The Other Side Of The Coin
Nothingness.
That was the only word that could be used to describe what Duo felt while floating in this vast, and endless, void he found himself in. Whether his eyes were open or not did not matter, pitch black darkness would always be the view that greeted him. Up and down, left and right, none of these things mattered since it was impossible to figure out which direction he was facing at the moment. He had made many attempts to call out for help, to let someone know that he was stuck in this silent void and couldn’t escape. However, each time he tried to speak or shout, no voice would come out. It was as if sound no longer existed in this twisted form of hellish torture.
That was when he saw it, a faint red glow in the distance. The longer he looked at it the bigger it seemed to be. Then the light itself started to get brighter and brighter. Duo also felt heat coming from the red glow, getting hotter and hotter the closer it came to him. Eventually, the light got so bright, and the heat so intense, that Duo was forced to cover his eyes and look away while letting out a silent scream of agony as he felt like he was on fire when the light engulfed him.
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Duo woke up in bed screaming, looking around himself frantically before breathing a sigh of relief. After a few seconds of looking, he finally started to calm down. He decided to take deep breaths to help himself with the calming process. A few moments later he smiled. “It was just a dream, thank Celestia.” That was when he noticed the smell of something burning, and the smoke that had been accumulating in the room. This sent him into a panic as he turned to try and wake up his wife Sweetie Belle and warn her, only to find out she was not there.
“Sweetie Belle? Sweetie Belle where are you?!” He yelled as he quickly got out of bed. He opened the door to exit the room, only to stumble back from the sudden burst of flame that erupted in front of him. “Oh no, oh no no no!” He quickly ran out the room, using the magic from his horn to keep an air bubble around his head. He knew it wouldn’t last for long, which was why he did a quick search of the house before exiting to take a breath of real air. When he got outside, he was horrified at the sight of Ponyville before him.
Everywhere he looked, there were either burnt buildings, or buildings still on fire. What really horrified him though was the fact that everywhere he looked, he found corpse after corpse of the ponies he had grown to care about. Each one was worse than the last. Some had been burnt down to nothing but a black, soot-covered skeleton. Others have seem to have actually been tortured and murdered, if the decapitated heads and the various cuts and slashes on the bodies were anything to go by. The smell of burning wood and burning flesh was all too much for him, causing him to spill the contents of his stomach onto the ground before him.
During all the destruction before him, he had forgotten his original purpose. Cursing under his breath for forgetting, he called out again. “Sweetie Belle, where are you?!”
“Help us!” A voice shouted back.
“Why are you doing this?!” Another had yelled.
“Let us go or else i’ll kick your flank into next year!” A third voice demanded.
Duo knew those voices anywhere, they were the Cutie Mark Crusaders! The voices sounded like they were coming from the town square, so that was where he galloped towards at his full speed. As he galloped, an endless flood of thoughts invaded his mind.
Who is responsible for all this?
What is going on?
Why is this happening?
Was his wife and her friends unharmed?
All these thoughts and more kept assaulting his mind, it was almost maddening even. However, the thoughts came to a halt when he saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders tied to wooden poles. A ring of fire could be seen surrounding the base of all three poles, slowly burning them alive.
When the Cutie Mark Crusaders saw him, they cowered in fear. However, upon further inspection, they saw he had a different demeanor than the one that tied them up.
“Duo, what’s going on here? Why is there a clone of you?” Sweetie Belle asked. She had been unable to use magic due to a magic restrictor placed on her horn.
“A clone of me? What are you talking about?” He asked in shock. “Nevermind that. Girls don’t worry, i’ll get you down!” Duo called out as he got ready to teleport them out, covering each of them in a magic aura. However, before he had a chance to teleport them, a magic explosion sent him sliding across the ground.
“Duo!” The girls cried out in fear.
“Tsk, tsk, I thought you knew better than to fall for such an easy trap Duo?” A voice said from within the smoke from the explosion.
Duo slowly stood up, shaking his head to clear it before looking at the smoke. “Show yourself you coward!” He demanded.
The unicorn that stepped out of the smoke had a dark grey body, with a mane and tail that was black and white. The right side of his mane was white and long, while the left side of his mane was short and black. There was a red scar across his left eye, and each one of his teeth were pointed and fully capable of effortlessly tearing through flesh. The bags under his grey eyes, which looked to be the eyes of a stallion that went insane, made his face look a lot darker and even more sinister than it likely was. On his flank was a cutie mark that was a long triangle shield with the yin yang symbol within. In short, the unicorn Duo saw, was an exact copy of himself, minus the sharp teeth and crazed baggy eyes.
This caused Duo to gape in shock before glaring at his clone. “Release my wife and friends!’ He demanded.
The doppelganger just laughed before looking at Duo with a crazed smile. “Aww, is this not to your liking? Isn’t getting revenge on all the ponies that turned their backs on you as foal what you want?” He asked in mock shock.
“No! These ponies are innocent, they didn’t do anything wrong! Who are you?!” Duo yelled.
More crazed laughter was the doppelganger’s response. “Since when the hay did that ever matter? I didn’t see anypony here running to come save you from that orphanage. They were happily living their lives! Remember all of the bullying? What about the abuse the caretaker inflicted on you daily? Did you think all that anger and hatred towards them and anypony that enjoyed their lives while being oblivious to your plight simply disappeared? No… it just created me instead! It created a being that only cares about taking out all his pain on others. They were all happy while you were miserable, they all deserve it!” He practically yelled. “As for who I am, well that’s simple, I am you silly!” He admitted. “I am everything you tried to deny and push away. I am your anger, I am your fears, I am your doubts!”
This just made Duo growl angrily. “Cut the crap! There is no way in tartarus that you are me!”
“Oh but I am, Duo. I am the other side of you. The other side of the coin if you will. I am the pain you tried to hide from everypony that was given a life of its own as a result. However, you don't need to believe me; at least not yet.” After the doppelganger said that, he cast a spell on the fire surrounding the cutie mark crusaders, causing it to erupt into a pillar of flame that completely engulfed them. Their piercing screams of agony as they burned alive were the only way anypony could tell it was them.
“NO!!!!” Duo yelled in absolute horror, too transfixed by his burning wife to notice the long wooden stake before it impaled him through his back and out his chest. The doppelganger had used Duo’s distraction to hover the stake to them.
The doppelganger stared into Duo’s eyes with his own insane gaze. “If you don't stop denying your inner pain and the thoughts that you tried to push away, I WILL take over your body, and I WILL kill everypony you love and then some! I will make everypony suffer the way you did!”
“Wh-What?” Duo weakly asked as he felt his life draining from him.
“It is time to wake up. Have a nice day!” With those words, he raised up his forehooves, and smashed it down on Duo’s head with enough force to crush it into oblivion.
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Duo woke up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily as he looked around worriedly before checking his body to find there was no wound. He then looked down at Sweetie Belle sleeping next to him and breathed a sigh of relief. He laid back down and held her close to his body. He did not go back to sleep though, that dream felt too real to simply ignore. He’d have to consult with his mentor Princess Twilight Sparkle tomorrow about it. It was time he came clean about his past.