//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 - M.P.D. // Story: My Second Chance // by Devious Brony //------------------------------// Sunny was pacing around in her home. She was worried that Joel might have gotten lost along the way. "Should I even ask him to do it? After all he might refuse and-." There was a knock on the door. Sunny took a few deep breaths before trotting over to her door and opening it with her magic. Joel was standing at the door, staring at her with a blank look. "Oh, hello JooooEEAAAAAH!!" She screamed, surprised when three other Joels stepped out from behind the first. "Wha-... How-... Jah... H-How is this possible?!" She yelled. Joel put his hand over her mouth, pushing her inside while the other three following close behind. "Shhhh! Not so loud!" Joel said. He let go of her before taking a step back next to the others. She stared at them, something was off about the other three. The first Joel has a more darkened color around his eyes, almost as if he has had no sleep for years. He had a more saddened and depressed look, his eyes a shade of grey instead of the normal mix. The second Joel had a more angered and annoyed look to him, he looks almost as if he's ready to murder someone. His eyes had a shade of red to them, he also has a slightly stronger looking physique to his body. The last Joel had a more confident look to him, and even had different clothing. This one had a grey looking suit, with a black tie and white shirt underneath the jacket. His eyes were a lighter shade of red, like a pink color. Joel let out a sigh, knowing he had to be the one to talk first. "Alright... So don't ask me why there are 4 of me now instead of one, I have no clue how this happened." Joel looked at the other forms of himself before turning back to Sunny. "Sunny?" He asked, still getting a blank stare from her. The more depressed Joel spoke up this time "D-Did we break her? Sh-She's not moving." Sunny suddenly collapsed, passing out from shock. When Sunny awoke, she could feel the sun shining in through her window and onto her face. She took a deep breath before sitting up and stretching, looking around to see she was in her bed. She could see that it was morning, the clock saying that it was about 7:30 A.M. "Was that... Just a nightmare?" She asked herself, smiling after asking such a silly thing. "Of course it was, how in the world would there be more than one Joel?" She asked, climbing out of her bed and heading downstairs. Sunny nearly fainted again when the first thing she saw was three Joels sleeping near the couch, with the stronger looking Joel taking up the whole couch and forcing the other two to sleep on the floor. She silently tip-hoofed her way into the kitchen. Questions rattling around in her mind, wanting to know the answers. How could this have happen? Once she reached the kitchen she could see a depressed Joel, cooking breakfast. She could see a large breakfast set up on the table, enough to feed the other Joels and herself. She sat at the table, staring at him. She finally built up the courage to speak after a few minutes of silence. "How did this happen?" She asked. Joel flinched, he knew she was there but he was too scared to speak to her at the time. He knew if he didn't tell her, then only more bad things could happen. "Th-There was an explosion, I-It made us n-nearly choke to death... A-After the smoke cleared w-we were all s-standing outside of him, with our own b-bodies." The tone in his voice seems to say that he's both scared and sad. "I don't understand, what do you mean 'with our own bodies'?" Sunny asked, hoping for this Joel to give her the answers she's wanting. "Th-The others didn't g-get their own bodies, o-only a few o-of us g-got out." Joel said, turning to set the last plate of food down on the table in front of Sunny, giving her a plate full of scrambled eggs, french toast, and hash browns. He sat across the table from her, "W-We're Joel's e-emotions..." She heard another voice join in, this time sounding like the normal Joel. "His name is 'Sorrow'. An appropriate name for my fears and sadness." Joel said as he sat down at the table with Sunny, scratching the back of his head and yawning. "And the others?" Sunny questioned, beginning to eat her breakfast. "The one with more muscle is 'Fury'. He's my anger, inner strength, and willpower. The last one's name is 'Desire'. He's my lust, passions, and happiness." Joel said, taking a bite of french toast. The last one seemed to worry Sunny. "W-Will Desire ever try to-." Sunny's question was cut off by Joel shaking