I felt my entire body lurch as the floor underneath me crumbled to a subatomic spray, swirling into the void that had opened beneath me... my final waking moment.
Besides that, I remember very little of what had happened, or really, where I came from... though I do remember my final thought, however, when the darkness closed in on me:
Goodbye, world. I'll miss you...
"Get him back to the bunker, girls. He's out cold."
"Okie Dokie!"
That... that voice... why does it sound so familiar?
To my surprise, instead of the warm hands of a human, I felt... air. It was as if I was simply lifted into the air itself, simply by a gust of wind. Though I was now awake from the ruckus, I remained still and silent, afraid of what was to become of me if I stirred.
We traveled for what seemed like hours on end, and--
Hey, Anon! Are you awake???
GAH! WHO ARE YOU?!
I'm... Pinkie Pie? Don't you remember?
Frankly, I don't remember anything, and you just scared the shi--
NO SWEARS!
GET OUT OF MY HEAD, WHATEVER YOU ARE!
Judging by the sudden wailing noises and the lack of a voice in my head, whatever that... thing that got into my head was had left... though I felt something... oddly familiar about that voice...
"Twilight, he doesn't seem to recognize me..."
"It's alright, Pinkie. He's got a pretty bad concussion, as well as minor amnesia. Just wait a while, alright?"
I turned over and groaned. It felt as if I was lying on the operating table at a hospital.
"Wake up, um... what did they say back in the human world... uh, man."
I opened my eyes, groaning some more as I saw the sleek table I was on. I am on an operating table... either that, or this is some sort of fancy industrial-class... table.
"WHAT THE FUUUuuuuuu?----"
Now, I'd normally expect to wake up all cozy and such, but this time, I woke up to what looked like a very saddened... pink... pony?
"Anon?"
Anon... is that really what the pony calls me?
"Sir... Anon," another pony began, stepping up besides me, "Shortly after Pinkie here returned, we had begun scouting the area for danger, and stumbled upon you."
Oh, great. Apparently I just happened to be dropped into the middle of nowhere.
"So..." I replied, eyeing the lavender mare in front of me, "This... Pinkie... she's the one that's beside me?"
The mare nodded, and I turned to face this "Pinkie" girl. Unlike the last time, when she apparently broke into my mind, she simply waved, though I still saw a glint of what appeared to be sadness in her rather large eyes.
I couldn't help but stare back. There was something strange about this mare, and she acted like as if she had lived with me for a while, though honestly, that's already a strain to my imagination.
After a while, we departed ways, and the two mares left the room. I lifted myself from the table, wincing from a sharp pain in my left leg. A quick check revealed that my ankle was apparently sprained. I'm actually quite surprised that I even survived a drop through whatever "void" that was that swallowed me up.
Now that I was completely awake, and able to limp about the room, I was able to explore my surroundings. The table I was laying on, (which apparently was just a piece of scrap metal on top of old crates), a few chairs here and there, and some boarded up windows blotting out the murky sunlight that leaked into the room. The only other thing worth mentioning about the room was that it appeared to be made entirely our of crystal.
I sat back down, this time on a chair. If I wanted to know what was going on, I'd have to ask some questions. But me, a grown man, asking talking ponies half my height? It's far too laughable... but yet, it's my only choice. A quick search about the room gave me a short plank that I could support myself with, and so I limped along to the door.
It was locked. Of course it was. I turned around to face the rest of the room. If it were really made of crystal, I may be able to shatter it...
Once again, I was wrong. After nearly ten minutes of endless hammering using the hardest objects I could find, I fell back, exhausted. My ankle still throbbed, and was visibly swelling. Just as fate would have it, the lavender mare returned to my room. Or is it my prison?
"Mister... Anon... am I right?" she asked, holding a clipboard and quill in what seemed to be nothing but a faint glow.
I shrugged, and replied, "Honestly, I can't even remember my name. All I remember is the world shredding, and me falling."
She nodded, and quickly jotted down some notes.
"So..." she began once more after finishing, "You're saying that the last thing you remember is that the world... shredded? I mean, I understand the falling part, considering your amnesia."
Once again, I shrugged, replying, "Well, if you can say that you saw every object around you being destroyed, then... yeah, I'd have to say that the world got shredded. Deleted. Vaporized--" I made a little explosion movement with my hands to make a point. "--poof."
The mare continued writing for a couple of seconds, and glanced back up towards my face. She had a mild face of confusion as she apparently ran what I said through her head. Finally, her face lit up, and she suddenly began apologizing.
"Sorry, sorry," she said, "I completely forgot to introduce myself! I'm Twilight Sparkle."
I raised a brow at the odd name. "Pinkie" was understandable, considering that the entirety of the mare, save for an odd little mark on her flank, was pink.
"Twilight" began scribbling on the clipboard again, seemingly logging my reaction to her name. She turned, and began to pace out of the room.
"WAIT!" I called to her. She stopped, turning to face me as I held up my foot.
"I sprained my foot."
Twilight opened her mouth, but could only muster up, "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh....."
Just great. I thought, She doesn't know what a foot is. How could I be so stupid?
I watched Twilight closely, fully expecting her to ask me what a foot was. Instead, to my surprise, her face lit up, and she hurriedly left the room, only to return a few minutes later with a large book.
My eyebrow raised as I shot a questioning glance at the large tome, of which she returned my stare with a quick flash of the books' cover.
