Spiritus ex Machina

by wonderkid125

Chapter 14: The Place of Dead Memories

Meanwhile, Tom and Glimmer Shine were still making their way to the service entrance. The pair walked slowly and searched their surroundings at every given chance, both to examine the area and find out if they were being watched by something unsavory. Of course, they had the faint hope that they would run across Silver Bell and the others cowering in some dark room, but somehow they knew that it wouldn’t be that easy to find them.

Still, the service entrance proved to be an enticing goal. Ever since they had arrived at the resort, they had constantly lost control of the situation every time they tried to plan things out. If they could find a way out onto the surface, then they could get the others to safety while they took things slower and figured out what was going on.

“So… any ideas on what we’re going to do after we find the service entrance and get everyone out of here?” Glimmer Shine asked curiously while turning to his human companion.

“Well… I’ve been thinking about a few possible solutions, but I can’t think of anything that really works right now. Going off of what we know right now, if these ghosts keep hiding in animatronics it will be a pain in the ass to get rid of them.” Tom shrugged in frustration while remembering the dull throbs from his earlier encounters with the robotic animals.

“I still can’t figure out why the ghosts are acting like this… not to mention those weird readings. Maybe there’s something we’re missing?” Glimmer Shine suggested uneasily while straining to come up with a logical explanation. Ghosts were normally hard to predict, but something about how these spirits were acting seemed off to him, even with his relative lack of experience.

“Whatever. We can worry about this after we find Applejack, Rarity, and Silver Bell. I don’t like the idea of any of them being down here with us.” Tom said with a concerned expression while thinking about Twilight and the others being in such a dangerous location.

“I hear you there…” Glimmer Shine nodded understandingly before turning his attention to where they were going. He paused in front of an intersection and tried to think back to the map from the lobby. After a brief moment of contemplation, the yellow stallion realized that they were on the right track before walking down the left fork.

Up ahead was a series of open doorways in yet another empty hallway. Taking a brief look into the rooms yielded the discovery that they were dining rooms of some sort, most likely party rooms for children judging by the colorful décor.

Out of instinct, Tom exhaled a puff of mist and used his senses to check the surrounding area. He wasn’t really expecting much. With the whacked out readings he was getting upstairs, he thought that he would only get a vague feeling of his direct surroundings. However, what he actually felt was so stunning that it made him stop mid stride. “What the… hell?” He muttered in a completely shocked and dumbfounded tone.

Glimmer Shine stopped walking and turned to see the human exhaling more puffs of blue mist with a frantic expression on his face. “Something wrong?” The yellow stallion asked with slight concern. The boy seemingly ignored him and kept using his senses while looking around in confusion.

“No, no, no… this can’t be right. How is that even possible?!” Tom said in a more alarmed tone, officially garnering his yellow companion’s full attention.

“Tom, calm down and talk to me. What did you feel?” Glimmer Shine grew slightly more on edge as he listened to the genuine shock in his friend’s voice.

“I can’t feel the floor above us… it’s like this floor is completely isolated.” Tom explained uneasily while using his senses again to confirm his observation.

“What? What do you mean isolated?” Glimmer Shine asked in a concerned tone.

“I don’t know when or how it happened, but at some point coming down the stairs we crossed into a whole other pocket of energy signatures. I knew it was strange that I couldn’t feel any energy down here when I was with Sparkplug a few days ago. And that’s not even the worst of it… there’s a lot more energy down here than upstairs.” Tom said with a troubled expression.

By now, a solid lump had formed in Glimmer Shine’s stomach. He knew that they were out of their element before, but now they were on a whole new level of not understanding how deep in they were. “*Sigh*… can you feel any of the ghosts more clearly since we’re down here?” Glimmer asked while trying to keep at least some optimism in his body.

“I’m not sure… I can feel some faint readings that resemble ghosts, but it’s still hard to tell. The readings down here are still just as messed up as they are upstairs. Ugh… if only my senses were better.” Tom groaned in frustration while resting a hand on his face and looking to the floor. He seemed to be blaming himself for everything being so hard to figure out.

“Don’t sweat it, Tom. Let’s just keep moving and keep our wits about us. The plan hasn’t changed for the moment. We need to get to that entrance.” Glimmer Shine suggested in a determined tone. The human sighed while getting his own frustration under control and nodded. With a passing look of concern to their now even more unsafe and unfamiliar surroundings, they walked down the hallway past all the party rooms.

Continuing forward a ways, the pair noticed the floor slanting upwards slightly. The service entrance was just down the hall, and it was getting more and more apparent.

Tom shined his flashlight around to look at the sides of the hall. Up toward the ceiling were a series of air vents placed at intervals on either side. Most of the covers were intact, but some were broken off and lying on the floor or missing entirely. “Oh boy…” The human shrugged hesitantly while looking at the vent covers with a troubled expression.

“What’s up?” Glimmer Shine asked curiously while noting the apprehension in his companion’s voice.

