Chapters "C-cousin? W-where are you?"
"I'm over here. Come on, get over here, the Light awaits you on this side of the bridge!"
"W-why a-are you..."
"I will explain later! Move up, move up, move up!"
"I-I guess... I should try to walk over there... aaah!"
"Luisa!"
My name is Luisa Arjani. I'm eight years old.
My chest hurt badly and I wasn't really sure why. The only thing I could remember was my cousin Filiberto, some people with knives in their hands, a bridge, Filiberto talking about changing appearance and shining like a diamond, something that looked a lion's paw made of pure darkness, and Filiberto shouting one of his strange phrases in a language I could not understand.
Everything was so confused... I just felt scared. I just wanted to go home!
But, lucky me, apparently my wish was granted, because I felt a pillow under my head and the bed under the rest of my body.
But I also feel a voice, a girl's one, talking to me.
"What the heck are you? What are you doing in my mind and in my body?"
"Huh?" I say, confused by it. I didn't' know who was she, but the voice sounded familiar...
"Yes, you, what are you doing in this place, namely Diamond Tiara Divesnia's mind?" The voice said to me.
I remain silent for several minutes.
Diamond Tiara?
If Diamond Tiara was there, with me, it could mean only one thing...
I was in Equestria! In My Little Pony World! Now I can meet all my favourite ponies!
Of course, if I could find a way, and if Diamond Tiara stops shouting at me.
"Get off me! Get off me, Get off me! "
I look around me, and I see her standing atop of a red velvet pillow, in a room with was decorated with stuffs that were out from an Arabian palace.
"But I'm not onto you!" I say.
"But you are in my most private property, my thoughts. Leave this instant, or I will make you!" She shouts again towards me, still leaving me confused, because she said I am in her thoughts. But if I'm in her thoughts, why am I seeing a room? Why am I standing on a floor? Why I'm not floating?
"Sorry, but I don't understand... I mean, I'm in your head?"
"Yes, you are, genius!" She says once more "Did you suddenly forgot how to get out of ponies' minds?"
"But... I don't know how I did it!" I say.
Sure she's annoying! No wonder the Cutie Mark Crusaders hate her!
"Ugh... wonderful... I have a mind-invader with no clue on its abilities. Beautiful, just beautiful." she says, as she gets up, and walks to two shutter I did not noticed before "Well, since you are clueless in how you got there, I guess you don't know how to control me either."
I try to reply, but I feel my eyes hit by a wave of hurtful light. I close my eyes tightly, and open them back once I feel more comfortable in doing so, and I see a dark bedroom. However, I still can recognize two big and fancy wardrobes at opposite sides of the room, a line of chests, and a desk just under a closed and shuttered window. I also can see that I'm under the pink covers of a bed.
"Hey! That wasn't supposed to happen!" Diamond Tiara calls me. I turn around, but see nobody, so I wonder out loud.
"Where are you?"
"In your head, you imbecile." She says "I am in your head, and I somehow can't cont..."
I feel one of my limbs moving away from me, without me commanding it, creeping me out, and causing me to flail the other limb around.
"No, wait, I actually can control my body, despite seeing only from the right eyes!" Diamond Tiara said with a chuckle, as I felt all my limbs move outside the bed's covers onto the floor. I feel my heart pound harder as this happens.
"Wha-"
"Look, let me be quick and brief about this deal, because I don't have time for this," Diamond says, as my body kept moving without my control "You are invading this mind without anypony's permission. Therefore, act like the guest you are, and do not attempt to do or say anything without my permission, be it explicit or implicit. Understood, or do I have to repeat that, and maybe slam my pretty hooves hoof hard against a marble pillar?"
I nod a little afraid, as my and Tiara's body keeps moving forwards to an open door. There, Diamond turns on the light with my hoof, revealing a bathroom with white tiles floor, with a strangely-shaped punctured tile in the corner of the room. I can also see a big mirror above a white round sink, just like Filiberto's bathroom at his house.
My room-watching is interrupted by Tiara.
"Liking it? Hope so," she says, as she took a toothbrush lying on the sink's surface "Because you will have to get used to it until you learn how to get out of my head."
I sigh, as she puts toothpaste onto the brush and starts to brush her-mine teeth with it. This is going to be a loooong day for me...
As soon as she is done cleaning the teeth and the face, she walks towards the corner of the room where the weird tile is. As she moved the body, I feel something burning on my and her cheeks as if we were blushing.
"Now, Miss... Whoeveryouare, could you please shut yourself down for a bit? I need to pee."
"B-but... I can't!" I say, also embarrassed by the idea of peeing with somebody else else around.
"Try! I do not want anybody to peek!" She says, clearly as flustered as I am, so I try to make it clear "Neither do I!"
But, of course, she keeps begin mean "Yes, but this isn't you body, this is mine, you are just a 'guest'!"
"I know," I say "but I'm here too, you gotta share this body with me!"
"And the Habeas Corpus? And how the buck can I share my body anyways?"
"I don't know what Habeas Corpus is, and honestly I've never tried to share my body with somebody else, but I still can't avoid to see you peeing." I say, now more frustrated now.
She sighs, as she moves ourselves to the tile, which now I could understand was the WC. I can't understand why it is a hole in the floor, but I think it's because ponies poop and pee while sitting on their rumps. Not unlike how human girls do it, actually.
"Fine then. I guess I have no sane choice but this," she says, as she sat over the hole "I mean, the other option is go on, resisting until I wet myself at school while listening to the teacher or working on the lesson."
I do nothing, as urine is let out of our body, and Diamond cleans up the private parts after that.
Done with it, we move out of the bathroom and go downstairs and, as I do so, I ask.
"What do you usually have for breakfast?"
She snorts as she goes down the stairs of her house, the walls covered in paintings of pretty-looking landscapes.
