TANTIBUS

Chapters

CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT: THE GAME BEGINS
CHAPTER NINE: Admira

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER ONE

The soft grass easily gave way for Twilight’s hooves, shaping the first hoof-prints this field had seen in many years. It was not normal for Twilight to be this far away from Ponyville but there was an herb that only grew this far into the Everfree forest. Well, according to Zecora at least. Zecora knew far more about the herbs and potions than all of Twilight’s books together so she would usually visit her during her expeditions to the Everfree forest for advice.

Today, she was looking for a really rare plant and had received nothing but directions and a slender warning from Zecora to stay careful. Twilight had discarded the plant for a moment as she stepped out on the field. It was very strange to see such a flat and light green meadow so deep into the Everfree forest. There was no weed or plants on the field, just the flat grass that got even flatter as Twilight stepped her way forward towards the middle. A meadow like this must have been taken care of by someone, but the farthest any one lived into the Everfree forest was Zecora’s residents. But even she doesn’t go this deep, even less every other day to go cutting the grass of some random meadow in the middle of nowhere.

It truly was a strange sight, but what was even stranger was the small yellow item in the middle that Twilight was walking towards. The yellow square-like item grew larger and larger in her eye-sight and before she knew it, it was just under her hooves. It was a note.

She took a last look around the mysterious meadow before eventually returning her view towards the note. It was yellow, flaked and wrinkly, indicating that it was very old as the note was in its decomposing process. Now it was removed from its spot on the soft grass and floating in mid-air, performed by Twilight Sparkles magic. The page was blank, so she turned the side and right as she did so, it was followed by a short shriek and the note was dropped onto the all so familiar grass. There was text, written in blood!

Twilight was shaky and nervous as she slowly forced her own hoof forward to push over the note so it would land with the text upwards, pointing towards the sky. She read the text.

“My name is Aeon” Twilight took a deep breath and read the second half of the brief message. ”I died in Tantibus.” The word Tantibus itself was underlined, indicating its importance. The line that was located beneath the word was also written in blood and the smell of dehydrated blood penetrated Twilight’s nostrils. “Dear god. How horrible! Is this some sort of death or suicide note? Who is Aeon? And what is Tantibus? I better bring this back to Zecora, she might have a clue about this.”

Twilight’s horn started to glow as the note started to levitate once again. Unfortunately, this note was not going to leave its home without at least one more surprise up its sleeve. With a loud “ZAP!” lightning struck down into the field, lighting up Twilight’s entire viewable field into one giant white beacon. Twilight tumbled over onto the grass with ease as the light already was fading away.

It took some time for Twilight’s eyes to recover and adjust to nature’s normal brightness again and she had a hard time just seeing her own blurry hooves in front of her. Eventually, she got up on unsteady hooves and took a look around for what was different. Another loud shriek escaped from Twilight’s lips as she realized that she was standing in a graveyard, which had appeared onto the field around her from nowhere.

She closed her eyes and started to count to ten, breathing slower and becoming more relaxed for every second that passed. This usually helped her calm down in hectic situations but this was just unbelievable, that a spontaneous graveyard would just appear like that. The note was also pretty strange itself.

“…8, 9, 10.” Twilight opened her eyes again only to once more reveal the shocking sight of a fairly small graveyard. There were only five tombstones, but they were scattered all around a small area in the middle of the field, where Twilight was standing. She picked up the note for the third time with her magic before she started walking around, studying the tombstones more deeply. She looked at the one closest to her and read what it had to say.

Glory

LOST The Tantibus Challenge

Died In Tantibus

The name was on top, showing the identity of the poor soul. Glory was her name. When she was alive, that is. Underneath her name read the word “LOST…”, all capitalized to show its importance, followed by “..The Tantibus Challenge.”. As cause of death, the text “Died In Tantibus” was listed below.

“What is The Tantibus Challenge?” Twilight stepped towards the next tombstone. It looked identical to Glory’s tombstone. A large, upright rectangle going up to the height of around four feet and two feet wide. Twilight looked at the front of the light-grey grave. The only difference between them was the name. This tombstone’s rightful owner was Decker, also a loser of The Tantibus Challenge as he too Died In Tantibus. Twilight looked up to the sky, it was getting darker. Twilight knew she had to get back before it went dark and since she was so far away from home, she had to leave urgently. But Twilight had always been the typical scientist who couldn’t control her curiosity in strange situations and what could possibly be more mysterious and strange than this?

Twilight moved on the next tombstone and then the next and then the next, they were all the same. The only thing changing was the names; “Glory, Decker, Dawna, Maverick, Skydance… LOST The Tantibus Challenge, LOST The Tantibus Challenge, LOST The Tantibus Challenge, Died In Tantibus, Died In Tantibus, Died In Tantibus.” Twilight was thinking out loud to herself, “They all lost this challenge, and died?” Twilight then lifted up the note and held it in front of her own judging eyes. Aeon didn’t have a tombstone and his signature, written in dried-out blood, was in her focus. “Aeon, did you win?”

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER TWO

Meanwhile, Zecora finally arrived to her home carrying with her a few potion-ingredients and herbs of her own. Unfortunately, her present collection of plants, herbs, potions and books was too big for more as of currently. She put down her newly picked content onto the floor next to the door.

“Looks like my recent additions won’t fit; I will have to redecorate a bit.” She spoke before getting to work. There wasn’t much to do around her house anyways, so a good clean-up could keep her entertained for a few hours. She began with her books, carefully removing them from their shelves and putting them on the floor. Large piles of books formed at the same rate as the shelves were cleared.

Somewhere in the pile closest to her personal, wooden desk was there a book named “Spooky Tales & Legends”. The third installment and chapter of that book told the tale of the only known and documented occurrence of The Tantibus Challenge.

But that was only a silly tale to scare children into being more thankful to the gift of life, right? Well, that is what Zecora had convinced herself into believing. Actually, the tale of when Flaming Ace became the first Tantibus victor was a true story, written by himself. Under a false name of course, the author “Landon” didn’t want to cause any unwanted attention to himself.

Nowadays, Flaming Ace does not need to worry about such attention since shortly after publishing his remarkable story; he finished his own life in a desperate attempt to lose the guilt of taking the lives of five innocent, fellow ponies.

Zecora removed the final book from her desk and put it in the smallest pile, completing the first part of redecorating her simple residence. She now began sorting her potions, herbs and ingredients over again, sorting the potions of their labels and the plants into different groups. Now she was careful to squeeze them together tightly so that this whole redecoration would actually have a point and fit the new additions.

Zecora was almost finished with sorting as she only had two jars left to replace. They were placed up on the top shelf, out of her reach. Even when she was standing on her practical stool she still couldn’t reach them. It was barely as she smudged the wooden edge of the shelf with her hoof, over and over. That’s when there was a slight knocking on the door.

Zecora looked over her own shoulder as to confirm what she had heard. Yes, the door was conveniently placed to where the knocking had come from. Zecora gave up her struggle with trying to expand her body into being able to reach those darn jars and walked over to the door. On the other side was a slightly nervous Twilight Sparkle, eagerly waiting for an answer because the visit had to be short if she would get home in time, before darkness fell. The door opened and Twilight was met with Zecora’s familiar smile and rhymes.

“Welcome, my dear. Twice in one day you are here.” With an inviting motion with her leg Zecora showed her friend Twilight Sparkle in through the door for the second time that day. “Did you find your herb, if I may disturb?” Zecora asked as she closed the door behind Twilight.

“Uhm… Yes.” Twilight lied so that she could get straight to her point faster. “But that isn’t why I’m here again. I’m here to ask you about something.”

Zecora stepped back up on her stool and continued trying to reach her jars. The thought of Twilight’s magic didn’t strike her mind yet. “Oh I see. What could that question be?”

Twilight reached back into her bag that she was carrying on her back. With a slight movement the bag opened and a small yellow note came floating out of it. As the floating note approached Zecora’s focused expression Twilight stated; “Do you know anything about this?”

Zecora looked over on the note and saw Twilight’s clear demonstration of magic. As soon as she read this note she would ask Twilight to help her. Right now she was focused on the note’s content. It looked like blood? But was it? If the color wasn’t convincing, the smell sure was. Her pupils moved from left to right twice as she read the two simple lines. My name is Aeon, I died in Tantibus.

“Oh, dear!” Zecora did a quick jump in shock as she had read about Tantibus before. Was it more than a story? Her hoof knocked into the shelf, flipping over the two jars. Zecora landed flat onto the ground with the jars coming soon after, landing safely in her lap. “Who wrote this note?!”

Zecora’s fall came as a surprise to Twilight as she didn’t think it would have such a great reaction on her. As she helped Zecora getting up again she explained calmly. “Well, it says it’s written by Aeon. I just found it like this on a field. It was so weird, as I picked it up from the ground this small graveyard spawned around me. With only five graves, the cause of death was Died In Tantibus on every tombstone.” Zecora looked even more shocked. “I came here, wondering if you maybe knew anything about Tantibus.”

“I’ve thought that Tantibus was just a legend for my entire youth. I do not wish to take any part of it, if it turns out to be truth.” Zecora stated.

“Zecora, please! I must know!”

Zecora walked over to the pile of books closest to the wooden desk and picked out a book named “Spooky Tales & Legends”. “Everything I know about Tantibus is written in this book. If you must know, have a look. I suggest that page eighty-two is the chapter for you.”

Twilight spoke a polite “Thanks.” when accepting the book. She then quickly turned to page 82 to see if what Zecora was speaking was the truth. It was the beginning of a new chapter named “The Dark Mansion”. Twilight closed the book and placed it in her bag.

“Night will fall, as I recall. Now you need to go, whilst the sun is still low.” Zecora said. She was right, it was about an half hour until dusk and Twilight really had to get going if she wanted to arrive to her library while at least a glint of the sun was still available.

She checked her bag once more before saying a final goodbye to Zecora for the day. When the door closed behind her she remembered the reason she went to the Everfree forest in the first place. She forgot completely about the plant.

“Oh well. I can always come back another day. I don’t really need it right now. Besides, this Tantibus legend will probably keep me going for a few days. It is so strange, all of this…”

Twilight reach back into her back and Spooky Tales & Legends floated fluently out and practically opened up to page 82 in front of her. She thought that since she had quite the long walk home ahead of her she might as well check this story out a bit. “It’s written by Landon. I wonder who that is. How does he know about Tantibus? Did he enter and win perhaps?”

A small drop of water dripped onto the page, slightly above the D in The Dark Mansion. Just a moment after, another drip landed on the page, and then another one. Twilight looked up into the sky and another drop of water made a clear and moisture splash onto her cheek. It was starting to rain and she had to keep the book dry to make it presentable for her deep studies. The book floated back into position inside the secure bag. “I guess it will have to wait for when I get back to the library.”

It was dusk at the library with the rain pouring down outside and Spike, who Twilight had left home alone for the day, was getting worried. He had decided upon reading a book to conceal his worries but as darkness arose outside, he couldn’t stand it much longer. Where was Twilight? It was not normal for her to be out this long. Sure, the herb she was getting was rare and hard to find but surely would she give up the search if she was running out of time, right? The Everfree forest would turn into a horrible place at night and if Twilight had any senses she would know to not be there when darkness falls.

The door opened; in through it came a wet, soggy and exhausted Twilight Sparkle. The rain outside had really taken its effect on her and she must have been running to make it home as fast as possible in a race against time, darkness and rain. She closed the door after herself and put her bag on a table.

“Where have you been, Twilight?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry for coming home this late, Spike. I got… distracted.”

“With what?” Spike put down his book and quickly retrieved a towel for the soaked pony friend of his. He wrapped it around her and she nodded back at him.

“Thanks. Anyways… With this.” Twilight opened up the bag and out of it came the yellow and old note. Miraculously, it was bone dry, along with the rest of the bag’s content. She had Rarity to thank for the astonishing water-repelling fabric used in the recently sewn bag. Spike caught the floating note and read it.

“Is this… blood?!” Spike put down the note on the table. So far, Spike was the first not to freak out on first eye-contact with the note.

“I think so. It doesn’t smell like ink, now does it?”

Spike leaned forward and took a sniff from the yellow paper. In reject and disgust, he backed off. “What is Tantibus?”

“I don’t know, really. Zecora didn’t really want to tell me either, but she did give me this book. I haven’t gotten the time to read it yet though. I think I will soon, if not this evening.”

Soon after, the discussion was ended and Twilight began her research. She began by studying the note a bit further. With a magnifying class she could tell that it was at least five years old. She was quite convinced that it was blood instead of ink or paint on it. She had only seen blood from bruises and scratches but this did remind her of it. Other than that, there wasn’t much information she could retrieve from the note with the tools she had, so she moved on to the book Zecora had given to her. With curiosity, and a little bit of excitement, she opened to page 82 and began her reading.