“Those vent covers look like they’re a little too far away from the vents to have just fallen off, don’t they?” Tom replied while pointing out the numerous broken covers on the floor.

The yellow stallion looked around himself and noticed what the boy was talking about. Some of the covers were lying in the middle of the floor, with some being so far away from the vent they belonged to that they were actually off to the side. “Huh… that’s weird.” Glimmer Shine raised an eyebrow in surprise while pausing to further examine the vents and their broken covers.

“It’s not just weird, it’s bad.” Tom added in a troubled tone, much to the confusion of his yellow companion.

Glimmer Shine tilted his head in confusion, struggling to see the human’s reasoning. “Bad…? What’s so bad about it?”

“Glimmer, when you’re in the business of hunting monsters, you start to notice little things that most people wouldn’t catch,” Tom said while turning to look at the stallion. He quickly realized that his friend wasn’t following where his statement was going. “Ok… so, pop quiz. What could have happened to make those vents’ covers fall off if they didn’t fall off naturally?” The human asked suggestively, hoping that a hint could lead the stallion to figure it out on his own.

“Umm… something pulled them off?” Glimmer Shine asked in an uncertain tone before paling slightly as he realized what the boy meant. “Which means…”

“Which means that something was able to climb up there and pull them off so it could crawl through the vents.” Tom finished the stallion’s statement while eyeing the vent openings uneasily. Glimmer Shine looked around at the many vents without covers and noted how many of them were broken. Now that he studied them more, he noticed that most of the broken vent covers were on opposing sides to each other. Whatever was using the vents to travel around must have done it often.

“Let’s… let’s uh, go find that entrance.” Glimmer Shine said with a nervous chuckle while starting to walk away. He let his stare linger on the open vents as he walked before straining to look back down to the hallway. Trying to walk around without thinking about something crawling above them and waiting to take a bite out of their heads would be very difficult now.

A few moments of paranoid walking later and the two noticed something coming up at the end of the hall. After their flashlights reached it and lit it up, they smirked slightly as they saw a pair of double doors with a sign next to them. The sign was much too faded to read, but the double doors themselves signified that they were close to the entrance.

As they hurried their pace to reach the doors, they started to notice a terrible odor coming from within. The smell grew in intensity the closer they got until it was burning their nostrils and forcing them to step back for a moment.

“Sweet Celestia, what is that?” Glimmer Shine asked while covering his nose and mouth in disgust. The pungent odor resembled rotten eggs mixed in with copper and ash. He had never smelled anything like it in his life, and he hoped that he would never smell anything like it again.

“Whatever it is, it can’t be good.” Tom replied in a strained voice. Despite the powerful odor coming from the double doors, the pair forced themselves to march on.

Tom hesitantly reached for the handle of one of the doors and pulled it. The door slid open with relative ease, letting a whole fog bank of the terrible odor fly out to greet them. Taking a moment to avoid gagging, the two hesitantly shined their flashlights inside to see what was waiting for them.

The room was large, with an open area to the left that had a ramp leading up into the unknown. There were shelves and boxes lined with tools and construction hard hats along the sides of the walls. However, the most glaring feature of the room was something much different than either of the two could have expected.

What appeared to be some kind of black gunk was strewn along the walls, floor, and even the ceiling and some of the shelves. Judging from the smell, whatever odor was filling the air was most likely coming from the strange substance.

“Good lord…” Tom muttered in amazement and disgust. It seemed like the more he shined his flashlight around the space, the more of the black substance he found.

“What is that stuff?” Glimmer Shine asked while struggling to keep his lunch settled where it belonged. The smell was almost overpowering, which wasn’t surprising considering how much of the foreign substance there was.

Much to the stallion’s confusion and dismay, Tom hesitantly walked into the room and knelt down. There was a particularly large area of the concrete floor in front of the door that was covered in the black filth. The human reached out and used the tip of two fingers to pick up a bit of the substance. The black ooze felt gooey and more than a little sticky to the touch.

Tom seemed to be deep in thought while his stallion companion was looking at him with a mortified expression. Finally, the boy wiped the disgusting slime off on the floor before standing up and turning to the yellow pony.

“Glimmer, I think this stuff is ectoplasm.” Tom said in a troubled tone.

“Ectoplasm? I think we read about that in the books you picked out for us. Isn’t it left behind when ghosts interact with the physical world?” Glimmer Shine asked curiously, to which the human shook his head.

“Most books on the paranormal will tell you that, but it’s just a misconception. Real ectoplasm can’t be made by just any ghost. This stuff is only created by entities with some serious negative energy behind them. I’ve never actually seen this much of it in one place before.” Tom explained while looking around uneasily.

“Why is it that we always get the situations that you or any other slayers have never seen before?” Glimmer shrugged in a troubled tone while hesitantly stepping into the room and looking around. As he scanned his head around and further examined the room, he looked down to step around the pile of black gunk on the floor. When he did, he paused as he noticed something peculiar. “Hey, check this out.” The stallion said while pointing to the floor. Tom looked down and raised his eyebrows in surprise as he noticed what his companion was referring to. On the left edge of the pile of ectoplasm, there was a small round section of it that was cleared away. Now that he was looking at it, the human realized that the shape looked a lot like a hoof.

