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Pound and Pumpkin Tales 2

by Never2muchpinkie

Chapter 78: 11-2: The other Mayhem

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Author's Notes:

Mayhem panted, slowly backing up out of fear. The creature above them was different… different than any of his other creations. Just looking at it gave him the creeps.

“What’s wrong, Mayhem?” asked Spring.

He didn’t answer, too in his feelings to hear her.

“Mayhem!” Twilight said sharply, getting his attention. “What happened?”

He glanced over at her, not wanting to take his eyes off the thing above them. “I-I-I don’t know. It doesn’t feel like any of my creations.”

“Come on!” Flash said reassuringly. “Sombra’s thing was dark magic and making ponies experience their deepest fears, right? That’s why it’s affecting you like this.”

“No!” he said, shaking his head. “It’s not as simple as that. I can feel it. It feels like there’s a real consciousness in there, just like me. It’s not just one of my creations.”

“Then just use your magic again and make it disappear like any of the other things you create.”

He lifted his claw, but for some reason he couldn’t snap. There was nothing physically stopping him, but for some reason he didn’t want to get rid of this thing that looked like him.

“Mayhem,” said the creature above them, making all of them look up at it. It was no longer laughing.

“I’m very happy.” Even though it said that it looked furious. “I’m glad to have my own body at last. I’ve grown tired of you.”

Mayhem felt a vague memory stir at that. It was something similar to what he said to Discord when he had taken over the twins.

“Wait!” said Chocolate. “So he really did create another Mayhem?”

“Another one already?” Tree Leaf said incredulously.

“I don’t believe this,” said Mayhem. He could feel danger coming off of it. His friends might be in danger. He didn’t want anything to go wrong, and of course it did.

As guilt assaulted him the creature twitched.

The other Mayhem lifted a claw, pointing it at Mayhem. With a dispassionate look it flicked its claw.

For a moment Mayhem saw a distortion in the air before he was in searing pain. He felt like he had been struck repeatedly in the gut. He fell to his knees holding his stomach, coughing and wheezing.

“Hey!” Pumpkin cried out.

“What did you do that for?” Pound said angrily.

Twilight bit her lip. Her bad feeling was confirmed. That the attack actually hurt Mayhem rather than going through him meant It wasn’t acting according to Mayhem’s safety rules. That had to mean it truly had its own independent will and thought processes.

It lifted its claw high up. “I want to draw your suffering out, but that might not get me what I want. I’m not going to give you the chance to run you despicable monster.” Energy built up in a giant ball above it. “You die now!”

Flurry remembered Mayhem making this sort of attack when she had first fought him after losing her memories. When Mayhem had done it he had revealed it was just for show and only caused her a mild static shock.

She didn’t get that same feeling here. She could feel the power emanating out of the attack. This was for real.

Mayhem was still holding his stomach. He had to do something quick or else his friends would get hurt again.

He tried to rise, but he was still in too much pain.

“Don’t even think about it!” said Flash, getting in front of Mayhem protectively.

“Right on!” said Pound, getting into place too. “I just wish I had said it first.”

One by one the rest added their support.

“You guys…” Mayhem felt himself tearing up.

The other Mayhem just looked on impassively. “If you want to stand in my way then whatever. I’ll blow through you to get to him if I have to.”

Mayhem growled, trying to stand up again.

Twilight’s horn lit up as the creature threw the massive ball of energy.

“HUH?” Almost as soon as it fired its eyes widened in surprise. It teleported under the attack, kicking it up into the air where it exploded harmlessly.

All of them looked on in confusion at the display.

It landed on the ground, the aura coming out the sides of his face gone and his eyes now visible. Keeping with the opposite theme, the irises of his eyes were a dark blue while the actual eyes were a light blue.

It bowed on the ground, prostrate before them. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”

This only made them all more confused. Its personality had just taken a huge shift.

“I won’t hurt my friends. Never again!”

“Friends?” said Masky.

“I think,” said Pumpkin, “that it thinks it’s you, Mayhem.”

“Not too surprising,” said Flurry, “given that it looks exactly like you.”

“But if it thinks it’s Mayhem,” said Plum, “then why is it attacking him?”

“There can be only one?” Sweet Pea suggested.

“So it wants to be the one and only Mayhem?” asked Chocolate.

“Well,” said Flash, “it’s apologizing, so it’s a start. If it’s sorry then we should forgive it and start anew.”

