A Skeleton in the Closet

by Epsilon-Delta


Nightmare

Once again, it had gotten later, as Silver Spoon predicted.

Finally, they reached sunset. Red cast itself across the sky as if a warning to hurry home and take shelter.

Carnival rides with flashing signs stood in every direction. She counted no less than three ferris wheels, each lit up in neon lights flashing in different patterns. Largest of all was a winding roller coaster that snaked along the border of the carnival.

Closer by were food stands. Silver could smell the popcorn from where she stood. In the center of it all stood a single tent, caged monsters displayed along the side of it on large posters.

As in some of the other dreams, there were a few pony illusions standing about. They weren’t interested in the rides, only the group of fillies. They stood far off to the sides, watching them unblinkingly.

A large gate leading from the carnival to the woods outside stood temptingly close, near enough for Silver Spoon to jump to it. Strategically, she thought perhaps it would be best to not take any chances, to run out of the remaining nightmares just in case.

And yet–

“A whole carnival?” Diamond Tiara raced ahead, spinning about and laughing. “Pfft! And you said it was getting scarier each time? This is the best one yet!”

She walked over to a snack stand and grabbed a large stick of cotton candy.

“Oh no! Not cotton candy!” Diamond Tiara took a big bit out of it, speaking through her chewing. “Oh, no! It’s so delicious! What if I get fat?”

She chewed it, humming in approval.

“Actually, this is pretty good.” Diamond Tiara’s face flashed into a smile. “The mall food didn’t have this much flavor.”

“Are you sure that’s not poisoned?” Gloria asked. “It feels different from the other food we’ve seen.”

“Twist is the only pony who can die in this dream. We’ll be fine.” Diamond Tiara kept eating.

Maybe she was right. This did run counter to Silver Spoon’s theory. Not every monster encounter led to a life-and-death situation, she had to remind herself. Maybe they could just enjoy what little remained of their party.

“So what, Twist? Are you scared of carnival rides?” Diamond Tiara finished off her cotton candy and looked around for her next snack. “Not that I’m complaining.”

“I don’t know what it means, but I don’t like all these ponies staring at us.” Twist kept her tail tucked between her legs as she turned about, taking them all in.

It was just now that Silver Spoon noticed how many of these watchers there were. Her paranoid mind told her more kept appearing. She decided to count them all to be certain. From where she stood, it was currently sixteen in sight.

At least the meaning of it was painfully obvious. They were all staring at Twist, specifically.

“Actually, I bet these rides break every time!” Diamond Tiara pulled Silver Spoon towards the roller coaster. “And we can’t get hurt! We gotta go just one time. Getting thrown off it into the air has got to be so much fun.”

That was tempting, but still.

“Hold on a moment.” Silver Spoon brushed her hoof off. “I’m getting a bad feeling about this one. Everything is just a little bit too off.”

Gloria noticed Silver Spoon swiveling her ears about and became suspicious herself.

“Oh, what?” Diamond looked them over. “Is everypony but me afraid of carnivals and clowns? I’m glad I’m next if the last two are just this again.”

“It’s not that.” Gloria pointed to the crowd. “I’m sensing a demonic aura around every single one of these ponies. All of them are being directly controlled.”

Silver Spoon spun around once more. She counted twenty-six now.

“And more of them are appearing,” said Silver Spoon. “Fast.”

“So?” Diamond Tiara moved too far ahead. “They can’t hurt us.”

Diamond Tiara looked to her left, then right, then lost her confidence. The number had more than doubled again. There must have been close to a hundred ponies now, all far off, but with stares that could bore holes through their heads.

“Though I have to admit, this is a lot of ponies now.” Diamond Tiara backed up to be closer to the group.

“Maybe we should leave?!” Twist grabbed onto Silver

“I think that would be a good idea.” Silver nodded.

She turned to the exit. A score of ponies stood between them and it, but–

“Not that way.” Gloria put a hoof on Silver and pointed to the tent. “Exit is in there.”

“But that place is dangerous!” Twist yelped. “I haven’t felt anything dangerous yet tonight. Wait! Something’s about to come out!”

