Chapter Twenty Three: The Truth
{Third POV}
Symbol had told Epidemic to fly on ahead to Ponyville while he dealt with Marx. He turned to the sweating displaced with a serious stare.
"Ok Marx, I want you to tell me everything you know about all of this." Marx looked away and tried to open a portal, only for Symbol to punch him away from it. "This isn't a game, if I don't get answers one of us is gonna get hurt, and I guarantee that it's not gonna be me."
Marx just sighed and sat down. "Alright, I'll tell you. What do you want to know first?"
"Who is this Author guy? And what does he have to do with me?"
"Author is like me, a displacer, a very powerful one at that. He created a smaller version of the main multiverse to try to undo the damage caused by a great evil. He assembled a council of displacers to help protect this new multiverse, me included. He has two displaced at the moment in alternative Equestrias."
"And what does this have to do with me?"
"Author is...is..."
"Come on, spit it out."
Marx sighed. "I am so getting fired for this...he's your real father." Symbols eyes widened.
"You mean spiritual parent right? Like Vivi?" Marx nodded. "So...I'm the son of a displacer then..." Symbol momentarily switched to his new fire mode. "...that explains a few things at least." He returned to normal and leaned against a rock. "Next question, what is the order of tranquility?"
"I can't answer that one, Author never told me their true purpose."
Symbol scowled at that. 'Damnit, that info was important.'
"I can tell you what those rings you saw in the temples are for though." Symbol looked at him expectedly. "They are restrictors, designed to suppress large amounts of dark energy."
"So they are supposed to keep the Nightmare Fuel in my body in check?"
"Exactly, if he gets any stronger he will take over your body. Then The Authors plan will be ruined."
"What plan?"
"The reason we displace people is because we need heroes to fight the Nightmare Fuel in all the Equestrias, but they only slow the progression of the Nightmare. You were made to counteract it, you were born with the ability to fully destroy the Nightmare."
Symbol raised a brow. He tried to switch to his Nightmare form but failed.
"You reached a level where the Nightmare is no longer of use to you, your body is now only a prison for it. Be warned though, if you let your anger overcome you...you will become something far worse. You can still activate the demon form, just not the Nightmare. Unless you are fighting a Nightmare, then you can transform into it."
Symbol switched to his demon self to be sure, once satisfied he returned to normal. "Last question...what is the Nightmare Fuel?"
"The Nightmare Fuel is the cause of most evils in the multiverse. It even managed to kill displacers and displaced that were not strong enough to fight it. It is not one being, but many. You are harbouring the strongest Nightmare, any others you come across will still be powerful, but beatable. The Nightmares origin is unknown, Author has been investigating it for trillions of years but has not come close to solving the case. However, I do have an idea where it might be from, but I’m not telling you. Where I think it might be from is a place that only Author and I know about, and I’m starting to suspect it came from there."
Symbol listened as Marx told him all he knew about Nightmare and how he was supposed to destroy it if he ever came across it.
"If I detect any powerful Nightmares I will either give the displaced in that world your token or take you there myself."
"Got it, any universes that need my help right now?"
"One of my own will need help soon, but there is other things you need to do first." Marx gave Symbol a sly look. "Mainly in the relationship department, or is that not your preferred area?"
"Shut up, I'm perfectly fine with what's happening between me, Twi and Tavi."
"You even use their nicknames, how cute."
Marx tensed up when a fist of fire stopped just in front of his face. "You gonna shut up now?." Marx nodded. "Good. Now, you can go back to your little council and tell them that I don't appreciate my life being planned, I already know the date of my death, so if I find that one of your council members isn't happy about me knowing that they can come talk to me, I'll give them a very warm welcome."
Symbol lowered his fist and began running towards Ponyville. "Whelp, my spot on the council is gone..."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that Marx." Marx perked up at the sound of his friends voice in his head.
"What do you mean by that Roden?"
"This was planned, I will be meeting with Symbol soon as well as Author. It is time for you to take some time off, I'll take care of transporting Symbol to Lisa next time."
