• Published 12th Apr 2013
  • 2,268 Views, 151 Comments

Beneath the Mask - TheDrunkenJinjo



One man's journey towards realizing that not everything is as it seems. Not even himself.

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Chapter 11 - Like Clockwork

“Braxton, I’m so, so, so, sooo sorry!”

“Yeah, so you’ve said, Twilight.”

“I mean, I just don’t know what went wrong! That spell always works with the clocks around the library!”

“Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you, Twilight.”

“I know! And you did, but I just thought that it wouldn’t be a problem! I had no idea it would explode like that! Oh, I’m so, so, so, sooo sorry!”

“...Yeah. I think you mentioned that, Twilight.”

This little back and forth had been going on in the library for the past ten minutes, ever since Twilight awoke from the comatose state she fell under after it hit her that she obliterated the only alien device in Equestria. When she woke up, she almost immediately began crying her eyes out and apologizing profusely, to the point where it was starting to grate on Braxton’s, and everyone else’s, nerves.

After the initial shock had worn off, Braxton had been very angry, and justifiably so, and he had planned on giving Twilight the chewing out of the century as soon as she woke up. As soon as she laid eyes on him, however, Twilight began dispensing words of apology at an incredibly rapid pace, so much so that Braxton couldn’t even get a word in edgewise. Eventually, he’d stopped trying, but Twilight continued on anyway.

She followed Braxton around the library as he scooped up the remnants of his destroyed phone and tossed them into a nearby waste bin. She continued to follow him as he trudged back to the couch he had been sitting on. And now here they all were, ponies, dragon, and human, listening to Twilight ramble about how sorry she was.

“Twilight, can you just--” Braxton began.

“I mean, it was just a simple spell! There’s no reason it should have reacted like that!” Twilight cut him off.

“Okay, Twilight, but you--” He tried again.

“I’m supposed to be Celestia’s prized student, and I can’t even handle a simple clock resetting spell! And speaking of the Princess, if she ever found out about how I destroyed the first piece of alien technology Equestria has ever seen, she’ll banish me to the moon for sure! Or even worse, send me back to magic kindergarten!” Twilight lamented, covering her head with her hooves.

“Look, I don’t know who this Celestia is, Twilight, but I’m sure that--”

“Wait!” Twilight exclaimed, “I can still fix this!” She levitated the waste bin over to her and then pulled the phone out, and sat it on the table.

“Twilight...”

“All that needs to be done is a simple repair spell!”

“Twilight!”

“This will be a piece of cake! It’ll be back to new in no time!”

“TWILIGHT!!!” Braxton shouted at the top of his lungs, finally catching the distraught mare’s attention.

“W-What?” She asked, startled.

Braxton put his hands up to his temples and massaged them vigorously as he spoke. “Twilight, I want you to listen to me carefully, because this is important.” He said with a sigh.

“O...Okay...”

“...I’m not angry with you. Not anymore, at least.”

“Y-You’re not?” Twilight asked hesitantly.

“No, I’m not, but let me finish.” Braxton said, still massaging his temples. “I get that it was an accident. Fine, whatever. It’s not like I was going to be making any calls while I was here anyway. So, I want you to believe me when I say that I mean what I’m about to say next in the nicest possible way. If you really want to earn my forgiveness, you only need to do one simple thing.”

“O-Of course! I’ll do anything, just name it!” Twilight said, eager to have him forgive her. Braxton’s hands dropped from the sides of his head and he turned to look Twilight straight in the face. He sat there staring at her for what felt like ages, or at least long enough for her to begin to feel slightly uncomfortable. Finally, Braxton took in a deep breath, parted his lips, and spoke.

“Shut up. Please. You’ve been apologizing for almost fifteen minutes. We get it. Move on.” He said as calmly as he could.

Twilight shied away a bit at the icy tone of Braxton’s voice, before turning her head towards her friends and scanning the looks on their faces. They all wore expressions of annoyance similar to Braxton himself. To her surprise, even the always upbeat Pinkie Pie had her brow furrowed in irritation. Twilight gave her friends a toothy grin and laughed sheepishly.

