Fate/Extra: Equestria

Week Three

Down the Rabbit Hole

3.disillusionment/suspended alicorn

Lament Death.

There is no shame in mourning

If death is inevitable,

and strife fosters it,

then hate fighting.

Accept death, and quell the fighting.

3rd Week
The Third Selection
Combatants Remaining: 064-032

[Day one]
Midday

:: The Next combatants will be announced on the second-floor bulletin board ::

“Looks like my next opponent is up. Better check and see who it is.” I said as I placed the terminal back into my pocket and headed out of the classroom to see the bulletin board. Posted on the bulletin board are two names, as always. One is my name, of course. The other is a human named Alice.

Master: Alice
Battlefield: The Third Chimeric Lunar Sea

“...So you’re going to be my new playmate?” My ears twitch upon hearing a young girl’s voice as I turn around to see a girl that looks to be ten years old.

“You’re very pretty for a pony. Are you just like Alice, lady? If so, Alice thinks you and I can be friends, lady. Finally, Alice will have a friend of her own.” She said before moving up close to me and hugging me by my waist. “I was so sad and lonely by myself. But when I came to this place, Alice was lucky enough to meet Alice. Alice is Alice’s only friend. Alice finally found a friend in Alice.”

“Oh, well that’s good to know that you made a friend here in this place.”

“That’s why even if you do end up leaving or disappearing, Alice will have Alice. Nothing else matters.” She said before releasing me from her hug she looked up at me and smiled. “But you are my next playmate, so I guess I’ll have to play with you. Try not to die too quickly, Alice will be sad. Alice will be bored.” With that, Alice soon skipped her way down the hallways as Saber just appeared next to me. She’s like a doll only seen in a dream. I don’t feel threatened as I did with Dan Blackmore...but her mindset is a bit...off. Even if she is a kid.

“Don’t let her appearance fool you, egghead. She’s already killed two Masters so DO NOT let your guard down.”

“Saber, come on. If I jumped out of a bin at her wearing a scary mask and yelled ‘boo’ she’d probably cry for eight hours. Dial it down a bit.” I said before asking her a question. “I assume you have no problem with fighting against her?”

“She knew what she was getting herself into. She seems to be a prodigy amongst the many players in the war. And if she made it this far, then she must be one hell of a master.” That’s right. Only the strong survive here. She may be much stronger than Dan was. But the question that remains for me...Can I fight without holding back? My opponents up until now had an aura of power. It was easy to see them as worthy foes...But things are different now. Can I do to this little girl what I did to the others? I know that if I don’t, I’m as good as dead, but still…

[Evening]

(Classroom)

An electronic chiming sounds from my terminal. I began to reach for it as I saw a message from it.

:: The primary cipher key has been generated::

Regardless of who my opponent is, time in the SE.RA.PH passes at the same measured pace for all. The message I received informs me I’ll be erased if I fail to find my Triggers and gather info on my foe. Still...having to fight against a child...it’s still unsettling. M-Maybe if I can gather some information on her, then it might help me out a bit when I have to fight her at the end of the week...Better talk to a few people first, but those acquaintances I’ve made are probably of dubious reliability. As I began to make my way to the first floor of the school, I soon noticed Alice standing in the middle as if she was waiting for someone. Specifically, me, to be accurate.

“Hey, play with me! How about we play tag? Yeah, I want to play tag!” The little human girl in front of me is supposed to be my enemy, but her innocent smile holds no malice...Though I can’t shake the feeling that her naivete is a ruse...can't lower my guard with her...but this might help me get a beat on who she is, or at least her servant. “You want to play with me, right?” She asked as I nodded.

“S-Sure, why not?” Upon hearing that, Alice’s eyes widened in excitement.

“Yay! I knew that you’d play with me! She is me, and I am her! We are ourselves! Let’s start now!” She said before lightly tapping my hip and running off to the Arena. “Tag, you’re it! Alice will be waiting for you in the Arena. Hurry up and come get me!”

