Unbound

Darkness clouded their senses once more. All six of them felt ringing pains throughout their bodies. They were prepared to take this plunge, but it didn’t make the impact any softer as the harsh earthen floors caught them.

Twilight grunted and lifted her head. She could already see the bulbs swinging above, lighting the dull expanse of rooms that would likely haunt her dreams for weeks to come. They were in the basement again, not that they were expecting anything else.

“Is everypony okay?” she asked, looking around to make sure all her friends were with her and in one piece.

Rarity slowly pushed herself up on her aching forelegs. “Ngh… Just a note for if we do this again. Trying to land on your hooves does not work.”

“Yeah. It just makes you land on your rump.” Pinkie rubbed her bruised flank.

“Flying doesn’t work either… especially not with somepony on top of you,” Rainbow Dash groaned, her voice muffled.

Noticing the lump she was lying on was, in fact, her friend, Rarity’s eyes widened and she scrambled to get off. “Oh, my goodness! I’m so sorry!”

Applejack dusted herself off and picked up her fallen hat, returning it to her head as she looked around. “Well, we’re here. What now?”

“We should find Isaac,” Fluttershy suggested before shrinking down at the sight of the many openings around them. “The real question is… h-how do we do that?”

Twilight stepped toward one of the doors leading further in. She crinkled her eyes. The layout wasn't the same as last time.

Lighting her horn, she reached into her magical inventory for the map, only to skew her expression. It was missing, along with the leftover coins they had. “Great… Looks like we’re back to square one. I think we’re going to have to look around until we find him.”

“Yeah, because that went so well last time,” Rainbow commented.

“Last time we didn’t know anything about this place,” Twilight offered before her optimistic expression drained. “Although, admittedly, we still don’t know very much… But, there’s no turning back now. Just stay close and keep your eyes open.”

With that resounding display of confidence from their princess, the Elements of Harmony once more ventured forth into the halls of the basement.
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..
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And venture they did, for a solid fifteen minutes.

As they realized during their first excursion, the basement was a veritable maze full of perils and monsters in equal measure. Many of their encounters were with familiar foes, like the eyeless shamblers that resembled their missing friend, or the giant flies whizzing about and spitting blood at them. Every so often, though, they would find some new horrifying creature that they had to rationalize and find a way to defeat.

Luckily, the strange teleporting phenomenon wasn't happening any longer. Its absence was a bizarre but welcome change, as was Twilight’s foreknowledge of the map. While the layout was different from last time, she was starting to notice patterns in how the rooms connected together, and the overall size of the floor they were on.

After yet another hard-fought battle, the group came to a heavy stop in a room they knew to be safe, or at least as safe as could be in this place.

Rarity leaned against the doorframe beside her and panted. She looked down to one of her forelimbs, only to scrunch her muzzle at the sight of a smear of blood staining her once pristine fur.

“That’s it! I have had enough of this awful place!” She rubbed off some of the blood on the wall. “I can’t take it anymore! The never-ending rooms, the monsters, the… the… refuse. It was bad enough when it was stationary.”

“I thought you didn’t want to ever talk about that again?” Pinkie asked.

Rarity shuddered. “Oh, I don’t! But I dare say the memory will haunt me for the rest of my life.”

“For the first time, I think I get where you’re coming from, Rares,” Applejack admitted. “We’re used to leavings on the farm from all the animals we keep… but I never would’a imagined watching a pile of it get up and leave.” She shivered as well. “I’ll never look at an outhouse the same way again.”

“Yeah, I’m still not sure I believe you, honesty be darned. I mean, there’s no way you actually saw a living pile of… y’know.” Rainbow Dash gestured uncomfortably.

“Ignorance is bliss, Rainbow. Just be glad you were looking the other way,” Twilight deadpanned, suppressing a shudder herself. “Unfortunately, we’re stuck here one way or another until we find Isaac or that skull room.”

“Is that really our only way out of here?” Fluttershy quaked. “W-What if that big thing is there again?”

Twilight fought off a shudder. “We’ll burn that bridge when we get there… judiciously.”

Pressing on, she looked around for a path they hadn’t taken yet. Despite the basement’s size, they were starting to run out of options. Still, they had a ways to go yet before truly hitting a dead end.

Heading through the left door off their current room, the ponies stiffened up again and slowed their pace as they set off into uncharted territory once more.

Tip-hoofing into the room, they weren’t greeted by any monsters. A door stood at the back wall with a frame gray as slate. An emblem of two crossing swords perched above it, offering some obscure hint as to its purpose. Within, they could barely see a room made of dark stone, with a single chest in the middle of it.

Rainbow Dash raised a sly brow. “What’s this room for?”

Twilight examined the sword emblem above. “An armory, maybe? Who knows in a place like this?”

“Should we go in?” Rarity asked.

“Well, if it is an armory, it might come in handy. I wouldn’t mind getting a big stick or something to whack some of these freaks we keep fighting,” Rainbow said.

After a moment of thought, Twilight cast a light spell over her horn and slowly entered the space. The others all filed in behind her, keeping their eyes peeled for any dangers lurking within the strange room.

Inside, the buzzing lights they had come to rely on all but vanished. Even the bright magenta glow from Twilight’s horn struggled to pierce the thick darkness the obsidian walls commanded. Other than the chest in the center of the room, nothing else was present. It was similar to the one they entered to reach this pocket dimension, but its accent coloring was gray instead of gold.

The ponies gathered around the chest, equal parts curious and apprehensive. Still, no amount of paranoid searching yielded any threats. They shifted their attention to their leader.

