//------------------------------// // Level 1 - Abandoned By Disney // Story: The Creepypasta Ponies // by Shadowed Rainbow //------------------------------// "Now, which world next..." Lightning mused, his color-shifting eyes appearing lost in thought, oblivious to Pinkie Pie's crying as some of the others attempted to comfort her. "B-Birthdays are... f-fun..." she stammered, still unwilling to dwell on the darker side of the celebrations that the Skin Taker had dragged out into the open through his song. Applejack shot a hostile glare at the quartet above the crowd, clearly looking as if she wanted to give them each a good hard kick with her hooves. "Who do y'all thing ya are? Scarin' everypony to death like this!" "Oh trust me," Jeff cackled with a wide grin as he stood on his hind hooves to peer down at them. "You're gonna get really scared to death later. If I were in charge here, I'd-" "And that's why you're not in charge," Lightning cut off, shooting a glare at Jeff. "We'll get to that stuff at later Levels.." This statement understandably caused expressions of unease to flicker in the assembled crowd like fish in a vast ocean, but Lightning didn't clarify. "Brother, please," Crescent muttered dryly as she gestured below to the portals. "I think the next story is about to be decided..." As she spoke, the shifting of portals slowed down as one portal remained open, in an alcove just to the right of the screen which displayed the worlds in question. The vision that remained inside the blue-rimmed portal was what looked like an abandoned dusty room, with the image of a tall mouse-like figure that most of the group recognized instantly. This sure didn't look like the normal Mickey, however, but rather as if the colors were reversed, giving him a much more eerie vibe. "Abandoned by Disney it is, then," Lightning commented with a chuckle, flapping the eagle-like wings which materialized on his back before they vanished. He looked thoughtful. "That's an interesting one.." For a fraction of a second his brow arched, but anypony who happened to look up at him and blink would have missed it. Crescent Beam didn't miss a beat. "Now for the next participant." Her eyes scanned the crowd, eventually coming to rest on a certain gray earth pony. "I think it ought to be your turn now, Silver Spoon." The eyes of the fiilly in question widened in a startled expression. "Me? Why me?" "You're a child, for one thing," Crescent replied, walking along the platform as a horn materialized on her head, "and thus Disney likely seems a little more magical to you." "I'd just go to theme parks for the rides," Diamond Tiara muttered as she rolled her eyes, not meeting the gaze of the Arena's leaders. Lightning looked at Diamond with a meaningul glance. "Some children are more enthralled than others, however." Diamond Tiara ignored him. Crescent made sure the other was finished before continuing to addressed Silver Spoon. "Secondly, though you can be a bully at times—" Silver opened her mouth to retort, but a stern look from the other color-shifting being silenced her. "—You probably would be a lot nicer if you had made a different friend. So you should probably go through this without your 'friend'." "HEY!" Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon exclaimed at the same time, their faces mirror images of one another as the looked defiantly upward at the ponies who trapped them there. Behind them, the three Cutie Mark Crusaders nodded in agreement, though they weren't willing to admit that their agreement was in the Iridescents' favor in that case. "Why don't you come down here and say that to my face?" Diamond exclaimed in as threatening a tone as she could muster, stomping her hoof firmly without even the slightest hint of trembling. Gilda arched her brow, stepping forward slightly through the sea of beings to get a closer look at the filly. "Kid's got spunk." I wouldn't call threatenin' somepony 'spunk', Apple Bloom thought, but didn't speak up. Jeff aimed his knife down at the pair, the blade's tip tilted slightly toward Diamond Tiara in particular. "Not unless you want a knife to your face!" "Go on and try!" Diamond challenged, not letting any semblance of fear show in her eyes. The knife glinted as Jeff pointed it closer. "I could slice you through before you could even—hey!" The exclamation was prompted from a light blue aura manifesting around the brandished weapon as a horn appeared on Lightning's head. He used his magic to levitate the knife away from Jeff's reach. The two fillies below looked somewhat relieved, while Jeff looked distinctly irritated at having his beloved weapon taken from him, despite his forced, carved-in smile. "What'd you do that for?!" Jeff raised a hoof as if he were about to sock the stallion on the muzzle. "Give that back!" "Not until you don't threaten to kill those fillies down there," Crescent said in warning as she leaned over to Jeff. "The slaughter will come in time." The colt fell silent, though he tried to force his permanent grin not to become even wider at Crescent's words—no need to arouse suspicion just yet. Lightning looked thoughtful for a moment before glancing down at Silver Spoon in particular. "Perhaps we could let you try this one with another filly, Silver Spoon." "Another filly?" Scootaloo