Chapter 7: Reflections
Ryan awoke screaming the next morning. He sat up ramrod straight then doubled over, hunching his back. He heaved breaths desperately, trying to flush out whatever was in his system. Sweat coated his body, and he frantically tore off his tattered shirt, pulling it over his head and throwing it across the room. He stood up and stumbled his way into the adjoining bathroom.
He practically fell into the sink as he turned it on and dunked his head under the cool spray. The cold helped to clear his thoughts and calm the burning that he felt inside his mind. After a few good minutes of soaking, he turned off the water and slowly raised his head back up. His eyes met his own in the fractured remains of the mirror.
His figure was only a silhouette in the reflective surface, due to the light streaming through the windows behind him. He leaned in closer, wanting a better look at his features.
A laugh echoed through his mind, and a deep-red sinister grin burst to life in a flash of flames on his doppelganger's face.
Without hesitation, Ryan brought his hand up to the broken mirror and channeled power through it. In a muted concussive blast, the mirror was dismantled into a million tiny shards. They blew outwards, kept in slow motion by the force behind Ryan's magic. Calmly, he stepped out of the trajectory of the pieces, then let go of the spell. Gravity retook its hold on the mirror, and the fractured glass fell to the floor, now ground into a fine powder.
Ryan straightened up, a shiver working its way down his spine. He tilted his head to the side and took a deep breath in through his nose as he felt his neck crack once. With a stiff gait, he walked back to his bed, grabbed Lucky from under the pillow, threw his tank top back on, and left his room.
He didn't even remember the dream this time. Whatever it was, it was so horrible his subconscious repressed it immediately upon his waking up. He had no idea what time it was, and he didn't care. He couldn't spend another second in that godforsaken room.
He walked out the front entrance of the little hotel and out onto the streets of Ponyville. The sun was out and shining brightly, birds were chirping, and butterflies flitted through the air. And there wasn't a single pony outside.
Which Ryan noticed immediately, of course, but at the moment he couldn't stand to care. He pulled his shades out of his pocket and slapped them onto his face. As his perspective of the world darkened, he drew Lucky and set a quick pace to The Field. After last night, there was something he wanted to try. His Pip-Boy made a noise and he looked down to see that his Quest screen had updated.
"Magic and Might"
-Test your theory
-Begin your training[Completed]
-Take a tour [Completed]
-Return to Ponyville [Completed]
It took only two minutes for him to catch sight of the single tree in the grassy field. He walked forward, head tilted down, eyes locked on his target. When he got close enough to make out individual leaves on the branches, he stopped, and raised his pistol.
He gathered his energy and focus, concentrating hard on the power coursing through him. At that moment he felt stronger than ever before, like he was more in-tune with the magic flowing through his body. With a will of steel, he commanded the pliable force to wrap around the first bullet in Lucky's chamber. As the seconds ticked by, he covered the bullet dozens, then hundreds of times; ultimately reaching a number far greater than anything he'd ever attempted before.
With his Luck so low, doing something as potentially volatile as this was probably a bad idea. But he needed to know.
He closed his eyes, and pulled the trigger.
The world rocked backward in recoil and something in his wrist snapped. He was sent into a short backflip and landed hard on his side. His ears were deafened by the sound of the blast that roared from his usually quiet pistol, and then again by the sound of the bullet impacting the tree.
He curled into a ball, one hand on Lucky, the other on his ear. When he pulled his hand away to look at it, he saw that it was marked red with blood. Debris rained down above him, smattering his body lightly and reminding him that he needed to get back up and see the results.
His hearing still deafened, he staggered into a standing position, then looked over to the tree...
Only to find that there was no tree left. Just a small, jagged stump where the old oak had been growing. The bullet's impact had blown the thing away with more efficiency than any of his rocket launchers could ever hope to manage, short of the Fat Man. Even Nellis' artillery couldn't have this much stopping power.
Needless to say, he was impressed with the results.
He slowly rolled into a sitting position, registering the wrenching sensation in his right shoulder. Perhaps trying that with his Luck so low was a mistake after all.
