//------------------------------//
// Bombastic ceiling 
// Story: Theory of nothing 
// by Elidjz 
//------------------------------//

"I politely ask you to shut up."





The ceiling rumbled from all of the fighting back onto the surface. That alongside all of the talking that had just started was giving me a headache. on the positive all of that noise concealed the indecipherable whispering. But I wasn't currently worried about that. 

Fred was staring at me confusingly. He wasn't bothered at all by the fact that he could suddenly talk. His only answer to why he could talk was that I could talk and thus him talking isn't strange. Worst part is that I definitely used that line of logic to explain some of my actions in the past.

"Look I really don't get why this bothers you. You could talk before me, so why are you so surprised?" Fred asked, somehow more confused than me. "Do you think I don't deserve to talk?" He said with a clearly offended tone. "No, no, it's just that... aargh doesn't matter." I half-shouted in frustration.

"Let's just focus on what's important. Where are we exactly and who are the ones fighting against the creatures above?" He quickly answered without much thought. "Were in UIN territory or more precisely under it. And the ones fighting are members of th UIN. And before you ask, that stands for Union of imperialist and nationalist. I don't actually know what neither of those words meant." 

I thought about something he had told me earlier. "Is this UIN related to that Ala... Alegria individual you mentioned earlier?" "Yup, she created it and told everyone to join because she had more stuff and was smarter." The ground shook as dozens of explosions could be heard above their heads. "And she might have been right." He said with a somehow hesitant expression, on his featureless face.

I turned around as another being whistling trying to get our attention. They were all departing through a tunnel as they had no intention of staying here. Which I had to agree with as cracks started appearing into the walls and ceiling. But before departing I still had two questions. "Wait first, what's your name because to be honest I have no idea how to read it and what exactly are you?"

He looked slightly offended, but did not make any snarky remarks. "My name is ジョン and were aberrations. Or that's what we use to refer to ourselves. Don't ask me where that word came from, as it was already there when I was born." I still did not understand what his name meant. Though the word aberration felt oddly... adequate.

We then departed through the tunnels. It was morbid seeing the few hundred remaining beings or aberrations when I had been told that there had been thousands in the old stadium. I hadn't even thought about that, but it was whispered to me. Now that we were going deeper underground, lessening the noise from above, and that everyone had stopped speaking as much I could now hear the whispering more clearly.

It was almost impossible to discern anything that was said. But some of it was just loud and clear enough to be understood. And it all said the same. It pointed things out. A skull in the corner, a red splotch on a wall, a dark not-so-empty room, other strange noises and other concerning details. This quickly made me wish for all of the loud noises and talking to come back.

I tried to ignore it or drown it out but it all failed. Fortunately the glow on the amulet was dimming quickly and with that the whispering also went out. 

But my mind was already on the verge of panic.

As we kept going down this got worse. But then we started going up. I started calming up as all of the sounds started coming back. We then reached a ladder that led to the surface. As one of the aberrations was busy unscrewing the locked ponyhole cover, the rest sat and rested. Quite a few loudly complained about all they had lost, while some started swearing for vengeance. 

Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and saw the nicely clothed bei... aberration (going to take me some time to get used to that) staring at me. She was holding her sickle in her remaining hand and the tinier just as nicely clothed aberration was hugging her leg clearly shaking in fear. The taller one then lightly pressed her sickle against my throat.

"What are you?!" She asked with quite a threatening tone, anger obvious in her eyes. "You appear out of nowhere and suddenly the same day we get attacked by those... those things." She pressed the sickle a bit harder. I started sweating. Both because she could definitely cut my head off in one move and because I couldn't afford to have her and all the others be... aberrations as enemies.

"I'm Trixie and I'm a pony." I said in fear as the cold bloody steel of her sickle was pressed against my fragile meaty throat. She looked slightly less angry and a bit more curious. "I definitely read about ponies in a book and maybe saw a few pictures. However they weren't blue and their eyes weren't as abnormally big. But I can see the similarities." The tinier aberration started nodding in agreement and looked slightly less scared. The taller one moved it’s hand away from my throat.

"Ok, I'll believe that. But why are you here and what about those things that attacked us?" She asked in a slightly less threatening tone. "I got pulled in here after a failed spell. I don't know about those things as they have been trying to kill me as much as you." I told her I could have mentioned Cosmo, however as he wasn't here I decided not to mention him.

She rubbed her forehead in frustration with her remaining hand. "I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, but if I discover that you lied to me..." She pointed at me, anger clear on her face. "...I will hold you personally responsible for the death of my mate, the trauma on my son and the loss of everything I held dear."

Her face then shifted into a big mouthless smile. "And I earned all of it through copious amounts of violence." She then left to wait near the ladder dragging her child with her.

I already knew that this wasn't going to end well, it never did. But that would be a problem for later.

