//------------------------------// // Third Floor: Explanations! // Story: The Autumn Tower // by Scripture //------------------------------// PLEASE READ: This is now a THOUGHT and SPEECH based story. Everything in it is centered around THOUGHT or NOW COLORED SPEECH. It will make you use a bit of imagination at times but that's where the fun is, eh? Chapter Seven: Third Floor- Explanations! Alright, this place is starting to annoy me. How in the name of all that’s good, can a tower hold an entire fricking OCEAN? I mean REALLY now… Couldn’t we have, I don’t know… a nice, meadow field or something? Would that be too much to ask? ----------- Yes, yes it is. The tower shows no mercy and the tower WILL destroy you if you’re not- ow- careful! Jeez this broad… not very bright, is she? Does she even notice the destruction right around us? ----------- Oh! Jeez… the rocks around here looked like they were chunked out of the ground and… Yeah, thrown waaaaaaay over there, down the rock path! Wait… is that a boat lodged between the rocks?! IT’S HUGE! ----------- Sigh… Yes, that IS a boat. The S.S. Lunar Might. It was built way before your time… Heh… ----------- Hm… big bad and chompy and acting a bit strange… I wonder why- OH! HEY YOU! ----------- Ugh… yeah? What now? ----------- What’s the deal with you? Like, you and this place? ----------- A little slow, maybe, but her insight might make up for it! Well… It’s a long story, and frankly, I don’t want to tell it. So let’s drop it there. And great, no greens or meat anywhere… Guess I have to resort to other measures… ------------ WHOA! JEEZ! WHY THE HELL ARE YOU EATING THE ROCKS?! … In fact, HOW the hell are you able to eat all these rocks? And meat! Ponies are vegetarians, that much I know, and- ----------- Urgh… that one had a bit of sandstone, blech! But I feel it working it’s magic on my body, so I suppose I’m all good… For the moment. Oh my dear Celestia, is she still going on about me? I knew I should have eaten her way back, but… sigh… Damn you Radiance… ----------- -can’t believe that you were stupid enough to go and touch a crystal even after you said not to! So all I’m saying is, what is with you? I’m not going to stop being curious about it, so you might as well lay it on the table! Huh… that’s a peculiar expression… ANYWAYS… Please? ----------- … ----------- … ----------- … Alright, fine. You want a little story? You got it. So I want you to shut up and listen since I don’t particularly like the past. I suppose it might explain quite a bit about me… ------------- Jeez… all serious now. What’s gotten into him? Hm… I think I may have dredged up some bad memories… Dredged, such a peculiar word… ------------- So, I guess I shall start from the beginning. This is going to be the condensed version since we really should be going soon… Way before you were born, I was born, though under a different name than Hunger Pains. Had a pretty good life in my village, from what I recall. Nice family, did well with my job, had a few scraps with bad ponies now and then, but was backed by my buddy, Laughing Fit. He was a pretty good jokester, though a bit odd, but he was always by my side. But yeah, life was pretty good elsewise. ------------- …Hmmm… Laughing Fit… seems strangely familiar… ------------- Then I met myself a nice mare named Radiance. She was a pegasi that shone like the sun, especially when she flew around. Although I was often grounded, for obvious reasons, I would always watch her, milling about the clouds, like a personal angel over me. She was… really something, I tell you. Eventually we got married and had a nice life together. So this went on for some time and long story short, she… died… … ---------- … ---------- A-anyways, I was pretty shaken up by the situation and, foalishly, I tried to figure out a way to revive her. I was desperate for a way, any way, to get her back though Fit, even though he helped me, often would try to talk me out of it. We ran around Equestria for quite awhile until I collapsed one day from running. I couldn’t take it anymore and my grief was running it’s course. I couldn’t let Fit keep following me, enduring this as well. I needed to stop, but only so others wouldn’t be dragged with me. It was then that we found The Autumn Tower, suddenly appearing right in front of us. I read the notice on its front and thinking it could be my one and only option left. Everything else had ended fruitlessly and I was done being on a wild goose. I bravely entered the doorway, intent on this final run around, and asked Fit to stay behind. But what do you do with a loyal friend like him? So, off we went into the tower. We were not expecting anything like this however, and soon learned the true perils of this place. Although, back then, it was actually a lot easier than it is now. Now, everything has evolved, changed, and grown. We got pretty far into the Tower, probably up near the top, since the enemies and trials were getting harder and harder to deal with. Trust me, what you’ve seen now is nothing to what is supposed to be ahead. Anyways, we hit this floor and faced off against a huge creature. It called itself ‘Bardra’ or some crap like that. We fought against it for quite some time, about a few days really. We kept on having to set up traps and use guerilla tactics against him and- ---------- Guerilla? ---------- Oh, uhm… Hit-and-run, hide from the bushes and attack. Sneaky things. ---------- Ah... ---------- … ANYWAYS, even with all of this, we couldn’t beat him and eventually, he had us pinned down. We were broken, beaten, and exhausted. We had lost. And with our loss, he ate me whole right after he splattered Fit’s head against a wall, brains exploding out- ---------- Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa WHOA. Hang on a moment... WHAAAAAAAT?! You said you were eaten WHOLE by this Bardra character and… and… you’re still HERE and stuff! Even I know that is not supposed to be even REMOTELY possible! Are you ly- ---------- Well if you would just let me FINISH, I could probably explain some things to you! Jeez… just can’t keep it shut, can you? --------- Fine fine fine… Asshole… --------- Stupid grumbling aside, we both found out bitterly that we were the very first ponies to try and scale the Tower. And while the Tower itself is a merciless entity, we found out how sadistic it can be as well. That is to say, we didn’t die that day. Instead, we were cursed for the rest of time. Cursed to live forever in the tower and gave us powers to suit our newfound jobs. For me, they made my teeth sharp, as you know, and forced this inflicting hunger-induced pain if I don’t have something to eat after some time. I learned that I could eat anything I wanted to, though some things taste real nasty and things that are not meat or plant based don’t regenerate or sedate me as much. It also lets me use, if I eat enough of the material, attributes of them for a short time, like hardened skin from rocks or better vision from birds. If I had eaten more of any of the stuff before, I probably would have gained their traits for a bit! ---------- Like stinky dino foot breath? Or be squishy like old bread? ---------- Har har har basically but shut up. ---------- Hmph! ---------- The Tower is cruel and it’s Custodians had to be equipped for everything inside. Some of the things in here can kill me still, if they do things the right way or obliterate every part of my body, but the Tower has made it difficult for them now only so I can complete my job. And Laughing Fit, well… He, I believe, had a much crueler fate, even though he shouldn’t have come in with me… They bound him to a mask with a smile on it and gave him the power to teleport throughout the Tower. His job was to introduce and bring out any pony who entered the tower. No doubt you’ve already seen him once. However when I mean ‘bring out’, that basically means for him to take the dead bodies in the tower and then give them to me. I think you can connect the pieces from there… ---------- Ohhhh yeah. That guy was pretty interesting... but he did help me out. Wonder why? Does he do that with every pony that comes in here? And his job... But... wait, wouldn’t creatures in the Tower just eat the bodies instead? I mean, what you’re saying sounds a bit morbid… ---------- Of course it’s damn morbid! It’s like I said about the Tower being a bit sadistic! I can’t help it! When I see the dead body of a pony, any pony, young, old, unicorn, pegasus, I-I get this overwhelming urge to eat! It’s not like I want to… but I HAVE to! It’s like an addiction they put into me and my mind just goes blank and all I can think about is sedating the hunger and feasting and eating and tearing them up and munching on their bones and- OWCH! ---------- … ---------- ... Thanks for that slap. ---------- Welcome. ---------- Anyways, to wrap it all up, we had to do this whenever a new pony came in and died and slowly I noticed Laughing Fit drifting away into madness, especially after the first go arounds of this procedure. He’d start sputtering nonsense about this and that and more than once now, has attacked me for no reason whatsoever just to get a few laughs out of it. Sure he sends me the food, even though I can get it myself, but it’s like the Tower… it’s like it is controlling him instead now. He doesn’t even call me by my original name, instead putting this title of ‘Hunger Pains’ on me. Fitting after all, but still unnerving coming from a psycho who was once your best friend. And with that, I think I covered about everything. ---------- Hmmmmm… ---------- What do ya mean ‘Hmmmmm’? ---------- Oh, I believe you, just saying. Don’t worry about that. ---------- Then why ‘Hmmmmm’? ---------- Just thinking if you are always grumpy, or this other side to you with the deeper parts and the ‘not the best guy’ kind of attitude is something you can actually be on a regular basis! ---------- Screw you. ---------- Guess not then… Wait a minute… Did you hear that? ---------- Huh? Oh, that screaming? Yeah, heard it awhile ago. Think it’s some mare, screaming her head off on the ship. But really, I already know where the next door is and- Oh… COME… ON! Why did she have to bolt off towards THAT ship? I really hate this ship… I hate this ship I hate this ship I hate this ship I HATE THIS SHIP!