“Looks like someone stepped in it while walking in here.” Tom said in a mildly disgusted tone while picturing himself stepping in the black goo barefoot.

“Maybe it was Applejack, Rarity, and Silver Bell?” Glimmer Shine suggested with a hopeful expression.

“That would make sense… If they saw the map in the lobby, the service entrance would probably be the first place they would go.” Tom nodded while smiling slightly at the thought that the three mares were trying to escape.

“The question is… if they aren’t here, where did they go?” Glimmer Shine asked curiously. As the stallion and the human looked at each other to try and confer a solid opinion on the matter, they suddenly shifted their eyes to the ramp on the left side of the room.

Taking a few steps forward and diligently avoiding the black substance on the ground like the plague, the two approached the ramp and peered around the corner. As they initially expected, the ramp sloped upward and traveled a short distance until it ended at another pair of double doors. A large set of red letters were above the door that read “exit”. However, the uplifting sign wasn’t the only thing present.

Tom and Glimmer Shine walked up the ramp slowly while looking forward with silent expressions of unease. There was more of the ectoplasm leading up to the door along the walls and ceiling, but there were also scratches in the floor and on the walls. The scratches were of varying sizes, depth, and length, with some having been made with different numbers of lines ranging from one large scratch to four or five smaller scratches grouped together. It looked as if multiple creatures had made the scratches, and they were all leading up to the door.

Tom instinctively reached forward and tried to pull the doors open. Unfortunately for him, no matter how hard he pulled, neither of the doors would open. The teasingly simple obstacle in their path to freedom was like a slap in the face. They had gotten so close, only to have a locked door stop them.

“Damnit… we’re stuck down here then.” Tom let out a frustrated shrug.

“Wait… Tom, look.” Glimmer Shine said while pointing his flashlight directly at the doors and looking closely. The human stopped what he was doing and looked where the stallion was, only to notice something that stunned him into silence.

As they paused in front of the doors and looked closer, the pair noticed more scratches that were much fainter than the others. However, these scratches didn’t just consist of claw marks or scuffs along the wall. These scratches actually formed words.

Above the exit sign, something or someone had aptly scratched out the word “no” in large letters. And across the doors themselves, there was a single word written so large that it took up most of the space on the doors.

“Abandoned…?” Glimmer Shine read off the word in a confused and hushed tone. “I thought all of the construction workers made it out of here alive?” He asked while trying to think back to the information he studied on the construction project and the alleged collapse.

“They did…” Tom replied in an uncertain tone while trying to figure out what the scratches meant.

“Well if they didn’t make these, then who did?” Glimmer Shine asked curiously while thinking about the matter further. Around the same time, both of them made a startling conclusion. The scratches were made in a solid wall, and some of them were fairly deep. They also looked like claw marks, so the simplest deduction was to assume that they were, and the only thing that the pair could think of that could make claw marks like that would be metallic fingers.

“This place just keeps on getting weirder.” Tom shook his head uneasily while trying to make sense of why any of this was happening.

“*Sigh*… come on, let’s get out of here. We need to head back to the others and think of a new plan.” Glimmer Shine suggested while motioning for the human to follow him. Tom nodded in agreement before walking back down the ramp with the stallion ahead of him.

The human paused and took one last look back at the exit doors. If there was no other way out for them aside from going back upstairs from where they came, then how were they going to handle things? If they didn’t get the others to safety, then they would have a much harder time controlling the situation. Finally, Tom shrugged in frustration before hurrying to catch up with Glimmer Shine. The sooner they could leave the oppressive atmosphere of the odor ridden room, the better off they would be.

---

Meanwhile, over by the security room, Sunspot and her two companions were making their way toward the generator room. The distance wasn’t that far on the map, but they still proceeded hesitantly and with caution.

Twilight and Sparkplug stayed close to Sunspot as she took the lead. The purple unicorn used her horn to provide light for the group while they walked. While they kept a wary eye on every passing shadow or unlit opening into a room, they made sure to keep moving every chance they got.

Finally, Sunspot turned abruptly down the left side of a three-way intersection and stared down the new hallway expectantly. She paused for a moment in thought before nodding to herself as she recalled the map she glanced at in greater detail.

“Ok, I think the generator room is down here.” Sunspot reported in a pleased tone while looking back to her small troop.

“I hope you memorized where to go. I would really hate for us to get lost in this place.” Twilight while eyeing the pegasus with a concerned expression to see if she was really confident in her ability to lead the way.

“Don’t worry, I looked at the map. I’m almost… ninety percent sure that it’s this way.” Sunspot said while pausing briefly to recall her memory of the map. She motioned toward the hallway and tried to reassure her purple companion via a confident expression.

