//------------------------------// // Chapter 22: The Joy of Creation // Story: Spiritus ex Machina // by wonderkid125 //------------------------------// -Earlier- Twilight and her friends followed Tom as he led them across the floor toward the workshop used by Cotton Swirl. The purple mare stayed in the middle of the group, providing light for them while the human used his flashlight to scan the area ahead. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy stayed near the front of the line, just behind Tom. The cyan pegasus seemed confident as ever and relatively unfazed by her surroundings, but her yellow companion was showing signs of nervousness. Sparkplug lingered toward the back of the group, with Pinkie Pie and Applejack a little ahead of her. While the orange mare and her pink friend were having a conversation, seemingly about suggestions for a party that Pinkie was already planning, the gray pony silently followed along. Twilight glanced behind her every once in a while, partially to make sure her friends were still following her, and partially to satisfy her paranoia. She had been nervous ever since she arrived in the lobby of the abandoned resort upstairs, but somehow this floor seemed different. She felt more unnerved and uneasy, though she couldn’t find any obvious reason for this. However, she did have some troublesome thoughts that could have been contributing to her already tense nerves. “Hey, Tom…” Twilight spoke ahead to the human at the front of the group. Tom glanced to the purple mare amid the ponies behind him before turning back to the hallway ahead. “What’s up?” He asked curiously. “What are inhuman spirits? I heard the others mention you ran into one up on the first floor.” Twilight said with a sense of morbid curiosity. Tom shrugged hesitantly before replying. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you much about what they are. Nobody really knows anything about where they come from. The best consensus the paranormal community had on them is that they were never alive in the first place. They just… reside in the ghost realm.” He explained, though it seemed as though he was just as unnerved by the strange creatures as the ponies were. “Hey, was that thing you saved us from one of them spirit things?” Applejack spoke up from the back of the group, having gained an interest in the conversation. “Definitely… it had all of the tell-tale signs of an inhuman. They have yellow eyes. They usually have deeply distorted demonic-sounding voices. And if anything is able to produce the amount of ectoplasm we’ve been seeing, an inhuman spirit would definitely be my prime suspect.” Tom said while recalling the animatronic colt he found upstairs. Both the animatronic pony and the yellow mascot suit were covered liberally in the inky black substance. Rainbow Dash cringed uneasily as she pictured something capable of gaining the feared respect of a monster slayer. “Yikes… these things sound pretty bad.” “They sound pretty scary…” Fluttershy added, trying her best not to paint an image in her head that would terrify her. “You don’t know the half of it. That thing almost scrambled my brain just by me looking at it… ugh.” Sparkplug shuddered slightly as she recalled the experience. “You alright, Sparkplug? That thing did get you pretty good.” Applejack asked with a concerned tone. “I’m fine… I just get goosebumps whenever I think about it. The memory is a little fuzzy, though… I don’t even really know what all happened between when that thing showed up and we started running.” Sparkplug replied with a confused expression as she struggled to think back to the encounter. Not only did it make her feel uneasy to think about it, but a large portion of what happened was obscured and distorted behind a hazy mess. “That doesn’t surprise me. Inhuman spirits can affect your mind if you’re within a certain distance of them… and especially if you make eye contact. You’re lucky it took it easy on you.” Tom stated with a solemn tone of concern in his voice. Sparkplug scoffed lightly upon hearing the human’s statement. “Easy? If that’s what you call easy, I would hate to find out what else it can do. That thing threw me for a loop… and I didn’t even get a good look at it.” Tom remained silent with a grim expression on his face. “Trust me… you don’t want to know.” He said while shaking his head. The ponies quietly gulped as they wondered what the human was thinking of. It must have been really bad if he refused to even describe it to them. “Ok, so… making eye contact is a no, no. Other than that, what do we do if we run into one?” Twilight asked with an uneasy, yet curious expression. As disturbing as the subject was, she wanted to know as much as possible about a possible threat that she might face. “If you’re by yourself, you run the other way and you don’t stop running until you’re sure it isn’t following you. I’ll figure something out if we run into one. I’m really hoping the one we saved you two from isn’t still hanging around that workshop. They are really difficult to deal with due to how unpredictable and strong they can be.” Tom said while glancing back to Applejack and Sparkplug. The two mares looked at each other and nodded in agreement. They never wanted to see that yellow creature again. They could still hear it laughing to itself as the human blasted it with his positive light. Sparkplug paused suddenly and looked around her. Things were starting to look very familiar. “Hold up guys. I think we’re getting close to where we were.” She announced. Applejack and the others looked around curiously, though only the orange mare and the human knew what to look for. Sure enough, they were incredibly close to the hallway that held the workshop. In fact, it was right around the corner up ahead. Tom took a moment and let out a puff of blue mist while looking around suspiciously. “I think we’re clear. Even if the readings I’m getting are still messed up, I would be able to tell if we were close to an inhuman spirit. I’m pretty sure that yellow freak is gone.” He reported in a relieved tone. The others let out a sigh of relief as some of the weight of their anxiety was lifted. The group walked down the hall and hesitated near the corner of the intersection. After Tom inspected the area down the next corridor, they all stepped around the wall and looked ahead. Almost immediately, they noticed the remnants of when Applejack and Rarity’s group had been there. Sparkplug’s camera was still sitting on the floor where she had dropped it. A few feet ahead of the camera, there were black-stained paw prints the size of a pony. The goopy tracks approached from down the hallway before stopping, going backwards in a clumsy pattern, and turning to walk away. Most importantly, however, they saw a set of keys sitting on the ground near a door on their left. “Good… the keys are still here.” Applejack said with a pleased smile. The ponies gathered by the door as Tom picked up the keys and started trying them on the lock. While they were waiting, everyone turned and watched the perimeter for any signs of movement. Sparkplug walked over to her fallen camera and knelt down to pick it up. She looked it over and frowned as she noticed a crack on the screen. “Ah… dangit, it’s busted.” She sighed and folded the screen back into its compartment. No matter how many times she pushed the on button, the device wouldn’t come to life. “Better a camera than you.” Rainbow Dash said while offering the gray mare a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “You’ve got a point there.” Sparkplug smirked before shifting her expression to a frown briefly. “Still… I kinda wish it didn’t break. This thing got us through some pretty dark patches… literally.” She shrugged while tucking the camera away into her coveralls. “Maybe I can fix it after we get done down here.” “Here’s hoping that happens soon. How’s the door coming