Unbound

Ten minutes had passed since Twilight’s group was separated. In that time, she and her remaining three friends crossed a few rooms in whatever space they now found themselves in.

The longer they searched, the less sense their surroundings made. Judging from the wooden rafters above and the earthen floors prevalent throughout, they estimated that they were in a basement of sorts, but it didn’t seem to follow logic.

If there was an end to it, they hadn’t found it yet, and rooms seemed to change or vanish completely as they walked through certain doors and back. Twilight suspected some form of teleportation was taking place, but she couldn’t detect any magical energies that might indicate such a spell was being used. It was equal parts concerning and infuriating.

They also found a few rooms that were occupied by things. What these things were, they couldn’t or didn’t want to say.

One minute they were fighting a smaller group of the hairless bipedal creatures from before, and the next they were dodging overgrown flies or undulating masses of living meat that spat blood at them. Between Twilight and Applejack, they handled everything that came their way without issue, but they were starting to dread each new doorway they passed.

Passing through another empty three-way intersection, the group headed for the door at the back wall. Meanwhile, atop Twilight’s back, Spike noticed a glint of light on the floor as they were leaving. “Hey, hold on a sec.”

“What is it, darling?” Rarity asked.

Spike merely pointed near the left corner, prompting the group to backpedal. “There, on the floor.”

Following his direction, Twilight and the others noticed an abrupt twinkle of light. After sharing a curious glance, and making a quick check for any hidden dangers, the ponies walked over, whereupon they spotted the source of the twinkle. It was a small, round, silvery metallic object with a symbol reminiscent of the letter ‘c’ on its flat surface.

“What’s that?” Applejack tilted her head.

Twilight lit her horn and hovered the object up into her hoof. “It looks like some kind of coin.”

“Just in case we needed a reminder that we aren’t in Equestria anymore.” Rarity gave a dry chuckle.

“Do you recognize it, Twilight?” Spike asked.

After giving it some thought, Twilight wrinkled a corner of her mouth and hummed. “It’s not from anywhere I know of. I thought it was from Yakyakistan, but the symbol is wrong.'' She scrutinized the coin, flipping it over in her hoof once or twice before shrugging and using her magic to poof it away for later. “Oh, well. In any case, we should hold onto it. It could be useful.”

“Money is money. Must be worth somethin’ ‘round here,” Applejack noted.

With nothing else of note to be found, the ponies pressed onwards to the next area, their curious discovery prompting them to keep their eyes peeled for more than just dangers now.

Fire crackled nearby, casting their shadows on the wall they were passing. This room was larger than most they had seen, forming an ‘L’ shape if the corner ahead was any indication. As they rounded the corner, Twilight came to a stop, signaling the others to do the same. A lone door stood at the end of the room, different in appearance than any they encountered before.

A thicker frame adorned the doorway, with two golden rectangles on either of the top corners and a similarly gilded circle in the middle with a symbol on it. Twilight narrowed her eyes before magically poofing the coin they had found back into being and holding it up. The ‘c’ symbol on it was exactly the same, down to the single dash through it.

The alicorn hummed pensively as she looked back up to the doorway. Obviously, the symbol meant something, but what? Resolving to find out, she gestured for her friends to keep close as she pressed forward.

Stepping inside, they were immediately greeted with a stale aroma, though it was masked with hints of smoke and burnt fragrance oils. Looking around in the dark quickly led to apprehensive thoughts, but before Twilight or Rarity could light their horns, flames sprang to life from two bonfires, revealing the space around them.

Shelves were embedded into each of the four walls, bedecked in various knick-knacks. Bags, pieces of jewelry, plush toys. For all intents and purposes, the room appeared to be a shop. An observation that was further cemented by the display pedestals before the group.

Three such pedestals were spaced evenly apart, each with a different item on them. One held a bizarre-looking deck of cards. Another had a pitch-black candle with an eerily dark flame burning away on it. The middle one had a single piece of paper. Each of these pedestals had a wooden sign posted in front of it, with a number and that same ‘c’ symbol from the door and the coin.

However, what currently held the group’s attention was the sole inhabitant of this shop. Between the two fires burning brightly, a gray and desiccated figure was slumped on the floor. A rope dangled loosely from its neck. It resembled the hairless bipedal creatures that attacked them before, but if it was hostile to them, it didn’t matter anymore. Judging from its cracking skin and empty stare, it was long dead.

“What is that thing?” Spike inched to the back of the alicorn he was riding.

Rarity’s face scrunched up as she lifted a dainty hoof. “Ulgh… I thought I smelled something dead.”

“Poor feller looks like he starved in here,” Applejack said.

Hesitating as she lifted her hoof, Twilight instead lit her horn and poked the thing with her magic. It didn’t stir or otherwise react, as she suspected. Breathing a silent sigh of relief, she shifted her attention to the rest of the room, particularly the three items on display.

“Hmm…” Twilight took out the coin once more and flipped it over. On its backside, there was a number ten. Most of the signs had a number fifteen on them, but the one in the middle had a seven written in red as if it were special. “I think we can buy these things. This must be a shop or something.”

“Would we even want to buy this junk?” Spike lifted a brow at the strange candle.

“Y’know, there’s nothing stopping us from just taking this stuff,” Applejack suggested. “We are tryin’ to survive, after all. If these doohickeys are useful, why not?”

Rarity cast a wary glance to the keeper of the shop, the gray dead body. “I’m… not so certain if we should tempt fate in a place like this.”

“I agree,” Twilight added before looking down to the coin, and then at the items in front of them, “but it looks like the only one we can afford is this piece of paper.”

