Ch II - Odysseys and Oddities

He slowly stood up and groggily looked around, noticing that he was now in some strange cavern like room that was bathed in an unnatural blue glow. Four streams of water cascaded from the ceiling, meeting at the center of the room in a bubbling spring. Save for the sound of trickling water, the room was entirely silent. A large stone door covered in glowing runes was the only other discernible thing he could notice. Without any other option, he hesitantly stepped forward, cautiously moving towards it. The thestral reached for his aching head, rubbing his temples to ease his pain, suddenly realizing that he had been stripped of all of his belongings.

A flurry of thoughts raced through his head, distracting him for the moment. He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts as he tried to think back to the events that had led up to this point. As hard as he tried though he was still running a blank. Much to his confusion, the thestral had no inkling of memory of anything, not even his own name, only the sudden pain and darkness that had enveloped him just before he had awoken here. Was he dead? Or was he merely in some limbo awaiting some final fate. He shook his head again, gazing around at his surroundings once more, noting that he was in a dead end, dashing his hopes of any kind of escape. Seeing no other path, he pressed forward into the strange room.

Darkness suddenly enveloped him, as a strange ethereal voice greeted him, startling the young thestral. Greetings traveler, face the Labyrinth’s trials and unlock your greatest desires, though be warned, he who loses his way is doomed to an eternity of torment, wandering the world in pursuit of a treasure that they may never find. Will you proceed?

This voice didn’t leave much choice, so he nodded. “I’ll proceed.”

Very well. May the fates find you in their favor.

The darkness faded around him, as he found himself back in his hometown, a sparkling city that sparked a latent memory in him, though it now lay in ruins. A bolt of panic spread through him as he feared the worst… in a panic he began to hastily fly above the city, hurriedly looking around, trying to find someone… anyone who might have survived. As he continued to wildly look throughout the ruins something caught his eye. There was simply nothing outside of the city’s borders except for a dark rolling fog. The thestral stopped for a moment, simply hovering in place as he tried to make sense of everything. The strange voice’s words echoed in his head “...face the Labyrinth’s trials…” Was this one of those trials?

He composed himself and pressed onward, wandering through the desolate town until he reached City Central, a towering spire that sat in the very center of the city. The place was a wreck, but he still took to the skies to survey it. He flew up into the sky, the familiarity sparking a sense of nostalgia in him, nostalgia for memories he was blind to. It was a strange feeling but one he could never hope to place.

Like some great bird of prey he sat perched on the tip of the spire, staring at the desolate landscape all around him. Despite his best efforts he couldn’t make out anything that might hint at there being life here. One thing did manage to stand out to him, the spaceport seemed to be relatively intact… for the most part. The actual site was largely damaged, but one launchpad did appear to be intact. With no other inclination, he dove off of the spire and glided down to the spaceport, surveying the massive damage along the way. Strangely enough this was seemingly the only intact thing in the entire city, he felt that it called out to him, drawing him ever closer. He flew up to the lone waiting rocket, stepping in through the open door. A million memories seemed to flood back to him, dazing him for a moment.

It was as if everything had suddenly shot back into him, the memories of what had occurred, the moment he had awakened in the wreck… all of it made so much more sense. Seeing as how this was the only intact structure in the entire city, this must surely be the solution to the Labyrinth… could it really be that simple? There was only one way to find out. He suited up and sat down at the controls, initiating the launch procedures.

He closed his eyes and tried to imagine it all, the launch, the views… the storm… the crash. It all came back to him in a flurry of emotion. His heart started beating rapidly as fear took hold. He wasn’t just stuck in this labyrinth for any old reason, dark forces were at work, and he needed to escape. The thestral looked around the decimated city one final time, strapping himself into the seat, closing his eyes and awaiting the final countdown. He recalled that fateful day, and the dark turn his destiny had taken.

The day he had waited his entire life for was here at long last, he gazed out at the desert vista below, taking in the sight one final time. Today was the big day, the moment he had worked towards for as long as he could remember… the day he would finally breach the atmosphere. The comm was alive with all sorts of chatter, everyone was working hard on the final preparations, it all only served to fuel his excitement further.

The final announcement came over the comm, startling the young thestral. “All personnel clear the launch platform and prepare for a full systems check.”

He gleefully reached over to the comm, shouting back a cheerful reply. “Orion to mission control, initiating full systems diagnostic.”

“We read you Orion, proceed as planned.”

He flipped a few switches, radioing back each status. The comms lit up with activity for a few more minutes, until the moment he had been waiting for was finally at hand.

“Mission control to Orion, you are clear for launch!” This was it, he secured his helmet and reached for the large button on the dashboard, hesitating for a moment as he gazed down at the world around him one final time. "Alright Apollo, here it is, the moment we've waited our whole lives for..."

