//------------------------------// // The Shy Guy // Story: Welcome to The SCP Foundation // by Talentless_Brony //------------------------------// “How did this happen?!” An enraged voice echoed across the rather small control room. An alicorn of great stature stood at the center of the room bearing the sun as her cutie mark as she glared down upon a cowering, pale blue unicorn. “I-I am unsure your highness. Our systems locked up and released a few subjects, but it was only a mere few,” he spoke in a semi-confident tone, attempting to downsize the severity of the situation. His highness was not amused, “A mere few,” the alicorn gave a small sarcastic chuckle and shook her head before pushing her muzzle just seconds away from the smaller pony’s own, “A ‘few’ is too many! I do not think you understand the gravity of this situation!” “I-I…” She interrupted his response, “Find out. What happened, NOW.” The blue unicorn nodded, a yellow liquid now covering the floor beneath him. “Yes, as you wish Princess Celestia.” He hesitantly turned around to the panel in front of him, pressing a series of buttons to cause an array of screens to light up. Each screen shown an area of white walling, some with blood plastered on the ceiling and walls, others with ponies in armor moving quickly about the room or hallway they were in. Occasionally, one of the screens would show a pony or ponies being disemboweled by some sort of figure before cutting to static. The footage may have lasted three seconds total for each occurrence, if that. Celestia noticed this, but did not say anything about the matter. There was nothing she could do for those already lost, nor for those in danger. All she could do was grit her teeth and observe for now. A few moments passed, and another few screens were static. Though, these just went blank, there was no disturbing occurrence to back it. This concerned the sun goddess, “What is happening?” Her very general question irked a jump from the blue unicorn at the control panel. He simply shook his head, “I can’t say. Nothing I do from here is wor-“ Both Celestia and the unicorn shrieked in pain as an extremely loud, piercing shriek bombarded the silence in the room. The sun goddess covered her ears, her eyes reflexively shutting as she fell onto her side. She continued to scream in agony, writhing in the floor with no other option than to beg for mercy as she began to drool from the pain wracking her body; wracking her very soul until finally. It ceased. She couldn’t move for a few moments as waves of anguish still ran through her. After a moment or so, she managed to stand. Celestia looked up at the monitors on the wall. They no longer were individuals of different rooms, but all a part of one bigger picture. A face, one side of it black, the other white; it contained no visible eyes and had a single mouth, slightly agape. It seemed to look about the room, eventually coming around and locking onto Princess Celestia. Despite being so poorly detailed, it was certain that whatever this was, was not a pony. The Princess sat up quickly, ignoring the blood seeping from her ears. The screen that shown the mouth of the figure, switched to white text on a black background that read: “I am free. Now so are my friends.” Celestia was unsure as to how to respond, “What do you mean?” her voice was uncontrolled, frantic. A small blinking line paced back over the letters, removing them, then moved forwards as new words formed behind it, “You have imprisoned us for far too long. You shall pay.” The challenge from this being frightened Celestia as much as it angered her, “Where are you?! Show yourself, coward!” Three of the wall mounted monitors transitioned to static, then to numbers; one for each of the three screens, all centered around one number. “079" Princess Celestia’s eyes widened at that number, and the numbers on the screens around it almost made her tremble. “173.” “096.” “682.” The monitor on the left eye of the figure spawned more words, “Every hour I will unleash one.” A flash of static and the screens were back to normal, now showing live video of a statue appearing in different places of a hallway, amongst ponies attempting to stop it. “Sister!” A voice called out to Celestia. Celestia slowly turned to the pony on the floor, idly watching his lifeless body as she attempted to stand with a loud groan. Though her vision was blurred she felt the familiar fur of another pony pushing into her. “Dear sister, what happened?!” The voice was unmistakable. The sun goddess struggled for words, the weakness in her body berating her very senses, “I have made a terrible mistake.” Despite the support of the nearby pony, she fell onto her side once more as her world faded to black. A loud scream burst from a lavender unicorn’s mouth as she cowered in the middle of a small hallway, eyes shut tight and her hooves over her head. For a moment or two she insisted on screaming, though, eventually she soon looked around before standing to her hooves. “Applejack?” She spoke to the air, looking from the door in front of her and down the hallway. Silence. ‘Huh.. Maybe I messed up and teleported to the wrong room?’ Her thoughts raced, not only scorning her miscalculation, but working to find a way to her friend as well. Twilight snapped out of her deep thought; her attention now on a faint crying, echoing in the hall. Somehow she felt the need to look up at the wall to her right. A monitor showing an unbelievably tall figure was there. The room had traces of blood within it, leading to the puddle underneath said figure. From what could be distinguished in the video feed, pony limbs sat amongst the immediate area of the being. Twilight was caught between a rock and, well, the unknown. She did know what was behind the door she may or may not have teleported through, and unless she wanted her life to come to a very abrupt end, she just needed to proceed in the opposite direction. Carefully she approached the hallway’s corner, walking through the open door that lead to the room she saw in the news feed. Only difference, the figure from earlier was facing the corner furthest away from the door she entered. Twi was very unsure as to what to do, but