Vinyl grabs hold on a rim as the boat's head tilted up. RES Equitanic has rammed on an iceburg and is sinking in the middle of the Equestrian Sea. Hundreds of ponies hold on for dear life and hundreds more perish in the deep ocean. Vinyl scratch holds on tight as the ship begins to be swallowed in the depths of the abyss. She can see her life flashing before her eyes, she thought of her family, her friends, of Octavia and Neon. then suddenly, she heard a huge crash! BOOM!
The Equitanic has split into two, Vinyl holds on tighter as the head of the ship, where she was holding on, falls on the sea's surface.
SPLASH! A loud crash and was tremor felt on the remaining part of the ship that was still afloat, Vinyl almost lost hold of the rim she was holding, she quickly regained her grasp on the rim, still determined to live. There was still plenty of vacant lifeboats on the ship's starboard.
"Celestia save us!" She hears the scream of a nearby colt who falls to his doom in the mouth of the dark abyss. "Ugh! What did I do to deserve this!?! WHY?" Vinyl screams to the top of her lungs, she was getting tired and her hooves were slipping off the rim, another crash was heard, this time the ship's head was beginning to tilt up again, it was being dragged down the depths of the sea by her bottom half. Vinyl knew this was the end, she can't hold on much longer, her hooves were getting tired, the trauma has exhausted her so much she can no longer exert even as little an effort as to hold the rims of the ship.
Her hold was loosening, the splashes of the sea, the violent waves of the abyss waiting to gobble her up was the only thing waiting for her. Her tears began to fall, she was holding them off during the entire ordeal. Her thoughts went on to Octavia, the impact her death would have on her lover. "I-I'm sorry Octavia.....I'm sorry.....I'm sorry......."
She was sobbing, her grip was growing looser by the moment. The peace of the night was disturbed by the cries of a thousand ponies, dying, drowning, falling, or afraid. Her hoof slipped! She fell down barely missing a pipeline. She crashed unto a window, tumbled down the dining hall, through the kitchen, and landed on the wall of the great hall's balcony. She groaned, and slowly opened her eyes, she could see other ponies, terrified and cold. The waterproof doors still kept the water from coming in the hall, but Vinyl could see at the far end of one of the many hallways, the waterproof doors were slowly leaking.
The Great Hall was surprisingly quieter than outside, she can occasionally hear soft whimpering and crying, but it was relatively peaceful hear, with only creaks being the loudest noise around. On top of them was a large dome made of glass where she could clearly see the moon. The lights were still around as the ship's power generator was still intact and unscathed.
CRACK! SNAP! The ship now snapped in half and the top part fell horizontally on the water again. Vinyl tumbled down the stairs and into the Great Halls floors, along with a few other ponies. There was no comfort this time, as the ship was beginning to slowly sink sideways, she could see from the glass dome, the ship was slowly sinking further in the water. The water rose up the glass dome as quick as mercury in a thermometer being dipped in hot coffee.
The lights suddenly went out, darkness encompassed the tragedy, everypony can barely see the front of their nuzzles. Water has already went in the generators causing the power outage. The moon faintly lit the Great Halls as Vinyl sits in one of the sofas attached to the floor boards. she could still hear some whimpering and crying, and creaking, yes the creaking got louder and louder as the ship slowly sank. At any moment now, the pressure of the water would soon break the glass dome and would soon drown those who are trapped inside. Vinyl thought to herself smiling, "just think of happy memories"
"Happy Birthday Vinyl!"
"Oh wow! Thanks Octavia!"
She took hold of the small gift-wrapped box and quickly opened it...new headsets
"Gee, thanks! It's the ones I really wanted!"
"I'm glad you like it Vinyl, It really made a huge dent in my account!"
"Oh really, wow, you really shouldn't have Tavi!"
"Just kidding Vinyl, they were on sale, and I was lucky enough to get the last one too." Octavia let out a small giggle.
"Oh, and I almost forgot, here blow on this."
Octavia held out the cake near Vinyl so that she wouldn't have a harder time to draw her face near it to blow.
"Pfffffftttt!!!!"
"Happy 23rd Birthday Vinyl"
CRACK! Vinyl snapped back to reality, the glass dome was cracking under pressure, ponies nearby gasped, some even let out a small yelp.
CREAK.....The sounds of the iron bars slowly moved by friction filled the dark space once again.
"Just focus Vinyl, happy memories....come on..."
