Through the Fire and Flames
"It's all just going to hell," Ryan said to Chris as he watched the TV, knowing that everything was about to come crashing down despite the "peace talks" that were going on. Chris said nothing in reply as he was too busy working on the machine, but he did glance up every once in a while to see the television. "I'm surprised it didn't come sooner actually, we've been sitting on these weapons for years. It was bound to happen."
"That's why it's the best time to get out of here," Chris muttered as he continued to work on the machine. Ryan said nothing, but he looked over at the table next to his friend, seeing a backpack laying there with some supplies next to it. "I need batteries for the baton, but other than that there are some supplies there to last a while. All I need now is some more time to complete the machine and then I'll be able to-" His words died as the two of them could hear a sound that shook them both to the bone. It was the sound of a siren. A siren that could only mean one thing.
"Do we run?" Ryan asked with a hint of fear in his voice as he did his best not to panic, but Chris shook his head.
"What would be the point, there'll be nowhere to run once this gets started," Chris said with a smirk as he made some modifications on the machine. "You've seen the movies and generally those have an optimistic approach to how a nuclear holocaust would go. This machine might be the only way out of this mess, provided that it doesn't send us to some place with zombies or like Fallout." He then pushed all of the supplies on the table into the backpack as the sirens got louder and screaming could be heard in the streets, looking up at Ryan as he looked out the window. "You seem awfully calm about this."
"Don't let the mask fool you, I'm panicking on the inside," Ryan said with a lot more fear in his voice. "It's fortunate for me that I have no family or friends to rush into the streets to find or else I wouldn't be here." Chris frowned slightly before he began to enter inputs into his machine, the ground beginning to shake as the giant circle rose off of the ground and stabilized itself when it was completely horizontal. Ryan's eyes went wide as a giant blue spiral of energy appeared in the center of it, showing him what looked like the multiverse.
"Hey Ryan?" Ryan looked over at Chris, who tossed him the backpack before smiling at him. "Just in case we don't make it out of this, I just wanted to tell you something. I know we haven't known each other long, but I'm glad that I met you. You're really the only friend I've had. My parents didn't like me, my family didn't like me. But you're the only one who really...helped me to feel like a person. Thanks for all the good times." Ryan smiled back at him as well before the ground shook again and the sounds of the sirens got a lot louder. "There's no time to waste. Get into the portal."
"Is this tested?" Ryan asked hesitantly as he looked at Chris, who shrugged his shoulders in response. Ryan took in a deep breath and stepped into the vortex, feeling what felt like ice water seeping into every part of his body as he did so. Just when he thought he would be consumed by the vortex, he opened his eyes and saw that he was on the other side, with nothing there. "Chris, there's nothing over here! What's going on?"
"Hold on, I have to set a destination for you," Chris replied, but Ryan also noticed that he was typing with one hand, while the other one was pressed down on a button. Ryan turned around when a green spiral appeared behind him before he looked back at his friend. "I have no idea where this one leads, but it's your only chance right now. Go!" Ryan looked at him with disbelief, planning on running back through the portal and grabbing his friend when he realized that his hand was still on the button.
"You're not coming," Ryan said in a deadpan voice as he realized why his friend hadn't moved. Chris looked up at him with sad eyes and an even sadder smile as he shrugged.
"I needed more time to finish it," he said as he looked down at the machine, but then through the window they both could see a giant mushroom cloud going off in the distance. Chris sighed as he looked back at Ryan, who tried to run back through the portal only to find that he couldn't get through. "Right now the only way it'll stay open is if I hold down this button. And it only responds to my DNA, so I can't put a rock on it or something. That's what I get for being so smart. Sorry I didn't tell you."
"You damned fool!" Ryan yelled as he slammed his fist into portal, tears running down his face as he tried to push against it. "It was your dream to travel the multiverse and see all that the worlds had to offer! You should have let me do this in your place!" Chris sadly looked down as he said this, but then he looked back up at Ryan with a smile.
"Then you'll just have to live for the both of us. But it's like you told me," Chris said as he began to close the portal to his world. "You're a survivor. You take whatever the world can dish and you give it a snarky remark. So I know that you'll survive. For the both of us." Ryan slammed his fist into the portal one last time as a massive flash went off and before the shockwave threw him through the portal he saw one last image that would be burned into his mind forever.
It was of his only friend burning.
\\ //
//; ;\\
Ryan groaned as he slowly felt himself returning to his sense, but as those sense returned he realized that it was infinitely hotter than it should have been and he looked up through bleary eyes to see that he was in the center of a massive circle of fire. His phobia kicked up again and he practically froze in place, but while that happened a creature jumped through the flames, holding a staff with flames burning at both ends of it while it wore a horrifying mask that also spit fire.