The other three readied their weapons as the tent flap slowly opened. A blue mare with a big ring leader’s hat and outfit poked her head out, smiling with just enough fangs to give her away. She was too animated to be just another part of the crowd.

“It has a lot more energy than before,” Gloria cautioned under her breath.

“Well. Well. Well.” The ring leader pranced out from the tent. “Did I finally scare you, hm? I–”

Twist took the shot. Precogs could tell if their arrows would hit before firing so they effectively never missed.

The dream demon howled and thrashed about in pain. A bit too much. Then it suddenly stopped.

“Oh, wait.” Its eyes rolled about unnaturally.

One forehoof opened up, splitting into four appendages which wrapped around the bolt. It grit its teeth and pulled. It took great effort, but it got the bolt out. Then it threw the silver bolt far across the field.

“About that!” The dream demon rolled up to a sitting position, a manic smile overtaking its face. “I just remembered something dreadfully important! You see, it wasn’t 800 years ago last I killed a pony. It was exactly 75 years ago.”

“So?!” Diamond scoffed. “That’s still pathetic considering you try every night!”

“That’s one death in what?” Silver did the math in her head. “Over thirty thousand? The common cold kills at a higher rate than you.”

“Oh, but you see it was at another one of these, hehe, lovely parties you started having.” It got back on all fours. “And the time before that was 150 years ago, at another party. Then there was a time 225 years ago and 300 before that. Hm! Hm! Are any of you noticing a pattern?”

The implication was obvious, but not the reason. Silver spared Diamond a look, before scanning the phantom crowd again. Their numbers had swelled into the hundreds and more appeared every second. Further, their pupils began to dilate until their eyes were little but black.

“You see, you ponies aren’t the only ones who can change their strategy.”

Ponies were starting to appear on the rides now that the ground was running out of space.

“I can’t ever get you even if I try every time. So no, I wait decades at a time. I slowly feed off the small bits of fear I still get, gathering my strength for one special night! Seventy-five years worth of energy, all for you!”

The roller coaster began to buckle under the weight of the ponies, all staring with increasingly black eyes and ever wider smiles.

“And you!” A cane appeared out of thin air, spinning rapidly in place before the ring leader stopped it to point at Silver Spoon. “Are the luckiest filly of all! You’re going last, right? Well guess what? I’m doubling the energy I put into each of the remaining four nightmares. I think I have a shot of getting maybe three of the four of you… but you especially.”

The ring leader licked her row of fangs and trotted forward.

“I love little fillies with glasses you know. I’m so glad I get to spend some special time with you.” She started to drool. Her eyes became manic and wide. “And I can slow down time so much with all the power I gathered. Seconds to hours. Or was it days? Hm. Yes. No one outside can help you now that I’ve warped it so much. Time is getting slower. The world is getting colder and darker. Things will only get more dangerous from here.”

“Please!” Diamond Tiara stepped forward with far too much confidence. Especially with how unnerved the psychics had become behind her. “You still can’t hurt us. Oh what? You’re going to try and scare me to death with some more spiders? Pathetic.”

It liked its lips one more time before a whip appeared next to it. Thanks to her precognition, Twist saw this coming far in advance and pushed Diamond Tiara out of the way. Instead of being belted across the face, DT got only a small nick on her leg.

“Ouch! That hurt!” Diamond Tiara waved her hoof. She understood the implications and turned to Silver Spoon in a panic. “Like, for real! I thought it couldn’t touch us!”

“It can touch us, just not kill us.” Silver Spoon stepped back. “Causing actual pain to the rest of us must take a lot of energy.”

“Oh, but I have plenty of energy, remember? I don’t mind settling for pain until it’s your turn to die. I’ll–”

Silver motioned towards DT, who took out the mirror and held it up to the ring leader.

That still had the power to shut it up. The sight of itself made the demon fall back onto its haunches, covering its mouth with a hoof as its face turned green. With its free hoof, it dragged itself backward as it gazed upon itself with both horror and disgust.

“Bleck! Gah!” it scrambled to its hooves and ran, slithering its way underneath the tent to hide.

“Ha!” Diamond Tiara ran forward to shout at it as it escaped. “It doesn’t matter how powerful you get or what form you take! You’ll always be hideous!”

