Blank Equestria

"Come on, can't we stop?" Lyra questioned quietly.

Scootaloo flashed the unicorn a scared look. "No," she whispered in return as she continued down the hall. It never changed, it was always dark. She didn't like it at all.

"Let's just rest," Lyra attempted again. Scootaloo wasn't convinced yet that they should rest.

"No!" Scootaloo murmured sharply, her wings spreading out swiftly from the filly's anger.

"Scootaloo, you know we have to."

"If we don't, the others will die. We don't have much time, you know."

Lyra continued trotting. Scootaloo folded her wings, then stopped. She gently tugged on Lyra's tail before the darkness could swallow her. She gave the mint green unicorn an irritated look, accompanied by a serious frown.

"Fine, we'll stay," Scootaloo said, changing her mind. It was rather quick.

Excitement brightened up Lyra's eyes, but her fear and sadness remained, not hidden enough by her ecstasy. The two mares gave the hall a short examination and went into another empty room with a deadly contraption. Lyra carefully avoided it as Scootaloo pushed the broken door, closing it.

"Did you know about those ponies before you were here?" Scootaloo queried as she made sure it was completely silent in the room.

"A little bit," Lyra said worriedly, sighing afterwards.

"How? Did somepony tell you?" Scootaloo went on. Lyra seemed to glare at her, but her furious look faded, as it was taken over by her own anxiety.

"Actually, I visited Twilight once. She gave me a book, and it was about those ponies," Lyra explained nervously. She blinked, then gave Scootaloo another uncertain look. "I only read a little bit of it and returned it after I found out how dark it was. Twilight was really terrified, but I left, so I don't know what she did with it."

"What about Bon Bon?"

"Bon Bon didn't know anything about these ponies at all. She doesn't deserve to be here."

"You know she's here?"

"Yeah. They knocked her out first, then they got me when I saw them taking her outside to some field with a trapdoor."

"I went through the trapdoor and ended up here," Scootaloo said, remembering her long trip from Sweet Apple Acres to the trapdoor that had disappeared completely when she got inside.

Lyra remained silent after the crusader spoke. She pushed aside some more crates that appeared in the room, then looked around.

"Looking for weapons?" Scootaloo asked.

"Yes," Lyra answered. Scootaloo stared at her, then assisted her in her search for a weapon.

After a while, Lyra yelped in happiness. Scootaloo jumped and sharply looked around. There were no hoofsteps getting louder.

"Lyra! You could have gotten some of those ponies to come in here and kill us!" Scootaloo said angrily.

"I found a weapon," Lyra muttered. She turned to Scootaloo, wielding a crowbar. It looked like it was in extremely good condition. It wasn't perfect, but it was all that they could achieve so far.

"That's the only one?" Scootaloo asked worriedly.

"Yeah," Lyra said. "Should we go now?"

Scootaloo stared at Lyra for a moment. Her gaze finally drifted over to the torture contraption, which was coated with fresh blood. It didn't give off a disgusting smell, but it definitely looked like they just killed a pony not too long ago, at least.

"Yes," Scootaloo said, already heading towards the door.

Lyra immediately followed Scootaloo. The two ponies instantly rushed outside and into the corridor again. There were still no ponies in sight, but then again, there were still the shadows.

"Do you think we'll be safe?" Scootaloo panted as she ran as fast as she could.

"Yes," Lyra said hopefully, but they both knew they would die soon. The ponies would soon take over.

Suddenly, the sirens that Scootaloo had heard from before went off. The ear-shattering sound that had abruptly gone off made the two ponies jump, drowning out every other sound that they heard, even though they heard nothing but massive metallic fans spinning loudly. The fear surging through the two ponies made them gallop even faster than they normally could.

"The sirens, that's when they come out," Scootaloo said fearfully.

"Keep running!" Lyra said, barely able to hear Scootaloo, let alone herself, talk. They continued to race down the corridor. The scraping noises that Scootaloo heard before had now begun to accompany the sound of the sirens.

Almost right after the sirens had gone off, Scootaloo felt dizzy. She panted heavily, almost choking, as she struggled greatly to keep up with the also struggling Lyra. The unicorn was close to collapsing. Scootaloo felt herself nearly faint too. As they both continued running, their thoughts almost blank except for the fear running through them and the desire to live, Scootaloo wasn't sure if the darkness was the real shadows in the facility, or her blacking out.