Back in the reality of my birth, I was raised on stories of the Mycrosia Multonian. The Multonian is a book containing knowledge of every reality in the Multiverse. As an adult, I found it and brought it home. I lived in a flat above my landlady’s shop. We were good friends. In the month after finding it, I went mad. Alternate realities overlapped my own. It led me to take my own life.
Upon my death, I found myself back at a moment just before my death was unavoidable. After many tries, I realised I would never be allowed to remain dead. Sadly, somepony found out about my discovery and came to take it from me, threatening my friend and I. For what may have been years, I tried and tried to save us both, but I had to let my friend die in order to take down the assailant.
The shop, my home, the bodies and the tome were caught in a resulting fire, and I thought it was over. However, later, while I roamed the land aimlessly, I came across another sufferer. I learned the tome was reforming. Its ashes had spread all over the place, on the wind. I also discovered that physical contact alone caused the madness. The fact that I had read it was the reason for my apparent immortality.
From that point on, I roamed with purpose. I made it my life’s mission to right my wrongs and gather the Multonian, before the madness destroyed the world. I eventually succeeded in this. It all ended in Pawridge.
The final piece, a mere page corner, had found it’s way into the hooves of a travelling merchant. I caught up with the merchant and interrogated him. He knew what it was capable of when he first got a hold of it, and had made sure not to actually touch it. He’d sold it as a tool used for cursing one’s enemies, warning the customer of the dangers.
This customer was a resident of Pawridge. A diamond dog pup, going through her teenage years. Knowing this, I made for the town as quickly as possible. Upon arrival, things were deceptively calm. Everyone was going about their business. I entered the saloon and went to the bar.
A moustache-less bartender greeted me, “Evenin’ there, Missy. What brings a pony to Pawridge?”
I gave my prepared answer, “I’m a collector. Heard something was sold here that I’d like to add to my collection. Looking for information on it.”
“Well, ya came to the right place. ‘Course, my brother is usually the one who knows everything, but he’s taken ill, as of late. Fever.”
“Sorry to hear that. Can you help me, in his place?”
“I’ll try my best. What are ya lookin’ for?”
“I don’t exactly know,” I lied. “But when I spoke to the previous owner, he said he sold it to a teenage pup.”
I noticed the bartender twitch, ever so slightly.
“You, er, get a name?”
“Fido.”
“Never heard of her,” said the dog, a bit too fast for my liking. “You sure you got the right town? Certain it wasn’t called Porridge?”
“Perhaps. I shall leave for now, but I may come back to rent a room. Any vacancy here?”
“Uh, sure, yeah. Just come by the bar before midnight and I’ll set you up.”
“Many thanks.”
I made my way out of the saloon. As I passed through the batwing doors, I took a glance back at the bar to see the bartender looking at me with a patron, clearly talking about me. I knew I had the right place.
I decided to make my next port of call the local cemetery. Personally, I wasn’t afraid of graveyards in the dark, but it was disconcerting when one of the other realities I’d grown to see through showed corpses rising from the grave. Thankfully, I only felt pain in my own reality, and ignored the other world corpses.
It wasn’t hard to find what I was looking for. There were a few fresh graves to one side. I examined their tombstones:
‘Dr. Anti Histamine - Beloved wife. Expectant mother.’
‘Mary Mite - Precious sister. Not of sound mind. Forgiven.’
As I began to read the next stone, a gruff voice spoke behind me, “Did you know any of them?”
The source stepped up beside me. The perfect image of a skilled gunslinger, the diamond dog wore a leather long coat, and I could just see the aging waistcoat underneath. He held his hat to his chest.
“I met-” I glanced at the name of the third tombstone. “-Kit, once.”
“Ah, yes. Poor boy. After one trip to that pony city, all he ever talked about was how he was going to move there. You must be that racer pony he met. Didn’t realise you were a mare, though.”
“It was only a brief encounter, and I can come across as masculine in the right light.”
“That explains it.” The dog put his hat back on and held out a paw, kneeling slightly for me to reach. His hat had hidden a sheriff’s badge. “Name’s Dyne.”
It appeared Dyne didn’t know the prior mentioned racer’s name, which meant I had to quickly go down my mental list of names. Somepony new and upcoming, but still not that well known, in case he knew what the more famous racers looked like.
I provided my hoof for him to shake, replying in kind, “Flash Past. Pleasure to meet you, sir.”
“Don’t bother with that ‘sir’ nonsense. I may be sheriff, but I’m still like everyone else.”
