An Occurrence at Sleepy Hollow Cemetary

by Pigeonsmall

What's Hidden

Chapter 2: What’s Hidden

The lanterns revealed dark green wall paper with white floral pattern divided evenly by unlit sconces, other than that the walls were bare. Their eyes adjusted as they walked inside the empty hallway with a row of doors spaced apart on either side. It reminded Rainbow Dash of the hospital. She’d been there once or twice, the most memorable visit was after an
unfortunate slip from a tree branch. She had been wheeled down a long stretch of scrubbed pearly white hallways just like this one, only this hall lacked the pleasant pictures and flower arrangements.

The passage was more narrow than a hospital’s hallways but wide enough that two adult ponies could pass each other comfortably, so it was more than enough for two foals. The dirt muted their approach, but the wood floor was solid and creaked slightly. The telltale sound of hoof steps was unavoidable, so they had to take each step cautiously to avoid making extra noise.

Rainbow Dash kept her eyes trained on the doors. They were closed, but she had the distinct feeling their adventure would not conclude until they explored the other side of at least one of them.

“A lot of doors, aren’t there?”

It was as if Dumbbell had read her mind.

“We should check some of these out,” he whispered. Dumbbell paused to inspect one but Rainbow Dash did not.

“Nu-uh,” she said. “I want to see what’s at the end of the hallway first.” Going by the plainness of her surroundings, she was sure there would not be much. She hoped.

“Suit yourself...”

They turned a corner and were faced with an even longer hallway. At the other end was another set of large double doors, just like the ones they had passed through earlier. The light peeled into the gloom on the other side. It was open a crack.

Rainbow Dash stopped in her tracks, eyes wide, and grit her teeth. She turned and scuttled back around the corner, far enough, she hoped, to hide the light.

“Somepony might still be in here!” she whispered after she set the lantern down. All at once a myriad of consequences for their actions crossed her mind. What if they were caught? Even if the doors were not locked, this was still trespassing. She felt her resolve begin to slip, and in dark corners she was starting to see traces of... She blinked and gazed into the flame. It was only shadows, that was all.

“Hey, we can’t go that way.” She looked away from the light and tried to spot Dumbbell. “I don’t think—”

She scanned the hallway five times over and spun around to see if Dumbbell had passed her, but the passage was empty.

creak

It was the smallest of noises, one she would have missed completely if she weren’t already on edge. She swung her lantern around tensely, but lowered it with a sigh when she saw a blond tail sticking out of an open door in the central glow of her light.

“What are you doing?” she asked after stomping her hoof. Dumbbell didn’t answer right away; he went over the threshold as if he hadn’t heard her.

Dash followed him to the opposite end of the hall cautiously; What was his problem? Separate, in a place like this?

‘Maybe with his back turned I could just walk out of here and—’

“Hey, Dash! Get in here, you gotta see this!”

Dash peeked through. The room was dark and sterile, just like the hallway. A second later her teeth clenched in reaction to the change of atmosphere. Why was the room so cold? She stepped all the way in and was met by a large metal structure that glinted like a polished shield.

It was a table set up on thin legs and wheels held together with screws and tubing, cleaned with medical precision, like a stretcher from a hospital. Only this was different, there were no pillows or cushioning for a pony to lay on comfortably, and that metal must have been really really cold.

There was a hole at one end and a bucket placed underneath. She had never seen a thing like it before yet Rainbow Dash understood its purpose.

“Eugh.” She went around it cautiously to where Dumbbell was waiting, standing by the wall facing the door. She noticed a couple of sinks were installed on the east side of the room next to a row of shelves with glass windows; they looked empty save for a scale and some indistinguishable pieces of equipment that Dash couldn’t make heads or tails of.

“What is all this?” she asked.

“Cemetery stuff.” Dumbbell said as if the answer were as easy as spelling his own name. He hadn’t even given the strange instruments any real look over. All of his attention was on what Rainbow Dash at first thought was just a flat wall. A closer look revealed it was an entire wall of drawers.

“What are these for?” Dash touched one with a hoof. It felt even colder than its surroundings.

“Oooh.” Dumbbell scanned the rows eagerly. Each one had a handle and a little white square card embedded in the center. Rainbow assumed something was supposed to be written on those cards, but the cards were all blank.

“I think I know,” he said in a conspiratorial whisper. He glanced at Rainbow Dash with a glint of mischief in his eye. “Let’s open it,” he said.

