Amnesia: A Pony's Descent

Chapters

Part 3
Part 1
Part 2

Part 3

This place didn’t look to good. The Shadow must have hit it somehow. I caught the name of it to be the Cistern. From what I could see, it was a very large circular shaped room that went up a long ways before an opening with a metal grate covering it that I could see light through but nothing else. There were pools of water covering most of the tiled floor and coming from the rubble that I saw. From the looks of it, there was a center piece in the middle of the room that rose up before connecting to another entrance to my left, right and behind me. But all that I saw from the bottom half up was rubble. At least the walls still looked good. Most of the pipes that I saw near the ground also still looked for the most part intact as well, though covered in bricks. The bridge connecting both the doorways behind me and to my left was demolished and laying about the floor. But the one to my right was different, it had its door and ledge before it was still intact and from the looks of it there were enough pieces of rubble and wood next to it so that I could climb and reach it. I started my way towards it before another flashback began.

”So you drain the sewers as a means of transport then?” It was me speaking this time.

“Yes, they were built to divert water from an underground spring and are quite spacious. It seemed only natural to incorporate it into the overall structure.”

“But we won’t be using it, will we?”

“No, not today. Now that the spring has dried and the sewers remain naturally drained it produces a very poisonous type of fungi. There is a vaccine but since we can avoid the sewers it won’t be necessary. Come, through this door. We’re almost there now.”

And, of course, when I had checked the said door it wouldn’t budge. I could never get a damned break in this place. I also found myself to be swearing more under my breath than usual. But I figured that who wouldn’t in this type of situation. It would seem completely hopeless to anyone else, but I’m different. I’ve come this far, giving up now would be a waste and a disappointment, to me and my past self. I pushed away from the door and looked around. I could only hear the sounds of dripping water from the various pipes in the wall. There was no possible way to reach the two doors to my right and the one that use to be behind me but was now in front of me. The only thing that I could see is a door in the wall and nothing below it. Another heavy sigh escaped me as I thought of what to do next. The only option was the sewers by this point but if Alexander was right the only way through the sewers now was a vaccine. I didn’t know where I could get this.

“Charcoal? What are you doing?”

I gasped and jumped back, looking around. That was no flashback, something had spoken to me. But, there was no pony else in the room with me. Though I did recognize it to be Alexander’s voice. Was it…telepathy? No, it couldn’t be. Telepathy is something that has been researched but never proven to be able to work, even with magic. Was I just starting to hear things now?

I didn’t want to believe it, but Alexander was otherworldly, this I’ve come to accept by now. There was no explanation for half of the things that I have read or heard from him. His knowledge vastly outgrows even the smartest minds that I’ve learned of in my time. Telepathy for him may be a possibility, but I could be going insane all the same. I really didn’t care; my one goal for right now was survival.

I went down the hallway that was to my left near the one door entrance up above that I could reach and found that it was as it said; the sewer entrance. It went through a flight of stairs before reaching door lay at the end of the hallway and I dare not go any further for fear of these fungi spoken of. My last remaining option now was through the door that I could actually reach. The rubble around it should make it easy enough to climb and reach.

I went back and started at the rubble’s base to the left of the door and started to climb up. I was surprised at how well this loose amount of brick and wood was keeping me up. The door itself wasn’t raised very high off the ground, but it was a rather steep climb up and I had to put all of my effort in to keep balance as I climbed. I finally reached the actual ledge before the door and with a last jump and the sound of a few falling rocks below me where I pushed off from I reached up and grabbed a hold of it before hoisting myself up and over onto the ledge. The ledge actually didn’t collapse as I had feared when I had first begun to climb it. I stood up and moved a bit towards the door and froze as I saw the name of this area next to it.

The Morgue.

I felt my breathing becoming heavier as I seriously contemplated whether I wanted to enter or not. The Morgue was clear enough what was going to be inside, yet, if there was any remote chance of a vaccine, it would be in there. I didn’t want to go in, I didn’t, but I had to. My only other alternative was to simply stay put and die horribly by the Shadow. I steeled myself and pulled open the door.

__________________________________________________________________________

It was as creepy as the name had implied. The stonework walls were very narrow around me and I got the same sense of the world closing in on me. There wasn’t any light as well so I had to use my lantern. The hallway went down a ways but I couldn’t see if it ended or split so I just had to keep going. I began alright, but not before another flashback had placed itself within my mind and vision again.

The first voice to speak was Alexander’s. “Do you see Charcoal? It has yielded.”

“What’s yielded?”

“The Shadow.”

“It…has?”

“Indeed, for now at least. Come, let’s get this out of here so that we can get some peace.”

“Yes, where to?”

“Just down the corridor, to the Morgue.”

“Are there more…dead in there?”

“Don’t worry, you did well Charcoal. Let’s go.”

Did well? Did well at what? The only possibilities in my mind after hearing the flashback and seeing the place that I was in gave me chills and I continued on, trying to forget I heard that.

The path did indeed come to another split, to the right. I couldn’t see to the end of it though so I decided to continue going forwards. There was however one thing that was abundantly clear on the floors, blood. There were spots of blood all over the floors. It jarred me slightly but I’ve seen enough of this stuff before to not be phased by it all that much.

The path curved left slightly then back straight again. It then turned right two times rather quickly after a while and I came upon a door at the end of it. I couldn’t see inside so I took some caution as I neared it and listened closely for any sounds coming from inside. There were none besides the usual bugs and rodents. Finding no other reason not to, I opened the door and looked inside.

“Sweet mother of Celestia.”

I couldn’t hold it in this time. I turned over to the side and retched a few times before finally vomiting all over the wall. It was…everywhere. Death. So much death inside such a small room. There were countless skeletons and partially decayed corpses just piled on top of each other right in the middle of the room. Not to mention the near pond of blood that accompanied it. And the smell. Oh that smell. That was the most repugnant, disgusting smell ever. I also saw bloody indents all over the wooden walls that surrounded the room, as if they had beaten against it senselessly until they died.

After recovering from vomiting I took a longer look through the room, attempting to hold my breath and keep the horrid sight out my thoughts but it was impossible with how overpowering it was. The only thing that I found that made this room anything of worth to go through vomiting for was another journal entry on one of the overturned shelves in the room. I quickly took it and left the room before slamming the door and moving as fast as I could away from it so I could get that sight out of my mind. I finally made it back to the place where the path split originally and took a few heavy breaths of somewhat fresh air, at least fresher than in that room, before reading the entry.

7th of August, 839

Alexander is undeniably one of the best magicians that I have ever come across. His powers are present all over the castle and he does everything with relative ease. Magic to him seems like something that’s second nature with no effort required. Early one morning he had woken me up and told me that it was time to get started. He was clearly excited as he took me downstairs to the old dungeon where he preferred to perform his rituals. The most important area that he had shown me was the Inner Sanctum, a most hallowed ground which is where we will attempt to banish the Orb’s shadow permanently.

This only reinforced my assumption of what Alexander truly was. He must have hidden his true identity from my past self, but for what reason? I kept this in mind as I went down the hall towards whatever was at its end. It eventually came to a slight left turn and there was a door right there. Along with that, an extra-long and concentrated blood streak leading into the door to greet me. I braced myself and opened the door extra slowly after going through what happened last time.

It was slightly bigger than the other room, and can only be described as if a mad scientist were using it. Random assortments of jars and notes lined the table to the right of the room and on the left side was a stone table with a non-decayed corpse lying atop it. There was a very large excess of blood in the form of three streaks, one leading back into the door I came in and two leading to the other two closed doors within the room. Several large diagrams of pony anatomy were hung on the walls around the room as well.

I decided, against my better judgment, to see what was behind the two closed doors. I started with the one that was furthest away from me. I opened the door very slowly but as soon as I saw what was inside I instantly closed it. Corpses, lots more corpses in a giant pile in the middle of the room. I didn’t want anything more to do with the dead. My check of the other room revealed the same thing, except that this room was filled slightly with water, but there were still corpses in a giant pile inside.

I left the rooms alone and checked the rest of the room that I was inside. Moving closer and looking at the desk more clearly now, I saw one more stack of several journal entries lying on the desk.

8th of August, 839

I am now certain that I had chosen the right path by coming to Bridleburg. Using the orb I brought, Alexander channeled its power into us and the Inner Sanctum flared with fiery blue light. It was no form of magic that I had ever seen before. I also began to felt the same feelings that I had felt when I first found the orb in that dark chamber from the Griffin Territory. It was terrifying, but Alexander remained completely calm as he tamed the storm.

Suddenly, the blue light became tainted with strains of red and the walls burst with pulsating tissue. Alexander quickly covered the orb and the horrible thing vanished. Alexander then told me that the Shadow was closer than he had thought and then told me that I should prepare for a warding ritual tomorrow. I have a bad feeling about all of this.

My heart was racing faster as I picked up the next entry and began to read.

9th of August, 839

It’s early in the morning, and Alexander is preparing for the warding ritual. Seeing him trying so hard to protect me makes me wonder why he’s doing all of this. What does he stand to gain from all of this? He must be interested in the orbs of course, but why go through all of this trouble without there being something more. I’ll admit though that when we were in the Inner sanctum yesterday, I realized that there is so much more power in the orbs than I could have ever imagined. This may in fact be the start of something truly extraordinary.

These were highly insightful, but ultimately a disappointment to me. I wanted to know what this warding ritual was. But now I knew what I had come to the castle in hope to achieve and what the Inner Sanctum was for. I had to reach it now by any means necessary and find Alexander there to finally get answers as to why everything was as it is right now.

I searched among the notes and diagrams for anything of use relating to this vaccine. I found my goal under a large pile of scientific notes relating to the vaccine mentioned.

Vaccine Trials

The vaccine enabling movement through the fungal ridden sewers possible is a definite success. It is, however, difficult to extract and only a few can receive it at a time. This won’t be a problem though as I rarely need for it to be used in such a manner. An injection of vaccinated blood from anything, deceased or living, will provide a shield that will last long enough for passage through the sewers. This will be useful for prisoner transport when necessary.

Living...or deceased? My thoughts instantly turned towards the body lying on the table. Could it be? The thought of taking blood from the dead and injecting it into myself made me cringe. But I feared it would be the only way to fight the fungi in the sewers. First though, I went through the drawers of the desk as this one actually had some this time and found another laudanum. I also found another one of those canisters that gave me a memory upon touch, I did just that and another thought filled my mind.

My orb has broken; I knew I should have waited before proceeding with the final ritual. I feared greatly at first that I may never be able to leave now but an interesting letter arrived from someone named Charcoal far away asking about the orbs and that he had even obtained one. He agreed to come after I replied asking for him to do so and has been with me since trying to tame the orb and rid ourselves of the Shadow within it.

But I fear for him, for he is reckless. He has become tainted by the oncoming shadow and will not be able to pass through the gate. I wonder if he will be able to accept his fate.

My love, I see the evil within him. How am I to trust him with the truth. I don’t know how to tell him what he must ultimately do. I fear for the fast approaching time when I must face him with the truth.

I felt my anger rising. ‘What I must ultimately do’? Is he really about to end my life to save his? Now I knew, now I knew why my past self must have hated him so much. And I was beginning to agree. I had my doubts at first, but this may have just set me over. Alexander will answer for this.

“Charcoal, I can hear you breathing. Can you hear me? Have you changed your mind?”

“I changed my mind alright,” I muttered. But it didn’t seem like Alexander heard me as I received no response. So I wasn’t imagining it all. He is somehow communicating with me then.

I turned away from the canister and focused myself once more on the task at hoof. I must create this vaccine if I am to safely pass through the sewers. I had to draw the blood out somehow and get it inside myself. I searched around the room and found a copper tube which gave me an idea. I pulled out the small hollow needle and attached it to the end of the copper tube. This will be my means of injecting the blood. I then found a small turning drill on the table that would serve as a way to open the flesh.

I started to pant heavily again as I began to drill a hole into the deceased’s head. After a few seconds of turning the drill finally penetrated the skull and blood began to well up around the hole. I had to lean to head off of the table slightly so that the blood would pour out. It began to do just that and dripped onto the floor, disgusting. I didn’t like anything that I was doing to desecrate this poor soul’s corpse but it was necessary. I quickly placed the non-needle end of the copper tube inside the hole and watched as the blood slowly filled it.

This was the most important step now. I had to inject the blood inside one of my legs for the vaccine to take effect. I hesitated for a while before finally gaining enough courage to finally do it. I put my right foreleg against the point of the needle and quickly pushed it against it. The needle instantly went through my leg and I felt my vision quickly darken around the edges as I did and I held it against the needle while the blood flowed inside. The pain was immense but I stood firm for as long as I needed. After a while that I didn’t bother keeping count of due to the pain, I pulled my leg out as quickly as I pushed it in and covered the bleeding wound with my other leg for a while so it would stop. But I was vaccinated now and could finally leave this death ridden place.

Oooeerrraaarrghh…

CRASH

It came from out of nowhere. I had only just recovered from the vaccination and the door just started to be bashed on by one of those monsters. It even took me a second to fully realize what was happening in the first place.

CRASH

I was panicking now; I had no idea where to hide. I could hide in one of the side rooms but it might go inside those. And the thought of hiding amongst a pile of corpses made me sick. I didn’t know where to go.

CRASH

The door came down. And my eyes locked on the thing behind it. This one was different though from the rest.

Its face…

It had no face.

It was literally a giant hole inside of its head with only an outline surrounding it. It had no face. Worse yet, instead of a claw on the end of its foreleg, it was just completely replaced with a giant blade. Enough to cut me right in half.

The thing somehow roared and began to charge at me, readying its blade to strike. I had to move. Every instinct within me was yelling to move. But I just stood, locked in place by the same unfathomable fear that I face in the storage and every other encounter that I’ve had with these things. I had to move.

I had to move.

It raised its blade and it came down.

The blade had only struck stone though as I had just regained enough control over my movements to quickly sidestep and avoid its attack. The thing recoiled for a bit and then growled again before turning for another attack. I was long out the door by that point though and running, completely terrified. As I neared the turn that would take me back to the Cistern, I heard it gaining ground as the sound of the skidding blade it was dragging against the ground became louder. I had to get out, the door was right there.

__________________________________________________________________________

The door to the Morgue slammed behind me and I pushed against it in case that thing would try to come further. And indeed it did as I heard something striking the door several times and more grunts of frustration from the monster before they ultimately stopped. I remained as I was for a few minutes before finally accepting that it was gone. I was thankful that these doors were much sturdier than those simple wooden ones.

I was still hyperventilating as I finally removed me weight from the door and descended down the rubble again. I reached the bottom and started to breathe deeply again to regain regular, steady breaths and calm myself once more. That thing, it was indescribably horrifying. I only thought there was the one that I had seen, but these were much, much worse.

There was nothing else left for me in the Cistern that I cared for. I was done with it and all the gruesome things that are contained within it. I returned back to the flight of stairs that led to the sewer door entrance and left without giving it a second thought.

__________________________________________________________________________

I was glad to be away from the Morgue, but now uneasy about the sewers. If it’s like any other area I’ve been in so far it’s more than likely that monsters are roaming about. I opened the gate that was immediately in front of me and came upon a ledge with a ladder leading down to a long tunnel that had a small pool of water in it. I would have to be extra careful about my movements in case I was heard. Looking further into the tunnel below from up top, I could only see a little due to a large pipe obstructing my view. I did however make out a spinning object at the far end of the tunnel. What it was exactly I couldn’t tell, so I would have to get closer.

The climb down the ladder was short enough. Though I didn’t like having my back turned to any potential danger. As I moved down I could quite clearly see the fungi referred to several times by Alexander and I assumed that since I wasn’t dead or showing signs of an infection that the vaccine worked. I finally made it onto the ground, or at least the tiny bit of water that covered it. I turned around and tried to get a better view of what was up ahead.

Oooooooaaaauuugggghhhhh…

I turned right back around and began to frantically climb the ladder again. I couldn’t tell exactly where that came from but it was definitely somewhere in front of me and I didn’t want to take that chance. I pulled up and over the ledge and sat there for a while, hoping those things couldn’t climb ladders. After that I looked over the ledge once more and found the tunnel to be empty. I had no choice but to go back down, seeing as it was my only way out.

I made it back down the ladder and onto the ground this time with nothing popping out at me. I began my way through the tunnel towards the spinning object at the end. For it being a sewer, it was surprisingly brighter that most of the other areas that I had been in. Though there was some heavy fog inside that made most of the things within hazy looking.

The tunnel ended inside a large room in which I assumed to be the center of the sewer system as I saw other tunnels to my left and right side. I could also now make out the spinning object at the end. It was merely a water wheel, but it was spinning rather fast. If I had tried to stop it in any way I was sure that would result in me losing a limb. It wasn’t spinning fast enough though for me to see through the wheel. All I could see through it was another large room that led to another tunnel. A flashback had returned to me as I concentrated through the spinning blades.

“No, please don’t take me! Nobody ever returns!”

It was another quick flashback, but very implicative. Return from what? I could only wonder now what was past this wheel and the sewers. I turned back and looked at my options. I could go through either a tunnel to my left or one to my right. With no logical reasoning as I didn’t even think there could be any, I decided to try going right first. It quickly came up to an intersection but the paths to my left and in front were both blocked by large bars running vertically across them. The one to my right though was broken in the middle and I could move through it, though I didn’t want to think about what the strength to break through them.

I easily made it through the bars and continued down the only path that was available to me. It eventually came to the point where there were rooms to either side of me. The one to my left was nearly full of large boulders so that wasn’t and option, the other though looked like it led to a ladder. I quickly moved inside and looked up. There was a ladder alright, but it was just too high for me to reach. I kicked at the water and swore again. This was worse than that small sliver of light that I saw in the prison ceiling. This was an actual plausible means of escape from the sewers and it just sat there, taunting and laughing at me. I kicked again at the water in anger and quickly decided to refrain from doing so lest I wanted to attract unwanted attention. I begrudgingly walked away from the broken ladder and returned to moving down the tunnel. I would just have to keep looking for something that might help me.

“Have to get out of here.”

I quickly clenched my mouth shut and moved faster now to forget that I just spoke without myself knowing again. I know I had to get out of here, but I didn’t have to start talking to myself about it. As I made more progress through the tunnel I was in, I began to hear a faint churning and I perked my ears to listen. It sounded like machine parts, gears more specifically. I suddenly got my hopes up and went faster now. The tunnel came to another barred barricade but also turned to the left and I climbed up the few stairs onto dry stone once more and through the door that was at the end of them.

It was just as I had expected. A machine room, presumably controlling the water wheel. I looked at the parts that controlled it. I saw two consoles with levers sticking out of them. Below them was a panel that had from left to right in order a small gear, a medium gear, and a large gear printed on it. Both right now were set on the middle gear setting and I guessed that I had to manipulate these to slow down the water wheel.

It took several minutes of pushing the levers around and seeing which setting made the least noise, but I finally found the right one. I pushed the lever on the left to the smallest gear and the lever on the right to the largest gear and I could barely hear the churning sound of the gears by that point so I assumed that was as slow as it was going to get. Satisfied, I returned to the door and went through before continuing back down the tunnel towards the water wheel to see if indeed it was the water wheel that the machine controlled.

Ooooerrruuurargghh…

I just couldn’t get anything right without it resulting in one of these things finding me. I instantly turned right back around and through the door before closing it shut. I looked around for any spots to hide in but the best one I found was a small section of pipes near the door. Seeing no better alternative, I ducked under the set of pipes and remained silent while I heard the monster shuffling around in the water outside. It made it up onto the steps and the stone ground before the door as I could hear it. It must have been the same or similar one to the thing that was in the Morgue because I could hear the definite sounds of something large and metallic being dragged behind loud hoofsteps.

Clunk

Skeeeeeeee

Clunk

Skeeeeeeee

My heart was pounding by the time it had neared the door and I was absolutely sure that I was going to die by this point because if it came bashing in there was no chance I could escape it if it actually found me wedged in these pipes. It was still making the most horrifying and disgusting grunts and moans and it stood outside the door.

The sounds of the metal scraping suddenly became fainter as the thing began to head back away from the door. I just remained where I was, bewildered. It had actually left the door completely untouched. Usually those things knocked them down the second they saw one. Not that I should necessarily complain about it though.

Surprisingly, I made it back to the main room in the sewers with no encounters. Again, not that I should really complain about it. My assumption of the machine had also been true as the blades were now spinning at a much slower rate. But they were still spinning too fast to move through safely. I would have to block it with something. The only other potential place to find something to block it was through that last tunnel. I would find something to use one way or another so I started down that way.

A few turns and frustrating blocked paths later, I found my prize, a small pipe. From the looks of it, the pipe had fallen off of the other piece that was sticking out of the wall. I picked it up and brought it back to the main room. Once there I found the wheel to be the same as it were before. I could easily stop it if I placed the pipe inside it at just the right time. I watched it carefully for about thirty seconds and predicted its movements so I could place the pipe inside at the right time.

Now.

In a single, quick motion I pushed the pipe in the way of the blades against the ground and just after one of the blades hit against it and after a few second of resistance it finally stopped. I did it. I could now pass under and through the wheel into the next room.

The area through the wheel was just another large room with a few waterfalls of water spilling inside the pool from the ceiling. Other than that the only other thing was the next tunnel at the far end of the room. The tunnel, after a short distance, came to another barred blockade, but a few of the bars in the middle were broken in the middle, though just enough to stick a leg through and nothing more. I pushed as hard as I could against the bottom half of the broken bar but it was of no use, these things were impossible to move.

My only other alternative was another set of stairs that went up much higher than the ones that led to the machine room up to a door at the top. I ascended these stairs and pushed open the door before recoiling at the macabre inside. Not only was the small room almost completely filled with the red organic substance, but there was also a cut up corpse of a monster. I was fairly certain these things were the gatherers described in that ponylore article that I found in the Archives so long ago, but ‘monster’ or ‘thing’ seemed to fit something as horrible looking as this better. The body itself was cut up by limbs: legs, torso, and head. It seemed that only the Shadow could actually kill these things too.

I closed the door and turned to go back down the stairs to avoid looking at such a sight any longer. My head was hung low as I reached the bottom of the stairs and returned into the water once more. What was I to do now? Both of these led to a dead end and the only way that looked like it had potential was impossible to move.

CRASH

The sound of metal ripping and breaking apart shot through my ears from beside me. I was so deep in thought I didn’t even notice the damned monster come up and start breaking down the gate. It was another blade wielding one too. This was bad. I didn’t look at it directly for fear that it would cause me to freeze again and turned back towards the large room before breaking into a full gallop.

CRASH.

The gate had been demolished as the monster was now charging at me. I had to make it past the water wheel and remove the pipe to stop it from getting closer. The room was very large and that wasn’t helping as I could hear the blade wielding fiend closing in on me and growling more and more.

“Charcoal, turn around this instant! You are carrying the Shadow with you,” Alexander's voice quickly spoke to me.

Turn around? The last thing that I wanted to do right now was turn around. I felt a whoosh of air as the thing swung at me with its blade and missed by near centimeters. I gave a quick gasp and moved faster as it growled loudly again and started to regain the speed it had lost during its attack. But it was too late now. I slid under the first blade of the wheel and as I went under the second one I kicked the pipe and knocked it out of position before barely escaping the now turning wheel. The monster too had reached the wheel and growled furiously again before slashing at the wheel a few times before realizing that its efforts were in vain. Clearly unhappy, it gave up and turned around before trudging back out of the room and through the bars that it had just cut down.

I slumped down and sighed with relief through short and quick breaths. I was certain my heart was going to explode from the fear and movement, just like with the water monster. Hopefully that thing will be gone now and I can continue searching past the gate and maybe I’ll even find a way out of here. I blocked the wheel the same way that I did last time and went back into the large room as I had done before.

The monster had really done a piece of work on that gate, only a few segments at the far end of the walls remained by this point. I moved very slowly and cautiously now, out of both fear and the fact that moving slower reduced the sound the water made. The tunnel past the gate eventually came to a right turn and I could see another place where the path split up ahead. I came to the place where the path split and looked down to the left and saw another path leading to the right. Suddenly getting an idea about what this was, I began to move straight again towards the end where it turned left. I reached the corner and looked around it. The path eventually turned left, I was right. This was a large, square tunnel that looped around the brick center piece.

I moved down the path I was already going and neared the corner that turned left before peaking around the corner. I just as quickly pulled my head away. Right in the middle of the hallway was the same monster just standing there, like it was guarding something. Taking another quick glance I guessed that it was the hallway that was directly in front of it. That must be my way out then. Taking a few minutes to think about it, I got an extremely risky plan in my head.

I took one of the loose rocks from the corner at the further end of the square tunnel and moved back over to where I was. If I could throw this past him just far enough and make a large sound at the far end of tunnel it might be just enough to draw it away so I could sneak by. The thing didn’t look like it was about to move any time soon so I had to act fast and do this now. Plus being right within the vicinity of one of those things made me extremely uneasy.

I positioned myself just around the corner of the tunnel next to the monster and took aim for the far end past it. I took three very long, very deep breaths and held the last one in as I reared back and hurled the rock as hard as I could away from me. It landed right at the end of the tunnel where I wanted it to. As soon as I saw it land in the water I moved back out of sight and peaked around again.

It worked.

The monster was moving toward where the rock landed and was now even moving down the opposite hall back towards where I was when I first entered the square tunnel. This was my only chance. I moved swiftly but quietly through the water as I crouched low. I made it to where the hallway started and moved up the few stairs that were there onto dry stone once more. I didn’t bother about stealth by this point, I booked it as fast as I could down the hall.

By this point I was sure the monster realized that it had been tricked as I heard a loud grow from behind me followed by something moving fast through the water. The hallway turned left and I immediately came upon a door. I threw it open and ran through before turning to shut it.

Erraaggh…

I had no idea how, but that thing had just rounded the corner and was now barreling towards me. It didn’t want to let me escape a second time. I denied it and slammed the door to buy myself a few seconds as I moved again. I heard the familiar sound of something breaking the door down as I rounded another corner to the right and found another door. I repeated the same process but behind this door was a ladder. I took no time in getting up to it and starting to climb for my life. The ladder went into a dark hole but I could see the smallest bit of light at the top. I pushed up as fast as I could with all of my remaining energy. I didn’t know if the monster was climbing up too or not but I didn’t care. I just kept going even with my now aching muscles screaming at me, not stopping for anything.

__________________________________________________________________________

It was a small room with four doors, one in the middle of each wall. I had made it up the ladder and into this room but remained where I was. For how long though, I couldn’t tell. Time was something that had become completely irrelevant to me by this point. My only concerns lie in surviving and the Inner Sanctum. The only thing I could do now was put the sewers and all the previous areas I’ve been in out of my mind while keeping all the memories I’ve gathered thus far with me.

I began trying each door separately. The first one I tried wouldn’t even open, the second led to a cave-in, but the third led to a small room with another barrel full of oil that I used to refill my lantern and another journal entry. I quickly picked this up and began to read as I was hoping that this was the one that would answer the question about the warding ritual spoken of.

