The Kill Box

Chapters

Chapter 1: The Awakening
Chapter 2: The Set-up
Chapter 4: The First Finish
Chapter 5: Realizing Mistakes
Chapter 6: Under the Eyeglass
Chapter 3: The First Challenge

Chapter 1: The Awakening

Undisclosed location, Ponyville, Present Day

In the center of a small, damp room, filled with the smell of rotting flesh and wood, lies a figure. The figure is sprawled out lying on top of a bed; blood stains litter the sheets and pillows, as the figure-jostled in sleep-shifts around. As the figure's motions get more and more spastic, it finally bolts awake, squinting into the confines of it's current cell. Just as the figure's mouth opens, a voice comes over the PA system in the ceiling.

GOOOD MORNING EVERYPONY! Or should I just say "pony"? There's only one of you after all-the game would be too easy otherwise. And easy is anything but what this should be for you.

"Who are you? What do you want!?!" the figure yells to the PA.

There's a pause as the unknown man operating the PA ponders her questions. Who am I? He starts, WHO AM I? HA HA HA, OH HA HA AHA...oh, OH! You crack me up. He takes a moment to recompose himself after his laughing fit, I am...well now, let's not spoil the surprise...how about you just call me The Caretaker for now. And as for my motive...well...I DON'T FUCKING KNOW! He enters another long winded fit that doesn't die down for a couple of minutes.

Unnerved by the Caretaker's actions, the figure looks up fearfully at the PA, "Well...what do you need with me?"

Hmmm...what do I need with you? OH! I know now-I need you to just go and, ah, kill yourself so I don't have to do it for you.

The figure's fear turns into rage at the new information, "You dare to threaten royalty!?! You could be charged with treason for the mere act!"

Royalty? Wha-OH! I remember now...you WERE coronated recently. I suppose I should be calling you PRINCESS now. Right, Twilight?

Silence. The air fills with the sound of quiet static as neither make a move to talk.

Hmm...not much of a chatter aren't ya. OH Well... the voice says with exaggerated slow ness, I guess I'll leave you to it for now. TA TA!

All that is heard for now is the click of the speaker shutting off, leaving silence to come once again.

Twilight's scowl at the speaker quickly turns to a frown, and even quicker into a crying mess. She collapses onto the floor of the room, barely able to controll her own breathing. "come on...keep it together me...you can get through this." She takes a moment to reconsider, "Well...most likely get through this."

Looking around the space she's in, she notices a camera positioned above a door in the corner of the room. "That must be what he's useing to watch me as I get around" Twilight thinks with a grimace. "I wonder if the door is unlocked..." she thinks to her self as she looks around more, "That could just be my ticket out of he-wait is that a body?"

Looking into the far corner away from the door, Twilight spots the hunched over figure of another in the room. "Ah! Good. Well at least I'm not alone in this freakish nightmare." Twilight exclaims as she makes her way to get the attention of the other person. "Hey, you alright in th-AAHHH!"

Twilight quickly jumps back as the body suddenly rolls over and looks directly into her eyes. Noting the hair colour and shape, she realizes that she is looking into the life less corpse of none other than Lyra Heartstrings.

HA HA! You seem to have found the last person who I abduct- I mean ASKED to WILLINGLY volunteer for an 'experiment'.

Horrified, Twilight asks, "What did you do to her!"

Sounding uninterested, the Caretaker replys Oh I did nothing. She merely cried herself into shock, and died in the corner, alone. He sighs, Such a boring person, with a boring story. All she did was cry, talk about Bon-Bon, cry some more, and then mope in silence for sometime; and repeat.

"But wasn't she the overseer of the museum?" Twilight asks, "She was living a happy life running that job! In fact, I remember talking to her just before- wait...oh...OH..." and then in hushed tones, "her disappearance...she came here when she disappeared."

The Caretaker starts to cackle, Ah HA! You've uncovered the secret to the plan! Yes, 'Miss Twilight', every disappearance case for the past while has all been MY handiwork. Bringing them here soon enough for my 'games'.

Suspicious, Twilight looks at the PA speaker, "What 'games'?"

OH you'll learn soon enough little one. In fact you could say they're JUST AROUND THE CORNER. Cackling with laughter, he leaves once more.

"Oh yeah? Well...uh...buck you!" She yells back. Looking back at the door, she cautiously makes her way to open it. Just as her hand is about to grasp the handle, she pauses, hand hovering. "Wait, it can't be that easy to get out of here. If I trapped someone in a room, I wouldn't leave an unlocked door to escape from." Twilight thinks, "However, this 'Caretaker' person said there were other people before me, so how'd they get out?" Her gaze shifts from the door, to the handle, and to the door again in rapid sucsession. "I'll try opening the handle from the rim, not the whole knob."

Sure enough, as Twilight turns the handle, a small blade ejects from the center of the knob. She gets down to inspect the blade, and sees a small droplet of clear liquid fall off and hit the floor from it. "Well well well, how's that for 'dumb princess'?" Twilight mentally gloats to herself, as she opens the door.

The only response she got was the subtle clinking of the lock as a deadbolt on the other side, preventing her exit.

Twilight gives off an angry and displeased look at the doorframe, and turns back around to look at the room once again. In another glance around her little "cell", she takes note of a moldy dresser, pull-out bed, and Lyra's corpse.

Curious, she decides to check under the bed first "Always the bed where the secrets are kept." Twilight thinks with a smirk.

Turning the bed over, she finds what appears to be the outline of a trapdoor hidden under a layer of dust. Brushing it away, she finds the subtle indentation of a rectangle around a section of the floor. "Ah HA! So the door was the fake way out; with the poisoned blade as insurance to make them think that the trap for the room was in the door! If they survived that, but the door was locked, they search the room for other exits. The dust over this door would keep any escapees away from this exit...but it has to be booby-traped. No way he would leave this unguarded. Twilight thinks with a gasp, Hmm...

Looking at the bed once again, "Well that leg post looks similar to someth-oh Twilight you clever girl."

Getting off the floor, she quickly brings her foot down ontop of the bed. A vicious CRUNCH echos through the room, as one of the bed legs falls off. Picking it up, she moves back to the trapdoor-of-sorts, and gets to work unjamming the floor above it.

Many grunts fill the room as she struggles to get a budge. A couple of minutes pass where nothing else happens. Getting angry at her make-shift crowbar, she starts throwing her shoulder into it. "Why." (Grunt) "Can't" (Grunt) "You...Just..." (Heave) "BUDGE!"

With one last, mighty shove/throw, the trapdoor gives...right before the surface explodes into Twilight's legs. The explosion rocks into her, thowing her legs over her head, as she sails into the far wall. The room's filled with a sicking SNAP!

Gasping, Twilight peels-off the wall and hits the floor. With her ears ringing, and adrenaline pumping from a potentally snapped ankle, she crawls her way to the opening. Looking in, Twilight's face is met with singed wood, splinters everywhere...and a locked safe in the hole.

"Well...shit."

Chapter 2: The Set-up

Meanwhile, at the Ponyville Police Department

"I telling ya Flash, these days just seem to get shorter and shorter" Shining Armor chuckled as he stepped into the department's briefing room, "We're solving everything that's coming our way like" he snaps "that."

Flash sits down in a chair, and props his feet up on a table in front of him. Popping open a beer, he says "Right you are, sir," looking over at a small stack of papers on a nearby desk, "now if only we could solve those damn missing persons cases..."

Shining gets up and walks over to the refrigerator while looking at the files Flash mentioned. Frowning at the sheer number of papers and files litering the area near the desk, he moves to open the refrigerator door, but is interrupted by the phone going off in the room. Sighing, he instead moves to pick up the reciever, "Why is there always that one idiot who thinks that calling after hours will get more attention for his 'idea'?"

