The Gas Mask

by Lunar Flarion

Rating: mature
Tags: Alternate Universe, Human, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Bon-Bon, Tragedy, Horror, Pinkie Pie, Death
Length: 3175

It wants her to follow it.

WARNING!
This story is a LOT darker than my other ones!

Pinkie, the happiest mare so far in all of Ponyville had been working a little too hard lately! It doesn’t help that it was after a long friendship mission... So what’s wrong with taking a little nap?

Published 2018-11-05 01:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2018-11-05 01:00:01 UTC

History Repeats Itself

Pinkie Pie waved off another customer as they left Sugar Cube Corner with their food. Her smile, though tired, was still big, even as the last two ponies came up to the counter. Two ponies, who seem to be in an argument about the existence of a creature.

“I’m telling you, Bon Bon!” Lyra swore,” Humans exist! We couldn’t have all this tech in the small amount of time we have existed!”

“And I’m telling YOU, Lyra,” Bon Bon countered,” That magic helps with technological improvements! That is why Vinyl’s Headphones look so high tech! She didn’t just dig them up!”

“But-!” Lyra tried to counter.

“Lyra, it’s too early in the morning to be arguing about this!” Bon Bon said as she rubbed her temple.

Pinkie butted in, hearing the annoyance in both of their tones,” Hi Lyra! Hi Bon Bon! How are you two today?”

“Oh!” both Lyra and Bon Bon said as they looked at the jolly pink mare.

“We’re fine, thank you,” Bon Bon said.

“Yeah, just wondering if a species is real or not!” Lyra said with a smile, then turned to Bon Bon and gave her a pout.

“Oh! You mean humans?” Pinkie asked.

“Yeah!” Lyra said as she looked back at her,” You think they exist? Right?”

“Not this again...” Bon Bon sighed,” We would like two cupcakes, one with extra sprinkles the other with almonds in it.”

“Well...” Pinkie said as she leaned under the counter to grab their orders,” I think they are pretty cool! I mean, they look like diamond dogs, but without all the fur, and long ears? They sound cool!”

“So you don’t believe in them?” Lyra asked, her posture showing she won’t be defeated so easily, but her tone was of slight worry/

“ I think they exist in some way!” Pinkie Pie said as she placed the order on the counter,” That would be five bits, please!”

Bon Bon pays the bits as Lyra asked what Pinkie meant.

“Well... maybe the humans turned into the diamond dogs!” Pinkie smiled as she waved them off.

“AH HA!” Lyra shouted with a smile,” NEW THEORY!”

“Gah!” Bon Bon groaned as the two left the building, leaving behind a giggling Pinkie.

That was the last two in the store, so all she had to do was wait for the next pony or two to walk in! Though, she might have to wait a little bit for somepony to walk in since today had been a rather slow day for her and the Cakes... So, with her head not on as straight as it normally is due to lack of sleep, she laid it down on the counter and rested her body up close to it, allowing herself to close her eyes.

“Just... for a few... minutes,” Pinkie sighed aloud as her eyes closed completely, allowing the blackness to consume her vision and take her off to who knows where.

...

She felt a soft breeze touch her side as she opened her eyes. She was outside the shop and in the middle of Ponyville. She skipped up and smiled brightly, time for her to live in a dream for a little while! With a hop, skip, and a jump, she walked around Ponville, looking for ponies to talk to in the dream... yet there wasn’t anypony here. She thought for a moment, and tried to imagine up a pony or two that she knew to have a nice chat with, yet, even though she closed her eyes and believed REALLY hard, no pony appeared, not one. That’s when she noticed that the sky was growing darker and had an orange tint to it. She looked up and saw that the sun was still in the sky, but that it was now mid-day.

“Hm...” Pinkie mused as she put a hoof to her mouth,” Something’s gone topsy-turvy to my dream!”

Then an idea came to her in the form of a light bulb, literally. Her smile grew wider as she looked around, with a sing-song voice, she asked,” Oh Luna~! Where are you~?”

No replay.

“Oh come on!” Pinkie giggled as she looked around once more,” I know you’re here! You’re the only silly filly that can manipulate a pony’s dreams, remember!”

Still no replay...

“This is... weird...” Pinkie admitted,” And not the good type either!”

Pinkie looked once more around town, calling out for any towns pony, then resorting to calling her friends’ names as she got closer and closer to Fluttershy’s house. Each passing minute, with the dreaded noise of silence, and the idea of being left alone, scared the pink mare slightly. Not only that, she couldn’t really do anything here, it was like her powers were shut off by some magic switch.

“Or plot convenience!” Pinke mused as her ears twitched from the now cold breeze. She stopped and turned around, the feeling of being watched had made its presence known to her. Her eyes shifted slightly as she looked at the house. Maybe a knock to the door would stop the silence. With a single hop, she jumped over to the door and loudly knocked on it, the feeling of being watched started to intensify greatly at each passing moment. It only grew worse when she knocked on the door. The sky grew much darker, the cold breeze pushed harder, and the trees looked ever more... dead?

