The Dark Descent

The room was dark. The floor was a rough mahogany, with a small purple unicorn sprawled across it. The walls around her were made from many stones, and the building itself appeared quite old. Lingering through the air was a faint musty smell, as if the building hadn't been cleaned in quite a while. In the distance there appeared to be a moonlit window, boarded up with a few slivers of silver light creeping through. It was quite difficult to make out any other objects throughout the room, although there was clearly a few paintings hung upon the wall, as well as some unlit torches, but the lack of appropriate light made it difficult to determine what was drawn across them.

How... How did I get here? I thought to myself. Is this just another teleportation spell gone wrong? It seemed quite logical. Unicorns could easily send themselves to places they didn't mean to, but usually not very far. But something was definitely wrong with this place. The magical influence that the unicorn was so accustomed to seemed to be absent. Maybe I can get some light in here. I thought to myself. After carefully rises onto all fours, the floored creaked under the new distribution of weight. There was a feint whispering of wind coming from the window at the end of the hall. A few sparks emitted from Twilights horn, and the eerie darkness remained. That's strange. Why didn't my magic work? I thought. More than likely this place was immune to magic, or perhaps it suppressed her powers. Whatever it was, I was not used to the lack of magic.

Reflecting on the situation, I thought of the books I had read in the past, mostly thinking of what could suppress magical abilities. This building didn't seem to have any sort of counter-magical materials. I shrugged it off and took a step forward. The wood was very rough, and touching it alone felt like my hoof was showered with splinters. I don't remember any buildings in Ponyville in such poor condition, and I know if this was a teleportation accident I couldn't be outside of Ponyville by far. Slowly edging towards the end of the hallway, creaking hooves upon the tarnished wood, I could hear the feint sound of water dripping every couple seconds.

After reaching the window, I took a break. The air near the window was fresh, filled with the smell of pine needles and tree sap. Through one of the cracks, the moon could be seen. The sight was quite beautiful, despite most of it being blocked by old wooden planks. After staring out the window a little longer, I was surprised what thoughts had entered my mind. Does anypony still live here? Do they know that I'm here? And why can't I use magic in here? I paused for a moment, knowing something was terribly wrong. How did magic get me here, if magic can't be used here? I gasped slightly. Either very powerful magic sent me here, maybe even something from outside of Equestria. Either way, I needed to find a way out.

Without light, navigating over wooden floor proved to be more difficult than I had thought. There were many broken chairs, fallen paintings and damaged floorboards littering the castle floors. Somepony really should clean this place up. But now wasn't the time, and I didn't plan on cleaning it without magical abilities, let alone in the dark. After carefully climbing over the wreckage, I reached a small wooden door. The handle was very small, and appeared to be made of brass. The hinges attached to the door appeared to be rusted, and I pondered if the door would even open. Beyond this door, the dripping sound was much stronger, whatever was leaking was awaiting me on the other side of the door. Hopefully it's a kitchen. I thought to myself, trying to make the best of the situation. Maybe there's still some food left! I giggled a little, doubting there would be any food. Reaching out for the handle, I swear I head a moaning sound from behind me. Pausing just for a moment, I reached out with both my front hooves and twisted the brass handle. The door swung open with ease.

Beyond the door, however, was not a kitchen with a dripping tap. Nor was it a bathroom with a leaking shower. There was a large, metal hook hanging from the ceiling, covered blood, impaling the corpse of a silver pony with a blood-soaked mane. The corpse had been torn open, several ribs were broken and the organs strewn about the floor below. The eyes were black sockets, the eyes had been gouged out but were nowhere to be found. The dripping blood was coming from the torn open stomach, with a large puddle of blood almost filling the room beneath the corpse. I nearly threw up from all the gore. Keep it together Twilight. I thought. Whatever sick pony was here isn't here now, so I'm safe right? The thoughts lingered through my head. What would happen if whoever, or whatever did this came back? I stared in disbelief, unable to absorb the gravity of the situation.

The room itself was frightening itself as well. There was a small metal pan on a wooden table with many different tools for slashing, cutting, gutting, almost every tool of torture. The room itself had no windows, but there was two doors opposite each other. One was the wooden door of which Twilight had entered, and the other was a large, heavy looking pale blue metal door. The only thing lighting the entire room was a small candle beside the assortment of torture tools. The corners were almost completely unlit. There was a small cage in the back corner, near the metal door, with a small bench inside of it. There was a plate in the cage, as if whatever was in there was fed. Beside the cage there was a small metal trash bin, and the rest of the room was empty. I approached the can, trotting carefully to avoid the blood splattered across the floor. Inside it were more organs, more than likely stripped from the lifeless corpse attached to the ceiling. What in the world would do something like this? I was shaking at this point. I couldn't go backwards, that was just a dead end, so the only option I had was to enter the metal door. Strange enough, the door had to handle. Simply by leaning into the door, it opened without much resistance. As the door finally swung open, the darkness almost felt like it wanted to engulf me. With nowhere else to go, I stepped into the abyss, not knowing what to expect.