Unbound

"Mmph…"

Rainbow Dash mumbled as she balanced on the edge of sleep. Whatever she had been doing, her body was sore and exhausted.

Rolling over, she nestled her head into her pillow to get just a few more minutes of her nap. The inviting feeling made a smile cross her face. It was so soft… so warm… so squishy…

"Huh…?"

Opening her eyes at this disconnect, her blurry vision clarified to the color red. Her sleep-addled mind processed confusion, and then horror as she saw the thing she was lying on wasn't a pillow, but rather a mound of flesh.

"Bwah!" Rainbow scrambled to her hooves. They sank into the ground with a wet slorp. She looked down to more flesh and yelped again, taking to the air. Everywhere she looked was covered in glistening crimson.

"Morning, sleepyhead."

A familiar voice drew her attention. Standing nearby, Pinkie Pie and the rest of her friends were staring at her, each wearing discomfort on their faces as they stood on a floor that was barely solid.

"Girls…?" Rainbow muttered, her shrunken pupils darting around as she struggled to piece together her recent memories to figure out how they got here. "Wh… w-what happened? Where are we?"

"I'm not sure," Twilight answered. She lifted a hoof and looked down to the sopping ground with a grimace. "And for once, I don’t think I want to know."

"Don't you remember anything?" Applejack asked.

"Uh… not really," Rainbow answered. "I remember fighting that giant leg, and then crushing that card. Everything after that is kinda fuzzy. But I definitely don't remember being swallowed whole!"

"You should be thankful that you didn't get to experience that awful tunnel," Rarity said with a weary sigh. There was a dull quality behind the disturbance in her eyes, as if the part of her that even could be disgusted was slowly dying.

Rainbow sighed and ran a hoof down her face, shuddering as she wiped off some moisture from her impromptu pillow. "Can this place get any w—"

Turning her head, she spotted a black creature with sharp teeth and horns standing next to her friends.

"— AHH!" Rainbow jolted back. She pointed a shaky hoof at the thing. "WHAT IS THAT?!"

"No, no, it's okay. It's just Isaac," Fluttershy explained.

Rainbow Dash blinked, still shrinking away in the air. "Isaac?"

The small creature flashed a toothy smile and waved at her. Now that she took a moment, it did resemble the boy, if he somehow morphed into one of her worst nightmares.

"Oookaaay…" Rainbow Dash smiled back nervously. "Do I want to know?"

"Probably not," Applejack said.

“I just hope this new… whatever it is, did something useful on top of making him look scarier than Nightmare Moon could ever hope of being,” Rarity added. Isaac gave her an odd look, like he was deciding if he should be offended or not.

Taking a step, Twilight stuck her tongue out at the resulting squish. “Now that Rainbow’s awake, let’s get moving. I don’t think I even need to say that the quicker we get out of here, the better.” She headed for one of the only two doorways available to them, only making it two steps in before freezing.

A sea of yellow bile split the next room in half, and numerous red polyps and growths in the vague shape and size of the rocks on earlier floors dominated most of the ‘solid’ ground left.

However, what made Twilight stop was the sight of six tubular beings with circular mouths lined with razor sharp teeth floating aimlessly back and forth.

They lacked eyes, resembling worms or leeches if not for their teeth. Even so, one of them stopped in midair and turned toward the alicorn before screeching and zooming toward her at top speed.

“AH!” Twilight yelped. Her heart skipped a beat, and in her shock, she couldn’t get her horn to form a cohesive spell.

Then, before the creature could reach her, Isaac hurried up beside her. He closed his mouth tightly. Before long, his cheeks puffed out like he was about to vomit.

Aiming his head at the incoming monster, he opened his maw and spewed out a high-pressure stream of what looked to be boiling blood. The stream instantly enveloped the creature and crossed the room, spraying off the far wall like someone stuck a spoon under a faucet. When the stream died down, the monster was gone, completely obliterated.

Twilight and the others watched as Isaac charged up a few more of these laser attacks and systematically took out each of the flying leeches. When he was done, he burped up a puff of black smoke and turned to them.

Rarity blinked. “Okay, I’d classify that as useful… and disturbing.”

“I wonder what happens if he sneezes?” Pinkie mused.

“Remind me not to be in front of him if that happens,” Rainbow Dash added.

Emboldened by his newly acquired upgrade, Isaac marched through the room to the exit. He paused before the next area and gestured for the ponies to follow. After sharing a few looks, they all fell in line behind him, doing their best to ignore the sickening odor drifting off the pool of bile on their way past.
.
..
…
Progress was slow going as the group fought their way forward. On top of the sheer disgust they felt from their organic surroundings, a stark change had been made in the hostility of the environment.

Spikes protruding from the fleshy floor, bottomless holes that threatened to suck them inside, even the swelteringly hot air served as an obstacle that took every bit of their willpower to overcome.

Then, there were the monsters to consider. Ever since they left the basement behind, each new floor presented stronger and more horrifying creatures to call the maze of rooms home.

This place was no different, though its denizens were proving far deadlier than they expected. Worms that burrowed into the viscera of the ground and popped out only to attack, terrible amalgamations of living flesh and organs that walked or rolled toward them at high speeds, floating creatures that could teleport and fire blood projectiles at them.

There were even headless monsters with gaping splits in their forms that spewed the same blood laser Isaac used. Even between Twilight’s magic and Isaac’s new upgrade, the ponies were in a struggle for survival.

As the group entered the mercifully empty room, they took a moment to catch their breath. Rainbow Dash collapsed onto the floor, lungs heaving. “Can I just say…” she panted, “... I hate those stupid red things in the ground!”

“Yeah. Usually whack-a-mole is more fun than that… and less dangerous.” Pinkie winced. She put a hoof to her shoulder, where a close shave with a blood bullet left a shallow track through her skin.

“Are we there yet?” Rarity groaned. “I don’t even want to know what it is we’ve had soaking into our fur, but my hooves” — she held one up for emphasis — “are getting pruney!”

