The Earth itself seemed to shake under the weight of the new creature's charge, the sudden force and speed bursting forth from its mad pursuit normally leaving any opponents quivering in their boots. Taking a step back to prepare for the oncoming attack, Applejack carefully raised her arms up in an attempt to block the blow, aided by a shimmering cyan shield popping up in front on her. "Pinkie!" Applejack yells, "When it hits, go get Rainbow Dash! We can handle this!"

The Dolst barreled towards the guarded cowgirl, its hooved feet slamming the wood apart under it, and raised its arm up. With a sound similar to a startling thunder clap, its clawed fist rammed directly into Rarity's shield, breaking it apart in a shower of crystals. The sheer force knocked Applejack back and into the air, to which it rushed forward and sent its fist directly into her with a loud *bang*, which sent her crashing into the nearby bleachers. She only had a second of consciousness left to see the liquid crimson leaking from her face onto the seat before everything turned black. "Applejack!" Rarity yelled, before she felt a large weight hit her stomach and send her crashing into a nearby refreshment table. Formerly too shocked to move, Pinkie Pie ran towards Rainbow Dash and hoisted her up, carrying her unconscious body on her shoulders. Rushing forward to the door, Pinkie reached into her pocket and threw a can of sprinkles out towards the rampaging beast, which burst into a sea of colors that blind the beast.

Rushing into the sea of black that still enveloped the hallway, Pinkie sat Rainbow Dash down, leaning her back against the wall as her head slumped down in painful sleep. Placing both of her hands upon Dash's shoulders, Pinkie began to shake her friend, only stopping when she saw the rainbow haired athlete's eyes groggily open. "P-Pinkie?" Dash said, feeling the effects of the Dolst's punch throughout her body.

"I'll be right back," Pinkie said, "Don't move, okay?" A quick nod from Rainbow Dash was all that was needed before Pinkie turned back towards the door. Gulping, Pinkie crept back into the dank, dark Auditorium. The Dolst was struggling against what seemed like a wall of Rarity's shields, each one stacked against each other for extra strength against the weight of the creature. Reaching into her pocket, she grabbed her last can of the sprinkles, winding her arm back as she looked at the monster. Breathing in slowly, she threw the can towards the beast, which exploded into another cloud of colors and shades. At the sign of opportunity, Rarity limped over to Applejack, who was beginning to stir. Pinkie also crept towards her, keeping distance from the distracted monster.

"W-Wha?" Applejack muttered, her eyes slowly opening as she was hoisted up by Rarity and Pinkie. Hurriedly carrying her out, they brought her into the hall, and sat her next to Rainbow Dash. Pressing two fingers to her forehead, Applejack could feel the blood hit her fingers.

"We can't stop that thing," Rarity quietly said, peering back into the room as the beast snorted, its gaze fixated on Vinyl and Octavia, who were both slowly backing away as though they were face to face with a hungry animal. "Any ideas?"

Pinkie Pie looked at the room in front of her, and licked her lips in contemplation. Suddenly, inspiration struck. "I've got it!" she said, somehow keeping quiet despite the fact that she was slowly regaining her jovial tone. That quiet was soon gone, discarded like cheap paper. "Vinyl!" she shouted, "Drop a beat, and get it to look somewhere else!"

The Dolst reared its head back towards Pinkie as it heard the sound of her talking, distracting it as Vinyl rushed towards her turntables. Before the beast could attack in any way, the DJ pressed a button and began to sneak towards the stairway that lead down towards the wooden floor, with Octavia close by. The speakers on stage lit up in a mess of sounds, bursting out in Vinyl's trademark style which always seemed to liven up the playlist of any club in Canterlot. The Dolst focused its attention on the speakers, ignoring the blue haired girl and her companion as they stuck to the shadows that had betrayed them thus far. Thumping towards the sounds, the Dolst had enough time to catch the smell of blood in the air before the door slammed shut behind it, refocusing its gaze.

"That was too close," Octavia noted, "I can't thank you enough for helping us."

"Don't mention it!" Pinkie yelled, only to stop for a second. Thinking slightly, she then said "Well, maybe you shouldn't mention it. That thing might still be around, and it might stalk us, and burst through walls, and-"

"What Pinkie is trying to say," Rarity interrupted, "is that we'll keep an eye out. We can't be too careful. Do you have a way out?"

Vinyl held up her thumb with her usual grin replacing the fearful look she had previously, while Octavia said "We have Vinyl's car. We only have two seats for it, though. Sorry."

"It's, ugh, alright," Rainbow Dash painfully responded, her head in agony as she tried to talk, "We can take Applejack's truck, right?"

"Yeah," Applejack said, regaining her footing as she stood up despite her bleeding injury, "it's not too much of a walk, and its still get plenty-a gas. We can get outta here no problem."

"Alright. Be safe, okay?" Rarity said, concern in her tone as the sounds of the building creaking around them filled the normally friendly air.

As Vinyl nodded, Octavia said "We will. When all this blows over, we'll see you around." Walking off with Vinyl, the two parties nodded at each other before the four girls turned towards a familiar door that bore scarlet letters on the wooden frame: Emergency Exit.

"Isn't there supposed ta be an alarm for that?" Applejack questioned, her eyes darting back and forth from the door to the Auditorium.

"That's why we have to run for it, silly!" Pinkie said, supporting Rainbow Dash and hoisting her up as she walked towards it.

"Well, we won't have any choice," Rarity said, "It's not like we can just stay in the school with all the monsters, especially with Rainbow Dash as hurt as she is. I'll call the police on the way out."