Dash yanked her hoof back as if the cold surface of the drawer had suddenly gone as red hot as an ember of coal.

“L-lets do what now?”

He measured her reluctance and grinned wickedly.

“What? You scared?”

“No I’m not!” Rainbow’s retort was quick as lightning. “But I’m not stupid either.”

“Right, says you. I bet it’s empty, and even if something is in here it won’t hurt us.” He had to stand up on his hind legs because the set of drawers closest to him were still above his head. Then he slipped his hoof into the latch of the sliding bolt lock and it came undone with a solid click. Rainbow Dash glanced backwards nervously expecting their only exit to creak again.

“When did you become an expert? I mean ...” She paused for a moment. “This can’t be where they put —”

“Ok, here we go.” Dumbbell pulled but nothing happened. He braced himself and pulled again. It rattled a little and seemed to give but the result was the same.

“Are you gonna just stand and watch, or are you gonna help me?”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “You need a filly to help you open a drawer?”

Dumbbell scowled but didn’t answer her, instead he pulled with all his might.
“It’s just...stuck!”

With a final pull the drawer came open with a loud rattle. It slid out at least six feet then halted. Dumbbell tumbled and fell on his rear, stood up and staggered backwards. After rubbing out the soreness, he craned his head up to try and see into the dark portal the drawer created but he was not tall enough to see over the lip.

“Well, you opened it. So look!” Rainbow Dash forced herself to speak past her chattering teeth.

The colt hesitated and turned to her. “Hey if anything does jump out, you’ll pull me back won’t you?”

Rainbow Dash acknowledged him with a flat expression. “What do you think?”

Dumbbell’s disappointed expression deepened into a frown as he muttered something under his breath and turned around. He hovered a couple of feet and held his lantern over the side.

“It’s empty,” he said with a sigh. “I told you there wasn’t anything to be scared of.”

Rainbow felt her ears go flat. “Whatever, just close it and lets get out of here already.”

Dumbbell couldn’t hold back his smugly satisfied look as he pushed the drawer closed and relocked it. “Nothing to be afraid of,” he repeated.

“We can’t actually take anything,” Rainbow Dash said as they left the room. Inwardly she sighed with relief when the temperature around her went back to something more comfortable.

“We’ve got to find something nopony would miss.”

“And how do you know what somepony would or wouldn’t miss?” Dash asked crossly. “It’s stealing either way.” It seemed perfect common sense to her but Dumbbell shook his head.

“This place was left practically wide open. Whoever works here shouldn’t be surprised if something goes missing.”

“That’s just it, what if the ponies who work here, are here?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“We’ll just say we got lost.” Dumbbell shrugged. “I mean what's the worst they can do to us? Tell our parents? If they can even do that!”

“Well I—”

“We’re already here and I’m not chickening out,” Dumbbell cut her off. “If you want to go home, well I’m not stoppin ya.”

Almost caught off guard, Rainbow Dash shook her head and knit her brows to a serious point in the center of her forehead.

“I’m not going anywhere.” She had come too far and was in too deep to run away. “As if I’d let an idiot like you wander off alone. You could get completely lost without another pony telling you what to do.”

“Is that what you think?” Dumbbell dropped his light and jumped in front of Rainbow Dash with his face set in a resolute frown.

“In that case why don’t we split up.” he said. That was not a suggestion, Rainbow Dash quickly noted. It suddenly felt as if the chill had returned.

“This place can’t be so big, so we split up, see what we can see, and meet back at the big doors we came through in ten minutes,” said Dumbbell. When Dash’s response didn’t come fast enough he added, “Or do you need somepony to hold your hoof?”

“Right, fine.” Rainbow Dash felt rigid as she stubbornly pushed her way past. “If you get lost I won’t go lookin’ for you.” It was a last half-hearted attempt to shake him but she had a feeling it did not work. Then she walked away without looking back.

She felt that the best idea would be to try the nearest door and see what was inside, but she did not want to be anywhere near Dumbbell and his obnoxious taunting. She did not want to leave a room and happen by him, only to have him look at her with his stupid churlish grin that wrinkled his nose, and show his teeth as if he were an actual threat.

‘He might be if he’s thinking up a bunch of lies in that dumb head of his.’

She knew Dumbbell was not beyond flipping the story on its head if she did not keep her cool. He would tell everyone she was a coward and talk about how cool and collected he was. Dash grimaced. Not if she had anything to say about it—and she would after she found something super awesome to show the others.

