Remnants of a Dying World

by Dusk-Spark

Ch. 2: "Cold."

He awoke to the blistering sting of the wind, but this wasn’t like the gentle breeze of Vanhoover, or even the strong winds of the Galloping Gorge. This was a freezing, abusive wind against his cheeks. He couldn’t quite process what had happened, what he saw defied everything he knew about reality. Part of him thought the scenery before him must’ve been a joke or he’d hit his head on something and this was some kind of delusion formed out of a concussion? Because how could the landscape have been covered in snow when it was bright and sunny just a few seconds ago! If it was a joke, then it was a very good one because the snowbank he crashed into sure felt real enough.
‘What happened?’ Despite being disoriented, he tried to piece together what he remembered. One minute, he was soaring in the air with the proto-wings, there was chaos, and now he was here. In a frozen wasteland; snow as far as the eye could see with the cold wind and falling snow against his body. He was smack dab in the middle of a blizzard!
“Hello! Is anyone out there?! Granite, Shard?! HELLO!” His desperate cries were drowned out by the roar of the blizzard. This was hopeless, even if someone were out here, they’d never find him. “First thing’s first. Shelter, I need to get out of this storm.”
He tried to get up from the snowbank but was having some difficulties. One of the proto-wing’s was caught on something inside the snowbank. No matter how hard he pulled, it would not come loose. “Crap…”

He knew what he had to do but, somehow he felt that Granite wouldn’t forgive him for it. “…Oh to heck with it, Granite’s gonna be pissed but I think he’d prefer me alive and well instead of a frozen ponysicle.” Now the questions on his mind were: ‘How do I get this thing off? Why didn’t Granite put some kind of easy release button on this thing?’ If he were a unicorn, this would probably be a lot easier. “Ah the heck with it.” He pulled with all his might, feeling himself slowly move out of the bank. Then with a resounding tear, the wing ripped off and he ended up tumbling down the snowbank and landed back first on the cold, snowy ground. “Owww.”
The back of his head ached and, then he saw something bright and shiny on the bottom of the harness (where his tummy was). “Hm?” Kind of looked like a big red button. Ignoring what various stories have told him about pressing big red buttons; he went ahead and held it down for a few seconds until…

Click

The latches on the harness released and he was easily able to slide out of the destroyed proto-wing. “…Was it really that hard to tell me about the release button?” He sighed, making a mental note to scold Granite for that later. “At least that’s one problem down.” He sneezed, the shivering and his runny nose were clear indicators that he needed to get out of this storm (if that wasn't obvious enough). But where would he go? He couldn’t see anything in the blizzard. “No sense in just standing around, gotta pick a direction.” He stood up on his hind legs, held out his forelegs to the winds and…then started to spin.
That’s right, he was gonna decide on a life and death decision depending on the direction he landed when he couldn’t stand anymore…

How long had he been walking now? 10 minutes? 30? An hour? More? It was kind of hard to keep track of time, he did know that he was freezing his blue flank off and that if he didn’t find some source of heat soon then he’d probably die from hypothermia, and he'll probably die in an embarrassing position. “D-D-Dear Mother Faust: If you can hear me up there in the cosmos…please…please save me from this blizzard and I’ll volunteer for charity work once in a while!” The wind seemed to blow stronger, “Okay fine, as often as I can! I promise! Pinkie Pie promise!” He still couldn’t believe how fast that phrase caught on, "Or if that's too much to ask, can you at least let me die in a dignified position!" While begging to an unseen entity, his foreleg touched something that definitely wasn’t snow. It felt, solid…was the only way he could describe it. He looked down and saw something partially concealed by snow; curiosity taking over, he hastily wiped away the snow so he could see what it was: It was a rusty metal sign, buried by snow and a bearing message worn away by time which read:

There was more writing, but most of it was so badly worn away by the elements, he'd need to be a unicorn in order to restore the message. Still, it was the good news he’d hoped to hear. At least, he hoped it was good news. No telling if this was the original spot the sign had been. Regardless, it was a chance and the alternative was blindly stumble around in the middle of a blizzard and most likely freeze to death. Any pony with half a brain would take the safer option. And so he headed East…or at least, he hoped it was East…
'Watch over me, Mother Faust.'

