The Record Friction Chronicles:A new beginning

Chapter 9

The Visions

Record had just finished explaining what happened 5 days ago back at Canterlot Castle when they arrived at a large stone house. Darzell had been leading the way as Record spoke about every last detail of what he had seen and heard; The fight against Zero, the signs of an ancient phrophecy occuring, and everything else that happened up to the point of when they all met. Nightstory had a surprised look on his face, as if he knew what Record was talking about.
They all walked into the house to be greeted with the smell of tea. The source came from the living room, a tea pot suspended over a fire in a fireplace screamed loudly as they opened the door. Nightstory walked over to it and picked the teapot up with his magic.

"Record? Zee? Would you like some tea?" Asked Nightstory as he flipped his mane out of his eyes. His voice was was calm and fluid as he spoke, the pitch of his voice however was that of any other colt.
Record and Zee shook their head, neither of them were hungry nor thirsty from the day they've had. Nightstory nodded his head and poured two cups of tea for himself and Darzell. Record and Zee looked around the beautiful interior architechture of the house.
The house's walls were made of stone and cement. The exterior corners of the walls were stone columns, which really complimented the house. The floor was made of glossy, hard oak wood. A staircase led to the upper floor which Record though it led to either the bedrooms or perhaps a study hall.
The house went quiet. The only sound that could be heard was the sound of the roasting fire. A few minutes passed as they heard the Snap, Crackle, and Pop of the fire. Finally the silence was broken when Darze spoke.

"So Zero, you said?" He asked. His voice was fairly deep and fluid, much like Nightstory's voice.

"Yes." Record replied. "Zero is in Equestria."

"So its true. That means...all hope could be lost." Said Nightstory.

Record looked up shocked at his words. 'All hope could be lost.' Those words spun through his head. But Record then realized one key word. 'Could' meaning a chance. Record looked back up at Nightstory.

"Wait a minute. You said all hope COULD be lost...what do you mean by could?"

The house grew silent again, Darze and Nightstory had a grin on their face.

"Come we'll show you." Said Darze. Both Nightstory and Darze stood up as they finished their tea. The best friends looked at each and went into the kitchen, Zee and Record followed. When Record walked in Nightstory and Darze were standing in front of an old wooden door. Nothing really seemed interesting about the door other than that it was very out of date, it almost looked like one from medieval times. Darze walked up and turned the knob slowly.
Records heart started beating fast. His body flooded with anxiety as the old door opened. He adjusted his stance, standing closer to Zee, as his anxiety slowly took over his body.
Darze opened the door; inside was a huge selection of spices and canned foods, it was a pantry. Record expression went from an anxious smile to a gloomy frown. Record turned around to leave the room when suddenly he heard a loud band behind him. He looked back to see Darze had slammed the door.

"Did you just-" Record was cut off when Darze slammed the door again, this time louder. The bang echoed throught the house producing a ringing noise in everyones ears. Record fell to his knees covering his ears. He could never stand high pitch noises which is why he became a DJ and never had any treble in his music. BANG! The door slammed one last time before a bright green light shone from underneath the door. Nightstory grinned and slowly opened the door as the light began to fade.
What Record and Zee saw made their jaws drop. The entire pantry had been changed into a stone stairwell. The walls were made of dark brown cobblestone, in between the cobble ridges were small hairs of moss. A single lit torch hung on the wall creating a bright light in the darkness.

"Ladies and guests first." Said Darze as Nightstory took the torch off the wall. They all proceeded down the stairwell, into the darkness. The only light came from the torch that Nightstory held with his magic. As they decended, Zee accidently missed a step and she fell. But just before she hit the floor Darze caught her with his wings and picked her back up with a smile.

"You okay?" Asked Darze.

"Y-yeah thanks, Darzell."

"No problem, Sleepy."

"Oh uh you two can just call me Zee if you want." Both Darze and Nightstory nodded and everypony continued walking down.

They all finally arrived at the end of the staircase, which led into a large room. The room was made out of the same material as the staircase. In the center was a bright blue pool that was swriling clockwise into a cyclone. All round the room were pillars that looked as if they were holding up the ceiling. Record and Zee walked up to the pool and gazed into it. Their eyes were transfixed on the pool and their eyes grew in amazement.

