Chapters Run away, with all your heart.
Running, running was good, it's what made the monster smaller, and most important, further away from her. While she was an earth pony, and strength was just natural to earth ponies, she had one major downside.
She was just a filly.
Size and overall stamina were not on her side either.
Whatever it was that was chasing her, had not stopped following her since it had scared her away from town. But one thing was for certain in the little fillies mind. It was big, scary, and had at least a million teeth.
That last one, that she admittedly made up, was just an exaggeration. But hey, it could be true! For all the filly knew, it didn't even have a mouth and was just a faceless monster that stalked ponys from afar.
But not tonight. Oh no, her monster was very real, and it was very much coming after her. Why she fled the safety of the town, which may seem insane to you, was a perfectly rational decision to her. Because while normally the town was just stacked with ponys, even at night! Tonight, however, there seemed to be not a single pony.
Yelling and screaming proved not to help either, pounding on doors yielded aught.
And so, with the safety of the town compromised, and the streets providing zero cover, the filly fled into the forest, hoping the trees and brush would at least slow the monster down. Also thinking her small size would give some sort of an advantage over it.
Seemingly pulled into a living nightmare, the filly was making no ground, that is until she found it. The only thing out here that she knew could provide some sort of help from the monster.
The Castle of the Two Sisters.
Running as fast as her tired little legs could go, she ducked behind a ruined wall, unwilling to be trapped inside the castle, luckily there was a plethora of cover from the many destroyed walls; All of which were very welcome to the filly.
Having all but collapsed from the exhaustion of running for so far and so long, the filly sits there, as quietly as she can muster, catching her breath while she can.
The only thing she can hear for a time is her heart beading.
Slowly, painfully slowly. Her hearing begins to return to normal. Looking around, she doesn't see anything, but she does start to hear it.
clop. clop. clop.
It's coming.
clop. Clop. Clop.
It's almost here.
Clop. Clop. Clop.
It's here.
Clop. CLOP. CL~.
She sees it now. Peaking at it from the rubble, she spots it stop walking, looking around to find her.
An emotionless face sits atop its body. It speaks.
"Silver Spoon? You can't keep running away like this, it's time to come home."
That thing was NOT her mother. Her mother had died years ago. Sure it looked like her. But she could tell, whatever it was, it was NOT a pony, it was just wearing her mother's skin.
Every single one of her fear senses went off when it looked in her direction.
"Oh, there you are dear."
Gasping in fear, she just barely peeks over the wall to see it start moving in her direction.
CLOP CLOP CLOP.
Panicking she begins to move her legs, but finds she's unable to, due to the forest's roots growing onto her legs suddenly.
She hadn't even felt them, almost like this was a dream, and this was the part where the monster got her before waking up.
But this wasn't a dream. It was very much real life, a waking nightmare, even. She remembers waking up this morning, going to school, hanging out with Diamond Tiara nearly the whole day, only departing to go get changed for the party tonight, the only reason she was out so late. But the second she left her house after getting dressed. She fell into this nightmare.
And so she screamed. It's all she could do.
"Now now dear, you're in no danger. Mommy's here." It said as it drew closer.
Kicking the roots and screaming, nearly crying, she screamed. "YOU ARE NOT MY MOTHER."
"Tsk Tsk, I thought I taught you better Silver?"
"YOU DIDN'T TEACH ME ANYTHING."
CLOP CLOP C~.
Staring wide-eyed at it, it was just a few inches away from her.
And so, clenching her jaw, she cried. It was all she could do, feeling as if she would be devoured any second by it.
Suddenly, it moved its head to the sky, the motion and speed clearly would break any normal pony's neck.
Looking in that direction too, she sees a small sphere of light before it grows larger, and turns into a flat surface.
A large golden entity emerges from the golden portal.
It shines a golden light at her and the monster, it began hissing and backing away and out of the yellow rays.
It speaks in a robotic tone, not all that dissimilar to that of an old toy she owns, one that helps with spelling and speaking.