Seeing no objections from her friends, she gently sat the coin on the pedestal and waited. For a moment, nothing happened, but then the fire flickered, briefly dimming the light. When the lights came back, their coin was missing, and in its place were three yellow-looking coins. The sign in front of the pedestal was also gone.

“I guess this is a self-servin’ kind of place… heh heh.” Applejack’s eyes darted around once more for any sign that they weren’t alone.

“Okay… we bought something. Hurray for capitalism. Now, can we please get out of here? This place gives me the creeps,” Rarity suggested.

“Don’t forget your paper. We paid for it fair and square,” Spike reminded.

With curiosity welling up inside, Twilight reached her hoof forward. They had paid seven of whatever this place’s currency was for this paper, so she hoped that it was worth something. After hesitating and looking around to make sure nothing was going to attack her, she grabbed the three coins and then the paper, slowly bringing it away with no issue.

Lifting it up to her face, she was surprised to see something on its surface that wasn't there before. A grid of different squares all linked together was rendered in black ink. Not only that, but Twilight recognized some of the shapes to be the various rooms they had visited.

“Hey, I think this is a map!” Twilight declared with a grin.

“Really?!” Spike perked up. “Does it say how to get out of here?!”

After a moment of studying the paper, Twilight’s enthusiasm fell. “Umm… not exactly, but it does show us where we are.” She pointed to one square next to an ‘L’ shaped room, which not only had the symbol of the shop in it, but also an ‘x’ to seemingly denote their position.

“Oh…” Spike’s shoulders slumped. However, as he peered over Twilight’s shoulder at the map, his expression furrowed. “Wait, why is there more than one ‘x’ on here?” He pointed to somewhere further up the layout. Sure enough, there was a second spot marked in the same way their square was.

“Do you think it’s the others?” Rarity posed with guarded optimism.

“It could be.” Twilight rolled the map up in her aura and turned toward the door with newfound determination. “Let’s go check it out. If it is them, I want to get there as soon as possible.”

“What’re we waiting for? We ain’t helping anypony in this creepy flea market,” Applejack said as she and Rarity followed Twilight out.

As they were leaving, Spike turned to look back at the shop and the gray body. “Thanks for the map, buddy. Hope you don’t mind if we never come back.” He suppressed a shudder and waved the unsettling shop and its silent merchant goodbye. The minute he turned around, a gleeful smile creaked onto the body’s face.

Back out into the larger room, the three mares and their young companion were filled with renewed vigor as they resolved to find their friends. Now that they had a map, their chances of getting their bearings were far better. Finally, they were having some good fortune in this dismal basement of horrors.

Of course, fortune in the basement was fleeting, as they were soon about to find out.

Up around the corner, a sound rang out that made the ponies freeze. It was a cry, but not like the one they heard that started this whole mess. Something was off about it. It was distorted, and it made the hairs on their tails bristle.

“I don’t suppose we could just pretend we didn’t hear that, could we?” Spike suggested.

“Unfortunately not,” Twilight replied as she and the others shifted their eyes to the corner ahead.

Rarity cringed, “Need I remind you what happened the last time we investigated a disembodied crying sound?”

“I don’t think we have much of a choice.” Applejack glanced behind them. The shop had no other exits, and the only way out was around the corner where the sound was coming from.

Twilight put a hoof to her lips and got low to the ground. Following her lead, they all pushed up to the corner on light hooves. The cry came again, this time accompanied by a low buzzing sound. It sounded like someone, or something, was in a great deal of pain.

After sharing hesitant looks with her friends and doing a brief countdown, Twilight lit her horn as they all jumped out into the open. What they saw next stunned them back a step.

Ahead, between them and the exit to the room, were three shapes. Two of them were small winged creatures with insectoid eyes and white bodies hanging down. The maddening buzz accompanying them was reminiscent of a house fly.

The third shape was perhaps the most grotesque. It was another hairless bipedal figure, but its head was bulbous and misshapen, with pulsing growths that would occasionally move or shift independently like something was inside them. Tears streamed from its inky black eyes, and it let out another high-pitched whine from its open mouth.

Rarity recoiled back a step, her face contorted with disgust. “Ugh! And here I thought nothing would top the living piles of meat!”

“What even is that thing?!” Spike peeked out from his hiding place in Twilight’s mane, unable to look away from the misshapen creature.

Just then, one of the flying creatures spat something out of its lower half. It looked to be a glob of sizzling blood, and it was heading right for them.

Twilight and Applejack stepped out of the way, letting the glob fly until it hit the floor behind them. It bubbled and hissed as it burned the ground before dimming and falling inert.

“Whatever it is, if it’s hangin’ around those things, it must be another monster,” Applejack reasoned as she steadied herself for battle.

Twilight lit her horn and lifted Spike off of her back and onto Rarity’s. She and Applejack stepped forward to be in front of the pair as they faced down their unsettling foes.

“Rarity, take Spike and hang back. Something tells me this is about to get messy.” Twilight instructed, her horn glowing with the fierce desire to protect her friends. As much as she didn’t want to fight, these beasts were giving her no choice.

*A few minutes earlier*

With the sound of their own hearts pounding in their chests and their frantic gasps struggling to fuel their burning lungs, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie ran through the myriad rooms around them to get away from the hairless monsters.

Eventually, Rainbow petered out to a stop, with her friends gladly following suit. She rested on her haunches for a moment before checking the doorway behind them. Through what little she could see of the room beyond, there was no sign of their pursuers.

“I think… I think we lost ‘em,” Rainbow stated between pants.

Pinkie rubbed a hoof along her hind leg, where a patch of her fur stung from being grabbed so harshly. “Thanks for saving me back there, girls.”