"Mint chocolate whatever, and milk. Sometimes mushroom ham, but only if htye bother toast the bread, otherwise I don't eat it at all."
"So picky?" I ask, surprised to hear she is so limited in what she eats "Why that?"
"Do I really need to explain, or is the answer 'I prefer those things above other breakfast foods' enough for you?"
I groan offended.
"I was just trying to talk!"
"I'd rather not," she says, as she moves our body down a short hallway, one that seems to lead into some kind of dining room "It helps that I've got no coffee yet, and that I've been just invaded."
"Coffee?" I ask, as my and Tiara's body gets sit down by her onto a red pillow-chair nearby a glass table "You drink it?"
"Yes, is that a problem?" She answers, before moving our body's hoof near to the mouth, and shout.
"Dolos Eliziòs, my bluter, please bring in the breakfast, because I need it...." Diamond sighs "desperately."
I hear the sound of hooves quickly moving, and soon, from a sliding door I failed to notice before, a bald light blue pony comes into sight. He is an unicorn, and is levitating a metal tray, just like the butlers do in the movies. On this tray, there is a white mug and a jug that looks made of silver.
"Nai , Miss Tiara," He says dryly, while he puts the tray onto the table "what else can I bring in for you, desponìda ?"
Not knowing what I can eat nor what Tiara's family has in the fridge, I decide to let Tiara order.
"Mint chocolate cookies," she says, while the butler put milk in the mug "and a piece of cake please."
He nods and goes away again.
"Wow, cake?" I ask curious "How's that? Cream? Sponge bread and strawberry?"
"Chocolate," she answers "With chocolate chips on top with pieces of melted chocolate in the mix, with cocoa cream in the middle."
"Something tells me you like chocolate!" I say kidding. She groans as answer, and I huff to her. "Are you always like this in the mornings?"
"Well," she says, as she takes, to much of my stupor, the mug in only one of our hooves "do you think you would act any better, if a beast entered in your mind and started to pester you with its pointless chatter?"
"Hey! I'm not a beast!"
"You count as one for me," she says, as she takes another sip of the sweet milk "after all, I kind of don't know what animal you are, and if you are just a freak accident of said species."
"I am a human," I say "And, for the record, everybody I know can speak!""
"Eh, whatever," she says shrugging, the sound of the butler's hooves resonating again again in my and her ears.
"Idoù to geùma , Miss Tiara," he says, putting a plate with some biscuits and a slice of the super-cake requested by Diamond Tiara, on the table where we were sitting. Thought, naturally, my attention is set to what the butler had just said, because it just sounded weird.
"What?" I said, apparently not realizing I just had taken control of our body's mouth, and that I just asked that question. I felt our face begin hit by our hoof.
"Ouch!" I shout, while Diamond Tiara just huffs, before saying "That's what you get for asking such a question out loud without my permission!"
"But I was just asking!"
"Don't ask it to him, you cretin, ask it to me!" Then she sighs "Anyways, he said 'Here's the breakfast' in Greek."
"You are rude..." I say with a whine, which in turn nets me a "You are the rude one for begin in my mind. Now shut up already!"
At this point, I just don't feel like protest, and actually shut up, letting Tiara go on in eating her breakfast (but still enjoying the taste of all those things), putting the books in her rucksack for school, and finally getting out of the house for go to school.
What's worse than wake up with an headache? Wake up with a mind invader so annoyingly loud that causes you to get an headache.
And, of course, it's even worse when the invader refuses to leave, and states it knows nothing but your name and that it got in your mind somehow.
In my case, thought, at least I managed to pull through an infernal bathroom routine and breakfast, and managed to go out of my house in the proper state that begin a daughter of the New Nobility requires.
"Hey, where are you going? School?" the voice nagged, as I walked towards school, which was at ten minutes of walk from my house.
"No," I said sarcastically "I'm going to the park, and brought a saddlebag full of a library's worth of books just because."
"Oh, really? Yay!" She cheered loudly, annoying me some more, causing me to cringe, and making me answer with a sigh.
"Why did I had to get such a stupid invader in my head? Why did I even bothered to get up this morning?" I kept murmuring to myself, as I kept walking on a paved road on a secondary road of Ponyville, in a neighborhood that had several pawn shops and cheap jewelers side-by-side, almost like a cruel commercial joke.
"Hey! I'm not stupid!" It squeaked... again. "My mommy says I'm the smartest girl around!"
"There is only one beautiful and smart foal in the world," I said, trying to get to shut up and understand why her argument was broken "and every mother has it."
That begin said, I walked out from that zone of the town, and reached the school's gate, all while my mind invader kept mumbling, probably about what I just said. Annoying, sure, but less so than stupid questions about whatever was going on around me, and I enjoyed this time of respite by walking a little faster inside the schoolyard towards the entrance, where the janitor, a morbidly obese brown pony with blue jeans overalls, was leaning against a column on the entrance, clearly half-asleep and probably drunk.
I skipped onto the steps, gave a light poke ot the janitor's fat, then entered in the entrance hall of the school, where only a hooffull of ponies were, and Silver was not in-between them.
"She's late again," I said to myself as I went near the piel of spare cairs and desks stacked in a dark corner. "Oh well, time to wait in my usual corner."
Only at this point the intruder spoke again.
"Oooh, you are waiting for somebody? Who is it?"
I groaned as I climbed the lowest pile of chairs for sit down on them.
"First of all, she is a she. Second, it's 'somepony.' Third, I'm waiting for one of my friends." I said annoyedly.
What came next hit me by surprise.
"Oooh, is she Silver Spoon? Or did made peace with Apple Bloom?"
I recoiled and widened my eyes, as I felt dazzled, scared, and nearly violated.
"How do you know that? Did you just looked into my friggin' memories?" I asked, attempting to sound threatening. It seemed to work, since I heard a barely audible squeak with the same tune ofh er voice.
