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// ch32 a trap to a test 
// Story: The Tallmare (being reworked) 
// by hus 
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It was about 7 am when they arrived at the old dilapidated military hospital. They came out through a clearing amidst several twisted pine trees and stared in astonishment at the abandoned building. It towered over the forest with an ominous presence. Its layout was star-shaped and its main entrance loomed over the group of ponies. On that entrance there were two statues of diamond dogs looking down at all who entered, it truly was an ominous sight, but yet splendid in its presentation. Beyond the five-story star-shaped building lay an old and cracked cement road that once saw military vehicles delivering patients to the building. Now grass filled the potholes and trees sprung out through the concrete with physical signs of unkept erosion withering away the road. 

As Twilight stared up at the building, she noticed that their new party member wasn’t so amazed by the structure. Instead, she remained at the back of the herd looking at the building with paralyzing fear. 

“How do you know this place? Why are you taking me here? Is this just to mock me? Let me guess, some towns ponies saw me here and are now there little jokes behind my back about waking up here… is this some sort of mockery of my sanity?!” The violinist screamed in anger directly into Twilight’s face as she rushed up to the element of magic.

“Octavia we’re not trying to make fun of your situation but we’re just coming here for something important. That thing is…” She desperately tried to think of some way to convince Octavia that she was in good hooves without telling her the truth. 

“The thing is what? To lecture me about about my mentor’s condition? What do you think you are, some sort of therapist of mine? You smartass lavender bitch, I don’t know what in Celestia’s fucking ass you’re trying to accomplish here but I’m not falling for it” 

“Octavia wait I’m not trying to do that, I’m trying to… you know what I’ll just tell you, we’re here because the Tallmare told us to come here.” Well, she finally told the truth, but it didn’t seem to help Octavia in the slightest.

“You think I would believe that some folkmonster told you to come meet at the hospital? You think I’m some sort of gullible filly, don’t you? Let me guess, your bug friend is sensing my emotional state and trying to use that information so that you can lie to me better!”

The changeling, in response, galloped to Octavia and bucked her in the face before pinning her to the ground. “Listen here, we’re not trying to do that. You should know that this thing is real, you must have seen it during the war, haven’t you?” 

Octavia laughed again, “You think I don’t remember the war? I bet you have experienced it too you insect. Don’t try to bring up memories I choose not to remember and even when I remember them I don’t recall anything of the sort revolving around that monster.”

As Twilight watched the ensuing argument she and her friends looked back at the abandoned military hospital behind them, the sun was setting and the front entrance beckoned them to come in with one of its doors missing. Twilight then looked back at their friend who continued to glare up at Thorax with disdain. Eventually Twilight decided to grab Octavia with her magic and drag her to go in with them. 

“Wait wait wait, you’re not taking me! You’re not taking me! You’re not taking me in there! That place gives me nightmares. I don’t want to! I don’t want to! I don’t know what it is about that place that makes it so chilling, but I don’t want to be there, I don’t want to be there!” 

As Octavia got dragged to the torn-down front doors of the hospital, Thorax felt genuine fear in her as she desperately clawed at the ground with the front of her hoves. This type of fear was one of unfamiliarity yet he could tell a small part of her mind was warning her of something she didn't remember.  The cocktail of her emotions tasted strange, Thorax didn't understand why Octavia had this deep-seated fear for the structure but yet had no idea of what about it she feared. To the changeling she was an anomaly, to herself; a victim of something she had forgotten. 

As Twilight reached the foreboding entrance, she was only greeted by an entire room of darkness with sunlight seeping through broken windows. She then saw a table in front of her and realized that this was the front desk. She had lit up her horn as she dragged the violinist in while her friends followed suit. On the right side of the front desk was a hallway that was covered with black mold and had dust bunnies and cobwebs hanging off hospital doors or where hospital doors once were. The fading sunlight showed the room still holding old stains from wounded soldiers that used to be treated in the many rooms and the medical cabinets looked perfectly intact. As Twilight continued to walk with her friends she noticed a plaque on the wall with a printed piece of paper that was presumably a fire escape plan for the first floor that they were on. 

