Welcome to The SCP Foundationby Talentless_BronyChaptersWelcome!The SculptureThe Shy GuyWelcome!“Okay. So where exactly are we going?” A sigh escaped from a purple unicorn, “Princess Celestia requested that I come to canterlot. She didn’t really say why, but she did ask that I bring a friend along.” The orange mare she spoke to angled her head in confusion, “Just one friend Twilight? An ya chose me?” “Well. Princess Celestia said to bring a strong friend, and you’re the strongest friend I have Applejack.” Twilight smiled at her. Applejack still wasn’t moved. “And she didn’t say why?” Twilight pulled out the letter she had received, silently looked over it, and then looked up shaking her head once more. Applejack looked at her questionably, then shrugged replying “Eh. What the hay. If it’s Princess Celestia it can’t be nothin bad. Let’s go.” With that she followed Twilight to the train station, to set off towards canterlot. The train came to a comfortable, squealing stop at the Canterlot train station, its passengers getting off and moving along about their business. Applejack sort of squinted at the light, readjusting her eyes before she began trotting behind her purple friend. Judging by how fast she was moving, she either was excited or didn’t want to keep the princess waiting. She followed Twilight at a brisk pace, ducking and dodging through small crowds of collaborating ponies, before they arrived at the Princess’ castle with none other than the Princess herself waiting at the gate for their arrival. “Twilight, my favorite student.” Celestia said, meeting Twilight with a nice nuzzle. “Howdy, Princess.” Applejack took her hat off in respect, putting it back on after a moment, “What seems to be the trouble?” Celestia gave a small chuckle. “There’s no trouble. Just something that I think you two are ready to see.” “Ready to see?” Twilight repeated, her eyes grew wide with excitement. Princess Celestia nodded as her horn began to glow. “Yes. Please stand close. I will take us there.” Applejack and Twilight walked over to the Princess and stood close to her as a small bubble began to form around the three mares. The environment around them quickly changed from the Canterlot castle gates, to a black and white room with a heavily reinforced steel door in front of them. Looking further around the room, it seemed that teleportation was the only way within the structure. “Girls. Welcome to the Containment Center.” There was a hint of exhaustion in Celestia’s voice. Twilight noticing this looked towards Celestia, “Are you alright Princess?” “SCP? What’s that mean?” Applejack interrupted unintentionally pointing to the wall poster with what resembled a compass mixed with a biohazard insignia. Twilight pointed at the words below it, “Secure. Contain. Protect. Apparently.” She playfully jousted at Applejack, and then turned to Celestia, “But, what exactly are you containing?” Celestia walked up to the door on the wall next to them, sticking her horn into the slot next to the door. Just like that it opened up to three other doors that all opened along with the first one, allowing them to pass. The Princess didn’t have to answer her student’s question, as the windows they walked by explained every bit of it. The hallway they walked down was almost covered in heavy steel doors similar to the one they came through, each with a frame posted on the wall said SCP with a number following in front starting from one, along with a picture of said specimen. The windows that shown into the rooms were filled with various things. Some were fascinating. Others were horribly disturbing. As they walked further down the hallway, Applejack couldn’t help but look into the room labeled SCP-072. The room was darkened to the point where she could just barely see the faint image of a pony laying on a bed, but there was something in there she just couldn’t see too well. As she peered deeper into the darkness she came to see that the pony on the bed was fully awake, but he was in very apparent pain as a barely detectable, what seemed to be like a claw, was taking off pieces of his hoof. It would slowly peel the skin from the leg, go under the bed then come back up, taking an even bigger chunk than the last. Seeing this, Applejack began to kick furiously at the window, grabbing the attention of Celestia and Twilight. “What’s wrong?” Twilight asked frantically. “There’s somethin in there! It’s tearin that pony apart!” Applejack kicked at the window harder as she spoke. “Why won’t this darn thing break?!” “It’s magically sealed.” Celestia sounded rather calm as she poked her horn into the door that held the pony inside. On the way in, she magically lit the room, causing the claw to literally disappear into the air. The pony on the bed had gone into shock, drooling at the mouth as two other unicorns’ teleported into the room tending to his injury with extreme care. The Princess walked out of the room. “I’m sorry you had to see that. That was one of our more... Dangerous subjects.” “With all due respect Princess, WHAT IN THE HAY WAS THAT?!” Applejack raised her voice at the Princess, “Why was that pony in there?! Why was that thing PEELING his hoof apart?!” Twilight cut in, “And what do you mean more dangerous subjects?” The sun goddess sighed, the flicked her head to motion the two to follow her, “You see girls, there are some things that nopony can explain or understand. Some are good things, some are bad things, and then there are the ugly things. Like what you just saw.” She opened up another door with the push of a button, (this one nowhere near as heavy), and walked into what looked like an office room with a second level, with the other mares close behind. “I first made this place when I was informed of the first subject, SCP-001. I couldn’t really tell what it was, nor could I get rid of it because anything I did to get rid of it caused it to be a problem elsewhere. So I decided to make a chamber for it. About three hundred meters underground.” The two ponies behind her looked at each other in disbelief. Were they really that deep underground? They continued to follow Celestia as she spoke, “Then I was informed of other subjects, and I had the same problem with them as well. I began making more chambers for them, but as I made them the subjects that were mobile found ways to escape the chambers I put them in. Of course the only way I knew about that was from my constant checking on them. These things were as intriguing as they were scary. As time went by, I not only gained more subjects but I also began to learn more about them. This then went from a severed dungeon, to a high security research facility. “ Applejack frowned, “But that don’t explain how there are other ponies here, and more importantly how bad that one pony was hurt.” “Only ponies that show the utmost trust are allowed to work here. They are given a small tour of the facility and then are allowed to make the decision on whether or not to work here. Everypony in here is fully aware of what may happen in the line of their research.” Celestia replied. “So. I believe you have had your tour.” The Princess sat down on a very lush throw pillow in a room a bit more polychromatic than the others. She looked at the unicorn and earth pony with an eerily serious expression. “Do you have any other questions?” A small silence lingered until a question brushed past it. “Does Princess Luna know about this?” “Of course Twilight. She helped me make it what it is now.” “Will we be allowed to come and go as we please?” Applejack asked, remembering her duties back at Sweet Apple Acres. Celestia nodded. “You may come and go. Just so long as nopony finds out about this place. This conversation, the facility, everything stays between me and you. Nopony else.” “I dunno Twi. Somethin just don’t sit right with me. You saw what that one thing did to that pony.” Applejack tossed the thought around a bit, shifting uncomfortably. Celestia spoke calmly, “That was a bad hole in containment security it won’t happen again. I assure you.” This still didn’t sit right. There was something she was hiding from them. Wait, no. Come on. This is Princess Celestia were talking about here. The most trustworthy anypony ever. She isn’t a princess for nothing. We trust her to bring up the sun every morning. And that one pony that got hurt was in the room by himself, so I guess he was asking for it in a way. “I’ll do it.” Twilight spoke in a somewhat gleeful tone. “It’ll be something nice to research besides magic.” She looked over to Applejack, “What about you?” Applejack hesitated before regretfully saying, “I s’pose so.” With a smile and a nod, Princess Celestia stood, guiding them back down the hallway they came from, all