Brave to the Soul

by Allen H

Chapter five- Shadow of thy self

Bo kept eye contact with the supposed doppelganger; she didn’t truly know how much of a threat the fog cloaked figure was. Even if they were in some dream realm, just its presence was leaving Bo agitated, and even angry at it. She clearly didn’t believe its claim of being her, she knew for a fact she had no sibling, and even if she did they would never have a sense of evil around them. As if feeling the negative feeling Bo was giving at it, the mirrored shadowy figure walked closer to her, giving a small laugh while it got closer. The glowing red eyes were the only thing clearly visibly to keep track of its moments.

“Dear sister, those types of emotions will get you nowhere, they would only feed me,” the shadow said sinisterly, as it stepped out of the thick fog in front of Bo, revealing itself to be a black lamb that mirrored Bo.

Bo couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Her BraveHeart uniform was dressed on the figure in pristine condition. It even had her bell around its neck, and the pink bow on its right ear, which she herself had misplaced before arriving in Equestria. The figure looked too perfect to be a fake, but only the glowing eyes, and the black sharp teeth she spied when it smiled, were the only thing that could tell them apart.

“What's wrong Bo, shepherd got your tongue?” the doppelganger mocked Bo, seeing her shocked face of denial. “If you need further proof, how about a demonstration?” Dark Bo said, as she grinned, displaying her sharp teeth once more.

Tapping the bell around her neck with her right hoof, a black aura surrounded it as it rang out. The aura around the bell grew; making it look like a void of darkness was manifesting. The energy suddenly shot up above the doppelganger, solidifying in the air as it became the object it had in mind, a large two handed sword, with a tainted colored steel blade and gold hilt decorated with twisted ram’s horns.

Bo was still unsure as to what was happening before her. “Who are you and how-“ Her inquiry was cut short, as the large blade from her copy came plowing through the air at her.

Bo just barely avoided the blade as it crashed into the ground, causing fragments of rocks to fly off in several directions. Unluckily for Bo though, the impacting force of the blade sent a wave of pressurized air at her, unexpectedly knocking her off her feet.

Walking over to Bo while she was getting back up to her feet, the doppelganger looked down at her. “No wonder she was able to pierce you, if you’re this pathetic to not even be able counter a simple attack.” Bo’s seemingly darker self looked at her with a face now full of hatred. “You don’t deserve to live, you weak little lamb,” she said as she raised the large blade above her head, poised to strike at Bo.

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Back in reality

Fluttershy pink mane whipped about as she flew with Bo laid on her back. She was having some difficulty getting Bo to the hospital, but she kept slipping from the timid pegasus’ back, but thankfully, a grey pegasus that had offered to help her after Bo had collapsed was able to adjust Bo’s body every time she was close to falling while they flew over the houses of Ponyville as fast as Fluttershy could manage. She couldn’t fly as fast as Rainbow Dash, but she pushed herself to her limit for Bo’s sake.

The grey pegasus couldn’t help but keep looking at the black lamb. She was getting a weird feeling from it at the tips of her wings. A tingly sensation as if there was some energy field around her.

Fluttershy didn’t recognize the pegasus next to her when they flew off, since she had been in a hurry with Bo, but as the grey mare looked at Bo, Fluttershy recognized her face. It was Derpy Hooves, Ponyville’s mail mare.

“Who is this? I’ve never seen a sheep like this? She looks all…Dangly and she has no snout,” Derpy said while looking at both Fluttershy and Bo. “I like that, its unique just like me.” She gave a friendly smile while her pale yellow eyes became googly before she shook her head to straighten them.

Fluttershy told the Derpy Bo’s name, and how they had found her early this morning. She herself had thought it weird at first when she had examined her this morning, because she looked so much like a sheep but her face and hind limbs were structured completely different from any lamb in Equestria. Right now though she didn’t want to talk about the reason why she might be so different, Fluttershy just wanted to get her new friend to the hospital. Even with her knowledge of tending to animals, she had a feeling that Bo needed more than just first-aid.

Finally landing in front of the hospital after the flight from town, Fluttershy ran inside with Bo on her back as she gave thanks to the Derpy before she flew off, her bubble cutie-mark being the last thing she saw.

“I need a doctor, a nurse, anypony!” Fluttershy yelled as she came rushing into the hospital lobby. She felt her lungs burn for air after her yell.

A brown unicorn stallion came rushing from behind the lobby’s desk, his heart monitor cutie mark briefly showed as his white coat shifted on his flank. “What seems to be the emergency?” he asked, keeping his tone professional. He examined her, seemingly trying to indicate what medical need the panting light yellow mare needed.

Trying to catch her breath, Fluttershy tried her best to talk to the doctor between inhales. “My friend...needs help, she...started crying in pain and...became unconscious.” She pulled Bo off her back, and placed her gently on the cold floor of the hospital's lobby, before she herself dropped to the floor on her belly.

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Back in dreamland

An eruption of fragmented rock flew as the blade from Bo's doppelganger crashed into the ground, barely missing Bo when she rolled to her left out of its path. Bo was fortunate this time; the large two handed sword hadn't caused a whiplash of pressurized air. Though she wasn’t prepared for it the first time, a second blast of air could have resulted in the same results.

Jumping to her feet, Bo gathered herself into a defensive stance. “Just what the fudge is your problem? Who and what are you, how did I get here, and above all what do you mean by she was able to pierce me’?”

