Darker Shades Of Black

Mirage woke up without opening his eyes and reached for his blanket. He couldn't feel it, so he opened his sleepy eyes to look for it. It was totally dark -- something he did not expect. The Pegasus pony could barely see his hoof in front of his face. Looking down he realized he wasn't in his bed anymore -- had he fallen out in the middle of the night? And where exactly did his bed go to? And why was his room made of stone?

He raised an eyebrow -- to his left, where a bed should be, there was just a solid wall. To the right, where he expected the door to be, he could barely make out vertical steel bars, illuminated by a faint a green light at top.

Mirage quickly picked himself up. No bed, no blankets, no pillows, not even a pallet to sleep on, just a stone room with rust and scratches all over the walls. This didn’t feel like a dream.

Looking up he noticed there was a tiny light bulb with a string hanging from it. When he pulled it, the light flickered for a moment before dying.

“So much for light” Mirage sighed hoarsely. Startled at his creepy sounding voice, the colt stepped back. Just what the hay is this place?

The pony decided to further inspect the source of light -- he stood up on his hind legs and tapped the light which he noticed was cold. That meant it wasn’t used very frequently. His tapping made the bulb flicker for a moment before returning to its deathly state. A bit frustrated at this, he unscrewed the bulb, thinking of ways how to charge it.

Mirage wasn’t just an ordinary colt -- he was one of the rare Elemental Ponies, equines that were assigned certain forces of nature to their disposal.  For him, that force would be electricity -- the power that drives all sorts of mechanical contraptions to work, clouds to shed rain and ponies to yelp in dismay at the pranks he pulled with static electricity.

There was too little room in his cell to generate power, though -- he needed to build up speed, charging his body and discharging onto the nearby surrounding. Which, in this case, would hopefully charge the light bulb. But even then, running around in circles with a light source in hoof would be cumbersome.

Mirage straightened his wings out -- the black feathers were barelly visible in the darkness. The colt remembered fillies used to poke fun at his colours -- black body, purple hooves and a mixture of the two colours on his spiky mane and rugged, long tail. Well, he was the last one laughing when they tasted some of his lightning. The smile brought to his face by fond foalhood memories faded away as the reality of being trapped came back to mind.

* * *

Outside the metal bars, Mirage could see a circular room with a single dim lamp sitting on a pedestal. Around there were cells similar to his own -- he quickly lost count in the darkness, but suspected there were roughly around 60 cells, arranged around the central chamber.

To his left the colt managed to see what was inside another cage -- a pony with a red and purple coat was lying on her side, fidgeting slightly. Moments later he made out another shape in the room -- it was standing over the mare, its face near her stomach. The shadowed pony’s ears twitched and it turned around. Mirage gasped -- it had its mouth covered in red. A brick wall of realisation hit the colt -- that was blood. The air was buzzing with slurps and crunches which he disregarded up till now. The bloody pony grinned, smearing the sticky liquid across it’s mouth. Baring its teeth, it let out a low demonic growl. The black colt’s spine literally froze at the sound -- horrified, he looked as the shadow turned back to the mare on the ground and resumed... consuming her innards.

Mirage was so shocked he didn’t notice he was backing up straight into a wall. He jumped as the cold surface bumped against his flank -- he shot forwards like a bolt of lightning (no pun intended), leaving behind small flickering purple charges. He saw it now. The walls... There were writings on them. Written in crimson blood.

* * *

A loud noise erupted from the chamber outside. Dazed, blood thumping in his temples, the colt approached the steel bars. Without warning a flood of light came from above, blinding him. The lamp standing on the pedestal got replaces with... A small, red apple?

In the cages around him, there was movement. Too scared to look directly, Mirage registered form the corner of his eyes other ponies approaching thier bars. Some were red and wet, others looked like they were through a lot, with scratches and stained coats. All their eyes were fixed on the single fruit, illuminated like some kind of holy grail.

“What’s going on?” whispered the purple-maned colt to himself. “It’s just an apple... right? What the hay is going on here!” he said a bit louder.

An unexpected sound of static, coming from above, made the colt drop and cower.

“Greeting, my subjects!” boomed a distorted voice. “Oh it looks like we have a new pony in the mix! How exciting!”

“Where am I...” gasped Mirage, looking around wildly.

"Oh you've never heard of this place?" the voice adressed the startled stallion "Hmm... It’s no fun explaining it... Let me show you instead!" the voice yelled.

A loud buzzer sounded and all the cell doors save for his swung open. A form of chaos ensued -- some ponies stayed back and went about closing the gates to their cells; others rushed to the middle, spreading carnage in their wake. Wings were being snapped in half, bloody horns stabbed ponies in the guts, teeth and hooves tore at flesh. The prize itself got knocked somewhere -- Mirage saw one of the ponies howl and lunge at a cage just left of him. He instantly pushed himself to the corner of his cell, shaking in terror.

Other ponies followed, like a rioting crowd, prying the doors out of their hinges. Wet sounds were heard and shortly after, the lifeless body of a pony got launched outside. It had one eye gouged out, the other still spilling from it’s socket in a yellow puddle. The victim had several ribs missing from her exposed chest; those that were still present were broken or lodged in the mess that were her guts. Her legs were broken in many places, bones mangling the blood-soaked fur. Despite his frozen brain, the colt could understand she was dead.

The most unnerving thing... The thing that scared Mirage out of his sane mind... Was the toothless, happy smile on the carcass.