Rainbow Dash walked confidently on until she reached a new junction. She moved to the corner, listened and peered around it the way she had imagined royal guard ponies would from old mission details her father read to her once from a historical fiction book. The corridor was long and empty; she pricked her ears forward to pick up any noises and heard nothing. But hearing nothing was a good thing. Two more corridors branched from her position, leading off to places unknown and, she noted to her surprise, a set of stairs, most likely leading up to the top half of the chapel she had seen through the outside window. She figured the upper level stood an even better chance of being inhabited by someone, so she turned away from and picked the right corridor on a whim, it did not look any different from the left.

Her next door opened to a similar sight with the metal table in the center of the room, cloistered by tall glinting pieces of medical equipment, but it all looked ancient, much older than anything she had come across during a hospital visit. Slowly she let her light roam over the area and was greeted with another familiar sight.

“Oh great, more drawers...” The first one she had encountered had been empty, and she was lucky for that, but there was no way in Tartarus she would push her luck twice. Inhabiting the same space was a large cabinet which contained bottles big and small of colored chemicals, cotton swabs, neatly coiled tubes, and a big bulky thing that looked like the most awkward coffee maker ever. Rainbow Dash frowned and wondered who in Equestria would want to drink coffee in a place like this.

The lantern light drifted just to the left, revealing the pony watching her stiffly from the corner.

Her heart jumped almost as high as she did, almost high enough to clear the metal table in the middle of the room, instead she landed unsteadily and fell back on her hip. She stared up at the pony on the shelf with eyes as wide as saucers, waiting, daring it to move. She did not run because a part of her brain was already registering her error.

It was an anatomy model, the same kind the teacher would bring out during a science lesson.

“This may be on your quizzes so pay attention class. The overall length of the equine intestine is much taller than any pony, averaging twenty three feet.” said the teacher. “This area of the lower intestine is called the Cecum or water gut, it holds bacteria which helps break down our food during digestion...”

She remembered that day; Hoops had yelled out a loud mock cry of disgust before belching. It had gotten him detention for the second time that particular week.

Her thoughts returned to the model, with a bulging eye sticking out from the side of the head that had no face, exposed ribs and guts and everything else rendered with realistic precision. But none of it bothered her as much as the smile. Somepony thought it was a good idea to give the figure a big wide glassy-eyed grin that beamed across the room and followed Rainbow Dash wherever she went.

Alone in the dark room, it was like standing on the edge of a bad dream. A moment passed in silence with no sound or movement, and finally she decided it was safe to exhale.
“Stupid doll,” she muttered darkly and turned away. She could feel its glass eyes watching her while she investigated the cabinet near the door. Looking up, she saw a sign stuck to one of its doors.

“Look Alive!” Was all it said in cherry red writing plastered with smiling faces and yellow stars.

“Oh, funny.” she sighed.

A breeze or a presence, she could not really tell, went by, and the door she came through swung open. She froze as she felt hair on her back rise, a pinching sensation along her spine. Even if it was just a draft there was no way the door could just...open. She had closed it behind her, not slightly but fully latched. She heard it click and a breeze could never—

There was a crash, and the room went dark.

Rainbow Dash shrieked, she couldn’t help it. Her sense of direction lost, she hit a wall somewhere as she scrambled for the door.

“What was that? Who’s in here?” she asked shakily. She thought she heard something moving and pawed fervently for her exit but it was not where she expected it to be. Where was the door? She had been standing just next to it...

“Dumbbell?” she called out again to the empty room, thinking the colt must have snuck in while her back was turned, and now he was trying to scare her.

“Did you seriously break my lantern? Why’d you do that?” Silence followed. He was determined to play this through and Rainbow Dash was ready to beat him.

“It wasn’t funny, you jerk! Now I can’t see!”

She heard the recognizable click and rattle of a morgue drawer sliding open from the opposite side of the room and swallowed, trying to even out the waver in her laugh.

“Yeah, gee, good job, you can open a drawer all by yourself and I’m sooo impressed.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and start to walk aw-SLAM!

She felt her thoughts shatter into hundreds of pieces,the drawer slammed with enough force to make her heart drop into her stomach.

“Dumbbell w-what the hell are you doing?”

And then it rattled open. And shut again.

Crap.

“I-I get it! You don’t have to prove anything!” she said. The tremor forced her voice to hitch.

