A Jester's Way

Chapter 3

The Truth

The sound of laughter and music is loud and the smell of death is in the air. Taz opens his eyes to find himself hog-tied on a table. The table also has meat on it, and Taz isn't sure he wants to know where it came from. The music's coming from a stage, where a group of Jesters are playing instruments shaped like bones. Again, he wasn't sure he wanted to know where they came from. One of the Jesters notices that Taz is awake.

"Everypony!" He calls happily. The music stops. "Our guest of honour is awake!" Everypony cheers.

"LET ME GO, YOU FREAKS!" Taz yells, struggling against the ropes. The head Jester stands from his chair, which is made of dirt.

"Now, normally we wouldn't allow such language," He says with a giggle. He gestures to the instruments and the meat on the table. "But... you are our special guest, so we will allow it. Now, do you have any questions about our humble society?" As he says that, the whole room erupts with laughter.

"Yeah. Would it be too much bother to let me go?" Taz asks sarcastically. The head Jester claps his hooves, and strangely enough, a group of them untie Taz and place him on the ground. Taz is shocked. "Why did you do that?" He asks suspiciously.

"You are out guest of honour, so we want you to feel like it!" The head Jester guffaws. He then takes a large bit of meat and takes a bit out of it. "Mmmm... Lunar meat was always my favourite," He says, and smiles at Taz. "Would you care for some?" Taz hears what he says, and the anger builds up inside him. He struggles to keep it in check, but seeing that clown eat his niece - his daughter - is too much. Taz screams, unsheathes his scyxe and blacks out.

While he's unconscious, Taz enters Blind Rage. Blind Rage is when a pony becomes so angry, that the rage fills them completely, taking over all emotions and making the pony black out. It makes said pony much stronger and faster, and also makes them very resilient. Blind Rage makes the pony practically invincible. But, it comes at a price. The pony no longer knows the difference between friend and foe. He or she will kill everypony who is in the  immediate vicinity, and kill as many ponies as possible before the rage runs out. In Taz's case, he has so much anger built up, that he kills every single Jester in the building. Even with a monster chasing and killing them all, the Jesters didn't stop laughing and giggling. When Taz finally regained consciousness, he was outside, his scyxe just swinging and cutting the head off a Jester. He stops after that kill and looks at himself. He's caked in dried blood, although some of it's wet. He looks at his surroundings. He's in a forest, one he hasn't seen before. Taz walks around a bit, looking for a path or a familiar sight, but there's just trees, trees and more trees, as far as the eye can see. Taz sits on a rock and sighs. His scyxe was very bloodstained, but the metal was so smooth that he just wipes it off easily. Taz takes this chance to study the scyxe. He's had it ever since he began smithing over three thousand years ago, and never once has it chipped, bent or cracked. Taz smiles as he thinks of the first time he used it to cut down a tree, but then the smile drops when he remembers defending his brother. Lightning was always the brains of the two, and Taz was the muscle, due to him doing all the chores around the house. Lightning got picked on a lot just for being clever, and Taz took a lot of beatings defending the one pony he was friends with. The bullying had gotten worse when their parents died, but Taz toughened over the years, and soon enough it was him giving out the beatings. Taz got in trouble a lot when he was younger, but he took the tongue-lashings and waited until he could see his brother again. Then, Lightning met his special somepony, and Taz loved her as a sister. When the 2 fillies were born, life was better than it could have ever been for Taz. But then a group of assassins brutally killed both his brother and his new sister, and he took Celestia and Luna into his care. Now, Taz sheathes his scyxe and continues trying to find out where he is.

"Oh, it looks like the guest has calmed down!" A cheery voice says from behind a tree. Taz unsheathes his scyxe and chops the tree down. "Over heeere!" the voice calls from behind another tree. Ta cuts that tree down, too. "Oh, you're getting warmer!" Taz cuts down tree after tree, but doesn't find anypony. Finally, he stops and thinks. "You're so warm!" the voice says, and Taz finally realises it's HIM that's talking! But it can't be him, he doesn't sound like that! "Oh, you do now!" He says. Taz closes his eyes and focuses. He'd dealt with something like this before, and he knew what to do. He slowed his frantic breathing down to a steady pace and reaches deep within his own mind. He senses a disturbance, and he mentally poke it. When he does, his mouth flies wide open and a large stream of smoke flies out of his mouth. Taz coughs violently, and when he recovers, he hears somepony laughing their head off. It's a very high-pitched laugh. Taz looks up and sees a... thing. It's got 4 legs, but it's standing on its hind legs. On the ends of its front hooves, which are flat, there are 5 tentacle-thingies. And the face is flat.

"Oh, that was the most fun I've ever had!" The thing says. It's wearing a motley outfit with a jester hat.

"Who are you?" Taz asks, unsheathing his scyxe again.

"Oh, Taz, you really must lighten up! I'm-heehee-I'm..." The jester  drops to the floor laughing. "I'M YOU!" He finally shouts. Taz's eyes widen and he crops his scyxe.

"You... you've been inside me my whole life?" He asks, shocked and surprised.

"Yes!" The jester chokes. "You... first... Jester..." The jester chokes on his own words.

"No... no..." Taz drops to his knees. He was responsible for the deaths of his nieces... for the deaths of his comrades...

"Yes, it's... true... you... killed..." The jester rolls on the ground. Taz is staring at the ground, too sad and dishonoured for tears.

"I killed them all..." Taz looks up and sees Luna and Celestia, smiling down at him. He blinks, and they're gone. Taz looks at the jester rolling on the ground. He picks up his scyxe, walks over to him and brings the scyxe down on the jester's neck. The blade passes right through, and the jester continues laughing, completely oblivious to the attack. Taz stays silent, just reaches out to the jester's mind, finding a jumble of things, but most prominent is... Taz's life. Suddenly it strikes him. This jester WAS him. They were joined, and Taz was the organic body. He looks at the scyxe, then reaches out to Doctor Whooves's mind. Doctor had been hiding during the battle and had followed Taz all the way.

"Go back to Canterlot," Taz sends t him. "Tell them... tell them we all died." Taz feels worry coming from the Doctor's mind. "It's the only way. I know you'll understand." Then, Taz severs the telepathic connection and places the axe blade of his weapon against his own throat. The jester looks up and sees what he's doing. He stops laughing.

"Are you crazy, you'll kill both of us!" The jester yell at Taz, jumping to grab the weapon, but it's too late. Taz draws the sharpest blade in Equestria and beyond across his own throat, and the jester screeches, evaporating before his eyes. Blood gushes from the slit in Taz's throat, and he collapses, the world turning black.