“Okay, now lower the tip to the pin. Careful, carrreful—you want the flat edge of the iron’s tip to be what’s touching the pin. Not the tip itself. Don’t forget—”
“Flat edge transfers heat faster, yeah,” she nodded along, moving her hand under the guidance of her mentor. Curls of smoke rose from the pin as she touched it. Even through the safety of her work gloves, she still felt the heat radiating off the device she held.
Just like in those videos she’d watched, the thin, silvery wire she fed in with her other hand melted on contact. A quiet sizzle rose from the point of contact as the metal almost… kinda sucked in to the pin in a way.
She flinched as the sizzling intensified.
“Don’t worry about the smoke, just don’t sniff it. You remember what the flux there does?”
She momentarily turned her gaze to her mentor, expectant eyes peering through her safety goggles, then back to the circuit board in front of her. The solder had already resolidified without the heat of the iron, its shiny molten surface having given way back to a dull sheen. The only remaining evidence of the flux was a little splatter of yellow staining the board.
She shot another glance at her mentor.
“Go on, you’re the one holding the soldering iron.”
“It… makes the metal stick better?” she tilted her head, her voice muffled behind the thick mask covering her face. “Something about surface tension, right? And—” she pulled down her mask with her free hand. “Lisa, can’t we just use the fan thingy to suck away the smoke instead? This mask is making my face all sweaty.”
“Close enough, and no can do,” Lisa chuckled, reaching beside her and flicking on a switch. A dull whine rose from the boxy fan sitting in front of her. “But thanks for reminding me about the fume extractor anyway. Between that and the mask, now you’ll be extra safe from the fumes!”
She shot an unamused glare back at her mentor.
Lisa pulled her stool closer to the workbench. “Listen. Zoey. If you get yourself hurt in any way here, there’s a good chance your parents won’t let you come around anymore. They were already pretty iffy about me when they found out about my hobby, so the safer you are, the better. They nearly had my head last time over that blister you had on your finger.”
Zoey lowered her head, turning her attention back to the partially-soldered circuit board on the bench.
“I’ll try and find some lighter masks for you next time. Promise. Careful now—” Lisa’s hand hovered over her own again, guiding it downward. “Try not to wave around the iron too much. Not only is it sharp, but it’s pretty burny too. You already know what I’m getting at.”
Right. Blister. That was also the moment she learned it was probably a good idea to tie her hair into a bun when working with hot stuff instead of her favorite ‘roostertail’ style.
But… yeah. No touching burny hot things, and no letting those things touch her hair either.
She placed the iron back in its metal stand, extracting her hands from the work gloves and shaking them out in the air.
“Sweaty hands?”
“Yeah.”
“Want to watch me solder a few pins before you try again?”
Zoey’s gaze fell again to the board in front of her. Then, up to her mentor.
“…Yeah.”
“Alright,” Lisa pulled the iron in its stand closer to herself. She gestured for the board. “Alright, since I’m the one working now, what’s the first thing I should do when soldering down bigger things?” She shot a cocky grin. “Pretend you’re teaching me this time.”
Zoey slid the board over, her brows already furrowing in thought. “You… touch the tip to the pin, right?”
“’Dunno, teach,” Lisa poked the board with a finger. “You’re the expert right now. Don’t ask me.”
“Okay then,” Zoey blew a raspberry. “Touch the tip to the pin. The wider side since you’re using the knife tip with a big pin.”
Lisa did exactly that. Then stared back at her, iron still contacting the pin protruding from the other side of the board.
“And then… feed the solder wi—wait no, flux!” Zoey grabbed a pasty-yellow syringe and passed it over. “Take off the iron from the pin and squirt a little bit of flux paste across the pins you wanna solder.”
“Alright, that’s done,” Lisa set the syringe aside. She was fast at squeezing out the paste!
“And then next, you get the solder wire, and you hold it near the pin and the iron.”
“Done.”
“After that,” Zoey mimicked the movements with her hands. Her eyes shifted for a moment to the tip of the iron in Lisa’s hand before returning to Lisa herself. “After that, because we’re using a knife-style tip, you want to press the flat edge against the pin. That way, more heat can transfer faster.”
“Good,” Lisa followed the instruction. “And nice work on explaining why, too!”
Zoey grinned underneath her mask. “Okay, and now, push the solder wire into the part of the pin that’s touching the iron tip. And make sure that you feed enough in that it makes a nice cone around the pin after it melts, too.”
“And that’s it!” Lisa soldered the pin in place before replacing the iron on its stand. “Though, since we’re using the rosin-core solder wire, we don’t really need any additional flux in this scenario. Kind of the point of using rosin-cored stuff. Anyway, you try doing it yourself now. I won’t say anything this time, ‘kay?”
Zoey nodded, closing her eyes for a moment and drawing in a breath.
It’s just soldering.
She’d watched Lisa do it so many times before, and beyond that, she’d watched plenty of videos online as well. She knew how it worked. She knew the basic process. Heck, she’d even just pretend-taught Lisa how to do it!
She could do this.
She opened her eyes and reached for the iron, simultaneously pulling the circuit board back over. From the corner of her eyes, she spotted Lisa adjust the iron temperature.
“Don’t mind me, noticed that it was a little low. Maybe that’s why you were having trouble earlier.”
Focus.
She lowered the iron’s tip to the next pin over. That same sizzling from before returned as the remaining flux from earlier melted and boiled. The iron teetered a little as she adjusted her grip.