"The fuck is that?!" he yelled as he tried to scramble away, but the flames shot up behind him and images of his friend burning flashed through his mind, causing him to cry out with emotional pain as he covered his eyes. The creature leapt through the air and went to strike him with its flaming staff, Ryan just barely getting out of the way. But no matter where he looked he could only see flames and with all the fire he could only see his world burning.
"Why do you resign yourself to fate?" the creature asked as it slowly turned and began to walk towards him, the flaming staff spinning behind her. "Why are you filled with so much internal hate?" Ryan's eyes snapped open as he heard the rhyme and he looked at the creature to see a zebra's lower half.
"Zecora? What are you-?" he tried to ask her but then the flames shot up again and he had to cover his eyes, the images blazing through his mind. With all of the fire around him giving him no place to look, Ryan finally understood why Zecora and the silver mare had said that he had a fear of fire. "What is all of this? Why are you doing this?"
"Your must overcome your fear of the flames," she said as she vanished into the flames, but her voice echoed all around him. "But to do so you must remove your repressed pain. I have seen what has caused you to be so charred, but all of those thoughts you must discard. You did not let this land claim your life despite its many tests, so use that will to win this internally contest."
"I...I don't know if I can," he said in a defeated voice, the images beginning to overpower him once again. "What if I can't?!" He cried out in pain as a flaming blow sent him sprawling across the ground and he shakily pushed himself to his knees to see the masked Zecora standing over him, staff pointed down at him.
"These negatives thoughts and memories you must defy," she said in a deadly voice as she allowed him to get up, before she took a fighting stance that he had never seen her use before. "Because if you don't, you will die." She lunged at him as she said this and unleashed hell itself upon him with her flaming blows. Ryan barely got out his stun baton to deflect a few of the attacks, but he was quickly overwhelmed by both her and the images that flashed through his mind. A devastating blow with her hoof sent Ryan straight to the ground and he realized that her threat was not an empty one. She was fighting to kill.
"You continue to endure this pain, even if it is a lie. But you now need to do what your friend asked you and survive!" she yelled as she threw herself at him again, Ryan rolling out of the way off her attack and kicking her in the back of the leg. Zecora spun around and brought the staff down towards his head, Ryan blocking with the baton before kicking her back. She landed in a handstand and flipped above him, shooting balls of fire from her masks that he barely managed to dodge. "I had thought that all of my training would make you stronger, so why do you allow yourself to continue to suffer? What have you done that causes you so much strife? Why do you believe you should not have your life?"
"Because it should have been me that died!" Ryan roared as he attacked her, tears in his eyes as he fought through the memories and drove his baton at her heart. Zecora blocked it and swept his feet to send him air born, before flipping above him and kicking him back to the dirt. He got up with pain in his eyes as he continued his attack, but Zecora felt no strength behind his blows. "He was the one that wanted to see the multiverse, not me! Yet he allowed himself to die, to lose his dream, so that I could live. I lost my world, my home, my family and my best friend!"
"Chris allowed himself to die so that you would not meet your end!" she yelled back at him and she delivered a devastating blow to his right arm, shattering the bone and causing him to drop his baton as he cried out in pain. "That was him being a truly amazing friend! How is this your fault, I cannot see! Why do you feel so guilty?"
"Because I could have done something," Ryan said weakly as he tried to grab his baton, but Zecora took out his feet again and sent a flaming staff strike to his midsection, the armor stopping his ribs from breaking. "It didn't have to end the way it did. If only I had..."
"What could you have done?" Zecora asked him with scorn in her voice as she looked down at him. "What could you have done against weapons that mimicked the suns? Not one of your race could stop the end, so what could you have done my friend? You have nothing to be guilt or upset about. Are you listening to what I am saying or do I have to shout?"
"But I should have died with them," Ryan said in a weak voice as he fell to his knees in front of the zebra, looking down at the ground with defeat in his eyes. "The only reason I'm alive is because my friend allowed himself to die. But I don't deserve it. I'm not a genius like him or a good person. I should have been the one to die." Zecora looked down at Ryan and could only see defeat in his eyes, so with a shake of her head she lifted her staff over her head.
"I wish that it did not have to come to this, but I never lie," she said with a sad shake of her head when Ryan refused to move. "Prepare yourself human, for now it's time you die." She went to strike with her staff, but as she did time slowed down to barely a crawl and Ryan looked around in confusion.
'Why is this happening?' he asked himself as he looked at the barely moving zebra. 'Why aren't I dead yet?'
'Because you do not live for yourself alone,' a voice in the back of his head said. 'You are the only survivor of the human race. You do not just live for yourself, but for the memory off all those who have died. If you are to die, then who will remember the fallen, who will keep the knowledge of humanity arrive. Who will keep the memory of your friend alive?'