Looking up, Fluttershy’s ears flattened. There it was. At the back of the room, a familiar skull door stood. “Oh, no… I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not, but I think you got your wish, Rarity.”

An odd mixture of relief and apprehension welled up inside the group. For one thing, they were almost done with this horrible floor. For another, they would have to face some terrible creature to even get to an exit.

“Seriously? Does every floor in this place need something big and scary guarding the exit? This is like the worst Ogres and Oubliettes game I’ve ever played,” Rainbow Dash huffed.

“Y’mean worse than that one you ran us through?” Applejack asked smugly. Her smirk only deepened at the glare burning into the side of her head.

“I have to give points for being creative… disturbing, but creative.” Twilight bobbed her head to the side before sighing. “Alright. Let’s go see what wants to kill us this time.”

Taking the lead once more, she crossed the room and waited for her friends to catch up. Once they were all gathered, she started to step through. Then, a tug at her hind leg made her pause.

Looking down, she found Isaac staring up at her. She jumped a little from his appearance before internalizing a sigh and craning her neck down. “What is it, Isaac?”

Isaac was an expert mime by this point. He put his hands together before opening them back up, then used his fingers to flip through the pages of an invisible book. Finally, he pointed to Twilight.

“What’s that? Somepony’s stuck in a well?” Pinkie gasped.

“I’m not sure if that’s what he meant.” Rarity rolled her eyes.

After some thought, a lightbulb went off in Twilight’s head. “Do you want that book I found on the last floor?” she asked. Her expression brightened as he gave a pleased nod. It then shifted to confusion. “Alright, but I don’t know if this is the best time for reading.”

With a flash of her horn, the brown book popped back into existence and hovered down to Isaac’s waiting hands. She could almost swear that a bit of steam came off him as he contacted the book, but he seemed to pay no mind to this as he looked down to it with a satisfied expression.

Then, the boy strolled into the skull room. Twilight was confused as ever, but decided not to leave him alone, so she and the others joined him inside.

Taking battle positions, the ponies prepared for anything as the door slammed shut behind them.

Their bodies collectively seized, their jaws fell open, and all their wide eyes converged on the most hideous thing they had ever born witness to.

A repulsive shape dangled from the ceiling by red and purple organic cords, like arteries connected to a beating heart. It seemed to be growing out of a cluster of tissue. With closed eyes, bulbous head, toothless maw, and curled tiny limbs, it resembled a giant fetus made of red shiny muscle. Two slits opened up in the fleshy floor, flanking the hanging monstrosity. Bloodshot eyes peered through and slowly cast their piercing gaze toward the ponies.

Not skipping a beat (unlike his companions’ hearts), Isaac stepped forward. He wound his arm up like a pitcher and threw the book up at the monster, where it struck the thing’s massive head and bounced off with a ‘doink’ sound.

Then, all at once, the two eyes on the floor and the whole of the creature’s form erupted into spraying blood.

"ISAAAAAAAC!"

A familiar muffled voice cried before fading away. The creature faded with it, receding into the ceiling until nothing was left behind denoting its existence.

Isaac dusted off his hands and rested them on his hips. Smiling at his easy victory, he turned to celebrate with his new friends. However, instead of bright smiles and cheers, he found dead silence and expressions contorted in soul-rending horror.

The ponies all stared up at where the creature once was, unmoved and still as statues save for their trembling eyes.

“Wh… wha…” Rainbow Dash stammered. “What… was… that…?!”

Rarity squeaked and muttered a series of broken words as tears formed in her distant eyes. “Mom… I-I promise I won’t have sweets before bed again… please wake me up from this nightmare.”

“I’m never laughing at ghosties again!” Pinkie declared, breaking down crying as her hair instantly straightened and deflated.

Twilight took a moment to bring to focus her shattered thought span. She shifted her shrunken pupils over to her friends. Fluttershy was frozen to the spot, maintaining a single drawn out whisper-scream. Applejack looked like she was mentally somewhere else, but whatever happy place she was trying to go to wasn't happy enough.

Taking a few short breaths to get herself to even remember to breathe, Twilight violently shook herself and knocked a hoof to her head.

Rarity shook herself back to reality as well. She exhaled and held a hoof to her racing heart. “Is there any way we can expedite that memory wipe you mentioned earlier?”

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash dropped to the floor and threw herself at Isaac’s feet. “Ohmigosh… thank you so much, Isaac! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She hugged his legs and cried hysterically. The boy looked down at her, initially confused, and then sympathetic. He reached down and patted her head while she got her emotions out.

“In all seriousness, thank you, Isaac,” Twilight said. She looked over to the fallen book on the ground. “I take it this isn’t the first time you’ve done this?” she asked, to which he shook his head with a frown. “Right… I thought so.”

Looking around for an exit, Twilight suddenly noticed a beam of light coming down from the ceiling. Craning her head up to the source of the light forced her to shield her eyes with her hoof, but even then she couldn’t see where it came from. There was also another trapdoor next to the light, as if there were two paths to take.

Before anyone could question this, Isaac walked up to the beam of light. He waved for them to follow and stepped into its center. As he did, he suddenly floated up, up, and out of sight.

“Looks like that’s our ticket out of here,” Applejack said. “I guess we’re goin’ up now instead of down.”

“I’m just not even going to bother trying to rationalize anything in this place anymore,” Twilight deadpanned as she spread her wings and rose up to meet the light. Once she entered its cone of effect, she was pulled up by some unseen force, where she disappeared into the ceiling.

Before following their lavender leader, Rainbow Dash looked back to see Fluttershy still standing there, staring up at nothing and quietly screaming. “Uh… Fluttershy?”

Pinkie walked up and waved a hoof in front of the pegasus’ face. No change or response. “I think she’s broken.”

“I’m impressed by her lung capacity more than anything,” Rarity added. It sounded like someone slowly letting air out of a balloon.

