//------------------------------//
// Into the Dark 
// Story: Cutie Mark Crusaders: Legend Hunters 
// by Unicorncob 
//------------------------------//

Inside the main hall, the Crusaders were expecting the air to be old and musty, and to practically breathe in dust. But strangely it was rather clean, and their lamps made out that the carpeting and nearby furniture had been recently dusted. Sweetie Belle could even make out the faint smell of perfume.
Scootaloo jumped when her lamps caused something in her headlamp, and the girls turned to see a suit of pony armour. It was polished, the light shining brilliantly off its shell. It wasn’t as nice looking as Scootaloo’s, but it was still impressive how well kept it was.

“This is weird,” Sweetie Belle muttered. “The outside is so old and dirty, but the inside looks so… clean. It’s like somepony lives here or something.”
“Yeah, the heck’s goin’ on here?” asked Apple Bloom. “Does Crow Quill not want us in his secret summer home or somethin’?”
“Maybe all the dirt outside’s supposed to put you off?” suggested Scootaloo.

The girls walked in more, looking around at the red walls, some lined with paintings and portraits. They weren’t exactly creepy, just of mountains and of well-dressed ponies in suits and dresses.
Then a loud creak sounded from behind, and then a heavy clunk. The girls turned around saw the doors behind them had closed.
“W-what in the hay…?” Apple Bloom gasped.
Sweetie Belle shook her head. “Probably just the wind picking up…”
A loud creak sounded from above their heads, causing them to freeze and look up at the ceiling. Chills ran up their spines.
“M-maybe it’s just a cleaner…?” Sweetie Belle whimpered.
“I-I dunno,” Scootaloo whispered. “I mean, this place looks pretty old…”

The fillies grouped together as they crept toward the middle of the hall. Their lamps caught two hallways, each leading down opposite directions, and a flight of stairs before them, across from the doors.
Scootaloo gulped. “D-do ya think we should split up…?”
“Are you crazy?” hissed Sweetie Belle. “Do you know what happens when groups split up in creepy places?!”
“No! Because I don’t read creepy stories!”
“Landsakes girls, calm down!” yelped Apple Bloom. “We ain’t gonna get anywhere if we lose our heads!”
The two fillies nodded and took a deep breath, trying to keep their wits about them.
“L-let’s head up the stairs,” Sweetie Belle suggested. “Maybe we’ll find some candles in a bedroom or something.”

The Crusaders literally stuck together as they slowly approached the staircase. The three kept count together as they took simultaneous steps upward, so to not trip up in the awkward light from the headlamps. They all kept looking around at the smallest creak and the smallest whistle of wind, almost expecting somepony, or something, to jump out at them from the darkness.
“Easy girls,” Apple Bloom whispered, “almost there…”
Slowly, they made it to the landing at the top, and they both took a seat on the surprisingly soft carpet to catch their breaths, and lower their heart rates.
“I think that went well,” panted Scootaloo, managing a smile.
“Y-yeah,” Apple Bloom murmured, “thank Celestia we got these light thingies, huh?”

The fillies’ froze in terror as the beams on their lights flickered, and weakened in power, before quickly shutting off.
“O-o-oh horseapples,” the Earth Pony filly whimpered, “why’d Ah open mah big mouth?!”
Scootaloo grunted as she frantically fiddled with the light on her forehead. “What kinda lousy batteries do these things have?!”
“D-don’t panic,” gasped Sweetie Belle, trying her best to follow her own logic. “Th-these things can recharge. We just have to turn the dial on the top.”
“Ohhh,” Scootaloo muttered, and a soft clicking sounded as she turned the dial in her hoof, “so that’s what that’s for.”
“The mare at the store told us about that,” the Unicorn filly sighed, winding up her own lamp.
“W-well maybe I can’t keep as calm as you. Wait… where are you? I can’t see!”

The fillies held out their hooves in the darkness, blindly trying to get an idea of where each other was.
A soft clunk sounded, and Scootaloo yelped. “Something touched me!”
“Sorry, that was me!” cried Apple Bloom.
“D-did somepony touch my tail?” whimpered Sweetie Belle.
“That was me,” muttered Scootaloo.
“Hey Sweetie Belle, are y’all standin’ on somethin’?” asked Apple Bloom. “Y’all are taller. And when’d ya get a tie?”
“I-I’m not wearing one,” the Unicorn muttered.
If the fillies could see anything, they could see the yellow fade from the Earth Pony’s coat. “Th-then what’m Ah…?”

Light emerged in the hall, but it wasn’t the clear glow of a headlamp. Instead, the amber flicker of a candle had lit up from out of nowhere, and the fillies could see the half-shadowed face of a pale, ghostly creature standing between them.

“Good evening,” it murmured.

The ominous quiet of the main hall was broken by a trio of terrified shrieks, and the fillies sprinted away from the almost monstrous figure, galloping blindly into the darkness.