Shakily, he stood. After trying, and failing, to roll his shoulder once, he decided that it was just a simple dislocation. He didn't need a Stimpak to fix that, just a good solid wall. He dropped Lucky to the ground as pain shot through his wrist. Something was definitely wrong there. He pulled a Stim out of his pocket and injected it into his forearm, then sighed as he felt the ligaments in his appendage rework themselves into their proper positions.
He realized that he didn't hear himself sigh. Once he felt his hand was better, he picked up Lucky, holstered it, then felt around his ears again. There was a liquid on them, and Ryan brought his hand back to see that it was definitely blood. He snapped once next to both ears, and was relieved when he heard the sound, albeit faintly.
He took out another Stimpak and carefully injected it into his neck. It had been some time since he had sustained injuries around his head, but he hadn't forgotten how to apply Stims there. He bunched up his torn tank top and wiped off the blood that had run down his neck from his ears.
After another few seconds, he snapped by his ears again and breathed another sigh of relief as the sound was crisp as ever. He didn't think he'd be able to go on without hearing, even if it was only one ear that was damaged. It was perhaps the most important of his senses, and losing it would make combat much more dangerous for him.
He took one more look at the destruction he had wrought upon the tree, then turned and walked back into town.
The empty town. With his concerns about Lucky and what he could do with his magic out of the way, he could focus on why he couldn't see a single pony throughout the entire, normally crowded town. Call it single-mindedness or stupid ignorance, that kind of discovery needed to be made immediately. But with that out of the way, this was a more pressing concern on his mind.
He walked over to the nearest home, put a hand on the wall to see if it was sturdy enough, then reared back, and slammed his shoulder into it. He groaned as the bone popped back into its socket, then rolled his arm around twice to make sure everything was alright.
With the issue of his shoulder out of the way, he could safely go see Twilight. Because what else would he do when faced with the oddity of a disappearing town? Given how much she's told him of cataclysmic events occurring in Ponyville, he believed it would be safe to assume that she would know what was going on. Of course, if she was gone too, then there would be a problem, but he preferred to not think about that while walking over. Back home, that sort of outcome would be his natural assumption, but he doubted anything particularly sinister was afoot in such a sleepy little town.
His Pip-Boy chimed once more, and he looked down at it to check his Quest screen again.
"Magic and Might"[Completed]
-Test your theory [Completed]
-Begin your training [Completed]
-Take a tour [Completed]
-Return to Ponyville [Completed]
"Return"
-Find Twilight
It didn't take him long to reach the towering crystal castle that the little pony lived in. It reminded him of the Lucky 38, in some ways. Distinct among the other buildings, too large for one person to live alone in, great doors keep it apart from the rest of the world... And Twilight is such a friendly person. He couldn't quite grasp why someone like her, who treasures friendship above everything else, to live so isolated. At least he would host guests: diplomats, ambassadors, representatives, and the like. He hosted often, as well. It became a rare sight to see a completely empty Lucky 38, unlike when House was still in control.
A sigh still managed to wrestle its way through his lips. Maybe he still was just as empty as the Lucky 38.
Dismissing the thought, he opened the doors and entered the castle, walking into a grand entrance hallway. It was brightly lit, sunlight streaming through the clear crystals that made up the walls and ceiling. Several tapestries were hung on the walls, ones that Twilight had told him were centuries old, scavenged from the decrepit castle that sat in the heart of the Everfree Forest. Other ornamentation sparsely decorated the walls and filled in some of the otherwise empty space.
His eyes were set on a door near the end of the hallway. He knew it was something of a moot point to check the Element's meeting room, given that they rarely gathered in there, according to Twilight. The library was a much better bet to find her. Funny how the two of them, despite coming from radically, extra emphasis on radically, different places and backgrounds could share the same desire for knowledge and affinity for reading.
His boots clacked against the crystal floor, filling the otherwise empty hall with some sort of sound. Within the reflections of the crystals, he thought he caught some sort of motion. A pass of brown, a movement of white, a flash of red. Something was following him through the hallway. His pace quickened, along with his pulse. The colors flashed faster in the crystals, and he checked his Pip-Boy's compass to verify what he was seeing—
Only to gasp in equal parts shock in horror as he saw that his compass' threat detector was just a solid bar of red, indicating hostiles all around him. Faces appeared in the crystals, the face of Christopher, bathed in blood and bearing a wicked grin. Ryan dropped any pretense of self-control and sprinted to the end of the hallway. He reached the door, threw it open, jumped inside, then slammed it shut behind him.
