Fabricated World

Chapters

Chapter 1 Part 1
Chapter 1 Part 2
Chapter 2 Part 1

Chapter 1 Part 1

In the early afternoon, under a grey sky…

Twilight made her way to the art gallery in Canterlot.

“It sure was nice of Princess Celestia to send me an invitation to the new art exhibit in Canterlot.” Twilight spoke to herself.

“I always enjoy learning new things, and I have to admit that I’ve never heard of the artist before.”

“I’m sure to have a pleasant time!”

Twilight walked up the steps to the gallery and presented her invitation to the guard at the door. Since the exhibit was being presented for only one day in Canterlot, the rich and elite had decided that only ponies with an invitation could gain access.

Twilight entered the gallery doors.

It had been a long time since she had visited the gallery. She had first visited it with her parents when she was just a filly. The overall architecture had remained the same, but the walls, ceiling, and floors were all painted a flat white as part of the exhibit experience.

Twilight could hear some ponies playing classical music throughout the gallery, adding a more upper-class touch to the plain setting.

Twilight walked past the receptionist desk, levitating one of the pamphlets on the counter over to herself with her magic. She read it aloud to herself, as she began making her way through the lower level of the gallery.

“Welcome to the Guertena Rice art exhibit.”

“Please enjoy all of the painting, sculptures, and other models of art created by the amazing Guertena.

“We ask that you please refrain from any flash photography, as some of the works are delicate to sudden flashes of light, and as a means to preserve the uniqueness of the art from reproduction.”

“We also ask that you….”

Twilight accidently bumped into the ropes surrounding one of the pieces on display, sending the pamphlet gliding to the ground on the other side, and causing her to almost fall onto the piece itself. She quickly collected herself, and made her way around the painting to retrieve the pamphlet.

Upon passing, she noticed the title of the painting on the placard in front of it: “Abyss of the Deep.” She saw what appeared to be a very strange looking fish, with sharp teeth and an eel-like body. The water surrounding it looked very dark and deep, possibly symbolizing that this particular fish resided in the deepest waters of Equestria, if it existed at all.

She picked up the pamphlet with her magic and placed it in one of the nearby bins for trash. She then began making her way through the rest of the bottom floor.

Twilight saw many different paintings along the walls as she walked. Pictures of faces, foods, sceneries, and other strange objects. There were even stone columns on display, indicating that the artist may have worked as an architect as well.

She rounded another corner, viewing more pieces of art along the way, and spied an interesting piece at the end of the hall. As she approached, she could see that it was a sculpture of a giant red rose. The rose was covered in thorns, and there were a few petals strewn about the floor around it. The title on the placard read: “Embodiment of Spirit” Beautiful at a glance, but if you get too close, it will induce pain. It can only bloom in wholesome bodies.

A young colt was standing in front of the ropes next to her, trying to reach out with his hoof and touch the sculpture.

“Now now.” Twilight told the colt. “You shouldn’t touch the artwork. A pony went through a lot of effort to make that, and you might hurt yourself if those thorns are sharp.”

“Aww, you’re no fun.” The colt replied, going back to just looking at the sculpture instead.

Twilight gave a giggle at the young pony, and decided to move on to the rest of the exhibit. She made her way back towards the reception desk and instead went up the stairs to the side, leading to the upper level of the gallery.

Upon reaching the top, Twilight looked around to see other ponies admiring more of the art and soon made her way around herself. She looked off to her right down a hall. She could see a few headless mannequins, each wearing a different color dress; one red, one yellow, and one blue. She looked further down and spied what looked like a white couch embroidered with some red fabric along the top.

Twilight turned her head then to the left and discovered something, or rather somepony, whom she had never expected to ever see in an art gallery of all things.

There, wearing a blue denim flight jacket, with a rainbow colored mane and tail, was her friend Rainbow Dash.

“Rainbow!” Twilight called out to her friend, catching her by surprise.

Rainbow Dash jumped at the sound of the familiar voice. She turned to see her friend Twilight and immediately began trying to come up with a story to explain why she was there.

“Oh, uh…hey Twilight! What…uh…what are you doing here?” Rainbow Dash replied, trying to give an innocent smile.

“I didn’t know that you were a fan of art. I guess all of your reading has opened your mind to new things, huh?” Twilight asked Rainbow Dash.

“Oh, you know me. Always trying new things…heh heh.” Rainbow Dash replied.

“Well it’s great to see you’ve broadened your horizons, so to speak. By the way, that’s a nice jacket. Did you get it while you were at the Wonderbolt Academy?” Twilight asked.

“Oh, this? You bet!” Rainbow Dash replied, sticking her chest out in pride. “I got it when I won the title for Top Gun of all the fliers during training. And…” Rainbow Dash began to pull her pride back a bit. “That’s actually why I’m really here.”

“Oh?” Twilight asked, confused.

“Yeah, you see. The Wonderbolts actually performed for the opening of the gallery, and I tagged along to see their performance. They saw me and managed to get me a VIP pass to see the exhibit. I was gonna follow them around, but the crowd got to them first and they disappeared. I’ve just kinda been wandering around since then.” Rainbow Dash told her friend.

“Well, it’s still nice to see you admiring the art, instead of sleeping on a cloud all day.” Twilight replied.

