The Nightmare And The Ruin
Author's Note
Hi there!
This is a little something I randomly thought up the other day. I've actually been building up the world a lot since then, so I hope this sudden surge of creativity and motivation can give at least one person an alright read, and maybe something to look forward to.
Truthfully I have no idea if I'm going to continue this so I guess only time will tell.
I hope you at least sort of enjoyed this. If you happen to be interested and want to see more at some point, you could let me know with a like and a comment with some feedback or something, I would appreciate it a lot.
That being said, have a good day/night.
The Nightmare And The Ruin
All that can be seen is darkness. Not even the faint breathing of a lost batpony adventurer could be heard, lost to the endless nothing. Seconds pass. Then minutes. Then hours. Then days. Then weeks. Then months. Then centuries. An all consuming void of emptiness that could drive even the strongest of minds mad. The constant chill of a sourceless wind blowing through the fur of the lost adventurer. The pitch black darkness accompanied by the unshakable feeling of being watched by a thousand eyes. Any attempt to scream or cry for help is met with silence. Not a sound can be made or heard. Basic biological functions cease, as if frozen in a moment of time, seemingly leaving the lost batpony to suffer the fate of endless life in the endless void for an eternity. The darkness slowly creeping its way into the deepest corners of the adventurers mind, corrupting it. The feeling of dread creeping its way in, shrouding the adventures thoughts and feeling, seemingly stripping them away. Another few seconds pass. Followed by minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and then centuries.
Finally surrendering to the darkness and pain, the lost adventurer begins losing their grip on their physical form, feeling as if they were slowly drifting away from it, or being ripped from it. The adventurer could feel their very soul being corrupted and corroded, slowly dispersing into endless dark. Just before the adventurer drifted from consciousness to death, a blinding light shot through the endless voice, a strange silhouette reaching out for the adventurer. With the last bit of strength the adventurer had left with their physical form, they reached out to the silhouette, only for it to grab their hoof and pull then into the light, feeling the corruption and corrosion washing away the closer they got to the light. The silhouette reaches with their other arm, gripping the same hoof to pull harder, sound slowly returning to the adventurer. The sound of water. The sound of insects in the night. The sound of the wind blowing. The sound of the silhouette calling out. The sound of freedom from the fate worse then death.
"WAHH!" A batpony screams, jolting up into a sitting position from that of a laying position within a second. Frantically looking around, seeing nothing but the clearing she had set camp in, a forest could be seen to the east. The batponies breathing is shaky and uncontrolled. Seeing nothing else around her but the fire lit to keep her warm in the freezing morning, she slowly begins to retake control of her breathing, though physically shaking from a nightmare more so then the cold.
"It's ok Cosmic, it's ok," The batpony says to herself, scooting slightly closer to the burning firepit. "It's ok, you're safe." She tells herself, gripping her blanket tightly.
A few moments pass as she tries to get herself back under control, sticking close to the fire. More so to feel safe rather then warm. "I obviously had a nightmare but... I can't remember anything about it." She says out loud, despite being completely alone. It was more of a weird habit she couldn't shake. "Whatever. I need to get moving soon anyways." She then reaches one hoof out of the cozy blanket she had wrapped around her to grab her bag of supplies. Feeling around blindly, she eventually finds what feels like a scroll of paper. Pulling it out of the bag, she unrolls it and studies it closely.
"I'm pretty sure the next ruin is a few hours east. Hopefully this one actually has what I need... I'm pretty sure I've been to more ruins then even Daring Do!" Cosmic exclaims, again to no one but herself. "And to think its all for some obscure legend older then the Princesses..."
Taking one final glance at the crudely drawn map, Cosmic stuffs it back into her bag and hops up onto her hooves, yawning as the sun begins to peek over the mountains to the far east. "Alright Cosmic, this is it! The final stretch!" Hopping with excitement, she packs up her things into her trusty saddlebag, then with one of her midnight blue bat wings, she slings it over her back to carry it. "W-well, I... I think..."
Grabbing a nearby crudely constructed bucket of water she prepared the night before, she drowns the fire that had been still burning. Turning to the sun, Cosmic stretches out her wings, slightly flapping and shifting them to warm them up. "Well, let's go." She mutters to herself, taking off high into the sky with one mighty flap down.
As she flies through the early morning sky, Cosmic occasionally glances down at the sprawling forest beneath her, every now and then catching a glance of the wild life beginning their daily routines. The farther the sun peaked out over the eastern mountains, the warmer it got. Within a few minutes, the temperature managed to shift from freezing to chilly. The climate difference between day and night were jarring to Cosmic at first, but she learned a few ways to get passed the rather hostile temperature.