asked, incredulous despite the fact that Diamond and Silver had been no more than bullies to them. She attempted to appear brave, but her legs with shaking as she shrunk closer to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. "You're making both of them go?" "Who said anything about both of them?" Crescent said with a small smile, one that would have almost appeared kind on any other pony. "Thank you for volunteering, Scootaloo." "What?!" The eyes of the young pegasus grew as wide as saucers as she shook her head. "Uh heheh, it was just a question!" She stepped back, not that there was anywhere she could go to get away from them, anyway. "I wasn't volunteering, not at all!" "Well, we did intend to have a few go together in several of these story worlds from the beginning," Lightning clarified. "So you've actually presented a pretty good opportunity for us. Besides, maybe you'll get paired up with ponies you like more later." Fluttershy's head shot up. "L-Later?" "We may ask somepony to go into more than one world," Crescent clarified. "It doesn't happen very often, but who knows? It depends on who's gone already." She smiled. "Well, Silver Spoon? Scootaloo? Go on." Scootaloo crossed her front hooves. "I'm not going!" "For once I agree with you!" Silver Spoon added, crossing her hooves the same way but not looking the onlookers in the eye. "It will be an interesting dynamic to watch, seeing as you two don't ever spend time with each other aside from one bullying the other," Crescent commented. "You'll be forced to work together." "Hey," Apple Bloom spoke up, head tilted upward as a hint of fear reflected in her eyes. "How'd ya know all that?" It was then that Slender Pony, who had remained almost like a statue, tilted his featureless head sharply to stare at Apple Bloom, as if invisible eyes were staring her down. A voice seemed to resonate in her mind, stern and cold, from that simple unseen gaze: We know more than you think... A determined expression formed on Rainbow Dash's face as she glared up, trying to zoom at them only crash to the ground, a cruel reminder that her power of flight had been neutralized. "You think we're just gonna let you take them?" "It's actually best," Chrysalis pointed out, her gaze expressing a clear reluctance to even be talking to these ponies. "Since we're still on the first Level, anypony who goes through is pretty much guaranteed to make it through alive." She huffed. "So I'd go now if I were you. Unless you want to end up getting yourselves killed later." "You do realize that makes the rest of us more likely to get killed, right?" Chrysalis turned to face the speaker, Twilight, who was glaring angrily at her. "Are you saying you're offering to take their place?" "Not like they'll likely bargain," Trixie muttered. Twilight sighed, glancing nervously at the two uncertain fillies who were about to enter the nightmarish entryway. She was no coward, but for the moment it was the iridescent ponies who had control here. "I just hope they won't be scarred for life." "I think I halfway am," whispered Sweetie Belle, glancing uncertainly at the negative Mickey Mouse image. "Mickey's creepy enough already sometimes without him looking like that." Scootaloo and Silver Spoon both looked at each other, then to the portal before them as they stepped toward its entrance point, the indigo-and-silver border shifting in a large oval path around it. "You ready?" Scootaloo asked. "No." Even as Silver Spoon said the word, she attempted to put on a brave face—they were going to need it if they wanted to get through the story without getting trapped or worse. "Let's just get it over with as fast as we can." Tensing themselves up for what to expect, the pair traversed through the portal—Silver Spoon followed by Scootaloo—and they vanished from the sight of the other ponies. "How can anypony even like those mascots?" Diamond Tiara muttered as the large screen flickered to life. "I always thought they were dumb and kind of creepy with those eyes." "I think they're kind of cute sometimes," Fluttershy admitted. "Everypony calm down," Celestia reminded them, though her expression was just as grim as several of the others. "All we can do at this point is watch what happens..." And so the scene of the story took shape before them... ------- When Scootaloo and Silver Spoon were able to see the world around them, they found themselves surrounded by the dark undergrowth of a forest, a dirt pathway leading onward. Scootaloo instantly noticed a further change—the addition of the pressure of an object on her back. She turned to find a small saddlebag perched over her shoulder, dark red and with several papers sticking out it. "What's in the bag?" Silver Spoon questioned, having turned and noticed the object in question. "I don't know," Scootaloo said with a shrug, lowering the bag to the ground to dump out its contents. The most noticible was a large white camera with a black neck strap around it, and a folded, slightly worn parchment that turned out to be a map of what was known as "Mowgli's Palace". "At least this will help us not be completely lost," Scootaloo said, looking somewhat relieved at the presence of a map in their arsenal. A myriad of papers rolled out, primarily fliers and pamphlets concerning a project in the