And then the phantom crowd all stepped forward as one.

Diamond Tiara held the mirror up to the crowd. Even this far away, all the ponies on that side cringed and doubled over, trying to shield themselves from their reflection. But the ponies on the other two sides kept coming.

She spun to the opposite side. That stopped the ponies there, but her original targets got back up.

“We need to put our backs to something.” Silver Spoon’s eyes settled on the big tent.

“Not there!” Twist grabbed her, then back at the crowd. “I can sense danger! It’s worse in there than it is out here!”

“We have to,” said Gloria. “I already told you the exit is in there.”

Reluctantly, they backed up into the tent. Diamond Tiara needed to stay near the entrance, holding the mirror up to keep the crowd outside. The others inspected the inside of the tent, silver weapons brandished.

The outside of the tent distorted as ponies pawed at its side, but it didn’t look like they could force their way in.

The interior was mostly a wide-opened ring with stands for the audience all along the side. But the center wasn’t empty. It was filled with cages of mutated animals.

There was an alligator with dozens of eyeballs running along the length of the two heads. An octopus with eyeballs at the end of each tentacle. Wolves with eyes all along their backs. And every one of those eyes snapped straight onto Twist.

A clear pattern was emerging.

“Sometimes the exit can be a sanctuary instead of a literal exit,” said Silverspoon. “Or so I’ve read. Is there anything that makes you feel safe from-? Well.”

Silver Spoon looked at a two-headed alligator. She wasn’t sure if there was a way to politely say ‘from ponies looking at you like you’re a freak.’

“To shut out annoying ponies,” Silver Spoon landed on.

“Um.” Twist wracked her brain trying to figure the puzzle out. She grabbed onto her scarf under the cloak. “My scarf?”

“If it was that, you’d already be out of here.”

“It’s around here somewhere.” Gloria checked each of the cages.

It’d be easier if they knew what to look for.

“They’re piling up out here!” Diamond called after them.

“I’ll help you out!” That ringleader’s voice sounded.

A spotlight shone upon the trapeze high above them. They could see a stack of books, big enough to hide behind, balanced upon them.

Gloria closed her eyes and focused on the books. She nodded to the others, confirming that was the truth.

“Twist. Shoot the rope,” said Silver Spoon.

It was their last bolt but it’d be worth it. Twist aimed and hit it on the first go. The bolt bounced off, barely moving the trapeze.

“Steel rope, how sad!” The dream demon appeared on top of the stands. They couldn’t avert the mirror now. “Maybe if you try climbing up and jumping for it? Hm! But you’d have to bring that mirror with you or else!”

The cages opened up.

Silver Spoon knew what it was going for. It wanted to break the mirror. The demon couldn’t get close to the mirror itself, but if it made them drop it…

And there was no way Silver Spoon could climb up there and make the trapeze jump without the mirror covering her.

The beasts lunged forward. They couldn’t harm any of the fillies, but they could pin them. Silver Spoon punched the alligator off herself, sending it flying, only for the wolves to pounce next.

Only DT was able to hold them off completely and only by swinging the mirror around.

“Gloria. Twist. You’re going to have to hold them off.” Silver Spoon gestured towards the stands. “I’ll get the books down. DT used the mirror to keep the monsters off me.”

Twist and Gloria ran up the bleachers as Diamond followed Silver Spoon to the bottom of the ladder. A wave of ponies began filling in, stomping their way to smother Twist.

They tried having Diamond Tiara stand at the bottom. That was no good as the monsters could jump over her and pull Silver Spoon off.

DT climbed up, holding the mirror behind her while Silver Spoon sped ahead. The bottom of the poll began to crack but DT had to climb higher. Even knowing where this was going, Silver Spoon had little choice but to go along with it.

Silver spared a glance towards Twist and Gloria, running through the seats as they got stormed from every side.

“You’re putting a lot of eyeballs on these monsters,” said Silver, “considering their mane weakness is seeing themselves.”

“Well normally, I consider it tasteless to explain the dream, but you see this is a freak show, yeah?” It swept its cane across the tent, then pointed at Twist. “And ‘Twist’ here is the biggest freak of all! Everypony stares at her, with their eyes, and thinks about how freakish she looks behind her back.”

