Chapter 31: Jekyll and Hyde
"And it was the tyrant, Celestia, who gave the order that the remaining human lord be sentenced to an imprisonment in stone for the rest of all his days. The Elements of Harmony, ignorant of the truth and blind to the princess's lies, obeyed her. Lord Second could only give up when they came for him, despair and grief taking over in his final moments. He stood still for them as they blasted him, and the world would never know the freedom that he could have offered."
–The Evil of Celestia, from the Brotherhood of Man's holy book Fall From Grace.
***
Celestia was a fast flyer. Not many realised this, but the princess at her top speed could outrace half the Wonderbolts when she really tried. Celestia was also a highly magical pony, able to teleport distances that every arch-mage in Equestrian history would swear was impossible for a single pony without aid. It was a level of skill and power unique to an alicorn, at least on this world. A combination of her physiology and more than two thousand years of experience had made her this way, and she used it all at this moment to cross the country in minutes where it had taken the Prometheus hours.
There was a burst of flight nearing supersonic speed for a distance, then when she had charged enough magic, she would teleport further ahead. She maintained her momentum through the jumps, keeping her speed constant. They were infrequent, as they required a lot of power even by an alicorn's standards, but they shaved minutes off the journey.
As the princess exited another teleport jump, Canterlot Mountain sprawled out below her. Halfway up the mountain, on the side facing her, she could see the city for which it was named. Just as it was before, the mountain was split down the middle, exposing the various caves, mines and labyrinths inside. The half of the mountain containing the city of Canterlot remained mostly upright, though it sagged slightly and looked far too dangerous to ever be habitable again, while the other half looked on the verge of collapse, pointing away from its twin at a forty-five degree angle.
Below and around the mountain, a number of small towns and hamlets were visible. There were splotches of dulled colour all over the countryside where the zombie hordes roamed aimlessly. Ponyville was on fire, smoke rising from thatched buildings in the distance. Rainbow's Rest looked intact, but blackened and desolate. Even from this distance, the princess could make out the remains of a barricade around the town's perimeter that had fallen apart. It was stone, so she wondered how it was ever able to burn at all, but it had.
And then there was the cloud layer above her. It had only showed up a few miles back, but here it blanketed the whole sky. This wasn't wild weather. It was manufactured. Either Second had placed it here himself, or the pegasi of the nearest cloud city had kicked their weather factory into overdrive and covered the region around Canterlot completely.
Celestia wasn't sure of the purpose, especially when the clouds were up this high. They weren't producing rain, and no pegasus would take refuge this high up where there was so little oxygen. It seemed that the only purpose was to blot out the sun. Perhaps they thought they could kill the zombies by starving them of sunlight?
Approaching the city, Celestia stopped flapping and let herself glide the rest of the way. She aimed for the top of the mountain path that led to the city's gates, letting herself fall towards it. Her hooves impacted the ground, and the stone cracked on contact. Standing beside what used to be a guard outpost, Celestia looked down the entire length of Main Street.
"Oh, Canterlot..." she sighed.
She trotted into the city, following along Main Street. The buildings looked terrible. They were all dilapidated and damaged. Some were burnt. Some looked structurally weak. Most, if not all, were missing their windows. The street itself was littered with detritus. Overturned carts, rubble from the buildings that had collapsed all the way, rotting vegetables, and battered and dented armour and weapons that looked to mostly originate from her Royal Guard were spread everywhere.
What struck her most were the remains of the dead ponies, because these weren't corpses, but instead skeletons. There were plenty of bones and dried blood stains, but all the flesh had been picked clean. It gave the impression that the apocalypse had been long ago, when she knew it had been going on for only a few days at most. The zombies moved fast.
Speaking of zombies, one of them wandered out of an alleyway next to Celestia. It shambled forward, moaning incoherently. Celestia looked to the skeleton of a guard and used her magic to take the sword lying next to him. She levitated it in front of her, assuming the proper stance and daring the creature to make the first move. It went right past her. Celestia turned in place, watching as it ignored her entirely and mindlessly shuffled off down the road.
She was silent for a moment, looking down at her hooves, now dulled and greying where once they were a brilliant white. She sighed again and tossed the sword aside. She would not need it in this place.
Still Celestia made herself walk through the whole place rather than fly straight to the palace. She had to see it all. She had to make herself see what she had wrought here. The destruction only got worse the further she went into the city. Celestia could see the bodies of zombies lying in the streets here, their flesh surprisingly untouched by their brethren. The state of the buildings also got worse. Once or twice, Celestia passed by a pile of rubble where there was once a home or tower of some sort, and wondered if it was one of the victims of her duel with Second.
The worst part was when she passed the church. She had never liked being worshipped as a goddess, but she had still always appreciated the loyalty and devotion that the Church of the Royal Sisters (or Church of the Holy Sun for a time) had shown her. She had found their faith in her touching on some level. To pass by the remnants of one of their churches, and see those words painted in blood across the front wall, was disheartening.
"CELESTIA HATES US ALL," it read.
The sides of the church had many other smaller messages. Far fewer were written in blood. Most of them were just standard graffiti. But they all had a similar message.
"WE LET HER DIE. SHE DOESN'T LET US DIE."
"CELESTIA HAS DAMNED US."
"CELESTIA HAS COME TO PUNISH THE GUILTY. WE ARE ALL GUILTY."
"WE DESERVE THIS."
She had to turn away. The palace, and Second, still awaited her.
***
Celestia kept a brisk pace as she trotted through her old palace again. Being here again was strange. Some rooms were immaculate and untouched. Others showed clear evidence of the apocalypse. She smiled as she passed through one of her long corridors and saw all the old portraits still hanging on the wall, unsullied by Second's presence. At other times, she had to cringe and look away as she came across skeletons or large holes in the wall.
At one point, she had entered a small dining room that was meant for the staff, where a few plates were laid out on the table. The door to the kitchen had opened and a figure had emerged from it, and Celestia had smiled and looked up, seeing his chef's hat in her peripheral vision. Then when she looked at him properly, she had realised that this chef was just another zombie passing through, seemingly trapped in this sequence of rooms.