Flash smirks back at him, "Hey, if it's someone asking for the famous 'Captain Shining Armor, hero of the Battle of Canterlot, and wife of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza', then at least it's not the government or higher ups on our asses." Flash finishes with a sip.

"True to that." Shining says as he picks up the phone. "Uh, hello?...Yes, this is Captain Armor...yes I have the files, they're in the room with me...uhuh, yes, OK...yes I am aware, but what does this have to do with me?"

Flash takes a look over at Shining, "Who's calling?"

Shining briefly holds his hand over the microphone, "Give me a minute; what? Yes, Sergeant Flash is here as well, but can I have my question answered?" A faint voice is heard over the line, and Shining's face instantly pales. "W-what! No, repeat that to me once more...No...no fu-I mean no way." Shining sways slightly and his hand lowers the phone to hip level.

Flash jumped up from his chair, "What, what's going on?" He motions in front of Shining's face, "Sir, with all due respect. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"

Shining takes a deep breath, "Flash, with all due respect to you. You're going to want to take a seat."

Raising an eyebrow, and with a frown on his face, Flash takes his seat and asked "So, what is the government asking of you that is getting you so worked up?"

Still holding onto the phone, Shining asks "It involves the missing persons cases, and a new-quite disturbing-addition to the set."

"And that is?..."

Another deep breath, "It's-", Shining's comment is interrupted by the phone chattering, "Wha-oh." He clears his throat, and brings the reciever to his face "Sorry about that. Uh, please continue..." Slight chatter is heard from the speaker, and Shining flinches for a second. "Are you sure?...Yes I will see into this. Right...t-thanks." He hangs up the phone.

Turning back to Flash, "Gods, uh..." running his hand through is hair, he looks down at the ground. "How do I put this?...The higher ups want us to really look into those missing persons cases."

"Right, so who's the new addition to the 'collection'?

"Well first off: 2 days ago, a muesum curator by the name of Lyra Heartstrings went missing right after hours ended; unsure of meathod of disappearance. The new one is the one that is most baffling though." A deep breath, few tears, and tense moment later, Shining continues, "It's...(sigh)...it's your girlfriend, and more importantly my sister: Twily."

Back within Twilight's cell

Groaning slightly, Twilight blinks back into consciousness. She looks down at the safe below her, and then back around the room. "Only way out of this, hope that the body has a key to unlock this. It's so cliché, but there has to be a way." She slowly crawls her way to where Lyra's corpse lay on the other side of the bed, blood trailing behind from her legs and feet. Twilight then begins to lightly pat-down Lyra's body to try to find somthing, anything, to help her. Looking all over Lyra's body, Twilight found nothing of use save for 2 hair clips in the left jacket pocket. "Well at least there's some remedy to this maddness."

Gingerly, Twilight makes her way back into the blown hole. Sticking her head and hands into the crater, she fashions a crude lock pick out of the clips, and gets to work on the lock. After a few minutes of fumbling around with the lock, she feels the lock start to give. "AHA! Almost...THERE!"

Pumping her fist in triumph, Twilight pulls the now destroyed pick out of the safe and tries the handle.

No budge.

Getting frustrated, she slams her fist down on the floor; after which a light tinkling sound is heard coming from underneath her.

Feeling below herself, her hand runs over a key on the floor. Picking it up, she tries the key; getting the oh-so-sweet click of the lock. With a relieved smile, she finally pulls the door open. Inside is an aluminum duct, a .38 revolver, a small vial of red liquid, and a envelope.

Just as the safe is opened, the PA starts crackling again Well, well, well. So you FINALLY got through the first puzzle! Shame it's gonna take you forever to finish them all.

Twiight smirks back at the speaker, "Oh yeah? Well if I can get through one, I can get through them all!"

Oh don't 'Do one, do them all' me, egghead. We both know that you'll fall sooner or later. Now, how about you continue with these trap- I mean PUZZLES I have for you while I get some popcorn. TOODLES!

Twilight shrugs and reaches into the duct to pick up the items inside. She places the revolver in her right pocket, the envelope in her pocket, and drank the vial. As her wounds from earlier heal, she clambers down into the duct, going in the direction of the door. Once the duct ends, and she's on the other side of the door, Twilight pushes the opening up and gets out into a hallway.

The hallway is brightly lit, and suprisingly clean: walls are kept and well maintained, lights are new 120W, and there are doors farther down the hallway. Getting up, Twilight looks down the hallway and walks to 2 doors at the end. Checking the one on the left first, she finds it locked and proceeds to the next, which is open.

Twilight walks inside, follows down another short hallway, and opens the door at the end. Inside the room, is a bunch of rotary saws attached to pistons coming out of the floor. Just as Twilight enters the room and registers the contents, the saws intantly actvate, moving all over the place.

Twilight's face falls. "Oh dear."

Inside the Police Station

Back within the briefing room, the missing persons reports litter the main table, with Flash reading one with a stack next to him. Shining is standing off to the side, talking on the phone.

"So you can get here in 10? Great, I'll fill you in here." (beep) "OK. Star is flying in momentarily, and our new recruit is teleporting in-"

"TROOPER MOONLIGHT BLADE REPORTING FOR DUTY, SIR!"

"Soon..." (sigh) "At least he's right on time. Alright, at ease Trooper. Take a seat and start going through the files with Flash."

"Yes Sir!"

"And ditch the formalities, kid."

Flash just smirks, "Looks like rookie here wants to be the 'model officer'."

As Blade blushes in his seat, Shining replies "Unlike you Flash? 'Courting the Princess' isn't being model? Though, then again, so have I."

Flash pipes up, "Back to our cases though. Where should we start? I'm at a loss here, and we've never done anything this big."

Shining nods his head, "You're right, we've been avoiding this to much; from here, total concentration of the matter at hand. You two stay here and organize these files. I'll meet with Sergeant Star Blaze and check out the last 2 adbuction sites plus the region where the Princess was abducted.

"Now, with that being said, we're on an insane time crunch to finish this case from higher ups. The sooner we crack this, the better. So, let's get to work.

Chapter 4: The First Finish

“So, Mr…Platform, is it?” Blaze asked.

“Yes, I’m here; what do you want?” he responded with a sigh.

“Yes, we’re conducting interviews of local residents concerning the disappearance of Lyra Heartstrings. If it’s alright with you, we would like to come in to ask a few questions.”

“Yea, sure,” Platform gestured them in, “I have some time before work.”

Walking into the apartment, they all took a seat down on the couches in Platform’s living room. Shining was the first to speak, “So, Mr. Platform, do you recollect what you were doing on the night of the 8th of Nieghtember?”

Platform scratched his chin, “I do believe that I was working late, coding the menus for the next OS update; boss wanted ‘em done for a launch 15th.”

As Blaze wrote down Platform’s response, Shining followed up with another question, “Do you remember meeting, talking with, or seeing Lyra Heartstrings that night?”

“Yes, I do. I remember that I was in a little bit of a block in the coding process; guys at the art department hadn’t sent me the latest menu sketches yet, and I was looking out my window into the sky, when I saw her walk below in the alley. She was carrying a couple of briefcases; not sure what was in them though. She dropped one, and I called out if she needed help from my window. I went down to help, and once she had everything together again, she went on her way.”

Shining paused for a moment, “How did you get down to the bottom floor so fast?”

Platform pointed to the window, “Fire escape is the easiest way down when you’re in a hurry.”

Just as Shining was about to follow up with another question, he was cut off at the sound of an alarm originating from Platform’s bedroom.

“Ah, that would be my boss. I’m terribly sorry lads, but that’s my cue to get to work. So if you’re all quite done; I need to ask you to leave.”