“Hehe...he...sorry...” She said, resulting in everyone throwing even harsher glares her way. Twilight even heard Pinkie Pie deliver a very un-ponylike growl of anger.

“Uh... A-Anyway, be that as it may,” Twilight began, “I’m still sure that I can fix this with that repair spell.” She began to lift the broken cell phone up with her magic, only to have it slammed back onto the table by a leather-gloved hand.

“AH!!” Twilight shrieked in surprise. Her eyes trailed past the hand and up the arm that accompanied it, to meet face to face with a still somewhat irritated looking human.

Braxton shook his head slowly and said, “Twilight. Move on. I already said I forgive you. You don’t need to do anything else.” He tossed the broken device back into the waste bin from whence it came.

“But, I know that with a simple spell--” Twilight began.

“Ah, ah! Let it go, Twilight.” Braxton said, cutting her off.

“B-B-But!--”

“I said let. It. Go. There’s no point in dwelling on what’s already been done. Just accept it and move on.” He cut Twilight off again and pushed the waste bin to the side. Braxton’s voice had taken on an underlying tone of bitterness that Twilight couldn’t help but catch, but she decided not to question him about it and risk irritating him further.

Twilight sighed and said, “Alright, fine. But that still leaves one problem. How can I face the Princess after all this? What am I supposed to tell her?!” Her voice was steadily regaining some of it’s worry from earlier.

“Just don’t tell her anything! What the Princess doesn’t know won’t hurt her, right?” Rainbow Dash suggested.

Twilight glared incredulously at her friend. “Rainbow, I can’t do that! That would be lying to the Princess!” She said.

Dash rolled her eyes. “Pfft, who are you, Applejack?” She said mockingly. “Besides, there’s a difference between lying and just not saying anything. As long as nopony spills the beans, you’ll be fine!” Dash said with a wave of her hoof.

Twilight’s gaze drifted towards the ground as she bit her lip in indecision. After almost a minute of silence she finally came to a conclusion. “...Hmm, I still don’t like it, but I guess I don’t have a choice. No matter what, Celestia can’t find out that I destroyed the first alien device in Equestria, or who knows what she’d do!” Twilight said, dreading any possible punishment the Princess could bestow.

She turned to address her dragon assistant. “Spike, take a letter!” Twilight commanded. Spike whipped out a quill and parchment from seemingly nowhere and signaled Twilight to go ahead. Twilight dictated a very well constructed report to the Princess, only pausing occasionally to give Spike time to spell out a particularly difficult word. She also carefully avoided the subject of the destroyed cell phone, wording her letter to give off the impression that there had never even been one in the first place.

As Twilight spoke, Braxton sat rifling through his pack, looking for a very important item. Finally, at the bottom of the bag he found what it was he sought, and pulled the item out by it’s gold chain to reveal a small pocket-watch. Braxton turned the watch over in his hand, admiring every facet of it. The watch was very ornate, with a golden trim around the edges and a silver-plated cover to protect the clock inside. On the cover was an extremely detailed carving of two deer running through the woods. On the back was an equally detailed carving of a carnation, with wild vines circling around it to complete the image.

‘Looks like I might be needing you after all, eh?’ Braxton thought as he clicked open the watch and set it to the current time based on one of the hanging clocks in the library. With that done, he found his eyes drifting to the inside of the cover, where a professionally done three-word inscription was engraved. It read, ‘To My Son’.

Braxton ran a thumb over the engraving like he had done a million times before. The inscription was very old, almost as old as the watch itself, but had stayed legible thanks to persistent maintenance and care over the years. As he stared at the watch, Braxton’s thoughts drifted back to the day when he first received it, and the corners of his mouth curled up into a sad smile.

“...Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight finished her dictation. She was about to instruct Spike to send the letter when she saw what Braxton was doing out of the corner of her eye. “Braxton? What’s that you’re holding?” She asked curiously. Catching his attention, Braxton snapped his head up like he had just been awoken from a dream.

