Equestria, /HaS/, and the Untodes Korps

Have you ever had one of those out-of-body experiences? Where you almost see yourself through someone else's eyes, as a kind of observer? I have one every time I close my eyes.  It’s always a different one. I can't control them; they may be my thoughts, but these things are not mine to command. It's always the same, each and every one of them. This brutal struggle. This yearning for food; for those odd things it sees scurrying around on those walls. For something so monstrous and frightening to be just a simple animal, obeying the common rules that bind all of us to this plane... It's odd. But I’m getting ahead of myself, telling you all this. Logic dictates that I start at the beginning.

It was like the opening to a play. The stage was all set; the curtains were ready to be drawn. The stagehands making it all possible had gone to great lengths to make sure that everything was to go perfectly. Their ‘actors’, to keep this metaphor going, were simply going to retire to rest, as they did every night, and awaken here. I didn’t know the specifics of how this place worked; that honor was reserved for the people that actually ran this little freakshow. Perhaps they enjoyed this, the raw emotion of a survival situation as extreme as this one. Maybe it truly was a show to them, one without a script and where the heroes weren’t guaranteed to win in the end. In the long and short of it, why they did it truly didn’t matter. In just a few short minutes, the show would start. I hope it was not too rude of an awakening for them.

I’d like to consider it a funny story, how the denizens of this land came to be. To anyone staring at them, the creatures almost all look the same. These horribly malformed beings, screaming and gasping and clawing at things on the wall unendingly. The things outside those walls that protect them are a fair bit more complex than that. I don’t mean to make this sound cliché, but they are the product of this twisted form of natural selection. It wasn’t about who was fit enough to survive in this environment. It was about what was capable of evoking the most fear, what garnered the greatest feelings of pure revulsion in someone’s stomach. A lot of people would think that this would instantly mean that they would be blood-encrusted, multi-eyed horrors covered in gnashing teeth barking and howling unintelligible babbling. In some twisted, cosmic sort of way, that couldn’t be farther from the truth of things. It’s these almost-human-looking things that are just a tiny bit distorted, just a little bit wrong, that garner the most horrified reactions. I’m not a man of science, nor an expert on the subject.

Of course, this isn’t my story. I just happened to do the casting for the background characters and a bit of set design. The real heroes of this story were long overdue to wake up, actually. I don’t envy them; don’t get me wrong. A starring role in this particular production is not something anyone should desire to have. Unfortunately for our heroes, they had very little choice in the matter.

I shifted and stirred in my bed, but several red flags rose in my mind almost immediately. This bed was too small to have been the one I climbed in. The atmosphere was all stuffy, and that couldn’t be, since I had opened the bedroom window last night. I opened my eyes, only to see grey. As the world came into focus, a sense of panic flooded through me. I tried to lift myself up, only to crack my head onto the bottom of the bunk above me, which raised even more questions.

Why am I in a bunk bed instead of my normal twin bed?

Panicking and in pain, I stumbled out of bed to see that there were other bunks like this one surrounding mine. As I finally recognized my surroundings, it became apparent that this was some sort of grey barracks, with bunks and mattresses and covers, all the same uniform colour. In the darkness, I could see occupants in the other bunks.

How did I get here?

I made my way down the bunker to a set of doors, my feet pattering on the cold floor. I was wearing only some thick, white pajamas.

What’s going on?

I grasped the door and pushed outward. I saw a set of staircases that led up and into the open. I cautiously walked up and saw yet more grey. The black sky was filled with stars, beautiful and bright. I looked around and saw several square buildings lined up in a row. At the edge of my vision, I saw a 50-foot wall surrounding the area and the buildings.

Am I in a military base or something?

I could see no flagpole or anything to indicate nationality of any sort. Just grey. I walked into the common area of this... compound and approached one of the featureless blocks. I reached out to touch it: it felt like it was really was just a featureless, smooth, metallic surface. It was then I heard a startled yelp from behind me. It came from the barracks.

Are the others waking up?

As I heard more yelling, I headed back underground. People were getting up and facing the same fears that I had. I didn’t recognize any of them, but I felt that I should help. I walked over to where someone was freaking out and asked him, “Hey, you know what’s going on?”

