The Catacombs of Zalgo

Chapter 15: The Search

Back at Twilight’s house, Spike kept his sights on the three fillies resting in bed peacefully. But at the same time, he kept wondering about the disappearance of Twilight and her friends. He hadn’t felt this much depression since Owlowiscious took Spike’s spot. It was like a living nightmare that he wished he would wake up. Just as he continued to think about Twilight, something inside his heart hit him hard. He felt surprised by this unknown feeling. Placing his hand right next to his own heart, he began to feel an unknown presence of anxiety flowing through him. He never experienced this feeling before, as this began to worry Spike immensely. Judging from the feeling, he knew that something very bad happened to Twilight. He looked out into the starry night, with tears unexpectedly upwelling in his eyes.

“Twilight…” He mumbled depressingly.

Three minutes has passed, and every pony was bursting into tears. Fluttershy and Rarity laid their heads on Twilight’s body, crying and weeping. While Rainbow Dash hung her head down with leaking tears. Pinkie Pie rested her head against Applejack’s chest crying, while Applejack had her forearms wrapped around Pinkie’s body, holding back her own tears.

As the grief and sorrow continued, Jack could only watch them weep out pitifully. But, he also observed each ponies’ reaction and behavior very closely. After learning everypony's personality traits, he began a questionable theory. Is it possible that the things he’s learning from these ponies are making sense to him? From all the deaths he’s seen, and the sadness and sorrow he experienced, how was this reaction seemed so… comprehensible? Jack thought that human emotions were only but confusing deceptions to misjudge a person. And yet, the way he looked at the ponies now was explicable. He never had time to study the emotional traits of living beings, as vengeance and hatred was the only aspects he was interested in. From all their crying so far, Jack began to felt something inside him that never occurred to him. It is as if he felt eagered to do something.

A minute has passed, and the ponies were still at it. Losing someone or somepony from murder was a pretty new experience for them. Rarity gloomed over Twilight’s lifeless face while her eyes were coated in tears.

“*Snivel*… W-Why…? Why did this had to happen?! She didn’t deserve this at all!!” Rarity wailed. Applejack had to agree with Rarity, as she shared her thoughts too.

“I-I know Rarity… b-but… *Sniff*… w-we shouldn’t let this… g-get to us. Twilight was a good and dearest friend to us… b-but…” Suddenly, Applejack was brutally interrupted by Rainbow Dash’s outburst.

“WAS?! How dare you!! She ‘IS’ our good and dearest friend, thank you very much!” Dash screamed at her friend. Then she lifted her forearms skyward into the air and started shouting at the ceiling.

“Guuuaaaahhh! I hate this place so much now… THIS ISN’T FAIR!!” Dash then darted her eyes at Jack after her pointless fuse. He was staring blankly at Twilight. But behind those eyes of his, something was infuriating him. Jack’s eyes were different, but Dash couldn’t notice it. The way he was looking at her made Dash felt angrier.

“If only we would've gotten here sooner,” Dash continued her anger while glaring at Jack. “Then none of this would've happened to her! But just look at yourself… aren’t you concerned or feeling sorry for Twilight at all?! Aren’t you-“ Suddenly, Jack darted at Dash with annoyance.

“Would you shut up?! If I were you, I’d take a better look at this place than pointlessly rant about your feelings!” He yelled. At that point, everypony stopped weeping. They all listened to what Jack had to say, as he continued to speak.

“Besides, I have three reasons why I shouldn’t be wasting my time crying right now! One, I don’t know Twilight Sparkle! Two, you all should have known by now which Quarter room this is!” As he continued, the next sentence Jack spoke left every pony frozen.

“And three, your friend isn’t entirely dead yet!” Every pony held their breaths, as they looked at him in a disbelief way. All of their sadness and sorrow came to a complete pause when Jack said that.

“You all heard me right, she isn’t dead yet!” Jack continued. “If you would recall on Daniel’s last moments before I deliberately blasted that motherfucker’s head to kingdom come, he said that he added her soul to the collection! There is a way to bring her back without messing the circle of life! I can do that kind of stuff… that is if you desperately want her back!” Finally, after Jack made his point, he grunted and stopped talking. They wondered what had gotten him worked up. Naturally, he would care less about situations like this. But aside from that, there was a window of opportunity to revive Twilight. However; they felt that it was wrong to disturb the dead. Even for Applejack, as doing stuff like that wasn’t her cup of tea. Which gave Applejack a slight hint that Jack was trying to make them believe he can do that stuff, just to spare their feelings. She thought that Jack was now starting to develop feelings of his own.

