Chapter 10: Kaelynn
Kaelynn watched from within her tank. It was all she could ever do. While her friends were out there putting themselves at risk to fight for her, protecting her from danger, she swam around in a tank, accomplishing nothing and putting everyone at greater risk.
When they arrived at their first real alien city, she was stuck inside the tank, swirling around with only what she could see above them for a view. More than once she started assembling the rebreather, preparing to put it on. But the water had been so dirty that lethargy always returned. She didn't want to do much of anything, there wasn't a point. Even if she did climb out, she was two legs short of enough to move around.
We've made the biggest discovery of our lifetimes and I barely even get to see it.
If only she could file a complaint with the magical portal, and request reassignment to a more useful body. Hell, she'd take getting her sex screwed with like Jordan, so long as it went back to normal when she returned to Earth.
While she agonized and deliberated, her friends dragged her through increasingly narrow alleys, leaving behind the wide boulevards filled with markets and voices so loud she heard them through the water. Now the ride was bumpy and unsteady, jerking her constantly. What happens if they hit a pothole and knock this over?
Of all the ways to die while exploring strange new worlds, Kaelynn would hate for the history books to say she drowned on dry land, flopping like a fish.
With the water clear now, it was easier to think, and even easier to ask. Her body hadn't recovered completely from those last few days—her scales were still faded, and scraps of partially-shed sections clung to her like peeling sunburns. She hadn't felt it before, but now that the water was clear it itched terribly. I need to get a brush in here to get all this off.
But for now, she could focus enough to don the rebreather, this time properly. All the familiar straps had been reconfigured, leaving her guessing while her friends struggled outside. But no matter how confused she always felt at first, there was never a strap or patch of Velcro out of place. Ultimately, everything had a purpose.
The mask covered her whole face, clear and contoured to match the muzzle that she saw whenever she looked down. It had to be, considering it only clung to her with simple pressure, using the straps that compressed the fins along her head. All just slightly uncomfortable.
I could do better with a real workshop. A single good scan, and I could print something to fit perfectly. Maybe one day she would—the portal between worlds didn't seem terribly interested to change the way she looked between visits.
No damn way I’m letting the others monopolize this just because I rolled like shit on my species assignment. She had already had more than one conversation with Ryan about the prosthesis she would eventually use, from the most basic rolling brace for her tail to a multi-thousand-dollar titanium exoskeleton she would probably only ever dream of.
Her getting dressed proved to be a fortunate decision, because soon enough they came to a stop, and Ryan's face appeared in the water above her. Not the copy of Blake this time—she didn't need to wonder who it really was. This was the bug. "We'll have to carry you the last little way," he said. "Get your—" He stopped, staring. "Oh. You already did."
She swam to the surface in a single stroke of her tail, poking out and testing the fit of her mask while she looked around. She twisted, tightening until there was only a faint moistness on her face under the mask.
If she thought they were on a bad side of town before, this was bad. The walls themselves were crumbling around them, with cloth dangling in rotting strands. A layer of garbage under their hooves had decomposed into a knee-high sludge that bogged down the cart and prevented them from moving any further.
Jordan caught her eyes, nodding grimly. "We're two levels down from the street. From the smell, Klugetown doesn't have a working sewer—everything just drifts. You do not want to know how big the rats are." He stood still while Blake loaded things onto his back—two sets of saddlebags, carrying so much that he strained visibly under all of it.
"Neither of you helping with all that?" she asked. There was a radio transmitter in the mask—but since none of the others had masks of their own, it did no good at all amplifying her voice, and she hadn't even switched it on. From the way they reacted, she guessed her voice seemed near whisper level, maybe even quieter.
"We're carrying you," Ryan said simply, gesturing to the ground in front of her. It was a large stretch of not-quite-clear fabric, tied in a tube. Ryan already stood in the middle of it, with his torso trapped. Blake could climb in the other half, and by stepping apart, they would have a makeshift wheelchair. "Yeah, we already checked it. About five minutes from here. There's water, so you'll be able to swim just like the last time."
"Wish we didn't have to leave the cart behind," Blake said. "But we'll just have to hope we don't need to come back for it. We're carrying everything else."