Quickly ushering the duo out of his apartment, Platform tipped them an invisible hat on their way out the door. Slamming it behind them, he ran into the bedroom, grabbed his beer from where he left it earlier, and yanked the lever once again to reveal his computer. Taking a swig from the now half-empty bottle, he booted up and after a rushed diagnostics check, viewed Twilight’s progress through his maze.

“Alright princess. Let’s see what you do with THIS!”

Another swig, another breath, and another switch was flipped.

And then all hell broke loose.

The two officers faced the door to Platform’s apartment, looking once at the door, once at the door number, and once at each other.

“We both realize that he’s bullshitting us, right?” Blaze asked.

Shining nodded, “No way in hell that a boss would call an employee at 11:30 to get to work.”

“I’ll get the tech boys to place a tap on the apartment; maybe they’ll come up with something that we didn’t.”

As Blaze goes to leave, Shining grabs his shoulder to stop him, “Make sure that they monitor everything that goes in and out of that room. Something feels off about that man, and anything that gives even the smallest clue could lead to something bigger.”

Blaze nods and heads back to the cruiser, and Shining moves to knock on the next door down the hall. “Hello, I’m investigating the disappearance of Lyra Heartstrings. Is it OK if I come in and ask you a few questions?”

Twilight didn’t mean to trip the alarm. It just went off as she passed the 2nd ring of walls in the maze. Panicking from not knowing what the sound meant, she ran without thinking into what she thought was the right path. Now she was stuck; trapped between 3 walls of steel, and the formidable wall of circular saws that blocked her path. Sitting in a silent state of moping, she curled up into a ball, thinking that she’d never get out of there. Forever trapped, quite literally, between a rock and a hard place. Then the loudspeaker came on.

Oh Twilight…gotten us stuck in a hole now have we? The claustrophobia kicking in yet? Probably; but let’s not think about that now. I’ll give you this one free chance…juuuuuust try to not die, and I’ll reward you!

Then everything went to hell.

The circular saws that were previously closing behind her started to rise and fall erratically at random intervals. In fact, all of the ceiling parts opened up, the saws coming down on all of the tiles, even the ones she hadn’t passed yet. The only one that was still open was the one in the center, where the key was.

Twilight started screaming at what she thought was her demise, “OHHHHHHHHH SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT!”

Running as fast she could, she quickly ducked under the one in front of her, and ran past the next 2 in the row. Jumping over the next one, ducking under another, and frantically screaming her lungs hoarse, Twilight somehow made it to the entrance to the inner circle, right before the key room.

It was at this time that Twilight realized that she would have to jump over another two saws to progress…and that saws were coming out of the floor. This only served to send her panic into ever rising heights, as she now realized that CIRCURLAR SAWs WERE RISING OUT OF THE FLOOR!

Taking the envelope out of her pocket, she quickly swallowed some of the powder inside. Feeling the sudden rush of ingesting pure magic, Twilight’s eyes lightly glowed with power. She easily made the easy jump over the saws in the floor, just as the ceiling behind her caved in, and she bolted for the exit. The jumping and ducking becoming almost second nature to her, she started to calm as she realized that she might have a chance of getting out of there alive.

The smile that briefly flashed across her face was quickly wiped and replaced with a yelp of pain as her right arm was lightly slashed. Snapping her head to see what nicked her, she found a small, barely 3 inches in diameter, saw coming out of the wall she was next to.

“HOW THE FUCK IS THAT POSIBLE?!” Twilight screamed.

Her brain went into temporary shut-down as she attempted to comprehend how a saw could fit inside of a wall, that was also moving around. Though that was banished too, as a loud buzzing right next to her ears reminded that she was painfully reminded that she was still in a life and death scenario.

“Right..just…think later, focus on living now.” She huffed out.

Once again going into a light panic as to how she was going to stay alive, she resumed to her running and dodging. “Just (huff) gotta get (puff) to the (pant) KEY!” Twilight yelled out.

Looking at what was ahead of her and behind her, she had a slight migraine as to how she was progressing so well, “WHY THE FUCK IS THIS SUDDENLY SO HARD!” Twilight screamed.

Oh is pwitty wittle Twily having a hard time?

“JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU SON OF A BITCH!”

Attempting to focus more than ever on what had to be done, Twilight skillfully made it to the final leg of the maze. Running as hard as she could, she slid on her knees the whole rest of the way into where the key was just as the saws came down on top of the entrance. Losing a part her hair in her dramatic entrance, she stood up, only to be cornered by a host of ceiling saws converging in on the center.

Twilight ran to the center, yelling out to the man behind it all, “HEY! I made it to the key! Turn off the saws now!”

Getting nervous at the lack of response, she picked up the key and held it close to her chest as if it would protect her. Backing up and pressing her back into the podium in the center, she nearly lost her footing and fell into the saws that were slowly getting closer and louder, when the center collapsed into the floor. Looking up into the ceiling once more, she saw one lone saw going right down on top of her head. Her body going into a massive panic, she started screaming for The Caretaker to deactivate the machine.

Oh no! Twilight is getting trapped by saws on all sides! What ever shall she do?

Her face contorting into one of anger, her fist was consumed by fire. “I’m getting really tempted to burn that camera off of the wall!”

Oh don’t do that please, I paid good money for these cameras.

Twilight grit her teeth and looked up at the saw above her head. “Well here goes nothing…”

She quickly hurled the fireball at the saw. Seeing that the fire had done some damage to the externals of the blade, she fired volley after volley into the blade until she felt like she could go no further. Exhausted, she collapsed to one knee, but when looking up, she saw that the entire front half of the saw body had melted or fallen off, revealing a key hole.

Twilight’s eyes opened in realization, and with the last of her strength, forced the key she held into the lock and turned. And just as the key was turned, the buzzing from the saws stopped, and the saws themselves came to a stop. Just in time as well, as one blade came directly into her cleavage, tearing her shirt a little, and signifying that a second later, and she’d be dead.

…and I can’t decide whether you should live or die— OH! You did it! Well congratulations Twilight! Now as your reward I’ll give you 2 things. One, knowledge! The knowledge that your family is looking for you! In fact, Shining has just visited me, inquiring if I knew anything about Lyra Heartstrings! I of course said nothing incriminating, but I’m sure that they’re suspicious of me by now…

At the Caretaker’s words, Twilight bore a relieved smile on her face, a triumphant look in her eyes, and tears of joy leaking down her face.

Don’t even think for a second that I don’t see those tears on your face Twilight, I know for a fact that your boyfriend—Flash is it?—is on the same unit as your brother. So let’s try our hardest to give them a corpse to help cheer them up, huh?

As this monologue was finished, a panel on the wall fell away, and 2 cages came out of the opening. One held a mare with a white coat and mane with red highlights, and the other held a blue coated stallion with a yellow mane, both Pegasus’. They had very fearful looks in their eyes, and they looked a little starved.

And here’s your other reward! My, aren’t they fetching! The rules are simple, one lives, and one dies, though who gets which event is up to you Twilight. Just use the revolver I know you have in your pocket to make your decision. Make it soon, and HAVE FUN!

The PA clicked off once again, and Twilight looked at the caged, and vice versa. An eerie a silence filled the room as the 2 sides stared the other down.

“Well shit.”

Chapter 5: Realizing Mistakes

Late night, Platform’s apartment

At around Eleven O’clock in the late evening, 2 shadowy figures approached the apartment block that Platform lived in. Laying a gloved hand on the handle, the leader of the duo swiftly opened the outer door, and placed a small device on the electronic lock of the second. After pressing a sequence of buttons on the front face of the device, it lit up and emitted a dull buzzing noise. A few seconds later, the lock disengaged, and the duo entered the building. Stealthily walking down the hallway, they passed some 20 doors before heading up a stairwell and heading up to the third story before moving to the doorway of the apartment of their target.

