Resident Evil: Everfree Mansion

Hello, I'm Twilight Sparkle. I'm writing this on a rickety old typewriter from within a room that I fear will be my final resting place. I want an record of what has happened here. I hope somepony sees this and that the Princess rains hell fire straight from Tartarus onto this miserable mansion. I would like to deliver this to the princess myself, but the moaning sounds that pervade the entirety of this mansion tell me that hoof delivering this myself may not happen. The beings in this mansion... they are ponies, but at the same time they are not. They... well perhaps I should start at the beginning.

Shortly after the fall of Sombra Princess Celestia gathered me and my friends. She explained to us that because of our ties to the elements of harmony the Congress of Canterlot had called for legislation that would be tasked with keeping our powers in check and working for Equestria, not at our whims but, at their whim. Our small group became know as the Special Emergency Rescue And Mitigation Squad, SERAM Squad for short. The six of us were given special training and we are now on call 24/7 in case we are needed.

It was just a short six hours ago that I received a letter about something a survey crew exploring the Everfree had found. Some ways aways from the ruins of the castle of the pony sisters the crew discovered a dilapidated mansion. They sent four of their own inside. That was two days ago and they haven't returned yet. Not only are there members of the crew trapped inside of the mansion, the members who stayed outside were attacked by 'creatures of unknown origin'.

"Twilight?" The was a vague sense of being called in the furthest reaches of my mind, but I dismissed it. The voice did not relent though. "Twiiiilight..." It was Spike calling me. I could not bring myself to look away from the paper I was writing on. My thoughts needed to get on this paper right away. If I don't write them down I'll lose my train of thought and then I'll never remember them.

"Twilight!" Spike shouted in my ear. I jerked forward and my magic surged. The quill went flying across the paper, smattering it with big droplets of ink as the nib jerked across the paper haphazardly.

"What?!" I quickly turned my attention on Spike, snapping at him in a burst of agitation. He withdrew a bit, and suddenly it occurred to me that I was being pretty harsh. "Sorry, Spike. I didn't mean to yell. It's just... Well you know how I get."

"Jeez, take a chill pill would ya?" With a smirk he presented a letter to me. "You know, that apology would go real well with some ice cream," I took the letter from him.

"Fine, but not a lot!" I told him while I flipped the letter over and over. It bore the seal of Celestia, but it was different. That and she didn't send me letters sealed in envelopes. Usually she just rolled them up and put a seal on it. Just staring at the envelope wasn't going to get me anywhere so I broke the seal and drew out the letter.

A quick glance at the header told me that it was written on a typewriter and that it came from the office of the secretary of defense. Which means it has something to do with SERAM. I let out an exasperated sigh. Neither I nor the Princess really like the whole SERAM decision. After all me and the girls were just regular mares. We didn't ask for the Elements of Harmony, it was one thing to stop Nightmare Moon or to get involved with stopping Discord's rise, after all those events needed the elements, but we were not trained military. Asking us to get involved in events that other better trained ponies could handle was asking too much. To add to the insult the congress put us through training, which we all almost failed, and Fluttershy did fail. After barely scraping by they still wanted to consider their personal response team. I'm certain these 'missions' were going to be the death of us. At least the Princess had the digression to say 'hey the girls might not be able to handle this, I should send in a more able bodied crew', but to the congress we are the more able bodied crew. They are grossly overestimating the power of the elements, but orders are orders and me and the girls have to follow them.

From the office of Iron Defense, Equestria Secretary of Defense.

--DESTROY THIS MISSIVE AFTER YOU HAVE READ AND UNDERSTOOD ITS CONTENTS--

Twilight Sparkle, leader of SERAM Squad Alpha.

One day ago a survey team within the Everfree Forest stumbled upon an abandoned complex. Two hours ago they deployed their distress beacon and are not responding to our attempts to contact them. We need you to assemble your squad and investigate the perimeter. Our records indicate that they set up camp near the complex and were planning on entering it. The beacon is at their camp site. Once you have arrived use the distress beacon to contact us for further orders.

--END MESSAGE--

Strange 'complex' and a distress beacon. Why did I have a feeling that this did not bode well. Unfortunately I had no time to worry, I needed to get the girls and we needed to go check out this site. Each of us had a set of saddle bags meant for when we were called to action. I went upstairs to retrieve mine. Of the items we were all given there were a set of necklaces with a plain silver ring as a charm. Mine was different than the others, when I charged it with a bit of magic it would make all the other girl's charms glow and make noise. With a little effort I sent a bolt of magic its way and started getting everything else we would need ready, it would be only a matter of minutes before the rest of the girls got here.

