Chapter 3: Midnight
Cadence and Rarity sat at the entrance, the light from Rarity's horn barely holding back the encroaching shadows. Cadence refused to open her eyes. She had figured that the darkness inside her eyes was better than the cold unforgiving darkness that surrounded her.
"I'm sorry… I wish I wasn't so afraid." Cadence said in a hushed tone to Rarity.
"Nonsense. We all have fears. After tonight I'm afraid I'll never return to this castle simply out of fear of what's happened." Rarity replied, trying to comfort Cadence a little.
A silence remained between the two.
Suddenly a scream could be heard from up the stairs.
Rarity perked her head up, shining her horn towards the staircase to see if there was anypony there. Cadence peered her eyes out to see the light but was too afraid to look into the darkness for more than a moment, again closing her eyes.
"Cadence… I'm sorry." Rarity stood up. "I have to go to the scream. That could be Sweetie Belle and I won't let anything happen to her."
Cadence reached for Rarity, but couldn't feel her with her eyes closed. "Please, don't go. It's not safe."
Rarity looked back down at Cadence. "I'm sorry. Just, go to sleep or something. Try not to let your fear overcome you. I'll be back in a little bit."
She trotted off in search of the scream.
Cadence was alone and she could feel the darkness all around her. Tears rolled down her face as she wished she could fight her fear. There was always somepony to comfort her whenever she was afraid, but this time there was no pony.
'Why am I so useless? Why am I even an alicorn? I don't deserve such a power when I can't even open my eyes to light my own path.'
Cadence had started to break down, her mind slipping in the darkness. More and more of her fears plagued her once they found an opening. The thought of gore and slimy bugs surrounding her became more than she could bare.
She could hear the clattering of hooves getting close to hear.
Was there anypony even there? Was it a trick of her mind?
'For an alicorn of love I'm not even helping the ones I love.'
She covered her head with her front hooves and started to cry and sniffle. Reduced to a foal afraid of the monsters in their closet, covering their head with their blanket.
"Here's the closet. I think…" Rainbow said as she opened the door.
Fluttershy wandered inside, feeling the walls and shelves with her wings. "This is it Dash. I don't know if it has candles but I feel shelving." She continued to feel around, trying to get some semblance of what was inside.
Rainbow Dash felt along the other walls shelves. "Hey Fluttershy?"
"Yes?"
"Why aren't you afraid?"
Fluttershy paused for a moment.
"I'm terrified."
"Then, why are you helping me search in the darkness?" Rainbow turned to her silhouette, poking her with her one still functioning wing.
Fluttershy turned to Rainbow to give her answer. "I'm the element of kindness," She paused, then turned back to feeling the shelves. "but when we find out who killed Spike, I will be anything less than kind. I don't want that to happen to any pony else. I'll be as brave as I can, but that doesn't mean I don't want to scream and cower in a corner."
Rainbow Dash smiled in the darkness, surprised and saddened were mixed on her face. It was a great sight to see Fluttershy finally being brave, but it was a shame it had been under the worst circumstances. Fluttershy was known for running away, and Rainbow knew it was only a matter of time before her fear subdued her.
"I found matches!" Fluttershy said, snapping Rainbow out of her thoughtful stupor.
"Good, the candles should be near them right?" Rainbow extended her hoof next to Fluttershy, finding the candles. "Yes! Oh yeah! First try! Well, sorta…"
She pulled out a long skinny candle. Fluttershy stepped on the match pad and struck a match with her wing.
They lit the candle together and brightened the storage closet.
"That's better." Rainbow said.
They looked around the closet that was now shining bright.
"Oh, good look this'll help." Fluttershy noticed a lantern cover.
Rainbow placed in the candle inside the lantern and closed its cover. "We should take some of these back to the front, maybe help light up the place if the lights don't come back on."
"Good idea Dash!" Fluttershy replied and started to search for a knapsack of sorts in order to carry the matches and candles.
Rainbow walked out into the hall to peer down both of the opposing pathways, the door was opened to the hallway. She decided to make sure no one was behind the door, a cliché she had worried would scare them.
"Uh, Rainbow? The light?" Fluttershy said.
"Oh, right." She quickly scanned behind the door and turned back to the closet.
"Alright well I've got it mostly in this one bag. We should be good to go." Fluttershy grabbed the knapsack with her mouth and turned to Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow held the lantern in her mouth and tried to speak "Let's go."
Fluttershy nodded as Rainbow started to walk down back to the entrance. Fluttershy closed the closet door with her wing so that no one would run into it, but did not look as it closed.
Unbeknownst to her a pony was behind the door. A dark black mask that resembled a pony's skull was worn by this unknown pony. The eyes of the skull mask were painted red, and it was large enough to cover the question of whether or not they had a horn.