Applejack moved behind the stiff pony and started pushing her along. “I’ll bring her. Maybe Twilight has some smelling salts or somethin’ to… ngh… snap her out of it?” She grunted from exertion. Surprisingly, it was like moving a statue. A statue emitting a constant low squeal.

With all their friends in tow, willingly or not, they all joined Twilight and Isaac in entering the light. It whisked them up and away, filling their vision with radiant white until they had to close their eyes from the sheer intensity.

The sweltering heat and foul odor fell away, being replaced by the smell of incense and a comforting warmth. Eventually, despite the fact that they were rising up, solid ground met their hooves.

A sourceless wind buffeted their forms, coaxing them into opening their eyes again. The ponies slowly looked around at each other, and then at their surroundings.

Gone were the walls of flesh and organic floors. They were in an actual location again. Patterned blue tinted marble of immaculate design stretched beneath them, sullied only by sparse cracks and scattered candles swaying in the breeze. Red and yellow stained glass windows dotted the walls, casting prismatic shadows on the floor.

Above, the walls ended abruptly. However, they couldn’t see outside. In place of a ceiling, similar radiant light filled their view, shining down into the room with just enough intensity to play across the upper walls and stained glass without constantly blinding the ponies below.

“Woah…” Rainbow Dash muttered as she scanned her eyes around. A strange somber feeling washed over her and the others simply from standing in this place. It felt important, but they couldn’t place why, like something greater than them was supposed to dwell here.

“At least this place is pretty,” Pinkie noted.

Twilight’s jaw fell open the more she looked around. The architecture was impressive. Even if it was based in Isaac’s imagination like she suspected, for his species to even be capable of all this was something to behold. If she weren’t in a survival situation, she would be furiously writing notes for later.

Noticing only the sound of gently moving air, the group turned to look at Fluttershy. The pegasus was sitting down, breathing heavily, but otherwise lucid again. She was taking this opportunity to rest her lungs, look around with everyone else, and possibly process some lingering trauma.

“You ok now, Shy?” Applejack asked.

Fluttershy gave a reserved nod. “I… I-I think so. I… must have blacked out for a minute. What happened to that m-monster?”

“Isaac threw the book at the problem… quite literally,” Rarity explained.

“And that worked?” Fluttershy blinked.

“Apparently. Your guess is as good as mine as to why,”

“Huh…” Fluttershy tilted her head. She wasn't sure if it was from her brief mental collapse, or if everything in this place was genuinely so bizarre and nonsensical. Either way, she didn’t care. “Thank goodness you were with us, Isaac. I don’t know what would have happened if—” She trailed off as she looked around for their young friend, only to find him nowhere nearby. “Isaac?”

The ponies glanced around in search of the boy. They soon found him on the other side of the room. He was crouching over something on the floor, staring down at it forlornly. Seeing such a gloomy expression on such a demonic face was off-putting for multiple reasons.

Isaac gently pursed his lips as he stared down at the object in question; a simple, small, wooden cross. He reached down and picked it up. Turning it over in his hand, his frown deepened and he looked up into the ceiling. Finally, he gingerly put the cross back down and breathed a silent sigh.

“Is something wrong, Isaac?” Fluttershy spoke, causing him to turn around. She and the others were all looking at him somberly.

Isaac hid his eyes, though he didn’t nod or shake his head. He just stood there with one hand grabbing his wrist.

Twilight shifted her eyes down to the cross on the floor. She recognized it from the book Isaac used to defeat the red monster. She also remembered it popping up a lot in her dream in that living room, from the carpet on the floor, to the staticy broadcast on the television. It must have held some significance to whatever religion Isaac and his mother followed.

For all the pain it had caused him, she expected his fists to be clenched with anger. Instead, his shoulders were hunched and his head drooped. Was he so defeated?

Slowly, she walked forward, her hooves echoing softly against the marble floor. Isaac looked up as she approached and sat in front of him.

“Isaac… I know you can’t tell us everything that happened. But, even if I don’t know, I just want to tell you that… you deserve to be happy. You’re not evil, no matter what your mother told you. I know you still love her, but what she did to you was wrong. It’s ok for you to be you… and no matter what, we’re behind you all the way.” Twilight smiled.

“Yeah, what she said!” Rainbow Dash chimed in with an enthusiastic nod. The others all voiced their agreement.

Looking at these six denizens of a world alien to his, a smile started to form on Isaac’s face until it quickly died. The ponies’ energy dimmed as they saw him still hiding his eyes.

“Isaac?” Fluttershy prodded.

Eventually, he lifted his head and took a step forward. He didn’t meet her eyes still, but he did lean into Twilight’s foreleg and hug his arms around it. A bittersweet smile crossed her face as he squeezed her like a stuffed animal, and she brought her other foreleg around to hold him tighter.

“It’s okay,” Twilight whispered. “Just remember, we’re here because of you,” she said as he looked up to her. A cluster of magenta magic wiped some excess tears from his eyes. “Are you ready to go?”

Isaac sniffed and managed a warm expression. He nodded to her and the others, re-adopting some of the fire in his eyes.

Then, the group turned their eyes toward the doorway closest to them. While the unknown still held a sense of dread, they felt a renewed determination as they neared their goal. If Isaac’s recounting of the layout of this otherworldly maze was accurate, they only had one more floor to go after this one.

“Let’s get this wagon on the road!” Applejack said with a hearty grin. “I don’t know about y’all, but I am ready to go home!”

“Once we get out of here, it’s free cupcakes down at the Corner on me! Double for you, Isaac. Consider it a ‘congratulations for escaping’ party to hold you over until I can throw together a ‘welcome to Equestria’ party!” Pinkie stated.

“In that case, I really can’t wait to get out of here.” Rainbow Dash smirked. “I don’t care what comes our way next! I’m personally kicking the crud out of anything standing between me and those cupcakes!”

“So, that’s what gets you motivated? Not our survival, but free food?” Rarity shook her head and smiled.

“I was already motivated, but now I’m like, twenty percent more motivated,” Rainbow replied.

Applejack chuckled. “You must be a cheap date, Dash.”