"Answer me!" I roared in my mind, as she timidly answered me shortly after.
"See... uuuummm..."
"Speak up!"
"Aehm... I dunno, thought you knew."
"I knew WHAT?" I said angrily again, getting impatient of her titubation.
"That you were on television?" She said hesitantly, her voice begging to be represented by a pony grinning awkwardly and shrugging their shoulders. Of course, there were bigger concerns there, than the lack of visual cues.
"What's a 'television'? It's how your kind calls their ability to communicate how their daily pestering is going?" I say, half curious, half annoyed.
"No, it's a box that allows you to watch movies, cartoons, documentaries..." She said, somewhat eager-sounding in her explaiantion. Explanation that I cut off.
"Oh, it's cinema, nothing unusual here." I said annoyed, as I looked at the entrance hall again and saw it getting chock-full of ponies. "In fact, I don't get why call a cinema a fancy name like 'television.' Sounds like false advertising to me. But I feel somewhat better, in the idea that my life is deemed so interesting by somepony or something, that thy project it in cinemas."
After saying that, silence fell in my mind, but there was chatter and overall bustle outside it. In the crowd, I glimpsed three familiar faces: the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
Those three were always a blast to watch and poke fun to... whenever they didn't become too hard to keep chewing on, or did structural damage to town. Then they became stupidly boorish and vandals respectively. And that's not good.
Anyways, those three were not my friends, but, naturally, the invader thought the exact opposite, as it clumsly somehow overtook my body, and made me clumsly jump down and walk towards the three fillies.
Not that I knew that, since I started to feel like panicking.
"What is going on? Is this your doing?"
I got no response as, to much of my horror, my body kept moving without begin commanded by me, its rightful owner. And, worse of all, it was directed towards the damned three! I tried to regain control of myself, but every action was fleeting, and only made me breath heavily due to the fatigue I was feeling, all while the invader kept moving awkwardly towards them.
"Hi, Apple Bloom, hi Sweetie Belle, hi Scootaloo! How are you?" It said excitedly, once she was at few centimeters from their faces, and, naturally, Scoot-a-Loo did not waste time in react like the brute she is.
"Woke up with half of your brain cut off, Tiara?" She asked, while the other two looked at my body with a frown and a reclined head. "Or were you struck by a lighting made by Rainbow Dash after insulting her?"
"What are you talking about?" It said, to much of my annoyance.
"You know very well what I'm talking about!" Scootaloo said "Stop playing dumb!"
The invader made my ears lower and whimpered. Not a very dignified scene... but at least I could try to get the reins back now. I concentrated, took my body back and said.
"I am not playing dumb, but sure you DO play the part perfectly!"
She growled, but, before she could lay her hooves on me, I recoiled with a jump back just as the bell rang, thusly indicating that our time to get into the class had come.
Scootaloo glared at me one last time, before joining the middle of the stream of ponies along with her obviously dazzled friends, and leaving me to join the sides of the stream instead.
As I walked there, the invader, unfortunately, spoke again.
"What she was talking about?" It asked, her voice sounded completely baffled by Scootaloo's reaction. "I mean, yeah, you have been mean to her in many occasions, I thought you had stopped teasing them, but... what happened exactly this time?"
"Oh, nothing, really," I said, "I kinda waved some copies of her clinical folder in front of her and her friends' faces, then pointed out each and every point proving why she will be unable to fly for the rest of her life, unless she suddenly gains enough money for buy one. Oh, and maybe the fact I mocked them for their lack of cutie mark may be something they still take as an issue."
There was silence. I smirked, as I kept walking towards my class' door.
"Well, I thought that they showed similar glimpses of my deeds on that 'television' of yours. Then again, maybe they censor it for weak minds."
"Diamond Tiara, you are..."
"Am I what?" I said almost proudly, as I put the rucksack at the right side of my desk.
It sighed, as I sat down and extracted my History book.
As Tiara opens up the book with our left hoof, I remain silent for think about what just happened, because it was just... mean. Or, at least, I think it was, since I don't know what "clinical folders" exactly are. I guess they are folders containing each doctor's visit date and schedule, but I don't get how they were important for Diamond Tiara for her picking on Scootaloo, nor why they said Scootaloo couldn't fly. Maybe it was more like a diary for the doctor, but that would mean Diamond Tara stole it, which doesn't strike me as something she would do.
Anyways, I'm watching the lessons go by in front of my eyes. Because the lessons are boring, and because I have nothing to do, I wish to snooze, but Diamond Tiara wakees me up saying "Don't you dare to ruin my mark in Behaviour like this!"
"Oh, come on, I can't do anything, at least let me take a nap!" I snap back annoyed, while she opens the book with our right hoof.
"If you sleep, I also sleep, and I can't allow myself to do that!" She said, as she kept looking forward to the blackboard where Cheerliee was writing some dates up.
"Why not?"
"Because I am not stupid, I care about the subject, and, either way, I don't feel sleepy right now." She says after groaning, as she takes a pencil in our mouth, and underlines some words on the book. I sigh and sit back, trying to relax.
This is going to be long and boring.
Minutes pass, and Cheerliee is still talking about the history of Mexican ancient tribes. Okay, actually Mexicoltian, but whatever. Diamond Tiara is still writing notes with our mouth and we don't get disturbed or the chance to chat with somebody.
The next hour is, to much of my and Tiara's annoyance, Math. The teacher asks us to close down our History books and take the Math ones while she wipes the blackboard clean with her right hoof. Diamond Tiara used our left hoof to take out her Math exercise book, a light pink one, and the book proper, which lacks of the cover, unlike all others.
"Why is it without a cover?" I ask as Tiara opesn the book at a certain page.
"Because it was ugly and hurting my sense of aesthetic. If I have to do something, at least make it look decent." She says with a grunt.
"What's aesthetics?" I ask. Just how many big words she uses every day?
