//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9 
// Story: The Edge of Madness 
// by SaltyJustice 
//------------------------------//

	I took a quick detour back home to grab my equipment before returning to the school to go on a search.  I tried to make it look as though I was just exploring, but the campus wasn't really big enough to get away with that.  Fortunately, nopony seemed to care, all too busy going about their own business, as I stuck my head into each room at least once to give a clear.
I checked the entire building twice, and nothing seemed amiss.  I did not let down my guard, not even for a moment, but my senses told me nothing.  The only room I did not check was the basement, for that'd be far too suspicious to try to get away with, and the place creeped me out anyway.  I was not in a hurry to go back.
Finally, after finding absolutely nothing in the search, I picked a spot on the floor in the hallway with the basement, and opened up my novel.  I kept my eye on the entryway as the student body began to thin as the day went on, until it was only I left as the sun set outside.  The building didn't have much of an internal light source, only a few rooms remained lit up as presumably a few teachers went over their curricula by candle light.  I just used my hooflight to read my book as I sat keeping watch.  I was still only on the fifth chapter of 'Daring Do and the Figurative Spiral'.
The basement door still hadn't been fixed, the warning tape still remained.  The gaping void beyond it was threatening to me even to look at, I did not let my eyes linger on that awful place any more than I had to before returning to my reading.  Gazzo's terror had been my terror, it was all the more real because I had not experienced it myself.  A cold wind blew by me, and made my coat stand on end.
"Gah, sis is unacceptable.  Sees Zephyrians, who do sey sink sey are?" I heard somepony cursing to himself just around the corner.  A pale yellow glow announced the presence even if I could not see the speaker.  Feeling I had nothing better to do, I got up to go investigate.
Standing around the corner, staring at a bulletin board with a range of notices posted on it, was a very old stallion, his mane greyed with age, a great bushy white mustache adorning his mouth.  Even his coat was very pale, it had been much darker when I saw him last...
"Erdrick Van der Bolt," I said, looking at him with a big smile on my face.  He turned to me with a confused expression.
"Eck, erm, hello there.  I did not see you, I apologize," he said, his accent somehow vanishing.  Before he had spoken with a very distinct German twinge, and yet now it was dead flat, no accent at all, to my ears.  Uncanny.
I kept smiling until I realized he did not recognize me.  After all, how could he?  I was dead, to him, and he'd never put the pieces together by himself.
"I don't know who you're talking to.  Name's Eddy," he said, extending a hoof to me.  I shook it, being careful not to break anything, I was sure he'd be very delicate.  If my estimates were right, he'd be just over a hundred years old, and still working?  Simply incredible.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Eddy, I had you confused for somepony else," I said.  I looked right at him, he moved his eyes away, a soft whistle left his lips, "an old friend of mine.  Oh well."
"Erm, yes ma'am.  Are you new here?" he asked, giving me a once-over.
"Just started, first day," I said.  I wasn't going to let him change the subject, and I felt like teasing him just a little.
"Name's Miamore, but my friends sometimes call me Amy," I said, trying to get him to look back at me.  He was very studiously keeping his eyes averted, "It's short for Amoria."
If he recognized the name, he did not react.  It was a minor curse of mine, when sometimes I would return to find a pony who I had known before who had not moved on.  Only a few had dared make that grim connection through the ages, and it was no doubt a very uncomfortable leap to make, having mourned my passage only to find me returning decades later, fresh and young.  Perhaps I ought to leave him alone, though a little reunion would have been nice.

I had met him last when he was just beginning his training in the air force.  His family were immigrants, acrobats and fliers who had come to Equestria for reasons I had never managed to pry out of him.  He had joined the army when he was just old enough, mostly out of fear of having to become a circus act like his father wanted.
We had special programs for ponies like this.  Every now and then, a pony who is uniquely suited for his task comes along, one who seemed to be built for the mold and more than happy to break it.  Erdrick was one such pony, distinguishing himself within a year as the most promising flier in his class.  Yet, when he graduated, he left the service within a month, complaining that he was not content to follow and nopony ever should be.  Tia had become concerned, not for the integrity of her armed forces, but because I believe she may have fancied him, albeit from afar – she never got involved in such business.  I had picked up her hints and pursued, and Erdrick showed me his true skill – evasion.  I hunted across the country, trying to find him as he remained incognito, always one step ahead.