They then systematically removed the painting opposite the door to the apartment, and installed a small box behind it. Inside was a camera, microphone, and antenna to record all who passed in front of it. While one was busy installing the box, the other quickly attached a set of infrared sensors on the door. Spraying the hinges with a specially crafted graphite spray, he silently sneaked his way into the main room. He checked the rooms for occupants, and after finding none, sat down at the main computer in the bedroom. Tapping keys on the keyboard, he started it up and implanted a drive into the external ports on the computer. Navigating his way through the files, he made quick work of the computer, and made copies in the drive of bits that caught his eye.

5 minutes after he initially entered the apartment, the door was closed again, and the second infiltrator appeared right beside the first, earning a harsh whisper. He whispered back in an urgent tone, before swiftly hiding in the closet. The first infiltrator’s hands seemed to double in speed, pages and icons flying across the screen in rapid succession. Once he finished, he removed his flash drive, and clambered into the closet where the other was hiding.

Their breathing hitched when their target, Platform, entered the door. The slow pace he made was accompanied by a constant drip hitting the floorboards, and his shallow, ragged breathing. This orchestra of thunk tap dip wheeze, thunk tap drip chough made its way to the computer, just to sit there in an agonizing silence, broken by the occasional cough.

The duo in the closet dared not to breathe more than necessary, for the slightest rise in decibel could spell their doom. They stayed huddled—pressed against the back of the closet—like that for a slow and tense 10 minutes, until the room was pierced with the loud drone of snoring coming from the computer. Another 7 minutes or so to make sure he really was out, and the closet started to move. One by one the infiltrators tiptoed out the room and back into the hallway, headed back to the main entrance and made their escape.

Once in the car, the duo removed their disguises of ski masks and single-coloured hoodies, and sped off into the night. There was no talking between the two; no whoops of celebration or even smiles upon their faces for a job well done; just the hum of the motor and the whoosh of the road going past.

That was an hour ago.

A solid hour of uncomfortable shifting, awkward silence, and uninterested gazes leading up to an uneventful arrival that probably looked a lot better in their perspective than an outside one. The walk up to their apartment was charged, neither wanting to speak until everything was just right. Opening the door, they sat down at a circular table, seated directly across from each other, and took a drink out of matching bottles.

The one on the left side of the room was clearly more agitated than the other. He was constantly shifting and rubbing a tired and distressed face with one of his hands. After another 5 minutes of unbearable silence he started to speak.

“Well then,” he began, “we really ‘came out of the closet’ on that one, huh?”

His partner’s hand immediately flew to his forehead, “Celestia damn it, Blaze.”

And with that, the mood was broken. And the hour after that was spent in joke and relief for another “Top-notch job, bloody well done” as their old CO would say.

The Maze Puzzle

Twilight was panicking, again. It was only natural; being given 2 people and told to kill one of them isn’t an event that doesn’t spark some form of panic or terror. At least the 'captives' had a sense of order to balance it out.

“Holy Celestia above, I have to kill someone; this isn’t supposed to happen. THIS ISN’T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!” Twilight screamed.

The Pegasus in the cage to the left of Twilight was trying to calm her down, uttering words of care and comfort, all with little avail. The other Pegasus was constantly stomping around, slapping himself and constantly asking to no one in particular, “This is the one who will save us?”

After listening to Twilight bawl her eyes out for a couple of minutes, he then picked up a rock that was lying in his cell and threw it at Twilight, hitting her in the head and snapping her out of the panic-induced state she was stuck in. Promptly realizing her reaction, Twilight blushed and mumbled out an apology.

“Heh, sorry about that. Not really used to the whole ‘life or death scenario’ yet.” She mumbled, scratching the back of her head.

The Pegasus on the left wore a faint smile, “It’s no problem at all; really. Just breathe deep, an-“

“JUST FREE US ALLREADY!”

Twilight jumped again, her head whipping to look at the other Pegasus, who was wearing a face of rage and hatred, was yelling his lungs out at Twilight. “GET THE FUCKING GUN OUT, AND SHOOT THE CELESTIA-DAMED LOCKS!”

“ok”

With hand shaking set to overdrive, Twilight slowly reached into her right pocket, and brought the revolver out. Her other hand, meanwhile, reached into her left pocket and pulled out the—now battered—envelope. Drawing a finger through its contents, the envelope was returned, and her finger was placed in her mouth. Almost instantaneously, her eyes started to glow again—though nowhere near as brightly—and she stopped shaking, taking a calm and relaxed position.

Bringing her hands together around the firearm, Twilight brought it up to her eye level, and then, realizing she was being a complete idiot, shook her head and walked over to the cages. Shooting the locks from point-blank, she blankly stared at the 2 she just freed, her glowing eyes giving off an unearthly feel though the room.

Thankfully they were spared from more awkward silence by the attempted introduction of the Pegasus with the white coat. Wrapping Twilight in a hug, she started crying into Twilight’s shoulder, tears of joy dampening the material, “(sniff) thank you so much, thank you so, so much…”

Pulling back, she smiled, “I am Winter Storm; thank you so much for saving us.” She said, before continuing the hug.

Laughing, Twilight semi-hugs back, feeling more awkward than comforted. Turning her head, she looked over at the Stallion she freed, who looked more annoyed than anything else. Smiling, Twilight attempted to ‘break the ice’, “So do you always have a face of disgust or is it just me?”

His frown worsened, “Unfortunately, just you; the bullet you shot into the lock ricocheted into my hip.” He brought his hand away from his side to show a slowly growing blood stain forming. “I doubt that will be of much use in the next death-trap we have to encounter.”

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by the stallion once again, “And my name’s Lightning Flash; thanks for asking.”

Frowning, Twilight tried again, “Well, maybe I could magic the wound closed? I mean, just a simple healing spell, and BAM! Good as new!” she ended with a flourish.

Shaking his head, Lightning rebutted, “You just don’t get it, do you? Healing a wound from a firearm, spear, or sword is much different than that of a scrape or cut. You run the risk of infecting me with damaged tissue, or there is a possibility that the metals of the bullet might still be in my body, and healing the outside cut wouldn’t do anything for the organs inside. I need a real doctor, not a magic student.”

Twilight was fuming by this point, “Well then, if you don’t want-”

OH Hello! What do we have here?

The group’s bodies all seized up at the sound of the PA, with Lightning’s and Storm’s eyes frantically scanning the room whilst

unknowingly scrunching together.

So not only did you fail to abide by my rules, but you ALSO decided to free both of them! Well now, we can’t have rule breaking; you naughty girl. I believe then it’s time for a little challenge. Come along now; into the next room. I do believe that you’ll have a hell of a time.

Safehouse, unknown location

The next morning contained a host of activity for the investigators. Flash arrived in the early morning with the recruit in tow—20 case-files carried between the 2 of them—and set up shop. Flash separated the files into 3 neat columns, each with a different height, and Moon Blade took the time to install a laptop into a projection system in the corner of the room.

After introductions were completed, and quips on their respective stories given, Flash began a presentation on their findings.

“So with all said and done, the Recruit and I have discovered that this nifty little bugger has wormed his way through more of these files then we’d like to admit. First off,” he clicked a remote in his hand, causing the faces of 13 different people to appear on the projector screen “we have traced his work through at least 10 of the files, though some are on shakier ground than others. The 2nd pile, here,” he clicked the remote again, causing another 8 faces to appear in a different grouping, “is of kidnappings and/or murders that seem like his style, but we’re

not sure. And finally, the remaining 4 files were either too small to decipher, or had little to no connection to the others.”