He clicked the watch closed and chuckled dryly. “Uh, nothing special. Just an old pocket-watch. With my phone busted, I need some way to at least tell time while I’m here.” He said, remembering to smile. Twilight opened her mouth to apologize once again, but Braxton raised a hand and nodded once to silence her. She closed her mouth and smiled sheepishly in return, and Braxton held up the pocket-watch for all to see.

They all let out “oohs” and “aahs” of appreciation at the design of the watch, but Rarity was the first to speak up properly about it. “My goodness! These carvings are magnificent! Clearly, professional hooves were necessary to make these details so intricate.” She said as she raised her own hoof to touch the watch, but was denied when it was slightly pulled away from her reach.

“...Uhm, hands.” Braxton said.

Rarity looked at him, confused. “Er, excuse me, darling?” She asked.

“You said ‘professional hooves’. But it was actually hands that made this little number.” He said, placing the watch in the inside pocket of his duster.

Braxton’s explanation only served to further confuse Rarity. “I’m sorry, but what exactly is a... ‘hand’, darling?” She asked.

Braxton was about to answer when Applejack reached over and grasped his right hand, lifting it up for all of them to see. “This thang.” She said simply. The others in the room nodded in understanding as Applejack released Braxton’s hand and went back over to them.

Braxton rolled his eyes and smiled. “Thank you, AJ.” He said with a nod. The orange mare silently tipped her hat in response.

“Anyway, Spike, go ahead and send that letter and my notes to the Princess. I’m sure she’d want to know about all of this as soon as possible.” Twilight said to her assistant. Spike gather up all of the papers and rolled them up into a scroll, securing them with a red ribbon. He went over to open a window, sucked in a lungful of air, and blew out a trail of green fire that completely engulfed the scroll.

Braxton’s eyes widened as he watched the former scroll’s ashes get carried out of the window with a gust of wind. Spike nonchalantly closed the window and walked back over to the group, none of whom were the least bit surprised by what happened.

“Aaaand, why exactly did you set it on fire?! I thought that you were going to send it!” Braxton said, utterly confused.

Spike looked at him incredulously. “Uh, I did send it, dude.” He said simply. Braxton’s eye twitched as his confusion visibly grew.

“Let me explain,” Twilight cut in before Braxton burst a blood vessel, “Spike is a rare type of dragon whose breath has magical properties. Most dragons can only breathe one type of fire, but Spike here has the ability to breathe multiple. The one you just saw was a variant that allows messages to instantly be sent to Princess Celestia in Canterlot.” As Twilight spoke, Spike puffed out his chest a little with pride at his abilities.

Braxton sighed heavily and dropped his head so that he was looking at the floor. “Sure, why not? A postal service that runs on magic fire. Why should shit start making sense now?” Braxton mumbled under his breath.

“Sorry, I didn’t catch that. Could you speak up?” Twilight asked.

Braxton raised his head and said, “Er, so who is this Princess Celestia anyway, Twi? I’ve heard that name thrown around by you girls quite a lot.” Twilight’s eyes lit up in a way that told Braxton he was in for a long-winded explanation.

“Oh! Princess Celestia, along with her sister, Princess Luna, are the rulers of Equestria. They’ve ruled the land for thousands of years, and are held in very high regard by pretty much everypony!” She gushed about the two monarchs.

“Thousands of years, huh? You don’t say?” Braxton said halfheartedly as he reached into his backpack once more.

“Oh yes!” Twilight continued, “Princess Celestia is in charge of raising and lowering the sun, and Princess Luna does the same for the moon!”

Braxton pulled out a large plastic bag filled with one of his favorite foods out of his pack. “Raise the sun and moon? Is that anything like how the pegasi control the weather?” He asked as he opened the bag. Admittedly, despite all he had seen that day, he still found the concept of two ponies that have lived for millennia physically moving planet-sized bodies a little too far-fetched. However, he decided to humor Twilight, so as to not risk insulting the ponies’ rulers in some way.

Twilight nodded. “Kind of, but the Princesses use extremely powerful unicorn magic to do their duties. Their magic is without compare in all of Equestria, and Princess Celestia was generous enough to take me under her wing as her personal protégé!” Twilight said with the same excitement she always had when talking about the Princesses.