Well, you've waited your whole life for this, I was built for it.

Orion smiled and shook his head, "Oh come on Apollo, you're still thinking like a computer. Remember what my dad told you?"

Sound less like a robot, I know. So, are you all set to go? I think its a little late to back out now and you know how he gets about this kind of stuff...

"Nervous and overprotective? Yeah I know." Orion smirked as he pressed the button and sat back, anticipating every moment of the launch, "Here we go little buddy, from the earth to the moon, just like we've always dreamed about."

A loud rumbling began as the engines fired, suddenly forcing the thestral down into his seat. The entire world around him started to grow smaller and smaller. Quickly fading away as the sky filled the entire span of the viewport, quickly shifting from a vibrant blue and into a dark black starry void. He waited a few minutes until he heard the all clear, and excitedly jumped up out of the seat, running over to the ship’s observation window.

The world sat below him, continuing its beautiful dance around the sun, a truly spectacular sight to him. Space was… is beautiful he thought. There was nothing that could truly describe it, the great vast unknown that was the universe that lay out in front of him. Orion gazed out of the porthole again, soaking in the pure beauty and allure of the unknown, feeling truly humbled by the sight. This was a sight that very few had ever seen, and Orion was thankful and humbled that he was now one of those rare ponies that could share in this experience.

He thought back to everyone down below, his friends and family. He of course owed everything to his parents, who had really been the true key to his success. They had always encouraged him to follow his dreams, even when it seemed that it would be impossible. Over the years he had worked tirelessly on this project and this was the end result, an experimental rocket being launched from some oasis in the desert. The Mesa Verde spaceport had practically been his home for most of his adult life, it was truly a place he had loved more than any other.

The sound of the comm stirred him from his trance, bringing him back to the task at hand. He would have stayed there for hours if he could… what rational pony wouldn’t?.. but he couldn’t. There were more important tasks ahead of him, Orion was on a mission after all. He was the sole crew member on The Horizon, well save for Apollo, but the AI hardly counted in the traditional sense. No, he had a special task ahead of him. Slingshot around the moon and return back to base, but not before taking a few up-close photos of the dark side of the moon. He would eventually land a ship on it, but they needed this data first. Baby steps were important after all. He had worked all his life to reach this moment, and he was about to finally achieve his lifelong dream. He couldn’t have been any more excited!

He closed his eyes and sat in relative peace for a few solitary moments, awaiting the new orders from mission control. Without much warning, sirens began to blare, startling him from his trance.

[WARNING! ATMOSPHERIC REENTRY IMMINENT! SECURE FOR LANDING!]

A loud computerized warning sounded out. Sensing that something was off, Orion jumped into his seat in a panic, this shouldn’t have been happening so soon. Something was wrong and he knew it. He gazed out of the porthole again, noticing strange dark clouds surrounding his ship. Lightning arced across the side of his ship, casting strange shadows through the windows. Orion could only hope that his ship would hold together long enough to reenter.

“Mission control do you copy? This is Orion, I seem to have entered the atmosphere far earlier than expected, there must have been an error with your calculations because something is definitely wrong!”

There was only silence and static on the comm.

"Apollo, you there buddy? I need a status update stat!"

Diagnostic systems offline, I don't know what's up Orion.

The thestral shook his head and cursed under his breath before returning to the comm, “Mission control?! Do you read me?! This is a Code Red event, I’m requesting immediate authorization to disengage the autopilot, I need to steer out of this!”

Warning! Systems failing!

"Damn it not you too Apollo! Hang with me buddy, we're gonna steer out of this!"

Orion, my systems are failing, home coordinates do not seem to align with our original trajectory— it's as if something's interfering with my data systems—

The AI suddenly sputtered out as the ship's power surged for a moment. The thestral let out another curse before trying the comm again, only to find more silence. As the lightning continued to flash faster, the shadows only seemed to grow into more complex shapes, almost appearing as wraith like phantoms out of the corners of his eyes. Orion shut his eyes tightly, no longer finding this experience to be as fascinating as it originally was. A flash brighter than anything he had ever seen before suddenly illuminated the entire ship… and then everything went silent.

“Uhh… hello? Is anyone else out there?” The Thestral called out, as he carefully climbed through the rubble that was formerly The Horizon. The first thing that caught his eye was the unnatural glow of the world around him… a sight that sent an uneasy chill down his spine. Was he… dead? Could this be the afterlife? Orion couldn’t be sure, but he noticed something moving out of the corner of his eye, so he did what any sane astronaut would do when faced with an unknown threat lurking in the shadows. He started exploring.

He reached into his pack and grabbed his radio out once more, fearfully calling into it. “Orion to base, do you copy?”

There was only static.