along, Tom?” Twilight asked curiously, looking to the human as he continued trying keys on the door with a blank expression of annoyance. “Are you guys sure these are the right keys?” Tom asked curiously without looking up from his task. No matter how many keys he tried, none of them were even fitting into the lock, let alone unlocking the door. Applejack cringed nervously as she watched the human struggling. “I sure hope so. We found em’ in one of the supply rooms ‘round here. They were the only set we could find.” She said while silently hoping that she and the others hadn’t searched around for nothing. The ponies’ hopes gradually fell as they watched Tom exhaust almost all of the keys on the ring. They slowly started to accept that they had run into another dead end, when suddenly the sound of metal clicking into a tight space softly came from the door, followed by the human exclaiming in excitement. “Ha!” Tom cheered as he turned the key in the lock. “Of course it would be the very last one I check… Oh well, we’re in!” He quickly opened the door and took a look at what was inside. The ponies followed their human friend inside the room, all the while looking around and taking in their surroundings. The room was one of the most well-lit rooms they had come across on this floor, though it was still dark enough to cast deep shadows in the corners and under tables. Speaking of tables, there weren’t that many, certainly not enough to qualify this as a workshop. The only tables that could be used to work on were one up against the left wall, and another at the back. There were, however, a couple of desks and even a filing cabinet present. The most identifiable feature of the room and the first thing the ponies noticed upon entering was a cork board adorning the back wall. The board was chock full of various newspaper articles, bits of notes, and pictures, all pinned to it with safety pins and connected to each other through a series of red threads that crossed all over the place and formed a web that was more than a little daunting at first glance. “Woah…” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow in surprise while looking around the room. Judging from some empty takeout containers strewn around and a makeshift bed made out of a sleeping bag and a pillow, it looked like someone had been using the room as a space for living rather than working, or perhaps it was both. “Looks like Berry’s grandfather spent a lot of time down here working on something… but what was it?” Twilight asked rhetorically, her eyes fixed on the cork board while deep in thought. While her friends searched the rest of the room, she approached the board and examined it with Tom, trying to figure out what it all meant. The many newspapers hung on the board were almost as ancient looking as the place they were located in. Many of them were black and white, and nearly all of them were faded to some degree. Twilight struggled to read them until she came across one that she actually recognized. “Hey… I’ve seen that one before.” The purple mare said while pointing up at one of the papers. Tom glanced over at the paper with an intrigued expression. The paper was about a string of kidnappings happening in and around Canterlot, and it was dated seventy years ago. “Really… where?” He asked curiously. “In my first vision… it was on a table, and Cotton Swirl and his father were talking about it before they walked into the room I was in.” Twilight explained, curious as to the connection between the newspapers and what was going on. “Wait… Hold on a minute. Did you say your first vision?” Applejack tilted her head in confusion. Twilight shrugged. “It’s a long story A.J… basically one of the ghosts of the children keeps showing me things by giving me these weird dreams.” She explained with a drained expression. Although her brief covering of the topic shed some light on the issue, the orange mare was still confused as ever. “Kidnapped children? Oh, my goodness…” Fluttershy shrank back from the board as she read off the titles to some of the newspapers. The mere notion of such a terrible thing happening to innocent children unsettled her deeply. “Hmm… well, it looks like Cotton Swirl was looking into the kidnappings. All of these papers have to do with the three kids that went missing in Fun Land, and even some other cases elsewhere… dating back before the park closed.” Tom said while skimming over the titles of the many newspapers and notes. “Hey Twilight, didn’t you see one of the kids being taken in your second vision?” He asked curiously, thinking back to the brief explanation the jilted unicorn had given him before they went down to the third floor. “Right… Ugh, I can’t remember her name. My memory of the vision is starting to get blurry… I should have told you more about it after I woke up.” Twilight frowned regretfully while looking down. “Was it Glistening Gold by any chance?” Tom asked. Twilight raised an eyebrow suspiciously. “Yeah… that sounds familiar. How did you know?” She asked in a confused tone. The human merely pointed up to the board in response. Twilight looked at the paper he was referencing and read it off as best she could. “Third victim in amusement park tragedy? Glistening Gold to join the ranks of children missing in the wake of a string of kidnapping cases.” She squinted her eyes, partially to read the faded print, and partially to focus her thoughts. The article went on to describe what the authorities at the time believed to be a series of connected kidnappings that had gone unsolved. Judging from the date, it was written some time after the park had closed due to the earthquake. “Hey guys, check this out.” Sparkplug called from off to the side. Twilight and the others examining the board looked over to see the gray mare looking through one of the desks with Pinkie Pie. “What is it, Sparkplug? Did you find something?” Twilight asked, hiding the eager intrigue in her voice. She walked over to the desk and looked to a small notebook the gray pony had clutched in her hoof. Sparkplug let the unicorn lift the book out of her hooves so she could levitate it over to herself and read it aloud. “Hmm…” Twilight muttered curiously while skimming through the contents of the notebook. “It looks like a journal… it must belong to Berry’s grandfather.” She said, noting the signature at the end of each entry. “Well, don’t just keep us waiting, Twi… go on and read it!” Rainbow Dash suggested impatiently, eager to hear the contents of the journal. Twilight glanced behind her to see her friends crowding around her, waiting for her to dispense the knowledge to them. Twilight rolled her eyes and shrugged before flipping to the earliest passage and reading it. “April fourth, Wednesday, six thirty PM… It’s over. I never thought I would live to see the day, but it’s gone. The entire park has been destroyed in last night’s earthquake. In all our years living here, neither my dad nor I have seen a quake this big and destructive. I walked through the rubble with my father, and he nearly cried. I don’t blame him. So much had been going wrong so quickly… first, it was the missing children, and now this. They are still searching the grounds and making a headcount, but it doesn’t seem like anyone was caught in the park at the time. Of course, nobody should have even been in the park so late at night, but still… best to be thorough. I’m not sure what we’re going to do now, but I sincerely hope that this string of bad luck doesn’t follow us into our next endeavor.” “Poor thing… it must have been awful for him and his father back then.” Fluttershy said with a saddened expression. “At least he didn’t give up. We wouldn’t be standing here if he did.” Sparkplug said lightheartedly. Though, the others weren’t sure if it was a good thing that they were standing where they currently were, especially considering that they were several feet underground with ghosts lurking around every corner. Twilight continued going through the journal. Finding the next few entries to be mundane and devoid of anything useful, she skimmed over them until she paused at something that caught her eye. “April seventh, three twenty-three PM… That new hire of ours, Dream Catcher, is still missing. There were no signs of him at what’s left of the park. The royal guard has started to think that he may be a suspect… princess forbid that should turn out to be true. Whoever it is, I know that the person who kidnapped the children from the park is the same one responsible for all the other abductions… I just know it. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find any evidence supporting this hunch. The park was swept clean of evidence even before it sank beneath the ground. Ah well… that’s what I get for playing the part of a detective. I need to have a talk with dad about what we’re going to do next… Perhaps a career change might be in order after all.” She finished the passage before skipping ahead again, feverish for more information. After turning the page, however, she was surprised to see that the date was twenty years later than the previous entry. “Wow… he didn’t write again for a whole twenty years.” Twilight said with a surprised expression. “Maybe he didn’t feel like it?” Pinkie suggested, though the others weren’t so keen on her idea. “No… that doesn’t make much sense. If he stopped writing for twenty years, he probably lost interest or started writing somewhere else… which means that something must have happened to get him writing in this journal again.” Sparkplug inferred, staring eagerly at the purple mare and motioning for her to continue. Twilight cleared her throat before reading again. “*Ahem*… January third, five fifteen PM… I just finished another expedition down in the cavern. I ran out of paper to document my findings, so this dusty old book will have to do. We haven’t made any more progress with item reclamation since we dug up those three mascot suits last week. However, there has been a bit of a setback. The foreman of the construction crew went with me on my latest excursion. I lost track of him for a few minutes as he went off on his own. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem seeing as most of the cave has been explored and mapped out, but apparently, he found something that gave him a terrible fright because the next thing I know he comes screaming out of the cave like Nightmare Moon herself were chasing after him. Now he’s gone and taken his whole crew with him and left. I tried to talk to him and get him to change his mind, but he is dead set on never returning to the site… he wouldn’t explain to me what he saw that would drive him to make such a drastic decision either. I’ll have to get a new construction crew if I want this place finished… and I’ll have to be more careful with who I take into that cave with me until I can find what I’m looking for. I know something is down there that will shed some light on those kidnappings… but I’m not even sure if I know what I’m looking for anymore. It’s been so long. Oh well, I’ve come this far… I have to keep going. On the plus side, it’s rather easy to hide my reasoning for digging around in that old cave. We keep finding the motherlode of buried bits and bobs from the old park. The revenue that museum I’m building upstairs will net us alone will get us back in the green. I certainly hope so… my passion projects haven’t been faring too well. I had to sell two more animatronics I couldn’t get working. Thankfully my father knows some other people in the entertainment business willing to buy some scrap mechanical puppets for parts.” She trailed off as she finished the passage, already thinking about previous parts of it. “Sounds like we had the right idea… Whatever caused all of this mess seems to be in that cave.” Applejack chimed in curiously. “Given the date of this entry… you’re probably right. This is the earliest documented case we have of something paranormal happening here. Don’t ghosts extend their range of influence out from their initial point of manifestation as they gain power?” Twilight asked, turning to the human for his insight. Tom nodded with an impressed expression. “That’s right… Have you been reading those books we found at the mansion?” He asked, eliciting an awkward chuckle from the purple mare. “Hehe… I uh… I dabbled… a little bit.” Twilight admitted with a sheepish smile. While the human had no context to put her response in, her friends looked at her with unimpressed expressions. “Still, that doesn’t explain why there are so many ghosts here or even multiple inhuman spirits. Three kidnappings is a terrible thing… but it isn’t enough to cause all of this trouble.” Tom thought out loud with a perplexed expression. “I just feel like we’re missing something.” He walked back over to the wall of newspapers, hoping to find something new. Twilight started to read through the journal again, but something stopped her. She stared ahead blankly as a familiar buzzing filled her head. All at once, she realized what was happening and tried to put the journal down and get to a better position to pass out in. Unfortunately, she was already starting to feel dizzy and numb. “Ngh… Here we go… again…” The others turned and looked at the unicorn with concerned expressions as she abruptly dropped the journal back onto the table and stumbled backwards. Applejack caught the purple mare as she fell to a seated position and nearly kept going. “Twilight, are you ok?!” The earth pony asked while struggling to keep her friend upright. “Relax, Applejack, she’s fine. She’s just having another vision.” Tom said while kneeling down in front of the pair and taking note of what was happening. “Twilight, can you hear me?” He asked curiously as he watched the unicorn drifting out of consciousness. Twilight could barely hear her friends anymore. The world in front of her was disappearing into a blurry haze. She was familiar with the experience by now, but that didn’t make it any less jarring. She felt herself being lowered to the floor, most likely by the orange mare cradling her in her forelegs. As she struggled to keep her eyes open, Twilight could see the faces of her friends looking down at her with uncertain expressions of concern. Finally, the drowsiness she was feeling overpowered her and she drifted into blackness. Twilight sluggishly opened her eyes again, only to be greeted by darkness. Her senses were still returning to her, so she assumed that she was somehow still asleep. However, as she felt and heard wind softly hitting her body, and cold grass beneath her, she realized that she wasn’t in a dark void as she originally thought. “Huh?” She muttered, still shaking the drowsiness from herself as she sat up. She realized that she had been laying on her back, staring up into the night sky. She was outdoors, seemingly in a grassy clearing. However, as she drew her eyes in front of her, she saw the distant shape of a Ferris wheel just over a hill. “I guess that means I’m at the park again… somewhere.” Twilight said while looking around curiously. The area was dark, only being lit by the moon in the inky black sky above. She couldn’t see any stars, however, almost like the sky was an unnatural void that only held the lunar orb as a source of light for the world below. The clearing she was in felt eerie and empty, similar to what she felt toward the end of her previous vision. The wind was blowing, rustling some distant trees and whipping through the grass. There was a chain-link fence in the distance to her left that continued behind her and out of sight. And as she got up and turned around, the unicorn was met with the sight of a building. Twilight was surprised to find that the clearing she was in was far less vacant than she first assumed. The building was the only sign of civilization in