"I'm carrying everything else," Jordan corrected, voice crushed under the tremendous weight. But he managed to take a few steps, wincing with each one. "Dear lord, do we need all these food cans? We're not going to the Himalayas."
"Don't jinx it," Ryan countered. "Pretty sure I saw them on the map somewhere." He looked up, moving a little closer to the edge. "Think you can get yourself out, Kaelynn?"
She didn't wait to answer, hoisting herself over the edge. She fell several feet, landing on the fabric sling with a painful thump. She grunted, rolling slightly to one side to get her fins out from under her. "I am never visiting an aquarium ever again," she said. "Now that I know what dolphins go through in captivity. This is inhumane."
"None of us are human," Jordan said, unhelpfully. "But I don't think aquariums keep dolphins in a 500-gallon tank."
Blake slid into the harness, jostling her again. But she held still, waiting as he straightened, carrying her up with him. After a few seconds of struggling, they finally started forward.
The air burned where it touched scales, like she was sunburning in a matter of seconds. Of course there was no sun down here, nothing but a diffuse glow from either side.
Jordan led the way, though for him the path was almost as difficult. He wobbled while going over even slight inclines, threatening to dump all their stuff into the almost-mud. "So we learned some stuff from the conman who sold us this map," he called back. "Some of it might be useful. Some of it might even be true."
Kaelynn glowered at Jordan's retreating back. Granted, there was little pleasant to see when she did it. They were all fully dressed, or at least as dressed as their bodies had been when they crossed from Earth. For some reason the interdimensional magic powerful enough to rewrite them and everything they carried didn't bother covering their junk.
"Don't freak them out," Blake said. "He sounded honest telling us about the portal. And we're paying customers. He's better off if we come back to ask for more."
Jordan shrugged one of his wings noncommittally. "We know what they're properly called, for one. 'Worldgates.' Also, he said it's dangerous on the other side."
"Are we sure it even goes to our world?" Ryan asked. "Protecting our stuff from those lizard things had me thinking. We look so different than everything else here. Like... the four of us could come from the same planet, you know? Same thing with that merchant we met on the way in. But these lizards, they just don't fit."
"Neither did the con-artist," Jordan offered helpfully. "He was a cat, with everything right except for the spine. And being damn huge compared to us. But other than those things. He doesn't look like a horse at all."
"Exactly." Ryan fell silent for a moment as they descended a ramp.
Kaelynn winced with every bumping step. Her tail sagged from the back of the harness, dragging through the dirt behind them. Everything hurt, and her body felt warmer by the second. This was rapidly turning into a worse trip than crossing the whole desert.
"I'm wondering if maybe this world is some kinda... crossroads. People from lots of other worlds all end up here for some reason. Maybe it isn't the destination that changes us. Maybe the Worldgate changes humans the same way. Because of nature, or common ancestry, or whatever. But for whatever reason, we end up horses, while the otherworlders look like lizards. And... cats, apparently. Two legs?"
"Two legs," Blake confirmed. "But this speculation seems pointless. The map had names of human places next to cities on this side. Seems obvious it's just our world that's connected. Two places tied together, for reasons that we can't understand."
"Nature doesn't really do that number," Ryan argued. "There's zero, one, and infinity."
"Just walk," she grunted, pointing ahead of them with one feeble hoof. "Please. I am turning into a seaweed cracker over here."
They sped up, or at least Blake did. The others were all at the edge of their strength, particularly Jordan. But at least they didn't have much further to go.
There was no diffuse glow of sunlight through water up ahead this time. They passed through a final doorway, then stopped abruptly beside a reservoir.
This water wasn't crystal clear from some deep aquifer. Rather, it smelled exactly like the well-water they had used to fill her tank. She might've complained about it, if her whole body wasn't burning with the unpleasantness of being in the air.
"Don't stare," she barked. "Seriously guys, I'm drying out. Put me in before you stare."
She didn't stop squirming until they finally did, lowering her down beside the tank.
Kaelynn slipped eagerly inside, shoving off the makeshift harness and lifting the mask to perch atop her face. The water didn't taste as clean as the sterile trickle her mask gave her, but it was worlds better than what she'd swam in her last few days.