I had all six of our saddle bags out in the center of the room. I pulled a checklist alongside of me as I tallied off all of the provisions and gear and levitated over each of our elements, tucking them into a special case and shoving them into the bag. Part of our kit included 'tactical wear' a black shirt with a light vest with an array of pockets, black pants with an array of pockets, and black helmets with flashlights, and a face mask with a respirator. Overall I thought the outfit made us look rather suspicious. Were we a rescue team or a strike team? Congress went on and on about how we are a defense team, never doing anything offensive, but after the training and then all this equipment I've began to wonder just what their intentions are. My thoughts were soon interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Come on in!" Why did ponies always knock? I live in a public library. It was Rainbow Dash.

"Oh, okay, so it isn't a false alarm," she gestured at what I was wearing.

"Afraid not Rainbow. Hurry up and climb into your 'tactical wear', we got a 'mission'," I air quoted with my hooves and I swear, if my eyes rolled back any further they would never return to the right position. I shook my head, I've never looked down upon something like I do this SERAM program. Whatever is in the Everfree, why is it our business? I'm concerned about these ponies, I really am, but are me and the girls really qualified for this? Does a month of basic training really prepare ponies for going into these situations?

This isn't the first time we've been called into action. I can be thankful for the fact that as a team we do work well. There was a situation in Canterlot where several foals had gone missing. The guard had no leads, ponies wanted answers, congress was floundering so they sent us in. Thankfully we were able to track them down, they had end up in the city sewers. They climbed down an open ponyhole and gotten lost. As a team we canvassed the neighborhood, interviewed potential witnesses, and decided to venture down into the sewers. Rarity was able to track down a diamond that one of the foals wore on a necklace that her mother had given her. I don't know if it would have ended up so happy had the guard been left to solve the mystery. And looking at that I find myself wondering if I'm wrong for not liking SERAM. We saved lives. We made a difference. But... there were no bad guys at the ends of those tunnels. The foals were lost, not foalnapped. What if they were? Could we handle that kind of situation. There are so many 'what ifs'. I'm scared of the situations that are going to go sour, and as long as we keep getting called in to help we're going to come across one.

"Earth ta Twilight!" I was ripped from my thoughts by Applejack's drawl.

"Huh?!" I sputtered for a moment and gathered my bearings. The rest of the girls had filtered into the room. Most of them were even in their clothes. I looked around the room and giggled nervously. Another thing that bothers me about this whole situation is that I'm the leader. When things go wrong I tend to be the leader anyways, but this is official. I don't ask, I give orders. The girls rely on me. If we go into one of the situations I am dreading we'll end up in, their lives will be in my hooves. But I couldn't let myself get distracted anymore, we had to get going.

"Sorry everypony," I glanced around at everyone, briefly meeting their eyes one by one. Rainbow looked bored, she was probably in the middle of a nap before the ring around her neck started going off. And Rarity was eyeing the tactical gear with disdain.

"Black on black... it's like we're going to a funeral or something equally dreadful."

"I hope not," I said controlling my voice, she had managed to voice aloud one of my many fears. If the ponies over there were dead then it might as well be a funeral. Perhaps I didn't control my voice nearly as well as I though I did because everypony's ears splayed flat and back, sure sign of apprehension, fear, or sadness.

"What's going on sugarcube?" Applejack asked.

"We have to head into the Everfree and check out an abandoned complex that a survey team stumbled upon. Apparently they set off their distress beacon and now they won't respond to attempts to contact them. We have to go to their camp site and find the beacon and use it to get further orders. That's all I know."

Pinkie Pie was staring at me intently. Her unwavering gaze was starting to give me the creeps. After a bit she finally spoke.

"Are they ok?" She asked, a touch of sadness perverting her normally happy tone. This was starting to become harder by the second.

"I don't know, Pinkie, all I know is we need to leave now if we're to get to the camp before dark."

"Da-da-dar-kah?" A flowerpot with a pink tail asked me.

"Yes Fluttershy, dark! As in the sun goes down and we can't see our own hooves in front of our faces. Let's go girls." I caught Rainbow's eye and gesture to Fluttershy, she catches my meaning and gives Fluttershy's tail a yank.

"C'mon Flutters, we've got places to be, and we need you," Rainbow Dash said. Fortunately Fluttershy gave in fairly quickly. She must be getting used to our excursions, or at least she knows there no getting out of them.

One by one we made our way out of the library and into the woods.