He paused for a minute, letting it sink in, “Starting off; we have traced the first crime to about a year and a quarter ago: August 1st. It was not pretty: multiple stab wounds to the chest with a single shot to the head. The 2nd and 3rd are the same; the only overlaps between these otherwise independent cases, were the caliber of the gun, the pattern of the stabs, and the residue left in the tissue: all the bodies had

fragments of iron oxide—commonly known as rust—in the wounds.”

Blaze spoke up, “So he was using a rusty knife?”

Flash nodded, “It seems that way, though there was something else that was intriguing about the 3rd body. There were also trace amounts of chromium in its wounds.”

“That chromium discovery allowed us to trace that killer to another 10 bodies in 7 different instances. All of those bodies were pretty slashed up though, with no connection to the precise cuts of the first 3. This, in turn, led to the belief that they were either slashed in reckless abandon, or some kind of machine with chromium-tipped blades.”

“What about the next 6 cases?” Shining inquired, “What made them so close yet not like these?”

Flash grimaced, “There was almost nothing left.”

Pressing the next button on the remote a couple of times, he flashed passed the pictures taken of the bodies of the first 10 cases, to reach a group of pictures of assorted damaged body parts and horrifically mutilated torsos and heads.

Flash continued, “These victims contained the same levels of chromium-per-wound as the other bodies, but had so many other marks and general disfigurement that we weren’t sure whether to call it a solid find. What do you make of it, Shining?”

Shining, meanwhile, was taking close inspection of the edges of the bodies, careful note of the jagged starts and stops. “Zoom in on the cut.”

Moon Blade nodded, and after typing a few commands into the computer, an image of one of the arms, blown up to fit the screen, came into view.

After taking another moment to verify his upcoming claim, he stepped back and brought up his hand to point at the screen. “Does anyone see something very different about that particular cut?”

“The mismatched pattern?” Blaze asked.

Nodding, Shining replied, “Yes, that’s exactly it.” He mused, "It is nothing like the cleanliness of the other wounds.”

“Maybe he needed a victim every now-and-then to satisfy his blood lust, and the gaps in-between those victims with the marks are cooling off points where he kills like normal?”

Shining shook his head, “I don’t think so. Look at the substance on the end of the cut; see the way it glistens?”

“So he sprays them with water?”

“No; I think he let's dogs have at them.”

Twilight led the way for Lightning and Storm, both of which were too scared to be the first to enter a new room, and came across a dimly lit hallway. This hallway was nothing like the first she came across; the walls were decrepit, there were scratches everywhere on the floor, the lights were only lit every other, and small pools of blood could be seen trailing off into the right.

As soon as Winter Storm entered the hallway, the door slammed shut, making her and Lightning to jump at the sudden noise.

Ah, welcome to the first (and probably last) challenge!

Surprisingly, no-one said a word, preferring the silence to feeble protest.

I can see we have quite the talkative bunch today, so let’s get right into it!

Another metallic slam could be heard, quite far off in the hallway down to the left, along with…howling?

So as you can hear, there is a pack of savage canines coming your way! Better start running, because you don’t want to be there when they arrive!

As the sound of the PA clicking off reverberated through the passageway, Twilight and her new "friends” started a mad dash down the hall. Luck was not on their side however, and they quickly had to run 2 very sharp turns across some pooling blood, and could hear the pack clearly gaining with every step.

Twilight estimated, that the dogs would likely overrun them in a half minute; and she had no idea how to stop them. Sure, she could use magic, but killing them was against her morals; creating a shield was impossible without being way too close for comfort, and she couldn’t just leave these 2 behind by spending magic to help her run.

Whilst stuck in her dilemma, they approached a 3-way intersection in the hallway. Stopping a moment, Lightning quickly turned around. “OK. I have an idea.” Getting everyone’s ears to perk up, “Twilight, you come with me. We’ll create a distraction going straight down the hall. Storm, you’ll go left, but after our signal, wait 10 seconds before going up the stairwell to our right. Get out, and get help.”

“ok”

Lightning nodded, “Great; now come on.”

Heading straight, as per the plan, Lightning and Twilight hid behind a small stack of boxes 20 paces into the hallway, and waited for the dogs to arrive. Lightning turned and whispered to Twilight, “Whoever makes it out of this alive checks back on Storm, agreed?”

As Twilight nodded in acceptance, they both heard the dogs getting closer, stopping at the intersection, as their noses flared to pick up a scent.

“Ok, on 3. 1…2…”

“HEY ASSHOLES! OVER HERE!

Twilight and Lightning froze, as what was clearly Storm’s voice somewhat boomed around them. Neither daring to move if it was a trap.

“Come and get me if you can!” Storm shouted once more.

“What the hell is she thinking? She’s going to get herself killed!” Lightning fumed, “Twilight, give me the gun. Twilight?”

Turning, he found Twilight cowering in a ball, repeatedly crying to herself “this wasn’t the plan; this wasn’t the plan; it isn’t supposed to end this way; this wasn’t the plan”

“Pull yourself together!” Lightning hissed, “We need to save storm; give me the revolver.”

Wiping her tears away, Twilight passed the revolver to Lightning, and then waved her hand vertically over his body. Sniffing, she spoke, “I-sniff-placed an aura over you. It should protect you long enough to get Storm and…kill the dogs.” She spoke the last of the sentence with a cry, and proceeded to continue curling in a ball.

Lightning frowned, not wanting to leave her behind, but with her magic depleted again, and turned into a sobbing mess, it was for the best. Getting up, Lightning spread his wings and flew as fast as he dared back down the hall and to the right to chase after storm.

Twilight continued crying as Lightning left, barely noticing his absence. She barely noticed the footfalls and wing beats slowly disappear as the chase continued, but she was quickly snapped out of crying and into fear as a blaring scream, one that made her blood curl, rang out into the hall. This was swiftly followed by an equally loud “NO!", and then followed by several shots ringing out. Then all was

silent.

Twilight’s mind raced, thinking about what should have been happening that day. It was the 16th of Neightember when she was taken. The running of the leaves and Thanksgiving holidays were coming up in the next week. She should be home, getting ready to celebrate the holidays with her friends and/or boyfriend. How were any of them taking her absence? Especially how was Spike? He was still very young, and would definitely need supervision, so who was watching him? And what of her family? She would give almost anything to be with her parents at Canterlot, maybe even bring her brother too. Snuggle up in front of a fire and read some book like they were kids again. Maybe even have a relaxing family meal to reflect on their lives and how they’ve changed. And—not to mention, but—where was she? Stuck in some hallway Celestia-knows-where fending for her life.

Twilight’s internal moping was broken, however, when Lightning tapped her on the shoulder when he returned, making her jump. Looking up, she noticed a grim face leading down to look at Storm’s mangled corpse resting there next to her.

And then she started to cry once more.

Chapter 6: Under the Eyeglass

“Hey…It’s not…your fault, Twilight.”

Twilight suddenly stopped crying, looking left with blood-shot eyes at Winter Storm’s corpse. Winter Storm’s talking corpse.

Taking in a sharp intake of air as to scream, she was silenced by Storm’s hand reaching out to hers. “Shhh…it’s ok; it’s ok.” Storm smiled.

Twilight was in tears again, her eyes fogging up once more, “But…I got—I got you killed.”

Storm shook her head, smiling all the while, “It doesn’t matter, just-”

Oh what a touching scene we have here! I’m practically drowning in sorrow.

Twilight whipped her head to the speaker conveniently above her head, blind rage rapidly replacing her otherwise sobbing demeanor. “Have you no soul!” she yelled upwards to the ceiling, “Someone is dying here, and all you can do is, is to look down on us like we’re puppets for your amusement! You sick bastard!”

