Water.
Left, right, north, south, up and down, just water.
I struggled against the waves and the ripping winds, being pushed under the water by another swell only to resurface a little bit later, gasping for breath. Water pounded into my eyes and mouth, and I was constantly inhaling, only to cough out more water. My hooves flailed wildly, thrashing against the surface of the ocean in a misguided, untrained attempt to keep my head above water. In all honesty, I believed my pitiful attempts at swimming only succeeded in wasting energy and drowning myself.
Was this what the end of time was like? An endless sea caught up in a cyclone? A place where those whose timeline no longer exists went to suffer and eventually die?
Well... water way to go!
I, Princess Twilight Sparkle of the Diarchy of Equestria, had watched as Starlight Glimmer pulled apart the last scrap of Starswirl's time spell, dooming Equestria to a future without me and my friends. I screamed as the timeline tore apart and I was pulled, perhaps for the last time, into the vortex of time and space.
Unlike previous time travels, I seemed to stay in the vortex for much longer. Falling through what I realized was an increasingly dark tunnel of light down towards an unknown destination. Whatever horrible future awaited Equestria, probably also waited for me down at the bottom.
And it hit me with a splash.
I did not appear with the Cutie Map, nor did I arrive in Ponyville (or any place in Equestria, for that matter), and, maybe worst of all, Spike was nowhere to be found. When I finally regained my senses, I was in the middle of the ocean. Water everywhere I could see.
Yes, I had panicked! In essence I was still panicking. I could not see the bottom, nor could I see any kind of land in sight. I... was not much of a swimmer, and... I may have had a small phobia of the ocean. Or perhaps I just developed one when I looked down and all I saw was strangely bright blue water leading down into the dark, dark depths of despair, sadness, death, murder, homicide...
Then the storm started up.
I began to doubt if this was really Equestria's future at all. Which was when I thought that, maybe, this was some kind of a Purgatory of Time... or something. I mean, it did sound like a lot of horror stories I had read before. A pony trapped in an endless ocean, unable to ever get free from the devil's torment...
Rain poured down on me, lightning flashed around me, and... I'm pretty sure at one point when my head was submerged I saw something... something HUGE. Something as long as three trains end to end, glowing bright blue along with the rest of the ocean.
My legs burned, my eyes stung, my lungs were in excruciating pain, and my body was numb with the want for breath. In the end, I think I must have just blacked out, my legs endlessly, subconsciously kicking away at waves that may have gradually subsided.
Eventually, I came to and realized that the waves were no longer rolling over me, and I could see the sun, that I only saw momentarily when I arrived, in this watery Tartarus. The clouds were still thick in the sky, however, and the waves still swelled, but not to the point were they were bent on drowning me completely.
My legs felt like they would never carry me anywhere ever again, and my eyes were almost swollen shut. My purple mane was in tatters. Whatever utilitarian style I once had in them now gone to the wind as the strands snaked out across the rough water's surface.
I think I must have just... floated there for a little while. Not really doing anything... more dead than alive. I guess I must have had a tendency to float, as it seems I didn't even need to tread water. I think I once gathered the mental capacity to try my horn for magic, but I remember having nothing but feeble sparks for my effort. My wings were a no-go as well, as I believed I had lost quite a few primaries in the storm.
I... I think I had started to give up. I was ready to just give myself to whatever beasts of the sea lurked in this... place. I felt the sun beat down on me and the salt begin to crisp on the dry, upper parts of my floating body. I think I could have just turned face down right there and then, letting myself drown.
After all, if this was a dump yard of time for all those whose future was no more, I guessed I had no choice but to accept my fate. I had lost against Starlight Glimmer, and now my friends were who knows where and in who knows what situation. Everything I loved and everything I owned were all gone! What was the point anymore?
I wasn't really sure if it was my dehydrated mind thinking this, or if I really was just this depressed about my circumstance, but I do know that what happened next definitely stirred me into action.
My blistering eyes shot open as I felt something big move around beneath me; the ocean water moving around in a current. I moved my head ever so slowly to try and catch a glimpse of the water beneath me, and I must admit, my scream must have traveled for miles in all directions.
It was BIG! As long as Celestia's tower was tall (perhaps taller), and as wide as the front of my castle. Its eyes glowed an eerie yellow and its skin a ghostly blue. I swear I could see its organs beneath its skin, and, as its mouth opened, I saw a gullet leading down into a bottomless pit.
I had thought that my legs, with all their fatigue, would never work again. However, when I heard that roar. Oh, that bone-chilling roar. That hoarse, echoing, death-cry... oh boy!
My heart began beating like a fast rock song and a jolt of fresh adrenaline shot through me. Without hardly needing to think, my legs started working away at the water. I swam! I swam for my life... literally!
Sweet Celestia, if only I had known back then how much I would be doing that precise action.
