The Immortal's Game

Chapter 3: Labyrinth

“Hello Walker, ready to die?”

The blue coated earth pony with a black, slicked back mane sat in front of me on my bed. He had an open book that was covered in various hoof written runes. He had a quill and an inkwell next to him as well. He gave a wry grin. “Good to see you’re in good health. The last time you saw me was in Manehattan, if I remember correctly.”

I took up a more aggressive stance. Out of all the ponies Celestia could have sent, she sends this psycho? He spoke up once more, giving a light laugh. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You know well enough of what I am capable of, and I only need to add one more little line and then poof, this building and the surrounding block are up in flames. It would be a shame if there were to be an explosion like that which killed a lot of ponies, like the ones downstairs..”

I stood down. “Rune. Last I heard you and the rest of Celestia’s reapers were in Griffonia, doing a little ‘business.” The pony sitting in front of me was one of 4 elite “soldiers” that Celestia had found. His name was Rune, and he was considered to be an abnormality amongst ponies. He was an earth pony that could use magic, but only in written spells. He was a complete monster, even by the sense of what he took care of for Celestia.

“Well, the rest of them are. I had to stay behind because of this wonderful book I was writing. It’s titled The slow death of a restaurant owner. I was inspired when an overly pompous restaurant owner refused to serve me because I wasn’t dresses up to snuff. I’ll spoil the ending for you, he was killed by his own dish when he poisoned it.” He gave a light laugh. “Not my best work but the prologue was excellent.”

His magic rested in words. However, I knew his only limitation. He had to know specifics. If he said “A rock flew out of nowhere and killed him”, it wouldn’t work. It had to be more along the lines of “The rock fell from on top the roof and caved in (insert target’s name here)’s skull.” Thankfully most of his works took a while to complete, but since he was here and was ready to finish his latest “chapter” I knew that I was stuck in a bit of a rut.

“What do you want, Rune. Knowing you and the fact I’m not already dead, you probably want something from me.”

“Oh where’s the fun in killing you? Besides, you know I don’t know your real name. If I did you would already be dead and gone, long before any of this had happened.” One of the few holdbacks on his magic was that he had to know what his targets name was, as to not cause unwanted deaths. Unless he was going to destroy the area like he was planning to do. “I want payback from when I first joined, and I intend to pay you back in full.”

I stared at him, seeing this was not something that I could get out of. I was there when Rune had first joined. He had been boastful so I taught him a lesson or two in respect and learning when to shut his mouth. I can see that I left a bit of an impression on him. “So what is it that you want exactly.”

He gave a cold smile. “I want your name.”

I grimaced. “Over my dead body, Rune.”

“Wow, thats exactly what I was thinking. If you refuse me one more time then i’ll have to continue with plan A: blowing up the surrounding area. If you tell me your name, i’ll consider sparing everypony from a grisly and painful death. No promises though.”

Damn, it’s clear that he sees civilians as nothing but dirt. Can I take him down quickly? I paused for a moment.Wait, why doesn’t he know my name? I know Celestia never told the Reapers before I left, but why not now? “I know that you won’t hold up and you will kill them all anyways. But I have one question, why is it you don’t know my name? Surely of all the ponies out there, Celestia would have told you my name.”

He gave a shrug. “I was in such a hurry to start writing I left early. But I think it would be no fun to kill you outright like she would have wanted my to. So, what will it be? Your name, or the lives of all those around you?”

I needed some time to think about my options here, but sadly that wasn’t a luxury that I had at the moment. I was left with 2 choices then, kill him or go full throttle with my magic. Seeing as how I wanted to make him pay for threatening the lives of all those innocent ponies around me, I opted for the second. “I pick option number 3.”

“Oh? And what would that be? I only offered you two.”

“Simple, I see what makes you tick.” I charged up my magic, putting everything I had into a single assault on the mental fortress of Rune. Despite my obvious aggression, he remained the same.

He gave another light laugh. “Ha! You honestly think that you can get inside my head? I already protected myself from your lighting and your sleep magic takes too long! What could you possibly hope to do in this situation?”