Twilight felt uncertain. Was this actually a second Mayhem, or just a product of Mayhem’s magic? It had Mayhem’s memories at the very least. It also had dark magic like Sombra, so her best guess for now was that he had created a Sombra in his own image.

What was most curious was that even he didn’t seem to know what he had created. It had to have been unintentional. Given that the whole concept of the Sombra code word was to externalize their pain and make it more bearable she had to conclude he had imbued it with his negative feelings.

At the least she was happy that Mayhem’s strong bonds with his friends were shining through in this other Mayhem. As soon as they were in danger it immediately stopped its attack.

The children surrounded the opposite Mayhem.

Pound helped it up. “As long as you’re sorry there is always a second chance to be had.”

“Thank you,” it said gratefully. “I’m sorry I got a little crazy there.”

The pain had finally receded enough that Mayhem was able to move again. “I’ve been there myself. I forgive you.”

As Mayhem put a claw on its shoulder it immediately went stiff and its eyes went pure green like before.

“Don’t touch me!” It gave Mayhem an uppercut, making all the children gasp. It lifted its claw, a block of ice shooting out of it and hitting him in the stomach. “I didn’t ask for your forgiveness, scum!”

It lifted its claw and paw, energy building up inside them.

“That’s enough!” Pound said angrily, socking it in the face hard enough to send it to the ground on its back. “That’s strike two!

“Don’t ask for forgiveness and then go right back to what you were doing that hurt us in the first place!” He was breathing hard.

The opposite Mayhem’s eyes were visible again as the green faded. It was shivering on the ground. “I-I-I… I’m sorry. I couldn’t stop myself.”

It hugged itself. “I… I did a bad thing again. I made you resort to violence.”

Pound’s eyebrow rose, then his mind turned back to his lessons with Twilight. She had spent a lot of time training him to stop using violence to protect Pumpkin when he could use words instead.

He did feel a little guilty for letting his emotions get the better of him like that, but he had done it to protect a friend from a definite threat.

Chocolate was holding Mayhem, who was clenching his stomach again. “Come on, Mayhem. You’re okay, right?”

“Y-yeah,” he said weakly.

“What’s going on with you?” asked Flurry. “When we fought against you back then you easily handled everything we threw at you. Why are you just letting yourself get hit by stuff like this?”

He looked at Flurry, but didn’t really see her. “I… I don’t know. There’s just something about it…” He looked over at the opposite Mayhem. “When it attacks… I just feel like I shouldn’t dodge.”

Masky gave him a questioning look. “What do you mean?”

He continued staring at the creature, feeling something stirring within him. An old guilt was coming to the surface. His voice came out strangely monotone as he said, “I’ve done some terrible things. I deserve to be punished.”

“Hmm?” Tree Leaf blinked, but his eyes weren’t deceiving him. “Hey, your eyes are turning green.”

Twilight looked over, seeing it was indeed the case. It was a long time ago now, but she still remembered Sombra’s enchanted door. When Spike snapped her out of the trance she got to see the effects of the door herself as he began to see his darkest fears. His irises had turned green just like Mayhem’s were doing now.

“More,” he said. “I deserve more pain.”

She put herself between Mayhem and his clone. “Come back to us, Mayhem!” she said sharply.

The green faded away as he shook his head. He looked disoriented. “Huh? Wha-”

The clone was definitely having a Sombra-like effect on Mayhem, though she was almost certain that it hadn’t done it intentionally. It was still minding its business for the moment.

She looked around at the other children. “Are any of you having similar effects from looking at it?”

The children stared at the other Mayhem, but nothing happened. After about thirty seconds they all told her no.

‘So,’ she thought, ‘Mayhem is the only one affected. Interesting.’

Twilight stepped forward to the other Mayhem. “You know who I am, right?”

It looked up at her, and gave a timid nod. “Of course I know you, Twilight. You’ve been an inspiration for me to follow for so long.”

She sat down right in front of it. “Can you tell me why you have it in for Mayhem? You haven’t attacked anyone else.”

“That’s right!” Spring said. “What’s your problem?”

It stopped shivering. The aura came out of its eyes as it glared at Mayhem. “I hate him!” it said with contempt. “I hate him so much!”

“Why?” said Twilight.

“Because he’s just a despicable monster.”

“And… what about the rest of us?” asked Peppermint. “Do you hate us too?”

It seemed surprised by the question. “Of course not! I could never hate my best friends.”

