The annoying tap of a hoof could be heard across the room, the nurse stared at Ian with a worried face, probably thinking he was going to snap soon. Ian didn’t worry; he was used to being stared at by others. He waited silently for at least thirty minutes, looking at the ground the whole time. The nurse finally called him up to let him know that his doctor was ready for him. Ian slowly walked up to the doctor’s office, once again. He had been doing this every week , since the visions, that was about four months ago, he could still recall his first one, it seemed surreal, almost impossible to him that he was seeing it. Something had been talking to him during the vision, a deep voice, which had made him feel as if his soul had been frozen. He still hasn’t told anyone what he saw in the vision, and he doesn’t plan on it.
“Ian, good to see you again.” The doctor exuberantly says, obviously trying to make Ian feel better.
“Did I have a choice doctor?” Ian asks with a annoyed face “I don’t come here every week to feel welcome; I come because I want to stop these… visions”
“Yes yes, we are still working on that, now just be patient and be a good patient.” The doctor says, with a grin.
“How much longer does the medicine have till it’s ready?” Ian asks still with an annoyed look on his face.
“Should be ready in three more weeks, it will work overnight, you won’t remember any of your visions after you take it, and if they start up again, we can always make more.” The doctor says impatiently
Ian checks the clock near him “Well, let’s get started shall we?”
The doctor nods, and calls for his assistant. She is a unicorn, with a dull shade of yellow, and a syringe as a cutie mark, she stared at Ian with a bored look on her face.
“Ok, let me get the needle ready.” She says, with a nasally voice.
She mixed the needle’s content to the perfect amount, and got out a small, damp with rubbing alcohol; cotton ball. The needle floated very close to Ian’s face, while the cotton ball was rubbed on his upper front, left leg. The needle then quickly flew to the rubbed area and was stabbed in, the mixture was injected and the needle safely discarded. Ian looked down, as the room began to spin, he soon felt heavy and tired, he looked up at the doctor who, as usual, made his assistant keep track of everything Ian said.
“Ok Ian, I need to go over the basics again today. First question, when did the visions start?” He asked Ian.
“Right after my visit to my uncle’s place, in the Orderist city near the obelisks.” Ian said drowsily.
" Ok.. did you have any contact with the obelisk?" The doctor questioned.
“Good good… Now, what did you see in these visions?” The doctor asked, hoping for a reply to this question.
“I don’t want to tell you, I...I can’t tell you!” Ian says, suddenly panicking.
“Ok Ian, calm down, calm down.” The doctor says with a worried tone. “Can you at least tell me some of what you heard?”
“The voice, it told me that all would be one, one mind, one soul, one body. It told me that if I have no reason to fear it, and if I do, It will ease my mind one day, take away all my pain” Ian said, an endless torrent of fear swept threw him and he began to sweat profusely. “It’s going to kill me, I know it… It wants to kill everypony, no, not just us ponies, everything alive!”
“Now Ian, I am positive that what you are experiencing is not true, it is all a part of your mind, now go home and get some rest, I have to plan a trip for you, I am hoping it will help you face your paranoia.” The doctor says with a reassuring voice and attitude.
"Ok, I guess I do have to calm down. I just.... cant handle them... the visions." Ian whispers, eyes darting around the room.
"Good, now tomorrow I want to see you at the train station, at six o'clock sharp." The doctor said, with a smile.
" Whatever you say, if you think it will help then I will gladly do it." Ian replied.
Ian arrived at the train station exactly when the doctor asked, but he couldn't find him, so he went onto the train. Little did he realize was that the train went straight to the Orderist city, the same place where he first started getting the visions. The doctor finally appeared right before the train left, calling to Ian.
"Good, you made it, now, I bet your wondering where we are going aren't you?" The doctor asked.
"Actually I am, so... where are we going?" Ian asked quizzically.
The doctor smiled " To the starting place of your visions, the Orderist city."
"What!? You... Why!?" Ian responded with a furious tone.
"You need to learn that there is nothing to fear, these visions are false and the obelisks did not cause them." The doctor replied with a sudden serious look on his face.
"No! I can accept that the visions are false, but those obelisks did start this and I am not going anywhere near them!" Replied Ian, stomping the ground with his forelegs.
"Ian you need to face facts and deal with issues, now I am taking you there as your doctor, and this is my medicine for you!" The doctor said with a threatening tone.
"Fine, Fine. I will go." says Ian. while looking down in defeat.
" Good, now look, were almost here." The doctor happily calls back while he waves his hoof at the outside.
The train rolled up to the station with a loud hiss, steam was pouring out of the top like a kettle. Ian and his doctor step off, walking past different major tourist attractions, such as the museum and the exact replicas of the obelisks, they didn't have time for such novel things. They stopped in front of the black hall, waiting for the priest to bring them in. The priest was a awkward looking pony to say the least. His unkempt mane looked oily, and was covering his left eye. He nodded to the two priests guarding the doors, they opened them slowly, the stone was grinding on the doors, making small sparks. The priest waved to Ian and the doctor to come in.
"I am so glad you could make it!" The priest hurriedly says to Ian, not paying any attention to the doctor.
"Why?" Questioned Ian, with a curious look on his face.
"Because, the obelisks have chosen to talk through you, and you alone." The priest answered back, while waving his hoof to another priest near three large pitch black stone towers.
They allowed Ian to pass through, all the way to the front of the towers. He felt strange as he walked up to them, but he also somehow knew these were the real obelisks, no doubt about it, they had no resemblance to the models outside, these had strange writings and emitted a small hum. The hum got louder the closer he got, until it became unbearable for most, including the doctor, he had to leave. Ian put one hoof on the front obelisk, and in a sudden flash of red light he became unconscious.
