The Oracle Infinium

by TwiWonderfilly

Bounded - Part 1

This is the life I have to go through.

Am I going to stay here for eternity living like a slave?

I don't know what's worse,

the fact that I am caught and enslaved to extract crystals in the nearby mine with minimal provisions,

or the fact that I couldn't recall who I am,

or who I was.

"H-hey.... W-wa... up....!"

.
.
.

"H-hey.... W-wake up.... we haven't much time!"

Voices.... it's been so long since I've heard voices when everything is dark. I'm hearing all these voices from nowhere but I can't seem to respond; my body is paralysed. I wanted to respond to whoever is talking to me. The voice is feminine, and she sounds awfully familiar; someone that I ever....

"W-why.... aren't.... responding....?"

I couldn't help but only listen to what she's saying; for some reason, I can't talk, and I can't move my body to respond to her. She seems to be resembling someone I know.... The vision that I'm seeing, the remnants of her voice start to reappear in sight.

As the vision starts to get clear, the fragments of my perception start to form a mare. Her body colour is of pure lavender, and she speaks to me in the most caring of ways. She seems to be worrying about me, about something that I'm supposed to do....

"W-we don..... time, Te...."

As time passes by, my body becomes more numb, my visions start to blur and my hearing becomes unclear. The voice.... the voice is changing.

---

Everything is dark. I probably have the longest sleep that I have ever experienced, but other than my thoughts, everything else felt weak. It’s as if somepony has given me a huge beating before. I can’t seem to open my eyes immediately. I did open them for a fraction of a second, seeing the dark walls of emptiness before closing my eyes again.

Yet, something is bothering me. Why do I feel so weak? What happened to me? And-

“W… up!” I hear a distant voice. My eyes slowly opened, where I can see something brown. I don’t know what it is as the sight is too blurry and too dark. I can only see a little light across the wall.

⟡∮⟡

“D… ma… again… Wake Up!” Somepony yelled at me.

“Yikes!” I screamed in shock. I jump immediately from sleeping position and tried to stick on my landing, but I immediately stumble after landing. As I land harshly, dust form around me. I guess my legs aren’t warmed up yet.

“Stop horsing around, slave!” Somepony starts to appear small behind the dust, but it slowly gets bigger. As dust settles down, the pony once covered in shadow turns into a pony with dark grey armour. I can assume he is an earth pony as it lacks wings or horns. He also seems to be carrying whip.

“Gah!” I scream in pain as he whipped me in the body.

“Follow me, slave!” He leans on me and yells beside my right ear. I can feel my right ear popping from the loudness of the sound. I rub my ear to make sure it returns to normal. “Be lucky the leader of the shaft died days ago! Just one mistake and you’ll be in the torture room if he’s here!”

I immediately stand up and follow the guard through a roadway. It was dark; brown trees surrounds me and the guard. I’m confused about the current situation. Why should I follow him? I think he might be helping me, but his speech proves otherwise. I can only follow him as I have no clue where I am. Everything here seems dark and bleak. All I can hear is the sound of howling of an animal and the blowing wind. We walked for minutes and all I could think of is what was I doing here in the woods?

While following him, I turn to my body, where I see that there are no whip marks around my body. I become confused about it. I thought to myself, whether the whip was not really that bad. I do not notice other ponies nor do I notice that my surroundings have become at times, darker, the other times brighter. I bumped into something soft and I look at the guard that he has stopped moving. I look around and without noticing, the surroundings have become slightly brighter, yet it smells like someone burns coal. I look around and I see a pickaxe and a minecart in a rail, there are also many different rails where I’m at. What am I supposed to do here?

“Here’s your workplace. Get a pickaxe and start moving!” He yells at me again for the third time in the row, while pointing at a pickaxe. Annoyed, I start to dash to his flank, hoping to hurt him by kicking him. However, a spear fly passed me from my left. It missed me, but it nearly strike my mane.

“Oh, crap!” I became scared at the possibility of death.

“Don’t even think about trying to hurt the guards. Doing so will lead you to the torture room, and let me tell you this: It’s not a fun game.” Another pony appeared from the outside of the shaft, wearing the same dark gray outfit like the guard. He slowly walk to the spear, where it is stuck on the ground. He picks it up and leaves the shaft.

I panicked at the fact that a spear nearly stabbed my head. The fear causes me to immediately get a pickaxe and start mining, but the guard stopped me before mining.

“Wait…” he stops me from mining; he puts a hoofcuff on me.

“And don’t even think of leaving this place.” He then leaves the shaft, leaving me here. I look around and a white crystal, stuck in a wall in a room filled with nothing but poor light, attracts my attention. I try to trot, but these shackles becomes uncomfortable. It nearly tripped me, but I regain my balance. I slowly walk towards the crystal where I can see a reflection of myself, a white unicorn with a maroon mane.