9th of August, 839

I’m still sweating and shaking, even after all this time. The warding ritual was nothing that I had expected. Only those not of a sound mine would think of something so barbaric. I hadn’t even realized that the dungeon was still in use. Alexander had one of the prisoners, a murderer he told me, taken down to the dungeon and told me that I had to perform the ritual in the right order to have the right effect. The Shadow, he said, could be confused and delayed if the blood of another had been spilt. Killing this prisoner would buy us precious time. What else could I do? Alexander told me it was what I must do. He was saving my life, and I didn’t have any room to argue.

What sort of mad pony would devise such a horrible means of warding the Shadow?

Alexander.

I could feel my anger rising towards him once more. Killing another, even if they did commit a crime, just to save oneself was completely absurd. Murder was also a very rare crime, but things could also be different this far east. Still, this was something very disturbing to think about. I turned away and left, attempting to erase what I had just read, but it had already seared my mind and was forever imprinted there. It all was there, ever horrible memory of this place that I’ve found so far, clearer than ever. The more I attempted to forget the more clear it became too.

I tried the last door in the main room and after a brief hallway it led to a dark ledge. Looking over I saw that it was actually a large set of spiraling stairs that began to my right and went down a long ways. I began down the stairs, lighting each torch I saw on the way in case I ever needed to find my way back up. After a while the stairs finally came to a stop and I could see a small section to my left that ran under the stairs and in front of me was another door.

Through the door was another hallway that went to either the left or right, but the right path was blocked by another cave-in. Down to the left was another barred gate like the ones in the prison and as I moved toward it I could see a fairly well lit room behind it. I opened the gate and after moving only four steps in I gave a shocked gasp.

This was definitely a torture room. I was standing on a ledge overlooking a fairly large room with various torture devices scattered throughout it. Chains, metal spikes, superfluous amounts of blood, there was no mistaking it. I descended the stairs to my left and immediately began on trying to find a way out of this room. I had no intention of staying in such a maddening place. Torture was something completely chimera and very rare in this nation. The only ones who really practiced such things were races outside of Equestria. I do remember hearing tales of horrible and disgusting things about those who had the misfortune of being subject to such things. But most of that even was insane ramblings from husks of former ponies that had experienced them.

There was a small note on one of the few tables at the far edge of the room that wasn’t covered in blood that talked about the other orb mentioned by Alexander. The one that had supposedly broken before he found mine.

Use of Orbs in Torture

While the destruction of my orb was major setback, I found that the properties of the orb can change very much while it is in pieces. More specifically, how they can be used during torture. I’ve found that if one of the orb pieces is present while a prisoner is being tortured, its effects are enhanced greatly. It would seem that while the orb is broken the individual pieces almost leak insanity. Having this will amplify all who are subject to torture and the collection of the vitae has increased substantially. I will place the six pieces in several of the separate rooms in the Transept and Choir for further study.

Transept and Choir? Those didn’t exactly sound like horrible rooms of torture. The more I thought about it thought the worse the names actually seemed. Almost sadistical irony must have influenced the naming of those places. I looked around and saw the only way out of the room looked like it was to my right. I walked over to the end and found two large doors blocking my way to go left or right. The way directly in front of me though was clear, and I could see some light at the end.

The room had channeled into a small hallway that eventually led to another gate at the end and I looked inside. I could see a door at the very end of the room but nothing else due to the lighting, or lack thereof, and my vision was cut off by the two sides of the hallway. I pulled open the gate and moved inside to see what was along the sides of the walls.

A sudden barrage of noises hit me as the ground shook. I could hear multiple screams and moans of pain coming from all directions, hooves desperately beating against walls, and could even feel the pain of many suffering all at once. I fell to my knees and hyperventilated as the sounds of the suffering continued on before escaping me.

What just happened to me?

I had fully regained my senses and stood straight once more. I could still hear the occasional moan or cry coming from a different direction. I moved towards and edge and realized what this room was, holding cells. But these were no ordinary cells from what I could tell as I neared one and opened it. The sight inside told the story all in its own. It was near covered in blood and the grimy paneled stone gave it the most eerie look. As I peered inside, another memory came to me.

“I know this…I’ve been here already. This taste, it is of the stuff that they give you to forget. And while I don’t remember what’s happened in my mind, my body does. The cuts speak volumes. They will be back though.”

That was not my memory either. But it was still incredibly disturbing none the less. From the sounds of it, they would torture prisoners, then make then forget and repeat the process. Alexander was cruel indeed. Subjecting others to this. But it couldn’t be helped now. They were all more than likely dead. I decided to see what the door was at the end of the room.

“The Shadow…It’s getting closer.”

I almost hit myself that time. I had to stop this. But how could I stop myself from doing something that I didn’t even know that I was doing it? I only moved faster now and made it to the door before reading “Chancel” on it. I went through while trying to keep myself from speaking again.

__________________________________________________________________________

The door led up a set of stairs that went straight and then left before coming to a door. I pushed it open and immediately noticed the two large doors that made up a massive single one to my left and up in front of me slightly. It wasn’t the door that caught my eye though; it was the two large torches next to it. They glowed with a brilliant blue light that was probably brighter than any source of light that I’ve seen in the entire castle thus far.

I moved toward the light and found myself to be directly under it, absorbing its brightness. I had already tried the doors; it was useless, as most were.

I then turned around and beheld something magnificent.

It was probably the most massive chamber that I had ever seen since waking. It went for hundreds of meters both in front of me and to my sides. There was no floor either, only a narrow stone bridge connecting all four sides together at a circular platform in the middle. The same blue light from the torches shone from various fires placed on the rails at the edges of the bridges. I walked forwards towards the bridge and looked over the rail. It went down a far ways before reaching a large pool of water that spanned the entire length of the chamber.

I walked out onto the bridge itself and found it to be remarkably sturdy. I moved across it with ease and eventually found my way to the center platform. It wasn’t anything that special, just the crossroads connecting the four bridges. I looked at each of them, both of the ones to my left and straight in front of me were fine but the one to my right was broken and the entire middle section of the bridge was gone. I was slightly disappointed that I couldn’t see what was down there but I kept going straight towards the very end.

I reached the door with no problems and found it to be slightly ajar. Inside it I could see a small sliver of jumping light and a crackling sound. I pushed it open and found a long tunnel at the end of a small room before it filled with lightning. Or at least what looked like lightning. It danced and jumped across the mysterious looking tunnel many times. I dared not go near it though as it also looked very deadly. I looked around the rest of the room and found another pedestal with a hemispheric depression in it and many candles surrounding it, an orb pedestal. It was empty. This now gave me the reason why I needed to find those orb pieces and put it back together. This must be my way into what I could only assume to be the Inner Sanctum. I was finally here. I had reached my goal, but it was still just out of reach.

I turned and left the room as it was seeing that there was nothing else I could do. I made it back to the center platform and turned right to see what was at the end of that bridge. From the center platform I could tell that it was another door, but I couldn’t see inside of it. I made it to this door too with no problems, it was almost beginning to unsettle me how monster free this area was. But the fact that it was next to the Inner Sanctum might have explained it.

Through the door was a small room with shelves of various work tools. On one of the shelves I noticed a small bucket of tar. I suddenly remembered one of the journal entries I read about reassembling the orb by using tar. If I were to assemble mine in the pedestal, I was going to need this. I took it and began the rest of my search of the room. Inside to my right were more stairs that led down to a room which held only what I could assume to be another machine as I could hear it working quite loudly. I made it down the stairs but was quickly stopped by a locked gate with a padlock that was in perfect condition, rendering my hammer and chipper useless against it. I could see that it was indeed a large machine though. What purpose it served though was beyond me.

I returned back up to the room and began to leave until I noticed another journal entry that had escaped my view when I first entered lying on a small bench. Worried yet unable to control my desire to know what it was about, I began to read it.

12th of August, 839

The ritual to banish the Shadow is taking longer than expected and we have to do what is needed to keep it at bay. I spend my time helping out with the prisoners. Being around these degenerates sickens me. None of them even try to face their punishment with any sort of dignity. They taunt me with their lies of innocence and their cowardly pleas of mercy. What could make them fall so far from the grace of civilized existence? They are all evil and wicked and I constantly remind myself of it. I only thank whomever is sending these wretches to us to serve as instruments of my salvation. I’m trying to study the different tools in the torture chamber and learning to use them effectively. Last time I tried it ended up being messy, and affected the results. When the next warding is performed, I will be ready.

The journal entry fell to the ground. My eyes were sprung wide open with disbelief, mouth agape. I was finding everything I’ve believed about my old self now to be either gone or seriously questioned. Was this what I became? A soulless torturer who believed that the prisoners were only tools for his…my use?

I couldn’t handle that.

I ran from the room. Ran as fast as I could back towards the exit. I didn’t want to believe it. I wasn’t like that. I wasn’t.

Or was I?

“No don’t kill her!” Another utterance had escaped me.

“Argh!” I screamed.

I fell to the ground once more. I was back at the large doors and right next to the smaller door that led to the stairs and back into the torture area. I thrashed about, almost fighting with myself. My eyes were tearing with a mixture of pain and confusion. The ringing returned to my ears and all noise ceased besides that.

I had to get a hold of myself.

After a few struggled attempts and the intervention of laudanum I regained my hearing and proper sight once more as I got back up and remained still, silent. I didn’t know what to believe anymore. I kept returning to the question of my sanity, but left it where it was. I didn’t care anymore. Sane or not, I was going to get into the Inner Sanctum as it was my only drive to live anymore. I was going to end this battle between myself.

__________________________________________________________________________

I returned to the torture area in silence and began my way back towards the main room. As I entered the middle of the holding room I received another flashback.

The first voice to speak was Alexander’s. “These cells are meant to hold prisoners under treatment. The ones you sent for will end up here. Remember that the confinement is a prelude to the torture and that you should pace yourself. Don’t take anyone before they’re ready.”

“Understood,” I replied in a completely lifeless way.

“The sounds from each cell are channeled through these pipes that lead to the cell next to it. It will ensure that one prisoner’s pain will be the terror of the other.”

After checking another cell I confirmed what was spoken about the pipes. My eyes jarred at the sight and thought of what happened in here. It was just, so much suffering. I kept asking myself the entire time who could be so cruel as to do something like this but I already knew the answer.

Before leaving into the small hallway, I noticed something that I hadn’t the first time being in here, a lever, two actually, one on each side of the gate that I used to enter into the room. With no good reason not to, I pulled both and heard the sound of something being lifted a distance away and I knew instantly what it was, the doors.

I hurried back into the main room and found that I was correct. Both doors were now open, and completely dark. I decided to try to one on my right first and found a larger hallway than the one that led to the holding rooms. It was mostly uninteresting and only served to get my to the door after going straight then a left turn followed by a right. “Transept” this one read. It at least didn’t sound bad.

__________________________________________________________________________

It was a massive room. Not nearly as massive as the large chamber in the Chancel, but still very large. Though it was very creepy as the walls were nearly covered in pointed windows on all sides towards the top, shining in a light that lit the cages that hung from the ceiling. In the center of the large room was a small spiraling staircase leading all the way up to the top of the room and disappearing. At the end of the room on all three sides was a door leading to somewhere unknown.

I went with the staircase first as it looked too interesting to ignore. But before I made it halfway to it another flashback came to my mind.

“How much more am I supposed to take Alexander? Kill me already! Just kill me!” An unknown yet clearly traumatized voice spoke.

“This one. Prepare him,” Alexander spoke.

Sickening. Waiting for them to be at a breaking point and then torturing them? I was at a loss for thought on this. I did make it to the staircase though and began to climb up. It went up rather quickly and after a short time I made it to the top of the rom and went a little further until a came to a rather good looking wood paneled room at the top. It was very small but there was a door near the ledge of the stairs. Looking around quick though I noticed a large painting. It was the same one of Alexander that I had first seen when I woke but this one looked wrong. His face was all distorted and instead of eyes all he had were two large black holes formed. The same thing with his mouth. I turned away from the disturbing thing and opened the door. Inside was what looked like a small study with a desk in the center and a few bookshelves along the wall. There was another note on the table and I went to go to read it.

Notes on Torture

There are quite a few interesting things that I have learned about torture. I had always assumed that the reaction I would get from each prisoner would be highly individual. But this is not the case. These ponies all seem to have a similar approach to dealing with physical pain and the terror of anticipation.

I can’t stress enough the importance of restraining the victims before proceeding. Even the most timid of these creatures can break out into fits of violence where their strength becomes dramatically increased beyond what they seem capable of. The proper steps to take are to: restrain the victim while they are still dazed, proceed to present the form of torture you are about to apply, and then continue with the actual act.

The point of presenting the form of torture is to instill terror. The minds of these creatures is surprisingly efficient and will produce a greater fear by just imagining it. While applying pain, make sure to avoid large amounts of damage at a time and attempt to sustain the process. Apply the pain in doses and if possible with breaks to let the body settle. If you are whipping or cutting the victim, strike once, then let pain stop before continuing again.

As long as the body suffers it will continue to produce the vitae and saturate the blood with its properties. But if the victim behaves differently than expected, this will not happen. If this is the case, feed them the amnesia drink before attempting the process again.

This…this was…unspeakably evil. It’s as if he studied torture as a science and a means to further its effects. I could barely finish reading it I was so disgusted by it. Only a true monster, even worse than those that I have faced until this point, could do something like this. Only the worst.

I rifled through the desk drawers and found another memory canister in the large drawer to the right. I activated it as I did all the other ones and let the memory fill my mind.

Is it you, my love, that I miss the most, or myself? I know what I’ve become, I’m not blind. I’m a monster to them. An evil ruler perched on a mountain overlooking the town below, just waiting for someone to act outside of normality so that they may never be seen again. They have all grown distrustful of me, and the only reason I still remain is their fear of me. But I know not for how long it will be before that changes. If I can’t return home now, I shall perish.

I didn’t know what to think of Alexander or myself anymore. Clearly he realizes what he’s doing is wrong, but does that make it right?

No.

No it doesn’t. I don’t care how much he wishes to return to his home or his love. All of this death, all of this horror, it excuses no one’s crimes of this magnitude. He tortured and killed so many. And for all I knew they could have been innocent and merely a victim of his whim. No, I would make sure that Alexander would answer of all of this.

I gratefully left the room and exited back down the spiraling stairs before stopping in the middle of the three potential doors to open. I was more than likely going to end up going in every one in search of orb pieces anyway so I started with the door on my left. I opened it and revealed a somewhat narrow hallway with various pipes running along the walls and ceiling. It was too dark to see and I saw no torches along the walls due to the pipes so I had to use my lantern the whole way. I moved down the hall silently, it turned left before turning right once more and right up to a door. The closer I got to it though, the more uneasy I became. My legs started shaking involuntarily and I almost considered just walking away from the door for a moment. But that thought was in vain as I found myself pulling the door open out of too much curiosity.

The ringing. It was the strangest ringing filling my ears. It sounded almost like large bells from a bell tower all ringing together with a constant high pitched wail. I found my vision to be almost slowing as it blurred and I moved in near slow motion as I went inside. I swung me head over to the right and the ringing got louder. The only thing to my right was a large cabinet with one of its doors ajar. I moved over to it and flung the door open as my sense of control was beginning to deteriorate. Inside was one of the orb pieces. I stared at it for a long time, unsure of what to do. It was keeping me in some strange trance of drowsiness as I looked at it. After a few second I managed to reach out and touch it.

It all stopped.

All of my senses returned to me in a second and I took a gasping breath. The orb had done something strange to me, and I didn’t know what. But from now on I knew that I had to be cautious around these things. I put the orb away and looked to the rest of the room that I had ignored due to the orb. I saw a single chair with two chains hanging from the ceiling and a large stone block with rope attached to it on the floor beside it. A table full of knives, hammers, and other bloodied instruments sat near it. Looking closer at it, another memory came to me, but this one was different. It was like I was actually seeing what was happening without it actually happening.

I was standing near the right wall of the room next to a large crank. Alexander stood next to me, watching. A terrified mare sat in the chair with the stone attached to her back legs and the chains clamped to her forelegs. I actually started to turn the crank and she began to lift in the air. Eventually she was completely suspended from the ground and the rock pulled at her from her legs while she hung from the chains. She began to scream hysterically as she felt herself being split in half by the opposing forces pulling on her. I then turned to Alexander and began to speak to him about our next move.

“No!” I screamed.

But then I remembered that it was all a memory. A very vivid memory. I could just see the look of pure terror in her eyes and could even feel the nothingness in mine and Alexander’s. No sympathy, no remorse, nothing. It all seemed so real, because it was now that I thought about it. I did this. I brought unimaginable pain to this prisoner and felt nothing. I had to get out of this room.

I eventually made it back to the main room and took a minute to try and collect myself.

“Don’t let her escape, do whatever it takes!”

“Damn it!”

I turned away towards the left and hurried toward the door that was at the furthest edge from where I first entered the Transept and opened to door to find a similar hallway with pipes from the first one. I moved in and felt another flashback, this time a normal one, come to me.

“Let me go you brutes!” A strange yet familiar voice yelled.

“The cradle is ready,” I spoke in my now disconnected tone that I heard earlier.

“Good.” Said Alexander.

The stranger spoke once more, I was assuming to myself. “You…you’re just a normal pony. How can you partake in this?”

“Is he alright?” I asked.

“He is one of the wicked. Don’t pay any attention to his lies.”

“I’m not bad though. It was an accident!” The prisoner said back.

“He set someone on fire, Charcoal.”

“It wasn’t my fault! Please, why won’t anyone listen?”

“That’s horrible.” I said.

“Yes indeed. Remember that we are dealing with monsters here.”

That voice. I remembered it now. It was the same voice that I heard in the prison about someone rambling about the burning house and again in the sewers about no one returning. And now here at the Transept.

He was innocent. Now that I think about it, they were probably all innocent. I’ve been torturing and murdering the innocent. What did I become while I was here?

The hallway went straight back and stretched on nearly forever before finally coming to a door. I hesitated slightly before entering but ultimately did. Inside at the far end of the room was a small stand with a small pyramid shaped object attached to the top of it. Another flashback appeared.

“No, no, please. I’ll do anything you want, just don’t do this.”

He was clearly completely broken by this point as he hysterically cried “I’m innocent!”

I returned from the flashback, but also to the ringing once more. I swayed as I turned to my right and found the orb piece behind several cloth bags. The same thing happened before and as I picked it up the ringing and disorientation stopped. I looked back at the object before once again being subject to another involuntary vivid memory.

I was watching from the back of the room as the one who had been accused of arson was being lowered onto and off of the impaler. He was already mentally broken but it didn’t matter as they meant for him to die as he was one of the few that the amnesia drink wouldn’t work on. The torturing was working beyond their expectations though.

As soon as the memory ended I bolted out of the door and left that sight as fast as I could. As soon as I made it back into the main hall of the Transept I gasped again. In one of the cages suspended from the ceiling sat a rotting corpse. That was definitely now there when I first came in. I turned away and entered quickly through the last room of the Transept. The hallway went straight then turned right then left again quickly. As I moved through though, I could hear a faint sound that kept growing. It was a saw… sawing. But at the same time I could also hear the sound of some pony whimpering and crying as the sawing continued. As I got closer the two kept getting worse and responded to each other too well and I realized what I was hearing. The pony whimpering was the one being sawed. I almost turned and left right there but I never wanted to return here again and this room must have had an orb piece in it.

After a few more turns the hallway came up to the door that led to the room. Just before I reached it the sawing had stopped. I opened the door to find two large wooden beams on each side of the room with another that connected them on top and on two sides of the top beam were more chains than hung from it. Below the beams were a drain for the blood and a large saw. I noticed the orb resting near some rope to the left of the beams and I quickly moved closer and took it before the disorientation set it. Then just as quickly I moved away from it after being so close to that saw. Before I managed to leave the room the vivid memories returned with the last room of the Transept.

He hung upside down from the top beam. Alexander and I stood on either side of him, saw in hand, and beginning near the legs down through the body. After a while the saw became lodged in one of the lower bones and wouldn’t move any further. The prisoner had ceased crying at some point as it had hurt too much to do so. We stepped away from him to let the fluids from his body drain.

I was sitting in the corner of the room, shaking. Forelegs covering my face and sobbing quietly. It was too much. I just couldn’t take this much suffering and pain. My mind was tearing itself apart from everything that I had just witnessed. It was all just too much for me to handle. I took out a laudanum bottle and poured its contents into my mouth and let myself ease slightly, but not enough. I wanted nothing more to do with it. No more of this pain. This whole damned area sickened and disgusted me beyond belief.

I stumbled out of the doorway and eventually lumbered my way back to the main room. All while trying to keep myself focused. But it was so hard considering the pain of the memories flooding my mind. I saw the door that led out of the Transept and I hurried as fast as I could towards it. The entire room began to shake as I heard the faint rumbling of the shadow all around. Dust filled the room but I didn’t stop. I had to get out of this demented place.

__________________________________________________________________________

I was glad to be out of there. I would much rather be in this torture area than that one. But both were still very bad. I made it back into the main room that connected all the others and only one more area stood in my way of the Inner Sanctum, the Choir. The last of the two doors that I had opened earlier still remained that way, just as darkened too. I raised my lantern and began my way though. I felt slightly empowered from a lot of different things: the laudanum, finally getting out of the Transept, and knowing how close I was to ending my journey.

The hallway went straight for a while before turning left and then right. After going straight from there some more I finally arrived at the door with the sign that said “Choir”. This sounded innocuous as well, but so did the Transept, so I trusted nothing as I began to push open the door and head inside.

__________________________________________________________________________

It was a very long, yet very well lit hall. A long, single row of candles placed on a small indent in the middle of the walls went all the way down to the end. But stopped in the middle for a bit as two door were there. I made my way to the two wooden doors and looked at the one to the left before opening it. Inside was odd looking room with an altar like table in the middle of it and below it was a circular symbol inscribed in the stone floor. All around the walls were candles as well as a few tables with more various bloodied tools. On the large table in the center too was another journal entry. I moved over and began to pick it up to read it, but as soon as I had touched it I gasped as a similar overwhelming force like the one from the Archives attacked me and I blacked out.

"15th of August, 839"

“The blood wards are failing. The Shadow beckons and its cry disarms my actions.”

I opened my eyes. Lying on the once recently vacant table was now an actual living pony, but lying flat on his back and bound to the table, a cloth bag over his head. He tried to move but couldn’t, a faint whimpering escaped him but he couldn’t speak due to the bag.

“There’s no time to spare. You’ll have to kill another. Alexander produces a knife. He wants me to cut the flesh.”

I turned to my right, almost involuntarily and saw a wickedly shaped knife appear on the table. My heart began to pump faster as I realized what was occurring.

“Do it. Save yourself, Charcoal. He’s evil, a cold blooded murderer. Hurry!”

I didn’t want to do it. I stood where I was, trying to find a way out of this. I turned around and found the door closed and locked. Suddenly I felt some strange force take a hold of me and it forced me to turn around. I walked over to the table with the knife on it and began to reach out. I fought against this mysterious force as much as I could but it was a losing battle. I picked up the knife.

“Alexander, you must let me be. I have to concentrate.”

The prisoner began to squirm more as I saw lines beginning to form across his midsection in a strange pattern.

“Paint the pony. Cut the lines. Cut the flesh. Watch the blood spill. Let it come!”

I felt my leg moving once more as I brought the dagger closer to his body. My entire body began to tremble and I shut my eyes as I began to do the unthinkable. The sound of something slicing and cutting flesh rang through my ears and I felt a liquid, presumably blood, splash against my hoof as I heard myself begin to speak again.

“Pleeeeassee, I didn’t do anything, nah nah nah.” I heard myself say mockingly. Then I began to sound more hysterical as I chanted.

“Paint the pony. Cut the lines. Paint the pony. Cut the lines.”

“Please, they all cry.”

The sound of the struggling prisoner began to die away as I then heard myself speak again. “Hush, hush. Now you sleep.”

I opened my eyes and found the table to be gone, but blood still remained all over it and on my hoof. The knife too was gone.

“I did well. One life for another. You hear me, guardian of the orb? I did this all for you. Now withdraw your shadow from my domain once more.”

The door behind me opened. I quickly got out of it as fast as I could. But before returning to my regular state, I heard one last thing.

“Alexander, there isn’t much time. I can feel it, we must act swiftly. I’m ready to do whatever it takes.”

Charcoal, I believed in you. I had thought that there were other reasons for forgetting. But no. You were just an insane pony caught in a bloodlust to help yourself. You are not me. I refuse to believe that that was ever me. I’m better than that.

Or was I?

Of course I was. That part of my life is over. He did this so that he would have another chance. I was, as he said, his last chance to make things right. I had to do just that. To redeem both of us.

I actually returned back in the same room where I saw the blood ritual. I then noticed that the blood was still on my hoof. I frantically wiped it against one of the tables and got as much off as I could but some of it had dried and still remained. I stifled another round of vomiting and turned back around and exited. As soon as I made it into the hallway, I found a body, the same body that I had just witnessed and involuntarily killed, hanging from the ceiling. No, there were actually two of them; as soon as I swung my head over to the right I saw another down a bit. I tried not to be completely disturbed but it was impossible. I thought that by now things like this wouldn’t get to me, but they’ve only become worse. I opened the room directly across that I neglected when I first entered and found it to be another room identical to the one I was just in.

I didn’t even bother going in lest I murder without consent again, so I turned to my left and began down the hallway towards the rest of the Choir. There had to be more, since I found no orb pieces in either room. The hall eventually came to a gradual yet long set of stairs that led down to the door that entered the main Choir. There was only one way to find out if they were in there or not.

__________________________________________________________________________

This was bad. Really bad. I could instantly tell. I couldn’t see any more than five meters ahead of me and everything had a slight tinge of red to it. The room itself was massive. I couldn’t even see the ends of it to any of my sides nor the ceiling. Large pillars also lined the room, disappearing above into the same red mist. Plant life also grew freely around the room, long vines stretching across the floor and up the pillars.

“It is curiosity in league with your selfishness that is killing us both.” It was Alexander speaking to me again. I didn’t want to hear anything he had to say to me.

I didn’t really feel like going forwards as I could hear what sounded like monsters growling from somewhere ahead of me so I decided to stay as close as I could to the wall and start by heading to my left. I honestly didn’t feel like using my lantern in here either. There was enough light for me to see clearly immediately around me but still dark in the sense of the entire atmosphere of this room. The wall seemed to stretch on forever as more was being revealed as I moved forwards. After walking for about a minute I came up to another wall that connected to the one that I was following and blocked any further movement forwards and went to the right so I just decided to follow this wall as far as it would take me.

The wall then turned left and opened a bigger area. I followed the wall still and after it ended once more there was a door at the end. Two small torches glowed around it but their light was completely futile in such a dense place. I pushed the door open and saw more candles inside. From the looks of it the door led to a small hallway before entering into a larger room.

