Tantibus

Chapters

The First Chapter
The Second Chapter
The Third Chapter
The Fourth Chapter
The Fifth Chapter
The Seventh Chapter
The Eighth Chapter
The Ninth Chapter
The Tenth Chapter
The Sixth Chapter

The First Chapter

Author's Note

This is the first chapter, out of many. It is by far the shortest, to give you a quick introduction to the setting and mystery of my story. On average, subsequent chapters are about three times as long.

I hope you'll enjoy! Happy Halloween!

The First Chapter

THE FIRST CHAPTER

The soft grass effortlessly gave way for Twilight’s hooves, shaping the first hoof-prints this field had seen in many years. It was not conventional for Twilight to be this far away from Ponyville but there was a herb that only grew this far into the Everfree forest. Well, according to Zecora at least. Zecora knew far more about the plants and potions than all of Twilight’s books combined. As a result, Twilight would usually visit her for advice during her expeditions to the Everfree forest.

Today, she was looking for a quite rare flower and had received nothing but directions and a slender warning from Zecora to be careful. But Twilight had discarded that search for the moment as she was stepping out on a grass field that she had just come across. It was very strange to see such a flat and light-green glade so deep into the Everfree forest. There were no weeds or plants on the field, just the flat grass that got even more deflated as Twilight stepped her way towards the middle. A meadow like this must have been taken care of by someone, but the farthest anyone lived into the Everfree forest was Zecora. However, she does not go this deep, even less every other day to go trimming the grass of some particular meadow in the middle of seemingly nowhere.

It was a strange sight, but the truly bizarre aspect of this greenery was the small beige item in the middle which Twilight was approaching. The square shaped item grew larger in her field of view and before she knew it, it was just under her hooves: It was a note.

She took a last look around the mysterious meadow before eventually setting her sight on the note. It was tan yellow, flaked and wrinkly, indicating that it was very old as the note was in the midst of its decomposing process. Now, it was removed from the delicate grass and floating in midair, clutched by Twilight Sparkle’s magic. The page was blank. She turned it around and right as she did so, a short shriek followed and the note was dropped onto the all so familiar grass. There were words, and they were written in blood.

Twilight was unsettled and nervous as she hesitantly forced her hoof forward to push over the note so that it would reside with the content upwards, pointing towards the sky. With uncertainty, she began reading.

“My name is Aeon.” Twilight took a deep breath and read the second half of the brief message. ”I died in Tantibus.” The word Tantibus itself was underlined, indicating its importance. The authenticity of the blood disgusted Twilight. “Dear Celestia! How horrible! Is this some sort of death or suicide note? Who was Aeon? And what is Tantibus? I better bring this back to Zecora. She might have a clue about what this means.”

Twilight’s horn started to glow as the note started to levitate once again. Unfortunately for her though, this note was not going to leave its home without at least one more surprise up its sleeve. With a loud crackle, lightning struck down in the middle of the field, lighting up Twilight’s entire view in the shape of a giant white beacon. Twilight jumped back hastily and tumbled over onto the grass as the light faded away.

It took some time for Twilight to recover and adjust herself back from the intense brightness that had temporarily scarred her eyes. She had a hard time just seeing her own blurry hooves in front of her. Eventually, she got up on unsteady hooves and took a look around for what was different. Another loud shriek escaped Twilight’s lips as she realized that she was forthwith standing in a graveyard, which had spontaneously appeared onto the field around her.

She closed her eyes and started to count to ten, breathing slower and relaxing herself as the seconds passed. This usually helped her calm down under stressful circumstances. But this was just unbelievable, that a graveyard would just appear like that. The note itself was also quite perplexing.

“…eight, nine, ten.” Twilight opened her eyes again only to once more gaze upon the same shocking sight. There were only five tombstones, but they were scattered about a small area in the middle of the field, around where Twilight was standing. She picked up the note for the third time with her magic and begun wandering around, investigating the tombstones up close. She looked at one neighboring her and read what it had to say.

Glory

LOST the Tantibus Challenge

Died in Tantibus

“What is the Tantibus Challenge?” Twilight headed for the next tombstone. They all appeared identical. A large, upright rectangle reaching a size around four feet high, two feet wide. Twilight looked at the front of the light-grey grave. The only difference between them was the name. This tombstone’s rightful owner was ‘Decker’, also a loser of ‘the Tantibus Challenge’. The words rippled in her mind like pebbles cast into an otherwise gentle pond. Died in Tantibus.

Twilight looked up to the sky. Dusk was upon her. She knew that she had to get back before it went dark and since she was so far away from home, she would have to leave urgently. But Twilight had always been scientific at heart and could therefore not control her curiosity during intriguing circumstances. And what could possibly be more mysterious and intriguing than this?

Twilight moved on to the next tombstone and then the next and then the next. They were all the same. The only thing changing was the name; “Glory, Decker, Dawna, Maverick, Skydance… LOST The Tantibus Challenge, LOST The Tantibus Challenge, LOST The Tantibus Challenge, Died In Tantibus, Died In Tantibus, Died In Tantibus.” Twilight was thinking out loud to herself, “They all lost this challenge, and died?” Twilight then held the note in front of her eyes again. Aeon did not have a tombstone and his sinister signature was in her focus and on her mind. “Aeon, did you win?”

The Second Chapter

THE SECOND CHAPTER

Zecora finally arrived home while carrying a few potion-ingredients and herbs of her own. Unfortunately, her current collection of plants, herbs, potions and books was too big to fit any more as of currently. She put down her newly picked groceries onto the ground next to the door.

“Looks like my recent additions won’t fit, so I will have to redecorate a bit.” She stated before getting to work. There was not much to do around her house anyway, so a good clean-up could keep her busy for a few hours. She began with her books, carefully removing them from their shelves and putting them on the floor. Naturally, large piles of them formed at the same rate as the shelves were cleared.

Somewhere in the pile closest to her personal, wooden desk there was a book titled ‘Spooky Tales & Legends’. The third installment and chapter of that book told the tale of the only known and documented occurrence of ‘The Tantibus Challenge’. But that was only a silly tale to scare rascals into being more thankful for the gift of life, right? Well, that is what Zecora had convinced herself into believing.

She removed the final book from her desk and put it in the smallest pile, completing the first part of redecorating her simple residence. She now began organizing her potions, herbs and ingredients, sorting the potions based off of their labels and the plants into different groups. Now, she was precise in compressing them together tightly so that this whole rearrangement would actually have a purpose and fit the new additions.

Zecora was almost finished with sorting as she only had two jars left to reposition. They were placed up on the top shelf, out of her reach. Even when she was standing on her practical stool she still could not reach them. She could only caress the wooden edge of the shelf with her hoof, over and over. That was when there was a faint knocking on the door.

Zecora looked over her own shoulder as to confirm what she had heard. Yes, the door was conveniently placed in the exact spot that the knocking had come from. Zecora gave up her struggle with those darn jars and walked over to the door. On the other side was a slightly apprehensive Twilight Sparkle. She was impatiently waiting for an answer, considering that the visit had to be short if she were to reach home in time before darkness fell. The door opened and Twilight was met with Zecora’s familiar smile and peculiar rhymes.

“Welcome, my dear. Twice in one day, you are here.” With an inviting motion using her front hoof, Zecora showed her friend Twilight Sparkle in through the door for the second time that day. “Did you find your herb?” Zecora asked as she closed the door behind her.
“Uhm… Yes.” Twilight hesitated and lied so that she could get straight to her point. “But that isn’t why I’m here again. I am here to ask you about something.”

Zecora ascended back up onto her stool and continued her struggle with reaching the jars. The thought of borrowing Twilight’s magic did not strike her mind yet. But she continued the small talk; “Oh, I see. What could that question be?”

Twilight reached into her bag that she was carrying on her back. With a swift motion, the bag opened and a small beige note came floating out of it. As the note approached Zecora’s fixated expression, Twilight stated; “Do you know anything about this?”

Zecora looked over at the note and saw Twilight’s advisory demonstration of magic. As soon as she read this note she would ask Twilight to help her. Right now, she was focused on the note’s content. It looked like blood. But was it? Her pupils moved from left to right twice as she read the two simple lines.

My name is Aeon.
I died in Tantibus.

“Oh, dear!” When Zecora was reminded of what Tantibus meant, she jolted suddenly. Was it more than a story? Her hoof knocked into the shelf, flipping over the two jars. Zecora landed flat onto the ground with the jars coming soon after, landing safely in her lap. “Who wrote this note?!”

Zecora’s fall came as a surprise to Twilight as she did not think it would evoke such an intense reaction from her. As she assisted Zecora in getting up, she explained herself calmly. “Well, it says it’s written by Aeon. I just found it like this on a field, so I wouldn’t know. It was such a haunting experience, because as I picked it up from the ground, this small graveyard materialized around me. There were only five graves, but the cause of death was Died in Tantibus on every tombstone.” Zecora appeared deeply alarmed as Twilight continued. “I came here, wondering if you perhaps could tell me anything about Tantibus.”
“I’ve thought that Tantibus was just a legend for my entire youth. I do not wish to take any part in it, should it turn out to be truth.” Zecora stated.
“Zecora, please! I must know!”

Zecora walked over towards the pile of books adjacent to the wooden desk and picked out the book titled ‘Spooky Tales & Legends’. “Everything I know about Tantibus is written in this book. If you truly must know, have a look. I would assume that page eighty-two is the chapter for you.”

Twilight expressed a polite “Thanks.” when accepting the scripture. She then quickly opened it and turned to page 82 to disclose what Zecora was implying. It was the beginning of a new chapter named ‘The Dark Mansion’. Satisfied, Twilight closed the book and placed it in her bag.

“Night will fall, as I recall. You need to go, whilst the sun is still low.” Zecora insisted. She was right. At the time, there was merely half an hour until dusk and Twilight had to get going if she wanted to arrive at her library while at least a twinkle of the sun was still on the horizon.

She checked her bag once more before exchanging a final goodbye with Zecora for the day. When the door closed behind her, she remembered the reason she went to the Everfree forest in the first place. She forgot completely about the plant.
“Oh well. I can always come back another day. I don’t really need it right now. Besides, this Tantibus legend will probably keep me going for a few days. It is so strange, all of this…”

While trotting home, ‘Spooky Tales & Legends’floated elegantly out of her backpack and practically opened up to page 82 in front of her. She thought that since she had a little bit of a journey home ahead of her, she might as well examine this story a bit. “It’s written by Landon. I wonder who that is. How does he know about Tantibus? Did he enter and win perhaps?”

A small droplet of water dripped onto the page, slightly above the D in ‘The Dark Mansion’. Just a moment after, another raindrop settled on the page, and then another one. Twilight looked up into the sky and another drop splashed onto her cheek. It was starting to rain and she had to keep the book dry to conserve it for her deep studies. The book flew back into its position inside the secure bag. “I guess it will have to wait for when I get back to the library.”

It was dusk back at the library with the rain pouring down outside and Spike, who Twilight had left home alone for the day, was getting anxious. He had decided upon reading a book to conceal his worries but as darkness engulfed the outside, he could not stand it much longer. Where was Twilight? It was not normal for her to be out this long. He was aware that the herb she was getting was rare and hard to find. However, surely she would give up the search if she saw the sun setting, right? The Everfree forest would turn into a frightening place at night and if Twilight had any common sense she would know to not be there when darkness falls.

The door opened and in through it came a dripping wet and exhausted Twilight Sparkle. The rain outside had really taken its toll on her. She had been running to make it home as fast as possible in a race against time, darkness and rain. She closed the door after herself, panting, and put her bag on a table.
“Where have you been, Twilight?” Spike greeted her.
“Yeah, I’m sorry for coming home this late, Spike. I got… distracted.”
“With what?” Spike put down his book and quickly retrieved a towel for the soaked pony friend of his. He wrapped it around her and she nodded back at him.
“Thanks. Anyway… With this.” Twilight opened up the bag and out of it came the old note which by this point she was well acquainted with. Almost miraculously, it was bone dry along with the rest of the bag’s content. She had Rarity to thank for the remarkable water-repelling fabric used in the recently sewn bag. Spike caught the floating note and read it.

“Is this… blood?!” Spike put down the note on the table. So far, Spike was the first one not to be completely revolted on first eye-contact with the note.
“I think so. It doesn’t smell like ink, now does it?”
Spike leaned forward and took a sniff from the yellow paper. In repulsion and disgust, he backed off. “What is Tantibus?”
“I don’t know, honestly. I asked Zecora and she did not really want to tell me about it. But she did give me this book.” Twilight brought forth ‘Spooky Tales & Legends’ and showed it to Spike, “I haven’t gotten the time to read it yet though. I think I will soon, if not this evening.”

Soon after, the discussion was ended and they prepared dinner. It was delectable, but her mind could not concern itself with anything other than Tantibus. She felt an obsession creeping up on her. So when everything was cleaned up, Twilight could begin her research with a content belly. She began by studying the note a bit further. With a magnifying glass she could tell that it was at least a couple of years old and she was quite convinced that it was blood instead of ink or paint. Other than that, there was not much new information she could retrieve from the note with the tools she had. She shifted her attention to the book Zecora had given to her. With her curiosity peaked and a hint of excitement, she opened to page 82 and began her reading.

‘The Dark Mansion’ is the short tale covering Flaming Ace’s experience with Tantibus. Everything is written down into this book from his innocent civilian life before waking up in the insidious establishment up until the moment he walks out of the building with bloodstained hooves. It was the moment he had escaped, though leaving behind the slain bodies of five fellow ponies, along with his own sanity.

According to the book; they were commanded by lettering on the walls, dripping from blood, with two simple rules.

THE RULES OF THE TANTIBUS CHALLENGE

RULE ONE; ONLY ONE COMPETITOR CAN LEAVE TANTIBUS ALIVE

RULE TWO; THAT COMPETITOR MAY ONLY DO SO WHEN ALL OTHERS ARE DEAD

The ponies were offered an arsenal consisting of edged and blunt weapons. Landon also wrote that Flaming Ace could not control his actions, in dramatic detail. Against his will, he had picked up a sword and gone on a morbid and gruesome rampage, slicing off limbs and heads without any sign of hesitation or mercy. It was as if Flaming Ace was under the control of someone else, as nothing but a ragdoll in the possession of a twisted and sinister puppet master. He could only behold with his own eyes what was happening and witness his own merciless actions torturing the terrified souls of the ponies, before finishing them off one by one. His ears memorized their desperate wails while his mind carved the horrified expressions of the victims into his memory to haunt him for the rest of his life.