"YOU ARE IN DANGER."
Author's Note
I won't lie, this story was mostly inspired by a certain song .
(Now you know where I got the name of the story!)
Fully emerging from the portal, the golden god closes the portal behind it. It emanates such golden light, one would think it is daytime.
The filly, much to her joy, is happy to see the, very literal, ray of hope.
Seeming to face the filly, it being hard to tell with its smooth features. Its center mass is seemingly just pure sunlight, while the parts of its body that aren't, look to be made of very smooth gold.
One of its 'Hands' points to her. And it asks her.
"Do you consent to being here?"
Does she consent to being here? Absolutely not!
"No!" She yells at the yellow being.
"Understood. Do you consent to this entity to feed on you?"
She answered much quicker on that one.
"NO NO NO!"
"Understood. Do you consent to being rescued?"
"YES!"
"Understood."
As things became quiet for a moment. A ray of light came from one of the yellow beings' hands, and hit the monster. It screamed and before even a second passed. it was gone. Turned into nothing more than dust.
Silence, nothing stirred, nothing moved, and nothing breathed, not even Silver Spoon, Holding her breath, hoping that the monster was destroyed.
Yet a deep feeling in her gut told her it was far from over.
And so, with a shuttering crack, and the blistering of trees, that's when the real monster revealed its true self.
Emerging from the forest, A giant monster, skin as black as a starless night, and rows upon rows of teeth filled what looked to be more of a cavern than a mouth.
Stoic and unmoving, the yellow being stayed there and waited.
The monster with its size and many appendages, very easily destroyed the yellow interloper.
Silver Spoon, after seeing the yellow being destroyed right in front of her, lost all hope again. Her only salvation from this personal hell was gone, dead and destroyed in front of her.
Large, bellowing laughter came from the monster. "HA. HA. HA."
Seemingly mocking her for even having a shred of hope. She began to cry again, the warm tears running down her face, mixing into the colder wet marks.
"No." She says, unbelieving it would just die like that.
"No!" She yells, hoping beyond hope that it would get back up and save her from this nightmare.
"NO NO NO!" She screams at the monster, for it even daring to be a monster.
"Analysis of attacks: complete."
That familiar voice tickled her ears, and she quickly looked back up to where it was before being destroyed.
It seemed to appear out of nowhere, not being there one second, then blinking into existence the next.
"Illusion copy has taken 0.000000000000001% of damage." It said before moving toward the monstrosity.
A sound, a sound of which Silver had never heard, nor was she ever supposed to hear. It began with a whirling, and a buzzing, then finally with the sound of sucking air.
And then she saw it, right on top of the monster.
It was a black hole, rapidly growing in size. It began to eat away at the monster, taking chunk after chunk away from the beast.
Space distorting, and time dilating, it was starting to get so powerful, Silver Spoon was worried that she may be sucked into the powerful attack too, she clenches her eyes shut at the thought.
But just as she thought of that happening, she felt nothing, not the air, not the power of the black hole, nor even the powerful presence of the monster that she had felt all afternoon. Opening her eyes, she noticed that her vision was far more golden than usual.
Looking behind her, she sees the roots clinging to her hindlegs dissolve before her very eyes, along with anything else.
Looking around more, she realizes she's inside a shield of some kind. Slowly, painfully slowly, it was being moved toward the godly figure.
Focusing on the fight happening outside, she realizes she can't even hear anything other than her own breathing and heartbeat.
The shield, seemingly being absorbed by the yellow being, leaves Silver Spoon wondering what's about to happen to her. Her question is soon answered as she seamlessly *pops* into the yellow god. The 'Head' of the being is nothing more than a farce, seemingly, as it was nothing more than a large yellow room, this one having a solid floor, rather than being wholly a sphere.
"Analysis of entity is complete." It speaks, and Silver can hear it, then again, being inside its head would probably help with that.
“Strengths: immense Physical strength, immense domain presence, fear eating, emotional detachment from food.