The throne room had been the worst. It was missing an entire wall, now exposing it to the elements, and Second had at some point set up a gigantic TV monitor in there. It was like a much larger version of the set that had been in First's desk, only this one was showing footage of ponies being eaten by zombies. Celestia had had to turn it off.
She was now approaching the upper floors of the palace and coming near the roof. Ascending the stairs, she mentally checked off a list of possible places that Second could be if he wasn't up here. The throne room had really been where she was expecting him to be. For a moment, she considered the possibility that he may have temporarily left. Should she have waited in the throne room for him to return?
The princess stopped and gasped as she reached the final level of stairs before the roof. In the stairwell, between floors, a human was lying on his back and staring up at the ceiling. It was Second, except... he looked normal again. He wasn't a zombie, he didn't have a mechanical eye, and he wasn't even dressed the way he usually was. His longcoat was missing, and her old enemy was wearing, of all things, a blue t-shirt and jeans. Though he still had the moustache.
"...Second?"
He didn't get up, but he turned his head to look at her. His face was wet and red around the eyes, but his expression was neutral.
"No," he answered. "Second is on the roof."
She trotted over to his side, standing just by his head.
"Second, what happened to you?" she asked.
"I told you, I'm not Second," he insisted, his face screwing up on the last word.
Celestia sat down and tried to pull him back up. She grabbed his shoulders with her magic and tried to force him to sit upright, which he did, giving her a disdainful look. It was only after a few seconds that Celestia realised she had just affected him with magic, which she had never been able to do before.
"Wha...? How?" she asked, looking up at her horn. She tested it again by grabbing his hand with her magic and moving it about some more.
"I told you why!" Second snapped, yanking his hand out of her magical field.
"Have you been crying?" she asked, putting a hoof on his shoulder.
"No!" He pulled away from her again. "Yes. Maybe."
"Sec—" Celestia stopped when the human turned to glare at her. "...Whoever. What happened here?"
Second opened his mouth to speak, but stopped as a shadow was cast over the two of them. He looked up and past Celestia at the doorway leading to the roof. Celestia looked back at it too, and saw another Second standing up there, this one looking more like he should've, with the coat and the eye and the rotting skin and everything. It was a second Second.
Celestia blinked. The other Second marched down the stairs towards them and hauled the more human-looking Second to his feet again. He held his other self by the throat and stared him in the eyes.
"Jekyll, are you embarrassing us in front of our archenemy?" he asked.
"No sir," the first Second, the one apparently called Jekyll, responded.
The zombie Second smiled at him.
"Good."
He dropped Jekyll, who fell to the floor in a heap. Jekyll scrambled to get away, standing up again and backing into the corner. His face was still expressionless, but he kept his eyes on the his counterpart, who turned to Celestia next.
"Princess," he said curtly.
"Second," she replied. "What is going on here? What did you do? Who is this?"
Second cocked his head and looked over at his double in the corner.
"Why, this is Dr. Henry Jekyll," he said. "Surely you've heard of him? I know that in your world his name is probably a retarded horse pun, but there's no way that some iteration of his story doesn't exist."
"...You mean from the tale of Jekyll and Hyde?" Celestia asked.
Second frowned at her pronunciation.
"Jeekul?" he repeated. "I don't get it. What's it a play on?"
"It's not a play on anything," Celestia explained. "That's just her name. I've heard other ponies pronounce it the way that you did, but I remember when the book first came out, and it was originally pronounced—"
"I don't care," Second interrupted. "Also, 'her'? Not surprising that the ponification is female, given that this is MLP, but that's strange to me. So wait, was the title of the book here Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Hyde?"
Celestia was about to answer, but Second interrupted her again.
"No! Wait! I still don't care! Don't answer that. Fuck off. What are you doing here?"
He pointed at her to emphasise his question. Celestia took a step back from him.
"I... came here to talk to you. I see that I probably picked a bad time."
Second smiled and waved dismissively.
"Not at all!" he replied. "You can come talk with me. Just ignore Jekyll. He's a bit of a tard."
Second leapt up the stairs in the single bound and looked over his shoulder at Celestia. He beckoned for her to follow.
"Come along, Celestia!"
She did as told, climbing the stairs and heading out onto the roof, sparing a sympathetic glance back at Jekyll, who nodded at her.
Out on the roof, there was what looked like a large zoo enclosure. An artificial meadow with grass and plants and bushes was set up, surrounded by a chainlink fence. It was full of zombies. All of them shuffled around in a circle, moving in a clockwise pattern around their habitat. Lining the ground inside the enclosure was a number of small red meat chunks, which the zombies were curiously not eating. On this side of the fence was a small brick building that Celestia was sure hadn't been there before, and right next to it was a large green metal box with a pipe sticking out the top which was pointing away from enclosure.
"So, if he's Jekyll, does that make you Hyde?" Celestia asked as they approached the machine.
"Of course not!" Second said. "Hyde's in the shed."
They stopped next to the green box, which seemed to be some kind of machine. Celestia took a closer look at the small brick building.
"You mean this?"
"He's chained up inside. It's safe to open the door if you want to see."
Second began adjusting some dials and knobs on a control panel attached to the machine. The princess eyed the door to the "shed" and grabbed the handle with her magic.
This is a bad idea, she thought to herself.
The door swung open, and Celestia immediately had to back away as a pair of rotting human hands lunged for her. A third Second, this one also infected but missing the cybernetic eye, cleared the door and was almost in grabbing distance of the princess. Chains bound his wrists and ankles, and though he pulled against them and fought them, they held him. The chains were pulled taut, as he was as close as he could get. Hyde grinned at her, his one remaining eye yellowed and mad.
"Hello, princess," he giggled, baring his teeth. "What bring you to my neck of the woods, hmm? Did you miss me?"