Marehamas called "Treasure Island", as well as this "Mowgli's Palace" place. "I guess this is supposed to be research about the place we're going to be going to." Silver Spoon's eyes scanned over the text as she moved the papers around with her hoof. "It seems like that place called 'Treasure Island' was abandoned by Disney when they had poured millions of bits into it, and the project just stopped. Then this one stallion started talking about all this stuff he found." Scootaloo peered over her shoulder. "What kind of stuff?" Silver Spoon pointed. "A bunch of things that were left behind and smashed. Probably looters or something. Anyway, seems like the guy who had these papers heard the same thing happened at Mowgli's Palace, so he was going to check it out." So that's where they were. "What does it say about Mowgli's Palace?" Scootaloo asked. A further shifting of papers commenced before Silver Spoon found the information she was looking for. "Not much—apparently here it was going to be a resort where all the staff wore tribal outfits and loincloths." Scootaloo smiled a little at the mental image, but her smile quickly faded into a frown as she picked up a few of the flyers to return them to their former positions in the bag. "So, what happened?" Another sight-reading. "Ponies went nuts over it because some thought it was 'demeaning', so it was abandoned too," Silver Spoon replied, looking carefully at a few scattered mouth-written notes in the margins of the newspaper articles. "Whoever owned these papers was gonna check it out." "So we're supposed to figure out if something similar happened at Mowgli's Palace?" Scootaloo guessed, turning her head meaningfully at the path before them before beginning to pick up the fliers. "I guess." Silver Spoon said with a shrug, beginning to attempt to gather the parchments into a pile. "What about the book?" Scootaloo had to admit that her curiosity was piqued at the books that the former owner of the bag seemed to have possessed. Its worn, deep red cover seemed to stare back at her. "Probably just his notes on the other place or something," Silver Spoon guessed. "But we don't have time to look." She then bent over and lifted the camera around her neck. "I get the camera, you carry the map." "Okay, okay," Scootaloo complied, gathering up the papers and journal to return them to their proper places. Seeing as she had the bag in the first place, she didn't find it right to argue. Once all of the parchments and books were tucked safely back into the bag, Scootaloo began stepping forward along the worn path with her companion, knowing that the Palace couldn't be far. "At least we don't have anyone jumping out at us." "This story's called 'Abandoned By Disney', remember?" Silver Spoon pointed out, attempting to hide her fear by putting on her usual taunting demeanor. "Of course there's no one here." A faint expression of irritation was briefly manifest on the pegasus's face, but she let it pass. "I guess that's kind of good though. That way nothing's going to hurt us..." She swallowed, the irises of her eyes darting about as she attempted to convince herself that was the case. Falling silent for a moment, Scootaloo glanced around and started quietly humming as they walked along the path. Silver Spoon glanced over, her hooves kicking up dirt from the worn path. "Why are you humming?" "It doesn't seem as creepy here when I hum," Scootaloo answered in a quiet tone. "It's too quiet." Silence seemed to fall over the pair in a tangible presence as the humming faded, the tall palm trees above appearing intent to reach down and grab them any second. "O-On second thought," Silver Spoon said with a glance at the looming vegetation above them, "maybe your humming is a good idea." Scootaloo nodded, in disbelief that she was agreeing with Silver Spoon on something as she resumed her humming of "The Bare Necessities", though a little less enthusiastic than before. To her surprise, she could hear Silver Spoon joining in—likely unwilling to admit that she was just as scared as Scootaloo was. As the two of them followed the trail, the twisted path soon gave way to a worn down resort building, and their eyes get the form of a towering wooden gate, dug into by termites and woodpeckers and surrounded by vegetation from years of disuse. But what was most jarring about the gate wasn't just its appearance in front of the resort, but rather a rectangular metal sign which hung near the hinges, the large words hastily scrawled in black as if somepony had taken all the ink from the Ponyville Schoolhouse's printing press and used it to form the words: "ABANDONED BY DISNEY." Whatever was behind that gate was not something that any young pony would ordinarily want to go investigate. Unfortunately, the pair were left without a choice. It was clear that if they wanted to escape and return to the others, they'd need to move forward. Be brave like Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo thought to herself, though she was uncertain of just how brave even her idol would be in a place like this. Rainbow may have been proud, but she wasn't invincible, and got scared just like anypony else. "Hey, blank flank," Silver Spoon roughly nudged Scootaloo, pointing at the gate. "Look." Despite her resentment at being called