Twilight was glad Peppermint asked that question. It confirmed that it really did only have an urge to attack Mayhem.

“Well, if you know so much then you have to know why we’re all here today, right?”

It nodded. “Of course. We’re here to help Spring Meadow face her past by defeating Sombra for real.”

She nodded. “That’s correct. You told me before how important your friends are to you, didn’t you?”

It nodded again. “My friends mean the world to me.”

“I’m happy to hear that, because I have a request to make of you.”

“What’s that?”

“Can you put your grudge on hold for now and work together with Mayhem for Spring’s sake?”

Immediately its eyes turned green and the aura came out of the sides of his face. “I’m not working with HIM!” it said nastily. “I don’t want anything to do with him!”

Twilight kept her tone light, but added in a bit of sternness. “I thought you just told me your friends mean the world to you.”

“They do!”

“And you can’t bring yourself to make a small sacrifice, putting away your own selfish wants to benefit a friend in need?”

It stared at her for a while without answering. “I’m not making friends with him,” it finally said.

“I’m not asking you to be his friend. I’m asking you to prioritize helping a friend conquer her bad feelings over picking a fight and forcing her to remain in pain.

“You don’t have to provide him assistance, but you would have to be on the same team.”

After a time it looked over at Spring Meadow, slowly returning to normal.

It crossed its arms. “Fine!” it finally said. “But keep that menace away from me. And I’ll say this right now that if he touches me again he’ll get the same as before.”

“I’d rather you didn’t use violence, but I understand that we all have personal space boundaries we don’t want others to cross. Even more so when its someone we don’t get along with.”

She rubbed its head a little. “I’m happy that you were able to give some ground. Thank you.”

It flashed her a smile that reminded her so much of Mayhem.

Mayhem gently tapped his hoof on the floor. This was going to get awkward real quick.

The other children felt the same. They weren’t staunchly opposed to having this other Mayhem joining them for the journey, but they didn’t want to deal with its hair-trigger temper just because Mayhem got too close.

Mayhem looked around at his friends, seeing they didn’t look any more eager than him. Even though Twilight had gotten his clone under control he knew they were feeling miserable and unenthusiastic.

He began to feel guilt again for what he had created.

The other Mayhem hugged himself, his face clenching like he was in pain.

“What happened?” asked Twilight.

It shook its head.

“Well,” it said quietly, “if we’re going to play the game there has to be a Sombra to fight.” It let out a long sigh, a miserable look on its face. “I really don’t want to, but somebody has to be the villain.”

“I thought Twilight was going to play Sombra,” said Pumpkin.

“That’s no good,” it said as it shook its head. “She’s the one who keeps order and is the safe spot for when someone gets scared. She can’t be Sombra.

“I… I’m the only who can do it.”

It looked so pitiably sad now that they began to feel bad for it.

“Besides, being too close to him is going to set me off and disrupt what we’re really here for. That’s why it’s better if I get some distance and play the role. I guess that’s what I was created for in the first place, right?”

“Well… kinda,” said Twilight.

“Don’t worry. The rules will be the same as always. None of my friends will get hurt.”

Twilight’s eyebrow rose at that statement. “If you want to play the role that’s fine, but there is one thing of concern.”

“What’s that, Twilight?”

“Rather than saying ‘no one’ will get hurt you specifically said ‘none of my friends’ will get hurt. And while you clearly care for the rest of the children it’s obvious you certainly don’t think of Mayhem as a friend.

“If you’re going to play the role of the antagonist then you need to honor the rules and protect everyone, not just the ones you like.”

“No,” it said flatly. “He’s got his little magic. Let him protect himself.”

Flurry tensed as the air shifted around her aunt. Inner strength was radiating off of her now.

Twilight walked a step closer, an authoritative expression on her face now. “Perhaps I wasn’t clear. That wasn’t a request. You’re going to do it whether you like it or not.”

The aura and the green eyes were back. “Absolutely not! I refuse to do anything to protect that despicable thing. It shouldn’t even be around in the first place.”

Mayhem bit his lip, a heavy feeling in his chest as the clone dug into another of his old feelings.

Pound was about to comfort him, but all their attention was drawn as Twilight’s horn began to glow brightly.

“As a princess it is my duty to protect my subjects. If you’re going to put others in danger then you will be treated as an enemy. This is the only warning I’m going to give you.”

Pumpkin gulped, holding onto Pound.