I know not which direction I swam, for it was just "away", away from that... creature. That monster that, I am sure, was bent on turning me into its morsel.
My forelegs milled around as I felt a rising presence only a few meters to my right. The water swelled into a big hump as it broke the surface, mouth wide open, lunging into the air. I was launched too, having been smacked by a large... horn, I guess I'll call it, protruding from the side of its head.
I'm pretty sure one of my ribs cracked as I felt my scrambling hooves leave the water, and for one terrifying moment, I was suspended in mid air, looking down into a the black hole of the creatures gullet.
Then, gravity took over, and we both fell back down to the sea.
I smacked into the surface, and the area across my midsection where the launching creature hit me throbbed with the pain of a good amount of rib breakage. I had no time to concentrate on the pain, however, as my legs resumed their terrified kicking.
I heard another roar... and then another one. Was there more than one!? I, again, had no time to worry, only time to swim away from whatever they were. I... didn't really have anything more productive to do at the time, did I?
Was it minutes? Was it hours? I don't truly know, neither do I really know why the monsters did not pursue me. Did they not see me as large enough prey? Was I simply too much trouble? I really doubt it, but the truth of the matter is that, for the remainder of that frantic swim, I didn't see them again, although I am almost certain they saw me.
Eventually, even adrenaline fails you, and the aches and pains that once immobilized my limbs took their grip once again. My speed slowed from frantic, to floppily average, then all the way down to a crawl. Eventually, I tried to move in for another stroke, but found that my leg just refused to move.
I guess that, in the end, there is a point where your body can be in so much pain that it all just blends in on itself. I reached that point. Everything just burned to the extent where I don't really think I felt very much of the pain at all.
I bobbed around in the water, my legs curled up underneath my body, tossed around by the waves. My eyes were shut, swollen and tired, and my fatigue-addled mind moved at about an inch a hour. Even though I probably should have been worried about the creature gobbling me up during my sleep, I guess I just didn't have the capacity to care enough.
I fell asleep, my exhausted mind believing the ocean waves to be my mother, slowly rocking me to the land of dreams...
The next thing I remember was burning thirst.
A raging sun scorched my hide and rocky sand dug into my side. My legs felt like they were about to pop off, and my eyes were almost swollen shut. Even my stomach rumbled slightly, although the burning sensation in my throat argued much louder than my hunger.
My ears twitched. I heard the lapping of waves against the beach... and.. trees. A beach? Trees? Was I on an island?
The events of my frantic swim came back to me in a second. I didn't even pay heed to the minuscule details of my defeat to Starlight Glimmer. The fact that I may have somehow, miraculously arrived on dry land, away from those beasts, was a victory in and of itself.
I worked at opening my eyes. My lids finally opened as it felt like a layer of salt over my eyelids snapped apart with the force. My dry, bleary, bloodshot eyes gazed around my environment.
I was on a beach, all right! A rocky cliff side surrounded me, orange rocks slightly scorched in the sunlight. A few inches below me, the ocean lapped up against the gravelly shore. A couple of strange trees towered above me. From what I could see with my, less than functional, eyes, they seemed to have a purplish-grey bark with a strange, glowing top with branches that extended into green, leafy heads.
The shade of the trees beckoned not too far from me, a promise of safety against a sun that was currently, seemingly threatening to set me ablaze.
I tried to coax my legs to move, but my mind didn't seem to be able to even communicate with them. No response, not even a twitch. I could still feel my legs, which were burning like the fires of Tartarus, but I couldn't seem to move them to save my life, something which I thought I might need to do.
I lay there for about a minute, just trying to get my legs to work, but still not even a twitch emanated from my strained muscles. I didn't really know what to do, but my single-tracked brain knew I needed to get into the shade to rest fully.
In these situations, the mind tends to push all matters aside in favor of survival, survival, and more survival. Even though I wasn't really thinking of appearance at that time, I must have looked ridiculous as I "wormed" my way up the beach.
Since my legs wouldn't work, I instead opted to use my other muscles to get my way up off the beach. Using my neck, my stomach, and my side muscles, I literally wormed my way up onto the sand, raising my hind up before flopping back down to inch forward in the dirt. The crazy thing is, it worked!
Slowly, inch by inch, I worked my way up the shore like a caterpillar. Sand got into my eyes and mouth, adding a gritty texture to the salty layer that coated my taste buds. My left eye watered as a couple grains of sand got past my swollen eyelids. I'm pretty sure I suffered a few bad scrapes against the rocks of the beach as I slid along.
I believe I eventually hit a hill, as the path off the beach took an upward turn. I kept on going, stopping only for a few seconds to catch my breath before continuing the laborious journey up the slope.
Gravel turned to dirt beneath me, and then into a carpet of unkempt, wild grasses. I let out a relieved sigh as I finally felt the wonderful, delicious feeling of grass underneath me.
