//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6: Bittersweet Sour, Part 9 
// Story: Chronicles of an Unknown World - The Awakening 
// by Blue Blaze {COMET} 
//------------------------------//


{*First-Person View, Main Character*}


Fuck, again?

Really, fucking AGAIN?

I thought we were done with this black hole bullshit! Really universe? You just HAVE to force this down my throat at this exact moment? I’ve got way too much to worry about without YOU sending me a big ‘fuck you!’ in the form of a swirling mess of darkness! Well fuck you too! Fuck you and your tendency to send every single bullet at every single moment of my life! Can’t I get a break? Fuck! First I wake up in a different universe, then Twilight needs to gather up her friends during the biggest shit-storm I’ve ever seen, then Rarity and Sweetie Belle die, and now this? WHAT THE FUCK.

I wanted to sigh, but there was no time for that. The hallway walls began to crack and split apart, reminding me that time was of the essence. I still had no idea where Pinkie Pie was, so it was too much of a risk to try and find her before the black hole got through. I’m not sure if Ms. Cake’s still on the can or not, but that’s won’t help unless I find her husband too, which by the way, I have no idea where he is either! And Twilight. Oh shit! She might be still asleep! I have to go wake her up! Well, on the other hand, the creaking of the house could probably wake up a mammoth, but at the same time, Twilight fell dead asleep as soon as she hit the mattress! Who knows how deep in sleep she is! And if I can manage to find Twilight, she can use her magic to fortify the house while I go find the others! Genius!

Ok, that’s the plan.

I began to sprint towards the opposite direction. I barely got a few feet where I heard a familiar voice call around the corner. Out came a galloping Twilight, bedhead and hot on her hooves. We almost ran into each other but was saved by my quick reaction. I slowed and caught the rushing unicorn in my arms. She hastily backed up, realizing who exactly caught her.

“Griffin! It’s happening again!” She yelled, fright lingering in the edges of her tone.

“I know! I was just about to get you!” I answered back.

“We need to find Pinkie Pie and the Cakes!” the unicorn pointed out.

“I know! Ms. Cake’s in the bathroom, but I have no idea where Mr. Cake is! Also Pinkie Pie completely disappeared! I think she went to the baby room, but I don’t know!” I informed her. She started running in the direction I was going before this whole mess started. I think she wanted to find Pinkie Pie first, because she certainly wasn’t headed towards the bathroom! At this point I considered that I could go get Ms. Cake and she would go get Pinkie, but if we ran out of time before we found each other, Ms. Cake would be screwed anyways, and I would join her along to boot!

"Wait, Twilight, we need to-" I got out before I was interrupted by an enormous crackle. I felt a fresh freezing wind blow down my back and inflate my shirt. Looking up, I noticed that the roof was completely missing! “Well, Jesus.” I nonchalantly muttered. Bracing for any kind of suction, I grabbed Twilight by the tail before she could get to me and lowered my center of gravity. Strangely for a few seconds there was no sensation of getting pulled up, until the wall to my right completely broke apart as well.

“Wah!” Twilight squealed, the first to leave the floor. I felt my arm get pulled along with her as I grabbed the side of the carpet. It wasn’t exactly the best material to hang on to, and it soon got ripped right out of the floor. The purple magician behind me cried out again before I found a stray pipe sticking out of what was once the outside wall of the Sugarcube Corner. Focusing, I reached out and grabbed the pipe before we were past the point of no return. My forearm screamed in pain as the skin stretched to accommodate the sudden pulling pressure. I winced. Knowing that I still had Twilight in my other hand, there was absolutely no way I was letting go anytime soon. She was practically my lifeline! But ironically at the same time, I was her life line. Keeping her connected to something was my job, and her job was to secure our gravity to the planet side.

I think I'm starting to understand the purpose of Pinkie Pie's question.

My grip was slipping. The cold metal slowly rubbed against my palm, creating pangs of discomfort in my wrist. I looked down to see Twilight doing something magic-related, with her horn glowing purple and all. But whatever she was doing, it was not getting us out of the black holes pull!

"TWILIGHT!" I screamed over the loud wailing of the wind. "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? BRING US DOWN!"