Eh, I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m sick, but-

“And stop the fucking quipping!”

Oh but I love doing so. I helps to keep me humane. Try it sometime.

Twilight could feel her eye starting to twitch, flicking in random patterns. “Keeping you humane? Keeping you fucking humane! I’ll show you humane you sack of shit!”

Curling her hand into a semi-fist, Twilight’s vision started to dim. Conjuring a ball of white-hot fire, she let out a mighty yell of anger, her vision flashing red, and hurled it straight for the speaker with all the intensity of murder. The fire, concentrated into a dense sphere, collided with the speaker with a great Whumpf!, creating a sizeable dent in the box shape. The effect then traveled down the wire, bursting with a great show in every electrical device in a 20-foot radius of the initial impact point.

Twilight was steaming; her hand visibly smoking and trails of smoke could be seen flying about her hair. She glanced at the carnage around her; carnage that she caused with a single stroke of her hand, and smirked at the power.

A noise made her ears perk, “Twilight?” She heard from behind her.

Spinning around, she crouched slightly, hands like claws, and growled in the direction of the noise. Upon noticing that it seemed to be male, Twilight growled a little deeper, her hands flexing from being claw-like, to a fist, and then back again. Taking a step forward, she was interrupted by the…floor?...starting to speak.

Are-are you ok?

And as though a switch had been flipped, Twilight blinked her eyes. Her view flashed from a field of red to see Lightning, cowering in fear behind Storm, both of whom were wearing concerned, yet absolutely terrified faces.

Standing up, she recomposed herself. “I’m…sorry you had to witness that.” Twilight said, her eyes finding a great interest in the floor all of a sudden.

Peeking out from behind Storm, Lightning decided to be the first to speak. “Don’t be. It was only natural.” Lightning shrugged, “Though with that sudden rampage, The Caretaker’s going to want some revenge for the damage.” He kicked a camera on the floor absentmindedly.

Looking up, Twilight eyes wandered the wreckage around her, and then quickly shot back to the floor in shame; a redness creeping on her cheeks. “Yea-yeah, you’re right. Let’s go.”

As they all got up to move, Storm cried out, her left hand rushing to her thigh. As the others also rushed to help her, she motioned them away and sat back down, her body leaning up against the wall for support. Looking down, Twilight spied a fresh pool of blood collecting beneath Storm’s body. As her hand went for her pocket for the envelope, Storm waved her hand away, “That’s enough of that.”

“But-“ Twilight started.

“No; leave me for The Caretaker to find. Hopefully that’ll get him slowed down enough for you to leave.”

“Can’t I just-“

“No.”

A look of utter dismay and sadness befell Twilight’s face. Motioning for Lightning to follow her, which he responded with unusually quick reception, they took off, leaving Storm behind. Walking off down the hallway, they headed up the stair to what they both hoped was freedom.

“Thank you, Flash, for that presentation. But now onto the real reason I called you down here.”

The room hadn’t said much after the hypothesis that attack dogs were used on the victims, all their spirits quelled by such a horrific idea. In response to Shining’s comment, Blaze stood up and inserted the drive recovered last night into Moon Blade’s laptop, taking his spot at the keyboard. Opening up the drive, Blaze hovered over the 2 folders available.

“Which one do you want opened?” he inquired.

“Start with the one titled ‘Logs’; we’ll save the other for later.” Shining replied.

After clicking on said folder, another document opened up; opening that document revealed a long series of short logs, all neatly organized by the date made. Blaze started to give abbreviated excerpts on what flashed on screen.

“Log: 7/15/1001

Greetings, log. I have started to record my life, as of today, for something horrible has happened recently…I hope that this can quell those emotions. I hope that this can put a soul to rest. You see, log, my beautiful, amazing, and wonderful wife, Streaming Shine, has died. There is so much bottled up that I don’t know how to even get all this down. The horrific sorrow is so great, I’m actually tearing up writing this.

Log: 7/17/1001

As of today, I have started to seek help for this depression that I’m in. My doctor has been pleased with my confession to starting to write this, saying that it could be a substitute for talking to…Her.

In other news, my job at Acres Technology has gotten better. Lead programmer for the next iOS update. Hopefully programming can take my mind off of Her passing.

Log: 7/23/1001

It’s been almost 10 days since starting to write these logs, and—I don’t know—I feel like I’m going to burst. All this hate, love, and everything is always coming to a boil, and I notice myself coming to rage at the smallest things. Like, today before breakfast, I was having trouble fastening a button on my pants, and I nearly screamed in anguish after only 2 tries.

Log: 7/26/1001

I don’t know how much longer I can go on like this. The anger is eating me up from the inside. I have to act, no, need to.

Log: 7/27/1001

I…did something today. Something horrible, yet strangely satisfying. I killed someone today, log, I took the old hunting knife from the shed and then went out after dark and killed them.

I don’t know what to do; how could I have done this?...

Log: 7/28/1001

I had the urge to kill again today, and I’m sorry, but I gave in. The thrill, the feel, it’s so fulfilling.

Log: 7/31/1001

My more recent kills with just the knife have become dull, I think it’s time to up the stakes. So, I went and bought a revolver and silencer: .44 magnum. Let’s see how this plays out.

Hmm…seems to be the same like that for a few months. Constant urge, kill, fantasize, and cool, over and over again.” Blaze muttered as he sped through the documents. “Let’s see if we can get a hit of something else…

Log: 12/6/1001

Today is a great day. I have finally acquired the permits to the abandoned facility some ways away from here; one that serves perfectly for my next step. All that’s left is to wait for the workers to come in to refurbish the rooms and I’m gold.

Log: 12/10/1001

After inspecting the rooms, I have started fantasizing about how everything will play out. I need cameras, speakers, microphones, everything. The only hard thing to come across will be the saws…perhaps I’ll nick them off of a “broken delivery truck”.

Log: 2/18/1002

After 2 months of long and hard work, it’s finished. My masterpiece, magnum opus, piece de resistance, all of it. Everything is nicely laid out, perfectly ready for whomever is to step foot in those rooms. HA HA! Now I believe it is time to explain the method to all this madness: why. You see, log, when my wife had her end tragically soon, it was at the hands of none other than Little-Miss-Perfect, Twilight Sparkle. Just as she was ‘saving the day’ once again, my lovely and amazing wife was sideswiped whilst in her car, hit by another unicorn who was in a fight with the perfectionist. Little bitch won’t know what hit her.”

Before he could continue, Blaze was interrupted by a rapid knocking at the door, gathering the attention of all present. After a moment’s hesitation to make sure it was their door, another set of knocks rang through the room, and the officers hit the floor. Flash and Shining each drew their respective sidearm, a Colt .45 and a standard service pistol, while kneeling behind the table. Blaze dove at the computer desk, tackling Blade and his laptop to the ground. Hiding behind the desk, he shot one hand out to his briefcase while the other went behind his back. Rifling through the case with his right hand, he revealed a Mangum revolver and passed it to Moon Blade. His left hand, meanwhile, came back with dual Ponyguard .38 special pistols.

“You ever been in a firefight before, kid?” he asked Moon Blade while he chambered a round.

“Uh, does basic count?” he asked in reply.

Shaking his head, Blaze sniggered slightly before getting into a kneel to aim over the table at the door, with Blade following suit.

A steady chorus of light breathing filled the room, and then stayed there for a minute while Shining figured what to do.

“I thought you said this place was secure!” Flash hissed to him.

“It is supposed to be!” Shining hissed back.

Glancing at the time, he came up with a quick plan, one that was instantly relayed to Flash. “Cover me, I’m going to open the door—no I’m not going to get killed. I’ll play the lazy bum; pretend I just woke up. Maybe it’s just a neighbor coming to say hi. Hopefully the clothes we picked for our ‘stay’ here will pass.”