SLAM! It was even louder that time, like an angry minotaur. It was the kind of force that ripped doors off hinges. Rainbow Dash lurched back and cowered in the pitch black as the drawer opened, and shut, opened and shut, bang, bang, bang, BANG!

“S-stop it! Stop it!” Rainbow Dash screamed at the top of her lungs. Her voice felt tiny and useless under the racket. If she could see anything, the tears would have blurred her vision. She bolted through the door,and took to the air like a startled bird. And just like a panicked bird, fear compromised her sense of direction.

Thud.

The wall stopped her pretty effectively. She lay in a heap, dazed, the pounding in her head mimicked the violent pounding of the morgue drawer still going on like an automated machine in the room behind her. Bang, bang, bang...she got up, picked a direction and stumbled away. Her head hurt but she knew it would hurt less after she got away from that terrible noise. Blind, she felt her way down the hallway until she reached the junction but could not see the right direction. All of the passageways looked the same when well lit, so there was no hope that she could tell them apart in nearly complete darkness.

Thump, thump, thump, came the sudden clopping of heavy hoofsteps, far too heavy to be Dumbbell’s. Rainbow Dash froze mid-step and her breathing went hollow. She could feel ice leaking into her veins when she realized there was no light. Who would walk around in the dark? Someone was coming towards her and there was nowhere to hide. She thought for a moment in her panic that if she just lie still he might pass her by, but she immediately tossed away that notion. There was no way a pony could walk so close and not see her laying on the ground like a petrified rodent hoping the cat could not catch her scent.

‘Please don’t see me move’. she thought; there was no choice but to get out of sight. She crawled until she felt the smooth bump of a door hinge rub against the side of her face, and reached for a latch. There was barely enough time to think. Too scared to even utter a prayer that the door would stay silent, she pulled it open as much as she dared and slipped inside. It clicked shut softly and she pushed back as much as she could. She immediately learned there was not much room to move at all when she slapped against something solid, and what felt like several closely packed objects shifted,rattled and rocked under her.

Thump,thump,thump, the hoofsteps were closer. Dash could almost estimate when the pony or whoever passed the room she explored earlier, as they did the mysterious banging of the drawer ceased, there was a brief silence before the hoofsteps continued down the hall, closer to her hiding place. For a moment the thought of calling out crossed her mind. She would open the door and step out in front of the cemetery worker and say she had gotten lost out in the forest and ran in here to hide. Yeah, that sounded solid. What were the odds some old grave digger from Ponyville would recognize her? And if he questioned her wings, she would say she was still having trouble flying.

But when the hoofsteps stopped in front of the door she hid behind, her utterances turned into stones lodged inside her throat, the bar shifted and her breathing halted completely. It was not a full turn, barely even a half turn. The movement was halting as if the pony on the other side was hesitating, probably debating if they needed to retrieve a light source. Rainbow Dash hoped he would, then again, going by the confident stride she heard on the wooden floor, he probably didn’t need one.

The bolt turned one final time but the door stayed closed.

It seemed to say: ‘You’re fine where you are.’ The deadbolt released, shuddering back into place, and the hoofsteps continued on until Rainbow Dash heard nothing.

For a long time she just sat there, trembling in a dense haze of paranoia. After waiting to be sure the coast was clear, she got up and tried to let herself out. But the door did not open and rattled against the door jamb. Rainbow Dash stared at it, stupefied.

“What in the…?” Dash stared at the lock and tried again.

“Open up you stupid—” she grunted and hit the door with her shoulder. “Uhng! Let me out of here!” But no matter how much she tried, the door would not budge. She sighed and leaned against the right wall, forcing her back hooves to hit the wall on the opposite side. It had taken her a little while to notice just how small the space was.

‘This can’t be happening. I can’t actually be stuck in here can I?’

She attacked the door again,trying to ignore the buzz of panic she could feel bubbling in her stomach.

“This sucks,” she said out loud, suddenly not caring if anyone heard her. “Let me out of here!”

She snarled and backed up the four steps she was allowed before her rump hit a nearly invisible shelf behind her. She snorted like a bull and charged forward. There was no change, not even a shift or a dent; she may as well have flung herself to a wall. She bounced off it and landed on her back with a cry of pain. Something above her rattled and came loose from its holdings and fell down, striking just above her right eye.

“Gah!” She curled in on herself in an effort to compress the explosive pain. It ricocheted from the front and back of her skull like a bunch of lit firecrackers contained under a helmet.