I squinted an eye open, smiling pitifully as I saw the waving fronds of the strange, alien trees above my head. The blaze of the sun was gone, and sweat I had accumulated from my climb began to cool off my abrased and tattered coat.
I lay there for a good while, flayed out on the grass with my eyes painfully shut. My legs still refused to move, and now my core body was tired as well. My tongue was swollen in my mouth, and my throat was on fire with the taste of salt. My breath was labored, and hazy memories of a possibly broken rib surfaced in my mind.
Finally, I came to a realization. Water. I needed it. Now.
It pained me to open my eyes again, but locating water that wasn't salty was something I could not go without. I honestly feared that, if I fell asleep there, I might not wake back up. Surely this island would have a source of fresh water somewhere!
A spied a little something. A tall, green plant with a hard, shelled base. It was a bulbous little thing, another alien plant that I had not ever seen, even after all my travels back in Equestria. What struck me as odd about it was that it was... sweating. Well, kind of.
Along the grooves in its ridged bark, water slowly dripped down. Wait... water? Was that what had caught my attention about it? The water? Oh, yeah, that's right. If I didn't get water, I would die.
I forced my core strength back up, doing my worming crawl over towards the sweating tree. I craned my neck, sticking out my tongue to the bark.
As the tip of my tongue touched the tree, an explosion of the most wonderful taste in the universe trickled onto my pallet. It was water! Oh boy was it water! And I didn't care if it was clean or not, as long as it didn't taste of the sea!
I began to lap eagerly, the only muscle in my body that wasn't exhausted, my tongue, getting a workout as I tried to remove as much of the residue as I could from the bulbous tree.
I slowed eventually as my tongue only returned to dry, rubbery bark. I growled internally, my throat too stripped to bother with such things as frustration. This tree was going to give me more water, whether it wanted to or not!
I'll call it clever survival instincts, you can call it a childish impulse, but in the end, I reared up and bit into the tree. I was handsomely rewarded as a spray of water poured down my tongue and into my mouth.
Parched tissues were soaked once again, and I tasted blood trickle down from the roof of my mouth as the acidic salt washed out from the surfaces. I was yet to actually swallow any of the water, nor was there any to swallow as my mouth hungrily absorbed the liquid into its dried out flesh.
Eventually, the seeming torrent of water (any amount of water in the moment was a torrent to me) ended, and I spat out a spent piece of tree bark. I looked back up, smiling greedily as a fleshy, yellow wound stared back at me from the surface of the watery tree.
I scooted up closer to the tree, biting away at the innards of the plant. Each bite brought more and more water into my mouth, eventually equaling up to about a glass of water from back home. I swallowed a collected mouthful of the plant's liquid, my mind suddenly sharpening up as water raced down my bone-dry throat.
I lay there for a long time, craning my neck and taking bolder and wider bites from of the tree. I eventually started to actually chew and swallow the tree bark, finding it to have a rubbery, rather disgusting taste. Still, the water values were undeniable, and eventually the edge of my thirst had been sated as I swallowed the last piece of tree.
With my immediate needs for survival met, my mind wandered into the realms of sleep. I fell asleep there, next to the tree with its wide, open wound in its bark, its small leaves protecting me as the sun finally went down over the horizon.
I awoke again with my mind much less frazzled than it had been since I arrived in this strange ocean of endless horrors. My legs still felt like they were on fire, but they weren't as numb as they were yesterday. Sweat trickled down my brow, and my coat felt disgustingly sticky all over. A dull ache throbbed through my head, and my thoughts, even though they had recovered, still swam like a school of sardines. I swear I could still feel myself rocking in the waves, even though I was fairly certain I was on stable ground.
I cracked my eyes open, my peepers still feeling like they had nails being driven through them as I squinted through the bright sunshine. I was still in the strange, alien forest, and I could still see an endless ocean just beyond the rubbery-looking trunks of the trees.
I looked behind me, and saw that my old friend. The Water Tree, had already started to heal the bite marks I had made into it. A green texture had started to cover it, sap, I guess.
I licked my lips with a still-swollen tongue. I could still use another refill of water before I started to explore whatever kind of island I had beached myself on.
I dove in again, biting savagely away at its rubbery bark, groaning with pleasure as the water once again flooded my mouth. My much more functional mind briefly wondered if I was unknowingly ingesting some kind of poisonous chemical existing in the Water Tree's fluids. I shoved the thought aside into my "wonder about it all later" pile, reasoning that, since I wasn't already dead from drinking the day before, the water from the tree was pure and safe to drink.
I finished off, my mouth feeling a sense of half-normalcy as my tissues were, once again, saturated with water.
I tried my slightly-recovered hooves, pulling myself painfully up into what one could call a sitting position with my back up against the Water Tree's trunk. I pulled up a sluggish foreleg, wiping pooled sweat from my brow.