This was the case as I made it to the last set of candles at the end before a large room revealed itself. In the middle of it was a slightly raised platform with something in the center of it. I moved closer and the shape revealed itself to be a large metallic pony. After looking at it for a few second I realized that it was an Iron Mare. I had only heard about these things. Apparently they’re filled with spikes and it encases you inside and forces you to stand inside of it until you eventually tire from standing and die from impaling yourself. A horrible way to die. I could begin to hear the familiar ringing of the orb coming from somewhere ahead. I walked onto the platform, trying to look behind the sectioned walls at the sides of the room to see if it was over there.

My heart nearly shot out from my body as the contraption of torture suddenly flung open. It opened by splitting down the middle and swinging each side open, one to the right and the other to the left. It was indeed filled with bloodied spikes too. There was no way I was going any closer to that evil thing.

The ringing became louder as I moved to my left and eventually found my way to a smaller section of the room and lying on the floor was another piece of the orb. That made four, only two left. I left to room as fast as I could after seeing something like that happen.

“Shimmering…blue…light.”

I didn’t even care anymore. I was getting too close now to. I followed the wall to my left further still and eventually came to a bridge. The bridge went over a moat looking crevice that I couldn’t see the bottom of, even when I took out my lantern for a second. I made a note not to fall in. I crossed the bridge and heard a monster moaning from a distance to my right so I continued forwards against the wall quicker now.

The wall continued on for a much longer time that before but did eventually come to another door all the way at the end. Along the way I saw another way to my right that I could have gone into but I decided to keep going forwards. The door went into another small hallway before leading into a larger room, smaller than the previous but still big. It was a center platform with water surrounding it from all sides. And in the center lay another metallic pony shaped device. This one was, if I remembered correctly, called the Brazen Colt. It would open in half and the victim would be forced inside and they were unable to move once the lid came down. A fire would be started beneath it and they would be burned to death. Cruel, sickening fates indeed.

I found the orb to be nestled in a few plants that were growing to the left of the device. Only one left now. I took a long look at the thing in the room. I couldn’t imagine such a fate as that. A fire suddenly started beneath the thing and I could hear pounding coming from inside and something terrified screaming for its life. I turned before running as fast as I could from the room.

My only option now was to go down the one large hallway that was to my right when I had first gone down this one. I left the room and started to follow the wall that was to the left as I exited this time instead of the other one that brought me here. I had to navigate around several pillars that were right next to the wall before finally coming up to the point that I was looking for. The wall turned left and opened up into another large hallway that continued further than I could see again. But I could see both of the walls that were to my left and right, unlike before when I had first entered into the large room.

This place only got more uneasy the longer I stayed. It was mainly because I could hear those things roaming around everywhere but couldn’t see them. I eventually came up to another crevice with no bride going over it and almost turned around before seeing the broken pillar spanning it and got an idea. I jumped up onto the pillar and began to slowly make my way across it. It was hard to keep my balance with my mental and physical states being so deprived but the pillar was wide enough for me to not have to worry too much.

After a few arduous steps I reached the other side of the crevice and jumped off onto the ground as soon as I got the chance. The large hallway continued on further so I moved against the left wall again and gradual moved forwards as the sounds of the monsters were becoming more audible now.

Oooeerrraaarrghh…

That one was much closer, too close. I ducked inside the small space between the pillar and the wall as I heard one of those things begin to make its way over to my from another hallway that I noticed was to my right. I could tell it was another one of those ones with the giant blade as I could hear the sound of it being dragged across the stone floor as I had before. I peeked out from behind the pillar and saw the thing now heading down towards the way I came from. It made the same disgusting sounds as I lumbered by my and I could feel my heart begin to beat slightly faster as I heard it pass next to me just behind the pillar. I had to avoid looking at it directly elsewise I would freeze from shock as I have done before.

It continued on and began to disappear into the red mist back down the way I came from. I waited longer to see if it was actually gone though. I was shocked and disappointed as it suddenly reappeared once more through the mist and started to move back down the same hallway that it had come from. It was starting to only go back and forth between where it came from and where I came from, that wasn’t good. For all I know it was going to keep patrolling here forever. I would have to take a chance and run for it once it passes by me again, or wait until it finally notices and kills me.

It disappeared once again into the mist where I came from. I instantly moved out from behind my cover and kept moving as fast as I could forwards, hoping that the mist would give me enough cover to not be seen. Eventually the sounds of it began to fade and I could see another door appear at the end of the hallway through the mist. I didn’t care what was inside so long as it hid me from that thing. I pulled the door open and just as quickly closed it as I made it inside. I turned away from closing it and had just enough time to look down the hallway before I felt a flashback starting.

I could hear a large wooden wheel turning before Alexander began to speak. “The wheel is good for keeping your victim still during the procedure. They can be bound around the circumference or simply stretched across, tying limbs to the spokes and rim. By this point, all tools are useful and you may administer the torture in any way you like. But the forte of the wheel is the gaps. When you have decided that the victim shall die, you can smash their limbs with a hammer, making them fold between the frame.”

“But they’ll die…too quickly, I mean.”

“No, don’t worry Charcoal. The body is much more resilient than you may think. They could last days before finally succumbing.”

This must be were the last orb piece was. I almost didn’t care about the flashback by this point. I was getting so close to the last orb piece and the Inner Sanctum. Of course it disturbed me as most did, but that was overshadowed by my desire to find the last orb piece. I followed the smaller hallway down a right turn before coming up to the door that must have led into the torture room. As soon as I had opened it I immediately began to feel the disorientation and ringing coming on by the orb. I knew it, it must be here.

Inside the room itself was the usual tools of torture and chains along the walls. At the end though was a small platform with a large wheel sitting on top. Lying next to it was a very large and bloody hammer. I searched around the wheel as that was the area of the room where I felt the effects the greatest and eventually found it in the far left corner of the room. I reached out and quickly took it. This was it. This was the final orb piece that I needed to breach the Inner Sanctum. I took one last look at the wheel before finally turning and leaving. I didn’t want to think of the pain it had caused to others. All I wanted to do now was leave this horrible place.

I made it to the end of the small hallway and out of the door before following the left wall towards the next large hallway that the one monster came from. I no longer heard it around so I assumed it must have left. I turned the corner leading down that hallway and began my system of moving around the pillars along the hallway and sticking close to the wall. It went on for a time that I didn’t even know, all I knew is that it was another long hallway. I had made it almost to the end where the hallway emptied out into the main large room of the Choir. I knew that if I just crossed the crevice and kept going, I would finally be out of here.

Oooeerrraaarrghh…

This one was to my left. That made me burst out into running. There was no way that I was going to be stuck behind another pillar by one of those things while I was so close to getting out. I crossed the bridge over the crevice and made it to the large area full of pillars and vines that I was in when I first entered and only sped up now that I knew I was so close. The monster must have heard me to as I heard a loud growl from behind me and the sound of metal and hooves striking the ground as it rushed towards me from behind.

It only made me go faster. I was locked in the same survival state as my heart rate climbed with each second that I drew closer to the door. I could still hear the sounds of that thing behind me only getting closer by the increasingly loud sound of metal striking the ground even at my top speed.

Clang, clang, clang, clang.

Rrraaaeerrghh…

The door had finally come into view, I was so close now. I ran straight up to it and in the same moment began to pull it open the monsters blade had apparently come down from overhead because I heard the sound of it striking the door and veering off to the side, only barely missing me. The door must have opened enough just in time to get in the way and deflect its attack. I had to time to think about it though as I took the opportunity while it recoiled to run through the door and quickly shut it behind me.

__________________________________________________________________________

I didn’t hear any more sounds come from behind the door. Or if there was I didn’t hear them. I was still holding the door in case it had tried to somehow open it but it never did. I was panting pretty heavily from running for my life still as I reluctantly turned from the door and began to make my way up the stairs and towards the main torture room. The bodies that were hanging in the hallway were now gone as well. I was a little taken aback by it but ultimately not too worried as I saw no need to want them back there.

“Quite frankly Charcoal, I’m not so sure what to do with you. I hold no grudge against you. We are very much the same, you and I. Did you really drink the amnesia mixture? Well, that would explain your actions. But you never did finish what you set out to do. You talked about redemption, about how you would stand against the orb’s Shadow to save our work, and me. I will grant you one last chance to redeem yourself. Stay where you are and wait for the Shadow to come to you so that you can finally stop it. Thank you, friend.”

You’re wrong Alexander. We are nothing alike. Not me anyways. I know of all the terrible things that you have done, to both me and everyone else in this world. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to end up dying for him. I will redeem myself, by finding you and ending your life. As he talked, I was still making my way towards the door that led out of the Choir. I made there as soon as he had finished speaking and went through the door. Ready to start my way towards the Chancel and the Inner Sanctum.

__________________________________________________________________________

It was everywhere. The red flesh like substance. I had no idea how it came this quickly, but it was now almost completely covering the walls and ceiling. I moved as fast as I could back down the hall and into the main torture room. It was just as bad in here. Back down the narrow hallway towards the holding cells and inside. Same thing. The Shadow was very close now. I had to move as quick as possible if I wanted to get into the Inner Sanctum in time. I made it past all of the holding cells, navigating around the flesh before hurrying into the Chancel.

__________________________________________________________________________

The Chancel was no better off. I continued on with increased haste up the stairs and into the main chamber. The vibrant blue light was now dulled from the Shadows presence near it. I turned to my right and set off on the bridge straight down towards the entrance to the Inner Sanctum. It disheartened me to see such a beautiful chamber like this corrupted by the Shadow but I had to press on in any case. I had to take careful measures to avoid some of the substance that was on the bridge but I eventually made it back to the room. It remained the same as ever, without the Shadow’s corruption too. I moved over to the orb pedestal and took out the tar. I dumped it into the depression in the pedestal and saw it spread across the entire area of the depression. It was time to reconstruct the orb.

Slowly, piece by piece, I started to reassemble the orb to its former glory. They pieces fit together perfectly as I placed them into the pedestal, molding together with each other as I set them in. I attached the third piece, then the fourth, the fifth, and finally, I took out the final piece of the orb and with trembling legs set it onto the last area of the orb that remained empty and saw a brief flash before the orb molded completely together to its former glory.

It was done.

As soon as the orb reformed I saw out of the corner of me eye something happening with the lightning that filled the tunnel. It began to arc towards the room and formed a barrier-like formation with all of the arcs meeting at a center point. After a few seconds a blue haze began to slowly pull out of the center point and I moved out of its way as it connected to the orb. Both the orb and the haze glowed brightly but after a minute nothing had changed. The barrier in front of the tunnel remained and when I tried to touch it I got shocked slightly. Something else needed to be done to finally close this thing. Something…

I ran out of the room, having an idea of what I needed to do now. I made it to the center platform of the bridges and turned right once more before heading down the bridge leading into the room with the tools in it. It must have something to do with that machinery that I saw in the room. I made it inside and quickly descended the stairs to find the door open due to the red substance. I wasted no time and went inside the steamy room. There was a series of pipes going all around the room and into the machine at the end of it. A center console lay to the left of another panel with two large gears spinning.

I went over to the console and checked around it to see if there was any way of shutting the thing off. There wasn’t. I sighed and looked over at the gears. After thinking for a minute I thought of a strange idea. What if I could get something large enough and jam the wheels? That would essentially stop it. It was risky, as I didn’t know what would happen if I just stuck something large in moving machine parts, but I had to. The Inner Sanctum lay just beyond that tunnel.

I searched around the room. There were a few small things, a couple of metal plates, a hammer or two, but nothing quite large enough to jam the wheels. I gave up on this part of the room and went back up into the tool room for anything in there. None of the tools in here looked good enough to jam it either. There was however a rather large rock sitting amongst a pile of rocks in the corner of the room due to a section of the wall collapsing. This had to be what I needed. I lifted the large rock and returned back down to the machine room. If I aimed it right, I could throw it from a distance and still stop the wheels from spinning. I moved behind one of the small pillars in front of the wheels and reared back slightly before heaving the rock towards the wheels.

It worked well. A little too well. The rock landed right on its mark and the wheels instantly stopped. But the thing actually turning them kept going, so the one wheel on the right flew off, striking my in the shoulder and knocking me over. I writhed in pain as I heard the rest of the machinery shutting down and the entire Chancel shaking. The majority of the pain subsided after a few minutes and I got back up but felt a sharp pain in my let shoulder as I settled on it. I don’t think it was broken, but it was injured fairly badly. I consumed my last laudanum and within a few minutes of its affects taking hold I started my way back up towards the Inner Sanctum.

I managed to make my way back to the room with the tunnel in it with relative ease, with only the now slight pain in my shouldering hindering me. As I moved inside the room I instantly noticed that the barrier was now gone, but so was the orb. All the candles as well that were around the pedestal were out too. I cared little though as my path was now clear. I passed into the tunnel with no problems now and could feel my excitement rising as I neared the end of it. I heard the Shadows roar coming from the Chancel behind me but I paid no mind to it as I reached the most bizarre looking door. Strange symbols were engraved into its metal surface and looked nothing like any of the other doors thus far. This must be it.

The Inner Sanctum awaited me.

__________________________________________________________________________

The Inner Sanctum. I made it. After all this time, all the horrible places I’ve been through. Just to make it to here. It was the most well lit room out of all the others too that I have seen so far. I was right now in a narrow hall that led down a long set of stairs but the way down was clearly lit. I descended the stairs with great pride as there was only one challenge left, Alexander. Halfway down the stairs the Shadow’s roar came suddenly from behind and a large bang came from the door that led inside here. I looked back and saw the red substance beginning to grow out form the door. I didn’t wait any longer and moved as fast as I could down the remaining set of stairs before entering a large, circular room with four pillars around it in the middle. I saw a lever on the one closest to me and I didn’t hesitate to pull it. A large door came down and blocked the way I just came in and I noticed that two other door on either side of me then opened up.

I heard the Shadow’s noises reach the door that just shut before abruptly stopping. This would give me precious time now. In front of me were two large doors that looked like they led into the actual Inner Sanctum area described in the journal entries. I moved over and found that they wouldn’t budge. It must have something to do with the two side room that opened up. I walked over to one and through a very narrow hall I came upon the oddest looking room. The walls were not stonework like the rest of this part of the Inner Sanctum, but looked more like sandstone. There were more pillars on the edges of the wall with the same strange symbols engraved into them. To my left was another one of those circular patters with two candle stands next to them and to my right was a stone table with an odd looking device in it with more candles surrounding it. I ignored this for a moment and went over to read the journal entry that was on the table in front of me.

19th of August, 839

It’s not fair! I’m not the one to blame. I was manipulated by that demon. He played my guilty conscience and duped me into facing the shadow alone. That vile pony. He expects me to meet my death whilst he steals powers beyond imagination? Alexander, I will kill you for what you have done. You made me a murderer, a monster! And now, I can only wait here and await my death. I am too weak to keep going. I can barely manage stand as my knees fail me. I cannot see as my eyes are covered in tears. I am as broken as those that I’ve tortured. If only I could erase my fear away and forget, as we had done with them.

This must have been the last page before the one that I had first found after waking up. All that my previous self had done. It seemed to have hurt him as much in the end. Which is why, as he said to me, he chose to forget. He didn’t want to deal with the memories of his past so he began anew. I will redeem us. Both of us.

I turned and walked over to the stone table that was at the right end of the strange room. The device that I had saw was a large prick over a small pool of water. Looking down at it, I suddenly remembered what this was. I was required to give some of my own blood and then I had to stand in the circle in both rooms to enter the Inner Sanctum. I was no longer hesitant anymore due to being so close to my goal and the Shadow banging on the closed door to the room. I quickly stuck out my hoof and pushed it against the prick. A sharp pain arose from it and a small trickle of blood escaped and landed into the water. All of the candles in the room died out and I quickly moved over to the circle. As I crossed inside of it the entire thing glowed red and another large bang on the door from the Shadow came. This one was finished. Only one more now.

I moved swiftly through the room connecting to the other stone room and as I entered I moved over to the stone table. Both room were completely identical so I repeated the same process. I drew the blood and the candles went out, as expected. I turned and made my way over to the circle and crossed through it. The same red glow appeared beneath me and at the same time I heard the two large doors of the Inner Sanctum opening as well as the Shadow finally breaking down the door.

I went back into the connecting room. It was as I thought, the red tissue now invaded in here as well. I looked over and the doors were indeed opened. Through them was a long tunnel that stretched on, only lit by torches that lined the sides. I wasted no time in starting my way through. I could barely even see the sides of the walls in the hallway as I moved through it. But I could feel it, a sensation overflowing through my body. This was it. This was where it was all going to end. The tunnel ended at a massive door that pointed came to a point at the top. Three large circles, two on each side, and one above and between them with more symbols were placed on it. The Shadow roared and I pushed on the door, slowly moving it open.

It was time to finish this.

__________________________________________________________________________

I gasped as the large door finally revealed what was behind it. It was the most stunning chamber that I had ever seen, even more so than the Chancel. It was circular shaped with three slim pylons with a light at the top all channeling into a center piece. That must have been where the orb was. Above me, it looked like the chamber stretched on endlessly. All throughout it floated several rocks in suspension. I moved around the pillars and looked into the back of the room. On a raised platform in levitated Alexander. But something was wrong. He looked nothing like a pony.

He was an odd looking creature, akin to an ape. But he stood completely upright and was only flesh. He looked like the statutes that some of the journal entries had been described as. This must be his true form, he spoke of changing his appearance from one of the old pieces of parchment I found in the study.

“I was wondering if you would show up,” His voice echoed throughout the room. “Is everything nice and clear now that you see my true form? Am I the villain? Good and evil, such comforting concepts, but hardly applicable. Are you so blind that you so no good in me whatsoever?”

I wanted to get to him so badly, but a wall of blue fire and the raised platform cut me off from him. A large bang on the door reminded me that if I were to do something, I would have to do it soon. I looked around hopelessly. There had to be something that I could do to stop him. Looking around again, I only saw one potential thing that I could change.

The pylons.

I rushed over to the closest one and began to push on it with all my strength. My shoulder that got hit became inflamed with pain but I continued to push. This was probably my only chance at stopping him. I heaved as hard as I could and finally the pylon gave and I pushed upwards and over as the pylon came crashing down.

“No! Don’t do that!” Alexander yelled. That was it; I knew that I was on the right track.

“I realize that you doubt my intentions. Why would I take extreme measures to save your life?”

I was done listening to him. I had told myself that I would get the answers that I sought from him before, but I had all the information that I needed from everything else that I have seen getting to this point. I only wished to put an end to this thing before me now. I moved over to the next one and heaved. This one came down quicker and easier than the last one. As the pylon crashed onto the floor Alexander stopped whatever else he was trying to say and yelled again. “Stop it Charcoal, you are ruining everything! We are so close, I beg you.”

I moved to the last pylon as my blood began to flow more and the anticipation grew. I heaved with the rest of my remaining strength on the last pylon.

“I’m just like you, Charcoal. A prisoner of circumstance. Trapped in a worl- No you fool!”

The last pylon came down. It must have also broken whatever force was keeping the Shadow back as the room was now being flooded with the red substance.

“You’ve killed us. You’ve killed us both!”

The red stuff must have reached Alexander first, for as soon as he finished speaking he suddenly began to scream with agony as the stuff swarmed around him. He curled up before he suddenly began to dissolve right before my eyes. Within a few seconds, Alexander of Birdleburg was no more.

I merely stood there, waiting for the same fate. Now that I had exacted my revenge against Alexander, I felt that I had finally redeemed myself. If the Shadow still required my life, then so be it. I would allow it to take it. I had finally ended my journey. After several minutes of waiting, I was still alive. How was that possible?

I was still alive.

The red flesh had eventually dissipated and an overwhelming sense of peace, for the first time ever since I had woken, finally settled. I looked over towards the door; it was gone from there too. The orb that was on the center piece of the room was gone as well. The guardian must have finally reclaimed its orb and returned it to its rightful place once more. Light had flooded the room, and I could see clearly for the first time. Everything seemed…right.

I was alive.

__________________________________________________________________________

It was my greatest triumph. And I never looked back.

You think I was afraid, fleeing Bridleburg? Quite the contrary.

I knew it was my purgatory. Hellfire made to wash away my sins.

There’s no denying the things that I’ve done. But I have paid my tribute. I gave them that awful…thing.

…I did the right thing.

Part 1

Amnesia: A pony’s descent

A quick note:

The date this is set in is based off of the idea that the events of FiM happened in the year 1000 and this is going backwards from that into 839

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the following characters or places used from either My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic or Amnesia: The Dark Descent and each belong to © Hasbro and © Frictional games, respectively. And thanks for making both an awesome show and an awesome game.

__________________________________________________________________________

Don’t forget, some things mustn’t be forgotten. The Shadow hunting me…

My name is Charcoal, I grew up in Canterlot, at, at uh, Hayfair…

What have I done? This is crazy. Don’t forget. I must stop him. Focus…

My name is… Charcoal…

The world was spinning. Everything, everything around me was in a blur. I moved my head up and down slightly and my surroundings only became less recognizable as my eyes shifted around the room. I closed my eyes once more and tried to get my train of thought straight. As I tried to clear my head, a few words and phrases had surfaced in my mind. Charcoal…The Shadow…hunting…Canterlot…Hayfair…stop him. None of it made sense to me. The words themselves had the faintest hint of familiarity to them, but nothing more.

The world became more in focus as proper vision slowly began to return to me. Cumbrously, I began to move my legs and attempt to get off of my side. After several attempts, I had finally managed to get enough energy to stand and maintain balance, though very uneasily. I still had no idea who I was or how I had gotten here. I could remember technical things, such as math, science, and history that’s not my own. It only frustrated me more, having all of this knowledge but not knowing absolutely anything about myself.

The world was back into enough focus now that I could get a proper survey of my surroundings. From what I could tell, I was in a small room with nothing of interest inside, but outside was a long hallway leading into darkness from what I could see. The stonework walls were a drab gray with cobblestone floors of equal color. Windows lined the hallway, yet very little light seemed to shine through them. Taking my first, awkward steps towards them, I attempted to look outside but to no avail. All I could see was just thick fog lining the windows, making visibility though them impossible. The small droplets of water appearing on the window and the occasional flash signified that it was raining.

I gave up on the windows and looked down to see a strange, pinkish fluid pooled up on the stone floor. I had no inclinations to even try to touch it. Visually following the floor down the lit parts of the hallway, I noticed even more splotches of the mysterious liquid forming a path. Not knowing what else to do, I began to follow the path down the hallway into the unknown darkness.

The further I moved through the hallway, the more I began to realize just how disoriented I still was. Standing up is one thing, but moving and trying to follow a path at the same time was taxing on my mind. My surroundings morphed and warped as I moved forwards in the most surreal manner and my vision seemed slightly tilted even though my head was straight. Coming to the end of the hallway, I noticed an open door space at its edge. Peering inside and adjusting my eyes to the dark, it was revealed that the hallway going further was cut off by a rock slide.

Seeing that way was impossible then, I continued to follow the liquid trail leading to my right. Before I managed to fully turn my vision blurred uncontrollably as I found myself falling to my side. With heavy breaths, I managed to regain control and stand up once more to continue moving. I had no idea where I was going but anywhere had to be better than this dark hallway. At the end of this hallway though was a large door with lit candles around it. This must be the way out of here. Hurrying as fast as I could without losing control again, I finally made it to the door and pushed hard against it to open it. It didn’t budge. Several more attempts later I had given up and realized that the door was locked and impossible to open. Looking back, I noticed that the liquid trail led down a side hallway to my right. It hadn’t led me to any dead ends yet, so I might as well follow it.

I turned down the side hallway and began to move towards its edge, this hallway was at least lit better. While moving along with much burden, a moving wardrobe door to my left had caught my attention. Curious, I opened the door all the way. Nothing too interesting was inside, a couple of dress shirts and what looks like a small tin can. I picked up the small thing and finally realized what it was, a tinderbox. It could be useful for later, so I decided to hold on to it for the moment. I continued moving down the hallway no longer stopping to check ever door, I had to find out where this trail was leading. At the end of the hallway the trail snaked to the right and went under a closed door. This one, thankfully, was unlocked. I opened the door and continued my journey into some place that I knew nothing of.

The door led to another section of the hallway that continued for a little bit longer before turning again to the right. This section was lit as well. Looking down, the liquid trail indeed followed the hallway to the right. I also noticed a few miscellaneous items scattered across the floor as well besides the liquid. Among them: books, some destroyed and some in fine condition, small plates, silverware, and other things that didn’t belong on the floor of a hallway. I looked back up just in time to see a sudden, howling wind burst open a door a little ways up to my right. The candles that were lit all down the hallway had simultaneously gone out. I recoiled at the sudden action and almost lost my balance again, but barely managed to keep from falling over. That wind was no natural breeze, it couldn’t have been. What the hell was going on here?

With much more trepidation, I pushed forward with every one of my instincts screaming at me not to. I reached the door that had been blown open and looked inside. It was a somewhat small storage room, some of the shelves were overturned and water pooled at its base, I sure wasn’t going in there. Moving more quickly now, I made my way to the furthest edge of the hallway and turned right into the only lit room as the left path was darkened. The room though was a dead end, but on all of the walls though was the same portrait of a very old looking pony. He had a gray coat and a pure white mane that was bare on the middle of his head but present on both sides. I also noticed a horn protruding from his forehead, must be a unicorn then. I myself am an earth pony with a gray coat that had the slightest hint of brown and a full dark gray mane, one of the few things that I actually know about myself only by looking through the shattered reflection of a mirror in the corner of the room. There was also something else; I could see a small pickaxe that appeared on my flank. My cutie mark apparently, it didn’t give much insight into myself.

As I observed the portrait further, everything was suddenly darkened as all of the lit candles in the room suddenly extinguished themselves by another fierce and frigid wind. Panicked, I stumbled out of the doorway, only to hear the most unholy roar ever coming from every direction. It rang across the hallway with unimaginable loudness as if it was right next to me, but nothing was there. I was completely terrified and my muscles seized, causing me to fall over again. I began to hyperventilate even after the roar disappeared. After a few minutes I managed to calm myself to the point where I could stand again, once again picking up the liquid trail left for me. After what had just occurred, I no longer felt the need to deviate from its path.

Moving once again, I came upon a small table with another tinderbox. This room too had windows, something that the previous hallways had lacked. To the tinderbox’s right was a small cylindrical glass object. Observing it closer, I saw that it was a lantern. A lantern! Next to the lantern as well was a small leg pouch with a case of oil inside of it. I decided to make use of both the bag and oil. First, by filling the lantern with the oil and second by putting on the bag and placing the tinderbox I collected in it. Feeling much more confident, I once again pushed into the darkness by following the trail to my right.

Following the path through the door into another hallway, I noticed that no more windows lit the path like the previous room and was much darker than the previous paths. Pulling out the tinderbox, I used the contents to light several candles down the hallway to illuminate its path up towards another room. Inside the room were about a dozen shelves, all lining along the edges of the room, filled with various glass containers, none looked like the oil I found though. Straight ahead of me was a small table with a lit candle and a piece of parchment on it. Walking towards the desk, curiosity got the best of me as I picked up the parchment and began to read what was on it to myself:

19th of August, 839

I wish I could ask you how much you remember. I don’t know if there will be anything left after I consume this drink. Don’t be afraid, Charcoal. I can’t tell you why, but know this: I choose to forget. Try to find comfort and strength in that fact, there is a purpose. You are my final effort to put things right. Celestia willing the name Alexander of Bridleburg still invokes bitter anger in you. If not, this will sound horrible: Go to the inner sanctum and kill Alexander. He is old and weak, and you are young and strong. He will be no match for you.

