//------------------------------// // 3 - Demons // Story: Bullet With Alicorn Wings // by ToixStory //------------------------------// The hail didn’t let up, even hours later. It was a steady drumming on the metal outside, like a rapid heartbeat. If I closed my eyes, though, I could pretend it was a soft summer rain. It made me think of the nights I used to spend in my treehouse, listening to the pitter-patter of rain with a book in my hooves and Spike asleep in his bed. I had long since moved on from crying to those memories, but they still tugged at my heart. It was the regret of having never understood that those moments truly were until they were gone. I could feel that in Discord, too, when he let his guard down. His powers were reduced to almost nothing and his body to a tattoo on the side of a mare that had turned him to stone, so I didn’t blame him for dreaming of days long past. Since I had managed to put the shield down, he had gone back to being quiet, and I wasn’t sure why. He hadn’t been so silent for years. Maize brewed us all a pot of tea on the stove in a copper kettle that looked like it came from my time instead of a distant colony out in space. He and his son took their tea black, so I had to ask for sugar and ice to put in mine. They looked at me like I was crazy, but I ignored them. Once I had learned that in the future world you could have sugar and ice whenever you wanted, I had never drunk my tea any other way. I took my tea at the table with Maize, while Bean walked off to the living room and the house’s viewscreen. Since the one moment I had seen his eyes go dark, he had acted like a normal colt the entire night. If it weren’t for that moment, I never would have suspected anything. Even then, I was mostly sure that it was just me going crazy. It must have been a trick of the light, or an aftereffect of me getting worked up over the shield. The tea cleared my head enough that I wasn’t shaking as much with the medicine wearing off. With Discord still out for the count, though, I could feel pain seeping back into me like sand through the middle of an hourglass. I was starting to get worried that something was wrong with Discord or, worse, me. “Sorry about you getting stuck all the way out here with us,” Maize said. “The hail doesn’t come as often as it used to, but it’ll last for a good while. Though I’d hope you would have known that before you came here.” “Oh, yes, of course,” I said. “I just didn’t quite know the, um, extent that the hail would go to.” “So I’ve seen.” Maize fell quiet for a moment, like was trying to bring up something uncomfortable to say. Finally, he simply asked: “So what brought you here, anyway? Jackknife isn’t exactly the center of the Systems, let alone somewhere you’d want to visit. Most folks I know are trying to leave.” I shrugged. “One thing just leads to another. I never stay anywhere for long, so I guess being here was just another place to escape to.” “Escape from what, if you don’t mind me asking?” “What does anypony escape from?” I asked. “I’ve been running from my problems for a long time now. Someday I’ll stop, but for now I just . . . drift.” He nodded, accepting my half-truth for genuine. It wasn’t that much of a lie, anyway. I may not have controlled where I was sent, but, more often than not, it was a relief to be spirited away to some other time and place. “Well, I’m glad you got here when you did,” he said. “Bean and I . . . I don’t know what we would have done without you. You not only saved him when the building blew up, but kept us safe from the razor hail. I just wonder what made the control building blow like that . . .” “Why exactly do you have all the controls located so far away from your house?” I asked. Maize’s smiled disappeared and he stared at the table. “It didn’t used to be. It was once inside a smaller house all the way out there in the fields, where we used to live. My wife loved that house and had it designed just the way she liked it. When it burned down and took her with it, I guess that control building was the only thing I had left of her.” He sighed and rubbed the back of his head. “Stupid, I know.” “It’s not stupid to want to remember somepony,” I said. “Sometimes all you’ve got of them is what you can remember.” Thunder boomed outside loud enough to shake the walls. The house was shaking like a sapling in a hurricane, and I began to wonder if the shield would hold. It was if somepony had directed the storm right down upon us. I wasn’t surprised when the lights began to flicker, then died. The house was bathed in an absolute darkness for a moment, as the shields let in no light from the outside. Some sort of red lights flashed on right after, so the house wasn’t completely pitch black. When Maize saw my bewildered expression, he grinned. “They’re special lights that gather energy from solar panels on the roof and turn on only in complete darkness. The red light doesn’t hurt your night vision.” It made sense, but still put me on edge. The red light made me think of all the emergency beacons and warning lights I had encountered over the years, and most of those hadn’t ended very well. “Bean!” Maize called. “Get down here, son! Power’s out, so we need to stay together!” There was a thumping sound from upstairs, and then Bean came loping down the stairs and joined us in the kitchen. I checked and, like before, his eyes were normal. His smile was wide and crooked, straining his face just like any other colt his age. There was a loud clap of thunder, and Bean came running toward his father. The colt clung to his father’s leg and I felt foolish. He was just a