Old Amethyst

He grinned. "That's right, pork patrol... Just back away."

The mare squirmed in the thug's grip. "Please! Let me go! Save me!"

"Shut up, ya dumb bitch or I'll cut ya anyway!"

He couldn't have this happen again. He didn't know if he could survive it.

"Alright, alright. I'll leave...Just...let her go..." He backed up further, giving him plenty of space. He had to do everything to save her. He just had to.

No! Please! I- uugh ath...." Her beautiful voice was silenced just as her life was snuffed out. The blade slid cleanly through her neck, causing blood to run down her neck and onto the floor. The murderer dropped her dying body onto the ground for her to bleed out. She reached out longingly to him in desperation, hoping he could save her life.

Renaultar could hear nothing over the scream of his own voice. He hardly remembered charging at the pony and hitting him full force with his charge, carrying him as far as the wall. Maybe if he was quick he could patch up her neck and she would be alright. So long as this pony was down for the count.

The murderer turned to a dark black smoke and dissipated before Renny could hit him, leaving Renny to charge full on into the wall itself. He took half of the building with him as he barreled out into an alleyway.

Renaultar quickly screeched to a halt and barreled back to the bleeding mare, hoping she was still alive. If so he would immediately try to secure a cloth or something to tie around her neck and try to stop the bleeding, no matter how hopeless it was.

The mare made horrible wheezing sounds. The knife had cut through her wind pipe and was now breathing through the gap the knife had made. Blood from her cut artery covered the floor. She'd be dead within a matter of moments.

Renaultar was streaming tears, repeating over and over again. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." His hooves tried their best to stop the bleeding, but inside he knew she was dead. Once it was over, he collapsed into tears.

Unlike everypony else he had encountered in this twisted world, this pony did not go up in smoke or turn to something much more hideous. No matter how much time Renaultar spent crying over her, she didn't change. She was a warm flesh and blood pony. A pony just barely out of school. And he had let her die in this place of nightmares.

Renaultar wished so terribly much for her to dissapear, anything to help his mind realise it was all a trick of his mind like everything else here. When she did not, he only cried more. It took him a while before he finally picked her head and put her over his back. He took her outside and set her down to begin digging a grave for her. Even if it was all fake, he had to put some of his mind to rest.

No matter how much Renaultar dug, the ground kept refilling itself. Whatever dark thing that controlled this place wouldn't even allow him this small amount of psychological healing.

Renaultar screamed out loud. This place was hellish. He kicked at the ground, beat at it. Tore as much as he could even if it was useless until he gave in. He spent a long time staring at the ground before taking her body over his back again and continuing on.

He was not sure where he was going anymore at this point, but followed the main street forward.

Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure.

She woke up in a bed that she most definitely did not fall asleep in. A bed with sheets of red, though it seemed that it was this colour only recently, for it was wet. And warm. And tasted salty.

Looking at the disembodied head of a stallion that belonged to her past on the pillow next to her, Loyal blinked. It was a situation that seemed hauntingly familiar. Except that she was the one who placed the head before, not the one who woke up with it. And she was pretty sure the stallion in question wasn't dead. She didn't kill him, anyway.

She quickly got out of the blood-soaked resting place and immediately looked for her knives. She found a grand total of...none. Loyal swore at her luck, and looked around the room in general. Rather disconcertingly, there was no door, just a bed (red, with head), a window to the main street, a mirror, and a table with a blank sheet of paper on top.

With nothing else to do, Loyal decided to examine the paper.

After a long time wandering, if he cared to look up, Renaultar would find himself in front of the old police precinct. The front was overgrown with weeds and vines, an arrest wagon sat just outside of its garage with a wheel busted off. The light level started to decrease as the sun began to make way for the night.



The page was initially blank, but charcoal markings began to seep up from the pages. First they showed the head on the bed with gruesome detail, then showed it sitting on top of an altar with two knives flanking a chest. The altar itself was flanked by caskets and urns while a sun pendant hung over one, suggesting the location being either a vault in a graveyard or a crypt beneath a church. One thing that stood out, more so than the altar itself was one large casket with a katana and knife jammed into the top of the lid. Within seconds a plaque was drawn on above it reading: "Here lie Loyal Prudence and Silver Spur. In each other's embrace in death as they never could in life."

