A Whole New World

Author's notes: This chapter involves a trip down Memory Lane. Past versions of Dutch will be referred to in third person. Writing 'I' and 'me' for both Dutch and his past selves would just get confusing.

"Take him to the medical wing and get him cleaned up," the Princess said, and I felt myself get lifted into the air and carried away by a unicorn's magic. All the while, Celestia's gaze never left me, and I could only imagine what she was thinking.

I watched the ceiling pass over me as I went through a number of doors. I eventually got lowered onto a bed by the unicorn guard, who promptly left, taking my weapons with him. As he closed the door, a pair of nurses came into the room and started to remove my coat and shirt, as well as all the grass strapped to my body. They binned the latter, and one of them took my clothes to be washed. The other nurse proceeded to wrap bandages around my chest wound. It stung as she treated it, but I was too tired to oppose.

When she had done as much as she could, she gave me a few painkillers and told me to get some bedrest. I did as I was instructed, and rested my head on the soft pillow as I drifted off.

If this was a dream, I wanted to wake up right now.

It was pitch black, and the ground beneath my bare feet felt like concrete. I was only wearing what I had on when I was in the bed, and my top half shivered. I fumbled around in the dark, and managed to find what I assumed was a wall. It was metal, but it felt rough, and smelt of rust. Slowly, my eyes adjusted to the darkness, and I found myself in a long hallway, about ten feet wide, and stretching as far as my eyes would allow me to see. I turned round, but only saw the same rusty wall, leaving me with only one direction to go in.

I spent the next hour or so wandering aimlessly down this hallway, trying to figure out where the hell I was. Soon, however, the hall broke off in three different directions. Straight on was still pitch black, and so was the right, but I could see the faintest of light in the left hallway, so I headed in that drection.

The light slowly amplified, and it turned out to be a dying lightbulb. It was dangling in the middle of the hall, and illuminated a table, which was in as bad a condition as the rest of this place. As I got closer, I noticed a small piece of paper sitting on the table, the only thing of interest in this bleak place. I picked it up, but as I read it, a chill ran down my spine

Run!

Before I could think about what it meant or who had written it, a heard footsteps heading in my direction. In the darkness, I could make out a human figure walking towards me. His clothes were torn, and his posture was bent. It was too dark to make out who he was, but as he locked eyes with me, the person let off a scream of rage and pain that would make a manticore whimper. He leapt at me, and tackled me to the ground.

As I tried to lift him off me, a memory flashed into my vision, followed by another, and another. I screwed my eyes shut as they appeared, and found a pattern. Every time I had lied to someone when I was younger, every time I had made a mistake, or done something I would regret later, was playing out in front of me.

With a yell, I threw the person off me, and ran off into the darkness. I could hear him following me, and forced my legs to move faster. The darkness meant I had to slow down now and again so I didn't run into any walls on the corners, and I could hear him gaining on me. He got to within a foot of me, and I suddenly turned round and swung a fist into his face. While he was dazed, I launched a kick into his leg and sent him sprawling. The contact made more visions flash into view, but I ignored them as I carried on running, leaving the person to lift himself off the floor.

As I ran round another corner, however, I heard a voice.

"Dutch, are you in here?" It was Twilight.

I ran in the direction of the voice, and made out the outline of the pony standing in front of me, "Twilight, what are you doing here?"

She was about to answer, but I heard the man scream again. I didn't stop to think as I picked her up and continued running down the hall. She struggled briefly, but as I went round another corner, I saw the same table I had found earlier. Not keen on the idea of being caught again, I dived under it and pressed myself into the shadows.

"Dutch, what's going--" I wrapped my hand around her mouth and motioned for her to be quiet. We lay there in silence, and heard heavy footsteps approaching. I saw a pair of feet slowly come to a halt by the table, and I quietly poked my head out to see who this person was.

It was me, but it certainly didn't look like me. Every injury I had was visible on him, but they hadn't been treated. His face had a long streak of red down it under his eye, and the stump on his left hand bled freely, creating a small puddle on the floor. His clothes were also collecting patches of red where they had been torn. It was a good thing I was still covering Twilight's mouth, because I almost heard a squeak of terror from her. The copy of me stood there for a few more seconds, before releasing another blood-curdling scream, and walking back the way he had come.

I gently released my grip from Twilight, and she stared into my eyes.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I came into the hospital room to check on you, and you were lying there, sweating and panting," Twilight explained, "You had a look of fear on your face, but I couldn't just let you lie there. I used my magic to enter your mind, and I found myself in a dark hallway, then you found me."

I simply nodded in reply, and said, "If you can get in here, can you get us out? I've had enough of this place already."

"Likewise. Hold still," her horn glowed, and my eyesight was filled with light. After being in such darkness for so long, it seemed beautiful.

I awoke in the hospital bed, with Twilight lying next to me, an aura around her horn slowly dissipating, "What was that thing?" She asked me, hopping off the bed.

"He gave me flashbacks of my mistakes in the past, so he might be a physical representation of my guilt. I don't know for sure, but I do know I don't want to be near him again."

At this point, Princess Celestia entered the room, and Twilight gave a bow.