“Don’t get me wrong. I actually tried to sleep on that couch over there, but the guards kicked me off before I could get too comfortable.” Rainbow Dash told Twilight.

“Oh Rainbow Dash.” Twilight replied, rolling her eyes. “Well, I’m going to check out the rest of the gallery. Would you like to join me?”

“Nah, I’m good Twilight. I DO have a reputation to uphold you know, and if I start wandering around too much in an artsy place like this, then somepony might recognize me.” Rainbow Dash replied.

“Fine, suit yourself. Still nice seeing you though!” Twilight replied, before starting to walk away.

“You too Twilight!” Rainbow Dash called back, before going back to looking at a picture of a pony hanging onto a rope.

Twilight went back to admiring the rest of the gallery.

As she walked down the hall, she could see more paintings like the ones below. Some were bright, others with complex, and a few looked very odd. She rounded a corner to see more sculptures and hanging pieces. A big pink ball with brushes sticking out, what looked like a rainbow colored wind-chime, and a giant blue pony wearing a black dress, her eyes looking off to her left.

Twilight turned one more corner and found herself in a long empty hallway, with a single giant painting off to her right.

The painting appeared to have been drawn in crayon, and depicted a black landscape with several colorful land masses in the foreground. She made her way closer to look at the placard.

“Fabricated World.” She read aloud.

Almost as if on cue, Twilight could hear the classical music begin to fade out, and the lights start to flicker.

“Hmm? That’s strange.” Twilight spoke to herself. “I wonder if this is part of the atmosphere of the exhibit.”

The hallway became dead quiet, as if all sound had been muted from the world. Twilight began to make her way back towards the entrance, hoping to find the cause of the sudden stillness.

As she rounded the nearest corner, she saw that there was nopony around.

“Where has everypony gone?” She thought.

As if in response to her thought, Twilight began to hear hoofsteps approaching down the hall.

“Hello?” She called.

The hoofsteps began to get louder and louder and Twilight hoped that somepony would round the corner any second. When the steps reached their peak, Twilight expected to see a pony, but was instead greeted with nothing. The hoofsteps then seemed to begin again, sounding far away once more.

Twilight made her way back to the staircase, heading down to the entrance.

Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, Twilight discovered that not a single pony was in sight, and the lights now dimmed themselves darker. The hoofsteps could still be heard, but they sounded like they were on a loop that would never arrive. Twilight walked over to the window near the reception desk and saw that it had suddenly grown dark, like the Princesses had lowered the sun and raised the moon early and quiet abruptly.

She tried to make her way out through the front doors, but found that they wouldn’t open. Not even her magic could pry them open, it was as if they had been sealed shut.

“What’s going on here?” Twilight asked aloud.

Twilight turned around and began to wander around the floor of the gallery, looking for anypony or any sign of what was going on.

As she approached the painting that had been situated on the floor itself, Twilight heard what sounded like a pony coughing down the hallway to her right. She quickly took off after the noise, hoping to find the pony that the cough belonged to. When she arrived at the corner, she looked to see that there was nopony there, only a desolate, dimly lit hallway.

She could still hear the continuous approaching hoofsteps, almost as if they were taunting her at being unable to find any answers. She did her best to ignore them as she wandered the rest of the first floor.

After being unsuccessful at finding any clues on the first floor, Twilight decided to try searching the second floor. She had not gone down the other hallway after things had gone quiet, so just maybe there would be something there instead. She made her way past the painting on the floor, past the reception desk, and began walking up the stairs to the second floor.

Almost reaching the top, Twilight saw what looked like a dark figure pass by the window in front of her and continue on past the next one. She hurried to the window, hoping to catch a fleeting glimpse of the figure, only to find nothing.

She gave a sigh of disappointment as she started to look away from the window.

“BANG BANG BANG!” came a pounding on the window she had just looked through, causing her to jump back in fright. She looked again to see the cause, but once more found no sign of anypony or anything there.

Twilight could feel her heartbeat begin to escalate and called upon the old trick that Princess Cadence had shown her to calm her nerves. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then moved her hoof across herself, exhaling at the same time. The trick worked, as she began to feel herself calming down.

Her demeanor in check once more, Twilight continued on her way down the hallway that she had taken when she came upstairs the first time. She glanced off at where Rainbow Dash had been standing previously and hoped that she was alright. While she wanted to make sure that everypony else was safe as well, she did care about her friends just a little bit more.

She once again walked down the hallway that she had previously admired, seeing the same artwork displayed, but none of the ponies admiring them. She saw the same sculptures and figures down the next hallway, and even the same paintings beyond that.

Twilight walked past the giant painting that she had viewed before things started going strange and noticed something different about it. Looking closer, she saw what looked like blue paint leaking out of the bottom of the painting.

“What could cause paint to leak through like this?” She thought. “Perhaps this is what the pamphlet meant by delicate to flashing lights.” Thinking back to when the lights flickered earlier.

As she started to walk away, blue letters quickly began to appear on the floor, making a slapping sound like a glob of paint hitting the floor. Stepping back to try to read the letters, she found they spelled out: “Come Twilight.”

“Who…what did this?” Twilight asked aloud, starting to get a little scared.

