Chapter 1
Dead Equestrians Part 1
"Hello, my little pony, aren't you looking beautiful today? I know you were hoping for something a little whiter, more sanitary upon death, but I'm afraid that won’t happen. So quick, put these on and then follow me. And don't even think of trying to escape." The magenta witch pony, Ternifia, smiled evilly and hovered over a pair of grey-white pants and a white top. The clothes looked like jail clothes, like slave clothes…Which was exactly what they were.
"I don't understand..." The young church pony said confusedly. Her name was Choir Song, and she had a microphone in angel wings as a cutie mark. "What's going on?" She took the clothes and started putting them on, only understanding that nothing good would happen to her if she disobeyed.
"My dear sweet little pony, I would be only too happy to explain. My name is Ternifia. I am a witch pony, and I just love all you little dead Equestrians. This is my home, and out back is where I keep all my little pony pets. Good, you’ve dressed. Now, these may be a little tight at first, but don't worry. They'll loosen up once you start working with them. Now, tell me how you died." Ternifia told Choir Song. She levitated some shackles off the ground and started using her magic to fasten them to each of the young pony's legs.
"I- I was k-killed. In a vicious accident… I- I fell off a roof..." Choir Song answered, utterly terrified.
"Fell off a roof, did you? Then that's where you'll be working." As Ternifia fastened the final shackle to Choir Song's left hind leg she hovered over a chain and attached it to the chain in the front of the shackles, like a leash. She used her magic to tug it and said, "Now come with me and nothing bad will happen." She walked away, still holding the chain tightly in her magical grasp.
Choir Song stumbled a few times, trying to figure out how to walk with limited movement in her limbs thanks to the shackles.
After the fifth fall Ternifia turned around and yelled, "STOP FALLING BEFORE I MAKE YOU DRINK A FELLOW PONY'S SWEAT!" She then turned back around and continued walking, all the while holding the chain in her magical grasp. Choir Song was too terrified to let herself fall again, so instead she walked quietly and without falling. This seemed to please Ternifia, who promptly began speaking again. "And this here is the door to my bedroom. Would you like to see it? Oh of course you would! Come on in!" Ternifia had been taking the long route to the roof door, and was happy to give her "guest" a tour along the way.
She opened the door to her bedroom and the two mares entered. Ternifia then dropped the leash chain and took off the shackles, letting Choir Song roam freely around the surprisingly nice bedroom. It was huge, as big as her whole house had been. The walls were a dull orange, the same color as Ternifia's terrifying eyes. There were horn and wing designs all over the walls, the horns a bright magenta like Ternifia's coat and the wings a lime green, like Ternifia's mane. Choir Song found the room strangely comforting and inviting. Then she noticed four doors besides the entry in the room. They were split two and two on each of the side walls, and each door had a symbol on it. The door on the left wall closest to the entrance door had a small dress on it. This was Ternifia's personal closet. The door next to the closet had on it a pony in shackles. This was where the ponies who weren't working, who Ternifia was currently using to entertain herself, were kept. The door across from the closet on the right wall had on it an angel. This was the door to the real afterlife. There were times when Ternifia was nice enough to send a pony there. And the final door had on it a picture of the two Princesses - Luna and Celestia - for this was the door back to Equestria. Choir Song gulped. She longed to race through that door.
"Ahh, ahh, ahh. You won't be going through any of those doors today… that I can promise you." Ternifia laughed with an evil tone, and it was as if she could read Choir Song's mind.
Choir Song sighed and continued looking around Ternifia's room. The bed looked like a giant rose petal, only the color was off. As far as Choir Song knew roses came in red, white, pink, and sometimes black, but this petal was the color of dusk, a pink, orange, red and yellow combination that was off, but beautiful.
Other than that the room was decidedly empty.
Choir Song was thinking of her bedroom back home, how much smaller and fuller it had been, when Ternifia said, "Come here. I have something to show you." She smiled humorlessly as she stood by the door with a pony in shackles on it. Choir Song gulped and walked over.
Ternifia opened the door with her magic and revealed the inside. There were twenty-three ponies inside. It was nothing like Choir Song had thought it would be. It was a six foot drop onto an uninviting concrete floor with walls twenty feet high of a black not unlike that of Nightmare Moon's flank. There were small, dully lit lamps every two feet up and each three feet apart. The room was tall, but decidedly small and was only half the size of Ternifia's bedroom. There was a table at every corner and in the center, all round. The one in the center came with twelve chairs, the ones in the corners with only six. Thirty-six chairs in total. All along every wall where tables and chairs weren't present were hospital beds fully equipped with restraints. There were also thirty-six beds. This seemed to be the maximum number of ponies allowed in the room at once.
Choir Song noticed that the ponies in the room were not shackled, and that four of them were restrained tightly to a bed.