sight aside from the fence and the distant Ferris wheel. It was small, more closely resembling a shed than a full-fledged building. It also looked fairly old and run down, almost like it was untouched by the dream and its ability to bring the past back to life. The door had a large padlock on it, and it looked as though it would have been rickety if it weren’t for the lock holding it in place. The wooden walls were faded and warped, with many holes and cracks that let the wind into the shed. The roof wasn’t entirely intact, having several sections that were bent out of shape or broken. However, despite how rundown it appeared, it didn’t seem like there was any way inside the structure without finding a key for the door. “Is this… that old shed Candy Swirl was talking about?” Twilight thought out loud with a curious expression. She slowly approached the building, looking it over and trying to find a possible way in. On a whim, she knocked on the side of the wall, vaguely hoping to pass through it like she did to the people in these visions. Unfortunately for her, as far as buildings were concerned she was solid. “Darn… there’s got to be a way inside.” She distantly stared at the wall, trying to think of something to do. If she had woken up here instead of inside the main park, then surely this was where she needed to be. Suddenly, she heard a noise coming from behind her. As she turned around, she briefly jumped as she saw the startling sight of someone in a Freddy mascot suit approaching the shed. The pony in the suit was carrying another mascot suit on its back. The two suits were chillingly familiar to the unicorn watching from the sidelines. It was the same golden Freddy costume that she saw before, along with the Bonnie suit from the end of her previous vision. “You must be the kidnapper… no… murderer.” Twilight narrowed her eyes and glared at the person in the suit, though they couldn’t see or hear her. The golden Freddy slowly walked toward the back of the shed, ferrying the Bonnie suit with it. The purple rabbit seemed to be hollow and empty, but Twilight wasn’t so sure about that. Curious to see what the ghosts obviously wanted her to see, she followed the suited pony around the back of the building. As Twilight turned the corner, she saw the Freddy suit standing idly around the back of the building, with the Bonnie suit leaning against the wall on the ground. The yellow bear looked around in a paranoid fashion, making sure the area was clear. However, it had no way of knowing that it was indeed being watched. Twilight was glad that her ethereal nature in this world was starting to pay off. After ensuring that they weren’t being spied on by prying eyes, the suited pony turned and faced the seemingly solid wall in front of them. However, as they reached forward and lifted one of the pieces of wooden paneling, it came loose and pulled free of the building, revealing the darkness waiting inside. The Freddy suit grabbed the Bonnie suit and dragged it inside before closing the secret entrance it had made. Twilight made sure to pass through before they had a chance to close the door in her face. As her mysterious companion carried the Bonnie suit further into the room, they seemed perfectly content in the darkness. Twilight lit up her horn and took a look around, thankful that her light was just as invisible as she was to the pony in the suit. The shed was unsurprisingly small, consisting of only four walls, a floor, and a ceiling with little else inside. There was a table up against the right wall directly in front of Twilight. The suited pony lifted up the Bonnie suit and placed it on this vacant table. There was another table in the room off to the left, but it already had something on top of it. What appeared to be another mascot suit was sitting in pieces on the other table. It was yellow and resembled a rabbit, not unlike the purple Bonnie suit. However, it looked heavier and older than any of the other mascots the unicorn had seen. “What is this…?” Twilight muttered while inspecting the yellow rabbit closer. She tilted her head in confusion as she noticed that there were metal components inside the sections of the suit. However, they were tightly compressed to the sides of the suit somehow, leaving just enough room for a pony to fit inside, albeit uncomfortably. “Is this that mechanical puppet Cotton was working on?” She asked nobody in particular. Hearing noise behind her, she turned around and saw the suited pony standing in front of the Bonnie Suit on the table. As she hesitantly got closer and watched, the pony started removing the head off of the rabbit’s suit. After a brief struggle, the head came off and Freddy set it aside. Twilight peered inside the hollow suit and widened her eyes in shock as she confirmed what she already suspected. The lifeless corpse of Glistening Gold was sitting inside the chest cavity of the suit, much like she was the previous time the purple mare had seen her. However, there were no glowing lights in her eyes or disembodied voices this time. The white filly was dead, and whoever killed her was now removing her body from the suit. Twilight felt sick and appalled as she watched the pony in the yellow suit laying the filly down on the table like she was some kind of doll. After a moment, Freddy stepped back and started pulling his own head off. The unicorn watched anxiously, waiting to be able to put a face to the horrible atrocities she had witnessed. “Ah… that’s much better.” The pony exclaimed as he finally got the head off and gasped for air. Twilight immediately recognized him. The stallion had dark orange fur and black hair that he kept short. It was Dream Catcher, the newest employee at Fun Land. “It’s you… I knew it.” Twilight muttered angrily. She had suspected the orange pony to be the one behind the kidnappings. Ever since she saw him in her first vision, she knew that something wasn’t right about him. Dream Catcher set the Freddy head down on the table, removed his paw gloves, and got to work. He produced a knife and a piece of thick string from a toolbox he kept under the table before walking up to the lifeless filly. He stroked her hair and put a hoof on her face, admiring his sick work for himself. The unicorn watching felt her skin crawl. If she were able, she would wrap her hooves around his neck and strangle him herself for even touching the filly after what he did. “This place is getting to be more trouble than it’s worth…” Dream Catcher muttered to himself while grabbing a lock of the filly’s golden hair. “After I get rid of you… I think I’ll be moving on to greener pastures.” He chuckled heartily before bringing the knife up and cutting off a piece of her hair. Twilight watched with a morbid and disgusted sense of curiosity as the stallion looked at the lock of hair like he was admiring a fish he just caught. With the same care and diligence a trained professional might use, he folded the lock of hair up and started wrapping the piece of string around it tightly. After tying a small knot into the string, the orange pony was left with a neat little bundle. Dream Catcher reached into his suit, digging around near his neck. He pulled out a small pouch he kept on a string necklace and set it down on the table. The pouch looked like it was full of something. Much to the observing mare’s horror, he opened the pouch up and stuffed the lock of hair inside, adding it to the already immense collection of other locks of hair he had. Twilight’s face paled as she looked at all the different bits of hair inside the pouch. Each one was wrapped up with string, and each one looked like it belonged to a different pony. “H-how… how many?” She asked while looking back up to the sadistic stallion. He had a contented smile on his face as he tied the pouch up again and set it down on the table. “Alright, kiddo… let’s take you somewhere more private and get you