She turned her head back towards the giant painting and discovered that the leaking blue paint had been replaced with a small message. She looked over and read: “Come down below Twilight. I’ll show you someplace secret.”

Twilight, now more freaked out than from the sudden words appearing on the floor, hesitantly started walking away from the painting, hoping that was the last of it.

She walked to the end of the hall and sat down against the wall, looking back down the hallway. She could hear her breathing getting heavier, but didn’t attempt to try the calming trick again. Instead, she tried to focus her mind on what the message had said; “Come down below…”

She figured the message meant back downstairs, so she gathered herself, stood up, and began walking back towards the stairs.

She made her way back downstairs and decided to try the doors again. Perhaps the message meant that they were unlocked now. She tried to open them once more, but again found them sealed shut. She began to walk away, until she noticed the window she looked out before. It was now oozing a dark red liquid, which sent a shiver went down her spine.

“It’s…it’s just paint again.” Twilight told herself.

Twilight walked back past the reception desk and towards the room with the painting on the floor.

Approaching the painting, Twilight noticed that a few of the rope barriers had been removed and that there were a couple blue hoofprints walking into the painting. She walked over to where the prints were and stared into the painting. The water depicted in the painting seemed more lifelike now, like she could just reach out and feel its wet touch.

Curiosity overtook her, as she reached out with her hoof and touched the edge of the painting. To her surprise, her hoof felt something wet and a small ripple was formed that spread to the rest of the painting.

“This…this is impossible.” Twilight thought to herself. “I’ve heard of magic charms and objects with magical properties, but how could a painting like this become so lifelike? I’ve never heard of a spell that could do this.”

Twilight continued to look upon the impossible painting and thought back once more to the message that she had read before: “Come down below Twilight. I’ll show you someplace secret.”

“Is this what the message was talking about?” Twilight thought. “Down below. Inside this painting?”

Twilight considered all the possibilities once more, before deciding on her course of action.

“Only one way to find out I suppose.” Twilight told herself.

She poked the painting once more, making sure that it was indeed a liquid now. Twilight moved a few steps back, took a deep breath, and then jumped, diving headfirst into the painting.

Water splashed about as she dove in, forming ripples that reflected off the sides of the painting. The ripples soon dissipated, as the painting came to a calm once more. The approaching hoofsteps in the distance finally ceased and the gallery resumed an eerie silence.

Chapter 1 Part 2

Twilight descended deeper into the dark waters of the painting.

She could not see the bottom and was quickly growing nervous as the air in her lungs began to lessen. Realizing that this course of action had been a lost cause, she turned back towards the surface, only to see the light above her begin to fade. Now panicking, Twilight desperately looked around for another way out, only to be greeted with darkness at every glance.

As the last bit of her air disappeared, she reached back towards the surface once more, hoping for a light to pierce the darkness.

Nothing.

Twilight gasped out, fully expecting the water around her to make its way down her throat and drown her. However, instead of a rush of water, she found that she was breathing air.

“How can this be?” She thought. “I dove into water. How am I not drowning?”

Twilight’s curiosity on her mortality began to shift however, as she noticed an eerie blue light emit from beneath her. Still able to swim in an environment somehow filled with both water and now air, Twilight made her way towards the light. As she got closer, a lone staircase came into view, still descending below.

Upon reaching the staircase, her body oriented itself to that of regular gravity and she no longer felt herself floating in the water still around her.

“This is all so strange.” She spoke to herself. “I suppose there’s only one way to go now.”

Twilight made her way down the staircase, leaving the world of water behind and entering a newer one entirely.

After walking for about a minute, the spaces next to Twilight began to take the form of walls accompanying the staircase, furthering to make her progress more linear. She eventually reached the bottom, which opened up into a long blue hallway jutting left and right. Not having much to go on, Twilight decided to go right.

She noticed a big painting hanging on the wall to her right. It appeared to depict a stone bridge with what looked like lava beneath it. Taking a quick glance behind her, she noticed a similar painting hanging on the other side of the entrance, only this one showed blueish lava and the bridge was facing the other direction. Twilight carried on her way, leaving the symmetrically unsymmetrical painting behind.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think this was a whole other museum entirely.” Twilight spoke to herself, as she passed a smaller painting.

Twilight quickly came across a blue door ahead of her and tried opening it with her magic. Just like the entrance doors back in the previous museum however, this door too remained closed.

“Celestia, why won’t any of these doors open?” Twilight asked aloud. She turned to face the opposite end of the hallway, before looking back at the door. “Hopefully I’ll be able to make more progress this way.”

Twilight trotted off down the hallway, passing the two big paintings once more.

As she made her way further down the hallway, she began to notice writing on the walls and floor around her: “COME TWILIGHT COME TWILIGHT COME TWILIGHT…” It read over and over again. Déjà vu came over her, as she thought back to the writing that had randomly appeared on the floor before.

Upon reaching the end of the hallway, Twilight found another closed door, only this one was blocked by a table with a vase containing a small red rose.

Twilight tried opening the door with her magic, and to her surprise, it actually opened! A wave of relief came over her, as she realized that she was finally making progress. She moved the table out of the way as well and began to make her way inside.

