Chronalmin Flux

Chapters

Calming thoughts
They snap quickly
Investigations and Phasing
Paint and Sweat
Almost there(?)
They snap rapidly(Old first chapter)

Calming thoughts

The hundred-floor skyscraper was noisy. Very noisy. More than usual, and Minted Wrap didn't mind it at all. There was something to be said about a mute janitor working day in and day out to keep the place clean. Sure, he wasn't alone in cleaning it, but because he was always at the highest floors, he could always hear the sound of hooves slamming against typewriters, ponies walking around, and mistakes occurring.

"OH NO!" a mare screeched. The stallion walked around the corner to the office room to see that a mare had dropped a bottle of ink she was meant to pour in the ribbon hold of her typewriter all over the floor. She facehoofed. "I didn't want to make a mess today!" she scolded herself.

Her colleague sitting in front of her did not remove his eyes from the colored folders he was fumbling through. "Don't worry. Minted Wrap will appear any second now," he muttered almost inaudibly.

The stallion rounded the corner with high-powered carpet cleaning machinery in hand. He put a crystal into a small compartment in its back, held onto the t-shaped handle, then pushed the gray body against the floor. It made a loud noise and created a hot, humid air around it, but the gray carpet was cleaned without a stain in barely a few seconds.

"Thanks, Minted," the mare said. "I would've been killed if that was seen by my boss."

Her colleague filed away another folder between one of the twenty-story piles towering precariously next to him. "That's what he's here for. No need to thank him," he stated dismissively.

The mare frowned. "Yeah, well without him, our whole floor would be a mess!" She turned to Minted, smiled, then sat back down on her seat.

The janitor shrugged and pulled his carpet cleaner back to his closet. Or, he was going to, but everything in the office he had just cleaned became briefly hazy as though it were underwater. It lasted but a few seconds, and Minted Wrap wiped his eyes, dismissing it as just a brief irritation of them.

During his trek across the large hall, the stallion tripped over and fell onto his face. His cleaner flew a bit and hit against the wall, causing some curious stares. Minted looked to his hind leg to see some kind of vine fluctuating like a bad tv channel before disappearing and leaving his hoof to plop back down softly.

"Are you okay?" a scrawny unicorn asked. He used his magic to put Minted back onto his hooves. "What did you even trip on?"

Minted looked to the ground and saw the object had vanished, but without leaving any kind of trace behind. He did his best to imitate the form of a tree root on the floor, but the unicorn did not understand. The janitor dropped his forelegs in defeat and frowned. The unicorn tapped him on the back in response.

"Sorry, but I don't understand what you're trying to say, and I don't know any spells for mind reading or anything like that." He let go and moved away. "I have much work to do, though, and so do you."

The janitor rolled his eyes, picked up his machine, and put it back in the closet. He was going to take a vacation after this, but for now, he had many things he needed to do.

The day was almost over, and the sun outside was setting, creating a vibrant tapestry of oranges and purples. Minted Wrap could see the painting from a window in the hallway he was cleaning. It was much easier to see such a thing from the seventy-seventh floor. The carpet was filled with crumbs and soil residue from the potted plants placed in the corners of the hall and the large opening leading to a room of offices at its end. Minted Wrap was exhausted. His usual deepmint fur was darkened by his sweat, his deep blue eyes were bloodshot with fatigue, and his bright green mane and tail, usually straightened out and with a vertically wavy pattern of white, was now a jumbled mess. At least his paper hat cutie mark wasn't affected by the working conditions.

This vacuuming was just the final bit of work he had needed to do before leaving for home, and he couldn't deal with it anymore. Could he talk, he would voice his frustration, but he really wanted to finish his work instead of thinking about what he couldn't say. Perhaps a raise would be in order? He could ask his boss. Solar Plant Industries was a very lucrative agricultural industry. Maybe they had a few bits they could add to his pay.

Wiping his forehead for a second time, the stallion took a drink of water from one of the bottles hanging from the brown belt around his waist. Fifteen minutes later -give-or-take-, the stallion noticed the lights above flickering and buzzing with with effort just so they wouldn't turn off. Minted frowned at the event. He had just changed the fuses to the main fuse boxes a week ago on account of similar issues with lighting. Somepony walking across the carpet attracted his attention to the offices forward. A brown and red pegasus stallion had just left the elevator and was walking through the offices, seemingly looking for something and carefully pushing away chairs and desks with moderate difficulty.

It's possible that the pony was from the lower levels since Minted never cleaned anything but the higher ones, or that they chose the wrong floor and became briefly disoriented without realizing. It wasn't uncommon, but it wasn't something he knew how to fully deal with since he couldn't speak.

"Greetings, pony," the new stallion said. "I seem to be a bit...lost..." he sighed. "Do you know where I am?"

Minted tapped a symbol on his vacuum: A green raindrop surrounded by two white circles, the outer one being grayer than the inner.

The new pony scratched the back of his head. "I...see? I know where I am specifically. I just don't know how I got here. I was trying to go down to the ground floor."

Minted shrugged in response.

"Well, it could just be the system malfunctioning...and I DON'T want to take the stairs."

The janitor scrunched his lips into his mouth and bobbed his head gradually to the side with a sentiment of agreement.

The lost stallion rubbed his chin and frowned. "What's the matter? Can't speak?"

Minted tapped his throat then shook his head. He then gestured to carpet cleaner and the clock, to which the lost stallion heaved a long sigh of annoyance and stepped back.

"S'not like I just got here..." he mumbled to himself.

Minted looked up towards him, but the stallion was innocently pretending he hadn't said anything. The janitor paid it no further heed and went on to finish their work. The janitor was usually fully concentrated when working, but they felt something strange approaching his back, ready to strangle him. He turned off his machine and spun around. The lost stallion stopped fiddling with his hooves and the two exchanged looks silently.

Wrap was panting more through fear than hard work, and he could feel his heart trying to get out from behind his ribcage. He gradually returned to his work and sighed in relief that it didn't occur again. He grabbed his broom and placed it against a desk while he looked underneath every desk for anything that was forgotten by the employees. Unfortunately, checking around for any left-over trash or spills left uncleaned didn't prevent the sensation from reappearing. In fact, Minted genuinely felt something wrap around his neck and tighten. Instinctively, he attempted to cry out whilst he struggled, but all that came out was air.

