Sky woke with the feeling of cold water dripping onto his muzzle, his back laying on what felt like a soaked sponge while his fur soaked in the clammy water. He slowly opened his eyes only to wince his left eye closed again as a drop of water landed on it from the moldy wet ceiling. Sitting up, Sky viewed the room he found himself in with trepidation.
Sky looked around the small room, the mold covered walls were dimly lit by a single lightbulb on the ceiling above him. The soaked mattress that sat on the floor took up almost all the space available save for a hoof length gap from the side of the mattress to the wall in which was revealed a matted grey carpet and about four hoof lengths from the end of the mattress to the closed wooden door which acted as the sole exit from the bedroom.
As Sky rose to his hooves he gave of several hacking coughs from the choking level of mildew in the stuffy air. Sky reached out and opened the door to peer into what lay beyond. The door opened into a small apartment devoid of any furniture. The main area of the apartment was in similar condition to the closet he had just left. Water damage permeated the whole apartment it seemed and the air was just as poor.
“Hello?” Sky choked out. “Is anypony there?”
Silence greeted Sky’s call as he listened for a response. Suddenly there was the sound of a door slamming shut. It had come from behind a Rotted plank of wood that had once been a door set into the far wall. Sky peered around the wood that hung loosely on a single hinge into the room beyond. Discovering what appeared to be the proper bedroom of the waterlogged apartment, Sky pushed aside the door which caused the wood around it’s hinge to break, the door giving off a wet thud as it fell to the floor beside him.
Inside the bedroom was the rotted remains of a full sized bed and a pile of fungus covered wood that used to be some kind of dresser. A shockingly out of place door stood on the wall across from him. The door was in pristine condition, as was the frame around it. This was strange considering the puddle of water that had formed beneath the door. Sky approached the door cautiously viewing that there were three bolt locks above the doors handle. Sky also noticed that he had been somewhat wrong about the door being unmarred as when he get close he realized there were words faintly cared into the door.
‘The heavens watched as the protector took it’s place before the storm’
“Oh come the buck on! Riddles now!?” Sky’s angry outburst cause him to begin coughing again, reminding him that he should leave the stuffy room soon before his breathing got much worse.
Determined to at least try to reach whoever had closed the door Sky gave the door three strong knocks and waited a moment for a response, once again only to receive silence. His ears splayed back in disappointment from his continued failure to make contact with another pony. ‘I should have known better. If I couldn't reach anypony from my apartment why would I be able to from...wherever I am now.’
Leaving the bedroom with it’s strangle door he walked to the exit of the apartment. As he reached for the handle however he was hit by a strong sense of deja vue. Turning to look back over the dilapidated apartment Sky couldn't help but feel this place was somehow familiar to him, like he had been here before.
Shaking off the strange feeling he opened the door and stepped into the hall outside. Although covered in dust with cobwebs in the corners the hall showed no sign of the water damage that the apartment he just left had suffered from. Even the wall behind that acted as the outside wall of the apartment looked fine, if a bit old.
The long tiles hall had been boarded up windows on one side that let slivers of light in, dimly illuminating the hall. On the opposite side were doors to apartments. However all but the door he stepped out from were either boarded up or had been filled in with cement. When Sky tried to peer outside between the boards all he could see was an impenetrable mist. He could see some dead grass just outside the window, showing that he was on a ground floor, but he could view no more than that. Spotting an unbarred metal door with a push handle at the end of the hall, Sky cantered to it and stepped through.
Beyond the doorway Sky stepped into what appeared to be a lobby. Two wooden dust covered chairs flanked an upward bound staircase to his right. To the left was a closed door and directly before him, across the black and white tiled floor was a pair of double doors leading outside.
A grin burst onto Sky’s face as he bolted for the unbarred exitway. Reaching the door, Sky pushed down on the push handle. Finding the door unlocked Sky let out a shout of pure glee and made to push the door open. Just as the door began to open however something strong slammed into the door from the outside sending Sky falling back onto his plot. Sky watched in horror as the push bars and the gap between the door vanished, leaving a solid plate of metal blocking the exit.
“no...nononoNO!” Sky screamed as he lept at the metal beating against it with his hooves, his face contorted in rage. “This isn’t fair Celestia damn it!”
After spending a moment sitting before the metal barricade looking at his hooves taking deep breaths to calm down Sky began to attempt to think his way around his situation. ‘Something is actively keeping me from getting out of this. Instead it’s like I’m being lead on rails with no choice other than to play by it’s rules to continue.’