a "blank flank", Scootaloo's eyes followed the direction of Silver Spoon's hoof before her gaze came to rest on the lock higher up above them—or rather, what was supposed to be the lock. The chain that would have sealed off the Palace entrance from the outside world was broken clean in half as if it had been made of butter, and the large lock itself was twisted and dented—the work of magic, it seemed. "Wow." Silver Spoon nodded. "Whatever pony was here last must have really wanted to get in." "Who would ever want to go in here?" Scootaloo questioned. "And why twist the lock like that?" She craned her neck to get a better look. "It looks like it was bent by magic. Couldn't a unicorn have just teleported inside?" "Maybe there was a shield," the other filly guessed. "Take a picture!" "What?" "Maybe Twilight will know what kind of—" "I think you're forgetting, blank flank," Silver Spoon snapped as she raised the camera. holding it steady with her forehooves as the flash went off. "We're in a story. This is probably going to disappear after we get through." "Well we can try, right?" Scootaloo glanced at the other filly in earnest. "None of the other stories so far had anything with them, and nopony said anything about that." "Oh, alright," Silver Spoon muttered, starting to fumble with the camera to take a picture. "Wait!" Scootaloo moved a little closer to the rusted lock, which seemed for a moment to spark with a remnant of a magic safeguard. "Maybe we should take it with us to look at it later." "Take it—ugh, fine, but you carry it," Silver Spoon said in an irritated tone. "You have that bag anyway." ------- "Is that allowed?" Flim asked with a glance upward at the overlooking ponies. "Are they permitted to take objects from the stories?" "I think it would be a better question to ask if they're capable of doing it," Twilight pointed out. The four overseers stared down for a moment before Crescent eventually replied, her eyes flashing from green to purple. "It is possible to bring objects from in and out of each world." "That's how you'll find the Slender Notes, after all," Lightning reminded them. "You need to bring the Slender Notes here in order to advance." Flam's eyes glinted. "That just made things a little more exciting." Crescent narrowed her eyes. "But don't go on an exploring spree. That's not what you're here for. If you try to do that, you could end up injured or dead." A horn which manifested on her head briefly glimmered a deep violet. "Understand?" "...Yeah," Spike muttered with a nod, turning anxiously back to the screen as the pair of fillies continued their excursion. ------- Silver Spoon nudged the gate open with a hoof, the bent lock swinging above as it disconnected from one side of the chain. "Let's just hurry up and get this over with. The sooner we go through this, the sooner we can leave and avoid being scarred for life." Trying to hold back the feeling of dread that was steadily rising within her, Scootaloo traversed through the entrance with her companion close behind. Their eyes were met with the sight of overgrown vegetation practically strangling the carefully planted arrangements remaining from when it had once been occupied. Even the large statue of Baloo in the foreground had not escaped the overgrowth, as vines were encircling the lower frame as if they would strangle the bear should he somehow come alive. As they bypassed the eerie entryway and walked toward the open Palace itself, another appearance of the words "ABANDONED BY DISNEY" was painted above where the large Palace doors had once been. Trying to ignore the increasingly unsettling words, the pair stepped through. Scootaloo was instantly thankful that this story's universe had given her a bag, because if she had held the map in her mouth it would have dropped to the floor in surprise. Where they had expected to see furniture, there are stark white walls and a hollow-empty space, every scrap of furniture or hoof-made wares small enough to steal had been removed. All that remained were a few counters and large plastic palm trees. "Wow, it's so empty in here," Scootaloo commented, listing to her voice echo as she stepped ahead. "Looters must have taken everything..." "Shh!" Silver Spoon looked as if she was nearly ready to smack the other filly. "Something might hear you!" Scootaloo sighed, attempting to suppress her fear as she reminded herself of what the Iridescents had said. "We're on Level 1, nothing's supposed to hurt us—" Almost without thinking, Silver Spoon called to the pony ahead with a volume that surprised even her. "But what if they're lying? Ever think of that?" The second sentence was said at a quieter volume when she realized the echo that the first had caused. The words stopped Scootaloo in her tracks as a shiver went down her spine. She had tried to suppress the nagging fear that was ever-present in her mind, but Silver Spoon's words had brought it to the forefront of her consciousness. The breathing of the fillies was only joined by the dull creaking of wood and hinges which resonated in the hollow room. As much as Scootaloo disliked Silver Spoon, the other filly did have a point—why should they trust anything these appearance-shifting ponies said? "What if there's one story on the first level that could hurt or kill us, and