"You okay there?" the lost stallion asked. He grabbed the janitor and lifted him back onto his hooves. "You looked like you were choking there." He chuckled. "Swallowed your spit the wrong way."

The janitor grabbed the lost stallion and tugged on his neck to follow him, to which said stallion protested. Minted rushed to the stairs.

"Woah woah!" the lost stallion shouted. "You tug on me then rush to the stairs? Calm down, pal"

He smiled, but when he opened his eyes, Minted thought he caught a glimpse of something swimming in them. The stallion didn't hesitate to run away, quickly chased after by the lost stallion.

"Where are you going? A way out?" the stallion asked whilst chasing after Minted.

The janitor opened the door to the next floor and found that he was back where he started, and the lost stallion was leaning against a desk and fiddling with his hooves.

"Already back?"

Minted blinked a few times. He turned around to see that the stairs were like they were before he left as well. The black stains from small fire a while back weren't on the wall anymore.

"Looks like you're also lost." He rubbed his chin. "Might be because you don't want to talk. I could help you with that, then we can both leave this place. This..." he looked around. "One." The janitor backed away slowly and eyed the door again. "Ha. There's no point. You'll just end up back here. Let me HELP you."

The stallion's hooves split open into a mass of tendrils that attempted to wrap around Minted. A quick grabbing of his broom and a strike against the creature's limbs caused it to yelp and pull back in return.

"Ow!" it complained. "That really hurts! All I'm trying to do is release your voice!" Its body shivered and convulsed. "Ungrateful!"

It jumped in the air to pounce on the janitor, but Minted Wrap -perhaps through sheer dumb luck- somehow managed to dodge the mass of tentacles by standing on his hind legs and sucking in his gut. He stabbed the creature in its eye with the broom. It pulled back and grabbed at the object whilst howling in pain. Minted noticed that there was no resistance when the broom handle entered the creature's skull, although he didn't have much to think about since the monster started flailing about and smashing masses of its limbs against the ground.

Weakened, it gave way under the weight of Minted, and just before he fell, the monster broke the broom off and the upper portion of its head broke off, revealing a glint that Minted could barely catch a glimpse of.

They snap quickly

Minted panted loudly, gradually opening his eyes to a dark abyss. He was covered with cold sweat, and any hopes of this adventure being a dream was shattered when his eyes adjusted to the dark. With some effort, Minted forced the damaged floor rubble to reveal a part of the skyscraper with strange...characteristics.

It was very dark, the air was humid, and some of the walls were riffle with holes like they were chocolate left too long in the sun. In fact, there was a strange, black slime oozing about everywhere, and it was extremely sticky and gross. His head still hurt, and the stallion was uncomfortable wading through this muck before him. The further he waded, the tighter the corridor seemed to become and the more the muck was tightening around him. The door to the stairs was just a few feet away, but Minted was stuck in place. He couldn't move. That's when he heard a sound and looked down. He was in the 'mouth' of some kind of tortured soul moaning silently. For lack of terror, Minted noticed that the face was almost like that of the previous stallion, but without the tentacles, obviously. The goop started climbing his legs and stretching from the walls. He could feel the abomination burning through his skin and came to the horrible realization that he was going to die.

He whimpered and cried silently as he felt the life eb away from him, but then a chance appeared. Some kind of beam of light erupted from the lower floor, hitting the glob and burning it away while it screeched in pain and did its best to slide away from the light. Limping forward, Minted jumped down the hole and landed hard on the ground below. He noticed that he appeared to be in some kind of castle corridor as attested by the stones, and decided to hide behind a cobbling of half-rotted crates punched in from the right corner by rusty halberds that fell down from an old weapon holder. There was moss and other plants growing all over the floors and walls despite there being little-to-no light coming into this place. Even the thin, tainted glass windows, such as the one behind Minted Wrap, although they were completely covered in dust and decay. If light came through them, it would be a miracle.

Taking the moment to rest peacefully, the janitor looked through one many cracks through the crates to look further on. There was an opening to a large, circular, indoor garden whose plants had long since died and rotted away. Little alcoves housed rusted suits of armor held up only by metal beams, but even these failed to what seemed like long bouts of time. Minted covered his mouth and felt his heart race a marathon when loud, slow clanks resonated against the stone walls.

It was a suit of rusted, pony armor moving with difficulty along the floor. Supposedly patrolling the halls. Its movements were immediate and 'locked' when its body ceased one action. It was almost machine-like. It looked around, its body cricking and dropping rust particles, then decided to walk towards Minted for no discernible reason other than to continue its task. There were no sounds other than the clanking of its feet getting louder and louder, closer and closer. The stallion felt himself hyperventilating with every step, and having dared to look through a thin crack could see a strange, solid red fire burning in the left eye behind the hollow, horizontal line serving as a visor.

Then another shake rattled the office building, and walls in the circular room were blasted out, throwing rubble and dust everywhere. The statue stopped moving and twitched around to see that several ponies and diamond dogs wearing black suits of full body armor were threatening it with what looked like high-tech rifles with two white sections -both at the top and bottom of the weapon- jutting forward. One of the diamond dogs fired at the armor.

While a bit of it was torn off, the armor was not properly damaged. It expanded outwards; a gross, melted amalgamation of flesh growing and pushing the bits of armor apart from each other, leaving a random assortment of armor sections all over its dark body reflecting a blueberry-colored sheen. Its extremely thin body looked like it had decayed and melted before being thrown into a freezer. As for its face, the right side had completely slumped over and was hinging onto the 'skull' by barely a thread. The left eye was now the one holding the flame, and the right eye, hanging precariously along with the rest of that facial segment, looked around. The scelera was black, and the iri and pupil were several layers of blacks and whites. This, coupled with the bubbling of the skin, made it look like the creature had not slept for a very, very long time.

"Potential possessive located," the diamond dog said to a blue crystal glowing alongside the right of his face mask. "Neutralizing and capturing. If capture is impossible, flux destabilization is the only recourse."

The ponies and dogs started shooting the creature with their weapons. Minted was almost deafened by the loud bangs coming from their weapons and the effects of bullets smashing into the walls. The stallion saw that the shot walls were temporarily returned to their original state, but Wrap couldn't concentrate on them. He was too terrified, as attested by his violent shaking. The armor made a loud, gurgling noise accompanied by a loud screeching of heavy, rusted metal.