“Listen… Jack.” Applejack replied. “I-I know your trying ta make us feel better, but… I don’t know if it’s right ta mess with the natural order of life. I mean, Twilight is a dearest friend of ours, but I’m not so sure if this is the right thing ta do. And-“ Suddenly, Applejack was rudely cut off by Jack.

“Well in that case, I completely understand your opinion! We can either do three things at this moment! One, leave Twilight in here for all of eternity where she will never rest in peace! Two, either let her be and let someone begin the summoning ritual, where her soul shall be fed to a monstrous god-like being! Or three, get her the fuck out of there and bring her back to life! Either way, there’s no trip to heaven or hell for her!” The way he said those options caught Applejack and the others off guard. It was a no-win situation for Applejack’s opinion. Jack folded his arms and grunted.

“True suffering and loneliness together are more worse than death itself. I’m betting you that Twilight is experiencing that fear right now. I’ve felt dead ever since I got to this place. What made me feel alive was the endless hunger for vengeance. However, the stuff I’m going through with you guys is a totally different feeling. You can say, I’m now blooming twice. Or, I’m just doing this just to shut your goddamn whining. Either way, consider this as a reward for helping me out this far. So…” Jack cocked his head to the side.

“What will it be then?” Applejack was left dumbstruck; she’d never thought Jack would steep down to this level. But more importantly, she knew that Twilight didn’t deserve this fate. As much as it pains her to break the laws of life, she was about to feel guilty by accepting this. The other ponies desperately wanted Twilight back, as they instantaneously implored Jack’s proposal. Knowing them, it would break their hearts even more if Applejack said no. With a deep sigh, Applejack closed her eyes.

“Y…Yes. Please… please bring her back.” She tearfully said, as she felt regretful of saying that. Jack walked over to Applejack, and kneeled down to her level. Both of them eyed at each other very seriously.

“I know it’s wrong to do such thing, but you know, life isn’t welcome in this place.” Jack implied. “Just forget about your doubts of messing the natural order just for this one time. Because this place has no natural order, it’s defined the words chaos and unfairness quite clearly. And with no controllable chaos, there will be no order left. That’s the way Zalgo’s minions view their perspective. So just keep that in mind.” After that, he stood back up. He stared at the ponies that looked determined to do whatever Jack had in mind.

“Alright, listen up,” Jack said. “If you want her back, I’m going to need your guy’s help. For this part, you guys are all on your own.” He shot his arm to the side and pointed his finger at the glowing jars.

“Each of those jars holds the soul of a recent victim. In order to properly satisfy Cthulhu’s hunger, which Daniel was too stupid and too blind to figure out, the souls must be purified in those jars for about a week. It’s like cooking up a raw meat type method. The reasons why they have colors is because they reveal the soul’s personality trait. Just because your friend here is purple, doesn’t mean she might have that type of soul color. For this part, you five will have to search every jar in this room and quietly listen to their voices. If it sounds just like your friend in there, then remove that jar from the shelve and set it next to her body. But there are two things I will warn you about for this part.” Jack raised his hand in front of the ponies and flipped his index finger.

“One, do not wake the soul’s slumber. This is a pain in the ass to find a certain soul if this happens. If one were to wake up, they begin to beg for a release as loud as they can. Thus awakens the other souls’ slumber and it will create a thunderous racket. If that happens, it might alert the Soul Devours to come flying here. It’s impossible to shut those souls up unless I pull the emergency lever. The lever is located on that generator there. What it will do is it will permanently put them back to sleep for a month or so.” Then he flipped his middle finger up, making a two sign.

“And second, make sure not to break open those jars. Breaking those jars will release the soul from its bindings. Knowing those souls, they will desperately try to find and possess the nearest living body, kicking the previous owner’s soul out.” Jack folded his arms back together and sighed.

