"The winds of fate are set on one path. We, however, have the unique ability to change it."

~ Starswirl the bearded

- Prologue -

There is a cool tang in the air as the aged leaves of autumn fall to the ground throughout the woods. But this is no ordinary woods. Further on through the woods, we come to a clearing, with a humble dirt pathway leading further into the forest. As the woods lead on, it gets thicker and thicker, but eventually we come to another clearing. This time, it has a firm wooden construct in the centre, surrounded by swarms of flowers and bushes.

This is the home of Jonathan Wilford, otherwise known as Will. It is a sturdy wooden shack complete with timber braces and a beautiful garden. But inside of this beautiful sight to behold is quite a… Well, let's just see, shall we?

"Ah, shit!" I blurt out after accidentally hammering my thumb into a new wooden cabinet that I was building. I hate building. Too much effort, if you ask me. There's all this stuff about 'this thing goes there' and 'this thing goes here'. Why can't it just be fucking magic?

- 10 minutes later -

I finally finish off the bloody thing and place it in one of the corners of my living room. It does look rather nice there, if I do say so myself. It matches the atmosphere of this here room. So, I pick up a table lamp and place it in the centre of the cabinet. Now it's better.

I look over to the other side of the room, where the TV is now displaying the forecast for tonight.

"The weather tonight will be lovely all over the country, with bright, sunny spells everywhere." The cherry woman on the television said.

I, for one, am relieved because of this news, as I have had to put up with shitty news all week. Thank you, whoever gave me this great news.

So without further ado, I go for a nice stroll out in the whispy woods. On my travels, however, I come across quite a strange area. It is a small area of land that appears to have been scorched to a crisp. The trees all around have been blackened with soot, and the normally green grass has been seared and burnt. I look at it awkwardly for a few seconds, then pass it off as a lightning strike from yesterday, where we had an awful storm.

As I walked further into the woods, I discover a very, very odd thing indeed. It appeared to be a rather small tiara, not out of place in a kid's fairy dress-up costume. I decide to keep a hold of it, as it seems very well made, and I could probably get a good amount of money from it. I pocketed it and headed back home, having concluded my walk with an odd discovery.

- 15 minutes later -

Having concluded my slightly eventful walk with a nice tiara, I put it on my newly created cabinet. It kinda fits being placed there, to be honest. Makes it look nicer.

The sky was dimming slightly, and when checked, the clock states that the time is 9:30. I still have plenty of time for supper. Damn am I hungry.

I fix myself up a nice little sandwich made of ham, cheese and salad. It's a nice combo. I now head on to sit on the sofa for a while and become a temporary couch potato. I silently watch the TV, on this odd reality TV show, until it ends, which at that point I go up to bed.

Yes, it is quite a boring life up here in the forest by myself, but hey, at least I don't get any unwanted visitors. As I am in bed, I get up to have a drink. I head downstairs.

As I am in the kitchen getting a drink, I see a strange four-legged silhouette charge along the tree line outside of my house. It may just be the rare animal coming past, but I could've sworn it was a rhino or something with a horn like that. Or it could've been a poltergeist, I don't know. I just forget about it and drink my drink, then get back up and into bed, and eventually close my eyes.

I had a somewhat hard time getting off to sleep, oddly enough. But when I got to sleep, I was in a very odd dream indeed. It felt almost real, but with a sense of dreaminess to it. It was in my forest, and I was running particularly fast, around the area where the apparent lightning had struck.

I then frantically searched around, looking for something. I then spoke in quite a feminine and smooth voice. "Oh my, where is it? I must have dropped it somewhere here!" I spoke, panicked about something. I then look up and over towards a small area of light that I hadn't seen before. I slowly walk towards it carefully and cautiously. It looks a lot like my house, and the front porch light is on. I cautiously move up to the rigid door, hesitate slightly, then knock right on the door. The dream then collapses and I am in the void of blackness once again.

I stir from my sleep and sit up.

Knock knock knock.

I hear a knock on my front door, so I groggily pull myself out of bed, and head downstairs. It was rather dark out, so I wasn't sure who'd be knocking at such a time. Eventually, when I get to the door, I open it to find a very strangely dressed man. He has an odd spotted suit that would not look out of place in a comedy skit. He also has a certain… Unsettling appearance about him.

"Oh, well hello there and a good afternoon to you, my fine sir. I am but a humble traveller looking for respite. Do you perhaps have any in this abode of yours?" This guy sounds and looks crazy. If this isn't a joke, then this guy must have some serious problems.

