Synch

by sunnypack

9 - Deep Seated (rev1)

I suppose when you wake up from a dream it’s meant to feel like you’re entering the real world.

Biologically speaking, your muscles might feel a little stiff due to the paralytic agent your body secretes to prevent yourself from reacting too badly to what happens in your dreams. Your brain ignites a cascade of information telling you that you are no longer resting and need to get up and move. You're normally in a comfortable position and you shake yourself out of the last remnants of a dream that would soon be forgotten.

Most importantly you have an innate sense of reality that comes from solid information flooding your senses telling you that: 'you are here you exist in this world'.

For me, I felt like I was floating between an awake and a dream state. My body kept telling me again and again that I was awake. I was lucid. But my consciousness felt trapped in a dream when my senses kept feeding me information about this world that shouldn't be real. That all this was not real.

-----

Luna huffed, giving me a steely glare.

"What is the point of telling us this?"

I shrugged.

"Perhaps you would like to know my philosophy, that's all."

Luna snorted.

"I am not interested in your ramblings, get to the point!"

I rolled my eyes.

"Don't you want to know my frame of mind?"

Celestia cleared her throat elegantly interjecting into the conversation with a calming tone.

"I think it is interesting to know of the mindset of a creature from another world, if what he claims is true."

I decided not to yell at royalty that I wasn't a liar. I just sat there frowning, instead.

Luna locked gazes with me.

"Continue, then", she ordered, sinking back onto her own throne seating.

I sighed, cleared my throat and launched back into the story.

-----

It was all because of this baffling equine creature.

A pony.

I should back up a bit.

From where I left off, there was still a substantial amount of time between then and now that went by and it was not spent counter-productively.

I made a plan for myself. Rest at night and make forays into the woods to find civilisation only in the day. I discovered upon closer inspection and exploration, a ravine that was obscured by some dense fog, surrounded the castle. I had no doubts that falling down that abyss would be an instant and blinding death. So I avoided moving too close to the edges. Who knew when the unsteady earth could give out, sending me toppling down? I shivered and stepped back smartly when I had seen enough.

The castle kept an aura of foreboding. It did not get much better in the day but it was certainly an improvement on the steadfast and imposing shadows cast by the castle during the night. By this time my stomach was really going at me, telling me that starvation was close at hand. I was cold cramped and sore, my throat was starting to feel a little itchy and my tongue felt swollen and my saliva a little sticky. Didn’t take a genius to know that I was hungry and dehydrated. I was a mess.

I surveyed the surrounds, canvassing the area just across the bridge, which still gave me the willies whenever I crossed it. Unsteady bridge + additional weight strain = dead human. I tried not to think about the forces involved in supporting a human across aged wood that was weakened by decomposition.

No, snap out of it. No need to analyse, it’ll only make your fears worse.

Sometimes logic can be so frustrating and rationalising can be insanity.

I praised the universe for finding a small river nearby. The flow was fast and the water was clear and taking all precautions I knew I took a nervous sip of the clear water.

It was delicious.

I have no idea why but the water tasted and felt utterly delicious, like clear, sweet, colourless and odourless ambrosia. I couldn’t get enough of it. Crouching down near the bank, I dipped my head in the river and washed away a little of the grime that clung to my hair and face. It felt refreshing and I relaxed, savouring the moment.

Scooping more of the sweet, clear water (although I was hesitant to call such great tasting stuff water), I drank deeply quenching the thirst that had been steadily building up. I sighed in contentment and sat down, shaking my head to get rid of the clinging water. I listened to the water flow, feeling a sense of peace flow over my tired and aching body.

I was still hungry and a little sore from the awkward sleeping position on the triclinium, but it was so relaxing that I dozed off for a while, still in a seated position.

Hearing a rustle, I snapped out of my slumber and was on my feet in an instant. I cast around for the source of the noise and for a few tense moments I thought it might have been the wolves tracking me down. My fears were dispelled as a bunny hopped out of the bushes and began sniffing around.

I froze, because that worked so well for me the first time, but the bunny paid no heed to me and quickly hopped off, completely dismissing me as a potential threat.

I felt hurt.

What is with these animals and being rude? Am I missing something?

I shook my head and realised that I was in dire need to use the facilities. I looked around and spotted an innocent tree, relieving myself. No, don't look at me like that, there's no toilet around here, this is how our ancestors did it and so would I.

What was I saying? Oh, right.

I had looked around for something edible to eat. I spotted some bushes laden with berries but upon closer inspection the red berries appeared spotted with white and that put me off.

Probably a bad idea to eat anything you don’t recognise, I thought to myself, thinking of all those news reports of people dying when they went hiking and ate some weird mushroom or something.

I looked up into the sky, the sun was about in the one o'clock position. I had probably spent about an hour napping. I shook my head. I was wasting time. I needed to find food or people soon, or I would starve to death. Trudging through the thin brush back to the path I noticed how overwhelmingly dense the forest became as I had strayed from the path. The river had bent, taking it close to the path, so that I could reach it with relative ease however, the bushes and tree beyond it were thick and dense making it impossible to see or traverse.

