//------------------------------// // Eight: Fool Me Once // Story: Facility 0013 // by DismantledAccount //------------------------------//         You turn around and look at the console. No, you think, looking away. Anything that could help me I won’t be able to find because nothing is labeled.          The giggling creatures are coming closer. You can hear them shuffling closer and sliding faster.         “Ten against one,” you mutter. “Well, one and a half,” you say, throwing a backward glance at Wisp. She has her eyes tightly closed and is whimpering softly. “One. I wouldn’t stand much of a chance fighting them even if I knew any other spells besides light and levitate. Not to mention that I don’t even know what they—”         The first of the creatures steps into the light. It looks like a pony, but it isn’t anymore. It looks more dead than alive. The creature has no skin. Its blackened, rotting muscle is exposed to the air. Thick blood slowly oozes out of every square inch of the abomination. It has no eyes—at least not in the convention sense—just large blue orbs that glow with malevolence. The beast continues laughing as it limps closer. You can see its teeth whenever it opens its mouth. They are pointed, serrated teeth stained red with the blood that has pooled in the monster’s mouth. The blood continually leaks out of the monster’s mouth and adds itself to the rest of the slimy, red liquid dripping off of the beast. The creature is joined by another one. And another one. And another one. You immediately begin running toward the Testing Area. “Hang on, Wisp,” you wheeze out through the death grip she has on your neck. You feel her press her muzzle into the back of your head and nod. Your hooves pound relentlessly at the concrete floor as you speed away from whatever those things are. The hallway is long and well lit, completely featureless except for one door at the very end. You look behind you and see the creatures blocking the doorway to the water tank room. Their giggling echoes behind you, the maddened cries beckoning you closer. You continue running as fast as you can for the doorway, wheezing and gasping with every step. The combination of a flat out gallop and a small filly choking your windpipe is causing you to run out of air much faster than you would like. You finally reach the door. You are completely out of breath at this point. Your vision is dimming from the lack of oxygen in your lungs. The heavy steel door slowly opens toward you at the slightest touch. The mechanism cranking and groaning under the strain. The creatures are right behind you and closing in fast, laughing the entire time. Their eyes seem to be lusting for your flesh. The door finally opens, and you sprint inside the small room with a closed door in front of you and the open one behind you. In the dim, yellowish light, you can see a button on the wall, it says “Begin Procedure”. You press it and hope for the best. “Warning, please stand clear of the closing door,” comes a pleasant mare’s voice from the ceiling. You turn around and watch the door behind you as it begins to close at exactly the same pace, agonizingly slowly. The creatures see the door closing and increase their slithering limp. The door is halfway closed but one of the creatures has broken away from the herd and is moving faster than the others. Its bloody spit flies out of its mouth as it struggles to make it through the door in time. It is only feet away but the door doesn't look like it will close in time. The beast makes a desperate lunge at you through the closing opening. Wisp somehow grips your neck even tighter and you feel hot tears on the back of your neck. The beast barely fits its head through the gap but the door closes enough to where its shoulders can’t fit through. It struggles and strains against the door but the unseen motor is too strong. The door slowly shears the beast’s head off of its shoulders, inch by bloody inch. You can see the muscle and sinews tried to form but they just keep getting sliced. The beast just keeps giggling like a madpony as it snaps its bloody teeth at you. You watch the gap decrease in size from four inches to three inches to two inches to finally one inch. The creature gives no indication of feeling any pain as the door seals shut and the head falls to the floor with a wet sounding splat. The giggling finally falls silent for the first time in too long. Wisp lets loose a long, shuddering sigh. “Could you please loosen your grip a little?” you croak. She chirps softly and obliges, but only slightly.         You take a step closer to the severed head and inspect it closely. It is even more horrendous up close. The pocketed, rotting muscle continuously leaks blood all over the floor in spite of being dead. Suddenly, tentacles made of decaying matter spontaneously grow out of the monster’s face and grab onto your right foreleg. You let out a shrill scream that Wisp echoes. She immediately leaps off of your back and runs to the opposite corner of the room. The giggling resumes with a new frenzy as the decapitated head quickly drags itself to your leg. It opens it jaws wide and sinks its teeth into the soft flesh. You cry out in pain as you feel the serrated teeth start sawing away at your leg. You lift your left foreleg and bring it down on the head with as much force as you can muster. The head explodes like a ripe melon, but the giggling still doesn't stop. You stomp again and again, spraying blood everywhere, but the laughing still echoes out of the broken flesh. You mash the pile of disintegrating muscle until it is more of a liquid than a solid, but still it doesn't die. You continue crushing it until your feel two semi-hard balls beneath your hoof. The glowing blue eyes crackle once when you destroy them, and the giggling finally falls silent. “Decontamination procedure beginning,” says the pleasant mare’s voice from the ceiling, causing you to jump slightly. A fine mist of—what is probably not—water rains down from unseen jets. It washes you and Wisp completely clean of the blood coating you and sends the remains of the creature, along with the blood, down the drain in the center of the room. “Are you feeling alright? Did you get hurt?” you ask Wisp. She doesn't respond. She is just staring at space that the creature’s head had occupied with a shell-shocked expression. “Hey, Wisp,” you call, raising your voice slightly. “Are you alright?” you ask, stepping closer. She shies away from you and scrunches herself further into the corner, eeping quietly. “Decontamination procedure finishing, please stand by,” says the emotionless voice. The room is suddenly filled with an intense heat that almost instantly dries you and Wisp off. “Please adhere to all safety regulations while in the Testing Area, thank you,” says the voice over the sound of the opening door. Thankfully it is the door that doesn't have blood thirsty monsters behind it. I hope.  The door open just as slowly as the first one closed, however, this time is a much calmer experience. You limp through the open door and enter what looks like a reception area. There is a small metal desk right in front of you, centered in the exact middle of the small, unremarkable room, and three doors behind it. Wisp cautiously slinks her way out of the decontamination room and crouches a short distance away from you. You regard the doors with interest. All three of them are exactly the same, except for a small sign on each one. The first door says “Tools”, the second door says “Beverages”, and the last door says “Refinement”. “Well, that’s useless,” you mutter. “What do you think, Wisp?” you ask the cute—and now clean—filly. She points to the “Refinement” door with an unsteady hoof and shakes her head no. “Why?” You see her roll her eyes at you and squeak. “Whatever,” you mutter good-naturedly. “You’re lucky you’re just too cute for me to do anything to you except keep you safe." She gives you a small smile but doesn't step closer, still seeming slightly unnerved by the ferocity that you showed earlier. >Enter the door labeled Tools >Enter the door labeled Beverages >Enter the door labeled Refinement Voting is now closed.