One last thing: A Shadow is following you. It’s a living nightmare that breaks down reality. I’ve tried everything and there is no way to fight back. You have to escape it for as long as you can. Redeem us both, Charcoal. Descend into the darkness where Alexander waits and murder him.

Your former self,

Charcoal

Charcoal, so my name is Charcoal. I suppose it makes sense considering my coat and mane color. But, what about the rest of what was written? Who was this Alexander that was mentioned? And why do I have to murder him? For what reason? None if it made any sense. Also, Alexander, that’s a strange name for a pony, none that I’ve ever heard before. All the names of important figures from Equestrian history that I remembered had names similar to mine, Alexander was strange indeed. But it did say that he chose to forget, so maybe that’s just what happened, he forgot everything. I had no idea what to make of this note. It made no sense but at the same time seemed…right, like it’s the truth and what I must do. I didn’t know, I’ll just have to keep going forwards and hope that I can make sense of this entire situation.

The liquid trail ended in the center of the room so I was on my own now. So far that hadn’t exactly led me to any good things, but I still had to keep moving, if for nothing else, to get out of this light forsaken place. Scanning the room once more, I noticed a small lever to my left. That had to be the only way out of this dead end room. Moving over and finally pushing down on it, a small section of the wall to the right of the lever lowered and revealed a door past it. Steeling myself, I walked up to the door and opened it to continue my descent into whatever may await me past it.

__________________________________________________________________________

The stairs that were through the door went up only a little ways, but just enough for me to not be able to see what was past them. Walking up and over the final step, I finally saw what the stairs led to, a massive room. The room was in much worse shape than the previous section of the castle that I was in. It looked very old and very worn from age. Four giant columns in a square shape in the middle of the room supported its structure, though one was completely knocked down and a giant hole in the ceiling was the result of it. Piles of rubble were scattered all across the room with a higher level up to my right with stairs leading to it at the far end of the room. This area was much more unsettling than the last one I was in. Mainly because it just seemed so much more unsafe with everything looking like it had gone through a war inside. Light from the windows that were in the room though had shone with more brightness than before; it must have stopped raining then.

The castle itself had even struck me as odd. The architecture looked nothing like the architecture that I ever remembered seeing. I do remember Canterlot, and the buildings there, but not what I did there, that was still blank to me. I could remember the setting, but not the events. It’s just so strange how the style of this castle varied so greatly from all of the castles that I remembered. In fact, this castle looked absolutely nothing like Equestrian architecture in general. Also, the name Bridleburg had a familiar sound to it; I thought I remembered learning something about it, mostly through rumors. The area itself was in the far eastern reaches of Equestria, surrounded by mountains, was virtually uninhabited except for the Bridleburg area itself, and very little of it had even been explored past Bridleburg. If what the note had said was true, then I was very far away from home.

I moved towards the center of the room, trying to get a better view of everything in it. Near its center, I noticed a large symbol engraved into the floor as well as a set of stairs leading down next to them. As I started to look closer at it to try and remember what it was, I suddenly felt a strange sensation coming over me. I gasped as I began to remember something. A bright light flashed before my eyes and I was forced to close them for a second while it passed, and once I opened them, the room seemed different somehow, but I couldn’t figure out how. Then, words from a flashback began to ring through my ears:

“Is it inside the castle, Alexander?”

“In a manner of speaking. Come, bring the lamp. You’ve been to the Refinery have you not?”

“I don’t believe I have. Is it connected to the… what did you call it?”

“The Inner Sanctum, my most precious chamber, Charcoal. And it lies beyond the Refinery. In fact, it lies beneath the very stone of Bridleburg.”

Another flash. Once I reopened my eyes again, everything went back to normal. The Inner Sanctum? That was something that the note had referred to. That’s where I have to go. But, it didn’t seem like Alexander was what the note had described him to be. He seemed almost like he was helping me. So why does the note ask me to murder him? The more I remembered the more confused I seemed to get. I would just have to keep going and try to learn more.

I descended the stairs towards the closed door. Right before reaching it, I lit the lantern and held it with my mouth as I opened the door. Beyond the door was the beginning of a hallway, this one though was slightly different in that the entire hall wasn’t completely made of stone, only the bottom half was while the top half was whitewashed with wooden support pillars every ten meters or something close to that. But the hallway was abruptly cut off by this red, fleshy substance webbed across the width of the hallway. Moving up to it, I pressed my hoof against the thing, it indeed felt flesh-like, except very sticky and more squishy. I tried to punch through it a couple of times but this material was much tougher than it had looked. Something must be able to get through it though; it’s the only way that I can reach the Inner Sanctum.

I turned back and returned up the stairs to where I had the flashback. Then I had noticed the massive hallway that was in front of me. I hadn’t bothered to look that way before. It was then that I realized what this room way, the castle’s foyer. It had to be, it’s the only way a hallway that size would lead into a room this large. Perhaps that door was able to be opened. I rushed towards the door, stopping on the way to pick up another tinderbox and oil jar that I had noticed. Looking at the massive door less than a meter away now, I began to push on it with all my strength.

No sooner after I started did the entire castle shake as if an earthquake had just struck it and another terrifying roar ripped through my ears. This one was different though, it sounded almost like a train horn, but it pierced though and struck me down at my core with absolute fear. After recoiling from the roar I saw the same red flesh-like substance starting to grow on the door itself. It spread cancerously over the door and eventually completely covered it, making any attempts to open it impossible. It didn’t matter though, I was running away from the stuff before it even finished growing for fear that it might spread further.

There was no way that I was going back there. I had to find this Inner Sanctum, as it appeared that it was my only way to ever get out of this place. Looking to my left, I saw two potential paths, go up the stairs to the upper level that I could see in front of me, or head down another set of stairs into an area that I couldn’t see. I decided to try the stairs going up first, as the stairs going down where completely dark. After a few steps of beginning to walk up the stairs, a blood curdling scream, followed by a female voice begging "No! Get away from me!” I turned abruptly as the sound came from back down the stairway that I chose to ignore before. It must have been a hallucination but it sounded so real. I had to investigate.

Moving back down the stairs, I lifted the lantern once more as I came upon the edge of the stairs leading further down. I saw nothing except for a somewhat steep stairway leading to what looked like a T split at its end. I moved further down the stairs towards the intersection. The further down I moved, the more unsettled I became, the darkness felt so unnatural. It’s as if it were a separate being acting on its own volition. I kept the lantern close and lit; the light was the one thing that I was finding some comfort in. At the base of the stairs, it indeed split into two paths leading further down to the left and right. I looked up and saw two signs above the entrances that signified “Laboratory” to the right and “Wine Cellar” to the left. I tried the Wine cellar first, the door was locked. Only one option was left. Thankfully, the laboratory door was open; I pushed it in and made my way inside.

__________________________________________________________________________

From what I could see in the dark, the laboratory looked similar in design to that of the hallway heading towards the Refinery. But the darkness, why was the darkness so… dark? It was so hard to explain, it was not just dark, but dark to the point of near zero visibility, even with my lantern lit. Why was this darkness so much more different than any other darkness I had encountered before? Too many questions piling on top of each other.

I could tell that I was on a wooden platform with the actual floor below. Out in the furthest wall from me, or what I assumed was the furthest wall because I couldn’t actually see it, was a very faintly glowing torch. The light coming off of the torch seemed futile against the ravenous darkness surrounding it. I cautiously moved forwards, the wooden walkway creaking and thumping with every step rhythmically. At the end of the walkway were stairs to my left leading down towards the floor.

Moving down with much more caution as I didn’t know what was down there, the furthest wall from me when I first entered was now coming into view, nothing there except for the torch I previously saw and another rock slide. The stairs turned to the left once more and before I began to descend down that set, a thick cloud of dust appeared in front of the rock slide as the sound of something very large began to growl in the background. I hurried much faster now and quickly descended the stairs and turned left, away from the rock slide, and galloped through the open door that I saw once I turned and down the stairs that followed it.

The doorway at the bottom of the stairs came into a somewhat large room. Not nearly as large as the foyer but still sizeable. This room was lit though as a chandelier in the middle of the room had lit a small portion of its center. In the center of the room itself is what looked like a metal grate. Before I reached the grate, the same feeling that I had before with my flashback once again began to overtake me as I had another memory return to me with the same flash of light.

“There should be more Cuprite. And one part Aqua Fortis.”

The memory quickly subsided. The voice was that of Alexander. I hadn’t even spoken at all. I must have been standing near him or something. I recognized the items that he had mentioned but saw none in the room. Returning to reality once more, I picked up where I left off and came upon the grate in the middle of the room.

Peering down into it, I saw only water at the bottom. Just before I was about to turn away something very large made several thrashing splashes in the water. I couldn’t tell what it was but I didn’t want to really find out. I moved again away from the grate and towards a large bench with several jars of glass connected to each other with a pipe attached to the wall. This must be the alchemy room as the sign had said with laboratory. Alchemy was something used by the earth ponies as a rather rudimentary form of unicorn magic that was experimented with to try and achieve certain things to make their lives easier, though it had started to be largely discontinued since it required much more materials to produce the mixtures than the end result gave back. Another thing that I know about everything else but not myself. But, alchemy can also produce different types of acid as well. This had given me the perfect idea to get through the red substance blocking my way to the Inner Sanctum.

I lit the set of candles that was on the bench to give me better lighting and to save oil in my lantern while I worked. I checked around, unfortunately there were no chemicals that could be made into an acid compound. Though I did notice another piece of parchment sitting on the desk. I looked down and squinted to try and read the writing in the darkness of the laboratory, even with the candle to aid me.

The lack of a chimney to properly vent the fumes from my most recent experiments has taken its toll on many of my less stable ingredients in storage. Some seem unaffected, but many are stained by the fumes and will be difficult to salvage. I shall do what I can and move them to the Wine Cellar.

So the ingredients that I needed were in the Wine Cellar, the one that was locked. Seeing nothing else of interest in this area, a moved to the other side of the room. I stopped dead in my steps though as the eerie sound of heavy hoof falls sounded above me. It was the same thumping and creaking sounds that I made when I was on the walkway. Fear shot through me as I took cover near the bench where I had just walked away from. Something must have been walking above me, but what? What could possibly be alive in this light forsaken castle besides me? Rethinking that question, I felt it better that I didn’t know. The sound quickly ended as soon as it had begun, there were no sounds of anything going down the stairs either, so I tried to overcome my fear and search the room further.

I came upon another desk on the other side of the room, different from the bench as it had several drawers attached below it to the left and a single small cabinet to the right. I rifled through the desk drawers and picked up another tinderbox. I then opened the right cabinet and saw the most unusual thing. It was another cylinder like object but it was larger and had a small half sphere shape on top of it that glowed slightly. Reaching my hoof out, I touched the cylinder and a sudden thought appeared in my mind.

One day I shall return. If it wasn’t for the thought of you, my love, I wouldn’t be able to go on. When I find myself doing terrible things, I take comfort in you.

As long as I am able to think of you and long for a life together, I know I’m better than the work that I’m doing. The only thing that I crave while I’m here is fair judgment and a safe return.

A single tear formed in my eye. I didn’t know how to explain it, but this thought seemed absolutely genuine. I could tell it was Alexander’s too. Again, I didn’t know how, but I did. It’s as if this thing not only gave the one who touched it the thought, but the feeling and emotion of it when it was placed there as well. I felt an overwhelming sadness over me as I heard this thought. Alexander truly cared for whomever this love of his was. How could Charcoal—me, ask to kill him? Things kept making less and less sense.

Detaching myself from the canister, I noticed another note written on some parchment on top of the desk. I lit the set of candles on the desk and began to read again to myself:

This is my third attempt to produce artificial vitae. The former compounds lacked the potency I need, but I sense I’m close. Calamine and Orpiment are a given and the Cuprite binds them well. This time I will attempt Aqua Regia instead of Aqua Fortis in the hopes that it will produce a more even solution.

The experiment was unsuccessful. The solution is highly acidic and proves impractical to put to any use except as detergent. Organic tissue reacts especially violently to the solution and should be handled with great care. I might be able to use the recipe, but I’m losing hope that I will find an alchemic solution to my predicament.

Well, that had given me just the right thing that I had needed to produce an acid. I already had an idea for one but this is perfect for what I need. Luckily enough too, a small chemical pot sat on the desk next to the note, I made a note of it in case I needed it later. Seeing that there was nothing else left for me in the laboratory, I exited back up through the stairs into the main room.

I ascended the stairs with my lantern lit; praying that what I had heard earlier on the walkway was gone. With a heavy sigh of relief, I made it safely over the walkway and through the laboratory door to search the castle further for any signs of the key to the Wine Cellar.

__________________________________________________________________________

I had checked in every area besides the stairs that led to the upper level, so by logical choice, that’s where I started. There was no scream this time though as I walked up the stairs to the upper level. The upper level itself was only just a walkway that overlooked the foyer from a small distance up that connected to other sections of the castle. I was beginning to lose hope as I continued down the walkway though as all the potential entrances to another area were sealed off by some natural obstruction. Once I reached the end though, a small archway with a sign that said “Archives” above it with an actual door at the end gave me some hope. The door was unlocked as well, with no other visible path to another area; I opened the door and walked inside.

__________________________________________________________________________

I had instantly gotten a bad vibe about this place. Then again, I haven’t had a good one about any place that I’ve been to in this castle yet, but this felt especially worse. It was cold, much colder than anywhere else, unnaturally cold even. On top of that, the darkness seemed no better than it had been in the laboratory. A single light shone from a hanging candle above me, but past that the hallway in front of me was completely shrouded. A door lay on the floor in front of me, completely ripped off of its hinges from the doorframe to the right of it. Nothing about this gave any good indications of anything. The atmosphere was heavy with something, something bad, something uninviting, commanding me to leave. I had to use a great deal of awareness while in here.

I took my first steps in, nothing bad happened yet. The Archives had differed from the rest of the castle and the laboratory in that the walls were wooden instead of stone and a carpet similar to the area that I had woken up in lay on the floor with a long rug running the length of the hallway on top of it. I arrived at the doorframe and looked inside. Shelves of books lined the walls with a table in the middle also holding a various assortment of things. I also was beginning to fully grasp just how much of a state of disrepair that the castle was in. Apart from the castle just looking extremely old, many things were chipped off and holes formed all over the walls and ceiling. I moved just enough inside to scan the room quickly for any evidence of a key. I didn’t see a key, but what I did see was another note similar to the ones that I had found before that was partially concealed by a small stack of books. I walked over and picked up the parchment, noticing that the header on the page was: “Charcoal’s Journal”. Intrigued, I began to read what was on the page.

16th of May, 839

The unrelenting snow has continued to obstruct our expedition into the northern reaches of the Griffin Territory, making it impossible to dig until the storms die down. Even during this time of year being this far north and the uncontrolled weather allows for snow storms to continue raging through the land, while Equestria has already ended its winter. How the professor managed to find this location in the vast plains of snow remains a mystery to me. Later that evening, we uncovered a passage beneath the snow leading to an ice covered structure. The professor was confident that this was the tomb and ordered the others to clear the way. Tomorrow, I will lead the team into the ancient structure, and no matter what the professor may be keeping from me, the dig should give something interesting to take back to the Canterlot museum.

If this was true and it was truly from my old self, then that would explain the pickaxe on my flank. I was an archeologist then apparently. Still, this gave no explanation to what was currently happening with me being stuck in such a strange place. I left the entry where it was on the table, there was no need to bring it along as I can remember what was written easily enough. There was nothing else of important note in the room so I moved directly across the hall to the closed door that was to the left of the open doorframe when I had first entered.

The door creaked open and I began my way inside. This room looked in better shape than the previous one at least. More shelves of books and a writing desk at the end of the room directly in front of me and another closed door to the right of the desk. I quickly went through the desk drawers and found another tinderbox, added it to the others, and moved to my right to head through the other door that was in the room. The area beyond the door was only a hallway that connected to the first one that I originally entered into when I first came in the Archives. It was shrouded near the intersection of the two hallways but further past I could see the hallway leading into another room at the far end of it. There was also another door directly in front of me so I decided to try that first. I opened the door and took a few steps in.

Oooooooaaaauuugggghhhhh…

I gasped before taking cover behind a fireplace directly to the left of me. My entire body quaked with fear as soon as I had heard that unholy moan. It sounded like some sort of broken violin being slowly played. It was most definitely not any kind of creak or natural noise that an old castle would make. It came very clearly from the direction of whatever lay beyond the closed door further up the room and to the right of me when I had walked in. Some pony, some thing, was in this Archives area with me. I felt no need to introduce myself.

After several minutes of calming myself down and assuring myself that whatever had made that noise was finally gone and would come through the door, I worked up the courage to explore the room further. The actions of everything that had happened since waking hadn’t boded well for my sanity or vision. I could feel this ever-present sense of dread and slight paranoia in the back of my mind that only grew as I moved further into the castle. This had adversely affected my vision in that wherever I looked, there was almost a constant graining of the textures of the walls, the shelves, everything. Along with that on the edges of my vision I could see the walls were warping and shaping into irregular shapes. I lit the candle that was on the desk at the edge of the room. Whenever I was near light, however, I could feel my vision returning to normal and my nerves eased themselves. I took solace in the light as it was my only sense of escape from the hellish darkness that surrounded me. I removed myself from the comfort of the light once more as I picked up another journal entry from the edge of the desk.

17th of May, 839

My hooves tremble as I write, but I must document this for fear that my memory with fail me of this event eventually if I don’t. Today, I took some of my team and ventured into the dark, ancient passage that we had uncovered. Our torches burned faintly in the murky air of such an old place underground. The crudely carved passage confused me. It looked much older than the 1st century structure we had expected. The twisting path emerged to a great ante-chamber. The walls were lined with statutes unlike anything I had ever seen. These statutes looked like some sort of mythical creature that stood on two legs instead of four. It looked somewhat akin to that of a monkey except much taller. The news of a find like this is something that could potentially reach the princess herself. At the far end of the chamber, a great stone slab sealed off whatever lay ahead. I gave the order to raise it and as soon as I pushed through the narrow space the stone collapsed again, sealing me inside. I was trapped.

As I had finished reading the entry, the only thing that I could think was: This had all actually happened to me? After that I began to wonder if maybe these journal entries will help me figure out why I’m after all. From the dates of the note written to myself and these entries, only two months have passed since the time of this event that I had just read, so they might eventually lead to why I came here in the first place and who exactly this Alexander is.

I fortified my mental state as much as I could as I slowly began to open the door on the right side of the room where I heard the moan from. I opened the door and immediately saw that it as another hallway leading down to my left. There was a small space to the right that led to a dead end; within it was a place to light a candle on the wall and a table with an odd looking vase on it. I decided to light the candle on the wall to provide some better light. As I turned around my eye caught the strange vase again, I took another look at it before beginning to turn away again. My heart stopped for a second as the thing suddenly exploded in a cloud of dust. I stared at the empty table for a second, trying to rationalize what I just witnessed, but I couldn’t. I tried as best as I could to push the disturbing thought out of my mind just like all of the others and continue on.

The end of the hallway was now visible. It was another intersection that split to the left and right with a closed door in the middle. Before I began to make my way over there though, I decided to head through the door that was just to my right with a sign that said “Old Tomes” that I noticed when I made my first scan of the hallway. The room was unlit, like many others so far in the Archives. I made my way over the desk and lit a stack of candles and began to make a sweep of the room for anything I could use. Then, I heard a noise, not really a noise, but music. It was a piano. There was a piano being played somewhere near me. It played low, dark notes in staggered rhythm that chilled me just listening to it. I found myself breathing very heavily again as the fear began to take over. After resiliently fending it off and calming myself once again the music had stopped.

I found another tinderbox and some oil in the room, though no more notes or journal entries. I exited the room and began moving towards the end of the hallway, towards the sound of both the piano and the moan now. What was I thinking, going towards the ominous sounds? Still, if I ever wanted to leave this horrible place, I had to keep going. I made it to the end of the hallway and looked both ways. To my left was another small dead end with a chair and a drawer, I learned my lesson and decided to not go there, and to my right was another long hallway leading to a room that looked similar to the one that I saw when I first entered the Archives but refrained from going in. The sign to the door right in front of me read “Local History”. Unfortunately, when I tried to move the door open it wouldn’t budge, must have been locked then. My only option left was the large room to the right, the same one again with the ominous noises. I gave a silent prayer before making my way towards it.

I arrived at the threshold of the door, tying as best I can to keep my breathing at a regular rate. After much self-encouragement, I finally managed to poke my head inside and look around. I gave a heavy sigh of relief when I saw nothing else in the room that was alive. Though albeit a slight bittersweet relief, I was hoping that there was the slightest chance that there was an actual living, rational being in here that could explain what was happening.

It was indeed a large room; it ran the length of the entire Archives area that I’ve already covered through the hallways and more to my left. It was in a much more deplorable condition than most of the other rooms, there was little to no furnishings, any paintings that were on the wall were either fallen or slanted greatly, and half of the four large windows were boarded up. Moving further inside and taking a full view of the room again, I noticed the source of the music in a piano that was close to my right. I got close to it to try and examine it for any king of magical qualities. My ambitions to do so suddenly ended once the lid that covered the piano keys slammed shut and nearly gave me a heart attack. If there was any kind of magic at work here with all the things I’ve been seeing, it is no magic that I have ever encountered before. It was almost as if it was haunted, but I never believed in ghosts. Though in my current state of mind I found many of my beliefs to be wavering and bending.

I once again found myself trying to get rid of my fear as I began to make my way to the furthest end of the room and hopefully another entrance into the local history room that I saw. Before making it all the way to the end of the room I turned towards the light of one of the windows that wasn’t boarded up and eased my mind for the time in a while. Outside of the window it was still foggy but I could make out some trees in the distance, nothing too insightful. I closed my eyes and took a deep, relaxed breath.

Oooooooaaaauuugggghhhhh….

My eyes shot open as the tiniest bit of sanity and good feelings that I had regained from the light were instantly shattered. The same broken violin moan came from directly behind me. I was near tears at the thought that I was about to die as I couldn’t see what was behind me. I didn’t want to look, I cowered where I stood and forcefully shut my eyes to try and not look at whatever horrid creature was making those noises.

A minute passed, I was still alive, at least, I thought I was. I reopened my eyes and looked behind me. Nothing was there. Nothing had killed me. It was then that a sudden thought had seeded in my mind: Am I imagining these sounds? Have I gone so low on sanity from this experience of amnesia and this horrid castle that I’m just losing it? These were questions I didn’t rightly know the answer to. There was only one way to find out though: to keep going, as crazy as it sounded to me.

I walked on through the door where the origin of the sound lay in. It was too dark to tell what was inside except for a window to the far right corner of the room. I lifted my lantern which illuminated some more of the room. Another rockslide that had somehow evaded my notice from initially looking into the room lay right in front of me to my left. This rock slide was different from the others though. Blood. There was blood all over the rocks and partially on the floor. I coughed and turned away quickly as I tried to keep myself from vomiting. Blood wasn’t an easy sight for me.

I moved along, gradually getting over what I just saw. At the window that I saw when I first entered the room there was another table with another bottle of oil on it. Along with those, of all things, another piano. The lid on this one was already closed though. Nothing else of importance to me was there so I turned to my left and continued into the darkened hallway, though with my lamp I could see everything that was right in front of me. I made it a few meters in before turning to my right and reading “Floor Plans” on another wooden sign to a slightly ajar door.

I cautiously pushed the door open and to my surprise it was actually very well lit with two large windows like the ones I saw from the big room in here. There were two giant shelves full of scrolls on each end of the room with space in the middle. I moved in further and saw that in the space was a stand with two large scrolls sprawled out on it. I took a few more steps towards them to examine what they were. My mind was once again filled with something coming back to me with the same white flash. Opening my eyes, the room seemed much like how the foyer looked when I had my first flashback again.

“Much of the castle is old and hasn’t been tended to for centuries. When the Shadow arrives it won’t take long for things to start falling apart,” I recognized the voice to be Alexander’s.

“Centuries? How is that possible? This area was only discovered recently.” It was my voice now speaking.

“Castle Bridleburg has been around for much longer than it would seem. Even before the majority of the explorers even came here. This is something that you will soon come to learn about, but for now we need to focus on reinforcing the castle. There isn’t much to be done about the wards. We should reinforce weak structures. The ground will tremble and there will be a risk that everything will cave in on us, especially downstairs. Here, here, and there. Let’s get the servants working on it.”

The same flash returned as it did last time and everything once again returned back to normal. The memory seemed so familiar now, as if it had just happened. I remember now. Alexander was with me as we discussed protecting against the Shadow. My memory though was still heavily fragmented and only certain pieces are there. I can’t connect anything to each other yet with how little I actually have. It also got me thinking. Centuries? This castle had been here for centuries? I was just as confused as, well, I was when the memory had happened. There seems to be much more going on here than some mere haunted castle then, something very old. Also, if what was said was true, then many of the reinforcements that were made seem to be failing, as I had seen from the multitude of rockslides and roof cave-ins.

The open scrolls that were actually on the board looked like plans of the foyer and the eastern half of the Archives. I took a long look at them to see if they could be any help in navigating the area, which they really weren’t. I turned around; ready to leave again, only to be once again stricken with fear and piano music once again filled the area. The piano, that damned piano at the end of the hallway that was closed, is now playing. It was the same dark, nefarious rhythm again. I moved to the edge of the door and quickly motioned my head around the doorframe to observe the piano at the end of the hallway. As soon as I moved my head out of the doorframe the sound abruptly stopped. There was nothing at the piano, and the lid was still closed. I was completely baffled and terrified at the same time. Again I questioned my sanity as I lifted my lantern and began to head out the door to my right.

The hallway came to an end a small ways down, with only one more door to the left. Well, a doorframe, the door was nowhere to be seen. I looked inside to see another desk with a journal entry on it and a couple of stand-up boards with more scrolls on them as well to its left. After my first step inside; the entire world began to tremble. The sound of cascading rocks could be heard from a distance behind me. Oh no, I thought. I galloped back down the hallway towards the large room where I had entered from. My fears were confirmed as a newly formed pile of rocks completely blocked my way back into the large room. I swore before heading back towards the room I had left from. There was only one way to go now.

Back inside the room, I took a look at the large scrolls on the boards that, looking closer, appeared to be two detailed maps of the Bridleburg area and eastern Equestria in general. The maps made my jaw drop. Never had there existed a map this detailed for eastern Equestria, or the Bridleburg area for that matter. The question of who is Alexander started to become what is Alexander. How could any pony possibly have maps that were this detailed?

I turned my attention away from that conundrum and towards the entry on the desk. I reached out to pick it up. My hoof touched the parchment.

