Human VS

by DubleTruble96

The New Beginning

Austin coughs, his lungs filled with the dusty, mildewy air of the dark room. The only light, dangling above him ominously by a thin cable and shrouded with a rusty metal shade, swung precariously; each small breeze causing it to sway side to side, illuminating only more dirty, wooden floorboards. The smell of rotted wood, wet straw and mud filled the dark room; inky blackness surrounding him like a curtain of despair. He blinks a few times, then gives his head a bit of a shake. There's a light tingling noise coming from all around his head for a moment and he sees one of the curved horns of his colorful jester's hat swing into his line of sight before swaying back to the side of his head neatly; the tiny metal bell on each horn jingling with every little movement he made.

He smiles, at least they didn't take his hat, he thinks to himself, a small chuckle breaking his lips and making the tiny bells jingle their song. But he doesn't chuckle from the thought of his hat being in the rightful place of on top of his shaggy brown hair.. Oh no. He chuckles for he knows exactly why he's there. But where is "there"...? "There" is currently in some sort of old barn, or perhaps a mill; bound to a creaky wooden chair, the back of which is uncomfortable digging into his shoulder blades as they are cocked harshly over it; his arms behind him with his wrists tightly bound in an splintery rope that digs into the sensitive skin of his hands and arms. His shins, too, are bound in a similar fashion, one to each of the front legs of the chair; one of which is slightly shorter than the other, making the chair wobble if you lean the wrong way.

So why is he "there"? Why would he be in such a dreadful situation? And furthermore, why chuckle about it? This is not a place to be chuckling... In fact, it's quite inappropriate given the circumstances! Most people in his shoes would be experiencing a sense of horror, of fear! They were just kidnapped, incapacitated and then awoken in a dark room, alone, tied to a chair, with no visible exits or means of escape! It is because he knows.

He knows precisely why he is here. And so do they. Don't they, now?

"You're awake."
"Brilliant observation." He says, the sarcasm dripping from his tongue like crimson paint drips from a brush.

His kidnapper... or rather, kidnappers stare at him from the darkness. Unseen, yet not unheard. They hide their voices with some sort of distortion, perhaps from a spell? Or perhaps from one of the several voice-modding gadgets you can purchase. One way or another, they didn't want to be recognized. The modulator caused the voice to sound vaguely male... vaguely female.. It was hard to judge.

"You know why you're here."
"Oh, two for two, you're doing great." Once again, the jester hat donning man says with the sarcasm practically palpable.

"Enough with the sarcasm. You're going to talk."
"As if I haven't been already...?"

"You know why you're here, so you must know who we are."
"I have a guess, yeah..."

"Then who are we?"
"Lemme answer that question.. with a question. Are you happy?"

"What?"
"I said... Are you happy..? You know, doing what you're doing now. Interrogating me, staring at me from a dark room... Are you proud of yourselves? You must be, otherwise you wouldn't be here. But that doesn't necessarily answer the question... Are you happy?"

There's a silence. Not even a mutter or a whisper to their cohorts... Dead, empty silence. The jester grins, knowing that he hit the nerve right on the head. The smug expression stays on his face as he stares into the darkness. He knows not where the voices are coming from, nor who they are, or if they care enough to say, but he knows that they're in there. They're watching. Waiting.

"Tick tock..." Austin says with a smirk, tauntingly, almost. Almost.

"No. We're not happy. Now answer our question. Who are we?"
"A better question would be what are we... Wouldn't it? And it's not so much what you are in general. No no no, it's... what are you... to me?"

Another silence. The grin grows wider, a set of off-white teeth slowly become more and more visible. Silence continues to reign for a moment. Another moment. Another long, slow, agonizing moment. Finally... The jester laughs.

"Why are you laughing?!"

"Quit that!"

"This isn't funny!"

Austin ignores the pleas from the dark room, laughing only harder, and harder, gasps become wheezes, and tears begin to dribble across his stretched cheeks as he laughs only harder.

"STOP LAUGHING!"

"WE'RE WARNING YOU!"

He laughs only harder, rocking his chair as he does so, causing it to creak and squeal violently. Finally, he tips over and hits the floor with a heavy thud, like that of a burlap bag of grain; kicked up dust from the landing floating off into the dark as the jester's laughter only continues.

"STOP LAUGHING AT US!!" The voices shout in unison.

The laughter slowly dies, howls becoming chuckles, chuckles becoming soft giggles, and giggles slowly dribbling away as he struggles to catch his breath. His cheek pressed firmly against the dirty floor, he looks up into the darkness, at nothing in particular as he speaks..

"So tell me then...what are you?"

A purple set of hooves slowly approach, followed by a set of white, then orange, then yellow, pink and baby blue. Then a set of dark grey, then light grey, a set of pine green, then a few more of varying colors.

"Not that you need to tell me.. I already know. I want to hear you say it."

A magenta aura covers him and he finds himself lifted from the dusty floor and set back on the four creaky legs of the chair. He smiles with a strange warmness, yet a glimmer of mischief skims over his eyes as the bells gently jingle from his movements. Twilight stares at him, her purple eyes meeting his, glaring.

"We're your creations, Austin."
"Well... only to a point, you are... After all, you're copyrighted material.."

Sketch and Night Wisp step forward, frowns on their muzzles. "And what about us?" They say together.
"You two are more my creation than these 6... But still, I digress.. There's a reason you brought me here, and you likely want to say that first before I continue..."

"We want you back, Austin. You left our stories unfinished, a picture with no end.." Tinsel said, looking upset.
"Tinsel, I wrote you as a one-shot.. And furthermore, your story IS finished. It's THESE guys that have unfinished business."

"So why did you leave, then?" Sketch said, his frown not leaving his face.

A third pause. For the first time since he woke up in the dark room, he had a question that didn't have an answer. At least... not right away. He looked across the ponies' faces, then to the floor as he twists his lips into a puzzled frown. Finally, a heavy sigh escapes his lungs and he looks up, giving them a defeated smile.

"I don't know.. I still love to watch the show, and I draw you from time to time, but I suppose... I just didn't have the time, thoughts or ability to see you through at the time. So now what? This IS a Human VS chapter... Aren't you gonna kill me or something?"
"Heyyyy, 4th wall breaks are my thing!" Pinkie protests, only to be quickly hushed by Twilight.
"No, we're not going to kill you, Austin."

"Whew! That's a relief. After all, who'd be around to write the new stuff?"
"New stuff...?" Night says, lifting an eyebrow.

Austin just smiles mysteriously and chuckles. It's good to be back.

Comments

[ConEditor]

Holy sh*t you're ALIVE?!

[HydraulicPony]

Why can't individual chapters get likes?!

[DubleTruble96]

8857503
Yeah, hey!

[DubleTruble96]

8858004
Hehe, if only ,right?

[Raxis specter]

FINALLY YOUR ALIVE YESSSSSS

[DubleTruble96]

8858723
Thanks for sticking around! ^-^

[Rhombicosidodecahedron]

Huzzah!

[JustAnotherRandomFan]

It's ALIIIIIIIIVE!!!