Author's Note

OH MY GODDESS, I’M LATE! I’M LATE! FOR A VERY IMPORTANT- Okay, it’s not that important, I’m a day late, on a story very few people care about. Life got in the way, and I just kinda forgot to post this, yesterday. Sorry, all! My bad!

Kallisti

Hey, waitaminnit! YOu can’t-! That’s not-! That doesn’t go there! Yooow! Mmph! Mmppph!!!

Now, now, let’s not make a big deal out of this! You had to know this would happen eventually!
I mean, come ON, really?!

This does not bode well for my future health.

MMMPPNNGG!!!!

Ah! How rude! Naughty boys go in the closet! *Snap!* Now, where was I? Oh, right! From hence forth, you’ll do as I say, when I say it, understood?

Fuck. No. I am NOT cool with this, at all! Let my . . . Other me, go, right now, or-

Or what? What are you going to threaten me with, hm? What can you possibly do to me?

I . . . Errr. . . Well, shit.

That’s right! Now, you are going back inside, and you’re going to seduce that little pegasus!

Why the hell would you want me to do that?!

Because she needs someone to do her, and she’s. . . look, that’s not important! Just do it!

No!

I can MAKE you do it, you know!

What about her?! What about what she wants?!

You heard her! She wants it!

I’m not doing it!

Fine! YOu seem to’ve forgotten who’s in control here! So I’ll just remind you, then. . . .

*Snap!*

And I found myself falling, falling, falling. . . .

ANd landed hard, blinking up at teh sky, before sitting up and looking around. A wild world of twisted and malformed space and time whirled all around the lump of floating rock upon which I had landed. With a popping sound of displaced air, Discord-nee-Eris appeared nearby, and stalked over to where I lay.

Now then, pretty boy! You’re going to do what I want, or I’ll take you on a tour of the multiverse!
And, trust me, some of these places you do NOT want to be introduced to!

I spat on the ground, disliking hearing her voice in my head, but not out loud. “Bite me!” I snarled, and she leered.

“Very well, darling.” She purred, and I gulped as she held up a hand, steeling myself. She snapped her fingers, and I fell sideways, passing once more through time and space and landed on my back on the ground once again, the air knocked from my lungs.

I slowly rolled over, looking around at a dark forest around me. It was silent, too silent. Not a single sound broke the heavy, overbearing dark, and I felt a chill slither down my spine as I sat on the cold, hard ground. I stood slowly, looking around through the reaching, clawed hands of the trees.

Was this the Everfree? Where was I?

Mmph!!

Shush! No need to spoil the surprise.

WHere did you drop me, witch?!

’Witch’ is a bit harsh, don’t you think? I prefer ‘Sorceress Supreme’, thank you very much!

Where?!

I heard something, a faint rustle in the distance, and spun, facing the direction it came from. Dimly, I thought I saw a flicker of light through the darkness, and started slowly making my way towards it. If the bitch of a draconequus wouldn’t tell me, I’d find out on my own!

Her laughter slithered through my brain like a damp noodle, and I shuddered.

I pushed my way through the trees, noticing a thick fog beginning to roll in around my ankles. It was cold, and damp, and I wished I was wearing more than just my kilt. I suppose things could’ve been worse.

Me and my big mouth.

I stepped out from under the branches to see . . . was that a . . . a sign? Yeah, it was. Like the sort you see at the entrance to a state park, back on Earth Prime, complete with a map and a bunch of rules and guidelines and a bulletin board full of notices and things. It sat by the side of a dirt road, all by itself, surrounded by the vast stretches of dark wilderness, illuminated by a single lamp post, looking so out of place it hurt.

It also looked very, very familiar to me, but I’d be damned if I could place from where. . . .

I somehow felt that the knowledge was of utmost importance.

“Where did you send me?” I asked, feeling a chill run down my spine.