“Once you managed to find your friend’s soul jar, I’ll take care of the rest. In the meantime, I’m going to look for the last key shard in the other room. Take heed to my warnings, for this is the only way of doing this. Now get to it.” Jack walked around Applejack and headed towards the back door. The ponies nodded at each other, and they spread across the room. Tip hoofing towards the jars; the gang prepared themselves for this task. As Jack left the room, the ponies began their work. They slowly pressed their ears lightly against the colorful lit jars. Inside, they could hear different voices in each jar. Each jar contained the individual sounds of someone either crying, moaning in pain, shear grunts of anger, hyperventilating loudly, or sighs of misery. There were the sounds of children, women, men, elders, and even animals trapped inside each jar.

The ponies felt extremely sorry for their misfortune fate, but they couldn’t do anything about it. Life as they know it felt unfair for them, even in some circumstances. While the ponies quietly did their job, Jack was inside the other room searching for the last key shard. There were a lot of drawers, shelves, and desks containing records of certain victims and cultists. There were also documents of events, schedules, and bills. Jack carelessly tossed out the ancient documents and records to the side, making the whole room a mess. While he searched for the key shard, he began questioning his behavior that happened a minute ago.

“What happened to me back there?” Jack spoke to himself in his mind. “Actually... what’s happening to me right now? That feeling… it just took control over my personality. I wasn’t feeling like myself back there. I think this stress of babysitting those ponies is getting the better of me. Or…” Jack paused his search, and just stood there, looking blankly into his own void.

“What if… those five words are starting to make sense? Maybe they were meant more than just words. What do all of those five words have in common? Fluttershy might be right; maybe I have been lonely for far too long for no one to hear my pain and suffering. Heh… to think that living life was all about taking as much as you can to survive. The more I think about it, the more I feel like a caveman that’s searching for answers. Maybe what she was trying to say was…” Jack snapped out of his thinking trance at that moment.

“Whatever, I’ll figure out that later. Right now, I need to find this last key shard, and face my goal. I just hope these feelings won’t get in the way.” He stopped staring blankly into his own void, and continued his search. Passing through papers and emptying drawers, it didn’t took him long to finally find his prize. Underneath some bills was the last key shard. It had a square shaped sapphire on top. As he stared at the key, he didn’t notice himself smiling in relief. This had been the second time he’s smiled, and yet it didn’t bothered him at all.

With no time to celebrate, Jack reached into his key pouch, and pulled out the other three key shards. Carefully assembling all four pieces together, he managed to form a key statue. The jewels on each key shard twinkled simultaneously, as it made a loud click after fitting them all in. Staring at the key statue for a brief moment, he placed it back into his key pouch. Ready to leave this room, he cracked his fingers and his neck.

“Okay… the moment ha-“ Jack was interrupted by a loud sneeze that echoed from the other room. It sounded like Rarity’s sneeze almost, but in a more squeaky tone. Jack facepalmed himself and grunted in annoyance.

“Uuugh… here we go.” Jack mumbled. Back in the other room, already half of the jars were checked, and there was no sign of Twilight yet. But after Rarity accidentally sneezed, things were gonna get dicey. All of the other ponies held their breaths, as they were surprised by Rarity’s unexpected sneeze. Rarity had her hooves covered her mouth. She stared at the jar with huge frightened eyes, as if something terrible was about to happen. Every pony paused, letting the silence to take over for a brief moment. Then…

“H-Hello?! Is someone there?!” The voice spoke inside the jar, echoing the noise. “Please! Let me out of here! I don’t deserve this at all!” It was the voice of a scared young woman. Rarity tried to hush the soul down, but to no avail. The echoed voice was so loud; it awoke the nearby soul jar on the right.

“Eh! Keep it down, ya losar! Yer ain’t goin’ nowheres, chump!” The other voice spoke in a New Yorker accent. The voice sounded like a middle aged chubby woman that had lung cancer. And once more, the voice has awoken several more souls. After a few seconds, almost half of the room was awaken. And finally, after more seconds later, every soul jar began a loud racket. Some souls yelled and begged for release, while the others just begun chatting away.

“H-Help me! I have a wife and two kids that needs me!”

“What did I ever did to you?!”

“Hey! Let’a me outta here ya rotten bastards!”

“I’m scared! I want my mommy and daddy!”

“LET ME OUT!! PLEASE!! LET! ME! OUT!!”