“Open it!” Pinkie suggested.

“Actually, I don’t know if we should,” Fluttershy added.

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “What’s the worst that can happen? It’s not like we can get sucked into another box… can we?”

Twilight’s hoof hovered near the lid before she hesitated. She glanced between her friends and the exit behind them. “Maybe you guys should step back? Just in case something goes wrong.”

With a shared look of unease, the group did just that. Soon, only Twilight was left in the room itself. All eyes settled on her and the chest, and she couldn’t deny her own curiosity any longer. The box opened with an aged squeak, sending out a puff of dust that wrinkled her nose. She waved the air and coughed before pushing the lid all the way back and peering inside.

Outside, Pinkie peered around the corner and gradually stepped into the room again. “What’s in it?”

“Anything useful?” Rainbow Dash added, joining Pinkie inside.

Twilight arched her brow as she lifted three objects out of the chest’s depths. Two were more of the yellow coins they had acquired last time, and the third was a silver key. “I’m… not so sure about that.”

Seeing that there was no threat, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack started to reconvene with their friends. Then, just before they could cross the threshold, a set of iron bars crashed down, nearly taking Fluttershy’s head off in the process.

Rainbow and the others spun around at the sudden noise. “What the?!” She rushed up to the bars and tugged on them. When that didn’t work, she kicked them, but to no avail; the room was sealed. “Gah… what gives?!”

“Oh no, girls!” Fluttershy fretted.

“Horsefeathers. I knew something was off about this room.” Twilight cursed under her breath before hurrying over to the gate separating their two groups.

Just then, a low noise emanated from the shadows clinging to the ceiling. A dozen or more chittering and screeching voices, soft at first, but slowly building in intensity. The ominous choir sent chills down their backs.

“What’s going on in there?” Applejack asked, casting a worried frown to her three friends through the bars.

Pinkie stared at the darkness above them. She backed herself against the wall behind her. “Twilight… what is that?” she asked, her voice holding a twinge of fear.

Twilight’s ears twitched and her spine tingled as the sounds grew ever closer. Some of the unintelligible mess she recognized to be creatures they had encountered before, while other noises were strange and unsettlingly new.

“I don’t know, but I know we need to get out of here. Hold on,” she instructed. Lighting her horn in an instant, she focused on teleporting herself and her two companions out to the other side of the bars. Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity watched all three of them vanish in a magenta flash, only for them to reappear a moment later right up against the iron bars with a loud thwack.

“Ow!” Twilight and the others yelped as they fell back, looking like they had just run full steam into the bars.

“Could you warn a pony before doing that, Twi?” Rainbow grunted as she rubbed her tender muzzle.

“What happened?” Fluttershy asked. “Can’t you teleport through stuff like this?”

Twilight stood and looked to the bars with newfound alarm. “Normally, I can! I… I don’t know what’s wrong!”

The noises only grew louder, now sounding as if they were right above the room. Then, all at once, it fell silent.

“Girls, you gotta get outta there,” Applejack said. Even if she was safe on the other side of the bars, she was still pale in the face as she looked between her friends and the unseen ceiling.

“Gee, you think?” Rainbow Dash muttered in a mixture of sarcasm and nerves. “If you’ve got any ideas, AJ, we’re all e—”

A loud, wet plop came as four shapes fell from the ceiling.

In the magenta light emanating from Twilight’s horn, they could see red masses of meat with bones sticking out of their tops. Two eyes beleaguered with pain squelched open on each, and mouths split their forms with a garbled cry as blood leaked out like raw steak.

“AHH!” Pinkie jumped back at the horrid creatures landing nearby.

“What the hay are those?!” Rainbow pressed herself to the wall away from the abominations before her.

Twilight gasped at the sight of a familiar enemy lining up with her friend. “Watch out!” She jumped in front of Rainbow Dash and projected a shield in front of them.

Mere moments later, one of the piles of meat bubbled and squeaked as four blood bullets were expelled from its form in each cardinal direction. One of the projectiles hit the shield, while another whizzed past Pinkie Pie as she dove to the floor and covered her head.

Seeing her friends in danger, Rarity’s eyes widened. “Sweet Celestia, we have to help them!”

“I’m trying!” Applejack grunted as she gave the iron bars a mighty kick. The impact reverberated through her hooves, but it did little else. Even so, she kept at it. Fluttershy and Rarity raced to look around their room to try and find something, anything that could free their friends from their obsidian tomb.

Inside, the three ponies struggled to survive as orbs of blood flew near constantly from all directions.

Rainbow Dash took to the air and swerved around a projectile so she could deliver a swift kick to one of the meat blobs. Her hoof sank into its fleshy body with a disgusting sound, but she found enough force to send it flying into the wall. It flattened out and spattered blood everywhere, but it soon slid down and popped back out, albeit now deflated and slower.

With a terrified squeal, Pinkie ran around the room dodging any projectiles heading her way. She dove down behind the chest, clenching her teeth as a few bullets thudded into the open lid an instant later, a mere half-inch of wood shielding her from the assault.

Looking up, her face paled as she saw two of the creatures flopping closer to her, each firing shots her way. She flinched, only for a magenta barrier to appear and save her.

Over to the side, Twilight barely spared a look at the pink mare before she leaped over a blood ball and spread her wings. As she maneuvered out of the way of more attacks, she fired a bolt of magic at one of the meat piles.

The pile, in turn, hopped out of the way of the first blast, letting it scorch the floor beside it. It did not, however, avoid the second bolt Twilight sent at it. With a gruesome explosion, one creature was no more.

