Chronalmin Flux

by The Psychopath

Almost there(?)

Minted gulped audibly and rushed away from the bear-cow as best as he could, but with only thin platforms as a walking surface and nothing to keep him from falling, the pony really couldn't make a mistake. He was stuck between the need to gallop and the need to walk carefully. The creature behind him continued moving forward in its bizarre, static fashion while its fingers did all the work. The dancer below continued its romping around and making a weird sound akin to a laughing-cry in low tone.

The janitor managed to get across one platform and, with some effort, broke the plank that carried him to safety. The wood shattered and took the smiling aberration with it to the bottom of the pit, yet there was no thud. Minted looked over to see that the dancer was still there while the bear-cow had vanished. Its own jittery music filled Minted's ear, and it was by barely an ant-hair's length that he dodged the full swipe of the monster. It still managed to nick the stallion's right ear and hurt him, bu it wasn't anything grave an injury, so he rushed forward. It was almost like a flat maze with the minotaur chasing after. Had there been walls, the pony would have been caught and killed already. Luckily, the 'dead ends' were always close to the next set of planks, and thus, he managed to hop on over and continue his way to a closing pair of large, rusted doors, capable of taking an actual minotaur without them hitting their head on the top of the door frame by the looks of things.

Minted was almost on solid ground near the door when the creature chasing after him had a sudden boost of energy and started bouncing on every surface and direction it could, one such being the walls which it used as a shortcut to jump off of and land in front of the fleeing stallion. It started thrashing and waving its body about, the main torso and head rising and falling like some kind of balloon. Minted jumped away towards the next platform, which the creature imitated. It took a swipe at him and missed, causing it to lose balance and smash its face into the plank. Once more, the janitor made a beeline for the exit, but the bear-cow didn't like that and used its head to push itself off the plank and towards the fleeing pony. Minted predicted the trajectory and turned to face the crazy monster. He slammed his hooves against the planks with as much strength as he could muster, causing them to crack, and bolted towards the door. With its weight, the bear-cow hit the solid wood hard and broke it, throwing the stallion upwards into the air.

Wrap had gone far enough that he managed to catch the ledge and hoist himself up. Preferring to avoid the error of looking back despite his curiosity, he rushed to the large doors and pushed them open with great effort. With a small opening now available, he hurried to squeeze through it and forced the door closed. The pony slid down against the doors, a hoof on his chest, and started panting so much he appeared to be hyperventilating. It took him, maybe, half an hour to calm down. It was impossible to tell time in this place anymore, that he finally noticed where he was. Instead of being a stairwell or a small corridor, it was a very large aquarium tunnel. Metal arcs held the glass tubing aloft whilst the deep blue water bubble and murmured against it. Light refracted within the wide blue, creating various arcs and intensity of light that illuminated the tunnel.

Minted Wrap slowly walked forward, looking around the tunnel. It didn't go in a straight line, preferring to wave gently from side to side. It was both comforting and disturbing to Minted for a reason that eluded him. The further he went in, the more he felt like there was activity within the water. Condensation started forming on the surfaces, and then something occurred that started to chill Minted, and not just because of the drop in room temperature: Words were appearing on the glass against a background of frost the further Wrap went.

Let us out of the flux

Let is out of the flux

Let us out of the flux

We want out of the flux

We don't belong here

We belong in our worlds

Why does the single one keep us trapped

Why do we branch off of him

Why do we branch off of her

What are we doing here

Let us out of the flux

Let Us Out Of The Flux

LET US OUT OF THE FLUX

The stallion jumped when a loud slamming noise resonated through the tunnel. The source were enormous, sharp claws that pierced through the aquarium wall but couldn't go any further. Luckily, when the claws retracted, they only created a ghostly exhale, along with some mist, to leave the water. No actual water fed through the holes. Minted was baffled and scratched his head, his face distorting with questions, but he carried on, and the further he went in, the colder he became. Ice was starting to form and he was starting to shake despite his fur. He could already see his breath as well as a snow in some areas while the words repeated on the glass casing. Once more, time was no friend and hid in the most inconspicuous crevices of this warped building.

Trembling, Minted looked forward and realized there was no way for him to know how much longer the aquarium went. By now, he was certainly a huge distance from the door, and he had no real choice in this case. It seemed more like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He still stepped a few more feet forward, but the path was littered with the frozen corpses of the armored ponies and diamond dogs. In fact, there was a mist lingering over them and further on, clamping down the light and preventing any kind of actual lighting. This didn't prevent Minted from seeing something large and icy moving about in the distance. Waiting.

The janitor sighed and turned back to the door he came out of. Perhaps there was a pathway down below where the dancer was. There was nothing to lose, so the trembling stallion turned and walked forward, or, he would have. The second he turned around, he smacked his head against the doors. Minted Wrap was baffled, but, considering the creature he saw hiding in the back, he decided to open the door anyways and braced for the bear-cow to slam its paw on the ground right in front of the door, but there was nothing. Instead, a giant, circular maw filled with teeth and with dexterous, stubby appendages grabbed Minted and pulled the freezing stallion into a red void. The walls were a constant stream of red faces distorted in pain and horror, and every section would go in one direction then go into another and so the pattern repeated. The tower shook violently again, causing the walls to moan painfully. The maw growled, and a tremendous figure, easily three stories tall, but very transparent, phased through the walls. It was standing upright, had no legs, and was wearing a bloodied, torn dress. Its head was fluctuating as well, preventing any solid form to show itself.