Kaelynn didn't even care what the others were doing—suddenly she had more room to move than she had at any point on this side. She swam with all her might, giggling to herself as she circled the tank. She could've studied its interlocking ceramic construction, or the writing faintly pressed into the tiles. But she just didn't care.
Whether two minutes or an hour, she couldn't say—but eventually, she realized the others had waded in above her. There were no steps here—they had to tread water above the tank, a subjective twenty feet of liquid. They all wore saddlebags now, instead of just Jordan.
Ryan waved her over, and she took in the biggest breath of water she could, rising out onto land beside him.
"Looks dark down there," he said. "Do you think it's safe, Kaelynn?"
She nodded. She held herself there above the water, despite the mild discomfort on her exposed scales. Compared to the nightmare of being carried down, this might as well be a spa. She couldn't speak to them, at least not very well, but found she didn't have to.
"Help us down," Blake said, swimming over to her in the water. "Just like last time, only further away. Everyone get ready to go under."
The process took longer than if they'd had the right limbs, but fortunately everyone had clothing strapped to them one way or another. Kaelynn waited until they were all close, then counted them off in her loudest shouting just below the water.
"Three... two... one!" She flipped, diving straight down as fast as she could. There was an opening in the bottom of the tank, with a steady current vanishing into indeterminate darkness. She had kept well away from that until now.
But now she dove straight in, dragging the whole group behind her. Her tail worked furiously as she swam. But far from painful, all this work was a relief to her. Finally, Kaelynn could get some of that energy out. Too bad there was no underwater gym equipment.
Then she swam into the flow, and Ryan's hooves on her harness were ripped away. She kept herself steady in the water, holding her breath.
There was no exact moment of transition—she took a breath, and cool air hissed down her throat. She now wore a rebreather over her tight swimsuit, the only piece of clothing she'd still been wearing. Good thing it changed back to serve its original purpose on this side.
She helped the others to the surface of the water one after another, since of course she had practically unlimited bottom time compared to any of them. In the glow of her dive-computer, she could see bricks all around her, repeating in an endless procession of drab red.
She broke the surface last, finally looking around at her surroundings.
They weren't outside—but the dark water had told her that. She could see the ceiling far above, a faint gray suggestion of arches and exposed, slowly-rusting steel. The walls had been cylinders once, and she could guess where they'd ended up.
"Ready to walk with the rest of us, fish?" Ryan asked, lowering one arm down towards her.
Ordinarily she would've been the last one out of the water, and found any excuse to learn what she could about whatever was inside. This time she took the offered hand eagerly, bracing against the wall to help him lift her free.
She panted, flipping the visor off her face and catching her breath. Her skin was red and splotchy, with peeling white patches like two-week-old sunburns.
Around them was the sort of destination they would've normally visited. They were near the side of a rail tunnel, with bricks and mortar worn down and paint faded beyond readability.
Kaelynn's urban explorer instincts kicked in, and her eyes jumped to the collapsed support beams and rusting steel to one side, where the bricks had deformed so much they finally collapsed in an impassable tunnel. Behind them the tunnel widened into the darkness, large enough that their flashlights only caught a few pillars.
"No track below us," Blake said. He sat beside the water, going through his saddlebags. "Not sure which abandoned tunnel this is. Any of you recognize it?"
No one answered in the affirmative. Kaelynn adjusted the straps on her shoulders, then started walking towards the opening. She fiddled with her headlamp as she went, and ignored Blake's call of protest. She hadn't been able to do this for a week now, she was sure as hell going to stretch her legs.
Ryan was the first to catch up with her, oversized flashlight in hand. "You sure we should be getting away from the others?"
"No," she answered, without slowing down. "But I don't know if we're going back yet. This is my first freedom from solitary confinement."
He nodded, then answered in a feeble whisper, "I'd trade with you. I can walk around just fine, but the others have some kinda... instinct. They're afraid of me, and it sucks."
"Afraid why?" she asked, not bothering to lower her voice nearly as much as he had. "Pretty sure you're the smallest one of all of us over there. Those fangs are like, maybe half an inch."