"Its called the Ever-Seeing pool." Said Nightstory as he put the torch on one of the pillars. As Nightstory walked away from the torch all of the torches on the other erupted into a flame illuminating the whole room.

"The Ever-Seeing pool?" Asked Record.

"Yes, it allows whoever uses its powers to see whatever they wish, whether it be the true future or to relive a happy moment in their life or even to witness their own sick or beautiful fantasies." Said Nightstory. "All you have to do is dip your head into the pool and while everything in there makes it seem like a long time, out here its really fast. I think for every ten minutes in there its equal to a second out here, however every hour in there is equal to a minute out here. Its a weird conversition thing I don't know"

With that being said, Zee put her head into the pool and then instantly pulled it back out with her eyes opened wide, blushing a fire red.

"I don't want to put my head in there ever again." Said Zee as she walked into the corner of the room.

"What did you think about?" Asked Record.

"Just drop it, Record!"

"Okay sorry." He said backing up. "So why isn't something like this, something with so much power, not guarded in a well protected place like Canterlot?"

"Because I was assigned to protect it over 500 years ago." Said Darze.

"What?! 500 years?" Shouted Zee.

"Well sort of, you see I'm only 18 years old. But I have a device that was given to me by a 'friend' that has allowed me to go back in time and defend it."

"And I'm a friend he met along the way." Said Nightstory laughting heartly.

"Whoa whoa whoa. Who's this 'friend' you're talking about?" Snapped Record.

"His name is Time Turner, but everyone calls him Doctor Whooves. Anyway the device he gave me was called the 'Tardis' which I've used to travel through time and defend this place. Honestly so far nothing bad has even happened."

"Until now... Zero is probably looking for this." Said Zee as she walked back to Records side.

"Unlikely very few know about this pool in the first place." Said Nightstory. Zee responded immediately.

"We still need to keep an open mind about it."

"She's right." Replied Record. "For all we know he could be looking for this as we speak."

"That's very true." Said Darzell. Record turned his head and walked back over to the pool slowly. The amazement in his eyes grew once again.

"So... this allows me to see anything?"

"Pretty much." Said Darzell.

With that being said, the first thing that popped into Record's head was vinyl. He wanted to see what she was seeing and what pain she was enduring. Record slowly looked into the pool and watched as the water swirled in a spiral. Record's muzzles slowly breached the surface of the water. The water felt warm and had a thick gelatinous texture. Record then stuck his whole head into the water.
His vision began to blur. The center of the cyclone became the only thing within his line of sight. Suddenly a the blue began to fade into a black with a blur of light off center to the left. Finally he heard noise.

"Wakey wakey, little pony!"

"Yeah wake up, slut." Record couldn't recognize either of the voices. One of them sounded like a deep voiced thug from a bad 80s movie. While the other sounded like a psychotic clown on helium. The voices reminded him of Butcher and Brace. Records face began glowing red with anger as the voice said "Slut".
Record pulled his head out of the pool. His face dripped with the gelatinous substance.

"I kinda wished I didn't see that." Record spoke to himself. "Now, I wish...I wish to see what would happen in the future." Record said as he put his head back in the pool. Again the cyclone was the only thing in his vision. However something different happened this time. The spiral had split into two leaving him a choice to pick which vision he wanted to see. He first looked to the one on the left.
The spiral turned green as it showed the top of a beautiful valley that overlooked equestria. He looked to his left to see a roughed up vinyl. Her mane was sloppy, her body was bruised badly, and there was a small cut on her lip. She turned to look at Record and smiled. He looked then to his right and saw Zee and Cyber safe and unharmed. Both of them smiled widely at Record. They all took in a deep breath as if relieved something was over. The vision became blurry and started swirl, and it was over. Record smiled and a tear rolled down his cheek. The vision of peace and everypony being safe made Record smile. But the smile quickly faded as the spiral began spinning fast again.
As his vision turned blurry, the blue of the pool began to turn into a fire red. His vision finally cleared to show that the land of Equestria was in anarchy. Houses were chared, and buildings had been collapsed. The vision panned around ponyville, ponies were chained to one another, all of which looked tired and depressed. A lot of them were mining at rocks, others were working in spice production factories, pulling on a winch that they were body bound too in order to move the spice grinding mill.
All of the pegasi's wings were duct taped and chained to their bodies. All of their wings feathers had been plucked one by one. All of the unicorns horns had a metal cover over it with a red cylinder on top. They were used to keep the unicorns from using their magic. Dark crystal ponies marched behind the captive ponies, keeping each of them in check. Suddenly a loud alarm went off.
One of the unicorns that were mining decided to use his magic to help him work. Two of the dark crystal ponies unlatched the tired colt.