He said, “I-I don’t know. I just got in my bed last night at home with my family and now... I’m here? Do you know?”

I stepped back and said, “I don’t know either, man.”

Suddenly, previously unseen lights flickered on, bathing all of us in a bright light and waking up everyone. It seemed that this barracks was unisex, as I saw a few women get up and freak out as well. I told the man, “Hey, let’s get everyone calm down before anything happens.”

He said back, “Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

We tried addressing everyone here while trying to hide our own uncertainty about the situation, looking to make some normality out of this nightmare. We found one-size pants and tee-shirts in drawers beneath bottom bunks. As we all put on the plain white shirts and grey pants, it became apparent that nobody had any idea what was happening. I went back outside and saw the brightening horizon. It was a comforting thing to see a sunrise in this forbidding place.

As more people filtered out of the sleeping area, the ground became crowded with dozens of people, maybe more. A sudden noise from the grey square structures caught our collective attention. The sound of machines whirring and clicking echoed through the complex, and as we backed off, several slots in the structures opened up, slots that one could fit a big, old television set. A man, perhaps brave, perhaps stupid, walked up and looked at the slots, apparently triggering a mechanical voice, which said:

“General Purpose Replicator active. Please input command.”

Everyone looked at each other, and a murmur grew. The man at the slots said nervously, “U-Um, can I have some shoes and socks, please? Size 10?”

“Dispensing product.”

One of the slots closed and a whirring could be heard, then a ding. The slot opened back up to reveal exactly what the man had ordered, and he cautiously withdrew his items. As he put them on, several more people gathered up the courage to ask something of the replicators.

“Some shoes?”

“Coffee?”

“Can I have a coat, please?”

These and other items were dispensed with the accompanying machine announcing their creation with the monotone voice, saying, “Dispensing product.”

People gathered more courage and got more creative with what they ordered: I saw people getting lawn chairs, food, drinks, and clothes. I even saw a guy ordering a laptop, and he got one. The mood definitely improved in the compound as people filled their bellies and as they got better accommodations for themselves in this grey land. I had ordered some simple doughnuts and hot chocolate and made my way back to the man I had talked to before. We shook hands and exchanged pleasantries, for what they were worth. But something odd started occuring when I asked for his name.

“Say, I didn’t get your name.”

“OH! It’s...”

“What’s wrong?”

“It seems silly, but... Commissar Alexer?”

“Say, that sounds familia--”

That did ring a bell. Something about a group?

“Well, what’s your name?”

“Why, it’s Tyrannosaurus Tux.”

After saying it, I felt rather ill. It seemed so odd and yet so natural that this would be my name. Some figment of my brain protested and tried to tell me what my real name was, but all that came up was this pen name or something.

As the group mingled and people became visibly more confused as to their location, the voice seemed to turn its loudspeaker on again and address the group, saying, “Is this sufficient?”

We all looked at each other, but Alexer spoke up, shouting, “Sufficient for what?”

“You have all been brought here that we may learn. Arm yourselves for the oncoming tide. We will reward you for as many data points as you can give us. Begin.”

With that, the voice cut out. Now we were understandably really concerned.

Brought here for some being’s learning?

Arm ourselves?

Oncoming tide?

Rewards?

Chills ran up our spines. A shrill shriek from a thousand mouths tore through the air. A new panic arose in the crowd, and they swarmed the replicators, ordering whatever weapon came to mind. I could see that most of them ordered guns and ammo and lasers or something, but they ordered a few odd things as well. Did the guy seriously think the replicator would give him a phaser? Why would that guy over there order a katana? Did he think he’d outlast this... horde whatever it is with a simple piece of iron?

As for me, the shock didn’t wear off until the first few shots were fired from the walls. People had made their way to the top and were blindly firing into the darkness. Or so I hoped. These mostly untrained and scared people were just grabbing guns and ammo. This could turn really bad. I just hoped nobody got hurt. I quickly ordered a M14 battle rifle from the replicator. I was rushing to the battlements when I shook from dread.

I was in the middle of nowhere.

This machine had just given me a gun because I asked nicely.

