Warped Reality: Equestria

My mind is momentarily boggled, as the conversation between the ponies comes into focus, and I finally recognize the language: Hungarian. And as I realize this, their words begin to be translated automatically by my brain when I hear these words: "A nevem Twilight Sparkle. Mi a neve?" From then on, their words were English once I had recognized those few, simple words of that greeting, my mind clicked into action, and I then decided to screw with them.

"Salutări. Am venit în pace. Du-mă la liderul vostru," I switched my speech to Romanian on purpose, hoping they wouldn't understand. Upon seeing Twilight's face turn up in a mixture of joy and confusion upon hearing me speak a language she did not translate, I caused her jump in shock by laughing aloud, only to see the purple alicorn tumble backwards tail over teakettle into a filing cabinet, knocking half the texts from their perch in the adjacent shelving, burying Spike head to toe in hard covers. This only made me laugh even harder at my shenanigans to the point of tears. Slowly but surely, I calmed down from the insanity of my situation, ribs aching and finally said, "Oh, gawd, you are just too much! Hehe-hoo... wheew, I really needed that, thank you, hehe-haaa..." Spike groaned and rose from the pile of books rubbing his head, while Twilight opened her eyes, only to see me looking at her upside down with a manic grin on my face.

After I had regained control over myself, I lifted my arm to my head, or rather, tried to lift it. My body was secured to the table by leather bonds, and judging by the medical brace around my now bandaged knee, they were there to make sure I didn't hurt myself. Me, having acute merinthophobia(the fear of being restrained) began to panic and struggle against the straps, trying to escape. I soon began to hear the whispers again, and started to cut my wrists on the straps holding them there. I am quickly overcome with fear and I feel my irises turn a sickly yellow as my vision has that same color tinging my vision.

I could feel myself still struggling against my bonds, screaming for my release as I entered a state of tunnel vision where everything was the sick yellow-green of a healing bruise. Soon enough, the leather restraints were simultaneously unlatched, and I threw myself to the ground, retreating in fear to a darkened corner as the whispers stopped and my vision was restored. I shivered against a machine, likely meant for measuring neural activity, and mumbled to myself, assuring that I was safe here, that I wouldn't be hunted. But, if I was safe, then why was the Operator here? Upon even thinking Its name, I felt a static cloud my mind and the whispers returned in full force, this time with a new message.

“This world full of innocence and cheers, has now become tainted by your darkest fears. An ancient duty now falls to you, to fix the things that are thrown askew. In deepest cave your target lurks, find where ever its chaos works. To find your path look for the tree, around which the blackest clouds roam free. Three days you have to complete this task, lest you receive a most wretched mask.”

My world rumbled around me, quaking as my senses were distorted. Everything was a blur, twisted and warping until my feeling of reality shattered and I found myself falling through the shifting blackest of blacks. The whispers repeated my mission, the static washing over me in waves, forcing my hairs to stand on end and rattle in anticipation of something. After what felt like a lifetime of floating in the Void, it began to crumble apart and collapse, leaving me to fall a few meters to the ground. Feeling dizzy and disorientated from the lack of gravity, I struggled to my feet, eliciting a pained throb in my left foot.

My knee had nearly finished scabbing over, yellow plasma and small rivulets of blood dribbling from gaps in the scab, and I thought to myself, That’s healing nicely, and everything went black, the static still pervading my senses. When I felt something touch me, my eyes had opened to see the shifting black of the Void, and the static had immediately dulled to a numbing sensation, rendering my body uncooperative. I tried to move my limbs, but to no avail as I tried to turn my head. It worked, and my head slowly began to swivel on an unseen axis. When my eyes had landed on a minute white spot in the blackness, I felt myself being pulled toward the pure light emanating from the opening and the static had all but vanished, leaving a high-pitched whistle in its place as I slowly drifted towards the light.

The closer I came to the white opening, the harder my head pounded and the louder the whistle became, turning into the deafening howl of the wind rushing past my ears, and through my soul. As I was engulfed in the blinding white light, three words screamed in my head: Descend into Darkness! and I became numb to the world, my senses unresponsive. Slowly, the white faded to black, and I felt a cold warmth slip between my eyelids, and they opened. Temporarily blinded by the harsh, yet dim light of the place I found myself in, I blinked my eyes rapidly, trying to adjust to the torchlight. I lay on the cold, wet stone of the dungeon and let it chill my bones as I looked at my new environment.

I saw old and musty tapestries, ever so slightly rusted suits of human armor, mossy  cobbles scattered throughout the building, and heavy wooden doors with creaky hinges in desperate need of an oiling. Glancing around at the cobwebs and bookcases spread about haphazardly, I noticed a glowing pink substance on the ground. Rising to my feet, I noticed my leg almost completely healed, all that remains of the recent injury being a few small scabs on a yellow bruise. Scars were crisscrossing over my flesh, and these were faded from age, even though I know full well that they are new, implying that they must have been healed with magic. I felt my ankle which was no longer swollen, and there was a persistent, nagging feeling of loss in the back of my mind, almost as if I’m forgetting an important detail.

