//------------------------------// // The End // Story: Same World, Different Realities // by Mocha Star //------------------------------// Ruthenium climbed the stairs of the barbershop and looked at the doorway. Night had fallen in the time the many ponies had been downstairs and she was one of the few that chose to check the surface of the various businesses attached. She quickly moved to the door and looked out the glass windows, impressed they were still intact. “It’s all clear, so c’mon up,” she called casually. After spending hours with other ponies she’d finally decided to stop pretending to be a higher class of nobility and relaxed her guard and attitude. “Bring Bright Eyes, please,” she shouted over her shoulder as she scanned the street. Hooves clacking up stairs and the weight of a filly on her back were all she needed before she opened the door and stepped out, leading the shop’s customers out while other ponies filed out of other businesses did the same. Near silence met their ears as they looked around the streets. “Ruth,” Bright said in a hushed whisper, “I hear a pony, yelling that way,” she let one foreleg go from Ruthenium’s neck and pointed down the street to the right. She looked and several others followed her gaze, whispering their curiosity. A quiet shout came echoing down the street from afar, barely audible, but not to the blind filly. “The end... is a thigh?” she intoned and scrunched her snout. “I don’t get it.” There were sporadic snickers. A stallion spoke up. “The end is ‘nigh,’ it’s a thing crazy ponies say,” he cleared his throat, “uh, said.” “It’s too quiet,” a random mare said softly, many others agreed, “should we try to get into the spire? It’ll be the safest place, right?” “There’s a shield over the doors, there’s no getting in there.” “What about the police stations?”  “Shelters?”  “The bar?!” “Where’s the Princess?”  “How are we going to survive this?” “Quiet! Everyhorn, calm down!” Ruthenium shouted to quiet the crowd. “-and I said ‘Oatmeal? Are you crazy?!’” Ruthenium shot the yellow mare a glare. “Okay, we’re alive and well. We should get home and wait this out. There’s going to be answers from the city leadership about what is happening and how to stay safe, and tomorrow this will be just another page in the history books, okay?” There were hesitant nods in agreement but nopony wanted to separate. “Okay,” Ruthenium placed a hoof below her horn and sighed before speaking loudly again. “We’ll stay here until the sunrises, then we’ll know it’s safe and we’ll go our own ways, okay? But only if you want to, you’re more than willing to go home, alright?” Bright whispered into Ruthenium’s ear. “Okay, if it’s okay with the business owners. Can those of us who chose to stay, stay?” A few minutes later only Ruthenium, Bright, and a few others had chosen to return to their homes and went their own ways. “Bright, do you hear anything?” “Just you walking, why?” “I, I’m kinda scared right now because I don’t know what’s going on,” Ruthenium admitted and a smile crept onto her lips when Bright began rubbing a forehoof along her neck. “What’re you thinking about?” she whispered. “Uhm, the forest.” “The forest, huh? The one that borders our lands?” “Yeah, that one,” Bright nodded and resumed her double grip around Ruthenium’s neck. “About how it was made more dense over hundreds of years with magic and illusion so no windigoes would find us and if they did we’d have a fair warning, right?” “More or less, yeah. I’ll tell you more about the details when we get home, but you’re pretty clo-” they perked up and looked at a door across the street from them as it creaked open, glass cracking as it did so, and a unihorn looked out. “Hurry, get inside, it’s not safe,” the stallion said in a loud whisper. “We can’t, we’re going home,” Ruthenium replied. “The Not-See’s are out there, hurry in or they’ll get you,” he urged. Ruthenium cocked her head to the side for a second and quickly cantered across the silent street to him and entered the building. “What did you say?” she asked when she was inside. She noticed several colorful dresses trembling in various spots of the business that smelt of fresh tabaco. “They’re calling them the ‘Not-See’s’, because they’ve not been seen before but they burrow out of the ground and soon after explode,” he said closing the door behind them, for what little it did with its missing panes of glass. “That, is a stupid name for them. Why not ‘Dwellers’ or ‘Undergrounders’?” His mouth worked and Ruthenium saw sets of eyes look at