Eventually the chase wound down, as Erdrick had been moving methodically between every major city in Equestria, always staying for only two days before moving on.  I showed pictures, asked passersby, alerted the guards, yet he had always moved on to the next town by the time I caught up.  The only common thread was his interest in young athletes, schoolmasters always remembered his visits very vividly.
And one day, I caught up to him, watching a group of Pegasi flying laps in a small village just outside of Trottingham, its name lost to me.  He had been expecting me, he said, and presented me with a list of names.  I asked him what they were, he said, "The best."
He told me he wanted to change the world, to inspire everypony to be their very best.  He had flown around the country to find the next generation's up-and-coming and ask them to join his organization when they came of age.  His plan was to create a network of coaches and charities in every city who would make sure everypony could come together in sports and contests, to truly bridge the gaps that had been building in our society.  Money was no issue.  Fillies could play against colts, mules and zebras would be treated the same as any pony.
I had asked him why he had hidden himself, why he had tried to do this secretly, and he told me there were powerful forces who didn't want it to happen.  He never did tell me what he was talking about, only that they existed, and they would stop him if they found out, before he was ready.
I left him alone after that, though I did enjoy a correspondence with him, on Celestia's behalf.  In truth, he wrote letters to me, and Celestia wrote them back, in my name, that was the extent of her life outside the castle.  A few years later, he started his program, and Equestria's single-largest racing event, the Van der Belt derby, began.
Unfortunately, my time had ended shortly after, and I was not privy to the intrigues that happened afterwards.  His coaches had unanimously decided to honor him after his retirement by forming a team of the greatest fliers, the "Wonderbolts", in his honor.  A fitting tribute.  I would need to remember to ask Celestia if she had ever acted on her impulses.

"Oh, well Ms. Miamore, I was just mopping, if you don't mind," he said.  There was still a tiny inflection of his accent lingering on the edge of his words, perhaps he was hiding himself?
This was his school, or formerly, anyway.  Fortunately, I am very well versed in dealing with ponies who refused to be straight with me.
"Ah, what were you muttering about?  Zephyrians?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing important.  You know, in my day, we wouldn't let anypony try to pick off our students," he said, motioning towards one of the pamphlets that hung from the board.  I took a closer look.
"Be all you can be, except with a jetpack!  Join the Rocket Knights today!" I said, reading it aloud.  There was a picture of a Pegasus pony with huge oversized goggles and what looked like a silver toilet bowl with red fins on it strapped to her back.  The rest of the pamphlet was recruiting information.
"What?  Is this a joke?" I asked, turning to 'Eddy'.
"No, I'm afraid it's very real.  They put those deathtraps on their backs so they can fly faster, pure insanity, if you ask me.  And now, and now!" he said, looking like he was about to tear the pamphlet from the board, "They come over here and try to get our students to sign on?  Preposterous, I say, simple preposterous."
"Why don't you just take it down?  It's just a flier," I said, moving to bite it and pull it off.
"Nein!" he said, stepping in my way to block me, a wild look on his face.  "I mean, no.  The new administrator says they can stay up as long as the contract isn't violated," he said, not trying to hide the disdain in his voice, "I wouldn't want to get in trouble."
"Oh, well I wonder what the old owner would think.  Did you hear what happened?  I didn't, hadn't even moved in yet," I said, trying to make it obvious I knew who he was.  He didn't take the hint.
"Hm, I don't think he'd care, what with him being retired and all.  Retired twice, that is," he said.  He cleared his throat.  "Don't know much about the specifics, and I shouldn't be gabbing to the students when there's work to do."
With Celestia, switching the bedsheets so they didn't go all the way to the edge was usually enough to get her to talk, and if that didn't work, there was always the old trick of switching the milk with white-coloured clay putty, or switching her ink with lemon juice and food coloring.  I'd always wind up paying for it later, but it was a firm indication not to dance around important issues.  I also knew it wasn't going to work on Erdrick, he was a tougher nut to crack.
"I get you, I'll let you do your work.  You know what they say about the ears having walls," I said, winking at him.
"You mean, the walls have ears?" he asked.  He wasn't picking up any of my hints, I was starting to think I would need to hit him over the head and explain it to him.
"They certainly do," I said.  How could he think nopony recognized him?  He was world-famous!  Then again, so am I, and nopony recognizes me, either.  Maybe it's simply the gall of such an obvious lie that sways the casual onlooker, the "it's so crazy that it must be true" effect.
"I should really get back to work," he said, looking at me, "and you're standing where I need to mop."
