Act 1: Prologue: The Unusual Day

Prologue: The Unusual Day

The damp, stone walls around me are barely lit by the torches near the cell’s entrance. The sounds of dripping are constant, and non changing. I lie in the corner of my cell, patiently waiting for any sign of life. I can see. I can move. I can hear. Yet, I am terrified to do anything in fear of upsetting my captors. Not because they’ll try to hurt me, but because I don’t want a target on my back because of a misunderstanding. I give a garbled sigh to my companion Dave, who’s sitting across from me. He’s rubbing the bridge of his nose in restrained annoyance.

“We’re so stupid,” he says. I grunt in affirmation.

“You’re just getting used to magic dude, it’s not your fault you accidentally lied. Besides, did you see that guard’s face when he shoved that spear in me?” I ask. Dave scoffs and chuckles.

“Yeah...”

We wait in silence, hoping this misunderstanding can be cleared up. Finally, I hear the sound of multiple steps coming down the cold, stone hallway. I send a tendril over to nudge Dave, making him sit up in attention. I walked to the cell’s bars to see if I could see down the hall. Literally squeezing my entire head, I successfully squeezed through the bars slightly to look down the hall. In the dark, a lantern is held up with a faint glow around it. I can also see the shine of gold armor, moving towards our cell in calm movements. I can still smell their fear. I back up to the back of the cell to try and give them some reassurance for their safety. Two gold armored unicorns and one tall winged unicorn walks into view and stands by one side of the cell’s gate. The lock unlocks and the gate swings open, letting the tall horse walk in. The guards walk in after her and stand on either side.

“...” The tall one keeps looking at Dave and I expectantly. I silently kept my calm gaze on her, while Dave keeps looking nervous. The guards are stoic and stiff, their gaze set in front of them. The long silence is only broken by the continuous dripping throughout the dungeon.

“... So, here we are,” I say, trying to break the ice.

“... Indeed,” Sunbutt says. I notice her flanks have sun tatttoos.

“... I would like to apologize for the... misunderstanding that has-“ Dave attempts to say, but he gets cut off by Sunbutt.

“A misunderstanding? That’s what you call this mess?” She asks coldly.

“Well, you did just point spears at us,” I say, intentionally with no tact. Dave turns to give me a death glare.

“We fell out of the freaking sky Max! How are they supposed to react?!” He asks.

“Yep, and we said-“

“Silence!” Sunbutt yells. The room falls silent, save for the usual dripping. Awkward silence aside, I think we’re making some great progress. “I want your side of the story, and I shall be checking your honesty. Now, explain what you remember.”

“... Max, you know what happened better than I do, go ahead,” Dave says. I sighed and think back to yesterday.

“Well, it started when we noticed that people in our world were dissapearing...”

One Day Ago...

I sit in the cafe, listening to my friend, David, as he rants on about a new game he got. To my left, I can see through the glass window to watch the world go by. To my right, I can see most of the cafe. It’s mostly empty save for the cashier and a couple other people in the booths enjoying coffee. I turn my attention back to Dave. At this moment, he’s wearing his black hoodie unzipped with a gray t-shirt underneath. His blue jeans are clean and spotless. I take of sip of mocha frappe, and look at myself. My dark red jacket covers my black t-shirt. My khakis are a bit wrinkled, but clean nonetheless. I sigh, causing Dave to stop for a minute.

“You okay Max?” Dave asks. I nod my head.

“Yeah, I'm just tired. I’ve been watching the news a lot lately. The weird sightings are starting to weird me out. Then, there are people turning up missing. I’m starting to get worried,” I explain. Dave sighs.

“Bro, you’re fine. We’re two nerds that don’t have any significant importance to the world and would be forgotten really quickly,” Dave says. I give him a slight glare. “... Right, not funny. Look, tell you what, I'll walk you home tonight when we leave okay?” I think about it before chuckling slightly. “What?”

“The way you worded that, made it sound so gay,” I say, starting to laugh. He scoffs.

“Max, it’s twenty eighteen, accept other people’s differences,” he replies before we both start laughing. As we were metaphorically rolling on the floor, I noticed that I felt someone... watching us. I slowly died down and look around while Dave was chuckling. “Oh boy, I haven’t laughed like that in so long.” My smile fades when I remember something important.

“Hey man, speaking of which, how’s your love life after She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?” I ask. His expression turns sour almost instantaneously. His face went stoic for a second before sighing.

"Eh, forgive and forget. I'm not looking for anyone at the moment, but I'm still checking out the girls," he says coolly. I smile.

"That's good! Real progress is made if you're a little calm about it," I say. I look out the window to see that it's getting dark. "We should get going, it's getting late." Dave nods and stands up to throw away any trash we had.