Braxton popped a piece of the dried snack food in his mouth and chewed. “Wow, so you’re the student of the most powerful magic user in the world? That’s mighty impressive! I guess that makes you a pretty strong unicorn too, right?” He said, eating another piece.

Twilight blushed and rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. “W-Well, I don’t like to brag but--”

“You bet she is!” Spike cut Twilight off, “She’s the strongest unicorn in all of Ponyville! Heck, she may even be one of the most powerful ponies who’ve ever lived!” Twilight blushed even harder at the generous praise Spike was heaping on her.

“S-Spike! Don’t say that! You’ll make Braxton think I’m showing off!” Twilight berated her assistant.

“Well, it’s true! Besides, I thought you learned the difference between showing off and actual skill after the whole Trixie fiasco.” Spike said, crossing his arms. The two continued to bicker as Braxton looked on while eating his snack.

He drew the attention of the others, besides Twilight and Spike, who gazed at the food in the bag with curiosity. “Hey, whatcha eatin’ there, pardner? Looks mighty tasty.” Applejack said, pointing a hoof at the bag. Braxton swallowed what was in his mouth and spoke.

“Beef jerky.” He said absentmindedly as he reached for another piece.

Braxton felt something hard slam into his chest and send him rocketing over the couch. He spun head over heels once in mid-air before landing hard on his back on the wooden floor. While he was still dazed, Braxton felt four hooves land roughly on his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Braxton opened his eyes to see a very angry blue pegasus glaring down at him with wings flared open threateningly.

“Ah! What the hell, Dash?!” Braxton shouted.

“I knew something wasn’t right about you, freak! You eat meat!” Rainbow stated as she pointed an accusing hoof down at him.

“Yeah, so? What’s wrong with eating mea--! ...Oh.” Braxton heart dropped into his stomach as he realized what it was he had done. ‘Shit!!! I forgot that ponies don’t eat meat! Now they’re probably terrified of me! Damnit, why did I eat beef jerky in front of them?! What the hell’s wrong with me?!’ Braxton internally berated himself.

Braxton held his palms out defensively. “Wait, wait! You don’t get it! I don’t strictly eat meat. Humans are omnivores. We can live off of both plants and meat!” He proclaimed.

“Doesn’t matter, freakshow! You eat meat, so you’re a predator! And I’m gonna make sure you don’t hurt any of my friends!” Rainbow said, raising a hoof to strike him.

“WAIT!!!” A loud, yet still soft voice called out from behind Dash. Dash halted her strike and turned to look towards the source of the outburst. The group of ponies parted to reveal Fluttershy, who now had the full attention of them all.

Fluttershy’s eyes widened and she shrank down a little, but she still found the courage to speak. “...Uhm, y-you said you’re an omnivore... r-right?” She asked Braxton.

Even though Braxton couldn’t see her from his position, he still nodded and said, “Yeah, that’s right. I’m an omnivore.” Fluttershy walked around so that she could get a good look at Braxton, and him at her.

“W-Well then, in that case, Rainbow Dash, I-I don’t think he should be a problem.” Fluttershy said with a smile. Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped in disbelief at what she was hearing. Fluttershy was the absolute last pony she would’ve expected to come to Braxton’s defense, especially knowing how afraid she usually was.

“W...W-What?! Why?!” Was all the rainbow-maned pegasus could manage to say.

Fluttershy shrunk again at Dash’s loud tone, but was still able to answer. “W-Well, it’s just that I take care of omnivores all the time, as well as herbivores a-and even some carnivores. I even fed the ferrets some cooked fish during the last Winter Wrap-Up. As long as Braxton doesn’t eat anypony...” Fluttershy trailed off and looked down at Braxton fearfully. “Y-Y-You don’t... eat p-ponies... right?” She asked him.

Braxton shook his head. “Of course not! As a matter of fact, eating any type of equine is considered a huge taboo where I come from.” He said, honestly disgusted by the thought.