My eyes still hurt, and salt still plagued them, driving figurative stakes through my head. I silently wished that I could have a shower to wash them off with, along with the rest of my now disgusting body.
Reaching backwards with my forward-right hoof, I clawed at the wounded Water Tree behind me, tearing off a sizable chunk off the recently chewed section with a hoof. A reached both my forehooves before me, gritting my teeth in pain as my muscles complained.
I looked up at the Water chunk as I squeezed my forehooves together. Water poured out, washing out my eyes and cooling my hot, hot head. A groaned as my eyes twitched in pleasure under the torrent of fresh water. Salt and seawater washed away from my face. I opened my eyes as I squeezed the last few drops out of the chunk, letting them fall directly onto my bloodshot eyeballs.
I finally could keep my eyes open for more than a few seconds as the pain subsided. I gazed around, vision still blurry, and took a more detailed scan of my environment.
The forest I was in wasn't actually as big as I thought it was, it ended just a few feet to my right and began at the very edge of the cliff at the beach of the island, which was only about fifty feet away from me.
Grayish-purple stalks ended in green leafy fronds, the bases of which glowed with a strange, blue light. Undergrowth grew about, reminding me of, but not exactly similar to: ferns.
The ground dropped off to my right, going down into a little valley and ending down in... water? The water below kept going down, and down, and down. A deep lake perhaps? The darkness at the bottom of it reminded me of the open ocean, sending a small spike of anxiety through me as images of those... creatures echoed through my mind.
A tall hill towered over me on the other side of the drop into water, right behind it lying...
Ocean! Ocean for as far as I could see!
Now that I actually began to look, every direction I spied ended up in the ocean. Why, this island couldn't be more than a mile wide! If not less!
I despaired slightly. Small island meant little to no chance of finding a fresh spring on it. If the lake beside me was so deep that I could not fathom the bottom, then it would surely also be polluted by the ocean's water table. It also meant sparse resources and little to no cover from storms. I seriously doubted that the trees around me would stand up to wind very effectively.
I began to wonder as my attention shifted from immediate survival to long-term life in this ocean. Without a permanent water source to keep me alive, I would quickly die from dehydration. Sure, if there was one Water Tree on the island, there were probably more, but they wouldn't last me forever! Food? None of the trees around here seemed to bear fruits, and I could not live off of wild grass for very long, no matter how tempting the clumpy, unkempt grass looked right now.
I began to hyperventilate as I looked around, hoping for more options to present themselves. And... well, one did, in a way.
I gaped as I spied something very unnatural at the top of the small mountain in front of me. A large, grey, metallic structure loomed at the peak. I could see a glass structure, as well as supports placed against the rocky mountainside. Civilized engineering in such a place as this?
My mind started to swarm with ideas. Perhaps this ocean wasn't purgatory for those banished from time. Perhaps... perhaps... perhaps this was the final future of Equestria! A future of a flood! What might have happened? Maybe the ice caps melted, or the moon drove the tides out of control... and perhaps I did come in right over Ponyville...
I swallowed at the image of peaceful little Ponyville being swallowed up by a tsunami of floodwaters, ponies gobbled up left and right by those... creatures that now roamed the oceans freely. It would make sense. After all, the futures of Equestria had been getting worse and worse the more times I had tried to stop Starlight. Maybe this was the worst future I could have.
But, the structure did tell me something. It told me that somepony was still alive to build the building, whether there had been a gigantic flood or the Space out of Time.
I needed to investigate.
I pushed my reluctant legs out of their sitting position. Wobbly as they were, I got into a semi-standing position. I began to march out, putting one stressed leg after the other as I made my way around the drop-off and towards the mountain.
I noticed another small peak off to my left, a subconscious glance up at the top left me even more curious. Another building rested atop the rocky hill, its characteristics strangely similar to the observatory I had spotted earlier. Another wrecked building? Was there some kind of settlement on this island that I wasn't seeing just yet?
I staggered towards the mountains, looking up in a bit of despair. The slope was much steeper than it had looked from a distance, and while a scraggly, overgrown path snaked up the side of the hill, I was in no condition to try and make my way up. Not until I had properly rested and, preferably, found or made something to climb with.
A breeze blew across the island, the wind tossing my mane and tail. I sighed, sitting down and giving my legs a rest, legs which seemed to be threatening once again to lock up and leave me.
I cocked my head as I spied a patch of pretty, pink flowers growing a few feet from me. Not even trying my no doubt nonexistent magic, I reached out with a fore hoof and plucked one of the flowers. I pulled it up to my muzzle, taking a deep breath of its sweet scent.
I thought that I could recognize the smell from somewhere... somewhere like home. Yes, just like something out of the Flower Trio's gardens. I could even see the three dramatic florists growing such pretty flowers as these in their cute little garden...