Fluttershy placed a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder and returned her smile in kind. “Of course, Pinkie. We couldn’t just leave you there.”

Hearing this somehow made Pinkie deflate. “I just wish we didn’t get separated from the others because of me.”

“Don’t sweat it, Pinks,” Rainbow assured. “It’s not your fault. Those jerks were everywhere. One of us was bound to get caught. I’m just glad they didn’t take a bite out of you like they did me.” She winced as she tried to move her shoulder, causing her wound to sting.

“Oh my gosh…” Pinkie frowned at the sight of her friend in so much pain.

Fluttershy got up and walked over to her childhood friend. She sat down in front of Rainbow and gently coaxed her to move her hooves out of the way. “Here, let me see it. I’ll be careful, I promise.”

Rainbow slowly drew her hooves away. She also extended her wing, revealing the bites on her side and the feathery appendage.

Seeing the scope of the wounds for the first time made Fluttershy cringe. The shoulder wound was the worst, going about an inch deep and still bleeding. Everything else was mostly superficial, but that didn’t stop her from worrying.

“Oh my…” Fluttershy muttered.

“It’s fine,” Rainbow stated through clenched teeth. “I can still move and fly, so I’d say I’m doing alright.” She gave a test flap of her injured wing.

“I’m more concerned about that one on your shoulder. We really should get the bleeding under control,” Fluttershy fretted.

Rainbow started to say something further when a sudden noise made her ears shoot up. Her head darted to the side, where another open doorway stood. “What was that?”

"Maybe it’s the others?" Pinkie mused.

"Or m-maybe it's more of those things?" Fluttershy added.

Rainbow Dash stood and stepped toward the opening. "Only one way to find out. Stay close."

With some hesitance, Fluttershy and Pinkie followed their bold leader into the next room. Strangely, the lights were already on in this room. It was another plainly shaped area with a few rocks and pots in the corners.

The minute they walked in, the ponies came to a stop as they spotted it. They weren’t alone.

Standing near the far wall, facing away from them, was another bipedal figure exactly like the ones they had seen before.

"Ah!" Pinkie jumped back and jabbed a hoof toward the figure. "It is one of those things!"

Both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash jolted with the pink mare. Then, the figure jumped as well, spinning around and pressing its back against the wall.

Rainbow Dash maneuvered herself in front of her friends protectively. Despite her faux bravery, she was shaking at the knees. “S-Stay back! I’m warning you!”

Fluttershy started to hide behind Rainbow Dash when she suddenly noticed that the creature was cowering as well. She slowly poked her head out, taking a closer look at it. While it was true that it resembled the eyeless monsters, it was different. It actually had eyes, big expressive orbs that, while rife with tears, weren’t bleeding. It didn’t make any noise either, save for a slight childlike whine that reminded her of the phantom cry they had heard back in the castle.

“Wait… I don’t think it’s a monster,” Fluttershy said.

Pinkie skewed a brow in disbelief. “You don’t?”

Slowly stepping around her friends, Fluttershy felt a familiar sense of being needed. She didn’t know why, but as she looked into those trembling eyes, she could tell the being before them was feeling a great deal of hurt, sadness, and fear. Her element was kindness, after all, so she had a sense for when people were in great need of some.

“You’re the one who was crying before, aren’t you?” Fluttershy asked, doing her best to appear non-threatening as she slowly approached the figure. The way it cowered away from her very much reminded her of a child.

“Careful, Flutters. We don’t know if that thing is dangerous or not,” Rainbow Dash piped up, taking a few steps closer to be prepared to rescue her friend if the need arose.

“If Fluttershy isn’t scared of it, I don’t think it is,” Pinkie reasoned as she approached more casually.

As the ponies got closer, the hairless being further pressed itself to the wall behind it and eyed between them with darting movements. Its hands were clasped to its chest, and its lips were quaking. The longer she watched it, even Rainbow Dash started to feel more pity than fear.

“It’s okay. We won’t hurt you,” Fluttershy assured, her voice gentle as a whisper. She held a hoof to her chest, “My name is Fluttershy. These are my friends, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.”

“Hiya!” Pinkie waved.

The child, whatever species he was, didn’t react to them other than shifting his eyes between them as they spoke. His posture eased a little bit, but he was still shrinking away from them.

Rainbow Dash furrowed her expression. “Hellooo? Can. You. Understand. Us?” She got close and spoke loudly, deliberating every word like she was talking to an animal or someone hard of hearing. The being flashed an offended glare as she poked it. “Girls, I don’t think this thing is—”

Suddenly, the child blinked his eyes at the pegasus. At once, what looked like a ball made of his tears fired out and splashed into Rainbow’s face.

“Ow.” Rainbow flinched. It didn’t really hurt, but it didn’t feel pleasant either. The boy glowered at her and blinked twice more, sending two more gravity-defying blobs of tears at the pony. “Oww! Stop that!”

As she raised her voice, the boy shrank down and his eyes trembled even more. The flow of tears streaming down his face increased.

“Rainbow.” Fluttershy turned to her friend with a potent frown of disappointment.

Rainbow gave a defensive shrug, “What? It started it!”

“That’s no way to treat a new friend!” Pinkie added. “He’s probably just as scared as we are of all those things running around. Isn’t that right, little guy?” She patted him on the head. The boy simply stared at her like a goldfish in a bowl. They couldn’t be sure of what he was thinking, but being bewildered at Pinkie Pie was a universal language, it seemed.

“I think it’s a little soon to call him a friend,” Rainbow offered aloofly. “Princess Celestia had the right idea about this place when she sealed it away.”

