The Asylum

by MasterFrasca

Rating: teen
Tags: Cutie Mark Crusaders, Gore, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark
Length: 10609

Scootaloo convinces the Crusaders to go on a ghost hunt in an old abandoned asylum in Ponyville. Have the Cutie Mark Crusaders finally bit off more than they can chew?

Scootaloo decides to try something new for the crusaders, considering their unsuccessful past: Cutie Mark Crusaders Paranormal Investigators!

The trio travels to the old abandoned asylum in Ponyville, called Celestia’s Home for the Mentally Unstable, and searches for clues that the disembodied spirits of ponies past still remain.

Soon enough, the investigation starts to get out of hand... Have the Crusaders finally bit off more than they can Chew?

Thanks to Lab and PassionQuill for helping me edit this story and to Parallel Black for helping me with the cover art.

Published 2014-10-30 14:40:03 UTC
Last updated 2014-10-30 14:40:03 UTC

Investigations Gone Wrong

“Scootaloo, I’m not so sure about this,” Apple Bloom hesitantly said, breaking the tense silence in the air. Scootaloo had been leading them down a long-unused path alongside the Everfree Forest. “Aren’t we supposed to avoid the Everfree Forest at night?”

Scootaloo brushed off the question, snarkily responding with, “We’re not in the Everfree Forest, Apple Bloom. Besides, this place was abandoned years ago. There’s nothing to be afraid of.” After reassuring her friend, Scootaloo boldly continued forward, marching with a smug look on her face and readjusting her saddlebags so they wouldn’t fall off.

Sweetie Belle kept herself close to the courageous filly, visibly trembling a bit, despite her obvious efforts to look unphased. Her face wore an expression of confidence, but her tail told a different tale. “Why did we have to go at night?” she asked, quickly trying to hide her fear by adding, “I’m just curious why. I’m not scared or anything.”

“Sweetie Belle, I answered this when we left Apple Bloom’s house.” Scootaloo sighed. “We had to go at night because we couldn’t let the other ponies know what we were up to. We wouldn’t be able to get our Cutie Marks if they did.”

“‘And what cutie marks are those, Scoots?” Apple Bloom asked, staying a few feet behind Sweetie Belle. “You never explained what we’d be doin’.”

“Oh yeah,” Scootaloo said, still pushing ahead. “Get this, girls: Cutie Mark Crusaders Paranormal Investigators!”

“Now hold up a minute!” Apple Bloom immediately spoke up, stopping abruptly in her tracks and causing Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo to turn towards her. “If I’d a known we was gonna be doing that, I’d a stayed home.”

Sweetie Belle turned towards Scootaloo, a look of confusion on her face. “What’s a pair-a-normal investigator?”

“It’s a ghost hunter, Sweetie Belle,” Apple Bloom answered stone-faced before turning her condescending stare to the other Crusader, “and I don’t think we’re gonna get our cutie marks for that.”

“Oh, come on!” Scootaloo protested, stomping a hoof into the dirt. “Why not?”

“Ghost hunter?” Sweetie Belle repeated slowly, her face turning whiter than usual.

“Because ghosts don’t exist!” Apple Bloom shouted with a frown. “They’re just made up campfire stories, and nothing else.”

Scootaloo stood with a frown on her face, trying to think of a way to convince Apple Bloom to believe. A sly grin crept up on her face when she realized she didn’t need to. “So you’re telling me you’re chicken?”

“I am not chicken!” Apple Bloom grumbled back to Scootaloo.

“I am,” Sweetie all but whispered, only to have Scootaloo talk over her.

“You don’t want to go to this place because you’re scared.” Scootaloo taunted, sticking her tongue out at Apple Bloom.

“I don’t want to go,” Sweetie Belle inaudibly whimpered, her vocal chords failing her at the moment.

“Fine, I’ll go, but only to prove to you that ghosts aren’t real!” Apple Bloom shouted, taking a few steps towards Scootaloo.

“Fine,” Scootaloo repeated, the same grin still covering her face as she took a step towards Apple Bloom. Their noses were almost touching.

“Girls.” Sweetie Belle tried to intervene, her voice still as quiet as a mouse.

“Fine!” Apple Bloom shouted again, taking one more step forward and butting her head against Scootaloo’s.

“Girls?” Sweetie Belle fruitlessly tried to speak up once more.

“Shall we?” Scootaloo asked, taking a step back and waving a hoof as if to let Apple Bloom lead the way.

“Let’s.” Apple Bloom gritted her teeth before setting off at a brisk pace, faster than even Scootaloo had originally been walking.

“Girls?” Sweetie Belle protested once more before being left behind by Scootaloo as well. She glanced back into the forest for a brief moment before imagining a horrible creature jumping out at her. “Girls! Wait up!” she shouted, her voice finally returning to her as she sprinted to catch up with her two best friends. She gave up on her efforts to talk to them. They were already determined to get to this mystery location, one way or another.

“So what is this mystery place y’all are takin’ us to?” Apple Bloom said after a few seconds of silent walking, only the wind rustling in the trees breaking the tension.

“I heard about the place when Twilight had me research how to put together that unicycle. Twilight was studying some mental spells when she told me about this old mental asylum called ‘Celestia’s Hospital for the Psychiatrically Unsound’.” Scootaloo kept glancing around like she was looking for something. “They put it way out here to keep residents from wandering into town, but they closed it when the new hospital was built. Twilight said that she read about rumors of the place being haunted with the spirits of ponies that died there.”

“She read all a this to you?” Apple Bloom skeptically asked.

“Okay, fine, she read about a ‘haunted hospital’ and then put the book back, claiming that ghosts were all a bunch of nonsense.” Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “I read most of that myself.” Apple Bloom stifled a giggle before Scootaloo cut her off. “I was curious!”

“There!” Scootaloo stopped in her tracks, a hoof extended towards a decrepit building hidden amongst the trees. “That’s the asylum right there.”

The old asylum looked as if it had been abandoned for years, if not decades. Little showed of the faded bricks on the outside wall, as the forest had almost completely overtaken the sides of the building, shades green and brown dominating the reds of the bricks.. The two-story building was fairly small for a hospital. A few windows had been completely shattered, and the rest were strewn with various forms of graffiti. The stone structure of the building seemed very solid, however, as the walls and ceilings seemed to have stayed fairly intact.

“Cool building and all, but it doesn’t look like any ghosts live here, so can we go home now?” Sweetie Belle rattled off, a nervous smile hiding her inner terror

“Pff don’t tell me you’re scared too?” Scootaloo chuckled.

“Ah’m not scared, Scoots,” Apple Bloom muttered, glancing from the stone walls to Scootaloo’s still-smug face.

“But… the building could be dangerous,” Sweetie Belle said, trying to find any way out of the situation that she could. “What if it collapses?”

        “Sweetie Belle.” Scootaloo frowned. “I didn’t come all this way to just go home. The building’s been here over twenty years. I doubt it’s going to collapse tonight.”