“Very well. Might I ask if you knew anyone here? Personally, I mean.”
Dyne pointed to the first two graves.
“My wife and sister.”
“I am so very sorry.”
“Don’t be. No one could’ve seen it coming. My sister began to act out, as if she were possessed by some Tartaran demon. Her condition intensified. Next thing we know, she goes and kills one of the dancers at the saloon. In an attempt to restrain her, Anti was stabbed in the womb. Both she and our future child passed on. Mary, though… she kept screaming, hurting others… had to put her down…”
“Sweet Luna, that sounds horrible.”
“It was. I vowed never to fire my gun again.”
“... Perhaps you would allow me to buy you a drink?”
Dyne smiled faintly.
“You don’t—”
“I insist.”
“Fine.”
The pair of us left the cemetery and returned to the saloon. I bought us both drinks and booked my room. I avoided getting merry, as did the sheriff. At some point, everyone was sent home, and I went and slept.
The following morning, screams woke me from my slumber. In seconds I donned my cloak and hidden weapons. Running out onto the balcony, I witnessed a male diamond dog rip out another’s throat with his teeth and cackle like the mad thing that he was. Others backed or ran away from the scene.
By the jail, I saw Dyne, hesitant to act. His paw hovered over his holster. The mad dog, frothing at the mouth, shook his head, foamy spittle flying everywhere. When he stopped, he was glaring at the sheriff.
Somehow, the mad dog managed to speak clearly, “Why aren’t you doing anything, Dyne!? I just killed him! You could’ve stopped me, but still, you’re too pussycat to do anything. You’ve been useless ever since Mary! Let me put you out of your misery!”
He ran at the sheriff, claws and fangs bared. Dyne wasn’t doing anything to stop him. Maybe he wanted to die. I didn’t know, but I wasn’t going to let it happen. Before I could act, though, a shot rang out, and the mad dog flew sideways. Someone under the balcony had fired the bullet.
“Pimm!” I recognised the voice as the bartender’s. “What are you doing out of bed? You’re sick! Come back inside.”
Footsteps as Pimm and his brother came into the saloon. I kept my eye on Dyne. The dog was examining his almost killer. He searched the body and apparently found nothing of importance. Then, a paw went to his hat, and respects were paid.
“But where is the piece?” I asked myself, returning to my room.
During the day, I played the role of curious visitor, asking the kind of questions a curious, innocent bystander might ask. From what I gathered, the mad dog, Fluffy (a good reason to be mad), was one of Fido’s teachers, as was his victim. This Fido girl didn’t have a grave, but neither was she out and about, and no one would tell me anything about her other than her connections with the dogs going mad.
In regards to the town’s knowledge of what could’ve been happening, the official theory was (quite rightly) a contagion spreading in a previously unprecedented manner. The rumour mill did, however, have a second theory. Many wondered whether Fido was putting curses on those she disliked. It amused me how the truth was a mix of both, or so I thought.
As an added bonus, through my investigation, I discovered that Kit was Fido’s little brother, which, with my current story, gave me a way to possibly meet Fido. With every minute counting, I acted on this plan. In the mid-afternoon, I was knocking on Fido’s door. Her mother answered it.
“Hello?”
“Hello. Are you, by any chance, Kit’s mother?”
“Y-yes?”
“My name’s Flash Past. I’m the race pony who met your son when he visited the city.”
“From Derby? You came all this way?”
“Yes, but I was not aware he had passed…”
As expected, the mother stood to one side and waved me in. “Come in. Come in.”
She guided me to their living room, where we sat and chatted. We spoke of Kit. I made sure to keep my comments subtly vague so as not to be found out. Eventually, current events came up, as we both witnessed Fluffy this morning. Then, I moved the conversation onto Fido.
“I couldn’t help but overhear that Fluffy was a teacher.”
“Oh, yes. Kit’s sister, Fido, was in his class.”
“Oh, is she alright?”
“She’s become rather antisocial as of late, staying in her room. It is such a pity.”
“Do you think I could go talk to her? I understand I only met Kit the once, but I heard he held our meeting close to his heart.”
“I wish it would help, but likely it would just make things worse.”
“That’s a pity…” I got up and stretched. “Anyway, I best be off. Promised someone else I’d race them later. Before I go though, couldn’t borrow your bathroom, could I?”
“That’ll be fine. It’s upstairs, second door.”
“Thank you.”