Just then, as if in response to her words, the boy perked up. He smiled widely, and an excited sparkle came to his still-tearful eyes.

Rainbow tilted her head. “Huh?”

“I think he knows the princess,” Pinkie reasoned.

Fluttershy leaned in closer, though not enough to make the boy feel cramped. “Do you know Princess Celestia?”

In the first direct acknowledgment they had gotten, the boy nodded eagerly. Fluttershy let a pleased smile form. Even if he wasn't talking, purposefully or not, the fact that he understood them confirmed her suspicions that he was intelligent.

With a spring reminiscent of an excited little colt, the boy got up and scampered toward one of the other doors. He paused and turned to the ponies before waving a hand in the universal command of ‘follow me.’

“I think he wants us to follow him,” Fluttershy noted the obvious, already taking a few steps after him. Pinkie followed after, eager at the prospect of making a new friend. Rainbow Dash was a bit more hesitant in her steps, though she didn’t want to leave the pair alone.

“I really hope your instincts are right about this one, Flutters,” Rainbow muttered to herself.

Through another few rooms, they went. All of these were already lit, with some showing signs of battle like blood on the floor or walls. The boy was far more casual in his maneuvering through these dismal halls than the ponies would imagine from one so young and fearful. He would occasionally stop and make sure they were behind him, but otherwise, he was following a path as if he knew where he was going.

Eventually, as they came to a dead end of a room, the boy stopped walking.

Fluttershy and her two companions looked around, a bit of confusion working its way over them at the apparent lack of anything interesting.

“Uh… is he lost or something?” Rainbow asked.

An emphatic shake of the head came as the child’s response. He walked up to the back wall, where seemingly nothing stood before him. Then, as if waiting for his approach, a door faded into view.

It was the first actual door they had seen since arriving. There wasn't much special about it, save for its sudden appearance. It was made of wood and chipped gray paint, and it had a crack going through the middle large enough to peer through.

The child smiled back at his guests before opening the door and stepping inside. The three mares shared an unsure look with each other before Fluttershy took the initiative in joining him within.

Inside, they found what looked to be a child’s bedroom, though it appeared to have seen better days.

Cracked floorboards laden with dust and scattered crayons stretched before them. White wallpaper so aged that it looked green now was peeling away, only sticking in some places due to the presence of cobwebs. A broken and dirtied bed stood in one corner, and an old wooden box was placed against it. A faded rug was in the middle of the floor, with a square of uneven color at the edges indicating that it had been moved at some point.

Looking around them, the ponies took in all aspects of the room, particularly the drawings. Dozens of them covered the walls or littered the floors, made on paper with a mixture of either black or colored crayon.

They ranged widely in subject material. Some were depictions of what they would expect from an artistic youngster, like a pet cat, a house and a tree, or a stick-figure family portrait. Others were more cryptic or unsettling, like a cross drawn in red, a dark, horned figure with red eyes labeled ‘me’ and ‘bad’, and a depiction of an overbearing figure in a dress with a knife.

“Oh my…” Fluttershy covered her mouth with a hoof as she saw some of the more troubling drawings. Following some of the ones posted next to each other, she started to piece together hints of family troubles. Some of the stick figure drawings were ripped to where the father figure was missing, and not all of the drawings featuring the mother figure were happy.

“Yikes…” Rainbow Dash muttered.

Ignoring the disquiet in the room, the boy happily went over to the wooden chest and opened it up. He buried himself halfway inside, digging through it with fervor and casting aside many more drawings and broken toys. Finally, he came back out holding a single piece of paper, which he proudly displayed to the ponies.

On it was another drawing. This one featured a depiction of the boy and two crudely drawn horse-like figures, colored blue and white respectively and labeled with two familiar, albeit misspelled, names. Selstia and Loona. The pair were firing out of their horns at a strange-looking spider creature with long legs and a simplified angry face while the boy celebrated.

“You knew both the princesses?” Fluttershy asked as she glanced between the boy and the drawing. He nodded in the affirmative with a fond smile.

“It kinda makes sense. That chest that brought us here was in their old castle. I’m sure they must have come here if they knew enough about it to want to seal it away,” Pinkie surmised.

“Why did they seal it away? If this kid’s been here that whole time… which is a whole other can of worms that should probably worry us…”—Rainbow squinted before returning to her earlier train of thought—“why didn’t they help him out of here?”

Hearing this, the boy frowned and looked down. Without the ability to talk, Fluttershy and the others could only wonder what happened, or why the boy was still alive after so many centuries.

After a moment, Fluttershy shifted her sympathetic frown to a more neutral expression as she looked at the boy. “What’s your name? You seem like you can draw… can you write it down for us?”

In response to this, the child turned and scanned the room for a second. He perked up in revelation and walked over to one of the walls. Reaching down and plucking a drawing off, he turned and gave it to Fluttershy. On it was another drawing of a house, this one with the boy and his mother standing outside. Helpfully labeled below the depiction of the child and his mother, was the name ‘Isaac’.

“I…saac…?” Fluttershy struggled for a moment with the strange pronunciation. She had never heard a name like that before. “Is that your name? Isaac?” she asked, to which he smiled and nodded. She reciprocated his warm expression. “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Isaac.”

“That’s a funny name, but it’s okay. I like it!” Pinkie stated before repeating it a few times, stressing each part in different ways. Isaac merely gave her an odd look before conferring with the other two, as if wondering if this was normal.

After a moment, Rainbow glanced back toward the door and allowed her expression to fall. “Well, as cool as meeting new bald people is, we should really go find the others.”