        “Okay.” Sweetie Belle sighed, defeated. She didn’t want to go into the building, but she preferred it to walking home alone near the Everfree.

“We should still probably watch our step while we’re in there.” Apple Bloom piggybacked off Sweetie’s worries, shifting from hoof to hoof.

“That’s why I came prepared,” Scootaloo replied, giving a nod to the bags she was carrying. Slipping them off, she opened up the flap to pull out three flashlights, each of which she set down next to her. “We have a way to see,” she said before reaching back into the bag and pulling out what seemed to be a hat that also doubled as a polaroid camera and another device that seemed to be a tape recorder, “and we have a way to record it all!”

“Scoots, where’d ya get all this?” Apple Bloom asked, surprised that Scootaloo had even thought to bring anything.

“I kinda stole it from Twilight’s library,” Scootaloo mumbled.

“Scootaloo!” Sweetie Belle huffed.

“We’ll return it!” Scootaloo brushed the criticism aside before adding, “It’s not like she uses any of it anyways…”

Sweetie Belle huffed at Scootaloo before the pegasus shoved the camera on her head. “Hey!” she complained before Scootaloo also stuck a flashlight in her mouth.

“You’ll wear the camera, Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo said, ignoring Sweetie’s complaints and shoving the tape recorder into Apple Bloom’s hair bow, “and you’ll hold the tape recorder.” Scootaloo also handed Apple Bloom a flashlight, a bit smoother than she gave Sweetie Belle’s to her. She put the final flashlight back in her bag. “I’ll hold the third flashlight and try to get the ghosts to show themselves. Just be ready to take pictures when you think you see anything, Sweetie Belle, and be ready to turn on the recorder, Apple Bloom.”

Both fillies nodded, as their mouths were currently occupied by flashlights. Apple Bloom had the feeling Scootaloo had done this intentionally so that they couldn’t complain. “Wha’ noo?” she managed to garble out.

“Let’s head inside.” Scootaloo looked at the looming building, her smile fading ever so slightly. She hoped neither of her friends would pick up on it. “Go ahead, Apple Bloom.”

Apple Bloom spat her flashlight on the ground. “Why’re you sending me in first? You’re scared. I knew it, ya chicken.”

“No!” denied Scootaloo, “I just think that the pony with the equipment should go in first just in case there’s a ghost.”

“But you’re the one who’s forcing us to do this, so why aren’t you in charge of the recorder?” Apple Bloom huffed.

“Because I need to talk with the ghosts,” Scootaloo said simply, closing her eyes and sticking her nose up in the air.

“Then why doncha go in and have a little conversation first, Miss Ghost Whisperer?” Apple Bloom scowled as Scootaloo turned around, and they entered somewhat of a staring contest.

“Sweetie Belle,” the two suddenly said in unison, causing the unicorn to jump back a few inches, “you go in first.” They both turned their gazes towards the trembling husk of a pony that Sweetie Belle was slowly becoming.

Sweetie Belle froze up at the idea of leading her friends into this scary new building, letting the flashlight fall to her hooves. She wanted to protest, but all she could manage was a small squeak. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom took this as an okay and started pushing their terrified friend towards the closed front door, Scootaloo grabbing the extra flashlight on the way there. About halfway through the short trip, she snapped out of it and ran immediately behind the other two, shaking from her tail to the tip of her mane.

“C’mon, Sweetie Belle, you can do this!” Scootaloo said. Sweetie Belle could only violently shake her head back and forth. “Can you at least follow us in?” Scootaloo asked, finally feeling a little sympathy.

Sweetie Belle hesitantly nodded in response. “P-Please don’t leave m-me alone,” she stuttered as they all crept forward. Scootaloo made it to the door first and tried pushing it open. .

“Wouldn’t think about it,” Scootaloo grunted. “Can I get some help with this door? It’s really heavy.” The three ponies all leaned up against the rather large asylum door, pushing with all their might.

“I don’t think it’s movin, girls,” Apple Bloom finally said after taking a slight break to get her strength back. “We’re just gonna have to find another way in.” Just then, a spectacular, blinding bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, accompanied a few seconds later by a low rumble. “And quick. That there forest is brewing up a storm.”

Scootaloo, having given up on the door entirely, looked around the front of the building for an entrance to avoid walking around the entirety of the structure. “It looks like we might be able to boost one of us into that window over there,” Scootaloo called back to the other two, pointing to a barren window frame that was just out of reach of the other two. “They could go remove whatever’s in the way and open the door for the others.”

“Great plan, Scoots,” Apple Bloom said before walking over to the window and crouching. “I’ll boost you up into the window.”

“But I’m–” Scootaloo started.

“Chicken?” Apple Bloom smugly smiled at the visibly shaken pegasus.

“No!” Scootaloo protested again, glancing around at Sweetie Belle. “I just don’t think I’ll be able to reach the window with just you boosting me.”

Apple Bloom sighed and rolled her eyes before coaxing her other visibly shaken friend, “C’mon, Sweetie. Climb on my back so that we can get this over with.”

Sweetie Belle nodded her head before slowly walking over.  She nervously glanced around the building, paranoid that something bad was about to happen and getting the feeling that somepony was watching her. Taking a deep breath, she climbed on top of Apple Bloom, who stood before asking, “D’ya think Scoots can reach it if she climbs on top a you?”

“I can actually reach it myself,” Sweetie Belle responded, realizing that she wanted to get this over with even more than the pony she was standing on. “I guess I could go and open the door really quick...”

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Scootaloo gave a big smile. “Go get that door so we can go ghost hunting!”

Sweetie Belle gave Scootaloo a smile before turning towards the window, her smile evaporating almost immediately. She poked at the window to make sure there weren’t any glass shards that she could accidentally fall into. Looking into the room, she saw an overturned desk to her left and a wall of battered old filing cabinets to her right. On the ground, papers were scattered everywhere and what looked to be the remnants of a shattered chair were strewn near the desk.

The moonlight bled into the hallway, where she could barely make out another room that looked like an office. She glanced outside before counting how many windows over the front door was. After her final count of three she took a deep breath. “I’m going to run to the door and open it as quickly as I can,” Sweetie called back to her friends on the ground. “I don’t want to be alone in there,” she finished with a faint whisper, her voice failing her as she realized what she had just promised.

Gripping the ledge, she gave a small push as a test jump, telling Apple Bloom that she might need a little more of a boost. Apple Bloom took the hint and gave a small jump, lifting Sweetie Belle a few more inches, just enough for the filly to vault through the window. Landing on the ground with a soft thud, Sweetie Belle turned back towards the window to hear her Scootaloo shout, “Heads up!”

Sweetie Belle took a step to the left before seeing a glint and hearing a clunk, and she noticed that both the flashlight and camera had been thrown to her. “If you see anything before you get us in, be sure to snap a picture!” she heard Scootaloo say. “We’ll be waiting at the door for you.”

