In the Dark Castle Halls

Chapter 2- Hiding Spots

“Who…are y-y-ou?”

My voice shook as I reluctantly looked at the creature’s form. It bore multiple stitchings, and puncture marks dotted its body which gave me the impression that there were ants crawling up its body waiting to devour it. In the place of a back hoof was a vile looking black blade that was caked with bits of gore and blood. The creature’s flank was lined with multiple unicorn horns protruding in all directions. Deep gashes which had scabbed over ran parallel to the creature’s back. This was sick.

But what piqued my curiosity and my disgust was an appendage which I had no memory of seeing before. It looked like a hoof that had been shaved clean, but at the end of it were little jointed bony nubs which resembled something like talons from a griffin, but with much shorter and blunter claws. It had been crudely sewn to replace one of the front hoofs of the creature, but was now dangling loosely from a fleshy stub. Seems like whoever had been doing this sickening acts liked sewing a lot.

I forced myself not to think about what could have happened to me if I ever met the same fate as this one, and narrowly avoided dry heaving a second time.

Even though it was horrendous to look at, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sympathy for this poor soul. As I bent down to talk to it, it twitched in obvious agony and coughed and spluttered as it spoke in its dreadful voice.

“You… esssscaped?”  Its bulging eye twitched, as if it didn’t believe that a pony was outside the cage. Did it long for freedom too?

I felt no reason to deny the creature the obvious. So I silently said “Yeah, I suppose so. Do you know any way to get out of this place?”

The creature did its best imitation of a frown on its mangled face, trying to remember something that I could not. He wheezed, “We… We are in the castle dungeons… He…he… made the best use of it… heh-ACCK!”

Crimson blood splattered out of his cage, which I managed to avoid staining my hooves. I urged him to carry on, desperate to leave this horrid place. But something struck me as odd…

“Who’s he? What happened to Princess Celestia and Luna?” I barely managed to control the speed of my questions, not wanting to overwhelm the creature.

“He… I forgot what his name was… tried to so something… to everypony… I don’t knoo-ACK!” Another generous helping of blood flowed out of his half open mouth, dribbling over his face. “don’t… know… what he was doing… I… was only one of the guardspony around this place…”

I nodded slowly, letting the information sink in slowly. So I was in the Royal Canterlot Castle, stuck in the dungeons which had not been used by even the princesses themselves, but had now been turned into an area for twisted experiments. But for what? Curiosity burned within me despite the fact that I wouldn’t like to hear the purpose for these atrocious experimentations.  I pressed the former guardspony to carry on with his account.

“Princess Celestia… Luna… don’t know if they… escaped… or…or…” The guardspony started to choke, and couldn’t continue. I genuinely felt sorry for this fellow, and I said in a low voice “Don’t worry, I’m sure they’re fine. They are the princesses right?”

He didn’t acknowledge my question, choosing instead to skip the matter and continue on.

“There…should be a map around the… the…wall… of the main dungeon hall… of the entire castle…” The guardspony stopped to take a few laboured breaths, his eye twitching as he did so. “the experiments…required live ponies… and other ‘foreigners’…”.

Even though he didn’t have much of a face left, I could see that the guardspony was filled with hatred as he only eye twitched again while he spat out the word “foreigners”. Who were these “foreigners”? Was the one responsible for this insanity and mania associated with them? I had to find out more.

Before he could carry on, hoofsteps sounded outside the door!

Both of us gasped in mutual shock and fear. He frantically tapped the cage to draw my attention.

“There’s not much… time left! Somepony’s going to come here and find you! Quick... hide yourself, and don’t bother about mee...”

I didn’t bother disagreeing with him. I was fearful for my life, and bidding him farewell and thanking him for his help, I switched my attention to the dark room around me.

I scanned high and low looking for a suitable hiding spot. But all I could see were only the piles of boxes everywhere, in every corner! Anxiety rose in me like high waters in a flood. My vision started to blur slightly with the rush of adrenaline. Even if I were to rely on the shadows in the room, I doubted that the colour of my coat, a light blue, could blend in with the dark shadows!