“Agh!” I winced. Something instantly overwhelmed me with a strenuous force like I was about to experience a flashback but much more painful. My vision blurred in and out as all ability to think escaped me. I felt my throat being constricted as I choked and gasped to breathe. The pain forced me to my knees and eventually onto my side as I began to pass out. Just before the blackness overran my vision though, I heard my voice once more:

"17th of May, 839"

"After pounding the stone wall for what seemed like an eternity. I realized it was hopeless, I was trapped. I fell to the ground gasping for air. That’s when I saw a faint blue shimmer."

My vision returned to me, except instead of being in the same room, I was now on a stone floor with a narrow, lit path with darkness surrounding it before me with, as I had heard myself a second ago describing it, a faint blue shimmer atop a pedestal at the end. I began to crawl towards the light as I heard myself begin to speak again:

"My weakened body was heavy to carry but I managed to push myself towards the enchanting light. It was waiting for me. Enclosed in dark nothingness, I felt myself drawn to the mystic light."

With much strain, I had finally made it to the pedestal and grabbed towards the light.

"I reached out. Closing it into my body and covering it. The faint glow escaped my body and began to spark brightly and spirit me away. Unlocking alien memories of spiraling towers, endless deserts, and impossible geometry."

The glow disappeared as a scraping sound began to ring across my ears.

"The next thing I remember was the sound of the stone being lifted. The voice of my team that I took with me into the ruins pulling me to safety. And pressed firmly against my body were the broken pieces of a most peculiar relic."

I had finally returned to reality. And worst of all, as I awoke, the sound of that demented piano playing once more filled my ears. After regaining my bearings and a few groans I managed to stand up once more. The piano stopped as soon as my vision had fully returned to me. I sluggishly exited the room, trying to make sense of what had just occurred. It had to have been some form of magic, there was no other way. No mere memory could have the power to both strangulate and hallucinate. So many things were happening to me in such a short time in such a hellish place.

Atop being prone to memory attacks and the whole castle itself, I was now trapped in this small hallway due to the cave-in. There was nothing I could lift that would be able to break through the window in the floor plans room, and I didn’t know how far up I was in the first place. The rocks were clearly too heavy to move as well and the hallway just led to a dead end.

Before I became complete devoid of hope though, I noticed a small opening in the wall at the end of the hallway right next to me. I moved closer and lifted my lantern once more for a better look. There was definitely a few bricks missing from the wall and the others seemed loose. Through the missing bricks I could see another room; from the looks of it there were much more bookshelves throughout the room and it also seemed lit. I hadn’t noticed it before; it must have formed during the cave-in.

Looking around for something that might be able to break it with, I had finally found a loose brick directly below me that must have also fallen off the wall. Extinguishing my lantern, I lifted the heavy brick. It was nearly impossible to lift in my weakened state of both body and mind but I eventually managed to lift it to the point where I could toss it. I summoned all of my remaining strength and threw the brick as hard as I could at the wall. The brick did just as I had expected and smashed clean through the other loose bricks, knocking them back and creating a hole just big enough for me to fit through. I silently congratulated myself for a seemingly small victory, but any progress in this place was the greatest feeling ever.

The other side of the wall was indeed lit to a certain extent from what I could see through the newly formed hole. After some of my strength had returned I hoisted myself up onto the hole and lifted the rest of my body over to move inside. I took my first step inside the room, just as another flashback began to start. I instantly panicked after going through the last one but to my relief it was just like the others that I had before as Alexander’s voice began speak again.

“You have to be swift. When you activate the first one—you hear that?” While he spoke, I could hear a ticking sound in the background and once he finished there was a slight thud noise and it ceased. “If it stops, you’ll have to start over.”

“Isn’t all this a bit…excessive?”

“You can never be too careful, charcoal.”

Like the others too, my vision returned to normal, or at least as normal as it could get with how much stress my mind was taking from all of this. My initial view of the room only showed a little of what was actually in it. The area that I entered through was indeed lit but only it that one section, the room continued down to the left of me by two rows with a bookshelf in-between them. It was too dark to see the left end of the room and to my right was just another quite large, or at least larger than the others, empty bookshelf.

I raised my lantern and saw another door that was in front of me to the left a little in the other row made by the center bookshelf median. I quickly moved over to it with much anticipation as the only thought on my mind now was to get out of this area. I pushed on the door as hard as I could, the door moved back and forth only slightly but never opened. After frustratingly trying several more times and nearly pushing myself to tears again, I gave up. The door wouldn’t open. I suddenly remembered something, the door before that had the local history sign. This must be that door, which means that my only means of leaving was to find a key.

I continued on to the furthest end of the room in search of any keys. I reached the end and saw a small display stand with a piece of parchment in it. I lit the candle stack near it to conserve lantern oil and moved closer. The glass that had covered it and protected it from the outside was shattered and only some small pieces clung to the outside frame of it. Curious, I picked it up and brought it closer to the light and read Local Ponylore at the top. Even more curious now, I began to read it in the hopes of finding out more about the castle.

Eastern Equestria and Castle Bridleburg:

Deep within the far reaches of the eastern Equestrian forests lies a somewhat small settlement of Bridleburg. And next to it, shrouded and hidden by mountains is a most interesting landmark. The castle itself has been in this area for far longer than any of the settlements have. Ever since the first explorers had arrived to this area, they found this strange castle looming within its natural barriers, old and withered as if it had been there forever. It’s strange and quite unusual architecture made some believe that it was made by aliens. But the only one that they had found within the castle was a strange yet open pony named Alexander. He welcomed the explorers to the area and claimed that his family had lived there for generations ever since they had migrated from mainland Equestria many years ago. Seeing the opportunity, the explorers began to bring in more and more settlers and eventually the settlement of Bridleburg was made a few miles outside of the castle. Alexander and his castle became Bridleburg’s source of protection and law from there on, even renaming his castle from an unknown name before to Castle Bridleburg and himself to Baron Alexander of Bridleburg. Ever since, and even since the time of the first explorers, strange tales about things in the area and rumors about Alexander have existed and are still told today.

The Gatherers:

This is one of the stories that goes back to the time of the first explorers. It is said that some explorers had gotten lost in the cold dark woods and became tainted by some dark magic that surrounds the area of Bridleburg. The taint and corruption twisted their bodies and left them disfigured and empty of essence. Those who have sighted them describe them as horrible revenants that lurk silently through the woods. They are called Gatherers for their ambition to steal living creatures. It is the whimpers of their bound victims being dragged behind them that reveal their presence into places unknown.

The Immortal Baron Alexander:

A rumor that has more recently surfaced amongst the population of Bridleburg, some are beginning to speculate just how old Alexander really is. Alexander had been described as being very old since the accounts of the first settlers and explorers. That time was well over fifty years ago. The same Alexander has been alive and unchanged for the entire time since. He too had claimed that his family lived in the castle for generations yet the servants who began to work for Alexander since moving to the area has never seen any others in Alexander’s family. As the first generation of settlers began to pass on and the younger generation was brought up, rumors began that Alexander may be immortal just like the princess. Some have asked Alexander about meeting the princess but he refused any talk of visiting or being visited by royalty. Thus he remains as this shadowy figure that secludes himself within his castle, keeping to himself and the area around him.

Chills ran down my spine. Alexander being immortal? And these Gatherers, they sounded like something straight out of a nightmare, and I was currently in a nightmare. I hoped that all of these stories were just that, stories, and not real. If so, things just became twice as complicated as they already were.

I kept all that I had just read in mind as I searched further. This time I looked everywhere I possibly could. The key wasn’t out in the open so I had hoped that maybe it would be on one of the bookshelves somewhere. Coming to the end of the room back to where I first entered through the hole, I noticed an odd looking book that stuck out much further from the shelf than all the others. I then remembered exactly what the book was, or rather what it did. Forming my path, I pulled the book out slightly. The ticking sound that I had heard from the flashback sounded clearly and I moved quickly across the room to the other side where the second book was. I pulled that one out like the first and moved again all the way across the room again to a bookshelf in the middle and pulled the last book out. A low rumble sounded as soon as the last book clicked and I turned my head to my left to watch the large empty bookshelf shifting to its left and revealing another room adjacent to the one that I was in.

I galloped through the room, overjoyed as I could possibly be in a situation like this. It was a more square room with a single writing desk at the end of it in front of me with a window shining much more brightly than most of the others had on it. And on the desk, my most sought for item, a key. I quickly moved to the desk and snatched the key up. I must have triggered something very angry though, because as soon as the key was lifted off of the desk a loud crash came from behind me with a few grunts of something big. I froze dead for a second as I thought: Is this really happening? My one large find and victory that came out of this terrible place was ran into the ground by whatever was stalking the archive hallways.

I was stuck somewhere between finding a hiding spot or just giving up and sitting down to let fate do what it will with me. I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to choose though as the noises quickly died down and all seemed to return to its normal state. If normal is having the constant threat of an unknown entity about you and feeling like you’re about die every second, that is. I gave a heavy sigh of relief, whatever made that crash was gone. Before I went to investigate though, I checked through the drawers for anything interesting and there was in fact a note in one of them.

Regarding the Closing of the Wine Cellar

Those fools have no idea what power they’re dealing with. The only reason I allowed them to remain here was in the hopes that I could further my ambitions much faster, which I have, but some are becoming superstitious of me. They ask for me to reveal my secrets of how I stay alive for so long or to meet the princess. If she were to even get near here it could jeopardize everything that I’ve set in motion. I’ve nearly prevented all outside contact, but some still get through though. I need absolute assurance that nothing will interfere with my plans, those few though who keep pestering me may eventually become a problem. Maybe I will feed them some wine, it would solve my problems with them. The winery hasn’t been majorly important until they first arrived, but now I’m getting more opportunities to use it to my advantage. The Wine Cellar will therefore be closed until this matter is handled.

I got even more chills. This had to have been by Alexander. Though if what he wrote was true, then something bigger is indeed going on. Something that transcends only me, I had no idea what it was, but I had to find out. As horrifying as this place is, it makes me feel like I was actually living. I’m discovering things that until now were only myths. Nothing else was in the room so it was time for me to find out what that large crash was behind me.

What had happened was very obvious from the moment I left the small room. The door that had been locked was now completely severed from its hinges and laying on the floor in front of me in two pieces. Two pieces, something had the strength to rip a door in half. I gingerly moved around the pieces of what was once a door and out into the hallway that lay beyond the doorframe. I recognized it as the same hallway that I was in earlier by looking at the sign that once again read “Local History” on it. I began back the way that I came by moving down the hall as silently as I could to not bring notice to myself by whatever may be lurking these halls. The rest of this hall remained seemingly unchanged, though I found the one that did change other than the split door. The other door that I needed to head through to make it back to the entrance was locked. I disbelievingly tried harder to open it again before giving up and swearing again.

“Oh come on,” I said out loud, forgetting about trying to remain silent. My frustration with this entire place had far exceeded its limit. Shaking my head at how bad my luck was, I moved back to where I began at the broken door and then to my right towards the large room. I began towards it had just made it to the end of the hallway.

Urrrghaagghh…

I had finally gotten my first glimpse of the mysterious lurker, and how I wish I hadn’t. I had just crossed the threshold through the room and saw it was all the way across the room and just exiting through the door at the right end so it was hard to see, but I did see some things, and they weren’t good. From what I could see, the thing was absolutely deformed beyond belief. It had a large gash in its side and one of the forelegs looked severed in the middle, replace by a metallic object as I could hear it thumping on the floor as it left. Its coat and mane were completely gone, instead only rotted flesh remained of it. I only saw the backside of it and couldn’t see its face, but I felt it better that I hadn’t, If it looked anything like the rest of the body, then I would have probably passed out from fear, though I did come very close.

Thinking straight again, I sat down with a sudden realization: That horrible monster went through the door at the end of the room, which leads to the exit, and the only other alternative route is locked, so my only chance of leaving is to follow that monster. I didn’t think that I could do it. I thought long about it, really thought about it. I eventually came to terms that I have to do it and that either way I had equal chance of running into it again. I stood up and with hopelessness about me, I continued on towards the end. As I neared the doorframe, my breaths became steadily heavier, my hoof steps became louder, and the now always present wavering of my vision worsened. I came upon the edge of the doorway and took a deep breath before looking around the corner. There was nothing. Nothing beyond the door. Only the same hallway that I had entered through.

Still extremely cautious but slightly more relieved, I continued further. My slow steps echoed louder than I had remembered them echoing before. I had finally made it to the end of the hallway and was bracing myself to turn again to the final hallway that would lead back to the foyer.

Oooooooaaaauuugggghhhhh…

It came from behind me, behind me! How in the hell could that thing get behind me? A quick head turn revealed nothing though. The only way that was possible was if there were two of them, not a pleasing thought. Before I regained my nerves and tried to continue, all fell apart and I finally snapped once I heard a second growl that was closer to me this time and the piano once again started. I screamed and madly rushed towards the exit. I didn’t care anymore, I had to get out of this place. My vision was blurred from the blind panic but I don’t believe that I actually saw the monster again before I made it to the end of the hallway, and in turn, my much relieved exit.

__________________________________________________________________________

I made it. I was finally out of that terrible place. The light of the foyer was much brighter than that of the Archives. I collapsed onto the ground and laid there for a few minutes to take in the light and regain what had been greatly shaken. For the first time, I was smiling. Smiling because I had finally achieved something out of all that had happened. I made it.

I stood, finally relaxed and more confident than I had ever been since waking up in this demented castle, and took my first steps towards the Wine Cellar. It took only four steps, four steps to bereave me of all of those feelings in an instant. That terrible, earth shaking train whistle-like roar boomed throughout the castle once more and struck me with much more fear as I had let my guard down since returning to the foyer, which I believed to be safe. I was wrong. The nasty flesh like substance that was blocking the entrance to the Refinery grew across the wall that wall behind me and the floor below me. The stuff on the floor though looked more like puss filled sacs.

I learned the hard way that I was right. The one closest to me exploded and whatever substance filled it splashed all over me. It seared my coat and made my skin react as if it were being set on fire, which for all I know it had. I screamed with agony and galloped as fast as I could away before another could explode near me. I made it to the end of the walkway that sat above the ground level of the foyer and in a fear stricken rush began to move down the stairs, only to trip on the first two steps and fall. I hit a single stair again and again as everything spun around me again. A blow to my head, then to my forelegs, then to my side, my head again, it all blended together as the pain made me lose my sense of reality and begin to pass out.

I wasn’t passed out, yet I wasn’t exactly fully awake either. Everything hurt, whether it was from the flesh sac or the fall I didn’t know, it just hurt. I could feel my heartbeat. A low, double thud. Slow. Beating. My eyes opened slightly, then closed again, then once more opened. This continued for a good while. It was all just so surreal. The pain and loss of sanity had taken its toll on me; I couldn’t think anymore, just function, barely.

My eyes finally opened for real this time. No more disorientation, no more disability to think. I must have actually passed out for a while. But one thing was certain, I was alive, something I didn’t know if I should have been thankful for or be cursing myself for. My left foreleg twitched. I had control over myself again. With the strength I regained from being motionless for a time, I pushed with all my might and slowly came up into a standing position once more, though with much strain as I struggled for a bit to keep myself up. I leaned against the stairs rail for support for a bit as I recovered my energy. My right side still stung from whatever splashed on me from that sac, but I wanted nothing more to do with those. I was bleeding from a few of the burn areas and cuts from my fall, as well as a faint taste of blood in my mouth. I stared at the floor with heavy eyes.

In the midst of recovering my energy, I realized I had started to do something else, I began to cry. I felt the watery tears pooling in the base of my eyes and occasionally falling to the ground. By this point I cared little if I was crying or not, nothing really mattered to me at the moment. I was probably going to die down here in this monster infested hell. How could such a place like this exist in such a peaceful nation? Fears and myths where something that was only meant to scare foals, not push one to the brink of death. I pushed off from the rail and looked back up towards the Archives. The flesh substance was still there, but remained only there. I turned and began to move towards the Wine Cellar. I had to keep going, I didn’t know why, but I just had to. It’s like there was some unnatural drive within me to push further, learn more, figure out why this was all happening, and most importantly, to finally escape.

None of the fleshy substance was in the stairway that led to the Laboratory and Wine Cellar. I moved to the intersection just as I did before, but this time turned left to the Wine Cellar. I made it to the door safely and pulled the key out of my leg bag, surprised that it had somehow remained in it and had not fallen out. The key fit right into the slot, a definite clicking sound of its turning gave me the signal that the door was finally unlocked. I took the handle and pulled the door open, making my way inside to hopefully find the ingredients that I needed to make the acid which I had ventured all this way for in the first place.

__________________________________________________________________________

It was dark. As the Laboratory had been. But from what I could tell I was on another wooden platform. The entrance led to the furthest right edge of the platform and to my left was the stairs. Everything about the Wine Cellar, save for its layout, seemed exactly the same as the laboratory

I raised my lantern once more, another item that I was surprised wasn’t gone, and descended the stairs until I reached its turning point that went down further to the left. From this point, I could see what the Wine Cellar mostly looked like. The floor of the Cellar itself was mostly bare except for a couple of large barrels, holding wine I assumed, and many doors all around leading to other sections that I couldn’t see. There were two in front of me, one directly to my left, and several that I could barely make out behind me by looking past the stairs. Chains rattled off in the distance and I instantly raised my awareness once more before continuing further. I descended the next set of stairs to my left and as my hoof touched the ground another flashback came to me.

“Where did the Baron go?”

“Who cares? He left us with enough wine to last us a lifetime. Or at least until tomorrow!” The sound of laughter filled the room as the flashback ended.

I was puzzled. I hadn’t recognized either of those voices. Was I even there? How could I have been experiencing flashbacks that weren’t my own? More questions that needed an answer but I feared there was none. Large pools of blood and a couple of wine bottles resided on the floor to the left of me. I decided it best not to explore that area first and instead begin moving towards my right to see what was in that area. At the end of the main room was a slightly ajar door in front of me and an open doorframe to the right. I was closer to the slightly open one so I made my way in there first.

It was very dirty and unkempt, much like the rest of the castle. Multiple support pillars were set up throughout the room with unorganized barrels between them, smaller than the large ones outside though. In the darkness to my left was a small jar that gave a soft blue glow. Intrigued, I walked over to it and knelt down to examine it. “Calamine” it read on the label. This was one of the things that I needed. I quickly picked it up and placed it in my bag. No sooner had I picked it up did the entire world around me once again quake and a loud crash made me quickly glance to my right as I watched my only exit become covered with rocks and pillars.

“No,” I whispered.

I shot up and moved as quickly as I could to not lose my balance as the shaking started to cease. Multiple debris covered the door, I could barely see through it but some of what had fallen went through the open door. I thought for a minute and concluded my only chance of getting out was to move all of them out of the way or at least to the point where I could get out. Working as hard as I could, I slowly began to move the large rocks out of the way and pushing the pillars to the side, conjuring up the rest of the strength I had regained earlier in the process. After a few long, arduous minutes, I made a hole just big enough for me to fit through. I slid though a large rock that was too big to move and a pillar to finally make it out of the room.

Feeling both accomplished and exhausted, I turned to my left and through the open doorframe. Inside was another small room with chains hanging from the ceiling which was the ones that I assumed that I heard earlier. There was also another closed door to my left. I took one more step in before violently recoiling as a terrified scream came from behind the door followed by three loud smashes on it that actually made the entire door shake as if it were being pounded on. I ran back behind the doorframe once more and peeked around the corner occasionally to see if the door had done anything else. It remained stationary once more. Whether there was something actually alive in there or it was an illusion, I had no idea. It had seemed like nothing was inside though after what had just happened.

I made my way as slowly as possible to the door, and with equal speed, pulled the door slightly and looked through the small crack. Nothing again. It was just the end of a small corner of the room. I pulled the door open further and slinked around the edge inside. The room had a small hallway that eventually led to a larger more square room. Upon viewing it though, I had to stifle vomiting. The room was covered in gore and blood. A small table in the center along with a few upturned chairs, but other than that it was just complete death. Another flashback began to come on.

“What’s happening? Agh, feels like…my body is going…to burst…” The sound of flesh violently ripping and blood, or what I assumed to be blood, spilling across the floor made me almost puke once more.

“Sweet Celestia, do something!” It was the same two voices from my previous flashback, just before third and once again unknown voice spoke.

“Accept it, where not getting out of here alive.”

“How can you say that? Alexander you bastard, let us out of here!” The immediate sound of coughing as he finished speaking ended the memory.

Disgusting. Whatever had happened to these poor souls was something that only the most horrible of ponies could do. Alexander must have been the one who did it too, from reading both the note by him and whoever spoke mentioning him. Perhaps Alexander was as bad as my past self had described him after all? Too many questions, never enough answers, and the answers I get only lead to more questions. I sighed, trying to collect myself and get the sight in front of me out of my mind to search the room.

There was a single window in this room, actually, there had been a lot of windows around in the rooms what I was in, though they eventually became unimportant to me as they just seemed so dull. They gave almost no light and seeing out of them was nigh impossible. I kept seeing them, but they gave me nothing I could use so I just stopped caring about them. Besides that, the room was just as dull as all of the others. It was a depressing and horrid sight to look at, and my mind was taking the brunt of its negative effects on me. I was slipping away from rational thought and into instinct, because instinct kept me alive, it was quick. I lost myself in thought, of all places to do so. After a certain amount of time, how specific I didn’t know, I brought myself back into reality. I was standing in the middle of several mutilated corpses and pools of blood thinking about my entire situation, what a fool I was being.

I checked the rest of the room, another tinderbox and a small room on the left side adjacent to the larger one that I was in. Inside that one I found another item that I needed for my acid, Aqua Regia. Other than that, nothing else was in the room, besides the corpses. I left with a sigh of relief of getting out of that nasty place. I exited the room with the long rattling chains in them and back into the main room of the Wine Cellar. I found myself becoming more disconnected with what seemed real. What was real in the first place? I have only so many memories of my life that I don’t even know what to believe or if any of this is right. The darkness of this cellar must be driving me mad. I lifted my lit lantern and took in the lights rays, a small bit of solace to keep my sanity up.

I decided to go back to the first door that I had noticed when I first entered directly in front of where the stairs began to head back up. I pulled the door open and became immediately suspicious. It was as dark as any of the other rooms, no windows in this one, but all I could see through it was a single desk at the end surrounded by fog, or what I assumed to be fog, it was hard to tell.

I took a few cautious steps inside.

Nothing.

A few more.

Nothing.

The least few to the desk itself.

Nothing.

Completely baffled yet alright with the outcome, I lit the candle that I saw on the desk when I neared it and looked around. Barrels, a lot more barrels around the room, and a tool rack, but nothing else out of the ordinary from what I’ve been seeing thus far. Only one thing took my attention, another ingredient that I needed. “Cuprite” it read. Feeling better that I found another, I quickly snatched it up and put it with the others.

The door slammed shut behind me as I heard that series of grunts by what sounded like the same thing in the Archives. My eyes sprang open with fear and I silently cursed myself for letting my guard down and ducked into a corner behind a set of barrels to hide in case whatever it was came inside.

Nothing else made any noises. I seemed to be alone once more, as they had done to me before, scare me to the point of collapsing and leaving just as quickly. If I wasn’t so sure that these things were soulless abominations from what I’ve seen of them, I would have assumed they were doing this for their own damned amusement.

I left my impromptu hiding spot and moved back over the now closed door I had entered through. I pushed it open slightly and peeked through, nothing from what I could see. I pushed it even further to where it was half open. Still no monsters. At last I just opened the door to its fully open state and exited through it. The Wine Cellar remained as it was when I first entered, creepy and foreboding, yet no monsters. Another sigh of relief before heading to my right to the last unexplored area of the Wine Cellar.

After a small area that ran under the wooden walkway I came upon a door that was in the center of the stone wall. I, with even more caution that I had with the previous one due to those things possibly lurking about, pulled open the door. Same as before with how dark it was, similar fog-like stuff. I raised my lantern and could see that the room was more rectangular in shape, to my left was an opening that led into another room and to my right looked like a narrower piece of the room that wrapped around so I couldn’t see the end of it.

I tried going to my right first. A small metal holder with a wooden torch inside were placed around several locations of the room. I lit the one that was closest to my right and looked around the corner to the area I couldn’t see initially. It looked like nothing was there at first, but after a second of searching I saw another faint glow of the last ingredient that I needed. I rushed over to it, though with my guard still raised in case of any more surprises, and observed the small jar. “Orpiment”, this one read. I collected it, storing with the others and turning around to head back.

I made it safely back to where my lit torch was. Looking back into the rest of the room though, I grew curious as to what was past the opening up ahead. There must be something down here that can help me, maybe another key to another door that was somewhere up ahead. I should at least check anyway, I definitely don’t want to end up having to come back down here again.

I continued to justify my reasoning for still being down here as I entered through the opening. A few shelves of miscellaneous items and the occasional barrel, but mostly bare. Though to my left at the end of the side room was a smaller hallway that went down to the left, so I moved in further. As I did, I could hear more sounds above me on the walkway akin to that of the ones in the laboratory. The creaking and the thumping of something striking it. I pushed it out of my mind as I had already experienced before and just assumed that it was my mind playing tricks on me and kept going.

I turned at the end of the room and saw that the hallway went on past further than my vision could see. Though there were more windows this time that looked like they were giving more light, I assumed only because it was such a narrow hallway. There were also several more torch placements on the walls, so I lit them as I went through the hallway towards the end. There was a door somewhere near the middle of it but I saw something that had caught my eye at the end of the hallway that also gave off a slight glow, less than the ingredients for the acid but still more visible than anything else. I kept the door in mind but left it alone as I moved further down the hall.

I made it to the end of the hallway and observed the large shelf that was against the wall and its contents. Nothing else had piqued my interest besides the small vial that I now found it to be. Picking it up, I remembered what I was, Laudanum, a substance that came from several experiments of alchemy involving plants. It was often used for healing purposes for those with large injuries to ease the pain. Suddenly thinking of my constantly burning side from that sac, I thought it best to use it to help with that.

Rrrarghrr…

This one was close, much closer to me. I fearfully turned my head to the right of me down the hallway and did a double take before moving in the corner of the hallway’s end. Waves of terror were sweeping over me, for with the light of the torch, I saw what those things looked like from the front.

That thing had no lower jaw.

It wasn’t necessarily gone, just…stretched, stretched and flapping about at least halfway to the ground from its head. Its eyes were mismatched and asymmetrical, I couldn’t see them so well but they looked like they were slit in a strange way that was narrower near the top of the eye but wider near the center. Its left foreleg was indeed replaced with a large metallic object, a claw, stained red. Other than that it was completely deprived of any hair as only the husk of dead flesh remained sloppily attached on the thing.

Just looking at it invoked a terror that I hadn’t thought existed in me; it went beyond anything I had felt before. My staggered breaths gave way to my teeth beginning to grind and chatter, of all things I could start to do. I clenched my mouth shut and tried to remain focused. Being in the presence of whatever this thing was had been having adverse effects on my mind. The small bit of vision distortion that was present before had now gone completely to my sight becoming distorted and wavering to the point where it was making my head spin. Blackness overtook the edges of my vision as tunnel vision began to set. I had to look away from it; it was making me do this somehow. I wrenched my head away from looking at it and buried my head down into the ground and prayed that it would go away.