it's this one?" Silver Spoon went on, stepping closer so that Scootaloo could see her. "What if the Iridescents are just trying to get us to believe we can't be hurt? We can't be just clueless, we don't even know anything about them." A heavy silence followed before Scooaloo tilted her head to the ground in defeat, her gaze focusing much more on the floor then on the pegasus beside her. "I guess you're right... that might be why there's nothing here, the thing that hurts you isn't until the end." She sighed, shifting the weight of the bad slightly so her shoulder didn't get any more sore than it already was. "The only way for us to actually get out of this is if we work together and keep going." Using the map of the Palace as a guide, the pair wandered through several of the rooms, marked with red circles which seemed to indicate places where they should go. At least there was something of a hint as to where in the world they could look to get through this story. The kitchen was covered in broken bits of glass and dented metal. The empty freezerwas filled with metal hooks which swung slowly as if to grab the fillies. The bathrooms were covered in dripping and flowing water that nearly formed a pool on the floor. "We've gone through almost all of these rooms, and there still doesn't seem to be anything that gives us a hint to how this thing's supposed to end!" Silver Spoon complained as they walked down a hallway that would return them to the lobby after what seemed like hours of looking around. "Well maybe—wait!" Scootaloo whispered, lowering her voice as her ears perked up, her attention drawn to a room off to their right which they hadn't yet explored. "I think there's somepony in there." The two fell silent as they crept closer to the door to listen. It seemed as if there were two stallions speaking to one another. "I didn't believe it." The voice was hoarse, raspy, and yet sounded about Shining Armor's age. The reply was muffled, gruff, and hurried, so much so that the two fillies couldn't make it out. "I didn't know that. I didn't know that," the first said. He sounded apologetic, as if the muffled words said by the other stallion had been something very upsetting. "Your father told you," the second one stated in a tone that was almost accusatory. The raspy-voiced seemed to respond through nothing more than muddled words and faint crying. "Should we go in?" Scootaloo whispered to Silver Spoon, looking wary. "Are you crazy?!" Silver Spoon muttered back. "They might hurt us!" Even so, their curiosity eventually won over, and they stepped close enough to the door to hear more easily, but not within view of the speakers. Through the crack in the door they could see the hooves of the pair of stallions. One's hooves were a dirty-looking grey, thinner than an average pony's, and sportin a deep scar that ran along the left front hoof in a jagged arc. It seemed that this was the anxious male who was crying, as all four hooves were trembling slightly. "You knew that it was dangerous to go in there!" It was the gruff one again. His hooves, which were a light green and substantially larger than the frail-looking ones of his companion, moved in and out of view as he seemed to pace around the other one. "You barely escaped with your life, and another paid the price for it!" A faint silver light seemed to briefly be visible from the surface of the tiled flooring, as if the frail stallion was using magic—likely a unicorn. "You know what this is?" "It's a scalpel, Cinereal," the spring green stallion said, sounding distinctly annoyed. "So what?" The two fillies outside glanced at each other worriedly. So the thin gray stallion was named Cinereal, and he had a scalpel with him... He might be dangerous, Silver Spoon thought, doubt pricking in her mind, but still they stayed. This was the first major intriguing thing they had encountered in the entire Palace, and maybe they were supposed to meet these stallions... The frail stallion lifted his scarred hoof as he spoke, seeming even more hesitant than before. "Do you have any idea what I went through to get this scalpel, Viridan?!" Cinereal and Viridian, huh? Scootaloo pondered with a glance at Silver Spoon. The other filly moved her head a little toward the side, silently signaling that they should leave, but Scootaloo shook her head and put a hoof to her mouth. There was too much intrigue to just turn and run yet, and in any case, this might be a necessary step in the tale. "I have some idea, Cinereal," Viridian scolded. "You forget that I've been through my share of trials—" "You'd understand if you had been there!" Cinereal's voice was such a mixture of a shout and a sob that it caused the two fillies outside to tense up in fright as the scalpel, tainted by remnants of rust and dried blood, clattered to the ground before them. "You didn't need to hear a tale that shattered your mind and made pain and death seem like a trivial concept!" The scalpel was encased once more in a silvery magic hue as it was whisked upward in a frantic gesture. "You didn't have to pull this instrument from a stallion's chest and use it to end his tormented life!" "You were too young to start out," Viridian stated bluntly, not angry but not sympathetic either. "I committed my share of atrocities out of necessity." His