Darke Life

Amber grabbed my arm and started pulling me down the stairs. I had to duck under a few hanging pipes and such. Unfortunately I missed one, and I got propelled backwards a few steps.

"Hehe... sorry. This is after all, a home for a pony." Shadow Coat snickered.

"Just great. Now I've got a broken wrist, a bruised forehead, AND nothing in my stomach." As if on cue, my belly lurched and growled. I stood up, rubbed it a bit, and followed the ponies down the stairs again.

~

Holy. Shit. The basement was FILLED with electrical contraptions and such. Crimson Mane had to fly over them. Shadow Mane levitated the objects away, and Amber...

Where'd she go?

Suddenly Shadow Mane turned to me. "You didn't lose Amber... did you?" I nodded, and he sighed. "Great. Now she's going to pop up out of nowhere and scare the living buck out of me." I chuckled. This place was so cool; where "buck" was the equivalent of-

"Peek-a-boo!" Suddenly Crimson Mane screeched. Poking her head out of a box was a baby-pink pony with a hot pink fluffy mane. "Hi there!" Crimson Mane turned and ran behind Shadow Coat, shaking. The pink pony laughed and combed out her mane. It was just Amber in disguise.

"Holy buck, Amber! Quit doing that!" He sighed, trying to get rid of his heavy breathing.

"Aww, but if I did your lives would be so calm and boring!" She laughed again. "Like Shadow Coat's. Forever alone."

Shadow Coat growled and shook his head.

Crimson Mane continued. "You know how scared I am of Pinkie Pie."

Amber swiped a towel across her skin, revealing her burnt orange flesh, then throwing the towel at me. It slung over my shoulder and stayed there.

"I understand why. She's..." Amber shuddered. "... nothing is supposed to be that... bouncy... and pink."

"You're afraid of the color pink?" Amber nodded slightly, and Shadow Coat couldn't resist laughing. Amber sighed and jumped out of the box, grabbing hold of a ceiling pipe and hanging from it from her back hooves.

"You're just jealous that you're not as bawss as me." She put her hooves on her hips and smirked.

Shadow Coat stopped laughing and glared up at her. "What?"

Suddenly she flipped off the pipe and landed right in front of their television, on one hoof. "I SED.... U B JELLIEZZZ!"

Holy shit. I couldn't stop laughing.

~

Shadow Coat had been experimenting on a portal for at least three hours. I lay down on the table and stared at the ceiling.

"Dude, how long does it take to rip apart the fabrics of time and space and get him clothes?!" Amber pouted, lying across my chest.

Crimson Mane sighed and faceplanted the table.

"Amber, we've told you already, Shadow Coat never got a live subject. Plus, it's kinda hard to get specific objects from a specific place. How did he even get here?"

"Duhh, like I said, I took one of Forever Alone's prototypes and Crash perfected it."

Crimson Mane and Shadow Coat both did a double take, staring at Amber with wide eyes.

"You're still with Crash?!"

Amber blushed and started playing with her hooves. "Not like with-him-with-him, but..." She closed her eyes and leaned her head back. "He's pretty much living in my basement. Experimenting on other things for me. I pay him to. Plus, the Russian jerkbag has nowhere else to stay. Everyone thinks he's the new 'blight upon society' because he's got anger issues and a Russian accent. It's not like it was his fault he was kidnapped and brought here."

"And he scares her too much for her to get rid of him." I muttered.

Suddenly Amber uppercutted me. BOTCH'D!!!

"Oww! What the hell?!" I snapped. She knocked me back onto the table, placing her forehooves on my shoulders and her back hooves on my hips. I couldn't move. Amber narrowed her eyes and brought her muzzle to just above my nose, snarling.

"I am not afraid of anything. I may dislike things, but I own no fears. If I truly wanted to get rid of him, I would. But he is one of the few creatures who does not fear me. So the next bucking time you dare to question who I am...." She placed her hoof on my neck and pressed down slightly, choking me. "Think about it first."

I managed to gargle a few words out. "Try me... bitch."

She smiled, as if she accepted my challenge. Suddenly Amber disappeared in a flash of green. I quickly sat up from the table and saw Shadow Coat levitating her away from me. She had duct-tape over her mouth and looked REALLY pissed off.

"That's it, Amber. I'm sick of you trying to control others with fear. Just calm down and sit in the corner." Amber's eyes widened, and she stifled a laugh. As Shadow Coat peeled the tape off, she spoke.

"Sit in the corner? What, are you gonna make me think about what I've done as well? I'm a grown mare, Shadow Coat!"

"A grown mare who still acts like a filly. Just sit quietly and let me continue my work. I need silence," Amber opened her mouth and lifted a hoof, "silence," she put her hooves on her hips, "SILENCE, to create another portal."

Amber shut her mouth and jumped through Shadow Coat's levitating bubble, then trotted to the corner and sat down. I stared at her a moment and sighed.

Crimson Mane finally pulled his headphones out. "Sorry, did I miss something? Looked like Amber was about to break some bones in here."

Shadow Coat shook his head and faced his work again, then gasped and jumped up.

"I think I've got it! Quick, get behind the steel wall!" I jumped off the table and got behind the barrier, following Shadow Coat. Crimson Mane grabbed Amber by her tail and dragged her to the wall as well. Surprisingly, she didn't fight back. She just stared at the portal Shadow Coat created.

Shadow Coat shot out another blast of magic, hitting the portal in the center. It glowed, then started growing. He strained to feed the portal, then was blasted back by his own magic, a fearful look on his face.

"It's collapsing! If something doesn't go through it, it won't stay stable!"

"Well then toss some of your useless junk in there!" Crimson Mane yelled. The portal suddenly started gusting out black air, then turned into a vacuum, sucking away all the oxygen in the basement.

Amber suddenly turned her head, her eyes glowing a vibrant red. "I'll go."

"Are you bucking insane, Amber?! Nothing can survive in there!"

Her eyes flashed once more, then she lowered her head and started rearing. Suddenly her hoof-tapping turned into a full-on gallop towards the portal. "Exactly."

"Amber, NO!"