The Dark Mansion is the short tale of Flaming Ace’s experiences from Tantibus, written by Flaming Ace under the pseudonym “Landon”. Everything is written down into this book from his innocent citizenship before waking up in the creaky mansion up until the moment when he walks out of the building with bloodstained hooves leaving behind the slain and empty bodies of five fellow ponies along with his own sanity.

According to the book; they were commanded by letters on the walls, dripping from blood, with two simple rules.

THE RULES OF THE TANTIBUS CHALLENGE

RULE ONE; ONLY ONE COMPETITOR CAN LEAVE TANTIBUS ALIVE

RULE TWO; THAT COMPETITOR MAY ONLY DO SO WHEN ALL OTHERS ARE DEAD

The group of ponies was offered an arsenal with edged and blunt weapons. According to Landon’s description, Flaming Ace could not control his actions as he picked up a sword and went on a heartless and gruesome rampage, slicing off limbs and heads without any sign of mercy or reconsideration. It was as if Flaming Ace was under control by someone else, as nothing but a ragdoll in the possession of something dark and evil. He could only witness with his own eyes what was happening, what his own berserk and bloody ravage caused upon the terrified poor souls of the ponies. His ears could only memorize the desperate cries at the same rate as his eyes carved the desperate expressions of the victims into his mind to be remembered and haunt him for all of eternity.

After completing the soulless challenge, the door opened and the bright light stunned him as he stepped out into freedom again. But what freedom could you possibly enjoy when your mind is a wreck and any traces left of your sanity will be torn apart over and over by the memories. The books final words are:

Every pony has a soul

I gave up mine when I slaughtered five others

They will never come back

Neither will I

I’m sorry…

“Twilight!”, Twilight Sparkle quickly jumped out of the book and into the real world again. Spike was looking at her, very tired and frustrated. “It’s really late. Can’t you please put out the candle and go to bed?”

Spike was right, it was really late and it was probably a good idea for Twilight to get some sleep. Well, try at least…

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER THREE

The wooden floor was very uncomfortable and rough on her cheek and body and she slowly moved her head up. She opened her eyes. It was still pitch black as she couldn’t see anything. Was it night? She rose up, on her way to go searching after her bed. She must have fallen asleep on the floor again…

When she took her first step it made an unusually creaky noise. What shocked Twilight even more was the non-familiar voice that commanded “Who is there?!” to her noise steps. Was there a stranger in her home? Asking her who SHE is when that person clearly is the intruder? Twilight Sparkle felt her lips move and her vocal cords were vibrating; “My name is Maverick. Who are you?”

My name isn’t Maverick! Why did I just say that?! And what is wrong with my voice? Why is it so… male? And how come I can’t control it? The other person responded “Well, I am Decker. Do you have any idea where we are located for the moment?” The other person was also male and had a clear and over-class Canterlot accent. He was clearly not from the Ponyville regions.

Twilight Sparkle felt her mouth open but got interrupted by a sudden, tired groan coming from her left. She or he… took a quick turn towards that direction, still blinded by the darkness. Twilight’s uncontrollable voice named Maverick spoke again; “Are there more people here?!”

“Well, I am here.” A sudden female voice spoke from the right.

“So am I. Are you all alright?” Another, darker female voice spoke.

The groan came back from the same person as before. Twilight could hear hoof steps left and right from other ponies desperately trying to navigate this dark place. The voice of Decker came to assistance; “Are you okay?” he spoke while moving towards the groan.

Another groan came, followed by a voice. “Where am I?”

“I have my theories but I can’t know for sure. What is more important is if you are in a good condition.” Decker responded calmly.

“I’m fine, a little bit tired and dizzy that’s all.”

Then some more hoof-steps came followed by Decker’s voice, directed at everyone in the room. “How many are we here?”

There was a short silence before Twilight and Maverick responded; “One…”

Decker continued, “…Two…”

One of the female voices picked up the trail, “…Three…”

The other, darker female followed, “...Four…”

A third and previously unnoticed female voice said; “…Five…”

The ‘tired’ pony eventually responded; “…Six.”

There was a brief silence but “seven” was nowhere to be heard.

Eventually Decker took the initiative to take on the leadership role. “So we are six… Oh well, my ponies. I know where we are.”

“Where are we, then?!” Maverick shouted.

A sudden flash came as the simple yet decorative crystal chandelier lit up the room from the ceiling. They were located in a ginormous hall with an at least 10 feet tall exit door. Unfortunately, the door was sealed tight. The nature that this room perked out was of a really old castle with its wooden exit door, creaky floor, huge staircase leading upstairs, old fashioned paintings, the chandelier, and the furniture whose wooden shapes and corners had been carefully carved out by hand ages ago.

The place had an overall creepy atmosphere. The female ponies were all looking around and inspecting for themselves. The first male was light blue and crouched up against the wall and extremely nervous. He really did remind her of Fluttershy and how she would react in this creepy situation. The other male pony had a brown fur color, even darker brown mane color and was frantically writing down notes into his notebook. It turns out to be Decker as he spoke after finishing taking notes. “6 ponies; 3 female and 3 male. 2 pegasi, 2 unicorns and 2 earth ponies. This place sure likes patterns.”

Twilight had a look around and saw the different races. She saw the two unicorns, both female. She also saw the two pegasi, one female and the other was the male crouched up on the floor. But she saw only one earth pony, Decker, so she assumed that Maverick was an earth pony.

Maverick spoke up. “As I asked; where are we?!” He was getting frustrated. Twilight could feel that in his emotions. The other ponies were looking at him, then at Decker who responded. “Well… I think… I think we are in…”

A very sudden and quick earthquake dropped in and threw all of the ponies off their balance and onto the hard, wooden planks that made up the floor. They were launched back and Maverick landed in front of a broken mirror. He looked into one of the larger shards and saw a light brown and rather nervous face. There was no horn in his forehead and no wings on his back. All that could be seen was the blue mane that fairly matched the light brown skin color. Twilight asked herself; Why do I possess you? What makes you so special?

He turned around and glanced over at Decker who was interrupted a few seconds earlier. With a shocked and terrified face he pointed forwards and finished his sentence by yelling “We are in TANTIBUS!!!”. Maverick turned towards where Decker was pointing. The wall was covered in fresh, dripping blood shaping a small message to the visitors. THE RULES OF THE TANTIBUS CHALLENGE

Terrified screams came from left and right. Someone claimed it all to be a cruel joke and someone was on the verge of tears. Shortly after, a new paragraph was introduced. RULE ONE; ONLY ONE COMPETITOR CAN LEAVE TANTIBUS ALIVE

“Sweat Celestia!” shouted the female pegasi, still unnamed.

Letter by letter blood was painted on the wall as if made by a poltergeist. Soon, they could read the second rule. RULE TWO; THAT COMPETITOR MAY ONLY DO SO WHEN ALL OTHERS ARE DEAD

Maverick’s voice echoed in his own mind as only him and Twilight could hear it. He was praying to Celestia or whatever force that brings the time and existence that was most likely about to end for his part. Only one of them would leave and with a 16.5% chance of survival, the odds weren’t in his favor. His mind was searching for solutions What if I get the first hit? That would give me an advantage. There are three females, surely I am stronger than they are and… Snap out of it, Maverick! You can’t kill these ponies! How could I live with the guilt?! No, I would rather sacrifice myself. Twilight was shocked to hear his mood swings and begged as well for a way for this to turn out well, but she knew the rules. They were clear as night and day, and by the end of the day…

Five ponies would be dead.

---

A hoof appeared from underneath the covers and pulled the curtain to cover up the small window on the side of the wooden tree next to the bed. Twilight’s eyes could not adjust to the incredibly painful and bright shine from the morning sun that woke her up. When she came to think about it... Why did she not pull the curtain before going to bed? She thought for a second and remembered. Actually, she didn’t remember everything. Not yet.

She had left the window cleared from the curtain’s cloth because she felt more relaxed having the moon’s natural light shining over her, aiding her asleep. She had been very shaken up and nervous because…

Now… she remembered. The eyelids opened up and she pushed off the bed sheet. She took a quick glance to her left and on her nightstand she once again found the book “Spooky Tales & Legends”, just as she had left it before going to bed. She slowly adjusted her position so she faced the bedside table completely, and then used her magic to open the book. Page 82, The Dark Mansion.

“Tantibus…” Twilight remembered her extremely vivid dream. “It felt so real… Wait a minute!” Twilight jumped out of the bed, awoke Spike on her way and ran over to the bloody note. ”Decker and Maverick… They both had their own tombstone on that field I saw! Did I just relive their encounter with the challenge?! Was it real?”

“Twilight… What is going on?” reacted a very tired Spike.

“Just some research… You can go back to bed, Spike.”

“I’m hardly going to be able to do that now that I’m fully awake!” He groaned.

“I’m sorry. I had an… interesting dream.” Twilight Sparkle kept her discussion going in her mind. That light blue and shy Pegasus… was that Aeon? I need to find out if these ponies have really existed. Twilight Sparkle walked into one of the rooms in the library and came shortly out again, bringing a thick book with her.

“What are you doing now, Twilight?” Spike asked while rubbing his eye-lids to easier make out details with his recently awakened eyes.

“I’m trying to look up Aeon and some other ponies from this Spooky Tale & Legends-book in the personal register to see if they are real.”

“But Twilight… We only have Ponyville’s register here. You’ll only find ponies that were born in Ponyville in there.”

Twilight dropped down the register on the table in realization and turned to Spike. “That’s true.”

Twilight thought for a second on where to find registers that covered entire Equestria until she came up with an idea. “Well, Spike. Since you are already awake would you mind sending a letter to Princess Celestia?”

“Sure, I guess… Which one?” He mumbled.

“I have to write it first, silly.” Twilight grabbed a quill and an empty note using her magic and began writing. She began by a simple, polite greeting and then moved on to excusing herself for the odd request she had to find out information about a certain group of ponies. Then, she wrote down a list of ponies from both Aeon’s and Flaming Ace’s Tantibus challenges. She also wrote down the author Landon, who wrote The Dark Mansion. Finishing it off, she excused herself one more time for her silly errand and then said her goodbyes.

“There. Send it.” Twilight instructed Spike and shortly after; the letter was sent. Now she just had to wait for the response.

---

The response came shortly after Twilight had set up their breakfast. Rudely, Spike burped out green smoke along with the letter right before they began eating their eggs.

“Excuse me, he he. Here you go Twilight.” Spike chuckled as he handed over the letter from the princess.

My faithful student, Twilight Sparkle

Luckily, I didn’t have much to do as of currently so I took the time to look up your small errand in Canterlot’s royal library. I don’t really understand why you would want to find out this but all of these ponies have passed away, apart from this ‘Landon’ figure. I could not find his name anywhere which results in that he has probably never existed.

What shocked me the most is that most of these ponies passed away in groups at around the same two occurrences.

After that followed a list over the ponies that had died and at what time period they did. They existed, and died at these two occasions. But Landon didn’t exist? Then who wrote the novel?

Twilight opened up the book again and looked around for clues. Then she brought up Princess Celestia’s letter to double-check. She read the last sentence again of The Dark Mansion.

I’m sorry…

“Wait a minute! Flaming Ace died two days after the novel was first published! Of course! Flaming Ace wrote it himself under a pseudonym. Who could else reflect Flaming Ace’s feelings in such a way other than himself? That poor thing, ending his life after such misery…”

“Burp!” Spike transferred another letter into her library. On unsteady legs he walked over and handed it over to her.

“Another letter from Princess Celestia?” Twilight asked. Spike simply lifted his shoulders unknowingly and returned to his breakfast. Twilight took a sip from her cup of apple cider and began reading again.

Dear Twilight Sparkle

I forgot to mention one of the ponies, Aeon. As it turns out, he is still alive and located in the mental institution of Canterlot for startling behavior and rambling in public. It is also filed that he never speaks, most likely caused by a trauma or a disorder as they found nothing wrong with his vocal cords.

If you would like to visit this friend of yours I’d be happy to provide you with a train ticket. Myself, I will be quite busy during the upcoming days so unfortunately you are on your own after you step off in Canterlot’s train station.

With all regards, The Princess.

In shocked surprise Twilight instinctively spit out the apple cider as she burst out yelling; “Aeon is ALIVE?!”

Thanks for reading my horror fanfic Tantibus. Since you have read the first three chapters you obviously like it, huh? Spread the word about Tantibus to your brony friends! It is going to be big! Also, before you ask; The character Decker is indeed heavily inspired by Doctor Whooves in appearance, speech and behavior. You have probably already noticed that anyways.

