Chapter 1
A Little Lost
It was 5:00am when Zone’s alarm clock went off with an annoying buzzing sound. He got up and turned it off quickly. After several years of the sound it had stopped bothering him and he’d gotten used to the early wake up call. Of course it was one that he had imposed on himself as he wanted to be up. He always went for jogs in the early morning hours for his own pleasure. It was nice to have some time to himself in the mornings. Kara had asked him why he hated himself when he’d told her about it, but he’d just rolled his eyes. He had never minded early mornings, and enjoyed them to the contrary. The fresh and brisk morning air always felt nice. It woke him up before he’d head off to the weather station for work. He needed it as they’d be preparing for the change from winter to spring which was always one of the hardest. The cold fronts were never easy to handle and were by far the most stubborn. They were hard to move out of the way for the warmer weather. Because it was a weekday he’d have less time as he’d have to make sure to come back in time to be ready to leave for work. He could still take his time wandering through the city though. He’d gotten to know it a lot better over the years if not as well as others.
He threw off his covers and got up quickly. If he wanted the time to wander around like he usually did then it required him to get up and get ready quickly. He did so quietly so as not to wake his roommate and ran through his regular routine just like every morning so that he could get out. He had practically gotten it down to a science as he walked out the door almost no time later. As he stood outside he immediately felt better. He could feel the winds he knew all too well blowing past him and he opened his wings slightly to greet them. He breathed in the crisp air gladly as he started off down the street.
The roads were always fairly clear in the mornings and that gave him even more room to breathe. He never had a set trail that he followed. He always just wandered absentmindedly through the streets exploring places he hadn’t yet. It had certainly helped him to get to know the place a lot better. He set off in a random direction admiring the scenery around him and recording the directions he took in the back of his mind. He saw various buildings and streets that he recognized along with ones he didn’t. It all filed under the mental map he’d been constructing lazily over time.
He didn’t pass ponies often, but when he did he paid them no mind. If they waved or nodded in acknowledgment then he would return the gesture, but for the most part he kept to himself. He allowed his thoughts to wander and didn’t devote the forefront of his attention to the surrounding world. He gave enough thought to know where he was going, but further then that his mind was purely left to meander. It was a nice method of relaxation for him and he took advantage of the opportunity. He didn’t have much on his plate so none of the thoughts were particularly serious.
He did recall the disappearance of a pony not too long ago, which was most likely why the streets weren’t as full as they usually were. It had worried him quite a bit at first, but he had yet to see anything suspicious in the streets. He had yet to walk by where the four hoof prints were as he wasn’t keen to see where it happened, but as he thought more about it he changed his course. While he did remember hearing about it the event had never attracted his attention too much. He couldn’t even recall the name of the pony that it had happened to. He felt slightly guilty as he realized that, but he didn’t let it bother him too much. After all whoever it had been wasn’t somepony that was close to him. That doesn’t make that pony unimportant, a voice in the back of his mind whispered. He shrugged it off and continued towards his destination.
As he arrived on the street he saw the blocked off area where it had happened. He didn’t linger for very long on the street before being on his way. After all it wasn’t any different from the other streets excepting what had occurred. Plus, as he looked towards the area a strange unsettling feeling seemed to stain the air. Feeling uncomfortable he moved swiftly onwards. He had no intention of staying there for any longer than he had to. As he made his way out he walked past a pony heading the other direction and looked up at them. They smiled at him and he returned a false one before continuing onwards.
As he got away from the area the atmosphere seemed to lighten greatly and he felt much better. He had never been a very superstitious pony, but being there had made him feel suddenly paranoid. As he thought about it more the unsettling feeling returned and it felt as though it might have never left. He did his best to shake off the thoughts and he moved on quickly through the streets. Unconsciously he had greatly increased his pace from the leisurely stroll that it had been before. He considered ending the trip early and heading back to the apartment. Stop being an idiot, he scolded himself silently, there aren’t any phantoms walking the streets.
“Are you alright?” an overly friendly voice asked from somewhere off to his right. He jumped in surprise almost questioning his previous thought for a moment. He looked over to see a purple earth pony mare off to his side. Disheveled locks of curly white and purple hair fell around her face. She wore sunglasses which confused him as the cloud cover was quite thick that morning. He recognized her as the same pony that he’d passed when he was leaving the street earlier.
“Yes, fine. Thank you for asking,” he responded politely.
“Are you sure? You look like you could use a friend,” she replied persistently.
“Yes, I am sure that I’m fine,” he answered.
“I don’t think so. Plus, I know somepony else who could use a friend!”
“Yes, well, I’m afraid that’s not an issue I can help,” he told her trying to stay polite, but starting to feel extremely uncomfortable with the conversation.
“I dunno, I think you could. Did you know the pony who disappeared?” The sudden change in topic stunned him, but he adapted to it quickly.
“No, I can’t say that I did. I don’t even know what their name was.”
“Her name’s Dazzle.”
“I’ll have to remember that.”
“Yeah, ponies don’t like it when you don’t remember their names.”
“No, they don’t,” he agreed still being falsely nice to her. She didn’t respond to him and instead looked around the street that they were on. It was completely empty which confused him. Even in early morning there was usually still ponies out and about if not as many as later in the day.