Ponies came up from the gaps between the seats below Twist, clutching for her cloak, trying to tear it off.

“Haha! They just want to see your scar!” It laughed. “Come on! Face your fear! Let them see!”

Gloria swung her dagger furiously to get rid of them. There were too many! The dagger finally got lodged in one of them before they fell off the stands. Gloria cursed before turning to Twist.

“Nothing she’s saying is true,” Gloria assured her.

“Yeah!” Diamond Tiara added. “If anypony is calling you a freak behind your back it’s me and I don’t do that.”

Gloria shot her a look.

“What I said I don’t do that!”

“So what you’re really saying,” said Silver, “is that they have to have lots of eyes or it won’t work? I see.”

The dream demon frowned and raised an eyebrow, realizing its mistake.

“You know what? It’s scarier if I don’t talk.”

Then it jumped behind the stands and vanished from sight.

One small victory. Now for the next.

Silver Spoon was at the top of the pole crumbling now. It’d fall at any moment. She took the jump, making the whole thing behind her topple over with DT on top.

Not that Diamond was in any danger herself. But she did fumble trying to keep hold of the mirror.

Silver focused on grabbing the books for now. She reached the trapeze. She didn’t quite manage to grab hold of them but did knock the books down to the ground. She landed hard, but the pain was still muted. Worse, but muted.

Now she just had to bring them to Twist.

She looked over at Diamond Tiara who had landed on top of the mirror. She got up with a sheepish look to reveal it’d been crushed to pieces beneath her.

No use in complaining now.

She turned to Twist instead. The crowd had piled high on top of Twist, grabbing and scraping at her, all of them trying to rip the cloak off of her. All the while, Twist yelled for help beneath them.

Silver ran after her with the book in tow. Diamond Tiara helped her try to dig through the crowd until finally, she was reachable.

“But we need to get the cloak on me first,” said Diamond Tiara. “Or I’ll be vulnerable in the next dream!”

“Twist will die for sure if she takes it off!” Silver Spoon shot back. “If she dies, we won’t be able to take it with us, either.”

Diamond Tiara hesitated but had to nod. There was no other way at this point.

Silver Spoon tapped the book to Twist’s head and the nightmare ended.


The new area, Diamond Tiara decided, was a warehouse for waste chemicals.

They stood on a metal floor, the wall to their left covered with barrels and shelves of clumsily arranged bottles. All of the bottles were marked with skulls or labels as simple as ‘poison’ or ‘death’. They came in ornate glass containers but held black or glowing green fluids that bubbled violently, so that they never stayed in one place for long. The whole thing would collapse eventually.

Worse were the metallic barrels of sludge marked with radioactive symbols. It wasn’t actual radioactive waste, but the cartoon kind that actually shone a bright green color, intense enough to add some light to the darkness. Not one of the barrels was intact. Every single one was dumped over or had significant enough cracks to leak its contents onto the floor.

All the waste provided a decent amount of light, albeit harsh and artificial. And high above, through windows on the ceiling, the moon added some slight assistance. Yet just off to their side waited a chasm of darkness that the moonlight hardly reached.

They were up on a rafter of sorts, overlooking the main warehouse area below, bits of sludge occasionally leaking off the ledge. That warehouse stretched out to the distance so vastly that were it not for the ceiling, Diamond Tiara would have guessed this was outside.

Her only clues to its dimensions were the occasional, dimly glowing piles of sludge that littered the view with green lights. These were just enough to illuminate the isles that the waste was contained on.

“Why does Twist get a carnival but mine is a toxic waste dump?” Diamond Tiara mimed a gag at the barrels of sludge. “What does this even mean?”

She turned to Silver Spoon, knowing her friend must have deduced it instantly. She did. She looked at the vials of bubbling poison with a frown. Her gaze went past the balcony to the dark floor below, then finally to Diamond Tiara with a bit too much sympathy.

“DT. Are you still–?” Silver Spoon hesitated.

“Am I still what?”