While I proceeded up the stairs, a knock came at the door. The mother conversed with whoever it was. In the meantime, once up all the stairs, I checked all the doors. I deduced Fido’s door to be the one with the sign reading ‘GO AWAY!’
I knocked lightly and entered while saying, “Hello? Fido? Sorry to disturb you but—”
Her room was a sight to behold, and not in a good way. There was a giant list of names on one wall, the wallpaper having been torn off. I sniffed the air, and there was a faint smell to the room. Fido was lying in bed, her back turned to me. When I reached a hoof over, I noticed a strange fuzziness in the blanket she lay under. The key observation I made, though, was that she didn’t seem to be breathing.
Just then, almost making me jump, the mother’s voiced called up the stairs, “Flash? You done up there yet? There’s someone here to see you.”
With my time up, I crept out of Fido’s room, closing the door behind me, then went and flushed the toilet in the bathroom. Coming back downstairs, I saw Pimm’s brother stood at the door, trying his best to look friendly.
“Howdy, Flash. Ready for that race?”
Either the mother had mentioned it in their brief conversation, or the bartender got lucky. Whichever it was, the fact he was using my lie worried me. We bid the mother goodbye and walked away.
“I know you’re not who ya say ya are.”
“I figured.”
“My friend and I think you’re involved in all this.”
“Your friend being the guy at the bar when I first left last night?”
“… Yes.”
“So, you going the blackmail route?”
“Maybe. First, we wanna know what you’re up to.”
“Fair enough. Where we meeting this friend, then?”
“At his place.” The bartender frowned at me. “You’re awful calm, considering.”
“I’m hoping you can help.”
The bartender took me into a household, where another dog sat waiting in a chair in his living room.
“First off,” said the friend. “We want your real name.”
“Cliff Jumper. You two?”
“Marty,” replied the bartender.
The friend answered, “Melman.”
I chuckled, recalling another reality I had seen. Melman stared daggers at me.
“What’s it you’re collecting,” Melman enquired.
“A book. Touching it drives you to madness. I attempted to destroy it, but it just reforms itself. Its pieces were scattered. The last piece is here, and after getting it, I am going to make sure it can’t hurt anyone ever again.”
Marty and Melman shared looks of disbelief.
“I realise it sounds ridiculous, but I was told Fido bought the last piece from a merchant, and so far, those that have gone mad have all been connected to her. Now, it’s only small right now, but anything could happen, and entire towns, even cities have fallen apart thanks to this thing.”
“Say that we trust you. What can we do?”
“Don’t touch it. Keep an ear to the ground. Alert me when something comes up. Don’t hesitate to kill the inflicted, as soon as you legitimately can.”
The two dogs got up after a short pause, and left the room. There was a long silence while I awaited their decision. I knew not to leave without permission.
Upon their return, Melman rather begrudgingly told me, “We trust you.”
“Jolly good show. By the way, keep an eye on Fido’s mother. I suspect she has a part in all of this, and I doubt she’s on our side.”
With that, I was allowed to leave. As night fell once again, I decided to have an early night. There was nothing else I could do. Or, as usual, so I thought. That night, while I slept, things got far worse.
Like the previous morning, I did not wake of my own accord. Instead of screams, this time I was shook. I opened my eyes to find Dyne standing over me. He did not look pleased.
“What seems to be the problem, officer?” I asked.
My humour ignored, Dyne simply said, “Come with me.”
So, I rolled out of bed, donned my cloak and followed Dyne out of the saloon. He took me to the jail. Inside, I found Melman frothing at the mouth, barking through the bars of his new cell.
“In the early hours of this morning, Melman came in here and demanded he be locked up, for he had killed Marty. A few hours later, he becomes like this. Now, you and Marty were both last seen in each other’s company.”
I thought back over last night. The saloon had been closed, as it was a Sunday. This did not bode well.
“How’d he—”
“Marty was basically crucified in Melman’s living room.”
I cringed.
“So, Flash, care to provide an alibi?”
“Marty took me to see Melman. Turns out we had similar interests. I then went back to the saloon to rest.”
“Not much there to help you, Miss Past.”
“Mind if I ask who the witness is?”
“Kit’s mother, who you’d paid a visit to beforehand.”
I considered my options at this point in time. In the end, I realised my best choice was to show Dyne Fido’s room.
“I have strong reasons to suspect that woman of having a hand in at least one of the recent killings.”
“What!?”
