Chronicles of an Unknown World - The Awakening

by Blue Blaze {COMET}

Chapter 7: Brash Instinct, Part 1

-CHAPTER 7: BRASH INSTINCT-

{*First-Person View, Main Character*}

On the road again.

The howling wind did nothing to calm Twilight's nerves, or mine for that matter. We were cold, tired and weak as the wreckage of Ponyville passed us. Entire plots of land were either completely destroyed, sucked up into the black hole from their roots or on fire from angry lightning strikes. On my right I could see the flames spread with the help of the sweeping air that ravaged the area. East Ponyville was steadily becoming an inferno of lost hearts and broken dreams. To my left were the empty shells of what were once homes for the pony folk. These building held warmth, love and hope once upon a time, but now they were just mere piles of wood, glass and ash.

The echo of our foot (or hoof) steps rang out into the open air. The sky couldn't have looked any darker, the pitch black storm clouds covering up the horizon. The hole of doom itself took up the direct center of the mess. It swirled and turned, occasionally devouring a tree or a piece of construction or two. What really creeped me out was the translucent mist that outline the edge of the giant vacuum, spiralling around it but yet not getting sucked in. It appeared to form some sort of barrier that defined the black hole better but did not prevent anything from getting pulled in. The way I looked at it, with the mist skimming the top and bottom of the hole yet connecting at two ends far away from the left and right side of the circle, it looked like a single eye. Yeah, an eye. The black hole itself was the iris and the mist was the outline of the eye socket.

And I could swear it was staring straight at me.

Twilight shivered under the bright purple glow of her horn, a sure sign that we were safe under the effects of her spell. Whether she shivered because of the freezing temperature or because the looming danger above us, I could not tell. What I could tell however was the fact that her stamina was draining at a substantial rate. Her pace lacked a sense of urgency, her head dipped slightly lower than normal and her hooves barely left the ground enough to take a step. I would offer a break, but there's nowhere safe that's within a one-hundred meter radius that we could stop at. Besides, it was her decision to keep moving, not mine, and considering she's the one who knows where everything is in Ponyville, it's best that she kept being the leader of the trek, of course me following not far behind.

Both of us opted not to talk. These kinds of situations are not for pleasant conversations, or any kind of conversation for that matter. It was just us, the black hole and the desolate landscape, which in a more positive view allowed me lots of time to think.

How long had the black hole been here? By the way Twilight has acted lately, I can conclude that it's not a re-occurring event. So when did it get here? Did it just appear out of nowhere? Something must have spawned the stupid thing, because there's no way such a dense ball of mass would appear out of thin air! Was it magic? Did magic have something to do with it appearing? I bet that there's some kind of 'dark' magic out there, and at this point I wouldn't be surprised if evil spells were at work here. I mean, if there was some kind of evil-doer out there, it would totally be in his best interest to create a black hole and destroy everything! Although, now that I think about it, It's kinda stereotypical, and doesn't make too much sense considering he or she doesn't get anything out of it. Well, unless I'm wrong and by ripping the ground apart the chaos will cause some kind of obscure prophecy to happen. I don't know. I don't want to think about it too much, because I have way too many things to worry about without adding 'foretold apocalypse ' to the list of items of concern, which, by the way, consists of 'getting to safety', 'finding food and water', and 'caring for Twilight'.

Twilight...

That poor girl really has been through a lot lately, hasn't she? She virtually lost everyone she held dear to that stupid black hole, including Rarity and Pinkie Pie. Those three were close, weren't they? Twilight risked her life to save Pinkie and beat herself up for not saving Rarity... And what's more to come for her? More pain? More suffering? Where's Fluttershy and Applejack? Have they lost their lives to the vacuum too? I have no idea, and once again, I don't want to think about it.

Gah, none of them deserve this! Not Applejack, not Fluttershy, not Rarity, not Pinkie Pie! They all should have lived a prosperous life, not find their end in the middle of a cosmic anomaly! In fact, the rest of Ponyville shouldn’t have had this fate! This is a fate worse than death! To know that not only your life is going to end but possibly the rest of the world’s, that’s just horrible! This is bullshit! If someone was responsible for this atrocity and I find him or her, I’m gonna kick their ass to the next dimension! For all the ponies that were lost! For Twilight, Rarity and Pinkie Pie!

Pinkie Pie...

I bet there was more to her than meets the eye. She was pretty hyper and random, the way she popped out of nowhere upside-down. She could talk very fast too. She spoke her mind but respected Twilight when she was told to be quiet. Then she just sat there with the utmost obedience! Obviously she was some kind of genius, and granted she might have been a tad bit annoying at the Sugarcube Corner, but otherwise she had a very pleasant and upbeat personality! Yes she did.

...

...

...Jeez, is that ALL I know of Pinkie Pie? I mean, come on, I just barely met her, yet now she's dead, meaning I'll never get to know the rest of her! In fact, I'll never get to know Rarity or Sweetie Belle or anyone else who has died! For the moment I'm mostly concerned about Pinkie Pie, because she definitely had something going on behind the scenes. That question that she asked about Twilight and I threw me for a loop for a second or two, but there was some kind of meaning behind her words! Furthermore, it was like she knew when the black hole was going to act up again, because she plain out disappeared as soon as it hit! Did she know, or was it dumb coincidence? And if she did know, how?

I have no idea, and will never find out at any rate.

We were walking for a straight ten minutes. I had no idea where Twilight wanted to head next, but where ever it was it certainly wasn't close by. Never the less, I kept my mouth shut from complaining, since she was the leader and had a better idea of the scope of Ponyville. As the blowing winds occupied the otherwise eerie, quiet landscape, I sensed a large, shiny object in the corner of my eye. Turning my head left, I spotted a very strange sight not too far off from our location.

