馬鬼 (Umaoni/Equine Oni)

"That's not Celestia," Sci-Twi said.

"When we were talking about going through the first floor, that thing appeared." Gloriosa said, "Sunset had told us before what her Celestia was like and we came to the conclusion that it was her."

"W-well. Are we mistaken?" Scootaloo asked, "We concluded that it was Celestia and felt more at ease..."

"I've been with Sunset and the other Twilight a lot whenever the Crusaders and I weren't doing anything or had any meetings, and I suppose they look alike. But even so... Celestia would've never attacked anyone unless she was attacked first," Scootaloo said.

"Attack- what? It attacked Flash?!" Sunset said in a panic.

"It was only one hit. Flash was thrown against the wall, but he was still conscious somehow and began shooting at it. It had no effect at all, though..." Gloriosa said.

"We thought it was Celestia at first who somehow got over here and became an anthro version of herself. But when it suddenly attacked Flash and Flash seemed to be fighting back for real... We realized we were probably wrong," Scootaloo said.

"Soo that's why we heard shooting!" Timber said.

"We had no idea what to do. He was getting cornered, and when we tried to do something about it, he yelled at us to get away," Gloriosa said.

"I think he... wanted to handle it on his own. But it was too strong even for the three of us, so we decided to get it away from him." Scootaloo said, "I could barely fight it, though... I lowered my guard for one moment and was knocked out. When I came to, both that monster and Flash were... gone. I'm sorry Gloriosa for all the trouble I gave you..."

"No, you weren't a burden at all! It's pretty hard to fight while you protect someone~ But if you want to thank me, why not come down to Camp Everfree for a vacation? ... Anyway, we wanted to help him, but we didn't know where he'd gone. We decided we might as well start looking in the kitchen, and then the Thing appeared again and Timber joined us. In other words, six people are missing. I think we should help them as soon as possible."

"Oh!" came Pinkie's voice.

Everyone then looked at Pinkie who pulled something out of the fireplace.

"It's a key!" Pinkie said, "It's a key to some room!"

"We got a new breach!" Timber said with glee.

"Finding a way out was our top priority, but first we have to think of a way to rescue our friends. If we are thorough in our search, I'm sure we'll find them." Sunset said, "Those six can be tenacious. They've gotta be somewhere..."

"Friends, huh...? Sounds interesting. I was caught by surprise before, but next time I meet that Thing, I'll have a lot to thank it for," Gloriosa said.

"Well let's hurry. I don't want anyone dropping out," Applejack said.

"Well, then, we'll split up into three groups, since we have so much to do." Sunset said, "And no one can go alone. Each group should have at least two people."

"Yeah, there are too many rooms. There are rooms we can open with a key, rooms we can't open, and rooms that we haven't checked out yet," Pinkie said.

"Yes. Now, about our unsynchronized watches..." Sunset began.

"Okay, I can't take it anymore, I have to say something," Timber said.

"Hm? What is it, Timber Spruce?" Sunset asked.

"How in the living hell were you guys able to cast magic spells and all that stuff?!" Timber asked

"To be honest, we're not quite sure," Pinkie said.

"When I did it the first time, I felt like I wasn't in any control, like as if something was controlling me." Sunset said, "Pinkie and Fluttershy said they felt the same effect."

"We've theorized that it might be the mansion's doing or some outside power." Fluttershy said, "But haven't come up with a definitive conclusion."

"We are hoping to find an answer to that soon, though," Sunset said.

Suddenly the door to the room started clicking spooking everyone.

"EEK!!" Fluttershy squeaked hiding behind Pinkie Pie.

"S... Sunset..." Pinkie said in fear.

"... So, it found us, after all. This room is no longer safe," Sunset said.

"Shit! Was it EVER off-limits?!" Scootaloo said.

"What are we going to do?!" Fluttershy squeaked.

"My group will be in charge of dealing with the Thing. Pinkie, Timber, and Twilight, you'll search for the room to open with that key," Sunset said.

"Then I'll fight with Sunset!" Scootaloo said readying her bat.

"Can I join you? I really have to thank it for all the trouble~," Gloriosa said.

"There's a room that I want to investigate with Fluttershy, so that's where we're heading." Applejack said, "Pinkie if you make any progress, come to the room with the piano."

"O-Okay! Be careful, Sunset!" Pinkie said in fear.

"Thank you," Sunset said as the creature broke in, "Well everyone, good luck."

With a quick swift strike, the creature got sent hurtling into the wall.

"Right now!!" Sunset shouted causing everyone but Gloriosa and Scootaloo to leave.