“Dammit...” she drawled through her teeth and kicked the wall. At that moment she felt the pressure of light moving across her taut eyelids.

“Dash?”

Rainbow Dash heard the voice, but she could barely stand the dim light because of the pain.

‘Wait, a light?’

“Rainbow Dash is that you? How did you get in there?”

Dash slowly stood up and kept her head bowed, loathed to the idea of banging her head a third time, she swallowed and called out in a low voice.

“Is that you, Dumbbell?”

“Yeah it’s me,” she could hear the confusion in his voice. “There’s...there’s a box in front of the door!” he said.

“There’s a what?” Rainbow Dash pressed against the door and furrowed her brow. “Can you move it?” she asked.

She waited, she could see the light flicker and settle again and pressed inwards as she heard the box scrape against the floor.

“Yeah I think so, it doesn’t look too heavy” said Dumbbell. Then Rainbow Dash heard the scraping noise again as the box was slowly pushed.

“Hurry,” she whispered, her voice sounded hoarse. “Theres somepony else walking around out there.”

“Stop being stupidly obvious.” Dumbbell retorted as he grunted under the strain of pushing the box. The scraping sound was long and deep, cut in between with his panting.

“Ok, it’s outta the way, try and open it now.” Dumbbell finally managed to say after a painfully long minute. She didn’t have to go for the latch again as it was already unlocked, she pushed and the door swung open easily.

“What happened?” asked Dumbbell.

“This better not be your idea of a joke!” Rainbow Dash stuck her nose in his face. Dumbbell jumped away like he was trying to avoid getting bit.

“What joke?” he huffed. “Look, I didn’t shove the box in front of your little hidey hole, miss “coolest in flight camp”, I didn’t even know where you were till I heard you screaming for help.”

Rainbow Dash glanced down both ends of the hall, or at least as far as she could perceive along the edges of illumination. The coast seemed clear.

“Look,” she said, and brought a hard gaze back on her schoolmate. “We need to get out of here, now!”

Dumbbell stumbled back a couple of steps before glancing over Dash’s head and over his shoulder.

“Alright, alright, geez. Don’t yell at me because some old crank swept you into his broom closet.” he complained. “You should be thankful that I was close by.”

“And you didn’t see anypony walk by here? Seriously?”

“Nope.” Dumbbell picked up the lantern and started to walk the way he had come, when he caught the glint of something from the corner of his eye. He stopped and turned, it was coming from the closet.

“Hey what’s that?” he asked.

“Nothing important, let’s get out of here before whoever that was comes back!”

“Just give me a sec,” Dumbbell glanced at her defiantly. “I’m going to find somethin to take back, even if it fell out of a broom closet.”

Rainbow Dash thought she could hear noises coming from her left, though it could have been her imagination, it felt like a long cold draft of air pressing against her mind and she could feel her lips curling back to curse at him. Before she could, Dumbbell’s light shone into the small closet fully, and everything about him went rigid.

“What,” he murmured. His balked as lines of stress creased onto his features. “What the hell is this?”

Rainbow Dash's scolding words suddenly felt too heavy to let out. Her eyes immediately jumped from him to what was inside the closet. Slowly she walked over until she was just behind him and looked up. The drone of air gained volume and she leaned in despite her fear. At first the unknown shapes draped in shadows met her with misunderstanding, before she tilted her head, squinted, and tried picturing them as something known. When her mind finally grasped it, she screamed.

What sat above them were racks. Wood racks fitted with rows upon rows of unicorn horns that hung with their tips pointing to the floor, their bases sat upwards, still connected to jagged pieces of pale skull.

Author's Note:

And here be chapter 2! I hope you enjoy it.
Of course I have to give credit because I'd feel like an ass if I didn't.

Belligerent Sock and Vexy helped a lot with grammar.

and of course John Hood for helping me with idea stuff.

Comments

[Pigeonsmall]

5140092

Lot's and lots of murder. Or maybe something else...

[Rainbow87dash]

Well......the grounds keeper seems to have a strange hobby...

[Pigeonsmall]

5155259

Hey kids, wanna see my dead unicorn horn collection?

[Mares-a-Mares]

5140208
Please update~! This has so much suspense!

[SoarindashMLP]

Ooooh!!!!! When will the next chapter come out?! I must know! It better be not long, cuz then I have nothing to do with my life! I need MOARRRRR!!! Uh... please?