From what I could tell, it was a huge building completely made of metal. A great mechanical door was placed on a big, rectangular infrastructure, with two circular chambers sticking out of both sides of the building. The main section was very tall compared to the rest of the town’s houses. There were at least three, maybe four stories to the metal beast. Several circular windows adorned the outside walls. They kinda looked like windows you would see on an old submarine: compact in design, but solid and resistant to the outdoor elements. At the direct center of the building was a single tower, build not taller than six stories but still had to be a fantastic vantage point. A single circular window stuck out of the tower like some kind of glass pimple. It was round on the outside, and appeared to be a small extra room that was made of glass. At the top of the tower were two things. First, a flag that showed both a sun and moon circling each other on a black and white background, and second, many speakers that pointed in all directions. Inside the glass room I could slightly see a silhouette surveying the area who might have been spying on us.

"Uh, Twilight?" I begin, tapping on the mare's shoulder to get her attention. "What's that building over there?"

"Hmm?" she hummed, craning her head to where I was pointing at. I saw her face lit up with a smile and a sudden flare of energy. "Oh! That's Lockdown's house!"

"Who?" I asked.

"He's an old stallion that's been living here in Ponyville for quite a long time now. He has a severe case of paranoia and always ranted about the 'end of the world', and how it was coming closer and closer every day. As such, he fortified his house with several metal plates, walls and added extra rooms just in case he needed to hide an entire town in his 'safety bunker' as he called it. According to... Rarity... he had everything one would need to survive in an apocalypse, including a power generator, a cellar full of food, a giant refrigerator and plumbing!" she explained, clearly proud of her knowledge. "Everypony in town thought the old timer was crazy, including me-but I still kept a more open mind than everypony else!" she hastily added to her point, causing my eyebrow to rise in suspicion. "All his preparation must be why it's still the only standing structure in Ponyville! He must have drilled every piece of the entire building together so that they wouldn't fly apart! Heh, I kinda find it ironic that he was the crazy one, and yet he still was right in the end." the unicorn finished, a small blush of embarrassment flushing her cheeks. I rolled my eyes while she took a step in that direction. "I can't believe that I forgot about his house! We must head there right away!"

I nodded. "Ok."

As I got up from kneeling, the wind picked up once again. My shirt flapped like crazy as a chill ran down my spine. The sensation of panic left my being when I felt my weight move several dozen pounds lighter, sweeping me off my feet. I lifted off the earth by several feet before the gravity turned itself back on, causing my butt to be the landing padding. I grunted and got to my feet, annoyed that such a random thing would happen like that. Suddenly, the purple sorceress in front of me barely took two steps before she collapsed, her horn flickering for a moment.

"Whoa, are you ok?" I said, concerned and lowering myself to see if she was or not. On her knees, she grunted and looked up at me.

"Yeah, I'm ok," she answered, placing her hooves on the ground. "The gravitational pull from the black hole skyrocketed all of the sudden. I had to adjust for overall magical output, and ended up overcompensating."

She sighed.

"I'm just tired."

And tired she looked. Not only the huge dark circles under her eyes were a sure sign, but also the fact that when she tried to get up, her strength failed her and she just fell back to the ground again.

"We need to get to safety as soon as possible. Can you walk?" I asked, helping her to her hooves and supporting her weight until her legs stopped wobbling.

"Ye-yes, I can. Just give me a second."

Standing upright, she teetered a bit as if she lost her balance. Getting steady with her center of gravity, she winced and exhaled a breath she was holding. She continued to look up and me, nod and start walking to our next destination. Getting about thirty meters from the building, I noticed the silhouette in the tower move about, as if something was going inside the building. I took the possibility that she saw us and was taking some kind of action. I grew nervous, wondering if she would consider us hostile and give us an ultimatum or something.

"Twilight! Get into the building! Quick!" a voice coming from the tower speakers echoed.

Twilight's jaw dropped and her vision scanned upwards. "Carrot Top? Is that you?"

"Yes! You're in danger out there! I'll tell Time Turner to open the door, just hurry!"

We approached the entrance as a slightly faster pace. "What are you doing up there?" Twilight queried.

"Lockdown told me to keep an eye out for stragglers!" she cheerfully responded, her tone doing a complete one-eighty. Isn't 'stragglers' a rude way to put it?

Just then, there was a flash of lightning, quickly followed by an ear-splitting thunderclap. I heard a huge gasp through the speakers, then a high-pitched squeal as this 'Carrot Top' smacked her microphone. My palms immediately went to cover my ears while Twilight's ears folded back. We both flinched as the annoyance carried volume throughout the area.

"Twilight, there's a huge ugly monster behind you! Run!" she cried, her voice more urgent than last time.

"What?" I spoke out loud. The both of us turned around to see nothing. "What is she talking about?"

An abrupt increase of air pressure caused Twilight to moan and collapse once more. I grabbed her side and hefted her up. She appeared to be in a daze, and sparks were flying out of the slowly diminishing light of her horn. That could not be a good sign. I saw that that the huge mechanical door of Lockdown's house creaked open, a welcoming sight indeed.

Repeating Carrot Top's instructions, I yelled "RUN!" at the top of my lungs.

We both started sprinting. The scenery around us was a blur as we closed the twenty-five meter gap in a few seconds. If I didn't know any better, my feet were leaving the ground as we ran, which could have been all possible if Twilight's spell was wearing off as fast as I thought. The two of us dove through the entrance and landed in a heap in what appeared to be a small circular chamber. The door behind us quickly shut, leaving a loud *CLANK* over the tiny room. I took a few breaths, knowing that for the first time in two hours, I got a break.

We were safe.

Comments

[chavis54]

for now....MWUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHaa