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// Key Items 
// Story: My Little Doubt 
// by Knackerman 
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	The party has already started. Won't you please attend? There are so many games and secrets to discover! It will be so much more interesting than those dusty old books. You should really think about getting out and making friends. After all, what's the worst that could happen?
Slowly, painfully, the room swam back into focus. "I think she's waking up," Twilight's vision swam back into focus, only there was something wrong. Everything was so bright. The light hurt her eyes as she tried to focus on the world around her. How was it so bright? Were they outside? There was no way her magic would have been able to keep the cavern lit up while she was out. So why the sudden change? In fact, how long had she been out exactly? Though her vision was still blurry, it was clear she was in a larger chamber than before. Her head rested against a cool, hard surface, what looked like the bottom step of the stairs she and Applejack had gone down earlier. But those steps had been completely shrouded in darkness the last time she had seen them.
"Here darling, you must be positively parched. Drink this." A cup of what looked to be clear, cold water suddenly appeared in front of Twilight. With only a moments hesitation she took a sip and found it to be deliciously refreshing, though with the slightly metallic taste that sometimes taints water with a high iron content. She gulped the cups contents down. However it tasted, it seemed to do the trick of bringing her the rest of the way around. As her vision cleared she found that she was surrounded by her friends, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity. It was the latter who's magic held the glass for Twilight to drink from.
"Thank you Rarity. Where did you guys find water?" Twilight asked, taking another sip.
"The toilet." Twilight suddenly spurted water everywhere, gagging and trying to brush the remaining flecks of liquid off her tongue with her hooves. "No, no dear. I meant from the sink in the toilet. We found a restroom shortly after your little spill. It's perfectly clean."
With a look of relief on her face, Twilight took another sip of water. She felt slightly embarrassed. Of course Rarity wouldn't give her toilet water to drink, what had she been thinking.  "Rarity, I notice your horn isn't glowing, but I can still see you and the others. What's going on?"
"Isn't it just marvelous? I admit that usually I'm not one for using semi-precious stones in my craft, but I'd simply love to take some of these crystal formations with us when we leave. Just a little bit of magic is all they need and they give off the absolutely most brilliant glow." Rarity herself seemed to be glowing. It took a certain kind of mind to appreciate beauty even in such a dire situation as theirs.
"Rarity, that's amazing, how did you know the crystals would react that way?" asked Twilight. Sure enough, she could see dotted here and there on the ceiling small clusters of tiny crystals giving off a ghostly illumination.
"It was Pinkie Pie what pointed those fancy geodes out," responded Applejack, leaning against one wall. "We were lucky Pinkie was able to recognize them in the dark."
"I guess there's some good from growing up on a rock farm," said Pinkie Pie a little wistfully. Of all of them, it seemed the usually jovial pink pony was taking things the hardest. Despite the fragile smile she wore on her face, her eyes were still red from tears.
"So how did I get down here?" asked Twilight.
"Well, after Rainbow Dash knocked ya out, she started dartin' all over the cavern down here. It was her that went and used the sigil on her hoof to unlock the door that lead into the bathroom down here," Applejack explained. "We couldn't get her under control and watch you at the same time, so we brought you down here with us for safe keepin'. Ah figured better that than leavin' ya alone in that room with Fluttershy."
Twilight shivered. She was thankful she hadn't awoken to see that sight again. The alicorn princess looked around the cavern, but saw only crystal corridors leading off in multiple directions. Down one hall she could just make out a half open door and what looked like a rust stained sink inside. Every other door on this level was closed. "Where's Rainbow Dash now?"
"Well, about that..." A sound like a train smashing into a brick wall made a section of crystal not far from where they sat dance and vibrate. A few moments later and the same sound echoed around them, causing the entire hall to reverberate. "Ah kinda locked her up. For her own good."
Twilight blanched at that, her eyes going wide. "You locked a pony having a claustrophobic panic attack in a room by herself? What were you thinking!?"
"An' just whut would you have done if the roles were reversed, Twi?" asked the farm pony as she stood up straight. "If Ah didn't corral that filly, she'd still be stampedin' all over the place. Don't cha get it? She went off by herself and used one of our only keys to open a door she had no way of knowin' what was behind, and then just kept goin' like it was nothin'! We were darn lucky it was just a glorified outhouse she stumbled into instead of whoever it was that's doin' this ta us!" Applejack paused to catch her breath, her eyes softening. "I know it seems cruel, but Rainbow Dash is safe in that room for now. While you were out cold we were able to have a little look around this floor. The room she's in was the only room that was already open when we got down here, but all that's inside is a bed and some old dusty shelves." She scratched a little picture of the layout of the floor into the dust with one hoof, then she put an X in the room where Rainbow was being held. "There's no other way in or out, Ah checked it pretty thoroughly. Once she's calmed down she can just take a rest and keep out of our hair while we try to figure a way out of this here mess."
There was a pause before the sound of Rainbow Dash slamming herself into the door came again, louder this time. "And what if she hurts herself while she's in there? It's not like she's behaving rationally right now. Besides, don't you think it would be wiser for us all to stick together? Any of us that get separated from the rest run the risk of being killed by the murderer. It's not like we're completely sure the killer is one of us. There's still a chance it's somepony we've never met before," said Twilight grimly.