We walk out the door of the cafe to be greeted with the summer's hot air. We continue our trek on the sidewalk, passing by various businesses and shops. We walk in relative silence, the sound of the wind keeping us company. Even though I'm with my friend, I can still feel the sense of being watched. I look behind me to see if anyone's there. Seeing no one creepy or suspicious, I turn my attention back to the sidewalk. Dave notices this.

"Max, are you okay? I've noticed you're acting like a paranoid undercover agent," he says. I heave a sigh. "... Well, if it makes you feel better, why not just rant whatever's on your mind?" He tries. I look up in thought. After a moment of thinking, I nod.

"Alright, well, you know how I'm watching the news for the kidnappings? I noticed that these people were around our age, about to either leave high school or begin college. We're almost the same age as the victims. There are already four people missing, and it feels like we're next. I feel like we're about to experience something unreal. You know me David, I have a pretty good intuition. If my gut says we're next, we're probably next," I rant. Dave listens intently, nodding at my words. "Ever since the last kidnapped person's disappearance yesterday, it feels like something's watching us."

"Why, how perceptive of your intuition!" A new voice said. I whirled around. No one behind us. "I must say, the others weren't as handy in being psychic." No one to our right. "You two look pretty close already, I think you'll be perfect candidates!" No one to our left. "I think everyone back home will get a kick out of you!" No one above us or in front of us.

"Show yourself!" Dave yells. We stand back to back, trying to find any movement.

"Aren't you a brave one, very well," the voice says. The ground beneath our feet shifts and shapes into a hand and grabs both of us.

"W-What the hell!?" I yell before being pulled into the ground. I could hear my heart beat, pulsing at a fast rate. I could feel myself sweating bullets. I wipe the sweat off and realize I can move. I turn to see David freaking out. "Dude, dude, it's okay, we're fine-" I try to hold Dave, but he shoves me a little. Thankfully, I didn't get shoved too far away.

"Fine!? FINE!?" He screams. "I feel like I'm on drugs or something!" He yells.

"Now now, it's impolite to yell at people," the voice from earlier says. I look at the direction it came from to see a ridiculous looking amalgamation of animals.

"... What in the nine circles of hell are you?" I ask calmly.

"I second that," Dave says.

"I am a draconequus, Dicord's my name," he replies.

"... Cool, I'm-" David starts to say, but gets cut off by a magical zipper. I wish I was joking.

"I know who you two are, but pleasantries will have to wait I'm afraid. Have fun in your new 'skin.'" He says.

"Skin? What do you mean new ski-" Before I can finish my question, Discord snaps his lion paw and a lever appears.

"You'll see. Toodle-loo little humans!"

"Wait a-" Again, I was cut off by the magical abomination. He pulls the lever, and I swear Discord's laughter could surpass true psychopaths everywhere. David and I start floating backwards from Discord. I turn my head to see a portal that is wide enough to fit us. I start trying to doggy-paddle my way against it, but to no avail. In a few seconds, Dave and I get sucked down the inter-dimensional tube of travel. I honestly wish I was making this crap up.

My vision is filled with rainbows and warped images of my face, probably scarring me for life in the process. I swear I could feel crawling on my entire body, like tiny needles piercing the surface of my skin, only to retract and pierce another spot. I can only writhe in agony in the rainbow-space-time-tunnel as I swear I can feel my own anatomy change. Like how it all happened suddenly, it all suddenly stops. Now, I can feel the cool air rushing past my face. I open my eyes slightly to see Dave and I still falling, though the rainbow tube finally picked a solid consistent color, blue. As I turn to look around, I saw a cloud fly past us.

Oh crap. I look all around and realize we’re practically skydiving towards a castle in the side of a mountain. “Holy crap!” I yelled before frantically looking around. David’s still unconscious, and we’re still falling to our deaths. Crap. I can’t do anything. We’re going to die... I need to protect David. My vision changes to tunnel vision towards David. I glide over quickly. I could feel something within me speaking.

Command yourself. Command your body.

Being guided by my instincts, I concentrated on my body. I could feel myself shift and morph into a sort of sphere. I can see the castle coming dangerously close. I prepare myself for impact while protecting my only friend. I close my eyes before crashing through a skylight. I feel the impact of a stone floor, and I hear the gasps of many people. My body loses its spherical shape and retracts into my normal form. I slowly get on my belly and crawled over to Dave’s unconscious form.

“Dave? Dave?! Come on dude, wake up!” I almost yell. He slowly stirs and slowly opens his eyes.

“What the hell happened?” He asks. I hug him with extended arms.

