A Journey Unthought Of: Revival of Chaos

by Hustlin Tom

Chapter 45 - Tia, Serana, Lyra Hearstrings, The Conductor

Tia awoke with a gasp when her head was banged against a cool metal floor. As she shook her head to dissipate the numb pain there, she felt something binding her hands behind her back, something that was just as cold and metallic as the floor. What sort of shackles were these that were so small yet so strong? She began to twist her body into a sitting position, when she found that just beside her was a bench she could rest on. Since her legs were not bound, she easily got up from the place where she had been unceremoniously tossed and sat down. On the opposite side of the metal container was an identical bench, which was where Serana sat. The young woman was staring at her fellow passenger with the same mix of fear and wonder that she had had a few hours previous.

“Are you alright?” Tia asked as she got up and approached the blonde hair woman, “You’re not hurt, are you?”

“Stay back!” Serana hurriedly yelled in a panic.

Confused, Tia stopped where she stood, only to be jolted back onto her bench by the force of the truck going through a pothole.

"Who are you?” Serana asked in fright, as she began to curl up onto the bench into a fetal position.

Tia now began to wonder that herself; strange half remembered concepts, shattered memories, and skills that appeared out of nowhere only made her feel more frustrated with herself for her inability to remember. In the moments before she had been rendered comatose, she had felt powerful. She had known that she was in control of the situation, and that if need be she could have taken her three opponents all at once. What sort of a person was she indeed?

“I don’t know,” she truthfully replied, unsure if she could even trust her own perceptions of herself.

“No good deed goes unpunished,” Serana shook her head as she began to laugh through her oncoming tears, “I do the right thing, sticking my neck out for someone else like a good person should, and it just so happens that I helped the female version of Jason Bourne.”

“Who is Jason Bourne?” Tia asked in confusion. When Serana didn’t answer, Tia tried changing the subject, “Is this sort of situation normal? What crime have we committed that they would respond like this?”

Serana looked up at Tia as if she had sprouted a second head, and began to slowly cry, “No, this isn’t normal! How could this be anything close to normal?! They think we’re terrorists! I don’t know what the hell you’ve done, but me? A terrorist? The worst crime I’ve ever committed was underage drinking and misfiling my taxes!” She then buried her head between her legs and covered her head with her hands, “All I did was help you, and now I don’t know if I’ll ever see my family again. What will my dad and sister think? Will they even be told I was taken, or will they just assume I disappeared?”

Tia didn’t know what to say as Serana poured out her heart to her. She didn’t even really know what to think. What sort of a country was this, that people were taken off the streets in large unmarked carriages without trial or right to see family? The injustice of the situation made her blood boil for her friend.

“I don’t know if this has anything to do with something I’ve done,” Tia admitted, before she continued with a firm tone of voice, “but I will do everything I can to make sure no punishment falls on you for this.”

“You can’t promise that,” Serana replied quietly, “We don’t know where we’re going, what they’ll do to us, or-“

“That doesn’t matter. It’s very clear that they want me for something, so maybe we have some bargaining power. If that’s true, do you trust me to get the both of us out of this?”

Serana once again looked up into Tia’s eyes, and was surprised by how brilliantly violet they were. She couldn’t remember if they had always been that way, or if she was just imagining it, but Tia’s eyes seemed as if they had seen everything. It was as if the wisdom they now appeared to have had been earned by countless years of life, rather than as some sort of innate gift.

Even if she was somewhat comforted by Tia’s confidence, she still had her doubts. Nevertheless, she responded with a little of her returning wit, “Alright. I guess if even you don’t know who you are, that’s some advantage too, isn’t it?”

“That’s the spirit!” Tia smiled softly.

The truck began to slow, which got both of their attention very quickly, and came to a stop. After a few moments, the truck began to move again, but at a much slower pace than before.

“I think we’re here,” Serana whispered, her fearfulness returning to her in just a moment’s notice.

“I think you’re right,” Tia murmured back.

While she had played her part to Serana well, she too was nervous about whatever place they were going, and it sat in her stomach like some bizarre mixture of butterflies and boiling lead.

With one last muffled screech, the truck came to its final stop.

The compartment began to fill with a deep hissing sound, and gas plumbed from both the floor and the ceiling. There was nothing the two of them could do as they slowly fell over onto their respective benches, knocked out by the now fully saturated air. The back doors of the truck opened, and soldiers in large padded suits and gas masks extracted the two passengers.

“Put blondie in a holding cell: the amazon is the one that needs immediate examination,” the senior agent commented to Agent Kowalski. As he walked a few paces away from the large truck’s back doors, he radioed to his superior, “Madame Executor? Team Bravo is in house. The mission was a success. We’re awaiting your orders on what to do with the Heisenberg source.”

“Excellent work, Agent Thompson,” the woman’s voice purred over his comm unit, “Deliver it to examination suite Beta. Prepare Gamma suite as well.”

“Ma’am?”

“A third source has been found, and it is approaching us as we speak. Since it seems to be appearing in response to our collection of the first two, we will allow it to come to us. Have your team ready. We expect it to arrive within the hour.”