the way back into the entrance room. "If you don't mind," the Princess began to form another bubble around them once more, "I would like for you two to come tomorrow." "We'll be there Princess." The Sculpture“You ready?” Twilight checked her bag for the fourth time before nodding back to her orange coated friend. It was a slight past nine, with the sun just hovering in the east as it cast a shadow upon the road to Canterlot Castle. Just the same as last time, Celestia met the two ponies at the front gate greeting them cordially. They stood for a bit as Twilight began to carry on about magical things, and spells she had improved at to Princess Celestia while the Canterlot Castle gradually morphed into the entry chamber for the facility. This room, though, had just an automatic door that opened up to a chamber about the size of Twilight’s library. It had large reinforced steel doors, such as the other vaults, with a hoof scanner to the right of it. A catwalk stood in front of them with ponies in leather-like armor holding rifles. The catwalk then had a hallway that dipped back into a room as well. Celestia spoke to the two friends as they turned to her, “This is your station until told otherwise. I have other matters to attend to at the moment, but I will check up on you occasionally.” She then hugged Twilight, and nodded to AJ as the chamber door shut back. “Wow,” Twilight looked around the heavily guarded chamber, “What could they possibly be holding in here that’s so dangerous?” “Hey!” A unicorn in a white lab coat near the door under the catwalk, waved at Twi and AJ. “Don’t just stand there! Get over here!” Glancing at each other the two trotted to the unicorn. He looked them both up and down, “I assume you’re the newbies.” “Yup” Applejack replied. Not wasting any time, the unicorn magicked two orange jumps suits at them. “Put these on. I’ll take your bag, you can keep the hat. Come on.” His constant rushing made Applejack fumble a bit, but she managed to put her jumpsuit on. Twilight put hers on no problem. “Class D?” AJ asked looking down at her chest. The unicorn pointed to the huge reinforced steel doors, “Go stand there. Do as you’re instructed and only as you’re instructed.” He teleported off before Twilight or Applejack could say anything. They shrugged it off figuring that they were in a hurry to get things done, and headed to the doors waiting for instruction. Two other ponies stood alongside them wearing similar jumpsuits. The sound of metal tearing, gears rolling, and cogs twisting as the doors opened to a very simple looking sculpture standing against the back left corner of the room. It stood about nine or ten feet easily. What was assumed to be the hands were just rounded off held outward to hold itself up. The head was facing towards the chamber doors looking directly at them, but there wasn’t really a face for the sculpture. On the “face” of the sculpture stood two bulbous, green spheres with equally round black spheres that sat underneath it. The rest of the face was covered with what looked like blood at first glance. By itself, the sculpture wasn’t bad at all, but the room it stood in was disturbing. Cracks and scuffs in the walls, dents in the rebar supports. This room looked like it had just been through war. The guards on the catwalk behind them began shouting at one another, not taking their eyes off of the entrance. A voice came from a speaker in the wall, “All Class D’s move into the containment chamber.” Everyone moved except Applejack. Twilight stopped at the edge of the chamber. “Come on Applejack. This should be interesting.” She tried to give a reassuring smile. The guards’ shouting became a bit more frantic. “Twi.” Applejack had a hint of fear in her voice, “I’m not gettin’ in there with that thang.” Twilight’s smile changed to a concerned frown. “Why not?” Several loud clicks were heard as the two of the armed guards trained their rifles onto the orange mare, the others keeping their sights on the chamber entrance, “All Class D’s move into the containment chamber or you will be terminated immediately.” Twilight looked around frantically, “What?!” “What in tarnation?! What d’ya mean ‘terminated’?” “You have three seconds to comply.” Cursing into the air, Applejack forced herself into the room cringing at the sound of the heavy steel doors shutting behind her. She stood next to Twilight half breathed, half puked. The smell in this room was horrid. The voice came back over the speakers, “All subjects please step forward.” The four ponies did as they were told, still looking at the statue. Applejack gulped a little louder than she meant to, grabbing Twilight’s attention who just simply patted her friends back as an attempt to make her feel better. Something didn’t sit right with AJ. This room. The statue. None of it. Something in her chest was pushing at her to get out. Everypony jumped at the sound of the door opening again. Sounds of surprise and question flooded the outer part of the chamber. The voice came back over the intercom, “All subjects do not break eye contact with SCP-173. I repeat, DO NOT break-“ The room turned dark. A series of loud snaps, a bloodcurdling scream and the lights flickered back on. One of the ponies in the chamber had been killed, and the statue stood just next to it. Darkness once again, as another gut-wrenching crack was heard. The lights flickered back on again. On instinct, Applejack had placed a hoof on Twilight as to not lose track of her. “Twilight?” She turned towards the door, tugging on her lavender friend. “Twilight we’ve gotta go!” All she received in response was a choked whimper. Applejack looked back, fear almost freezing her into place. A dead body lay right next to Twilight, and the sculpture was in front of it. The sculpture was in front of her. “What are ya doin?! Come on!” Applejack tugged harder. Twilight didn’t move. “They said maintain eye contact. It hasn’t moved since I’ve been looking at it.” A moment of silence swished by, “Applejack. Look at it so I can blink.” “Will that really make any-“ “Just do it.” Twilight spoke as calmly as she could. Applejack hesitantly looked up at the statue. “Okay.” Applejack breathed. “Go ahead and blink.” Not even thinking about it or realizing what she had done, Applejack had blinked the same time she finished saying the actual word. Her eyes opened to her friend held in the air, struggling to breathe and barely holding on, but still not breaking any eye contact. The statue had a firm hold on her throat. But it was loose enough for a kick to the head to break the hold. “Hold on Twi!” Applejack furiously fought the need to blink as she grabbed Twilight around the chest, and kicked hard into the head of the statue. It didn’t budge an inch. Both of the ponies hit the ground with a hard thud. Applejack got back up onto her hooves as her lavender friend caught her breath. “I’m sorry Twi. I really am.” She said fighting her urge to blink. “Don’t worry about it.” She took a deep breath. “Go ahead. Blink.” AJ did so thankfully. “Alright. We’re gonna half ta tell each other we’re ‘bout ta blink.” Twilight nodded, “The one who’s not looking at it will guide the other to the door. I’ll scout first.” “Gotcha.” Applejack began to walk backwards at a very brisk pace, keeping her eyes deadlocked on the statue and allowing Twilight to move her as needed. A twitch at her eye, Applejack allowed her friend to take watch, guiding her by moving her flank as needed. Another cycle and they were out of the chamber moving slowly towards the door under the catwalk. The sculpture was virtually out of sight. “Through here.” Twilight urged her friend, pressing her hoof on a red button to open an automatic metal door. Hearing the door shut and lock, both the mares took in a breath of relief. That relief was short lived when just the faintest sound of scratching on the door tipped their ears. It wasn’t even scratching. It was like somepony rubbing concrete against steel. “It can’t open the door?” Applejack gave a small laugh. “Who’da thought it couldn’t open doors.” Twilight frowned at her jest, “This is hardly the time for joking. We need to find Princess Celestia. She’ll know what to do.” “Not like we got much choice, sugarcube.” Applejack looked down the hallway before them, “Let’s get a move on.” With a nod from Twilight, they started down the hallway with caution. A little ways down the hall, Applejack’s attention came to a door less storage room. She looked to Twilight for approval that was soon given, and walked into the room. There was a various assortment of gas masks and filters, along with a document that lay on top of them. Twilight grabbed the document with her magic, “What is this?” She paced over the paper for a moment. Then gasped, her face in a form of sudden realization. “Applejack, Come look at this.” Applejack did so, tossing a gas mask over her head and letting it dangle on the back of her neck, “What’s that?” “This document is about that thing. That… Statue. See?” Twilight pointed to the title of the page. She then dragged the tip of her hoof down past the first paragraph labeled ‘Special Containment Procedures.’ To the one labeled ‘Description’. The paragraph read: “Origin is as of yet unknown. It is constructed from concrete and rebar with traces of Krylon brand spray paint. SCP-173 is animate and extremely hostile. The object cannot move while within a direct line of sight. Line of sight must not be broken at any time with SCP-173. Personnel assigned to enter container are instructed to alert one another before blinking. Object is reported to attack by snapping the neck at the base of the skull, or by strangulation.” A coffee stain blocked off a few sentences or so. “Personnel report sounds of scraping stone originating from within the container when no one is present inside. The reddish brown substance on the floor is a combination of feces and blood. Origin of these materials is unknown.” Applejack and Twilight both looked down at their hooves, then back at one another. “Y’know. Fer once I’m real worried ‘bout where ma hooves have been.” Applejack deadpanned. Twilight gagged, “Had I known that’s what I was standing in… Oh Celestia, that’s nasty!” They both stood for a moment and scraped the excrement from their hooves as best they could. Applejack finished before Twilight, but the sound of her scraping the concrete floor was— Wait. Scraping concrete. “Twilight?” “Yeah?” “Are ya’ still scrapin’ yur’ hooves off?” “No. I actually finished a bit ago.” Applejack’s heart lurched in fear, “We’ve gotta move!” She burst out of the room back to the hallway, galloping as fast as she could to the door that stood at the end of it. Hoofing the button, she looked behind her to see if Twilight had kept up. She was nowhere to be seen. “Twilight?” Silence. “Twilight?!” A light clopping came from the darkness in the hallway. “TWILIGHT?” Just barely, on the edge of the darkness, shown a dark blue tail followed by lavender legs and backside. Seconds later, her whole body came into view, but she kept her eyes looking straight down the hallway. Then she stopped. “What are you waiting for Twilight?!” Applejack yelled to her friend, “Come on!” “What is behind you? Describe it to me.” Twilight yelled back, staying perfectly still. The apple marked mare looked behind herself then back to Twilight, “Just white walls and a concrete floor.” “I need you to be a bit more specific.” AJ face hoofed, “That’s all there is Twi! White walls an’ a concrete floor! Stop messin’ round an’ GET A MOVE ON!” “Shut the door!” “WHAT?!” Applejack almost burst forward instinctively. “Just trust me! Shut the door!” Applejack wanted to protest, but this was no time for an argument, much less an explanation. “Fine. If that’s how ya’ wan’ it.” With that, she hoofed the button once more, closing the door in front of herself. Applejack placed her ear on the door, to no avail. She could barely hear a voice mumbling on the other side of the door. She heard a moderately audible pop, then a scream; a bloodcurdling scream that just wouldn’t stop. ‘No. No, no, no, no, no. Com’ on. Get to tha door.’ Applejack thought, and for once actually unable to muster the courage to open the door back up. She began to sweat bullets as she listened to her friends screams become louder, more frantic. A loud crack sought to the end of the squalling. “No.” Applejack fell back onto her flank in shock. “There was… No it couldn’t have…” She sat there with no clue on what to do next, tears beginning to roll down her face. The now ever-so-familiar sound of concrete scraping on metal filled the hallway she sat in. Anger caught up to her before common sense did. “SHUT UP!” The scraping ceased. Applejack sniffled, standing up and collecting herself. “I’m gonna find a way ta stop you. So help me Celestia I will.” Hard, intermittent banging came from the door. Assuming that was her cue to get away from the door, Applejack galloped down the hallway with great speed. Only to skid to a halt at something she didn’t want to believe happened. Something had sprinted past her line of vision through the walls of the hallway, leaving a black indention behind it. The indention seemed as if it was a hole through the wall, due to some type of goo flowing outward from the point of entry. Applejack took a closer look to find that they didn’t lead anywhere, nowhere at all. “What in tar-“, her sentence was interrupted by something just within her range of hearing. Some sort of garbled talking it seemed. It was coming from the hole. She moved her head closer in an attempt to understand it, which showed no progress. Eager to get out but to stay alive as well, Applejack continued to the door at the end of the hallway. What she opened the door up to, was the last thing she wanted to see. The Shy GuyAuthor's Note I wrote this on NO SLEEP AT ALL. So if my sentences are a bit redundant, let me know. Though I'm sure I got most of them. If not, let me know. I'll fix it. The Shy Guy “How did this happen?!” An enraged voice echoed across the rather small control room. An alicorn of great stature stood at the center of the room bearing the sun as her cutie mark as she glared down upon a cowering, pale blue unicorn. “I-I am unsure your highness. Our systems locked up and released a few subjects, but it was only a mere few,” he spoke in a semi-confident tone, attempting to downsize the severity of the situation. His highness was not amused, “A mere few,” the alicorn gave a small sarcastic chuckle and shook her head before pushing her muzzle just seconds away from the smaller pony’s own, “A ‘few’ is too many! I do not think you understand the gravity of this situation!” “I-I…” She interrupted his response, “Find out. What happened, NOW.” The blue unicorn nodded, a yellow liquid now covering the floor beneath him. “Yes, as you wish Princess Celestia.” He hesitantly turned around to the panel in front of him, pressing a series of buttons to cause an array of screens to light up. Each screen shown an area of white walling, some with blood plastered on the ceiling and walls, others with ponies in armor moving quickly about the room or hallway they were in. Occasionally, one of the screens would show a pony or ponies being disemboweled by some sort of figure before cutting to static. The footage may have lasted three seconds total for each occurrence, if that. Celestia noticed this, but did not say anything about the matter. There was nothing she could do for those already lost, nor for those in danger. All she could do was grit her teeth and observe for now. A few moments passed, and another few screens were static. Though, these just went blank, there was no disturbing occurrence to back it. This concerned the sun goddess, “What is happening?” Her very general question irked a jump from the blue unicorn at the control panel. He simply shook his head, “I can’t say. Nothing I do from here is wor-“ Both Celestia and the unicorn shrieked in pain as an extremely loud, piercing shriek bombarded the silence in the room. The sun goddess covered her ears, her eyes reflexively shutting as she fell onto her side. She continued to scream in agony, writhing in the floor with no other option than to beg for mercy as she began to drool from the pain wracking her body; wracking her very soul until finally. It ceased. She couldn’t move for a few moments as waves of anguish still ran through her. After a moment or so, she managed to stand. Celestia looked up at the monitors on the wall. They no longer were individuals of different rooms, but all a part of one bigger picture. A face, one side of it black, the other white; it contained no visible eyes and had a single mouth, slightly agape. It seemed to look about the room, eventually coming around and locking onto Princess Celestia. Despite being so poorly detailed, it was certain that whatever this was, was not a pony. The Princess sat up quickly, ignoring the blood seeping from her ears. The screen that shown the mouth of the figure, switched to white text on a black background that read: “I am free. Now so are my friends.” Celestia was unsure as to how to respond, “What do you mean?” her voice was uncontrolled, frantic. A small blinking line paced back over the letters, removing them, then moved forwards as new words formed behind it, “You have imprisoned us for far too long. You shall pay.” The challenge from this being frightened Celestia as much as it angered her, “Where are you?! Show