To all Tantibus fans. // ExceRainbowDash

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FOUR

“Are you sure you want to do this, Twilight?” Spike asked. It was later that evening and Twilight was busy in the process of packing. With flowing motions projected by her magical levitation spell she packed her the few things she would need for her small journey. Aeon’s note, her copy of Spooky Tales & Legends, the train ticket Princess Celestia had sent her, a piece of snack to eat during the trip and a few other insignificant items. She was leaving with the early morning train, so her packing had to be done by then.

“Yes. It is crucial for my research to know more about his experiences from Tantibus.”

“But Twilight, didn’t you hear what Princess Celestia said? He hasn’t spoken a word for years!”

“Maybe I can change that. After all, I know what happened to him. I saw him, in my dream. If it was real, that is.”

“When will you come back?” Spike wondered.

“The trip should only take one day. I’ll leave early in the morning and expect me to be home by dinner time.” Twilight added while closing up her saddlebag. “There, I’m done packing.”

Now Twilight could only wait for the sleep to catch up with her, and then for the morning to gloom. She was actually quite anxious to fall asleep, hoping that she might finally know what happened to Maverick and Aeon. Also, she couldn’t help but to see a small resemblance between Decker and herself.

Spike on the other hand didn’t really care too much about Twilight’s new passion. She was always chasing a new legend or myth, trying to prove its existence. If you are a friend of Twilight you will quickly get used to her constant researching, he used to think.

To begin with, Spike used to come along on her trips and be kind of her sidekick, but now he had just accepted her exploring personality and besides; someone had to take care of the library while she was gone.

The train will drop me off at the center of Canterlot. From there, it will be an about twenty-minute walk to the Canterlot mental institution. That should be easy, as long as I remember where to go and which road to take. Twilight went through her plan and routes one more time before finally blowing out the candle to fall asleep soon after.

---

All of the ponies backed off into their own corner, not trusting anyone else but themselves. Maverick’s thoughts were racing to find any possible escape routes. There were no windows and the main door was as blocked off as it could possibly be. There was also a large staircase, covered in a torn up red carpet, leading up to the second floor, but it was broken and impossible to climb. There were four other doors in the hall. Two of them were on each side of the giant staircase. The other two were on the opposite walls from each other. All of them were locked. Maverick ran up to one of them and began bucking on the door in hopes of it to break down, but it didn’t even budge.

“What are you doing?” one of the female ponies asked. It was one of the unicorns; she had light blue fur matching the fur of Aeon. Though, she had a pink mane while the Aeon had a blonde mane color.

“I am looking for a way out of here!” Maverick shouted back. The unicorn backed off at the very sudden and frustrated attitude of the light brown pony. The other ponies started to panic and similar to Maverick, looking for a way out.

The female pegasi were jumping like crazy next to the broken staircase.

“I… I can’t fly!” she shouted panicking.

“Well of course, my dear. That would be cheating.” Decker stated while at the same time noting down into his notebook what he just said. That notebook, everything he knows about Tantibus is probably written in that notebook. If there only was a way for me to get a hold of it! Twilight added, only as an helpless spectator.

“What do you mean?” Maverick stopped with his bucking on the door and turned to him. In his mind, Maverick was angry; throwing suspicions at everything he could think of. That professor… How come he knows so much about this place! More than he should if you ask me…

“Well, flying and magic would be an unfair advantage in a challenge like this. Makes only sense to deactivate it. You there, the yellow and red mare…”

The unicorn with light yellow fur and bright red mane looked over at Decker and responded. “My name is Glory, for that matter.”

“Well, Glory.” He added while with his hoof pushing over a small vase in her direction. “Here. Make this float.”

The unicorn did her best, putting all of her energy into her horn, but the vase simply wouldn’t budge and remained in it wobbly place on the creaky planks that made up the floor.

“I can’t.” she stated as she gave up her struggles.

“And neither can we earth ponies. We are leveled now. This mansion wants a fair battle.”

Finally Maverick had enough of this know-it-all and spoke a piece of his mind. “And why do you know so much about this shit-hole!?”

Slightly offended, the dark brown pony turned around to his direction.

“Mind your language, mister.” Keeping his calm at hand, he continued. “But as for your question; when I first heard of this legend I found it very fascinating and for weeks I studied its origin, rules, locations, and competitors. Quite frankly, it was only a matter of time before I ended up here myself.”

The female pegasi turned to the professor, asking him “If you are such an expert, why don’t you tell us how to get out of here?”

The professor Decker, who was now the center of attention, responded. “Well, you see. There is one way for you escape Tantibus, actually.”

“What is that?” The second female unicorn commanded. It was the one with the light blue fur and pink mane.

Still keeping his calm he smoothly made his way across the enormous hall. His creaky steps were echoing in the hall of this very old mansion. He approached the bloodstained wall, stopped and pointed at the dripping letters. “Win.”

“Are you crazy?!” Glory yelled.

“What if we refuse?” Aeon suggested while getting up on unsteady hooves. He looked very weak. Weak and peaceful. How did he win? Twilight thought.

“Well, I am afraid it is not that easy for us to…” Decker began but was shortly interrupted as the candles in the crystal chandelier temporarily blew out.

One of the mares screamed for a moment, surprised by the sudden darkness, but three more joined in when the lights came back on. It was only Maverick and Decker that did not burst out by the sight of the newly added arsenal of blunt and edged weapons. On the creaky floor, in the center of the room, they could now find everything from sledgehammers to swords and axes. There was even a morning star lying fairly close to the wooden, broken staircase. Maverick flinched back and Decker once again took notes.

“Why do you keep writing in that thing?!” Maverick shouted.

“Well, my chances of survival are very small. I might as well write down as much information as I can so that someone in the future may find it. And maybe…” Decker looked straight into the eyes of Maverick. Straight into the spectating eyes of Twilight as if he knew she was present, “Just maybe… Figure out a way to stop this game once and for all.”

“You guys are not going to… accept the challenge? Right?” Aeon said with a taste of panic in his voice.

“I’m not going to. But the ending is inevitable.” Decker replied.

“Neither am I!” shouted the female pegasus, who didn’t seem to get the whole ‘ending is inevitable’ part.

“I’d rather suicide than end the life of a fellow pony. Make that four of us!” Glory stated proudly.

“Then it is settled! We aren’t going obey the insane rules of this maniac!” The other, light blue unicorn finished with a giggle.

The ponies walked up close to each other, trying their best to laugh it off. But one pony didn’t join the group and walked unnoticed forward to a nearby resting sword.

They exchanged identities to make it, mentally, even harder for anypony to even think about the challenge. The female pegasus was first to introduce herself; as she was named Skydance. Twilight also overheard Aeon confirming his name.

Soon, it was the light blue, female unicorn’s turn to introduce herself. “Well, my name is Dawna. I have a big sister, mom and dad. In my free time…”

Dawna’s words were left hanging in the suspended atmosphere of the chilly, old and worn out hall of this mansion. As a last effort of her struggling muscles she stretched her hoof in terrible pain and stroked her own throat. The hoof was now dripping red as she pulled it back. She attempted to scream but any efforts of using her vocal cords were met insufferable pain and choking gags of blood.

Her hoof met the steel blade that had penetrated her from her neck. As the steel blade was slowly pulled out again she fell down onto the floor and Dawna was no more. As the body was dripping and forming a puddle of the soaking blood, everyone’s attention was directed at the pony responsible.

With a firm stance, soulless expression and a killer stare, Maverick was ready to strike again.

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER FIVE

Covered in sweat and anguish Twilight immediately rose up into a sitting stance, nearly pushing her bed sheets over the edge of the bed. This nightmare was by far the most intense out of all of the recent Tantibus dreams.

She tried to relax herself and her constant panting, but thoughts of the events and the screams from her nightmare stuck like glue in her mind, making her gasping for air so much more frequent. Because unlike last night, she this time had her nightmare fresh in memory.

She took a cloth from the bed sheets and patted her forehead and around her horn. It was very soothing.

This nightmare had taken the darker turn with the horrific details on the murder of ‘Dawna’. The way she collapsed to the floor with no muscles reacting in her body whatsoever, the red puddle that kept expanding, soaking into the cracks of the wooden floor, and the screams. The panicking screams and realizations of the fact that the game had started, with no going back.

But there was one pony, whose terrified screams clearly outmatched the rest, whose screams went out seeking help from above with desperate and heartbreaking cries for mercy. The screams… of the killer himself.

Being a spectator and listener of not only his eyes and ears, but also his mind; Twilight was the only pony to ever hear or see Maverick’s side of things in this game.

Even though his eyes showed nothing but a thirst for blood, his mind was breaking down into desperation and begged for mercy. As his puppet body took action, his mental state went through the three standard phases that usually every ‘selected’ Tantibus individual experiences.

Phase 1, Confusion;

What is happening? I can’t seem to control myself. I can’t move! Someone help me! HELP! I can’t talk either. What is this? Wait, where am I going? What is happening to me?!

Phase 2, Realization;

Oh my goodness! The sword… I’m going too... Oh please no! Somepony! Something! HELP ME!

And finally…

Phase 3, Desperation;

SOMEPONY HELP ME!!! GAAAAAHH!! RUN! RUN AWAY FROM ME!!! PLEASE!! CAN ANYBODY OUT THERE HEAR ME??!!! PLEASE! I’M BEGGING YOU!! THEY ARE INNOCENT! THEY DON’T DESERVE TO DIE! MAKE ME KILL MYSELF INSTEAD! PLEASE!!! I’m begging you. Oh god no! Help me...

Twilight was there, she could hear him, every word, every scream and every cry. But just as Maverick was to his actions, Twilight was helpless and couldn’t do anything but to watch and witness.

Maverick became the ‘selected’ contestant. You see, it is an unwritten rule that is put to action in almost every Tantibus round. Whenever somepony’s life is at risk, the ponies in the surroundings will do anything to save it. This, naturally, causes every contestant to refuse competing in the contest.

That is where Tantibus’ trick kicks in. As a final resort to boost the ‘action’, one individual will be chosen to ‘start’ the game. They become a puppet, they become the ‘selected’.

By now, Twilight Sparkle had this figured out by her hoofs, comparing the similar puppet-like actions Flaming Ace took to those of the more recently Maverick.

Twilight took a glance out the small rounded window by her bed. It was starting to get lighter and dusk was on its way. She then caught eye contact with her alarm which was going to go off in a half hour’s-time from that point.

“There no way I’m going to be able to snooze after that…” Twilight Sparkle spoke with the typical rusty morning-voice she usually had.

On steady hooves Twilight slowly got out of bed, deactivated her alarm and went down the stairs. Coming down the stairs Twilight saw the saddle bag she had prepared lying on the small, rounded wooden table. She decided to kill time by going through it one more time.

Everything was there, including the one train ticket she had received from Celestia. It was good for one trip to, and return from, the center of Canterlot. In her saddlebag she could also get a glimpse of Aeon’s note one more time. She stopped and looked at it for a while.

“With Maverick on that murderous path, how the heck did you survive?!” She put the badly smelling note back in the bag. “I guess I’ll find out today, if he really is located at the Canterlot Mental Institution. I still can’t get it through my head that he is still alive to this day!”

Twilight sealed up the waterproof saddlebag and continued her morning by entering the kitchen. She got going with her own breakfast, something she had not counted on she would actually have the time for but now she had a few extra minutes at her disposal.

A nutritious breakfast later she finished up her chores for the morning and got ready to head out in the vast and beautiful morning. Before she left, she trotted over to her number one assistant and gave him a kiss on the cheek. She did not now that that kiss of love and respect would be the last thing she would ever do for her most loyal friend in the world before he were to have his heart broken for seemingly forever.

With that done, she went outside, closed and locked the door and commenced her journey to the capital.

---

A puddle made a clear splash as the purple hoof stepped off the train. The first step into Canterlot for weeks and it was raining. Luckily, Twilight’s errands in the capital weren’t outside. But she did have plans for some sightseeing while she was there.

Without pauses, she set trail for the Mental Institution immediately. She looked up to the sky and saw a few of the weather ponies working with adding moisture to Canterlot’s fields.

“Today out of all days?” she pretended to yell at them and continued. “I guess I’ll be saving even more time now.”

She kept galloping through the different streets that she had memorized the night before. But after running through a few blocks she saw that she had long ago left the trail and the obvious had happened; she had gotten lost.

If this was a few years previously, Twilight would have no problem at all navigating the city. But years had passed and much reconstruction had taken place, mostly to fit in new rails for the trains. The streets still had their names but this particular street must have been new, as she had not heard of its name before.

She placed herself underneath a nearby awning to take a moment of well-earned rest. She was surprised on how much could really change during those few years, but after all; this was the capital and center of evolution. She had even read in the Equestria Inquirer the other day that researchers of Canterlot’s Scientific Institute (CSI) are performing experiments on other ways of conserving lightning than clouds. Just a few centuries ago, ponies barely new how to control clouds in the first place. It truly is fascinating.