Though she was already out of reach, Celestia had to take another two steps back.
"Hardly," she answered.
Hyde rolled his eye.
"Shame. I know I missed you. See, I had a dream about you while I was locked away in my shed here. I dreamt that I had my hands around your pretty little neck, and I was choking the life out of you."
Again, Celestia had to take a step back. Hyde's grin only got wider.
"I throttled you again, and again, and again! You begged for your life! You cried for mercy! You pleaded for it to stop! And then I cut your throat and let you bleed all over the bedsheets as I fucked your open wound! And it was the most goddamn erotic thing I ever dreamt about in my life! Fuck! I'm getting hard just thinking about it!"
Hyde descended into hysterical laughing. Celestia resisted the urge to retch.
"We should do that sometime! It'll be fun! Whadayasay? You and me! You up for it? We're immortals, ain't we? We could do it several times a day for all eternity! We'll watch the universe fade to nothing as we fuck time away! Just the two of us! Hating each other! Forever!"
Celestia wasn't sure if magic would work on Hyde like it did with Jekyll, so she physically kicked him back into the shed before she slammed the door shut on him. From within, she could hear him knocking on the metal.
"Come oooooooooooon!" Hyde whined from inside. "You know you wanna! Come and take it, you fucking whore!"
She ignored it, and turned to Second, who was still nonchalantly attending the machine.
"What in Equestria is this, Second? Where did these two come from? What did you do?"
Second looked back at her for only a moment before returning to work on the machine.
"I was bored. I decided to split myself into my id, ego and superego to see what would happen. I'm not up on my psychology, so I don't remember if those concepts were debunked or not, but I think they are, because it didn't work exactly. Instead I created Jekyll and Hyde. Except it's not exactly like the story because, well, they have their own bodies. And also I'm still here. I may be wrong, but I think that I'm basically the original Second. I have a complete personality, and I still have all my powers while those two don't. Make of that what you will."
Celestia glanced at the shed again.
"He's a part of you?" she asked.
"Yep," said Second kicking the machine.
"I never knew that you could be so... vile. What Hyde said, that was... that was disgusting, even for you."
Second smiled at her.
"Hyde is me without morality or restraint. Pure evil. Darkness run rampant. You shouldn't expect my dark side to play nice, Celestia. I'm not exactly a nice guy to begin with." He punched the control panel. "Work, you fucking piece of trash!"
"Still... are those really the sort of thoughts you have about me?"
"No." Second walked behind the machine and crouched down out of sight. "Hyde just likes to say the things that he knows will shock and disgust you the most. He hates you. Possibly even more than I hate you."
Celestia could hear a power drill behind the machine, which was soon joined by the sound of groaning metal. There was a loud snap, and then a mechanical crunch. She wondered what he was doing, but decided it best not to ask.
"Listen, Second, I came here to apologise."
Second's head popped up from behind the machine. He gave her a blank look, which quickly gave way to rancorous laughter.
"Yeah right," he said before disappearing beneath the machine again.
"No, really. I had an... experience, recently. It put a lot of what I've done in perspective. You and First did need to be stopped. There was never any doubt of that. But I could have done better. I trapped you in stone and left you there, and I shouldn't have. You were a problem, but you were never cruel. You were never a sadist. It was First's death that made you so angry and destructive, and it was what I and the Elements of Harmony did to stop you that made you into... this. I never knew that you'd be awake through those thousand years. I never knew why you really did everything you did. I'm sorry for what I took from you, and for what I did to you."
There was silence. Second once again came up from behind the machine, now covered in grease and wearing a pair of overalls and gloves. He twirled a wrench in his right hand and gave her an unamused look.
"Y'know, the apology is appreciated, but it's a little fucking late," he replied. "My son is already dead, I'm already a monster, Equestria is already in the middle of a full-scale apocalypse, and honey, you haven't even seen the worst of it yet."
"An apology never undoes our mistakes. It's only to show that we know they were mistakes, and that we resolve to never repeat them. I know that I can never take back what happened to you, Second. I'm just trying to let you know that I understand what I did wrong now. I know what part I played in creating you, and... him in the shed."
Second wrung his hands and looked down. There was a banging on the door of the shed, and from inside, Hyde could be heard singing.
"So I try to save face and I rest my case! The judge pulls me aside, says, 'C'est la vie! Let your darker side come out to feed!'"
Second got up and walked over to the shed. He opened the front door and pulled Hyde out. Celestia watched him grab his double by the hair and punch him in the face, knocking him to the floor.
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Second replied in a similarly singsong voice, repeatedly kicking Hyde in the ribs. "Sit up, sit up, sit up! It's a kangaroo court!"
With a final stomp on the forehead, he booted Hyde back into the shed and slammed the door on him. Hyde laughed, despite the punishment he just endured, while Second returned to the machine. Noticing the look Celestia was giving him, he looked back at the shed. Hyde's cackling was still plainly audible.
"My dark side is a masochist, apparently," he explained.
The machine roared to life as he touched it. Second's face lit up with a wide grin, and he dashed around to the other side of the machine.
"It's working!"
"You found the viagra at last? Mazel tov!" said Hyde's muffled voice.
Second ignored him and pushed the machine around, exposing a large square chute. The pipe was now aimed into the zombie enclosure. Celestia looked into the chute and saw that the inside was caked with dry blood. She was also getting sickening feeling that she knew what this machine was.
"Second, uh... is this a woodchipper?"
"Why, yes. Yes it is." He didn't elaborate on that, instead walking over to the zombie enclosure and leaning against the fence. "Anyway, what were you saying before?"
"I was apologising."
A zombie foal floated out from within the enclosure, Second pointing his finger at it and guiding its movement. It landed in his arms, and he held it tight as it squirmed and tried to get away from him. He didn't look at Celestia as he carried it over to the woodchipper.
"Go on."
"And I was trying to say how I... think I misunderstood you, and that you're not completely to blame for everything that happened. Because you were a better person than that before."
