Obscurum Descensus

The pain was excruciating when Luna unfurled her wings at the last forty feet drop of the stairwell, throwing her off balance and sending her crashing through a door at the bottom of the stairs. Dust settled and rocks crumbled as the princess let out an agonizing groan.

All she felt was pain. Her hoof screamed. Her wing cried. Her entire body ached. It was almost unbearable as Luna crawled to the nearest door and closed it behind her. She threw off her saddle bags and started pull out all of the medical supplies she had.

Downing the first health potion that she pulled out, Luna set to work on fixing her wing. She did her best to lay the wing as flat as she could on the dirtied tile floor of the hospital room and then lay the splint that she kept in her bag along the wing. Using a full roll of gauze, being that it was the only thing Luna had at the moment, she wrapped the wing to the splint in four separate places and then tied it tightly and as straight as she could against her body. Next, Luna focused on her back hoof and slowly unwrapped the blood-soaked gauze. She was horrified to see that the wound was even more exposed now and she could see the muscle and cartilage twisted in ways that it should not be. There is no way that she would be able to run anymore.

Calming herself with a few deep breaths, Luna used whatever was left of the gauze and rewrapped her back hoof. Drinking the last health potion, she got to her hooves and took a few careful hoofsteps towards the door and peered out towards the stairwell. The coast looked to be clear and Luna stepped out into the hallway.

The hallway looked very similar to every other hallway she has been in in this cursed hospital. The only difference is that there looked to be a couple to wheel chairs loosely placed along the length of the hall. The princess started to walk down the hall, peering into room windows and trying doors in hopes that one of the rooms would yield something that could help her.  Finally one of the doors opened and Luna stepped through.

There was a horrible smell emanating from the room. The princess would have left had it not been for the sudden compulsion to explore the room for something useful. Taking in small breaths and holding them for as long as she could, Luna started searching through the drawers and the desk in the corner of the room for anything she could use.

She found another roll of gauze and a scalpel that she decided to keep. Putting both into her bag she turned around and saw that there was a curtain pull across where typically a hospital bed would be. Luna took a few steps forward and noticed that the intensity of the putrid smell grew as she got closer to the bed.

Oh my… Oh no.

She reached the curtain, nearly gagging from the smell and gripped the edge of the curtain with her teeth. She closed her eyes and steeled herself for what she was about to see. Luna slid the curtain across the rack.

The princess wretched up the contents of her stomach that had very much wanted to be free ever since she had entered the room. On the bed was a pony that was strapped down and cut open along the entire length of her body. Intestines, lungs, and other body organs lay pulled out but still attached to the inside of the pony and her eyes looked to be gouged out. It also looked as if her skin was getting rearranged in different areas as well. Luna hobbled out of the room as quickly as she could.

“Oh my… Pray tell, what horrific section of the hospital am I in?” Luna asked herself as she looked up at the sign above her.

Surgical Ward.

Luna felt sick again and started heading for the double doors at the end of the hall. She did not want to stay in this section of the hospital much longer, fearing that there were similar instances of what she had just witnessed in each of the rooms to her left and right. She finally reached the double doors and went to push them open.

They didn’t budge.

The princess suddenly heard the soft clop of hoofsteps above her. They were steady and slow and therefore could not be the insane pony that she had only just escaped. They sounded as if they were walking down the corridor above her and towards the stairwell.

I need to find a key or another way out of here. Oh no, I have to search these rooms…

Luna let out a quiet sigh and headed over to the door that was the nearest to her. She pushed it open and a familiar smell entered her nostrils. She held her breath and stepped into the room, noting that there was a rather thick trail of blood leading to the concealed bed at the far end of the room. She searched through all of the drawers and cabinets to find anything that looked like a key. The only thing she found, however, was another bottle of healing potion.

When Luna walked back out into the hall she noticed that the hoofsteps were now reaching the door at the end of the hallway above her. She quickly jumped into the next room.