“All you have to do is see Fido’s room. At worst, I’m wrong and we bothered an antisocial girl, and hopefully dispel any rumours that the poor lass is responsible.”
Dyne thought on this, analysing my face in an attempt to read my thoughts. He came to the desired conclusion.
“Alright, Miss Past. But, if you are wrong, I’m arresting you for assisted murder.”
“Fair enough.”
Thankfully, it was still early morning, and no one was around to see me being escorted by the sheriff. We reached Fido’s house a minute later and Dyne knocked on her door. There was no answer. He knocked again.
“Penny? Penny! You in there? It’s Dyne.”
For a short while, Dyne kept knocking and calling out, attracting the drowsy attention of the neighbours, who watched from their windows.
“Mayhaps you should knock down the door? I have enough bits to pay for a new one.”
I was growled at in response, but even still, Dyne took my advice, ramming the door open in one go. His steps quickened with concern, I had to trot to keep up with Dyne as he climbed the stairs. I stopped short of going into Fido’s room. Dyne came back out, horrified.
“The names… And Fido… She’s dead… it was—”
The sheriff lifted a paw to his mouth and he ran into the bathroom to vomit. It was clear I made the right decision to stay out of the room. Once he was done in the bathroom, Dyne searched the whole house. There was no sign of Penny.
Then came yet another scream from outside. Dyne and I rushed to the scene. Melman was somehow out of his cell, dragging a bloodied corpse with him. Upon sighting us, he threw the corpse ahead of him. The face was unrecognisable. Still, Dyne knew who it was.
“Pimm,” he gasped. “But… how… why…?”
“Madness it may be, but there can still be method to it,” I suggested.
With a loud howl that probably woke up the rest of Pawridge, Melman charged at us. Once again, Dyne’s paw hovered over his gun, but did nothing else. I sighed and stepped forward. Reaching a hoof under my cloak, I got a hold of one of my hidden knives and threw it. It found its home in Melman’s leg, tripping him up. Before he could recover, I galloped toward him and jumped. With another knife, I penetrated his skull, ending Melman’s life.
While searching the body, I could feel all the eyes trained on me. My mind raced. Things were getting worse, and every time I thought I was closer to achieving my goal, something happened to put me back. What was I to do? Everyone had watched me kill Melman. I was already a suspect. I heard Dyne walk up behind me as I finished my fruitless search.
“Flash Past, I am arresting you under suspicion of mass murder. I will escort you to your cell, where you will await trial.”
I sighed, handed over my cloak and knives, and corrected him, “Call me Cliff Jumper.”
The cell was uncomfortable. There was nothing to do. I could but only wonder what was going to happen now. A whole day went by with no company or conversation. Dyne had left me alone all day, and it seemed he wasn’t coming back during the night, either. When night came, so did Penny.
She stood at my cell door, look down at me, grinning, scheming. She thought she had all the cards.
“I don’t know who you are, Cliff Jumper, but you know about the paper. Did you also know that covering it in hallucinogenic poison sped up the madness? I found out by accident, and it’s been so helpful.”
“One question before you do me in: What’s the deal with all of this?”
“Purposefully inflicting the madness? Well, dear Fido got hold of the paper with the purpose of getting revenge on certain individuals. She was bullied as a little pup, and it messed her up. Mary Mite was her first target. Then came a couple others. But, Kit accidentally found it, and dear Fido ran to me for help. I got so emotional… I may have killed her, but I couldn’t bear to have them both leave me; not with their father dying so long ago.”
“So, you kept Fido’s body, excused Kit’s death as…”
“The same as the rest: Self defense and mercy killing.”
“Then you decided to keep up Fido’s plan of mass revenge?”
“You’re a smart one.”
“Thanks, and you’re insane. Funny how you’re the only one that went mad naturally.”
“You may be right there, but I don’t care. There’s only one left now. Dyne killed my husband when my precious hubby was a hostage in a bank robbery. I know it wasn’t intentional, but I still want him to pay!”
I didn’t say any more. I tried to see what weapon Penny had waiting for me. Nothing, as far as I could see. She was wearing gloves though, and it wasn’t hard to figure out she intended to use the Multonian piece on me. Boy, was she in for a surprise. I walked up to her, and her grin became an ecstatic smile.
“Go on then, kill me. It’s this or wait for Dyne to sentence me to death.”
“Oh, I have far worse planned for you.”
“You don’t mean—”
“YES!”