her, blinking. “Uh, I dunno, I didn’t make the name up. It came over the radio a couple hours ago,” he looked at the mares hiding around his shop and then sat, tapping his hooves together. “The radicals on the radio said they did not see them coming until it was too late, so the news started calling them the Not-See’s.” Ruthenium looked up and groaned. “Swifty, I swear if you weren’t dead I’d kill you for this.” A gasp caught her attention from a white mare. “Miss,” the mare said quietly, “do you know who’s behind all this? The overchargers, the murders, the Not-See’s?” Ruthenium shook her head. “No, but I know a pony in the government that had a hunch this would happen. Now, I’ve gotta get home and wait this out.” “Did he die in an explosion?” another mare asked, poking her head from behind a display. Ruthenium hung her head. “In the spire explosion, yes. But he tried to warn others, just too late. I’m sorry, I have to get home and-” she fell to her belly and covered her head as an explosion went off and the ground trembled. Whimpers and cries filled the shop and when Ruthenium looked up the stallion was holding a mare and whispering prayers. Ruthenium looked at the filly lying beside her with her face covered by her forelegs and nuzzled her. “It’s okay, sweetie, we’re just gonna wait here for a few minutes and before long we’ll make our way home, do you like that idea?” Bright trembled and shook her head slightly. “I don’t wanna die. They took my horn already…” “Took her horn?! Who would be so horrid?” Ruthenium looked up to see a purple mare with red eyes looking at them. “Miss, it was her parents that gave her up and sent her to be a grounder,” she said with distaste. The mare took a step back and looked at the filly, lighting her horn. “Hey, you can’t just take her!” “Silence,” the mare snapped. Bright Eyes squeaked as she flew through the air to the mare and flinched as the mare’s hooves messed her forelocks before gasping. “The scar’s there. This filly was mutilated! This place is sick!” She quickly moved Bright Eyes back to Ruthenium and shouted for the duo to leave. The mare’s horn brightened and shifted the shadows in the shop as Ruthenium realized what was happening. She bolted to the door with Bright in her magical grasp, into the street, and back onto her path as fearful wailing and screaming behind her was transformed into a concussive explosion. “Oh no, Sweet Platinum, what’s happening? Goddess, what’s happening?!” Ruthenium placed Bright on her back and ignored silence and stealth as she galloped through the street and over bits of rubble, trying not to look into the shadows at pony parts across the streets and around blast zones. She arrived to her building and entered the door, made her way to her apartment, and shut the door with a slam before placing the filly on the floor and falling to her haunches. With a heavy shudder, Ruthenium began to cry, holding her forelegs around herself as she bawled and mumbled incoherent questions through snotty lips. A small forehoof placed on her side was enough to have the filly grabbed and held in a gently hug as the mare cried. “I’ll keep you safe, I swear it,” she whispered to the filly, “I won’t let you get hurt by these freaks. Platinum will save us, like her ancestors did with the windigoes, and everything will be sunshine and rainbows again and I’ll see about getting your vision back. There has to be a way, if not here then down below.” Bright pushed her forelegs against Ruthenium’s chest and looked at the mare with her blue eyes. “Below? That stallion with the feathers said that, too. Ruth, do you know the Not-See’s?” “No, not these ones.  That’s not what they’re called, darling. They’re simply undergrounders and the ones I met were kind, and helpful, and friendly. I met them shortly before I met you, little one. It’s the reason I spoke with you and took you into my life,” Ruthenium sniffled, still holding the filly, “I made grounder friends, and others. They wouldn’t have done this, not in a million years.” “But, if you know them, can’t you contact them and tell them to stop?” Ruthenium snorted a sobbing chuckle. “N-no, that’s not how it works. My only contact was Swifty and he’s gone now. We just,” she choked back another sob, “have to wait. Someone will help us, they have to.” Bright was silent and let herself be hugged again, but she was still troubled by it all. “The news from the capitol is grim. The shield over the city is still being held keeping aid out. There have been no responses from the authorities