The Worlds End

by Alcatraz

XII.

I got to a portion of the book where it had depictions of various buildings. Some looked strangely familiar, some didn't. Then I got to a depiction one of the buildings looked like the one we're in.

With renewed intrigue, I kept reading. I say that very loosely though, I'm just looking at the pretty pictures at this stage. The drawing had the door, and on the next page had some kind of orb atop a pedestal. I looked to the end of the room to see there is such a thing present, but no orb.

I wasn’t sure what the orb could possibly be for, what is was, but as I glanced at the next page, I began to realize that there might be more to this orb than I originally thought.

Turning the page, I saw an image of some kind of humanoid figures holding this orb. I had more questions than answers at this stage, I want to know where the humanoid influences for these drawings came from. What was the orb? What was so important about it? How does it connect with the rest of the... temple, is it?

Under that, a depiction of a chest of some description. What did the chest have to do with anything? I kept looking back at the stone pedestal at the end of the room and back to the book several times before Luna saw what I was doing.

"Something wrong with your neck?" she asked.

"Well no, it's just that..." I showed her the pages. "This looks like the door to the building we're in. And this," I turned the page. "Is the same pedestal at the end of the room. What do you notice about it?" Her gaze shot between it and the page, then I pointed out the drawing underneath. "This is a chest. I'm assuming it's what they kept the orb from the drawing in, but it's not on the pedestal as you can see. And where are chests that have valuable items in them usually kept?"

She cocked her head and made an idle comment in passing, "We usually keep anything of value in vaults underneath Canterlot."

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that's where Celestia kept the treasury for Canterlot—and possibly Equestria, too.

It took a while for what Luna said to sink in. Her eyes widened and I stemmed her growing desire to jump up and run off to find some sort of treasure room underneath this place.

"Calm down, sweetie," I said with a smile, "let's both go looking together." I got one of the flashlights from my bag and turned it on. Thankfully, it still has a wide beam from back in the library. I shined it around the place to get a better look. It's surprisingly well-preserved for how old it is—however old that is.

Everything in this building was screaming at me to recognize it, something deep down in my bones was telling me that I should know this kind of architecture. Arched windows and doors, the stone and brick construction... Like a child shouting for its parent, I felt that there was something I should know about it.

And yet, I wasn’t even sure where we were anymore.

We headed down one of the doors off to the side of the end of the room after telling Bullseye we're going to take a look around. I just hope he's not tempted to 'rest his eyes' because we're not there. I made sure to emphasize that before we left.

Luna and I went through the stone archway of the door-less door, down a corridor that lead off to the immediate left of the door, and down a long hallway dotted with even more doors. We checked each door as we went, but not finding anything but scraps of whatever had decayed in that room; small animals scurrying around, wood/furniture, or some other smears and unidentifiable masses I probably don't want to think about.

We got to the end of the hallway, the door had long since fallen from its hinges by whatever means and rotted away (I wondered how the other doors would keep) and descended down a flight of spiraling stairs until we came up on a pitch-black room. The flashlight illuminated the room though, and I saw four, unlit fire-torches. Two on each wall at opposite ends, and at the end of a room was nothing. Nothing, save a ring set into the stone brick wall with an iron handle bisecting it. I took out a lighter and went to light each of the torches. It took a few moments for them to catch, and then the torches burst to life, their flames hypnotically dancing in the air around us.

I turned off the flashlight and pocketed it along with the lighter, turning my attention back to the handle and wall. It's just a simple looking handle with a ring to frame it. What's so special about it, and where's the chest? I looked to and from the book and the wall, but nothing else was written there. The instructions were probably written in that damned dead language. I reached out and put my hand on the ring, but one of my fingers hit another rod behind it, running perpendicular to the handle. I felt around for any sort of seem between the two pieces of metal and couldn't find one. These two pieces of iron were probably forge-welded.

I gave the handle a push and nothing happened. I pulled it out with a hard tug, and it slid out with ease, the sound of various stones—and possibly metal—clinking together, blatantly letting us know we triggered some kind of mechanism.

A shiver slid up my spine. I couldn’t help but feel that something bad was going to happen. "Get ready to run, Luna, this could be a trap." She nodded.

