My World Is Empty Without You

by McPoodle


Chapter 5A

My World Is Empty Without You

Chapter 5A


The quill hit the floor with a click, then stopped mid-bounce as Fluttershy stood.

“Fluttersh—”

Angel froze mid-word, and though he was struggling, fighting hard, Fluttershy ignored him as she let tears fall onto the pages she’d written.

“I think I’ll go see Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy whispered.

“Wake u—”

Ryooki froze too, more completely than Angel, like a statue as Angel growled and whimpered against the grip of an uncompromising author who was feeling more pain than usual, for sentencing a fictional character to death.

Her world, her dream-land that felt as real to her as any other waking day, stood utterly still so that Fluttershy could breathe for a moment.

She stepped away from the table and walked out to the front of her home, looking up at the clouds. What was up there? Cloudsdale? Being awake?

Everything shuddered, and she gasped as the world grew blurry. She’d never been aware of a dream before, and even this bare edge of that awareness was painful and frightening, it felt like she was falling apart, everything in the world was falling apart.

“Rainbow Dash…” she whispered in horror, tears pouring down her cheeks. “Oh Rainbow… No… No no no…”


PON-3 sighed with resignation. She and the troops had tried their best, but in the end they were unable to dislodge the entity which called itself “The Agent” from maintaining control of Vinyl Scratch. After a few microseconds of contemplation, she decided to change tactics. If that sorry excuse for a unicorn can play tricks with reality to get what he wants, then so can I! she thought to herself.

Agent Vinyl! Front and center!

Vinyl Scratch turned her head to point towards the magical screen for a moment, then quickly repositioned itself so she was facing it straight on. “Ready for further orders, Chancellor!” she stated.

“The continued existence of this device is a security threat, Agent,” PON-3 said. As she spoke, her words were transformed to be heard by Agent Vinyl as a reasonable approximation of the voice of Oars in Wells. “I hereby order you to use your magic to destroy the screen!” Beside her floated a physical representation of a specific spell matrix.

“I hear and obey!” Agent Vinyl declared, charging her horn.

At the last second, the destruction matrix was replaced with one Vinyl had picked up at the Sanitorium, one that ironically had been created specifically to work on her. The bright purple blast struck the glass screen, causing it to give out a loud and persistent buzzing of a very specific frequency.

Seconds later, Vinyl Scratch was unconscious.

& & &

The Agent found herself standing at one side of a large rectangular-shaped room. For some reason she knew this room extremely well, even though she couldn’t remember it. One thing she noticed about the room was that the acoustics were tuned so perfectly that by merely tapping a hoof on the floor and listening to the echoes, she could tell exactly what was in the room. What she detected was a bed, a barred window, and a door which was behind her. The door also had barred windows. The room extended off on one side, but instead of the clothes cabinet—how did she know about that?—there was instead a space that seemed to swallow sound. She could detect the floor, wall and ceiling contours entering the space, but they then sort of faded out into... nothing.

“Hello?” she asked the emptiness. “What’s going on? Where am I?”

Out of the emptiness emerged a figure, a pony that reminded the Agent of herself, only... older. Twenty or even thirty years older. This mare walked up to the Agent with absolute certainty in her step, despite suffering from the same... condition that kept her from being able to see.

“Ah, Little Miss Agent,” the newcomer said in a voice that was a variation on Agent’s own. “Welcome to the herd.”

“Who are you?” Agent asked.

“My friends call me PON-3, but as far as you’re concerned, I’m the bucking Princess.”

Agent pouted. “That’s disrespectful to the chain of command.”

“That was the intent—you did try to kill one of my friends, after all. But I’m willing to put that behind us, just as soon as we get past the initiation.”

Agent didn’t like the sound of that. “What kind of initiation?” she asked.

“Think of it as a get-together,” PON-3 said as she walked into the emptiness.

Agent strained her ears, and heard the faint sound of doors being opened.

“A way to get to know your fellow cast members,” PON-3 continued from the far end of the room. “The ones I don’t normally let out of their cages.”

Agent began to hear other sounds. Skittering sounds, not only on the floor but also the walls and the ceiling. And laughter—the laughter of poor souls that have utterly lost their minds.

“Don’t worry!” PON-3 exclaimed jovially, suddenly right next to the terrified pony and putting a hoof around her withers. “You can’t die in here.” Her voice turned cold as she added, “Although after the first week, you might wish for it.”

Agent sobbed. “P... please... Princess. I was just following orders. It’s my entire purpose! Without a purpose, what am I?”

“I don’t know. What are you?” the elder unicorn replied with some warmth. When this received no reply she added, “No, I’m serious, and this is really important. If there’s nothing more to you than blind obedience to authority, then I’m throwing you in a cell with the others.”

“I... I…”

“Go on, take your time. I’ll hold back the army until I hear your answer.” As she waited, she pointed her ears at the ceiling, or rather beyond it, at the reality outside Vinyl’s skull. And in the meantime, I sure hope somepony comes across our body and wakes us up.


Pinkamena walked into the Royal Plaza, the Cruciform balanced across her back. To her immense relief, she found herself finally free from Fluttershy’s attention for the first time in this entire dream. Carefully, she made her way around the crowd waiting in the pre-dawn darkness for Chancellor Oars’ big announcement. She stopped when she realized that she had just passed the Annex building that Rainbow Dash and Vinyl Scratch had gone too. Craning her neck back, she saw that a large window on the third floor has been smashed.

Actually, it looks like it’s been broken through by multiple pony-sized objects flying at approximately twenty ponylengths per second, to judge by both the size and conformation of the hole and the lack of fragments on the pavement, the expert geologist concluded. Which means they need my help.