The path was suspiciously clear. I scratched my head. Of course! It must be the owner of the castle! This piece of information brightened my day and I mentally celebrated.

Great! Civilisation. People. Home.

On closer inspection, I did not see evidence of cutting or pruning that normally occurred when someone would try to maintain a clear path. Branches, vines and shrubs all looked organically moulded to stay out of the way of the path. Although some stubborn branches stuck out the majority stayed in a nice, ordered pattern.

Whoever did this must care a great deal for nature, I concluded.

-----
“Heeeeey Twilight what’cha doin’?” Pinkie needled, distracting Twilight from completing her spell. A glare quickly brought out a sheepish apology.

Twilight sighed, “It’s these branches, Pinkie. From time to time I have to bend them out of the way so the path to the castle wouldn’t get blocked. Every few months I’ve been keeping it this way in case I would have the inclination to visit the castle.”

She frowned.

“It’s been a while though and the Everfree forest always likes breaking out of the magical constraints I try to impose upon it. It needs constant reinforcement.”

Pinkie thought for a moment.

“Why not just prune it back?”

Twilight smiled and trotted ahead to deal with a particularly recalcitrant branch, “I tried that but the forest would just grow back twice as strong.”

She shuddered, thinking about her own experiments on the mysterious forest.

“The forest always seems so hostile to us, I have no idea why.”

-----

My stomach was giving me roars worthy of the most hard-core of metal bands. I winced and thought about devouring multitudes of foods. Pizzas, noodles, fried rice, steak, apples, bananas, tangerines, yoghurt and ice cream, I could go forever. My fridge only had ingredients for omelettes though and automatically I went through a list of things I should have ordered online for the next week until I realised how asinine that was, being stuck out in the forest with no extranet.

A thought sparked in my mind, maybe whoever had been tending to the path had hidden away some food in the castle? I thought it was a slim hope but latched onto it and headed back along the path towards the castle.

-----

“Someone was here before”, Pinkie announced out of the blue.

Twilight gazed quizzically at Pinkie, her head tilted and her fore hoof lifted of the ground, halfway in preparation to take another step.

“Somepony, no something has met the Timberwolves here!” she exclaimed, pointing a hoof at some prints in the dirt.

Twilight’s eyes widened as she took in the prints.

“Yes, what a strange creature to have such intricate prints. Their appendages must be oddly shaped”, she commented with a fastidious eye.

Pinkie bounced along. “It’s going towards the Castle of the Two Sisters!”

Twilight felt a pang grow in intensity in her abdomen as she considered the implications.

Coincidence?

Her stomach grumbled sympathetically.

“Cupcake?” Pinkie offered bringing the small treat out.

Twilight brightened and accepted the explosively sugartastic bonanza that were Pinkie’s cupcakes. It would tide her over to the castle. Twilight had been so excited that she had neglected breakfast but she knew from her last forays that she kept some greens at the castle in preparation for another expedition. After all, you could never be too prepared.

-----

I approached the castle and entered without admiring the architecture, it was still impressive but familiarity dulled my sense of awe. The castle courtyard was split into many pathways. Each alcove was framed by an archway and most bore only shadows and darkness as details, shading the indicator for a hallway or room. I mentally shrugged and picked an alcove at random, ambling down the paved floor path.

Footsteps echoed down the hall and the light from the outside faded rapidly. I paused and squinted into the darkness. How could anyone see in here? I spotted a side exit and decided to peek inside the door.

The door revealed a spiral staircase that clung to the sides of rounded well-like structure. Descending down the staircase was an exercise of restraint and tolerance. Curiosity and my pressing starvation pulled me towards the bottom of the staircase but trepidation and the dark unknown held me back.

Fortunately for me, starvation was a powerful motivator so it kept me moving forward.

The end of the staircase led to… surprise, surprise another dark hallway, but this time the walls were lined with what seemed to be horse legs impractically holding onto braziers. I was beginning to believe that there was no food in the castle after all. They probably would not keep it in such a tucked away corner of the castle anyway. Despite my misgivings, I went on further.

Shadows were starting to play tricks on my mind and I tended to snap my head back to track the moving shadows only to sigh in frustration when I was literally jumping at my own shadows. I pinned it on my growing fatigue and gnawing hunger. I really needed food. It was by luck I had paused at that moment to consider whether I should turn back and explore another alcove.

A breeze blew across my left side from a suspicious-looking gap no more than a finger width wide in the wall next to me. Intrigued I leaned against the wall trying to push or pull it but it did not budge. I was convinced it was some sort of entry for a hidden pathway. After all, the chamber I had slept in was a secret entrance, triggered by a secret lever.

Oh yes. Secret lever.

I cast around for anything that could resemble a secret lever and my gaze finally settled on the disembodied hooves cast around. One of them seemed a little strange compared to the others. I sharpened my stare on the offending hoof. It was subtle, but the hoof was definitely smaller than the others.

