So Dead Space has been done with My Little Pony, but I love them both, so I wanted to do a story with them. This is a bit different because there will be no Issac or Ellie or Nicole, or any humans. It's simply ponies with the Marker.
NOTE: This is based loosely on Dead Space 2. There will be differences.
Again, thanks to GhettoMole for allowing me to use his image, and please visit his DA page here; http://ghettomole.deviantart.com/
PONY SPACE: FRIENDSHIP IS SEVERED
BY THE YOUNG AND FREE DRAGON
PROLOGUE: AWAKENING
Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide
No escape from reality
-Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen
Twilight Sparkle awoke, her head throbbing and an intense light flashing in her eyes. She looked around for a moment, waiting for her view to adjust before everything became clear. The room was dark, except for a large flashlight that was lying a few feet in front of her. She sat up and instantly regretted it as a sharp pain went through her spine. When she glanced over her shoulder, her eyes were met with a large meter, running down the length of her spine. At the very bottom of it, a small amount of red energy blinked on and off. Her whole body in fact was covered in a black suit that contoured to her body.
“What the hay?” She murmured groggily, standing up as best she could.
She felt beaten and fatigued. Her body was sore and her legs felt as though they were recovering from sprains or some other attack on their otherwise healthy natural state. She stepped forward and noticed that the flash light had a clip on it, capable of being attached to something.
She looked at the strange suit she wore, and noticed on her shoulder there was a clip. Picking the flashlight up in her teeth and doing a few trick maneuvers with her neck, she managed to set it into place, until a click sounded, and it stayed. She then looked around the room again, this time with aid from the light.
It was a small, cramped room with nothing in it other than few boxes. She glanced down at her feet and saw pieces of different sorts of metal, that appeared to be of the same type as the rest of the room. Looking up, she saw what remained of an air duct. Apparently she had fallen straight through, though she couldn't recall what had happened.
She approached one of the boxes and studied it. It was green in color and looked to be easily breakable. With a hard stomp from her hooves, it broke open, revealing a small bottle of medicine. She picked it up and took the contents into her mouth and swallowed. Instantly, some of the aches and pains disappeared and she looked at the meter on her back to see that it had filled up a bit more, and the energy inside was now yellow. She assumed the meter had to do with her body's condition.
She broke the other two boxes and took the medicine from them, which put her health up to a light blue, and the meter was filled, glowing passively in the dark. So she had mended her body, but she was still left in the dark about what was going on. Playing it by ear would only get her so far. She had to find somepony who could give some answers.
She went over to the door and opened it. Outside it was just as dark and she shined the flashlight about to see that it was a narrow hallway. She started down the hallway, the only sound being the hum of engines and the clanking of her metal clad hooves on the floor. There was a holographic sign on the wall near the door at the end of the hall, which she approached and turned on.
“Welcome to Discord stations. Courage, Compassion, Stability. We're here to help,” It said, showing a picture of Discord.
To say she was shocked would have been an understatement, but she swallowed it, knowing it was only something else to add to the strange situation she found herself in. She opened the next door and recoiled at the room beyond.
It was a large, two-story room with a walkway built in above the main ground floor. The room was dark, save a few lights that flickered on and off, revealing blood splattered floors and walls. The patterns were like strange artwork, as though cans of paint had been splattered everywhere, it ways that almost seemed precise, and yet brutal. Among the red paints, were a few corpses, mangled in different but similar ways. The similarity? They could barely be defined as ponies anymore.
The slaughters were not systematic, as each was unique in its own way, though they showed signs that the same individual had done them all. For one the brutal way that they were slashed and torn apart, missing fore legs, and even complete haunches, torn from their sockets. Tendons and shredded muscle were pulled taunt over bone, which was eventually exposed somewhere on the body. A characteristic shared by two was the head wound, which was a large hole across the back of the head, the mane, flesh, and skull all gone, revealing the dead brain.