His breathing rate normalized after a few seconds in the dark room. He kept his back pressed up against the door, hoping that he wouldn't have to muster the strength necessary to keep his nightmares out. His breathing stabilized and his heart rate returned to normal. He checked his Pip-Boy again, to see that his compass was back to normal... but not quite. It was registering non-hostiles, a ton of them, directly in front of him.
His right hand cautiously found its way onto his Pip-Boy, and flicked the switch for the light.
Only for the entire room to spontaneously light up and fill with the noise of the collective population of Ponyville to yell "Surprise!"
He suppressed a foul exclamation from leaving his mouth as he saw the technicolor explosion that assaulted his eyes. Confetti cannons fired from across the room, dousing its inhabitants liberally with multicolored paper. Upbeat music began filling in the silence of the room, which was quickly accompanied by the sounds of ponies chatting as the party began.
"So were you surprised? Were ya'? Were ya'?" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, bouncing up to Ryan.
"Are you alright?" Twilight asked, walking up, concern written on her face.
Ryan relaxed his pose and chuckled, letting the tension out of his shoulders. "Yeah, that was pretty good. I'm definitely surprised. Thanks a lot, Pinkie."
As the pink pony bounced off, spouting something about repairing a cupcake pyramid, Twilight moved a bit closer to him. "Are you sure you're okay?" she asked, her eyes following the movement of his hand away from Lucky's handle.
"Yeah, I'm fine. After her first surprise back at Sugarcube Corner, I was prepared to see her again at some point. 'Fool me once...' after all." He rearranged his arms to cross them over his chest, relaxing against the doorway.
Twilight smiled warmly. "I'm glad to hear it. Would you like—"
"Courier! There you are!" called an accented voice from further in the crowd. Ryan turned his head to look, and saw Rarity emerge from behind a small herd of ponies, an elegantly-wrapped box floating behind her. "I know that you're leaving sooner than expected, so I made sure to get this done as soon as possible." The box floated to Ryan, who grabbed it hesitantly. "Go ahead and open it, darling!"
With a bit of a shrug, he undid the bow on top and undid the paper on the sides, unfolding the wrapping. But, when he heard Twilight and Rarity giggling off to the side, he stopped, looking at them curiously. "Is something wrong?" he asked.
"It's not really that big of a deal..." began Twilight.
"But have you opened a gift before?" finished Rarity, fluttering her eyelashes.
"I..." well, technically, he hadn't. "No...?" he answered, confused.
Twilight and Rarity looked at each other and giggled again, much to Ryan's amusement. "That explains it. You rip gifts open, not unfold them," Twilight finally clarified for him.
"Oh. Well then." Ryan could only respond blandly. As he looked back at the box, however, he quickly got an idea. Channeling a bit of magic into his hand, he focused on the box. With a thought, it was suspended in the air before him. Then, with another thought, the wrapping at the top-center tore open, then split into ten or so different strips of paper that ripped all the way around to the flip-side of the package.
Twilight and Rarity looked impressed. "Wow!" Twilight exclaimed. "It looks like you put a lot of work into practice!"
Ryan just flashed her a quick smile, then opened the box to reveal his duster. "Cool," he said, picking it up from the packaging. He levitated the box to the ground, then spread the jacket open with his hands, taking note of the new sleeves.
"Try it on, dear, I want to see how it fits!" Rarity exclaimed, walking to his side to get a better look at the alterations she had made.
Eager to try it on himself, he swung it around his back and slipped his arms in the sleeves. They fit close to his skin, but still left enough room to stay comfortable. There was just enough room to fit an ace up his sleeve, and he had to wonder if Rarity took that into consideration when he asked for her help...
Looking up, he made eye contact with her as she finished her circle around him. "Thanks a lot, Rarity, this is perfect."
She blushed slightly, looking to the side. "Well, of course. Nothing can leave my boutique until it's gained all of my TLC: time, love, and couture. Speaking of, after you told me how rough things can be where you're from, I gave it a little 'treatment' of my own design to make the fabric more resilient, and less likely to tear. I figured it would be a good idea, even if it doesn't end up helping much." She graced him with a small smile.