hooves could be seen stepping threateningly closer to Cinereal, the other stallion scrambling backward. I warned you, and you didn't listen. Despite my experience, despite what your father said, and everything you saw in those dreams—" Feeling more unnerved by the second, the fillies began to retreat away from the door, before hearing Cinereal pipe up again. "I didn't believe it! How was I supposed to believe that those shimmering, changing ponies—" "The Iridescents?" Scootaloo questioned, a little louder than the whisper she had meant to vocalize. "What was that?!" The two filles both froze at the sudden alertness with which Viridian spoke—he had heard them. Without even stopping to look at one another, Scootaloo and Silver Spoon both turned tail and galloped away, hurriedly trying to get away from the two stallions as quickly as they could. They were uncertain if the pounding hoofsteps they heard were the stallions or their own, but they weren't about to look back and find out. As they ran through another few hallways and into the main lobby, Silver Spoon caught sight of downward stairs off to the side which they hadn't noticed before. Without missing a beat, the pair turned and bolted down the stairway, fully intent on escaping the two stallions. -------- Twilight looked upward at the Iridescents, Slender Pony, and Jeff, the latter the only one who seemed to show any surprise. She tried to fire a burst of magic from her horn, but all that appeared was a spark that quickly fizzled out. "Who were those stallions?! How do they know about you?!" Lightning waved a hoof, appearing nonchalant. "Just a little something extra we slipped in, thought we'd see if the little adventurers stayed around to catch it. It means they're going the right way." "I don't believe you!" Rainbow shouted, making it clear that she would fly up to them if she could. "They're real, aren't they? Who are they?! Did you trap them there-?" "Patience," Crescent scolded, her horn lighting up as if in warning. "You'll find out soon enough if those friend of yours chose the right path." A good number of the spectators clearly didn't believe him, but at the moment they were powerless to do anything. All they could do was watch. ------- Passing another "ABANDONED BY DISNEY" sign on the wall, Scootaloo and Silver Spoon eventually reached the bottom of the staircase, using the camera as a substitute for a light when they felt certain that the two mysterious stallions hadn't pursued them down there. At the very least, they didn't hear any pounding hoofsteps following them or hurried shouts, so it seemed that they were out of danger for the time being. The stairway got progressively darker as the pair headed downward, leaving them to hurriedly open the bag and use the light of the camera flash as a guide—with neither being a unicorn, it was their only solution. In time, the bottom of the stairs led down to another door, shut with a padlock—the sign on the door read "MASCOTS ONLY! THANK YOU!" Scootaloo and Silver Spoon glanced at the map. "There's a red circle here," Scootaloo pointed with a hoof at the encircled stairway, swallowing hard. "I think this is where we're supposed to be, it's the last spot on the map that's marked." "If it is, let's just finish it up," Silver Spoon sighed, glancing up at the lock, large but just out of their reach and likely wouldn't budge with the round grip of their small hooves. "Great, how are we going to get it off?" Scootaloo looked thoughtful for a moment, clearly pondering something. Think of it as another quest to earn my cutie mark! With her Cutie Mark Crusader mindset firmly in place, she hoisted the bag off of her and managed to raise the strap. "Help me toss it, we might be able to pull the lock off." It took several tries, and Silver Spoon reluctantly almost had to stand on Scootaloo to attain the proper height, but finally they managed to pull the padlock off with a snap, catching it just before it clattered to the ground so as not to attract any unwelcome visitors. The door creaked open. The pair were relieved when they entered to find that every other light or so was flickering but lit, allowing them to tuck the camera back into the large red bag. It was as if everypony who had used to occupy this room had abruptly vanished decades ago, leaving the room with an almost haunted feel to it. As they continued through the area, they saw that it was less like a large basement and more like a labyrinth of cluttered desks, some stable and some toppled over, the creepiness only accentuated by the molding structures and creaking akin to opening doors and fumbling hoofsteps. "Ugh, we're just going to get lost in here!" Silver Spoon muttered after awhile, looking a little more nervous the more they wandered around. "We don't even know what we're supposed to be looking for down here—" "How about that?" Silver Spoon glanced over to where her companion had pointed, to find a door just around the turn of a corner, a rusted, yellow-and-black striped door with the words "CHARACTER PREP-1" displayed in bold red lettering on its surface. Scootaloo seemed to be a little more confident now, trying to convince herself this was like a Crusader adventure. "Cutie Mark Crusader Basement-Explorers!" "I already have my cutie mark, remember?" Silver