The Shining Descent

The Shining Descent

By: The Sentimentalism Brony

Chapter 9

Redrum Overload

Pulling out of a comatose-like sleep, Big Mac staggers to his hooves heading for the pantry’s large, steel door. Banging on the door furiously, he grunted and moaned in displeasure. The door was still locked.

“Mr. Macintosh,” a mysterious voice from beyond the door interrupted. Big Mac stopped in his tracks, lowering his hooves back down to the floor.

Placing his only his left hoof back up against the door, he questioned, “Charming? Charming, is that you?”

“Yes, Mr. Macintosh.” He responded.

“Well, uh, hello, Charming.” Big Mac was confused, but slightly intrigued. How did Charming know he was in the pantry? Was he watching him and Fluttershy earlier?

“…Mr. Macintosh. It seems you have hardly taken care of the business we have discussed.”

“Well, now, Mr. Charming,” Big Mac stated, throwing his hooves into the air, then back against the door. “No need to rub it in, okay?”

“I fear Mr. Macintosh, that you haven’t got the stomach for it. And I’m not the only one thinking this way. Others have started to think this way too; that you haven’t got your heart in this place…That you can’t kill for it, Mr. Macintosh.”

Well don’t you worry, Charming.” Big Mac started, turning around, placing his hooves on the shelf to his adjacent left, knocking some cans of tomato juice off in the process. “I have the heart for it. Trust me. Give me one more chance.”

“It appears Fluttershy is a little more…Resourceful than we could have ever imagined. And I do fear, sir that you are going to have to deal with this in the harshest way possible. Can you do that for us…Mr. Macintosh?”

“Yes. Yes, I can, Mr. Charming. All I need is one more chance.” And as soon as Big Mac finished his solemn promise, the door to his right began to thud as the locks were unlatched.

The door opening up, Big Mac trotted tiredly into the kitchen, and looked Charming directly in the eyes. “I’m going to handle this, once and for all,” he said, before trotting of into the emptiness that was the Overlook Hotel.

2…

While Big Mac stumbled through the hotel and Fluttershy slept off his tangent rage, Mr. Green Hooves was making his way back to the Overlook. The cook was worried that they may be in trouble, due to the fact no one was answering the phone, and when he called the Mountain Patrol’s Office they had told him they were not responding to their calls on the radio either.

So, now, Mr. Green Hooves was trekking through the treacherous snow in a rented Snowcat. The snow crunching loudly under its heavy load. The engine moaning loudly as it forced its way through shallow and deep snowbanks. The machine was quite a work of art. Too bad the “work of art” back at the hotel wasn’t working.

3…

Fluttershy cooed softly in her sleep, as Apple slunk out of his room and into his mother’s. Entering the room his attention was torn away from his slumbering mother, and to the dresser that adorned the large mirror. Walking up to the mirror, Apple looked into it. Looking in the mirror one could see the bathroom door in the mirror. It was in that moment Prism had an idea.

Assuming control of young Apple again, he trotted him to the kitchen. He needed to warn Fluttershy, and Apple wasn’t doing an efficient job at it. So, grabbing a vegetable knife from the kitchen, Prism moved Apple back into the bedroom. He then proceeded to make Apple pick up a stick of lipstick, removing the cap, and twist the bottom with care and precision. Taking the lipstick, he moved towards the bathroom and forced Apple to begin to write onto the bathroom door.

The word he spelt out was “Redrum…” And while he was pressing the lipstick to the wood, he chanted out the word as if it was some sort of sacrilegious ceremony.

From the constant chanting of the word, Fluttershy began to stir out of her sleep. She opened her eyelids slowly, as she looked off the right side of the bed.

Eyelids cracking open, she was surprised to see Apple standing there, looking right into her eyes, and still chanting the word Redrum. Looking down to his raised hoof, the glistening knife came into view. Fluttershy jumped out of bed in complete shock. “Oh my goodness,” she squeaked, “why do you have that, Apple?”

Apple didn’t answer; he just continued to chant the sacred word.