all warmed up… you’re cold as ice… heh.” The stallion chuckled to himself while putting on his mask and gloved feet again. He grabbed the filly and draped her over his back, steadying her and walking out of the back entrance again. “You’re sick…” The purple mare shook her head slowly with a disturbed expression on her face. Twilight tried to follow him, but she suddenly felt her body seize up and go numb. She struggled to move forward before taking a step back and looking down at her hooves with a confused expression. She had never been restricted from moving around in her visions before. “Maybe there’s still something here that I’m supposed to see?” She wondered out loud. Now that she had made it clear that she wasn’t going to leave, she tried moving around again. Thankfully, her body allowed her to move, and she was able to walk around the shed. Suddenly, the world went black again, but only briefly. Twilight found herself standing in the exact same spot she had been in before, albeit now with a confused expression. As she looked around, expecting something to have changed, she saw everything in the exact same spot it was in just moments ago. However, something was different after all. Through one of the holes in the ceiling, Twilight could see the moon up in the sky. It was higher than it had been before, indicating the passage of at least a few hours. It had gotten colder as well, and the wind outside had died down a little bit. Why is it later now? Twilight wondered while staring up at the sky through the many holes in the ceiling. There still weren’t any stars out, or anything else to make it seem like she wasn’t staring up into an empty void, not that the sky wasn’t technically an empty void to begin with. As she stared up while deep in thought, a sudden noise made the unicorn dart her head around in alarm. A series of muffled, high-pitched whispers were carrying through the room. There were many voices, but she couldn’t make out what was being said. However, she could tell that the voices were most likely children. Twilight widened her eyes fearfully as she saw the Bonnie suit’s paw move slightly. A low growl emanated from the general direction of the suit before falling silent. Although it might have been the newly intense moonlight shining in through the roof, the purple mare could almost swear that she could see two silver lights inside of the rabbit’s hollow eye sockets. Backing up slowly, Twilight did her best to distance herself from the Bonnie suit. If this was anything like the end of her previous vision, then she wouldn’t like what was about to happen. She bumped into the other table, nearly jumping out of her skin as she turned and saw the empty head of the yellow rabbit next to her. She turned back to the Bonnie suit, only to see it still sitting on the table, its leg still swaying back and forth from being moved slightly. All at once, the whispers ceased as the loose board at the back of the shed opened up once more. Twilight turned and saw the yellow Freddy suit walking back inside. She almost couldn’t believe that she was glad to see Dream Catcher return. Dream Catcher sighed drowsily while taking off the bulky bear costume. He leaned the suit up against the wall and stood in front of the table. “Gonna’ need to put this rabbit back where I found it.” He droned in an annoyed tone. A single voice from the choir of whispers before returned, uttering a brief incoherent statement before falling silent again. Twilight noticed the orange stallion darting his head around in a panic. He heard it too. “Who’s there?!” Dream Catcher demanded angrily while still scanning the room. He looked right past Twilight, eyeing the area with an anxious expression. The purple unicorn was doing the same thing, making sure to keep a close eye on the stallion in case something happened she was meant to see. Suddenly, a soft glow started coming from the small pouch the stallion had left on the table. It was faint, but Twilight could definitely see a silverish light emanating from the bag of hair. Dream Catcher seemed to be unable to see this phenomenon as he frantically grabbed the pouch and put it around his neck again, still searching the area for movement. As the stallion backed into the center of the room, a childish giggle echoed through the shed. Dream Catcher seemed to hear this voice as well because now he was outright scared, most likely of being found than anything else. “Damnit… who the hay is out there at this time of night?” Dream Catcher muttered quietly while trying to peer out of the cracks in the walls to see outside. Unbeknownst to the orange stallion, a wisp of light suddenly shot out from the pouch around his neck. Twilight watched as the luminescent orb flew into the empty Bonnie suit. Several more of the glowing lights followed suit, each flying directly into the rabbit costume lying on the table. The silver dots from before appeared in Bonnie’s eyes, shining more intensely than ever before. Twilight watched in abject horror as the rabbit suit started moving again. The costume’s head slowly slid toward its body, connecting with it and moving as the whole suit started to get up. As a distorted groan came from the suit, Dream Catcher spun his head around and finally saw it. He froze in place, eyes wide as dinner plates, and his jaw hung open in shocked disbelief. “W…w-what the…!” Dream Catcher stammered while taking a few steps back, or at least trying to. He suddenly found that he was unable to move for some unknown reason; Unknown to him at least. Twilight could see that several more of the colorful wisps had shot out from the pouch around his neck. The orbs of light zipped around his body until they were each hovering near one of his limbs. They seemed to be holding him down forcefully. The unicorn wasn’t sure if this was actually the case, or if this was just a visual representation meant to explain to her what was happening. “My legs… I can’t… move…” Dream Catcher struggled to make his body respond to his commands, but he seemed too numb to do anything other than stare ahead fearfully. The bonnie suit flopped to the ground and got to its feet, using slow and clumsy movements. The possessed rabbit marched toward the helpless stallion, staring at him with its piercing eyes. Twilight nervously stepped aside and watched as the mascot walked up to Dream Catcher and stared down at him. “N-no… get away… get away from me!” Dream Catcher yelled, a terrified look in his eyes. He suddenly regained the use of his legs, only to have the Bonnie suit reach up and grasp his throat. The stallion croaked out a series of distressed noises while groping at the mascot’s foreleg. Despite the hollow sound of the material, the suit didn’t seem to be responding to his attempts at freeing himself. The Bonnie suit silently dragged the struggling pony toward the back of the room. It threw him down in front of the table, hard. As Dream Catcher hit his head and looked up in a daze, he saw a yellow rabbit head falling into his lap. “Huh…? No… wait, what are you… No! Stop!” Dream Catcher pleaded, but his cries fell on deaf ears. Twilight watched like a passive spectator as the purple rabbit forcibly jammed the pieces of the yellow suit onto the stallion. It seemed like no matter how hard he struggled, Dream Catcher was unable to do anything to stop what was happening. Even if the Bonnie suit wasn’t able to manipulate his body that well, it seemed like an invisible force was also assisting with making him put the suit on. Once the stallion was completely dressed up in the cramped suit, Bonnie stepped back and fell to the floor, almost like he had never been alive in the first place. Twilight saw the glowing lights disappear completely, leaving only her and a very jilted Dream Catcher in the shed. “W-what in the name of Celestia just happened?” Dream Catcher muttered while presumably still staring at the Bonnie suit