“So, you just put faith in one person to know where we’re going?” Sparkplug asked in a surprised tone while looking to the unicorn.

“Well, you did too. So if we want to blame someone for getting lost, we can really only blame ourselves… and Sunspot.” Twilight said while briefly glancing to the orange pony suggestively.

“I’m right here you know… and I can get us lost on purpose.” Sunspot replied in an agitated tone while returning the unicorn’s suggestive stare.

“Relax… I got a look at the map before we left. She was right before, it’s just down there.” Sparkplug said while pointing down the hall toward the right side. The purple mare and the orange pegasus glanced to the gray pony for a moment before looking to each other and raising an eyebrow cynically.

“Well, lead the way pathfinder.” Twilight motioned for the pegasus to go ahead. Sunspot sighed before walking forward and looking to the right to find the right room.

Numerous doors were in sight, and only one of them was the one they needed. Even ignoring the left half of rooms and going on Sunspot’s ninety percent accurate memory, the trio had a fair bit of searching to do unless they could find the generator room without checking every door.

“No… no… nope… no…” Sunspot muttered to herself while reading some of the faded signs next to some of the doors. It seemed that the majority of this hallway was dedicated to staff rooms like lounges or supply closets.

Suddenly, the pegasus paused in front of one door about halfway down the hall. She leaned in close and strained to make out the damaged letters on the plaque. Judging from what she could make out, she deduced this room to be labeled as “generator”.

“Ah… here we go.” Sunspot let a pleased smile come over her as she reached forward and grabbed the handle. The door popped open with relative ease, revealing the beginnings of a room and a lot of darkness as the purple unicorn and the gray earth pony stayed back behind the pegasus. As their orange leader stepped into the room, paying no heed to the pitch blackness she was walking into, the two mares followed in after her.

The light from Twilight’s horn chased the shadows back, revealing the room to be of medium size. The walls behind them were barren, save for a few hooks on them to hang items and tools from. The most prominent objects in the room were on opposite sides at the back. To the left side, there was a bulky machine that took up the majority of the left wall. Judging from first appearances, this was most likely the generator they were looking for. Off to the right was some sort of square pillar that went clear from floor to ceiling. The pillar had all manner of mystical symbols and glyphs printed onto it, nearly covering its surface in light purple.

“Woah… this is pretty cool.” Sparkplug stated in an enchanted tone with her eyes lighting up as she looked over the large device on the left and the strange pillar on the right.

“I assume that’s the generator we’re looking for?” Twilight asked curiously while motioning toward the machine on the left.

Sparkplug trotted over to the machine and looked it over briefly before turning to her companions with an answer. “Yeah, this is it.” The gray mare reported with a confident nod.

“Ok… but what’s that thing over there?” Sunspot asked with a puzzled expression while pointing off to the right. The other two turned their heads and immediately realized that the pegasus was referring to the large pillar.

“That’s probably the seismic dampener.” Sparkplug replied while still examining a panel on the generator. The other two mares looked back over to the strange pillar with their curiosity refreshed.

Twilight walked up to the pillar and traced her hoof down its surface. Aside from a small accumulation of dust, the entire column was as smooth as the stone it seemed to be made from. The various symbols written along the surface were familiar to her. She had seen them many times in her studies on magic, so she could most likely decipher their meaning if she inspected the whole pillar for a time. “So this thing is a seismic dampener?” The purple mare asked in an intrigued tone to nobody in particular while still admiring the pillar.

“I think so.” Sparkplug spoke up from off to the side. “I’ve never actually seen one, but judging from appearances that looks like how I imagine one would. That whole thing goes through the floor down to the bottom of however deep this place is. If it were charged up, it would be sending magic right under our feet throughout each of the floors, ceilings, and supports.” She explained with a brief smirk while watching the unicorn look over the pillar-like she would look over an animatronic upstairs, or at least she would if they weren’t trying to kill her right now.

“That’s some grade-A pony engineering for you.” Sunspot smirked briefly before turning her attention to the generator that Sparkplug was looking over. “Alright, enough sightseeing… we need to get this generator up and running.” She said in a more serious tone while walking over to the gray mare to see what the generator looked like.

Sparkplug was standing in front of a panel that held all manner of dials and gauges. Among the mess of mechanical bits and bobs, the orange mare could identify what looked to be an on and off button near what could be loosely identified as a small round hole in the console. She could identify the buttons to be on and off buttons because of their bright green and red paint, and she could identify the hole in the console to be very deep because she couldn’t even see the end of it.

“So uh… do we just hit a button and we’re good to go?” Sunspot asked with an awkward smile while hoping that Sparkplug could take things from here. As brave of a leader she thought herself to be, she wasn’t exactly what one could describe as technically inclined.

Sparkplug narrowed her eyes pensively while giving the machine one last once over. “Looks like everything’s relatively intact… I think we just need Twilight to charge it up for us and we should be good to go.” She said in a chipper manner while stepping back and turning to the purple mare.