The smell of bile and shit hung in the air over the greasy and blood covered entrails, bowels, and other vital systems in the body that had been torn out or exposed by violent slashes. She wanted to be sick, and she began to dry heave. There was nothing in her stomach, though that wasn't what worried her at this moment. What had happened here? Dear Celestia, what?! The main thought that ran through her mind was how unlike every book she had read on pony anatomy these ravaged bodies were. The books always showed well organized internal organs and tissue that all seemed to have a pattern. If these bodies had ever resembled what was in the books, they were beyond repair.
She continued to dry heave and found she couldn't stop as she gasped for air, but only sucked in the smell of the gore. She reached up to hold her throat as she felt was about to choke to death on nothing, and she pressed some sort of button that caused a small touch screen panel that was attached to her chest, to activate. It lit up the darkness and pieces of the suit seemed to appear from nowhere, covering a skeleton pattern and covered her head. Her vision turned a light bluish tent, and as she glanced up, she noticed that her new mask cast light blue lines where it allowed her to see through.
The suit blocked out the smell of freshly butchered bodies and made it a bit easier to see. She was able to control her stomach's attempts to throw up its contents. As she looked down at the small panel that activated, she saw it giving details of her health and her brain activity, among other process going on in her body. As she glanced over it, she saw that it allowed her to change to different screens. But before she could, a video projection came from some sort of device in the panel. It projected an image into the air, as though it were on a wall. A small screen appeared and Pinkie Pie came into view.
Her fur was matted and stained with traces of blood. Her poofy hair seemed to be in the middle of going back into its original straight texture, and going completely wild. Her eyes were just as wild as her hair, and she looked frightened, as though she had seen Nightmare Moon around.
“Pinkie Pie!” Twilight said in surprise. “What's going on?”
“I don't have time to explain!” Pinkie Pie said in a worried voice, and a scream erupted in the background as though to emphasize this. “Meet by the civilian exit! In the government sector!”
Twilight had never heard Pinkie Pie sound so panicked, or sound like she knew what she was talking about. Unfortunately, the one time her words made a bit of sense, Twilight was the one who could not understand them.
“I don't understand! Where am I?” Twilight Sparkle asked, as Pinkie Pie's panic passed into her.
“You're on the....” The communication of the call faded to dull, buzzing, static and then returned a few seconds later. “-- straight forward until you get to the...” another cut out and then, “-- I'll be waiting for you there! Get moving slow poke!”
And the call ended, the video projection turning off, and Twilight Sparkle was once again left alone in the dark. She didn't know what to do. Pinkie Pie had instructed her to do something and then go straight forward until she got to something. There she would be waiting for her. But from the way things sounded in the background of the call, it didn't sound like Pinkie would be able to wait around for whatever it was that was causing the screaming, and Twilight had a feeling it was the same sort of creature that had killed the ponies before her.
She had nothing more to do than to continue forward. She stepped out into the room, avoiding the blood and intestines one the floor when possible, though more than once, she heard the squishing of soft flesh below her hooves. She made it to the next door and opened it, finding that it was a hallway with many doors branching off, some of them closed, and others opened.
One that was opened had blood splattered in its wake, and she imagined that whoever was inside any of these rooms with an open door had been slaughtered. She heard frantic chatter from some of the rooms, whispers from others, and dead silence from others. She walked up to one, examining the number on the door and knocking on it.
“Go away! I'm not letting anyone in for anything!” A recognizable voice shouted back.
“Cheerilee?” Twilight called. “Cheerilee, it's me! Twilight Sparkle!”
“Go away Twilight! There's no room in here for you!” The school teacher shouted back venomously.
“Cheerilee? Please let me in. I have no idea what's going on!” Twilight Sparkle pleaded.
“You'll find out soon enough if you keep up all that noise! Go away! Don't bring them back here!”
“Don't bring who back?” Twilight called back.
Suddenly, voices from behind other doors who had apparently been listening (except for the frantic screams of ponies she couldn't identify) came up in a torrent of shouts, telling her to go away, to leave, or to die.
“Save the monster the trouble! Kill yourself!”
“Stop all that noise! You'll bring them back!”
