Radiarc - Ex Machina

by Rtrotten

#2 Darkness

Author's Note:

The revised story.

I wake up to the sound of crickets off in the distance. I don’t remember anything, a type of amnesia maybe? I can’t move and I can’t open my eyes leaving me blind with my other senses numbed. I can feel a cast around my neck and it's not very comfortable. I must have broken my neck which must mean that I am in a hospital of some sort. I am lying on a poorly made wooden floor as some hair rests gently on my forehead, covering my horn. There is an overwhelming sent of metallic blood scent surrounding my body. I don’t actually know if it’s actually coming from my body but the scent makes me want to vomit, the lack of energy in my body keeps me from doing so. My stomach is empty which means the hospital staff is being very lazy. I don't know my name or even what gender I am.

If I have amnesia why am I still remembering things? It's like a flash of a memory that soon fades away after remembering it. I can sense it fade away but I can’t retrieve the memory or go back into it.

“Why would you want me to close down my store?”

“Your store is taking all of my customers and you are doing exactly what I do.”

“Well, what do you want me to do because I can’t just close my store and hang a sign in the window telling ponies to go to your store.”

“That would work.”

“I can’t do that though I have a family and we will lose so much money if we have to close this store down. Can we work out another solution?”

There it goes. Another memory that has wandered away from me. I am so tired and I want to go back to sleep but considering how hungry I am and my broken neck I should consider it a miracle that I am even alive and awake. If I go into shock I might not even be able to wake up. My subconscious whispers in my ear, “You can sleep because you need it.” Unfortunately, I listen and allow my body to relax, not that I could move anyway, sending me closer to the edge of sleep. If I wake up then I will consider trying to open my eyes.

---

I wake up some amount of time later by some miracle and feel just a tiny bit better and with just a tiny bit more energy. I struggle to get my eyes open with whatever energy I have left. When I open them I am surrounded by darkness, well other than the illuminated night sky above me. I am in what looks like a shack with a sheet metal roof. What makes me scared is the fact that the roof has a massive hole in it. If the sheets collapse, that means that they would fall and possibly crush me and even if I survive that; If it cuts me, and is rusty, I might not survive without a tetanus shot. Looking past the hole I can see trees which makes me think that I must be in a forest but being here allows me to uncannily see into space. There is a long strip of highlight blue weaving in between a stretch of cobalt blue blankets that almost seem like they are moving. A wave of turquoise entangles itself above the ocean of stars sending the white balls of light closer and closer to the earth. I am soon drawn from the stars as a dark red something comes across my peripheral vision. I soon realize that it is blood that is crawling across the inside of my eye.

---

“Will you calm down!”

“No, you aren't listening to me at all.”

“I have made plenty of suggestions to help your store grow that doesn’t cause me to lose mine.”

“I need one thing and you won’t help me with it because you're being selfish. You are going to keep growing until my store fails and I am sent into poverty.”

“Psh, do you know who I am, do you know my role in Equestria? I want to help you but I can’t close my store for you. Can we come to a different suggestion so that we can both be happy?” He suddenly threw a punch at me directly between my eyes sending me to the ground.

I can feel a steady drip of blood coming from the end of my snout that is followed by them saying, “If you are still here when I back tomorrow you’ll be sorry.”

As my mind lets go of the memory a sudden flood of thoughts enters my mind. Where am I, who am I, do I live here? Is anyone looking for me, is this where I live, why can I see the stars? Why couldn’t I see the stars where I was before, who is my family, where do I work? All the questions are fighting over who gets to be answered first but with my memory being gone, it just goes in a circle. I close my eyes tightly thinking that it will make the question loop end but instead it just sends a sharp cutting pain all the way down my back. I can feel the tears come to my eyes but none leave.

---

“Look, mam, we have a whole lot of officers out looking for your daughter and we have not found anyone.”

“Well, why can’t you put more officers out there looking for her.”

“How about you slow down and answer some questions. Where do you remember seeing her last?”

“Well it was when he was in the hospital, we were just leaving as they were putting a cast around her neck, she was about to go into some procedure.”