“Well then,” mumbled Sky “I guess I have to find a way to open that triple locked door I found before. Wearily rising to his hooves again Sky walked to the door behind the desk. This door was locked by a single bolt lock, the key hole of which was warped making it impossible to open even if he had the key.
With the stair way leading to the second floor being the only avenue left Sky spread his wings, but before taking off he was hit with that feeling of deja vu again. After a moment of looking around, Sky’s eyes widened in shock as his pupils shrunk. “I do know this place!”
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The little pink colt Skybridge sat on the lobby chair by the stairs reading his Doctor Whooves adventure book. A toothy grin adorned his face with wide eyed glee as the Doctor defeated the cyber ponies once again. he had borrowed the book from his classmate as he didn't have any books of his own.
“Sky what're you doing here?!”
Sky slapped the book shut and looked up to the double doors of the lobby to see his brother Shield looking at him with panic written on his face.
“Hi Shield!” Sky shouted with glee “I go this book from a friend at school and-”
Shield ran up to his brother,“Sky you were supposed to get dinner started! Dad is gonna be home any minute and if we don’t have things ready-”
Sky’s eyes began to water up in panic “Oh no, I don’t want papa to get angry at me. I just forgot, and now he’s gonna get man and-”
Putting a hoof around Sky’s small frame Shield tried to comfort his little brother. “Hey don’t worry...You get the water boiling and I’ll chop the vegetables. If we hurry and work together we might get it ready in time. Shield wiped a tear off Sky’s face. “And who knows, maybe this will be one of those days he’s late.”
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Sky stared at the chair that he had sat in so long ago. “I do know this place...this is the building in Fillydelphia I lived in with Shield and...dad. That means the room I woke up in was the one I shared with Shield as a colt.”
Sky sighed and rubbed a hoof down his face. This was not somewhere he had wanted to find himself in ever again, and yet it seemed this nightmare had other plans for him.
Shaking off the haze of shock and depression, Sky once more opened his wings and flew up the two flights leading to the hall of second floor apartments. This may have been his old home but nothing had changed, Sky needed to find the keys to that door. This hall looked similar to the first in it’s neglected and aged state. The doors and windows were similarly blockaded except for one door at the middle of the hall. This door bore no number on it, and rather than plain wood like the others had two green glass rows running from the top to the bottom of the door parallel to each other.
Sky opened the door and stepped inside, jumping slightly as the door shut itself behind him. Sky turned back to the room and glanced around. Despite Sky not remembering any such place being in this apartment building, he found himself in what looked like a rather run down pub. Lamps with red shades hung from the ceiling over a collection of circular tables, with stools lined in a row before the bar itself.
On the wall behind the bar there was a collection of bottles containing various amounts of booze, many of which were on their sides, some having spilled their contents down behind the bar. On the bar there sat a large jar filled with clear liquid. The light from the nearby lamps caused something small in the jar to gleam. Sky slowly approached the bar, and when only a few steps away discovered that there was a copper key with an oval shaped handle sitting in the bottom of the jar.
Having discovered what had to be the first key, Sky was about to step forward to get the jar when a noise stopped him. Out of sight behind the bar came the sound of somepony being sick. A gurgling wretch was followed by the sound of liquid hitting the floor and a sizzling sound. Curious, Sky slowly rounded the bar to gaze behind it.
Behind the bar standing over a pony corpse covered in a black tarish liquid stood something out of a nightmare. The creature had the body of a rotting pony, it’s grey hairless body swollen and puffy. The head of the creature was a boneless featureless worm like thing with a round toothless mouth that dripped the black tar onto the corpse beneath it.
Sky was paralyzed at the sight of this aberration. It had clearly killed the pony beneath it and now he had just revealed himself to it. The creature began to take plodding steps toward Sky as he backed away from the beast. Its head raised up, twitching and pulsing and pointing it’s mouth at Sky while it began to make a hideous gagging noise.
Sky’s brain finally registered what was about to happen and, in breaking out of his shock induced state, dove to his right just as a stream of dark ichor sprayed out of the monster into where Sky had just been standing. The liquid hissed and bubbled as it hit the wood floor. Sky realized that the spit must be acidic, if he hadn't moved when he did he would be covered in the stuff.
The creature was already stumbling it’s way uneasily around the corner of the bar. With a flap of his wings Sky dove forward and grabbed the jar from the bar and overturned it dumping the key and water onto the floor. As Sky landed on the floor he heard the familiar gagging sound of the seemingly infuriated beast.
Turning to his left, with the glass jar still in his hooves, he desperately lobbed the it at the creatures head. The jar shattered on impact with the monsters head into a thousand glittering pieces. It let out a low groan of pain from the glass embedded in it. While the monster was distracted, Sky used the moment to grab the key in hoof and fly back to the exit. As he heard the sound of retching over his shoulder, he galloped through the door and slammed it behind him, hearing a splash of liquid hit the other side of the door.