She glanced across the street and saw a sign. It read Canterlot Tourist Agency. “Perhaps they can provide me with a map and directions?” Twilight ran off and opened the door into the agency.

Behind the counter in the store stood a fairly bored mare. She had light-pink fur with a combed mane. The mane had two different dyes of green matching her equally green eyes. Her cutie mark was a magnifying glass, usually the sign of adventure.

“Can I help, you?” She spoke gently.

“Yes, do you have maps of Canterlot?” Twilight responded.

“Of course! This is a tourist agency isn’t it?” she said with a giggle and turned around to retrieve a map from the high shelves, proving to be difficult.

“Otherwise, I could do that for you.” Twilight offered her help, but the cashier neglected it.

“Nah, just because I’m an earth pony doesn’t mean I’m completely hopeless!”

Finally, she pushed the map down from the shelf and she caught it. “See!”

“Thanks.” Twilight immediately rolled up the scroll to have a check. “Do you happen to know where the Mental Institution is?”

“Oh yeah. It is right over here, see.” The pink pony stroke a cross over a building in the nearby area with a quill. “My uncle lives there.”

Before Twilight could say anything, she continued vastly.

“He is not mad or anything! He is just… It is just that his wife passed away and he hasn’t been feeling very well lately about it. He seems fine but he insisted on that he ‘needed’ the treatment.” She looked up at Twilight. “If you are going there, say hello to him for me will you? His name is Luthus Regenard.”

“I will, don’t worry." Twilight assured her, "Very fancy name he’s got.” she giggled.

“Yeah. I love him; he is like an extra father to me. My real father is good, but he just doesn’t seem to care about me as much as uncle Luthus does.” That’s when she noticed Twilight’s cutie mark. “Your cutie mark! It is an... erhm... What is it exactly?”

“It is a sparkle. After all, my name is Twilight Sparkle! My special talent is performing magic! I’m very good at it, too.”

“Wow. I have always been fascinated around magic and cutie marks my whole life. I mean, how does it actually work?”

“I see. Your cutie mark, the magnifying glass, does it mean that you are interested in knowledge?”

“A bit, I guess. But I think it’s more for my love for adventures! And exploring! You see, that is why I applied to work at a tourist agency. I thought that it would allow me to travel and see things! Not just being stuck here as a cashier… I wanna see the world!”

“Well, are you interested in legends too?”

“Is it real?”

“I think it is.”

“Then tell me!”

Then Twilight Sparkle told the story of Tantibus and what she knew of it. She also told her that she believed that a former contestant was located at the mental institute. Of course, the light pink cashier was exited out of her mind!

“Aww… I would love to come with you, I really would! This seems really rad!” Then she proceeded with hanging her head down in shame. “But I can’t… My shift doesn’t end until closing time this evening. It’s just me here today. But I’ll check it out later, I promise!”

“That’s no problem at all! I have to go now, though. Hey, I didn’t catch your name by the way?”

“Oh it’s Avany… Avany Lace.”

“My name is Twilight Sparkle.”

“I know that. You’ve already mentioned that, silly!”

“Oh well, it’s been nice talking to you, Avany.”

“Could only say the same, Twilight.”

And so, Twilight left the small little agency to find the mental institute and the only Tantibus contestant alive. She also left the last friend she would ever make before staring into the eyes of death…

The rain had stopped; it seemed that she had been chatting with that clerk for longer than she’d thought. Avoiding puddles on her way, she continued her walk towards the institute not very far from her current position.

Shortly after that, she arrived to the old white building. It had a lawn in front of it with a big sign in it that read with green letters “CANTERLOT MENTAL INSTITUTE”. In a steady pace, she approached the old building. There was a gravel-made walkway, laid over the grass, leading up to the entrance that she was walking on.

“I guess this is it.” Twilight whispered gently, and then went inside.

Immediately she saw a small lounge around her. There were not many visitors waiting in the lounge this particular day so, luckily, she wouldn’t have to wait for too long. There was a desk far into the lounge on the opposite wall of the entrance, the first thing you see as you enter the building basically.

Soon enough, there was nopony at the helpdesk so Twilight took her chance to get her turn passed. As she approached, the colt behind the desk asked; “How can I help?”

He was a fully grown stallion with white fur. He reminded her of her own brother, Shining Armor, apart from the mane. The mane was lightly red and shortly cut, It was very fitting on him, maybe it would fit on Shining Armor as well? Twilight couldn’t help but to imagine her brother with this mane.

“Yes, I would like to pay a visit to a friend of mine.”

Fairly uninterested and with a bored tone, the stallion responded; “Name?”

“Twilight Sparkle.”

“And to whom would you like to visit?” He was preparing and signing a piece of paper.

“Aeon.”

The white and red stallion raised his right eye and took a closer look at this visitor. It was not normal for Aeon to receive visitors, and he had never seen THIS mare before. But he had a job to follow so he looked back down and wrote down ‘Aeon’ onto the paper. He then asked her to sign the paper and later ‘wait for assistance’.

She followed the instructions and took a seat in the lounge-room. It was a few very boring and teasing minutes up until a big white door opened. A nurse came out and asked for Twilight Sparkle.

“That’s me.” Twilight responded and walked out of the lounge through the white door that the nurse so gently held open.

As they were walking in the corridors Twilight noticed that the nurse was by far nicer than the stiff colt from the waiting room. While walking, they kept the conversation going in between the two.

“So, what’s the explanation for your visit?” The nurse asked nicely.

“Oh, I’m just a friend.” Twilight lied, she had already told the Tantibus story once today and she didn’t feel like doing it again on such short notice. “Why are you asking?”

“It’s just that it is so rare for Aeon to receive visits nowadays.” The nurse explained. “It’s been months now since his own relatives last visited him as well. You know, since he doesn’t talk at all.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard about that. How do you communicate with him?”

“He has a blackboard and a white chalk that he uses to draw small sentences. But even with that he doesn’t say much, usually only when it comes to important matters such as food.”

“Exactly why can’t he talk?”

“No one quite knows. We’ve had doctors come in and check on him but nothing physical is wrong with him.”

Twilight thought about Tantibus and his experiences there, “What about psychological or emotional problems?”

“It could hardly be free will when it comes to something as important as speech. The therapists we’ve had here think it’s because of something traumatizing that happened a while back… Oh, here we are; Aeon’s room.”

Both the nurse and Twilight stopped in front of the white door. The nurse knocked on the door and said, “I’m coming in, okay?”. She slowly pushed the door open and Twilight could see the inside of Aeon’s room.

“Finally, I have found him. I’m going to talk to him!” She was very excited and at the same time nervous of what was going to happen. “What if he broke down? What if he had a heart attack when going back to his memories?” Twilight took a deep breath and saw Aeon’s figure. “I’ll just have to take it slowly…”

Aeon had a light blue fur and a light-blond mane. He looked very asocial and showed almost no emotion. The room had typical white walls, there was a bed against the wall to the right and a bookshelf on the wall to the left. There was also a door on that wall which Twilight assumed lead to the bathroom. In the middle of the room, there was a table and a chair. On the wall front facing the doorway, which Twilight currently was standing in, there was a window and a large black board.

Right now Aeon was standing up and drew on the black board with a white piece of chalk “WHO?”.

Twilight glanced to her right, where she was met with the nurse nodding at her to introduce herself. “I am Twilight Sparkle, a friend.”

Aeon didn’t move as he showed no interest.

Twilight started walking towards Aeon. She had a look back and the nurse didn’t really seem to mind so she sat down by the table. “Aeon, I have something that belongs to you. Look.”

He turned around, slowly, still very stiff. Twilight opened her bag and placed the note onto the table, then proceeded in pushing it towards its rightful owner.

It was a note, a note that he had written before. Sometime long ago, before he came to this place. It was written in blood, his signature, followed by his death sentence. What he thought would be his final words. Aeon looked up in great surprise and shock as the first pony to ever see his note leaned over and whispered to him; “I know what happened to you…”

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SIX

Aeon was flabbergasted. The first pony to ever believe in his stories, to ever feel sympathy for what had happened such a long time ago. He stood there for a few seconds, confused and not knowing what to do. He looked over at the nurse, who didn’t seem to care about this incredible finding. They never believed his stories, the ponies of this world. They were so used to everything being so perfect and harmless that when the gruesome truth came out about something terrible, they would choose to ignore it and pretend it to be lies.

It was several years ago, the games had finally ended and a weak pony, shaking by fear and covered in blood, stumbled out of the Everfree forest. Somepony saw this poor colt stumbling around outside of the dark forest and came to his assistance. Driven by his fear, he rambled like crazy about a place in the forest who had forced a gruesome battle between fellow innocent ponies. As he entered the village, and more ponies were witnessing his desperate stories, they began to suspect madness.

They sent him to Canterlot for examination, that’s where he stopped talking and lost his power of speech. The doctors found nothing wrong with his physical shape and they suspected that maybe a curse had been laid on his soul. That forest was a dark place and no major expeditions has been made there, and its secrets where remains a mystery. For what the doctors knew, anything could’ve happened to Aeon in there, as they suspected that he had gone lost in there. They thought that spending days in that forest must’ve driven him crazy and that he maybe even stumbled upon a curse.

The psychologists suspected a traumatic experience in his childhood had cost a refusal of speech that later lead to the loss of the ability completely.

Nopony quite knows why he never talked. The doctors called it a curse, the psychologists blamed the traumatic experience that they didn’t even know of. Maybe they were right, maybe the memories from Tantibus alone caused it. Or perhaps, in his deeper self, he did not want to speak.

The mysteries called for the authorities to give up the empty search for a cure and simply put him in the mental hospital as a temporary solution. There, he was forgotten.

The first few weeks of staying at the mental institution he could not sleep because of his hauntings. He stayed up whole nights and drew images on his black board. By the mornings, the nurses could find horrific and vividly detailed drawings of a mansion, and the gruesome murders of its soulless hall. This eventually led to the confiscation of his chalk, only given to him while a nurse was present. Eventually, knowing that it wouldn’t change anything, he stopped with his drawings, got the chalk back and became a very stiff and mute prisoner of this hospital.

In this moment, one thing he knew for sure, if he told this Twilight Sparkle of his memories the nurse would easily suspect a relapse into the madness he was driven by at first. So, in order for this visit to lead anywhere, they had to be alone.

That’s when he turned around, grabbed the white and tiny piece of chalk and got drawing. He starting writing on his sentence: Leave me alone with her.

But the worst case scenario occurred just after finishing “ALONE” and he dropped the chalk and saw as it rolled in deep under the bed.

The nurse got the wrong message as she could only read “Leave me alone” and told Twilight that “I’m sorry but you will have to leave now. Maybe you can come back later?”

Aeon started to panic. He knew he didn’t have the time to lie down and try to reach for the chalk as they would’ve left the room by then. If he tried launching himself at them in order for her to stay, they would put him to sleep for violent charge or aggressive behavior.

This visitor is the only pony so far, perhaps in all of Equestria, to know of his experiences. Maybe she knew more about Tantibus. Maybe she knew how to end it, the memories and the nightmares. But now she was leaving, thinking that Aeon was a stubborn hermit not wanting any visitors.

As the mute mental patient he was, he was in the dead center of panic.

He had to act, and he had to act fast. There was only one way he could make himself understood now… speech. He put all of his efforts and mental focus onto his rusty vocal cords. Pushing it further than ever before as he knew that the key to the secrets of the most miserable part of his life was depending on two words: with her

He felt the vibration and made a short and silent screech from his throat. The nurse looked back confused, but then preceded with leading Twilight out the door.

“Aaargghh!” Aeon yelled. It was painful and it wasn’t loud, but it was more than enough for the nurse to rush over to him with a worried expression. Twilight on the other hand, was significantly confused as to this sudden outburst.

“Are you alright?” The nervous nurse asked him. “Where is your chalk?”

“with her…” his rusty and painful throat expressed, but it was indecipherable for the nurse to hear. After the failed attempt he gave more effort than he ever thought he could as he this time clearly shaped the words “with her”.

The nurse was surprised by the fact that he actually spoke for the first time in years but was of course confused by these two, seemingly random, words. “’With her’? What do you mean, Aeon?”

After pointing at the black board with the unfinished text “Leave me alone” the nurse finally got the message. She was feeling so many mixed feelings and was unsure whether to take him to a doctor or alert all personnel by these words, coming from a mute patient. But since he had given so much effort into his request, the nurse decided to leave him alone with her as it must have meant a lot to him.

As she left the room and closed the door, Twilight rose up from her seat and approached Aeon in sympathy. “Are you okay?”

Aeon decided to draw instead of speak again. He wrote two simple words; IT HURTS

“I understand that, Aeon. You haven’t spoken for years! Of course it hurts.”