Marx nodded as the voice ceased. He looked out over Ponyville and sighed. "That kid has no idea what hell is gonna break lose in the future..."
Epidemic landed outside of the castle of friendship, thinking about what had happened in the void.
'That was certainly an odd experience, but touching none the less. Symbol gets his sister back and he gets his answers.'
"Epidemic, there you are!" He looked up to see Auldin, still in his dragon pony form, flying towards him. "I couldn't sense your energy in this realm, where did you go?"
"Marx brought me to the farthest reaches of the void along with another. Our tokens activated at the same time, causing an anomaly sending us both to one of DEATH’s prisons."
"Oh? What displaced did you end up with?" Epidemic shook his head.
"It wasn't a displaced, it was..." He looked up to see a familiar ball of purple fire heading towards them. "...him." The flames landed and disappeared, revealing Symbol.
"First time flying...an odd experience to say the least."
Auldin looked at Symbol and noticed his necklace. "Wait...you're the one my son met? Hmm, there’s a lot of power hidden within you, as well as some incredibly dark force."
"That’d be Nightmare, a being imprisoned inside of me. He’s completely evil, and is the reason why I’m in this multiverse in the first place." Alduin nodded.
“Ah I see. Well I hope he stays imprisoned, or even destroyed. A being with that much darkness in them is a danger to all life.” Symbol nodded.
“So, I came here to meet my new family.” Alduin looked at Epidemic with a raised brow.
“We fought DEATH to get his sister’s soul back, and after that we kind of just became adoptive brothers.” Alduin smiled and nodded.
“Ah, well that’s good to hear. If you’re here to meet everyone else, then allow me to introduce myself. My name is Alduin, and I’m Epidemic’s father, as well as the father of the Twins.”
“Twins?” Epidemic became all black, and then separated into the Twins, who were also in their human forms.
“That’s us! Hi! My name’s Plague!”
“And mine’s Amnesia!” Symbol looked at the two.
“Okay, I know that I sensed two younger forms nearby when I was with Epidemic, but I didn’t know that he was a fusion.”
“Eh, he’s not really a fusion.”
“Even though we combine to make him, his consciousness is still around in our heads, and he can fuse us himself if he wants to.” Suddenly the Twins became all black and fused together, once again creating Epidemic.
“Just, like, that.”
“Huh, weird. So, is this everyone in the family?”
“No, there are others, many others mind you, but their all in different worlds.” Symbol nodded. Marx then appeared.
“I can grab one of them!” A portal opened and Marx dover through.
{Gale’s POV}
I stood in the doorway to the bar, looking at Metal as he was collapsed on the couch.
“The hell happened to you?” Metal looked at me, clearly having a HUGE headache.
“Hangover... too much...rough week…” I rolled my eyes and walked off. Metal had been visiting my place ever since he set up his end of the portal. I then stopped in thought.
’Wait, can robots even have hangovers?’ I didn’t have time to ponder that thought because Marx appeared out of nowhere.
“FAMILY MEETING!” He then grabbed my shoulders and pulled me into the portal.
{Thrid POV}
Another portal opened up beside Alduin, and Gale came flying out, slamming into a wall. He pushed himself off and landed on his feet. He glared at Marx.
“Mind tossing me out of a portal a little softer next time?” Marx smiled sheepishly while rubbing the back of his head.
“He he, sorry.” Gale rolled his eyes and turned to Alduin.
“So, why am I here?” Alduin nodded to Symbol.
“It seems we have new addition to our family.” Gale turned to him.
“Oh, well hello there. Name’s Gale, what’s yours?”
“Name’s Symbol.”
This is Symbol? Authors son? Gale shook away his shock. “Well, I would love to know how you’re related to us Symbol.” Epidemic stepped forward.
“We had a run in with each other, fought DEATH, saved his sister’s soul, and just became adoptive brothers after that.” Gale nodded.
“Ah, well welcome to the family! Be warned, this is only a small portion of our sizeable family.Though it’s not too big by earth standards, as a displaced family we’re pretty huge. Though, most of the relations are through the Twins.” Symbol nodded.