He shrugged. "Instinct, I'm guessing. We haven't had the time for an exhaustive study of how that world works. When it does happen, it probably won't be us. Maybe someone can go over the footage."
He fell silent as they reached the end of the tunnel, stepping out into a much larger space.
Columns rose to either side in a regular grid, with clear openings between them exactly large enough for a train to use.
To the left was a platform, covered in construction equipment. Or rather, it had been, maybe a century ago. Kaelynn could see an honest to god steam shovel parked on the path ahead of them, along with bundles of steel so rusted that red cascaded down from them in thick flakes.
The corpses were the worst, though.
Kaelynn wasn't superstitious, and she usually wasn't bothered by mysterious remains they sometimes stumbled into during their exploration. But there weren't usually so many in one place.
She grunted as she struggled up onto the platform, though the weight of the rebreather on her back meant she didn't make it up very high. But Ryan soon offered her a hand, helping her to her feet.
There were at least a dozen of them, maybe more. The moisture in the air had made short work of whatever they'd once looked like, leaving only vaguely-brown stained bits of cloth and bleached bone with only scraps of flesh.
Every one of them looked human, or as human as bones looked at a glance. She didn't feel much like getting closer.
Is there something in here with us, like last time? She dropped to one knee, glancing feverishly around the station. There were plenty of little places to hide behind pillars and equipment. Not to mention where one of the pillars had collapsed, taking down part of the ceiling with it. Her flashlight shone back against old bricks, catching fragments of words and old white paint.
"What's up there?" Blake asked from somewhere behind them. "Do you see the way up?"
"No," she answered. "Just corpses."
"The cat was right!" Jordan exclaimed, sounding like himself again. "People really did die here!"
Stats
Page generated in 0.042 seconds
Total duration
1,139 users online
1,864,109 hits today, 2,364,530 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
What are the odds there is an actual exit through this portal? Seems like they found a sealed tomb...
Kaelynn be like https://youtu.be/lPGipwoJiOM
I suspect Kaelynn would be having a considerably better time if they had ended up at Mount Aris instead of Klugetown (somehow). At least, she'd be able t really swim.
Looks like I was close with the subway tunnel comment. The question is what prompted such an abrupt abandonment... and if there's any escape. And, of course, whether the cart will still be there when they get back, which seems like the worst odds out of all of this.
10681968
This early into the story? Somewhere between 0% and impossible.
10681986
Could be a monster, could be legal reasons, could be the line that used it shutting down. Really, I think of these things, the monster is least likely.
Well that's ominous.
10681968
I'm guessing they've come into a sealed chamber that is inescapable. Best guess, most of those corpses are denizens of Klugetown or elsewhere that couldn't manage to swim back with unfamiliar human bodies. Just like everyone but Kaelynn would struggle to swim through (as pony, kirin, changeling) and wouldn't make it through on their own.
The good news, they lucked out and have Kaelynn to get them back through, and are more accustomed to swimming as humans since they are ordinarily human. So they have a good chance of just returning back the way they came. Hopefully no one steals her tank before they get back.
Ah, so the chamber is sealed. Lovely....
Someone get that poor girl a pearl.
There shouldn't be anything keeping the travelers from going back if it truly was a dead end. There might be another monster around.
He seems to be taking it in stride.
Remember where you parked.
I'd be interested in knowing what the truth was. We don't know how possible it is for multiple sapient species to evolve and coexist in the same planet. We don't even know if any sapient race present now are "native" to the planet. I'm guessing further studies into the various cultures would be needed. Particularly into wendigos. It's embedded into pony mythology. Perhaps you'd see some sort of flame wendigos in thestral myth too.
10681968
Would be a twist if it was. The next chapters would be them trying to become famous by convincing other people. Return trips to gather evidence or bring witnesses would keep it firmly in pony territory.
10681989
24k words still considered early? If only it was a "one-in-a-million" shot...
I guess that depends on the reason why there's a mass grave. If they were Earth humans, there are a few but not many reasons why the owners could or would not recover bodies and continue construction. If they were travelers... why didn't they go back if it was a dead end?