"You do not belong here," The voice said. It was a mixture between a young man and woman's voices. "Get out. The flux does not want you."

It threw the stallion through the wall, and made him crash through glass and plaster.

"What was that?!" somepony shouted.

"Leave the flux. For your own good."

Minted struggled to open his eyes, and then he saw it. He was at the first floor of the building, and freedom called for him in the form of bright white lights and flashing colors. He was exhausted and strained by the cold, but he was going to make it. He did it so far, didn't he? There were tons of the armored ponies and diamond dogs waiting outside, blocking the steps. The other buildings and wagons outside almost seemed like an illusion.

"Is it another one of those ghostly creatures?" one of the ponies asked.

A diamond dog fiddled with gems laced in his right arm -the only exposed limb- and gasped.

"He's living," he spoke in disbelief.

"Get that pony out of there!"

Minted was about to reach the doors when the tower trembled once more.

"The flux is acting up again!" armed armored pony shouted.

The glass doors turned into teeth and clamped shut, missing Minted by quite a bit. They turned into a smile and twist upon themselves to turn into a floating, amorphous blob covered in mouths and square teeth. The janitor thought he was going to die, but two ponies and a dog body slammed the creature, jettisoning it through a wall, then peppering it with their bullets. The gem-armed dog rushed in to pull Minted out and towards a group of medical staff.

"How do we know he's not an apparition like the rest?" one of the nurses asked.

"Because he wouldn't be able to get out of there," another quipped. "Now help me stabilize him. His body temperature isn't registering on these machines and his ear is split."

The stallion felt a mask go on his face, and he finally slipped into sleep. His much needed, well deserved sleep.

The pony next to the gem-armed diamond dog looked at the survivor with shock. "Well, in all my years working in the Occult Branch, I never saw something like that happen."

"Me neither. This...this 'flux'. It's new as well. I think our teams have reported around two hundred different classes of apparitions and monsters."

"All of which are hostile." The pony looked down and scratched his chin. "Then why is he the only survivor? What sets him apart from the rest?"

The diamond dog shrugged. "Judging by how long he was in there, I'd say he was probably at the top floors."

"But that brings even more questions to light!" the pony shouted.

"What are you yelling at me for?!" The diamond dog put his hands on his chest and threw them forward.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry. It's just..."

"This 'flux' that comes out of nowhere and targets this building, most likely for its size."

"It creates hundreds of apparitions, each of which are unique."

"And time and space are distorted within it."

The pony groaned. "We'll have a lot to say at the Monster Hunter chiefs about this. This is the most dangerous case ever seen." He looked behind him to see the medical staff working on the janitor, determined to clean his wounds, mend his breaks, and cleanse his soul of what was in the tower. "What should we do with him?"

"Considering he's the only survivor, I suggest taking him under our temporary protection. We don't know what it was like in there, truly, and I believe he was there from the start."

The pony nodded in agreement. "Let's just hope that he can communicate still. He might not have the answer to destroying this, but he will enlighten us on every step that occurred."

Let us out of the flux

We want out of the flux

We don't belong here

Author's Note:

Yay! It's of the dones! And barely anyone read it, making me wonder why I experiment and try new things!

Comments

[Toilet Sprinkle]

This was a fun read! Some sort of epilogue would be nice but it's far from necessary. Honestly this was just a really interesting read, I'm sorry to say I wasn't terribly frightened overall but the creature designs and the situations he constantly found himself in kept me reading with excitement.

[The Psychopath]

8205575 I'm still working on getting better with horror. I was hoping that at least the Celestia ghost would give a few creeps, but it was mainly the fate that awaited those that confronted them that I wanted to be scary.

What did you have in mind for an epilogue? If I make one, it wouldn't be very long.

[Toilet Sprinkle]

Maybe just a small note of what happens to Warp after, like is he ok? Did the rescuers just let him leave with what he saw? Did some of the things with the flux come with him? Nothing super essential just fun little info like that.

I think the creepiest part for me was definitely the beginning when he meets the "visitor" and that whole interaction, really caught me off guard.

I think a small problem I had with it was the way the muteness panned out. I really liked how it influenced his situation in the early chapters, but towards the end it really stopped mattering to the story. Again that's not a huge issue, I just would have liked if it came back into play a bit more.

Regardless of those criticisms though I thought it was a very fun and exciting read, your writing style is definitely unique and with this kind of paranormal jaunt through hell it definitely lent to the fun

[The Psychopath]

8206396 I figured it had less impact in the end. The only experience with mute characters I have is the Three Crusaders from my Steamlord series. With them, I could convey behavior through their actions and reactions. Here, it was more difficult because I was trying not to exaggerate on that trait as I felt it would detract from the character and the events.

I can add, like, a few extra lines of dialogue to the last chapter concerning Wrap's future, though.

Oh, and just so you know, and because I don't want this part to be a mystery; No. The warp didn't follow him. It's confined to the building.

Edit: Iz done.

[mastermenthe]

This was an excellent ending! Wonderful horror!

No wonder the Flux did not want him. A silent soul cannot be added to the chorus of screams.