With all eyes now on her, Twilight looked at the daunting console and sweated slightly. “Umm… could you… show me what to do? Do I hold my horn near a certain place and just fill it up with energy or… something else?” She asked in a hopeful tone while trying to make sense of whatever dials and instruments that were in front of her.

“See that hole right there?” Sparkplug asked while pointing to the small round hole. Twilight nodded while looking at the hole again. It was fairly deep, and now that she looked at it again, it was almost the perfect size to fit a unicorn’s horn.

“Yeah… is this where I channel my magic through?” The purple mare asked curiously while trying to see if she could actually see the back of the small cavity. She already had a pretty good idea of what she had to do, but she wanted to be sure before she started sticking her horn into unknown places.

“Yep, just put your horn in there and give off some magic. It should charge right up for you.” Sparkplug explained while waiting for the unicorn to complete her task.

Twilight glanced over to Sunspot with slight with a hint of nervous hesitation. After seeing that the pegasus was watching her expectantly as well, she finally sighed and inched closer to the console. She sized up the hole and briefly imagined everything that could have gone wrong. Shoving her fears aside, she moved her head and craned her neck to fit her horn into the slot.

As the unicorn lined up her horn and pressed her head forward, the entire room went pitch black due to her light being contained by the tight space. There was a small portion of her horn left uncovered that let a faint light out and allowed the two mares watching to actually see what was going on. Twilight closed her eyes and ignored the bizarre sensation of having her horn fit so snugly into a tight space before focusing and channeling her magic out around her.

Suddenly, a muffled whir filled the air from within the generator as a faint red light came on and started climbing higher. Sparkplug and Sunspot looked over and noticed that a gauge with a power indicator was lighting up and filling from a red section at the bottom to a green section at the top.

After the gauge filled up, Twilight felt a subtle change in the slot around her. Her energy was no longer being channeled into anything, so she reeled back and brushed off her horn. She looked over to find her companions standing in front of the lit up power gauge and the red and green buttons.

“That’s it?” Sunspot asked while looking to the earth pony beside her for confirmation.

“That’s it… fire ‘er up.” Sparkplug replied confidently. With that, the pegasus reached for the green button and prepared to hit it.

“Wait a second…” Twilight said in a troubled tone while motioning for the pegasus to stop.

“Huh?” Sunspot muttered in confusion while pausing and looking at the purple mare. “What’s wrong?”

“Should we really be powering this place up?” Twilight asked uneasily. “What if we start a fire or something? This place is like fifty years old and hasn’t even been finished, let alone maintained. I’m sure that some of the electrical wiring can’t be intact after all these years.” She suggested with a nervous expression. The sudden thought of sending electricity through a whole building worth of potentially shoddy wiring made Sunspot reel her foreleg back away from the green button. However, Sparkplug seemed to be much more confident than her companions.

“Don’t worry about starting any fires. Magical conduction generators like this are almost always paired with magically insulated wiring. It makes the wires easier to work on and keeps them protected from surges. Once the energy from this generator circulates through the wires and charges them up, the worst that will happen is some of the lights and appliances not working.” Sparkplug explained with a reassuring tone of voice.

Twilight and Sunspot looked at each other hesitantly before shrugging and reaching for the button. They trusted their new friend’s words, but the thought still lingered in their minds. Almost at once, the two mares hit the green button with a satisfying click.

A louder groan of machinery filled the air as the generator came to life. The noises within sounded just as likely to be the generator about to blow up as they were to be it starting up for the first time in years. Soon enough the mishmash of noises steadied out into a constant hum as the lights in the room miraculously flickered on.

The three mares heard the distant sounds of many electrical devices turning on, with some less pleasing noises that were most likely bulbs burning out outside. Sunspot walked over to the door and peered outside to confirm that the power was on everywhere else. Just as she suspected, there were lights on in the hallway. However, there were a lot of patches of darkness from where lightbulbs refused to work due to their age.

“Hah! We did it!” Sunspot cheered in excitement while turning back to her companions, who also had smiles on their faces. They had finally done something that would help them with getting the upper hand.

“Nicely done girls… I never would have thought we could bring this place back to life when we got down here.” Sparkplug stated in a congratulatory manner while grinning at her companions.

Suddenly, Sunspot heard the familiar voice of Glitterball coming through in her head. She placed a hoof on her ear to trigger the communication spell so she could better hear and reply to the unicorn.

“Sunspot, you there?” Glitterball asked curiously.

“Yeah, I’m here Glitter.” Sunspot replied.

“Well, I assume you just found that generator, because this place just lit up like a pumpkin on Nightmare Night.” Glitterball explained with a healthy hint of an impressed tone in her voice. The pegasus couldn’t help but smirk slightly.

“We found the generator alright. Anything useful turn on in the security room?” Sunspot asked with hopeful optimism.

“Umm… yeah, we think so. Those security monitors and the console lit up. Right now, Copper Coil is looking them over to see if he can get them working so we can start searching the cameras. You guys should come back here now.” Glitterball suggested in a slightly concerned tone.