The smell of burning flesh awoke Ian, he quickly got up and galloped away from the obelisks. He suddenly stopped when he noticed the priests on the ground, they appeared as if they were screaming, but no sound escaped. Slowly making his way to the closest one, he was shocked by the priests condition. The priest lost all his color, his flesh turned charred, and large wounds were growing all over his body. A voice broke the silence, the voice from his visions.
" These ponies gave most of their free time to spreading my message, so I shall give them the most honorable gift I can, them the chance to continue spreading; not my message; but me." The voice echoed. " Now I shall not take you just yet, I want you to see this, the future. You cant stop it, no matter how hard you try."
" You sick monster! " Screamed Ian, but his anger quickly turned to fear.
The wounds on the priest began to gush blood, the blood quickly became a pool around the body. As soon as the blood stopped flowing from the wounds, it then began to flow to the stairs that headed to the obelisks. Looking around Ian realized that all seven of the priests inside the room were going through the same process. The blood reached the obelisks, and started traveling up them, filling the words with a dark red.
" Now it has begun my good Ian, you cant stop it, no one can." The voice boomed.
Ian couldn't respond, because behind him the sound of bones breaking and moving could be heard. Looking back he saw the most gruesome sight ever, the bodies of the priests were becoming spread out, bones broke through the flesh and began to take their own form. the flesh tore away from itself and began to spread over the ground as well. Ian began to step backward, trying to stay away from the now growing floor of flesh, unaware that the bones had begun to take in flesh again. He found a way around and galloped for the doors, but a creature of horrific origins crawled from the mass of flesh, it looked like the body of a pony that had been split in half and reconnected by its skull. It emitted a loud shriek and twisted its head towards Ian.
" What...Are you..." Ian silently whispered.
The creature ran past Ian, knocking him to the ground, and jumped up onto the second floor, shrieked again and jumped out one of the glass walls. Glass fell over Ian in a surreal, rain like fashion. Ian got back up and began to head to the door again, he didn't look back when he heard more glass breaking from more of the creatures. Upon stepping outside he thought he was having another vision, but realized, it was all real. Ian stared in disbelief, he could not believe that he was standing in what used to be a city. It looked more like a pile of death now, it appeared that only people who lived in the city were affected, as tourists could be seen screaming and galloping around in fear from the used to be ponies. Ian ran as fast as he could to the train station, but to his horror again, it had been covered by the flesh substance as well. Falling to the ground in defeat, he began to sob.
" Soon, no one will ever be sad, or angry. Only one emotion will run though us all, and that will be joy. You and I shall be joyous together, as one." The voice said to him softly.
" How can you stand this? HOW!?" Ian screamed into the air.
The voice didn't reply, and Ian got up and stomped in rage. Looking around him, he figured he better find some help, and a form of protection. Deciding the museum would probably have to most protection, he made his way their, strangely none of the creatures seemed to notice him. This worried Ian to an extent, making him wonder is total sanity, but he quickly dismissed that thought.
" Hey!" A female voice behind him said.
Ian turned around, sighing in relief that he didn't need to go searching for help.
" Hey, you have no idea how good it is to see somepony who isn't acting crazy or... morphed." Ian said back.
"Yeah, I was coming up to visit my parents... but..." She said, beginning to cry.
She was a Pegasus, Blue, with yellow and red hair, she had a raindrop as a cutie mark.
" I'm sorry, I truly am, but we need to stick together if we want to live. Understand?" Ian kindly explained.
" I do, I do... Sorry.. just emotional right now... I'm Dreary by the way." Dreary slowly replied
" Just call me Ian, don't like to go by anything else." Ian said.
They continued walking together, keeping away from major areas, at least until they got to the museum. While walking they both learned a little bit about how they ended up here, turns out Dreary's parents had wanted her to visit earlier, but she got caught up in work. Ian told her all about how he ended up coming here, and how he wish he never came to visit his uncle now. They both ended up agreeing that fate is fate and they need to accept it. After the long conversation, they finally arrived at the museum, It wasn't as bad off as most of the city, probably because the lack of priests in it. Though many windows were broken, and blood could be seen dripping from a few.
" Keep close, I don't either of us to get lost, or worse killed." Ian said to Dreary.
She nodded, look sadly towards the museum and followed Ian in. The museum was dim, the only light was from the broken windows, as all the lights inside were broken. They headed towards the armor section, in hopes to find some sort of easy to wear yet durable armor. It wasn't long before they had to stop, as one of the creatures was blocking their way. It was just standing in place, perfectly still, staring at Dreary. Ian walked up to the creature, and touched it, nothing happened. Dreary moved barely and inch, and the creature launched itself at her, Ian thought quick and jumped on it. The creature became increasingly furious and ran faster, Dreary fly up, not knowing the power it had in its legs. The creature jumped up and tried to bite her legs, but she kicked down strong, smashing its face in. The creature fell down, Ian still holding on started trying to tear its head off, bones could be heard breaking, and strange liquid poured out from quickly appearing rip marks. He got all his body into it, and kicked off with his hind legs, causing the head to fly off, smashing into the wall, Ian landed on the ground face first. Dreary flew down, and could barely breath for a few minutes, the body of the creature was still twitching. Ian got up, went over to the body, and smashed down with all his might, the strange liquid splashed all over him, and he fell down in the mess, a tear in his eye.
" I... C..Cant believe... I just... Killed what was once a... pony..." He stuttered.
Dreary didn't say anything, she just sat down and started crying.