The first thing Luna noticed was that the room was devoid of the rancid smell of rotting flesh and so took the chance to take in a few gulps of the still old and musty air. Feeling a bit refreshed from the cleaner air, the princess looked over all of the drawers and cabinets in the room only to find nothing other than another healing potion.

Luna didn’t feel dejected when she found healing potions though. She knew she would need them later when the previous wore off. She just hoped that she would find some kind of key soon before she was discovered by whatever was walking down the stairwell now.

The alicorn quickly made as fast a dash as she could muster to the next room to check and closed the door behind her just in time as the door to the stairwell on her level opened. Luna decided to just wait in this room until whatever was walking down the corridor now left her alone to search the rooms some more.

Unfortunately for her, the room had that rancid rotting flesh smell again so she tried to best to shallow and control her breathing to keep herself from throwing up any more than she had. She heard clop steps nearing the half of the hallway she was hiding in.

The hoofsteps stopped in front of the door and Luna could hear the faint noise of a pony’s breath. It sounded hoarse and forced. The hoofsteps continued on down the hallway and stopped at the locked double doors.

Luna felt like she was going to be sick. The stench emanating from behind the curtains was overwhelming. The princess shoved a hoof up to her mouth to keep herself calm.

There was a ticking sound as a door unlocked and the hoofsteps continued on down past the formally locked double doors. Luna got her hooves and walked to the door of her room, cracking it open and peeking her head out. She caught a glimpse of the long slick and red tail of the pony as it turned the corner further past the double doors.

The princess crept out of the room quietly, taking in the fresher air as much as she dared and then set off after the mysterious pony. She was cautious to make as little noise as she possibly could and when she approached the corner that the pony went around she hugged the wall and peered around.

She spotted the pony as it crossed under the light of a flickering light bulb. It looked to be a female pegasus nurse with a pale white coat with red splattered across it. She had a slick and red mane and tail. Her eyes were hidden behind a blindfold as it looked like thick tears of blood stained her cheeks. Her nurse uniform was ripped to shreds for the most part. Her wings dragged along the ground. Luna wasn’t even sure if they were usable.

The pegasus nurse stopped for a moment as she was about to clear the flickering light source above her.  She slowly turned her head to look behind her and Luna ducked back around the corner, hoping the mare did not know she was there. All was silent for a few moments.

Luna peered back around the corner and ended up staring directly at the nurse’s face.

“The Nightmare” the nurse whispered, almost as if it was inside Luna’s head. Luna fell back and closed her eyes.

When she opened them again the nurse was completely gone. Both corridors were devoid of life besides herself. The princess was gasping for breath and shaking uncontrollably.

There came a very low groan at the end of the hallway she had just come from. Luna turned her head and paled significantly at what she saw.

At the very end of the hallway, staring directly at her, was the silhouette of a very tall and lanky alicorn with a jet black coat and an ethereal mane and tail decorated with stars similar to her own. It was smiling an unnaturally large smile.

Before Luna could get to her hooves and run down the hall where she encountered the nurse the alicorn vanished. The princess watched as the remaining shadows that had made up The Nightmare just a few seconds ago slithered away and left her alone in the corridor intersection.

The princess got up and gave a huge sigh. What did I get myself into?

Luna started down the hall where the nurse used to be and noticed that there were no doors on either side of her. She reached the double doors at the end of the hall without further interruptions and pushed the doors open with a low creak.

The room was very wide and was split in half by a wall of small windows and counters that ponies could talk to each other through. It was impossible to see past the windows as the room beyond the windows was very dark. Luna walked up to one of the windows to try and see beyond.

She could not see more than a few feet beyond the window. It was strange that the light, though dim it may be, could not reach far beyond the windows. She also took note that the windows were incredibly thick, enough to stop a hard working earth pony from bucking the them open. Where was she?

The princess didn’t have to search long to find out. She was in the psychiatric ward of the hospital.

There was the light tapping of a window behind her. Luna froze and slowly turned around, bracing herself for what she might see.