Pound returned the favor. It had been a long time since he had seen Twilight truly mad, back when Pumpkin had attacked her to get to Masky. This felt even more intense. His legs were shaking as he once again thought of how foolish he had been to threaten her in the past.

The other Mayhem growled, the echo in his voice becoming more pronounced as dark magic swirled around him and the ground began shaking.

Twilight took another step forward, unintimidated. “Do you want to fight me?” she said coldly, magic swirling around her too. “I’m very forgiving, but if you make an aggressive move here I will not hesitate to take you down to protect myself and the others.

“So you’d better think very carefully about your next move, because it might be your last.”

Flurry was panting. She had never heard her aunt threaten someone before.

All the other children were shivering at the contest of wills going on. The very air around them felt thick with anticipation.

A minute passed with neither backing down or giving an inch.

“Well?” Twilight said. “What’s your choice?”

“He can take care of himself,” it said. “I don’t see why I need to hold back for him.”

“Tree Leaf!” Twilight said harshly without taking her eyes from the other Mayhem.

The poor colt jumped a foot in the air and scrunched down when he landed, shivering harder than ever. “Y-y-y-yes?” he stuttered out.

“What is your power?”

“T-t-transformation.”

“And how did you manage to defeat Tirek in the last superhero adventure?”

“I turned into Flurry Heart and let him absorb my magic so that Flurry could attack while his guard was down.”

“You remember that, don’t you?”

“What of it?” said the clone.

“Tree Leaf assumed the form of another in the group to be a decoy for an attack. Now, then… what if Tree Leaf finds a reason to assume the form of Mayhem? Are you willing to let your grudge possibly cause harm to one of your friends?”

“Of course not!”

“That’s a lie.”

“I’d make sure it’s the right one first.”

“Do you really believe that? You’ve repeatedly proven that you have no self-control when it comes to your feelings towards Mayhem. You really expect me to believe that you’re going to be able to take the time to ensure that the real Mayhem is the only one you’re attacking rather than one of your friends?”

“Yes!”

Twilight walked closer until she was right in front of it. “Can you one hundred percent guarantee it? Can you tell me with absolute, unquestionable certainty that you can do it? Are you really going to gamble the life and well-being of a friend just to attack someone that might not actually be him? Is that how weak your feelings for your friends are?”

Once more they stared at each other for a while before the clone broke eye contact to look over at Tree Leaf.

After about fifteen seconds the sphere of dark magic slowly condensed to a single small orb in its palm. With a growl it extended its claw and fired the orb.

Mayhem let out a yelp as he saw the fast-moving energy coming directly at him. He didn’t even have time to lift his arms for protection before it hit and went right through him.

He put his claw to his chest, not feeling any pain.

“Fine!” it said irritably. “I’ll play along for now, but don’t get the wrong idea. I’m doing this for my friends, not because of him or because I’m scared of you, Twilight.”

With that it stormed off to fume.

Twilight let out a breath, the magic surrounding her fading.

Peppermint fell to her knees, panting like crazy.

“Hey!” said Pumpkin. “Are you alright?”

She took a few moments to catch her breath. “I… I didn’t realize it… but I was holding my breath… through all of that.”

“I don’t blame you,” said Chocolate. “Even if Twilight was protecting us she was still as terrifying as that Mayhem clone.”

“I’m not surprised,” said Mayhem. “You don’t mess with mothers. They’re the scariest ponies.”

“Twilight’s not a mom,” said Pound.

“But she is like the mother of all of Ponyville’s kids.”

“I guess I can see that. She’s been like family to me and Pumpkin as she’s taught us how to be better ponies. I know better than anyone that you don’t mess with my family.”

“Everyone!” Twilight said meaningfully to catch their attention. “We have a little time, so I need all of you to pay attention.”

When they all looked at her she said, “I’m still trying to figure out exactly what that clone is. I don’t know if it’s truly another draconequus or whether it’s just a creation of Mayhem’s that he put too much of himself into. The only thing I can say for sure is that it’s suffering from identity confusion.”

“Identity confusion?” said Flurry. “What do you mean, Aunt Twilight?”

“It definitely seems to think it's Mayhem. The way it talks about all of you being its friends and not wanting any harm to come to you. Or telling me that I’ve been an inspiration for so long.

“When Mayhem was telling us about his origins he said that he took so long to separate from Discord because he wasn’t aware he was something separate until he entered a new host and saw memories he knew weren’t his.