“Well, good to know that I’ve got a big new family.” The others nodded.
“So, is the only reason we’re all here is to get introduced to each other?”
Symbol shook his head. "I have a feeling I'm supposed to warn you all about something." They all looked at him and sat down. "Marx already explained this to me but I'm going to explain it to you. As Epidemic and Auldin know there is a creature of great evil trapped in my body, it tried to take my body as a vessel to wreak havoc in my Equestria. That creature is known as Nightmare Fuel. He is not the only Nightmare, there are countless all across the multiverse."
"So this Nightmare could show up in this world or mine at any time?" Gale asked.
"Exactly, I've been told by Marx that you already have a copy of my token, if you ever come across the Nightmare in your world call me, don't try to fight it yourself. The same goes for the rest of you, you may be able to defeat it, but not destroy it."
"I guess that means we'll be seeing you around here sometimes."
"Yes, but I won't always be able to answer your call, I do have other things to deal with back home." They all nodded and handed him each a copy of their own tokens. Symbol motioned for Marx to give them copies of his. "Marx, make sure that the other displaced that you talked about gets one as well." He nodded and disappeared through a portal only to return a second later.
"She's currently in another displaced universe, I can't make it to her yet."
"Why not, you got into my world just fine."
"It's more complex than that, I'd need their displacers permission to enter their world, it's sort of an unwritten rule amongst displacers in this smaller multiverse. Author has granted me access to your world and others that he has in his territory."
Just then Symbol felt something tap his shoe, he looked down to see a fluffy white spider with a red ring on its abdomen. "Scary? What are you doing here?" He kneeled down and picked up the spider. Scary crawled up Symbols arm and onto his head. "How did you even get here?" Scary shrugged and nestled into his hair.
"Why are you talking to that spider?" Gale just looked at him confused.
"Oh, this is Scary, my pet spider." He reached up and petted the spider who waved a leg at the group. "My changeling roommates found him in our basement and we decided to keep him, he's actually really smart." Scary then buried himself in Symbols hair, making it look like he wasn't even there. "I don't even know how he does that, my hair isn't that thick."
The group talked for awhile before Gale returned to his own world, Auldin went off to spend some time with Twilight and Marx returned to the void. Symbol and Epidemic walked into the Everfree forest to activate the new symbiote pony.
While walking a large group of Timberwolves blocked their path. Epidemic was about to blast them when Symbol placed a hand on his shoulder. He then took a few steps forward before glaring at the wolves, they all cowered below his gaze and moved to the side.
Satisfied, Symbol began walking again, leaving a confused Epidemic behind. "Come on Epidemic, we don't have all day!"
Epidemic just stood there and looked at the wolves who were shivering in fear as they looked at Symbol.
Once in a clearing Epidemic sat on a rock as Symbol stood in the middle of the patch of grass. He held out his hand with one of the small yellow crystals and closed his eyes. He clenched the gem and fed a small amount of his positive energy into it. He then crushed it and purple liquid seeped out from the shards, much to Epidemics surprise.
"What is it with me and purple?" The liquid formed into the shape of a pony and leapt onto him, merging into his being but not changing anything. "I take it she needs more time to develop?" Epidemic nodded.
“So, have you decided on a name for her yet?"
Symbol nodded and closed his eyes. "Guessing that fate will be on my side for the reincarnations name, I'll call her...Abi, hopefully the foal is named Gail."
Epidemic nodded and began explaining the qualities of a symbiote. After some time, Epidemic finished his explanation.
“Oh I see, so that’s how they work.” Epidemic nodded.
“Yep. Now remember, it’s your choice whether or not to keep her with you, but I advise against it. If you do, she may look into your memories and see the ones of her. Of course, she won’t know it’s her, and neither will her mind. And, because she’s already seen the memories, the memories I gave her may not come out at all, due to the fact her mind will already think she has them, thus it will see no reason to unlock these memories.” Symbol nodded.