And now, as I neared the wall, I saw exactly why people saw cause for concern. Theseinhuman monsters were attacking us in hordes. These gangly, thin, white and grey things had what looked to be mutated, elongated limbs and claws and teeth. It was just horrible. It was a strange sort of comfort to me, though, that these monsters weren’t bulletproof. As I watched, rifle clutched in my idle freaking hands, scared people with limited firearms and military experience with these automatic weapons hit their marks occasionally. It was a miracle people didn’t accidentally shoot each other or something. As I numbly observed, I noticed a golden light lance leap from one of our weapons into the torso of one of those things. So he had gotten his phaser after all. I saw as people fumbled with safeties, magazines, and other parts of the guns. I then listened to the sound.

The monsters down there were singing their symphony, a collective voice one of a shrill, unending shriek. Then I noticed a man with a rocket launcher.  He wasn’t checking his backblast, and the resulting explosionevent caused a man to be in the danger zone. He was thrown off the battlements, surely dead. I got angry. Angry. He didn’t even notice his mistake. I dropped my rifle and ran over to him. I ripped the rocket from his hands and shouted in his face. I pointed down to the man lying at the bottom of the wall. “Are you insane? Look! See what you did! Freaking maniac! Watch the back-blast, idiot!”

With that, I threw the weapon over at the monsters. I then walked over to grab my battle rifle and told him, “Now go down there and see if he’s still alive.”

He then rushed down the battlement stairs. With that bit of anger fueling my actions, I racked the action of the rifle and shot blindly. I was feeling so much rage at the outrage of this whole situation that I doubted I hit anything. As the gun clicked empty, I threw it at the monsters and screamed at them. My adrenaline was wearing off, and I noticed that even if the monsters did reach the wall, they would get shot off the wall anyway. Were we safe after all?

It’s such an interesting thing to watch. Given the power to make anything, they simply create the first thing that pops into their head. I can’t honestly blame them. Dropped into a world I barely understood, being accosted by monsters on every side, I would be frightened as well. I’d be no different. Still, I wonder when it will dawn upon them. The value of what they have within those walls is without measure. The ability to simply ask for anything, and have it right there, waiting for you.Maybe when the panic subsides and their minds can think clearly, they’ll start really exploiting it. I can’t wait to see what they come up with. In that sense, I’m just another viewer of this macabre production.

Don’t mistake me as some kind of omnipotent force, some all-seeing eye into each and every one of their lives. I only know what I myself can see from all the way up here, and, when my eyes are closed, what those shambling beasts on the ground care to look at. My viewpoint and information on this mess is as limited as theirs. We’re both trapped, the two of us.It’s just under very different circumstances.

Without scripted events and happenings, sometimes things go in ways no one expects them to. The hero surviving against all odds, only to be crushed by his own simple mistake in the eleventh hour. The players bending the rules of the game to gain an upper hand. Or, in this case, interlopers from the last place I would expect. I almost want to laugh about it, how deeply they contrast with one another. Wonderful beings of pure light and friendship, coming to a nightmare land like this one. Of course, the mess they’ve gotten themselves into was hardly something to laugh at.

A barge hit the rocky beach, and somepony gave the disembark order. Armored ponies thudded on the beach, securing a perimeter for the VIPs shortly disembarking. 6 more ponies nervously jumped off the ship, also landing hard on the cobble beach. A nervous Fluttershy softly said to Twilight, “I don’t like this.”

“I know, Fluttershy. I know. A dark island, appearing off our coast? Still, the Princesses have trusted us with the Elements of Harmony. We’ve also got royal guardsponies with us.”

Rainbow Dash cut in, saying, “Yeah, don’t worry. All these royal guards can kick the flanks of whatever tries to hurt us! Isn’t that right?”

The golden-plated pony that Rainbow Dash had addressed ignored her. Rainbow simply huffed and said, “See? He’s just doing his job. Now let’s go do ours!”

A pegasus guard landed suddenly beside the group, startling them all to varying degrees. She gave a sharp report, saying, “Lady Sparkle, there is a compound in the distance. It seems to be under attack by monsters. The defenders seem to wield many strange weapons. What do you advise?”

Fluttershy spoke up, “M-Monsters??”

The guard nodded an affirmative and waited on Twilight’s word. Twilight nervously asked, “W-What kind of monsters?”