“Who is this pony? I don’t know him… I don’t know… who I am?” My body freezes when I couldn’t tell who I am. I slowly move back as I try to remember a figure or anything that happened to me before, but in my mind is only darkness, void, empty. I don’t know what but I can’t recall anything, not even my name. I turn around and see a shadow walking through a rail from the left. It seems to move slowly, and I can hear him panting. A pegasus of amethyst green colour appeared, looking exhausted from whatever his activities are. He seems to be sticking his tongue out.

“Excuse me but where am I?” I shouted to gain his attention. He jumps in fear, and look at me.

“Please… don’t talk…” he warns me about something. “Sombra has captured me and placed me in this damned mineshaft. I-” He looks as if he has seen something shocking.

“Hey! No one told you to stop moving!” From a distant, a voice from the cave can be heard. Then, the ground rumbles from somewhere.

“What!? Please don’t…” He shivers in fear after hearing the guards. His legs are too shaky to the point where he couldn’t move.

I see three guards moving towards him from the right and starts beating the crap out of him. I don’t see it clearly, but I think the poor pony coughs out blood after being punched in the guts.

“Please! Stop this! Help!” He cried weakly, as if someone is choking him. It was the worst pain I could ever imagine. He is helpless in the face of many guards, and he is beaten up. Then, one of them releases the rope and the other begins to bring him away from me to the right.

“Please! Stop this- *mmph*” He screams for help, but the other guard that unties him starts to shut his mouth with his own hoof. He then starts getting dragged by two guards, while the other one looked at me fiercely; his white eyes pierces through mine and frightened, I immediately turn around and walk to grab the pickaxe.

“Keep working if you don’t want to end up like him.”

⟡∮⟡

When I start mining, I use my magic to levitate the pickaxe, but it immediately falls to the ground. I did it multiple times, but the effects are the same… it falls. From the crystal reflection, I can see that my aura is black. I feel so pathetic for not being able to use a simple spell, but I try to levitate the pickaxe again, and this time it works. After that, I start to mine, fearing on the same fate of the other pony. I keep on mining for hours straight, taking crystals and put it to the cart before repeating the process again until the cart is full.

Few hours later, from my work, I have mined crystals and put it in the cart. The cart is a quarter full, which is a good thing. It appears that the guards have left this place. Suddenly, I hear hoofsteps. The same pony appeared from the right, but this time, battered, whip scars surrounds his body and his neck draws out blood. I try to say something, but I don’t want him to be in trouble again, and then, I notice that he wears a golden crown above him. What happened to him? I start working again after noticing the shadows of the guards.

20 hours has passed, or maybe, a month… I don’t know. Being forced to work in the mine shaft has exhausted me to near death. I decided to sleep, until somepony whippped me.

“Agh!”

“Nopony rests until they bring the crystals to the deposit room!” It’s the same pony again while he points out to the cart. I can tell despite the guards being covered in armor from his voice and the whip.

“Nopony tells me what to do!” I launch towards him, but I fall immediately. I can’t seem to move, struggling as without water or drink, I don’t have energy to move at all, let alone attack him.

He scoffs at me and immediately turns back on me. He doesn’t even care. I then return back to the cart and seeing that it is already full, I decided to push the cart around the mine.

“To deposit the crystals, go to the left and follow the rails, then pull the cart back to where it belongs!”

I push the cart and followed his directions. I notice that the trail from where I am is very short, well… relatively. Then, while walking, I see many rails in a huge room coming from different tunnels. I feel like my head is hurting from the amount of rails. In this huge room, many guards overlook this room to view any suspicions.

I see ponies pushing and pulling the cart towards one tunnel, which is supposed to be a place for deposit. I walk through the deposit tunnel, where the light begins to enlighten the shaft. It appears that I reach the deposit room. The guards then tumbles my cart and forces three earth ponies to take the crystals to their own cart. The process was long, but it has to be done. Then, after they’re done, I was forced to bring the minecart back to the rails, while I see the three earth ponies walking to somewhere while bringing a cart. I look at the tunnel and there are earth ponies waiting to bring the crystals to god knows where.

It was a tiring moment. I pull the cart towards the place I work, then decides to rest. It was a very exhausting moment, but then…

“Wake Up!” Somepony screams.

“What!” I jump out of my position and stand up. It feels like I closed my eyes for only a few minutes.

“Start working! Here’s your meal and drink!” He throws leftovers and water to the ground. In panic, I lick the ground to fill myself. The taste is awful and disgusting, but instincts tells me to accept my fate. While licking the ground, he leaves the place.

“Hahaha… such a lowlife!” His sound fades as he moves away from me.

This is the life I have to go through. Am I going to stay here for eternity living like a slave? I don't know what's worse, the fact that I am caught and enslaved to extract crystals in the nearby mine with minimal provisions, or the fact that I couldn't recall who I am, or who I was.