The cave was dark, lit by dull light. blood splattered the walls while razor sharp objects hung from various hooks, all stained with blood. Pinkie Pie walked carefully, not bouncing for fear of what would hear. The cave system was large, she was sure that she'd been walking for at least an hour, and the blood and sharp objects were always present. Pinkie pulled out a flashlight from who-knows-where and shined it on some writing that she had noticed, the writing read
Laughter and blood spread like disease and where there is Laughter, there will be blood-shed
written in blood. Pinkie shivered at the dark message relating to her element. There were other messages like that too.
Pinkie approached one of the walls of weapons slowly. There was everything from simple knives, to military-grade weapons. It seemed that everything was placed in sections. in the upper left corner was only several knives. The upper right section consisted of brass hoofs, magic-swords (which were basically swords of highly condensed magical energy that were created by either Unicorns or, in some cases, Pinkie herself), and other magic weapons, including a sharp and dull Unicorn horn the same color as Pinkie's coat. the third section made Pinkie growl. It contained mini party cannons armed with poison filled needles, party-hat bombs, balloons filled with explosive gases, cakes made of C-4, and several presents of unidentified weapons. The final section caught the party mare's attention though. It was a section of military-grade weapons, including RPGs, hoof-claws, grenades, various guns, and even wing blades (right next to a pair of Pegasus and Alicorn wings that matched her coat)
Pinkie was really starting to hate this place. She was currently in what looked to be a torture room, there were skeletons all over the floor with messages like
Laughter kills
and
Laughter is a heartless demon
along the walls and written in what seemed to be the victim's blood. Some of the skeletons had been arranged to make tables or cabinets (which held drugs to prevent ponies from sleeping, intensify pain, cause agony, or keep them alive a little longer). There was a room off to the side which, when Pinkie entered, had a large statue of Princess Celestia with a spear through her chest made of bones and pony manes and tails. A trail of dried blood ran from the wound to the base of the stand the statue was on. The stand also had an inscription that read
Pray to yourself Celestia, for nothing will stand between you and me when I finally strike. Prepare for this for soon you will know only agony and the depths of Tartarus will be your only safe haven.
written in blood red, Pinkie shivered again before turning and walking off, though it quickly became bouncing out of habit.
"This doesn't look good." The pink mare giggled a little afterward, not being able to keep a serious face for very long "Oh well, I need to find a way home anyway." with that, Pinkie bounced off in a completely random direction.
She growled in anger, she had hoped to weekend Pinkie Pie and yet the reality warping Earth-Pony had casually ignored every terrifying thing the cloaked creature had thrown at her, though she should have seen that coming. That little brat isn't as simple as I thought, you'd think I, of all beings, would be able to deter her. the creature thought as she turned around to walk off, only to come face-to-face with the party pony herself. The creature jumped back in shock before taking on a defensive stance, her black body suit hiding her colors well.
"I found you, now it's my turn to hide." Pinkie giggled a little after that before her tail began twitching and both mares jumped away as a boulder fell between them, crumbling afterwards.
"Okay, then I'll start counting and you sta-" the creature was cut off from her attempt to get Pinkie away as fast as possibly by the mare in question literally vanishing into thin air. She shook her head. "When we finally meet, I hate to say it, but the outcome is not as predictable as I first thought." she said before following Pinkie's example and ceasing to exist where she had been siting.
Venom Hive
As her fellow guards walked off, since they were changing shifts, Crystal Wing turned to her queen, having been told that they needed to talk in private. Crystal bowed.
"What did you need me for my queen?" she asked, Chrysalis chuckling darkly.
"A special mission. I need you to enter the town of Ponyville and gather as much Intel on the Elements of Harmony as you can. While your there, I need you to also try to locate a rogue that I have reason to believe is present in the town." Chrysalis said, receiving a nod in reply as Crystal headed for one of the hive's exit.
Though she ensured that it didn't show in the Hivemind, Crystal was both excited and a little frightened. She was excited because, last she had heard, her friend Night Shade was in Ponyville, so she might run into her. She was frightened though because Chrysalis might know that Night Shade was there. Night Shade, even though she was a Gamma-level spell-caster and high level infiltrator, had abandoned the hive some time after Chrysalis started planning some rather insane things, attacking Canterlot for instance. Crystal Wing remember that day all too well
She had been casually talking with Night Shade until the nymph had brought her to her room. Once they had entered, Night had thrown up a powerful shield that completely blocked out the Hivemind. She had proceeded to explain that she was leaving and that she was going to ensure she was never found. After that, she had explained that her leaving was never to leave the confines of her quarters. She had at least showed Crystal what she planned to look like when she left.
