Chapter 2: The Dream

Orion awoke in a dark abyss, nothing around him, only his body, and the thoughts of where he was. It was cold, far to cold to be anywhere in Ponyville, this place felt...lonely. He knew that where he was, wasn't a good thing, in fact he was quite sure he needed to get out of here as quickly as possible, so he started running. Faster than he wanted to, he didn't want to say he was scared, but he was, not being able to remember how he got here, and in such a dark place. It seemed to be hours, or maybe even days, that he ran, he didn't care about the lurching daggers of pain in his sides and hooves, he wanted to escape, but it seemed that wasn't happening. Resting to take a quick breath, he finally noticed, something in the distance, a castle it seemed, but built in a rather odd design. More, sinister, he thought to himself, too many spikes, the stone is too dark, gargoyles adorned everywhere, along with what looked to be deformed monstrosities, lunging out at you. Those most creepy, were the ones lining the door, creating a sense of a path, between all of them to the open gate door.

Sensing nothing else, Orion walked in, swearing one of the statues were following his movements with its eyes, and his ears weren't good, but he believed that one of them even whispered “you'll die here” the thought of the words made him bolt into the castle, meeting the door within seconds.

Seeing as he has no other choice, he pushed open the gated doors, to find a long hall, that seemed to go on forever, black at the end, no torches, nothing. The only company was the sounds of his hooves walking across the cold stone. “Where are am, what am I doing here?” he said to himself, the cold air making his breath vaporize. Finally after walking in pitch black he came across a door, unlike the first, this one had something written in common, so he could understand it.

“Turn back, behind this lies the end of your soft, nice life.” It was a warning, saying he would die? He couldn't turn back, there was nothing out there for him, darkness, no, he had to keep going, he could just exist in the dark, it wouldn't be terrible, but it would be empty, and uneventful. Without anymore hesitation, he pushed the door open, showing a room lit, with dim torches, and statues that were slightly shaded out.

Walking up to the first statue he noticed who it was, one of the mane six, yes, this was Fluttershy, but, the pose, she was laying on the ground, her wings were broken, tears were streaming from the statues eyes. Cringing at the sight, he continued to the next one, it was to the right of the hall on the other side. Rainbow Dash, another of the mane six, her wings were cut completely, with blood leaking from them, her face was in pure agony. Moving on to the next Orion stared at the one of Rarity, she was bound in wire, the wire was cutting deep, blood was beginning to form around the wires, leaking down them, and the face was her screaming. On the other side, was AppleJack, her knees had been sliced, she was crawling it seemed, her face was one of her eyes closed, simply laying there, making it seems as if the still statue was actually meaning to stay still and not move. Moving up, Orion saw
Pinkie Pie, her mouth was sewn shut, along with her eyes, her mane was flattened, her cutie mark even showed her balloons being popped. Moving over, was Twilight sparkle, this one looked the most terrifying to Orion. Blood was seeping from her mouth, her teeth were sharp, her wings were filled with holes and rips, and her cutie mark was crystalline and blackened.

Orion couldn't look at these anymore, going forward he saw a more well lit room, but still not bright. In the midst was a pedestal, a book sitting on it, with a small orb behind the book. On the edges of the room, shown the people the mane six had defeated. Nightmare Moon, Discord, Crysalis, Sombra,, each in their own corners, cold as the statues before. Nothing was disturbing about these, except they were all laughing, that was a tad offsetting. “Nothing more to do than to look at the book”
Orion said hesitantly. Walking up to the pedestal, the aura of the place got heavier, and heavier as time progressed, walking to it seemed to take so long. Finally making it, he looked at the ashen book, lined with red, and looking extremely old, he flipped open the book. All of it was in a language unknown to him, nothing made sense, flipping to the last page however he found something he could make out. It was the only thing in common.

“The sphere is the key to the true halls of power, all you have to do is make the door.” A somewhat strange riddle, should he continue doing what he was doing he wondered, would it be the best idea? He remembered he simply had no choice, picking up the orb he looked around the room, no door, clicking his hooves on the walls there was no hollow noises, no hidden passages, even tried pulling the torches down to see if they were a switch, nothing.