Not wanting to stay near the bar any longer he flew back to the stairs and came to a rest at the third floor. Sky fell to his side, he could barely breath from the panic of seeing the monster..that drunken thing in the bar. It was hard not to keep thinking about it...seeing it in his minds eye. How the creature had walked in that stumbling drunken fashion, and the sounds it made as it vomited the acid. ‘A drunk...seems an appropriate name for that thing in the bar.’
As he struggled to gain control of his breathing and slow his heart he brought the key he had recovered up to his eye, the oval handle was engraved with a closed fist.
A small smile rose to Sky’s face as a sense of accomplishment filled him. “One down Sky..hehe, one down.”
Sky’s pleasant moment was quickly shattered however when he heard a familiar groan of pain from a room down the third floor hallway. The groan was followed by a loud thud, then silence. Rising from the floor Sky looked down the hall and waited for any other noise or sign of another drunk. Sky could see from his position at the stairs that like the second floor, there was a single door unlocked. Slowly Sky glided over to the door, careful not to make any sound.
The door was completely normal in appearance. A simple wood door with a peephole and the number ‘303’ painted on the surface with faded gold paint. Sky placed his hand on the door knob causing it to fall off the door with a thud onto the carpet. The door, no longer held shut, opened just a few centimeters.
As he peaked around the corner from the slightly ajar door he nearly recoiled in fear at the sight of a drunk in the far corner of the room. However, he quickly noticed that the drunk was actually laying on it’s side in a pool of blood. Opening the door fully, Sky stepped inside and cast his eyes around the room looking for any sign of what or who had killed the thing.
The window and door in the apartment were boarded shut, leaving the only way out to be the door Sky had just entered. He knew nothing had left from that door since he made it to the third floor; the fact alone that the door knob had still been on the door seemed to suggest that nopony had entered or left this room at all. ‘Seeing as this monster was in here dead... best to stop trying to understand it.’
The drunk had lacerations all over it’s torso and face that continued to leak copious amounts of blood. A small sheet of paper, spattered in the creatures blood lay on it’s side.
I told you to stay inside! You’re not ready to face him.
I’ll try to help you get back, but you’ll have to stay inside after okay?
Don’t use the hole again- Shield
Sky stared at the note with his jaw slack and eyes wide. A single tear made it’s way down his cheek. Sky had seen the message on the door of his apartment, but that had been different. That had been one weird thing piled on top of a hundred others, easily forgotten in all that had happened. This...this was here and in front of him. Shield had killed this monster and left him this note.
Looking back down at the torn corpse in front of him Sky noticed something else Shield had apparently left for him. On the spot where the note had been was now a silver key with a picture of a shield etched onto the oval top of its handle. As Sky picked up the key Sky found a memory from long ago rising to the surface. Looking at the key in his hoof with a slight frown sky softly spoke “That’s you Shield, always looking out for me...”
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Sky lay on the mattress he and his brother shared from the closet. Their father had come home angry again, smelling like those drinks of his. Shield had shoved Sky into their room as soon as the angry colt began yelling.
“You stay in here and don’t make a sound okay? I’ll...handle dad.”
Sky knew what he meant. When dad would get angry he would hide Sky somewhere and take the hits himself. Sky was always so ashamed when it happened. Shield shouldn't have to face dad alone like that, but no matter how much it hurt to listen Sky couldn't willingly put himself before their dad.
The stress of the situation was only made worse by how hard it had become to breathe. If it had not been for Sky’s wheezing there would have been no sounds at all, and thats what really scared him. Before there had been yelling and the sound of objects hitting the wall. Now there was silence ... but Shield still hadn't come back.
Just as Sky was about to muster the courage to open the door to find his brother, Shield opened the door and stepped up onto the mattress. Shield’s left eye was bruised and swollen shut, and there was blood coming from his lip. Sky noticed as his brother slowly walked to the head of the mattress and lay down that Shield was walking with an odd gait. Shield kept his back legs bent at an odd angle away from each other as if it hurt for them to get close together.
Sky cuddled up to his brother with concern. “You got hurt bad this time didn’t you?”
Shield hugged his small brother to his chest, resting his chin on top of Sky’s head. “It’s fine, just a few bruises.”
“But you wouldn't have to get hurt so bad if it wasn't always you.”
“NO! I mean, no I can take it bro. With your condition...you might not make it through okay. It’s my job to protect my little brother. Now get some sleep okay? You have class tomorrow.”
