Unbound

Spirits were low in the study at the castle of friendship.

Fluttershy and her friends had spent a fair few days in the crystal adorned space, drinking tea, reading books, or simply chatting while Twilight and Spike researched something nearby. It wasn't as cozy as the Golden Oak library, but also not as stiff and regal as the palace in Canterlot. It was something of a happy medium between the two.

Now, however, the pegasus was anything but happy as she worked on exchanging a bandage around Applejack’s side for a clean one. The others were loosely gathered around Twilight and the wooden chest placed in the center of the room, the subject of the alicorn’s focus.

Fluttershy finished tying off the bandage before tucking it in. She looked at her patient, worried that she might have been too rough, not that she ever was, or that the orange mare would show it even if she had been. “There. Is that better?”

“Sure feels that way.” Applejack smiled. “Thank ya kindly, sugarcube.”

Both of them shifted their attention to the research session going on beside them. Books of varying topics sat open on the floor or floated aimlessly in Twilight’s aura while she cast analysis spells on the chest. Magenta runes and intricate weaves of magic drifted through the air, only readable by the alicorn or anyone else familiar with such advanced spellwork.

However, judging by the furrowed expression on Twilight’s face, nothing she was doing was yielding any satisfying results.

Spike entered the room and approached the alicorn with a cup of freshly brewed coffee. “Any luck?”

Twilight absentmindedly took the cup in her magic. She finished casting one last spell, deflating at the apparent result. “I’m afraid not, Spike. All I’ve been able to find out is that this chest is much older than Celestia and Luna… possibly even older than the first ponies to ever evolve.”

“What?” Rainbow Dash skewed her expression. “You mean this thing was around before ponies?”

“That could explain why none of us recognized Isaac’s species,” Rarity said.

Twilight nodded. “That’s right. Whatever Isaac is… was,” her eyes trailed down at this, “no records exist of them. If the chest wasn't magical, it probably would have disintegrated from age a long time ago.”

“Does that mean Isaac’s been in there all that time?” Pinkie asked.

Rainbow Dash stared at the floor, her mouth set in a grim line. “All that time, and we get him killed in ten minutes. Poor kid.”

Her words caused a somber silence to fall over the group. A few of them felt fresh tears forming in the corners of their eyes, while others were keeping their emotions internal. Still, all of them felt terrible. Perhaps none more so than Fluttershy.

A quiet sniffle brought their attention over to their shy friend. Fluttershy wiped her eyes on a foreleg and did her best to avoid looking at the chest. “I just wanted to help him. I didn’t think that he would… h-he would…”

Applejack put a hoof on her shoulder. “You didn’t do nothin’ wrong, Shy.”

While the others were trying to comfort Fluttershy or even themselves, Twilight bit a corner of her lip and let her gaze drift. She was dealing with her emotions as well, but certain questions nagged at her mind and wouldn’t let go.

If Isaac truly was older than Equestria, how had he survived so long? Even if the magic of the chest kept him from aging somehow, surely he would have fallen victim to one of the countless monsters that inhabited it? He seemed like he could defend himself, but clearly his abilities had limits.

There was also the subject of whatever pocket dimension existed inside the chest. What was it, and why was it there? These and more questions gnawed at her mind while the guilt of the boy’s death gnawed at her heart, leaving the alicorn a hollow mess.

“Something wrong, Twilight?” Spike asked, drawing her from her thoughts.

Twilight looked down to see him wearing a concerned frown. Somehow, even through his own suppressed trauma, he was worried for her. “I’m fine. It’s just frustrating that I can’t find anything else out about this thing.”

Spike glanced at the box. The only reason he felt safe getting this close was the magical chains wrapped around it. “Maybe Princess Celestia could tell you more about it?”

“She did meet Isaac at one point, and the stupid thing was in her castle,” Rainbow added.

As she thought about informing her former mentor of her mistake, Twilight winced. Eventually, her ears drooped as she relented. “You’re probably right. At any rate, I think she should know what happened.” She took one last forlorn look at the chest before turning and heading for the door. “Follow me, Spike. I’ll need you to send her a letter, but first I need to clear my head. It’s been a long day…”

Everyone watched as the pair headed out of the room. Gradually, their uneasy thoughts led them to look back at the chest, and then each other.

Rainbow Dash scratched the back of her head and dodged her eyes away before standing. “I think I’m gonna grab a bite to eat.”

“I think I’ll join ya,” Applejack said, starting to follow the pegasus.

“Ooo, can I come too?” Pinkie asked, temporarily distracted from her gloomy thoughts as she raced after them.

After a moment, Fluttershy lifted her head and noticed Rarity offering her a hoof up.