Hearing some exasperated grunts and squelches, Twilight looked over to see Rainbow Dash jumping up and down and stomping out another of the meaty monsters. Each stomp covered her legs in more blood, but thankfully it was the non-harmful variety.

Rainbow yelled as one final stomp reduced the creature to a bloody pulp beneath her. She looked down at her bloodstained limbs and the mess on the floor, her face scrunching with revulsion. “I didn’t think getting your hooves dirty was this literal!”

A distorted cry came from behind Rainbow, bristling the fur on the back of her neck. She turned to see one of the last remaining creatures about to fire. However, before it could, it was wrapped in a blue magical aura and whisked into the air.

“Get away from her, you vile thing!” Rarity demanded as she took the creature and slammed it against a wall a few times, averting her eyes from the resulting display. The sounds and tactile feeling in her magic alone made her shiver with revulsion.

“Thanks for watching my back, Rares. I keep forgetting how useful you are in a fight!” Rainbow smiled.

“Oh, I have my moments,” Rarity said.

Another magical blast resulting in a final squidge drew their attention over to Twilight, who had just finished dispatching the last creature. She took a calming breath and hovered down to join Rainbow by the gate.

“Okay, now to find a way to open these bars,” she mused. “I think if we both pull on them, Rarity and I can—”

Twilight cut off with a yelp as something fell on her from above and wrapped its hands around her barrel. Everyone else watching saw one of the eyeless creatures land and cling to her.

“Twi!” Rainbow Dash reached out as the alicorn stumbled away. More of the monsters dropped down from the ceiling all around them until they were outnumbered three to one. Rainbow and Pinkie were forced to rush to the other side of the room after Twilight, both to help their friend and to flee.

“Girls!” Rarity cried, helplessly grasping the bars and trying to follow the trio with her head.

Curving around the room to avoid the approaching shamblers, Pinkie screamed, “Not this again!”

Over in the front corner, Rainbow Dash raced up to Twilight and grabbed the hairless creature struggling with her. With a mighty heave, Rainbow tossed the thing away, where it rolled past more of its brethren already advancing on the pair. They didn’t even have time for passing gratitude as they backed against the wall together.

A magical blast from Twilight’s horn punched a hole through one creature, while Rainbow’s swift hind hoof sent another sailing back. Even so, they were being overwhelmed, and they had no more room to retreat.

With her options sealing up around her, Rainbow Dash backed closer to her alicorn friend. A nervous sweat built on her brow, and the howls of the horde and the sight of gaping maws and hollow eyes put the fear of death into even her bold heart.

“Twilight, now might be a great time for one of those plans of yours!” Rainbow said.

Twilight’s eyes darted between her friend and the five monsters closing in. Amid her building panic, she looked up and noticed Pinkie running toward the opposite corner, with no creatures ahead.

“Get close to me, I have an idea!” Twilight announced. Without delay, Rainbow huddled closer as she focused energy to her horn.

In an instant, the pair blinked out of existence. Off on the other side of the room, amid her screaming, Pinkie suddenly stopped as she bumped into an obstacle that wasn't there before. That obstacle being her freshly apparated friends.

After putting a hoof around a panicking Pinkie Pie to stop her from moving, Twilight cast a barrier around herself and her two friends, forming a protective bubble in the corner. She produced a relaxed sigh as the approaching horde was halted.

“Ok… that’s one way to do it, I guess.” Rainbow deflated against the wall behind her.

“Don’t get too comfortable. I think I just put a band-aid on the problem,” Twilight said, casting her eyes to the amassed legion of monsters outside her bubble. Even now, their constant pounding on her shield was making her wince. “I can’t just keep this shield up forever, and if I drop it now, they’re going to overwhelm us faster than we can fight back.

“Maybe if we try being scarier than them, they’ll all go away?” Pinkie offered. She waltzed up to the magenta bubble and stood up on her hinds, rearing her forelegs and trying to growl like a wild animal. The creatures outside didn’t even pause their chorus of groans.

Rainbow cocked her head to the side. “Not helping, Pinkie,” she said before turning to Twilight, and then the monsters outside. “So, what do we do?”

“I’m not sure. I think our only option might be—”

*Boom*

A deafening explosion rocked the room as rocks violently flew from the far wall. Twilight and the others flinched and covered their ears.

When they looked up at the fading smoke and settling debris, they noticed a large hole had been left behind in the obsidian. And standing in the hole, frantically waving them over, was a familiar bipedal child.

“Isaac…?!” Twilight widened her eyes. Seeing all the creatures pause and turn toward the boy, she knew their time was limited. She rushed over and wrapped her forelegs around Pinkie’s waist.

“Wee-hehe!” Pinkie giggled as the alicorn lifted her into the air.

“Rainbow, get ready to fly!” Twilight commanded.

Rainbow Dash shot her wings out and hovered up beside her friends. “Got it!”

Once they were off the ground, Twilight dropped her shield. Both flyers zipped forward, lifting as high as they could to avoid the grasping hands jumping up to meet them. With their speed, it didn’t take long to outpace their pursuers as they landed and made a beeline for the newly created opening.

The three ponies ran past Isaac and into what looked to be a small cave of sorts. Isaac glanced behind him at the trio before looking back to the advancing horde. He shrank back away from the opening, and just before any of them could prepare for a fight, more rocks came collapsing down over the hole, sealing it up once more.

Isaac wiped the sweat from his brow and breathed a silent sigh of relief. He then turned and walked up to the ponies, who were all panting after their close call.

