Terrors Unknown

(I apologize for the really long wait for this chapter. I had some ideas for other fics hovering around in my head that I needed to get out of the way. I had a bit of writer’s block also on how to continue on. Before, I was thinking of just deleting the story and start over but I had a good idea to start out and with some more writing experience, you guys are in for a ride!)

Rainbow stood in horror at the sight before her. The base camp was trashed, the monitor screens shattered and now a pool of blood was right before her. Could it really be… Applejack’s blood?

As Twilight crouched in the corner sobbing, Rainbow took a few hoofsteps forward, reaching for the blood-soaked camera by using the wall as leverage.

Twilight looked up, “What…what are you… doing?” she asked between sobs.

“I’m trying to reach for the camera. There might be something on it that can give us a clue about what happened to AJ.”
Rainbow grunted as she finally took hold of the strap, careful not to touch any of the blood.

With haste, she opened the small LCD screen and attempted and to turn it on and to her dismay, it was dead.

“Buck! It’s dead.” She grunted with frustration.

“Don’t you have any spare battery packs on you?” Twilight suggested.

“No…” A thought flashed through her mind, “We left some backpacks here when all three of us went to investigate the Princess’s Quarters. Those had some extra battery packs in ‘em! See if they’re here!”

The two shaken ponies began rummaging through their wrecked base camp, using their flashlights looking for any sign of said backpacks. After minutes of searching in almost near darkness, there were no signs of the packs.

“Did you find any?” Rainbow asked.

“No I can’t… wait a second. Rainbow help me with this!” Twilight half shouted as she thought she caught glimpse of the familiar fabric of one the backpacks.

As she was asked, Rainbow helped Twilight turn over one of the broken tables. Sure enough, there was the pack. Twilight quickly snatched it and rapidly dumped its contents onto the stone floor. Pushing away some of the unwanted items away, in the middle, was one battery pack.

“Oh thank Celestia!” Rainbow breathed as she quickly replaced the battery packs. Rainbow bit her bottom lip as she clicked the power button. She was relieved when she saw the little screen light up.

When it was fully turned on, Rainbow pushed the rewind button to see what, and if, it captured anything.

She rewound to the point where Applejack left the Princess’s Quarters. So far nothing was seen until the point where AJ was closing in on their base camp.

“What in the hay? This must be where that crash came from. But what caused it?”

As AJ was speaking, a loud growl was heard behind her. She quickly spun around and what was seen on the screen made Twilight and Rainbow Dash gasp. To the right were two eyes glaring deep red. It quickly darted to staircase in front of AJ where the blood now rests. Applejack must have not seen it for she slowly moved forward.

“Is anypony there? Ah’m not gonna hurt y’all. Ah just wanna know why ya destroyed our base camp.” Applejack nearly jumped out of her hide as a door opening behind her caused her to spin around, revealing the face of a Royal Guard.
She exhaled slowly when she found noticed it was one of the guards.

“Y’all scared me half ta death!”

“Sorry Miss. Princess Celestia sent me to check on you fillies to see if everything’s alright.” The guard replied.

“Listen,” Applejack pleaded, “We have ta get out of here. There’s something here that we can’t explain. It ain’t safe!”

The guard laughed and walked past her. “I don’t see anything wrong with this building. Besides I don’t believe in this mumbo jumbo stuff.”

“Ah’m serious! This is somethin’ we never put into thought when…” Applejack was interrupted when she noticed the guard stop suddenly. A choking sound was heard as the guard slightly turned and brought his front hooves to his throat to signal he was choking. Or something was choking him.

Suddenly, he was lifted of his haunches by a few hooves and slammed against the wall near them by an unseen force. With his back to the wall, the guard seemed to do everything, if anything, he could to free himself. As Applejack was just a few hooves away, a cut was seen slowly making its way across his neck, blood flowing freely down his neck and onto the stone floor. Whatever was holding him released its grip and the guard fell to the floor. On his back, blood began pouring from his mouth and his neck wound, making a gurgling sound as he struggled.

Applejack’s breathing quickened and she ran as quickly as she could to his side. The guard struggled to breathe as the pool of blood became bigger with every passing second.