My eyes wandered to the clear sky above me as I thoughtfully stuffed the flower in my mouth. My heart sank as I thought about home. I'm... not really sure I can explain to you the feeling of knowing that the world you knew and loved was gone, shattered in front of you.
Sure, I've heard of ponies who have lost their homes, nay, their entire home cities to natural disasters, invading armies, or horrible fires, but none of them, no not even you, could bear the fact that everything was gone, and that you could have prevented it all. Perhaps if I had just tried to talk with Starlight... yes, she seemed irrational, but maybe... maybe I should have just stuck to the thing that I'm the Princess of: Friendship! And... maybe none of it would have happened.
Maybe we would have just come back to the castle together, a happy ending for everypony. Like nothing had ever happened.
As I swallowed the, rather delicious, pink flower, I realized something. When have I really ever... lost anything in my life? My life had dealt with success... much more than it had with failure. As a filly, my dream to attend Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns came true, and much, much more. When I left Canterlot, I gained a new, wonderful home along with five of the best friends I could ever ask for. Even when the library had been destroyed, I instead gained a new castle...
Now I had lost everything.
A blinked, only to find that my eyes had filled with tears. My breath caught, and I found myself staring at the patch of perfect, pink flowers.
They were all... gone. Like they had never existed. What had become of them? Did Equestria just no longer exist any more, or if this ocean was the final resting place of my home, what fate did everything meet? Did they all get drowned by this ocean as foals? Or were they just never born?
No... no that wouldn't make any sense. The point of divergence for... everything was Rainbow Dash's Rainboom. If that was the case... then how did all of this happen so quickly? What villain caused all of this?
I looked back up at the patch of flowers, only to find a bunch of empty stalks and my mouth full of comfort food.
Why... why me?
I think I just sat there, sobbing. For quite a while, too. The thing that interrupted my self-pity party, was the sound of a sudden skitter to my right.
I removed my dirty, tear-stained hooves from my eyes, looking around for the source of the noise. After a few seconds of searching, my sights fell on a the second sign of living fauna in... wherever I was.
It was about half as tall as I was, standing on four, spindly legs. It had a circular, horizontal body, a blue, fleshy center containing visible organ tissue. Did everything in this place have transparent skin? Underneath its body sat a small mouth with sharp fangs protruding from them.
I raised my eyebrow, "Hello there?" I asked cautiously. What were the chances of the creature being able to talk, after all?
It made a screeching noise, before charging towards me.
I yelped, flurrying my forehooves around as it pounced on me. I smacked it with one of my hooves, sending the little crab-like creature flying. It didn't leave without effect, though, as one of its sharp legs left a stinging scratch across my barrel.
After recovering from being clobbered, the crab righted itself, before screeching again and running off.
I watched it crest a hill, before disappearing down a slope to what I assumed was the other side of the tiny little island. I got up, peering down the slope. Perhaps my little friend had friends of his own. And if they were really as keen to kill me as the rest of this place, then perhaps I might want to know if I would be dealing with an infestation. If I decided to stay, of course.
What I saw next was a much better sight than the mountaintop observatories.
It was the size of a normal Ponyville house. It was made out of the same grimy, aged metal that I had seen on top of the twin peaks. It was obviously modular, tubes connected into a larger, circular room. It sat, half buried underneath what looked like a landslide. I had not seen it earlier due to its location behind a small rise which divided the island in two.
The habitat was, unfortunately, showing signs of abandonment and disrepair. A couple windows were smashed in and a landslide had hailed boulders on top of its structure, leaving dents and scratches. A large section of the second floor had been fractured off, snapped bars and broken panels jutting out from the breakages. A set of garden plots sat outside on my side of the building, overgrown with strange, alien plants.
I got up, eagerly shambling my way down towards the building, slipping and sliding down the shale slope. Even though the building looked abandoned, perhaps I could still find things of use inside! Maybe even permanent shelter!
I reached the sandy, softer ground around the abandoned housing. I looked around, startling as a bunch more of those strange crabs which skittered in and about the toppled debris of the habitat. A few paused as they, supposedly, saw me with eyes I could not yet identify. Fortunately enough, however, they seemed to leave me alone, for now at least.
I walked along, fascinated by the design and the composition of the strange building. It was made out of metal, but I could not fully comprehend what kind. Steel perhaps? It was quite likely. I would simply need to assume until I could actually perform a more exacting analysis than just an external eyeballing of what was obviously an impure sample full of rust and decay.
My gaze went next to the planter boxes, filled with many, low-lying underground plants. I walked over, sniffing some of the leaves. One out of the three plants in the first planter box I approached were made up of purple, fleshy tubers with elongated, green stems growing up to a considerable height, ending in slightly bioluminescent bulbs. They looked remarkably similar to the potato plant from back at home, although I had never seen a potato grow such long, glowing stems before.
