Truly Evil?

As the barricading boards were stripped from the front of the door, the thudding against it got more intense and door buckled more. Cracks steadily began to form in the wood that made it up and very soon it became apparent that the door wasn't going to survive at this point forward.

"I don't know about the two of you, but that sounds violent enough that I'm not willing to assume there's anything innocent behind that door." Ician advanced towards the buckling door and drew out his sword. His snake went slithering back into his cloak. "Stand back, everyone!" As soon as the others were definitely clear, he plunged his sword through the door, hopefully impaling anyone behind it. Of course, he didn't keep his hopes high on that count. "You two had best prepare for whatever's coming through here. Because I put it at a ninety percent chance that whatever it is will either try to kill us or be something so far out of left field that we will never see it coming."

He himself made sure to stand a little ways away from the door, letting his magic to the work of controlling his sword.

Dusk kept his sword out and stood beside Ician. He hoped that stab through the door killed what was behind it, but he wasn't too hopeful about that.

The sword was driven into the door, and the sound of it hitting something on the other side was nearly audible over the creaking and cracking the older wood was making. There wasn't however any other noise added, no cry of pain or surprise, no gurgling sounds of the wounded. Instead, the sword, which only about 3/4 of the blade had gone through the door, was suddenly pulled to the point where the guard was banging against the wood. This new metallic clang simply became added to the steady, almost rhythmic banging against the weakening door, which several more much larger cracks and splinters could be seen forming. From these openings, another foul odor seeped out, one of rot and the grave.

Dusk covered his nose with a hoof when he caught the first whiff of what was behind that door. He recognized the scent of death and decay, but whatever was behind that door certainly wasn't dead. Or, worst of all, was no longer dead.

Don't tell me he dabbled in necromancy, he said to himself. He raised his sword higher so he could slay what was behind the door better, if it was what he feared it was.

June was watching the scene intently, up to the point where the cracks formed and the smell escaped. Once that happened, she divided her focus between not throwing up and getting her mask. She pulled it from the backpack and strapped it over her muzzle. As she tried to get her breath back, she idly noted that this was the most use she had gotten out of the mask in years. Stupid dark magician.

With her breathing regular and the smell blocked, June turned her attention back to the door.

"Tch. I should have guessed, really." Ician backed away further from the door, testing the hilt of his sword with his magic to see if he was still able to pull it out. His telekinesis was fairly strong, certainly beyond that of an average unicorn, but whatever was behind that door probably wasn't anything normal. It was times like this that he wished he had a good powerful fireball spell he could throw at his troubles. That would probably be more useful than a sword.

He backed away to at least three metres away, then drew out one of his knives from his cloak and levelled it at the door, ready to defend himself.

Ician's sword wouldn't be hard to remove as the grip had very little strength to it. The door however wasn't lasting much longer and with a few more large splintering cracks, the old wood shattered under the weight of what was on the other side. Yet curiously enough, that seemed to be the end of it as the skeletal figures that spilled out once the door was destroyed came apart and made just a pile of bones on the wooden remains.

"Heh, you lot finally managed to break it down? Well it's abo... who the heck are you three?" A voice asked from the dark interior. It had a slightly wheezing, airy quality to it, yet the speaker didn't sound the least bit winded with what he was saying.

June gave a slight wave. "Well, my name is June. These are Ician and Dusk." A pause. "Who were you expecting? Also, what can we call you?"

Ugh, we don't even know who this pony is and she's introducing ourselves to him. ...Oh well, nothing we can do about it now, Dusk thought. He figured he might as well try to be friendly, since he certainly wasn't aggressive. "As June said, I'm Dusk. Would you mind telling us your name?"

Ician stared blankly at the darkness beyond, reaching his hoof up to his head and pulling his hood down over his face. He almost groaned aloud when June gave away their names just like that, but he managed to hold it in. He finally adopted a low, gravelly voice quite unlike his usual tone as he muttered, "And I'm Ician. Pleased to meet you... whoever you are." He kept his sword near the door but hidden behind the doorframe now, so it wouldn't be immediately visible from within the room. he doubted it would do very much though, considering whoever it was probably just saw him drive the sword through the door earlier.