Luck (and perhaps divine intervention from an alicorn long past from this world) had been on Nox’s side that day, for he did indeed find a cave to take shelter in from the blizzard. Once inside and out of the blizzard’s constant abuse, he shook off the snow coating his blue fur. He wished he could see his poofy fur right about now, at least his optimism was still intact…unlike the proto-wings.
He turned his attention to the deep, dark, dank cave he just entered, hoping it was the right cave and that the end of it wouldn’t be some kind of…evil bear monster or something.
“Hello?” He called out, “If you’re a crazy axe murderer or an evil bear monster, you should know that I‘m a uni-alicorn! A really powerful alicorn trained in 27 different pony martial arts! I‘ve beaten 300 creatures, and you‘ll be #301 if you try to kill me!” His voiced echoed off the walls, but he didn’t hear anything back. “…Guess it’s safe?” Or the crazy axe murderer may now be aware of his presence, and was lying in wait to jump out and lop his head off.
He closed his eyes, “Dear mother Faust, you’ve been good to me so far…please let me pass through safely.” Funny how he almost never called upon the Princesses or the Holy Mother until right now. Cautiously, he journeyed deeper into the cave.

Along the way he saw writing on the wall, or at least someone's attempt at writing. They were scrawled with such poor penponyship that he could barely understand it. There were a few pictures too, but none of it made any sense to him: How could he possibly understand a picture of something with four legs but a whole bunch of lines jutting out from its body along, with what looked like a knife pointing to a circle in the middle of the four-legged thingy. What did any of that even mean? He was so engrossed in the meaning of the drawing that he smacked muzzle first into a wall. Not just any wall though; the wall looked artificial, made of metal and with the words:

Written in bright green (what he assumed was) ink. Hard to believe he missed that, he definitely didn’t miss the drawing below it. That same four-legged creature but there was an arrow above it pointing to the door…

It was nearly pitch black in the shelter, he could barely see more than two hoofs in front of his face. “Light switch, light switch.” He felt around the wall and…ah. He touched a switch of some sort and flipped it. There was a click, and then nothing. “What?” He flipped the switch a few more times. Nope, power was completely out. “Guess I used up all my luck getting out of that blizzard.”

“Hello?”

The sudden voice that cut through the darkness startled him slightly. It sounded like a female voice but there was something…off about it. It was a voice he could only describe as mechanical. For several seconds he heard nothing, had he just imagined the voice?

“Hello?” There it was again, “Is someone there?”

“Y-Yeah? Where are you? I can‘t see you.” Technically he couldn't see anything.

“This one is here.”

That was a really helpful sentence, wasn’t it? Nox sighed, “Just keep talking, I’ll find you by following your voice.”

“Understood.”

“I have a few questions.” He pressed his tail against the wall while cautiously trotting towards the voice. “Where am I?”

“A shelter designed with the intent of saving ponies from blizzards.” The monotone response came immediately.

“Well that was obvious.” Plus it was old news to him, “Okay new question then: Who are you?”

“This one is…this one had several names, but this one's memories have been...damaged. It does not currently have one.”

“Several names huh?” The more Nox spoke to her, the more he started to notice her odd speech pattern coupled in with her strange voice. A thought started to wiggle its way to the surface: “You’re not a pony, are you?”

“No. This one is not a pony.”

“Then what are-” The splashing sound beneath his hooves interrupted him, it was pitch black to see but it felt wet and a little sticky, almost like he'd stepped in gum and water...well, more like mud. He could almost swear he felt something moving in whatever he stepped in. 'Gross, did I step on a bug?'.

“Hello? Are you still there?”

The voice was closer this time, “Y-Yeah. As I was saying, what are you exactly?”

“This one is a personal assistant to ponies or any other sentient.”

“That’s your job, I meant what are you?”

“This one does not understand. It is just…a personal assistant. That is all the data this one has concerning its existence.”

The voice was very close now, but he still couldn’t see it. And then daylight hit his brain, “You wouldn’t by any chance happen to have a flashlight, would you?”

“One moment…”

Without warning, a bright beam shined over Nox’s left eye. “Ah!” He raised his hoof to block out the light! "Too bright!" After a quick apology, the light dimmed.
He was expecting to see someone, but all he saw was a saddlebag. Not just any saddlebag; it looked so much different from the normal saddlebags. It wasn’t made from the usual material that saddlebags were made from, in fact this one looked incredibly high-tech. He didn’t have a word to describe it, even if he did he couldn’t even begin to-

“Hello?” The metallic voice came from the saddlebag.

That definitely surprised him. She wasn’t a pony, she wasn’t even a she. “Um…hi?” He addressed the saddlebag, this was definitely one of the weirdest things he‘s ever done in his life. Well, actually that wasn't true, there was one incident that involved cake, an hourglass, and-

“Are you here to take this one from this place?”