"I'M TRYING TO GET PINKIE BACK!" she retaliated. I looked up to see a familiar square-shaped object glowing with the same glow that Twilight was emitting. It was a significant distance away, about fifty, maybe a hundred meters away. Still, Twilight somehow managed to grab onto it with some kind of magic spell and hold it in place. I was impressed, but that feeling quickly dissipated when my grip loosened even further. Craning my neck upward, I looked to see that we were at the end of the rope, or in this case, the pipe. My hand was dangerously close to the dangling end of the object, and steadily approaching our final destination. Thinking quickly, I grabbed Twilight's tail with my two feet, crossed my legs and used my now freed hand to grasp the pipe for double the grip. Twilight squeaked when I had to let her go for a split second to get a hold of the lifeline.

My fingers were in agony. The fact that Twilight hadn't done anything to help at this point were causing even further pain to my excruciating to my wrists. I'm guessing that magic takes a certain amount of skill and energy to pull off, considering she hadn't reeled in the room yet. I thought that it would be as simple as one, two, three! No, I guess it had to be much more difficult than that, nothing in the real world is that easy. Then again, am I still in the real world? I have to consider the fact that I'm on a completely different planet, and moreover a different universe! Never the less, I was living on a prayer, hoping that the unicorn would retrieve the item by now and get us to safety.

But why was it taking so long? My mind raced to find some sense in the situation. It appears that the black hole in the sky is no ordinary black hole, as it doesn't absorb light like the normal black hole would. Sure, it's really dark, but every time something flies in front of it I can see it clear as day, while standard black holes would render the object invisible. In addition, at this close range the black hole should have sucked up everything by now, the planet and then some! And yet it has barely managed to scrape the world’s surface. Obviously it’s a very weak black hole, considering that I'm still holding on the pipe and still managing. But it’s still sucking things up! Wait, if it’s sucking up the buildings, trees and the like, it must be sucking up the room too! So then while Twilight's pulling, the black hole is sucking, creating a tug-of-war of epic proportions! Wow, Twilight might be a little over her head right now! Can she really beat the gravitational force of an unnatural object? Does she really have enough magical power to do so?

Well, it's not like she has any choice. Pinkie and the Cakes' kids could be in that room! Although, we're not one-hundred percent sure that they're in there. I mean, Pinkie Pie dropped a hint, but she seems to be kinda random. Who knows where she could be! Maybe she's safe somewhere, wondering where her purple friend and that human went. Or maybe she's a floor beneath us, safe until the suction of the dark circle rips the second floor in two! No matter the answer, it still doesn't matter because the kids are in that room! I can only imagine how they're gonna be scarred after this! If we get the opportunity to save lives, then we need to take it!

...Although I'll be honest with you. I kinda, sorta want Twilight to change priority from saving those kids to saving us. I'm not saying that I don't want to save the twins, but if we're putting this much effort towards two babies, aren't we putting ourselves more at risk? The longer we linger here, the more our chances of living deplete. My grip's slipping, Twilight's struggling to keep a hold, and we aren't going anywhere but up if I screw up! Sure, we get to FREAKING SAVE LIVES, but... Is it worth our mind and souls? We aren't going to end up saving anyone if we get sucked into the black hole before we can make a sensible about saving ourselves! 

I guess I make a pretty crappy hero. And a terrible human being to boot.

"TWILIGHT, YOU NEED TO DO SOMETHING, AND FAST!" I shout will all my might, hoping that Twilight will look in my direction to see the severity of the situation. She didn't, and instead kept her eyes closed in concentration.

"I ALMOST GOT IT!" she hastily replied. There was no way to move her. That stupidly stubborn horse is going to get us both killed at this rate!

Something needed to be done. My hands were at their very and this wasn't going to end well if I didn't do something about it. I couldn't reach Twilight's common sense, because apparently she was outright hell-bent on getting that room back! I wanted to smack her, but my hands were tied at the moment. I can't loosen the grip on my legs for any reason, otherwise she might slip and fall into oblivion! There was literally no solution to the predicament without the aid of Twilight's magic, which I can't do. So what was I supposed to do? There was no way out!

Is this is? Is this the end of my life? Is this how it's supposed to end? I die via black hole of doom? Really? Wow, reality's such a flatterer. Well, if there's one way to meet death, it's to get sucked up into an extremely dense mass of nothingness. I guess I'll never see my parents again. Or my classmates for that matter. Heck, I'll never get to see Earth before I freaking die! I still can't believe that I meet my end at the hands of a space vacuum on an entirely different planet than the one I was born on! I expected myself to die of natural causes or cancer or something, but this? This was too outrageous! This was completely from left field! This was insane!

I don't want to die!

