Twilight opened her eyes slowly, only to be greeted with pitch blackness above her. She felt exhausted and dreary, like she had been sleeping all day and only recently got up. She tried to move her limbs, but failed to even feel them, let alone move them. Frustrated at her inability to move, the groggy unicorn sat still and silent while trying to wake herself up more.

Hearing quiet noises around her, and remembering what situation she was in, the purple pony tried once again to move her body. Twilight groaned softly as she tried with all of her might to elicit a response from her numb body, but failed once again. Finally she tried moving her head around to get a better look at her surroundings.

It was difficult to say the least. Trying to move her neck felt like trying to move a limb that had fallen asleep to the point of complete sensory deprivation, but the unicorn slowly managed to move her head to the point where gravity kicked in and rolled her the rest of the way on her side.

She sat still for a moment while letting her eyes adjust. Eventually, Twilight managed to see the fuzzy outlines of faint colors and shapes in the darkness. She couldn’t surmise where she was, but she could see what was in the room in front of her.

The room had grey walls and floors, which from the tiny bit of sensory data the unicorn could gather from her lower body, she knew to be cold. A few miscellaneous boxes and a table sat on the far wall, which Twilight gathered was a decent ways away, giving the impression that the room she was in was rather large in size.

Shifting her eyes around, the purple pony could see several brighter shades of color laying in the darkness. After squinting to focus her vision, Twilight was shocked to see that the shapes belonged to ponies. She could faintly make out Daisychain a short ways away from her, Nurse Redheart off to the side, and the missing stallion Patches over by the left wall.

A mixture of relief and concern welled up in the unicorn as she tried once again in vain to get up and move. She was starting to realize that it wasn’t just sleep paralysis keeping her from moving her body. It was something outside of the purple pony’s control.

Before Twilight could think any further about the strange paralysis, she heard Daisychain moan softly as she started to move her head. She seemed to be in the same condition that the unicorn was. The yellow nurse slowly rolled her head over and looked around before finally noticing Twilight.

“T…Twi…light?” Daisychain struggled to even get out a barely audible whisper across to the unicorn. Twilight was relieved to see that the nurse had been unharmed.

“Da..isy?” Twilight was surprised to find out that she was having problems speaking as well. It was almost like she was having a nightmare, and her voice couldn’t even leave her throat. The two stared at each other for a while, expressing their terror through their eyes due to the muscles in their faces being frozen in a blank expression.

“Wh….w..w” Daisy struggled to raise her voice loud enough to be heard. Twilight surmised that she was asking what was going on, but she wouldn’t have been able to answer her even if the yellow mare had finished her question.

Suddenly, a loud noise pierced through the eerie silence of the room. The two ponies tried to lift their heads to look towards the noise, but failed to do anything more than shift their eyes to the limit of their vision.

The noise sounded like a door being opened and closed forcefully somewhere off in the distance. The quiet shuffling of feet started growing louder as something approached the room they were in. Twilight tried her best to communicate through her eyes to the pony lying in front of her, but couldn’t do much more than share a frightened stare with the nurse.

Finally, the source of the walking made itself known to the two mares. One of the dark figures was standing at Daisy’s feet and watching her menacingly. Twilight had a better view of the creature than Daisy had. The only thing the nurse could see of the figure was a fuzzy outline as she strained her eyes to their limit to see beside her.

The creature suddenly bent forward and reached out to grab the hapless pony. Twilight could only watch in horror as the shadow roughly flipped the limp mare’s head around to see it as it held her upper body off of the floor by her shirt.

Daisy squeaked in pain as her neck hung backwards at an odd, uncomfortable angle after settling from her head rolling sideways. She stared up at the creature with pupils the size of tiny dots. The terrified mare started gasping for air as her paralyzed chest muscles struggled to pump her lungs fast enough to supply her frightened body.

“Ah…eh….pu…” Daisy mumbled fearfully as she tried to communicate to the creature for it to leave her alone. The shadow ignored the barely audible protests of the nurse as it pulled her closer to its face. Twilight could only stare helplessly as a strange yet horrifying scene unfolded before her.

