Resident Evil: Everfree Mansion

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock

A grandfather clock standing along the center of the right wall of the dining hall produced the droll repetitive sounds, as was its duty to do so. A massive table covered nearly 60% of the floor. There was a chair at both ends and numerous other chairs lining both sides of the table. A second floor balcony lined the room, and was held aloft by spaced pillars running along the borders of the room. Pinkie Pie and Rarity walked past me to go explore the other end of the room, I approached the table were I saw some paper work amongst other items. I riffled through the papers till I found something useful.

[File: Note to Personnel & Addendum for Security Personnel]

"Rarity!" I said quickly, she needed to know this.

"Yes, dear?" she asked me.

"Don't use magic beyond close range levitation. There are security measure to prevent anypony from using magic in this place." I cautiously levitated the note and slid it into a manilla folder in my saddle bag. It was important we gather information so we can piece this puzzle together. Taking it with me means I can look at it any time I might need to.

"No magic, oh my," she said with a sigh, "That does not bode well with me."

"I agree, but there's nothing we can do about it," I eyed the other items on the table. Picking a few of them up with my magic I proceeded to head towards the other end of the hall with the girls. Pinkie Pie was standing in front of the grandfather clock, rocking with the rhythm of  the pendulum, but eventually she lost interest and began to walk once again. Rarity cast her eyes about the room, taking in all of its details.

"I must say, whoever lived here lived very well," Rarity said aloud.

"I don't know about that, Rarity," I heard Pinkie's uncharacteristically sad voice from the far end of the wall. She was standing off to the side of a large fireplace positioned in the center of the hall. She was staring at the floor; as the table and last chair cleared from my vision I found out why.

"Is that blood?!" I raced to the pool of red that covered the floor. There were drag marks stemming from the pool that lead to a nearby door on the right wall. I stood over the pool, wondering what poor soul probably died here. Rarity seemed to be making every effort to not look at the pool, instead she eyed the fireplace and the mantle.

"I think I may have found something, Twilight," I looked up from the blood I was inspecting, "Doesn't that little wooden shield look like a loose fit in its recess?" I took a moment to look at the decoration above the mantle.

"It does..." with a little magic I pulled it from the slot. It popped out and there was a clicking sound. We looked around the room, expecting something to happen but nothing did. I went back to investigating the ornament. There were oddly spaced indents around the edge, then it clicked. "It's a key," I pointed to the indents, "I bet those indents work the same way the teeth of a key does."

"Well it doesn't seem to fit that... keyhole, for lack of a better word," Rarity said, and she was right, nothing happened when we removed it and nothing was happening while it was in.

"Then I'll bring it with us, we may find the right keyhole," I said as I slid the wooden shield into my saddle bags.

"Why are we just standing here talking when there's a hurt pony behind that door?" Pinkie pointed to the door, sadness pervading her voice.

"I'm sorry to say, Pinkie, but no pony can bleed that much and be alive. That and it's not very fresh," I explained to her.

"That's no reason to not make sure."

"You're right, we should go. But first give me your right forehoof," she did as I asked and I slid one of the devices I found on the table over it, "this will shoot a pulse of energy at your target, you just have to point it and then flex your hoof sharply to make it fire," I levitate the other device over to Rarity.

"Oh no, no, no-no-no," she shook a hoof at me, "a weapon? I don't think I could."

"Even if it's a last resort you should take it."

"What about yourself? I don't know if I could use it if I had to, but you would," she was right, as well. There was only two of the devices, and where Rarity would hesitate I don't think I would. With a little tinkering I managed to get it to slide over the flashlight on my helmet.

"Well lets go," I pointed to the door and we headed over to it.

Beyond the door was a very tight hall. Down one end of the hall there was a set of double doors. The other end looked like it opened into an alcove, I could see the edge of a couch from where I stood. There were also doors along the wall opposite of the door we came in through. One by one we filed in. I picked up the blood trail, it led to the alcove.

We approached it cautiously, we couldn't see, but we could hear and what we heard were the sounds of something being torn apart. As we came around the corner I saw what would haunt my waking and sleeping hours, alike, for the rest of my days.

Crouching low over the ravenously shredded body of a pony was another pony, but there was no way this pony was alive. It was missing massive chunks from its body, and from its wounds seeped no blood. It gnawed at the body it was stooping over, tearing strips of flesh away with rough jerks of its head. A low guttural moan always seemed to be seeping from its lungs.

Pinkie gasped and it became aware of our presence. We backed away from it as it slowly stood up and turned on us. It began to shamble our way slowly, its dull, lifeless eyes fixated on me. Its moaning came louder now, battering my ears as it gnashed its teeth at me.

"Dining hall. Now!" I shouted and we turned tail and fled to the door we came in through. Something told me there would be no reasoning with this shadow of a former pony.

We sprinted into the dining hall, slamming the door behind us. We held our breath and waited. The dead pony, the zombie, started slamming itself against the door, and moments later the door burst open sending it tumbling into the hall. It pulled itself off of the floor, but before it could resume its death walk Pinkie screamed, tears pouring from her eyes, as she unleashed two bolts from the blaster mounted on her hoof. As she fired her mane lost all of its life and her coat and mane both lost its brightness. The zombie hit the floor with a sickly crunch. It twitched for a few moments, but then it became still and blood began to pour from its wounds forming a pool around it. We all stood silently for a few moments, except for Pinkie's sobs, then Rarity spoke up.

"Is it dead?" she asked.

"I think so," I said, "we need to go back and tell the others about this."

"Yes, I don't like not being near them anyways," Rarity said. Pinkie suddenly stopped crying and stormed past us both Rarity and I exchanged worried glances. "Pinkie, dear, are you ok?"

"Oh I'm fine," she said, her eyes narrowing at the remnants of the pony she shot down, "it needed to be put out of its misery anyways." I didn't know what to say, so I just took my place at the front of the group and led the way through the doors.

We were back in the large atrium. Now that I had a moment to look around I took it in. It was floored with ornate marble, and had a massive set of stairs running down the middle. These stairs led to a second story balcony that had assorted doors on all sides, along with three doors on the ground level.

Unfortunately there was no sign of the others. Pinkie was on the other side of the hall already. She tried to open the door they went through. She gave the knob a twist, but the door wouldn't budge.

"It won't open!" she cried out in frustration.

"Its no use Pinkie. There's a typewriter over there, I'll type out some instruction and we'll leave them here for the others to find. This mansion is huge. If we are locked out then they are locked in which means they can be anywhere at this point," I started typing out my note to the others and finished it quickly, setting it on the stairs. Hopefully they would find it. "What we should do now," I said, as I drew out a piece of paper to draw a map on, "Is systematically go from room to room searching for clues, survivors, and the others."

Rarity had made her way to the second door on the same wall, she tried to open it but to no avail.

"Twilight! This one is locked too," she said, and I drew a circle around my symbol for a door on my map. "Wait a second," she said "there's a symbol above the keyhole. It looks like a shield. What about your door Pinkie?"

"There's a sword symbol on this one," I drew the sword and the shield.

"Alright, well I don't want to head to the second floor yet. Lets go back to that hall with all the doors," I said.

"You mean the one where we met that pony... thing?" Rarity asked, tentatively.

"The very same."

[To continue following Alpha Team]

[To see what bravo team was up to while this was happening]

[Death Scene: Pinkie Doesn't Shoot]