Fluttershy visibly relaxed and smiled again. “O-Okay, then Braxton shouldn’t worry you, Rainbow Dash. B-Besides, you used to be friends with Gilda, and didn’t she eat meat? I-In fact, I remember you told me that one time in flight school you lost a bet, a-and she made you eat--”

“Okay! Alright! That’s enough, Fluttershy!” Rainbow cut her off, not wanting to relive that particular memory.

Braxton gave a cocky smile at his newfound vindication. “Well, Dash, you heard the lady. I’m no threat. Now, I would appreciate if you would kindly GET THE HECK OFF OF ME!” He didn’t wait for her to respond and roughly shoved her to the side.

He stood up and dusted himself off, but in no time at all he was knocked back to the ground, face down this time. “Ow! Son of a--!” He cried as he looked behind him to see Rainbow standing on top of him once again.

“Nopony pushes me around freak! You hear me? Nopony!” She shouted to the heavens.

Braxton snarled and delivered a hard elbow to Dash’s right side, sending her toppling off of him. He stood up and turned to face her, getting into a defensive stance. “Well, I just did! So what are you gonna do about it, little pony?” He taunted, earning a snort of anger from Dash.

Rainbow flew into the air and back downwards to deliver a flying karate kick directly to Braxton’s head. Braxton was able to react quickly, however, and caught her hind leg when it was just inches away from impacting his face. Still gripping her hind leg, Braxton turned and hurled Dash across the room with as much strength as he could gather. Braxton was actually shocked by how light she was, as he knew that he would have never been able to throw a pony from his world that far.

Rainbow Dash was sent screaming into a small table, the same one that currently held Braxton’s revolver, and the impact knocked the table over sending the gun, holster and all, skidding across the floor. Dash groaned in pain and rubbed the back of her head as she got back to her hooves.

“You’re going to have to be a lot faster than that to hit me, Dash.” Braxton said with a superior tone of voice.

Dash, now having regained her bearings, snarled at him and got down into a charging position. Her snarl turned into a cocky smirk that made Braxton wonder what she had planned. “You want fast, creep?” She said as she pawed at the ground. In the blink of an eye Dash rocketed forward, far too fast for Braxton to see as more than a rainbow blur. She slammed into his torso again and they both flew across the room and out the library door, blowing it off it’s hinges in the process.

Braxton rolled haphazardly across the ground outside of the library, finally skidding to a stop about fifty feet away from the building. He stumbled to his knees and coughed repeatedly, desperately trying suck air into his lungs.

Rainbow Dash landed in front of the struggling human, grinning victoriously. She got back into her charge stance and let out a snort of hot air. “How’s this for fast, huh?!” She shouted as she flew at him at top speed again.

Braxton barely had enough time to look up before Rainbow slammed into his chest again. This time, however, instead of going straight Dash took a sharp turn skywards, bringing Braxton along for the ride. Together they rocketed higher and higher until they were nearly one hundred feet up, and Dash showed no sign of slowing down.

Braxton began to panic as he was pushed farther into the sky. He realized he had to stop this now, or else any higher and the fall would most definitely kill him. His eyes locked on Dash’s wings, or more specifically, her wing joints, and an idea rapidly formed in his head.

Clenching his fist and drawing as much power as possible into it, Braxton delivered a severe punch directly to Rainbow’s right wing. It had the desired effect, as Rainbow immediately howled in pain and went spiraling off course, releasing her hold on Braxton. Unfortunately, it also had the added effect of leaving Braxton stranded a little over thirty meters in the air.

“Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap! CRAAAAAHHH!!!” Braxton screamed as he fell unhindered towards the ground. The ponies and dragon on the ground, who had been watching the fight the whole time, looked on in horror as they watched the human plummet to what was sure to be his death. Twilight brought Spike close to her chest to block his vision. Applejack pulled her stetson over her eyes so as to not witness the impact. Rarity and Fluttershy both covered their mouths with a hoof, with the latter having tears begin to well up in her eyes. And Pinkie Pie’s mane partially deflated as she watched her potential new friend fall from the sky.

