Remnants of a Dying World

by Dusk-Spark

Ch. 11: "A house of cards"

"Are you still awake? You must be tired, right?
Tell you what, after this...we'll go to sleep. Okay? Don't force yourself to stay awake, I'll be here when you wake up and I'll make sure nothing happens to you. Promise.
This next part of the story is where we started to understand each other just a bit more, and yet there were still so many unanswered questions piling up."

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---

A tall, strong, purple coated mare. Protecting me from the horrors.

A shining mane of sapphire, so soft and well cared for, despite the circumstances.

Violet, loving, caring eyes. Kindness, wisdom and strength behind those eyes, and yet...a great sadness I could never understand.

And then...fear, pain, she's in pain. I must help her! No, no, no, don't send me away! Please don't send me away!

Pain, it hurts so much. Can't remember...forgetting...who...why?
Her face. Remember her face.

Remember her face.
Remember her face...

Remember!

She let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding in as the spell pushed her out. Quite literally, the spell's backlash was so powerful it had knocked the pale golden mare off her hooves. She shakily stood up from where she'd fallen, brushing strands of her chestnut mane out of her eyes. "Well...that was new." Her patient; the purple mare seemed remarkably unfazed by the whole experience, "I've used the Mind Link spell in the past," her eyes briefly glimpsed the fallen, dusty, tattered book in the corner, "but...oh my, that was...certainly an unexpected side effect. Did you learn anything, dear?"

"...." Aurora understood some of that, but only vaguely. She shrugged her shoulders as her ears folded against her head.

Marigold sighed and tried to put on a smile, "But at least you're starting to understand a bit more. That's quite a bit better than you were before...when you tried to strangle me."

"....." That seemed to be the extent of what she could understand.

"Nevermind, dear." Marigold sighed once again, "It'll come back to you. Someday. At least we know why you can't speak...you can't remember much of ANYTHING. Your mind is like...it's fractured in so many places, and it's still trying to pick up the pieces. Whatever happened to you; I, unfortunately, can't undo it. I'm terrible sorry."

"...?" She barely understood that, of course, but she could tell through Marigold's body language that she was disappointed.

Marigold sighed wearily, "If only you could understand me, at least you're good company."

Aurora's eyes drifted around the room, aside from the rather old (yet well cared for) rifle hanging on the wall, the room was largely unimpressive. The first thing Aurora noticed was the section of the room partitioned off to the corner, visibility being blocked by a cardboard wall, the second thing she noticed were numerous pictures pinned to the wall (a fact that baffled Aurora as the walls were...well, made of rocks). She pointed to it and tried to ask what they were, but it probably came out as gibberish.

Marigold looked to the direction Aurora's hooves were going, "Oh, those? Well, you see we've lived here a long time. We used to have this, rather wonderful device called a camera but...we had to use it to bash a plague monster's skull open." She stood up from the circular wooden table to trot over to the wall, Aurora following behind like a ghost.

"You've met Break, he and I grew up together. Always a weird little colt, he was. He was never all that strong, or fast, but he's smart, possibly the smartest of us. Spent an awful long time reading books we'd find on the surface, he would get absolutely FURIOUS if anyone dared to suggest using them for kindling. I suppose it wasn't until he got his hooves on this one book called, oh dear what was it again? Um...something something criminology or body language, something of that nature. This reminds me of the time when..."

Marigold went off into her own world, but at this point Aurora had long since stopped understand. Her eyes were fixed firmly on one particular, old drawing. It was a drawing of a mass of black clouds taking ponies away.

"You have to go now, Aurora."

A memory, from her past. It hit her like a sack of bricks, she'd almost lost her footing, catching herself just before she'd hit the ground. She felt dizzy, when did the room start spinning? Marigold was saying something, telling her to lay down but at that point Aurora was too far gone to remember much else. Before everything went black, she saw the purple mare from her memories standing in the center of that mass of black clouds.