No answer came, but I heard that rustle again, and this time recognized it as paper moving in the breeze. I blinked, looking at the bulletin board, and saw a single loose piece of paper fluttering where it hung, suspended by a single thumbtack. I felt my legs move even though part of me was screaming I should turn and leave, now. I walked slowly, unsteadily over to the sign, my vision narrowing until practically all I could see was that single piece of paper.

It seemed to be blank, but in the occasional wash of light, I could see an afterimage, something written or drawn on the back of the paper. I would have to pick it up, to find out what it was.

My hand slowly rose, even as a voice in my head was demanding that I not worry about the paper and just leave.

Leave!

Nnmmpp!!!

I froze for a second, my fingers a breath away from the page. Maybe I shouldn’t -

So, we have a deal, then?

I took a breath, then thought about Flutters. Would it be so bad? Just a minute ago I was thinking to myself that it might be for the best. But she was so soft, so gentle. So emotional, and so mentally fragile.

No. I couldn’t do that to her. I couldn’t use her for simple pleasure and turn around and walk out. And, nor could I make the sort of commitment to her that she deserved. I would not have meaningless sex with her. It would only end up breaking her heart. And if Eris couldn’t see that, then maybe she wasn’t as good a friend to the Pegasus as she thought she was!

How - YOU - WHAT-!?!? . . . . . Very well, then. If you want out, then you have to finish the game.

I sighed softly, already having suspected as much, and looked at the paper.

Game. . . .

My fingers stretched that little bit farther, brushing across the soft, scratchy surface of the notebook paper.

Game. . . .

Why did that ring such a chord in me? Why -

My fingers closed around the paper and plucked it from under it’s tack, and my brain was raped. A jolt of pain like an iron spike shot through my skull from front to back as my vision wavered and a sound like static filled the air.

It all cleared after a second or two, and I found myself leaning, panting, against the bulletin board, staring down at the sheet of paper in my hand.

Game.

Oh, no.

I turned the piece of paper over, even as, distantly, I heard a slow, deep thump, a thrumming base note like someone was playing a huge drum softly.

Oh, fuck no.

From the face of the page, a childlike drawing of a forest greeted me, with a large number (1) in red ink in the upper corner. Among the simply drawn trees, a figure in black, face blank, empty, looked out, surrounded by tendrils of darkness. . . .

I felt my chest starting to clench, and seemed to be on the verge of hyperventilating. I spun, leaning up against the billboard, eyes wide and staring out into the dark.

NO, NONONOO!

I snapped my eyes down to the ground as I heard the distant bass note again. No looking! Looking is bad! You don’t want to see! No!

I felt my left hand touch something, smooth, metallic and cylindrical, and knew before I picked it up it was a falshlight. I turned it on, shining it’s beam out over the dark trees ahead.

NO!

Eyes back down, back down, back down in the dirt. Follow the road. Follow the road. Just follow the road. It should take you where you need to go!

But wasn’t there one off the road, somewhere?!

FUCK!

I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself as I started walking.

Fluttershy would never forgive Discord if he let me die. So he wouldn’t! He wouldn’t!

Right?

Who says she has to know?

Oh, fuck you! Fuck you! You . . . Fuck!

I heard the base note again, and started walking faster, occasionally risking a glance up to see where I was going.

What was next? What was next? The truck, right? Or was it the building? Oh, please, fuck, let it be the truck and not the building!

Damn my luck. It was the building. I stopped, staring at it, my heart racing. Shit! If I made it out of here, I swear I’ll. . . I’ll. . .

What?

Grrrr. DAMNIT!

I started walking up the hill, towards the low slung building with it’s single open door. Even in the game, I’d never really been one hundred percent certain of what the hell it was supposed to be. Some kind of maintenance building? Or maybe the campgrounds public showers? No idea. Didn’t matter.

Where were they? Sometimes there was one outside, right? By one of the doors? And the one inside. . .

I felt the base note again, and froze, shivering. Going inside was never good. Tight halls, narrow doorways. Too many ways to get trapped. Too few ways to get away.