Strange wispy lines began coming off of Daisychain and flowed upward into the general area of the creature’s mouth. The pale, dimly luminescent lines reminded Twilight of dust flowing in front of a flashlight.

Daisy squeaked in pain and agony, which due to her paralysis sounded like the mumbled groaning of a pony making noises in their sleep due to a bad dream. The yellow nurse twitched and jerked whatever bits of her body that she could feel as she writhed from the sheer distress of the sensation washing over her.

Suddenly, the croaks and groans of the yellow mare grew less prominent. It sounded like the nurse was slowly drifting out of consciousness. Twilight could barely see Daisy’s eyes droop up to stare at the ceiling rather than the creature. Her pupils slowly rolled upwards as her eyelids drifted shut. The strange wisps ceased and the mare was silent. The creature let go of the pony, causing her limp body to thud against the floor. Daisy’s head rolled sideways and settled, leaving her facing Twilight.

“…!” Twilight could only express her horror internally as she stared at the nurse’s motionless body. Not much had changed from her previous state, she was paralyzed after all. But what filled the unicorn with dread and terror was the fact that she couldn’t see the subtle rise and fall of the yellow mare’s chest to indicate that she was breathing.

The creature walked off to the side and picked up Nurse Redheart. The white nurse seemed to still be unconscious as her eyes remained closed. Suddenly, the sleeping pony woke up in a panic as she noticed her body was being lifted up. She darted her eyes around fearfully before finally spotting the menacing shadow holding her up.

The same wispy lines from before started flowing from Redheart straight into the figure’s face. Twilight’s mind raced a mile a minute as she processed everything that was happening. She knew that she was going to die here, she knew it in her heart. All that she could think about was her young assistant.

She wondered if the creatures would come after them next and do to them what they were currently doing to Nurse Redheart. She wondered if Tom and Rainbow Dash had broken free from the mysterious creatures and had already found the two children. She wondered how Spike would react if he found her cold and dead on the floor.

“N…n…no!” Twilight managed to form an average sounding word through her numb throat. The unicorn refused to let the young dragon down like that. She had promised him that she would take better care of herself, and that meant surviving this day.

Searching deep within herself, Twilight found the strength to channel a minute amount of energy to her horn. She struggled to get the feeling back to her horn so she could do something, anything to save herself and possibly the other ponies in the room.

Although she couldn’t manage to channel enough energy to project light from her horn as she had done so many times before. The unicorn did manage to think of a different spell to use that required less start up energy.

Twilight fought the lack of feeling in her muscles to lift her head up slightly. She pointed her horn the best she could to aim at the creature, and she shot out a bolt of energy that was as strong as she could muster.

The beam flew in what seemed like slow motion towards the creature. It made impact dead in the center of the figure. The monster shrieked in pain and dropped the nurse to the floor. It writhed around in pain for a while before rushing backwards to get away. After a few short moments, Twilight could no longer hear the creature.

The purple unicorn was surprised to feel that she had regained sensation in her body completely. She immediately got up and lit her horn up to get a better look at the room. Spotting Nurse Redheart a short ways away, the purple pony sprang into action and rushed to her side.

The white mare groaned weakly and moved her head and legs around. Twilight could tell that she was hurt somehow by the creature. The unicorn knelt down and lifted the nurse’s head up gently to hold her at a stable level.

“Nurse Redheart! Are you okay?!” Twilight asked frantically while examining the white mare for any physical injuries. Redheart groggily opened her eyes and looked at the unicorn with an exhausted expression. She then winced in pain and shook her head weakly.

“I’m fine for the moment… just really weak… ughh… Where’s Daisy?” The white mare asked sleepily as she remembered that her friend had been with the unicorn. Twilight looked over to the motionless yellow mare with a concerned frown.

“I’ll go check on her and Patches… you stay here and don’t move ok?” Twilight said while gently placing the white nurse down. Redheart nodded slowly before resting her head on the hard floor beneath her.