“Oh, right.” Fluttershy widened her eyes in remembrance. She turned toward their new friend with a bit more urgency on her face. “Isaac, we didn’t come here alone. Some friends of ours got separated from us. Do you think you could help us find them?”

Isaac set his drawing down and clenched his fists with determination. He gave a single nod before marching toward the door.

“He’s got some spunk, I’ll give him that,” Rainbow said. With that, she and her two friends joined the boy in exiting the room.

Stepping out of the gloomy and run-down bedroom, the trio watched as their new companion strutted through the area, determined to assist them in any way he could. He barely even reacted as the buzzing of wings came and three hideous flies appeared from the rafters.

Rainbow stuck her tongue out. “What the hay are those?!”

Fluttershy gasped and cowered back. These didn’t give off the air of intelligence she expected from an animal or insect. The way they hovered toward them was more malicious in intent, an observation that was confirmed as one shot a ball of blood straight at the boy. “Isaac!”

Not feeling the impending panic descending on the ponies, Isaac was quick to step to the side and allow the projectile to miss him and hit the floor. He then turned his head toward the monstrous fly and began firing his own projectiles at them.

Blinking rapidly, he sent balls of his tears flying out as he did before with Rainbow Dash. These watery bullets struck the fly, and within a few hits, it exploded into a pathetic puff of goo. The remaining flies fired back at the boy, and he effortlessly dodged them, allowing the projectiles to sail toward the three mares, who were forced to duck or dodge as well.

Soon after, all three of the bugs were reduced to mere stains on the floor, and the room fell silent. Isaac looked back to check on his friends, pleased to see that they were unharmed.

“Wow… I didn’t know crying could be that useful,” Pinkie noted before shifting her eyes to the side. “I wonder if he can teach me how to do that?”

“Thank you for saving us, Isaac,” Fluttershy said.

Isaac gave a snaggletoothed smile and a quick thumbs up. He then gestured for them to follow as he set off again.

Fluttershy and Pinkie were quick to oblige, while Rainbow Dash lingered for a moment and pouted. “I could have swatted those bugs no problem,” she grumbled to herself before continuing after her friends.

Elsewhere in the basement,

Twilight winced and clutched a spot on her chest as she stumbled through a door with her friends close behind. “Ngh…” She pulled her hoof away, revealing some blood.

“Oh, you poor dear.” Rarity frowned.

Spike slowly walked up beside her and rested a hand on one of her hind legs. “Are you okay, Twilight?”

“Yeah, that thing really nailed you.” Applejack took a moment to suppress a shudder as she recalled the sight of the crying creature exploding from within, sending gobs of toxic blood flying everywhere.

“I’m… I’m fine,” Twilight said. Ever prepared, she produced a small bandage and a sterile rag from her magical pocket dimension and began tending the wound. “Thankfully, it’s not that deep. Even so, I definitely think we should avoid getting hit with any more blood here.”

“That’s a good general rule to have, I find,” Rarity commented dryly. Her expression soured as her thoughts drifted to their missing friends. “Oh, I shudder to think of how the others are doing. Normally, I’d feel better knowing Rainbow Dash is with them, but she was hurt by those dreadful things.”

Applejack offered a reassuring hoof on Rarity’s shoulder. “They’re all tough in their own way, even Fluttershy. I’m sure we’ll find ‘em right as sunshine.”

“What about that other ‘x’ on the map? Has it moved?” Spike asked.

All eyes shifted to Twilight once more as she finished giving herself first-aid. Seeing their worry growing unchecked, and unable to deny her own anxiousness to find the others, she produced the aged piece of rolled-up paper and spread it out for all to see.

“Yes, it has.” Twilight smiled and placed a hoof to the map. It took a second to find her bearings from the few uniquely shaped rooms there were, but she soon found the mark indicating their position, as well as the other mark a few rooms away. Lifting her head to another dark doorway, she rolled the map back up and steeled herself. “Come on. It must be them.”

On they went, spanning more rooms at a cautious pace. They had already been to many of these areas if the map Twilight held was any indicator, but it was hard to tell with most of them being empty. At the very least, rooms they had been in before didn’t produce any monsters, so far as they had experienced. Even so, they weren’t letting their guard down in this place.

Eventually, they crossed into a large area, at least four times as big as the standard squares on the map. Darkness stretched before them for the longest time as they walked well into the room. Strangely, they could see lights, but not as they expected.

The ones they immediately noticed were eight purple flames hanging in the air, four on each side of the room. They didn’t illuminate much, crackling in the shadows with an eerie dull glow.

The other light in the room was barely noticeable. At the far end above where they might expect a door to be, two dim red orbs infrequently pulsed like eyes staring at them from afar.

Twilight and her friends slowly came to a stop as they stared at the purple lights. She squinted and tried to focus her vision, barely able to make out the hint of a silhouette beneath one of the flames. Her ears twitched at a low chittering sound, almost like some kind of animal.

“Stay back. Something’s not right here…” Twilight cautioned in a hushed voice as she took another few guarded steps forward.

As she did, the room split with flickering illumination as bulbs sprang to life in the rafters above. The mystery of the purple flames was quickly solved, though the truth of the strange phenomenon was far more shocking than the ponies anticipated.

Floating above the ground were eight severed heads akin to the bipedal creatures they had seen earlier. Blood streamed from their closed eyes like tears, and a third empty socket sat in their foreheads, sprouting the unnatural purple flames as an aura above them. All eight heads snapped to look at the group, a high-pitched guttural cry ringing out from each.

“AH!” Spike jolted back into Rarity’s forelegs. The unicorn herself was so shocked that she merely froze, jaw agape and wide-eyed.