With a slight nod Sky closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
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Sky lifted his foreleg and wiped away the tears that had formed in his eyes. He hadn't understood the extent of how their father had hurt Shield those nights, but by now he was old enough that he knew. Sky understood just how much Shield had protected him from.
Sky pulled the broken door open the rest of the way and stepped out into the hall. ‘Two of three keyes, and I’m already on the top floor...where could the last key be?’
Rather than walk back to the stairs as he could not think of anywhere they could take him he hadn't already been, Sky walked to the opposite end of the third floor hall. The far end of the hall indented to the right where instead of another apartment door stood an open elevator shaft. Gazing down the shaft Sky could see the the door at the bottom was also open, and there was no sign of the elevator itself.
Flaring his wings Sky stepped into the shaft and floated down to the bottom. he landed in a bare concrete hall that led to the left from the elevator. The hall was illuminated by three evenly spaced lights along the ceiling. Closest to him was a staircase leading up to a door with the broken lock that must have lead back into the lobby from the basement. On the right hoof side of the hall were two doors. The first marked storage was locked. The second door marked boiler room opened easily.
Inside the room let off a continuous hum, keeping the power in the building on. Crouching walk under a low hanging pipe Sky made his way to the back of the room where a small desk with a reading lamp sat. Sitting on the desk in the light of the lamp was a rusted iron key with the symbol of a cloud etched on it’s oval handle.
Upon entering the hall Sky was immediately shoved from the side hard enough to send him sprawling. Sky whipped his head around to the attacker only to spot a drunk looming over him. Sky pushed himself out from under the savage abomination just as it brought it’s head down on the concrete where he had been prone. Sky began backing away from the monster that stood between him and the open elevator shaft. As the creature continued to stumble toward him Sky suddenly heard the sound of gagging from behind him.
Letting out a scream Sky dived against the wall to his right just as a volley of black vomit flew threw the space he had just been and into the face of the first drunk. Sky let off another scream as some of the acidic substance splashed off the floor onto his fetlock burning his skin. At the same time the first drunk let off a deep gurgling groan and fell to it’s side thrashing as the bile hissed and popped, eating away at it’s head and chest.
Despite the burning on his leg Sky took the opportunity to fly over the downed monster and up the elevator shaft. Once he reached the third floor Sky began furiously rubbing his leg against the wall, desperate to get the acidic bile off. When he was finished the wall had a smear of black and red from the mixture of acid and blood on the wound. The leg would have to be cleaned and bandaged but Sky reminded himself that it could have been much worse. All three keys had now been collected and the only place left to go was back where he started. As sky went down the stair and back to the first floor apartment he was careful to peer around corners and flap his wings as softly as possible in case any other monsters had manifested from nowhere while he was gone. Thankfully the trip back into the apartment he woke up in was without incident.
Sky stood in front of the triple locked door and went over the riddle again. ‘okay the shield stands between them so the middle...The cloud would be in the heavens so top...and that leaves the first on the bottom.’
Each key entered it’s lock and turned with a satisfying click. Once all three locks were disengaged the keys fell out of their holes and turned into ash at his hooves. Sky flung his hoof away in surprise, casting the ashes across the carpet next to him. After realising that the strange occurrence was of no harm to him he turned back to the door and taking a deep shuddering breath he pushed the now unlocked door open. beyond the door was a decrepit bathroom. The toilet was broken apart and the mirror on the wall smashed. Water covered the floor and flowed down the walls in streams. Sky slowly turned his head to face the tub as he remembered how everything changed for him in this room.
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Things had been quiet for too long this time. Sky had been sitting on the mattress by himself waiting for Shield to come back in for what must have been hours. There had been the yelling and hitting again, and like the last few years there would be a long silence after. This time though the silence had gone for much, much longer. Sky carefully pushed the door open and peaked around. The living area was dark a faint light came from the open door to dad’s room. Sky walked on the tips of his hooves into his dad’s room.
The bed was empty with the sheets ragged and laying off the side of the bed. The source of the light was coming from the open bathroom door. Sky peeked into the bathroom carefully.
In the bathroom Shield sat next to the tub with a blank expression on his face. There was an empty bottle of whiskey on the floor by the tub.
“Shield...are you okay?”
Shield slowly turned his head to look at Sky and without changing the expression on his face said in a monotone voice “I will be Sky” He turned to look into the tub again “We both will be now.”
“What are you talking about?” Sky said as he slowly approached. Shield said nothing and continued to stare into the tub. As Sky reached his brother he looked into the tub and his breath caught in his throat.