I barely glanced up to see that a part of the second floors floorboards had been ripped loose and was flying right at me. My head moved slightly to the right, just in time for a racing two-by-four to zoom past my head. Unfortunately I wasn't fast enough to get away completely. The pointed side of the wood scraped my left cheek, leaving a stinging sensation within all the madness. Looking back at the passing board, I realize that I was lucky. If I hadn't looked up at that exact moment, I would have got hit, and my grip would have faltered for sure! That would have been bad. 

My eyes widen when it occurred to me that that piece of wood still was a potential threat. Time slowed down as I watched the danger head right towards Twilight's noggin. I flinched, having nothing to do to prevent the event. All I could do was observe Twilight get smacked right up across the face by a big wooden plant. She exclaimed in surprise when it connected. Her face whipped back and her neck craned from the force. The purple glow from her horn diminished as her facial features relaxed and the room lost its purple light. I helplessly watched the room go, go, and disappear into the black hole.

Whatever was in that room was totally obliterated. It was gone for good, and I knew it. Pinkie, the twins, and any personal belongings were just... gone. There was no getting them back. They were dead, and nothing would chance that. I took a moment to forget that Twilight may have been unconscious to look back on my own feelings. I shouldn't have been so critical and selfish. Three lives have been lost because of this specific development! If Twilight had enough power to reel them in, we could have saved lives! Lives! With a plural! And we didn't. We failed. I felt like a jackass, wanting Twilight to let go in order to save ourselves. That was an asshole move, Griffin! I'm a real jerk, not strong enough to overcome my instinct of survival and instead encouraging Twilight to do what she needed to so. Wow, I suck.

My fingers reached their limit. The rims of my fingernails barely latched on to the corner of the end of the pipe. My wrist was writhing in pain and strain. In just a few seconds, I would let go for sure, and be released to my doom above, along with Twilight. Poor Twilight, she lost two friends in just a fore night, and good neighbors that she probably knew well. Speaking of Twilight, from the corner of my eye I saw her shake herself awake and realize the gravity of the situation. Her horn glowed and...

...I felt extra weight on my body! My fingers finally gave and we both fell to the ruined earth below. I landed on my stomach, shielding my chin with my hands to prevent and jaw injury. I groaned, having the feeling of internal pain from my abdomen area. Oh shit, do I have internal bleeding? I grasped my stomach, moaning and rolling off to the side. Thankfully we didn't land on anything sharp and instead landed right in front of the entrance to what used to be the Sugarcube Corner. Taking note of my injuries, I had a sore stomach, numbed knees, disjointed fingers and possibly internal bleeding. All the pain was rushing to my head, but the adrenaline was still in effect, creating a somewhat effective painkiller.

And that's when I saw it. Twilight, at my feet, unmoving but her horn still glowing. "Twilight?" I call out, seeing as the wind had significantly died down and the background noise dimmed. She didn't move or respond. "Twilight?" I tried again. No effect. Oh god, what has happened to her? Did that spell knock her out? Did she hit her head on the pavement? Her spell was still in effect, but... What if... I need to get to her! She needs help!

I tried to get to my feet, but the sudden weight on my knees caused me to collapse. Settling to crawling, I slowly but surely shuffled to Twilight's unmoving body. Getting to her stomach side, I put my palms on her neck and back and softly shook her. "Twilight?" She didn't respond again. "Twilight, please! Please wake up! Please wake up, Twilight!"

"Griffin..."

I inhaled deeply. She whispered! She whispered weakly, but it was a whisper! She was alive! Oh god she was still alive! I tapped her on the shoulder some more, trying to get more of a response. "Twilight, get up. We need to get up!"

"Griffin, I..." she said, raising her head and placing her front hooves. I then realized that she was crying, tears and all. Her eyes were a red as could be, her breathing erratic and her nose slightly oozing. "I lost her..."

"Twilight..."

"I lost her, I lost another one! I let her down! I let Rarity down! I let everypony down!" she cried, letting her head fall to the ground. I frowned, moved in front of her and scooped up her head, resting it on my lap. She accepted the offer and pushed herself onto my being, her face buried in my stomach and her hooves wrapping around my torso. I placed my hands on her head, brushing her soft mane back and getting her bangs out of her eyes. There was a loud ripping sound behind us, and a huge shadow passing over. I looked up to see the remains of the Sugarcube Corner fly right over and towards the black hole. I took a glance behind me to see a gaping hole of where the building occupied. The suction took the entirety of the structure, basement and all! Whatever was left in the bakery was gone for sure.

But that didn't matter now.

"I lost her... I lost another friend..."

I wrapped my arms around her crown.

"I know. I'm sorry."



-{END OF CHAPTER}-