004

[GAME LOADED]

You push open the door, and slip inside, feeling elated at your success. This new corridor is long and smooth, and looks recently made. The walls are a smooth gray, almost like concrete, and are definitely not natural. You feel as though something should happen here, but all you can tell is that your crystal is glowing again. You hear a faint snippet of conversation.

“You’re really messed up, you know that?”

Vaguely offended, you continue down the cave and into the next area. You’re beginning to feel tired, and as you’re hit with the scent of mold and decay, you can feel your head beginning to spin. You’d better find some sustenance, fast. This section of this place is less maintained than other sections: Sections of the roof have fallen to the floor, and puddles have collected around divots in the floor. This area appears to be more ‘mass storage’-oriented, as there are hundreds of cells set into the wall, each with the classic barred front, a simple cot, and a bucket. Are you in a prison? That would explain a lot. Some of the cells have been broken open. Apparently from the inside. You swallow nervously and venture forward. Is it just you, or does this place seem… darker than usual?

All around, you hear whispering. Nothing you can make out, but the tone doesn’t sound friendly. The white noise becomes louder, and louder, until you’re frantically looking around for the source. As you whip your head around, you catch a gleam of white in one of the rooms. You enter the cell to find a small golden key on a table. Curious, you pick it up.

[ITEM ACQUIRED: ??? KEY]

You put the key in your pockets, and exit the jail cell. Continuing towards the exit, a simple wooden door, you feel something crawling on your back. You quickly jerk around to find two smaller ponies, pearly white and transparent, looking as though they’d just been in a microwave. Their ‘flesh’ pools around their hooves, leaving them with a saggy, drooped look. You back away in horror as their empty sockets slowly gaze up at you.

[FIGHT!][RUN!][DO NOTHING!][FLIRT][SPARE]

flirt

Would you smooch a ghost?

[FIGHT!][RUN!][DO NOTHING!][FLIRT][SPARE]

run

There’s nowhere to run to.

[FIGHT!][RUN!][DO NOTHING!][FLIRT][SPARE]

spare

You try to tell the ghosts you don’t want to fight. They advance forward, and another one joins them, floating straight through the wall.

[FIGHT!][RUN!][DO NOTHING!][FLIRT][SPARE]

fight

Panicking, you lash out with the crystal. Instantly, the ghost you touch disappears. Two ghosts remain.

[FIGHT!][RUN!][DO NOTHING!][FLIRT][SPARE]

spare

They ignore you.

[FIGHT!][RUN!][DO NOTHING!][FLIRT]

fight

You lash out again, catching another ghost with the tip. Like its comrade, it vanishes instantly. One ghost remains.

[FIGHT!][RUN!][DO NOTHING!][FLIRT]

fight

One final time, you swing the crystal in a sideways arc, catching the spirit right across where its eyes would have been. This time, it gives an anguished scream before it vanishes, followed by a gurgling rattle from the spot it once floated in. Breathing shakily, you look around for any more ghosts.

…

But nobody came.

[You won!]

[EXP Gained]

[GAME SAVED]

[LV 3 achieved!]

You cautiously advance forward to the unobtrusive wooden door. As you open it, a giggle sounds from within the darkness, and you whip out your crystal. There’s nothing in the room that you can see, except for a coil of rope laying on the floor. You suppose you could use this for something. You move forward and pick up the rope.

[ITEM ACQUIRED:]

The door closes behind you. Another giggle sounds from nowhere, and you whirl around, trying to exit the room. The door remains firmly shut. You shakily pull out the ??? Key, but it clatters to the floor. You scramble to pick it up and insert it into the door…

The door has no lock.

The door also has no handle. You are locked from the outside.

…

Well?

Only one thing left to do.

You take out the coil of rope.

[GAME OVER]

[LOAD LAST SAVE][RESET][QUIT]

load last save

[ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: Curiosity killed the XXXXXX]

[GAME LOADED]

You’re back in the corridor. You have the crystal in your hand, glowing with its familiar and by now comfortable red light. You look around, breathing shakily, and it takes you a moment to realize that you’re still immune to dying somehow. This time, though… This time you’re not scared of it.

You’re glad.

Nothing can kill you. You can keep going forever, and nothing can possibly stop you. You charge forward, and right on cue, ghosts start pouring from the walls. Laughing, you slash through them, cleaving through two, then five, then ten in a single hit. They try to hit you with their ghostly hooves. Nothing happens. Some of them hold their horns skyward, as though attempting to do something. Nothing happens. The ones that can fly attempt to dive-bomb you. Nothing happens. You’re invincible.