She shoved her hooves on the guards neck and applied as much pressure to the wound as she could muster. This was a wound she couldn’t heal on her own. “AHH! TWILIGHT! RAINBOW!! HEEELP!!!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. “Come on sugar cube! Breathe! Breathe!!”

Just then, the guard’s body began to slide slowly on the floor. Before Applejack could react, he was rapidly being dragged from the floor and into the stairway on the right about ten hooves in front of her. She quickly got up and began trotting and following the blood trail. She dropped the camera as it faced down the hallway. A few minutes later on the screen, Rainbow Dash and Twilight are seen running down the hallway and the tape ends right there.

They let out a sigh of relief as they now know that the blood does not belong to Applejack. But one question dawned on them: where the hay is Applejack?

Rainbow stood on all fours. “We need to find her.”

“Are you crazy Rainbow? Did you just see whatever it was do to that guard?” She replied whimpering.

Rainbow looked Twilight in the eyes, “Applejack is one of my closest friends. There is no way in hell that I’m gonna leave her out there! I’m the Element of Loyalty for Celestia’s sake! With or without you, I’m gonna find her.”

She turned to follow the blood trail as Twilight shouted behind, “Urggh… wait! I’m coming.” She quickly trotted to Rainbow’s side before continuing on.

They followed the trail of blood as it moved to the right into the stairwell.

“Twilight, flashlight.” Rainbow said plainly.

Fidgeting, Twilight handed her the flashlight from her friends’ belt with shaking hooves. Rainbow wrapped a wing around her.

“Don’t worry Twi, we’re gonna find her.” Rainbow then turned on the flashlight and with Twilight by her side, entered the stairwell.

To their surprise, there was no blood trail. Upon walking up the first flight of stairs however, blood trickles were seen again. They walked through to the second floor stairway door and were met by an odor that made them both gag. By further inspection with the flashlight, blood splatters decorated the floor and the walls. In the middle of the hall, was the body of the Royal Guard, resting in a bigger pool of blood than the one downstairs.

Twilight turned her head and instantly threw up at the horrifying sight. After finishing, she fell down and began sobbing again. Rainbow fell to the ground and began hitting her hooves on her head. Where could Applejack be? Why the buck is this happening? This whole main castle building is huge. She could be anywhere by now.

The terrors never seemed to end as an evil growl emanated throughout the second floor. Both fillies screamed. The same being a few seconds later began to laugh. It wasn’t just an ordinary laugh. It was a deep throated evil laugh that would forever be seared into anypony’s head.

When Twilight and Rainbow looked up, they saw shadows moving all around across the hallway in front of them. Except for one stray one that seemed to stay locked in the middle. The body of the guard rose to its hind legs. Its right eye flicked open showing a deep red. Ever so slowly it began to creep towards them.

Twilight, through watery eyes, looked around frantically around behind her. Above one of the doors it read Utility Closet.

“Rainbow!” Twilight grabbed her friends’ shoulder and pointed toward the door. “The closet!”

Without a second thought, they ran into the closet and locked the door behind them. Now in complete darkness, they breathed heavily, praying for the unknown creature outside to soon leave.

“Buck, I can’t see a thing.” Rainbow whispered. “Twi do you have a flashlight? I dropped mine.”

Twilight felt around her waist buckle and grabbed what felt to be a flashlight. Her senses were correct when she clicked the button near the top and light shown above them. She heard a noise rustling but thought it was Rainbow.

“Rainbow was that you moving around?”

“No I haven’t moved. Why?”

Twilight didn’t answer. She moved the flashlight and flashed it behind Rainbow. What she saw she didn’t expect. Her face instantly flushed its natural lavender color and was replaced with a pale purple. Rainbow took this as a sign that something was behind her. Her eyes grew wide as she felt a heavy breathing behind her. Slowly she turned her head saw what looked like Applejack. Only this wasn’t AJ. This creature looked like a demon taking form of their friend. It quickly turned into a disfigured being and screamed in a deafening tone. Twilight and Rainbow screamed and used all their strength to kick the door down.

They ran from the door and down the hall to the stair way. They didn’t care if anything was following them. But as long as they got away from it, they were satisfied.

As they hit the last step, they turned at full gallop to the exit, running into a softer yet firm being and landed with an ‘oof’.