> Reality Hits you Hard > by TheFIMguru > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter one: An Ordinary Day in an Ordinary World... Or not > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter one, An Ordinary Day in an Ordinary World… Or not… Bliss... Content... Just floating in an open space... No immediate cause for concern... A place where the mind can simply wander... Oh look, there’s my brother and... Flames... So many flames... Fire... So much destruction... Sheets of metal flying in all directions and... Maniacal laughter... Soul-piercing red and yellow eyes... Laughter... I’m falling... I’m falling... I’m falling... “Oi wanker, get up!” My wake-up call from my loving brother right there... I rolled over to embrace my scabby blanket and murmured a muffled “Bugger off” into my pillow, only to have the whole set torn away from me moments later. “Come on, Dad wants you to get up and pack, you’ve already slept in too much” ‘Ah shit’, I thought, rolling over to greet the murky-pink wall of our run-down cabin. ‘I don’t wana get up yet... I’ma try and weasel out of this one.’ “Is it past noon yet?” I asked innocently. “It’s eleven thirty” “Huh, that means a good thirty more minutes in bed then” I thought, and began to formulate a cunning plan. Phillip sighed and stalked across the dusty guest room of my parents’ new ‘house’ to complete a new personal goal. I realised what was about to happen too late. Zzzzzsht! “AAAARHG!” Philip had released one of the blinds from its holster, sending it sky-high again and the mid-day sun to shoot straight into my skull to wrestle with my brain. It won too, and left me powerless to fall to the floor and whimper in pain. “Up” He said, dumping the blanket back on the broken bed “Now” I finally decided it would be best to get up, not because Philip asked me to, but because the floor was freezing cold concrete.. “So, how much longer do we have before we have to get ready?” “... You’re not ready yet?” I gave a quick shake of the head before attempting to find some clothing. “You idiot, Dad booked a two-thirty flight, so we’ll be setting off any minute now” “Really? Shit.” I cursed as I found a shirt and put it on. “God damn, he could have at least booked an overnight flight, that way we wouldn’t be wasting a day traveling” “Yeah, I thought that too. Ho hum, a holiday’s a holiday I suppose, quit complaining about it and get your act together” He said, jabbing me in the ribs and knocking me down to the floor again while I tried to pull on my trousers. Once again, soft, tender face-flesh made contact with stone-cold flooring and a dozen more obscenities were spat out at my brothers expense. Giving a quick wave and a mocking laugh, Philip took his leave and shuffled around the broken door to go about his business. Once I had finally found enough fabric to expel the cold, I reached for the frayed towel on my coat-hanger and and grumbled about my abuse as I began to shamble my way down the creaky stairs to the bathroom for a quick shower and a shave. ***** It didn’t take long for me to get ready after that, I packed two pairs of denim shorts, three shirts, a jacket and some shades in my clothes suitcase and the family’s toiletries in another before finally stepping outside the cabin to join my family at the car. My parents had only just recently moved to this place, they used to own a great big triple storied semi-detached house in a quaint little village on the coast of North-Yorkshire that they raised us in, but since they retired and we moved out, they decided there was no point in maintaining such a large house anymore, and sold it to move off to an area of Northumberland bordering on Scotland. The new house itself was a shit-hole, it was just a ramshackle little shack that was being sold off for next to nothing, but the view… I turned to the new view and sighed a happy sigh. “I’ll never get tired of seeing that…” I said to myself. To the right of me there was nothing but a giant moors full of deep maroon heather stretching off into the distance, gradually climbing its way up the side of a small mountain in the background, and to the left there was a stream that cascaded over the edge of a cliff just half a mile away, into the deep blue abyss that was the ocean. I watched some absent-minded pigeons idly drift by on the breeze as I pulled on my baseball-boots. One of the very few things that truly made me happy was that view. Every time my brother and I would be bowled over when we came to say hi to the folks, their surroundings were absolutely stunning when it was nice outside, which trust me, wasn’t usual… Bloody English weather... I bade the scenery goodbye and heaved my suitcases over to the awaiting Land-Rover to start the journey. It only took us two hours before we reached the airport, and it didn’t even take ten minutes before we could board