“Never mind. Now’s a bad time for this.” Silver Spoon trotted up to the railing, using it to go up on her hind legs.

Did Silver Spoon think she was on drugs or something?! That was absolutely not the case, and she didn’t want anypony to think that it was!

“No! I want to know!” Diamond Tiara went to her side.

Silver Spoon ignored her, scanning the floor below.

“Maybe,” Gloria spoke up with a little smirk. “It means you have a toxic personality?”

Diamond Tiara spun around to meet her smug grin with a glare and puffed-out cheeks.

“No,” said Silver Spoon. “It’s not what you are, it’s what you’re afraid of.”

“Thank you!” Diamond Tiara switched back to a smile. She knew Silver Spoon would have her back. “Obviously, I’m a very cleanly pony. I hate dirt and glowing radioactive waste is just advanced dirt. There. That’s my deepest fear.”

“Yeah.” Silver Spoon finished her scouting mission and joined the others on all fours. “I’m sure that’s it.”

“See?” Diamond Tiara took her turn to be smug. There was no way Silver Spoon would get something like this wrong.

“But I’m going to predict a monster is going to come from down there.” Silver Spoon pointed to the dark room below. “We’ll probably hear it first.”

Made sense.

Diamond Tiara perked her ears up swiveling about to try and find even the faintest sound. She did manage to find something! Faint, muffled voices, like somepony shouting from far away. That and a few banging noises, things shattering.

The others picked up on it as well, all three pointing their ears about in the darkness. There wasn’t one source.

“Are there ponies down there?” Gloria asked. “It sounds like they’re screaming.”

“Fake ponies at best,” Silver Spoon warned. “Ignore them.”

Gloria closed her eyes and did that mystical hoof thing. Diamond was sure that was gratuitous!

Something about this whole situation made Diamond shudder. Whatever horrors awaited her below could stay down there for all she cared. She just wanted to find something to hide under.

“Maybe we should wait for Twist to tell everypony outside what happened,” Diamond suggested. “They can pull us out.”

“We don’t know how long that could take,” Silver warned. “As far as we know, a few hours here could be one or two seconds outside. We have to assume we’re on our own.”

Gloria opened her eyes, that smirk gone.

“Bad news.” Gloria pointed to the far right of the first floor. “It wasn’t kidding about doubling its strength each time. There’s way more demonic energy over there than last time.”

“We still have one weapon left.” Silver Spoon lifted their only remaining line of defense. Even the most powerful demons, the kinds a dream demon couldn’t match even after a thousand years, took significant damage from silver. “There’s a reason I’m the one holding this. It’s unlikely it’ll be able to pull this off of me and it can’t kill me until the end.”

Silver Spoon motioned towards the other end of the rafter, opposite the stairs. That side opened up to a hallway leading further into the second floor. Without a word, they decided to go that way, rather than down to where the monster was waiting.

They moved at a swift canter. Diamond went maybe a bit swifter than the others. She wanted to get off this rafter thing!

Her main obstacle was a single waste barrel lying across the path. When she tried to climb over it, she accidentally sent it rolling!

It picked up way too much speed! Before any of them could stop it, it had rolled down the rafter, hitting the top of the stairs. Then it went straight down those stairs, banging its way down far too loudly.

The exact second the first thump came, there was a deafening howl that shook the rafters, knocking some of those bottles off the shelves, and forcing the fillies to cover their ears. Then heavy pounding came from below as the monster began to move.

“Die!” It sounded like it was screaming, followed by a chain of muffled syllables.

It kept shouting that over and over as it charged across the first floor. Diamond could see it knocking over barrels and cabinets as it moved with incredible speed, straight toward the stairs.

Silver ran to the top of the stairs, moving into stance to try and punch it back down. The stairs rattled and shook so badly that Diamond could hope the whole thing would dislodge itself.

Instead, the twisted beast came flying up the stairs.

It looked almost like a pony, one with hyper-elongated legs with extra joints. Sometimes, its legs branched out into additional limbs, giving it the impression of having a dozen legs.

It had no hooves, but mouths at the end of each leg. Heck, it had mouths all along the length of its legs and hooked claws too. Its actual mouth was a billowy, gangly hole that hung down like a sack – one big enough to stuff a pony inside of.