"No. Go away." I abruptly answer, closing the door. I am not some kind of hotel.

Knock knock knock

I swiftly open the door, and interrupt him before he says anything. "Oh, for fuck's sake, you are not sleeping here!" He quickly closes his mouth and I shut the door.

Knockknockknockknockknockknockknockknockknock

I burst out of the door in a fit of rage and scream at him. "FUCK OFF!" I shut the door behind me and lock it. Gah, some people are just plain stupid sometimes. I'm willing to bet that he's drunk or something.

I sit in the living room for a while, listening. There are no more knocks coming from the door, so I went upstairs, back to bed.

Sometime in the morning, I wake up, procrastinate in bed for a while, then head on downstairs. I get breakfast and do the normal morning things that normal people do.

Knock knock knock

I am in the kitchen boiling a kettle as I hear a few knocks on the door. So, I go and open the door to be greeted by the one and only crazy idiot. Let me tell you, I was kind of tempted to nut him and run, but I figured I may as well listen now that I'm not so fucking tired.

He opens his shit-faced grin on his mouth to talk, but I interrupt. "Just cut the shit and tell me what you want. I don't have any money."

His smile falters slightly before he speaks. "Ah, my fine sir, my name is Mr. D. Scord. I am here to ask you about the nearest hotel, as my transportation seems to have… um, broken down." He gestures to a slightly smoking white car that I've never seen the make of in my life. "So do you know where the nearest hotel is?"

I decide to be nicer, because he seems a lot more sophisticated than I thought. "There are no hotels around here, and I have no spare rooms." If I could be bothered give him a spare room, I would.

"But Mr…"

"Wilfhord. Jonathan Wilford."

"Ah, yes. Thanks. Well, I really need a place to stay for a day or two, because of my car problem. You see, it has to be taken abroad to be repaired, and I need to get the official company to come and get it."

"Well, for one, no. And also how did you get all the way out into the woods anyway?"

His eye twitches and he has a sudden flash of a frown before perking up again. "Why, I was merely on a nice drive through the woods, to see the sights."

I am beginning to become a bit sceptical of this strange man, but I am going to continue listening. "Well, I have no room in the house, except the attic.

"Can I sleep in the attic please?"

"No."

"But why?" He pleads.

"Because I've said so." Ah, the good old trick.

"I will pay extra handsomely…" He bargained.

Hmm, a little money wouldn't hurt. "How much?"

He pulls out some odd coins. "100 bits."

I give him a confused look. "What? Are you trying to fuck with me or something?"

He realises his mistake and puts whatever the hell those were back into his pocket. I see him snap his fingers as the other hand reaches into a different pocket, and he pulls out a fancy leather wallet.

"200, right here." He hands me a load of notes.

"Holy shit man, I can't accept this." I modestly say.

"Take it or leave it." Is all he replies with.

I firmly set down some ground rules. "Well, okay. I'll take it. You can stay. One week maximum, in the attic. You buy your own food, drink and other things."

"Thank you so much Mr…"

"Just call me Will."

"See you soon! Ta-ta!" He does an odd big grin and walks into the house.

"Strange, strange man." Is all I say before walking into the house and closing the door behind me.

- Later, at night -

With Mr. Scord in the attic and me asleep in bed, this day has turned out very, very strange indeed. I just hope he goes away tomorrow before the urge to stab him gets stronger.

I awake with a start. I hear some clattering from downstairs, in the kitchen. When checked, the clock says 1:37, so I get up and go to investigate. By the time I'm out of bed and dressed, I hear that the clattering has moved to the living room. As I head down the stairs, I hear the same guy from yesterday.

"Ohh, where is it? Little 'Tia will be so upset!" He mumbles.

As I put my hand on the door handle to the living room, the clattering stops, and I hear him. "Ah, yes! Got it!" He states in glee, as I get extremely angry.

I build up all the strength I can and burst open the door, only to find him directly behind it. Let me tell you that being caught by the owner is one thing, but getting caught by the owner and flying halfway across the room because of a door to the face is another.

I notice him lying still on the floor, just behind a sofa, holding that tiara I found earlier.

I am furious as I storm over to him, ready to kick his face into the floor, and give the carpet a nice red and pink coating.

I stand above him, while he seems to be unconscious and immobile, as I kneel down next to him, and take the crown from his loose grip. I give him one good, firm and satisfying right hook across his face before getting up and walking to the telephone.

Just as I picked up the phone and dialled a '9' on the keypad, something gets a hold of my arm. It was him.