There was nothing there.

Luna stayed frozen in place, searching each window she had visibility over repeatedly to try and find the source of the noise. For several minutes nothing happened and she finally let go of her breath. She proceeded to the end of the room to the two sets of doors separated by a black box.

As the princess was walking she could hear whispers coming from behind the windows and nervously looked over. It was fruitless as it was so dark beyond the windows but still the whispering persisted. Luna wasn’t sure whether or not the whispers were so quiet she just couldn’t make out the words or if they were in an entirely different language.

When Luna reached the two doors she noticed that there were eerie markings on one of the doors, eventually being recognized as words.

Take the door to your right.

She tried to marked door anyways and found that it was locked and let out a huff. She turned and opened the door that was to her right and stepped into the hallway. The door closed and locked shut behind her.

The princess trudged forward toward the single flickering light bulb that lit the entire hallway. Tiles crumbled under her hoofsteps while small dust particles floated down from the ceiling. Everything was quiet. She bowed her head as she passed under the source of light.

Luna rounded the corner at the end of the hall and noticed that there were two evenly spaced doors on either side. The doors were very large and made of full metal with metal bars at the top as a sort of communicator or window for whatever lay inside. Luna found the door unlocked and pushed it open.

The room was completely dark and Luna had to turn her lantern on once again, surprised that it even functioned with everything she had been through since she last used it. The padded floors of the room were ripped to shreds, showing the old tile floors underneath. There looked to be multiple chains dangling from the ceiling while the padded walls were also torn to shreds. There was an intercom in the corner of the room giving off a quiet and steady stream of static.

Luna quietly closed the door behind her and walked further into the room. After a quick search of the ground she finally looked up and spotted a key dangling from the highest chain attached to the ceiling.

“If only I still had use of my wing…” Luna moped and she started to look around for anything that could help her reach the key. It was too high to jump for it so eventually Luna gave up and decided to check the other rooms to see if there was anything that could be of use to her to get the key.

She crossed the room and opened the door. The room was larger than the previous one with the padded walls and floor still intact. There looked to be a few pony straight jackets lying in the corner while the intercom in the far corner of the room was silent. The room was fairly empty so Luna decided to go and check if there was anything under the jackets.

The jackets were piled in a mound and Luna was removing the jackets off one by one. Finally, when she reached the bottom of the pile, there was a lever that she picked up and put into her saddle bags. She left the room, not noticing that static started to sound from the intercom.

Luna walked further down the hall and came to the next set of doors. She entered the door on her right. The padded walls and floor in this room were intact as well and there looked to be a large quantity of boxes piled in the center of the room.

“Perfect. I can use these boxes to reach the key in the other room.” Luna whispered to herself as she trotted over to the boxes and picked the first one up. She started carrying the boxes one by one into the next room, stacking them carefully so that they would not topple over under her weight. When Luna went to grab the last box that she needed she noticed that the intercom in the room started to emit static. A little wary, Luna left the room and carried the last box.

She was able to reach the key when the last box was placed on top of the pile. She stepped off of the mountain of boxes and suddenly stopped, noticing that the static coming from the intercom stopped and was replaced by the sounds of whispering she heard earlier. She exited the room.

As the princess was slowly making her way down the hallway, the sounds of the whispers from the intercoms echoing off of the walls, she stopped at the door she had not yet opened. She had this unexplainable feeling that she should not open the door but the curiosity in her hoof was betraying her mental conscience. She opened the door.

Inside, sitting in the corner of the room, was a pony lying in a blood splattered straight jacket. A huge smile filled its cheeks while its eyes were dilated to the size of peas. Its thin mane and tail were jet black and greasy enough to stick to the pony’s body. It was whispering itself.

