?????
Just a blur. There was no pain… or was there? He didn’t know. He didn’t know what this blur was, why he saw it, or where he saw it. He simply associates the word ‘blur’ with ‘unconscious’. He wasn’t sure how he could think while unconscious, or at least be aware of his unconscious state. Supposed it was due to the feeling he was having. Like his head was a book, and someone was dragging their finger along each line as they read it. It was making his head rather itchy. Eventually enough was enough, and shortly after remembering his name, “Dominique Guillory”, he woke up; a lot like picking up your keys before leaving the house.
Slowly opening his eyes Dominique, or Dom, saw a glass panel pulling upwards and away from him, hinging above, hissing on its way. He thought it was a lot like the beginning of Halo, and then he thought ‘What’s Halo?’ Putting confusion to one side, Dom stepped out of the unknown machine and took in his surroundings. Simply put, there was nothing to see. Well there was vast, hilly, desolate and lifeless wasteland, but that didn’t count. There wasn’t even the slightest breeze. The Sun, a definite bright spot behind endless clouds of what seemed to be more than just water vapour, was setting. His breathing the only sound.
Behind him the container machine he had exited rattled and then went dormant. It was a scratched metal cylinder with an opening where the glass ‘door’ had been, which was now held perpendicular to the opening. The ground around it was recently disturbed. A drill on top, covered in dirt and dust, helped Dom realise that until a moment ago, he had been underground. A rucksack sat inside, its design familiar to Dom. Upon examination, it contained a torch, advanced books in Physics and Technology and what Dom guessed to be personal belongings of his: a digital watch with a small scratch across the blank screen (claiming a 10 year battery life), a decorative bracelet and a phone (also out of power).
Having now taken in his immediate surroundings, Dom decided to get a look at himself. Hiking boots, Jeans, dark red short sleeved button-up shirt over electric blue shirt with long, forest green sleeves. The right sleeve had a tear from elbow to end. Under the torn sleeve, Dom’s arm was bandaged, as well as the back of his hand. He left the bandages well alone, assuming they had good reason for being there. Instead, he tore off the weak fabric sleeve where the original damage ended, and roughly the same length was removed from his left sleeve, stowing the currently useless material in his rucksack. The shortened sleeves barely poked out from underneath the dark red ones. The glass door wasn’t reflective enough to examine Dom’s facial featured, so he finished there.
Night time was fast approaching, and the apparent wasteland would be extremely cold without any smudged sunshine, like a desert. Dom wanted to get out of it before said cold arrived, but didn’t know which direction to take. Thankfully, with darkness joining the night, a patch of light, brighter than the Sun had managed earlier, could be seen off to the North-East, assuming the Sun had set in the West. The single human being, not knowing he himself was a beacon of light of sorts, set off at a fast yet steady pace, wanting to find answers, very, very soon. ’20 Questions has nothing on me’, he thought, once again confused as to what he meant.
EQUESTRIA
Everything carried on as always in the land of Equestria that evening. Celestia was reading a recent letter from Twilight before writing a reply and going to bed. Luna had just lifted the crescent moon into the night sky, and was now admiring her own work. Cadence and Shining Armour were enjoying a honeymoon in an undisclosed location, royalty and family alone knowing where. One family member, Twilight Sparkle, was just tucking Spike into bed before a planned overnight study session for nothing in particular.
Rainbow Dash was reading another instalment of Daring Do in bed. Rarity was already sound asleep, dreaming of her designs. Fluttershy was tending to her nocturnal animal friends. Pinkie Pie was cheerfully returning home, odd as it was considering she’d failed to find anypony in need of a party anytime soon. Then again, Pinkie is Pinkie. Applejack had finally finished patrolling the orchard, more for stray fallen apples than actual thieves. This, however, was where the sense of normality came to an end.
Most didn’t hear or sense anything. The majority of those who did ignored it or weren’t in a position to react, such as Celestia, who merely twitched in her sleep. Luna sensed a disturbance, in what she could not tell, but the direction from which it came was, to no surprise, Ponyville. She took off, half excited at the concept of being the pony to take charge, rather than her sister. Nopony ever really caused major problems at night.
Fluttershy heard a loud boom, similar to that of thunder, but quickly decided to hide with her animals. Rainbow Dash heard it, mentally recorded her page number, and shot off to the source, knowing full well that a clear sky had been planned for tonight. Applejack couldn’t have not heard it, as the sound came from the very orchard she had just bucked clean today. As a matter of fact, whatever had caused the noise had also knocked over a large number of the trees. The radius of damage wasn’t too large, but it was still damage nonetheless.
Big Mac rushed out from inside the house, eyes widening upon seeing the wrecked trees.
Applejack, thinking on her hooves, turned to Big Mac and asked, “Has Apple Bloom woken up?”
“Eeyup,” was the reply.
“Try to get ‘er back to bed and don’t let ‘er out of sight. What about Granny?”
“Nnnope.”
‘How could she sleep through that?’ she thought. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
“Ah’ll go check it out. No doubt somepony will show up to investigate. If ya think they can help, send ‘em mah way, alright?”
