15th August 20XX. 13:22pm. The Stair Case.
“Keep calm. Calm, calm. All is calm.”
Tremors ran down the purple mare's legs as she stepped forward, approaching the bottom of the stairs nervously. “Fluttershy?” She said hesitantly, looking into the small nook behind the stairs. A second shudder ran through her and she shook herself lightly, blinking hard to try and focus.
“Logic, Twilight” she said to herself, a warm purple glow blossoming at the tip of her horn, “Think logically.” Gulping down nausea, she peered into the hole again. This time, she examined the area carefully, looking for any clues. There were a few pink strands in the carpet and the carpet was depressed where Fluttershy had been sitting. The depression ran underneath her feet and Twilight turned, following it back to the bottom of the staircase. There were also a few pink hairs along the trail, suggesting Fluttershy had been pulled.
“By who?” Twilight murmured, touching the spot where the definition ended. The clue was that there were only a few hairs lying about. If Fluttershy had really been putting up a fight, there would have been a mess. Hair and feathers all over the place. Even, Twilight swallowed, blood. Not that she could tell if there was blood on the carpet. It was the perfect shade to hide any signs. “I should have brought my luminol spray” she groaned, thumping herself as she frowned, looking around for any other clues.
Frowning, Twilight noticed that the paintings were now askew, as if some huge force had knocked them out of place. The guest book had also fallen onto the ground, pages bent and crumpled. Twilight looked from the book to the paintings, then tilted her head upwards towards the ceiling. “Ahah” She exclaimed with a smug grin, spotting one of the lights had been broken. “Rainbow Dash.” And, she'd bet her socks (if she had any!) on it, Fluttershy had gone that way too. As if the mansion was congratulating her, a small yellow feather drifted down and landed on the books spine, trembling in front of her. Twilight frowned, picking it up with one hoof. Of course, just because they had escaped, it didn't mean they were safe. And what about Rarity and Applejack?
Biting her lip, Twilight reached for the book to look for more clues.levitated it upwards in front of her and rifled through it. To her surprise, a small piece of paper fell from within the pages and she bent down, picking it up with her horn.
“Run.”
Twilight read the word allowed, feeling her body go cold. The writing was written in a spiky, jagged text that galloped across the page and Twilight felt her mouth go numb as she continued to read it.
“If you're reading this, then you are trapped too. There is no way out. Do not try and make one, or it will find you. Run. Don't look back. Don't stop. And whatever you do, lock the doors. Or it will find you.”
The signature was a mangled blur and Twilight tried to decipher it for a few seconds before giving up. It was no good. The writing was just too hard to make out. Twilight let out a squeak as she heard a door creak behind her. Without looking, she broke into a run, dashing through the door opposite and into another corridor. This one was lined with doors too and she tried each one in turn, heart pounding as she heard more creaking behind her.
“Don't look, don't look”, she hissed, breaking into a gallop around the corner as the creaking behind ground to a halt. With a gasp, the stricken unicorn tugged on another door and to her surprise, she fell in, landing on another tiled floor and bashing her back leg against something hard.
“Ouch” Twilight groaned, sitting to her feet. Blinking rapidly, she swung her head up, eyes flicking across the room she'd entered. It looked like a bathroom, with two sinks against a half-wall, water dripping lazily from one tap. There were no mirrors or windows within the bathroom. “Lock the door” Twilight whispered and turned back. The door was wide open behind her and as softly as she could, she swung it shut, hooking a silver latch over the gap to keep it still. Now the room was a sealed unit and Twilight let out a relieved sigh, sinking back onto the tiled floor.
Then she noticed the small half-wall again and years of reading dropped one small fact into her mind. What if there was something behind it? Twilight got to her feet and approached the half wall with her horn ablaze, trembling as she peered around the wall.
There was a body.
Twilight let out a shriek and darted back, grabbing onto the sink with her hooves to steady herself. “A body. There's a dead body in the toilet” she garbled, a strained laugh bubbling up inside her throat. Her tongue went to sandpaper and she screwed her eyes shut, trying to ignore the part of her brain telling her that it was one of her friends. One of her friends was dead and it was all her fault because she'd gone after Pinkie and left them there and- Twilight felt her breath coming out in short bursts and she doubled over, feeling a wave of nausea coming on.
“No...Got to look. Got to make sure” she mumbled, forcing herself to her feet. As if on stilts, Twilight wobbled back to the wall and peered slowly around it, forcing herself to look clinically at the corpse hidden there. With a sigh of relief, she realised it wasn't one of her friends. The pony had been dead too long. The body was of an earth pony and lay collapsed by the toilet, a pool of dried blood oozing around its stomach where a chunk of flesh had been gouged away by...something. Looking at it carefully, Twilight judged the cause to be a claw wound around 30 centimetres in width, with strength powerful enough to slash through this poor creature in one hit. It was already stricken with rigor mortis, preserving the position the pony had been in when she'd died. Her legs were crumpled beneath her, suggesting she'd been pinned up against the wall, and her eyes were fixed in a wide look of absolute fear. She'd been trapped and brutally slaughtered.
And Twilight was standing in the exact same place.
Behind her, Twilight heard a rattling sound and slowly, she turned to see the door handle moving up and down as something tried to get in. Sealing her lips tightly together, Twilight crouched down and moved closer to the corpse, hurriedly rummaging through the pockets for any clue, anything she should do. All she found was one sheet of paper with three letters and three numbers in a row. Gritting her teeth, she shoved it into her saddlebag. Behind her, the door slam and Twilight lurched backwards, pressing herself against the wall behind the corpse. She could see the door from her position and with every bang, it shook and creaked, silver latch bulging against the force.