“This’ll do,” she said with a light giggle. As he took a step he didn’t feel his hoof meet the concrete where it should’ve. His immediate gut reaction was to take off but he found himself with one hoof stuck fast to the ground. He hovered awkwardly with three hooves in the air looking down at the fourth embedded in the concrete. His eyes widened and a startled gasp escaped him. There were four hoof shaped imprints in the ground right after the pony- after Dazzle disappeared. He looked over at the mare who was frowning in disappointment. “That’s cheating! Dazzle didn’t cheat, she stayed on the ground like she was supposed to!”
“I don’t think I’d say cheating,” he retorted looking down at the bubbling liquid concrete below him. Hoping that might mean his other hoof might not be completely stuck he pulled at it to no avail.
“Well it’s my game and I would,” she argued. He saw a quick flash and his wings suddenly disappeared from his back. He managed to land on his remaining three hooves before they too became stuck in the concrete as it solidified. “That’s better,” she said happily as his wings popped back into existence on his back. He flapped them furiously as he tried to get off the ground, but he failed to succeed. Nothing was going to separate his hooves from the ground below.
He recognized himself as her next victim and looked up at her in horror. She was levitating off of the ground a couple of inches with her sunglasses gone. He pulled back as he saw the swirling purple pupils that they had been hiding. “See Dazzle’s really upset and she won’t talk to me, so she’s no fun. I thought maybe if I got her a friend that might lighten her up a little bit.”
“And what makes me so special?”
“I’ve been waiting for somepony to walk by for a while. For some reason nopony wants to walk by that street, but then you did!” she cried excitedly. “I can’t wait to surprise her!”
“I really should warn you-” he began before being cut off.
The scene around him changed suddenly and instead of looking down at his hooves he was looking down at a strange town hundreds of feet below him. It was less than a moment before he was falling. He quickly spread his wings and began to hover over the curious place. It looked like it could’ve been a town once before it had been turned upside down and backwards by some insane mastermind. “Do you like it?” asked the mare who had just appeared next to him, “I tried to make it just like daddy had!”
“Like who had?”
“Daddy silly, I just said that! Anyways, I’ll let you and Dazzle get to know each other, I’ll be back later.” she finished before vanishing.
He looked down at the town that the strange pony had turned inside out. He took a moment to try and process what had just happened. She just took me, he thought suddenly, right off the street. What’s going to happen now? Am I just stuck? How are my friends going to find out? What am I supposed to do? All of the questions flooded through his mind as he looked at the destructive scene beneath him. He felt panic rising through him as he tried to think through it. He could hardly even try to give the questions thought however as he worked to keep himself in the air. Focus on that, he told himself, focus on staying in the air. Silently he worked through a mental flight check to calm himself. There was no wind blowing through the cave so he had to work harder than normal to keep in the air, but in the moment he was glad for the distraction.
Just find Dazzle, he thought to himself, she’s been here, she can help me. He wasn’t doing it to follow the mare’s orders so much as to do something productive. He had managed to regain enough sense to understand that hovering there wasn’t doing him any good in the moment. She must’ve been on her own down there ever since she’d disappeared. A friendly face was far overdue for her. He flew over and scouted out the area for anypony on the ground. The place looked like a ghost town with nopony walking around it. With only one pony inside besides himself that did make sense. There was nopony there to make the place feel alive. The dead feeling that it had only increased how unsettling the screwed up town was. As he flew over it he found himself wanting to find her even more just so that he could have another pony beside him for reassurance. The lack of any movement as he flew over discouraged him greatly. Of course if she’s hiding in a building somewhere then I’m not going to catch her from here, he thought. He was reluctant to give up the comfort of flying, but he felt that finding her was more important.
From the ground it was even more unsettling than from above. There it felt more claustrophobic than from when he had been flying. He stayed off of what should’ve been roads, but were instead made of soap, he looked inside buildings, or at least the ones that weren’t turned upside down or just simple cardboard fronts. He walked under giant card houses and strange pink clouds the likes of which he’d never seen. They rained down chaotically never following any form of a pattern. He dodged past strange herds of things that looked like they might have bunnies combined with horses, and walked carefully around haphazardly placed puddles of liquid chocolate. He couldn’t help wondering how hopeless Dazzle must have felt while she was there all by herself. The shock and bleakness of his situation pressed in on him, but he pushed it away to the best of his ability holding to the thought that he was at least not alone.
He was starting to worry that his search would end up fruitless though as he stepped inside yet another empty building. He had no idea where she could be and he wasn’t quite sure what he’d say even if he did find her. He had never met her and had no idea how she would react to his presence. He knew he had to prepare for the worst, but he hoped that she wouldn’t be hostile. If you had been trapped down here for days on end and then suddenly there was another pony here how would you feel, he asked himself. He decided that he most definitely wouldn’t approach them at first, but he probably wouldn’t attack them right out. I’d want to know more about them, he settled on as his answer. If she had thought the same then he at least had an idea, but he did recognize that he could hardly count on that.
He tried to think out how to properly approach the situation as he wandered through the rest of the rooms. Every single scenario he thought out didn’t go as well as he’d like it to go though. He had never been the best with other ponies. He had over the years mastered false politeness, but conversation still sometimes fell apart for him. When talking with his friends it all made sense, but when it came to strangers making friends wasn’t his specialty. That’s if I even find her, he thought in annoyance. He found himself silently wishing that he could have somepony he knew with him. He shunned the thought quickly, he didn’t want to force any of his friends into the situation that he was in as much as he wanted the support. He sighed sadly as he turned to leave the building to check yet another one before being knocked completely unconscious. The pegasus mare who’d been silently following his every step through the city stood over his slumped form.