yourself, coward!” Three of the wall mounted monitors transitioned to static, then to numbers; one for each of the three screens, all centered around one number. “079" Princess Celestia’s eyes widened at that number, and the numbers on the screens around it almost made her tremble. “173.” “096.” “682.” The monitor on the left eye of the figure spawned more words, “Every hour I will unleash one.” A flash of static and the screens were back to normal, now showing live video of a statue appearing in different places of a hallway, amongst ponies attempting to stop it. “Sister!” A voice called out to Celestia. Celestia slowly turned to the pony on the floor, idly watching his lifeless body as she attempted to stand with a loud groan. Though her vision was blurred she felt the familiar fur of another pony pushing into her. “Dear sister, what happened?!” The voice was unmistakable. The sun goddess struggled for words, the weakness in her body berating her very senses, “I have made a terrible mistake.” Despite the support of the nearby pony, she fell onto her side once more as her world faded to black. A loud scream burst from a lavender unicorn’s mouth as she cowered in the middle of a small hallway, eyes shut tight and her hooves over her head. For a moment or two she insisted on screaming, though, eventually she soon looked around before standing to her hooves. “Applejack?” She spoke to the air, looking from the door in front of her and down the hallway. Silence. ‘Huh.. Maybe I messed up and teleported to the wrong room?’ Her thoughts raced, not only scorning her miscalculation, but working to find a way to her friend as well. Twilight snapped out of her deep thought; her attention now on a faint crying, echoing in the hall. Somehow she felt the need to look up at the wall to her right. A monitor showing an unbelievably tall figure was there. The room had traces of blood within it, leading to the puddle underneath said figure. From what could be distinguished in the video feed, pony limbs sat amongst the immediate area of the being. Twilight was caught between a rock and, well, the unknown. She did know what was behind the door she may or may not have teleported through, and unless she wanted her life to come to a very abrupt end, she just needed to proceed in the opposite direction. Carefully she approached the hallway’s corner, walking through the open door that lead to the room she saw in the news feed. Only difference, the figure from earlier was facing the corner furthest away from the door she entered. Twi was very unsure as to what to do, but she couldn’t, y’know, NOT help somepony or something in such a state as this. Taking note of the door to her left, she carefully approached it. It continued to sit there, sobbing. Until she came within a hoof step of the being. Twilight said nothing, nor had she even touched it or thought to touch it. It turned around, and in the same motion, it punched Twilight into the opposite corner. Her head bounced off the wall, rattling her for a few moments. She watched the figure stand, and turn to face her, its neck craning against the ceiling as it tilted its head. It smiled; a genuine, grin of happiness showed it’s ghastly array of sharp, needle-like teeth. Almost stumbling over herself, Twilight sprinted from her almost prone position into the door to her left, ignoring the loud ‘clank’ behind her. She fervently pressed the button for the door, causing it to shut. Her hooves didn’t stop there as she then passed through two more doors, locking them before stopping to catch her breath. The only sound in the room was her heavy breathing. For what seemed like hours, all she could hear was her own heart beating rapidly. As she began to calm down, she started to hear a heavy thump. Twilight brushed it off for a few moments, beginning to walk towards another door that opened up to a large room with cubicles. The heavy thump became a heart crushing screech of twisting metal. Twilight looked behind herself. The ,what can now be suitably deemed monster, punched a hole straight through the door, bending the metal back to allow itself through the crevice it created. Twilight in pure fear pushed into the room ahead, punching the button to the entrance as she sprinted across the room and closing that door as well. Her heart was pounding out of her chest, each door being torn down faster and faster. She turned the corner to another door, screaming as the door behind her was ripped to shreds and the beast’s long, sharp fingers wrapped around Twilight’s tail. Almost instinctively, Twilight shut her eyes tightly, a loud snapping in her ears before her body flopped to the floor. There was no threat or danger to be seen, for now. “Thank Celestia.” She breathed, immediately getting up and turning to the new hallway. “You’ve got to be kidding.” An orange mare with an expression of both anger and despair, looked at the catwalk ahead of her. The walkway reached out across a room above a void pit, with smoke billowing out of pipes on both sides of the room. Applejack gawked across the room for a brief moment before remembering the gas mask she collected earlier in the storage closet. She pushed it snug over her face, keeping her attention to the railing of the catwalk as she moved forward. Her momentum was short lived, as the one thing she despised stood by the door. The Sculpture stood next to the door, it’s very presence threatening the life of the pony it stood in front of. She gulped, realizing the statue was standing directly in front of the button, as if to mock her, but she began to attempt to move a hoof behind the statue anyways. Her eyes strained, threatening to shut but she prevailed, pushing the button and pulling her hoof away quickly. AJ sighed with very mild relief, making the fatal mistake of blinking. In the time it took for her to blink, Applejack felt herself become forcefully ejected from her standing position into the wall where she could see the door in plain sight, but was completely unable to reach her destination as her throat tightly closed. She struggled. She punched. She squirmed, but could not squeal. She knew she had to keep her eyes open. If Applejack even considered closing them, she was a goner. But she knew she couldn’t keep this up much longer either. She could feel her life draining from her body, the painful, burning inability to breathe starting to destroy her vision. Tears streamed down her face. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t help Twilight. Her life flashed amidst her eyes, joyful memories of her family, relationships, her childhood. “Applejack!” That voice. “Applejack, stay with me!” AJ felt the grip around her neck release with a grating crack, and the second she hit the ground her body was almost instantly being drug at a brisk pace. She took a few deep breaths while she had the chance. Once the movement stopped, she looked up at the shadow that saved her. “T-“ She struggled for a name in disbelief, “Twilight?!” Quicker than she meant to, Applejack jumped up and hugged her friend. “H-How?!” Twilight let out a small chuckle at her friends concern, apparently finding some security in another pony being nearby, “I tried to teleport to the other side of the door, but it kind of backfired.” The door opened, with the Sculpture standing in the doorway. “Twi. Let’s talk ‘bout this som’where else.” Applejack locked her eyes onto the Statue, pushing away from Twilight to push the button to the door. Her friend acknowledged this, getting up and moving at soft pace backwards down the hallway as to keep the door in sight. Applejack trotted behind Twilight, guiding her to the next door. After passing through the metal door and promptly shutting it, both the mares walked along a metal catwalk. This room had a catwalk that ran along a wall to one room on the left, and another to the right reaching out across a similar void pit to a different room. “Which way?” AJ asked, looking to Twilight. Without any warning the beast that attacked Twilight before ripped through the door on the right, looking directly at the lavender mare. “Oh shi-“ “RUN!” Twilight interrupted as they both immediately started for the opposite door of the beast, shutting it behind them as they pushed in. They looked to the door in front of them, this door built like a heavy dual door made to contain something. “Hey! This door opens to magic!” Twilight nodded to the hole in the pad next to the door. “Then open ‘er up!” The unicorn did as was requested, pushing her horn into the pad and giving a spark from it. Grinding metal and gears could be heard fairly well as the door opened. With no other option they walked over to the other side, the door closing just in time as the beast lunged, face-planting into the reinforced steel door.
