TANTIBUS

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!**