//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Silent Ponyville: Revelations // by -Surge_the_Scourge- //------------------------------// Onyx would slowly open his eyes, finding himself standing in Violets office. Only this time instead of being greeted by Violet, he was alone in the office space. Looking around to see if he could find anything, Onyx would call out. "Violet? Hello? Is anypony there?" No response, however he could hear a strangely faint sound coming from somewhere in the building. He could not make out what the sound was, but it was coming from the waiting rooms direction. Deep down in his gut, Onyx could not help but feel some strange feeling. Like this place was familiar to him but also foreign at the same time. He slowly walked up to the door to Violets office, opening it and poking his head out into the hallway. It was incredibly dark so he used his horn to create light. Unlike the office, the hallway here was starting to deteriorate. The green wallpaper was torn and rotted in some places, the wood looked worn down and even destroyed in some spots. The carpet was dirty and ragged, as if a hundred ponies had walked on it all at once after a day working in the fields. Onyx slowly walked into the hallway. All the other office doors were closed, including the door to get behind the desk where the receptionist was. With this, he stepped up to the door to the waiting room and slowly opened it. It creaked loudly, as if it had laid in a state of disrepair for a hundred years now. In the waiting room chairs had been tossed around and flipped over. It was in an equal state of disrepair, but this was the room the sound was coming from, there was no doubt about that. His ears turned to try and find the origin of the sound, which seemed to be a corner of the waiting room. In the corner, chairs had seemingly been piled onto something. Using his magic, he levitated the chairs out of the way. Infront of him was his saddle bag, the same one he used when he was out exploring ruins. He examined the pack, this saddlebag was a bit unique compared to others, a custom job. A single bag on his right side, two leather strips on the back for holding anything he would need for hacking thick brush. And on the left side were three clips used to hold things like water jugs. This is when he realized that the sound was coming from inside the saddlebag. He unfastened the brass button and looked within, finding three items, two of which belonged to him as well. The first was a neck lamp, a very useful tool when going into dark ruins. It worked by igniting a small lantern that would illuminate the forward area, allowing him to save his magical abilities for other tasks. The second was his small personal tape player he brought with him to listen to music tapes during long travels. The tape player was currently emitting a strange type of buzzing static sound, like the tape inside was broken. He checked the inside of the tape player, only to find it was empty to begin with. 'Strange...' The last item in the saddlebag was a map of Ponyville, a little aged but still functional. It was only now that the reality dawned on him. 'How did all my stuff get here!?' The strange buzzing noise from the tape player finally died down into pure silence once more. It was also now that another thought dawned on him. 'Who left these here?' Indeed it had felt like somepony had hid these items with the chairs intentionally. Like he was supposed to be the one to find all this sitting here for him on arrival. He sat, taking in his current situation for a few moments. 'Well, I'm certainly not going to solve anything just sitting here.' Onyx put on the saddlebag with his magic, wrapping it over his torso and fastening its belt like loop to him. He then dispelled his light magic, turning on his lamp instead. He would trot up to the exit door of the building only to find it locked. 'What the....' It was locked by a strange type of padlock, one with barbed wire wrapped around it. Using letters instead of numbers with a six letter code. He took a few steps back and thought. 'There could be something in the other offices.' Turning he would trot back into the hallway. The door to Violets office was still open from where he came out, and there were three more offices to try. Walking up to the first office on his right, he gently pushed up against the door as it creaked open. Inside was a office that was also deteriorated. In the corner of the office was a sculpture of a ponies head. A office desk with a few bookshelves, another couch like in Violets room. Along the sides of the room two potted plants sat, decayed and rotted away. He fully pushed the door open and entered the office. A small note was placed on the desk, easily visible. He picked it up with his magic, bringing it to him to read it in the light of the lamp. we aRe but sheep before our sins. destined to continue on our path of ignorancE. but all will reaP what they sow. when placEd before a mirror. you caN see who they truly are. for only then can they see the monsTer staring back. Onyx looked this note over carefully, whoever wrote it clearly had no grasp of capitalization. Only in passing did he begin to read what the capitalized letters spelt. 'Repent.' 