The second plant growing in the crop was what I could only describe as a, surprisingly normal, melon. A small melon grew out of the ground, its head covered in green, healthy leaves. The skin of the fruit held a pinkish tinge, and it was traced by darker, green stripes. It was almost identical to any watermelon I could find in the Ponyville market! I did note, however, that when i tapped it, instead of it making a watery, wooden sound, it made the sound of a solid stone.
I was, in fact, interested enough in this melon, that I decided to clamp my teeth around its stem and pull it from the ground.
It came out quite easily, the roots having been buried in the soft soil of a planter box. I set it on the ground, and then rapped my hoof on it a few more times, humming as I heard the flat sound of a stone against my hoof. Thunk, thunk, thunk. I pulled it up, sniffing it. It smelled of, once again, stone.
I narrowed my eyes at it, wondering if the fruit was edible. I looked back at the crop plot. Well, if it was being farmed by the previous inhabitants of this island, then it must have been useful for something. Probably for food, unless these "stone" melons actually were strange boulders with valuable minerals inside them...
No way to find out without any way of cutting the melon open, anyway.
I placed the melon back into the ground where I had pulled it from, pushing dirt back in around the fruit with as much care as I could with bare hooves.
I turned back around, continuing back around the habitat. My eyes wandered across the ring of alien trees surrounding the habitat. Beyond those trees lay the wide, seemingly endless ocean. While I had no doubt that there had to be continents somewhere in this strange world of mine, the infinite horizon of water wanted to suggest otherwise.
Everything was clear, no ships, no waves, and I couldn't see any unholy sea creatures from where I stood. Clouds spread out across the sky, but, fortunately, no storms seemed to linger on the horizon. I sighed as I turned back to the habitat and cocked my head in thought as I wondered what might have happened to the original inhabitants of this island.
Were they castaways? Explorers? Colonists? Or maybe they were researchers, growing the foreign foliage of whatever region this was for science. Did they just leave? If so, what kind of a ship must have picked them up?
I was once again reminded of the monstrosity that had attacked me. What kind of technology did one require to traverse an ocean that contained life so... dangerous. I couldn't imagine even the mightiest of frigates from Equestria's navy not being smashed to splinters by that creature. However, somepony had to have gotten to this island to build this thing, so... wait.
If somepony came here to build all of this, then they might just come back.
I stared back out onto the ocean, imagining rescue in the form of a cargo ship sailing by. If I could hunker down, build a signal fire, and survive for long enough... surely somepony would, eventually, come by and see my smoke. Then, perhaps, but just perhaps, I still had a chance. The world I knew may have been gone... but I had no right to give up my life without at least attempting to serve for some good purpose.
If anything, I might learn, well, something about this place.
"'This Place', what was this place?" I asked myself. I had had my theories. It might have been some kind of purgatory between time and space, where ponies whose home timelines had been destroyed go to die. Or, as I have before theorized, this ocean might simply have been the final fate of Equestria without Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom. Drowned beneath a sea of monsters. Or, perhaps, I was just in a different world all together. An Alternate Universe, just like Starswirl the Bearded had himself theorized...
The first scenario just seemed unlikely. Yes, perhaps when I was floating out on the water with the giant creature it might have seemed like some kind of intermediary Hell, but the fact that there were signs of civilization and healthy plant life definitely didn't make it seem like an unholy dimension. While it seemed more likely that I would have landed in Equestria's final future given the context of my arrival, what with Starlight's destruction of the scroll and whatnot, my discoveries of... seemingly alien plant life gave me some doubts. My final idea held some water, but also just didn't make sense. Sure this place seemed to be some kind of alien planet from Spike's comic books, but then again why would the time spell have dumped me out into some random planet? It usually put me right where I was needed, at least, it did whenever I had been transported by it before!
I shook my head, sighing. Wherever I was, civilization was most likely out there. I could not build a raft to get off by myself (well, not a raft that I could trust to protect me from the denizens of the deep), so I could only hope to signal a passing rescue ship. So, I needed to explore the habitat, and board up whatever weaknesses it may have, then I could think about food, water...
I gulped. Water. My throat was still very dry, even after taking a lot of fresh water from that kindly tree.
I... I would figure something out.
I turned and walked over to the habitat, my legs starting to get back into the rhythm of walking, and definitely not as achy as before (though still much too sore to be attempting any sprints or marathons in the near future).
On the other side of the habitat, I noticed three things. One, the normal point of entry for the building, a large, metallic bulkhead-like door, hanging half-open. The tubular corridor connecting it to the rest of the spindly building had fractured off, and the whole entrance sat at an angle, sloping from the elevation of the building down to the ground level. Two, the place was a bit... short. Third, I noticed was a surprisingly pristine, white crate, about the size of my midsection, sitting on the ground not too far from the door.
