Applejack entered Shining's office to grab some extra ammo as well as Shining's tape recorder, just in case anything goes wrong.

She then walked back down to the rec room to check on things. Shining, Stables, and Flutteshy were all tied to chairs, sleeping, while Rarity and Maud sat on watch.

"You're doin a good job you two." Applejack complimented, getting nods from the two.

Applejack then walked down to Dr. Whooves' office and walked in. He was sitting at the desk, closely studying his and Twilight's notes, trying to deduce a way to test who was a pony, and who was a thing.

"You come up with anything yet?" Applejack asked from the doorway. Whooves turned, slightly startled.

"No, not yet, though I do have some precautions we should probably take." Whooves said, getting Applejack's full attention.

"What?" she asked.

"According to the notes, even a small particle of this organism could take over a pony, so if that's possible, I think we should all prepare our own meals, and only eat out of cans." Whooves explained, Applejack nodded.

"I'll go tell Pinkie." she said before walking back down the hallway.

Whooves turned back around to keep studying his notes, when suddenly the lights went out. Whooves jolted up and fumbled with the drawer of the desk until he pulled out his lighter. Lighting it,he got up from his desk to check on the others, but when he got to the door he saw a figure pass by in the hallway.

"Who's there?" Whooves asked. There was no response. He walked out into the hall and heard the sound of an exterior door closing at the end of the hall to his left. So he slipped on his coat to investigate.

Whooves left the safety of the main building and lit up a flare. He glanced around the dark and snowy compound before seeing another shape over by the helicopter pad. He started to move towards it.

"Hello, who's there? Why are you out here?" Whooves called out, once again not getting any response. He finally made it over to the helicopter, and found nopony, but when he looked down, he saw something half buried in the snow. He pulled it out and inspected it. It was a torn piece of fabric, probably clothing. He flipped it over and saw Applejack's initials. Whooves gasped, and glanced around again.

"What the hell?" He said to himself.

After about an hour, the power to the compound was finally restored and the remaining crew gathered in the rec room. But they were short one Pony.

"Where's Dr. Whooves?" Applejack asked the crew, who were all standing around the rec room, all giving each other suspicious glances. None of them spoke up.

"The power was gone for nearly an hour, any one of us could've gotten to him." Applejack explained.

"So, what's the plan?" Pinkie asked.

"We're gonna split up and search the compound in pairs, me and Pinkie are gonna go ask Twilight if she saw anything, Vinyl and Soarin, you two check the inside, and Rarity and Maud, you two stay here and look after Shining, Doc, and Flutters. Got It?" Applejack said.

"I'm not going with Vinyl!" Soarin said, getting an angry glare from Vinyl. "I'm not going with her, I'd rather go with Rarity." Soarin said.

"Fuck You Soarin." Vinyl shouted in rage at his distrust.

"And what makes you think I want to go with you?" Rarity asked as the three started to fight.

"Cut the BULLSHIT!" Applejack shouted, getting the crew to settle down.

"Vinyl, you'll come with me and Pinkie, and the rest of you still have the same jobs, and we meet back here in half an hour regardless!" Applejack said sternly toward the paranoid crew.

The crew complied and finished preparing before heading out to search for Dr. Whooves.

Applejack, Pinkie, and Vinyl all exited the main building and immediately headed for the shed where Twilight was being kept. They figured asking her, in case she saw anything. Applejack approached the door, and opened the tiny metal hatch in the door and peered inside, seeing Twilight sitting at the table still.

"Twilight, have you seen Dr. Whooves?" Applejack asked. Twilight looked up, she sat at the table with a sad look on her face, hanging from the ceiling next to her was a noose.

"I don't want to stay out here anymore Applejack, I wanna come back inside." Twilight said in an almost monotone voice. Applejack felt worried suddenly, she didn't want Twilight to kill herself over the distrust.

"Twilight, I'm sorry, but we can't take any chances, but please don't make any choices you'll regret." Applejack pleaded.

"I'm not gonna harm anypony, there's nothing wrong with me, and if there was, I'm all better. I'd like to come back inside." Twilight said in a more serious tone. Applejack felt terrible, but she couldn't take a risk.

"I'm sorry Twi, but have you seen Whooves, he went missing around 20 minutes ago and nopony's seen him." Applejack explained. Twilight leaned back and let out an annoyed sigh.

"No, I haven't seen anything, also, don't worry about Whooves, I'm sure he isn't a thing." Twilight said, making Applejack almost feel reassured.

"Thanks Twi." Applejack said before closing the hatch and locking it.

The 3 continued to search around the compound for Whooves, until eventually they found something. Applejack was searching around the Helicopter when she heard Pinkie call out.

"Guys! I found something!" Pinkie shouted. Applejack rushed over, and was soon joined by Vinyl, and all three of them gasped at what they found. Partially buried in the snow, was the charred corpse of Dr. Whooves.

"What the hell happened to him?" Vinyl asked in a worried tone. Pinkie looked over the corpse and saw a burnt out flare and picked it up. "A flare, maybe he tried to burn it?" Pinkie speculated. Applejack then thought of something else.

"Maybe he burned himself before it could get to him." Applejack said.

The 3 looked at each other, Applejack now felt guilty, she told herself that she wouldn't let anypony else die, but now she felt the deaths of 2 ponies on her shoulders.

"So now what?" Vinyl asked. Applejack was about to respond, but then noticed something odd, the lights in her tower were on, even though she turned them off the last time she left it, and Applejack told the rest of the crew to stay in the main building.

"Now, Vinyl, go back to the rec room and tell everypony the news, Pinkie, you and I are gonna go check my tower." Applejack explained.

"What for?" Pinkie asked.

"Because when I left yesterday, I turned the lights off." Applejack explained as she pointed toward the tower.

Applejack and Pinkie began to head toward the tower while Vinyl returned to the main building.

Author's Note

Here's the next chapter, only a few days late. Whoo!