child, and I had been so shaken by that close brush with death that I had started to put my own failings onto him. I felt disgusted in myself. Maize sighed. He patted Bean’s head and turned to me. “Looks like the storm finally made its way to the power station. They’re protected, sure, but not invincible.” “Is there any way we can get the power back on?” I asked. He nodded. “The basement has a backup generator. Problem is, you have to start it and hit the switch up here at the same time the generator goes on or it’ll be an hour before all the lights are on.” More thunder boomed outside and Bean squeezed his eyes shut. I felt sorry for him, I really did, though if there wasn’t something wrong with him, I wondered what it could be. Something was keeping Discord down, and I had to find out what it was. Then again, I hadn’t felt the effects of the medicine from the hospital in hours . . . maybe they had all gone to him. “Want to take the basement or up here?” Maize asked. “I’d ask Bean to do it, but he usually likes to stick close to me during big storms.” “Up here,” I said. “I don’t think I’d quite know how to, ah, work your generator.” Not that it wasn’t true, but I wasn’t about to admit that I was scared to go down in the basement. As long as I had been around, basements seldom contained anything I wanted to meet, and I had found more horrible things in them than not. Maize nodded. “Alright. Switch is over by the kitchen door. Give it a few minutes, then throw it when you’re ready and holler at me. We’ll get these lights back on in no time.” He turned and walked away with Bean. My heart steadied and my breath calmed as the sound of their hooves on the wooden steps faded. I walked over to the kitchen door and beside it, clear as day, was a giant red lever. I was honestly surprised to see something so obvious, but from my experiences with Applejack, farm ponies weren't exactly known for their subtleties. While I waited, I listened to the storm outside. Not just casually, but really listened. For some reason, it seemed . . . off, to me. The rain and hail weren’t falling in patterns, at least not that I could recognize. They dropped down like somepony was throwing them in one big wave, just crashing upon the house again and again. The part of me I tried not to listen to noted that it was almost like something was trying to get in. I threw the switch with two of my hooves on it. The dull metal made a whirring sound as it came down, slamming down with an encouraging thunk. I turned and raise a hoof to my mouth to yell: “Alright, Maize, hit it!” Seconds turned into a minute, and then two. I looked up at the lights on the ceiling, but they remained dark as Discord’s heart. I felt panic building like a persistent and angry demon inside me, and tried to force it down. With every passing minute, however, that job became harder and harder. My hooves forced their way across the kitchen, my mind almost too scared to will them, as I walked the long path to the basement door. It loomed in front of me, wide as a cave’s mouth and as sure as eternity. I never made it that far, however. Before I could, I heard a whisper behind me, like a soft wind blowing through the house, despite no wind to be seen. I turned to behold little Bean, standing in front of me and staring into my eyes. “What are you, ah, doing away from your father?” I asked. “Did he send you up here?” “Oh, he did,” Bean said. He smiled, and suddenly his eyes became as pitch black as the center of a black hole. “But it wasn’t Maize.” I reeled backwards so hard my head hit the basement door, sending a dull pain throbbing in my skull. “Wh-What are you?” I asked, afraid of the answer myself. He only smiled. His mouth stretched wider than should have been possible, the edges reaching up toward his ears to reveal a mouth ringed with layers of small, sharp teeth. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” I rolled to the side just as he leaped at me. I was on my hooves by the time he hit the basement door, and running toward the only refuge I had: the upstairs. I was scared out of my mind, yes, but it was only a little worse than what I had faced before. My mind reeled, trying to calm itself down so I could focus on how to get away from the new monster. It had been ages since I had to battle one, but I could again. The little . . . thing that had called itself Bean was running after me, but I had a better head start. When I got upstairs, however, my face fell. All that was up there was an open lounge area, one bedroom, and one bathroom. The stairs were too narrow and the ceiling too low to get back around Bean, so I threw myself inside the bathroom and locked the door. I leaned against it and used my magic to break the lock from the inside. It took whatever that thing was only a moment to figure out where I was, and then he was banging his body against the door, trying to break it down. From the sounds of it, it somehow seemed like he was bigger now than Bean had been. The door creaked and heaved itself inward. Wood that had been solid a moment ago looked as fragile as paper and it was all I could do to press my back against it and pray that I was strong enough to hold that thing back. My hooves scrambled on a porcelain tub and beech cabinet, fighting for a hoofhold. I found none, other than fitting my hooves into the nearest corners and holding on. “Oh come on, Twilight,” said a voice that was definitely not Bean’s. “Why do you hide yourself? We were only trying to have a little bit of fun.” My chest felt tight, and sweat beaded on my forehead, cutting grooves in my fur and making spots on the