"Everyone has escaped!" Scootaloo said.

"Yeah, everyone except us," Sunset pointed out.

"It's not often I get to do something with this big of a group~ This is gonna be kind of fun!" Gloriosa said, "Wait, Sunset can't you just beat it with that OP technique you used before?"

"Um, yeah, that was when I was under the impression this was Celestia's doing and was kind of mad at her, so, yeah. You can see where this story's going." Sunset groaned, "Now that I know what's going on, my anger's just gone so I can't do it anymore."

"Oh. Well, that suck ball." Scootaloo said, "I mean sucks balls. Man, I really need to stop watching anime with Pinkie sometimes."

"Never mind that. Let's go!" Sunset said getting her katana ready.

Sunset landed the first blow and Scootaloo tried to follow up but missed as did Gloriosa. Sunset landed another slash and Scootaloo tried again only to miss again, but Gloriosa got a direct hit. Sunset then followed up with another slash of her katana but missed.

"You... WoN'T... eSC... aPe..." It shouted in a demonic voice.

And before anyone could even react, Gloriosa got sent backward into the wall. Scootaloo then went for another attack but missed.

"FUCK ME IN THE ASS!! WHY WON'T THIS MOTHTHER FUCKER JUST STAY STILL?!" Scootaloo shouted in anger.

"First off Scootaloo, you're using a baseball bat, that is one of the easiest things to dodge unless you're drunk." Sunset said, "And secondly, stand back!"

Sunset then went for a Solar Flare that looked like as if it did little to no damage to it. Scootaloo in a fit of rage then threw her bat to the ground and ran towards the wall.

"LET'S SEE IT DODGE THIS!" Scootaloo shouted jumping off the wall.

And from that jump Scootaloo punched the monster across the face with a Superman Punch, following it up with a superkick, European Uppercut, and ending her attack barrage with a running Spear sending the creature straight into the wall. As Scootaloo ran back to the others the creature got up, but Sunset struck back with a slash across the monsters head landing a critical blow to it. Suddenly Gloriosa started feeling woozy. She dropped her weapon and held her head as a massive headache came to her as did a familiar voice.

"Freeze it... Freeze it! FReeZe iT!! FREEEEZEEE IIIIT!!!"

"K-K-K-K-Kolkhoze..." Gloriosa said quietly.

Suddenly out of nowhere the monster's lower half froze over spooking both Sunset and Scootaloo.

"WH-WHAT THE?! SUNSET?! DID YOU JUST DO THAT?!" Scootaloo asked.

"N-NO!! WHAT THE?! HOW DID?!" Sunset stuttered.

The two then looked at Gloriosa and then back to each other.

"You don't think?" They said at the same time.

The two then stopped their conversations and went back to fighting the creature.  Sunset then went for an attack, but even despite being halfway frozen, the creature managed to dodge her, but not Scootaloo who swung her bat hard across the creature's face.

"FINALLY! I got a hit in!" Scootaloo said.

"Great kid, don't get cocky!" Sunset warned before laying another attack onto the creature.

Gloriosa had, in the meantime, shook off her headache and went back to the fight. Going in she landed a critical stab strike into the monster's chest making it bleed as she pulled her blade out. But for a split few seconds, Gloriosa thought she heard the sound of a clock ticking. Meanwhile, the monster laid in a punch onto Scootaloo but only did enough force to make her hold her stomach. Sunset then did an S.S.S onto it which broke it's ice holds. Scootaloo tried to go for another swing with her bat only to miss and get her angry again while Gloriosa laid upon another strike. But then for another few split seconds, she thought she heard a telephone ringing. Sunset had gone for another successful strike onto the monster while Scootaloo did her little off the wall move combination again and Gloriosa did her ice move again this time getting spotted by Sunset and Scootaloo, but when she did so she thought she heard the sounds of the floors creaking like as if they were about to break.

"I KNEW IT!" Sunset said, "HOW THE HELL ARE YOU DOING THAT?!"

"I DON'T KNOW!" Gloriosa shouted, "SOME VOICE THAT SOUNDED FAMILIAR TO ME TOLD ME TO FREEZE IT SO I DID! I DIDN'T THINK IT WOULD ACTUALLY WORK SINCE I HAVE NO MAGIC!"

"NOW'S NOT THE TIME GUYS!" Scootaloo said.

Sunset then went for another attack and hit, while Scootaloo, once again, missed because it dodged not only her but Sunset who went for another strike but couldn't when Gloriosa attacked. Sunset then again laid down another slash this time landing a critical one onto the creature's forehead while Scootaloo missed again, but to cover for it Sunset laid down another critical strike across its right arm while Gloriosa did the finishing blow by stabbing it in the eyes. And then it vanished.