However, instead of going inside the room, something about the rose in the vase captivated her. She couldn’t put her hoof on it, but she felt as if the rose in the vase was calling to her. While normal reason would have normally propelled her further along her journey, she felt compelled to take the rose in the jar.

Twilight looked back down the hallway, before facing the rose again, as if trying to make her conscious feel better that she was about to take something that was in some sort of museum. Twilight levitated the rose out of the vase and placed it snuggly behind her ear, the bud of the rose facing out.

“It looks pretty…and…almost right.” Twilight spoke to herself. “At least there aren’t any thorns on this one.”

With her new-found rose, Twilight made her way inside the room, the door shutting behind her.

The room she had entered was rather small, a box more than anything. The only things inside were a large painting of a smiling white mare on the far wall, and a small blue key in the center of the floor.

“Perhaps this key will open that other door!” Twilight spoke aloud, before levitating it up with her magic.

As she brought the key up to eye level, she gasped and dropped the key at the sight that had joined it. The painting in front of her had changed in the small time that she had taken her eyes off of it. Instead of smiling peacefully, the mare in the portrait was now grinning sinisterly, looking off to her side. Twilight took a few steps forward to read the placard beneath it: “As the rose wilts, so too will you wilt away.”

The writing seemed to have nothing to do with the painting itself, but rather with a rose.

“Perhaps it’s referring to the one that I took.” She thought.

Either way, Twilight didn’t want to spend any more time in the room than she had to; so she picked up the key with her magic and quickly left the room.

Outside the room, Twilight looked back towards were she had taken the rose, only to find a placard on the wall that she had not remembered seeing before. She read it aloud to herself: “You and the rose are intertwined. Know the weight of your own life.”

The wave of joy that she had felt earlier was now replaced with fear, as she began to make sense of the writing’s message. She never would have guessed that by simply taking a resting rose, that her life would become linked with it.

Twilight took off running down the hallway, an urge coming over her to escape her guilt.

As she ran, she saw the words “THIEF” written in red all around her. She wasn’t sure if it was a part of the continuing strangeness around her, or her own mind playing tricks on her, but it mattered not right now; she had to get out of here. She reached the door at the end of the hall, used the key to open it, and dashed inside.

Eyes closed, Twilight took a few seconds to catch her breath and let her nerves calm themselves before moving on.

As she opened her eyes, she now found herself at the intersection of two green corridors. The one ahead of her was split by a single pillar, while the other was decorated with numerous paintings of insects. She even spied a small ant walking around on the ground nearby.

She decided to make her way down the hallway with the paintings, as it seemed more inviting than the desolate hallway beyond the pillar.

More paintings of insects adorned the walls as she walked, making her feel a little grossed out, but slightly more at ease. Even just the color of the hallways seemed brighter than the dark blue of the previous area. She soon approached a door and made her way inside, only to have her thoughts begin to run once again.

Inside the small room, Twilight found a large hole in the ground, separating one side of the room from the other. It wasn’t necessarily too big to jump across, but she wondered why a hole would be in the ground in the first place. She backed herself against the wall and took a running jump up and over the hole, landing safely on the other side. She looked back at the hole once more, before making her way out of a nearby door to her side.

Now in another small hallway, Twilight looked around to find a headless mannequin wearing a red dress standing at the end. As she approached it, she discovered a small green key on the ground a few feet away from the mannequin. Not wanting to be fooled this time; Twilight maintained eye contact (so-to-speak) with the mannequin while she levitated the key up with her magic.

Having retrieved the key and not bearing witness to some bizarre change in scenery, Twilight happily turned around to make her way back through the door she came from.

As she took her first step towards the door, she heard a shuffling sound behind her. Twilight turned to look back at the mannequin, but didn’t notice anything out of place, until the mannequin moved again. As she took another step away, the mannequin matched her distance, until it started to move on its own.

A ghastly sound seemed to emit from the headless figure, as it began shuffling towards her at a faster pace. Twilight took off running away from the creature; back through the room with the hole in the ground, jumping over it and back out into the corridor towards the intersection.

She thought she heard the sound of something falling over behind her, but she didn’t dare stop to look back.

As she rounded the corner and past the pillar, more horrors came to greet her in the form of hooves sprouting from the walls around her, each emitting a ghastly sound. She closed her eyes as she frantically ran past them all, opening them up only long enough to see where she was going. She quickly came upon a green door at the end of the hallway and used the key she had taken to open it and dart inside.

Twilight collapsed on the ground inside the room she found herself in.

Gasping to catch her breath, Twilight tried to make heads-and-tails of what had just happened.

“Okay…I was just attacked by a walking mannequin, and almost grabbed by hooves jutting from the walls, all while trying to escape a crazy museum that I had come to as part of an invitation that my teacher had sent me…” She told herself. “This is just like some horror story from one of my books, and none of them told me what to do if I was ever attacked by mannequins and creepy hooves.”

Twilight took a little more time to calm herself down, before picking herself up to carry on once again.

“Any of this would make one hay of a letter to the Princess…if I can ever get out.” She thought to herself.

Twilight reassessed her surroundings and found herself in a small yellow room with two doors to her right and left, two eyes on the wall to her front, and a small indentation between the eyes in the wall.

