I’m genuinely feeling in a good mood right now. That means I won’t be continuing this story for some time because my motivation comes from my depression. I don’t know if people actually read my stories. Though I do see that some people have the heart to upvote this. Thank you, whoever you are. To the people who downvoted, I thank you as well. For giving the time to notice this horrid pixelated art.

Part 3 here we go.

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For two nights, he wandered the dark halls. Alone and void. His mind going blank whenever he looked at the darkness directly. Lost in thought, he barely heard the loud thumps near him. At first he thought it was in his head again. Not even a week after leaving the mare he was already going crazy. However, this wasn’t the case and the thumps did not go away.

Half of him wanted to head towards the direction of the sound. There might be another pony alone in the dark like he is. Maybe they could meet up. Another half of him told him to be cautious, it might be the mare he left behind and he didn’t want to have another reunion. He shuddered at the thought of seeing her relieved by finding him. No, he must stay away. He refused to hurt her again.

Even though he scolded himself, he was curious who was near him. He guessed where the pony is and set out in its general direction. The lantern he held in his mouth gave off little light to help him. At some point, he bumped into a wall in haste. He shook his head and after realizing he gave off his position stood still. However, the pony kept moving. He sighed then continued walking closer to it.

He could hear the hoofsteps right in front of him but he couldn’t see anything. Not a single light from a lantern or a shadow of a pony. Maybe the pony was holding a lantern like his but dimmer. He cautiously crept up to the source of the sound. Though he knew nothing could hurt him while he’s in here, he couldn’t help but feel weirded out. He kept his distance when he thought he was hooves away from the pony and tailgated.

The pony’s hoofsteps were slowing down then soon it stopped all together. The stallion was met with silence yet again until he heard something fall in front of him. Was it the pony? He walked forward, the lantern emitting what dim light it could. His foreleg hit something heavy and he lowered his lantern to see it better.

He found the pony alright, but why does it look like it’s darkening? Why is the pony getting colder each passing second? He walked around the pony to look at his face. The pony’s snout was longer and squarish. It was a stallion like him. His eyes were closed. His mane, like his body, was changing color. It was a slow process but it looked like sooner or later the stranger would fully turn black.

But is he turning monochrome, or is he disappearing? The dim light doesn’t help him in the slightest. He intended to know what would happen and sat by the stallion. On the way, his foreleg stepped on something and he shivered on contact. The object created a cracking sound and he stopped in his tracks. Setting the lantern down, he investigated the object.

It was a lantern. Most likely the stranger’s lantern but this lantern was far different from the other lanterns he saw or used. First, there was no flame in it. Second, the lantern’s glass was cracked and the air can enter and exit the light container with no problem. There were glass shards inside the cracked lantern. It was weird seeing no light coming from it. What’s also weird was that he wanted to get far away from it as soon as possible but he fought the feeling back.

Instead of fleeing the premises, he sat on the other side of the pony. The unlit lantern away from his line of sight. He looked into the darkness with no interest of moving out. Soon enough, he felt sleepy. The sounds of silence eased him to sleep.

The next night, he woke to nopony near him. Wherever the pony was, he was gone but not his lantern stayed behind. Broken and cold to touch. The stallion didn’t want to bring it with him but instead he took one last glance at it and walked away. Who was this mysterious pony? He shook his head. He’ll never get answers staying in one spot.

He picked a random direction and walked forward. Careful not to bump into another wall.

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