in terror. The yellow rabbit actually had plastic eyes, with tiny holes in them for the performer to see out of, so it was hard for Twilight to see what he was looking at. …Look away… A familiar voice whispered in her ear suddenly, making Twilight jump. As she darted her head around, she realized that nothing was around her. Even the costumed stallion didn’t seem to hear the distorted voice. “Glistening Gold?” The unicorn called softly, recognizing the filly’s voice. Dream Catcher started to get up from the floor, taking a moment to maneuver in the cramped and bulky suit. The sound of metal creaking came from inside the suit’s parts. Before Twilight could even think to heed the suggestion given to her, all hell broke loose. *SNAP* “GAHHHHHH!!” A bone-crunching crack filled the air as something metal snapped inside the suit. Twilight felt her surprised gasp die in her throat as she stared ahead with shaking eyes. Dream Catcher was screaming violently in pain as his right foreleg trembled. There was blood leaking out all around the outside of the suit where the appendage was, indicating that whatever had broken, it had happened inside the leg while the stallion was inside. Dream Catcher fell to the floor and screamed again in agony, trying to clutch his injured leg to his chest, but he was unable to move it. *CRACK* Another sickening pop happened abruptly, sending streams of blood gushing out of the suit’s other foreleg. The stallion on the ground could hardly move as his broken limbs twitched and he writhed in pain. A pool of blood was steadily starting to form underneath him. “H-help me! Someone he-AGHH!” Dream Catcher’s desperate pleas were cut off as two more sections of the suit snapped from within. Now all of his legs were bleeding profusely, most likely broken beyond repair from the metal components meshing into them. Twilight backed away slowly, unable to turn away from the gruesome scene playing out before her. She never thought that she would feel remorse for the orange pony, but nobody deserved this. She would have even helped him if she somehow could, but right now all she could do was bear witness. She tried to steady her trembling body and calm her rapid breathing, but she was physically disturbed and horrified as she listened to another sickening crunch. The metal parts in the lower half of the suit had broken. It seemed like the more the stallion tried to move around, the worse he made it for himself. Dream Catcher screamed one more time at the top of his lungs when suddenly, his cry was drowned out by another snap. The stallion’s yells shifted to painful gurgles as he started choking on his own blood. His lungs were most likely punctured, along with most of his other internal organs. Tears started streaming down the purple mare’s face as she watched the pitiful creature on the floor twitching. Somehow, the stallion was still taking in labored breaths and making garbled noises of distress, though he sounded like he was on the verge of death. Against all of the pain he was undoubtedly going through, he reached one of his forelegs out and brushed it clumsily against the ground, trying to push himself up in vain. The sound of metal creaking returned, though this time it was coming from the yellow suit’s mask. *CRACK* Twilight clenched her eyes shut and shielded her face while turning away from the pony on the floor as one final snap rang out. Dream Catcher wasn’t making any more sounds. There were only the sounds of the unicorn’s strained breathing and blood leaking out onto the floor to be heard. Despite every fiber in her body telling her not to, Twilight slowly opened her eyes and looked ahead. “O-oh… oh, sweet Celestia.” Twilight covered her mouth with a hoof and fell back onto her haunches. Her body felt weak, and she thought she might vomit or even pass out entirely. The yellow rabbit costume was lying on the ground in a puddle of blood from the stallion inside. It wasn’t moving anymore, and its limbs were stiff, most likely from the metal parts locking them in place wherever they were when the suit broke. The smell of copper was so thick that the purple mare could taste it, which wasn’t surprising given how much blood there was. The crimson fluid was pouring out of every joint and crack in the suit, even the two small holes in the eyes. Twilight wasn’t sure what to think as she stared ahead with watery eyes and heavy breathing. A part of her was glad that the orange pony had received some form of punishment for his atrocious crimes, but was this fair? No… this wasn’t justice, this was cruel. Nobody should have to suffer like this, not even murderers. A sob started forming in the back of her throat. She wasn’t crying because she felt sorry for the stallion, even if she really did to some degree. The unicorn was crying because of the sheer brutality she had just witnessed. She wished that she had taken the ghostly filly’s advice and turned away when she had the chance. Hearing the stallion dying would have been bad, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as horrible as watching it happen. Just as she started to think that the vision was over, the whispering from before came back. The voices grew louder and louder, and soon the faint sound of high pitched screaming could be heard behind them. A low rumble filled the room, and the ground started shaking beneath the unicorn’s feet. “Ooof!” Twilight grunted as she was knocked off balance and fell to the floor. She barely caught herself and looked around nervously before another bout of shaking made her cling to the ground. The shaking grew more intense, and pieces of the roof above her started falling down. “What’s going on?!” She asked fearfully. As the tremors continued and worsened, Twilight suddenly realized what was happening. This was the night that the earthquake hit the park and sank it underground, and she was going to experience it firsthand. A cracking noise erupted from beneath her as fissures started splintering up through the floor. The wood fractured and bent upwards, breaking apart in some places. Twilight urgently tried to get to her feet, but she was shaking so much that she had to take things slow or risk getting tossed around like a sock in a dryer. “AHH!” Twilight yelped as a large crack opened up beneath her, moving her legs apart slightly. She jumped to the side as the crack continued traveling the length of the shed before splitting into two lines in front of the orange stallion’s corpse. Twilight watched with wide eyes as the section of the floor that the yellow mascot was on opened up, revealing nothing but blackness underneath. Dream Catcher’s body slowly slid off and fell into the abyss, continuing down and out of sight. The roof caved in around her. Twilight used her horn and made a forcefield around herself, blocking the pieces of falling ceiling. However, nothing she did could have prepared her for what happened next. The ground beneath her cracked violently, sending the pieces of floor up at steep angles as the earth itself started falling. “No!” Twilight yelled in denial while making a leap for safety. She felt the ground giving way under her hooves as she jumped into the air. She wasn’t even sure what she was leaping towards, but she hoped that it was solid ground. The unicorn’s hopes were dashed as she saw a large pit opening up underneath her. She reached her forelegs out and grabbed at the only piece of ground within reach. Her lower body smacked into the side of the ground underneath where the floor had been. She swiftly realized that she was hanging off of a ledge. Twilight looked down, receiving only an eyeful of the seemingly bottomless chasm that was sucking everything around her into it. The entire world was still shaking, and her ears were filled with a loud rumbling. “N-no… not like this!” She pleaded. “Glistening Gold! Uh-AHH! W-wake me up!” Twilight yelled to the dark sky above, praying