“...Well...I said I’d play with her, so I should probably go to the Arena and chase her down.” I said before noticing Saber appearing next to me.

“So, they want to play tag huh? I guess we can play along with this little game of hers. But don’t expect me not to show her what happens when you play games in a war~” A devilish grin appears on Saber’s face for playing along with this game tag.

“Wow, you’re even more excited than usual. You must be happy to find an intellectual equal.”

“I’ll say...HEY! Screw you yeah bucktooth mutant horse!“ Saber yelled as I busted out laughing from her reaction. Just as we were about to head run off to the Arena...mainly to escape Saber’s wrath, we heard the voice of a familiar teacher yelling my name. Turning around, we saw Taiga running over to us. Only for her to trip over her own feet and crash face-first onto the ground. I looked over at Saber, who looked over at me with a deadpan expression as she walked over to Taiga and helped her onto her feet.

“Thanks, glad I caught you two before you headed off into the arena.” She said before looking over at me. “Twilight! I have an important mission for you today. Do you wish to prove your valor today?”

“Um...sure, I guess?”

“Very good. I will now brief you on your upcoming mission. I have received word that a student has smuggled an illicit magazine onto the school grounds. Your responsibility is to track down this miscreant and take possession of the said magazine. This mission will be valid for three days. On the fourth day, I expect a full report. Dismissed!” She said before running off to who knows where.

“....Maybe we should look for this magazine first before heading off to the Arena?” I asked as Saber had a blush appear on her face. “Is something wrong?”

“Huh? What? N-Nothing! I’m fine! Let’s go find out where this student is and make him or her hand over the magazine.” ...Okay? Something seems off about this. Saber isn’t always that excited about small stuff like this...she must know something about this magazine.

“Alright...let’s head outside and see if we can find some clues as to where this student might be,” I said before motioning her to follow me outside of the school.

(Arena)

[Pray For Escape through a Mirror into Wonderland. And a Lucid Dream. The Shimmering of the moment, either Laughter or Tears.]

“Oh come on, I thought you would know what Taiga meant when she said illicit magazine.” Saber said as I simply glared at her in both anger and embarrassment. Had I known that the so-called teacher wanted me to get something like that, I would’ve said no to... the dear god of this world! How can humans have something like that….Oh god, do they have stuff like this in the library!?

“Everything I knew about humans is a lie! How can humans have stuff like this made!?”

“Oh come on. It’s not like where you’re from doesn’t have porn-related stuff.”

“Of course not!” I said before pausing. “At least...I don’t think so...Again, I don’t have many memories of my past...so...shut up! I’m still angry at you for not telling me about that.”

“Don’t be angry at me for your lack of human anatomy.”

“Aren’t you human too?”

“Homunculus. So I’m not technically human.” Saber answered with a smirk on her face. “Anyway, we should focus on the task at hand.”

“R-Right, right. We need to find Alice. Do you know where she went?”

“I suspect she is nearby. That’s what my intuition is telling me.” She said before licking her lips as a devilish grin appeared on her face again. “Reminds me of the time I had to hunt down some rogue knights for my father. We’ll hunt her down and ravish her bones…” Saber said which caused me to stare at her in utter shock. “Uh, not the way you’re thinking!”

“Saber what the actual buck!?”

“I get excited and say bad words, okay!? Don’t judge me!”

“Pretty sure I can, given what you just said,” I said before taking the lead and dawning on my battle garments. “Let’s just go and find Alice...and not ravish her.”

“I wasn’t going to have sex with her...just impale her with my sword until she’s dead...and by sword I mean my actual sword, Clarent. Not my-”

“OKAY! I GET IT! PLEASE NO MORE STUFF LIKE THAT!” I yelled before taking the lead and heading into the Arena. As we made our way through the arena, we stopped upon seeing Alice appearing out of nowhere in front of the hallway that leads to the next section of the Arena.