She pulled the length of solder wire over.
Control is everything.
Well, heat too, but Lisa was controlling that for her already.
Control is everything, she mentally repeated. She touched the solder wire to the thin crevice between the pin and the edge of the iron, feeding it in until it looked like a decently big cone of metal had formed around the pin.
She shifted to the next pin over after that and repeated the process. And the one after that, too.
“Looks like you’ve found your groove,” her mentor chuckled. “If you’re feeling brave, I’ve got some surface-mount boards sitting around that you can practice with as well. Gotta have a very steady hand to work with some of those without screwing something up with the tweezers.”
“I know. I do,” Zoey finished the final pin on the board, holding the completed work up to the shop light. “How’s this look by the way?”
She set the iron back on the stand and stretched, letting out a quiet squeak as she did so.
“A little too much solder on some of the pins, but nothing shorting given these big through-hole stuff,” Lisa hovered over her shoulder. She reached over again, flicking off the power to the iron. “Textbook work aside from that, though. Definitely better than the blob of conductive glue you showed me when you said you wanted to build a robot like the ones you saw on TV.”
Lisa’s voice retreated a little as her footsteps thumped against the concrete floor. “You wanna try your hand at surface-mount stuff tonight?”
“Mmmmmnah.”
A screech marked Lisa’s return to her stool. “Fair enough. It’s getting pretty late anyway. You know when your parents are coming to pick you up?”
“I think… six, if I remember correctly?” Zoey turned in her seat, tracing her mentor’s gaze to the garage window.
Lisa hummed. “Well, if you need to stay the night again, I’ve already got some spare blankets and stuff set up from last time in my room.” She blinked, a grin spreading across her face. “Actually, you know how I liked to spend my evenings when I was your age?”
“Hm?”
“Ice cream,” Lisa’s grin grew wider. “Especially on summer nights like tonight! A nice bowl of ice cream and some movie or show or something to watch. You remember that one ice cream place we went to a few weeks back? The uh—” she twirled her hand in thought. “The one where they have the weird flavor combos and stuff. Chocolate syrup on—”
“Grape ice cream!” Zoey cut in. She tore off her mask. “Oh yeah, I definitely remember that place. Are they even open this late?”
“Mmm, probably not, actually. We’ve got some in the freezer though if you wanna grab something from there,” Lisa stepped around her to the bulky chest freezer against the wall. “Come pick something for yourself. With how often you’re over, you’re practically my little sister at this point. It’s only fair that I spoil you like one. Actually, speaking of siblings—” she pulled back, leaving the freezer door open. “Yeah, find something for yourself real quick. I’m gonna go ask Caleb if he wants anything as well.”
She dashed for the garage door and flung it open.
“Oh hey, Lis,” Caleb’s voice responded to the sudden intrusion. “Was about to ask if you two were done yet.”
“Yeah, just finished. I was gonna ask you if you and your friends wanted any ice cream with your little party down in the basement. How smelly is it getting down there with the three of you?”
Zoey rummaged through the freezer, pushing aside frozen burritos and waffles until the sedimentary layer of ice cream bars met her eye. It didn’t look like there were any tubs of ice cream though, nor were there any other flavors.
She took one of the cream-orange-colored bars. Lisa was still talking to Caleb about something, so she’d might as well grab one for her as well since there was only one kind.
“Get one for my brother too,” Lisa stuck her head back in the garage. “He said his friends don’t want any.”
Three orange cream bars it is!”
She shut the freezer door, following Lisa into the house. “I got the ice cream!” she held out a pair of bars out in front of her. “I didn’t see any other flavors so I just got orange for everyone.”
“Sweet, thanks,” Caleb took one of them. “And uh…” he let out a small chuckle. “I think I know what happened to the rest of the ice cream.”
“Goober squad down in the basement devoured it all the day before,” Lisa began unwrapping her own ice cream bar. “That’s my guess.”
“…Yeah.”
“Called it.”
A dull shudder ran through the house. Nothing very big, but definitely noticeable enough to make a few tools in the garage rattle against the wall.
Lisa’s eyes shifted to the stairwell going down to the basement. Then back to her brother.
“You two stay here. I’ll send your friends up and check the basement.” She handed Zoey her freshly unwrapped ice cream. “It’s gonna suck real bad if The Big One decides that today is when it’s finally hitting.”
Zoey watched Lisa descend the stairs. Maybe there was another earthquake happening. Or maybe one of Lisa’s things in storage went pop for some reason. Though, she didn’t really keep much if anything in the basement as far as she remembered, and the only thing that Lisa did put down there that could possibly go pop were batteries.
She bristled at the thought. In that case…
She pushed the idea from her mind. There weren’t any fire alarms going off, so it probably wasn’t batteries.
Probably.
“We should probably head outside,” Caleb interrupted her thoughts. “I wouldn’t want anything falling on my head if it really does turn out to be The Big One that everyone keeps saying is coming in the next ten years for the last fifty years. Even if it’s not an earthquake, Lis will take care of it. She always does.”
Zoey pulled open the garage door. “Y-yeah.”
Lisa will take care of it.
She eyed the swaying tools hanging on the wall as they exited. Even here in the garage, the house seemed to sway with whatever was happening underneath. It was really starting to point towards an earthquake…
“Zoey, c’mon,” Caleb’s voice cut through the fog again. She shot one more cautious glance at the closed door behind them before following.