She could see herself on the port with Octavia, the sun setting creates a beautiful scenery wherein she and Octavia had enjoyed.
"Hey Tavi..."
"What is it Vinyl?"
"Have I ever told you how pretty you are?"
Octavia gave out a small giggle and leaned her head on Vinyl.
"Like, a dozen times Vinyl."
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"This is the most romantic sunset isn't it Vinyl?"
"Oh...uh.. yeah Tavi."
"I love you Vinyl..."
"I love you too, Tavi..."
Vinyl drew her face near Octavia's mane and sniffed it, the smell Rive Gauche enamored her.
"Vinyl..."
"Huh?"
"Promise you'll never leave me..."
"I promise."
...I promise
...I promise
...I promise
SNAP!
She wakes up back to reality once again. This time the moon illuminates the huge cracks on the glass dome and the ever-so rising water. She promised....She promised Octavia she wouldn't leave her, she lied. That was the only thought that was raised in her mind, her unfulfilled promise.
How in Celestia's name did the Equitanic sink anyway? It was the largest ship in all of Equestria, it was even dubbed as unsinkable.
Now, because of a false promise she's there, along with thousands of other ponies, awaiting her doom.
"Dammit Vinyl, just think of happy thoughts!" She tried to consolidate herself, trying to coax herself into thinking of happy memories.
"Vinyl, is it always this dreary in Manehattan?"
"Nah, it's just Mondays."
"Oh, I see.."
Octavia giggled, clearly seeing Vinyl's uncalled-for joke.
"you should see this place during Fridays, the pubs are hot and bustling."
"I'd like it if you'd take me to one." Octavia smiled at Vinyl, a pleading smile.
"Hmmmm, I guess I can have as booked to this awesome pub just down the street, let's do it this Friday night?"
"I'd love that."
Octavia ran to Vinyl's shoulders and gave her a tight embrace.
Vinyl closed her arms around Octavia to return her affection.
CRASH!!! Water poured in and Vinyl had barely any time to realize what had happened, though it was already too obvious.
The water pressure sucked in everypony outside, including Vinyl. Through opened eyes she could see the damage of the ship. The once magnificent Equitanic, now nothing more than a mess of steel, sinking in the deeps. The currents of the sinking ship dragged along any near it, and Vinyl fought to get to the surface.
Beside her she could see ponies drowning, fighting to get to the surface like herself, but to no avail. Vinyl refused to give up, she paddled as hard as she could. She kicked and waved her hooves around like a crazed maniac. Soon she realized that all her efforts were futile, the sinking ship's vacuum was only dragging her further in the deeps.
The moonlight was getting dimmer, the darkness grew, as Vinyl was being sucked into the abyss. She opened her mouth,and gave out a final, muffled scream. She screamed 'Octavia' although underwater she can't even barely make out of it.
Then, nothing....Darkness.....No sound, no light.
Just absolute darkness and silence...
Was she dead? Was this how it felt like to be dead?
Vinyl slowly opened her eyes after what seemed like hours of unconsciousness. She found herself lying down in a pile of moss, and quickly jolted up away from the icky goo. She looked around and realized she was in a cave. There was horribly dim, green lighting to faintly illuminate the stone walls.
To her right she could see the cave's seemingly endless pathway lined with pointy jagged rocks. She began to tread slowly through the cave's supposed road, the dim green light she could see in the distance seemed to move back just as she moved forward. She trotted faster this time, the light still seeming to run away from her. Her trotting soon escalated into a gallop, and as she galloped she noticed the walls of he cave begin to change.
Strange Heiroglyphs began to cover the walls, and sharp rocks transformed into statues, statues of fish like bipeds, and octopus-headed dragons. The pictures on the walls depict of a form of primitive worship to the octopus-headed dragon, portraying sacrifices of ponies and other equines. Vinyl slowed down as she saw the mouth of the cave nearing.
She stopped to think for a while...How did she get here? And where in Equestria exactly is here? She proceeded to exit the cave, and in a blinding flash of green light, saw what was on the other side. A city, of none euclidian form, with stairs leading to ceilings, walls on the floors, windows on ceilings roofs under the buildings, this place was like the fantasy of a crazed mad-mare. The buildings were afloat, not on land, water fell above, and below and the entire "city" was inside an even bigger cave. Strange Writings now fill up every wall writable. Writings of a strange and enigmatic culture that nopony has ever heard of or seen before.