Inside the tub laying face up motionless beneath the water was their father. The water tinged slightly brown from the whiskey.
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Carefully Sky repeated his performance from memory, and looked into the tub. Inside the tub, rather than a bottom was an opening that had a ramp of porcelain with water flowing down it into the dark. hesitating for a few moments Sky ensured his bags were secured to his sides and climbed over the wall of the tub and slid down the ramp.
He slid down the wet porcelain for several minutes. Eventually the porcelain walls to his sides gave way to sheets of metal bolted together. As he flew faster down the ramp Sky began to hear a siren permeating the air from all sides.
The ramp begun to even out slowing his descent before depositing him into water several meters below him. The water was only chest deep causing Sky to hit the floor on his back with a painful grunt. As Sky got to his hooves in the murky water there was a loud metal clang from behind him. Looking back and above Sky saw that a metal grate had slid down and blocked off the ramp he had come in from.
Looking around the room Sky saw that he had been deposited into a space about the size of a tennis court. Red flickering light entered the room from grates along the room where the metal rusty walls met the roof.
You little shit... a deep booming voice spoke from seemingly everywhere at once.
“Wha..what” said Sky as he searched the gloom around him.
You weak little pusbag, how dare you come back here?!
“I didn’t want...who are you?!” Sky was beginning to panic now, sweat gathering on his already soaked brow.
You know who I am!
“d-dad?” he squeaked
Shield isn’t here now...now it’s just you and..me!
As the voice finished speaking an enormous creature erupted from the water in front of Sky
The monster towered over Sky by a full pony length. It’s front hooves were wider than Sky’s barrel. As it stood before Sky, water continuing to pour from it’s stitched closed mouth and rotten flesh it let out the same roar of rage that had assaulted Sky in the boiler room. Only with the creature right in front of him the force of the sound was enough to send Sky tumbling head over hooves in the water.
Before Sky could get back up the creature lunged forward seemingly not impeded by the water at all, and swung one of it’s powerful forelimbs into Sky’s side, rocketing him into the air. Sky hit the wall on his other side with a sickening crack. Pain erupted from Sky’s right side. The bones of his wing had shattered from the force of hitting the wall, and he was having trouble breathing between what was turning into a strong asthma attack and the pain in his ribs that stabbed with each breath.
Sky was so focused on his pain that it was too late when he noticed that the monster had made it’s way over to his trembling form. Sky screamed as the creature lifted him and pinned his body against the wall applying enough pressure to stop his breathing. The monster stared at him with empty eye sockets and gurgled out what sounded like a laugh. Sky’s vision began to darken as his body screamed in pain. ‘This is it...i’m going to die in this place.’
The beast released Sky from the wall with another rage filled roar as something flew into the side of it’s head. Sky leaned against the wall in a struggle to keep himself above the water level. Even with the monsters hoof no longer pinning him he could barely bring air into his lungs and his head spun. Sky watched as something flew around the monster beating it in the head and sides with a heavy pipe. Sky’s eyes widened in disbelief as he realized it was Shield.
Shield flew around the creature drawing blood and cries of pain from it with his weapon. He dodged the slow sweeps of it’s legs only to counter with more harsh strikes. Finally with a crack Shield embedded the pipe through one of the monsters eyes. As it shrieked in pain and rage Shield turned and slammed his rear hoof into the end of the pipe pushing it deep into the monsters skull.
The monster stood perfectly still for a moment, then crashed forward into the water leaving it’s bloody head submerged.
Sky sat against the wall with only his head above the water as he gasped for breath with a smile on his face. Shield was here, right in front of him. Shield had saved his life.
Shield walked up to the wall next to Sky and tapped the wall with a hoof. A series of red circles filled with runes glowed red briefly on the metal wall only to fade, leaving a large hole in the wall with impenetrable darkness beyond it.
Reaching over Shield lifted Sky up and placed him in front of the hole.
“I told you not to leave your apartment but you did anyway and now you got hurt!”
“buh..buh i juhs” Sky tried to wheeze out.
“No buts Sky. It’s my job to protect you and I can only do that if you stay inside.”
Sky struggled to ask his brother what was happening, but only managed a few harsh coughs. He was distraught; his head racing with questions, his body burning with pain. The only words he could muster came out in sharp gasps and shallow wheezes. He felt his composure returning ... slowly. It had been so long, to be able to talk to his brother once more would be the only thing making this nightmare bearable. He felt fresh air fill his lungs and opened his mouth to speak, but before Sky could utter a sound, Shield put both of his forelegs against Sky’s chest and pushed him into the dark hole.
Once again, Sky began falling into the darkness.
