//------------------------------// // The Charnea Monster // Story: Into the Unknown // by Bubble-Fics //------------------------------// Doctor Whooves and Derpy were sent hurtling down a twisty vortex of various hues of blue and purple. It swept both of their pony forms in all kinds of directions, leaving them completely helpless to the vortex’s swirly structure. Derpy looked on, to stare at the stunned expression written all over the Doctor’s pale face as they continued to fall down. She bit her lip before trying desperately in vain, to manoeuvre herself closer to the Doc’s falling form. However, a sharp bend in the vortex caused the pair to separate even further away from each other. They both soon exited the seemingly endless vortex tunnel into what appeared to be a colossal size of a whirlpool that was radiating with vibrant lights. The two could only look on in absolute horror as they approached the blazing, fiery core of the whirlpool. … Doctor Whooves awoke with a startle, hoisting himself up to a seated position to get some breaths of fresh air. It didn’t take too long for him to realise the silent ambience that was all around him in this new plain he just woke up to. Before him lay a lifeless desert with endless valleys and hills of red sand. His right ear flickered to the sound of something moving, causing him to turn around, and watch, a dried mass of tumbleweed float seamlessly by. His eyes shrunk in realisation: He was alone. No matter where he turned, there was no sign nor hair of his valued friend. He dried gulped, thinking back to when they were both free falling towards that gigantic whirlpool of colours and how his friend tried to reach out to him during their last moments together. He sighed, looking down at his fallen saddlebag that lay, not too far from his side, at least, not all hope had been lost. His ear perked up to the sound of movement once more only, this time he turned around just in time to see the silhouette of a pony, disappear down a sand hill. "Hello?" he curiously questioned. Doctor Whooves quickly pounced up onto his hooves, placing his saddlebag on his back before cantering after the silhouette. It seemed that there was still some form of life in this plain after all. The Doctor paced himself carefully when climbing the slippery, sandy hill, reaching the top in a matter of seconds. His eyes were blazed with bewilderment at the very thing that lay before him. On the other hill’s side, beheld a rather intriguing rock complex. The massive rock was a blend of dark red and salmon pink. It had various different sized holes embedded within its intimidating exterior shell making it appear more mysterious and out of place in the barren wasteland surrounding it. Doctor Whoove’s eyes panned over the different shaped holes, each seemed to lack, a source of comforting light which, only seemed to heighten the growing fear deep within him. A flash of light from one of the holes, grabbed The Doctor's attention. He squinted his eyes, definitely seeing some form of life near the entrance to a hole. He bit his lip before steadily sliding down towards the entrance of the cave, trying not to make too much noise. But, on his trip down, his back hoof knocked over a few rocks that alerted the being in the entrance, causing it to swiftly, disappear from sight, into the darkness of the cave. "No! Wait!" he shouted. The Doctor rushed after it, hesitating when he reached the entrance to the hole. The entrance looked way more menacing up close, making him feel very minuscule standing close to it. But, this had been the only place where a source of life had been not to long ago and potentially, the key to finding his friend. The Doctor switched on his flashlight, taking a breath before advancing inside. … A lone droplet of water fell and hit the light grey muzzle of Derpy. Derpy, slowly began to regain consciousness, stretching out her limbs before raising herself up. She opened her eyes only to see darkness, she frantically looked all around but there was no light anywhere. She then remembered her saddlebag, using her hooves to blindly search around herself before she felt a strap. Not wasting any time, she quickly unpacked it before grabbing ahold of what could only be her flashlight. She turned it on, placing it on her head, hitting it a couple times with a hoof before the flashlight illuminated the darkness all around her. From what she could barely see, she was in some sort of underground tunnel of sorts, it took her a few moments to realise it had been due to that weird whirlpool her and the Doctor went through. The Doctor? Derpy soon noticed the absence of The Doctor, causing her heart to beat faster as she looked all around herself in the dark. The sound of rock crumbling, caused her to aim the flashlight in the sound’s direction, illuminating the shape of some form on the ceiling. “D-Doctor W-Whooves?” The shadowed, opened its glowing maroon eyes at Derpy, dropping itself from the ceiling to land flat faced on the ground. Derpy, trembled in fright as she watched the form lay silent on the ground. She gulped, before getting on her hooves to back away from the absurd thing at the end of the tunnel. The form’s wings suddenly sprung upwards, letting out a little hum as they began to flap at an alarming speed. Its wings soon lifted its lifeless form of the ground making it airborne within the limited space of the tunnel but terrifying all the same. “There are no doctors here..” It, in a creepy fashion, lifted its limp head to stare at the retreating pegasus before flying towards it with impeccable speed. Derpy, reflexively opened her own feathery wings, to fly away from the advancing danger, screaming all the while. … The Doctor, blindly walked down a seemingly endless dark tunnel, looking all around with his head gear to try and navigate where the being before him had gone. At an intersection, his ears perked up to the faint sound of screaming from a small tunnel. "Derpy!?" Doctor Whooves bounded towards the source of screaming in a heartbeat. "Derpy!" ... Derpy, blindly flew through various tunnels and intersections of this never-ending underground complex, trying to evade the creature that was hot on her tail. As she rounded a few more bends, she heard the familiar faint voice of the Doctor. "Doctor Whooves!?" She veered off to the side, without warning, causing the creature behind her to fly past and smack into a rocky wall. She hastily flew down a tunnel towards The Doctor's voice, looking briefly behind her to see that the creature wasn't following. The Doctor continued on his way through the underground tunnels, he knew that he was really close to Derpy's whereabouts and that alone fuelled his determination to find her. But, alas, he