“Ah, pony lady, over here, over here!” Alice yelled while waving at me. “You’re “it”, pony lady. If you can catch Alice, you win, lady! All right, ready...Go!” She yelled before turning around and running down the hallway before vanishing.

“Kid got guts for facing up without her servant next to her. Let’s go get her, egghead. Any child that presumes to say I’m it, needs to be knocked down a peg or two.” Nice to see Saber is composing herself. I can see why she was willing to do this...I think. Being addressed as “It” didn’t sit well with her. As long as she’s willing to play along, there’s no need to clear up that misconception...I think...better make sure she doesn’t go overboard or worse. Moments upon making further into the first floor Arena and killing enemy programs along the way, we soon notice Alice off in the distance as Saber was the first to speak up.

“There she is. Those white frills could only belong to her.” She said before bolting toward Alice in an attempt to apprehend her quickly. Only for her to vanish as Saber plows through an enemy program and crashes into the wall of the Arena.

“You okay Saber?” I asked as she slowly pulled herself up from off the wall. She deadpans at me as I pull my hands up in defense. “Right, a stupid question on my part.”

“I’m going to kill that kid when I find her.”

“Wouldn’t it be against the rules to kill her before the fight?” I asked as she once again deadpans at me. “What? I prefer not to die from breaking a rule or something along those lines of rule-breaking.”

“Just tell me where she is before I throw you at a wall or something!” Saber yelled as I scanned the area to see where Alice was. Off in the distance, I noticed the familiar color of Alice’s outfit as she was far off on the other end of the arena. From what I can tell, it looks like she was near the exit.

“Over there,” I said pointing to the location of where the girl was. Before I could move, I felt Saber lift me off my feet. Looking over at her, I notice that a surge of magic erupted from her body as she rushed over to said location within a matter of seconds. “Y-You could’ve warned me when you were about to do that!” I said before feeling Saber placing me down, though I fell to my knees due to the sudden feeling of nauseous washing over my body.

“And let that girl get away?” She said before grinning at Alice. “End of the line kid. Now get ready for a beat down.”

“We can’t kill her Saber,” I said as it caused her to glare at me.

“I know that! You don’t have to remind me!”

“Oh no! You found us!” Alice said while giggling in glee. “But, that was fun, lady. Hey, lady. Do you wanna hear Alice’s story?” She asked as Saber and I looked at each other with confused expressions on our faces. “Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Alice, who lived in a country far, far away from here.” As she was talking I noticed bits of data appear from her body before a second Alice appeared beside her. Only this clone’s color theme was black and magenta.

“And then, a scary country came with their tanks and planes and metal helmets and guns.” said the other Alice in a carefree tone in her voice. “The sky got red and then my house got black. Then I woke up in a white room. Nothing ever changed. I had no friends. I had no mommy or daddy.”

“Daddy always said that when I got hurt I should tough it out. Daddy got mad if I said it hurts. But something happened that hurt so much that I couldn’t tough it out. Then I woke up.” said the original Alice as they both vanished from our field of vision. It was only when I heard their voices from behind us was when we turned around and backed away from them. “But, it’s okay. It’s really fun here. There are hunches of nice people.”

“Uh-huh, that’s right, Alice. You can play as hard as you want here, right?” said the other Alice as the original looked over at her.

“Yeah, but if I play too hard, I break my playthings. I don’t want their heads and arms to come off.”

“Don’t be silly. If we break them, I can sew them up with the needle and thread mommy gave me.” She said before making a needle and thread appear in her hands. “I’m not very good at sewing, but I’m sure I can, at the very least, stitch them together.”

“As long as they’re in one piece, I guess it’d be okay.”

“Of course, it'd be okay.” The clone said as the original smiled.

“What a relief. I wouldn’t want to make mommy mad again.”