that the ghostly filly was listening. She didn’t want to fall into the darkness below, but everything around her was collapsing. In one last attempt at saving herself, she started climbing up onto the sanctuary of floor that she was anchored to. As she struggled to pull her own dead weight up onto the island of floor, she felt it give way and sink slightly as a disconcerting crack rang out. Her nerves exploded and her heart raced as a brief feeling of weightlessness overcame her. She hid her head and waited for a moment until the ground stabilized slightly. Looking up to the ledge she was trying to climb on, she gasped in surprise as she saw a white filly with golden hair and piercing yellow eyes looking down at her. “G-Glistening Gold?” Twilight muttered in shock. The filly still had glossy, dilated pupils, but she didn’t look like a ghost otherwise. Glistening Gold looked past the unicorn down into the abyss below. “You’ll have to go down there eventually… one way or another.” She said blankly. Much to the purple mare’s surprise, the ghostly filly reached her tiny hoof out and left it hanging in front of the edge. Twilight smiled softly and slowly reached up one of her forelegs. The ground was still shaking so much that it was hard to move, but she kept reaching up somehow. The white filly had a small, friendly smile on her face as well, as if she were genuinely trying to help. Just before the unicorn could grasp the filly’s waiting hoof, she felt her other foreleg slipping. All at once, her grip vanished as the piece of floor she was hanging on gave way. Twilight screamed and felt herself falling away from the filly and down into the darkness. Looking up in terror, she saw the fading image of the white pony looking down at her with the empty night sky above. Everything grew smaller and smaller as she fell into the chasm along with a load of debris. Soon, only darkness filled her vision and the feeling of panic inside of her grew more intense. Twilight gasped and shot up to a seated position, suddenly finding herself on solid ground. As she breathed heavily and darted her head around, she discovered that she was back in the workshop she passed out in. She was lying on top of the sleeping bag and pillow placed in the corner of the room. Apparently, the others had moved her there after she lost consciousness. “Easy, Twilight… you’re safe now.” Pinkie Pie said in a soft tone from beside the unicorn. Twilight looked over and found the pink mare sitting next to her, looking at her with a reassuring expression. “Ugh… what a trip.” Twilight shook her head and touched her face, taking a moment to calm her racing heart and weather through her lingering drowsiness. By now, everyone in the room had shifted their attention to her as she recovered on the floor. “How long was I out?” She asked curiously while noting how the others were seemingly waiting around for her. “Not long actually… probably ten minutes. It’s definitely the shortest you’ve been out before.” Tom explained with an intrigued expression. “Did you see anything important?” Twilight thought back to her brief experience. Although it was slightly less traumatizing than her last dream, she did witness a rather interesting event that seemed crucial to whatever was going on at the resort. “I think so… I think I know where the ghosts are coming from.” She explained while looking toward the board with the newspapers on it. “It’s like we’ve been thinking. It’s the children… but not just the three that went missing at the park. All of those kidnapping cases were caused by the same pony… and all of their souls became the ghosts we’ve been seeing.” She said confidently. The unicorn was confused to see her friends with less than excited expressions on their faces. Tom shook his head and sighed. “Sorry, Twilight… but you’re wrong there. The victims of these kidnappings can’t be our ghosts.” He stated bluntly. “Huh?” Twilight replied in a stunned stupor. “But why?” She asked with a confused expression. The human merely pointed at one of the newspaper articles up on the board. Twilight got up from the floor and approached the board. She had to get in incredibly close to even read the headline of the paper due to the ink being faded, which is probably why she passed over it on her first inspection of the board. Finally, she barely managed to read aloud the words emblazoned across the front of the paper. “Kidnappings end in tragic murder?” She muttered slowly, still struggling to read the headline and the article beneath it. Seeing the unicorn straining to make out any more of the article, Tom interrupted her. “They found one of the kidnapper’s hideouts from when he took some kids in Canterlot. The kidnapper left right before they arrived, but they found two of the children’s bodies. They were in the process of being burned to ash… most likely how the guy disposed of his victims. A ghost can’t appear if it doesn’t have any remains to anchor itself to… so the children can’t be our spooks.” He explained in a dejected tone. With their only lead shot down, he wasn’t sure what else to think. Twilight smirked triumphantly in spite of the seemingly bad news she had just heard. “No… they still could be our ghosts. In fact, I’m almost positive that they are.” She stated in a confident tone. “I’ve seen that look on your face before, Twilight. Mind fillin’ us in on what you know?” Applejack asked with a wry smile. The purple mare chuckled slightly before turning to face the group. “In the vision I just had, I saw the kidnapper. He was dragging the third victim from the park to an abandoned shed on the outskirts of the property.” Twilight started explaining. “Woah… you saw the kidnapper? Who was he?” Sparkplug asked with an eager tone. “Umm… he was one of the park’s new employees. Some stallion named Dream Catcher.” Twilight said, uncertain as to how that information would satisfy the gray mare. “Anyway… when he was getting the filly ready to go dispose of her, he cut off a piece of her hair. He had a pouch full of locks of hair, probably from each of his victims.” She grinned as she saw her friends catching onto her line of reasoning. “That might actually make sense… a lock of hair would probably be enough for a spirit to anchor themself to. And if he kept trophies from all of his victims, then their spirits would be bound to that pouch.” Tom said with a pleased smile. “But where would that pouch even be?” Sparkplug asked with a doubtful expression. “It’s been like seventy years… I don’t think it will be easy to find, even if we’re assuming it is here somewhere.” “Ughh… don’t tell me we’ve got to go hunting for something else in this place. I’m tired of searching for needles in this rotten hole of a haystack!” Rainbow Dash groaned in frustration. Twilight stepped in before her friends could continue bemoaning their terrible luck. “Relax guys. I know where the pouch is… sort of.” She explained in a semi-confident tone. “Thank goodness for that. I was gettin’ tired of runnin’ around this place myself.” Applejack said, sighing in relief and looking to the purple mare expectantly. “Well? Go on and tell us where this thing is so we can go settle this ghost business and get out of here.” Rainbow Dash said, anxiously waiting for the unicorn to reveal what she knew. It was easy to see that everyone was starting to grow tired of being trapped underground. Twilight shrugged uneasily and shook her head. “I don’t know where it is exactly, but I know it’s in that cavern. In my dream, I saw the kidnapper getting killed the night of the earthquake. He had the pouch around his neck when the earthquake hit, and he fell down along with the rest of the park.” “Wait… you watched him get killed? What happened?” Tom asked in a confused tone. “The ghosts killed him. They… forced him into this unfinished mechanical puppet Cotton Swirl was making out of a mascot suit. The parts of the suit must