Containment Is Magic

S

As Follower strolled down the hallway to the left, Jitterbug tiptoed along a tunnel that was about to conjoin the two.

She missed Follower by about a minute, cautiously peeking around corners and squeaking fearfully every time she thought she saw something. Eventually, however, she arrived at what had previously been a dead end, now darkened and discolored, as the wall of her cell had been.

Inspecting the wall, she determined it was created by the same rainbow flash that had created the hole in her cell. She had no idea what the thing was that was making these, nor did she want to.

She tossed a glance behind her, considering where she'd just come from. There had been no bisections to this tunnel for a ways, and she really didn't want to retrace her steps for fear that something may have been following her. She inspected the wall, searching for something to throw at it.

She heard a laugh down the corridor she'd just come from.

Jitterbug felt a chill overcome her as she desperately looked for something to throw, and then focused upon her hooves. She threw herself at the wall, the weakened infrastructure crumbling immediately.

She tumbled into the next chamber, a long hallway with doors open on both ends.

Her eyes straining, she decided to look as far as she could down the corridor.

Slowly adjusting to the greater darkness she was peering into, she began to pick out a long tunnel that ended with a few dead guards.

Seeing the corpses, Jitterbug gave a small cry of terror, backing away slowly and deciding she would most definitely not go that way. She passed through the other open door, finding two side rooms with an odd assortment of things on the shelves, none of which she found useful.

Peering through another open door, she made out an open room ahead of her and to the right, as well as a closed door on the left. She decided to inspect the open door first.

A series of small steps later, she was looking into the ghastly chamber. Within were two ponies lying on the floor, unmoving. There didn't appear to be any marks on their bodies, but Jitterbug couldn't discern if they were alive or dead.

As she considered entering the chamber, a chill entered her body. Chances are, they were dead... and she would be, too, if she tried to get into this room.

She went for the closed door next. She couldn't locate a button, and it wouldn't budge when she pushed on it, nor was there a handle on the door. She wasn't sure what she could do, but she wasn't going to go back toward any of those dead ponies.

As she resigned herself to just sitting there and crying, the door mysteriously opened.

Jitterbug leaped backward, skidding around the corner to see what was on the other side of the door.

There was nothing.

Even so, she hid around the corner for several long minutes, expecting some boogeymare to jump out and attack her. When nothing did, she crept fearfully out to observe. There was nothing, and she eventually passed through the doorway, arriving on a catwalk and glancing below her. There were several ponies lying on the floor, with no markings on their bodies. She shook her head at the haunting images, looking straight ahead at another door, ominously open with no button or handle again.

She trotted cautiously to the doorway, peering into the next hallway. There were holding cells to her right, and another open door to her left. She wasn't interested in the cells, opting for the path that was being forced upon her.

The spacious hallway immediately morphed into a cramped-feeling tube, similar to what she'd come out at when she went through the crumbled wall. Unlike the previous area, however, this seemed to open into a network of such passageways. She continually tossed her head to and fro nervously, trying to watch every possible angle and being hopelessly unable to. If a pony wanted to pop out of nowhere and ambush her, she would be helpless to stop them.

Her eyes straining, she decided to look as far as she could down the corridor.

Slowly adjusting to the greater darkness she was peering into, she began to pick out more tunnels, some to the left, others to the right; in the first tunnel on the right, she saw a pink flank sticking out.

Gasping, Jitterbug opted to take the route away from the scary pony, creeping as far to the side of the walkway and as quietly as she could while watching the pink thing warily. She blinked her eyes, and as she began to open them again, the flank of the pony had disappeared completely.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Jitterbug turned and snuck down the left corridor, eventually finding a large room with a square glass chamber in the center. On the right side of the chamber, she saw a picture of an adorable-looking orange filly with "SCP-372" emblazoned directly below. Looking to her right, she saw several pieces of paper on a desk.

Trotting cautiously, she clambered onto the chair in the corner and began poring over the various papers scattered everywhere. She found a newspaper she assumed to be from this morning; apparently, Fillydelphia was having a pretty nice rainstorm. There was also a paper with the "SCP-372" thing at the top again. She decided to read more about it.

According to the paper she was reading, Jitterbug was currently in the room of the orange filly, whose name was Scootaloo. This filly... was a zombie!

Confused, Jitterbug continued reading. According to this, Scootaloo inhabited the edges of a pony's vision, popping up and scaring them until they went crazy.

Glancing up from the paper, Jitterbug surveyed her surroundings, immediately seeing movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned, seeing nothing, and rolled her eyes. All right, probably my imagination.

All important information gleaned from the document, she decided that she would hold onto it in case it would come in handy later. She searched the drawers located on the desk, eventually coming across a small, fashionable saddlepurse designed to rest on the wearer's right side. She smiled as she imagined the guard-pony who had been waiting to get a vacation so he could bring this back to his special somepony, then just as quickly sighed as she realized she was wearing it.

The papers securely in her saddlepurse, Jitterbug decided to survey the containment chamber for Scootaloo. According to her information, the chamber was supposed to have infrared sensors that would tell the guards whenever she passed through them. Since the door was open, it was obvious that the tortured filly had escaped, probably trying her best to find a way out of here, too.

As Jitterbug inspected one of the sensors on the wall of the cell, she wondered what Scootaloo would be like if they were to meet. The paper said she had been tormenting other fillies, but it didn't seem like such an adorable young mare would do a terrible thing like that.

Looking down, she saw something move in the corner of her vision.

She snapped her head in the direction of the thing that had grabbed her attention, but there was nothing there.

Jitterbug began looking to and fro, trying to find the thing inhabiting the same room as her. Was it Scootaloo?

She heard a sudden calling of, "Rainbow Daaash!" sending chills down her spine.

She needed to leave. Now.

Her business in Scootaloo's prison done, Jitterbug cantered warily out of the room, hoping she wouldn't ever see or hear the poor undead filly ever again.

When she made it back to the four-way crossroads, she peered down the hallway where she'd seen the pink pony at. There was still nothing there, but she wasn't about to explore that direction, either. She headed to the left, hoping things would fare better for her on that route.

She had to escape this nightmare. Alive.