"Philosophical branch looking for the definition of 'beauty.' Popularly used for define something that looks nice." She says dryly "Now, if I may ask, help me out in doing whatever the teacher will throw at me."
I feel the need to smile awkwardly and shrug, but, because I don't have a body, I say meekly. "I'm bad at math..."
She groans and takes a pen in her mouth, before looking up at the blackboard, where Cheerliee was writing down the operations to complete. Namely, some two-digits divisions and several additions with hundreds.
"Fifty divided by twenty-five;" She murmurs behind the pen while writing "Sixty-six divided by twenty-two; One hundred and twenty-one divided by one hundreds; two hundreds and seventy-two divided by twenty."
Once she fishes to write these down, she spits out the pen and says with a needy tone. "Try to solve these, while I write the additions down."
I sigh. I hate divisions, especially the oen with two digits, I don't like Diamond Tiara, and I don't like how she gave me the order. However, that's all I can do, so... I will do them.
The math lesson stretchs out for another, painful, hour, hour where I do nothing but mathematical operations.
"C'mon, can't you turn around just for a bit? I wanna talk with somebody!" I complain, after I had told her that the solution to fifty plus one hundred and ninety-seven is two hundreds and seven.
"Once again, I can't, because it would..." she murmured behind the pen while she wrote.
"Ruin your reputation in front of the teacher and friends..." I say in a whiny tone mocking hers, causing her to groan annoyed for the nth time today.
"Ugh... sometimes I hate my life..." She murmurs, before looking up at the blackboard and tell me. "Seventy-six plus four?"
I'm going to say "EIghty," but, as I move my lips, the bell rings and drowns my words under its sweet trill, trill that is soon followed by the teacher saying.
"Okay class, write down those operations on the blackboard as homework, then you will be able to go outside." She says, as I can hear some going back to their positions.
Diamond Tiara suddenly jerked her and my head up, before quickly writing the rest of the exercises on the exercise book, creating unreadable scribbles akin to geroghlyps, in place of the numbers.
"Are you sure you can read them at home?" I ask. The question gets no answer because, as soon as she was done, she jumped on a side of the desk, took a paper bag in our mouth, then galloped down the alley along with the few of her classmates that had already did what Cheerliee asked, leaving the rest behind.
Once I am galloped out of the alley into the grassy yard, I see some things that I had missed at first, when I and Tiara got into school. For example, swings in the center, a ball-on-pole not too far from the swings, a small volleyball (I think) field in a far-off corner of the yard, well-kept bushes, and, well, benches around the whole place.
Feeling the need to try out the first two things, I ask to Tiara in a very fast and excited tone. "Can I go to the swings? Can I? CanI?"
"Please, use 'we,' because you aren't alone. Also, no," she says, as she reaches a bench just under a stone statue of a pony carrying a flag while standing on his (her?) hind hooves "I do not like the idea."
"What?" I exclaim "Why you don't like it? It's fun!"
"I could turn the question around, and ask why do you consider swings to be fun, but it would be wasted breath," she said as she opened the paper bag "but, if you really insist in getting an answer, it's because I don't feel in the mood today, not that usually I am."
I feel offended by Tiara's statement and I answer back while she unwraps a sandwich with our left hoof.
"It's not wasted breath, I can perfectly understand!" I say, while she moved the food near to our mouth, drool running down my and her maw and crumbles getting sprayed everywhere bite after bite. She answers me only when she gulps the mouthful of food.
"Then I've already asked you the question, so answer me."
I'm left puzzled. Why did she had to be so complicated in what she talks about?
"What do you mean?"
"Ugh, sometimes you remind me of my dumb serf third-grade cousin. My question was 'why do you like swings?' Since oyu asked me why I didn't like them."
Yeah. that is an hard question actually, but I don't give up and say. "Because they make you feel like flying, and they make you feel speed up, and they...." I paused for a few seconds "uummm... require more than one to be used?"
"Why the last would be even worthy to be listed?" She complained after gulping another bite.
"I dunno."
"See?" She says, finishing up the food before saying this "you can't, it is almost innate. So, stop bothering me about it."
I sigh. there was simply no way to talk with Tiara. Then again, what did I expect? She IS the bully of the school, surely I shouldn't have expected to talk to her like how I talked to my mom's friends.
I remain silent for ten long minutes, as Diamond tiara walks around grumbling, and causes some of the ponies to bow and greet her with bowings, getting a dry "Hello" in return. I seriously don't get why, but that's how it goes, apparently.
Once Tiara made our body walk around ten times on the perimeter of the yard, the bell rang and, with a collective "Aaawww," everyone walked back to the school. Diamond Tiara, like if she was doing it for stand out at all costs, seemingly cheered up by the bell ring, walked faster to the door and back into the classroom to her desk, while the rest of the class came in after her slowly.
When Cheerliee is back behind the desk, the next lesson, namely English (here called "Equish" for some reasons) begins. Diamond Tiara takes out the book, opens it to page sixty-one, then she murmurs what's written on the book, namely, a poem about a pomegranate tree and somebody tending a hoof towards one of the branches, and how said tree renewed itself in spring, with mention of begin udner the "cold earth, under the black earth."
I'm going to aks Tiara, but, seeing she's concentrated in reading it, probably for learn it to memory for then repeat it to the teacher, and considering my track record with her so far, I leave her alone with the book. Meanwhile, I let myself wander free in thoughts.
As I think to various things, one of my thoughts catches my interest: y family.
Yeah... my family and my parents in particular. Do they know where am I? Probably not, but, hey, I woke up in My Little Pony's world, so anything is possible. But, assuming that my body is not there anymore or that nobody has it, are they looking for me?