I pushed the handle back in, but nothing happened. This time, I pulled it back out and tried twisting it left, then right. The handle turned to the right and I heard more noises boom and resonate from the walls. I tried pushing the handle back in, and that's where things got interesting.

A section of the brick wall jumped forward with a centuries old hiss, dust billowing from the seems and settling on the ground. I looked back to Luna with a mixture of surprise and curiosity on my face. She gestured back towards the wall. I put my hands on the sides of the stone-brick that came out and stared pulling. It came out with a generous amount of coaxing and tugging. When it finally fell free, I buckled under the weight of the brick, catching it in my arms and almost falling on my ass. With a grunt and strain, I put the... Box? on the ground and gazed in the opening cut into the top, only just illuminated by the flickering orange glow of the torches.

Inside lay a small, spherical object wrapped in some kind of cloth, bound and tied with twine.

I picked it up and scrutinized it before pulling the knot free by a loose strand of the twine, letting the string and cloth cascade down over my hands to reveal the glistening golden orb inside. Luna and I shot each other 'What the hell is this thing?' looks before we looked back to it. I turned it over in my hands looking for markings of any sort, but all I could see were six dots about the size of fingers. Four of them were arranged in a square, with the fifth sitting above the other four, and the sixth on the bottom opposite the other five. I tried pressing them but nothing happened. A pony couldn't press these buttons.

"What do you suppose it is, Luna?"

"Maybe it has something to do with the pedestal upstairs?"

She nodded at that, and we followed the stairs back up top. I left the brick-box on the floor, and the torches burning, mainly because I didn't know how to put them out, nor did I have a means to. I figured I'd let them burn out. Besides, this building is made of stone. How is it going to burn down?

When we got back up top, I called out to Bullseye to come inside and showed him what we found. He asked what it was—not surprisingly—so I showed him the pages in the book. We went over to the stone pedestal at the end of the room, and stood behind it facing the entrance to the building. Then, I noticed something I missed. Not surprising when this whole building is overgrown with weeds. The moonlight was shining especially bright tonight, and as a result I saw a little blue glint from behind some weeds atop the door's archway.

"What is that?" asked Bullseye.

I shrugged. "Not a clue." Holding the orb... thingy, I sat it on the pedestal. Nothing happened. I kept rotating it to no avail, then I lifted it up and looked into the small dish it sat in and saw a little raised nub. Maybe that's where the button on the base is supposed to go? Well, I don't have anything to lose in this case, so I put the little button on the nub and press down on everything.

Again nothing happened. I growled, frustrated. At that point I nonchalantly rotated the orb on the spot until it clicked into place—much to my surprise—and a beam of white light shot out and hit the gem that sat atop the door frame. The bean was strong enough to char and burn through any weeds in its way. The door itself is what changed. A pool of white something flowed down over the door, turning it into a mirror from which we could see ourselves reflected in.

We all stared in awe until Luna broke the silence. "Try pushing one of the buttons on top." she said, clearly mesmerized by the door-turned mirror.

I pushed the button on the bottom right, but nothing happened. I looked at the buttons more, and noticed something in passing. I pulled out the map from my back pocket and folded it to the section of the five islands.

"See here?" I pointed to the islands and to the top of the orb.

"Five islands..." began Luna.

Bullseye finished with, "Five buttons."

"One button for each island." I pushed the button at the top and the mirror rippled to give a view of a lush island strewn with flowers and brightly colored flora. I pushed the button down the bottom left, and the mirror rippled again, but all I saw is an inky black curtain, then dozens of pairs of red eyes started appearing.

NOPE!!! I quickly pushed the same button again and the mirror rippled once more, showing a different scene. It's dark where ever that last place was, as it is for us now. Although why the scenery was brightly lit on the first button, I don't know.

I pushed the bottom left button another three times with moderate speed before it skipped past one image that made my gut drop. I frantically pounded the button like the fist of an angry god (much to the humour and confusion of Luna and Bullseye) until I found it, and when I did...

I stared back at the mirror, at first unsure of what I saw. The grey stones were weathered from what we could see, atop the steeple was a cross, the left edge of the building seemed to have turned to rubble, crumbling away from the rest of the building. My heart raced as I ran at the mirror, leaving Bullseye and Luna behind as I tumbled through the mirror. I found myself standing in the middle of the now-familiar architecture.

