Chronicles of an Unknown World - The Awakening

by Blue Blaze {COMET}

Chapter 5: Donations Due, Part 11

“No! It’s not your fault! It’s not! Twilight…”

Griffin was dealing with the troubled unicorn and her guilt trip. The pair stood in the creepily still kitchen, working out the mare’s problems. The constant ambiance of rainwater constantly reminded the teen of how negative the situation was.

“Well, maybe, it’s not but…” Twilight began, unsure of herself. “I just wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t gone to Rarity’s. What would have happened if I stayed at home and took care of you and Spike. Would we have avoided all this sorrow and punishment? I feel like this could have been avoided if only if I just said no to the princess for once and stayed in the library.”

Griffin, speechless, allowed Twilight to cast her gaze to the waxed kitchen tiles. “What right do I have to cause this much grief to my friend in order to protect her? Am I really preventing disaster to happen? It feels like I’ve created more pain then preventing it.”

Her eyes closed, feeling the pangs of defeat wash over her body. Griffin finally found his voice after considering Twi’s words. He slowly stepped towards the purple pony, taking care in his approach both verbally and physically.

“It’s not your fault Twilight. It was out of your power that this would happen. You did the best that you could. You did what you knew and that was to loyally follow your leader with bravery and stride. I bet most people-I mean ponies wouldn’t have enough courage to accept such a quest you’ve taken upon yourself! Give yourself a little credit.”

“But I still could have prevented this!” Twilight snapped, tears breaking through her mental wall. “I had the choice to go and break the news to my friends who had nothing to do with this or to stay and let the storm roll over! I had that choice! And I used it the worst way possible!” She collapsed to her knees.

“I used it to hurt my friends…”

The tall biped loomed over the sobbing, distressed mare. He smiled weakly, advancing with care and consideration. Kneeling, he placed his palm on the top of her head and stroked soothingly. However, she continued to lie on the ground, covering her face with her forelegs in absolute confusion and stress. Griffin took a deep breath in his nose before grinning further and letting out a chuckle.

“Heh, now this sounds familiar…”

“Wha-what?” Twilight sniffed. “Why’s that?”

“You sound just like me. Too hard on yourself for things that you can’t control. I remember that when I was younger I would go crazy for making small mistakes that don’t even matter. Heck, I still do, except now I actually have better control over how I react. You sound just like I would if I made an error such as this.”

Twilight looked up into the human’s gaze. She wiped her tears before controlling her breathing and grinding her crying to a halt.

“You may have had that choice Twilight, but you also tried your absolute best to meet the quota for the task. It was inevitable. You can’t have both parties happy with this kind of news. You were placed in a perfect storm: a situation that was bound to cause pain and sadness. But, that doesn't mean you need to beat yourself up for it! As long as you tried your best, answered the call and know that in your heart that it was right, you are golden.”

Twilight sniffed before casting her look to the left, away from her speaker.

“Hey. Look at me.” She did. “You do know that you did what felt right in your heart, right?” After a pregnant pause, she nodded. “Well then. That’s all your friends can ask for. To try your best. Ok?”

“Ok…”

Griffin continued to pet Twilight until she was willing to get up. Her head in a storm of it's own, The element of magic analyzed the human's words carefully. She found balance in his phrase, one that made sense and gave her brain clarity. Her body felt a newfound strength to move forward and onward. Wiping her tears again, she got to her hooves, slowed her pace of thinking and started right into Griffin’s eyes.

“You’re right. I can’t let this get the better of me. I need to keep going and persevere. If not for me, for my friends!”

The amethyst unicorn took a deep breath, exhaled and let the life flow to her eyes.

“Thanks, Griff.”

His response was a soft smile. He was content, his goal to aid Twilight's woes completed. The experienced teen felt that once again, everything turned out alright for the moment. And although the conflict of the two sisters loomed in the distance, the short break until then was greatly savored by the savior. The rain wasn't a bother to him anymore. Instead, he focused on what was to come, and how to deal with the future situation. Furthermore, he thought about home, and what kinds of events he would have to push through to reach it.

"And I still have no idea how to get back to Earth!" he mused ironically.

All of the sudden, the heartwarming moment for the two was interrupted by a horrible gut-wrenching screech that rang throughout household. The shrill note was so loud it caused ringing in Griffin’s ears. Both Equine and Sapiens flinched and flicked their heads upward to meet the strange sound. It sang again a mere moment later, except with more intensity, The windows began to rattle and shake against the frames, the pots and pans shook against each other and the wind substantially picked up speed. The air outside could be heard by a distinct whistle, the sign of extreme wind speeds communicating itself to the beings inside. Griffin got onto his feet and spread out his stance, almost mentally hitting the panic button.

Rarity rushed into the room, her rain apparel nowhere in sight. She yelled, trying to throw her voice over the deafening groaning of metal. “WHAT IS GOING ON?”

“I DON’T KNOW!” Twilight replied, struggling to get her message clear and across. All three of them looked at the ceiling detecting the sound coming from somewhere above. Griffin noticed that the walls around the house seemed to be shifting and stretching upwards. There was another loud grinding sound and a pit fell into Griffin’s stomach.