Vinyl tried to recap on what had happened, she went to Zebrica for her first world tour; went back on the largest cruise ship ever, the RES Equitanic; the ship sank and she drowned in the ocean; and now she's here, in a strange and enigmatic city with crazy architectural designs, and absolutely no sign of anypony, or whatever the hell is living in here, to be found...that just sucks....
Vinyl was lost, she started her way down the steep steps of the city's stairwells. The stench of rotting fish was in the air, a smell that would have made Vinyl heave out her lunch, that is, if she had any...The Light was dim, but good enough for her to see within 30 meters. It was green, as if made by green flames, and the cracking sounds of flickering fire echoed through the city's halls.
It was fairly silent, Vinyl could hear her own hoofsteps echo, She was still a bit ditsy, probably because of the smell. Her hoofs were a bit shaky. She trudged on for what seemed like hours before coming to a stop, she was exhausted and needed to rest. She rest her flank on one of the inverted steps sticking out of a building's wall, that seemed to lead nowhere. She gave out a sigh and bowed her head. "I'm never getting out of this place." She said to herself.
AAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHAHAHHHHHAAAAGH!!!!
Out of nowhere, a loud groan resounded all over the empty city, Vinyl jumped to her hooves, startled by the sudden noise. "I-is anyone there?" She asked looking from left to right for any sign of life.
AAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!
It groaned again, whatever it was it sounded as though it was in pain. Vinyl jolted left and right trying to find the mysterious thing that's making all the noise. "Are you hurt? Where are you!?!" Vinyl shouted.
AAAAAAGHHUUUUUAHHHHHGH!!!
This time the noises got louder, Vinyl attempted to follow the noise, which led her to a series of empty walls, stairwells that led to ceilings, and doors that go nowhere. Vinyl was loosing hope of ever finding what was making the sounds.
AAAAAAUUUUUUAAAAAAGHHHHHGHHH!!!
All of a sudden, the walls in front of her began to crumble. The buildings collapsed and before they could hit Vinyl, who was already flat on the ground covering her face with her hooves, they crumbled into dust, which only made Vinyl sneeze. And in a bright explosion of greenish flame, she beheld the most magnificent sight. In between a trench, a gigantic octopus-headed dragon was stuck, squirming and squealing making all the horrible groans. She felt pity for the creature, as it struggled to escape, it's tentacles wriggling in the air smashing the cave walls above.
Vinyl could not believe her eyes, she's seen dragons, hydras, ursas, and manticores, but she couldn't point a single name to this gargantuan monster. She went in through the dust and rubble and in front of the trench where the creature was stuck. It had an enormous belly, which caused it to be caught between the stones.
AAAAAAAAAAAAGHHUUUUUUAAAAAGHHHHH!!!!!
"Hey, hey! Calm down there, I'll get you out...Somehow.." Vinyl tried to reassure the thing touching it's claw, which was just about as big as her. The beast stared down at her with red gleaming eyes, and Vinyl stared up at it with her red eyes. Normally, ponies would run screaming, oblivious to the world if they saw something like this creature. But Vinyl felt an aura in this thing, something that tells her this thing isn't evil. The beast wriggled even more, this time causing a quake from inside the cave. Vinyl backed away and held on to a large rock. She looked up at the creature and said, "Hey, now calm down! I can't think of something if you keep causing earthquakes!"
The beast seemed to understand her, and stopped squirming. "So you can understand me huh?" Vinyl thought out loud.
She looked left and right to see if there was anything that could help her free the creature. "I'm stumped, I got nothing..."
Hearing this the creature groaned again, and started to squirm once more. "Hey! I said calm down! You're going to get yourself even more deeper in if you keep doing that!" The creature calmed down again and stared at Vinyl.
"So, d'ya have a name?" She asked looking at the creature's face.
The creature changed his posture into a more straighter form.
His face moved, as if he wanted to talk. His tentacles sliding this way and that, finally a small sound was heard. A faint deep sound that quickly escalated into a loud roar. Vinyl covered her ears, closed her eyes, and gritted her teeth. Soon the roar transcended into what sounded like throat clearing. Vinyl looked up surprised, the creature was now clearing it's throat!
"Agghhemm! Gahem! Agghhhaemm!" The creature spat out a huge blob of phlegm at his side.