"That's right! That's what I was trying to tell them," shouted Pinkie Pie. "So Twilight, please, why don't you use your glowy symbol thingie to let Dashie out? I'm sure if we just talk to her she'll calm down." Twilight froze. With everything that was going on she hadn't realized before. Pinkie Pie's sigil was on her throat, Rarity's on her chest, Rainbow Dash's had been on her right front hoof and Applejack's was on her left. But where was her own? 
"Don't do it sugarcube. We gotta think about this logically. I know it's tough, but there's nothin' else we can learn from that room. We only have two keys left and three doors that we know of. So at best we've got a two out of three chance of finding the way out of here." Applejack had pain in her eyes as she said this, but also a look of resolve firmly set her chin. "Not to mention she's still kicking up a fuss in there. Letting her out now will just put us right back in the position we were in before and we'd be down ta one key."
"Twilight, please?" Pinkie Pie looked at her pleadingly, and tugged on Twilight's dress like a lost child.
"Maybe...maybe Applejack is right." The look of stunned disbelief in Pinkie's eyes made Twilight want to take back those words almost immediately. But what choice did she have? "It's just as she said. We should focus on finding a way out. Once we've done that we can come back for Rainbow Dash."
"You can't be serious," whispered the pink pony, falling back on her haunches.
"If Twilight agrees with Applejack, then I suppose I should as well." said Rarity. "Honestly I wouldn't want to be in Dashie's position, locked in one of these wretched dingy rooms, but she has nopony to blame but herself. I'd rather spend less time debating the matter and more time getting out of this dreadful place."
"Yeah..." said Twilight a little uncertainly as she stood up. Her head still hurt, but there was something she had to do. "Um, could you excuse me for a moment. I think I need the little filly's room." She rushed away before her friends could respond. The restroom, like the rest of the rooms so far, was just a hollowed out part of the cavern. The sinks, stalls, and toilets however were all made from old, yellowed porcelain. Though they were stained with rust and cracked here and there, they were relatively clean, even if they had a look of disuse that made Twilight extra careful not to touch anything as she locked herself into one of the stalls. Carefully, she lifted up her dress and scrutinized every inch of her body, front and back, including the bottoms of her hooves. At last, she opened the door a fraction and looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, checking all the intimate places she couldn't see for herself. It was just as she feared. "I don't have a sigil," she whispered to herself. "Why just me?" Smoothing her dress back into place her mind began to turn as fast as possible. So far nopony had thought to question that she might not have a rune. What was the right thing to do here? If it turned out she was the only pony unmarked, that would make her look suspicious. But her friends were relying on her to open one of the locked doors.
"Is everything alright in there dear?" called Rarity, making Twilight jump half out her her skin.
"Yes, I'm fine, I'll be just a minute!" Twilight called back once her heart had stopped thundering in her chest. She didn't like the idea of keeping secrets from her friends, but all this could do is cast her own innocence into doubt and distract them from finding the real killer and the way out. No, for the time being she'd just have to keep them in the dark. Besides it wasn't like they really had less keys than Applejack thought. There was still the sigil carved into Fluttershy's leg. 
As she thought of Fluttershy, impaled upstairs and the pain she must have endured, the glowing crystals in the bathroom began to flicker. Something skittered behind the toilet and she heard a splash from one of the other stalls. It was then that she realized that she was all alone. A perfect time to strike. The lights began to flicker out, one by one. With a whimper she rushed out of the stall and ran out of the bathroom. She darted back in and quickly washed her hooves in the sink, all the while her eyes glancing back at the stalls where the lights were flickering, her hind legs doing a little worried dance as she looked around for anything to dry her hooves on. She eventually gave up, dried her hooves on her frilly dress, and ran back outside with her friends as fast as she could.
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"Rainbow Dash has gotten pretty quiet in there don't you think?" asked Pinkie Pie, concerned.
"Tired herself out most likely, poor thing," said Rarity, refreshing the glow of the magic geodes. It seemed they needed to be refreshed periodically when the magic they stored ran out.
"All these doors look roughly the same," said Twilight Sparkle, now significantly calmer with the lights back on. Truth be told after all the trauma to her head, even concentrating on something as simple as a light spell was too taxing for her at the moment. "How do we pick which one to try?"
"Nah, they don't look the same. This one here's different." Applejack said as she drew close to a slab of crystal that was slightly larger than the others.
"How so?" asked Twilight.
"Well that room that Rainbow is in happens ta be a might smaller than the others we've seen so far. From the general layout, It looks like most of the rooms are relatively the same size, except for this one. It's gotta be a little bit bigger than all the others if for no other reason than to account for how much smaller that room Dashie's in is. Frankly, that strikes me as a might suspicious," She paused and held up her left front hoof. The sigil there was already pulsing, a flaming green glow enveloped her limb. "If'n it's all the same to y'all, Ah reckon Ah'd like a peek at what's behind this here door."