Twilight rushed over to Daisychain with a growing pit in her stomach. She put her arms around the mare’s back and lifted her upper body up gently. Daisy’s head rolled over limply before the unicorn put an arm under her neck to support her.

Twilight had hoped that her previous observation of the yellow nurse’s lack of breathing was just due to the lack of light. But much to her horror, she discovered that the yellow pony was in fact not breathing. She quickly put her head to Daisy’s chest to listen for her heart.

“….No…” The unicorn spoke anxiously as she failed to hear any noise to indicate that the nurse’s heart was beating. She feverishly grabbed the mare’s limp arm and felt for a pulse. Failing to feel anything on her arm, Twilight instinctively felt the nurse’s neck as a last ditch effort.

“No...! No, no, no! Daisy, wake up please!” Twilight pleaded while shaking the motionless pony to jolt her awake. The sight of Daisy’s limp body settling in place after it had stopped shaking made her heart drop to the floor.

She could feel a horrific sense of despair washing over her body. Tears began forming in her eyes as her mind refused to accept what was in front of her. Daisychain had been chatting happily with the unicorn just half an hour ago, but now she was dead, and it was Twilight’s fault. If she had only realized the situation earlier, and fought to save the yellow mare, she might still be alive.

Setting the mare’s body down gently, Twilight got up and walked over to the corner to examine Patches. She found him in the same condition that Daisy was in. Putting a hoof on his arm to check his pulse, the unicorn confirmed that he had also been killed by the creatures.

“I’m so sorry…” Twilight spoke sadly to herself. Although she knew in her heart that she was not truly at fault for their deaths, she couldn’t help but feel responsible in some way. Perhaps as a twisted defense mechanism to prevent her from dealing with death that happened without a just cause.

The unicorn walked back over to the only surviving member of staff at the hospital with her head hung gloomily. She didn’t know how she would tell the white mare that her friends were dead. Despite her intense desire to crawl under a rock and forget the events of the day, Twilight walked up to the resting nurse and sat down next to her.

“Twilight… you’re back.” Redheart stated happily while breathing heavily, as if to catch her breath. Noticing the unicorn’s sad expression, the white mare felt a pang of dread fill her stomach. “Are Daisy and Patches… alright?” She asked with a dull voice, even though she could already guess the answer. Twilight shook her head sadly while letting a few tears stream down her face.

“They… they didn’t make it.” Twilight sniffled sadly while looking away from the white mare. Redheart closed her eyes and leaned her head back onto the floor. Twilight could hear the nurse weeping quietly. She turned her head to see Redheart crying her eyes out silently while lying on the floor.

“I’m sorry that I couldn’t save them… it’s all my fault.” The unicorn droned in a depressed tone of voice while looking away to cry herself. She suddenly heard the nurse struggling with something. Twilight turned to see Redheart groaning as she ignored her exhausted body to get up to face the unicorn.

“Don’t beat yourself up Twilight… you saved me after all.” The white mare shifted her sad voice to a more thankful one while putting a hoof on the purple pony’s shoulder. “If you hadn’t stopped that thing, it would have killed me for sure. I could feel it sucking out my energy, but I couldn’t even move enough to scream.” She shuddered as she recalled the cold feeling of the creature draining her life force straight out of her.

“Are you alright? We should probably get back to the lobby, but if you’re hurt…” Twilight asked while looking at the exhausted mare with concern. Redheart got to her feet and wobbled a little as she stood up. As the nurse faltered while trying to walk, the unicorn caught her and helped to support her weight.

“I’m so weak… I can barely move.” Redheart groaned as she struggled to stay upright, even with the help of the purple pony.

“Don’t worry… I’ve got you. Just try not to over exert yourself ok?” Twilight said while shuffling forward with the nurse in tow. Once they made it to the empty doorway of the large room, the two gave one last somber look to their fallen companions. They then looked at each other and slowly nodded with the resolve that they wouldn’t allow anyone else to be harmed.

As the pair slowly walked through the dark hallways, Twilight was at a loss as to where they were going. The surroundings didn’t even look like they were still in the hospital at all. With bleak looking grey walls and hard, cold floors as far as the eye could see.

