//------------------------------// // "The Moon Ladder" by Overdonefictions // Story: The Inn of the World // by The Writer's Group //------------------------------// The Moon Ladder by Overdonefictions So dark.  So very Dark.  We put our head under the covers so we could be safe. Still not helping. The Moon was absent tonight. A new moon is what they called it. We just felt like it was wrong. The moon was the same, not new. The whole idea was rather silly... Consciousness slipped for a moment. We pulled ourselves back, just long enough to think. Think about what to dream about. Dragons. That's what little colts like, right? We felt like we should have known that. We had been feeling odd lately. Sometimes we couldn't remember what we liked. Mother offered iced cream for dessert tonight, but we had to stop and remember how it tasted. Thoughts are drifting, we should go to sleep. Can't think properly right now. The morning light was welcome. At the same time it stabbed at our eyes. How could something so comforting, be so cruel? We stretched our wings. Maybe we could practice flying again today. We had been getting the hang of it, but it was still tiring. Our wings weren't ready yet. Pancakes downstairs, we could smell them. We weren't hungry. We opened a window and crawled outside. We were ready to go to school. Climbing to the ground was a struggle. It was hard to grab things with our hooves. Or at least harder than usual. We still felt groggy. We had felt groggy for he past few days. Maybe we needed more sleep? That was a brilliant idea. We decided to skip school, (we didn't really feel like going anyways.) and take a nap out near the woods. There was plenty of shade there. We could sleep all day. That's what we'd do. Walking through Ponyville we recieved some concerned looks, like something was wrong, but there clearly wasn't. We were just a little, sleepy colt. Nothing abnormal. The townsfolk were almost staring, but we were almost to the forest. We heard some whispers from the ponies behind us, but we dismissed it. They weren't speaking in tongues a little colt could understand. Yet we could understand. The little colt that was us kept screaming, and it was getting annoying. Maybe we should just let it go? No. Sustenance. We curled up on the edge of the forest underneath a tall tree. The sounds of the forest ad been lovely from afar, but getting closer made them all the more sweet. The twittering of Nightingales. Lovely. We did enjoy the song of the Nightingale, luring in lost souls and swallowing them up, chortling with sick laughter once they caught one. We closed our eyes and began to doze off. We didn't even have time to think about dreaming. _________________________________________ In his head there was a gate. I didn't know where it lead. It was very dark. I could see eyes about the entrance of the gate. I didn't want to enter it, I was frightened. My body had other ideas. I walked through the gate, my mind screaming no, but my legs responding with a simple yes. Walking through the gate, it got darker. I wondered if I was in some kind of tunnel, but I couldn't be sure. The gullet of this tunnel had swallowed me up. I couldn't see behind me or in front of me. I felt the ground leave my hooves and I fell. I fell for what seemed like an hour. I touched the ground lightly, and after blinking once, I could see the trapezoidal walls of a city. I stood at the brink of an ocean and this polygonal city of stone. The pointed edges reaching out over the water discouraged a leap into the foam, since I could now see the stone spikes of a collapsed section, sunk into the water. Looking into the entrance, there seemed to be a similar gate, but not dark. I entered the city out of curiosity. The hewn rock led me through the streets. I noticed quickly there were no real buildings, but just sharp walls jutting out in seemingly random directions. Somehow I knew where to go though. I walked through this seemingly impossible, maddening, and impassible maze. I got lost at some point, I was pretty sure that the walls were moving on their own. I eventually headed through a path that sent me to a large open courtyard. He was looking for an answer. In the courtyard, there was writing on the walls that I couldn't quite read. The words floated off the walls and glowed to my eyes, shifting and swirling. I had to look away for a moment, though I didn't know why.     I followed the angle of the walls toward a large stone seat. This throne seated something I couldn't possibly understand or put into words. He asked the question The thing stared into my eyes, and in a few instances I could feel the very core of my thought give out. On command, I turned my head and read the wall. We knew how to be consumed. The solution to our dilemma of eternal life. The colt still didn't get it, but he knew his mind was slipping. _________________________________________ We awoke. Our full design was ready. The perfect way to be consumed by the cosmic mass. The dark void. The all. The Moon Ladder was the solution. We awoke at night. We could see The Moon Ladder. We grinned at our success, giddy to end. The glint of light across the forest leaves showed it to us, and by simply touching it, it was solid. The Moon Ladder almost finished the colt's descent into madness, but we couldn't allow him to corrupt yet, not without seeing the glory of the end. The Moon Ladder facilitated our ascent. We felt the emptiness of space pulling us to float the rest of the way up. We obliged. The ladder vanished before our eyes, and suddenly there was everything. The eye of the moon looked at our small colt body. I separated from the colt, allowing him to die painfully, drifting into the void where his soul would be lost. The moon gazed at my true form and knew what we wanted. The sun erupted with light, revealing the black curtain that hid the master. The curtain drew back, and I saw destiny. The maw of him was wonderful. I felt happiness once he closed upon me. Closing his mouth, I saw further. I witnessed creation and destruction in the blink of an eye. The gift bestowed by him, taken away in the end. His hand fell on my body, forcing out my soul of sustenance. I wanted to feed him, placate him. His voice made no noise, but I knew, he would destroy me, but the universe still would not be spared. I was consumed The stars took my existence, and the Moon Ladder brought me to absolution. After the colt finished his story, I sent him upstairs to find a room. I did tell him about the house ghost in room 47, as much as I adore a good scare, the poor dear looked like he needed a good nights sleep. “This reminds me,” I said with a louder voice than strictly necessary, startling what few guests I had. “Some of you have yet to pay for your stay. I am waiting.” The taffy-eating pony abandoned his table and came trotting over to the bar witg a confident look in his eyes. “Do you have a story for me, Red Velvet?” I asked him. “Oh, do I ever!” he replied. I got a story that will turn you inside out with fear. But I gotta ask, what sort of business plan is this? How can you expect to earn money for rent or supplies when you don't charge for anything?” T”he rent is not a problem, and I make my living on... other endeavours. This is merely a side-project so to speak.” “Ookay... Anyway, you wanna know why I am on the run and have to spend my night in places like this... no offense, this is a lovely inn.” “None taken.” “Good. Well, it all has to do with this document,” from his saddlebag, he produced a parchment and I had to confess that my eyes grew slightly larger as I was reading it. It was typewritten and very official-looking, but the seal was not one that I recognied. And I, if anpony, should know these things.