Aeon looked up with a slightly angry expression. He wrote a large ‘NO!’ on the black board.

“No?” Twilight questioned.

Aeon then proceeded with erasing the ‘NO!’. He also erased ‘IT’ and replaced it with ‘EVERYTHING’.

EVERYTHING HURTS

“I see.” Twilight understood now. “You are reliving them, aren’t you? The memories.”

Aeon nodded silently in response. He covered up a small ‘sniff’ and then drew on the blackboard, without even looking at it, ‘What do you know?’.

“I’ll tell you. But first I want to help you.” Twilight responded. Aeon looked confused as Twilight let her inner Fluttershy activate. She led the sniveling colt to the bed and laid him down comfortably. Then she pulled out the chair again and took her seat as she told the story to the veteran breaking down in tears.

“You see, during the past few days I have had… erhm… visions about you and what happened in that mansion. The visions never showed me how it ended, though. That is why I came for you. Not only to know what happened, but also because I thought you needed a friend, someone who believes you and can be there when you need it.” She lied a bit about the whole ‘friend’ part, but now when she saw what this challenge really can do to a pony, the pure sadness broke her apart and she wanted to say anything to make him feel better. It worked; he looked like all hope was not lost. He maybe even just got a cause to keep living.

“Well, I can tell you what I’ve seen. Is that okay?”

He nodded.

“Do you think you can tell me the rest after?”

He shrugged his shoulders as ‘maybe’. That’s good enough, Twilight thought and told him what she saw in her dreams. She never mentioned anything about seeing it all from Maverick’s point of view, being afraid that that might scare him. He’d maybe think that she was the killer all along, somehow. She just wanted to be careful.

She described, in third person, what happened that time. The waking up, the appearance of the rules and the arsenal. She finished her story with Maverick’s killing of Dawna. She told him that it wasn’t intentional by Maverick, but he didn’t seem to get the message about that.

“That’s all I saw… before… the connection to the visions broke…” She really had to get a better excuse but now it was too late, obviously. “How are you feeling?”

“Oh-kay…” He spoke to her. Then he took a grip around his throat and moaned. Twilight thought he was choking himself at first, but then realized it was just so painful to speak.

There is no way he can tell me anything like this, writing it on the blackboard would take too long and be so tedious… “Aeon, do you have anything against pain?”

He looked up for a second and stretched out a hoof, pointing on a cabinet door on the bookcase. Inside, there was a small jar of pills with a note. ‘Painkillers, Take Responsibly.’

She took the whole jar to Aeon, not knowing how many he is supposed to take. He opened the jar and took one. After a few seconds Twilight asked if he was feeling better. He waves his hoof around as ‘a little’.

No, this was going nowhere. Twilight had to help, with magic. “Aeon, let me try something…”

She leaned over to his throat and her horn glowed. Aeon shivered a bit in surprise but realized what was happening. Soon, the pain was gone. “It only lasts for ten minutes. This has to be quick.”

Aeon felt a little bit on his neck and throat, but then rose up, hugged her and said: “Thanks.”

“Can you tell me what happened after the death of her? Dawna.”

He closed his eyes and squeezed out a tear in the process. “I’ll try.”

His voice was very rusty. But since he was feeling no pain it was okay. The rusty voice is something that must’ve come with the years of being mute, not something that Twilight could cure with magic. At least not that easy and without intense studying.

“It was terrible. Everybody was screaming.” Aeon paused and embraced the upcoming story-telling. “Quickly, we scattered all around the hall, away from the killer that you call ‘Maverick’, but not before he could grab one more. It was Skydance, the pegasus. He grabbed her in the wing before she could get away from him. Then he stabbed her too…” Aeon let out a tear and leaned over at Twilight, who hugged him back. He redeemed himself in upright position and continued with his rustling voice.

“She dropped to the floor and… and we were screaming… I was pushing myself at the door, thinking it would maybe open… He was in the center of the room, with all weapons around him. If we were to try and grab a weapon for self-defense, he would kill before we would even have the time to touch one…” He took a deep breath, thinking of the fact that he had only ten minutes to talk. “Nopony moved… We were all waiting, for a first strike… Eventually… he picked up a spear.”

“Who? Decker?”

“No. The MONSTER.”

“What was Decker doing?”

“I don’t know. Probably writing in his book. I don’t think I would pay attention to such details when THERE IS A KILLER IN THE ROOM!” He stopped for a second... “Sorry.”

“It’s okay… Continue, please.”

“He threw the spear with incredible accuracy. He hit in the skull of Glory, sticking her to the wall. It was brutal… Why would he do such a horrible thing…” Aeon started to cry even more openly. Twilight thought that this might be the time to tell the truth. Well, partly at least.

As they hugged again, Twilight whispered to him. “That wasn’t him. He wasn’t himself…”

“What do you mean?”

“The mansion took him… as a final resort to start the challenge. He was just a puppet. Please don’t hate him. He couldn’t help it.”

“But he killed everybody.”

“No, Tantibus did. He just witnessed it. He couldn’t control his body.”

“How do you know all this?!”

“I just know.”

“Is there something you are not telling me?”

“No, I swear. Please continue, we don’t have much time. Please?”

Aeon broke the hug and continued, in an even sadder tone that before. The voice was so broken down, combining the unused vocal cords with the sobbing as a fatal combination. Without the spell, that really had to hurt. It sounded that way to Twilight, at least.

“With only me and Decker left, he turned to me of course. The weakest of the pack…”

“Don’t say that.”

“But it’s true. I am weak and pathetic. That is why he walked up to me with a katana. Then he saved me.”

“Who?”

“Decker. He shouted at Maverick, to leave me alone. He challenged him with a sword, just to have him leaving me alone. If just weren’t such a coward!”

“It is not your fault. Nothing of this is. There is nothing we can do about it now…”

“They were dueling, fighting each other. Blade against blade… But Decker was losing… badly. He even got stabbed in the front leg! I had to do something, and then I saw a sledgehammer… Not too far from where I was.”

“What happened next?”

“I grabbed it and used all of my strength to make a fatal blow to head of him.”

“How was Decker?”

“It was too late for him. He was already on the ground… dead… with a sword in his heart… Deadly precise.”

Finally, Twilight had the answer she came to Canterlot to know. How could Aeon win?

Dawna was stabbed in the throat by a sword.

Skydance was grabbed in the wing and then stabbed by the same sword.

Glory received a spear straight through the head.

Decker got stabbed in the heart with a katana while trying to save Aeon.

And Maverick got hit in the head with a blunt weapon, a sledgehammer.

But there was one question that remained unanswered. What happens when you win?

“What happened after that?”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

“What? No announcing or anything? Did the doors open?”

“No, I was stuck in there. The doors were still closed. I spent almost an hour doing everything in my way to open them. I took Decker’s notebook, tore out an empty page and made it my tombstone, using his quill and blood.” That’s how it was made, Twilight thought. It makes sense now. The empty field must’ve have been the location of the mansion. Does it change places?

Aeon continued; “Dead fellow ponies all around me, one of which I killed. A pony that you now say was INNOCENT? Oh Celestia, what have I done?!”

Woops, Twilight thought as the pony broke down into tears while in her arms. It must have been horrible for him… Being stuck in a room with five dead innocent ponies… With no escape from the blood and the horrifying smell. Having the sight of death all around you for that long. No wonder people go mad. But why didn’t the doors open? I thought you were released when everypony but one was dead. At least that’s what happened to Flaming Ace. Wait a minute… What if…

“Maverick weren’t really dead, was he?”

“No… How would you know that?!”

“It was just a guess, calm down. But what happened then?”

“I thought he was dead, until he actually moved.”

“Did he try to kill you again?”

“No. If your theory was right before, I don’t think the house had control of him anymore.”

“What did he do?”

“He took his sword… and ended his suffering. I just sat there and watched.”

“I guess it is possible that you paralyzed him with your hit to his head and that Tantibus lost the control of him at that point.”

“You mean he was awake the whole time? He felt the pain, unable to move and talk, and just watched me the whole time? For more than an hour?”

“Now, that I did not say.”

“But that was what you meant! It was so, wasn’t it? Oh no… Why didn’t I do anything?! I just let him lie there and suffer for so long! What is wrong with me?! Why am I so stu… argh!”

Ten minutes had passed. The spell was over and he could feel the pain again… the pain of both sobbing and the rustling of years of inactivity. He screeched a bit, not loud at all but very meaningful. The nurse did not hear it from the other side of the door since the noise wasn’t loud. If it would’ve been louder it would’ve hurt so much more, which was something Aeon was well aware of.

His pain turned in to anger as he charged Twilight, commanding her with pain in his silenced screams. “WHO ARE YOU? HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ALL OF THIS? HOW DID YOU KNOW HE WAS A PUPPET? HOW DID YOU KNOW HE WAS ALIVE?!”

“Urhm.. I…” Mostly shocked, Twilight could not produce a valid response to Aeon.

”Argh! WHAT ELSE DO YOU KNOW?” He coughed, “DO YOU KNOW HOW TO STOP MY SUFFERING?”

It was clearly painful, but his anger pushed him to the limit, still talking. It was so strange to Twilight, how he could sound so angry with such a low volume. “DO YOU?!?!”

“Uhm… no?”

“DO YOU KNOW HOW TO STOP THIS?! PLEASE!”

“No, I don’t. I’m sorry, Aeon.” Twilight felt the guilt for reminding him of all of this. Just for her research… “So sorry… For everything.”

“THEN THIS… argh! Then this discussion is over. Leave.”

“But Aeon! I can help!”

“Leave, NOW.”

As Twilight felt like she had no choice but to leave out the door, she patted his back before going. He pushed her hoof away, went sobbing for the jar of painkillers and poured a whole bunch of pills out, ten at least.

Should he take that many? Twilight walked out the door and the question of ‘What happens when a victor is declared?’ remained unanswered.

---

“TAKE RESPONSIBLY”

In the next chapter, the games begin...

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER SEVEN

The nurse stood there and waited for Twilight with a curious look on her face. As Twilight came out, she couldn’t help but to ask:

“How did it go? Did he talk more?”

Twilight, feeling a bit ashamed for stirring him up, just responded: “I think he needs assistance. It looks like he is having an attack or something.” Twilight smirked nervously. What if the nurse thought Twilight had done something to him? What if she was thrown in jail? “I must’ve accidentally triggered something in his memories.”

The nurse looked a bit confused and opened the door to Aeon’s room. Her eyes met the sight of a mentally stirred and physically exhausted colt. “Oh dear Celestia!” she yelled. “Uhm… Ms. Sparkle. You can go on without me. You remember the exit, right?”

Twilight nodded in return and turned around to walk away. But before she did, she glanced back and asked: “Is he going to be alright?”

The nurse caught her eye contact for a moment, remaining silent. Then, she went inside Aeon’s room without speaking a word more.

A very scared Twilight Sparkle initiated her walk of shame as she walked the corridors of the mental institution. Her hoof-steps echoed in the boring and stale, white walls sealing off a selected few from civilization, limiting their access to the outside world. The doors she passed in her steady walk were marked with a number and the name of the resident. A simple label for some residents, tombstones for others…

Twilight momentarily forgot Aeon and his condition as she read the fancy name she was supposed to remember. Here it was, the “home” of Luthus Regenard. She had just passed the door to her left when her brain realized what she had seen from the corner of her eye. “Oh yeah! I’m supposed to say Hi for Avany! How could I forget?”

She gave a simple knock on the door, awaiting a response. A very husky and grave voice commanded “Who is it?”.

Twilight didn’t want to use the A Friend kind of lie again so she just stated the truth and hoped for the best. “Twilight Sparkle.”

“I don’t know any Twilight Sparkle…”, was the response she didn’t want to hear, but ended up ringing in her ears anyway.

“Uhm… I am here on the behalf of Avany… Avany Lace.” Twilight said.

She heard Luthus say “Oh.” before unlocking the door. As he opened the door Twilight could see the shape of Avany’s uncle. His fur was light-grey and his mane was shortly cut and white as snow. He had goat-like facial hair that expressed wisdom. Both his tail and facial hair matched the color of his mane, usually the case with 95% of the ponies in Equestria.

He instructed her to take a seat on a chair as he did the same on the opposite side of a rounded, wooden table. He looked very serious, almost worried. Twilight didn’t know what to make of it, so it was Luthus who broke the silence.

“What has happened to my daughter?” He cleared his throat and corrected his mistake, “…I mean niece. Is she okay? My little Avany?”

Twilight was very confused of his worried tone and questions. Was she missing something here? Then she realized what it really sounded like to tell someone I’m here on the behalf of someone you love. Followed by that sentence the person would usually receive a yellow note reading Missing In Action.

