Predator 3

The unseen stalker followed the heat signatures of the party as they cautiously worked their way south through the chasm.

"I have to use the washroom!" Sunburst complained.

"For crying out loud!" Applejack snarled. "This is the middle of nowhere! There ain't no washrooms for a thousand miles. Go anywhere."

"But I need privacy!"

"In case you haven't noticed you're our prisoner, Darling." Rarity cocked her head sideways to remind him of the anti-magic horn cozy she had knitted and placed over his horn.

"Pinkie Pie, escort him somewhere private. Everypony else take five." Twilight Sparkle offered reluctantly. The stalker quietly followed as Pinkie Pie and Sunburst's heat signatures sauntered off away from the group.

"What's the matter, Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash asked as Fluttershy came to a stop.

"Well I just feel like there's something out there. Something non-pony." She explained quietly.

"Well there were yaks helping them."

"That's not what I meant."

Some distance away as Pinkie Pie waited for Sunburst to reemerge from behind some brush the sound of a branch rustling caught her attention. She strained her eyes against the treetop and noticed a disturbance in the scenery in a humanoid shape. The unseen stalker seemed to be staring back at her waiting for an opportune moment to strike.

"Okay I'm done!" Sunburst said as he popped out from behind the brush, briefly catching Pinkie Pie's attention. The unseen stalker quickly rushed on her position while her head was turned.

The sound of Pinkie Pie and Sunburst's screams filled the woods and the other mares came running quickly.

"Darling!" Rarity shouted as she approached Sunburst who was covered in blood. "This isn't his blood" she noted. Sunburst just stared at the group with a frightened look on his face.

"What in the hay did you do to Pinkie Pie!?" Applejack demanded.

"Applejack, I think you better see this." Rainbow Dash said grimly as she emerged from behind some shrubs.

The mares all gathered around to see a mass of pink skin and blood along side Pinkie Pie's saddle bags.

"Where's the rest of her!?" Applejack shouted.

"I don't think Sunburst could have done this." Twilight Sparkle shook her head with tears in her eyes.

"What happened here!?" Rainbow Dash demanded as she held one of her wing blades against Sunbursts throat.

"A creature emerged from the woods, with some sort of invisibility spell." Sunburst explained.

"Well ain't that real convenient." Applejack turned her head up sarcastically.

"I think he might be telling the truth." Twilight Sparkle said candidly to Applejack as she came up along side her. "He could have ran away while we were looking for Pinkie Pie. He's just as frightened as we are."

"I've read about an encounter with a creature like this in the Canterlot Archives." Sunburst said reluctantly. "Over a thousand years ago. It hunted ponies for sport, used some kind of invisibility spell as camouflage and tracked them by seeing their body heat. When The Pillars were finally able to subdue it; it activated some sort of self-destruct spell that destroyed an entire village."

"Hunting ponies for sport? that sounds awful." Fluttershy said softly.

"Of course, that's why it didn't kill Sunburst. He's a total dweeb. There's no sport in it." Applejack pondered. "Well if it sees our body heat maybe we can blind it by stickin' by that lava flow. Come on girls!" Applejack ordered.

"The lava flow ends over a thousand hoofs before the extraction point and we'll have no cover the rest of the way if we do that." Twilight Sparkle explained as she projected a strategic map from her horn.

"Look sugar cube, I'm takin' charge now. I already lost a good mare and I ain't losin' anypony else." Applejack challenged.

"There's no way I could have known that creature was out there!" Twilight Sparkle snapped.

"And we wouldn't have been out here if it wasn't for your stinkin' lies!" Applejack jumped on top of Twilight Sparkle and pinned her to the ground.

"Stop fighting!" Starlight Glimmer plead tearfully as she used her magic to pull Applejack off of Twilight Sparkle. "We already lost Pinkie Pie and we can't afford to lose anypony else."

"She's right, Darling." Rarity stepped up. "He's just going to keep singling us out and picking us off one at a time." She placed a hoof on Applejack's shoulder as Twilight Sparkle climbed back to her hooves.

"We have to stick together if we're going to make it." Rainbow Dash said in an encouraging tone as an upbeat, plucky, Appalachian melody began to sound.

"With you girls at my side I don't feel afraid anymore." Fluttershy said with a smile as she placed a hoof on Applejack's other shoulder.

"Are we sure this is the best time for a singalong?" Twilight Sparkle quizzed.