"I've opened it!" This was shouted by the aberration that had been unscrewing the ponyhole cover. He then exited through it and the others followed. So did I. I was greeted by thick smoke and thousands of deafening noises. Fortunately there were a bunch of fortified buildings in between us and the fighting. There were also a lot of heavily armored and armed aberrations.

And quite a few were staring at me in bewilderment. One with a fancy hat shouted something causing the others to stop staring at me and continue moving. 

I should also continue moving, however I had been left behind as everyone had either left to go fighting or take cover leaving me alone. I wanted to run in the opposite direction, but that would but me farther away from the rift that would supposedly allow me to go back home. A massive piece of building then fell just beside me. And then more fell around. So I jumped in a trench, to the surprise of the aberrations in it, to take cover. They were holding what I guessed were big guns.

They kept firing in one direction, killing all kinds of strange and different creatures. Creatures with long claws and big teeths that they were going to use to kill us. Fortunately we had range on our side. I looked around to see If I could sneak around.

Before I could do anything something grabbed me by the neck with huge claws. I tried to shake myself loose, but it's grip was very strong. I panicked even more, thinking about how the creature could have snuck behind us. I then noticed that the thing holding had pitch black fingers. I was then turned around by the one holding me. I stared into its face covered with a strange mask. The aberration stared back at me tilting its head slightly.

I tried to move around or get out of it's grasp. But the only thing that I succeed in doing is getting a better view. It had no legs, having a long snake tail instead.  It was much bigger than all of the other aberrations I had seen, hands bigger than my head. It was wearing a uniform and covered in pouches.

"Huh?" It grunted with a muffled voice before lifting it's other hand. It then swung it's hand towards my face.

And then everything went black.





My nose felt wet as my consciousness slowly came back. I tried to move my hooves, but I couldn't. I felt a tight and uncomfortable rope tying my hooves to a wooden surface. The armor I had been wearing had been taken off. The sense of security that it gave me was gone.

"Sh... wa... So wh...? The..." I could hear someone speaking, but my current state made it hard to understand anything. "He... and ... kn...." "Do... unch it s... ard ne... time." The speaking slowly became clearer. I managed to partially open an eye.

"It's looking at me." "It's an unicorn." "Does it matter?" "If anything written in the books is real and accurate then yes." Another voice interrupted the discussion. "Shut up, that unicorn thing is awake and we've got a job to do." It sounded male and quite soft even with a harsher tone. My other eye was then forcefully opened.

I saw an aberration wearing strange glasses with eight lenses. Behind it were two other aberrations. What was odd was the fact that they were both wearing clean identical uniforms alongside slightly different helmets. They were also wearing very similar pouches and the same weapons. After seeing all other aberrations wearing completely different and teared clothes this felt pretty strange. I could see more standing by walls and doors wearing similar uniforms and a wide variety of weapons. The uniform seemed to change a bit depending on the weapon they carried.

The one who had grabbed and punched me was sitting by a table, busy reading a book.

"Alright, I've got a few questions for you. If you answer them truthfully everything will go well. If not, then someone less kind will ask questions. Understood?" I nodded hesitantly. "Good. Can you speak? If yes then answer by speaking."

"Yes." I answered, terrified. My snout hurt, it might have been broken. "Okay, please explain who and what you are." He was holding a notepad and a pen. "I'm Trixie Lulamoon an unicorn." I felt an awful itch on my hooves. But I couldn't scratch it with my hooves tied down. "And where do you come from?" He was writing down everything I said. 

While it had a very smooth and nice sounding voice, the stern tone behind it left no doubt that bad things would happen if I didn't answer. "I'm from Equestria." He noted that down and did not ask anything else about Equestria. "Why did you come here and did you come alone?"

"I came here by accident after a failed spell. And I was alone." 

"Did you at any moment meet a strange sentient, possible eldritch, ethereal being?" My eyes widened. Why would he even ask that? How could any of them even know about Cosmo? Before I could say anything the aberration interrogating me spoke again. "Actually, no need to answer that one. It's not important." Then why even ask it? I mentaly shouted.

"Last question, do you know what that light in the horizon is?" "Not much, it's called a rift. But that might not even be the actual name. I know barely anything about it." I tried to answer as truthfully as possible without saying too much.

"Thank you for your cooperation Miss Lulamoon. I'm sorry for the harsh treatment, but this was necessary." The ropes holding me down were then cut off. "Now someone wants to meet you." I was grabbed by the neck again. A door in the room was opened. "It's best to not make her wait."

I was then dragged out of the room by the same aberration that had knocked me unconscious. Now dragging me through a well lit hallway filled with piles of armor, weapons and boxes.

We then stopped in front of a thick wood door with multiple strange skulls nailed around it. There were also multiple guards standing besides the door.

I had a bad feeling about it.

"Hello blue pony." And Cosmo then appeared beside me.

I had an absolutely awful feeling about this.