Pretty In Pink, Bloody in Red

by Loyal Defender

Nightmare In Pink

Nightmare In Pink
(Sequel chapter)

(Note – This story is suggestive and NSFW. If that isn’t your sort of thing, I highly recommend you NOT continue reading.)

It had been three months and sixteen days since we had defeated Pinkamena. After she pulled me into the game she was coded into, she ran me through a huge and horrifying test, mutilating her friends, and even threatening to kill me because I had won. However, I still managed to prevail and beat her at her own game. I narrowly escaped death after she grew sizzling mad that I wanted to leave, and chased me to the exit, in which I managed to escape, leaving her trapped in the game. However, there was still a way to save Pinkie from Pinkamena – take her out of the game and remove any and all connections with it. I moved the game onto a USB, erasing Pinkie’s memories of the game itself.

Afterwards, having six pastel ponies in my house that, thankfully were not from the show itself, otherwise things would go wrong, things got a lot more...interesting. For a while, I had to keep the ponies secret so no one would cause mass hysteria. But due to an incident with a cinnamon stick and a blown-down door, my secret got out. But before anyone could go mad, I thankfully convinced them that they were just ‘animated models’ of the ponies I’d made since ‘They couldn’t come from the show itself’. Everyone believed that, and things went right back to normal. However….there was something I didn’t realize was very wrong. Something that would have its revenge.

It was a rather calm evening. Animals had settled in, everyone was likely in bed reading or watching television, or even just eating. I was outside with my telescope, looking up at the moon. I had always admired the moon, and it never got old looking at it through a telescope and photographing shots of it.

(If you want you can make it easier on yourself by deciding what ponies are outside with me.)

“Golly! Yer stars look prettier than what Luna makes.. can ya tell us who made them?” Applejack looks up at the stars that reminded her of home. Rarity looks up as well studying the moon. “ I dare say, darling, the moon looks magnificent tonight, in one’s eye you can really capture the beauty of it!”

Twilight rushed outside in haste with sweat dripping off the side of her face. “What is it? What did I miss?!”

“Only a simple question – who made these stars? Well, technically, the Big Bang did. A large spacial explosion said to have been the reason this universe was born.”

“So, who raises the sun and moon here?”

“No one. They move on their own. The weather moves on its own, too.”

“I know, where you’re from you claim in the Everfree, the weather and animals care for themselves. It’s all like that here.”

“What?! Y’all mean it’s like the everfree forest? Why do y’all live in such crazy weather?”

Rarity faints onto the ground.

“Well...we’ve really no choice. But it’s not as bad as you think. We have technology to help us predict what the weather will be for five days in a week.”

“Looks like Rainbow will get the run fer her bits! So y’all don’t have a team to conjure up rain like Pegasi?”

“No. The weather does it for us. We also get around with more advanced vehicles for flying, underground, transportation....kinda surprising this didn't come up for three months. Then again, we did have a no-outside rule before.."

“This could be a new discovery for all ponykind!!! I need all the books, research and developments and any kind of tech gizmos that you use to study the weather!!” She is having a hard time containing herself, as her eyes sparkled and she smiled wide knowing what wonders will await her.

“I mean….I get you’re excited, but you wouldn’t try to IMPROVE Equestria with that if you went back at all, right? I know how everyone there prefers their daily routine. That, and….erm….we mostly use satellites. In space. Where it costs a lot of money to prepare. And has a chance of death. Still, there ARE books on it, I’m sure...I’m just not sure what exactly to search to find it. Not that I can search considering Pinkie accidentally crushed my laptop with a cookbook while trying to find an old recipe. But eh, it was years old anyhow.”

"I see what you mean about having technology that size on a global scale, and with a risk of pegasus flying into a satellite that big in orbit" Twilight sat there in thought, as Rarity was waking up with a headache.

“There’s still books on how weather here forms, though.”

“Oh my what darlings what just happened?” Rarity asked as she slowly got up from the ground. “How many are there for different kinds of weather forms here??! I mean I know Rainbow has extensive knowledge on weather but the possibilities are endless with new information!!” Twilight’s eyes were still sparkling as Pinkie trotted outside, yawning.

Seems everyone was coming out to play...or hang out.“Thousands. Maybe even millions.”

“What is half of everypony doing outside? Is it a stargazing party??!! Oo I should go and make mooncakes then!!!”

“Dunno how that’ll work, but alright.” I looked into the scope again, carefully aiming my camera into it, when I got an idea. “Twi, would you do me a favor and hold the scope still? That way it doesn’t shake around when I move the camera onto it.” I would have used one hand to hold it still, but then how would I hold the camera to properly press the button?

“Sure thing!!” Twilight’s horn lights up and the scope glows a violet color keeping the telescope in place.

“Thanks!” I carefully held the camera in place, and pressed the button a few times, lightly, to focus it, until I finally got a good shot of it. You could see the tiny craters on the side of the moon in the image. “Got it! Many thanks, Twilight.”

“Wooooow!! That’s ammaazing!! I mean, it’s not as amazing as cheese pies but wow!!” She looks at Loyal with wide eyes and a smile. “Yes darling, it has more details then the mare of the moon, not that I’m putting Luna’s beauty of the moon down, but this is truly one of a kind!”

“I’ve been photographing for many years, and any shot of the moon is special to me.”

“Oo do you have..maybe a fax copier machine to you know make more then 10 pictures of the moon?!”

“Sadly, no. Otherwise I’d have a bit more than a camera and toy telescope.”

“Aww.. well it’s a good thing I can’t just fish one fax machine out for you... can you imagine the seller of the fax machines face when one goes missing?!”

"Wait, what?"

“Don’t ask it’s Pinkie, her logic of pulling out stuff from nowhere is about as logical as Discord’s magic.” Rarity trotted back into the house to get a much needed shower from laying on the grass for too long.

"No, I mean, like, if she pulls one out, does it just vanish from a store?"

“Actually yes. As to how, we can’t really figure out the logic behind of how she does it. One time she pulled out a trampoline from nowhere, she had to go and pay back the store owner the bits she owed from taking it. She didn’t say how, she did it. It just happened in her own way.”

“Taking an item and an item vanishes. What is this, SCP Containment Breach?”

For the record, I'd shown them that game, purely because Pinkie reminded me SO MUCH of it. That and....well, I needed SOME way to show what human minds could create. This world wasn’t completely pure.

“Well not really, if it was then we would be really in trouble...” She let out a yawn and looks at the stars with eyes halfway closed. “Welp I’m going to head back to bed, so now if you will excuse me it’s bedtime for me...” She trotted off with a single bounce in her step.

“I guess we should get some shuteye, hm?”

Twilight yawned and nodded turning around to head back into the house.

I folded my telescope back up, put my camera in my pocket, and got up. “Let’s go back in. If you wanna stay out longer, just lock the door when you come in..” I headed inside and up the stairs, changing into pajamas shortly after, and getting into bed.

Turns out Pinkie was laying (or sleeping) near where I usually got into bed. It was rather cute, actually. They tended to sleep in random spots...maybe differing favorite ones. Gently stroking her, I smiled and lay down. “Sweet dreams, Pinkie..”

“Sweet dreams...Loyal” Pinkie let out a creepy small laugh, low enough for me not to hear it.

A few hours into the night, I was awoken from my peaceful sleep by something gently shaking the bed. “Mmh...Pinkie, I thought you were tired….how are you shaking the--” I turned to see what she was doing, only for something to hold me down, and seemed to be breathing heavily.

“..Pinkie..?”

"Oh good! You are awake, and here I was about to use a chainsaw to wake you up.” She turned around to face me, only she wasn’t Pinkie...she was Pinkamena, holding a bloody nail and hammer.

“Jesus fuck!” I quickly leapt out of bed and up against the wall. “Pinkamena?! But that’s...that’s impossible!” Okay, don't panic..yet. I quickly thought and tried the door, but it was jammed! “Shit.”

“Nice try, but there is no way out... well there is a way but you won’t like it! Trust me, the last person that did didn’t leave the way they came in.” She grinned and pulled out a dead body from behind her, covered in cuts, blood, wounds partially ripped open.

“No...you’re not real. You are NOT REAL!”

“Ooh I’m real alright! Also your number is up, so say... UNCLE!” She dropped the body and grabbed the chainsaw, while holding it she came closer and placed the tip of the chainsaw under my chin. “Say goodnight dear friend!” She plunged the chainsaw into his chin and laughed maniacally.

I let out a horrified scream as I ‘felt’ the blade cutting into my skin, and blood began rapidly spurting out. I thrashed around, and everything went black, as I suddenly sat up. Looking around and feeling myself, I found myself to be fine. Of course, what with my screaming, I’d likely woken Pinkie up. But I wasn’t even sure if she was still good or not.

Pinkie lays there still sleeping and snoring with earplugs on while twitching her body every 5 seconds, it’s no wonder she didn’t push him off the bed.

I got out of bed, not to get up, seeing as it was 3 in the morning , but to regain my composure. “Okay...it’s alright, Loyal...there’s no Pinkamena...there’s no one here to hurt you….it’s fine...it’s fine.” I had to be sure, though...Pinkamena was unpredictable. Turning to Pinkie, I gently gripped her and just as gently shook her. “Pinkie…..Pinkie, please wake up!”

Pinkies eyes shot open from being woken up, she takes out the earplugs and says “ ahhh! Loyal what’s the matter?! I was having the most wonderful dream about sugar cakes and chocolate.”

“I...I need to know something. I just had a terrible nightmare Pinkamena took a chainsaw to my chin...please, tell me – you’re….you’re good again, aren’t you? I wouldn’t want a pony who’s sweet as cake to become sour as a lemon.’

"Huh? You must have had some nightmare, you know I'm always good in the show except for the.. ‘Party of One’, episode, but I assure you I’m not mean." She pulled my pillow closer to where her side was and patted on the pillow. "If you want you can sleep with me for the rest of the morning if you wish. Don’t worry, I don’t bite."

“Or stab, right?” I asked, laying down on the pillow.

"Of course, the only thing I’ll be stabbing is the hay sandwich in the refrigerator, or cake.” She let out another yawn and fell back asleep shortly after.

“I guess I really do have nothing much to worry about,” I reassured myself, as I lay down, pulling a smaller blanket over the two of us, and I closed my eyes and went back to sleep. There really was nothing to worry about now….right?

The rest of the night went peacefully, but left me worried – would Pinkamena truly come back? That was impossible. The USB containing her game was tucked away safely, and my PC had been smashed. There was NO WAY she could possibly return.

I awoke the next morning, feeling a bit rough from last night, but overall slept well. I turned to look over at Pinkie, and gently stroked her mane. “Good morning, starshine,” I greeted, a sleepy smile on my face. Pinkie looked rather cute when she was asleep.

“ Morning Loyal!” She yawns and stretches, while looking at him with sleepy eyes.

“How’d you sleep? Aside from last night’s incident.”

“Like a rock, no wait like a boulder. He usually is the champion of sleeping rocks.” She smiled brightly, now fully awake and jumps on top of the bed covers.

“You know, I never did understand – how can you tell what a rock’s saying, feeling, or thinking? Is it like a talent only ponies devoted to rock farms can learn?”

“Well there is a secret, but promise not to tell anybody, anypony, any objects, food, the sun and the moon. Yes the sun and moon have ears!”

“One moment.” I shut the windows, locked them, and pulled the drapes. “Alright. I promise not to tell. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my—OW!

It’s so much easier for you ponies to do that..”

“Hehe yeah, well the secret is that Maud is a ventriloquist. She can talk through rocks and is also a rock whisperer.”

“But….if that’s true, then how do you know what Boulder’s saying?”

“That’s another secret, only way is to listen carefully.”

“But….I never hear anything.”

“Just don’t think about it too much, Twilight tried that and it didn’t end so well. Come on let’s go get some breakfast.”

“Uhm...alright...this can be between us, then..” I got up and stretched, trying not to strain myself too much. “I’d say ‘I’ll see you downstairs’, but it’s usually the other way around.”

“Meet you downstairs!!” She took off in a flash to the kitchen downstairs.