My eyes turned to the crate, which I sat down next to for closer inspection. It was fairly solid, and seemed to lack any kind of clasp or locking mechanism holding it shut. Although it clearly had a seam for a lid, I could feel when I tugged at it that it was locked shut.
I raised my eyebrow when I noticed a glowing blue panel affixed to the front of the box, seemingly spelling out some kind of... text, I think? Some words in a foreign language, unlike anything I had ever seen before.
What confused me about the panel was the fact that it was glowing. I didn't need to use a scan spell to know that it wasn't magical, and I could not imagine any physical technology that could make something... like that. Electricity could barely make light, let alone hold boxes closed with an invisible force!
I reached out with a forehoof, poking the panel with the tip. It didn't give way or click like a normal button would, but it did give out a strange *beep* noise. I gasped a little as the thing let out a hiss of a pneumatic lock, before springing open.
After recovering from the shock of the violent opening, I rolled my eyes. Of course, an internal lock system! With the... strangely non-magical panel acting as the activation force.
I peered inside the vacuum-sealed box, quirking an eyebrow at what I saw.
A plastic bottle of clear, pure water. All wrapped up in plain sight with a blue cap, just asking to be drunk by my thirsty lips.
One could not blame me for being slightly suspicious. I had found this crate, just lying around in the open. And it just happened to, suddenly open up and give me just what I happened to thirst for when I wanted it?
I frowned, curling a hoof around the annoyingly small cap. It didn't exactly seem like this bottle was made to be opened by hooves. Perhaps it was specifically built to be opened by some kind of opener? I didn't really know. Perhaps it was the norm for the ponies of this area to bottle their water like Applejack would bottle her cider.
I eventually wrenched it open, and I held the bottle up to the sun. I saw no impurities in the liquid, and, when I put the top to my nose, it did not smell chemical or rancid. I checked around me, afraid, for some reason, that somepony would suddenly walk out of the bushes and yell at me for opening their precious bottle of purified water.
After seeing nopony around, and after shaking my head at myself for being so silly as to think that the owners of the, obviously abandoned, shelter would suddenly appear, I decided that finders were keepers. I opened my rather thirsty mouth, and took a sip of the water.
It tasted... okay, I guess.
It was nothing like drinking from a Ponyville river, and it definitely had a dull tang to it that I didn't quite enjoy, but it did eliminate most of my leftover thirst. I shrugged. What was the worst that could happen? I could keel over and die? Well... odds were I was going to do that anyway, but I had no real evidence to say that this bottle of drinking water would be the cause of my passing.
Bottoms up!
I licked my lips after the last gulps of the bottle went down, before letting out a satisfied sigh. I put the emptied bottle back into the crate, carefully closing the metallic lid of the box back over it. The emptied bottle would most definitely be useful to me later.
I got up, looking at the steel door in front of me. Grunting, I pulled on the door, the rusty hinges eventually giving way and the bulkhead swinging open far enough for me to step inside the habitat.
I noted that the interior of the place had a most futuristic design. Like something out of those "science fiction" genres I had sometimes read. A few wall planters were inset into dirtied, white walls next to me, their planters overgrown with, green vines. I had to duck a few times, but it wasn't any worse than a constricting hallway or a tight alleyway. Claustrophobic, but not physically impeding.
The entrance corridor intersected into a T-crossed section, one hallway to the left, one hallway to the right. To the left was a ladder leading up to the second story of the habitat, the right leading to a larger, circular room. Another strange crate lay on the floor next to a... glowing blue tablet. Beyond that, the entrance to the circular room was barred off by a fallen blockage of debris and supports. Nothing I couldn't clear on my own.
I walked over to the glowing tablet, fairly curious. It had a handle, made out of the same pure white metal as the crate and, now that I actually looked around, the interior of the habitat. It extended out into some kind of tempered glass, which was the part that was currently glowing.
I raised an eyebrow as I noticed that the glass was actually displaying something, much like the screens of scrying mirrors and the like. It was currently a jumble of foreign words, and even though I knew nothing of the technology powering it, I could tell that it was malfunctioning in some way. A thin crack led down the screen, and the phrases and abstract graphs behind it constantly jumped and shivered.
I clucked my tongue, placing it back down on the ground carefully. Perhaps later I could try and repair it, or maybe just take it apart and try and learn from it. Who knew? Maybe it would be useful later.
I opened the container in the same way as the one outside, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that we and whoever built this place had a symbol in common: the Red Cross. A medical kit bearing that symbol lay inside of the sealed box, which I pulled out carefully.
I found a clasp on the side, and I delicately pulled the kit open. It was filled with bandages, a few syringes filled with liquids I could only assume were medicine, a bottle of pills that, again, without a knowledge of the language the label was written in, I could only assume were some kind of painkiller, or antibiotic.