“It looks like something might be able to fit in there. Judging by these two doors, I get the feeling that whatever it is might be behind one of them.” Twilight told herself, before choosing the door on her left this time.

Twilight entered a room with several pillars in the center, each with a curtain draped over the front. Walking further inside, she noticed that one pillar failed to be adorned with a curtain, and instead had a crudely drawn stick pony on it.

Twilight walked past the figure, only to be greeted with the sound of something akin to a paintbrush slapping paint on a wall. She nervously turned her head back towards the stick pony and found that writing had appeared beneath it. She leaned in to read: “Play hide and seek?”

After reading the note aloud, the stick pony darted across the pillar, disappearing into nothing.

“Am I sure that I didn’t just fall asleep at Pinkie’s and am having a bad dream?” Twilight asked herself, as she trotted off to look for the stick pony.

Twilight walked up to the first curtain, and used her magic to open it. Underneath, she found a red slash within a picture frame.

“Well that’s certainly an odd paint…” Twilight started to say, until she felt a sharp pain come over her, like being hit with a whip.

She winced in pain, taking a step back from the painting, which recovered itself with the curtain.

“What…what was that!?” She asked aloud.

Accompanying her words, Twilight noticed a small red petal float in front of her and land on the floor.

“What the?” She spoke.

She levitated the rose from behind her ear and found that one of its petals was gone, presumably the one now on the ground.

“It fell after I felt that pain. There are only two left now…” Twilight spoke to herself, before she thought back to the placards she had read before: “As the rose wilts, so too will you wilt away.” “You and the rose are intertwined. Know the weight of your own life.”

The gravity of the situation hit Twilight hard, as she stared out into space, then down to the rose petal, and finally back to her rose. She stared at the rose, a look of utter dread upon her face, eyes wide.

“There are only two left now…” She repeated again.

Twilight sat down on the floor, staring at the petal now, as she put the rose back behind her ear with her magic. She then looked up at the remaining curtains, knowing full well that if she didn’t find the stick pony soon, that her life as she knew it could come to an abrupt halt. She stood back up and approached the next curtain.

Opening up the next curtain, Twilight felt her heart drop as a chill ran down her spine and her face grew more terrified. There within a frame was a picture of her, hung by a rope, dead. She quickly covered up the picture, looking away from the curtain. She felt like she had just looked into the eyes of death itself and wondered if it was coming for her, now that she had seen that painting.

As the moments passed, Twilight felt like she might be safe. She didn’t feel any pain, and she checked her rose just to be sure. She found that it still had two petals left.

Putting back the rose, she carried on.

The next curtain that she checked revealed a painting of a lightbulb. She looked at the picture, confused, until the light in the painting went out, and all the lights around her dimmed. There was still enough light to move around, but not enough to make out things too clearly.

Twilight moved on to the next curtain in her path, pulling it back with her magic. She couldn’t make out the painting too well, but it appeared to be a mare getting out of the shower. The mare in the painting screamed, covering herself with one hoof and somehow reaching out and slapping Twilight across the face with the other.

Twilight fell on her rear, feeling the sting on her cheek as the curtain closed itself.

“Well that was embarrassing.” She told herself, as she noticed another petal float towards the ground.

She quickly resumed her horrified/serious demeanor, as she realized that she was now down to one rose petal, thanks to that painting.

With only a few curtains remaining, she knew that the next one would literally be a matter of life and death. She approached the curtain, pulled it back, and to her amazement found the stick pony! A small message appeared beneath it reading: “You found me.” As if on cue, Twilight heard the sound of something hit the floor in the distance. She quickly made her way over and found a small wooden block, shaped like half of the indentation in the wall back in the other room.

A small bit of relief came over her, as she picked up the block with her magic and made her way out of the room. She placed the block in the indentation and saw that there was indeed still another piece to be found. She looked on towards the other door, took a deep breath, and made her way over and inside.

Twilight now found herself in what would be the equivalent of a giant closet with art supplies, statues of pony heads, a painting of a red rose, and a small vase on a table. Twilight made her way into the room, between all the statues, and towards the vase.

Reaching the end of the last statue, she felt her hoof catch a notch in the ground, almost causing her to trip.

“Geez, somepony could fall and hurt themselves on things like that.” She thought to herself, remembering her own predicament.

As she approached the vase on the table, she wondered if putting her rose inside might somehow make her feel more protected, as opposed to just sitting behind her ear.

She levitated the rose, and placed it inside the vase. Almost immediately, a flash of blue light erupted from the vase and the rose grew back four petals. At the same time, a rejuvenating feeling came over Twilight, as she felt any pains and worries disappear.

“What’s this!? How did this happen!?” Twilight asked aloud.

She pulled out the rose and stared inside the vase.

“I don’t see anything inside. Was it some kind of magic imbedded in the vase itself?” Twilight wondered.

She placed the rose back in the vase, hoping for more petals to grow, but sadly, nothing happened.

“I guess it was a onetime deal.” She told herself. “Either way, this eases my worries for now, and assures me that I can keep going.”

Feeling proud of her accomplishment, Twilight placed the rose back behind her ear and returned to searching the rest of the room. However, in her time of trying to figure out the secrets of the magic vase, she had failed to notice that one of the statues of pony heads had moved out of place and was creeping up on her.