“Shut the hay up! I hope you're dead by the time the Equestrian Gov. gets here!”
Twilight was hurt and almost pushed back by the angered shouts, and she made her way to the end of the hallway, opening the door and quickly proceeding to step into the next room, the door closing behind her and cutting off the rabid hatred being spat at her.
“What would make everypony say such things?” Twilight whispered to herself.
Despite the fact that there was some beast running around, wrecking havoc, she saw no reason for them to be so hostile. Of course, the ponies in Ponyville had a bit of a mob mentality, but she thought they were all decent people. But now that they were all panicked together, they were divided, expect for in one thought, which was that they hoped she was killed by whatever was in this place, rather than themselves.
Her thoughts were interrupted as heard a cry for help. She rushed down the hallway she was in and began rushing through the rooms between her and there. She seemed to be leaving the civilian district and heading into a hospital. Blood was splattered over the walls, and on the glass (what of it wasn't shattered). An occasional body lay in a closed off room, but otherwise, there were no corpses. This worried her. Whatever was going on seemed to have something to do with dead ponies....
She reached a surgery lab and saw Dr. Whooves standing over a patient lying on her back, her stomach open and some sort of blue lasers going into her intestines. Upon seeing Twilight Sparkle through the glass that surrounded the room, she began calling out to her.
“Help me! He's crazy! He's trying to kill me!” she shouted.
Dr. Whooves didn't seem to take notice as he looked down at the controls of some machine with a crazed expression. His eyes twitched and he began laughing like Pinkie Pie did when she was having one of her “breakdowns”. He began moving controls and the lasers began moving up the pony's body, slicing through flesh and bone. She screamed as her body was sliced open further and the lasers reached her shoulders, cutting off her forelegs, which fell off of either side of the table, and blood spilled down on top of them from her severed stumps. Twilight Sparkle was already rushing into the room as he brought the lasers closer together and sliced her head into four chunks, which collapsed on the table as her neck began spitting scarlet fluid.
Twilight Sparkle couldn't believe what she had just seen. She didn't know Dr. Whooves personally, but he had always seemed like a decent pony. But this was worse than the others wishing her to be killed! He had brutally murdered a pony who had done nothing. Her mask retracted as if told to by her mind as her horn began to glow as he looked over at her, and she expected him to attack. But... nothing happened. He didn't fly back against the wall as he was suppose to. The spell wasn't working! She didn't have time to try a different one as he tackled her to the ground, laughing in her face, his eyes twitching as he stared at her murderously.
The lab coat he wore was covered with splatters of blood, one of which looked like a a hoof print. He grinned and breathed in her face, as she struggled to move but to no avail.
“They told us to...kill all the patients...” He giggled. “You...You're one of our prized...weapons...”
“Doctor!” Twilight Sparkle cried out pleadingly. She didn't know why her spells were not working (she had tried at least four times to throw him off of her with magic), but she hope that she could reason with the insane pony. “Please! Let me go!”
“You were supposed to be dead!” He chuckled. “I can fix that though! You won't escape me like...Pinkie....”
He seemed to become angry as he thought of Pinkie (who Twilight assumed was Pinkie Pie). He slapped himself once, making a growling noise deep in his throat before smashing the nearby glass with his hoof, not even seeming to noticed the lacerations that the shards dug into his hoof. He picked up one of the larger pieces in his mouth, and smiled down at her.
“It's better dis way...” He said through the glass being clenched in his teeth.
“Doctor Whooves, please!” Twilight cried, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I haven't done anything!”
“That's where you're wrong, Mrs. Sparkle!” He laughed and brought the shard of glass down.
Twilight Sparkle closed her eyes and let a small squeak leave her mouth. She felt something yank at her hair and a slicing sound. She opened her eyes and saw Dr. Whooves still standing over her with the shard of glass. He moved back from her and she looked to her side to see that her mane had been cut short.
“You'll be better off without dat,” He said, still holding the glass in his teeth. “Trust me.”