I took out a roll of bandages, cutting off only a few strips and applying them to the shallow scratch I had obtained during my tussle with that four-legged crab. I packed the roll back into the kit, closing it and placing it back onto the box, saving it for later.
I walked over to the entrance to the larger room. I tested the debris blocking the way, and found them to be just a bit sturdier than I thought they were. I pursed my lips, stepping back from the obstruction. I could easily cut the rebar apart with a precision magical lance, but it would be wise to wait until my magic was on speed with the rest of me, or else the beam would go wide and carve into something I didn't want cut open.
I peeked through the cracks between the beams, and I noticed that half of the room on the other side had been filled by the landslide that had damaged most of the building in the first place. I hummed as I noticed that the very left window of the room was smashed in. I could still gain access from the outside.
I turned from the blocked door, trotting back over to the ladder. I frowned as I noticed just how... steep the ladder was. My wings were far gone, my feathers having been knocked far out of alignment by my swim. That, and I wasn't sure that attempting to fly inside a constricted space such as this habitat wasn't all that great of an idea.
I reached up with a hoof, deciding to try and climb the ladder the "Earth Pony" way. It was not long before I fell to the floor, dazing myself and bruising both my behind and my confidence. I frowned, shaking my head. Whoever had built the ladder had made it a bit ridiculous to scale. The surfaces were slippery, and one would need to wrap their entire hoof around each rung to pull themselves up. Who had the dexterity or the patience to do that?
I shook my head, picking myself up from the floor. From the outside, I had seen that the second floor of the shelter had already been ruined, so I was not sure what I stood to find from the second floor. Perhaps it would even just be better for me to cover up the hatch the ladder led into to prevent rain from pouring in. Maybe once I cleared the blockage in the door, I should also patch up the broken window and make the larger room my permanent, indoors base of operations.
I trotted out the front bulkhead of the shelter, taking a deep breath of the outside air.
I stood in the... let's call it, the "front yard" of the habitat. With my thirst temporarily quenched, I had the first chance in a while to simply take in the atmosphere of the island.
I could actually hear birds singing, despite the fact that I had never once seen a bird since I arrived here. The wind blew lazily through the trees, and I was comforted by the gentle sounds of the leaves and the branches. I could definitely hear the water on the beach, and...
I whirled around as heard the skitter of a crawler right behind me. The four-legged crab screeched at me and lunged.
I grunted in annoyance as its sharp legs scratched up my newly-bandaged face, leaving a new set of shallow cuts. I flared my, retrospectively, pathetic-looking wings and took the crab with a forehoof. I grunted, beating it down under my forehooves.
Eww... was that blood yellow? I took my hooves off the dead body of the crawler, screwing up my muzzle in disgust as the yellow ichor dripped off my hooves.
Perhaps stamping the crawler into the ground was a bit... extreme. I don't believe I ever killed even an animal before, perhaps a roach or two, but never something like this. However, I could clearly see that these "crabs" were pests, I eyed them carefully as they darted in and out from under the habitat. They would need to be exterminated, eventually. Or I feared that when I was too weak, these scavengers would eat my battered body. I deduced that they were scavengers, as they clearly weren't herbivores nor were they strong enough to rely on prey animals, and they only seemed to attack the weak. And even though I had recovered since I washed up yesterday, I still wasn't thinking completely straight nor were my legs completely stable, not to mention my magic, so I was most definitely quite weak.
I sighed, looking back over at the shelter and frowning at the holes and dents in its structure. The abandoned base was definitely my best bet for survival. The plants here seemed at least edible, and I could probably sustain myself on their fruits long-term. The pre-built roof of this place would give me sanctuary from wind and rain, and the walls were strong, impregnable. Nothing would get me in there.
I made a decision. This place was going to be my home.
I had one more stop to make, to explore the back room of the habitat. I trotted back around the base to the broken window of the main room, refilled with confidence. I would make this place my home, and perhaps I could still do some good, even though my home world had been destroyed. Just as long as I didn't need to go underwater... I really don't think I would ever be emotionally prepared enough to face that... creature ever again.
I stepped through the shattered glass carefully, wincing as I accidentally scraped myself along some of the sharp, still rigid knife edges. I looked around the room, and only one thing could really catch my eye.
It was in no way hiding from me, as it sat on a metallic desk (some kind of control console, considering the displays and the switches on it). It glowed bright purple, almost the same colour as my coat. It was not anything like the rest of the habitat, and I suspected that it may not have had the same origin as the building housing it. It was blocky and metallic, though not made out of the same type of pure white metal as the rest of the technology here.
I walked over to it, and I noticed a definite aura of magical enchantment on it.
I picked it up, peering at a large, glowing display right in the center of the device. It was written in Modern Equestrian, plain and simple. It said:
GENERAL ACCESS KEY, KHARAA CURE RESEARCH LABS