• Published 31st May 2013
  • 3,521 Views, 287 Comments

A Love For Madness - ShadeJak



Based from the hit story Five Score Divided By Four, a doctor at a mental institute meets a very odd patient...

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Where It Started

It was about 2pm, and was going to be the first birthday I’d had in years that I wouldn’t be enjoying the company of my wife, Angela. The divorce was, like I said, a mess to say the least, but then again, what divorce isn’t? Even the most peaceful, the most ‘on good terms’ as they call it, of divorces are not without some form of emotional baggage that leaves a hole in your heart, or maybe in its place. Even though it concluded a while ago, it still felt like just yesterday, like I’d turn around and there she’d be, slowly putting her arms around me and nuzzling into my shoulder. But not anymore… not ever again. As a result, I had to spend nearly all my attention now on rebuilding my life, which included getting a second job to handle the bills I no longer shared and leaving me little time for anything for the majority of the week.

…Which was why my college pal, Craig and my best friend Alice, had insisted on treating me completely to a birthday experience of their design, and it being a weekend for a bunch of people who only worked the weekdays, they had managed to load us up with a plan for a lunch, a viewing of the third Avengers movie, and finally we’d all partake in a night of World of Warcraft at my place till the morning. All to celebrate the birthday of the guy who helped the former meet his out-of-state girlfriend and the latter discover she was a lesbian. Yeah, to them and a few others I was quite the Dr. Hitch.

You’ve seen that movie, right? Yeah, Will Smith played a single man who helped other single men meet their dream girl and give them the morale boost they needed to have a chance with them. Well, apparently I was like a real-life version of that, though not nearly as witty; on the contrary I was usually on the quiet side, hardly the ladies man… I just sorta knew the right words to say when it came to introducing someone to someone else who liked them. Then came when I met Angela, she was my age; sweet, funny, cool and always eager to learn and advance. For someone who always had a talent for helping others find someone, I practically had no idea how to help myself. It took me months to finally notice that the times she’d seek me out in the student lounge, the way she’d always ask what I was up to, the way she’d constantly share what went on in her day, and even invite me out with friends, was her telling me she liked me. Ironic, huh?

But now… those memories were what they were; memories… memories that only hurt me now whenever they come into my mind. I was a different person then; I still helped people with their love lives… and those who stayed single I was able to help them cope with it. When I lost my wife, I lost that talent. I no longer wanted anything to do with love, relationships, or anything unless I could have back what I lost. Again… ironic, huh? I gave advice on relationships that ended up working, yet I failed my own, and could not take my own advice to heal from it either. Those thoughts all passed through my mind as I finished getting ready for my friends to pick me up. One of my favorite button-down shirts over a simple black tanktop and my usual black pants and boots, nothing remarkable, I never was someone who stood out or even tried to. And now, well, obviously that was the last thing on my mind. I heard the cars pulling up and left my bedroom to the door, opening it, and Craig and Alice were there. Craig was a more heavyset man, a year younger then me, dark-haired, always had some marvel or dc-themed shirt on. Today the Green Lantern had the dubious honor of gracing his chest. Alice was born about a day after me, always wearing her blonde hair to her shoulders with a taste for an eccentric wardrobe of skirts, striped stockings, denim vests, and more bracelets then I could care to count. People who followed stereotypes would never have guessed her orientation till she told them or they saw her in action. Right now she was between relationships and like me, not looking, though she was more along that rehabilitative process then I was.

“So, ready?” Craig asked.

“As I can be,” I answered with a shrug.

“Come on, Cale. Don’t be a buzzkill,” Alice said with a smirk as she slapped her hand on my shoulder. “We’re all gonna have fun and that’s the end of it. Every critic except ours said the new Avengers movie’s great!”

“Well, after he deemed the extended cuts of The Hobbit ‘nothing but cg and no plot’, I doubt anything can be expected of him,” I answered dryly; I often wondered how he kept his job.

“That’s the spirit. Now come on, we wanna get to lunch early so we can beat the lines for the movie,” Alice replied. She had a point, last time, when we tried to see the second movie as early as possible we were the second to last ones in. Of course, Angela had been with me then—no, don’t think about her…

“Yeah, I see what you mean,” I said, grabbing my wallet and phone and following them out to the car.