The monster had shuffled around a bit and left after a few seconds, but I still kept my head down. Only after minutes I lifted it and saw an empty hallway once more. I stood, took a few steps, and lost my balance before falling completely to my side once more as my ears rang and my sight become distorted beyond recognition. The thing was gone, but the trauma of just staring at it and being in this darkness for so long had finally gotten to me. I lay there, confused as my thoughts swam through me head in no order. A few more heavy breaths. I could even begin to see imaginary bugs crawling across my eyes. I still thrashed about though because I hadn’t known any better. I was a pitiful mess on the floor coping with insanity.

It had taken a while, a long while, but I finally regained my senses once more as I found myself sometime later looking through a somewhat clear view again. I took one large, gasping breath and a few coughs before standing. I didn’t even think about it anymore, I quickly picked up the laudanum that I had dropped when I fell off the ground and poured it into my mouth.

The relief was nearly instant. I could feel my pain ending as I actually relaxed some. The tension in my muscles ceased and the burning in my side subsided. It was a good feeling. I shook slightly from the recovery and collected myself. Now that I wasn’t in as much pain, I could finally get out of here.

I moved swiftly to the door in the middle of the hallway with renewed vigor as the laudanum did its work. I felt completely renewed. I opened the door with no caution at all and, for once, with confidence, not caring what was on the other side. There was indeed nothing from what I could see. I moved towards the stairs and began to climb them quickly as there was no more time to waste. I had to get this acid made and through the Refinery to the inner sanctum, this was the only thing that mattered anymore. I had to know, had to know why all this was happening, and more specifically, why it was all happening to me. I made it to the Wine Cellar entrance and went through it without taking a second look back down.

__________________________________________________________________________

The door only barely shut behind me before the same thundering roar I heard when I had exited the Archives shot through me once more. The same red flesh substance began to morph over and grow across the walls of the hallway containing the narrow steps leading up and to the laboratory. I wouldn’t stay around long enough this time for that awful stuff to explode all over me again.

I burst into a full gallop moving up the stairs as fast as I could without tripping again, that horrid stuff following close behind me. A large patch of it had already grown on the small intersection of the stairway where it began to head towards the laboratory and I slunk down slightly and jumped, clearing it and making it safely to the other side. I moved faster as I neared the Laboratory door and in a split second opened and closed it, escaping the red stuff.

I took a few exhausted breaths as I stood on the other side of the door. I actually made it past all of that without getting sprayed with another searing dose of that pus. I continued forwards, relieved and more confident than I had been. I was getting so close to finally getting out of this area that was being overrun. I moved casually down the stairs and towards the Laboratory itself. It remained just as I had left it, or at least from what I could tell from initially viewing it. I made it to the mixing bench and began the process of producing my long sought after acid. I began by placing the four chemicals onto the metal holders placed on the wall respectively to make the necessary mixture. Starting with the Aqua Regia first, then the Calamine, then the Cuprite.

Everything I was working on suddenly stopped as a tumultuous crashing sound came from outside the Laboratory. It sounded as if the entire room had just collapsed. I kept my pause for a moment, and then continued once more. I was too close to stop and check on things now; this was the only real progress I had made since finding the Wine Cellar key. I finally added the Orpiment and grabbed the chemical pot across before bringing it back and placing it under the mixture faucet to receive it once it was finished. Everything was in place now; it was time to actually create the acid. I turned the burners on and watched with rising hopes as the ingredients began to boil. I turned the wheels above the fixtures holding the jars and one by one the ingredients flowed through the pipe connecting all of them into a faucet and finally into my chemical pot. The room gave one more shake as it did. I raised the acid up and closer to me and held it as if it were a newborn foal. This was the end result to everything I had been working towards. I could now finally get into the Refinery and this Inner Sanctum.

Now that I was done with that I was done with the Laboratory, I saw no more need to be in here. I finally went to go check on what made that large crashing sound. The answer was abundantly clear as soon as I entered the small hallway that connected the main room with the Laboratory, the stairs had collapsed. Things were really beginning to fall apart around this area of the castle, I had to move quickly. Looking around the wreckage, there was no way that I could jump up onto the platform; I wouldn’t want to risk it anyway with a volatile pot of acid on me. Looking further around, I did see something that gave me some hope, the small section of the stairs that was flat as I descended them, it was still fully intact. Beginning to work my plan as I went, I carefully lifted the square piece of the stairs and leaned it up against the little bit of the stairs that still remained on top. It was perfect, exactly set up to walk on. I did, though maintaining a great deal of balance because of the small chance that the section was unstable, which judging from the fact that it fell apart in the first place, I assumed that it was. I finally made it up past the small section and over the small piece of stairs left. The walkway itself to the door was still stable. I opened the door and continued my way towards the Refinery.

__________________________________________________________________________

Another roar. More hard fleshy stuff. I was familiar with it by this point, and tired of it. I moved carefully and swiftly around what was in the stairway up until I made it into the foyer itself. The stuff had grown everywhere now. Only certain sections of the floors and walls remained bare. I started by searching for a clear path to the stairs leading to the Refinery. Most of the area immediately around the stairs leading down remained bare enough. I navigated my way around what little pieces of red flesh there was on the floor and down the stairs, finally making it through the door. This area looked just the same as it had before, even with all of it that’s already spread across the foyer. The small section that was there before still remained as well. That was about to change. Pulling out the acid, I took one last look at the red stuff and prayed that this would work. I tilted the jar slightly and tossed its contents directly at the acid.

Triumph. Something I hadn’t felt much since I woke.

I watched with great pleasure as the horrible thing dissolved and broke down into nothing, clearing my path. Straight in front of me was another door, presumably leading the Refinery I figured. I didn’t waste any time, the foyer was being taken over too rapidly to think about whether I should go further or not. Like it or not, no matter what happened, I was stuck there. And my only way out was to go in further.

__________________________________________________________________________

This area was even darker than the others, the further I went the darker it got. My lantern was rapidly becoming my most important thing to me as I lifted it and continued my way through. It was impossible to see the end, but it was just a really long hallway from all I could see. I made it only a little ways in before a flashback came to me.

“It sure is dark in here.”

“Yes, and there’s a good reason for it. You can light the lamp now, if you wish Charcoal.”

“What’s the reason for it? The darkness, that is.”

“Stay close. Be careful not to stray.”

“But what’s the reason? Why is it so dark?”

“Pay attention, Charcoal. It’s important that you keep going straight and make sure not to stray.”

I made a note of that. My need to explore made me lose consciousness last time. The hallway eventually turned left and continued on further. The hallway was now separated in the middle by segmented pillars running the length of it. Debris lay scattered all across it as well. It eventually came to an end and into another large room. This one looked similar to the Wine Cellar in that the large barrels were stored inside here too. It also looked like there was only one area that connected to this one, a larger room connected by an opening right in front of me.

Rrrarghrr…

I hadn’t even made it fully into the room before I heard that. Without even thinking, I instantly extinguished my lantern and ducked into the hallway. As I did I caught a glimpse of the thing moving across my only way through this area from the left end of the opening and disappearing on the right. Like all the other times, I would have to follow it. Follow it. What was I thinking? I must have been crazy, and for all I knew I was. A defeated sigh escaped me before I continued.

The room through the opening was roughly the same size as the previous one, more barrels within this one as well. From what I saw there were a few doors that I could go through. One in front of me, and one on each my left and right side. I didn’t feel like following that monster exactly and going to my right, so I decided to go left towards the closest door to me first. Before I reached the door I noticed a few severed and torn limbs that had been hidden behind a barrel to the left of me that were very heavy with decay. I tried to keep thoughts of how they might of gotten there and who they had belonged to out of my mind as I entered through the door.

That soul grinding, unholy roar that refused to relent struck again. But it was worse this time. My vision turned blood red, all I could see was a macabre of a sight everywhere. I forcefully shut my eyes and tried to cover my ears in a vain attempt to stop listening. It quickly subsided and once I opened my eyes I found my vision to be normal again, or as normal as it could get. I took a few very deep breaths. It was getting worse. It only kept getting worse. It had to have been the work of this Shadow mentioned in that letter. I know of no naturally occurring phenomenon that I have learned of that could do something like this. I had to keep moving further to try and get away from it hopefully. I stumbled slightly going forwards but quickly recovered and lit a candle on a small table directly in front of me. Sparse areas of the room where covered in the red flesh like stuff, but not enough to cause a complete panic over. So long as I avoided the large exploding sacs I would be fine.

The room itself was much smaller than the previous one, but roughly a squarer shape that it. Another jar of oil sat on one of the shelves of wine that was in the room. I grabbed it, filled the lantern, and made my way over to the door that was to the right of me that I had noticed upon entering the room. The room beyond that door had only one thing of importance, another laudanum. Very important to have on me in case I needed it again. I turned once more to my right once I got inside the room and collected to laudanum to face another door there as well, only to have it push open by itself, slowly. I recoiled at the sight, but not as bad as I had before to similar occurrences.

It revealed another long room behind it, almost the size of a hallway but slightly larger and wider than most that I’ve seen thus far. Further down in front of me was another door. This series of rooms seemed to run around the main room. I had also notice another journal entry on the table in front of me.

22nd of June, 839

It’s been more than a month since my last entry. After the event in the old chamber in the Griffin Territory, the professor insisted that I return to Canterlot lest we forfeit all of our findings here should I take a turn for the worse. It was a bit excessive in my opinion but I’m glad that it turned out the way that it did. I found my journal amongst the things that had returned with me along with the broken stone orb wrapped in a cloth. I tried to assemble the pieces, but they wouldn’t fit together as if they weren’t from the same object. Was there ever a complete orb? Or had I just imagined it all?

This was interesting, but didn’t help me with my current situation with how much knowledge I had of this orb other than that I had found it before I lost all of my memory, and according to this I could have even simply imagined that. Without any more information to help clear things up, I began to move again. The door at the opposite end of the room was locked so I turned back and went over to the other door that I saw. This was the only door that led away from this room so I decided to check in here first.

It was at least somewhat lit. A single light hanging in the middle of the room gave me enough sight to not need my lantern. Two large barrels to either side of me blocked my field of view so I had to move in closer to see around. Nothing of interest was to my left but in front of me was a hatch that led down somewhere, and to my right was a smaller barrel of what looked like oil. I confirmed my suspicion as I neared it. What was inside filled the rest of my lantern and I looked over and on the table was another journal entry. I picked it up like all the others are read to myself:

25th of June, 839

I feel the need to continue this journal, even though it was only intended for my expedition into the Griffin Territory. This orb is something very important, I know it. I had taken it upon myself to piece it back together, but its proving more difficult than I had anticipated. The pieces act strangely, they seem to change shape, color, and texture, but ever so slightly. Yesterday, I took careful measurements and confirmed my suspicions, the pieces were changing. I hurried to the best geologist in Canterlot that I could find. I asked him about it and he discussed with me about how rocks change form, more specifically about the nature of glass and its tendency to slowly collapse in on itself. This had eased my mind a bit, but I still believed that these pieces were of otherworldly properties.

Otherworldly properties? Was I now dealing with aliens? It was something that had been theorized by others but never proven, even the princess downplayed any evidence that such things have ever visited this world. It still bothered me how much I knew about everything around me from my past but never my actual past itself. It kept adding to my frustration which piled on top of my fear. None of it was a good mixture either. Having something else to consider now, I decided that there was nothing else for me in the room and went back to take a look at that hatch. It was slightly opened so I lifted what was left fully open and looked inside. More red fleshy stuff. More of it. It was so prolific. It hadn’t covered all of the floor but it did cover the majority of the walls. The drop itself down want very far at all, any hope of a ladder was gone as that entire section of the wall was completely covered.

Bracing myself, I jumped down into the hatch. I landed with a hard thud as I fell first on my hooves and then onto my side. It didn’t hurt all that much so I stood again quicker than I had before and moved on, once again making sure to avoid anything that might lash out at me. This hallway was much denser than the others, and more cramped as well. In a small hallway like this surrounded by that flesh stuff and with me not immediately running in fear from it because I was forced to, I began to see just how disgusting it really was. It grew like thick spider webs off of the wall and made just the most absolutely disgusting sounds.

The path turned left and then right. I made it to the edge of corner of the first turn but before I managed to turn right the roar came back even louder than it had all the other times. My vision too turned red once more and the entire hallway trembled and shook. I was fearful that it may fall to I continued quicker than I had before. The hallway turned right as I had seen and came to another door. “Cellar Archives” this one read. I didn’t care where it lead though. I just wanted to get out of this narrow and cramp hallway before it had collapsed.

__________________________________________________________________________

The entire hallway was actually lit. I was pleasantly surprised. It looked similar to the halls that I first roamed through when I woke up all that time ago, it seemed like ages now. There were several boxes of various shapes stacked in different locations around the hallway from what I could see, and an archway to my right a little ways in. I could still hear the echoes of the roaring from behind me so I decided it was best for me to get moving and not wait for whatever it was making that noise to find me.

Everything was consumed by blackness in an instant and I was blinded.

My heart nearly stopped.

I couldn’t see anything. Anything.

“Aaaghh!”

When some light finally returned, I found myself wading up just above my knees in water. Worst yet, the walls were completely covered in the red flesh now. Looking back, I saw my exit back into the hallway was blocked too. The initial shock had passed after a few seconds and I managed to collect myself a little. But to see an entire hallway flooded with water in the blink of an eye was completely unimaginable. This was no mere illusion magic either, none of it was, this I was realizing more and more as I continued. Whatever was making all of these terrible things come into this world, it was far more powerful than any kind of magic. Whatever this Shadow was, it possessed power greater than anything that I know of, perhaps even greater than that of the princess.

The water was freezing too. It stung and pierced my legs with its bitter iciness as I began to move through it. All of the boxes that were stacked around previously were now scattered aimlessly throughout the water now covering the ground. I made it over to the archway that I saw when I first entered the Cellar Archives and saw a lot of things just as disorganized inside with nothing of real note except for what looked like a small level on the far edge of the wall. It didn’t look like it would affect anything to me since I assumed that anything that it would affect is probably ruined by this water, so I didn’t bother going inside.

Splash

It was at the far edge of the hallway directly in front of me when I saw it. A single splash. Along with that a gurgling noise of something that had surfaced and taken a breath or something like that, I couldn’t tell. In fact, it had even reminded me of something that I remembered seeing from earlier, in the Laboratory.

I wasn’t given the chance to finish my thought as the singular splash that I heard was now a multitude of violent splashes that kept drawing closer to me. I panicked and almost instinctively climbed up on the nearest box next to me. The splashes reached the box and suddenly stopped. Though I could hear the same gurgling noises again. I couldn’t see what the thing was in the murky water so I lifted my lantern to see if I could get a glimpse of it.

No. That’s impossible.

There was nothing in the water. With my lantern I could see all the way through it, and there was nothing there. I swung it around to other areas to see if it was anywhere else around the box, but the water was devoid of anything except for the other boxes. I found myself quickly rethinking my idea of impossible with everything that’s happened recently. Becoming increasingly confused, I put my lantern away and stuck my hoof into the water to my right to see what would happen. I sorely regret my stupidity in doing that because as soon as I did the water once again splashed as I heard something roar and the next thing I knew something very sharp pierced through the end of my hoof. I wrenched it out of the water and winced as I saw a small stream of blood pouring out of it. My mind was reeling at how impossible this was. I was being attacked by and invisible water monster.

The bleeding stopped after I applied some pressure to it and a few minutes passed, the entire time the waters sat eerily silent. By this time I had realized that this thing must have been what I saw in the Laboratory. Or at least the splash that it made, since it was made very clear by now that I can’t even see the damn thing. The only way that I can move throughout this hallway was by jumping from box to box, trying to avoid falling in the water.

I began by doing just that and jumping to the closest box in front of me, leading down the hallway. As soon as I landed on it and balanced myself the water behind me began to thrash and it stopped right next to me as it had before. I tried to keep it from unnerving me as I jumped again but it was very difficult considering I know just how easily this thing will shred me apart should I fall. I made it several more boxes down the hallway before I finally reached the end of it and looked down to my right where it turned. I now realized what that lever must have been for. At the end of the hallway was a doorframe but instead of a door there was a metal gate blocking the way, it looked way too heavy for me to lift so I decided to head back into the room to see if my hunch was right.

More jumps. I was doing rather well at keeping my balance and not falling considering how terrified I was. Perhaps that was what was keeping my balance in the first place, the fear. I made it to the archway that led into the small room and cursed at it. There was no way that I could make a jump onto one of the boxes in the room due to the low hanging of the archway, I would have to sprint through the water to get to the lever. The monster had stopped next to me as it had all the other times. I took a deep breath and bolted off the box into the room. The instant I made contact with the water I heard the monster moving just as swiftly. I made it inside the room and towards the nearest box. It was just to my right and I barely made it up because I felt another sharp object graze the back of my leg as I jumped up onto it. I could hear the thing make another series of noises, clearly upset that I had escaped it. The boxes in this room were much closer to each other and I could walk across them with ease. I made it to the lever and pulled down on it hoping for the best.

I was right, as soon as the lever came down I heard gears working and something opening out of the water ahead of me to my left. But I was also hearing something else. A ticking noise. Similar too…

Thinking quickly, I darted off of the large box I was on onto the smaller ones, grabbing a book off of one of the shelves that was in the room and quickly jumping into the water and out of the door onto the next box, the water monster following closely behind me. The ticking noise sounded just like the one from the Archives with the books, and if that any indication of anything then I had to move fast. I jumped from each box all the way to the end where it turned right, and taking a complete leap of faith, I threw the book back towards where I came from and took off through the water after jumping off of the box towards the open gate.

It worked just as I planned, the water monster began to go after the book that I threw and ignored me, at first. As soon as I was halfway towards the door I could hear it gaining ground on me once more. My heart was beating at an unimaginable rate as I sped up faster as I was running literally for my life. Just as I was about to reach the gate it began to close rapidly and I just cleared it before it slammed into the ground and I heard something crashing into it with another roar. I had come into another larger room with several stone support pillars around the room and boxes scattered around the pillars. To the left of me upon entering was another closed gate, but this one had a wheel next to it that I had assumed to be an opening mechanism.

I moved quickly towards it but not as fast this time thinking that I had escaped the water monster. My brief triumph over it was quickly destroyed as I saw a second set of splashes coming from the middle of the room.

Another one.

I picked up my speed and just barely avoided it as I rushed towards the door. I made it safely to it and up on a large crate that was next to it. I almost fell off of it though as I had just noticed several severed limbs laying on it. I wanted to move badly but this was the only thing that I could stand on immediately around me. Plus the water was still relatively freezing so constantly going in and out of it was starting to really get to me.

After sitting there for a minute regaining my strength from my last encounter with a water monster, I got another idea that might work similarly to my last one. The turning wheel was on the other side of the door which meant I had to be in the water to turn it and I wouldn’t last five seconds with that horrid thing skulking about the water, but if I, and this thought sickened me, fed the thing one of these limbs next to me it might be distracted just long enough for me to get past the gate. It was an extremely risky play but I had to get out of this place before that thing, that Shadow making all those roaring noises back in the foyer and Refinery got closer to me.

I lifted a severed half of a torso and tried my best to not vomit. I hurled the thing as far away from the door as I could get so it would take longer for it to reach it and moved as soon as it hit the water without looking to see if the monster took the bait. I made it to the door and began turning the wheel as I heard splashing sounds leading away from behind me. I was thankful that it had worked and continued turning the wheel as the gate slowly lifted. Behind me now I could heard flesh ripping and water thrashing about as I got a bad mental image of what was happening. I just managed to lift the gate past the point where I could fit under it and waited no longer before doing so as I heard the splashes coming closer. Through the gate was another small hallway that led to a closed door at the end. As soon as I reached it I flung it open and closed as I cleared the opening. Another loud thump was audible from behind the door and for a moment I was worried that it would try to break through it, but to my relief I heard the splashing once again retreating back into the room.

I slumped down against the door for a moment to catch my breath before searching the new room that I had entered. It was like an intermediate room between another area of the Cellar Archives as the door across the room looked like the ones from the Laboratory entrance. There were a couple of shelves on either side of the room with books that hadn’t fallen into the water stacked on a few of the shelves. None of it looked too interesting to take away from the short time I had so I decided to move on. The door at the end of the room read “Archive Tunnels” above it. I attempted to open it before realizing that a small lock was over the handle and prevented it to open. Frustrated once more, I searched to room again for anything that may help me break the lock.

My search ended with the finding of a small, hollow needle that lay on one of the shelves. It looked just small enough to pick the lock with. I went back over to the door and began to work on it. It was hard to pick locks with hooves but I managed to get it in just far enough for it to make a definite clicking sound before dropping off of the door and into the water. I decided to keep the hollow needle in case I ever needed to do the same thing again. The door opened this time with no troubles.

__________________________________________________________________________

It looked exactly like what the sign said, a tunnel. Well, not necessarily a tunnel in the sense of a cave, but just another series of hallways, this one turned right into a closed door at the end. The red stuff still covered the walls but at least candles were lit all along the hallway, I instantly became suspicious. The last time I came into a seemingly harmless and lit hallway I nearly died several times.

I proceeded with caution as I made my way towards the door. I made it safely there and through it fine. The hallway in front of me went on for another bit before turning left. I took a step in and the Shadow’s roar echoed through from a distance behind me.

Splash splash splash splash splash

It was much quicker than I had heard it than before, and from right behind me too. I closed the door on impulse, hoping to deter it like I did before. The splashes stopped at the door for a second before something large crashed into the door and splintered it. It was actually breaking through the door now. I didn’t give it another thought. I turned and ran.

The hall turned left as I saw from before. It went on for a little longer before reaching another door from what I saw as I began running down it. A few barrels floated through the water and I dodged each one that got close to my path. The door behind me was torn down with another loud crash and I heard the splashes continuing again towards me. I made it to the next door and opened it as fast as I could before closing it once more behind me as I entered through it.

The hallway immediately split into two different directions, I didn’t have time to think about it so I just went right. The hall turned left quickly then went on a little longer before turning left again. I heard the door that I closed previously break down too and I moved quicker. Another small ways forwards before it turned right again into another door. I did the same routine with the last one.

It went forwards again for a tiny bit before turning right. As I turned the corner I saw a small blockade of boxes and barrels in my way. I stopped for a split second before hearing the last door I closed break down. I rushed forwards in a panic and jumped. I cleared the debris and ran faster, my heart feeling like it was about to burst now. As I continued towards the next door at the end of the hallway I turned my head back quickly to see the monster merely push the blockade completely out of the way with ease as it continued towards me. I pushed on faster before making it through the door that I had just gotten to.

A left turn, then right, then left again. The creature broke through the door as I was nearing the second left turn. As I rounded the corner another blockade stood in my path. I was slipping more out of a conscious thought processing mind and more into a primal “survival mode” as my life became increasing more in danger. It drove me on to escape the danger and I didn’t even have to think now as I surged forwards and cleared this blockade now. It continued further and I went through and closed another door again.

The hallway turned left then right once more. But this time the hallway seemed to keep going for a long time and I couldn’t even see the end. The door I just closed was definitely gone by now and that thing was more than likely gaining ground on me with nothing in its path now, though I didn’t bother to turn my head anymore to see if I was right. It stretched further and further and I was running out of energy rapidly now. Just as I thought I was going to collapse from the exhaustion a door became visible at the end. This one looked like it led somewhere else too as it wasn’t another simple wooden door. It gave me the final boost of energy that I needed to push on towards it. I halted at the door and quickly glimpsed at the words “Back Hall” on the door before a large growl from behind reminded me that my life was still on the line and without another thought I pulled the door open and closed behind me with the remaining bits of my energy before finally collapsing on the now water free stone floor.

End Part 1.

Part 2

It was beautiful, this Back Hall. Once I had regained my energy I walked up the long steps that led to the most stunning and grand room that I had ever seen since waking. It was completely untouched by the Shadow as far as I could tell and an actual bright stream of light shone from the many windows that lined the walls. From the looks of it, the light outside meant it would be dark soon, but still, it was more light than I had ever seen in this entire castle yet.

Elegant pillars and arches lined the room and created a large space almost as big as the foyer was. Behind me to the right of the stairs leading back to where I came from was another set of stairs that curved up to the left and onto another level above the ground level of the back hall, on top of that level I could also see two doors similar distances apart from each other. To my right further was another set of stairs that led down into darkness, I didn’t feel the need to go down into anything dark at the moment. And to my left was another door at the far end and the other set of curving stairs that connected with the other one. I walked forwards into the room further and up to the fountain that was in the middle of a small alcove in the room. The water looked pure and untainted, unlike that of the water that was in the Cellar Archives. It wasn’t until now that I had realized how thirsty I was after all that I had gone through. I drank from the pool of water at the bottom of the fountain without restraint. The water tasted as if it were a gift from Celestia herself. It was the most refreshing thing that I’ve tasted since waking. The only other liquid that I can recall tasting thus far was blood.

I stopped drinking as I heard wind gust past me and a door creaking open. I instantly raised my guard and looked around. I then spotted the door that was to my left was open and nothing else around it, but inside it though, I could see something very large. I left the fountain and began to make my way over to the door. I neared it and saw a room inside that looked almost as large as the Back Hall. I went through the door and it was narrow for a bit before expanding into a massive room, more large sets of pillars made two rows and in the middle was a long carpet that led to a teleporter. My jaw dropped in awe as I observed it. I only remember that teleporters were technology that was only recently being made. It was supposed to work by holding a certain amount of magic within it and it could be used by all races to moves long distances without the aid of a unicorn.

The teleporter itself was not fully visible as a large portion of it was behind the wall. But what I could see was a small room put at the end of the larger room with a metal grate covering it. Along the wall around it were rods that when activated would channel the magic into the room and teleport whoever was inside to its set destination. I wanted to investigate it at a closer distance so I moved again, only to have another flashback come to me.

“You have a teleporter? How in the world did you get that kind of technology this new this far east?”

“You would be surprised at how much I’ve attained during my time, Charcoal.”

“So I assume that this will take us to the Inner Sanctum?”

“It will definitely take care of the vertical part of our journey, I trust that you’ve used a teleporter before?”

“Only once, when I was growing up in Canterlot. It would take you to one of the tallest towers there where you could see all of the lands that lay beyond the mountain, it’s beautiful.”

“Good, but be warned, this one will be taking us down instead of up.”

That’s why they seemed so familiar, I remember it now. Using the teleporter that was set up in Canterlot to teleport me up to that tower that was used as a public viewing platform. But what Alexander had said also concerned me. That could only mean going down once again into a place that I didn’t know. It also made me somewhat overwhelmed because I had made it through all of that just to learn that the Inner Sanctum was still much farther away than I had thought. I figured it to be just beyond the Refinery or something. But no. It was still much further down. I guess that’s what I meant when I told myself in the letter to ‘descend into the darkness’.