He grabs both of my arms and pins me to the floor face down, and he puts his mouth right next to my ear.

"Give me the crown." He viciously snarls.

"Who are you?" I ask, not ready to give into fear.

"That doesn't matter. Give me the crown." He responds.

"Tell me first, who are you?" I sternly ask.

"Just give it to me." He says.

I begin to get frustrated. "No! Tell me who you are!" I demand, and that really pisses him off.

He flips me onto my back, and I see his face. His eyes have turned slightly yellow with red pupils.

"What the fuck?" I blurt out, slightly panicked.

"My name is Mr. Scord. Now give the the crown." He grins.

"Fuck you!" I spit at him, making him blink a few times then rub his face with his right hand. Perfect.

I turn the crown around quickly and slam the pointy end right into the back of his neck, where it really hurts.

"Agh!" He blurts out, lifting his other hand off of me and putting it behind his neck. He then looked at his blood stained left hand. "Why you…"

He reaches both of his hands down to attempt to strangle me, but I roll out from underneath him. He instantly turns back towards me as I get up, and charges at me.

Well, unlucky for him, my old days as a member of an old assault squad prove useful, even if I only did it for 3 years or so.

I grab his head and bring it down to my knee, making him both fall down and get a face full of pain. It's now my turn to pin him down to the floor.

He is face down on the floor, with me sat on top, and I have both of his arms underneath of his chest. Must be pretty uncomfortable for him.

"So, Mr. Fake, what do you really want?" I calmly ask him.

"The crown." He splutters, maybe because I've probably broken his nose somewhat.

"This crown, eh?" I try to sound menacing, but I think I'm failing. He attempts to nod. "Well, is it yours?"

"N-no." He replies.

"Well why do you want it then?"

"Because it's one of my friend's."

"Why didn't you say so?" I ask, not believing him.

"Because y-you might find out." He gets a tiny bit of a grin on his face before I stamp it out by placing the tiara back into his bloody wound and twisting it a little, making him gasp in pain.

"Find out about what?" I demand.

He grows a wide grin again and turns his head to the right to look at me with one creepy eye. "I'm afraid I have to be somewhere. So sorry! Ta-taAAGH!"

Right in the middle of him being a twat, I slam my fist down on the tiara embedded in the back of his neck, causing it to plunge deeper into him and make him shriek in pain.

He growls in anger as I am very creeped out that he isn't even dead yet.

I yank the crown out, causing him more dismay and I proceed to hammer it into his head repeatedly, while he cannot do anything. Suddenly, after the twelfth or so bludgeon, my hand feels a little bit of static from the crown.

I pass it off as just normal static and continue to beat him, in a state of rage, while he screams for me to stop. But I will not stop until the fucker is either dead or dying.

The little yellow jewel in the centre of the crown begins to glow, but being in my fit of anger, I ignore it.

Bang! "Stop!" Bang! "Please!" Bang! "I beg you!" Bang!

After a few dozen more hits, he is surprisingly still alive with that large dent in the back of his bleeding head.

I decide to finish it with the now glowing crown, that is too bright to even be able to look at without my eyes getting hurt. I turn it around to the pointy end again, and basically fuse the crown into his very skull.

He lies still on the floor as the crown dims down.

I calm straight after that, shaking my head and looking around. The carpet really is red now. For some reason, I feel no regret. Only a small victory. But what have I done…

I turn back to the now deceased assailant, and attempt to extract the tiara from out of the back of his skull. For a few minutes I pulled, more scarlet fluid pouring out of the very, very deep gash until I finally got the now bloodied piece out.

"Yes!" I shouted, having the anger transform into a victory smile. Well, that smile diminished when the crown suddenly started glowing as bright as the fucking sun itself.

The brightness of the tiara filled the room with a light so bright I couldn't see. I stopped hearing. I stopped feeling. I stopped seeing. I stopped thinking. Reality dropped away from me as it was as if I was falling. And then suddenly…

THUD.

- ? Hours later -

My head is pounding. I hear nothing but a few birds here and there, and smell nothing but clean air. I lie face down on the floor for what feels like hours. I begin to regain my strength tediously slowly, eventually gathering enough to open my eyes and lift up my head to look around.

I cannot focus very well, but what I do see is a lot of green, blue and grey. I close my eyes and drop my head and try to focus on listening, because I cannot even try to understand what is going on. I can now clearly hear flowing water, quite loud actually, coming from who knows where. It is a very low, rumbling noise that is a characteristic of waterfalls.