Huh, she just happens to have a book on foot health, doesn't she? I thought, continuing to stare at the large book.
Mirroring my thoughts, Twilight explained that she had picked up the book from the medical section of a college bookstore, which supposedly exists on "The other side of the portal". Interesting.
While my mind was focused on the fact that a pony just happened to have a human medical book, I realized that Twilight had somehow... healed my sprained ankle. Like as in, there wasn't any pain anymore, the swelling was gone, and all signs of the sprain even happening in the first place were just... gone.
"Wow. Uh, Thanks, Twilight..." I half-mumbled, hopping onto my feet. I was now able to walk normally, and thankfully, the doors weren't locked this time. Time for some exploration.
After requesting permission from Twilight, who appears to be my caretaker, in a way, she allowed me to wander freely throughout the so-called "bunker" that everyone was in. Simply from looking down the first hall I saw, however, it clicked in my mind that this "bunker" seemed to, in reality, be a repurposed freakin' castle.
Honestly though, I'm not really all that surprised anymore. Dropping from the sky after being sucked out of your own universe does things to you.
This is the new reality, I realized.
I continued my casual stroll through the sprawling network of hallways, before noticing some commotion in one of the larger, central rooms. I peeked inside, noticing Pinkie and Twilight, along with four other mares, and what appeared to either be a large lizard, or a tiny dragon. Either way, it appeared to be staring out the window with a telescope of some sort. The rest appeared to be talking about the funny-looking mirror behind Twilight. Suddenly, Twilight began yelling out a long string of cries. I didn't catch it all, but it was somewhere along the lines of "THE UNIVERSE IS ENDING," and "WE'RE DOOMED!". I also heard mention of the bunker being built within the ruins of a castle, which likely explains the many sealed-off doors I had encountered.
During her yelling, Twilight kinda... flopped onto the floor. She was still laying on the floor, when Pinkie began patting her back and reassuring her of whatever they were talking about. After the mares finished their continued talks about whatever it was they were talking about, Twilight began making her way towards the door. I waved a hand, smiling gently as she stormed past me, still muttering nonsense about universes and doom.
"What's wrong?" I asked, trailing the mare as we walked down the hall, "What were you talking about?"
Twilight dismissively waved a hoof. "Nothing, it's just... I'm just going through a hard time, okay?"
I nodded, watching as Twilight unfolded her wi... Oh. She has wings.
Anyways, Twilight flew up to the second floor, continuing her babbling as she soared.
As for me, I decided that it was about time for lunch, and wandered off for whatever counted as a kitchen in this place.
After noticing Twilight glide overhead in the direction of the room with the mirror, I decided to head back over to said room.
This time, Twilight was standing beside the mirror, which was very obviously modified with various odds and ends, many of which streamed towards a metallic bowl on Pinkie's head.
I listened closely, hearing varied talk about Pinkie's energy levels -- which I was later assured by Pinkie herself were over 9000, -- and some more talk about universes. Though this time, I also heard talk that the mirror was also supposedly a portal. I'll have to check it out later...
I watched tentatively from the doorway as Twilight stuck a hoof into the portal. Instead of simply pushing the mirror back like I expected, it simply disappeared, so to say, into wherever the portal led. Twilight hesitantly glanced back towards the other mares, then quickly towards me, before asking the others if they were sure they didn't want to follow. They all nodded, including the small dragon/large lizard creature. I was just about to ask if I could follow, but she had already entered the portal.
The rest of the girls were apparently talking about some sort of recent attack. I don't like eavesdropping, however, and so I never got the gist of it. Instead, I sat for hours in my supposed room, thinking about what was possibly the matter.
Later on, though, Pinkie gave me a brief run-through of the details. The bunker, and the castle it's built upon, were being attacked by a group calling themselves the "Midnight Talons". While she was returning for supplies, Pinkie simply thought it was a good idea to let me in on the details. Almost immediately after telling me, Pinkie vanished.
Shouting. Gunfire. The booming of cannons. I don't know how long it's been since Pinkie had talked to me, but I know that it's now well into the night. All the mares were still absent, the only sign of their presence being the occasional flickering shadow through the barred windows.
They wouldn't risk it. They wouldn't risk me. The moment I had arrived, they had watched over me as if I were their own child. I had concluded that there was apparently something special about me, and after thinking hard about what the "Mirror Portal" fiasco was about, it became clear to me: I was human. The portal led to humans.
My memory had also begun to return, though in small bits. I remember once seeing a children's show with an eerie similarity to the world I now live in, and running it through my mind, I realized something else: We created this world, and now it's being torn to pieces. It just doesn't make sense though, how there wasn't any clear mention of where the portal led to.
I had surmised that the portal led to a world inhabited by humans, and that Twilight had left to work out what went wrong. I'm only hoping that that is the case.
If it is, then it all would make sense; them bringing me in, opposed to any other half-dead creature out there, my own, protective room, the careful guarding of the bunker, it was all for me. Humans created the show, their word, their life. I'm human. It was all becoming apparent now. I am practically their god.
After quite a while of heavy thinking, I had begun to feel sleepy. Once again, I don't know how long it had been, but I knew it was now morning. The girls were all back nearly unscathed aside from minor cuts and scars. The one with the rainbow-hair reasoned that she had an "Awesomeness Shield" that protected her.
It's nice to know that even in dire times, there can always be laughter...