I figured that I might as well see if I can get this thing working, I didn’t feel like wasting time to go looking through rooms that may lead to nothing of use while my way further towards the Inner Sanctum lay right in front of me. I opened the metal gate that blocked my entrance and walked into the small room. It looked only big enough to fit three, maybe four ponies inside. To my left was another lever that I could only assume turned it on. I braced myself and pulled the lever down.

Nothing.

I tried several more times, still nothing. This clearly wasn’t working, so I exited the small room and looked around it for any indication as to why it wasn’t working. I then found a large panel that stuck out of the wall to the teleporter’s left. On the panel were three small holes that were evenly spaced along it. My eye had caught this panel because two of the three holes were empty while the third had something in it. My memory gave me one last detail that I remembered about the teleporters. This must have been where the magical rods where put to power the machine. It ran on three of them simultaneously and while they did deplete very slowly, they were not easy to replace. My hopes were draining fast as I looked at it. There was no way that I could use the teleporter while it was like this, I would have to search the rooms in the Back Hall for any signs of replacement rods. Surely Alexander kept a supply of them, being this far out in the woods.

I turned and left the room, seeing that there was nothing else that I could do in there and once I entered the Back Hall I began to climb the steps to my right up onto the upper level to check up there first. The upper level had two doors, a guest room and a study. I decided to try the guest room first because I was hoping that I would find something in there, not the rods, but something more personal maybe.

__________________________________________________________________________

It was a complete mess. Nearly everything in this room was overturned or broken in some way. It was another square room with a few windows at the far edge, but not as much light as before. There was a desk with a couple of ripped out drawers along with an overturned dresser and many other things spread across the floor. It was at least lit though. Another thing I didn’t trust by now. I was just about to take a step until I stopped due to another flashback return.

I heard the sounds of things being rifled through and thrown around while I began to say “My journal is gone. What would they want with my journal?”

This could explain why I was finding all of these journal entries in pieces around the castle so far. But that was an odd thing for someone to steal. I navigated my way around the overturned furniture to the desk and picked up the piece of parchment that I saw lying on top of it amongst other miscellaneous things.

2nd of July, 839

I received a letter today from one of the outposts set up on the border of the Griffin Territory disclosing the fate of the Professor’s expedition. A week after my departure, one of the members of the expedition returned from the snowy plains, he was badly injured, as if maimed by one of the griffins. This struck me as odd because the Griffins scarcely interacted with explorers much less archeologists who dug in the area and kept to themselves. They very rarely attack unprovoked. They had never figured out what attacked him though as he was completely delirious and rambled about the camp being attacked by something horrible. A search party was quickly dispatched and after days of searching finally found the camp. It was in ruins and the Professor and the rest of the expedition was nowhere to be found. Tomorrow I will collect the things they found amongst the wreckage. I’m not so sure what to make of it, but I’m worried for him.

It pained me to not even know the professors name, but it was never stated in any of the journal entries thus far so I assumed that I would just have to keep his name as “The Professor” for now then. I turned to my left and walked through the door open frame that led into the actual room that I must have slept in while I was here. A large bed sat at the end of the room with more furniture and other things scattered about. On the desk though, was another journal entry. I went to go read this one.

3rd of July, 839

Today I picked up the Professors things. I went through a large amount of mismatched documents from what remained of the camp sight. There were many documents ranging from quick notes to large accounts of what had happened since I left. I began to search through them for any indication of what might have happened to him. On May 17th, the day that I found the orb chamber, he wrote:

“Found and recovered Charcoal after one hour of entrapment.”

I was confused greatly by this as I had been suffocating within minutes of being trapped. How could I have lasted an hour? As I read the accounts of what happened, I began to notice frustration within his writing. He wanted to get the rest of the team to revisit the chamber again but what happened in the orb chamber seemed to have driven parts of the team mad. The Professor finally decided to visit the orb chamber for himself where he found an orb and returned with it to the surface. This had confused me even more. If he had retrieved the orb, then what are those pieces sitting on my living room table?

I too was confused at this last entry. What had happened to this expedition that I was supposedly on? It all seemed to be connected to this orb that I found while I was there, from what I can imagine of the entries thus far must mean that the orb had something to do with everything that is happening right now to me.

I added this to my list of things to think about when I wasn’t running terrified for my life. I turned and looked at the bed. I almost considered sleeping in it if it weren’t for the giant bloodstains on and around it. Examining it further, I began to realize that another memory was starting to appear to me as the white flash overtook my sight.

I heard the sheets of the bed rusting together and footsteps coming from the main room.

“Charcoal.”

“What?!”

“Still having nightmares I see.”

“Yes, I can’t get rid of them, they come every night, and are only getting worse.”

“We’ll put a stop to them, you’ll see.”

The more I heard Alexander’s voice, the more disturbed I became about it. From what I could hear it sounded very dark, like there was always a hint of something else, some hidden motive underneath his words. It was hard for me to rationalize, I just didn’t trust it.

I looked around the room and found another tinder box along with more lamp oil. With nothing else that looked like it could give me any clues to finding the rods or any more about my past I decided to try the last room that was across the main room from where I was. I made it over and as I opened the door another quick flashback came to me.

“The key. Please let it be here”

It was indeed rather quick but gave me more reason to search the room now. The room was a small and rectangular with only two small drawers in the middle and two large wardrobes at the ends. Most of the drawers were pulled out and scattered across the room like the others. Though there was another journal entry on the small drawer to the left so I moved towards it and picked it up to read.

4th of July, 839

It’s done! The orb is assembled. I had awakened from a terrible nightmare and went to my living room where the orb pieces were. They remained on the table where I left them, but somehow I knew how they were supposed to fit together. Without fault, I joined the orb pieces with the aid of some tar to hold it together with. The pieces fit together perfectly and now resembles the orb that I remembered seeing when I first encountered it. The ancient relic is now complete; I don’t think that it’s perfectly round surface could have been made by even the most skilled artisan in the world. It was all too strange.

It fit perfectly together? Just like that? How was that even possible? Then again if what I previously read was true I survived an hour without air in the chamber on my expedition. What object has the power to seemingly bend reality like this? Perhaps this was alien after all. I took two steps to my left to look through the large dresser before I heard the main door to the guest room swing open, then nothing else for a second. I froze, having no idea what else was possible alive here, except…

Rrrarghrr…

Dammit! I swung around and shut the door before quickly looking around to decide what to do next. I only thought of one thing, hide. I did just that as I jumped into the large wardrobe to my right and closed both of the doors shut before cowering inside. No sooner had I heard the sound of something large slamming on the door to the room. Another slam. Another. A loud crashing sound indicated to me that the door must have come down and I heard the monster stumble inside and shift around.

Eeeuuughhhh….Rrarghh…

It continued to make more grunts as it continued to look around the room. Fear couldn’t even describe what I was feeling right now. If I had any memory of my life it would probably be flashing in front of me right now. I was sure that I was dead. I only sat and prayed that it wouldn’t come any closer.

The door the main room opened and closed.

I hadn’t even heard the thing move away from me; I was too busy trying to keep my bowels intact. Even after it had left it took me a good five minutes for me to gain the courage to ever so slightly push one of the doors open to look outside. I was right, it was gone. I took another minute to reestablish the fact that I wasn’t dead and that I was still alive. After doing so I continued my search for this key mentioned in the flashback. Nothing in the room really struck me as odd as I looked around, except for… that painting. I saw a small opening behind one of the corners of a crooked painting on the far end from me. I walked over to it and began to push the painting aside, revealing a small key. In doing so, another quick flashback came on like before.

“Ah, there it is. I guess it was a good hiding place for it after all.”

Indeed it was. I even remembered the room that this key opened as well, the storage room; it had to be where the rods were. Satisfied with my finding, aside from the intrusion and nearly getting killed, I didn’t see the need to remain here anymore and headed back out of the room into the Back Hall, keeping conscious about monsters potentially about in it.

__________________________________________________________________________

It turned out that I didn’t need to worry about any monster, as the remains of it, or at least the torso of it, was in a bloody mess right outside of the door. I took a few steps away as the sight first shocked me. Though I thanked whatever actually managed to kill this horrid thing. I dared not go near the body as I had no idea what it would do, if anything. So I decided to head back the way I originally came up the stairs, stopping though outside of the door that I neglected to explore, the study. I did have the key to the storage but maybe I might find out more about why I was here, like more journal entries in there. I know I said that I wasn’t going to worry about such things before, but my curiosity was becoming too great now.

__________________________________________________________________________

The Study from when I first entered look similar to the guest room, except the coloring of the wood was darker, along with the actual hallway itself being dark. It wasn’t to the point where I couldn’t see to the end of the hallway but it was still getting pretty bad. I lit my lantern and moved forward, stopping at the first door that I saw to my right and looking inside. It was a mess inside there as well similar to the guest room, nothing of interest was inside from what I could tell though but I considered checking it out until I saw a piano in the far corner of the room. I shuddered and turned away to head to the next room directly across the hall from the one on my right.

I opened the door and saw it was a large room that went back a ways with two large windows at the end. It was completely dark outside now. How could that be though? It was still relatively bright outside from what I could tell while I was in the guest room. That was only about ten minutes ago. This castle seemed to do that a lot to me now that I thought about it. Time seemed to warp around it and cause it to look differently everywhere around the castle or something. None of it, among many other things, made any sense here.

I made my way to the widows, avoiding the piles of books that were stacked about in the room, and was amazed as I looked through them. I could actually see out the windows in here. It came a bit bittersweet though as it was night time out and my vision was limited anyway. Through them I could see the guest room’s windows and parts of a forest in the distance. Heavy fog obscured most of the tree line but I could see much farther out than I had before. I turned my attention away from the windows and to several pieces of parchment on the desk. Reading the first few lines I knew it had something to do with the orb and Alexander even though it was untitled, as I could now see what his writing looked like. I was intrigued about it none the less if it had something to do with the orbs.

I had been traveling through these thick woods for what seemed like an eternity before I had finally found what I was looking for. Underneath the forest floor was a large temple where the item that I sought lie inside. The orb indeed carried tremendous power as I had sensed while I removed it from its stand. With the orb I began to set in motion my plans to finally return home. I began by building the castle that would hold the orb so that I may study it further and attempt to unlock its secrets. The castle itself was only made as a disguise should any inhabitants, if there at all any, came roaming through these woods. Most of it is empty inside except for the Inner Sanctum but I can easily change or add anything if necessary. I know very little of this world or how technologically advanced it was, if there were even any inhabitants in the first place, only that if I was here then it must have orbs on it. One very important thing that I found out though when I first arrived here was that this planet was very potent in magic, something that I found to be very useful in my work and actually building the castle. I will now begin my studies into the orb and how to unlock its power so that I may return home.

There was another page under this one, it looked much newer compared to the other one.

It turns out that I was right. This world does have sentient beings living on it, and they are ponies, of all things. While I pondered the situation, I came up with an excellent idea of how this may ultimately be beneficial to me. Changing my appearance was easy enough, after that all I had to do was meet with these new visitors and see if they lived anywhere near here. I greeted them openly as they arrived and they seemed grateful for some place to rest. As I had talked with them, I quickly found out that these travellers were actually a vanguard of explorers from the nation of Equestria trying to expand eastward. It was a perfect opportunity for me indeed. I strongly encouraged them to begin settlements here around the castle after giving them a story I made up about why it was here in the first place so that it may serve as protection. They easily agreed and within weeks the settlement of Bridleburg had been established, renaming the castle as well, I didn’t mind as it had no proper name prior.

I quickly filled the castle with all of the books and furnishings that I had either created or were brought by the settlers and also became attuned to their customs and history. I especially found this Princess Celestia to be quite interesting. According to them she controlled both the sun and the moon while being seemingly immortal, but it didn’t bother me all that much because I knew what she really was, only another being that has managed to actually control the power of the orb, to the rest of them though it may appear like she was some sort of goddess. How little they knew of true power and where it comes from. Seeing as I am now in charge of the settlement’s care and its legal system, obtaining the vitae will be much easier now and I can finally stop my failing attempts at producing it artificially or from the animals that I would find around the forest.

I was completely bewildered. This seemed to be Alexander’s account of how he came to this area and how the castle got here. What was this vitae that I’ve heard several times before? If this were true it would seem that Alexander has and orb as well. The thing that disturbed me most of all out of this though was him stating that he changed his appearance. That only implied he was not a pony, but something else. And the small bit about the princess, that caught me completely off guard. I didn’t want to believe a single word spoken of it, but if he managed to build this entire castle only with the orb, that must be something, power that rivaled that of hers. This was all getting too strange for me. But I know at least knew how this entire place came to be.

I pondered the records heavily as I exited the door and turned left down the hallway then left again as it turned. The hallway went down further towards another set of windows at the end and another hallway that turned right. As I was walking towards the turn I could have sworn I kept hearing what sounded like dogs. Completely deranged dogs barking madly in the distance, but not from any real direction. I tried to tune out the noise and continue further as I neared the end of the hallway. On the ground next to one of the windows was another jar of oil. I moved over and picked it up. As I did the floor shook and I took a few steps back as the window started to crack. It didn’t completely break though, so I only gave it a long look before continuing down to the right. The left side of this hallway was completely covered to the end in windows, but at the end of the hallway itself was another large pile of rocks, cutting off the rest of it. There was, however, a door in the middle of the hallway to the right.

I instantly regretted opening the door. The inside of the room looked like a mutilation chamber. There were bloodstains and pools of blood all over the tables set up inside and various tools and saws about with animal carcasses on a few of them. I leaned back outside of the room for a second to push the rising vomit down before continuing. In the center of the room was a large table that took up the majority of it, leaving the only walking space around it. I began by moving to my left and looking at the smaller table set up in the corner of the room. A severed dog head sat on top of it and as I neared to turn left to continue around the table in the center of the room another flashback returned.

“Let’s see what you have to offer,” I heard Alexander say while a dog whimpered in the background. The next sounds I heard where a saw cutting through flesh and the dog yelping before ceasing to make any more noise.

“Yes, I can sense it. It’s definitely there.”

Sickening. I could barely keep a hold of myself as I tried to remove the thought from my mind and continue on. There was another slightly open door at the end of the room that I was heading towards. Inside looked like an actual room that one would expect to find in a study and not an animal slaughter. It was smaller than the previous room, a lit fire burned in the far left corner, something I don’t think I’ve seen thus far; does that mean that someone was in here recently? I shook again at the thought of one of those things being in here with me. A desk was in the middle of the room with a few sketches of dog anatomy but nothing too important. I looked over to the right of the room and found another note on a smaller table that looked more interesting.

Anatomy Frontiers

August 9th, 790

I’ve decided to conform my research notes into the current dates that the inhabitants have to keep all of them in order. As per my current research I’m finding it to be a disappointment. The energy that I’m attempting to harvest from these creatures comes from fear stimulated in the brain which creates the necessary source I need. The only problem is that it isn’t a sufficient amount for what my needs are. I’ve so far found no research on this area of study from the inhabitants here. It is clear to me though that these ponies emit the energy in far greater quantities than the animals do. I think I’ve found a way to extract it from them as well and have found the perfect way to do so as I have taken the responsibility of the legal system in this area, so it might just work out for me yet.

I got a bad notion from this. He was killing animals by basically torturing them and harvesting this energy from them. But he also said that ponies emit it much more than common animals do, so I started to think of the only logical conclusion to what he would do. The thought was completely disgusting, but from what I have heard of this Alexander so far, I’m sure that he would resort to doing that. I turned away and decided to search through the desk for anything useful. I went through the three small drawers and found a tinderbox. Then I opened the larger cabinet and jumped back.

Skulls and bones poured out of it. Pony skulls and bones.

This was a bad place, I had to get out of here. I moved as fast as I could out of the room and the larger room into the hallway, shutting the door behind me, taking a few deep breaths of air that didn’t have a sense of decay to it. I began to head back towards the exit, but got curious as I passed the windows, especially the last one. As I neared it, I heard it crack and chip even more. I looked through it and saw the ledge that was on the other side of it. With that, I got another, somewhat crazy I’ll admit, idea. I took a large rock that was near the window that must have rolled over from the rockslide and chucked it as hard as I could at it. My apparently crazy idea worked and the window shattered and left a large opening for me to climb over and onto the ledge outside of it. I stepped through the window and on the ledge with care to avoid any potential glass that might have fell on it and looked out into the night. I was very much disappointed as I looked down and saw for about twenty meters before I saw nothing, not even the ground. I had slightly hoped this window might be able to lead me down safely somehow. Other than disappointment, it was somewhat relieving to breathe in fresh air from the night.

I couldn’t see any further past the tree line than I had through the windows, though I now saw something that I couldn’t while I was looking through the windows. The red organic material that plagued most of the castle parts that I had left behind was everywhere. It grew all in between the trees and completely covered a few. It looks like the Shadow was moving around the castle faster than I had thought. I looked to my left and saw that the ledges to the left of me were mostly broken apart or gone, but the ones to my right were all still there. And best of all, I could barely see an open window at the end of them.

I began to make my way across the ledges. It wasn’t that far between them, only a long step, but it was still nerve wracking considering how long of a fall it was. I reached the halfway point between to the window and heard large rumble to the distance. I turned my head and saw a tree violently shaking before toppling completely over and onto the darkened ground. This only made me move faster now. Three more ledges and I finally reached the last one. The window was broken too like the one I got onto the ledges. I stepped inside and saw that the room was actually lit, and a mess like the rest of the areas I’ve seen thus far in the Back Hall. All over the walls were schematics of the teleporter that was back where I came from. It all looked interesting but ultimately useless to me, I know what I needed to make it work. There was a door at the end of the room but the rocks covered that up and made any further progress impossible. There was, however, another canister on the desk that was in the right corner of the room. I went over and touched it to trigger the memory like before.

I dislike what I’ve become to produce what I need to return, but I must do what I have to, no matter what the cost. These ponies definitely contain the proper energy that I need to return, but the means for extracting it are quite horrible indeed.

I’m still studying the orb and the full extent of its power, but so far I’m completely convinced that it is what I need to return. This is all for you, my love.

I didn’t know what to think. Alexander seemed genuine with his emotions about what he said, but I’m finding it more difficult to believe as I learn more about him. He only wanted to return to wherever he came from. I couldn’t believe that I was actually now entertaining the notion that he was indeed an alien, but at the cost of what he has been implying to do that so far seemed like too much to me. I know as well that the only one now who could answer my questions is Alexander himself.

There was nothing else in the room besides that memory to think about as I left it and walked back across the ledges and through the window that I had first entered. There were a lot of pieces so far to this puzzle of mine and Alexander’s past, but not enough to make a complete picture from it. Nothing impeded my way as I returned back through the hallway and through the door to the Back Hall. It was time to go into the storage to continue my journey.

__________________________________________________________________________

Being back inside the Back Hall made me feel much better after witnessing such a disturbing place like the study. I descended the stairs and took a minute to stand near the fountain and calm myself by watching the water while at the same time mentally fortifying myself to head into storage. I turned to my right and started my way towards the stairs. Torches lit the stairway down as I went further down. After a while the stairs met a bottom and went straight once more. The door was at the end of a long walk down the hallway. As expected, the door wouldn’t budge when I tried to open it without the key. But as soon as I pushed it into the slot and turned it, the click indicated that had changed.

__________________________________________________________________________

It was dark. Not just dark, but much darker than anything I had seen thus far. If it weren’t for a small light shining in the distance, I don’t think that I could have seen past a meter without everything being absorbed by darkness. It was so unnatural, how could the darkness be this thick? I raised my lantern, which ultimately didn’t help much more than lighting only a tiny sliver of light in front of me. It was still much better than nothing though as I took my first few nervous steps inside.

I reached the small light that I saw when I had first entered the hallway in the middle of a large room, behind it was table that had another lit candle on it but did no better at fending off the darkness swarming around it. There was, however, another journal entry, this one looked long too as several pages were there with different dates.

5th of July, 839

I went to the Canterlot library looking for answers or any further material on the orbs. My search turned up little information that was relevant but I did manage to find a set of addresses from the remains of the camp that was sent to me. My search led to little more knowledge about my subject until I found Professor Bedrock. He knew much about the expedition and I eventually managed to get on the subject of the orbs. He told me that the orbs come from the time before the Princess’ reign. They were kept in large temples and that the also held great power. I asked him how he knew all of this and he told me that he had worked with the professor before and had even found another temple just like the one that we had found. But that one had no orb.

In the temple though were ancient writings that took months to translate but they eventually told of a story about how the orbs had been used by ancient ponies that used the orbs magic to attempt to control everything form the weather to the sun and moon. They even referenced another being, one that was also sentient but not a pony, which looked like strange creatures that stood on two legs instead of four from the statutes that they had also found. But the orbs and temples had suddenly ceased to be used anymore, and from estimates depending on the temples themselves, right around the time that the princess had taken over as ruler. It was too coincidental to what the ancients were trying to achieve to what the world is like now. He had also mentioned the Elements of Harmony from the old tales of the Mare in the Moon and how they were depicted as orbs.

I was completely amazed by all of this and asked why he hadn’t brought any of his findings to the public. To which he simply said that he was too afraid to. With the nature of the orbs and their disappearance the same time that the princess came to power, it was almost a conspiracy. And if he had put this out into the public’s view he was afraid that he might be charged with treason and conspiracy to overthrow the Princess. Thinking about it further I had ultimately agreed with his reasoning and thanked him for helping me.

As I was leaving, I overheard a shocking conversation. Apparently the geologist that I had visited only a few weeks ago had been murdered last night. Crime is usually never a big issue around here so this was something that I took especially hard. It was strange, but somehow I felt responsible for what happened to him.

The journal entry ended and skipped to another page.

14th of July, 839

I went through the rest of the professors addresses listed and found either similar information that Professor Bedrock had told me or nothing at all from their letters that I had received back, except for the very last letter that I had received. It was from the Baron of Bridleburg, of all ponies. It struck me as odd that the professor would know others so far out to the east but I didn’t think about it too much because the letter had intrigued me so much. It said nothing of the orbs or their origins like many of the other letters that I had received, only this:

“I know. I can protect you. Come to Bridleburg Castle.” Signed Alexander.

I didn’t know what to make of it. Protect me from what? Was there something after me? I managed to find a route that would take me to Bridleburg far to the east. It was a long route, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to commit so such a journey yet. As much as the letter distressed me I didn’t trust this Baron that I’ve never hear about yet. As I write though, my thoughts are being drawn to the constant nightmares that I have been having every night where a disturbing voice that cannot be described calls out to me, like from a void. I’ve had many sleepless nights for a time now since finding the orb. Tomorrow I’m going to see if I can find a doctor who can give me sedatives to help me sleep.

There was one last page after this one.

17th of July, 839

They’re all dead, all of them. The geologist, Professor Bedrock, and even the doctor that I had went to for sedatives. They all died the same way too, limbs scattered, heads split, bodies flayed. They’re all dead. And I’m positive now that it’s all my fault. Is something following me? It has to be something involving that thing that I brought back from the expedition, there are no other possible explanations for it. I didn’t mean for any of them to die, it’s not my fault. I have no choice but to trust this Alexander. He had better know what he claims, otherwise I feel that we will both be regretting this.

That was a lot of information to take in. But at least now I know why I was in this hellhole in the first place. It must have something to do with the orb and this Shadow following me. Much of what I had read had also deeply disturbed me. The entire history of these orbs seems to revolve around some sort of giant conspiracy involving the princess. How all of this related to Alexander supposedly being otherworldly though I didn’t know. But it also more confirmed what Alexander had written of in the study, this was all very disturbing, and maybe I could learn more about it once I got out and wasn’t being chased by a murderous Shadow. I just didn’t have time to be worrying about things such as that right now. Another thing too, scattered limbs and flayed flesh all sounded very familiar to what I’ve seen here as well. Much of the pieces of how I came to be here were in place now, but there was still much more going on that I didn’t know that I needed to find out. I left the entries where they were and returned to my search of the rods.

I couldn’t even see the edges of the room from the center so I had to go walk around the perimeter. I made a full sweep around the room and found only two potential areas to go into, a hallway that was forwards from the room’s center where I had entered, and a closed door to my left. There was an entrance to the right, but unfortunately the stairs only went down half way before being filled with rocks, so there was no chance of going in there.

I decided to try the room on the left first by opening it slightly and peeking inside to deem it safe before I actually entered. I didn’t trust anything down here. Another thing that I began to find myself doing was closing the doors behind me as I went through them, probably from the encounter in the guest room and that water monster. I did it in the study but found no need for it ultimately, which I wasn’t complaining about either. I would just rather have a small chance to react before being stormed by those fleshy monstrosities. The room was three rows of shelves, one on each end and one in the middle which made two walkways to the left and right. I tried the right first and found nothing of interest, on the left though were two tinderboxes and more oil. Before I managed to move another step after collecting them though it seemed that I finally got to make use out of my door system.

I heard it, that same deep growl from one of those monsters come from outside the door. I instantly went into motion and looked around, my hope drained rapidly though as I saw nothing large that I could hide behind. So I moved behind a couple of medium sized boxes in the corner and felt my heart beat faster as I was sure that the monster would finally get me this time.

A loud slam on the door once again. With each one my heart began to speed up a little faster until ultimately the door came completely down, revealing the nasty thing behind it. It was difficult to see, only an outline showed really, I saw it shuffle inside and look from left to right. I was on the verge of tears as I was sure it would spot me, but miraculously, it went to the right of the room. It went in the opposite direction of me! It looked down that side of the room quickly before turning back out and leaving, heading towards the hallway that I had seen but didn’t go down yet. The way that I have to go still, joyous. In a strange I was now somewhat thankful of the darkness, it was strange, but it did just save my life. Had it been any brighter and I’m sure that thing would have easily spotted me.

I stepped over the remnants of the door that the monster had placed and back into the main room. I decided to light the two lanterns that hung from the ceiling near the center table to light the room better. It didn’t really add anything more to viewing the room better but it definitely made me feel more secure and straighten my now blurring vision once again. I took another minute to build up some courage, as little as there was left in me now, and begin to start making my way through the rest of this storage so that I could hopefully find the rods that I needed and get out of here.

I crossed into the hallway and no sooner had I began to have a flashback.

“Please, let me go. I won’t tell anyone. I swear! I just want to go home.” It sounded like that same female voice that I had heard when I was back in the foyer.

“No! Get away from me! Leave me alone.”

Was that my memory, or someone else's? There was definitely another one present in the memory but I didn’t know who it was. It could have been me or anyone else. I hoped that it wasn’t me. The thought of killing another didn’t sit well with me at all. I continued on, stopping for a moment to look at the long blood streak on the floor from what looked like something bleeding being dragged across it. I looked away quickly and tried to forget I saw it. The hallway turned left and it was still dark so I kept my lantern out for what little light it provided.