I already imagine my mom looking under the bed and my dad shouting "Luisa!" in the streets, and the image makes me somewhat giggle. If only I could get back there and reassure them... now, I do wonder, if I could go there, would I be a ghost? That would be cool. I mean, pass through things and all. But maybe I would want to return to my own body, since begin Diamond Tiara's guest spirit is no fun.
Well... maybe I could make it more fun, if I just stopped obeying? Well, maybe, but I'm not in the mood for try that out right now.
Finally, after another hour in school, the bell rang, and Cheerliee closes the registry with a loud slam, saying "As for your homework, do exercise one, four and elven at page sixty-nine; and exercise ten at page twenty-six. That said, you can leave now. See oyu tomorrow!"
The sudden happening of this and Diamond Tiara's jerking move for take pencil and diary for write homeworks make me a little dizzy, and wonder for how long I have been lost in thought and ignoring everything that was going on around me in the class.
But, before I can fully recover, Tiara has already used both our hooves for sweep the books and the pencil case into the rucksack, and, in very short order, Diamond Tiara manages to sprint our body outide the classroom and towards the outside with me still dazzled all the way.
"Woah!" Is all I can shout while my and her body keeps moving fast to Tiara's mansion "How did you manage to do that?"
"Practice." she simply said, as she kept make our body run for what I think were kilometers and kilometers, until we were at her mansion's gate, where she stopped for pull the bell's string, causing a ringing sound and making the gardener working on the marsh open the gate for Tiara.
"Good day miss Tiara" the gardener said, and tiara answered only with "Good day Woodcutter," before running away on the stone path to the entrance, which had its door open, for some reasons. It was only at this point that Tiara slowed down, and starts to pant like a bellow, and, for some reasons, transmitting the tiredness to me.
"Okay, time to rest," she said, moving us slowly to the nearest living room, one covered in dim light "This will do. Oh, if it will do."
"Yeah." I simply say, as she drops my nadh er body on the couch, and as she closes her eyes, bringing me to close them too shortly afterwards.
I hear a tang. A delicate one, to be more precise. As I open my eyes, I hear a song in the same language Filiberto spoke sometimes, and I see a shining figure giving the shoudlers to me. Said figure seems ot wear a gem-covered rob, and has a golden sword at his side.
Curious, I ask "Who are you?"
The answer, for some reasons, shocks me.
"I am Filiberto Arjani, oh my dearest cousin, and I have been sent by Ahura Madza, the Enlightening Wisdom, Protector of the World, Most Straight, Most Just, and thusly yazat , for communicate with you."
Author's Note
Warning : some written and described gore present. Reader's discretion advised.
Fatal Frame.
I don't get it.
Why is Filiberto appearing like that, dressed in golden robes and with a tear that... 'bleeds' light? Who's this 'Madza' guy he's talking about, and why did he called him with so many words? And, most of all, where am I?
I decide that the best way to deal with it is to ask to him.
"Uuummm... hello Filiberto, where am I exactly, and why do you look like that? Is it connected with Ahura Madza, whoever he is?"
He turns around completely, showing that he has a little brown book in his hands. His shirt is white with several ruby-encrusted gold plates an buttons made of what it looks like obsidian. Also, the choir singing in the background had started to sing a bit louder and with more passion. I can understand that the words have changed, but I still cannot understand them.
"You are in the mind of your host, Diamond Tiara. My appearance is like this due to the fact that my essence left the body while I fought for the Faith and the good of one of my kinsmen, and, yes, this is my eternal reward received from Ahura Madza, Merciful and Just Judge."
I look at him, even more confused. Why was he talking like that all of the sudden? He used to speak much more simply, what happened?
"Uuummm... what? I really don't understand what are you telling me, cousin..."
"I did," Tiara suddenly says, coming apparently from nowhere "He said that he's dead, and Ahura Madza, which I guess is his god, has granted him a special status in the afterlife because he died for his religion and while he defended a relative."
"That is what my words were trying to express, oh generous maiden," Filiberto says.
I feel scared, sad, confused and annoyed at the same time. If he's dead now, when did he die? Why did he die for somebody of my family, and who is it? Did he got a funeral, or did he not? Was he happy now?
Well, since I have him at hand, I could ask...
"Filiberto, can you tell me how did you die?"
He sighed, as he closed the book, and as the choir shut up all of the sudden.
"I would tell a white lie to you, oh my dear Luisa, for the teale of my death is not for the eyes and ears of the tender children. Unfortunately, Asha purified my essence from the ability of tell lies and od impurities of every kind. So, you shall receive the most honest answer."
I tense up, scared about what he was going to tell me. Tiara was not o the same opinion. "Do tell me. I'm curious now."
Filiberto sighed, as he made a downwards-upwards gesture, creating something that looked like a cinema's screen out of thin air, before speaking up.
"The fight that brought me to my demise did not break out during a war, but after the end of a happy event," the image of Filiberto dressed in trenchcoat and boots, walking behind a small figure in his shadow, appeared on the screen made from nothing by Filiberto's gesture.
"I was returning from the celebrations of one of my following kinsman's friends. I had given my gifts, I did the customary rituals, and I had tied the kusti one last time before leaving. A tranquil return was seemingly awaiting me," on the screen, three shadowy figures appeared in front of the little figure, which stops dead in its tracks.
"However, I did not account for the presence of the vilest, most unholy creatures in the land of the living: the worshippers of angra maiynu." he said that name in a low voice and with a nasal tone, as the screen showed one of the figures grinning and dragging the small figure by the hair towards the other two "They had stopped my kinsman and, after finding a bronze faravahar tied to the neck of their captive, they shouted that Ahriman was going to be pleased for the sacrifice of a child of a Madzaist."
Filiberto, on-screen rushed forward, punching one of the figures in the face and stealing a knife in its hand, and stabbing him in the guts. Another figure rushed to Filiberto, but, after kicking it away, he made a slicing movement in its lower torso. The sight of this much blood made me gag a little.