At the end of the screech Minted heard a feint, vocal wailing, and then he saw the armor rush forward. In place of it hands were lengths of flesh unequal in size and width. They wrapped around one of the armored ponies and repeated smashed them into the ceiling and the ground, denting both deeper and deeper with every strike. It threw the pony into a group of others and followed up with a charge. Fortunately for the ponies, a wall of diamond dogs formed up to take the impact of the possessed armor, but it didn't do much for the three taking the direct hit, for they themselves appeared to melt and be inhaled by the nearby armor, turning into simulacrums of the original, rusted monstrosity. They saw no qualms in attacking their former comrades, but a pegasus with his wings covered with a blue sheen flew in and impacted into one with his hind legs, sending it into the wall. He backed away and shouted orders to the others.

"Get the purifiers and exorcists in here! We need to free our comrades!"

Minted saw an opportunity in an air vent across from him and crawled towards it. He cursed in his mind due to the grating being locked. Punching it multiple times revealed itself beneficial, especially with hooves, and the stallion kissed said parts of his body and smiled when he pulled the grate off.

"Hey! Who's that?!" a diamond dog shouted.

A large group of twelve stopped attacking the monsters and pointed their guns at Minted, whose only instinct was to swallow nervously and remain still. His face was distorted with stress.

"Is that one of the workers here?" the same dog asked.

"I don't know," her pony companion replied. He took a few steps forward and pointed his gun at the stallion. "Who are you? What are you doing here? How are you still alive?"

Minted opened his mouth and gestured to it frantically in a bid to mime that he couldn't talk.

"It's trying to summon something from its mouth!" a mare pushed forward. "It's feigning silence in a bid to kill us. Kill it first!"

"Agreed!" the female diamond dog nodded.

They all started firing on the stallion, singing his fur and burning the skin underneath. With one last desperate buck, he managed to push himself into the ventilation shaft, but it wasn't over. The air current was violently strong, and Minted found himself swinging around corners, falling down holes, and being sucked upwards into more sections of the maze of metal and wind. When he was violently thrown through another grate, he groaned and rubbed his aching head.

He was now in a distorted, twisted area of the skyscraper, and now he got to witness the changes occur as another quake shook the building and caused everything to visibly flux uncontrollably. The blue floors bent and twisted every which way, often changing color and size, and the windows-whilst following the same morphing- depicted different parts of the day, different seasons, and even different timelines. They even did this within the same window, and it was confusing for the poor janitor. He wanted to go home and be in his bed. He never thought this was how his hard work was going to pay off.

Investigations and Phasing

Minted looked around curiously as he wandered the winding corridors. He noticed, through trial and error of taking the wrong path, that he would twist with the passages, disorienting him more and more. When he finally reached a flat piece of ground, he took a moment to recover his bearings and look around again. He jumped at the sight of an eyeball looking at him from the wall. It had become part of the construct and was now just lazily looking about, content with whatever it could see. Being slightly disturbed, the pony readjusted himself and started moving 'forward' again.

There was a strange expedience of wind reaching Minted's ears, and the further in he went, the louder and clearer it became. They were voices all whispering in various tones at the same time. Some of the voices were unhappy, some joyful, some stressed, some angry, and some just mellow. Minted gulped audibly and felt paranoia start to consume him. Further on, he saw a note scribbled on some torn yellow paper, and decided to give it a peek in hopes that it would illuminate whatever was happening.

It looks like I won't be getting out of this. Whatever came into this building and took control of it has started twisting and messing with everything. I can hear it slithering, stepping, and hopping towards me. I just wanted to go home after this round.

Apparently, it was the note of one of the other janitors working in the office at the same time as Minted. Strangely, the status of the paper and its faded hue indicated that this paper had been here for quite some time. Yet, this whole ordeal had only just started. Without warning, a gurgling noise brought his attention to full alert. Something peeked around the corner but retracted too quickly for the janitor to see what it was. He started moving quicker and quicker, then notice canine jaws, which were naught but bone, snap at him from the walls. Something dropped from above, narrowly missing the stallion and dropping through the floor. It shrieked with a deep baritone that raised in pitch when it phased through the floor; Floor which warped and twisted even more than the rest of the corridor.

Minted had a thought cross his mind as he fled for his life from the unknown mass chasing him. How could the notes already be in such a state of decay? Nothing in the office remained long enough to enter this state of decay. He dropped the paper and continued forward, seeing more and more notes strewn about. The writing was different on every single one of them, and all depicted their circumstances in the area. Various limbs and facial organs appeared every now and then on the walls. Even boney masses appeared, often blocking a passage.

Wrap got tired of this never ending trot and started to think. So far, he only went forward and back, and judging by the windows, this would lead to nowhere. Left and right hadn't worked either, and it still only led him to the same conclusion: That he would never leave if he thought conventionally. Instead, he scratched the side of his head and looked down. His face illuminated gleefully. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and imagined himself walking downwards. He flipped and stepped onto solid ground. Although, by its feel, it was more akin to sandpaper.

The whispering became extremely loud, and before he had a chance to open his eyes, a loud explosion's shockwave blew him backwards. The stallion slid on his hooves and jolted his eyes open to see a thin stream of purple smoke burning away whatever was attached to the walls and deforming them. Several of the armored ponies galloped to him and pointed their weapons straight at his head and heart.

"Who are you?"

Once again, Minted had no way to respond.

"Well?"

Another pony nudged the first with their elbow. "He corresponds to the mute entity found above. If he's really a pony, then he would have said so."

Another pony chimed in. "The simple fact that he's still alive is proof enough that he isn't a real pony. Contain and eli--"

The entity came out from Minted's fur, horrifying the stallion and attacking the armed forces. While Minted tatted his chest frantically multiple times, the entity showed itself to be a creature of many limbs and parts. Legs where they shouldn't be, eyes in place of toes, and jaws in random places. The whispering became extremely loud while it hopped, flew, and walked towards its victims. One of the ponies was caught by a jaw and her screams turned into gargling as, in front of her comrades, her armor melted into her skin, her body twisted, and everything on her body twisted and moved. She soon became a moaning extension of the body spewing acidic gunk at her former comrades, but it didn't end there.