“Uhh base?! Do you copy?! Anyone?!”

The phantom was back, looming in the corner of his eyes once more.

“Base do you copy?! Come on guys this isn’t funny! Please pick up!!”

The figure only grew closer. Orion ran. The wraith lunged at him, he dodged. The chase was on.

As Orion ran through the dark alien landscape he yelled into the comm one final time, desperation and panic in his voice.

“Orion to base, I don’t know where I am, but something’s wrong! I’m activating my distress beacon, if you hear this message stay far away from here!” He suddenly stopped, realizing that he was facing a sheer rock wall. There was nowhere left to run, he was left to face this… creature alone. The wraith flew forward, cornering him against the wall. Orion couldn’t bear to watch any further so he snapped his eyes shut, awaiting the end.

The figure came to a stop, slowly walking towards him, laughing in a low raspy voice. “What a shame Orion, I thought you might have had some potential, though it seems the fates have willed otherwise. Oh well, you can still serve my plans in other ways. its no consequence to me of course, the universe works in strange and fascinating ways after all. For you... well it seems like the labyrinth is where your destiny lies. There’s so many more potential prospects on my list and much like the ones before you, they'll all find their way here in due time. Farewell brave traveler, and good luck, fortune and glory shall find you if you should ever escape the labyrinth.” The wraith lunged one final time, and Orion’s world went dark.

Orion opened his eyes, looking back at the console. The bright red launch button was flashing, seemingly tempting him to press it. “it's not like there’s anything to go back to now…” he thought. He shrugged, pressed the button and sat back, as the day seemed to repeat itself. He closed his eyes once more, reflecting on everything that had occurred up to this point. The cabin shook as the thunderous rumble of the engines grew to a deafening roar.

And then it all faded away.

Orion hesitantly opened an eye, cautiously looking around. The sight before him caught him off guard, what was once the utilitarian cockpit of a starship was now some modern subway, a strange scene that genuinely confused him for a few solitary moments. Curiously, he noticed that he was still in possession of everything he had acquired in the city. Shaking his head, he hopped up off of the bench, hoping to catch sight of anything that might explain this unusual situation to him. The dim fluorescent lighting illuminated the station in a sickly yellow glow, something that unnerved him for some reason.

He called out, hoping to grab one of the passerby’s attention. “Hey, can anyone help me?”

They simply ignored him, walking along like some artificial construct… for all he knew they very well could have been. He began to walk away, frustration growing within. Something caught his eye however, as he walked along the platform a lone figure seemed to follow in his hoofsteps, pausing when he stopped, resuming when he continued. Orion was starting to become paranoid, surely he wasn’t being followed… but none of what had occurred today could be considered normal.

A plan started to hatch in his head, a trick to catch the watcher off guard. He walked up the stairs and quickly dashed around a corner, waiting to leap out and catch his pursuer by surprise. He ducked down next to a trash can and watched in anticipation as the figure rounded the corner, pausing ahead of him.

Out from the shadows he leapt, knocking the figure over. “Why are you following me!”

The figure threw up his hooves in surrender, shouting out a hectic response, though curiously not drawing any attention from the passersby. “Wait! I mean you no harm!”

Orion lunged forward, pushing him back down. “Who are you?!”

The figure’s voice wavered as fear took over. “Y..you’re a walker too aren’t you?”

“A what?!”

He flinched back. “A rift walker! A soul trapped in the Labyrinth… one of us!”

Orion started to raise his voice, growing frustrated with the strange thestral. “I need you to start speaking some sense or I’m going to do a lot more than just knock you over.”

“The light show, the shadows… the wraith! It happened to you too right?!”

He tensed up for a moment, his eyes growing wide. “How.. how do you know about all of that?”

“I.. I experienced it too!— We all did!”

“Who’s we?” he asked accusingly.

“The other walkers! The ones trapped here too! You can’t seriously think that you’re all alone in here right?!”

“I… I suppose not.” Orion backed off, helping the thestral up. “Sorry I knocked you down.. I just had to make sure I could trust you.”

He dusted himself off, straightening his glasses. “it's alright, the labyrinth is full of phantoms, unfortunate souls trapped here for all eternity that chase down any unfortunate souls that they see.” He stuck a hoof out in greeting. “I’m Crescent by the way, Crescent Eclipse!”

“I’m.. Orion…”

“Just Orion?”

He hesitated for a moment, finally speaking back up. “Let’s leave it at that for now.”

“Don’t want to share your whole life story? That’s fair enough… I have to imagine that you don’t remember much… it's something all of us deal with too. Something about this place just saps away your memories… makes you more complacent with the idea of being trapped here I guess.”