After completing the soulless challenge, when no other being stood standing and the red blood had made its way into every crevice of the wooden canvas below… Only then, did the doors open and the bright light stun him as he could stagger out into freedom again. But what freedom could you possibly salvage when your mind is in ruins? Any traces left of his sanity would be torn apart over and over by the memories of his conduct. The story’s final words are:

Every pony has a soul

I gave up mine when I slaughtered five others

They will never come back

Neither will I

I’m sorry…

“Twilight!”, Twilight Sparkle quickly jumped out of the book and into the real world again. Spike was staring at her, exhausted and frustrated. “It’s really late. Can’t you please put out the candle and go to bed?”

Spike was right, it was late and probably a good idea for Twilight to get some sleep. Well, try at least.

The Third Chapter

THE THIRD CHAPTER

The wooden floor was uncomfortable and rough on her cheek and body. Twilight must have fallen asleep on the floor again… Or had she rolled off of the bed in her sleep? It had never happened before, but it was always a minor concern of hers. She wanted to get up and start searching for the bed, but she could not as much as move a muscle. Sleep paralysis? I thought that only happened to ponies with narcolepsy or in extreme cases of social isolation? Twilight wondered and then figured that she had no choice but to just wait it out. But instead, her eyes were slowly made to open. Something did not feel right about it. Her eyes did not exactly open by her command.

It was still pitch black and she could not see anything. Was it still in the middle of the night? Her body slowly rose up, utterly beyond her control, and this was cause for panic. What the heck is happening to me? It’s like I’m sleepwalking while in sleep paralysis at the same time. That can’t be possible… right? Right?!

When she took her first involuntary step it made an abnormal, creaky noise. What shocked Twilight further was the unfamiliar voice that picked up the sound and commanded “Who is there?!”. Was there a stranger in her home? Asking her who she was when that pony clearly is the one intruding on her property? Twilight Sparkle felt her lips move and her vocal cords were vibrating; “My name is Maverick. Who are you?”

My name is not Maverick! Why did I just say that?! And what is wrong with my voice? Why is it so… masculine? And how come I can’t control it? The other pony responded “Well, I am Decker. Do you have any idea where we are located at the moment?” The other pony was also male and had an eloquent and sophisticated Canterlot accent. He was clearly not from the Ponyville regions.

Twilight Sparkle felt her mouth open but was interrupted by a sudden, rasp groan coming from her left. She or he… quickly turned towards that direction, albeit still blinded by the darkness. Twilight’s uncontrollable voice named Maverick spoke again; “Are there more ponies here?!”
“Well, I am here.” An unknown female voice announced from the right.
“So am I. Are you all alright?” Another, deeper female voice inquired.

The groan came back from the same pony as before. Twilight could hear hoofsteps left and right, likely from the other ponies desperately attempting to navigate this dark place. The voice of Decker came to assist the wailing pony; “Are you okay?” he asked while making his way for the origin of the cry.

The source of the noise spoke at last. The voice was light and faltering, but definitely male. “Where am I?”
“I have my theories but I cannot know for sure. What is more important is that you are in good health.” Decker replied calmly.
“I’m fine. A slight ache and some dizziness, is all.”

Then some more hoofsteps were heard followed by Decker’s voice, directed at everyone in the room. “How many are we here?”

There was a brief silence before Twilight’s avatar Maverick responded; “One…”
Decker continued, “…Two…”
One of the females picked up the trail, “…Three…”
The other, deeper female voice followed, “...Four…”
A third and previously unnoticed female said; “…Five…”
The ‘dizzy’ pony eventually concluded; “…Six.”
Silence fell upon the room, and ‘seven’ was nowhere to be heard.

Eventually Decker took it upon himself to take on the leadership role. “So we are six… Oh well, my ponies. I know where we are.”
“Where are we, then?!” Maverick reiterated.

A sudden flash silenced them all as the simplistic yet decorative crystal chandelier lit up the room from the ceiling above. They were located in a ginormous hall with an at least ten feet tall exit. Unfortunately, the doors were sealed tight. The ambience that this room emitted was that of a really old castle, as punctuated by the central chandelier. Aside from it and the wooden double exit doors, they found themselves observing the aged floor, impressive staircase leading upstairs, archaic artwork and furniture whose wooden shapes and patterns had surely been carefully carved by hooves ages ago.

The place had an unsettling atmosphere overall. The female ponies were all looking around and inspecting for themselves. The first male was light blue, crouched up against the wall and noticeably distressed. He really did remind Twilight of Fluttershy and how she would react in this strange situation. The other male pony had a brown fur color, darker mane and was frantically writing down notes into his notebook. He identified himself as Decker with his voice after finishing up a page: “Six ponies; three female and three male. Two pegasi, two unicorns and two earth ponies. This place sure loves patterns.”

Twilight had a look around and gazed at the different races. She saw the two unicorns, both female. She also saw the two pegasi, one female and the other was the crouched up colt on the floor. But she saw only one earth pony, Decker, so she assumed that Maverick was one as well.

Maverick spoke up. “As I asked; where are we?!” He was getting frustrated. Twilight could feel that. She was a momentary part of him, and felt confusion and impatience suppress any other emotions. The other ponies were looking at him, and then at Decker who faltered. “Well… I think… I think we are in…”

An unforeseen and immediate earthquake threw all of the ponies off their balance and onto the hard, wooden planks that made up the floor. Maverick landed in front of a broken mirror. He looked into one of the larger shards and saw a light brown and rather troubled creature. There was no horn in his forehead nor any wings on his back. All that could be seen was the blue mane that spread itself out across his ears and neck. Twilight asked herself; Why do I possess you? What makes you so special?

He turned around and glanced over at Decker who had been interrupted for the second time a few seconds earlier. With a terrified expression, Decker pointed past him and finished his sentence by declaring “We are in Tantibus!”. Maverick turned his attention towards where Decker was pointing. The wall was covered in fresh, dripping blood shaping a small welcoming message to the visitors.

THE RULES OF THE TANTIBUS CHALLENGE

Terrified screams and gasps came from left and right. Someone claimed it all to be a cruel joke and another was on the verge of tears. Shortly after, a new line wrote itself in front of them.

RULE ONE; ONLY ONE COMPETITOR CAN LEAVE TANTIBUS ALIVE

“Sweet Celestia!” shouted the female pegasi, still unnamed.
Letter by letter, blood stained the wall as if through black magic. In just a moment, they could observe the second rule.

RULE TWO; THAT COMPETITOR MAY ONLY DO SO WHEN ALL OTHERS ARE DEAD

Maverick’s voice echoed in his own mind as only he and Twilight could hear it. He was praying to Celestia or whichever force responsible for the existence that was in all likelihood about to end for his part. Only one of them would leave and with a 16.5% chance of survival, the odds were not in his favor. His mind was racing to find solutions. What if I get the first hit? That would give me an advantage. There are three females, surely I am stronger than they are and… What am I thinking…? Snap out of it, Maverick! You can’t kill these ponies! How could I live with the guilt?! No, I would rather sacrifice myself. Twilight was shocked to hear his mind unravel and found herself also begging for a way for this to turn out well, but she knew the rules. They were clear as night and day, and by the end of this day…

Five ponies would be dead.

A hoof surfaced from underneath the covers and pulled the curtain. In one motion, it covered up the small window next to the bed. Twilight’s eyes could not adjust to the quite painful and bright morning sunshine that had just woke her up. When she came to think about it... Why did she not cover the window before going to bed? She pondered for a moment and remembered why. She had left the window cleared of the curtain’s cloth because she felt more relaxed having the moon’s natural light shine over her, aiding her sleep. She had been very unsettled because…

Her eyes and mouth opened promptly and she pushed off the covers. She threw a quick glance to her right and on her nightstand she found the book ‘Spooky Tales & Legends’, just as she had left it before falling asleep. She readjusted her position so she faced the bedside table completely, and then used her magic to open the book up for her.

Page 82. ‘The Dark Mansion’.

“Tantibus…” Twilight recalled her incredibly vivid dream. “It felt so real… Wait a minute!” Twilight jumped out of the bed, awoke Spike on her way and ran over to the bloody note. ”Decker and Maverick… They each had their own tombstone on that field I saw! Did I just relive their encounter with the challenge?! Was it real?”

“Twilight… What is going on?” croaked a tired Spike.
“Just some research… You can go back to bed, Spike.”
“I’m hardly going to be able to do that now that I’m fully awake!” He groaned.
“I’m sorry. I had an… interesting dream.” Twilight Sparkle resumed her discussion in her head. That light blue and shy pegasus… was that Aeon? I need to find out if these ponies really existed. Twilight Sparkle walked into one of the rooms of the library and shortly came back out again, bringing a thick book with her.

“What are you doing now?” Spike asked while rubbing his eyes to easier make out the details with his recently and rudely awakened vision.
“I’m trying to look up Aeon and some other ponies from this ‘Spooky Tale & Legends’-book in our library’s register to see if they are real.”
“But Twilight… We only have Ponyville’s register here. You’ll only find ponies that were born in Ponyville in there.”

Twilight set the register down on the table in realization and turned to Spike. “That’s true.”

Twilight contemplated on where she could find registers that covered all of Equestria until she came up with an idea. “Well, Spike. Since you are already awake, would you mind sending a letter to Princess Celestia?”
“Sure, I guess… Which one?” He mumbled.
“I have to write it first, silly.” Twilight grabbed a quill and an empty note using her magic and began writing. She started with a simple, polite greeting and then moved on to excusing herself for the odd request that she was about to propose. She just had to find some information on a certain group of ponies, that’s all. Then, she wrote down a list of ponies from both Aeon’s and Flaming Ace’s Tantibus challenges. She also wrote down the author, Landon, who had written ‘The Dark Mansion’. Finishing it off, she excused herself one more time for her silly errand and then wrote her goodbye.

“There. Send it.” Twilight instructed Spike and shortly after; the letter was sent. Now she just had to wait for the response.

The response came shortly after Twilight had set up their breakfast. Rudely, Spike burped green smoke along with the letter just before they began eating their eggs.

“Excuse me.” Spike chuckled as he handed over the letter from the princess. “Here you go, Twilight.”

My faithful student, Twilight Sparkle

Luckily, I had an open window in my schedule today, so I took the time to look up your small list of ponies in Canterlot’s royal library. The first group you write about do not appear anywhere, except ‘Flaming Ace’ who is deceased. The rest, including ‘Landon’, seem to not exist. However, this other group of yours intrigued me. They existed and all seemed to have gone missing around the same time. But that was very long ago, and they have been pronounced dead since.

After that, followed a list of the ponies that had vanished or died and at what time period they did. So the group from ‘The Dark Mansion’ was completely fictional. That makes sense… But not Flaming Ace? Celestia writes that he was real but died later. But surely, it must have been Landon that was the real one? If not him, who wrote the novel?

Twilight opened the book again and looked around for clues. Then she brought up Princess Celestia’s letter to double check. She read the last sentence again of ‘The Dark Mansion’.

I’m sorry…

“Wait a minute! Flaming Ace died two days after the novel was first published! Of course! Flaming Ace wrote it himself under a pseudonym. Who else could reflect Flaming Ace’s emotions in such an intimate way other than himself?” Twilight’s conclusion had brought her joy, but the glee then quickly faded from her face as she considered the weight of the realization, “That poor thing, ending his life after such misery…”

“Burp!” Spike forwarded another letter to her library. On unsteady legs he approached and handed it over to her.

“Another letter from Princess Celestia?” Twilight asked. Spike simply shrugged his shoulders and returned to his breakfast. Twilight took a sip from her cup of apple cider and began reading again.

Dear Twilight Sparkle

You have to excuse me. It appears that I was wrong on one of the ponies. As it turns out, the pegasus Aeon is still alive and located in the mental institution of Canterlot for alarming behavior and self-inflicted injuries. It is also filed that he never communicates verbally, the most probable causes being listed as either trauma or an unknown mental disorder as they had found nothing wrong with his vocal cords.

If you would like to visit this candidate of yours, I’d be happy to provide you with a train ticket. Myself, I will be quite busy during the upcoming days so unfortunately you would be on your own after you step off at Canterlot’s train station.

With all regards, The Princess.

In shock, Twilight instinctively spit out the apple cider as she exclaimed; “Aeon is ALIVE?!”

The Fourth Chapter

Author's Note

This is your last warning. From this chapter on, there will be blood...
Happy Halloween ;)

The Fourth Chapter

THE FOURTH CHAPTER

“Are you sure you want to do this, Twilight?” Spike asked. It was later that evening and Twilight was underway in the process of packing. With graceful motions using her magical levitation spell, she packed the few things she would need for her small journey. Aeon’s note, her copy of ‘Spooky Tales & Legends’, the train ticket Princess Celestia had sent her, some pocket change, a piece of snack to eat during the trip and some other insignificant items. She was departing with the early morning train, so her packing preferably had to be done before heading to bed.

“Yes. It is crucial to my research for me to learn more about his experience with Tantibus.”
“But Twilight, did you not read what Princess Celestia had written? He hasn’t spoken a word for years!”
“Maybe I can change that. After all, I know what happened to him. I saw him in my dream. If it was real, that is.”
“When will you come back?” Spike wondered.
“The trip should only take one day. I’ll leave early in the morning and you can expect me to be home by dinner time.” Twilight added while closing up her saddlebag. “There, I’m set for tomorrow.”

Twilight could now only wait for the fatigue to catch up with her, and then for the morning to shine. As a matter of fact, she was quite eager to fall asleep. She was hoping that she could at last discover what happened to Maverick and Aeon. Also, Twilight could not help but to feel a small resemblance between Decker and herself.

Spike on the other hand did not think too much of Twilight’s new passion. She was always chasing a new myth or legend, trying to prove or disprove its existence. If you are a friend of Twilight you will quickly get used to her constant research and studying, he used to think.

To begin with, Spike used to come along on her trips and assist her in her travels, but now he had just accepted her love for discovery. Besides, someone had to take care of the library while she was gone.

The train will drop me off in the center of Canterlot. From there, it should just be a twenty minute walk to the Canterlot Mental Institution. That ought to be easy, as long as I remember where to go and which roads to take. Twilight went through her plan and routes one more time before finally blowing out the candle, falling asleep soon after.

All of the ponies backed off into their own corner, not trusting anyone else but themselves. Maverick’s thoughts were racing to find a possible escape plan. There were no windows and the main door was as blocked off as it could be. There were also remnants of a large staircase, covered in a torn up red carpet, leading up to the second floor, but it was just rubble and impossible to climb. There were four other doors in the hall. Two of them were one on each side of the giant staircase. The other two were on the other walls, opposite from each other. All of them were locked. Maverick ran up to one of them and began bucking on the door in hopes of breaking it down, but it did not as much as budge.

