The Ponies looked around the lobby to find that it was completely unlike the outside of the castle. The interior revealed a white, shining floor with marble pillars on the sides leading to a red carpeted staircase that split left and right at the top. The walls were filled with tapestries and windows; the ceiling above them seemed to stretch on forever.
“Are we in the same place?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“You mean it doesn’t look like this in the rest of the castle?” Twilight asked to Rainbow.
“Not really, when I was flying through everywhere was dark and eerie…and had rock golems I swear”
“Well that is definitely strange”
“Oh I wouldn’t say it’s that bad” Said a smooth voice coming from the stairs
All attention was now towards the stairs as they saw a light gray pony casually walking down the top of the stairs from the left.
“I find it rather enjoyable myself” Another voice said in a much darker tone.
Another pony with bright white fur started walking from the top of the stairs from the right. Both Ponies stopped at the intersection of the stairs.
Twilight felt like something was off. She knew the ponies, but they had an aura of twisted evil around and in them. She remember reading a book during the last Nightmare Night about a creature that flourishes in the night and has strange powers of dark magic and mystery. Most of it was addressed under myth, but now she was taking everything in account as true. Well, expect the sparkling part. Even if that was true she didn’t want to believe it. The name swam around in her head before she remembered it.
“Everypony listen” Twilight whispered “Those aren’t the ponies we know, they are monsters incapable of feeling mercy or love anymore…Vampires”
“Vinyl!” Rainbow yelled happily to the bright white pony not listening to Twilight at all “And Octavia!”
Rainbow flew over to the ponies at the top of the Stairs.
“You guys really had me worried; I thought those freaks back in town-“Rainbow began, but she couldn’t say another word because Vinyl floated up and seized Rainbow Dash by the neck from behind her with her front leg.
“I don’t know who you are my frisky flyer” Vinyl said, “But you do look…delicious”
Rainbow Dash looked in all different directions wondering what she could do, and then she saw the teeth of her holder on her right. She could feel the intensity of the situation she was in and the breath of her captor that was behind her.
Vinyl started to lean closer to bite down, but let a scream of pain instead, releasing Rainbow in the process. She turned around to see Applejack with her whip out and glaring at her.
“You’ll pay for that you little-“Vinyl began but was cut off by Octavia.
“Don’t be too hasty” Octavia warned to Vinyl. “We have better things to do than start a fight here; we might get the floor dirty”
Vinyl considered attacking anyway, but decided against it and went back to Octavia. Rainbow flew back to her friends while Vinyl joined her partner.
“Besides, let’s let them meet the good doctor’s friend first” Octavia said with a grin.
Before any of the four ponies had time to wonder what she was talking about the two vampires put out a hoof and created a red, misty force field at the top of the stairs.
“Why those no good, dirty varmints” Applejack said. “NOW how are we supposed to get to them?”
“Hey AJ, just hit the thing with your whip” Rainbow Dash suggested.
“Well, worth a shot”
Applejack walked halfway up the stairs, took her whip, jumped and stuck the shield with a crack. When she did an electrical current went through the whip and zapped her. She fell down the stairs onto the white floor. Rainbow Dash flew over and helped Applejack up.
“Do you have any more bright ideas?” Applejack asked sarcastically to Rainbow Dash.
“Well, you didn’t have to do it” Rainbow retorted.
“I was just trusting in your judgment”
“Guys stop fighting!” Twilight yelled intervening. “It’s getting us nowhere and we have bigger things to worry about.”
Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked at each other in that guilty face you get when you’re lectured.
“OOOhh, this is almost as intense as the time that one guy fought the lion colossus in that one game; something about shadow” Pinkie interrupted...at least try to keep the wall only halfway broken.
The three ponies all look at Pinkie in confused look (Twilight even more confused and curious on what game she was talking about) but went back to the problem at hand. The previously arguing ponies looked back at each other for a second before talking
“I’m sorry” Applejack and Rainbow Dash said to each other.
Both surprised each other and jumped a bit, then laughed it off.
“Maybe Twilight could use her magic?” Rainbow asked.
“Well there is a ‘dispel magic’ spell, but I still can’t use my magic too well” Twilight explained to Rainbow “Wait, Pinkie, didn’t you say a while back that you saw Rarity being taken through the forest with the others?” Twilight asked hopefully.
“Hmm, I can’t remember, hold on a sec”
Pinkie pulled a stack of papers out of nothing it seemed and began reading the story again…Hey, that’s cheating! After reading through the papers she tossed the papers to her left making them disappear.
“I DID, I DID SAY THAT!” Pinkie shouted while bouncing around the group.