“Make the door” he said over and over. “Do I want to go through the door? What will the door lead too? How many others have walked through the door?” he quizzed himself over and over. The orb began flashing, as he answered his own questions, “yes I want to go through the door.” “the door apparently leads to power, something to get home with I'm sure.” “The statues in this room, must be some of the people who have walked through the same door?” The last one he said to himself unsure.

Another door appeared at the back of the room, running to it, something was written, “Those who are still pure.” Pushing the door open he saw statues of Celestia, Cadence, and another one of twilight. They all looked normal, except....Twilights eyes, were so much darker, alicorn magic has always been creepy, because it taps into the darkest parts of their power, for just a brief moment, but the dark and green aura was permanent on her eyes. Similar to what Sombra's was. Nothing else looked bad however, just her eyes, it was actually a little creepy that she was posed with the other 2 so happily in that way.

Another door had formed behind them, walking up to it Orion found more words, saying “The All knowing, First” Orion couldn't relate anyone else into the lives of the mane six, so he did not have anything to expect at all, when he pushed open the door. In a room that seemed to have no walls or floors, just a void, sat a massive statue of a dragon, it had 3 eyes on its head, it's wings were made of mechanical parts, in the center of it's chest was a glass bubble, inside was this ever constant sparking energy. There was so many parts of it's body augmented with mechanics and magic, it didn't look like a statue at all, but a living, breathing thing, it however did not move.

Lowering his eyes, he noticed another pedestal, in front of it, with only a piece of paper laying on it. Going over to the paper, it was gibberish to him, except of course, for the last few sentences. "May the all knowing show you the path, The events are in front of him, may it forever show you the way, and open the door to your destiny." Something in Orion clicked when he read this, he realized where the door was. Staring up at the dragon Orion yelled “Show me my destiny! Show me my door! I accept what I must do!” Out of the dragons bubble shot a beam of energy, going through every room he had walked through back outside.

Walking back through every room, a message was scrawled above every door. The first one read “no turning back.” walking into the “Room of the Pure” and out the other door it read “You will die here.” going through the “Room of the Tainted” the door leading out said “The path you take is of your own, nobody ever made you do it.” Walking through the room of mangled statues, the door at the end read “Don't let the shadows outside overtake you.” Walking outside there was a light, shining straight down the darkness he once saw, and a door was at the end, with a slot for the orb he carried.

Walking down he started hearing voices, from every direction “You pathetic little mortal! I will devour that pathetic soul!” a shadow yelled at him. Orion was extremely startled, feeling a hand grab his shoulder her shrugged it off and started running, more shadows started creeping out of the darkness, from the front, sides, and back of him, all of them yelling at him. “NOBODY LEAVES ALIVE ORION!” one yelled in his face. Sweating as the hands grabbed and pulled at him, using all his strength, he slammed through them. Almost to the door, the monsters closing in, a figure appeared, it was Colgate. “

“Don't Orion! If you do this, we can never be, I can't let you go, don't please!” Orion froze to her, not knowing what to do, he was so sure of doing this, until he heard her voice. As Colgate stepped closer, she whispered to him “Stay here, with me Orion, we can be happy, don't go towards the light Orion...” leaning on to kiss him, he pushed her away.

The shadows were approaching quickly from behind him, reacting as quickly as possible he pushed Colgate aside and slammed the gem into the door. “NoooooOOOOO!!” Colgate screamed as she transformed from Colgate into a dark shadow, grabbing Orion by the neck, light sprang from the crack in the door, making the shadows dissipate.

Orion looked into the door, and walked in, seeing a pale cascade of white, his eyes tightened up from it, slowly closing completely.

Author's Note

I listened to Akira Yamaoka - "Tender Sugar" and Akira Yamaoka - True while doing this, decided to put these here just in case you want to listen to them while reading, but these songs gave me a good feel for creepy, alone, isolate, mysterious.