Chuckling to myself, I headed downstairs as well, passing by the master bedroom in the process. Seems they were likely still asleep. ‘I wonder if Pinkie can manage to make breakfast in just a few seconds,’ I wondered, realizing it meant that eating would take no time at all. I remembered when I first found her making breakfast for me in her own game. I was worried it’d have...rather gross ingredients, but it didn’t, luckily.

She started humming in the kitchen, as she made piles and piles of pancakes, eggs, and of course, bacon for the human. A few moments later the table was all set and ready for consumption.

"Do I even NEED to buy anything anymore with you around? You're just instant breakfast any time."

“Well, you do need to buy more food once we run out silly! Have a seat and dig in!!” She said, as she pulled out a triangle instrument and rung it. “Breakfast is ready!!”

"A triangle....oh, boy." I stepped to the side, awaiting the usual avalanche of hungry ponies (or people) who heard the sound.

"I'm just waiting for the avalanche of ponies possibly waiting to rush on through."

A whole herd of ponies came rushing down the stairs with Rarity’s mane wrapped in a towel.

“There it is. Dig in, everyone, I shall let the ladies go first.”

“Alright breakfast!! Mm it smells so good!” Everypony took a seat and started eating pancakes and eggs.

“Let’s hope no one goes for the bacon,” I thought to myself, “Then none of them will be vegan.”]

"Glad everypony is up to have breakfast! I mean normally Dashie would sleep in until noon or so!" Rainbow Dash looked at her, surprised. "I...how did you know that I sleep for that long? Were you spying on me?"

“Either that or she just knows you well.”

“Oh dear, say Loyal you wouldn’t have a spare blow dryer do you? Seems my mane is still wet and I do need to dry it out before the morning is over.”Rarity reaches up to touch the towel wrapped around her head. “Oh Rarity y’all always work up over such minor things.” She stops and looks over at Applejack.”Well some of us do care about our appearances!”

“I might have one. Wait here.” I hurried back up the stairs and into the master bedroom’s batthroom. My parents always kept a spare blow dryer on the counter. I grabbed it and took it downstairs, placing it on the couch. I wouldn’t want to risk blowing the food all over the place. “It’s in the living roomwhen you need it,” I called out to Rarity.

“Ah thank you darling, I’ll be right back!” Rarity galloped to the living room and turned on the blow dryer, everyone else continued eating.

“Can’t say I blame her, she IS all about looks.”

“So what’s that agenda for today?” Pink asked with her mouth full.

“Hmm...I’m not sure. House is clean, work’s been done...I’m not sure. What’ve you got for ideas?”

“How about games? What do you have that’s gamelike?”

“Hmmm….I do have something, but it’s typically limited. But it should be able to handle the grasp of pony hooves, thinking logically.”

“Ooo let’s see it!” She tossed the rest of the pancakes into the air and chomped it all in one bite like a shark. The rest of the Mane 6 eventually finished their breakfast, but more...normally.

“Alright, one second.” I went upstairs and opened the hallway closet door. On the middle shelf was a small arcade machine. It was a joystick with buttons on the sides, with little classic arcade games decorating the sides - Pac-Man, Mappy, Galaga, Xevious, Pole Position II. Carefully pulling it out, I tucked it underneath my arm and closed the door, heading back downstairs. This arcade set hadn’t worked for some time, but hopefully Twilight would be able to repair it, being a smart Unicorn and all (or Alicorn, depends on how you wanna see her as the main protagonist in Cupcake Party).

“Ooh I’m sure she will!! After all she was able to repair a lot of stuff back in Ponyville!” Pinkie answered (breaking the fourth wall, of course) as Twilight looked at her. “Pinkie, this might take a bit longer than usual, considering we are dealing with mechanical stuff that runs on batteries, and not on magic!”

“Can you repair wires, at least?”

“Yes I can. It shouldn’t take too long from the use of magic.” Twilight began the repairs on the arcade machine and in a few minutes, and with enough concentration, it was up and working again.

“Alright...this should be a useable console. Buttons and joysticks. Perfect for pony hooves because it’s an easy grip. Now...” I turned the console on and switched on the TV, changing the channel to match the console’s channel. “Who wants to go first.”

“Oh me!! Well I always like to go with another pony player to compete with, but I’ll give it a shot!” Rainbow jumps in front of the arcade machine.

“I’ve got to check on a few things, but feel free to try beating my high scores. Spent hours on them.”

I headed into the garage and flipped open the fusebox on the wall. One fuse looked like it was about to go out – the one in the backyard. I dug through a small box below the fusebox for a new fuse, popping out the old one and switching it with a new one. No other fuses looked old or blown. Having that finished, I rushed into the living room, pulling up the blinds a bit, and checking the window locks. I switched them to ensure they were shut, closing the blinds. But something seemed very….off. I knew the others would notice I hadn’t done this before, and was unexpected.

“Yeah alright!! I’m kicking flank here! Who knew games like this would be 20% cooler?!” Rainbow yelled out loud while Pinkie cheered her on.

“Heh, yup, retro games are pretty exciting! The old classics, the nostalgia of being back in the retro times, the 8-bit sounds, the thrill of getting wonderful high scores..! Oh, listen to me, heh, I sound like Twilight geeking out over a library.”

“Wait there is a library nearby?! How big is it!! Do they have forbidden books too?!” Twiligh got up with a wide grin on her face and headed for the door.

“Hey, egghead, he was talking about the video games!” Rainbow corrected her.

“Although, I CAN print out a route to one of our libraries. And...I’m not too sure they have ‘forbidden books’. Our world doesn’t have a lot of things not meant to be uncovered.”

"Aww, but a library is a library! ...Say, Loyal, why did you lock the doors? Doesn't that seem pointless too?" Twilight tilted her head to the side while looking at me curiously.

I took a hand off the window lock. Why WAS I doing this? “I….don’t know. I have this strange urge to lock all the windows and doors….as if not wanting to let something in.”

“I don’t feel any different….I feel completely normal, the only difference being an urge to lock everything. It’s strange.”

“That’s weird, if there was something about to happen, Pinkie would have notified us right away..” Pinkie was cheering on Rainbow Dash as she was ranking up the points. “Yeah go Dashie!!!”

“But...could she have Pinkie Sense for something like this? Like a huge threat?”

“Well she did have a bit of a doozy back in Froggy Bottom Bogg, which turns out to be me just believing about her Pinkie sense.”

“Yeah, side note, she’d have to KNOW when something would happen to purposefully trigger it, without you triggering it yourself. Besides, she's Pinkie Pie, she could have KNOWN you would."

“Yeah I did it!!! A new high score oh yeah now I’m 20% more cooler!” Rainbow turns around with a big grin on her face, as the arcade machine had a bit of smoke coming out from the back. “Actually I think it’s getting 20% more hotter in here!” Pinkie ran off to get a fire extinguisher without panicking.

“I….I don’t even know HOW you managed to pull that off.”

“It happens when Pinkie is around..” She came back with a fire extinguisher on hoof.

“She can just make machines magically break without doing anything?”

“It’s Pinkie you can’t question how it happens, but not all the time though.”

“Hmm. Wait, why do you have an extinguisher? It’s not even on fire.”

“Well I would keep it just incase, you might never know when an emergency arises!”

I hurried over to the TV and unplugged the wires to be safe. “Best to let that cool off for now.”

“There is no need to go the extra mile, as far as we been here it only happened once.” Twilight sat there and started to ponder Loyal’s behavior.

“You never know, we don’t know how most machinery will react with being plugged in. That and...this thing is old. One of our childhood toys.”

“I’m gonna check upstairs, be back in a moment.” I didn’t waste a moment hurrying up the stairs and heading into the master bedroom, ensuring the windows were locked, same as in my storage room, and finally, my bedroom. “All locked. Good. Nothing can get in here,” I turned around to see Twilight in the doorway. “What? I’m taking precautionary measures.”

“Yeah, normal my hoof. Something seems off about you, and I might have a spell to analyze to make sure that there is no magical virus inside of you!” Twilight lit her horn, closed her eyes, and placed the tip of her horn on my index finger. She concentrated for a minute while searching for any signs in my body.

"What is this, E.T.? Odd place to cast it, ya know."

“Hrm I don’t see any magical virus in your system, though you are giving off signs that you are still nervous about something.” She stopped scanning as the light from her horn stopped glowing.

“Is something wrong Loyal?”

“Why would I be nervous about anything?”

“Your body’s system is giving off signs that you are nervous about the unknown. Similar to when a pony has dilated eyes and looking around the room.”

I sat on the bed, sighing. No point in hiding the slightest nervous feeling from an Alicorn who could read minds. “I don’t know why, but I suddenly had a major urge to start locking doors and windows, as if…..as if something was coming, but it’s uncertain when, or what.”

I gently rubbed my temples. "Ugh, it's nagging at the back of my head....it's telling me to lock all the doors so nothing gets in....but I don't know WHAT is trying to get in…"

“This is very serious, it seems that someone or something is trying to force you to do something you don’t want to do. Like King Sombra, when the Crystal Empire vanished and the crystal ponies had bad memories of when he ruled the kingdom.”

“What am I supposed to do? I can’t stop myself when it’s going..”

Twilight jumped onto the bed, and turned me around to face her. “Hey, it’ll be alright, you are among friends, and friendship has ways to make things right in the end, no matter how tough the obstacle.” She opened her front hooves in an offer for me to hug her.

Now, I’d be a fool not to accept an embrace from the Princess of Friendship (anyone would be), so I took the opportunity to hug her. But...it wasn’t because it would help me feel better. It was because I knew I had support. “Somehow you know just what to say, don’t you?”

“I learned from Pinkie Pie, besides I wouldn’t be called the Princess of Friendship for nothing.”

"So...what do we do now?"

“Well until we know what the unknown is, I could just put a detection spell around the house incase of a magical energy spike.”

“That works. Should anything set it off, how will we know where to look?”

“Easiest way to explain is that once it is detected, a small magical streamline will appear to the caster and pin point the nearest location that is inside the house. Unfortunately, anything outside the perimeter of the house won’t be detected so easily.”

“Of course, but why would we need an outside detector? Whatever’s coming for us would want to be INSIDE.”

“Now, there is something we can do to delay any more...erratic behavior. Any time I start doing something unnatural, just stop me in my tracks, physically, magically, however.”

“Doesn’t matter if I ask, I plea, I beg, it’s NOT. ME. I’m a natural person who knows when to stop. Anything I would do that wouldn’t make sense, you stop me. Unless I manage to give a reasonable answer.”

“Sure thing Loyal.” Twilight lights up her horn once more to release the magic spike detection spell. “There, we should be secured for now.”

“Ah, good. Wait, what time is it?”

“It’s still morning, yeah looks like the others has been watching Rainbow play for a while now.”

I rushed over to my closet, throwing the doors open (they don’t swing very far or fast), and grabbing my telescope from inside and grabbing my camera from my desk. I looked outside to see the moon illuminated in the sky. Yes!

“I’m trying to photograph all of the moon phases. I can’t miss a single day!”

“Ok hurry up!!” Twilight hurriedly pushed me out the door and followed behind.

Hurrying down the stairs, I went into the backyard and set up my scope, taking little effort to aim it at the moon, focusing the lens, and….

“There! Just in time, too, I swear the moon seems to move faster when I’m not looking at it.”

Twilight teleported outside next to me, though I hadn’t noticed she was still inside before. “Yeah, it’s still a mystery of why the moon moves so quickly like that.”

“My guess is quantum physics.”

“Mostly magic in our world, but it’s good to see science is applied more to here.”

“That’s because magic doesn’t really exist here.”

“We should think about building a lab here.”

“And how are we going to do that?”

“How much will it cost to build an extra room?”

“More than the amount of money in my pocket, which is….close to none.”

“Ok then, maybe someday we could visit a lab then!”

"Provided they don't dissect you>"

“You do have a point there, wish there is a way to get past the labs without being spotted.” She sat and started to ponder.

“Well, we’ll figure it out, eventually,” I assured Twi by gently rubbing her shoulder. “We got all the time in the world to do so.”

“Thank you, though I feel we might not have all the time in the world considering there could be something lurking in the shadows.”