"Ya-huh."
Second nonchalantly tossed the zombie foal into the woodchipper. There was a crunching, grinding sound, and more red meat chunks were shot out into the zombie enclosure. Quite a bit of it splashed back, drenching Second in blood, though he didn't seem to react to it at all. He turned to look at her again, this time wearing a cheerful smile, and pointed at the enclosure again, levitating out a second zombie.
"No, really. I'm listening. Please continue."
The princess could only watch in silence as he minced the next zombie. This time, the machine made an even louder grinding sound, and in addition to spraying blood everywhere, ground-up and broken pieces of bone flew out as well, one of them hitting Celestia in the face as she stared on.
"I... I don't think I can finish what I was going to say," she relented. "This is simply not the setting for it. I'm going to come back when you're being less intentionally disgusting."
Celestia trotted back towards the stairwell.
"Wait!"
She stopped. Second ran over to her, discarding his gloves.
"If you're going to bum around the palace for a while, I just wanted to warn you not to go into your old bedroom, because it is filled with landmines right now."
She groaned and resumed her journey. Entering the stairwell again, Princess Celestia found Jekyll lying where she left him. He remained slumped against the wall and staring into space, sparing her only the briefest glance as she came into view, and only then because she blocked the light while she stood in the doorway to the roof. The princess trod lightly as she approached him again, looking back at the "original" Second for a moment as he continued his zombie-mincing, and then regarding Jekyll.
"So..." she began, "I'm informed that you're Lord Second's good side?"
Jekyll gave her a wry smile.
"Why else do you think I look so weak and miserable?"
Celestia held out a hoof to him, surprising the human. His eyes lingered on it, as if he were unsure whether to take it. The princess gave him a nod, and he took her hoof and let her pull him up onto his feet.
"Perhaps, at least, you'll be more pleasant conversation than your counterparts," Celestia commented.
Jekyll let go of her and dusted himself off.
"If you say so, your highness."
Was that a gesture of respect for her title? Said non-sarcastically? That was certainly not like the real Second. Before she could contemplate that further, Jekyll began heading down the stairs. He stopped midway down the first flight and looked back to Celestia.
"Are you hungry?" he asked. "The kitchens are all still stocked, I think. If you want, I can cook."
"I seem to recall you once appearing in my throne room to request food specifically because you couldn't cook."
Jekyll shrugged.
"I never said it'd be good."
He continued off downstairs. Celestia followed, a subdued, but genuine smile daring to cross her face for the first time in what felt like far too long.
***
"No powers then?"
"Nope. I am, as you might say, completely at your mercy."
The frying pan sizzled as Jekyll flipped a pancake and caught it again. He stood in front of a stove in one of the many kitchens scattered through the palace, this one right next to a dining room and connected to it not just by a door, but also by a hole in the wall, through which Celestia could see and talk to him. She lounged across a cushioned chair in a very un-princesslike manner in the dining room just beyond. It wasn't the kind of chair meant for a dining room, but Jekyll had talked her into hauling it in from an adjacent lounge area. As far as ancient enemies of Equestria indulging their moments of spontaneity went, it was one of the less destructive she had ever seen.
"Does Hyde have powers?" Celestia asked.
Jekyll looked back over his shoulder at her.
"Hyde is complicated," he said. "I don't think my original self really appreciates just what he's created. He is a complete person, and the combination of both of us, but we are still linked to him, and everything in him is contained in the two of us, including his powers. Hyde has his powers. He just can't use them because Second is still there. Still stronger than him."
He finished at the stove and walked over to the table, putting down the pancakes onto a pair of plates, one of which he passed to Celestia.
"Why does Hyde get the powers?"
"Because it's my dark side that uses them against you all the time. Think it through."
Jekyll pulled out a chair and seated himself. Celestia floated her pancakes in the air to inspect them, while Jekyll immediately dug into his.
"And he's also the side of you that got the zombie virus?"
"Yes," Jekyll replied with a mouthful of pancake. "He got most of the extraneous material. I am our human side. He is Equestria's corruption. What ravaged my original self and made him into the monster you now know."
Celestia looked up at the ceiling, presumably in the direction of Hyde.
"He's the end result of everything I did to you. Your son's death... your imprisonment... he's what came of it all, isn't he?"
Jekyll swallowed and looked down at his plate. With a clatter, he dropped his cutlery and leaned over the table, bringing Celestia's attention back to him.
"Listen to me," he said, looking her in the eyes. "None of the three men in this building right now are in any way an accurate representation of the man I was, least of all me. I was never without evil in my heart. Hyde was always in me. He was in me when I abandoned my family in Texas, he was in me when I was drinking away the pain of a broken heart. He was what made me punch my brother at my father's funeral, and he was there for every act of violence I ever inflicted on you or your ponies.
"While it's true that Equestria was a special kind of hell for me, don't think that my bad behaviour came from nowhere. You are not solely responsible for Lord Second. A man's actions rest on his own shoulders, even if he is driven to do terrible things. And besides which, you had no way of knowing what you were doing to me. Yes, perhaps this whole business can be thought of as being your fault if one is particularly unforgiving... but I don't think anyone in this world can reasonably blame you for it in the end."
He laid back and sighed.
"I know you didn't want to put me through a nightmare like that, and I know that my son's death was an accident. In the end, what else could have been done? We were the arrogant gods who brought strife and chaos to the land. You were our victims and you defended yourselves. All that has happened to me since then is just karma."
She hadn't even started on her pancakes yet. Celestia was still holding them in her magic. She looked at them, and then put them down on the table.
"Second—" she started.
"My name is Jekyll."
"Jekyll," she amended. "Perhaps you might think I can't be blamed, but ever since you told me in the interrogation room that you were conscious throughout your imprisonment, I've had to live with it."
Jekyll went back to eating his pancakes.