All Ponies stared at Pinkie Pie hoping that she hadn’t gone insane.
“Twilight, You were sayin?” Applejack Asked to Twilight trying to drive attention from what they all just saw.
“OH, right” Twilight said “Rarity is a unicorn so she can learn the dispel magic spell”
“How are we going to find Rarity in this huge place?” Rainbow asked.
Everypony pondered for a second until Pinkie hopped over to the left of the staircase.
“I think she’s over here; my pinkie sense is telling me that I’m going to meet old friends through this door” Pinkie stated. She probably read ahead too.
On the wall to the left of the staircase was a small, old, wooden door with a sign to the right labeled “Laboratory”. It seemed to not go with the rest of the lobby they were in due to the look and size. After a few moments of silence the other ponies shrugged and chose to go with Pinkie’s judgment: Due to their past experiences with Pinkie’s sense they knew to not go against it.
Rainbow Dash flew over and opened the door revealing a dark, narrow staircase lightly lit by small, dim candles leading down into seemingly nothing. Applejack walked over and saw the path, then went past the other two ponies and started walking down. She paused for a second noticing that neither of the two ponies at the top was following her.
“Come on guys” Applejack said to them. “We can’t pull a Fluttershy right now, we have to-“
She stopped realizing that she just said the name they were all trying to avoid hearing. Fluttershy was the nicest pony in the world that you could come across ever. She would always try to help whenever she could…as long as it didn’t involve dragons. The three ponies were quiet for a second, but suddenly gained new found confidence in the mention of their friend they needed to rescue.
“Then let’s get going!” Rainbow Dash shouted out.
“Okie doki loki” Pinkie said agreeing.
The Ponies were almost racing down the stairs
“I’m going to save all of my friends” Applejack thought intensely.
“And we’re going to help you” Twilight thought in reply.
The pathway wasn’t too long and a faint light could be seen. The Ponies found another door at the end of the staircase, similar to the one they found at the top. Applejack reached for the door, but Pinkie stopped her saying that she got a combo of ear flop, eye flutter, and knee twitch. Applejack stepped back and the door in front of them burst open creating a dust plume. When the dust cleared away a huge, human shaped monster stood in front of them.
“RUN!” Twilight yelled.
They obeyed and jolted up the stairs not even bothering to look behind them. Applejack was the first to reach the top and the first to find that is was locked. The others caught up; hearing the news of the door their faces winced in fear. Footsteps could be heard, but not seen. Each step could be heard a little bit more. After 30 or so steps they saw the face of their attacker, a jumbled mess of stitches could be seen on his face, arms, hands and eyes. After another step its neck was visible and revealed a metal bolt on both sides that gave off little sparks of electricity.
Twilight noticed the stitches on the eyes and formulated a plan in her head.
“Applejack, take your whip and wrap it around its legs” Twilight said as calm as she could. “Rainbow dash, I need you to rush him as fast as you can and knock him down the stairs”
The plan couldn’t have gone more perfect. Applejack threw her whip around both of the legs causing the monsters to stop in place. Rainbow shot off leaving behind a small rainbow and smashed into the monster.
After being hit square in the chest the human shaped creature groaned lowly and fell down the darkened stairs. The ponies were breathing heavily as the sounds of the monster’s crashes grew more and more silent until they could no long hear them anymore.
A minute later, Applejack started down the stairs with a bit of curiosity; the others followed. They reached the bottom of the stairs; when they got there, they were relieved to see a dead and bleeding monster just outside the door frame. All the ponies walked over it with caution, just in case it decided to get up again for no reason.
Through the door was an array of cords and wired that seemed to connect from anywhere to everywhere. The room was rather larger than what they expected, but unlike the rest of the castle any of them had seem so far, it was dark, but you could see bit and pieces of the whole area from the flashes of light and sparks flying from unknown technology. Along the sides of the walls were containment units filled with green liquid; a few of the containers had blobs of what looked like blue goo floating in them.
In the distance all the ponies could hear faint noises, like orders being given. At the other end of the room from where they were coming from they saw a door similar to the ones they passed down there. Sounds of frantic footsteps came and went from behind the door. Unable to take the suspense, Rainbow Dash flew to the door and pulled it open.
Rarity had been captured before, but it was underground. She found herself trapped in a steel box resembling a jail cell with a single lock on one of the sides. Blinding lights were shining on her making the rest of the room pitch black in all directions that she looked. After a minute of looking around and thinking about what was going on she heard a series of tiny clanking noises. She tried to see through the darkness around her to see what was making the mysterious metal sound; a door opened, and she got her answer.