“Sweet Celestia!” Applejack backed into her friends. They were surrounded, and all the heads began slowly floating toward them, dripping blood as they went.

With a shrill noise coming from its agape maw, purple light coalesced in the empty socket of one of the heads. At once, a glowing orb of shimmering liquid shot out. It curved through the air, coming around and whizzing toward Twilight. She dove to the floor with a yip, narrowly avoiding the projectile.

“Scatter!” Twilight yelled as more purple lights formed in the other heads.

Rarity produced a terrified scream, picking up Spike with her magic and running to the left. He yelped and clung to her back, ducking as two orbs were shot from either side and curved toward them, narrowly avoided by the unicorn’s swerving.

Applejack took off to the right. Her eyes widened and she jumped as a purple ball came for her. She could feel it clip her tail on the way down, slicing through and scattering strands of her blonde hair. The near-miss only encouraged her to move faster.

On the ground, Twilight’s eyes flashed with alarm and she rolled as two of the heads near her fired at once. With their projectiles punching into the ground beside her, she recovered and raced magic to her horn. A zap of magenta energy zipped for one of the floating beasts, striking it head-on and exploding it in a puff of smoke and gore.

She then stood and cast a shield behind Applejack as the farm pony incurred the wrath of the other two on that side of the room. Starting to move, she didn’t get the chance as pain raked across her back like someone slid a knife across it, a purple ball soaring past. “Gah!”

“Twilight!” Spike and Rarity cried out in unison. The alicorn initially thought this was a reaction to her getting struck, but as she whirled her head around, she paled as she saw three of the heads backing the pair into the far wall.

With psychic energy already forming in their empty eye sockets, Twilight gasped and teleported herself between her friends and the floating heads. She flashed her magic around herself and the two behind her just in time to block three orbs exploding against the similarly colored barrier.

Seeing that Twilight was occupied with keeping the shield up, Rarity decided to try and help. She lit her own horn and wrapped her magical influence over the rightmost creature.

With a mighty yell that was closer to a squeamish yip, she tossed the head into the nearby wall as hard as she could. A bloody stain was left behind as it plopped to the floor, the purple flame in its head falling dim.

Twilight waited until the remaining two attacked in unison before dropping the shield and taking a shot at both of them. She blasted one out of the air, but in her adrenaline-fueled rush missed the second one. Purple light filled the hole in its head once more, and she grit her teeth as she raced to act first. Thankfully, her next blast hit its mark before the monster could fire, removing it from sight.

“AGH!”

Before anyone could celebrate, a familiar cry of pain made the trio’s hearts skip. They all looked ahead, only to find their worst fear. Across the room, Applejack fell to the ground, clutching a bleeding hole in her side while the four remaining creatures closed in on her.

“Applejack!” Twilight yelled and reached a hoof out. The orange mare was out of range of any shield strong enough to block the heads’ projectiles, and she couldn’t teleport in time to save her as the beasts mercilessly charged up their next attacks.

Seeing her doom looming over her, Applejack flinched her eyes shut. The sound of discharging projectiles came, and four deadly orbs of light zipped forward—

—and struck earthen floor as a cyan blur crashed into her and rolled her out of the way just in time.

Applejack grunted painfully as she settled with something on top of her. She blinked open her eyes, only to find a familiar face staring down at her. “Rainbow Dash?”

The pegasus, grimacing from dirt getting in her still-present wounds, managed a smirk as she looked down at her friend. “Did ya miss me, cowgirl?”

A shrill noise interrupted any response Applejack might have made. Both mares looked up, only to see the heads still looming nearby and getting ready to strike again. However, before anyone could try to intervene, a volley of watery projectiles came from the side and struck the first head.

The menacing creature yipped in pain and jolted in the air as the tears struck it. It tried to turn to face its attacker, but before it could, it burst into bloody confetti. All three remaining heads turned as the stream of watery orbs turned on them one by one. A couple of them got shots off, but it didn’t matter as they all fell under the onslaught.

Twilight and the others all looked to find their sudden saviors. Entering the room from one of the side doorways, was a familiar pair of ponies standing behind a small hairless crying child.

“Pinkie?! Fluttershy!” Twilight’s face immediately brightened and she rushed for her friends. Rarity and Spike followed after as the alicorn ran up and hugged Pinkie, who was happy to reciprocate her energy.

“Darlings! I was afraid we’d never see you again!” Rarity smiled warmly, pulling Fluttershy into a bit of a gentler, but no less compassionate hug.

Fluttershy gave a pleased giggle. “It’s good to see you too.”

Meanwhile, Spike shifted his attention to the bipedal figure with them. It looked near identical to the monsters they had seen, but the lack of bleeding voids in its head helped ease his concern somewhat. “Uh… who’s your friend?”

Twilight and Rarity looked to the boy, who merely stared back at them with a blank expression.

“Oh, this is Isaac. I think he’s the one I felt needed help earlier,” Fluttershy said.

“He’s actually the one that’s been helping us so far.” Pinkie patted Isaac on the back, eliciting a proud grin from the boy that was closer to matching her intensity than most people could manage.

“Well… I would be lyin’ if I said he didn’t save our pelts.” A familiar drawl signaled the group to look over and see Applejack limping toward them with Rainbow Dash’s help.

“The kid’s been useful, I’ll admit,” Rainbow added, holding out her hoof for a fist bump. After a moment of glancing between the pegasus and her outstretched limb, Isaac obliged.

“So, you guys just found him out there?” Twilight asked.

Pinkie nodded. “Yuh-huh! He took us to his room and showed us some drawings of his. He even had one of him and the princesses!”