Weaknesses: Psychic powers of any kind, psionic powers of any kind, black holes, medium or greater holy light beams, physical damage, domain removal, domain collapse, partial domain collapse, total domain collapse, being removed from domain, more black holes.”
Looking around, Silver sees the monster far below her, she realizes she’s not afraid of it anymore, and so she began blowing a raspberry at it.
Roaring in immense anger the monster begins thrashing its appendages all over the yellow being.
Seeing the attacks land one after another, and only hearing a light thunk after thunk, Silver doesn’t even flinch at the attacks.
Now that things have gotten much quieter than they were outside, and with Silver Spoon's heart not in constant flux, she calms down breathing in and out, only now realizing that she's truly safe.
BANG!
Silver's head jerked, looking back toward the monster after it had made a particularly loud strike against the yellow being.
Ignoring the beast, she turns her gaze back, looking around some more.
Other than the floor, this was truly just an empty sphere. Well, not empty anymore.
Turning her gaze back outside toward the monster, she realized something. This yellow god-like being wasn't fighting the monster, no, this wasn't a fight, far from it.
This was an extermination.
Almost as if realizing it itself, the monster attempted to run away.
But Silver Spoon asked herself. "But where would it even go?"
And that's when it hit her. It can't go anywhere. It's stuck here, that's why it brought her here. The yellow being asked if she allowed it to feed on her, and that it also fed on fear.
A shiver ran through Silver, thinking of how big it is, and how many other ponys must have met their end to this monster before she was saved.
She was the lucky one, she realized.
Looking at the monster, and thinking about the lives it has taken over who knows how many years, she feels no pity for it whatsoever.
Screams of a dying god echo into the woods as the beast is burnt to dust by beam after beam of the golden light, all the while chunk after massive chunk is torn away from its body by the black hole.
"Beginning Total Domain Collapse." it said as Silver started to hear a humming sound all around her, as it picked up in intensity, it stopped almost as soon as it began, and while Silver didn't notice anything different, that soon changed as space seemed to shatter all around them.
With the land, sky, and everything that wasn't her, the golden god, and the monster, turning into shards. Everything was gone, replaced with a dark void stretching into infinity. Or at least as far as Silver Spoon could perceive as infinity.
There was no light, no nothing, the only way she could see the beast, was with the light constantly radiating off the golden being.
"So I guess that's what total domain collapse is." Silver says, looking for anything other than the three of them in this void.
For half a second, she swore she saw a crown flying by, but it was going so fast she couldn't even tell if it was really even there.
"Hey!" She says to the yellow being she's inside of. "Can you hurry this up? I wanna go home, please."
As if processing her request. It shoots light from its core, instantly killing what's left of the monster.
With nothing around them but void, she wonders what exactly will happen now.
Then, a yellow light comes from behind her, and as she looks back, she sees that it's the same type of portal that it arrived through, only now, she is leaving with it.
Author's Note
If you're wondering about the bit with the crown in the void, it's a reference to another story more than anything lore related.
Upon entering the portal, Silver is temporarily blinded as they enter another dimension.
Cracking open her eyes, she is greeted by a realm of infinite shifting colors, much like looking into a seasick kaleidoscope, Silver both wanted to look away, but couldn't look away at the same time.
The yellow being, seeming to detect this dilemma, seems to shift the hue of its head, making it basically impossible to look out of its head.
Blinking rapidly, she looks around the yellow being before thinking of something.
"Hey, umm, can you talk?" She asked, hoping it would at least talk a little.
Not giving a response after a few seconds, she furrows her brows a little bit. But she can't get mad at the yellow being, after all, it saved her life.
"Do you at least know what I'm saying?" After saying that she thinks that that's kind of a stupid question. "Of course you do, you spoke in my language." She says laying a hoof softly on her head in a sort of facepalm.
"Okay, not much of a talker huh?" She says more to herself than actually talking to it, still vaguely hoping it would talk to her.