'Should I care? It’s my fault their dead,' he asked himself, only to hear his own voice chuckle.
'Do you truly think you are enough of a threat to be responsible for the destruction of the human race?' he said, laughter echoing through Ryan's mind. 'No, you are nothing in the grand scheme of things. But you have to and are going to live for them, because that's the kind of person you are. You don't know when to quit.'
'Are you trying to imply that I'm someone special?' Ryan asked, only to get more laughter
'No, you are no special one or chosen hero. You are just the only one who survived,' he said with a laugh. 'Now the question is are you going to lie down and die or are you going to live? Are you going to endure the pain and keep going, just like Chris would have wanted?'
'I...I don't know,' he replied. 'I'd have to be crazy to move on.'
'Then do it.' Ryan looked up in surprise, finding a fractured version of him looking down at him. 'Embrace the madness. Let the crazy flow. That's how you'll survive. By being crazier than anyone else. And you had better think quick,' his voice said with a laugh. 'Because that damn zebra is about to knock your brains out.' Time returned to normal as these words were spoken and Ryan looked up to see the staff coming down towards his head. He reached up and grabbed it with his good arm, surprising Zecora enough so that she jumped back.
"What is this, I thought that you had lost the will to fight?" she asked him as he slowly got back up, grabbing the baton with his good arm before looking at her. "So why do I see in your eyes a new light?"
"Because I think I finally get what you were preaching," he said with a menacing laugh that chilled the zebra. "It isn't my fault that my world is gone or that my friend is dead. But that doesn't mean I won't blame myself for feel enraged that Chris had to die, because those feelings will never truly leave. I'd be crazy to say that those feelings would eventually go away," he said with an evil smile as he pointed the baton at her, Zecora noticing that his eyes had changed. "But dammit all, I'm already in a world where nothing makes any goddamn sense! Talking animals, magical fairies; it's a world gone mad! So since I can't beat you crazy sons of bitches, I'll join you in the insanity. So come on you damned zebra, let's do this to the death, but I warn you now. I'm going to survive."
Zecora narrowed her eyes at him, this not being the response she had wanted. She had believed that with enough pushing he could overcome his fears and guilt, but to her it seemed that all she had done was drove him mad. But at the same time, there was a light in his eyes now, a light that told her he had found his strength. Maybe in his insanity would he find peace. It would have to do.
"Good," Zecora said, causing Ryan to look at her in confusion before she slammed her hooves together, extinguishing all the flames around them. The moment the flames were gone, she took note that his eyes went back to the way they were before, only with the light still there. Odd. "You have finally passed my test. You are the first to do so, so consider yourself blessed."
"I must have missed something, weren't we both about to fight to the death?" Ryan asked her as he lowered his arm, Zecora chuckling as she took off her mask. "I thought you were going to kill me?"
"In the state you were in you were already dead," Zecora told him as she extinguished her flaming staff. "You allowed your mind to tear you to shreds. I had to push you to your breaking point to see what you would do. Would you lie down and die or would your stubbornness shine through. Only when your life was on the line would you face the truth and you did exactly what I knew."
"So this was all a test to see if I could let go of my guilt of surviving and find the will to live?" he asked her in disbelief. "You know you could have told me that instead of kicking the shit out of me. And technically I didn't let go of it, I went slightly mad."
"Good enough. And actually, this is a rite of passage from my race, though you are the first outsider to not suffer disgrace," she said as she took off the mask. "It is a test to face your inner self and come back stronger than before. So through the fire and flames you waged your internal war. But during the battle you found the survive and because of that you came out alive."
"Was all the fire necessary, because I think I've got third degree all over," Ryan groaned as he held his arm, the pain beginning to come back now that his adrenaline had worn off.
"The fire was an element you feared, so it was only natural that it appeared," Zecora said as she showed him the mask, which he noticed looked like a snarling zebra. "For the mask I had to be a bit more crafty, but I was fortunate to know of your fear of me."
"You think that I'm afraid of you?" he asked her as he tossed the mask behind him.
"I said I know not think. Now kindly take this drink," she said as she offered him some sort of juice that helped his burns when he drank it. "Now that you have moved past your guilt can the true training begin. But I will warm you now the chances of surviving are slim. Is that a risk you want to take or would rather cower there and shake?"
"It's like I told you Zecora," Ryan said as he threw the drink behind him and smirked at her. "I'm going to survive you and I'm going to survive this world. Because I'm nucking futs."
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"It's like I told you Zecora," Ryan said as he threw the drink behind him and smirked at her. "I'm going to survive you and I'm going to survive this world. Because I'm nucking futs."
It's fucking nuts. Fix it.
Is Zecora training Ryan to become a shaman?
This reminded me of that dream fight in
Far Cry 3. With the giant. Very nice chapter though. Seems that Ryan has finally unlocked his true potential by joining the insanity
4986370 actually it was wrote as intented, i have a cousin who says "nucking futs" sometimes.