T.A.M. was engraved on the robot’s front silver plate; the name was the first thing that Rarity noticed after looking to where the sound of the door had come from. Above the plate was a head made of one big red, robot eye. It had no arms, but two rope-like tentacles coming from its back. It looked like an upside-down cone with an eye at the top and wheels on the bottom. The Robot rolled around the room checking on weird devices and equipment.
“Hello?” Rarity asked it.
The Robot didn’t seem to hear anything and just continued its work.
“Could you do me a favor and release me?” Rarity asked in a formal voice. T.A.M. ignored her again. It seemed to be working on something. Rarity left the robot alone for a while, talking was not working and the robot wasn’t really doing anything besides waving its tentacles around like a mad man. After a minute of rolling around the room the robot turned to Rarity and stared at her with its one red eye. The robot grabbed a scalpel with one of its tentacles and moved towards Rarity. Technical Autopsy Machine was the words Rarity read under the engraving on its plate.
“Stop right there!” Rarity said loudly but firmly.
The robot paused. Everything that it had cut had never yelled back at it, only scream and it was used to that.
“What in EQUESTRIA do you think you are doing?!” Rarity asked
T.A.M stared at Rarity in confusion and fear. The Robot backed off a bit.
“I demand that you release me immediately!” Rarity…demanded.
Without another pause or clank the robot quickly removed all of the straps. Rarity walked out of the box and straightened her hair that had gone frizzy from lying on the bottom of the box too long. She took another look around the room and saw an assortment of a typical autopsy room; needles, sharp objects, medicine, lasers, entrails in tubes of pinkish red liquid, the normal things. T.A.M. was still wondering what was standing in front of it.
“Sorry to judge, but this place is just a bit too scary for me” Rarity said turning back to the robot. “I suppose I’ll have to spruce it up a bit”
T.A.M. was still staring at Rarity with its huge, red eye in confusion.
“I will require some helpers if you wouldn’t mind” Rarity told the robot.
T.A.M. almost jumped up off the floor after being spoken to again. The robot regained it thought pattern and sent a signal, almost like a whistle. After 5 seconds 10 miniature robot dogs at around 1 ft. tall ran into the room in a straight line.
“Aww, they are so cute” Rarity cooed to the dogs.
The dogs barked in joy and appreciation at the comment.
“Right then, I need you all to start taking of these…devices out of here and into the garbage.” Rarity ordered.
Immediately, as if a button was pressed, the dogs started going around the room and taking all sorts of objects out of the room.
“You too, come on” Rarity said to T.A.M.
T.A.M looked at Rarity and became angry thinking that the orders were now ridiculous. Why was she in control? It was the only thing that had power around this god-forsaken place! The robot took Rarity by her legs and held her upside-down. Rarity screamed and the dogs came in growling and barking. T.A.M. swatted at the dogs with its free tentacle. One of the dogs caught the flailing tentacle and the rest went after the body.
The robot dropped Rarity and she was caught by three dogs under her. She was brought the one side of the room away from the chaos that had started. T.A.M. was flailing about with ten dogs all over it. In 5 minutes, T.A.M. was dismembered, never to work again.
“Well” Rarity said. “I guess some people don’t know good taste. Come on everyone, we still have much to do”
The ponies gathered around the door to see a well-lit purple room through it. Walking in the room they saw a familiar face lying down on a pillow in behind a round table. 10 tail-wagging, sitting robot dogs were around Rarity bouncing around and having fun.
“Rarity?!” The group of ponies called out.
“Oh, hello girls” Rarity said casually “How are you?”
Confused, they walked over to Rarity with caution making sure that it wasn’t a trap.
“Pardon me, I’ll get more pillows.” Rarity said. “Percy” she said in a singing voice.
A blue robot dog came out the pile of dogs and onto Rarity’s back.
“Be a dear and get three more pillows won’t you?” She asked in a loving voice.
The dog barked happily and rushed out a dog door. Almost as soon as it left it came back with three pillows on its back. Each of confused ponies took a pillow, put it on the floor next to the round table.
“Rarity, we need to get out of here and rescue Fluttershy” Twilight said out flatly.
“Fluttershy? She’s in this weird place as well?” Rarity asked shocked. “Then let’s get goi-“
Rarity paused.
“Twilight? Where are you?” Rarity asked looking around the room.
The three ponies on the other side of the table were silent and Applejack looked down. Twilight explained all the events that had happened so far (Rainbow told her story in the middle) and was met with the same look she always got from everypony; an open mouthed shocked expression.
“There is one other thing we need to continue” Twilight said after a moment or so of silence.
Rarity cleared her throat, closed her mouth and shook her head. “Y-yes?” She asked
“How fast can you learn a spell?”