Flash rolled his eyes, “Son of a—forget it. Go, but give me an avenue of attack if it hits the fan.”

Slowly getting up, Shining kept his sights trained on the door while moving to the right to ‘hug the wall’ as it were. Moving step by painfully loud step, he half-crouched and half-walked his way to the doorknob. Placing his pistol behind his back in his belt, he unlocked the bolt and removed the chain. Approaching from the left of the door, he made sure that he could see out, but Flash could still hit a potential target behind the door. What met his face shocked him.

“Hi. I was told you can help me find my mom?”

After leaving Storm behind and heading up the stairwell, Twilight and Lightning found themselves in a less-than-functional hallway junction. With the only light coming from the stair, Twilight could do little more than squint to faintly spot the cracks on the floor in front of her. Reaching back, she grabbed Lightning’s hand and started to walk down the right hall. She steadily progressed down the hall, groping the walls in a futile attempt to turn on some nonexistent lights. Stumbling forward, her foot got caught on an object in the dark, causing it to roll farther down the hall. Smiling she rushed forward slightly, now wildly waving across the floor, and quickly grabbed the cylindrical object. Finding and subsequently flicking a switch on it, she discovered the object to have been a flashlight.

The newfound beam shone brightly in the otherwise pitch-black hall; easily lighting 20 feet ahead. Twilight’s momentary happiness was broken, however, when she heard a ragged breathing coming from behind her, sending chills throughout her body. Forgetting that Lightning was behind her, Twilight started wildly flailing to ‘protect’ herself. After hitting something in the dark, she shined the light to see what it was. Turns out it had just been her companion, who was now showing a very pale and strained face as both of his hand covered his abdomen, which was clearly showing red all over it.

Twilight threw her hands to her mouth, “Oh my Celestia! I’m so sorry; are you OK?”

Lightning groaned, “I-I’m…fine. Just-just continue.” he moaned out before hunching over even more.

Twilight shook her head, “No. We’re stopping, and we’re stopping now.”

Looking into the abyss, Twilight thankfully found a door leading into the left wall. Draping Lightning’s arm over her shoulders to support him, they wobbled the last 20 paces. The room they found was fairly bare, with assorted tools and boxes stacked haphazardly against the far wall and an old, beat-up desk. Sitting down, they quickly realized there was little elbow room between them, even as they lay against opposite walls.

Being so close to Lightning, Twilight really noticed the discolouration in his face and hands. Wincing in response to his moans of pain, she questioned whether he would make it much longer.

“How bad is it?” Twilight asked Lightning.

“It’s not…that ba-OH!” he exclaimed, clutching his side, “Fuck!”

Jumping to her feet, Twilight reached to inspect the wound, but Lightning tried shying away. Twilight huffed, “I need to see your wound to treat it.” He stayed silent, “Come on; I need to help you!”

Still getting no response, Twilight turned away, muttering under her breath. “Fine, be that way.”

She then quickly scanned her eyes across the room, discovering a previously missed, hand-written note on the desk. Picking it up, she read a quick narrative on the closet they were in.

To the General Workers Foreman,

That’s it. I fucking quit. I haven’t been paid in a week. If my money doesn’t arrive by tomorrow, I’m pulling my boys back. 5 of us have already been injured in landslides, and another 2 are in critical. You get my fucking equipment out of here; I’m gone.

Flipping the paper over, she found another note, apparently a response to the first.

In response to the dipshit who wrote this.

No fucking way are you leaving. Even if your entire team is dead, you continue the job. The money you’d receive is beyond more than you would otherwise be able to get, and there is no way I’m passing that up. Medical should arrive shortly; look for the green case.

“Huh.”

Thankfully, another glance found the case apart of the stack in the back of the room. Cracking the side and reaching in, Twilight removed 2 rolls of gauze, a pair of tweezers, and another veil of red-coloured liquid. Approaching Lightning, she reached to tap his shoulder for his attention. He apparently already noticed Twilight, because he tried to shy away again, but he relented when he noticed the gauze. With great effort, he raised his arms and allowed Twilight to tend to the wounds. She made quick work, pulling his shirt up, she used her fingers to pry and poke a little at the wound, frowning when more blood spurted out. Sticking the tweezers into the, thankfully, small hole, she started a tedious process of removing as many fragments of the bullet as she could; placing the fragments onto a piece of the gauze.

What was scaring her the most wasn’t he chance of accidently letting Lightning bleed out, but it was his lack of response to her jabbing. Hoping that it was simply shock from the pain thus far, Twilight finished the shard removal. Moving on to dressing the wound, she used the remaining rolls in 6 consecutive wraps going around his torso. Once that was finished, she lowered his hands to a default position and gave him the potion to drink. After he quickly chugged it down, they lapsed into an uncomfortable silence.

“So…are you ok now?”

Silence.

“Hello?” This time a hand was woven into his sight.

“Fine be that way.” Yawning came next.

With seemingly nothing left to do for the time being, Twilight fell into a well-deserved sleep.

Chapter 3: The First Challenge

SO! Ms. Sparkle; as you can see, there is a LOT of shit in this room that has great potentiality to kill you. So if you could listen up and pay attention, that would probably be quite useful for your survival.

Rolling her eyes, Twilight looks to the nearest camera, places one hand on her hip, and makes the traditional "go on" gesture with the other.

Ah, yes, glad to see that you've adapted so well to this little "event" of ours; but onto the CHALLENGE! Within this room, as you can see, are a host of spinning blades of killer death, attached to expanding/compressing pistons coming from the ceiling. Your mission, which you have to accept, is to get this- a small panel in the floor near the center of the room opens up, -key while traversing this- sections of the floor rise to create 10 ft high barriers all-throughout the room, -maze. Hope you have fun!

Now before we begin, here's a quick montage of other people trying this challenge, a blooper reel of sorts. ENJOY!

With that, the PA system clicks off, and the room defaults to a "normal" blood-stained vacancy. At the far end, a projector and screen extrudes from the ceiling, and a series of videos showing the attempts and thus deaths of many, many people who got sliced, diced, and overall minced when trying to get to the key.

Watching it all, Twilight bears a face of disgust and horror at what is such a blatant disregard of life; but it is all a mask, and through the carnage that is onscreen in front of her, she makes out how this whole fucked-up system works. "It could have been worse, you know." Her sub-conscious reminds her, "We could have been one of the early kills, and not had this...wonderful...display in front of us."

Shrugging her shoulders at her own self wondering, she sits down near the entrance. Stifling a yawn. Twilight leans up against the door to watch the looping footage from a more comfortable position. Or, at least as comfortable as you can get watching death over, and over, and over.

Again.

And again.

and again

and aga...snore

Desolate Suburbs, somewhere in Ponyville

“Well this is what I call a prime location for our unsub.” Blaze said, kneeling to inspect the floor, “narrow walkway, secluded spot, and when it gets dark, no way you’re seeing anything in this alley.”

“Right, but look up at the windows; they’ve got clothes and flowers hanging about, giving plenty of places light could seem down from.” Shining replies, “It’s not possible that he’d get through unseen on a week day. That then means 2 things, 1: he can stalk and strike with unfathomable precision, and that could mean hunting or military background.”

“Or he was seen as a local, and then we’re walking right through his territory.” Blaze finishes, “Let’s think back to the past abduction sites; were there any witnesses?”

“No; the locations were too secluded, and the only possible witnesses were junkies and prostitutes.”

“Exactly! They wouldn’t report more than that one of them had gone missing. Now think about Winter Storm’s disappearance: leaves work; flies home with a friend; makes it home, but when the friend turns to leave, he thinks he hears something; he looks, finds nothing, and leaves; next morning, Winter never shows up.” Blaze states, so how was she potentially taken?”