“Oh no…” he muttered inaudibly.

“RARITY!”

The trio looked towards the kitchen stairs. Standing at the bottom was a panicking Sweetie Belle. Her eyes were wide with fright as she looked at her sister.

“WHAT’S HAPPENING?” she asked, a question no one knew the answer to.

Suddenly, the sound of breaking wood could be heard, and the ceiling was ripped right off of its infrastructure. The entire top of the Carousel Boutique was sent flying skywards, bits of wood flying along with it. Twilight watched in disbelieve as she saw the wires and pipes of the main and second floor get severed from each other. Now, jutting out of the walls were a couple of water pipes, gushing out water which was being sucked upwards as well.

The sound of rushing wind blew through everyone’s ears as they were exposed to the elements. The air pressure was very high all of the sudden, much so that the ponies and human ears popped. Griffin was surprised that they weren’t getting rained on, but had second thoughts when he noticed that in the distance rain was falling down, but was getting sucked back up into a single space right above them!

He glanced up for a single second to catch what was the strangest sight he as ever seen in his life. A circular black abyss of nothingness was floating right above Ponyville, spinning perspiration around it. The hole was placed right above the storm, but at the same time could still be seen because of it sucking up any nearby clouds. In fact, the only thing it was doing at moment was sucking things in. There were other houses and buildings in the distance flying towards the spinning dark doom. Statues, trees and other bits could be seen getting attracted too.

I was lifted right off my feet.

And it wasn’t like I hadn’t seen it coming. As soon as I saw the roof right above my head, I knew that I was screwed over by gravity. And by screw over I mean gravity not being there. That said, it still took me a few second to hit the panic button and actually take action. First thing that happened was I completely flew off the tiled floor. Time slowed as my mind thought of a way to survive. Before I got too far out, I reached towards the now slightly decimated wall and grabbed a swaying pipe. My legs got flung towards the black hole as my grip tightened on my literal life anchor. Almost forgetting someone, I shot out my other hand to grab Twilight, barely catching her tail in time. The pain went straight to my elbow; the only thing that was keeping me attached this god-forsaken planet. I winced at the sudden discomfort while grimacing at the irony that was ‘hanging on to dear life’.

“RARITY!”

I looked behind me towards the skyline (which was a strange experience) to spot a distressed tiny Sweetie Belle flying away in the suction of the black hole. She was reaching for her sister in vain, her being trapped in the infernal hold of the vacuum. It was then that a small part inside of me died. That poor, poor young girl-pony was dead meat, and there was nothing I could do about it. However…

“SWEETIE BELLE!”

I turned my attention to my immediate left, to which I recognized Rarity grasping the remaining part of the wall with both of her forelegs. Before Twilight or I could say a thing, she let go and gave herself up to the force of inverse gravity.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!” I screamed, for obvious reasons. At the same time, Twilight had a call of her own.

“NOOO!!! RARITY!!!”

The purple pony struggled under my grip to reach out to her friend. I pulled her closer to my body, making sure she wouldn’t copy Rarity’s actions. I could see her face wilt as she witnessed the white-coated unicorn make herself smaller in attempt to reunite herself with her little sibling. Twilight’s horn faintly glowed before disappearing in a shower of sparks. Twilight looked exasperated. I watched her mouth the word ‘no’. Holding my breath, I saw Rarity rocket towards Sweetie and tackle her in a grip of love. Both were hugging each other, soaring towards whatever fate lied for them in that hellish ball-o-destruction.

Horrifyingly I watched their tiny spec get absorbed into the unknown. It was then I saw a bunch of other tiny specs follow shortly after. I wondered if they were other ponies too, or just my insane imagination. But I digress. The wind picked up from its impossibly fast speed and threatened to rob my grip from the cold metal pipe. I could feel my fingers slipping right underneath my grasp, my palm sliding down the length of the pole. I just barely managed to grab hold onto the last ring of bolts attaching one pipe to another. I checked my behind to see exactly how far we were from death. I then remembered that I had a unicorn with me, who was currently staring into the direction Rarity exited off to. She looked so cold inside. But enough of that, I needed to survive!

“TWILIGHT!!!” She didn’t respond. Not a reaction, not a look, not even a flinch. She just hung there like a dead carcass getting battered by the intense wind. I tried again. “TWILIGHT!!! DO SOMETHING!!!”

That seemed to do it. She, blinked closed her eyes and her horn glowed once again. I found myself dropping downwards forcefully. Land with an “Oomph!” I sat up, and looked at the pony that just saved our lives. she was on the ground as well, belly first. Her eyes were still closed, except they leaking with tears… again. I didn’t blame her. From what I could tell, both unicorns were very good friends, and now... she was long gone. Long gone. There was no was she would could possibly come back from that black hole of doom.. Well, that’s the best I could describe it anyways. I know what a black hole is, and if that was a proper black hole I’d be dead by now, but it was literally a black hole of darkness that sucked things up. Anyways, it would take a miracle for this to all reverse and go back to normal.