"Father?" Luna asked, stepping out from the mirror. I heaved a pained sigh as I nostalgically placed a hand upon the wooden door, not entirely unfamiliar from the last one.

I turned down to look at Luna. "Could you... open the doors? Gently, please." Her aura enveloped the door, and the rotted doors swung inward with the sound of rusty nails running down a chalkboard—the hinges were that old.

I took out my flashlight, turned it on, and stepped inside.

What greeted me was the sight which I never would have expected on this planet in this universe.

Bones.

But these weren't just any bones, these were human bones. The skulls looked like they're human, at least to me. They littered the room, as did various arrows protruding—more like leaning between the bones of the ribs, and other once fleshy limbs. Some arrows lay on the floor around the skeletons, and I swear I saw one sticking out the side of some poor bastards skull.

I didn't know what to say or do at this point. My gaze turned from the littered remains to the end of the room which stood a carving of Jesus Christ on a cross. A single piece of seamless stone, carved into the likeness of a historical figure and set into the walls. It made me wonder how long these people were here before they...

Luna came up behind me, and audibly gasped when she saw the remains of the dozen or so bodies with arrows sticking out of them. She went back to the doors and closed them, and I heard her mumble something to Bullseye about waiting outside the doors for a few minutes.

From what I could see, their clothing seemed to be from the sixteenth or seventeenth century. I got to the end of the room and I saw something unexpected lying next to one of the skeletons. An old, old rifle. I picked it up and looked it over with the flashlight. It looked like an old matchlock rifle. These things began to go out of style in the early sixteen-hundreds! The pan and pan cover was still here, the serpentine, and a grimy old match still in the serpentine. This must have belonged to someone important, seeing how there were no others laying around As I looked it over, I saw how the wood hadn't decayed much, if at all. Its owner must have taken good care of it to last this long.

I put the rifle back down to the body, tapping my forehead, chest, and shoulders to make a cross out of respect for this individual. I'm not religious by any means, but if someone is it doesn't mean I can't pay them respect in their customs. They deserved that much dignity.

I turned back to look at some of the bones more closely. Some of them were black, brown, and green with various kinds of grime and moss while others were pierced and scratched with arrows or spears, this was a battle with no winner.

I looked around for something—anything—to tell me what the people here called this place. I got up and carefully stepped over and around the remains when I got to the altar at the end of the room, spying rosary beads on the altar. I picked them up, glancing down the room at Luna and saw a sign above the door. I shone my light on it, and the word made my heart skip a beat.

New Roanoke.

"Roanoke..." I said, walking back down to the end of the room where Luna stood. A quote from a movie long forgotten rang through my head. What once was lost may finally be found.

"Father, we should go. We have a mission to finish. This place makes me uneasy."

"Luna, when this is done, we need to come back. We need to learn what happened and..." I trailed off, whispering; "bury the dead. They deserve the dignity."

"Of course we shall. Who are they, though?" Luna questioned, looking uncomfortable around all the death.

"Let’s go back to the other building. I don't like it here anymore than you do. I'll tell you there."

We went back out the closed door, carefully shutting it behind us so Bullseye couldn't get a peek in.

"What was all that about?" he said.

I just shook my head and walked past him. I didn’t think seeing so much death would affect me so. And now, out of nowhere, I suddenly have no idea what to think.

"And what's up with him?"

Luna shot him an extremely evil look that told him more than I dared say. We went back through the mirror, and I removed the orb from the pedestal, effectively turning off the mirror, and put it in my satchel.

"Father, if I may ask?"

I cleared my throat before talking, taking a swig of water.

"People talk a lot about humans who disappear under mysterious circumstances. If I remember correctly, we called one of the 'The Lost Colony of Roanoke'. One day in the year 1588AD on Earth, there was a colony of people living ordinary lives with their friends, family, crop and livestock. Then one day, just... poof. The people just vanished, up and left without a trace, no signs of struggles, no bodies, they literally just vanished overnight. It was like they just up and left everything they owned.

"To this day on Earth, no one knows what the hell happened, but I think we just found out where they ended up." We shared a collective silence for a tense minute. "Although how a colony of hundreds of people vanished overnight and ended up on that island, we will never know. There was one thing that stuck out as obscenely odd. On one of the trees was carved the word; 'Croatoan'."