Any second now, it was going to give way. Twilight could practically feel the metal bending as it squeaked and squealed against the force, white flakes falling from the door like snow as the frame shook. Horn glowing, Twilight pushed against the lock with her magic, feeling sweat running down her face as she held it shut. Every bang sent another wave of tremors down her and she screwed her eyes shut as she held the door tight, digging out everything within her to keep whatever it was from getting in.
Finally, just as Twilight thought she couldn't take it anymore, the banging stopped. Twilight listened as she heard soft thuds moving away from the door, disappearing out of range up the corridor, and released her magic. Both she and the door let out a wheeze of relief and Twilight got to her feet, quickly approaching the door. Time was now of the essence and she needed to find her friends before that thing did. If it got to them before they'd gathered the elements of harmony... It felt as if her heart was being stabbed with needles. Twilight glanced around at the fallen pony again and suddenly recognised her. That creamy yellow fur and dark blue and pink mane that was so distinctive...
Twilight threw up.
Well, now she knew what had happened to the investigation team, Twilight thought, choking back the remaining bile as she forced herself on marshmallow legs back into the corridor. “But I've wasted too much time” she hissed. A strand of her mane twanged out of place and she tried to smooth it down as her ears twitched nervously for any signs or sudden noises. It felt like there were eyes everywhere and the slightest breeze made her break into a short burst of speed every few second that drove her heart into an even faster pace and set her fur into sharp spikes that trembled as she walked.
There was no time to be scared though, not when she needed to find the others. Time to put her detective hat back on. If Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had flown straight upstairs, Twilight reasoned, taking small breaths as she trotted up the corridor, that meant that whatever had scared them must have been on the ground floor. In that case, it was likely that Rarity and Applejack had gone upstairs as well.
But was that what the evidence suggested? Twilight considered the tilted paintings, the book on the floor and the broken light above the stairs. Those accidents had happened because Rainbow Dash was flying at max speed, probably dragging Fluttershy in tow. “Applejack and Rarity wouldn't have had time to get upstairs” she realised. And she would have seen them if they'd run towards her...Which meant the monster must have come from that direction.
And Applejack and Rarity would have ran... This way! Her eyes brightened and she looked up the corridor again. There were still another ten or eleven doors she hadn't tried. And at the end was a pair of swing doors, suggesting the corridor led into another room. Twilight frowned, looking between them then back behind her. The corridor was still empty, with no sign of the mysterious beast she'd seen before. Looking around carefully, Twilight spotted more small depressions in the carpet, almost hidden by the outlines of the geometric pattern covering the floor. They ran straight on, through the double doors and out of sight.
Hesitantly, Twilight followed, trotting at a brisk pace after them. Peeking through the glass of the double doors, she nudged it open and to her surprise, she found herself in a small library. Twilight's mouth fell open as she strode into the warm, homely area. Each wall was lined with hundreds of books and soft glowing lanterns hung over a couple of chairs in the middle of the room. Twilight bent her head low as she walked forward, taking a few sneak peeks at the book titles as she passed them by.
A flash of movement made her jolt and Twilight's horn flared into life as she jumped back, eyes shooting around for any sudden movements. Instead, her eyes fell upon a familiar back, cheery pink mane hanging flat around her head as she examined something in her hooves. “Pinkie?” Twilight asked warily, taking a few steps forward gingerly. “Twilight?” The pony's mane puffed outwards and she turned, tossing the object away with a bright grin. “Oh, it's you Twilight! I am so, so, so glad to see you!” she exclaimed, throwing her weight against Twilight as she knocked her to the ground. “I went to see the smashed thing and it turned out to be a plate and I was going to tell you guys but then I saw a huge cake and it looked so delicious that I just had to eat it” Pinkie rattled out, yammering away as Twilight tried to wiggle free, “Except then I fell asleep and when I woke up everyone was gone and there was this weird thing that followed me so I hid in here because I knew if there was a library there would be Twilight and here you are!
Pinkie beamed at her and Twilight felt her eye twitch as that familiar pounding started in her head. No doubts about it, this was the real Pinkie. “Pinkie Pie” she said sternly, “Calm down. Have you seen Applejack or Rarity?” Pinkie shook her head rapidly, looking around. “The only person who is here is me” she exclaimed chirpily. “I haven't seen anyone in the corridor since I came and I've been here a while.” Twilight frowned. “Nobody?” She repeated, looking around the room again, “But they must have come this way! There were footprints and...” Twilight stopped, looking at Pinkie's hooves. With a groan, she facehoofed. “Those were your prints?” she exclaimed and Pinkie giggled, waggling all six hooves at her, “Of course they were my feet, silly!”
Twilight let out a sigh then smiled, feeling some of her tremors go away. “I'm glad you're alright, Pinkie” she said honestly, “I thought...That creature...” Pinkie smiled at her and rubbed on one shoulder. “Everything will be ok, Twilight” Pinkie said calmly and brushed past her, trotting to the door. “Wait, where are you going?” Twilight asked with a frown, walking after her. “I'm going to find my friends, silly!” Pinkie said with a giggle, bumping Twilight's nose with her hoof, “Otherwise the scary thing will eat them! I'm going to look back where I was before and you can go upstairs! We'll definitely find them that way!”
Twilight frowned then let out a small nod. “Okay” she said decisively, looking around the library again, “Once we've searched everywhere, we'll meet back here. Then we can try to find out what those monsters were.” They made their way back to the staircase and Pinkie gave Twilight a cheery wave as she hopped back down the corridor. Twilight let out a low gulp as she looked up at the landing, then slowly made her way upstairs.