---

"What do you mean you've never heard of Princess Celestia? She's the one who raises the sun every day? What about Luna, raising the moon? Any of that ringing a bell?!" Nox stared at the ponies gathered at the table, but none of them seemed to have any idea what he was talking about. "Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor? They rule the Crystal Empire? What about the Elements of Harmony, do you know those?!" That confused gaze remained frozen on their face. Nox just wanted to face hoof, a lot. "Don't you ever ask what's up with that big glowing yellow orb in the sky? Or why it goes away after a few hours and is replaced by a shining silver, smaller orb with a whole bunch of shiny lights when it gets dark out?"

"....Are you...alright? Break, is your friend...crazy?"

"...No. I don't think he is but...for the first time in my life, I have no idea what he's referring to."

Nox was about to protest more until something finally hit him, 'When was the last time I saw the sun?' He'd certainly seen day and night, but it was always cloudy so he never saw-
.....
The clouds.
'Could it be possible that they've never seen the...' His thoughts trailed off as his mouth spoke on its own; "Have you ever seen the sun before?"

"..." The three ponies gathered round the table shook their heads in unison.

And then he had to ask one last question, "How long have you guys been down here?"

"...." The two ponies looked to the Lira, who then slowly lowered her hood to reveal all the wrinkles and scars adorning her once beautiful face, "I've been down here since I was a filly." She pointed over to a very old photo on the wall of a younger, smaller, scar-free Lira aiming a rifle off camera.

The gears in his head wouldn't stop turning, none of this made any sense to him. Well, that wasn't entirely true. In the back of his mind, there was a little pony putting forth an explanation for it. But he didn't want to believe, couldn't believe it, there must have been another explanation. Maybe these ponies were here before the Crystal empire fell? Maybe the Crystal empire always had these machines (Nox didn't keep up with much tech news, after all)? Maybe the plague monsters are a new addition?

Break put a hoof on Nox's shoulder, "It really pains me to say this, but I can't do this alone. I've got brains but find myself lacking in the brawn department. You can help me if you want, but I'm going even if you won't," he looked to Twelve when he said this, "because I refuse to stay put until something finally gets lucky and kills me." And with that, Break started walking up the stairs.

"...." Nox should've just let him go, it's what he wanted to do at first. Sure Break saved his life but that didn't mean he wanted to go out there and risk it again, since the Crystal Empire was a bust that meant that he had to get to Canterlot and inform Celestia about this. If she didn't already know, then he'd have to...he'd have to...out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Rainbow Dash looking down at him with a disapproving look. Mouthing the words; "What would Rainbow Dash do?"
...He was probably out of his mind, and not just because he was being scolded by an imaginary pony he's never met personally before, "Oh dammit!" He heard himself say under his breath.
"Break, wait!" He called after the unicorn, briefly glimpsing a smug smile, "That settlement under the spire...do you think it also has a secret train?"

---

About an hour passed as the three ponies prepared to venture out into the surface.

"Are you feeling alright, Aurora?" Nox was initially concerned when he came back to find Aurora passed out on the bed in the clinic.

"..." she nodded sheepishly, almost falling again until Nox put her back upright.

Nox and Break had discussed maybe leaving in a few days rather than the first thing tomorrow, but Break told him "We need to go before Lira and Twelve change their minds, or...kick you two out on the street."
And now, he was watching a back and forth match between Nox and Marigold.

"Absolutely not."

"Break, I'm stronger than you."

"No way, too dangerous and if something happens to you, we've got no doctor."

"And if something happens to you out there, then you have no doctor. These two can most definitely handle themselves, you on the other hoof? You get winded after 10 minutes of running."

"It's going to be packed with Plague monsters and-"

"Break. I'm going. Use your fancy body language powers and you can tell that there's no way in pony hell that you can talk me out of this. Aaaand if you don't let me go, then I will just go on my own."

"...You're impossible to reason with, and a brute, you know that?"

"And you're an insufferable know-it-all."

"So have you two always been a couple?" Nox spoke up, which earned him a death glare from the two ponies. "I'll just...be quiet now."

