The filly stood up and brushed her hair out of her face. For some reason, even taking how terrifying she should be to Felix, there was something oddly...normal about the Filly. She had shoulder length brown hair, and was skinny as a rail with a few specs of freckles across her nose and cheeks. Even her clothes could have been found in any store - black tank top and jeans tucked into black red boots. She was older than he first thought, as well. Closer to sixteen - if she even had an age. A hum from behind them startled them both, and dragged Felix back into his current situation.

“We have to go,” she said, “now.” And the filly grabbed his hoof and took off. Surprised, Felix followed and nearly dropped his flashlight. He tried to hold it up as far as he could to light the way.

“No need,” the filly raised her free hoof in front of her as she spoke, “I got it.” She mumbled something under breath, something that couldn’t have been Equiss, and a glowing light pulsated in front of them and followed. It was like a spot light from above was following their movements. The hum from behind was getting louder as they approached the first fork in the tunnel. Without hesitation, the filly veered them over to the right. Clearly she knew where she was going, and Felix wasn’t about to argue. After a moment, the humming stopped, and they were stood in front of a ladder leading up into darkness.

“Just up here!” And the filly began to climb the ladder before them. Felix snapped back into reality, and he was incredibly confused.

“Wait!” The filly stopped mid climb and looked over her shoulder.

“Look, I know this is weird-”

“No. No, I know what weird is. I’ve seen weird. Who are you?”

“I’ll explain soon, okay? We just really kinda need to get out of here, okay? No one is supposed to be here and we, well, are. So-” And with that the filly returned to her climb. Felix was about to retort, but the hum from behind grew louder. Survival outweighed understanding at that point, and Felix grabbed the ladder and followed the filly, leaving that tunnel for hopefully the last time.

The ladder lead the pair into an empty room. It almost looked like a huge broom closet. A few scattered buckets and mops were lining the walls, but for being a part of the house, it was very unassuming. The filly next to him shook herself off and shoved her hoof toward Felix. Her mood swings were clearly something to be impressed with, and Felix reluctantly took her hoof and bumped it.

“You’re probably wondering who I am, and why I know you.” The filly didn’t even wait for Felix to respond. “My name is Vidala, and this is sort of my house.”

“What are you talking about? How is this your house? This bucking place is your house?”

“I know, I know, but you have to understand what happened. It wasn’t always like this, it-”

“And what the hay - what was that thing you did? With the light down there?”

“Yes, I know - this is all a part of it. It all relates just let me explain.” Vidala paused and looked at Felix. He closed his mouth and looked back at her, letting her know she was now free to talk without interruption. “This is my house. I know it may seem like Tartarus right now, and you’re right. It is. My family kind of dealt in some weird stuff. We moved into this house about ten years ago, and it was nice. A small, quaint place, yeah, considering I’m used to the city - but it was nice. The problem is, my family, we...can do things. Witches, I guess.” Vidala kind of laughed at the thought. “Mostly just parlor tricks, like that light show you saw in the tunnels. But some of us, like my brother, took it a bit too far. He started to mess with some dark dealings - demons and summoning and the like. I mean, summoning isn’t always bad. I can summon a cat, for instance, which is kind of cute but what my brother dealt with was far worse. We would try and tell him to end it, but the power was kind of getting to him. Onyx was never one to listen to reason.”

“...Onyx?” The ideas was circling Felix’s head, but he wasn’t quite ready to accept it. Onyx had been his friend for years...he thought.

“This one night, seven years ago, my brother took it too far. Summoning demons for a few minutes here and there wasn’t enough for him anymore, he needed more. We would ask him why he was so obsessed with all this, and he would only respond by asking why not? What happened over the next few nights...it’s kind of hard to talk about it.” Even with her blacked out eyes, Felix could tell this memory really pained the young filly. All of this - this Tartarus - was because of her brother, his friend. It seemed to Felix that this filly was just as much a prisoner as he was.

“Alright,” Felix put a hoof on her shoulder, “then let’s get you out of here.”

Felix took a look at his surroundings. His heart jumped slightly as he glanced around. Aside from the hatch in the floor they just entered through, they wasn’t any other exit - just smooth cement walls.

“Do you know where we are?” He asked the Felix, hoping to Celestia she had some idea.

“Yeah, of course,” she said, with a bit too much hesitation for Felix’s liking, “It’s my house, isn’t it?” And with that she made her way over to one of the far walls. The surface of the wall was a smooth brushed gray cement - there was no way through, no door, nothing. Vidala reached into her pocket and took out what looked to be a small piece of artist’s charcoal. She pressed it to the wall and began to draw a long, swooping line about three feet in length. Line after line followed, and Felix watched in awe as the filly stood back and admired her work. Felix had never seen anything like it outside of fantasy movies. It was like a yin yang mixed with a pentagram mixed with a child’s doodle. Vidala placed the charcoal back into her pocket and ran her hoof through her hair. After a moment of silence, she raised her hoof and placed it against the symbol, putting her other hoof on her temple.  At first Felix thought she was speaking to him, but then realized that she was chanting her weird language again. Soon the symbol looked to be vibrating, and Felix watched on as it began to steadily glow a deep purple. Vidala smiled to herself as she felt the wall shake before it split in two.

"I've always loved doing that."