"Are you kidding me?" Rainbow Dash beamed excitedly.

"Well if you can't beat em'" Applejack said as she pulled a hoofdolin from her saddlebags and began playing an accompanying melody.

Starlight Glimmer stood tall and proud and began to sing.

"It doesn't matter why we're here;
What matters is where we plan to be-"

Before she could finish singing the music was interrupted by a sound like muffled thunder as a bright white bolt of plasma came firing toward Starlight Glimmer from a nearby tree. Her head exploded into pink mist, leaving behind her cauterized, charred, stump of a neck as her body slumped to the ground.

"Get to the balloon!" Applejack shouted. Twilight Sparkle concentrated and in a flash of magic the remaining mares appeared out beside the lava flow.

Twilight Sparkle rapidly cast beams from her horn into the woods toward where the creature was and bolts of plasma came flying back at them. "Spread out!" Twilight Sparkle ordered. Applejack's theory proved right as the plasma bolts were chaotic pot shots in all directions, sparks showering down wherever they struck the nearby scenery.

One of Twilight Sparkle's horn beams broke into a shower of sparks as it struck a positive hit. The creatures camouflage broke momentarily- revealing its humanoid form with brown, almost scaly, skin and dread-lock shaped hair-like protrusions on its head. It reached over on to its shoulder and pulled off its damaged plasma canon and threw it to the ground before camouflaging again. Twilight Sparkle fired another spell at the creature.

"That's impossible!" Twilight Sparkle sighed. "That spell should have dispelled its invisibility."

"Are you saying it's using something other than magic to turn invisible, darling?" Rarity quizzed.

"How is that possible?" Sunburst added.

"Every pony get out of here!" Rainbow Dash ordered as she streaked toward the last place they had seen the creature. A guttural, feral shriek sounded as one of her blades deeply grazed the creature sending a spatter of glowing green blood onto the nearby surroundings.

"Rainbow!" Applejack protested.

"I got this!" Rainbow Dash said staring soulfully back at Applejack- who replied with a grim nod.

"Come on girls!" Applejack ordered as everypony else began running south along the lava flow. Some time after Rainbow Dash fell out of sight the sound of her agonizing screams echoed through the woods. "Keep running!" Applejack urged.

"Ow! My wing! You cut off my wing!" Rainbow Dash's screams echoed across the landscape. Fluttershy stopped and looked back.

"C'mon, Fluttershy!" Applejack trotted back over and stood at her side.

"Ow! My other wing!" Rainbow Dash screamed loudly once more.

"Fluttershy!" Applejack stared sternly at Fluttershy.

"Oh, no! Now what are you doing with that blade. Ah! Oh my gosh, no! That's so painful. You're ripping me limb-from-limb. Why are you doing this to me!?" Rainbow Dash's screams were now also a wailing cry. Both Applejack and Fluttershy winced in horror at the sound, imagining the creature disemboweling Rainbow Dash as she thrashed around defensively. Rainbow Dash let out one last scream of terror and agony before everything fell silent in the distance.

"Let's go!" Applejack slapped her front hoof against Fluttershy's face and the two mares sprinted to meet up with the rest of the pack.

"We're nearing the end of the lava flow! There's the balloon over there!" Twilight Sparkle shouted as the balloon came into sight.

As the mares ran out into the open space toward the balloon the guttural sounds of the creature sounded as it quickly closed on their position. Fluttershy quickly broke from the group in the opposite direction.

"Fluttershy what in the hay are you doing?!" Applejack demanded.

"It's my turn to do something brave." She said softly as she assumed a firm stance, attempting to use her stare on the creature. The photonic smudge of the creatures camouflage steadily approached her, still, as the others looked back helplessly as they neared the balloon. A metallic spear emerged from the camouflage before thrusting through Fluttershys body. Blood spurt forth from the exit wound as the creature pulled the spear back.

The survivors; Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity and Sunburst quickly climbed aboard the balloon.

"Where are the others?" The pilot asked.

"There's no time to explain! Get this thing flyin!" Applejack ordered.

The balloon quickly ascended as the survivors all breathed a sigh of relief before reality struck them. They looked over the edge at the chaotic scene below and tears flowed to their eyes, remembering their fallen friends.

"We're headed straight to the Crystal Empire" The pilot explained. "The forward operating base has been compromised. Princess Celestia has been returned to Canterlot and you will be giving your debriefing to Princess Cadence."