What happened to my friends

by bryonyTheWolf

WHTMF - Chapter 2

After finding her friend’s items, and the vandalised photo. She continued to look around the castle that she once called her home.
The purple alicorn went to the far side of the room she was in, which led to a long, winding spiral staircase. Starting at her hooves and stretching up toward the top of the castle.

“Alright twilight… Let's try this strategy. Start from the top, and work our way down… There must be something that will explain where everyone has gone.”
Twilight spoke quietly to herself. Her soft voice echoing slightly in the staircase’s hollowed out pillar.

Slowly but surely, Twilight began making her way up the stairs, and past several doors that were the entrance to each floor. She noticed that each door had been blocked off by some kind of forcefield. The magic was a lighter pink than her own.

Twilight reached a hoof out to touch said forcefield. But a strong electrical current flowed to her hoof. Giving her a strong electric shock, almost as a warning. Twilight recoiled her hoof with a wince, looking at the spot the electric surge touched.
Her fur was slightly singed and darkened.

Looking down the middle of the spiralling staircase, she saw that the floor had been moving with her. Much to her shock and confusion.
“But… But that’s impossible!” Twilight exclaimed to herself.
Putting her hoof on the floor, quickly making contact and it took her weight like any normal floor would. This was no illusion. There was now no way out, as all the windows of the castle were on the ground floor. So there was no flying out of the castle.

The only way she could go was up to the top floor where there was a door with no barrier on it. It was almost like the castle was forcing her to take this path. Seeing no other option, the purple alicorn made her way up the stairs, the floor slowly following suit and meeting her at the top of the stairs. Once twilight was on the top step, the floor lined up with it, creating a flat platform for twilight to walk on.

Once it was locked into place, twilight took a moment to pace and think. Talking out loud to herself once more. Her voice bouncing off of the walls and back into her own ears.
“Ok, so far everypony has gone missing. I'm finding things that represent my friends, and I have a photo with everyone's faces crossed off except for mine. Whatever happened here must have been done on purpose…”

The silence was almost deafening as she slowly approached the door. It was a simple door, made of a polished stone, possibly Sapphire, with 3 red gems in a triangle formation. It looked like Applejack’s cutie mark was etched onto the door with these red gems.

Pressing her hoof to the door, it opened with ease, grinding against the crystal floor as it moved.
Twilight then poked her head through the door, scanning the hallway she was greeted with. It stretched as far as the eye could see, far beyond the boundaries of the castle walls.
On the wall, across from the door, was a glass box, with 2 small pins in it. The glass box also had a crude drawing of Applejack’s cutie mark on a piece of paper that was taped to the corner of the box.

Twilight stepped through the door, and it slammed shut behind her, plunging her into darkness for a moment, before flame torches that lined the walls at every 3 feet increments, lit up. Filling the hallway with a yellow and orange hue.

A heavy feeling washed over the alicorn, the same feeling she had in the throne room. The sense that she was being watched.
She quickly looked around, looking both ways repeatedly for a couple of minutes, before looking back at the box. Reflected in the glass box, was a set of grass green eyes, coming from behind twilight. The alicorn gave a sharp gasp and turned around, but no one was there. Looking back at the box, she could still see the set of green eyes. They blinked slowly as they watched over the purple pony.

Lighting Up her horn, twilight opened the glass box, making the reflection vanish for a moment, and she opened her bag, taking out applejack’s hat. Putting 2 and 2 together, she rested the farmer's hat on the 2 pins inside the box, closing the box. It was a display case.
But why would anyone want to display Applejack’s hat?

“Ok… This is getting stranger and stranger by the moment…”
Speaking out loud to herself once more, she looked at the paper taped to the box, seeing that the image had changed. Her eyes widening in confusion, she looked around again.
“How did that- But that was just- i- What is going on?!”
Twilight shouted into the vast emptiness, hearing her voice throw itself down the hallway and fade to nothing.

With hesitation, twilight leaned in close to the box, looking at the photo.
It was a child-like drawn picture of Twilight, with her horn lit, and an arrow pointing from her horn, to the bottom of the box. They were instructions.

Looking at the bottom of the box, she saw a hole that was wide enough for the alicorn to fit the tip of her horn into. Her horn had never gone out, as it was providing that bit of extra light, seeing as the fire torches could only do so much in this crystal lined hallway.

Leaning her head down, she pressed her horn into the hole, pushing it in until it stopped, her horn fitting snug with the edges.
There was a click, and the indents of her horn began to light up white, almost as if something was filling it with its own magic.

Grimacing at the strange sensation that flooded her mind. Her eyes suddenly glowed a bright green, matching Applejack’s eye colour.
And she began to see something.
It looked like memories, from Applejack’s point of view.

“See ya’ll later! Ah’m gonna go and visit Twilight again!”
Applejack’s voice echoed in Twilight’s head, as the memories played out before her very eyes.
It took twilight on Applejack’s usual route to her old castle, where the elements of harmony would meet up, before getting the train to Canterlot.
She was the first to arrive, followed by Pinkie then Rainbow, who kissed her cheek as they greeted each other.
Fluttershy and Rarity arrived together, with Discord who gave them all some snacks for the road before teleporting away.

As the group were about to set off, Applejack heard a strange voice that sounded a lot like Applebloom. Coming from the old castle. It sounded like her tone was a mix of excited and confused.
And it began to raise alarm bells for the farm pony.

“You coming AJ?” Rainbow Dash called, stopping in her flight path as she noticed Applejack was lagging behind.

“Uh… ya’ll go on ahead. Ah need to check on somethin’ ah’ll catch the next train and meet ya’ll in Canterlot.”
Applejack responded with her usual, honest demeanour. Rainbow dash tried to question the earth pony further, but fluttershy stopped her.

