This is horror fanfic that tells the tale of Tantibus, a haunted mansion who traps its victims and forces them upon The Tantibus Challenge. A cruel and sadistic game with only two rules. Only one pony may escape, but that pony can only do so when all of the others are dead.
After finding a note, written by a previous Tantibus contestant, Twilight Sparkle goes researching for answers on the horrifying legend. Who is going to save Twilight when her research causes her own soul to be exposed to The Tantibus Challenge? Who is going to win this sadistic game of life and death?
CHAPTER ONE
The soft grass easily gave way for Twilight's hooves, shaping the first hoof-prints this field had seen in many years. It was not normal for Twilight to be this far away from Ponyville but there was an herb that only grew this far into the Everfree forest. Well, according to Zecora at least. Zecora knew far more about the herbs and potions than all of Twilight's books together so she would usually visit her during her expeditions to the Everfree forest for advice.
Today, she was looking for a really rare plant and had received nothing but directions and a slender warning from Zecora to stay careful. Twilight had discarded the plant for a moment as she stepped out on the field. It was very strange to see such a flat and light green meadow so deep into the Everfree forest. There was no weed or plants on the field, just the flat grass that got even flatter as Twilight stepped her way forward towards the middle. A meadow like this must have been taken care of by someone, but the farthest any one lived into the Everfree forest was Zecora's residents. But even she doesn't go this deep, even less every other day to go cutting the grass of some random meadow in the middle of nowhere.
It truly was a strange sight, but what was even stranger was the small yellow item in the middle that Twilight was walking towards. The yellow square-like item grew larger and larger in her eye-sight and before she knew it, it was just under her hooves. It was a note.
She took a last look around the mysterious meadow before eventually returning her view towards the note. It was yellow, flaked and wrinkly, indicating that it was very old as the note was in its decomposing process. Now it was removed from its spot on the soft grass and floating in mid-air, performed by Twilight Sparkles magic. The page was blank, so she turned the side and right as she did so, it was followed by a short shriek and the note was dropped onto the all so familiar grass. There was text, written in blood!
Twilight was shaky and nervous as she slowly forced her own hoof forward to push over the note so it would land with the text upwards, pointing towards the sky. She read the text.
"My name is Aeon" Twilight took a deep breath and read the second half of the brief message. "I died in Tantibus." The word Tantibus itself was underlined, indicating its importance. The line that was located beneath the word was also written in blood and the smell of dehydrated blood penetrated Twilight's nostrils. "Dear god. How horrible! Is this some sort of death or suicide note? Who is Aeon? And what is Tantibus? I better bring this back to Zecora, she might have a clue about this."
Twilight's horn started to glow as the note started to levitate once again. Unfortunately, this note was not going to leave its home without at least one more surprise up its sleeve. With a loud "ZAP!" lightning struck down into the field, lighting up Twilight's entire viewable field into one giant white beacon. Twilight tumbled over onto the grass with ease as the light already was fading away.
It took some time for Twilight's eyes to recover and adjust to nature's normal brightness again and she had a hard time just seeing her own blurry hooves in front of her. Eventually, she got up on unsteady hooves and took a look around for what was different. Another loud shriek escaped from Twilight's lips as she realized that she was standing in a graveyard, which had appeared onto the field around her from nowhere.
She closed her eyes and started to count to ten, breathing slower and becoming more relaxed for every second that passed. This usually helped her calm down in hectic situations but this was just unbelievable, that a spontaneous graveyard would just appear like that. The note was also pretty strange itself.
"…8, 9, 10." Twilight opened her eyes again only to once more reveal the shocking sight of a fairly small graveyard. There were only five tombstones, but they were scattered all around a small area in the middle of the field, where Twilight was standing. She picked up the note for the third time with her magic before she started walking around, studying the tombstones more deeply. She looked at the one closest to her and read what it had to say.
Glory
LOST The Tantibus Challenge
Died In Tantibus
The name was on top, showing the identity of the poor soul. Glory was her name. When she was alive, that is. Underneath her name read the word "LOST…", all capitalized to show its importance, followed by "..The Tantibus Challenge.". As cause of death, the text "Died In Tantibus" was listed below.
"What is The Tantibus Challenge?" Twilight stepped towards the next tombstone. It looked identical to Glory's tombstone. A large, upright rectangle going up to the height of around four feet and two feet wide. Twilight looked at the front of the light-grey grave. The only difference between them was the name. This tombstone's rightful owner was Decker, also a loser of The Tantibus Challenge as he too Died In Tantibus. Twilight looked up to the sky, it was getting darker. Twilight knew she had to get back before it went dark and since she was so far away from home, she had to leave urgently. But Twilight had always been the typical scientist who couldn't control her curiosity in strange situations and what could possibly be more mysterious and strange than this?
Twilight moved on the next tombstone and then the next and then the next, they were all the same. The only thing changing was the names; "Glory, Decker, Dawna, Maverick, Skydance… LOST The Tantibus Challenge, LOST The Tantibus Challenge, LOST The Tantibus Challenge, Died In Tantibus, Died In Tantibus, Died In Tantibus." Twilight was thinking out loud to herself, "They all lost this challenge, and died?" Twilight then lifted up the note and held it in front of her own judging eyes. Aeon didn't have a tombstone and his signature, written in dried-out blood, was in her focus. "Aeon, did you win?"