As they all pressed forward, Isaac looked beside him at a soft giggle. Fluttershy was keeping close to him as they walked. She still looked nervous, but there was a certain amount of confidence in her face, like she trusted her friends to be able to get her through the horrors that waited ahead.

The boy smiled as she looked down to him and put a hoof to the back of his head. He could feel the same determination they all felt welling up inside of him. The unshakeable desire to protect one's friends no matter what.

But then, determination wasn't all that was needed to survive this deep inside the chest.

The cathedral halls, stoic and haunting in their serenity, craved the blood of the unworthy. Isaac had perished many times here, even more powerful than he was now. One mistake was all it took for even the mighty to fall. After all, pride was a sin he was intimately familiar with.

And for how mighty his new friends were, they, unlike him, were mortal. They would not reset back to the beginning if they fell here. Each drop of their blood staining the checkered marble floors was more permanent than his worst injuries.

Try as he might, he couldn’t keep them safe through every battle. His attacks were too slow, their foes too dangerous, his friends too brave. Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash suffered the most from each encounter, but even Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy were scathed by the ceaseless wrath of the beasts that dwelled here.

Explosions, the hurried clack of hooves echoing against the marble floors, and a choir of unearthly groans and rattles filled the air as yet another battle raged.

The floor was already littered with bones, blood and viscera from their fallen foes. Isaac and his friends loosely backed against each other, dealing with the few remaining threats.

“Take this, you ugly bag of bones!” Rainbow Dash yelled. She dodged out of the way of a flying bone before throwing a decorative pot, hitting a skeleton right in the head and exploding it into scattered pieces.

Off to the side, Applejack skidded to a halt as she ran into a headless green body. Sickly colored blood and gobs of explosive goo intermittently spewed from its neck.

“Woah!” Applejack cringed as one ball of green exploded nearby. She stared at the thing and started to back away, when a blood laser came in from the side, obliterating it. “Thanks for the save, sugarcube!” She turned and raised a hoof to Isaac across the room.

Isaac gave the orange mare a thumbs up before returning his attention to the others. They had wiped out the majority of their enemies, but he knew to be cautious around even one.

A magical zap preceded another abomination exploding into gore. Twilight panted softly and looked around, only to see the others doing the same. “I think that was the last one.”

“Phew.” Rarity wiped a bead of sweat from her brow. “Thank Celestia for that. I was starting to—” She trailed off with a gasp, her eyes widening as she looked at her friend. “Twilight, behind you!”

Isaac and all the others turned toward the alicorn. He jolted with alarm as he spotted an ethereal white shape fading into view behind her. It resembled a cartoony depiction of a ghost, but he knew that this spook was anything but silly.

Charging his laser as fast as he could, Isaac already knew he would be too late to act. Twilight turned, and just as she processed what she was looking at enough to light her horn—

The specter spewed a barrage of translucent projectiles. A beam of blood destroyed the creature right after, but not in time to stop the white orbs from raining down on the alicorn.

“AGH!” Twilight yelled and clutched her side. She collapsed to the floor, a swath of bloody holes in her body.

“Twilight!” everyone but Isaac shouted. All the ponies rushed to their princess, with the boy hurrying along behind them.

As they gathered around her, blood was already leaking down her side, staining her fur and the floor beneath her. At least half a dozen gruesome holes had burned into her, varying in size and depth.

“Ngh…” Twilight clenched her eyes shut and writhed for a moment.

“Oh my gosh… Twilight, are you okay?!” Fluttershy knelt down and started to reach out to her friend, when Twilight started pushing herself up on one hoof.

Nothing she had suffered in this place thus far hurt quite as bad as this did. Twilight could feel her wounds stinging, like some lingering trace of the liquid projectiles still burned. Still, she wasn't about to let this stop her.

Working her other foreleg under her, she pushed herself up further. “I… I-I’m fine. I—”

Looking up at a small shape rushing up to her, Twilight saw Isaac holding his hands out to her tentatively. Ever since he took on his demonic appearance, the constant tears in his eyes had dried. Now, however, wet streams flooded from his trembling eyes.

Seeing the sheer devastation in his face, Twilight made an effort to stop her shaking limbs. She cringed and got to her haunches before resting a hoof to his shoulder. “It’s okay, Isaac. I —” she did her best to suppress a wince “— I’m okay.”

Shifting her attention past him, Twilight noticed their objective standing there. Another skull door clashing with its surroundings.

“Let’s… ngh… l-let’s keep moving,” she suggested. Standing on all shaking fours, she started to move forward. However, she stopped as Isaac ran ahead of her and shook his head. “Huh?”

The boy pointed at them and pointed down, once again signaling them to stay put.

“Isaac, we’ve been over this. We’re not going to let you do this by yourself,” Twilight insisted.

Hearing this, Isaac’s expression hardened. He stomped a foot and pointed to the ground again before pointing to himself, and then the door.

“I don’t know, Twi. He might have a point. I think at least you should stay here,” Rainbow Dash said, casting a worried glance to the alicorn’s wounds.

Twilight looked around to a sea of frowning faces. “I appreciate the concern, everyone, but I’m not going to just stand back and watch while you fight for your lives,” she explained. Seeing Isaac gesturing to himself emphatically, she sighed. “That goes for you too, Isaac,” she said, to which his response was a silent growl before he relented.

"And what if we say no?" Applejack asked. "It's not like you could stop us from holding you down the way you are."

"I mean, she could order us. She is a princess after all," Pinkie noted.

"I'm not ordering anypony, and I'm not asking as your princess," Twilight said. "I'm not asking as your friend either. Matter of fact, I'm not asking." She stormed toward the door, or at least did her best.

The others shared hesitant glances. Eventually, they decided it would be better to go with her and keep her from getting herself killed.

Pausing before the door, Twilight gazed around at her group. Finding one missing, she looked up to see Isaac still standing where they were. He had a downcast expression, but it didn’t seem to be directed entirely at her. He was looking past them to the door, turning his body away like he was ashamed of what was within.