"Fine," I said, turning around and walking off.  I started back towards my novel, still open on the floor, when I heard something else coming from the other end of the hall.  It sounded like shouting.
I started trotting towards it, more curious than alert, as I had thought almost everypony had already left the building, other than the cleaning staff.
"I said, leave her alone!" came the call again as I got closer.  The voice sounded familiar, a very raspy and squeaky voice of a filly.
"Hey wait, come back, come back!" it shouted, and I saw Rainbow Dash charge down the hallway ahead of me, entering my sight and exiting it in a moment.  I took off running after her, banking down the corridor.  There were no signs of life in the corridor beyond, had she been yelling at shadows?  The sound of her hoof-falls told me which path she had taken, I ran after them and followed them in a nauseating path that led around several classrooms and through twists and turns.
"Fluttershy, wait, it's okay!" she shouted, though I could not see Fluttershy anywhere.  I had thought she would be back at the house.  At last, Rainbow came to a stop in front of an empty doorway, covered in yellow and black warning tape.  She stared down the void in front of it, looking uncertain as I caught up to her.  The basement.
"What happened, why are you running?" I asked as I stopped to catch my breath.  Rainbow wasn't winded in the slightest.
She didn't respond, she kept looking into the darkness.  "Fluttershy?" she called out, but there was no response.  I could hear a loud humming sound coming out of the open door, probably the result of some machine.  There was a rhythmic thumping associated with the humming sound, it was oddly unsettling.  I also hadn't heard it last I had been here, but that had been when the school was supposedly empty.
If there had been a response, it would have been drowned out.  Rainbow put a hoof forward tentatively onto the first step, and before I could even comprehend it, I found myself grabbing her by the tail and pulling her backwards.
"Hey, what gives?" she called angrily at me.  My brain caught up with my mouth just in time to spit her tail out, and shake my head.
"What's going on?"  I asked, "and be honest, this is very important."
"Some..." she trailed off, before stating, "guys.  These guys were makin' fun of Fluttershy, so I tried to make em stop," she said.
"I see, and she ran off, just like that?" I asked, peering past Rainbow and into the basement.
"Yeah," she said, suddenly looking sheepish.  No time.
"Rainbow, go back to the house and wait for me there, I'll find her, okay?" I said.  My tone made clear this was not a request.
"But, I -" she started, before I cut her off.
"This is not up for debate Rainbow, I will take care of this," I said.  She didn't move.
"Please?"  I asked.
"No," she said simply.
"Okay, how about you wait here while I go check it out then?  It's very dangerous down there," I said.  She accepted that, crossing her forelegs.  "Fine."
I switched on the light around my leg and shone it down into the inky blackness leering at us through the portal.  The light was not particularly strong, but I could see the darkened floatstone floor at the base.  It was far too narrow to fly, so I stepped gingerly down into the basement on three legs, limping forward while shining the light everywhere.
"Fluttershy?" I called out into the dark.  I sent the light into the corners, but there was a veritable maze of piping running everywhere.  The basement itself was warm, I almost began to sweat, but the pipes themselves had an aura of cool radiating around them.  They also blocked my sight, and I swept the small room carefully.  I felt the air disturbed beside me.
"Rainbow, go back upstairs," I said, turning to face her.  She was hovering gently in the middle of the room, her small frame allowing for greater maneuverability.  She ignored me as she peered into the darkness.
"Fluttershy, it's okay, come on out," she called out.  The thrumming was louder now, though I could not identify where it was coming from.  In fact, other than the pipes, the room was empty.  I remembered there being a furnace here, but it was gone, and a quick check showed no evidence of it anywhere, nor of Fluttershy.  The room was empty.
"Are you sure she went down here?" I asked. 
"Yeah," she said, looking around, also bewildered.
That feeling of dread began to overtake me, not the one my senses gave me during an attack, but one far worse.  There was no other way out, she could not have slipped past us.  Had they already claimed her?  Had Rainbow's eyes deceived her?  I did not know, so I resolved to redouble my efforts.  In the corner, where before I remembered there having been a furnace, there was now a square wooden depression in the floor.
I could hear the throbbing sound loudest while standing near it.  I rapped the wood twice with my hoof, it returned a hollow knock indicating there was something beneath it.  Rainbow came up beside me and looked at the depression as I did.