And it reeked! Its chemical stench reached Diamond Tiara already!

Silver Spoon faced the monster with no trace of fear. She jumped forward, swinging her boot at it hard.

But it was too fast! It moved across the wall, climbing like a spider to bypass Silver Spoon entirely. In a second it was behind her but ignored that filly entirely.

It was coming right for Diamond Tiara! No way she could outrun that thing!

Gloria jumped in front of Diamond Tiara in an attempt to be her meat shield. It slammed into her, digging its claws into her side. Hopefully, that didn’t hurt as much as it looked! At least there was no chance of her dying.

Diamond Tiara grabbed one of the black, fizzing bottles.

“Okay, monster! Have some!” Diamond paused to read the label. “Death!”

She threw the bottle. A small eruption of purple fumes and black fizz erupted all around the monster. It twisted the metal railings and burned Diamond’s nose from even this far back.

But the monster?

Its muscles tensed, then it expanded, growing larger than before! Slimy new hooks and claws appeared along the length of its legs.

“Poison only makes it stronger?!” Diamond Tiara jumped back.

All of their ammo was entirely poison-based!

Silver Spoon came in swinging from behind. This time, she managed to land a blow. Even something that big went reeling from the silver. The monster went tumbling off the rafter, landing with a thud below.

None of them believed for a second it’d stay down long.

“This way!” Silver Spoon galloped past the other two. “I have an idea.”

They didn’t have time to doubt her and followed. Behind her, Diamond heard the clang of something climbing the stairs once again. She heard it scream something like ‘die’ again. And felt she could almost make out the next syllable this time.

She didn’t look back to confirm it was coming for her.

Oddly, Silver seemed to know where she was going, turning corners with absolute confidence. Had she been to this place before? Was this a repressed memory?

The following halls were lighted only by their lantern and an occasional ray of moonlight. Screams and the sound of clanging metal followed them as they passed several rooms, any one of which they could have hidden in. But Silver waited until they got to a spot with two across from one another.

To their right was a room with a bunch of busted pipes, spraying water all over the place. Silver Spoon got that look when one of her theories was confirmed and pointed to the room opposite that. Here, of all places, she decided to hide.

They scrambled inside. Silver slammed the door behind them, holding onto the handle just in case she was wrong.

The monster collided with the door. It screamed and screamed. The shrill noise of metal against metal pierced Diamond’s ears as it scraped the walls and metal door.

But then it just gave up and left.

Diamond heard it stomping off, it kept yelling and shouting incoherent jibberish, but it left back downstairs.

Diamond let out a sigh of relief. Something about this room felt comforting and safe. She knew deep down that the monster would never get them so long as they stayed in here.

Which was odd, given how metallic and rusty the place was. There were a few odd machines Diamond couldn’t possibly name. Along the walls were posters showing some of the nature around Ponyville.

Silver marched up to those posters and tore one off, cursing under her breath when nothing was behind it but a blank wall.

“So now what?” Diamond asked. “Do we just hide in here until somepony injects us with the adrenaline?”

Silver Spoon shook her head.

“I don’t know if we can wait that long.”

She tapped a bit of rust on the wall. It was expanding rapidly. It seemed they wouldn’t be able to hide here forever. The safe space would eventually crumble to dust.

“Last time it didn’t notice us until we made too much noise,” said Silver Spoon. “I’ll bet we can sneak past it if we’re quiet.”

“Sneak off to where, exactly?” Gloria asked. “I can feel the exit down there somewhere, but it’s a big area to search.”

“This place is a warped version of Diamond Tiara’s house,” said Silver Spoon. “This is Diamond Tiara’s old bedroom and the path we took tracks perfectly to that large warehouse being the front area. The front door would be along the right wall, across from where the stairs end.”

Wait. It was?

Diamond Tiara hadn’t even noticed it herself until just now, but the layout of this room was a mirror of her old bedroom. She’d nearly forgotten what it even looked like, but the memories were trickling back now. It was gigantified and warped but kept the same shape.