“Something similar is going on here, except that this other Mayhem didn’t find a new host, and so it’s still not quite aware it's a separate person. Thus, it's acting exactly as Mayhem because that’s all the memories he has.”

Masky got a heavy look on his face. “But… Twilight…”

“Yes?”

He looked over at Mayhem. “But if it’s really true that it thinks that it’s you then…” Tears came to his eyes. “Mayhem, do you really hate yourself that much?”

The question took him by surprise. “No!”

“But it’s calling you all sorts of names and wants to destroy you, no one else.”

“Hmm,” said Twilight, getting a thoughtful look on her face. “Spring, do you remember how this whole Sombra thing started? Your brother began to use it as a tool to help you manage your feelings. Rather than you attacking yourself, you visualized your negative thoughts as an external intruder forcing its way into your mind.”

Spring nodded. “Yeah. I remember.”

“Oh!” said Sweet Pea. “Mayhem’s been doing that too, right?”

Spring looked at her, then back to Twilight. “So… when he tried to create Sombra he made it holding onto all his self-hatred and bad thoughts because that’s what he does when it was inside him.”

Twilight nodded. “I think that’s the most likely scenario.”

“So what do we do, Twilight?” asked Peppermint. “I mean, if it’s just another creation of Mayhem then can’t you or Mayhem just dispel it like everything else he makes?”

Twilight sighed. “The problem is that I don’t know for sure. Earlier Mayhem hesitated, unable to bring himself to dispel it. That could just be because of his connection to the other one, but it’s also possible that it is its own separate consciousness like Mayhem was to Discord.

“If it’s the latter then dispelling it would be killing it.”

“But you were threatening to do that anyway,” said Plum.

“That was mostly talk.”

“Excuse me?” said Flurry. “That scary display was just talk, Aunt Twilight?”

“If it had pursued its aggression and attacked then I would have taken steps to protect everyone, but I was fairly certain I could push it into backing down. After all, knowing Mayhem’s heart, it would never attack me. He has told me that the only reason he doesn’t see me as a mother figure is because he already has one in Fluttershy, so if this other Mayhem is acting as if it's truly Mayhem then it wouldn't be able to bring itself to attack me.”

“Even if that’s true, it doesn’t tell us what we should do with it.”

“Yeah,” Tree Leaf said awkwardly, “it’s going to be hard to play with it.”

“You saw how much darkness he holds,” said Chocolate. “It felt like I couldn’t breathe when his power was pouring out all around him.”

Twilight’s head quickly spun towards Chocolate, making the colt jump. “W-what?”

Her eyes faded out. “What you just said…” She put a hoof to her forehead. “What am I doing?”

“Huh?” said Pound. “What’s wrong?”

She put her hoof down. “Chocolate just showed me something important.”

“I… I did?” he asked, confused.

“Most of us have been referring to that creature as an ‘it,' me included. Just now Chocolate used male nouns to describe him.

“ ‘It’ is such a derogatory title that makes him sound lesser. We don’t refer to Mayhem as ‘it,’ so we shouldn’t call him that either. Maybe he is just a creation and maybe he’s another piece of chaos magic that has decided to branch out on its own. Either way, until we know the answer we need to be respectful.”

She turned around towards the other Mayhem. “I did the wrong thing earlier. A long time ago, when Pound was trying to reform his bully, I told him that you could force a change of behavior out of someone by throwing power around, but that wouldn’t change their heart.

“He said it himself that he wasn’t backing down out of fear of my power, but because of his feelings for his friends. You can’t fight anger and hate with more hate.”

“Yeah,” said Flurry. “It’s just like with Aunt Starlight. She talked about how you showed her love and compassion and took away her hatred.”

She looked over at Mayhem. “Fluttershy did that for you too. You said that when you were first released into the real world that you had every intention of continuing your evil plans, but you abandoned them for Fluttershy’s sake because she showed you love.

“She saw that beneath your bad behavior was a creature just looking for acknowledgment and freedom.”

“So… is that your plan?” asked Masky.

Twilight nodded. “I’m going to try coming at him from a place of love and see if that affects his behavior at all.

“We may have to acknowledge that he can’t put aside his grudge, but until we try all we can we can’t give up.”

Twilight unfurled her wings. “I’ll be back soon, hopefully with some good news.”

With that she slowly flew over towards the other Mayhem.

Next Chapter: 11-3: Nega Estimated time remaining: 6 Hours, 5 Minutes
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