More resilience was something he could definitely be happy about. "That's amazing, Rarity, thank you so much. I don't know how to repay you for all this," he said, already knowing how she would respond.
"Not at all, darling! Just being able to work on a design from another world was reward enough for me. Why, I learned so much from studying your 'duster' that I believe it will be the inspiration for a new fashion line! I'm calling it: 'Rough and Rugged'." Her eyes lit up with the prospects of doing more of what she loved the most.
"Well, in that case, I'm glad I could serve as some sort of inspiration," said Ryan, ending the conversation as Rarity gave a quick farewell to go mingle with the other ponies at the party.
Twilight smiled at him again. "She does love her dresses," she said, getting a few chuckles out of Ryan.
"Yeah, she sure does. How about we go talk around for a bit? I'd like to meet some of the ponies that attended a party thrown for an alien like myself," Ryan said, his curiosity for the townsfolk growing.
"Sure thing!" replied Twilight, as she led him into the crowds to speak with some of her other friends.
And the morning stretched into the afternoon quickly, hours flying by like clockwork. At some point Pinkie Pie brought in some more snacks for the eager party-goers, easily adding more time onto the already-long party. But, like all good things, it began to wind down and come to an end around the middle of the afternoon. Ryan had spent his time away learning about the various ponies that populated the town, and talked with some of the odder ones for more than just a few minutes. By the end of the party, he estimated that he had spoken with at least two thirds of them. He had found the Cutie Mark Crusaders especially endearing, despite their desperate attempts for him to help them get their 'desperado' cutie marks.
And it was near the end of the party, after the guests had left and it was just him and Twilight's friends, that an interesting conversation picked up. Twilight was recounting a tale of how she used to be before coming to Ponyville, with Spike filling in some of the details that only an outside observer would notice. The change of topic towards that prompted the rest of the mares gathered to talk about how they changed when they each met Twilight, and told Ryan a little bit about their various friendship problems and the trials they had faced as the Elements of Harmony.
But when the round-table conversation finally reached Ryan, their voices died down. He had been friendly enough to them for the duration of his stay in Ponyville, but was he close enough to them now to talk to them about something so personal?
The silence stretched for a few moments before it was interrupted by the sound of someone drawing breath. The assorted ponies looked over to Ryan expectantly. "I..." he began, before expelling his gathered breath, "I'm gonna go. There's something else I need to do before tomorrow. Thanks for the party, everyone."
More than one pair of ears folded backwards at his announcement. "Well... okay," was all Twilight could say, stunned momentarily by his rejection of their attempt to get him to open up.
"Have a good night!" Pinkie said in a subdued manner, giving his arm a brief hug as he walked past them and exited the room.
"I... I don't understand. Why didn't he say anything?" Fluttershy asked, feeling confused but somehow... hurt.
Applejack took off her hat and looked down at the confetti-strewn floor. "I reckon that he just don't trust us, is all."
Even Rainbow Dash couldn't manage to get angry at his refusal to talk with them. "It's not like there's anything wrong with us! We didn't push him away; we've been nice to him, if anything!" she said half-heatedly.
"But none of us went out of our way to really make him feel welcome, 'cept for Twilight over here," Applejack rebutted. With her comment, five pairs of eyes looked to the princess at the table.
After a few moments of silence she looked up, noticing the stares she was receiving. "I did talk with him a lot," she admitted, "and he told me about the world he came from..." She trailed off into thought, giving her next words some extra consideration. "I don't blame him," she finally said, getting the attention of the despondent mares at the table.
"You don't blame him? But he was so cold to us!" Rarity complained.
"Even after we all talked about what we did here!" Rainbow added.
"I know, girls, but if there's one thing I learned while talking to him... it's that he doesn't give out his trust to anypony that asks for it. He waits for them to earn it, and sometimes they never do. It's a problem that can be solved by friendship, but not friendship like ours." She made eye contact with each of her friends at the table as she spoke. "He's been through a lot. And he's been through a lot more with the people that he calls his friends. And I just don't think that we can match that."