Orion thought on this for a moment, realizing that Crescent was oddly correct. Despite being trapped in some strange world he felt oddly… at peace. No matter how hard he tried he couldn’t bring himself to feel any kind of lingering fear… it was almost as if something was suppressing that entire part of his mind. “You mentioned others… are there more like us?”

Crescent nodded. “Aye, a whole little enclave of ‘em, holed up in the slums. Want to go see them?”

“I think.. That that would be a smart idea.”

“Come on, follow me.” Crescent led him up the stairs and out into the gloomy city. Orion scrunched up his muzzle in disgust as the smog and pollution overwhelmed his senses.

“You… you can actually stand this?”

Crescent shrugged. “After a while you can… when you’ve been here as long as we have you start to tune it out.”

“How… How long have you been here? All of you that is?”

“it's hard to really tell, there’s no real basis of time here, it's perpetually day…”

Orion raised an eyebrow. “So how long do you think you’ve been here then?” he said as he eyed the boarded-up businesses.

“At least 4 or 5 entanglement cycles… I kind of lost track. its been a long time though”

Orion paused for a moment. “I’m sorry, what cycles?”

“Entanglements… it's what we refer to those storms as…” he said, gesturing his hooves around.

“Why do you call them that?”

“its something one of the others came up with… he thinks that universal alignment is the key to bringing someone here. When you were grabbed from your own reality you were thrown into this one, it happened at a specific point in time and space, a point that was converging with this reality.”

“So I passed through some temporary rift…”

His face lit up. “Precisely!”

“What if we could harness that?”

Crescent cut him off, smiling as he continued to lead onward. “Let’s talk more about that when we get to the sanctuary, I think you’re going to really spark some minds there.”

The pair continued walking, hastily moving across the city until they reached a dark alley. “I… this doesn’t exactly scream “Sanctuary” for me…”

“it's not exactly the best location, but it's safe from the Phantoms.”

“Why haven’t we seen any out today?”

“it's a telltale sign that an entanglement cycle has occurred, the massive blast of thaumatic energy keeps them at bay, though only temporarily. That’s why we have to move fast.”

Crescent pushed a grate aside and crawled in, waving Orion in. He quickly crawled in, pulling the grate shut behind him. “Why do the Phantoms go after us?”

“No one really quite knows though… They used to be ponies, but the Labyrinth has corrupted them, I think it might be a mix of mania and vengeance. They’re creatures driven by emotion, and hatred is one of the strongest emotions there is.”

“How.. how do we stop them— ”

Crescent interrupted him. “We’ll get to that in due time, let’s go meet the others first.”

The two wandered further down the dark hallway, coming across a large concrete chamber with natural sunlight filtering in through the long-shattered windows. This is definitely more Sanctuary like.”

Crescent ignored his statement, instead leading Orion over to a hooded thestral. “Nebula, I have another one.”

The figure sat up “Another lost soul?”

“What else?”

He leaned forward. “Do you think he can help?”

Crescent shrugged, turning towards Orion. “I mean another mind is better than nothing.”

Orion shuffled awkwardly. “Excuse me, but help with what?”

The figure faced him. “With solving the labyrinth of course. The first task is always the easiest, but we’ve all been stuck here, trying to sort through it all. We have a few leads, a place known as the Sanctum, but we’ve never been able to breach the doors.”

“How many are you?”

“Well, there’s me and Crescent, and then there’s Zax, Flare, and Comet. That makes five, with you we have an even six.”

Orion raised an eyebrow. “Well if you’re stuck with this, can you at least show me the sanctum?”

Nebula looked around inquisitively. “Crescent do you know where the others are?”

“I think they’re there right now actually.”

“How much time do you guess we have until the energy dissipates?”

“Well I’d say at least a few burns.”

Orion interrupted the pair. “Excuse me? I’m sorry, what do you mean burns?”

Crescent gestured to a nearby flare, its red glow lighting up the room menacingly. “Burns. As in how long it takes for one of these to burn.”

“And how long is that?”

“it's… hard to explain.”

Orion rolled his eyes and fiddled with his suit, suddenly realizing something. “This suit!— it has a built in clock!”

“Huh?”

“A clock, a chronometer, you know?”

Nebula stood up and walked over. “Are you sure it's functional?”

Orion fiddled with the readout a few times, nodding his head to confirm it. “Yeah, seems to still work.”

“Well that’s very fortunate indeed… do me a favor, follow Crescent to the Sanctum and take a look around, see if you can understand it a bit better than we’ve been able to, when you get back we can better map out time references now that we have something far more accurate.”

Crescent smiled, dramatically turning to face Orion. “Will do, c’mon Orion, let’s go see the others!”

Author's Note

Surprise, another chapter release. I’ve got at least one more planned out this week. The third person perspective in this one is a deliberate stylistic choice, the majority of the chapters will remain in first person.