[EXP Gained]

[GAME SAVED]

[LV 10 achieved!]

Once you’ve slaughtered what must be hundreds of spirits, you slowly calm down from your bloodlust. Er… ectoplasm-lust. Whatever. Where did that even come from, you wonder? You’ve never thought of yourself as particularly violent, but you were laughing up a storm back there.

…

Oh well. Nobody’s around to judge, right?

You continue through the hallway, decidedly ignoring the golden key. To your half-surprise, the imposing door on the other side of the corridor is unlocked, and you wrench it open, grunting at the weight.

You enter a vast cavern. The sky is blocked off by some sort of transparent dome, but you can see stars twinkling. The moon has risen, reminding you of an ordinary night sky back home. Wherever home is.

But shouldn’t there be something else there?

Frustrated by your inability to comprehend your own comment, you continue forward, the moonlight revealing your path. The way is relatively unblocked, though you occasionally have to pick your way around a stalagmite or fallen chunk of debris. It seems as though there was a building here once, but it’s gone now, trapped in this pit beneath the strange dome. You slowly move through the fallen rubble, not wanting to disturb anything. After a while, you come across a scrap of paper laying in front of a cracked moon symbol set into a stone wall. You pick it up, and read it under the moonlight.

“I HATE YOU.”

Well.

It appears paper hates you almost as much as life does.

You carelessly toss the scrap of paper away, and continue forward to the other side. Nearing the opposite wall, you find another scrap of paper, this time much longer. Curious, you read it.

“Legend tells that only one whose soul is as pure as the original seven, one who has enough love in them to lay down their life for those inside, can break the Harmony Barrier.”

You feel as though you would’ve done that… if circumstances had been a little different. After all, having friends is nice.

You reach the opposite wall. There are two doors here, one small and with a keyhole, the other large and just a crack open, clearly unlocked. You attempt to pull out the ??? Key from your pocket, but forget that you never picked it up in the first place. Maybe a different key is required to open this thing, anyway. You’ll remember this place in case you find an extra one. Reluctantly, you move forward and open the larger door, proceeding onward.

It’s another large room of jail cells, except this one has several rows of them, stacked on top of one another almost like storage bins. As you attempt to find the exit from this room, things begin to… whisper to you from the darkness. “Scum.” “Filth.” “Worthless.” “Unwanted.” “Unloved.”

You whirl around as the voices come from all directions, whipping out the red crystal in panic. Your hands shake as you stare around wildly.

“…Human.”

Something’s behind you.

You spin around to find another pony. This one is clad in steel armor, with a red velvet cloak draped over his back and an imposing spiked crown atop his head. He bared his teeth.

“Disgusting, degenerate lowlife. Bow before your new king,” he commands in a deep growl. You narrow your eyes.

“N-no!” you answer, holding out the crystal threateningly. How did this one know you were human? None of the others did.

The new pony goes cross-eyed as he stares at the crystal, eyes widening in surprise. “Such powerful hate…” he breathes. He then grins at you. “How much for the crystal?” he asks.

You stare at him uncertainly. “You want this?” you ask, retracting your reach.

The new pony nods. “Such a powerful tool of fear… this could easily allow me to retake my kingdom. Allow me to introduce myself. I am King Sombra, the rightful ruler of the Crystal Kingdom.”

You raise an eyebrow. “If you’re a king, what’re you doing in a prison cell?” you point out.

He glares at you. “That is none of your concern. And besides, what are you doing in Tartarus?” he counters.

You shrug. “I just sort of fell in,” you explain.

Sombra looks at you for a moment, then starts laughing. His laugh fills the cavern, echoing around every space. You think it’s even in your head. “You fell?!” he snickers. “Must’ve been some fall!” You glare at him, taking a moment to glance around for exits when you think he’s not looking.

“Anyway, I’m not selling this,” you deny. It is your only weapon, after all.

King Sombra glares at you. “Then I’ll just have to take it,” he breathes, and launches himself forward. You spring out of the way, but he counters by kicking his legs out, sweeping you off your feet. The two of you circle each other warily.

[FIGHT!][RUN!][DO NOTHING!][FLIRT]

run

You rush towards him, and Sombra puts up a defensive stance. To his surprise, you continue to rush past him, barreling for an exit tunnel you spotted on the opposite side of the wall, diving through and running headlong through the tunnel. In the second it takes him to realize what you’ve done, you’re already gone.