"Cthulhu, my name is Cthulhu." The creature spoke in a deep, raspy voice which echoed throughout the cave and outside into the city.
Vinyl's mouth was wide open, her eyes had a look of shock. She's heard of dragons talking, but normal dragons have mouths. This Cthulhu on the other hand, didn't seem to have any form of mouth that would enable it to speak with such fluency. The creature tilted down towards her. It wriggled it's tentacle around, making an impression of it stroking it's chin, he crossed his brows and began to speak again, "And you are?"
Vinyl shook her head and closed her mouth, she then made a hasty reply as to avoid being rude. "Vinyl, Vinyl Scratch. So, Cthulhu, how long were you stuck here?"
Cthulhu shuddered and face-palmed himself. "ten-freakin'-thousand years.."
Vinyl's curiosity was sparked even more so, " Wow, no wonder you had a hard time talking huh?"
Cthulhu laughed, "Oh no, that whole growling thing before? Nah, that was just because I thought you spoke deepish."
"Deepish?" Vinyl was puzzled.
"Language of the deep ones, I never expected someone to speak the language of the land dwellers deep down here you know."
"Deep ones?" Vinyl was stumped, all these references Cthulhu was talking about sounded like one of the characters of those retro fantasy comic strips she used to read a lot when she was a filly.
"So, how did a land dweller like you get in here anyway?" Cthulhu leaned closer and supported his head with his hand.
"Oh that, yeah. The ship I was on sank, shit happened, I blacked out, woke up here without a clue how, and now I'm hee talking to a giant octo-dragon thingy."
"Hey, I'm not an octo-dragon thing...I happen to be a Great Old One."
"A great what now?" Vinyl was puzzled again.
"A Great Old One, an Eldritch God, the 'Harbinger of Madness', 'Destroyer of Minds', you know.....Great Old One...."
"Now you sound more like a d&d antagonist..." Vinyl chuckled.
"D&D...huh, I wonder what the world up there is now..." Cthulhu said looking up.
"Well, depends, how long have you last seen our world" Vinyl replied, she was growing fond of Cthulhu. Something about him made her comfortable, even when the vision her return to the surface was bleak.
"Last I've been there, it was ten thousand years ago...Lots of humans there...oh yeah, so how are the humans?" Cthulhu said with beaming eyes.
"Humans? What are humans?" Vinyl put on her puzzled look again. "They sound more like those mythical creatures Lyra is really obsessed about, but nah, there aren't any humans in Equestria, or anywhere else in the world." Vinyl finally declared.
"Oh, that's a bummer, so what's up there now?" Cthulhu said still curious.
"Umm...There's a lot of my kind around, I guess."
"And what are you, perhaps?"
"Um, a unicorn pony"
"Oh, and the humans said unicorns didn't exist" Cthulhu said crossing his arms.
"So, Cthulhu, what are these humans like?"
"Oh, nothing much really, you know the usual sapient creatures walking on two legs. They're fiercely intelligent, and viciously greedy, they start wars on each other, make huge-ass weapons of mass destruction, and they aim for the stars. They probably achieved that, since there is no absolute sign of them around now is there?"
Vinyl was interested about everything Cthulhu knows. She even forgot about home, and friends, and Octavia.
"So, Vinyl..." Cthulhu snapped Vinyl from deep thought.
"Huh?"
"Thought of anything to help me get out yet?"
"Oh, yeah right, sorry.
Vinyl looked around, she saw a couple of rocks there, some debris, and the slimy moss that was around everywhere.
"Aha! I got it!" Vinyl exclaimed.
"So what have you thought of?" Cthulhu asked Vinyl who was trotting here and there, picking up the gooey moss.
"Imma slide you out of there!" She said.
When finally she picked up just the right amount to slide Cthulhu out of the trench, she began to plop them around his belly while making dub-step noises.
"Unts unts unts unts unts." She hummed.
Cthulhu saw that he was already beginning to slide down, he began pulling himself up and started flapping his enormous wings, soon he was out of the trench and Vinyl was cheering below.
"Oh yeah! And Tavi said I couldn't get someone out of a sticky situation if I tried! Hell yeah!"
"Thanks, there Vinyl, I owe you one." Cthulhu said, seemingly smiling.
Vinyl looked up to her new-found friend, she saw in him a zeal she's never seen in anypony else she's met before
"Um...Cthulhu?"
"Yeah, Vinyl?"
"D'ya know any way out of here?"