Before anyone could call out to him, he made his way over. He took a deep breath and steeled himself to stand with them in whatever battle was to come.

Facing the darkness within, Twilight steadied herself before lighting her horn and stepping inside. Everyone else followed, already casting their eyes around the formless shadows in search of the threat they knew was waiting.

The echoed crash of the door closing behind them signaled the dark to retreat. Light pierced in from above, and warm rays seeped through the stained glass along the walls. They all snapped their collective gaze to a shape in the middle of the room and tensed, only to pause.

They recognized the shape.

It wasn't some abhorrent monstrosity, some untamed nightmare that would haunt them for the rest of their days. It wasn't menacing by any measure. It wasn't even large.

Lying in the middle of the room on its side, clutching its knees in the fetal position, was a small bipedal figure with smooth skin, bald head, and big expressive eyes with tear tracks perpetually going down the face. It was Isaac.

“Wh… what the?” Twilight shook her head, her eyes trailing over the familiar being’s form. She looked down to their Isaac, the real one as far as they knew. Despite his demonic form, he was visibly shrinking into the shape of an apology as he eyed between them and his doppelganger.

“Did I get knocked upside the head when I wasn't looking, or is that who I think it is?” Applejack rubbed her eyes.

“But, I don’t understand,” Pinkie said. “Does Isaac have a twin or something?”

Before they could try to glean any answers from the boy, the figure on the floor opened its eyes and looked up at them, singling its gaze on Isaac.

Then, further defying their expectation, it began to speak.

“Are you really doing this again?” it asked in a child-like voice, in a cadence and tone resemblant of Isaac’s cries and noises of pain.

Isaac turned away, both from the uncanny copy of him, and from the ponies behind him.

“What’s going on?” Fluttershy asked. She looked between the demonic child, and the spitting image of her new friend before his transformation. “Are you supposed to be how Isaac views himself or something?”

The doppelganger glanced at Fluttershy and the other ponies. For a moment, its expression fell even further before returning to stoic disappointment. “I can understand why you do this over and over again, but did you really need to drag them down with you?”

Isaac began trembling slightly as he folded his arms and hung his head.

“Isaac?” Rarity knelt down beside the boy and rested a hoof on his shoulder. He avoided her gaze like a spotlight. She turned to the doppelganger and hardened her expression with a huff. “Now, you stop that! We chose to come here by ourselves! Isaac, you aren’t dragging us anywhere with you.”

“Yeah! We help our friends, no matter what!” Rainbow Dash declared.

“Friends…” the figure murmured. “Celestia, Luna, Dad…”

Its gaze wandered about the group, lost in somber contemplation. Then it stopped and settled on Isaac, looking him square in the eyes.

“Every friend you’ve ever had has left you.”

Isaac’s trembling grew worse, and he clenched his hands and his eyes. Despite the comforting presence of the ponies around him trying to reassure him, he was descending into panic and dread.

“Mom was right,” the other Isaac said as it stood up. “There is evil inside you that only God can fix, but He already left you too.”

It gestured around to the cracked windows, the empty ceiling above, and the gentle breeze blowing through this forgotten place.

“Instead of facing reality, you like to play pretend, fighting monsters in your little chest. Day in and day out.”

As his doppelganger kept talking, Isaac’s breathing grew faster and more shallow. His wild eyes were simultaneously taking in everything and nothing. The ponies’ reassuring words and comforting gestures did nothing to help.

“When are you going to realize, Isaac? You can hide from Mom, but you can’t hide from me. One day you’re going to have to look at me… really look at me, and then you’ll realize what you’ve been hiding from all this time—

“— the fact that you deserved it all.”

“Stop!” Twilight shouted. She gently took their Isaac by the hands, forcing him to face her. “Isaac, don’t listen to him… you… whatever! You didn’t deserve this! Any of it! You’re a good person!”

Isaac gradually slowed his frantic breathing as he looked at the alicorn. He tried to glance back toward the visage of himself, but she didn’t let him.

The doppelganger looked surprised. “Do you really believe that?” It gestured to Isaac, pointing out the boy’s horned visage. “Even playing pretend, he still chooses the path of evil if it benefits him. He can’t help it… I can’t help it. It’s in my nature.”

It shifted its gaze once more, this time settling on each pony and looking them dead in the eyes as it continued:

“Just think, you helped me kill my mom to get here. Why don’t you ask me if I liked it?”

Turning back to Isaac, Twilight frowned as he hid his eyes from her. “But—”

“It doesn’t matter how mom treated me,” the other Isaac interrupted. “It’s my fault she did all those things. Maybe if she had a better son, she wouldn’t have had to do all that. Maybe dad wouldn’t have—”

“That’s enough!”

Fluttershy spoke up, causing everyone to look back in surprise. Even Isaac and his doppelganger turned as she marched to the front of the group. She sat down and rested a hoof on his other shoulder, offering him a soft glance before she steeled her expression at the fake reflection.

“You’re just a kid, Isaac. It’s not your mom’s place to abuse you and fill your head with nonsense like everything you do is evil just to justify it,” Fluttershy said. She put her full attention on Isaac, the real Isaac. “It’s hard to think as a kid, but your parents have flaws too, and some people just aren’t fit to be a parent, even if they already are. You had every right to hate your mother for what she did to you, and she’s the one that doesn’t deserve you and your love. Stop doing this to yourself, because it isn’t true! No matter how many times you tell it to yourself, it’s not true!”

Isaac looked to Fluttershy, stunned at her forwardness. In his short time knowing her, she was usually timid and soft-spoken, but now she was confident. It made him take a moment to consider her words.

However, a moment was more than he had.

A choir of voices sang out a heavenly tone as light flashed from the doppelganger’s form. Angelic wings sprouted from its back, and it hovered a foot off the ground. Fluttershy and the others looked up at the visage of their friend, disturbed by the grim look in its eyes.

“You shouldn’t have come back,” the doppelganger said. “It always hurts to remind myself why I belong here. But it hurts more that I have to fight you.”