“Ok, does she have any enemies or do you know anypony who would want to harm her”

“Ha, well, you have to be a bit more specific. She makes plenty of enemies in her line of work.”

“Obviously, but has anyone threatened her personally.

“Well there was this pony who works near her, she came home one evening with a bruised and bloody nose, she said that it was...

“Why him?”

The officers walked up to the front door and knocked very loudly yelling to open the door. After a few seconds, there was a head looking in the hole above the door. In a split second the head was gone and the sound of running feet left from the front door. The officer waved at the one behind him to go to the back door while he opened up the front door. As soon as he entered he saw the man from the window running out the back door. Both officers were on him within a minute and easily had his hand in cuffs behind his back.

“So what do you know about Rarity?”

“She works next to me and is trying to run me out of my job.”

“From what we’ve been told that is not the case and if you didn’t know she is missing.”

“I didn’t”

“Well she is and you so far are our only suspect.”

“Well, I didn’t kidnap her if that’s what you think.”

The door was opened and was quickly followed by a voice saying, “Excuse me officer but we have a tape that you need to see.”

The officer came in a few minutes later and returned to his seat next to the man. “It seems that you are lying because we have proof of you taking him away from his hospital room. Mind the cliche sentence but we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Easy being you tell us where she is, hard going to jail for the rest of your life.”

The man looked up in silence, “ I know where she is.”

It's been at least 24 hours since I opened my eyes and the only reason I know that is because the stars are back. Those beautiful stars and their blanket of blue. I have had a really hard experience with that stretch of time. After I looked at the stars for a while I went back to sleep against my own judgment and woke up in the early morning. It was nice and warm as the birds chirped and sang their songs. I heard chipmunks or squirrels on the metal roof above me with their soft steps. Although it was nice at first it quickly began to heat up in the little shed roasting slowly with me inside it, and just as I thought it would the sun shone down directly on my face for three hours in the middle of the day. When I tried to move I regretted doing so because of the pain that shot down my back. From there I got angry at every little thing. I got angry at the fact that I couldn’t move, I got angry that no one was looking for me, I got angry at the birds for singing their stupid songs. I was caught in the middle of the most annoying place and I couldn’t do anything about it. I even hated the stars that I had come to love and I stopped hating things when the sun left my eyes. I watched for hours as I could see the sky turn from blue to yellow to gold to pink to purple to dark blue to black, and during all of that time, I began to cry about all of the things I started to miss. I began to miss the birds singing, I began to miss the animals on the roof, and I missed most of all the leaving warmth. I loved seeing the stars but I began to lose the sense of touch. I couldn’t feel the wood beneath my body, I couldn’t feel any warmth, I couldn’t feel my face. My body was starting to shiver although it didn’t hurt my back it took whatever energy was left in my body. After a while, my body stopped shivering in all and my breathing became slower and shallower. I could feel my heart slowing down but I couldn’t do anything about it.

“He said that Rarity is somewhere out here in this area of the forest so keep your eyes open.” The large group of ponies was all yelling out her name and expecting an answer. They searched out the ground with their flashlights looking for a body but it wasn’t going well. After an hour of searching while the temperature dropped the officer and a few others were the only ones left looking. Another hour went by and the officer and Rarity's sister were walking back to their car when they stumbled upon a shed. The officer thought for a moment before he stretched out his hand for the handle. He slowly opened the door as it made a loud creaking sound. Inside lay Rarity who was staring blankly at the sky. While Rarity's sister ran to his side the officer quickly picked up a radio and called an ambulance to their location. Within eight minutes the ambulance was there and they had Rarity on a stretcher and getting ready to go. Rarity's sister got into the ambulance as soon as she was in. Rarity looked up at his wife whose face was red and cheeks were wet from tears. She was already holding her hoof as the sirens started. Rarity looked up at the sky that was now taking her. The ocean was welcoming her into the highlighted waves that weaved into the cobalt blue blankets that entangled itself into the new ocean of stars. There was something new about the sky now, there was a bright white light that stretched out arms to take her into a warmer place. She stared happily at the light that welcomed him as the tears that wanted to leave so many time finally emerged to roll down her cheeks.