Twilight lifted her head and smiled. “Isaac! I’m so glad to see you’re alive!”

“Yeah. After that freak landed on you, we thought you were toast! Or maybe jam.” Rainbow Dash shuddered at the mental image. Isaac rubbed the back of his head with an embarrassed smile.

“That was so cool how you came in and saved us!” Pinkie stated. “By the way, how did you blow up that wall?”

In response, the boy reached behind his back and dug around some kind of invisible pocket. It reminded Twilight and Rainbow about the way Pinkie produced items out of nowhere, but at least she had the excuse of hiding things in her mane.

After a moment, he pulled out a small black ball with a white skull painted on the front and a fuse hanging out of the top. By any account, the object looked to be a bomb, if someone had asked a child to describe one.

“Is… is that a bomb?!” Twilight asked, taking a step back.

“Who gives a bomb to a kid?!” Rainbow added. Isaac merely shrugged and put the bomb back wherever he found it.

Now that they had a minute to think clearly, the ponies took a slower look around the space they found themselves in.

As they first observed, it resembled a cave more than anything. The rocky walls and floor were a far cry from the basement rooms, and they weren’t sure if it was an improvement. Two bonfires burned away, with a motionless gray figure slumped between them similar to the body they found in the shop on their previous trip.

The body’s resemblance to Isaac was uncanny and more than a bit unsettling. Twilight wasn't sure if all members of his species looked alike, or if there was some deeper meaning there. Either way, she didn’t want to dwell on it for long.

Shifting her eyes away from the dead body, she discovered another exit in the form of a hole in the wall. Judging from the light filtering in and the wooden rafters in view through the opening, it must have led out into the basement.

“We should get back to the others,” Twilight suggested, to which nobody objected.

With their new friend in tow once more, they all headed out of the dark recess of the cave and into another room of the basement. If Twilight’s mental direction hadn’t been ruined by all the chaos that occurred, they were now in the room beside the entrance to that obsidian chamber, where their friends hopefully still were.

Thankfully, as they headed through the next doorway, they could immediately spot the three mares huddled over by the gate. As they looked up and noticed their friends returning, Rarity and the others’ faces lit up and they rushed forward.

“Girls! Thank Celestia you’re alive!” Rarity shared a quick hug with each of them.

“We got real worried when we heard that explosion. We were trying to find you a way out, so we didn’t see where you went. When you didn’t answer… Well, we thought the worst,” Applejack admitted.

“You really think we’d get taken out that easily?” Rainbow Dash smirked.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy looked over and noticed the boy near the back of the group. “You found Isaac? That’s great!”

“He found us, actually. If it wasn't for him, we might not have made it out of that room.” Twilight flashed a grateful smile.

Fluttershy walked up to Isaac and stared at him for a moment. Her eyes shimmered, and she reached out and pulled him into a hug. “I’m so sorry we didn’t help you fight that thing. I was so scared and I… I” - she sniffed - “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

Isaac didn’t react at first as the pegasus held him. Eventually, he smiled and pressed his head into her chest fluff, his tiny hands reaching around her as far as they could. The sight alone was enough to melt the group’s hearts, even if some of them didn’t show it outwardly.

Once the pair finished their embrace, Twilight shifted her attention around them. “Now that Isaac’s here, we should focus on getting out.”

“Does that mean we need to find that skull room again? I hated that place.” Pinkie shuddered.

“Isaac, is there any other way out of here? Please say yes…” Fluttershy asked, more than a hint of desperation in her voice.

A frown and a shake of the head came as Isaac’s response, shattering any hope the ponies had of an easy escape.

“Well, that’s just peachy. Maybe if we’re lucky that big blob thing is napping or something?” Rainbow said.

“Somehow, I doubt that,” Twilight reasoned. “Either way, we’re going to have to get past it to get back home. Isaac, do you know where that skull room is?” she asked, receiving a head shake in response. “I was afraid of that. If only we still had the map.” She sighed before lifting her head. “Oh, well. Since we’re exploring anyway, maybe we can find something to help us prepare to fight that thing?”

“Only one way to find out, I suppose,” Rarity said. “More wandering aimlessly through a maze full of things that want to kill us. My favorite…”

“At least you’re thinking positively.” Applejack chuckled as they started on their way.

Another few minutes passed while the group pressed on. They explored every nook and cranny of every room they came across.

Encounters with monsters were more common than any of them would have liked, but with the help of their new friend, they were able to get through without any further injury.

It seemed as though Isaac was used to doing battle with the denizens of the basement. Despite his nervous disposition, he knew exactly each creature’s method of attack, deftly dodging them until either his weaponized tears or one of the ponies could deal the killing blow.

For all their troubles, they hadn’t found many resources or useful items. The most they found was a sparing few coins to pocket for later use. It was frustrating to think that even if they found another shop they couldn’t buy anything from it.

As they cautiously made their way into another empty room, the group paused as something caught their eye. Embedded into the left wall ahead was another unique doorway. This one was gilded all the way through, with two rounded protrusions at the top corners and a crown in the middle with thin decorative chains forming arcs along the beam below it.

While the strange door was intriguing to the ponies, Isaac’s face immediately lit up and he rushed toward it.

“What is it, Isaac?” Fluttershy asked. The boy paused before the room and turned to them, gesturing eagerly for them to follow and hurrying inside.

“I really wish he could talk. It would make things so much easier,” Rainbow Dash said.

“We don’t need to talk to him to understand that he wants us to follow. Come on,” Twilight suggested.