the plane. It was probably the nicest plane I had been on actually, we were travelling second class so the sides of the chairs were furnished and squeaky clean, there was a well-stocked refreshments trolley and I had a television showing some daft comedy about gangsters to keep me amused. As the plane began to take off I decided to see what my family were up to. I looked over at my brother; his curly brown locks of hair were bouncing up and down as he furiously mashed the touch-screen of his Nintendo DS, I looked at mum; she was straightening out her flowery blouse as she read a book, I looked at dad… His glasses were askew and he was snoring his head off. With that unsurprising development I decided to wander off to the back of the plane to use the lav, though unfortunately for me, there was someone already in there, so I was forced to wait for a minute. In the time spent waiting, I decided to have a look through one of the circular windows at the miniature world below. For the second time that day I was greeted with yet another stunning view. Down below me was the beautiful north coast of France littered by thousands of yachts and speedboats, so small that they appeared to be naught but dazzling streaks of colour skimming off the surface of a small pond reflecting the brilliant crystal-blue of the sky. My awe-stricken frame of mind was suddenly shattered as the door to the toilet behind me was forcefully kicked open and the previous user made eye-contact with me. “Uh… you might want to use the other one, give this one time to air out a bit…” He said giving me an apologetic grimace. “…Nice” I muttered back, frowning at the very sudden call out from my blissful trance. The man seemed to be amused by my response and chuckled as he mosied on over to his seat back in the main corridor of the plane. I frowned in his general direction once more as I went over to the opposite toilet and waited for the next occupant to relieve himself of his cargo, then jumped in and locked the door as soon as he came out. As I unzipped my trousers and faced the dull grey plastic bowl of the toilet I noticed that there was a speaker behind my head playing some daft elevator music. As I did my business I whistled to the oddly familiar tune and drummed the beat out on my crotch, when suddenly the plane jerked to the side, causing me to lose my aim and piss up the side of the wall, an act of shameful inadequacy that would torture me for decades to come. What the hell is going on!? I thought as I reached for a wad of toilet-paper to mop up the spillage. As I bent over my trousers slipped down around my ankles, greatly restricting my movement and forcing my to shuffle awkwardly across the cramped cubicle space. After another series of violent shudders I finally managed to grab the loo-roll that was required and gave a short cry of victory as I gripped it in my fist, which immediately turned into a shocked cry of disgust as my head was slammed against the piss-stained wall by yet another dreadful shake of the aircraft's fuselage. I was now utterly dazed and confused, draped across the toilet with my trousers laying abandoned on the floor, grimacing as the plane worsened my mood and began to make horrible groaning and screeching noises that only a metal structure can pull off. I was terrified, I was so scared that I’m sure I would have wet myself if I hadn’t just sprayed the whole bloody cubicle, and was holding onto the U-bend of the plastic lavatory for dear life. For the seventh time the airliner threw me violently into the wall, which was heavily damaged by now could no longer take the beating it was receiving. I shot straight through it and collided with a rather large man with a fantastic ginger beard who managed to catch me. “Holy fucking shit, are you ok?” I had landed on him in an awkward fashion and was unable to speak due to a mouthful of man-boob. Time seemed to stand still and all heads snapped towards the side of the plane as a colossal groan came from the right wing. Plates of aluminium were tearing themselves free and were crashing against the sides of the fuselage. “Holy shit…” Someone near the front murmured as the plane rapidly discombobulated around us. I looked over to my mum on the other side of the plane and she looked back at me. Panic stricken, she opened her mouth to speak… And then the whole right wing came off. ‘Shit.’ The plane started to decline, spinning wildly out of control and the people who weren’t in their seats were thrown in all directions. My eyes began to shoot around the room and my terrified and bewildered mind began to focus on one small situation at a time. I watched as all mouths opened and gave a collective scream as chaos took over and made carnage of everything around. I watched as the stewardess shot down the planes centre and smashed head-first into a large metal bar at the other end of the room, her jaw splintering through the front of her face. I watched as a sandwich cart came hurtling towards my direction and wedged itself into the chest of the man that had just saved me, and I watched as his ribs caved inwards and blood splattered up the side of my neck and all over the already horrendously abused toilet cubicle. The plane flipped in its constantly accelerating free-fall and II was thrown into the side of the plane, smashing my head against someone elses and began to hyperventilate as my visual and auditory senses were completely shattered. Everything was muffled and images began to blur into one. I noticed the horribly disfigured body of the recently deceased stewardess drift idly past me and was immediately brought me back to my senses as the horrible grinding noise sounded once more. The plane was being torn in half by the sheer scale of the forces applied to it, and I watched as a dark crack in the roof got bigger, and bigger, and bigger. My eyes became as wide as dinner plates as I realised what would happen next, with so much oxygen being inside the plane and so little in the thin atmosphere outside, the laws of physics state that- SCHHHHROP! Yep. The contents of the plane were all sucked outside by immeasurably large forces, screaming women and children, hollering men, and hundreds of miscellaneous large, painful objects to collide with. I was outside the plane now. The shock of that little fact right there was so ridiculously difficult to comprehend that bits of my brain were beginning to shut down. I was screwed. The force of the air whipping my face was making my eyes stream as I tried to look around me. There were corpses everywhere. Absolutely everywhere, it was an experience that will haunt my dreams for the rest of my life, my face contorted with horror as I watched all the dead and the live people all falling with me. The wind was tearing at my face so much that each individual nerve felt like it was in a vice, the pain was almost impossible as I made that remaining thirty-thousand foot journey to the solid ground below. I was now travelling so fast that I couldn’t breathe, the air was smashing down my windpipe and startling my respiratory system, forcing me to make a mid-air manoeuvre to make sure I was falling backwards. I looked up just in time to watch as an enormous hand ascended into the clouds with a chuckle, and just before it disappeared it flickered and became a huge lion’s paw while the laugh changed tone. The panic, the fear, the physical strain on my body, it was all killing me; my heart felt like it was going to explode, my limbs felt like they were going to decouple from my torso and my brain just simply wasn’t working as it should, I was very clearly dying. I couldn’t do anything anymore, I just looked at the wreckage of the plane as it swirled around manically and swatted the majority of the objects and people in the air aside, letting the action send me hurtling off in a different direction. As I faced the ground and my impending doom once more, morbid thoughts began to claw their way into my brain. 'Oh fuck… This is it… I’m really gonna die…' I attempted to flatten myself out to reduce the rate I fell, but then… 'What’s the point?' I thought. 'If I do that it just means living off more borrowed time. More borrowed time living in perpetual fear.' It was the end and I knew it. I began to cry. I wept as I pulled my arms to my side and straightened myself out to fall head-first and speed towards my demise. The G-forces was stupendously powerful, my shirt was tearing, my boxers were slipping off and my left shoe left me to collide with the face or another corpse with so much power the poor buggers head was nearly torn off. With only approximately seven and a half thousand feet left to fall my concentration was brought back to the Earth, and I watched as the ocean and the massive expanse of green land came up to meet me. It was coming too close too fast now, I was feeling the heat on my face, burning me up. My vision was starting to change as I carried on falling downwards, colours started swimming around my head and the depressing thoughts resurfaced once more. 