Two diamond dogs stepped forward while holding red jewels in their paws. They slammed the gems together and made a loud 'crinkle' noise that was accompanied by a red shockwave which hit the beast and tore its newly acquired limb and slowly returned the pony back to her original form. The monster itself was thrown backwards and landed on the ground right at Minted's hooves. While it regained consciousness, its hundreds of eyes of different sizes and colors focused on the stallion and the skin around them displayed gleeful joy as it stood back up.

Minted had no intention of staying and getting absorbed by such an eldritch horror and scampered away when the creature took a swing at him. It missed, hit the floor, and made a gurgle mixed with a cry that displayed sadness almost alike to that of someone losing a friend. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, its touch deformed the ground caused it to open like a maw, swallowing Wrap whole. He ended up falling down a tremendously wide pit easily capable of accommodating twenty ponies stretched out and touching each other hoof-to-hoof. Its dark walls were actively covered by a blue smog wobbling randomly with the various tremors of the skyscraper like bass lines. The stallion couldn't help but make a long, 'silent scream' while he fell, and then something caught him. He found himself held aloft in a halo of light with a transparent outer ring and was then let down gently on the floor.

Trembling violently from the drop, the stallion found that he was in the purest of dark and had trouble seeing. Fumbling around and waiting for his eyes to adjust somewhat, the stallion found an old oil lamp still filled with a bit of flammable oil and lit it. Finally able to see, the stallion could see that he was standing in an old, run down office of some kind, although it definitely wasn't of his time. The decorations, such as the arcs of the ceiling and the wood carvings made to decorate the now rotted doors and furniture were typical of late medieval times. A disgusting odor of mold permeated the air and was mixed by the smell of wet ash whenever the janitor walked next to a wall sconce. The stone floors were relatively clear save for the many crunchy leaves on the floor.

Minted paused a moment and looked down. He would've screamed again at the sight of pony bones on the floor. He hopped around as though flesh eating insects were crawling along the floor and took the time to breath deeply and reign in his hyperventilation. He decided to light the sconces along his path, and a few of them still lit up. Even though the lighting wasn't consistent, it still gave enough light to see most of the area in dim light. The bones of the ponies were strewn everywhere, and without better lighting, came better coloration detail. All along the floor were the signs of fires erupting, and even the bones had been consumed by fire and were brittle to the touch.

The tight area opened to a tall room with four pillars within it. The skeletons were still there, but along the walls were still shadows that took the appearance of ponies holding something above their heads or via one hoof. They were holding weapons. What had happened to them was far beyond Minted's knowledge, and he was stressed enough with the immense and natural silence, the skeletons, and the only noise being made being the reverberations of his hoofsteps.

He continued forward, ending up in the main chamber of whatever this warped area was. It was immense and very tall and the roof was supported by multiple pillars arranged in a line. Looking to the left revealed two massive wooden doors five times the size of any pony. The door on the left had been busted down while the one on the right was only hanging by the hinge at the top layer. It was definitely going to fall, what with the lower half having rotted off. Looking off in the distance revealed only darkness and overactive fog. The stallion raised an eyebrow and huffed at the 'inviting' exit.

He knew better than to leave for the 'outside' when he was already in a building. That wasn't exactly a 'normal' appearance. That being said, he could see pieces of a battering ram resting upon the floor, accompanied by multiple 'shadows' and skeletons. The further he followed the line of skeletons to the right, the creepier the scene became. Dozens of skeletons were stuck in a position of prayer, the few the stallion could see up close had their knees completely cracked. Three tarnished windows tarnished into a yellow stain let but a few beams of light; Not enough to illuminate anything. Below them was a shrine dedicated to what looked like Celestia and two 'archangels'. Celestia was standing on her hind legs and flaying her forelegs as a way to demonstrate her size and to intimidate any threats. The two statues flanking her on the large podium in the wall had been practically destroyed by fire and time, but Celestia herself was intact. Minted lifted his lantern to better see the statue, but he saw nothing out of the ordinary, and continued his search for a way out.

He spun around a few times then spun back and felt a vice on his heart and cold sweat dampen his fur as though his pores were rivers. Two, wide open eyes of white scelera and multiple, thinning layers of black and white rings were glaring at the janitor. Their disconcerting appearance was amplified by the empty frown beneath them. The stallion continued staring at it and, with his whole body chattering, slowly tried to inch his way away from the terrifying thing before him, but, much like the rest of the creatures in this place, it would not let him be.

The building vibrated violently, and the ghostly figure phased out of the stone sculpture to show that it looked like a skeletal version of Celestia with only her lips and eyes as flesh. The rest were but bones, and her mane and tail were tattered, decayed versions of their once vibrant forms. When she, or rather 'it', opened its mouth, its voice sounded like a vehicle with rubber tires screeching to a halt and skidding on the road.

The solid shadows started moving in a lock-and-move fashion while the Celestia impersonator floated towards the stallion who decided that he had enough of this and galloped as fast as he could away from the ghost and the shadows. He trampled multiple skeletons on his way and passed through a wooden door next to the altar of the statues and continued forward. Strangely, these corridors and areas were free of skeletons and shadows, but the Celestia impersonator was hot on the janitor's trail. She wasn't planning on abandoning her pursuit any time soon. Bolting as best as he could, the stallion found his hooves heating up. The ghost was heating up the air around him and trying to cook him alive.

The closer the Celestia ghost got, the hotter the air became, and it was getting a little too hot for him. Rounding the corner, the stallion slid on the mossy ground and took the opportunity, despite his imbalance, to spin around and throw the lamp at the face of the ghost. The lantern shatter when it hit her and stunned her briefly. Minted cheered openly and fell while doing so. Still sliding, he felt the building shake again and was then engulfed by the moss collapsing inwards. Although he was 'saved' from the ghost, he was not saved from whatever had taken a hold of him now.

Whatever had grabbed him did not have time to chew, as he fell from the ceiling into an immense garden and onto a pile of mush and purple liquids. It seemed the group that entered the tower were setting the garden on fire and fighting whatever was currently eating them in the distance. This place was relatively uncorrupted, unlike the other floors. At least, it was uncorrupted in the sense that the normal office doors were still present. Minted grinned stupidly at the much needed break from the 'action' and terror and rushed towards the stairs. He had only gone down twenty-two stories. He still had a long way down in this fluctuating abomination.