Looking around once more, it hit me like a truck going 50 klicks an hour: I’m in Amnesia: the Dark Descent. Curling up into a fetal position on the floor, I groaned in annoyance; I never managed to finish the game, and I never played on anything except the hardest difficulty. A new thought strikes itself into my brain, as my mind tries to wrap itself around how I could have been sent from one fictional realm to another. I reach up with my right arm to lift myself using the crooked shelf next to me, when I notice something different, or rather, something missing: my arm is gone at mid-bicep, and has been replaced with a skeletal robotic replica. I gasp at the revelation, and rotate my new arm, my mind drawing a blank whenever I try to remember how it had happened.

Moving around the titanium prosthetic, I examine the electronic servos carefully, and a sense of familiarity overwhelms me as I look at the hydrogen fuel cell powering the mechanical limb. Taking note of the power level displayed on the side of the battery, it tells me that it is fully charged, and can last for another thirty-six hours before it needs to be replaced. Springing into motion, I leap to my feet when I hear a soft whimper off to my left, and fear of the unknown and the monsters known to lurk the castle in the game quickly rises in my throat. Looking around for anything to defend myself, my eyes land on a familiar black object, the torch light gleaming off of its polished finish as the metal hand wraps around the rubber grip. I pick up my SIG P226 Blackwater and eject the clip inside, seeing the nine bullets within, and I action the slide to eject the chambered round, sliding the discarded bullet back into the pistol alongside the rest of the ammunition.

Returning to a combat stance, I slowly creep along the road, following the sad sobbing, my personal sidearm providing comfort as I now have a way to defend myself. The crying echoes off of the halls, and the owner sounds to be in much emotional pain as I swing open the heavy wooden door. The room is dark, with the dim light of the lantern in the far corner emanating from behind a few stacked crates. I quickly strafe to the boxes, pistol aimed at the lit lantern and I move my SIG in correlation with my position to the wooden containers. The quiet sobbing increases in volume as I near the source, and my thumb flicks off the safety and the underbarrel laser shines its red dot on the steel frame of the lamp.

Growing ever nearer to the crates, the sobbing continues, but they have lessened in intensity, likely upon seeing the laser reticle of my pistol. I crouch down, trying to keep the little red dot in the same position, and I poke the barrel of my gun past the corner of the box, and I hear a soft gasp. Placing my hand on the side of the crate, I can barely feel miniscule vibrations, almost as if something is quivering in fear, and I turn the safety on, and whisper, “Hello? Are you okay there? Is... is there anything I can do to help?”

There’s another small gasp, and a feminine whisper replies, “Are you going to eat me?”

I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding, and say a little louder, “Of course not, I’m not...” I pause, mulling over what I’m going to say carefully as to not worry whoever is hiding,”...one of those... things.” I bring my pistol up to my shoulder, making sure its end is pointed up, and I reach over and pick up the lantern. I turn the corner, and I find Twilight Sparkle cowering in fright. Her eyes widen in recognition upon seeing me, though she seems completely oblivious about my new arm.

“You? How d-did you g-get here?” she asks, surprised at my sudden appearance.

“Heh, I could ask you the same thing, little princess.” Immediately after saying this, I notice that her wings are missing; bloody bandages covering where they were severed from the little pony’s body. “Wha...?” Is my only response to this sight.

Twilight rubs her head in shame, and mumbles something that I could barely hear over the drip of water upon ancient stones. “I’m sorry, could you say that again? It sounded like you said ‘Fluttershy took them,’ but that’s impossible! She’s one of the sweetest, most gentle mares I have ever known!” of course, I shouldn’t be so surprised, as there are multiple FanFictions where sweet little Flutters is a murderer, but I refuse to read those.

“Uhm, yeah, I kinda did... something’s wrong here. All of my friends are insane! They’ve been horribly hurt, and they look like they’ve been tortured! The only one of them I haven’t seen is Rainbow Dash, but then again, we haven’t seen her for days back in Ponyville,” her eyes widen and she profusely apologizes, saying that she forgot I’ve never been to Ponyville, and I haven’t met her friends.

Shaking my head, I wave her off, “Don’t worry about it. I already know about you guys and your town from other sources. Besides, you failed to notice that I mentioned I already know who Fluttershy is, so you could have probably made the connection that I know who all of her best friends are.” We are pulled out of our conversation when we hear the rasp of chains on stone, and I quickly blow out the lantern, plunging us into the dark. Soon after I do so, I begin hearing the static again, but seemingly from far away as it came as a whisper, and I feel the effects of disorientation and a wave of nausea washes over me. Next to me, I feel Twilight wrap her forehooves around my left arm as we sit there, waiting for one of Amnesia’s monsters to pass by.

I find myself disappointed when I hear a pained voice begin, distorted by the static and dark magic in her voice, “He-hello? Is anypony there? Hello?!” I hear the mutilated Fluttershy walk around the room, her movement impeded by the chains. I reach into my pocket to search for the dynamo flashlight I always carry, when I notice a built-in LED on my robotic arm, and I quickly move out of cover, bringing my SIG to bear as I move around in the darkness. I reach over to on my light, and the harsh white light of the LEDs quickly illuminate Fluttershy. What I see is horrific, and is absolutely revolting to see.