Despite the odd temperature differences, she also observed that the forest below was unaffected by it. In fact, it was almost as if there was an invisible blanket over the forest that separated it from the everything else. The lukewarm temperature and high humidity was usually always the same through the forest at all times. Despite the generally better conditions of the forest, it was also rather dangerous.
Shaking herself from her thoughts of the mysterious forest, she notices a stony pillar reaching above the otherwise tall trees of the forest. "Ah! That must be it!" She exclaims, flapping her bat wings ever so slightly faster as she redirected her route towards the structure. Spotting a small clearing just outside of the stone pillar, she slowly descends, feeling the sudden change of temperature from the odd forest as she landed down.
The sun now fully above the mountains, the light was able to light up the display in front of her well enough for her natural nightvision to make it appear is if it was lit completely. Taking a few steps forward, Cosmic notices that the stone pillar she originally spotted was what's left of a windmill, which had mostly collapsed. The torn and burnt sails trapped under rock and rubble slightly flapping from the wind. She could also pick out an old overgrown path leading deeper into the nature touched ruins.
Cosmic begins trotting through, following the faint path. through the chirping of birds and leaves blowing, she picks out an odd sound. The sound of squeaking farther down the path. As she trots along the path, taking in the environment, she realizes that these are the remnants of a town. Most of the buildings were entirely destroyed or crumbling. Some ashen wood spotted the building, indicating a major fire that likely caused the desertion of the town.
As she made it to the squeaking she heard before, Cosmic finds nothing but an old 'Tavern' sign still hanging high and swaying in the wind with rusted chains. However, that was the least of her attention. Much, much farther down the path, Cosmic could see a castle of some sort. The path led straight to it, and the remains of a civilization lined it all the way up to the castle. The burnt and demolished buildings went about as far as the eye could see, all with the signs of fire. The only thing unaffected seemed to be the castle at the very end.
It looked still pristine, as if it was a snapshot of a moment of time. The braziers and torches of the castle that were visible were even still burning bright, illuminating the untouched structure perfectly. That's when Cosmic noticed something else. She could just barely make it out, but a figure, seemingly a pony, was stood at the front gate of the castle. Cosmic and the figure just stared at each other, only to be broken by the pony figure slipping through the gate, followed by the loud thud of from gate closing. The sound echoed through the old town, unnaturally so.
Cosmic doesn't even question the strange appearance of the pony. Instead, she musters her courage and proceeds towards the strange castle. As she does, she realizes that it isn't just a straight line to the castle through the buildings. There were multiple intersections to the left and right, destroyed buildings going as far as the eye can see. This wasn't some ruined village or small town, it was an entire city. And in the middle of it all, there stood the untouched castle.
As Cosmic eventually reached the castle, she noticed something odd. It was almost as if there was some invisible barrier between her and the castle. She couldn't see it, but she could feel it. Looking around on the ground, she picks up a rock she sees and throws it through. Much to her satisfaction, the rock did in fact pass through an invisible barrier, causing a rippling effect visibly throughout it. "Woah," She mutters to herself, "That's new."
Feeling bold, Cosmic sticks a hoof through the barrier. Save for the visible disruption in the barrier where her hoof passed through, nothing happened. "Ok Cosmic, let's do this." Taking a gulp of fresh air, she closes her eyes tight and steps through the barrier. Upon entering it, she's hit with a wave of chilling air. Opening her eyes in response to the sensation, any confidence she had going in suddenly evaporated. All that could escapes her lips was, "Huh?"
In front of her wasn't the pristine castle she seen moments ago. Instead she seen a decayed, decrepit, send crumbling mass of stone. The front gate was bust open entirely, and darkness enveloped the inside. It was as if the darkness was staring at her. An oddly familiar feeling creeped into the recesses of her mind. The feeling of corrosion and corruption. Then the feeling disappeared as fast as it appeared. The interior of the castle was suddenly considerably lighter, as if something was shrouding it in complete darkness just moments before.
Rather confused, Cosmic turns around to leave the barrier, stricken with fear and unease the moment she was once again facing the destroyed city. However this time it's not destroyed. Cosmic can see ponies of all varieties scrambling through the streets, some hurt, some panicking, and some dead. A massive fire was raging along throughout the city, the now suddenly intact homes and shops ablaze. The windmill that Cosmic had originally spotted could suddenly bee seen collapsing in the distance, the fire engulfing it entirely. Slowly, sound began to fade in, The crackling flames, the crumbling buildings, and the screams of fear leaked in. Some ponies even approached the barrier, banging on it as if it was a wall or locked door.
The visage of the past slowly began to fade, the ruins and overgrown city streets reappearing. Completely shaken to the core from the bizarre event, Cosmic stumbles backwards, looking on in terror. Completely lost for words and even thoughts, Cosmic just plops down onto the ground.
"Can I help you, miss?" An unfamiliar voice from behind Cosmic asks.
TO BE CONTINUED(?)