Fluttershy, now grabbing ahold of Apple, looked into the mirror. Upon setting gaze into the mirror, the word murder could be seen smeared across the bathroom door in red lipstick. Fluttershy gasped in frenzied panic. She had no idea of what to do, or what to think. She just knew she had to get Apple out of their now.

Suddenly, there was a crashing from the front of the suite. Big Mac had attempted to kick the door in, but it was ineffective against the reinforced steel plating in the door, and the thick hinges that held it in place. “Fluttershy!” He screamed. “Let me in, or I’m going to have to do something I really don’t wanna do!” There was a pause for decisive decision making, but the door never opened. “…Fine you leave me with one choice, Hun. Don’t tell me I never warned you.” With one final, enraged kick into the door, Big Mac picked up a fire axe with his maw and began to smash into the door, smashing piece by piece of wood out of the way.

“I told you, Hun! And now I’m coming in!” He swung the axe numerously more times, as Fluttershy grabbed the seemingly possessed Apple and, with her seemingly superpony strength, pulled him into the bathroom, locking the door as she did it.

Another loud crash was heard as Big Mac collapsed the first obstruction in his way. Running into the bedroom, he made his way for the bathroom. “Open up Fluttershy…And I won’t have to hurt you…” Fluttershy was now in a state of uncontrollable panic. She was now trying to pry the bathroom window open, so both she and Apple could escape the horrible atrocity Big Mac had become.

Pulling increadibly at the window, Fluttershy tried to open it with great force. But it was useless; the window had frozen shut and would not budge. Turning to Apple she looked into his green eyes and spoke to him as Big Mac continued an intelligible tangent from beyond the door. “Honey,” She began. “I can’t get the window open…” She was on the verge of tears again. “…But I want you to know, no matter what happens, daddy still loves you.” She then took Apple and placed him behind herself, shielding him from his father.

“Fluttershy if you’re not going to let me in, I’ll have to knock this door down.”

“I’m not letting you in, you monster!” She screamed back. “Why can’t you just leave us alone?”

“Why?” Big Mac repeated, almost laughing over the fact. “Because, I need to fulfill my duty. The hotel needs it. Wants it. Desires it. But you wouldn’t understand. No pony understands like I do.”

“But, Big Mac,” Fluttershy plead. “If you just listen to me, I can get you help. A doctor. Somepony to see what’s wrong.”

“I don’t need a doctor anymore,” Big Mac retorted, “I’m my own stallion. I know what’s going on. I don’t need help!”

“Honey, I think you do –“That was the last phase to half leave Fluttershy’s mouth, before the door was met with an ear shattering crash.

“If you think I need a doctor, I’ll show you I don’t need a doctor.”

Fluttershy screamed as she pushed Apple further behind her. The door was then hit again with a smash of the axe, breaking away more fragments of the wood. Through the hole being made by the axe, Apple could see his father rearing up the axe, before bringing it back down on the door. More wood flew across the bathroom, some hitting Fluttershy and Apple.

“BIG MAC STOP! PLEASE STOP!” But, it was of no use. The stallion was feeling ruthless, like a cold blooded killer when he handled that axe, and he liked it.

Bring the axe down again, a hole big enough for Big Mac to shove some of his face through had formed. Bringing himself closer to the door, he spoke. “Here’s Big –“But something cut him off. Something other worldly. Something he had encountered before but also hadn’t. It felt new but familiar at the same time. He was being spoken to. Not with the tongue as one would expect, but with a strain of brainwave unbeknownst to Mr. Macintosh. For his son was speaking to him the way Mr. Green Hooves and Prism spoke to him. With the mind. And it was in this moment that Big Mac was relayed an important message from his son. Apple had told him: “The water heater in the utilities room, the pressures to high. It’s going to explode.” Big Mac didn’t know what to think of this warning. Was it a ploy to get him to ignore Fluttershy and him? Or, was he actually telling the truth? Was the Overlook really going to go sky high in a matter of minutes? Regardless, the thought process would have to wait.

Big Mac screamed at Apple and Fluttershy once more before barging out of the room and down the hallway towards the utilities room.