“I thought we were going to die! I didn’t know what to do! I-“

“What is the meaning of this!?” A new voice yells. Dave and I quickly sat up and tried to look around the room. There aren’t any people here. Just horses. Well, pastel colored horses, unicorns, and pegasi. That alone weirds me the hell out, but I try to keep calm.

“Who said that?” I ask.

“I did,” the voice said. I twirl my body and head around to meet this new person, only to find a tall winged unicorn. My eyes widen at it.

“Wow,” I say. I walk towards it a little bit.

“Stop!” It, or rather she by the way the voice sounds, says.

“Oh! I’m sorry,” I say. I take notice that there are a few other horses in gold armor around her. This suggests she’s important if the way their standing in front of her like a meat shield is anything to go on. I also notice that their only weapons are spears. They must not be as technological as humans then. Dave decides to speak up.

“Um, hi! My name’s David, this is Max,” he says. The winged unicorn glides down from her throne, her wingspan scares me a little.

“Greetings,” she says. Dave reaches out to offer a handshake. Before I could stop him to tell him that wouldn’t work, the hand he offered glows and his eyes glow white for a second. He disappears. “Huh?” Horse lady asks. I see Dave pop into existence behind her.

“He’s trying to assassinate her! Seize them!” A guard yells. I twirl around to see the spears point at me. I slowly raise my hands to surrender, but they took it as an offensive stance. “Quick! Before he kills us!” Another guard yells. The unicorn guard closest to me had his horn enveloped in an aura of some kind. The spear beside him glows the same color. The spear jets towards me, and impales my chest. I look down at my injury in shock and surprise.

“Oh God,” I say. A few moments pass as I wait for the pain. It doesn’t come. Dave slowly looks up at me to find some kind of reaction from me. The guard that stabbed me looks up as well, his eyes slowly going wide. I keep my eyes on the spear. I grab it with both my hands and slowly pull it out. It doesn’t have any stains on it. No blood, flesh, or any fluids. I drop the spear. I can feel the new hole in my chest close up. A smell hits my nose. I don’t know why, but I know what it is. Fear.

“Alright. You stabbed me. Do you feel a bit better now? I know we’re terrifying, but I promise you we mean no harm,” I start. I look up at Horse Lady. “We will wait in any room deemed necessary to keep us in. Once you feel like you can talk to us in peaceful terms, come talk to us and we’ll figure something out,” I say. Honestly, I’m just making all this up as I go along. I don’t know how I know how to talk for this instance, but I didn’t care. It works.

“Very well,” Horse Lady replies carefully. “Guide them to the dungeons,” she says. Dave starts to argue, but I cut him off.

“Don’t argue. Their house. Their rules,”; I say coolly. He looks at me in frustration before sighing. He nods and gestures the, to lead the way.

After settling down in our new cell, we both start talking. I just now realize that we both have our original clothes, though mine was spotless.

“How in the hell did I save you?” I ask. Dave gives me a confused look. I explain that after we got out of the rainbow tunnel, we were falling to our deaths. “Then, I just got this instinct to command my body! When I realized I could morph my body, I morphed it into a sphere around you. I crashed through a skylight and landed on the stone floor. To say it hurt would be lying...”

“Hmm, interesting,” Dave says. “You sound like a sort of shapeshifter.” I look up in thought. I snap my fingers when I get an idea. Dave looks over at me while I command myself to grow two more arms. Surprising myself, I grow two arms, one arm under each original arm. My jacket accommodates the new arms by forming new sleeves for them. It seems my clothes are part of my body. That reminds me of Prototype. Wait. I concentrate on retracting my new arms and sleeves. I then concentrate on forming the claws from Prototype. Just as I thought, I form claws. I inspect their sharpness, and see that they are sharper than razors.

“It seems like I’m the Blacklight virus from Prototype,” I say. I chuckle at this insane sounding information. “I went from a normal person to an apocalyptic virus shapeshifter in one day.” Dave laughs a little before nodding. It dies down slowly, and gets replaced with guilt.

“This is all my fault,” he says. I look over at him and sigh.

“Well, it kind of is, but it’s also mine. Don’t worry about it,” I say. It does little to help him. He sighs again in guilt. I extend an arm and pat him on the back in attempted comfort. He looks at my arm and shivers.

“Now that’s just creepy,” he says. We laugh about it. “Alright, well, goodnight Max. I’ll hopefully see you tomorrow.”

“Alright, ‘night Dave,” I say as I drift to sleep.

Author's Note

Wow, almost 100 views! The Chapter 1 is going to be published soon (in, like, two days since I was working on it early and it's gonna be between 3000 to 4000 words)! I'm also working on my own cover art for this, in alliance with Linkvsgaming!
I hope ya'll have a great day!