“Hello?” The silence, the weirdness of what was happening started to easily chip bits of her happy and joy-filled attitude away. That’s when she heard a heavy breath, not a sigh, no, one of a pony breathing heavily after a run or something similar. She looked back at where she thought the faint noise came from, just beyond the tree line of the Everfree Forest. She saw something move, something tall that seemed to blend in with that natural surroundings. This intrigued her and she found herself walking slowly to the edge, yet not wanting to enter. Her gaze narrowed as she peered right into the woods.

There, moving slowly, was a tall figure. It looked to be wearing what appeared to be a suit. She smiled slightly, one part of her mind shouting in triumph that she wasn’t alone and that she could make a new friend! Her other part warning of the dangers this thing could pose, it looked like a diamond dog as well, just green and fat. She argued with herself, literally, until they both agreed that this was a dream and nothing bad would actually happen, and if something did just get Luna, she’ll do something... maybe.

With her goals set, her mind ready, and her eyes looking at the thing, she moved forward.

*CRUNCH*

And there goes her silent plan of sneaking up and giving the strange creature a surprise. She expected it to look back, yet it didn’t. Maybe it couldn’t hear her? With another step, she broke through the line of foliage and trees and walked right for the creature. Since it was slow, she easily caught up with it, slowing down slightly as to walk beside it. She looked up and gave the creature a smile. That is when she noticed that it wasn’t just wearing a strange suit, but a strange mask as well... The mask had a large cylinder type thing poking out of the side at an angle with weird holes in it. The same object was on the front of the mask as well, with a smaller version just underneath it. The suit itself was rather baggy, and the thing was also wearing gloves and what looked like heavy-duty boots with two straps hooking underneath them. The suit was a light grey color but had a few spots of both dark green and light green on it, and it glowed.

She looked slightly behind it, trying to peek at the other hand, which held a strange device. Pinkie, now filled with questions, decided to ask one.

“Hi! My name is Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie said happily,” What’s yours?”

The creature didn’t respond, all it gave was another heavy breath as it walked on. It seemed the mask was the reason for the heavy breathing, and maybe the small, yet probably heavy machine it was carrying. Maybe it didn’t have a name? Pinkie thought for a moment and thought long and hard for a solution.

“I know!” Pinkie chirped,” I’ll call you Masky! Since you have an awesome mask!”

The creature did not respond to the name, so Pinkie took it that it liked the name. Without missing a beat, Pinkie then asked,” So... why are you in here? Where are you going?”

*Gasp*” Are you going to Zecora?!” Pinkie smiled as she bounced around the creature,” I didn’t know you knew her!”

Still, no response, the silence of the creature made her nervous, was she doing something wrong? Maybe it had something to do with the mask, maybe it didn’t allow it to speak or maybe it was a very good listener! Either way, the listener one made her feel a lot better than the latter option. While she pondered, she barely noticed that the trees started to lose their leaves, like if Autumn had started. Soon, the trees bore no leaves at all, and the ground looked dead and wilted. She spotted some nearby flowers, but they were nearly black and looked... charred? What had happened here?

Then she felt the softness and graininess of sand below her hooves as they continued walking. Looking down, the moist and soft dirt had faded into a dark, hot, sand. She looked up and her eyes widened... there weren’t any trees around her or the creature.

‘Tick tick tick tick tick’

The strange ticking noise caught her attention as she looked over at the creature. In its hand, it held a black rod connected to a cable which happened to be connected to the weird machine. The creature brought the machine up to its face and shook its head, something was wrong. She tried to look at the machine, but the creature lowered it back down to its side, but it did raise the black rod into the air. The soft ticking turned more aggressive the longer the creature walked and the higher it held the rod into the air. She felt a shiver go down her spine as a cold breeze rushed past her. Normally, the breeze wouldn’t carry a smell, but this one did, it smelled like rotting wood, food, and something she couldn’t put her hoof on. She looked around her surroundings and even looked back... but all she could see was an empty desert, one that held a dark shadow over them as they walked. Her main deflated slightly, as the situation turned darker, was this a nightmare?

“U-um..., Masky?” Pinkie asked softly,” What happened to the forest?”

Yet again, no response. She started to grow frustrated with the lack of words this thing had. Maybe it didn’t understand her, MAYBE it didn’t even hear her! To her, that was alright, someponies couldn’t, but this, she wanted to know what was happening, she wanted to know where the forest was, where were they, and why were they here? Also, why does the air smell more and more like rotting wood and meat?

She let off a groan, which helped relieve some of the stress, but not all of it. She held her breath and had her mane fill back up with air, making it all poofy again. That was something she can smile at, at least...

A gust of wind slammed into her, making her almost lose her balance as the sky grew darker and darker. Her eyes closed for a brief moment, the wind stung her eyes, even after she opened them, they still burned. However, once she opened her eyes, in the distance, a large amount of something green was glowing brightly, and they seemed to be heading right for it. As it got closer, Pinkie found out that it was a stream of something really green... like glowing lime green color making it look both dangerous and funny looking, that type. The creature finally stopped, which caught the mare’s attention. It leaned down with a small bottle in its hand. The creature scooped up some of the liquid and examined it for a little bit, then it put the bottle back where ever it got it from. It stood up straight, and wadded right through it, though it looked rather tough to do so but still, she, for some reason, trusted Masky, and wadded through the thick liquid as well to follow it.