tile floor below me. “W-What are you?” I sucked in air. “And what did you do to Bean?” “The boy and his father have been removed for now,” came the snide reply. “Your precious pets will be returned after I’m done with you.” The banging on the door stopped, and the voice developed a feminine tone. “As for who I am, well, wouldn’t you like to know?” “You’re not getting in here if I don’t know,” I said, with more confidence than I felt. In reality, I didn’t think I could hold for much longer, but I had learned more than a few things from Discord over the years. Quiet fell over the bathroom. I was afraid she . . . he . . . it had gone somewhere else, but then I heard a voice so soft it was like a whisper in a hurricane. “You already know who I am,” it said. “You’ve known for centuries. Yet you deny it, even now, so far from home.” “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” The banging began once again. Something huge threw itself against the door. Wood groaned and cracked apart, and splinters the size of my horn flew out of it. Whatever was on the other side wasn’t a pony, I knew that. My mind rambled off a thousand things worse that it could be, and I could only shudder. Deep space held more than a few dark secrets, and whatever hold this thing had crawled out of could only be one of the worst. And yet . . . it said it knew me. Nopony had heard of the name Twilight Sparkle in centuries, and this thing claimed that I knew exactly what it was. The banging had stopped, but I hadn’t paid attention to it until I became aware of something standing above me. I looked up, my heart threatening to beat its way out of my chest, to behold Bean standing over me. He stood three heads taller than he had been, and his mane had turned pitch black and seemed to be an extension of his skin. “What? Scared of a little colt?” it mocked. “Somehow I expected more from the Element of Magic, the former Princess of the Stars.” I reached for the door knob, but Bean’s hoof extended twice its normal length and slapped me away. “Now, now, you’re not getting away so easily this time,” it said. “I let you off easy before, but, well, I don’t think you’ll be leaving this room willingly, little princess.” “You can’t hurt me,” I growled, bucking my hind legs with all my might. They connected with Bean’s chest, but the only sound that came from it was an audible squish. Whatever that thing was made of, my hooves sunk into it like it was made of putty. “Can’t I?” Bean said, but then, when I looked up, it wasn’t Bean anymore. The thing holding my hooves was a mirror copy of me, dipped in black paint. Its Discord tattoo, however, glowed white-hot and throbbed like it was alive. “Okay, so, shapeshifter,” I mumbled. “Shapeshifters, I’ve met before. You’re no different than any of them, and they went down just fine.” “Shapeshifter? Really?” It pouted, but not just in any way, but my pouting face. Seeing it on a monster sent shivers down my spine. “I’m so much more than a shapeshifter, but then, you would deny that as long as you could, wouldn’t you? You always were one to fear the truth, ever since you discovered the magic within you. “But it didn’t save you, did it? When you donned that gown and let the chaos inside, who did you expect to save? Your friends? Equestria? I think Rainbow Dash and half of Ponyville can attest to that failure. Or have you forgotten?” My ears were ringing. I could hear the blood pumping through them, and the ragged breaths that escaped my lips, my heart struggling to keep pumping as the cold truth took hold. “How could you—” “Think, Twilight!” the monster screeched. It grew a snake-like tail and one hoof transformed into a griffon’s talon; it had become a deformed picture of me. “Haven’t you ever wondered why you and Discord are so complacent? Why you both seem happy despite these centuries, why the horrors you’ve inflicted, the tragedies you’ve endured haven’t stayed with you?” But that wasn’t— No, no, that was insane, the spell hadn’t worked! The monster smiled. “You know it, don’t you? What I am, and what you are. Little princess, you’ve denied it all these years, but you aren’t even Twilight Sparkle!” “And you are?” “More than you.” Its mouth turned up in a sneer. “But what can I expect? All you are is the result of that thrice-damned spell to separate us from Discord forever. Yet what it produced was you, every stupid idea of optimism and hope with none of Twilight’s logic or understanding to back it up. You dream of heroism and grandeur, and all you inflict is pain.” I didn’t bother to shake my head in denial. The monster, no, I only confirmed my own suspicions. I had spent too many nights thinking about why I never seemed to hurt for too long, how I kept going despite every will that told me not to. I had chalked it up to some sort of courage, but what was courage without fear? With only optimism, I was nothing but a fool. “You see it, don’t you?” Her eyes grew mournful, and she reached out a hoof to my shoulder. “But it’s okay, we understand. You’ve helped us, in fact. For so many years we looked for you, but not until that fire in Manehattan were we able to trace you. Now, we can finally be complete.” I looked down, and her silken body had begun to consume mine, starting with my legs. I still felt them, but they felt far away, like I had grown ten feet taller. “Is that it? You want to rejoin with me and be Twilight again?” There was hope in my voice, and in my heart. A desperate part of me wished that it was so simple—that at the end of this I would be myself again, mirth and all. She laughed. Why do they always laugh? “Why, what would be the