Cthulhu scratched his head. "Umm....Yeah, maybe. just follow me."
Cthulhu put Vinyl in his shoulders and they went on strolling through the dead city, looking for a way out.
The Gateway of The Crawling Chaos
"Okay, I'm completely lost..." Cthulhu sighed and sat down on a small hill. They have been walking in circles for hours, and still haven't found a way out of the large cave. Vinyl was already half asleep on his shoulder when Cthulhu gently shook her.
"Huh? Ugh? Oh, sorry..." Vinyl stammered as she leaped back into consciousness.
"I swear, this place changes every time..." Cthulhu said, scratching his head. He stood back up and started pacing, Vinyl still in his shoulders.
"Isn't there another way outta' here?" Vinyl said, tilting her head a little to the right.
"Oh there is, but I don't personally like going through it..."
"Oh come on, it can't be that bad?"
"Trust me Vinyl, it is." Cthulhu said; his face was blank, not that it ever showed clear emotion, but Vinyl got the idea that it was blank.
His huge red eyes stared at the distance, as if he was experiencing a flashback.
"So, what is it?" Vinyl finally broke the silence.
"Oh, The Gateway of The Crawling Chaos...Place gives me the creeps, that's where Shoggoths usually hang out."
"Shoggoths?"
"Oh a mortal like you shouldn't see one, their hideously ugly ya'know, you can't even tell if your looking at one's ass or face...yeek.." Cthulhu shivered.
"Well, whatever! We're getting outta' this place, shoggoth or no shoggoth! Cthulhu, lead the way!"
"It's right around the corner..."
Cthulhu made a left to a Cyclopean Temple with hundreds of terrifyingly ugly statues of things inconceivable to the mortal eye.
There the dim green light faded, and soon a red light encompassed a large hall where a swirling portal of daemonic energy was located right at the middle.
"Here we are, The Gateway of The Crawling Chaos, pretty corny name I know. I wonder how this got here in R'lyeh anyway.."
"Well, let's go!" Vinyl cheered enthusiastically, pointing her hooves to the direction of the portal.
"Here we go, hold on to my shoulders Vinyl!" Cthulhu ran in the swirling pool of energy, and in a bright flash of light, they were inside the realm of Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos.
Vinyl's eyes gazed at the chaotic wonders of this whole new world. Everywhere things were unproportional, she couldn't describe what she's seeing. Black shadows darted here and there, and Vinyl couldn't help but notice everything.
"Woooaaaahh, it's like I'm on weeeed.." Vinyl said hazily, hypnotized by the chaos.
"Well be careful, anything could happen here you know."
Cthulhu walked towards the plain of dry red dust, the red sun shined brightly beside the blue moon, the sky was orange and stars where brightly burning, a swirling wind of water was hovering through a field of fire in the distant east of where Cthulhu was standing. He headed north, while Vinyl, still sitting on his shoulders, continuously stared at everything she can stare at. "Hey Cthulhu, I can't help but notice, why is the sun and the moon up at the same time? I mean wouldn't Celestia and Luna be in control of those things?"
"Celetisa and Lun- oh man, you don't get it do you? Nothing here is in control, only chaos."
"So you're saying this is Discord's world?"
""Discord? No, this is the Crawling Chaos himself...The very ground we walk on is pure chaos."
"Eh? I don't get it.."
"Well, Vinyl, you're not supposed to..."
"Oh...well, are we close yet?"
"We've only been here for 5 minutes, we have about a week's walk from here, and then we have to cross the Ancient's Desert for a month...And so on...."
"What the hay!?! That long!?! How large is this place anyway?"
"NEVER MENTION MEASUREMENT IN THE REALM OF THE GODS!" Cthulhu snapped his head towards Vinyl, his eyes glowing cosmic red, "It's just not right." He finally calmed down...
Vinyl was still at his shoulder frozen in shock, She just saw the most terrifying thing ever conceivable to any living being's eyes and was enough to turn Celestia inside out. She thought she'd go crazy but for some strange reason, she didn't.
"Dude, NEVER do that again..." Vinyl said unflinching, eyes wide opened.
"Oh, sorry about that. It's just...you just touched a sensitive matter is all. I didn't mean to scare you."
"That's okay man...let's just...go..." Vinyl said, still wide-eyed and frozen. Cthulhu walked on the chaotic realm while the red sun gleamed on the horizon.