~

“Worth it. Totally worth it,” Alice said as we were driving back to my place.

“I bet there’ll be plenty of complainers either way,” I said. The movie was great, and had managed to up my spirits a bit more, and things like unpleasable fanbases brought out a sort of amusement to me that I always loved to see.

“Eh, there’ll always be people who think they’re the ‘true fans’ and throw a hissy fit every time even the slightest creative liberty’s taken,” Craig said.

“Yeah, biggest example of that's gotta be for the last couple My Little Pony seasons,” Alice remarked, earning a laugh from me. I admit, I used to watch the show during a happier time in my life. Alice was still a fan to this day but even she had to admit the ending was less then stellar.

“Yeah, first Twilicorn… I kinda got that though, kind of a bold move for a series that was far from over… then the Equestria Girls movie,” I remarked.

“Oh, you mean the thing that got fans ultra-butthurt over something they’ve been doing in fanart and cosplay and asking about since the original show first started?” Alice said, laughing. Craig who had never really cared for the show but did find the more anal members of its fanbase rather amusing stayed silent.

“They could have just saved Twilicorn for the end and that would have kept things calm,” I commented. Alice cringed a little. Right. The end. Boy did I remember that… I assumed it a cliffhanger at first to give the show a new season, or be wrapped up and resolved in a movie, but it never was. I have to admit, I was surprised it’d take such a dark turn for a conclusion. Discord, the God of Chaos, had revealed he’d played everyone with his supposed change of heart, and went on a rampage that ended with the main cast wiped out and Equestria doomed... and what he did to Cadance and the Crystal Empire still made my skin crawl when I thought about it, though no one else seems to remember that part for some reason.

“New subject!” Craig piped in, snapping us both out of our delirium. “Looking forward to WoW night?” he asked.

“Of course,” I said. We intended to conquer the ancient classics like Black Temple and Icecrown, Deathwing, Thunder King, whatever else, and then move on to the newest one that came out last winter, all through the night. “I’ve got my toon equipped, my laptop’s up to date, everything’s ready,” Angela had left the group the moment she left me, but this would bounce us back in no time.

Within the next hour, we were all plugged in and logged on. My loading screen finally faded into my undead warlock who wasted no time teleporting to Outland and flying to the Black Temple, our first of many destinations. I was soon joined by Alice’s blood elf death knight and Craig’s orc warrior. In only a matter of minutes, everyone else arrived online.

“Good to see everyone made it,” Alice said over the vent. Clearing her throat, she proceeded to get ‘in-character’, so to speak. “We stand on the brink of our guild’s finest moment! In honor of our co-founder’s birthday, we’ll be striking down many of the major raids in a single night! How many will PwnrzPrime complete? Tonight, we find out!” she declared, making her toon cheer, and soon the others followed suit, myself included. Within an hour and a half, we had Illidan out of the picture and decided to break for a quick pizza dinner. For the first time in awhile, I was actually having fun again, just like old times when it was just the three of us in high school.

As we entered the gates of Icecrown, preparing for the speedrun against the Lich King, I grinned with anticipation, earning smirks from Craig and Alice. All the grief I’d had was lost thanks to a little escapism. In we went, tearing through undead legions like wet tissue paper and crushing every boss in our path. It was already getting close to 8:45, fifteen minutes from my technical anniversary. Putricide and the vampire queen still made a nuisance of themselves, but after a few tries they fell as well. Finally, after the undead dragon, all that stood in our path was Arthas himself. We ascended the frozen throne, his threats echoing from the speakers as we drew ever-closer to where he awaited us.

“Ready?” Alice asked.

“Damn right I am!” Craig responded.

“Let’s do this,” I said. As we prepared to fight, I suddenly felt dazed.

“Cale, you alright?” Craig asked, looking over at me.

“Yeah, why?” I asked.

“Your head just kinda bobbed like you were about to faint,” he said.

“Eh, just for a second. It’s nothing, I…” I began, then everything became a blur, and odd images and voices played through my mind like someone speeding through chapters of a movie.

Familiar laughter…

“Run! Get out as fast as you can!”

A tall house of cards with sneering skulls on them where a strange building once stood.

Screams of terror everywhere…

More of that laughter…

“--Happy ending never crosses your mind again!”

