The cage elevator clinks and clangs as it descends into the dark caverns under Canterlot. Luna’s magic held the elevators control lever in the down position, she hadn’t said much since the ride began. And to be honest Acropolis and Rune both had lost track of time in the descent. The Elevator came into a large cavern showing a massive complex built into the very walls.

“This place was built long ago, about the time Everfree Castle was built.” Luna broke the silence. “It was abandoned after my imprisonment, Celestia had moved the capital onto the cliffs above. And the now slightly more sane occupants made a decent work force to rebuilt Equestria after my rebellion.”

“That’s remarkably dark.” Acropolis commented, “Using the mentally ill as a workforce.”

“Agreed," Rune commented, "but then again that was a century ago, lots of things change.” Rune looked out of the cage marveling at the massive Gothic prison hidden deep under the pleasant streets of Canterlot. But what struck her wasn't the gargoyles or wrought iron barred windows it was the nagging thought of if Asyl is abandoned why are the lights on? “Uh, Princess? If this place is abandoned why are the lights on?”

“Well that’s the issue I brought you two down here to resolve.” The cage came to a loud clunky slam. Howls echo to them from the prison. “It would seem, some of the prisoners never left and have survived somehow.” Luna opens the cage, sprawling before them a long and ornate bridge leads them to the large front gates. “We need to reclaim the prison. Most likely by force.” More howls echo out of the prison. As the lights started go out across the prison in anticipation of their guests.

“CHILDREN!” a speaker on the bridge near the elevator crackles alive. “IT WOULD SEEM WE HAVE GUESTS! TONIGHT WE GET A RARE TREAT!” a loud long cascade of howls and screams echo off the prison. “BUT REMEMBER MY CHILDREN! THERE IS NO MERCY FOR OUTSIDERS!”

“That’s not good.” Acropolis stretches his wings out and flicks his razor blade feathers making sure he has control of them completely. The static in the back of his mind began to grow.

“No its not.” Luna sparks up her magic and casts a light spell that gives them each a light cone from the pendent on their armor.

“Since they clearly know we are here now we should approach cautiously and stealthily.” Luna cast another spell on their flashlights. “You can turn it off and have it follow your eyes now.”

“Great,” Acropolis tuned to face the two mares. “Rune try to locate their food supply and destroy it, with that routed further assault will be easier,” She nodded, “Luna, since you are most familiar with this ancient tech, you go for their power supply,” Luna nodded, “And Ill go for this, voice, understood?”

“Agreed.” Luna spread her wings and jumped silently off the bridge, clearly she knew where she was going. The link pulsed, Luna's voice came over the link, “Rune, on the second level is a cafeteria, begin your search there. Acropolis, try the wardens office, top floor.” She vanished into the darkness below. A grin on her face seeing Acropolis commiting to taking charge.

“Shall we?” Acropolis began crossing the bridge to the imposing and now dark prison. It looks more like a massive manor than a prison. The bridge seemed to stretch forever before them.

Arriving at the grand door they were surprised to see how easily it slid open. This lobby was massive, destroyed spiral staircases swirled around the exterior going up six stories. Before them is a reception desk covered with ancient books. In the chair sat a skeleton, picked clean from the rats and other vermin. Trash, and destroyed material littered the room. A solitary lamp glowed calmly on the desk. Their lights scoured the chamber looking for a path to their destinations. Rune spied a sign, it read cafeteria.

“looks like I found my way, Good luck.” Rune said silently over the link.

“Like wise.” Acro replied. She vanished into the dark hallway as he continued his search. He came across a similar sign hanging on the wall it read, wardens office. “I guess I found my path.” He climbed over the wreckage and into the dark hallway. His light shone onto a office block at the end he could see a intact staircase. Hoping it lead all the way up he approached. Hearing a raspy breath he froze in place. Switching his light off he pressed up against the wall.

