//------------------------------//
// Location #1 - The Cave and the Beast Within 
// Story: The Challenges in Time 
// by Homura-Akemi-Magica 
//------------------------------//

There was a quick bright flash in the area; blinding to the unprepared eye. After the flash disappeared, six ponies appeared. The ponies’ names were: Octavia, Vinyl Scratch, BonBon, Lyra Heartstrings, Doctor Whooves, and Derpy Hooves; It was an interesting group to say the least. The ponies eventually allowed their eyes to get used to the overwhelming amount of light where they were located. The equines eventually realized that the bright light was actually the sun. They eventually realized that they were on an island of the sorts. The lack of buildings and life was shocking to say the least. 

“I’m guessing we should go explore the area?” The candy pony, BonBon asked.

The other five shook their head up and down. 

“Well…alright.” BonBon agreed with a hint of hesitation in her voice.

The ponies then started walking around the area. The area was mostly covered in trees and even water. The island wasn’t big, to say the least. Between getting into a coconut war and drinking from the water; progress wasn’t made in the slightest. Vinyl constantly talked about her DJ job; Octavia talked about her classical music; BonBon with her candy; Doctor with his time-traveling way; Derpy kept knocking things over; and Lyra talked about her love of anthropology. The conversations were interesting to say the least.

“So, can we all agree that this is a waste of time?” Vinyl stated with annoyance in her voice.

“No, Vinyl. We haven’t searched the whole island, yet.” The Doctor stated plainly. To Vinyl, the island seemed to be nothing but sand, trees, and that’s it. To everyone else, it seemed like a new adventure. 

“Hey…am I the only one seeing that?” Vinyl asked.
Vinyl then proceeded to point ahead of her. The other five looked at Vinyl and then looked at where she was pointing to; it was a cave. 

“A…a cave?” Octavia asked, despite knowing the answer.

“It looks dark and abandoned. Like any other cave, of course. Let’s go in, there might be something important in there.” The Doctor said as he started walking toward the cave without waiting for an answer. The other five followed him. 

The cave was murky, depressing, dark and above all, empty. Then Octavia swore she saw a shadow pass behind her quickly. She brushed it off as Vinyl trying to scare her. Every five seconds, it seemed like a shadow was following the ponies. Each and every one of them ignored it of course. Each brushed it off as their friends trying to scare them. 
As they continued walking they appeared at a rundown building. There were various torches here and there that lit up the area; it was comforting.

“A building? Inside a cave? What kind of madness is this?” The Doctor asked, shocked.

The other ponies had no response; they were as shocked as he was. They started walking down the ruined stairs. Each stair seemed to crack under their weight; they continued anyway. Once down the stairs, they saw a sight they weren’t prepared for. Various pony skulls and skeletons laid scattered everywhere. 

“What…what happened here?” each pony asked at the same time. 

Each and every pony threw out ideas as to what could have happened.

“They got stranded?” stated Vinyl.

“Lost their way?” asked Octavia.

“Perhaps, they went into the cave and…and got trapped?” The Doctor finished his sentence uneasily. He quickly turned toward the top of the stairs and started running toward the top. Once he was out of sight; a loud, “NO!” could be heard. 

“Stay here, we’ll figure it out.” Vinyl stated as her and Octavia ran toward the top of the stairs. 

They finally made toward the cave exit and found what caused the loud yelling. The Doctor lay on the ground with his head down. The two musicians were confused at this at first. But then looked towards the exit and noticed something off about it. Vinyl, being an unicorn, noticed it immediately. There appeared to be a pinkish tint to the exit; it glowed fiercely. 

“A magic spell?” Vinyl asked, drawing Octavia out of her emotionless gaze towards the exit.

After hearing this, Octavia could assume it meant a spell that would prevent a pony from leaving. That was a sharp estimate, but it did make sense. Octavia assumed that’s what had the Doctor angry and upset. She didn’t blame him, Octavia growled at herself for not realizing a spell could appear on the cave’s exit. An empty cave in the middle of nowhere, on an abandoned island, and full of pony bones, no less, made zero sense. She was eventually drawn out of her self-loathing state by a noise that sounded directly behind her. She felt a weird liquid running down her shoulder. When she looked over, she saw the blood. 

What terrified her wasn’t the blood, but what animal was leaking it out of its mouth. It was dark, morbid even. It looked like a pony, except it had running smudge – looking skin on its own body. Its mouth was horribly grotesque; something out of a horror movie. She quickly jumped back before it could make a move. She tapped on Vinyl’s shoulder to get her attention, she then realized something…Vinyl was gone. Come to think of it, so was the Doctor. 
A large wave of fear ran over her warm-blooded body. Since there was only one monster here, she could simply run past it. She quickly chose a side to run on; she picked the right. She then went on a full on sprint around the right side of the monster. She made it past, safely. She kept on running, hoping to meet up with Lyra, BonBon, and Derpy. All she heard was female screaming; several she immediately recognized as Lyra, BonBon, and Derpy’s. 

She continuously heard the sound of pacing and disgusting growls behind her; catching up with her. She then heard someone’s voice. She couldn’t place whose it was or even where it came from; she loathed it. The voice was grotesque, cruel, and convincing. It sounded evil and deadly; a voice that would be used to convince someone to do an evil crime. She could understand what the voice was saying, perfectly.

“Aw, poor little Octavia, all alone. Your friends, they abandoned you, huh? Shows how much they care.” The voice harshly said.

“No, shut up!” Octavia yelled, forgetting her upper-class attitude and instead resorting to telling someone to ‘shut up’. 

“Give in. You can’t run forever. It’ll catch up, you know. It’ll catch up to you…and kill you. It will be gruesome. Maybe if you were a unicorn and not a worthless earth pony, you might be able to get away. Even a Pegasus would do. Pathetic. Only unicorns can be upper-class, you know. Not someone like…you.” The voice continued to taunt her.

“SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!” Yelled the angry classical pony. 
The laugh the evil one made was broken up and disgusting. Octavia continued running until she ran completely out of breath. 

She sat on the ground and accepted defeat. She saw a pony come out of the shadows and it started talking; it was the evil one. Once fully out of the shadows, Octavia snuck a peek at the pony.
It was covered in sludge and shadows. It wore an evil snarl on his muzzle. Octavia thought of a changeling, if it had running sludge-skin; red eyes; and an evil smile with extremely sharp teeth. It was taller than Celestia, herself. She looked behind it and saw her friends, tied up somehow in sludge. 

The torches that lit up the room were starting to dim. Vinyl immediately lit up her horn, which melted the sludge off of her. Vinyl had an epiphany and immediately knew how to help Octavia and get rid of the beast for good.