The doppelganger turned to Bo as she prepared for another strike. “Why I’m you, a shadow of your so called ‘Brave’ heart,” She slashed horizontally in the air in front of Bo, missing her mark once again. Pausing for a brief moment, it laughed in amusement. “Haven't you ever wondered where all those negative emotions go? Every form of energy is never destroyed, only transformed?” She threw the sword at Bo in what seemed like a last desperate move to hit her.

Bo rolled to the left, barely avoiding the spinning flying blade as it cut a few black hairs off of her right arm, but she was so focused on the blade that she hadn’t noticed the hoof about to ram into her stomach. The thrown sword had ended up being just a ploy. Bo lost her breath when the hoof connected with full force, making her kneel over gasping for air while the doppelganger retreated back a few steps.

“Even the energy of negative emotions is never destroyed. Now, onto your next questions,” she said while watching Bo gasp for air. “As to how we both were able to meet...I don’t care and don’t want to know, this is just too fun to spoil over a simple question.” Bending down closer to Bo ear, she said in a quiet voice. “And the ‘She’ I was referring to was the girl that killed you.” The doppelganger gave off a small evil laugh after that statement.

“The girl that killed me?” the thought rang in Bo’s mind, her lungs burning for the need of more air. “Ahg...why am I feeling so much pain? This should only be some sort of dream,” Bo thought to herself while she inhaled as much air as she could.

Struggling back up on her shaking legs, Bo stared into the glowing red eyes of the almost mirror image of her. “What do you mean by ‘The girl that killed me’?” Bo readied herself once again into a defensive stance, now taking note that her doppelganger fought dirty. Continuing with what she said, Bo said bluntly “I can plainly see that I’m alive at the moment, even if I was dragged into this dream world.”

“Tsk Tsk, It seems you don’t remember what transpired. I would tell you, but that would ruin the fun of self-discovery, Bo.”

Bo’s doppelganger clearly liked to mess around with her mind, but with all this information it was spouting off about, she couldn’t tell if they were true or balderdash. It was true that she didn’t remember what might have happened to herself before she woke up in Equestria, but this copy had deceiving eyes. She also couldn’t believe that she could have ever harbored such darkness. For all Bo knew, it might be just toying with her to lower her guard.

The doppelganger tilted her head to the side, and started swaying back and forth on the tips of her hooves with her arms held behind her. She was obviously trying to act cute now, despite how grim her eyes and teeth looked. “Now then, why don’t you fight back now? This is getting rather boring.”

“I’m not here to entertain you doppelganger,” Bo replied angrily at her copy. She was starting to tire of its playful manner.

“Oh call me Senka. doppelganger is a touch crude, don’t you think?”

Senka moved slowly towards Bo, skipping like a child that just received a treat as she got closer to Bo.

Bo expected the doppelganger to attack her as senka breezed past her, but she showed no aggression, not even showing any hints of wanting to attack her. She was confused now about Senka, why would she just suddenly not want to attack her?

As Senka approached her blade, which had been behind Bo since she threw it at her, she turned to Bo. “If you don’t want to fight back, that’s fine for me, for now anyways. It seems our little get together is coming to an end, I can feel myself slipping back to my body.” Tapping her bell, the blade now in Senka’s hand turned into black energy and slithered back into the gold shell of the cow bell.

She seemed to be right; Bo could feel the world about her slipping away and fading. The black rocks beneath her hooves were greying, turning white until they simply disappeared. The foglooked to be being consumed as it faded just like the black rocks. it was all happening so fast around her, it made the world around her feel like it was shrinking.

Bo heard a muffled voice of her dark copy as Senka shouted out as the white world encased her. “I won’t be as nice the next time we meet...sister.”

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Deep in the Everfree forest, an animated creature of wood slowly stalked up to what it saw as a free meal. It had been watching the unconscious black being that laid before it for about ten minutes to judge what condition it was in. The woody creature had been tracking the black being for quite some time when it had given a loud laugh that could have been heard from far away.

The creature was in fact a timber wolf. They usually traveled in packs, but this one had been unlucky to have been removed because of a pack dispute. If it still had its pack to back it up, the timber wolf could have easily overpowered this small being. With how it was though, it felt confident enough to go in for the kill alone.

The timber wolf was about to sink its fangs into the black being’s flesh, until it felt its woody paw being lifted off the ground.

“Nice, walking firewood,” the Timber wolf heard the thing say, as the being gripe its neck, holding the wolves dangling feet off the ground. “How about we play fetch, you’re the stick.” it laughed with an evil giggle.

The Timber wolf tried to struggle with its captor, but it seemed fruitless as its claw seemed to do little to no pain to the being while it began to spin about. The wolf could feel the pull of gravity as they continued to spin. As the black being let go of its hold, the Timber wolf felt relieved of being loose, but panicked when it saw it was flying high speed through the forest.

“Home run, he he he,” the dark being said after it let go the Timber wolf, feeling amused and satisfied by its actions. looking back in the direction it had been heading, the dark being said with a smirk "Now, back to getting my dinner.” the dark being could still feel the surge of hate and sorrow surging from the large black structure that was only about three more miles away. The hot spicy anger and cold sweet sorrow aroma filled its lungs. It’s erasable sent pulled at her.

Senka started to sing as she skipped off through the untamed wilderness of this EverFree forest. “Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go....”

Comments

[ThunderDash]

Nice chapter

[Allen H]

966673
well I guess Bo should meet the rest of the crew in the next chapter...Senka's a bit crazy if you didn't know.

[nightmaster0]

Good chapter

[ThunderDash]

966698 of course I noticed the crazyness of senka