"Only you would come all the way out here to apologise to a man who unleashed a zombie apocalypse on your nation." He took a bite and smiled at her. "If our positions were reversed, I don't think I ever would have bothered. I took out my rage on an entire country twice because of what one pony did a thousand years ago. You made a single man suffer by accident while trying to show undue mercy. One of these crimes is worse than the other."
He shook his head.
"In fact, come to think of it, you weren't even the one who used the Elements of Harmony on me. That was Twilight and her friends. I can't even really hold you responsible for that."
Celestia sighed.
"It's... Jekyll, I can't just let you tell me that. There's more to this. Because it really isn't all your fault, no matter how you look at it. I've since learned that... you might not be responsible for your own actions at all."
Jekyll looked up from his plate and frowned at her.
"How do you mean?" he asked.
"Is your blood still green?"
Jekyll held up his wrist to show Celestia something that she hadn't noticed before. It had a bloody red bandage wrapped around it. Her mouth hung open, but as she looked Jekyll in the eyes again, he smiled at her, and they went green.
"It doesn't need to be green for Us to have influence. Being in this world is enough. It is only the colour of the Pantheon when Our control is at its strongest."
Celestia jumped back and out of her chair, fluttering her wings to catch herself before she hit the floor.
"So, it's true. You have been controlling him..."
The Pantheon stepped forward.
"Celestia, do you really think I am that weak-willed?"
The Pantheon frowned and turned its head to the left.
"What?" it asked.
It turned its head to the right and smiled again.
"Mr. Garrick, would you kindly get the fuck out of my head?"
Left again, and this time the Pantheon's glowing green eyes were wide and staring off into space.
"That... that's impossible. How are you doing that?"
Right.
"Johnson, did you not hear me? I said get out."
Left.
"But this ignores all the rules!"
Right.
"Because I'm usually so obedient, right?"
Left.
"But this makes no sense!"
Right.
"Get out. Get out. Get out! Get out!"
Jekyll slammed his head into the table and fell onto the floor. Celestia rushed to his side to see him bleeding from the forehead, but his eyes were normal again. His blood was green, but as she observed, it slowly returned to red again.
"Jekyll! Are you alright?"
He placed a hand on his forehead and groaned.
"Mortal body. Mortal wounds. I've missed these, in a twisted kind of way..."
Out of the corner of her eye, Celestia noticed another Second walking through the walls, his body initially made of smoke but becoming physical again, and she turned to face him. She could tell by his lack of a robotic eye which of the other two it was.
"You want some physical injuries again?" he asked. "I can oblige."
Celestia swished her horn and conjured a magical shield between her and Hyde.
"You will come no further!" she ordered.
Hyde strode across the room towards her.
"Oh, that's cute. It thinks it can stop me." He kicked her shield and shattered it like glass. "What deluded fantasy."
Hyde grabbed her by the throat and threw her back onto the table, pinning the princess down.
"So, you're concerned that the Pantheon are in here with me?" he asked, tapping the side of his head. "Well, here's a newsflash for you: I am Lord-motherfucking-Second, and I am the most powerful being in your universe, bar only one, and I'm not talking about the man upstairs. The Pantheon, as they like to call themselves, are a bunch of snot-nosed brats who think they can play gods, but they are so far below me that I can shit on them and it'll reach terminal velocity before impact. Green blood and glowing eyes? You think that's all it takes to control me? Ha! I'm not a puppet in any of my incarnations, unlike you, Celestia, you sanctimonious bitch!"
He raised a fist, but someone else caught it.
"Hyde, this isn't the way," said Jekyll.
Hyde dropped Celestia, who teleported to the other side of the table immediately and watched as the two humans circled each other.
"We're doing this now, are we?" asked Hyde.
"As long as we disagree, then yes, we are."
"We'll be disagreeing for a long time then, you fucking boy scout. I'm Mister Hyde! That means that I bury you and we die as me!"
"That means that you're the brutish, stupid monster and that I'm the one who everyone hopes to see win."
Hyde grabbed Jekyll by the hair and pulled his head back.
"That means that I have the power and you don't, so don't push your fucking luck." He threw Jekyll aside and then advanced on Celestia again. "And then there's you."
"Hyde, I don't want to fight you," said Celestia. "I came here because I wanted to apologise to you. To all of you! I made a terrible mistake, and I'm trying to make it right!"
She backed across the room, but Hyde was too quick, and before she could run out he was behind her and had her in a headlock. He leaned his forehead against hers and stared into her eyes.
"Oh, is that so? What is it you're apologising for?"
"For... For the..." she gasped, choking.
Hyde grabbed her throat again and pushed her against the wall.
"Oh, I know!" He held up his wrist, and she could see the green glow in his veins. "You think that because I have this crap in me, that I was under control! You think that I had no free will, and that I was tragically forced into becoming this monster! You think that the famous Mister Hyde is nothing more than Pantheon meddling, created by you through their manipulation!"
He dropped her on the floor and laughed.
"That's rich!" He leaned down and smiled at her. "'Tia, dear, I was always in here. And I'm no more a victim of the strings than you are. If anything, I am far, far more free."
Jekyll pulled himself up over the table.
"Hyde, don't do this..."
"She needs to see!" Hyde hissed. "Let her see!"
He grabbed her again, holding her head with both hands and forcing her to look at him.
"You're going to see this. You're going to see what I see."
Suddenly, there were strings everywhere. Long, thin lines of thread were attached to every object in the room at multiple points, in such a way that any of them could be easily manipulated. Some of them were taut, and some of them were slack, but all of them glowed the same bright green as a human's blood. They all disappeared higher up, vanishing into thin air as they approached the ceiling.
Celestia looked at herself and saw that she too was covered in them. They wrapped around her ankles, around her neck, around her torso and thighs and horn and jaw... she could taste the one tied around her tongue, and as she reeled back she could feel the ones on her wings rubbing against the carpet. All of them dug into her flesh, none of them in a painful way, but definitely in a noticeable one.
