All in Your Head

You feel like you've been trotting for an eternity, you keep hearing whispers, but can't pinpoint from where, suddenly you hear two normal voices conversing, it sounds like it comes from directly behind you...

"He isn't worth it"

You turn around, and see nopony there.

"It is disgusting me, too."

Hearing it behind you again, you turn around. Again, nothing is there.

"It can hear us now..."

"Such a shame it had to waste our time."

You keep looking back and forth, the voices always behind you.

"It's a killer, too."

"Hear that, you're a killer."

"You shouldn't be here."

"You should kill yourself, nothing will stop you."

You give up on finding the two, and begin walking again.

"Find the knife, find it, and stab yourself."

"Do it, die for us!"

These voices can't be talking to you. They are cruel!

"Check the rooms, find a knife! Get the knife!"

You are really getting tired of this.

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" You scream at the ceiling, hoping to silence the voices. Luckily, it seems to work.

As fear turns to anger, you stomp your way deeper into the asylum. The blood has begun to make out words like 'help' and 'save us'. This doesn't add to your spirits of escape.

You hear hoofsteps, just around the corner crossway in the halls, they are slow, and cautious.

Now realizing the danger of others, you creep to the edge, and peek around the corner. Your company doesn't notice you, and you take advantage of getting a good look at the other pony.

She is a minty-green color, with a brighter green mane. Her eyes are a shade of bright Gold, you can't see her cutie mark from your current angle.

You have been observing for a while now, she seems unarmed, and you decide you could take this mare on in a fight if she acts out. Suddenly, she stops. As if you had called her by name, she looks right into your eyes, and her ears splay back. She gets a look of fear, and takes a step back. Her pupils shrink to pinpricks.

"Who are you?" You ask the stranger.

She jumps back, frightened. She takes in a shuddering breath before replying weakly.

"Please don't kill me, please. I'll leave, don't hurt me." Her words trail off into staggered breathing.

You step out of cover and slowly trot closer, holding out a hoof innocently. You shrink down a little and do everything you can to seem less intimidating.

"I won't hurt you, as long as you don't hurt me. I do want to know though, how do I get out of here?" You ask her, stopping a few feet away.

She looks confused, and locks up. You can see why she hasn't run yet, one of her legs is raised, she doesn't look like she wants to put any weight on it. After a few seconds, she lets out a breath and gets a look of relief.

"There isn't one..." She replies.

"There has to be, how else did we get in here?" You ask again.

"There was, but you won't get through. Trust me, you can't escape this place." She looks like she's calmed down, you can now see the bags underneath her eyes, indicating her lack of sleep.

"Look, I don't know where I am, and I can't remember anything that happened more then an hour ago. All I want, is to get out of here, and live my life again."

"And I told you you can't leave! There really is no survivable way out! They'll kill you if you try to leave!"

What is she talking about?

"Who are 'they'? Why would they hurt me?" You ask, confused.

"You really don't know? They've been here since the disaster. They kill everyone. Even each other. I don't know anything else about them."

"Fine, well what are you doing in here? I haven't seen too many others around. Not a lively place?" You ask, not wanting to get yourself killed you might stick with this more experienced pony. Her ears perk up at your question.

"I was looking for something to eat back at the working quarters, but you walked up and cut me off. Not that I mind, I've been here for years, and you are the first pony I've seen since the disaster that hasn't chased me..." She replies, avoiding your gaze.

"What's this disaster you keep mentioning? Is that why there's blood everywhere?" Yeah, that last bit was a little too obvious.

"Where have you been all these months? It was when all of the monsters came out and killed us all, and started turning us into them. That's how I-" She's cut short when all of the lights spark and shut off. Leaving you two in the dark, you only know where she is by the glowing of her eyes.

"Come on, let's get out of the halls, this is creeping me out." You say.

"Yeah, me too." She whispers.

"Follow my hoofsteps."

You turn around and start walking for the hallway you just exited, rounding the corner by memory, you feel the walls for a door. Feeling a handle, you open it and walk inside. Your eyes are now adjusted to the dark. You hear her enter and you shut the door quietly, you check the light switch again, seeing it is also broken.

"Name?" You ask the mare.

"Hm?"

"I didn't hear your name"

"Oh, I'm Lyra, you are?" She greets.

You introduce yourself as well, and give a friendly smile.

"So, since I can't remember a thing, tell me everything about this place. From since you got here to now." You order.

"Oh, well... Where to start. This place used to be an active asylum. Just like any other, we'd talk about the outside world, why we got locked up in the first place, things like that. Eventually, ponies started to disappear. The guards would look for them, and sometimes go missing, too. The vanishing got more frequent, until one day..." A tear leaves her eye as she continues.

"All of the missing ponies came back, but they were cut up, some had claws, some had spikes in them, they looked disfigured. And they were really fast. All of them had black eyes. They mauled us to death, one by one. Until only a few of us were left, we hid along the asylum, and survived as long as we could. But sometimes I still hear screaming, that's when I know there's one less of us. The exits are really guarded, I think they are under orders or control, since they seem to work together." She finishes, her head is not hanging low, and tears drip from her face.

"Hey, I'm sorry, I didn't know it was that bad. I wouldn't have made you say it if I knew it'd be that deep" You try to console her.

"It's fine, it's just..." She runs up and pulls you into a tight hug.

"I can't believe I finally have someone to talk to, I've been alone for months with nopony to talk to but myself, please don't leave me, I hate this place, I need a friend!" She trails off as she openly cries into your arm.

"Hey, it's fine. I'm glad I'm not alone, too. And I can't imagine what you've gone through. I promise, you'll get out of here. I'll do anything." You say, patting her on the back.

You sit there for a while, at some point she stops talking and falls asleep, and so do you.