“I think I can alter my mindscape to make sure that doesn't happen, but in the meantime what do you wanna do?” Suddenly, they both heard and unnatural roar, and looked to the forest. From it came a black, humanoid figure, that had tendrils coming out of it’s back, and yellow, emotionless, circles for eyes. It had no definable features, it just seemed to be made out of a purple liquid. It roared at Symbol and Epidemic once more.
“Probably kill that thing.” Symbol nodded and they charged. The creature sent its tendrils to attack them, but they dodged and kept going. Epidemic let loose his dragon phase, and created his scythe. Symbol became purple fire, and created a purple fire blade in his hand. They charged and swiped, both hitting the Nightmare Fuel dead on. It slammed into a tree, but soon got back up and roared in anger.
“Hmph, this thing doesn’t seem that powerful.”
“Looks can be deceiving.”
“Which is why I’m not taking any chances with it.” They both charged, only to see the Nightmare Fuel leap into the air. It sprouted wings and roared at them as it started to ascend.
“Wait, these things can fly?”
“This one can, apparently.”
“Hmph, it won’t make a difference.” Epidemic took to the skies as well, and flew at the Nightmare Fuel. It roared and sent out its tendrils, but Epidemic just dodged them. He made it up to the creature, and knocked it back down to the earth with his scythe. As it fell, Symbol ran underneath it and raised his sword, causing the Nightmare Fuel to become impaled by it. It roared in pain before flapping its wings and taking to the skies once more. It flew up to Epidemic, and did the unexpected.
“Fo, Krah Diin!” A burst of icy breath came out of the monster’s head and headed towards Epidemic. It hit him straight on, and Epidemic was knocked out of the air, landing on the ground, hard. Epidemic got up and shook off the shock.
“The hell? This thing can Shout?”
“Okay I have never seen one that was able to do that.”
“Perhaps being in my world has something to do with it.”
“Possibly.” The two were done playing around. Epidemic became all black and fused with Symbol, creating Symbolic. They looked up at the Nightmare Fuel in hate. They took to the sky, charging at the Nightmare Fuel at high speeds. The monster tried to use another shout, but was interrupted when it got impaled by Symbolic’s blades. Symbolic then conjured up his scythe, and beheaded the creature. The Nightmare Fuel gave one last cry of pain, before disappearing completely. Symbolic landed on the ground, and separated back into Symbol and Epidemic. Symbol spotted a small purple orb falling from where the Nightmare had been, he jumped and grabbed it with both hands. Epidemic watch as he poured some of his energy into the orb, causing it shatter. They walked up to the nearby rock and sat on it.
“Well, I certainly wasn’t expecting to fight a Nightmare Fuel in someone else's world so soon. Especially one that had powers similar to the abilities of those in this one.” Epidemic nodded.
“It seems as if they can copy the abilities and powers of a displaced, as long as they’re in the world of that displaced.” Symbol nodded.
“There is so little we know about these Nightmares. Well, at least I got to discover that they had a power like that when I had someone helpful nearby.”
“Yeah, who knows what could have happened if you went against it alone.”
“I can handle myself.”
“That’s not what I meant. I meant that over time it seemed to unlock more and more abilities. This battle went by fast because the both of us were here. However, had you been alone, who knows what other abilities it could have gained. Hell, for all we know it could have become a dragon!”
“Ah, I see what you mean. So, what now?”
“I say we go home, and alert everyone about this, and you go see if Marx can check whether or not that other displaced is home yet.”
“Sounds like a plan.” And so, the two walked all the way, back to Ponyville.
After warning the others of the Nightmares abilities and telling Marx to inform the displacers council, Epidemic and Symbol parted ways. Symbol reminded him to keep the extra token on hand at all times if there happened to be more Nightmares in the current world.
Symbol was about to walk through a portal to his home world when he felt something tap his shoulder. Looking back he saw Auldin in his dragon-pony form. "Come, I have something I want to talk to you about." Symbol nodded and they walked into a separate portal.