Hyde grabbed a cluster of the strings and yanked them upwards, and Celestia felt herself lifted off the ground. Now it hurt. The princess's breathing became more rapid, but she tried to keep herself composed. Still her eyes darted all around, seeing everything the strings were attached to. Above all else, she noticed how Jekyll's strings were all snapped and lying lifelessly on the floor, not even a single mote of light coming off them, and how Hyde had no strings at all.
"Ever wanted to take up puppetry? I know I have."
"Please." Celestia felt the strings around her mouth pull at her as she spoke. "Please, Hyde, can't you understand that I don't want to be enemies anymore?"
"Well maybe I do!" Hyde growled. "Maybe I still fucking hate your guts no matter how much you want to tell me you're sorry! Maybe I want to run this whole world into the ground just because I think it fucking deserves it, rather than just because those fucking brats who call themselves the Pantheon said to! Maybe... just fucking maybe..."
He leaned in close to her and held her by her lower jaw.
"...I know what you did in the afterlife." He dropped her. "And I will never, ever forgive you."
Hyde walked away from her, backwards, and turned to smoke to phase through the wall again just as the princess picked herself up.
The strings were still there, hanging loosely and strewn around the floor. She tried to throw them off, but they were ingrained deep in her flesh and couldn't be removed. Celestia scratched at the points where they dug in, but couldn't touch them. She reached out with her magic, but it was like they weren't there. Again she composed herself. She had taken a lot of battering, both physical and emotional, since this turmoil began. If she kept letting herself break down from it, it would destroy her.
Jekyll limped over to her side and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Calm down," he said. "Breathe. Try to focus."
She did, closing her eyes and taking a long, deep breath.
"Is this what you see all the time?" she asked.
"No. There are no strings. It's an illusion he created with his powers. A visual metaphor. Don't pay attention to them and they'll go away."
Still she kept her eyes closed.
"If it's magic, then why can't I dispel it?"
"It's not magic. I said it was created with his powers. There are forces in this universe far stronger than magic. That's what we tap into."
"Then what is it?"
"An entity. Something impossibly strong and godlike in every sense of the term. Our powers come from what we are in our world, but they must have an in-universe explanation too. And that is that there's something about us, be it our biology, or our brainwaves, or something, that means we can siphon it."
"Siphon it from what?"
"I daren't say. But it's coming."
Celestia opened her eyes and looked back at Jekyll. The strings were all still there.
"What's coming? Jekyll, what is going on?"
Jekyll let go and went back over to his chair to lean on it. He held his forehead and looked away from her.
"All I desire, all I ever have desired, is to go back home. My original self plans to get there at all costs. And Celestia, the cost is heavy indeed. I came up with a plan. A horrible, horrible plan. The sort of plan that only a tortured and insane man would even consider. I created a tape. A video that explains who I was before I came here, what made me the man I was when I first came to Equestria, and what the plan entails. It doesn't even cover the whole plan, but..."
He looked back at her, and his eyes were wet with tears again.
"Celestia, we're not going to remain separate for much longer. Pretty soon, Second will merge myself and Hyde back into him. You will arrive here for the second battle for Canterlot. You will defeat us, likely with the new Elements of Harmony. And then you will discover the tape. Once you see it, you'll be horrified, but I promise you, it gets worse. It gets so much worse."
Jekyll pulled out the chair and sat down again.
"I just want to warn you how bad it will be. You'll give up on saving me. Despite this apology, you will give up. And even if you can find it in you to help me through the plan, which I'm not even certain you could do with how it would weigh on your conscience, you cannot ever trust me. I will betray you, and you will see how much worse it will get even beyond that."
Celestia walked over to his side and raised a hoof to him. He turned away from her. Her mind went back to several days ago, before her death, when she had first met Explodey McGee in the throne room and had needed to comfort him as well. Tentatively, she wrapped her forehooves around Jekyll and leaned into him.
"Don't feel guilty for Hyde's horribleness," she said to him. "I know you're not the same."
Jekyll sniffled.
"We will be the same. When you come here next, I won't exist anymore. I'll just be the good part of Lord Second. And I am such a small, insignificant part... Not even you will consider me worth saving."
"That's not true. That will never be true. I didn't know for sure until now that Second had a good side at all, but you do exist, and you're here right now. Second is not Hyde only because he has you in him, and Jekyll, I will protect you."
Jekyll kept crying.
"It's true what he said. In the book, Jekyll lost. He died as Hyde."
"Then let's forget that book, hmm? You don't have to keep calling yourself that. What's your name? Your real name?"
He turned back and returned the hug.
"Howard," he whispered. "My name is Howard Carson-Summers."
***
Up on the roof, Second stopped just as he was about to put another zombie into the woodchipper and took a long whiff of the air. He gave a loud, drawn-out groan and threw the zombie aside. It tried to limp away towards the stairwell, but he kicked it over the edge of the roof as he went to the shed and opened the door, finding Hyde missing.
"For fuck's sake." He slammed the door closed.
Second crouched down, closed his eyes, and placed a finger on his forehead. His brow furrowed as the sounds of his other selves flitted through his mind. Dissatisfied with what he heard, he stood up again, sighed, and summoned a revolver into existence. With purpose, he strided over towards the stairwell, loading his weapon as he went.
"Goddamnit, Jekyll. I warned you about being a pussy in front of our archenemy."
END.
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Welcome back, you crazy genius.
OH god yes its back!
Wow, everything's updating today!
Things to deal with zombies. Wood chipper, rotary snowpluogh. Dragon fire. Which begs the intresting thng about zombie dragons and fire.
Wonder is Second realises thatit was because of Celestia talking to Jekyll that makes him remerge, which is Pantheon control?
Holy shit that was AMAZING!
I'm SO fucking excited to see what's up next :DD
btw, the update time was horrifyingly convenient. I was JUST about to go to sleep and suddenly BAM! New chapter of Human is out!