Those posters of vacation spots were where her windows should be. The rusty machines were in the same spot and approximately the same size as all her old furniture. And across the hall should be the bathroom, in this nightmare a water pump station.

“Will that work?” Gloria asked. “The dream demon is intelligent enough for us to talk to it. It knows we’re up here. It’d know where the exit is. It could just wait by the bottom of the stairs.”

“I don’t think it can,” said Silver Spoon. “I didn’t do as much research as I should have in retrospect. But we all know demons are slaves to propriety. There must be certain rules it has to follow. Think about it.”

Silver held up the lantern, staring into its flames.

“In the first dream. Why not have it be so the mall is already on fire? Why not throw fireballs instead of spiders? It almost seemed like the demon couldn’t start the fire itself, didn’t it? Aurora was the only one who could start a fire.” Silver lowered the lantern. “Or here. Why did it have the monster appear downstairs and wait for us to make a sound? It shouldn’t have been difficult to have the monster standing right behind DT at the start. Unless, of course, it couldn’t do that either. All of them were like that.”

Gloria and Diamond shared a look, then a nod. It all made sense enough. It seemed everything had to be just so, all according to their fears.

“So that’s why,” Silver concluded, “I think it can’t kill her unless Diamond Tiara makes a noise first.”

Diamond Tiara swallowed hard, suddenly not wanting to utter a word or take a single step.

“We’ll carry you,” Silver suggested. “So that your hooves don’t make any sound at all.”

“All the way there?” Gloria shrugged and sighed. “Oh, boy. That’s gonna be–”

“Don’t. Say it.” Diamond pushed her muzzle against Gloria’s.

“It’s the only way to be sure. I’ll go first.” Silver lay down, letting Diamond climb on her back. “We should be quiet too.”

Though she felt a bit bad about getting a ride, she couldn’t argue with Silver’s logic. Silver Spoon didn’t have much trouble carrying her out of the room. But then, they had trained to run a marathon next week. That’s what all this combat training was for, after all.

They got back up to the rafters where they started. Once again, distant screams came from below. Silver Spoon scanned the first floor again, counting thirty-six rows of chemicals before they reached the wall where the front door should be.

Then she began the slow walk to the stairs.

Diamond’s instincts told her to hide as she watched the darkness below slowly pass her by. She shuddered, but it was out of her control. She was going down there either way.

They reached the stairs and crept down them ever so slowly. Step by step, they descended into the darkness, moving their hooves softly down. Silver Spoon kept the lantern as low as possible so that only the closest stairs and the green lights below could be seen.

Diamond started to get just a drop of confidence when they reached the bottom. She could hear the screaming and the shouting, the shattering and the banging.

The waste gave some idea of where all edges of the isles were, but they gave no additional illumination. They were locked in almost total darkness now with only suggestions of objects by omission.

As Gloria suggested, it knew they were there. Diamond could always see it, either to the left or the right. It’d stay silent for a time, just until Diamond’s guard lowered ever so slightly, then it would slam into something, shake the whole room, and scream.

She saw shadows of ponies in the dark, too. The monster throttled them and threw them back. They never fought back, nothing beyond shouting at it. From the looks of things, the monster would rip her to shreds the second it reached her. If it ever managed.

And of course, there was always that stench, a reeking odor that seemed more familiar as time went on.

But as Silver predicted, it never came close to them, it never went beyond being a shadow. It never screamed that thing that sounded like ‘die’ either. It wanted to make Diamond yelp at one of its jump scares, but she kept her mouth shut tight. That thing was not going to get her. No way Diamond would get killed by a joke monster!

Diamond counted fifteen rows so far. She was glad Silver had the foresight to note that much. Not knowing how much farther away the exit was would have driven her mad.

On the twenty-fifth row, Silver stopped them.

Your turn. Silver mouthed the words to Gloria, not daring to speak up.

Gloria slowly nodded. The two of them lay down side by side, giving Diamond a chance to wiggle from one to the other.

Slam!

Predictably, it made the biggest fuss of all just then. Diamond winced and waited for it to calm down, but it didn’t get her. She got on Gloria’s back without faltering.

Shortly after, only ten rows remained, but they didn’t dare run just yet.