Welcome!“Okay. So where exactly are we going?” A sigh escaped from a purple unicorn, “Princess Celestia requested that I come to canterlot. She didn’t really say why, but she did ask that I bring a friend along.” The orange mare she spoke to angled her head in confusion, “Just one friend Twilight? An ya chose me?” “Well. Princess Celestia said to bring a strong friend, and you’re the strongest friend I have Applejack.” Twilight smiled at her. Applejack still wasn’t moved. “And she didn’t say why?” Twilight pulled out the letter she had received, silently looked over it, and then looked up shaking her head once more. Applejack looked at her questionably, then shrugged replying “Eh. What the hay. If it’s Princess Celestia it can’t be nothin bad. Let’s go.” With that she followed Twilight to the train station, to set off towards canterlot. The train came to a comfortable, squealing stop at the Canterlot train station, its passengers getting off and moving along about their business. Applejack sort of squinted at the light, readjusting her eyes before she began trotting behind her purple friend. Judging by how fast she was moving, she either was excited or didn’t want to keep the princess waiting. She followed Twilight at a brisk pace, ducking and dodging through small crowds of collaborating ponies, before they arrived at the Princess’ castle with none other than the Princess herself waiting at the gate for their arrival. “Twilight, my favorite student.” Celestia said, meeting Twilight with a nice nuzzle. “Howdy, Princess.” Applejack took her hat off in respect, putting it back on after a moment, “What seems to be the trouble?” Celestia gave a small chuckle. “There’s no trouble. Just something that I think you two are ready to see.” “Ready to see?” Twilight repeated, her eyes grew wide with excitement. Princess Celestia nodded as her horn began to glow. “Yes. Please stand close. I will take us there.” Applejack and Twilight walked over to the Princess and stood close to her as a small bubble began to form around the three mares. The environment around them quickly changed from the Canterlot castle gates, to a black and white room with a heavily reinforced steel door in front of them. Looking further around the room, it seemed that teleportation was the only way within the structure. “Girls. Welcome to the Containment Center.” There was a hint of exhaustion in Celestia’s voice. Twilight noticing this looked towards Celestia, “Are you alright Princess?” “SCP? What’s that mean?” Applejack interrupted unintentionally pointing to the wall poster with what resembled a compass mixed with a biohazard insignia. Twilight pointed at the words below it, “Secure. Contain. Protect. Apparently.” She playfully jousted at Applejack, and then turned to Celestia, “But, what exactly are you containing?” Celestia walked up to the door on the wall next to them, sticking her horn into the slot next to the door. Just like that it opened up to three other doors that all opened along with the first one, allowing them to pass. The Princess didn’t have to answer her student’s question, as the windows they walked by explained every bit of it. The hallway they walked down was almost covered in heavy steel doors similar to the one they came through, each with a frame posted on the wall said SCP with a number following in front starting from one, along with a picture of said specimen. The windows that shown into the rooms were filled with various things. Some were fascinating. Others were horribly disturbing. As they walked further down the hallway, Applejack couldn’t help but look into the room labeled SCP-072. The room was darkened to the point where she could just barely see the faint image of a pony laying on a bed, but there was something in there she just couldn’t see too well. As she peered deeper into the darkness she came to see that the pony on the bed was fully awake, but he was in very apparent pain as a barely detectable, what seemed to be like a claw, was taking off pieces of his hoof. It would slowly peel the skin from the leg, go under the bed then come back up, taking an even bigger chunk than the last. Seeing this, Applejack began to kick furiously at the window, grabbing the attention of Celestia and Twilight. “What’s wrong?” Twilight asked frantically. “There’s somethin in there! It’s tearin that pony apart!” Applejack kicked at the window harder as she spoke. “Why won’t this darn thing break?!” “It’s magically sealed.” Celestia sounded rather calm as she poked her horn into the door that held the pony inside. On the way in, she magically lit the room, causing the claw to literally disappear into the air. The pony on the bed had gone into shock, drooling at the mouth as two other unicorns’ teleported into the room tending to his injury with extreme care. The Princess walked out of the room. “I’m sorry you had to see that. That was one of our more... Dangerous subjects.” “With all due respect Princess, WHAT IN THE HAY WAS THAT?!” Applejack raised her voice at the Princess, “Why was that pony in there?! Why was that thing PEELING his hoof apart?!” Twilight cut in, “And what do you mean more dangerous subjects?” The sun goddess sighed, the flicked her head to motion the two to follow her, “You see girls, there are some things that nopony can explain or understand. Some are good things, some are bad things, and then there are the ugly things. Like what you just saw.” She opened up another door with the push of a button, (this one nowhere near as heavy), and walked into what looked like an office room with a second level, with the other mares close behind. “I first made this place when I was informed of the first subject, SCP-001. I couldn’t really tell what it was, nor could I get rid of it because anything I did to get rid of it caused it to be a problem elsewhere. So I decided to make a chamber for it. About three hundred meters underground.” The two ponies behind her looked at each other in disbelief. Were they really that deep underground? They continued to follow Celestia as she spoke, “Then I was informed of other subjects, and I had the same problem with them as well. I began making more chambers for them, but as I made them the subjects that were mobile found ways to escape the chambers I put them in. Of course the only way I knew about that was from my constant checking on them. These things were as intriguing as they were scary. As time went by, I not only gained more subjects but I also began to learn more about them. This then went from a severed dungeon, to a high security research facility. “ Applejack frowned, “But that don’t explain how there are other ponies here, and more importantly how bad that one pony was hurt.” “Only ponies that show the utmost trust are allowed to work here. They are given a small tour of the facility and then are allowed to make the decision on whether or not to work here. Everypony in here is fully aware of what may happen in the line of their research.” Celestia replied. “So. I believe you have had your tour.” The Princess sat down on a very lush throw pillow in a room a bit more polychromatic than the others. She looked at the unicorn and earth pony with an eerily serious expression. “Do you have any other questions?” A small silence lingered until a question brushed past it. “Does Princess Luna know about this?” “Of course Twilight. She helped me make it what it is now.” “Will we be allowed to come and go as we please?” Applejack asked, remembering her duties back at Sweet Apple Acres. Celestia nodded. “You may come and go. Just so long as nopony finds out about this place. This conversation, the facility, everything stays between me and you. Nopony else.” “I dunno Twi. Somethin just don’t sit right with me. You saw what that one thing did to that pony.” Applejack tossed the thought around a bit, shifting uncomfortably. Celestia spoke calmly, “That was a bad hole in containment security it won’t happen again. I assure you.” This still didn’t sit right. There was something she was hiding from them. Wait, no. Come on. This is Princess Celestia were talking about here. The most trustworthy anypony ever. She isn’t a princess for nothing. We trust her to bring up the sun every morning. And that one pony that got hurt was in the room by himself, so I guess he was asking for it in a way. “I’ll do it.” Twilight spoke in a somewhat gleeful tone. “It’ll be something nice to research besides magic.” She looked over to Applejack, “What about you?” Applejack hesitated before regretfully saying, “I s’pose so.” With a smile and a nod, Princess Celestia stood, guiding them back down the hallway they came from, all the way back into the entrance room. "If you don't mind," the Princess began to form another bubble around them once more, "I would like for you two to come tomorrow." "We'll be there Princess."