But Braxton had no plans of dying just yet. He frantically looked around for some kind of saving grace and, thankfully, he found it. Jutting out from near the top of Twilight’s treehouse was a thick and sizable branch the Braxton figured could maybe support his weight. Braxton, seeing no other alternative, took a chance and directed his descent towards the branch. He stretched his left arm out to it’s limit as he was about to fall past the branch and, by some miracle, was able to just barely latch on.

“AH!” Braxton grunted in pain as the branch halted his descent. He grimaced as he felt the bones in his arm pop from the pressure of an almost instant stop, and he clenched his eyes shut as he waited for the pain to ebb away.

With the pain mostly gone, Braxton looked down and nearly had a heart attack when he realized he was still about twenty-five feet up. He began to feel a cold sweat run down the back of his neck as he closed his eyes and swallowed hard. ‘Okay, you can do this, man. Just don’t look down. Don’t. Look. Down.’ Braxton thought as he steeled his nerves. He opened his eyes and looked forward to see a much lower branch. Braxton figured that he might be able to swing to it and then jump down from there.

Grasping the branch with both hands now, he swung off of it and landed feet-first on the lower one, before jumping off of that one and onto the ground. Braxton let out a sigh of relief now that he had both feet planted on the ground, and checked his body for any injuries suffered by his impromptu free-fall. Satisfied, Braxton relaxed and breathed out another sigh.

Suddenly, from behind him he heard the distinct sound of whistling wind, like something was coming for him at a very, very high speed. He turned and looked up to see Rainbow Dash streaking towards him in a blur of color. Realizing that his fight was not yet over, Braxton clenched his fist once again and waited for the right moment.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was gaining even more speed as she rushed towards the human at a blistering pace. She briefly wondered why he was just standing there as she came at him, but decided it didn’t matter. It just made him an easier target.

When Rainbow was mere seconds from impacting Braxton once again, he launched his attack. Braxton reared his fist back and threw a hard straight punch aimed directly at Dash’s face. Dash saw the punch coming, but her momentum was far too great to do anything about it. Braxton’s fist slammed into Rainbow’s face with incredible force, mostly due to Rainbow flying directly into it.

Braxton heard the bones in Dash’s muzzle crack and he grinned, glad to have turned Dash’s speed against her. Dash fell to the ground and immediately clutched at her face with both hooves, screaming and shouting obscenities in a mix of rage and agony. Braxton’s smile slowly faded as he watched her writhe. He was unhappy to have had to cause Dash pain like that, but he didn’t exactly feel sorry. As far as Braxton was concerned, she brought this on herself.

He turned his head to look at the others standing in the doorway. They were watching their pegasus friend squirm on the ground with a look of sadness and shock in their eyes, and Braxton’s frown only grew deeper. He wished that they didn’t have to see this.

As he was contemplating this, Braxton once again felt something slam into his chest, but with much more force than any of the previous times. He landed on his back again and looked up to see Rainbow Dash standing above him, face drenched in blood from her now broken muzzle, and with a expression of murderous fury that until now Braxton did not think any of these ponies were capable of.

Without a word, she raised her right hoof and slammed it down into Braxton’s face. She repeated the process with her left. In a rage, Rainbow punched him over and over mercilessly, until around the seventh punch when Braxton grabbed her hoof as it was about to make contact.

Braxton reared his boot underneath Rainbow’s chest and delivered a powerful kick. Rainbow flew backwards and skidded across the ground, coming to a halt a few yards away. Braxton wobbled to his feet and spit out blood as he felt some begin to trickle out the corner of his mouth. He put a hand to his face and felt the onset of a black eye on his left side as well. Braxton returned his attention to Dash, who now had a new boot-print on her stomach, and watched as she got back to her hooves.

The two combatants glared at each other ferociously, neither one ready to give an inch. They narrowed their eyes at each other in anger, both of them trying their best to intimidate the other. As they stared each other down, they came to the same conclusion about what was going to happen. Almost simultaneously, the two charged, each with every intention of becoming the victor in this battle. A clash was inevitable between the two titans, and all the world watched as the struggle of the century was about to begin.

Author's Note:

...You think I overdid it a little with the hype in that last paragraph?