I smiled. “Kick your sorry ass.” I released the magic blast, which spread outwards in every direction. I immediately felt the strain of using almost all of my magic in one go wash over my body. I sent him flying backwards and he slammed into the wall, my magic spread to all the ponies around the area as well, but not affecting them in quite the same way. The magic I used knocked Rune unconscious and made just about everypony else drowsy.

I fell over, exhausted from my attack, but I knew I needed to get to work. I began to use what little magic I had left and reached out into his mind, using my borrowed power of dream walking as my conduit. Going into the mind of somepony this crazy was not going to be fun.

I opened my eyes to see what the mind of this particular stallion was like. Much to my surprise it was not completely disjointed and just a field of chaos like I was expecting it to be. I looked at where I was, at first it seemed like a hallway that spread off in two directions then split up again. Then I noticed there were various runes imprinted in the walls, like some kind of strange mural.

I started to walk off in the direction I had woken up facing, given the sky was just red and there was no sun or moon to guide me, I designated this as being north. I walked to the end of the hallway and came to a fork, one split off to the right and one to the left. These continued to split off once more. Then I realized the configuration of his dreamscape. Aw hell. It’s a maze.

Dreamscapes configured themselves in a few different ways. You could either have just a floating area of nothingness where you drift about, a memory of a building, a landscape, or something that is just fragmented memories. Then you had the complex ones like mazes and entire cities, which you only really saw in skilled magic users and ponies with high intellect.

        “Welcome to my humble abode, Walker.” Came a booming voice around me. “I hope you don’t mind the state of it. I wasn’t expecting guests. On the bright side though I can have my fun and watch you suffer.”

        “Where the hell are you hiding, Rune!?” I screamed, hoping that he could hear me.

        “Me? Hiding? I’m right where I should be, Walker, in the center of this wonderful world of mine. Let’s play a game. You try and get to me and survive the gauntlet laid out before you, and I simultaneously try and rip you apart piece by piece.” He paused for a moment. “Otherwise you’ll be stuck here until I wake up and then everything goes up in flames. The clock has started, Walker.”

        I looked up in the sky. There was a giant clock formed out of floating runes. My runic symbolism was a little rusty but I could see that he had made a sort of stop watch, I figured when it hit zero it would likely wake him up. A spell like that would hurt and takes some time to prepare, and it was obvious that as long as I was trapped inside his head he would make the most of it. I started running fast down the corridors, attempting to formulate a plan as I went.

        Being as this was his home turf he likely had several times more power than me, so brute strength wouldn’t be a viable option. I glanced at the walls, then something caught my eye. The runes seemed to be organized by specific dates. I saw I was going in chronological order forwards. Could it really be as simple as finding today’s date? I continued to follow the wall until it came to another split. I checked the dates and stayed my course through his head.

        I came to a multiple split that went off in about 6 different directions.Perfect, just what I need. I checked the dates and looked for the way to continue. I had just about gotten to my third when I noticed the runes starting to shift. I took a step back as they started to form together in the center of the intersection. Why can’t he just have a normal dream like everypony else?

        The runes formed together to make a sort of shell-like rocky creature that vaguely resembled a minotaur. It towered over me, then reached down into the runes at it’s feet and began to pull a giant two headed axe from the ground. It pulled the axe all the way out then slung it over it’s shoulder, keeping one hand on it. It glared down at me, with runes for eyes that directly translated to “sight”. I gazed back at it, though I doubted that intimidation would really work. “So... A minotaur in a maze. This doesn’t seem cliche at all. You could have at least saved it for the end.”

        He grabbed the axe with his other hand and swung down at me, I sidestepped just in time, but at the cost of my fedora falling off and being split in two. I gazed back at the behemoth that had just tried to kill me. I charged up my magic and blasted it through it’s chest, shattering it into the various runes that composed it’s body, labeled things like “Blood” and “Bone”. Jeez, glass cannon much?

