Sci-Fi Orginal Short Story · 12:04am Sep 13th, 2017
There's no title, because this thing is a mess. Based off of the prompt giving to me by Vertigo22.
"One thousand years in the future, mankind has discovered a means of traveling to planets light years away in the same amount of time it'd take to get to the local restaurant.
On one of these journeys, a crew goes to a planet that has intrigued an adventurous group of friends for years. They nicknamed it Twilight, as it's covered in bright clouds.
However, upon landing—and after slamming into the side of a large mountain—they discovered what the clouds were hiding.
A hellish landscape of monstrous creatures, seas of lava, rains consisting of rocks, and an atmosphere filled with toxic gases.
And an eternal sunset."
Pretend like I know what I'm saying. I totally don't. This was more for world building than an actual story. But I hope you enjoy this weirdness anyway, if possible. Let me know what you think!
"Man, these places are boring," Meri huffed, thumbing through the rest of the pamphlet, before scooting closer to me and holding a page up to my face. "Look, Rosie," she said, tapping a location on the blindingly colorful screen with her rugged nails. I squinted, managing to catch the words "Diamond Skies Spectacular" before it was crumpled into her hand, and tossed aside. The pamphlet unwrinkled itself, without a sound, shelved back into the built-in-compartment. But I liked to think it had make a little humph of displeasure in being treated in such a rude fashion.
"What about it?" I asked, tucking a strand of her shorn hair behind her ear, relishing in the way the floor thrummed beneath my feet. Call me old-fashioned, but there was still some breathtaking novelty to traveling by spacecraft, or as Meri liked to call it; schwifty flight. Don't ask me where she got that term--she worked in mysterious ways. "I thought we were gonna go by Planet Xeta." That had been the plan discussed yesterday, I was sure, as we had our monthly ice cream night. Meri had licked her lips of some new exotic flavor, laid out on her back, with her wristwatch projecting the spot that promised "endless sparkling sights never before seen". In this age, I would be highly surprised to see something I had never seen in my life before. My best friend must have felt the same way, judging from the way she sighed heavily, burying her face in my shoulder. I could feel her warm breath through my sweater, and I laughed out loud. The craft beeped out the next stop in a deep monotone, and I watched an old lady gather her stuff in a quick swipe, before shuffling out the door which blew in a dusty, metallic tasting wind.
"You don't get me, Rose! Who wants to see stupid, old diamonds anymore?" Meri waved her hands. "My grandfather saw those freakin' diamonds on a different planet when he was a teenager. What are these people thinking anymore?" Her voice rose higher and I stuffed her harder into my sweater as a mom across from us gave us a look.
"You're ridiculous," I muttered as I pulled her off of me, knowing her soft smirk was mirroring my own. "What you made you change your mind so quickly, huh? I don't mind seeing a little jewels in the sky now and then." Meri snorted, crossing her arms.
"I know you don't," she said. "You don't mind going to the moon, for God's sake. But I, on the other hand..." she clicked her tongue. "I need excitement. All this standard stuff isn't my style. 'Sides, there are gonna be tons of people there. Boys," she teased, her dark eyes glinting. I let out a squawk, wrinkling my nose. Gosh, she knew all to well of my awkwardness, and she was delighting in it.
"Shut up," I giggled. "That isn't relevant at all, Mer. And you're one to talk." But Meri was already too focused on her wrist watch to notice my jab, a proudly proclaimed Silver 8. She mumbled something that I couldn't hear, furiously clicking on a tab on her screen.
"Here, look," she said. Her Silver rested on my thigh. "I was surfing the web this morning, bemoaning, of course this world's lack of creativity, and I found an article about the things between the Mondella and the Erin Galaxies. Hardly anyone visits that place, it's just a bunch of clouds, according to the few pictures. But it got me thinking about what's really there." She paused, inspecting the blurry photo of a collection of violet dust. It was obvious this negligible place wasn't given enough thought for even a decent photo.
"What?" I answered. "Are you long for a microscopic leprechaun hiding between the cloud particles or something?" Meri didn't seem amused, but I was struggling to hide a smile at such an absurd thought.
"No. The cloud looks thick enough to obscure so many things, Rosie! See the color? There could be a whole solar system there!" Meri grinned, closing up her screen. I furrowed my brow, almost feeling the excitement pouring off her. It was contagious.
"I guess there could be..." I said slowly, envisioning a plethora of small, golden celestial bodies, never before seen by human eyes. It would have skimmed over for its modesty. Would that make us famous? At least we'd get a mention in a book, right?