Renaultar groaned to himself. The place looked abandoned. This whole town was abandon. Still carrying the dead filly on his back, he trudged over to the door of the precinct and pulled away excess growth. While he was comforted by seeing the place, it was quickly gone due to its condition and the reminder on his back.

He forced the door open once it was free and went inside.

Loyal sucked a breath in, initially surprised. "Damned unicorn trickery..." she grumbled, swatting the paper off the bench. She looked around the still and silent room, and decided to leave.

The window seemed like the most obvious choice. Looking out, it seemed that Celestia's orb was waning under Luna's influence. Not that she minded. Ponies slept during those hours, Loyal loved the power she felt over the other's slumber. Not that there were other ponies, but still.

Loyal then tried to see if leaving the room via the window was possible.

The insides of the station looked no better inside, although it was free of the unnatural plant growth outside. Desks were all turned over, paper work littered the ground. The place was all thoroughly abandoned and in disrepair, except for the chief's office. Inside the desk lamp still burned brightly, holding back the darkness that permeates the rest of the station.



(Don't be afraid of interacting with the scenery, whether it's using a door or breaking a window. If it's locked or invulnerable, I'll do that after the interaction.) The window yielded easily enough. A bit too easily since the glass shattered into the room and out onto the street. However the sound of shards breaking further was not heard as Loyal found herself looking outside of a skyscraper high above the town.

Renaultar was feeling uneasy with the darkness that was beginning to grow. Now that it was obvious how abandon this place was, he realized that he would have to spend the night here in this place before trying to find the city hall and determine what was going on here before getting out. Part of him said to get out now, but he felt wrong leaving here unfinished. The weight on his back brought back a painful reminder of his previous failures.

Renaultar took shelter in the office, finding a chair or sofa for the mare on his back and gently put her down. He silently apologized to her and looked away, unable to stare at her for long.

Observing the room, Renny began to page through the papers and drawers, looking for any documents that gave him clues to what happen here and looked for things he could use.

The documents were fairly standard. A few breaking and enterings, rowdy bar fights, the occasional hospital slippers theft. The only strange thing was the enormous amount of reports filed at night, particularly missing ponies reports.

Banging sounded far back into the station, as if somepony was striking the jail cells with their hooves along with a faint voice. "You can't just lock me in the dark like this!"

"How in Tartarus...?" Loyal began, walking backwards, and glaring around the room. She wondered how she got there, as there seemed to be no obvious passage in or out. She began looking at the walls for any sign of a secret door, examining in particular the mirror. Not breaking it but trying to see if there was anything behind it, or any other abnormalities.

Renaultar looked up, listening to the voice. He hesitated. It sounded like bars. Which made him a likely criminal. What didn't sit well with him was the fact that this place was so overgrown that it didn't make sense that he had been in there long. Or maybe he had....

Renny took one last regretful look at the dead mare before leaving the office, slowly and carefully making his way to the sound. He listened to anything and everything on the way there until he arrived to the source.

None of the walls, nor the mirror yielded any secrets.





Skittering noises were emitted from every corner and shadow. The station was still faintly lit by the setting sun, but night was approaching quick. The pounding at the bars came from a room with a flickering light, about to give out. The pony in question making the noises was a blue pony with a white mane wearing a black cloak.

Renaultar was careful to memorize the way there, noting the distance to each turn. Once he got there and caught sight of the pony, he immediatly dropped his attempts to be silent.

"Blue! What in blazes are you doing here?! How did...." Now Renaultar was really suspicious. As much as he was relieved that Blue was here, he knew there was no reason for him to ever show up here, and considering what has been going on, things were not making sense.

"What are you doing here? Are you alright?"

The relatively short captive pony turned around. However instead of seeing a mustachioed elder pony, the face was free of facial hair and much more rounded and young. And the voice was feminine. "Renaultar?! What in the fling hell am I doing here? What are you doing here for that matter?! But most importantly, where did my balls go?!"

Loyal swore, and kicked over the table. Looking at the floor, she examined the paper again. "He wouldn't have agreed with that, would you, island colt?" she sneered, looking over at the disembodied head, "Too attached to the bit, useless when death unites us all. Pfft." She spat on the piece of paper.

Going to the bed, she removed the blanket, hoping to get a good look at the place she woke up in.