"No, please I'm just so tired, you can't do this." Said the colt as he struggled to break free. The dark crystal ponies latched him onto a metal table in the center of the working field.

"Alright everypony," said one of the dark crystal ponies. "...Break time!". As he said that two changelings started circling around the helpless colt.

"NO PLEASE I WON'T DO IT AGAIN, I SWEAR."

"You got that right." Said one of changelings. Suddenly the changelings fangs grew large and then impaled the colt dead center in his chest. Blood gushed out around the fangs like a bag full of water with a hole in it. The changeling had ruptured then colts heart. The changelings then began to eat the colt while he was still alive. The screams of pain that came from the colt as the changelings removed the skin from his muscles echoed throught ponyville. Blood continued to gush from the pony and weak sobs could be heard from all of ponies. After five minutes of the sounds of torture, the screaming stopped.

"Okay everypony back to work!" Said the dark crystal pony as the changelings ate their meal. The vision blurred again and it cleared in front of canterlot castle. The castle was in ruins and far to destroyed to be repaired. All of the stained windows, that once contained the victories of harmony over chaos, had been shattered. The vision then showed some pony sitting in celestias throne. As the vision grew closer Record realized who it was. The black coat and mane, the mix matched wings, the evil gaze. It was Zero.
As the tyrant stood up from the throne he spread his wings which had grown several feet since Records last encounter with Zero. He then proceeded to an unstained window that was still in one piece. His horn glowed a mixture of red and silver. He then emitted the power from his horn onto the window. The window became entangled in a web of different colors. Finally the window was stained with a horrific scene.
It showed Zero standing over a decapitated Celestia and Luna. Under that showed a set of enslaved ponies crying. But what truly horrified Record was above the image of Zero. Above him the six Elements of Harmony were destroyed. When Record realized this his heart sank and he lost all wind in his lungs and he found it hard to breath. Zero then turned his head as if he knew Record was watching. But how, it was only a vision. Record lost all control of being able to see what he wanted. His gaze was fixed on Zero who was staring him in the eyes. The stare burned a haunting image into Records mind. Zeros mouth opened and he spoke menacingly.

"Equestria has fallen, Tartarious has arisen." The vision went into a blur again. Record then pulled his head out of the pool gasping for air. Zee ran over and helped Record get all of the liquid off of his face.

"How long was I in there?" Asked Record slowly.

"Ten minutes exactly." Said Darzell.

"Hey it's getting late everypony." Said Cyber. Record turned and looked at his best friend.

"When in the hay did you get here?" He asked.

"A little over five minutes ago. Zee stepped outside and when I was looking for both of you after i finished helping applejack and I saw her so she let me in and here I am. She also explained everything to me while you were in there."

"Oh okay." Said Record as he got back to his hooves.

"He's right though it is getting late. Would you all like to stay the night?" Asked Nightstory.

"Oh well...we wouldn't want to impose or anything but we would like a place to stay where the matresses that don't feel like they came from an abandoned prison." Said Cyber laughing. Everypony else joined in on the laughter.

"We take it you stayed in the old ponyville 'luxorious' motel. That place is like 10 years out of date. Anyway come, we'll show you to the guest bedrooms." Said Nightstory as he walk back upstairs. Everypony followed behind. Record glanced back one last time at the pool. Those visions that he saw will haunt him forever. He took a deep breath then sighed and he walked upstairs just behind Zee.

"I have got to stop thinking of that." He said whispering to himself.