"I hate this place," Luna managed to sputter from her syrup-covered face. "I hate this place so much."

"I can understand that feeling," Celestia replied with a sour face. Just like her sister, her whole coat and mane were covered in the sticky substance. "At least the gates are open now... Maybe this is required to enter?"

"It's all over my feathers!" Twilight complained, but her mouth fell open as she took another look at Luna and Celestia. "But how..." there wasn't even a trace of the syrup left on them.

"Keep in mind that none of this has any real substance, we only see images of his desires and thoughts." Luna explained. "Forget that the syrup is there, ignore it and it will not be there. Let your belief become stronger than his own."

"Make my belief stronger than his?" Twilight scrunched her face for a moment, but then she closed her eyes and concentrated. "The syrup isn't there, the syrup isn't there..." she continued to chant to herself.

"Good," Celestia suddenly spoke up with a small smile. "You're making progress as always." Twilight opened her eyes in surprise to realize that she was no longer covered in the sticky liquid. "But keep cautious, I have a feeling that we have only scratched the surface up to this point."

"Let us head on in before they get another kettle ready." Luna started to walk through the gates, but came to a halt a short way through. "What in the world..."

"What is it?" Celestia asked as she and Twilight stepped up to Luna, but they too found themselves staring straight ahead in disbelief.

"The peanut butter castle awaits its visitors," Luna spoke softly as she remembered Krieg's words. "Bring your kids along to the parade of orphaned tears," she swallowed. "How terrible..."

In front of the three alicorns, a phantom parade marched through the castle courtyard... a parade of crying and sobbing children.

"Are those..." Twilight watched the parade with a terrified expression.

"Memories of past faces," Celestia commented with a sad voice. "Ghosts... Something terrible must have happened for them to be imprinted into his memories so clearly." She continued to observe the parade as the wails and sobs echoed through the courtyard. "Every face is absolutely defined..."

"What?" Twilight asked confused at her mentor's statement.

"They're phantoms," Luna explained as the ghostly procession continued to walk by them. "When someone you know passes away, a phantom image of that someone remains in your memories." Her face grew sad as she watched the faces of the crying children. "The more the loss of that someone hurts us, the more their existence was important to us... the clearer their memory becomes."

Twilight watched the crying parade, the cries of the children making her heart ache. "So, all of them... are..."

"They are," Celestia replied with deep sadness. "And he chose to carry their memory with him... though I shudder to imagine what terrible thing could have caused this."

"You don't think he..." Twilight's eyes widened in shock.

"No," Luna spoke up. "Memories like that would be very different," she was silent for a moment as she remembered his words. "I can't save the children..." she whispered, and the children started to scream. "Why are you screaming at me? Always screaming... Always screaming at me..." she closed her eyes with a shudder while both Celestia and Twilight listened to her words with silent dread. "How terrible..."

The three alicorns watched in silence, as the screaming and crying parade of orphaned tears marched through the peanut butter castle's courtyard.

The procession continued for a while, and at some point Twilight stopped counting their faces and tried to block out their cries. Even when the parade ended and the last of the children walked past them, she still could not bring herself to look up and after them. It was simply too sad for her to bear.

After the parade had passed, the three alicorns stood in the courtyard for a moment longer; each of them lost in their thoughts and trying to contemplate what they had just witnessed.

It was Luna that broke out of her trance first. "Let us continue. We came here for a reason." The other two could only nod as they solemnly followed her towards the main entrance of the castle.

In front of the large set of doors, a little toll booth was set up; a tiny Krieg in a strange uniform, a huge mustache and with a peanut hat on top of his head waiting for them impatiently.

"YOU'RE LATE FOR THE TOUR!" the little figure shouted at them, he barely reached Celestia's knees. "DID YOU REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR SPOONS? YOU CAN'T TAKE THE TOUR WITHOUT YOUR SPOONS!"

"Spoons?" Luna asked with a frown. "We don't have any-"

"YOU CAN'T EAT THESE DRAPES WITHOUT A PROPER TOOL!" the little Krieg went inside the toll booth and stepped out again carrying three large silver spoons. "WELCOME TO THE RIBCAGE SLAUGHTER!" he handed each pony one of the spoons.

Behind the little Krieg, the doors of the castle slowly opened to reveal a passage of utter darkness. "TRY OUR SPECIAL GAMES! THEY BRING OUT THE RED IN THE BLOODLESS SEA!" even as he finished the sentence, a loud thump could be heard echoing through the hallway and into the courtyard outside; a thump that steadily repeated itself.

"What is that sound?" Twilight asked even as she watched the silver spoon in her grasp; it felt strangely different from everything else inside this place.

Celestia was quiet for a moment, but her expression was steadily growing troubled. "Luna," she spoke up softly.

"I know," Luna replied as she swallowed down a non-existent lump in her throat. "There seems to be no other way though... let us go." She closed her eyes and put the spoon under one of her wings. "Don't forget to visit the pit of hearts," she whispered to herself, already dreading what they would see next.

She couldn't help but smirk though, when she realized that the floor and ceiling were made of bacon.

Author's Note

I'm on a roll. Sorry for the sad chapter, but I think it needed to be done.