Hopefully it wasn’t too bad. Maybe after the shaking, Lisa found a crack in a wall or something and wanted to inspect it. There was a good chance Caleb’s friends would join in on that too, even if they didn’t really know what they were even looking at.
“You think they’ll be alright?” she joined Caleb on the concrete.
“Hopefully.”
Her attention lingered on him for a little longer before returning to the house they stood before.
Caleb was scared, too.
The two jumped at a heavy boom as it echoed out from somewhere inside the structure. The entire house groaned in response.
“Alright, I’m calling emergency services,” Caleb reached for his pocket. “Zoey, you stay here. I’m not sure how long it’s gonna take for Lisa to come back out, so I’m in charge of you for now, ‘kay? For all I know, based on the sound, this might be a gas leak.”
He motioned for her to back away even further, grimacing as another shudder rocked the pavement, this one far stronger than before. He dialed a number, holding the phone up to his ear.
“Get away!” a muffled voice rose from somewhere inside. Zoey’s eyes lit up as Lisa emerged, coughing and covered in some kind of dust. “Go! It’s not safe to be near here!”
She shooed them away. “Caleb, when you’re done, call mom and dad! Zoey, I need you to get in touch with your own parents as well. Now.”
“What about my friends?” Caleb shouted back.
“I’m working on it.”
“Bu—”
“Don’t let anyone come close. Got it? Not the neighbors, not Zoey, and especially not yourself.”
“I—”
“I’ll be back. I promise.”
Caleb’s frown deepened as he turned his attention to the emergency operator on the phone. Lisa slipped back inside.
Hushed voices whispered amongst themselves behind her. Zoey looked over her shoulder, peering at the gathering neighbors in the street. They must’ve heard the boom from earlier, whatever that was.
Sirens wailed in the distance.
Zoey stared back at the house.
It groaned again, creaking like a derelict ship left to rot on a beach.
She looked to Caleb again. He was still on the phone, his eyes looking increasingly frantic even as no words left his mouth.
“Where’s Lisa?” a voice behind her asked.
She turned, golden-brown eyes meeting her own.
She shifted her gaze back to the unstable structure in front of them.
“You can’t be serious,” the girl jogged over to Caleb. “What the heck is happening? Is your sister still in there?”
Caleb pulled his phone aside for a moment, covering the microphone with his hand. “Emily, now’s not the time. Lisa’s trying to ge—”
“Oh it absolutely is the time. You think I’m letting the friend I’ve known for almost as long as you’ve existed hang around in there?”
“Seriously, Emi, Lisa said not to let anyone get close.”
“And you’re just gonna let that be the end-all be-all?” Emily stepped back. “Cay, that’s your sister in there! Shouldn’t you at least try to help?”
“I am!” Caleb choked, bringing his phone closer again. “I’m trying! She told me to not let anyone go in!”
Emily stared at the house. Then shot a glare at Caleb.
“I’m going in.”
“Seriously, don—”
Another boom rose from the house. The lights glowing behind the windows flickered in response.
Zoey kept her eyes glued on the garage door.
Another flicker.
Lisa was gonna come out any second now. And she’d have all of Caleb’s friends with her, and then the firefighters or whoever Caleb was calling would come and make sure that the gas leak was all fixed before anything else could happen. There wasn’t any smoke after all, and even the power was still on! So that meant that nothing terrible had happened yet.
And then, after everything was done, Lisa’s mom and dad would come back from work, and her own mom and dad would stop by to pick her up and bring her home, and nothing would be wrong anymore.
That’s how things were supposed to work, right?
Right?
The lights flickered again.
A slow, rolling crackle tore through the air. The sides of the building teetered inward ever so slightly, as if some invisible giant had begun crushing it in on itself.
Please, let Lisa be—
The door slammed open, the thud as it hit the basement door behind it pulling her from her thoughts.
“Lisa!” Emily took off. “Thank goodness you’re safe! I’m pretty sure the whole neighborhood is closing in… on…”
Her steps slowed to a tentative shuffle. “…Lisa?”
The corridor was empty.
The doorframe let out a final groan before bucking, tearing itself hinge by hinge from the door it once retained.
“…Lisa?” Emily stepped a little deeper into the garage.
The door creaked back most of the way on its one remaining hinge before getting caught on the sagging ceiling.
“There’s firefighters and ambulances coming,” Caleb finally lowered his phone. “Emi, don’t go any closer. Please. You know my sister wouldn’t want anyone else getting hurt.”
A muffled thumping drew their eyes back to the door. Or at least, what was left of it, held in place purely by the pressure of the ceiling weighing down on it.
The door burst open after a heavier thump to reveal a panting Lisa.
Tears streamed down her face.
Her lips spoke for her where her voice had faltered.
“I couldn’t save them.”
She stumbled down the few steps between the doorway and the garage, coughing weakly as she supported her steps with the work tables she passed. Emily supported her the rest of the way. “Caleb… I’m so, so sorry. I—”
Caleb rushed past, wrapping his arms around her in a tear-stricken embrace. Zoey joined in after him, quiet sobs rising from herself to join the bawling of the boy beside her.
“Save them from what?” Emily’s voice cut through their cries. They kept moving through the commotion. “Are any of them trapped under something? The whole house looks like it’s about to fall in on itself.”
Zoey peeled away from her mentor, partly to avoid blocking the way. The crowd of people surrounding them had certainly grown in size by now.
“The darkness.”
“The darkness,” Emily repeated. She ushered her friend to sit. “Is there any more specific way you can describe it?”
