“… not to be scared. At the prospect of being doubly mared!”
I swam down, but there was a layer of air in the depths below me. The jitters got to me and I slowed down my descent. I was afraid that if I crossed into the air pocket underneath me, I could fall down into nothingness.
When I approached the surface of the deepwater bubble, I felt something pulling me toward it. I stopped swimming and let the force drag me deeper. As my face slowly breached the surface, various details of the underwater world cleared up for me. There were lots of stones. Some were bright-colored, and a few even glowed.
I galloped backward through the liquid by flapping my legs to resist the force that wanted to rip me out of the water and down to the world at the bottom. The sharp rocks ominously glittered far below me.
When my head popped through, the whole world seemed to flip on its head. Or maybe it was just my perception that shifted.
I felt the chills on my crest as it raised above the surface. The pull toward the emptiness ceased. I no longer needed to kick forth with my legs to keep myself away from the air bubble I’d pierced. When I tried to lift myself from the water the force reversed and pulled me back. I put my forehooves on the rocky edge of the pool and clambered on the bank.
In front of me stood a clone. She was looking at me with a grim smile on her face. It was a success. Happy to come into existence, no doubt; probably also a bit confused, perhaps.
I looked at the cutie mark on her flank. It was a shining shooting star with its gassy trail spanning down her thigh. Looking back on my own flank, I compared her cutie mark with my own. They looked exactly the same.
Trying not to spook her, I spoke calmly. “Welcome to our world, newcomer.”
“That’s cute.” She lifted her head and threw me a pitiful laugh.
“What is it that you find cute?” She must have really been confused.
“You. Thinking you’re the original.”
My eyes opened wide. “Wait! You think you are?” She’d been acting a bit off from the start, but thinking she was me seemed to border on dementia.
“I’m the original! You, on the other hoof, are a mere copy.” She caressed my head with a hoof as if I was a mere foal.
I swiped off the patronizing hoof with a foreleg and hissed at her. “You’re not above me! I’m a real pony, and that makes me better than you by default. You’re not superior to me in any way, conjured matter!”
“Of course I’m better than you.” She snorted. “Wanna see?”
I stood on my hind legs to rise above her, putting my hooves at my sides, I challenged her. “Yeah, Show me!”
“What did you eat for breakfast today? Have you eaten anything ever? Where are you from? What were the names of your former friends? Did you have any in all your life?”
“Um… ” I stepped down on three legs and poked my head with a hoof to help me get the thoughts out.
Those were silly questions she asked. I just had to think of a detailed answer to put her back in place. I rolled my eyes toward the stony ceiling, trying to think of a good response, but nothing came to me. “You’re just trying to confuse me with your clustered questions.” I pointed a hoof at her accusingly. “You know I can’t answer all of them at once!”
“Then answer just this one: What’s your name?”
That angered me. She insulted me, and I wasn’t about to just take it. “I am…” It was the worst possible time to have a mental block “I’m…” It was the simplest question one could ask, yet my mind stayed blank.
She interrupted me before I could answer. “Tell me something from your past life. Anything at all.”
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. It was as if there was a pure vacuum in my mind. I couldn’t let a clone beat me like that! I had to tell her something. “I dived down before, toward the surface.” I pointed a hoof at the pool.
“And prior to that?”
Nothing. It didn’t make any sense why I wouldn’t be able to remember anything. It didn’t! A tear slid down my muzzle. Even more of them were forming in my eyes. My legs gave way, and I crumpled on the ground. I lifted my head toward the white Unicorn who towered above me. I shook my head. “No.” I didn’t want to believe it.
“Don’t worry Clonie. Even though you are a mere clone, you’re not without a purpose. I’ll give you one. You’re going to help me gain power and immortality.” She patted me on the head again. I didn’t resist.
She wasn’t very nice to me, but at least she thought I could help her. Perhaps I could use that to my advantage.
“Hmm, that’s odd,” said Sweetie Belle. “Your horn is completely white.”
“Yours is a little reddish,” I said. “Does this mean something?”
“No! It doesn’t mean anything at all!” While stepping over me, she bumped a hind hoof against my back.
“Au!” I clenched my teeth as I looked at her, my eyes teared up.