Falls! That's it! Last thing I felt was falling. So… I must have fallen. But water? I must have left the tap on. Well, it's good to know that I can think a little better now. But why am I even here? And why is the carpet so green and tall?

I am slowly recalling what happened. My feeling has returned, albeit numb. I try to open my eyes again, and find that they still do fuck all. I fall to sleep after a while of doing nothing coupled with me being very tired for no reason, apparently.

When I wake again later, I feel much clearer and sharper. I open my eyes, my focus being good again. I still hear water and birds, and the surroundings are slightly brighter than before.

I have plenty of strength now to get up, so I do just that. Starting with a knee on the floor, I stand up, and end up getting up faster than I thought. I stumble a lot, feeling incredibly light and dizzy. I almost fall as I catch myself on a wooden pole.

I can think pretty easily now, so I blink a few times and finally make an understanding of my environment.

The first thing that I deduce is that I am not holding onto a wooden pole. It's a tree. A fucking tree.

I stop to think why there is a tree here before turning my head. I see a rather wide area of green carpet, which I now understand is grass. There is also a fuckton of trees as well.

That is where I really panic.

I look around more and more to find nothing but trees, grass and trees. I start to remember what happened before I woke up, and I remember that I killed someone. I actually killed someone. I am a monster. Yes, I used to kill in the old assault days, but never an innocent.

But will, he wasn't innocent! I argue with myself. Yeah, I suppose that's true. I think back.

I realise that talking to myself isn't going to accomplish anything, and neither is standing here doing fuck all too.

I turn around to see a wide clearing with a river running down the centre, a cliff side waterfall visible not too far away from here, really.

I look down next to me to discover the crown. It is sparklingly clean and shines in the sunlight. I notice a distinct lack of the other man, too.

The air was crisp and clear, and the aesthetics of this place felt like a paradise. I'm not sure what was going on, but I'll admit, it was kind of relaxing. My old home never had anything good in it anyway. Ah, I wish I'd have settled here. This is the best place I have ever been to.

I reach down and pick the crown up, only to instantly drop it.

"Shit!" I blurt out, as the tiara is red hot. I would call it strange, but at the moment, that isn't the weirdest thing going on.

Well, if I'm going to hate life, I may as well do it now.

I begin by sticking my middle finger up at the sky, saying "Fuck you," then reaching my hand onto my belt. I can use this to carry that bloody crown.

I undo the belt and tie it around the tiara, hoisting it up and over my shoulder, the crown too far from my back to burn it.

If I'll be honest, this is quite a nice place to be. But, something just feels… Off. It's almost as if I'm dreaming, what with the light headedness and the strange scenery often only seen in a nature documentary.

I chuckle at the thought of David Attenborough narrating me in here. Oh, and if anyone is wondering 'Why the fuck isn't he panicking?' I'll just answer with 'Because plot development is no good if a chapter is spent worrying and breaking the fourth wall now, is it?'

So I turn to the nearby clearing and head towards it.

The sound of the waterfall is pretty loud now, and the river that runs through this light clearing is quite fast. Since I'm wanting to get out as fast as I can, I think the best route will be downstream. So, without further ado, I go that exact way.

After a few minutes of wandering down the river side, I stumble upon an odd and ruined dirt pathway. Me, being the stupid kind, changes course and walks down the pathway. This might lead me somewhere…

To my dismay, the pathway only leads back to the river I was following. Looking to the other side of the stream, I see a very rickety looking rope bridge far ahead. There is quite a bit of fog there, though, so I can't see very much.

So, I am stuck there, by the river for a while, thinking of what to do. Suddenly, an idea springs to mind. A very idiotic idea, but an idea nonetheless. I might be able to push some sort of heavy rock over to the river and climb it, hopefully jumping across from there.

A stupid idea, but worth a try.

Eventually, I find a big boulder. It is incredibly convenient that it's nearby, so I get behind it and begin to push.

Fuck, it's hard. I manage to exert enough force to move it next to the river. One last push should do it.

SPLASH!

There we go, and the river is just deep enough to jump on top of the rock, which is what I do.

After nearly shitting myself and falling into the watery depths, I land safely on the other side. I trip slightly on a small lump in the boulder, forcing me to land face-first into the ground, and causing the boulder to go on a rampage down the river. Heh. Someone's gonna have a big problem.

The rope bridge is just up ahead, and when I get there, I look down.

"Fuck…" Is all I say as there was a drop that looked, you know, a tad bit fucking terrifying.

"Ah, fuck this shit." Is what I say next, basically telling the massive gorge to fuck off and I cross the bridge with a surprisingly low amount of me saying 'Shit' over and over.