Following the boy inside, the ponies weren’t sure what they would find that had caused such excitement from him. However, as they saw what the room contained, they paused.

The room itself wasn't as special as its door might imply. It held the same earthen floors and dull brown walls of every other standard room in the basement. What seemingly made it special, and what Isaac was currently standing in front of, was a small stone pedestal.

On top of this pedestal was a single object. A yellow translucent container with a white safety cap full of what looked to be various forms of medicinal pills.

Rainbow Dash blinked. “What…? That’s it? A bottle of pills? Here I was thinking there would be a huge pile of coins or something in here.”

“Who would even leave pills in a place like this?” Applejack asked.

Twilight walked up to the pedestal and examined the bottle. There was a label around its center, with the name ‘Magdalene O. Moriah’ scribbled on it, though no description of its contents was present. Even if there were a description, a myriad of different pills were inside. All oblong, all with smooth texture and differing colors.

While the ponies were pondering over the pill bottle, Isaac casually walked up to it and smiled. He snatched it off the pedestal and, in one swift movement, snapped the cap off and dumped a good portion of its contents into his mouth.

A gasp rang out as Twilight’s eyes widened. “Isaac!” She snatched the bottle into her aura, but it was already mostly empty.

“Good heavens, darling!” Rarity held a hoof to her mouth.

“What were you thinking?!” Fluttershy yelled, or at least raised her voice an octave above her usual whisper. She gave the boy a pointed stare, like a mother disappointed in her child. “You can’t just eat pills like that! What if you get sick?”

Isaac fidgeted his hands together and hung his head. The tears streaming down his face flowed ever so faster, and his lip quivered.

Seeing the boy looking so pathetic, Fluttershy eased her disciplinary glare. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to get mad. Just don’t do anything like that again, okay?” She coaxed a hoof under his chin, getting him to look up at her. He trailed his eyes away briefly before managing a nod.

“Remember kids, eating bugs beats doing drugs!” Pinkie stated.

Rainbow Dash turned to see her friend staring off at seemingly nothing. She skewed her expression. “Pinkie, who are you talking to?”

Pinkie merely pointed a hoof. “Them.”

Following her hoof, Rainbow jolted back at the sight of three eyeless figures standing just outside the doorway. “BWAH!” she yelped as the creatures opened their maws and began to charge.

“Holy hayseed!” Applejack exclaimed.

Fluttershy whined and cowered back. Twilight and Rainbow Dash started to defend themselves. However, much to their surprise, Isaac stood in front of them and fought back first.

A barrage of tears met the incoming monsters, seemingly firing at a faster rate than before. The ponies couldn’t be sure if this was due to Isaac fighting more fiercely to protect them, or if the pills he took had some kind of effect on him. Either way, his watery weapon was more devastating than ever, and soon the creatures fell dead on the floor.

Twilight put a hoof to her racing heart and took a calming breath. “Phew… Thanks, Isaac. We really can’t drop our guard for an instant in this place, can we?”

Isaac gave an affirmative nod to the alicorn before shifting his attention to Fluttershy. She was still calming down after the sudden jolt to her system, and a few fearful tears and fading tremors were still present. He walked up to her and held a hand to the side of her foreleg.

Seeing a soft frown on his face, Fluttershy made an effort to speed up her recovery. She steadied her breath and managed a smile. “Th-Thank you, Isaac. I’m okay now,” she said, to which his expression brightened to match hers.

“Such a gentlecolt,” Rarity said before pausing, “err, whatever species he is.”

Twilight walked to the mouth of the doorway and scanned her head around the previous room, ensuring that it was clear. She turned to the others and motioned a hoof. “Let’s keep moving. The less time we spend here, the better.”

Without delay, the ponies all went to follow her. Isaac started to as well when he noticed the bottle of pills lying where Twilight had dropped it in her panic. He inched closer to it and meandered in place for a moment. When he was sure none of them were watching, he bent down and picked it up before stashing it and carrying on after them.

Moving into the only other room available to them, Twilight halted two steps in as she looked up. The others slowly came to a stop behind her, curious to see what had caused her pause. Then, they saw it too.

There it was. Across the way, looming large at the back wall, the skull door awaited.

Dread clawed at their guts as they stood there staring for the longest time. Nobody wanted to move or speak to acknowledge that there was only one thing left to do. Memories of their previous encounter still numbed their minds.

Eventually, Twilight managed to break herself out of her tense stare. “Ok… everyone get ready. I think we’re in for a rough fight.” She started to approach the door. A tug at her hind leg made her pause.

Looking down, she found Isaac maneuvering in front of her and staring back with wary eyes.

"What’s wrong?" Twilight asked.

The boy glanced toward the skull door and took a few steps back. He gestured to himself and pointed to the door, then he motioned at the ponies before pointing straight down.

"I think he wants us to stay here while he goes in," Applejack inferred. Isaac nodded in the affirmative.

Twilight frowned. "Isaac, we can't just let you fight that thing by yourself."

"Yeah. We don't abandon friends," Pinkie added.

Seeing him still looking between them with an unsure expression, Rainbow Dash stepped forward and rested a hoof to her chest. "Kid, we might be new to all this, but we aren't pushovers. Back where we come from, we handle scary monsters all the time. That big thing just caught us off guard."

Fluttershy stepped forward and placed a hoof on top of his head. "We appreciate you trying to keep us safe, but we want to keep you safe too. That's why we came here. We want to help you." She looked around at her friends, who all joined her in smiling at the boy.