Five score divided by four…

My eyes snapped open and I found Alice and Craig standing over me, the former waving her hand in front of my face.

“Hey, about time,” Craig said.

“What happened? You just suddenly zoned out there!” Alice said. “Gave us quite a scare, dude.”

“Weird, how long was I out?” I asked.

“About ten... maybe twelve minutes. We were this close to calling 911,” Alice explained.

“Well, I feel fine now…” I said, sliding my hand to my side and scratching a moment.

“Look, need to splash water on your face or something? We kinda wiped with Arthas when you went into lala land there, take your time and we’ll regroup,” Craig said.

It seemed a good idea. Putting my laptop aside I got up and headed to the bathroom, still feeling slightly dizzy and for some reason I had an awful itch beginning to form on both sides just below my hips. There should be some calamine lotion in the medicine cabinet for that…

Getting into the bathroom and closing the door, I looked myself over. Maybe the alcohol I’d taken was stronger then I expected? Then again, my tolerance could never make up its mind on how strong it wanted to be; I could drink my friends under the table one night, and be the first to drop on the next. As I rubbed my eyes to fight the blurriness I nearly jumped back when I swore they’d turned purple for a second. Shaking my head, they returned to their normal blue. Yeah, definitely the alcohol. The sudden itching reminded me what else I was here for and I pulled open the cabinet, grabbing out the pink bottle and some cotton balls, pouring it on and sliding my hand down the side of my pants to coat where that itch had been. It persisted for a moment, but soon went away. Sighing a little, I decided to head back into the room and resume gameplay. What in the world were those images… they seemed almost familiar somehow. I could worry about it later.

Returning to the game at hand, I paid little notice to much else for the rest of the night, until it was finally 4AM and we trashed the final raid on our list and celebrated with a cake Alice had brought, which, amusingly, had the subtitle “Friendship Is Magic” written below the obligatory birthday message.

“Really?” I asked, a small smirk on my face.

“Hey, I got one last smile out of you. I’d say it’s a win for me. Remember, though, my birthday dinner at 6, my place, tomorrow,” she said with a laugh. Craig just shook his head. When we’d finished it and said our goodbyes, I once again had the place to myself, and was left to wonder about what had happen earlier. I’d never had a dizzy spell like that, and had no medical history of such things, and when I thought about it, I hadn’t had any more to drink then Craig or Alice, but I was the only one to have that happen.

Angela passed through my mind again. Why couldn’t I just let her go… was I just a fool for love or was it just meant to remain a big part of my life? I didn’t want it to be, as far as I was concerned, all that was over now. I no longer had the optimism or sense of satisfaction in that to take any part in such a thing anymore. As I carried my laptop to my bedroom in one hand and holding a glass of milk in the other, I lay them on my night table and started to get ready for bed. As I changed, I realized I still had the now-dry calamine lotion caked on my sides and headed to the bathroom to scrub it off. No need to get that all over the sheets while I slept.

Needless to say, what followed was something I’d have never expected in my life.

As I scrubbed it away, I noticed odd coloration on my upper thighs. Did I get bruised at some point and not notice? No, it was too brightly colored… as the last of it was scrubbed away, I got a good look at what was underneath, and it was no bruise.

A blue, crystalline heart with gold ribbonlike frame around the lower part was there. A god damn cutie mark?! I had no idea how it got there or who it belonged to, it’d been a good while since I’d really paid that show any attention, especially after the way it ended so… memorably. Still, I wasn’t amused. Rubbing my eyes, I took a look again and there it still was. Did Craig or Alice put that on me while I was zoned out? I mean, sure when we got drunk the first one to pass out got the marker treatment but this was going too far. Was it a rub-on tattoo? I scrubbed at it, but nothing happened. It couldn’t have been, if it was it would have washed off or at least shown some wear. Even permanent marker came off of skin with enough effort and the next twenty minutes I spent ruled out that theory as well. “What in the hell…” I muttered, at a loss of any other words, it wasn’t coming off from soap and scrubbing.