The house shuddered in front of them again—violently enough this time that several tools clattered to the floor in the garage.
The sirens drew closer as the lights flickered one final time before going out for good.
“It’s happening again,” Lisa muttered under her breath. “It was almost up to the main floor when I got out.”
“What is happening again?” Emily pressed. She squat down to Lisa. “C’mon, you’re always the one using the big fancy jargon words between the two of us. Spit it out.”
“The darkness!” Lisa repeated. “How else can I put it? It’s this… this mass of darkness. Like a hole, but hanging mid-air. And the cracks—”
As if on cue, a ray of black shot past them. It hung in the air, thickening for a few seconds as if it were a blotch of ink bleeding into paper. Lingering for a handful more before shrinking away into nothingness.
Zoey’s eyes shot to the source.
The house.
She watched Emily trace the same path with her own gaze before turning her focus back to Lisa.
“What was that?”
“You think I know?!” Lisa tore away from her friend. “Those things shot off from the hole that swallowed my little brother’s friends! All I know is that they look like cracks in the air itself. Do you think I’d even dare to touch them?”
Emily sighed, her face remaining fixed in a furrowed mix of frustration and confusion.
“Nevermind.”
Another tendril rocketed past, taking a sharp turn and shooting up above their heads.
Zoey gasped, hiding away behind her mentor. She slowly pulled away again, staring at the jagged, inky-black beam hanging in the air above them.
“Lisa, I’m scared.”
“There’s nobody left to save,” Lisa said through gritted teeth. She pushed herself off the ground. “All we can do is keep everyone else here at a safe distance. We’ll get out of this.”
She stepped past Emily. “Figure out what’s happening from a safe dist—ack!”
Zoey stumbled, eyes wide with horror as her gaze latched onto the widening strip of darkness Lisa was now ensnared in.
“Fu—” Lisa seethed, pulling on the leg sunken into the darkness. “No, no, no, it’s not coming out!”
“Lisa…” Zoey muttered weakly.
Lisa craned her head as much as she could in her current position.
Zoey’s gaze drifted downward. To that same inky darkness that surrounded her own feet.
“Lisa, I can’t feel my feet.”
Caleb grabbed Lisa by the arms, tugging as hard as he could. He glanced down at the encroaching darkness and adjusted his footing. “C’mon, Lis,” his erratic voice came out in a near-laugh. “We gotta go now! You said so yourself!”
Zoey winced as a sudden pain shot through what remained of her legs. She looked up at Emily, whose arms hooked around her own. “You too, Zoey. Your parents would kill Lisa if she let you d—”
“We are not going to die!” Lisa snapped back.
“You’re lying,” Zoey wheezed, her breaths growing shallower. “I can hear it in your voice.”
She glanced downward. The darkness was up to her knees now, rising just a little bit more with every failed tug from Emily. Or rather, she descended down a little bit more with each failed tug. From the corner of her eye, she saw the crowds of people that’d come to watch approach.
Maybe to help.
Hopefully to help.
“Stay back!” Lisa shouted. “Stand back, and get as far as you can from here until this is over. I don’t want anyone else to be caught in this.”
She stared directly into her brother’s eyes. “You too. I’m sorry, Caleb. Emi. Please. Run.”
Zoey felt Lisa grab her hand, a determined look on her face.
The last thing she felt was Lisa dragging that hand downward, dunking the two into the darkness against her brother’s anguished screams.
Author's Note
It sure has been a ride and a half to get to this point.
Ten years. Roughly. A little more than that if you wanna go all the way back, a little less than that if you wanna go by account creation date.
Fractures is the cumulation of all of the little things I've picked up over the years writing fanfic. Not just the technical things like how to better distinguish character voices (something I've worked QUITE a bit on thanks to previous fics often having very same-y vocal styles between characters), but also actual bits and pieces of things I've found that I like to write about.
Fractures is not only titled what it is for the events that set the story in motion, but also because, in a sense, it really is bringing together fragments of other fics as a single whole. The characters, especially--Zoey and Caleb draw their roots all the way back to 2014, when they first appeared in a handwritten, script-formatted garbagefire I called "Wielder of the Orb". At the time, I was trying to use that script to hijack my middle school's play and insert myself as the main character, Sammy.
Probably was for the best that that never ended up happening.
Lisa, at least the version portrayed here, draws vaguely from how she was written in my old Pony-Me™ fic. Not quite as aloof or clueless anymore, but still rather similar personality-wise.
Even Emily is there! She's from Splintershard :)
But yeah. This is very much a (transformed) Human in Equestria story. Despite being a fanfic, I've got plans in the works that'll likely veer quite a ways away from following canon. This ain't gonna be one of those "oh hey I'm a character from the show, time to follow the show's events" fics, I know that at the very least.
Zoey/Gadget will receive plenty of hugs. I think. Probably.
That's about it for what I've got in mind for this little author's note blurb. I hope you enjoy the fic so far!
To new tomorrows. /)
Stars.
So, so many stars.
An unbelievable number of stars.
More stars than she could even begin to count.
Were… were some of them moving?
She slowly blinked, tired eyes shifting from the dots of light all around them to…
Lisa.
Lisa was carrying her. Through… wherever they were.
Lisa will take care of it.
Lisa will take care of her.
She drifted back to unconsciousness with the rhythm of her mentor’s footsteps.
“Zoey.”
Something fuzzy nudged at her side.