Shining ponders for a moment, “He was probably waiting right inside or outside the house. An outside route would explain the noise and why there were no signs of forced entry. Incapacitation via a hand taser or garrote wire would make an attack silent.” He noted, “Same goes for the Lightning Flash incident…that makes 3 different events potentially linked together; not counting the ones we can’t investigate.”

“I’ll call back into the station and swap findings.”

Shining nodded, “Good idea, hopefully the Sargent has got something of use by now. Meet me at the entrance to the first door next to this alley; let’s hope that these locals could give us something of use.”

Back at the Station

“So I gotta know, why is he trying to attract attention now?”

Flash and the recruit, who had adapted the nickname “Moon Blade”, were sitting across from each other whilst organizing the case files.

“He has gotten away with what he’s doing for what has to be years!” Flash continued, “He could very easily just keep on killing discreetly; all the while, we’re frantically running around trying to find something to pin him with! So why does he suddenly choose a high-profile and high risk target? It doesn’t make any sense.”

After a moment of silence, Moon Blade sorted the last file in his stack; looking up at Flash, he asks “Permission to speak freely, Sir?”

At this Flash chuckles a bit, replying, “No need for ‘Sirs’ with me or the squad, rookie. The only people you need to call a ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’ would be the ‘Asshats upstairs’, and the Princess’ Luna, Celestia, Cadence, and Twily.”

“The ‘Asshats upstairs’ si―I mean―Flash?’

Raising an eyebrow at Moon Blade’s confusion, his expression quickly returned to one of exclamation, “OH! Right; you don’t know them. They’re the idiot execs up at the capital who think they ‘know everything.’”

Upon seeing Moon Blade’s nod of acceptance, Flash continued “Yeah; so just remember, no need for formalities for us down here. We’re like one big family! One great, fucked-up family that investigates murders.”

Blinking once at what just was witnessed before him, Moon Blade shook his head a little bit. “Well alright then…Uh, anyway.” He cleared his throat, “I believe that he his mocking us.”

Now it was Flash’s turn to look confused “How so?”

“Well look at it like this: you’re the unsub; you have gone for years with abducting and killing―though your targets of the homeless has caused your efforts to go unnoted. All of a sudden, it hits you: choose a target that not only gets you noticed, but guarantees that they’ll never overlook you: a princess.

“Though not just any princess; one that you could subdue and sneak away with relatively minimal effort. Celestia is most likely way too powerful; plus, her and her sister are both swarmed at all times by Royal Guardsmen. Cadence is all the way in the Crystal Empire, and there’s no feasible way to get there, back, and brave the cold all the while, on top of evading the Guards that are looking for you.”

One deep breath later, he continues, “By going after Princess Twilight, you not only show that you can get at Royalty, but you make a personal blow to us here at the station who protect her to a degree. She’s your girlfriend, and Captain Armor’s sister; that’s too good of an option for him! Not to mention that she just got back from some trip to the Crystal Empire; she’s so defenseless at that time, that the ‘target’ was wide open for an attack.”

As Moon Blade finishes with a flourish, Flash’s eyes go wide with realization. Speaking in hushed tones, “And to think that he could have been right under our noses this whole time.”

Taking some time to take some deep breaths, Flash continued, “I swear, Moon Blade, you’ll make quite the investigator; get on the phone and call Blaze and Shining in the field, update them that we’ve finished here, and tell them of your theory; it could help with what they’re trying to do.”

“Right si―fuck, I did it again. Right.”

hellooooo.

Wake uuuuup.

Oh for fucks sake…

WAKE THE FUCK UP YOU CUNT!

Her eyes shooting open, Twilight jolts awake. Looking back up at her surroundings, she noticed that the projector and screen were gone; probably extruded back into the ceiling.

AHA! Good, you’re fiiiiiinaly up and about! Now, I do hope you remember the rules and procedures of your first challenge, ‘cause I’M not gonna repeat them. If you need a refresher, just look back near the top of the page.

Twilight wore a confused mask on her face, “The top of the what?”

Oh never mind about that; it had nothing to do with you. UNLIKE THIS MAZE HERE! This has EVERYTHING to do with you! And it’s about time, as it’s the 3rd BLOODY―see what I did there―chapter! UGH! This guy, I tells’ ‘ya, is so FUCKING lazy.

Throwing her face into her palm, Twilight motions at the camera/PA system in the room, “I’m going to go on a limb here, and say that you’re just going insane now.”

Twilight could almost feel he judgmental gaze that was undoubtedly being shot her way through the camera. And after a moment of awkward silence, the Caretaker spoke again, Well I for one think that enough chit chat has been spared between the 2 of us. LET’S GET THIS GAME ON!

And with that, the saws, pistons, and key all made their return into the room. Taking a tentative step forwards, Twilight started to traverse the maze. But any thoughts of going ‘exploring’ were quickly banished, as every step forwards Twilight took, the ceiling behind her would collapse.

“Ok Twilight, you can do this. Just stay calm and focus…or something like that.”

Exhaling a large breath, she thinks about how to navigate around with the memory from the ‘murder cams’ from earlier. Taking unsure step after unsure step, she slowly, but quite surely made her way around the first 2 ‘rings’ of the maze. Smiling inwardly to herself, Twilight thinks, “Well now this isn’t too hard. Good thing that I have an eidetic memory!”

All the while, becoming oblivious once again to the cameras always watching her; though, then again, that’s probably for the best. I mean―who really knows what’s actually going on the other side?

We turn our way into the control room where our great mastermind behind this all is sitting. Yeah you probably saw this one coming, as―you know―that not so subtle comment in the paragraph above really gave away what was going to come next. But anyway; our villain…

Feet propped up on a table, he’s looking to his left, into one of many monitors viewing various cameras, (wonder where THOSE are), eating a small bag of popcorn. Looking a little bored, he pushes his glasses up onto his face, and gets up from his chair. Going into the kitchen of the apartment he lives in, he grabs a beer from the refrigerator, and begins to wander around his house.

He lives nicely; not a high-end apartment by any means, hell, it’s an apartment in the suburbs of a relatively mid-class town. Though what he has isn’t anything to laugh at; the desktop in his room is military grade, with his own private servers and proxies, and he has everything that he needs to live and more. Though he doesn’t have what he really desires, and that’s—

“Oi. Those twats on the other side don’t need to know that.

Yeah maybe, but—

“No buts; we all know that I’m likely to be dead or jailed by the end of this story, and we don’t need these arseholes getting all sentimental over me.”

Fine. But I’m still going to force a cliché encounter with the police where they look into your room and check to see if you’re doing anything ‘shady’ whilst interviewing you about the ‘disappearances’.

“Huh, thanks for the reminder about that; though cliché is fairly strong coming from ‘Mr. Edgelord’ himself.”

Wait—what?

“You wear black to school, look like an emo, and main Reaper; what the hell else am I supposed to call you?"

How about Mr—SHUT THE FUCK UP! THIS IS MY STORY!

"Stop your whining; I’m pretty sure that the audience is getting tired of this banter, and you have a ‘cliché interrogation scene’ to narrate.”

Sure enough, just as his internal ramblings ceased, 3 hard knocks came at the entrance door to his apartment. Shrugging his shoulders, he quickly hurried back into his room; placing a slightly stained bathrobe over his shirt. He hears another 3 knocks at the door, and yells back “Hold on, I’m coming!”, while fumbling around behind desktop.

His hand grabs, and quickly yanks on a lever, hiding his computer behind a wall. Dashing to the door, he places his glasses askew on his head, and takes a deep breath as he opens the door.

“Good evening officers, how may I help you?”