Making his way downstairs, Big Mac heard somepony else’s hooves clacking on the tiled floor. Being cautious he peered around the corner. Coming into view just by the end of the hall was Mr. Green Hooves. “The sheer,” Big Mac said in a low, monotone voice.

Now Mr. Green Hooves was a liability, a thorn in Macintosh’s side. And he needed to get by him. Or, better yet, kill him. Remove him from the ever expanding equation, once and for all.

Pulling around the corner quietly, Big Mac slunk over to one of the pillars, “tip toeing” as he did so. Placing his back up against the pillar, Big Mac stood on his hind legs to avoid being seen by the approaching stallion.

As Mr. Green Hooves approached, he moved slowly, quietly, as to not be heard. He was checking his surroundings frequently, eyes shifting to the left then to the right in an almost rhythmic fashion. Then, as he came up upon one of the buildings large, red pillars, he stopped. His ears perked up as if he had heard a pin drop. Mr. Green Hooves turned around slowly, almost trembling as he did so. The Overlook was a scary place. He should have been honest with Apple, but didn’t want to worry him. Why would he want to worry a colt about a place as a hotel?

He then turned back around. And when he did he was greeted from the shinning edge of an axe going straight into his skull. The axe made a smacking sound as it came into contact with his skeleton, before making an accompanying squishing sound from the gushing blood that was now leaving his forehead. He gargled out incoherent nothings as the life began to drain from his body. This was the end. The way he was going to die. From a huge crazy caretaker stallion by the name of Big Macintosh. Life can be such a cruel and heartless bitch.

Once Big Mac got a good enough grip back on the axe, he pulled it from Green Hooves head with a sick sounding thwick sound. As the blood began to gush further from his head, It pooled around his being as Big Mac took the axe back down on him, this time severing his head. His head rolled approximately 3 feet from his body before it stopped, proceeding to get soaked in blood spewing from his newly sliced arteries.

Lifting the axe back up from the ground, Big Mac sighed and wiped the sweat from his brow before galloping back in the direction of the utilities room.

4…

With Big Mac gone from the suite, Fluttershy took Apple, gathered his and her stuff, and made great hast towards the entrance of the hotel.

Arriving downstairs, Fluttershy screamed in horror as she seen the dismembered body of Mr. Green Hooves lying lifelessly on the cold, hard floor. Covering Apple’s eyes, Fluttershy guided him to the entrance of the building.

Making it to the giant double doors, that just months ago welcomed them with open arms, they stepped through them and out into the near blizzard that ragged on outside. “C’mon honey, come with me,” Fluttershy stated grabbing ahold of Apple’s hoof as she pulled him to Green Hooves’ abandoned Snowcat.

Climbing inside Flutters pressed the push button start and the machine chugged to life. She turned to look to Apple and brushed his mane out of his face. “Everything’s going to be okay, Hun,” she reassured. She then put the Snowcat into gear, and began to pull out of the Overlooks long, snow covered, crescent driveway, before heading down the hill towards the Mountain Patrol Headquarters.

5…

Down in the basement of the Overlook, Big Mac was struggling with the first water heater. The damn thing was out of control. The pressure and temperature had flown through the roof, causing instability in the system. The instability was so severe, that it caused the systems premonitory alarms to go off, whining in a high pitch squeal of electronics and impatience.

“What the fuck is wrong with this thing!” Big Mac screamed.

The sirens continued to wail.

“Ah, I can’t think with all this noise.” Big Mac picked up a nearby piece of replacement piping belonging to the building’s plumbing system and chucks it at the alarm. The piping ricocheted off the alarm and smacked into the side of the boiler. There was a moment of silence before the boiler exploded setting off the others in the system to do the same. The explosion was so intense that it vaporized Big Mac and caused the buildings foundation to crack, give away, and for the building to come tumbling down to the snow covered ground around it. The heat from the blast was another situation all together. As the boiler exploded it ignited various pieces of wood, causing the Overlook to not only fall apart, but go up in flames as well…