“Zoey.”
Zoey groaned, rolling over onto her back. She batted away whatever it was that was prodding at her.
“Zoey, wake up.”
Wait, that was Lisa’s voice!
Zoey shot up with a heave, final glimpses of a star-studded expanse giving way to a midnight landscape. Also star-studded.
Also, a horse. Pony… Thing?
The purple horse poked her again, speaking with Lisa’s voice. “Zoey, Earth to Zoey.”
Wait.
That was Lisa’s voice.
“…Lisa?” Zoey slowly rose to her…
Hooves.
She teetered back to her haunches.
“As Lisa as I can be at the moment I guess,” Lisa-pony did what kinda looked like a shrug but as a horse thing. Actually wait, was that a horn on her head? Was Lisa a freakin’ unicorn?
“Take your time, I freaked out when all my people things became horse things too,” Lisa sat down beside her in the grass. “And for what it’s worth, you’re a unicorn too by the way. I see exactly where you’re staring.”
Oh. Okay.
“Smurf horse.”
“Hey—” Zoey scowled at the sudden new nickname. “Where’d that come from?”
“You’re blonde now and you’re a fuzzy blue furball of a filly.”
“Oh.”
“And if you’re gonna ask me how I’m taking this so well, then I’ll say that this is wonderful compared to when I was thinking that I was putting the both of us out of our misery!”
“Wait so you were lying then!” Zoey pointed a hoof at her mentor. “You said that we weren’t gonna die, and then you dunked us both into this place!”
Lisa cringed. “Yeahhhh, not exactly a great call in hindsight I guess. We’re alive though, and that’s that. Just…” she hoofed at the ground. “Have to deal with this now instead.”
“How long were you awake for before me?” Zoey climbed back to her hooves again, teetering a little before steadying herself. “You said you already had your own freak-out earlier.”
“Mmmacouplahours,” Lisa tilted her head. “I took some time to look around a bit as well. A good chunk of the house came here with us if you wanna come check it out. It’s got the whole basement and most of the first floor, and a lot of the foundation and whatever else there was underneath.”
Her eyes drifted downward. “I… didn’t see any of Caleb’s friends though. It’s a bit hard to check inside since much of the place is actively crumbling. But I don’t have much hope for finding them.”
“Oh…”
Lisa fidgeted with the dirt mound she’d accumulated in front of her. “For now, I think our top priority is finding a place to stay. We’ve got some food for now from the cans and stuff that I collected from the rubble mound. Should last about a week, I think. There’s a small town not far from here as well. I spotted lights in the distance when I was checking around for the boys.”
She stood up. “Anyway, we should pick out whatever we want to bring with us first before we go. I’ve got those cans I mentioned stacked up in an old wagon I used to use for carting around my scrapheaps, but there’s still plenty of space for more… actually, hold on a moment—here, come with me.”
Zoey lifted a brow as Lisa took off. She clambered to her hooves, teetering as she sought her balance mid…run? Trot? Was she trotting since she was a little unicorn now? Or was she just running?
Either way, something must’ve clicked, ‘cause she sure as heck wasn’t falling over anymore.
She stopped beside Lisa, staring up at the looming wreckage that was once part of a house. There was an unnatural smoothness to the ground that the remaining structure stood atop. Like someone had taken an ice-cream scoop and carved out a nice big dirtball and dumped the house on top as a topping.
…Probably shouldn’t be thinking about the ice cream she missed out on right now.
“Woah.”
“Yup,” Lisa nudged the wagon in front of her. “Home sweet home. Or what’s left of it. There’s still a few cans scattered around, but they’re pretty hard to pick up since we don’t exactly have hands anymore. Have you ever tasted the label on canned corn before?”
Zoey blinked. “…No?”
She watched her mentor walk over to another stray can and dunk her head down. She stared back, now with the can gripped tightly in her muzzle. “Well ash oth tonighth, I dethinithly hathe!”
Lisa spat the can out onto the wagon. “And before you say anything, yes, I know it’s dirty. But it’s either this or starve if we can’t get some food and shelter in that town I saw, so I think I’ll risk a stomach bug or two in the meantime,”
Zoey’s gaze shifted to the surrounding grass.
“I am not eating grass,” Lisa tapped the cans piled into the wagon. “…Yet. Let me savor the last dregs of my dwindling humanity before I start ponymoding.”
“Byyyyy eating refried beans straight out of the can?” Zoey peered at the loose cans sitting in the wagon.
“By eating refried beans straight out of the can.”
Zoey turned her attention to the surrounding debris as Lisa continued her quest for canned food. Much of what littered the ground around them was expectedly just rubble from the house, though just like with the cans and stuff, there were a number of other things that fell out from places.
A little blotch of dull yellow under the moonlight caught her eye.
“Ooh,” she muttered to herself. She scampered up a sagging part of the land-ball that was the sagging structure, grunting as she pulled herself up and over the larger chunks of rubble that’d fallen in the way. There was some other stuff on top of the yellow thing, but even from afar and in the shadows, it was still plenty noticeable against the greys and browns of everything else that’d fallen around it.
Her steps slowed as she approached. A hint of blue peeked out from just behind the yellow now that she had a better view.
It was her old plushie she used to bring to Lisa’s place. One that she lost somewhere ages ago and kinda sorta forgot about since then.
One that looked just like she did now.
She sat down in front of the stuffed animal, staring into its glassy eyes.
Same light blue coat.