“Alright, we’ll be back as soon as we can.” Sunspot said while nodding, even though the unicorn couldn’t see her. Finally, she dropped her hoof from her ear, causing the magical glow to vanish as she turned to her companions. Twilight was watching with passive curiosity, but Sparkplug seemed much more intrigued by the conversation the pegasus just had.

“What was that? You were talking to Glitterball?” Sparkplug asked while tilting her head with a mildly confused expression.

“It’s a communication spell that Glitter made. It lets us talk to each other over long distances.” Sunspot explained while briefly putting her hoof back on her ear to show off the magical glow again. If she wanted to, she could concentrate on any of her teammates and talk to them as long as they were conscious and had a hand or hoof free so they could reply.

“Oh… that sounds pretty useful.” Sparkplug said with an understanding nod of satisfaction.

While the pegasus and the earth pony started to leave the room to head back to the others, Twilight lingered for a moment and looked back to the seismic dampener. While the generator had various lights on that signified it was turned on, the pillar didn’t have anything that implied that it was working. None of the magical runes were lit up, and there was no steady hum of magic or tingly feeling. Of course, given the importance of the stone pillar, the unicorn wanted to ensure that it was working. If some of the floors further down were unstable, then that could have spelled disaster for them. After all, the ghosts in the resort were supposedly created from a cave in, and one could happen regardless of whether or not it had in the past.

“Hey guys, shouldn’t we charge up the seismic dampener, just to be safe?” Twilight suggested while motioning behind her toward the pillar. Sunspot and Sparkplug paused and turned to see the unicorn standing in front of the odd device with a hesitant expression.

“Well… the generator should give it energy over time, but you can charge it up fully now if you want. It should be fairly straight forward… just use your horn on it.” Sparkplug explained while motioning toward the pillar.

Twilight looked back at the stone column before briefly glancing to her companions. After realizing that they were indeed going to wait on her, she turned around and walked up to the dampener. The large monolith of a pillar waited silently for her to interact with it, its many runes teasing her to explore them with her magic.

Lighting up her horn brighter and tapping it to the pillar, Twilight immediately felt her magic flowing through it. The many runes started lighting up and filling the pillar with an aura that made her tingle slightly. Still, she kept channeling energy into it and made sure to keep going until it was fully charged.

Sunspot and Sparkplug watched the unicorn bringing the pillar to life with mesmerized expressions. The magical glow of the various symbols was a sight to behold. They could practically feel the magic flowing beneath their feet and out into the floor, although this was most likely in their heads.

Suddenly, Twilight felt something bizarre as her magic interacted with the pillar. She felt an odd tingle in her head that was growing in intensity. Using magic was such a common practice to her that she often didn’t feel much of anything while using it at times, but it did have its moments of sending sensations through her body. Still, this hazy sensation seemed strange and new to her.

Before the purple mare could think any further on the odd sensation, the pillar ceased accepting her energy and forced her to back away and dim her horn. The tingling was still present, but it was fading enough to warrant her to chalk it up to a passing feeling.

“Alright, that should take care of any structural problems we might encounter later,” Twilight said with a satisfied nod. “Let’s get back to the others.” She suggested while walking over to the others by the door. The two mares nodded before following their friend out of the room and closing the door behind them.

“Come on, I think we can snake through some rooms and get back faster this way.” Sunspot suggested eagerly while walking toward the right side of the hallway away from where they originally came from. Now that the electricity was on, the pegasus was much more confident in their ability to take care of the ghosts. With the cameras in the security room, it would be easier to get the lay of the land and find their three missing friends so they could get them to safety and find out how to get rid of all of the pesky spirits plaguing the place.

“You sure you know where you’re going still?” Sparkplug asked in a jesting tone while following the pegasus toward the end of the hallway.

“I’ll have you know that I have not gotten us lost a single time. If you’re so sure of yourself, then why… don’t you…” Sunspot paused in confusion as she realized that the bubble of light wasn’t following her and the gray mare. She turned with a puzzled expression to look for the purple unicorn, only to see her standing in place a few feet away. “Twilight, what are you doing? Come on already.” Sunspot motioned for the unicorn to hurry along, but she still remained standing in place, staring blankly ahead.

The longer the purple mare went without responding, the more concerned the other two became. Twilight wasn’t moving aside from sluggish movements of the eyes and head, and even then she seemed unable to move from where she was.

“Twilight…? Are you ok?” Sunspot asked uneasily while stepping a little closer to the silent unicorn.

Unbeknownst to the other two ponies, the strange tingling sensation from before had returned even worse than it was. Twilight could hardly think straight as a thick haze filled her mind and body. Her legs felt weak and wobbly, and she could only stare forward with a dazed expression.

“I… I… d…” Twilight tried to say something to explain what was happening or at least call for help, but she felt so numb that she couldn’t get the words out. Suddenly, her legs gave out and she fell to the floor on her side.