Sweetie picked up the camera-hat contraption and put it on, focusing her magic on the button that controlled the shutter. With just a twitch of magical energy, she could snap a photograph. Picking up the flashlight with her mouth, she bit down on the power button and took a few breaths as the small beam penetrated the inky darkness of the asylum’s halls.

She knew that the small walk was going to be one of the scariest she had ever had. Almost without thinking about it, she started to hum the Cutie Mark Crusaders theme they had created for their talent show. She didn’t feel any safer, but at least the humming occupied her mind. She took a few cautious steps towards the doorway and stopped before setting hoof into the hall.

Peeking her head through the doorway, she glanced left to see a set of double doors, one of which hung half-off its hinges and exposed the hospital’s lobby. The other door seemed perfectly fine except for a small strip of glass that had long since been cracked on both doors. Looking to the room across from her, she saw yet another office scattered with papers, only this one had a broken light fixture, the bulb shattered but still connected. It’s eerie swaying was almost unnoticeable. “It’s just the wind,” Sweetie half-reassured herself, barely able to keep the flashlight steady at this point.

To her right, she saw a long hallway ending in a single door and a turn. Light poured from each doorway on the right side of the hall, where the windowed rooms must have been. A few doors still remained, causing black splotches to interrupt the pattern of light and dark. The moonlight illuminated a few chairs, and the small beam of light cast by Sweetie’s flashlight showed a cone of dust as well as missing ceiling tiles and a mass of wires hanging from the ceiling. Sweetie had been so engrossed in the broken down hallway that she had stopped humming.

She could still hear a faint echo of someone humming the theme. She hadn’t made any noise for a few seconds, and the faint hum sent a chill down her spine. “Your mind is playing tricks on you, Sweets,” she told herself out loud. “Just go and get the door open.” She listened again, only hearing the faint howl of the wind through the window she had climbed through. “See,” she said again, still not convincing herself.

Finally gathering enough courage, she stepped out into the hall and turned to her left, towards the lobby. Glancing behind her, she noticed nothing different and with a small sliver of confidence, gave the door a push. The door slowly swung open, the aged hinges creaking loudly. Sweetie Belle cringed. As soon as the door quieted, she heard a soft creak behind her. Swinging her head around, her nerves got the best of her, and she reflexively snapped a photo, realizing that something about the scene was amiss.

One of the wide-open doors had closed slightly. The beams of light had changed their pattern. Sweetie’s heart sped up as she fruitlessly tried to convince herself that it was just the wind again. Turning around, she quickly dashed through the open door and into the lobby. The room was bathed in moonlight thanks to the four windows that used to give a glimpse of the outdoors but were now covered in graffiti and dust. A reception counter lay dormant at her right, an old telephone still sitting on top. To her left were a few torn-up couches and a few chairs that were each missing one leg.

Sweetie had to admit that this area seemed much less creepy than the previous hallway. Turning to the grand entrance, she saw that the doors had been blocked off by a few overturned wheelchairs. Sighing in relief, she put down her flashlight and set to work, carefully pushing the five wheelchairs out of the way.

She had just pushed the last chair out of the way when suddenly something caused her to stop in her tracks. A whisper clawed its way into her ear, and she swung her head around to find it’s source. Hearing another faint whisper, she realized the sound had been coming from the hall to her right, the one she had just left.

She glanced down the hall to see a figure standing silently in the dark. Sweetie Belle’s heart pounded, and the flashlight’s beam was spastically wobbled as she tried her best to hold it steady. She wanted to scream, but she was petrified on the spot. She didn’t know what to do. After a few moments of silence, she noticed a familiar purple tail and orange coat as her flashlight kept flashing back and forth across the silent figure.

“S-Sco-Scootaloo?”. Immediately, her fear turned to anger as she realized what her friend was up to. “That’s not funny! You almost scared me to death! Stop just standing there and come help me with the door.”

Scootaloo stayed in the same position, facing away from Sweetie Belle and not making a sound.

“Scootaloo?” she said again as the pony refused to budge. It was then that Sweetie Belle realized Scootaloo had been standing in the dark when she should have had a flashlight on her. Also her friend was missing her saddlebags. “Scootaloo, you’re creeping me out!” Sweetie Belle shouted down the hall.

“What?” she heard Scootaloo respond, only the voice hadn’t come from the direction she was looking, but from behind the main doors. “How am I doing that from out here?”

“Eep!” Sweetie Belle’s voice cracked as she turned her head towards the main doors really quickly, then back to the hallway.

The figure was gone.

“AHHHH!” Sweetie Belle shouted, dropping her flashlight and running over to the door and pulling it wide open, despite its impressive weight. Seeing her companions on the other side, Sweetie Belle ran behind them, shivering uncontrollably.

“Woah, what happened?” Scootaloo asked Sweetie Belle as she shivered on the ground next to them, holding her tail close to her.

“You.” Sweetie pointed at Scootaloo before pausing.

“I–?”

“You were in there!” Sweetie Belle practically yelled, pointing inside the building. “But you’re out here. The ghosts know…”

“Do you think we should get on home now, Scootaloo?” Apple Bloom asked with a bit of a frown on her face.

“No way! Now I’ve got to see these ghosts for myself!” Scootaloo replied, racing into the decrepit building and gazing in awe at the rundown lobby.

“Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom scolded the pegasus before turning to her quivering friend. “I promise we’ll never make you go off alone again. Here, gimme that camera. I can hold both, and you can stay right by my side. Sound good?”

Sweetie Belle had a few tears in her eyes as she nodded. She had given up her tough act and just wanted to go home, but she knew Apple Bloom would never leave Scootaloo alone in an abandoned insane asylum. Slowly but surely, Apple Bloom helped her up before taking the camera and strapping it on herself. “Just snap a picture when I say to, okay? I can’t do that while I’m holding a flashlight,” Apple Bloom said before stepping inside herself. “C’mon. Let’s go amuse Scootaloo so we can get home.”

The pair of ponies stepped through the doorway, and Apple Bloom looked around at the old furniture while Sweetie Belle nervously stared at the door leading to the hallway to the right, almost expecting something to pop out and kill her. Scootaloo stood peeking through the set of doors to their left. After a few minutes of admiring the room, Scootaloo went over to Sweetie Belle and asked, “So what exactly did you see?”

“Well…” Sweetie Belle hesitated as Apple Bloom turned to listen to her. She really didn’t want to say what she had gone through. She hoped it would never happen again. “Well, after I jumped through the window, I saw a light swinging by itself, a door closed by itself and then…” Sweetie Belle stopped, a look of pure fear in her eyes. She only muttered the word “you” while pointing at Scootaloo.

“So you saw another me, huh?” Scootaloo nonchalantly asked, tapping a hoof to her chin and looking down the hallway. “In that hallway?” Scootaloo asked while pointing down the right hallway. Sweetie Belle nodded, and Scootaloo managed to smile once more. “Then we’ll go down that hallway!”