“C’mon Rainbow Dash. If Applejack has something she needs to do, we can go ahead. You know her, she’ll never go back on her word. She’ll meet up with us later, dont worry.”
This put Rainbow at ease and they left with the others, leaving Applejack at the castle’s entrance.
Walking slowly into the castle, Applejack listened out for the voice of her younger sister.
“Uh.. Applebloom? Ya in here? Ah could hear ya from outside!” Applejack called out, her voice flying and bouncing along the simmering walls, fading to silence the further it got.
The castle had been left empty for quite some time, though the diamonds and gems inside still held up their usual shine.

Applejack looked around as she ventured deeper into the castle’s depths, she couldnt help but notice that the walls didn't have a speck of dust, not even a single cobweb in the corners of the room. Nothing was there, it was as pristine as they had left it when Twilight moved to Canterlot permanently.

“Hm… Somethin’ aint right ‘bout that… This place should be dustier than a bookworm in a pile of sawdust..” Applejack mumbled to herself as she continued to venture through the castle. Checking each room for her little sister.

Eventually she came to the map room, where Applebloom stood upon the table, surrounded by the 6 thrones. She had her usual, innocent and sweet smile on her face. And a sense of comfort washed over the farm pony, as she saw that her sister was ok. But she still walked over at a brisk pace, making sure she was alright.

“Applebloom what in the hay is goin’ on? What are ya doin’ in Twilight’s castle? And why are ya standin’ on the map?”
The farm pony had so many questions, but Applebloom put her hoof up, cutting her sister off, before speaking up in her usual, cheerful and curious tone.

“Sis… Ya worry too much! C’mon! Ah found somethin’ that ah want to show ya! Ah think you’ll love it!”
Applebloom cried out with excitement, hopping down from the table and holding Applejack’s hoof, leading the orange earth pony deeper into the castle.

Applejack wanted to protest, but she couldn't ignore the excitement her sister was showing.
Applebloom led Applejack to the stairs Twilight had just found, going up them toward the top. The floor slowly follows them up just like with Twilight.

Applejack immediately took notice.
“Uh.. Applebloom? Ah dont trust all this… Why dont we come back another time? Ah have somewhere to be…”

Applebloom gave no reply. Instead, opening the door at the top of the staircase and taking Applejack through to the exact same door Twilight just came through.

As Applejack went through the door, she was greeted with a glass box, with a beetle relic inside, sitting upon 2 pegs.

Twilight gave a loud gasp, pulling her horn out of the box, her eyes returning to their usual colour and she stood there panting.

“S-so… Is applejack still here?”
Twilight asked aloud to herself. She looked back at the box, and the note said “Look behind you.” Slowly, twilight turned her head, looking over her shoulder. Only to be greeted with Applejack’s face staring back at her.

She turned around, backing away from the earth pony. It took all of her strength to not scream out in terror. The orange farm pony dropped what looked like a beetle relic, her ears folded back and she looked rather shocked to see anypony else in here. She looked normal, apart from one simple thing.
Her legs were full of holes. But these holes were not bleeding or showing any entrails. The insides of the holes were covered in skin, almost as if they were supposed to be there.

“Twilight?! What are ya doin’ here?!”

The farm pony was the first to speak, unable to comprehend what was going on here, the purple alicorn was dumbfounded. Her eyes wide and her mouth hung open. How was her friend still alive? How did those holes get there? What was that relic she was holding?!

She had far too many questions, before she heard,a deep rumbling in the hallway, and the ground began to shiver.
Applejack began to look nervous as she grabbed the relic she was carrying.

“RUN!”
Applejack yelled, and that was exactly what they did.
Taking off as far as their hooves could carry them. Applejack seemed to have gained a bit of speed with the holes in her hooves.
But Twilight didn't worry about that, as they ran down the hallway as fast as they could, before Applejack grabbed Twilight by her tail, pulling her into a nearby opening and hiding in the shadows.

The rumbling came to a halt, and a familiar voice called out.
“Applejack? Big sis? Where did ya go? Ah’m scared!”
It was applebloom!
Twilight went to call out to her, but the farm pony covered Twilight’s mouth before she could speak.
Soon Applebloom passed by, and Twilight saw her eyes. They were fully red, with slits for pupils.

Applejack soon broke the tense silence with a hushed voice.
“That aint mah sister… Whatever it was used a fake version of her to lure me in here… Ah havent been able to leave…”

As she explained this, twilight and Applejack made their way back toward the door twilight came in, being as quiet as possible.
It was strange… The trip back to the door felt a lot longer than when they ran away from it.
After about 10 minutes of slow, quiet walking, they eventually made it to the door and Twilight opened it with her magic.

“Are you coing AJ?”
Twilight asked, noticing the farm pony hesitate as she made her way through the door.

”Ah can't… Not with that thing at large… Look…”
She raised her hoof to the door, showing a forcefield stopping her from leaving. This caused the alicorn’s breath to get caught in her throat, as she realised she had no choice but to leave her friend behind.

Soon the hallway rumbled again, whatever that thing was, was coming back and looking for Applejack.
The two ponies embraced tightly, Twilight fighting back tears.

“Ill try to come back for you. I promise.
Twilight said after a moment. The rumbling got louder.

Applejack gave a nod before backing away, bucking the door shut and running down the hall away from fake applebloom.

Twilight stood there for a moment, looking at the door. The red gems making a picture of Applejack’s cutie mark had turned grey. She looked in her bag at the other items she had collected to represent her friends, before looking back at the staircase. Only to see that the floor had moved while she was in that hallway. But why didn't she hear it?

She made her way down the stairs. Stopping at the 2nd door, which no longer had a forcefield on it. It was a dark oak wood door… With Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark on it.