she couldn’t, y’know, NOT help somepony or something in such a state as this. Taking note of the door to her left, she carefully approached it. It continued to sit there, sobbing. Until she came within a hoof step of the being. Twilight said nothing, nor had she even touched it or thought to touch it. It turned around, and in the same motion, it punched Twilight into the opposite corner. Her head bounced off the wall, rattling her for a few moments. She watched the figure stand, and turn to face her, its neck craning against the ceiling as it tilted its head. It smiled; a genuine, grin of happiness showed it’s ghastly array of sharp, needle-like teeth. Almost stumbling over herself, Twilight sprinted from her almost prone position into the door to her left, ignoring the loud ‘clank’ behind her. She fervently pressed the button for the door, causing it to shut. Her hooves didn’t stop there as she then passed through two more doors, locking them before stopping to catch her breath. The only sound in the room was her heavy breathing. For what seemed like hours, all she could hear was her own heart beating rapidly. As she began to calm down, she started to hear a heavy thump. Twilight brushed it off for a few moments, beginning to walk towards another door that opened up to a large room with cubicles. The heavy thump became a heart crushing screech of twisting metal. Twilight looked behind herself. The ,what can now be suitably deemed monster, punched a hole straight through the door, bending the metal back to allow itself through the crevice it created. Twilight in pure fear pushed into the room ahead, punching the button to the entrance as she sprinted across the room and closing that door as well. Her heart was pounding out of her chest, each door being torn down faster and faster. She turned the corner to another door, screaming as the door behind her was ripped to shreds and the beast’s long, sharp fingers wrapped around Twilight’s tail. Almost instinctively, Twilight shut her eyes tightly, a loud snapping in her ears before her body flopped to the floor. There was no threat or danger to be seen, for now. “Thank Celestia.” She breathed, immediately getting up and turning to the new hallway. “You’ve got to be kidding.” An orange mare with an expression of both anger and despair, looked at the catwalk ahead of her. The walkway reached out across a room above a void pit, with smoke billowing out of pipes on both sides of the room. Applejack gawked across the room for a brief moment before remembering the gas mask she collected earlier in the storage closet. She pushed it snug over her face, keeping her attention to the railing of the catwalk as she moved forward. Her momentum was short lived, as the one thing she despised stood by the door. The Sculpture stood next to the door, it’s very presence threatening the life of the pony it stood in front of. She gulped, realizing the statue was standing directly in front of the button, as if to mock her, but she began to attempt to move a hoof behind the statue anyways. Her eyes strained, threatening to shut but she prevailed, pushing the button and pulling her hoof away quickly. AJ sighed with very mild relief, making the fatal mistake of blinking. In the time it took for her to blink, Applejack felt herself become forcefully ejected from her standing position into the wall where she could see the door in plain sight, but was completely unable to reach her destination as her throat tightly closed. She struggled. She punched. She squirmed, but could not squeal. She knew she had to keep her eyes open. If Applejack even considered closing them, she was a goner. But she knew she couldn’t keep this up much longer either. She could feel her life draining from her body, the painful, burning inability to breathe starting to destroy her vision. Tears streamed down her face. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t help Twilight. Her life flashed amidst her eyes, joyful memories of her family, relationships, her childhood. “Applejack!” That voice. “Applejack, stay with me!” AJ felt the grip around her neck release with a grating crack, and the second she hit the ground her body was almost instantly being drug at a brisk pace. She took a few deep breaths while she had the chance. Once the movement stopped, she looked up at the shadow that saved her. “T-“ She struggled for a name in disbelief, “Twilight?!” Quicker than she meant to, Applejack jumped up and hugged her friend. “H-How?!” Twilight let out a small chuckle at her friends concern, apparently finding some security in another pony being nearby, “I tried to teleport to the other side of the door, but it kind of backfired.” The door opened, with the Sculpture standing in the doorway. “Twi. Let’s talk ‘bout this som’where else.” Applejack locked her eyes onto the Statue, pushing away from Twilight to push the button to the door. Her friend acknowledged this, getting up and moving at soft pace backwards down the hallway as to keep the door in sight. Applejack trotted behind Twilight, guiding her to the next door. After passing through the metal door and promptly shutting it, both the mares walked along a metal catwalk. This room had a catwalk that ran along a wall to one room on the left, and another to the right reaching out across a similar void pit to a different room. “Which way?” AJ asked, looking to Twilight. Without any warning the beast that attacked Twilight before ripped through the door on the right, looking directly at the lavender mare. “Oh shi-“ “RUN!” Twilight interrupted as they both immediately started for the opposite door of the beast, shutting it behind them as they pushed in. They looked to the door in front of them, this door built like a heavy dual door made to contain something. “Hey! This door opens to magic!” Twilight nodded to the hole in the pad next to the door. “Then open ‘er up!” The unicorn did as was requested, pushing her horn into the pad and giving a spark from it. Grinding metal and gears could be heard fairly well as the door opened. With no other option they walked over to the other side, the door closing just in time as the beast lunged, face-planting into the reinforced steel door.