“Whatever’s out there coming for us, it’s seven against one. We got this...together.”

“Yes! Yes we do, we got this!” At that moment, the song of the same title played in the background.

"....that's just incidental singing, right?"

“We can’t help it, we don’t know where the music comes from most of the time.”

In case you’re wondering, I made it clear to them that they were, in fact, from another source of MLP content, which is why there were ‘copies’ of them on TV. Took them a while to get used to it.

“Alright, can you hold the scope still, please?”

“Easy as pie.” She lights her horn, creating a spell to hold the telescope still without any problems.

I could swear I heard someone replying randomly, 'Oh, I love pie'. This was starting to scare me a little. Carefully aiming the lens into the….lens, I focused the camera a bit, and…

*click!*

The image processed, and then came a perfect image. A half (or almost half) moon, with a noticeable dent in it. “Perfect! That’s one of many pictures to go. As the days go by, I’ll be photographing the moon to put all the phase images together.”

“I barely got a chance to study more of the moon back in Ponyville, usually busy researching new magic. Hopefully we can find all of the moon phases at this point in time.”

"It depends on if the weather's going to be a total bitch to us and keep me from seeing it several days in a row."

“True, well, Rainbow can tell when the next rainstorm will come. She is a Pegasus weather pony after all.”

“I thought she controlled weather, not predicted it.”

“Right, only she knows when the next scheduled weather will be.”

“By the way, there was one other thing I wanted to ask of you. Considering we’d have to ensure I didn’t do anything strange, would you mind, um...spending the night in my room tonight to make sure I don’t get away with it?”

“I don’t mind sleeping in your room, as long as you don’t sleepwalk outside the door.”

“I don’t sleepwalk...and hopefully whatever influenced me won’t change that.”

“Yeah, hopefully not.”

“Ok then I’m in, it will be great research!”

“Well...this being done, what should we do now?”

“If it’s lunch time we can go grab a snack.”

“That works. I think I still have plenty of clementines left over in the fridge.”

“Alright let’s head back inside to go get some.”

Nodding in agreement, I grabbed my telescope and camera, and went back inside, making a beeline for the kitchen.

Twilight teleports into the kitchen ending up right behind him.

“That’s just super convenient for you, isn’t it?”

“Well we can’t always use spells on a daily basis, like you said the government could catch on fast if we are not careful.”

“Good point.” I opened the fridge, and pulled out a container. “Here we are. A container full of clementines.”

“Alright! Thank you!” She opens up the container and takes a couple of clementines.

I also pulled out a container of strawberries and a package of fruit dip. “Heck, we ought to just have a lunch of fruits.”

“Yeah we should along with hay or daisy sandwiches” she starts drooling at the thought.

“How do you ponies even EAT those?”

“Well unlike your ponies here, we can eat flowers just fine.”

“Just be careful WHAT you eat here...a lot of plants here can be dangerous.”

“Do you have a book on the dangerous plants?”

“No, but I have a desktop down here. I just hardly use it.” Biting into a clementine, I swallowed, responding, “Need I show you just how many poisonous plants exist?”

“Yes, please!” She pulled out a quill and paper out of nowhere.

"Don't see how that'll help, we can print out pages."

“Why didn’t you say so?! Let’s go!” She put the quill and paper away, rushing out of the kitchen.

Entering the little office, I sat down in front of the monitor and opened up a browser, entering “Poisonous Plants of the US”, and a result came up.

https://www.britannica.com/list/7-of-the-worlds-deadliest-plants

Twilight’s eyes became big and sparkly, as she wore a big grin on her face.

"Oh, and wondering HOW much knowledge is on the internet? 1.2 million terabytes. Which is.....a buckton. A lot more than the number of humans on the Earth. That's one billion, two hundred million gigabytes....and this drive is only about four hundred. Or slightly bigger."

Twilight’s whole body seemed to freeze up, and fell over on her side in shock. A blue screen square box appeared and covered fer entire face saying to restart. Pinkie appeared in the room, as if sensing what happened.. “Oops...let me just take her outside the room for a bit and will get her restarted again!”

“Didn’t know she could do that..”

“Okay, I’m back!!” Pinkie came into the room minutes later with a fully restored Twilight. She left the room with a hoof full of clementines.

“You feeling okay now?”

“Yeah, sorry. I don’t normally get that way besides staring off into space thinking about that information.”

“It’s a lot to take in, I know.”

“It’s wow!! I can’t even imagine if that was books or papers as much as 1.2 million terabytes!”

“Yup. Anyways, let’s print this out..” I switched to another page officially listing the poisonous plants of North America, and printed it out.

She sticks out her hoof and grabs the printed list from the printer. “Thank you this will come in handy!” She places the paper inside the saddle bags.

“Alright, so...worth nothing, the internet does not know every little thing about you. If you searched up something unnatural, like, ‘the grass is made of hot dogs’, it wouldn’t have many results. Which means my little...influence isn’t gonna be of much help since it hasn’t come up much before. So there's no info in that.”

“Although….what we COULD do is...you enjoy studying everything possible, right? What if I let you study my anatomy? Erm, but not the thing involved when I use the bathroom, we’ll leave that out.” I shuddered at the thought of learning about my...thing, during winter break a few years back.”

“It could be just like old times, in a sense, shackled to a table, wearing a funky helmet-device possibly meant to scan brainwaves, and you learn all there is to learn about me. If my paranoia of locking doors isn’t in the results, it’s definitely not natural.”

“I wouldn’t go that far in the pony anatomy, unless the volunteer was willing to otherwise. I’ll make sure that your joints will stay intact, as studying your movements of the body will have limits.”

"Oh, of course. I'm willing to volunteer. I'm a volunteer who's willing. I know how much you enjoy knowledge."

“Well we can get the equipment stuff if you have it laying around, or we can check on the others first if they haven’t eaten already.”

“Well, we left the clementines out, so I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

“I can, but I will need to know where it is in the house, otherwise I’ll be teleporting random things that I memorized when we came into this world.”

“Table’s in the garage, metal bowl’s under the sink in the kitchen, lights are also in the garage, along with wires and such, and we have a computer and printer right here, if you need to connect it.”

Her horn lit up and everything that was needed was summoned into the room. “There that should be it.”

“Now we need a place to put it.. Wait a minute! Why not just teleport all this other junk outside, and move it back in when we're done?"

"Good idea!" She teleported the stuff in the office outside.

“There we go! Now we can get to work!”

“This will work perfectly!!”

“Alright, get me set up! Shackle me, or whichever.”

Shortly after, she attached the shackles to me, “Alright, I’ll need you to derobe with just your undergarments on.”

"Alright. Meanwhile you get the superglue to glue these things onto the table."

She levitated my body onto the table and stripped off my article of clothing until only my boxers were on. She then levitated the shackles and glued them to the table, each one placed to where my wrists, ankles, neck, and stomach area were. The shackles clamped down on his body making my movements restricted.

“Awesome! Feels good to contribute to science!”

“Yes.. yes it does!” She turned on the equipment on the table next to me, and placed it on my head, a black helmet with red and blue wires. “It’s a simple helmet and a bit more sturdier then what I used on Pinkie pie, but it should be able to read your brain waves a lot easier. She grabbed more wires and taped them to the palms of my hands and feet. “You may have a tingly feeling going through your body, but nothing too bad.”

“Uhm...will it still hurt?”

“Just about as a ant biting your skin at random places. The equipment will test your motion and flexibility up to your body’s limit, you will feel some involuntary movement on your fingers, toes, and ears but nothing more.”

“That still sounds dangerous...welp, no going back now, and….you DID put the shackles’ openings on AWAY from the glue, right?”

“Of course it’s away from the openings ^^”

“Good, cuz I wouldn’t wanna be stuck.”

She turned around and started up the machine, the machine humming to life as small electrical charges went through the wires and hit the spots on my body.

It did sting a little bit, and it felt very strange. It was like being shown how it felt to be electrocuted.

“Don’t worry it should only take a few minutes or so until I can get the first read out!”

“Fair enough. I haven’t died yet, so all’s good.”

A few minutes later the electrical charges stopped.”Ok, the read out should be printing your readings, if it all goes well then I should get a better idea of how your body and other human’s body works.” Just as the machine was starting to print out the readings, the lights flickered and the power fizzled out.

“Don’t worry, everyone, it was just a power surge! You all okay?”

“Yep we are all okay!!” Everyone responded.

Grabbing a flashlight nearby, I shone the light on everyone. “Lemme see if everypony’s here...there’s Rainbow….AJ….Rarity...Pinkie...Fluttershy...Princess Twilight...and Pinkie.” Something clicked as soon as I said that. Edging over to Twilight, I said, “I didn’t know you girls invited another Pinkie clone to visit. When did this happen?”

“This happened right after I strapped you in...” Twilight backed up into the shadows and disappeared, the rest, one by one, followed until there was just Pinkamena and Pinkie left.

“...Pinkie?Were you in on this?”

“What who us?” Both Pinkies pointed at each other, each one looking and glaring. “Don’t you dare lie to him!!” The Pinkie on the left demanded, her eyes became wide in shock and was suddenly pulled into the shadows screaming until she faded away.

Breaking free from my restraints, and tripping a bit, I stood before the Pinkie who….looked a little bit bigger, almost as big as me. “alright, which Pinkie are you? Tell me!” I demanded.

“Aww I thought you would have figured it out already! Though you are more brighter then the dimwit Pinkie..” Her mane turns straight and smiles wide.

“Oh, my fucking God….no, no, no, hell no! That….that’s impossible!”

“Oh but it Is, Loyal...!!” She trotted up to me and gently placed a hoof on my cheek. “It’s just you and I now, why don’t we spend time with each other? Your so called friends never gave you the time or day to relax and find love.”

“They….never did, actually...but how would you know that?”

“You didn’t think I was truly gone did you? I was here hidden in plain sight, watching all of you waiting for the right moment to strike.”

“My friends. Where’d you put them?!”

“They are safely locked away, no harm to them just yet.”

“What do you want from us, Pinkamena? You know we never approved of your visitation.”

“What I want is you..silly!” She placed her hooves on my right shoulder and licked my right cheek slowly. Typical for a psychotic pony.

I shuddered slightly from her….action. It felt good and..at the same time, unsettling. “What do you want with ME? Why are you here? And...what are you doing to me?" I wanted to push her away, but...I couldn't. Something was stopping me, telling me to let her get closer. Telling me....to listen to her.

“Same thing like I said before.. I want you. Do you know how hard it is to find someone who can understand who you are and how you do things..?” She slowly ran a hoof down my chest as she spoke.

Surprisingly, I was more submissive than I thought, already giving in to her strokes; the way she was 'petting' me was...oddly satisfying. The longer this went on, the more I felt compelled to listen to her. The more compelled I felt to surrender to her cool and seductive nature. And there was no fighting against it. I should have seen this coming, she was arousing me to get me to listen to her. And it was working. I gently felt the back of her hoof as it smoothed along my chest. “’How you do things’? What do you mean by that?"

“Well I have reasons to my.. victims, most saw my mane turn straight and just.. run away! I mean I just want to play with them in the most unique way as each pony has a different personality.” She made small circles on my chest, the other hoof touching my shoulder and found a tense spot. She started massaging my shoulder while she looked into my eyes, still smiling.

“You..just wanted company, right?” I asked, moving a bit closer to her, gently feeling her chest. “You just wanted to avoid being lonely..just like how I felt in the past.”

“Yes exactly how I feel each time a pony passes by..” she continued to massage my shoulder, she tilted her head and opened her mouth to nibble at my neck.

"That's terrible...nopony deserves to be just...shrugged off." I felt myself blushing from the massage and strokes. "Uhm....if you don't mind me asking, this thing you're doing with your hooves...could you keep doing that? It feels oddly...soothing."

“Sure sweetie, but of course it’s soothing you had a stressful day.”

"How do you know the kind of day I had?"

“Like I said before I am always watching, you just couldn’t see it.” She stops circling his chest and places the hoof under his chin.

"So that's it, then..i just need to go with you," I replied, blushing deeper..'on a condition.”

“Oh and what will that be?”