“Yes Ma’am. Will do. Thompson out.”

The agent then cued his comm unit off, before turning back to see Kowalski load the mysterious woman onto a restraining gurney, “Take her to Beta and prep Gamma: there’s another one headed right for us, and we’re expected to handle it!”

“Yes sir!” she barked back as she wheeled the gurney into two revolving doors not too far off.

Agent Sanders, now sporting a bandage over his nose, moved the second woman with the help of another agent towards the same set of doors.

“Keep the guards on the perimeter alert but subtle; no sirens or alerts,” Thompson spoke into his mic, “We’re giving the guests a welcome mat, we’re not scaring them off if we can help it.”

From the many guards and agents on and around the compound, the only reply made was a simple but sufficient, “Sir!”

---

Lyra’s eyes slowly opened. Though she wasn’t aware of it, her body was laid down on a restrained gurney, and she was being physically examined for the way that she was able to produce her magic. What her mind was experiencing, on the other hand, was something completely foreign to her.

When the dizziness had faded and she was able to stand up, unsurprised by her mental projection being that of her old equine form, she was met with a strange sight. A circular staircase made of solid blue crystal stood before her, which led to a small dais surrounded by gilded ivory columns. There was no source of light to illuminate the surrounding area; the blue glow was flowing from out of the crystal beneath her hooves. She ascended the stairway slowly, her steps lighting her way, and as she approached the center of the crystalline ring, portions of the floor grew upward until they formed a large basin. While she couldn’t actively see anyone in this odd place, she felt some sort of presence was very nearby.

“Hello,” she called out with hesitancy.

“Hello, Lyra Heartstrings,” a voice called out to her mind.

“How do you know my name?” she asked as she whirled her head around suspiciously, trying to catch a glance of her unseen host, “Why did you bring me here? Who are you?”

“I know your name, Child of Destiny, because I was present at your birth,” the voice seemed to sigh with age, “I have seen every moment of your life, and have brought you into rhythm with my designs. I am the Conductor of Equestria’s fate, and I have brought you here to enlist your aid.”

A trickling sound filled the air, and water poured from a place Lyra couldn’t see into the crystal bowl before her without a splash, “Look into the vessel, and know.”

Lyra stepped forward and placed her hooves on the edge of the large basin. The waters seemed to seethe in response to her presence, and it began to display images. The first was of an angrily boiling red cloud of energy.

“Discord, when he was first allowed corporeal life by humankind’s folly, was unfathomably powerful. The universe felt his power over all probability and trembled. Two humans with foresight found a means of limiting his power, but still it was not enough.”

Images flew past Lyra’s eyes in a rush, all of which she somehow instantly comprehended; the Canterlot wedding, the ‘death’ and rebirth of Celestia, the descent of Equestria into factions and madness, and the growing group for neutrality forming in Ponyville.

“Bon Bon?” Lyra gawked in disbelief as she saw her one time wallflower of a roommate uniting multitudes of ponies under a banner of harmony. “Unbelievable,” she laughed, “from humble candy maker to Neigh Guevara. Looks like you’ve been busy!”

“This is merely the past and the present from your perspective,” the Conductor declared, “The future is more nebulous and of paramount concern to us both.”

A faint blue light appeared beside Lyra, who was startled by its sudden appearance, “In the face of Discord’s mad quest for eternal and unsustainable chaos, our universe screamed for order: I am the answering call.” The ball of light slowly flew in front of Lyra’s face, “I am capable of seeing the events of our world, however I cannot directly influence it until my power is made stronger, otherwise Discord would sense my presence and snuff me out. This is why I have brought you and the Princesses here, beyond his senses; you will be my agents in the coming apocalypse.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on,” Lyra waved her forehooves and stopped, “ ‘Agents’? ‘apocalypse’? Isn’t Discord still stuck in stone?”

“Temporarily,” the ball of light grimly proclaimed, “But the strife created by the unrest in Equestria is amplifying his power, allowing him to make his prison more pliable, while also weakening the power of the Elements of Harmony.”

Lyra’s pupils shrunk, and she fell on to her backside, “Horseapples.”

“Until such time as I have amassed enough cosmic presence, the possibility of my mantling's failure remains high.”

The crystal basin boiled furiously once again, and images of an Equestria divided began to show. A wilderness of clashing neon zigzags decorated the landscape, and geysers of burning chlorine erupted from the earth.

“Oh my Celestia,” Lyra whispered in horror.

“If we do not succeed in making sure Discord remains within his prison, this could be all that is left of our home.”

She looked back up at the ball of energy and pleaded, “Please tell me you have a plan for stopping this.”

It chuckled, “I am a being of Order: of course I have a plan. I will still need your promise that when the time comes you will act as I need you too.”

“I’ll do it,” Lyra nodded as she stared back down into the basin’s prediction of the future, “Anything to prevent this awful world from happening.”

“Have a care when you choose your words,” the Conductor cautioned, “We may yet have to sacrifice much to see this victory through, and the cost could be beyond our imagining.”

Comments

[Alan Smithee]

My dialogue is blue because I smoked too much