Same dirty-yellow mane. Just not tied into the same hairstyle as her own.
“Gadget,” that old name escaped her lips. It’d been a long, long time since she’d thought of this little pony.
And now, here she was, looking just like a plushie she got some… what? Three? Four years ago? She was pretty sure it was four.
It was also squished under some hunk of a wall or whatever.
“Zoey!” Lisa’s voice echoed up from below. “You find anything up there?”
“Yeah, one sec!” Zoey stepped closer to her plushie, hoofing at the crumbling drywall keeping it in place. She frowned at her current lack of opposable thumbs, or any fingers at all for that matter.
She opened her mouth and carefully bit into a leg of her plushie. She gave a tentative tug. The entire stuffed animal shifted a little under the weight of the drywall.
Another tug. She cringed a little at the feeling of some seams snapping that time.
She stepped back a little, angling herself for a better grip now that about half the plushie was sticking out from the rubble. How did dogs and cats pick up their babies? By… she bit into the scruff of the toy’s neck, pulling a little harder this time now that she had it by a thicker part of its body.
Still stuck a little.
“Zoey?” Lisa’s foot…hoofsteps? Approached. “Zoey, you need help with something?”
Zoey planted her hooves firmly in the debris beneath her and gave one final yank. The chunk of drywall clattered down to fill the gap the moment she tumbled backward.
“Got it!” she scrambled back to her hooves, searching around for the plushie she’d inadvertently sent flying. She picked it up again, running down to meet up.
“Oh neat, you found Gadget?” Lisa stopped midway up. “Where was she?”
“Yufh!” Zoey dropped her plushie in front of her. “I have no idea, but she was squished under a wall over there when I found her.”
“I’m… guessing you want to bring it with us.”
“Yeah.”
Lisa looked over her shoulder, back down to that little wagon of stuff she’d scavenged.
“Alright. Just try not to lose her again, ‘kay? I think we’ve got enough food collected now to last until we get to town. We can figure things out from there.”
Zoey nodded, snatching Gadget from the ground. She caught up to Lisa, nearly tripping over her own hooves as they descended the heap of rubble. “How long do you fink we will vee stuck in dis flace?”
“Don’t know. Maybe a few days. Maybe a few months.” A snort rose from her as they reached the wagon. “Heck, maybe we’ll be here for the rest of our lives.”
She kicked at a length of tie-down strap. “Mind helping me get this on by the way? I am not pulling an entire wagon full of canned food by my teeth.”
The rest of their lives.
Zoey lowered her gaze to her hooves.
This was absolutely not the body she wanted to grow up in.
She placed Gadget in the wagon and bent down, taking one side of the tie-down strap in her mouth. She nearly gagged at the taste of nylon and dirt, pausing for a moment to spit out the grossness. Lisa probably went through all of this already while she was still knocked out.
Whatever. The sooner she could hopefully find a way to not need to grab everything with her mouth, the better. She picked up the strap again, paying close attention to not lick it as she pulled it over Lisa’s back.
“Wait wait,” Lisa turned her head. “I’ve got another idea. Let’s try and make like, a harness out of it. Something that can slip over my head so that we don’t have to tighten and untighten it all the time.”
She craned her neck, grabbing part of the strap with her teeth. “Okay, I’m holding this part down for you. Try and make a loose knot with the rest of it. Kinda like a lasso, I think. Do you know your knots?”
“Nope,” Zoey looped the strap over itself.
“Well. Uh, neither do I in that case. Maybe just double-knot it like you would for shoelaces for now. I’ll…” Lisa scanned their surroundings. “I’ll see if I can find a board or something as a spacer so that I don’t choke myself.”
Zoey looped the strap again, pulling the second knot tight against Lisa’s own tugging. The other part was a lot harder to do without fingers—tying it to the wagon’s handle. It was weird trying to get it tied. Like, she looped it around the shaft of the handle a few times, the hard part was trying to get it back through the loop afterwards. Best she could do was leave a big loop dangling underneath so that she could toss the end through. It wasted a good chunk of the strap’s length, but it’d do for now. Maybe. Hopefully.
“That good enough?”
Lisa stepped forward a little. The wagon followed, bumping up against her hind legs when she stopped.
“Yeah.”
She tugged at the strap a little with the tip of her hoof. “Anyway. I think we should probably get going now.”
Zoey took one final look at the looming structure above them. The remains of the house creaked in the wind, as if threatening to further collapse at even the lightest touch. Aside from the food, there really wasn’t much else they could safely scavenge from the site. Lisa apparently picked up a pillow and a couple of small blankets at some point, so at least they had a more comfortable way to sleep once the time came for it.
Her eyes turned to Gadget, who laid atop the bed of cans filling the rest of the wagon.
When would she see her mom and dad again? Or her friends at school? It’d hardly been… what, an hour or so? And she already missed her hands.
Still. There wasn’t anything she could do about it. Figuring out what the heck happened in the first place wasn’t even their top priority right now. That spot went to surviving.
“You think we’ll make it to town by morning?” she scampered up beside Lisa. “What if they’re suspicious of us and don’t take us in?”
“That’s what we’ve got the cans for,” Lisa kept walking. “If this town doesn’t accept us, then we’ll just go to the next one, or the one after that, and so on and so forth until we find a place to stay in the meantime.”
“And then we can start thinking about how to get back.”
“And then we think about how to get back,” Lisa nodded. “We’ll figure it out from there.”
Caleb stared at the murky streak of void that’d swallowed his sister.