Well, I'll say I've been in Camp Celestia the whole story and thought it was obvious that she was living with regret. I liked the chapter, but you are right. I am quite spoiled and really want to know what the rest of the cast is doing at this time. Sliske is still my absolute favorite, but I've always thought that Celestia was done well in Human. She acts a lot in the way I would expect her to. Especially the scenes when she is learning the truths about Equestria and the forces at play in it. It is true however that she does feel way less of a goddess in this story though. Just a long lived pony with some big responsibility. Her not being the most powerful force around really doesn't do her any favors.
As always I await the next chapter with bated breath.
Oh fuck. He wasn't a pussy in front of Celestia. He was a pussy in front of Hyde.
Except Celestia's ponies attacked first, as we knew and seen, was his good side simply trying to absolve her of the guilt she's feeling?
"I came here because I wanted to apologise to you. To all of you! I made a terrible mistake, and I'm trying to make it right!"
"I came here because I wanted to apologise to you. To all of you! I made a terrible mistake, and I'm trying to make it right!"
"I came here because I wanted to apologise to you. To all of you! I made a terrible mistake, and I'm trying to make it right!"
"I came here because I wanted to apologise to you. To all of you! I made a terrible mistake, and I'm trying to make it right!"
"I came here because I wanted to apologise to you. To all of you! I made a terrible mistake, and I'm trying to make it right!"
The brits are trying to destroy our American way of life.
I haven't read the story yet, but I really hope that the human is a older man, who looks likes Kentucky fried chicken's colonel, wears the white suit, and speaks with a southern drawl.
That was a really good chapter, I cant wait for the next one
Best chapter in a while, and I'm totally not saying that because you focused on my favorite characters. Okay, maybe I am.
But surely I'm not the only one who thinks that Second and Celestia are the two most interesting characters and am happy to see them interact after such a long time.
Good chapter. Keep it up.
Additionally, did Hyde (and thus Second) actually see what Celestia did in the afterlife?
Needs more Sliske. I mean, it was good, but it could use at least 20% more Sliske. 20% more snarky-evil-alien Sliske, not depressed-because-I'm-a-mass-murderer Sliske. Having said that, Jekyll is the only genuinely likeable new character in a long time, rather refreshing.
4199359
I don't recall writing that. In fact, I specifically remember two chapters ago revealing that it was First who opened hostilities.
4199710
i.imgur.com/gJZpI1l.gif
4200609 I like how Jekyll is the most pure person in the entire story, and he's a part of Second.
4202354 wrestlescoop.com/animated_gifs/hogan.gif
4203450
I want in on this.
We need to stand up to them darned crumpet eaters like our forefathers did.
mapsoftheproblematic.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/america-we-will-kill-you-in-your-sleep-on-christmas.jpg
Aw man, the first human who ISN'T either a complete dick and/or being controlled by the Pantheon, and they gon' be gone? Why you doing this to us, Danny? I mean, I know he's only a fragment of Second's full self, but still, I hope he does stick around. Anti-Pantheon powers would be quite a nice ability to contribute to the good guys. Then again, that would mean Hyde would still be there too... But what would happen if second tried to bring his other two fragment-selves back, but only ended up getting Hyde? Lord Second with a double-dose of Hyde. Or rather;
Lord Hyde the Second
*que "final" boss music*
Prepare your anus
4203724
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4205170
I say, what the devil did you just audaciously proclaim about my well-being, you trollop? I shall inform you that I have graduated top of my class at the Gentleman's Academy of Sophisticated Persons, and have been involved in numerous endeavors with the Ruffians down the street from my abode; might I also add that I've accumulated over 300 pieces of antique furniture? I am educated in fine dining and high class catering and I'm the top Victorian era furniture appraiser in the entire high society. You are naught to me but a simple, uncouth brute. I shall embarrass the dickens out of you with class the likes of which has never been witnessed before on this humble planet, I solemnly promise. You assume you can disrespect my image on the internet? Think again, savage. As we speak I am contacting my diligent secretary to arrange a brunch together at the finest coffee shop in town, so you had better prepare a fetching enough outfit to compete with my immaculate attire, barbarian. The brunch that sends you packing back to the countryside. You are inevitably defeated, heathen. I can be booked at any appointment, any hour, and I can educate you in over seven hundred cultures, and that's just with the literary selection in my guest lobby. Not only am I extensively fluent in in several languages, I have access to the entire Giorgio Armani fall collection and I will flaunt it's finely tailored mastery to outshine your drab, common appearance off the face of humanity, you slob. If only you had foreseen the kind of comeuppance your inflammatory "insignificant" comment was bound to earn you, perhaps you would have tempered your words. But you insisted, and now I will teach you manners and grace and you will learn dignity and poise, yet. Consider yourself in etiquette school, peasant.
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4207236
4207236
HOW. DARE. YOU. Well, I'll have you know that I too have access to things far spiffier than those laughable scraps of cloth that you call the Giorgio Armani fa—
I mean... shut up, you pansy tea brain. The only thing I need are my good ol' overalls! And also... uh... American image macro!
i.imgur.com/1L1ALC7.jpg
Nice copypasta by the way. I only know because I've used it several times.
This is gonna be epic.
...I miss silver vein...
4207236
4207236 Fine then next time Germany kicks your ass we will laugh from the side lines.
I have nothing against culture, but arrogance on any side is a cancer. Forgive my brutish countrymen, but remember that we are more than willing to walk away in your hour of need. Next time Europe turns on you, see who you go to. Have a nice day sir.
4284830
I wouldn't take Garion too seriously, if I were you. I know him, and I can tell you, the dude is joking around just as much as everyone else here is.
4285934 I know all in good fun. I have seen these arguments before.
I only said something because that was one good comment.
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emotibot.net/pix/6040.jpg
4210641 Know who I don't miss? Iron Hoof.
R.I.P In piece iorn hoof.
4284830
Seriously?
gifsec.com/wp-content/uploads/GIF/2014/04/incredulous-gif.gif
I reread this story because I forgot leik too much stuff
4455444 EoH?
4472892
Elements of Harmony.