        The paths began to crumble one by one until there was only one path left. I decided it would be best to continue on and hopefully get to the end as soon as possible. It seemed like a straight hallway that continued on for some time and I stopped when i reached an open chamber that somewhat resembled a large circular library. The books that filled the shelves were likely Rune’s own works, penned to suit whatever deeds he needed done.

        “Hello there Walker, i’m a bit sad that you didn’t get to see everything I had in store for you. Oh well, if I couldn’t kill you there i’ll have to kill you here.” He stood atop a pedestal in the center. What seemed to be a ring of books floated around him as he stood there. He began to walk forward and the books formed a raised pathway for him. “Now you see what I dream of. But I wonder, what fills your head at night?”

        He paused about halfway through his walk. “Well, I guess it won’t matter soon. You don’t really need to ask that question if they’re dead. I find that Ponies’ minds are so much simpler when they’re dead.” He brought down a book and a quill began to furiously scribble across the page. The ground beneath me began to open up and I quickly began to run towards him. The ground folded up and made a wall, stopping my advance. “Oh? You thought getting to me would be that easy? Well it would be if we were in the real world, but here I am king.” Rune began to laugh maniacally as the odds of the situation set in.

        I used my magic and catapulted myself on to the top of the wall. I began to charge my magic. “Then i guess it’s time you got dethroned, your royal highness.” I let the bolt fly, but it missed him.

        “Ha! You thought you could defeat me with such a little spark? I had no idea you were so stupid!”

        I smiled. “And I had no idea you were so careless as to not guard your memories.” I watched as the bolt connected with the books on the shelves and set them ablaze. They were memories of the books he had read, but a writer seeing all his works being burnt before him is one of the worst tortures they could experience.

        He spun around screaming. “No! No, this can’t be happening! This is my head, my head! You can’t do this!” I ran forward and tackled him to the ground.

        “Looks like this is the final chapter, Rune. You and all the reapers will pay for what you have done. All of it!” My hoof fell and connected with his face. I began to savagely beat him without mercy or restraint of any kind. I felt bone crack beneath my hooves, a stray tooth or two was knocked out as well. After what felt like the longest time I steadied myself on my hooves and looked at the bloody pulp that was Rune’s face. “And you aren’t going to get a epilogue.”

        I forced my way out of his head, ripping apart his conscious mind with me. I awoke in the real world, looking down at the shell of a pony who had threatened innocent lives only an hour before. I walked down to the bar, looking for the barkeeper. “Hey, you might want to get whatever medical services you can down here. My patient just had a stroke and he needs to get sent to the hospital immediately.” The barkeep nodded and left the building. I walked back up to the room, where Rune lay on the floor drooling. I walked over to his book and ripped a page out. I quickly scrawled a note to Celestia on it and folded it in half, placing it in the front of the book.

        I waited for the medical team to arrive at the inn, they asked me a few questions but I replied that I wasn’t sure what happened. I used the cover “We were about to go into session when he suddenly had a stroke!” The barkeep believed the lie that he was there as a patient, for which I was thankful that Rune had used that as an excuse rather than just sneaking in. As they were bringing him out I gave them his saddlebags with his book I told one of the medics that he worked for Celestia and that she should be notified. He thanked me for the information and continued onwards.

        I sat at the bar and sighed deeply after removing my hat. The barkeep slid a mug of hot chocolate over to me. “Hey, don’t worry. It’s not like you could have done anything to stop what happened from happening. Hopefully he’ll recover from this and be back on his hooves in no time at all.”

        I looked down at my drink, thinking about just how wrong he was about that. If he knew everything he would realize that his words stung worse than a manticore’s sting. “Hey, thanks for everything you’ve done. I’m leaving first thing in the morning, probably before the sun gets up. Should I pay in advance for the night or-”

        The barkeep raised a hoof. “Don’t worry, you had a rough night. Have one on the house, and the hot chocolate too.” He turned around and went off to do whatever it was that he did. I walked up to my room and grabbed my things, which wasn’t much save for my saddle bag and the deck of cards that I usually hid under my hat. I walked back downstairs and left the town of Appleloosa for Dodge City. I had initially headed there after the train incident but missed it by a bit and wound up here.