10682011
That's actual a good reason why the travelers couldn't return. Though Kludgetown residents are fairly anthropoid so I doubt it'd be too hard to adapt and they apparently all had enough skill getting out of the water. I don't know how quickly bones disintegrate in water or if the tunnel was more flooded before they got there but I'd probably expect more remains near or on the water.
10682091
Less based on word count, more based on the characters. We've only just finished fleshing them out, so there's been no real growth on their part. It could be that the story is about them then getting to Earth and then spreading word of this magical world and all of a sudden it's a first contact fic, which could be interesting in its own right, but everything we've seen so far has effectively said that this is an adventure story, so a quick resolution before any growth can occur is 'Early'. Convincing people will be relatively easy on account of the video evidence that they have, they'll be able to make a map of Paris underground, come back armed to deal with the monster, show it off once, and never go back because they're already famous for discovering it, why bother exploring it?
The fact that there's a subway tunnel here, which wouldn't be made until the early 1800s, means that the odds of these being natural born humans as opposed to transformed humans is quite low. If this many people keep disappearing in this one area, it does kind of lead to an armed response in that time frame. As for why travelers wouldn't go back, I think 10682011 nailed that one down pretty effectively. Without an aquatic transformation in the party, our heroes don't really get back across to Earth either.
Depends on the water, but generally at most a decade. Out of water and in a coffin, generally around a century. In fact, the fact that the corpses are even recognizable as human does suggest relatively recent use, within the past 50 or so years.
Everything so far would fit into an "Act I". There's plenty our group could still get involved in even if the initial problem is behind them. Though I'm guessing it might be hard to involve them when the portal would probably be SCP'd to hell once their claims start getting taken seriously. We'll just have to see what happens. Another monster is one thing but it would suck for them if this gate is simply unusable because of a stupid cave-in.
Changes would probably have to drastically affect the body plan. Kludgetown residents bodies are vaguely humanoid. They managed to swim in. If they weren't panicking a few hours of discipline, adaptation, and relearning could save them. There were survivors so it certainly happened. I just wonder why there were so few.
As bad as the town is, they probably should've stayed a bit longer and asked if there were any recent explorers that returned so they could inquire as to why. They entered recklessly blind even if they are experienced urban explorers.
Looks like they just entered the boss room.
Well the cat is an Abyssian. There are a lot of different species with both equine and humanoid body plans among sentients.
Loot the bodies. Or, if you document everything (they have the gear if their batteries are working) it becomes archaeology. If they were human , they’ll be carrying jewelry or coins or something that gives a clue as to where they came from. Also important to figure out cause of death. Bad air? Dehydration? Blunt trauma?
OK, so where are they? It must be closed up tightly, otherwise they would see graffiti if this World gate is supposed to connect to New York City. It must be closed up tightly, otherwise they would see graffiti if this World gate is supposed to connect to New York City. I googled looking for abandoned subway stations, none of these look like candidates.
https://ny.curbed.com/maps/nyc-subway-secret-tunnels
10682613
I suspect it's a bit older than the subway tunnels. Probably an old railway tunnel. Possibly one we haven't rediscovered yet, the last one we rediscovered was Cobble Hill tunnels in 1980.
The name in the chapter title, that's whos perspective we're viewing this from?
10682878
Yes, always.
An old, abandoned subway dig, or something like that? Neat.
Clearly the portal they used leads to a section of the New York subway that was sealed off many years ago. Pretty much what I expected and I was not the only one. Given how obvious it is that they wouldn't be able to go home through this portal I doubt any readers are surprised that this worldgate is no better than the one in Paris.
An abandoned New York subway tunnel? Well, they should be fine, just as long as they don't run into the dragon... They don't have a Book to bargain with.
Things happen in pairs in nature all the time. You're from a species that has two of a good deal of his organs, in the body of another species that also has two of a good deal of its organs.
10849079
And electrons have two spins. Probably.
Or ponies. It's possible theyw ere an exploration team and got killed by an identical monster.
I've been thinking a bit and what if equestria is the centre of the universe and not a blackhole
Rereading this, Chef's Kiss to this line.