She kept walking, without even glancing back. “Come here!”
I stood up and trotted behind her. A thought struck me. What if she was also a clone. She didn’t answer any of her own questions either.
She looked back at me as if she heard my thoughts. “You can call me Sweetie Belle.”
That proved it. She really was better than me.
I bowed my head.
We walked past a pile of books.
I looked up at her. “I could stack those books for you if you want.”
“No, I have a more significant task for you to carry out.”
We stopped at a dent in cave’s walls. The multi-color stones spread out forming a small chamber around us.
“I did some decorating. There were tunnels leading further, but I collapsed them all. The draft annoyed me. One exit out of here is enough. I also made preparations for your arrival.” She looked forth.
On the ground, in the middle of the stony room was a sheath. A knife handle stuck out of it.
She looked back at me. “We’ve come full circle, Clonie.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You sprung to life from nonexistence, then summarily accepted your place in this world. And now is the time for you to consent to your fall. For you see, my Clonie, winter is coming, and you shall soon be put to rest.”
A chill rushed through me, making me shiver. “I still don’t understand.”
She snorted, looked at the knife, then back at me. As she leaned closer, she reached out with a hoof and caressed my mane. She whispered with a soft but firm voice, “Kill yourself.”
“Whaa… ” Both ears were pointed straight at her, but I still couldn’t believe what I’d heard. Why would my creator want me to die? “You said I have a purpose!”
“This is your purpose. I spoke you into existence, which gives me the right to end it if I so choose. My plan is to grant life to many more, but only if I can be certain that they won’t disobey me. I have no use for rebel ponies. I need to know how loyal your kind can be.”
Her horn glowed, and the knife slipped from the sheath. It dashed along the ground, stopping as its handle hit my hoof.
I arched my shoulders and looked up at her. “I won’t rebel. I promise!”
“You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to, Clonie. I can do it for you, instead. But then I’ll know that you can’t be trusted! There are enough ponies out there”—she pointed a hoof at the cave’s exit—“whom I cannot trust. I don’t need any more of them in my new home. I have to be sure. If you can prove your loyalty to me, I will consider clones to be useful.”
Sweat broke all over my body as I backed up a step.
“You can fight me if you choose, but you will lose; condemning all potential ponies to nonexistence. Denying so many lives would make you a mass murderer, and that’s much worse than what I’m expecting of you now, don’t you think so?”
I played all the scenarios in my head. Whether I’d submit, defend myself or attack her, the knife played the main role in all of my options. When I picked it up with my mouth, the heart in my chest pounded so hard that I feared it would burst out.
She cheered as if it was a happy moment. “Your sacrifice will open the door to your be-alikes.”
I was armed, and she wasn’t, but she had magic on her side. When she had pulled the knife out, she exerted no effort at all. She could disarm me with a mere thought. Her horn glowed at the ready.
There was no way out of the bind. She probably even knew what I was thinking. I was her after all, just lesser.
She had beaten me even before I started to exist. She must have known how it would all play out since she made me.
I was in the spotlight, and my options were limited. Perhaps my other reincarnations would get luckier.
There was only one option left for me that was the least bad.
I had to make Sweetie Belle think she was in full control. There was no time for hesitation. It would only draw suspicion from her end. Someday, she might let her guard down, and a few clones might escape from her if they would want to go on their own. However, they wouldn’t be able to run away if she wouldn’t even make them due to my stubbornness. Their very existence in the future depended on what I was about to do.
I pressed the knife against a forehoof. Tears drifted out of my eyes in streams. There is no other way.
She smiled at me and stepped closer. Her hoof raised and slowly drifted toward me. Was it all merely a test? Will she knock the knife out of my mouth, and congratulate me for my determination? The skin on top of my foreleg stung as I increased the pressure of the sharp blade against it. Her hoof touched me on my forearm, just below the knife. Did I impress her enough? It slid down my foreleg, to my hoof. What’s happening? Is she trying to seduce me or something? Doesn’t she know I’m hers already? Her head drifted closer and her nose brushed against my mane. Yes! I’ve proven my worth. It really was just a test! Her lips tickled my ear as she whispered, “Along the street, not across it!”