She stared at him in shock for a moment. Was this a joke? He killed Celestia knows how many ponies and then pretends to kill her and just cuts her mane short? She sighed and shook her head. He was insane. Of course his actions wouldn't make sense.
“Okay, thank you...” She said slowly. “So what's going on here?”
“You should make use of what's around you, as I have,” He said, ignoring her question. “Dhere's a flashlight over dere,” He nodded toward a gadget on the counter. “And you can attach the dissue lasers to it.”
Since he spoke of the “tissue” lasers, and she didn't think she would be able to prompt him to answer her question, she simply tried to get a different set of answers... after all, she needed a lot of them.
“Why did you kill that pony?” she asked.
“Dhey told me to,” he said simply, frowning.
“Who told you to?”
“Equestrian Gov....”
She knew nothing of this Equestrian Government, but if they had anything to do with Celestia and Equestria, then they would certainly never order anything like this.
“Who specifically?” She asked.
“Discord,” he said. “He ordered us to kill all patients.”
“Could you please take the glass out of your mouth,” Twilight sighed in frustration, tried of all his “T”s become “D”s, and his muffled voice.
“I can't,” he said, his expression becoming a smile as he laughed. “I have to fulfill my last step...after I kill all the patients.”
“Why didn't you kill me?” She asked. “Not that I'm not grateful but....”
He smiled wider. “I like you Twilight Sparkle. You were my favorite patient.... Which is why I'm going to burn in hell for what I did to you.”
Before she could question what he meant, he gripped the glass between his teeth and swallowed it. She stepped back in horror as he began coughing and choking, spitting blood in a foot-long radius. He coughed and gag for a few more moments before he eventually fell to his face, his eyes wide open as he finally choked to death on the glass and his blood. She stared at him in disbelief for a few more moments before sighing. He was crazy. He had done all the damage he could do. But he had given her a little bit of information and it was something (however small). She looked to the flashlight he had mentioned.
It was much bigger than the one she had hooked on to her shoulder, and it looked like it would connect to a different part of her suit. She went over to it, and picked it up in her mouth. Well... all she could do was try what he had suggested and see what it made for her.
[][][]
After close to an hour of kicking things down with her back hooves like Applejack, and working as best she could with her mouth, she had managed to attach the tissue lasers to the large flashlight. She had studied the place it hooked on to her suit and found that she could control it by a trigger system that was built into the hoof of the right fore leg of the armored suit she wore. After several long minutes of tediously trying with her mouth, she had hooked it up.
The flashlight cast a beam of light while the tissue laser could fire a beam of energy that could cut through flesh and bone. She could trigger the firing on the laser by pushing a button in the hoof of her boot, which she could keep from pressing if she didn't want to (placed just out of the way of her hoof). It needed to be reloaded, which she could do by bending at the knee which would eject the energy clip this strange weapon took. She found that she also cycle between it and other weapons (if she had them) with a button on her shoulder, which pushed the current weapon to her side and would bring the next one up.
This weapon was also fitted with an alternate button that she could work by stepping back inside of her boot on another button which changed the angle of the energy, therefore she could cut different things with precise cuts. While all this technology was all well and good, and it was quite interesting, she didn't want to have to use it. She didn't want to kill anypony, and she didn't think she could.... Or any other creature, really. But...if she needed it, it was there. And if she found the strength to survive, she could use it. Plus the light was useful.
She stepped out of the surgery room, giving Dr. Whooves and the mystery pony one last glance before going to the next door and telling it to open. As her light shown into the next room, she began wondering what was ahead for her, and what these creatures had against her and the ponies they had slaughtered.
End of the prologue. Please read, rate, and comment, and I hope you've enjoyed.
Progress on this story may be slow but it won't be halted.
Chapter One: The Tip of the Horn
The first chapter of the adventure is complete. Please rate, comment, and track or add it to your favorites. I would like to thank the following for their support which was much needed for the size of this project; Cgaume12, Captain Crazy-Nonesense, MarcusH&PFenix, ghostlywolf, .