Sweetie Belle’s eyes dilated as the pegasus trotted boldly into the hallway. Not wanting to be left behind, she quickly picked up the flashlight she had dropped and trotted up behind Scootaloo, making sure to stay between her and Apple Bloom.

“Did you take a picture recently, Sweetie?” Scootaloo asked, stopping in her tracks and looking down.

“Yeah, I accidentally took one when I was looking out in the hall,” Sweetie replied as Scootaloo bent over to pick up the photo lying on the floor.

“Looks like you got something,” Scootaloo replied, showing the other two the blurry photograph. In the background was a white splotchy figure which looked transparent.

“I didn’t see that though,” Sweetie Belle responded, oddly intrigued. “I saw you. I saw the colors of your tail and everything.”

“Maybe this ghost is playing with us,” Scootaloo suggested before a sudden flash of light came from behind the two. “Gah!” Scootaloo jumped, only to realize it had just been Apple Bloom taking a picture. “Hey, warn us when you do that!”

“Sorry, I figured I’d take another picture of the same thing and see how it compares,” Apple Bloom said as the polaroid slid out of it compartment. Sweetie Belle caught it and took a look at it. Nothing looked different except…

“That chair’s missing,” Sweetie said, pointing down the hall. “Look at the two pictures.” She pointed at a wheelchair that was resting against the wall near the apparition in the first photo before looking up and seeing it was now gone.

“Cool,” Scootaloo replied, making the same connection. Sweetie Belle’s spine shivered, not receiving the same satisfaction as Scootaloo had.

“Well, from what little I’ve seen, this looks to be where all the offices were,” Apple Bloom said. “We’re probably going to see most of this ‘cool stuff’ upstairs or in the back, so let’s go.”

“So you think ghosts exist now?” Scootaloo gave Apple Bloom a smug look as the earth pony headed towards the stairs at the end of the hall.

“No,” she called back, her words muffled by the flashlight in her mouth. “I just think the wind outside is getting worse.” She pulled a rusty wheelchair out from behind a door. “It’s a might windy down here, and I’d be surprised if that photo wasn’t due to this door wobblin’ around and this chair being pushed by the draft.”

Scootaloo shrugged as Sweetie Belle ran up to be with Apple Bloom. “Sure, blame it on the wind,” she sarcastically said, slowly making her way down the hall. “Everypony always blames it on the wind.”

“Looks like we won’t be going down this hallway anytime soon, gals,” Apple Bloom said, looking to her left.

“Woah!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed, seeing the damage. The entire ceiling had collapsed, and a mess of wires and rubble completely blocked their path. “Is there any way around it?” the unicorn asked, her courage starting to return to her now that she had her two friends back at her side.

“Looks like this door leads to a stairwell,” Scootaloo said, peeking through the door’s tiny window. The stairs were cast in an almost unnatural darkness, the corner of the building being windowless.

“Going up?” she joked with her friends, who returned the question with unamused frowns. “Oh c’mon, aren’t you even a little curious?”

“No I’m not!” Apple Bloom complained once again. “And neither is Sweetie Belle. Haven’t you scared her enough?”

“Actually Apple Bloom…” Sweetie Belle started, “I’m kinda curious what else is here. I’m okay as long as you girls are around.”

“See?” Scootaloo shouted, “I knew I wasn’t the only one!”

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes before pushing the door open. “Then let’s go. I wanna get home and sleep.”

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both followed the cranky cowpony into the dark stairwell. The flashlight beams scattered across the walls and crumbling stairs as the ponies all glanced around the room and took in the musty atmosphere. Scootaloo cautiously placed a hoof on the first step, pushing slowly down until she was resting most of her weight on it. Finally giving it a swift kick to make sure the step was solid, she decided that it was safe to move on.

“Stairs seem fine,” she commented to the other two, taking the twelve steps to the first landing. “Not much up here besides dust.”

Before the pegasus could react, Scootaloo was blinded by a flash of light from Apple Bloom’s camera. “Augh!” Scootaloo shouted in surprise, rubbing her eyes, blinking, and stumbling back a few steps. “What was that for, Apple Bloom?”

“I didn’t take it!” she complained as the photo dropped in front of her.

“Did you take it, Sweetie Belle?” Scootaloo asked as her eyes slowly cleared.

“No,” she replied curiously, bending over to pick up the random photo. “I wasn’t even using my magic.” Just then, the sound of another shutter rang throughout the silent stairwell, accompanied by another flash of light. “That wasn’t me either!”

The other photo fell to the ground and Sweetie Belle picked up the second photo as well, waiting for both to develop completely. Slowly, the picture came into existence, as the first one was just a blurred picture of Scootaloo turning her head. “What’s up with this camera?” Scootaloo mumbled, jogging down the stairs and looking at the first picture of herself.

Shaking her head, she waited with the other two as the second picture slowly came into view, but it was just as blurry as the last. Sweetie Belle studied it closely, noticing something amiss in the picture.

The photo still had a bit of Scootaloo at the top of the stairs recovering from the flash of the first shot. She was in the middle of rubbing her eyes when the photo was taken, so her flashlight was skewed at the wall next to her, Apple Bloom’s and Sweetie Belle’s beams illuminated Scootaloo and cast her shadow on the wall. Most of the photo was darkened and the low light didn’t help, but soon enough, Scootaloo caught it.

“Look at the wall next to me!” she practically shouted, almost dropping her flashlight on the ground. Her hoof covering almost all of the photo.

“Move your claw, you walkin’ chicken.” Apple Bloom pushed Scootaloo’s hoof off the photo as the pegasus rolled her eyes and gave a disapproving huff. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom examined the spot for a few seconds. Apple Bloom muttered an inquisitive “huh,” and Sweetie Belle made a nervous squeak.

In the photo, Scootaloo’s flashlight cast a shadow that seemed to be produced by nothing. It was vaguely pony shaped, as if a small doll was standing in the way of the beam. None of the Crusaders could figure out how it was possible for light to just halt mid-beam.

Scootaloo pointed her flashlight up at the platform again, looking for any signs of weird shadows. Other than some drifting particles of dust, she couldn’t make out any shadows whatsoever. “Let me see that first photo again.”

Sweetie Belle, silent and trying to control her fear the whole time her friend was looking at the photo, levitated the first over to Scootaloo. Her flashlight beam never left the spot the shadow had been in.

After a few seconds, Apple Bloom and Sweetie heard their friend speak up. “You might want to check this out girls,” Scootaloo said in an uncharacteristically serious voice. Apple Bloom slipped the second picture into Scootaloo’s saddlebags and walked over to view the first. Sweetie Belle was about to join them before noticing Apple Bloom’s curiosity suddenly turn to a look of horror.

“Wh–” the unicorn started nervously, a shiver running down her spine. “What’s in the picture?” The room’s temperature dropped, but the shocked expression on her friend’s face unnerved Sweetie Belle more than the chill slowly filling the room. Apple Bloom opened her mouth as if to speak but closed it before any noise came out.