"I'm with the princess's investigative squad," said a rather calm and knowledgeable but slightly anxious sounding voice as it's bearer stepped forward. The plain grey stallion had a business like smile on his face and disturbingly calm eyes considering he just came from a room where skeleton's had been breaking down the door. His well trimmed, short black mane was slicked back, though the majority of his body as well as his cutie mark was obscured by the pin stripe suit he was wearing. Obviously, this wasn't Sin Ester.

As he stepped forward, the stallion cast a glance at the skeletons and 'tsked' before addressing the other three ponies again. "Terrible shame what happened to them, let's hope it doesn't happen to any of you. I'd hate to have to come back to this mad house after all. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go make my report," he continued moving to step past the group. Though he paused once at the door leading into the kitchen. "Oh, and I'd check the door on the left in there," the still nameless stallion added before exiting the hallway and shutting the door behind him.

As Dusk saw the stallion leave through a door, he then thought, I have to wonder how long he's been here. Did he come in before we did, or afterwards? He knew that question was unanswerable, so he soon asked the others, "Should we go back into the kitchen and go through the door he recommended?" He personally thought it would be a good choice.

June shrugged. She had wanted to keep talking to the stallion, but there wasn't much chance of that now. The door he'd gone through had probably changed. She eyed it curiously. "I say we check that door. But first things first, who was that?" She moved to the door that the stallion had gone into, and opened it to look inside.

Ician rolled his eyes as the stallion left. "Great, just great. We probably should have held that door open." He paused as the others said their pieces. "June's right, whatever magic this place has probably already changed that door. I, for one, think that's it's terribly suspicious that someone like that could just show up here out of the blue, and from in a room filled with corpses no less."

He turned around. "Alright, we'd best just look through that door anyway. And the kitchen one is our only lead, so we may as well look in, even if it's a trap. I got the trap checker. The two of you... try to stay as far back as you can." Ician progressed towards the door that the mysterious stallion had indicated and, opening it, scrambled backwards and threw his trap-checking book into whatever lay beyond.

As June opened the door the mystery stallion had gone through, which had led to the kitchen just before it'd been shut, she'd be greeted with about 3 coats and a few sets of shoes. The small room appeared to be a closet of some sort, though the things inside were rather nice and expensive.

The door the stallion had indicated seemed to have been inside the room he'd come from and as Ician threw open the door (which I think is the only one currently unopened) he'd be bathed in a ooze like green light. The trap checking book hit the ground and slid a short ways, but otherwise didn't nothing else. The inside of the room itself however was a sight to behold. Some rather advanced looking machines intermingled with complex magic at various spots around the space. The center piece however seemed to be the 3 large, test tube like containers in the center of the room. Each of which had several hoses and pipes going to them from the machines.

One glass tube was completely shattered, it's contents long gone and having left no trace of what it was. Another of the tubes seemed to be covered in a metal shell, possibly some kind of containment measure which had managed to hold given it's several large dents, but no breaks in it's surface. The last tube however seemed to be the most intact and active. Inside, a glowing green liquid filled the container and submerged in it was a pony. His features were a little distorted within the liquid but it was clearly a pony and he seemed to be unharmed. The machines hooked up to his tube were the only ones that still buzzed with activity.

"I... am highly, highly suspicious of this." Ician advanced into the room with extreme caution and slowness, his eyes darting around the room in case something jumped out and attacked him, which to be honest he was expecting to happen at any moment. His sword hovered in a slow orbit around him, poised to make an immediate defense manouevre in case anything happened.

He moved slowly through the room, past all the machinery, and towards the tube containing the pony. He figured it could have been a ploy to distract him, though, so he kept looking around anyway, and pretty much everywhere except the tube, up until the point when he reached it.