“Oh no, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say it like that, excuse me. Avany is fine.” Twilight got back on track and Luthus let out a sigh of relief. He seemed like a really nice stallion. “In fact, I was told by her to stop by with a simple message.”

“Oh, alright. What is that then?”

“She loves you, Luthus. She wanted me to ensure you knew that, as I was on my way here to visit a friend of mine anyway.”

“How sweet of her, sending over a friend like that! Why couldn’t she come?”

“She had work to do, she was alone on her shift.”

“Typical Avany, always doing her best. That’s why I like her.” The old colt had a really charming attitude and a warm, husky voice that you could listen to for ages. Being read a bedtime story from him must be heaven. No wonder Avany likes him ha-ha, Twilight thought.

“Why don’t you make an old timer happy, eh?” He continued. “You can tell her that I love her with all of my heart, and nothing will change that. Heck! You can even mention that I mistook her as my own daughter. That’s how much I love her.”

Twilight was unsure whether she had time for another stop before the next train would leave, but she was afraid that she would break the old stallion’s heart by saying no, or mentioning that she barely knew Avany in the first place. So she said that she would do anything to make him happy.

Shortly after, she was on her way again. And as she passed the main lobby again she glanced at the clock. The next train was about to leave shortly. It was the train she was planned to take home and it looked like she had barely time to make it there.

“I suppose I could take the next train, so that I can go to the Tourist Agency and deliver Luthus’ response.” But then she remembered her promise to Spike; expect me to be home by dinner time. “Oh no, that would make me an hour late. Spike would be so worried.”

As Twilight walked out on the streets she decided to go with her promise to Spike. Avany already knew that Luthus loved her, so it wasn’t really that important for her to be reminded. “Who knows what Spike would do without me?”

---

Meanwhile, in the library, Spike had just closed for the day. A little bit early, but Spike thought he deserved it for working so hard.

He really did utilize Twilights absence. He took all of the pillows, bed sheets and mattresses in the tree-house and stacked them in a pile on the floor. Then he went up on the elevated second floor’s platform and dived off, yelling “Woohooo!!”, straight into the cuddly pit. So that would be a ‘no’ for Twilight, he was not that worried… yet.

---

Quite shockingly, as Twilight walked onto the train-station’s platform, there were barely any ponies there. Just a little newspaper boy and some other couples minding their own business. That’s strange. Where is everypony? Did I miss the train?

She walked up to an orange stallion, which was in the middle of a chat with his wife, and asked. “Excuse me, sir.”

“Yes?” he responded.

“The train to Ponyville, has it gone early?”

“No. I think the trains have all been cancelled.”

“Why?” Twilight was a bit confused.

The stallion shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t know. I am just here to see the beautiful rainbow with my wife and kids.”

Usually, after a very stressful and tightly scheduled pass, the weather ponies would create a big rainbow over the skies as an apology and a sign to that it’s over. Apparently, over Canterlot, it was best seen from the train-station.

Twilight left the couple to stare at the rainbow. She would too, if she weren’t so stressed and nervous. “That is so strange. Why would they be cancelled on such short notice?”

A little squeaky voice, that of a really young colt, came from her behind; “I know why the trains are cancelled, ma’am.”

As she turned around, she saw that it was the newspaper boy. “Oh thank you. Can you tell me what that reason may be?”

“5 bits, ma’am.” The boy stretched out his bunch of newspapers. It was a cheap trick to get her attention, but the newspapers might actually contain some information on the case.

“Fine.” Twilight reached for her bag and pulled out her money that was supposed to go to breakfast. “I ate my breakfast at home anyways…”

The paper-boy, satisfied with the purchase, walked away with Twilight’s money, leaving her to the most recent copy of the newspaper. In there, she found the reason of the trains being cancelled.

So apparently, the weather ponies were REALLY behind schedule. No real reason was given as to why. During the moisturizing of some fields near the train-rails, a stressed out pegasus accidentally caused a small fire among the trees. Not only is the smoke bad for ponies, but a few of the trees fell on the rails. This caused all of the trains to be cancelled for the day. “The problem will allegedly be fixed and all trains active again by the morning” The article read.

“I suppose I have no choice but to stay over for the night in some Inn. Poor Spike, though, hopefully he can read about the delay in the newspaper.” Twilight thought for a second, “Maybe this is a sign that I should pay Avany another visit.” She said followed by a chuckle.

Silly Twilight Sparkle, if she really wanted to say a final goodbye to Spike before the challenge, she could’ve just asked Princess Celestia to send a carriage for her. But Twilight didn’t wanna bother the Princess with this, in her mind, ‘small’ issue.

She actually remembered the path to the tourist agency, both because she went there before, but also because she somewhat remembered the map she looked at with Avany.

The streets around her became noticeably empty and scary as night closed in. It would’ve been kind of creepy if it weren’t for the street-lights giving her visibility through the city. What made it a little bit worse was the small sign she saw when she arrived to the Tourist Agency. “CLOSED”

“Of course. Just my luck.” Twilight sighed, “There is no point in trying to send a letter either, as they’re probably closed as well.”

She decided to do the only thing she could do, find a place to stay over the night and wait it all out for the morning.

---

Princess Celestia took a little blame on herself that she ‘trapped’ Twilight here in Canterlot over the night. What if she didn’t have enough bits to stay two days?

She decided to pay her student a visit, not only to apologize for the inconvenience, but also to greet her because it’s been a while and she could spare a few minutes from her work. But there would not be any point in trying to track her down and visit her this late on the evening. Instead, she would do it by tomorrow morning.

The next day the princess had easily discovered at what Inn she was staying, with a little help from magic and a few pedestrians. As Celestia entered the little, charming Inn; all the workers, and literally everypony in the lobby, threw themselves on the ground in her presence as in “We’re not worthy!”.

She allowed herself to smile a bit before commanding them to stand up and go back to doing whatever they did before.

“I am actually here looking for someone.”, the princess said, “Does Twilight Sparkle happen to be staying here?”

The receptionist looked through the guest-book and yes, she could read the name the princess asked for. “Oh yes, she came and signed herself in on the late evening of yesterday. Strangely, she hasn’t come down for breakfast yet.”

She can hardly still be asleep, right? What did she do yesterday? Celestia thought, “Can you take me to her room?”

“Yes of course, my majesty.”

The receptionist brought the right key with her and then proceeded with leading the royal visitor through the halls. It wasn’t long before they reached their destination and the door came up right in front of them.

The receptionist gave a slight knocking on the door. There were no response, so she knocked again, followed by a simple “Ms. Sparkle? You have a visitor. Can we come in?”

There were still no response and even Celestia herself was getting a bit worried. After yelling ‘Hello?’ about 5 times, they decided to go in anyway.

“Ms. Sparkle, we’re coming in, okay?”

The receptionist used her key in order to unlock the room and reveal what was inside. In this case, nothing. The bed sheets where undone and Twilight’s packing were just left by the side of the bed, as if just thrown there in haste last night. She had simply vanished during the night.

The princess was shocked indeed, but she decided to wait a few days before jumping to any conclusions.

---

Two days went by and the Princess was seriously worried. Not only was Twilight her favorite student, but she was essential to the Elements of Harmony and therefore somewhat of a “National Treasure” for the well-being of Equestria.

Three weeks went by and you could find this all over Canterlot and in some of the other villages:

Four months went by and a funeral was held...

---

But there was one more pony that went missing that exact same evening, very close nearby. Some suspect that their dissapearences where linked, but without evidence, nothing could be proven.

Along with Twilight’s MISSING posters, you could on some places see:

So what exactly happened?

CHAPTER EIGHT: THE GAME BEGINS

CHAPTER EIGHT

**WARNING: From this point on, this story takes the darker turn. Blood will be spilt, lives will be lost, and extreme pain will be expressed in the form of foul language… all of this, in great detail.

Now that you have been warned, proceed at your own risk.

Viewer discretion is advised.**

She felt the stiff and cold floor beneath her. It was the old and worn down wooden floor. It wasn’t the best bed she’s ever had.

Moving on, she took notice of the obvious; It was pitch-black and it was unusual and strange as the atmosphere was empty. You could almost feel the massive silence of the hall.

She wasn’t fully to her senses yet and still very sleepy. She was still in that transition from dream to reality where everything just makes sense somehow. She could be in someone’s cellar and not care for the moment. My covers are wet? Meh, that’s normal. I’m on the floor? Isn’t this where I always sleep? I’m stuck in a game of life and death where I’m most likely going to meet my eternal doom? Just my usual routine…. wait WHAT?!

She slowly opened her eyes and she began realizing that she wasn’t in the comfort of her bed anymore. She was somewhere else and she wasn’t alone. She heard steps from about five feet to the left. As a response, a female voice from her right commanded “Who’s there?”.

Meanwhile, across the room from Avany’s location was another sleepy-head, whom was having a serious Deja-Vu moment. Twilight had definitely been through this before, waking up to the confusion and mixed feelings of Tantibus’ welcoming halls. She still kept her calm though, lying to herself to escape the truth.

Haven’t I felt this before? Waking up in… in… Tantibus! But, why is it starting over again, then? I mean, last time it ended with Dawna’s death… and now I’m starting over? Maybe it’s portraying another Tantibus round. Flaming Ace’s perhaps? Well, this was definitely another round of Tantibus. She just didn’t know that she was the star of the show yet…

“Who said that? Why are you in my house?!” a new voice commanded. It came from Apollo, a 32 year old pegasus from Baltimare. He lived in a rusty old mansion with his family, so he recognized himself with the big, echo-type atmosphere of his own hall. His initial instincts relied on that he had probably been drinking a bit too much last night. He probably came home drunk as never before, closed the door behind him, locked it, took off his coat, put it on his hanger, took off his shoes and then collapsed on the rug. This has happened four times.

The original voice responded; “Whoa. Am I in your house? I’m sorry. I don’t remember getting here. Could you show me to the exit then?” This was the voice from Admira, a polite little unicorn from Canterlot.

“Sure, it’s over here. At least, I think it is over here. It is so dark.” He stumbled blindly his way forward and accidentally tripped over Twilight’s sleepy body.

Twilight grunted at the sudden impact and was met with a very vivid shout. “What the hell? Who are YOU?! Why the hell is everypony in MY house?!”

Twilight was bit frustrated at the moronic conclusions taken by this guy.

“It is not ‘YOUR’ house!” her eyes became wide open and she instantly covered up her own mouth in horror. Did I say that?! Oh Celestia, I’m in control. This is my body. I’M IN TANTIBUS!

She showed all signs of distress; The breathtaking gut-feeling, the twitching eyes and the stuttering but silent grunts.

By now, Avany was wide awake and aware of the unusual situation. I know that voice! But from who… and where am I?! Slowly, she got up on her well-rested legs.

“Huh? Then where are we?!” Apollo responded, being confused.

There was no response from Twilight, whom was in a state of shock. Which was ironic, since she was the only one who could properly answer that question.

Avany was now fully active. “Let’s just assume for the moment, that nopony here knows where we are? Okay?”

“Huah?” Apollo turned around and directed his attention to the part of the dark abyss from where he had heard voice number three. “Are you suggesting that we have been kidnapped?!”

“Maybe I do.” Avany held her head up high, even in a situation like this.

Is that… Avany? Twilight added in her thoughts. No… it can’t be….

“How many are there here?!” Admira said.

“My thoughts exactly.” Apollo added to Admira’s question.

“You guys are hilarious. Ha-ha.” Voice number five stepped in.

“Who are you, now?” Avany said.

“Deacon Exceon at your service.” Deacon was a young colt who came all the way from Los Pegasus to unwillingly compete in this horrifying madness. His parents are somewhat of celebrities in that area with his father being an actor and his mother a singer. Himself, he was aiming to follow in his father’s tracks by taking private lessons from him. Only a few days ago he actually sent in an audition video for a new motion picture event coming up. Sadly, the tape was confiscated by authorities as a possible clue to his “disappearance”.

“Well then, Deacon. Where are we?” commanded Apollo.

“You think I’m the bad guy? Nonono, you’ve got this all wrong. I am just as clueless as you guys.”

“Then you’re of no use.”

“Ahh, relax dude. I mean, you’ve got to keep a happy attitude, isn’t that so?”

“This situation is of no laughing matter!” A very frustrated Apollo added.

“Guys, calm down.” Avany broke in ”Maybe we should focus our attention on more important thing like… oh I dunno… finding out where we are?!”

With a sudden and loud “whoosh”, the lights of the chandelier were lit. For the first time, the contestants were introduced to one-another visually. Twilight quickly inspected the unfortunate competitors.

Apollo was a large and fully-grown stallion. He had silver-like fur and black hair to go with it.

Admira was a light-turquoise and spoiled pony. She had a small tiara in her blue main and a cute little red rosette in her equally blue tail.