'Six letters, probably will open the front door.' Before he exited the room he took one more look around it, making sure there was nothing else he was meant to take with him, and turned to leave. As he exited the room he looked at the other two offices, he felt compelled to check them as well, there could be something he was also meant to take with him. He would trot to the back of the hallway, looking at the other two office doors. Slowly he approached the one on his left, and pushed it open with a creak. He would slowly walk into the room, this office looked like a hurricane had blown through, the desk, chairs and bookshelves were tossed all over the place. Also inside this room was a hook on the other side. Hanging on the hook was a necklace with a key on it. He slowly gripped the necklace with his magic, lifting it gently off the hook. He inspected the key, which seemed a little rusted and slightly bent. Normally he would not have taken it in this state, as it seemed almost useless now. But he kept it regardless, it could be useful down the line. From here the key was put in the saddlebag. He took one last look at the room before turning to leave. Onyx tried the fourth and final door, but it was blocked by something on the other side, it was hard to tell what. He bashed his shoulder against the door to try and clear whatever it was. But it wasn't going to budge. With all his options exhausted for now, he returned to the waiting room and the exit. He lifted up the lock with his magic and began turning the letters. 'R. E. P. E. N. T.' Click. He would let go of the lock, allowing it to fall to the ground. This left his progress outside unhindered. Onyx used his hoof and slowly pushed open the door, and he could not have expected what he would see. Outside the therapists was Ponyville, only it was heavily drenched in fog. He could barely even see a few feet ahead of him, let alone past that. He slowly took a few hoof steps out into the fog, turning off his lamp, the air was thick. He began to slowly trot, taking out his map of Ponyville. He had no truly set location to visit in town so the best thing to do would be to go home. It felt like the first natural location in this unnatural reflection to visit. Following the map of Ponyville that floated in his magic, he passed by houses. These houses were deteriorated as well, some completely smashed into oblivion. It was a far cry from the Ponyville he was in only moments earlier, no ponies, no chatter, only silence. That silence was quickly broken however, as his tape player began to buzz once more from within his saddlebag. He looked down at his bag for only a moment before his ear shot up. In the distance, he could hear some sort of loud metallic scratching sound. Two of them, actually. One was deep, heavy, the other softer, lighter. The deep metallic sound drew off into the distance, getting further away. The lighter noise however was slowly getting closer to where he was. Onyx did his best to try and find what was making the noise, only for all of the hairs on his body to stand up once he was looking at what was making the sound. Slowly limping forwards was a pony-like creature, with black hollow eyes, a wide smile torn onto its face with ripped skin. Its body was covered in a suit of rusted royal guard armor, but it didn't have a helmet. Its head swiveled back and forth disturbingly, like it was hanging on by a thread, revealing its head to be sown onto its neck. It lurched slowly at Onyx, its limping causing its armor to slide on the ground, making the metallic screeching noise he'd been hearing. He began to back away from the creature instinctively, all the bones in his body urged him to run in the opposite direction. But his fear froze him in place, he was unable to move. His trance was broken when suddenly the monster before him spewed out some kind of corrosive substance, which missed Onyx as he yanked his hoof out of the way. With this fight or flight kicked in, and Onyx chose flight, running from the creature as its metallic screeching followed him. 'What is that thing!?' was the only thing shooting through his mind as he could hear the buzzing of his tape player, and the screeching of metal against the ground as that thing moved. Only for Onyx to run into it again, another came from the blinding fog before him, causing Onyx to shoot off in another direction. Suddenly he could hear that metallic sound coming from all around him in different locations. 'Celestia!, how many of those things are there?' Onyx ran and ran, the creatures now sounding like they were all behind him. Onyx found a destroyed house with a fence that was still standing, and hopped over it to hide from the creatures. Their metallic sounds drawing closer before stopping and Onyx held his breath. He could feel his own heart beating in his ears, seconds felt like minutes. Eventually the metallic screeching sounds started to move away from his position, but he didn't dare move, not yet. He waited for their screeching to stop before he hopped back over the fence, sighing in relief, his tape player no longer emitting static, allowing him to take a moment to catch his breath and compose himself. It was only then that Onyx heard another sound, something more comforting. Humming. He would look up to see a mare with a deep blue coat in a white dress, the source of the humming. She stood at the very edge of visibility within the fog, but it was clear she could see him. She didn't speak though, the only sound she emitted was her soft, comforting humming. Onyx tried to find something to say but could find no words. With no ceremony the mare in white would turn and trot into the mist. "Hey, wait!" He began to follow her into the mist, he could hear the humming guiding him, but he now could no longer see her. The humming gently quieted down before it came to a stop, and what lay before Onyx in