It took us around two hours to reach the camp. That puts us at about three in the afternoon. There were no bumps along the way here, except for my own fevered thoughts, and once the 'complex', which turned out to be a creepy mansion, and the camp came into view my idle thoughts dissipated with the possibility of everything ending soon.

"Please be a false alarm, please be a false alarm, please be a false alarm," I found myself whispering under my breath.

We entered the camp site. The fire pit was cold and damp and all sorts of paperwork and equipment was strewn about. It looked like something had riffled through everything. In the center of the camp was the beacon. It was big crystal on a stand. It was pulsing red. I drew closer to it and charged my horn. With a zap I sent the charge into it and a large facet turned white and then transparent, I could see a set of eyes peering through.

"Twilight, this is HQ, have you secured the perimeter?" It took all of my might to not be snarky.

"We're on site, there are no signs of the survey team," I said loudly into the crystal, the pony on the other side frowned.

"Can you see the complex?" He asked me.

"The mansion? Yeah it's right behind me."

"They must have taken refuge in there, go and check it out."

"Yes sir," I said and the screen flickered out. "Girls, we gotta go in there," I pointed to the mansion, we all managed to gulp in unison.

Step by step we made our way towards the double doors that marked the entrance to the mansion. The front yard was a small clearing. We were almost there when Rainbow Dash let out a squeal. We all turned to her quickly, she was up on two hooves moaning in disgust as she backed away from something she had stepped in.

"Ah, ew, that was gross," she said, bringing her hooves to the ground, "There's something weird on the ground right here," She said poking whatever it is with a hoof. We all gathered around it.

"Is that- is that somepony's hoof?" Applejack said, taking a few steps back. Indeed it was. I glanced back at the crystal, but I only had a moment to think about contacting HQ before the howls pierced the quiet air of the Everfree. From the edges of the forest on either side of us came several timberwolves. They were smaller than usual and they looked ill. In fact there we large chunks missing from the lumber that made up their bodies, and their bits and pieces seemed to be shuddering as if they were struggling to stay together. They formed a half circle between us and the camp and they pressed forward.

"Bad Timberwolves! Bad!" Fluttershy flew out in front of us. Her words having no effect on the congregation. They continued their press forward. Fluttershy backed away nervously. "T-twilight... There's no light in their eyes," She turned to me, concern filling her own eyes with tears, "The only time I've seen a timberwolf with no light in its eyes is when it was d-dead," I took the information in and decided on our next course of action. I gathered energy into my horn.

"Run for the mansion!" I shouted and let loose a series of magical bolts. The struck most of the wolves and they shattered into pieces. I knew better than to think they were finished and turned tail to sprint to the mansion. Rainbow Dash was already inside holding the door open for us. One of the timberwolves I missed was gaining on me. I could hear its feet impacting the ground mere hooves behind me. I threw myself past the threshold. Rainbow slammed the door shut and immediately after there was a thud followed by whimpering.

Within a couple of moments the timberwolves began to throw themselves against the door. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow leaned against the doors to keep them out and Applejack quickly tied the door shut with some rope around the knobs. We all held our breaths for several moments and then the noise died down. The timberwolves left and we were alone. Or so we thought.

"Are you here to save me?"

Half of us screamed, the half that didn't nearly threw Blueblood across the room with a combination of magic, force of speed, and bucking.

"Ladies, please, I know I'm shocking, to say the least, but please try to contain yourselves," he said with a smirk.

"You're quite right, it is quite a shock to find your majesty anywhere besides the beauty parlor," Rarity said with a pompous 'humph' and an upturned nose.

"Well you'll have to excuse me, but not all explorers have to be prissy little unicorns."

"Explorer my plot-"

"Can it you two!" I shouted, "Blueblood, are you saying you are a part of this crew?"

"Yes, right up until we were attacked by the dead ponies, then it became every stallion for himself," well now I'm never turning my back on him ever again.

"Dead ponies attacked you?"

"They're all over the place," he made a sweeping gesture with his forehoof, "This mansion is filled with them."

"What do you mean by-" I was cut off by the sound of screaming coming from a room to the left. Blueblood backed away from the door, terror evident in his eyes.

"No way! I'm not going to let those creepy fuckers eat me!" Blueblood fled, sprinting for a blue door on the opposite end of the hall. He wrenched it open and closed it behind him with a slam.

"Hey get back here!" Rainbow Dash bolted after him. She stopped at the door and looked back at  me.

"Applejack, Fluttershy, go with Rainbow Dash and catch him. Don't go too far. We'll meet back in here after Rarity, Pinkie, and I go investigate that screaming.

Deaths

[Caught by the Timberwolves -SPOILERS-]