'Are my parents already dead? Is my brother dead too, or can they all see me plummeting towards my doom?' For their sake I hoped they were dead. I hoped they were dead so that they didn’t have to live through what I had to, I hoped they were dead so that they didn't have to watch their son they had poured over twenty years of love into impact the ground. I was tantalisingly close now, so close to the accursed end of the living hell I was experiencing I was almost excited. The colours continued to swim around my head, more and more adding to the insanely vibrant spectrum before my eyes. It was just a half a mile before my imminent doom on the rocky land below before the colours became too much for me to process, it hurt my brain to process the images I was receiving. I closed my eyes again in a futile attempt at trying to get them to leave. This was it… Five… Four… Three… Two… One… I felt like I was being pulled through a plughole limb by limb. I had to look now. My last chance to see the world before I leave it for good. All I could see was a kaleidoscope of seizure inducing colour swirling around my head, and then, finally… Ground. > Chapter two: Dead..? > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter two; Dead? Running... Staggering through a maze... Blood... I’m covered in blood... Searching... Searching... Searching... Why am I here..? Where is here..? Agony... Pain... Immeasurable pain... I looked down at my wounds... My arms were practically lacerated... My leg.. Splintered... My chest... Horrendously large slashes all over my chest... But that wasn’t it... The pain was coming from somewhere else... Deep deep down... Searching... Searching... Searching... Red and yellow eyes... Soul piercing red and yellow eyes... Searching... I woke up with a start but kept my eyes closed. I woke... I woke up!? My eyes shot open and span in their sockets. ‘Where the hell am I?’ As my brain calmed down and my heart started to pump blood again I began to take notice of my surroundings. A meadow. A massive expanse of glittering green grass covered in trees with raindrops hanging off them like perfect, tiny little Christmas decorations, glittering in the sunlight and reflecting the brilliant blue sky. This was new... I grunted as my the rest of my senses came to. I could hear the wind whistling in the emerald-green trees and the distant cry of far away birds. I relished in the smell of damp grass and gripped it in my fists... That was until my fingers sprang apart again from the pain. Only now did I think to look at myself instead of everything else, and I was horrified by what I saw. As my eyes slowly drifted down my broken frame the most noticeable difference was the bone splintering through my left leg and collarbone. On a normal day that would have made me pass out in an instant, however, today was was anything but, so I continued to stare at myself in a horrified trance. I was simply unable to tear my eyes away from the disgusting sight before me as more injuries slowly came into focus. My right knee-cap was screwed, absolutely screwed. Plates of bone had split and drifted apart from each other, a third of the remains had remained where it was, but the other two segments had slid down either side of my leg. My wrist was shattered, more visible bone was puncturing my flesh and allowing my precious bodily fluids to escape, all of this was terrible, absolutely horrendous, but the headache... I don’t even think it could be labeled as a headache it was that bad. Imagine having bricks replacing your brain and being shaken by the worlds strongest man until they crack open your skull from the inside-out. Imagine being strapped onto a gong and being thrown down an infinitely long flight of stairs until your ears bleed, and then some. Imagine having the world’s worst hangover, but the party’s still going on inside your head. Only the whole of the local police force turned up… And joined in. It was so bad that I couldn't even concentrate on anything for more than a couple of seconds; my vision would fade in and out showing me brief glimpses of sunlight while my ears would catch the occasional snippet of audio. It was as infuriating as much as it was terrifying. The panic was setting in once more, and I could feel my sanity draining even faster than my blood as I began to frantically spin my head in all directions to try and find someone, anyone who could help. I couldn’t make anything out anymore, my vision was slipping away again and my ears were loosing their responsiveness once more. There was nothing more that I could do. I relaxed the muscles in my neck and let my head fall to the floor again, allowing tears to flow freely down my cheeks. I had given up on everything. I had lay my head down to wait for death, but life decided to have one last pop at me. ‘SNAP!!’ My body was shocked into working again as I gazed confused into the great towering trees above me and noticed an orange and pink something plummeting faster than a meteor straight towards me. I screamed as I braced myself for impact just before it landed on my left shoulder, millimetres away from my head, worsening the condition of my collarbone as more shards of white splintered out of my upper-chest staining the ground and spraying the poor creature with my blood. “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhoooowww!!!” The orange and pink something shot away and screamed back at me, clearly equally terrified, but just before I could finish screaming and ask it for help, another two snaps echoed through the startled and otherwise silent air. As I raised my head to the sky once more, my vision grew darker still. In my dazed and petrified state it took a good couple of seconds realise what was about to happen again. “Thud, thud!!!” I didn’t even feel the impact as more bone broke the surface of my skin, sending more of my blood into the sky to plaster itself across the nearby trees the two new foreign creatures, nor did I flinch when they both screamed in unison with the first. I could no longer control myself again and was fading back into a state of unconsciousness. I no longer cared. I just wanted it to end. I just wanted to escape from this living hell and cut myself free from my mortal coil. I just wanted it to end. ***** Poke… Poke poke… Poke poke poke poke poke poke… Slap! “AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!” My eyes snapped open, dilated and and frenzied, trying to find something close enough to be able to properly focus on. My whole body was quivering in a spasmodic fashion, violet covering the whole of my body. As the purple force intruded upon my body I gave another agonised scream and arched my back, thrashing around trying to free myself, yet I met no friction of any sort and came into contact with nothing but air. It felt like an invisible force was delving into every orifice, oozing into my body, ripping parts of me apart and stitching others together, and then... Nothing... It all stopped. The first thing I saw after that experience I lashed out at, wildly throwing half-punches at a wave of blonde, bellowing out a war-cry until the previous mysterious force pinned my arms by my side and my arse to the floor. “Now ah did NOT expect that” ‘Holy shit, that’s a persons voice! I’m saved! I tried to cry for help but my jaw was slammed shut again. “Uh Twi, what’n the hay IS that thing?” ‘What? What’s there? I can’t see anything!’ “I’m not sure Applejack, I mean, I’ve never seen anything like it before!” ‘A second persons voice! But... What are they talking about?’ “Twilight, I don’t like this one little bit, really, I’m scared... Why was is hurt so bad... What could actually DO that to somepony!?” “I DON’T KNOW APPLEJACK!” ‘That didn’t sound too friendly... Are these people really hear to help me? Oh fucking hell, I’ve been kidnapped!’ “Twilight, I’ve gotta go get the girls and Spike, this is really bucking creeping me out now. Can you manage this thing by yourself..?” There was no reply. “... Twilight, what’re y'all thinking, I know that face and I don’t wana be around when you use it.” ‘Ok, this sounds bad.’ “I’m going to release it and see what it does” “EXCUSE ME!?” ‘This sounds really bad, I’m gonna fucking die’ “Twilight, don’t you DARE! Didja see what happened to mah sister!? She’s covered in blood, gosh darn it! You let that thing out and I’ll cave it’s Celestia damned head in!” “WE HAVE NO CHOICE! The sheer amount of energy I’ve used attempting to heal whatever this... This THING is, has left me completely empty, if I keep this up for much more than a minute I’ll pass out!” ‘They really are talking about me, aren’t they?’ “Twilight, I swear upon my Grandpappy’s grave, if it tries to hurt us again ahm gonna splatter its brains all over the meadow” ‘Thud!’ I was on the floor again with my back against the tree that had hurt me so badly just moments ago, trying to work out my next move... I had just had my life threatened. Twice. ‘Do I risk it and run for freedom?’ I knew I couldn’t just simply lie there forever, I had to face my captives at one point. I fearfully began to open my eyes a crack, just to get the basic outline of the two people before me. As my vision began to clear up I noticed they were both standing firm at the other ten feet away and that they were... Aliens? My eyelids allowed me to open them fully and stare at the one closest to me... She was... Purple. There was an honest to god purple alien standing right in-front of me, and we were just looking at each-other, taking in as many details as we could manage. It had enormous dinner-plate amethyst eyes, four oddly proportioned legs with no visible knees, ankles or feet, silky-smooth purple fur wrapped around it’s whole body and a giant horn poking out of its forehead. As my continued to stare at the... Unique sight in front of me, my brain tried to piece together the information I had already taken in and compare it to anything, anything at all I knew of that would fit this creature's description, until finally, the stars suddenly aligned and the dots connected. “Sorry to trouble you in your state, but can I ask... What are you?” The unicorn asked. When my mouth kicked into gear again and my tongue decided to come along for the ride, I managed to find one simple word that could summarize all of todays events. “Nope” I wheezed before passing out for the third time that day.