“Twilight!” Both Sunspot and Sparkplug exclaimed in unison while rushing forward. They gathered by the fallen unicorn’s side and watched as she struggled to remain conscious.

Twilight was gradually getting more and more sluggish and unresponsive, but there was no visible cause for her sudden ailment. The orange pegasus checked her over for injuries to the head or elsewhere, but nothing she found made sense about why the unicorn was passing out.

“Twilight, what’s wrong?! Can you hear me? Say something!” Sunspot said in a distraught tone while gently shaking the unicorn. Despite the orange pony’s attempts at keeping her alert, she wasn’t responding to anything around her.

Twilight could barely hear the two mares anymore. All sounds reaching her were faded and getting quieter by the minute as they vanished into the numbed mess of her other senses. She fluttered her eyes shut and gave in to the wave of exhaustion flowing through her.
.
..
…
As quickly as her senses left her, Twilight felt a rush of sound and feeling hitting her as she became aware again. Judging from how she felt, she didn’t think she was on her side anymore. Strangely enough, she could even feel ground beneath her feet. Finally getting the courage to open her eyes, she had to shield them abruptly as a bright light flooded her vision.

“Uh… wh..at?” The purple mare groaned while rubbing her eyes. As she finally looked around, she discovered that Sunspot and Sparkplug were nowhere to be found. The dusty and forgotten hallway she was just in moments ago wasn’t present either. In fact, she was in a completely different location.

There was brightly colored orange wallpaper adorning the walls of the room around her, which appeared to be some sort of sitting room. There was a table with two chairs behind her in the center of the room, with a few other smaller tables and chairs dotted around the room. There were two doors leading into and out of the room, and there was a window on the wall in front of her letting bright sunlight into the room.

A window…?...! Twilight rushed forward and caught herself on the windowsill as she raced to look out of the window to see where she was. Oddly enough, she wasn’t underground anymore. She wasn’t even in the resort anymore.

There was what appeared to be an amusement park outside. There was no other way to explain it, but there it was. There was a large Ferris wheel taking up the majority of the skyline, and there were colorful tents and booths with various ponies walking by. The unexpected sight stunned her into silence. She contemplated calling out to one of them, but they probably wouldn’t hear her through the window.

Hearing voices to the side, Twilight turned and looked to one of the doors out of the room. The door opened and two ponies walked in. One was an older looking stallion with dark purple fur and pink hair with a handlebar mustache. He was wearing a pink and white checkered jacket and a hat with a similar pattern. His cutie mark was a simplistic Ferris wheel not unlike the one outside.

The other stallion was much younger looking than the pony next to him, looking to be fresh out of his teen years. He had white fur and striped orange and yellow hair, and a cutie mark consisting of two sticks of cotton candy tilted at an angle as if they were being juggled. He was wearing a bright yellow bow tie on his neck. He also seemed to be holding a newspaper.

“Yeah… that’s really tragic. I hope they find them soon.” The younger pony said in a disheartened tone. The two stallions seemed to ignore the purple mare in the room and continued the conversation they were having before they walked in.

“Umm… excuse me, could you help me? I don’t know how I got… here…?” Twilight paused as she noticed that the stallions weren’t noticing her. She walked over to them and tried to get their attention, but they just kept talking amongst themselves.

“So, are you sure you’re ready to handle interviewing a new hire?” The older stallion asked hesitantly, much to the younger stallion’s dismay.

“I’ve told you this like a hundred times dad. I can take care of this.” The white pony said in a reassuring manner while flashing a confident smile.

“Heh… I guess so. I’m just not used to my son being so grown up just yet.” The purple stallion replied with a slight chuckle, causing the other pony to blush slightly and look away in embarrassment.

“Hello…? Can you two hear me? My name is Twilight Sparkle… I need some help getting back to my friends.” Twilight persisted while raising her voice slightly and getting right in front of the pair. She wanted to make sure that she wasn’t ignored this time.

Suddenly, the two stallions started walking across the room. Twilight started to move to get out of their way, but before she could they ran into her… and went straight through her.

“Wh…w-what the?!” Twilight jumped to the side and stared at the two stallions with wide eyes. Hesitantly, she caught up to the two ponies and tried to touch one of them with her hoof. Like before, her body didn’t even make contact with them, instead passing through them like she wasn’t even there. She couldn’t even feel anything strange when seemingly ignoring the laws of physics. It was like she was some kind of ghost.

With that last thought ringing in her mind and making the disturbed feeling in her gut worse, she turned her attention to the only things in the room other than her. The white stallion sat the newspaper down on one of the tables and leaned against the wall while his father stood next to him.

“Right, well… I’ll send him in. Try not to scare him away, we really need the help.” The purple stallion said with a brief chuckle while walking back toward the door that he came through a few moments ago. The younger pony nodded before walking over to the table in the center of the room and taking a seat.