Deacon quickly jumped away from the wall he was leaning towards. “Whoa.” he said in surprise as he looked around. He was clearly still a young colt and had light-blue fur matching his blond hair. He had decorative, red hoof-wear with golden cufflinks. That must be what’s ‘in’ with colts at the moment. Twilight thought. It did actually fit on him rather well.

Ebony was the final and so far unnamed stranger to Twilight. She was also young and very nervous of these strange surroundings. She looked like she had just woken up as she arose from the wooden floor. She had golden fur with two shades of blue in her hair. She was like a reversed version of Deacon, color wise.

Finally, she saw Avany which confirmed her worst fears. What had she done to come here? Instantly, Twilight ran up to her and hugged her.

“Twilight!” she yelled happily.

“Avany…” Twilight responded sadly.

Avany backed out of the hug, holding Twilight in front her while looking in her eyes. “Is something wrong? Where are we?” She wanted to know whether to be happy or not.

“We are… we’re in…” Twilight just couldn’t do it. She just couldn’t say that they were both about to die. Twilight closed her eyes and looked away.

“Oh Celestia. That place you were talking about… Is this it?”

Twilight nodded while covering up a sniff. Then she, in all seriousness, looked in to her eyes and asked her “What did you do?!” She repeated herself, a little bit more desperate this time: “What did you do, after I left you, to end up here?!”

“Well, after my shift ended I decided to go and visit Luthus. And maybe even check this “Aeon” guy out as well. But when…” She stopped for breath as she remembered the journalists… the authorities… and the medics… “They did not let me enter. Someone had died. What if it was Luthus?!”

They switched roles as Avany asked Twilight in the same desperate tone: “You were there, right? Was it my uncle?!!”

“Did they say anything about how he died?”

“Uhm… girls?” Deacon tried to squeeze into their conversation. Twilight and Avany was the center of attention as everypony else was left just silently staring and observing their dramatic conversation. Ignoring him, the conversation went on.

“All they said was overdose. Not from what, when or why…”

Overdose – Take Responsibly – It all made sense now. Completely shocked, Twilight told the truth: “It wasn’t Luthus…”

“Huh?” Avany changed mood.

“It was Aeon. I saw him take an overdose of pills. Oh no, it’s my fault. I could’ve stopped him…” Twilight felt like a murderer.

“No, Twilight. Don’t blame yourself. It must’ve been his own choice. As you said, being locked up in there for years can’t be a fun life. He has it much better now.”

This switching back and forth between who-is-comforting-who left the others severely confused.

Twilight took a deep breath and gathered up her senses. “But why are you here then? I mean… Myself, I have been researching so much that it was almost inevitable that…”

Twilight stopped and let her roll of memories flash by. Decker said something along those lines… Am I… the new Decker? The note, the tombstones, the book, the dreams, Aeon and Avany… It’s all a part of the game. I am Tantibus’ ‘nemesis’… And I was so on purpose… Why else would the tombstones show up? Why would I have the dreams? I’m sure Decker had the same. That means, that the sole reason that Avany is here… is to get to me.

Twilight jumped back in horror. She landed as far away from Avany as she could in one sprint. She crawled a few extra feet, just to be sure.

“I’M SO SORRY!” Twilight yelled out almost crying, “It’s all my fault. I am so sorry Avany…”

“What the hell is going on between you two?!” Apollo stepped in.

Twilight looked around. Deacon’s mouth and eyes were wide-open, Ebony was confused, Admira was horrified and Apollo was a mix between curiosity and frustration.

There was a long silence with nothing but the tension being suspended in the air. They were all waiting for someone else to say something, something that would explain what was actually going on. Or maybe, for something to happen. Anything really, as long as it broke the tension.

Eventually, that distraction occurred as a horrified Admira lashed out:

“T-t-t-t-Tantibus!”

“What?” Apollo questioned.

“Oh shit!” Deacon burst out and pointed to the back wall.

The traditional text appearing was the perfect excuse for Deacon to drop a swearword. One by one, the words came back to haunt Twilight for a second time.

THE RULES OF THE TANTIBUS CHALLENGE

RULE ONE; ONLY ONE COMPETITOR CAN LEAVE TANTIBUS ALIVE

RULE TWO; THAT COMPETITOR MAY ONLY DO SO WHEN ALL OTHERS ARE DEAD

All of the ponies were talking over the top of each other. What was an awkward silence just moments ago… was now like a barn full of chickens, chickens about to be slaughtered. The females were discussing what they could do to avoid this horrible faith, while the guys (Apollo and Deacon) were discussing whether this was actually Tantibus or a setup for the sadistic joy of some pranksters.

“Let me try something…” Deacon said. Then, he flapped his wings like no tomorrow (maybe that was a bit too literal of an expression…) but it had no effect whatsoever. “This looks pretty real to me. I mean, it’s pretty hard to remove a pegasus’ wingpower without any physical damage…”

“You’re right… It is impossible to perform using only unicorn magic. We must be dealing with something really powerful here.” Apollo added. He directed his attention to Admira. “Hey! The girl with the tiara!”

“Huh?” She turned around.

“Use your magic!” Deacon said.

“I don’t think that is possible here. But I’ll try…” She said, and hopelessly tried a teleport spell. “We’re doomed…” she concluded.

Meanwhile, Avany sat on the bottom of the broken staircase, comforting a heart-broken Twilight whom was sitting just next to her with her head down. She could barely hold back the tears.

“Hey, it’ll be okay.” Avany whispered to Twilight, “Don’t feel bad Twilight… You had no way of knowing that I was going to end up here. Besides, if I were going to die here… I would just be glad to be here with you.”

“No…” Twilight looked up, “I can’t let you die here… You’re the youngest of us… You said you wanted to explore the world, and I don’t wanna be the one who stopped you. I’ll do all I can to help you survive.”

“I also said I wanted adventure, Twilight. Look at me now! I’m in a haunted mansion together with you!” A very joyful Avany commanded, “Let’s both survive this, Twilight. Let’s beat the system and survive together!”

“So, do you girls know each other since before?” Ebony walked up to them. Mostly because Admira was now talking to the boys, and Ebony did not wanna be left alone in a place like this.

“We’re best friends!” Avany smiled.

Best friends? Ouch… That just made Twilight’s guilty feeling increase about twice as much.

“You guys seem to have been through quite a lot…” Ebony sat down next to Avany on the torn-up red carpet covering the staircase.

“No, not really.” Twilight said, “It is just that… well. The last thing you wanna do with your best friend is end up here.” She then proceeded to point at the rules on the wall. Only ONE pony can leave Tantibus alive.

“Oh I see.” Ebony saw their little dilemma.

“Surely we’re going to find a way around this.” Avany miraculously kept her attitude positive.

“Yeah!” Ebony smiled as well, “What if we simply ignore it? You know, protest?”

“It doesn’t work that way…” Twilight looked down again. She had seen this before. This is what happened with Decker’s group. They refused the challenge and Maverick became the selected and slaughtered almost everyone. Same went for Flaming Ace, who later took his own life because of the guilt.

“What do you mean?” Ebony asked.

Twilight sighed before beginning her explanation, “Well, if everypony refuses to compete in the challenge…”

Interrupting Twilight, a gust of wind blew out all of the candles simultaneously. They were back into the darkness.

“Here we go again…” Deacon added.

But it was only momentarily as the candles lit up again with the same “whoosh” that had put them out. It was very practical… and scary.

“Look at all those weapons!” Deacon yelled, unsure if he was supposed to be excited over the huge collection of blunt and sharp weapons laid out in the middle of the room or be afraid about what’s left to come.

“Don’t touch them!” Apollo yelled.

Twilight got up from her seat on the staircase and joined the staring “crowd”. She had no intention of continuing her story to Ebony as she knew that it wasn’t a coincidence that Tantibus interrupted her. Avany joined and Ebony followed.

“I’ve never seen so many weapons.” Ebony said.

“So this is how it is huh…?” Deacon began, everybody’s attention turned to him for the moment, “These are supposed to be our tools… to perform Tantibus’ dirty-work…”

“Don’t be ridiculous! Nopony’s killing anypony here!” Apollo was sure to add.

“Nonono, I’m not saying I was going to…”

“Do we have a choice?” a very nervous Ebony added.

“Have you looked for a way out?” Avany spoke up.

While everybody started looking around for exits, trying all of the five doors again, Twilight took to action, “There’s no point! They're sealed shut. Without magic, there’s nothing we can do to escape. The challenge is the only way out…”

“YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!” Apollo shouted while kicking a small table over. “I’m not going to resort to that! Never in my life! And neither should you!!”

The shouted words were left hanging in the suspended air. While they had at this point almost tried everything; checking the drawers/shelves (which only contained dusty, old and useless decorations), ramming the doors, jumping up the stairs etc… there was only one thing left to do. To kick-start the game.

“Do we have an agreement? Nobody does anything.” Apollo took charge.

“Sure. I guess we’ll have to face the consequences later.” Deacon spoke, followed by a bunch of agreeing mhm’s from the rest.

“You hear that, Tantibus? We refuse!” Apollo then walked up to and kicked one of the blades across the room. It was a machete with a jagged part in the middle. It slid across the wooden planks and stopped beneath Avany’s legs.

Twilight wasn’t feeling satisfied at the moment. She sure was glad that nobody voluntarily accepted, but she knew that the game was going to start one way or another.

She had been following Apollo’s and Deacon’s actions as she predicted that one of them was going to be the selected. They were both male, in good physical condition and somewhat up-front with their opinions (fitting in the descriptions of both Flaming Ace, and Maverick).

She also saw as the machete stopped in front of Avany. It was strange that she hadn’t spoken a word in quite a while. And now, she was looking down at the machete almost considering picking it up. What are you doing, Avany?

She lifted up her hoof and placed it on the blade; she then looked up and straight into Twilight’s eyes.

Twilight! Help me! I can’t control anything! I don’t know what is happening to me! Please, Twilight, HELP!

Almost as if a spark came from her eyes, Twilight immediately recognized the situation. The stiff movements on the outside, and the burning soul inside. She heard the echo of Maverick’s panicking thoughts, overlaid on Avany’s body-movements.

The instant Avany’s hoof gripped the handle of the machete, Twilight jumped forwards.

“STOP HER!”

Everyone turned around and witnessed how lightning-fast she picked it up and went into a battle-stance. They all backed away from her, nobody dared to attack first.

“What’s happening?” Admira shouted.

“She’s not herself! She’s a dummy!” Twilight commanded in response, “She can’t help it! Don’t hurt her!”

“Wait what?!” Apollo questioned.

“There’s no time to explain!” Twilight added while Avany took a step closer. Please don’t let it end this way…

“What do we do?!” Apollo asked.

Deacon looked around. Apparently, as the purple unicorn claims, she isn’t herself at the moment… which makes her innocent. He couldn’t hurt someone innocent. Or could he? This was a life-threatening situation, after all.

He looked at the buffet of weapons in the middle of the hall. There, he saw a shield. It was big, oblong and was facing with the handle up, making it easy to grip while in mid-speed. But was only nine feet in front of Avany and if his plan was going to work, he would have to act fast before she got closer. He took one last look around, while Avany was approaching step by step the rest were pushing themselves towards the wall furthest away from her. Some of them, including Twilight, were sweating from fear. That was more than enough to convince Deacon.

Quickly, and shockingly to the others, he burst forwards towards the shield while shouting “YAAAAAARRRGHHHHHHHH!!!” in an attempt to grab the shield without getting hurt.

“Are you crazy?!” Apollo shouted.

“NO! Don’t hurt her!!!” Twilight shouted at about the same time.

While sprinting, getting closer and closer to Avany, he bent down and snapped up the shield. He took the oblong shield and aligned it with his body as he ran.

Avany didn’t react at all, as a panicked blue pegasus came storming at her with the shield. Inside though, she was scared. I’m sorry! Please don’t hurt me!

When in contact, Avany lashed the sword at Deacon. Effortlessly, the shield absorbed the impact. Then, Deacon assaulted Avany’s body with the shield, pushing her with a force so hard that the machete was knocked straight out of her rock-hard grip. Avany herself flew back several feet before getting knocked onto the ground.

Thank Celestia… Avany sighed for herself.

“I’m so sorry, I had too.” Deacon panted out in relief as he saw that his plan worked.

While Apollo gave Deacon a friendly punch in the side for saving them, Twilight Sparkle ran up to Avany’s body. “Are you okay?”

There was no response, vocally, from her. Instead, she pushed Twilight away from herself with the force of a mad bull.

“It’s not over!” Twilight confessed sadly.

“At least now she’s unarmed!” Apollo yelled while running up to her. As she rose up, both Apollo and Deacon grabbed her and held her against a wall.

Forcefully, she was fighting back. “Holy crap, she’s strong!” Deacon shouted, “We’re going to need some help over here!”