About then, Diamond’s throat began to itch, and her nose tickled before she noticed anything else was wrong. It wasn’t until they reached the next row that she understood why.

Silver turned up the light just enough to confirm it. Big bags of powder waited on the next shelves. All of them were ripped open and the fans above created just enough airflow to mix them into the air. A fog of white and purple dust obscured the way forward and blocked the light of the lantern.

Before they could decide on a course forward, the wave or particles washed over them.

It burned Diamond’s eyes, but more importantly, it burned her nose and throat. She felt her throat tense, barely holding back her cough in time.

That was its plan! It was going to make her cough or sneeze! Then it could give itself permission to kill her!

“DT.” Silver whispered as quietly as possible. She wheezed a little herself. “Try to hold your breath.”

That wasn’t exactly easy! If Diamond had known this was coming, she could have taken a deep breath earlier. Now she had to make do with whatever was in her lungs already.

The other two dared moving forward a bit faster. It was no good! Gloria and Silver began hacking away, coughing deeply and painfully. Gloria sneezed every other step.

Diamond suddenly felt like she was holding onto a bucking bronco. Gloria was still moving forward, but it was a struggle.

Oh how Diamond wished she could join them in coughing up a storm. Her throat burned and convulsed. Her muzzle twitched, constantly threatening to sneeze. She lost count of the rows they’d passed.

“I think!” Gloria coughed. “I sense the door!”

Diamond opened her eyes to see where Gloria pointed. That turned out to be a mistake. The powder getting even more in her eyes was too much. She finally took another short breath and then–

“Achoo!” Diamond let out the loudest sneeze of her entire life.

Her nose was deeply satisfied with itself, but Diamond felt nothing but horror!

The monster screamed again! This time, Diamond could make it out better. ‘Die. Mon’. It was calling her name!

It was coming for her again, eyes locked dead on her as it barreled down the hallway.

“Crap! Run!” Gloria shrugged Diamond off and bolted forward. “This way!”

Silver Spoon ran towards the monster while the others rushed to the exit.

Silver must have missed again. Diamond could hear it behind her!

It was on top of the shelves, jumping from each one.

Gloria bucked the row next to them, the one it was on top of, knocking the whole thing over. She was just a little too late as it already jumped forward. But Gloria dove forward to knock that one over with a buck as well.

This time, it fell backward, buying Diamond precious seconds. Gloria tried jumping on top of it. Diamond didn’t stick around to see how that turned out.

She could see it now! A red exit sign in the dark!

She moved past the last bit of glowing, green sludge. She slipped just a little on it, tripping face-first into the door.

The monster landed right next to her, screeching her name with all of its mouths. Those legs all converged on Diamond at once. But Diamond also so the light of the lantern.

Silver Spoon slid to Diamond’s side just in time.

“Get back!” Silver Spoon threw a hard punch at it, forcing it to dodge.

Diamond fumbled with the door.

The monster threw a cabinet of chemicals at Silver Spoon, knocking her back and pinning her under a pile of rubble.

She opened the door! Outside she could see a clear, stary night! The lights were on in all the buildings in Ponyville, inviting her to safety!

Then she felt something bite down on her hind leg!

She turned to see the monster dragging her back, towards that enormous mouth. Diamond tried dragging herself forward and kicking her hind legs, but it was too strong for her.

The stench became unbearable! It was about to pull her inside!

Silver Spoon lay just off to the side, unable to get out from under the cabinet. But her forehooves were free. She tore her silver boot off and hurled it at the monster.

She hit! The monster let go and went tumbling far off into the darkness, its damage magnified by the silver boot.

“We have to get it back.” Diamond Tiara jumped to her feet. She could still see the silver boot. It was a good distance away.

“There’s no time! Just run!” Silver Spoon called out to her.

“But without that–” Diamond took one step towards it.

The monster rolled back onto its feet. It was charging at her again. She’d never make it there and back in time.

“I’ll be fine!” Silver pleaded with her. “You trust me, don’t you?”

Diamond nodded. She did. If anypony in her class could survive this, it was Silver Spoon.

“I’ll do everything I can in the real world!” Diamond promised as she ran out the door, into the stary night.