The pony turned its head to look at Luna. “Well, if you told me you were drowning…”

Luna took a step back. “I would not lend a hand…”

The pony’s smile grew larger. “I’ve seen your face before my friend…”

The princess slowly closed to the door, unable to block the song the pony was singing from her hearing. “But I don’t know if you know who I am…”

Luna slowly made her way down the hallway, its familiar song filling the hall from the intercoms. “Well, I was there and saw what you did…”

She reached the end of the hallway and saw a door with a place for a key to go to the right of the door. She placed the key in the hole and turned, causing the tiles above the key hole to spin around and produce a button. “I saw it with my own two eyes…”

She pressed the button and on the other side of the door a set of tiles fell from the wall. In their place was a hole that looked to hold a lever. Luna fetched the lever out of her bags. “So you can wipe off that grin, I know where you’ve been…”

Breaking out in a cold sweat, Luna shoved the lever into the hole and pulled down. The door started to lift from the ground. “It’s all been a pack of lies.”

The voice sounded as if it were directly behind her. Luna gulped and dared to turn her head towards the source. There, free of its straight jacket and staring directly at her, was the pony. The bulb that had lit the hall way went out. Its smile was unnaturally wide. “And I can feel it, coming in the air tonight. Oh Lord…”

The sound of its maniacal laugh sent colder chills down her spine than the insane pony she encountered earlier. It took a step forward, eyes full of hunger. Luna didn’t notice before but the pony’s teeth appeared to be razor sharp. There was no way she could out run the pony.

The princess backed up past the door and noticed the lever on the other side. She reached over and pulled down, watching as the door slowly slid down to separate her from the pony. As Luna turned back to look at the pony one last time her heart caught in her throat.

The pony’s facial features appeared to be melting, black tears running down its face while the tiny, dilated eyes turned a deep crimson. Its smile grew wider still and she could hear the pony’s breathing become more labored. It snarled.

“Run for your life, little pony.” It said in a cracked demonic voice. The laughter that followed frightened Luna to her very core. She turned and ran.

The princess galloped as fast as she could, using her good wing to help propel her wounded hoof forward with each step she took. She ran past doors and around corners, trying to put as much distance between the pony and herself. She wasn’t sure if it was even going to come through the door but she didn’t want to take the risk of it catching up with her if it did decide to come through.

Her hoof started to pain her significantly so Luna finally decided to stop and rushed through a door to her left. She let out a sigh and shut the door behind her. She wasn’t even sure what section of the hospital she was in anymore. The princess flipped a light switch.

Luna let out a horrified gasp as the light bulb flickered to life. Before her were various disheveled little beds on wheels. Blankets were thrown here and there on the floor, stained with blood in the forms of streaks that lead to out the door she had just came in.

She let out a sob. “I… I must be in the hospital nursery.” Luna started to slowly walk between the aisles of beds, taking a look at each one. Tears came to her eyes as she looked at each bed, mortified by what she wished she couldn’t imagine happened here.

Foals were the essence of innocence and happiness. A little filly or colt was not born into this world already aware of the kind of person he or she was going to be. Instead they had a chance to make themselves into whatever the saw fit. They had entire lives to build their personality and attributes and would be future citizens of Equestria, or whichever nation they came from. To see an entire room dedicated to the protection of a foal’s earliest moments in life left in this state wounded Luna.