“What?”

“This unit has been down here for a very long time. It would very much like to leave.”

“Oh! Um, well, no, that‘s not why I‘m here but…since you‘re the only one here with a light, I guess you can tag along with me for now.”

“That is acceptable.” He wasn’t sure if it was happy to hear that.

“I wanna ask you something.” He had been wanting to ask it for quite some time now, but wasn’t sure if he should bother her while she worked on fixing the power. Of course, her method of fixing the power involved what looked like wires from the saddlebag messing around with a glowing arcade machine of some sort. He really didn‘t have a word for that, but she called it a: “Main Computer” Whatever that meant.

“Yes?”

“Exactly how long have you been down here in the dark?”

“…Many of this one’s previous functions have ceased due to various circumstances. This one can not give an accurate response.”

“Can you take a wild guess?”

“Guess? This unit…knew a pony once who used that word a lot.” She replied, but the way she said that…was that sorrow? Nox was never a great judge of character, and the saddlebag’s metallic voice didn’t make that any easier. “If this unit had to guess then…it can only mention that it has been here for several months.”

If he had been drinking something, he would’ve done a comic spit-take right then and there. “Several months?!” She’s been alone in the dark for several months?! How was she not driven insane?! He remembered that Shard could barely stand being in a crowded room for more than 30 minutes! “I’m…sorry.” The air became heavy between the two partners. Or maybe it was just his imagination, but he definitely needed to change the subject; “Are you almost done?”

The saddlebag then went on for about a minute explaining exactly what she was doing, which lost Nox somewhere around: “Several hundred character combinations to gain access to the administrative account, which would give her the admin right to reboot the shelter‘s main systems and then determine whether the problem with the power is a hardware issue or a conflict in the software‘s code.”

“Uh…right.” Nox feigned understanding. The saddlebag could've been explaining the meaning of life by barking like a dog and he’d have an easier time understanding that than all that techno-babble.

There was a loud whirring sound in the walls and the lights started flipping on one by one. Illuminating the shelter at last!

And oh dear, the shelter was in such a poor state, it looked like someone had decided order and neatness were too mainstream and made it their sole purpose to mess up the shelter to their heart's content. There were rows of knocked over shelves which must’ve held food and water a long time ago. Now, all he saw were empty, rusted cans and discarded water bottles (the contents of which had taken on a dirty brown/yellow color) strewn across the floor. Sleeping bags and books were thrown haphazardly everywhere, and he seemed to notice traces of an old fire in the corner of the room he was in. He could only guess what they used for kindling. However, none of that was particularly strange. No, the strangest thing in the room would be what he'd stepped in earlier: He saw a black puddle of some sort, it wasn’t water but it was definitely liquid-like, it didn't look clean at all. It almost reminded him of mud or sludge. Some of the black, sludge-like substance was still stuck on his hooves. “What is this stuff?” He asked the saddlebag.

“Dangerous.” She answered in a low voice which startled Nox since it was so different from her usual soft-spoken tone, “This unit‘s memories have been…damaged. It does not have any reliable data on the foreign substance. However, this unit‘s programming dictates that the substance is dangerous to ponies.”

“So it’s your instincts?”

“That is…one definition.”

“I see…” He seemed remarkably calm about having a completely unknown, dangerous liquid coating his hooves and not wanting to come off, “This stuff isn’t poisonous right? Like, I‘m not gonna just keel over if it never comes off, right?”

“This unit has no data on the effects of the substance. However, this unit would suggest immediate removal, as this one is not equipped with medical capabilities.”

“Right!” Nox didn’t need to be told twice as he quickly trotted towards one of the walls and started scraping the black substance off his hooves. He wanted to ask the saddlebag another question, mainly concerning where exactly he was…but it was no longer necessary. He knew where he was. Because on the wall was a worn down plaque with a message carved into it:

The rest was just a bunch of what-if scenarios, but it told Nox what he needed to hear. “The Crystal Empire?” He was in the Crystal Empire? How? This didn’t happen the last time he encountered that indescribable phenomenon. The last time he crashed and…well…yeah. His wing stubs clung tightly to his body at the mere memory. Regardless of the past, it seemed as though the 2nd phenomenon had sent him to the other side of Equestria.

“Hello? Hello?” The saddlebag had been trying to get his attention for some time now.

“Huh? What?” He responded while still trying to process how this happened.

“This one has been trying to warn you. We are not alone.”