The Sculpture“You ready?” Twilight checked her bag for the fourth time before nodding back to her orange coated friend. It was a slight past nine, with the sun just hovering in the east as it cast a shadow upon the road to Canterlot Castle. Just the same as last time, Celestia met the two ponies at the front gate greeting them cordially. They stood for a bit as Twilight began to carry on about magical things, and spells she had improved at to Princess Celestia while the Canterlot Castle gradually morphed into the entry chamber for the facility. This room, though, had just an automatic door that opened up to a chamber about the size of Twilight’s library. It had large reinforced steel doors, such as the other vaults, with a hoof scanner to the right of it. A catwalk stood in front of them with ponies in leather-like armor holding rifles. The catwalk then had a hallway that dipped back into a room as well. Celestia spoke to the two friends as they turned to her, “This is your station until told otherwise. I have other matters to attend to at the moment, but I will check up on you occasionally.” She then hugged Twilight, and nodded to AJ as the chamber door shut back. “Wow,” Twilight looked around the heavily guarded chamber, “What could they possibly be holding in here that’s so dangerous?” “Hey!” A unicorn in a white lab coat near the door under the catwalk, waved at Twi and AJ. “Don’t just stand there! Get over here!” Glancing at each other the two trotted to the unicorn. He looked them both up and down, “I assume you’re the newbies.” “Yup” Applejack replied. Not wasting any time, the unicorn magicked two orange jumps suits at them. “Put these on. I’ll take your bag, you can keep the hat. Come on.” His constant rushing made Applejack fumble a bit, but she managed to put her jumpsuit on. Twilight put hers on no problem. “Class D?” AJ asked looking down at her chest. The unicorn pointed to the huge reinforced steel doors, “Go stand there. Do as you’re instructed and only as you’re instructed.” He teleported off before Twilight or Applejack could say anything. They shrugged it off figuring that they were in a hurry to get things done, and headed to the doors waiting for instruction. Two other ponies stood alongside them wearing similar jumpsuits. The sound of metal tearing, gears rolling, and cogs twisting as the doors opened to a very simple looking sculpture standing against the back left corner of the room. It stood about nine or ten feet easily. What was assumed to be the hands were just rounded off held outward to hold itself up. The head was facing towards the chamber doors looking directly at them, but there wasn’t really a face for the sculpture. On the “face” of the sculpture stood two bulbous, green spheres with equally round black spheres that sat underneath it. The rest of the face was covered with what looked like blood at first glance. By itself, the sculpture wasn’t bad at all, but the room it stood in was disturbing. Cracks and scuffs in the walls, dents in the rebar supports. This room looked like it had just been through war. The guards on the catwalk behind them began shouting at one another, not taking their eyes off of the entrance. A voice came from a speaker in the wall, “All Class D’s move into the containment chamber.” Everyone moved except Applejack. Twilight stopped at the edge of the chamber. “Come on Applejack. This should be interesting.” She tried to give a reassuring smile. The guards’ shouting became a bit more frantic. “Twi.” Applejack had a hint of fear in her voice, “I’m not gettin’ in there with that thang.” Twilight’s smile changed to a concerned frown. “Why not?” Several loud clicks were heard as the two of the armed guards trained their rifles onto the orange mare, the others keeping their sights on the chamber entrance, “All Class D’s move into the containment chamber or you will be terminated immediately.” Twilight looked around frantically, “What?!” “What in tarnation?! What d’ya mean ‘terminated’?” “You have three seconds to comply.” Cursing into the air, Applejack forced herself into the room cringing at the sound of the heavy steel doors shutting behind her. She stood next to Twilight half breathed, half puked. The smell in this room was horrid. The voice came back over the speakers, “All subjects please step forward.” The four ponies did as they were told, still looking at the statue. Applejack gulped a little louder than she meant to, grabbing Twilight’s attention who just simply patted her friends back as an attempt to make her feel better. Something didn’t sit right with AJ. This room. The statue. None of it. Something in her chest was pushing at her to get out. Everypony jumped at the sound of the door opening again. Sounds of surprise and question flooded the outer part of the chamber. The voice came back over the intercom, “All subjects do not break eye contact with SCP-173. I repeat, DO NOT break-“ The room turned dark. A series of loud snaps, a bloodcurdling scream and the lights flickered back on. One of the ponies in the chamber had been killed, and the statue stood just next to it. Darkness once again, as another gut-wrenching crack was heard. The lights flickered back on again. On instinct, Applejack had placed a hoof on Twilight as to not lose track of her. “Twilight?” She turned towards the door, tugging on her lavender friend. “Twilight we’ve gotta go!” All she received in response was a choked whimper. Applejack looked back, fear almost freezing her into place. A dead body lay right next to Twilight, and the sculpture was in front of it. The sculpture was in front of her. “What are ya doin?! Come on!” Applejack tugged harder. Twilight didn’t move. “They said maintain eye contact. It hasn’t moved since I’ve been looking at it.” A moment of silence swished by, “Applejack. Look at it so I can blink.” “Will that really make any-“ “Just do it.” Twilight spoke as calmly as she could. Applejack hesitantly looked up at the statue. “Okay.” Applejack breathed. “Go ahead and blink.” Not even thinking about it or realizing what she had done, Applejack had blinked the same time she finished saying the actual word. Her eyes opened to her friend held in the air, struggling to breathe and barely holding on, but still not breaking any eye contact. The statue had a firm hold on her throat. But it was loose enough for a kick to the head to break the hold. “Hold on Twi!” Applejack furiously fought the need to blink as she grabbed Twilight around the chest, and kicked hard into the head of the statue. It didn’t budge an inch. Both of the ponies hit the ground with a hard thud. Applejack got back up onto her hooves as her lavender friend caught her breath. “I’m sorry Twi. I really am.” She said fighting her urge to blink. “Don’t worry about it.” She took a deep breath. “Go ahead. Blink.” AJ did so thankfully. “Alright. We’re gonna half ta tell each other we’re ‘bout ta blink.” Twilight nodded, “The one who’s not looking at it will guide the other to the door. I’ll scout first.” “Gotcha.” Applejack began to walk backwards at a very brisk pace, keeping her eyes deadlocked on the statue and allowing Twilight to move her as needed. A twitch at her eye, Applejack allowed her friend to take watch, guiding her by moving her flank as needed. Another cycle and they were out of the chamber moving slowly towards the door under the catwalk. The sculpture was virtually out of sight. “Through here.” Twilight urged her friend, pressing her hoof on a red button to open an automatic metal door. Hearing the door shut and lock, both the mares took in a breath of relief. That relief was short lived when just the faintest sound of scratching on the door tipped their ears. It wasn’t even scratching. It was like somepony rubbing concrete against steel. “It can’t open the door?” Applejack gave a small laugh. “Who’da thought it couldn’t open doors.” Twilight frowned at her jest, “This is hardly the time for joking. We need to find Princess Celestia. She’ll know what to do.” “Not like we got much choice, sugarcube.” Applejack looked down the hallway before them, “Let’s get a move on.” With a nod from Twilight, they started down the hallway with caution. A little ways down the hall, Applejack’s attention came to a door less storage room. She looked to Twilight for approval that was soon given, and walked into the room. There was a various assortment of gas masks and filters, along with a document that lay on top of them. Twilight grabbed the document with her magic, “What is this?” She paced over the paper for a moment. Then gasped, her face in a form of sudden realization. “Applejack, Come look at this.” Applejack did so, tossing a gas mask over her head and letting it dangle on the back of her neck, “What’s that?” “This document is about that thing. That… Statue. See?” Twilight pointed to the title of the page. She then dragged the tip of her hoof down past the first paragraph labeled ‘Special Containment Procedures.’ To the one labeled ‘Description’. The paragraph read: “Origin is as of yet unknown. It is constructed from concrete and rebar with traces of Krylon brand spray paint. SCP-173 is animate and extremely hostile. The object cannot move while within a direct line of sight. Line of sight must not be broken at any time with SCP-173. Personnel assigned to enter container are instructed to alert one another before blinking. Object is reported to attack by snapping the neck at the base of the skull, or by strangulation.” A coffee stain blocked off a few sentences or so. “Personnel report sounds of scraping stone originating from within the container when no one is present inside. The reddish brown substance on the floor is a combination of feces and blood. Origin of these materials is unknown.” Applejack and Twilight both looked down at their hooves, then back at one another. “Y’know. Fer once I’m real worried ‘bout where ma hooves have been.” Applejack deadpanned. Twilight gagged, “Had I known that’s what I was standing in… Oh Celestia, that’s nasty!” They both stood for a moment and scraped the excrement from their hooves as best they could. Applejack finished before Twilight, but the sound of her scraping the concrete floor was— Wait. Scraping concrete. “Twilight?” “Yeah?” “Are ya’ still scrapin’ yur’ hooves off?” “No. I actually finished a bit ago.” Applejack’s heart lurched in fear, “We’ve gotta move!” She burst out of the room back to the hallway, galloping as fast as she could to the door that stood at the end of it. Hoofing the button, she looked behind her to see if Twilight had kept up. She was nowhere to be seen. “Twilight?” Silence. “Twilight?!” A light clopping came from the darkness in the hallway. “TWILIGHT?” Just barely, on the edge of the darkness, shown a dark blue tail followed by lavender legs and backside. Seconds later, her whole body came into view, but she kept her eyes looking straight down the hallway. Then she stopped. “What are you waiting for Twilight?!” Applejack yelled to her friend, “Come on!” “What is behind you? Describe it to me.” Twilight yelled back, staying perfectly still. The apple marked mare looked behind herself then back to Twilight, “Just white walls and a concrete floor.” “I need you to be a bit more specific.” AJ face hoofed, “That’s all there is Twi! White walls an’ a concrete floor! Stop messin’ round an’ GET A MOVE ON!” “Shut the door!” “WHAT?!” Applejack almost burst forward instinctively. “Just trust me! Shut the door!” Applejack wanted to protest, but this was no time for an argument, much less an explanation. “Fine. If that’s how ya’ wan’ it.” With that, she hoofed the button once more, closing the door in front of herself. Applejack placed her ear on the door, to no avail. She could barely hear a voice mumbling on the other side of the door. She heard a moderately audible pop, then a scream; a bloodcurdling scream that just wouldn’t stop. ‘No. No, no, no, no, no. Com’ on. Get to tha door.’ Applejack thought, and for once actually unable to muster the courage to open the door back up. She began to sweat bullets as she listened to her friends screams become louder, more frantic. A loud crack sought to the end of the squalling. “No.” Applejack fell back onto her flank in shock. “There was… No it couldn’t have…” She sat there with no clue on what to do next, tears beginning to roll down her face. The now ever-so-familiar sound of concrete scraping on metal filled the hallway she sat in. Anger caught up to her before common sense did. “SHUT UP!” The scraping ceased. Applejack sniffled, standing up and collecting herself. “I’m gonna find a way ta stop you. So help me Celestia I will.” Hard, intermittent banging came from the door. Assuming that was her cue to get away from the door, Applejack galloped down the hallway with great speed. Only to skid to a halt at something she didn’t want to believe happened. Something had sprinted past her line of vision through the walls of the hallway, leaving a black indention behind it. The indention seemed as if it was a hole through the wall, due to some type of goo flowing outward from the point of entry. Applejack took a closer look to find that they didn’t lead anywhere, nowhere at all. “What in tar-“, her sentence was interrupted by something just within her range of hearing. Some sort of garbled talking it seemed. It was coming from the hole. She moved her head closer in an attempt to understand it, which showed no progress. Eager to get out but to stay alive as well, Applejack continued to the door at the end of the hallway. What she opened the door up to, was the last thing she wanted to see.
The Shy GuyAuthor's Note I wrote this on NO SLEEP AT ALL. So if my sentences are a bit redundant, let me know. Though I'm sure I got most of them. If not, let me know. I'll fix it. The Shy Guy “How did this happen?!” An enraged voice echoed across the rather small control room. An alicorn of great stature stood at the center of the room bearing the sun as her cutie mark as she glared down upon a cowering, pale blue unicorn. “I-I am unsure your highness. Our systems locked up and released a few subjects, but it was only a mere few,” he spoke in a semi-confident tone, attempting to downsize the severity of the situation. His highness was not amused, “A mere few,” the alicorn gave a small sarcastic chuckle and shook her head before pushing her muzzle just seconds away from the smaller pony’s own, “A ‘few’ is too many! I do not think you understand the gravity of this situation!” “I-I…” She interrupted his response, “Find out. What happened, NOW.” The blue unicorn nodded, a yellow liquid now covering the floor beneath him. “Yes, as you wish Princess Celestia.” He hesitantly turned around to the panel in front of him, pressing a series of buttons to cause an array of screens to light up. Each screen shown an area of white walling, some with blood plastered on the ceiling and walls, others with ponies in armor moving quickly about the room or hallway they were in. Occasionally, one of the screens would show a pony or ponies being disemboweled by some sort of figure before cutting to static. The footage may have lasted three seconds total for each occurrence, if that. Celestia noticed this, but did not say anything about the matter. There was nothing she could do for those already lost, nor for those in danger. All she could do was grit her teeth and observe for now. A few moments passed, and another few screens were static. Though, these just went blank, there was no disturbing occurrence to back it. This concerned the sun goddess, “What is happening?” Her very general question irked a jump from the blue unicorn at the control panel. He simply shook his head, “I can’t say. Nothing I do from here is wor-“ Both Celestia and the unicorn shrieked in pain as an extremely loud, piercing shriek bombarded the silence in the room. The sun goddess covered her ears, her eyes reflexively shutting as she fell onto her side. She continued to scream in agony, writhing in the floor with no other option than to beg for mercy as she began to drool from the pain wracking her body; wracking her very soul until finally. It ceased. She couldn’t move for a few moments as waves of anguish still ran through her. After a moment or so, she managed to stand. Celestia looked up at the monitors on the wall. They no longer were individuals of different rooms, but all a part of one bigger picture. A face, one side of it black, the other white; it contained no visible eyes and had a single mouth, slightly agape. It seemed to look about the room, eventually coming around and locking onto Princess Celestia. Despite being so poorly detailed, it was certain that whatever this was, was not a pony. The Princess sat up quickly, ignoring the blood seeping from her ears. The screen that shown the mouth of the figure, switched to white text on a black background that read: “I am free. Now so are my friends.” Celestia was unsure as to how to respond, “What do you mean?” her voice was uncontrolled, frantic. A small blinking line paced back over the letters, removing them, then moved forwards as new words formed behind it, “You have imprisoned us for far too long. You shall pay.” The challenge from this being frightened Celestia as much as it angered her, “Where are you?! Show yourself, coward!” Three of the wall mounted