"..." Going quiet, she wonders where they are going, they were clearly going somewhere, but how long it would take and where exactly, she had no idea.
But just as she started to lay down and get comfortable with the light vibrating emanating from the floor of the yellow being, she could feel it slow down a little.
The hue of its head returned to normal. They were still in the colorful realm, soon leaving via another yellow portal.
before entering the portal, Silver could see nothing but yellow on the other side. Closing her eyes, just in case she was blinded again, she waited awhile before cracking an eye open again.
But upon seeing what she saw, she immediately open both her eyes to stare in wonder at what she saw.
An infinite abyss, much like the one they were in before, only this time it was all completely gold yellow, and as far as her little eyes could see, thousands, no, millions, no, billions, no, even more than that.
Of the same golden being, laying in row upon row upon row, seemingly just waiting for something. Looking ahead of where they were going, she could see an empty spot, assuming that this would be their stop.
"Thank you, for saving me." She says, looking back up to the top of the godly being.
Entering its slot, the yellow being makes a loud beeping sound before a large door-like shape appears on both sides of it, along with a staircase leading up to both exits.
Looking down to where the stairs lead, she sees large catwalks.
Once she starts to walk on said catwalks, she sees a green path light up, clearly indicating for her to follow it.
Following it for some time, she comes to a house-sized building, looking for an entrance, she wondered if she was on the wrong side, When right in front of her the wall seemingly morphed into a large set of double doors.
Walking into the building, she looked around, seeing many glowing screens showing various statuses and information.
At least she assumed so, given she couldn't understand a single thing about them.
Moving further in, and following a new red line that appeared, she wondered where she was going, that was soon answered as she entered a room, the door sealing itself behind her, turning into a wall.
The room was rather plain, its color was a light gray, much like her coat. It appeared to be a living space, there was a small bed, a table that she assumed was for eating, and one of those many screens with information on it on another smaller desk in the corner, along with what looked to be some sort of vending machine in the other corner.
Deciding she had a long and hectic day, she really wanted to go to sleep for now.
Laying down on the bed, she put her glasses on a small nightstand, before tucking herself into the rather warm blanket and quickly passing out.
Author's Note
Btw, in case your curious, the original name for the chapter was 'Something new.' But I figured that the current one was better.
Silver Spoon, upon waking up in an unfamiliar place, jumped up in bed, but did little else as she let her heart rate settle back to normal.
Looking around, she realized she was still in the same place she was in before. ".... So it wasn't a dream." She says before collapsing back into the bed.
Looking at the ceiling, she wonders what's going to happen to her now. She didn't sit around to find out, getting up she began looking around the room some more.
Seeing an extra room, she looks inside to see a bathroom. It was quite basic and not as advanced as the rest of the place, Silver supposed that despite the clear advancement in technologies, bathrooms seem to remain the same no matter where you go, be it the future, or a different dimension.
Walking fully into the bathroom, Silver looked at its facilities. "Oh good, they have showers." She starts before looking at the controls to it. Seeming rather archaic compared to the rest of the building, she was rather thankful for that, given she was used to this type of design.
"It's almost like it was made purposely straightforward." She wonders aloud. One handle was Red, and another Blue, with two large arrows pointing in the direction to turn it on.
"Hmmm." She thinks, debating on using it. Figuring she didn't want to be sweaty after all her running yesterday, she got in.
Thinking about it, she wondered how long it's actually been since she left.
Turning both handles at the same time, she expected the water to either be too hot or too cold. But just as it started to hit her matted fur, she could tell it was the perfect temp.
"Ooooohh, yeah." She cooed as the water started to do its magic. "Shower now, think of time later." She said looking for anything to use, be it soap, or buck, even mane conditioner would be nice.
Spotting what she assumed to be said mane conditioner, she grabbed it before looking at the label.
The language looked to be nothing more than squiggly lines to Silver Spoon but on the other hoof, why keep it in here if it's not for her mane?
Dabbing a good-sized glob into her hoof, she put the bottle down before lathering her mane.