"I'm not that hurt," Dash protested, before saying "though I'm pretty sure the room isn't supposed to spin like that."

With all that said, Applejack grabbed the bar in front of the door and pushed forward, which immediately triggered Canterlot High's fire alarm. Red lights finally chased away the dark as an alarm bell rang through the school. It was at that moment that the door to the Auditorium burst open, revealing the Dolst as it slammed its weight through the wooden door. The girls ran through the door, Rainbow Dash doing alright despite her injury, as the beast rushed towards them. As the girls ran through the stone corridor, the beast decided at that moment to charge towards them. Turning the corner at just the right time, they avoided the monstrous attack as the Dolst ran through the corridor's walls, bursting outside as it fell over on its own weight. With that, Rarity opened the Exit's outer door and the girls got outside, where they immediately made a bee-line for Applejack's truck as it sat in the parking lot. Cars were seen leaving the lot, including Vinyl's souped up car, which filled them with some hope as they walked towards the burgundy truck. Quickly unlocking the doors to the truck, the girls piled in, with Rarity in the front and the injured Rainbow Dash sitting with Pinkie in the back. The headlights clicked on quickly, as the cowgirl leaned back in her seat.

"Now hang on," Applejack said, "Gotta make sure we-DAMN IT!" The shout was due to the Spawn that were rushing towards the car, the Dolst right by them with its claws bared in violent rage. Slamming on the gas, Applejack braved the horde and drove right towards them.

"What are you doing?!" Rarity yelled, her eyes wide with fear as she stared at the monsters before her. Applejack didn't answer as she drove into several Spawn, the thumps of their bodies against her hood causing the same fashionista to scream as spurts of purple blood hit the window. With a hole in the offense now in place, the truck sped away from the school as the sound of howling Spawn surrounded them.

With her feet planted firmly on the floor of the cafeteria, so deep in thought that even basic stimuli couldn't get her attention, it took a while for Sunset Shimmer to realize someone was calling her name. "Sunset!" Twilight said, now suddenly standing next to her friend.

"H-Huh? Oh, sorry," Sunset apologized, "I was just...thinking."

Fluttershy finally gathered the courage to actually walk in at that point, looking like she was about to vomit at all the purple blood that was splattered across the walls and floor. "U-Um, about what?" she asked, her eyes closed to keep from seeing any more then she needed to.

"About what I saw with my powers," Sunset replied, "It didn't make any se-"

Interrupting her was a loud wail, burning through the air like a flame as it echoed through the darkness. "What was that?" Twilight asked, staring at the hole in the wall with both expectation and fear obvious on her features. Creeping towards the door with her axe on hand, Sunset peered out to the outside world to see if she could find what she was looking for. The parking lot was close by, and she breathed a sigh of relief to see the Apple family truck speed away from them.

"Well, Applejack and the others are safe," Sunset said, "I saw them drive off."

"T-That's good," Fluttershy nervously said, "Maybe we can get out, too?"

"Maybe?" Sunset said, twirling her axe around as she gained a sort of smug confidence, "With how easily these things go down, we should be alright."

Right as she said this, the wail hit their ears again, making Sunset look towards the parking lot, where the noise seemingly spawned from. It took her a second, but Sunset saw a bat-like creature resting on top of what looked like Principal Celestia's car. Like the Dolst, this creature was organic, with grey skin and matted black fur. The creature, known as a Phyterra, had four, bat-like wings, a beak with razor sharp fangs, four eyes that stared everywhere, and sharp talons on each of its grey feet. "Well, that's creepy as hell," Sunset mused, raising her axe as she began to sneak towards the parking lot, with Twilight and Fluttershy (reluctantly) following. Right when they made it to the parking lot, standing close by to a white BMW that everyone knew belonged to Trixie, the Phyterra stared directly at them from across the lot and let loose another wail, at an ear-piercing volume that would make a banshee jealous.

Right when the Phyterra was about to lunge at them, a brown truck suddenly rammed into it and sent it flying, its driver leaving Twilight both confused and blushing. "T-Timber?" she asked incredulously.

True to her word, the green haired Timber Spruce was behind the wheel, shocked to see he had hit something, "T-Twilight?" he responded, not taking his eyes off of the dead bat creature in front of him.

"W-What are you doing here?" Twilight asked, walking over to him as the howls of Spawn left the other two waiting for an attack.

"Well, I was in town, for our date, right?" Timber explained, "Well, the sky got dark really fast and, well, because of what happened at Camp Everfree, I thought you knew something about it. So I drove here, and then I hit that...thing just now. What's going on?"

"I'll tell you later," Twilight responded, opening the passenger door as she began to climb in, "We need to get out of here, okay?"

"U-Um, okay," Timber said, turning to Sunset and Fluttershy as they also piled into the car. Backing up, Timber's car drove away from Canterlot as Fluttershy pulled out her phone to call the police.

"Where should we go?" Timber asked, "I don't know what's safe and what isn't."

Thinking for a second about their next move, Sunset responded "My place. These things don't know us and won't think to look for us. It's in the apartment block on the south end. Know where that is?"

"Yeah," Timber responded, taking a right on the road as they headed towards Sunset's apartment, as the Spawn behind them watched and waited before heading back in, hoping to find more victims of the light on this long night.

Author's Note

So, new chapter, always cool.

So, yeah, this story will no longer be Comment Driven. I'll make the necessary adjustments to the categories, characters, and everything after this goes live. I hope you'll enjoy.

-Greatness942