Luna reached the end of the aisle and stopped in front of a box. Her name was on it. The princess hesitated a moment before opening the box…

~~~

The trio left Stalliongrad late that evening to avoid being spotted by any stragglers heading home after a long day’s work. The air was cool and there was a gentle wind pushing them towards Windsoar, which would hopefully be their next stop before reaching the Tramplevanian Alps. The city was a pegasus city similar to that of Cloudsdale although much larger and more industrialized.

Windsoar was like the Manehatten of the sky. It’s brilliant, white skyscrapers dominated the skyline and shone as bright as the moon in the dead of night. The city was like a beacon to all ponies, leading them in the direction of the city if somepony was lost. There was a much smaller town underneath Windsoar for the Earth and Unicorn ponies.

Luna, Shadow, and Dime barely said a word on their long flight towards the massive pegasi city. The princess was still wrapped up in her thoughts and memories of her mother while Shadow felt guilty for bringing the sensitive subject up with her princess. Her curiosity got the best of her sometimes.

Luna had told Shadow not to worry about her after the two had sat in Luna’s room staring out across Stalliongrad for several hours. The night pegasus couldn’t help herself, though. Her princess was still grieving over something that was not even remotely her fault. Luna felt her friend’s turmoil and turned to look at her and gave her a weak smile.

The trio took their first and only rest on the outskirts of Derbyshire to get some much needed supplies. Shadow volunteered to go and left Luna and Dime along for nearly an hour. Once Shadow returned to the group, the three took off and flew the last stretch to Windsoar in record time. It wasn’t even sunrise yet when the three booked separate rooms at one of the lavish hotels near the amphitheater.

That day Luna slept and dreamt. She dreamt she was in the Everfree Castle gardens again with her mother and sister playing a fun game of tag. Their mother was "it", of course, and the two sisters were trying their hardest to escape their mother’s long legs. Hearing her children laughing brought laughter to Galatica herself. Luna smiled in her sleep.

Sudden the sky darkened. There was a terrible earthquake and Luna watched as the tallest spire of Everfree came crashing down. Dust and debris filled the air and little Luna began to cough horribly as the tiny sharp particles entered her lungs. “Mother? Celestia? Mother?!” She cried out.

The smoke started to settle. Luna was surrounded by darkness and the rubble of the castle. Her mother and sister were nowhere to be found. She let out a little whimper.

“I know you’re coming.” An too familiar voice whispered behind her. The seduction and nonchalance that flowed with the mare’s words were all too recognizable. The filly alicorn turned around to face her Nightmare.

“And I’m ready to regain what I have lost.” The Nightmare chuckled as it smiled demonically at her other self. The floor beneath the filly collapsed and she was plunged into darkness, screaming.

She managed to scream herself awake, eliciting a pair of galloping hoofsteps to come rushing to her door. In seconds both Dime and Shadow were in Princess Luna’s room with their spears drawn and ready to defend their princess with their lives.

Instead they came face to face with a rather embarrassed Luna. “It is quite alright you two, it was just a nightmare.”

The two night guards let out a sigh and placed their weapons up against the wall.

“Pardon, Luna, but as a friend I must ask what has been troubling you for the past several weeks? Ever since the mention of the location of the Element of Chaos you have been getting terrible nightmares every night.” Dime said as he looked at his princess with a bit of worry covering his usual cheery face.

The princess looked away from the two night guards and arose from her bed to look out across the city. She sighed. “I can feel my connection of the Element of Chaos reestablishing itself. That means that the Nightmare hidden inside me is growing in power with the sudden surge of dark magic passing through my body. It is attacking me and trying to weaken my resolve and the easiest way is to enter my dreams. If my defenses fall Nightmare Moon will return. It is of the utmost importance that we retrieve the artifact and dispose of it quickly.” Luna turned back to look at her two friends and sat down.

Shadow was the first to move as she walked over to her princess, followed closely by Dime as the two night guards sat down next to their princess and friend.

“Then we have no time to waste. We should get to the Tramplevanian Alps as fast as we can starting tonight.” Dime said quietly.

~~~

Reality refocused around the princess as she staggered from the splitting headache that returned. Closing her eyes and shaking it off, Luna looked down into the box. Tears started to well up in her eyes from what she saw.

At the bottom of the toy box there was a stuffed Ursa Minor. A tear slid down her cheek as she remembered it was the first ever toy that was given to her by her mother. Luna remembered how her mom had worked diligently for hours stitching together the bear herself and then wrapped it up in a big box for her first birthday. How happy she had been when she saw the stuffed toy. She carried the bear everywhere she went for the longest time and slept with the bear for even longer.