Paint and Sweat

Several floors down were, luckily, unaffected by the flux. Judging by the damages to walls and furniture, the armed group had done their rounds and succeeded in whatever tasks of 'containment' or 'destruction' that they were performing in the skyscraper. Minted had no idea what was happening. He was confused. The next set of stairs had collapsed, so the stallion needed to get to the next set of stairs across the ruined office. Lights were dangling by the wires that had broken through the damaged ceiling. Ceiling tiles and plaster covered the room with a dusty veil, all thanks to the quakes caused by the flux. Light was nonexistent as the electrical current had been interrupted by the strange things happening all around. Minted cursed to himself, wishing he had the electrical know-how to fix the lights or even jury rig some weapons, but he didn't. He only knew how to clean. His hoof remained suspended above the door nob because of his need to reassert himself from the negative thoughts that just passed through his mind.

As soon as he opened the door, his eyes twitched and he felt the need to vomit. A viciously acidic odor came from the other side, and red lights showed why: The entire stairwell looked like a living creature's insides. The lights were also caused by luminous tumors growing along the fleshy walls and creating a red bioluminescence. Minted was disgusted by the green substance oozing from and slowly sliding down the walls. Under any normal circumstances, he would have ignored the fleshy passage and chosen another, but he bit onto his hoof, worried about what might happen. His only choice was moving forward.

He exhaled in a simulacrum of disgust and reluctantly took steps on the gooey substance. Every step felt like torture, but his only way out of the tower was by wading through this...horror. The stairs gradually deformed into a lengthy, bobbing appendage reminiscent of intestines, and the janitor couldn't help but groaned silently again. Bright red bug-like creatures skittered along the walls and floors, digging into the meaty growths and puling out white balls that they would nibble on. When some saw the pony walking around, they would burrow deep into the surfaces, tossing up red and meat. The area seemed to span through wide tunnels and sharp elevations and inclinations. Creatures resembling intestines slithered to and fro in the tunnels, and pools of crimson would see more worm-like creatures rising up.

Many of the walls looked like they had compressed over a screaming pony, and the pools contained traces of bones that would be repurposed by crab-like scavengers. They would add them to their own bodies made of bones and thin, visible tendons linking everything together like a bone that hadn't seen all the meat completely eaten off of it. A noticeable gust of wind blew through the tunnels and hissed at the 'intruder'. Minted, gulping loudly and wobbling as he moved forward, noticed the wind was actually a voice hissing at him. Finally, it goaded him to approach it. It had no real threats to give, and Minted, as he accepted once more, had no choice in where he could go. It was either obey or die.

Continuing his way and following the instructions of the wind, the janitor ended up in a very large room once more, or so he thought. The vast majority of the area was walled off by transparent membranes transporting gas of some kind through valves. Pump. Pull. Pump. Pull. Minted could barely move, let alone turn his head. At the end of this tight space was a huge, fleshy mass pulsating and throbbing in random areas. Minted looked around, trying to gauge if the exit he sought was anywhere nearby. Instead, he was greeted by a voice that bordered on exhausted and was compounded with a liquid gurgle echoing in every word. The mass opened and folded to show the red face of a pony. An upside-down grew out of the small indenture opposite Minted and fell limply on the ground.

"So you're the...intruder..." It would often take deep breaths and stretch the end of its sentences. "Why do you wander the confusing labyrinth...? Why do you dirty my entrails with your hooves and breath?" Its eyes lazily rose, simulating an eyebrow being cocked. "I want only to rot and fester in peace."

Minted blinked several times and grinded his teeth.

"Ahhhh...A mute. Good to survive this flux."

Minted bore confusion on his face, and the entity exhaled in response, almost melting into a pile of flesh.

"Then you seek an exit?" She asked. Minted nodded in response. "Mmm...It is to your right." A large mass of flesh folded backwards, revealing a door still covered in slime and red liquids. "If you survived this long within our torture, then you might have a chance to leave before being trapped here with the rest of the trespassers." She cleared her throat when Minted put a hoof to the door nob. "We are all from different times but all have the same one as a source, now hurry along. You sully my fetid air."

Minted squeezed his eyebrows in and looked away, concerned and confused. The door closed automatically behind him, startling him a bit. Good thing the fleshy bits prevented it from slamming. All in all, the stallion found that this encounter was the calmest and nicest he had...even IF it was a bit disgusting. He stuck his tongue out and gagged at remembering the smells. The next floor was a white, quiet museum area.

Everything was polished a clean sheen, and it was very well illuminated to boot! Benches were strewn every few feet, and some small sculptures rested upon tall pedestals or were large enough to have their own place in the middle of the gallery. Minted rubbed his chin, perplexed at what he was seeing. All the 'paintings' and 'sculptures' were random shapes, colors, and sizes. There was no rhyme or reason to anything here, and it was honestly very horrible. It reminded the stallion of Pawcasso: A weird diamond dog with paintings that terrified Wrap as a young foal and still did so to this day.

Much like the 'church' place he went to, his steps her were loud and clear, but it felt like he was being watched. He carefully observed his surroundings as well as the statues and paintings for any movement. He jumped and looked back, but there was nothing. He did so again, but a few feet further, and huffed. The stallion was getting stressed. Something was stalking him, and he couldn't see it. The janitor heard a muffled noise that startled him and looked around, his eyes bolting left-to-right. A slight twitch in his field of view brought him towards another weird painting that wasn't as colorful as the others.

Looking closer, Wrap realized that the fully black, random shapes was actually an armored diamond dog actively looking around and trying to get help. His weapon was in there as well. Minted fall onto his read and pushed himself away, only to bump his head against something behind him. He looked up to see a triangular head pierced by a square and a rhomboid. Its single eye on the triangle looked at the pony with an almost child-like curiosity and two, white, cartoon gloves moved slowly forward, attached to misshapen geometrical forms.