With all the bright faces and heartfelt sentiments around him, Isaac felt a sense of warmth in his heart that he hadn’t experienced in a long time. A genuine smile formed on his face, and the tears ever-present in his eyes took on a tinge of happiness instead of fear and despair. Finally, he stiffened his posture and gave them a determined nod before turning to face the door alongside them.

Pushing past their fear, the group approached the door. The darkness within waited patiently for them as they searched for any sign of their massive foe. No such luck. Not even so much as a silhouette could escape the clinging shadows.

Twilight charged her horn preemptively and nodded to her friends. Without a word, they each took their place around her. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Isaac were up front, while Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie stayed near the back. Once in battle formation, they stepped inside.

As expected, once the last of them crossed the threshold, the door behind them slammed shut. Nothing but silence came for several seconds. No ominous roar to alert them to the presence of the hulking monstrosity from before.

Then, Rarity’s ears twitched at a low buzzing. “Does anypony else hear that?”

Twilight and the others tried to trace the sound, but all they could tell was that it was ahead of them.

“I think it sounds like… flies.” Twilight’s expression dropped at the realization. If she was right, there must have been hundreds of them to cause the maddening buzz.

Light filled the room, and in an instant, they all saw the source of the noise. Horror washed over them, and any bravery they had mustered quickly melted from their bodies.

A looming shape floated ahead of them. It wasn't the monstrous blob, though some of them would almost prefer it was.

Rancid gray skin stretched over a round form. Judging from the dangling nubby limbs, it used to be bipedal once, but now it was so bloated that it was hard to tell what it used to look like. A Y-shaped incision sat just below its grinning maw, stitched shut like an autopsied cadaver. Two puckered flaps of flesh were where its eyes should have been, and only its lower teeth were visible, jutting out of blackened gums pulled so far away from the lips that it would probably be bleeding if it were a normal living being.

And filling its agape mouth, assisting it in drifting through the air like a macabre balloon, was a mass of buzzing flies. There were so many that identifying individuals was nigh impossible. They were all just bunched together in a writhing pile of wings and black bodies, with few stragglers hovering around their host like servants to a duke.

Applejack visibly recoiled. “HWAHH!” She shook herself to be rid of the crawling sensation in her fur.

“It’s like every nightmare I’ve ever had rolled up into one!” Rarity pressed herself against the wall to distance herself from the abomination before her. Much to her horror, it started drifting toward them.

“Hey, Twi, remember that bridge-burning conversation we had earlier?” Rainbow Dash asked before jabbing a shaky hoof toward the thing. “START BURNING!”

With the floating beast getting ever closer, Twilight fought her tensing nerves to focus energy to her horn. She fired a blast of magic out, the magenta bolt zipping straight for its massive mouth.

However, before the attack could impact, the creature coughed, sending a cluster of flies hovering out in front of it. The blast exploded, taking most of the flies with it, but leaving the larger threat unscathed.

With her attack thwarted, and a floating balloon of insects heading straight toward her, Twilight’s pupils shrank. “RUN!”

Not needing confirmation, the ponies and their small companion scattered out of the path of the beast. As they ran by, some of the flies hovering around the creature broke off and started chasing them.

Fluttershy cried and kept her head low as three flies buzzed after her. She tried to curve around them, only for them to cut her off and back her toward a corner. Quaking, she prepared herself for whatever terrible thing they would do to her, only for magical blasts and flying tears to pick off all three.

Isaac and Twilight looked over from the pegasus and met eyes across from each other. They nodded and turned to face the floating monster. Each of them fired their respective projectiles at it.

The duke coughed again, sending the flies already orbiting it further out and adding more to the ranks circling it. Bolts of energy and tears impacted some of the flies, while a few projectiles got past and struck its bloated form. It frowned and wheezed as it was knocked back, but its minions kept coming.

Applejack kicked fly after fly into paste, keeping the oversized pests away from herself and Rarity. The unicorn, in turn, was picking up rocks off the floor with her magic and hurling them at the creature. Her attacks weren’t doing much, but she made sure that they hurt.

“Stay away, you fiend, you!” Rarity shouted.

Shifting its massive body toward her, the monster made a low groan and started drifting in a new direction: her direction. Rarity widened her eyes at this.

“I don’t think he heard you,” Applejack said as she and her friend backed away. Then, a wall behind them halted their retreat. They both looked at each other, and then at the creature, the color draining from their faces as they did.

“Hey, ugly!”

From the side of the room, a cyan blur zoomed up to the floating monster and whirled around to give it a swift kick. The strike sent the creature spinning away.

Rainbow Dash smirked and turned to her friends with forelegs folded casually. “He’s not so tough when you get past the ick factor.”

Seeing the pegasus acting cocky as usual, Applejack sighed. However, as she shifted her attention back to the creature, her jaw dropped. “Rainbow, look out!”

Turning at her friend’s warning, Rainbow Dash watched as the still-spinning creature closed in on her, having bounced off of the other wall. It stopped its momentum and glared at her with its missing eyes. While she stared on in horror, it closed its mouth and wriggled it for a moment before spitting out a large ball of flies.

Rainbow was stunned to see such a thing moving so fast. If she’d had time to process her disgust, she might’ve dry heaved. She barely had time to process the threat, let alone dodge it.

Luckily, just before impact, a pink blur jumped up and tackled her out of the air. The ball of insects soared past and exploded into the wall, scattering angry flies everywhere.

Landing with a grunt, Rainbow looked up to see Pinkie Pie already helping her to her hooves.