inside, as of yet, and help is stalled outside, waiting for an opening. We have reports that twenty percent of the city has been damaged in some way, mostly from structural damages, however we have to maintain hope that the death counts are lower than estimates show. “As of sunrise we’ve not heard much from our sources, but what we have heard is that they are being vigilant in their efforts and are ready to aid anyhorn as soon as they can enter the city. This is channel 2 news, back to you at the offices.” Ruthenium placed a plate of fruit and vegetables on the table in front of Bright, then sat and they both ate in silence through the radio broadcast. The tremors had stopped hours before and both of them had a fitful sleep, to say the least. They took turns yawning through the meal and finally disregarded cleaning up in favor of curling up together in the living room on the floor and falling asleep. They slept through another tremor until nearly midday when the call of nature woke them with urgency. Ruthenium carried Bright to the bathroom and waited as the filly relieved her bladder, then took her turn before they sat on Ruthenium’s bed in the next room, waiting for anything helpful from the news. The day dragged on into night, then the next day came and went. They held a steady routine of eating, bathroom time, sleeping, and waiting for any good news. Then they saw it, or them. The ships of the alien fleet approaching with pegasi flying between ships and maintaining formations around the largest airship in the center. It arrived faster than Ruthenium thought possible, but with a goddess from another land in charge it didn’t surprise her, too much. “Bright, I wish you could see this. The ships are stunning, more amazing than when I first saw them from a distance. They’re outside the barrier, but nothing they do could be as bad as what’s happening now. “The military isn’t even attacking them this time, they might be able to resolve this peacefully,” she hoped, and it carried into her voice. “But, Ruth, how can they help with the Princess’ shield up? Nothing can get through it, you said.” Ruthenium shrugged to herself. “We just have to wait and hope. There’s going to be help coming and this’ll all be over. The overchargers will stop, the military and medics will spill in, and we’ll have peace. Whether from us, or them,” she pointed to the ships in the sky outside the barrier. “I hope so, it’s boring inside all the time,” Bright grumbled as she held a ball under her forehoof. Hours passed agonizingly slow, then the shield shined brighter for an instant. “Bright Eyes, something’s happening,” she shouted excitedly as she hurried to the window to watch. The shield wobbled at the point where a spell was cast. A powerful spell that tingled her horn from nearly two miles away. Awareness dawned on her like the weight of a stone upon her horn and she paled as factors she hadn’t thought of all came crashing into her mind at that single moment. “Bright, get into the bathtub and don’t leave it, no matter what. I’ll be there in a moment.” “Why do I have to-” “Just go!  Sweetie, there’s an enchantment I’ll activate in a moment that turns the bathtub into the safest place in the apartment, you need to be inside of it.” “What about you?” “I’ll be right behind you,” she said as she watched the caster recast a spell that sent the barrier wavering over the whole city. Ruthenium stopped watching and rushed to the kitchen, stuck her head in the fridge and pulled out the drawer on the bottom with her magic and a jug of juice in her teeth, then bolted for and into the bathtub. Bright, hopped in and Ruthenium empowered the enchantment. A blue sphere of energy encircled them and glowed as Ruthenium held the filly, both curled up as tightly as they could. “What’s happening, Ruth? Why’d my ears go funny a few seconds ago.” “Just pray to Platinum with me that everything will be okay,” Ruthenium said and began a quiet prayer with Bright Eyes as the shield around them faltered and the building lurched. Bright held tight onto the mare’s forelegs that crossed her chest. “What’s happening?!” “The buildings here in the capital are air sealed, ever since the War of Quartz and, Sweet Platinum?! Just hold on! It’ll be over soon,” Ruthenium managed as she failed in trying to hide her trembling. With a thump that shattered windows throughout the city, the outer shield dissolved and air rushed through the buildings as pressure balanced. A few seconds of silence fell and Ruthenium peeked her head up, releasing Bright’s