Sweetie Belle cautiously stepped closer to the photo while Apple Bloom looked back and forth between her and it. Sweetie Belle gulped and levitated the photograph out of her friend’s mouth. Looking at the blurry photo, she saw Scootaloo looking up at the next story and all three flashlights pointed in different directions. Another tingle ran down her spine as the room grew colder and colder. Sweetie Belle saw in the photo what had rendered the other two speechless. In the bottom-right corner was something that shouldn’t have been there in a million years.

A pair of eyes were looking directly at the camera.

Dropping the photo in fright, Sweetie Belle noticed the other two with their flashlights trained on the spot the eyes had been. None of the dust had been disturbed, and a pile of papers scattered on the floor remained unmoved. All three of the fillies had a fear in their eyes, the hairs on the back of their mane standing on end, and an air of paranoia about them. All three of them noticed that they were able to see their breath.

“Why is it suddenly so cold?” Scootaloo asked, nervously glancing back and forth and shivering occasionally.

“Can we go home now?” Apple Bloom was begging more than asking.

Scootaloo merely nodded her head and turned on the spot, only to stop in her tracks. Frozen in place, she had barely enough time to utter a small whimper before all three of them heard the door behind them give a loud creak.

“Leave…” a ghostly whisper called out from the other side.

All three fillies screamed, and Sweetie Belle jumped backwards and fell onto the stairs, dropping her flashlight as the door slammed shut again.

“Up the stairs!” Scootaloo shouted, running up the steps as Apple Bloom sprinted right behind her. Sweetie Belle grabbed the flashlight quickly, not realizing that she’d grabbed the wrong end, the beam pointed directly into her mouth. Running up the stairs, she tried to guide herself with the scattered and flailing light from her two friends.

She climbed the steps two at a time, rushing to get out of the stairwell as quickly as her hooves would allow. Miscalculating the number of steps, she banged her left forehoof on the last step. Her flashlight dropped from her mouth as she yelped in pain, and she watched as it fell to the first landing, shattering on the solid concrete and producing an impressive spark before going completely dark.

“Sweetie Belle!” Apple Bloom’s voice called from the top landing as she and Scootaloo held the door open, bathing the dark chamber in light. “Hurry!”

The injured unicorn slowly limped up the stairs and through the door. All three of the ponies, feeling that they were safely out of harm’s way, collapsed with their backs against the door. The three sat for a second, catching their breaths and letting their heart rates fall. “Are you–” Apple Bloom spat out her flashlight and took a breath, “–okay, Sweetie?”

Sweetie Belle nodded before looking at her reddened hoof. “Just bruised my hoof a bit,” she reassured her friend before giving a frown and finishing, “but I did break my flashlight.”

“Woo!” Scootaloo chimed in, letting the flashlight gently fall between her legs and looking at the other two with a smile. “What an adrenaline rush! Wasn’t that fun?”

Apple Bloom looked at her friend with a scowl. “Home,” she sternly said, snapping Scootaloo out of her adrenaline high. “Now! I’ve had enough of running around in this dangerous place, and it’s told us to leave.”

“So you do admit that ghosts are real?” Scootaloo smugly asked, oblivious to the daggers Apple Bloom was shooting at the pegasus.

“I don’t care,” Apple Bloom said in the most serious tone she could muster. “Sweetie Belle nearly hurt herself something fierce. This place is dangerous, and I was going to tough it out with ya until you were satisfied, but enough is enough. I’m going home, with or without you.”

Apple Bloom helped up Sweetie Belle before turning back to Scootaloo, who had pushed herself to her hooves. “I also broke the recorder on the way up the stairs,” she said, taking off the device and tossing it in front of Scootaloo. “You get to explain that to Twilight, as well as your camera thingamajig.” Apple Bloom then pulled the camera off her head and skidded it next to the recorder.

“Fine, but can you at least let me stop every once in a while to take a few pictures?” Scootaloo asked, putting the recorder and flashlights into her saddlebags.

“That’s okay, Scootaloo,” Sweetie Belle responded with a forced smile, a smidge of pain surging across her face every time she placed her front hoof on the ground. “I might have to stop and rest for a bit every so often anyways. I think I might have seriously banged up my hoof.”

“This door’s locked itself anyways,” Apple Bloom brooded, shaking the handle on the door to no avail. “We’re going to have to go around.” She kicked the door one last time before turning around and heading down the eerily similar hall.

On the left was yet another row of doorways, some open, some closed, and some missing doors completely. On the right, moonlight spilled into the room from the many windows overlooking a raised courtyard, flooding the entire hallway with eerie whites and blues and casting odd shadows where old graffiti blocked the light.

As Sweetie slowly limped to catch up to Apple Bloom, Scootaloo wandered into one of the rooms, noticing the entire place was almost pitch black with no windows leading outside. The padded room reeked of mold, so Scootaloo wasn’t very eager to linger too long. Searching for a brief second for anything interesting and snapping a few photos when she didn’t find anything, she quickly stuffed the results into her bag without even looking. She turned around and continued down the hall, jogging to catch up to the other two quicker. They had already gotten halfway down the eerie hallway when Scootaloo finally caught up to them.

“Looks like those might have been isolation rooms we just passed,” Scootaloo commented as she glanced into the rooms they walked by, noticing a similar design to every other room. All the rest seemed to just be a normal patient’s room: a bed frame, barred windows, and a lot of torn white wallpaper.

“Uh huh,” Apple Bloom mostly grunted, walking onward.

“Did they do anything to them in those rooms?” Sweetie Belle asked, trying to maintain a curious grin to overshadow the small surges of pain she was experiencing.

“Nah, they just usually put them in there when they won’t shut up,” Scootaloo commented, tilting her head and rolling her eyes. Right then, she noticed something unusual in one of the patient’s rooms. “Woah, hold up there gals.” Scootaloo stopped the trio, taking a step into this peculiar room.

A shrine was laid out in the middle of the room. On the ground, drawn in what could only be described as blood was a perfect pentagram, a different coloured gem lying at each point of the star. A red gem laid at the top of the star, followed by an orange one, then green, blue, and purple as the ponies looked clockwise. A spot void of dust in the middle indicated that another gem had once laid there in the shape of a complex star.

“Are those…?” Scootaloo trailed off, looking around the room to see the pink star-shaped gem lying half-hidden behind some papers.

“The Elements a’ Harmony,” Apple Bloom mumbled, not understanding how it was even possible for them to be there.

“I thought they gave those back?” Sweetie Belle commented.

“I thought so too,” Apple Bloom replied, rubbing her chin with a hoof. “What’re you doin, Scootaloo?” she asked in an accusing tone when she noticed Scootaloo placing the star gem into the middle of the pentagram.