“Come on, Dashie! This is no place for slowpokes!” Pinkie said as she dragged her friend to safety.

With their friends struggling to flee from the army of flies filling the room, Isaac and Twilight focused on the main threat. They both stood fast against the monstrous balloon, side by side in the hopes that they could overpower its defenses with sheer rate of fire.

Isaac let loose with his tears, while Twilight charged up a more powerful laser. While the boy punched through the outer layer of flies protecting the creature, she put all her effort into channeling energy toward her attack.

Then, just as she was about to fire, the duke spewed out a barrage of flies at her. The buzzing soldiers overwhelmed her in an instant, colliding with her and knocking her to the ground.

“Gah!” Twilight yelped as the flies started biting into her. She was forced to teleport away, leaving Isaac behind.

All of the flies hovered up as their target vanished, only to shift their attention to a new target. Isaac backed toward the wall behind him and started firing at the incoming swarm, but he knew that he couldn’t get them all before they reached him.

He flinched and covered his head as the swarm closed in. Of all the ways he had met his end in the basement before, being devoured by flies wasn't the most pleasant one.

Then, instead of the stinging pain of dozens of flies biting into him, the boy felt something crash into him and pick him up. Opening his eyes, he found Fluttershy holding him under a foreleg, cringing and whining nervously as she ran from the now-angry swarm behind them.

“Don’t w-worry, Isaac. I’ve got you!” Fluttershy assured. Suddenly, she yelped and skidded to a halt before changing directions as another bunch of flies ahead of her took notice. She might not have been able to get away in time if it wasn't for all the flies being held by a blue magical aura and squished in midair.

Rarity waved at the pair from across the room. “And I’ve got you, darling!”

Over by the entrance, Twilight growled under her breath as she rolled over and made her way to her hooves. She was glad to see that Isaac was still alright. In her haste, she couldn’t get close enough to him to include him in her teleportation.

Casting her attention to the floating beast, she paused as she noticed something. Some of the stitches along its body were coming loose, most likely from Rainbow Dash’s kick. As grotesque as the thought was, she knew a weak point when she saw one.

“Aim for its belly!” Twilight shouted as she started firing at the many flies between her and a clean shot.

Across the way, Isaac heard loud and clear. With Fluttershy’s help, he climbed up onto her back and let her do the evasive work while he focused on aiming. A barrage of tears decimated the duke’s forward guard, but for however many flies fell, a hundred more eagerly buzzed within its maw.

Rainbow Dash flew by, kicking a few flies and trying to clear a way for either Twilight or Isaac to be able to hit the thing. Pinkie jumped up and smacked a few more out of the air with a swatter that she had produced.

Feeling threatened, the monster directed all of its children to surround its front and back. It grinned. At this rate, the ponies would never get through its defenses before it could overwhelm them. In a war of attrition, the duke reigned supreme.

“Howdy, fly guy.”

A southern drawl from below made the creature look down. Its massive maw contorted into a confused expression as it saw an orange mare below it, already reared up on her front legs. It then looked up to see the alicorn ahead staring straight at her friend, horn charged up and ready to fire.

“Pull!” Twilight shouted.

Applejack smirked. “With pleasure.”

*Thwack*

With a mighty kick from AJ sending it on its way, the creature flew up like a clay pigeon and rolled to where its midsection was facing Twilight. Aiming right for its stitches, Twilight let loose a bolt of magic that zipped right for it.

In an instant, the magenta projectile collided with the creature, piercing through its body and opening up its stitches. With a final grumble and a sour look, the duke of flies exploded like the fleshy balloon it resembled. Most of the flies dropped to the floor inert, and those that remained merely buzzed in place now that their ruler was gone.

“Phew…” Rainbow Dash breathed a sigh of relief as she landed. She looked at all the dead flies scattered around and suppressed a shudder. “Is everything in this place creepy and weird?”

“I think it’s safe to say so,” Twilight said. She winced as she ran a hoof over some of her fly bites. They were worse than any bug bite she had heard of, with some of them bleeding superficially. “And I think we can add ‘dangerous’ to that list.”

Looking to the side, the group noticed Isaac walking up to another rock pedestal that had apparated into the room after the beast’s defeat. On it was another item, though not a bottle of pills this time.

This time, it was a purple box of juice complete with a sippy straw. Lettering on its side read ‘Jesus Juice: Now With Less Than 1% Blood of Christ’. This description might have confused and troubled the ponies, but before they could even get a chance to read it, Isaac snatched the box up and inhaled it faster than Applejack could put away a mug of cider.

“Wow… He must have been thirsty,” Pinkie said.

“I guess fighting monsters is hard work,” Twilight reasoned as Isaac finished, now with a purple sticky stain around his mouth that faintly smelled of grapes.

Hearing a squeak beside them, the ponies looked over, only to notice another thing that wasn't present before. A wooden trap door was set into the floor, and it was open. A dark void of nothingness stretched down as far as the eye could see, and a stale, earthy aroma carried on the cold draft emanating from it.

“What the…?” Twilight skewed a brow as she approached the hole.

“Please don’t tell me that’s the way out,” Rarity said. “I’ve already had my fill of jumping into bottomless pits, thank you very much.”

Isaac walked up to the trapdoor and peered into its depths. He smiled to his companions and gestured for them to follow before leaping up and grasping his knees, cannon-balling his way into the abyss.

“Have I mentioned that I hate it here?” Rarity added.

Twilight spread her wings and turned to their flightless friends. “Well, there’s no turning back now. Here, let me see if I can give you guys a soft landing this time.” She lit her horn and picked up the three mares with ease.