It made a sound that resembled the name 'Joe' that it repeated in quicker succession, starting from a very low tone, to an era shattering high that was warped by the crescendo. It tried to grab Minted, but the pony managed to slide between the many shapes serving as the creature's legs. Having failed to capture its target, the entity slipped away into a painting and vanished, only to reappear in one right next to Minted and taking a chance for a grab. Even the statues moved and tried to grab him but failed, but everything became worse when the janitor saw the armored ponies and diamond dogs walking around. The floors were so waxed that Wrap couldn't stop himself. He still managed to get a hold of a tube shaped garbage can, stopping himself, and hiding inside of it. It was big enough to house a pony for some odd reason.

"What was that?!" one of the armored people asked.

Minted heard rustling all around him, then silence.

"Looks like it was nothing, for now. Keep your wits about you. Whatever is lurking in here wiped out the forward scouts."

Taking deep, slow breaths, the janitor tried to keep himself as quiet as possible while the armed people outside made their rounds. He overheard them noticing their companions in the paintings, and dared to poke his head through a small opening by pulling the trash lid back and looking out. His pupil shrunk when he saw one of the ponies looking at a painting then turning around. The weird creature emerged from the painting and, in as quick a flash, pulled them into it, trapping them in a painfully distorted form.

"There!" one of the other armed individuals shouted.

Most shots missed since the creature's body was so bizarrely misshapen and would dive 'into' paintings and sculptures. Other diamond dogs and ponies were grabbed and either turned into similarly horrific statues and paintings, and Minted saw the whole thing. He knew that if he didn't leave now, the armored group would probably be wiped out, and then he would be trapped in the trash can, doomed to starve. Before the janitor could come up with a plan, however, the painting monster noticed him and slowly walked towards him. Its whole body twitched and rearranged itself while it walked towards him, and it made the "joe" noise in the process again. The armored individuals saw it slowly moving and fired at it, shattering several parts of its body like glass. It shrieked in pain and started bouncing around everywhere like a rocket.

Minted bolted out of the trash and to the exit the armed visitors took, slipping right by them without their noticing. Somehow, this time, Wrap was jettisoned through the door as if he were shot out of a cannon. The trip skid to a stop on long, brown platforms strewn all about a long, dark room. Hanging above an abyss did not help Minted out very well, especially when he heard a childish giggle behind him and got to see a large creature climb onto the planks from underneath by wiggling the toes on its four legs quickly like a bug's limbs while the rest of it remained immobile. It had features of both a bull and a bear. Its body was huge and bulky like a bull's, and its head was adorned with bull horns and a bovine shape, but its fur was fluffy and brown and it had massive paws complete with lanky fingers. As for its face, well, it was a wide grin that reached ear-to-ear. Its eyes were wide, white circles with a tiny black dot serving as a pupil.

It started inching closer to Minted in the same fashion as it slowly got onto the planks and moved forward with giggling. At first, the pony thought this thing was just something whose appearance was worse than its capabilities, but it lashed out at the pony without warning, its paw slamming violently onto the board and nearly destroying it. A loud cackle came from below, in the abyss, and a red light illuminated in the corners of the room in that lower level, revealing gruesome scene. Multiple corpses and bodies torn, smashed, split, among other things, were strewn all about in a large pile. Not one bit of the original ground was left, and a naked, featureless creature hopped around gleefully on the bodies with its arms held aloft in the air.

What kind of joyous aberrations were these?!

Almost there(?)

Minted gulped audibly and rushed away from the bear-cow as best as he could, but with only thin platforms as a walking surface and nothing to keep him from falling, the pony really couldn't make a mistake. He was stuck between the need to gallop and the need to walk carefully. The creature behind him continued moving forward in its bizarre, static fashion while its fingers did all the work. The dancer below continued its romping around and making a weird sound akin to a laughing-cry in low tone.

The janitor managed to get across one platform and, with some effort, broke the plank that carried him to safety. The wood shattered and took the smiling aberration with it to the bottom of the pit, yet there was no thud. Minted looked over to see that the dancer was still there while the bear-cow had vanished. Its own jittery music filled Minted's ear, and it was by barely an ant-hair's length that he dodged the full swipe of the monster. It still managed to nick the stallion's right ear and hurt him, bu it wasn't anything grave an injury, so he rushed forward. It was almost like a flat maze with the minotaur chasing after. Had there been walls, the pony would have been caught and killed already. Luckily, the 'dead ends' were always close to the next set of planks, and thus, he managed to hop on over and continue his way to a closing pair of large, rusted doors, capable of taking an actual minotaur without them hitting their head on the top of the door frame by the looks of things.

Minted was almost on solid ground near the door when the creature chasing after him had a sudden boost of energy and started bouncing on every surface and direction it could, one such being the walls which it used as a shortcut to jump off of and land in front of the fleeing stallion. It started thrashing and waving its body about, the main torso and head rising and falling like some kind of balloon. Minted jumped away towards the next platform, which the creature imitated. It took a swipe at him and missed, causing it to lose balance and smash its face into the plank. Once more, the janitor made a beeline for the exit, but the bear-cow didn't like that and used its head to push itself off the plank and towards the fleeing pony. Minted predicted the trajectory and turned to face the crazy monster. He slammed his hooves against the planks with as much strength as he could muster, causing them to crack, and bolted towards the door. With its weight, the bear-cow hit the solid wood hard and broke it, throwing the stallion upwards into the air.

Wrap had gone far enough that he managed to catch the ledge and hoist himself up. Preferring to avoid the error of looking back despite his curiosity, he rushed to the large doors and pushed them open with great effort. With a small opening now available, he hurried to squeeze through it and forced the door closed. The pony slid down against the doors, a hoof on his chest, and started panting so much he appeared to be hyperventilating. It took him, maybe, half an hour to calm down. It was impossible to tell time in this place anymore, that he finally noticed where he was. Instead of being a stairwell or a small corridor, it was a very large aquarium tunnel. Metal arcs held the glass tubing aloft whilst the deep blue water bubble and murmured against it. Light refracted within the wide blue, creating various arcs and intensity of light that illuminated the tunnel.

Minted Wrap slowly walked forward, looking around the tunnel. It didn't go in a straight line, preferring to wave gently from side to side. It was both comforting and disturbing to Minted for a reason that eluded him. The further he went in, the more he felt like there was activity within the water. Condensation started forming on the surfaces, and then something occurred that started to chill Minted, and not just because of the drop in room temperature: Words were appearing on the glass against a background of frost the further Wrap went.