Twilight cautiously stood her ground as the others backed up a step. “Why are you doing this? Just let us pass! We’re trying to help you!” She glanced between the copy and the real Isaac. Judging by his frown, he didn’t have any control over his other self.

The doppelganger shook its head slowly. “You can’t help me. Celestia and Luna tried and failed. They were strong enough to survive on the next floor—you are not. If I let you pass, the things there will rip you apart. At least this way will be less painful… I’m sorry.”

Then, without warning, three volleys of tears shot out of the doppelganger’s form. They headed straight for the shocked group. Twilight immediately put a barrier up. The tears slammed into it, and she could tell just by how they felt that they were deadlier than the real Isaac’s tears.

At this display of aggression, Rainbow Dash flew out around the side. She leveled toward the other Isaac and zoomed in for a punch.

“Rainbow, wait!” Twilight called.

“Don’t worry, I got th—”

Before Rainbow Dash could even finish her sentence, another whoosh signaled a radial burst of tears. The watery projectiles practically filled the room as they curved.

Twilight and the others managed to duck or shield themselves from the barrage, but three or four of them struck Rainbow across her back. Unlike when she first met Isaac and he used his tears on her, they burned into her skin and left bloody paths.

“Ngh!” Rainbow cringed and jerked out of the path of projectiles curving back toward the doppelganger, forcing her to retreat for a moment. She put a hoof around her back and pulled it up to her face, eyes flashing with dread at the sight of crimson staining it. “Okay… so that’s how it’s gonna be, huh?”

With the battle commenced, the others all sprang into action to help their cyan friend. Isaac broke off from the group and charged a blood beam. He strafed to the side as another volley of tears came before letting loose his own laser.

The doppelganger moved to dodge, but couldn’t avoid getting clipped in the side by the boiling blood. A cry of pain betrayed his otherworldly appearance. However, he soon displayed his power in a new way, teleporting to the back right corner of the room.

Twilight teleported herself to the left corner across from him. Hesitating for a moment, she cringed before forcing herself to shoot some bolts of magic at the mirror image of her new friend. One of them missed, but two hit the doppelganger in either shoulder, blowing him back with a pained yelp.

In response to this, the doppelganger teleported again, only this time he vanished from sight completely. Then, a ray of heavenly light burned down into the floor at the corner, starting a cascading wave of dozens of beams coming down and crossing the entire room.

Widening her eyes, Twilight teleported back over to Fluttershy and Rarity. She gestured wildly for the others to get closer to her, but she was forced to put up a barrier as the wave of lights reached them. Smoke drifted off the magenta forcefield, and Twilight winced under the strain.

“Girls!” Rarity gasped, and Fluttershy averted her eyes as their friends watched the approaching wave.

Rainbow Dash and Isaac managed to weave between the beams with no harm. Pinkie watched the trajectory of the beams for a moment before hugging a corner where they wouldn’t hit.

However, with certain doom rapidly approaching, Applejack didn’t have time to reach safety. She tried to dive out of the way, but two of the beams clipped her on her side and hind leg, scorching her instantly. A cry of agony tore from her lungs as she clutched her new burns.

The doppelganger teleported back into the center of the room. While he cast a sympathetic glance to the orange mare on the floor, he was otherwise uncaring as another barrage of tears exploded outward from him.

“AJ!” Rainbow Dash flew forward and tackled Applejack out of the way. They just barely got clear, but one of the tears nicked her shoulder on the way past.

Another cry of pain drew the group’s attention to Pinkie, who was now ducking to the floor and clutching a bleeding foreleg. Outside Twilight’s barrier was a death trap full of flying projectiles and beams of light intermittently coming down from the ceiling, and any mistake or failed dodge could cost them their lives.

“Everypony stick together! I can’t make multiple shields at the same time!” Twilight cried. She and the two mares behind her started rushing over toward Pinkie, when the doppelganger shifted its focus again.

Lifting their heads from the floor, Applejack and Rainbow Dash noticed the winged version of Isaac looming over them. Two rows of tears fired at them, causing them to flinch and try to shield each other, when a more literal shield appeared in front of them.

Looking over, they found Twilight with her teeth grit and her horn lit. However, their relief was short lived, as a faint beam of light appeared above her, signaling that one of the heavenly rays was about to come down.

“Twilight, move!” Rarity shouted.

The alicorn had all of two seconds to react to her friend’s warning and notice the beam. By the time she widened her eyes and started to leap away, her side erupted into burning pain as the beam intensified to its full strength.

“AGH!” Twilight yelped and clutched her sizzling fur as she went to the ground.

Fluttershy and Rarity called out to the alicorn and tried to rush up to her, when another radial burst of curving tears forced them to dodge.

Off to the side, the real Isaac watched as his friends struggled to stay alive. He did his best to fire his laser at his other self, but even when he hit, it did nothing to stop the storm of projectiles.

The ponies were unprepared for this kind of fight. Between them, only Twilight could defend herself or her friends, and the doppelganger’s attacks were too fast for them to dodge every time.

Suddenly, his doppelganger met his shocked gaze amid the cries of fear and pain filling the room.

“They’re dying…” it said.

Isaac trailed his trembling eyes between each of his friends. Most of them were hurt, or trying to help each other to no avail. They weren’t even trying to fight back anymore. They couldn’t.

“There’s only one way to save them now.”

Trailing his eyes down, Isaac thought about his other self’s words. He looked over to Fluttershy, who was cowering to the floor and holding her hooves over her head as she tried to block out the sounds of her friends’ screams. She peered back at him, a hint of confusion behind the terror as she glanced between him and the doppelganger.

“Isaac?” she quaked.

Finally, Isaac relaxed his clenching fists and made his decision.

Amidst her agony, Twilight opened one eye and lifted her head to check on the state of the battle. She half expected to have to force herself to dodge another strike, or to desperately push herself to shield one of the others from an attack. She didn’t expect to see Isaac willingly step into a forming beam of light.