Spoon snapped, though unease of the environment seemed to be stronger than her irritation at this point. "This is too freaky to be a Crusader mission, or whatever you call it." Scootaloo stepped closer to the door and tried to open the door, frustrated that it wouldn't budge. "We went Crusading in the Everfree Forest once." Silver Spoon actually seemed somewhat interested as she tried to budge the lock as well. "Really?" "We were trying to catch a chicken, actually," Scootaloo said with a laugh. The moment she saw Silver Spoon about to open her mouth, the pegasus already had guessed what she was going to say. The same jokes, the same taunts, the same comments about her being like a flightless bird. "And don't call me a chicken, okay? I get that joke enough." Her voice was laced with irritation and a bit of sadness. To Scootaloo's surprise, Silver Spoon's expression softened a little. "I wasn't going to call you a chicken. Actually..." she sighed. "I think you're pretty brave." Scootaloo briefly stopped attempting to tug on the lock. "Really?" Silver Spoon nodded. "Nopony really ever goes into the Everfree Forest, and you guys somehow got out of there alive. Plus, you haven't exactly turn tail and run from any of the stuff we've run into so far." "I wasn't going to stick around and fight anything though," Scootaloo added, surprising herself by laughing. The other filly did something that surprised Scootaloo as well—she smiled. It wasn't the normal kind of sneer or smug grin she shared with Diamond Tiara. It was a smile that almost seemed like... friendship? Acceptance? The mutual circumstances of being trapped in an abandoned building? "Come on," Silver Sppon gestured, seeming to have a new resolve. "Let's get out of this place." After much pulling, straining, and nearly breaking off the handle, the two fillies eventually got the door unstuck as it opened with a slow creak into pitch darkness. No light to guide their way here. The two stared as if about half of their bravado had fled from them. "Better get the camera out again," Silver Spoon whispered. Scootaloo obliged, and together they stepped through, the camera light and the bulbs near the now-open door were their only source of light. That is, until the fillies were startled by a loud buzzing sound as all the lights turned on then dimmed, leaving bright spots of light in their vision as their eyes adjusted to the light. The sight that met their adjusted eyes drew the same stunned reaction that many of the outside observers felt as well. Rows and rows of popular Disney costumes as well as some native tribal clothing from the Palace's old days, swung from hooks, almost as if they were like slabs of meet that belonged on the freezer hooks that they had seen earlier. Their vacant eyes stared out at the observers, devoid of any semblance of life that they might have appeared to have when walking around the park. Most stunning of all, however, was the Mickey costume lying down in the center of the room, on its back and appearing to stare upward at the ceiling. Just like the image that had first appeared in the portal before they entered this world, the Mickey costume was inverted in color. "Okay," Silver Spoon muttered, pointing a hoof just barely at the Mickey costume on the floor, "now I'm pretty sue we're in the right place." The problem was, what to do next? Silver Spoon leaned over, whispering to the other filly quietly. "Maybe we have to somehow get through without disturbing that creepy Mickey thing? Knowing this place something bad might happen if we go near it!" Scootaloo studied the area, pondering. Nothing except the inverted Mickey and empty costumes lining the walls and horizontal racks like a clothing store... except... "Look over there!" Silver Spoon glanced ahead, in the direction of Scootaloo's hoof. Was that a door on the other side of the room, just underneath the last of the long row of flashing lights and lifeless mascots? "You think that door's the way out?" "There doesn't seem to be anywhere else to go besides the way we came in," Scootaloo pointed out. It was clear by her tone that she was attempting to sound a little braver than she felt. Hesitantly, the pair stepped into the labyrinth of hanging costumes, determined to carefully avoid touching them and alerting anyone or anything of their presence. Scootaloo looked carefully at the character mascots as she and Silver Spoon walked by, noticing a few were missing their plastic eyes in their sockets and giving off a very creepy vibe. "It feels like they're watching us." "Maybe they are," Silver Spoon commented, instantly regretting that she had said it aloud. Adding more potential fuel to both their nightmares was the last thing they needed. Just as they were reaching the beginning of another costume row, headed by a Donald Duck costume, a creaking noise startled Scootaloo into knocking into her companion, sending the bag nearly flying off her back. Attempting to stop the inevitable conga line of destruction that the two feared would follow, they skid their hooves backward to a halt as only the first costume, loose as it was, fell to the ground. The pair had to stifle back a scream, as the head came apart from the body of the costume, and a white structure fell out of the head, partially cracked. It was a