“What are you doing?” one of the female ponies asked. It was one of the unicorns. She had light blue fur matching the fur of Aeon. However, she had a pink mane whilst Aeon’s was light brown.
“I am looking for a way out of here!” Maverick shouted back. The startled unicorn backed off at the sudden outburst and attitude coming from the colt. The other ponies, now gripped by hysteria, started searching for a way out just like him.

The female pegasus was jumping frantically next to the broken staircase.
“I… I can’t fly!” she shouted panicking.
“Well of course, my dear. That would be cheating.” Decker stated while at the same time writing down in his journal what he had just said. That notebook, everything he knows about Tantibus is probably written in that notebook. If there only was a way for me to get a hold of it. Twilight added, unfortunately as a powerless spectator.
“What do you mean?” Maverick ceased his battering on the door and faced him. Maverick’s internal voice grew more agitated, with rising suspicion and contempt. That professor… How come he knows so much about this place?! More than he should if you ask me…
“Well, flying and magic would be an unfair advantage in a challenge like this. Makes only sense to deactivate it. You there, the yellow and red mare…”

The unicorn with canary yellow fur and bright rose mane looked over at Decker and retorted, “My name is Glory.”

“Well, Glory.” He corrected himself while with his hoof pushing forth a small vase in her direction. “Here. Make this float.”

The unicorn did her best, concentrating all of her energy into her horn, but the vase simply would not budge. It remained in its wobbly place on the creaky planks below.
“I can’t.” she confessed, giving up her struggle.
“And neither can we earth ponies. We are level now. This mansion wants a fair battle.”

Finally, Maverick had had enough of this know-it-all and spoke a piece of his mind. “And why do you know so much about this shit-hole?!”

Somewhat offended, the dark brown pony turned around to face the aggressor. “Mind your language, mister.” Keeping his composure, Decker continued. “But as for your question; when I first heard of this legend, I found it truly fascinating. For weeks, I studied its origin, rules, locations, and competitors. Quite frankly, it was only a matter of time before I ended up here myself.”

The female pegasi turned to the professor, asking him “If you are such an expert, why don’t you tell us how to get out of here?”
Decker, who was now the center of attention, answered. “Well, you see. There is one way for you to escape Tantibus, actually.”
“What is that?” The second unicorn commanded.

Still retaining his calm, he peacefully made his way across the immense hall. With creaky steps echoing and enveloping the room, he approached the bloodstained wall. There he simply pointed at the still dripping letters. “Win.”

“Are you crazy?!” Glory yelled.
“What if we refuse?” Aeon suggested while getting up on unsteady hooves. He looked quite frail. Weak and a pacifist... How did he win? Twilight thought with morbid curiosity.
“Well, I am afraid it is not that easy for us to…” Decker began but was abruptly interrupted as the candles in the crystal chandelier blew out. “This again…”

One of the mares shrieked for a moment, startled by the sudden darkness, but three more followed when the light came back. It was only Maverick and Decker that did not lose it at the sight of the newly added arsenal of blunt and edged weapons. In the center of the room, they could now find everything from sledgehammers and axes to swords and knives. There was even a morning star lying fairly close to the broken staircase. Maverick flinched and Decker once again took notes.

“Why do you keep writing in that thing?!” Maverick shouted.
“Well, my chances of survival are very small. I might as well write down as much information as I can so that someone in the future may find it. And maybe…” Decker looked straight into the eyes of Maverick and straight into the observing eyes of Twilight, as if he knew she was present, “Just maybe… Figure out a way to stop this challenge once and for all.”

“You guys are not going to… accept the challenge? Right?” Aeon said with a hint of panic in his voice.
“I’m not going to. But the end result is inevitable.” Decker replied.
“Neither am I!” shouted the female pegasus, who did not seem to get the ‘the end result is inevitable’ part.
“I’d rather commit suicide than end the life of a fellow pony. So make that four of us!” Glory stated.
“Then it is settled! We aren’t going give in to the insane rules of this maniac!” The other, light blue unicorn finished proudly.

The ponies grouped up, trying their best to laugh it off while ignoring the underlying despair. Decker seemed to only fake interest in the superficial chatter, only nodding when it felt appropriate. He was instead deeply engrossed in his own notes, as if he had made a discovery or something else worth writing at lengths about. Twilight wanted to wonder what, but something else caught her interest more. Unlike the rest, one pony did not join the group and instead walked unnoticed forward to a nearby sword.

The group exchanged identities to make it morally harder for anypony to even think about committing to the challenge. The female pegasus was first to introduce herself; and she was named Skydance. Twilight also overheard Aeon confirming his name.

Soon, it was the light blue, female unicorn’s turn to introduce herself. “Well, my name is Dawna. I have a big sister, mom and dad. In my free time…”

Dawna’s words were left hanging in the sustained atmosphere of the bitter, old and worn hall of this mansion. As a last effort from her failing muscles she raised her hoof in fierce pain and stroked her own throat. The hoof was now dripping red as she brought it forth. The dying pony attempted to scream but the exertion of using her vocal cords was met with insufferable agony and choking gags of blood.

Her hoof met the steel blade that had penetrated her from her neck. As the steel blade was slowly retracted through her flesh she fell down onto the floor and Dawna was no more. As the body was forming a growing puddle on the floor, everyone’s attention was directed at the pony responsible.

With a firm stance, soulless expression and a killer stare, Maverick was ready to strike again.

The Fifth Chapter

THE FIFTH CHAPTER

Drenched in sweat and feelings of anguish, Twilight immediately rose up into a sitting stance, nearly sending her sheets over the edge of the bed. This nightmare was by far more intense than the previous Tantibus dream.

She tried to make herself relax and slow down her breathing, but the thoughts of the events and the screams from her nightmare remained like markings in her mind, making her dramatic gasp for air persist. Unlike last night, she this time had her nightmare fresh in memory.

She grabbed a corner of the bed sheet and had it act as a makeshift cloth, patting her forehead and around her horn with it. Her heart rate started to slow down and enabled her to gather her thoughts.

This nightmare had taken a drastic and dark turn with the vivid murder of ‘Dawna’. It was scarring to see the way which she had collapsed to the floor, motionless, with just her head twitching from the blood pouring out of her throat. The red puddle kept expanding beneath her, soaking into the cracks of the wooden floor. And then there were the screams. The horrified cries and the realization that the challenge had started, with no going back.

But there was one pony whose panicked screams vastly outmatched the rest. Desperate and heartbreaking cries for mercy that wanted nothing more than to be left alone. Those were the screams of the killer himself.

Being a spectator and listener of not only his eyes and ears, but also his mind; Twilight was the only other pony to ever hear or see Maverick’s sinister side of things in this challenge.

Even though his eyes showed a thirst for blood, his mind was breaking down from within. As his puppet body took action, his brain experienced the three common phases that usually every selected Tantibus individual will go through.

Phase 1; Confusion
What is happening? I can’t seem to control myself. I can’t move! Someone help me! Help! I can’t talk either. What is this? Wait, what am I doing? What is happening to me?!

Phase 2; Realization
Oh my goodness! The blade… I’m going to... Oh please no! Somepony! Something! Help me!

And finally…
Phase 3; Desperation
Somebody, help me! Run! Run away from me! Please! Can anybody out there hear me?! Please! I’m begging you! They are innocent! They don’t deserve to die! Make me kill myself instead! Please! I’m begging you. Please… Anybody… Help me...

Twilight was there. She could hear him. Every word, every scream and every cry. But just as Maverick was to his actions, Twilight found herself helpless and could not do anything but watch and witness the events unfold.

Maverick became the ‘selected’ contestant. It is an unwritten rule that is put to action in almost every Tantibus round. Whenever somebody’s life is at risk, the ponies in his or her immediate vicinity will do anything to save it. This empathy, naturally, causes every nearly contestant to refuse competing in the Tantibus challenge. But that is where Tantibus’ trick kicks in. As a final resort to boost the ‘action’, one individual will be chosen to ‘start’ the challenge. They become a puppet. They become the ‘selected’.

By now, Twilight Sparkle had this figured out as she was comparing the similar actions between those of Maverick and the ones Flaming Ace took, when he also claimed to have lost control of his body.

Twilight glanced out the small rounded window by her bed. The red sky came marching in the horizon and dawn was on its way. As she turned her head, her eyes then met her alarm which was set to go off in about a half hours’ time from that point.

“There is no way I’m going to be able to snooze after that…” Twilight Sparkle muttered with her raspy morning voice. On steady hooves, she slowly got out of bed, deactivated her alarm and went down the stairs. Coming down the stairs, Twilight saw the saddle bag that she had prepared lying on the small, rounded table. She decided to kill time by going through it one more time. As expected, everything was there, including the one train ticket she had received from Celestia. It was good for one trip to, and return from, the center of Canterlot. She also got herself a glimpse of Aeon’s message one more time. She stopped and looked at it for a while.

“With Maverick on that murderous path, how the heck did you survive?!” She put the unpleasant note back in the bag. “I guess I’ll find out today, if he really is located at the Canterlot Mental Institution… Wow… I just still cannot get it through my head that he is actually still alive… A living witness…”

Twilight sealed up the saddlebag and resumed her morning routine by entering the kitchen. She got going with her own breakfast, which was something that she had not counted on actually having the time for. As a result of her abrupt awakening, she did have a few extra minutes at her disposal.

A nutritious breakfast later she finished up her chores for the morning and got ready to head out in the youthful and beautiful morning. Before she left, she trotted over to her number one assistant and gave him a peck on the cheek.

What she did not know was that that innocent little kiss would be the last thing she would ever do for her most loyal friend in the world before he were to have his heart irreparably broken.

With that done, she went outside, closed and locked the door. She could now commence her journey to the capital.

A small puddle erupted in a splash as the purple hoof stepped off the train. The first step in Canterlot for weeks and it was raining. Luckily, Twilight’s errands in the capital were not exactly outside. But she did originally have plans for some sightseeing while she was there. With those plans scratched, she set trail for the Mental Institution without a moment’s delay. She looked up to the sky and saw a few weather ponies managing the clouds, adding moisture to Canterlot’s fields.

“Today out of all days?” she pretended to yell at them and continued. “I guess I’ll be saving even more time now.”

She galloped through the various streets that she had memorized the night before. But after running through a few blocks, she noticed that she had long ago deviated from the path and the near inevitable had happened; she had gotten lost.

If this had been a few years prior, Twilight would have no problem at all navigating the city. But years had passed and much reconstruction had taken place, mostly to fit in new rails for the trains. The streets still had their names but this particular street must have been new, as she had not heard of its name before. Either that, or she was truly lost.

Twilight placed herself underneath a nearby awning to take a moment to recuperate. She was surprised at how much could really change during those few years, but after all; this was the capital and center of the industrial evolution. She had even read in the Equestria Inquirer the other day that researchers at the Canterlot’s Scientific Institute, also known as the CSI, were performing experiments on other ways of conserving lightning than clouds. Just a few centuries ago, ponies barely knew how to control clouds in the first place. It truly is fascinating.

She glanced across the street and saw a sign. It read ‘Canterlot Tourist Agency’. “Perhaps they can provide me with a map and directions?” Twilight took off, rushed across the street and opened the door to the agency.

Behind the counter in the store, stood a fairly jaded earth pony. The mare had light pink fur with a combed mane. The mane had two different dyes of green matching her equally green eyes. Her cutie mark was a magnifying glass, usually a sign of curiosity.

“Can I help you?” She spoke gently.
“Yes, do you have maps of Canterlot?” Twilight responded.
“Of course! This is a tourist agency isn’t it?” she said with a giggle and turned around to retrieve a map from the high shelves, which was proving to be difficult.
“Otherwise, I could do that for you.” Twilight offered her help, being a unicorn, but the tourist agent neglected it.
“Nah. Just because I’m an earth pony, that doesn’t mean I’m completely hopeless!”

Finally, she knocked the map off of from the shelf and caught it midair. “See!”
“Thanks.” Twilight received and immediately rolled up the scroll to have a peek. “Do you happen to know where the Canterlot Mental Institution is?”
“Not the most popular tourist destination… But yes, I do. It is right over here, see.” The pink pony marked a cross over a building in the nearby area with a quill. “My uncle lives there.”

Before Twilight could say anything, the mare continued hastily. “He is not mad or anything! He is just… It is just that his wife passed away and he hasn’t been feeling all too well about it lately. He seems fine but insisted that he needed the treatment.” She looked up at Twilight. “If you are going there, say hello to him for me will you? His name is Luthus Regenard.”

“I will, don’t worry.” Twilight assured her, “Very fancy name, he’s got.”

The agent grinned. “Yeah. I love him; he is like a father to me. My real father is good too, but he just doesn’t seem to care about me as much as uncle Luthus does…” At that moment she interrupted herself by highlighting Twilight’s cutie mark. “Your cutie mark! It is an... uhm... What is it exactly?”

Twilight took the hint and went along with the change of subject, “It is a sparkle. After all, my name is Twilight Sparkle! My special talent is performing magic! I’d like to say that I’m pretty good at it, too.”
“Wow. I have always been fascinated by magic and cutie marks my whole life. I mean, how does it actually work?”
“I see... Your cutie mark, the magnifying glass, does it mean that you are fond of knowledge?”
“A bit, I guess. But I believe it more represents my love for adventures! And exploring! You see, that is why I applied to work at a tourist agency. I thought that it would allow me to travel and see things! Not just being stuck here as a clerk… I want to see the world!”
“Well, are you interested in legends too?”
“Is it real?”
“I believe it is.”
“Then tell me!”

Then Twilight Sparkle told the story of Tantibus and what she knew of it. She also explained her trip and told the cute little tourist agent that she thought that a former contestant was located at the mental institute. Of course, the light pink earth pony was just thrilled by the mystery.

“Aww… I would love to come with you, I really would! It seems captivating!” Then she hung her head down submissively. “But I can’t… My shift doesn’t end until closing time. It’s just me here today. But I’ll check it out later, I promise!”
“That’s no problem at all! I have to go now, though. Hey, I didn’t catch your name by the way?”
“Oh it’s Avany… Avany Lace.”
“My name is Twilight Sparkle.”
“I know that. You’ve already mentioned that, silly!”
“Oh well, it’s been nice talking to you, Avany.”
“Could only say the same, Twilight.”

And so, Twilight left the charming little agency to find the mental institute and the only Tantibus contestant alive. She also left the last friend she would ever make before staring into the eyes of death.

The rain had stopped and it seemed to her that she had been chatting with that clerk for longer than she had originally thought. Avoiding puddles on her way, she resumed her walk towards her destination that was to her surprise not especially far from her current location. It was actually only a couple of minutes later that she had arrived to the old white building. It had a lawn in front of it with a big sign on it that read with large green letters ‘CANTERLOT MENTAL INSTITUTE’. There was a neat gravel walkway laid over the grass, leading up to the entrance that she was walking towards. “I guess this is it.” Twilight whispered gently as she approached the aforementioned entrance, and then went inside.