Another scout guard ran up to the group and said, trying to catch his breath, “The monsters aren’t like anything we’ve ever seen. They seem to be bipedals with long claws on their arms. They seem content to ignore us in favor of attacking the compounds.”

Applejack spoke up and said, “So there’s more than one?”

The tired guard nodded. Twilight sucked in some air, put on a show of bravery, then said, “Take us to the nearest compound, then!”

A detachment was left with the barge, and the force moved onward.

“This place’s a dump.”

Other than the childish wording, Rainbow Dash was right. This place could be safely described as a wasteland, pure and simple. There was only entire fields of rough, smooth gravel that sort of crunches beneath their hooves. Pinkie Pie seemed most amused by this. “Heehee! It’s almost as if I’m walking on cereal!”

She was quickly shushed by the guards as they heard and felt the combat in the distance. They heard explosions and screaming of what sounded like both ponies and monsters. The guards motioned them on, and they quickened their pace.

As the pony group crested a hill, the sounds gradually died. Soon there was no cannonfire and no screaming. They got a look at the compound, and their stomachs turned as they beheld what they saw.

Massive grey steel walls with figures atop them were surrounded by the dark red ichor and greying masses of dead monsters. It was unlike any horror they would’ve conceived, yet there it was, threatening to consume them all with dread and terror. Dread not only for the dead monsters that even as they lay dead menaced them, but for the compound and the figures atop the wall. What terrible power must they have that could enable them to destroy these monsters in such a horrific fashion?

“I think we should just wave our flag of peace and hope they come to us.”

“Hey! See that, Tux?”

“It’s a white flag!”

“Should we check it out?”

“Pff, okay. I'll go grab Redshirt and Classy. We’ll be the welcoming party.”

“See? It’s working! Four of them are roping down off the wall!”

“Should I plan a party?”

“Now what in the hay would we have the party for, Pinkie?”

“So we can celebrate their not dying at the teeth and claws of the spookies, duh!”

“Are those...?”

“I can’t believe it.”

“Ponies!?”

“Now I’ve seen everything...”

“Wait, where are her wings?”

“Shush!”

“They look terrified, Twilight!”

“I think they’ve just been assailed by a demon horde. We should be fine. Just smile and wave, sugarcube.”

“I do have to point out that their garb could be much less dreary, darling.”

“Smile and wave, Rarity.”

"Darling, they're wading through a field of corpses."

"Shush."

The group and I had finally made it to within talking distance of the ponies.

Ponies.Jeez.

Classy whispered, “So... what should we do?”

I looked back to the string of people behind me and shrugged. “Just be ready to fight if they turn hostile or something.”

“But they’re ponies! I can name each and every one of them!”

“Just stay there.”

I approached Twilight and finally waved back. I said, “Good afternoon!”

Twilight then approached me and returned the friendly gesture. She then looked behind me and my mood cracked. I fell to my knees, blurting out, “Okay so you must understand that we’ve just had pretty much the worst day ever. First I don’t even wake up in my bed but in that...” I pointed behind me, “...freaking place. Wake up next to people I don’t even know and then get told by this eldritch voice to defend ourselves. We’re kinda scared.”

“Hey, lookie over there!”

There was a giant black spire way to our right.

How did we not notice that?

“I’d say we should head there.”

A very soft voice suggested, “D-Do we have to? It looks scary.”

I sighed. “Come on, let’s go.”

Twilight said with a start, “Wha- Why?!”

I shrugged again. “It’s pretty obvious where we need to go to reverse this mess.”

I rose and walked past some flabbergasted humans. I shot a look at them and said, “Look, the writing’s pretty much on the wall here. We probably need to get as many as will come and I don’t know, storm the tower or something. I dunno. Let’s go, guys. Into the base.”

I left them to go begin the grueling task of navigating the field o’ gore. Yuck.

They would never have listened to me anyway, but this little experiment of theirs had quite a few… design flaws.It’s obvious they’ve never had dealings with humans before. You see, they created an island full of monsters and gave their test subjects the power to make anything it wanted, before setting them off to collect some data points about something or another. At this point, the data they are trying to collect is likely all wrong; the humans, using the tools given to them, have broken free of their containment and have killed damn well near every one of these things in the whole land. Humanity finds the unknown scary. So when they first landed here, yes. These things were scary. Virtual unknown assailants coming at them from all sides. The moment they figured out they could be killed was the moment they ceased being so frightening.