Once I am safely across, I walk further on down the dirt pathway, coming to what looks like a derelict stone path. I follow the stone path for a while before looking up, to find a colossal stone castle just abandoned and sitting there.

I should feel rather guilty, as my next thought was 'Oh, cool. New home, bitches.' Bad news is, that I don't.

But seriously, who would leave a perfectly probably not likely good masterpiece right out here? In the middle of nowhere? Ugh, some people.

Oh well. More for me, I guess.

The stone behemoth stands tall above,

Towering over me with even it's very shadow. The dark atmosphere of the area creates a constant illusion of eeriness to the place.

Shakily, I place my hand on the large door to the main hall, and push. The door emits a very audible and slow creeeeaaak… As I open it, I begin to see the extent of the damage done to this castle. Was there a war here? I begin to question myself.

I take one step in and pass the threshold to the entranceway, and feel a sudden chill in the air, even though the sun bears down on me, beaming streams of sunlight through the large holes in the ceiling.

The pillars of the place are mostly chipped or decimated, while the floor is filled with rubble and broken glass. Only now do I realise that my clothes are not suited for getting stabbed in the ankle by glass shards. The place seems devoid of anything interesting, apart from a large pedestal with six holders sticking out of it. Not sure what it is, but it sure is mossy.

There is an open doorway around the back of the castle hall, so I head over there instead. The other room appears to just be a standard hallway, with a few doors to the left and right. I walk down the hallway and take the second door to the right.

I am greeted with a rather large and tall spiral staircase. When I look up though the centre, I see that the top is very high up, so I get going up the stairs, all the way to the top.

After almost killing my legs going up those things, I come to a rather nice, although dusty, bedroom. It's not as demolished as the other areas, but it is very dirty looking. Oh well, if I'm going to sleep anywhere tonight, it may as well be here.

I then descend the stairs and carry on exploring until dusk, finding nothing of interest in the other doors apart from some old books written in some sort of gibberish symbols.

I annihilate my legs once again going up the same fucking flight of stairs, and remove the dust off of the quite comfy bed. Placing the now cooled crown on the half broken bedside table, I lay down in the bed. I am too tired to undress, so I think about what the fuck happened today.

And soon, I finally went off to sleep.

- Midnight -

Sitting up in bed, being awoken by nothing in particular, I rub my eyes and come to my senses. It is very misty today. There is no rain, only mist and a dark atmosphere. I will never get back to sleep now, seeing as i have this awkward feeling of being watched. I hate that feeling, you know?

I lie back down and close my eyes, trying to get back to sleep.

"Oh, so you finally woke up, strange creature." Spoke a rather feminine voice.

Nearly shitting myself, I shoot upright in bed and stare directly at the speaker.

It's a black horse. A fucking horse.

I think I'm hallucinating. It's even wearing fucking armour and it's got a horn. I just continue to stare at it, and notice it's crazy hair, which I'd rather not talk about. Also, it has wings. It is a horse. It has wings. It has a massive fucking horn. It has some fucking floating goo hair. Fuck. I think I'm high.

I am still staring at it, while it stares back at me. Holy shit it's eyes are fucking creepy.

It opens its mouth, almost ready to speak.

"Well?" It spoke. Well, fuck. I am on acid. "Do you speak?"

I hesitate a lot before simply wheezing, "W-what the shit…"

"Do not speak to me like that!" She demanded assertively, "Who are you and what are you?"

"J-jonathan." Is what I stutter out. God, I am a wimp. "I-I'm hu-human."

It looks at me with what seems to be surprise at it takes a step back, then recomposes itself. "Human, you say?"

I nod. "Y-yes."

It looks at me with those creepy eyes directly into my eyes, and states her name quite clearly.

"I am the unbeloved Nightmare Moon!"

/ END OF CHAPTER \\\

Wow. Just… Wow. 5,016 words in one chapter. I had originally aimed for only about 2,000. Fuck. Well, it's your fault for reading it. Please tell me what you liked and disliked, and I will respect your desicions fully.

This took about 20 hours to do, spending about 5-6 free time in the afternoon doing it.

That is, if you even get this far. ;)

This story is inspired by Diaries of a Madman, Tales of the Oppressed, Stasis, The God Particle, etc.

Thank you for reading and wasting your time on this. I will hopefully upload chapters slightly smaller than this, unless you want me to upload behemoth chapters once every few weeks.

Bugger off now and go read some good fiction.

~ 404WriterNotFound ~