"IF I do this for you... in the end, you return me and my friends here and kill no one in the process. Otherwise you'd have no one special to torment."

“It’s a deal then ^^.”

“And….as a condition for myself, I have to submit to your seductiveness and manipulative nature...which I guess is fair. No deal comes without a cost.”

“Hehe it always will come at a cost no matter how you see it, now are you going to kiss me or do I have to do all the work?!”

When she asked that, I blushed extremely heavily, finishing off the amount of blush I could do. Kiss her? Well...I did need to obey her to get my friends back. Moving close to her face, I said, “I’m not one to turn down an offer like that. Very well….we may….kiss.” I’m lucky I’m a toothophobic (one who brushes one’s tooth almost four times a day every day), otherwise I’d have to suffer the results of halitosis. Gently gripping her cheeks, I looked her in the eyes. “Just..promise me this, Pinkamena. You can bend the laws in your game...if I die, bring me back as many times as needed.”

“Sure, as long as the game will allow me to have as much power as possible” she smiled as she leaned in to kiss.

“That sounds like a fine deal,” I leaned in, too, staring her right in the eyes.

She pushed more into the kiss and closed her eyes, taking in the sweet victory she had claimed in manipulating me.

Call me crazy, but did I have much of a choice? She took my friends, she intended to have company for her sick little games, and I had to do as she said, whether she’d keep my promise or not. At least it’d keep me alive longer.

A few minutes later she let go of the kiss. “You are a good kisser there, but now it’s my turn!” She grabbed me at the waist as tight as she could with her left hoof, and used her right one to open up a portal space pocket behind her. “Better get ready; this will be a wild ride!”

"Okay. It'll probably distort my face or something, I've seen it in movies."

She jumped into the portal holding me as tight as she could.

“So, where will this take us, exactly?”

“Oh it’s a surprise!!!” Minutes later, the vortex stopped and both of us were spit out from the portal. “We are here!!”

I looked up, and I couldn’t believe where we were..though I should’ve seen this coming. Cages and cells lined the walls, though surprisingly clean, the familiar glow of torches lit the room, and the room was filled with the sound of prisoners. “It’s...the Cupcake Party dungeon..”

“Good guess! Though I made some modifications to it and found more victims from the past..”

I could see the ponies in the cages. Luna, Lyra Heartstrings, Sweetie Drops, Octavia, Vinyl Scratch, Marble Pie, Limestone Pie, Maud Pie, and...Gilda. Oh, but don’t worry, the paired ponies were in the same cage together. Possibly to experience torture together. Eh, a sweet-sour move. “How in God’s name did you get them all here?”

“Well after you left and destroyed your laptop, I came to realize that I didn’t have a body in the real world. So after a while I came into Pinkie’s dreams, and without her realizing it I slowly start to take over her body while she was sleeping. It took a while, but I managed to do it and round up the ones she used to have arguments before and the easiest to capture.”

“But...hang on, I didn’t destroy my laptop. I woke up one morning to find it was gone. You told me it was 'because of a cinnamon stick and a door'."

"I don't remember telling you that."

“...Oh, then….wait, you said you took over her body. So which one of you told me that?”

"Like I said it took a while to gain control of her body during the night, so I think it was her at that time."

"Wait, so...what REALLY happened to my computer, then?"

"I can’t tell you since Pinkie made me Pinkie Promise not to say, but all i can say from her is she is very sorry."

“Hmph. And….as for your game, what happens if I die? Will I die?”

“Now that would be silly! What fun will it be if you just die without knowing what torture I have in mind?”

“But...I know you, Pinkamena, you’ve been known to have those who kill in this dungeon. What if that happens to me? Will I permanently die in this place?”

“Nope you will be alive as long as I see you fit to. It may look like you die each time, but I need you alive for fun.”

“It may *look like* I die? What do you mean?”

“I’ll show you!” She opened her forelegs wide to me in an offer of a hug.

Uhm...okay, I wasn’t expecting her to offer a hug, but...if this was a demonstration, and since I had nowhere else to go, then what the hell, I’d do it. I cautiously approached Pinkamena, uncertainly hugging her tight and close to her chest (apparently I was as tall as the height of her body up to her chest when she was sitting down). “If this is a ‘hug me to death’ pun, then I don’t find it very--”

She pulled me down and hugged as tightly as she could, cutting off my circulation to breathe while slowly crushing my ribs. I should’ve known she’d demonstrate actual death.

I tried hard to push free, but she was stronger than I was. My body couldn’t move, I felt myself being crushed more each second. “What…..are you…...doing….?!” I wheezed, growing lightheaded

“I’m showing you silly, it will look like you died permanently but you won’t.”

“You’re….actually….killing me?!”

“You’re….actually….killing me?!” Losing more air..vision blurring out.. The prisoners in their cells could only watch in horror as she pressed and squeezed tighter, crushing me in her hooves...which, you know, were supposed to be soft. Apparently when she intends to kill, her body hardens, making an effective solid surface. Or she was just at a right angle.

“Yes, yes I am!” She continued to squeeze the life out of me, still smiling.

I couldn’t feel my body – I couldn’t feel any air being taken in. I gasped and wheezed harder and harder, my vision becoming extremely blurry. Everything grew so much darker...I was going to die any minute now.

“That’s right go to sleep, don’t worry I’ll be here when you wake up..hehe.”

Soon, the wheezing stopped, and my body went limp, with not a single sound coming from me. My body soon grew cold, with no sign of life. Dead.

I could see a light getting brighter and brighter. As I neared it, I found myself being thrown back onto...the dungeon floor. I got up and looked around, and at myself. Completely fine...somehow. I noticed I was standing on something, and got off to look at it. My...my own dead body. Face blue from suffocation/strangulation. “Oh, my God...” I clamped a hand over my mouth in shock. “That’s….that’s ME!”

She looked down at my dead body and smirked. “Looks like you’ll be eating dirt for dinner tonight, have a good nap.” The body slowly started to disappear into thin air.

\

“Oh, my God...that’s just fucked up! You made it so my dead corpse lingers for a few seconds after death for me to see?!”

She turns and faces him. “Of course, that’s the only way to show you how.”

I felt regurgitation working its way up my throat, so I swallowed it down, gagging slightly. Eugh, that felt disgusting. “You’re lucky I had the power to avoid tainting your dungeon floor in last night’s dinner...that was horrible!”

“Well you are still alive though, now you know it works.”

“Why would you even CODE IN dying?!”

“I didn’t code it in, but the creator did.”

“But..I...argh, this is...I’m never gonna unsee that.”

“Hehe of course you won’t, but feel free to talk to the rest of my past victims. They might have some interesting stories to say to you while you get some rest before the next torture.”

“Okay, but first off, I do have one little request. I have something I wanted to show you. This is something I’d share with EVERYBODY.”

Right...first up was Gilda. I knew she hated Pinkie Pie, but I HAD to know how she was about Pinkamena. “Let’s try your old frenemy first, Gilda.”

“Yeah? What do you want..loser?” She looks at him with a blackened eye, and her beak was slightly cracked.

“You can’t fool me. I know you’re afraid for your life,” I replied, stepping into the cell. “Pinkamena is a terrifying force of nature. No one couldn’t avoid being afraid of her, even for long.”

Pinkamena turns around to face him “Hey! I’m still the room here, if you wish to speak that way comment it right or you’ll end up losing a lot more then you think!”

Eesh. “You try to act tough, Gilda, but admittedly, you’re afraid. You’re just trying to cover your feelings. And I don’t blame you. Isn’t that right?”

She sighed and looked back at me, holding a griffinscone. “Look, I’ll make this story short and since you saw the show, you know why I had to be tough all these years. I had no friends, and the ones that do end up getting pushed around or had to pay for others time to be their friend. That was until Pinkie and Rainbow Dash cape and helped me see what true friends are.”

"Well, at least you understood. So...how exactly did you get caught? I know you can fly, so she must've been very skilled or very lucky."

“Of course I can fly as well as Dash! But you seen how Pinkie’s abilities are similar to her that you can’t outrun or fly them both. It was a year after learning true friendship, that a mysterious hooded pony came into town asking for a favor. The griffins nearby of course offered but at a price of course, but she only had one bit and was famished. I offered her a scone and as she took and ate she started to smile wide. I had a weird vibe from her and before I could blink she knocked me out with a rock.”

“And so you ended up here. Eesh, that’s rough. I...I chose to come here, in a bargain with Pinkamena.”

“Some bargain, must be special if she was willing for a good trade.”

“If I suffer through enough of her games, she lets me and my friends out. If I have to, I’ll do something drastic to ensure your freedom, too.”

“Yeah, we will see about that. Good luck then I guess..” She turned around facing the wall with her head low.

"You clearly think I'm just some savior who doesn't know what he's talking about, don't you?"

“Since I been stuck here for a while, then no I don’t know you well enough to think otherwise!”

"All you need to know is this - I'm getting you all out of here, even if it means losing a kidney over it."

“Fine fine, best of luck to you either way.” She shed a tear, making sure I didn’t see her crying (Though it didn’t work).

I gently approached Gilda, sitting next to her. I could vaguely see tears streaming down her cheeks. "I get it. You're afraid. There's no shame in being afraid, you know. It might not look like it, but...I'm afraid for my life right now."

I got up, sighing. I’d have to come back to her later. I didn’t say another word as I left the cell. I looked around to see who else I could talk to, taking only a few moments to decide on Luna. Entering her cell, she was facing me, head hanging low. Her regalia was missing, and her fur was slightly roughed up. I felt pretty bad for her. Not even the drealm realm would cheer her up. So I’d have to. I went up to her, until I was standing right in front of her. “Luna..?” I gently called out.

“Thou art Loyal?” She asked, not looking up at all.

“...you know my name. I’m assuming you’ve heard of me before.”

“We did yes, you seem to be quite the hero..”

“I have been….known for many heroic accomplishments.” I moved closer to her, trying to see if she was hurt, too. It didn’t look like she was.. “But what are you doing here?”

“We got captured by her in our dreams, she is powerful through others dreams apparently.”

“Yes, she captured us. We underestimated her power, as we were only trying to get rid of a nightmare from a pony’s dream and she showed up out of nowhere. “

"That's terrible...she must be powerful if she caught you."

“She is powerful! More like the tantabus that we couldn’t control until our subjects helped us.”

"So you're stuck here...well, you won't need to worry. I'm sure I'm what you all need to get out. A sign of hope, you might say."

“Re-really? Thou art mean it? Truly mean it? We did see how thou fight with her last time.”

“Yes. Don’t worry, I’ll save you all in whatever way I can. You can look at me, you don’t need to be afraid.”

She lifted up her head showing the damage Pinkamena caused her with tears streaming down her face. “Please don’t thou leave us!!”

“Oh, my lord...what did she *do*?”

“We, we barely escaped with our lives! She knows we are the princess of the night and she wanted to prove she can take over dreams just as well.” Her right eye was swollen, left cheek inflamed but thankfully no bleeding.

“You’re not the only one whose mind was infested by her..” I took a few steps back, a little startled at the sudden slight outburst. I was glad she wasn’t cut or anything, but she seemed terrified.

She jumped suddenly and grabbed onto my legs. “Please!! Don’t thou leave us here with that wicked wretch of a pink one!!”

I tried to pry her off, but she wouldn’t budge. Trying to walk, I just tripped backwards onto the floor.

She held on as tight as she could, refusing to let go of me.

“Please let go! I can’t stay here!”

“No thou aren’t leaving us again!!”

I get she was afraid, but she HAD to let go! I tried again to pry her hooves off. If I was lucky, she wouldn’t try anything else to get me to stay.

She yanks him to the floor and pulls him closer. “Thou not going anywhere!”

"What's gotten into you?! Release me!" I tried to pull away from her, as she was quickly pulling me really close to her.

She pulled me in right against her right side, using her right wing, she placed the wing against my right side and enveloped me in what looked like a side hug. “Thou staying right here!”

I tried again to push free, but being in closer proximity, she was a lot stronger and was actually able to keep me in her little chamber. Then the *other* wing closed around me. I had to think – was I to play along to calm her down? Or keep trying to fight it, only for her to wear me out?

“...why won’t you let me go?”

“We will be all alone again with her!!” She held on tightly, while rocking her body back and forth a bit.

Somehow it didn’t process as much before, but...I could begin to imagine the torment she’d gone through. “So you want me to stay here...with you.”

“Yes we want you to stay here with us, forever!!”

As much as her trying to imprison me here sounded bad, I could at least pretend to agree. “...well, there’s not much else I can really do at the moment. Staying with you for life doesn’t sound *so* bad..”

“Yes Thou will please us with thy presence!” Her eyes glaze over for a minute before returning back to normal.

“I guess it’s better to keep one prisoner company than worry all of them.”

Her eyes turned a bit dark pink and blue.”Yes thou art mine, stay for a while. Thou needest all the company thy get around here.”

“Yeah..I should stay, shouldn’t I?” In a fraction of a second, my mind switched to another similar thought, but one that it locked onto. It was best for me to listen to Luna..she wanted what was best for me, didn’t she?

“Yes we only want what’s best for you!” She held onto me like a big teddy bear.

“And it’s better than being alone...because I have you to be there for me..” I looked back, noting how….empty this place felt. Luna was the only one actually talking to me. “You’re right...I don’t need to leave, I don’t know what I was thinking. Your company is the most I’ve got.”

“Yes thou art our teddy bear, our big teddy bear!” She laughd and smiled, as the room filled with transparent dark pink smoke with a nearby gas tank.

I began to feel good and happy. What was I so worried about, I at least had friendly company, even if it WAS in a hellish place like this.

Luna nuzzled my cheek and blushed a bit. “Sorry, it’s been a long time since we had a close friend to cuddle with..” She looked at him and smiled warmly. I felt a small whack, and looked down. A small rock hit my left lower leg. “Hey Loyal, snap out of it!” Limestone yelled angrily from across the room.

“Did you hear something?” I asked the lunar princess, following an urge to ignore someone calling out to me.

“Not at all.” She readjusted her position so I was being held in front of her, still in a hoof and wing embrace, then hugged me closer, gently resting her head on mine.

A small wooden chair was thrown near his feet. “Hey! I’m talking to you! Don’t you dare ignore me!”

Luna pulled closer and kissed my cheek. Somehow this felt better than not being alone.

A monotone voice spoke up next. “It’s not going to work. She has him partially influenced. We can’t help him..”

Maud didn’t look like it, but she felt afraid. But her blank expression barely revealed it. However, she was also brave. There was a valve on the far end of the wall in Luna’s cell. She reached into her pocket, and took out her pet rock, Boulder. “You can do this, Boulder,” she flatly encouraged. Taking careful aim, she hurled the rock towards the valve, narrowly missing the vertical space between a bar. Boulder soared swiftly through the air and slammed into the valve, knocking it off a hinge or two, breaking it off of the pipe.

“What was that?!” She looks ahead and sees the dark pink cloud starting to clear up.

“I….don’t know, it was like a loud clang.”

Luna squints past the departing dark pink cloud and slowly let’s go of him. “We see that there is something wrong here..”Her eyes slowly go back to normal.

"What....happened? I'm seeing pink gas dissipating.."

“We.. we don’t know, but how did thou get so close? Surely we wanted company and hugs, but not as close like this.”

“I think you pulled me close to you, not wanting me to leave.”

“We did remember a bit, but it felt like a dream to us.”

“Well, in any case, it’s over now, thankfully...if this is the kind of stuff I’ll be enduring in her little game, so be it.”

“Thou still stay with us right? We need company time to time, as she had put us in isolation before the rest showed up.”

“Of course. NO one should have to endure the pain of isolation.”

Pinkamena not too long after, came into view. “It looks like my sister wanted to mess up my plans here! No matter; either way there won’t be hope for my victims to leave!”

“I thought you wanted to torture him, not blissfully imprison him..” Maud replied, glaring at her inverse sister.

“One more sarcasm out of you and your mouth will be shut right!” She turned and glared at Maud and went over to fix the valve and turn it back on.

‘*Guess there isn’t a ray of hope after all*.’ I thought.

She went over to the valve, and moved it to the right, letting the gas fill the chamber I was in.

“Please, turn that off!” I cried out, “You can’t do this AGAIN!”

“Thou is correct, we can’t.... he looks good enough to cuddle!” She pulled me back to embrace, as the dark pink cloud once again covered the entire cell.

“Nngh, no! Luna, fight it! Don’t just….give...in..” And without another word, I hugged closer to her, snuggling cozily into her chest.

“Thou art comfortable?” She smiled and pulled me as close as possible to her.

“Very comfortable,” I calmly replied, cozy and feeling safe. “Nothing could change this.”

"tis nothing that can change it!' She pulled me so close that I could feel her muzzle against my cheek.

“We could remain like this forever if we really wanted to.”

She snuck in a small kiss on my cheek and smiled. “Mmm, thou art so warm!”

“As are you...and it’s a reassuring feeling..”

Pinkamena, meanwhile, trotted over to the lever and turned off the gas.

“Mmnhhh..hmm..? Agh, not again! We were placed into that cuddle trance again..”

“Don’t worry the affect is going away, you will have plenty of time to get used to it!” The dark pink cloud had finally disappeared, and everything in the cell turned back to normal. Luna let go of me and blushed slightly looking away. “Though we were under the effects of the gas, we most certainly enjoy our time together.”

“Much appreciated.” I turned and went to the locked door of the cage, “Alright Pinkamena, enough screwing around. The sooner I complete your little game, the sooner I can leave.”

“The cell to the door is wide open, feel free to walk out”

“But it’s not--” I began to protest, until I noticed I was just holding fistfuls of air. “What…?” I forgot momentarily she could control this place. Walking out, I looked down to the hallway, seeing no doors, just hallway, leading into what seemed to be a bigger room. I turned back to the prisoners, “I’ll have you all out of here soon.” I headed down the hall, wondering what this psychotic pony had in mind for me when it came to games.

"Hehe, welcome to the game! Good luck on your survival as you may not get out of it alive!" The lights turned on in front of me, as a big mechanical machine could be heard in the distance. Small puddles of rainbow colors appeared on the floor leading to the room.

I uneasily strolled through the room. Rainbow puddles? Why did this seem even slightly familiar? Was it anything like blood? I would hope to God not...approaching the door, I slowly turned the knob, pushing the door open. "Let's see what's in here.."

Smoke came out from the machine in front of me in the room. Gadgets and gears were still turning, as a silhouette of a pony on the side was seen with rainbow colors dripping from medium size cylinders off to the side.

I approached the silhouette, hoping for assistance. “Hello? Can you tell me where I am? I don’t remember this room being in the game...”

As I got closer it was clear that the pony was long dead. Dried up puddles of blood were underneath the body,as a needle like mechanical arm was resting on the side waiting to be turned on again.

“Oh, my God...” I rushed up to the body. Metal clamps gripped the pony’s hooves and hind legs. A round hole had been punctured into its chest. “Dear God..”

“Who could have done this to you?” I asked the deceased pony, obviously not expecting an answer. I pressed the buttons on the sides of the clamps. Pony hooves couldn’t reach these from inside said clamps. The pony seemed to fall out onto the ground, front hooves lightly brushing against my legs. Did it move toward me? No...must’ve been my imagination. But if it was actually an undead pony, then surely it’d be friendly.

“Who could have done this to you?” I asked the deceased pony, obviously not expecting an answer. I pressed the buttons on the sides of the clamps. Pony hooves couldn’t reach these from inside said clamps. The pony seemed to fall out onto the ground, completely lifeless. "Well...it must've been terrible from your position. But I'll make sure no one else has to experience this."

I went over to the control panel and looked for a button or switch to completely shut off the machine.

There seemed to be no label on the control panel, but a small bright red button that seemed to be flashing bright red.

“What is this…?” I curiously pressed the button. Maybe it was the right one..

The machine turned on fully, and a fully extended arm extended out and pokes me on my back.

Of course, it was either whatever impaled that pony, or just another arm. Either way…

“How stupid to put it in the place of the one who pushes the button..” I moved to one side, though the machine’s sharp edge cut along my back, leaving a slightly bloody horizontal mark.

“You think you can get away that easily?! Well then, welcome to the rainbow factory!!!” The arm grabbed me by the waist and placed me on a chain conveyor belt, then proceeded to strap my in place lying on my back with nowhere to move.

“Well. Should’ve seen that coming..” Chances were, this was definitely going to kill me. "Seriously, who puts a button on a console to restrain them?!

The conveyor belt moved me forward to what it seemed to be a drop off in front of me.

What was it going to drop me into? A vat of acid? A floor of sharp blades?

A lever was heard being pulled or pushed, and the conveyer belt was stopped short from the drop off. A button was, or must’ve been, pressed and then I started to feel part of the conveyor belt lifting up, going vertical.

“Okay, whoever’s doing this, I demand you show yourself!”

The conveyor belt transformed into a table, the conveyor folding in on itself, and then the table then slid down and clicked as a half cylindrical glowing blue platform was below and above. The so called dead pony crawled into my field of view below near another lever, and turned to look up at me.

“You gotta me shitting me..”

The dead pony’s right hoof grabbed the top of its head and ripped it off like a mask. Pinkamena’s grinning face was shown with blood dripping from her mane and face. She continued to pull off the pony’s skin until I could see her entire body covered with blood.

“Are you kidding me?! I could’ve left you attached to the wall, but by SOME luck, I happened to release you just so you could literally backstab me?!”

Pinkamena - Today at 9:22 PM

"Hehe, you thought so but you fell for my trap! Now you will pay the price!" She shook off some of the blood from her body and pushed the pony's skin out of range. She trotted over to the lever and pulled the switch towards her, the needle device activating and positioning itself in front of my chest. "Get ready to die as it is your reward for helping me get this far!"

"Wait, why am I paying a price for falling into a trap YOU set that I didn't know about?!"

“Nope you are paying the price for making my past victims believe that they could be rescued! But don’t worry you are not useless at all!” The device slowly moved forward and a large blade came out ready to strike my chest.

“What AM I useful for, then?!”

“Your blood is useful for my machine that’s why!” The blade struck into my chest, causing extreme pain.

She used a ladder and climbed up to where she could touch me “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you won’t feel too much pain..” She pulled out a sedative needle from her mane and grinned wider.

“If you even THINK about it--”

She shoved the needle into my chest and pushed the sedative liquid into my blood stream.

I could feel pain and dizziness growing stronger by the second. “Urgh….n-no, you….you can’t do this..! What’s the p-point of using my blood?!”

“Your blood is what helps run the machines, imagine the electricity bill if it was run by magic!” She laughed and pulled out another needle to stick it in her right foreleg. “The smell and seeing the blood coming out from a creature drives me insane! I need more of it and don’t worry you won’t be alone on this either!” She took out a small knife and started to cut a bit of her leg. “Plus I could sell it for a few extra bits on my special cupcakes, the others would think it’s just the frosting on it, hehe!”

I could see red filling the pipe the blade was connected to. My own blood. I quickly felt lightheaded and weak, my body slowly shutting down. “Y-You’re sick a-and t-twisted….”

“Am I really? Do you know how Pinkie feels being stuck everyday trying to show pure happiness on a day to day basis? I’m sure by now she would be insane like me! Sometimes she would hide her sorrow away from her friends, why do you think she’s the only one that can hear gummy?” She cut the other leg as well.

“I th-thought that was j-just f-fictional logic!”

“Nope, it’s real!”

Soon after, I felt my upper body shut down, and then….sudden silence. Of course, that followed with a sudden feeling of re-emerging, only to see my own body being drained of blood. “Oh, my God, you’re fucking sick..”

“In just a few more minutes the blood will drain completely out of your body and fuel the machine for its next victim!” She stopped cutting herself and hopped down the platform waiting for the machine to finish its job.

“You’re using my dead body to fuel a machine….run completely by blood. Do I have this right?”

“Yes, yes you do have it right!!”

“...What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Everything! Now shut up the blood just finished draining from your body!”

As if on cue, parts of machinery began running smoothly, in rhythmic motions, and the clamps released my dead body, but it disappeared before hitting the ground. “I’m never going to unsee that.”