"I could not allow that, if not for the value of my kinsman's life, at least for avoid that the dirt-eating god could get any power. I disarmed one of them, and, with the weapon they wanted to use for the sacrifice, I sent one of them to his oh-so-yearned malicious protector, and, when another one tired to stop me, I swiftly reacted by slicing away his vest and the lower part of his body. He lived very shortly after begin injured, because he soon collapsed to the ground, bleeding and invoking his mother to save him."
I see the actions described, as the one keeping the little figure in hostage finally reacts by hitting Filiberto in the back, causing him to collapse all of sudden and cough out blood, to much of my disgust. As he unites his hands, the attacker takes the little figure in his hands, moves the knife near its neck, then slices it in a spray of more blood, as the little one screams in pain and cries for help. The sight makes me finally look away and try to puke my breakfast out, to no success.
"Alas, I could not stop the last, for he stabbed e in the back, ending my deed. However, the hit allowed me to say one last prayer, before pass away and join my illustrious ancestors. As I prayed, the last vile cultist of the group killed my kinsman in cold blood, likely reciting pointless prayers to angra mainyu. But he was doomed, for that the noise caused by the fight attracted the nearby inhabitants like bees on honey, and the sight of that mean display brought many to call in the Civic Guard, allowing earthly justice guided by the hand of the divine one to capture him, once again prevailing over injustice and chaos."
"I've seen worse in certain B-movies. Pretty intense way to die, thought," Tiara says, as I recollect the courage to look at the screen again "who was the one you were protecting anyway?"
My cousin Filiberto let out a sigh, as the screen showed his body brought on something looking like a gurney moved by four black-clad people, dressed in tuxedo and with the scimitar he had hung in the living room of his house firmly in his dead hands. He was begin lowered in what it looked like a big concrete cube carved into the ground. Said hole was surrounded by many people. Some, like my mother and father, and Filiberto's parents and siblings were familiar to me, but others were not familiar to me. I also see a bearded man wearing white that drops what, I think, are ashes onto Filiberto's chest, and delivers a speech I can't hear.
"I died in the attempt to save the here present Luisa from a very untimely demise to the hands of a cult that should have been eradicated long ago. I failed, but I was still rewarded for my attempt."
Then the screen goes black for a few seconds, and then goes back on. This time I see myself, better yet, my body, laying on some kind of gurney, my neck stitched up and a white dress on me. I also see that I have two of my favorite plushies, Applebloom and a monkey to be more precise, at my body's sides. All my classmates were following behind the gurney while carrying a lily in their hands.
I see Aldaberto, my boyfriend, and all my three best friends, Guglielmina, Francesca and Jeanne, crying while walking behind, while the rest of my classmates look almost unaffected as they walk. My body is also lowered in a hole similar ot the one where Filiberot was buried.
I start to whimper, sob, cry, looking away from the screen, and attempting to rush to Filiberto for an hug. However, as I try that, a wall of fire creates itself between me and Filiberto, causing me to jump away startled.
"I am sorry, but, as pure soul, I am not allowed to get in bodily contact with the living. Not even the projection of a mind can get directly in contact with a soul freed of the ability to do impurities. However, as you can see, I can comfort you with promises and sights."
I just don't know how to react to all of that... I just... wanna cry.
Well, that was interesting to see. Basically, I had the soul of a dead alien in my head, and, apparently, one of the relatives of this alien died in while fighting. Well, this sounds like the plot of a cheap B-movie, but aren't B-moves entertaining from time to time?
"Interesting," I said, while Luisa (that's how I think my invader was named) cried her eyes out "you know, I kind of admire you. But, let's not lose ourselves in petty chatter: what was the message you wanted to deliver to your cousin?"
He inflated his chest a little, before sighing a bit sadly.
"I wanted to tell her," he said "That the reason for her condition as a soul that has to live inside your body, oh magnanimous Diamond Tiara, was because, while she traveled upon the bridge of the Underworld to be judged, Ahriman tried to reclaim her soul for himself, despite the integrity of the bridge at her passing. The following clash of divinity and bestiality resulted in a tie, as Luisa's essence was thrown in a random place, which happened to be your body, oh Tiara. I was informed of your thanks to the restless, limitless and omnipresent watch of Ahura Madza on all his creations, for He is Xratuš , and thusly aware of your name and Luisa's place."
So... not only I had the soul of a dead alien in my mind, not only said alien was relative with another alien that was apparently able to fight, but I was also an important part of a conflict between opposing deities? Well, I'd be foolish to think this isn't something that puts me in the center of the attention!
I'd better try to find way to get Luisa out, thought. I will ask to this agent of this Ahura Madza about what to do, when the idea of having to share my body will start to bore me
"Uuum... interesting, I have to say. I do wonder, is there anything I can do for help?"
"Yes, you can," he said "You will have to watch over her actions. Keep her from having bad thoughts, do bad actions and say bad words. Make her avoid the oens wanting to corrupt her."
"Ah, I see. Thought that's not very detailed Can I know more?" I asked, as Luisa reduced her cires to sniffles.
"You will have to wait a bit, for I will have to tell her what to do for leave this fine but fleeting abode of your mind."
New Orders
I'm confused, scared and feeling other feelings of emptiness that I've never felt before, all at the same time.
I'm dead, killed, but... how am I there then? Can I visit my parents as a ghost? Can I do the same with my friends? Can I still go around the Earth and visit places? Or am I stuck inside Tiara? The idea is scary, but... it looks like so. I turn around to Filiberto, hoping that he will help me and/or will answer to all my questions.
"Filiberto?"
"Yes, oh dear cousin?" He asks, turning his bleeding chest around with a swish of his golden coat. I fiddle my figners around a bit, then I take my courage with two hands, and ask "I-is there any way t-to come back to mom and dad?"