But their killing of every beaston this island posed another problem. Now, I’ve said it many times, but I don’t know the full details of this little experiment. What I do know is that they’re not supposed to be the dominant force here. This test of theirs is falling to pieces. They don’t have to hand me an order to tell me what I should be doing. They want new beasts. Unfortunately for our test subjects, I know of something that will fit this bill to the letter. Understanding is the bane of fear. Understanding what you’re up against removes the veil of fright from many a situation. So I thought about it. An enemy that couldn’t be understood. No, could not even be described, lacking in all form of identifiable features and shape. Completely alien in visage, the very concept of incomprehensibility given a shape and form.

And as I think it, it is. Forgive my grammar; it’s a hard topic for me to explain. My thoughts are what bring these creatures to life. That’s the simplest way for me to phrase it without soaring clean over your head. It’s a bit more complex than that, as many things are, so I’ll attempt to simplify a few of the more intricate steps of the process. This place builds upon the ideas of what I have; it implements them in its own way. These shadows that I had dreamed up mere moments before were altered by the land and grown by it. I speak in many metaphors, but this is more of a literal description. These unknown things became a forest around the tower. A forest of dead, lifeless trees, sitting perfectly still. Awaiting someone, anyone, to dare venture inside.

After that little meet-up, and deciding I didn’t quite want to wade through a pile of corpses, we cleared an ashy path by way of phasers. I told Redshirt to “set it on turn to ash” and he just gave me a look.

Anyway, the ponies looked at all the fearful faces around them and were in varying degrees of shock, fear, and... empathy? I took a look as well, and... yeah. I could see why they felt sorry for us.

What’s happening?

First I wake up in this place only to fight for my life, and then I see My Little Ponies. I took a deep breath. Now was not the time for such pointless reflection. Best to focus on what’s about to happen. I told Alexer, “Right. Time to buck up and see about that tower. Here’s what we’ll tell everyone to grab...”

It took a while, and some heated discussions between me, Alexer, Hood, and a few others who wanted to speak their mind, but we conceded that we were not better off trying to get advanced robotics and suits from the replicators, seeing as getting those would require skills that we neither had nor had time to learn how to configure them. Suits of armor were also a no-go, seeing as those things looked like they could just claw through armor anyway. After some encouragement, most of the compound conceded to going with us. A skeleton crew would maintain the compound with heavy weapons they were fixing to the walls. With that, we departed. We all had advised everybody to take up a safety partner so that we wouldn’t lose anyone without noticing it. Much safer for everybody involved.

We set off after about noon, after we had filled our bellies with convenient hot food. Me and Alexer had advised everyone to pack rations and water in addition to our choice of kinetic and energy weapons. It just seemed the safer option, even if it caused all of us to strain under our loads.

But that was for the best, I felt.

After travelling for several hours in silence, we crested a hill and finally saw the base of the obsidian tower. There was a dark, dead forest that surrounded the tower, and as Alexer saw it, he scoffed. He said, “All it needs now is Saruman and a bunch of Uruk-hai.”

I glanced over to him and said, “Please don’t jinx this.”

Alexer shrugged, and we made the descent.

I looked behind and saw our little group had formed into a line. A chill creeped up my spine, and I halted the group. “Anyone needing a rest? Alright, take five. After that, Peaches, Militant, Handyman, and Balt will take point in pairs so that nothing really catches us by surprise from the front. Seal, Redshirt, watch our left as we march. Swarmlord, Wes, watch our right. Aviator and Kabar will watch the rear of our column. Keep your heads on a swivel, everyone. I suspect something’s very very wrong with this place. Water up and grab a snack.”

As everyone rested their legs and slipped off their packs, I approached the middle where all the ponies were and asked, “How are you all?”

The guards gave no answers, but the 6 others all said some variation of “I’m fine” and “This place is creepy.” Nothing too concerning. I then waited for the five minute mark while listening to people idly chatting to themselves.