“Wait, what?” Applejack tilted her head. “You mean he’s met the princesses?”

“How is that possible? Wouldn’t that make him a millennium old at least?” Rarity mused.

Fluttershy shook her head. “We’re not sure. As far as we can tell, he doesn’t speak. We wouldn’t even know his name if it wasn't for those drawings.” She looked over to Isaac, who could only shrug in response.

“Fascinating…” Twilight stroked her chin and stared at the boy. Her eyes grew distant as her mind spiraled through a few theories and questions. So he really has been here since Celestia and Luna abandoned the castle?

Noticing Isaac blinking at her like a confused dog, and the others starting to give her odd looks, Twilight shook herself from her thoughts. “Anyway, It’s nice to meet you, Isaac. My name is Twilight Sparkle. This is Rarity, Spike, and Applejack.” She pointed to those in her group before reaching a hoof out and shaking his hand. “Thank you for helping our friends.”

Just then, a pained grunt drew their attention away. Applejack was sitting with one hoof covering her side, with a trickle of blood leaking down.

“Speaking of which, are you okay, Applejack?” Twilight asked. Her back still stung from her grazing wound, and she could feel blood trickling into her fur, but she was more concerned about the farm pony.

Applejack removed her hoof and allowed her friends to examine her injury. There was a circular hole punched into her form. It was mostly shallow, thankfully, but it was deep enough to cause some worry.

“Don’t worry about me,” AJ assured. “I’ve had worse scrapes than this workin’ the farm.”

“We can both get patched up once we get out of this dump,” Rainbow Dash suggested. “Which, now that we’re together again, any ideas on how to do that?”

Seeing all eyes turn to her again, Twilight felt the pressure mounting. “Umm…” She took out her map again and looked at it. While her friends surrounded her and peered over her shoulder, Isaac looked like he was having a moment of recognition from seeing the aged paper, though he didn’t bother trying to communicate this to them.

Scanning the map again was grasping for straws, and she knew it. She had already been over it enough to glean all of its sparse details. Now that they had found their friends, there was only one ‘x’ in the room they currently resided in.

“Huh?” Twilight wrinkled her expression and peered closer at the map. “Wait… what’s that?”

“What’s what?” Rainbow asked, shoving her muzzle closer for a moment before an irritated throat-clearing from Rarity caused her to back up.

Twilight pointed a hoof to a square next to their room, where a skull symbol now existed. “Look at this. I’m pretty sure that square was blank until we got here.”

“Hey, wouldn’t that be right next to—”

Spike trailed off as he looked up in the direction that the indicated square would be. Noticing his silence, the others also gradually followed his gaze, only to pause.

Now that the lights were on, the group realized what the red pulsing glow they had spotted before was. At the far end of the room, embedded into the wall, was another doorway. This doorway, however, was vastly different than any they had seen before. A skull loomed over the threshold, with those dull red lights coming from its eyes. The frame flanking it was also made of skulls complete with spines.

Rarity blinked. “Well… that’s not at all ominous.”

“Do we…” Fluttershy swallowed and shrank down behind her friends, “do we n-need to go in there?”

“Seems like the thing to do, if we’re still about explorin’,” Applejack noted.

Spike backed up until he was at the rear of the group. “I-I’m with Fluttershy on this one. We’ve had bad enough luck in this place without walking into any scary skull rooms.”

Seeing how nervous everyone was, Twilight thought for a moment. “Well, if we’re not sure, I think we should ask the expert on this place.” She turned and looked down to the boy beside them. “Isaac, is there a way for us to leave through there?”

Isaac turned to the ponies all looking to him for direction. He trailed his eyes down and adopted a look anyone familiar with the sociology of his species might consider somber. Before anyone could question this, however, he looked up and gave a determined nod.

“Welp, if the little guy says so, let’s get moving. If I don’t get to see the sun soon, I’m going to start climbing these walls,” Rainbow Dash said, cracking her joints and loosening her muscles up for whatever challenge was to come.

With that, Isaac led the group toward the skull door. While some of them were hesitant, they knew better than to drag their hooves by now.

They all approached the doorway, the skulls above staring down at them like silent guardians. Shadows danced amid the dust floating through the dark space within. Finally, they pushed their fears aside and filed into the room.

Almost the instant Fluttershy crossed the threshold, the last of their number to do so, a loud slam made her tuck her tail in and yelp.

The group turned, only to find that a set of red doors had closed them in. Lights came on, followed sharply by a deep roar that made them flinch. Slowly turning to find the source of the noise, Twilight and the others had their jaws drop.

Sitting before them at the back of the small room, was a hulking mass of pink flesh. A giant deformed face with a cleft lip, crooked teeth, and inflamed gums stared back at them with massive gooey black eyes. The thing had no arms, legs, or appendages of any kind. For all accounts, it looked like a misshapen head.

Horrified, rooted to the spot in sheer terror, the ponies and their dragon friend all stared at the monstrosity before them, which stared back with an expression like a mixture of confusion and indignation. Their stiff bodies refused their demands to run or fight. All they could do was stand and breathe, and it took many of them a few seconds to remember to even do that.

Isaac looked between the others and the flesh blob, his eyes narrowing as if it was an old foe. Determined to protect his new friends, he steeled himself and confidently walked forward.

Fluttershy tore her petrified gaze off the abomination to find the boy fearlessly walking into danger. “Isaac, wait! Come back!”

“Are you crazy, kid?! That thing’ll eat you alive!” Rainbow shouted.

“I can’t watch!” Rarity covered her face with a foreleg.

Turning around, Isaac gave the ponies a thumbs-up and a doofy grin, not even reacting as the thing behind him defied all logic and took to the air with a mighty leap.