Immediately, she found herself in a small lobby. There were not many visitors waiting in the lobby this particular day, luckily, so she would not have to wait for too long. There was a desk far into the room, opposite the entrance. It was the first thing you saw as you entered the building.

Soon enough, there was nopony at the helpdesk so Twilight seized the opportunity to get to her turn. As she arrived, the stallion behind the desk inquired; “How can I assist you?”

He was a fully grown stallion with white fur. He reminded her of her own brother, Shining Armor. The mane was lightly red and shortly cut. It suited him quite well, so Twilight figured that maybe it would fit on Shining Armor too? She could not help but to picture her brother with this mane cut.

“I would like to pay a visit to a friend of mine.”
Fairly disinterested and with a monotonous tone, the stallion responded; “Your name?”
“Twilight Sparkle.”
“And whom would you like to visit?” He was preparing and signing a slip of paper.
“Aeon.” Twilight replied.

The white and red stallion stopped writing and took a closer look at this visitor. It was not normal for Aeon to receive visitors, and he had never seen this mare before. But it was not his job to meddle in others’ affairs, so he looked back down and wrote ‘Aeon’ onto the paper. Then, he handed it over to Twilight and asked her to sign it. After doing so, she was simply instructed to ‘wait for assistance’.

She followed the instructions and took a seat in the waiting room. A few quite boring and tedious minutes passed until a big white door opened. A nurse came out and asked for ‘Twilight Sparkle’.

“That’s me.” Twilight responded and walked out of the lobby through the white door that the nurse so kindly held open.

As they were walking through the corridors, Twilight felt relieved that the nurse was by far nicer than the stiff stallion from the waiting room. This was mostly because of the lighthearted conversation she maintained between the two of them.

“So, what’s the reason for your visit?” The nurse asked politely.
“Oh, I’m just an old acquaintance.” Twilight lied, she had already told the Tantibus story once today and did not feel like doing it again on such short notice. “Why are you asking?”
“It’s just that it is so rare for Aeon to receive visits nowadays.” The nurse explained. “It’s been months now since his own relatives last visited him as well. You know, since he doesn’t talk at all.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard about that. How do you communicate with him?”
“He has a blackboard and a white chalk that he uses to draw key words and sometimes brief sentences with. But even with that he doesn’t say much, usually only when it comes to important matters such as food or other necessities.”
“Any ideas on exactly why he can’t talk?” Twilight remarked.
“No one quite knows why. We’ve had doctors come in and check on him but nothing physical is off about him.”

Twilight thought about Tantibus and his experience with it, “What about psychological or emotional problems?”
“He could hardly be doing it out of free will when it comes to something as important as speech. The therapists we’ve had here think it’s because of something traumatizing that happened a while back…” She interrupted herself by declaring “Oh, here we are; Aeon’s room.”

Both the nurse and Twilight stopped in front of the white door. The nurse knocked on the door and said, “Aeon, you have a visitor! Isn’t that nice? …We’re coming in, okay?”. Then, she slowly pushed the door open and Twilight could see the inside of his room.
Finally, I have found him. I’m going to talk to him! She was excited and at the same time apprehensive of what could happen. What if he broke down? What if he had a heart attack when going back to his memories? Twilight took a deep breath and saw Aeon’s figure. I’ll just have to take it slowly…

Aeon had a light blue fur and a light brown mane, just as she remembered him from the dreams. He appeared as withdrawn as one could expect, and he showed no emotions. As for the room he was inhabiting, it had typical white walls. There was a bed against the wall to the right and a bookshelf by the wall to the left. There was also a door on that left wall, which Twilight assumed led to the bathroom. In the middle of the room, there was a table with an accompanying chair. And on the wall facing the doorway where Twilight was, she saw a window and a large blackboard.

Right now, Aeon was standing up and drew on the blackboard with a white piece of chalk. “WHO?”

Twilight glanced to her right, where she was met with the nurse nodding at her with encouragement. “I’m Twilight Sparkle, a friend.”

Aeon did not move and showed no interest.

Twilight started walking towards Aeon. She glanced back at the nurse, who did not really seem to mind. Taking it as validation to proceed, she sat down by the table and reached for her bag. “Aeon, I have something that belongs to you. Look.”

He turned around slowly, still very stiff. Twilight opened the bag and placed an item onto the table, then began pushing it towards its rightful owner.

It was a note, a note that he had written. He had written it sometime long ago, before he came to this place. It was a message written in blood, starting with his signature followed by his death declaration. It was what he thought would be his final words. Aeon glanced up with a look of surprise and distress facing the stranger. The first pony to ever see his note then leaned over and whispered to him; “I know what happened to you…”

The Seventh Chapter

THE SEVENTH CHAPTER

The nurse stood outside of the room, done happily preaching the good news in the break room and now going through notes on her clipboard to pass the time. She heard shouting emanating from inside. It was muffled and unintelligible, since the doors were designed with lunatics in mind, but still distinct to a trained ear. She went as far as to place her hoof on the knob, with concern for Aeon. However, it seemed as if the visitor managed to calm him down on her own. The nurse was still worried, but Aeon knew to call for her help should he really need it. Besides, another part of her felt relieved that Aeon had someone who seemed to care and even relate to him, so much so that it cured him of his silence. He probably needed to get some anger out of his system, now that he could, and the guest handled it well from what she could hear. Better leave them to it, she thought, And then I can ask about it later.

She took her eye off the knob for a second and before she knew it, it turned on its own and the guest was exiting. It had been a while, and the nurse could not help but to feel intrigued by the conversation that must have gone down. They exchanged glances, but hers was not met with enthusiasm.
“How did it go? What did he say?”

Twilight, ashamed for stirring him up, replied: “We uh… We had a bit of an argument at the end.” Twilight took a second to think and grew paranoid. It was her fault, after all. “His throat hurts from speaking, and his past sort of… came up. He might need some assistance… I am sorry...”

The nurse did not respond and instead opened the door to Aeon’s room. As soon as she looked inside, she knew that she had her work cut out for her. “Oh dear…” she expressed. “Uhm… Ms. Sparkle. You can go on without me. You remember the exit, right?”

Twilight nodded in return and turned around to walk away. But before she did, she looked back and asked: “Is he going to be alright?”

The nurse caught her eye contact for a moment but withheld any response. Then she went inside Aeon’s room without a word.

A solemn Twilight Sparkle walked the corridors of the mental institution, alone in company and in her mind. The forsaken hoof-steps echoed off of the lifeless, white walls sealing off a select few from civilization. The doors she passed were marked with a number and the name of the resident. Twilight half-expected to see her own name and walk inside. In her current state, she felt no less depressed than the patients she would call her neighbors.

Twilight momentarily forgot about Aeon and her own melancholy as she observed the fancy signature she was supposed to remember. Here it was; the ‘home’ of Luthus Regenard. She had just passed the door on her left when her brain made the connection. She went back, knocked on the door briefly, and then waited for a response. A husky and grave voice commanded “Who is it?”.

Twilight did not want to play the ‘a friend’-card again, instead speaking truthfully and hoping for the best: “Twilight Sparkle.”
“I don’t know any ‘Twilight Sparkle’…”, was the exact type of hostile response she did not want to hear. She continued regardless.
“Uhm… I am here on the behalf of Avany… Avany Lace.” Twilight said.

She heard Luthus murmur to himself before unlocking the door. He slowly opened the door and Twilight was introduced to Avany’s uncle. His fur was light grey and his mane was cut short and white as snow. He had a lengthy goatee of facial hair that had lived a long life and seen much.

He instructed her to take a seat on a chair as he did the same on the opposing side of a rounded, wooden table. He appeared sincere and plagued by worry. Twilight did not know what to make of it, so eventually Luthus forced himself to ask:
“What has happened to my daughter?” He cleared his throat and corrected his mistake, “…I mean niece. Is she okay? My little Avany?”

Twilight was confused by the somber tone of his questions. Was she missing something here? Then she realized what it actually sounded like to tell someone ‘I’m here on the behalf of someone you love’. Such an introduction would never bode well for the news that followed.

“Oh no, I’m sorry! I did not mean to say it like that… Excuse me... Avany is fine. I’m a friend of hers.” Twilight got back on track and Luthus expressed a sigh of relief. He seemed like quite a genuine and mature stallion. “In fact, I was instructed to stop by with a simple message.”
“Oh, alright. What is that then?”
“She loves you. She wanted me to remind you of that, while I was here. I was on my way here to visit another friend of mine.”
“How sweet of her, sending over a friend like that! Why couldn’t she come?”
“She had work to do. She said she was alone on her shift.”
“Typical Avany, always working herself to the bone. Can’t say I’m surprised. I’ve always admired her passion.” The old stallion had a really charming attitude and a warm, husky voice that you could listen to for ages. Twilight thought to herself how lucky Avany must be to have an uncle like Luthus. Just imagine hearing bed-time stories from this voice…
“Why don’t you make an old timer happy, eh?” He chuckled. “You can tell her that I love her with all of my heart, and that nothing will change that. You see… It was not the first time I’ve accidentally referred to her as ‘my daughter’…”

Twilight was unsure whether or not she had time for another stop before the next train would leave. However, she was afraid that she would break the old fellow’s heart by saying no, or mentioning that she barely knew Avany in the first place. Instead, she concluded by saying that she would do anything to make him happy.

Shortly after, she was on her way. As Twilight passed through the main lobby again, she glanced at the clock and was reminded of the train she needed to catch. It was the train she had planned to take home and it was going to be a tight race to make it in time.

“I suppose I could take the next train, so that I can go to the Tourist Agency and deliver Luthus’ response.” She begun to slow down, but then she recalled her promise to Spike… ‘Expect me to be home by dinner time.’ “Oh no… that would make me hours late! Spike would be so worried…”

As Twilight walked out on the streets she decided to go with her promise to Spike. Avany already knew that Luthus loved her, and she was going to visit him later today anyway. “Who knows what Spike would do without me?”

Meanwhile, back in the library, Spike had just closed for the day. A little bit early, but Spike was adamant that he had deserved it for working so hard.

He really did utilize Twilights absence to the best of his abilities. He hoarded all of the pillows, bed sheets and mattresses in the tree house and stacked them in a pile on the floor. Then he scurried up on the second floor’s elevated platform and dove off straight into the cuddly pit, exclaiming “Woohoo!”.

Twilight rushed onto the train station platform, but stopped and looked around. Panting, and with growing stress, she noticed how empty the platform was. There were only a little newspaper colt and the occasional bystander calmly going about their own business. That’s strange. Where is everypony? It’s usually quite crowded. Did I miss the train?

She walked up to a tangerine stallion, who was in the midst of a chat with his spouse, and attempted to squeeze a word in: “Excuse me, sir.”
“Yes?” he turned around.
“The train to Ponyville, has it gone early?”
“Uh…” he hesitated for a moment, “I think the trains have all been cancelled.”
“Really?” Twilight’s heart sank, “Why?”
The stallion simply shrugged, “Not quite sure. I am just here to admire the rainbow with my wife and kids.”

Twilight was reminded of the dull weather from earlier. After a very cumbersome and tightly scheduled shift, the weather ponies would typically produce a majestic rainbow across the sky. It is partly to apologize for the inconvenience, but also acted as a signal that they are finished. According to the stallion, over Canterlot, it was best seen from the train station platform.

Twilight left the family alone to wonder at the rainbow. She would too, were it not for the stress weighing her down. “That is so strange. Why would they be cancelled on such short notice?” she asked herself.

A sudden young voice squeaked from her behind; “I know why the trains are cancelled, ma’am!”

As Twilight swung around, she saw that it was the newspaper colt. “Oh thank you. Can you tell me what that reason may be?”

“5 bits, ma’am.” He teased and flaunted his bundle of papers. It was a cheap trick to get her attention, but the newspapers might actually have contained the information she wanted.

“Fine.” Twilight reached for her bag and retrieved the money that was meant for breakfast. “I ate at home anyway…”

The paper colt, content with the transaction, walked away with his new earnings, leaving her with a copy of the evening paper, fresh off the printer. In there, she found the explanation she was looking for.

As it turns out, the weather ponies were behind on their schedule. Very much so, in fact. And it was only made worse when the pegasi could not handle the pressure of punctuality. One particular mare, new on the job, had mistakenly fired a lightning bolt into some shrubbery. This was near the train rails, and a small fire was started. It was stopped before escalating to a forest fire, but not before trees and debris has fallen on the rails. As a result, all trains were to be cancelled for the day. The last paragraph of the article read:

‘These problems will hopefully be addressed quickly enough so that all trains can resume transport by the morning’, the Director of Canterlot Weather concluded.

“I suppose I have no choice but to spend the night here in Canterlot. Poor Spike… Hopefully he can read about the delay in the newspaper as well.” Twilight sighed and tried to look on the bright side, “Maybe this is a sign that I should pay Avany another visit.”

Thankfully, she managed to remember the path to the tourist agency. But the streets around her appeared almost deserted, and a discouraging atmosphere settled in as the night washed over the city. She would likely have gotten cold feet over it, were it not for the street lights granting her some visibility.

When she finally stood outside the agency, she was sad to see that there was nothing but darkness waiting inside and she was met with a sign on the door reading ‘closed’.

“Of course. Just my luck.” Twilight groaned, “There is probably no point in trying to send a letter to anyone either, as the post office must be closed as well.”

She decided to do the only thing she could do, which was find a place to stay over the night and hope for it all to be better the next day.

Princess Celestia noticed the train-related inconvenience that might have affected Twilight Sparkle, and could not help but to blame herself. She had invited Twilight to Canterlot and given her today’s ticket, including the now cancelled return trip. What if she did not have enough bits to stay here for two days?

The Princess decided to pay her friend a visit, not only to apologize for the trouble but also to reconvene for the first time in a long while. She made a promise that she would force herself to spare a few minutes from her duties, though not today. There would be no point in trying to track her down and visit her at this hour. Instead, she could do nothing but wait until morning and hope that Twilight could take care of herself for the night.

The next day, Celestia wasted no time in her hasty search. A couple of spells for tracking purposes and some instructions from polite pedestrians later, she had located and transported herself to the Inn at which Twilight was supposedly staying. As she now entered the charming establishment, all of the workers gasped and everypony in the lobby threw themselves on the ground in her presence. It was a part of her daily life that she could never quite get used to.

She granted the loyal citizens an appreciative smile, thanked them for their admiration and then commanded them to resume their lives. They tried, although half of them had forgotten what they were doing and stood bewildered, eyes gawking and jaws gaping. The Princess chuckled and approached the receptionist, who had managed to remain relatively calm so far.