“Where are we? Do you recognize anything?” Twilight asked the white mare beside her. Redheart lifted her head up from its resting position to look at their surroundings. After taking a moment to think, she turned to the unicorn to state her findings.

“Looks like we’re in the basement… The stairs should be easy enough to find if you stick to this hallway.” Redheart explained before drooping her head back down to conserve energy. Twilight was concerned that the nurse was in worse shape than she was letting on, but nodded and looked forward to search for the stairs.

After an eternity of slowly shuffling through the dark corridors in fearful apprehension, a large door with a placard beside it that read stairs came into view. The unicorn could barely contain her excitement as she poked her companion to alert her to their good fortune. Redheart looked up to see what the unicorn was pointing at, when her face suddenly lit up with joy and relief.

“Thank Celestia…” The nurse huffed gleefully before yanking herself away from the surprised unicorn. Twilight looked at her with concern as she unsteadily stood by herself.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to help you walk Redheart? You look like you’re about to pass out.” Twilight eyed the nurse with a frown of doubt and worry plastered on her face.

“Oh come on Twilight… I’m perfectly fine.” Redheart grinned widely to convince her friend that she was well enough to walk on her own. Twilight raised an eyebrow doubtfully as she watched the nurse teeter around like a newborn fawn trying to walk for the first time. She then decided to keep a careful eye on the white mare to make sure she didn’t fall over.

The two walked as quickly as they could over to the stairs and opened the door. Twilight was relieved to walk out into the basement landing and stare up to the railing that was on the first floor. She felt like she could take on an entire army of those creatures as long as it meant she could get out of the dark and into the light.

The unicorn walked up the stairs a short way before remembering her handicapped companion. She then turned around to see Redheart struggling to walk up the stairs to keep up.

“You alright to climb the stairs alone?” Twilight asked as she observed the nurse breathing heavily while climbing a single step. The white pony looked up and smiled as she panted heavily.

“Don’t worry about me… I’ll be fine once we get somewhere we can rest.” Redheart spoke with a slightly cheerful tone. Twilight was happy to see that the nurse was so chipper.

Without any further delay, the unicorn walked up the steps to survey the area. She looked behind her to see if the nurse was climbing the stairs without issue, only to see her companion following close behind, or at least as close as she could, given her state of health.

“AHH!” As the unicorn turned her head to continue walking forward, she heard the nurse cry out in surprise. Twilight whipped her head back around to see that Redheart was clinging to the railing of the stairs as her back legs were being pulled by one of the creatures.

“Oh no you don’t!” The purple mare exclaimed as she leapt forward bravely to save her friend. She grabbed onto the frightened nurse and pulled back hard to counter the force put onto her by the creature. As she looked ahead to spot the creature, Twilight was surprised to see that she could actually spot the creature. The light from her horn fell on the hooded monster completely. It didn’t seem to care about the light at all as it stared back at the unicorn with a scornful expression on its pale face.

“What?! Why isn’t it running away from the light?!” Twilight exclaimed in a mixture of panic and confusion. Nurse Redheart looked up to her fearfully. She could feel herself being wrenched out of the unicorn’s grasp more and more every passing second.

“Do that thing you did to get it off me before!” The white mare yelled frantically as she felt herself being slowly pulled closer to the frightful beast. Twilight wasted no time on questioning why the light wasn’t working. She charged up her horn and shot another blast at the creature. The bolt of energy collided with the monster and exploded into an array of purple sparks

The figure immediately let go of the nurse and recoiled back into the shadows. The two ponies stared at the blackness ahead of them and waited for it to return. Satisfied that the creature was gone, Twilight pulled Nurse Redheart to her feet and yanked her up the stairs.

“Come on… we’re getting out of here, now!” The purple mare stated with a stern tone of voice as she didn’t even give the nurse a chance to protest the help she was getting. Redheart didn’t seem to mind the extra help as she rushed up the stairs with the unicorn pulling her along.