"Down there?" she asked.  There was a tremble in her voice, though her face would betray no fear.  My heart beat harder as the realization made its way over me.  There was no way she doubled past us, she must have hidden herself in whatever this sub-basement was.  I swallowed hard, and nodded at Rainbow.
"I'll check it out, wait for me out in the hall," I said.  This time, she listened to me, all too eager to quit the eerie atmosphere as the thrumming became louder.  I pulled the wooden block out and revealed the passage beneath.  The humming was deafening now, further communication would be impossible.
I poured the light down the hole before me, showing a floatstone floor much like the one I was standing on some distance below me.  There were no steps, no ladder, and it was far too narrow to fly up the small hole.  That was a problem for later, I slipped down the gap.
The room I landed in was much like the one I had left, though much larger.  Pipes here ran everywhere, forming walls that were impenetrable to all but my light's beam.  I tried to shine it through the gaps, but successive walls blocked all but the closest path.
I shouted into the darkness, but the noise blocked it out before I even heard my own voice, drowned beneath a sea of thumping and whirring all around me.  I could see, in the far corner, the familiar orange glow of the furnace machine.  I set off towards it.
The pipes formed a maze that required me to jump over and crawl under the blockades as I went.  Cool steam would burst from the pipes and hit me in the face.  I guessed, as I went, that these pipes pulled water from the cloud layer and brought it for use in the school, darting here and there to take it across the campus buildings.
The path weaved and snaked through the layers of piping, I bumped my head as I finally reached a clear area in front of the furnace, it cast an orange counterpoint to the white light ahead of me streaming from my hoof.  There was no sign of Fluttershy here either, but, if I were to turn the machine off, I could call out to her.
There seemed to be no fuel source around, and given the nature of the room, I wondered if they hadn't dome some sort of magic enchantment to keep the thing running.  Just how was a janitor expected to get down here anyway?  I checked the front of the furnace out, it was a steel grate attached to what looked like something burning on the inside, there were no switches or valves of any kind attached to it.  The thumping was definitely coming from this device though, and the humming did seem loudest next to it.
Barring breaking off the exhaust pipe, there seemed to be no way to shut the machine off.  I thought, foolishly, of removing the fuel, though I'd need a tool.  Looking around, I saw a pipe that looked loose and grabbed it with both hooves.
I pushed with my legs as hard as I could, until a loud crack signaled the pipe breaking off and steam shot out of the attached line.  The pipe itself was cool, slightly bent from where I had torn it off, but it would do.
I gingerly opened the grating on the furnace, it was cool to the touch, completely unnatural for a furnace.  I tried to pay it no mind, my goal was to find Fluttershy and get out before solving all the inconsistencies that plagued this place.  She needed my help, and that came first.
Of course, it was not until I thought that thought, that I realized it was the same one Gazzo had thought last.  The realization sent a chill down my spine, time was running out.
There was no wood or coal in the furnace, but what looked like a charred piece of meat.  Had some poor bird flown down the exhaust pipe?  I poked at it with the pipe section in my mouth, no sparks shot out.  Despite sitting in the furnace, it was cool.
I could not get a decent grip on it with the pipe, so I used it to delicately pull the charred flesh out of the furnace by dragging it along.  It rotated and flipped a few times as I pulled it out, before getting caught on the lip of the furnace.  I wrenched at it, using the pipe as a lever, before it finally popped out of the furnace and landed on the floor.  All at once, the throbbing and the humming stopped all around me and the room became dead silent.
I looked at the lump that had fallen at my side, it left black charred flakes where it had skidded before coming to a stop.  It was a skull, and as I examined it, the terror I had been fighting this whole time finally overcame its hurdles.  The eye sockets, the shape of the face, the snout, the overlarge cranium.  It was a filly's skull.  Fluttershy's skull.
The revelation hit me and, as I sat there daring to confirm what my eyes were telling me, I heard it, a little laugh coming from somewhere else in the room.  Very, very close.  It giggled unnervingly, and there was no chance it was Fluttershy herself.  The poor filly had merely been the bait, and I, the fool who took it, walking right into their trap.
The sense of hatred filled the air around me, making it thick and swirling around me.  The atmosphere itself oppressed, I could hardly breathe as I fought the urge to panic.  The laughter became louder and louder, more voices joined the first as they closed in on me.  My sword sat upstairs somewhere, why had I not taken it with me?  Now I was alone, defenseless, trapped here in this impossible place to await the jackals to overtake me.
No, I would not go easily.  I would take these monsters to hell with me.