Meri made a small noise, a guilty look on her face that I knew all too well; eyebrows high and mouth drawn tight.
I bit my lip, nudging her shoulder. "But..." I prompted. This couldn't be promising.
"Well," Meri began, turning her head to look out the window. (Don't recommend that, by the way. It can give you a killer headache for days). "It's not on this this craft route." She paused. "Or any craft route for that matter."
I groaned. "So?" I asked, already knowing the answer. I met her eyes. She winked.
"We're going by SolarShoe, baby."
SolarShoe. Well, that was just a brand, but it was the only brand of solo-travel wear that Meri would acknowledge. Some people simply referred to it as solo-spacing. Journeying away from your main spacecraft to a planet unmarked by business, people, or technology. It wasn't easy, but it could be done--as long as you followed the safety guidelines: no more than 100,000 miles from the stop, and... well, don't die. It certainly wasn't my favorite way to fly. I could count the number of times I'd done it on one hand. It was wild and unpredictable, kinda like Meri.
She interrupted my train of thoughts with a cry of triumph, her face lit up with her glow of her Silver. "Yes! I calculated the distance. It should be the stop right after the next. Are you ready, Rosie?" She smiled wide, her cheeks flushing a pale pink. I glanced down at the floor, letting it thrum pleasantly beneath by shoes for a couple seconds. I took a deep breath, and looked up. There was no stopping my best friend when she had decided something was to be done. And I myself was beginning to feel the familiar itch of curiosity growing inside me.
"Okay, fine, yes," I muttered. She gave my hand a tight squeeze.
"You'll love it, trust me," she said. "The spacecraft should loop back around here in about an hour. Plenty of time to explore." I swallowed the nervous lump building up in my throat, letting Meri pull me up from our seat. We found the section in the front for the SolarShoes, and Meri flashed her ID card to be scanned, the machine lighting up a green to confirm that yes, she was indeed eighteen (she wasn't).
She pulled out a pair for both of us. Mine were an ugly yellow color, like the part of the snow we were taught to never eat as kids, heavy and bulky. But I didn't care what the heck they looked like as long as they kept me safe. I buckled the shoes as tight as they would go, wincing as the metal dug into my skin. I glanced up at Meri, who gave me what she probably thought was a reassuring grin. I just grunted in response, accepting the hand she gave to pull me up. She clacked her shoes together, spinning in a circle. "What do ya think?" she asked, shaking her hips a little. I stuck my tongue out, slapping a thin watch onto my wrist, its material dissolving into my skin, sans a small, diamond shaped light. It blinked up at me, as if waiting for command. I could feel my shoes hum with an electrical energy. All I had to do was merely think about flying, and my brain waves would be sent from the watch to my shoes. Freaky stuff.
"Galleta Star Belt: Stop 450." I startled, nearly tripping on the floor as Meri grabbed my arm. "Come on, that's ours!" she whispered, pressing a button on the wall. My heart dropped to my stomach. "Meri, are you sure... " My words trailed off under my breath. The silver walls whirred, splitting apart to the endless, dark expanse of outer space. Despite my fear, I couldn't help but to gape at the sheer beauty of it. It looked like a bunch of watercolors spilled across a canvas: all deep blues and purples and fading yellows. I tightened my grip on her arm. She hustled me forward to the edge, the tips of my SolarShoes balancing over the hauntingly beautiful abyss, upside down and right side up at the same time. I knew people were watching. I knew they were waiting. Meri's grip found my hand, sweaty against warm and dry. I heard her let out a little laugh, breathy and quiet. For some reason, that lessened the knot tying in my insides. I squeezed her hand, finally letting myself fall over the edge.
Like every other time, the feeling was indescribable. It was like falling and drowning all at once, but without any sound or movement. I realized I had squeezed my eyes shut, and I opened them, greeted with the sight of Meri, inches from my face, her short hair splaying out around her head. I snorted, reaching out to touch my own hair waving above me. "See?" she said, kicking her legs in the space. "It's not so bad." She turned sideways to watch the craft above us, silent and sleek, shoot out to its next destination. A blink, and it was gone.
"You got the way?" I asked at last, surveying the views around us. Far, far in the distance I could see a large, ringed planet. I wondered if there was anyone there. Probably some tourists.
"Of course," Meri scoffed, her Silver screen appearing in front of her on cue. She squinted at it. "At top speed, we should get there in a few minutes."