PONY SPACE: FRIENDSHIP IS SEVERED
BY THE YOUNG AND FREE DRAGON
Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide
No escape from reality
-Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen
CHATPER ONE: THE TIP OF THE HORN
Twilight made her way through a dark room that she kept her flashlight down to navigate through. It was hard to find her way through in the near pitch blackness, but it was better than looking at all the slaughtered doctors, sitting and lying on and around the tables. Most bore wounds that looked like bullet holes, and though they bled slightly, they were also burned, cauterizing most of the wounds, except the ones which were created from limbs that were blown off by absorbing too much fire.
While Twilight had seen some more gruesome things than this over the course of the past few hours, the sheer amount of those killed here was too much to bear. How many ponies had been killed including these and all the others? And these were not done in the same style as the kills made by the enemy of the ponies, so Discord must have had something to do with this.
It was surprising to her to say the least. Discord enjoyed causing chaos, but she thought he was above killing. Obviously not. She thought as she reached the door to make her exit. She told it to open and was seized roughly.
She stared in horror at the disfigured face of a pony. Her face was missing a good portion of its skin and one eye had been torn from the socket. Her lower jaw was gone and wicked, barb-like tentacles hung from her throat. The arms she had seized Twilight with were not arms. They were, instead, her legs, torn off at the joint and replaced with a long, mutated spear of bone protruding from the flesh of each. She held Twilight with these new appendages and let out a gurgling growl from her throat, the remaining flesh and vocal cords vibrating as she roared. The fore legs had also been further mutated, so that they had moved almost on to the pony's spine and her spine and back legs were broken into new crooked shapes to compensate her. Her new fore-appendages could hang easily at her side and she could not support herself on her back legs to stand taller.
The tentacles hanging from her mouth came down for Twilight's throat, ready to tear it out. Twilight Sparkle actually didn't mean to fire the Plasma Cutter she had assembled, but she would be dead if she hadn't stepped on the trigger. The cutter was angled upward and the beam horizontal, which made a perfect cut. The head of the monster went flying off, and the body released her, stumbling backwards with the force with which it was shot.
Except it didn't fall. In fact, the creature stood with its spine erect now and began to slash furiously at her, though she jumped back in time and was not caught in the flurry of deadly bone blades. She angled her Plasma Cutter and fired three shots into the monster's torso.
This had no effect whatsoever. The creature stumbled, but lacerations seemed to make no difference as it lunged at her. She dodged it again, about to retry her assault on the vital organ before something on the wall caught her eye. She turned the light on the writing while the dead pony was scrambling to get up. Written in blood was; Cut off the limbs!
Below the words was a bloody hoof print and a trail of blood hat led her eyes back to her attacker. She changed the angle of the beam to vertical, and fired two shots with accuracy that surprised her. Each one hit an arm joint, severing the slashing arms from the creature.
As blood poured from its severed limbs, the creature roared once before falling on its chest, the neck swiveling around once before going limp and the body fell on its side. The floor was quickly covered with a new coat of blood, as the vital fluid pooled around the creature.
Before Twilight could register much shock, a thought entered her head linking the writing on the wall to the dead pony. Before she had changed into this terrible creature, she had written instructions on dispatching her....
[][][]
After a brief time, Twilight Sparkle felt ready to take on the world again. She had cried for a few minutes out of fear and sock, but quickly composed herself. She had to find her friends if they were a part of this horrible universe, and together they could put Discord back in his place and hopefully reverse everything that happened here...wherever here was.
She quickly checked her body to see if she had sustained any damage, but her RIG read full health, and she felt fine other than her shaken nerves. Suddenly a call was projected into the air in front of her, and Pinkie Pie appeared, looking panicked.
“Twilight!” she cried. “Where are you?!”
“Pinkie Pie, I didn't catch your directions,” Twilight said anxiously.
The call began to fade in and out again. “How did you miss it? I...leave without you...the Marker!”
“What's the Marker? Pinkie Pie, I don't know what's going on!” Twilight cried.
“I'll explain every--...get to the cakes' bakery...find a store first...download the path!”
Then the call cut out.