“Shut up! I’m trying to sleep here dumbasses!”

“Is anyone there?! Please! Let me go!”

“Dental plan!”

“I HATE THIS PLACE! GET ME OUT OF HERE!!”

“If anyone is out there, please! Let me out! I’ll do whatever you want! I promise!”

Then the level of the racket began multiplying, and eventually, it became a crowded stadium. It was so loud; it could be heard from miles away. The ponies began panicking, desperately trying to find Twilight’s voice. They had to press their ear hard against the soul jar to figure out which sound comes out next. While they searched, Jack stormed out of the office with an angry face.

“What the hell happened here?!” Jack yelled as loud as he can, so that the ponies can hear him. Rarity heard Jack, as she faced him first.

“I’m terribly sorry, darling!” Rarity yelled back, trying to project her voice as loud as she could. “I had a bit of an accident with my allergies! It just suddenly slipped out! I couldn’t hold it in!” Jack could only facepalm himself again from her excuse. He knew that they would slip up on this task. So the stress didn’t get to him. Beginning to take action, Jack told Rarity to continue what she was doing, and went over to check the entrance. Almost immediately, Jack spotted the return of the previous Soul Devours flying towards them. With no seconds to lose, Jack gasped and slammed the door shut. Then, he reached over his back pouch, and pulls out a blood vile. Pulling out the cork, he dabs his finger into the vial. Once that was done, he began to scrawl a big circle containing symbols and shapes all over the door as fast as he could.

He could only scrawl the major portions of the spell circle as time was just about up. Using his right hand he stabbed earlier as a donation for blood, he pressed his hand on the center of the door.

“Yak au’kesh izh nevuha!” He chanted in a vulgar tone. The scribed symbols and shapes lit up in a violet glow, making a weird vibe noise. The edges of the door then glowed violet. And at that very second, there was a loud bang on the door. Then the Soul Devours let out a high pitch screech on the other side of the door. He turned his head towards the concerned ponies, as he kept his hand pressed on the door.

“I’ll hold them off! Till then, hurry and find your friend’s soul! I can’t hold them off forever!” Jack yelled out from the top of his lungs. They all nodded in return, and made haste to their search. Seventy five percent of the jars were checked, and still no sign of Twilight yet. They began to feel hopeless that they would never find her. And to top it off, their lives were in danger once more. Every pony never felt this intense before. It felt as if this could be the last moments of their lives.

Every five seconds, the door banged loudly. Each bang caused Jack’s arm to be damaged in recoil. His muscles were tearing themselves apart from the overstress of barricading the door with magic. With forty more soul jars left, the ponies made haste with their survey. Jack knew his arm was about to fall apart. He turned his attention towards the frantic ponies.

“I-I can’t hold it m-much longer! HURRY!” Jack yelled, followed by yet another loud bang on the door. Suddenly, the magical recoil from holding the spell intact tore a long gap on his bicep after the bang. The muscles were so tensed up it shredded the tissues immensely. Jack shrill in pain, as blood leaked out of the gap. His hand almost fell off the door, but he summoned his remaining strength to keep them at bay.

It felt hopeless now, there was no way that Twilight’s soul was to be found in one of these jars. Only five more to go, and the five ponies placed their ears against each jars for one last time. They felt bleak to even try to listen. And all five jars spoke,

“P-Please! Anyone! I-I want out! I hate this place!”

“This is so goddamn stupid! Why did I end up like this?!”

“HELP! HELP! OH GOD, PLEASE HELP ME!”

“If only we’d stayed in Ponyville, none of this would've ever happened!”

“HEEEY! OVER HERE! HELP! LET ME OUT!!”

At that moment, Rainbow Dash gasped heavenly. The other ponies turned their attention to Dash’s beaming face.

“What is it, darling?!” Rarity asked. Dash pressed her ear harder against the blue-lit jar.

“TWILIGHT!! IS THAT YOU?!” She yelled. Right away, the jar responded back.