“This sickening plan to scar me is sadly working..”

“It’s normal to always react like that, that means my job here is still working. If you weren’t scared or affected by it then that means I failed.”

“Get a kick out of this while you still can, cuz soon enough, I’ll have won this challenge.”

I turned to see a door on the back wall. Naturally, I took that path, opening the door, and walking down the hall beyond it. As I walked down the hall, I noticed I’d been walking for at LEAST a minute. What kind of maintenance room has such a ridiculously long hallway? The room was getting darker and darker, until it was pitch black. As I began to wonder when I would reach the maintenance room, I suddenly tripped and fell. But I didn’t hit the ground. I just….kept falling. I must have fallen down a hole or chute. Luckily it wasn’t deep enough to kill me, or break my legs, because there was a deep pool of water at the bottom. (Or blood. It was too dark to tell.) Thankfully, there was a ledge close enough to grab onto. Pulling myself up, I shook my body to kind of dry off, before trying to see where I was.

The liquid on my body slid off and started to form in front of me

“Oh, what now..?” I groaned. “This is getting a little tiring.”

The liquid formed into a familiar shape pony with sincere look in her eyes that looked like she has taken pity on me.

“Pinkie Pie…? Am..am I seeing things? I thought you were imprisoned..” I mean, it wasn’t really Pinkie Pie herself, but a watery form that had taken her form. Nontheless, I was happy to be in the presence of such a friendly pony...and strangely, I felt exhausted, despite feeling fine mere moments ago. Whatever she was about to do to me, I couldn' t do much to fight against..

She smiled and walked toward me in slow motion as it was hard for her watery form to move on solid ground.

At the same time, I slowly edged towards her. Well, anything representative of my friends was definitely a good sign – it had to be. “Well...at least I’m able to get a glimpse of you, even if it’s not actually you.”

She finally stopped in front of him and then with two hooves she grabbed and pulled him as close as she can to give him a hug. What she didn’t realize was that she was still in liquid form, and that his head was literally stuck inside her chest.

Happy that for once I wasn’t dying (yet), I hugged her back, though my arms kind of phased into her body, her being made of water and all. But I was really liking how friendly she was being.

She used her right hoof and without realizing her own strength she grabbed my left elbow and pulled my whole body inside of her. She was trying to give me a pony hug the only way she knew how.

Soon I was just floating inside of her, between her theoretical stomach and chest. It was strangely relaxing, though. Being inside the form of such a friendly pony was a lot more comforting than it sounded.

I hadn’t realized how long I was holding my breath, but it felt like it was about to run out. I couldn’t move, either. Either the Pinkie Water clone wouldn’t let me move, or she didn’t or couldn’t control it. I couldn’t open my mouth to speak, or I’d drown. I began to panic a bit, hoping she’d realize I needed air to breathe.

She smiled and rubbed her tummy as if she is trying to rub my back to calm me.

I was rapidly losing air, and then I realized – I couldn’t permanently die. Even if she drowned me I would come right back.

She laid on her back with me still inside her and closed her eyes, she still didn’t realize that I was in huge trouble with no way out.

I closed my mouth and cupped it to try to make a sound bubble. “Please! Let me out!” I spoke, letting the bubble free.

She opened her eyes in shock and was frantically looking around for him after she realized she wasn’t hugging him.

Another bubble rose up, "Look inside of yourself! HELP ME!"

She tried to stick her hoof inside her stomach only to cause more pressure in the water.

Her hoof grabbed onto me, but made the pressure worse, and I was frantically trying to swim to freedom, only to ultimately black out, and, of course, drown.

A whistling sound was heard as a knife soared through the air and went inside her body, though the water slowed down the momentum of the knife.

Moments later, I reappeared, but was dropped into the water, for some reason, and I climbed onto the surface, as my dead body was floating inside of her. “Okay, I’m back, since I can infinitely reappear. I understand you want to hug me super tightly, but try not to trap me inside of your body. I do need air to breathe.”

Another knife flew through the air and embedded itself on my dead body. “She doesn’t understand this world.”

"Wh--" I turned to see Pinkamena standing on another platform. "Where'd you come from, and why are you using my dead body as a dartboard?"

“I was behind the wall silly! Also I was a bit too late to kill you with the second knife.”

"You were too late to kill me, period, I died seconds before the first knife. How pathetic that a cuddly water clone killed me before you did."

“At least I didn’t go crying for help! Now that is pathetic!”

“I couldn’t *move*, okay? I had every right to call for her help.”

“You are a man; man up!”

“You ought to pony up if you couldn’t kill me yourself! You had to hire a cuddly WATER CLONE to do it for you!”

“Hire? I didn’t hire her! She is basically a part of me quite literally. You see I used a bit of water bottles that I had left to form half of her body, and used part of my body fluid to make the other half.”

“So why is she so friendly?”

"Because the liquid has a bit of Pinkie Pie in it as well since she is part of me."

“Right..that should’ve been obvious to me….well, I’m in luck, because she likes me and has no pure intention to kill me.”

“Yeah and it’s a good thing I keep killing you or you would have a need to go to the restroom.” She took a large soda and drank it.

"There's an entire body of water right here. And don't say it's disgusting to do that, you've done 100 times worse."

“At least I’m more civilized and don’t do it in front of a mare.”

“I didn’t say I was going to do it, you dumbass. Why are you even just standing here, anyway? You're accomplishing so little."

“Oh I’m standing here? I gave up some of my body liquid to make her! She’s useless as shit after I’m done with her! Though she is bright without having a brain. She is only as useful as any other liquid out there, either drank or flushed down the sink.”

That was it. ***You best shut the fuck up right now, or I’ll use your own knives on you, Pinkamena, I swear to God!***”

“Pffthaha you are so cute when you are angry! But yeah you are right I shouldn’t be standing here while I have the opportunity to have some fun with you myself” she jumped from the ceiling and entered inside watermena, her body dissolved in her and watermena’s eyes turned dark blue. “Alright lover boy let’s see you kill me now!”

“That is straight fucking cheating! And I know you’ve done something to me. Every time I touch that water, I become exhausted! But if you want an ass kicking so badly, ask and ye shall recieve!"

I used as much strength as possible to charge at the new Watermena, unsure how I could hurt water.

She stretched her foreleg towards him and grabbed him by the neck. “Oh I think I won’t be having my ass kicked since I technically don’t have one at this moment!”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“You know because it’s water not a solid form to kick ass.”

“You just chose water of all things because it’s not a solid thing to hit. You KNEW I couldn’t win.”

“Oh hehe there is a way as you can tell I’m all water!” She applied pressure to her forehoof to try and squeeze his throat. Off to his right side is a conveniently placed heater plugged in with a lever.

“NNNGh…..I wouldn’t hurt Water Pinkie for the world!” I wheezed painfully, losing air. "Kill me all you want, I'm not hurting her!"

She reached out to the lever and pulled, releasing the heat onto the body slowly dissolving it into thin air. “Too late you have no other choice! Now say goodbye!” >:D

“Y-...why do….why do you do this to me? To anyone?!”

"Like I said... her usefulness was up! But dont worry she will be back soon..." Watermena evaporated into thin air and he drops to the floor.

“You…..you sick fuck!!” Pretty much losing my shit, I grabbed the knife near me, pinned Pinkamena and repeatedly stabbed her. “FUCKING! STOP! TORTURING ME! LIKE THIS! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO KILL THE ONES I CARE ABOUT IN FRONT OF MY FACE?! IT'S NOT COOL!"

"Good job in stabbing the dummy, though your knife skills could use some work!"

Dummy? DUMMY?! “YOU’RE THE ONLY FUCKING DUMMY IN THIS PLACE!”

"Im not the dummy stabbing another dummy who cant fight back!"

First she took my friends, then she imprisoned so many innocent victims, now she kills a friendly watery clone of herself?! She was NOT getting away with this. “One way or other, Pinkamena, I swear to God you’re gonna pay for this.”

I stared into the reflection of the pool, and I could still see myself red with anger. To my left was a door, leading out. Silently standing up, I left the room without another word. The hallway led me to yet another room. The walls were lined with torches and sandstone, several sarcophagi were symmetrically lined up around the room as well. It was like a tomb or something. “What the hell is this?”

“Welcome to your tomb!” She got hit by a bus just for that joke (inside joke we have). “Alright who allowed a bus in here?!”

“What, did you place evil mummified ponies in these things or some shit?”

“Well, here’s what I think of your tomb. This is for pissing me off.” I began to tip the sarcophagi over, one by one. “This is for imprisoning my friends! This is for imprisoning those poor victims! THIS IS FOR KILLING YOUR OWN CREATION!”

Within minutes I had tipped over all of the sarcophagi, feeling a lot better, having destroyed Pinkamena’s little room. "How d'ya like them apples, Pinkamena?! I can't be tamed!"

“I wouldn’t count on that..” A few of sarcophagus opened up and ponies rose and looked at me angrily.

“Oh, right, like I’m gonna be afraid of some little mummified ponies.”

“Oh but these are the angry spirits of an ancient Egyptian burial site!”

Nonchalantly approaching the mummified ponies, I scoffed, “They’re not intimidating.””

They stepped forward with their eyes locked on me.

I mockingly pet one of the mummified ponies. “First a water clone, now simple mummies.”

One of them stuck out a hoof and wrapped it around my leg clinging onto me.

As they approached, I could hear them repeating, ‘One of us...one of us...he will be one of us..’ One of them. Riiiiight. I playfully lifted one of the pummies (pony mummies), "I must admit, though, your Nightmare Night costumes are pretty convincing. And cute."

The other pummies clung onto me as well. One by one, they grabbed different parts of my body, wrapping their hooves tightly around the part they grabbed onto. Slowly, they began to pile onto me, pulling me down. One of them placed a hoof around my neck and shoulders and started to pull me to one of the opened sarcophagus.

"Did you train them to do this? This isn't making me afraid at all, you know, it's better than what YOU recently did."

“I trained them well enough, you did deserve a bit of a break after the last one.” The pummy stood on its hind hooves, pulled me back and stuffed me in the sarcophagi, and closed the lid sealing me in tight.

“Giving me a bit of a break? Sounds fishy after you punctured my heart for blood. Wait, why’d they stuff me in here? I’m not mummified, doesn’t fuckin’ do a thing.” All of them sat around the sarcophagi I was in and waited.

“Why were they saying ‘one of us’?”

“Oh you will see.”

“It’s probably an Egyptian version of 7 minutes in heaven...by yourself.’

“….Okay, tell me, what’s going to happen in here, Pinkamena? Is it gonna fill with sand or something and drown me?”

"Oh its nothing special it's just a curse I found, if someone is stuffed in there then they will be mummified!"

“Wait, what?!”

Okay, so while it wasn’t the mummified ponies I had to fear, it was the sarcophagus. I tried pushing hard on the lid to push it open, but it wouldn’t budge. Soon after I felt something graze my arm. Looking down, I could see a soft, thick bandage stretching out from...someplace.

More thick bandages slowly slithered out. First they began to wrap around my legs, forcing me to hold still. They went up my pant legs, though, so it felt good but tight. Then two more began to wrap around my waist, working their way up to my chest. At the same time, they began to wrap around both of my arms, smoothly and effortlessly. Then came my chest. I could hear voices whispering, ‘One of them..join them...one of them...’ Then everything went black as something began to press into my face, tightening. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t escape..

She sat there and waited with a huge smile on her face. “This will be beautiful!”

I could hear the sarcophagus opening, as it tilted forward and pushed me out. I couldn’t feel anything. I felt lightheaded and weak..

“Oh and I also forgot to tell you, the curse will make you suffocate and breathe in old bandages.”

Since I couldn’t move, I couldn’t try to break out. Soon enough, within minutes, blood stopped circulating, I couldn’t breathe anymore...straight up dead.

Moments later I reappeared in the room, next to my mummified corpse. “Well, that sucked! What ELSE didn't you tell me?"

“Well there is deathtraps everywhere, and I forgot where I hid them!”

“It’s YOUR dungeon, how could you forget?!”