In the distance I could constantly hear crying, crying from the same voice from the flashback. It sounded so pitiful and helpless that it tore away at my heart and I shook my head in frustration to try and get it out. After a while it had stopped, by that point I had reached the end of the hallway that I was heading down and it turned right once more. These halls were much wider than the rest of the ones I’ve been in so far, which I didn’t know if that would be either a good or a bad thing. It turned right and there was a door to my immediate right as I turned down it. I tried it but it refused to open, and I lost all interest in it as well as I saw a skull on the floor near it. The hallway came to a small set of stairs down and onto stone once more. This storage area looked much like the Refinery.

A single candle was lit and laying on the ground near the corner where the hall turned once more to the right. It went down for a while with a couple of large boulders on the sides making a tight space to move through for a while before coming to another room that looked similar yet smaller to the first one that I entered. The only path out though was to the left through another hallway. As I began to move into it I received another flashback.

“Why are you doing this? Get away from me!”

It was short, but I could hear the sounds of things moving around in the background too. I was still hoping that this was not my own memory. The hallway turned right after a short distance then came to a doorframe to the left that led into a larger room. It was separated in the middle by a single shelf that made a walkway around it. Aside from that it was nearly impossible to see anything else even with the lantern. There was one door that I could see to the right though and another doorframe all the way at the end of the room only because of a small candle next to it.

I went to the door on the right first to see if there was anything in there first like there was in the beginning of the storage area. I neared the door and did my routine by slightly opening the door do peak inside.

Rrrarghrr…

I don’t think I could describe the level of fear and shock that had just been stricken into me. I only saw a small way inside but that thing was clearly visible, and it saw me too. It started after me from inside the room. I slammed the door shut and my mind once again slipped into a fear induced panic that took over my body and forced me to run back where I came from. I would have completely frozen otherwise. I ran. I ran and ran faster and faster, feeling less fatigue as energy surged through me to get away from that thing. The door came crashing down and I heard it growl as I made it through the doorframe and down the hallway back into the small room and continually back further. The monster had more than likely not even seen me once it had broken the door down but I didn’t care. I had to get away from it.

I finally made it back to the very first room that I entered in the storage and collapsed in exhaustion besides the candles that lit the center table. My vision lagged as my head tossed about. There was the same incessant ringing that I heard when I first fully encountered one of those monsters in my head once more. My heartbeat was steadily rising still. I was clear of danger by this point but that was something that had brought me to the brink of my sanity by just going through that. Those vile, horrible things induced some sort of unnatural fear in me that made me react this way. I was still laying on my side, barely holding on to consciousness as the blackness around my vision nearly took over.

With what little power I had left over myself I began to search through me leg bag and pulled out a Laudanum before pulling off the cover and with trembling hooves poured it into my mouth. It took a minute but the effect came fairly swiftly as I began to calm myself again. It took a few minutes, but my mind finally set back to as good as it could get and I stood once more. I was still panting pretty heavily from running such a long distance but it was time for me to actually go back. I didn’t want to go back, I didn’t want anything to do with this entire damned castle, but I had no choice by this point.

The way back to the room where I encountered the monster was clear, only I kept hearing the whimpering sound again and again to the point where it had begun to drive me mad, if I wasn’t already. I practically began to crawl through the room with the speed I was at. I took no more chances around here this time I moved on the left side of the divider and avoided the doors, apparently there were two now that I looked. I got next to the candle that lay beside the doorframe and looked inside. The only thing that I could see inside was stairs leading up. So I had to move forwards again. Like the first flashback I had in this area, as soon as I stepped through the doorframe it came to me.

I heard the sound of a knife raising. “Please, don’t do thi-” She didn’t even get to finish as I heard several slashing sounds and blood spilling before any sounds from her had stopped.

Why? Why did she have to die? Even after hearing this flashback I could still hear the crying and whimpering from her in the distance. It was really getting to me now. I had no idea who killed her or why.

As I moved towards the base of the stairs, I saw a blood trail leading up the steps. I tried to avoid it the best I could. When the stairs reached the top and leveled into another hallway that turned right and so too did the blood trail. I used my lantern here as I neared the end of the hallway. It came to a small room up at the end from what I could see with several hanging chains and a strange looking pedestal in the center. A single step across the threshold into the room was all it took before a shriek pierced my ears and the pedestal suddenly shot a flame out from the top of it and kept it lit. I collected myself again from witnessing that and moved inside cautiously. I got closer to the fire but not too close, I didn’t want to go anywhere near it, that was not traditional fire. The only room left from here was a door to the right. I really didn’t feel like opening any more doors in this place but this is where it all led to so I continued on. I opened the door ever so slightly and looked inside. No monsters. Good.

I went in and closed the door behind me. The room was small and narrow and at the end turned to the right slightly, making the room an L shape. I quickly noticed my prize on one of the shelves on the right. At least a dozen rods sat there. My hopes soared now, I could finally move of from this terrifying place. I grabbed two of the rods and placed them in my bag.

Rrrarghrr…

Of course. Because I can’t just once get anything and feel accomplished without it being torn down. Had I not experienced enough terror out of this demented storage area enough yet? I went back to where the room turned right and hid behind the giant box that was there. I didn’t hear any slamming on the door, but I could definitely hear it moving about outside. My only hope at this point was that it would somehow kill itself by the fire on the pedestal.

The loud steps eventually faded away down the hallway than I came into this room with. I went back to the surprisingly intact door and reopened it to find the monster vacant from the room. The only thing left to do now was make it back safely to the Back Hall, something that I doubted would happen. Either way, I began to make my way back. There was nothing from the hallway to the stairs and even in the room where I saw the thing face to face. I rounded the corner into the hallway where the boulders were and around again to begin heading up the stairs.

Urrrghaargghh…

I knew it couldn’t have been that easy. It was never that easy. The sound came from on top of the stairs where I was heading up but now I was running straight back into the room that was at the other end and hiding in a corner of it. I could still see the light from the candle at the far edge of the hallway at the base of the stairs that I was just at, but no monster came into view. It took me a good five minutes to regain my courage to attempt my way back over again.

There was no monster this time, though I could feel my heart beating especially heavy when I crossed through the area that I heard the monster in. I slowly rounded the corners all the way until I finally made it to the first room of the storage. By this point, I didn’t care anymore, I locked into a full sprint and kept going, ignoring anything else. I didn’t know if there was anything that sounded from behind me but all I knew was that I had reached the door safely and finally made it through and can now fix the teleporter.

__________________________________________________________________________

I made it to the base of the stairs before another flashback came to me.

“How exactly did we find this place?” I heard myself ask.

“An old friend from Canterlot had given me a map.” An unknown voice answered.

“Why isn’t he with us then? Wouldn’t he have want to come?”

“He wanted to, but things don’t always work out the way we plan, do they?”

That last part chilled me slightly. It sounded like he had meant something else by those words. That must have been the Professor that the journal entries spoke so much about. He was becoming more and more of an odd character. He clearly knew much about the orbs and the conspiracy surrounding them, but how? Who exactly was this professor?

My thoughts were cut off by the Shadow’s roar and more of the red organic material flooding the Back Hall. It was time to get the hell out of here. I rushed on towards the teleporter. As I passed the fountain I noticed that the water was now completely red with a corpse in it. I didn’t even bother to stop. I made it through the doorway into the teleporter room and navigated my way around the red flesh to the rod panel. I quickly removed the two rods from my bag and pushed them in place. As soon as the second one slid in I heard a faint humming coming from inside the wall.

I had to move faster as I saw more of the flesh beginning to cover the rest of the Back Hall from where I could see and beginning to spread into the teleprorter room. My heart was racing once more as I fought against time to begin working this thing. I ran into the small room inside the teleporter and began working. I started by shutting the metal gate and turned towards another panel on my left. Usually teleporters had several destinations that one could go to but for this one there only appeared to be one possible location that I could go. By this point, looking at the oncoming red organic wave of flesh, I didn’t care where it took me so long as I got out of here.

I pulled the large lever down and heard the low humming grow into a large rumble as I saw the rods sticking out of the wall begin to shine and glow more and more as it charged up. The flesh wave was growing even closer now. It all came down to if I had just gotten here at the right time. I saw the wave get no less than five meters from me and begin to rise to attack the metal grate before a blinding flash shot from the teleporter rods into the room and hit me.

Everything went black.

__________________________________________________________________________

I was alive. But only mere seconds from being the opposite. The teleporter had done its work and I was now standing in the open space of a large room. There were four pillars near each corner that held up the tall room and a single entrance into someplace that I didn’t know about at the end. There was a room behind me use the teleporter again to go back, but I decided it best to not do that. The only way out now was forwards.

I reached the middle of the room before the onset of a white flash indicated another memory to me.

“Come. This way,” Alexander’s now recognizable voice spoke.

I heard a loud moan in the distance before I then heard myself say “What was that?”

“Forgive me, I should have warned you before. Seeing that I have taken on the responsibility of serving as the legal system in this area, one of my duties here is being a prison warden. This is the place where we keep the convicted.”

“Like a…dungeon?”

“Indeed, very much so. Come, do not linger.”

A prison. A damned prison. Of all the places that teleporter could have taken me. Then again, I didn’t exactly have the time to be picky in my mad rush to escape before being killed.

The door at the end was becoming clearer now. It was a vertically barred iron gate, iconic for prisons I guessed. A loud wail from somewhere inside didn’t help my courage much as I entered through the gate. It was pitch dark inside so I had to use my lantern once more to see. The walls and floors were now completely stone with no sight of windows anywhere. I supposed it was because I was more than likely underground if that flashback I had previously was right about the trip through the teleporter going down.

The prison’s ceiling arched and had supports on each side made out of wood. Other than that the actual stonework looked much like the rest of the castle. The hallway was rather large too compared to many of the narrower ones that I’ve been in. It immediately turned right then left up ahead from what I could see looking down it.

My journey through the prison didn’t start of well for as soon as I took my first two steps inside I heard from a monster growling a distance away before the sounds of a gate ripping open and a terrified prisoner, or what I assumed to be a prisoner, screaming for his life before it suddenly stopped along with the monsters growling. By the end of it my eyes were wide open, even down here there were more of those things.

I attempted, rather badly as I usually do, to remove the thoughts of being shredded apart by one of those horrible things and continue on. I made it to the end of the hall and turned left before moving forwards a little more. The wide hallway that I was previously end suddenly narrowed greatly. Up further I came to a point where the path split and I could turn right or keep going forwards. This was starting to get really bad now. I’m now in a bunch of narrow hallways with lots of different paths that I could take where any one of them could easily end up running into a monster.

I’m crazy, I must be. To be down here for this long and go through all of this. How could I not be? It’s that damn urge I always seem to have, to go forwards, to push on no matter what. I don’t know what was driving me, but I had to keep going. I decided to not go down the hallway to the right but instead keep going straight. I could constantly hear the pitiful and broken moans and cries of all the prisoners throughout the prison. In a small way I hoped that I would find one and at least have someone to talk to and regain my sanity if only a little.

This path led me on for a little ways before coming to another decision on where to go, either straight still and up a set of stairs or to the left. I was going to go straight until a menacing growl from one of those vile things rang from up top of the stairs, causing me to quickly extinguish my lantern and run down to the left path without caring what was down there, except for maybe another one of those things. The hall came to a dead end quickly but there was an open cell to my right with a candle inside so I decided to get in and hopefully out of the monster’s view.

After a minute or so the thing shuffled off again back up the stairs. There was something that I had found in the room though, a hammer. Not one of those tiny woodworking ones that I saw in several places before, but rather more like a mallet. I honestly had no idea why I decided to keep it, maybe it gave me some comfort, like a false sense of security maybe. Still, this was a prison and that meant that there might be locks that I might have to break in order to get through here. Maybe, just maybe this would come into use later. There was another series of metal ripping and some pony screaming that cut off my train of thought before everything fell silent again. What exactly was the point of these monsters being here killing the prisoners? Then again what was the point of these things existing in the first place?

I made it back to the base of the stairs and began to ascend them with increasing fear as I was, once again, following a monster that was here only a minute ago. I reached the top of the stairs and saw that the path split off to the right again. I decided to ignore this as well and simply continue going straight, as I saw no monsters that way. Though after continuing though for a while the straight path suddenly ended and I now had three choices, go into the cell in front of me, to the left of me, or go down another hallway to my right. I cursed out of frustration, there were too many choices and confusing paths that made dizzy.

I shook my head hard to clear my thoughts and keep a thought process going. I first decided to try the left cell as the cell in front of me had no light coming from inside while that one did. The metal door opened with ease, though making more creaking sounds than would like because it could draw a lot of attention should any of those things be nearby. There was another lit candle on the ground with a smashed table and an overturned bed, nothing out of the ordinary from the cells that I had seen so far. Another white flash passed over my eyes and a memory came to me as I had entered.

My voice began the flashback. “Where is she? Where did she go?”

“No, I won’t tell you. Never,” An unknown female voice sounded, but it was different than the one that I heard in the storage area.

“You’re just making things worse for yourself. Look, this is no place for a young filly to be all by herself. She could be hurt or even worse down there.”

That couldn’t be me. I sounded so…angry. What could a young filly do to make me so angered that I would hurt another? This turn in character for my old self was not helping me, but the item that I had found behind the overturned bed had. It was a stone chipper. I could scarcely believe it too. Now I could break near any weak lock with this. Feeling good yet still uneasy from the flashback, I left the cell and continued straight down the dark hallway that I neglected before.

Besides another disturbing gust of wind blowing past me, I made it to the end with relative ease and found myself outside of another cell door. I slipped inside easily too with no lock guarding this door. It was lit inside this one too and another flashback came upon me as it had in the last cell.

I could hear the sound of something breaking away at stone. “But I don’t want to leave without you mother.” It was a young filly’s voice; this must have been the one that I had been referring to in the previous flashback. And I had confirmed my suspicion as soon as I heard the same unknown female voice from the flashback before begin to speak.

“You must go. Hurry, get out of here and find your way to the settlement where they can contact the princess.”

“But I don’t want to leave without you.”

“We don’t have any time to make the hole any wider. I hear someone coming, I’ll cover the hole with the bed, now hurry.”

Cover the hole with the bed? Looking at the bed in the center of the room, there was only one way to find out. Using all of my strength, I slowly dragged the bed out from its original position and I was right. I eventually revealed a small hole leading down somewhere. It was definitely too small for me to fit through though. It would seem that I would find a use for that hammer and chipper after all. This hole could have been why the hammer and chipper was here in the first place Working my way around the blocks that surrounded the hole, I finally broke away enough pieces for me to fit through. I saw no other reason to stay here so I went head first through the hole and began crawling my way through.

__________________________________________________________________________

I kept getting claustrophobic as I pushed my way through the tunnel. The walls felt like they were closing in on me the further they went. Worst of all, I kept thinking that there may be a monster in it, I would have no chance if that were the case. I finally reached an fork the path but I quickly noticed that the left path was blocked by fallen rocks, leaving me only the right one to venture through. The tunnel went on briefly before reaching a small amount of rocks blocking the entrance into another section of the prison. Pushing these out of the way were easy enough as they weren’t nearly as large or numerous as the ones that I found earlier in the tunnel. I crawled my way out of the tunnel and gave a deep breath. This hallway was even lit too.

The hall I arrived in went either to the left or to the right. The sign in front of me pointing to the right read “Kitchen”. I wasn’t exactly hungry after seeing this much blood and gore so far, but it was worth checking out. I turned right and on my way there found another path that went to the right. It ultimately turned out to be a complete waste of my time as there was one door in the hallway that wouldn’t budge and at the end was a gate with a padlock on the other side of it away from me, rendering my hammer and chipper useless. I returned onto the original path I had taken and up a set of stairs before arriving at a door to which I assumed could only be to the kitchen.

The kitchen reeked of something foul smelling. All the food that I could see upon first looked all appeared to be rotten or moldy. There was a strange green fluid in a metal barrel at the end of the room but I waited to check on that as I had found another journal entry on the table to my right upon entering.

2nd of August, 839

I finally arrived at the town of Bridleburg. It was a haven in the middle of the dense woods and was shadowed by my ultimate destination sitting on the large hill in the distance, Castle Bridleburg. My guide who had taken me all this way had advised me to wait until morning to continue on. I’m now staying at the inn and trying to sleep, but as I close my eyes the only thing I can see is the victims that died because of me back in Canterlot. They’re dead. They are dead because of me. I just can’t get over it. It’s all my fault.

It seems like all of the journal entries I’ve found thus far have been going chronologically. I had nothing else to go off of from this so I kept it in my mind but continued on, there was nothing else I could get from this unless I had more information.

I checked around the rest of the kitchen for anything useful. I only found two tinderboxes and another jar of lamp oil. But there was something interesting in the back of the kitchen, a giant barrel of acid. I heard it when I first arrived to the kitchen but didn’t actually know what it was until I got closer to it. The mixture was a nasty green and churned and bubbled inside. I was fully convinced of it being acid once I halfway dipped a rotten apple inside and when I pulled it out it the part that I had put it was completely gone. I didn’t know what to think of this either, it was interesting to find it here but ultimately seemed useless for now.

There was nothing else in this room of use so I went back to the door to continue searching through the prison. The door was closed as I had been routinely closing doors behind me now. I reopened it and started on my way.

Urrrghaagghh…

I turned right back around and slammed the door shut. That thing was right at the base of the stairs and I was sure it had spotted me too. I had to find somewhere to hide. Looking around, I saw several potential spots, but I chose the one that was at the farthest end of the room. It was inside a small corner of the room that had a brick covering that sectioned it off and made me unnoticeable from the door. A got into the furthest corner and laid down so that my body was covered by the small brick rise.

There were several smashing sounds on the door before it, like all the others, broke down and the monster came dragging inside. The closer that it got to me the more terror I felt surging through me. If it had moved past the brick that obscured me I would be instantly seen and cornered, a perfect target.

My heart was racing. Faster and faster. The closer that thing got to me, the worse I physically and psychologically got. My vision once had once again begun to blur and blacken around the edges. I had to clench my mouth shut again as my teeth began to jitter and grind like they had before. It was probably less than three meters away from me now. It made the most disgusting noises and grunts as it moved about too. I was sure that I was going to die, like all the other times I had seen it. These things almost seemed to have the power to drain hope as well.

It walked away. It actually just walked away.

It was at least ten minutes before I had gotten the courage to leave my hiding spot but once I did I saw that it was gone. I was being such a fool. Hiding like a coward every time one of those things came by. But what was I to do? Those things had incredible strength if they could knock down doors and gates. If I did anything to reveal myself I’m sure that I would die. There was no way I could fight back against those things, I would just have to keep running and hiding. But I was alive, and that’s all that mattered at the moment.

I finally did as I had originally started and left the kitchen again to continue exploring the rest of the prison and try to find a way out of it. I had made it back to where I first entered this section of the prison by tunnel with no problems, but I hadn’t gone any further that that down the hall. From the looks of it, it turned right at the end. I made it to the end fine and looked down the hall. I could see stairs leading up but the torches going up that way were all dark. So as I began to head up the stairs I lit the torches that were on the way to light my path so that I know where I had been and in case I needed to run really fast to escape something, which was very likely.

The stairs ended after a ways and turned right again. It was even darker down this hall but I could see a tiny bit of light at the end of it, and it looked like there were large rocks at the end too. I used my lantern until I made it to another torch and lit them with the tinderboxes that I had collected. It was even worse here with the darkness since I was confined to a small hallway.

The dark. It was a horrible thing. Just being in it makes me begin to feel uneasy and paranoid, like it’s always playing tricks on me. The longer I remained in complete darkness the worse I got too. I was thankful I had my lantern with me most of the time elsewise I would have more than likely gone insane by now. I was still somewhat unsure as to whether I was sane or not though already. It was hard to tell being by myself all time, the only other things that I’ve heard so far are either crying pitifully or trying to murder me.

I made it to the end of the hallway where the tiny bit of light was. It turned out it was from above with a broken section in the ceiling. That was the cruelest thing of all, knowing that there was light above me by not being able to reach it. Taunting me.

I heard several coughs coming from behind the rocks before a dying voice called out.

”Help...me…”

I gasped and backed a few steps away. The voice sounded no more after that, but it was still enough to shake me pretty hard. There was so much despair around me. I gave a heavy sigh before looking down the hallway that connected to the left. The hanging sign above read “Cell Block III”. This was a dark hallway as all the others were. I made it to the end of this one and saw that it split to the left or right.

I really had no reasoning behind my choices, but I decided to go right this time. I was blindly navigating through here either way. The hallway turned left, and then eventually came up to another potential path option, going right. This one, unlike going straight, had a light at the end, so I went down this path first.

I instantly regretted my decision for as soon as I started down this path one of those monstrosities went shuffling through past at the end of the hallway from my right side and disappeared again to my left. I would have turned back right there but I saw something in the cell up to my right that had caught my attention. I carefully made my way over to it and with my lantern I saw that it was another journal entry. I went inside, shutting the door behind me, though I didn’t know why because if one of those things came in here there was no chance for me in this tiny cell. I went over to the table and began to read it.

3rd of August, 839

It feels like I’ve finally escaped the rest of the world and all of my problems. Castle Bridleburg is a majestic creation unlike anything I’ve ever seen before atop a forested hill. It felt like another expedition to me, seeing a place as alien looking as this. The baron Alexander is a peculiar, yet gracious pony. He seems a bit disconnected with most of the world outside of Bridleburg but does know much of the history and customs of Equestria and is also not as eccentric as most of the royalty tends to be. The room given to me is much better than any inn that I had ever stayed in. But as the sun is lowered and the moon rises, the area around the castle seems to gain an eerie gloom to it. The servants of the castle are a peculiar lot, always quiet and skulking about, but I didn’t pay much mind to them. Alexander seemed pleased by my presence and told me that I had arrived just in time.

The only thing I could think about after reading this was the fact that there were others actually alive in here. I didn’t think that could even be possible with how bad this place has become. But I suppose that gave an explanation to the dozen or so corpses I’ve seen on the way here so far.

I didn’t really feel like following another one of those things unless I absolutely had to so I went back to where I started to head down this hall and returned to my original path. The hallway eventually turned to the left again and then I saw it split once again to the right. This one though had a few torches leading to the end and I could see a faint shimmer of a gate at the end. I figured it was at least worth checking out since I was sure there would be no monsters down this one, or at least if there was they would be behind a gate and it would give me time to escape.

It was definitely a gate at the end. And I could even see the way out of the prison through it as a very ornate door stood at the end of the hallway past it. But this one had a padlock in good condition on it. I tried to smash it off several times with my hammer and chipper but it wouldn’t break. Even the hollow needle to try and open in proved ineffective. It was, though, in a worse condition than the other padlock that I remembered seeing before. A sudden idea popped inside my head. Maybe that acid could break or at least weaken it so I could break it. I started to head back, but turned right down the hall that I was going down before to see if what I was thinking about the direction of this particular hallway was correct. It came to a corner and I saw another broken piece of ceiling with that same taunting light coming from it.

“That shimmering, blue light.”

I froze and my eyes shot open. My head turned from side to side and I looked around. There was nothing else near me that could speak. I looked down at my trembling legs before realizing that it was I who spoke. I just said that. I had just spoken to myself and scarcely knew it. What was happening to me? Am I really going insane? This was incredibly disturbing. What was I going to do next, start hurting myself without me knowing?

I pressed my hoof against my face and shut my eyes forcefully to try and regain my senses. It was just a slight slip, any pony else would have done the same thing if they were in my position, or so I thought. It was all really just to try and rationalize the fact that I was talking to myself. I had to keep going; maybe running into a monster will get me to stop

worrying about that for a bit.

I pressed on. The path split again to the right and I followed it all the way to the end to a cell that had a light coming from it. All of the cells were complete messes but this one had a journal entry lying on the floor next to the candle that lit the room. I began to wonder how all of these entries had gotten so scattered everywhere.

4th of August, 839

The nightmares once again woke me up in the middle of the night and for a short time I had completely forgotten where I was. Alexander found me and asked me to join him in the parlor. As I tried to calm down from another restless night; Alexander began to tell me what he knew. He told me that the orb that I had found casts a long and malicious Shadow. Not only was it a powerful item, but a dangerous one as well. Just by touching it you invoke the powers of the orb and if you are too weak to control it, the Shadow will destroy you. It’s a slow thing that lags behind the orbs wielder, killing anything that they have come into contact with on its path to retrieve the orb.

I told Alexander that I didn’t care for any powers and that I should just throw it away. Alexander told me that would be impossible because I was on its path to reclaim the orb and would die either way. With the orb though, I would at least have a chance to fight back when the time comes. I asked him what he meant and he said that he could protect me, but at a price.

‘But at a price.’ What does that mean? I at least knew more about the orb now and its effects. So this Shadow was apparently the guardian of the orb, and now it’s trying to kill me because I only touched the orb unknowing of the consequences. Fate never struck in such a cruel way before. I would have to get back to the kitchen now and get the acid to open the door.

As I was leaving to head back to the kitchen, I passed another closed cell to my left. I didn’t have the intention to look inside really but as soon as I had gotten near it a flashback entered my mind.

“I, I don’t believe this. Why, I mean why? What had I done to deserve this? It can’t be. I mean, it wasn’t my fault! Why did he have to go back in there? Why would he go back into a burning house? You don’t do that, he should have known better.”

That was definitely not my memory. I don’t know how I’m picking up memories of others, it seemed so strange. It made no sense either; all he did was ramble about burning houses and not going in them. I cleared my head of the memory and continued onwards back to the kitchen.

I had made it back to the kitchen easily as I was indeed correct about the hallway that I was in and it looped back around into the lit the path that I had set up and could now follow it back. The barrel of acid looked like it would be strong enough to break through nearly anything. I remembered now that I still had my chemical pot that I had held the other acid in previously and figured it would be the perfect container for this one. I held it very carefully as I slowly dipped it inside and retrieved a small amount of acid within it. It wasn’t much, but it was definitely enough to break or at least severely weaken the lock.

The way back to the gate was for the most part completely devoid of monsters as well. It almost unsettled me. Not finding a monster every turn seemed wrong to me by this point. I wasn’t sure whether or not to be thankful though. I arrived at the gate and checked the lock again; it was definitely in poorer condition than the others, though better than one that I could break without the use of acid apparently. I took the small amount of acid that I had and splashed it against the lock. Just as planned. The lock turned green and I could see the cracks showing in it now. It wasn’t completely gone but it was barely holding on. I took out my hammer and chipper and drove the final hit into it before it collapsed onto the ground. I smiled with triumph as I could now finally get out of this prison.

Errrarghrr…

I had barely begun to open the gate before that sounded, right behind me. I quickly glanced back and saw one of those things right at the end of the hall now madly rushing towards me. It ran very awkwardly as it shifted from side to side as it moved but it was fast none the less. I turned my head back screaming and fumbled with the gate for a second before making it through and shutting it behind me. No sooner as I closed it did a large metallic claw slam against the gate and sparks flew off to the side. In that brief moment I saw its face much more clearly than I would have ever wanted to have. I nearly froze out of fear but pulled away and didn’t give it any more time to break through any further so I ran faster now away from it. The door was right there. I moved at full speed to it and opened and closed it behind me faster than I had gotten to it.

End Part 2.