Twilight sighed and headed for the next door. As she approached it, the room suddenly began to flash in an orange light, and she could hear screams ringing in her ears. She placed a hoof against her forehead, groaning as her head began to throb. She half-opened her eyes, to see Nightmare Moon staring into her face. Light was exploding from her eyes and then her mouth as she spoke.
“Do you remember me, Twilight Sparkle?” She asked and the next part was a scream that shook Twilight's bones. “Do you remember what you did to me?”
And then she was gone, and Twilight was left with a dull thudding in her head.
The screaming insider her head had ceased, but Nightmare Moon's words were still playing in her head. What that all about? She guessed that it wasn't real, and was in her head, but she had no idea why. Just another question to be answered.... She went into the next room, which brought more screaming to her ears.
She entered the hallway which was made up of rooms like the apartments that she had heard Cheerilee from. There was a balcony, where most of the screaming was coming from. As she started down the hallway, one of the rooms burst open and a female pony fell to the floor, screaming.
A stallion, mutated in the same way as the pony she had fought minutes ago brought his spear-like bones into her body, impaling her through her right side and left shoulder. She screamed in pain and the stallion ripped the blades out and stabbed one into her fore leg and used the other to slash the part of the leg past the pivotal point of its blade. This freed the impaling spear to stab into her chest and the other slashed her head off.
Twilight was, once again, too stunned to act fast enough, but as the stallion growled in satisfaction, his legs were torn out from under him by two blasts from a Plasma Cutter. The next two ripped its left blade off and then its head, leaving it to spill blood on the pony it had just dismembered.
Twilight Sparkle stepped around the severed limbs and small chunks of flesh that had been produced from the violence. She looked out, over the balcony and saw a large chasm, borded on the opposite side by what seemed to be more civilian housing and another balcony. Ponies were running and scream as explosions erupted behind them (from the same direction Twilight had come) and were followed by roars of distant monsters, some different from the cries of the creatures she had faced so far.
Pinkie Pie appeared on the other balcony and called to her before their RIGS connected them via video call.
“Twilight!” Pinkie Pie said, and pointed down below them where a bridge connected between the two civilian districts on either side of the chasm. “You're almost to the bakery! Watch out for the-...” She saw something coming up the underside of Twilight's balcony. “Run Twilight! Run!”
And ugly creature jumped on to the balcony, causing Twilight to fall back in surprise. It looked to have once been a stallion, but it was mutated far differently from the slashing creatures she'd seen so far. The stallions back legs were fused together to form the rear of the body, and becoming a strange whip like tail, which was tipped with a bone blade. The forelegs were strong and muscular, having been strong enough to pull it up the wall. The hooves had stayed, but talons had grown out above them, though the were so small they looked only good for gripping. The head was perhaps the most disturbing feature. They eyes had turned white and the head split open at the mouth, all the way back to its ears. The huge open maw contained four tooth-like spears set up to bite with the heavy jaws.
As Twilight backed away in horror, it lifted its tail into the air and expertly balancing on its strong arms and hooves, and began running surprisingly quickly on these appendages. She depressed the trigger in the hoof of her boot but the Plasma Cutter didn't fire. It was out of ammo and left her vulnerable to attack as well as panic. The creature reached her and struck its tail like a whip, catching her across the shoulder and knocking her to the floor. She grunted in pain, her RIG EKG meter dropping and the suit warning her that she was endangered.
Rolling away kept the blade from impaling her, but she ended up on her back. Thankfully she bent her legs, which ejected the Plasma energy. But that was no good. She had no energy clips on back up. The monster jumped on top of her, snapping at her face with its huge jaws.
She pushed against its throat with her forelegs, trying to remove the creature. It was heavy, and had the advantage, but before it could close its teeth on her head, a new-found strength grew in her and she kicked it off with her back legs. Adrenaline was pumping through her body in almost a larger quantity than her blood. She stood up quickly and without thinking, brought her back hoof down on the creature's head while it was still stunned.