“Oh it’s easy when you blindfold yourself, spin around and walk randomly in darkness... I blame Pinkie pie for this!”

“Well, the pummies can’t do much else now, they’ve done what they wanted to do. So you’re out of tricks.”

“I wouldn’t say out of tricks.. I did follow the book of history of Egypt!”

“Oh, and what else would these bathroom-styled trick or treaters be able to do?”

“They are just distractions but I admit they are cute in a way.” The pummies turned black with red eyes glowing brighter.

“Distractions...from what?!”

“From their real side.” They grew sharp teeth and one of them stepped forward.

“Oh my Jesus Christ almighty!” I frantically tried lifting a sarcophagus to use it as a barricade. “I liked it better when they were cute!”

The others followed and step forward as well.

I grabbed a torch off the wall, waving it at them. “GET BACK! I mean it! OR you’ll suffer a serious degree burn!”

A few advanced forward with their claw forelegs reaching out to grab me.

“Claws?! Are you kidding me?!” I frantically waved the torch around, backing away. "I said stay back! I have fire and I'm not afraid to use it!"

A few of them grabbed my leg and chomped on it.

“ARGH!” I stuck the torch down in front of their faces, waving it around. “GET OFF!”

More of them latched onto him.” You can’t get rid of them that easily!”

“WHY IS FIRE NOT WORKING?!”

“Hehe that’s why they turned black it’s basically fuel to their skin like lighting charcoal! You better get going; they may be slow but strong to break close to the bone part.”

“GOING WHERE?!”

The door opened behind him. “Behind you, also just a heads up there is a slide going down.”

I didn’t hesitate to turn and rush for the door, throwing the fire out of the way, and frantically shaking off the nightmarish pummies, though they took part of my skin with them. I jumped in and slid down, down, down, to Luna knows where.

“Wait….where does this slide go?”

The pummies looked down at me and walked away, the ground I was laying on was soft and a bit squishy. “Welcome to the quicksand room! Enjoy your stay as you can’t leave alive.”

“Is every room going to be death-filled?”

“It wouldn’t be called a death trap if it wasn’t right?”

“So what’s in this one, besides quicksand, because I know you’re not one to make it plain.’ As I asked that, I felt something tug on my leg beneath the sand.

“I’m like a boomerang, sooner or later I will always come back even if it’s 10 years. Oh yeah I forgot there is quicksand ponies underneath!”

“Well...I’m not sure that’s--” I was cut off when something grabbed my waist. Something surfaced from the sand, clinging on to me. It was, in fact, a quicksand pony. Made entirely of quicksand. It didn’t have sharp teeth or flesh-tearing claws. No, it just had a soft, squishy body, and it seemed to have an addict to dragging me underneath the sand...it couldn’t do much, though, since you had to move around a lot to sink faster.

“..Oh.”

“I can say this: every time you think you succeed you will always get that sinking feeling that you won’t!” *Gets eaten by the pummies.*

More of the quicksand ponies popped up from the quicksand and grabbed me.

In no time I was down to my thighs in quicksand. Actually, since more quicksand ponies grabbed me, they kind of pulled me backward, so now the back of my body was sinking in, as some piled on top of me, possibly to push me down more. “Well, they’re not dangerous or terrifying, but they are surprisingly hard to pry off of me. They must really want me to drown...Wait...when you said I can’t leave alive, you mean I’d fall into this pit over and over and over each time I respawn?”

“It’s a deep quicksand pit of course it ends with you falling through the ceiling, but your body would end up filled with sand each time.”

“Gross.” I tried grabbing one quicksand pony to pull or push it off, but my hand just sank into its body. “Right. Quicksand. That was a dumb move.” What was worse was now I couldn’t pull it back out.

She pulled out a large bucket of popcorn. "This will be interesting to see." They pulled me down more as one of them was covering my mouth and ears.

I have to admit, it was better than pummies biting my arms off. Sure, I was still going to die, but it was more relaxing, less terrifying...although I was going to fall into this pit over and over and over. The main downside. Soon I was up to my shoulders in quicksand, but I still wasn’t afraid. Not like before, anyway.

They pulled him down until only his head was showing on the top, there was also quicksand inside his pants as well as his shoes.

“I don’t know how long this is gonna go on for, but I’m not giving up!” I uttered, as I slowly sank deeper.

The quicksand ponies finally filled me up to the brim in sand and dragged me near the end of the quicksand.

I could only see darkness, until moments later, when I reappeared above the sand pit, and it plopped me into it. “You’re evil for doing this to me. I don’t even have anything to pull myself out!”

“Hey it’s fun for me, I don’t like to make it easy for you!”

“That’s been established already..”

“Yeah I know, I’ll let you die a few more times and then you are allowed to move to the next room. Unless you want to get into the next room now I can do that for you.”

“No! Winners never cheat and cheaters never win! I’m doing this legitimately!”

“Ok then be prepared to die a few more times!”

Since I was dropped in the middle of the pit, I had to figure out how to get across. “Well, it’s a good thing I’m safe in the middle of the pit and not near the edge where I can drown so much faster,” I taunted. Maybe the sandponies were gullible enough, since they lacked brains...

As predicted, one of the quicksand ponies came up to me and dragged me to the edge of the pit.

I quickly grabbed the edge, and with all my might, pulled myself out, noting how I was up to my knees in quicksand. It was movement, of course, moving causes you to sink faster.

All of the quicksand and quicksand ponies fell to the next floor and died out.

Once I finally got out of the quicksand room, I found myself in, unsurprisingly, another hallway. There weren’t any other tricks or traps in the hallway, nothing..it was a lot shorter, too. It led me to a stone-walled room. It was empty except for a deluxe bed, a few torches, a rug, and...Pinkamena. “Uhm, okay, what is this room about?” I asked, approaching the psychotic pink pony.

She was grinning and patted the bed next to her which had a sweet aroma smell to it. “Oh you know, I wanted some private time with you, seeing as you were the only one to get this far.” She twirled a bit of her mane lock and looked at me with a hungered look in her eyes.

“I..I was the only one to make it all the way to this point? But what about the others? Couldn’t they just respawn when they died?”

“Oh they tried to but it’s more fun to jail them after a few more tries, besides it’s you I’m only attracted to!”

Moving a bit closer, and sitting in front of her, and next to the bed, I could smell the sweet aroma. It seemed the more I took in, the more relaxed I felt. “You’re...attracted to me, huh? Am I really that admirable to you?”

“Yes, you are the first human that didn’t run away from me when you had the chance. Not like you could have escaped though..” she was looking up at the ceiling to think.”Not like I was able to escape myself from the loneliness, and repetitiveness of seeing my victims deaths over and over without anything new to contribute.”

“So you came up with all of these traps to test them for entertainment since it gets lonely in here?”

“Yep, imagine others not wanting to go near you because they know you would kill them or just don’t know you well enough.” She was sitting on the bed and played with my right arm.

I don’t know what had come over me, but I felt an urge to listen to her. I sat on the bed next to her. “I can’t imagine a life like that...I can’t imagine you having to go through that.”

“It’s terrible! But at least I still got you..” She was massaging both of his arms at this point, it was making him feel more relaxed and open to her. It was like she had these hidden feelings for him, and she wasn’t able to find the right stallion who could understand what it was like for her. The room started to turn a bit pink, as she was blushing with her head turned to the side not looking at him. Her heart was fluttering, as she was getting more odd feelings for him, something she wasn’t feeling before.

“It must be why I set you free the last time we...met. I knew there was a chance you’d cause mischief, but at the same time, I knew freedom was what you needed, even if it required a bit of torment for people like me. I was willing to go through all of that for your entertainment.” What was WITH me now? After all of that torture, suddenly I began feeling...affection for Pinkamena. I couldn’t tell if this was a trap or if this was for real.

“It’s always good to know someone is willing to go through all the torture for me.” She was smiling, and her tail was changing behind her out of his line of sight.

“Well...it’s a gift and a curse to me. But it’s a gift to you, and a curse to me….but it’s a curse I can live with.”

Her tail was turned softer like a wolf.”it’s a gift for me sweetie” She placed her hoof on his cheek as her coat was dark red.

https://i.imgur.com/kKMWh3r.jpg

“Heh, I know..I don’t mind, since it really makes you really happy.” I gently pulled her closer, “And seeing you happy makes me happy.”

I felt a lot calmer and more reassured than I did before...almost like being with Pinkamena felt better in some way, especially since she knew I understood her.

She was leaning forward towards him to give him a kiss, as she was doing that a wolf tooth was sticking out of the corner of her mouth and her ears was fluffy. “I’m glad you agreed to being happy with me”

“What can I say, I look out for others...even after all you’ve put me through, Pinks, I’m still with you.”

Her eyes was red, her coat was turned to fur and her hooves was turned into paws with unsheathed claws finishing her transformation. She was licking his cheek that made him blush.

“Heh...I didn’t know you could do that, but you look more beautiful this way.’

“Aww thank you, it is brand new for me but I’m glad you like it!” She took one claw and was brushing it up against his cheek.

“You know, I didn’t expect anything like this, but it’s not as bad as I thought it would be...getting to know you is such a delight..”

“Its always a delight to know another at a personal level.” She was placing her paw on top of his head and was gently stroking his hair.

“Knowing you, though, you’re not going to spend the rest of your life here alone, are you?”

“Of course I am always trying to find one pony or person to stay with me.” She was licking his cheek at this point.

“Are you implying what I think you’re implying..?” I blushed heavily from the...attention I was getting. What was she trying to accomplish..? Aside from seducing me.

“Well I was planning to let you die. If that is what you think I’m implying.”

“How on earth would I die here? Aside from you pulling out a cleaver or something.”

“Oh just watch!” She pulled one of the poles on the bed releasing a trap door underneath him.

“..you planned that, didn’t you?”

“Yes, yes I did..”

Darkness surrounded me as I found myself falling down a long, narrow chute. I should’ve figured she’d do this..but where did this thing go?

He fell and ended up in a water filled room, thankfully there was gas in it so he can breathe.

In the depth of the waters, I could see something massive….with several massive things extending from it. I couldn’t make out its shape, but it looked familiar..

“Oh I forgot to mention my pet octopus! He is always hungry and it seems you are on the menu today!”

“You HAD to do this to me, didn’t you?”

“Of course, that is your reward for winning my challenge!” The giant octopus was close enough for him to view his monstrous size.

Its massive tentacles and ginormous eyes looked more than ready to get a load of me. “Wait, what?! I thought we agreed you’d free my friends!”

“Don’t you worry about your friends, they are set free as part of the deal. As for you though. I was able to feed my pet who was starving for two days.” One of the octopus’s tentacles was grabbing him and pulled his body.

For a size comparison, the tentacle was big enough to loop around my body ONCE to snag me. As it dragged me down, I frantically tried to pry myself free, as the looming silhouette grew bigger. “You didn’t feed it for two days?! What is your problem!?”

“What do you think? It’s not easy trying to find live food for him, and the ones that were in prison was there for company and amusement. I didn’t want to use your friends as part of the deal and he wasn’t hungry for ponies, griffons, etc...” More tentacles grippeed his body, wrapping around his arms, legs, and chest. The octopus’ mouth was opened wide as he was ready to devour me.

His beak was much bigger than I thought it’d be, as well. “Great, he has a taste for humans.”

"yepperz, well it was nice knowing you Loyal!" His beak closed in on my body.

I must’ve died a lot faster than I imagine, because once again, I was thrown through a bright light, and landed in...another room. It looked like the starting room I was in when this entire challenge began. There was a sign in front of me reading, ‘everyone else left, it’s just you now. Go on through the portal to go free.’ The portal was of decent distance away from me, on the back wall. Feeling accomplished, I began to walk toward it, when a familiar voice called out to me.

“Hey hero aren’t you forgetting something?!”

The voice of Gilda. But it sounded raspy and weak. I turned around, and tried not to vomit at what I saw. A corpse of Gilda. With her back left hind claw missing, one claw replaced with a lion paw, less her eyes were also gouged out, and had cuts all over her body. But...didn’t she escape?

“What in heaven’s name happened to you, Gilda?!” I exclaimed, stopping in my tracks.