“Come on, dear,” Rarity offered. Her tone was gentle, but it sounded more like an insistence than a request.

Fluttershy didn’t react at first. Eventually, she managed a smile as she took the hoof and walked with her friend out of the room. She lingered at the door and glanced back, her heart breaking at the sight of the chained-up relic of the past.

I’m sorry, Isaac…

With that, both ponies left to join their friends, leaving the chest sitting in silence as it had been for countless years.

And in the silence of the study, the lonely box of horrors waited patiently. Anyone happening upon such a bizarre sight could only wonder why such a seemingly innocuous item was wrapped in magical chains conjured by the former student of Celestia herself.

Of course, for how patient they had been, the shadows of the past couldn’t stay dormant forever. There in the study of the castle of friendship, a soft creak came as the chest’s lid cracked open before being stopped by its bounds.

A dark seam was left, even with the crystal chandelier above providing ample light. A distant laugh echoed as a monstrous hand tipped with painted red nails reached out and grasped the lock made by Twilight’s magic.

The glowing chains flexed and resisted, but soon shattered into shimmering wisps of light. The hand receded into the darkness, leaving the lid of the chest partially open. Luminous red eyes blinked within the crack, and a smile framed by a single tooth formed as the lid opened further.
.
..
…
A few minutes later, Spike walked back through the castle halls on his way to the study. He had just finished a meal with his friends, along with helping Twilight compose and send a letter to Princess Celestia.

He was used to supporting Twilight through bouts of self-doubt and emotional weakness. He was her assistant after all, but he didn’t consider it part of his duties. Rather, he was simply helping the one that was practically his sister. So much time spent by her side had taught him how to read her state of mind even when she tried to hide it, which made her open displays of sorrow all the more concerning.

Twilight must have truly blamed herself for what happened, and having to tell Celestia didn’t help matters at all. Spike dreaded the looming letter of reply right alongside her, and it wasn't just because it would expel itself from his mouth unbidden at some unspecified time.

The alicorn was a mess, and he hated seeing her like this. As he quietly walked by himself, Spike resolved to do everything in his power to cheer her up and ease her burden. That meant brewing her favorite tea, feigning interest in wanting to re-read one of her favorite books with her, and most importantly, wrapping up any notes or work left unfinished so she could pick it up or dismiss it later, depending on how she felt.

However, as he neared the double doors to the study, a noise gave him pause. Putting his ear to the door, he furrowed his brow. It was almost like a high-pitched giggling, but not like that of a child. Deciding to investigate, Spike stepped into the room. He made it three steps before freezing.

Then, a scream echoed throughout the castle.

Clear in another wing, Twilight and the others' ears shot up at the sound.

Rainbow Dash turned her head toward the noise. "Was that Spike?"

"Oh, my goodness." Rarity paled at the thought of her young admirer being in danger.

Without a word, Twilight bolted toward the dragon’s cry. The fact that she was heading for the study only made the knot in her stomach tighten. Her friends all followed close behind, ready to do anything they could to help.

Crossing the castle at their pace took barely any time. With Twilight at the front, the ponies skidded to a halt before the doors to the study—then recoiled at the sight of what was inside.

Scattered around the room were a dozen or so of the bipedal creatures with bleeding eyes that they had seen in the pocket dimension of the chest. Sitting where they had left it, the chest itself was slightly ajar, now missing the magical chains.

There was also a figure that they had never seen before. Its skin was pitch black, and while bipedal, it didn’t stand on two feet. Rather, it floated off the ground a few inches. It had two stubby horns on its head, an equally small tail, and a pair of glowing red eyes that served as the only source of color on its devilish form.

Twilight gasped as she found her study full of monsters she once thought confined to the chest. While questions of how they came to be here should have been racing through her mind, her focus was instead on where her assistant was. Scanning the room didn’t initially reveal him, but just before she could get worried—

“Twilight!”

Spike’s voice drew their attention over to one of the bookshelves along the wall to their right. The ponies found the dragon clinging to one of the higher tiers. One of the eyeless creatures was at the bottom of the shelf, reaching up toward him like a wolf waiting beneath a treed animal.

“Hold on, Spike!” Twilight instructed. She started to cast her magical influence out to whisk him to safety, when movement out of the corner of her eye drew her attention away.

The floating black imp spasmed and puffed out its cheeks, as if it were about to throw up. With a lurch forward, it coughed up a ball of inky darkness. Shadows radiated off of it like falling soot as it flew through the air of its own volition, heading straight for the ponies.