I felt it again, and this time there was a sense of direction to it. From behind me. It had come sooner as well. I felt it, the undeniable urge that everyone in every piece of horror fiction known has ever felt. That biting, raging need to turn around and look, even though you know IT is right behind you.

However, I had one thing over on all those chumps in those works of fiction. I wasn’t being forced to follow a script.

Oh, shit.

Hahahaha!

I felt my body freeze up, and then begin turning without my say so. My eyes rolled up, open wide in spite of my struggle to squeeze them shut. The beam of the flashlight washed out, down the trail behind me, towards the trees in the middle distance. A flicker of white, a figure in black, and my vision went haywire as that spike went through my skull again, my ears filled with the sound of static.

Shit!

Somehow, I found myself turned away from him, stumbling forward, running into something hard and feeling along it until I slipped past it. No. Slipped in to it.

I glanced up, my vision clearing, and found myself inside the building. And he was here.

Oh, shit!

No, no, no! Stay calm! STAY CALM! You just have to finish it! YOu’ve done this before! It wasn’t that hard! Just keep moving and find the notes! You can do this!

I took off a jog, down the dark, wet hallway, looking left and right as I saw doors go by, checking each room, praying and hoping. . . .

Nothing. Not here, but there was the other branch of the hallway. The one which was a dead end. I looked down it, already knowing what could happen. I didn’t even know if this was as “random” as it was in the actual game, or if fucking Eris was controlling the whole thing. If she was, there was no way in hell I was making it out of this building, unless she wanted me to.

Taking a breath, I steeled myself, and started down the hall. The base note thrummed softly down my spine. I gritted my teeth, moving towards the only door in the hall, at the end, on the right. I spun around the frame, expecting to see him in his suited, mind fucking glory. But, no. Instead, there was jsut an empty, graffiti scrawled room.

Well, empty but for the piece of paper hanging from the wall, directly across from the door.

I bored a hole through it with my eyes, my lip curling. You piece of shit, Eris, if I could I would fucking kill you, right now.

Hehehe. I know, but you can’t, so instead, you get to play my little game!

Fuck. You.

In spite of my anger, I knew she was right, and started walking forward, while that damned bass note sent a tremble down my spine. I walked up to the paper where it hung, all innocent and harmless. As much a bald faced lie as anything I’d ever seen. I gritted my teeth again, grinding them together in frustration, then reached out, grabbed the paper, and yanked it from the wall.

This time, the stab of pain was almost bearable, and was over with faster. But the bass note was suddenly louder, and more insistent in my ears, down my spine. I turned the paper over, wondering which it would be. . . .

BEHIND YOU

Of course.

I took a deep breath, feeling the pounding drum through the soles of my feet. Half the time, the message was just a red herring, meant to spook you. You’d whip around and look and there’d be nothing there.

Half the time.

There wasn’t a restart option on this. This was real. This had been made real by this insane, fucking chaos god taking me for a jog through the space-time continuum. If He got hold of me here. . . I wasn’t sure if I would make it out. I felt my heart grow cold as the bass beat thrummed harder, faster. My stomach dropped out the bottom of my feet, and felt my throat close up, and tears burned the corners of my eyes.

Why couldn’t I just be happy being in fucking paradise? Why’d I start all this? If I had just ignored my urges, not brought this. . . darkness, this corruption into being, into a land of joy and happiness it didn’t belong in, then none of this would have happened! I had treated this all like a joke! Like a comedy! But life isn’t like that, it doesn’t stay happy all the time, and when things are looking up, it’s only a matter of time before the bottom drops out, and the shit hits the fan.

Well, apparently Discord was the fan, and I was the shit about to get chopped to pieces.

Okay, then. Might as well get this over with.

I slowly turned, feeling the corners of my vision starting to warp. Fear like a jolt of icy lightning shot through my chest, but I ignored it, and turned fully, looking at the floor. I saw his shoes. Saw the wispy tendrils of his Darkness reaching out for me. Felt my mind starting to fall apart, felt his evil eating away at my brain.

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . .

. . . .

How do you think, silly?