Author's Note

Sorry for my really long hiatus. Really. Here's a story I've been wanting to start up for awhile, a special story just for Halloween. Enjoy!

PROLOGUE

CANTERLOT CASTLE SECURITY VIDEO FEED
DATE: [REDACTED]
CLEARANCE: TOP SECRET/CLASSIFIED

A man sat inside a small shop within the walls of the towering castle, perched on top the mountains around Canterlot. He donned a welding mask and continued his work periodically flipping up the mask to check his notes. The notes explained in great detail the schematics of a bio-computer chip project of his, the reason personal. After some time, he pulls off the mask and sets it aside, grabbing his phone. He unlocks it and flips through the various open tabs. When he goes to put it back down, the door on the wall off to his left opens.
Four women and a couple royal guards burst through, Princess Celestia leading the group. The other three women go by Princess Twilight Sparkle, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadance.
“Secure the room,” Celestia orders to the guards. “I want this security footage classified, put under lock and key.”
The guards nod in response and do a brief sweep of the room. The man was the only one there. Once finished, they exited, and locked the door. They both stood outside, blocking the door.
Celestia turns and towers over the the man sitting at the workbench. “Confirm your identity,” she barks at the man. The man chuckles, and clears his throat.
“Golf Tango Romeo, 08042000. Skyline, if you will,” He responds, with the slightest hint of playful sarcasm in his words.
The four women find some seats that don’t have piles of spare parts. The pull them up to the table on the side opposite to Sky. They sat close together, and exchanged worried glances. Skyline casually swiped through his phone as it lay on the wooden top bench.
Celestia took a deep breath. “Skyline, we’ve known for a long time that you like to go other dimensions, and in your past you’d done it quite a few times. We tracked, as I’m sure you’re aware of. One in particular, however, sparked our executive interest. This one, unlike most others, we didn’t have data on.”
Skyline’s attention slipped from his phone, and he cast it aside. He held his hands together on the bench, his attention now unusually stoic. Luna continued the conversation. “We sent a special forces team to said dimension, for data purposes. This was four months ago,” She went on. “We never heard from them again. Three weeks ago, however, we sent a second team. This attempt yielded only one survivor. That last man came back with a sheet of poorly written, blood soaked notes. The man’s been deemed clinically insane.”
Twilight leaned over, her elbows resting on the bench. “Skyline, this man’s been rambling on about ‘Cupcakes’ and the ‘Rainbow Factory’. The, amongst a few other very disturbing and detailed topics, was all we could get out of him. That’s not even the worst part.”
Skyline’s expression hardened.
“Skyline, the blood that came back? It was Rainbow’s.”
He took a deep, slow breath.
“Of all things you could have dug up, this had to be one of them. I advise strongly that you stop this in its tracks at this very moment. No more teams. Seal it off, for good.” Skyline said, poorly hiding how upset he was.
“Skyline, I want a full, detailed explanation at to what that place is, and how you managed to get out…. sane.” Celestia demanded.
Skyline laughed lightly. It wasn’t a happy one. “Well, I can answer that second part easily. I never did. There is still a tiny part me, insane at its dark core, and I can only tap into it in cases of extreme measures. As to what that place is, sugarcoating aside, I created it.”