“How may I be of assistance, Your Majesty?” she asked respectfully.
“I am actually here looking for someone.” the princess said, “Is there by any chance a ‘Twilight Sparkle’ residing here?”
The receptionist skimmed through the guestbook to confirm and indeed, that pony was among those listed. “Oh yes, she came and signed herself in late yesterday. I have not seen her since. Perhaps she has slept through the breakfast?”

She could hardly still be asleep, right? It was almost noon! What did she do yesterday? Celestia pondered, “Could you take me to her room, please?”
“Yes of course, ma’am.”

The receptionist picked up the matching spare key and then proceeded to show the royal visitor the way through their hallways. Not too long after, they reached their destination and the correctly numbered door came up in front of them.

The receptionist politely knocked on the door. There was no response, even after knocking again, this time loudly. The receptionist leaned in closely and inquired “Ms. Sparkle? You have a visitor. May we come in?”

The receptionist had been working all morning and was certain that Ms. Sparkle had not left in that time. Now, after the fourth ‘Hello?’, there was growing concern. Princess Celestia felt uneasy and hoped nothing had gone wrong. Collectively, they decided to use the spare key.

“Ms. Sparkle. We are coming in, okay?”

The receptionist unlocked the door and revealed what was inside. In this case, that answer was nothing. The bed sheets where undone and Twilight’s packing lay in a mess to side of the bed, as if just flung there in haste. She had simply vanished during the night.

The Princess was shocked and worried. No magic could help her locate the missing student. She wanted to remain optimistic and therefore reasoned to wait a day or so before jumping to any conclusions.

Two days went by and the Princess was distraught. Not only was Twilight her most favored and promising student, but she was essential to the Elements of Harmony. She was a living national treasure, required for the wellbeing of Equestria.

Three weeks went by and tears were shed, from the Princess to Twilight’s closest friends and family. Posters were everywhere, and the whole nation was searching for the missing unicorn.

Four months went by and all of Equestria could do nothing but lament their tragic loss.

But there was one more pony that went missing that exact same evening, very close nearby. Some individuals suspected that their disappearances were linked. However, without any evidence or traces to follow, the investigations led nowhere.

A couple were casually chatting and reading the paper at a Canterlot café, when a familiar but tragic subject was brought up. It had only recently faded from the public’s mind, but one could not resist the urge to ask once more…

“What ever happened to Twilight Sparkle? And then there was that other Canterlot resident… What was her name…? Oh yeah. Avany Lace...”

The Eighth Chapter

THE EIGHTH CHAPTER

Avany’s back was hurting and one of her legs was asleep. The reason why was obvious, seeing as she found herself on the floor. She could not recall how or when, but it seemed that she had fallen off of the side of the bed at some point during the night. However, she could not see the bed, or anything else for that matter, because of the darkness. It was pitch-black and the atmosphere was anything but welcoming. The air was cold, just like the rough foundation below her. There was a lingering sensation of hollow, as if you could feel the room feeding on your warmth. It was unsettling and a signal that something was not right. But she did not notice, as she had not fully come to her senses yet, remaining in a state of daze and disorientation. She was still transitioning from dream to reality, and in this moment nothing could feel out of the ordinary. The part of Avany’s brain that handled basic reasoning had simply not returned from its holiday as of yet. My covers are gone? Meh, that’s normal. - I’m on the floor? Happens all the time. - I’m stuck in a game of life and death where I’m most likely going to be violently murdered? Just my usual morning routine… wait what?!

She slowly opened her eyes and came to the unfathomable realization that she was not sleeping in her bed. In fact, she was not even in her home at all. And wherever she was, Avany was definitely not alone. She heard steps from about five feet to the left. Before she could react, a female voice from her right beat her to it and commanded “Who’s there?!”

Meanwhile, across the room from Avany’s location, there was another sleepy-head. This particular individual was having a serious moment of déjà vu. Twilight Sparkle had most certainly been through this before, including the abrupt awakening on the wooden floor as well as the ominous presence of Tantibus’ otherwise welcoming halls. Regardless, she managed to keep her emotions in check by lying to herself in disbelief, to escape the truth.

Have I not felt this before? Waking up in… in… Tantibus! But… why is it starting over again? I mean, last time it ended with Dawna’s death… and now I’m starting over? Maybe it’s portraying another Tantibus round. Flaming Ace’s perhaps?

Well, this was definitely another round... She just did not know that she was the star of the show yet.

“Who said that? And why are you in my house?!” a new voice commanded. It came from Apollo, a 32 year old pegasus from Baltimare. He just so happened to live in a rather large house, so he felt no different here than in his own hall of equal hollow and desolation. His initial interpretation of why he felt so unhinged and imperiled relied on his history of drinking a bit too much. He probably came home yesterday as drunk as ever, closed the door behind himself, locked it, hung up his coat, took off his shoes and then collapsed on the rug. This had happened four times already.

The original voice responded; “Whoa... Am I in your house? I’m sorry. I don’t remember getting here. Could you show me to the exit then?” This was the voice of Admira, a polite little unicorn from Canterlot.

“Sure, it’s over here… At least, I think it is over here... It is so dark.” He blindly faltered his way ahead and accidentally tripped over Twilight’s drowsy body.
Twilight grunted at the sudden kick to her back and was met with a very vivid shout. “What the hell? Who are you?! Why the hell is everypony in my house?!”

Twilight was agitated by the moronic and inaccurate assumptions that this stallion made.
“It is not ‘YOUR’ house!” she reactively exclaimed. Immediately after, her eyes shot wide open and she covered up her mouth in horror. Did I say that?! Oh Celestia, I’m in control. This is my body. She begun to sweat. Her body was itching all over and she found herself almost starting to hyperventilate. She could not believe it. I’m in Tantibus?!

The sudden outburst took Avany by surprise and her brain hastily got back to work. I know that voice! But from who… and where am I?! Now aware of the peculiar situation she found herself in, she slowly got up from the floor.

“Huh? Then where are we?!” Apollo argued, being caught off guard by both the stumble and agitated retort. But Twilight neither listened nor responded, remaining frozen solid in a state of shock. Perhaps this was ironic, considering that she was perhaps the only one who could properly answer that question at the moment.

Avany, now fully awake and on her hooves, assessed the situation. “Let’s just assume for the moment… that nobody here knows where we are, okay? I know I’m really confused, and it seems so are all of you.”
“Huh, what?” Apollo turned around and directed his attention to the part of the dark abyss from where he had heard the new voice. “Are you suggesting that we have been kidnapped?!”
“Maybe I am. I remember quite vividly that I did not fall asleep… here.” Avany tried to stay calm and on top of the situation, even under grim circumstances like this. After all, was this finally the adventure she had been waiting for?

Is that… Avany? Twilight inquired, but was not sure if she wanted the answer. No… it can’t be….

“How many are here?!” Admira exclaimed.
“My thoughts exactly.” Apollo commented.
“You guys are hilarious.” Voice number five butted in, followed by an audible chuckle.
“Who are you, now?” Avany asked.
“Deacon at your service.” replied a young colt with confidence that seemed out of place.
“Well then, Deacon. Where are we?” commanded Apollo.
“You think I know? Whoa there… I am just as clueless as you fellas.”
“Then you are of no help.”
“Ahh, relax dude. I mean… You’ve got to keep your chin up, isn’t that so?”
“This is serious!” An agitated Apollo hissed.
“Guys, calm down.” Avany intervened, ”Maybe we should focus our energy on more immediate things such as… oh, I don’t know… turning on the lights?!”

They were all silenced by the sudden brightness that swept across the room. The lights of the chandelier were lit and, for the first time, the contestants were introduced to one another face to face. Twilight gazed across the hall, inspecting the unfortunate competitors.

Apollo was a large and fully grown stallion. He had bright fur that shone of silver, with contrasting black hair.

Admira was a light turquoise and decorated pony. She wore a small tiara in her blue mane and a dainty red rosette in her matching blue tail.

Deacon quickly jumped away from the wall he had been leaning on for support. “Whoa.” he expressed in awe as he looked around. He was clearly still a young colt and had light blue fur and blond hair. He wore ornamental, red hoof-wear suited with golden cufflinks. Naïve in posture, and superficial in wardrobe… He is definitely not an adult. He should not be here… Twilight sighed to herself. None of us should…

Ebony was the final and so far unnamed stranger. She was also young and appeared distraught. She arose from the wooden floor, shaken and afraid to speak. She had golden fur with two shades of blue lining her hair.

Finally, she saw Avany and her fears had come true. She did not want to believe it. Why is Avany here…?! There were so many questions she wanted to ask… And yet… It seemed pointless. Reason was the last thing Twilight expected from Tantibus. There were no answers to look for, so Twilight instead abandoned her thoughts and ran to embrace her friend.

“Twilight!” Avany yelled happily.
“Avany…” Twilight responded melancholically.
Avany backed out of the hug, holding Twilight in front her while exchanging looks. “Is something wrong? You know where we are?” She wanted to know whether to be happy or not. And judging by Twilight’s expression, the initial forecast was not promising.

“We are… we’re in…” Twilight just could not do it. She could not reveal that they were both about to die. Twilight shut her eyes and looked away.
“Oh... That place you were talking about… Is this it?”
Twilight nodded silently and took a deep breath. Then she looked up into Avany’s eyes and asked her “What did you do?” But before Avany could reply, she repeated herself to clarify. There was a tone of sorrow in her voice. “What did you do, after I left you, to end up here?”

Avany realized that this was serious. She recalled the events of the past day and began to outline them. “Well, after my shift ended I decided to go and visit Luthus. And maybe even check out that ‘Aeon’ guy as well. But when…” She stopped for breath as she remembered the journalists… the authorities… and the medics… “When I got there… They did not let me enter. Someone had died… They refused to tell me who…” Twilight realized what Avany was fearful of, and they effectively switched roles as Avany was now the one addressing her in desperation. “You were there, right? Was it my uncle?!”
“I…” Twilight started, but she did not know. “Did they say anything about cause of death?”
“Uhm… Girls?” Deacon tried to enter the conversation. Twilight and Avany were the center of attention at the moment. Everypony else was left silently staring and observing their dramatic exchange. Deacon’s inquiry went unnoticed and the conversation continued.
“All they said was overdose. Not when, why or from what…”

Overdose… Painkillers… ‘Take Responsibly’… Could it be? He had the incentive and the means… Twilight looked down, trying to grasp what might have transpired… What she might be responsible for… “It wasn’t Luthus.”
“How do you know?”
“It was Aeon. I…” Twilight begun to tear up, “I think I saw him take an overdose of pills. It’s my fault… I could have stopped him… I should have…”

The mind of Twilight Sparkle was spiraling. It was too much information to process. Her negligence had killed another pony. She was a murderer. Aeon was dead by her hooves. She entered his life, dug up all of his torment and suffocated him with it. Nobody deserved to die in such agony. Tantibus might as well take her now. This is why she is here. She does not deserve to be anywhere else. She deserves to die…

“No, Twilight.”

What? Who said that? Avany? You are wrong. You don’t know. You weren’t there. Because if you were, you would agree. You would hate Twilight. Nobody likes a murderer. There is nothing but condemnation awaiting her.

“You must not blame yourself. It must have been his own choice.”

How would you know?

“I may not have known him, but from the time spent with you, I know you. And I know you are not a bad pony.”

Avany…

“You said he had been there for years, right? Being locked up in there for that long can’t be a good way to live your life. He is probably better off now…” Avany paused, “Regardless, nopony should make that decision. They should not even have to. He did, sadly, but it was his decision. You had nothing to do with it. I am sure of that.”

Maybe… Maybe Avany was right. The Aeon that Twilight had met was only a shell of the pony he had once been, and every shell is prone to crack. He was unstable and volatile before Twilight even stepped into his room. However, in her intrusion, Twilight had still played with fire and inadvertently lit the fuse. She was the catalyst at the end of a torturous chain of events, but perhaps she only served to hasten the inevitable.

Taking a moment to look around the room she was in, Twilight shifted the blame elsewhere. It was not her fault as much as it was that of Tantibus. This mansion had tormented Aeon long after he escaped it, but now he was free. Twilight was not though, seeing as she had taken his place. The matter of ‘why?’ remained and now, more than ever, she wanted to know what motive Tantibus had in choosing its victims. Because if not for what happened to Aeon, why else would Twilight Sparkle be here?

“Thank you, Avany. Really.” Twilight smiled, but she still had so many questions. She decided that bouncing one off Avany was worth a shot. “Do you know why we are here?”
“No.” Avany replied earnestly, “Do you? You’re the one who has been researching this so much, after all.”
“I don’t know either. Unless it’s because I’ve been researching this so much…” Twilight stopped and thought about what she said. Then she remembered the words of Decker.

When I first heard of this legend, I found it truly fascinating. For weeks, I studied its origin, rules, locations, and competitors. Quite frankly, it was only a matter of time before I ended up here myself.

The parallels Twilight had found between herself and Decker only shone stronger now. Am I… the new Decker? The note, the tombstones, the book, the dreams, Aeon and Avany… It’s all a part of the challenge. It was all meant to happen… Tantibus wanted me from the start… Why else would the tombstones show up? Why would I have the dreams? I’m sure Decker had those too. That would mean… that the sole reason that Avany is here… is to get to me.

Twilight jumped back in horror. She fell onto the floor, away from Avany, and shielded her eyes.
“I’m so sorry!” Twilight burst out in tears, “It’s all my fault. I am so sorry, Avany…”

“What are…” Avany begun but was subsequently cut off.
“What the hell is going on between you two?!” Apollo stepped in.
Twilight looked around. Deacon’s mouth and eyes were wide open, Ebony was distraught, Admira horrified and Apollo’s face showcased a mixture of intrigue and frustration.

There was a momentary silence, letting the whole room and its occupants soak in the tension and grief that engulfed it all. They were all waiting for someone else to say something. Soon, someone would surely explain what was actually going on. Or crack a joke. They were longing for anything to distract them from their fears…

Eventually, the reveal they were waiting for came, but it was not the reveal they wanted. The ground beneath them swept the rest of them off of their hooves. And as they all scrambled to get their balance back, an addition to the room was quickly addressed.
“Tantibus…?” Admira faltered in her whimper.
“What?” Apollo questioned.
“Oh shit!” Deacon yelped and pointed to the back wall.

The timely message was the perfect excuse for Deacon to drop his swearword. One by one, the words came back to haunt Twilight for a second time.

THE RULES OF THE TANTIBUS CHALLENGE

RULE ONE; ONLY ONE COMPETITOR CAN LEAVE TANTIBUS ALIVE

RULE TWO; THAT COMPETITOR MAY ONLY DO SO WHEN ALL OTHERS ARE DEAD

All of the ponies were talking on top of each other. What had been an ominous silence mere moments ago was now reminiscent of a barn filled with chickens... Chickens about to be slaughtered. The females were discussing what they could do to avoid this horrible fate, while the two males were discussing whether this was legitimate or an elaborate setup for the sadistic joy of some pranksters.

