruit...}

A thought most useful then entered my mind. I thought back to a time when I was younger, and my dad had taken me to a theme park. There was a rollercoaster there named Stealth, and I remember being absolutely terrified of it, swearing that I would never ride it. It was the one rollercoaster that I was too scared to ride. Shortly before leaving the park, I was hit with a brief trice of courage, and without allowing myself to think about it, I threw myself into the queue and rode Stealth, conquering it. That’s what I needed to do here; I needed to not think, and just do.
Obviously, there was a slight difference between getting onto a rollercoaster, and stabbing a manifestation of oneself, but it was the same principle; don’t think about it, just do it... Closing my eyes and holding the knife tightly, I took a deep breath, and then lunged at the clone as hard as I could, denying myself the ability to consider what I was doing.



There was a loud thud as the knife buried itself into my doppelgänger’s gut, and I gave it a firm twist for good measure. I tugged the blade back out, and seconds later, the clone’s organs started shutting down. He lost his footing and fell to the floor, smacking the back of his head against the oven handle on the way down. Blood then poured out of him quite drastically, and started to pool on the floor. The knife was slathered with the stuff as well, along with a small amount on my fingers and on my palms. I momentarily felt like I was going to be sick and rushed to the sink, dropping the knife as I did so. My mouth salivated heavily, and my mind began to spin, but in the end, I was thankfully able to keep it down. It took me a good few minutes to get a hold of myself, at which point I turned on the hot water tap to wash my hands. Using a generous amount of dish soap, I scrubbed and scrubbed away, until there was no more blood to be seen, and then I got the hell out of there.

Closing the door behind me, I found the others patiently waiting in the back garden. Their expressions immediately soured upon seeing the state of me.

“Callum?” Rarity asked, her eyes full of worry, “Are you okay?”

I tried to speak, but couldn’t, I just couldn’t, my lips merely quivered at the attempt.
Eventually, I was able to force a perceptible nod.

“Good, then let’s go,” Twilight ordered, “We’re done here.”

Applejack, seeing just how traumatised I was, went over to Twilight and forced her to look at me properly.

“You can see clear as apples that he’s in shock. For Pete’s sake, give him a moment.”

Amazingly, Twilight actually recognised my state, and very faintly nodded her head in understanding.

“Can we at least move over to the camp?” she requested.

We did just that, and Applejack sat me down by the campfire with the dogs, while they started packing the place up around me. Stroking Chilli’s soft fur and feeling Archer’s mighty presence definitely helped keep me calm, but deep within my mind, one word kept playing over and over again, taunting me relentlessly.


{Murderer...}