the edge of the mist was his own home. He took notice that the door was slightly ajar, opened but dark inside. He looked into the doorway, then back over his shoulder. He was afraid if he remained out here too long those things might eventually find him. Onyx slowly approached the doorway, turning on his lamp before pushing the door open. Inside his house was as familiar as it had always been. Everything was incredibly pristine within the home. Nothing had rotted away, nor had anything been destroyed. It looked exactly like how it did when he left this morning. Onyx stepped into the home, and immediately noticed something of interest. Their basement door, which was used to store some of their possessions from Canterlot, was now bound in chains and locked, seemingly needing a key to open. Onyx quickly pulled out the rusted up key he got from the therapists office and tried it on the lock, but it didn't work. 'Hmm...' He slowly put the key back in his bag and turned to walk into the small kitchen area he had seen Delilah in this morning. Hanging on the wall was a new picture. The picture portrayed a pony in a strange looking pointed headpiece with ponies in cages around him. 'I don't remember owning this...' He stepped back from the picture and noticed a small item sitting on the kitchen table. Onyx picked it up in his magic and floated it over to him. 'Health Drink.' He gently put the bottle into his saddlebag. And slowly made his way upstairs. Once he was upstairs he found this area was also completely untarnished. After he briefly checked the room, he found nothing of significance here either. The bed however did have a note on it, the note had strange symbols on it, all written in red. He could make no sense of any of it, these were not in any sort of ancient dialect he'd ever had to read before, perhaps even more ancient than anything he'd ever seen. He folded the paper and slid it into his bag. There was only one room he had left to check. Pushing the door to the bathroom open, he shined his light inside. On the bathroom window was a painted monstrous face, other than this, the bathroom had seemingly been untouched. He slowly trotted up to the mirror, looking at the crude, messy drawing on the mirror before him. He slowly pulled the mirror aside, only to see a pristine silver key sitting in the medicine cabinet. He floated this key into his saddlebag and pushed the cabinet shut, taking one more glance at the painted mirror before he turned and trotted outside, back downstairs. Standing before the door he took out the key he found upstairs, it slid into the lock, and twisted it. The gears on the lock turned and the chains retracted, causing the lock to the fall to the ground with a metal thud. He reach forward and pushed the door open, inside the door was what looked like your typical cellar stairs illuminated by his lamp. Onyx slowly walked forward and down the stairs, seeing their usual cellar room. One thing was new, a small trunk sitting against a far wall. Trotting up to it, he opened the lid, inside the chest was all of his old toys from his childhood. Among these toys was a small helmet and practice sword that was given to him by his father. Looking at the items, he could remember the day his father trained him in the field. "C'mon, you have to lift it higher!" Said the older stallions voice. A younger Onyx used his magic to lift the practice sword Infront of him in a sort of ready stance. The two stood out in a open field area in seclusion. "Its a little heavy..." Onyx replied. Standing before him was his father, Trident Gale, a unicorn with a white coat, mohawked red and black mane, and Icey yellow eyes. "Gotta get used to it somehow kiddo, you do want to be a guard right?" The stallion said, smirking. "Actually...I've been talking to mom and....I kinda want to do something else one day..." Onyx once more replied, his fathers facial expression changed, causing him to wince a little. "Six generations of our family have been royal guards. Do you really want to just throw that away, for what?" His voice sounded a little more demanding, Trident had always been a heavy stickler of family tradition. "W-Well..." Onyx stuttered. "I've been getting into equestrian history, and I wanted to travel the world someday! Become famous like daring doo!" Trident was silent for a moment, as if pondering over the answer. He then approached his son, and with a swift strike of his own practice sword, sent Onyx, his helmet and his sword flying into the dirt. "With reflexes like that, you wont be doing much of anything. Now get up, and try again..." Onyx lay on the ground, whimpering from the pain of being struck, before he rolled into his hooves and got up. Pain stung through his side as he fought back tears, his legs trembling. "Don't cry! Tough stallions always keep it together!" His father shouted, twirling his wooden sword in his magical grip. Onyx took a moment and a few deep breaths to compose himself, he weakly lifted up the practice sword and the two continued to train. Onyx reeled at the memory he'd just relived. Had that really happened? He had never remembered it happening this way before. Onyx put the items back into the box and slammed it shut, a mental image of his father appeared in his mind, along with the memories they shared. But it was blurry. It was as if he could not see the entire picture painted before him, pieces of the puzzle missing. His mind was unable to continue to process what he had just saw however. Onyx's ear slowly raised to the sound of a siren blaring in the distance.