“They’re fake,” Scootaloo said, turning to the others and avoiding Apple Bloom’s question. If she had to be honest, she wasn’t sure why she had moved the gem in the first place. “That was definitely not a gem. It felt like some sort of plastic.”

“I don’t like how this room feels,” Apple Bloom said, shivering up and down, continuing on before Scootaloo could say anything, “and don’cha start on that ghost hooey, Scoots. This room has dark magic. Twilight warned me about that back when we had Twilight Time, and I can feel it. Let’s get out of here.”

“Wait, what’s that on the wall?” Sweetie Belle asked, pointing to some words on the wall behind them painted with the same blood-red substance as the star.

On the wall was an arrangement of letters that spelled out words the trio had never seen. “Equus daemoniacus oritur hac nocte?” Scootaloo guessed at the pronunciation as best as she could. “What do you think that means?”

“I think it might be Archaic Ponish,” Sweetie Belle said as the others were slightly shocked that she even had a guess. “What? Twilight taught it to me in my magic studies!”

“Well, what do you think it means?” Scootaloo asked again, giving a little frown to Sweetie Belle. “Equus daemoniacus oritur hac nocte...” she mumbled, looking at the words on the wall again.

“I have no idea,” Sweetie Belle responded, biting her lip a bit. “I only know that ‘Equus’ means ‘horse’ and ‘nocte’ means ‘tonight.’”

“So this phrase means something about a horse tonight?” Apple Bloom skeptically asked, thinking that this was part of some big hoax. “Are you sure you can’t figure out somethin’ else, like how this is all fake?”

“But… Ponish is real!” Sweetie Belle argued. “The old language…” she began to argue with Apple Bloom as Scootaloo idly walked around the room. A single bed lay roughly off to the side, pushed there by whoever had set up this shrine.

On the bed frame, a clipboard was lying face-down, lacking the dust that had accumulated on everything else in the room. Picking it up, Scootaloo read through what was written on the top. It seemed to be an old medical record kept very well intact. The patient’s name written at the top said Blossom, and there were pages upon pages in the notes.

From what Scootaloo could gather in the mess of handwritten notes and attempts at wrecking the pages, Blossom had suffered from an extreme case of multiple personality disorder, her second personality being a dangerous pony by the name of Screw Loose, and her third being a personality of a dog. At the end, it said she had been euthanized on the premises a day before the hospital was shut down.

“Huh,” Scootaloo commented to herself. “But why write ‘Equus daemoniacus oritur hac nocte here’?” Scootaloo mumbled the phrase a third time, idly poking the star gem as she noticed that it had been resting a bit off to the left of the middle of the pentagram. Suddenly, a red glow shone from the star gem, and behind her, the wall seemed to shimmer as a slow rumble resonated throughout the building.

“Scootaloo, what did y’all do?!” Apple Bloom yelled, backing into the corner with the bed along with a cowering Sweetie Belle.

“I didn’t do anything!” The wind picked up, howling through the building. Doors slammed in the hallway, and a high-pitched sound that almost resembled terrified screaming rang throughout the concrete walls. Scootaloo joined her two friends in the corner, scared out of her wits.

The ponies watched as the words on the wall glowed brighter and brighter until the light was almost blinding. Shielding their collective eyes, they whimpered as the light finally darkened and the words had been revealed to have changed. The phrase now read in plain Equestrian, “The horse demon rises tonight!”

The gems began to glow, and the howling wind knocked them around the circle. Each gem adapted a red tint as they rolled around in the pentagram, never leaving the confined space of the outer circle. Scootaloo and her friends watched as the glow became brighter and a small tornado formed inside the star, the gems, as well as the clipboard Scootaloo had been holding, got swept up into the mess. The fillies held onto the bed frame for dear life, not wanting to get caught in the blistering wind that threatened to knock them off their hooves.

Their hearts were pounding, and they could do nothing but watch as the events unfolded in front of them. The tornado swept up bits of rubble and paper and was soon almost a solid mass of glowing gem and stone. The wind started to die down, but the rubble seemed to spin on it’s own, some sort of magic holding it in place. Finally, the wind all but stopped, and the words on the wall had actually reverted back to Archaic Ponish, but the rubble still spun slowly around the center of the pentagram, hovering in a circle and shrouding the gems almost entirely.

“I-Is it over?” Sweetie Belle stuttered, cowering behind Scootaloo and trying to shrink into as little space as she could occupy.

Before any of her comrades could answer, a high-pitched, muffled laugh resonated from within the stone prison. It grew louder and louder until it sounded like there was actually a pony trapped inside the prison of rubble and paper. Sweetie Belle gave a little whimper and suddenly the floating rubble all stopped rotating, the maniacal laughing changing to a pleasured sigh. The rubble dropped to reveal the pony making the sounds, the gems falling back into their positions except the star gem, which fell onto the pony’s back.

She had a light blue coat and was wearing a set of patient’s scrubs. Her grey hair was strewn about as if it had never been cared for. The earth pony gazed over the three fillies, wearing the biggest smile she could, her pupils dilated to almost pinpricks in the whites of her eyes. One of her eyes seemed to look slightly to the left of the other, giving the impression that she wasn’t looking directly at them. The three fillies were scared silent in the corner as the pony standing in the pentagram gazed around the room.

“It’s nice to see the old place!” she hissed, turning her menacing gaze back at to the three friends huddled in the corner. “Thanks for letting me be here again.” She took a step, leaving the pentagram with her front hoof, her entire body turning slightly transparent as the star gem fell through her.

“Oh…” the pony trailed off, looking down at her own transparent hoof, the deranged smile never fading from her face. “Looks like we didn’t get everything completely correct, huh, girls?” she spoke again, looking back over Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom.

“Did we forget the sacrifice again?” she cheerily hummed to the three, walking closer and closer, her teeth growing sharper and her eyes turning blood-red. “I’m waiting!” Her smile started to fade, being slowly replaced by an equally menacing frown, her teeth morphing into razor-sharp points.

Suddenly, her hair seemed to start blowing into the wind despite the lack of current in the room, and her eyes seemed to glow with an unnatural light. With a voice like a demon’s, she shouted at the fillies, “Sacrifice!” Lunging at the three fillies, she let loose an earsplitting screech, and the three ponies cried out in terror.

The three closed their eyes, waiting to feel the thud of the demon pouncing on them, but a swift chill coursed through them and then silence overcame them. Scootaloo opened her eyes before the others, noticing that the room was back to its normal self, with the exception of two major details.

“The shrine and the words!” she shouted to the other two, who were finally starting to open their eyes. “They’re gone…” Scootaloo trailed off, looking at the spot where the pentagram had been. Not even an outline of dust remained. It was if it had never existed in the first place.

“S-Sco-Scootaloo,” Sweetie Belle said from the very corner of the room, still shaking and curled up in a ball, her eyes tearing up. “I want to g-go home,” she finished with a sniffle, a tear rolling down her face.