The hoofsteps drew closer, and closer, signalling my impending doom. Each step reverberated in my mind, amplified a hundredfold as I struggled to find any crack, any hole that I could wriggle my way into to avoid detection! I wracked my brains and strained my eyes, hoping that a sudden flash of inspiration could save me, or that some hiding spot would reveal itself in the last minute! There was nothing nearby that I could use to defend myself with, and I doubt hooves alone could defeat the oppressor slowly making his way here!

Come on, come on!!!!

The sounds were still getting closer to the door… I could almost see the door opening to reveal my tormentor…

My breathing had increased in frequency, becoming louder as my breath flowed in and out of the sheets of bandages wrapped around my face. It sounded like an alarm imploring me to speed up, to quickly find a safe spot away from prying eyes….

Desperate, I looked around the room again. Another pile of boxes, another pile of boxes, a table full of odds and ends, a cabinet…

A cabinet!!!!

At the far end of the room, hidden by the shadows, was a cabinet that seemed to be in disuse. I mentally slapped myself for having missed that out when I had examined the room earlier.

Immediately I rushed over to the cabinet, slid one door open and thanked my luck that it was empty, and squeezed myself inside. But a problem soon arose as my wings got me stuck in the small gap!

No wings, don’t get me killed! Buck it!

I twisted and turned; I wormed and I wiggled, but I was still stuck fast!

The hoofsteps were barely just beyond the door and were drawing nearer still!

Fear didn’t give me wings to fly, instead it gave me one final burst of strength to cram myself into the musty smelling cramped space of the cabinet. I was going to get another bout of claustrophobia and dizziness, but it beat being stuck in that cage awaiting whatever fate that may have come with whoever was going to come in soon. At least I knew wouldn’t have cramps in my hooves.

As I pulled the cabinet door closed, the door to the room creaked open. I left the cabinet door open a crack to hear what was going on. I couldn’t have seen what was going on, because my vision would have been obstructed by the table.

“Ah… it seems like you are awake…” A strangely alluring female voice sang. I was utterly confused. The guardspony mentioned that it was a ‘he’ who was causing this mayhem, but this female, whoever she was, clearly seemed to be in charge. Was the guardspony delirious when he spoke to me?

“WHERE DID HE GO?!” The voiced suddenly became loud and shrill. It hurt my ears and I winced. Time to think and process information gathered was yanked away as I devoted my attention to what was happening outside.

There was no need to see the guardspony to know that he was afraid. “Pppll—ease, I swear I didn’t see him!” I silently thanked him again for his help. “When I woke up, he wasn’t around! T---the ccccage wassss….already empty!”

Silence.

Somepony did say that silence is golden.

But the silence now was unnerving.

And like fragile glass, silence can be easily broken.

The mare, I assumed, laughed. But she hadn’t heard a good joke. Nor had she seen a funny comic strip.

This was maniacal laughter. And it rang and echoed in the dark room, striking fear into my heart and being.

She stopped, like a comedian pausing for effect for the audience to enjoy a good laugh. And then she continued in her eerie sing-song manner.

“Oh, so that’s the case then? Oh well, I suppose I’d just have to do without you, since you are of no use to me ANYMORE!”

The sudden change in her voice nearly caused me to jump and bump the cabinet and almost gave away my position.

There was clanging of metal  against metal.

Tension hung thick in the air.

And then the screams began.

Throughout it all, laughter rang in harmony with the screams, creating a sickening symphonic cacophony. Rhythm was provided by something very hard striking against flesh and breaking bone with audible cracks and slaps.

This was insane!

I grit my teeth, and closed my eyes, hoping that somehow, this was just a twisted nightmare conjured by my sub-conscious in my sleep and hoping that I would wake elsewhere where the sun shone bright. But the screams and laughter would break my concentration, jarring me back from fantasy into gruesome reality.

I whimpered.

And then, mercifully, I passed out.