After the 5 minute mark, I pushed myself off the rough cobble and grabbed my stuff. Everyone saw and did the same. We then set off again wordlessly into the silent forest. Everybody held their positions around our little caravan of men and ponies. The dead trees seemed really off, but they seemed to be normal and had normal texture and mass, even if they were all taller than houses. We weaved around the trees as they came and found that the closer we got to the tower, the foggier it got, even if there was no fog as we entered the forest. Alexer called everyone into a tighter formation, and our nervousness grew as the fog got thicker and thicker. Everyone stopped when someone called out, “Hey guy! This tree’s really weird!”

Everyone’s heads turned towards the guy approaching the tree. I think his name was Imperaxum. As everyone saw Imperaxum approach it, we all came to the same conclusion.

That tree reallyis weird. It looks like rubber if rubber didn’t shine. Or looked like if the infinite black void was somehow condensed into a material and shaped into a tree.

As Imperaxum reached out to the “tree” I had the thought that perhaps he shouldn’t touch it. I opened my mouth to say something, but the tree struck Imperaxum with one of its “branches”. He fell backwards, clutching his face, and the world exploded into chaos.

“Trees” were starting to reform into something truly monstrous. There were genuine trees, but some of them turned into humanoid... dark-men. They had the same texture and height as the trees, but they were really, really thin. They reached at us with long claws. We stuck back with our weapons, and as I unloaded my new shotgun into the tree that had struck the member of our group, I noticed that it wasn’t quite falling down. Instead, it was unwinding somehow. Instead of bleeding, the gaping mass just unravelled into flailing tendrils. It stopped to clutch at its new “wound,” its featureless obsidian head looking down as if regarding it, and looked up at me. I yelped, then blasted it in the face. Its head recoiled, and as it came back into view, I saw tendrils flailing about its face. So I blasted it again. Now it looked even worse, and it was still standing. I look around for anything that could help, and then I notice Redshirt using his lone weapon, the hand-phaser, to disintegrate the creature. I called out, “Use disintegrating weapons!” for all the good that this would do, as only a handful of us carried energy weapons that could disintegrate entirely. I was knocked back on my back from the sweeping claws of the former tree.

Alexer called out, “Close up and form a firing circle!”

I got up, clutching my face, and we all moved to present our backs to each other. As people with kinetic weapons like rifles crippled the darkmen by shooting off their thin legs with their rapid fire, the slower-firing energy weapons that the few of us carried allowed us to vaporize the threats as they tried to reform and charge at us again. After a bit, they stopped coming, and the fire stopped, but I still heard distant gunfire and discharge of weaponry. A murmur grew in the crowd that surrounded the ponies, guards and all.

“What’s going on?”

“Did they abandon the compound?”

“Are there others like us?”

“Is there something worse than those things out there?’

“What should we do, help them?”

“Look, it’s that spire again!”

As we looked to where the droopy, bandaged and bleeding Imperaxum was pointing, we all saw it, too. The fog had receded enough for us to see the ghostly visage of the dark spire rising impossibly high above the white pea soup. Someone shouted over the crowd, "Come on! Let's get out of this cesspit!"

With a somewhat subdued cheer, the group continued. We were all understandably extra wary of the forest around us, enough for Alexer to have everyone just go in a tight circle again around the pony guards who surrounded the mane six. Soon enough, the obsidian and foreboding entrance to the tower seemingly manifested clear from the fog. The double-doors, taller than a man, had giant hanging door knocks fixed to the middle of the doors. I sent Balt and Handyman to open the doors while we established a perimeter. The men entrusted to open the door heaved against it, then experimentally tugged one of the giant door-knockers. The door shifted. We all moved to assist.

Normally, I can see them from all the way up here. Scurrying around like insects amidst a sea of horrors I throw at them. This was different. For the first time in a long time, I couldn’t see them. I heard them. That sound of the tower’s doors being simply moved aside. Like they were nothing. Like this tower was just another obstacle for them to overcome on their way out of here. They seemed… no. They completely failed to grasp the severity of their situation; of their new place in this world. They stood at the foot of a God, at the very feet of Mount Olympus itself, not with awe, but with defiance. Like Icarus, they sought to ascend. High up into the sky, to touch the celestial bodies themselves.