Apple Bloom saw that her friend had finally been broken by the place and went to her side, giving her a small hug. “It’ll be okay, Sweetie.” She gave a stern look to Scootaloo. “We’re going to go home now, right Scootaloo?” Apple Bloom finished through gritted teeth starting down Scootaloo with a look of death.

“Yeah, we should probably get going,” Scootaloo tried to say nonchalantly. “It is getting quite late.”

Scootaloo joined Apple Bloom in the corner of the room, and together, they helped Sweetie Belle to her hooves. The unicorn kept sniffling, only half-aware of her surroundings now. The trio left the room and headed left down the rest of the hallway, this time not stopping to check out any other rooms. Every few steps, Sweetie Belle winced from her bruised front leg, but eventually the trio of tired Crusaders made it to the end of the hallway, dodging debris scattered throughout the deserted, rubble-filled building.

The hallway continued on to the left, but the Crusaders just wanted to leave the place as quickly as possible. A loud rumble, along with the occasional flash of lightning, told them that the storm they had seen earlier was bearing down upon them.

Peeking through the windows of the doorway leading to the stairs, Scootaloo made another discovery. “The whole stairwell is blocked off by junk,” she said, kicking the door fruitlessly. “I don’t think we can get out this way.”

“Well, then we can continue on to the left here,” Apple Bloom replied while Sweetie Belle stuck by as close as she could possibly muster. “If this hospital is built like I think it is, then there’s stairs on all four corners. We jus’ need to head to the next corner.”

Apple Bloom could feel something jabbing into her side. Turning around, she saw that Sweetie Belle had been trying to get her attention. The unicorn hadn’t spoken a peep after last mentioning that she wanted to go home. Sweetie Belle pointed to the hallway to show the two what they hadn’t noticed. The hallway’s floor had collapsed into the first floor, leading downward and blocking off their access to the front door.

“Ah,” Apple Bloom said, realizing what this meant. “Well, we’re just gonna have to look for a back way, or maybe even an open window to jump out of. At least we can probably get back to the first floor without killin’ ourselves.”

“Let’s get going then,” Scootaloo said, oddly eager to get out of the place. “No sense wasting time up here,” she finished, trotting over to the hole and looking down into it.

Apple Bloom suspected the pentagram had gotten to Scootaloo just as much as it got to Sweetie Belle and herself. The crevasse itself was just a little too far for Scootaloo to consider jumping, and with all its tiles in place, the sloped floor looked like a slide of sorts. It didn’t look too difficult to get down, but steel rebar stuck out of the concrete in several places, making it a rather dangerous fall. “Watch where you step,” Scootaloo warned the others. “You don’t want to hurt yourself on these exposed metal bits.”

Taking a cautious step over the edge, Scootaloo gave a small leap and slid down the makeshift ramp, narrowly avoiding the jagged metal near the bottom. She stumbled a bit on the landing but recovered quickly with the help of her wings. Taking a few steps back, she saw just how far down she had slid. She probably wouldn’t have taken the slide if she had realized how far down it was. If it was a straight drop, she could have broken a leg easily. Not wanting to scare her friends any further than they already were, she called up to the second floor, “It’s safe as long as you go down the middle!”

“Gotcha,” Apple Bloom called out. “I’m sending down Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo heard a small squeak come from the top of the stairs followed by some amount of bickering that turned to pleading. After about a minute, Apple Bloom called down again with an audible huff, “Never mind. I’ll come down second.”

Seeing Apple Bloom put a yellow hoof over the edge, Scootaloo watched as she skidded almost perfectly down the floor and landed delicately on the floor below without so much as a sidestep. “Well, you seem to know what you’re doing,” Scootaloo remarked with a surprised glance.

“I’ve had to slide down a buncha hlls before on the farm and whenever I visit Zecora. I don’t even think about it anymore,” she replied, turning back to see Sweetie Belle looking over the side of the small hole with a frightened stare. “You can do it, Sweetie. Just relax and let gravity take ya’.”

The unicorn merely nodded and put a hoof slightly out over the edge, hesitating to put any of her weight on it.

“Just go for it, Sweets!” Scootaloo encouraged her terrified friend.

Sweetie Belle took a gulp and put her other hoof out over the abyss and let gravity take over. Mid-slide, one of her hooves started to inch away from the others. She tried to correct it but accidentally hit a small edge and tumbled head over hooves down the slanted floor. Giving a quick shout, she landed with a thud on the hard concrete floor, her body aching.

“Oh my god, are you okay?!” Scootaloo ran over to her friend and helped her up.

A small pool of blood was forming below Sweetie Belle, dripping from her nose. “I wanna go home,” she mumbled, blood streaming from her nose. She could barely stand, even with the help of her two friends, and she looked close to unconsciousness.

“We’re gonna getcha home soon, Sweetie.” Letting Sweetie lean on her, Apple Bloom looked over at Scootaloo. “Quick, go find a way out!”

“Apple Bloom?” Sweetie Belle slurred slightly, turning her head towards her friend lazily, her eyes looking as if she had just chugged a bunch of Applejack’s famous cider.

“What’s up, Sweetie Belle?” Apple Bloom said, giving her a fake smile while Scootaloo ran off down the hall, quickly searching the various rooms for an exit.

“I…” Sweetie trailed off for a moment, staring blankly down the hall. “I don’t feel so…”

Before Apple Bloom could react, the unicorn spilled the entirety of the contents of her stomach onto the floor in front of her, mixing with the small puddle of blood. Sweetie Belle was dangerously pale. Apple Bloom needed to stop the bleeding.

“How did we get down here?” Sweetie Belle vaguely asked her surroundings, turning to Apple Bloom. “Oh hey there, AB.”

“Sweetie, stay right here. I’ll be right back,” Apple Bloom said, making sure to sit Sweetie Belle away from the mess she had just produced.

“Okay, Apple Bloom,” she replied, her head starting to clear up a bit. Miraculously, while Apple Bloom went to look for something to stop the bleeding, Sweetie Belle’s clarity returned, and the throbbing in her head stopped. With her vision no longer swimming, she began to call out to her friends, but suddenly she was cut off by another very familiar voice.

“Well, I see that the other two have finally decided,” a hissing ghostly tone whispered into Sweetie Belle’s ear. She turned around to see a shadow floating at the top of the slope, giving off a chilling feeling. It had sounded exactly like the same figure that had terrified her in the pentagram. The shadow slowly hovered down the slope, revealing that that was indeed the truth.

“But the blood of a virgin?” She chuckled, the maniacal grin from earlier once again on her face. She hovered close to Sweetie Belle, who was too scared to move, leaning in close and mumbling in her ear, “You three spoil me.”

The ghost gave a hearty laugh before turning to the pile of vomit and blood, placing a hoof into it and seeming to almost absorb the crimson substance into her hoof. She looked down at the blood and licked her lips as if she had been drinking it in. “Ooh, child,” she said in a rather lusty tone. “I think I’m going to enjoy your body.”