The map was consistent with the star shape of the building and so far the plans showed that the floor and probably the rest of the other floors had rooms laid out like some sort of labyrinth with multiple rooms dedicated to multiple purposes and massive food storage occupying the entire bottom right triangle of the star with a little pool resting in the center. At the very top of the star was a cafeteria and next to it was a firing range, which Twilight thought that whoever designed the hospital intended the soldiers to recover and train again before heading immediately back to the field of war. This made sense because Twilight remembered the war ended with a lot of pony power, especially during the changelings blitzkrieg near the Crystal Empire. The other side of the triangle was mostly for living accommodations and then the upper left was something labeled as “Vehicle Parking” which was probably used for the wounded patients to be transported in. Then in the bottom left was labeled as “Morgue 1” which morbidly enough was also where the fire exit was. 

“Well sheesh, I knew the ponies' experience in the world was bad but, this is just fucking cruel. They might never been to this hospital before, but whoever had been here before I feel sorry for them.” Applejack mused with horror as she peeked over Twilight’s shoulder. 

“Yeah, they were just on the first level. No wonder this building was abandoned, it didn't just get abandoned out of lack of use but rather, because of how horribly designed this place was. Not just in the architectural sense but the soldiers who went there was probably a nightmare to navigate…especially trying to reach the fire exit which is in the morgue.” Twilight immediately looked away from the map on the wall and looked back at the winding hallway in front of her. 

The sun was now rapidly disappearing and the true darkness of the hospital started to settle in. Octavia had started clawing at the ground and Twilight let go of her. Octavia picked herself back onto her hooves and followed Twilight on her left flank while her eyes moved around the many hospital doors as if she suspected something. As they continued to walk down the winding hallway with Twilight’s dim purple light guiding the way. They eventually reached what was presumably the pool room. The water from the entirely circular pool was completely drained and when Twilight and Thorax stepped close to it they saw how incredibly deep it went. 

As Thorax activated the light on his horn he felt Twilight and him share a similar feeling, a feeling of something following along with them. The group walked around the pool’s edge and eventually found what appeared to be an elevator shaft, which was obvious because it was a triangle-shaped wall that went up to the ceiling. 

“Well, I don’t know how to get up there. Especially since this building is obviously out of power, and to be honest I don’t know why the Tallmare wants us here. Does it want to kill us?  Or does it want you Twilight?” Thorax turned his head to look at Twilight who looked away nimbly, understanding what the changeling was getting at. 

Then suddenly all the horns started flickering and that familiar pain came over them that they were all dreading. One of them, the key outlier in the group, started twitching and fretting around on the ground screaming. Immediately, Applejack and Fluttershy tried to restrain Octavia so she wouldn’t fall into the pool. As they restrained her the flickering purple and green light appeared and a shadowy black tendril wrapped around Octavia’s leg as another one with was wrapped around her torso and pulled her into the gaping darkness. As Applejack and Fluttershy looked into it their heads ached with pain with the others. They suddenly ended up in another room along with the others. Applejack couldn’t see and neither could Fluttershy, as each one of them called out and stumbled onto broken wooden chairs they couldn’t see, they realized they had been separated. 

As for Twilight, she sat down on her flank completely alone. For some reason there was a  campfire in front of her and all around her were ponies with masks that were from Nightmare Night which had been about a year ago. There were about ten of them, all just looking at her. They didn't seem to move. They all were staring at her like a bunch of statues. Twilight had probably guessed that they were in a similar state as Octavia had been and didn’t really have any say in their participation nor even knew about their participation. 

As Twilight turned her head back and lit her horn back up all she could see was bones upon bones of the skeletons of foals and fully grown adult ponies from years ago. Amongst them, that was the freshest, were two bodies which were all covered in a black mold that seeped from their eyes and all orifices which had eaten away at their skin and left blisters in their flesh. They were very recognizable, that of Ms. Truly and the child of Bon Bon and Lyra, Buzzwing.