"Why are they restrained?" Choir Song couldn't help but ask.
"Because they've been naughty little ponies." Ternifia answered.
"Well, aren't you worried that somepony else might untie them?" Choir Song wondered aloud.
"They can't. They are restrained with magic. If somepony else tries to untie them they too will become restrained to a bed." Ternifia answered lightly.
"Do they sleep?" Choir Song wondered.
"Oh yes. Whenever one of my little ponies gets tired they go onto a bed. Then they are restrained and are kept that way until the next morning." Ternifia was so nonchalant in her response.
Choir Song didn't answer and instead looked around the room again. She noticed magazines, cards, board games and other forms of entertainment - none electronic - around the room. She had noticed that a few of the ponies looked happy and were playing some games. She also noticed that the ones that were restrained had been asleep.
"Yes. Once they are restrained they are injected with a sleeping serum. It lasts for eight hours minimum, twenty-eight maximum." Ternifia said, again as if reading Choir Song's mind.
"Twenty-eight hours?! Isn't that over doing it a little?!" Choir Song demanded.
"It only lasts that long the first time. I have to make sure that all my little ponies have lots of energy." Ternifia's voice took on a much more sinister tone than it had had before.
"What's wrong...?" Choir Song dared ask.
"Nothing's wrong. I just think that you need twenty-eight hours’ worth of sleep." Ternifia wore her evil smile again and levitated Choir Song into the room, without setting her on the ground.
"Listen up, my little ponies!" Ternifia's voice boomed into the room. "This here is Choir Song! She was killed earlier today! A terrible accident! She fell off a roof! Now I know you all feel sorry for her, and I trust that when she wakes up in twenty-eight short hours you will explain to her exactly how we do things around here! I hope you all enjoy the rest of your day!" With that, Ternifia hovered Choir Song over to one of the beds and she was instantly restrained. Once settled, the restraint on her right foreleg produced a needle that injected her with a sleeping serum that would last for twenty-eight hours. The restraints on the other four ponies were released, as was tradition when a new pony was admitted to this room. Then all twenty-three of the other ponies crowded beside Choir Song's bed and let the restraints from the bed tie them all together on the side of the bed. Such was tradition. They would have to stay that way for an hour without moving or talking. Every time one of them moved or talked it would be recorded, and they would have to drink the sweat of as many ponies as their number of indiscretions, would be whipped five times for every indiscretion and would get one set of twenty-eight hour sleep for every indiscretion. Ternifia was extremely fluent at torturing ponies.
"Any questions?!" Ternifia called to her tied up ponies. This was the last chance they'd have to talk for a whole hour.
"Yes!" Called a young pegasus colt.
"What is it, Flighty?" Ternifia asked the colt.
"Why her? Usually the only ones who enter this room have been dead for at least a month." Flighty inquired.
"That's a very good question, Flighty. I'm glad you asked. Yes, usually a pony should be dead for a month before I bring them here, but things will be changing around here extraordinarily. This happens to be the first change." With that Ternifia nodded once and shut the door on the twenty-four ponies in the room.
Back in her bedroom she looked at the shackles that Choir Song had been wearing still lying on the floor. She used her magic to vaporize them and then called her cleaning pony to clear it up. The stallion came in and immediately had it cleaned up and was back out before there was time to say "thank you". Ternifia smiled evilly once more. She then left her bedroom and crossed the hall to her mail room. She had two letters which she picked up with a smile. The first letter was from none other than Princess Celestia, who had no clue as to what this witch pony had been up to.
Dear Ternifia,
It is I, Princess Celestia. I am writing to you on account of having had to banish my dear sweet little sister, Princess Luna, to the moon. I know your powers are many and I trust that you will be able to make sure she doesn't escape. You have been my royal adviser since I began my reign on Equestria, and I thank you for all you've done for me. I now have another favor to ask of you, and it will be no easy task. I need your immortality, I know you do not have any, but I need you to have some. I need you with me forever. You have been so good for me and my kingdom. I trust that this letter finds you well and that you will be able to use your magic to make yourself immortal, as I am, so that you will always be able to aid me.
With love,
Princess Celestia.
P.S.
I have sent you another letter with a specific task that I believe only you can succeed in.
Was what the message said. Ternifia smiled.
Perfect. She doesn't suspect anything. This just makes it all the easier... Ternifia thought.
She picked up the second letter, also from the princess, and read it.
I need you to leave your home for one week and come to Canterlot castle. I shall need your aid and guidance more than ever now that my sister is gone. Once you arrive I will have to ask a terrible lot of you, but I trust that a unicorn of your incredible power will be able to accomplish every last one. Come the day you get this letter.
Until then,
Princess Celestia.
Ternifia smiled to herself. She would lock up her ponies and make sure they couldn't escape, and then go to help her beloved princess, who she had acquired quite a passion for.