Penny produced the page corner, drenched in the poison she mentioned, and stroked my muzzle with it. Admittedly, it felt rather anticlimactic. Next, I put on the act of going feral. While I was ‘distracted’, the dog opened my cell and ran off, cackling. Once she was gone, I calmly walked out the cell, retrieved my cloak and knives and strolled out into the night, a free mare.
“Now, where’d that bitch go?”
Having no idea where she went, I headed back to my rented room. As expected, my rucksack was gone, and the Multonian with it. Things had gone from worse to absolutely terrible. I left the room and found a suitable hiding spot to await daytime, and the ensuing chaos.
Chaos was a good word to describe the final day. There were many possibilities on who had the Mycrosia Multonian. As Sod’s Law would have it, Penny was the lucky bitch. It turns out that Dyne had gone out of town in search of Penny. As such, he wasn’t present the morning it rained paper in Pawridge.
I had fallen asleep at some point, and when I woke, Penny had called all of town over to the saloon, on top of which, she stood. I don’t know what it was she said to convince the town to hang around and let her shower paper all over them, but it worked, and the entire residency was lost.
Knowing things were about to go further south than the South Pole, I quickly found my way round the back of the saloon and climbed up to the roof. A loud cough from me grabbed Penny’s attention.
“You!? But how!?”
“Did you read the book before you tore it up?”
“No, but what’s the worry? It replaced the pages it lost.”
“Oh, I knew that bit. Was just making sure I could kill you.”
Before the bitch could even say ‘what’, I tackled her from the roof. As we fell, I watched fear fill her eyes. Then we hit the ground. Penny’s body cushioned my fall. I then realised I’d just jumped into a crowd of diamond dogs about to go rabid. I could smell the poison. She must have soaked the paper in it for Luna knows how long.
Everyone just stared at me. Then, spittle slowly frothed at their mouths. I ran for it, only to be stopped a couple minutes later at the edge of town by Dyne.
“How did you escape?”
“No time!”
The townsfolk had begun running after me. Dyne saw them and his jaw dropped. In an instant, he had his gun in hand.
“What did you do!?”
He fired a warning shot over their heads.
“It was Penny! She got hold of the Multonian! We need to get out of here!”
Dyne continued to aim his gun at the oncoming mob.
“Dyne, seriously! We. Need. To. Go!”
“The whole town… insane… while I was gone…”
“Don’t do this, Dyne.”
He pulled the trigger halfway.
“I could have—”
“You’d just end up like them. Penny wants them to kill you. SPECIFICALLY YOU!”
“This is my duty.”
The trigger was pulled back completely. One of the rabid dogs took a bullet to the head, causing the others to stop and look at the body. Then, they looked back at Dyne. Like I’d implied before, they were madness stricken, but they still had some awareness. The fact that Dyne actually fired on them came as quite the shock. Sadly, it didn’t last long. They restarted their charge.
Dyne emptied the gun, taking four more dogs down. I thought back to the book, sat atop the saloon. All the pieces resting just out the doors. The end was so close. The mob was nearly upon us. Stupidly, I chose to aid the sheriff. Drawing my own weapons, I threw blade after blade. It wouldn’t be enough, and close combat was inevitable. I placed my favourite knife in my mouth.
Looking up, I saw Dyne staring at me, undecided.
Muffled by the knife, I tried to say, “You’d shoot me in the back before I got five feet away.”
“That I would.”
The gun was reloaded, and his free paw was armed with a survival knife. With the mob only a metre or two away, we jumped into the fray.
I brought the book down from the saloon’s roof, and began to gather the pieces from the ground in front of the same building. Back where we fought the now deceased townsfolk, Dyne was piling up the bodies. He intended to cremate them. He couldn’t bear to dig up all the graves they required.
I was still bringing all the pieces together when Dyne came over. He knelt down to help, reaching for a stray scrap.
“Don’t touch it!”
Quickly pulling his paw back, Dyne questioned me silently.
“These are what sent the others over the edge. A simple touch, and you join them.”
In the corner of my eye, I could see his expression change as he thought on this fact. It was pretty obvious something was fishy, seeing as I was touching them all without a care in the world.
“You’re already inflicted, aren’t you?”
“An astute observation, Watson. Yes, I have been cursed since the beginning. This book-” I placed all the gather paper onto the opened booked and watched as they were slowly absorbed. “- is the cause of it all. I’ve been putting it back together ever since. I must atone.”
“Are you saying that you started all this?”
“Well, inadvertently, yes, but—”
Dyne shot me in the head.