Once she stepped out, she felt something clinging to her left leg. With an absent-minded shake of it, the thing fell off and back into the liquid, giving off a rather satisfying sploosh. With a quick trot, she quickly gained up to Masky, since he was a fair bit ahead of her. As she looked at it, she thought Masky looked... sadder? Even behind the mask, it looked sad...

“So... why are you here, Masky?” Pinkie asked, giving a slight smile, she wouldn’t give up hope on Masky just yet!

To her surprise, Masky stopped and this time squatted down. With its finger, it started to write in the sand. Masky was slow, but Masky was finally answering her, so she didn’t care in the slightest. When Masky finished, Pinkie gladly looked down at the writing... and froze...

‘Suicide Mission’

That was what was written in the sand by Masky. She stepped backward and looked at Masky, a face of fear now clung to her muzzle. Masky went from squatting back to standing and pointed in front of them. Pinkie looked at where Masky was pointing... and had to hold back a yelp. In the distance, though not too far away, laid bodies... from the looks of it, hundreds of them. Masky didn’t even look at her as it strode towards the bodies with Pinkie in tow. It seemed like mere seconds before the two got there, and Pinkie wanted to vomit. The stench of the bodies was horrid. The bodies themselves were scattered around aimlessly, each one facing a random direction. The thing that made her most sick was the bodies were nothing but meer bone... but that bone looked to be melting. She walked up to one that looked to be wearing the same thing Masky was wearing. Inside was what looked like a skeleton head that had been caved in, the sides around it looked to have been melted inwards. The suit was tattered and torn, in some places, she could see what looked like flesh, but it was a far too gone, it too was melted... She then heard the wild ticking again, but this time much, much more aggressive. Like the machine was about to explode. She looked back at Masky, who was kneeling down and appeared to be wiping something away from the ground. Pinkie walked over, this time slowly as her mane started to deflate back down, no more poof was there as she stood next to Masky.

On or... in the ground, was a symbol Pinkie had only seen once but knew what it meant, radiation.

“Is this what happened?” Pinkie asked as she poked the metallic surface where the symbol had been branded.

Masky looked down and wrote,’ Worse, acid gas, civilians, gone.’

Pinkie’s ears flew down as her heart skipped a beat, acid gas!? She opened her mouth to speak, but Masky swept away what they had written and pointed to the closest body, which had only half of it left, the other half was completely melted away. She looked back at Masky and screamed, the creature’s face had turned to look at her. Half the mask was gone and all that remained on that side was a decaying a slowly melted skull. The suit was torn now, the mask’s only lens now cracked. Masky’s left hand reached out and tried to grab her, in a panic, she flung herself backward, landing her haunches right on the femur of the closest skeleton. The bone cracked sharply, and Pinkie yelped as she felt it stab her in the leg. She scrambled to get up, even with the sharp pain in her leg. The wind picked up as the skull of Masky dropped and let off a horrid, manly scream. Clouds started to form as Masky screamed, screamed in pain. A large-scale of sandblasted Pinkie in the face as the screams died out. The cold breeze and the howling wind, it made her cry, what was happening!?

That is when she felt the wind stop, the sand was no longer slicing her body, and she felt... warm. She forced her eyes open to see what had happened... yet now, instead of a wasteland, she stood at the entrance to Sugarcube Corner. She blinked, but when she opened her eyes, she was now in the basement of the establishment. She looked down and scratched deep into the dirt was a message that read,’ Come. Find. Me.’

Then, she jerked awake, her eyes snapped open as she let out a small scream. She slammed her hooves to her chest to see if she was alive and in reality. She looked around and found that she was up in her room, in her bed. On the stand next to her was a note. She grabbed it and it read,

Dear Pinkie,
I found you sleeping away at the counter this morning, and didn’t want to wake you up since you had that big trip. So I moved you to your room, hopefully, you got a good amount of sleep once you are reading this!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Cake

Pinkie didn’t smile, all she did was place the note back down and headed to the basement, her mane and tell were flat. She treaded quietly and found the entrance to the basement. She opened it and entered the dank hole in the ground. The air down here wasn’t too bad, even if it did smell like old dough. Pinkie looked around and located a shovel, then went to where the place was in her nightmare and began to dig.

After an hour, Pinkie had dug deep into the solid ground, a large pile of dirt and rocks piled behind her. With one more powerful shove, she unearthed something light grey, she had found something. With her shovel in hoof, she began to dig up the rest of whatever this might be. After another hour or so of digging, Pinkie found a suit and mask, the one from her dream. Something was also clutched in Masky’s hand. Pinkie grabbed it, even though it was covered in muck. On it, was a simple sentence...

“History repeats itself”

Pinkie knew what it meant as she looked down at Masky. With a single breath, she said,” Prepare”

The end.

Author's Note

NO TRILOGIES!