“Let me try something…” Deacon said. Then he begun flailing and flapping his wings with all of his might, but he could not get off the ground to save his life. Perhaps literally. “This looks pretty real to me... I mean, it’s pretty hard to remove a pegasus’ wingpower without any physical damage…”
“You’re right…” Apollo confessed, “We must be dealing with something really powerful here. Must be some dark magic beyond anything I’ve ever seen before.” He directed his attention to Admira. “Hey! The girl with the tiara!”
“Huh?” She turned around.
“Use your magic!” Deacon said.
“I-I don’t…” she stuttered, and hopelessly attempted a teleportation spell. “We’re doomed…” she concluded.

The Ninth Chapter

THE NINTH CHAPTER

Avany sat at the bottom of the broken staircase, comforting the devastated friend that was sitting adjacent to her with her head down. Twilight was struggling to remain composed, fighting back any tears that made their way onto her shimmering retinas.
“Hey… It’ll be okay.” Avany whispered to Twilight, “Don’t feel bad Twilight… You had no way of knowing that I was going to end up here. Besides, if I were going to die here… Well… I’m glad I’m not alone.”
“No…” Twilight looked up, “I can’t let you die here… You’re the youngest of us… You said you wanted to explore the world… and I don’t want to be the one who stopped you. I’ll do all I can to help you survive.”
“I also said I wanted adventure, Twilight. And look at me now! I’m in a haunted mansion, and part of a legend! Let’s take Tantibus down!” Avany exclaimed. However, Twilight could not help but wonder if Avany truly was this optimistic, or if it was just a charade she pulled to cheer up Twilight. Incidentally, the speculation addressed itself and Avany commanded with convincing encouragement; “I’m serious! Let’s both survive this, Twilight. Let’s beat the system and survive together!”

Twilight looked up, but did not feel any less remorse. She did, however, realize that her apparent grief only made things worse for herself and Avany. The least she could do was to throw Avany a friendly smile and give her hope. But before saying anything, she was interrupted by Ebony approaching them.

“Do you girls know each other from before?” Ebony decided to strike up a conversation with them, for selfish reasons. The other girl, Admira, was now talking to the boys and Ebony did not want to be left alone in a place like Tantibus.
“We met yesterday, but we are already really good friends.” Avany smiled.
“I see. You just seem to have been through quite a lot…” Ebony sat down next to Avany on the worn and frayed carpet that was covering the staircase stump. She glanced over at Twilight, who appeared to be the most gloomy of the two.
“No, not really.” Twilight replied, “It is just that… well… The last thing you want to do with your friend is end up here.” She then proceeded to point to the rules on the wall.

Only one competitor can leave Tantibus alive.

“Oh...” Ebony saw their little dilemma.
“Don’t worry. We are going to find a way around this. I’m sure of that.” Avany declared. It was beyond Twilight’s comprehension how she could still manage to retain such a positive outlook on their predicament.
“I hope so.” Ebony smiled as an idea struck her mind, “What if we simply abstain? You know… protest?”
“It doesn’t work that way…” Twilight looked down once more. She had seen this before. It is what happened to Decker’s group. They refused the challenge and as a result, Maverick became a puppet and slaughtered almost everyone. The same befell Flaming Ace, who later took his own life because of the guilt.
“What do you mean?” Ebony asked.
Twilight braced herself for the bad news and begun explaining, “Well, if everypony refuses to compete in the challenge…” Cutting Twilight off, a gust of wind blew out all of the candles simultaneously. They were once again draped in the cloak of darkness.
“Here we go again…” Deacon remarked.

The darkness withdrew from the room as quickly as it had concealed it. The candles lit up from the same unsettling breeze that had put them out. However, this distressing routine was not the most alarming aspect of the magic trick.

“Look at all those weapons!” Deacon announced. Part of him felt impressed by the huge collection of blunt and bladed killing tools laid out in the middle of the room. But mostly, he was afraid of their significance and what was left to come.
“Nobody touch them!” Apollo yelled.

Twilight, Avany and Ebony all stood up and joined the others, now gathered near the middle, staring at the intimidating arsenal. Twilight feared that the timely candles breaking off her explanation was no coincidence. It was a pattern that she had noticed throughout the various challenges. Tantibus did not appreciate being predictable.

“I have never seen so many weapons.” Ebony murmured, successfully distracted.
“So… this is how it starts, huh?” Deacon began, with everybody’s attention directed at him for the moment, “These are supposed to be our tools… to perform Tantibus’ dirty work…”
“Don’t be ridiculous! Nopony’s killing anypony here!” Apollo was sure to add.
“I’m not saying I was going to!”
“Do we have a choice?” a fearful Ebony added.
“Has anybody looked for a way out?” Avany spoke up.

Even though it was assumed to be futile, they tried all of the doors and looked everywhere one more time. Through all of the frenzy, Twilight loudly exclaimed “There’s no point! Everything is sealed shut. There is nothing we can do to escape. Without magic, we’re sitting ducks... I think the challenge is the only way out…”
“You have got to be kidding me!!!” Apollo raged and violently kicked a small table away. “I’m not going to resort to that! Never in my life! And neither should you!”

Apollo’s eruption echoed in the massive hall, and nobody knew what to say or do. They had tried everything. They had unsuccessfully tried ramming the doors, jumping up the stairs and they had checked the drawers and shelves, which only housed dusty, old and useless decorations, if anything at all. They stood gathered, hoping that a solution would present itself. Until then, one thing needed to be made clear.

“Do we have an agreement? Nobody does anything.” Apollo declared.
“Sure. I guess we’ll have to face the consequences later.” Deacon commented, followed by a unanimous and yet apprehensive series of nods.

“You hear that, Tantibus? We refuse!” Apollo hissed and walked up to the arsenal of weapons. To further punctuate his uproar, he kicked a machete across the room. It slid across the wooden planks and stopped short of a pair of hooves. Even though it almost scraped her, Avany managed to remain motionless during the near accidental assault.

Twilight was not comforted by the rebellious action. Though it made her glad that nobody had participated voluntarily, she knew that the spectacle was going to commence one way or another. In fact, she had been monitoring Apollo’s and Deacon’s actions carefully as she assumed that one of them was going to be the ‘selected’. They were both male, in good physical condition and quite outspoken; attributes they had in common with both Flaming Ace and Maverick. Twilight also noticed that the machete had slid into the reach of an oddly passive Avany. Her apathy towards it made Twilight anxious. To think of it… Avany had not spoken a word in quite a while. And now she was looking down at the blade, studying it with her gaze.

What is happening? I can’t seem to control myself. I can’t move! Someone help me! Help! I can’t talk either. What is this? Wait, what am I doing? What is happening to me?!

When she finally moved, it was as she raised her front right hoof from the ground and let it hover over the blade. Avany looked around almost mechanically and came into eye contact with Twilight. She appeared concerned and somber, unlike Avany, whose eyes expressed no emotion. Slowly, her hoof descended upon the handle.

Oh my goodness! The blade… I’m going to... Oh please no! Somepony! Something! Help me!

Twilight saw only the stiff movements on the outside and nothing of the distressed soul locked away inside. But immediately, she recognized the situation. The tormenting final thoughts of Maverick echoed in her mind, and perfectly matched the unnatural motions that drove the fixated mare, now firmly grasping the weapon on the floor.

Somebody, help me! Run! Run away from me! Please! Can anybody out there hear me?! Please! I’m begging you! They are innocent! They don’t deserve to die! Make me kill myself instead! Please! I’m begging you... Please… Anybody… Help me...

I will not let it take you, Avany. Twilight ensured herself and turned to the others. “Somebody, stop her!”

Faster than anyone could say ‘go’, Avany had already picked up the machete and shifted into a combat ready stance. The others were shocked and appalled by the move. Neither of them dared respond to the open invitation for battle, and instead chose to gasp and back away.

“What’s happening?!” Admira shouted.
“She’s not herself! She is possessed!” Twilight commanded in response, “Please, don’t hurt her!”
“Wait, what?!” Apollo questioned.
“There is no time to explain!” Twilight added while Avany took a step closer. Please, do not let it end this way…
“What the hell do we do then?!” Apollo yelled.

Deacon, who had otherwise cussed loudly at this instance, remained focused and looked frantically for a solution. If she is possessed, as her friend claims… How are we supposed to defend ourselves without hurting her? This is ridiculous! I have to defend myself, no matter what! But if she is truly innocent…? Argh! Why is this happening?! I can’t kill anyone! There has to be another way!

He examined the buffet of weapons in the middle of the hall. Only just now did he notice a large shield lying amongst the otherwise deadly clutter. Had that always been there? It was oblong and rested on some blades with its handle facing up, easing a quick wield. Unfortunately, it was only a few feet in front of the crazed servant of Tantibus. If his newly hatched plan was going to work, he would have to act fast before she got closer. Avany was already slowly approaching step by step and the others were pushing themselves towards the wall furthest away from her. Most, including Twilight, as well as himself, were sweating from fear. This was no longer about him. He knew what he had to do, no matter how foolish it may seem to be. The time for doubts was long gone.

He took off in a flash, to the surprise of everyone, and galloped ahead with his mind focused solely on his goal. He gave off a war cry as he went, mainly to intimidate, but also to divert attention away from the distinct fear and panic that had struck him.

“No!” Twilight pleaded, unaware of his intentions.
“Are you crazy?!” Apollo shouted.
“Don’t hurt her!” Twilight also cried out.

As Deacon neared the assailant, Avany raised the blade and prepared to strike relentlessly. Fortunately, the sudden charge stopped her in her menacing approach, granting him the space and time to swipe the shield from the ground in a swift motion. He hoisted the oblong armor up vertically and lined it up with his body as he ran as fast as his other three hooves would let him.

Avany had no time to move out of the way, and her body braced for impact. She repositioned her arm with the aim of swinging sideways, in an attempt to swat the shield away and get the attacker off balance. The unstoppable force was about to collide with the immovable object.

Contact was made and the opponents clashed. Avany lashed the machete at Deacon. The weapon struck the shield with fierce strength, and Deacon felt a burning sensation in his arm as it absorbed part of the ferocious strike. However, the momentum he had built up was too strong for Avany to stop. The shield assaulted Avany’s body with enough force to knock the machete out of her robust grip and send her flying back. She slid a considerable distance upon landing and appeared disoriented. Deacon slowed down and threw the shield to the side, after which he attempted to shake the pain out of his near pulsating hoof.

“Holy crap, that hurts!” Deacon exclaimed and made sure to pick up the machete and throw it away as well before it fell into Tantibus’ grasp again. He exhaled in relief and then looked back at the others. They appeared startled, but still glad. His gaze then returned to Avany. “I’m so sorry… I had to.”
“I think you just saved us.” Apollo admitted. He then walked up to him and gave him a playful punch in the side.
“You think that did it?” Ebony questioned.

Twilight Sparkle ran up to Avany’s crashed body and asked her if she was alright. There was no response, and she appeared to be knocked out cold. What if she is seriously injured? Emotions of distress and panic came back to Twilight. She kneeled over and begun caressing Avany’s body. “Please, Avany. Tell me you’re okay... Please…”

Finally, she saw movement. Avany lifted her hoof up towards Twilight chest. Unfortunately, instead of the gentle touch she was expecting, the hoof lunged forward and pushed Twilight away with a disproportionately powerful force. The unicorn fell back and landed stomach up. Shocked and betrayed, Twilight announced: “It’s not over!”

The others saw the whole thing, and Ebony now ran up to help Twilight get back up.
“Are you okay?” she asked. Twilight nodded and stood up. Her chest was pounding, but she doubted it would result in more than just a bruise.

“At least now she’s unarmed!”, Apollo yelled. As Avany was getting up from the floor, he and Deacon ran up to her. They grabbed her by her shoulders and pushed her against the wall behind her. She was held in place, firmly, though not without resistance. Avany fought back hard and with surprising strength.

“Damn it, she’s strong!” Deacon shouted and felt his grip loosen, “We’re going to need some help over here!”

Twilight and Ebony galloped up to the possessed pony and latched on to her vigorously moving limbs. Admira stood back, too afraid to approach. She could only wish that her assistance was not needed.

“Why is this even happening?!” Apollo yelled with a hint of struggle in his voice. “And how do we stop it?!”

Why, Tantibus…? Why? Why do you have to take my friend and turn her against me? It’s just not fair… Twilight felt fury bottling up inside of her, and it was at this point that it took over her being completely and the cap came soaring off.

“You take my friend, and you turn her against us...” Twilight bit down hard and then unleashed her innermost rage, “You force her to kill us against her will?! All the while she is breaking down on the inside?! I thought that Tantibus gave everyone a fair chance of survival… but that is just a bunch of bullshit! You have no standards! You are pathetic! If you’re going to kill five of us, at least follow your own fucking rules! Let her go!!!”

The thundering words were unexpected and stunned everyone. They said nothing. There was nothing to add. They all unanimously hoped that it would work and somehow get the attention of whatever being or spirit was pulling the strings.

The sweating, light pink pony’s body slumped as if all muscles shut down. The group gently lowered the earth pony down to the floor and most of them backed off. Twilight stayed and bent down to check for a pulse, but before she could, Avany suddenly gasped for breath. She was drenched in sweat and her fur was hot to the touch. She panted rapidly to oxygenate her overworked muscles. She looked into the eyes of Twilight and made numerous attempts to speak, only to be interrupted by her own burning lungs. It took her a minute to communicate coherently, although in short bursts.

“Please… Forgive me…” she stammered in between breaths, “Twilight… All of you… Thanks… You saved me.”
“You have nothing to apologize for.” Twilight assured and embraced Avany’s recovering body, “I know it wasn’t you.”

After waiting for a moment as to not interrupt, Apollo questioned, “Now… Can any of you please tell us what the hell happened?”
“I don’t know… I just… lost control.” Avany confessed.
“I believe that when nobody willingly competes, Tantibus picks someone to do so unwillingly.” Twilight revealed, “Anything to get the challenge to start.”
“Wow… That explains it.” Deacon commented, “Is there anything else you think we should know about?”
“Not anything you haven’t already witnessed. I honestly have no idea what is going to happen now.” Twilight thought about what she said. It was an honest remark. Now that they had overcome the puppet… What was going to happen next?
“I cannot believe this…” Admira finally spoke, “Why us? What have we done to deserve this?!” she was nearly crying. “Is this someone’s idea of fun?!”
“Don’t worry… We can get through this.” Ebony tried to comfort her, “We have made it so far, have we not?”
“Holy shit…” Deacon interjected, “Look at the wall!”