People still don't understand human nature do they? By definition, humans are insane. We will fight insurmountable odds; challenge the will of fate; walk where angels fear to tread. When bored, we build wonders. When angered, we build horrors. We are the alpha predators. Creatures that clawed our way to the top of the food chain, so that nothing could challenge or harm us. We adapt, survive and we thrive.
Zecora is both, literally and figuratively, playing with fire here. Nice.
Zecora is an asshole in this story. Numerous quests where the goal seems to be to kill him off and now we have her basically saying "Get better NOW or I'll fucking kill you." The discussion seems legitimate but the conversation is in a context that makes her look bad. You're telling someone with survivor's guilt and probably a certain amount of PTSD to "get over it" like those are some minor and easy things to get over. I kind of wanted him to actually beat Zecora within an inch of her life as some comeuppance for her bs. I'm still hoping there will be some type of comeuppance for her.
4986370 I say it all the time
4986370 Absolutely not. Nucking futs is VERY common, and there's no need to fix it.
All I know is Ryan just got a lot more dangerous than he had been before. a crazy man has less interest in his own safety and more interest in doing damage to others.
A human with nothing to lose and evrything to gain is a very deadly human, watch out equestria the human has survived.
4983103 lol
... But yeah. 
I can just imagine her busting down my bedroom door and saying "Bitch! Gimme thine game named Destiny!" And I'm just like "Fuck no! I paid 55 pounds for this shit and I'm playing it and if you want it, THEN YA GONNA HAVE TO TAKE IT FROM MY COLD DEAD FUCKING HANDS!!!"
4986886
2.bp.blogspot.com/-Xaf3gm0Z4Kg/Uz6_Obd9_UI/AAAAAAAABOY/MxFxlAv1kcw/s3200/tumblr_masozaUAkI1rvon2g.gif
Dramatic choice of words my friend.
4987215 This guy is a wimp, if he wants to survive in the everfree he needs to have someone to push him above his limits and beat some sense into him. And most of his guilt is because of stupid reasons, how could have he ended the war or use a machine than only worked for Chris and only he(Chris) knew how to operate?
Why? Why whenever I read a HiE they end up nukeing each other.
Needs more crazy.
Who the hell is this guy?! And better yet, who's the silver mare?! Dr. Fate in silver mare form?! A disguised Zatana?! Freakin' Miss Martian?! WHO?! IT'S DRIVING ME NUCKING FUTS!!
Your... Your sentence structure...girlsjustwannahaveguns.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/confused-face.jpg
4987727
I can't help it sometimes... It's a curse I say!
4987727 He's right, the human race IS nucking futs.
'Because you do not live for yourself alone,' a voice in the back of his head said. 'You are the only survivor of the human race. You do not just live for yourself, but for the memory off all those who have died. If you are to die, then who will remember the fallen, who will keep the knowledge of humanity arrive. Who will keep the memory of your friend alive?'
You wrote arrive instead of alive. I don't want to be rude here, but it's either you are not proofreading (rushing) or typing on a phone/ smart device, please fix either of those in the future and the ire you get from people who comment should be fewer.
After this chapter, I still want more... though I must say it was quite cliche.
But I will warm you now
warn?
My theme music while reading this chapter, and it actually fits more than just the title!
To quote the Cheshire cat: We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad!
Welcome to the land of the crazy ponies for good Ryan! I can't wait to see what he gets up to next!
Madness. Its a thing that is in all of us. It rows from our experiences, our fears, and our desires. If all you want is to rule the world let the madness take you. If you want the perfect woman to love you even though she doesn't let madness take you. Want to know what's beyond death? let the madness take you. I am the speaker of Madness and if you will let it take you, welcome. Welcome to the show of Gods and Men.
4986370
4987563 So you own Destiny to, what system?
was that on purpose?
quick shout out to dragonforce
5537531 Ohhhh... I read it wrong. X))))
4986370
Graz u got 15 bucking dislikes now deal with it
The madness of it all
4987742 Survivor's guilt. Look it up. This guy has done well considering how crazy it's been. I mean, humanity is dead, he saw his friend die. I'm sure this is enough for him to get fucked in the head. You think he's a wimp? By all means, go through what he went through.
Because I'm-WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK?!?!?!?!?!
ohh not such a good idea, well unless your Ryan
hmm, what kinda of power is this?
So many errors ugh!
my head hurts from autocorrecting.
No seriously the ammount of errors is terrible.
I know this is older but you didn't have an editor or didn't you check for errors ?
8489894
If I recall when I wrote this story I was going through a rough time in my life, so I may not have had the time/cared enough at the time to fix the errors.
Dope chapter. Good song too