Twilight and Ebony joined in while Admira was left, completely shocked.

“Come on, then!” Ebony shouted at her. With a shy ‘okay’, she obeyed.

“Why is this happening?!?!” Apollo shouted with strong signs of effort in his voice.

Why, Tantibus, why? Why do you have to take my friend, against her will, and turn her against me? This was such an unfair and evil cheat to start the game, and Twilight had had enough.

“You take my friend, and you turn her against us.” Twilight bit her own lip in aggression, “You make her kill us against her will, while she is breaking down on the inside! I thought that Tantibus gave everyone a fair chance of survival… but that is just a bunch of bullshit! You have no standards. You can’t even follow your own goddamn rules! If you’re going to kill five of us, gather up some wits and be fair! I DARE YOU!”

They were all looking at her, with shocked faces. Was that really going to work?

A sweating, light-pink pony’s body all of the sudden stopped resisting. The group let go and saw how the earth-pony just collapsed to the floor.

“You think that did it?” Deacon asked.

After panting for five seconds, Avany said “Thanks, Twilight… and all of you. You saved me…” She looked down into the ground, somewhat ashamed of her behavior.

“Now, can you please tell us… What the hell happened?!” Apollo asked.

“I don’t really know. I just… couldn’t control myself anymore.”

“Let’s just say that Tantibus knows no boundaries to start its little game…” Twilight responded depressively.

“Anything else you think we should know about?” Deacon said.

“Not anything you haven’t already witnessed. I honestly have no idea what is going to happen.” Twilight thought about what she had said. She was honest. Now that the dummy-aspect was removed… What was going to happen next?

“I can’t believe this… Why us? What have we done to deserve this?!” Admira was nearly crying. “Is this someone’s idea of FUN?”

“Don’t worry, it will be fine.” Ebony tried to sooth her feelings, “We’ve made it so far haven’t we?”

“Oh my… A THIRD RULE?!” Deacon shouted.

They all turned to the wall with the dripping text. Sure enough, it was slowly adding an exclusive third rule fit for situations like these. This rule on the other hand, was not as straight forward. It purely shocked those who read it.

RULE THREE; IN CASE OF REFUSAL TO COMPETE, HELL WILL BREAK LOOSE

“What is that supposed to mean?!” Apollo questioned.

“I guess we’ll find out…” Twilight added.

The lights quickly flashed out, then back on.

“What the fuck was that?” Deacon was confused, along with the rest.

“I have no idea.” Avany responded.

“Did something change?” Apollo asked, “Look around, everypony!”

They were frantically looking around for something to have changed, unfortunately… It had.

“Hey, where’s the turquoise-colored girl?!” Avany asked with panic in her voice.

“Oh yeah, the unicorn!” Apollo added horrified, “It took her!”

“But why?” Ebony questioned.

“How am I supposed to know?! Hell is breaking loo…“ Not much more could he add before the lights went out, and then as they came back on… he was gone.

“Ahhh!!” They all panicked. Their unnamed leader was gone, along with that other pony…

“What is happening?!?!” Deacon shouted in pure fear.

“Their picking us off one by one!” Twilight shouted back.

“I don’t wanna die!” Ebony shouted. Then the lights flashed momentarily off again, and she too was gone.

“I’m scared, Twilight…” Avany walked up to her.

“Me too…” Twilight responded.

“What about me?!?!” Deacon shouted from across the room as the lights went off for the fourth time. “D’AAAHHHH!”

This time, Twilight found that her best friend had been taken away. With seconds away from their possible demise, it was only Deacon and Twilight left.

“NOOO!!!” Twilight shouted, “Not Avany!”

Deacon looked at his feet, where he found the jagged machete. In an attempt to defend himself against the darkness, he picked it up and waved it around himself. “Please!! LEAVE ME ALONE!”

The blade was proven pointless as, after the light switched off, both he and the blade were gone.

Now it was just Twilight left alone in the hall. In the huge and chilly hall where so many lives have previously been lost.

Avany was gone, along with the rest. Now, she was alone. All by herself with nothing but her own echo.

Helpless, she fell down to her knees on the cold floor. “I give up… You win, Tantibus…”

After letting a teardrop fall to the floor, the lights switched off and she was gone as well.

**Thanks for your patience from last month! To thank you, I decided to leave an extra long Chapter for you. I really hope you enjoyed it!

Also, Tantibus is far from over so STAY TUNED!

PS; If someone could make me a better art-cover, I would be so grateful. I might even be willing to put their OC as a extra towards the end!**

CHAPTER NINE: Admira

CHAPTER NINE

Admira grew up in a rich and noble family. They lived in a fairly big and luxurious mansion in the Eastern ends of Canterlot. She grew up with both her father and mother. Her father was a highly ranked general, from which most of the family’s riches came from, and her mother used to sew decorative banner-patches, clothing and sometimes even stitch soft plush dolls. She owned a small embroidery boutique where she would sell the products of her hobby for a small and reasonable price.

Since coming from a rich family, Admira never truly learnt the harsh, and sometimes cruel nature, of the outside world; the world outside the safety of the walls in Canterlot.

Her father wanted her to grow up to be a very nice and kind role-model for her own children someday. But it was a difficult task to hide some of the decisions a general has to make.

Whenever she was in need of something, he would be sure to let her have it, because he just couldn’t stand seeing anypony sad, especially his own offspring… and hoped to raise her to feel the same. He somewhat succeeded. Even though she lived in a sort of false security through-out her life, her kind behavior surely made both her father and mother proud.

Perhaps Tantibus was what she needed to wake her up and realize that reality wasn’t always a fairy-tale.

---

It was merely a second ago that she had been in the massive hall, but now she was in a way different room. It was as if she was just snapped out of existence and put somewhere completely different. She was still in Tantibus though, she could tell. It was that distinctive cold and empty atmosphere again.

She looked around. She was in a long and rectangle shaped office. There was a desk standing in the middle of her half of the room, it was right in front of her actually. She was standing right next to the chair behind the desk. Several bookshelves were lined up on the three walls surrounding the desk. They were filled with multiple books of various colors, but it was quite strange as not a single book was labeled on its spine.

On top of the desk, in the middle, was a skull. She could tell just by looking at it that it was very old and used to belong to a pony of rather small size. She gave out a quick shout as the skull was the first thing she saw. Its empty eye-sockets were facing the wall behind the desk, straight into the book shelves. Or it could be staring at the old, creaky chair that was also behind the desk. She then noticed the door, which was located across the room on the wall opposing the desk’s front.

She gave a run for it, almost shouting at first glance. Upon knocking into the wooden door she began furiously twisting its knob. It was obviously locked with a key-hole in the middle of the gold-coated knob that was meant to be used.

“What is this?!” she shouted and felt a small sense of insecurity and panic shower over her.

Admira looked back at the desk and noticed that it has a few built in departments, the number one spot most preferred to put the key in. Admira ran back and rounded the desk to reach its rear where she would begin opening its six departments.

In the final and bottom department she found a book. That was all she found, just the book. The book was covered in a red, matte finish and felt cold. There was no title or any text whatsoever, just the color red. Admira was a bit confused with the unnecessary, and simple, design and turned around to compare it to the covers of the rest of the books in the bookshelves. They were the same but in other various colors, no text on the exterior.

She opened the red book. On the very first page she was met with a simple message which looked to be typed by a typewriter. All other pages were blank.

It read: “NOPE, THERE IS NOTHING IN HERE.”

She turned around and looked at the all of the other books of various colors, neatly stacked in the three bookshelves. Deep inside, she thought: Am I supposed to look through all of these?! She picked out a book from the shelf behind her. It was blue, maybe because that was her favorite color.

When she opened it, it looked exactly the same only with a different message.

“NOT HERE EITHER.” Just like before, all other pages were empty.

She continued, but the results were the same. Whichever book she took, it was the same. The first page read NOT HERE EITHER and then the rest were empty. But she refused to give up and a pile of books began to form on the floor as she went through book after book.

---

Apollo quickly flashed back into reality and immediately analyzed his new surroundings. He was in a tiny room, a bit smaller than Admira’s but unlike her rectangular office, this room was a perfect square. There weren’t many objects in the room. All he could see was a bureau and a few paintings on the otherwise empty walls. The paintings were portraits, but the faces of the participants had been cut out.

The bureau had a decorative, white cloth with a glass fishbowl on top of it. The fishbowl was filled up with water, but there were no living creatures whatsoever in it, just pure water. The bureau also had three departments.

Apollo began to carefully look through the tiny room to check if it was safe. It seemed so, unless the fishbowl spontaneously explodes or something. Not very likely, but with Tantibus, who knows who is in charge of the odds?

He quickly noticed something. There was a lack of a certain item that was absolutely necessary for any room to even be considered a room… an opening. There were no windows and not even a door in sight, just the walls covered in white-beige wallpaper. Very confused, Apollo set to action.

He began with what made most sense to him, to look in the bureau. After seeing that the top department was empty, he really had no hope for the rest containing anything either, which, in turn, they didn’t. Out of frustration, he kicked one of the walls, only to find out that they were hollow.

---

Ebony heard a thump coming from one of the walls which snapped her into focus. Not paying much attention to the actual wake-up call, she was surprised to find that she was lying on the bottom of a big, glass cube. The glass cube was located in the middle of a much bigger, rectangle room. The glass was thick and would not even as much as budge, no matter how hard Ebony knocked into them.

On top of the glass box she could see a transparent compartment with maze-like walls inside it. It was like making a maze for a rat in a shoe-box, now make the walls and outer casing for that maze out of robust and transparent glass and you’ve got what Ebony was facing above her. On the inside of the glass cube, in the ceiling, was a door-knob that she could, with her hoof, lead through the maze on the roof. But here is the tricky part, the glass-ceiling was out of reach for her and in order for her to as much as touch the knob, she would have to jump and nudge the knob inch by inch. Punch too hard and the knob would break off. She also noticed that at what seemed to be the end of the maze was a button and when pressed… she could only hope that it would help her out of the cube.

She also noticed four small metallic tubes leading out from the glass box in each of the four top corners. No escape there though, as they were too small for Ebony to even fit her hooves in them.

Outside of the glass box she found herself in a pretty big, empty room. There was no furniture or decorations at all, only one door leading out of the room. Unfortunately, she was stuck in the box, unable to reach that door.

There was only one thing for her to do in her situation, to try and solve the maze-like puzzle.

“Here we go.” She spoke silently to herself before jumping up and touching the knob for the first time, it moved about half an inch but triggered something way bigger. As the knob was moved, the trap was triggered and water starting pouring down from all of the four tubes instantly. It was now a matter of having enough time to solve the maze, before the glass cube were to be filled up completely, drowning Ebony…

---

She found it. Finally, after having looked through 46 books, she found the right one. Instead of the text “NOT HERE EITHER” she found that the book was hollowed out, with a key in its secret space of cut out pages. The key was just as golden as the door-knob itself.

As she turned her focus from the key to the door, she noticed something. She could now hear a silent sizzling noise. It seemed to come from the area around the door, but it was too silent to make out its position accurately. She slowly walked closer to the door, hoping to figure out where the noise came from.

Having a mother working at an embroidery, she couldn’t help but to find herself spending hours on sewing and stitching as well. Having that as a hobby for years of her youth had trained her in having a keen eye for detail which was something that certainly came in handy at this moment. Her eyes caught the glimpse of thousands of tiny, tiny needles poking out from the floor between her and the door. It was like a laid out carpet of needles, stretching from the wall to her left to the wall to her right, sealing off the door. They weren’t big at all, only about a third of an inch poked out, but the sizzling noise that came out from them made her nervous.

She turned around, grabbed one of the books and ripped out an empty page. She then crumbled it up into a paper-ball and threw it onto the needled area. Almost instantly, the ball began turning into a yellowish green and decomposing in a final, scorched color. The needles were spewing out acid.

She looked closer and noticed a blank spot just next to the door without any needles. She could probably make the jump if she got a bit of momentum on her side. So she put the key in her mouth, backed up a few feet and began charging forward. In a swift and graceful motion, she flew up and over the tiny but poisonous needles. Although it was an unsteady landing, she was unharmed with the key still in her mouth.

She put it in and twisted the knob. After hearing a click from inside the door, she could push it open. She had done it; she could finally exit this room.

Admira turned around and took a look at the office one last time.

With a loud and disturbing crackling noise, the skull began slowly turning so that the empty and expressionless eye-sockets were looking straight into the eyes of Admira. Before the skull could do anything else, Admira jumped out the door and locked it behind herself in fear.

She leaned over, listened closely and could hear the sound of creaking floorboards and moving furniture coming from inside the office. She put her hoof on the door knob, prepared to unlock it to unravel what was happening inside, but decided it was best to leave it be. Her business with that room was finished, and besides, that skull gave her the creeps.