“I can hear you~” the gargled voice said in a sing songy tone. A door opened and a horrific pony shambled out. His mane gone, ripped out from the looks, his eyes stapled shut, his teeth were filed to points, and his lips were cut off. His body was covered with cuts and slashes.

Just what exactly is going on down here? Acropolis thought. The monstrous pony walked towards Acropolis, still clinging to the wall. “Are you trying to hide from me~?” It rolled its head. It came to a stop right next to Acropolis. He held his breath as to not let it hear his breathing. “Where did you go~?” it gargled, “Where~?”

Should I kill it? Acro thought. Nopony around to hear it, and they all know were here. The sound of several other creatures searching for him was well greeted his ears. No, if I kill him and they find the body it’ll let them know where I am. He stretched out his wing as far he could silently and pressed on a nearby door. The monstrous pony rushed into the empty room and began searching, allowing Acro to slip by. Making it to the stairs he slowly ascends up to the second floor. Here the stairs no longer go up, they had smashed out. Perfect.

Rune found herself on the second floor. She quietly approached the door labeled “cafeteria” inside she could hear ponies eating and grunting. However the door was locked from this side. She could rip off the lock but the noise would attract everyone in the building. She figured she would have to find the key, or at least something to pick the lock. Somewhat dejected she headed back to the staircase and read the sign once again. Floor 1 Reception, Floor 2 Cafeteria, Floor 3 Security, Floor 4 Offices, Floor 5 Staff, Floor 6 Wardens Office. She read in her head.

Security should be a good start, if there was a place to find a key. I just hope that it was the guards that locked it and not the prisoners. She sees a beam of light break through some of the rubble. Getting close to the pile she whispers. “Acro?”

“Rune?” he peeks at her through the rubble. "Glad to see you're okay." He talks through their link.

"Yeah likewise, anyway did you happen to find a key?"

"I wasn’t looking but I haven’t found much besides creepy ponies." He looks behind him to make sure the lipless pony isn’t following him.

"Okay, I’m heading upstairs to security."

"Hey are your stairs intact?"

"Mostly, I think I can get up on this rubble."

"Okay, be safe."

"Copy." Rune watched through the hole as Acro vanished into the darkness. Looking up into the hole above her. She wondered what horrid sights waited for her up there. Undaunted and steadfast in her task she climbed up the rubble. Climbing up onto the third floor she was surprised by what she saw. Down the hall a very large pony stood steadfast in front of a large metal door. He had a helmet made of twisted metal, woven and bent right into his head. He was also wearing some very old combat armor. Assuming that this was a pony keeping with a twisted tradition of guarding that door, he had to be removed in order to access the office. She slunk off into a dark corner. Noticing a glint off of the guards belt she looked hard finally seeing several large keys hanging. Perfect. I guess I could just take the keys from him with my magic, No he would look for them. I have to either kill him or incapacitate him. No magic, the light from the cast would tip him off. Damnit.

She spied another pony near a small fire on the other side of the hall. Hmmm. She picked up a chunk of wood. Lets see. She threw the chunk at the pony.

“GAH!” He hollered, “What's the big idea!?” He runs over to the guards pony and gets into his face.

“Leave.” The guards pony says stoically.

“Make me.” The pony growls. They begin to square off. The guards pony drops his head and slams into the pony like bull lifting him up and slamming him into the wall across from him. The pony fell to the ground, dead. In that moment Rune came up behind with a board in her magic. She swung hard into the guard ponies head splintering the board. The guard barely flinched.

“Oh, buck.” She said as he bucked her across the hall.

“You, too.” He mumbled and began to walk slowly towards her.

“Not good.” She looks around for another weapon. Wait, there is no pony left to alert. Her horn lit up grabbing the helmet of her assailant. Time to get those keys. She began to twist in an attempt to break his neck, but he resisted her force. They struggled, their eyes wide struggling against each others force. Seeing an opening she threw his head up, which caught him off guard. His head rolled upward, releasing him from her magic she charged at his exposed chest. Luckily for her the chest piece was missing. Her horn struck him true, piercing his heart. Staggering off her horn he fell back, gave a gasp of surprise and fell over dead. “That’s a new one,” she felt her horn which now hurt immensely. The static fell silent for a moment. She wiped the blood from her horn and collected the keys from the dead guard.