“Isaac…? Wait… what are you—?!”

Before the alicorn or anyone else could intervene, Isaac gave his friends one last sad look before closing his eyes and accepting the end. The beam of light came down, enveloping his entire body in burning fury. A single cry of pain was all they could hear of him as his form vanished in the blinding light.

“ISAAC!” Twilight and the others all yelled in unison.

When the light faded, nothing was left of the boy but a smoking scorch mark on the floor.

Fluttershy stared at the empty spot where her friend just was in shock. Tears formed in her eyes and fell down her cheeks. Even if she knew he wasn't gone forever, part of her felt like he was. “No!”

A few moments later, the room began to shake like it did the last time Isaac died. Gradually, the ponies all got to their hooves and steadied each other as best they could. No more projectiles or beams of light came, and as they looked to the doppelganger, they saw a bittersweet smile cross his lips.

“You said you were here to help me, right?” the doppelganger asked. “I’m glad that you meant that, and I’m glad to have met you. But if you really want to help me… please stay away.”

“Kid, wait! It doesn’t have to be like this!” Rainbow Dash shouted.

Twilight reached out to the very thing that had previously attacked her and her friends. Even if it was some twisted piece of him, it was still part of the boy. “Isaac!”

She barely got the word out of her mouth before everything went dark. Once more, the ground beneath them gave way, and all six ponies screamed as they fell into nothingness.
.
..
…
With a rush of wind and light, the Elements of Harmony were thrown from the open chest. All of them roughly landed on their backs, facing the crystal ceilings of the study back in the Castle of Friendship.

They looked up just in time to watch the chest slam shut. The resounding noise had a sense of finality to it that left a stunned silence to fall over the room.

“Girls!”

That silence was quickly broken as a familiar voice and the hurried scampering of clawed feet approached.

Twilight looked over to see her alarmed assistant running up and hugging her. “Spike?” She reflexively rested a foreleg around his back.

“I was so worried about you!” Spike exclaimed. He frowned as he stepped back and saw how injured everyone was. “What happened in there?”

“We ‘bout got our tails handed to us, that’s what,” Applejack said. She cringed as Rainbow Dash helped her stand, though she was helping the cyan mare stay upright just as much.

“How long were we gone, anyway?” Pinkie asked.

“Long enough.”

Another voice came from the doorway. As slippered hooves clicked against the crystal floors, the group looked up to see two familiar alicorns walking into the study.

“Celestia… Luna?” Twilight muttered.

The royal sisters looked at the six battered and bloodied ponies before them, and then at the chest.

Before they could speak, Twilight pushed herself to her hooves, cringing as she did. She looked to her former mentor and frowned. “Princess, I’m so sorry that I went against your word. I’ll take full responsibility for—”

Celestia lifted a hoof. “Enough, Twilight,” she spoke, far gentler than Twilight was expecting. Instead of an angry scowl or disappointed frown, her expression was soft and relieved as she closed the gap between herself and her fellow princess. She pulled Twilight in for a hug, taking care not to touch any of her injuries. “I’m merely happy to see all of you still alive.”

“But… but—” Twilight stammered, at a loss for words as the alicorn pulled back and looked at her.

“It’s okay,” Celestia said. She glanced at the others and shared a knowing look with Luna, who nodded in solidarity, before facing Twilight and taking her by the hoof. “Come, let’s get you all cleaned up. We can talk after.”

A few minutes went by as Twilight and her friends rested and tended to their wounds as best they could. Even with Celestia and Luna working together, healing magic was slow going and limited in what it could do. By the end, they could all stand and move unhindered, but many of their deeper injuries hadn’t fully healed, causing some lingering pains.

There they sat, blankets draped over their freshly bandaged forms and cups of tea at hoof as they listened to Celestia and Luna recount what they knew about Isaac and his chest.

“It’s been so long since we last saw that dusty old trunk…” Celestia said somberly as she stared at the chest.

“A millennium and a half, by my count,” Luna added. “Even so, it never feels long enough.” She shook her head slowly.

“We found it in a cave at the very edge of our borders at the time, after some reports of missing ponies came to our attention,” Celestia explained. “Naturally, we were curious as to the nature of this strange artifact, and much like you, we ventured inside.”

“A poor decision, in hindsight. Of course, we were young and adventurous back then.” Luna pushed a short-lived smile. “If only we knew then how much grief it would cause us.”

Twilight stared pensively into the steam rising off her untouched cup of tea. Finally, she looked up. “How did Isaac get stuck in there? If he’s the one that made that pocket dimension, surely he would have some way of escaping?”

Celestia glanced at her sister before both of them frowned. “As you surmised, Twilight, Isaac did create that place and everything in it, though I’m afraid he had little direct say in the matter.”

Luna continued, “From what we learned during our many expeditions trying to help him, Isaac was born into a… troubled family. His father was a drunk and a gambler, and his mother a religious zealot. One day, his father left, and his mother took much of her anger out on him. Through her abuse and neglect, Isaac would lock himself inside his toy chest to hide from her in the one place she couldn’t ruin. His imagination. Eventually, he stayed in there longer and longer, until one day he… never got out.” She let her head droop.

“Oh my gosh…” Spike frowned.

“The poor thing,” Rarity muttered.

Fluttershy held a hoof to her trembling lips. “So, Isaac really is… dead?”

Celestia nodded slowly. “You said that you felt something at the bottom when you reached into the chest, Twilight. I don’t think I need to tell you what it was, as I’m sure you already know.”

“But, what does that have to do with that creepy maze in there?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Yeah. What happened to Isaac was awful, but people die every day… young and old.” Applejack glanced down at this. “But this is the first time I’ve heard of someone making a pocket… whatever, when they die.”

“I can’t say for certain,” Celestia said. “It happened so long ago that the world back then may have operated differently. Other forms of magic we’ve never imagined could have existed. But, if I had to wager an explanation… I think it had to do with Isaac’s circumstances and who he was.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.