With her new found vitality, Twilight decided to take matters into her own hooves and tried to use her magic on the statue. She engulfed the statue in a purple aura and attempted to move it further away from her. However, while she could cover the statue with her magic, she couldn’t manipulate it in any other way than that.

The statue continued to inch closer, leaving Twilight little choice but to try and attack it with something. She armed herself with a box of art supplies sitting nearby and prepared to launch it at the statue. However, to her surprise, as the statue creeped closer, it caught itself on the notch in the ground and fell over, shattering into pieces.

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, as she set the art supplies back down.

Looking into the rubble of the statue, she discovered another wooden block, about the same size as the piece missing from the indentation. With a smile on her face, Twilight picked up the block and quickly made her way back out of the room to place it in the indentation.

Upon setting the block in place and completing the indentation, the eyes on the walls turned to red slits as chunks of the wall began to disappear in front of her, leading to another distant corridor.

“Just wait everypony, I’m on my way.” Twilight spoke with confidence, before taking off running down the newly formed hallway.

Back in the room with the smashed statue, a dripping sound began to resonate within the room. The source came from a leak of yellow paint from the ceiling, which slowly dripped onto the ground below. A couple of drops landed on the painting of the red rose, which soon formed into trailing lines down to the ground, as if the painting itself was leaking as well.

Chapter 2 Part 1

Twilight reached the end of the newly opened hallway and found herself at the junction of several yellow corridors.

To her left she could see a portrait of a red pony with its tongue sticking out and a table with a notebook sitting on it, while to her front and right she saw only open hallways. Always one for reading, Twilight decided to investigate the table with the notebook first.

Taking a few steps towards the table, Twilight was greeted to a wad of spit being ejected from the painting and onto the ground in front of her.

“Eww!” Twilight exclaimed, looking over to the painting. “That’s just rude and disgusting!”

She walked around the spit on the ground and made her way to the notebook.

“Now let’s see if we can find some answers.” She spoke to herself as she opened the notebook.

Inside however, Twilight found nothing but blank pages. She flipped through all the pages a few times, but alas, nothing.

“Some help that was.” Twilight spoke aloud, shutting the notebook with her magic.

Twilight turned and decided to venture down the long hallway in front of her, saving the shorter one for later if need be.

She walked down the empty hallway, wondering what might pop out as she got further along. Luckily however, nothing jumped out at her. Instead, she discovered a rather bizarre sight at the end of the hallway.

Tucked away in a nook on the side of the hallway, rested a pair of red lips upon the wall.

“Feed me.” The lips spoke, catching Twilight by surprise.

“Feed you? Feed you what?” Twilight tried to respond, but the lips remained silent.

So far, nothing seemed to want to cooperate with her in this area. She turned to leave the lips behind and made her way back towards the final hallway.

Arriving at the turn, Twilight found a small note on the ground that had not previously existed there.

“Now what?” Twilight asked herself, as she lifted up the note with her magic.

She looked it over as she walked, reading: “Just when you’ve forgotten…”

She wondered what the note could have been referring to, until she received a painful reminder.

A black hoof jutted out from the wall next to her, striking Twilight hard in the side. It pushed her towards the other wall, causing her to wince in pain. As she eyed the wiggling hoof, she noticed a petal fall to the ground. Four remaining now.

Twilight moved back to the middle of the hallway, keeping her distance from the hoof and the walls. She continued on till the hallway opened again, revealing a door on her left and a gruesome sight on her right.

There, hanging from the ceiling, were several mangled life-size pony dolls. Each one had a rope around either its neck or one of its limbs, signifying that they had been hung, or left for dead.

Twilight slowly moved her eyes from the creepy sight and spied a yellow door at the far end. She could try and see if the door was unlocked, but decided against it, not wanting to venture past the hanging dolls just yet. Instead, she made her way to the other closer door and went inside.

Inside the room, Twilight found six portraits of different colored ponies and a single door in-between them all. She tried opening the door, but to no avail. Instead, messages written in ink appeared beneath each of the portraits, leaving Twilight to assume that she would have to read them all if she wanted to make any progress.

“Guess I should get reading.” She spoke to herself, not keen on the idea for once.

She made her way to the first portrait on the far left, depicting a green stallion waving kindly. Underneath, the message read: “Knock on the door three times to open it. Would I lie?”

The implication of lying led Twilight to believe that each of the portraits were going to try to trick her, and that only one would be telling the truth. She only hoped that it wouldn’t be too hard to find the truth teller.

The next portrait displayed a brown mare standing, a blank look on her face. Her message read: “Knock on the door six times to open it. Would I lie?”

Just as vague as the first message, Twilight decided to read on before passing judgement.

The following portrait showed a yellow stallion standing proudly, his chest out. His message read: “The white mare speaks the truth!”

This message sounded too good to be true, but she continued on regardless.

On the other side of the door was the next portrait, a blue stallion shrugging. His message read: “The only truth-speaker is the green stallion.”

Another gimme, but Twilight moved on to the next one.

The next portrait displayed a happy white mare waving excitedly. Her message read: “Knock on the door four times to open it. Would I lie?”

The pony’s expression reminded her of Pinkie, but her clue was just as vague as the first two. She moved on to the last portrait, hoping for a useful clue.