"Aahh." She sighs, thinking about who built this place. "Aliens?" She guessed, not thinking too hard about it before going back to relaxing.
After a few minutes of washing, she decides she's done before turning off the taps at the same time.
Looking for a towel to dry herself, she quickly finds them. Reaching into a small alcove of a shelf, she grabs two, using one for her mane and another for her body, she wraps them around her before walking back into what appears to be her new room for the time being.
Still dripping wet, she very obviously avoids the bed, instead sitting down at the table. However, looking back at the bed, it appears as if it's remade itself, ready to be slept in again. "Neat." and that's all Silver says about that before focusing on something else.
That being nothing. Silver Doesn't really know what to do now. Sure she got a good rest and she took a nice and totally normal and not long shower.
But now?
She doesn't really know what to do, as far as she can tell there are no living people here, and even if there were, they probably won't be able to communicate, given the language barrier.
And she can't just ask one of the golden beings for help... can she?
Deciding that while it's not a fruitless endeavor, it would still most probably prove useless.
While she wanted to go home. She's just not sure if she can be taken home anymore. That monster stole her away from everything, everyone, and then, the golden being completely destroyed that place, so to Silver, there may not be a home to go back to.
And besides, there may as well not be any other place safer than here.
"Hmmm." She thinks out loud before deciding to fully dry herself off before continuing.
Placing the towels over some hooks in the bathroom she began looking for a brush, for a while, she was wondering how she would reach said hooks, until they lowered themselves down to her size.
After brushing her mane back into her favorite style, big thanks to the large mirror in the bathroom, she walked back to the nightstand before retrieving her glasses and putting them on.
Looking around her new room once more, she decides to get a closer look at the vending machine. Doing a double take, she sees pictures of many foods she recognizes. Hayburger, milkshakes, ice cream, and a whole host of other foods and desserts.
Licking her lips a little, she presses the food image of a hayburger. It dispensed the food at the bottom of the machine.
While Silver was pretty sure it was breakfast time, that or the middle of the night, she didn't care, she was hungry all the same.
Looking back at the machine before she leaves, she wonders if... "Drinks?" she asked it. The selection quickly turned to that of drinks. Smiling at the voice-activated food dispensing machine, she looks for something good to drink.
Choosing a drink to have, with pictures alone, was very much a pain. Other than the darker-colored drinks, and anything with actual color in it, it all just looked like water.
Sure, she assumed the first one was water, and she was right, the rest had to be something else, but she really didn't want to test all the drinks.
Plus she also got a weird feeling that she was being billed for the food, but that could just be her nerves.
Having a full belly, soft cozy fur, and a albeit somewhat puffy mane, she was quite happy. But still quite curious. Looking at the screen giving off information on the small desk, she wondered what exactly she was seeing on it. Getting closer yielded some results.
From what Silver can put together, it's mostly just something repeating, over and over constantly, sadly with her unable to read the squiggly line language, she gave up quite early, the lack of pictures only helped with that.
Getting tired of the room she was in, she looked to where she had come from, trotting up to it, she said "Open." and it did. Smiling at her power of speaking at things and them doing said thing, she looked out into the small hallway, while she didn't explore at all originally, there wasn't much to explore. Other than the first large room full of the same screen monitors, all with seemingly something different on it.
There was a long window peering out to see the limitless number of yellow beings, only now does she begin to think that they may be machines of some kind.
"But why would it bring me here?" She asked no one, and so no one replied.
There was a small desk near the front double doors, seeming to be a secretary's desk of some sort, it clearly abandoned by whoever used to be here before.
Other than another door that leads upstairs and downstairs to the infinite catwalks, each floor has a carbon copy of the building she was in.
There was nothing else here.
Author's Note
Holy moly, I won't lie, The story kind of took a turn from where I originally wanted to go with it, but hey, I kind of like it thus far.
(Especially with a title like "Blood in the machine." I mean, like, not even I know what will happen next!!! jk.)