4472908 Ah, I thought he was talking about a universe or something.
4545634
Ha. I love when stuff like that happens when I'm reading something.
4548901
Funny story. Pretty much all the RvB references were made before I knew what it was. I was putting in jokes I'd heard from a friend of mine, who I didn't realise was quoting/reenacting something.
Read the story, liked the story.
Need more story. Ugga.
Dragon
My favorite fanfiction!!! I hope there is a happy ending with lord second being accepted in the end!!!
I have finally... after so much reading... so many times staying up all night.. I have finally... FINALLY! Caught up with this story.
Now I'm sad. I have to wait for the next update...
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-
4796344
The comedy tag is definitely there. It was right up there with the other four, last I checked.
4834750
re: criticisms
The Batman dreams were entirely pointless. You're right to feel that. They were there because I thought it'd be funny to do. If I ever get around to revising that chapter, I'm removing all those scenes.
Explodey has been an abomination from the very beginning. It's just that Second, the audience, and even Explodey himself did not learn that until later. As we learn during the Secopolis arc, if Second doesn't specify details when he creates, then something else fills them in for him, like how the ponies of Secopolis have memories of entire lifetimes and preexisting relationships despite the fact that Second didn't write up a backstory for each individual citizen.
The same thing happened with Explodey. Being able to make yourself explode, and being able to survive such a thing, requires powers beyond that of mortal ponies. Second didn't bother to come up with an explanation for why Explodey had these abilities, so a reason was chosen for him. That reason... I believe is still in the future for you, so you'll have to read on, but it gets an explanation during the return to Secopolis.
Thank you for your kind words about the story. It's really more than I deserve.
4843695
Even I sometimes forget how reference-heavy the first chapter was.
4834935 ok, so I read more at home. I got to the part where celestia meets jeckyll and hyde, and then I ran out of story on my flash. Im back to download more. since I finished, I have been re-reading to get those spellchecks/ grammar checks I promised. its a chore. did I mention your story is ponderously long? and that im incalculably lazy? but I said I would. so I will.
ummm...ok. I can respect that. gives him a reason to have a sludge monster form, at least. really like the events leading up to his death, too. it answered a lot of my questions about how things work in your world, and gave me information regarding some of my other questions.
TTFN.
so explodey eats First?
I remembered something about spike. when he breathes fire on stuff, it gets sent to the princess. does he still have that ability? what happened to it? when he breathed fire on the prison wall, shouldn't it have been sent to the princess? I hope this is explained later.
and speaking of that breathing fire on the prison wall scene, I thought Second wanted to kill spike? in your story, im going to assume that dragons are functionally immortal until they die of something besides age or failure of their organs. under that system, spike can be killed by a lack of oxygen. so, shouldn't have second (or someone) made the chamber airtight, and spike would have burned up all the oxygen in the chamber and killed himself? just a thought.
ive heard like, three references to another character who I am led to assume is another human. but ive seen hide nor hair of him. Hayato? Hamato? something like that; im not good at remembering names. and who is "third" supposed to be? Nathan? or someone else who well see later?
and speak of the devil, while were on the subject of Nathan, I gotta know: if he authored the story from then on in, why did he kill First? isn't Anthony his nephew? there are a few changes that I think need to be made to how things are shaping up so far considering that there is a new author. I forgot a lot of them.
so ill keep reading, and get to here when I can to give some thoughts. you are awesome; really, you are. im not just saying that. keep being awesome. I imagine this story will keep me busy for the rest of the summer. and then I gotta do summer reading. wont that be fun?
edit: oh. jeckyll and hyde was the end of the story up till now. ok. guess I wont read more at home. ill come back with those grammar checks and be done till the story updates.
4866280
Explodey's powers don't come from First. They're an accident of his creation that we've only recently seen manifested. As I said, surviving a self-detonation is beyond the powers of a normal pony. Second didn't explain where these powers came from when he created Explodey, so an explanation was provided for him, that explanation being that Explodey was derived from Second's own altered DNA. Explodey has had most of his weird powers since the story began, because they come from the same source that Second draws his powers from, albeit Explodey's are more limited. And just like Second, his powers are constantly growing and evolving as he mutates more and more thanks to Equestria's environment.
Spike isn't a normal dragon in this. I'll go into more detail on this in just a few chapters, but the incident which caused the near-extinction of the dragons also elevated Spike to the form we currently see him in. The Spike that we see here can be thought of as being to dragons what Celestia and Luna are to ponies. His abilities aren't representative of all dragons in this universe. He does retain his teleporting fire ability, but he has greater control over it by now and it doesn't work when he doesn't want it to.
Hayato and Third are the same character. Whether we'll see him later in this story, I cannot say, but I'll tell you that these references are to the main character of Human: Shades of Grey, one of two currently produced spin-offs. It's written by a friend of mine, Draven Eclipse, and you can find a link to it in the story description. It's basically a prequel to Human, set after First's death and Second's entrapment in stone, but before the often-mentioned Eclipse Crisis.
Nathan and First I can't say too much about, because that would be spoiling.
Thank you again for your thoughtful comments.
4867864 no, no, you misunderstand me. when i said that Firsts death by digestion gave explodey a reason to be abnormal, i meant that it gave him a reason to have the sludge monster form, at least from the perspective of your story. my mind was going like "ohhhhhh, you gave him the sludge monster form so that you could fit firsts death scene in there without totally leaning on the EoH." the reason i sounded doubious of explodeys powers still even after your explanation of them was because even though they dont have any issues regarding their origins, they still hadnt had any real reason to be in your story-- that is, any actual, real, useful applications to any of the characters problems-- until that scene. (i mean, i guess you could say that his sludge monster form was given credence when he used it to help cure all the zombies, but that was inadvertent, and anyways i thouht that scene was in there mostly for comedy, considering the means of expulsion of said zombies.) dont worry; i have complete faith in you and your story and its characters, and that explanation you gave as fine.
now, as for spike: cool. spike is a god. k. me likey.