The last portrait depicted a red mare with an annoyed look on her face. Her message read: “I agree with the yellow stallion.”

One more gimme, but it was just enough to give Twilight an idea of who was telling the truth.

“Let’s see.” She thought. “The green stallion and the brown and white mares are the only ones giving me any kind of direction for proceeding, so one of them must be telling the truth. The yellow and blue stallions said that their respective choice was the right one, so neither of them should be right. The red mare just agreed with the yellow stallion, so her choice doesn’t mean anything. Therefore, the brown mare must be the answer!”

Twilight walked back to the door and did as the brown mare instructed, knocking on the door four times. She heard a click from the other side and found that she could now open the door.

Inside, Twilight found a grey statue of a pony holding out its hoof, a yellow key in its grasp. She removed the key with her magic and turned to leave the room. Before she left the room however, Twilight heard the sound of a struggle going on outside, with things breaking and violent sounds erupting. She waited a moment, before opening the door and stepping back into the other room.

Back in the room with the portraits, Twilight didn’t immediately find anything wrong, until she looked back at the portraits. Each of the portraits revealed that their expressions had turned angry and sinister, with each of them covered in what she hoped was red paint and brandishing a knife. The only portrait not to share their changes was the brown mare’s, whom had been cut and stabbed to pieces, leaking red paint all over and onto the ground.

Even though it was just a painting, Twilight couldn’t help but feel responsible for the apparent murder of the brown mare, whose expression remained unchanged. It was like her blank look was glaring back at Twilight, wondering what she did to cause such a fate. Twilight quickly exited the room, leaving the metaphorical bloodshed behind.

Twilight took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself from her previous experience so that she could face her next one, the hanging dolls.

She looked upon the dolls once more. This time however, all of their eyes seemed to be looking at her, as opposed to the closed or sporadic gazes that they had before. This just added to the already unsettling nature of them, as she knew she would have to traverse them in order to continue.

Twilight began walking under and past all the dolls, feeling their eyes follow her, not daring to look up to see if it was true. At the end, she used the yellow key she had obtained to open the door, and made her way inside.

The room she now found herself in was the strangest and most comforting thing that she had witnessed since entering this bizarre world. She was surrounded by trees that seemed to be growing straight out of the carpet, with a picture of a branch with a lone apple on the far wall. She was reminded of Applejack, and wished that she and her other friends were here to help her escape this nightmare.

As she took a closer look at the painting, Twilight noticed that the apple seemed to be standing out from the picture in more than just context. She used her magic to try and grab the apple and found that she could! She let out a sigh of relief, as she brought the apple to her mouth looking to see if it was as juicy as it looked.

Before she took a bite however, a couple thoughts went through her mind. Firstly, why was she about to take a bite out of an apple that came from a painting, it probably tasted like paint!? Secondly, she remembered that there was another who wanted to eat something, and this would probably be better for it than for her. The lips.

Twilight kept the apple levitated with her magic and quickly made her way out of the room.

As she entered the hallway with the dolls once more, she noticed that now all of their mouths were open, hungry looks on their still creepy faces. She figured they probably wanted the apple she had, and her thoughts were confirmed as she walked under and past the first doll.

She watched as the rope holding the doll from the ceiling snapped, and the doll fell down towards her. Twilight quickly jumped out of the way as the doll hit the floor hard, its hungry gaze still upon her. She dashed down the hall, hearing doll after doll fall from the ceiling, hitting the ground with a fleshy thud.

She rounded the corner to find the wiggling hoof still sticking out of the wall. She stayed in the middle of the hallway this time as she passed it, which proved to be for the best, as another hoof jutted out from the opposite wall near the end, just missing her.

Twilight raced down the empty hallway and back to the lips.

The lips neither moved nor spoke upon her arrival, until she levitated the apple right in front of them. In a flash, the lips sprung from the wall and gobbled the apple in a single bite. Twilight could hear it chewing loudly as its lips opened and closed, until it made a loud swallowing noise.

The lips then made a slight smile, before finally speaking again.

“Thanks for the meal. You may pass now.” The lips spoke, before opening wide enough to reveal a dark inside.

Twilight could see razor sharp teeth that were not present when it spoke before and was hesitant to get anywhere near them. However, with nowhere else to go at the moment, Twilight decided to trust the lips. She closed her eyes and quickly leaped inside its gaping mouth.

After passing through, the jaws snapped shut. An eerie silence filled the hallway. The lips then proceeded to lick themselves, before turning to a sinister smile.

/)(\ /)(\ /)(\ /)(\ /)(\

Twilight opened her eyes to find herself still alive, and now in a long open hallway. She could see that adorned on both sides of the hallway and running all the way down, were images of a guillotine slowly being raised. She began making her way down the hallway and was actually amazed at the paintings. She had never seen sequential paintings placed one after another like this, even if they were depicting an old device used for executions.

As she reached the end of the hallway, the guillotine had disappeared into the top of one of the paintings and Twilight could see stairs leading down in front of it. Excited to be making progress, Twilight took a few steps towards the stairs.

However, in that same moment, Twilight heard the sound of a rope giving way above her and looked up to see the guillotine racing towards her. She jumped back, the guillotine only managing to slice a few hairs off the front of her mane, before landing with a crashing thud on the ground.