“Eeyup.”
With that, Applejack galloped back into the orchard. Shortly, she reached the outskirts of the damaged area. Slowing down and prepared for anything to jump out at her, she continued to the centre. Nearer and nearer to the middle, the trees were leant back further and further, until, almost there, uprooted trees rested against those further out. Applejack found herself in an opening with radius of about 5 to 10 metres. There didn’t seem to be any apparent cause of the earlier event.
Just then, Rainbow Dash came zooming into view, spotting Applejack and changing her flight path to meet her. Watching the approach, Applejack noticed something in between her and her friend. It looked strangely like a crack in the air. Before she could point it out though, the Pegasus collided with it, head first. The crack didn’t budge while Rainbow flipped over it and hit the ground hard. Applejack ran over to her friend, who sat up where she fell, rubbing her head.
“Ugh, what did I hit?” she asked when Applejack reached her.
“Ah’m not too sure of that myself,” Applejack replied as she looked at the crack.
“Whaddya mean you don’t… know...?”
Rainbow Dash had followed Applejack’s line of sight.
“What the Hay is that?”
Applejack opened her mouth to reply, but a familiar regal voice answered for her.
“Something neither my sister nor I have ever seen before.”
Princess Luna gently landed beside the two stunned ponies.
“I suggest we summon our friend, Miss Twilight Sparkle, to understand this anomaly.”
?????
Dominique partly wished he’d woken up (from what he’d gathered was some sort of stasis) earlier in the day, because the cold, although weak at first, was beginning to get under his skin; then again, had he awoken earlier, he may not have seen the glow of artificial light, and gone in the wrong direction.
The source of the light had come into view after Dom had made it over a deceitfully large hillock. From on top of this hillock, he could still make out the stasis tube behind him, as well his footprints in the dust. Ahead was a single building. ‘I see that 1 is the magic number today’ thought a frequently confused Dom. He had decided he did not like thinking too much, as he would just keep thinking up strange references without knowledge of their sources. He knew he should probably be trying to remember anything from before stasis, but the risk of ensuing confusion was too high. Dom really did not like being confused… but he didn’t know why.
So, this building; from this distance not much could be made out. It was metal, cuboidal, with an antenna. The antenna was the source of all the light, high power light beams directed in all directions except down. By squinting, he could even see slight depressions where he guessed would be windows and possibly a door, with metal shutters covering them. Dom had thrown caution to the wind and continued his approach. It was damn cold.
Now, at the point where he was wishing an earlier rising, he put his ETA at about one minute. And sure enough, one minute later he was standing at what took the rough shape of a door. No handle, keypad, or anything he could interact with. It was about this point when the wind came back from the dead, and with a mighty gust, it slammed him against the blocked door.
Peeling himself away, he said, “Ow. Someone obviously doesn’t like me.”
Dom ignored the green light that had started to scan him as he realised that was the first time he’d heard his own voice. To describe it, I need only direct you to his next thought: ‘That has to be the most stereotypical French accent I have ever heard.’ Of course, he then realised he’d insulted himself. He felt the confusion slowly return for another bout. It stopped when a voice spoke to him from the door.
“Welcome, survivor, to the Lille Aftermath Station. Please ensure you are not being followed by undesirables, knock three times and enter quickly.”
With a look over his shoulders at the vast nothingness, Dom did as he was told. The metal covering the door zoomed up to reveal a quaint wooden door. He opened it and strolled in, closing the door behind him. The metal shutters could be heard slamming back into place.
A quick glance upwards explained the door a bit. Dom was standing on the ground floor of a house with its upper floors hastily removed or destroyed. Someone had then gone and built a metal casing over it to preserve as best they could. Some walls were just rubble now. The walls were peeling and most doors were missing. The stairs were-
“Now proceeding to basement level,” the voice suddenly announced.
A trapdoor opened beneath the unfortunate human and he dropped into darkness. There was that brain like a book feeling from before, but this time more along the lines of inhuman speed reading, flicking through his pages, analysing eyes barely seeing each page. It stopped as fast as it started.
In the darkness, a person abruptly appeared, giving off their own light; Dom figured it was a hologram or something like that. The person was a smiling man looking like he was in his late 20s or 30s. Short and rough pitch black hair, face looking worn from what Dom would call over experience (seen too much for one of his age). His smile, surrounded by stubble, looked truly genuine, as if he was really there and happy to see someone else. His clothes were all dirty in some way, be it mud or blood. Green zipped hoody (or zoody), over a black shirt with an image of a black and white checker tie, faded jeans with gaping holes at the knees, and brown trainers.
“Welcome to the Aperture Science Enrichment Centre! Let the tests begin!”
Dom just stared, again confused, but thankful it wasn’t his fault. He couldn’t explain why but he felt dread too.
“No? Nothing? Ah Phooey… Seriously? I’m sure even the sequel had come out before the shit storm hit. Anyway, all proper and honestly now: Welcome to the end of the world.”
A/N: Can’t actually write French accents and I generally don’t hear many so forgive me for making you use your imagination more so than you already are. Constructive Criticism would be nice please.