Freaking out I ran to the kitchen sink cabinet, opening a can of acetone I kept there normally for getting sticky substances out and pouring it into a paper towel wad I’d gotten, and rubbed it as hard as I could over the damned picture on my thigh. It remained as prevalent as ever. Freaking out and feeling slight discomfort from the paint-thinning substance on my skin I headed back to the bathroom and washed it off before it’d irritate my skin anymore. Even then, no effect on the cutie mark. Only a permanent tattoo could have done this, and I highly doubted there was any way my friends could have gotten me from the couch to the parlor, get that put on, get me back home, and not be requiring a bandage or feeling any sort of tenderness all in the tiny amount of time I’d been out of it. As I looked back in the mirror, again for a second I could have sworn my eyes were purple again. Blinking, they were their normal color once more. What was going on here?!

Another weird flash of the things I’d seen during that time they told me I zoned out went through my mind… that awful laughter, and the screams as something horrible twisted everything they knew into some sick mockery of its former self. Rubbing my eyes again, I hurried back to bed, throwing on a sleeping shirt and shorts, quickly sketched the mark on some paper, and opened my laptop as I got into bed. At the least I’d figure out who this mark belonged to and why it looked so familiar. Maybe something would come up. Going through a list of Favorites I’d acquired over the years but neglected to remove, I looked under the fimwiki and went down the long list for matches. Nothing came up for awhile till I reached a gallery section titled “Other Cutie Marks”; and scrolling about five rows down, I found a match and my eyes widened in disbelief when I saw who was listed as its owner.

Princess Cadance.

How did her cutie mark end up on me? Why her cutie mark? No, the why made some sort of sense, I suppose, given her and I had a way with helping others find love, but with how I presently was, it seemed like some kind of sick joke. Another dizzy spell came over me, and this time I felt unusually tired despite the severity of the situation. The bright screen with Cadance’s gallery glowed in front of me, including one image where she and her husband Shining Armor stood together. One of the most heartwarming moments ever before the show started its downward descent… I couldn’t help but smile at them despite my own martial drama, and I felt my eyelids grow heavier.

No, I need to figure this out. I have a freakin’ cutie mark on me! I tried to tell myself, even pinching my side to keep myself awake but it did little, it was like I’d taken a double-dose of sleeping medication. It wasn’t long before the drowsiness won out as I clicked through images was one image of the pink alicorn princess with a look of absolute fright on her face… and then one with Discord’s face, its mix of equine and goatlike features twisted into some horrible sneer at that last second of the series finale I remembered, where he seemed to break the fourth wall to gloat about his moment of victory… nothing like his usual grin of wicked glee, this one was just… pure evil. The way the picture was now, in still frame, occupying my laptop’s screen, it felt like he was looking at me, rather then just the 'camera'… that hideous grin and a brief flicker in my laptop being the last thing I remember as sleep finally overtook me…

~~

The alicorn shuddered to herself, remembering that awful image of Discord. She didn't know why it had creeped her out so much back then, or why it felt like she was being watched when it was just a simple screen capture. Nowadays, she felt more certain then ever she was being watched after all, somehow. Like the God of Chaos was following her every step, sneering, laughing, mocking her misery... Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to filter out the images of that terrible grin, but even then she still could hear that cruel laughter. Shaking her head with a slight whimper, she took a few breaths and looked over at Dr. Lance, who cocked his head a little then saw his recorder light up and he switched it off.

“Ran out. Guess we’ll need to switch tapes. Good thing I got spares,” Dr. Lance finally said with a sheepish laugh. The alicorn just raised an eyebrow at him. “Still… can’t say that was too full of unusual content. At least until the end,” he said. “Seemed like pretty standard young adult behavior otherwise.”

“Most start that way, though, don't they? Mostly mundane and all... I’m sure you’ll be skimming past it every time you check it over,” the alicorn answered with an eyeroll. “Trust me, what happened from the next day onward was when things really started to get crazy…” she muttered, shaking a little as the memory of those bizarre changes she went through her mind.

“Well, I’m listening as ever.” Dr. Lance said, putting a new tape in the recorder and switching it on. “This is Dr. Dean Lance, continuing the interview with the patient claiming to be Cale Amos. Please resume…”

Author's Note:

PwnrzPrime was just the first name I could think of off the top of my head for a random guild name. If one by that name actually exists it is entirely coincidental.

Ponyfication begins next chapter! *evil grin*