The two rushed up to the first floor landing and made it out of the door. Knowing that the creatures were no longer affected by light gave the ponies a new sense of fear and urgency as they walked through the halls. Twilight looked behind her every so often to ensure that they were not being followed by one of the shadowy figures.

As they got closer to the lobby, the unicorn’s mind raced as she thought about every possible thing that could prevent them from reaching the safe confines of the front room. Every corner they passed gave the purple pony a miniature heart attack as her nerves kicked into gear to prepare her body to run away from any possible hazards.

Finally, the familiar bastion of the main hallway that led into the lobby came into view. It was hard to tell due to the lack of light filtering in from the entrance, but the faint blue force field served as a un-miss able landmark that shined like a beacon to the two ponies.

Without wasting any time by standing idly outside of the protective barrier, Twilight and Redheart burst through the non-solid wall and into the brightly lit lobby. They immediately noticed Applejack and Scootaloo sitting together off in the corner. Once the pair noticed the two ponies entering the room, they got up from the floor and displayed cheerful smiles on their faces.

“Twilight!” Both the orange mare and the young filly screamed gleefully in unison as they rushed over to greet the pair. Twilight gently let Nurse Redheart shift onto her own four legs and prepared herself to catch the two charging ponies in a hug. The two practically crashed into the purple unicorn and held her tightly, as if they were afraid that she might disappear again if they let go.

After finally being released from the almost suffocating grip of the two excited ponies, Twilight smiled cheerfully at her two friends. She almost couldn’t believe that she was standing in front of them, considering that she had been forcefully dragged off into the darkness earlier.

“I’m so happy to see you guys! I thought I would never make it back here again!” The unicorn wiped a joyful tear from her eye as she beamed at the two in front of her. They seemed to share in her overwhelming happiness as they also had tears of joy welling up in their eyes.

“We thought we would never see you again Twilight! Don’t ever scare us like that again!” Applejack playfully chided the unicorn while putting a hoof on her shoulder to assure that she was really there.

“What happened to you anyway? Where did they take you?” Scootaloo asked with nervous curiosity brimming in her face. If the unicorn hadn’t sacrificed herself the way she did, then the filly might have been dragged away along with her.

Twilight frowned slightly as she instinctively thought about where she had been taken due to the question. She wondered how she could tell them about Daisychain and Patches, if she could even tell them.

“They brought me down to the basement. That’s where I found Nurse Redheart and…” Twilight paused briefly as she struggled to think of what to say. Applejack could already tell that the unicorn knew something that she didn’t want to tell out loud.

“Did you find Spike? What about Tom and Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo asked with a hopeful gleam in her eyes. Twilight was slightly relieved to have the conversation derailed. She shook her head somberly as she thought about what the others must be going through.

“Sorry, but we didn’t see them down there. Maybe they got taken upstairs or something…” Twilight explained with a sympathetic frown. Scootaloo started to ask another question, when Nurse Redheart suddenly waved her over.

“Scootaloo… could you be a dearie and help me up? I don’t feel very good right now.” The white mare asked with a polite smile while glancing to Twilight knowingly. The unicorn was relieved to not have to inform the filly about the horrible things that happened downstairs.

“Ok… I’m coming!” Scootaloo chimed, ever eager to help out a pony in need. She then ran over to the other side of the room to assist the fallen nurse. Twilight had to admire the innocent nature of the orange pegasus. She might have been the most likely to cause trouble out of all the crusaders, but she had a heart of gold once you got to know her.

Once the filly had left, Twilight glanced back over to Applejack to see her displaying a concerned frown. The unicorn sighed as she realized that the farm pony must have read her like a book. The orange mare placed a loving hoof on the unicorn’s shoulder to console her.

“Twilight… what happened?” Applejack asked in a soft voice, both to comfort the gloomy unicorn, and to prevent the filly across the room from hearing. Twilight looked away sadly to avoid eye contact with the concerned farm pony.

“We… we found Diasychain and Patches down there as well.” The unicorn spoke with a dull, somber sort of tone. “The creatures must have paralyzed us somehow, because none of us could move very much. I was forced to watch one of those things…” Twilight noticed that she was involuntarily tearing up as she recalled the traumatic experience. Applejack gave her a moment to gather herself before continuing.