Let us out of the flux

Let is out of the flux

Let us out of the flux

We want out of the flux

We don't belong here

We belong in our worlds

Why does the single one keep us trapped

Why do we branch off of him

Why do we branch off of her

What are we doing here

Let us out of the flux

Let Us Out Of The Flux

LET US OUT OF THE FLUX

The stallion jumped when a loud slamming noise resonated through the tunnel. The source were enormous, sharp claws that pierced through the aquarium wall but couldn't go any further. Luckily, when the claws retracted, they only created a ghostly exhale, along with some mist, to leave the water. No actual water fed through the holes. Minted was baffled and scratched his head, his face distorting with questions, but he carried on, and the further he went in, the colder he became. Ice was starting to form and he was starting to shake despite his fur. He could already see his breath as well as a snow in some areas while the words repeated on the glass casing. Once more, time was no friend and hid in the most inconspicuous crevices of this warped building.

Trembling, Minted looked forward and realized there was no way for him to know how much longer the aquarium went. By now, he was certainly a huge distance from the door, and he had no real choice in this case. It seemed more like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He still stepped a few more feet forward, but the path was littered with the frozen corpses of the armored ponies and diamond dogs. In fact, there was a mist lingering over them and further on, clamping down the light and preventing any kind of actual lighting. This didn't prevent Minted from seeing something large and icy moving about in the distance. Waiting.

The janitor sighed and turned back to the door he came out of. Perhaps there was a pathway down below where the dancer was. There was nothing to lose, so the trembling stallion turned and walked forward, or, he would have. The second he turned around, he smacked his head against the doors. Minted Wrap was baffled, but, considering the creature he saw hiding in the back, he decided to open the door anyways and braced for the bear-cow to slam its paw on the ground right in front of the door, but there was nothing. Instead, a giant, circular maw filled with teeth and with dexterous, stubby appendages grabbed Minted and pulled the freezing stallion into a red void. The walls were a constant stream of red faces distorted in pain and horror, and every section would go in one direction then go into another and so the pattern repeated. The tower shook violently again, causing the walls to moan painfully. The maw growled, and a tremendous figure, easily three stories tall, but very transparent, phased through the walls. It was standing upright, had no legs, and was wearing a bloodied, torn dress. Its head was fluctuating as well, preventing any solid form to show itself.

"You do not belong here," The voice said. It was a mixture between a young man and woman's voices. "Get out. The flux does not want you."

It threw the stallion through the wall, and made him crash through glass and plaster.

"What was that?!" somepony shouted.

"Leave the flux. For your own good."

Minted struggled to open his eyes, and then he saw it. He was at the first floor of the building, and freedom called for him in the form of bright white lights and flashing colors. He was exhausted and strained by the cold, but he was going to make it. He did it so far, didn't he? There were tons of the armored ponies and diamond dogs waiting outside, blocking the steps. The other buildings and wagons outside almost seemed like an illusion.

"Is it another one of those ghostly creatures?" one of the ponies asked.

A diamond dog fiddled with gems laced in his right arm -the only exposed limb- and gasped.

"He's living," he spoke in disbelief.

"Get that pony out of there!"

Minted was about to reach the doors when the tower trembled once more.

"The flux is acting up again!" armed armored pony shouted.

The glass doors turned into teeth and clamped shut, missing Minted by quite a bit. They turned into a smile and twist upon themselves to turn into a floating, amorphous blob covered in mouths and square teeth. The janitor thought he was going to die, but two ponies and a dog body slammed the creature, jettisoning it through a wall, then peppering it with their bullets. The gem-armed dog rushed in to pull Minted out and towards a group of medical staff.

"How do we know he's not an apparition like the rest?" one of the nurses asked.

"Because he wouldn't be able to get out of there," another quipped. "Now help me stabilize him. His body temperature isn't registering on these machines and his ear is split."

The stallion felt a mask go on his face, and he finally slipped into sleep. His much needed, well deserved sleep.

The pony next to the gem-armed diamond dog looked at the survivor with shock. "Well, in all my years working in the Occult Branch, I never saw something like that happen."

"Me neither. This...this 'flux'. It's new as well. I think our teams have reported around two hundred different classes of apparitions and monsters."

"All of which are hostile." The pony looked down and scratched his chin. "Then why is he the only survivor? What sets him apart from the rest?"

The diamond dog shrugged. "Judging by how long he was in there, I'd say he was probably at the top floors."

"But that brings even more questions to light!" the pony shouted.

"What are you yelling at me for?!" The diamond dog put his hands on his chest and threw them forward.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry. It's just..."

"This 'flux' that comes out of nowhere and targets this building, most likely for its size."

"It creates hundreds of apparitions, each of which are unique."

"And time and space are distorted within it."

The pony groaned. "We'll have a lot to say at the Monster Hunter chiefs about this. This is the most dangerous case ever seen." He looked behind him to see the medical staff working on the janitor, determined to clean his wounds, mend his breaks, and cleanse his soul of what was in the tower. "What should we do with him?"

"Considering he's the only survivor, I suggest taking him under our temporary protection. We don't know what it was like in there, truly, and I believe he was there from the start."

The pony nodded in agreement. "Let's just hope that he can communicate still. He might not have the answer to destroying this, but he will enlighten us on every step that occurred."

Let us out of the flux

We want out of the flux

We don't belong here

Author's Note

Yay! It's of the dones! And barely anyone read it, making me wonder why I experiment and try new things!

They snap rapidly(Old first chapter)

Author's Note

This shouldn't be a long series. I intended for it to be a one shot, but seeing how much I still had to write, I figured I should cut this into a few separate chapters.

Hello to you fifty who read horror stories on fimfic!

They snap rapidly(Old first chapter)

The day was almost over, and the sun outside was setting, creating a vibrant tapestry of oranges and purples. Minted Wrap could see the painting from a window in the hallway he was cleaning. It was much easier to see such a thing from the seventy-seventh floor of a one hundred story sky-scraper. The carpet was filled with crumbs and soil residue from the potted plants placed in the corners of the hall and the large opening leading to a room of offices at its end. Minted Wrap was exhausted. His usual deepmint fur was darkened by his sweat, his deep blue eyes were bloodshot with fatigue; and his bright green mane and tail, usually straightened out and with a vertically wavey pattern of white, was now a jumbled mess. At least his paper hat cutie mark wasn't affected by the working conditions.

