In the Dark Castle Halls

After what felt like hours crawling through thick inky blackness with a dim lantern to light my way, I finally reached the central prison block. According to the scrap of paper that served as a map, the central prison block was a large circular structure with only one entrance. Several smaller cells were located inside, and I assumed that they were once designed to house the most dangerous criminals in Equestria.

Now, I shuddered to think what they were used for now.

Like the exit from the dungeons, the entrance to the central prison block was guarded by two large oaken doors. But while the exit was in excellent condition despite the apparent lack of use of this place, the doors to the entrance had succumbed to the damp atmosphere of the dungeon, decaying and rotting. One door hinged awkwardly from its frame, but revealed nothing inside the block apart from thick darkness. Two lanterns hung from hooks at the sides of the doors, the only light sources lighting my field of vision apart from my own.

I tried to push open the doors, but they held fast. Even the broken door wouldn’t move a bit. I thought about knocking down the doors using the mallet, but I started feeling uneasy about that idea. She said there was going to be ‘surprises’ waiting for me, so should I risk it?

Buck it, it’s either getting in there and making my way out of here, or I’ll probably end up like the doors to the central block, rotting and decaying. I slid the mallet from my wing to my left right hoof and gave it a few good swings, testing its weight and my strength.

Here goes nothing.

Gripping the mallet with both hoofs, I brought the mallet high above my head, and swung it onto the rotting half open door. The door crumbled with a loud crash, sending clouds of sawdust and splinters flying in every direction, pricking my coat. I coughed and sputtered as the sawdust settled down, shaking off the bits of rotten wood that had landed on me as I did. I had made a sizable hole in the doors, and part of the rotting doors had collapsed as it did so, creating a way for me to enter into the central prison block.

I pricked my ears, trying to sense any movement that may be coming my way, tensing myself should I suddenly face some monstrosity so that I would be able to spring away from danger. But danger did not rear its ugly head, and so stepping over the remains of the door, I entered the prison block.

Visibility was worse; I could only make out a tight circle around me. But a closer inspection of the wall near where the doors stood revealed a wick- those sort that one would find on candles. But I realised that these were specially enchanted from its ever-so-faint-glow, so one may light this wicks as many times as he likes.

Lifting off the lantern off my neck, I unscrewed the top and fed the wick to the enchanted flame. As soon as the flame touched the wick, the flame immediately started running across the wick, travelling across the diameter of the cell block, leaving a fiery trail at its wake. It would have been rather pleasing to watch, had I been under less dire situations. I screwed back the lid on my lantern and hung it around my neck, watching the spectacular display of pyrotechnics.

The light curved up and down in a series of bright mountains and valleys. At the end of each peak, a blue torch was lit which bathed the room with an eerie light. Each light then revealed a large capsule with glass sheaths covering metallic foundations, with many pieces of complicated machinery that I could not put my hoof on. Wires jutted out of said machinery, and the glass sheaths were bloody and cracked in many places.

And then the fire lit its way to the centre of the block, and illuminated a bright blue light housed within a large glass cylinder. The sudden glare caused me to flinch and squeeze my eyes shut as I had been temporarily struck blind by the intensity of the light. Slowly I opened my eyes…

And wished I hadn’t.

The entire place had seemingly borne witness to a disturbing ritual. Beds that were designed with thick restraints adorning their frames were scattered across the room, dried blood coating almost every spot on them and multiple places on the floor. They surrounded a small wooden rectangular examination table, similarly coated with giblets and dried blood. Multiple medical solutions and instruments were arranged haphazardly on the table, none of them having been cleaned nor used in a long time. A small notebook was placed at one corner of the table, its pages dog-earred from a probably long service. Pages were folded and stuck in all directions. My attention then directed to the capsule structures with the glass sheaths. They were surprisingly free of any foul substance, despite their proximity to the area of the carnage. However, the leftmost one had a large figure lying face down on the floor. So strange it was that I didn’t know how to describe it, since it was unlike anything I’ve seen before. It didn’t seem to be alive, so I left it alone and consulted the small book upon the table. I powered down the lantern as I did so, seeing that there was no need for it for now.

The book revealed a small card containing several pictures of the most bizarre creatures I have ever seen. A few resembled ponies, for they did have limbs belonging to ponies, but the rest of their bodies were… something alien…

Alien… The guardspony did mention something about aliens. This perked up my interest as I tried my best to read through the contents of the small book, a daunting task since each page was heavily stained a dirty crimson colour.

I have been very much inspired by Greek Mythology in the creation of the perfect symbiote in order to achieve my true goal. Below this short paragraph is a description of each creature which I will attempt to recreate before starting upon what I believe would benefit both humans and ponies or possibly other races alike.

Centaurs- a creature with a man’s upper body, and a ponies lower body, inclusive of all four limbs. Retains the human’s mind and gives it full control over the rest of the body, including the pony’s lower body. This would be a large challenge as I have to devise a way to conjoin the two large masses together in the quickest time possible. However, with ******** (unreadable due to bloodstains) gic, I should have relative success in holding major organs together and quickly stitching up the bodies together. At the same time with the same magic, according to previous tests performed by me, I should be able to manipulate the blood types such that the human’s and pony’s do not reject each other.