Twilight’s heart raced a mile a minute, as she tried not to hyperventilate from almost being cut in half. She then watched, eyes wide open, as the guillotine slowly started to raise again. She waited for it to disappear into the dark ceiling above, before making a mad dash down the stairs, her heart still pounding.

/)(\ /)(\ /)(\ /)(\ /)(\

Twilight reached the bottom of the stairs in a cold sweat, stopping to try and let her heart rest and to catch her breath. She had only lost one rose petal after placing the rose in the magical vase, but it already felt like things were now trying to kill her. She took a minute until she finally managed to calm herself down, taking one more deep breath before standing up to move on.

Everything around her had now turned a dark red hue, causing her to wonder if it was just the layout of the land or her subconscious portraying death around her. Either way she picked her head up and began moving forward.

Twilight took a few steps down the short hallway she found herself in, until she caught something dart in her vision in front of her. She stopped for a second before racing after it. She rounded the corner at the end to find nothing in the following corridor. She breathed a sigh of disappointment, before continuing on once more.

It was another short hallway that she found herself in, with the only difference being that this one held a painting that looked like something that came out of the mind of Discord. Pink clouds and rain with birds playing instruments; truly something that Discord himself would have made, if he hadn’t already.

Twilight turned the corner to find one more hallway with a red door at the end. Approaching it, she found that she could open it and proceeded through.

Twilight then found herself in a large open area, with two tall statues and several paintings strewn about. One of the statues was of a blue mare looking off to her right, while the other was of a red mare looking back towards the blue. Twilight looked around a little more to find other paintings like that of a pony smoking, a geometrical pattern, and one that seemed almost lifelike.

The painting in question, was that of a red mare, sitting peacefully on a stool. Twilight read the placard beneath it: “The Mare of Red.”

Twilight wondered where Guertena had gotten the inspiration for the mare, as she looked like somepony who may have been real. The question remained in her mind as she turned to try the door that she had also found while she was wandering the room.

After making it a few feet away from the painting, Twilight heard a loud thud behind her. She wanted to tell herself that the portrait had just fallen over, but by now she knew better. Twilight turned to see that the mare in the painting had indeed been lifelike, as her top half was now sticking out of the painting, a sinister grin on her face. The mare quickly began crawling towards Twilight, pulling herself along with her hooves.

Twilight made a mad dash for the door, but found it to be locked.

“Locked!? Now!? Why now!?” Twilight screamed.

She looked back to see the mare quickly approaching and took off in a gallop to escape her. She rounded the other statues several times, trying to keep them between her and the mare.

Rounding the red statue once more, Twilight saw what looked like a small red key laying on the ground where the mare had landed. She moved closer to pick it up with her magic, barely missing a surprise swipe from the mare, who rounded the other side of the statue. Twilight dashed around her and over to the door, unlocking it with the key. She promptly slammed the door shut behind her once inside.

Twilight now found herself in a room with a door and several shelves of books. This would have eased her mind, if it weren’t for the pounding that she soon heard from the door she had closed.

Twilight tried the door to once again find it locked.

“Now is not the time!” Twilight exclaimed.

The pounding starting getting louder as Twilight knew the mare would burst through any second.

“Think Twilight, think!” Twilight told herself. “There must be a way out of here somewhere. Maybe one of these books has a key inside!”

Twilight frantically began pulling out books from the shelves with her magic. She didn’t even bother trying to see what they were about, only concerned with seeing if there was a key within the pages. With every few books Twilight pulled the pounding got louder, until she finally pulled on one book that wouldn’t come all the way out. After pulling on it, Twilight heard a click from behind the door and dashed over to open it. In the same instance she opened the door, the one behind her burst open, the mare crawling inside.

Twilight went though and slammed the door shut behind her, this time hearing several clicks from what she assumed were locking mechanisms.

Twilight took a moment to catch her breath as she heard the mare frantically pound on the door, before giving up shortly after. She turned to see where she ended up this time, finding not only two more doors to her sides, but also a vase of water in front of her! She levitated the rose from behind her ear over to the vase and watched it emit the same blue magic as before. A rejuvenating feeling swept over her as she breathed a sigh of relief.

She noticed that there was a painting next to the vase that seemed to depict the vase itself within it. She read the placard: “Eternal Blessing.”

“Eternal huh?” Twilight thought to herself. “I wonder…”

Twilight placed the rose back into the vase and discovered that it emitted the blue magic once again.

“Amazing! It still works! I wonder why?” Twilight spoke aloud.

She then took another look at the vase and the painting and discovered that they were both blue, as opposed to the brown vase that she had used before.

“So blue vases have more than one use. Interesting. I’ll have to remember that if I see any more around here.” Twilight told herself.

Twilight placed the rose back behind her ear and decided to try her hoof at one of the doors.

The first door she tried, of course, wouldn’t open. With only one other option, Twilight made her way to the door across the room and found, go figure, that it was open.

When she opened the door, she witnessed a sight she thought she would never see. There, collapsed on the ground in front of her was one of her dearest friends. Twilight rushed over to her side, frantically checking to see if she was okay.

“Rainbow Dash!” She called.