The others looked at each other. Rarity nodded, while Pinkie merely shrugged. It looked like it was up to Twilight. "Go ahead Applejack. But be careful." 
Giving a nod, the farm pony placed her hoof against the door. The green energy flared, engulfing the stone as it was pushed gently out of the way. The portal beyond yawned with darkness, the faint lights above in the cavern ceiling doing little to pierce the gloom within."I'll just pump a little magic into the crystals in here shall I?" asked Rarity, stepping across the threshold first. As the room began to lighten, she made a rather disgusted face. "Ugh, it smells like an old ponies home in here." As she fed more magic into the crystals, the room brightened even further. "Oh my word!"
"What is it!?" shouted Applejack as Rarity's friends piled in behind her. She needn't have asked, she could see with her own eyes. The walls were lined with shelves. Each shelf was crammed with bottles and flasks, some securely stoppered, others long since broken and fragmented. Strange shapes floated in formaldehyde that the little ponies tried very hard not to look at too closely. Against the far wall, there was what looked like a dilapidated hospital bed. A straight backed metal chair, similarly with straps, sat nearby it. A tray of scalpels, scissors, needles, and other medical implements was set up between the two. Many of the implements were filthy, covered in dark stains no pony wanted to think about. Indeed the entire room seemed dingy and ill used. Broken glass and what might have been torn bits of leather littered the floor. It looked like there might have been a struggle in here long ago, but most of the signs were muted by a film of dust.
"What is this place?" asked Twilight, her eyes moving back and forth.
"Is it some kind of hospital?" questioned Pinkie Pie, stepping carefully over the shards of glass to inspect the unbroken vials still on the shelves.
"If so, its pretty unsettling. I couldn't imagine trying to treat somepony in these conditions," said Twilight, eying the hospital bed. The sheets were stained through by fluids that were probably best left to the imagination, and moved stiffly as she tugged them back. The mattress itself seemed mostly clean, except around the areas where the leather restraints met the bed.
"Well whatever this here place is, it doesn't look like it's been used in years," commented Applejack as she scraped a film of dust off a low desk against the opposite wall. The wood beneath was a deep, rich, glossy red. Too glossy, the farm pony realized, especially her body blocking the crystalline illumination from the ceiling. There was no way the desk could look so bright in the relative darkness without there being another source of light. She looked around sharply, shielding her eyes with her hooves until at last she saw what she was looking for. 
It had struck Applejack as they had entered the room that it was smaller than she had expected. The entrance to the rest of the room was cleverly hidden by a reflective curtain that mimicked the look of the rest of the walls. If it wasn't for the thin, fuzzy light spilling out from beneath it, Applejack would never have noticed it was there at all. Without uttering a word, she walked over to the wall and peeled back the curtain. Twilight Sparkle followed swiftly after her, the alicorn's eyes going wide as she saw what waited on the other side.
The crystal walls in this room were all wrong. Instead of casting reflections, they seemed more like windows, showing scenes beyond them that couldn't possibly exist. She immediately recognized the bathroom, the stairwell, even the room that Rarity and Pinkie Pie were still exploring behind them. It took a moment for her to wrap her head around what she was seeing, but when she realized what it was, the thought hit her like a ton of bricks. Scrying crystals. The entire wall had been enchanted, so that each facet showed a different room. Twilight knew that such spells existed, but had never seen them used on such an expansive scale before. Sitting here, it would be possible to see everything that was going on inside the cavern at anytime. Twilight looked right into the stall where she had taken her dress off earlier. Somehow this was even creepier than what she had imagined.
Twilight Sparkle moved to enter the room and have a closer look at the wall of ever shifting images when Applejack put a hoof in front of her, stopping her. She didn't understand why the farm pony had stopped her until Applejack brought her hoof to her lip, making a shushing motion. As Twilight's eyes adjusted to the light given off by the chaotic display, a hole seemed to open up in front of the monitors. No, not a hole...a silhouette! Somepony sat before the crystals, staring intently. Their head was grotesquely misshapen, with what looked like long horns and wiry whiskers jutting out through clumps of mangy fur. Twilight could of sworn they had been alone in the room. How had she missed the terrifying figure? 
Without uttering a word, Applejack motioned for Twilight to follow her lead. Together the two ponies crept silently into the room. Applejack found a length of pipe on the floor and picked it up. She motioned for Twilight to do the same with a broken piece of board that lay by her hooves. Thus armed the pair closed in on the creature that, from all appearances, just might be responsible for them being here. The pony who might well be responsible for Fluttershy's death!
How had she not heard them coming? With all the monitoring crystals, how had he not seen them coming? Just as the thought crossed Twilight's mind, Rarity entered the room. "Have you girls found something...over...here?" The figure seated before the monitors slowly began to turn. Rarity couldn't help it, she screamed. Losing the element of surprise, however, was not an option.
"Now!" shouted Applejack. They attacked as one, Applejack aiming high while Twilight struck low. It was over much more quickly than Twilight had expected. The creature lay prone, unmoving, not even so much as a twitch. Applejack poked it a few times with her pipe. "Ah think...Ah think she's dead."