Wiping his forehead for a second time, the stallion took a drink of water from one of the bottles hanging from the brown belt around his waist. Fifteen minutes later -give-or-take-, the stallion noticed the lights above flickering and buzzing with with effort just so they wouldn't turn off. Minted frowned at the event. He had just changed the fuses to the main fuse boxes a week ago on account of similar issues with lighting. Somepony walking across the carpet attracted his attention to the offices forward. A brown and red pegasus had just left the elevator and was walking through the offices, seemingly looking for something and carefully pushing away chairs and desks with moderate difficulty.

Having no real way to talk, Minted Wrap slapped the end of his nearby broom against the wall, and it worked. The pony was coming to him. It was another stallion that the janitor had never before seen. He figured it was just someone from the lower levels since he never cleaned anything but the higher ones.

"Greetings, pony," the new stallion said. "I seem to be a bit...lost..." he sighed. "Do you know where I am?"

Minted tapped a symbol on his vacuum: A green raindrop surrounded by two white circles, the outer one being grayer than the inner.

The visitor rolled his eyes in response. "Yes. I know WHERE I am building-wise. I just don't know WHERE in the building I am. Why don't you just tell me?"

Minted turned his head slightly and looked at the pony, judging them and seeing them with suspicion.

"What's the matter? You can't say anything?" the visitor asked. He hummed as he thought of the reasons. "I would think it would be that you don't trust me, but you would've said so." He tapped the ground in his realization. "You lost your ability to speak! Would you like to recover it?"

Minted snorted aggressively at the stallion and bared his teeth.

"Don't worry. It won't hurt." The stallion's body started to flux somehow. After images of him were fluttering in and out of existence all around him. "You'll just have to wait for a while, and you'll have all the cords you want!"

His face exploded outwards in multiple sections as multiple tentacles erupted from his face and started whipping at the air. Other, smaller tentacles came out of his body and whipped around like tiny worms trying to free themselves from the ground. The largest tentacles had an assortment of eyes and single rows of teeth all along them, and their slithering created a disgusting, slimy noise. Wrap would have yelled at the sight, but all that came out was air. The stallion threw his broom at the creature and galloped as far from it as he could.

The nightmarish beast continued to fluctuate uncontrollably, even causing the light to shift through various levels of brightness. Minted almost fell over multiple times whilst rushing past desks and printers due to the building itself trembling. Perhaps it did so knowing what was within it.

"Don't leave!" the visitor pleaded. "You'll get your voice back! I just need to open you up first."

His ribcage crackled and snapped while it tore through his chest, revealing a maw filled with more tentacles, this time covered in sharp barbs, spinning like buzzsaws. The creature looked around, trying to find the stallion that had escaped it. It fluxed again, followed by yet another general earthquake. The deafening noise of shaking debris didn't find itself any improvement due to the tentacles throwing desks, chairs, filing cabinets, and other office supplies haphazardly. Finally, the creature arrived at a dead end where a janitor's closet waited almost tauntingly.

Just to amuse itself, the visitor scraped against the door with its tentacles and, with a distorted laugh, slowly opened it to see that Minted was waiting for him with a cloth over his muzzle and a bucket in hoof. The janitor threw the product all over the monster and waited for it to back away, but the many eyes it had widened slowly from their 'happy' gait. For a moment, nothing happened, then a loud hissing noise followed by smoke started emanating from the creature.

Minty tapped his hooves casually and slowly went under the immobile creature to carefully rush towards the elevators. Luckily, the one the monster took was still there, so it didn't take long for Minted to manage to leave, but one last look before the doors closed showed the visitor wasn't moving since it had bleach thrown onto it. The green pony hoped he wouldn't come to regret that action in the foreseeable future.

He panted loudly, thankful that everything was over, then another tremor, quadrice the violence of the previous ones, shook the elevator and its occupant like maracas. The breaks and emergency clamps all failed, and Minted's head slammed against the back of the machine when it slammed diagonally through a wall further down. The stallion had no idea how much time had passed since he was knocked out, but he was sure it was a long time. Any hopes of this adventure being a dream was shattered simply after realizing where he was after managing to reorient himself. With some effort, Minted forced the damaged doors open to another floor with strange...characteristics.

While a bit of it was torn off, the armor was not properly damaged. It expanded outwards, a gross, melted amalgamation of flesh growing and pushing the bits of armor apart from each other, leaving a random assortment of armor sections all over its dark body reflecting a blueberry-colored sheen. Its extremely thin body looked like it had decayed and melted before being thrown into a freezer. As for its face, the right side had completely slumped over and was hinging onto the 'skull' by barely a thread. The left eye was now the one holding the flame, and the right eye, hanging precariously along with the rest of that facial segment, looked around. The scelera was black, and the iris and pupil were several layers of blacks and whites. This, coupled with the bubbling of the skin, made it look like the creature had not slept for a very, very long time.

"Get the purifiers and exorcists in here! We need to free our comrades!"

"Hey! Who's that?!" one of the armored diamond dogs shouted.

A large group of twelve stopped attacking the monsters and pointed their guns at Minted, whose only instinct was to swallow nervously and remain still. His face was distorted with stress.

"Is that one of the workers here?" the same dog asked.

"I don't know," her pony companion replied. He took a few steps forward and pointed his gun at the stallion. "Who are you? What are you doing here? How are you still alive?"

Minted opened his mouth and gestured to it frantically in a bid to mime that he couldn't talk.

"It's trying to summon something from its mouth!" a mare pushed forward. "It's feigning silence in a bid to kill us. Kill it first!"

"Agreed!" the female diamond dog nodded.

He was now in a distorted, twisted area of the skyscraper, and now he got to witness the changes occur as another quake shook the building and caused everything to visibly flux uncontrollably. The blue floors bent and twisted every which way, often changing color and size, and the windows -whilst following the same morphing- depicted different parts of the day, different seasons, and even different timelines. They even did this within the same window, and it was confusing for the poor janitor. He wanted to go home and be in his bed. He never thought this was how his hard work was going to pay off.