As Diamond Tiara put her left hoof on her face and groans, Filiberto sighs as he lowers his head and says "You may pay them a visit when their eyes will rest closed and their minds will be relieved shortly from the worries of the day." He rises his index of his left hand "However, roaming the Earth is not possible for the pious and unchosen dead like you, as only the souls of the truly wicked and the punished can do so, and only if a priest of angra mainyu," he lets out a snarl and spits on the black ground "with the sacrifice of his blood upon a fire sparked with a torch and burning bodily wastes and pieces of corpses, decides to summon them to do their bidding for an amount of time that does not go beyond two sunrises."
I look sideways at my cousin. This is so complicated!
"I-I don't get it, Filiberto... do I get to visit people?" I say, nearly trembling, so he says "No, you cannot do so, for you have yet to be fully judged by Madza, the Most Rightful Judge and yazad , and need to be freed from this body first."
I look puzzled at my cousin, still not getting it all. I mean, am I dead, not dead, in Limbo, in Hell, or what? It's all so confusing... I decide to ask "I-I'm lost..."
"In a handful of simple terms, you are dead indeed, but you have yet to join the Afterlife fully, as your judgment has been halted. For join it, you shall leave this body as soon as the opportunity offers itself to you."
I nod, still not completely understanding but still understanding a little more than before. "When?" I ask.
Filiberto creates a small glowing silvery scroll from nowhere, letting it float a bit in the air, then grabs it and unrolls it in his hands, saying "The opportunity, oh my dear young cousin Luisa, starts from tomorrow and it shall last until the Moon will have done its cycle in the sky once, for the Afterlife has gotten more near to this world, allowing an easier liberation of souls trapped inside objects, beasts and men, without destroying the host. While it is possible to do so in other times, it may require so much effort in doing so, that it may end with the soul of the one that gives aid begin snuffed out of him in the attempt to recover the soul of the trapped deceased one, and so it is advisable to try now, rather than wait."
Apparently, I can join my granpas, my cousin and all the others only if I do it in a month. Good or bad? I don't know, to be honest. Filiberto then said "For ensure that you will get access to Heaven right away without the need to be purified in Hell," I shiver a little at the mention.
Going to Hell? But why? I don't dare asking why until he stops talking, thought "You will need to adhere to these Principles: Do not Obstacle or Harm your host in any way, shape or form, and do not Act or Speak in ways that go completely against your Host's principles. Be most kind and generous whenever the opportunity is presented. Respect the Fire presided by Asha Vahishta; the Water, dominion of Haurvatat; and the Earth, abode of Spenta Armaiti. Contract marriages or have intimate contacts with your host's next-to-kins."
I look sideways AGAIN. This time, thought, I don't have to ask, as he says "This means that, in order to succeed, you must contact the here present Diamond Tiara's cousins, and betroth them, or, otherwise, kiss them in the mouth."
I stick my tongue out, saying "Eeeeww" at the thought of kissing a boy in the mouth. "That's gross!" I say.
"Ahura Madza requires to have full sexual relationships with next-to-kins, if the marriage with them never comes or is contracted with unrelated people. However, I think that my Lord, Most Straight, Most Just and All-Embracing Goodness, will be more than understanding if you do not have done it, for you are a fragile child, a category that men, under His influence, have deemed too fragile for attend to that duty."
"Next-to-kins?" I ask and Tiara says really fast "Like cousins, brothers, fathers..."
I sigh. So, I had to kiss Diamodn Tiara's boy cousins in the mouth and I have to stay silent and still as she does whatever she wants to get in Heaven. That's not fair! Why do I always have to act nice all the time? And why should I kiss a boy? Should be the opposite...
But I don't say anything, only moaning and stomping my feet a little at the thought of obey. With this done, Filiberot says "I have to leave this place now," his body started to undo itself in threads of pure light "Goodbye cousin, see you soon in Paradise." I wave at him, and so does Diamond Tiara. Then we wake up.
"Okay, now I understand it all." Diamond Tiara says s she stretches our front hooves and jumps down the couch where we slept "We need to find a strong magic user, and, while we look for him, you have to obey me and my orders."
I sigh and nod, as she moves us to the dinign room. It's true that I need to follow the rules and play nice for get with my cousin, but... it's still annoying.
So, the alien in my head was supposed to stay put and silent for the most part, least it/she was forced into Hell? Neat!
Sure, the clause that for get rid of her I had to screw or marry one of my close relatives bothered me, but, to be honest, it was up to me to decide if I wanted to send her to Hell because I didn't have sex with a close relative, not her. I was going to do that only if Luisa behaved.
Anyway, once I woke up, I got up and, hearing my stomach growling, I went in the dinign room.
There, as my servants brought in colorful bowls full of pea cream, black bread, salad and all of that, my father and mother sat down. My mother, as per her annoying usual, asked me "Honey, did you have a good day at school?"
"Yes. Nothing happened." I replied, and, without error, Luisa nagged me with "Hey! That's not true! something happened!" making me groan.
"Nothing actually happened. Now stop, or you may go to Hell for contradicting me." I replied to it/she, who let out a whimper, before answring offended.
"That's now what he said! He said I couldn't say or make oyu do anythign that goes agaisnt what you believe in!" It/she said, makign me groan again.
Meanwhile, my mother said "Oh, okay" and went on to serve herself with some salad instead. My father, as per his usual, mixed the cream with salad without any apparent reason.
"I believe in silence at the table, okay?" I said, making the dead alien in my head huff.
"Sure that for begin one claiming to like 'simple cuisine' he eats lots of unusual and elaborate foodstuffs," I think, to which Luisa, of course, answers.
"Well, tastes are tastes, aren't they? 'sides, why do you care?" She/it said with a tone of voice that made me wish I could have gone inside my head to beat her into submission.
I speak up, as I take another forkful of my food, while my parents are busy eating some more in silence "I care because he is my father and he doesn't seem to act like he says he does."