his head. "Oh no no no he would never do that. He may be my lust, but I have no sexual feelings for ponies what-so-ever." Joel said, making Sunny relax a bit more. One last question seemed to bug her. "So if your emotions are outside of your body, then why do you seem so normal without them?" She asked. Joel looked at her and shrugged. "I think that whatever caused this left some sort of... connection... I feel empty, like something is missing, yet I still feel everything." Joel said. This was only confusing Sunny more, how does someone still have their emotions if its taken outside of them. The two sat in silence, eating their breakfast and waiting for the other two to wake up. [/hr] Ring-a-ding-ding baby, it's my time to shine now. Hey, what have I told you about taking up my segments? You mean OUR segments, we're all you. W-We should s-stop fighting, guys. Shut up Sorrow. Alright alright, let's all agree to have our OWN segments. Sorrow doesn't get one. Wh-What? Wh-Why don't I get one? Because your stuttering is annoying, that's why. I call the next segment, daddy-o. [/hr] | Desire | After waking up from that refreshing little snooze, I began to get up and follow the deeeelicious smell of french toast. Once I strolled in I sat next to Sunny. "So how's it hanging, baby?" I said, wrapping an arm around Sunny. She gave me a confused look, scooting away from me. "Baby?" She said. She may be cute but she's a bit of a nosebleed isn't she? This time Boss decided to speak up. "Desire don't bother her, I don't want to have to deal with controlling emotions both inside AND outside of my body in the morning." Boss said. What a wet noodle. I began eating breakfast, thinking of a little jingle in my head. Fury walked in without saying a single word. Nobody likes talking to that big bull. Sunny was looking all around at us, looking a bit stressful. "You should chill, baby. After all I'm pretty sure this isn't a permanent situation, nothing good lasts for us anyways." It may sound depressing but hey, it's true. Boss gave me a mean looking glare. "You think this is a good thing? How exactly is having my emotions split into different bodies a good thing?" Boss asked. He always ruins my fun, after all I almost got us laid with that cute little mare. "Well we weren't exactly having fun when you kept stopping the both of us. Now that I have a body of my own, I can do whatever I want." I said, standing up from the table. Boss was about to get up before I made a snap with my fingers. Fury placed his hand on Boss's shoulder to force him to sit back down, giving me time to wander out of the house and into town. Time to paint this city pink. [/hr] | Joel | After I saw desire walk out of the kitchen I tried getting up, shoving Fury's hand away. This only made him angry, making him get up as well to bear hug me. "Gah! Fury, let me go! I have to stop him before heEEEE!" My chest was squeezed tighter, cutting off my sentence and even pushing the air out from my lungs. Sunny sat there, staring at us in fear. Fury set me down, letting me go. "You've let your other emotions block up, causing me to get angrier. Hopefully Desire will get all his shit out of his system so I can have some fucking peace and quiet around in there." He said. I looked back at him, before making a dash for it outside to chase after Desire. Once I got outside I quickly thought of what would be the first thing I would absolutely love to do. Then it came to me. I ran towards the market place, in search for a pub. [/hr] Daisy was working at her flower kiosk in the market place, selling flowers to everypony that came to her stand. She was still worrying about Joel, worrying how he never came home last night. Did he spend the night at Sunny's, or did he get locked out of the house and had to find someplace to sleep? Her worries melted away for only a moment when she saw Joel running into the market place. When she saw that he was looking around frantically, she began to worry again. She put up a "On break" sign, trotting over to Joel. "Joel, are you alright?" She asked, getting a startled look from the human. "Daisy! Daisy, I know this sounds weird, but have you seen me come by here recently at all?" Joel asked, looking almost as if he just lost something very important. "No, I haven't seen you all day. What's wrong? Did you lose something?" Daisy asked. "Shit... Shit shit shit. Sorry Daisy, I have to go!" Joel said, as he rushed off in a different direction. She wanted to chase after him, but at the same time she didn't want to abandon her kiosk stand while it was still open