from under her chin and they both used their senses to get a feel for what was happening. “It’s over. The worst is over, the shield is down and-” a thump and rumble shook them in the tub and they curled around one another, holding each other again as the quiet sound of battle cries filled the air from the open windows of her apartment. “Hold on, baby, hold on. Whatever happens, don’t let me go, I’ll keep you safe, I’ll keep you-” her words cut off as the building shifted and with all her might she channeled her energy into a personal shield inside the enchantment to keep the two of them safe as they felt themselves falling with the building. Only a minute passed as they rolled and tumbled inside the bathtub before they came to rest under the tub, still protected by the barrier. They whimpered and trembled as relative silence surrounded them, only clacking of materials falling through nooks and crannies gave them audience as they waited. Finally, when it all seemed to still, except for tremors around them and rumbles above, they uncurled from each other and hazarded a look around. “Ruth, I don’t hear anything good.” “I don’t see anything, either. We’re in here so as long as I keep it charged we’ll be safe, and even if I stop charging it the tub will still act as a barrier until we’re freed so just stay calm, stay calm! We’re not buried alive with nopony knowing we’re alive or having a reason to search for us down here under our home that we should’ve just waited back at the-” “RUTH!” Bright screamed into the small space. “You’re scaring me, we’re gonna be okay, okay?” she pressed her side into Ruthenium’s and patted the mare’s back. Ruthenium closed her eyes tightly and trembled, but steadied her breathing. “Yeah, I’m sorry, Bright Eyes, I just… lost my control for a moment,” she looked up at the bottom of the bathtub and frowned. “If I had a power gem I could just teleport us out of this mess,” she grumbled to herself for a second after saying that. “You have me, so we can get out together, right?” A clatter of material rambled down to and past them. “I don’t know. There’s a lot of building around us and there’s not much room to move it around and out of our way to clear a path. I won’t hazard you going alone, even if we did make or find a path going anywhere, so all we can do is wait. “The tub can still produce water, thanks to the water gem. It’ll be cold, but it’s still water. And there’s the food that we’re sitting in,” she grimaced and picked it up, piling it under the faucet. The filly deadpanned a look at her. “A single bar for the two of us?” Ruthenium groaned long and loud in frustration. “Fine, we’re boned. Screwed. Doomed to die under this rubble, are you happy now? I tried to be the caring parental type but no~, just had to-” A small hoof covered her lips. “You need to calm down, Ruth. You’re not helping.” Ruthenium frowned but stayed her voice when her mouth was freed. “Okay, I’ve heard about this happening, we just have to find a way out, right?” Ruthenium growled but stayed quiet. “Fine, you’re the grownup, what should we do?” Ruthenium finally broke and shouted at the filly, “How are you so calm? You’re a child! You should be freaking out and I should be calming you!” she threw her hooves up and let out a high pitch squeal as her forehoof struck the bottom of the tub. “Platinum darn it to a windigo’s butthole inside the moon!” Bright burst into laughter at the mare’s choice of words as Ruthenium held her foreleg to her body and glared at the filly. “It wasn’t that funny, it really hurt,” she whined. Bright laughed louder and fell to her side. The rubble shifted and they both fell silent in shock as they moved with the debris, tumbling lower. They shifted and tumbled over each other a few times until finally landing with the tub above them and again with food all around them. With a hope in her heart, Ruthenium looked around their new position hoping to find a refrigerator or some kind of communication device, then snorted. “Yeah, it’d be too convenient anyway,” she groused and fell to her bottom, crossing her forelegs. “Now we’re somewhere else buried even more under my home. Old home… Pile of freaking garbage I should have left when I had the chance,” she stomped a forehoof onto the shield and sending minute waves across its entirety. She looked over to Bright as the filly lay on her belly and just listened, her ears moving as sounds only the child could hear tickled her senses. Ruthenium fell silent and lay on her belly as well and waited as time passed.