“R-Rainbow Dash?! Where are you?! What’s going on?! Are the others safe?!” It was safe to assume that this was her soul. The ponies beamed their faces in happiness to finally see a successful task done. All of their sadness turned to joy, all of their anxiety disappeared, and their eyes began upwelling tears. Dash grabbed the soul jar, and wrapped her forearms around it. For the first time, Dash was experiencing the emotion of happiness that’s crossed her limit borders. Her heart bounced up and down, unable to stop this sensation. She let out a hearty giggle, while teardrops bounced off her eyes.

“I-I knew it! I knew you wouldn’t be gone, you lovable egghead! I’m so happy we’ve found you! I-“ Dash continued, but was suddenly interrupted by Jack’s wailing agony.

“GAAAAUAAAUGH!” The final bang on the magical door emited a strong force. It violently hurled Jack’s body back, sending him tumbling on the ground. His right arm was almost covered in blood, as several deep wounds were around his arm. His body slid towards Twilight’s body, smearing blood on his right arm along the ground. With horror, every pony gazed at Jack. They let out a shrilling gasp of terror.

“JACK!!” Fluttershy screamed. At that moment, the symbols and shapes around the circle on the door stopped glowing. Then the symbols and shapes dissipated into thin air. A second later the Soul Devours went through the closed door. The unholy phantoms spotted the helpless victim lying on the floor. Jack raised his head up, and spotted the three Soul Devours floating right towards him. Grunting in pain, he darted his eyes over at the ponies. Right away, he noticed that Rainbow Dash was holding a blue-lit soul jar. Considering that jar has her friend in it, he stept forward to phase two.

“Nugh…! L-LISTEN…” Jack cried out in pain. “P-PULL… T-THE YELLOW… LEVER DOWNWARD… ON… T-THE L-LEFT OF… THE GENER…ATOR… BEHIND ME… HURRY!!” The group darted their eyes over at the strange generator. There, on the left side of the generator was a yellow lever that was pointing up. It looked as though it was a piece of cake to them. But time was running out, as the Soul Devours was circulating around him, preparing to something horrifying. Fluttershy knew that the switch was to silence the ghostly crowd, but she doesn’t know if it would work on those phantoms too. Unable to sit idly around anymore, she decided to take action. Fluttershy dashed towards the generator, while the others tagged along with her. Once they were there, Fluttershy held on to the yellow lever and pulled it down. However; it wouldn’t budge one bit. She tried her hardest to pull it down, but to no avail. She then turned to the group.

“I-It’s no use! It won’t budge!” Fluttershy announced. On the corner of Fluttershy’s eye, she spotted a Soul Devour grabbing Jack’s shirt by the turtleneck. Jack’s head hanged upside down, as he grimaced in pain. Then, the phantom opened and expanded its mouth large and wide, revealing endless rows of razor sharp teeth. And then, the phantom started to inhale strong wind. In seconds, a light blue essence emitted from Jack’s body. Around the same time the tip of his fingers begun to develop a necrosis effect, as it slowly spread upward. Jack cried out in anguish, as it pierced through the heavens. Fluttershy paused herself and watched in horror for a brief moment.

With too much at stake, Fluttershy couldn’t stand around and watch. She had to save Jack from being devoured by the phantom. But just as she was about to let go, the other ponies grabbed hold on the lever and Fluttershy’s hooves. She turned her head around to see the others greeting her with determination. This snapped Fluttershy out of her traumatized state. With a simple nod, every pony proceeded to push down the lever as hard as they could. Both of Jack’s arms were now crippled in necrotic. The light blue essence took the form of Jack’s entire body, making it look like his soul. As the Soul Devour continued to inhale with no end, his soul slowly lifted out of his body. Jack’s cries of anguish were becoming weaker by the second. The ponies pushed down with all their might. It felt like they couldn’t do it. But thinking about letting Jack die like this gave Fluttershy the extra strength she needed.

Suddenly, the lever finally pulled itself down. Every pony collapsed onto one another, as the lever snapped in half. The generator began to vibrate violently, as electricity shot through the air and against the walls. The electric current flowed through the whole room, giving off loud sparks of discharge. A wave of electricity struck the Soul Devours, as they wailed and writhed in agony. The phantom released Jack’s shirt, as his body hit the ground. His soul began to sink back into his body. His skin also began to regenerate itself from the necrosis, due to his essence returning to his body. However, his loss of strength was causing him to black out. His final image was watching the sparks of life fly past through the sky, before darkness engulfed his visions.