and vulnerable to thieves. She galloped over to her kiosk to begin closing it down, she can risk losing a little bit of business today if it meant helping Joel. | Meanwhile | Sunny left Sorrow by himself at her house, knowing that he wouldn't want to leave and get into any sort of trouble. She was following next to Fury, looking for both Joel and Desire. She glanced over at Fury before looking straight forward again. "So, is Joel angry a lot?" She asked. He remained silent, only paying attention to his objective. "You don't talk very much, do you?" She asked, hoping to get at least one word out of Fury. He let out a grunt of frustration, making Sunny take a few steps away from him. They kept walking until they arrived at the market place, Fury was looking for Joel while Sunny was looking for Daisy. After only half a minute, somepony from behind them spoke up. "Oh! Oh! It's you! I can't believe it!" The pony said, both Sunny and Fury turning to look at the cloaked pony who was talking to them. He was staring right at Fury, with a giant grin on his face. "You are looking fine today it seems, ya? Vell, tell me, how do you feel my friend?" Fury only glared at this strange sounding pony. The cloaked pony moved his hood off of his head, revealing that he is a zebra pony. He was wearing a brown bandana over his head, with the remaining mane that was sticking out from behind the bandana tied into a ponytail. "Come, come! Ve must make haste back to zee hut, zere is vork zat must be done!" The zebra commanded, grabbing a hoof on Fury and pulling him towards the town's entrance. Fury didn't seem to struggle, but continued glaring at this mysterious pony. Sunny didn't know who to chase. She decided the best course of action was to find Daisy, so that she could help her gather the Joels back into one place. [/hr] | Fury | Why aren't my fingers in his eye sockets right now? Why aren't my fingers in his eye sockets right now? Why aren't my fingers in his eye sockets right now? This question kept repeating in my head over and over as this zebra dragged me to a mysterious location. I couldn't focus on where we were going, I was too busy thinking of ways I could murder him. Should I beat him onto the floor, snap his small twig-like legs in half? Maybe crack a few of his ribs before I rip his jaw off. My train of thought was cut off when he brought me into his home, sitting me down on a bed. His home was just as he said, a hut. He had what looked like an alchemy table set up in one corner of his home, skulls of what looked like large eagles lining his walls. Two large wings spread out onto the wall, just above the entryway. Once he took his cloak off, I could see he had a longer looking tail than other ponies. He grew out his tail and wrapped it up with what looks like brown cloth, bleaching the very end of his tail white, it looked like a lions tail. He was also wearing what looked like eagle wings that were folded up and strapped to his sides. He was very scrawny, must be malnutrition. And finally, he was wearing what looked like a collar that had eagle feathers strapped all around it. His "cutie mark" was just a black and white pattern of a flask with bubbling contents. Before I kill him, I should ask him his name. "What do the pony folk call you, strange zebra?" I asked, trying to sound calm so he would not become frightened of me... Yet. "Ah, how rude of me. My name is, Doctor Gryphon." He said, ending his sentence with a loud "KA CAW!" Poor creature, must have gone insane some time ago. I was about to get up before he pushed me back down to a sitting position on the bed. "Nein, you must sit zere vile I give you a proper exam." He said. He began to examine me. Lifting my shirt to study my muscles, poking and prodding at different parts of my body. When I had enough of his nonsense I reached over to grab and squeeze his scrawny neck. "Give me a good excuse to not kill you right now." I said, wanting to hear his last words to be something pathetic. He choked a bit, getting a nervous tone. "I-I can help you get back to n-normal, if zat is vat you vish." Interesting. I may have hated being inside that idiot's head all the time, but I can't say that being outside is any better than inside. I do want to return to our original hosts body, where we all belong. I dropped Dr. Gryphon, making him fall to the floor before stumbling back up onto his feet. "I'm listening." I said, giving him another chance. He began to gather ingredients, bringing them to his table as he spoke to me. "Zere is a cure zat could reverse all effects and bring ze pony