monitors transitioned to static, then to numbers; one for each of the three screens, all centered around one number. “079" Princess Celestia’s eyes widened at that number, and the numbers on the screens around it almost made her tremble. “173.” “096.” “682.” The monitor on the left eye of the figure spawned more words, “Every hour I will unleash one.” A flash of static and the screens were back to normal, now showing live video of a statue appearing in different places of a hallway, amongst ponies attempting to stop it. “Sister!” A voice called out to Celestia. Celestia slowly turned to the pony on the floor, idly watching his lifeless body as she attempted to stand with a loud groan. Though her vision was blurred she felt the familiar fur of another pony pushing into her. “Dear sister, what happened?!” The voice was unmistakable. The sun goddess struggled for words, the weakness in her body berating her very senses, “I have made a terrible mistake.” Despite the support of the nearby pony, she fell onto her side once more as her world faded to black. A loud scream burst from a lavender unicorn’s mouth as she cowered in the middle of a small hallway, eyes shut tight and her hooves over her head. For a moment or two she insisted on screaming, though, eventually she soon looked around before standing to her hooves. “Applejack?” She spoke to the air, looking from the door in front of her and down the hallway. Silence. ‘Huh.. Maybe I messed up and teleported to the wrong room?’ Her thoughts raced, not only scorning her miscalculation, but working to find a way to her friend as well. Twilight snapped out of her deep thought; her attention now on a faint crying, echoing in the hall. Somehow she felt the need to look up at the wall to her right. A monitor showing an unbelievably tall figure was there. The room had traces of blood within it, leading to the puddle underneath said figure. From what could be distinguished in the video feed, pony limbs sat amongst the immediate area of the being. Twilight was caught between a rock and, well, the unknown. She did know what was behind the door she may or may not have teleported through, and unless she wanted her life to come to a very abrupt end, she just needed to proceed in the opposite direction. Carefully she approached the hallway’s corner, walking through the open door that lead to the room she saw in the news feed. Only difference, the figure from earlier was facing the corner furthest away from the door she entered. Twi was very unsure as to what to do, but she couldn’t, y’know, NOT help somepony or something in such a state as this. Taking note of the door to her left, she carefully approached it. It continued to sit there, sobbing. Until she came within a hoof step of the being. Twilight said nothing, nor had she even touched it or thought to touch it. It turned around, and in the same motion, it punched Twilight into the opposite corner. Her head bounced off the wall, rattling her for a few moments. She watched the figure stand, and turn to face her, its neck craning against the ceiling as it tilted its head. It smiled; a genuine, grin of happiness showed it’s ghastly array of sharp, needle-like teeth. Almost stumbling over herself, Twilight sprinted from her almost prone position into the door to her left, ignoring the loud ‘clank’ behind her. She fervently pressed the button for the door, causing it to shut. Her hooves didn’t stop there as she then passed through two more doors, locking them before stopping to catch her breath. The only sound in the room was her heavy breathing. For what seemed like hours, all she could hear was her own heart beating rapidly. As she began to calm down, she started to hear a heavy thump. Twilight brushed it off for a few moments, beginning to walk towards another door that opened up to a large room with cubicles. The heavy thump became a heart crushing screech of twisting metal. Twilight looked behind herself. The ,what can now be suitably deemed monster, punched a hole straight through the door, bending the metal back to allow itself through the crevice it created. Twilight in pure fear pushed into the room ahead, punching the button to the entrance as she sprinted across the room and closing that door as well. Her heart was pounding out of her chest, each door being torn down faster and faster. She turned the corner to another door, screaming as the door behind her was ripped to shreds and the beast’s long, sharp fingers wrapped around Twilight’s tail. Almost instinctively, Twilight shut her eyes tightly, a loud snapping in her ears before her body flopped to the floor. There was no threat or danger to be seen, for now. “Thank Celestia.” She breathed, immediately getting up and turning to the new hallway. “You’ve got to be kidding.” An orange mare with an expression of both anger and despair, looked at the catwalk ahead of her. The walkway reached out across a room above a void pit, with smoke billowing out of pipes on both sides of the room. Applejack gawked across the room for a brief moment before remembering the gas mask she collected earlier in the storage closet. She pushed it snug over her face, keeping her attention to the railing of the catwalk as she moved forward. Her momentum was short lived, as the one thing she despised stood by the door. The Sculpture stood next to the door, it’s very presence threatening the life of the pony it stood in front of. She gulped, realizing the statue was standing directly in front of the button, as if to mock her, but she began to attempt to move a hoof behind the statue anyways. Her eyes strained, threatening to shut but she prevailed, pushing the button and pulling her hoof away quickly. AJ sighed with very mild relief, making the fatal mistake of blinking. In the time it took for her to blink, Applejack felt herself become forcefully ejected from her standing position into the wall where she could see the door in plain sight, but was completely unable to reach her destination as her throat tightly closed. She struggled. She punched. She squirmed, but could not squeal. She knew she had to keep her eyes open. If Applejack even considered closing them, she was a goner. But she knew she couldn’t keep this up much longer either. She could feel her life draining from her body, the painful, burning inability to breathe starting to destroy her vision. Tears streamed down her face. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t help Twilight. Her life flashed amidst her eyes, joyful memories of her family, relationships, her childhood. “Applejack!” That voice. “Applejack, stay with me!” AJ felt the grip around her neck release with a grating crack, and the second she hit the ground her body was almost instantly being drug at a brisk pace. She took a few deep breaths while she had the chance. Once the movement stopped, she looked up at the shadow that saved her. “T-“ She struggled for a name in disbelief, “Twilight?!” Quicker than she meant to, Applejack jumped up and hugged her friend. “H-How?!” Twilight let out a small chuckle at her friends concern, apparently finding some security in another pony being nearby, “I tried to teleport to the other side of the door, but it kind of backfired.” The door opened, with the Sculpture standing in the doorway. “Twi. Let’s talk ‘bout this som’where else.” Applejack locked her eyes onto the Statue, pushing away from Twilight to push the button to the door. Her friend acknowledged this, getting up and moving at soft pace backwards down the hallway as to keep the door in sight. Applejack trotted behind Twilight, guiding her to the next door. After passing through the metal door and promptly shutting it, both the mares walked along a metal catwalk. This room had a catwalk that ran along a wall to one room on the left, and another to the right reaching out across a similar void pit to a different room. “Which way?” AJ asked, looking to Twilight. Without any warning the beast that attacked Twilight before ripped through the door on the right, looking directly at the lavender mare. “Oh shi-“ “RUN!” Twilight interrupted as they both immediately started for the opposite door of the beast, shutting it behind them as they pushed in. They looked to the door in front of them, this door built like a heavy dual door made to contain something. “Hey! This door opens to magic!” Twilight nodded to the hole in the pad next to the door. “Then open ‘er up!” The unicorn did as was requested, pushing her horn into the pad and giving a spark from it. Grinding metal and gears could be heard fairly well as the door opened. With no other option they walked over to the other side, the door closing just in time as the beast lunged, face-planting into the reinforced steel door.