“AH!” Rarity screamed and covered her face with a hoof. Pinkie and the others flinched or prepared to evade. Before the ball got too close for comfort, however, it struck a newly created magenta barrier and exploded with a puff.

Not one to take a strike on her friends lightly, Twilight glared at the devilish imp. She zapped a blast from her horn right at it. Before impact, the creature widened its glowing eyes and fell into a dark hole in the floor that appeared out of nowhere and disappeared just as fast.

“What the…?” Twilight’s expression skewed at the odd avenue of escape her foe used. Shortly after, another hole appeared elsewhere in the room and the imp popped back up, no worse for wear and wearing an appropriately impish smirk.

Before the alicorn could go after the creature, she heard a familiar cry of panic. Darting her head to the side, her eyes went round at the sight of Spike slipping and falling back to the floor, back toward the waiting arms of the eyeless monster.

“Spike!” Twilight cried out, too late to shift the magical energies in her horn toward saving him. Luckily, she didn’t have to.

A cyan blur zoomed into the dragon as he fell, scooping him up and curving through the room until it slowed to a stop. Rainbow Dash hovered in place, glancing down to Spike before looking up to see many of the bloody monsters heading her way, even if they couldn’t reach her.

While they were focusing on the pegasus, two of the creatures were suddenly knocked away as Applejack charged into them. She reared back and kicked out at a third one, sending it flying into a wall. She then turned to look at Twilight.

“We’ll take care’a these things, you deal with that horny critter!” Applejack shouted. Then, a low groan came from behind her. Turning in time to see a gaping maw, she flinched, only for a blue aura to flash around the beast before it was tossed away.

“Phrasing, dear!” Rarity intoned before looking at the floating imp with a shiver of disgust. “Although, it does seem a little too pleased with itself.”

With Spike safe and her friends charging ahead to defend each other, Twilight shifted her attention to her fiendish foe. A smirk crossed her face as a new strategy came to mind.

In a flash, she teleported behind the dark creature to catch it off guard. Before it could even question why she was gone, she fired a blast at it. Of course, just before impact, the imp fell into another freshly apparated hole and popped up elsewhere. It looked at her and blew a raspberry, causing a frustrated growl to simmer in the alicorn’s throat.

“Hold still you little—” Twilight quickly fired again, resulting in the same escape maneuver. She wasn't sure what method of teleportation the creature was using, but it was plenty infuriating.

Meanwhile, as her friends battled with the denizens of the chest, Rainbow Dash flew back over to the entrance and deposited Spike at Fluttershy’s hooves.

“Flutters, keep Spike safe. We’ll handle this,” Rainbow said.

Fluttershy darted her eyes between the many terrible creatures and her fellow pegasus. She offered a shaky nod and held a hoof on the dragon’s shoulder. “R-Right.”

Now that her hooves weren’t tied, Rainbow leapt back into the fray with a powerful flap of her injured wings. The stinging pain she received only made her anger at the eyeless monsters burn brighter.

She kicked one in the back of the head as it circled Rarity, sending it bouncing along the floor before it settled motionless. Then, she whirled around and knocked one out of the air as Applejack kicked it up to her, causing a spatter of blood as it crashed back down.

“Not so tough when you’re on our turf, huh?” Rainbow taunted.

Just then, Rainbow felt a tug on her tail. She grunted as she dipped in the air, only to look down and widen her eyes at the sight of bloody pits staring up at her. One of the creatures was dangling off her tail. Three more of them were eagerly waiting below, ready to rip into her once their comrade pulled her down.

“Gah! Not again!” Rainbow yelped.

“Dash!” Applejack shouted. She tried to break away, but her own share of creatures was making things difficult.

Kicking at the creature on her tail yielded no results. Rainbow tensed as she neared the reaching hands on the ground. Then, an explosion rang out to the side, swiftly followed by another of the creatures sailing into the group grasping for her. Like a bowling ball to a set of pins, all the monsters scattered violently enough to render many of them immobile. Even the one on her tail was caught up in the strike and ripped off.

Looking to the side, Rainbow found none other than Pinkie Pie near the back of the room, standing next to a smoking party cannon.

“Nice shot…” Rainbow muttered, still stunned as Pinkie clapped her hooves.

“Rarity, load in another one! I wanna do that again!” Pinkie instructed.

Near the right wall, Rarity grit her teeth as another of the creatures squirmed in her magical grasp. However, she was forced to slam it against the ground and kick at another one coming for her instead. “Sorry, Pinkie, I’m a tad busy!”

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the chaos of the study, Twilight was barely paying attention to the eyeless horde. Her focus was squarely on the black imp, pitched in a thus far fruitless battle.