With keys in hoof she opened the security office. Inside were more pony skeletons apparently trapped inside and starved out. Going through the papers and files she came across documents of the facilities last days. “Now why are these still here?” Reports of the evacuation, prisoners and patients unwilling to leave. Strange, you would think they would want to leave. Apparently a cult had quietly rose up among the prisoners. And at the head a prisoner simply called, “Pastor?” She collected the documents, placing them in her pocket. Returning to her search she located a cabinet, producing the guards keys she unlocked it. Inside were more keys, and some ancient weapons. Clearly a old weapon cabinet. With what she assumes is the cafeteria keys safely in grasp she heads back to the door on the second floor.

Luna lands on a balcony far below the bridge. Before her lay the wards, where most of the prisoners were housed. And beyond that, the ancient thermodynamic power facility and her ultimate destination. Rune and Acro got the easy assignments, searching the administration building. Luna got the short straw but she didn't mind, after all this was her mess to a degree. She entered the main ward and was unprepared for what she saw. Before her stretched what looked more like a tribal cave that a prison block. Tattered cloths and skulls hung from the ceiling, fires set in reclaimed waste barrels, and filth everywhere. It reminded her of the tribal Zebras she had met so many years ago, only where they had colorful banners and creative fetishes here hung limbs of dead ponies and filth smeared sheets. There were a fair amount of disfigured ponies in the ward, her hasty count numbered over 60.

“This is not good.” She sunk into a shadow and went invisible. However her invisibility wouldn't prevent them from touching her. She was invisible not immaterial. Making her way down the stairs and into the crowd she noticed a projection crystal many ponies were watching. On the crystal was an old recording of what could only be described as a sermon. The sound was garbled but she could tell it was from a fanatic from before her imprisonment. Recalling him, she remembered that he was held here shortly before she was imprisoned. I bet he started this all those years ago, the sick pony. On her way through the crowd, taking care to not touch anypony, she came across a lone pony sitting quietly reading a very old book. He was mostly intact, many other ponies were disfigured or had pieces missing, were as he was just bald and missing a good chunk of one ear. Her curiosity peaked she leaned down to see the cover of the book he was reading.

Wardens Handbook

Strange, why would he be reading that? She wondered. Regardless I need to get to the power station. She left the stallion to his reading. About halfway across the ward more ponies began huddling around the crystal. Her path mostly clear she reached the doors to the service hallways with relative ease only to find them locked. Ripping them off would do the trick, but then they would rush her. Picking the lock would take a lot of concentration and would risk losing her invisibility. She had to think of a way to open the door without alerting the horde. Behind her the pony with the book approaches the door. She backs away slowly to allow him to get to the door. He stops just shy of the door, produces a key, puts in in the lock, and looks straight at Luna.

“Save us.” He says in a low tone making direct eye contact with the invisible princess. She was startled by the fact that he can apparently see her and he wants her to save them.

I guess a ponies nature will come through regardless where they are raised. And she guessed his talent was perception.“I Will.” She whispers back from the shadows.

“I hope so.” He bowed slightly and returned to where Luna had seen him previously. With a pull from her hoof the door unlocked and swung open. Slipping inside she quietly closed the door behind her. The grey service corridor was filthy, blood streaks and dirt covered the floor. Clearly they dragged bodies and other things through here. The rooms off the hall were mostly empty, vacated service rooms for various tools and supplies. Halfway down the hall a small elevator caked in the filth from the floor waited to be used. Assuming they used this to transport food and other things from the administration building to the wards. But her quarry lied before her. The massive red and yellow stripped door marked she was in the right location. Opening the facility the heat from the machinery meet her harshly. The heart of the facility lay before her, silent, waiting to be restarted.

“Now, I have to find the control panel.” Luna said to herself.