Hello? Is anypony there? Can anypony hear me?
My name is Sunny Starscout, and I don't know where I am.
All I can see is darkness. Endless darkness no matter where I look. My senses aren't helping either. I have no sense of direction. Up, down, left, right- I have no idea which is which. I could be upside down for all I know.
It's so dark and cold in here. It's like a freezer, only more akin to a winter blast than an actual freezer. In a way it makes me think of that freak weather we had back at Wishentide.
I'm rambling, aren't I? The truth is, I'm scared. More scared than I ever have been.
I imagine you want to hear how this all began, don't you? Well, like so many things I seem to get mixed up in, it all began rather normally, as if it were a normal part of my day.
It began with strange voicemails which kept appearing on my phone when I woke up in the morning. All of them came from the same individual with the exact same creepy tone, which seriously unsettled me. But what I actually found strangest was when they were sent. All of them arrived at 3 in the morning, when I was fast asleep. But who in Equestria is up at 3 in the morning, making phone calls? All the major settlements- Zephyr Heights, Maretime Bay, and Bridlewood- all fall within the same time zone, which eliminates that theory.
But after a few nights of this it only got weirder. I'd reported it to Hitch, and he launched an investigation, but after a while it got worse. One time, I woke up in the middle of the night with a raging headache and went to get some painkillers. When I came back not only was my phone somehow on, it was ringing. I must have forgotten to turn it off before going to bed. So, I decided to answer the call and see who it was.
Not only did he speak incredibly fast, his accent made him hard to understand. He kept asking all sorts of strange and odd questions, which I decided not to answer in order to protect myself. I eventually checked it against the voicemails, and it was the exact same number as those. I took the precaution of blocking the number to try and stop them.
Even that didn't work. I kept getting these calls. I know because when I got up there were missed calls in ridiculous numbers, all of them within a window from 3 in the morning to about 3:30, when I assume they gave up. I decided to report this to Hitch as well, and it still kept happening. Either this was a ridiculously dedicated fan of mine or a creep. I assumed the latter and blocked those as well.
Eventually, it all came crashing down one day. I was manning my smoothie cart as usual, on a lovely summer's day, and popped up a sign saying I was taking a break and would be back soon. When I was on my way to the seafront, all I can remember is being grabbed, dragged into an alley, and then some chemical substance being put over my face. They were also incredibly strong.
Wait a moment. There's movement.
The box lid is being opened! Light floods in, and I try to shield my eyes from it. Must have slept on my forelegs again.
Upward movement. I'm being lifted out of the box. This place is huge, with corridors and some seriously ugly furniture. The thing carrying me is complaining about the weight, and saying something about...
Cutting me open?
No no no no no! Sweet Celestia, no!
I shake my head, trying to stir myself. This has to be a nightmare! No way this can be true!
I'm regaining sensation in my limbs. I think I can move. Before I can start planning an exit strategy, I'm dumped down on a table, and the thing is walking over to another table.
He's grabbed a large knife!
I've come to the conclusion this is no nightmare. This is real. I have to get out of here!
The thing rolls me over so my belly is facing the ceiling. He readies the blade. "In three, two, one..."
Suddenly, I roll to one side with about a milisecond to spare, the blade crashing down into the table with a bang. I land on the floor and bolt for the door.
"What? She's actually moving guys! I have to catch her!"
I try to escape for a door, galloping as fast as I can, but navigating these corridors is hard with all this junk in the way. In the darkness it's hard to figure out which way to go.
To my horror I find myself running down the same corridor as I had gone down earlier, and run into this thing's leg, sending me cartwheeling through the air. I crash to the floor with a bang, groaning from the impact.
The thing gets down and looks right into my eyes, glaring with malevolent glee. "You've caused me enough trouble as it is, you stupid bitch. I'll have an easier time cutting you open when you're unconscious."
The squidgy things on the ends of his upper limbs grab my neck and start squeezing. I flail, try to fight back, but this thing is way stronger than I am.
"Please," I beg, "just let me go! What did I do to you?" I cough as I try to force more air into my lungs. "I- I can't breathe!"
"Just several million more views for my channel," the thing says, cruelly. My vision is starting to go black and blurry, and I'm fighting to remain conscious.
Suddenly, something white slams into the creature, and I slump to the floor. Whilst I wake up, what sounds like a fight is echoing around me.
When I'm back on my feet, I see Zipp there, with that thing lying unconscious. "That bastard won't be forgetting that in a hurry."
"Zipp?" I ask. "What are you doing here?"
"Followed the trail after you'd vanished," Zipp replies. "Turns out this guy left an obvious trail of clues. But cutting you open for views? That's a new low."
I feel queasy just thinking about it. "Zipp, I'm scared. I just wanna go home."
Zipp smiles. "Of course, Sunny. Let's get back to Maretime Bay."
As we leave this strange place and towards what looks like a portal, my mind is still riven with questions. Who was that thing? Why did he want to cut me open? And what if somepony else finds us?
Author's Note
Anybody who has been around on the internet for a while will know of the scourge that is 3AM videos, usually low-effort productions consisting of YouTubers 'phoning' fictional characters and then recording nonsensical and laughably badly made hijinks that occur in their home as a result. MLP largely seems to have avoided this (so far).
One subgenre of this is YouTubers cutting open stuffed toys at 3AM, usually on the pretense that the toy is possessed by the soul of the character or is the actual character. This story was inspired by a conversation I had with a friend on dA speculating about what might happen if one of these YouTubers somehow managed to find the original character, and this is the result.
This little experiment over, normal service will resume in February.