Minotaurs- a somewhat peculiar goal because it does not contribute directly towards my final goal. However, I have not forgotten about the minority bull population that had their origins in Appleloosa. According the Greek mythology, it was supposed to be an aggressive creature with the head of the bull and body of a human. No doubt this would be a challenge as the bull’s neck is certainly much larger than what a human body can accommodate. However, having her by my side is certainly paying off for her magic may most probably be able to solve this physically impossible task. Magic, when incorporated into science, is most wonderful.

Fauns- Like centaurs, except that they only include the pony’s hind legs. This is a slightly more delicate operation to handle as the human body must be able to establish a sense of balance, if not mobility will not be attained. However, if I should ever reach this stage, my abilities to handle magical operations and stitchings should be competent enough.

(Note to self- In order to maintain anaesthetic levels due to difficulties in synthesising and secrecy, it may be useful to implement thick restraints to hold down each subject, as well as either cutting out tongues or stitching their mouths shut.)

Brony- The ultimate goal of this series of experiments, the one true symbiotic sentient life form…. (The rest is undecipherable)

I paused my reading, shaken and disturbed by the manuscript. My mind was racing to gather all the information I had gathered so far. These humans, were also taken together with ponies for these twisted experiments? Who was doing this? No doubt it must be that mare who had imprisoned me in the first place; I must have been selected to be the next test subject, and the guardpony was her ragdoll to try out her various disgusting procedures!

But what was this ‘ultimate goal’, called a ‘brony’? No doubt, that going by the list of monstrosities listed in this book, a brony might just be another hideous creature. Flipping through the text, I hoped to gain some answers. Instead, it came to rest on a page where a cut out in the shape of a key was inserted.

Intrigued, I pulled out the cut out. There were a few words scribbled in red on the wrinkled paper “It’s in his head; but don’t lose your head!” It ended off with a happy face childishly scrawled on the remainder space on the paper. What does it mean? Who’s ‘head’ was it refering to? I thought.

There was movement to my left. I whipped my head to see the body slumped on the floor stirring.

I thought it was dead!

The creature fitted the description of one of the creatures mentioned in the book. It's a bucking Minotaur!, I thought as I watched the figure rise to its feet, as slowly stretched out to its full height, a good 3 heads above me. The eerie blue light glinted off its dangerously long and curvy horns protruding from the top of its head, and illuminated sparks of primal hate and fury in its eyes. Clouds were blown out of its nose in loud grunts. It tottered a little, but regained its balance immediately.

I was still rooted to the same spot with a mixture of both awe and horror, mouth slightly agape at this sight.

And it started charging towards me!

Beds bounced off and flew in every direction as the Minotaur charged towards me, roaring as it did so! Its human hands were raised and clawing towards me, ready to grab me. Its long legs took long strides that kicked the heavy metal beds away to clear a path toward me!

Come on, move!

My legs were slow to respond, and it was only by the slightest of margins that I managed to duck out of the way of the Minotaur’s flaying hands! Nimbly, I flew over the table, and realised that the Minotaur was blocking my exit from the room!

With a terrible roar, the Minotaur shook and glared at me, hell bent on killing. It lowered its great head and aimed the lethal horns at me. It was going to gore me to death!

I threw myself to the side as the Minotaur displayed stunning versatility by vaulting over the table, knocking over multiple instruments and medical solutions as it did so. Luck seemed to be on my side as the Minotaur shaved past my coat, and made contact with the rough bricks of the prison wall. Dust shook off the old ceiling as the room shook violently from the impact. It gave a cry of pain, and tottered about, disoriented, clutching its wounded head as it did so.

The manuscript! I must have it!

It was lying on the floor a few metres away from me, open and pages sticking out. I leapt at it, one hoof outstretched to snatch it away.

Bang!

Pain exploded from my chest as the Minotaur displayed a frighteningly fast recovery and butted me in the chest. Disoriented, I crashed into the sea of metal beds, pain now shooting through every side of me. I slumped onto the ground, breathing hard. Come on, move! MOVE!

But I couldn't summon the strength to push myself up from the bloody ground. Pain lanced through my body as I tried to exert my strength to lift myself off the ground. I could only watch as the Minotaur stomped towards me, each step causing the ground to tremble. It’s black eyes locked onto my terrified ones, clouds shooting out of each nostril with each powerful breath it took. For a disgusting creature like this, it had pearly white teeth that showed as it bared them at me. I realised some of them had been sharpened to a razor sharpness.  I could almost feel those terrible choppers land on my soft neck, ripping out the tender flesh and cutting tendons and muscle fibres within and severed blood vessels spurting its contents in all directions…

A meaty hand grabbed me by the neck, hefting me up easily to the Minotaur’s eye-level. My air supply was suddenly cut shot as I met the black eyes that seemed to say “Time to meet your doom, pony!” I flayed uselessly against the air, my hind legs thrusting at nothing, and my front hooves trying their best to prise the thick fingers off my neck. I gagged and twisted, but to no avail.

My vision was beginning to dim when I suddenly remembered the hammer stowed in my wings. Bringing my right hoof to my wings, I released my hold on the hammer and let it fall to my hoof. With a final desperate burst of energy, I swung the hammer towards the creature!

With a sharp cry of pain, the Minotaur relinquished its hold on me, and I fell into a heap onto the ground. I clutched my neck, coughing as I fought to regain my breath. The book lay to my side, and I grabbed it. The creature still howled in pain, and I saw that my strike had caused the hammer to become lodged in its right eye. Blood oozed in copious amounts and dribbled down its face, and the Minotaur threw its arms about and stomped around in a blind rage to quell the pain.

But where was to the key to the exit?