Blood exploded from its mouth as its own teeth burst through its lower jaw. Twilight brought her hoof up again and slammed it down again and again. Three stomps from the heel of her boot crushed the creature's head, her hoof slipping on the brains and flesh, and throwing her off balance.
She was now on her side, panting and staring at what she had just done. How had she managed that? It seemed like Psycho-Twilight had taken over for a moment. But the creature struggled on to its feet (arms). The massive lower jaw was the only thing left of its head. It shook the shattered remains of its cranium away, but before it could mount another attack, Twilight kicked the creature hard, throwing it backwards. It fell against the railings of the balcony and Twilight charge at it, feeling her horn stab into the creature's side. She could feel the slippery flesh and internal organs parting around her horn as she used it as leverage to toss the creature over the side.
It let out a howl of sorts (the only noise it could make due to its mangled head) and she heard a squishing sound as it hit the ground hard. She didn't honestly care if it was still alive. She rushed down the hallway to search for an exit.
When she reached the end of the hall, there was a sudden turn and a light source around the bend revealed a pony-like shadow. She froze and braced her self against the wall. She had no ammo to dispatch this new threat with, and if she turned the corner, she risked being grabbed as she had carelessly done before.
The shadow was swaying from side to side and a clinking noise broke the silence that had fallen after her fight with the monster resting at the bottom of the chasm (or hopefully resting). She didn't think she could muster another defense (or offense) like that which she had used against the creature moments ago. That had seemed to be another pony, or some dormant part of her brain taking over. She realized, she had been focused more on thinking for awhile now and hadn't exactly been quiet when approaching whatever lay in wait for her. If these creatures could perceive noise, then it certainly would know she was there.
This left her with two options: take her chances around the corner, or head back the other way. The other way only led up and Pinkie had mentioned going to some sort of store to find her route to the bakery, and she hadn't seen anything like that back there. She'd never find her way there without following Pinkie Pie's instructions, and so she had to take her chances around the corner. She slowly peeked her head around, ready to pull herself out of harm's way.
What she saw caused her to gasp but she only did so out of surprise, because she had been expecting something else. A pony hung from the ceiling by a cord that wrapped around her neck. She was a unicorn, so because she had magical abilities, Twilight assumed she had done this to herself. She was swinging back and forth slightly and her left back hoof was knocking against a large yellow arch like structure, just beside a door marked as an elevator.
She approached it curiously and as she stepped on the pad inside of the little arch, a small screen came down, giving her a welcome, informing her this was a store. She looked at the options it gave her: “Information,” “Buy/Sell,” and “Storage.” She checked the storage by simply thinking of it and found only a picture of a gold card with a small number beside it.
“10,000 credits,” Twilight Sparkle read aloud. “Well, I hope that's a lot.”
She went back and went to the the info section. All that it contained were “Routes” to different locations, each costing 500 credits. She found one leading to the bakery and selected it. The window opened, asking her if she was sure she wished to download it. She confirmed, and it thankfully told her how to use it.
Once the download was complete, she left the store and clicked her left hoof against the right as it had instructed. A blue line appeared on the ground, made up of flashing light. It led to the elevator doors and disappeared into them. The line illuminated for a few moments before disappearing. Twilight went for the elevator and summoned it, stepping in and beginning the journey down.
When it reached the bottom of the shaft, it rocked violently and the lights went out, as well as the small holographic screen that controlled the elevator. She started to turn on the Plasma Cutter light, but two glowing orbs hanging in front of her halted her actions. They floated in the air peacefully for a moment, before a familiar orange light began flashing inside of the elevator, showing the orbs to be the eyes of Nightmare Moon as she gave a hollow stare, before gripping Twilight's face with her hooves and let out a high-pitched scream that was vaguely familiar.
Several minutes later, Twilight awoke on the floor of the elevator. The lights had returned and the elevator doors were open. Ignoring the dull throbbing in her head, Twilight made the mask of her suit wrap back around her head, since it had receded for no apparent reason. The hallway outside was plastered with coatings of blood and flesh, anything that had once belonged to a pony that had been brutally taken from him or her.