Stared at the place where, just seconds before, she’d been standing with Zoey.
His sister was gone.
Like, gone gone.
He lowered his eyes to his still-trembling hands.
“Caleb, I—” he felt Emily’s hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry you had to see that.”
“They’re still out there,” he muttered under his breath. “I know they’re still there. Everyone that this… this thing has eaten. My sister, my friends—until I see their bones,” he wrenched himself free from her grip. “I’m not gonna say they’re dead.”
He stormed off toward the house. Or at least, what was still visible of it.
“Caleb, where are you going?”
“To find my sister and my friends, that’s what,” he stopped in front of the rippling blob of darkness. “Tell my mom and dad that I went in after Lisa.”
“Cale—”
He clenched his eyes shut.
Emily’s voice faded into nothingness the moment he stepped into the void.
“Well hello to you too,” a new voice echoed from somewhere in the darkness. It sounded like a girl’s voice, though with how hushed and hoarse it was he couldn’t be completely sure. It was definitely not Lisa’s, and he was pretty sure it wasn’t Zoey’s. He tried not to think about it in the meantime. He wasn’t one to believe in ghosts, and now was not the time to start hallucinating voices in the dark.
Not to mention that Lisa would never leave Zoey in a place like this.
He kept walking. Somehow. To say it was weird walking into an endless expanse of black like this was an understatement.
He opened his eyes, steps slowing a little as countless dots of light entered his vision all around him. The ‘ground’ beneath him was as smooth as it was featureless. Like walking on perfectly flat obsidian. He couldn’t tell if the lights below him were simply reflections or if they were their own individual points.
“Not gonna say anything?” the disembodied voice asked. “You and the others that came through here are interesting. There was this huge boom, and then a pair of holes tore open! I couldn’t reach the first two groups in time before they went out the other side, but now with you here, I—”
Others. That had to mean Lisa, and his friends, too! He quickened his steps, searching for something among the lights. There had to be a way out of here.
“Mmm, can’t hear me. Alright then,” the voice hummed. “I’ll be here still if anyone finds a way in again. Like I always am…”
He did feel a little bad after that part for ignoring the voice.
Still. Priority number one now that he knew that it was possible to survive going through that thing was finding his sister. Maybe if they all had to pass back through here to get home, he’d stop and say hi to whoever else was here.
A glimmer caught his eye. Like a pinhole poked in a box. It wasn’t quite like the other points of light around him—this one was smaller. Dimmer.
He slowed his steps, gaze fixed on the new dot.
“Same direction as the others I see,” the voice hummed. “See ya ‘round, I guess. Maybe.”
That was definitely where his sister went then. Nobody else besides her, Zoey, and his friends were swallowed by the darkness.
He broke into a sprint, muted taps against the glassy floor ringing in his ears. The lights around him flew by in clusters with every thud of his shoes. Under different circumstances, this would’ve been so cool to just sit and watch the scenery.
Now was not that time.
“Almost there. You’d better hurry, some of these things have been closing up on their own. Should’ve seen what it was like when these first opened up. There was just this huge boom like I said—like someone shot a cannon or something—and then these crazy lines flew out like lightning all over the place and started shredding up the void! Like, it was the first time in ages that I’d seen light in here that wasn’t just from one of these little orb thingies or the weird grass and stuff that sometimes grows—”
Almost there.
Almost there.
There.
He stopped in front of the dim hole.
It was quite a bit bigger up close than he’d expected.
“There you go, now go find your friends,” the voice echoed again. “If I could, I would’ve gone with you. Who am I kidding, I’m just talking to myself, aren’t I? Man. And I got myself all worked up over this too.”
He turned his head. Now that he was here, maybe he’d give a little attention to whoever it was in here with him.
He waited for the voice.
Nothing came. If anything, it sounded like there were footsteps running away from him.
“Hello?” he called into the darkness. “You still there?”
No response.
He glanced back to the hole—that sounded weird to think about—the portal in front of him. Whatever lay beyond it was where his sister and everyone else went. At least, that was if the voice from earlier was to be believed.
Caleb stepped back, inspecting his surroundings. The voice said there were multiple portals around here, and that some of them had already closed up on their own. At least from where he stood here, none of those other ones appeared visible.
He refocused on the portal in front of him.
Hopefully, this one was the right one.
He placed a hand against what semblance of a surface it had. Just like before, it sunk in with minimal effort.
Just like before, he couldn’t pull it back out.
He took a breath, clenching his eyes shut once more and stepping in.
“Oi,” something nudged him in the side.
“Y’sure he’s alive?” another voice opposite the first asked. “He’s been laying face-down in the mud for who-knows-how-long. Between that and this weird uh—wreck he’s laying next to—"
Caleb gasped awake, lifting his face from the ground.
“And there’s your answer,” the first voice quipped.
Caleb looked up as a dark silhouette filled his groggy eyes. Since when was it so bright? It was almost midnight when he’d stepped in!
“Hey little buddy,” a… face entered his vision. It was a little too hard to tell at the moment what kind of face he was looking at. Big cat, maybe? It didn’t look quite human regardless.
He rubbed his eyes as he sat up.
“Woah woah woah, hold on a minute,” the second voice began again. “This kid’s the spitting image of Spike. Get him to the medbay, Flintlock. I’ll let the higher-ups know about this.”
“On it,” the first voice—Flintlock—drew closer.
“Gwhuh?” Caleb blinked.