Luisa huffed again and then silenced herself, allowing me to enjoy my meal in peace.
When I had finished my lunch quickly and silently, I went back to my room for do my duties that school assigned me for home.
"Now you can talk," I say, extracting the books "as I need help with my homework and I think that your small mind may have some abouts of genius that can become useful for me."
She sighed, saying "Guess I'll obey..."
"Good." I said, as I took up the pen and my excercise book and brought them in front of me.
Author's Note
Took me an eternity, but it's done
Author's Note
With great regret, I have to announce that this story is officially Cancelled due to a variety of factors.
One of them is a recent change in the site rules that forbids certain contenent to be linked (even in a broken way) off-site and that can't be posted here, thusly destroying a good chunck of story that I had planned to publish.
Next is the fact that I haven't thought this up too much. Sure, the concept was interesting, but... where was I going from there? I kidna trapped myself once I had established that Luisa could not contradict Diamond, least she is sent in Hell afterwards. The conflict proposes would not entince many, not it would last more than a few scenes. Oh, sure I could play aroudn the fact that Diamond was goign to try Discord, having Discord accept to help, but Luisa declinign because Filiberto told her that trying it would be akin to force Diamond Tiara to rob a store clear and kill the shopkeeper and all his relatives or something; but, beyond that? There wasn't much else to tell
The last one is the ending (that I'm going to show below, because I'm not gonna let it go to waste after the work I've put in) and how the story was planned in general. I wanted to go astray from the usual devices of the endings of this kind of stories, by using a character usually used as a minor villain. The problem is, it was a series of contrived coincidences that I could not justify decently, and at the same time begin a little too stubborn to change it.
With this said, enjoy this partial ending made for a never-completed story.
WARNING: Gore.
Announcment + Ending
I walk and walk and walk, the marble hallways covered in carpets and paintings getting a bit repetitive to look at.
Couldn't Blueblood have built his private temple a little bit closer to the bedrooms? I don't say anything, or else I won't go to Heaven, as Diamond Tiara, following Blueblood and the old stallion in white robe with golden hems to a door at the ground floor.
"Let me open it for you, Venerable," Blueblood says, as he pushed the knob down and pulled the door inwards, the old pony croacking something as he walks inside the room. Me and Diamond also walk in the room, which is dark, excluding a flame burning in the middle, a bit cold and, with all those shapes in the darkness created by the flame, looking quite scary. Diamond Tiara, begin apparently a little braver than me, moves our head around to look at a couple of broken windows or at a column with a pile of trash nearby.
"Um, interesting. So, that's how a fire temple looks,"
Blueblood turns around, while the old pony walks to the flame.
"Actually, this isn't a Fire Temple, more of a Fire Chapel. I would be ashamed to set alight the Flame of Victory inside here."
Diamond Tiara makes both of us nod. I resist my temptation to move my body around, fearing it might harm me later on. Meanwhile, the old stallion slowly walks towards the flae, then turns around and gestures for me to come over there.
Diamodn Tiara and I move ourselves there, then stand still, as the stlalion then knels next to the flame, before he starts to chan something in an unknown language. I can only hear a phrase begin repeated often, it begin "Ashem vohou."
The old stallion turns around towards me and tiara, gesturing with hir left hoof and speaking in the same langauge.
This thigns goes on and on, the old pony walking in circles around us. I wish to slump down and sleep, but I know thsi is really, really important, and I stand up and pay attention.
All of the sudden, I feel the sense of my body disappear, and I see that I am quickly rushing up, above Diamond tiara's body, the priest and Blueblood. I whimper and gasp but, once i pass throguth the roof and see Blueblood's mansion, I realize.
I'm free!
I start to laugh and chuckle. Now nothing was going to stop me from joining Filiberto in Paradise!
With a flash, I'm back a the bridge where I was before starting this whole adventure in Diamond Tiara's body. I run throught it... and I feel it quake. I stop immediately, my hearth racing and curling up, as I see one part of the bridge collapsing in the void.
Suddenly, a deep, booming, angry vocie speaks from somewhere "You did not contract next-to-kin berothrals or sexual congresses. You did not obey to your host's wishes. You tried to teach morality when you did not have the kusti. You shall be left in the Hosue of Deceit and Pain for ten years, for you were just a child, but your faults were enough to make oyu worthy of it."
I squeak, as the bridge falls just below me, sendign me down in the void. I don't know who he is, but he sounded so... harsh, towards me. He said that I did wrong... but what? I hadn't done nothing!
Soon, I feel the air heating up and, not too long after, I feel my back hit somethign hard and hot, which makes me jolt up in shriek in pain, only to feel more pain as I get on my feet. I look down, and see that the ground is made of burning coals and nails, and that my feet ae bleeding and hurting.
I shriek again in pain and tear up a little. As I do so, I hear a gallop behidn me and, when I turn around, I see a man.
A man with skin charred in points, live coals for fingers holding a grip onto a long spear made compeltely of metal and an armour with complex and fancy decorations. He is riding a black horse with his mane ablaze and his eyes glowing of sickly green.
He says, as he lowers the spear and aims it to me "Forward, Bucephalus! We have many other damned to process for Ahriman!"
I try to run, despite the pain in my feet, but, before I can even make another step, I feel my back begin pierced with a great deal of pain, as a pointy thing I recognize as the spear's tip comes in fornt of my chest.
I cry loudly, pain and fear fillign me up, as I'm then held up.
"Why are you doing this to me?!" I cry out, not expecting any answer and just steaming out my desperation.
The man answers affter a deep chuckle. "I am Alexander the Demon, burner of Persepolis and destroyer of Zoroaster's Avesta, and I'm the closest and greatest servant of Ahriman, lord of chaso and darkness." He says, before throwing me and the spear away "And I am tasked wih giving to each damned the place it deserves!"