They all turned to the wall that had been bleeding before, whose original scripture was now dry. As of now, it was slowly adding a new line of words. It was presenting a third rule, exclusively crafted for situations like the rebellious one that currently befell the mansion. And once the blood of the last word had settled, it became apparent that this rule was not as straight forward as the others. It was, however, far more sinister.

RULE THREE; IN CASE OF REFUSAL TO COMPETE, HELL WILL BREAK LOOSE

“That cannot be good.” Deacon declared.
“What is that even supposed to mean?!” Apollo questioned.
“I guess we’ll find out…” Twilight whimpered.

The candles blew out, though it only lasted for a moment before lighting up the room again. It happened in the blink of an eye, before anyone could comprehend what was going on.

“What the hell was that?” Deacon was startled.
“I have no idea.” Avany responded.
“Did something change?” Apollo asked, “Look around, everybody!”

They were frantically searching for a new potential danger. Oddly enough, nothing had been added to the room. Instead, something had been taken away.

“Hey, where is the turquoise colored girl?!” Avany realized, and was gripped by panic.
“Oh yeah, the unicorn!” Apollo was horrified, “It took her!”
“What’s happening?!” Ebony yelled.
“Is this Tantibus meaning of ‘hell breaking loose’?“ Apollo questioned. The darkness pulled its cloth over the room, and once it had passed… he was gone.

They all screamed. They had nowhere to go, and nothing could be done. The onslaught of darkness could not be prevented, and they feared the worst.

“It’s picking us off one by one!” Twilight shouted.
“I don’t want to die!” Ebony cried. Unfortunately, one dark moment later… she too had vanished.

“I’m scared, Twilight…” Avany confessed as she pushed up against Twilight for protection.
“Me too…” Twilight replied solemnly.
“What the fuck do we do?!” Deacon shouted from across the room as the lights went out for the fourth time. They all shrieked.

This time, Twilight found that her friend had been taken away. With seconds away from their possible demise, there were only Deacon and Twilight left.
“No!!!” Twilight wailed in a mournful cry, “Please don’t do this!”

Deacon looked down at the floor, and found the jagged machete. In an attempt to defend himself against the incoming darkness, he picked it up and waved it around frantically. “Leave me alone! For the love of…!”

In a flash, Twilight was alone. It was just her in the massive hall, where so much blood had been shed and so many lives taken away. Avany was gone... They all were… And with everything now taken away from her, she fell down to her knees on the cold, hard floor, helpless.

“I give up… You win, Tantibus…”

After letting a teardrop fall to the floor, the darkness came for a final time and Twilight Sparkle disappeared.

The Tenth Chapter

THE TENTH CHAPTER

Admira grew up under pleasant circumstances, with the blood of a noble family flowing through her veins. They lived in a fairly big and luxurious mansion in the eastern end of Canterlot. She grew up as an only child, under the umbrella of her wealthy parents. Her father was a highly ranked general, from which most of the family’s riches came from, and her mother liked to sew decorative banner patches, clothing and she would sometimes even stitch soft plush dolls. She owned a small embroidery boutique where she would sell the products of her hobby, for a small and reasonable price.

Since coming from a rich family, Admira never truly learnt the harsh, and sometimes cruel nature, of the outside world: the world outside the safety of the walls in Canterlot. Her father shielded her from any potential bad outside influences, seeing as he wanted her to grow up to be a kind role model for her own children someday. However, it was a difficult task to hide everything, especially some of the decisions a general has to make. Whenever she was in need of something, he would therefore be sure to let her have it, to compensate for his lack of honesty and interaction. He also could not stand to see her sad and hoped to raise her to feel the same empathy. He succeeded to an extent. She was compassionate and courteous, even though she lived a life of false security.

With Tantibus entering her life, Admira’s walls begun to come crashing down and she came to realize that reality was not always the fairy tale she was raised believing it would be.

It was merely a second ago that she had been in the massive hall, but now she found herself in a completely different room. It was as if she was taken out of existence and placed somewhere else. Unfortunately, the distinctively hallow and ominous atmosphere was still present and she could deduce that she was still in Tantibus’ clutches.

Admira shrieked. The first thing she saw was a skull, although it was facing away from her. It was sitting upon a desk which itself was positioned right in front of her. The skull appeared to be placed there as an adornment, albeit a disturbing one. But it was not entirely unexpected that Tantibus had creepy interior design to match its central, twisted theme. She looked around and saw that she was in a long and rectangle shaped office. The desk was standing in the middle of one half of the room with an accompanying chair on the other side of it. Several bookshelves were lined up on the three walls surrounding the desk. They were filled with multiple books of various colors and sizes, but neither of them had a label on their spine, which Admira found strange.

The skull appeared to be staring at the creaky chair behind the desk, or whoever used to sit in it, with its empty eye sockets. It could also be looking at the book shelves by the wall. She then turned around and noticed the door, which was located across the room on the opposing wall from the desk’s standpoint. Immediately, she ran straight for it, almost shouting at first glance. Her speed made her knock into it and she then furiously started twisting its knob. But it would not budge. It became apparent that it was locked, especially judging by the key hole in the middle of the gold coated handle.

“Come on!” she burst out, feeling distressed and lost. Unlike before, she had now no one else but herself to rely on.

Admira looked back at the desk and noticed that it had a few built in compartments: the number one most preferred spot to store an office key. She ran back and rounded the desk to reach its rear where she would begin opening its six compartments.

In the final and bottom compartment, there lay a book. The book was covered in a red matte finish and felt cold to the touch. She found no title or any text whatsoever on it. Nothing but the aggressive, red color. The simplistic design was odd, and she had never seen anything like it before. She picked out a book from the bookshelf and found that it was the same. They all were. Hundreds of books. The only thing that changed were the colors.

She opened the original red book. On the very first page, she was met with a simple message constructed from a typewriter.

THERE IS NOTHING HERE

What? What does that mean? she wondered, and flipped through the other pages. They were all blank. Those were the only four words in the whole book. She turned around and looked at the shelves. Hundreds of books… she thought. Am I supposed to look through all of these?! She picked out a book at random from the shelf behind her. It was blue, and upon opening, it looked exactly the same only with a different message. Just like before, all other pages were empty.

NOT HERE EITHER

You’re feeling playful now, Tantibus? she sighed. Admira picked out several other books, but the results were the same. It did not matter which book she opened. The first page read ‘NOT HERE EITHER’ and then the rest were empty. But she refused to give up and a pile of books began to form on the floor as she intended to go through them all if she had to.

Apollo quickly recovered from the vanishing act and immediately analyzed his new surroundings. He was in a tiny room, a bit smaller than Admira’s. But unlike her rectangular office, the floor of this room was a perfect square and comparatively empty. All he could see was a bureau and a few paintings on the otherwise barren walls. The paintings were portraits, but the figures they portrayed had had their faces cut out. It was unsettling, but Apollo preferred it over the potential alternative. He hated the feeling of being watched. However, he still could not shake the ominous feeling that he was and had been throughout his entire stay in Tantibus.

The bureau had a decorative, white cloth with a glass fishbowl on top of it. The fishbowl was filled up with water, but there were no underwater decorations or living creatures in it. It made him realize how thirsty he was, so he walked up to it right away. Before diving headfirst in, he dipped his hoof and smelt it. After smelling nothing, he decided to lick it. The water did not taste of poison like he had feared, but it was incredibly salty. He knew it would be unwise to drink it, so he swallowed his saliva and moved on.

He just now noticed something peculiar. There was a lack of a certain item that was absolutely necessary for any room to even be considered a room… an opening. There were no windows and not even a door in sight, just the walls covered in a beige wallpaper. Unsure of what to make of it, he set to action. Apollo began to carefully look through the rest of the tiny room to determine if it was safe. He looked in the bureau first. After seeing that the top compartment was empty, he really had no hope for the rest containing anything either. And as indicated by the aggressive slam of the bottom drawer, they did not. He went as far as to kick one of the walls in anger, only to find out that it was hollow…

At the same time as a thump was heard from one of the walls, Ebony snapped into focus. Not paying much attention to the actual wake up call, she was surprised to find that she was lying on the bottom of a big cube constructed out of glass. The cube itself was located at the center of a much larger, rectangular room. The glass panels were thick and would not even as much as budge, no matter how hard Ebony knocked into them. She called out for help, but the robust prison did a good job of silencing her.

On top of the glass box she could see a transparent compartment which seemed to contain a small maze. It was akin to the mazes built for lab rats in shoeboxes, except that now the walls and outer casing was made out of robust and transparent glass of military quality. On the inside of the glass cube, in its ceiling, was a fragile looking knob that she could potentially lead through the maze. Unfortunately, this ceiling was just barely out of her reach. In order for her to as much as touch the knob, she would have to jump high and nudge the knob inch by inch. Punch too hard and the knob could break off.

Ebony tried to solve the maze visually, leading her eyes through it. It took her a while, but once she reached the end of the surprisingly intricate maze, she noticed that there was a button. Sadly, it could only be pressed by the part of the knob that was inside the maze, and it all started to make sense. She was meant to lead the knob through the maze, ever so slowly, and just hope that pressing the button meant getting her the heck out of this cube.

Finally, there were four metallic tubes leading out from the glass box in each of the four top corners. Even if she could reach them, there were no hope in as much as sticking her arms through those thin holes.

Looking out of the box, she found herself in a large empty room. There were neither furniture nor any decorations. The only thing waiting for her was one door leading out of the room. From her position within the cube, she was far from reaching it anytime soon. Instead, there was only one thing for her to do in her situation: to try and solve the puzzle.

“Here we go.” She announced to herself before jumping up and touching the knob for the first time. It moved about half an inch but triggered something far greater. She stopped and heard a loud sloshing sound. The trap was triggered and water starting pouring down from all of the four tubes simultaneously. At the quick pace it was flowing, Ebony estimated that she would have less than a minute before it would fill up the cube completely, effectively drowning her. The game was on.

She found it. Finally, after having looked through what must have been at least half of all books, she found the right one. Instead of finding the expected text ‘NOT HERE EITHER’, the book had been hollowed out. In the space left from the cut out pages, a key rested comfortably. The key had a golden coating which indicated that it was a match for the door.

As she shifted her mind from the key to the door, a new element had been introduced to the room. Listening closely, she could now hear a silent sizzling sound. It seemed to come from the area around the door, but it was too quiet to make out its origin accurately. She slowly walked closer to it, hoping to get a better grip on what was causing it.

Admira had a keen eye for detail. It was one of the perks that came with a life full of sewing and stitching. Since she had a mother working at an embroidery, she could not help but to find herself spending hours on the hobby as well. Spending years of her youth with needles had trained and honed her perception to an impressive extent, which was something that certainly came in handy at this moment. Her eyes caught the glimpse of thousands of tiny, sharp needles poking out from the floor. Thousands of them were laid out like a carpet of needles stretching from the wall to her left to the wall to her right, sealing off the door completely. Lying in front of them on the floor, Admira could not see much of them, since they only revealed about a third of an inch that was visible from the ground. The risk of stepping a needle did not intimidate her greatly. Instead, it was the sizzling noise that they emitted which made her nervous.

She stood up and grabbed one of the books and ripped out an empty page. She then crumbled it up into the shape of a ball and threw it onto the sea of needles. Almost instantaneously, the bottom of the ball began turning into a yellowish green and decomposed. Seconds later, it caught fire. Eventually, all that was left were the scorched remains. The needles were spewing out highly reactive and corrosive acid.

Admira looked ahead and noticed a blank spot just next to the door which appeared to be without any needles. She could probably make the jump if she got a bit of momentum on her side. Running out of options, she decided to go for it and put the key in her mouth. She backed up a few feet and began charging forward. In a swift and graceful jump, she flew over the deadly carpet of needles and landed safely in front of the door. Although it was an unsteady landing and her momentum slammed her into the door, she could have ended up far worse. Now she was at the door with a key in her mouth. She took it out and slid it into the knob, which she then twisted. A muffled click spelled success and she could gently push open the door. She had done it… She could finally leave this prison cell of a room.

Admira turned around and took one last look at the office she was about to leave behind. She had spent a considerable amount of time going through hundreds of books, and now it had paid off.

With a loud, disturbing and crackling noise, the skull began slowly to turn. The empty and expressionless eye sockets started to face the door and looked straight into the eyes of Admira. She reactively jumped screaming out of the door and locked it behind herself hastily. Too morbidly curious to walk away, she leaned over and listened closely. She could hear the sound of creaking floorboards and mechanically moving objects coming from inside the office. She unsteadily placed her hoof on the door knob again and prepared herself to reveal what was haunting the room. She caught herself twisting the knob and stopped immediately.

Admira concluded that her business with that room was finished and there was no need to poke around in that which she probably should not.

The Sixth Chapter

THE SIXTH CHAPTER

Aeon was flabbergasted. This was the first pony to ever believe his ‘demented rants’. The first pony to ever express genuine sympathy for what had happened all those years ago. He stood there for a moment, perplexed and not knowing how to respond. He looked over at the nurse, who did not seem to pay attention to this incredible encounter. They never believed his stories, the ponies of this world. They were accustomed to everything being pretty and harmless in their narrow views of the world. When the gruesome truth of a legitimate atrocity then came out, they chose to renounce it and believe it to be lies. In this case, there was only one witness account after all.

His mind was taken back to a time he never wished to revisit. He saw himself, as pale and weak as he had been in that moment. The challenge had finally ended and a frail pony, trembling with fear and scarred by death, stumbled out of the Everfree forest. Somepony saw this poor colt faltering his way out of the dark forest and came to his assistance. Driven by his angst, he muttered incoherently about a place in the forest which had initiated and moderated a gruesome battle between fellow innocent ponies. As he entered the nearby village, and more ponies heard his deranged ramblings, they began to suspect madness.

They sent him to Canterlot for examination, and that is where he ceased communication altogether and lost his will to speak. The bewildered doctors found nothing wrong with Aeon and could only speculate as to what had happened to him. That forest was a dark place where no proper expeditions had been made and its secrets remained a mystery. For all that the doctors knew, anything could have happened to Aeon in there. They assumed that he had gone lost in there and concluded that spending so much time in that forest must have driven him mad. As for his speech, the possibility was proposed that he had been cursed. Regardless of the reason, they concluded that there was nothing they could do.

Aeon was passed on to the psychologists, neither of whom could connect with him. They came as far as suspecting that a traumatic experience had resulted in a refusal to speak, which later led to the loss of the ability entirely.

