Slay the Alicorn Princess

You're on a path in the woods and you have a splitting headache. The princess is holding your hand.

The princess... who you are supposed to slay... is holding your hand.

The princess... who is supposed to be in the basement of the cabin in the woods... is outside. And the world has not ended.

"This isn't right at all," the narrator says.

That's the narrator's voice all right.

"How could she have escaped? The world didn't end... But no, she hasn't escaped and she isn't outside."

"Do you know where we are? Can you help me?" a timid voice speaks up.

The narrator ignores the voice. "You didn't follow the script. You didn't do what I asked!"

"I'm scared--a little--" the princess says, trembling and squinting. "I thought we were together and that we would be together as friends."

"And you are!" the voice of the friend speaks up.

"We're still friends," you say.

"But then we weren't anything any more. Everything ended. Again," the princess says. "And then we were here."

"I'm scared too," the new voice says.

You squeeze the princess' fetlock, just above her hoof.

"Don't worry," you tell the voice and the princess. "We're all here together."

"I feel so lost," the voice says. "Nothing is right. Nothing makes sense. We could save the princess and we're still here. We freed the princess and the world ended but now we're here."

"We could make our own story...." you suggest.

The princess narrows her eyes. "Making our own story is what got me here."

"Pardon?" You ask.

"Some of my past is coming back. I think... I might be responsible for this..." The princess says. "Narrator--you must have another name. What is it?"

The narrator ignores her.

"We don't know anything at all," the lost voice says. "We don't even know my name."

"We could call you the voice of the lost?" the voice of the friend suggests.

"The lost... I like that. Until I find myself."

"Makes sense," you say.

"Okay," the narrator huffs and puffs. "We can still salvage this utter disaster--our whole conceit has been turned topsy-turvy but the world is still around, so let us, perhaps, just imagine the cabin is surrounding both of you here and now. In the here and now. Now."

"The cabin--" you say, furrowing your brow at the strangeness of the narrator's suggestion.

The cabin materializes around you.

"It's always here. It must have been invisible, but it isn't now and the princess is contained and the world has not ended, so everything is fine. This is nice, good and quaint," the narrator sighs.

There's a mirror, a table, and... a dagger. The cabin is the same as when you first saw it.

"Everything's fixed," the narrator huffs, then the narrator coughs. "Except... we need to reboot. Let's imagine the princess is dead. You killed her. We can start again in a non-error-state next time. I think. Because we couldn't have gotten to this state unless we were already in a failure state. Please, just... let's imagine that everything is fine and the princess is dead."

GoTo:
a. Imagine that.

b. Don't imagine that.