Joking aside, It's honestly kind of dark with the current state of affairs..... hmmm.
Also, do you, like the story so far?
Author's Note
Hey look! I reused the original chapter title for chapter three!
I mean, you would know that if you've been reading the author's notes at the end of each chapter, you've been reading the author's notes, RIGHT!?
Something new.
It's been a while since Silver Spoon has been trapped in this endlessly yellow realm of the infinite gods. While she didn't really mind, being here and safe was far better than ever being anywhere near that, now very dead, monster.
And if Silver was being honest, given what happened with that monster, if she did ever return, she doesn't know if she could look at the everfree forest the same ever again.
Something interesting that Silver found out shortly after arriving, was that if she asked the 'computer' to translate its language, it would do so.
And so she's been spending most of her time on the 'computer' learning about it, the place she's in, and who created it.
Albeit very slowly, the controls were in fact not made for hooves. Who'd of guessed?
It's only been about a week since Silver arrived. Silver knows this both because the 'Computer' is able to tell time, but also thanks to a clock just above the door... And the alarm clock on the end table, it goes off at 8 AM every day.
Silver, with lots of time on her plate, learns some interesting things. For starters, she was the first living thing to discover this place other than the builders.
And that's the main thing, they DISCOVERED the place, sure they built inside it, but that doesn't mean everything in it was built by them.
As an example, The yellow gods. Apparently, they've been here since before time started in their universe. Or at least, that's what she read.
Also, the builders, as Silver likes to call them, simply because she wants to, and definitely not because she can't pronounce their species' name; built the building she is inside as a sort of bunker, a type of 'if reality starts to break' thing. Along with it being an 'In case they bring someone in here.'
Not that Silver really understood half the words she read, sure she could read, and try to pronounce them all day, but that doesn't mean she can comprehend them.
Especially the space-time stuff they keep talking about, that just goes right over Silver's head, but it's not her fault, It's not like she's in school, where you only need to pay half attention, she WANTS to learn more about this place, about the builders, and the Holy sentinels. (That's what the builders call them.)
Silver had to agree with the name, what with the golden rays of light, that literally burned away that monster.
She also tried to talk to one of the sentinels, but of course, it didn't respond to her at all. So, she's basically stuck here until.
A. The builders return and find her.
Anyway. So how does Silver know she's the only person here, along with the first one to discover it since the builders left? (She'll get to that soon.) Simple! The 'computer' Is connected to all the other ones, and they display how many occupants are active.
And of course, there is only one. Her.
And so, why did they leave? Simple, they got super borde, with the gods not doing anything for the entire duration of their stay here, and not really getting any science out of this place, they just up and left.
HOW they left, Silver was still figuring that out, along with how they got here. But from what Silver could find out, they used some sort of portal. Not like that of the sentinels, but something close.
And so, that's where Silver Spoon is at now. Wake up, eat breakfast, have a shower, maybe a bath, (Oh yeah, she also found a toothbrush luckily.) do some research for a few hours, eat lunch, do some cardio, and go jogging around the catwalks for about an hour. Give a pep talk to the sentinels before continuing on her journey, returning home to take another shower before having dinner and going to sleep.
And that's it, her daily routine thus far.
Luckily, if she ever got lost, which would be a big deal, due to her needing to keep her glasses safe at home, she just asks the catwalk to make a path to her home.
While Silver doesn't NEED her glasses, she still loves them dearly, and losing them to the infinite catwalks, or even worse, breaking them would be catastrophic, both because they are the only ones, but also because she sorta, kinda, just a teeny, tiny, little bit, can't actually see without them at all. Like sure, she could see, it would all just be very hazy.
The same goes for her jewelry, while she loved to look pretty, not that she wasn't without said jewelry on, she just didn't really want to wear it anymore, after all, it's not like anyone was here.
She was happy to find more mane ties, allowing her to keep her signature mane style. But she did keep her original in a safe spot, on top of the nightstand with the rest of her unreplaceable valuables.