“Isaac!” All the ponies screamed in unison as a looming shadow fell over the boy.

Noticing the shadow over him, Isaac’s expression went blank and he looked up. That was the last they saw of him before the creature slammed down, sending a spray of blood flying everywhere.

Stunned, covered in blood, and with enough trauma to last them many lifetimes, Twilight and her friends looked on aghast. Rarity nearly fainted, Fluttershy looked like she was having a breakdown, and Rainbow Dash didn’t know whether to throw up or scream.

Twilight felt her eyes twitching and her jaw stammering as she looked down to the crimson spray covering her, possibly all that remained of her newest friend. She looked back up to the monster, which had contorted its malformed features into its best approximation of a self-pleased grin.

It then shifted its attention back to them.

“I… I-I…” Twilight’s mind raced for some way to save herself and her friends, but she couldn’t think straight. She lit her horn almost reflexively, but in her mind, fighting back was useless. They were going to die, and part of her knew it.

Then, everything began to shake, rattling her from her broken thoughts.

“W-What’s going on?!” Spike stammered as he clung to the nearest pony for support. He was so scared and shocked that he didn’t even think to make it Rarity.

“I don’t want to die!” Fluttershy finally let out the pent-up cry of terror and despair that had been building. She clung to Rainbow Dash for emotional and physical support, and the normally cool-headed pegasus was crying right there with her and hugging her back.

Twilight fought to slow her frantic breathing. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and reached her wings and hooves out to steady her friends. “Everypony hold on!” she yelled over the clamor.

Just after her voice died out, so too did the lights, enveloping them in total darkness.
.
..
…
“AHHHHHH!!”

All seven of them screamed as the ground fell out from beneath them. They fell into a senseless void for seconds that felt like an eternity. Then, with a loud thud, they all landed at once.

Pained groans and murmurs were all that Twilight heard for a few moments. She sat up and brought a hoof to her aching head before slowly opening her eyes, expecting to find some other fresh horror to contend with.

What she found instead were cobweb-ridden walls, threadbare carpet over marble floors, and all her friends lying around her in a familiar storage closet, with a familiar wooden chest sitting before them that abruptly snapped closed.

“Wh… what?” Twilight muttered.

“We’re back?” Applejack asked, voice bare as a whisper. Their wounds and the blood covering them still remained, or she might have thought it was all a dream.

“I can’t believe it…” Rainbow Dash said. Were it not for the fresh memory of watching Isaac getting obliterated still playing in her head on repeat, she would have been celebrating. Now, she and her friends were just left processing their shock.

Fluttershy stared at the chest, unable to stop the tears forming in her eyes. They had ventured into that terrible place to rescue the soul inside, but they had failed miserably. “Isaac…” she whined, not even reacting as Pinkie wrapped a foreleg around her.

After taking a moment to regain her shaken senses, Twilight stood and approached the chest. She lit her horn and scanned it for magical energies, surprised to still find the same one she sensed before. Whatever secrets the chest held were still very much present, even without the boy it seemed.

“Everypony… I’m sorry I put you through that. It was irresponsible of me to go against Celestia’s warning,” Twilight said, her voice still tinged with remorse as she looked down to her bloody hooves. That blood could have easily been any of her friends. In a way, Isaac really had shown them the way out.

“Twilight…” Spike looked to her with a sympathetic frown, unsure of what to say.

Rarity managed to gather herself enough to attempt to comfort her friend. “It wasn't your fault, darling. That place… whatever it was, I don’t think it cares for fairness in any sense of the word. We just have to hope that poor Isaac is in a better place now.”

“I know. I just wish…” Twilight trailed off. She stared at the chest vacantly. “I don’t know. All I know is I’m going to study this box and see if I can find out more about it.”

“You’re taking that thing back with us?” Rainbow skewed her expression.

Applejack gave her friend a wary stare. “Twi, didn’t we have a long conversation ‘bout not messin’ with magical or cursed doohickeys in this place?”

“Yes, yes, I know,” Twilight sighed, “but it’s all I can do for him now.” She lowered her ears and looked to the floor. Everyone stayed silent, letting her words hang in the air as they joined her in frowning. “I can’t help Isaac anymore… but maybe I can find out why he ended up there?”

After a long pause, Fluttershy lifted her head. “I think he’d appreciate that.”

With that, Twilight stood and turned to leave. She opened the door out into the castle corridors, taking a moment to relish the sight of the run-down building. They had only been gone for a little over half an hour, but it felt so much longer.

She then faced around and lit her horn. In an instant, glowing magenta chains appeared around the chest, strapping it shut to ensure that it couldn’t open on accident and suck them in again. The chest then levitated into the air and gently floated behind the alicorn.

“Come on, everyone. Let’s go home,” Twilight said, though she sounded far less happy than she should have been.

One by one, they all followed the alicorn out of the storage closet. Nobody said a word as they all marched, their heavy thoughts keeping them occupied.

Fluttershy gave one last glance to the forgotten room they found the chest in before facing ahead. Even seeing the box contained within her friend’s magic made her feel a mixture of unease and sadness.

She couldn’t believe that someone so young and innocent was trapped in such a horrible place for so long. What terrible secrets did the box hold? Who was Isaac, really, and why was he trapped inside? Did someone trap him there, or was he there by accident? Her heart ached as she wished she knew the answers. She wished that she could see Isaac again. She wished that she could help him.

Of course, there was an old adage about wishes and those that make them, perhaps as old as the chest floating behind the young princess. Some secrets were best left kept unknown, some skeletons should stay within their closets—

—and some wishes shouldn’t come true.