have broken while he was inside. After that, the earthquake happened and my dream ended. It almost seemed like the ghosts were the ones that started the quake.” Twilight shuddered as she thought back to the experience. While most of the group was sympathetic and concerned for her, the human was concerned about something else. “The ghosts killed him? You’re sure?” Tom elaborated with a puzzled expression on his face. Twilight nodded. “Yeah… there wasn’t anything he could do. They possessed another mascot suit… and there were these colorful lights that let me see what they were doing. They just held him down and crammed him into the suit.” She explained, unsure of why the human was so confused. “That doesn’t make any sense…” Tom muttered while scratching his chin in deep thought. While he was looking off to the side, the ponies were looking to him with equally confused expressions. “Why doesn’t that make sense? It seems simple enough to me.” Pinkie said with a clueless shrug of the shoulders. “Yeah, Tom… ghosts killing people isn’t that farfetched of an idea.” Twilight added in agreement to the pink pony. “No, it’s not that they killed him that doesn’t make sense… it’s how they were able to do it in the first place.” Tom said. The others raised an eyebrow, still unable to see his reasoning. He shrugged before continuing. “Ghosts shouldn’t be powerful enough to do all of that on their own. Sure, there were a lot of spirits confined in the same place over a long period of time… but forcefully holding someone against their will long enough to put them in a mascot suit? Not to mention starting an earthquake. I don’t know exactly what you saw, but it would take a massive release of spiritual energy to do all of that.” He explained. “But… didn’t you say that there is a lot of energy in this place? Maybe the ghosts were feeding off of that?” Sparkplug inferred. “No… I don’t think the energy here was like this before. It seems like it has been building and compacting ever since the ghosts showed up. The inhuman spirits most likely came sometime down the line and made things worse with their negative energy. I don’t know why this place is so prone to storing energy in the first place though.” Tom sighed with a mentally drained expression on his face. “Hold on… that has been bothering me for a while.” Twilight pondered curiously. “Tom… you and the others have been getting messed up energy readings ever since we got here, right?” She asked to clarify, to which the human nodded. “Well… if that’s true, and if the inhuman spirits were drawn here by some buildup of negative energy… Ugh… I can’t make sense of any of this.” The unicorn groaned in frustration as she tried to think of some explanation that made sense. She didn’t know a lot about the paranormal, but nothing made sense with what she did know. “Wait… wait… wait, wait, wait.” Tom muttered suddenly in frantic revelation. He looked away in thought and paced around, seemingly struggling to remember something. “*Gasp* Oh my gosh! I know what’s going on!” He exclaimed in a stunned tone of excitement. “You do?!” Twilight perked up suddenly. She and the others looked to the human with eager grins as he was still awestruck from his apparent epiphany. “I can’t believe I didn’t think about it before now. It’s so simple!” Tom mentally slapped himself, as if he had just solved a riddle that was so easy that a child could solve it. Pinkie Pie could barely contain her anticipation. “What is it?! Tell us!” She grabbed the human by the shoulders and frantically shook him like she was trying to unhinge the answers from his body. “Ley Lines! We’re on a Ley Line!” Tom stated with a hearty laugh and a goofy grin on his face. His apparently groundbreaking solution fell on confused ears. “Huh?” Pinkie tilted her head curiously, letting the human go and stepping back with an overwhelmed expression. “Tom, let’s pretend that we don’t know anything about… Ley… Lines, and take things a bit slower. What are you talking about?” Twilight asked in a confused tone. Tom had to take a minute to contain his initial excitement so he could explain in further detail. “Ok… Ley Lines are… how do I explain this? They’re kind of like these giant pathways for paranormal energy that crisscross the world. Humans believed that many of the ruins of important spiritual sites for ancient civilizations were connected with each other by invisible lines. Many of them lined up with each other on maps, so people figured that there was some spiritual importance to how they were placed. If this location is sitting on a Ley Line, then that would explain why things are so weird around here.” He said with a confident expression. “So… that’s why all of the energy in this place is out of whack.” Twilight nodded as she listened to the human’s explanation. “Exactly, the energy from the lines supercharged the ghosts the night of the earthquake, and ever since then it would have kept building until it reached a cap. That’s why the ghosts were having trouble moving to the upper floors. Everything is all compartmentalized down here, so it must have taken a lot of energy to move their range of influence so far away from their remains.” Tom smiled as he finally found a sensible explanation to all of the strange happenings that had been plaguing the group. “This is good news… really good news. We can finally put a stop to all of this!” Twilight cheered eagerly. “All we’ve got to do is find Dream Catcher’s body down in that cave and burn it. All of the ghosts will have nothing left to tie them here.” The others all gave an excited cheer as they finally had an end in sight to the nightmare they had descended into. Pinkie Pie hugged the nearest person, in this case, Sparkplug, and jumped up and down eagerly with joy. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy joined in with the celebrating, although much less enthusiastically than their pink companion. Even Tom couldn’t help but smile happily. Once the ponies settled down, Tom adopted a serious expression. “Alright, I’ll contact the others and tell them to meet us here.” He explained before walking toward an empty corner of the room and putting two fingers up to his ear. “Hey guys, come over to the workshop quick! We think we might have found a way to beat the ghosts!” He explained, unable to hide the excitement in his voice. After a few moments of silence, Glitterball’s voice spoke up. “Really? That’s great, Tom! I’ll be right there!” The unicorn said eagerly before falling silent. A few more moments went by before Glimmer Shine chimed in. “We’re on our way… we’ll be there in a few minutes.” He said, though his voice seemed distant and blank for some reason. “Uh… did something happen over there? You sound awful, Glimmer.” Glitterball asked in a concerned tone. “Hmm? Oh… uh… no, everything is fine over here. Right, Sunspot?” Glimmer Shine replied, managing to cheer up slightly. Still, he sounded like he was suppressing a hint of sadness in his voice. “*Sigh*… yeah… just peachy.” Sunspot replied in an equally deflated tone. Tom was uncertain about how to react to the two ponies’ apparent problems. Judging from the uncomfortable silence on the other end of the line, he figured that Glitterball was dealing with the same uneasiness. Without knowing what had happened, if anything, the pair weren’t sure how they could help. The human turned back around to see the ponies watching him in anticipation. He dropped his end of the call and shrugged. “They will be here soon. We should get comfortable and wait for them.” He said with a bored expression. Twilight and the others were already in their preferred waiting around positions, but hearing that they had nothing to do but wait put a damper on their previously felt excitement. Still, they sat in silence and patiently waited for their friends to show up, confident that they could put an end to things once they were all together.