"Rise, Twilight," Celestia said, before turning to me, "Dutch, there is something of great importance we must discuss."

I immediately knew what she was talking about, but I wasn't sure if I was ready to talk about it, "I'm not sure if I want to Princess."

"I wasn't asking Dutch," Celestia said sternly, but her voice turned calm again, "If you do not want to talk about it, show us the memory, and we can see it for ourselves. I understand that you are not comfortable with the matter, but in order for us to also understand you, we must know what happened. You are the Element of Bravery, Dutch. Show us that courage now."

I hesitated, and looked at Twilight. Her face said that she was agreeing with the Princess, and with me lying in the bed, I wasn't exactly in the best position to argue.

"Alright," I said reluctantly, "I'll show you."

Celestia nodded, approaching me, and her horn glowed, along with Twilight's. My vision turned to black as my consciousness faded away.

I was standing in a large room, almost the size of a warehouse. There were hundreds of boxes and crates stacked on top of each other, all the way up to the roof. I looked around in confusion, "Where are we now?"

"We are in your mind," Celestia appeared next to me, with Twilight alongside her, "I came here the first time we talked. Each of these boxes contains memories. Some are good, some are bad."

"It's very organised in here," Twilight added, and I chuckled. She was right, I didn't know my mind could be so tidy.

I walked through the isles of boxes, curious as to how they worked, "So what happens if I open one?"

"We will relive that memory," Celestia simply said.

I found a small, cardboard box labelled "Christmas 2002". I picked it up, but it felt empty. I opened it, and images started to fly out of the box. They covered the piles of crates around the room, and the room changed shape. After a few seconds, the images came to rest, and I found myself in the sitting room of my house, with Twilight and Celestia next to me.

Wisps if smoke moved through the room, and gathered on the ground to form people. The people started to move, and I saw a child grab a present out from under a Christmas tree. I gasped in shock; I was looking at a ten-year-old version of myself. The child pushed the present over to another boy, who looked like Chris, and read the label on it.

"Dear Chris and Doug, Merry Christmas. Love, Mum and Grandma."

Two more figures appeared, and I recognised my mother, along with her mother, sat on the sofa opposite my younger self. I saw us rip open the wrapping paper, and a silver PS2 emerged.

I still remember that day. Getting that game console was like a dream come true, and I even recall pinching myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. My brother and myself hugged our parents, and the vision began to dissolve again. I was left standing in the warehouse again, holding the box in my hands. I put it back on the pile, and turned to face the ponies.

"You looked so sweet when you were younger," Twilight said, and even Celestia allowed herself a quick smile. It soon faded back to her neutral expression though, and she cleared her throat.

"I know you may wish to experience other memories, but there is one we must attend to before all others," I was a bit put off by her sudden mood change, but I followed her nonetheless.

The Princess seemed to know where she was going. After all, she had been here before. We followed her for another ten minutes, before she stopped and said, "There it is."

I looked forward, and saw a small, black safe sitting on its own, the other boxes lying separate from it. I approached it, and sure enough, it was labelled, "27th October, 2007". This is it.

We all walked right up to the safe, and Celestia looked at me, "Only you can open it Dutch, but when you do, there is no going back."

I turned towards the safe, and took a deep breath. I reached out for the handle, gripped it, and pulled the door open with all my strength. Instantly, the images flooded out of the safe, and quickly surrounded us. The images were still blurry as they formed, but I knew what would appear.

When everything came into focus, we were standing at a services station. I recognised it, and decided to explain it to the ponies.

"We were heading back home from a school trip. We had been visiting a zoo; looking at the animals, taking pictures. It had been fun," I turned round, and saw myself at fifteen years of age, walking with a group of friends towards a coach, "We had stopped here to stretch our legs, those buses can get pretty cramped at times." We watched Doug and his friends climb onboard the bus, followed by all the other students and the teachers. It totalled at about thirty people.

"What went wrong?" Celestia asked.

I sighed, and saw a familiar white van come round the corner, "What didn't go wrong?"

We were about to climb on too, but before we could, the van pulled up alongside, and five men wearing masks and holding guns ran onboard the bus and started yelling at everyone. I could hear children screaming, as clearly as I had that day. One of the men jammed his rifle into the driver's head and shouted at him to drive. He did as he was instructed, and pulled the bus out of the station, heading down the motorway.

After a brief silence, Twilight said, "You were foalnapped?"

"Humans refer to it as 'kidnapping', but yes, we were." I lowered my head, and the images began to shift and change. As they did, I turned to Celestia and Twilight.

"Later, I found out that the people who took us were radicals from another country. They were holding us to ransom, and demanded that our government release a group of prisoners who supported their beliefs. They threatened that if they didn't do that, they would kill us."

The vision had rearranged by now, and became a medium-sized building on the edge of a forest. We saw the coach pull up outside, with the van behind it, and the men herded us out, forcing us into the building. I saw Doug, fear plastered onto his face, as one of the teachers wrapped her arms around a group of students to try and protect them. The men simply pulled her off, and threw her on the ground, carrying her inside.

