The rest of the night had been silent. Nopony dared speak after Pageturner died. Cherrycloud kept her brow furrowed, as she thought over all she had learned in the two days she was allowed to train. Terry was checking through the bags another time, his horn still letting off magic sparks every so often. Moon and Ember sat near the entrance, wrapping themselves in one of the blankets. Blaze was pacing in the back of the cave. Cherry soon found her eyes drooping, and she layed down, letting her eyes close, welcoming dreams. The last thing she saw was Ember Blaze turning around and giving her a small smile.

Cherry woke with a start. She looked around her, and sighed once seeing everything was normal. Ember, Moon, and Blaze were in thhe back of the cave sleeping, while Terry was on guard. Cherry stood up and stretched her wings. She trotted over and tapped Terry on the shoulder. When he didn't respond she tapped again, harder. His ear flicked.

"Terry?" Cherry asked catiously. The stallion whipped his head around, staring Cherry right in the eye. Cherry shrunk back, terrified. But not from the sudden movement. Terry's eyes were entirely a sickly yellow colored, with tiny, tiny, tinyyyy pupils. A green worm showed itself from behind his shoulder. Cherry fell back, but didn't land on the ground. She fell under it, feeling herself freefalling into darkness. Sometime along, she heard a voice. It was a gentle voice, but commanding at the same time. And it had some sort of regality to it.

"Wake up Cherrycloud. Wake up!"

Cherry sat upwright. She looked around, and sighed, realizing this was real life. Then, she narrowed her eyes, observing the area around her. She was able to see small black mounds in the darkness, signaling her allies, but something was missing. Cherry flattened her ears, and stumbled to her hooves. She ran over to where Blaze was sleeping.

"Blaze! Blaze wake up!" She hissed, shaking him violently. His eyes droopily opened, as he stuttered a few words, shaking away his dream.

"Whuh eth et." He uttered, drowsily cocking his head to the side.

"Who was guarding the cave last night," Cherry asked.

Blaze shook the last bits of sleep out of his head, seeing how serious Cherry was. "Ember Blaze and Moon Breeze."

Cherry fell back on her rump, with wide eyes. "Nononononono.." She whispered to herself. Blaze narrowed his eyes, concerned.

"Why does it matter?" He asked, looking Cherry in the eye. Cherry brought her head up.

"Because all of our supplies, and them, are gone!"

"All our supplies and what!?" Terry shouted, searching frantically around the cave after hearing the news.

"Everything except the snow gear, which Cherry was wearing, and the emergency weapons hidden in the corner." Terry began pacing.

"This is bad, this is badbadbad!" He muttered, shaking his head back and forth.

"Did they really just take our supplies and run off??" Cherry said, disbelievingly. Cherry looked outside. The storm had stopped, but not soon enough so their hoofprints could still be seen.

"Well," Blaze began, "Then we have to get then back!" He raised his hoof in the air, trying to look heroic, then dashed over the few weapons. "Now that I think about it, I don't think we ever told them about these." He said, picking up a spear. Cherry nodded in agreement, picking up the two knives that were there. They looked at Terry, expecting him to take something, when he shook his head.

"I'd rather use what little magic I have" He said, tapping his horn. Cherry rolled her eyes, and made her way toward the entrance.

"I say we split up, cover more ground," Cherry said, glancing around the plains.

Blaze stared at her wide eyed, "Are you kidding!?" He shouted angrily, "Haven't you ever seen horror movies? The killer always picks out people when they split up!" He snorted and narrowed her eyes.

"I think its a good enough idea," Terry piped in. "Its not a forest or anything, so we could see if an enemy was near, and it would be easy to hear one another screaming if we did get attacked."

Blaze pondered this for a moment, then sighed in defeat. "Fine, but we meet back here when the Moon is at its peak!" Cherry rolled her eyes, and nodded in agreement. After Terry had agreed as well, they split up. Cherry searching where the careers were, Blaze searching the area behind the cave, and Terry looking around the other side of the river.

Cherey had her wings clamped against her body, holding in what little warmth she had. She continued on searching, and then, when the Moon was nearing its peak, Cherry turned around to head home, when she heard something.

"I say we attack now!"

"But we can't take them all on at once! We're only two ponies."

"Oh yeah? We wouldn't just be two ponies if somepony hadn't decided to bail! And dragging her friend along with her!"

Cherry narrowed her eyes and pricked her ears, looking around for the source of voices.

"Well, I'm sorry if it wasn't more beneficial than staying with a bunch of incompetent ponies!"

"Cherrrycloud wasn't incompetent and you know it!"

Once she was confident she knew where the sound was, she began creeping toward it, clutching a knife in one of her hooves. Then, she shoved aside a bush, revealing two mares engaged in a serious staring contest. They didn't seem to notice her, so Cherry sat crouched, and observed them, and the strange black mist that covered them both.

"I've had enough of your restraint for battle! In these games, only the strongest will win!" Ember Blaze shouted, drawing out a spear and flaring out her wings.

"The strongest don't always win!" Moon Breeze replied, "The cunning and strategic are just as good as the bulky." Moon grabbed her own weapon, a bow and arrow.

Ember blaze narrowed her eyes, and took to the sky, then in a matter of seconds she was diving toward Moon, the spear stretched outward. Moon Breeze didn't flinch and drew back her bow, and launched an arrow that landed itself in the middle of Embers forehead. The pegasus fell to the floor, blood pouring out of her head wound. Moon Breeze stood, panting heavily, as she realized what she had just done. Cherry saw the mist float away, off the mare.

Moon sat herself down next to her friend. "No..." She said, wide eyed, "No no no. N-Not you..." She scrunched up her nose and sniffled. "Ember, I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean it." Tears began to stream down her cheeks, as she wept for her friend. "I... I didn't mean any of it... I'm sorry."

Cherry sat down, and accidentally rustled some leaved. Moon whirled around, and threw the spear, which fell to the ground hopelessly. Moon narrowed her eyes, "Ch-Cherry?" She said, "I-m sorry, I-I didn't want to have to do this!" Cherry observed the poor mare, when she saw red eyes gleaming from the darkness behind Moon.

A mare suddenly leaped out, and hurled a large knife toward the back of Moon's head. Cherry acted quickly. She opened her wings and used them to life her over Moon, drawing out two knifes at the same time. She then landed and threw one of the knifes, having it hit the other knife, throwing it off track. Cherry stood panting, as she observed the mare. Recognition flared inside Cherrycloud. It was the mare from district 5, one of the careers, and her name was Death Reap.

(Quick AN I know Cherry never actually figured out her name I'm just doing this to help out the story

Death Reap grinned, as her horn let go of a black mist that covered it. The same mist that covered Ember and Moon when they argued. "You made Moon kill Ember Blaze," Cherry realized, grinding her teeth. She lifted one of her knifes to throw, when a shadow covered her.

A blue stallion launched himself over Cherrycloud, throwing a spear at Death. She jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding having the spear collide with her head. Moon Breeze and Cherrycloud wasted no time in joining the battle. Moon grabbed her bow in her telekinesis and began to rapidly fire arrows, having quite a few find spots in Death's frontside. Cherry launched a knife that impaled itself into her shoulder. And the stallion finished her off by stabbing his spear into her throat. A cannon sounded not much after. The three ponies stood panting, watching the grey mare's corpse lay there. There was silence, until the stallion broke it.

"Destiny is crazy," He observed, "We all have a way of meeting eachother."

Cherry turned to look at the stallion, then gasped, understanding what he had said. It was Sketch Pad.

Author's Note

Hello again readers! So the intense junk is startin' up! Whoop! More surprises in store for next chapter