back to normal. If zee cure is not applied vizen seventy-two hours, ze effects are permanent." D.G. said, still gathering ingredients. "How exactly does it work?" I asked, wanting to know how to apply this potion to not only on myself, but on the others as well. "Vell, zis is just a reversal potion. All you should need to do is take zee flask, and throw it on zee ground. Then, POOF, no more beefy muscles." D.G. said, starting on his creation of the cure. "What if this potion made copies of me as well?" I asked. "Vell, just make sure you are all in van place! Ozavise zee potion vill only eliminate ze copies zat vere hit by ze potion." D.G. Said. "Be back here in two days, I should have ze potion done before zree hours before sundown. I know zat you vere hit be ze original potion vance ze sun vas set, and ze moon vas rising. Again I apologize for spilling it on you in ze first place, I shall make it up to you by paying you for ze testing fees." I still want to murder him for causing all of this trouble. But if keeping him alive means I have a chance to return back to Joel's head, then he must remain alive. "Fine, find me at the market in two days. If you do not have the potion, or show up, then I will find you and kill you." I sat up and walked to the entrance of his hut. "Auf Wiedersehen!" D.G. Called out before I left him to his work. [/hr] | Joel | Once I get my hands on him, I swear I'm going to strangle that bastard to death. I ran around town, looking everywhere for Desire. I found several places where I thought he might be. A pub, a music store, an instrument store, hell I even looked for a bordello. Thank god there wasn't one in this town, I would refuse to go into a place like that. I stopped to catch my breath, I haven't realized how tired I was until after I took a break. I've been running around for what seemed like hours, I lost all sense of time when I went into my initial adrenaline rush. I think I covered almost the entire town by now, Where could he have gone? He only strolled out of the house, getting about a 30 second head start before I had ran out. Maybe he was hiding somewhere by the time I got out. I could hear several sets of hooves galloping in my direction. I turned to look and saw at least what looked like a dozen mares and even a few stallions galloping for me. "It's Buddy Love!" They cried. "Get him!" And there's the whistle for my lunch break to be over. I began to run in the opposite direction of the crowd, hoping to avoid being trampled to death. I have a feeling this wont end well at all. My legs began to give out, I stumbled a bit before toppling over onto the dirt. I was expecting any moment to be stomped to death by the angry mob, but instead they crowded around me and began to help me up. They began yelling at me, not in anger but in excitement. The words they asked ranged from being asked to sign a record deal, to being asked to go to dinner with them, to even invited to sing at parties. I just sat there in confusion, staring at the ponies. I snapped out of my confusion when I saw Desire walking across the street, knocking on a random home's door. I tried getting past the crowd, I couldn't let him get away again. The crowd was too stubborn to move, ponies blocking my path to ask me questions, one even grabbed me with their hoof before pulling me away and out of the crowd. I was too weak and exhausted to resist, I was out of breath and my legs were burning. When I looked at the pony who pulled me out, I could see it was Daisy. I used what little strength I had in my legs to get away from the crowd. A few ponies tried surrounding me before I could get away but Daisy pulled me away by making us pick up more pace. We finally got to Daisy's home before being caught again. Daisy locked the door, I sat on the couch and allowed my legs to finally have some rest. "Damn it... It feels... like one thousand suns... are burning in my legs." I said, still panting and trying to catch my breath. Daisy trotted over to me and checked on me to see if I was okay. "Joel, what's going on? Why were all of those ponies chasing you?" She asked. I knew she deserved to know the truth, she deserved to know what's going on with me just as much as Sunny knew. Something inside me didn't want to tell her, I didn't want her to get sucked into this mess as well. "I-... There's-..." I continued to choke on my words. What do I tell her? How do I even start with her. Now that I think about it, she barely knows me. She doesn't know my ambitions, my hobbies, my past, who I really am. The only moments we've shared was a sunset