We followed them in, walking slowly, and watched the men force them into a hall and tie each of them to a pipe along the wall. They spoke with Middle-Eastern accents, saying how they wouldn't harm any of them, and that they would be safe. I now knew that was a lie.

The images changed again, and we saw Doug and the others tied to the same place. I noticed a calender on the wall, and told the ponies that it had been two days now. The kidnappers had kept them fed and watered, but some of the kids were starting to become weak. I saw Doug, staring at one of the men. He looked younger than I was now, probably only eighteen at the time, and he simply stared back at my younger self.

I spoke, "I found out this guy's name was Ahmed. I didn't know it at the time, but he was becoming conflicted about what he and the others were doing," another change, and I saw myself talking to Ahmed, "After all of this, I found out he had developed a mental condition called Stockholm Sydrome."

I got a look of confusion from Twilight, "Stockholm Syndrome sometimes happens in hostage situations. It's when the kidnapper takes sympathy on the hostages, or vice versa. They can start by talking or entertaining each other, but friendships have been made like this. Unfortunately, the other men noticed this, and forced him to stay in line. We managed the occasional conversation, but nothing more."

The vision changed again, and I saw two of the men enter the hall, walking quickly. They grabbed one of the teachers by the hair and dragged her out of the room. She was screaming the entire time, and it hurt me to hear it now as much as it did before. Celestia was about to ask where they were taking her, but she was cut off when a gunshot tore through the building. Twilight gasped, and the entire room went silent, and I spoke, "It seemed our deadline had run out, and they started to execute us." I looked at my younger self, whose expression showed a mixture of fear and anger.

The sky suddenly darkened, and it became nighttime. The calender showed it had now been six days since they were taken hostage, and Ahmed was on watch while the rest of the men slept. He walked over to Doug, and noticed his wrists were bleeding from the tight rope. Making sure nobody else could see, he knelt down and loosened them.

"If you need anything, I'm just through the door," he said to Doug. He didn't reply, so Ahmed left the hall. My younger self sat there for another hour, before slowly twisting his arm and pulling himself out from the rope. He stood up, rubbing his wrist, and slowly tiptoed out of the hall. I saw a fire burning in his eyes, and followed him, with Celestia and Twilight close behind. We watched Doug peek out of the hall, making sure no one was there, and climb quietly up a flight of stairs. The floorboards creaked, and he winced every time he took a step, but he managed to make it to a door without anyone noticing.

We followed him inside, and saw five men sleeping in beds and on the floor. As we watched, my younger self picked up one of the rifles lying next to them. He approached the sleeping men, and aimed the rifle at them, lifting it as high as his young arms would allow. He took a deep breath, and I closed my eyes as he pulled the trigger. I heard the gunshots, imagining each of the bullets tearing through the men. The noise was deafening, but it ended as soon as it started, and in less than ten seconds, five of the kidnappers lay dead where they had been sleeping.

We heard someone running up the stairs, and we turned round to see Ahmed standing in the doorway. I saw Doug point the rifle at him, and a look of fear came over his face, while mine became anger. However, it softened, and my younger self lowered the gun, saying, "Go. Get out of here."

Ahmed didn't even nod. He just turned and ran. We followed Doug out of the room and back down to the hall, where most of the hostages had woken up. He took a quick look at them, and walked towards a door leading out of the building, where he was swarmed by men in black body armour.

"The police had been surrounding the building, but I think Ahmed managed to escape," I explained, as we watched the police begin untying the hostages, "They almost couldn't believe what I had done, and for a while, neither could I."

We watched the children get ferried out of the building, as Doug was carried away to a separate vehicle. I stayed where I was, and watched the car leave with Doug inside. Slowly, it faded into smoke, as well as the building and the people. We were left in the warehouse again, standing in front of an open, but empty safe. I turned to Celestia, her horn glowed, and my vision faded to black.

I woke up in the hospital bed again, with Twilight and Celestia standing where they had been before.

Twilight looked absolutely shocked, and ran out of the room. As we watched her, Celestia said, "I hope she will be alright. She is new to the concept of death, most ponies are," she began to follow her, but stopped and asked, "What happened afterwards?"

"We were taken to a nearby hospital and treated for injuries. There was also a funeral for the teacher who was murdered. The police wanted to know everything that had happened, and interviewed me about my intervention. It was treated with the strictest confidentiality. The media was told there was a rebellion among the kidnappers, but only a handful of people knew what actually happened.

"A few weeks afterwards, I started having flashbacks. I don't think my mind could accept what I had done. My parents took me to a doctor, and after a few months of therapy, I had managed to lock the memories away," I chuckled, "Literally it seems."

"So you let that final man go?" Celestia said.

"Yes. If it wasn't for him, I would never have managed to beak free. He may have helped the kidnappers, but he showed me kindness, and it felt wrong to kill him too."

Celestia nodded, "You have a strong conscience. I will let you rest now, but tomorrow, you will have to return to Ponyville."

Sorry this one took longer than the rest. College work is starting to crawl back into my mind. I've got exams right around the corner (May to be precise), so I'm going to have less time to write chapters now. I'll try to post one chapter a week, two if I'm lucky, but it probably won't get any higher than that. After May, however, I'll be a free man, and it'll get going again.