She has a large metal disk around her neck, blood oozing from the raw flesh under the rusted steel. Rusty chains are wrapped around her bloodied hooves, each of them connecting and dragging a lump of metal wherever the poor pegasus goes. Long gashes dripping in stale blood crisscross her emaciated body, and her Cutie Mark was crossed out with blood still moist. Fluttershy’s fur is stained with dried blood and grime for weeks in the dark. Her wings are gone, the ragged bone jutting out from the slightly rotted limbs, whatever feathers that had remained plucked. The worst are her eyes, ripped from their sockets with the fur underneath dark with more blood and dried tears; they were the last things to go.

Enraged by the dark sight in front of me, enraged by whoever had done this, my heart felt like it had been stabbed a thousand times seeing a sweet and gentle mare such as the Element of Kindness in such a state. “Is that you, my love? You... you finally came!” I am thrown for a loop when she called me ‘her love,’ and my heart wrenched into a knot once more as I become confused with this revelation. Tears drop from my eyes as my vision wavers.  I am torn; my mind tells me to shoot Fluttershy and put her out of her misery, but my heart cannot bring itself to kill the very embodiment of innocence. Innocence, the word flashes through my eyes and the static rises in volume.

I open my mouth to speak, but I find a lump lodged in my throat. Licking my lips, I swallow and try again, “Twilight, I need you to listen to me.”

“Y-yes? What is it?” she asks quietly, fearful of the remains of what once was her friend. “What do you need me to do?”

I shake my head to clear it, the motion unseen by Twilight and the broken pegasus in front of me, “I need you to teleport out of the room. Look at the doorway, and use your magic,” I say all of this calmly, despite how scared and distraught I really am. Out of the corner of my eye, I watch Twilight’s horn glow violet, and she disappears, only to reappear a moment later outside of the storage chamber. She runs off to the left, lighting the lantern along the way. Turning back to Amnesia Fluttershy, I ask her, “What happened?”

Her empty eye sockets turn up in a soft expression, “What do you mean, my love? Please, could you be more specific? If you don’t mind, that is...” At the end of her query, her voice returns to normal, and I see the smallest of sparks in her not-eyes. I slowly take a hold of my lamp, and disengage it from its slot. With the built-in battery of the light, I set down on the ground in a way that would cast light around the entire room, allowing poor little Fluttershy to ‘see’ me. “Oh, my! You-! You’re human!” she stresses the word ‘human’ as she is able to fully perceive me, and I can spot the faintest traces of shadows wrapping around her real eyes, the light and sight of me forcing some of them away.

I place my hands on either side of her worn-out face and say, “Look into my eyes, little one.” She does so, and for a split second, the shadows are gone and the room shifts. I take my eyes from hers, and take note of the new area I am in. The corridor is shaded in a somber tone of grey, miniscule shadows twisting around the the stone bricks. The walls and pathways move around in an Escher Vault, attempting to disorient all who try to traverse it.

Looking back to Fluttershy, I find her gone, the iron shackles left in her stead with a bloody trail of feathers leading off into the distance. I feel a cold, tingly pressure on my lower back, and I rubberneck around to see who is watching me, only for my eyes to find nothing. Remembering something from one of my stories, I close my eyes and focus my will on a point between my eyes and slightly higher. Once I feel it, the sensation of being watched increases, and my eyes experience a searing pain, shooting open immediately. My perception of reality is twisted when I see previously invisible paths traversing the Vault, and one of them follows the blood, giving off a soft pink glow.

My eyes strafe the room again, but this time all of the paths are gone, aside from the pink one. I look back at it and it changed its color to a deep, crimson red. I shake my head to clear it of confused thoughts and I follow the red line. I pass door after shifting door, stair after shifting stair and I find myself no closer to the end of the path. Occasionally, I catch a fleeting glimpse of yellow in a doorway before it closes, or I find a strand of pink hair that slithers out of sight. When the stairs shift, they carry the sound of stone grinding on itself, but throughout the whole journey, the sound of rattling chains grows ever more frequent the further along I get.

This continues for what seems like forever, until the trail ends and the light fades from existence in a darkened area. My Sight is still active, as signified by the faded blue haze edging my vision, and I soon see more trails appearing, all but one of them the bloody scarlet from earlier. The last path leads the way I came, and is colored a comforting sky-blue. I lift my right arm to my face to activate the lamp when I see blue energy coursing through and arcing about the metal prosthetic. Focusing on the energy, I can feel the thrum of nature, and the violent twang of the electricity.

I close my eyes and imagine a ball of energy forming in my right hand, slowly growing larger until it encompasses the entire appendage. When I open them, my Sight has gone dormant and there is a werelight in my palm, and I notice the fuel cell being depleted by one hour as I hold the ethereal sphere in my will. The shock and awe I am overcome with shatters when I hear a voice, “Found you...!”