She saw at the end of the dim hallway, a holographic sign in front of a door with a cake on it. When activated, the sign listed everything Pinkie Pie had baked. At the very bottom, the last thing was blinking an orange light (rather than light-blue) and read, “Step Four.”
Perplexed, Twilight went inside, standing in the banquet hall which was covered with blood but surprisingly no bodies lay on the floor. She went into the kitchen where she expected to find Pinkie Pie, but instead found only a destroyed and scarlet work place. She did notice however, above the stove, some pony had written another message in blood, “You have to see this.”
Below it was a small circular device. When Twilight touched it, it projected video into the air; what appeared to be feed from a security camera. The video showed the Cakes working in a normal kitchen, before all of this had started it seemed;
An unseen door opened and the Cakes turned and looked, shock crossing their faces.
“Pinkie Pie!” Mrs. Cake said. “You look terrible! What did the therapist do to you?”
The unseen pony didn't reply, which seemed to cause the worried looks that crossed the Cakes' faces. Whispering came from where Pinkie Pie apparently was. (Twilight didn't know whether that was in her head or not.)
“Pinkie Pie..?” Mrs. Cake asked, gingerly. “Why are you looking at us like that?”
The door slammed and a pink flash rushed Mr. Cake. His wife let out a cry of alarm as Pinkie Pie knocked her husband on to the stove, wrestling him to submission with bites, harsh kicks, and her weight.
“Step four!” Pinkie Pie screamed. “I can't take another session!”
Mrs. Cake tried to help her husband, but was silenced by an extremely hard kick across the face. She fell to the floor, out cold. Mr. Cake let out a cry as Pinkie Pie opened the oven, which let out an orange glow from the fire burning within.
“You do it!” Pinkie Pie screeched. “You build the Markers!” And then she pushed Mr. Cake in.
His screams became a-never ending torrent as she slammed the oven and held the door. His shadow was all that was visible through the tinted window and Pinkie watched it thrashing and beating at the door. His screams died to whimpers as Mrs. Cake regained consciousness, and were present long enough for her to realize what had happened and let out a horrified exclamation.
She ran to the door, her wails already mourning the loss of her husband. Pinkie Pie grabbed a knife, screaming something (through teeth clenched around her weapon) about keeping a promise and sticking a cupcake in her eye. She disappeared from view as she attacked Mrs. Cake; the video ended with her cries of fear and agony.
Twilight took a moment to try and control her emotions. Her eyes began pouring their salty tears as she felt like screaming out of her sheer confusion and fear. In her blurry vision, she could see bloody hoof prints and splashes of said liquid across the door that must have belonged to Mrs. Cake. And all the rest of this blood.... What had Pinkie Pie done to her? Was it Pinkie Pie? It looked like her but...she would never do that, especially to two ponies as close to her as the Cakes. As Twilight dropped her hooves off the stove and to the floor, the knocked the oven door open and a blackened corpse fell out, that had been leaning against the door.
Twilight screamed and dodged the body as it hit the floor and lost pieces of its crippled form, letting out a puff of smoke as it crumbled. The face was Mr. Cakes, twisted in a scream, the flesh peeled away and pulled taunt over the bones. The eyes had burned away, but the fear was still apparent in the hollow sockets. The jaw that formed a scream was twisted slightly to the side as it had begun to lose form and shape as he was fried. The ribs were dark black and exposed from the paper thin layer of black material that had once been skin and flesh.
The fall had split his body in half, but the position it had been in while writhing in agony was still apparent. She backed away biting her lip, trying not to scream again, which might mean losing all control over herself. All silent doubts that maybe the video wasn't real were gone. It was Mr. Cake. Maybe if the corpse had been more burned, she could hold on to hope that maybe it wasn't him, and it wasn't Pinkie Pie who did this but.. there were no more doubts in her mind. Pinkie Pie had murdered the Cakes. Her thoughts were interrupted as a loud crash sounded outside and a roar louder than anything she'd heard so far struck fear in her heart.