“...The fuck is up with these two idiots?” Saber asked as I felt uneasy upon hearing the girls' plans for me.

“I don’t know. Though I find it messed up that they think that sewing my limbs back onto my body will fix me…if anything it would just become infected if not done correctly. Not to mention they’re too young to learn how to properly sew back a limb onto a pony’s body. You would have to reattach their nervous system, muscles, veins, and-” Before I could finish, I felt Saber flick me on the nose as it caused me to yelp and rub it from the pain I felt.

“Now’s not the time for you to get all science nerd on me, egghead.” Saber said as the two girls giggled from what Saber did.

“This master isn’t like the two before. We can touch this master and they even have warm blood.” The other Alice said as a sickly smile appeared on her face. “Hey, let’s see if he wants to play too~”

“Yeah! That’s a good idea.” With that, the original Alice raised her hand. In doing so, the arena floor, the walls, the air. It all shakes under the influence of a huge influx of power. I looked behind myself upon feeling this influx of power as I saw a hulking humanoid-like beast standing near the exit.

All that was going through my mind was run…run away from this hulking monster and not look back…but I couldn’t move. My body was frozen in place by the fear and overwhelming aura this monster was giving off.

“Isn’t he neat? He’s Alice’s friend.”

“Play with him, lady.” The other Alice said before they both disappeared. Leaving Saber and me alone with this monster. Just as they left, the monster soon appeared in front of me as he was about to deliver a powerful punch to my face. Before the fist could collide with my face, I felt myself being pulled out of the way of the punch as it collided with the wall of the arena, causing a shockwave to erupt from the force behind it, and sending us both tumbling backward. Looking up I saw the enemy program’s fist punching through the wall, but was having a hard time pulling it out.

“Get your head together, egghead!” Saber yelled as it caused me to snap out of my fearful daze. “Much as I would like to fight that thing, we’re not strong enough to face it.” She said as I noticed a disgusted expression on her face. If Saber’s admitting that this program is too strong for her, then this is a fight that we can’t hope to win. For now, the wisest course of action is to retreat.

“R-Right, right. I know you dislike having to retreat, but we need to leave and think of a plan of a counterattack against this thing.” I said before pulling myself up. Just as I was about to turn around to run for it, Saber picked me up once again as the surge of magic appeared from her body and quickly began to bolt it out of the arena. From behind, we both heard Alice speak.

“Huh? You’re leaving?” Alice asked in a pouty tone of her voice. “Aww, boring…Well, he’ll be here until the magic we gave him runs out, so come play again!” she said before we were out of range to hear her.

“Horse Apple…this is a disaster,” I said as Saber continued to make her way through the arena at breakneck speed while taking down a couple of enemy programs. “The cipher key is on the other side of that monster, and we can’t get it because of it.”

“I know, but there’s not much we can do until we can get past that thing. Fighting it would be suicidal on our part. I may enjoy the thrill of battle, but even I’m not that excited to die in a one-sided fight. But besides that, did you learn anything about the enemy that I might not have noticed?”

“There are two Alices. They both act the same, have the same voices, and wear the same outfits, but the second Alice’s colors are black and magenta. I can only assume so that people don’t get confused. But which one is the servant and which one is the master?”

“You don’t think that hulking monster isn’t the servant?” Saber asked as I shook my head.

“I doubt it. Though it did give off a hulking presence like a berserker from what I read in the books at the library, it didn’t give off the magical energy of a servant like you do.” I said as I felt Saber stopping at the entrance of the Arena. “We need to gather more information on Alice, but we’ll have to do that tomorrow.”

Matrix Level: One
Enemy Servant Info Obtained

“Great, not only is our opponent’s a child but one with a screw loose…We keep getting the short end of the unfortunate opponents.”

“Yeah…This is not going to be a cakewalk.” I said as Saber and I made our way out of the Arena…My opponent's a child…a child that I must kill to get my questions answered…but is it worth it?