Having made it to the exit sometime during her trip down memory lane, Crystal took on her base disguise before taking off, double checking the disguise in the process. She still had her cyan coat, but now it lacked holes, her wings were now Pegasus wings, her eyes were normal (normal for most at least), her fangs were gone, and her saddle carapace was gone. Crystal took a moment to do a few of the complicated Pegasus aerial moves that Night had taught her, wanting to just feel the air under her new feathers. It had been a long time since she disguised herself as a Pegasus, she had almost forgotten how it felt. Having taken enough time to relax in the air, Crystal took off to Ponyville.
unknown location #5
Applejack smiled at Queen Stormy Forest, queen of the Terra Hive. After a moment, the country mare spun around and walked away, heading for the sleeping quarters. As she walked, she looked around, observing the thousands of Changelings that buzzed around the halls, some coming in from doors on the ceiling that lead to the outside. She also saw the bright orange gel-like substance that covered the walls in intricate patterns, the walls that weren't covered showed compacted dirt. Applejack knew all this with ease, after all, the Apple family often did business with this hive (it turned out that their apples and other products happened to have more than enough love put into them to sustain the hive), thanks to this, she had been in and out of the hive quite often, though exactly how much of her life was spent in the hive was something she never wanted to talk about.
After a few more minutes, Applejack found the house and room she was looking for. The room looked like any typical Terra Hive Changeling's room. An orange sleeping cocoon hung from the ceiling; several shelves, consisting of books, underground plants, and some above ground plants, were on the walls; a few windows were on the ceiling with some doors to lead to the outside; and a closet that had Changeling cloths in it sat to the right of the sleeping cocoon. The cloths were made of a unique, silk-like, substance and often had glowing parts to add to the design. Applejack knew that the exact process of creating the cloths was a closely guarded secret among Changelings (it was the only thing that ALL hives agreed upon). On the far wall was what looked, at first glance, to be scribbles, but any Changeling (or their ally) knew the language written in orange, it translated to the name of the Changeling that once lived there, Thorn, a Changeling that Applejack knew for a fact was dead. That aside, Applejack was shocked to see that the room was the same even after nearly fifteen years.
Friendship Castle Throne Room
C-Twi (Twilight's clone) looked down at a random guard who had approached her and the other clones. "Are all the preparations ready?" she asked.
"They are Princess Twilight." the guard said, his silver armor shinning with a hole-filled purple crystal heart as the chest piece (this was the marker that this guard was a Changeling, even though he was in disguise).
C-Twi rolled her eyes. "Seriously, you don't have to act like I'm Twilight Sparkle." she said, the guard nodding and heading off. She had held her and the other clone's disguises for all of five minutes before realizing how pointless it was and getting rid of them. It was C-Dash (Rainbow's clone) who had spread the fact that they were just clones to Ponyville and even explained that the necklaces they all wore were indications of that.
At the thought of her necklace, C-Twi glanced down at her own. The glow, which was subtle before, was now painfully obvious. The same could be said for the necklaces of the other clones as well.
C-Shy (Fluttershy's clone) smiled as she noticed the intensity of the glow from her and her friends' necklaces. Looking at a clock on the wall, she saw that it had been two hours. "Good" she said, catching everypony's attention "They're early." she finished, everypony nodding at the statement.
Future Twilight, who was laying down and resting, chuckled, yes they were early, but she already knew that. Standing up, Future Twilight walked off, quickly returning to a balcony that had a telescope on it, she proceeded to indulge herself in some stargazing while the eclipse made it possible.
unknown location #6
Rarity looked around the Crystal Caves she had found herself in almost an hour and a half ago. The cave was filled with crystals, most of which had dried blood on them. There were also several diamond weapons, also stained with blood, hanging from the ceiling and the walls. Purple crystals were glowing softly near what, at first glance, looked like a wall, but Rarity had figured out a while ago that the crystals were there to mark otherwise unseen doorways. the fashionista walked through the door to behold a terrifying sight. In the center of the otherwise empty room, was a large pool of blood.
Rarity shivered as she beheld the sight, this was clearly a psychopath's den. A trail of bloody hoof-prints spread from the pool and lead to another room where the sound of screaming could be faintly heard, Rarity had no intention of looking into it. Opting for the only other doorway in the room, Rarity walked to her right, soon entering another room filled with shimmering crystals. She would have loved the sight, if not for the body that laid on a table in the center, various crystal blades and sharpened diamonds jutting out from several places on the body.
"This is just horrendous." she said, she would have fainted if it wasn't for the fact that she could still here the tortured screams a distance away.
Moving as quickly as she could, while still being quite, Rarity left the room and quickly made her way back through the door she had entered the blood-pool room from. She went into another door afterwards, not wanting to be anywhere near the pool room. She came into a room with an odd combination of bones, blood, gems, and crystals. The place had several statues made of the materials mentioned. These were statues of some ponies that Rarity hadn't seen in years, or rather, hadn't seen at all. In the center of the room was a statue of Luna. As much as she hated to admit it, Rarity could see a certain, very dark, beauty to all of it. Shaking her head and shivering from that thought, she left for another room.