In the Dark Castle Halls

Chapter 1- The Awakening

I woke up in a box. More of a cage actually.

I opened my eyes slowly, my vision blurry as my brain started to operate normally. The first thing it did register though, was lancing pains throughout my body as cramps gripped my frame.

It wasn’t a pleasant feeling at all, given that the cage was barely able to accommodate my size. I tried to jiggle around to test the degree of freedom I had in the cage, but my head spun as I did so, forcing me to stop and moan a little. A glorious headache soon announced its presence and brought along a nauseating sense of vertigo. My head was spinning so badly, it was a miracle that I hadn’t thrown up from the giddiness or the overwhelming sense of claustrophobia. After a torturous moment or so, my head righted itself and the sick feeling slowly faded away into nothingness.

Gradually my body began to recover and re-orientated itself. My eyes adjusted to the dark surroundings to see where exactly I was. I must be in some storage room,for there were many wooden crates lying stacked in neat piles around my cage. The way the piles were arranged suggested that the room was of squarish dimensions.  Adjacent to my prison was another metal cage, seemingly empty. A table opposite my cage had some odds and ends that I couldn't really quite make out, but otherwise there was nothing of interest. A door located to my left was left ajar, with some illumination pouring in from the gap.

I felt bandages around my face, and tried to move my hooves to touch them, and found out that I couldn’t. My four hooves were being jammed under my chest and it was starting to feel the prickliness of the lack of blood circulation. The most I could do was actually just tilt my face here and there, and probably move my fore hooves to the front of my face with some effort.

I tried to recollect myself; tried to make sense of what was happening and tried to remember where I am. The problem was, I couldn’t remember anything at all, except for the fact that I was a pony with some issue with my face that apparently whoever had dumped me in this cage couldn’t stand it and had to wrap it up with the bandages to avoid looking at my face. Oh, and that I was probably in deep trouble if I didn’t get out of this place pronto.

My primary interest was to get out of my cage. I needed answers as to who I was, and why was I stuck in a cage. Most importantly, get out of this place and breathe some fresh air. It was getting stuffy in this store room anyway. I gave my prison a thorough examination, hoping to find a way to escape the claustrophobic cell.

Apart from the fact that my cage was made up of seemingly unbreakable metal complete with thick metal bars that I could not slide my hooves through, there seemed to be no way out of my cage. A rusty padlock also held the lid of my cage in place to prevent my escape. I sighed in dismay, but perked up suddenly as I realised something.

A rusty lock?

True enough, upon closer inspection, the lock in question was speckled with blotches of dirty brown that contrasted sharply to the gleaming metal that still showed in some places around the key hole. It was most probably worn with age, and could probably come apart with some coaxing from my hooves. Feeling better all of a sudden, I wriggled and struggled to get my fore hooves unstuck from my body. The prickly feeling got worse as it attacked my limbs without mercy. But I didn’t care. The sweet feeling of relief can come later once I was free from the dastardly cage. As I twisted and turned, the cage groaned and scraped against the floor in response to my struggles and bumped into the cage next to mine.

I stopped suddenly, mentally slapping myself that whoever did this to me could be nearby and may have heard the racket. I listened intently, straining to hear any sound of anything approaching. My heart rate had risen and I could hear it pounding in my ears. My eyes scanned the room and eyed the slightly open door, awaiting any shadow that may fleet by.

No one came. At least, not yet.

Trying to be more silent, I gritted my teeth to ease the pain screaming from my muscles suffering from cramps as I inched my hooves further away from my chest. With a satisfying jingle, my front hooves came free, and with that soothing relief washed over my front limbs.

Now time to buck that lock to pieces.

I whacked the lock with my hooves, and winced a little as the rough edges grazed my flesh a little. It didn't cut, but it stung. I suddenly thought about possible infections that may come from getting rust into the bloodstream and my mind wandered for a little bit. I really want some good horseshoes right now… I pushed the thought aside, focusing instead on freedom and and grit my teeth as I continued the painful process that eventually led to the lock breaking into two and falling onto the metal floor of my cage with a clang.

YES! YES!

As I stood up, I pushed past the lid and felt my blood suddenly rush from my head. I cantered uneasily for a while as I adjusted to the sudden change of blood flow. I bumped the cage next to mine and winced as I made more scraping sounds in the process. Regaining proper balance and seeing that the coast was clear, I stretched my extremities and my wings to release all the tension and further circulate blood flow.

Wait, I have wings? I thought I was an earth pony?

Indeed, the feathery appendages were attached to my body, and I was capable of moving them up and down, left and right. How intriguing. As I fascinated myself with the usage of my newly found body parts, a low moan bid me freeze in place. Who, or what was that?!

Alarms sounded in my head, and adrenaline coursed through my body. My eyes achieved the feat of widening beyond their natural span, darting back and forth through the darkness, accessing the area for potential threats. My breathing became haggard and fogged in the darkness, and my ears strained again for the slightest sound. The bandages wrapped around my head did not help my sight at all, and it amplified the sound of my breathing and hampered my hearing, keeping me on edge. My face was getting very hot and stuffy.

The moan came again. It was a gravelly sound and could have been made by someone on their death bed. Come on, show yourself! I’ll buck you to pieces! I tensed up my muscles, feeling the tendons coil as they prepared to show their tender loving care to whatever tried to give me the wrong meaning of a warm welcome.

“Hhellpp…mmeeee…”

I swear I must be hearing things. There’s no one else here, right? Cold sweat formed at the base of my neck and gathered between my shoulders, furthering my discomfort. It felt as if something was teasing me with audio hallucinations and was stroking my back.

Fear gave way to shock as my silent question was answered by a feeble tapping of a hoof against metal. The other cage!

I walked over to the cage, amazed by how much I had paced while on the alert. I could make out the faint outline of another pony in the cage, probably in the same state as I was- cramped, nauseous, delirious, and the like. The poor lighting didn’t show much, but as I drew near to the cage, once again, my emotions took another turn. For the worse.

Shock turned to horror and disgust as I saw the poor soul held in the cage. Or what was left of him. Or her. I don’t know!! Whatever it was!!!

"Oh...buck..."

As those words left my mouth, that...thing turned what...I assumed to be its head, toward me. It did have the basic anatomy of what a pony should have- head, chest, tail and limbs. But I realised, to my horror, its head had been brutally split open, one eye missing, the other a puffy version of a normal eye. Its mouth had been supposedly stiched shut, but a few of the stichings had come lose and it had managed to talk to me through what was left of its mouth. But what was utterly disgusting and unnatural were that where several parts should have been, they were not, or worse, replaced with… other… parts… from other…

I tore my eyes away from the creature, retching as my stomach attempted to regurgitate an imaginary meal, unable to take the sight of such a monstrosity. Still the image had been branded into my head that it was almost impossible to forget it. Oh buck!

”Plleaseee… I beg y-y-ouuu….help meeee....”