I need not point out what happened to him when he tried that. His wings burned, and he fell back to earth. I’m certain all of them, at least on some level, realise what they’re stepping into. Out there was their world. Now, they seek to go behind the curtain; head backstage. I’d like to warn them, or at least try to stop them from coming up here. I made those things outside the tower; every last beast was my design. But inside this tower I feel… nothing. A void. And yet I know that there are things inside this tower. Things untouched by the light of day and completely ethereal in nature. The powers that run this place. They’ve taken what they’ve learned from the previous two monsters. They’ve made something so perfect in both gut-wrenching terror and unstoppable lethality and they put who knows how many of them into this tower. I cannot help them, nor can I interfere. Anything I try to imagine will just be another obstacle in their paths.

But you’re not here to listen to me ramble about my plight; my situation at the top of this tower. No, you want to know what the real heroes are doing on their way up here to probably kill me, so I won’t keep you.

The group stepped inside, stopping just short of where the light from the door ended and where the shadows begin. In the darkness, we could barely see that the interior of the spire was nothing but a giant staircase that led to the blackness above. I swallowed and said, “Well, the only way is up. Shall we?”

The stillness of the tower was broken when our group clambered up onto the huge wide staircase that led to the top. We kept to single file and hugged the wall of the tower, since there was no railing. Those of us who brought flashlights turned them on and swept them from up to down, side to side, trying to root up any indications of danger. The ponies who were unicorns summoned up lighting spells to aid in the dark. The trek was mostly silent, but the darkness almost threatened to choke us as we worked our way up the stairs. We all scanned the bare surfaces, ever alert for incoming threats, but the silence was taking its toll.

After a while of numbing silence, the screams began. They came from below, and echoed throughout the tower. They got closer. We started firing blindly into the darkness. Bullets sang into the darkness, and beams of fiery death leaped to scorch the abyss. The abyss seemed to shift, but the weaponry did no discernable damage. If that wasn’t bad enough, the flashlights all died and the lighting magic the ponies Someone shouted, “Run!”

We didn’t argue with that. The wails of the damned chased us up as we screamed. We fired and ran but the darkness threatened us even more. We stopped some times but as the darkness manifest chased us, our panic increased. We couldn’t fight this. We couldn’t scare it off. We dropped our guns and ran. I couldn’t quite describe how scared I was at this point. I was definitely about to die, and I didn’t know what I could possibly do to stop it.

I glanced behind me, and saw men getting swallowed up. Their shrieks of terror were simply muffled by the darkness that chased all of us. I kept running. I didn’t look back, but I kept hearing the screams. I then made the mistake of tripping. I cracked my head on the stairs, and I saw stars. There was a shout, and everything went white. I thought I was dead, but I still felt the splitting headache and the stairs beneath me. I heard rushing wind and the unholy shriek somehow intensifying, which caused me to scream for my life. Then, silence. I was roused and brought to my back, when I saw the concerned face of a guard.

“Are you injured?”

“Urgh, my head...”

“Cast a healing spell on this one, medic.”

As my head cleared, I saw several prone people on the stairs, some being looked over. I looked into the face of the guard and asked, “What happened?”

He looked down the now relatively normal staircase and said, “The Elements were used against that thing. It worked perfectly. We’re safe now.”

The guard then looked up and added, “ Now to see what’s behind that door.”

I looked over to where the guard was looking, and saw that we had made it. The staircase ended and there was an ominous black door that looked to be our destination. I got up and looked to see if I could help before we breached the door. Because we had discarded our weapons, it was decided that the armored ponies would go first.

With all my contrived monologues and banter, you really would think I would be far better prepared to greet them when they opened that door. When that screaming finally subsided, I had thought every last one of them had died. Then, the door flew open, and there I was.

The door busted open, and guard ponies established a perimeter inside. We all hurriedly followed in, and saw him.

He was just a man.

He had some normal street clothes, and he looked more shell shocked than any normal guy had any right to be, but other than that, he seemed okay. He had crossed his arms and looked sorrowfully at us. He didn’t move as the guard ponies surrounded him, and as the rest of us stood in front of him. He opened his mouth to say something, but he was cut off by that voice again.

“The experiment is over. The data points have been collected and evaluated. The process will take some time. We thank you for your contribution.”

Then everything went black.