“What’s the last thing you remember, kid?” a… hoof pat him on the shoulder. “What happened to Twilight?”
He brushed away the hoof. “What are you talking about? Where am I?”
“Nowhere,” the voice coughed. “—Sir. We’ll bring ya somewhere safe in the meantime. I think you already heard my name from my friend back there.”
Sir?
Caleb swung around to come face to face with a grey stallion.
His vision drifted upward.
“Something funny on my helmet?” the stallion lowered his head.
“Waaaaait wait wait wait wait,” Caleb scooted away. “You can talk?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” the stallion held out a hoof. “Come. We’ll get you someplace to rest while we figure things out. A lot has happened recently, and it seems you and the Princess have been caught in the middle of it.”
Princess? What?
He placed a hand on the stallion’s hoof, pulling himself up.
Something wasn’t right. As if that wasn’t obvious already. He retracted his hand, staring at the scaly purple surface.
“Follow. We’ll getcha full checkup done. Might take a little longer than usual since we’ve had to resort to alternative measures in the meantime, but feel free to help us out if you’re feeling well enough. The sooner we’re done the better.”
Caleb pushed the thoughts on his new bodily features aside, running after the stallion. “Alright, catch me up. What the fu—”
“Magic’s gone,” the stallion cut him off. “The unicorns can’t do anything, the pegasi can’t fly, and me?” he stopped, holding up a hoof again. “I honestly don’t know what I’ve lost. Hooves feel tingly and that’s about it. And I think you already know the other major event that brought our little camp out here.”
He spun back around, stumbling over some loose rubble. “Matter of fact is that whatever Blueblood ordered the Canterlot Lab of Magical Research to do, they screwed it up big time. Anything more specific than that—” he grunted as he flung open the flaps of a tent for Caleb to enter. “—is classified beyond what I’m allowed to see. Hop on that cot for me, wouldya? I’ll get the doctor in.”
Caleb climbed onto the cot. Emphasis on climbed. It seemed like everything here was built for these talking horses, and not so much something…
His eyes fell again to his scaly hands.
Then to the mirror sitting to the side.
It was a little hard to see himself in full at the angle he sat at, but that was very definitely not him in the mirror.
He lifted a hand to one of the bright green flaps that apparently now sat in place of his ears.
Leathery.
Same went for the ridges that ran from his head down to the tail that he only now noticed.
He was some kind of reptile for sure. Nothing like any of the ones he’d read about at school though. The shape of this body was far more similar to a human than anything else he could think of.
“Spike?” another stallion poked his head into the tent. “Ah, there you are! Heard they found you in a ditch, yes?”
Caleb gave a slow nod.
“Ahhh, no worries!” the stallion stepped into the tent, the bulky fabric bundle strapped to his back teetering as he entered. He swung his body to the side, letting the bundle tip and fall to the floor. “I will make sure you are in tip-top shape, sir.”
He hoofed through the contents of his bundle, grumbling something under his breath.
“So,” Caleb swung his legs over the side of the cot. “How come everyone’s calling me ‘Spike’ and ‘sir’?”
“Why would they not?” the stallion set aside a triangle hammer thing. With his mouth. “Your name is Spike, and as an honorary member of the Equestrian Royal Guard for what you did at the Crystal Empire, we call you sir!”
Riiiiiight. Okay. Alright. So this is very much not his body then. Sucks to be whoever this Spike guy is if he’s stuck in the reverse situation then.
“I… think I’m gonna lie down a bit then,” Caleb huffed. “I don’t remember any of that.”
His parents always said not to lie, but in a scenario like this? Playing the part of Spike was probably his best bet to survive. At least until he finds his sister.
Actually, come to think of it, she’d be like him, too, wouldn’t she? Or would she also be a horse? The former would make things much easier since it didn’t seem like anyone else around here was whatever he was.
A mechanical clunk drew his attention back to reality. In front of him now was some sort of contraption that looked vaguely like one of those eye inspection machines at the optometrist’s place.
“Stay still,” the stallion rolled the machine closer. “Taking a look at your eyes. Keep them nice and open for me, yes? Laying face-down in the mud is no way to keep those blinkers clean and healthy.”
Well whaddya know.
He leaned in closer to the machine, letting the stallion peer into his eyes.
“Nothing wrong, no-thing wrong,” he pulled the machine away. “Any bruises? Cuts? Bones jutting out where they should not be?”
“…No?”
“Excellent!” the stallion pulled out that same little triangle hammer before. “Watch my face now, I’m going to stand aside and tap your knees with the hammer. I’m sure you understand what will happen.”
The rest of the checkup came and went uneventfully. Slow at times thanks to the medic stallion stopping to write things down, but otherwise it was a bog-standard thing. A little part of him did want to see how terrible the writing on that notepad was, though. A doctor and writing using a pen in your mouth? That couldn’t have done any good for readability.
“You are in perfect condition my friend,” the stallion dropped the pen from his mouth. “Feel free to leave. Or,” he hopped off his stool and made his way back to his bundle, which by now looked like it’d exploded on the floor. He sheepishly turned back to Caleb. “Help me put things away?”
“Spike,” the stallion from earlier poked his head in. “The brass wants to hear from you. See if you’re the real deal or an imposter. Doctor?” he turned his head.
“Go with Flintlock, the medic horse shooed him off. “I can take care of it myself. You are a very busy dragon, after all.”
Caleb drew a breath.
“I’m not Spike.”