"What does that mean?" asked Bullseye.

I shrugged, not entirely sure but gave my best answer. "The Coroatoans were a tribe of natives that lived in the area."

"Maybe they joined that tribe? Or maybe that tribe dragged them off somewhere?"

I just snorted. "Bullseye, if you saw what Luna and I did then you wouldn't have said that."

"So what do you want to do now?"

"Tomorrow we go back to the church and respectfully bury them. I doubt they would have died with much dignity considering what happened to them. I owe them that much; being from my world and all."

When, or rather, if I get back to Earth, at least I'll have a log of what happened to them. It'll be my word only though. When I say it like that, people are going to think I'm insane. Note to self; Take evidence. Now I just need to find something to take back too. Maybe if I took back the 'New Roanoke' sign?

We settled down for the night, but I didn't get a good night’s sleep by a long shot. My mind was full of what could have happened to the Colonists.

Why the hell would I have such a reaction to their death? It made no sense, even to me. I didn’t know them, didn’t care much about them, despite knowing of them. I had never even given them any thought until now. So, what in the nine circles of hell made me upset so much over learning their death? They had been dead for hundreds of years and even if they hadn’t, who knows if the they would have lasted this long anyway.

I think I was more concerned with my reaction to Roanoke, to tell the truth.

Normally I'm a heavy sleeper, but after the fact of my worries I kept tossing and turning against the ground trying to get comfortable. It wasn't long before I woke up and went out to the door to see what Bullseye was up to.

I found him seated on a couple of large bricks, and off in the distance are a couple of forms with spears sticking out of them. I leaned on the stone door frame looking out at them, barely illuminated by the fire. I stoked it with a bit more wood and turned to Bullseye.

I pointed to whatever it is they were and asked, "What are those things?"

He jumped around in shock and almost fell off his seat. "Oh sweet Celestia! Don't sneak up on me like that, dude!"

"When you're sitting in the jungle alone during the dead of night, you'll jump at pretty much anything that makes a rustling noise." He didn't respond. "Now, what are those?"

"Timber wolves."

"You know, I've always wandered about them; how do they even live if they're made of nothing but wood? For that matter, how did you kill them?"

He shrugged. "Not entirely sure. All I know is that there's some sort of magic that uses inanimate objects and makes constructs out of them. A wooden golem of sorts."

"So... How do you kill them?"

"They seem to go down easily enough like everything else."

"How does that even make sense?" I swear, the more time I spend around magic the less sense it makes. Like Pinkie. Pinkie Pie is a mare that often gets on your nerves every once and a while. Sometimes she can be so completely random that you'd lose all sense of rational thought if you attempted to rationalize what she did. She has a sense of humor that can be so juvenile at times, you'd swear she was a six-year-old trapped in an adult body. In most situations, you'd be so annoyed by her that you'd wish you could duct tape her muzzle up. Duct tape is silver, silence is golden.

I just shrugged off the thought, sat down on the grass and leaned against the vine-covered bricks, watching the ambient glow of the fire as it began to grow from the added wood. I've always had a bit of a fascination with fire. Ever since I was a kid I'd take my mums lighter and watch the flame dance from the nozzle. There was an instance when I was at a bible camp that my parents sent me to, and they had a rather large open fire place. A few of us had gathered in there with some snacks and were tossing the refuse into the fire. Fizzy drink cans, candy wrappers and thinks of that ilk, watching them burn with different colored flames.

Then someone ad the not-so-bright-idea of putting an empty deodorant can into the fire, and we cleared out into opposite corners of the room. One tense minute later, and the can shot out and, I shit you not, hit me in the damned shin. It hurt, but not by much though. It was more the surprise than anything. I was holding my shin and hopping around like a pogo stick while the others were laughing with tears in their eyes at my misfortune.

It wasn't long before I caught myself in a smile at the memory, nodding off to a peaceful sleep for the rest of the night.

Author's Note:

Sorry this chapter took two f*cking months to get out.

Comments

[Arexander]

for update!

[Alcatraz]

5247274

I'm pretty sure they know that by now, dude.

[TheUltimateBrony-Class-S]

OH... MY... GOSH...
LOL!
LOL!
LOL!