dinner and a massage gone wrong. We sat there staring for at least 3 long minutes. She was determined to know, never breaking gaze with me. Once I finally began to breathe normally, I started to tell her. "My name's Joel Summers. I'm 20 years old, I enjoy to sing and play video games." I said, getting a surprised look from the mare. She wasn't expecting me to tell her about myself, she just wanted to know why I was being chased. But I knew if we were to be friends, then she would need to get to know "Joel Summers." [/hr] Sunny looked everywhere for both Joel and Daisy. Where could they both be? Daisy wasn't at her kiosk, Joel wasn't anywhere to be seen. She could see ponies gathering around inside the local karaoke bar, she wondered if Daisy might be in there. She trotted over, walking inside where everypony is gathering. Once she was inside she could hear somepony finishing a song that she has never heard of. "I don't want to set the world on fire, I just want to set a flame in your heart~" The voice sang, getting an applause from his audience. When Sunny looked towards the stage, she could see that it was Desire. He walked off stage to head to the back. What in the world is Desire doing in a karaoke bar? Is this something Joel has always wanted to do? An announcer pony walked onto the stage and up to the microphone. "Alright everypony, that was Buddy Love and his song 'I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire'. Why don't we have him come back out here for an encore. Come on everypony give him another applause." He said, getting the crowd to applause again by stomping their hooves on the ground. This caused Desire to walk back on to stage. "Oh, so you ponies want another round of the love machine, do you?" Desire said, getting a cheer from the crowd while a grin grew on his face. "Alright, here's one of my personal favorites. This one's called, 'Don't Stop Me Now'." Sunny sat at a table, listening to Desire sing. Through moments of the song, ponies would stomp their hooves to the tempo, adding some more rhythm to the song. She smiled, enjoying Joel's voice. Even though she knew that Desire was just a piece of Joel, they shared the same voice. After the song, she left the bar. The sun was only a few hours away from setting, she didn't feel like fighting with Desire to get him to return home. She began to head back for home, hoping that Sorrow hasn't gotten himself into trouble as well. [/hr] | Joel | Daisy was laying on the couch with me. Her head was resting on my lap, nuzzling into my stomach once more. "Why didn't you tell me before?" She asked, now saddened by the things I've told her. I told her almost everything about me. I even told her about how I always wanted to be a singer. But I couldn't tell her about the accident. "I didn't really see a point in saying it, really. I couldn't write music sheets or lyrics, and when I try to sing a song that has already been sung, the original always sounds better. I was just stuck to listening to the radio and singing to whatever song I knew." I haven't really opened up to anyone like this before, it's a bit of a good feeling to get some of this off my chest. Daisy looked up at me, moving her head onto my chest to listen to my now accelerating heart beat. "Sing me a song, Joel." She said, smiling at me. "Sing me a song from your world." It was hard to refuse a request from her. Once she catches you with those large purple eyes, there's no going back. I began to hum a song, something that I remember learning not too long ago. Daisy continued to listen to the voice in my chest, and the words that came out of my mouth. Far over, the misty mountains cold. To dungeons deep and caverns old. We must away ere break of day. To find our long-forgotten gold. The pines were roaring on the height. The winds were moaning in the night. The fire was red, it flaming spread. The trees like torches blazed with light. Once I finished singing it one more time to her. Daisy moved to sit on my lap, making me blush. "You have a beautiful voice Joel." She said, moving her hooves onto my shoulder. My heart was pounding, and my face felt hot. Even though she's a pony, I still can't help but feel nervous when a woman is this close to me. She began to lean in closer to me. My mind was telling me to stop, to get away from her, to not let this happen. For once I threw away all my cares, my fears, and every single moral thought in my mind. our bodies were pushing against one another, and our lips drew closer with each second. Our lips were only mere inches away from locking into a kiss.