She threw up a shield to disperse another inky ball of darkness hurtling toward her before firing a beam of energy. The imp, in turn, returned to its tried and true method of retreating into a hole and teleporting around the room. Twilight followed it with her head, scowl deepening as it evaded each attack. Every laser or bolt of energy she fired at it simply whizzed past, scorching holes into her beloved castle.

The imp bounced around, effortlessly dodging into its dark pits in the floor in a mere second. It squeaked giddily as Twilight tried to outpace it with her attacks. She fired again, and again, and again, before suddenly stopping herself as it ducked down once more.

Fluttershy and Spike were directly behind the imp that time. If she hadn’t noticed and continued firing, she could have killed the pair.

Hearing a high-pitched laugh off to the side, Twilight clenched her jaw. “Alright, that’s it!”

An orb of icy blue magic shot from her horn, chilling the very air as it rocketed toward the imp. As expected, it sank down again toward a freshly appeared hole. However, it didn’t enter the hole this time. This time it thunked against a magenta barrier.

The imp blinked its vacant red eyes at the barrier for a moment before looking up. While it couldn’t speak, it made a noise that Twilight knew loosely translated as ‘uh oh,’ right before the orb struck and froze it solid.

In an instant, the ice sculpture that was formerly a monster crashed to the floor and shattered into many pieces. The disquieting sight greatly lessened any satisfaction Twilight got from besting the annoying beast.

Looking over, Twilight found her friends still mopping up the last few creatures. With some magical blasts and teamwork between the five of them that were actually fighting, the last sounds of unearthly groans fell silent as the last monster fell.

Twilight panted softly from her magical shootout. She winced at the sight of her study full of blood, scorch marks, and dead bodies. However, she was more concerned about the state of her friends. “Is everypony okay?”

“Nothing a little therapy can’t fix,” Rarity stated. “... Okay, maybe a lot of therapy.”

Rainbow Dash wiped some blood off of her tail from where the eyeless creature had bled on her. “If I never see one of those freaks again, it’ll be too soon.”

Spike walked into the room with Fluttershy behind him, keeping his claws clasped to his chest as he looked around at the chaos. “How did those things get here? I thought you had the chest locked?”

At the dragon’s question, all eyes shifted to the dusty box. Indeed, it no longer had any magical chains keeping it shut, though shut it was. It almost seemed intelligent in a way, like a crocodile choosing to keep its mouth closed while potential prey approached. Still. Patient. Hungry.

“I did have it locked.” Twilight stepped closer to the chest, keeping a hoof on its lid to hold it shut while she lit her horn. “I can’t feel any signs that my chains were dispelled.”

“Maybe they just broke?” Rainbow Dash suggested.

Twilight shook her head. “Do you know how much force that would take?”

Rainbow shrugged. “I dunno. I’m guessing a lot?”

“Well, something must have happened. Maybe the box is an escape artist?” Pinkie said.

Rarity chuckled dryly. “I’ve heard of magicians escaping a chained-up box, but never of a box doing the escaping itself.”

At the back of the group, Fluttershy leaned away from the chest as she peered at it over her friends’ shoulders. “Umm… a-are we safe right now? What if it opens again and more of those things come out… or we get sucked inside like last time?”

“You’re right, Fluttershy,” Twilight said. “I don’t know what all this thing is capable of. I’m going to have to use more drastic measures to make sure it—”

Before she could finish her sentence, Twilight cut off abruptly as a disembodied cry echoed from within the box. The noise sent chills through the ponies’ forms, but it also bred a sense of familiarity.

Fluttershy stood and inched forward. “Was that Isaac?!”

“But, that can’t be possible. We saw him die… didn’t we?” Rainbow looked around at the others.

“I… I thought we did,” Twilight muttered, her eyes trailing to the side. The thought of the boy getting crushed replayed in her mind, causing her ears to droop. She wasn't sure what would be worse: that he didn’t survive, or that he somehow did and they were forced to leave him there.

“Well, if he’s alive, we should help him, shouldn’t we?” Pinkie asked softly.

“Of course we should!” Fluttershy stated with uncharacteristic confidence. Seeing her friends giving her surprised looks, and remembering what they would have to do in order to even try to help Isaac, she shrank down again. “I… I-I mean… we have to do something. We can’t just leave him in that awful place.”

After a few moments of conflicted thought, Twilight stood tall and set her mouth in a determined line. “No, we can’t. That’s why I’m going back in to get him out.”

“Twilight…” Pinkie frowned.

“Twi, what are you thinkin’?” Applejack asked.

Twilight didn’t waver at all. “I’m the one that opened that closet in the first place. What happened to Isaac before was my fault, and it’s my responsibility to help him.”