"Good. Now, put your weapons on the table."

"Sally, knife?"

"Of course, user."

The handle poked out from the bag, which Nox grabbed with his teeth and placed on the table.

Aurora put down her pistol, opening up the clip to reveal that it only had 12 bullets left.

Break's only weapon was a pistol, but rather than Aurora's rectangular top, this pistol more of a...barrel ship around one end, "Revolver." Either Break was reading Nox's mind or he's just that good.

Marigold floated the rifle hanging on the wall over to the table, along with a taped up box under the table. She opened the box to reveal a rather impressive collection of ammo and weapons.

'Why does a clinic have these?' Would've been Nox's first question, until he remembered that he was in this kind of place. He imagined that everyone had at least this many weapons.

"We found a supply truck, crashed into a ravine a few weeks ago, had a whole bunch of equipment." He did it again.
He reached into the box, "Including these." He pulled out 4 pairs of gryphon talons, they were much different from the one Nox had. For starters, their chrome casing made the things look...almost new, different from Nox's rather rough and old design.

Those talons didn't look like they'd break anytime soon, and unlike Nox's talons, the claw parts closed in on the main body so it looked more like hooves (no more accidentally getting it caught on something). "Hey, Sally how do I take these off?"

"....." She was oddly silent.

"Sally?" Now that Nox thought of it, she'd been strangely quiet for a while now.

"Oh, apologies, user. To take them off you have to first..."

"So the plan is simple." Break levitated out a hoof drawn map of the Crystal Empire off Marigold's wall, "the closest entry point to the spire is right here," he pointed a hoof to the library, "there's a store right across from the library where we'll come out of. We'll rush through the front door, take position on the roof, scout our surroundings."

"How do you propose to deal deal with the plague monsters blocking the spire?" Marigold asked while fitting the new talons onto her forehooves.

He could barely contain his smile, "Deception and misdirection." He pointed to certain buildings on the map marked X.

"Are you going to explain any of that to us...dumb ponies?"

"I am...as soon as I'm done soaking in the looks on your faces, how often do I get to leave ponies in suspense?" He took one long deep breath and then said in his usual monotone; "For the next part, I'll need some volunteers outside this merry band of misfits. But assuming that the plan goes off without a hitch, then we should be able to get into the spire with minimal difficulties."

"You make it sound so easy." Marigold responded sarcastically, while trying to decide between a knife or a hatchet (she went with the hatchet).

"It will be. As long as everyone understands their parts." One might think that he was looking at Aurora (who had been swooning over a rather large rifle), but he was actually looking at Nox.

He'd finally managed to get the talons off (depositing it in the saddlebag rather than throwing it away), and now was the part where he had to put on a new set. He'd briefly forgotten the kind of pain he felt when he put the first set on (there was now a scar on his foreleg where they'd stabbed into him). He expected the pain again...
Click
"OH SWEET CELESTIA, IT HURTS SO-" He paused, dumbfounded. Where was the pain? There was definitely something that stabbed into his foreleg when it clicked into place, but not nearly as much pain? Aaaand then he remembered Sally's explanation that later models didn't hurt as much...and now he just felt stupid. He'd only NOW realized that Break was staring at him with a bored expression.
"...I'm sorry what?" He hadn't been paying attention to anything that was going on. Whenever Sally talked about technobabble stuff, Nox's eyes would glaze over and he'd dream of being in a place where things weren't trying to kill him.

Break face hoofed and sighed, "Let's go over this again..."

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---

The warm candle's glow was the only light source that remained in the room. The filly's soft breathing, rhythmic breathing were the only sounds I could hear as I covered her with a blanket. I covered her with a warm blanket, I prayed to a deity that I did not know, to watch over her dreams tonight. Keep her safe and happy in her world where no monsters can hurt her, while I keep her safe from the monsters in this world.
"....." I looked over to the scarf, nestled beneath the filly's head and sighed, "I never liked the next part of the story."