“They killed Daisy and Patches…” The unicorn finally managed to say with a trembling voice. Applejack gasped and put a hoof up to her mouth in shock. She knew that the creatures were dangerous, but she could never have imagined something so terrible happening to anyone.

“They almost killed Redheart too… but I managed to fend them off with my magic…” Twilight sniffled quietly and looked down. “I just wish that I could have at least saved Daisy… Patches was gone before I even woke up, but Daisy was right there!” The purple pony’s voice started giving out as she became even more upset.

The sniffling unicorn suddenly felt her friend put a hoof on her shoulder again. She looked over to see that the orange pony had tears in her eyes as well. Twilight had forgotten that Applebloom was also lost in the hospital. She knew that the yellow filly meant as much to Applejack as Spike meant to her, if not more.

“Twilight… that sounds horrible! Ah’m so sorry you had to sit through something like that…” Applejack wiped the tears from her eyes before continuing. “Listen… what happened to Daisy was not your fault.” The orange mare stated sympathetically. For the unicorn, hearing the farm pony trying to comfort her was void of the weight it normally would carry.

“But I…” Twilight stammered with a guilty frown on her face. Applejack gave her a sympathetic frown before stopping her mid-sentence.

“Ah don’t care what you did or didn’t do sugar cube. You were scared… you were even paralyzed fer crying out loud. You had no way of knowing what was going on. The fact that you saved yourself and Redheart is enough to be thankful for.” Applejack said with a brief smile on her face. “We would be devastated if you got hurt… Think of how poor Spike would feel if you wound up dead.” The orange mare’s speech suddenly reminded Twilight of what she was doing before.

“We need to find the others… but we need to go get help first.” The unicorn stated while getting up to walk over to the front doors. Just as she grabbed the handle to try to open it, she was stopped by Applejack holding her back gently.

“Don’t waste your strength. We tried that a little while after you got pulled away. The dern thing won’t budge.” Applejack said gloomily. Twilight figured that something would prevent them from leaving, but actually hearing that they were trapped made her heart sink.

“So… we’re stuck in here?” Twilight asked with anxious fear and dread on her face. Applejack nodded sadly before sighing.

“We’re never getting out of this stupid hospital are we?” The unicorn asked rhetorically as she slid to the floor and buried her head into her arms. Suddenly, an unexpected noise made the sullen purple pony lift her head up curiously.

The sound of muffled speech and walking softly bled through from outside the front door. It sounded like there were several different voices just outside the door. Twilight got up from her seated position and joined Applejack in curiously listening to the noise.

It was hard to see out of the window beside the door due to only sunlight being able to get in, but there were definitely ponies moving around and talking out there. Before they could think of what to do with this new discovery, another odd occurrence made them back away from the door.

A beam of blue light projected from the seam of the door and slowly traveled down the length of the wooden frame. A soft buzzing noise was also coming from the source of the light, as if someone were using a blowtorch on the door.

Once the light reached the bottom of the door, the ponies were surprised to see the door fly open forcefully. On top of the door flying open, several ponies flooded into the newly open lobby. Five ponies in total walked up to the group of wide eyed observers.

All of the strange ponies were wearing almost identical uniforms consisting of black and blue tactical vests with various straps and pockets that held what Twilight could sparsely identify as magical supplies, among other things.

A white stallion with grey hair stepped in front of the others and looked around at the three ponies and single filly. He then settled his eyes on Twilight and spoke up with a deep voice.

“Twilight Sparkle I presume?” The stallion asked curiously. He tried to sound friendly to counter his tough looking exterior. Twilight was still trying to process the fact that she was now talking to someone that had just waltzed in from the outside.

“Y-yeah… Who are you?” The unicorn asked timidly as she examined the strange group. The stallion looked around to his companions before settling his eyes back on the four confused ponies and smiling.

“We’re here to help.” He stated in an earnest and sincere tone.