As they appeared on the other side Symbol stared in awe at the beautiful sight before him. They were on a long black marble path, to the sides were forests filled with trees with glass-like trunks and glowing leaves of various colours. The sky was a dark blue and clusters of stars flew overhead in clouds of blue energy.
"What is this place?" Symbol slowly started walking forward.
"The forest of eternity, essentially a place for lost souls to find a place in the void. Basically, this is the afterlife." Symbol turned to look at Auldin with a confused expression. "Now, let me ask you something Neo."
Symbols gaze hardened. "How do you know my real name?"
Auldin shook his head and started walking. "Why is it that you hide your name? Is it because you are ashamed of the things you've done while under that name or do you simply wish to start anew?"
Symbol closed his eyes and clutched his medallion. "There are many reasons why I chose my new name, I'm not the monster I was back in Masereth." Just then the trees close to Symbol turned purple.
Auldin looked at him suspiciously. "Now why would they do that for you? Unless..."
"You said this was the afterlife right? Then those purple trees are the souls of the people I slaughtered correct?" Auldin just stared at him in shock.
"How many did you kill?" He asked in a hushed voice.
Symbol just walked past him and whispered. "I lost count around the three thousand mark..."
"You too?" As Symbol walked the trees around him turned purple as well.
"Listen!" Symbol called out to the souls in the forest. "I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry for what I did to you all!" The soft wind that had blown through the forest had ceased. "I know you will not forgive me for doing all of those disgusting things, but I needed to at least apologise once!" Auldin looked at him as tears filled the cursed boys eyes. "I never wanted to harm any of you, I won't say I had no choice, because I did. I chose wrong..." He fell to his knees. "...I chose wrong..." His head lowered as the tears hit the ground. "Auldin...you were going to ask me why I fight, weren't you?"
"How did you-"
"I can read people and ponies like literal books, before I developed my power of the Nightmares I used my mind as a weapon, breaking my enemies with my words."
Auldin watched as Symbol got up and walked to a tree, he placed his hand on it and sighed. "The truth is I don't know why I fight anymore, it used to be for my sister, but you know how that ended." He looked at the tree then back to the dragon-pony. "I don't know what's worth fighting for, I don't know why I continue to fight. I accepted that I was nothing but a monster long ago, everything you've done in the past doesn't even compare to what I've done. Take a look if you don't believe me."
"I believe you..." Symbol looked at him with surprise. "...I've done terrible things in my time, but the amount of pain I felt is but a fraction of your life as a whole. I was hundreds of years old when I did those things, you weren't even in your teen years." Auldin placed a hand on Symbols shoulder. "The reality is that you do have a reason to fight, you have your friends and family in Equestria that you want to protect, because they are the only things that matter to you, trust me, I know."
Symbol sighed. "I feel as if my whole life is some kinda sick drama story."
"Yes, it often seems that way to most of us."
"What about you, why do you fight?" Auldin just chuckled.
"Another story for another time, you have a Gala to prepare for." Symbol nodded and a portal appeared. As Symbol stepped into it he turned back to give one last warning to Auldin.
"One last thing, if you ever hear the name Forge you summon me immediately. Also, if you ever come across these two groups, The Cult of the Rings and The Order of Tranquility you don't even hesitate to bring me back here, no questions asked." The portal closed leaving a very confused Auldin in the dark forest.
"Where have I heard those names before? Eh I’ll worry about that later, for now." Alduin looked to all the other trees in the forest, and most of them started turning gray, even the ones that were nearly out of site. “Thank you for not changing while he was still here.” The wind blew past as if a consolation for Alduin.
He had been here many times before, including when he was turned to stone, that was one consolation Discord provided. During his last visit before he became stone, the spirits in this place had forgiven him, seeing as every time he killed one of them, their spirits were sent to an equivalent to Sovngarde, for some reason he could not yet figure out. Now that he thought about it, it was probably Marx’s doing. The wind blew once more, as if telling him that each of the spirits were now in a paradise that they could only dream of when they were alive, and that they were happy. Alduin nodded once more, before returning to his own world.