Seeing the alicorn’s stubbornness, Applejack shook her head. “No, I mean, what are you thinkin’ goin’ off by yourself?! You must be crazy if you think we’re not comin’ with ya!”

“She’s right.” Rainbow Dash nodded in solidarity. “I don’t care if you are a princess now. You’re still the same egg-headed dork that we met before, and anywhere you go, we go.”

“Besides that, it’s just as much my responsibility as it is yours,” Fluttershy said, standing tall despite her trembling limbs. “I wanted to help Isaac before, a-and even if it means going back in there, I still do. Of course, I don’t want to leave you alone either.”

“Girls…” Twilight’s eyes threatened tears before she re-adopted a serious expression and cleared her throat. “Are you all sure? I don’t think I need to remind you how dangerous it could be in that place.”

Rarity stepped forward to join the others. “Against my better judgment. All for one, and all that.”

“Good.” Twilight smiled. She then turned to her young assistant. “Spike, go hide outside the door. I don’t want you getting sucked in again too.”

“Uh… Twilight, are you sure about this?” Spike asked. “What if something goes wrong? Do you have a backup plan?”

“You are my backup plan, Spike. If we’re in there longer than an hour, I want you to send a letter to Celestia and tell her what happened,” Twilight explained.

“But—” Spike started to protest until she rested a hoof on his head and ruffled his scaly hair.

She knelt down and looked him in the eye as she smirked. “I promise we’ll be okay. I won’t let anything bad happen while we’re in there. Now, get back.”

Spike lingered for a moment, his eyes shimmering as he stared at her, at all of them. Eventually, however, he did as instructed and scampered back to the entrance, where he waited behind the door and poked his head out to watch.

Twilight stood and turned to her friends, letting her gaze linger on each of them. Finding no signs of anyone changing their mind, she took an even breath and nodded before facing the chest.

Applejack held her hat on her head, Rainbow Dash loosened up her limbs, and Fluttershy cringed and held onto Rarity for support as Twilight hovered a hoof near the lid. Opening the box revealed that same abyss of unnatural darkness they had seen last time.

Twilight held one hoof near the opening, and held the other out for Pinkie to take. She and the others soon caught on and linked hooves. The last thing any of them wanted was to get separated again.

Then, after a few seconds of trepidation, Twilight took a sharp breath and reached down into the chest. She barely felt that same strange object from last time before the bottom dropped out from under her hoof. The infinite void started pulling her in, only this time she didn’t fight it.

“Here goes nothing!” she exclaimed right before vanishing into the chest.

Pinkie hopped forward behind the alicorn. “Geronimo!”

Applejack shared one last look of hesitance with the others in line before her turn was up. “Happy trails, girls!”

Rainbow Dash cringed and fought the urge to spread her wings. “Yep… still sucks!”

“Is it too late to say this was a bad ide-AHHHH!” Rarity exclaimed as she flipped over the threshold and disappeared inside.

As her hold on Rarity’s hoof started to pull her in, Fluttershy bit her trembling lip and did her best to stiffen up, even as the sensation of falling pulled a scream from her lungs.

Hold on, Isaac… we’re coming!

A final slam ushered silence into the room as the chest snapped closed. There was no sign left of the six mares.

Spike slowly peered out around the corner. Even if they had gone willingly, his heart sank at the confirmation that his friends were gone. He walked back into the study, keeping his distance from the box in case it still hungered for victims.

“I hope you know what you’re doing, Twilight,” he muttered.

Just then, Spike lurched forward and brought a hand to his mouth reflexively as a puff of green flame expelled a scroll. He fumbled to catch it for a moment before looking down at the royal insignia it was bound in.

“Princess Celestia’s reply? Talk about bad timing.” He sighed to himself as he unfurled it and began to read. Even as he sent Twilight’s letter initially, he expected some sort of disappointed retort from the princess. Celestia was never overtly harsh in her reprimands of her former student, but Twilight always reacted poorly to them nevertheless.

However, as he got further into the letter, Spike didn’t find some disappointed lecture or promise of consequences. His face paled as he looked up to the box sitting before him, where all his friends just vanished mere moments before.

‘Dearest Princess Twilight Sparkle: do not, and I cannot stress this enough, DO NOT enter the chest again under any circumstances. You did not get Isaac killed. He has been dead for a very long time.

‘I will explain more when Luna and I arrive. We are on our way back right now. Keep that forsaken relic locked up as tight as you are able until then so that nothing can get in or out!!

‘That is not a chest, Twilight. It is a grave… and I sincerely wish for it not to be yours.

‘Regards: Her Royal Highness, Princess Celestia.’