Celestia turned to gaze at the chest at length. “Emotions are a powerful thing. They have been known to affect magical energies of all varieties. Isaac’s mother drilled into him a fear of himself and the world that profoundly changed him. She convinced him that all he knew was evil, and that he himself had a darkness within him that was to be driven out, lest he face divine retribution.

“He spent many hours locked in a confined space, pouring out every emotion inside of him and imagining a world of his own to escape the horrors of his real life. In his final moments, his intense imagination and the pain he felt may have anchored his soul to the chest, and made his world of make-believe into reality.”

A hollow silence fell over the group as they processed everything they just heard. They couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for Isaac to go through all that, let alone how much he must have suffered in his own personal purgatory that he unwittingly created.

Fluttershy slowly looked up to the alicorns. Her gaze was soft and tremulous, but there was a hint of disbelief in her eyes. “Princess, can I ask you something?”

“Of course, Fluttershy,” Celestia responded, though her trademark smile was missing, as if she already expected what the pegasus was going to say.

After a moment of considering her words and gathering the courage to speak them, Fluttershy’s expression fell. “Why did you lock the chest away? Wasn't… w-wasn't there something you could have done to help Isaac?”

Although they expected such a question, hearing it made both sisters’ deflate. Celestia trailed her eyes away for a moment before sighing. “We tried for a year to help Isaac somehow.”

“Many dozens of times we would go into the chest, and each time ended similarly,” Luna added. “We would progress with Isaac through the various floors, branch off through a select number of different paths, and then defeat a great enemy on the last floor before being ejected. Of course, there were times where Isaac perished before we reached a conclusive end, but no matter what we tried, we couldn’t find a way to bring him with us or release his soul.”

“So, what? You gave up?” Rainbow Dash asked, a bit surprised.

“It was not a matter we took lightly, you understand,” Luna stated. “Both of us very nearly lost our lives on many occasions throughout our time in the chest. The creatures within are as numerous and varied as they are deadly. We would have kept trying despite this, but the danger wasn't confined to the inside of the chest.”

Celestia continued, “Like what happened to you all earlier, we found that the things within the chest would… find a way out if it was left alone. Small things at first, easily taken care of by a few guards left on duty while we went about our expeditions. But when things from the later floors started showing up, we knew that we had to make a tough decision.” She closed her eyes and flattened her ears as she looked to the chest.

“We didn’t want to seal away the chest,” Luna explained, “but with no way to help Isaac escape, we had to take action before one of the larger beasts found a way out and wreaked havoc on the world. We met with Isaac one last time and explained it to him… and he actually agreed with us.” She took a moment to clear her throat and brush her eyes with a hoof.

“He had been stuck there with no hope of escape long before we found him… I suppose he was content with keeping us safe, even if it meant never seeing us again,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy and the others felt their hearts shatter at this revelation. Isaac knew all along that they couldn’t help him escape, yet he kept going with them anyway. Was it simply because he wanted to be with a friend after so long spent alone? The mere thought made enough tears well up in their eyes to put his constant crying to shame.

“Isaac…” Fluttershy whimpered as she looked back at the chest.

Twilight’s jaw stammered, her eyes distant with thought. “I… I-I… I can find a way to help him, I know I can! If I just—” She started to get up, only for a yellow cluster of magic to gently push her back down.

“Twilight, I’m sorry, but I’m afraid there is nothing you can do for him,” Celestia said. “Anything you can think of, and many more ideas, Luna and I already tried long ago. I’m afraid that that chest will be here long after we are gone… and Isaac will still be trapped inside.”

The six mares were still churning with emotion. Even Spike was hanging his head. Many of them looked like they were in denial, while others were sniffling or silently crying.

Seeing the room in such a sorry state, Celestia stood up and walked over to her student. “It’s been a long day for all of you. You’re hurt, tired, and hungry I’m sure. Let’s go have dinner prepared. Luna and I can deal with the chest after we’re done. None of you have to worry about it any longer.” She put a hoof around Twilight’s form and began leading her toward the door.

Twilight reluctantly agreed. She nestled her head against her mentor’s shoulder, like a filly being comforted by a parent, while her eyes drifted to the floor. One by one, her friends all followed after them, similarly hanging their heads and sporting gloomy faces.

Fluttershy lingered by the door for a moment. She glanced back to the chest, her lips wrinkling as she thought about the soul trapped within. Isaac had been through so much. He didn’t deserve this. Nobody did.

Her friends kept walking down the corridor. They were too occupied in their own troubled thoughts to even look back and check on her.

A thought popped into her head, one that she couldn’t ignore…

…a terrible thought that made her stay.
.
..
…
Out in the hallway, as the group was making their way through the castle, Luna stole a glance behind her. She paused. Something was wrong.

Somepony was missing.

“Where is Fluttershy?” she asked, causing the group to halt.

Looking behind them, they confirmed what Luna had noticed. The yellow pegasus was nowhere to be seen.

“I thought she was with us?” Spike reasoned.

Suddenly, Twilight’s face paled as something occurred to her. “Wait… you don’t think—?” She shared a look of mounting horror with Celestia before the both of them bolted off.

“Oh no…” Luna muttered before rushing off to join them.

Rainbow Dash felt her heart drop as she realized what the others had. “Dangit, Flutters!” She zoomed down the corridor after the alicorns.

“Where’s the fire?” Pinkie asked. “This is Fluttershy we’re talking about. She wouldn’t do anything dangerous… right?”

“I hope you’re right, Pinkie, but I’m afraid of what it means if you’re wrong,” Rarity stated, her voice brimming with dread as both she and Applejack took off. Eventually, Pinkie joined them.

Everyone rushed back to the study as fast as they could. Their hearts pounded nearly as fast as their hooves.

Twilight and Celestia made it first. They burst through the study doors and looked around. There was no sign of their missing friend. However, as everyone joined them and stared ahead as well, the pit of dread in their guts swallowed them whole.

The lid to the chest was ever so slightly ajar, until it drifted shut with a chilling squeak.