was too distracted to notice crack marks on the ground beneath him and before he knew it, the earth underneath him gave way. Derpy flies by and pauses by the tunnel the Doctor had been, looking all around for him. "Doctor?" ... Doctor Whooves opened his eyes, to find himself very much alive and well from his fall, it seemed the sticky net around him had saved him from plummeting into the chasm below. Wait? Sticky net? Using his flashlight, he turned his head from side to side, to see that the net holding his form was in fact a spider's web. But in no such book had he read about spiders creating webs as large as the one that he found himself unfortunately stuck to. He tried tugging and pulling away from the web but he found no such luck In doing so. "Isn't this a surprise.." a voluptuous voice resounded above the Doctor's trapped form. Doctor Whooves froze his efforts, darting his eyes around the dark perimeter before locking onto an approaching dark mass. "I hadn't anticipated on having company but.." Doctor Whoove's eyes met that of the assailant "..the pleasure's all mine" Now before him, dangled a strange beast that seemed to have the upper torso of a mare, that had a mauve coloured coat, a shoulder length dusty red mane and four pastel red spider eyes, which examined Doctor Whooves intensively. Beneath its pony counterpart, it had the legs and abdomen of that of a spider, which were all a shade of dark purple. "Uh..." "What's wrong with your face?" The pony-spider landed onto her web to lean closer at the Doctor " You look..repulsed" Sweat began to form on the Doctor's brow "Are you repulsed by my image?" "No" "You behave as if you have no clue who I am" "Uh..." "You don't know!" The pony-spider looked away in dismay "How could you n-I'm the Charnea Monster!" The Doctor looked at her with a confused look in his eyes "You know, teller of tales" The Doctor continued to blink in confusion "Being of all knowledge of the-oh, insolence!" The pony-spider stomped a spider leg in anger, shaking the entirety of the web "Now, you'll probably tell me you didn't come here to try and steal my all knowing eye" The monster moved a portion of her mane to show a fifth eye, that unlike the others was an actual gemstone (a red almandine garnet, for all you rock nerds out there). "I didn't come here to do that" "Lies!" The Doctor gulped in response at the malice in her voice "I know your kind too well" She stared down at him with nothing but fury in those spider eyes "Deceitful little tricksters you are! Trying to steal something that is not worthy for you" The Doctor's eyes became distracted by movement in the background "Why else would you come down here?" The Doctor snapped his attention back on the Charnea Monster. "For other reasons" "Like..what?" "Well..you're all knowing, right? So you should know..why I'm here" "You wish to toy with me, morsel!" The monster got more close and personal, displaying her terrifying fangs to the already frightened-as-it-is Doctor. "N-No" He stumbled with his words "I j-just..want to k-know..if you really live up to your s-status" The monster looked at him unimpressed "I mean, I'm trapped" He illustrates it out by failing to pull away from the web "I can't do anything" The monster lowered her eyelids, leaning back to give the Doc some space. "Very true" The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief "Well, I guess I might as well.." He began to perk up "..not do that" All hope diminished in an instant, as the monster let out a ripple of wicked laughter "You are quite foolish, to think, that I would listen to the likes of a mortal dweller" She laughs some more "Now, you shall follow the same fate as others who have come before thee" She hisses at him with her fangs but before she can lunge at him, the monster gets kicked very hard in the face by Derpy. Doctor Whooves watched the monster's form tumble and roll, a great distance away from him. The kick that Derpy had given it, had also generated enough force to release the gem in the monster's fifth eye and into the grasp of the pegasus. "Agh!" She grimaced "Insolence!" She got back onto her eight legs before looking at the hovering pegasus as well as the gem that now rested in her hooves "You shall pay dearly, mortal dweller!" The monster charged towards Derpy on all eight with a murderous look in her eyes. Derpy effortlessly, dodged the obvious attack, flying just out of reach of the enraged monster below. "You'll be the only one dwelling at the bottom of this chasm once I'm threw with you, monster" Derpy moved out of the way once more as the monster tried to attack her before flying straight for the ceiling giving it one hell of a kick from her back hooves. The ceiling cracked upon contact, causing water to break through and flow downwards. The web holding both the Doctor and the monster broke upon contact. Derpy flew down in time, to catch and hold the Doctor as they both watched the Charnea Monster fall into the dark depths of the chasm below. Derpy, hovered the Doctor over to a landing to allow him to stand. "Derpy!" Derpy landed beside the shocked Doctor "That was amazing! How did you-" The earth around them began to shake. "Come on, Doctor Whooves!" Derpy pulled onto one of Doctor Whooves ushering him along. ... The pair ran for their lives, through the tunnel, fortunately for them, this tunnel led them directly back to the surface. They both exited the rock complex in time to watch, it slowly fall and crumble into the dark recesses of the abyss beneath it. The Doctor and Derpy, took several breaths before calming down all together. "Well.." Derpy looked towards the Doctor "that was quite an exit" The Doctor inspected the red garnet in Derpy's hooves "I must say, that gem is quite a beauty" Derpy reflexively pulled the red garnet out of the Doc's reach causing confusion to arouse. "Um, yes, I should probably put it in my saddlebag for safe keeping, don't you think?" "Sure!" The Doctor watched Derpy place the gemstone into her empty dusty saddlebag. Had her saddlebag always been that spacious? He could have sworn she had the same amount of stuff as he had... Before either one of them could say anything else, a portal opened up not too far out of reach displaying the familiar hues of purple and blue. "Isn't that-" "The portal!" Doctor Whooves jumped onto his hooves "This must be our ticket out of here!" He stared back at Derpy who just stood there, unsure "Come on, Derpy!" The Doctor waited for Derpy to catch up to where he was. "Ooh!" The Doctor searched through his saddlebag before finding some rope "We don't want to get separated again, now do we" The Doctor handed Derpy some rope. "Nope!" The two tied themselves securely to one another before walking through the portal.