Twilight looked around her with a mixture of confusion, shock, and unease on her face. She had so many questions about just what the hay was going on right now, but she had no one to explain anything to her as long as everyone couldn’t hear her. Spotting the newspaper over on the table, she felt her burning curiosity growing even more intense.

Rushing over to the table, she briefly looked over to the white stallion sitting nearby. Of course, he was still occupying himself and not paying attention to her. Shifting her eyes back to the newspaper, she started reaching for it to pick it up. Much to her frustration, her hoof passed right through the paper and the table it was sitting on.

“Grr…” Twilight furrowed her brow in annoyance while staring at her seemingly intangible hoof. Finally, she shrugged and lowered her head slightly to read the paper better. After scanning over the various articles and pictures, she adopted a somber expression as she realized how grim the covered topic was. The main article was about a string of unsolved kidnappings, with the most recent one happening last month. Strangely enough, the pictures were in black and white.

“Wait… what?” Twilight muttered in a confused tone while looking over the pictures. She hadn’t thought about it at first, but now it was blatantly obvious that the pictures weren’t in color. Finally, she drifted across something that made her eyes widen and her face pale.

The date on the paper was almost seventy years ago.

The text was bold and clear. She read over it multiple times, but still, it didn’t change. She could only stare ahead with a shocked expression while having a mental crisis as she tried desperately to cling to any semblance of logic. However, there was no logic to be found. She shouldn’t have been here. She hadn’t been born yet. Her mother and father hadn’t even been born yet, and her grandparents were likely still in school.

“S…s-seventy years?” Twilight parroted her own thoughts in a broken voice. “D-dream… this… this must be a dream.” She said while closing her eyes and straining to think of what happened up to this point. She remembered passing out, so perhaps she really was just dreaming. After all, it did make sense. The Ferris wheel and the park outside, the black and white newspaper, she was probably imagining herself in the old amusement park. Still, this dream was much more vivid than she could have ever wanted.

*Knock* *Knock*

An abrupt knocking at the door behind her drew the unicorn out of her maddened daze. The stallion sitting at the table next to her looked up as well before straightening the bow tie on his chest and clearing his throat.

“Come on in.” The white pony spoke up. After a few moments, the door opened and another stallion walked into the room.

This stallion was a little older looking than the white pony sitting at the table. He had dark orange fur and short black hair that looked neat and up kept. His cutie mark was a single purple balloon with a smiley face drawn on it in crude crayon-like writing.

“Uh… are you Mr. Swirl’s son?” The stallion asked in a hesitant tone.

“Yes, I am. You can call me Cotton if you want. Please, take a seat.” Cotton introduced himself while motioning toward the chair across from him. The orange pony nodded before walking over and sitting down.

“Cotton Swirl…? Isn’t that the name that was on the tapes?” Twilight muttered curiously. The white stallion must have been Berry’s grandfather.

The purple unicorn watched silently as the two stallions seemingly began a job interview. Cotton Swirl pulled out some papers and sifted through them while looking the orange pony over and getting a better sense of him.

“*Ahem* So… Mr. Dream Catcher… what job were you hoping to get with us here at Fun Land?” Cotton asked with a composed tone of voice.

“I think I can fit in wherever you guys want to put me. I have a lot of experience in a variety of careers, and I think I can bring my positivity and work ethic here if you hire me.” The orange stallion explained in a confident manner while maintaining a cheerfully casual expression.

“Hmm… that sounds very interesting. Tell me about some of the other careers you’ve had.” Cotton Swirl asked curiously while briefly looking down to the stack of papers he had.

“Uh… I’ve had fairly standard jobs. I’ve worked as a sales clerk in stores before, so I think I am a good people person.” Dream Catcher replied after thinking about the matter for a moment.

Time passed by at a crawl as the two stallions passed questions and answers back and forth. Twilight tried to pay attention, though she was heavily distracted by still trying to rationalize what was going on. However, the doors out of the room seemed to have locked themselves, and the conversation going on in front of her was the only relevant thing happening, so she decided to focus on the other ponies for the time being.

Finally, Cotton Swirl set his papers down and looked up at the other stallion before clearing his throat. “Ok, everything about you seems to check out. It sounds like you would be a great addition to our big happy family. Oh… before I let you go, how are you around children? Kids are a good portion of our customer base, so we want to make sure that our employees can handle being around them all day.” The white pony asked curiously while watching the other stallion expectantly.

The orange pony paused for a moment and smiled. His expression was cheery and friendly enough, but it seemed somehow off to Twilight. The white stallion watching didn’t seem to notice whatever was causing the unicorn to feel uneasy. “Kids…? Oh, don’t worry… I’m great with kids.” Dream Catcher explained in a lighthearted tone.

Suddenly, Twilight felt the same hazy feeling from before returning. The room in front of her and the two stallions gradually blurred and her hearing faded. She tried to keep herself awake, but the wave of drowsiness washing over her was too strong to fight. Eventually, the world faded to black again and she fell into a void of nothingness.

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[ibeachu]

Chills....