This pony wore clothing to cover up their fur and cutie mark, and if they had wings. They hid their tail inside these clothes. It was a simple style though, a white shirt and light blue overalls. It was something easy for any race of pony to get in and out of quickly.
It tilted its head as it watched Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash walk away, perhaps unsure whether to wait to strike, or wait to play.
"Pinkie, please stay close to my light." Twilight said anxiously to the pink pony who was bouncing around in the hallway in front of her.
"Sorry Twilight, I'm trying to keep myself in high spirits." She stopped and moved close to Twilight. "I don't wanna freak you out or anything or scare myself or scare our friends or scary anypony we might run into unless maybe-"
"Pinkie! Please!" Twilight shouted and stomped her hoof.
"Sorry! Quiet!" She covered her mouth and made a zipper motion.
Twilight sighed and continued on. They took the stairs and were close to Twilight's bedroom. After reaching the final flight of stairs, Twilight took a moment to shine further down the hall in order to make sure no one was in the darkness. There were a few spare bedrooms and Spike's bedroom in this hall, but they weren't going to check them all.
They started out looking for the girls, but Twilight knew she kept her specialty magic books in her own bedroom. Perhaps there was one to break the spell on the castle.
"Here's my room, let me shine in first just in case." Twilight said as she opened the door.
She shined the light amongst the walls and towards the opposing door. Nothing that could be seen. She walked in and used her magic to raise the sheets covering her bed.
"Better safe than sorry, but it looks clear, come on in."
Pinkie waltzed in and went straight for the opposite door. She tried to tug and pull but it wouldn't budge.
Twilight busily started her search for barrier breaking spells.
"Hey, why's this door not opening?" Pinkie asked.
Twilight shined her light at Pinkie. "Oh that? It goes to the balcony. I didn't expect it to open." She turned back to her books.
"Shoot… And we were doing so well." Pinied sighed. "So what's the name of this book?"
"Counter-Defensive Spells for the Magic Inclined."
Pinkie looked at a book on Twilight's nightstand. "Is it this one?" She lifted it up.
Twilight turned and lit up the book. "That's it! How'd you find it so quickly?!"
"I can barely see in front of my nose Twilight, I picked it up and made a guess." She giggled and snorted.
Twilight rolled her eyes and walked over to Pinkie.
"Okay, let's see here." She sat the book on the bed, quickly flipped through the pages trying to find something or anything that would get them out of the nightmare.
Pinkie wandered towards the door as Twilight studied. "I'll watch the entrance. Make sure no sneaky sneaks are sneaking up on us!"
"Uh huh." Twilight replied, lost in her own little endeavor.
Pinkie poked her head out, looking left and right.
It was dark, and with no magic she could barely see anything.
"I'll giggle at any ghosties that come my way." She said, unsure of herself.
She walked out into the hallway and started to stomp her hooves out of nervousness. She turned to look at the stairs.
Her stomp seemed out of rhythm and she stopped to listen. She had heard something.
She turned around to the other end of the hallway and worriedly said, "H-hello? I-is… somepony there?"
The strike of a match could be heard, and then a candle was lit. It illuminated the black mask, heavy breathing coming from inside.
"W-who..er..w-w-what are you?!" Pinkie started to yell as she stared at the ominous figure, her hair deflating from its puffy style.
Twilight looked up from the book when she heard Pinkie's yelling.
Suddenly the door to Twilight's bedroom slammed.
"Pinkie?!" She ran to the door and tried to open it with her magic to no avail.
"Twilight! HELP ME!" Pinkie screamed as she slowly backed up.
The skulled pony started to walk towards her, placing down the candle and leaving it behind.
"Please! You don't have to do this." She continuously backed up, preparing to run.
The skulled pony stopped, tilted its head, and reached into its overalls.
"W-what?" Pinkie started to turn back to the stairs, keeping her eyes on the masked figure.
Twilight slammed on the bedroom door, first with her own hooves then sending her furniture ramming with her magic, but to no avail.
"PINKIE! WHAT'S HAPPENING?!"
Removing its hoof from the overalls revealed a small brown sacks not much bigger than their hoof. Pinkie started to book it as the skulled pony threw it to the ground.
Small cherries rolled all over the top of the stairs as Pinkie tried to run down.
The cherries were hard and round, easily stepped upon. These cherries and her speed down the stairs faulted her, as she slipped on some of the cherries coming from behind her.
She let out a loud scream.
The loss of her balance caused her to tumble down the stairs, screaming the entire way.
Her first bounce smashed her front right leg against the step.
The second bounce she slammed down on her butt, causing her to fall foward.
Right at the final step of this stair case, she landed with a gut curdling snap of her neck.
Cherries slowly rolling down the steps, landing in front of and against her corpse.
The once puffy pink hair, now fallen flat, covered her lifeless gazing eyes.