Nobody had the complete answer. The doctors called it a curse, the psychologists blamed an unknown trauma and everyone else just called him crazy. Perhaps the shrinks were right... Maybe the memories from Tantibus alone caused it. Or perhaps, deep down, he did not want to speak. If he did, what would be the point? The last thing he wanted was to draw more attention, more press and more white coats. So many ponies, yet nobody who could truly understand his pain.

Eventually, they gave up and simply put him in a mental hospital as a temporary solution. There he would fade away and was long forgotten.

Despite his new secluded status, he was far from any kind of peace. His visions of horror drove him through entire nights, where he would cry or frantically draw images on his blackboard. When morning came, the nurses would occasionally discover horrific and detailed depictions of his visions. The illustrations captured emotions of despair and terror, depicting murder, torture and a slow descent into madness. After a few reprimands, the nurses confiscated his chalk and it was only returned to him while one of them was present. Aeon eventually lost his motivation to do anything. He could not feel emotions, nor had the effort to draw anymore. He got the chalk back and became a mute prisoner and an empty shell of the pony he had once been.

In this moment, one thing seemed clear. If he began communicating with this ‘Twilight Sparkle’ about his sinister past, the nurse would likely suspect a relapse into the madness he had been so actively consumed by previously. Therefore, in order for this meeting to proceed undisturbed, they had to be alone.

Aeon turned around, grabbed the white and tiny piece of chalk and got writing on his request to be left alone with her. A few words into his message however, the chalk slipped from his grasp and rolled under the bed. He had not even finished the word ‘alone’.

The nurse observed the blunder, but believed the message to be clear as it currently stood. He simply wanted to be left alone, as he always was. She directed her attention to Twilight and declared: “I’m sorry, but you will have to leave now. Maybe you can come back later?”

Aeon started to panic. He did not have the time to lie down and try to reach for the chalk because it was a matter of seconds before they would have left the room. If he tried lunging himself at the now departing visitor in order for her to stay, they would sedate him for ‘assault’ or ‘aggressive behavior’, as they had done multiple times in the past.

This visitor might be the only pony, perhaps in all of Equestria, to know the truth of his past. There was also the possibility that she knew even more and could shed some light on why all of those ponies had to die. And maybe, just maybe, she even knew how to end the visions and the nightmares, and bring him his long awaited peace. But currently she was leaving, surely believing that Aeon was just a stubborn hermit that did not want any visitors.

Being the mute mental patient he was, Aeon could seemingly only hate himself in this moment for being so patheticandweak. And he did.

Aeon had to act, and he had to act quickly. There was only one way he could make himself understood now… So he poured all of his energy and effort into making his vocal cords functional again. He was pushing himself harder than ever before, as he knew that this was his greatest chance at any sort of redemption. It was all depending on two crucial words: ‘With her.’

He felt his throat vibrate at last and managed to produce a short but silent squeak. It made the nurse glance back and he had successfully caught her attention. But it only lasted for a second as she then turned around and continued leading Twilight out of his room.

An agonizing growl tore its way through Aeon’s throat and bounced off the walls of the room. It was painful and not particularly loud, but it was more than enough for the nurse to rush to him with a worried expression. Twilight, on the other hand, stood still and was simply stunned by this sudden outburst.

“Are you alright?” The concerned nurse asked him. “Where is your chalk?”

“with her…” his vocal cords screeched, but it was indecipherable to the nurse. The formerly mute patient made another attempt. For the third time in a minute, and in years, he made his voice heard. It was rasp, rusty and represented neglect and decay, but this time his message was clear. “With her.”

The nurse was astounded. Aeon had actually spoken. However, she felt that the effort was wasted on these two seemingly random words. “’With her’? What do you mean, Aeon?”

After pointing at the blackboard with the unfinished text “Leave me alon-”, the nurse finally caught on. She was feeling a plethora of emotions and was unsure whether she should take him to a doctor or leave it for later. The caring nurse considered the amount of effort the patient had put into this request, and decided to grant him this wish. In the meantime, she was going to tell all of her colleagues about this breakthrough.

As she left the room and closed the door, Twilight rose up from her seat and approached Aeon while addressing his condition with a sympathetic tone. “That could not have been easy... Are you okay?”

Aeon decided to draw instead of speak again. He bent down and reached in under the bed to fetch the lost chalk, after which he wrote two words: ‘IT HURTS’
“I understand that, Aeon. You have not spoken for years, I’ve heard. Your vocal cords must be stale.”
Aeon looked up and appeared agitated. He wrote a large ‘NO’ on the blackboard.
“No?” Twilight questioned.
Aeon then erased the ‘NO’ as well as the ‘IT’, the latter of which he replaced with ‘EVERYTHING’.

EVERYTHING HURTS

“I see.” Twilight understood now. “You are reliving them, aren’t you? The memories.”
Aeon nodded silently in response. He rubbed his eyes and then drew on the blackboard without even looking at it. ‘What do you know?’

“I’ll tell you. But first I want to help you.” Twilight promised. Aeon looked confused as she let her inner Fluttershy take control. She assisted the sniveling colt to his bed and laid him down. When he was comfortable, she pulled out the chair again and retook her seat while telling her story to the tormented veteran.

“You see, during the past few days I have had these… visions. I have had visions of you, five other ponies and the mansion that united you in terror. I saw the rules, the panic and I saw the challenge begin. The visions have not showed me how it all ended, though. That is why I came for you. Not only to know what happened and hear your story, but also because I thought you needed help. You are in need of someone who can understand you and make you realize that you are not as alone as you think. You need a friend.” She improvised the part about being his ‘friend’ because she had now witnessed what this challenge really can do to a pony. The pure sadness of it all broke her spirit and she wanted to say anything to make him feel better. It worked. The look on his eyes were that of a pony who had just been granted a tiny bit of hope. He might just have been given a reason to keep living.

“I can describe to you what I have seen, if that is alright with you?”
He nodded.
“Do you think you can tell me the rest after?”
He shrugged his shoulders, clearly not quite convinced that he could handle it. That’s good enough, Twilight thought and began detailing everything she had witnessed in her dreams. She never mentioned anything about seeing it all from Maverick’s point of view, fearing that it might disturb him and require an explanation from her that she did not have. He would perhaps suspect that she was the killer all along, pulling the strings. When dealing with a mentally unstable pony, she could not be too careful.

She recounted, in third person, her chronicle of what happened and what she saw. The waking up, the reveal of the rules and the appearance of the weaponry. She finished her retelling with Maverick’s killing of Dawna, trying hard not to paint it with unnecessary details to minimize the emotional impact.

“That’s all I saw. It was the last of my visions.” She felt hesitant to call them dreams, because she was not quite sure that they were. It was just so vivid… Maverick’s agony and hysteria… I felt it myself… Twilight shook out of it, looked at Aeon and inquired, “How are you feeling now?”
“Okay…” His voice croaked like a broken violin. Then he clutched his throat as if a string had snapped and his facial muscles contracted in pain. Twilight was reminded of how excruciating every word was for the former mute. There is no way he can tell me anything like this… Writing it on the blackboard would take too long and be tedious for the both of us… “Aeon, do you have anything to remedy the pain?”

He looked up for the moment and extended a hoof, pointing to a cabinet door by the bookcase. Inside, there was a small bottle of pills with a worn label. ‘Painkillers. Take Responsibly.’ It had taken years of building trust for the nurses to even dare leaving them with him. But Twilight brought the whole bottle to Aeon, not knowing how many he was allowed to take. He opened the jar and took one of them and Twilight asked if it made him feel better. He gesticulated with his hoof dismissively. This is going nowhere... Twilight had to help and decided to do so with magic. “Aeon, let me try something…”

She leaned over, gently gracing his throat with her horn, which began to glow. Aeon shivered distrustfully but then felt what was happening. Thereafter, the pain was gone.

“It only lasts for ten minutes and is not easily repeated. So we have to be quick.”
Aeon caressed his neck and throat, but then rose up, hugged her and said: “Thanks.”
“Can you tell me what happened after the death of her? Dawna?”
He closed his eyes and forced a tear out in doing so. “I’ll try.”

His voice was rasp and rusty, and it required effort from the both of them to make him understood. This must be how his voice sounds now after years of inactivity. It was not something that Twilight believed she could cure with magic. But at least now that it was painless, there was nothing holding him back.

“It was terrible… Everybody was screaming.” Aeon paused and braced for the upcoming terror. “We quickly scattered all around the hall, away from the killer that you call ‘Maverick’. But it was not before he could quickly rip into one more. It was Skydance, the pegasus. He grabbed her in the wing before she could get away from him. Then he stabbed her too…” Aeon did his best in holding back his tears and sunk his head down. Twilight placed her hoof on his shoulder, comforting him. He sniffled, returned himself to an upright position and continued with his broken voice.

“She dropped to the floor… sword still in her… and… we panicked… I was throwing myself at the door, praying it would open… And he was in the center of the room with all of the weapons around him. If any of us tried to grab a weapon for defense, he would kill us before we even had time to touch one…” He took a deep breath, reminded of the fact that he had only ten minutes to talk. “Nopony moved… We were all waiting, for a first strike… Eventually… he picked up a spear.”
“Maverick?”
“Yeah…”
“What about the others? What was Decker doing?”
“I don’t know. He was probably writing in his book or something. I did not pay attention to such things when there was a killer in the room!” He scolded. The horrifying memories were starting to get the better of him, but he managed to calm himself. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay… Continue, please.”
“He threw the spear with impossible accuracy. He hit Glory… right in her skull… sticking her to the wall. It was brutal… Why would he do such a horrible thing…” Aeon could no longer control his tears. Twilight reasoned that this might be a good time to tell the truth. Well, some of it, anyway.

They embraced again and Twilight whispered to him. “That wasn’t him. He was not himself…”
“What do you mean?”
“The mansion took him… as a final measure to start the challenge. He was just a puppet. Please don’t condemn him. It was beyond him.”
Aeon broke out of the hug and protested, “But he killed everybody.”
“No, Tantibus did. Maverick was just a tragic witness. He could not control his body.”
“How do you know all this?!”
“I just know.”
“Is there something you are not telling me?”
“No, I swear. Please continue, we don’t have much time…” Twilight pleaded, making Aeon pause for the moment.

He decided to continue, but revisiting his tormented past was taking its toll on him and his voice. He was breaking down and sobbing while putting strain on his unused vocal cords. This was making him increasingly harder to understand. Without the spell, this really had to hurt. It sounded that way to Twilight, at least.
“With only me and Decker left, he turned to me of course. The weakest of the group…”
“Don’t say that.”
“But it’s true! I am weak and pathetic. That is why he chose to go to me first… with a katana. But then…” Aeon stopped sobbing, “I was saved.”
“How?”
“…by Decker. He shouted at him… ‘Maverick’… to leave me alone. He provoked him with a sword he had found, just to distract him from me... If I only wasn’t such a coward!”
“It is not your fault. None of this is. Besides, we can’t change the past…”
“They were dueling, fighting each other… Blades clashing… But Decker was losing. Badly. He got stabbed in the leg… I had to do something. So that’s when I saw a sledgehammer not too far from where I was.”
“What did you do?”
“I grabbed it and used all of my strength to strike a fatal blow to his head.”
“How was Decker?”
“It was too late for him. He was already on the ground… drawing his last breath… with the blade in his chest… Deadly precise.”

Finally, Twilight was given the answers she came to Canterlot for.

Dawna was stabbed in the throat by a sword.
Skydance was grabbed by the wing and then stabbed by the same sword.
Glory received a spear straight through the head.
Decker got his chest impaled by a katana while trying to protect Aeon from Maverick.
And at that moment, Maverick got fatally hit in the head with a sledgehammer.

But there was one question that remained unanswered. ‘What happens when you win?’
“What happened after that?”
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
“What? No announcement or anything? Did the doors open?”
“No. I was stuck in there. The doors were still sealed shut. I spent almost an hour doing everything I could possibly think of to open them. Finally, I took Decker’s book, tore out an empty page and made it my tombstone, using his quill and blood.”

So that’s how it was made, Twilight thought. It makes sense now. The empty field must have been the location of the mansion... Does that mean it moves?

Aeon continued; “Rotting corpses all around me, one of which I killed… And… You say he was just a puppet...? He was innocent… What have I done?!”

Now knowing the complete story, Twilight deeply regretted telling him about Maverick’s true nature. The blue pegasus openly wept in her embrace. It must have been horrible for him… Being stuck in a room with five dead ponies… All innocent… With no escape from the blood and sights of death. No wonder people go mad. But why did the doors not open? I thought you were released when everypony but one was dead. At least that’s what happened to Flaming Ace. Wait a minute… What if… Someone else was still alive?

“Maverick was not really dead, was he?”
“No… How would you know that?”
“Going by Tantibus’ rules… I mean…” Twilight decided to spare him the reminder, “It was just a guess. But what happened then?”
“I thought he was dead, until I saw his eyes move.”
“Did he try to kill you again?”
“No. I got him first. I was…” he refused to look Twilight in the eyes, “I was so scared. He did not even defend himself… He just lay there… not moving.”
“But his eyes did?”
“Yes. So why would he just lay there?!”
“I guess it is possible that when you hit him in the head… He might have been paralyzed by the blunt trauma.”
“Does that mean… Do you mean… You mean he was awake the whole time? He was unable to move and talk… Just left barely alive to suffer the whole time? For more than an hour?!”
“Now, that I did not say.”
“But that was what you meant! It was so, wasn’t it? Oh no… I just let him lie there in torment for so long! And then I killed him when he was defenseless… He was innocent the whole time! I’m the murderer… What is wrong with me?! Why am I so… argh!”

Ten minutes had passed. The spell was over and he could feel the pain again… the pain of his throat laid on top of his tormented soul. He shrieked in agony. It was not loud, but represented a mind spiraling into chaos.

His anguish turned into anger as he charged Twilight. His pain fuelled a growing rage, as he silently screamed “Who are you?! How do you know about all of this?! How did you know he was a puppet?! How did you know he was still alive?!”
“Uhm.. I…” In shock, Twilight could not produce a valid response.
”Argh! What else do you know?!” He coughed, “It hurts! Everything hurts! Do you know how to make it stop?!” He was clearly in a lot of pain, but his anger pushed him to the limit. “Do you?!”
“I…” Twilight faltered.
“Do you know how to stop this?! Please!”
“No, I don’t… I can’t recast the spell… I’m sorry, Aeon.” Twilight felt remorseful and was taken by guilt. It was all her fault. She just had to bring this upon him… For her stupid research… “I am so sorry… For everything.”
“Then this…! Argh! Then this discussion is over! Leave.”
“But Aeon…”
“Leave. Now.”

Twilight felt like she had no choice but to leave out the door. She stood up and patted his shoulder. He pushed her hoof away and Twilight then left. He was truly alone in this world…

Aeon reached for the bottle of painkillers.