He began to survey the surrounding machinery hooked up to the tube, and also the tube itself. he scrutinised the pony's face, trying to see if he could recognise him. At the same time, he called out loudly to the others and said, "... you two might want to see this. Maybe you might know more about it than I do."

June closed the closet door, and went over to where Ician was. She looked around the room at the machinery, trying to discern its purpose. She had a fair amount of experience with biology, which did seem to be what this room was about. Once she had looked, she loosened the mask slightly, sniffing the air. Of course, she kept it ready to put right back on. Just in case there was something strong.

Dusk soon followed June into the room. He first noticed the tubes, and the pony in the last tube had his full attention. "What in the world has Sin Ester been doing here?" he said aloud. He soon remembered that his sword was still out, and he sheathed it.

The pony in the tube didn't look familiar to Ician, nor would he to either June or Dusk. The pony was simply suspended in the tube, and aside from the occasional twitch, he didn't move. Upon closer inspection, it would seem that the pony had an almost crystal like mane similar in nature to a crystal pony, but again the thick liquid obscured most of the other details.

June's sense of smell wouldn't bring up anything hazardous, though the room did smell a little musty. Though her examination of the machinery, and shortly afterwards Ician's combined efforts, it would seem that the majority of these machines were life support, bio-examination, and genetic modification based. The ones connected to the broken tube seemed either damaged, destroyed, or just turned off. The ones connected to the metal cased tube seemed on lock down with red warning still flashing on the screens. Lastly, some of the machines hooked up to the tube containing the pony were still active, primarily the ones related to life support showing that the pony was in fact alive inside the tube. Another machine connected to the pony containing tube had a list of actions it could take, listing 'Extraction', 'Duplication', 'Combination', 'Re-Insertion', and 'Release'.

June gave a small smile. Biology was her department, and this room was right up her metaphorical alley. Well, it would be, if she could figure out what they were trying to accomplish. This room could be either for research or production, one of which she had more experience with. She tucked her mask away into a more accessible pocket, and started searching around the room more closely, trying to find some notes that could describe what they hoped to do with the pony. Or anything interesting, really.

It didn't help much that she really, really wanted to try out some of the machines. She suppressed the urge, for now.

"A crystal pony...?" Ician muttered quietly to himself as he took a step back. All this technology, all this... strangeness unnerved him to no end. The buttons which listed out the actions they could take unnerved him even further. He knew some amount of magic, though his casting ability was limited, and magic certainly wasn't anything very strange to him. But this was something he'd never seen before, and he wasn't nearly familiar enough with it to render any judgements. That already set off a whole host of alarm bells in his head. Specifically, the loudest one was screaming Don't touch anything.

He backed away from the machine. If nothing else, he could at least classify this room as a point of interest for an investigation team, presuming that the stallion earlier was lying. Which he probably was, but Ician decided not to dwell on it. He decided his objective was to secure the place.

He turned to the others. "I'll keep guard. If any of you figure out how this is supposed to work, tell me."

Dusk soon turned his attention to other place in the room, and like June, he was hoping to find something that could tell them who the pony in the tube was, and learn more about the experiments that went on.

The sealed off tube made him nervous. Obviously whatever was in that tube was deemed to be too dangerous. If all three tubes contained similar specimens, one was likely loose in the mansion, and the other was just waiting to be woken up.

There were no papers, documents, or seemingly any record of the pony in the tube. Study of the machines however would reveal that these would be used in stasis and genetic experimentation. The machines connected to the tube the pony was in specifically seemed more on genetic extraction and examination. Some of the other machines seemed more inclined towards splicing and other activities, but these were dark with inactivity. Inside the tube however, the pony twitched.

The pony's eyes snapped open and he let out a muffled scream. He glanced around, attempting to see anything outside the tube.

His recollection of how he got here was fuzzy, but he heard voices outside. He moved closer to the glass and tapped it, thinking he could get somepony's attention.