Luna sat down on her haunches and picked the stuffed Ursa Minor up gingerly and was about to place it in her saddle bags when something caught her attention. What was her toy doing in this castle? She remembered that she lost it when she turned into Nightmare Moon but she didn’t expect the toy would end up here of all places. She put the bear in her bags.

The princess continued to look at her toy box sadly, so deep in thought and memories that she almost didn’t notice the sound of leather hitting tile behind her. Luna’s ears perked up immediately and she whirled around. She couldn’t spot anything at first but after scanning the room a second time she noticed that there was a shape lying on the floor at the other end of the aisle.

The alicorn carefully picked herself up and crept up towards the shape that was lying on the floor. She couldn’t remember seeing anything in the beds of the nursery when she entered. As Luna approached the shape, she noticed that it had a curly and dirty blue mane and tail. Its coat was a dirty white and spattered with blood. The pony was the size of a filly. Luna stopped in her tracks.

The filly stirred and turned over to look at Luna, sitting up on her haunches. One of her eyes was hollowed out while the other was completely white. Her cheeks looked to have been sliced open repeatedly so that the scabs would make a permanent smile. One of her ears was missing and her entire undercoat was stained in blood. The filly let out an ear piercing scream.

Luna staged and fell back onto her side, landing on her broken wing. She let out a yelp and tried to get back up as the filly charged her, mouth open wide showing a set of alternating sharp and dull teeth. Her wing failed and the filly sunk its teeth into Luna’s already injured shoulder. The alicorn cried and pulled the filly from her grip, creating a giant gash on her shoulder that was bleeding profusely. She threw the filly across the room, watching as it smashed into the wall and rolled down on top of various surgical instruments.

The filly started to get back up, moaning and growling as several scalpels and pliers stood sticking out of its body. A warm trickle flowing down her front leg, Luna ran for the door, beating the filly to it and closing it behind her. She felt a thump and heard a crack as the princess realized the door wouldn’t close all the way. She looked down.

The filly’s head was smashed in between the door and the door frame. Luna stepped back and whimpered, watching as the filly’s head lay slack on the ground and blocking the door from fully closing. Ignoring her wound, the princess approached the filly and knelt down beside her. She closed her eyes as a tear slide down her cheek and onto the little filly’s head.

“Why did it have to be a foal?” Luna started, talking to the now deceased filly. “Are even the most innocent of ponies susceptible to this fate? I have seen mutilation, amputation, experimentation, insanity, disfigurement, and corruption. Ponies were taken from their homes to be thrown here for horrible and unnatural research. Many cannot even remember who they were before and just do the bidding of whatever is controlling them. The Element of Chaos. Nothing is safe in this castle. I… I have seen everything I can handle.”

“Ah, but you haven’t seen me yet.” A seductive and nonchalant chuckle came from behind her. Luna’s head twisted around and she got to her hooves as fast as she could. The Nightmare was standing directly in front of her.

Suddenly her eyes burst into red and her jaw extended twice its normal length while shadows started to shroud the area around the Nightmare. “I feel like a monster.” Came a high pitched cackle.

Then she was gone and Luna was standing alone, visibly shaken, next to the filly just outside of the nursery. There was a ding that made Luna jump and she looked over to the source of the noise. An elevator door opened with an arrow above it pointing down. The princess sighed and walked towards the door and let them close behind her.

Suddenly she felt excruciating pain coming from her shoulder and quickly fetched the gauze roll out of her saddle bags and rewrapped her shoulder. The princess decided to drink one of the health potions to numb the pain that was starting to resurface because of her battle with the filly.

The elevator slowly came to a stop and the doors opened.

She was in another reception room. The doors leading to outside of the hospital looked to be crunched and broken open. Glass littered the floor along with an entire section of the ceiling which looked to have caved in in the corner. The reception desk looked to be split in half.

The princess walked across the room carefully, her hooves noisily crunching on the glass with each step. She bowed her head and slunk through the exit of the hospital back into the gloomy cobblestone floors and torch lit walls of the castle. She wasn’t sure to be glad or dejected at the sudden return of scenery.