Twilight's admission was met with silence. However, it wasn't long until one of the others spoke up. "I suppose I can respect that," said Applejack, somewhat begrudgingly.
Her statement was met with varying degrees of acceptance from the mares around the table.
As soon as Ryan got back to his room he tore off his duster and threw it onto the bed angrily. Lucky went next, tossed, perhaps a bit more gently, onto the sheets and pillows. With a huff of frustration, he slammed his open palm onto the wooden wall of the small room. It seemed that, even with a golden opportunity placed in front of him, he still couldn't get out of New Vegas. Something was always tying him back to that place.
He could've let his guard down. For once, in his constantly-endangered life, he could've made friends without having to fear the consequences. But instead of that, he let his Mojave way of thinking get ahead of himself, and he slammed that door shut yet again. Even after the change of heart he had with Twilight the day before, he still couldn't open the walls surrounding him.
He breathed hard, trying desperately to relieve the tension welling up inside of him. But he couldn't. He couldn't let go of his fear, the fear he had buried deep down when he had first taken over New Vegas.
"Do I... really want this?"
He groaned in frustration and fell back onto the bed, his duster on one side and Lucky on the other.
It was clear that New Vegas wanted him. You don't go ruling a city for seven years undeposed just out of sheer luck; even with how lucky he was, he knew for a fact that he gave New Vegas plenty of opportunities to remove him as New Vegas' leader. But the question was always lurking in the dark corners of his consciousness, present ever since he took on the mantle of Ryan. Ulysses had seen it and he knew just how to capitalize on it, twisting the question further into the depths of his mind, forcing a change in him. The last time he thought about it was when New Vegas was attacked, which was bad enough on its own, but now with a fight for his Luck coming up...
He didn't know if he wanted New Vegas. He never had. It was like he was a classic supervillain, from the Grognak comic books. He had schemed to take over the world, but never thought ahead to what he would do if his plans succeeded. His coup d'état had gone off flawlessly, bankrupting the House, decapitating the Bear, and dehorning the Bull. He had risen from the ashes of three powers in the land to establish a new New Vegas, one under his flag.
He wanted power, just like Christopher had.
But he had found that power elsewhere than New Vegas. He had found that power in the friends he made out in the Mojave. That group had seen him through the best and worst while he was walking the wastes, and he knew they wouldn't leave him behind forever. In his impatience to see them again, though, he had closed himself off to everyone else. He put on that smiling mask of Ryan, the charismatic proprietor/leader of New Vegas, to give himself another purpose after he had killed Benny and led a conquest against the powers of the Wasteland.
What did that make him now, then? If Christoper was the man he was and Ryan was his mask, then did that mean he was still Christopher? The haunting smile, the burst of brown, the flash of red? Did it make him someone new, or was he just the same Courier that had unsteadily entered the Mojave all those years ago?
His mind went back to the conversation from earlier. He had spurned the friendship offered by easily the most sincere people he had ever met, even if they weren't people at all. He knew why he had, but he just didn't know why. He felt the conflict boiling inside of him. The different parts of what made him him were vying for dominance over his psyche.
Wearily, he pulled up his Pip-Boy and checked the Stats screen. To his surprise, the Sanity meter had vanished, along with any other evidence of his wrist-mounted microcomputer being tampered with. Perhaps something inside him had been resolved after all, despite the desperate fight pounding within his mind.
He still wasn't able to answer the question, but he felt closer than ever before.
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finally
Woot, a new chapter! Keep it up
Meh chapter honestly, but crazy stuff at the beginning and an interesting development at the end.
6565235
This chapter is basically just a bridge to the final one, then the epilogue.
6565239
Ah, kind of figured. So, filler chapter.
6565328
Well, not quite filler because it still had some things that needed to be stated before going into the final chapter, but I couldn't put those at the end of the previous one or the start of the next one without breaking the flow.
6565333
Ah, gotcha. So, half filler chaper
Regardless, can't wait for the last couple chapters!
6565348
I've already begun work on them, so expect to see them soon!™
6565349
Sweeet!~ This beard is ready!
We're two chapters away now?
Woohoo!
6565239 It's always a double edged sword, hearing a story is near the end.
On the one hand it's always sad to see one end. But on the other, it's worse to see one never get finished.