        I set off on yet another long journey that would hopefully bring me closer to my goal.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        Celestia had arrived outside the hospital after dawn, along with Twilight who had insisted tag along. She had barely recovered from her battle with Walker and was in no rush to fight him again. “Celestia, why are we here anyways? You don’t usually come out of the castle when someone is in the hospital, so who is this pony?”

        Celestia looked forwards and continued walking through the hospital. “His name is Rune, and he lost in a fight against Walker.” Twilight looked at her wide eyed, wondering what had happened in the fight. They were stopped outside a room, where a doctor stopped them. “Move aside.”

        The doctor looked up. “Yes, your majesty, but you should know that he doesn’t have a scratch on him and well... Let’s just say he won’t be answering any questions anytime soon.”

        Celestia looked down at him with a cold glare that could freeze over tartarus itself. “What do you mean by that?” The doctor swallowed and then opened the door to the room. Twilight looked in to see a blue earth pony laying on a hospital bed with a saddlebag hanging over the side. He was just laying on a pillow, drooling slightly. Celestia walked over to him and used her magic for some invisible purpose. She looked back up, now with bags under her eyes. “He will be back to the land of the cognitive living in roughly a month, but his memories are gone.”

        Twilight spoke up. “Celestia, what exactly did Walker do to him? He looked conscious to me.”

        Celestia sighed. “Walker ripped apart his mind into a thousand pieces, effectively turning him into a vegetable. He also destroyed all of his memories. I used a spell that reassembles those fragments of personality, but it takes a while to do so.”

        Twilight looked down and reflected on her fight with him. “Wow, so that’s him not holding back. I’m glad that he-”

        “No, this is him still holding back. Fighting you he only used as much power as if you were to lift a book and move it from one place to another. Fighting against Rune he likely pushed himself to the limit in terms of mana usage, but he still held back.” Celestia looked over to the saddlebags on the side. She lifted Rune’s book from the bag.

        Twilight looked at the book. “Why does he have a book that big? Was he a writer?”

        Celestia looked back at her student. “Yes, in a way. He was a member of an elite sector of the royal guard dedicated to defending Equestria from the worst threats. They are called the reapers, and there are four in total. The other three are abroad on a mission but I can tell them to return quickly.” She opened up the book and began to read. “Rune was... Special. He could use magic, but only through writing.” She continued to flip through when a folded paper fell out and landed on the ground.

        She put the book down and picked up the piece of paper, unfolding it.

Dear Tia,

Still too scared to fight me? Or are you still hiding behind your pawns like a coward player? You have a full chessboard at your disposal (minus one piece now) against one knight. I know what the other Reapers are capable of, and I will beat them. So, kiss my sweet purple flank, Princess Celestia. I’m not going to die quite yet.

-Walker

(P.S. I wouldn’t send Twilight after me again, it would be a shame if she learned how I became immortal).

Celestia read over the letter a few more times. Twilight interrupted her examination of the letter. “What’s the letter say?”

        Celestia smiled then used magic to teleport the letter away. “Nothing important, just something Rune wrote before he was defeated. He had gathered a bit of information regarding where Walker would go after this. It’s not anything for you to be concerned about, Twilight.”

        Twilight gained an agitated edge to her voice. “Tell me! I can handle him this time, i'm sure of it! I underestimated him the first time but I won't make the same mistake twice. If I know where he’s going I can stop him!”

        Celestia looked at her student. “I’m sorry Twilight, I was wrong to send you against him the first time. He is powerful enough to face down an entire battalion of my finest guards by himself, and he has many times. Besides, you still need to recover a bit. Get ready to head back to Ponyville and rest for now, you’ll need your strength.” Twilight was about to argue, but was stopped by a single look from Celestia. Twilight walked out of the room, a disappointed look on her face, Celestia just looked out the window.

One month. I’ll have your head on a pike in one month Dream Walker.