“I forgot how scary you are, Twilight. Most unicorns can’t just pick up a full-grown pony,” Applejack noted.

“Most unicorns don’t sprout wings and a crown, either!” Pinkie added.

Twilight giggled. “I didn’t sprout the crown, thank you… or the wings, actually. They were just kind of there one minute,” she mused. Seeing the darkness below, her lighthearted expression hardened. “Come on. Let’s not keep Isaac waiting.”

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash watched as Twilight hovered down into the hole, bringing their friends with her one by one. The trapdoor wasn't very large, so she had to maneuver them through. It was almost like it wasn't designed for them.

“You know, maybe we should stay up here?” Rainbow Dash suggested, only half-joking.

Fluttershy peered over the side of the trapdoor before pulling back at the mere sight of the inky abyss. “Oh… I’d l-love to, but what about the others?”

Rainbow Dash flopped a hoof. “Eh, I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

Just then, a squeak came from behind them. The pair looked back toward the doorway. Skating by outside, leaving a trail as it went, was a little brown lump with a smiley face on it.

Turning back to her fellow pegasus, Rainbow’s face was one of pure and utter disgust and horror. “On second thought, anywhere is better than here,” she stated. In the next instant, she dove into the hole, not even bothering to spread her wings.

“W-Wait for me!” Fluttershy hovered down after. Once she passed through the hole, the trapdoor closed behind her.

Any semblance of light left the ponies as they descended. Even the magenta glow of Twilight’s magic was diminished by the sheer thickness of the shadows around them. As a result, they couldn’t tell if there were any walls nearby, or how far down they were going.

Still, they kept going down. They had no choice. Two minutes passed, and they started to wonder if they would ever find solid ground again. Then, they spotted the barest hint of a floor coming into view below.

Twilight was the first to land. She set her hooves down on dirt and rocks before looking up and gently lowering her three friends. Both she and Rarity cast light spells, pushing back the darkness ever so slightly. Soon after, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy came hovering down and landed beside them.

Looking around, the group struggled to make out their surroundings in the fog of darkness. Some form of glowing motes of dust or perhaps fireflies made it somewhat easier to see that they were in a cave, not too dissimilar from the one Twilight’s group had seen when Isaac rescued them.

The earthen floor here was different from up in the basement. It was uneven in places, feeling more like actual earth rather than a patch of land that had been leveled and cleared for construction purposes. Tufts of grass and rocks were more common here, and they could even spot worms and insects if they looked closely.

Water trickled down the rocky walls in places, and the occasional drip would echo through the cavernous rooms surrounding them. Curiously, the layout still resembled that of the basement above. The rooms were cave-like, yet they still conformed to the square shape one might find in pony-made structures. Even more curious, was the presence of wooden doorways in the middle of each wall, leading further into whatever space they now found themselves in.

“Hellooooo?” Pinkie called out into one of the doorways. Her voice echoed for an untold distance, and nothing but silence returned her greeting.

“What is this place? And why is it so dark here?” Rarity asked.

“We’re in a magic box full of monsters, and that’s the part that’s weird for you?” Applejack skewed a brow at her friend.

Looking around for their young friend, Twilight soon found him lying on the ground a few feet away from them. “Isaac?” she called, only to receive no answer.

The boy was shivering on the ground in the fetal position, facing away from them. Fluttershy approached him, only to find that he was seemingly asleep. Whatever sleep he had found, it was an unrestful one judging from his constant fits and trembling.

“Isaac?” Fluttershy gently put a hoof on his shoulder and shook him. After a moment, he blinked open his eyes and sat up. Finding his pony friends surrounding him, he smiled and stood. “Are you okay? You looked like you were having a bad dream,” she said.

Isaac’s eyes grew distant as he thought about the nightmare he just had. The laughter of his peers and the cold distance from his mother all felt so real. He shivered before giving a tiny nod and holding his shoulders. He was surprised to feel a hoof on his hand.

“Don’t worry. I know bad dreams can be scary or sad, but they aren’t real,” Fluttershy assured. This brought the boy’s smile back.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash looked at the dark space around them with furrowed eyes. “What the hay? I thought this was supposed to be a way out. What’s the big idea, kid?”

Turning and seeing the others looking at him with understandable confusion and unease, Isaac frowned. After a moment of thought, he looked around on the floor and went over to a stick and picked it up.

Twilight and the others gathered around as the boy began drawing in the dirt. After he was done, he stood up and stepped back so they could see what he had made. He had drawn six boxes connected in layers from top to bottom. In the second box, a line was drawn beside it with the word ‘us’ next to it. A similar line was drawn next to the last box, with the word ‘exit’ beside it.

“You mean… there are six floors to this place? And we need to go through all six to get to the exit?” Twilight inferred. Isaac gave a reserved nod.

“We need to go through all that five more times? Are you kidding me?!” Rainbow Dash huffed. “We should’ve left that stupid box in the closet… No offense.” She looked at Isaac and softened her expression. He half-shrugged in agreement.

“I shudder to think of what else we’re going to face in here if this place is that large,” Rarity said.

“As much as I’m afraid to find out, we’re not getting any closer to home by sitting here. Stay close, and let’s get moving,” Twilight suggested, making her way toward the nearest doorway. Reluctantly, the group followed after her. They were even more inclined to stay close together now that their only sources of light were two magic users.

On into the darkness they went, their hoofsteps echoing through the rocky caverns. They could only hope that nothing was out there to hear them.