skull. The skull of a pony. Every instinct the two fillies possessed was telling them to get out of there as soon as they could, but two sounds caused the pair to slowly turn around in a stunned, cold dread—the slamming of the door behind them and the shuffling of fabricated feet shuffling to stand. The two were almost magically frozen in place as the inverted figure stood up, head tilted down slightly as he stepped toward the pair. The door at the end of the hallway seemed to shimmer and vanish—it had somehow been an illusion. For a moment, there was barely a sound from anyone, the ragged breaths of the fillies barely audible. Only the creaking metal of the rusted door penetrated the silence. Then Mickey spoke. "Hey." His voice was hushed, almost a whisper in the wind, and yet precisely like the beloved mascot they were familiar with. "Want to see my head come off?" The pair would have screamed, or ran, but they were rooted to the spot as the figure began to clumsily grip at the sides of his neck, as if he were frantically trying to be free of something. His gloved hands pulled desperately at his neck as a mixed combination of blood and what looked like yellow stuffing began to pour out from the sides. --------- "AAAHHHH!!" Pinkie looked like she was going to throw up as she watched her Disney-loving child-like dreams become utterly torn to shreds—the second time something she had seen as fun had become twisted and warped/ Sweetie Belle screamed and covered her eyes, clinging to Rarity in terror. "I KNEW MICKEY WAS SCARY!" Apple Bloom was holding tightly onto Applejack, the former murmuring quietly to herself. "It's just a story, it's just a story, it's just a story..." "But they're actually in there," Shining pointed out. "I hope they'll get out okay..." "It's Level 1," Twilight pointed out, not taking her eyes off the screen. "They won't get hurt... they won't get hurt..." Even so, her worried expression made it clear that she was wary all the same, the words she spoke seeming to turn into an uneasy mantra. ------ As the Mickey figure half stumbled, hands tugging at the sides of its neck, Scootaloo and Silver Spoon began to hurry as fast as their hooves could carry them to the way they had come in. But just as they were about to reach the door that they had previously come through, a pounding on the door in their direction seemed to stop them. "I think they went this way!" The two fillies froze—they knew that gruff voice. It was one of the two stallions—just brilliant. Silver Spoon looked at Scootaloo, eyes wide with fear as she glanced nervously at the stumbling bleeding figure of the inverted Mickey behind them, all thoughts of Level 1-circumstances forgotten. "Now what?" Scootaloo's only answer was a petrified glance at the wall nearby. Where there had once been a solid but dirty brick wall was now replaced but a hole in the center, a vortex that seemed to be intent on sucking them in, sending Scootaloo up in the air with her back as if the force of gravity had just turned sideways. Silver Spoon had to practically gallop to tug on Scootaloo's hooves, nearly seeming to dislocate them in an attempt to avoid being pulled into the sudden dark abyss that was before them. But it was too late—with a force almost like that of a whirlpool, the pair were unwillingly sucked through the dark portal, screaming as they began to be swallowed up by the darkness. With the darkness now seeming to obscure their vision of the room from the bottom-up, they were unaware of the voices from behind the door and the snapping of the lock. Unaware of the inverted Mickey nearly a foot away from them. They were just barely able to see the message above the door, seeming to have been carved in with bone as their last sight of this world: "ABANDONED BY GOD." The last thing Silver Spoon was aware of was what felt like a thin hoof trying to reach out for her own, as if tying to save both her and her companion, but the sensation was lost to her as she and Scootaloo blacked out. ------ The screen grew black, and the portal closed. The two fillies did not return. "... Where are they?" Apple Bloom gasped out. "What did ya'll do to them?!" "You said that was Level 1!" Rarity exclaimed with a glare. "That certainly not Level 1 material!" "Where are they?" "They're not dead, are they?" "Don't even think about that!" "Don't worry," Lightning said in a false attempt at reassurance, his expression looking almost gentle. "They've simply found the portal to getting the first of the Notes we told you about earlier." "So they're not dead?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Of course not," Lightning assured. "They'll find their way through if they're lucky." As everyone below conversed about what had transpired—what had happened in that world, who those stallions were, and where Scootaloo and Silver Spoon were now—Jeff tore his gaze away from all the fretting and whispered to Lightning. "You mean both of them?" "Yes," Lightning affirmed. "Both." Crescent looked at her brother with an even expression. She didn't look angry, or concerned, or like she was feeling any discernible emotion. However, it seemed clear that she got the meaning behind Lightning's words: The Iridescent never had said just what he meant by "both"—both ponies... or both groups of ponies?