I grasped the hoof thinking I would pull it towards myself but it would not budge. I pushed, prodded and poked the infuriating hoof but to no avail.

“Would you please just open?” I yelled at the offending hoof, giving a tug. Amazingly, it slid down and allowed the wall to rotate ninety degrees permitting me passage. Intrigued, I let go and let the wall swing back into place.

I tugged on the hoof. Nothing.

“Please?” I muttered uncertainly and heaved on the hoof. The door swung open. Huh. I guess not everything within this forest was rude. The castle was being a perfectly polite host. I chuckled to myself giving a cursory glance around the entrance for the telltale sign of a microphone speech input. Finding nothing, I just continued and crossed the threshold, hearing the revolving door click back into place. What I saw though was a veritable gold mine, figuratively speaking, of course.

“Impossible…” I muttered, gazing with wide eyes and slacked jaws at the scene.

Carrots and lettuce were simply floating, suspended in the air in some ordered three dimensional checkerboard pattern. I gaped at the carrots and lettuce, mouth watering. They looked absolutely marvellous.

The room itself was a square courtyard with a purposeful skylight, unlike a missing ceiling that I expected. Dust motes floated in the air giving a mystical almost magical feel to the environment and I felt like I was surrounded by fairy dust.

I poked one expecting it to float away like anti-gravity. It budged slightly but slung itself back, oscillating a little, as if suspended by invisible rubber bands. Curious. I then tried grabbing one from the suspended ‘space’. It gave a small resistance, like a tug from uprooting an actual carrot but came off the ‘air’ easily enough.

I took a cautious bite.

I was expecting that my luck would run out and it would explode or turn into burning acid or poison but like the water in the river it felt like an explosion of flavour, designed specifically to produce a party in my mouth. My eyes bulged as I devoured the tasty treat like a rabid wolf. Although with the food I was eating I felt more like a rabbit.

A sound alerted me to movement as I saw a few carrots and lettuce whip away from their floating suspension to disappear into a small square chute off to the side. Puzzled I weaved around the floating vegetables and came to the chute. I stood near the chute gazing in. A sound was heard, like a note from a piano or organ.

My eyes widened and I gasped, there was someone here! Too late, I remembered that the sound heralded the harvest of vegetables and two carrots and a bunch of lettuce this time rocketed to my head. Yelping in surprise I managed to duck out of the way just before the vegetables were funnelled up into the chute.

Amazed, I finally felt optimistic. Whoever owned this place must have some high-level technology to make this possible. I grinned, heading towards the secret entrance/exit of the floating vegetable garden. I might finally get some help getting home and the person at the organ might finally tell me where the heck I was.

Author's Note:

I'm going to post perhaps maybe one or two chapters a day for a couple of weeks however I do have commitments that will require attention as time goes on.

Again, I'd like to thank you all for your wonderful ratings. If you feel the need to give a negative rating, please, please, please tell me what you are dissatisfied with and I'll see if I can justifiably accommodate. If this story is just not your cup of tea feel free to say why.

I know some may feel that the beginning may lack originality but instead of world building in a far off plane and have a constant back and forth switch between perspectives (I had bad experiences with that) I opted for closer locations and a shorter time frame before the main character interacts with the Mane Six.

World building will come a little later in further chapters and the next chapter will feature more info and possibly how Synchrony ties to Equestria. Although no guarantees. I love suspense. Also you'll get to meet some people from the world of Synch, some of the main character's eccentric friends, no doubt.

Also I have no proofreader so unfortunately the audience will be the guinea pig(s). This time around I also wanted to flesh out some show inconsistencies I've seen into plausible explanations, this story really let's me go wild. For example in Castle Mania how did Angel get his fresh vegetables? Oh well, if you have an official answer post it in the comments below.

Sorry for the long AN. See you next time!

EDITED.

Comments

[PonKing]

I liked the story! Keep it up!
You were inspired by Google Glass?

[sunnypack]

4775837 Both yes and no, the heads up display technology and augmented reality concepts were similar to Google Glasses but were definitely concepts that were around before. I was actually more influenced by a recent study on lucid dreaming triggered by a 50 Hz electrical current. Before that, the technology I'm basing Synch on was called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation or TMI for short.

[blank check]

Again, what wolves? Even in the context of the out-of-order chapters, the protagonist had no such encounter.

I'm sorry, but the lack of skill regarding narrative description, detail, dialogue, plotting, pacing, and writing ability in general don't make this work for me. I'm sad to see the expression of a relatively good premise hampered by a lack of experience. Keep writing.

[biospark120]

4775837 it seems more based on sword art online than google with the SAO nerve gear acualy sending magnetic impulses into the brain and basically putting you actually in the game insted of a screen or any thing within the context of a visual headgear

[fimficenjoyer]

4946767
As the author explained earlier in the story, the story has rapid point of view switches, as well as changing from the present to the past frequently.