Top speed? Dang, that was fast. It rivaled even the crafts. "We both have our Resistance shots, so no need to freak out," Meri assured, shooting me a sideways look. I nodded quickly, trying (in vain) to right myself. I had, obviously. A couple years ago. Most everyone received that shot, along with the other necessities, like Breathing and Regulation, or Sound. I had unfortunately heard plenty of horror stories from kids at school about people who had refused to have them, and then boarded a craft or SolarShoed. They must have either been psychopaths, or had a death wish. Maybe both.
"Here we go, Rosie."
My wrist beeped. A thought flitted across my mind, and we were off, shoes sparking fire. I squeezed my hand impossibly tighter against Meri's, pressing my body closer. Dust particles darted past us, stars dancing by at dizzying speeds like fairies. The darkness blurred. "It's pretty cool, right?" Meri's voice startled me, quiet and low by my ear. It was jarring to hear, when it felt as if there should be winds roaring in my ears.
"Yeah," I said back, awestruck. And then my eyes widened. I drew in a sharp breath, pointing furiously with my free fingers. "Look, look, oh my gosh, Merideth, is that it?" Her head snapped forward. A cloudy, purple haze loomed over in the distance, rushing closer and closer with each second.
Meri let out a gleeful cry. "Oh, yes it it!" If possible, we careened forward even faster. Upon closer inspection, I could how thick the cloud was: a deep purple, thick like the hazy fogs back on Earth. I took a deep breath as we plunged into it, my heart threatening to burst. Carefully, I let it out. I thought it would taste like something, or feel like something, or be like anything... but all it did was make my head heavy. At no signs of life or a planet, not even a tiny leprechaun, I felt some of the excitement ebb away. "Meri," I whispered, squinting through the cloud. It was sickening. "What do we do now?"
Meri didn't answer me at first. She was too busy scanning the clouds as we slowed down, bit by bit. Then her mouth fell open. "Can you see that?" she cried. "It looks like light!" I turned, catches glimpses of a yellow tint to the purple, light flitting through. I grinned, this time pulling Meri forward. We broke through the haze, gasping, my head swimming with bubbling laughter and relief. Finally, I could thinks straight. I inhaled, bent over to my knees... yet something about the atmosphere still felt off. It felt wrong. I looked up at Meri, a question forming on my lips, which died away the second I saw her face. Her eyes were wide, her pupils shrunk to pinpricks, an indescribable expression of horror written on her contorted features. I had never seen confident, suave Meri look like that ever in my life. And it scared the heck out of me.
"Meri," I started, dread building up my threat. Her hand was shaking violently. I followed her gaze, still slightly cloudy from a dusting of purple. Meri shuddered, life coming back from stone. She grabbed my arms and spun me around, shouting, screaming something unintelligible, then "Go, go, we have to get out of here, now!!" Her voice was raw, so unlike her that it scared me. We shot into the purple cloud, Meri swearing loudly by my ear, my mind roaring. It was only when we reached the black, beautiful emptiness, so far from the cloud that I allowed myself to think. Meri's cheeks were streaked with tears. "I'm sorry," she mumbled. "I should never have convinced you..."
But I wasn't listening. The events kept playing over an over in my head. The images. A broken, jagged planet, rocks jutting from pools of deep red, the air thick, a soundless roar and someone screaming, too many eyes on one body, a mouth that sneered, (wrong, wrong, wrong) pits of pitch darkness that teemed with a terrible life, the overwhelming sensation of slipping away, of dying, (so wrong, so dark, too much). Meri was sobbing.
Maybe exploring was best left to others.
What the heck is this. I don't know. But its helping me get back into the rhythm of writing. Hopefully, there will be more MLP stories in the future. Have a great night/day <3
That was very cool and exciting ! I loved the descriptions and the world building through the this short tale was wonderful! I hope I get a chance to read some more of this adventure!
Great writing, Harmony! Glad to see you back and enjoying what you love doing; believe me, it shows!;)
Yep, it's a mess, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't tickle my fancy with how dark it was.
Are you gonna write a sequel of this one-shot? I mean, I feel there's should be more to that story.
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Probably not. It was more of just to get myself back in writing
I only now saw that you wrote the prompt I gave you! I actually love this and would love to see it written into a full story!
This genuinely feels like it could be made into a great sci-fi/horror story.
Also, I have to say: thank you so much for using my prompt! ^_^