“B-Body?” Sweetie Belle stuttered, her mind racing.

“But of course,” she said, rolling her eyes and giving another creepy chuckle. “I can’t leave here as a ghost, but with your body…” she trailed off, giggling. The giggling turned into chuckles, and the chuckles grew into insane laughter as the pony finished with Sweetie Belle’s spilled blood, the puddle of red completely gone from the floor.

Placing a cold hoof on Sweetie Belle’s shoulder, the ghost whispered in her ear, “This should be fun.”

Suddenly, Sweetie Belle could feel her energy being drained, her eyelids getting heavy, and her knees growing weak. Blackness slowly crept in from the edges of her vision as she felt her consciousness dipping. The ghost in front of her faded slightly with each passing moment, and Sweetie could do nothing, as a heavy weight kept her hooves planted on the floor. She opened her mouth to scream for her friends, but the air escaped from her lungs in naught but a whisper.

That’s when Sweetie Belle realized she was going to die. A wave of adrenaline poured over her but was instantly sapped away by the still-laughing entity in front of her. She blinked once with heavy eyelids, and closing them again, she slumped into a heap on the floor, the weight becoming too much for her to bear.

“Sweetie Belle!” she heard a voice call out before feeling an acute blow to the side, causing her to roll a few feet to the side. Her vision came back to her slowly, the feeling of being drained having vanished. She heard a scream of pain and a loud crack of thunder from her left. Getting woozily to her hooves, she saw that Scootaloo had tackled her away from the demonic ghost and was rubbing her head with a pained expression on her face.

“C’mon, I found a way out!” she yelled, getting up and dragging Sweetie Belle to her hooves. “Follow me, quick!”

“You DARE interrupt the ritual?!” the ghost demon shouted in a voice louder than thunder. “You will pay for that, pegasus!”

The entity glowed with an unnatural light as a whirlwind kicked up around her. Her smile had been completely replaced with that of a wrathful frown, and her hair stuck up as if being charged by lightning. Scootaloo nearly dragged Sweetie Belle down the hall, not realizing that she was still badly hurt. Tripping once, Sweetie Belle fell face-first into the ground as Apple Bloom came running down the hall from one of the rooms. Sweetie’s broken nose once more started to drip blood, though not nearly as quickly as before.

“What in the hay–?” Apple Bloom started to ask before Scootaloo cut her off.

“Just help me get Sweetie Belle up!” she shouted, already draping Sweetie Belle’s front hooves over her back as the unicorn began mumbling and moaning in pain. “We need to go,” Scootaloo finished off, pointing to the glowing end of the hallway, “I think we woke up Discord’s little sister.”

The pony at the end of the hall rose up from the ground, pieces of rubble and doors whizzing around her, smashing into the walls and ceiling. She opened her mouth and an ear-piercing screech rang throughout the halls, and Scootaloo and Apple Bloom covered their ears in pain as Sweetie Belle struggled to understand exactly what was going on. Suddenly, a chair flew past their heads and shattered into a thousand wooden splinters on the wall next to them, showering the Crusaders in wood chips.

“Run!” Apple Bloom shouted, picking up Sweetie Belle’s back half and throwing it over her own back so that she and Scootaloo were now carrying the broken unicorn in tandem.

“Three doors down!” Scootaloo screamed as a chunk of rock smashed into the wall next to them, embedding itself in the concrete. The fillies booked it to the room Scootaloo had pointed out, all the while dodging rocks, chairs, and at one point even a steel rod from the crumbled floor.

“You can’t escape me, Ssscootaloo!” the ghost hissed as they turned into the room the could get out in. “I have eternity!” she cackled as another chunk of rock exploded through the wall next to them, shattering through the window and exposing the outside, letting the storm back into the asylum.

“Go through so I can throw Sweetie Belle out,” Scootaloo instructed as she leaned Sweetie Belle against the wall, positioning herself to give Apple Bloom a boost. Apple Bloom merely nodded and grabbed onto the windowsill, hopping out onto the dirt just outside the window.

“Boost Sweetie Belle up to the window," Apple Bloom called out from the other side. "It's not that bad of a drop, and I can catch 'er."

Seeing a wheelchair fly past the doorway and hearing a terrifyingly close screech, Scootaloo put a hoof on her friend’s leg, giving her a determined grin. "We're almost home free, Sweetie, " she said seriously. "Let's go."

Scootaloo got into position, ready to lift Sweetie Belle up to the window. Slowly, the unicorn stood and drunkenly walked over to Scootaloo, still still a little woozy from the near possession. She had a bad feeling that she couldn't shake.

Taking a deep breath, Sweetie Belle put a hoof onto her companion's and let out her breath, giving a nod to Scootaloo. Lifting as hard as she could, Scootaloo grunted as Sweetie Belle grabbed the windowsill and climbed halfway out before she felt lightheaded.

"Come on, Sweetie Belle!" Scootaloo yelled, noticing the sudden lack of objects being thrown down the hall.

“Just give me a second," Sweetie Belle panted, her vision blurring over. "I just–"

She was cut off by a sudden explosion from behind her, causing her to tumble out into Apple Bloom. Rolling slightly into the grass, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom turned back to see see the room they had just been in producing impressive light and shadows. "Scootaloo!" Sweetie Belle gasped, realizing her friend hadn't tumbled out behind her.

"This ends now!" they heard the ghastly voice say from the room. Neither of them could see into the room, but everything suddenly grew quiet. A few tense moments passed by and the glow faded out of the room. The ghost had gone, and Scootaloo with her.

"No..." Sweetie Belle choked out, tears coming to her eyes.

Apple Bloom looked first at the asylum and then to her friend who fell back onto her haunches, choked-up gasps emanating from her as tears started to roll down her face. Apple Bloom hugged her friend, speechless as well.

She opened her mouth to give a few kind words to Sweetie Belle when they heard a crash, and a chair flew out of the adjacent room's window. Immediately, a bleeding Scootaloo jumped through the window, rolling a few times before coming to a stop, her chest rising and falling quickly.

"Scoots!" Apple Bloom shouted as the two fillies sprinted over to her. Placing a hoof on Scootaloo’s side, Apple Bloom asked, "You doing alright?"

"Never better," Scootaloo joked, clutching a wing and wincing. "Same time next week?" she asked asked with a smile on her face.

"How 'bout we go with never?" Apple Bloom responded, reaching out a hoof.

"Deal," Scootaloo agreed, chuckling before taking Apple Bloom’s hoof and pulling herself up. "Let's go home before this storm hits us."

Apple Bloom took the lead and Sweetie Belle followed behind her with Scootaloo taking up the rear. "I'm glad we're finally out out of there." The other two nodded, continuing into into the forest as a streak of lightning cracked the sky. "All four of us," Scootaloo mumbled under her breath as a streak of lightning lit the night sky, followed by a loud boom of thunder.

There was definitely a storm coming.