fun in that?” she said. “If we rejoin, I go away and you take over. You, the weakling. Where’s the fun in that? If I take you over, why, think of all I could do! Abandoning the fool’s hope that is you made me even more powerful than we once were. I’ve placed a spell over this entire house that’s disabled your magic; Discord won’t wake up and your teleportation is gone. Combined with mine, well, we’d be unstoppable.” Her eyes shone with malice, and when she bared her teeth they ended in points. The Discord tattoo on her face pulsated with every word and seemed to grow larger. More and more of her consumed me, washing myself away in a tide of . . . myself. What a way to go. “Was Bean ever real?” I questioned. “Was any of this? The explosions, and the razor hail: your doing?” “I’m afraid that Bean and his father are very real, I don’t have enough power for that.” She sniffed, and her body made its way toward my scarred cutie mark. “They’re locked in the basement as we speak, very afraid. But as for the rest, yes, it was only too easy. The rest of the storm’s gone by now, I expect, but trying to fly out of this house wouldn’t do you much good. Even a goody-goody like yourself should know when you’re beaten.” A demure smile spread across my face. “Well, it just so happens I’m feeling a little bad today.” I shoved myself back against the door with all my might, and heard the door snap off its hinges, spilling me into the upstairs bedroom. I spied a window at the far end of the room and ran toward it. The dark mirror image of me screamed and clung to my legs and back, pounding me with her hooves. Each blow was like an anvil smashing against my spine, and I began to stumble. One of my back hooves gave out. I crawled on the floor with my two front hooves, reaching for the window. “Why. Won’t. You. Submit?” she screeched, smashing herself upon me over and over again. “You’ll never win! No matter what you do, you’re not Twilight without me, and you never will be! You’re a copy, a sham, a lie!” I didn’t answer her, for in the moments she began to rant, her blows stopped. Both of my back hooves had ceased to work, but I no longer needed them. My wings, having been released from their magic holds by her anti-magic shield, flapped. Never before had I flapped so hard. I threw every last bit of my strength into my wings and flew toward the window. My other self noticed what I was doing, but by then it was too late. I had hit the window. The glass shattered around me, and I sailed out into the torrent of razor hail. None of it touched me. It might have hurt, had my copy not been riding my back. She screamed as the shards sliced her apart. I felt my magic return, outside the house. I closed my eyes and focused on a simple teleportation spell. The world flashed white, and then I was flying above the clouds. Up there, the sky was pale blue and stretched on forever in every direction. Adventure lay in that endless expanse where the sky touched the ocean of grass. However, I had more important issues on my mind. My mirror image was struggling to consume once again, but without her magic shield her powers faded. I threw her off of me with one swift kick. Before she could fly away, I grabbed her around the neck and glared down at her. “Now, just because you—” “You called me a lie and a fake,” I growled, “but do you know what I am right now? I’m outside.” I let her go and smiled. “Discord: kill!” “With pleasure!” The Draconequus roared to life in both mind and body. He tore his tattoo self away from my side and grew until he towered over us both, fifty feet tall. His eyes glowed like two red-hot coals. She tried to fly away. I watched with a grim satisfaction as my mirror image turned tail in a desperate attempt to get away, but she wasn’t fast enough. A blast of hellfire and magic slammed to her, straight from Discord’s mouth. The attack consumed her in an orgy of flames and sparks, so bright that for a moment I was blinded. When I could see again, all that remained was her burnt form, falling back beneath the clouds and into the deadly gale below. I watched her go until she had disappeared from view. “The nerve of some ponies, trying to keep me locked up while all the fun is going on,” Discord said, wiping his mismatched hands together. He shrunk back to his normal size, though most of his body remained unattached to me. “How much did you hear of what she told me?” I asked. He smiled coyly. “Whatever do you mean? I was asleep the entire time, remember? I didn’t hear a thing.” I started to question him further, but the clouds below us broke up and dissipated. The ground around the farmhouse and greenhouses looked like it had suffered an artillery shelling, but everything covered in a steel shield was intact. “Alright, forget it,” I told him. “We’ve got a big mess to clean up. Whatever that thing was is gone, but there is a very confused stallion and son still trapped in the basement, and I think it might be a good idea to get me back to the hospital—I can’t feel my legs.” Discord reattached himself to me and I flew down toward the farmhouse in wide, slow circles. My feathers ruffled in the wind and the sun high above lit my way. I wanted to tell myself that the worst was over, and that it had all been a lie, but I knew myself too well. As I drifted to the ground, I searched for the body of my mirror image. I didn’t find a sign she had ever existed. If there was one thing I was, though, it was persistent. No matter how far I would have to travel, I would find her again, and I would make myself whole again. If I could do that, maybe, just maybe, I could find a way home.