“Yeah that’s right! You forgot about us!” She was trying to crawl towards me at a slow pace.

“But...you left, didn’t you?”

I moved a bit closer and knelt down in front of the Gilda corpse, making it easier for her to reach me.

“Left? LEFT?! We all waited for so long for you to come to us!” She was grabbing his shirt with her paw to pull his face as close to her as possible. “But you never came to rescue us! Pinkamena told us it was over and that you left to the portal and forgot about us!”

“I didn’t forget about you, I just got here!”

She was crying but felt grateful he came back to them and decided to wrap every limb she had around his body in a grateful embrace. At least he didn’t leave them behind.. “I guess you are right, you are here though and that’s all that matters.”

I felt sorry for the poor griffon, even if she was naturally a jerk. I gently lifted her closer and hugged her tight. “That’s right. I wouldn’t just abandon you.’

Two others joined with Gilda – a corpse of Lyra who had her eyes missing, cuts and gashes and scratches on her body, but she still had a horn to use magic, and a corpse of Princess Luna, with part of her right ear missing, having both eyes, and a large cut on her stomach, causing the organs to practically spill out. It was extremely hard not to throw up from the sights. Actually, I couldn’t...I felt too sorry for these victims..

The others was surrounding him all looking in terrible shape. “He is here! He has come to save us again!”

Gilda used her limbs to flip him on his back and lifted his shirt, placing her paw on his chest to keep him down, gently smoothing it, and placed her front talon on his stomach. “It’s time we have food now!” She then held him down and clawed his stomach open.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!”

“What does it look like? We need to eat so we need to feast on your organs!” She was tearing into his stomach more.

Seriously?! I completed the challenge, now Pinkamena was going to fuck with me?! Well, I was dead, either way. Moments after blacking out, I respawned in the room, behind them. Great. They were feasting on me. Not too long after, though, I could see my organs missing. My dead body disappeared without a trace. “I should’ve figured you’d do that to me,” I said to the corpses as I approached them.

“Can you blame us?” The Lyra corpse replied, “We were starving and desperate. Plus that was a lot better than dissecting a human myself.”

The Gilda corpse was turning to speak to him. “You would be starving and desperate too if you were in our position, in fact I have a proposition for you. Stay with us for a while and you will have good company.. or if not.. well things can go down quickly if you refuse.”

Good company..? I turned to the portal. I couldn’t just leave them here….but at the same time, I couldn’t stay. I mean...they were already dead, what could I do? Should I stay, or leave? Thinking it over for a moment, I turned back to the corpses in front of me. “I…..I’d love to, really...but I can’t. I have a life and a family to enjoy having, I can’t just stay here.”

Gilda’s corpse, in anger, suddenly was reaching out and grabbing him with her paw. "Wrong choice, hero!!"

I should’ve realized a lion’s paw was stronger than I thought . No wonder she didn’t use her claw.. She tightly gripped my neck, squeezing hard. I frantically tried to pry it off. “Urgh...l-let go!”

She wrapped her tail around his neck to choke him more. “Well then it looks like your time is running out!!”

Was I seriously losing to the corpse of a griffon? Yes. Yes, I was. I began to feel dizzy and lightheaded, as I rapidly began losing air.

“Now suffer and die for your decision!”

I could feel her squeezing insanely hard, up until I blacked out (permanently, of course) from strangulation. But….it was dark for a while. Minutes passed….was I permanently dead? As I questioned this, a glowing bright light began to surround me, and pulled me up from the dark depths and into the light….it was getting brighter and brighter, and brighter..

I felt a thud, yet nonpainful, and sat up, rubbing my eyes. Upon opening them, I was met with the familiar sight of my bedroom. Was….was I free? Looking around, the room was empty, I was the only one in it. I got up, stretched out, grateful for being home, and headed downstairs. Everypony was sitting in the living room, reading, playing a game with one another, or watching television. “You’re all free!” I declared, though it was pretty obvious.

“Bout TIME you woke up.” Rainbow replied, “You were practically dead forever. Uh, figuratively.”

“Yeah, and--What do you mean we are all free? You were asleep for days.” Said Twilight as she was reading a book.

“You were loudly snoring upstairs, and that was starting to shake the entire house.” Rarity piped in.

“Oh, sorry, that was me from the other day.” Pinkie added while, she was upside down on the couch playing a game...of some sort.

“You mean none of you remember Pinkamena coming in, sending all of you back into her dungeon, and having me play some sick game to set you all free?”

“Now ya’ll know we haven’t seen Pinkamena in a long time since the game..”

“Yeah, silly billy! If Pinkamena was here my Pinkie senses would be tingling!”

“And even if she was here, she knows we’d kick her flank!” Rainbow declared.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Loyal? You seem a bit tense..” Added Fluttershy.

So….all of it was just some crazy dream? “Yeah, I’m fine...I must’ve slept too much. But it all felt so...real.”

“I can vouch for that! Sometimes when I dream about constellations it feels so real that sometimes you can’t tell reality from a dream.”

“Yeah like this one time when I dream I was baking a really huge cake, and when I woke up there was a mess in the kitchen with batter splattered all over the counter!”

“Ah don’t think he means sleepwalking Pinkie!”

“It was weird – I had to go through all these different tests to set you all free, and I died multiple times in the process...’

“You still got to beat her up, right?”

“Actually, no..I just….I just had to die during the final challenge, and you were all free.”

“That must have been some dream sugarcube.”

“Wow... though I am not surprised she would do such a thing considering her history of violence.”

“She literally had a water clone of herself, told me to kill it to move on, and when I refused, she took it into her own hooves to possess it and evaporate it herself. Savage..”

“Fascinating! But as always it’s just a nightmare, no need to get worked up about it. I’m sure right now you are probably starving from not having any food in your stomach for a while.” “Yeah y’all better wash up we have a bit of a feast to get ta thanks to Pinkie!” “Don’t worry I only maxed out one of your credit cards while trying to buy groceries online.”

"I'm not sure what to question first - how you managed to figure out online shopping, how you maxed out my card on groceries of all things, or how you figured out my credentials."

“Well we been living here for a while so of course some of us had to figure out online shopping, without being spotted.. also I didn’t just order groceries, I ordered a large flat screen tv for our enjoyment!”

“Yeah.. don’t question her now let’s eat!”

They all trot into the kitchen.

“Well, it was honestly very nice of them to do so..” I followed them into the kitchen, “I guess with that being done, I don’t see a problem—OhmyGod.”

There were grocery bags covering not just the table, but the floor around it.

“Yeah now we don’t have to worry about food for a while isn’t that great?!”

“H-How much did all of this cost..?”

“About 5,400 dollars including the tv..”

F-Fi...fi...eegh..” Not even a second later, I passed out from shock.

"You know, Twi, MAYBE you went a bit overboard with the food...you DID check to see if he had enough food to live until he needed to buy more of it, right?" Rainbow questioned.

"Yes there is more food I think, but Pinkie said she stored some and hidden them in a closet.." \

"Sorry I forgot which one.”

“Well, we can’t just let him lie there. We should probably place him on the couch,” Fluttershy meekly suggested.

Twilight lit up her horn and enveloped his body with her magic. She carefully placed him on the couch. “There he should be comfortable for now, we may need to get him some water when he wakes up.” “I’m on it!” Pinkie dashed into the kitchen and came back with 4 bottles of water. “

Uh Pinkie, ah don’t think he needs that many!”

“Nonsense! He will need it soon enough since he didn’t have any when he woke up the first time.”

“From what I know, most animals usually are weak without water. He seemed pretty hydrated to me. I think just one bottle will do.”

“Will just leave it on the table till he wakes up. For now let’s grab some food.”

About half an hour later, I regained consciousness, sitting up and rubbing my head. "Eesh....I must've passed out..." I got up and went down the hall, and looked into the kitchen. The girls weren't there, but the stack of food still was. Right, Twilight spent buckets of money on food and a flatscreen..

“Glad to see you are awake, sleepyhead! Sorry for making you faint, but I hope you can forgive me and enjoy a months supply worth of food!”

I turned around to see said bookhorse standing in the hallway. "Right....how long was I out this time? A week?"

“Only a day.”

“Look, I honestly don’t blame you for trying to be nice about my wellbeing. You’re still pretty new to this world, after all...so, yes I forgive, but just try to let me care for myself unless otherwise, needed, alright?”

“Okay then. I will keep that in mind for you.”

“I just need to unwind for a bit...” I got up, already looking toward the stairs. “I’m gonna try to take a relaxing soak...I’ll see you in a while, Twi.” Making a beeline for the stairs, I could only hope Twilight wouldn’t try ordering like that again? Was I going to punish her? No. Why? She didn’t know any better – she lived with bits for currency, after all, how could she know any better?

Locking myself in the bathroom, I took a deep breath. I just needed to relax. It was all just a dream, it was just a simple order..I couldn’t take anymore stress. After undressing, I turned on the bathwater, setting it to really warm, and let the tub fill up. But something seemed off...the water seemed a lot….thicker than usual. Familiarly thick..

I reached down to feel the water, and..

The bath water was making little waves as he was reaching down to touch it. The water was rising up and started to form a hoof like shape, it was continuing to take on a familiar form he remembered from his dream.

“What? It….can’t be..” There was no denying it. A Water Pinkie clone was forming before my very eyes. But how? Wasn’t she just a dream?

The water was finished, forming into water Pinkie clone. She was looking at him and was wearing a big smile, her forelegs was stretched out in a welcoming gesture to him.

I gently lifted her out of the water, noting how she was actually solid, and placed her on the floor, pulling her into a sweet hug. I couldn’t believe it….she was real. And, on top of that, incredibly warm. Good thing I used warm water in that case.

She was pulling him into a cuddle rubbing her face against his cheek.

You might think me weird for doing this. But you know what? I figured she deserved another chance at life, and I was going to give it to her whenever possible. This was that time to bring her back. And she was just the same as before – what with her growing to be slightly larger than me, but not too large like last time. Just large enough for me to really cuddle into her. And on top of that, she felt really warm, which made the moment even better. This was just what I needed to relax and unwind.

She ran her hoof across his cheek and was licking his other cheek in a loving manner. Her hooves moved to his shoulders, giving him a good massage from all the stress he went through.

I let out a calm, deep breath. Yes, this was just what I needed. It felt nice being with someone so gentle and friendly, really liking me above all else. With every passing second, I began to feel so much better...way better than a bath would help me feel.

She just looked at him and continued to message him letting him relax fully, while letting her watery mane touch his body.

Soon all of my stresses and worries began to vanish. Now I was only focusing on taking in the tranquility of this moment. “You’re really good at this, you know..I’ve never known anyone who reduces my anxiety in mere seconds.”

She stopped and laid her body against his in an effort to keep him warm in a cold bathroom.

Once again I embraced the clone, taking in the warmth and serenity of her. It was just like back in the dungeon, except she didn't have to die..

She stuck her hoof inside her stomach to make a human size head air bubble so he can survive and breathe in it. She strokes his hair and slowly bring him closer to her body.

“Wow, you really do like me...I knew when we first saw each other we’d get along fine. I’m glad I wasn’t wrong about that.”

She was slowly pushing him into her and started to rub his back slowly.

I could feel her body pulling me in as I was pushed in. My head fit into a little air pocket, thank goodness, so I could breathe. “This again, huh? Go ahead, then, since I won’t drown.”

She pushed him all the way inside of her and started to grow a bit bigger to accommodate the space. She laid down on her back with a content smile and slowly rubs her stomach.

I could feel her almost petting me. I let out another content sigh, settling into the cozy, warm space. I closed my eyes and began to lightly drift off..

All this time, I knew everything that happened had to be real. I don’t know what had become of Pinkamena now, but since the Water Pinkie clone was real, I knew all that happened had to be, too. But I was happy I had a special friend to rely on when I needed her. This would be all the proof I’d need, too, to prove that my dream was no dream.

One thing was for sure, though – I never would stop seeing haunting representations of the nightmare in pink.

END

Comments

[Flora Blossom]

this was a little bit long had to stop reading in the half of it... I was wondering if you could like cut this into 2 half chapters?