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... ‘Hello darkness, we must stop meeting like this.’ I thought as my consciousness began to return to me. The only sound to reach my ears was someone breathing near by... ‘Wait a minute...’ my eyes flung open, ‘I can't breath! Can't breath!’
Panic tore at my mind for a few seconds as I tried to at least feel the muscles around my chest. That panic was kicked into overdrive when I couldn’t feel anything, ‘That old double crossing bastard!’
After that quick thought I tried to move anything and everything. Nothing responded until I tried to move my head with all of my strength. Everything around me turned to a blur of movement as I watched the same walls fly through my line of sight.
Then I stopped, like I was frozen. The panic in my mind was metaphorically thrown out the window by pure confusion with a little bit of help from his buddy ‘WTF’. Everything in my head stopped all at once as it tried to comprehend what just happened.
An apt description, my head spun around. Full circle... five times... and I still can’t feel my body... ‘Am I dead?...’
My eyes crossed as something began to happen right in front of my eyes. I watched as darkness from the cracks in the old floor and from the shadows all around began to converge on me. As I watched the shadows pour forth I noticed I was being elevated off the ground a good bit.
Slowly I began to feel... something. It was... was like the cold chill of a fan on you after a long day out in the sun only the area the air was hitting couldn’t be felt. Weird I know, but it’s what it was like.
Starting right in front of me, my muzzle began to appear again. It’s coloration was the same, but... I don’t know, it just seemed, darker somehow. I watched with rapt attention as the shadows that had formed my muzzle became clearer and clearer till I could spot the individual hairs.
Then it all rushed back to me. It was like my nervous system had just woken up for the first time. The amount of sensory information that was flooded into my brain stunned me. Everything from the tip of my tail to my nose had that pins and needles feeling to it. That feeling someone would get after their arm or leg had fallen asleep.
All of this made completely worse when I impacted the ground. A yowl of pain erupted from my mouth as a result. After that I tried my best to be completely still, hoping the pins and needles feeling would go away soon.
Since I didn’t want to move any part of my body I was able to think on what had just happened, ‘So, I met a ghost. He made Rarity pass out. Pulled me into some other plane of existence. Dude gave me an offer I accepted... that deal probably screwed me over. Least I'm still alive.’
A cricket chirped nearby making a smile grace my muzzle, despite the irritating feeling. The many sounds of nature could be heard through a crack in the wall, relaxing me. As I listened to the calming tones the feeling throughout my limbs began to return to normal.
Slowly as I began to stand everything felt... off. I felt lighter for some reason. After raising my paw I unsheathed my claws. Instead of the normal color they were pure white and... and looking close enough they had a dark outline on their fronts.
Cautiously I stuck my paw back to the floor and stuck my claws into the stone. They pierced like a hot knife through butter. I lifted my paw up to look at the damage, but saw none. Confused I stuck the claws back in and tried to make a gouge in the stone.
The sound of the stone crumbling was small but I was shocked that I had caused it. Yet the first time I stuck my claws in there had been no damage.
‘Star Swirl did do something to me.’ I thought to myself as my claws retracted and I glanced over to Rarity, ‘I’m sure she'll be fine while I go find some place secluded and figure this all out.’
I turned and started walking down the way we had been going. Not even a few feet away I stopped and looked back at the sleeping unicorn, ‘Should I stay? What are the odds of something happening to... ah crap.’
With a sigh I moved towards Rarity and took a seat by her head. She breathed quietly while I looked around for something to amuse myself with. I wanted to try waking her up, but I didn’t want to touch her until I knew what all had been done to my body.
For all I knew my saliva was now a corrosive acid, so I waited... and waited... and waited some more. All the while just looking around for any kind of danger or something to do.
Minutes passed before I had an idea. After a quick face-paw I moved my self right next to Rarity’s ear and sucked in as much air as I could. A loud, shrill cry came from my mouth. The kind of sound a cat like me would make when fighting another cat.
Rarity’s head shot up, “Opal!” seeing as she was awake I turned tail and booked it down the hallway.
My top speed had slightly improved from before, but it wasn’t mind blowing. I quickly took the first turn I could and pressed myself up against the wall, listening for Rarity. She was groaning a bit as I heard her get onto her hooves, but it appeared I had gotten away without her seeing me.
“Scruffy? Scruffy!?” I heard her hooves, “Scruffy, please come out from wherever you’re hiding.” I moved down the hallway as she called out, “That dreadful thing isn’t here anymore. Please come out.”
‘I’ll be back, just gotta figure out what the bearded guy has done to me.’ I thought before running down the corridor.
“I better go get the others to...” I didn’t hear the rest as I got out of hearing range. Finally Lady Luck seemed to smile on me as one of the doors in the hallway was open.
My eyes scanned the room for any kind of threat as I entered. This room was almost completely empty, except for a pile of old, mossy wood that probably held a bed of some kind. It was perfect for finding out exactly what powers I had.
First I recounted what I already knew, ‘Speed: slightly better. Strength: Unknown. Powers: Claws can go through anything... but there was that first time I stuck my claws into the stone and nothing happened. What was that all about?’ I shook my head and sighed, ‘I’m gonna be here for a while.’