"We won't lose a second time! But's weird as fuck that it freaking disappears like that..." Scootaloo said, "We can't freaking tell whether we won or not!"

"Well, at least it won't pollute the environment," Sunset said.

"Not quite~ Maybe this will never end and it'll keep appearing. It's getting really tiring..." Gloriosa said.

"Hey Sunset, you're not hurt are you?" Scootaloo asked while Gloriosa took a look around the room.

"No, your backup was alright Scoots." Sunset said, "Our opponent has also grown stronger compared with before. I wouldn't have had a chance had I fought alone. Thanks a lot for your help."

"Oh! By the way, why was your jacket covered in tomato?! Timber thought it was blood!" Scootaloo said.

"Well, you see, some time after I woke up this morning, we encountered that creature yet again..." Sunset said, "Pinkie had just been waking up from, what she told us anyway, a weird dream where nations were humanized and their personalities were based on the stereotypes of said nation and in it twelve of them were stuck in a mansion like us and the creature going after them was named Steve, or was it, Tony, and the whole thing revolved around this big time loop plotline where one of them used a spell from a book to go back in time to-"

Scootaloo was just confused as all hell.

"Uhhh. What?" Scootaloo asked.

"Ugh, never mind, it was just another crazy dream of Pinkie's, not really all that important now that I think about it." Sunset said, "Anyways, Pinkie Pie had just been waking up and was quite surprised; she began yelling at it to get away by throwing pasta stuff at it to make it go away, but as you know a tomato ended up hitting me in the back instead. After we defeated it, the smell was really bothering me, so I threw it into the fireplace."

"Where on earth did Pinkie Pie get pasta supplies? And since when did Pinkie ever love pasta?!" Scootaloo asked.

"Scoots. Haven't you learned already? It's Pinkie Pie. Don't ever question it," Sunset said.

"Well, what are ya gonna do for a jacket now?" Scootaloo asked.

"I'm sure Rarity would be happy to help me get a new one. That one was kind of tearing apart anyways," Sunset said.

Suddenly the two heard the sound of a clock breaking and looked to see Gloriosa holding a broken clock.

"This clock was moving like crazy... I'm sorry. The tick-tock was too loud, so I broke it," Gloriosa said.

"A clock?" Sunset asked.

Sunset then went over to inspect it.

"I'm sorry if it was some kind of clue, but it was really loud..." Gloriosa said.

"A clock... Now that you mention it, we can't tell the time in this place." Sunset said, "The clocks on our phones are all out of synchrony."

"They're really strange. Even though we came here ahead of Sunset's group unintentionally, they've been here longer." Scootaloo said taking out her phone, "By the way... it's 11:42 on my phone."

"Huh?" Gloriosa went pulling out her phone, "But mine is showing the same time as yours, Scootaloo."

"What?" Sunset went in a bit of fear pulling out her phone as well, "That wasn't supposed to... Oh! I-it's 11:42 on mine too! But it was around 6:00 just a moment ago..."

"Do you think maybe it's because I broke the clock?" Gloriosa asked.

"That's possible. At least in this room the time is right." Scootaloo said, "Maybe we can get the flow of time back to normal if we break the clocks."

"Then we'll break the clocks in every single room we get in." Sunset said, "If we do that, maybe... Maybe... ...we can help... Rarity, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and... Flash... Right?"

Suddenly, Gloriosa's phone started ringing with a very... interesting... ringtone. Sunset and Scootaloo could only stare while Gloriosa only giggled before coughing to get everyone back on track.

"Heh, amazing~ As soon as the time got right, the phone also began to work- or not. It's reading no reception. Anyway, I'm going to answer it. And I'll make it to where both of you can hear it, too."

And with a tap, Gloriosa answered, "Ahoy, who is this?"

The only thing that came out of the phone was the sound of a piano key before it hung up.

"... Looks like it got cut off," Gloriosa said.

"What we just heard was a piano..." Sunset said.

"A piano... Anyway, we have nothing else to do here, so let's go back to Applejack," Gloriosa said.

"Indeed. If all goes well, Pinkie, Timber, and Twilight should also be able to join us there." Sunset said, "Let's put everything in order here and hurry. And Gloriosa?"

"Yes?" Gloriosa replied.

"Don't think I've not got my eye on you," Sunset said sternly.

Gloriosa only flinched as Sunset and Scootaloo began packing up.

"Don't trust them, Daisy... But don't worry... You'll know what to do when the time arises..."